1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2010: La Grande Dame

[Note: We’re launching The 1M/1M Incubation Radar with La Grande Dame today and will be featuring many more sub-$1 million revenue companies that we believe can reach the prized $1 million mark. We will be bringing the series to the attention of seed stage investors for those entrepreneurs looking for financing. And we hope it will help you connect with potential customers, partners, team members, etc. as you continue to build your business. Cheers, Sramana]

By guest author Praveen Kumar

La Grande Dame is an online boutique dedicated to high-end fashions for plus-sized women. Founded by Michelle Wood and Catherine Wood Hill in October 2008, the company was launched in April 2009. The founders say that what makes La Grande Dame unique is the dedicated customer service and fit advice it offers by providing recommendations about how clothing on the Web site fits individual body types. The company searches around the world to find the best and most beautiful, up-to-date plus-sized clothing available. It carries lines that are unavailable anywhere else in the United States and sells a wide array of clothing from lounge wear to suits and formal wear as well as jewelry and handbags. >>>

Monetizing People Search: MyLife.com CEO Jeff Tinsley (Part 6)

SM: What is the benefit of having a paid personal profile?

JT: By having a profile you can get access to the actual directory for your own benefit and be notified when people search for you. The demand for people finding each other is so huge it is shocking. >>>

Monetizing People Search: MyLife.com CEO Jeff Tinsley (Part 5)

SM: I have to believe that you could tell us what the top five reasons people pay to search on your site are.

JT: Very broadly, the two primary reasons people search are because they want more information about a person and they want to get in touch with a person. About 60% of our subscriptions are people trying to get information about others. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: New Series On Seed Captial

This week, the 1M/1M project launched a new series of interviews on seed capital. First is guest author Irina Patterson’s discussion with Nicola Corzine of the Acorn Fund: Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Nicola Corzine, Band of Angels Acorn Fund. You can read all of this week’s posts by clicking on the full article. >>>

Monetizing People Search: MyLife.com CEO Jeff Tinsley (Part 4)

SM: Essentially, you have created a search engine for people where you crawl the Web and put information together?

JT: Correct. You can run a search in one place to get information about anyone. You can also find your own record and find out who has been searching for you. Some people who search for you may even leave you messages. >>>

Monetizing People Search: MyLife.com CEO Jeff Tinsley (Part 3)

SM: What did you do after being the CEO of GreatDomains?

JT: We ran into a company which at the time was called Snowball and which eventually became IGN. They were performing terribly as a publicly traded company. Their market cap was below their cash on the balance sheet. I approached them about a property, HighSchoolAlumni.com, that they owned. >>>

Forbes Column 2010: Families: Nurture Entrepreneurs

Youth unemployment will drive recent grads toward entrepreneurship. Read more in this week’s Forbes column, Families: Nurture Entrepreneurs.

Monetizing People Search: MyLife.com CEO Jeff Tinsley (Part 2)

SM: If you did not have the original idea, how did you wind up as the CEO and the largest shareholder?

JT: I got a little bit lucky. I had met the founders of that business because I was trying to work on putting real estate online. I contacted them because I saw an ad they had about real estate. >>>