How Y Combinator-backed 42 is bringing big data to offline retailers

Financial Post, March 2, 2014 • Not many Canadian tech startups can say they launched amid the glamour of New York Fashion Week — but that’s exactly how online retailer platform 42 Technologies Inc. got to strut its stuff for the first time.

Calgarian Cathy Han presented 42 in February last year at Decoded Fashion, a “hackathon” for startups to pitch tech solutions for the fashion and retail industry. With designer Zac Posen as one of the competition’s judges, Canadian model Coco Rocha in the crowd and Marc Jacobs showing off his fall collection in the same night, 42 was selected as a finalist at the Fashion Week event.

“It’s crazy — Fashion Week is everything you see in the magazines,” Ms. Han, co-founder and chief executive of 42, recalled.

It was a fitting start for a company Ms. Han and Nicolas Porter, co-founder and chief technology officer, have fearlessly taken global from the get-go, both in terms of clients and setting up shop in New York before opening its office in Toronto in June 2013.

Now the Canadian startup has another international achievement to add to the list: Being selected for the latest cohort of Y Combinator, a prestigious seed accelerator program in Silicon Valley.

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