Niraj Shah
11 statements across 3 episodes · 2 bullish · 1 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Apr 16, 2018 by Niraj Shah · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Niraj Shah's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Everything said about Niraj Shah, oldest first
Apr 16, 2018
Shah: TV and speaker stands were top 100 product searches in 2002
“In those days, Yahoo, on Yahoo search, you could type in terms and it would tell you how many searches a month there were for that item. And on some of the product comparison sites, they would tell you their top hundred categories. And so both of those terms w…”
Apr 16, 2018
Apr 16, 2018 neutral
Shah: Wayfair took VC in 2011 because brand consolidation exceeded self-funding
“The challenge became, in 2011, we believe the big opportunity to continue the trajectory and to really capture the big opportunity, we needed to build a brand. And the amount of capital we thought to go through that migration and to build a brand that it would…”
Apr 16, 2018 neutral
Conine: Wayfair founders' first business was a $5 Ithaca web directory
“Our idea was actually to develop some internet directory services, and we would go downtown in Ithaca, New York, and try to pitch companies on paying us five bucks to have a listing in our internet directory, and of course, most of them would look at us like w…”
Aug 29, 2020 neutral
Shah: Wayfair avoids corporate stances on issues lacking broad employee consensus
“There are other opinions that I have personally that I don't know that the company should take a stand on because frankly, there's two sides to a lot of topics that in our mind, there is not just one side that reflects everyone's reasonable views. And so one o…”
Aug 29, 2020 neutral
Aug 29, 2020 positive
Shah: Launching companies in downturns reduces competition and builds operational resilience
“The right time to start something is often the time that seems the least obvious. So for example, we started this business, which is an e-commerce business in 2002. Right after the dot-com crash, right after e-commerce was viewed as a bit of a fool's errand by…”
Aug 29, 2020
Shah: Wayfair raised $535M in two weeks during early pandemic uncertainty
“Second thing is, from a liquidity standpoint, we didn't know what was going to happen next, so we actually decided to raise money, so we raised five hundred thirty-five million dollars. In hindsight, we didn't need, but at the time, you don't exactly know what…”
Oct 30, 2025 positive
Shah: Novel products require literal marketing before creative branding
“One thing we've seen over the years, sometimes when something is novel, the best way to communicate it is to be literal. You know, on the front of it, just saying, you know, add 16 ounces of water, and, you know, your chicken stock's ready to go, or add 32 oun…”
Oct 30, 2025
Shah: Wayfair bootstrapped for 10 years via drop-shipping before raising equity
“The big use of money that we were able to avoid in our case is we didn't buy the inventory, and instead we drop ship the orders from suppliers using their open stock inventory.
So we didn't buy the item until we had already sold it.
That's what let us kind of …”
Oct 30, 2025 negative
Shah: Founders should avoid raising VC if bootstrapping can work
“There's a lot of prestige in raising money, but the truth is you'd rather not raise money if you can get to the next level without it.
And so even if that means you might move a little slower, often that's a better decision.
And when the time is right to raise…”