There is an overwhelming and ever-growing list of accomplishments that alumni of Saratoga High have achieved. Each success story seems to top the rest, yet all are unique in their own way. Alumnus Roza Pyghambarzadeh, who graduated from Saratoga High in 2007, is not only one of these graduates who have raised the bar in the past few years, but she has done it in style. Pyghambarzadeh, a sophomore at the Marshall School of Business at USC, started her own social networking website for females to “swap dresses by simply going online and browsing each other’s profiles.”

The site, www.dressshare.com, was the outcome of an assignment for Pyghambarzadeh’s marketing class. The assignment entailed developing a “hypothetical business idea and forming it into a business proposal.”

Pyghambarzadeh was inspired to formulate her business proposal by watching the girls at her sorority, Delta Delta Delta, exchange clothes for events and realizing that there could be a more efficient way to make these transactions.

“I thought it would be great to have a public domain similar to Facebook that would allow girls to [trade clothes],” said Pygambarzadeh.

The budding website allows users to post their clothes and accessories on their “galleries” so their friends can view them. There are also “communities,” similar to Facebook networks, which are groups of friends that anyone can create so that profiles can be kept private.
Through this process, Pygambarzadeh said, “Not only can girls network with their friends, but they can save time and money that would otherwise be spent on outfits that they could probably just as easily borrow from a close friend!”

Though Pygambarzadeh has come across this success, she holds firm to her belief that school should be her first priority. With her busy academic schedule, Pygambarzadeh admits that working on the website can be hard to squeeze in.

“It can get very overwhelming to try to work on dressshare.com when I have projects and tests to prepare for,” said Pygambarzadeh. “One strategy I have found to be effective is putting a couple block hours into my schedule that I devote to solely this task. Scheduling [this way] allows me to manage my time.”

Pygambarzadeh hopes to keep putting her entrepreneurial skills to work after graduating from USC while also furthering her studies at law school. She also hopes to keep dressshare.com going for as long as possible.

Her short-term goals for the website, however, include broadening the user base of the website.

“I truly believe that this website can provide a great tool for girls and cut down on unnecessary shopping for dresses they would probably buy and wear only once,” said Pygambarzadeh. “So my main goal is to get the word out so that girls in high school and college can take advantage of this.”