Thomas Schwartz-Dreyfus: What is it about IE?
French-born, “love the brands” founder and CEO, Thomas Schwartz-Dreyfus, talks to “The Stork” about his IE-only recruitment policy, and shares his experience as a self-funded entrepreneur with his young venture. His company now includes 1.5 million products, is present in 4 countries, works with 110 brands and is seeking its first round of funding to enable expansion.
Q: When did you come up with the idea for “love the brands”, and when did you actually go for it?
I was working on Amazon’s fashion division, with a focus on flash sales, and I basically realized that brands have issues growing their own e-commerce sites. So, the idea behind “love the brands” is to help them sell directly to their customers, granting wider margins and valuable data for acquiring and retaining more buyers. The beta was running from September 2017 up until March of this year, giving us six months to try it out.
Q: What would say is the main vision of the company in simple terms?
It is really about helping fashion brands grow their online stores. Today is about providing them traffic. So, basically just like a search engine, we agglomerate their shops into one single website where you can have a multi-brand selection of different price-ranges, segments and styles. Additionally, we provide services such as data for the brands to find areas of optimization for their merchandising, their online presences and their marketing. We focus on brands as the heart and soul of fashion, since online customers are more and more attracted to bigger online platforms rather than the official sites of brands.
Q: When and why did you arrive to Spain?
I came here to Spain with Amazon. I used to work for them in Luxembourg for a couple of years, and came here with Amazon seeking a better lifestyle.
Q: Since you are not an alumni, how did you hear about IE in the first place ?
I think it was first through one of the persons that I hired for Amazon. He had done an MBA at IE, and that guy was incredible. Smart and able to manage both the analytical and the commercial part, which is something very unique. Because of this, I became interested in IE. Then, I visited the incubator, Area 31, and was also very impressed by the people. More recently, undergraduates have replied to my Facebook recruitment posts. They all had such great stories and backgrounds, that I ended up hiring two interns instead of one this summer.
Q: What is the profile you are looking for?
For me it is very much about knowing how to deal with the commercial side by understanding the customer and selling well, while coping with the fast-growth of the company.
Q: What do you think IE has that other universities don’t?
First of all, students are perfectly fluent in English. Most even speak better than I do (laughs). Also, they have experience; and they are pushed to have experience from a really young age: either volunteering, startups or jobs at established brands. This is very rare and I have never seen it in other Spanish universities, at least at this age range.
Q: Are you still currently hiring?
I am full for this round of interns, until March, but hopefully with some investment I will be able to grow the team.
Q: Will you continue to focus on IE for recruitment?
Yeah, definitely. I would also like to see what they have to offer in the Masters program. I have met some very high-quality people, so I am willing to rely on IE for growth. I would love to share my digital knowledge as a teacher at IE, if they are looking for somebody. I think with 11 years of experience in digital marketing between Japan and Europe, that could be interesting (laughs).
If you would like to know more about “love the brands” drop by their site.
You can support his start-up by following it on social media or even write reviews about your favorite brands on the site!
If you have any queries for Thomas, you can reach him here.
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