Exclusive To Ypsh: Mydeco Comes To Na Home This Thursday

A little birdie just told me that 30+ mydeco items will be available in NA Home after tonight's update! Perfect time to post my interview with the nice people at mydeco!

YPSH : YPSH would like to welcome Jo Casley, Head of PR & Marketing and Sean Wu, Technical Project Manager at mydeco. Thank you both for taking time out to chat with YPSH today. Welcome!

mydeco (Jo) : Hi!

mydeco (Sean) : Hello!

YPSH : Jo, let's start out by telling everyone what mydeco is. mydeco was conceived in 2008 and founded by the management team behind lastminute.com, a Euro travel site, is that correct?

mydeco (Jo) : That's right. Brent Hoberman, who founded lastminute.com, started mydeco.com when he got frustrated trying to re-decorate his house and wanted an online tool to help him visualize it in 3D. We aim to be the site you come to when you want help with anything related to your home decor - whether it's getting ideas, finding the perfect wallpaper, or designing a whole new look for your room. You can create your own online moodboard, or design your entire home in 3D using over 90,000 3D models of real furniture - people have been so creative with the tool, we have over 350,000 3D room designs including ones with swimming pools - it's wild!

YPSH : So mydeco.com is the UK's largest home ware and interior design website, bringing togetherleading high street stores, designers and niche boutiques and it's privately owned?

mydeco (Jo) : Yes, we started in the UK but we just launched a US website last year, http://us.mydeco.com, which features US retailers. We've been lucky enough to get backing from some VC companies in the UK and Europe.

YPSH : How many retailers does mydeco work with?

mydeco (Jo) : In the UK we have 1,500 retailers on board, in the US we have almost 2,000 - that equates to almost 5 million products!

YPSH : Brent Hoberman, is your Founder & Executive Chairman and a well known venture capitalist in Europe and was named one of Time Magazine’s “Top 25 European digital leaders? David Kelly, your ex CEO, was previously Vice President of European Business Operations at eBay Inc. Even though mydeco only has 35 employees it sounds like a great management team.

mydeco (Jo) : It is - I think that's one of the reasons we've been able to get such great financial backing. Brent is a very inspirational person to work for - he's got incredible vision for how technology will shape the way we work, shop and play - and he loves gadgets! Our current CEO, Nicole Vanderbilt, came from Bebo and was at Google before that - we have a lot of smart people who live and breathe technology working on making the site as useful as possible, and a lot of very creative people - it's a fun mix.

YPSH : mashable.com did a piece on mydeco in its Spark of Genius series, calling mydeco a "comprehensive portal for home decorations and design". When I find something I want on mydeco, do I buy from mydeco or the retailer?

mydeco (Jo) : Most of the time, you'll buy it from the retailer, not us. We're focused on giving people the widest possible range of products to choose from - so you might find a great sofa from the Conran Shop and you'll click over to them to purchase it. The value mydeco adds is bringing it all together in one place, and providing tools like the 3D home planner to let you see how it will look in your own room before you buy it.

We do also have a 'boutique' section, which is where smaller independent designers can sell their products on mydeco.com and these are sold through our own online basket. It's nice because when you're searching for a cushion, say, you'll find pieces from the high street, designer stores and also hand-made items by designers you've probably never heard of.

YPSH : I am impressed with the fact that I can upload my own design and even publish it to my Facebook page as well as share with others on your site. Tell me about this 3D room designer on your web site. How does it work? Sounds very cool.

mydeco (Jo) : It is! It's probably the thing we spend the most time thinking about. It's a Java based tool, so there are no downloads. If you have a floorplan of your house you can upload it, and you'll get an accurate 3D room template in an hour or so - with all your doors and windows in the right places, ready to decorate! If you don't have a floorplan, you can simply choose a room shape that looks like yours, and drag the walls to the right length - you can add walls, split them or delete them to create bay windows, alcoves, or tricky things like chimney breasts.

Once you've added your doors and windows, you can decorate it with hundreds of wallpapers, paint colours and floorings... then furnish it with over 90,000 3D models of everything from sofas to vases. Once you've saved your design you'll get a 'high quality' image of it with light and shadows - it really looks like a photograph! People love to share them with their partners and friends to show them what they're thinking.

We just added some cool architectural features like staircases, mezzanine floors and fireplaces so you can make your room really accurate. Even if you don't have any design experience, it's really easy to see how different pieces of furniture will work in the room - I've used it to make sure that a sofa I liked would actually fit through my doorway!

YPSH : Any chance you will do a version for designing personal spaces with mydeco items on Playstation Home?

mydeco (Sean) : Definitely, we are going to do all sort of promotion to show off our "unique" set of furniture as soon as our products are published in both EU & US. We have a few experts in interior design here at mydeco, and we will be posting some renders on blogs soon.

YPSH : What else does mydeco offer to help me find the style I want or the latest trends?

mydeco (Jo) : The Forums are a great place to get help and ideas - you can post a photo of your room (or even an image you've found from a magazine, or blog) and our community will give you ideas on what to do with it. A lot of people don't want to hire an interior designer, but they don't know where to start - there are literally thousands of people on mydeco.com who can help with everything from finding the perfect lamp you've spotted in a magazine, to giving advice on how to decorate around a 1930's fireplace!

YPSH : So like here, you have a community that can help each other with ideas and solutions?

mydeco (Jo) : Exactly - it's a community of people who are passionate about their homes, and love design. There are all sorts of styles and trends going on, and just by following a few folks you can get a lot of inspiration.

YPSH : According to Quantcast, in April, mydeco.com got over 150,000 hits in the U.S. alone. And you just started the U.S. site, correct?

mydeco (Jo) : We launched our US site just a few months ago last year, so it's very early days for us there. In the UK over a million users visit mydeco.com each month, and we hope to keep growing!

