PDF

JOYUS ANNOUNCES TRANSFORMATIONAL NEW VIDEO SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
The world’s first premium video commerce site receives $7.9M led by Accel Partners
PALO ALTO, CA, August 1, 2011—JOYUS today announced the private beta launch of the world's first
premium video commerce experience at Joyus.com, offering women a new, transformative way to shop
online.
The company also announced its closing of a first institutional round of funding bringing total capital
raised to $7.9M. Lead investors Accel Partners and Harrison Metal join angel investors Joel Hyatt, Chief
Executive Officer and Co-Founder of CurrentTV, and Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, SVPs
of Global Ecommerce at Walmart. Accel’s Theresia Gouw Ranzetta and Harrison Metal’s Michael
Dearing will join the JOYUS board of directors.
JOYUS was founded in January 2011 by Founder & Chairman Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former
President of Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations at Google and Co-Founder of the online personal
finance company Yodlee. Singh Cassidy is joined by Co-Founder and VP of Product Diana Williams,
formerly Director of Product Management (Fashion) at eBay; Chief Curator Gina Pell, Founder and
former Content Chief at Splendora, a pioneering fashion and lifestyle website with over 100,000
followers acquired by JOYUS in April 2011; and CTO and VP of Engineering Sin Mei Tsai, previously
from Efficient Frontier and SendMe Mobile.
While the e-commerce 3.0 space has seen an influx of interest over the past 2 years, overall penetration of
e-commerce remains low at 7.9% of total U.S. retail sales, particularly for key categories such as apparel
and lifestyle products, according to Internet Retailer.
“Until now, no one has been able to solve some real problems that exist in e-commerce today, especially
in the soft goods category,” says Singh Cassidy. “JOYUS is addressing these issues by leveraging the
power of video from discovery all the way to purchase. Imagine a video that helps you discover, use and
buy the products you’ll love online, seamlessly. That doesn’t exist. JOYUS is a revolutionary step that we
think will transform the shopping experience for users online, starting with female shoppers.”
Accel’s Theresia Gouw Ranzetta agrees. “Accel looks to partner with entrepreneurs who are gamechangers. Sukhinder and her team have created a new model for online shopping in JOYUS, using shortform video to drive product discovery, sales and customer loyalty,” says Ranzetta. “We see video being
used by other e-commerce retailers to showcase products, but no one is integrating it as powerfully into
the shopping and brand experience as JOYUS. This is a real differentiator that we believe will attract new
retailers who are looking to market their products in a new and engaging way online.”
Early retail partners already are seeing strong sell-through on JOYUS videos. "Our experience with
JOYUS has been great,” says Catherine Chow of Azalea Boutique. “The JOYUS platform allows us to
reach a broader audience of passionate, fashion savvy women with our new, in-season inventory. We see
video on JOYUS being an exciting new component of our online marketing strategy.”
JOYUS has been testing its video sales platform with its first customers since spring; according to Singh
Cassidy, early data on the site shows conversion to sales is highest when viewers watch between 2:30 to
3:30 minutes of a JOYUS video. These and other early JOYUS analytics suggest video can increase not
only engagement, but sales online via direct response marketing.
To learn more about JOYUS contact Amy Rosenberg at [email protected] or visit www.joyus.com.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and
management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams
and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City,
London, New Delhi and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.
Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their
categories, including Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Atlassian, BBN,
Brightcove, Check24, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon,
Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, OPOWER,
Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Quidsi (diapers.com), Rapt, Real Networks,
Redback Networks, Responsys, Riverbed, SupportSoft, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wily
Technology, XenSource and Zimbra. For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at
www.accel.com, or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel.
About Harrison Metal
Harrison Metal is a seed-stage venture capital partnership founded by Michael Dearing and based in Palo
Alto, CA. The firm focuses on software and services for consumers, developers and businesses. Harrison
Metal's investments include AdMob, Heroku, Aardvark, PopCap, Twitter, GigWalk, Euclid Elements,
ModCloth and Yardsellr. www.harrisonmetal.com
JOYUS is the world's first premium video commerce experience, transforming the way women shop online.
