Yuli Ziv fashion meets social media and tech

Check out my latest article for Mashable - “5 Trends Affecting How We Connect Through Social Media” http://mashable.com/2010/08/16/trends-connect-social-media

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Continuing the Startup Lessons series I would like to share some of my personal insights into what drives startup success. I credit almost everything I achieved in the past 4 years to Kundalini Yoga practice and my teacher Sat Jivan Singh. Of course, when I stepped on the entrepreneurial path I had lots of skills and experience, but none of it would bring me here if I wasn’t in the “yogi state of mind”.

The difference between any other type of yoga and Kundalini, is that the later focuses on the energy flow more than anything, or in the words of Yogi Bhajan (the first person to introduce the system to the West in 1968) it’s "The energy of the glandular system combines with the nervous system to become more sensitive so that the totality of the brain perceives signals and interprets them."

It’s not a coincidence that Yogi Bhajan’s Wikipedia page describes him as a “charismatic spiritual leader and successful entrepreneur” – most of his lessons are extremely relevant to any seasoned or aspiring entrepreneurs. I will try to describe the various effects of yoga on my life as a company founder in the future posts, and would like to start with one of the first lessons I learned. Not surprisingly, it’s the first step in Yogi Bhajan’s “Seven Steps to Happiness”. The first step is COMMITMENT.

I think it’s the most important thing for any new venture you start. Will you be able to commit to it fully for a long period of time? It might sounds easy, but I see many people around me underestimate the power of commitment. I see people jump from one idea to another, from one business model to another, from one branding to another, lacking commitment. The truth is every single idea in this world has a chance to succeed, only if you spend enough time exploring it, researching, building, optimizing and eventually monetizing. Yes, it might change visually and textually, but if you are committed to the core idea and its execution – you will find a way to make it work.

It’s so easy to come up with excuses why something didn’t work, and it’s much harder to commit pouring all your energy into making something work. Don’t get me wrong, I myself suffered from lack of commitment in the past few years as an entrepreneur, but what I found was when I stuck to something long enough, and was persistent enough, it usually worked. Yes, it took me long months and even years, but isn’t anything significant takes years to achieve? We are so used to this fast paced reality online, when trends change so quickly, companies come and go and users are always on the lookout for the next thing. But if you look at the most successful companies out there – it took them years to get where they are, and if you look at most founders’ bios it took years before then, and sometimes many failures on the way, to get where they are.

When people ask me how is it that I succeeded to do X and Y, mostly my answer is I’ve been persistent and doing it long enough to make it work, at any price. Sometimes sacrificing my sleep, my financial savings and sometimes even personal life… I spent total of 10 years building my career in the online media, in various roles. 3 ½ of them were on my own, as an entrepreneur. It’s a long time period, by any means, and frankly I don’t even feel accomplished… yet. But this is the choice I’ve made – I’ve committed to my business like most people commit to a marriage or a family. And I believe this is the only way to make it work.

What I also noticed is how the low points became starters for new and better things to come. They are essentially part of the experience and I learned to look at them as obstacles that eventually lead to something bigger and better, once I stop looking at them negatively. Thanks to my commitment, I have a strong sense of my path and truly believe every single experience is leading me there – be it positive or negative from the outside.

People tend to look at your accomplishments and see the end result, without realizing all the struggles and obstacles you had to overcome. Best example for me would be the Fashion 2.0 meetups I’ve been organizing for more than 2 years now. Yes, it looks like a success story right now, but not many people know how many of our first events looked like a failure to me. There was one time, at the very beginning, when about 40 people RSVPd for an event and barely 8 showed up. I was devastated and wanted to shut down the entire thing. I’m glad I didn’t… Something kept me going, learning from that mistake and making sure to bring interesting speakers and have a better focus at the next events.

Another low point was back in 2008 – the toughest year for most startups, not to mention those in the fashion space. We failed to raise another round of funding for It Designer – the first crowdsourced fashion line - after our seed money, raised from couple of angel investors, was spent. The choice was to leave my entrepreneurial dreams aside and go back to the corporate world, or somehow start making revenue. This is when my second startup – Style Coalition - was born, and this is what I’m most passionate about today, focusing almost my entire time on and seeing amazing results. It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have that low point, which made me realize how committed I am to stay independent and have my own business, even if it’s different from what I started.

I admit if someone would have told me 3 ½ years ago it’s going to take so long to get to this point, I’m not sure I would have ever started, but now I’m fully committed to this journey and feel more alive than ever.

As always, would love to hear about your experiences via comments or tweets @yuliz.

I’ve written on the online private sales phenomenon before, and think that just like any innovative industry sector it represents lots of potential, but also challenges for the players in it. After reaching the point of saturation in the last year, the inevitable Darwinian process will take place. How many out of hundreds of sites moving discounted designer inventory will survive in the long term? Most definitely those who won’t make mistakes like Hautelook did this week. According to the breaking news announcement on SheFinds.com:

“…luxury watch and accessories brand Cartier filed suit against Hautelook for over $2 million. After secretly purchasing 5 Cartier watches from the site, Cartier claims that the products are “secondhand”, “damaged”, and possibly “unauthentic”. (Hautelook denies the claims.) Cartier also alleges that the items arrived in the wrong packaging “and/or are accompanied by defaced/damaged Certificates of Authenticity.”

