Zenefits, the online HR platform that ousted its founding CEO recently as a part of a regulatory investigation regarding insurance sales (where the…
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5 questions for Tony Hsieh and the Downtown Project
News this week of layoffs at Tony Hsieh's much-ballyhooed Downtown Project led to lots of questions about the visionary effort's future. A lot has been written by the press and Hsieh himself about the situation, but some questions still need to be answered.…
Read MoreWhy Las Vegas needed a lot more than Tony Hsieh’s cult of personality
News that Tony Hsieh's Downtown Project in Las Vegas is imploding was surprising, but not shocking. When you live in Sin City, a lot of the talk is about sweetheart deals and the cult of Zappos rather than business buzzwords and entrepreneurial paradise.…
Read MoreWanelo CEO: we’re going to see a shift in power when it comes to social shopping
What does it mean to have a social shopping experience? The definitions run the gamut, depending on the type of shopping experience you're looking for. But Wanelo is pioneering an interesting model to look at.…
Read MoreWhat Airbnb learned from Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Charles and Ray Eames, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- the under cover influences of breakout web star Airbnb.…
Read MoreZappos CEO rethinks urban transportation in Vegas with 100 Tesla Model S cars
Downtown Vegas is going personal car free (or hoping to) with the launch of Project 100, the out-there transportation service for the Downtown Project, from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.…
Read MoreAmazon enjoys big etail lead as Cyber Monday hits
New Deepfield analysis out just after Black Friday and in time for Cyber Monday shows (spoiler alert!) Amazon is by far the most popular online retail site. But there are some surprises as well.…
Read MoreZappos taps Pinterest to boost sales, but its efforts fail
In a move to boost sales through social recommendations, online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, has added a new feature called "PinPointing" that offers recommendations based on Pinterest accounts. Unfortunately, the feature doesn't work very well yet.…
Read MorePharmaceutical giant goes deskless
New ways of working demand new workspaces, a fact that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline clearly understands. It's building its second deskless office in Philadelphia, replacing cubes with fluid spaces, laptops and personal lockers, and saving money and speeding decision making as a result.…
Read MoreTony Hsieh outlines Zappos’ plans for the office of the future
The online shoe retailer has big plans for its new downtown Las Vegas digs, CEO Tony Hsieh recently explained at Venture For America's Summer Celebration, where he laid out his vision of the community-focused, creativity-inspiring future of the office.…
Read MoreAn inside look at the high-tech awakening in Las Vegas
Las Vegas is hardly Silicon Valley and currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, but Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has a plan to revitalize the city. Good thing he has hundreds of million of dollars and some promising startups to help out.…
Read MoreAmazon Lawsuit Tests ‘No Harm, No Foul’ Rule For Leaked Personal Info
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) subsidiary Zappos, an online shoe retailer, faces a second lawsuit over a hacking incident involving 24 million customer……
Read MoreAmazon Hit With Class Action Over Zappos Data Breach
Shoe retailer Zappos is facing a national class action suit one day after it warned customers that its servers had been hacked.…
Read MoreWant some cheese with that wine? Lot18 has you covered
Lot18, the membership-only daily deals website for high end wine, is set to expand into three new product categories: food, epicurean travel, and spirits. Lot18 will start rolling out the new verticals, starting with food, within the next several weeks, CEO Philip James tells me.…
Read MoreSo What Comes After Social Commerce?
If the first phase of e-commerce was the utilitarian hunt for staples, the next phase of e-commerce is about recreational shopping. So it needs to be a more fun and social experience which gives an edge to companies that encourage deeper social experiences.…
Read MoreBoo Who? Europe’s Biggest Dot-com Casualty Is Back
Swedish entrepreneur Ernst Malmsten presided over the rise and fall of Boo.com, Europe’s most notorious dot-com failure. Now he’s ready to try his hand at online retail once again — but what has he learned from more than a decade in the wilderness?…
Read MoreFanBridge Applies the Zappos Model to Music
Under-the-radar startup FanBridge provides tools at the crux of the music biz: the relationship between artists and fans. By helping artists email and text their fans and giving them superior customer service, the angel-funded company now counts tens of thousands of clients and 50 million users.…
Read MoreZappos to Produce 50,000 Original Vids in 2010
Online retailer Zappos will be making a big push into original online video next year. The company, which was acquired by Amazon…
Read MoreAmazon-Zappos Deal: The Really Detailed Details
I knew it would happen on a Friday evening; damn you AMZN. But oh well, the details are juicy enough. Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has come out with……
Read MoreEarnings: Amazon Follows Zappos Buy With 10 Percent Profit Drop
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) made its big splash for the week Wednesday, with its $847 million acquisition of shoe retailer Zappos.com propelling it……
Read MoreAmazon Buying Out Zappos.com For About $850 Million
Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is acquiring online shoe retailer Zappos.com for $807 million in stock and $40 million in cash. The companies said Z……
Read MoreAmazon Goes Shopping, Picks Up a $807M Bargain Called Zappos
Amazon (s AMZN) said this afternoon it’s agreed to buy specialty shoe e-tailer Zappos for $807 million in cash and stock. It’s…
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