Podcasts about shan lyn

Shan-Lyn Ma, the CEO and co-founder of Zola, joins Andy in this episode of The Wedding Biz to discuss her business and her career! Launched in 2013, Zola is the wedding company reinventing the wedding planning and registry experience by combining compassionate customer service along with modern technology. The company has been named one of the Wall Street Journal's top 25 tech companies to watch as well as one of Fast Company's most innovative companies! A first-generation immigrant two times over, Shan discusses her childhood and what her interests were as she was growing up and how she learned that she had to work really hard in order to accomplish her dreams. She touches upon former jobs prior to founding Zola and what she learned from them and also how Zola came to be and what about weddings attracted her. Having co-founded Zola with Nobu Nakaguchi, she also touches upon how she and Nobu divide responsibilities and who is in charge of what, the smart technology that Zola makes use of, what kinds of services that Zola offers, how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Zola, what is on the horizon for the company, and so much more! Andy had such a blast chatting with Shan-Lyn and hopes that you enjoy listening as well! If you can think of three good friends who might benefit from and enjoy this episode of the podcast, be sure to share it with them! Andy would also be appreciative if you were to leave a top review wherever you listen to the podcast! Have you heard about Stop and Smell the Roses with Preston Bailey on The Wedding Biz Network? Listen as Preston shares the secrets, tools, and technologies behind his extraordinary ability to create a theatrical environment out of any space. Also, don't forget about Sean Low's podcast The Business of Being Creative, where Sean discusses the power of being niched, pricing strategies, metrics of success, and so much more. You can find both shows on The Wedding Biz Network.   SUPPORTING THE WEDDING BIZ Become a patron and support Andy and the show! If you are so inspired, contribute!   Time Stamps [0:43] – Andy reveals that this episode's guest is Shan-Lyn Ma of Zola. [1:37] – We learn about some of Shan-Lyn's education and regional background. [4:15] – Shan shares that she had wanted to be an entrepreneur for most of her life. [5:51] – Shan touches upon some of her biggest lessons learned from past jobs. [8:01] – We discover how Zola came about. [10:56] – Shan-Lyn reflects on when she realized that Zola was going to be successful. [13:00] – Andy and Shan discuss entrepreneurs being able to tolerate taking risks. [15:01] – Shan explains how she divides responsibilities with her partner Nobu Nakaguchi. [18:47] – Shan discusses the smart technology that Zola implements. [21:33] – We learn about whether or not potential wedding vendors are vetted. [22:32] – Shan-Lyn makes a case for how Zola stands out from other wedding companies. [24:09] – Shan reflects on how and why Zola has grown so explosively since 2013. [26:17] – Shan discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Zola. [28:49] – We hear how the pandemic had some positive impacts on Zola. [30:33] – Shan talks about a new platform offered that offers home products. [33:13] – Learn about what wedding trends Shan-Lyn has been seeing in 2022. [34:51] – Shan-Lyn projects toward Zola's future and its goals. [36:30] – Shan offers some final thoughts. [37:37] – Find out where to find Shan-Lyn online.   Find Zola: Zola - WebsiteZola - Instagram PageZola - Facebook PageZola - Twitter PageZola - TikTok Page   Follow The Wedding Biz on Social: The Wedding Biz The Wedding Biz on Instagram: @theweddingbiz The Wedding Biz on Facebook: @theweddingbiz The Wedding Biz Network The Music Makers   Support The Wedding Biz by clicking here.   Title Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Kushner Entertainment.  

Growing up in Australia, Shan-Lyn Ma felt cut off from the excitement of the early 2000s tech boom in Silicon Valley. So she got there as soon as possible.After getting her MBA at Stanford, working at her dream company, Yahoo, and building her skills as a product developer, Shan-Lyn decided to optimize an industry she and  many of her friends took part in multiple weekends a year—weddings.In this week's episode we learn how Zola became a one-stop shop for wedding planning, honeymoon planning, and beyond. 

With the wedding industry dramatically impacted by the pandemic, co-founder and CEO of Zola, Shan-Lyn Ma decided to pivot. Instead of just wedding planning, Zola would expand to include livestreaming virtual weddings as well as an e-commerce marketplace for home goods. Shan-Lyn talks with Guy about her forecast for the wedding industry this year and how to get more girls interested in entrepreneurship. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times.

On today's episode, Shan-Lyn goes through how she started Zola, from the inspiration behind the idea to the implementation and fundraising for the business. "Now we're really focused not just continually improving and innovating in wedding registries, but also in how we can serve couples throughout their entire wedding planning journey." - Shan-Lyn Ma. Learn more about this episode of The Mentor Files with Monica Royer at www.monicaandandy.blog/53

On today's episode, Shan-Lyn goes through how she started Zola, from the inspiration behind the idea to the implementation and fundraising for the business. "Now we're really focused not just continually improving and innovating in wedding registries, but also in how we can serve couples throughout their entire wedding planning journey." - Shan-Lyn Ma. Learn more about this episode of The Mentor Files with Monica Royer at www.monicaandandy.blog/53

Shan-Lyn Ma is the co-founder and CEO of Zola, the fastest growing wedding registry and planning site in the U.S. Before Zola, Shan-Lyn was the chief product officer of chloe + isabel, and an executive at Gilt Groupe. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including Shan-Lyn's experience growing up in Australia, discovering the Internet at a young age, and eventually moving to the U.S. to go to Stanford and pursue her dreams as a technology entrepreneur. We also discuss the many lessons Shan-Lyn learned in product and strategy at Yahoo and Gilt Groupe, her recent activity as an angel investor and LP, and how she brings all of these experiences to bear in her day-to-day running Zola.

Our guest this week is Shan-Lyn Ma. She started her company Zola in 2013, after she realized that buying wedding gifts is fun for...pretty much nobody. Flash forward to now, and hundreds of thousands of people use Zola to register and shop for wedding gifts every year. On the couch, Shan-Lyn talks to us about building her team, not taking no for an answer, and convincing male investors to take Zola seriously.

Shan-Lyn Ma is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zola. Shan-Lyn started her career at Yahoo!, which was a company she had dreamed of working at all her life. In 2008 she moved onto Gilt, where she started as a product manager and eventually became Senior Director of Product. She also Founded and was the GM of Gilt Taste, the food & wine division. In 2012 Shan went to Chloe + Isabel, but quickly realized that it was time for her to start her own company.  Her company, Zola, launched in 2013 and quickly became the country’s fastest growing wedding registry. Today Zola carries 60,000 gifts from more than 600 different brands and it has been used by over 500,000 couples. On top of all this, Shan is an angel investor in about 15 companies including several female-founded companies. Today Shan is here to talk about her journey to becoming an entrepreneur, how to pitch to Venture Capitalists and the right way to transition your career.

Shan-Lyn Ma is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zola. Shan-Lyn started her career at Yahoo!, which was a company she had dreamed of working at all her life. In 2008 she moved onto Gilt, where she started as a product manager and eventually became Senior Director of Product. She also Founded and was the GM of Gilt Taste, the food & wine division. In 2012 Shan went to Chloe + Isabel, but quickly realized that it was time for her to start her own company.  Her company, Zola, launched in 2013 and quickly became the country's fastest growing wedding registry. Today Zola carries 60,000 gifts from more than 600 different brands and it has been used by over 500,000 couples. On top of all this, Shan is an angel investor in about 15 companies including several female-founded companies. Today Shan is here to talk about her journey to becoming an entrepreneur, how to pitch to Venture Capitalists and the right way to transition your career.

