How I got someone to give me half a million dollars

How I got someone to give me half a million dollars 2017 Started as a part time stylist at Aritzia making $13/hour. Fell in love with fashion, it felt like I'd finally found my world. 2018 Left college, became a stylist for a boutique called Pipe and Row. Heard the best stylist from Aritzia opened it, and she offered $15.50/hour which felt life changing. (This is me modeling for pipe and row, but mostly I worked as a sales associate in the store) 2019 A year later my manager quit. I basically told my boss I'd quit too unless she made me store manger. She did. I got $20/hr, my first big break. 2019 This was my year! Went on my first buying trip with the owner, sales were booming. I saw how much sales were booming and took any opportunity to insert myself. Started making client lists, sales reports, anything I could think of. 2020 Then Covid hit. I decided this was my chance to prove myself while the world slowed down. We had to lay off every employee and I worked 24/7 for basically a year straight. 2021 Sales doubled. We expanded fast, and I became assistant buyer. 2022 Next year? Doubled again. Promoted to Head Buyer. Ran ops, warehouse, staffing, in house merch, and a full rebrand 2023 Became Director of Merchandising, salaried for the first time. Finally felt like I'd "made it". This was my dream job. 2024 ChatGPT entered my ecosystem! Started automating my own workflows. Realized tech could fix everything buyers hate doing manually. (We're almost to the half a million guys, hang in there :--)) 2025 Started thinking about turning these automations into a business. I always had the entrepreneurial itch but never had the vision until now. 2025 - The Leap I QUIT MY DREAM JOB. I cold applied to an ai incubator in Seattle. The day I got into their pitch competition, I quit my job. This was my big break. (This is me the day before my pitch) Mirr.ai Danielle 2025 - The Win I spent the next month preparing every day. Ended up winning the competition, and became the first person ever accepted into the incubator from it. That's when everything changed. 2025 - August Got my first big check. Investors love people who know the problem inside and out, that's what they bet on. (Me speaking on a panel about building a tech company as a non tech founder) 2025 - November I can't believe this is my life now. A tech CEO? Allegedly? My biggest takeaways: - you can do so much more in the fashion tech than working retail #fashiontech - the best founders are industry experts - work hard when no one is watching, it