Storenvy: The Retailer’s Gutenberg
It’s pretty exciting to announce a new retail investment on the same day Amazon.com, announces it’s first $10B quarter. It’s a nice marker for how much online retail has evolved and how much further it has to go, so I wanted to share some thoughts on why First Round Capital is thrilled to be part of the syndicate investing $1.5M in Storenvy.
For the first 550 years after Gutenberg invented the printing press, it remained pretty difficult for individuals to publish and share their ideas. Writing and editorial remained in the province of broadcasting corporations, family newspaper dynasties and book publishers. Of course, the Internet changed that. Blogging services like WordPress, SixApart and Tumblr made it simple and free for anyone to share their ideas with the world and to build a personal brand.
As much as commerce has evolved in the past few years, it hasn’t kept pace with the forces which shaped modern publishing. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to open a store, it meant you had to rent a physical space and apply for business permits down at city hall. There was a significant expense and to seeing whether or not a retail idea would be welcomed into the world. The experience was daunting. In the mid-1990′s, Amazon launched and opened the world to e-commerce. In the early part of this millenium, platforms like Magento have made building an online retail presence easier, but my no means easy. Ebay and Etsy have been available as lower cost alternatives, but the experience was still analogous to taking out a classifieds ad. The UX didn’t belong to the person doing the selling. The retailer had as much control over their brand as they did over the font in their newspaper ads.
Storenvy changes this. It brings the blogging revolution to retail. FREE branded online stores for everyone. A sense of community for the buyers and the sellers. An easy way for merchants to sell on Facebook. Much the way GigaOm and TechCrunch operate on wordpress.com, Storenvy will have it’s share of larger merchants like indie record lable, Lil’ Chief Records. But, what gets me most excited is that now anyone can be a retail entrepreneur. In fact, the t-shirt to appearing on the left of this post, well, it hasn’t been produced yet. Amore Apparel, the Storenvy merchant behind the design can test some designs and see which ones generate the most interest. Even the smallest retailer can test the appeal of their product before committing to inventory. Retail has never been more democratized.
We’re thrilled to be working with founders Jon & Janette Crawford, Spark Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Charles River Ventures. We know with terrific advisers like Jeffrey, David and Willo, there will be lots of gorgeous (and funnel effective) stores blooming.
BTW, if you’re as excited by this as we are, you should know that Storenvy is looking for a few good hires.
