How Perlo scaled to 95+ curated designers with a single operator using PuppetVendors.

What does Perlo do?

Perlo is a curated marketplace for independent contemporary design, focused on furniture, ceramics, lighting, and collectible objects. Launched in 2024, the platform connects carefully selected emerging designers with a global audience of design-conscious buyers. Founder Fausto Magro runs Perlo with a strong editorial approach, prioritizing quality, scarcity, and long-term brand building over volume.

The problem

Fausto started Perlo directly on PuppetVendors rather than migrating from another system, but the operational challenge was clear from day one: build a multi-vendor marketplace as a solo founder without creating bottlenecks that would cap growth. Manual workflows and spreadsheet-based operations were off the table. Without automation for vendor onboarding, commission tracking, and payouts, the model simply wouldn't scale past a handful of creators.

On top of that, Perlo's vendors are independent designers and artisans, not technical operators. Any tooling that required a steep learning curve on the vendor side would break the model before it started.

Why PuppetVendors?

Fausto evaluated several multi-vendor apps on Shopify, including Webkul Multi Vendor Marketplace. Webkul offered a broader feature set, but PuppetVendors won on the criteria that mattered most for Perlo: a clean, intuitive vendor dashboard that non-technical creators could actually use, native Shopify integration, automated commission tracking and payouts, and vendor transparency features that reduce support load.

Two other factors sealed the decision: an active product roadmap and responsive support. Over time, the team's product velocity and willingness to ship improvements based on user feedback reinforced the choice.

How they implemented it

Implementation was end-to-end as a solo founder, with a focus on building scalable systems from the start. Key milestones:

1. Month 1 - Platform setup (Shopify + PuppetVendors), commission structure design

2. Month 2 - Vendor onboarding workflow + first creator acquisition

3. Month 3 - Public launch with initial curated selection of 12 designers

4. Months 4-6 - Iteration on onboarding and expansion to 70+ creators

A deliberate constraint was maintaining a high level of curation while scaling, so vendor growth was intentionally capped at around 100 creators. The main challenge during setup was the learning curve of managing Shopify and a multi-vendor configuration simultaneously, along with the usual early-stage edge cases. Responsive support from the PuppetVendors team kept issues from becoming blockers.

Results

• Operational scalability without headcount - Scaled from 12 to 95+ curated designers managed by a single operator

• Zero payout errors since launch - Vendor payments are largely automated, with full reliability since day one

• ~10 minutes to onboard a new vetted vendor - Once the workflow was refined, onboarding became fast enough to support controlled, high-quality growth

• 3 months from idea to public launch with the first 12 creators actively selling

  
  

His advice to others

If you're building a multi-vendor marketplace with a lean team, design your operations for scalability from day one. Tools like PuppetVendors remove a significant amount of operational complexity early, which becomes a major advantage as you grow.