Are you having troubles sharing photos of your children with your (aging)parents? Do your parents still prefer print photos? Do your parents not understand how to open an attached photo or are they totally confused by Facebook? Are they printing off photos of the Grandchildren on old printers?I can identify with that problem. I have been trying to convince my parents to become a bit more tech savvy, (even though my mom was on the Tech Committee at the school where she taught back in the day when Mac Labs ruled). My parent’s laptop is extremely slow and in need of repair. They refuse to get an iPad, and I am to the point where I just roll my eyes and whenever they have tech issues, I repeat myself and say, “Get an iPad”.So interestingly, an App company called SmartPhoto Express sent me their iPhone App to test. The SmartPhoto Express has made life easier. SmartPhoto (released in June) uniquely allows you to order photo prints directly from your iPhone for home delivery or same day pick-up at select CVS stores across the U.S. SmartPhoto Express is very easy to use, convenient, and a huge timesaver for busy families. This App really will help me with the headaches of getting pics to the Grandparents.To learn more about SmartPhoto Express, visit their site at SmartPhotoapp.com, great app to add to your iPhone for Family Management.
Executive Moves: CrowdComputing Systems
Peter MarneyCrowdComputing SystemsHead of Professional Services and Financial VerticalPeter Marney, 45, joined CrowdComputing Systems as Head of Professional Services and Financial Vertical. He was formerly SVP of Platform Information and Strategy at Thomson Reuters.
Adam DevineCrowdComputing SystemsVice President of Product Marketing & Strategic PartnershipsAdam Devine, 37, joined CrowdComputing Systems as Vice President of Product Marketing & Strategic Partnerships. He was formerly SVP and Director of Strategy at Dentsu.
CrowdComputing Systems brings machine learning to enterprise crowdsourcing Analyst: Alan Pelz-Sharpe
Analyst: Alan Pelz-Sharpe
Crowd Computing Systems (CCS) is one of the firms that wants to tap into the world's 'cognitive surplus' – the millions or even trillions of work hours that slip between the cracks. By aggregating the freelance and part-time workforces of the US, and breaking business activities down to micro-tasks, CCS aims to coordinate the resourcing, distribution and management of such large-scale task management.It's an area that has huge potential, and if CCS gets it right, the rewards will be commensurately big. We examine the company's likelihood of success, as well as some of the challenges it and other firms focused on this space will probably encounter.Get the full report at here.
New iPhone apps worth downloading: Soundwave Music Discovery, ShadowMe update, CrossMyWord
ShadowMe update (Free)
What’s it about? ShadowMe is an app for Twitter that gives you unique insight into other users by showing you what they see on their own timelines.What’s cool? Sure, it's easy to see what people on Twitter say about the things they like and are interested in. As it stands, the microblogging social network allows you to construct a timeline filled the thoughts and posts of various people – but what if you could see Twitter from the point of view of someone else? ShadowMe lets you check out the Twitter timeline of anyone, be they a celebrity or just a friend, to see who they follow and what they're interested in. The result is learning more about a person and finding cool things to read, watch and check out by seeing what people you respect think is worth following. ShadowMe's new update throws in a new menu for easier navigation and adds lots more “recommended shadows” to help you find new people to check out.Who’s it for? Twitter users, ShadowMe can give you new information about what friends and celebrities think is cool.What’s it like? Try the original Twitter app and Tweetbot for two more great ways to access Twitter.
La Redoute Implements Merchantry E-Commerce Platform
IRCE 2013 Solution Provider AnnouncementsBy Debbie HaussLa Redoute, a fashion and home eTailer based in France, has launched a new version of its marketplace using the Merchantry e-Commerce platform. With the software-as-a-service offering, La Redoute can increase overall assortment by allowing suppliers to upload and sell products more easily. In addition, Merchantry will enable La Redoute to improve scalability by streamlining the onboarding process for marketplace suppliers and SKUs.
La Redoute Scaling E-commerce With Merchantry
By VICKI M. YOUNGLa Redoute is using Merchantry’s technology platform to scale up its fashion and home offerings online.La Redoute is France’s leading e-tailer for fashion and home, and is the e-commerce and mail-order division of Redcats. The business, which has more than 7 million monthly visitors and has been in operation for two years, services shoppers from 150 countries.Merchantry helps retail and media brands streamline and scale up their marketplace and supplier relationships. According to Merchantry chief executive officer Rick Watson, the software is an enterprise platform that often supplements a firm’s existing internal capabilities.The technology provider recently raised $7 million in a Series B round of financing. Investors include Kite Ventures and Greycroft Partners. It raised $10 million in Series A funding that included as an investor Marvin Traub Associates.
Merchantry Raises $7 Million in Series B Financing
Merchantry provides technology that empowers retailers and media organizations to generate new revenue streams by building online marketplaces.