EP130 - Comcast Ventures Daniel Gulati  We caught up with Daniel Gulati (@DanielGulati) at ShopTalk 2018. Daniel is a partner at Comcast Ventures a venture capital firm that focus on early stage consumer internet investing.  Comcast Ventures was an early investor in Away, MealPal, and recently invested in Zola (hear Zola founder Shan Lyn in episode 98). We spoke with Daniel about his background, his book, Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, his portfolio companies, the direct to consumer market, competing with Amazon, and the future of retail. Episode 130 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, March 20, 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature, Google Transcription: Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded on Tuesday March 20th 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners we are live here from the shop talk show in Sunny Las Vegas and excited to have on the show Daniel Galati [0:48] Daniel is a partner at Comcast Ventures and has Ed Stinson retail with BCG fab.com fashion Steak & More. His current portfolio companies include away mealpal Pancho shine and athletic welcome to the show Daniel. Daniel: [1:02] Hey guys great speaker. Jason: [1:05] So before we even get into it I know you you I had a little experience with Fab is my name bringing. Scot: [1:12] Bad. Daniel: [1:13] I had to do a double-take but I would say it was it was a roller coaster ride at 5 but that old good memories now so I think we're good. Jason: [1:23] That is the beauty of. Daniel: [1:24] Yeah that is video time. Jason: [1:26] Daniel one of the things we always like to do early in the show is get get a little flavor for sort of how you you came to this industry and. Scot: [1:35] What your tournament regulation was. Daniel: [1:37] Totally my matriculation well. Jason: [1:41] Paid extra for using big words I'm not quite the sesquipedalian. Scot: [1:46] I like it I just woke up. Daniel: [1:46] I just write that down so I guess I kind of made a winding road kind of photo ID Road into BC so started my career straight out of undergrad at a company called Boston Consulting Group B C J. Management consulting firm and really a BCG focused on actually read retail clients so like very large retailers. And you know at that time this car 2006-2007 a lot of those retailers were really thinking about just starting to think just starting to think about technology kind of customer facing. So I think historically they had to wait till. Kind of court and Court it is kind of his back office efficiency box that they had to check. And kind of with the growth of Amazon and and and some of the some of the other early e-commerce players Rita's or technology is a customer-facing vectors of strategic tools. Really starting to shift to the to the full front so a lot of my time there was cutting my teeth on filming digital strategy technology is big is Big retailers. [3:06] I figured out that I had a passion for technology for early stage of embryonic Technologies and wanted to kind of double down there. So you're off to a few the BCG few great use a BCG went to Business School. And started my first real company called fashion sacred Marketplace for independent fashion kind of vertical eyes that see. I was at a time where the fashion industry specifically was kind of opening up so. You know it's going to sound really Antiquated but this is 2009-2010 where you at Young blogger is coming to New York Fashion Week to the first time I don't like posting these like. Amazing photos of all the stuff that was going on. That's one of democratization of the industry of never really happened before I think fashion was always cuz it's closed. Closed-loop industry and so what you had was you had these new wave of consumer demand that was Unleashed in consumers were really. Trying to go beyond the traditional luxury brands. And an answer to the aperture so different types of fashion from different types of designers. Was increasing and we will try to hook into that so we we. Rent in your eyes Venture Capital group the team ran the business for a few years. [4:42] And a little company in New York called fab.com was just getting started in 2012. And at the time it was basically the fastest growing e-commerce company you're definitely here in the US. And and maybe even be on that and you're sad was really for those that don't know if that was really a. Highly curated design Centric e-commerce destination. Scot: [5:14] Dynastar was kind of a flash sale and then kind of built kind of more going to carry that stuff around. Daniel: [5:18] Did will actually start a bit actually. Scot: [5:20] Hook up yet. Daniel: [5:21] So was it what we had was kind of it was a hook-up site and then it became so to be a social media site. For the gay population that was Jason Bradford's stick and I had a big following and so have been pivoted to these comments destination. And so they did amazing numbers Haven today the number is kind of throw out there you know you're over a million dollars a month in the first 25 days and to the popping up from there. And I really built their business off of Home Goods actually like Home Goods in and. Home Furnishings in and fashion was always something that they almost needed to get into because of how big it was but just didn't have the right and DNA and and you know we're doing 20 other things that they around the core business. We ended up joining forces in January of 2012. And a whole team went over night I ran the fashion vertical essentially in fashion when did not hear from you know nothing to Fab's biggest vertical softwoods the palace Pacific rated men's and women's wear. Fab's biggest business. He was a bit of a sign of the times I think you'll group and some of the other companies had had popularized kind of online shopping fit for Apparel in a way that. [6:53] I'm didn't exist before end and also from imagine spective it was it was actually really attractive so. Had a great time there for let's roll let's pros and cons didn't want to get back into the early stage well. I'm sorry you're ended up joining Comcast Ventures entrepreneur-in-residence and I've been there since you know 2014. Scot: [7:20] Temples in New York right so they knew the Jew what did you move out to SFO. Daniel: [7:24] So I move to San Francisco in January of last year. So I spend a lot of time in this photo New York e-commerce saying which is like a pretty new singing group in 2007 and and. Scot: [7:39] It's all double click people a lot of it is. Daniel: [7:41] What a double quick people. Scot: [7:42] Double click Mafia that doesn't get talked about as much as I like the PayPal Mafia but there's an East Coast double-click Mafia that's behind most of the companies are. Daniel: [7:49] Totally light where R investors in a lot like really happy messaging in a company called Zoeller and Shannon was obviously a joke group and. Scot: [7:58] She's been on the show. Daniel: [7:59] Stream the show and and and and that. Sort of an issue Cadre that 2007 2008 cohort is kind of old gone in and done really great things in in your bed. To that it was pretty small community now it's a really big Community with all the d2c brands. The time they went that many that many folks in and he come over there and so you want to jump over the VC had the. So have those relationships and had the privilege of some pretty red boss daily deal fudge. It was not hard to kind of bear hug the the sector and come and get to know everyone and then and then you know as I start breastfeeding Comcast Ventures. Your San Francisco is West Coast is kind of too much too big to ignore and so I moved over here and and and try to call the New York from here as well. Scot: [8:57] Brickell. Jason: [8:58] Brief side note one of the founders of half.com Jason Goldberg and I share the same name and he's somewhat of a polarizing figure so I get. [9:08] I used to get like a ton of funny emails intended for him and so we would talk to him I do want all these and he's like only if they're really. Daniel: [9:17] I guess I'm not know my experience. You're reporting directly to him was I've not seen many people that kind of rally troops the way he can rally troops right like internally as well as accidentally with investors in touch I think it's no. It's not anyone who's ever met him into those environments I don't think would be shocked. So the amount of capital he's able to continually raise I think he's a great he's a great Storyteller and and a great salesperson in into the best. That's why I think there's a lot of things that Fab didn't do right I think Jason also has a lot of a lot of strength. Jason: [10:03] In fact he's just starting a new gig which is in the. [10:08] So he found that follow that and start getting that email the you also we talked a lot about Amazon being a friend of me they for sure for you because you have a book that's for sale on Amazon. Daniel: [10:21] I dare I do so passion and purpose. This is going back to 2011 when it was published. The book was really your kind of written at a time when. The economy was talking like this was post financial crisis you know recession was in the air and more importantly. So the ins the core institutions of business were being very much attacked right so I. Why do people pee in the cross the sun on the banking system I think that's a fair characterization. I think large companies are big corporations kind of the Fortune 100 with being. [11:12] Torn down in the in the media and dosage kind of General anti-business anti-capitalist kind of climate right. I really didn't drive with what we were seeing you know it business school and end with some of the folks. Scot: [11:27] The icons in under which was. Daniel: [11:28] But I come tonight which was folks that we using business and they're in their own start a company specifically to kind of be a force for good. And so the book was really a bad hey how did how can we eliminate the stories these kind of green shoes. Folks that are your whether it was in sustainability whether it was in cleantech whether it was in your more traditional kind of Industries trying to. Generate profits but not disregard their obligations to other stakeholders. And so sent you the book is about those people in those stories and trying to provide some inspiration to. The folks in an engender more trust in kind of market economies and and capitalist system is more generally. So I would say Amazon in that do not census is a friend because you know we pretty much know all about all that product for Amazon. Books fit on the Cowboys. Scot: [12:37] Brickell let's dig into to Comcast Center so, every VC that I know has kind of really good kind of a synopsis of what the firm's sweet spot is you guys are interesting cuz you have that Comcast word in there so I would love to hear and understand how that brings the weight of a large corporation to two potential startups, and then would love to hear kind of a Lil Bit about some portfolio highlights of the company's you've invested in while you're there. Daniel: [13:01] Absolutely so yes the way I think about it it's kind of VC Plus. Right so at Comcast Ventures we are first and foremost financially motivated. So it's a it's a completely separate your full of capital all of the partners around the table are. Compensated based on the performance about investing right which is I think. Fundamentally different from a lot of kind of quote-unquote strategic funds out there right so first and foremost was looking for. Great companies Great teams in promising sectors and yoga with the with the goal of generating Roi on this. [13:49] Plus part of it is really around a relation. Kind of special relationship with a soil P which is come to you. Comcast NBC you when you when you can I think about it between the Coca-Cola video Business Wireless bsmd side of the business. Your media side of the business the theme parks out of the visit you want to go on and on and on. It's kind of rare the startup company Weatherby you consume a company or Enterprise company that doesn't have something to gain from a relationship with compass and BECU. So where possible and kind of time these things right. Auntie on both sides we try to we try to broker relationships between between both sides and so really good example of that is showing aggression. So your NBC has your original programming. And and your TV can be really great customer acquisition tool and so y'all better pull for a company shine wear. We really tried to look for opportunities to integrate the shine message in the shine product in the shine story. Into core Embassy you don't listen to the NBC slight that's a really really it's one example of many of how. Scot: [15:21] Play a tool not every VC can bring to the table. Daniel: [15:26] Is one of these things when nothing is again you have to kind of time these things right nothing is promised and lots of stuff but it's something that I think I find at least it helps me differentiate in the Moc. Scot: [15:38] Yeah must be nice to because you could you let say your shoptalk you see this interesting marketing technology from assassin der you can go to you know imagine there's like a. Yo of Pride the best marketing people in the world you can go to and say Hey how do you feel about this cool new email thing or because you know cuz you guys are doing it at a scale that so you know top 20 kind of a scale and they may say wow that's pretty interesting or, oh I've been doing that for 8 years and after that. Must be nice on your side to go and be able to get some real verification from. From practitioners that are doing the stuff on a daily basis. Daniel: [16:12] It is that's all true I think the other point to make is. [16:18] You think about kind of I think I'll give you his financial returns almost proceed strategic value. I feel like there two ways you can look at it one is hey let me just take what Comcast NBC you can currently interested in. And go in investing of sectors by that's one lens and that's a lot of strategic funds corporate funds if the other lands like let me go out and find the best companies. And yeah I think we take that approach because we feel like those companies. Future I will actually be most beneficial to someone who come cost me see you right so that's one kind of premise which is kind of financial value per seeds. [17:03] Eventually eventually create strategic value not the other way around necessarily. I think secondly if you actually look at the data and I was going through this the other day it's kind of like the the hottest sectors of today. [17:19] Accurately predict the best returns of tomorrow I took you look at. [17:26] You're so old I threw that the different life cycles attack you know. Scot: [17:33] If it can be the case that. Daniel: [17:33] Can be the case that you're a hot sector today generates in a great great returns but in general we see that your prices got bit off you get a lot of me to competition to protect I'm sorry. What we really try to focus on his Less on. Sir sector-wide bats but he only the only stage and more and like the individual. Companies in the individual teams and we feel like they're building something kind of unique and interesting I think we we definitely take the point of view that. [18:06] Have to be you have to be contrarian rights to make money right. Scot: [18:12] Go to the you are just some of the normal DC kind of parameters is there a guy's is a certain stage we like series ABC seed and then is there a certain kind of investment amount that you're looking for, what's nice about strategic books is a lot of times I have a lot more flexibility than you