You got Gift Guide Fatigue, ShopMy closed a $77.5mm Series B.
How many of your purchases in 2025 will be through affiliate links?
Good morning everyone. Last night, I received the below text from someone at The Drift’s party. And with that, some good news: crewnecks are restocked. Someone else texted me from the party, “Lowkey drift parties might be the best scene for single straight guys in nyc.” Good job, Drift team.
Today’s letter includes:
An all-girls Upper East Side school is using $64,470 tuition payments to invest in churning out star athletes
The New York Times wants to launch more newsletters
Why I think rhode is expanding their product categories
📱 Reminder that the Feed Me Tip Hotline is open for (anonymous) texts and voicemails: (646) 494-3916 📱
You got gift guide fatigue, ShopMy closed a $77mm Series B.
At the end of 2024, it was difficult to spend more than a few minutes on my computer without running into gift guide discourse: Enough With the Gift Guides (NYT); Peak Gift Guide (Puck); The rise of the gift-guide industrial complex (
); Here's What Happens When You Buy from a Gift Guide ().Fast forward to this morning, when I got a nice email from the team at ShopMy — a popular affiliate platform that connects brands with creators and publishers — about a big, fat $77.5mm Series B. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners (Shopify, LinkedIn, Twitch) and Bain Capital Ventures (of bad merch fame), but it was cool to also see active creators like Campbell and Jett Puckett, and interior designer Shea McGee as investors.
I don’t know when this deal was put together or how quickly it closed, but I have a strong feeling that the platform’s holiday success made it an exciting opportunity to look at. ShopMy doesn’t only offer affiliate technology (although this is a big part of the business) — the automated gifting feature, Lookbooks, has been used to send product over 190,000 times, reducing the time and money spent on gifting initiatives (I’m sorry if this was ever your job). According to WSJ, the raise values ShopMy at $410 million, up from an $80 million valuation in its most recent round in March 2024, according to people familiar with the matter.
Yesterday, I moderated a panel about MAHA’s influence on CPG and restaurant businesses, and one person asked what we thought actually moved the needle on getting someone to purchase a new product. My answer was showing results — whether that’s an influencer making a latte with whole milk and saying she ditched oat milk because it made her feel sick, or showing their arms as a result as buying Bala Bangles. ShopMy has made it easier to go from viewing influencer’s testimonial → add-to-cart → try out that product for yourself.
I just ordered this Chanel gua sha. Happy Friday to me.
Have you ever used clear conditioner? Crown Affair sent me their new products and when I tried them out, I gasped in the shower. I’d never seen clear conditioner.
also had some thoughts on the brand this week:Women’s sports have been getting more views on TV and attention from fashion and beauty brands for a few years. Now, New York’s all-girls Nightingale prep school has invested $17.2mm into buildings for new athletic facilities. The proposed facility includes an indoor turf field, a play yard, competition and practice gyms and studio space for fitness and weight training activities. The school has a $64,470/year tuition, and is said to be the inspiration behind Gossip Girl.