Fancy is a rising star in today’s era of curation and with a bookmarking tool and a focus on images, Fancy’s constantly being compared to the ever-popular Pinterest.  But the two curation tools were built from different perspectives and different goals in mind, Fancy being designed around brands, the ability to purchase, and the overall consumer experience.

Here to talk about Fancy is founder Joe Einhorn, a visionary in this curation age where bookmarking indicates intent, and closing that loop becomes an integrated experience.  Unlike Pinterest, Fancy has a decided business model that connects brands and buyers at the point of “intent,” and anticipates that this trend will continue to be supplemented by social and mobile developments.  In today’s CEO Series Einhorn discusses Fancy’s mobile strategy and how it gives them an edge over Pinterest, how his company will survive the growing competition, and how the oft-referenced Minority Report influenced his goals with Fancy.

How can your mobile strategy put you ahead of rivals like Pinterest?

People use our mobile apps to buy the coolest things in the world directly from inside our app. On other services you are clicking out of their app, to dead ends or to external sites that aren’t mobile-friendly that break the experience. Think of our app like Amazon…… you see something you buy it one click. But instead of finding items via keyword you find them in the stream. We are the only app like this and this is live today internationally on iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android & Android tablet.

Where does Fancy fit into an era where consumers and their actions are
being commoditized?

Online shopping is broken. In real life,  I go to an amazing store like the Apple store or Barney’s and I see all the coolest stuff in the world and have a great experience. But even my favorite stores don’t have a great online experience. When you go on Fancy you are looking at the coolest stuff in the world selected by the coolest people in the world and one click and you buy it. So to answer your question-  it’s like anything else either-
you are solving a problem or you’re not. In our case people are spending a lot of money with us so I feel like it’s working.

The Curation Age is the new “web 2.0”.  How does this affect web trends
like search and marketing?

I’m not one to talk about search and marketing trends. If you’ve seen the movie Minority Report, we want to be the pre-crime of shopping. We are going to get that pair of black boots in front of you a month before you search for it or respond to traditional marketing.

See the entire CEO Series with Kristen Nicole on Pinterest and Springpad!

.

Given your vision of connecting brands, collections and buyers, what
gives you confidence in the future?

Our technology team is as good as any company in the world. We have an infrastructure in place where we can snap on new products across all platforms in a scaleable way. So we will just continue to come up with ideas and implement them.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

BRAND NAME SHOPPER

JOE EINHORN

.

The worst/strangest gift you’ve ever received?

A book about stalking from a stalker.

Favorite wine?

I don’t drink.

Where did you go on your last vacation?

I haven’t taken a vacation in a long time.