Thanks for the thoughts. Actually, here's how we're thinking about it:
Storenvy is a custom store platform first and a marketplace second. Every merchant gets her own fully customizable storefront. We make it easier than anyone else by getting up and running with your own store in minutes.
But after you get online, you immediately have the problem of figuring out how to drive customers to your store. The next generation of merchants relies solely on social media for this. Buying advertising typically isn't even considered. So we created the first online store platform with a social network built on top. When you create your store, you're immediately connected with the rapidly-growing Storenvy marketplace where people are discovering and buying your awesome stuff.
In short, we are the only online store platform that actually makes you more sales. And "more sales" is the killer feature of a store platform.
Soon we'll start charging a commission on sales that happen in the marketplace. You still keep all of the sales through your storefront.
We'll get better at things like seller ratings and reviews as we grow. That's why we're hiring so many engineers. http://www.storenvy.com/jobs
>In short, we are the only online store platform that actually makes you more sales.
Do Amazon and Etsy not also do this? By just searching for say 'cufflinks' on Etsy I'm searching all of Etsy's "stores", and the same with Amazon. Although granted, neither put an emphasis on a storefront for each individual seller.
Neither gives you a store. Every band, designer, boutique I've ever talked to wants their own store at their own URL that looks like their own brand. Storenvy let's you edit all the HTML and CSS to make your store look however you want. Example: http://cherrysauceclothing.com
The other ones you mention just gives you a marketplace where you're essentially a classified ad without your own brand experience.
Hi, Jon here! Actually, I'm the technical founder. I'm a Ruby on Rails developer originally (have commits in Rails itself). The other founders were graphic design and sales. For about 6 months (post YC incident), I was doing design, engineering, customer support, and fundraising for our seed round with just the help of my wife helping out with Community and writing.
I much prefer Flow by Metalab (http://getflow.com). It's virtually the same product only much more fleshed out including a Mac app, an iOS app and more. I tried Asana several months ago but Flow is just miles ahead of where Asansa is today. Not to mention constant iteration in all of their apps (web, Mac, and iOS). Big A+ for the Metalab team.
Storenvy, an awesome online storefront builder and social shopping marketplace is hiring Ruby hackers and a front-end engineer.
Think of us as "Tumblr for online stores". We're building all kinds of amazing tools that make selling cool stuff on the Internet way more awesome -- from sick drag & drop online store builder interfaces to mobile apps. And we're a small team so you'll have loads of responsibility, autonomy, and big impact on the final product.We have lots of fun, pay well, and are making a meaningful impact in people's lives.
For those interested, we were funded be a dream team of investors (First Round, Spark Capital, Kleiner Perkins, CRV, David Cohen (TechStars), John Maloney (Prez of Tumblr) and more. Just closed a $1.5m financing and growing!
Jon is an awesome dude, and a great person to work with. In addition to having the best hair in all of The Mission, he and his team will no doubt go far in the only storefront sector. Can't imagine a cooler founder to work for!
Times were crazy, and missteps and miscommunications may or may not have happened. But I've got nothing but love for these people. Going forward, I'm way more interested in being "a guy with $1.5m looking for top people to build an amazing company with" than "the guy that got kicked out of YC".
This is about the future! We could sit around and dissect events from the past all day long, but I'm way more interested in building a team and destroying the e-commerce space together. If you're a UI designer or Ruby hacker, please get in touch! :) http://www.storenvy.com/jobs
An enthusiastic +1 for you. Not only do you possess the open mind to see all these business decisions as rational as humanly possible (I envy that in a startup founder ;-)), you also turn that experience towards strengthening your business in multiple ways. Class act @NewMonarch.
Just landed on this page from googling for this very thing.
Context Engineering > Prompt Engineering