Magento is making it easy on me to reach my New Years resolution of creating over 100 jobs in 2010:

Did you know the word “Magento” has more Google search volume than the word “eCommerce”?

Magento is a fast growth worldwide company and is looking for talent to join our team on our mission of “enabling the eCommerce ecosystem” worldwide.

Here are key roles Magento is looking for:

Head of Marketing

• Drive worldwide awareness of Magento products and brand through direct means and in partnership with our channel partners.  Manage our brands in all venues.  Oversee our web, print and event assets to drive results: awareness, knowledge, experience, and conversion.  Target and engage ecommerce ecosystem of developer, channel and merchants.
• Experience: 5+ Yr prior leadership position leading marketing for technology driven companies (eCommerce or software).  Strong track record of growing customer flow; brand awareness, engagement and conversion. Understanding of eCommerce; entrepreneurial, MBA preferred [Los Angeles HQ]
• Role is Director or Vice President level (DOE)

Head of Support Services Group

• Develop and manage our technology service and support group for our Enterprise, SAAS and Professional Services Groups.  Web based (knowledge base, email, chat, phone) and consultative. Establish strategy and build talent focused on supporting ecommerce merchants, channel and developers worldwide.
• Experience: 7+ Yr prior success experience with similar service and support management / leadership role (group or division). Experience with appropriate structure to scale, tools and systems. Technology understanding. understanding of eCommerce preferred [Los Angeles HQ preferred]
• Role is Director or Vice President level (DOE)

Business Unit GM: SAAS eCommerce SMB

• Drive the business development, launch and growth of Magento’s new SAAS offering to small and medium businesses.  Refine the plan, business model, oversee the process /timeline for successful launch and worldwide market growth.
• Experience: 7+ Yr of Business unit or growth stage leadership; small medium business solutions market experience; understanding of eCommerce; entrepreneurial, MBA preferred [Los Angeles HQ]
• Role is GM level

Business Unit GM: Training, Certification, Education

• Drive the business development, launch and growth of Magento’s Education group to developers and merchants.  Refine the plan, business model, oversee the process /timeline for successful launch and worldwide market growth.
• Experience: 5+ Yr Business unit or growth stage leadership; understanding of eCommerce; entrepreneurial, past knowledge / training product or services experience, MBA preferred [Los Angeles HQ Preferred]
• Role is GM level

Strategic Partner Manager

• Work with the business development and sales group to manage various strategic and key partnerships for growth and value.
• Experience: 2+ Yr Prior experience with partnership management in the technology industry; understanding of eCommerce; entrepreneurial, MBA preferred [Los Angeles HQ]
• Role is Manager level

IMPORTANT: TO APPLY

• email to: Magento@SchwartzGroup.com
• Attach resume and /or LinkedIn Profile link
• MUST include 5 short bullets in your email about your EXPERIENCE that best highlight why you are the talent Magento is looking for.

Magento Inc –  eCommerce Platform for Growth

Magento Inc. is focused on “enabling the eCommerce ecosystem” worldwide and is the leading provider of Enterprise open source ecommerce platforms and solutions. The Magento platform is a feature-rich, professional Open Source eCommerce platform that offers merchants complete flexibility and control over the presentation, content, and functionality of their online channel with the assurances and service of Enterprise technology.

Magento’s intuitive administration interface features powerful marketing tools, a catalog-management engine and is SEO optimized to give merchants the power to create sites that provide an unrivaled and rich online shopping experience for their customers, tailored to their unique business needs. Designed to be completely scalable, backed by an extensive support network and innovations by our worldwide developer ecosystem, Magento is the ultimate eCommerce solution.

How is Magento doing after its first 1.5 yrs in the Market?

• Over 60,000 Magento Platforms live

• Adopted by the Worlds best brands

• Powering over $35 Billion in annual sales transactions

• Over 125 Worldwide Solution Partners

• Over 2,000 extensions from the developer ecosystem

• We are profitable and have growth capital

• The word “Magento” has more Google search volume than the word “eCommerce”   http://tinyurl.com/yhhnhj5

… We have only just begun – Join us!   www.MagentoCommerce.com

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I just couldn’t take it any longer!  With all this talk and questions about Private / Flash Sale eCommerce sites, I had to come up with my own Private Sale site!  The most difficult part was figuring out what category to target?

