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Chris Morton of Lyst on business growth, development, funding and balance…
Chris Morton, the CEO and cofounder of Lyst (a social curation platform for online fashion – (bio), joins Liz Bacelar (global expert in the intersection of fashion and technology) for this installment of TopTalk and an in-depth interview presented by Fashion Is Your Business on location at Shoptalk 2017 in Las Vegas.
Company origins and growth, the pivot, and what matters now
Morton recalls Lyst being the first of its kind when it launched 15 years ago, from working from a shed at the end of a golf course and 1.5 employees to growing to more than 100 employees and more than $200 Million in sales in just seven years. He discusses how people used Lyst for reasons not intended, how they have 4 million products online, users are now coming to search, and it is a discovery journey. The challenge is that the customer over time knows she wants this stuff, but how does she get it? Moving products from the head to the hands, and the search platform they built that solves that problem. Bringing clarity to a mature market, and how other countries are starting to do more online selling, which means preparing for more coming fashion ecommerce.
Perspectives on raising funds, learning from your family, and three pieces of advise
A conversation about physical location partnerships, offline, and whether a Lyst branded store is going to happen. After raising more than $60 million, should raising money be celebrated? How raising money is a temporary phase, what keeps Morton up at night, thinking actively about company culture, and actively shepherding it, international implications of growth. Whether kids help you be efficient, learning from your kids and applying that knowledge to your business. How family affects the ability to maintain work flow, how male founders have family priorities and career decisions to make too. Looking at the ways new business comes down to solving a customer need. Why it is crucial to invest in the right bed, the importance of not sticking to rules, and how doing an obituary test matters.
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