Backdrop Bodes Well for Investment Activity
By VICKI M. YOUNG Forget the so-called summer doldrums this year.Both consumer confidence and retail employment, particularly among general merchandise retailers including discounters and department stores, saw pick-ups last month. That, coupled with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting new highs, suggests that at the very least the U.S. economic backdrop isn’t getting any worse. No one believes that the economic problems in Europe have been resolved, or that there won’t be some sort of impact in the U.S. in certain geographic pockets due to the sequester.Still, so long as the credit markets are fairly easy for firms to access, and the cost of debt remains cheap, there could be a flurry of investment activity over the summer and fall.Claire’s Inc., the teen accessories retailer acquired in 2007 for $3.1 billion by private equity firm Apollo Management, on Friday filed to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. The filing said proceeds will be used to repay debt. Claire’s operates 3,477 stores across North America, Europe and China under the nameplates Claire’s and Icing. Annual volume is about $1.56 billion. The buyout saddled the once debt-free company with $2.4 billion in long-term debt. In the filing, the company said $522 million comes due in 2015. The firm in March issued $210 million in debt to pay down a portion of those notes.It wasn’t immediately clear how many shares Claire’s planned to sell. Typically the amount in the filing is used as a placeholder to calculate registration fees.Already’s there’s talk of other private equity firms eyeing initial public offerings as exit strategies for their investments. Neiman Marcus Inc., owned by TPG and Warburg Pincus, and Burlington Coat Factory, owned by Bain, are two names that surfaced as possible candidates in recent weeks.Strategics such as Coty Inc., which tried last year to go public, also are said to be eyeing another attempt at the public markets.A stabilized economy also seems to have some firms eyeing investors, possibly from the mergers and acquisitions front, to help fuel expansion plans.Last week at the Next Great Consumer Brands Conference copresented by Consensus Advisors and The Nasdaq OMX Group, there were 15 firms pitching to prospective investors and lenders. Among those firms were streetwear e-tailer Karmaloop, which targets the verge consumer, and menswear brand J. Hilburn.Fashion retailer Kitson is also exploring investment options to further its growth here and overseas. Christopher Lee, Kitson’s chief executive officer, told attendees the company’s goal is to “go public or be taken by a public firm.”In the case of Neiman Marcus Inc., TPG and Warburg are believed to be pursuing a dual-track agenda, eyeing the public markets as it explores acquisition interest to determine which option could give more bang for the buck in terms of investment returns.The Deal reported that Houston-based Charming Charlie Inc., majority owned by private equity firm Hancock Park Associates, has shopped the company to possible buyers.There’s also been increased activity in the venture capital front.VC flow in the first quarter in fashion and retail firms hit at least $150 million in follow-up investments, mostly to help those firms get to the point where venture capitalists can plan their exit strategies.As for the second quarter, there’s continued VC investment with many investors committing additional capital moving from seed to early stage and beyond.Equity crowdfunding platform CircleUp completed a $7.5 million Series A round led by Union Square. Also investing in the round is Google Ventures, as well as existing seed investor Maveron.Merchantry, an online marketplace technology provider, raised $7 million in a Series B round. Investors include Kite Ventures and Greycroft Partners. The latest investment is in addition to the $10 million Series A funding that includes as an investor Marvin Traub Associates.RetailNext Inc., a technology platform providing “big data” using e-commerce-style shopper analytics to brick-and-mortar stores, completed a $15 million Series C round led by new investor StarVest Partners. Existing investors, such as August Capital, participated in the C round as well.
Merchantry Receives $7 Million in Series B Funding
Merchantry, an online marketplace technology provider, announced that it has received $7 million in Series B growth capital led by Kite Ventures. Greycroft Partners and e.ventures also participated. The investment is in addition to $10 million Series A funding the company secured in 2011 and 2012.
Kite Venture Led the Series B of Merchantry
By Marco Castro
This is a clear image of how online merchants have taken center stage in the consumer industry. (Photo : Reuters)In an announcement by Merchantry today, it disclosed that its Series B of Financing had raised US$7 million with Kite Ventures heading the round. e.ventures and Greycroft Partners also participated in the round.The latest investments will be added to the US$10 million Series A financial support that the company was able to raise back in 2011 and 2012 from investors that included Marvin Traub Associates and Carmen Busquets who was the founding investor of Net-A-Porter.com and founder of GIFTLAB.com.Merchantry is the secret weapon of the majority of retailers that are either online based or traditional outlets plus most media companies. They make the products readily available to every consumer where merchant interaction is enhanced. The infused finances will be allotted for the expansion of the company's sales team and it?clientele all throughout Europe and United States."Merchantry is helping some of the world's largest retailers succeed in a rapidly changing environment. "Their trust in Merchantry underlines the efforts of the team, which has done a terrific job in transforming the market. We are proud to be on board for this exciting ride." " according to Kite Venture's Managing Director, Edward Shenderovich.
