Shan-Lyn Ma: Zola Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Second Life

Clique Media, Female Founder, Entrepreneurship, Career Change, Career Pivot, Fashion & Beauty, Hillary Kerr, Personal Journals, Who What Wear, Clique, Career, Arts, Business, Careers, Second Life, Career Advice, Self-made, Entrepreneur, Mydomaine, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shan-Lyn Ma, co-founder and co-CEO of wedding registry site Zola, was destined to be an entrepreneur. In fact, her childhood bedroom décor featured a poster of her idol, Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo. After graduating with her MBA from Stanford, Ma pursued her lifelong dream and took a role at Yahoo, first as an intern and later in product marketing. Two years later, she moved over to e-commerce company Gilt Groupe as its first Product Lead. It was during her time there that she founded and ran her own business unit, Gilt Taste, where she worked closely with future Zola Co-Founder Nobu Nakaguchi. Though Ma moved on to a role as Chief Product Officer at jewelry company Chloe + Isabel, she and Nobu were percolating on an idea for a business. During that time, Ma was also spending nearly every weekend at friends’ weddings and was repeatedly met with clunky registry sites. She and Nobu realized this area of wedding planning needed disrupting and they set out to do just that. Zola has now helped over 2 million couples plan their weddings and just recently expanded to include a baby registry service.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone I'm Hillary Kerr the co-founder and chief content officer of
0:10.1	who what where and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
0:18.0	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears and what
0:25.4	happens when they embark on their second life.
0:28.4	Today I'm chatting with Shanlin Ma, the co-founder and co-ceo of Wedding Registry site, Zola.
0:36.0	As a kid, Shan Lynn always dreamed of being an entrepreneur.
0:40.0	In fact, her childhood bedroom decor of choice was a poster of her idol, Jerry Yang, the co-founder
0:47.3	of Yahoo.
0:48.3	So, after graduating with her
0:53.4	lifelong dream and took a role at Yahoo, first as an intern and later in
0:58.0	product marketing.
0:59.0	Then in 2008 she moved over to e-commerce company guilt group as their first product lead and
1:05.1	youngest executive on the team.
1:08.0	While there, she founded and ran her own business unit, Gilt Taste, where she got to work closely with her future Zola co-founder, Nobu.
1:16.2	Though Shanlin moved on to a role as Chief Product Officer at Jewelry Company, Chloe and Isabel,
1:22.2	she and Nobu still percolated on an idea for a business.
1:26.2	During that time, Shan Lynn also was spending nearly every weekend at friends' weddings
1:31.9	and was constantly met with clunky wedding registry sites.
1:35.8	Shan brought her frustration to Nobu and he lamented that in planning his own wedding the
1:40.9	registry was a pain point. The two realized this area of
1:44.5	wedding planning needed disrupting and with the skills they both gained working in
1:49.2	e-commerce at guilt they set out to do just that.
	...

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