know like certain BC will go to their limited partners and go get it. Pretty boxed in LW you know we are a you know, we're looking for series B and their company has to have 5 million in revenue and Scooby consumer internet and and really very specific are you guys where do you find that special. Daniel: [18:45] I would say historically we would have more specific and today we're very. When much more General ride sir historically and I think this is the driving Factor he was kind of around the table would just kind of mole latest stage in their orientation right so we used to. Your before I joined sent me focused on I didn't say post-series be investing. And probably more heavily on the Enterprise so I've been consumed inside. Your ad tax ass even infrastructure was kind of more of the focus I would say since then I've lost you in five or so years. Your appetite for early-stage investing has kind of dramatically increase the man we still we still do a lot of growth growth investing and was still. We got a grave to the Enterprise to be practiced by. Your what we saw was your mormal companies getting through locked up by deep-pocketed BC pretty early on in their in their life cycle. And you're the facts about it was just like we weren't getting a shot if we went already in those companies and so. Increasingly we you know I focus on Seton series I investing almost exclusively and my colleagues and so. You're when you still have put it all together we are a. [20:16] Relatively sector agnostic your and now stage agnostic I think there is some there is some markets that you going to where you kind of say. You know we want to let this play out a little bit and come in a little bit later and and right Bigga checks later. What weekend are we now it's too pretty big effort equipped off this year. And your we've been tracking the space for a number of years and for a variety of different reasons felt like now was a time so come in and. And we're focusing on early stage investing in in in that area and there's some other markets where. Call Madison's is one example of that where. We feel like we can be really competitive at the light stage as well as the early stage and we're happy to sometimes let things play out before kind of jumping in with an investment so it's highly. Secta dependent the teal point I think we've got the flexibility to too so to enter it at most points in the in the business cycle. Scot: [21:22] So give us some so I went through some of the portfolio companies maybe give us like a little kind of summary of some of the ones that would be most appropriate for like the shop talk kind of obvious. Daniel: [21:32] Yeah so just a couple that I've invested in your one of them is a company called a way which is a direct-to-consumer travel brand. So I invested in that company in July 2015 was was when the seed round but Don. And really the the thesis around the investment was you've gone. [21:57] You've got these pretty big incumbents in in Stamps not into me that don't actually generate a ton of. Excitement with consumers and yet at the same time your luggage is a 9 billion dollar category domestically in. Yeah it it's a it's a it's a huge Market opportunity the same time those play as one. Digital natives right and so. You know you could see the opportunity from pretty dramatic shift if someone came in you know applied the DDC model to that industry. And instead of Market themselves is so it is aspirational travel ranches what why is Don and I think. I think it's going a lot faster than than even to the. Investigative have would have predicted and I think that growth is being pretty astounding. They I think you've successfully created like one of the things that I would think about is what makes a great DC brand right like why does away succeed when others even in the category of failed. And I think the thing that makes a really good day to see if I think that away what is white has done really well is created This Woman's aspirational World for the consumer the kind of stepping right so it was never about. Nickel specifications of the suitcase it was never a. Even the suitcase it was about the story around this lighting of the travel the global traveler last all that these millennials. [23:38] I think really took too early. And the fact that matter is when you create that aspirational lifestyle that kind of gives you the license to sell a lot of things to the consumer right like starting with luggage but today they announced. Front pocket you know last week they announced your aluminum luggage a lot of other really interesting things in the pot. But you could have you could have only done that if you had first kind of laid that brand Foundation nothing that's where in the DDC will receive the bifurcation where you know. You would have glossy or away or Casper you guys done such a great job selling the lifestyle to the consumer. And I mean the ones that we see the less successful and just kind of pushing product and playing the same kind of LTD cat game is everyone else in and you got feels a lot more on Sanibel to us. Yeah I think of ways been a really exciting company for us and I think. To give you an example of as more of a Marketplace investment led the series a round in a company called mealpal. Which is a subscription service for meals that you pick up. Scot: [24:54] Meals that you take off. Daniel: [24:57] So that the. Scot: [24:59] This is made by individuals kind of so like I'm a cook I have some extra capacity I want to join the marketplace. Daniel: [25:05] Restaurant meals so existing existing restaurant in the thesis there was really. The market for a $15 cheeseburger delivered to you for an $8 delivery fees pretty tiny Market I think we got. Jason: [25:23] You're looking at that Mark. Daniel: [25:24] It's a it's a you know. The top 1% top of top of Market that you kind of solving for that and it's a pretty. It's a pretty crowded Market actually if you think about all the different plays at it there in that space it's a mealpal was really coming out of it What attracted me to point of view which is. Instead of charging for delivery we going to contact cost out of the chain I'm going to I'm going to give value to the to the consumer and so they're actually going for. You're essentially the most affordable restaurant lunch you can get right into the. The The Innovation there is such kind of the pricing model Innovation there is really to these restaurants in the thousands of restaurants on the on the platform there in 13 series you're going really quick way. The Innovation there was really supply-side innovation. There their deals with with the restaurants and kind of how they get the restaurants to the Albright profitably is being I think pretty unique. I did exactly the business actually has to Marshall a lot of really. Interesting elements right around data around to the operational aspects of the business around you know managing me. Whole Fleet of restaurants in are there a lot of things I have to kind of come together to have this. Lee seamless consumer experience and I think. [27:01] It's one of those it's one of those like complex coordination businesses where you know if you get a ride to Canby it can be really powerful and I think you know the end of the day the market for a $6 restaurant launches. Channel more times bigger than the market for a $19 cheeseburger delivered to you so that's why we got excited about that one. Scot: [27:22] Can you go to these restaurants now and I got his one Chinese on today they really have 10 devices lined up and they've gotten enough to Uber Eats tablet the GrubHub tablet there's usually like to local ones like, in North Carolina we have order up and something else and it some point you're like this is not sustainable. Daniel: [27:39] The last thing we wanted to do was just be another kind of delivery player right we wanted to really crave I for these restaurants. Jason: [27:47] What is interesting to me about that space though is that. [27:51] For a long time we had these are the traditional segmentations of these. Scot: [27:54] Segmentations of these bites. Jason: [27:56] Different ways that consumer saw their eating problem like groceries versus Ready-to-Eat versus USR versus fast casual in life. [28:04] The digital disruption of all of those businesses if it feels right at the moment like all bets are off and they all are potentially competing with each other for the consumer use cases. Daniel: [28:17] I think that's definitely true I think we in the food space generally speaking have. I think what stopped in the in in the food space. Is that you're trying to combine you know Logistics which is essentially a very low margin tough complex business with. Your food prep which is a food supply chains which is like a really low mileage and top business with delivery which is a really let you know like it. I think we're a lot of these players have really Fallen is is impetigo somebody's restaurant today. Maple is a pretty good example where they're just really really low margin complex businesses that done a lot of cash you know I think we could companies it's one where. Retention is is is Yokai the issue there any kind of what happens if you just kind of Chun through your early adopters in your Cactus and it goes off popping up and and kind of Hit the ceiling on. Basement running through your audience so I think we theoretically agree that you know that. Grocery stores selling full movies online in a way that it hasn't in the in the past but I think that will be the domain of the logic. Players so like I just walked into my local Whole Foods on the weekend like the whole front portion of the whole foods with the Amazon 2-hour delivery Prime Bridge. [29:54] And I think that like when you have that scale when you have that physical full praying you're you're really well position to. Century like execute on an omni-channel play right which is order online and they speaking store your kind of leveraging both your online and offline assets. I think for a company starting today. Scot: [30:19] That. Daniel: [30:21] It's kind of subscale I think we feel like the the the ones that are going to win have to have a pretty big balance sheets. Scot: [30:30] Yeah. Daniel: [30:32] I'm wearing dresses in a company in instacart which is a company that space where they have a really big balance sheet and they are doing really well but. Your takes it takes awhile to get there not every company and get the. Jason: [30:47] Yeah it was interesting I moderated a panel on the future of grocery at the show yesterday in one of the the That's My Pan was the founder of Chef. [30:56] And he is so there I mean okay company in his POV was very much. [31:02] The future of me on kids is on demand Not subscription because of the fatigue issues you mentioned and that it's most likely store pickup versus direct-to-consumer which feels like the sort of your bed mealpal as well. Daniel: [31:14] Yeah and I think again that's one where. [31:18] Tren can always favors the incumbents little bit more than the disruptors. And so yeah we never want to throw the baby out with the bathwater when when making Investments why we we try not to redline categories we try to really focus on the individual companies that will be the winners. But I think that one is at your pretty capital-intensive one. Jason: [31:45] Switching topics right away cuz you you mention to instacart and it suddenly dawned on me. [31:53] You you must have some relationship with Unilever because I know you're both investors in instacart and you have a really famous exhibit in our in our space that use Ulta Unilever. Daniel: [32:05] Yeah so your Dollar Shave Club was an investment that one of my partner is Rick Ross co-lead you know that. Business I mean from the get-go was pretty early stories about every business is a roller coaster and nothing goes up and to the right I think that's one where. We pretty much went up into the ride. Time you're right from the get-go right from the video all the way through the 2 to the exit I mean with a few exceptions but for the most part was a very very healthy business kind of early on and so stay that way. You know I think increasingly. For a lot of these big e-commerce Acquisitions you know whether it's in jet whether it's a Dollar Shave Club where there's a chewy. [32:54] It always becomes if you're obviously the fundamentals are important I think. [33:00] Critical to to Taconic stop the conversation. I think a lot of the times these companies and now thinking about how quickly e-commerce is happening and. The fact that if they don't move quickly they're kind of going to get left in the dust and so they're almost thinking about these Acquisitions as. Scot: [33:22] Extent of market cap. Daniel: [33:23] Percent of market cap when was like an insurance play and I think that's what's driving a lot of these kind of strategic multiples I think Dollar Shave Club could have definitely been Justified on fundamentals. But I think that was that was as much a fundamental kind of lead m&a story is it was a strategic Ma. Scot: [33:47] Yeah I think I read some stories and I don't know any of the numbers but I think they were putting some pressure on like Gillette and they're like starting to feel it at the cash register. So I was more than insurance policy is really on to something and eating our lunch. Daniel: [34:03] Totally. Totally and I think it was that was more of like a P&G story but I think the Unilever was a great opportunity to kind of get a shot at running the the male bathroom right so like it was a story around raises but I think. Other ancillary products. Scot: [34:21] Scot some interesting knock on effects there's an activist very active and P&G right now and his whole thesis as you should have bought Dollar Shave Club and you're not doing enough to go to racton, and it's really interesting to see these these really big brand get shaken up from the top down because they day or not interesting enough and direct consumer in France. Daniel: [34:41] Totally and I think you know this way cuz you have to give the Toys R Us and use your that's one where. [34:47] I just feel like that company is being really slow doing today you know it's it's they you're in this huge category. Scot: [34:55] Huge category. Daniel: [34:57] You've got the biggest physical footprint you know in the world in the category you've got almost ubiquitous awareness amongst consumer and and and Muldrow. And so why it's not. [35:13] I think I could have done a lot to Sriracha themselves into this new era and I kind of didn't see the result on the retail side what we see is almost. Application of like retail so I think it's fashionable to come out and say and Retail his dad these retail apocalypse whatever. I think what we're really seeing is there pockets of retail that actually make a lot of sense in that a growing really quickly like off price is really good example of. Actor value segment of retail is growing really fast. And I'll pry specifically are you okay to Ross you work at a TJ you look at a Nordstrom Rack you'll get a Saks OFF Fifth like all of the growth in in in the causes businesses are from the off-price channel. Increasingly Seymour Mo Supply made for channel made for a price you know I think on the other end of the spectrum you got a lot of growth in luxury I think it was as you see the premium ization of also different categories in. You know. The rich getting richer and I think the growth in the luxury segment kind of place to that I think where we see a lot of. Issues a kind of the middle ground right so where you know you know the value play to the consumer you