Mariam Naficy is a serial entrepreneur who founded the successful online cosmetics company Eve.com, which sold for over $100M.
For her current company Minted, Mariam Naficy took a more capital-efficient approach, raising $7M over 7 years to build a crowdsourced design marketplace.
As Minted scaled, key priorities included building an executive team, data-driven decision making, vertical expansions, cash discipline, and delegating to manage rapid growth.
Meeting Notes:
Marianne's Background as a Serial Entrepreneur
Mariam Naficy had successful experience in the first internet boom, known as one of the most powerful women entrepreneurs
At age 28 in 1998, she raised $6 million to start her first internet company, Eve.com, with a friend
Marianne's First Internet Company (Eve.com)
Eve.com was launched in 1998 with the goal of being the first online cosmetics destination
Grew extremely rapidly to 120 employees in just 6 months
Received acquisition offers from Sephora/LVMH even before launching, as they saw Eve.com as a competitive threat
Eventually sold to Idealab for over $100 million in April 2000, just before the dotcom crash
Lessons Learned from Eve.com
Mariam Naficy wishes she had bought the company back when it was struggling instead of selling
She admits she became too conservative due to the implosion happening around her
Regrets not raising more capital earlier and being less conservative with financing and growth
Having a large board with 10+ members led to challenges, with ~20% of time spent managing the board
Too many investors/executives on the board led to conflicts and differing incentives
Starting Minted
Initially focused on crowdsourcing stationery designs from a global creative community
Took a capital-efficient approach, raising only $7 million over 7 years
Wanted to control the strategy herself and not have too many external stakeholders involved early on
Goal was to build a fresh retail brand powered by crowdsourced designs that wouldn't go stale
Scaling Minted##
Expanded from stationery into art prints, fabrics, and home decor verticals
Invested in building a professional executive team to lead different departments
Leveraged the global creative community to crowdsource an endless stream of new designs
Relied heavily on data analytics, customer metrics and feedback to drive decisions
Advice for Entrepreneurs
Be bolder and take more risks early on instead of being overly conservative
Seek out male mentors in addition to female mentors
Focus on results and execution, don't get too distracted by diversity discussions
Build up internal talent over time rather than just hiring externally
Managing Rapid Growth
Importance of disciplined cash management and financing strategy as the company scaled
Transitioning from being involved in all aspects to delegating and managing the organization as it grew larger
Had to become more decisive in prioritizing certain fires to fight based on impact to revenue growth