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Hi everyone.
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I'm so excited to be here today to share the story of uh Shoptiques and my journey here.
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For those of you guys who don't know, um Shoptiques lets you shop the world's most unique boutiques around the world.
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It used to be that if you lived in Dallas and you wanted to shop a store in Los Angeles or New York or Paris, you literally had to buy a plane ticket.
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Uh the stores weren't online and even if they were, you just couldn't find them.
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So what we did is we brought them online and created an online online destination for amazing shoppers like yourself to go and discover really cool stores and find unique one-of-a-kind products.
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So my story started in Kyrgyzstan, just around the corner from here.
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Um and I moved to the States at the age of 17 when I uh joined my mom who's a musician. I spoke no English.
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Hopefully you guys think that I learned a little bit since then.
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Um I went to Wellesley College, girl power, so awesome to be here today.
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Um so I went to Wellesley and my first job out of school when I graduated was working at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. Crazy hours.
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Um I loved it because I learned so much, but I also got to travel a lot.
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And every time I would travel um I would end up shopping, surprise surprise.
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I would find 5 minutes to go discover the city through these local uh really cool places and I would buy a dress or plates for as a gift to somebody and then everybody would be like, "Oh my god, where did you get this? It's so cool."
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And so I was kind of confused when I would go online after that to find the stores that they weren't online.
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So I was very frustrated, but I was working 24/7 so I had no time to do anything about it.
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So after Goldman, I went to uh Harvard Business School.
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And so while at Harvard, I finally had a little bit of uh breathing time to figure out why the stores weren't online.
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It was so weird to me because you had Etsy that was, you know, creating this marketplace for artisans.
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And then you had Net-a-Porter that aggregated this huge huge brands.
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Why wasn't there an online destination for unique brands and unique boutiques?
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Um and so I started investigating.
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So my um second year of business school I talked to over 800 stores.
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They Everybody was uh telling me, "Hey, we are great merchandisers."
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I would say, "Hey, where do you buy things? How do you buy? How do you plan?"
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They really knew how to buy products that women wanted, but they had no idea how to put them online.
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They all tried Shopify and they were so hard for them.
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They tried to take photos with their iPhones.
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They would come out unprofessional.
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They, you know, tried to bring those photos and drive traffic. Nothing would work.
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So the internet was this like big thing big scary thing for them.
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And so I saw it as like a perfect synergy because I loved shopping at the stores.
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I loved the inventory they were curating, but I had no idea how they did it. I was not a merchant. I'm not a buyer.
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But I could figure out the scary thing that is called internet.
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Um so I was like, "Okay, let let's do this."
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So the lesson number one I'm going to do I'm going to have about five takeaways, not about exactly five.
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I'm going to have five takeaways for you guys that I hopefully uh will be helpful as you build your businesses and you think about your life and career.
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So um if you forget everything I said today, which you'll probably do that.
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Um remember this one takeaway.
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The takeaway number one is talk to users.
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That one year that I spent talking to over 800 stores has been the most helpful thing in starting and running Shoptiques.
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We still go back to the notes that I took while talking to this boutiques because we were able to build exactly the solution that they needed.
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We weren't sitting there and coming up with the solution.
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We just asked them, "Why aren't you online?
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And what can I do to actually build a solution that you will use?
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So, as you can probably guess, Shopkick is a marketplace.
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So, it's a two-sided marketplace.
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There is supply, which is the boutiques.
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So, after talking to 800 of them, I was very confident that I can build a solution that they will be happy with.
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But, I wasn't sure if me and my friends are the only people that wanted to shop these boutiques.
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So, I was like, "Okay, let's test it."
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I didn't want to go raise money because to me, putting your own reputation on the line until you knew that it's a huge business was a very difficult decision.
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So, I at that time I graduated from HBS with a lot of loans because I you know, financed that whole myself.
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I had about $10,000 in savings in my bank account and I was maid of honor at my best friend's wedding at my best friend's wedding in Jakarta in Indonesia.