Venture Capital Deals: Merchantry
Stat-Diagnostica, a Barcelona-based developer of an in vitro diagnostic testing platform, has raised $22.1 million in Series B funding. Kurma Life Sciences Partners led the round, and was joined by Idinvest, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Caixa Capital Risc and return backers Ysios Capital and Axis. www.stat-diagnostica.comClustrix, a San Francisco-based distributed SQL relational database , has raised $16.5 million in new VC funding from return backers Sequoia Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, ATA Ventures and Don Listwin. www.clustrix.comFastback Networks, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of wireless transport solutions, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Matrix Partners led the round, and was joined by return backers Jumiper Networks, Foundation Capital, and Granite Ventures.www.fastbacknetworks.comChannel Medsystems Inc., a San Francisco-based developer of cryo-ablation delivery technologies, has raised $9.7 million in Series B funding. Boston Scientific Corp. led the round, and was joined by InCube Ventures, Aperture Ventures, Scientific Health Development II and STCM Ventures. www.channelmedsystems.comMerchantry, a New York-based provider of online marketplace technology, has raised $7 million in Series B funding. Kite Ventures led the round, and was joined by Greycroft Ventures and e.ventures. www.merchantry.comNeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, has raised $6.4 million in new VC funding. Mérieux Développement led the round, and was joined by return backer Shire LLC.www.neurophage.com
Merchantry Raises $7M From Kite, Greycroft, e.ventures
By Mark BosletMerchantry said it raised $7 million of Series B growth capital in a deal led by Kite Ventures and joined by Greycroft Partners and e.ventures. The new investment comes on top of the $10 million the company raised in Series A funding in 2011 and 2012 from GIFTLAB.com founder Carmen Busquets, Marvin Traub Associates and others.
Where Have All the Big VC Deals Gone?
By Darren DahlSince 2008, the gap between the number of seed rounds and Series A investments has widened.
A disturbing rumor has been snaking its way through Silicon Valley and the start-up community: Venture capitalists aren't funding start-ups, specifically with investments of more than $1 million, as they have in the past. The rumor even has a name: the Series A Crunch.The rumor isn't entirely true: VCs haven't dramatically cut back on Series A investments--the first big rounds of VC funding. But lately, competition for Series A deals has been increasingly fierce. More and more entrepreneurs are discovering that raising seed funding doesn't guarantee there will be Series A money down the line. CB Insights, a research firm in New York City, projects that some 1,000 recently funded seed companies will be "orphaned"--or unable to raise follow-on financing.There are a couple of factors contributing to the crunch that entrepreneurs are feeling. For starters, there was a slight dip in venture capital funding in 2012. Overall, VC firms invested 10 percent less capital in private companies last year than in 2011, and they struck 6 percent fewer deals, according to a report released by the National Venture Capital Association and PwC.But that's only a small part of the problem. The larger factor is that the number of Series A investments (typically more than $1 million) hasn't kept pace with the recent explosion in the number of angel and seed investments (deals that typically range from $25,000 to several hundred thousand dollars). The number of Series A investments has actually doubled since 2008, but smaller seed-level deals surged some 262 percent, according to PitchBook, an industry research firm. (See the table on the previous page.) "The real issue surrounding the Series A crunch is not that there are fewer Series A investments," says Katherine Barr, general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, California. "It's just that a ton of companies have received seed funding in recent years. It's simply an issue of supply and demand."Because many investors are making smaller bets--and more of them--an increasing number of start-ups are getting off the ground, only to be left hanging when they need larger investments. But that's the nature of VC funding, says Tyler Newton, a partner at Catalyst Investors in New York City. "Not every company that gets seed funding deserves to get Series A, and not every company that gets Series A deserves to get Series B," says Newton. "I believe there is still more venture money available than good deals to be made."It appears that certain industries will bear the brunt of the crunch. Companies in markets that are already saturated, such as mobile games and social media, will have a harder time raising Series A funding, says Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital, also in Menlo Park.For now, entrepreneurs like Jeff Martens are left wringing their hands. Martens is co-founder and CEO of CPUsage, a Portland, Oregon-based company with five employees. His company raised a seed round of less than $1 million from Morado Venture Partners and Crosslink Capital in September 2011. Martens plowed that money into the development of a platform that will eventually let customers process and analyze large amounts of data via cloud computing.Martens, who drove to California and slept on friends' and family members' couches for four months to land seed funding, says investors seem to have a renewed focus on companies that can generate significant revenue--something his business has yet to do.To get his product to market, Martens figures he needs to raise another $3 million to $5 million in the next six to nine months. It's an increasing source of anxiety. "Everything has taken twice as long and has been twice as expensive," he says. "Our goal now is to last long enough to reach our revenue milestones so we can pull the trigger on that Series A." Until then, Martens is hanging on to his hope that CPUsage will be one of the lucky few.
Curate Twitter Content With ShadowMe iOS App
By Dianna Dilworth
Tendy Apps has upgraded its ShadowMe for Twitter discovery app in a move to make it easier for iOS users to view curated Twitter feedsUsing ShadowMe, Twitter users can “shadow” people that they have selected as interesting and view what these folks see in their own personal timelines. The latest upgrade includes two new features, the “group shadow” and the “suggested shadows.”The group shadow lets organizations curate lists of conversations to follow in one news feed. For example, the non-profit organization NIMBY created a Group Shadow of its events using the handle @NimbyProject. Fans can use the feed to see tweets from NIMBY and everyone else involved with the charity in a consolidated feed.The suggested shadow feature includes lists by category of interest curated by experts and celebrities from that category of interest. For example, the ShadowMe Stand Up list is curated by comedian Ben Kronberg. The list includes tweets from about 100 different comedians chosen by Kronberg in one consolidated feed. ShadowMe Chick Lit is curated by New York. There are 60 suggested shadows on varying subjects including sports, entertainment, technology, fashion and business.
