In April, we reported that Diego Berdakin and MySpace co-founder Josh Berman, the two heads of News Corp’s incubator Slightshot Labs, were leaving the company. They haven’t wasted any time in launching their next project: today, less than two months later, Berman and Berdakin are announcing that they’ve raised $5 million from New Enterprise Associates and Anthem Venture Partners for a new startup called BeachMint, Inc.
At this point details on the startup are still a little sparse, but Berman and Berdakin were willing to talk broadly about what BeachMint will be doing. The company will be entering the social commerce arena, with plans to launch a suite of sites catering to individual verticals. The goal, Berman says, is to drive people to curated, authentic choices with recommendations from celebrities and other ‘influencers’— think Kim Kardashian’s association with ShoeDazzle, but for numerous different verticals. Berman also noted that these recommendations will be authentic and may come from people who have less high profiles (it sounds like the sites may tap into your social graph).
The company will be launching its first vertical before this holiday season, with plans to announce it by the end of summer. Each new vertical will have its own brand, but all of the site names will likely incorporate the ‘Mint’ branding (e.g. BookMint or WineMint, though Berdakin was quick to point out that neither of these would be part of the company’s initial launch). Berdakin and Berman are well aware of the established competitors like Gilt Groupe, but believe that there’s still a huge opportunity in online retail spending, explaining that only 6% of retail spending happens online.
The Santa Monica-based company currently has seven engineers building out its product. We’ll have more on BeachMint this summer.
Currently Josh is the Co-Founder and CEO of BeachMint, a next generation eCommerce company based in Santa Monica, CA. The company is focused on social and curated commerce and is backed by New Enterprise Associates and Anthem Ventures. Most recently Josh was the President of Slingshot Labs, a division of News Corporation, is a web incubator dedicated to building new Internet companies. Slingshot Labs employs a portfolio approach to the development and launch of businesses, and plans to nurture...
Diego Berdakin is the President of BeachMint, the Santa Monica based social commerce company he co-founded in July 2010 with Josh Berman. Backed by New Enterprise Associates, Trinity Ventures, Accel, Anthem, Scale & Goldman Sachs, BeachMint operates six direct to consumer sites that each offer exclusive product designed and curated by a celebrity and a style expert through a subscription shopping model. BeachMint launched their first brand, JewelMint, with Kate Bosworth and celebritystylist, Cher Coulter, in October 2010, StyleMint...
BeachMint is a venture backed social commerce company for designer-curated direct to consumer sites, founded by serial tech entrepreneurs, Josh Berman (Co-Founder MySpace) and Diego Berdakin. BeachMint launched their first brand, JewelMint, with Kate Bosworth and celebrity stylist, Cher Coulter, in October 2010, StyleMint with Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen in July 2011, BeautyMint with Jessica Simpson and celebrity skincare expert, Nerida Joy, in October 2011, ShoeMint with Rachel Bilson and celebrity stylist, Nicole Chavez, in collaboration with Steve...
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