How AI Is Changing Luxury Handbag Resale with SecondSense | Emily Blumenthal & Chris Lucas
Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons
The episode explores the entrepreneurial journey of Chris Lucas, the founder of SecondSense.co, an AI-powered platform for luxury handbag resale.
Key takeaways
- Chris Lucas utilized his experience building recommendation algorithms at Instagram to develop SecondSense.co.
- A viral moment pitching to influencer Alex Earl helped secure a $2 million pre-seed funding round in just weeks.
Main topics
- AI in luxury resale
- Entrepreneurial resilience
Notable quotes
Why don't we have that same level of market clarity for our consumer goods and specifically for this Birkin that I'm trying to buy?
Conclusion
The episode serves as an inspiring case study on how diverse personal
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) It started with like just experiencing the inefficiency in the consumer process and the shopping journey of trying to find a handbag that I love that I could use across all these different retailers and various like variations in how they grade condition, very huge variations in price, obviously. And then I was thinking about like, OK, well, we have. Zillow and we have Carvana. These are platforms that tell us what is the fair market value of a secondhand home or a secondhand car. Why don't we have that same level of market clarity for our consumer goods and specifically for this Birkin that I'm trying to buy? Speaker 2 (0:39) Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship, and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Speaker 2 (1:10) Welcome, Chris Lucas. I'm going to throw it in CEO and founder of SecondSense.co. Chris, very handsome and charming to finally meet you. We connected through LinkedIn. Welcome to the podcast. Speaker 1 (1:25) Thank you for having me. Excited to be on and talk all things luxury handbags. No doubt. Speaker 2 (1:30) God, no doubt. Yeah, that's a love language for you and everyone else who's listening. As we spoke, and if anyone is tuning in and watching on YouTube, you are very youthful for good reason. So let's go back. You have an MBA. Then you started all this in undergrad. Your affection for handbags started way back. Because as we've discussed, you are not that old, but advanced in your age for experience. So let's just go there. Where are you from? Speaker 1 (2:04) Oh, I appreciate that. I'm originally from Los Angeles, California. I think, you know, growing up, I was a competitive dancer, a little rogue, you know, but I've been a creative person for a long time. And I thought my life was headed in a very different direction. And it wasn't until I got to Stanford for undergrad that I really tripped and fell into computer science and artificial intelligence. And sort of along the way through my childhood, I think that luxury goods and these sentimental pieces that have a lot of value was... like a practice in my family, basically. So between my mother, my sister, and I, it was something that we bonded over. And so then I'm studying computer science and artificial intelligence. I then go to Instagram to build content recommendation algorithms. So learning kind of what levers to pull to influence the way people behave online, as creepy as that sounds. And then I was at Harvard getting my MBA thereafter. And that's when all the pieces started kind of... falling into place or I start putting things together about, oh, maybe I could really leverage, you know, a creative side of me and an analytical side of me and build what is now Second Sense. So it's a little bit. Wait, can Speaker 2 (3:09) I? No, no, no, no, no. That's all good. But can we pull the PR element out of it to be a competitive dancer? And a boy takes a lot of that takes a lot. That takes a lot of courage and a lot of I. I'm putting myself in a place of discomfort and everyone else is just going to have to deal with it. And I think to do that, you must have started very young and probably were the only boy in all these dance classes. And I know what it's like being a mom and you see things firsthand. So I think nobody likes to stand out and the discomfort of having to stand out, especially doing that so young, it can affect you positive, negatively, or it can just put you on a mindset of I can handle this. I can handle things that most people can't. Do you believe that to be true? Speaker 1 (3:56) Wow, I feel incredibly seen right now, right off the bat in a quick conversation. That is definitely such an astute observation. Like I draw upon that time in my life more than anything or more than people would think when I'm building a company today, like having to perform, right? Like fundraising is a performance, selling your story, selling your company, it's a performance. Having to... do perform well under pressure discipline like the rigor it takes to you know i was doing classical ballet and contemporary and jazz right there's such a a level of rigor that needs to be applied i was training for 30 hours a week on top of my schoolwork for example was Speaker 2 (4:31) that by choice because Speaker 1 (4:33) i loved it and so when you're talking about like some of the bad things associated with it like those were all true i i'm you know a gay man and this was back in you know many many years ago where it wasn't necessarily as like acceptable as it is today in certain parts of the country. And so basically dance was a refuge and a place of solace for me when I was being, you know, kind of bullied at school for being other. And then also I grew up in a very conservative Christian family. And so at my home life wasn't particularly welcoming of that part of me either. And so what I did have were my academics and my dancing, and I was able to use that as like an emotional outlet. and pour myself into those two buckets. But Speaker 2 (5:17) that's also leverage, wouldn't you say, that you may have a struggle accepting me for me, but I'm overcompensating with being a phenomenal student, being a great dancer. So if anybody's going to have an issue with me and what I do, they can't really say anything because I'm truly the best there is out there and no one can come for me. So I'm covered on all regards. Even going back to what you're doing right now, I found a common thread that you may have an issue with me, but I can talk handbags and shoes with you. And therefore, you might actually accept me even more because I'm fluent in something that you already like. Speaker 1 (5:54) Yes. So Dr. Alan Downs is a psychologist who has this book called The Velvet Rage. It profiles different archetypes of gay men. I think, you know, many queer people have probably read this book. there's this idea of the compensation effect. And that's exactly what has been driving me, I think, up until this point for better or for worse. And it's this idea of, hey, I know that this part of me is defective. I'm sorry about that. Look at all of the wonderful accolades and excellence or perfection that I have to compensate. So that's, you hit the nail on the head. Speaker 2 (6:24) Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. Like, you know, being someone who started a company very, very young, at least from even a vintage. stage and this construct of compensation and having to constantly be extra in ways to ensure acceptance from the people closest to you is something very, it's almost infinitesimal in terms of what that makes you do in terms of. And, you know, now that ADD is now ADHD and it's so sexy and it's something so everybody can claim they have, but throwing yourself into something or they say locking in that you can sit and do something for 80 hours and tuning everything out. And it's so many people I've spoken to within the podcast and people I've interviewed over the years who are so methodical, so type A, so organized. And then. they find something that piques their passion and they feel it inside them. And then that takes them to a totally different realm of being high risk, not even giving a shit about what's going to happen. And then you just go all in. So it's like being a great student, but yet I'm going to be a dancer, you know, going to Harvard, going to Stanford, but yet I'm going to do a startup. And, you know, like all those things, like they're risky, but. in your soul, it's not a risk at all. It's