When Kelly Lawson wanted to know if other Canadian women shared her problem of not knowing to do with closets full of clothes, she started a Facebook Group to discuss the matter. Within a few weeks, 4,400 women had joined the group.

It now only led to the creation of Ella, her online app that helps women sell slightly used clothes they don’t want. It also gave her an amazing test ground for the product.

“It’s a community-driven platform and that’s an indispensable part of what differentiates us from our competition,” said Lawson in an interview last week at Planet Hatch in Fredericton.

Ella is based in Saint John but for the past few months Lawson has been traveling to Planet Hatch to attend the Launch cohort of the Propel ICT accelerator. The company is one of six less-experienced Launch companies that will pitch at the Propel Demo Day in Moncton next Tuesday evening.

So what is it about Ella that convinced the Propel organizers that it’s ready for prime time?

It’s probably the traction and the breadth of its followers.

Related: Propel Names 12 Demo Day Pitchers

Once Lawson understood last summer how common the problem of surplus fashion is, she set about developing a product that solves that problem. Ella is a mobile app that provides a market place for slightly used clothes. Now in its third iteration, the system uses proprietary algorithms to match users based on size, style, social connections and location. It also provides purchase suggestions.

While the size of the Facebook group continues to grow and stretches from British Columbia to Atlantic Canada (there are 3,000 followers in Saint John alone), Lawson and her four team-mates are focusing now on a more select group of beta-testers for Ella in New Brunswick.

There are now 160 women testing the product. And between them, they had sold as of last Thursday 36 items with an average price of $40 each. They are using the service free, but when it goes live Ella will charge a commission on each sale. The team is also developing plans for premium users, who can have a sort of online booth on the app.

Lawson stresses that the “app is a feature of the community.” The Facebook group is leading to local networks, so women are getting together in places like Kelowna, B.C., to chat about their overstuffed closets. Lawson recently hosted a launch party at the Venn Garage space in Saint John, and about 150 women showed up.

She believes the community aspect of the project gives Ella an advantage over its competitors. The competitors now are a varied group, ranging from one similar product in Canada to a few in the U.S. and even major social media sites like Facebook itself.

Having bootstrapped so far, Ella is now raising capital with a target of $750,000.