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A social-first apparel seller grew from marketplace listings into a $141M online fashion retailer.
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Tori Gerbig started selling on eBay with her husband in 2009 to ease pressure from student loans, a mortgage, and car payments. They bought wholesale items that were trending online and resold them at retail. A Facebook group became a stronger selling channel, and the couple later launched Pink Lily’s ecommerce site to capture orders beyond group posting hours. Gerbig left her insurance job in April 2014; her husband left his corporate role that July. The online store exceeded $100,000 in sales in its fourth month. Their first-year target had been $50,000, but revenue topped $4 million. Pink Lily rose from $4.1 million in 2014 to more than $12 million in 2015, then reported over $141 million in 2021 revenue. Gerbig describes the early operation as hands-on: posting products, invoicing through PayPal, packing orders, and even meeting buyers during lunch breaks.
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Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel anytime, in one clickData credibility: CNBC Make It reports the company figures in a founder profile and quotes Tori Gerbig. Revenue is founder-reported in the interview and not independently audited there; profit, margin, and acquisition costs are not provided.
9 more sections — how the first customers came, how the first dollar landed, what turned the flywheel, and how they got through the silent stretch. Members read all of it.