Company: OpenSky Project, Inc., New York, NY
Company Description: OpenSky.com is a social network for shopping that connects it’s 1.3 million members to the best people and most extraordinary products in food, style, health and design. provides a team of curators and experts for users to select their products and brands. The company was incorporated in 2009 and was founded by John Caplan.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Upstart of the Year

Nomination Title: John Caplan, Founder & CEO

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In 2009, John Caplan launched OpenSkyas 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.

The problem was that Customers who were perusing their favorite celebrity or blogger web sites were more focused on reading than on buying from those celebs' or bloggers' stores. He had to find a new way to get customers to open their wallets.

Caplan mobilized his team, picked apart the site, talked to customers and decided to drop the storefront model altogether. Instead, he would create a destination site and have customers go directly to that, the revamped OpenSky.

Described by Caplan as “Twitter meets HSN,” once there, customers could choose to "follow" their favorite celebs, experts, and bloggers and buy curated products directly on OpenSky. OpenSky sources the products directly to the manufacturers, but often offers a discount. OpenSky holds all the inventory, ships items to users, and splits the profit 50/50 with influencers, according to BI.

It was a huge risk: "I was terrified," Caplan Said.

OpenSky relaunched in April 2011 as a personalized shopping site. Now e-commerce isn't secondary to content on OpenSky; it's king. It worked. Now, over 1 million people have signed up on OpenSky, and are eagerly snapping up the celeb-, expert- and blogger-curated products. And, OpenSky is tracking $50,000 a day in sales. It’s a living, breathing shop built just foryou," says John Caplan

In October, 2011, OpenSky raised $30 million. And 68% of users are repeat buyers, purchasing new OpenSky items within eight weeks

Recogntion

OpenSky Lands on Fast Company’s List of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in Februray 2012. “OpenSky ranked among companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Square, KickStarter, HBO and Starbucks. It’s truly exhilarating to be in this company”, wrote Caplan in his blog.

“Together, in just 6 months, we’ve made more than 3 million… connections on OpenSky”, wrote Caplan in his blog on October 2011.

Going Forward

OpenSky co-Founder and CEO, John Caplan takes shopping personally He says the future of shopping is not in a multitude of options, but rather in personalized inspiration and product discovery.

In the larger scheme of things, Caplan’s goal is for OpenSky “to be a trusted shopping environment” where people can explore their passions and buy products that seem to be tailor-made for them.

“Because we’re each unique and individual, uniformed stores can’t meet our needs. They don’t inspire and surprise us the way we should be. Shopping should be about discovery. Don’t compromise and settle for the status quo.” – John Caplan.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-40245350/opensky-build-it-so-they-will-come----and-open-their-wallets/
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2012/opensky
OpenSky Hits 1 Million Users And More Than $1.5 Million In Monthly Sales Alyson Shontell BI| Jan. 3, 2012, http://www.businessinsider.com/opensky-1-million-users-2012-1?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI%20Select%202012-01-04#ixzz1uxGjB56Z
News on John Caplan’s blog http://blog.opensky.com/author/john/
Quotes by Caplan https://www.dailydealmedia.com/127bi-social-commerce-summit-john-caplan-of-opensky/
Speaker profile http://events.nrf.com/annual2012/Public/SpeakerDetails.aspx?FromPage=Calendar.aspx&ContactID=14897

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

John Caplan is the founder and CEO of OpenSky, an online shopping destination that empowers you to create your ideal shopping site by choosing from 80 of the best people in food, style, health and design to merchandise for you. Experts include Bobby Flay, Cynthia Rowley, Liz Lange, Tom Colicchio, Molly Sims, Kelly Rutherford, Mariel Hemingway, Tony Horton, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Ruhlman and Holly Robinson Peete. Headquartered in New York City, the company launched in 2011. Prior to starting OpenSky, John was the Chief Executive Officer of Ford Models.