Fashion?  Too many already out there.

Luxury?  Hmmm lots of those too.

Kids?  I know of at least 3 with more on the way.

Home?  I love OneKingsLane and I know the founder Alison and her Entrepreneur extraordinaire husband (Mark Pincus) well (15+ years) and consider them friends.  It doesn’t feel right to compete with friends.

But Sh-t!! I know the founders and/ or investors of most of these private sale sites pretty darn well and I like them all including; Ideeli, HauteLook, OneKingsLane, TheFairest, JacksThreads, Portero and Totsy…  How can I compete directly with friends?

But I was determined so I continued to think, “I need a new private sale category that has lots of excess inventory, and a set of passionate hungry customers.”

Then the big Ah Ha! I can start a Private Sale site that sells Private Sale Companies!!!! The build up of Private Sale companies will likely give me plenty of “inventory”, and the demand from the Venture and Private Equity folks gives me a great set of passionate customers … There you have it – A Private Sale Company that sells Private Sale Companies!

Next I needed a name and for some reason this just felt right: GuiltyLook.com – “Oy, Oy Vey!”.  You can get a preview  of the pre-beta site of  here (www.GuiltyLook.com).  Once done come back and read “Our analysis of the Private Sale market” – thoughts and issues to be considered.

Add your thoughts – love to hear them!

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It started for me over two years ago during a conversation with Paul Hurley, CEO and founder of Ideeli. The basic concept was simple, bring the powerful aspects of the sample sale on-line.

Now mix in a fast growing successful overseas private sale pioneer (Vente Privee)  as a model to emulate, coupled with a crushingly brutal economy creating massive inventory build-ups and you have the perfect storm. A perfect foundation for launching a new private sale site…or we should now say sites as conservatively there are at least 25 private sale sites live today.

My point of view has been consistent since the first call on this segment.  Here are the short strokes that need to be considered:

• Technology: This is not a technologically difficult business to start, and in fact can be up and going very inexpensively.  I know the leaders are now investing heavily in technology trying create a technical point of differentiation and advantage.  This includes a new ground swell of innovators buzzing the venture networks with what I see as standard technological spins on this model.
• Opportunistic Business: It is analogous to the Jobber business (Jobbers have long existed in the fashion world to move excess inventory through various “approved” channels by buying the inventory for pennies on the pound). You can make great money as a jobber, but is it unto itself a venture back-able type business?
• Inventory levels then vs now: The world just went through the “perfect storm” creating the perfect time to start a liquidation business. We had inventory levels at an all time high as our economy cratered, particularly in aspirational and luxury categories. We also had consumers cutting back while still highly addicted to buying top quality brand names. Brands were fighting for their lives and a “safe” channel to clear inventory was just what they needed. Deeply discounted branded merchandise was the perfect answer for the budget squeezed consumer in need of a shopping addiction fix. But now inventories are being “right sized” or even “under produced” which intersects with a proliferation of “private sale” companies fighting for fewer excess goods – a new perfect storm. Some are talking about “MFO” (Made for Outlet) as a way to gain discounted inventory.  In a physical outlet store these made for outlet products a person can see exactly what they are buying and might disregard a few cost saving short cuts that are part of MFO.  But online people depend on the brand name to be their eyes and if they end up getting an item of lesser quality than expected it will quickly chip away at the brand and consumers confidence.
• Brands and Perceptions: The need for private sale companies to grow their business aggressively has made these sites much less “private”, which likely will reduce the way the brands look at these venues on their “plausible deniability” scale.  Add to this the following statement from my discussion with a top creative executive, “I now go to the retail stores and see luxury fashion items I might have bought before, but now I make note of them and wait to see if they show up on the private sales sites”. Retailers won’t like this either – see next point
• The Traditional Retailers: You  know those old brick and mortar, multi-channel, but also multi billion dollar businesses, are VERY important to brands for their true success and brand longevity, as well as some of the brands higher margin transactions. These same retailers can and will place enormous pressure on the brands showing that it is not in their best interest to liquidate through these “closed” private sale channels.  Retailers may also insist on first rights to excess inventory for their own “basement/ off-price” channel and/or very easily open up their own private sale site.  ”Mr Brand, we would love to buy $100′s of millions of dollars worth of your fresh high margin inventory but we have concerns… so we will take that order with rights to your excess inventory.”

