Founder-led since 2004 · Los Angeles
The work we choose. The brands we build.
CARO is a commercial advisory and operating firm working at the intersection of brands, commerce, capital and emerging technology. We help founders, brands and their partners build what comes next, without losing what makes them valuable.
The first conversation is a complimentary 20-minute introduction.
What CARO does
CARO brings years of direct operating experience, strategic judgment and trusted relationships to the people and businesses shaping what comes next. Our work spans brand development, commercial operations, market expansion, strategic partnerships and emerging opportunities.
We advise, architect, connect, build and operate, and we know where those disciplines meet. That meeting point is usually where a business is won or lost: the moment an idea, a product or a brand has to become a business that holds.
Who we work with
Experience includes
Grayson Kelly Studio, Lookbook FW26 · Photography Paley Fairman
Why CARO
Distribution is fragmented. Capital has to work harder. Technology is changing how products are found, represented and bought. Founders are asked to adopt new tools and channels while holding on to their identity, their margins, their customers and the equity they have spent years building.
CARO is a considered place to work through that: experience, independent judgment, trusted specialists and practical execution, so a business can move forward without losing sight of what it is.
How we create value
We make sure the business underneath can carry the ambition before the money goes out the door. Our role might be advisory leadership, direct execution, assembling the right specialists or building the partnership that opens a market. Most clients need more than one of these over time.
For a brand, product or business taking shape.
Brand architecture, positioning, product and go-to-market: the commercial foundations everything else depends on. It starts with finding the real customer and the space a brand can genuinely own.
For a business ready to widen its reach.
Wholesale and direct-to-consumer, market expansion, partnerships, distribution and the commercial operations that keep growth profitable, sequenced at a pace the business can sustain.
For what is changing around you.
Emerging technology, connected commerce and digital visibility, evaluated with discipline and tested through carefully selected pilots. For technology companies, the same work from the other side: commercialization, the right brands and a credible path to market.
CARO puts the architecture in place first,
so the agency, the rebrand and the campaign have something to build on.
“You don’t have to become a technology company. But you do need to make sure technology understands your brand before it starts speaking for it.”
Pilots and programs
CARO gives brands access to carefully selected technologies, pilots and programs, chosen with the same judgment we bring to our own work. Tell us what is getting in the way, and we will show you what may be relevant. It takes a minute.
Fade Out Loud by Honest Thread, Lookbook FW26. Produced and creative-directed by CARO. Photography Studio + Commerce · Styling Eleanore Guthrie · Hair & makeup Dariia Balaban · Models Kenzie (IMG), Lily (Wilhelmina)
What is getting in the way right now?
Choose any that apply.
Where is the business today?
Annual revenue, approximately. Optional.
Choose at least one option above to see what may be relevant.
How pilots work. Pilots are small, time-bound and run with selected technology partners, so a brand can test something new before committing significant time or budget. Where CARO is compensated by a partner, we tell you.
How we’re thinking. Threads of the Future is CARO’s editorial on commerce, craft and technology: what’s changing, and what it means for brands built on quality. Read Threads of the Future
The practice
CARO maintains relationships with experienced operators, buyers and retailers, investors, technology builders and professional networks. Depending on the challenge, that can open paths into commercial diagnostics, wholesale and retail distribution, brand visibility and discoverability, commerce infrastructure, creator intelligence, technology evaluation and strategic introductions.
We bring these in where they serve the business, and only then.
Founder & CEO
Brand architect and operator. Twenty-five years building at the intersection of commerce, systems and human behavior, and personally involved in every engagement.
Operations · Business development · Execution
A vetted bench of fractional operators, creative directors and business development partners, embedded as each engagement requires.
TheBoard · Economy3 · Industry partners
Senior operators, capital partners and commerce-infrastructure builders, drawn on when a business challenge needs more than one point of view.
Our network supports our judgment. It does not replace it.
Caroline Rothwell Gerstein · Founder & CEO
CARO is led by Caroline Rothwell Gerstein, founder, brand architect and operator. For more than twenty-five years she has worked inside the businesses she advises: the brand and the product, and the channels, partners and systems that carry them to market.
Her work spans fashion houses and founder-led labels, retail and wholesale, and the technology companies reshaping commerce, through the arrival of ecommerce, the 2008 downturn, the rise of creators and now AI. Each shift has been absorbed into how CARO works.
Across more than 300 brands, the Beverly Center and The GRAMMYs, every founder and every set of conditions has been different. The question has stayed the same: what is this brand actually built on, and will it hold?
She works inside the technology as well as the brands, as co-founder of Economy3 and ARI Technologies, on DigitBridge’s Board of Advisors and as an advisor to GDFT, and continues to mentor the next generation of operators.
“We’ve confused speed with progress. The founders I work with aren’t challenged because they’re moving too slow. They’re challenged because they never stopped long enough to build anything solid underneath the motion.”
Caroline Rothwell Gerstein
Selected work
Two strands have run through the work from the start: building brands and the commerce around them, and working inside the technology that changes how they are found and sold. A third runs alongside both: the operators, buyers, founders and investors who make up the industry itself. CARO is where they meet.
Inside a company working on mergers and acquisitions of first-to-market ecommerce businesses, as online retail was first taking shape. The beginning of a long view of how technology changes the way things are bought and sold.
Corporate Communications Director · Solutions AmericaHelped build Von Dutch into a global brand, and brought in the ecommerce team that took it to its first $1M month online: an early proof that digital commerce could be a brand’s strategy rather than a side channel.
