Most founders who build a company to $2 billion in sales don’t go back to seed stage. Jessica Herrin did. On October 14, 2026, her new startup, Marklo, announced a $5 million seed round led by Forerunner, with Freestyle Capital and angel investors from Shopify and Klaviyo. It’s her third company. The first two were WeddingChannel and Stella & Dot.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Founder and CEO | Jessica Herrin |
| Company | Marklo, San Francisco |
| What it does | An AI agent that plans and drafts marketing for Shopify brands, for people to approve |
| Round | $5 million seed, announced October 14, 2026 |
| Investors | Forerunner (lead), Freestyle Capital, angels from Shopify and Klaviyo |
| Named early users | Away, Clare V., Monica + Andy, Maya Brenner, Latico Leathers |
| Earlier companies | WeddingChannel (co-founder), Stella & Dot (founder) |
Two companies before this one
Herrin’s first company started as homework. Entrepreneur reported in 2016 that she and Jenny Lefcourt developed an online wedding registry as a business school project, left their MBA program to pursue it, and built it into WeddingChannel, which partnered with Macy’s and Crate & Barrel and was sold to The Knot. Reports of the price differ, so we don’t repeat one.
After a middle-management job at Dell, she started Stella & Dot, a jewelry and accessories business sold through independent “stylists” who run their own small businesses. “This business was started in my living room, and I didn’t have a paycheck for six years,” she told Entrepreneur. By 2016 it had more than 60,000 stylists in six countries and more than $300 million in revenue, per that report. Marklo’s announcement says Stella & Dot Brands went on to sell more than $2 billion in products.
What Marklo does
Marklo is what its announcement calls “an agentic marketing platform” for brands on Shopify. It connects to the tools a brand already uses, including Shopify, Klaviyo, Attentive, Meta, Google, Canva, Figma and Slack, per Retail Tech Innovation Hub. From launches, promotions, email, SMS, paid media, social posts and revenue, it builds a day-by-day marketing calendar, then proposes campaigns each week, with its reasoning, for a marketer to approve.
Herrin’s pitch is about context. “Every tool in a brand’s stack is getting AI, but each one only sees its own corner of the business,” she said in the announcement. Allison Plaisance, senior director of retention marketing at Away, put the customer view the same way: “What was missing was one place that connected all of our marketing campaigns, inventory and sales data.”
The announcement offers one concrete result. Latico Leathers planned a full month of marketing in one day, work that had previously taken most of a week. It’s a single customer’s account, published by the company, so treat it as a claim rather than a benchmark. The company also says customer data stays private and isn’t used to train AI models.
Why Forerunner backed her
Forerunner’s founding partner, Kirsten Green, said Herrin “spent 20 years building breakout brands,” and that “consumer brands are some of the businesses that stand to benefit from this most.” A seed round for a founder with this record is a bet on the person as much as the product. Marklo hasn’t published revenue or customer counts, and it opened its public beta ahead of the 2026 holiday season, so it is early.
It’s a familiar move in this archive: a founder whose first big company is behind her coming back to build something smaller and newer. Eugenia Kuyda left the CEO job at Replika and started Wabi on a pre-seed round. Brynn Putnam sold Mirror and built a board game console. Herrin’s twist is that her new customers are the kind of company she spent two decades running: consumer brands trying to plan their next campaign with a small team.
Sources: Marklo’s funding announcement (October 14, 2026), Retail Tech Innovation Hub (October 2026), Entrepreneur (May 2016). Last checked October 28, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is Jessica Herrin's new company?
Marklo, an agentic marketing platform for brands that run on Shopify. It connects tools such as Shopify, Klaviyo, Meta and Google, builds a marketing calendar from a brand's own data, and proposes campaigns each week for marketers to review and approve, per its October 2026 announcement.
Who invested in Marklo?
Forerunner led the $5 million seed round, with Freestyle Capital participating, plus angel investors from Shopify and Klaviyo, per the company's announcement on October 14, 2026.
Is Jessica Herrin the founder of Stella & Dot?
Yes. She founded Stella & Dot, a jewelry and accessories company sold through independent stylists. Entrepreneur reported in 2016 that it had more than 60,000 stylists in six countries, and Marklo's 2026 announcement says Stella & Dot Brands sold more than $2 billion in products.
Did Jessica Herrin found WeddingChannel?
She co-founded it with Jenny Lefcourt. Entrepreneur reports it began as a wedding registry idea in business school, partnered with Macy's and Crate & Barrel, and was sold to The Knot.