Unfortunately I tend to believe the damage will be larger than just Hautelook brand, as it will force online shoppers for the first time to question the authenticity of these perfectly packaged and glamorously designed exclusive shopping clubs, marketed as the best kept secret only you and your friends should know about. It just proves how smart positioning and branding can easily mislead people, especially in the virtual world.

Online we are missing some of the authenticity proofs we have in brick and mortar stores - obviously if you are looking for authentic luxury items you won’t shop on Canal street, but rather on 5th or Madison. The store itself and its location automatically serve as a seal of approval for many brands and their authenticity. It’s much easier to replicate that experience online, when copying the slick design from Saks.com site can cost you under $1,000, if outsourced to off shore countries.

The problem is because of the hype of this new and exciting category of private sales, and the amazing job sites like Gilt have done to position the entire category as top notch premium experience, shoppers rarely questioned these sites as they would do others, who try to sell the same merchandise without the members-only label.

Unfortunately I believe from now on we’ll see more concerned and cautious shoppers across the entire category, who would think twice before buying into the “exclusive” members-only experience. This could position even stronger sites like Gilt, who have proven track record, direct collaborations with designers and partnership with Vogue, but smaller less established sites will definitely have to fight much harder to prove their place on the “virtual 5th avenue”.

As always, would love to hear your thoughts via comments or tweets @yuliz

My short interview with advice for independent fashion designers is now live on Fashion Entrepreneur Report, powered by Nolcha.

Gaming elements became an integral component of many social sites, adding interaction layer and incentifying users to participate – from Foursquare to Farmville on Facebook - social games seems to rule the web these days. The question is what happens when you combine social gaming and e-commerce– isn’t this experience becoming more similar to… gambling?

Gaming experiences integrated into e-commerce sites and platforms is a fairly new phenomenon – from private sale sites like Gilt, ideeli and Rue La La to group auctions like Groupon – those less-than-2-year-old multi-million dollar online brands have found the way to incorporate gaming into e-commerce by introducing strictly timed constantly refreshing group shopping formats and they are now changing the game for the entire retail industry.

On top of that, our gaming experiences online also become more social and competitive. When Facebook turns almost every online activity into a social one, and sites like Groupon base their models on group purchases, it’s easy to imagine people soon engaging in “competitive shopping” just like they do in competitive sports or if we add the money layer on top – gambling.

Even today, the new generation of shoppers compete for the best deals on Gilt.com and later brag about them on Twitter and Facebook. It could be only a matter of time for the platforms to merge, and turn every online shopping experience to a competitive game among friends.

This issue didn’t exist in the offline retail world, although the reward systems and shopping clubs for loyal customers have existed long ago. The difference is that they weren’t social. You never “competed” with your friends or other people for AMEX points or Victoria’s Secrets catalog rewards.

Analyzing these experiences shows that there are few elements in these innovative shopping models that make them dangerously similar to gambling, and could even encourage addiction, or over spending:

* Fun rather than functional experience - people love gaming elements in the shopping experience from the same reason they prefer fancy casinos on lottery tickets – they pay for the experience. The rush of counting minutes till noon to snap a pair of Louboutin heels for $300 instead of $900 on Outnet.com can be easily compared to the moments at the Roulette table, waiting for the dice to hit its spot (both observations are based on the first hand experiences). Luckily, the $300 Louboutins could be returned and refunded, while the roulette money was lost forever, but I still remember both experiences and the rush associated with them.

* Easiness of virtual currencies - This problem doesn’t exist only at the flash sales sites, but definitely happens there as well. Credit cards were the first to create the problem of overspending - when paper dollar bills are replaced by a plastic card it’s hard to perceive it as a monetary transaction. Again, just like casino chips don’t look like real money, virtual payments create an illusion. The problem gets even worse when your credit card numbers are virtually stored on the websites you shopped before, so you don’t even have to use the plastic card, or remember its number. A thousand dollar purchase suddenly becomes just 2 clicks away, and doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.

* Group pressure - sites like Groupon base their entire business model on the peer pressure. While there are definitely advantages to collective buying power, sometimes this power can turn back on the buyer. Just like the pressure of your neighbor at the roulette table bidding all his chips and the crowds cheering up make you raise your stakes, these sites make you shop for things you didn’t necessarily need or could afford, just because you see others cleaning out the merchandise in seconds.

* Impulsive purchase reasons – have you ever wondered why gaming elements are never used to sell people groceries or other necessities online? They are mostly applied to purchases that are aspirational – designer fashion, luxurious travel, gourmet restaurants, pampering spas, etc. It’s hard to ever call these purchases rational, but the way these new technologies create purchase pressure, even worsens the chances of ever buying something you otherwise would. When the clock is ticking and you see “only 2 items left” flashing on your screen – is your brain capable of making the best decision?

* Addictive daily routine – most private and flash sale sites send daily email alerts, which prove to be the most effective way to get people to their sites but also create a daily routine. The 12pm start time for most sales encourages people to go online “just to check out” the sales as a daily habit, mostly as part of their lunch time “treat”. The question is once they see a good bargain, are they “strong” enough to click away?

Gambling is definitely part of our culture and is a huge industry on its own, but it also creates one of the strongest addictions and in some cases ruins people’s lives. The real problem is when some of its dangerous and addictive elements become part of our routine online experiences, since in that case they become hard to identify and watch out for.

While competitive shopping might have many advantages for our suffering economy, we should be careful not to become victims (or more precisely addicts) of our own innovative technologies.

As always, would love to hear about your opinions via comments or tweets @yuliz.