The Guy’s Perspective

“Ann Raider: Staying the course” by Saelen Ghose

It’s a quiet morning, still dark outside. A light is on, in an office, where someone is sitting. Thinking. Creating. Problem solving. Looking for every angle to propel her company forward into an uncertain sea, littered with the remains of companies who have lost their way in one way or another. This person summons all of the knowledge she’s acquired over her long and storied career as a businesswoman and entrepreneur for a single purpose: to make her current company successful. This person is Ann Raider, CEO of inStream Media.

When I found out her office was in Wellesley I was thrilled to not have to deal with the traffic and parking hassles of driving into Boston. (Sure, I love going into Boston, like most people, but preferably in small doses.) This choice of location was intentional. Raider’s team lives out on the 128 belt, all relatively near the office. She wants them happy, because a stress free team means a more creative and productive team. Which is also why she has an open door policy to her personal office, where a carefully placed candy jar invitingly sits—in case anyone needs a “pick-me-up” during the day. Or an excuse to talk.

Ann Raider’s entrepreneurial journey began at an early age. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs,” says Raider. “My grandfather was a single store supermarket operator. My dad ran an institutional baking company, and my uncle had a candy company.” Growing up in an environment where people ran and operated businesses independently led Raider to business school at Michigan State where she graduated in 1970. Which begs the question: what was it like for a woman at that time to be part of a male dominated business world?

“Fifty percent of my business school class wouldn’t speak to me,” says Raider. “They weren’t sure why I was there. When my roommate and I went out to look for jobs we had to interview with far more companies than the rest of our [male] classmates because most places didn’t think we were serious about getting jobs. They didn’t think we were serious about our careers. Back then women had to work longer hours to show that they could get the job done. We had to prove we were more effective than our counterparts because we were women.”

Forty years later there’s no doubt about Raider’s ability and staying power. Preceding her current position as CEO of inStream Media (www.instreamglobal.com)she served as CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) of Vertis Inc. from 2005 to 2007. There she oversaw Vertis’ goal to help clients more effectively market and advertise their products. Before that she was SVP (Senior Vice President) of sales and marketing at News America Marketing. She also co-founded CCMI, a leading international loyalty-marketing firm which later sold to News America Marketing. The list of her accomplishments goes on and on. Stand down “doubting Thomases,” as she calls the people who once questioned her passion, smarts, and longevity.

Right place. Right time. Right Message. This is one of inStream’s slogans. The marketing services company helps other companies interact with consumers inside stores and out. “We distribute targeted messages for retailers and national advertisers through multiple touch points. The foundation of our company is printing on the front of a receipt, a message with a call to action and an offer.” I blurt out, “Like CVS does?” It’s the only company I can think of at that moment. She smiles. “Yes, only we do it with graphics.” But more importantly, Raider says, inStream is agnostic—an interesting choice of words. “We can point the message to a printed receipt or an e-receipt. We can point it to a mobile phone, we can send it to a website, or we can send it via email. We can do any of that.”

The founders of inStream envisioned messages displayed with graphics on every receipt in America. So when Raider was brought on board as CEO in 2008, she identified that as the core business. So far, inStream has printed several billion receipts. But Raider realized the path to ultimately making a purchase is in constant flux. Customers might research a product online and then purchase it in the store. Or they might see something in the store, and then call an 800 number to get it. “If they’re a digital shopper you might give them a different message than an in-store shopper,” says Raider. “In essence we’re in the content management business. We know how to send messages, but it’s more about identifying how customers would like to be talked to.” Perhaps a few words should be added to the inStream slogan: Right Person. Ann Raider. It seems inStream is also good at identifying talent.

Amazingly enough, Raider still has enough energy to give back to the business community even after the long hours she puts in at the office, and at home. She is committed to helping young female entrepreneurs succeed in the business world. She was one of the twenty founding members of The Network of Executive Women, an organization devoted to the advancement of women in the retail and consumer products industry. She is also a guest lecturer at Babson Entrepreneurial School.

The only thing missing for Raider personally is a better balance of work and fun, which is difficult to do when running a company. “The work environment at inStream is intense because everyone cares about doing the right thing,” says Raider. “A lot of us work very long hours. We want the business to be successful. It’s like raising a child. There’s an obligation to grow this person.”

Well, raising a child is a 24 hour a day endeavor, and Raider understands the commitment it takes to be successful. Long after many of the doubting Thomases have retired, or burned out, she is still at it, light on, solving problems, thinking creatively, meeting goals, and preparing for what’s next.

Contact Saelen for memoirs, ghostwriting, and obits at: sghose@theguysperspective.com.

