Alumni
Superinfluencer Jenny Cipoletti Launches TIVVIT Social Shopping Platform
Since graduating from FIDM with degrees in Merchandising & Marketing and Fashion Design, Jenny Cipoletti reached superinfluencer status thanks to her popular blog Margo & Me and social media presence (she has nearly half a million followers on Instagram alone). This month, Jenny and her husband, Freddie Cipoletti, have launched TIVVIT, a new social shopping platform that allows everyone to monetize their style and recommendations.
Where were you born and raised? I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. My family and I bounced around a lot when I was younger because my dad is a professor. We went from Boston to Chicago to Princeton before landing in Palo Alto, California when I was nine years old.
Tell us about your path to FIDM: I was born a creative! My grandmother, sister, and mom have had a significant influence on fostering my inner creative visual artist while my dad always challenged me from an intellectual perspective. It indeed was the best of both worlds growing up, knowing that I could be a creative, while still owning my own business and being an educated business woman. I decided to go to FIDM in Los Angeles because I felt there were more opportunities in fashion there at the time.
When did you graduate from FIDM? I graduated from FIDM twice, once in 2007, with my AA degree in Merchandising & Marketing. I worked in PR for a few years after graduating and then decided to return to school to pursue my degree in Fashion Design and graduated from the Professional Designation program in 2011.
What was your experience in PR like? I owe so much to my professional career now to my experience in fashion public relations. Having a personal brand is vital in the digital age, and PR taught me how to create that. For six years, I built brands from the ground up; I built relationships with editors, created media kits, wrote press releases, but most importantly, I gained perspective on how the fashion industry worked as a whole. From design and production to celeb and editorial press and sales to fashion week and events, I was able to see how each part supported the other so importantly.
In a saturated field of fashion bloggers and lifestyle content, why do you think you Margo & Me has succeeded? It's incredibly easy for me to say because I think I got started at the right time. Instagram wasn't disrated by an algorithm; growth was organic still. Blogs were still being read very frequently. This combination allowed Margo & Me to grow into the platform it has today. It's much different now. My focus is not about growing anymore; it's about maintaining an authentic dialogue with my audience who's been loyal and by my side for the past eight years.
Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? It wasn't until I met my husband that I even entertained the idea. He had always been an entrepreneur himself as a successful film director and producer. I liked the security of a nine-to-five job. I felt like it validated me early in my career. But there comes a time when the experience of a corporate career has had its impact on you, and you're ready to move on. I wasn't growing in my position in PR and wasn't happy creatively. I was so eager to create something I believed in. So, I took all the knowledge I had from my schooling and experience in PR and forged that into the entrepreneur I am today.
What led you to launch TIVVIT and how does it work? TIVVIT is an app I see fashion lovers, like FIDM Students, loving and using as an app to generate extra cash on their style while they're in college. After blogging for so many years, I couldn't help but notice how exclusive the affiliate space was. What dawned on me is that this concept of sharing and earning isn't a luxury that's afforded to many. Acceptance to prestigious affiliate networks are only available to bloggers with thousands of followers. Why wasn't everyone able to earn off their style as bloggers and influencers do?
TIVVIT is a peer-to-peer social shopping app that enables users to monetize their style by earning commissions off of their recommendations to other users. Users can create virtual storefronts called Collections, and they can give and receive personal style advice in the Feed, DM their friends, shop, or suggest items from thousands of your favorite brands. The goal was to create a platform for users to go when they're asked the question, "Where did you get that?" Now the next time someone asks you that, you can say "I'll TIVVIT it to you" and slide into their DMs with the link to the jacket and earn cash off the purchase.
What are the highlights and challenges of running your own tech business? It's truly an honor, and the biggest highlight for me is the ability to build a community for those who are currently being underserved. I've always been drawn with consuming retail industry and tech news, and I'd like to think that my strong suit has been identifying trends in the marketplace. When you're creating a tech business, you have to be a forward thinker, which can sometimes be a challenge; you always have to be ahead of the curve because of the industry's accelerated growth rate.
What are some lessons/experiences from FIDM you use now in your career? When I was at FIDM, I could never understand why teachers always wanted us working in groups. I have always been a natural leader, so working on my own was what I preferred. I would beg my teachers to let me do the projects on my own; however, what working in a group taught me was invaluable. Being an entrepreneur, you have to work with so many different kinds of people on a day-to-day basis. The skills and knowledge of working with others is something I learned early on at FIDM and carry with me every day.
Where do you see the future for TIVVIT and yourself headed? It's my hope that TIVVIT becomes second nature to users, just like online shopping is, only you earn from using the app, which is incentivizing. In the long run, it's my hope that TIVVIT and my story will become a conduit for how the narrative of retail is changing. The traditional retail model is broken, and brands are looking for a direct line to their customers, which is why so many brands have gone direct to consumer. I not only want TIVVIT to be useful to the shopper but to brands as well.
Learn more about TIVVIT when Jenny does an Instagram takeover @fidm on December 20, 2019.
Categories: Fashion Design Merchandising & Marketing Alumni
