The Exchanges

Q all of the stationery from, from other brands, and so you would get a cut of that, and that would fund your business, that would, that would, that would bring in revenue, but also you had this crowdsourced, um, these competitions from designers, and then how would that work? Like they would, their, their designs would be printed by you guys, and then they would get a cut of that?

A Well, the, the way it worked back then was that we had the stationary brands who were basically in a wholesale relationship with, we would take the product and resell it and, and earn a cut. And we had the crowdsourced side where designers would submit and They would receive a couple things. So they, first of all, they would receive peer critique and feedback from their peers. We built in a critique phase into the process, which was a benefit. And second, if they won, they would receive an upfront cash prize that was completely at our risk, meaning if the product never sold, they could still keep the cash. And then on top of that, if the product sold, they would receive a percentage of every sale. And so that's how the business model launched. But because The only thing that sold was the crowdsourced product, and not what we spent the entire year launching, which was all the stationary brands. We actually made a hard cut over, and by Christmas of that year, we went 100% crowdsourcing. Wow. And so we turned it around. We actually decided to move into the holiday cards business against the advice of all of our investors who probably rightly said you should focus on what you started, which was wedding. We decided to ignore the advice, launch into holiday cards, and we were, we had an exceptional first Christmas. I mean, we were so oversold. It was, we had to actually shut off our …

AI assessment note: “if they won, they would receive an upfront cash prize... and a percentage”

Q So you, I guess you were doing this for a couple years, and then at a certain point you decided to go to, to business school. Were you, Were you thinking in your mind like, okay, I'm going to go to business school, and then I'm going to start a business?

A Um, so what happened was I, at first, was just thinking about going to business school because I'd actually done investment banking and management consulting, and I thought perhaps I would want to go into consumer products or retail, but I didn't get into Stanford the first time I applied for business school, and so I decided to Take your ear off and try to boost my resume with something that was a little bit more differentiated, and went to work for an entrepreneur, Maurice Werdegar, in the restaurant business actually, who was a Stanford grad, and he became a key mentor to me. Um, and he, he was starting a chain of restaurants in Palo Alto and all over California. But I was so inspired and bitten with the entrepreneurial bug during that experience, and Maurice importantly said to me, you really You really could do this. You could start a company. I think you should really consider it. Because we would spend hours talking about entrepreneurial ideas, venture capital, and just becoming completely obsessed to the point where I thought, why go to business school? A real entrepreneur doesn't go to business school. I'm not even interested anymore. And at that point, I thought, alright, I'll apply one more time because my boyfriend, who became my husband, was applying. I thought, alright, let's, I'll throw my hat in the ring one more time. And, and then Stanford accepted me.

AI assessment note: “why go to business school? A real entrepreneur doesn't go to business school.”

Q And at, at that time, I mean, when, when, when they were going after you, I mean, there were other companies who were doing what you were doing, right? There were, there were companies doing custom stationery that you could buy online.

A That's right. So the first generation of companies had been around that captivated people just by the sheer fact that they could make custom stationery for you at a decent price, right? That was just almost like an outgrowth of the printing and manufacturing industry, frankly. We came along with real design vision and really tried to change that entirely into a branded, high-end European stationery product with lots of bells and whistles and really changed the industry. So, yes, there were choices, but we felt that design could be better and more exciting. And then as this community, creative community, blossomed and developed, we realized that we were a creative community of all kinds of different people. Some people who were former lawyers. You know, there's an oil rig worker from Alaska. There's a, um, plumber, a master plumber in New York City who's winning stationary challenges. There are all kinds of people who want to be creative and who want to earn money creatively, and Minted is a platform for these people to be seen and discovered.

AI assessment note: “That's right. So the first generation of companies had been around”

Q And did, I mean, as a kid, did you have any real interest in, like, business or entrepreneurial stuff?

A No, my, my parents, I come from a completely non-business family, and honestly, you know, with the Iranian upper class, you know, you did, you didn't, you didn't set up business as sort of the vaunted thing that one goes into. Things that were in, in my family very, uh, admired were things like being a doctor, going into foreign service and the government, for example. So when I was growing up in Chevy Chase, not once did business cross my mind. I was thinking law, and I, I I, I, I do remember my mom on the first day of first grade sort of bending down to, to say to me something, and she said, I want you to go to school and I want you to beat all of the boys.

AI assessment note: “No, my, my parents, I come from a completely non-business family”

Q So when you approached these small brands, did any of them, why didn't any of them just say, well, we'll just sell them online ourselves? Why were they attracted to what you guys were offering them?

A Well, in those days, there was no, you know, solution that would easily allow a small brand to actually sell online. I know it sounds crazy, but there was no solution. And so, first of all, nobody wanted to sell online. We would have to go in there and convince them that the internet was not bad. We also actually hired a woman from Macy's. Who was formerly from, at Macy's as a big manager of the cosmetics business, and she ended up being our river guide, making introductions for us, helping advise us, you know, if you go to Chanel, wear the Chanel nail polish, for example. That was, that one stood out. Um, they'll recognize their colors on you.

AI assessment note: “there was no solution that would easily allow a small brand to actually sell online”

Q How much of, uh, of your success is because of, of luck versus, uh, skill and intelligence and hard work?

A I think so much of it is luck. I mean, think about what would have happened if I had not been able to leave Iran, right? How many people are in areas around the world where they can't escape, uh, what the situation that their governments are creating for them? Think about all those talented people who won't ever have a chance. And, and, and, and I guess I would say the other thing is just sheer wanting it very badly, right? I mean, there are, there are a lot of people who are smarter than I am. And I think it's just, I really focused in on something I'm happily, extremely passionate about and love to think about all the time. And I would say that's luck and passion probably outweigh the, the raw skills.

AI assessment note: “I think so much of it is luck.”

Q Do you, do you, were there other people in your position in the industry who maybe didn't have as good timing as you guys did who were, I don't know, maybe resentful of your luck or your, your foresight?

A I think there were a lot of cases where people were convinced by investors or convinced themselves to keep going and wait for the public exit, because clearly at that point everybody was, everybody was enamored of the IPO, and I do think people were resentful of us for this, and they considered it lucky versus any type of hard work or intuition or anything else, and that was unfortunate because we worked our butts off to build this business, I mean, we were working, I, I basically lived at the office during this time. I never left. Um, so, um, we built a pretty good business in a year. It was ten million dollars in our first year. Yet, yes, people were, I think, were very resentful that we had sold at the right time.

AI assessment note: “I do think people were resentful of us for this”

Q So, so at what point did you decide to drop selling other stationery brands?

A Yeah, so that was really rough because I had gone and sold, minted as a partner to all of these stationary brands, and I felt very ethically bound. Like, you know, I, I've made a commitment, I've, I've explained why we brought them on, and now instead this crowdsourced design coming from unknown designers from all over the country is just taking off, and I felt very uncomfortable, and I, and I was lingering in that discomfort for many months. It took me at least nine months to say, We've got to cut and run. We're going to lose all the money we put into those, building out those brands on our site. We've got to just cut that and shed all of that work, all that money, and all those relationships, and we need to completely pivot towards a crowdsourced model, 100%.

AI assessment note: “It took me at least nine months to say, We've got to cut and run.”