Rakuten invests in Daily Grommet!
Joanne Domeniconi and me with Mickey Mikitani at the Grommet office last month
Pinch me please. Being able to announce that Rakuten made an investment in Daily Grommet is a dream come true. If we travelled the world (and sometimes it seemed I did) we would pick this exact investor over all others. A Japanese internet giant, Rakuten is like our twin separated at birth, because their 15 year mission of empowering small to medium businesses totally overlaps with Grommet. The Rakuten tag line for its US business says it all: “Buy from people, not the internet.” I wish I’d thought of that!
In a parallel move, the CEO of Pinterest chose Rakuten (among many contenders) to lead their $100M investment round four months ago. When I asked Ben Silbermann about his decision, he said, “I wanted to work with operators. They are giving us a lot of room to succeed and I deeply respect Mickey and what he has accomplished.”
“Mickey” is the CEO of Rakuten. Also known as Hiroshi Mikitani. Also sometimes referred to as the Richard Branson/Jeff Bezos of Japan. Mickey is a former investment banker and Harvard MBA–and one of the youngest to ever be given the top honor of the school, the Alumni Achievement Award. He set out to create a company that would really make a dent in the universe. (Watch this video interview to get a sense of the man.) Mickey has a deep-seated commitment to his mission to build the largest internet services company in the world. As part of that goal, he converted the Rakuten internal corporate language to English in 2010 (and got a lot of flack for it from some corners in Japan). 2012 marks the year that Rakuten is aggressively going global, with investments like Pinterest, Grommet, the acquisition of the Canadian E-reader Kobo, and Wauki.tv the Spanish Netflix.
Rakuten roughly translates to “optimism” and Mickey told me that his model of a marketplace, which gives even the tiniest merchant a platform to present themselves professionally and personally, was initially viewed as crazy. People thought he was giving up too much control and taking too much risk in letting people run their shops however they chose on Rakuten. But Mickey told me, “I believe in the goodness of people to do the right thing.”
I am so glad he believes in me, Joanne, and our team, to do the same.
Kara Swisher of the WSJ’s All Things Digital broke the news today. Here is her piece.
Jules Pieri 
29 Responses to “Rakuten invests in Daily Grommet!”
Congratuations! We think you have a great site, and were pleased to have products you thought worthy to showcase as a “grommet”. Best of luck with your new partner! Leslie Hanes, owner http://www.discoverytrekking.com
Thank you Leslie. We could not do this without partners like you.
Julie or Jules, congratulation we wish you nothing but success love uncle bill aunt Mary
Thank you Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary! I have been blessed to come from a family that knows how to work hard and play hard too, and supports me in whichever direction I am going. Julie, Jules, Whatever
Congratulations. You helped us get into the American market with Numenko. Keep up the good work
Tom, that was our PLEASURE.
Congrats, Jules. Great to land an investor that aligns with the mission!
Amen Nora!
Congratulations to the entire Daily Grommet team!
Thanks Claudia!
Congratulations to our friends at The Daily Grommet! We wish you all the success with your new partner Rakuten. Japan here we come.
Ellin Purdom & Catherine Hughes Toffee Talk
Thanks for including Grommet in your spreading the buzzy goodness Ellin.
And as I always say – The Daily Grommet is the gift that just keeps giving. We have been so fortunate to be part of the DG family for 2 years this week and orders continue to come from many and lots of repeat orders as well!!! Thank you to everyone at The Daily Grommet. Your Toffee Talk Fans
Catherine…I love to hear you describe us that way. That’s what we aim for with all our partners.
[…] the Lexington, MA-based e-retail startup Daily Grommet revealed it had closed a Series B round of funding led by Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce and Internet […]
Fantastic news! Congratulations, Jules.
Thanks Steph! So glad you are doing well too.
[…] company happened to be making big news on the day Ruth took a tour. She got a big kick out of that, to think she changed diapers and stirred soup in the same […]
Congratulations Julie, I’m proud of you! Love, Aunt Judy
Awwwwww.
[…] shared some pretty exciting news this week, Rakuten invested in Daily Grommet! Since our announcement, we’ve been busy — we’re working hard to launch new […]
This gives me chills and makes me all teary — both at once. Daily Grommet, I am SO PROUD of you!
Lisa, you’ve been with us from the very beginning and I deeply appreciate that. And I’m still using my SoapNuts!
[…] the Friday that our Rakuten investment closed, It was formally concluded with a simple “the Eagle has landed” email from Yai-yan Sun, the […]
[…] Nach Ahalife, Pinterest und Vaniti nimmt Rakuten weiter die Frauen ins Visier und steigt auch bei Daily Grommet ein: […]
[…] any key business terms or partnership agreements, the CEO really has to be doing the talking. In the case of our deal with Rakuten, we sketched out the basic terms in about 15 minutes, sitting in an auditorium, after an event. […]
[…] This breathless post about the investment, and this emotional one, written a few days later, reflecting about the constant drama we experienced in 2012, take me right back to those exciting and terrifying times. […]
[…] any key business terms or partnership agreements, the CEO really has to be doing the talking. In the case of our deal with Rakuten, we sketched out the basic terms in about 15 minutes, sitting in an auditorium, after an event. […]
[…] the Friday that our Rakuten investment closed, It was formally concluded with a simple “the Eagle has landed” email from Wai-Yan Sun, the […]