know the luxury play. You kind of a middle play which I think is increasingly kind of nothing play because I think that's where. [36:45] A piece is that where e-commerce your kids you the hottest that's where I was on hit you really hard and I think that's where you saying a lot of these bankruptcies in and what not wear. There's no basis for differentiation in the consumers mind and you just never going to win on price and selection and so that's where they're all failing. Scot: [37:04] Yeah but if you're if you're neither value or convenient then you're toast like Toys R Us isn't like a convenient place to go and it said we not value Macy's allow these guys are closing stores are kind of stuck in that. The Death Valley in the middle there we had books from the light on and they have a really good report about this when they called the retail bifurcation and it got really good data around that that that's a definitely something that that all brands and retailer should have in mind I think. I'm going to think about who they're going after, you kind of brought it up so it was big into it and it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show we did talk a little bit about Amazon how much does that factor into your investment decisions you know what kind of, you know what used to be like when I started mine when I first companies I was like oh my gosh what do you know about Google and then it was you know, there's always some company that that's kind of top of mine with investors seems like Amazon's definitely least in the Public Market Chino they they open up pharmacy license in you have some little part of Florida in like all the, all the drug stores are down 30% is that when you guys go in is that like one of the main things you think about. Daniel: [38:02] For sure yeah I think it's really hot if you know if you have latest at our soul was Amazon is taking like 60% of every new e-commerce tall are coming on stream. And that piss and his actually. Going off of velocity is so I think he's got a tumble is a couple years ago that number was 50% now 60% and so they're actually increasing their share of new e-commerce dollars which is. Kind of scary at the same time like. [38:35] You're speaking to a Avicii friend of mine, talking about shop talk is always become like how to play defense against Amazon. [38:45] There's some retailers again that's that's probably the right you know it's probably a gender item number one. Scot: [38:51] But I don't think that. Daniel: [38:51] I don't think that it is a given that I'm as on will you know when across all categories all geographies or. Your consumer segments is that right I think there was a time where you could serve. Draw boundaries around what Amazon would do ride like they would never get into it supposedly never getting to Fresh That was supposed to be never be able to do high-end fashion like boundaries and now being kind of broken down as Amazon. And needs to be in the biggest markets and will be in the biggest markets at the same time you know I think you. As investors we really think about what are the stop with the consumer. What are the vectors on which consumers make their buying decisions. Price convenience selection experience all the way down to the list and I think you are seeing like I think the data C. The revolution is coming. Because you've got proprietary product not available on Amazon you got right brand stories and you've got your value for money. Scot: [39:57] And I think. Daniel: [40:00] I think you're you're seeing the success of these Brands I think. In a world where I'm is on his is actually you're gaining share I think you're both things can be true but I think you can have vibrant. Lifestyle brands that are worth your billions and billions of dollars and you can also have at the same time I was on kind of growing and you know I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. You know I think that they're they're all the pockets right like I've been feeling a lot of time in. Sir cross-border near the international weather it is retail is based of the Seas or. Trying to play the geographical Arbitrage between for the east and west and kind of like what wishes done before are the categories and we've seen some great companies in the space that are really trying to. Reinvent the value equation for consumers like I think they did it say brands are really educated consumers that. Traditional Brands can be a riff off right and I think. You look at businesses like Hoshi look at businesses like wish either either going to be really really want me we shorty is a really really big business. In part because it is a value play but also because it's fun right it's fun to shop wish like we're investors in a company hold holler it. [41:27] That the vector those guys are competing on one of the back doors is a shopping experience. Scot: [41:32] And so. Daniel: [41:33] And so that's another thing that we're looking at here which is. I love this company shop shops which is kind of live streaming platform where influences can kind of come on in and talk about the products that they're excited about it and eventually have continued transact like. That's something shopping as entertainment feels like something that I'm is on. Ward get too early. And so you know. Yes roundabout way of answering question like yeah we definitely think about Amazon same time and we try to be full full. Where I'm is on would be weak. And make investments accordingly the other datapoint is like it when you talk about Fanatics or chewy or like these are all. Your horizontal multi-brand retailers right. Arguably competing head-to-head with Amazon so like some of the biggest outcomes that we say some of these companies alike actually. Directly competing with Amazon and so I don't think it's a given I don't fall in the camp that like your multi-brand retail was Dad and it's kind of Amazon forever and ever. I think that you know. [42:49] For those companies I think the main. Echo by which a computer customer service and so you really trying to get the customer to shop you for a particular category ride for cherry wood. [43:03] Yeah I think Pat's I think my pad I think Cherry Fest and I think if you can do that you can't really compete against against I was adding takes a lot of things really hard to do that increasingly difficult to do that like a job is to really try to find the. Exceptions. Jason: [43:19] We we hear that a lot though the shoppertainment component being a potential differentiator the sort of. [43:27] Discovery X-Type experiences nothing Amazon strengths but you put all those things together in the the big winner that we think at the moment is the most defensible against Amazon is branded live marijuana plants. [43:40] Just as I am. Scot: [43:41] I'm done with Dad. Daniel: [43:42] I'm going down I'm doubling down. Scot: [43:43] When I before I move on from the Amazon topic so the one tactical kind of thing that a lot of Brands struggle with and you're just too kind of pick you up you mentioned a way which is kind of a travel company. Should they sell on Amazon so you created this this brand if you're not an Amazon you're missing like 60% of e-commerce so. An unbiased on this one cuz you started companies helps people selling Amazon so but it is an interesting dilemma because you know. The argument against it would be all right now we're going to educate Amazon in this category were going to show him our best sellers will come out with private label but you're kind of like you know damned if you do damned if you don't so. Daniel: [44:22] Yeah I think where I coming come down on that is it really depends on the company I think if you are building. I think the risk with selling on Amazon for direct consumer that brand that's what we're talking about is. You get your scent to get commoditized weed in the Amazon environment I'd still like. What what happens is you of your number x on a list of products and your the consumer is essentially. Intent driven enough discovery-driven in and very very very price conscious right and so if you think about a brand that is trying to tell its story. Amazon the Amazon environment just doesn't give you much. Breath to give you much rope to tell your brand story right and they're going to a discussion earlier then give you any, way to create this world that consumes kind of step into going back to what makes a great Lifestyle brand. There are a ton of risks or d2c brands that are trying to tell this all encompassing story. Deciding to go on Amazon for the volume and find themselves speak commoditized I actually think about it last is like Amazon copy your and I have so much dead already without you being there that like. Went out investors in older than me if you look at all soon as such old is on Amazon like there are hundreds of CopyCat products already right. [45:53] Weather old veggies on there or not I think that that activities would have happens. So it's I think on the brand side it's it's kind of tough to two face. Commoditization. That's it I didn't Amazon I'm actually looking for companies that are leveraging Amazon of the platform right and so like I think that. [46:15] You know I think that there are really interesting things you can do with Amazon data outside in. I think they're really interesting things you can learn from trending products on Amazon. And I think some at the same time on the supply chain side things are getting a lot quicker than they've ever being right to life. I'd love to see more companies that are actually kind of. Playing to the strengths of Amazon and really trying to leverage Amazon and you talk about some of the biggest companies in the world like. A lot of a lot of becoming get started because you have some sort of distribution unlock. I need to think about gaming space single on Facebook right it is very obvious example where you know. You kind of unlock this proprietary distribution you can get this guy really quickly. Amazon could be. Now for for the right types of companies you know. Types of companies will be aspirational lifestyle Brands but I think there are other types of companies that are more kind of data-driven foston you know companies that you can see being I could built on Amazon and being very successful. Jason: [47:29] If you are you trying to see any like Amazon ad Tech deals yet that seems like I've been coming space. Daniel: [47:35] Definitely we pray like every off AC haven't really focus on that Tech recently. But yeah I think there's some really interesting I think I think Amazon itself is only starting to get into the potential of the their platform in that in that respect I think. Name something that we continue to look out for and we've seen a couple we haven't really. Well I'm really dog and I think to the extent that we will but suddenly interested in that in that space in those opportunities I also think that like. I think about bonobos is an example on on Facebook you on Facebook open that right rail like one of us was right there and I think they had benefited a lot from those early. Nordstrom sales perspective but just from an iguana spective like if you were on Facebook you were in their target market at that time like you sold but overhear you sore but other side and I think Amazon. Add ecosystem is out of similar kind of point in time out where it's not. I think in a couple of years it'll be very very expensive I don't think it's quite there yet so there's this kind of this window of time. Jason: [48:49] Not if it's going to be interesting to watch I think you know special. [48:53] It's becoming important platform for all the brands into your like months earlier contrarian point like I. [48:59] Probably wouldn't be very excited about adtec around Google or Facebook at the moment but but Amazon may be an interesting space and we had a couple of interesting guest on the show that I want a pivot the. Scot: [49:10] I want to put it though. Jason: [49:13] One for the last last set of questions before we have to break. [49:19] All these Trends due to the sort of the traditional notion of a store I know I am in particular you you. Scot: [49:26] Mentioned the way which I think. Jason: [49:30] A way which I think I have a couple stores. Daniel: [49:34] . yeah yeah so we spend we spend a lot of time thinking about then you store format right and I think. [49:43] That probably gives it away right which is like when not we don't think about it as. [49:48] This this nice wipe out of physical retail you think about it and he's probably a pretty consensus of you we think about it as the innovation of the stall format. And what does that actually mean right so you know you know why is example display the the easiest one to Think Through. Yeah you going to the store you got to walk to the back of the stores to find a suit, right like it is it's it's a it's a very intentionally design store. Around giving the consumer a inspiring the consumer to think about travel and. And really dig into that you're the next. Yeah that actually like it's funny like in the New York still have got a cafe with all these travel guidebooks a lot of people sit there and read these guide books and. Yeah it is the stores are intentionally designed to kind of make you think about traveling and have you think about traveling always give you this. Oasis like in your day to kind of have that space and and. Scot: [50:54] How do you buy into that buy my cell right now. Daniel: [50:54] How do you buy into that that last all right and then I serve at the end of that process your hair if you want to buy suitcase we have them to. That's a very different it's a nuanced but very important distinction. Between your something like that and you're the physical store as a repository of product. When you think about the physical stores are product repository that's kind of dying and I'll Ghibli. That death is kind of going to come about foxes in a lot of people think I think it's one of those things where you kind of declined 2% a year and then you cut a full off a cliff because the operational Leverage is is such the bad happens. [51:44] If you can and we think a lot of that stores as experiences and what does that mean for the individual brand and not trying to push you Prada. And I think some of them are tactical parameters that are typically smaller format stores typically less inventory in the store sometimes no inventory in the store. Typically an online offline sync right whether it be. The conversion happens online and pickup happens offline or is some data collection online and you know the inventory fulfillment happened I'll fly out of whatever the parameters are. Your we talked about small short-term leases only said about Tactical. I think. Scot: [52:35] We really it's. Daniel: [52:36] We really it's kind of rare the direct-to-consumer brand at scale that won't have their own stone at work I think that store network will look very different to the incumbent stone at work. Jason: [52:48] I suspect a you may well be right and Daniel that's going to be a great place to leave it for today because it's happen again we've used. About a lot of time so folks want to continue the conversation we didn't charge you to jump on her. [53:01] Page and leave us some questions if you enjoyed Today Show we would certainly appreciate you jumping on iTunes and giving us that 5-star review. Scot: [53:09] Daniel thanks for doing this today if people want to find you online what's the best way to find you. Daniel: [53:13] You can tweet at me I'm at Daniel Galati Daniel gulati on Twitter. Scot: [53:20] Awesome thanks Ryan coming. Jason: [53:22] Until next time happy commercing.

