Paradigm Shifters is a series of interviews with a select group of women and men from eclectic walks of life. It will highlight unspoken, real-life insights on how they have been able to turn weakness into strength. A naked soul point of view of how their breakdowns were really a preparation for breakthroughs. They are your quintessential paradigm shifters; internal shifts converted into genuine change.
Everything I have ever done has been focused on this underlying theme of shifting the paradigm because, "what we think determines what we feel and what we feel determines what we do." Hence why Empowered by You takes lingerie, which has traditionally been seen merely as a tool of seduction and redirected that energy as a tool of empowerment.
I hope from these stories you will look at your own situations, struggles and accomplishments through a different lens. At the very least you will be more equipped with real life tools to change your own paradigm. At the end of the day, we are our own Alchemist turning the silver we were born with into the gold we are destined to become.
Michael Mente and Mike Karanikolas - Founders of Revolve Clothing
In more than a decade, you've grown from a small startup to a large business. Has your vision for the company changed over this time? Has the company maintained an entrepreneurial spirit despite its growing capital?
While we knew that starting an e-commerce brand was a burgeoning opportunity, the choice to sell fashion online was actually fairly random. We knew we wanted to start a company together and would make a great team. We decided to move forward after many conversations and much research that showed there was an opportunity to create something that had not yet been done. Yahoo search which was Overture at the time was a key research tool that we used because it allowed marketers to determine what key terms people were searching and what volumes over time. You were really able to access consumer demand across a number of categories. We had different ideas on areas we could start a business in but used this to see where the demand was and how it was growing compared to what we felt like the current offerings were in the market; and so we created REVOLVE in 2003.
As we knew that we wanted to become our own bosses, we started the business out of our garage, never setting out to be a part of the corporate world. As we've grown, it has become a challenge to maintain the company structure that we set forth when creating the company. However, we strive to enable communication across all roles and departments to this day which has allowed us to stay close to our initial vision for the company.
Our main goal has always been to create a fun work environment and to ensure our employees enjoy coming back to work every day. We understand that not one person is the best at everything and we work to give employees a chance to shine and understand this is critical to a growing business.
Michael - you have been quoted as saying that "you have to be sure" before starting a business. How did you know you were sure when you started Revolve Clothing?
When Mike K. and I started REVOLVE, we didn't just wake up one day and decide, "Let's sell LA fashion online." We knew from our prior jobs that we worked well together and had complementary skills to bring to the table. We wanted to go into business together and this was a big indicator to being sure, but we still needed to solidify our business model and what we wanted to do. We did a lot of research and during the boom of designer denim recognized massive consumer demand for a product that was virtually impossible to find online. And this is when we knew. It was a combination of finding the right partner, the right idea and the right market potential that set the ship in motion.
What has been your proudest moment with Revolve?
Like many Internet startups in the early 2000s, we went through some hard times during the 2008 recession. Sales literally dropped by 50 percent overnight. We are of course proud to have made it through this time period and continue to grow and thrive as a business, but what we were most proud of was the way our entire staff truly pulled together to help keep the business afloat. People from every department worked nights and weekends to help process orders, pack boxes and ship them to consumers. It was high-stress and pretty scary at moments, but seeing our team come together to become such an unstoppable force is a quality that formed in the early days of the company and we still see and admire in our workforce today.
How do you and your partners' different backgrounds compliment one another? How has this relationship been important to Revolve?
Mike's expertise is in tech and operations which has helped us to engineer a platform for millennials to find a continuously changing and carefully curated selection of emerging designers and trends that is not found anywhere else. It was because of Mike's forward thinking that REVOLVE has steadily grown over the years and has kept REVOLVE a step ahead from the beginning.
Michael, on the other hand, has continually supported fashion from the ground up. From the beginning, he has supported emerging designers and has actively looked for talent that fits into the REVOLVE style. He co-launched FORWARD by Elyse Walker in 2008 and in 2010, he saw talent in business partners Raissa Gerona and Mitch Moseley as he helped develop their brand, Lovers + Friends. Additionally, in March REVOLVE acquired Alliance Apparel which allowed Raissa Gerona and Mitch Moseley to continue growing Lovers + Friends in addition to developing subsequent lines such as Tularosa, NBD, RAYE, Privacy Please and L'Academie.
Combined we have a grasp on both the fashion and tech industries and this has shaped REVOLVE into what it is today.
What do you feel is the biggest paradigm shift you've experienced when seeing something differently changed your life?
Prior to the financial crisis, we had worked with employees to offer personal loans on behalf of the company from time to time. But during the 2008 recession, we were pretty strapped for cash and were operating on a week-by-week basis; we hadn't taken on any outside capital and were completely self-financed, so cash flow was at times an issue. An employee at this time came to us asking for a personal loan of $8,000 -- which was a ton of cash at this point in time. Not only that, but this employee wasn't someone who was particularly outstanding at her job. In fact, she was quite the opposite and on the verge of being let go due to performance issues. So we asked her to come in for a formal meeting with her husband to discuss in further detail and determine if/what we could do to help them out.
When she and her husband came in for the meeting, they shared that they had borrowed money for a loan shark who was charging insane interest on the loan that they were unable to meet. The couple were in dangerous territory, in jeopardy of losing their home and dealing with shady characters.
Our first reaction was to let her know that this amount of money was outside of the norm but realized after sitting down with her and her husband that she was in a serious situation and needed our help. Since the loan, we have seen a complete 180 in terms of her attitude and performance -- she has switched from being a problem employee to one of the best we have ever had and has continued on this path since.
What was your biggest breakdown to breakthrough moment?
Several years into running the company, we were seeing great success and momentum, but it was built largely on our innovations in customer experience (such as free shipping & returns), and the strength of our data analytics. We were still in some ways finding our voice as a fashion brand, and had tried to bring in senior buyers and fashion directors from other organizations, but could never find the right people for our business and our customer.
The breakthrough came when we discovered through our own internal reporting and analytics that some of our most junior buyers (including one who started as an intern), had an uncanny ability to spot fashion trends and great new designers before our analytics team even had any data to support the decision, and that was far superior to some of the more senior personnel. We made the decision to elevate and empower these buyers, and they subsequently transformed the business, and have been key to our explosive growth since.
What kind of legacy do you wish to leave behind?
To build a company that consumers and employees love and to build an endearing American fashion brand in the likes of Ralph Lauren and JCrew.
At the intersection of hard work and gut sit Mike and Mike. Their story is one of authenticity, perseverance and being honest with themselves. A very unassuming duo of men who have taken the fashion industry by storm. With their commitment to their team and commitment to innovation, I am sure we will be hearing a lot about them in the near future.