65 - Raissa Gerona, Revolve

In our first episode of the new year, we sit down with Raissa Gerona, Chief Brand Officer of fashion retailer and influencer marketing powerhouse Revolve. We start by learning how Raissa was a pioneer in the influencer marketing space, leveraging the then-new blogosphere in 2008 to promote her own Lovers and Friends clothing brand. Raissa shares her advice to marketers who question whether influencer marketing is “worth it,” emphasizing that it should be viewed as top-of-funnel marketing (like a billboard), and that marketers shouldn’t try to equate every single influencer post to a sale. We then take a step back to explore Raissa’s unique career journey. Raissa reveals how she was originally on track to become an attorney, but a trip to Italy led her to pursue the entrepreneurial path and start her own clothing brand, which later connected her to Revolve founders Michael Mente & Mike Karanikolas. To close the show, we learn about the successes and challenges involved with scaling Revolve 10x in 10 years to achieve $1B in revenue, before hearing what’s in store for Raissa and Revolve over the next decade.