As SXSW’s Interactive Style Track gets underway today, we’re thrilled to feature powerhouse female fashion-tech entrepreneur, business leader, and co-founder of Poshmark, Tracy Sun.
Positioned at the intersection of fashion and technology, Poshmark has become one of the largest social commerce marketplaces for fashion where anyone can buy, sell and share their personal style - right from their phone. As co-founder and VP of Merchandising, Tracy has helped pioneer a platform that has shifted the fashion landscape enabling users to shop new and gently used items from hundreds of thousands of closets.
With over 2 million sellers, one in every 50 American women are selling on Poshmark today and top sellers are raking in over $500,000 in sales. To date, the start-up has raised over $70 million in funding from the likes of Mayfield, Menolo Ventures, and Investus, along with celebrity investors Ashton Kutcher and Rachel Zoe. Tracy has been named a “Top Female Tech Founder” by USA Today and TechCrunch, a “Woman Making Waves in Tech” by Refinery29, and a “Retail Game-Changer” by Marie Claire. It’s our pleasure to bring you our exclusive interview with Poshmark’s Tracy Sun!
FN: What led you to co-found Poshmark? How did you link up with CEO, Manish Chandra and the rest of the team?
TS: I was born and raised on the east coast and became obsessed with the business of fashion during my time in NYC. I had launched and grown several fashion startups in NYC and through this experience was confident I had a solid perspective on consumers and their relationship with fashion. I wanted my next start-up to have wide impact and meaningfully touch people’s lives. I moved out to Silicon Valley in search of a team of tech visionaries who shared my passion and was introduced to Manish Chandra through a mutual contact who believed our interests and perspectives would be complementary and powerful. And she was right. Manish had recently sold his social shopping company, Kaboodle, to Hearst and was looking for his next opportunity. We combined my fashion experience with his product and business vision, recruited technical co-founders, Gautam Golwala and Chetan Pungaliya, and launched Poshmark from Manish’s garage in late 2011.
FN: What does your day look like as VP of Merchandising? What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an entrepreneur, business leader and co-founder?
TS: As the co-founder of a start-up, no two days are ever the same, and that’s why I love it. I oversee our marketing team which focuses on understanding our customer and maintaining the amazing levels of engagement we see with our sellers. The other big role I play at Poshmark is leading our strategic expansion. Last year, I led the launch of our boutique initiative which expanded our platform to make it seamless for our two million Seller Stylists to partner with fashion labels to be their virtual salesforce. I’m also currently working on a really powerful project which will provide another service to our sellers — inviting them to curate and launch their own fashion lines on behalf of a brand. At the end of the day, I’m really focused on expanding Poshmark so our sellers can continue to grow their businesses.
As an entrepreneur, business leader and co-founder, challenges are just part of the daily grind. No matter how many you overcome, there are always more looming on the horizon. One skillset I learned early on which has contributed to my growth as an entrepreneur is to recognize when an assumption behind the business, project, or decision has changed. At Poshmark, we like to call out that “the cheese has just moved”. Once you recognize that the cheese has moved, it frees you up to stop resisting this change and focus on taking a moment to evaluate, calibrate, innovate, and move forward.
FN: How have you grown such a strong community at Poshmark? How does Poshmark differentiate itself from other fashion buying/selling sites and social commerce apps?
TS: The company’s laser sharp focus on mobile created an addictive social network where shoppers can come together to connect, buy and sell from each other with ease. The Poshmark community spends 25 minutes per day on the app, opening it up to 7-9 times — no commerce company comes close to this type of engagement. Through a mobile app, we’ve changed people’s relationship with fashion, empowering millions of women to become entrepreneurs right from their phones — all while creating an addictive and engaging shopping experience.
What really sets Poshmark apart is our community, their relationship to us, and to each other. At Poshmark we focus on people and making them successful. The Poshmark brand has come to stand for empowerment. We like to say that we are platform powered by love. And it’s true. We’ve built a social platform which encourages and rewards users who build meaningful relationships with each other. Those sellers that help other sellers succeed will succeed themselves. Empowerment and love are the foundation of Poshmark. This is a basic need that comes first. Money comes second.
FN: It’s been a tough time for e-commerce startups. In an ever-evolving industry with an ever-evolving consumer, how does Poshmark stay ahead of the curve?
TS: Poshmark has prioritized social and commerce to become one of the largest fashion marketplaces and most popular destinations for shopping. By combining human curation and personalization via social algorithms and resale inventory and new merchandise under one roof, we’ve created an infinitely scalable marketplace.
They key to success is always putting our community first. Over the past five years, we’ve built and nurtured a passionate community of millions — one in every 50 women in America is currently selling on the app — where anyone can be successful.
FN: What are you most excited about when it comes to the future of fashion and tech? How do you see social commerce evolving within the next 5 years?
TS: The industry is on a journey. We have seen lots of innovation in recent times, many inspired by innovation in technology. However, at the core, fashion is an industry full of heart. It is meant to be loved and shared. It is very human. Looking ahead, I expect that we will need to balance innovation in technology with ways to leverage the humanness of fashion. We can’t ignore the people.
If you’re in Austin and attending SXSW, check out Tracy’s session “Data Alone Can’t Decode the Fashion Industry” at 12:30PM today.
