Chris Tinsley ’13 is growing a billion-dollar affiliate marketing platform - and helping Saint Anselm students along the way.
Community matters to Chris Tinsley ’13. It’s what attracted him to Saint Anselm in the fall of 2009, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Sean Tinsley ’11. “My dad espoused the values of a Catholic liberal arts education,” Tinsley says, “and growing up in a tight-knit family, I really liked the [sense of] community the college provides.”
Today, Tinsley, who graduated with a B.S. in finance, is building a different type of community—and providing unique experiential learning opportunities for Saint Anselm students—as he continues to grow the affiliate marketing platform, ShopMy. The company, which he cofounded, was launched in 2020, and connects major retail brands in the beauty and fashion industries with social media influencers who are playing an increasingly consequential role in consumer purchasing decisions, particularly among younger generations.
“Ninety-seven percent of Generation Z [born 1997-2012] cites social media as their primary source of shopping inspiration,” Tinsley says. According to Statista, a market research firm, the global affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow by 10 percent annually to more than $27 billion by 2027.
Those shifts in consumer trends and market projections inspired Tinsley— and his co-founders Harry Rein and Tiffany Lopinsky, whom he met while earning an M.B.A. at MIT—to create the ShopMy platform to make it easier for social media creators to collaborate with brands and monetize their product recommendations. “For companies, ShopMy has made it more efficient to build out their brand ambassador programs.” Tinsley says. “Affiliate marketing has been around for a long time, but we put a new spin on it, built specifically for social media.”
Under ShopMy’s revenue model, influencers earn commissions when followers purchase items via their specific ShopMy links, while the platform tracks sales data that each influencer generates, with ShopMy getting a cut of each sale. For Tinsley, the opportunity to work with influencers was a big attraction. “I admire the commitment and creativity it takes for creators to build their audience and a sustainable business,” Tinsley says.
And ShopMy’s model is working. Over the past five years, the platform has grown from 50 creators and no brand partners to more than 200,000 influencers and 800 subscribed brand partners, including retail giants like Nike and lululemon. During that time, ShopMy has attracted more than $77.5 million in venture capital and grown the company’s valuation from $80 million in March 2024 to more than $1 billion today.
Building up Saint Anselm Students
Tinsley’s business success does not surprise Luke Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of finance at Saint Anselm, who has worked as a consultant for both startups and large multinational companies. “I first met Chris his sophomore year and I could just tell he was motivated to be an entrepreneur,” Miller says. Since Tinsley’s graduation, Miller has served as a mentor to Tinsley, helping him strategize and problem-solve, connecting him to venture capital firms for funding to start and grow his venture, and investing in ShopMy directly. “Professor Miller has been an invaluable sounding board,” Tinsley says.
And Miller and Tinsley’s professional relationship has also created opportunities for current Saint Anselm students through the college’s Professional Development Initiative (PDI), a program launched in 2017 that provides supplemental payments up to $1,500 a semester for otherwise unpaid internships. The program has been funded through a five-year, $500,000 investment from the Flatley Foundation, established by former Saint Anselm trustee, Daniel T. Flatley P ’18.
Since 2020, more than 40 Saint Anselm students (typically five per semester) have participated in remote internships with ShopMy. In fact, because of funding provided by the PDI—a unique funding mechanism within higher education—ShopMy’s internship program nearly exclusively benefits Saint Anselm students. “Having the PDI providing [financial support] makes offering internships more palatable for our company,” Tinsley says.
Through ShopMy’s 12-week rotational internship program, students gain exposure to operations, sales, marketing, and client relations. “Interns might be helping a brand develop a campaign or help with data analytics from our customer relationship management [CRM] system for our sales team,” Tinsley says.
Julia McIntyre ’26, a communications major and graphic design minor from Stoneham, Mass., aspires to a career in marketing, and was drawn to her ShopMy internship to gain more understanding and experience with data analytics. As a creator success intern, she helped identify and research companies and influences that would be a good fit for ShopMy’s focus industries. “I was assigned to [certain] influencers, and my job was to update their personal ShopMy page and monitor their pages and posts, including linking to products they were endorsing,” McIntyre says. She credits her internship experience with supplementing her classroom learning. “I learned a lot of things I’m not necessarily taking classes for on campus,” McIntyre says, “and it’s been very insightful.”
That real-world experience has been one of the primary benefits of the PDI, Miller says, and created unique opportunities for students to approach companies that are of interest to them. Nearly 100 percent of the funds directly supports students and covers a wide range of expenses, including gas, professional clothing, and supplies. Miller estimates that nearly one-third of the 90 students placed in internships as PDI fellows in Spring 2025 generated their own opportunities. “PDI funding helps foster an entrepreneurial spirit among our students,” Miller says.
The Professional Development Initiative also requires supported students to attend networking events. That’s where Daniel Scolaro ’25, a business and finance major from Quincy, Mass., had an opportunity to meet Tinsley. Scolaro says the ability to network with Saint A’s alumni and draw inspiration from them was important. “It was really cool that Chris [given his success] went to Saint A’s and it was interesting to have the opportunity to intern with ShopMy,” Scolaro says. While Scolaro has accepted a position with Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Electric Boat, he has an interest in entrepreneurship as well. “Being able to work for yourself makes every dollar you earn that much more valuable,” Scolaro says.
Guided by Benedictine Values
Tinsley credits his time at Saint Anselm with fostering a leadership style that has guided how he leads his team, treats partners, and make decisions. “The Benedictine values of integrity, humility, and servant leadership have helped me build a well-rounded perspective and skill set,” Tinsley says. He continues to stay involved as a volunteer with Saint Anselm, including service on the Economics and Business Advisory Council, the Anselmian Council, Alumni Council, and Reunion volunteer, and guest speaking in Professor Miller’s business classes. “It’s a way for me to stay rooted in those values and pass them forward,” Tinsley says.
He and his business partners continue to move ShopMy forward too. The company plans to expand its product verticals to include hospitality, sports, fitness, and wellness. It also plans to expand its geographic presence with a new office in the United Kingdom. “There is ample appetite and demand for our business and approach,” says Tinsley.
Despite his entrepreneurial success, and the massive online community he’s helped to create, Tinsley points to a much smaller community as his greatest accomplishment. “My wife, Kate (Dowd) Tinsley ’13, has been my biggest supporter and source of confidence on this journey,” Tinsley says. “The life I’ve built with her and our three children - Edmond, Annie, and William - is what I’m most proud of.”