[betashop]

Hi. @betashop here, CEO of Fab. Happy to answer any/all questions.

With regards to the "was it a pivot" comments below.

Fab was first fabulis, for 13 months. We built a ton of product and a small but loyal following. We then shut it down to pursue our passion. That's a pivot.

Regarding Fab's 2nd pivot in 2012, we pivoted our business from a drop-ship model to an inventory model. That's quite a pivot.

[scottrblock]

I don't think "shutting down to pursue a passion" is what most of HN considers a pivot.

A pivot is named as such because your business is keeping one foot in the ground while changing direction. This is done after testing your initial assumptions, normally with no more than an MVP.

This might just be semantics, but it seems like a significant difference to me.

[gojomo]

Sometimes the "one foot in the ground" is only the team, as they chase a completely different product and market.

[dusing]

Stop saying pivot, it doesn't mean what you think it means.

[ispivey]

HN, where anyone can be a jerk to successful entrepreneurs running large technology companies who show up to share their brains.

[nhangen]

I suspect that the comments are negative because the word Pivot is being used to generate buzz without substance.

[ispivey]

They dramatically changed their business model twice. The second change was less dramatic in direction, but more dramatic in that the business had much more inertia.

That's the point of the post, and it's an impressive achievement. Read Tony Hsieh's (Zappos) "Delivering Happiness" if you want to appreciate how hard it is to build a business on drop-shipping, and how hard it is to move to full inventory.

I realize this isn't a battle worth fighting, but everyone needs to stop being pedantic over the use of the word "pivot". It had meaning before Eric Ries used it, and it will continue to have intrinsic meaning no matter how narrowly it's defined in the context of the Lean Startup movement. The business changed directions. Let the man call it a pivot.

[dusing]

It's a natural evolution for an online store to shift from drop ship to inventory as they get a better understanding of demand and the capital/scale to do so. It's not a pivot.

[jacobian]

Can you please respond to the accusations of spam, above? I, too, have suddenly started receiving email from Fab even though I've opted out repeatedly.

I really hope this is a mistake and not part of this third "pivot".

[MartinCron]

I will throw in as yet another voice in the "you are spamming me" chorus.

[betashop]

Email me [e-mail] so I can check it out please.

[jacobian]

Actually, no, I'd really like for you to address this in public. You offered to answer any/all questions, right? The highest voted comment in this thread is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4918790, which is the one that is accusing you of spam. That guy received the Aston Kutcher spam despite having opted out of everything (as did I); can you respond to him, please?

[BTW, you might want to be careful with the celebrity endorsement. I can't think of a celebrity I find more noxious than Kutcher, so attaching his name to Fab makes me much much less likely to buy anything from you again. Especially when you're forcing that association into my inbox. Blech.]

[proee]

What was the driving factor to change from a drop-ship company to inventory based? Seems ideal if you can keep everything drop-ship to avoid the capital expense related to managing all your products.

[snuze]

I remember ordering a mug from fab and it took a noticeable amount of time to arrive (weeks). Perhaps they are trying to improve that.

[cagenut]

Hi Jason, thanks for taking questions.

Do you see Etsy as competition?

You mention a custom built supply chain tech and strong mobile/ecommerce sales. You also share a lot of stats and operational details about the biz on your blog. Would you consider encouraging your tech team to be similarly open? Blogging, open sourcing code, conferences/presentations.

[logn]

Do you think Fab's time as a gay social network was important to getting a critical mass on-board for the Fab design site? Meaning, if you launched day one as a cool place to shop do you think you would have found the same success, at least as easily?