Entrepreneurs / Small Business  September 1, 2015

Boulder startup The T-Bar aims to become ‘men’s personal lingerie concierge’

BOULDER — A Boulder startup is launching a new website this month that it hopes will help men remove some of the awkwardness from gifting lingerie to that special someone.

Touted as “men’s personal lingerie concierge,” The T-Bar might ring a familiar bell for shoppers of downtown Boulder. Founder Debby Caplin ran the T-Bar lingerie boutique store for seven years before closing it in 2011.

The reincarnated version of the T-Bar is an online lingerie reseller that provides two key tools to help men with their buying decisions without them ever having to step foot in a store or make a wild guess at what their wives or girlfriends might like. The first tool helps men, even those who know nothing about sizing, to create an animated version of their significant others by approximating body proportions. The second is a personality quiz to learn who the woman is, what she might like or be comfortable with, and what occasion the lingerie is being purchased for.

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The T-Bar’s algorithm then meshes the info on the body type and personality to create a collection of lingerie suggestions for the man to choose from.

“The questions are geared to help us help him get it right so he’s the hero,” Caplin said in a recent interview. “It’s specifically geared to men both in tone and the tools we’ve created to help them shop more efficiently.”

Launched as a Beta version in February, The T-Bar goes live with a full public launch on Sept. 15. While Caplin is hoping to add exclusive T-Bar lines of lingerie at some point, the site is starting out by selling lines that Caplin chooses from other companies.

Caplin got her start in the lingerie business working for Federated Department Stores, parent company of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. She moved to Boulder in 2004 to open the T-Bar store. She said the idea of the website is something she’s been developing for years and one she’d hoped to run alongside the store before the recession knocked revenues out of line with downtown Boulder rent.

Caplin — along with a business partner — has funded the new version of The T-Bar with just $28,000 so far, with some help coming from a couple of advisor/investors and friends and family.

The company, headquartered at 1911 11th St., has just five employees so far, but Caplin said she’s got a hiring plan in place for when revenue begins ramping up.

While she acknowledges that The T-Bar’s technology might be something large lingerie brands might be interested in, she said the longer-term intent is to remain independent.

“But I do see the potential for this to be sort of an umbrella to other gift services for helping men buy gifts,” Caplin said.

BOULDER — A Boulder startup is launching a new website this month that it hopes will help men remove some of the awkwardness from gifting lingerie to that special someone.

Touted as “men’s personal lingerie concierge,” The T-Bar might ring a familiar bell for shoppers of downtown Boulder. Founder Debby Caplin ran the T-Bar lingerie boutique store for seven years before closing it in 2011.

The reincarnated version of the T-Bar is an online lingerie reseller that provides two key tools to help men with their buying decisions without them ever having to step foot…

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