Recently the number of inquires, due diligence, and strategic advisory requests to SchwartzGroup on the private sale segment have been substantial. This includes Private Equity, Venture, Top Tier Consulting Firms, Fortune 500 companies and friends and neighbors with “an idea”.  A few months ago I even got a call from someone building a company looking to aggregate private sale offers.  It’s great and I’m thrilled to be of service, but on a macro level this feels like a red flag, or should I say it feels uncomfortably familiar.

As an operator and an eCommerce leader I love these companies. They are fun. They are exciting. Your heart pounds as a shopper and your palms sweat as a operator watching the virtual doors being stampeded by eager consumers everyday.

Some private sale companies will succeed (I have my favorites) by building their own brand into a leading discount retailer brand and they will figure out how to best grow from there.  Some will succeed in a financial way, that is investors will do well but in some cases the businesses perhaps not so much. Some will fail as their efforts to fuel venture expected growth will force them away from being jobbers and into becoming less and less “private” and they will find available quality brand inventory much harder to come by.

As a person who loves building great eCommerce companies all this capital attention frankly  makes me a bit nervous.  I am worried that with an already substantially capitalized “private sale” segment companies will begin acting unnaturally resulting in an unbalanced and unsustainable market one which will be tough on all eCommerce.

Overall my point of view is the “private sale experience” is fantastic and should be part of most eCommerce or multi-channel companies. It is another way to shop and to brings excitement to your customer (and we have the platform to make it easy). For the capital partners this excitement is directionally correct – eCommerce is moving into a new phase (and it makes money), look for many new models arising.” — more on both of these in part 2.

• Note: for fun be sure to see Launching Our Private Sale Site and get a preview of my new private sale site, GuiltyLook.com, Oy Oy Vey! (I couldn’t resist!)
• Private Sale Traffic Metrics from Compete below.
• If this topic or the subject of brands and eCommerce  are of interest, connect with us Twitter @bobschwartz or email (icons on right column) to stay up to date on the follow up postings.

Compete.com Metrics (grouped as of 10/09)

The Top Traffic Group:

The Mid Traffic Group

The Lower Traffic Group

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At our weekend morning ritual gathering at Peets coffee in Manhattan Beach CA (shoot the bull and remedy the world issues) our friend DaveR fights off all others, at all costs, to get possession of the LA Times Sudoku. This morning the concept of a Sudoku Language was born with Klep-doku – the act of stealing someones Sudoku.

With a Facebook posting and Tweet on this subject others began to add to the Sudoku dictionary (Howie seems to be the early leader).

Here are the words posted to date (Add Yours in Comments):

Klep-doku - the act of stealing someones Sudoku (Howie S)

SoSuMeKu – a Klepdoku’s answer for his act – (Howie S)

Nerdoku - the act of doing a sudoku (Zach S)

Sodoyourownku – Adding numbers to someone else’s sudoku (Howie S)

Shlep-doku - the art of taking your Sudoku wherever you go (Andrea R)

Sudokahanamoku – doing sudoku while surfing long board on the big island. (Lynn G)

SoSuMeKu – a Klepdoku’s answer for his act. (HowieS)

Guruku – someone that can do a sudoku in under three minutes (HowieS)

Poop-doku – the puzzle completed while on the throne! (DaveR)

Medioku – a sudoku that is no fun because it is too easy or too hard (HowieS)

Accidoku – someone who crashes their car while driving and sudokuing at the same time (HowieS)

Addicto-ku – a puzzler in need of a 12 step program. (DaveR)

Traffi-ku – a person who puzzles while driving. (DaveR)

Studento-ku – a person learning the game. (DaveR)

Sodoyou-ku? - A pick up line… (AndreaR)

Bazooka Sudoku - puzzles in bubble gum.. (LynnG)

Chewdoku – when the dog gets to the paper before you. (HowieS)

Pseudoku – A puzzle like sudoku but not quite the same. (HowieS)

Lewdoku – doing sudoku in the nude (HowieS)

