September 2012
26 posts
“Smile, you’re designed to.”
– Here’s What It’s Like to Run a Successful Ecommerce Site
“The big challenge for me is making sure that as we grow the company and the...”
– Here’s What It’s Like to Run a Successful Ecommerce Site
We Said That We Would Develop an iPhone 5... →
Fab & Quirky: A Case Study In Business Development...
It goes down like this.
On Monday September 10, 2012, 3pm EST, Fab + Quirky sit down for the first time in several months to brainstorm product design ideas.
At the end of the meeting I turn to Ben Kaufman, Founder & CEO of Quirky, and ask him: “You guys doing anything for the iPhone 5 launch on Wednesday?”
Ben: “Yes, we’re planning a 30 hour special Quirky...
Fab Removes Signup Requirement
At @Fab we believe that the best user experience gets out of the way.
For 15 months now, visitors to the Fab.com website have had to login in order to view the products on our website. This helped us gain 7 million registered members, but it was not a great user experience. Great user experiences get out of the way and help people get shit done. Our mobile experience has not required login...
Fab & Quirky Present: An Exclusive iPhone 5 Event
Fab and the Quirky community have teamed up to design and develop a new line of Apple iPhone 5 accessories and rapidly bring them to market.
How fast? Fab fast.
Submit and vote on designs today and start buying the best ones in just 1 week!
Submit Ideas & Vote.
Head to Quirky to vote for your favorite iPhone 5 accessory designs. Voting will start Wednesday at3pm ET, and end Thursday...
The future of shopping is in your pocket and on...
When we started Fab all of 15 months ago we set out on an ambitious mission to help people better their lives with design.
As designers ourselves, we also put a heavy burden on us: To try to build the world’s best-designed online shopping experience. We told ourselves that if we were going to sell the world’s best designed stuff from the world’s most exciting designers, we...
Blu Dot + Fab: A Colorful Collaboration →
fab:
By now, it’s probably apparent that we’re color fanatics (what gave it away—a pop-up shop solely dedicated to the subject? Bradford, our chief design officer’s Instagram homage to his blue period?). And if you’ve noticed our obsession with bold, bright hues, you’re probably aware of our penchant for partnering with the best design brands, across the globe, big and small. So, it should come...
VC's (and me) Debate E-Commerce Startups
A few days ago Forbes named me one of the top 10 most transparent CEO’s in the world. I accept that and wear it as a badge of honor. Transparency is one of our core values at Fab and I believe wholeheartedly that the more people know about your company the more it humanizes it and enables them to understand it and get behind it. Especially in the age of social media, it’s about the...
August 2012
14 posts
I'm Long On Facebook
While I’d like to fancy myself as an angel investor the truth is that I’m too busy running Fab to effectively evaluate deal flow.
As such, I’ve adopted a very simple investment thesis:
I only invest in products that I use.
Until recently this thesis had led me to invest in only 2 companies beyond Fab: Twitter (via its TweetDeck acquisition - I was an early angel investor in TweetDeck) and RJ...
Vacation
Chris and I are heading to Rome tonight where we’ll be meeting up with 20 friends and heading on our “friendymoon” cruise (like a honeymoon, but with friends).
Which brings me to the topic of Vacation.
You absolutely positively MUST take vacation. It is a requirement. It is not optional.
At Fab I have gone so far as to literally require every manager to take a vacation between...
Fab & One Kings Lane & Mutual Respect & Managing...
Bradford and I had the pleasure of having breakfast this morning with Susan Feldman, founder of One Kings Lane.
We love Susan and we have a ton of appreciation and respect for what she and Ali and Doug and their team have built.
While the casual observer might expect there to be some competitive juices flowing between Fab and One Kings Lane, that’s not the case. We’re actually big...
You Can't Iterate Yourself To A Business Model
In May I spoke at the Behance 99U conference about one of my favorite topics: Pivoting To Your One Thing.
Here’s the video.
Topics:
Pivoting
Finding your One Thing
Growth via Mobile & Social
The Fab Company Culture
This Gay CEO Is Getting Married This Weekend - And...
I am a proud gay CEO.
I am a proud gay CEO who is getting married this Saturday, August 18, 2012.
As noted in today’s New York Times, I’m hopeful that my being visible, vocal and active will help further the push for marriage equality. I’m hopeful that my actions will spur other gay entrepreneurs and executives to use their own unique positions to support this important...
Fab Appoints Allison Rutledge-Parisi as Global...
One of the biggest challenges we face at Fab is maintaining our modern, colorful, quirky, and passionate company culture as we grow our team. Fab today is 420 people worldwide. Last year at this time we were fewer than 50.
We take this company culture stuff very seriously. We know that if we are truly going to build a brand for the decades, Fab has to be Fab has to be Fab everywhere and in...
Fab + Facebook = Summer Liftoff
Fab added a record 1 million members in July, bringing our total to 6 million.
That’s 20% growth off a big base in 1 month. Wowza!
Why and how did Fab grow that fast in July which is typically the slowest month of the year for e-commerce websites?
A big reason was Facebook. In July and thus far in August Fab activity on Facebook has skyrocketed, growing by 1,448%, through some new and...
Hot Summer: Fab.com Adds 1 Million Members In July
Forbes. Startup Fab.com is not seeing any traditional retail summer slowdown in its business. Fab added 1 million members in July–a 20% increase in total members in one month fueled by mobile and social growth.
The New York company had forecast July as its slowest month of the year due to typical seasonal trends. Instead, memberships and sales have taken off. “It was far and away our best month...
““I pieced together the house on Fab,” he said.
The 3,000-square-foot,...”
– A Weekend House That Pops With Color - NYTimes.com 