It’s the biggest night in fashion (more on that below…) so let’s stay on theme today. But instead of the Met Gala, I want to talk about ShopMy, the influencer and affiliate platform that is now valued at $1.5 billion. Cofounded by Tiffany Lopinsky, who serves as president, the startup entered a space in 2020 that seemed as if it was dominated by a, by now, legacy player: LTK, the SoftBank-backed social commerce platform founded by Amber Venz Box in 2011.
LTK essentially created the social commerce industry—and in many ways, it still dominates. But ShopMy has proven that there is always room to disrupt the disruptor. Lopinsky and her cofounders Chris Tinsley and CEO Harry Rein listened closely to the pain points of both influencers and brands that made it harder to earn a living and move product via these platforms.
For those who aren’t active on Instagram or don’t follow many influencers, both LTK and ShopMy essentially offer a way for influencers to monetize their recommendations. They can use the infrastructure to earn commission on products they recommend, and brands can more easily turn online creators into their own salesforces. “The influencer is a retailer, a mini-Saks, a mini-Bloomingdale’s,” Lopinsky told me over lunch earlier this year. But bringing that vision to reality requires a strong tech product: accurate performance metrics, analysis of the right rates to be paying influencers to promote product in what can still be a wild west, easy ways for brands to boost organic content that’s already doing well, and more. That’s what ShopMy has been building.
At the same time, ShopMy has built a consumer-friendly experience. The platform has an especially strong foothold with a certain kind of NYC or LA-based influencer and many popular Substack writers. Shoppers can follow their favorite creators and browse their recommendations. (Top curators include Sofia Richie Grainge, Aurora James, and Nara Smith. Even Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was briefly on the platform.) Last month, the company launched a personalized shopping service that taps ShopMy creators to shop on users’ behalf—a way to stand out as a platform for human creativity in a sea of AI-driven shopping.
All of this has made ShopMy a new female-founded unicorn. Lopinsky’s best advice for how to get there? Essentially a relentless focus on product-market fit. The 31-year-old founder spends her days meeting with brands and creators to find out exactly what they need. As she says, it’s “actually building what people are telling you they want and not what you think the opportunity is, or what investors are saying they want.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
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PARTING WORDS
"I still get nervous before I criticize a play sometimes. I still wish I was more comfortable speaking my truth. I’m working really hard on that because I know I have the authority and experience to have a respected opinion in this space."
— ESPN analyst and former WNBA player Chiney Ogwumike