Boodoku – doing sudoku while trick-or-treating (HowieS)

BooHoodoku – getting to the last number and realizing you made a mistake (HowieS)

Whoknewku – finding out someone was really good at sudoku. (DaveR)

Whewdoku - finding the discarding LA times, with the puzzle intact. (DaveR)

Achoodoku – a nasty puzzle that’s been sneezed on!… (DaveR)

Effthisdoku-a puzzle so difficult you give up in exasperation also used it’s milder firm of “screwthisdoku” (DaveR)

Polidoku- the divisions of ieology in the puzzling world. (DaveR)

Repubdoku- Those who believe that everyone should earn the right to have and play sudoku.(DaveR)

Demdoku- Those who believe they have a right to sudoku and if they can’t afford one, then it should be provided at the expense of the repubdoku’s. (DaveR)

Independoku- This group believes that everyone has the”ability” to sudoku but it is not a right! (DaveR)

Sociodoku- A person who’s ideaology is that sudoku should be provided as a birthright to each and every person. (DaveR)

Communidoku- An ideology that we should all share whatever puzzles are available. (DaveR)

Lieudoku – When a sudoku is done by someone who usually does the crossword.(DaveR)

Fewdoku - A sudoku puzzle where you can only get a few numbers. (DaveR)

Freudoku - A puzzle your mother started and you are left to finish. (DaveR)

Redodoku – starting over because you were unjustifiably a overconfidoku! (DaveR)

CompeDoku - Several people competing to solve a puzzle the fastest. (DaveR)

Add your Word to impromptu SudokuPedia – as a comment below.

(we can build and move this to www.SudokuPedia.com later)

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***JOB FILLED***

Ad Operations Analyst/Media Planner

http://www.richrelevance.com/

The Ad Operations Analyst is responsible for leading the operations and media planning for richreach, a product within the richrelevance enRICH personalization suite. Areas of oversight include relationship management, campaign and creative management, ad exchange management, and ongoing day-to-day operations.

Responsibilities
- Manage execution of campaigns associated with richreach advertising product for online retailers
- This person will be responsible for campaign-level ad purchases and optimization
- Manage relationships with ad networks and exchanges, and other outside organizations
- Establish project road maps and deliverables for exceeding client expectations and meeting success criteria
- Will coordinate closely with relationship management group to ensure proper execution of campaign/advertising goals
- Manage pipeline of online retailers instrumenting the richreach product and guide them through the launch process
- Hands-on and able to think strategically about maximizing ROAS for customers

Required Skills
- Must be proficient in managing multiple campaigns across ad networks and exchanges
- Strong numbers background (stats and/or math) with a passion for digging into data
- Ability to work cross-functionally and with a wide range of employees with different skill sets
- Ability to multi-task, prioritize issues/escalations, and manage many projects simultaneously
- Ability to work with a diverse customer base
- Extremely detail oriented
- Preferably familiar with online retailing web analytics and terminology
- Proficient in MS Office tools (primarily Excel)
- Technical experience is a plus (high level knowledge of web architecture, XML, and Javascript specifically)

Required Experience
- At least 3-5 years experience in managing display/ad campaigns
- Successful track record of working with multiple clients and managing many projects simultaneously
- Creative, consultative, and a strong communicator with the ability to build exceptional relationships and grow business
- BA/BS required, technology or business degree preferred
- Some travel may be required (10-15%)
- Experience managing search or other online marketing channels for retailers is a plus

Overall, this person must be a self-starter, have a passion for winning, and show an unrelenting drive to help our clients succeed.

RichRelevance (www.richrelevance.com) is a technology company with patent -pending systems that personalize a user’s shopping experience with targeted and relevant product recommendations, optimizing every interaction point from landing to search to product pages, and in email. By showing customers the “right products at the right time”, ecommerce sites maximize the value of each user. RichRelevance offers a full suite of hosted, automated merchandising tools, and RichRecs — our flagship product — is currently being run on top-tier retail sites.
RichRelevance was founded in 2005 and is led by former executives and key folks from Amazon, Overstock, MySpace, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Redfin, who have years of experience in personalization, online commerce, data analysis, advertising, and consumer product.

