Fifteen members of Hayneedle’s 30-person team that works on the Foundary. From left to right: Kim Elonich, Sara Bonnstetter, Rob Anderson, Jill Bena, Tim Casart, Eric Hoffman, Ryan Paulson, Chad Davis, Jessica Charlsen, Angela Kubicek, Jonathon Hazlett, Jim Gruhn, Dawn Block, Kyle Murphy, and David Markle.* Photo by Danny Schreiber.
Over the past week, the Foundary, which was launched by Hayneedle on November 1st, has increased its user count from 15,000 to well over 50,000. Jason Goldberger, Hayneedle’s senior VP of marketing, merchandising and site, shared these numbers with us and noted that social media has been the Foundary’s largest driver of sign-ups.
As far as sales go for the home flash-sale site, Goldberger wouldn’t share numbers but said that “sales have been terrific.”
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To note going forward: we incorrectly labeled the Foundary a “daily deal” site in our first post: Hayneedle launches the Foundary, a niche daily deal site. The Foundary is a “flash-sale site.”
Last Thursday, Silicon Prairie News contributor Steven Adams and myself made a visit to Hayneedle to learn more about the Foundary, its backstory, the team involved, where it’s headed, and more. Adams will be publishing a two-part series on the Foundary this week – stayed tuned to Silicon Prairie News.
While Adams’ piece will focus on the aforementioned parts of the Foundary, I had a chance to sit down for over an hour with part of team that worked on the Foundary. This team, which totalled 30 individuals, was mostly made up of current Hayneedle employees who took on extra responsibilities to bring the Foundary to fruition while still holding onto their Hayneedle responsibilities. With this in mind, the employees at Hayneedle have viewed the Foundary as something of a startup within a former startup (Hayneedle was founded in 2002 as NetShops.com).
Here are a few notes from my discussion with the team:
- Lots of talk about the high internal energy level around building, launching and marketing the Foundary
- The most important thing right now: signing up as many users as possible
- Regarding technical bugs after launch, Goldberger commented, “I’ve never seen a bigger launch with less bugs.”
- Sale items are scheduled out four weeks in advance
- Children’s products have sold really well
- The influence of the social web has been integral to the Foundary
- With respect to the population density of the coasts, Midwest sales are doing well
- Their goal is to be the “leading home flash site”
Learn more about the Foundary in our original post: Hayneedle launches the Foundary, a niche daily deal site.
*Update Wednesday, 12:15 a.m. – Names added in caption.