WHAT IS JOYUS?
JOYUS is a new, transformative way to shop online (Joyus.com). By leveraging the power of video to entertain,
educate, and inspire, JOYUS helps users discover great new products, learn why and how they work, and then
buy seamlessly.
LEADERSHIP
JOYUS was founded in January 2011 by Founder & Chairman Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, former President of Asia
Pacific and Latin America Operations at Google and Co-Founder of the online personal finance company
Yodlee. Diana Williams, formerly Director of Product Management (Fashion) at eBay, serves as Co-Founder
and VP of Product. Gina Pell serves as Chief Curator; Pell is the Founder and former Content Chief at
Splendora, a pioneering fashion and lifestyle website acquired by JOYUS in April 2011. Sin Mei Tsai is CTO and
VP of Engineering, and was previously at Efficient Frontier and SendMe Mobile.
FUNDING
The company has received funding of $7.9M from Accel Partners, Harrison Metal, Joel Hyatt (Chief Executive
Officer and Co-Founder of CurrentTV), and Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman (SVPs of Global
Ecommerce at Walmart).
THE POWER OF JOYUS
While still images can be beautiful, they can’t communicate the qualities of a product like video.
JOYUS uses engaging, short-form videos to inform, inspire and persuade users to make a
purchase...seamlessly.
JOYUS is all about transformation – video segments show how your life can be enhanced through
JOYUS featured products.
Product picks—ranging from the perfect bathing suit, to secret skin care finds, to a vintage Louis
Vuitton bag—are curated. JOYUS seeks out products women will want to discover, own and rave
about to their friends.
JOYUS features video hosts with expert backgrounds who can speak authentically about products they
love. From celebrity stylists to popular bloggers, the JOYUS voice is rooted in personal experience and
passion for great products.
The JOYUS platform allows retailers and brands to authentically merchandise their new products to
existing and new customers using video. There is no other new, in-season sell-through channel like
JOYUS.
JOYUS caters to 29-44 year old women who are passionate, social and savvy—a coveted demographic,
though its long-term appeal is even broader, ranging from 18-54 year old women as well.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Online sales account for only 7.9% of total U.S. retail sales (Internet Retailer). JOYUS offers a solution
to the soft goods problem for online retailers and expects to both grow and accelerate this category.
Research indicates visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do
not. (Internet Retailer, April 2010)
In December of 2010, 88.6 million people watched online video on an average day, up 32 percent from
December 2009. The average American spent more than 14 hours watching online video in December,
up 12 percent over the previous year and streamed a record 201 videos, an 8 percent increase.
(Comscore, February 2011)
Retail sites with video increase conversion by 30% and boost average ticket by 13%. (L2 Specialty Retail
Report, September 2010)
Retail site visitors who view video stay two minutes longer on average and are 64% more likely to
purchase than other site visitors. (Comscore, August 2010)
From July 2009 through July 2010, the number of U.S. video viewers on retail sites grew 40%,
outpacing 17% growth in the number of total U.S. online video viewers. 96% of online shoppers also
watch online video. (Comscore, August 2010)
A minute of video is worth 1.8 million words according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.