If you are THE person RichRelevance is looking for send an email with your resume and short note calling out how you fit this role:

To:  recruit “at” schwartzgroup.com
Subject: RR Ad Media Planner

- all submissions will be forwarded to RichRelevance VP Advertising.

http://www.richrelevance.com/

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(Nutrition in my 3rd office - Virgin America)

After roughly 9 Months, over 40 LAX-JFK-LAX 6 hour flights, 120,000 air-miles, ~ 100 nights away, in the midst of the worlds worst economy, 3/4 year of missed Sunday night family dinners with my boys and “bride”, a $6.6 million venture capital close, a launch of two new eCommerce web sites, creation of operational efficiencies, gallons of Starbucks Americano’s, my interim CEO time at PORTERO.com has come to a close.

There were many challenges all along the way, both personal and business, but don’t get me wrong I loved ALMOST every minute of it and I am very proud of what WE overcame and accomplished.  “We” being the great team at PORTERO who are passionate about what they do, passionate to do right by the customer, love finding sources of value in world class luxury brands, and who are all great people. “We” also being my “bride” (of 20 yrs) and my two boys (well, men at 15 & 17) who lived with me for 9 months via cell phone, sms and video chat.

Though our search for an outstanding NYC based CEO took twice as long as we (the Board) anticipated, it was worth the effort as we found a great one, Susan Engel.

I first met Susan when she was asked to join our Board a few months prior to her accepting the CEO position. I immediately fell in love with her style, her merchandising and marketing approach, and deep operational experience (including 10 yr+ Board Member for Wells Fargo), and she really “got it” and saw the true need for an Authentic Luxury Market. I was thrilled when she accepted the full time PORTERO CEO position.

As an Interim CEO of a growth company you cannot simply babysit the company, rather your goal is to use your experience to build, fix, move forward, put in place, what you can in a variable period of time then hand-off the ball to the new CEO.

Trust me when I say I left PLENTY of “fun” on the plate for Susan but I have seen her in action and she is good! I hope you all someday get a chance to meet Susan, in the meantime check out the new Portero and PorteroPrivate sites and click on the “Share your thoughts” links and send your quick thoughts and ideas, I know Susan reads them all and would love to hear from you.

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Most eCommerce sites though successful still look like the same one dimensional catalogues of 1999, yet these powerful trends of content, community and individuality have emerged. What does it look like when you blend empowered individuals within a platform of content, community and commerce? And how can content companies embrace their new found ability (broadband, VOD, Mobile) to think “direct commerce and retail” and build Lifetime Customer Value relationships?

The infrastructure is now in place and economical, powerful new trends are emerging empowering mass individualism, driving with new forms of eCommerce blended with content and community. There is a new window for new consumer brand leaders to emerge. I am determined to be in the midst of building such leaders…Stay tuned.

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10 years ago, the day Netscape went public in 1996, I was working as an executive at a consumer technology interface company and I still recall our CTO coming to me and saying, “It has all changed… Individuals will now have more power than ever before, enough power to take down governments”. Our CTO was known to be dramatic yet he was right as there is now an massive and accelerated shift of power to individuals.

From a single blogger destroying the decades of credibility of 60 Minutes, to a school teacher who drove millions of viewers to an iPod commercial created for fun. Individuals have more power than ever before. The Internet boom/ bust left in its place a fertile scalable foundation with new, easy to use tools and means of distribution at little or no cost…and it will only get better. The photo above of Manhattan Beach pier at sunrise was an impromptu photo I took with my Treo 600 while walking my dog two Xmas mornings ago. I have one 11 yr old son who started programming in Flash and went to the UCLA campus to C++ Camp last summer, and my older son (14) is busy producing, filming and editing digital film leveraging his iBook and software in middle school. The power has shifted to the individual

There is a massive shift to empowered people expressing their individuality – A trend of “Mass Individualism”. Particularly in the areas of content and community as demonstrated by the tremendous growth of individual empowered entertainment (iPods, PodCasting, Blogs, Tivo, VOD), and the display of individuality within new communities (MySpace, Tribe, Flickr, SecondLife, KickApps). People are empowered like never before.