“One of the smartest marketing executives I’ve ever worked with.” Niels JuulMost brands were still deciding whether the internet was a real channel. CARO was founded inside that uncertainty. The name comes from the Latin for beloved, and the work has been chosen, again and again, ever since.
CARO Consulting · Est. 2004 · Los AngelesWith Blake Mycoskie from the earliest days: identifying the market, shaping the story around the one-for-one model and refining the product for fashion credibility.
“Invaluable help in the company’s early days.” Blake Mycoskie, Founder, TOMSA bicoastal practice spanning go-to-market strategy, PR, marketing, ecommerce, creative direction and events, built and sustained through the 2008 downturn.
“Quite simply, one of the best around.” Evan Greene, Former CMO, The GRAMMYsStrategic advisory at the ownership level on one of the most complex retail repositioning projects in the country: architectural thinking at the level where investment decisions are made.
Strategic Consultant · Taubman · Beverly CenterBuilding a creator commerce platform from the inside, working directly with the development and engineering teams. The other side of the table: how product, data and creators combine to move what brands make.
Co-Founder & CMO · ARI TechnologiesOutland Denim’s entry into U.S. retail. PTCL from concept to Nordstrom.
U.S. Entry, Outland Denim · PTCL to NordstromA founding member of TheBoard, the vetted collective of senior operators for fractional and advisory work: a working network of the people running and rebuilding the industry.
Founding Member · TheBoardCo-founded Economy3 with Scott Frankum: proof-based commerce infrastructure that turns supply-chain traceability into brand signals AI systems can discover and trust.
Co-Founder · Economy3Working with manufacturing partners as they build brands of their own, from positioning and product through to go-to-market.
Factory-direct portfolio · 2023–presentA seat on DigitBridge’s Board of Advisors, shaping commercialization and pilot programs that bring new commerce capability to brands. Advisor to GDFT, which turns personal style into a searchable record. An early operator at Queen One, on go-to-market as it launched its CRM.
Board of Advisors, DigitBridge · Advisor, GDFT · Early Operator, Queen OneFractional President of Grayson Kelly Studio. Brand architecture for Fade Out Loud / Honest Thread through its wholesale launch with Nordstrom. And, with technology partners, diagnostics and carefully selected pilots around product trust, visibility, protection and new paths to commerce, including a 90-day pilot for brands built on quality, craft and provenance.
Fractional President, Grayson Kelly Studio · Brand Architect, Fade Out Loud / Honest Thread · Diagnostics & pilotsIn their words
In less than a year, we expanded into US retail after Caroline aligned our brand narrative and campaign, garnering 500M impressions.
Caroline is by far the best at articulating the vision and making it land with the people who matter.
She doesn’t just build beautiful brands; she builds brands that perform. Even during our most stressful deadlines, Caroline remained the calm, solution-focused presence we all relied on.
Caroline brings super-vision, creative thinking, and relationship-driven leadership to every project. A pleasure to work with.
Working together
Every relationship begins with understanding the business, the opportunity and what it will take to move forward. From there, we shape the right engagement around the work. CARO takes on a small number of engagements at a time.
A complimentary, exploratory 20-minute conversation. We listen, ask questions and tell you honestly whether we think CARO can help.
One focused working session on the problem you can’t solve alone. Send your materials ahead and leave with a short written brief: the real issue, the gap and prioritized next steps.
Regular strategic sessions, access between calls and a standing partner who is accountable to the outcome, not just available for calls.
CARO in the seat as Fractional President or interim commercial lead: in the decisions and accountable for what grows. For the right businesses, structured with a stake in the outcome.
Brand architecture, market entry, wholesale and distribution, technology commercialization and pilots, each scoped to the business and its stage.
Questions
Founders, designers and creative entrepreneurs; luxury, fashion, beauty, lifestyle and consumer brands; retailers and distribution partners; investors and capital partners; and technology companies bringing new capabilities to the brand economy. What they share is something real to build and a moment where the next decision matters.
With a conversation. The 20-minute introduction is complimentary and exploratory. We want to understand what you’re working through and whether CARO is the right fit. It isn’t a diagnostic or a consulting session; if there is work to do together, we’ll propose how to shape it.
The founders who find CARO have usually worked with good people. The strategy was sound and the partners were credible, but something still didn’t hold. They need someone who can see the whole board, not just their piece of it.
Agencies execute what they are asked to. Strategy firms deliver decks. CARO has spent 25 years operating inside businesses, and stays close enough to the work to see that the plan holds.
Yes. Technology companies engage CARO to shape commercialization strategy, identify the right brands and build pilot programs. Investors and capital partners bring us in for operating perspective, strategic introductions or defined commercial initiatives.
No, and we don’t pretend to. Some work we lead and deliver directly. For the rest, we assemble experienced specialists and partners around the challenge and stay accountable for how it comes together.
Discretion is part of how we work, and not every engagement we take on is published. If a conversation calls for a confidentiality agreement, we’re comfortable starting there.
Start a conversation
Whether you’re navigating a commercial challenge, considering a new market, evaluating technology or exploring a partnership, every relationship begins with a conversation. We take the time to understand the business, the opportunity and what it may take to move forward.
Complimentary and exploratory. Choose a time that suits you.
Or send a note
We read every note personally.
Things of quality have no fear of time.
