# Eric Lam

> Eric Lam is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and product professional who co-founded Aspire, originally Revfluence and later AspireIQ, and previously served as CEO and president. His career spans finance, product leadership at Pocket Gems and product work at YouTube. His public writing focuses on creator communities, marketing creative, customer retention and the operating demands of software businesses.

- **Role:** Product at YouTube
- **Organizations:** Aspire, YouTube, Pocket Gems, Vostu, The Carlyle Group, Berkshire Capital
- **Education:** Undergraduate degree in computer science, Brown University, MBA, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Co-founded the business now known as Aspire with Anand Kishore, Shuhan Bao and Suhaas Prasad., Led a Pocket Gems live-operations organization of more than 60 people that generated the vast majority of the company’s more than $80 million in 2013 revenue., Served as CEO when AspireIQ announced its Leader designation in the 2018 Forrester New Wave assessment of influencer marketing solutions.

## Career timeline

- **2007-2009** — Venture/private equity associate at The Carlyle Group.
- **2010** — Worked in product/general management at Vostu, launching a product in Brazil.
- **2011-2014** — Worked at Pocket Gems, eventually leading live product operations.
- **2013** — Co-founded Revfluence, the company later named AspireIQ and Aspire; the company’s founding narrative and Lam’s 2020 interview both give 2013.
- **2016** — By early 2016, Revfluence had moved from a marketplace toward enterprise software, as Lam described in his May 2017 essay.
- **2017** — Published essays about influencer marketplaces, software retention and Stitch Fix’s marketing strategy.
- **2018** — Explained the Revfluence-to-AspireIQ rebrand as CEO and co-founder.
- **2020** — Identified as co-founder and president in the November Up Next in Commerce interview.
- **2021** — Appeared on eCommerce Fastlane as co-founder and president.
- **—** — Subsequent public professional profiles list product work at YouTube; an exact transition date was not verified.

## Achievements

- Co-founded the business now known as Aspire with Anand Kishore, Shuhan Bao and Suhaas Prasad.
- Led a Pocket Gems live-operations organization of more than 60 people that generated the vast majority of the company’s more than $80 million in 2013 revenue.
- Served as CEO when AspireIQ announced its Leader designation in the 2018 Forrester New Wave assessment of influencer marketing solutions.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Research check: his public LinkedIn profile lists YouTube as his employer; public profile aggregators describe his work as product at YouTube. This date records verification, not a job start date.
- **2021-05** — Publicly shared his eCommerce Fastlane conversation with Steve Hutt about getting started with influencer marketing.
- **2020-11** — Appeared on Up Next in Commerce to discuss creator relationships, workflow and measuring influencer programs.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericllam/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ericllam

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eric-lam
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26