Transcript | PULSE Episode 07
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R. Adam Smith:
Today we are joined by Sandra Campos, the CEO of Project Verte and several other companies, and a good friend of mine. Sandra, welcome to the Wisdom Board PULSE Podcast.
Sandra Campos:
Hi, Adam. Thank you. Thanks for having me and thanks for continuing to always be such a great leader and inspiring us to do more and more and more because you seem to be able to have about 28 hours in your day.
R. Adam Smith:
Thank you. Well, that's some meditation and red wine and good diet and amazing wife is a really nice solution.
Sandra Campos:
Good to know.
R. Adam Smith:
Yeah. So let's take you back in time to let's say some good polo jeans back in the nineties. Tell us a bit about yourself and sort of part of your career path.
Sandra Campos:
Well, first of all, it'll go back, back because as I think through why I am where I am and what has kind of led me here, it really started out as in my youth because I grew up in Texas. First-generation Mexican American, my family, my father had a tortilla factory and the rest of, well, not the rest, but several members of his family also had tortilla factory. So I worked in a tortilla factory from middle school until high school where, when they needed to get product out because they had deadlines to hit, they were selling grocery stores and restaurants, and they also had a retail shop in the front of the tortilla [rea 00:01:29]. We were there, we were there evenings after school, weekends, et cetera.
Sandra Campos:
And I used to work on different assembly lines. I worked in the warehouse. So now that I look at it, I'm like, "Oh wow. Logistics was actually always part of my world." I really kind of always had an affinity towards manufacturing, production, logistics, and obviously retail. So fast forward, I had an interest in fashion and I left Texas to move to New York to be in the fashion industry. And because I knew I wanted to be a CEO, and I wanted to be a president or CEO of companies. The opportunities that existed and the presidents at the time were all coming out of wholesale sales. So I went into that direction while I started out in buying and had opportunities that were giving me more exposure to different aspects. This was when we had a lot more retailers than exist today. I did end up going into the wholesale and sales organizations and leading sales organizations, which led me to two leading businesses overall. And I've been doing that for quite some time.
Sandra Campos:
I've had both corporate experience as well as entrepreneurial experiences as you know, and my corporate experience has been with amazing brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, like Oscar De La Renta, like Donna Karan DKNY and others. And so I've been really lucky and fortunate to be able to have great experience, great exposure and great leaders that I've worked under and learned from. And also from my entrepreneurial stance, well, the big one that I had with a business partner, Tony Melillo, he and I created a celebrity brand management company. And we went to CAA, it was 2009. We went to CAA with an idea for a business model that was around celebrities and getting them into retail. There have been many at the time and they say, "Great, who do you want?" And we said, "We want Selena Gomez." And she was 15 at the time. So they were like, "Okay, what do you want to do with her?" And we ended up creating-
R. Adam Smith:
I think you were early. You were early then.
Sandra Campos:
We were early, but we created an amazing six-year property that ended up having 14 different licensees.
R. Adam Smith:
It's good I remember that. [crosstalk 00:03:41] Absolutely.
Sandra Campos:
And it was exclusive within Kmart and the States. And then, so during that line because, remember back then, and it feels like forever ago, but at the same time, it wasn't. There was no Instagram, there was only Facebook.
R. Adam Smith:
Yeah, before the DDC engine was so powerful.
Sandra Campos:
Exactly. So there were a lot of brick and mortar retailers, department stores, and e-commerce was really just starting. So that's kind of what started my own fire and my own interest in digital and digital acceleration and transformation, and understanding more about authenticity of messaging and content and consumer and audience. And I was able to really learn a lot of that with Selena and under that. So during that six-year time period, I started getting focused on that. And then from there went into Global Brands Group, which I had responsibility for six of those women's brands, which was basically half a billion dollars of revenue and created kind of a center of excellence for e-commerce where we had everything from the photography all the way to digital marketing within the organization, so that we could really centralize everything and accelerate how we were platforming the e-commerce business for all the brands that we had. And then did the same thing when I went to be the CEO of DVF, Diane von Furstenberg, which was really about baking a-
R. Adam Smith:
Now, how did that happen because DVF like many fashioned singular brands have, can be quite cyclical and traditionally also very wholesale driven. And I noted that you and Diane and Barry and your other partners, you did go through trust and transformation in some of these brands over time. So talk a bit about the relationship with the owners, the founders, the boards. What's it like to go through those transformations and the cycles, particularly of course, in a higher beta industry like fashion?
Sandra Campos:
Well, you're 100% right. There is a cycle and every brand has its time. Right? And the brands that, we're just going back to GBG for a second, the brands that I had were Juicy couture, BB, BCBG, et cetera. And those were brands that were really popular late nineties, early 2000 era. And they were under founder-led businesses at the end, either went through bankruptcy or were acquired. And we had brand management companies that we were working with as the licensee, but day-to-day operator of those brands and businesses and the goal was to bring them back to relevance. And how do you do that? Well, there's a lot of different things that go along with that, but it's really starts with the branding and the messaging and the community building and the product, obviously, which product is key when you're in fashion.
