Anyone who has ever attempted to recreate a dope outfit on their timeline knows the struggle is real. This tech duo wants to make sure you never have to piece together another look again. Esosa Ighodaro and Abiodun “A.J.” Johnson have developed an app called CoSign that allows users to grab cute looks with a snap of an app. Here's how it works: Simply download the CoSign App, snap or upload a picture of your favorite product, tag the product info, and share it on social media. If your followers buy the "cosigned" item, a "ka-ching" sound indicates the transaction and you earn points for your recommendation. The goal is to help "style-conscious millennials monetize their social media images” through social commerce. Brilliant!
“It’s peer-to-peer recommendation, and we’re trying to amplify that,” Johnson told The Root. Both first-generation Nigerian Americans, Johnson and Ighodaro brought complementary skills to the development of the app. Johnson, a Dartmouth grad from Memphis, Tenn. brought project management experience in the tech industry and e-commerce to the table, while Ighodaro, a Brooklyn bred Temple grad, had professional experience in finance and banking. While maintaining their day jobs, CoSign became their side hustle.
“The first step for us was kind of putting together sketches in regards to what we were looking to create from an app perspective and then just finding the right team to put a prototype together,” Johnson said. “We put our money into it to begin the initial prototype phase and then, after that, started raising money through friends and family to make the more valuable product.” When their Kickstarter campaign raised over $41,000 in one month, they knew they were on to something. “That really changed the game for us,” Ighodaro said, “because it no longer became this thing that you’re working on, on your own, in the basement. It’s a concept that people actually got behind and put their own money in."
Now available for mass consumption, CoSign has been embraced by the tech community as well as mass retailers like Sephora and Neiman Marcus. Click here to download the app and "make your images shoppable."
