This Week in Startups: E983: The Next Unicorns: Zola CEO & Co-founder Shan-Lyn Ma shares insights on growing her all-in-one wedding platform in a $100bn market, adapting to changes in wedding demographics, balancing growth and profitability while keeping her team focused, raising moral standards in tech – E5 of 10-ep mini
Jason Calacanis 10/4/19 - Episode Page
0:51 Jason intros Shan-Lyn Ma
3:17 Starting Zola and competing in a crowded space
5:14 Jason and Shan go through LAUNCH President Sam's Wedding Registry live on air
6:30 How Zola's registry and business model work
9:10 How does Zola look at Amazon's wedding lists
14:29 What has changed in wedding demographics, and how does Zola keep up?
21:26 Jason and Shan share thoughts on romantic proposal locations
25:37 How working for Kevin Ryan at Gilt impacted Shan
33:27 Shan's insights on keeping employees focused, balancing growth and profitability
39:28 What do the next few years look like for Zola?
42:20 Wedding SEO competition
46:33 Raising moral standards in tech
50:19 Shan's thoughts on being underestimated as a female founder
54:01 How the NYC tech scene has changed over the past 10 years