This article was published on August 5, 2013

Making an obsessive user your company’s CEO? Worked for this startup.


Making an obsessive user your company’s CEO? Worked for this startup.

An intriguing look by Wired at how a fashion startup, Polyvore, made one of their most obsessive users, Jess Lee, its CEO.

It wasn’t an immediate move into the position but a gradual climb from customer, to product manager to vice president of product, to honorary co-founder and finally CEO.

Polyvore turned profitable in June 2011 with revenue primarily from affilate fees.

Lee is now trying to clone the process:

“Lee has done everything from writing code to selling ads to staffing entire divisions. After becoming CEO, Lee assigned herself a new mission, one she is attacking ferociously this year: to help Polyvore’s super-users rise from the ranks like she did and open boutiques, collaborate with designers, take prominent seats along fashion runways, and even launch their own clothing and accessory lines.”

How One Startup Found Success by Making an Obsessive User Its CEO (Wired)

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Image Credit: Jess / Polyvore

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