YPSH : It sounds like mydeco has a great future ahead. Jo, you were previously with Reuters America. Were you doing marketing there as well? What brought you to mydeco?

mydeco (Jo) : I worked at Reuters in New York and in London developing their online business - we launched the company's first ever consumer website, and I worked in e-commerce as well as online marketing. It was a great place to learn about online, because we worked with all these new businesses like Yahoo, AOL and MSN before they really took off! I've always loved interior design, and mydeco seemed like a terrific opportunity to combine my love of online with a creative company, it's great fun.

YPSH : Sean, your education was in Mechanical Engineering? How did you get started with mydeco?

mydeco (Sean) : After graduating from university, I knew I didn't want to get into a career in engineering. So, after a few months of travelling, I joined mydeco as an intern working as a retail & search assistant, helping out with product classification and some paid search campaigns. Fortunately, mydeco offered me a full time position at the end of my internship.

YPSH : Sean, tell us what you all do at mydeco, particularly about your work with the mydeco store in Playstation Home.
View attachment 5590 mydeco (Sean) : Jo has pretty much summed up what we do here at mydeco. In terms of myself, I manage the development of shopping tools,the product classification & hierarchy and the mydeco Sony Home project.

I started working on the Sony project in August last year, managing the production of items and coordinating with the marketing & editorial teams to support each release. The mydeco Sony Home project is definitely the most exciting project I have ever worked on and I just can't stop bragging about my job with my friends. I manage the production of some of the most outrageous looking furniture, and users love it!

Most recently, I've been working with our 3D artist, Daniele in adding some of our 3D Sony Home designs to the mydeco 3D room planner. We're so excited about this, being able to mix up and see what our real world furniture and virtual world furniture would look like together in the same room.

YPSH : So your're the guy who makes the decisions about what gets developed for the PS Home store?

mydeco (Sean) : Yes, I'm that guy!

YPSH : Tell us a little about the process about how you come up with the designs and how you decide what to develop for the store?

mydeco (Sean) : For the first couple of releases, it was simple, Daniele and I released a set of furniture we wanted to see in our home. After that, we gathered that users are more excited about electronics & quirky furniture that might not even be possible in real life. So, we started brainstorming, going around the office asking "If you have all the money in the world, what would you like to see in your house?". People went wild with their imagination, which lead to release of the Moai statues, the giant mouth sofa and the horse head lamp.
View attachment 5593
YPSH : Did you develop items for Second Life? How did that go? Are you still doing it?

mydeco (Sean) : Yes, we did. Second Life is a very different platform compared to Sony Home. We had a furniture shop there for about 6 months, but we hardly saw any users walking around the street shopping around (most of them were flying around instead). Sony Home in contrast, has always had hundreds of users walking around the shopping centre, chatting, shopping or even disco dancing in groups. So, we decided to close down our shop in Second Life and put all our focus on Sony Home instead.


YPSH : mydeco has had a store in the EU version of Playstation Home. Have you found it successful?

mydeco (Sean) : Yes, definitely. First of all, we have had a lot of positive and constructive feedback from users. Through blogs, we find that users are genuinely excited about new product releases and they are all keen to participate in running the blogs.

YPSH : Now mydeco is about to offer its products in the North American version of PS Home. Will we see everything there that has previously been offered in the EU?
View attachment 5589

mydeco (Sean) : Yes, we are publishing 30 existing EU items in US this batch, and we will publish another 27 items in the following batch.

YPSH : Playstation Home also has a version for Asia. Does mydeco have plans to offer their items there as well?

mydeco (Sean) : We are reviewing that at the moment, and you guys will definitely be one of the first to know if we do decide to go to Asia.

YPSH : Up until now, mydeco has developed furniture items for PS Home. Any chance mydeco might offer a personal space using mydeco's design flare and experience?

mydeco (Sean) : If all goes well in US, then we will definitely look into this.

YPSH : Will mydeco continue to regularly add new items for use on PS Home?

mydeco (Sean) : Yes! Our goal is to become the largest furniture distributor in both regions. There is definitely a shortage of quirky/ futuristic furniture in Sony Home, so we wil try our best to publish as many desired items as possible.

YPSH : Have both of you used PS Home? If so, what do you like about it? What would you like to see changed or added to it?

mydeco (Jo) : The best thing about PS Home for me is the fact that I can personalize my own place and it can develop over time. My real life 2 bedroom flat doesn't allow much opportunity for wild interior decor, but I love the fact that I can transform my PS Home pad and invite my friends to hang out in my outrageous loft apartment!

mydeco (Sean) : Of course! I love Sony Home, I visit at least once a day. There is just so much you can do at the platform, decorate your apartment, interact with other gamers, dress up or play games. I think Sony Playstation has done an amazing job in making this gamer social platform. One thing I would like to see is more frequent change in layout shopping centres, adding more shop space for different types of retailers and giving users more items to browse through.

YPSH : I am sure everyone is looking forward to seeing mydeco's unique designs in the North American PS Home. All of us at YPSH are pleased to have mydeco here in your own thread talking about your items and getting feedback. We will anxiously await new items and new ideas from mydeco for PS Home. Thanks for being with us today and we wish you continued success!

mydeco (Jo) : We'd love to hear what YPSH readers would like to see in the mydeco store to furnish their pads - it's such a fun opportunity to create an outrageous, lavish home for yourself... my dream is to get that lips sofa in real life

mydeco (Sean) : We will definitely keep you guys updated with our latest activities! I can't wait to hear users feedback on your site when US is live!

Check out the links above to say "HI" to the folks at mydeco and share your thoughts and ideas on their items for PS Home!​

 

Look under "Veemee". They are in there.