OAKLAND, CA: Photo-editing app and social platform VSCO has hired Shavone Charles as director of consumer communications, a newly created role.
Charles is set to start at VSCO next month, reporting to Julie Inouye, VP of communications. Inouye joined VSCO in June as its first communications hire, charged with building the company’s comms team.
Charles will lead all consumer and product communications at VSCO, said Inouye. Charles is Inouye’s second comms hire, following director of corporate communications Netta Conyers-Haynes, who joined in November. Conyers-Haynes was previously head of communications at Google Maps.
In March, Charles exited the role of Instagram’s head of global music and youth culture communications. She has founded Magic in Her Melanin, a creative collective and in-house agency that bridges the gap between creatives of color and the technology industry. Charles has also served as Twitter’s head of global music and culture communications.
Charles was not immediately available for comment.
VSCO is a photo-editing and social media app that also functions as a "community platform" for creatives, Inouye said. Its primary revenue driver is a subscription service, which surpassed 2 million subscribers late last year and is expected to double that this year, she added. Inouye explained in November that 75% of its community members are under age 25, as are 55% of its subscribers.
In July, Forbes called VSCO a potential $1 billion startup, estimating it is worth $500 million based on the $90 million it raised from Accel, Glynn Capital and others.
The app’s popularity has been driven in part by the "VSCO Girl" subculture, defined by Dictionary.com as young women who post trendy pictures, edited on VSCO, of themselves wearing scrunchies and Birkenstock sandals and drinking out of Hydro Flask bottles.
