“Everything is possible. It just depends on your determination!” – Manish Chandra – CEO & Founder of Poshmark.

We’ve all experienced a moment where we can’t decide what to wear. And there are several reasons for that. Maybe we have too many clothes and the closet is jam-packed, or maybe we don’t own that one special dress. Whatever the reason is, in a situation like that, a quick solution is much needed.

A platform to either sell the extra clothes lying around or buy the dress you desired for such a long time? Yes, please!

Meet Poshmark!

From fashion clothes and accessories all the way to fashion recommendations and styling tips, Poshmark has it all! Poshmark is a way of sharing who you are without saying a word. Keen to learn who is the brain behind Poshmark and how it all started? Read on about Manish Chandra and his fashionable idea!

A Shifting Childhood

Even though born in a small town in India, Manish Chandra didn’t have the opportunity to have a settled childhood. His father was a judge and based on a theory in India – “If you transfer judges, they won’t be corrupt”, Manish Chandra was shifting houses every two to three years. However, he did have one same place to call his home during the summers of his childhood - Chandni Chowk.

In the heart of Old Delhi, India, the place that Manish Chandra liked to call a whole new level of freedom, Chandni Chowk was a busy marketplace. It’s where Manish’s grandfather owned a large wholesale pharmaceutical store. Every summer was the same for Manish. He would go to his grandfather’s place and enjoy the hustling way of life in the largest bazaar in Chandni Chowk. And it was right then when the sparkles of the powerful world of e-commerce hit Manish.

In the Land of Opportunities

Having finished high school at the age of only 15, Manish enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, in the field of computer science. It wasn’t long before Manish earned himself a degree as a Bachelor of Technology.

Looking for a place that is norm-free and driven by the idea of freedom, Manish moved to Austin, Texas. Striving to continue with his educational studies, Manish enrolled in the computer science program at the University of Texas, where he got his Master of Science. But for Manish, that still wasn’t enough!

The land of opportunities was waiting for Manish. Driven by the passion of creating something big and making an actual difference in the world of e-commerce, Manish knew that he must work hard on his education. With that thought always in his mind, Manish attended the University of California, Berkeley, the Haas School of Business. Exploring the field of Marketing and Finance, Manish earned himself a Master of Business Administration degree.

Stepping Stones

The first company Manish worked for was the giant Intel, along with 10.000 other employees. The moment Manish decided to leave Intel was when he realized that the database wasn’t their main business. While out and about for a real database company, Manish ran into Sybase.

At the time when he joined the company, Sybase was a small firm of only 90 people. However, only five years later, the company’s number of employees jumped to 6.000.

Becoming relatively large, Manish decided to leave Sybase and start from the beginning, yet again. Looking for a new startup, Manish became the Head of product at Versa – a company that had only 8 employees. He used the skills and knowledge he gained in college in the field of the computer tech industry for good, and soon Versa scaled up from 8 to over 600 employees. That’s when Manish left the company.

A Leap of Faith

While remodeling his house, Manish realized the need for something specific out there, something was missing. Especially when shopping! Having a difficult time finding the items he needs for his house, Manish had one thought in mind – collaborative shopping and getting everyone on the same page!

That is when the insecurities kicked in. Being an enterprise software guy, Manish was insecure about the possibility of him creating something in the field of marketing. For nine months, Manish was rejecting any thought he had about commerce. However, one thing that he always had was faith in his abilities. That’s how his search for enterprise-driven individuals started.

Coming across big marketing minds, Manish learned a lot about advertising and productivity. He found a way to rewire his brain from enterprise software to marketing software and use most of his knowledge and ideas for a startup company. In 2005, together with Chetan Pungaliya, Gautam Golwala and Tracy Sun, a fashion industry executive, they started Kaboodle.

