First venture two young people how to make 100 million dollars worth of media brand

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Justin Facilitator and Philip (Philippe von Borries) have never started a company before and have never worked in the fashion industry. But in 2005, they resigned from their legal work and founded Refinery29, a fashion electric company based in New York. (Original from Business Insider, Tiger olfactory compilation)

For a long time, no one could see them. But now Refinery29 is one of a handful of new media companies that can exit with a 100 million dollar valuation. In February, Refinery29 raised a few 4.2 million dollars from the Round capital, Floodgate, Lerer Ventures and Hearst several VCs in the B-round financing. 2009, the company's revenue of 400,000 U.S. dollars, this year is expected to reach 24 million U.S. dollars.

Eight years ago, they were sitting in their "office"-the table at Philip's kitchen-and they were bankrupt. No one wants to invest in first-time startups. Justin said he and Philip didn't realize that raising money would be one of their options.

When you don't have money, you become good at making money. Two of people who sell ads with glam media have been able to get 28,000 dollars a year for the first three years. Then they took a 160,000 dollar investment and hired two part-time employees.

"We needed to make money when we first started," Justin said. " ”

Refinery29 first offers a city-guided service to select small, premium brands in the areas of furniture, music, fashion and design. These brands often do not have the funds or the time to promote the market, Refinery29 has become a good solution. The benefits of Refinery29 's services are fashion companies and small shops. Although the two people are not very understanding of fashion, but to Refinery29 positioning, better meet demand. "We are basically a new driver for premium, independent fashion brands," said Philip.

"The decision to hire employees opened the door," said Philip, "after 3 and 4 years of brand building, we have enough word-of-mouth in the market." It was like pouring oil on the fire. "This year, the company's revenue reached 400,000 U.S. dollars." In 2010, revenues turned four times times to 1.6 million dollars. 2011, the rapid appreciation of 7.8 million U.S. dollars. Last year, doubled again, 1420 dollars. It is expected to reach 24 million dollars this year.

So far most of the company's revenue comes from advertisers. Like many digital media companies, Refinery29 tries to combine content with business to gain additional revenue streams. Philip said he wanted to get involved in E-commerce from the start, when readers asked where they could buy the goods they offered.

Refinery29 launched a "store" flash-buying section that allows readers to buy directly from the site. They have no stock and take 20% to 30% of their profits from each transaction. At present their website's shopping experience is smoother. In addition to the independent consumption function, each article page also has the built-in purchase button, the company anticipates in several years from the electronic commerce revenue can reach 3 million to 4 million dollars.

"If the product is good, then it makes sense," explains Philip, "If you can find a way to turn readers into shoppers, it's the ultimate marketing, but it's a lot harder than that." Many websites have failed, but we have to implement it. ”

Today, Refinery29 is a company that has 105 employees and has independent access to 5.5 million times a month (the company's internal data). 10 million visitors per month, monthly 8000 to 90 million page views. Finally, people began to be impressed by the two people.

"We've been focusing on Refinery29 for a while," said David Carey, chairman of the investment agency Hearst, "we've heard about this company many times over the years." These guys are smart. I think they've built up a lot of word-of-mouth in a very short time. I am very impressed with what they are going to do ... We like to walk with entrepreneurs who are breaking ahead. ”