Fashion Execs Discuss Mobile And Social Best Practices
By Alicia FiorlettaThe web, mobile technologies and social networking sites all have amplified and accelerated product research and validation for consumers. As a result, today’s connected consumers always are in tune to with the latest trends and must-have products, and can instantly connect with their favorite brands and designers. Executives from C. Wonder, Perry Ellis International and Polyvore gathered in New York City to discuss the effect of these instant connections on the fashion industry. In a panel sponsored by Merchantry, titled: Fashion eCommerce: How To Succeed And Lead, fashion retail leaders shared their opinions on the latest digital trends, and how their organizations are spearheading new developments in social media and mobile. 
Social Media Enables Instant Fashion Validation
While shopping always has been an inherently social behavior, the Internet is making product discovery, research and sharing easier, and allowing purchase validation to occur more quickly and seamlessly, explained Katherine Crane, Senior Director of Advertising atPolyvore. Approximately 20,000 unique visitors per month gather on the Polyvore web site to browse the latest clothing and accessories, create outfits and share their ensembles with their social graphs via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, usually to seek approval.“Ongoing commentary takes place between Polyvore members because they're always looking for a source of validation,” Crane said. “Shopping is and always has been the act of receiving validation along with researching trends and products. Now, it's just happening earlier and faster."Because more consumers are turning to social networks and the web to authenticate potential purchases, as well as get approval of their overall senses of style, large and emerging brands are focusing on driving buzz across social networks.For example, C. Wonder, a newer fashion brand, has an internal group within the e-Commerce team dedicated to social strategy, according to Caroline Covington, Implementation and Operations Manager for e-Commerce at C. Wonder. "As a startup, it's all about how to leverage your internal resources for maximum gain,” she said. “We recognized even before our launch that social was a channel very important for driving our brand awareness, customer service experience and general brand promotion,” so it warranted its own group. C. Wonder also taps social media to test product and brand content. For example, the retailer’s social team recently published messaging on Instagram, which allowed them to see instantly what strategies drove image “likes” and comments.Covington also noted that social is a big part of sales discussions. A key goal during company sales meeting is for the social team to summarize campaigns and results, so C. Wonder executives can pinpoint what methods drive acquisitions and engagement, and which connect the dots best between social media platforms and the e-Commerce site.
Perry Ellis International has a similar focus on social media, and is evolving internal business processes to ensure integration and improve collaboration between social media and other digital properties, according to Michelle Magallon, VP of Digital Commerce forPerry Ellis International."We measure everything that is executed via social media,” Magallon said, “to determine the value of a Facebook referral, for example and how it changes over time.” The brand taps solutions such as Radian6 and Pinfluencer to listen to and track social conversations, and better understand the impact of different campaigns and strategies leveraged across social sites and digital properties.
Brand Personality Is Key To Digital Success
While it is imperative that fashion retailers and brands create and disseminate content across digital channels to drive awareness and customer acquisition, some organizations miss the mark when it comes to creating a compelling and relatable brand personality, which helps generate long-term loyalty."Social media is much more focused on projecting the personality of designers and trying to establish them directly as aspirational authority figures," explained Martin Zagorsek, CEO ofLaunch Collective, an agency that offers strategic and operational support to emerging designers and brands.Brands “need to become more human by developing personalities,” Zagorsek added. He said they need to take cues from companies such as J. Crew, “which has greatly benefited from [executive creative director] Jenna Lyons’ personality” among consumers as well as editorial outlets.
Polyvore helps emerging designers develop more compelling brand personalities with its Designer Collective, a program developed to help boost awareness for up-and-coming fashion design talent. The program, Crane noted, spotlights designers so they can speak about their inspiration for products, which “really matters [to our visitors].”Crane explained that in traditional retail, designers start with retailer relationships, and convince celebrities to wear items to get additional promotion within specific consumer markets. However, the Polyvore audience is “genuinely interested in products and wants to learn more about brands,” she stated. "These designers have a swell of support from our global audience, which allows them to become digital-first fashion brands."
Successful Mobile Strategy Relies On Usability
Mobility also was a key topic during the session, with panelists highlighting the need for an optimal customer experience on tablets and smartphones.Zagorsek offered advice from an agency perspective, explaining that in order to have a successful mobile strategy, organizations must rely on simplicity. "It's about taking what you have on the e-Commerce site and stripping it away,” he said. “But it's usually a fight to do that because a lot of brands and designers are very attached to their content."Confirming the importance of a refined mobile experience, Magallon revealed that Perry Ellis will be focusing on a “swipe, tap and drag” model for its mobile strategy. Presented as a tile-based approach,” the mobile site is being designed to “empower consumers to customize the look and feel of the mobile experience based specifically on their own preferences,” she said. Though the plan is still being fleshed out, Magallon indicated that “2013 is the year of mobile optimization for Perry Ellis International.”Polyvore also is setting sights on expanding its mobile strategy in 2013. The e-Commerce and digital content site saw a successful launch for an iPhone app in December 2012, which has led to an “extraordinary amount of engagement,” according to Crane. To keep pace with this mobile demand, Polyvore executives plan to release an Android app next and then an iPad app.
