Cardi B and Offset performing together, Kendall Jenner lounging in a VIP area, and gaggles of influencers traveling around the world in swoon-worthy attire.
This is not the typical day-to-day fare for most chief financial officers, but it’s connected to Revolve Group Inc. (NYSE: RVLV) CFO Jesse Timmermans’ world.
The Huntington Beach resident, who earned the Rising Star Award during the Business Journal’s annual CFO of the Year Awards at Hotel Irvine on Jan. 30, is part of a new-age fashion house headquartered in Cerritos that’s helped define influencer marketing (see stories on other winners, pages 4, 6, 8, and 9).
He’s also helped to take public a multibrand online retailer with millennial and Gen Z loyalists that have allowed it to branch out into a VIP and event space called the Revolve Social Club on Melrose Avenue, luxury online boutique Forward by Elyse Walker, a festival running up against the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and flashy marketing such as the flagship Revolve Around the World (a trip for influencers well documented across social media platforms).
It’s a fast-paced world that requires Timmermans to be flexible.
“It’s a constant prioritization and re-prioritization, which is a great problem to have,” he said.
“It’s a challenge coming into the office every day and figuring out what’s important and what needs to be done right now. Who’s relying on you and who needs that support from you today, because it’s growing and it’s moving fast.”
2019 IPO
Revolve, with a market cap of $1.2 billion, went public last June in a major turning point for the 16-year-old business started by two friends from Cerritos, whose current 73,500-square-foot headquarters are about a half mile from Buena Park and the edge of Orange County. The company has nearly another 400,000 square feet of fulfillment space elsewhere in the city.
“The IPO was a huge milestone and I’m super proud of that, but it is just a milestone,” Timmermans said. “We’re very long-term minded here. This is the first chapter.”
“Jesse led the company seamlessly through the IPO process, while at the same time helping to deliver record revenues and profits. He’s a consummate team player and leader, with an elite skill set, and elevates the people around him,” Mike Karanikolas, Revolve’s co-founder and co-CEO, told the Business Journal.
The company, which counts some 45,000 apparel, footwear, accessories and beauty styles, expects revenue in the range of $598 million to $606 million for 2019.
The CFO oversees a team of about 50, which also includes legal, HR and accounting.
Timmermans made the move from Seattle to Orange County specifically for Revolve in 2017, crediting the company’s culture and people for that decision.
“You can learn a business and you can learn a company, but you can’t change a culture necessarily,” he said pointing to a “very authentic, low ego, high-impact” culture that permeates the company.
Seattle to OC
Timmermans, who grew up on a farm in Eastern Washington, initially wanted to be an architect, but a basic intro to accounting class at Central Washington University had his professor pulling him aside to say he had talent and should pursue the profession. Timmermans said he didn’t even know what having a career in accounting meant. That professor ended up mentoring him, which led to a job at KPMG in Alaska. He later transferred back to Seattle working at companies such as T-Mobile and Blue Nile.
Timmermans focused on building out the back office in his first six months on the job at Revolve in a way that would provide the backbone for whatever route the company decided to take, whether that was going public or remaining private.
Revolve marked the first time he helped take a company through the IPO process.
“It’s super stressful, very time consuming,” he said of the company’s initial push to go public—from July through October 2018.
“Unfortunately, the markets turned on us in October. The trade war started and the SEC closed [as a result of the government shut down] so we put it on the shelf for a few months.”
Work every day, including weekends, was the norm for six months.
“I think family support was critical,” Timmermans said of that time. “My wife and son were very supportive.”
“The CFO gets a lot of credit for the IPO, but it’s a huge team working on this thing,” he said. Having fun through the IPO process is a significant accomplishment. We genuinely had fun. I think we learned a lot. We bonded. We grew.”
Learning how to put to paper and communicate the company’s strengths to investors was a crucial lesson.
You take a lot for granted when you’re in the office every day, very focused,” Timmermans said. “But when you’re out there every day, forced to talk to investors, you learn how unique you are. We’re growing and profitable, which was and still is a unique combination that not a lot of companies are able to claim.”
Keeping Pace
Understanding the splashy world of events, fashion and celebrity the Revolve brand swims in is just as critical to better field spend requests or contracts from the broader team, the CFO pointed out.
That said, Timmermans tries to attend two to three of the company’s events each year to give him context, but does he plan on crashing a Revolve Around the World any time soon?
“It would probably ruin the vibe,” he said, “taking the finance guy with them.”
