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Startup Weekly 01/31/11 - Interview with Alan Wizemann of Shop Igniter Part 1/2 

The venerable Benjamin Franklin's quote "Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee" has turned into a skyrocketing business for Alan Wizemann, Founder and Chief Product Officer of ShopIgniter, Portland, Oregon.

After their move from New York to Portland, Alan's wife opened Lille Boutique, a bricks and mortar and online shop and asked Alan to create the eCommerce enabled web site.  An engineer by background, Alan's naturally-curious mind began asking "Why not this?  Why not that?" and soon a complete back-end for retailers was born.  Like so many startup stories, it hasn't been easy -- or pretty.  Listen to Alan talk about the company's fork in the road which almost tore it apart, and how the survivors of that day kept putting one foot in front of the other and trudged out of the mess.

Alan has the ability to "ignite" others too.  That's what prompted Matt Compton to leave Madrona Ventures and lead ShopIgniter as CEO.  The company is hiring fast and Alan is inspired by the depth of the local talent pool.  The company philosophy is reflected in the way ShopIgniter runs ITS shop as well: A big bell at the front door rings when a sale is made, the work space is clean and open and the attitude of teamwork is obvious.  The results are there, too: 400% growth in 2010 and their social eCommerce system reaches over 35 Million customers/Facebook fans.

ShopIgniter provides the sCommerce Suite of flexible products that include a Social Promotion Engine to power shareable coupons, referral and loyalty incentives, private and time-based sales, and group promotions; a fully transactional Facebook Store; and a cloud-based eCommerce Platform; all of which can power a stand-alone eCommerce business or be integrated with existing eCommerce systems.