Sarah Neil, founder and CEO of Miss Tyler, joins Sunny Ray to trace her path from marketing and telecom to startup founder. After years working agency and client side on brands like Vodafone, Samsung and Telstra, Sarah was unexpectedly handed one million dollars and the CEO title to build a data only international SIM card company called Doodad. The venture grew fast, earned press coverage, and scaled revenue 10 percent weekly, but with only 4 percent equity she had no control, and the company was shut down within two weeks when the owner pivoted priorities. She later helped build Ultra Mobile and Mint Mobile, which sold for 1.35 billion dollars, before returning to Australia to launch Miss Tyler, a fashion app that matches women to creators with similar bodies so they can shop with confidence. The conversation covers imposter syndrome, startup shutdowns, representation in fashion, and how Miss Tyler has helped women feel seen, sometimes for the first time in their lives.
A marketer handed a surprise million dollar CEO title builds, loses, and rebuilds, landing on a fashion app fixing body representation.
Can you give us a quick intro to what Miss Tyler is?
I'm the CEO and founder of Miss Tyler, a fashion ecosystem for women that helps them find clothes that fit. We built a community like Instagram where you enter your height, dress size, bra size, coloring and age, and we match you to creators who look like you. This body matching cuts our return rate to under 6 percent versus the industry's 30 to 70 percent.
What was it about marketing that originally pulled you in?
I studied a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in marketing and organizational behavior. I've always been interested in how people think and feel, and actually thought I'd become a psychologist. Instead I got into sales and marketing, starting with Boost Mobile, then moved to London for advertising, working on Vodafone and Samsung because of my telecom background.
What was going through your mind when you were suddenly given a million dollars and made CEO?
It was wild, I never expected it and had never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I remember sitting with a friend trying to figure out if I was even allowed to put CEO on my business card. I felt fraudulent, but I leaned on my production experience from agency and client side work to just figure things out.
What happened with Doodad, the data only SIM card company you built?
We grew revenue 10 percent week on week for six months and got featured on TechCrunch and Gizmodo, but I only had 4 percent equity so I had no control. The owner decided to shut down all consumer facing businesses and gave me two weeks to close it. Customers got 48 hours notice, but instead of hate mail we received messages of support and gratitude.
Where did the original idea for Miss Tyler come from?
Back in 2014 in New York, I wanted more variety in what I wore but had no fashion sense. A friend tried to style me but her body was totally different from mine, so her picks didn't work. I went to Instagram to find people who looked like me, but there was no way to search by height or size, so I registered the domain Miss Tyler as an idea to solve that.
How did the Embrace documentary influence your thinking about the business?
I didn't actually know about Embrace when I started Miss Tyler. It features Taryn Brumfitt, who reframed her before and after body images to celebrate her mom body instead of chasing a bodybuilder ideal. That idea, that loving your body doesn't require changing it, resonates deeply with what we're doing by showing diverse creators so women can feel represented and confident.
What kind of impact have you seen from users of Miss Tyler?
We started receiving emails saying this was the first time people had ever seen their body represented in fashion. One woman wrote that she felt fat and ugly almost her entire life, and at 76 she finally felt human using our app. Over 350,000 women have completed our body quiz, giving us huge data on the representation gap in fashion.
Building something daring? Sunny talks to founders like this every day. Fifteen minutes to see if your story belongs on the stage.
Claim your pre-interview