Shan-Lyn Ma. She’s the CEO and co-founder of Zola. Launched in October 2013, Zola is an online wedding registry for millennials. In just three years, it has become the fastest growing wedding registry in the country, seeing 10x revenue growth year-over-year and 3x growth in 2017. Over seven million guests have attended a Zola wedding and 350 million in gifts have been added by Zola couples. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – How to Create Products Customers Love What CEO do you follow? – Sheryl Sandberg Favorite online tool? — Headspace How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That stressing out about things do not make them better”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:47 – Nathan introduces Shan-Lyn to the show 02:32 – In Q4 of 2016, Zola reached $120M in GMV runway 03:30 – GMV is reflective of the number of wedding gifts that are given to couples when using Zola as a wedding registry 03:56 – Zola is an ecommerce business, it’s a typical retailer 04:40 – Most of the items offered in Zola are what the couples want as wedding gifts 04:50 – Zola has added Airbnb as this was requested by couples 05:20 – Zola takes a percentage from an Airbnb gift card purchased on Zola 06:14 – Zola goes after the brands that are usually requested by couples and some brands have reached out to Zola for their products to be on Zola’s website 06:54 – Since 2013, 300K couples have registered with Zola 07:25 – The number of new couples signed-up in 2016 08:10 – Over time, more and more couples are using Zola as their ONLY wedding registry 09:40 – More guests will buy from Zola if the couples are using Zola exclusively as their wedding registry 10:02 – Zola incentivizes couples by adding the gifts that they want 10:24 – There’s an additional feature where couples can bring any product to Zola 11:12 – First year revenue 11:38 – Zola had a seed round of funding of $500K in a convertible note 12:17 – Zola has raised additional capital with a total of $40M in VC funding 12:36 – Zola has passed through the typical startup life-cycle 14:14 – Paid ads spend is more than $100K 14:41 – The hot KPI that investors are looking for is the LTV:CAC ratio 15:51 – CAC depends on the channel and historical data of the channel’s performance 17:42 – “We are not trying to create more lifetime value” 18:30 – The challenge for Zola is getting newly engaged couples to find out about their services and sign-up for them 19:49 – Zola currently has over 50K products 20:22 – Zola just launched their new product, Zola Weddings, a free website for couples to manage their whole wedding 23:25 – The Famous Five   Key Points: Listen to your customers desires and needs and respond accordingly. LTV:CAC ratio is what investors are usually looking for in a company. Create more products that could be an extension of your existing products—this will encourage your clients to use your products more.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP098 - Zola CEO/Co-Founder Shan-Lyn Ma An interview with Shan Lyn Ma (@shanlynm), CEO and Co-Founder of Zola. Zola is re-inventing the Wedding Registry for the modern couple. In this episode we discuss Shan Lyn's previous experience including Yahoo and Gilt Group.  As well as Zola's business model and potential growth opportunities. Shan mentioned a recent article written by Zola investor, Alex Taussig (@ataussig) of Lightspeed: Finding product/channel fit at Zola. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 98 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, August 22nd 2017. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show: Transcript Jason:  [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 98 being recorded on Tuesday August 22nd 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot:  [0:40] Hey Jason welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason the day after the eclipse did you get to see the clips at all. Jason:  [0:47] No tragically I was on the airplane and I was sitting next to a pilot that was Dead Heading and I asked him if there was any chance we were going to see the eclipse and he told me that they would have to bank upwards about 45 degrees which seemed unlikely. Scot:  [1:02] Yeah but opted out of that the clips here in review of it and it was a lot of fun pretty exciting to have midday Darkness. Jason:  [1:14] Where you at I'm imagining you're one of the special people that had ordered a glasses well in advance and so you had them. Scot:  [1:21] That is correct yes and I were them and I didn't wear them more than 3 minutes I followed all the rules and as a result I have good Vision still so I'm excited to report that everybody. Jason:  [1:31] I am I'm very happy to hear that I was a failure in my family I ordered them a month in advance and they arrive so early that I lost them before the eclipse came. Scot:  [1:39] Epic fail. Well you know summer is winding down here at the Jason is got show and we're heading into the fall so we are going to ram back up the interviews of e-commerce movers and shakers and tonight we have a special treat for listeners, please join me in welcoming shan-lyn ma she is the CEO and co-founder of Zola welcome sham. Thank you very happy to be talking to you both. Jason:  [2:08] We are happy to be talked to. Sham what is a regular listener the show your pray for me or this but we always like to get things started off by. Having our guests tell us a little bit about their background and how they came into their current roles and in in your case you have a very story e-commerce Paso can you share your background with her listeners. Scot and Shan:  [2:33] Shaw so I was mentioning to you earlier that I am a fan of this podcast particular because I am also an e-commerce nerd and, that has come from what can you Nokomis at particular over the last 9 years in New York, and. I moved to New York from Silicon Valley to take a job at what was at that time a very small startup that had just launched cold Gill group, that was 2008 join Guild as the first product person and it had just launched and so. Joint when it was about 30 people about 7 million in Revenue a time and. Was tasked with redoing what does gilt.com look like both, from the front-facing user experience as well as what we want it to be out over the the longer term of the next they wanted to use as the business. To add new categories like, Harmon's kids and what would eventually be added on would be things like, Gilt City and experiences and travel and Bowl. Ended up staying at guiltful for years which was a fantastic full use of very intense learning during that time I got to be the product lead on a lot of the new business lunches go to launch the mobile. [4:07] And and then go to pitch in launch my own business unit within guilt which was a gourmet food and wine, business that we called guilt taste and so then at that point really in, my 32nd transitioned out of a product management role into more of a GM Mini CEO within a bigger startup kind of role. Salina great deal there about all the functions outside of just product development. At the end of four years guilt had grown from. [4:43] Initial 30 people to be over thousand employees and at that time was probably around six hundred million in revenue and so really got a great sense of. What's. What would really write to see that Revenue growth so quickly and then what was some of the challenges that that business faced as it tried to. Move towards profitability and an obviously following the company closely after that got to see a bit of perhaps you know what. Mites that company what might we have done differently that. Might have could have avoided some of the decline that it had in more recent years and so often I. Wanted to do this. Up Jenny all over again and move to become Chief product officer of another New York consumer. Text Atif cold Chloe & Isabel which is social selling and Jewellery. Company start up and after being in that role for a relatively short amount of time realize that you while I had been putting off what I always wanted to do which was stopped something. [6:02] Based on your kind of idea or number of ideas that I had I thought I could not delay any longer and. [6:12] Decided to stop Zola with micro fountas and that you was 2013. Which also happened to be the end of all my friends got married at around the same time and I was, buying a lot of wedding presents for them from the different wedding registry sites online and was thinking you know. I am surprised that these. E-commerce experiences which is why the wedding registry really is I'm surprised that they're no better than than what I was saying online and was starting to talk to Nobu microfindr about. Frustrations that I had as a gift give up shopping from their Registries and we started to think about how would we do it differently if we would have create a wedding registry from scratch and that was. When we came up with Zola and and toes all was born and that was four years ago. Jason:  [7:08] Very cool I feel like that is a common story is that you no germ of a great startup idea being born out of need the only sad thing is if you would have recognized the need of your early are you could have sold it to all your friends. Scot and Shan:  [7:20] Exactly yes I am I'm often, sad that now the precise time that I love to go to weddings is actually the time that I am no longer invited to living since most of my friends get married have already been married, but every time I meet someone that is not married I secretly hoping they will at some point get engaged and invite me to their wedding which is user research essentially. Jason:  [7:48] Night yeah that's in fact I assume the gift you give are write-offs. Scot and Shan:  [7:54] I wish that is not the case however you're in combination with that when I should say is that I, my my the quality of gifts that I give to people now is so much better now that I know the data around what makes a good wedding gift what is the average price point of a wedding gift this is all, information I wish I had before 2013. Jason:  [8:21] And I should throw in usual disclaimer I have no Financial background and I'm not qualified to give tax advice to anyone listening. [8:30] The. You know you mentioned your experience guilt from kind of 30 employees through through a thousand and I think most listeners are probably familiar with the story of guilt but one thing that I feel like gets lost is, that that gill really built a. A fabulous e-commerce team and that Talent has spread throughout the industry are in an are in a lot of interesting position so you remember the pretty cool Alumni network in the e-commerce space. Scot and Shan:  [9:00] But I think that is one of the most exciting things that I've seen change in at least the New York, technology ecosystem since I moved to New York in 2008, when I moved here in 2008 I was new to the city and so I was looking for other product people like myself to come talk about ideas and best practices in the city and. It was hard for me to find other people in that same role I found a few but, you can compare that to today if you are trying to do that same activity there is, hundreds and thousands of people that could probably find that so many meetups that are all stalking new startups and from the people that you meet that so it's it is. It's changed since I've got started but. Also when we look at the companies that have come out of Gil group alumni at last count there were around 20. Startups that was founded by people that had previously worked a guilt and and said that alone even in the short few years that, that's been possible to do is a pretty big impact, Graco the PayPal guys call themselves The PayPal Mafia I don't know if they call themselves that but have you guys call yourselves like in. Gilts Gilder you have a clever name for that is prettier. Jason:  [10:37] My money is on the guilty. Scot and Shan:  [10:39] Guilty. We could we could just turn the show into Gill tons guilty as charged hello alright so Zola is, in the wedding space 04 listeners that aren't familiar that tell us a little bit about the wedding space and and what's exciting. To you about that space Zola is. The fastest growing wedding registry around and we started as a wedding registry because we really wanted to solve this one particular. Pain point that I described of couples getting married wanting to create a wedding registry that, met the needs that they have today and so couples getting married today all the millennial generation and the the way that then needs a different, particular relates to wedding registry is threefold so one is they want to register for products and experiences and cash all in the one registry they want. Registry that is truly personal that they can personalize that reflects who they are at the couple