(Forrester, January 2009)
COMPANY FACTS AND MILESTONES
January 2011 – JOYUS incorporates and conducts first focus group with 12 women
February 2011 – JOYUS launches private alpha website and secures $550k in convertible note funding
March 2011—JOYUS launches private beta website
April 2011—JOYUS acquires Splendora, a fashion & lifestyle website with over 100,000 followers
May 2011—JOYUS moves to new headquarters in Palo Alto
June 2011—JOYUS completes a first institutional round of funding, bringing total capital raised to
$7.9M. Investors include Accel Partners, Harrison Metal, Joel Hyatt (Chief Executive Officer and CoFounder of CurrentTV), Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman (SVPs of Global Ecommerce at
Walmart)
July 2011—JOYUS launches new website and invite-only public beta
EARLY JOYUS ANALYTICS
Video Engagement Metrics/Attention Span:
o Regardless of video length, 60% watch half of the video
o 60% of views watch past the 1 minute mark
o 40% of views watch past the 2 minute mark
Optimal Video Length
o The optimal video length based on conversion is between 2:30 and 3:30 minutes
Beauty, Tops and Pants have a disproportionately higher sell-through and conversion than other
categories
“Until now, no one has been able to solve some real problems that exist in e-commerce today, especially in the
soft goods category. JOYUS is addressing these issues by leveraging the power of video from discovery all the
way to purchase. Imagine a video that helps you discover, use and buy the products you’ll love online,
seamlessly. That doesn’t exist. JOYUS is a revolutionary step that we think will transform the shopping
experience for users online, starting with female shoppers.”
--Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder & Chairman, JOYUS
CONTACT INFO
Amy Rosenberg
[email protected]
www.joyus.com
PRESS CENTER
Visit the JOYUS Press Center to access downloadable versions of the logo, team headshots, website screen
shots, sample JOYUS video clips, and the press kit.
SUKHINDER SINGH CASSIDY, FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, JOYUS
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is Founder & Chairman of JOYUS, the web’s first premium video
shopping experience online. Prior to founding JOYUS in January 2011, she spent 18 years as a
leading consumer internet and media executive at global and early stage companies including
Google, Amazon, Yodlee, and News Corporation.
Most recently, Singh Cassidy served as CEO and Chairman of the board at the leading social
commerce site, Polyvore, Inc., and CEO-in-Residence with Accel Partners, a leading global
consumer internet venture capital firm. At Polyvore, she focused on building the company’s
business operations, reaching record advertising revenues and achieving key sales and
syndication partnerships with retailers and brands such as Coach, Tory Burch, Nike, Yves St.
Laurent, Nordstrom, Victoria Secret, and the New York Times.
From 2003 to 2009, Singh Cassidy was a senior executive at Google, Inc., where she grew and
scaled several leading businesses including Google Local & Maps, Google Books, Scholar, and
Video, and Asia-Pacific & Latin American Operations. As President of Asia Pacific and Latin
America, she was responsible for all of Google’s commercial operations in both regions, and
built the company’s physical presence from inception to a multi-billion dollar business serving
users, advertisers and partners across 40 domains and 103 different countries throughout APAC
and Latin America.
Previously, Singh Cassidy drove sales and business development with leading internet
companies in the consumer and financial services sectors, as Co-Founder and Senior Vice
President of Business Development for Yodlee.com Inc., a leading solutions provider to the
global financial services industry, and, earlier, in strategy and business development at
Amazon.com and at leading British Pay TV provider BSkyB, a division of News Corporation. She
began her career in investment banking for Merrill Lynch in New York and London.
For her work in the Internet industry, Singh Cassidy has been profiled in numerous publications
globally, including Fortune, Business Week, Ad Age, Canada Post, India Today, and the book,
Innovation Nation, profiling Canada’s most innovative business leaders. Most recently she was
named a “Woman to Watch” by Ad Age in 2010, and Fortune in 2008, a TechCrunch Fellow in
2009, and one of the top 100 Women of Influence in the Bay Area in 2010.
Singh Cassidy currently serves on the board of Formspring, Inc., and the advisory board of
Twitter. She has been a board member of J. Crew Group, Inc. (JCG), and also serves on the
Advisory Board for A Woman’s Nation, with Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress
(CAP).
Singh Cassidy is a graduate of the Ivey School of Business Administration at the University of
Western Ontario, Canada and is married with three children.
DIANA L. WILLIAMS, CO-FOUNDER & VP PRODUCT, JOYUS
Diana L. Williams is the Co-Founder & Vice President of Product at JOYUS, where she oversees
the end-to-end customer experience. She is responsible for the company’s product strategy,
site analytics, user experience, and site design.