Read some of his other interviews:

Matt Lauzon: The relationship Guy

Jules Pieri: Daily Grommet 

Matthew Growney: Connecting the unconnected 

Jason Gracilieri: Turning Art 

The Relationship Guy  by Saelen Ghose (Originally published in The MetroWest Daily)

Here’s an interesting concept: let’s all slow down to build relationships, by speeding up the pace of communication. This doesn’t make sense to you? Well, it didn’t for me either, that is, until I met Matt Lauzon, the CEO of Gemvara, the fastest growing online jewelry store in the world.

Sept 17 @saelenghose I signed up for Twitter today so I could follow Matt Lauzon and see why he uses it religiously. 

Lauzon is a bit too young to be a dinosaur, but that’s exactly what he is. By using modern forms of communication—social networking, more specifically Twitter—he is bringing back some of the core values we seem to have lost in this me-centered, steroid-amped, “bigger is better” world. In fact, Lauzon cares so much about connecting with actual human beings that he’s encouraged, no, rather demanded, that each of his “Gemvarians” get on board with his list of Core Values. And top on that list: build meaningful relationships with everyone you touch. At this point it’s clear he’s not your typical CEO of a multi-million dollar company—more like a CRO: Chief Relationships Officer.

Sept 18 @saelenghose I learned something new on Twitter. RT stands for Re-Tweet: giving credit to the person who said it first. 

“Is this guy for real?” I ask myself, not in a sarcastic or condescending way, but more of “I’m blown away” type of way. But here he is, quietly, but energetically explaining who he is and how he runs his company. Actually he doesn’t need to explain either because they are one and the same. Matt Lauzon is Gemvara. And Gemvara is Matt Lauzon. He’s building a brand where there are no boundaries. “There used to be a personal life brand and a business brand,” says Lauzon. “Some CEOs aren’t comfortable with this approach. A lot of people say I’m giving away too much by showing what I’m going to launch. But our fundamental belief is that we are going to be authentic and transparent and that’s a way to build credibility in a relationship.” I joke, “Really what you are selling is trust, not jewelry.” Lauzon stares at me, and then jumps up to write it down. I don’t realize it at that moment, but this is my first Re-Tweet.

Sept 16 @saelenghose RT @mattlauzon Funny how as a kid you dread hanging with your parents but as you get older you look forward to it.

Matt Lauzon is much younger than I am. Or rather, I am much older than Matt Lauzon, so when I discover his Tweet late one night about his parents, my heart warms. As a parent of three children myself, I can only dream that my kids will be announcing to the world their connection to me in some futuristic social networking fashion as Lauzon Tweets about his parents now. “My heart warms” is an understatement, more like my eyes moisten, and I have a strong urge to wake my kids and hug them.

Sept 13 RT @mattlauzon Enroute back to Boston. Committed to staying connected with different offices. Constant communication is so important.

Gemvara is not just an online jewelry destination; it is a family of people committed to building relationships, which includes the people employed by Gemvara, the new customers that consider Gemvara their jeweler, and the many followers on Twitter and other social networking sites that just want to be be part of something different, something moving, something groundbreaking—a throwback, if you will, to a time when people did business face-to-face.

The beginnings of Gemvara (www.gemvara.com) actually began with Paragon Lake, Lauzon’s first company which he co-founded while still an undergraduate at Babson. “I was fascinated by mass customization and ecommerce, so I started the company with a friend. We saw how disconnected it seemed that people couldn’t get exactly the jewelry they wanted.” So Paragon Lake filled this void by using web-based technology giving customers the ability to create their own personalized jewelry. “We launched in 50 jewelry stores. Our initial plan was to connect stores and online business. But what we realized is that you had to work directly with customers to build relationships. It was hard to work through local jewelers because they had their own way of doing things.” Born from that realization was Gemvara.

Lauzon launched Gemvara in March of 2010. Since then the business has grown exponentially to the point where Lauzon needed a bigger space to run his operations. In the last few months he has moved his company from its incubator space in Lexington to its current location in the heart of the financial district in Boston.

So I ask him, “Let’s say I wanted to buy my wife a ring. Take me through the steps.” I wasn’t actually in the market for a ring, but after sitting with Lauzon and listening to him speak about his company I’m almost ready to break out my wallet and become a customer. He tells me that I could pretty much create any piece I want, choosing from the many choices of gems, precious metals, and accessories. Their rendering technology allows customers to virtually create the piece of their dreams. After the customer is satisfied with his or her creation, Gemvara uses several manufacturers right here in the USA to make the jewelry. By not housing inventory, Gemvara is able to pass along savings to customers.

