Transcript Executive Interview: Mark Vadon, CEO BlueNile.com

Executive Interview:
Mark Vadon, CEO
Blue Nile
Marty Ritchie
Shannon Hughes
February 15, 2002
Blue Nile Background
Blue Nile created to offer best-quality diamonds and fine
jewelry at reasonable prices
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Education and easy buying over Internet
Bought out small company in SeaTac
Attracted $57 million in venture capital funding
Peaked at 132 employees in 2000
Currently 82 employees, $50 million in revenue and
profitable last quarter
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All work “in-sourced”
Receives positive press as an Internet company doing
thing right
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Great customer service and quality merchandise
Mark Vadon Biography
Co-founder who leads Blue Nile as CEO
Prior to Blue Nile, Vadon was consultant for Bain
& Company, a worldwide strategy consulting firm
Extensive experience in brand marketing,
strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions
Bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in
social studies from Harvard and MBA from
Stanford
Stumbled upon Internet Diamonds on search for
engagement ring. Put together the company as
“a deal transaction” then later realized he
needed to run company as CEO
Leadership Style
Hires the best people

CEO/COO/CFO trioka
Gives people room to run – asks questions
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Lets employees make decisions
Spends 20% of time with employees
Uses mentors/asks for advice
Creates fun place to work
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Employee survey cited good people to work with
Communicate the vision in three sound bites
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Ties any conversation to those three goals
Leadership Evolution
Gaining confidence in running organization
Understanding every aspect of business makes
it easier to trust instincts
Addressing conflict more easily
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Going thru layoffs
“Saving the company”
Getting help needed from outside sponsors
Learning the work and time required to establish
and manage Board of Directors
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How to present and manage information
Leadership Learnings
Hire people you like

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Complementary personality and skill set
Committed to “Grow the Business”
Use your resources
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Internally - COO/CFO
Externally - Board of Directors
Be willing to change
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Major company evolution over three years
Always a sales person: sales critical in the job
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Selling to investors, media, employees, vendors
Leadership Challenges
Initially had too much talent in a small company

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Hard to keep people from becoming bored
People were stepping on each other’s toes
Managing young, talented workforce in small
organization
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Major retention concerns
Weathering changing dot-com environment

Balancing company size/scale with profitability and
investor market whims
Our Observations
Mark defined leadership as management
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Jumped into defining his management team
“I had never managed more than 4-5 people”
Always talked in one of three areas
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Customer focus
Cost management and margins
Grow the business
Mark could not separate himself from his job
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When asked about him, most of his answers focused
on the company
Just realized that “I could do this job for next 20
years”