Aug. 18, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota State University.

Making the right choice can be a challenge, even for something as basic as choosing new eyeglasses or an outfit for the day.

Kruttika Sutrave discovered this truth early in life and had a desire to solve the problem.

“When I was young, I wanted to have a software application to help me try on glasses.”

Recently, the doctoral student at Dakota State University came up with an extension of that idea, a business plan using artificial intelligence to choose what to wear.

Perfect Outfit will be a free, AI-enabled mobile app that recommends what clothes to wear. It also could include ideas for hair styles, accessories and footwear. It will be designed for everyone, not just women, Sutrave said.

With advanced features, the app would use augmented reality to visualize the user in an outfit. Perfect Outfit also could categorize clothes in the closet and “keep track of what you’re wearing and when you wore them.”

While Perfect Outfit is not publicly available yet, Sutrave is seeing success with this problem-solving idea. She was a finalist at several area business competitions in the spring, including Dakota State’s first Entrepreneurs Day in April, Sioux Falls Innovation Expo and the USD Invent-to-Innovate Business Model Competition. She said she received good feedback from the competition judges, such as adding an option to connect to a business site to buy a product.

Sutrave had never done a business pitch before and admits she experienced some stage fright, but “I don’t have that anymore,” she said. “All this has helped me grow personally, and I’ve met wonderful people,” such as professor Matt Willard from Augustana University and Sioux Falls entrepreneur, author and private equity investor Matt Paulson.

Individuals on campus have helped her grow as well, including Katherine Cota, director of economic development, and Dr. Mike Roach, assistant professor of management in the College of Business and Information Systems. Roach is also adviser of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Club, of which Sutrave is a member.

The CEO Club “gives me a sense of being part of something greater,” she said.

Sutrave is also part of the Paulson Cyber Incubator & Entrepreneurial Center at DSU. The center was created through a sponsorship with Paulson. A grand opening is planned for Aug. 28, with a public reception at 9:30 a.m. at DSU’s Entrepreneurial Building, 1400 N. Washington Ave. in Madison.

Sutrave has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from a university in her home country of India, a Master of Science in Computer Science from DSU and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Information Systems. This commitment is a bit time consuming.

“Earning the Ph.D. comes first and my teaching duties,” she said, so if she doesn’t have time to complete the Perfect Outfit app, what she has learned throughout the process will help if – or when – she ventures on with this or another business idea.

If anyone has a business plan idea, she recommends they move forward with it.

“Give it a shot,” she said. “If you’re passionate about it, go ahead with it.”

AI technology in particular will create new and different opportunities as it develops. “Someone has to build this AI, and you could be that person.”

After graduation, she would like to be a professor or go to work in the industry, but adds “I would like to start my own business.” The experience she has gained through developing Perfect Outfit, and with the CEO Club and Paulson Center, will benefit.

“All learning is a good experience,” she said.