2010 was another amazing year for Stella & Dot. Last year S&D paid out $50 million in commissions and just last month the highest paid leader earned 75K.
This year more of the excitement continues such as at this year's directors conference half of our leaders that attended directors conference started less than a year ago. Pretty amazing at how fast a stylist can grow their own business.
The BIGGEST news, Sequoia Capital sees the potential in this modern day Tupperware business. Sequoia Captial, the same investors that invested in Google, PayPal, and in Apple in their early days, has invested $37 million in return for a 10 percent stake in the business, setting the six-year-old company’s valuation at a diamond-studded $370 million. The shares were purchased from existing shareholders, so the company will be paying for future plans directly from its profits.
Sequoia Capital Partner Alfred Lin, who was most recently chairman, COO and CFO of Zappos.com before selling the company to Amazon.com, led the investment and will join the Stella & Dot board.
Lin said that technology has changed the way we shop, from the Amazon and Zappos experience to the way membership clubs like Gilt Groupe are run. But direct-selling “is an interesting area that has not been touched by technology as much as other industries have. The business that (Stella & Dot's CEO, Jessica Herrin) is building is not your grandmother’s. It’s the new age.”
Some of that has to do with additional help from the internet and social tools, such as Facebook and Twitter.
2010 finished strong and 2011 is already off to a good start. I'll update you as this year progress...I believe it's only going to get better!
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