Insight
Tynan: An MVP approach cannot work for high-trust custom framing
“There is no Really minimally viable product version of this business. It has to be great out of the gate. Like that, that anything to just test whether the concept worked wouldn't work. We had to do it great. And we had to do it ourselves.”
Insight
Custom framing cannot work as a lean MVP; quality must be immediate
“I really thought, like, there is no Really minimally viable product version of this business. It has to be great out of the gate. Like that, that anything to just test whether the concept worked wouldn't work. We had to do it great. And we had to do it ourselv…”
Insight
Tynan: LivingSocial unravelled because merchants failed to gain repeat customers
“The exchange was really that local merchants would get loyal customers, and so that had to be the case, and I think in some cases that trade-off didn't exist, and so some of the best merchants said not interested anymore, and so then the emails weren't as exci…”
Insight
Tynan: Local Frame Shops Are Expensive Because They Hold Zero Inventory
“So for a local store they don't store any inventory. They don't store any of their materials in their store. And so in order, when you go in and you select from the thousand frame styles on the wall the frame store is actually buying those materials for your p…”
Insight
Tynan: Startup survival is directly correlated to crisis recovery speed
“I once read that, like, how fast you can jump up from a burpee is correlated with your life expectancy. And I think that's a lot like a startup. It's really how fast, like, oh, the production manager quit. We got a new production manager. You're like, it's lik…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Tynan: Framebridge can become big and forecastable enough to IPO
“Do I think we can be a big enough company to go public? Absolutely. And I think we can be a fundamentally good enough company to and an understandable enough and a forecastable enough business to go public. Yeah, I believe that.”
Disclosure
Tynan admits she gave up a shocking amount of Framebridge equity
“Yeah, I've given up a tremendous amount of ownership. I think people would be shocked by how much.”
What-if
Tynan: Framebridge would not have worked without venture capital
“I don't think it would have worked unless we had done it in this really Full way, this really high quality way, and the money allowed me to recruit truly the best people, these terrific people, and use very good materials, and, you know, have a very open liber…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founder Susan Tynan is not the highest-paid employee at Framebridge
“And I'm not the highest paid member of the team by any stretch.”
Insight
Tynan: Working at startups barely prepares someone to be a founder
“I worked at a lot of startups. Like, that has nothing to do with this. It has nothing, it's like barely even preparation for this.”
Insight
Daily deals collapsed because local merchants failed to acquire loyal customers
“The exchange was really that local merchants would get loyal customers, and so that had to be the case, and I think in some cases that trade-off didn't exist, and so some of the best merchants said not interested anymore, and so then the emails weren't as exci…”
Insight
Startup survival mirrors human life expectancy: it depends on burpee recovery speed
“I once read that, like, how fast you can jump up from a burpee is correlated with your life expectancy. And I think that's a lot like a startup. It's really how fast, like, oh, the production manager quit. We got a new production manager. You're like, it's lik…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Susan Tynan predicts Framebridge will be big and forecastable enough to IPO
“Do I think we can be a big enough company to go public? Absolutely. And I think we can be a fundamentally good enough company too, and an understandable enough and a forecastable enough business to go public. Yeah, I believe that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tynan: LivingSocial business lines reached $80M in sales in 18 months
“And I remember even the business lines I was running, I got to launch them, and I got to eighty million in sales, like, you know, in a year and a half.”
Disclosure
Tynan: Framebridge originally planned to outsource its first 9,000 frames
“The plan was to build an app and a website and to find some framer friends to do the initial production. And I remember we said for the first 9000 frames, I don't know why we said that, but the first 9000 frames, we'll just find someone who'll do it for us.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tynan: Home Decor Blogger Triggered Framebridge's First Major Sales Spike
“Late October, someone, a home decor blogger, wrote a blog post, and we had our first real sales spike of a day and that was the first day we thought, okay, like, it's on.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tynan: Framebridge sold 100 frames daily while making only 70
“So we started, it was really the daily issue in that we were selling about a hundred frames a day and making about 70.”
Insight
Tynan: A CFO departure immediately signals internal trouble to observers
“Anyone who's ever worked for a business knows that people watch what the CFO does, because, I mean, you're like, what's going on there if your CFO leaves?”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Susan Tynan grew new LivingSocial business lines to $80M in 18 months
“Yeah, it was a couple billion, and I remember even the business lines I was running. I got to launch them, and I got to eighty million in sales, like, you know, in a year and a half.”
Assertion Supported
Local frame shops hold zero inventory, causing multi-week turnarounds and high markups
“So for a local store they don't store any inventory. They don't store any of their materials in their store. And so in, or when you go in and you select from the thousand frame styles on the wall the frame store is actually buying those materials for your piec…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Revolution Ventures' Tig Savage passed on Susan Tynan's initial Framebridge seed pitch
“And I went in, and I went through everything in the deck, and he said, huh, huh, this isn't enough. I just don't think there's enough here that we can make an investment at this time.”
Insight
Stakeholders closely monitor CFO departures as signals of internal company trouble
“So anyone who's ever worked for a business knows that people watch what the CFO does, because, I mean, you're like, what's going on there if your CFO leaves?”
Disclosure
Framebridge has raised $37 million in total venture funding
“We've raised thirty seven million dollars.”
Disclosure
Founder Susan Tynan is not the highest-paid employee at Framebridge
“No, and I'm not the highest paid member of the team by any stretch.”