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So, I figured if there was every chance I'm going to build a website for $10,000, it's going to be by finding engineers in Indonesia.
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So, while while doing all this maid of honor duties, and by the way, Indonesian weddings are like a week long.
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So, there was a lot of duties and a lot of ceremonies.
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In between the ceremonies, I was asking every person, "Do you know any developers?"
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They're like, "What are you talking about?" But, it was successful.
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I actually did find this amazing development shop that was willing to build, I think, the first site for $8,000.
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Which was scary to do that because I had about $2,000 to live for the rest of the Shopkick's time.
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I didn't know when I was going to raise, but I paid them the money and they built this amazing prototype. A private beta site.
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And about October that year, you know, I graduated, said no to all this offers that were going to help me pay down my debt.
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I said no because in life you have to do what you're really passionate about.
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So, I went with Shopkick. I built this website.
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While I was building it, while they were building it during their day, it was my night.
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I was working at night and then during the day I was trying to talk to press and get more users and get the stores on board.
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So it's kind of a 24/7 job and so in October we finally launched and Women's Wear Daily wrote the story about us.
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And by the way, this was a team of one and a developer is in Indonesia.
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So I had this all of a sudden Women's Wear Daily writes about ShopTiques and we overnight get 12,000 people on the waitlist trying to get in and shop ShopTiques.
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So I was like, well, it seems to me that shoppers also want to shop unique boutiques.
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So to that point, going back to the takeaway number one, talking to users, it was pretty clear to me that there were other people in addition to my friends and relatives and me who wanted to shop unique stores.
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I was working out of a co-working space and this company called TutorMe, they they become friends and so they they came to me and they said right at the same time and they said, "Hey, do you know what Y Combinator is?"
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I was like, "No, no idea."
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They're like, "You are awesome, they're awesome, you need to apply."
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I was like, "Okay, I'll apply."
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I mean, and I was working 24/7 to do my startup.
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So I had absolutely no time to research the fact that single founder, non-technical may not be a good idea to apply.
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So I just applied and I just put my head down, did the application, sent it off.
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And so my lesson number two for you guys is always ask.
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If you don't the the answer is always no.
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If you don't ask, the answer is always no.
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If I didn't apply to Y Combinator, I would have definitely not gotten in.
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And I'm glad I didn't have time to do the research about single founders, non-technical founders and the combination of both.
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So I applied and I got in and that changed the trajectory of ShopTiques and trajectory of my life and it's been the best decision I've ever made in my life.
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So, always applies, always do things.
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And I apply this rule to everything in my life.
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I think 2 weeks ago I I emailed Warren Buffett.
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He hasn't gotten back to me yet, but if I didn't email him, the answer would have definitely been no.
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So, I'm still waiting for you, Warren Buffett.
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Um So, always do, always ask. So, here we were.
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Uh we just launched private beta.
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I I applied to Y Combinator.
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We had 12,000 people on the wait list, just me so far working, and this Indonesian developers.
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Um a week later, I get an interview to Y Combinator.
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They say you can't tell anybody.
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I'm like really secretive, flying to San Francisco for this interview.
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Um I meet incredible group of people, and I'm like, "Oh my god, this would be so amazing to get in."
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And so, I get a phone call that night.
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Um and they said, "You're in."
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It was truly the happiest moment in my life, not only because I was getting into Y Combinator and the people were truly exceptional, but also I heard that they give you like $17,000 or something to do your business.
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And I was living on the floor of my friend's apartment, so I was like, "Oh my god, I'm getting my own bed. That's kind of awesome."
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So, that January I got my own bed in a in my own room, too, in a Sunnyvale apart- house with five other people who were working at Y Combinator at the time on their ideas um in the same batch as me.
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And you were working among the best, coolest people, and it was so incredible.
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And so, we started Y Combinator.
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Um the takeaway number three is a little bit interesting, but uh to me it's very important, and I really want a lot of you guys who are starting businesses or doing this right now to think about it.