The power has shifted to the individual – stay tuned…

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More places, all at once, on-demand. To achieve success in the new direct media (broadband and mobile) world, media companies must be willing to be where their viewers are, when they want you and in the proper format. Therefore, it is critical to have strong capabilities in all three core viewing forms: Traditional, Portable and PC (broadband). Because each of these core areas has its own unique challenges and characteristics of creative, distribution, technology and monetization, media companies must do more than re-purpose, but rather, create unique content with each channel and its characteristics in mind.

Obviously, media companies can be and are successful in any one of these content distribution areas, but those media companies who leverage all distribution channels will gain exponential success per viewer.

Think back to the birth of the Internet, many large traditional companies simply repurposed their brochures on-line. Those companies quickly lost ground to the players (upstarts and larger, wiser companies) who built new experiences by leveraging the unique aspects of the new medium. Additionally, those companies who had a multi-channel commerce strategy (Brick and Mortar, Catalogue, Web) did not simply end up spreading the same revenue dollars across multiple channels, but rather, they saw overall revenue per customer increase.

So, enough talk – what are you going to do about it? We can assume each of us has our own challenges and opportunities within our core business to expend our precious internal resources on. Here are your options:

Do nothing. The easiest answer of all, but not recommended. If you are not in these new areas you can be sure your competition will be. Your viewers will be building a dynamic and dependent relationship with your competitors. Again, doing nothing is the easiest answer, but not the right one.

Build internally. It is important that your current operation focuses on their core business or task. But, if your company has an individual or a group of individuals that are already entrenched in the area of creating content for alternative areas of distribution, you may have the right internal resources to start building a direct media division. This does not mean looking to your Internet site builder or designer to create broadband content, nor does it mean having the guy with the coolest cell phone create mobile content. If you are going to build internally you need to ask yourself, “Do I want to win, or just play at this?” The direct media space is changing quickly and you will be competing against new companies dedicated to success in these new areas that have everything at risk, and will compete to win. If building is your choice, pick or hire a team that is the “best in class” in these areas and give them full latitude to succeed.

Invest, buy or partner: Obviously, our choice. By working with companies and partnerships that truly understand the challenges, characteristics, business models, and players of the three forms of distribution, you can remain focused on your core business while maximizing your current content creation process and direct media distribution. This strategy will let you enter the market, learn, claim territory and mindshare. The key is finding strong partners who can help you navigate the waters and are working for your best interest.

Traditional media is still currently the best way to reach a mass audience at a single moment in time. Yet, now is the time to leverage your assets into the direct media space. Its purpose is not about pushing the consumer back to your traditional outlet, but rather, it’s about leveraging that outlet so that all of your content is accessible to the consumer when, where and how they want it.

The Direct Media market is vast and rapidly growing; your viewers are already there. It is not coming, it is here. What will you choose to do?

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The fragmentation of media and the explosion of choices has driven changes in the way consumers (particularly younger viewers) are influencing programming today.

o The Next New Thing: Driven by cable networks, consumers are used to continuous new programming introductions. More premieres, shorter seasons, and fewer episodes per series. Contemporary viewers are drawn to programming that constantly refreshes.
o I’m In Control: Driven by video games, DVDs and DVRs, contemporary viewers are used to controlling their viewing and “slotting” consumption on their own terms.
o Short Form: Americans are consuming 95 hours more “media” on average than they did just last year, and 310 hours more than five years ago. They are also consuming media in smaller and smaller “bites” and multitasking thanks to shorter attention spans, and proliferation of digital devices such as video games, mobile devices and broadband.
o Quest For Different: Young viewers today are information impressionist because of the way they go to different sources for news and entertainment, combining Yahoo, NBC, The Daily Show and word-of-mouth to be entertained and informed. They are willing and it is easy to choose from new and unique sources to find an interesting variety of content.
o Blurring Boundaries: The boundaries between television and the actual world are increasingly blurred. Media content has become more hands-on via interactive digital technology and more easily transferable and shared. Viewers now multi-task, consuming various forms of media at the same time. Picture a today’s typical teenager, with their iPod on, flipping TV channels, Instant Messaging friends about a TV show, and surfing the Internet. Furthermore, you can now engage the viewer and create a lasting valued relationship because these new platforms are interactive. For the first time you and your advertisers are one click away for creating a valued relationship, lead or sale.

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