Sandra Campos:
And so the focus was really all about that and bringing those to create a more powerful dynamic community that really embraced that product. One of those creative directors who was actually my creative director for BB, his name is Nathan Jenden. He was Diane's creative director during the 2000 to 2010 time period in which her business skyrocketed because she was, at the time, one of the first contemporary businesses and they were doing so much print and it was sexy and everything Diane is and stands for. And so he was going back to DVF and said, "You need to come meet her." So he made the introduction to Diane and what was powerful for me in making that decision going to DVF was because I had had obviously years and decades of experience with brands, but I wanted to have a brand that had a purpose and something that was much deeper than just being a name on a label.
Sandra Campos:
And with DVF, it was that it was about empowering women and sharing inspiring competence. And there was the ability to take a very wholesale traditional business and bring them more to the digital forefront because I knew that we needed to go there. We need to get there. And we had the entrepreneurial backing. Diana's very motivated and very modern in her thinking and was absolutely always about like, "We've got to become more DDC, we need to be more focused on how we get to the consumer online because everybody's shopping online," and it's something that she inherently wanted. And so we were able to really go quickly, make some things happen. And we had to do a lot of transformation and that in transforming those businesses to become more e-comm oriented, it starts with photography. And it goes all the way down to strategy on digital marketing and acquisition. And-
R. Adam Smith:
And speaking about her as well as an icon, you've worked with her and for her for several years. I know, I remember that she began as a photographer's agent, of course, on the image side of fashion, being critical and look where she is now. And she said, one of her advice to others, I think in article was that she believes that you have to be the first one to come and the last to leave. And she's very driven like you are as well. I think in your own interview, I think last year with CNBC, you said that you did always envision having big success in your life. You have also, I think you come from a large family, right? Five or six children. So talk a bit about that upbringing of being part of a big family and how do you connect that large family nurturing network to the type of environments that you're building or a part of in the corporate world?
Sandra Campos:
Wow, that's a big one. I mean, first of all, I don't know that I appreciated being a part of a big family when I was growing up at it. I was the second one. I was driving. I grew up in Texas. So mind you, it was a different time, but I was driving my siblings around, the younger ones when I was 13 years old.
R. Adam Smith:
I started driving when I was 11, actually. It's fun.
Sandra Campos:
There you go. So my parents were both entrepreneurs and they were building a business and they had all these kids running around. So we had to do what we needed to do to take care of ourselves. I would say overall, one of the things that I feel is really important about the Latino community, Hispanic community is the fact that it is community. It's all about family and it's all about the extended family and your community. And I think that that really applies to how you manage yourself in business, but also certainly what we think about today as it relates to brands and the purpose aspect and the mission driven brands and how you build those communities. And you really, you take that message and you spread it out and you bring people that are like-minded together. And I think that's really something that I can fully connect with because of my upbringing. And there's nobody that has better parties. Well, maybe the Greeks have great parties but Latinos are great with parties.
R. Adam Smith:
Yeah. And did you go blond when you were in Texas or did you stay brunette?
Sandra Campos:
No, I just had big permed hair in Texas and always make out.
R. Adam Smith:
That's in a different country. A different country. Yeah, I think I still have some Justin boots somewhere they're quite comfortable by now. So let's talk about omni-channel strategy and building brands, building scale, building the customer lifetime value, the customer kind of love to hear your thoughts on Verte and other businesses that you're building and part of in terms of the woman customer or the Latin customer. Just maybe share a bit about how you're approaching the client this days.
Sandra Campos:
Well, so fast forward through the pandemic, when everything started, we at DVF to make some changes, obviously make some real big decisions in terms of what the business model will be for the future. I left there last June and was asked to be on the board of a company called Project Verte. And they had approached me a couple of years ago while I was at DVF. They had built a marketplace and they wanted to create a marketplace that we were a part of. While I didn't think it was the right thing for us at the time, I really liked the founder kept in touch with her. And she's one of two founders. Jane Gol, is her name and kept in touch. And over time, as we were talking about the business and what she was doing, I was realizing there's this great opportunity to yet again, make some change.
Sandra Campos:
And they had a vision. She and her partner, Amir, had a vision several years ago, they're real estate developers. They saw the change coming from brick and mortar to digital. They wanted to be a part of it. They had a dream for micro fulfillment centers as well. So they created this business and started developing technology that was going to support ailing businesses and brands online. So while we've been for many years, talking about omni-channel, it's actually now unified commerce. So as we move forward, omni-channel is like, how do you take your brick and mortar stores and your online and create a seamless journey? Well, that was when we actually had brick and mortar stores. Now, we've got a lot more online marketplaces to be a part of. So you have so many different consumer touch points.
Sandra Campos:
We're calling it unified commerce. It's not a term that everyone's using yet. But what that is for us is really being able to connect seamlessly across your existing platform, whether it's the Shopify store, Demandware platform, whatever else you're on and across all the different marketplaces. Whether it's [northbound 00:13:04] , Whether it's Farfetch, new Lilly, Amazon, Walmart, et cetera, being able to have visibility at one time at one place for all of your sales and your inventory, and being able to make decisions via AI that tell you where to place your inventory, when you need to place it there. And to make sure that it's closest to the customer for speed and for accuracy.
