How it all started

A DM. A call. And two very different stories that somehow aligned.

Samira grew up in Ghana, where excess fashion waste doesn’t just disappear. It floods local markets, piles up in landfills, and washes up on beaches. She saw the impact firsthand.

Her love for fashion started young, styling her mom’s clothes and being the go-to tomboy with taste. After her mom passed away, fashion became a way to feel close to her again. Her mom was also an entrepreneur, which planted early seeds of creativity and independence.

Later, Samira joined sustainability organizations, studied computer science, and began creating. She now shares fashion tech and confidence tips with over 5,000 followers across social media.

Rukaiah grew up in a place where women had to cover themselves in black and were not allowed to choose what to wear or who to become.

She always loved fashion, entrepreneurship, and tech, but witnessing how much freedom was denied to women lit a fire in her. At 11, she survived a war and helped push her family to immigrate to the United States. At 17, she launched her first e-commerce brand and achieved a 25% ROI. Later, she studied computer science, built five full-stack AI applications, and scaled one to over 1,000 users in just a few weeks.

They connected because they cared about the same thing:

to build tech that makes fashion more sustainable and gives people more freedom to express themselves.

Now they are building Masari. Starting with a style-driven marketplace that helps brands move excess stock. A place where creators can earn by sharing what they love. And where shoppers can finally find quality pieces at better prices, without endless scrolling or waste.

It started with one LinkedIn DM.

But this story is just getting started.