Trisha Bantigue and Kathy Zhou are two former pageant queens who knew intimately the struggles of purchasing expensive formalwear on a budget. In 2019, the two started Queenly, an online marketplace for affordable formalwear for weddings, black tie events, prom and everything in between. Bantigue and Zhou also offer customers an option to sell items – so that bridesmaids dress that only got worn once can find a new home. The San Francisco, California-based entrepreneurs have been scaling up Queenly at a rapid pace since their launch –today, they have 14 employees, funding from Silicon Valley VCs, and a mentor in none other than Julie Wainwright, the founder of The RealReal. ···