Marissa Mayer, the Cupcake Princess, is out shopping. First, she bought News App, Summly for $30 million. Then, last week, she bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion. This week she bought online gaming company Playerscale and put a bid in for Hulu at around $800 million…
In 2 weeks Marissa has spent all Yahoo’s cash and more – $2 billion of it. Why is she doing that? Because that’s the way she shops. Here’s 3 shopping tips from Marissa that every entrepreneur can learn from:
1. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GRAPES
Known fondly as “The Grape Ape” by her family for her love of grapes, Marissa remembers her first big shopping moment, when trying to buy grapes in Switzerland as a student: “The first day, I went to the grocery store and got in trouble because, it turns out, you buy produce in Europe completely differently.” She couldn’t work out how to weigh the grapes and print the price sticker.
“This woman just started yelling at me in German. I remember going back to my apartment and just being like, “What was I thinking? I don’t speak the language, I can’t even buy produce here.”
Marissa realised that to master a market it wasn’t about the product, but the process. So when she went to Stanford, she committed to learning the latest technology: “My first week at Stanford I bought a computer, and it was the first computer I ever owned. I had to be taught how to turn it on and even how to use a mouse…”
Her path led her to interview for a small 15-man company called Google in 1999, where she became the first female engineer, working her way up to overseeing many of Google’s main products before leaving last July to join Yahoo as CEO, while having a baby.
2. NOT ALL CUPCAKES ARE CREATED EQUAL
Over the last 10 years, Marissa has become known as the “Cupcake Princess” because of her mastery of all things cupcake. She is famous for buying up all the cupcake recipe books she could find, creating a spreadsheet of all the ingredients, and then testing all the recipes until she had calculated the best aggregate cupcakes from all the possibilities.
The result after all the complicated research was often the simplest solution. Marissa put the same principle into her product designs, and is the person responsible for the very simple, white Google home page with just one search bar (Yes, men, it was a woman who cleaned up your screen). As she says, “Google has the functionality of a really complicated Swiss Army knife, but the home page is our way of approaching it closed. It’s simple, it’s elegant, you can slip it in your pocket, but it’s got the great doodad when you need it.”
Her current shopping spree, to re-create Yahoo as a mobile company by buying the top mobile millennial brands, is about finding the billion dollar cupcakes – not about looking for bargains, but looking at everything, finding the best and paying top dollar.
3. STRETCH YOURSELF
Last September Marissa had a baby: “I’ve come to realize that being a mother makes me a better executive, because motherhood forces prioritization. Being a mom gives you so much more clarity on what is important…”
When prioritizing, Marissa puts the big, scary things first – like spending $2 billion to stay ahead of the curve. “When you do something you’re not ready to do, that’s when you push yourself and you grow. It’s when you sort of move through that moment of discomfort of, ‘Wow, what have I gotten myself into this time?'”
“I realized that sometimes when you have that feeling and you push through it, something really great happens. That’s when you have a breakthrough.”
What process and market are you mastering, and how are you stretching yourself to settle for nothing less than the very best in your market? What lesson can you learn from a 37 year old mum who has built a personal net worth of $300 million?
As for Marissa’s first 10 months at Yahoo, how is the company doing? Yahoo’s share price has grown from $15 when Marissa took over to $26 today, adding $10 billion to the value of the business. Making $10 billion in 10 months while having a baby? Suddenly her shopping spree doesn’t sound so big after all, and apparently she’s just got started.
Keep making magic,
iLab Accelerator
The first ever iLab incubator program is currently running at our resort in Bali. The second intake is 80% booked and we have just few seats left for the June 26th intake.
Join me to learn how to manage your global business from an iPad on a beach. Spend a month at my resort with a group of experts who will show you how to transform how you work so that you can profit in paradise.
iLAB is the first Resort Entrepreneur Accelerator in Asia. Hosted by Entrepreneurs Institute, and located at Vision Villas, Bali, the program includes one month accommodation, co-working, training and mentoring for entrepreneurs.
The second intake, from 26th June 2013 to 25th July 2013, is limited to 15 entrepreneurs. You may have an existing business you are looking to manage remotely or grow globally, or you may be launching a new start-up. The mix of the work environment, peer review, training sessions, shared resources and access to experts will dramatically accelerate your progress in a way that no other consulting or in-house training can.
