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In a sense they considered it an asset.ĭata and analytics would drive their choices, becoming part of their “trend forecasting algorithms” that incorporate “data from analysis of thousands of styles, dozens of attributes per style” and the constant accumulation of customer interactions, Mente said. Neither said they were worried about their lack of fashion experience. Even in 2003, fashion shoppers were growing weary of having to trek to bricks-and-mortar stores to shop for clothing, unsure of whether they would find what they were looking for, Karanikolas said. The pair’s deep dive into keyword searches and online behavior divulged something they hadn’t considered before, well before some longtime fashionistas and clothing industry veterans noticed it. “And it really helped us spot opportunities consistently, I think, before a lot of the rest of the marketplace.” Data was something we were comfortable with,” Karanikolas said. “Technology was something we’d just grown up with. “We were both very analytical,” Mente said, which helped them home in on an idea for a new business. Mente and Karanikolas were out of a job, but had gained valuable insight about themselves and how well they worked together. But the stock market downturn that began in 2000 turned the boom into a bust. Karanikolas was hired by the same company in 2000, after earning a degree in computer engineering at Virginia Tech.Īs the youngest employees at the company, the two 20-somethings quickly bonded.
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Mente was in an entrepreneurship program at USC when he dropped out to join software company NextStrat in Los Angeles. Karanikolas and Mente had planned to ride the tech industry dot-com boom that had begun in 1995.
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We felt like we could come out of the gates with a better approach and then continue to build on that.” But there weren’t really that many players doing it or doing it well. “There was a large and growing interest in apparel online. “It was a new world and a new opportunity with the internet and online commerce starting to change things,” Karanikolas recalled of those early days. The term influencer didn’t come into widespread use until 2015. Facebook, Instagram and the iPhone hadn’t made an appearance yet.
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