Prior to joining JOYUS, Williams was Director of Product Management at eBay, Inc. During her
tenure at eBay, she created the first vertical experience on eBay.com and led product strategy
and feature execution for eBay’s $7+ billion fashion vertical. Williams also led the
Merchandising product team, which created eBay’s first merchandising algorithm platform and
personalization service.
Prior to eBay, Diana worked at i-Deal, LLC (acquired by Ipreo), a company that provides an endto-end book building platform to global investment banks. She assessed emerging market
trends and customer needs to help identify product requirements and ensure continued doubledigit sales growth.
Diana holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
GINA PELL, CHIEF CURATOR, JOYUS
Gina Pell is the Chief Curator at JOYUS. Pell is responsible for working with the JOYUS network of
experts, brands and retailers to select the best apparel, beauty and lifestyle finds to be featured
in JOYUS videos.
Prior to joining JOYUS, Pell was Founder & Content Chief of Splendora.com, a style and culture
radar followed by over 100,000 fashion insiders and aesthetes around the globe, which she
founded in 1999. Considered a pioneer in the online fashion space, Pell has been featured in
numerous lifestyle publications including Glamour, Travel & Leisure, Lucky and People’s
StyleWatch. In 2010, Pell launched SalesCast, the first fashion deal aggregator app with over
60,000 downloads. Splendora was acquired by JOYUS in April, 2011.
Before founding Splendora, Pell created award-winning educational websites and served as a
consultant for start-ups.
Pell graduated with high distinction and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at
Berkeley and completed the Fine Arts program at Pratt in Venice, Italy.
SIN MEI TSAI, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER & VP OF ENGINEERING, JOYUS
As Chief Technology Officer and VP of Engineering at JOYUS, Sin-Mei Tsai is responsible for the
company’s overall technology organization and strategy.
Tsai brings over 16 years of technical leadership and entrepreneurial experience to JOYUS. She
was Co-Founder and Head of Engineering at Sheyna, a design-your-own jewelry e-commerce
site featured on NBC Today Show, Oprah’s Life Lift Blog, and Martha Stewart Weddings.
Prior to Sheyna, Tsai was Chief Architect at SendMe, Inc. where she was responsible for
architecting a mobile entertainment platform responsible for annual revenues of more than
$120 million. She was also Head of Product at Efficient Frontier where she helped triple yearover-year profit and achieved over $250M of spend under management. Earlier, Tsai held
technical leadership positions at Yodlee, Hewlett-Packard, and Hasbro.
Tsai received her B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering and M.S.E.E. from Stanford University.
AMY PARKER, DIRECTOR OF SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, JOYUS
Amy Parker is JOYUS’ Director of Sales & Business Development, overseeing the sales
organization and developing key partnerships. She brings fifteen years of sales, business
development and strategy experience in digital media and advertising to the JOYUS team.
Before JOYUS, this North Carolina native co-founded Splendora.com in 2000, the style and
culture radar followed by over 100,000 fashion insiders around the globe, and turned it into a
publishing powerhouse. In addition to developing Splendora's social network in 2004 and the
innovative iPhone app, SalesCast, Parker was responsible for bringing many luxury brands online
for the first time, including Bloomingdale's, Marc Jacobs, Dior Beauty, Mercedes-Benz and
Chanel.
Prior to Splendora, Parker consulted for Harrods and the Wedding Channel and worked for IDG.
SHIRIN ETESSAM, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTIONS, JOYUS
Shirin Etessam oversees content production for joyus.com.
Prior to joining JOYUS, Etessam spent 10 years as a freelance producer, serving as an executive
producer, a show runner, and independent producer on various short films, documentaries,
television series/specials, and web series for clients including HBO, BBC, C4, CBS, ABC, Discovery
Channel, Travel Channel, and Fine Living.
Earlier, Etessam worked at CNET producing content for their then five national television shows,
served as an associate producer on several multimedia games, and worked on the feature film
Walls of Sand, the first feature film to be streamed in its entirety on the Internet.
Etessam received her B.A. in Film with a minor in Broadcasting from San Francisco State
University.