Prior to launching online marketplace Verishop in 2019, co-founders Imran and Cate Khan defined a white space with strong potential: an e-commerce site catering to influencers-turned-brand founders. 

“If you were an independent brand creator, and you were building a brand with a point of view and a story to tell, there was no platform [for you],” Imran Khan said on the latest Glossy Podcast. “Brands in the ‘makers' economy’ don't want to be on every platform; they want to be on a platform where they can distinctively tell their stories. They were distributing through social media. Our thesis was that social media would become more crowded, making it difficult for these brands to acquire customers.”

Of course, that’s proven true. In step, Verishop has evolved its business model to provide creator brands with marketing solutions, on top of serving as an aggregator. It’s been successful: Today, Verishop sells 5,000 brands from 3,000 merchants. Its monthly merchant retention rate is over 99%, and its merchant count grew 120% year-over-year in the third quarter. Its marketing solutions business grew 6X in the same period. 

“We're seeing incredible product-market fit,” he said.