In September of 2019, Arta Kouroshnia left Owen Sound at 18 to study Software Engineering at the University of Ottawa. He returned home almost a year later as one of the founders of a rapidly growing social media platform.

Kouroshnia, who graduated from St. Mary’s High School, created Thred with the help of his co-founder and friend Kazi Hossain from Ottawa.

A free-to-use mobile app available on the IOS app store, Thred allows users to create their own designs and sell them on different articles of clothing through the app itself.

The designer can amass a following on their “Thred store, part of a massive social media marketplace with an ever-expanding user base. Other Thred users can even buy the designer’s merchandise. Once an order is placed, Thred receives the order and fulfills it, sending it out directly to the customer.

Thred pays out 90% of the profit to the designers, meaning they can literally make money by being on their phone. Users can also interact with others: you can follow your friend’s store, like and comment on their designs, and you can send them out to your own friends by copying a link.

Thred has been used to raise money for initiatives as well, allowing users to donate the profit from their merchandise to different charitable organizations.

“What’s unique about Thred, and what separates us from everyone else in this industry, is that you can literally design on the app itself. We have a variety of tools designed to help you create the design you want, for free.” says Arta.

Thred has been rapidly increasing in popularity among younger users in Canada and the USA, which Arta attributes to its ease of use. They have had 556 new users register in August alone, and it keeps on growing.

You can download the app at their website.