Working at Fab

our sales in Europe are really strong. We started off German language only. In may we added English language and expanded to ship across the EU. We currently derive 25% of our revenue in the EU outside of Germany. We think it will be 50% by end of year. We're also working very hard to increase the quality of the merchandise in Europe. That's a major priority for the rest of this year.

Maintaing our culture is actually the hardest thing for us to do now as we grow. We were 25 people here in New York at this time last year, and we have 400 people globally working on Fab now. The biggest thing for us is, Fab is Fab is Fab, everywhere we operate. Thats the culture, the team, the products on the website, the look and feel, the operations, the customer service.Getting this culture right is key to getting the brand right. Our number one thing at Fab is, its gotta be real, its gotta be authentic. What we say is what we do. This week we had our top 50 managers from around the globe get together for a week to do nothing but talk about culture: what Fab culture is, how we protect it, preserve it, and grow it. It was an amazing week!

Blog is on the list. It sucks right now. Hard to put resources towards it though vs. focusing on the merchandise on the site. We'll get to it soon. We are in the process of moving towards more permanent collections of products always being on Fab. Our top 1000 greatest hits. And, awesome products in every category. We'll get there this fall.

I hire for smarts and passion. Send me something to jason@fab.com demonstrating (a) why we need your brain working on Fab, and (b) why you were made to work at Fab. The answer to (b) is actually more important to me. There are tons of smart people out there, but it takes someone truly passionate for Fab's mission to fit in and succeed at Fab.

I think I just answered #1 above. Let me know if you need more. Happy to chat more about it. On #2, the low point for us was January 2011. We had just spent a year building and iterating on what we knew was an amazing product for the gay market, yet the market didn't need it. We had so many people praise the product. Graphic designers thought it was stunningly beautiful. Tech geeks raved about the functionality. Yet, it was a great product with no market demand. That really *** sucked. So, we threw it all away and built the new business around our common passion, where we were certain there was market demand. Design.

1. No, no bonuses. The cash goes into the business. We're not profitable. Big bonuses are for profits. 2. I don't think it's a bubble if the business has real revenues, extraordinary growth, and a plan for building a big sustainable business. We do.

It takes a lot of money to build a global brand. We're investing in (1) technology - particularly more in social commerce and mobile commerce and supply chain, (2) building out our own network of warehouses and supply chain so we can get products to customers super fast, (3) global expansion - we're selling in 20 markets already and will be opening more in 2013.