New Flash Sale Site Aims to Make Design 'Approachable and Affordable'

The flash sale market is about to get a new, design-minded player. Ready your credit cards for Fab.com, which promises "daily design for everyone" in the form of members-only online sales of everything from furniture and textiles to iPad cases and dog bowls—all at a discount of up to 70% off retail prices. Founded by serial entrepreneur Jason Goldberg (socialmedian, Jobster), the New York-based company is staffing up and plans to hold its first sale in a couple of months. "We aim to make design approachable and affordable for people everywhere," Goldberg tells us. In an increasingly crowded space where everything from knockoff Le Corbusier chairs (HauteLook) and Jon Kessler prints (Exhibition A) to Aurelie Tu's otherworldly felt creations for Crafted Systems (DesignStory) and Dwell pre-fab homes (Gilt Groupe) is just a click away, Fab.com is looking to offer its members more than merch. "We are building social features that enable people to share and discover design inspirations," says Goldberg. As Fab.com prepares to open for business (and inspiration sharing), we asked him a few questions about the new site: What were you doing before founding Fab.com? The all new Fab.com is the fourth company I've founded in the past seven years. I'm very much a startup geek product guy. Most recently I ran a social news service called socialmedian which we sold in 2008, and then a gay-targeted social network, called fabulis. We bought the domain name fab.com while at fabulis and then relaunched the company as Fab.com with our design focus just a few weeks ago. What are your launch plans? We'll be launching some features of Fab.com in the next few days actually. It's all hush-hush right now, but this pre-launch feature set is mostly around design inspirations. We plan to launch the sales themselves a few weeks later. What brands and items can we expect to see on the site? Well, our product acquisition team comes from places such as Design Within Reach, Blu Dot, and the Conran Shop, so I'd expect to see those types of products. But we're also planning on showcasing much much more than what you can find in those retail shops. The common theme to Fab.com will be great design, and great design exists across dozens of categories and various price points. It could be a pencil, or the chair you are sitting in, or a bookcase, or an iPad case, or a set of dog bowls. Please describe the decor/aesthetic of the Fab.com office. It's an eclectic modern mix of Ikea, Eames, Emeco, FLOR, original posters by Kii Arens and Trey Speegle, Ugly Dolls, and a 15-year-old industrial Sub Zero fridge. What are some of your favorite places to shop for design items (besides Fab.com)? To be honest, I'm less focused on the specific shops and more focused on getting my inspiration from friends, blogs, and things I happen upon in my travels. My current favorite piece of design is a hardback notebook I picked up in Pune, India last week which has little black and white images from old Bollywood films on some of the pages. It's rad.

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New Flash Sale Site Aims to Make Design 'Approachable and Affordable'

Stephanie Murg

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Stephanie Murg