Parade Founder Launches AI Creator Platform
Cami Tellez, founder of the apparel brand Parade, has launched Devotion, an AI-driven creator marketing platform, and raised $4 million. The new venture aims to help creators and brands engineer viral campaigns using AI for audience targeting and optimization, signaling strong founder interest in the creator economy tool space.
Cami Tellez, daughter of Colombian immigrants, dropped out of Columbia University at 21 to launch Parade in 2019 with co-founder Jack DeFuria. She had identified a gap in the market for underwear that was inclusive, sustainable, and expressive, in contrast to the one-dimensional narrative of brands like Victoria's Secret. Tellez had been interning at VC firms since high school, giving her early exposure to the startup world. Parade's growth was explosive, leveraging a community-first approach with over 25,000 brand ambassadors and micro-influencers to drive its message. In its first year, the company generated nearly $10 million in revenue, selling over 700,000 pairs of underwear. The brand raised over $40 million from notable investors including Maveron, Lerer Hippeau, and the founders of Warby Parker and Casper. Despite its early success and a valuation that reached $200 million, Parade faced challenges. The company was acquired by lingerie manufacturer Ariela & Associates in August 2023 for an amount described by one former employee as "peanuts." Reports surfaced of a "cutthroat" startup culture and high burnout among employees as the company pushed for rapid growth. Parade officially shut down operations in October 2025. Now, Tellez is leveraging her experience in creator-led growth for her new venture, Devotion. The platform is designed to solve the operational complexities of managing large-scale influencer relationships, a bottleneck she experienced firsthand while scaling Parade. This move signals a shift from building a direct-to-consumer brand to creating the infrastructure for the broader creator economy.