The Power of Community

Kaboodle was Manish Chandra’s first attempt at the idea to create an online shopping experience. Kaboodle was mainly a bookmarking app for commerce that focused on home décor. The app was made for people to bookmark certain pages for later viewing and sharing the links with friends. After just a year of running, Kaboodle had a few million passionate users, all connected to each other. The number of users proved the success of Kaboodle and became a wanted app by many companies. After two years of running it, Manish Chandra sold Kaboodle to the Harts Corporation.

The Glimmer in the Eye

Selling Kaboodle wasn’t the end for Manish Chandra – it was just the beginning. He still had the glimmer in his eyes for something even bigger than Kaboodle, something used by hundreds of millions of people. Together with his previous crew of entrepreneurial minds, Manish Chandra, Chetan Pungaliya, Gautam Golwala, and Tracy Sun came up with the idea to create Poshmark. A portmanteau of “posh” and “marketplace”.

In the beginning, Poshmark was only a mobile-compatible app, available only as an iPhone app. With the garnered knowledge from running Kaboodle, paired with the success behind it, Manish knew exactly what to do for a successful and powerful app.

The team started to host fundraisers for many investors, and by the end of 2011, the co-founders closed the $3.5 million “A led by Mayfield Fund” series. Being backed up with investors such as Temasek Holdings, GGV Capital, Menlo Ventures and many others, Poshmark is valuated at $160 million, up to date. Furthermore, knowing that going public is the next stepping stone towards an ever greater success for Poshmark, the company made the move and filed to go public in December 2020. Not long after, in January 202, Poshmark was a public entity. Emerging as prosperous from the situation with the Corona pandemic, as people turned to online shopping, the success of Poshmark was skyrocketing. Poshmark turned to IPO at a time when the IPO market was heating up - talk about the right move at the right time! Selling shares to the public made Poshmark become a successful fashion commerce app. An app encouraging people to act as entrepreneurs and run their own fashion and clothing business online.

Poshmark is mainly a reselling app. Sellers can list their unwanted clothes, jewelry, and fashion items to sell. The app quickly became a way of converting the closet into a stylish boutique by only using a phone. Poshmark is packed with some really neat features that played a huge part in its success.

Posh Parties started as a virtual get-together for people to have a fun night of sharing ideas and uncovering new fashion styles. A couple of years after the startup, the Posh Parties went from virtual to live functions.

Setting up PoshFest

The most successful Poshmark feature wasn’t a part of the actual app. It was a conference known as Poshmark’s annual two-day virtual conference for entrepreneurs, otherwise known as PoshFest. This event is held for Poshmark users to be able to be a part of community networking and to learn from industry experts.

Moreover, Poshmark is a great way for entrepreneurs to gain insider tips, get together with other success-driven people, and much more. PoshFest 2021 was held virtually, on October 8-9, 2021.

Poshmark, Today

Today, with millions of shoppers and over five million sellers, Poshmark is the biggest community marketplace. With Manish Chandra as founder and CEO of the company, Gautam Golwala as co-founder and CTO, Chetan Pungaliya, co-founder and SVP of Engineering, and Tracy Sun as the co-founder and SVP of seller experience, Poshmark is a fun and simple platform for fashion enthusiasts to sell and buy fashion inventory. And not only that! Poshmark brings together a vibrant community every single day, sharing and expressing the mutual love for fashion and shopping. It is one of the best platforms for people to feel free to show off their personal styles and discover new fashion styles.

Headquartered in California, Poshmark offers employment to over 500 people, all tirelessly working toward making Poshmark the go-to app for every fashion enthusiast. Before making it big in the world of virtual catwalks and shopping sprees, Poshmark had faced a lot of fierce competition coming from the big players in the industry.

Brands like Etsy, ThredUp, eBay, and Amazon, among many others, sure made it difficult for Poshmark to make a name for itself. However, determination and goals kept Poshmark on the right track.

What’s more, Poshmark offers shoppers personalized outfit suggestions and recommendations, easing the process of making a choice. Every Poshmark fashion item gets shipped with the Poshmark label as a personal touch to the item. Poshmark is one of the leading online fashion platforms with a core value: “Lead with love and money follows”.