http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/04/15/daily-grommet-raises-3-4-million/
Daily Grommet Raises $3.4 Million
The Daily Grommet just hit the daily double. The Lexington, MA-based startup, which scouts out consumer products from colorful, progressive, relatively unknown manufacturers and promotes one such “grommet” each day through online videos, announced today that it has closed the first tranche of its Series A funding round at $3.4 million. Existing investors LaunchCapital and Gerry Laybourne, founder of Nickelodeon and Oxygen Media, were on board for the A round, and were joined by new investors Jean Hammond of Hub Angels and Launchpad Venture Group, John Landry of Lead Dog Ventures, Nancy Peretsman, and Jill Preotle of Boston Golden Seeds. “Daily Grommet is attacking an enormous market opportunity in a David vs. Goliath way,” Landry said in a statement. “This is already a totally disruptive story-using social technologies to blow up the old models of product discovery and distribution.” Xconomy profiled the Daily Grommet in July 2009 and published an extended interview with founder and CEO Jules Pieri in August 2009.
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2010/07/grommet-gals-bring-products-with-a-purpose.html
Daily Grommet Peddles Eco-Treasures With Great Stories
Jules Pieri, looking to bridge her passion for product design with the power of social media, went searching for a way to showcase ordinary people creating extraordinary things – and the Daily Grommet was born. The site highlights one “grommet” – a new, unique product – each day, weeding through submissions from dozens of designers, inventors, and creators to find fresh offerings from small businesses with a great story to tell. After choosing an item, Pieri and her co-workers evaluate each product and post video reviews online.
http://bostinnovation.com/2010/04/16/daily-grommets-secret-angel-investor-revealed/
Daily Grommet’s Secret Angel Investor Revealed!
Due to the nature of our publication, BostInnovation’s staff is always impressed by a company that can really churn out high quality online content. Lexington-based Daily Grommet does just that, creating awesome videos each day to promote a new invention the site’s visitors have never heard of before. They then sell the featured item for a cut of the profits.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Daily-Grommet-Recognized-as-Most-Innovative-Business-Strategy-Winner-2010-MITX-Technology-1271211.htm
Daily Grommet Recognized as ‘Most Innovative Business Strategy’ Winner at the 2010 MITX Technology Awards
Daily Grommet, an online marketplace for consumers to discover and buy unique products while learning the stories behind them, has been selected as a winner at the Seventh Annual MITX Technology Awards in the ‘Most Innovative Business Strategy’ category. The program kicked off New England Innovation Month by lauding local development and implementation of technologies in the digital industry. Winners were announced in eleven categories, in addition to several “Best of” awards and PricewaterhouseCoopers Promise Awards, at the ceremony attended by more than 350 industry professionals held on June 2 at the Marriott Copley Plaza in Boston.
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/08/12/jules-pieri-of-the-daily-grommet-wants-to-make-you-think-outside-the-retail-big-box/
Jules Pieri of The Daily Grommet Wants to Make You Think Outside the Retail Big Box
Last month I wrote about the Daily Grommet, an e-commerce startup in Lexington, MA, whose website features one cool new product or service—a “grommet,” to use the company’s term—every weekday. Far from being yet another automated online store, the Daily Grommet puts its own staff members on camera to record short, homey, informally edited videos explaining what’s compelling about each day’s product, including their creators’ backstories. Yesterday’s grommet, for example, was an “athlete-engineered” sunscreen that doesn’t sting your eyes, developed by a former Apprentice competitor named Josh Shaw. In the video, Daily Grommet CEO Jules Pieri and chief discovery officer Joanne Domeniconi sit in the squinty-bright sunlight outside the company’s headquarters and demonstrate the product’s non-stinging, non-greasy credentials on their own skin.