Flash-Sale Sites Reinvent the Model
By Sharon EdelsonAre flash-sale sites a flash in the pan?“It’s definitely a viable concept,” Martin Zagorsek, chief executive officer of Launch Collective, which provides strategic and operational support to fashion and lifestyle companies, said of the members-only e-commerce sites featuring limited-time sales geared to create a sense of urgency in shoppers. “But the format is not a game changer. It’s a great idea, but not nearly as big as all the start-ups and venture capitalists thought.”The first wave of sites bowed in 2007, touted by their founders and investors as the next big retail trend, the platform poised to become a significant online player to rival eBay and Amazon. That hasn’t happened, and now many sites are retrenching to adapt to a more realistic growth trajectory.According to industry experts, only 3 percent of online shoppers buy apparel from flash-sale sites. This despite the fact that 85 percent of consumers browse the Internet for apparel and 72 percent buy clothes online.One reason for the low percentage may be the nature of online shopping. “It’s part of the trolling process,” said Paco Underhill, founding president of Envirosell. “Whether on Gilt Groupe or other sites, there’s a portion of the public that’s just there to look. They might buy something [occasionally], but they’re actually using it as a recreational activity. It’s a time-filler for them.”“There’s still a little growth left, but not that much,” said Tommaso Trionfi, ceo ofMerchantry.com, an e-commerce software provider for retailers. “The market in the U.S. could be about $5 billion to $6 billion. Gilt Groupe did about $600 million in 2012. Ideeli, MyHabit and Rue La La all do between $200 million and $300 million each. There should be consolidation. They’re fighting each other.”One problem for flash-sale sites has been securing inventory. During the height of the recession, when affluent consumers put the brakes on spending, luxury brands were happy to sell excess inventory to flash-sale sites. Now, the pipeline for luxury goods has slowed and sites are finding it harder to secure the best labels as manufacturers cut production. In addition, retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus have introduced their own flash-sale sites, increasing the competition for inventory.“It is no secret that this business has been challenged,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. “We knew the biggest challenge would be the inventory. You sell the inventory you have access to. You gain traction based on your access to inventory. At some point, the reality hits that this is an easy business to launch but a really difficult business to scale.”“Nobody wants to give away their inventory at a low price,” said Trionfi. “Technology is helping manufacturers forecast better and better. There will always be some leftover, but it’s getting smaller.”“We do some things that we didn’t do before,” admitted Kevin Ryan, ceo of Gilt Groupe, who is stepping down and will be succeeded by Michelle Peluso this month. Ryan, a Gilt cofounder, will remain chairman, and Susan Lyne, the current chairman, will become vice chairman. “We do more cutting, and we are increasing private label.”“Gilt is going around asking brands to ‘do a run for us,’” Trionfi said. “Gilt will say, ‘I have 2 million members. Your product will be seen by 2 million people. How many people go through Bloomingdale’s in a day? I can expose a much larger inventory to a much larger audience. I’m selling you communications, I’m selling you advertising.’”According to experts, some brands are manufacturing specifically for flash-sale sites. “If you see a large and steady supply of a designer, chances are they’ve made a decision to cut for the channel,” Trionfi said. “To meet production minimums, it may make sense to take the risk.” Geren Ford is an example of a small designer that is said to have cut directly for Gilt. “We’ve talked about it [doing manufacturing runs for flash-sale sites],” a spokeswoman for Halston Heritage said. “It’s actually been up for discussion in the last few weeks. We don’t think it downgrades the brand.”Gilt has started designing and manufacturing its own children’s apparel, which gives the site more control over its destiny. It may be a precursor to other categories. “Gilt created new product in men’s and a few other categories,” said Mulpuru. “It hasn’t been very successful. Let’s see if it works in baby, which isn’t as heavily branded.”To compensate, some sites branched into new product categories and services, with mixed results. Gilt, the largest flash-sale site in North America, shuttered Park & Bond, its full-price men’s site that launched in September, after the holiday season, merging Park & Bond with Gilt Man on the main site. Gilt put its Jetsetter travel business up for sale in October and has scaled back its food businesses. Ideeli is dropping the travel category, phasing out kids’ and exiting the men’s business, moves intended to allow the site to focus on women’s fashion and its core mainstream and aspirational female customers.The changes to the site will “add a lot of incremental sales,” said Ideeli founder and ceo Paul Hurley. “We think there’s a $1 billion business to build here.”Ideeli wants to be less reliant on overruns. “When we want to broaden our assortment of private label, we’re able to address that from a vertical standpoint,” Hurley said. “We have this amazing infrastructure to use. Bob [Rosenblatt, who was hired in October as president of Ideeli] was responsible for sourcing at Tommy Hilfiger. He did a lot of things in the factories.”Hurley said private label at Ideeli accounts for about 30 percent of sales. “We’re getting out of the men’s business, but we’ll continue to offer men’s products to women to buy for men,” Hurley said. “The most successful business models are very focused.”Ideeli.com’s sales volume in 2011 was $100 million to $200 million. Hurley declined to give a 2013 estimate.Analysts estimated Gilt’s gross revenues rose from $25 million in 2008 to $605 million in 2011, an annual growth rate of 189 percent. However, the revenues have not ensured profitability. Gilt is still struggling to report a