Benefits of the iLAB incubator include:
✔ A focused resort-style working environment to get a taste of work life balance in paradise
✔ Surround yourself with dynamic entrepreneurs and experts for instant support & feedback
✔ Training sessions on how to work remotely & build a global, anytime-anyplace business.
✔ Tap into experts on list building, translation, Internet marketing, online best practices
✔ Hands-on assistance in refining your message, creating your videos, media & web sites
✔ Mix work with adventure, relaxation and fun, and learn the skills to work from anywhere
Interested to find out more? Send us your contact details and we’ll call you.
Wealth Dynamics Academy
This May, we had a full house Wealth Dynamics Academy at Vision Villas. It was also the first time that we had translators come down for this event specially for our participants from Taiwan and China. We’ve had lots of emails from people saying how much they enjoyed it and how transformational it was.
We’ve also had lot of people asking us about the new dates for the program. Due to such high interest in the program, Entrepreneurs Institute has decided to open new dates in October for Wealth Dynamics Academy. The dates are 24th – 27th October 2013
On this four day event, held on the beautiful island of Bali, you will embark on an incredible journey of insight and information on the Wealth Dynamics system, and how you can harness it to create radically different results in your life. Wealth Dynamics Academy, hosted by Entrepreneurs Institute gives you the understanding of why some of us succeed and some of us do not.
You will gain an insight into how all 8 profiles interact with all 8 other profiles and 8 stages of enterprise with the 64 Wealth Vector Cards. This process will take you on a journey through 5,000 years of history – why and when the peaks and troughs will take place in your investments, your enterprises and your life.
Wealth Dynamics Academy program steps deeper into the world of Wealth Dynamics. Participants will learn the 64 wealth vectors, which connect each wealth profile and connects every entrepreneur with the seasons and cycles within their enterprise and their industry.
Interested to find out more? Email us with your contact details and we’ll call you.
Global Institute for Extraordinary Women
After I met Bea Benkova for the first time in 2007 in London, she became Master Practitioner of Wealth Dynamics and jumped straight into real practice. Discovering her ‘STAR’ profile and pathway for ‘creating more to giving more’ was a key shift for her.
Today, Bea Benkova is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Extraordinary Women (GIFEW).
Global Institute for Extraordinary Women is committed to transforming humanity through the aligned power of Extraordinary Women.
Her institute is co-creating a new culture of collaboration where men and women operate harmoniously at an entirely new level.
The curriculum of transformational educational programs, is based on The Authentic & Integrated Women’s Leadership Model, and integrates the Wealth Dynamics system.
GIFEW is a platform that grounds the vision, opening a field for everyone, women and men, who resonates with the Institute and wants to contribute to the vision creating together the NEW CULTURE of collaboration.
Do you still wonder “HOW TO LIVE A SUCCESSFUL AND FULFILLED LIFE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE?” Please explore the website www.gifew.org and join the foundation program Femina Fusion Foundation Certificate.
It is effective, accelerating and transformational!
Green SuperCamp
Junior Camp | 11 to 13 years old |1st to 7th July
Senior Camp | 14 to 18 years old |10th to 16th July
Do you have children between 11 and 18 years old? Following the success of our camps at the Green School in 2012, we are holding the junior (11 to 13 years old) and senior (14 to 18 years old) camp this July, and places are already going fast. We are receiving registrations for both students and crew. Green SuperCamp is a unique partnership between the world-renowned Green School & SuperCamp, the world leader in summer enrichment camps for students. For seven fun, inspirational days, teenage leaders between 11 and 18 years old will have the camp of a lifetime, learning the world’s best accelerated learning skills while building the values of a Global, Green Citizen.
Visit the website to book your place today!
http://bit.ly/GreenSuperCamp
Here’s a short video of some of our campers sharing their experience
http://bit.ly/gsctestimonials
Subscribe to a daily dose of super useful news
Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information thrown at us each day? I am. So I created my own daily news that gives me the most relevant articles around the world from the people I trust and respect. They include articles, videos, photos and links. Have a look at these brilliant news pages by clicking on any of the three links below. On the right hand column of the news page you will see a subscribe button. Click on it, and you’ll receive your own daily dose of the same super-userful news I’m looking at each day.
The Fast Forward Daily – Trends to watch
Leave a Reply