R. Adam Smith:
That's amazing. I mean, back in 2010, we were all marveled around the Gilt platform and then moved into Rola, moved into NetApp forte, UK's Moda Operandi, of course. And now there's the whole other side of it with Shopify. For our listeners, how do you explain Project Verte relative to say Shopify, for example?
Sandra Campos:
So we are actually the backend. We supply solutions for supply chain and for retailers in the backend, we don't do anything with the front end. We will take your Shopify store and help you enhance that across demand channels. So that's one part of it. We also have built an operator built WMS, Warehouse Management System and a distributed order management system, so a DOMS, that all connect to our unified commerce platform and are really modern and have tremendous capabilities with AI as well. They're cloud-based, they're operator built. The back end of e-commerce hasn't been modernized as much as the frontend. If you look at the front end options, they're endless, right? There's so many different software companies out there and so many different tools for conversion and customer loyalty and X, Y, and Z, but there really aren't that many on the backend.
Sandra Campos:
So that's where we come in with really great solutions that will help enhance e-commerce capabilities on the supply chain side. We actually also a physical fulfillment center. We have two, we have one that's an urban Atlanta, and that's a smaller hub. And then we have a large 750,000 square foot center outside of Atlanta. And so in both of those, there are pilot, there are test case scenarios where we actually move out all of our technology. So every single brand that's there that's shipping out is utilizing our DOMS, our WMS, and our unified commerce platforms. We're able to enhance features. We're able to really work with our customer success team to ensure that we're kind of holding the hands while the customer's walking through demand channel listings and enhancing all of those capabilities.
R. Adam Smith:
I love that. On a personal note, tell us about your favorite tortilla type.
Sandra Campos:
It's always flour every day. And believe it or not, I still eat flour tortillas every day.
R. Adam Smith:
Yeah, they're really good.
Sandra Campos:
It's crazy. I have not been able to get away from them.
R. Adam Smith:
Yeah. And also, would you like to share with our listeners anything about your passion for nature and horses and the sugar bear farm up in upstate New York?
Sandra Campos:
Oh, thank you. Well, I bought a farm Upstate a couple of years ago before I ever thought that I would be here full time. It was a weekend farm and because I grew up in Texas and my grandfather had a ranch in Mexico, I was always around horses, donkeys, farm animals, et cetera. And so I knew I wanted one, but then when I came Upstate, then I started actually really learning about rescue horses and the kill pens and all the tragedy that goes around horses, whether they're abandoned, mistreated, or they're sent to slaughter for financial reasons. While they can't be slaughtered in the U.S, they do get shipped out to Canada or Mexico. And there's a lot bit, that's really heartbreaking actually. So what I have is I have sugar bear farm, which is a sanctuary for horses rescue horses that we take.
Sandra Campos:
And they come from all different places, whether they're Sheriff's cases, animal control cases, either I have horses here that were being mistreated in farms in Pennsylvania. I've got some that were on their way to slaughter that we kind of intercepted those on their way from Connecticut. And then we've got a couple that came, who just were abandoned and they're amazing creatures. They love really hard. They're really great. I personally love them obviously, but it's just one of the small impact that I hope I can make within that part. And trying to also raise some awareness around the fact that we need to be able to protect horses from this pipeline, this pipeline that's really only sending them to slaughter. And there's just a lot of people out there making money in that industry that somehow I hope to be able to stop at some point. That's the big goal.
R. Adam Smith:
I like that. I grew up with horses as well in Missouri on the farm and had my own horse, Western riding. So I appreciate that very much.
Sandra Campos:
Nice that you know that very, yeah, absolutely.
R. Adam Smith:
Lastly, a plug for you. Congratulations on being nominated as one of the top most influential Latinas [foreign language 00:18:01].
Sandra Campos:
Gracias, Adam.
R. Adam Smith:
So moving on to the end of the podcast, we want to thank you for joining today. Hope you had fun and of course, I wish you well and Project Verte. Anything, last words about the company where you're going and what we should be keeping an eye out for?
Sandra Campos:
Well, the only other thing I will say is that I'm also launching Fashion Launchpad, which came and similar to you when you started Wisdom Board last summer, I also had an idea to bring continuing education and create a platform for fashion and retail. So fashion Launchpad, we'll be launching in Q2 of this year. It is micro courses, video courses on demand taught by industry leaders that will range in across all disciplines and functions within fashion and retail. And it's going to be really exciting, very impactful, and will help democratize learning and education and knowledge, which will create more confidence in everyone.
R. Adam Smith:
Good. Well, Sandra it's been a pleasure to include you today as a guest in our podcast series, I've enjoyed learning more about you and your career experiences and interests and successes. Sandra, it was a really a treat to speak with you today. We look forward to staying in touch with you and watching your continued success.
Sandra Campos:
Thank you, Adam.