YouSaid · the spoken record

Natalie Massenet

lines on the record: 40
first: 2022-02-01
most recent: 2022-02-01
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Master of Scale is a weightwater original. Our executive producers are June Cohen and Darren Triff. Our senior producer is Jordan McLeod. Our supervising producer is Jay Punjabi. Our producers are Adam Skeuse, Catherine Clark Gray, Heile Bondi, Marine McCoy Thompson, and Christina Gonzalez. Our editor at large is Bob Saffey. Our music director is Ryan Holliday, original music and sound design by Eduardo Rivera. Audio editing by Keith J. Nelson, Stephen Davies, Andrew Nalt, and Mike Gallagher. Mixing and mastering by Brian Pugh. Special thanks to Chrisier, Elisa Schreiber, David Sanford, Saida Sapieva, Greg Beato, Adam Heiner, Emily McManus, Kelsey Capitano, Tim Cronin, Anna Pizano, Ben Richardson, Mina Kurostawa, Sarah Tartar, Charlie Minesis, Chename Ezekenna, and Colin Haworth. Become a member of Masters of Scale to get access to a year's worth of courses and content on the Masters of Scale Courses app. Find out more at masterscale.com.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie and I continued this conversation about digital product and branding the metaverse. It's waiting for you in the near future when you become a master scale member at masterscale.com slash membership. All of us have the ability to future gaze. And in fact, you may be uniquely positioned to see something no one else does yet. So don't just predict the future, create it. I'm Reid Hoffman. Thanks for listening.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Throughout her career, Natalie Massinet is succeeded by not just being a devoted futurist, but helping to deliver the future to consumers five minutes ahead of schedule. So I couldn't resist future casting with her for a moment. We're seeing, you know, obviously this”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nick and Natalie hit it off and soon become co partners in the now very real imaginary ventures. The firm focuses mostly on other e-commerce brands whose values reflect the modern, socially conscious consumers.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As ways to get a new email address go, it was certainly sensational. But out of that fun frenzy, a non imaginary partner emerged. An American investor named Nick Brown already had an impressive track record back in companies like Warby Parker, Glossier, and Goop, and he wanted to know what Natalie had planned.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Having a strong investment thesis is a good thing. In fact, it's absolutely necessary for the job. It's what distinguishes the professional investor from someone playing high stakes roulette.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Despite a flood of competing offers, Richemont bought the majority of Netaporte from Natalie, and all was well until twenty fifteen, when Natalie proposed merging with Farfetch.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Back in 2010, Natalie had been approached by an outside interest to buy the company. But because of the right of first refusal, Richemont could match it, and match it they did.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie didn't see Neta Porte winning this race against Farfetch. Their best chance would be to join forces. She wasn't the only decision maker in the room. Remember what Natalie foreshadowed earlier in the show?”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie envisioned a world in which a customer could order a killer dinner outfit an hour before the dinner. It had the potential to turn Netaporte into the Uber or Uberites of designer retail by decentralizing their inventory and partnering with local retailers. Think of it this way. When you order tacos, your food delivery app doesn't ship them to you from a centralized warehouse. It looks for tacos closest to you. That's what Natalie saw as the next phase of Neta Porte. What's more, Natalie knew she wasn't first to this idea. She felt as though the competition was getting there first. Notably, a company founded a few years after hers named Farfetch.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was 2014 when Natalie started seeing this happen around her. Netaporte had successfully pivoted immobile, but on the heels of mobile comes the inevitable march toward on demand.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Longtime listeners may remember Kevin's own episode of Masters of Scale. We didn't talk about a shoppable Instagram, but we did discuss his passion for keeping scaling platforms simple. And that may have been part of the resistance, no matter what future Natalie foretold. I'd say one of the parts of entrepreneurship is you start and people think you're kind of crazy because you're predicting a future and then you work to the point where everyone thinks it was really obvious. Seeing the future is not a one-time act. It's a continuous scouting process. So don't get complacent because being out ahead on an idea only gives you so much lead time. Competitors can always find ways to catch up.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie is describing, of course, is now a regular part of the social media landscape, not fueled by Kate Hudson personally, of course, but today social media platforms are selling platforms. That wasn't always the case.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The ones who did great. And the ones who didn't a lot of pain. Neta Porte leaned into delivering the future of mobile shopping. They helped build an infrastructure that would support a changed Natalie had long seen as inevitable. The rise in shoppable social media”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is actually, in fact, one of the things that I think is a good general principle for entrepreneurs to say what are the macro trends, technology trends are a key one, mobile, cloud, AI. And if we see those coming, what would that be? Like actually the world really sorted out between the people who really adjusted to mobile and didn't. And it was a lot of tech companies.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This seismic shift to mobile was rippling through the entire tech industry. In fact, I spoke about this with a founder of care.com, Sheila Marcelo, during her own episode of Masters of Scale.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Neta Porte's answer was to create an online outlet mall called The OutNet. And in twenty eleven they seized on a rise in men's online fashion buying, creating the site mister Porter. But perhaps the most important change they spotted early was no mere trend. It was a Zeitgeist level shift many companies missed. The pivot to mobile.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In 2004, the company became profitable, but Natalie and her team did something crucial as they grew. They kept innovating. As company scale, they start developing antibodies to change. In general, that's a good thing. These antibodies are necessary for stability because the bigger you get, the more you have to lose if you make a bad bet. But that doesn't mean stop looking out for future trends. If you're not looking out for what's coming, you'll miss it when it's here. Netaporte kept peering five minutes into the future, and correctly spotting trends that had the potential to disrupt their business. One such trend was the sharp decline in luxury spending after the two thousand eight financial crisis.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our future selves always have a way of becoming our present selves, and the more entrenched a mistake becomes, the harder it is to undo. Let's leave that idea to simmer for a minute. In the moment, Netaportes survived their cash flow problems, and Natalie's talent for bringing media and commerce together flourished. Her business continued to scale, adding beloved labels that drove more customers to their sight.