Sept 20 @saelenghose If jewelry equals relationships and relationships equal Gemvara then it would only follow that jewelry equals Gemvara. 

While Lauzon is explaining his company to me he suddenly jumps up to draw a graph. I smile to myself. He definitely is authentic. Lauzon draws while explaining how people make decisions about purchasing products. “Initially, the decision comes from an emotional place. ‘I want to surprise my wife with a gift.’ Then it moves to a more rational place. ‘Is this good quality? Am I getting a deal? What’s the return policy?’ Then it moves back to an emotional place. ‘Is this the best gift I can get her?’ He continues. “Most companies spend 95% of their time and resources on the rational part of the decision. But we’re about building relationships, so we focus on the emotional. We spend a lot of time talking to customers on the phone, email, or live chat, about things that have nothing to do with jewelry.”

It’s clear that Lauzon is sincere. Every time we talk about the nuts and bolts of his company the conversation reverts back to building relationships. At one point while discussing why he uses Twitter to stay connected to people he pulls out his phone. “For example, my mom knows what’s going on with me. She reads my Tweets.” As he tries to explain what he means, he pauses and says, “It’s so, um….” He pauses again, mind churning. “That would be funny. We should get my mom on the phone and have her describe how Twitter works for her. She would be so excited. Or would that be a weird thing to do?” I stare at him and think, “A loyal and loving son. If he’s not careful I’m going to hug him too.”

Sept 22 @saelenghose  If you have no idea what Twitter is, join, just to follow @Matt Lauzon #Gemvara (# marks a keyword in a Tweet.)

As I wrap up our interview I ask him what’s in store for the future. He talks about doing another “Pay it Forward” event like the one he organized on a lark with friends in June of 2011, called Ruby Riot. (“Pay it forward” being when you don’t repay the person who did something nice for you. Instead, you do something nice for someone else.) Lauzon and some friends organized this event hoping people from all walks of life would come. “We just asked that everyone commit to doing at least one good thing for someone else. And over 900 people showed up. There were so many people, a second location opened up for the people waiting in line. I’d like to do more stuff like Ruby Riot. I’m passionate around the Innovation District, and the startup scene here in the Boston area. I’m trying to facilitate more people being successful here.”

And so it comes back to building relationships. Lauzon and Gemvara are the same, intertwined by a united goal of building a community, a family. This is easy for Lauzon because it’s his life, his job. CRO: Chief Relationships Officer.

Sept 24 @saelenghose  I’m a believer. #Gemvara

“Connecting the unconnected” by Saelen Ghose

Matthew Growney wants to connect the unconnected. He sees an opportunity for analog things, atoms, to benefit from internet bits, and he’s already putting his ideas into practice with his line of picture frames and tablets.

I met Matthew in his West Concord office. The modest exterior of his building belies a tasteful and smart interior, incorporating an open floor plan, where I imagine he meets with his team to discuss his company’s creative vision and direction. Matthew’s own dressed down exterior seems to be a carbon copy of his building. With a quiet smile, short spiky hair, fleece jacket, and jeans—unassuming as an ensemble—I would never pick him out from the line at the local coffee shop, as the founder of both an investment company and a successful start up. But that’s exactly how he likes it. It’s all about being real for him.

Real People. Real time. Real simple. Real ideas.

Real People. His mind may be in The Cloud, but he runs his business the old fashioned way: by finding out what people want, and then designing products that deliver.

Growney is the founder and CEO of Isabella Products(www.isabellaproducts.com), and was named one of the “40 under 40” by the Boston business journal for his professional achievements. That’s all well and good, but for Growney, running a successful business is less about awards and all about connecting with people.

Before he created Vizit, the picture frame that features real time two-way photo sharing between friends and family, he booked the ballroom at the Ritz Carlton in Boston and wined and dined 120 moms ages 35-65, mined from salons, mommy groups, and fitness clubs. “We wanted to ask women, specifically mothers, since they are the photo keeper, how they use, touch, and share photos,” says Growney. “We wanted to know what their biggest complaint about taking photos on their phone was. We asked them what they like, and what don’t they like.” Right there. Real interactions with people, instead of scouring social networks trying to determine analytics based on mindless drivel limited to 140 characters. And then he moved forward with his plans.

For me personally, the Real time aspect of the Vizit is appealing. I can imagine myself on the sidelines at one of my kids’ games snapping pictures on my mobile phone. In an instant I send my pictures up to Growney’s mobile network cloud Vizit Me, and then in another instant they magically appear on my mother’s Vizit picture frame in California, where she can experience the thrill of the game along with me. If she wants to she can reply to me right from her frame, or forward the pictures on to anyone who is part of the Vizit network. Growney uses 3-G instead of WiFi because it’s reliable and he runs a business on real time. Connecting the unconnected.