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Be honest with yourself on what kind of business you guys want to build.
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And what kind of business this business can be.
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Right from the beginning, and as I got into Y Combinator, I knew I wanted to build a multi-billion dollar business.
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It's If you want to build a lifestyle business, it's phenomenal idea and you should do it, but don't go raise money from venture capital firms that were going to have uh needs to have a high return and and and exit the business in 5 to 10 years.
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I wanted to build a huge business, um but I knew that this technology that I've had at the time, I just simply couldn't.
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So, I you know, on the website that $8,000, I can't imagine scaling to multi-billionaire business.
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So, luckily I was at YC, so I approached Paul Graham and the team and I said, "Hey guys, I I need technology team.
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I need to build this, you know, something in-house."
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So, they helped me tremendously.
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The first people that I brought on board, um actually brought them in as a technical co-founders.
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So, with two people I brought in as technical co-founders and they started building this awesome website and off we were to the huge future.
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I had a little bit of time while they were building the site, so I went to fund raise.
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I decided that that was the time for me to fund raise and uh we raised a round of funding, seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock and Benchmark and SV Angel.
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Amazing team, uh really knew what marketplaces are.
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So, remember, what kind of business do you want to build?
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And surround yourself with the same network.
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They've invested in OpenTable, they invested in First Dibs, all the businesses that really similar to Shoptiques in terms of the marketplaces. Um so, off we were.
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We launched the website, we were, you know, um publicly launched.
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We raised a round of funding, we moved back to New York.
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Um I put my head down and working in the user acquisition, right?
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Growth is everything, right? It's all about growth.
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But, um I would have a big press and then my website would crash and every sixth person, um I would do something else and literally like the technology wasn't scaling.
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So, for founders who are non-technical out here, I'm sure you can relate that the scariest thing is when you're doing everything you can, but this one bit that's at the core of your life is failing.
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I mean, there is so many lonely cries in the bathroom. I can't even tell you.
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I learned that it's okay to cry in the bathroom floor in the in the public building. It's like who cares?
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So, but I also learned that the technology co-founders that I brought in were in the right fit.
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They just simply didn't have the skills to take this business to where I wanted to take it.
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And so, I had to fire them.
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It very very hard, but you have to do what's right for your business. And so, I fired them.
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And I at the time we literally had no engineers and at Chopsticks and it was very scary because if anything went wrong, it would be very scary.
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And so, I called my friend who was my best friend at Y Combinator.
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He was working on a different company at the time and then he left it since since YC.
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And so, I said, "Hey, you need to come.
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You need to come to New York now because I don't know what I'm doing and there's like literally no technology people here.
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And this is a technology company."
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So, he flies in, jumps on the plane, starts building this amazing technology.
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One of the smartest engineers I know.
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Eight months later, I had to fire him, too.
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And this is actually one of the hardest decision I I had to make in my entire life because he was my best friend and he was one of the smartest people I knew.
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But the reason is he was focused on technology and he really didn't care about what users wanted.
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He wanted to build this incredible incredible technology, which by the way is very important if you are just technology business, but I had customers.
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I wanted to build what they needed and what they wanted.
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And so, it was a really really tough decision, but it had to be made.
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And so, my takeaway number four for you is make your own path.
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I think that the problem the reason I was bringing, you know, I did it twice, um two sets of teams as technical co-founder is because I was looking for that shining uh Prince Charming to jump on his horse and bring in and become this partner in my business.
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And I was seeing all these other companies having co-founders that were technical, that really understood them, and really thought about life the same way.
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But, it's okay that you're going to make your own path.
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It's okay not to have a technical co-founder.
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It's okay to figure out it the other way.
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Since then, I hired an incredible CTO, who is not my co-founder, who is a CTO of shopkick.
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com, which is a big role on its own.
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And he has goals, he has compensation tied to those goals, he promises and he delivers.
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And it sounds very corporate, but it works for me.
