betashop

We do analyze this. We are finding that users who join fab for the first time via iPad convert to purchasers 5x faster than normal.

Hi. Jason Goldberg, betashop, CEO of Fab here. Happy to take any questions on this and discuss further.

I'm thrilled to be joining this team as an investor and board member. Incredible product. Fantastic team.

I could not disagree more.

updated to include the actual numbers. Didn't realize they were cut off in prior.

Thanks. I totally get what you're saying re: tone too. Thx.

Again, I disagree. I hope recruiters do try to recruit our people. Life is short and where you work is a choice.

And, a startup is more than a job, it's a lifestyle.

I disagree with you 100%. For our company to succeed we need people who want to be with us, no matter what shiny new offer comes their way. That's the point.

We're doing our best to put the $8 million to use to build an awesome service that people love to use. Hopefully we'll be able to achieve that. Ultimately our users will judge how we do on that.

Seriously, do you know such a person?

I'm looking for an analytical genius who has experience with cohort analysis and with managing large online ad campaigns, facebook ads especially.

I believe in the collaboration of the team being critical to building great products. And, I believe in getting input and creativity from all parts and players. BUT, in a startup, I do believe that the CEO has to feel direct responsibility for the user experience, and that cannot be delegated. It can be influenced, but not delegated.

And, I believe that it is very, very hard for a startup to succeed when someone beyond the CEO is directing the product. That means the CEO is managing someone else's creation.

I look to Google's return to product management running the company as critical to that company's success. And I think Zuck and Jobs are also testaments to this theory.

The ONLY effective method of paid acquisition for us thus far has been highly targeted Facebook ads, and they have been extremely effective.

Facebook is far and away the most powerful way to target people socially based on actual interests (likes) vs. just casual searches (goog).

"Fab.com features daily design inspirations and sales at up to 70% off retail."

We've A/B tested many other variants and this far out performs all else.

We've tested numerous variants on language/messaging and this converts best to subscribers + purchasers so far. Always testing though...

More than 50% of our members joined via viral invites -- from emailing friends, twitter posts, facebook posts, etc.

We think it is because of the social tools we weaved into our site + the social nature of design itself.

Here's my blog post on the pivot. http://betashop.com/post/3741657155/when-to-change-your-game...

I've always said that if you can't gain some considerable traction in 1 years time, it's time to move on and try something else as there are lots of good problems out there to try to solve. We stuck to that 1 year rule with the old fabulis.

We threw away all the old code.

Actually, no. We only have had less than 5000 our of former social network members sign up for the new Fab.com design site.

Thanks. Appreciate the comments.

We agree that the social nature of the design community has really helped spur our growth. Our viral coefficient is off the charts for an e-commerce site. A lot of that has to do with people loving to share their latest design inspiration/find.

We think this will scale up nicely because everyone aspires to have good design. Not everyone is a design junky but everyone likes to have some design in their life. Apple is a great example of a brand that has capitalized on that. Also Target, Ikea, etc.

For many, design is a lifestyle. That will always be our core audience. But for the mass consumer, making design objects approachable and affordable is a huge market.

Hah! We were previously operating a different business/product as fabulis. I got sick of telling everyone who to spell it, so I went out and negotiated to buy Fab.com, and got a great deal on it!

Answers are as follows:

* Margins are really good, above 25%.

* We are backed by angels and VC's. I've also personally invested.

* We pivoted our business earlier this year. Before, we were a social network for gay people. In February we started anew as a design site. We built the site from March to May, then launched June 9th.

* Our team is: About 25 in development and UX, 20 on the business side - mostly in buying, production and merchandising.

I should also note that we constantly test and rotate about 10 different landing pages, optimizing towards the ones that convert best.

hmmm ... we've had incredibly high conversion rates on our landing page. Always looking to improve it though.

Hey everyone. Jason Goldberg, CEO of Fab.com here. Happy to discuss and answer any questions.

The biggest key, however, has been just great product selection. Our team's ability to effectively find and procure amazing design objects that delight and inspire people is what gives this thing momentum.

Thanks Bartek. I would say that was one of the keys to our initial success.

We checked the raw data and it all clusters around $75 during that time period for some reason. Items on Fab.com range from $10 to $5000, with thousands of purchases captured in that data.

The NYT story was both print and online. It's impossible to measure the direct traffic from the print version. Maybe another 1%?

Happy to share other data on this as we get it. Transparency IS good design.

Curious to hear peoples' thoughts on this one.

Having started 4 companies I respectfully disagree.

If you treat investors as purely money, that's all you'll ever get from them. In this market though there's tons of money out there. It's more important to get smart money. And from my experience, it's just as important to get money that you like to be with. I made the mistake once of taking money/valuation over the person I preferred to work with and it haunted me for years having someone on my board who I never really liked.