by josie
Gilt founders Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson share the highs and lows of creating a billion-dollar business in their new book.
It seems like it was only yesterday when we told you about a new shopping site called Gilt, an invitation-only site that would allow members access to online 36-hour sample sales of clothing and accessories from high-end designers. Since 2007, founders Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson have turned Gilt Groupe into a business valued at $1 billion and have expanded sales to include items for men, children and the home — and launched deal sites that encompass travel (jetsetter.com), food and drink (gilttaste.com) and city-specific offers (giltcity.com). The successful businesswomen set out to answer the question that they’re most often asked — “How did you do it?” — in their new book By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop (Portfolio, 2012) out today.
The two met as Harvard undergrads and reconnected there while obtaining their MBAs, becoming fast friends. They launched Gilt when they were “barely thirty,” as they note in the preface of the book, starting with a Zac Posen sale, a cramped office and a tiny warehouse. Written in the royal “we” (with exceptions to provide background info), the book provides an inside look at the creation and expansion of Gilt.
While it may seem like Gilt had a quick, easy rise to success, the pair also shares some of their low points and hard-learned lessons. “Despite how composed we may appear, launching and growing a start-up has sometimes felt like trying to climb into the driver’s seat of a car that’s speeding down the highway at a hundred miles per hour: if we’re lucky, we’re barely hanging on to the tailpipes,” they note in the book. “We’ve taken wrong turns and been punched in the gut by the airbag more times than we’d like to recall.” Readers also see the hard work and careful planning that have made the business a success — and some of the lessons from previous business experiences that were applied to Gilt, such as those Maybank learned from a failed start-up. (The lesson: “In start-ups, the execution is much more important than the idea.”)
Interspersed with the pair’s compelling story are helpful lists of questions that entrepreneurs should ask themselves, such as “Is This Risk a Good Risk?” “How Do I Know If I Have the Right Idea for the Right Time?” and “Rules for Growing and Maintaining Your Network.” From the latter checklist, tips include: Remember faces and names, be a doer and befriend other doers and don’t ask for favors all the time. The book is filled with valuable business tips on securing investors, viral marketing, hiring and maintaining top engineers (or the best in any field) and lessons from Maybank’s and Wilson’s Gilt experience, including why naysayers proved that Gilt was a smart risk and how they faced the recession (or, as they put it, the “retail apocalypse”).
For fans of Gilt, there are fun tidbits and anecdotes, such as how they came up with the name that is synonymous with online sample sales, scrambling to find a seat for Madonna at an event, and how their first model, a friend, got a cheap salon blowout and a free department store makeup application before the inaugural photo shoot. As they note in the book’s preface, “Gilt’s story, and ours, too, is ongoing. There are many chapters still to write.”
One of our favorite aspects of the book? Proceeds benefit the National Audubon Society and Dress for Success. What do you think are the most important keys to success when building a start-up?