Since closing a deal with Kevin O’Leary from Shark tank back in season 7 Lovepop has seen incredible growth. What started out as a project that developed from a trip to Vietnam, has now grown into an incredible company that employs more than 800 people! I had the opportunity to catch up with their CEO, Wombi Rose to hear what they’re up to now- especially for Valentine’s Day! Here’s what we spoke about:
How Do you Continue to Create Success??
Jay: Looking back at the success Lovepop has had is there one thing that you feel has been the catalyst the has enabled you guys to continue to grow?
Wombi: The most important catalyst for us has been our mission. Create one billion magical moments. It allows us to have a big vision that can make an impact on so many parts of our customers lives, while also remaining laser-focused on the superpowers the Lovepop team has: creating magical experiences through a combination of imagination and engineering. That has led to some amazing designs that customers love, and all of our growth is really the direct result of our customers loving the product.
Jay: When you started the company it was just you and your partner. Now you have over 800 employees!! What are the qualities you look for when adding a member to your team?
Wombi: We have approximately 800 employees across Lovepop’s offices in Boston, New York, Vietnam, and in retail locations across the East Coast. The most important qualities we look for are hunger, an engineering mindset, magic, and connection. Every interview, we rate potential candidates on how they show these dimensions, and how well we think their previous experiences map into the work they’ll be doing here.
A Little Bit of Luck….
Jay: What strikes you the most about how well Lovepop has done?
Wombi: The most amazing thing is really the rapid pace of learning. We’ve made a lot of mistakes and decisions that didn’t go our way. At the same time, we’ve been incredibly lucky (for example we were featured on Shark Tank in 2015). In all of the ups and all of the downs, it’s just incredible how much and how fast everyone on the team has learned.
Jay: What’s your favorite card??
Wombi: All time favorite: Hedgehogs in Love. It’s just so whimsical and cute. Last Christmas, my favorite was Bethlehem, because the illustration is just amazing, and the engineering is really cool. I’ve seen it displayed in ways as people’s Christmas decorations that makes you completely forget that it’s a paper card. Coming into spring and Mother’s Day this year, my favorite new design is the Lily Bloom. It’s so colorful and elegant – in some ways even better than the real thing ?
What’s Next?
Jay: What are some of the new cards or themes you’re working on now?
Wombi: Our beautiful new floral cards are the perfect way to say Happy Valentine’s Day or to treat your mom to a little springtime on Mother’s Day. The Red Rose Bloom and Lily Bloom cards are engineered in a new single flower style that our designers just dreamed up. They are are breathtaking!
And we’re having a lot of fun with our license partners for the holidays, like the Star Wars BB-8 Mine card. We have so much going on with the Beatles, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Marvel, and our recently launched Spider-Man card. We have a lot of exciting new card designs coming out over the next month or so, so stay tuned!
Jay: You’ve accomplished so much and have built an incredible business. What are some of the upcoming goals you hope to achieve personally and professionally?
Wombi: One of our biggest goals is to become better at helping our customers remember important occasions. We’re seeing very strong adoption of our “Schedule a Card” feature, where we will print a message in the design for the sender, and send it directly to the recipient. We’ll even schedule it out for a future date. Our customers have been asking us for a long time to help them remember their occasions, which is something we’re now in a position to do. I can see that continue to grow very rapidly as we expand our product offering for a wider set of occasions, and help people make every occasion awesome!
Jay: If you could spend an hour with anyone and ask them anything you want. Who would it be with and what would you ask them?
Wombi: I would love to sit down with Jeff Bezos and ask him to give me the opportunity to make every giving experience more magical for all of Amazon’s customers. We could create so many magical moments.