profitable year. The company in September said it would turn a profit for the first time in the second quarter of 2013.Nordstrom continues to invest in HauteLook, which it acquired in February 2011, with the expectation that it will become more profitable. “Earnings are a little bit below breakeven,” Mike Koppel, Nordstrom’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said during a third-quarter conference call with analysts. “HauteLook’s doing fine,” a Nordstrom spokesman said. “The business is on track to achieve its sales plan for the year, which will be a roughly 50 percent sales increase. “We continue with our teams at Nordstrom and at HauteLook, to work to find new ways to enhance all the channels we have available to sell product to customers.”The Web site is providing Nordstrom with some learnings and synergies. “[HauteLook] has been growing, not retrenching,” the spokesman said. “It has been putting up some pretty impressive growth in both sales and membership.”The site has more than 11 million members, up from 4 million last year. “Our integration is coming along, and we’re pleased with the value we’re getting from HauteLook,” he said. “Our customers have been responding favorably to this form of discovery-based shopping for some time now. We’re also finding there are benefits to being on the same team as we work together to try to secure the best product available. We’ve added a lot of talent and capabilities [to HauteLook], and we see a lot of opportunity.”Sneakpeeq.com, a social shopping site that combines limited-time sales with aspects of gaming, is switching to a marketplace format. On Sneakpeeq, users turn over tags to “peeq” at an item’s price, encourages users to share their finds with friends, who also peeq at products. As items get more peeqs, their price continues to fall.Sneakpeeq, which offers 3,500 brands, is “looking to double that number,” said Judy Zhu, vice president of merchandising. “We’re seeing month-over-month double-digit growth. Because we have 3,500 brands and so many more waiting to get on, Sneakpeeq.com is becoming a marketplace.” Brands such as Kerastase hair care, Dana Blair Designs and Chella skin care will be able to load the products themselves and collect the same data Sneakpeeq collects. “We already have a vendor portal tool that brands can use to process an order,” Zhu said.Sneakpeeq could pull out and create Web sites for its most popular categories. “If beauty, the fastest-growing category, continues to grow, Sneakpeeq could create a separate beauty destination,” Zhu said. “We could have a more luxe boutique. It would be a different environment for shopping. We could do something with the personalization aspect.”While Gilt and Ideeli have narrowed their focus, Rue La La founder Ben Fischman revealed that the site will be expanding into several new businesses. “We’re launching a much larger men’s experience in the next six months,” Fischman told WWD. “Also, home will be relaunched in the first quarter. Women’s continues to be an incredible growth driver. So does the shoe business and men’s. We talk about whether there’s any fatigue in the space. So many people are trying to get into the space. There’s a very low barrier to entry.”“At the end of the day, brands don’t want to offload too much of their inventory that way,” Trionfi said. “Brands will scale back production, which is what the top brands have done. Louis Vuitton offers any inventory remaining at the end of the season to employees of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, then destroys anything that’s left. Once the sale [to employees] is finished, they take all the clothing and burn it. You will never find Louis Vuitton on sale, and they don’t have outlet stores.”Brands may prefer to sell to flash-sale sites over off-price retailers because the Web sites can pay 10 percent to 15 percent more for inventory than off-price chains, experts said. Flash-sale site operators said that their sites can help maintain a brand’s image through beautiful photography, while at off-price stores, garments can be sloppily displayed. “It’s a great way for consumers to get luxury goods at discount prices in a way that doesn’t degrade the brands,” Zagorsek said.Department and specialty stores such as Saks and Neiman’s are taking advantage of their own cache. “They’re doing flash sales the right way because they don’t consider the sites a primary way for people to shop,” Zagorsek said. “It’s a way to get rid of some stuff that they [the stores] overbought. In a healthy retail environment, discount is not as big.”Saks tries to leverage its full-price site and Saksfashionfix.com in the hope of migrating event-oriented flash-sale shoppers to higher-end price points on the main Web site.“All of a sudden the industry had $1 billion of excess inventory that went to Gilt and other flash sites,” said Stephen I. Sadove, chairman and chief executive officer of Saks Fifth Avenue. “Now, the availability of [that degree of] inventory for flash sites has dried up.” Estimating that the amount of crossover shoppers patronizing luxury stores and flash-sale sites is less than 10 percent, Sadove said, “There is a role for these sites, but I wouldn’t worry about them taking over the industry in the future."
Cloud Growth Propels Turnaround at Codero
By Jason Verge
A year ago, Emil Sayegh took the reins as CEO at Codero, a dedicated hosting provider that had pretty flat growth at the time. After a year of adding talent and expanding the product portfolio, the company has returned to a year-over-year growth of better than 20 percent, and is set to expand its infrastructure.Sayegh says that success was tied to growing the company’s cloud portfolio to enable hybrid infrastructures and a sharper focus on customer service. The company has evolved from a solid dedicated hosting provider with flat growth to a hybrid hosting provider with growth above industry averages.There was a sequence of three CEOs that came on board after the rebranding. Customer satisfaction was always very high and Codero developed an automated platform that was quite unique early on. But the company didn’t really begin to hit its stride until last year, when it started to see notable growth.