and what they love and similar to the way that they post lies their Facebook page old Instagram and the third, they want complete control over their registry as it relates to how it shows up at. [12:10] When that gets a ship to them and they want to control on their mobile devices as well as on their laptops and desktops and so those three things and would not really, available at all outside. Zola so that was the starting point for Zola and we lunch with that idea and in the few years that we've been around we've seen it grow extremely quickly. This past quarter we actually launched of a first new product that. Speaks outside of the wedding registry which is the product code Zola weddings and what that is is a suite of wedding planning tools that helps couples plan their wedding. [12:58] On top of their wedding registry so specifically it's a free wedding website guest list manager and checklist and. Overall what my trying to do here is really helped a couple plan their wedding for the day they get engaged through the fs your marriage through all the different. Tivities and toss that you have to do as you're planning your dream day. Coin and I'll take a shot I don't know much about how it works but I'm guessing your business model is effectively, I'm kind of like an affiliate commission model on the back end where are you you're as as couples kind of say I want to register for this and purchases are made you have a revenue-share kind of model is that how it works or is it more of an ad model. X Actually neither of those so the the best way to think about Zola is that we are a hybrid of a Marketplace and an e-commerce business so where am a place in the sense that we have. [14:01] We work directly with over 500 Brands today and of the 50,000 products so if you look at the Zola store you can register for any of those products and we we partner directly with brands. Zola in the same way that we pottanat directly with friends when we were in guilt. The difference and why we have a Marketplace hybrid is that we are not taking inventory so we are in Dropship. Business model and. The big shift that has happened in the home industry which is the industry that registry operates within is. Home Brands really started to transition to enable Dropship capabilities in the last 5 years or so so. If we try to do Zola much earlier it would have been hard for us to do as a business and hard for us to have. Best Dropship capability with the number brands that we would need to have within the registry, and we probably wouldn't have done it if we had to buy all the inventory because with a registry you need a lot of skews and very shallow depth answer that that's the the komaki pre-flight component, an e-commerce site in the sense that Zola is the merchant we are the retailer we have, and developed a relationship with our customers which are a couple's we provide all the customer support and everything is captured through the Zola experience insight and so in that sense we. [15:40] We look and feel like an e-commerce experience. Jason:  [15:45] Very cool and one of the things that maybe I just want understand a little bit better like so when I think of a traditional. [15:51] E-commerce wedding registry it's a single retailer experience so. [15:57] Like in general I have to decide upfront oh I'm going to register at Crate & Barrel in so I go to Crate and Barrel and I I go through there there specific. [16:06] Registry experience in there I'm only going to be able to register for products that they sell and certainly not experiences or cash. Products that they know self. So you are what I would call a sort of a multi retailer registration through you I can register for a potentially much wider range of products I have that right correct. Scot and Shan:  [16:31] Yes and, and we have all the brands that you might expect to find it any other department store so top registry Brands include things like lecreuset all clad KitchenAid and those are all. Brands that we have and partner with on Zola and wee wee retail them like any other department store retailer does. Jason:  [16:56] Yep and so do your partner's 10 Dobby the product manufacturers as opposed to other retailers is that. Scot and Shan:  [17:03] Yes that's right. Jason:  [17:05] Got it. [17:09] So do any of those those brand like so obviously some of those brand cell direct so you mention like la Creuset or All-Clad like they would have their own e-commerce site. Do any of the manufacturers try to do their own wedding registry or is that just not not common at all. Scot and Shan:  [17:28] We don't really see that and I think the reason is because it from the use of perspective, the use of the couple does not want to create, ideally more than one register you don't want to set up a registry on Lake say and then registry on Old Clyde and then it registry on KitchenAid because all of a sudden you're sending your gas to light potentially hundreds are different sites so, you want to do it once and he want everything in the one place it's convenient it's more straightforward for the couple and for the gas which is what the couple also has equally about. Jason:  [18:09] That makes total sense but then I saw recently that you had announced a partnership with Bat Country. That's fascinating cuz you know that you wouldn't think of his the backcountry assortment as the. The traditional merchandise for wedding registry but I suspect you're going to tell me, that it's an in high demand in in the new Target demographic but they I think of as a as more of retail out of other people's products so it does that work differently than your than the manufacturers or or. Scot and Shan:  [18:44] Yeah so wait. The way that we decide how we want to add products apartments or retailers to Zola is based on what we think the couple's pull into the registries. Does m. Couples can set up their Registries and add products that we already have within the Zola stole but they can also on top of that. Add any products from any site online anywhere on the internet into the Zola registry as well and. Similar to the way Pinterest has the pin it button we have the add to Zola button which just pools in that particular product into. A couple's registry and so that for us as being the best insight into one of the products and Brands and retailers that customers, once that we don't currently have on solar because they're pulling it in as a from day one we really had that day too driven approach to merchandising where we, use this. [19:52] Pull data essentially to inform a merchandising roadmap and the reason we added back country. Is because we saw a lot of couple. Registering for outdoor equipment and a wide range of outdoor camping gear. That we didn't have on Zoll at all until we thought sociable. If we would Apollo with that country it would allow us to add a lot of different. Products to the Zola cement very quickly but also that's a brand that we know couples already love it's a retailer that I couples already love and so. [20:35] Makes sense for them to if we will add it to Zola so that's one another example of a similar partnership we did with a retailer is Michael C Fina which is a New York. Tabletop retailer that has. It has a very storied history in New York's upper east side and they had a lot of high-end luxury brand, tabletop, that we didn't have on Zola and we did see that was some months for that and so we added that to the side and certainly that has gone very well and full couples that are looking for that really fine China from top brands. Jason:  [21:19] Very cool and prisoners every time I dine at Scott's house he always has a fabulous table set with Michael C Fina so that that would probably where he would register. Scot and Shan:  [21:30] It's not a great dinner without a great table top iOS actually have Star Wars plates and glasses. Does that is that fancy. [21:42] Well getting some Michael thinking that is the place where many children of presidents have registered for their wedding so it's not surprising that you would also have some of that fine china. Cozy get started in 2013 give us a little idea of traction like gum, have you raised BCE and and how much and any idea about maybe how many weddings have gone to the platform Registries or anything like that you can share would love to get us fuel for the scale that you're dealing with now, Shaw soap since we launched we raised over 40 million in VC funding from. [22:25] Great Venture Capital firms such as Lightspeed Venture partners and Thrive capital and canvas pensions and full Runner to name a few. At most recently I lost round was the series C round where we raised 25 million, into fall last you until be announced at that time we have had over 300,000 couples register with Zola and. Quia multiplying each year. Yeah it's great having race venture capital I have a lot of respect for folk stuff done that it's it's not easy so congratulations on. Thank you and I agree this is not easy. And then so, you know I know Target Macy's and lot as other guys really promote their registry pretty heavily do they view you guys is a threat or are they happy to partner as long as kind of some of the sales go through their retail platform sword or do you go direct Brands pretty much most the time. Right now the vast majority of our business is directly through the Brand's and. What we hear from our brand Partners is that. Zola is one of the few channels that is growing for them which is reflective of our overall. [24:00] Very fast growth is a company and we are also deleting M text audible leading startup. In the Online Registry space so. [24:14] I think for the audience that is Young professional tech-savvy and working busy does not have a lot of time to. Think about all the different places they can register but they want a wide range of things on their registry in Zelda has become the go-to place and I think there are the time we will. Want to see a good reason to partner with more and more. Retail is like the ones you mentioned and it will be determined by the day that away collecting based on what couples and pulling into their registry. Jason:  [24:55] Got it in one thing I do think of most of the traditional like single retail Registries is. [25:02] A big and ponent I assume the overwhelming majority for most of the Retailer's is is actually in store and you know. [25:10] I'm assuming you're exclusively digital like is there an omni-channel Ellen into the offering at this point or is it all via e-commerce. Scot and Shan:  [25:19] One of the really interesting things about, the wedding registry is that unlike the rest of the e-commerce world so I think if we look at e-commerce, total industry online shopping in general it's about between anywhere from 10 to 20% of total purchases online in registry, 80% of registry purchases are online and. When you think about it logically makes sense because if you are a guest you'll going to a wedding. What would you prefer to do if you're buying a gift for your friend do you prefer to go into the store. Awesome to pull up the registry buy it in the store and then leave the store and that's it or would you prefer to do it in a few clicks online so the purchase thing is already online the thing that is. Sometimes off line is when couples want to set up their registry and they want to see some products in person so. [26:22] Full. Use case and Zola has, what we call the Zola townhouse which is essentially a showroom or a concept or an experiment that we have set up in New York where couples can come in person see and touch and feel product that they may want to register fall. However we do find that the vast majority of our couples. At the end of the day end up just registering fully online and don't feel the need to come in to see something person it is something we're experimenting with. Jason:  [26:54] Got it and is there any um. I'm almost wondering if there's an omni-channel component component in terms of the gift delivery right like so you mentioned dropships all these manufacturers are probably shipping the goods and in separate boxes of the couple of or some. Long period of time is going to get boxes. [27:13] Presumably in most cases they're not going to be wrapped or you know what you like so majun one of the areas or opportunities. [27:22] For some future experiences to is to figure out the you know how do you recreate that experience of there being a Pyle of beautiful gifts at the wedding or maybe people just don't want that. Scot and Shan:  [27:33] No couples do not want that that is that is a. I miss that that a couple's want that at their wedding so the actually win a Wii with first thinking about is even a good idea for us to start we interviewed many many couples about. What the wedding planning experience was like what the registry experience was like and what really