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ZeroDegrees.com (Business Social Network)

ZeroDegrees.com was one of the first business social networking sites before LinkedIn dominated the industry. Extensive research was conducted on the company to understand its business strategy and brand focus and to deliver an image that sets it apart from its competitors. I successfully redesigned and launched the site, and soon after, a large corporation purchased all the business social networking sites and their IP and shut them down. Three years later, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for 8 billion.

RESULTS
Investors received 20X return upon sale with the help of website redesign.
Inclusivity was way ahead of its time.
Throughout the site, I used a variety of visual and eye-candy graphics to reinforce the idea of making a connection through multiple devices.

The vision
ZeroDegrees was one of the first sites to prove and validate the number of degrees from Kevin Bacon. The company was located in the heart of Hollywood, across the street from Tower Records. It went viral, with thousands of customers wanting to know the number of separations they have from other celebrities.
Google It: “Six degrees from Kevin Bacon” is still a trendy topic.

ZeroDegrees is an online business networking service that allows members to add the names of business and personal contacts to a searchable database. It was one of the first business social networking sites. Its IP and its user base made it very attractive to VC.

Before/After – The original Zerodegrees.com website looked amateur. I was the sole designer responsible for redesigning the website to make it more modern. I hired a copywriter and launched the new site that directly increased the user base. The VP of marketing and CEO gave me a bonus upon the sale of the dot-com. A 20x VC return.

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Dreamworks (SKG) – Pop.com (UGC Video site)

The Begging – Pop.com was a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and other top A-list Hollywood filmmakers. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen backed the company to produce as an original online social content entertainment company. DreamWorks, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg are joining Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, who created Pop.com, envisioning and embracing the future of online (internet) entertainment. Pop.com is an OUGC social entertainment company.

THE MAKING OF SUPERFANS
DREAMWORKS (SKG) – My original assignment was to help create a web presence for Pop.com, showcasing original digital shorts from A-list celebrities. Due to rising costs, the original content creation was put on hold. The business pivoted, and I was pulled into another acquisition—a community fan website called countingdown.com hosting Pop.com’s original content from A-list celebrities. I was responsible for the re-brand and a complete UX/UI redesign. Countingdown’s online success was based on a ticker timer that counts down when a movie is expected to release into movie theaters. The goal was to build movie hype through its user base. I still have the original Adobe Flash files.

DREAMWORKS (SKG) – EVOLUTION MOVIE SITE
Also, during that time at DreamWorks, the vision was to create movie sites affiliated with the pop.com and countingdown.com to give super-fans behind-the-scenes movie access. I art directed the movie “Evolution” website directed by Ivan Reitman. Instead of launching the typical beautifully finished movie website, the site was uniquely designed to be a rolling release where content changes daily. Fans had behind-the-scenes access to content with hooks into the fan community drove its success. I was literally changing content on the fly based from community feedback.

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Indieshopper.com – The Vision
“IndieShopper is a boutique of up-and-coming designers with a little urban grit; Shop Independent is a great place for those who fancy accessories a little off the straight and narrow. In particular, their belts are hipster gear central. Indie Shopper is the hottest designer boutique for today’s freshest fashion designers in the county.” Quote: Style Magazine.

Indieshopper.com – The End
We’re dedicated to finding the hottest emerging fashion designer labels nationwide—no need to travel to Melrose Avenue in L.A. or SoHo in New York. You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for something original, something hip (and sweatshop-free). This was the guiding principle.

The most surprising artist submission was from SteveO from Jack Ass. At that time JackAss was a considerable rave and SteveO was the movie star. I had to put that his image front and center of the website. That was a good time, but in 2007, when the economy collapsed, so did sales, so I decided to take my innovations to Microsoft.

Black Eyed Peas Band
The most prominent Artist, BuckyJonson, and band members from the BlackEyed Peas agreed upon an exclusive partnership with indieshopper.com. The site featured an exclusive song by Fergie (Vapors). In exchange, Indieshopper.com would build a customer landing page to sell band merch and market to its fan base to validate proof of concept.

The Business Pivot – Jungle Green 

The Big Bet – The Black-Eyed Peas band management contacted me, and they wanted to collaborate to sell band merch with independent artists. Up-and-coming bands would have a way to sell merch to Indie Artists. The vision is to build a cross-fusion of independent fashion and street culture for independent designers. The partnership with brands would be to create a co-branded site in exchange for your exclusive online merchandiser. In business mode, I continued to develop strategic partnerships with various music bands and urban clothing vendors.

Marketing: Free Press
Knowing you have product market fit when the site stats start showing traffic without doing any marketing. Free traffic without having to hire a publicist to write editorials. At IndieShoppers’ website peak, it had 2k brands and was cash-positive.

Wired.com (Press Mention) – The best seller was Ray Gun Buckle by “Han Cholo” which was featured in wired.com news article. Business 101- Partner with the best up-and-coming independent brands. My top vendor was Han Cholo the hottest jewelry designer coming out of LA. His jewelry is seen on many A-list celebrities, including his biggest fan, Snoop-Dogg. I sold a lot of Brass-Ring belt buckles.

Indieshopper.com – MVP/GTM
Phase Three: 10/31/05 (Halloween) site went live with only five vendors. 11/15/05: First online sale of BodyRocks necklace! 1/5/06: In a few months, 80 vendors. 3/23/06: Sales hit $10k with 240 vendors. The startup went from Crawl, Walk, to Run in under two years. My goal was to start leveling up the caliber of vendors and streamline the merchant’s internal tool systems. I added a Message Center to communicate with vendors 1:1. Reduced the order fulfillment to 1-3 min to process an online order, including automated emailing PDF shipping labels.

Indieshopper.com e-commerce site (9 months)

Phase Two – I cloned the directory site with over 10k prospective vendors. I hired developers to build all the features needed to complete a full e2e marketplace website. I was on a budget, so all code libraries must use open-source libraries and PHP. I was one of the early adopters using API’s from Woo Commerce, PayPal, USPS, and a custom CMS system. Vendors could register and publish products to the store in 10 minutes. I designed and prototyped the entire site using Image Maps and Dreamweaver to hardcode functioning pages, then published the designs for developers’ review. This is the best method to communicate functionality requirements to offshore developers. This is how InVision started and Figma perfected it.

ShopIndependent.com – Proof of Concept (3 months) 

Phase One: The beginning from the sale of a dot com, I decided to build an Ad banner exchange directory to foster vendor relationships and understand the indie market. The goal was to find the hottest independent up-and-coming designers and market to them as a free resource to promote their website. In exchange, they would put a banner on their site for Free or pay to have direct placement. The number of new brands interested validated the POC and helped drive vendor awareness for indieshopper.com. I used all the questionable SEO tricks and cornered the search keyword term “indie” before Google changed its algorithm. At its peak, the site had over 10k referrers and half a million unique visitors. The site generates over $3k monthly from Google AdSense and placed ads.