Staff Changes
“We’ve added some really good people,” said Sayegh. “We just hired some of the top networking experts in the industry, bolstering the networking team. It’s the reason we’ve had great uptime. You need to have a good networking architect. From an uptime perspective, we’ve differentiated ourselves by constantly holding ourselves to the highest standards. 100% uptime guaranteed, plus we mean it.”100 percent uptime? Website monitoring company Pingoscope tracks hosting provider performance throughout the year. Codero clocked in at 99.99517% uptime, having a single 7 minute outage, and was at the top of the list.The company continues to improve its automation and cloud offerings. Sayegh says hiring Chandler Vaughn as senior VP of products was instrumental. “He’s an industry expert who knows cloud like no other,” said Sayegh said. Vaughn was a major part of hosting strategies at Rackspace and Sungard, and also headed the cloud computing institute at the University of Texas before joining Codero in September. “We’ve made tremendous progress with cloud and automation since,” said Sayegh.The company also opened an office in Austin, Texas in 2012. “Opening an office in Austin enabled us to get a completely different pool of talent,” said Sayegh. “Before we were limited to Kansas City and Phoenix. Austin is becoming a good place for hosting talent.”
Focus on Cloud Hosting
The company has three lines of service: Dedicated hosting, cloud hosting and managed hosting, with the company launching deeper into both cloud and managed services over the year.“We’ve added several new products: smart servers, a virtual dedicated offering,” said Sayegh. “We added private cloud that we branded micro-cloud.” Adding these pieces as a compliment to its bread and butter dedicated hosting has been a boon for the company.”It’s all on one interface, on one data center software platform – true on-demand hybrid, ” said Sayegh. Customers can provision hybrid infrastructures and the network in front of it, all on demand and by the hour. Smart servers take less than 20 minutes. They’re cloud-like, but operating systems take some time to configure. A truly dedicated server without a hypervisor takes around 1 hour. Completely custom-built servers take around 4 hours to provision, down from the days where it used to take, well, days to get a dedicated server.From a pure growth rate, public and private micro cloud and smart servers are growing because they come from a smaller base. Micro cloud is the private cloud offering, which the company unveiled just last December.“MicroCloud offers customers the flexibility of cloud computing in private, with 100 percent dedicated hardware,” said Vaughn. ”Our goal at Codero is to enable customers to leverage the best of both virtualized and dedicated servers so that they can place their workloads on preferred platforms, all with the reliability and exceptional service Codero is known for.”The company also has a loyalty program that’s different from the industry norm. Think of a corporate rewards program – customers earn points, and as they earn points with, they can use them for a variety of things like migrations, upgrades, or even t-shirts. It adds a bit of customer stickiness.
A Changing Customer Profile
An expanded product portfolio means Codero is now landing bigger fish looking for hybrid solutions. The top verticals it targets are IT services, gaming, non-profits, resellers, and online retail services. Though it’s not its bread and butter, Codero is now attracting some Fortune 500 customers as well.Codero now has about 4,000 business customers. “The vast majority of our customers are multi-server customers,” said Sayegh. “Even those single server deals are upgrading in the next six months to multi-device, multi-server. We have one of the lowest churns in the industry. Average customer life is about 3.5 years and we get very high customer satisfaction ratings”Codero has 3 data centers in Chicago, Phoenix and Ashburn, the newest location, which was added in 2012. These facilities are fully Tier III compliant, SSAE 16 Certified; SOC 2 Type II & SOC 3 Audited.
Global Expansion Ahead
The company has been hinting of going into Europe, and indicates it will most likely enter Amsterdam next. The company echoed a reccurring sentiment in the hosting industry as to why Amsterdam continues to be attractive to hosting providers: it’s easier to do business there than the UK, has excellent connectivity, and the costs are very good comparatively. The company will hit Europe around the midpoint of 2013.The next US site will most likely be in Dallas. It’s a hotbed of data center activity and just makes sense. There’s no target for the next US site yet.“We have a vision for the company; we believe it’s a pretty differentiated vision in terms of our product offering,” said Sayegh. “One of the inhibitors of cloud adoption is the fact that there’s no cloud hybrid solution that meets all needs. (Cusomers) go out there, and then go back to doing just dedicated when it doesn’t meet their needs. So the ability to do it all in one network will enable those folks that had their reservations to do it all seamlessly.”
Codero operates data centers in three markets: Chicago, Phoenix and Ashburn, Virginia, where it opened its newest facility in 2012. Here’s a look at some of the overhead cabling infrastructure supporting Codero’s services. (Photo: Codero)
An Honest Culture Could Make Your Startup More Productive
By Kira M. Newman
We all agree that honesty is a good thing, but our actions often suggest otherwise. And the same goes for company culture.Few people would try to defend cooking the books or stealing other companies’ ideas. But day after day, we might conceal our own mistakes, avoid critiquing a coworker, or pretend things are going well when they aren’t. These little dishonesties add up and weigh down on our company’s productivity.Honest critique is like a compass. If you’re about to make the wrong decision, it can keep you on track. If you’ve already made one, it can point you back in the right direction. And even if the critique is ultimately dismissed, everyone learns to think broadly and consider alternatives.On the other hand, a culture where feedback and criticism aren’t valued lets a startup stray further and further off its path. One consultant saw a Bay Area startup employee misusing resources and continually missing deadlines. But because the project manager and technical director didn’t want to speak up, the waste continued.
