Abiba Biao photo
Sillable co-founders Aaron Daniels and Lele Xu.
When Aaron Daniels was a first year at Yale, he encountered a problem saying goodbye to the ivory tower during move out day. With his roommate having left their belongings behind, he needed an extra luggage bag to pack up their stuff — and fast.
Not having enough time to wait for a bag to ship from Amazon and the merchandise being out of stock at Walmart, Daniels was faced with the frustration of not being able to find a bag quickly, and locally.
Three years later, Daniels, now a 23-year-old Yale College graduate, has harnessed that past frustration into a newly created app called Sillable, which he has built up alongside fellow Yale grad Lele Xu and rising Yale junior Burton Lyng-Olsen. The app allows retail shoppers to search for goods they’d like to buy, as sold in New Haven stores around the corner.
Starting with a $13 Udemy course, Daniels and Lyng-Olsen learned mobile coding to spring their idea to life during their early undergraduate days. Xu, 23, joined the team this March, looking for a community-oriented position after realizing that big tech didn’t align with her morals after a summer internship at Google.
“Every single time I get something on Amazon, which is like once every month… it comes with a lot of guilt. I felt like there were people that I was living with that I was constantly seeing Amazon packages come in, but they were also protesting against Amazon the same day,” Xu said. “There’s so much conflict and if there was a really simple solution to align what people want to do and what they’re able to do, that would be great.”
Sillable facilitates that connection by serving as a medium between small businesses and consumers, giving stores a platform to host and sell their merchandise online. The app is designed to help local brick-and-mortar shops that may not have the resources to expand into e‑commerce by themselves.
The storefront of More Amour Boutique on Chapel Street, one of Sillable’s pilot stores.
“We’re offering a hyperlocal shopping experience that could maybe be comparable to a warehouse seller like Amazon, but that really connects with your own community instead,” Daniels said.
Sillable carries all standard features seen on other e‑commerce apps, displaying merchandise from local stores, allowing New Haven residents to set up pick-up times for delivery, and giving users the option to share rewards with friends of purchase items through their online currency “Kudos.”
Stores keep 90 percent of revenue on every sale generated while the app earns a 10 percent commission. The Kudos that users earn and share with others are derived from the app’s commission.
Sillable has partnered with such New Haven shops as More Amour Boutique, Da’W.O.R.L.D., Uni-Home Life, and Artist and Craftsman Supply as their pilot stores for their soft launch. The app’s catalog has grown to a total of 17 local stores, but currently shoppers can only buy from the four pilot stores.
The team hopes to do a hard launch in late August when the semester comes back in full swing to market to students.
“We work very closely and form personal relationships with all the store owners. We have so much respect for how they handle their business and their intuition for what people want and their love and passion for the community and for their consumers,” Xu said.
Xu and More Amour Boutique owner Kimberly Poole.
Xu and Daniels paid a stop to More Amour Boutique’s (MAB) owner Kimberly Poole at Chapel and York Streets to check in on how her digital storefront was going and review her online inventory.
A Baltimore native, Poole moved to New Haven during the pandemic and has made the Elm City home to her entrepreneurial ventures at 1130 Chapel St.
Through MAB, the 41-year-old emphasizes body positivity and sells accessories, jewelry, and clothing that can make any outfit a statement.
“If you want to stand out in the crowd, if it’s your birthday, if it’s a special event, [if] you go into the city, ” Poole said, “this is where you want to come and shop.”
When Poole was approached by Xu and Daniels about the app, she decided it was a no-brainer with society’s ever increasing reliance on technology for everyday tasks.
“I joined the app because I thought it was a great opportunity to get not only the business out there, but also to participate with other local businesses and also help students save money on accessories, handbags, shoes, anything we can offer,” she said.
While Poole admitted that she struggles to navigate the app because of her age, she said the team has been nothing but helpful, showing her the ropes and implementing seller feedback.
“A lot of what’s difficult about the beginning of building products I would say is just dealing with feedback and criticism and getting used to taking criticism from not only your team, but the people who are going to use your app,” Daniels said, “because you want them to love it, but they’re not going to love it [on the first try].”
With summer being the busiest time of year for MAB, Poole is ready to replicate that success in the fall and put the app to the test to see whether the app will bring in traffic and attract new customers.
“I want to thank everyone for the support. The community has been super amazing and very supportive. The students have been helpful. And I want to thank the app. I’m looking forward to using it and more to come,” Poole said.
Poole managing her inventory through an order listed on the Sillable app.