A year ago, OpenSky launched as a commerce platform for influential bloggers, but with fewer than 5,000 bloggers and only 100,000 total unique visitors, CEO John Caplan decided that the company needed to start over.
“Mixing content and commerce was confusing to people,” Caplan says.
Since November 2010, Caplan has been developing his reboot of OpenSky with a new aim to become a “social network for commerce.” Described by Caplan as “Twitter meets HSN,” members can “follow” celebrity curators—like chef Bobby Flay or supermodel Veronica Webb—who recommend particular goods to buy. OpenSky sources the products directly to the manufacturers, but often offers a discount.
With no marketing, OpenSky has already reached one million unique visitors and registered more than 200,000 members. The platform, despite only having 50 total curators so far, has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods each week.
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