Morgan Hermand

When French entrepreneur Morgan Hermand-Waiche created women’s intimates retailer Adore Me, he brought his family business into the Internet age. With roots in the French garment industry, Hermand-Waiche was intimately familiar with the frustration his friends and family expressed with the lingerie options available in the United States. After completing his MSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from MINES Paris Tech in 2005 and working a brief stint as a Junior Associate at McKinsey & Company, Hermand-Waiche began his MBA in Entrepreneurship and Finance at Harvard Business School. In 2010, while finishing up his time at Harvard, he raised a seed round, aided in large part by investments from his Harvard professors. Partnering with serial internet entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda, he founded Adore Me out of the Harvard Business School offices.

Averaging a 40% growth in revenue month-to-month in its first fifteen months and completing its 100,000th transaction shortly before its one year anniversary, Adore Me established a rapid growth trajectory from the start. In 2012, with 50,000 members already signed on to its personalized lingerie club, the company raised $2.5 million in a second round of funding. A year later, in July 2013, they raised another $8.5 million in Series B funding, led by notoriously tough UpFront Ventures. In 2014, Adore Me made the Inc 500 list of the fastest-growing companies in America, ranking as the 49th fastest-growing company in the nation, 2nd fastest-growing company in retail and 3rd fastest-growing company in New York City.