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It is my own path that made sense to me.
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The site doesn't crashes, we grew over 700% last year, and the site didn't crash once.
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And so, bringing in the team that made sense to me, who is not co-founder, who is going to work and there is, you know, real goals and it's it was really important for me, and it took me a year and a half to very, very tough decisions uh to get there, and a lot of lessons and and cries along the way.
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And I really hope you learn that it doesn't have to be like your friend or neighbor or other company, even at YC. Make your own path. Make it your way.
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Make it the right way for you.
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Um and so, you know, one of the other thing that I want to make sure I leave you guys with is the fifth takeaway, which is believe and be passionate.
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Um you know, there was a lot of times when at 2:00 in the morning, I would be doing payroll, and it wouldn't feel like anything because, honestly, I needed to get growth and users.
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But, I was doing this boring payroll or taxes or something else.
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And it didn't really feel like it was just awful, and you just If you didn't see the light at the tunnel at the end of the tunnel at that time, you couldn't have gone through those moments.
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And there's a lot of tough choices that you have to make along the way.
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You just have to really really really believe in what you do and surround yourself and be yourself passionate about what it is you're building.
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There was no time in Shopkick history and I'm going to show you some growth curves here.
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There was no time at Shopkick that I did not believe this is going to be a multi-billion dollar business.
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Not for a second because one is I was passionate as a customer.
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Second is I surrounded myself with amazing people who build marketplaces who knew that this is going to be a huge huge business.
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And if you don't believe in from the beginning, go find another idea, right?
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Because there's so many ideas that are great, but that passion and belief is what's going to take you to the next level. And so Thank you guys.
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And remember that every single day when you're making hard decisions.
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Here are some growth curves.
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For those of you that are building marketplaces, I want to say I'm sorry.
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It's a very tough business.
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Marketplaces are awesome though because after about 2 years, they actually hit the inflection point, at which point you start growing exponentially.
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So here's Etsy, 2 years of slow growth. Here's eBay.
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2 years of very painful growth.
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And when you look at when you look at on the growth curve, it feels very different when you live it.
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So remember that and surround yourself with the people who have lived it, right?
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So some of our investors invested in eBay and they knew that 2 years of not that high of a growth is okay, right? Building technology.
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And here's Shopkick for you guys.
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So we turned profitable and we grew 700% last year. Thank you.
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I wouldn't be able to do this without my team.
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So when I talk to you about being passionate and really believing, if you don't surround yourself with people that are super passionate and really really believe in what you do every single day, your employees as well, especially if you're a single founder, you'll not make it because you come in, right?
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If there's two co-founders, great.
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One is having bad time bad day, one is having great day.
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You guys will cheer yourself up or three or whatever, how many.
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If you're single founder, if you're having a bad day, there is no another person to tell you to have a great day.
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Before this talk, my whole team emailed me and said, "We are there.
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You're going to be great."
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Having that support of your team and building an incredible people that believe in the idea and really passionate about is going to get you that extra mile.
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I'm going to leave you with this one quote that is my favorite quote of all times.
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Um and it's by an incredible person, Jeff Bezos.
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Um when you're 80 years old and in a quiet moment of reflection, narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made.
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In the end, we are our choices.
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Um it's a very profound quote, so I'm not going to do any kind of narrating for that.
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I can't make do it justice.
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But just remember that every single day you make amazing amount of choices that will impact your life, everybody's life around you.
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Believe in what you do um because every single one of you here will start amazing businesses, will contribute to the world, and every one of you can do what I did.
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I mean, I was born in Kyrgyzstan.
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I didn't know I needed to learn English.
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So you guys already far away far ahead of me.
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Um so let's all together make an amazing um amazing amazing life and amazing um country.
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So one last thing because if I don't tell you this, um my VP of marketing, who is very passionate about Shoptiques, will kill me.
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Uh please all follow Shoptiques on all social media.
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And also download our app on March 18th when we launch.
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But thank you guys so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.