As Growney begins to tell me about the Mini, the device that magically catapults any existing digital picture frame into a real time sharing tour de force, an actual train rattles by his office. “That’s one of the downsides,” he says. But I like the contrast. He’s running a business that looks for ways to serve consumers, and trains have been doing that for over a century. And what’s more predictable than a train? In the little known, but sweet children’s book, “Pianna,” Anna the main character says, “Six trains a day were as good as a clock back then.” And that sentiment persists today right in Growney’s office. No need to check his watch, or daily planner, when he’s got trains providing predictability, and keeping him on task. I ponder if Growney’s considered the irony that the trains are equipped with WiFi instead of 3G, but decide not to bring it up. Otherwise I’ll get his wheels spinning, and I still have some questions for him to answer.

Real simple. Matthew’s house is being painted today. The funny thing is he didn’t know it until this morning. I chuckle about this. How can someone so aware of his surroundings, and so on top of his business, not know his house may be a new color when he arrives home from work that day?

“My wife runs the ship at home,” he says. “She’s got her crew and I’ve got mine.” Still, when I ask him what color his house will be, he says “I assume white.” But I can tell he’s a bit flustered not knowing for sure. “I have to check on that,” he says. I don’t think the ramifications of some radical new color adhering to his clapboards, or even scarier, the brick façade that he and his wife have debated about painting, dawned on him until that very moment.

Before Matthew founded Isabella Products, the consumer technology company that launched the Vizit line, he ran Motorola Ventures for ten years following in his father’s footsteps. However, his father’s prolonged absences—traveling around the world to explore business opportunities—got Matthew thinking about ways to create a better balance with his own life.

Born from this thinking was Rudyard Partners(www.rudyardpartners.com), the next generation family run investment firm that focuses on early stage consumer technology opportunities in the global marketplace. Matthew’s office is a mile from his house, intentionally. He wants to be a strong and consistent presence in his three kids’ lives, and being close by affords him the luxury of running a business and still being able to see his family. He is happy about the arrangement, another connection to a simpler time when people worked where they lived, and came home for dinner and bedtime stories. Growney is intent on remaining connected and he seems to be staying the course.

Real Ideas. Matthew’s excited about the Fable, a tablet specifically designed for kids, and another attractive piece of his product line. “Imagine a father,” he says, “being able to send content about his job to a classroom full of students, all using Fable tablets. All the kids can immediately receive the information and then discuss, and interact with it. Or imagine a child studying a picture from a National Geographic let’s say, and this child takes one of the photos from the magazine and draws herself into the picture and sends it off to her mother or father at work. All in real time.” And I thought Pong was pretty cool. Clearly I grew up in the wrong century.

Growney talks of connecting other things with the network. Binoculars. Toys. Jewelry. The opportunities are only growing. Binoculars? I say. How? He smiles. “Wouldn’t it be neat to be able to post the image of the falcon you’re viewing right from your binoculars while you lie in a wet field? You could post the image and notes to your own private site, or a wildlife site, or your own cloud. You wouldn’t have to worry about film or downloading this or that. You already have optics, magnification, and resolution.”

So what’s next I ask him, knowing full well that this isn’t the last stop on Growney’s entrepreneurial train.

Sure enough he surprises me. He and his wife plan on starting a fashion label in the next few years. He says it will be cutthroat and competitive but they are up for the challenge. I’m sure his kids will also be involved somehow, maybe as design consultants or models. I ask him if he will he be offering a shoe line as well, that somehow connects the unconnected. He smiles and says, “That’s a bit too far fetched even for me.” I find that hard to believe. Of course I’m still wondering about the color of his house and how it will turn out.

Twitter: @saelenghose   @iamgrowney

“The art of problem solving” by Saelen Ghose

Jason Gracilieri is not an artist, or even an art collector per se, but he has a deep appreciation for art, and a profound respect for the people who create it. This, combined with his problem solving bent, led him to launch his latest venture Turning Art, the startup company offering a creative new approach to art consumption.

When I finally meet Gracilieri—we had been trying to schedule our talk for over a month—I’m relieved. That morning, my wife suggested I wear something “nice” since I’d be interviewing someone who works in the art world. After a painful foray into my closet’s lean offerings, I decide to go casual. I figure it’s always best to be comfortable; and when Gracilieri shakes my hand I smile, inwardly noting his jeans and relaxed shirt. For once in my life I make the right fashion choice.

Turning Art is located on South Street in Boston. The fourth floor office overlooks Boston’s Leather District, which is less about leather these days, and more about affordable space for startup companies. It’s a place where entrepreneurs can lay down roots and get up and running with the business of problem solving, which is what Gracilieri is all about.