“Red tape, process, and CYA [cover your ass] behavior will build and slow the entire company to a halt,” says Emil Sayegh, president and CEO of Codero Hosting.
Not only that, but holding your tongue and not offering feedback is darn frustrating. You know the feeling when someone does something annoying over and over again, but you never point it out? Startups can’t afford to have employees carrying that feeling around all the time.
“We feel like the less honesty you express to others, the more buildup of frustration that ultimately becomes toxic,” says Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack. “We ask our team to push through the last 10 percent of communication and respectfully address areas where the ‘white lies’ might often get used instead of the hard truth.”
For cofounders, creating an honest culture includes being honest with the team about how things are going and what the future plans are. Everyone can stay motivated and focused, not wondering what’s going on or worrying when the money will run out.That kind of honesty also shows your team that you respect them and have a collaborative relationship – which is part of the appeal of startups. If employees wanted a hierarchy where subordinates are kept in the dark, they would have stayed at their corporate jobs.
“When people trust each other and feel an ownership stake of the company, they behave like owners and do their jobs with more pride, more efficiently, and are committed to constant improvement,” says Oscia Wilson, CEO of Boiled Architecture.
Finally, honesty allows cofounders to make realistic plans for the future. That isn’t possible when team members are concealing delays or difficulties.
“If employees conceal bad news or fail to speak up when they see things that aren’t up to par, their coworkers and managers alike will be unable to plan for the realities that the company is facing,” says Jonathan Ambrose, COO at Rosie Applications Inc.
These consequences of dishonesty are all very real – more mistakes, frustrated employees, and badly laid plans. In a startup where every advantage counts, a dishonest culture is a handicap that can lose you the game.
Codero launches dedicated private cloud service
By Analyst: Jim GroganManaged hosting provider Codero has launched a private cloud service, hosted from its Phoenix datacenter, which offers fully dedicated servers and infrastructure.
Codero Hosting Builds for the Future – Adding Austin Office and SVP
By John Casaretto
Codero Hosting has added a third company office in Austin Texas. The announcement also includes the addition of SVP of Product Development Chandler Vaughn to the company. In a recent conversation with Vaughn, the strategic opportunities for Codero were made clear, from setting a base in Austin to a peek into the future of the company; the moves herald the beginnings and remarkable transformation of a well-run company stepping up their cloud game where excellence in every respect counts.This is Vaughn’s third hosting company, having previously worked at Sungard and Rackspace. His role at Codero as Senior Vice President of Product Management has additional elements of marketing and engineering that will pave the way to the next generation Codero. The company is about to relaunch all its products to an entirely new level that include cloud offerings, managed services, and its dedicated server line. This technology, services and pricing refresh that will make some big waves in the industry. Vaughn’s ties are deep with Austin and that is an additional strategic advantage for the company. He previously worked with Austin-based CEO Emil Sayegh at Rackspace and that prior experience is part of what helped bring him to the company.
“Emil doesn’t know how to lose. That’s part of what attracted me to Codero”“I am fortunate to have worked with Chandler at Rackspace so I know first hand that he is a great team builder, a strong leader, and I am confident that he will add to Codero’s rich, vibrant culture,” said Sayegh. “Chandler will spearhead our world-class product development strategy and team to accelerate our growth and success. His work ethic and experience in building enterprise-grade private, public, and hybrid clouds will bring enormous value to Codero.”
Vaughn also considered the fact that Codero’s Net Promoter score is really high for in the hosting business. That classification really tells the story of what customers think of your services, and Codero ranked in the top 3 of companies that Vaughn had even heard of. The takeaway is that this translates into long customer retention times and sustained growth. Typical turnover of hosting customers tends to happen at 2-3 years and that isn’t the case with Codero Hosting. This is accomplished in part through a highly automated support system that integrates throughout the products and services. With active feedback and consistent delivery and support, the winning formula is self-evident. Codero’s hybrid vision is another great effort. By giving customers the ability to leverage their systems they are able to integrate into disparate environments, whether on cloud or dedicated gear, in their own datacenters or on premise, the experience is marked with exceptional ease and value to the business.On to the future- Codero’s forthcoming reboot and messaging will center on the value as an automated scalable hosting for tech-dependent SMBs. With a low cost scalable product platform built for customer self-service and provisioning, the customer can interact with everything in the environment based on their own requirements. That wave of product will form one of the core tenets of Codero as a company, and focus on the ease of these hybrid cloud opportunities.The Austin location is an ideal Texas-based incubator and resource of talent, which Codero projects they will need in the next year. The planned headcount growth will almost double the company’s size, with Austin representing a good chunk of that. Vaughn was involved in a joint effort to launch the Cloud Computing Research Center, based at the University of Texas at Austin and still maintains those strong relationships. Codero will be tapping a specific infrastructure of talent development and available pool of talent, and Austin is perfect for that. With the right kind of people available and willing to pour themselves into a great launch, the alignment couldn’t be better. In addition with industry giant Dell up the road in Round Rock, there are great opportunities for that relationship to benefit the effort.It looks like Austin Texas will be a major spot on the cloud map, so we’ll be tuned to see what that next level looks like.