surprised us was the number one complaint that we heard was, couples who have been through the registry process and had gotten married with saying when it comes to registry the worst part of it was. As people were buying gifts from their various departments or Registries gifts would just start turning up at the house and they had no idea what was coming who sent it what's in the box, if boxes were arriving for them on honeymoon or when they were at work and it was suddenly all the taking, that lives the stress of having to track all these gifts that they didn't even realize what coming when they were coming and. After hearing story after Story of this complaint we thought this is something that is easily solved using technology. The couple should have control over when gifts arrived at home so the thing that we built into Zola from the start and that's. Is is really the idea that couples can control shipping of their own gifts so we don't send anything to the couple. [29:10] Until they say they're actually ready to receive it and. [29:15] That the big difference is that actually couples most couples don't want to receive any gifts until after they've come back from there, honeymoon they've often waiting until they moving into the new home that they move into, between 3 to 6 months after the wedding and then they're ready to look at what will be given and what do we actually want to now receive. So because of this feature which is controlled shipping feature and we have, very low return rate we have virtually no returns because couples are able to determine if they really want something before it shipped to them and for that reason I'm couples tell difference you Zola because. Eliminates this stress of getting gifts when you're not ready to receive them. Jason:  [30:01] That that makes perfect sense and frankly I don't want them to receive my gift until they've proven that they can at least survive the honeymoon. Scot and Shan:  [30:09] Well I've heard all kinds of horror stories of people who and your vote, I have registered elsewhere and they said they can secretly took back the gifts because they wanted something else but then that. And whatever registry that when using. Refunded the person that gave them the gift and then the person was I why did I get a refund for this gift I gave you did it you like it wants to do and then the couple istick embarrassingly like tell the. Fox we could you give that back to me so it's there's a lot of old Christmas around that that we are really try and we have we have avoided. Jason:  [30:49] Yeah and I am sure there that retailer appreciated being used as a gift card. [30:54] The you mentioned earlier that the the the first expansion product could bend the wedding planning product which them that makes. [31:04] Great sense I'm curious like so your first expansion is kind of a vertical expansion into the wedding event. [31:13] And I imagine that the wedding space is a huge opportunity in and of itself is. [31:20] Is that likely the continued to ejector e of Zola would you keep adding like looking for more wallet share of the wedding or like are there other significant gifting occasions that you could see expanding into like what's the. [31:33] What what. Scot and Shan:  [31:35] Yeah yeah so this to a big expansions that, that makes sense for us one is right now in the wedding registry space, even within the us alone that's a 19 billion dollar a year industry so that is a big Market in itself with the lunch and soul the wedding what where, dipping a toe into is the lodge weddings Market which is an additional 70 billion within the US and so that's an area of expansion for us that's very interesting and very deeply. Tied to each other so because we now off of tools in. Wedding planning checklist guest last wedding website and registry overtime it does make sense for us to add more and more based on what the couples are asking us to build for them. Which we already had many requests. [32:35] The next big step is then once you come back from your wedding couples are often moving into the new home they often need more things to set up the Newlywed life together and we already have. Today on the 50,000 products for the home. So you can imagine because we have a great sense for what will a couple's love in terms of the Brand's the price points that stop references similar to what Stitch fix is done and done in fashion we have. Awesome Arkham level of intelligence we can utilize for home and because we already have all the skews we can think about how do we. Move into being the place a couples turn to as they setting up then you home. [33:24] Awesome if you had do you guys have some machine learning folks there that are starting to kind of look at those this correlations. I think that's another if I told you I'd have to kill you kind of question however I will say that engineering is on biggest team and soda. Yes good as an engineer we we appreciate that job job security. So just to switch gears a little bit when you when you talked about how you guys are different you talked about you know your your couples and how they want that mobile experience what are some of the things you guys have done that the differentiate your mobile experience is it, is it an app or is it mobile web and in what are some of the things that you do leverage any of the phone's capabilities and interesting ones. Yeah so this two things that I think you might find interesting so one is we have at this shop the room. Feature within Al iPad app which I personally love the most out of all the different features because it gives you an immersive beautiful editorial type of room. Homescape and you can then click on the hot spots and Shop different products that you see now or add to your wedding registry from there so it's not. Augmented reality in the way that the people think about it today because it's just it's a room that we have shot so it's not your own home yeah. [35:00] But it is giving it is serving the the user need of inspiration and discovery of new products that is. That is also shoppable so that is one thing that we've done that's really interesting that's experiment through our iPad up. The. The other cool features that is one of talk about that we have in Isola iPhone app it's the registry iPhone app and the feature we have there is cold. Glenda which is essentially a Tinder for Home Products so it lets you can swipe through one by one. Selection of products that we have in the Zola stall and if you swipe right you add it to your Zola registry and if you swipe left it dismisses it and you go to the next one, so what's interesting about this is that it is the most popular feature on any of the Zola apps it is. It is very highly used a couples love it and it's it's a very frequent activity that we see people using blender to. Discover new products and add them to the registry which is interesting to me because it's certainly not as. Immersive and emotional and beautiful as the previously tried just described but it is one that people while they described as fun and entertainment and so. [36:30] We've learned a lot through that. I wonder if they're sitting there doing it together or if she she goes and swipe rights on 8 things and he kind of like going to swipe left on these 30 off swipe right on these two other ones, if it's like a dinner you can almost like that there be in there at you know me there's like a button or hit there and talks to, potential newlywed therapy. We do here a lot of brides saying that they are essentially the the manager of the registry so they approve oldest final decisions. Jason:  [37:11] So when you said they wanted complete control you meant complete control for the bra. Scot and Shan:  [37:15] No no that's not what I meant. Jason:  [37:23] I say no more so one of the things is going to be fun as you get to you get this like fascinating insight into how these young couples think like any. Particular products that surprise you the people register for or any sort of funny funny trends that we we might not expect about how people are registering. Scot and Shan:  [37:45] Yeah so the biggest surprise for me was I am. I did a lot of using interviews before launch and I was always asking what. What do you do with a bride-to-be want to register full and I hope lot of fried say I don't need them. Traditional registry items I want. Cool new experiences to do together and I want cool unknown Brands and products so we did have a lot of those and we didn't have as many of the classic, make registry items when we first launched Sola and what we very quickly soul. Which was through this at Isola button that people will pulling into the Registries a lot of the classic registry items that people said they didn't necessarily want so very quickly we can see everyone actually does want. The blender and the toaster and the iron and the vacuum. [38:46] They also want all the things I said they want which one's the experiences and the cool Boutique items and so the takeaway. The point which is kind of obvious in retrospect but not obvious at the time was that they want it all and I wanted to really reflect what that passionate about as a couple soap. Some couple the very passionate about. [39:13] Food and an eating and cooking and drinking wine together and said that you can really see come through on the registry of the couples, very passionate about, Outdoors hiking skiing biking together and said they have all those items on their registry but what is consistent is that, everyone sees the registry is an opportunity to upgrade a lot of the items in the home that they might not necessarily been able to afford themselves so it's what everyone. Does have some sort of blend a toaster or iron this is the chance that they can get the one that. We'll lock them for another 10 years where they might have had that toasted that they bought when they were straight out of college 10 years ago. Apps about his big surprise. Jason:  [40:05] I'm sad to report that next year's toasters are all going to have WiFi so the ones they thought we're going to ask them forever I'm going to be good enough anymore. Scot and Shan:  [40:13] Well I don't know if there was a going to still be the the top sellers because that the top sellers in registry have been the same top salads and many many years so I don't know his buying did the newest gadgets vote, we see some of those on so well but it's not the vast majority of items. Jason:  [40:33] Sure in the actual answer to your question is who's buying the newest gadgets is Scott and I. Scot and Shan:  [40:38] Your Jason ready has the Alexa toaster. Jason:  [40:42] Yeah and Scott has an R2 D2 toaster so that does charity or philanthropy coming to play at Ridge in registry and all. Scot and Shan:  [40:52] Yeah so a couples can certainly set up a charity fund all up Prado at a fun that day then designate. To a charity of their choice and so we really leave it up to the couple to. Share and determine what charity is most meaningful to them and then they can add that to the Zola registry so that is a component. And 1. And we see coming up it's very it's as you might accept a very personal charity or cause. Jason and Shan:  [41:29] Yeah yeah I have to say my own wedding experience was an epic fail. Not hopefully not that the wedding I got married fairly late in life and so my my fiance and I were both lucky enough to like. [41:47] Frankly you like own the aspirational version of most items in so I really didn't want to register I really didn't want to get gifts and felt like it was going to unnecessary until I. Try to get that message out and all the guests were just angry at me. Scot and Shan:  [42:04] Yes you know we hear this actually pretty often in that it is. [42:13] It is often ends up being dead guess who buy you a gift if they want to buy you a gift and so the best thing you can do for yourself is to give guidance and it makes everyone's lives easier. Jason:  [42:26] Yeah if I had it to do over again I would have taken that or if I had met you earlier I would have definitely. [42:32] It taken that advice another topic that's interesting so you know one of the challenges and opportunities you have to acquire your own couples. [42:43] So you know what what like what are the marketing tools that you're using to get customers are couples into the ecosystem. Scot and Shan:  [42:51] So this was one of the things that we learn from guilt and one of the reasons why we really would run to the idea of a wedding registry was this idea that guilt. Cute benefited from a lot of what a mouth and, and referrals because everyone was really excited to share Gill because it was beautiful because they felt like they were letting difference in on a secret date. Dynamic that we liked with Zola was that it has that in built virality or referral, within the