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This part of Natalie's story is common, especially for first time entrepreneurs. And I tend to advise new founders there are situations in which you're actually better off dying quickly than taking money from the wrong investors. In those cases an early bad deal severely limit your future outcomes and upside, and it can immobilize you during critical inflection points. A brutal decision because when you're scaling every day is about trying to survive. It's natural to want to make decisions that keep you alive today. You say that's a problem for future me to deal with.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If Natalie could have glimpsed this future, she would have seen that the contract she signed with Richemont as a strategic investor gave them far too much power over Nedaporte's future direction.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Since we're talking about looking into the future, I asked Natalie what she might do differently if she could receive a call from her future self.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie knew it was time to shore up their cash, so she went to one of the angel investors she had quartered during her seed round. He was an investor from the luxury goods holding company Richemont, and he had initially warned her against taking on too much financing from the firm.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In this squid game-esque landscape, Neta Porte had outlasted the competition, but they weren't quite home-free. The world of bits and the world of atoms do not always integrate as seamlessly as we'd like. And in addition to the website, there was one more cost weighing Neta Porte down.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“2000 was like Squid Game. You started with many, many contestants trying for the promise of e commerce, and few were destined to make it. During the bubble there was a mad dash of investors funding dot coms, any dot coms. The presumption was that on a free field of capital you'll have enough time to work out the business, but not everyone did, and you get what we refer to in blitz scaling as the Glengary Glen Ross principle. First prize is a Cadillac. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is your fired.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're back with Natalie Massin. If you're enjoying the show and want to share it with friends, share the link masterscale. com slash massine that's MAS ENET and to hear the complete unedited conversation become a master scale member at masterscale dot com slash membership. Before the break, Natalie was telling us about building Netaporte as a shoppable platform for luxury fashion. It launched in two thousand on the cusp of the dot com bubble bursting.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That moment when the ephemeral future you've seen in your mind first flickers into being. It's a big part of why entrepreneurs do what they do. It's a moment that feels like the culmination of something, but it's actually the very first step of a long journey. The real work is still ahead. Listeners, Bob, here, if you listen to rapid response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from the Devilware's Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is the inherent trouble with being early in a space. Of course you want to get into a new sector ahead of your competition. But the first one to a new space is the one who needs to create new systems from scratch. It's a lot of work with a lot of just-in-time learning. Slowly but surely Natalie built Neta Porte with a small team and a handful of angel investors.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ironically, the part that gave Natalie the most trouble was something that in the future would become a non-issue. Building the web platform itself.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie describing Netaporte as a shoppable fashion magazine, as opposed to a superduper futuristic website, helped luxury brands understand a proposal. Like a science fiction writer setting her story five minutes in the future, she used a familiar framing to explain a new idea. This is something successful entrepreneurs do constantly. You keep the circumstances as relatable as possible so that investors and consumers alike can warm up to a change. The more you do that, the less resistance you'll meet. Once Natalie had convinced luxury brands to bet on her vision, Dora started to open more quickly.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Again and again, Natalie's superpower has been a lookout to the vanishing point where media and commerce meet. Previously, a fashion magazine's business model was the sell ads around all the clothes they showcased in their pages. But why rely on ads when you can sell the clothes themselves?”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She started with the building block she needed most, a functioning e-commerce platform and participation by major brands. There were a number of different magical acts that I think you pulled off very presciently and very early, but one of them, of course, is getting brands, because brands don't like to innovate. They like to hold on to the brand and the franchise, the exclusivity, et cetera. So here you are saying, be part of the dial-up modem experience. That must have been a”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Remember, with a zeitgeist idea like online shopping, the provenance is never just one person. It's many, many soccer players kicking a multitude of soccer balls into a net. Natalie knew it wasn't enough to see the opportunity. She wanted to be the one to break through. And this time she was well positioned to do it.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At that time, the online shopping experience didn't represent the tactile sensory experience of browsing in a department store or boutique. There was no sales attendant or trendy music, no courtesy lemon water. This could be a sticking point for customers who love shopping high fashion, as well as for the brands being bought.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Today, of course, this seems obvious, but remember the party conversations Natalie mentioned, where people were debating the viability of Amazon. The internet was still an unproven marketplace.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This time, Natalie had accurately predicted not just the trend, but a zeitgeist. But she wasn't in a position to be sure. She had a strong hunch, but no industry expertise or partners to give it the Ford thrusting momentum. And in fact, this is something that we see over and over in entrepreneurship. It's really just one person in the universe having a singular brilliant idea. The vast majority of ideas have a zeitgeist to them. Imagine multiple soccer players kicking multiple balls into the same net over time. Eventually, one of them is going to hit the sweet spot. Whether that's you depends on, among other things, your ability to build a team, get in the trenches, and iterate. That's why when Natalie got her third idea, she didn't shrug it off so easily.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Natalie would think back on this moment once luxury candles became a multi billion dollar industry. But Natalie had other ideas too, like this one from the mid-1990s.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But in the course of spotting trends, Natalie found herself wanting to get into the action. So she started mauling the idea of a side hustle.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“After college, Natalie went into the fashion business herself as a journalist for women's wear daily. She quickly learned the value of spotting trends, covering an industry, obsessed with what's next.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Long before such dinner parties, Natalie was interested in what was coming in the near future. She was born in LA to a British fashion model mother and an American poet and journalist father. After her parents divorced, she spent time jet setting between them.”
2022-02-01 · Masters of Scale · Don’t predict the future. Create it, w/Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT