INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authors: JordanZola, a fast-growing company that invites newly engaged couples to register their guests, shop from 600 different brands, and
create customizable checklists, has itself received something a bit extravagant: $100 million in Series D funding.Earlier investor Comcast
Ventures led the round, which also included new investors NBCUniversal and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners
The five-year-old, New York-based, 110-person company has now raised $140 million altogether.We talked last night with founder and CEO
Shan-Lyn Ma to learn more
Ma is a former executive with the e-commerce companies Gilt Groupe and Chloe + Isabel who originally started Zola to reinvent the
traditional registry process but who now sees an opportunity to eventually address every need a young couple may have, from caterers to
Cuisinarts, to eventually, perhaps, even home mortgages
Is everyone in New YorkSM: The vast majority, though we also have a small number in Charlottesville, Virginia
Earlier this year, we acquired the assets of a small wedding startup that had shut down and brought some of that team into Zola.TC: Have you
the day they get engaged, into their first years of marriage
registry that the couple used
people have used the site to dateSM: More than 500,000 couples have used our wedding registry or else managed their guest list through
Zola.TC: Zola started as a wedding registry product
Couples can register for items or buy them for themselves; we sell to them at retail prices and buy at wholesale.TC: Are you buying these
was built to avoid those problems
We have virtually no inventory and we have virtually no returns, and those are the big reasons why e-commerce is such a tough business.TC:
warehouse, and they ship directly to the customer.The reason returns are so low is because we built the registry in such a way that we give
the things they definitely do want.TC: Are brands giving you a discount for promising to buy a certain amount of their products over the
couples just as they are deciding on their brand preferences for the rest of their lives
We also deliver a certain degree of predictability to them
But you also talk about catering to the every need of couples who are just getting hitched
Does that mean connecting them to caterers and travel experiences and mortgagesSM: Our ambition is to serve couples on that journey, so all
of those things are top of mind, and we believe we can help them in unique ways because of the insights we [glean] thanks to our registries
and checklists and other wedding planning tools.TC: How do you weigh profitability versus growth Do have a timeline for the company to turn
business that supports that mission