concept of a wedding registry because when a couple gets married on average they invite about 150 guests to their wedding so that's the average in the US which means that you have. 150 people who are attending of which most of them will feel, in some way they want to check out your wedding registry and probably buy you a gift and so those, essentially eyeballs that I've been looking at Zola and if Zola is a betta will beautiful more compelling wedding registry they will then when I tell their friends. O use it themselves when they get married so having that in built. [44:19] Referral mechanism into the idea of a wedding registry has been the biggest driver, evolve growth and so when it comes to acquisition we know that if we have a better wedding registry experience than anyone else we will. Be able to grow with a company that's a bad has proven out now but so that's that's what's really driven. Su tomorrow volcanic growth on top of that we are like many e-commerce companies always experimenting with all the online marketing channels so we experiment. In Facebook Pinterest Instagram and those channels Russell interesting because they do have, ways for engaged couples to flag themselves as engage the moment that you get engaged so we are able to Target and, and and it really experiment with different campaigns to understand what what is most compelling for people to want to register with us. What was Sabbath experiment with more recently is some out of a brand marketing so things that unless. Easily trackable at we recently launched the subway advertising campaign in New York. That we sent me advertising Bridal magazines and to oldies things. [45:52] Interesting for us in in that Derek the the challenge for us is how do we get the most insight into the impact. Friendly's marketing dollars. Which is a different kind of challenge to to building the best wedding registry product but we are up to the top. Jason:  [46:12] Yeah it is interesting cuz you look at sort of the the history of the pure-play startups and certainly guilting a prime example but almost everyone bonobos Warby Parker jet whoever you pick it whatever scale, there seems to be in every industry a finite amount of. [46:35] Customers that you can very cost-effectively earn through all these digital tools so I can be a bit social or influencer marketing or digital advertising or search are all these things in in in every industry, there come this inflection point where incremental customers. [46:52] Start to get dramatically more expensive in and sew in in Moe's Industries that's where you see them start to. Get more omni-channel to open Warby Parker stores or bonobos guideshops or you know or if it's not opening stores it's it's Outdoor advertising and things like that is. I think of your industry is a little bit different like you don't just want to reach out of eyeballs like there's only. A small finite period in the life of each each eyeball where it's useful for you to reach them so it almost seems like you you got to find some more. [47:27] Targeted vehicles. Scot and Shan:  [47:29] Yes that's exactly right and that's that's why we found the online channels. As it relates to allocating on mocking budget have always being strong performance for us because we can talk that group of people at that point in time very well online and. And so it continues to, be the most compelling place to invest where we do have budget but the bigger investment and by fall we are spending more time and energy investment on building out, the product experience because we see that drive growth so much more effectively for us. [48:18] Cool. You talked about how in the early days you did a lot of interviews what what kind of user-testing do you guys do now do you do formal, watching people use the system or are you instrument it so you kind of know what they're doing they always get that question from are there on turnovers that kind of get a little lost once they get to a bit of scale it's kind of hard to get that. Feedback. Yeah so we we do we try to do as much as possible when it comes to use a testing so we do. We do what you said which is watching people as they use the website talking out loud talking about what they seeing thinking, these are people that are unfamiliar with Sola we also do face-to-face interviews which are more exploratory which tend to be, tell me about what you think what you're thinking as you stopped to plan your wedding open-ended exploration all that's a lot. Around new product development what we do that and then we do very regular, online surveys to both people that have recently started a Zola registry as well as people that have gone through the entire Journey gone on honeymoon come back and then, close to the end of their life cycle and so we want to survey them on that pole experience answer for each of these different. Types of groups we're asking and looking for different things and. [49:53] Constantly trying to understand what are the things that are causing them to. Restless and promoters of the people and let's not never lose sight of that lets only lived double down on those things. And on the flip side one of they saying that is making them hesitate about Zola. Or making them I'm confused and how can we take those things out for future uses. [50:22] Cool any any day do you can share on desktop vs mobile. What's interesting for us is that it's not as much of a drastic shift to mobile as you seen on the e-commerce businesses and this is because. Setting up a wedding registry is a more considered process than buying a. [50:49] 10 old you're buying a shirt online so for a sexually the we still see. A good amount they probably the majority of people creating their Registries on Zola through desktop however we do see a lot of, management updating of Registries browsing new products adding new products to mobile apps so the initial, experiences desktop and then the follow-on experience through the rest of the life cycle is mobile so for us it's important to be continually and innovating on both, because I user is using both the true omni-channel experience going on there people going in and out of each each one, two two quick wrap-up questions first of all other than obviously everyone should check out Zola and both the the app and, the iPhone app that iPad app and then also the website but do you publish anything online that people could look at it or you popular on the Twitter or LinkedIn or in those kind of things. You can follow. Zola which is this at Zola on any of the social channels and one interesting, article that is Canmore on this topic actually that one of our investors just published on Monday which people name, your audience he might be interested in checking out is so invested Alex taussig at Lightspeed Venture Partners wrote a medium blog post on the concept of. [52:26] Product Channel fit which is the next thing any. Company Pinnacle e-commerce companies need to tackle once they've tackled product-market fit so that post. Is critically interesting and it kampala's how. Zola thinking about product Channel fit and talks a bit to just one prong of. Yo what up marketing more acquisition team might look at to drive growth. Sprinkle we will put that in the show notes and then last question got stepping outside of the wedding industry in and putting on your e-commerce biru hat you've been in the industry for a long time, where do you see things going in the next 3 to 5 years what what get you super excited, Innovations in e-commerce that I'm excited about and so one is, I think very clearly everyone seeing the direct-to-consumer, Trent answer the continues to be new brands in new categories that are emerging that I find very exciting both in the way they're thinking about product about selling and marketing, the second big category is. [53:45] Innovations in what I described as curated marketplaces or Target Market places that are serving a particular audience or need some examples of this might be. [54:01] Caviar in food space oil and, net-a-porter which is not quite a market place but it is a house of Brands Zola falls into this category of companies include your Rent the Runway which is a different take on on this, Stitch fix danco or Unbound and then the third big category of innovation which I find very exciting and e-commerce is. All the Innovation that's happening in the supply chain so technology that is. [54:38] Supporting e-commerce companies all supporting retail Brands to. To buy create a better user experience on the front end but also create. Address of business operation end-to-end from the moment you think about sourcing your product right through to provide customer support through to reporting analytics Adams shipping. So those three things I think I completely changing your even though. Amazon is the thing that everyone wants to talk about there is this really true Innovation happening across the board outside of just how much on. Jason:  [55:23] Very cool in one bonus question that that we ask every guest if you were going to have to dress in a costume to appear on your company photo what what would you dress up as. Scot and Shan:  [55:38] Well I'm a huge Game of Thrones fan and we do take Halloween very seriously so my favorite Halloween costume retire. Secretly don't tell Mom one twice is Daenerys from Game of Thrones because I have a dog which I like to dress up as a dragon so that would probably be the one that I would have to pick. Very cool and then you yelled Rick Harrison the dog it's not spoiler. Jason:  [56:11] I know I was just reminding everyone. Scot:  [56:12] I haven't yet but I might try that this year. Jason:  [56:17] I think that'd be cool I have a little dog MacGyver and he doesn't much better Chewbacca than he does a dragon. [56:26] Well Shan it has happened again we have used all of our lot of time but we definitely want to thank you for joining us sweet we certainly wish Zilla all the best and look forward to following your success I want to remind listeners that you're welcome to continue the dialogue on Facebook, if you have any questions or comments about Today Show, feel free to come over Facebook page and leave us a note we try to be very responsive and of course as always if you really enjoyed this episode jump on the iTunes and give us that 5-star review, that's that's how we pay the bills at the Jason is gosh I was 5 Star reviews. Scot:  [57:04] Thanks Shan have a great evening. Jason:  [57:11] Until next time happy you commercing.

Today's episode features a fast-rising company led by Shan-Lyn Ma. Her startup, Zola, is changing the way people purchase gifts for brides and grooms. Anyone who has ever experienced the insanity of wedding season -- whether attending as a guest or planning your own -- knows just how stressful the whole experience can be. Shan-Lyn and her team are using some unique insights and past experiences to rethink it, and boy, is it working right now. We talk about tough early beginnings, clever market validation tests, and what Shan-Lyn believes about the future of startups and venture capital. Visit zola.com to learn more about the company, and follow Shan-Lyn on Twitter: twitter.com/shanlynm Subscribe to get all of NextView's content at nextviewvc.com/blog

Shan-Lyn Ma is the CEO and Co-founder of Zola.com. Zola.com is the all-in-one wedding registry that is transforming how couples and guests share, buy, and ship wedding gifts. Before founding Zola, Shan-Lyn was a senior product marketing manager at Yahoo! After that, Shan-Lyn became the senior director of product management for Gilt Groupe and eventually became the Founder of Gilt Taste. After moving on from Gilt Groupe, she became the Chief Product Officer at Chloe and Isabel Inc. www.zola.com — Sponsors — www.taskbullet.com www.breather.com www.claralabs.com — Giants & Crowns — www.giantsandcrowns.com www.instagram.com/giantsandcrowns The Giants & Crowns Podcast is an interview driven series focused on unearthing stories from industry/cultural leaders while unpacking their learned lessons involving people, product, and process. — Credits — This episode of Giants & Crowns is hosted and produced by Nsi Obotetukudo. Editing by Duncan Gerow, Joe Fuller, and Nsi Obotetukudo. Special thanks to Isabelle Thenor-Louis, Joan De Jesus, Sunny Ou, Hannah Anokye, & Kiera McBride.

Many ecommerce companies face the same two problems: the cost of keeping inventory, and the money they have to swallow when a customer returns an item. Shan-Lyn Ma, the CEO and co-founder of Zola, has dodged both of those problems. Zola is an update on the wedding registry. In today’s episode, Shan-Lyn tells us about what she learned from her time working at the shopping website Gilt, her view on the future of ecommerce, and why it’s a good thing if a customer gets emotional when you’re doing user res