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eCommerce - Monday, July 25, 2005

Zazzle - Profile

zazzlelogo.gif

HQ: Palo Alto, CA

Founded: 1999

Management: Bob Beaver is CEO - he started the company with his sons Bobby and Jeff Beaver as well as Matt Wilsey. We cannot dig up any background on this group - except that the Beaver boys are youngters who had the good fortune to attend the same school as a child of Kleiner Perkins' Brook Byers - who recommneded the company to John Doerr.

Investors: Bootstapped until July 2005 when the company raised $18M from Kleiner Perkins & Sherpalo Ventures. John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram of Sherpalo joined the board.

Business Model: Like CafePress, Zazzle sells online customized t-shirts, posters, and other tchotchkes. Like Stamps.com, Zazzle is jumping into the custom stamps business. CafePress has had tremendous success and is the clear leader in online custom products and Stamps.com just announced that their custom stamps business is making a killing - $1.2M in the first 6 weeks of its offering. The company claims that it was profitable before the latest investment.

Competitors: eStamps, CafePress

Dirt: In promoting Zazzle, John Doerr managed to say with a straight-face that Zazzle is "Googlesque" and in the PR materials, Zazzle lays claim to be the leader in its field. In fact, Zazzle is not the leader nor will it ever be comparable to Google. Still, Zazzle is up and coming in a hot sector. Doerr and Shriram certainly could not get a worthwhile valuation in a leading company like CafePress, so they settled for the 2nd fiddle.

Edmonton dominated the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night and the 4-0 margin in Game 6 makes it hard to imagine the Oilers not hoisting hockey's Holy Grail above their heads in less than 48 hours. And it would not come as any shock to see defenseman Chris Pronger, who had another 31-minute night, take the honors for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

Posted by: augusaugtina at June 24, 2006 6:20 PM

Edmonton dominated the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night and the 4-0 margin in Game 6 makes it hard to imagine the Oilers not hoisting hockey's Holy Grail above their heads in less than 48 hours. And it would not come as any shock to see defenseman Chris Pronger, who had another 31-minute night, take the honors for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

Posted by: antonantia at June 25, 2006 5:40 PM

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