Upon entering the office space I expect to see freshly painted walls providing a clean backdrop for expressive mosaics, abstract splashes of color, loud lines, and bold palettes. Instead I’m met with a room full of cardboard boxes, a ‘sudden’ reminder of helping all too many friends move from old apartment to new, with only pizza as payment for my hard work.

Gracilieri explains the mess and the production line atmosphere of the space. “The turnover is fast. All this stuff you see will be gone in a week, replaced by the next set of prints and art that’s behind that other wall.” I mention to him the obvious: As business grows they will quickly outgrow this space. Gracilieri agrees. “It’s a good problem to have.”

“So how did Turning Art begin,” I ask. He begins to speak passionately and with purpose—a contrast to his casual attire—explaining how he came up with the idea to solve a simple problem. “I’d moved to a new apartment and had a whole bunch of bare walls. I knew I had matured beyond at least 50 percent of the stuff I currently had to put up. So I asked myself, how do I go about filling the walls with something I like? What’s the process? Go to stores and hope that on the day I show up there’d be something I might be interested in, at the right price point? It was too random. And I didn’t want to compromise. That was the beginning point of Turning Art.” The whole time he’s speaking I’m nodding my head in agreement. Who hasn’t been stressed out by what pictures to hang on the wall?

Gracilieri goes on to explain the problems he’s addressing with his new company. “It’s such a big hurdle to spend a lot of money to put something nice on the wall. People either don’t have the financial means today, or they don’t feel they have the disposable income. They also have this perceived lack of knowledge about what they SHOULD be buying. Or they don’t have the time to look. It’s those three things that Turning Art is tackling.” Gracilieri continues to carefully craft his vision for me just as a painter does to canvas, and I’m thinking he’s more of an artist than he realizes.

Turning Art has a Netflix vibe to it. Subscribers browse the website, choose from nearly one thousand paintings of various styles, filling their queue with art pieces they’d like to try out in their home. Then Gracilieri and his team send the subscriber their first print housed in a high quality frame. Prints are then rotated at the frequency of the subscriber’s choosing, allowing the individual member to sample different types of work, to see which styles work best for them. In addition—and I think the best part—every dollar a subscriber spends, earns one dollar towards the purchase of an original work of art on Turning Art’s site. This arrangment helps both the consumer and the artist. Not many businesses can tout such a win-win platform.

Of course I openly question the model, wondering how the prints don’t get bent or damaged. Gracilieri laughs and says the prints are almost indestructible. “They don’t bend or crease. We use high quality substrate. You could even spill water on them,” he says, although I doubt he wants me to test this water theory on some of the prints I see on the shelf. I’m still a little skeptical until we walk over to look at them. Sure enough, they are exactly as advertised. Another problem solved.

Gracilieri has been solving problems since leaving Dartmouth College with an engineering background. Directly out of college he founded Applied Reason and Technology, a company focusing on search and information intelligence. Then he and his team dreamed up Sconex, a social networking site for the under 18 crowd, which he later sold. He followed with Bankfox, a search engine for consumer deposit products. And now Turning Art, his fourth startup. Suffice it to say, Gracilieri has been busy. However, he was never busier than he was in March of 2010. “My daughter Lucy was born on March 20th. I came home from the hospital and sent out Alpha invitations for Turning Art on March 22nd, which officially launched the company. Now I have two start- ups going,” he jokes, referring to his daughter. Okay, so I’ll retract my earlier statement: Turning Art is Gracilieri’s fifth startup, if I count his 16 month old daughter.

Gracilieri also mentions another family member: Julie, his wife. He gives much of the credit for Turning Art’s origins and success to her, telling me she was the one who used her connections in the art world—she’s an artist, and was a gallery director—to find the initial group of artists, which set the bar high for entry point. Now all artists are vetted. And from my perspective—as someone who is part of the creative world himself—the Turning Art family is a great place for any artist looking for exposure, and a fair marketplace to sell their work. Many online businesses use content created by artists to help their own bottom line, but not many sites actually benefit the creators themselves. Turning Art does, and it’s just another example of the win-win focus Gracilieri has established.

Gracilieri might describe himself as a problem solver, and he certainly is that. But he brings so much more to the table. I was struck by his genuine affection for the people he works with, the artists he helps promote, and the customers he exposes to the world of original art. He’s someone who truly cares about doing right by people, and he puts his money where his mouth is. And I say, to be able to pull off what he’s doing requires more than drive and determination. It actually takes a bit of artistry to create a business where everybody wins.

Twitter: @saelenghose