Send the Trend Acquired by QVC Home Shopping Network
This is probably the dream of every emerging entrepreneur – create a start-up and have it acquired by a major company. In 2010, Divya Gugnani, Mariah Chase and ‘Project Runway’ winner Christian Siriano launched Send the Trend, raising $ 3 million in venture capital from Battery Ventures and Founder Capital – and then they just worked at nurturing it and creating a unique company.
Send the Trend is an innovative e-commerce site for female shoppers, providing them with stylish, affordable fashion, picks all under $29.95 with free shipping thrown in. The special appeal is that Send the Trend offers each customer a “Gallery” with curated picks and further serves up merchandise via crowd-sourced behavior on the site.
Enter QVC…
QVC, the giant home shopping network, obviously liked what it saw because it has acquired Send the Trend for an undisclosed amount. As a subsidiary company of QVC, Send the Trend will remain based in New York City and continue to operate as a separate e-commerce site but will now have the substantial resources behind it.
“All told, QVC seems to have brought a real winner into its fold and will probably not try to fix that which obviously isn’t broken,” wrote Michael Essany in Daily Deal Media. “One industry analyst who spoke with Daily Deal Media today said QVC would be wise to seamlessly integrate Send The Trend with its well-known brand and well-established media platforms.”
According to an article in Crain’s New York Business, all the Send the Trend employees and founders will remain on staff. “QVC, a subsidiary of John Malone’s Liberty Interactive Corp., plans to use Send the Trend to offer shoppers more personalization and customization opportunities, said CEO Mike George. ‘They bring a fresh and creative view to shopping,’ he said. ‘They have an innovative way of thinking about the issues, and we want to leverage that knowledge and information.’”
Earlier Divya Gugnani had also created Behind the Burner, another food-related start-up. In this new age of social media, online interaction and crowd-sourcing, the next great idea is just a click away!
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