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Elise
Cayelli Wetzel ’92 |
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Alumni
newsmakers: Elise Cayelli Wetzel ’92
by
Deborah Leigh Wood
Selling
points
Elise Cayelli
Wetzel ’92 is raising a business and a family. Sometimes
the two are difficult to differentiate.
The founder
and chair of iSold
It, a year-old national chain of franchised eBay drop-off
stores, says her 5-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son walk
around the house saying, “Mommy, can we sell this on
eBay?”
“Instead
of a lemonade stand, they’re thinking of something more
lucrative,” Wetzel says with a laugh during a recent
phone interview from her company’s headquarters in Pasadena,
Calif.
One can
hardly blame the kids. While raising funds for their preschool,
their mom suggested that families at the school clean out
their closets and, instead of holding a garage sale, sell
the goods on eBay. Wetzel, who received her undergraduate
degree in economics from Northwestern University and majored
in marketing at the Kellogg School, then took her idea a step
farther. She started her own eBay drop-off company to serve
customers who, for lack of knowledge or time, seek help to
list their goods on eBay. Then Wetzel franchised the operation.
(Franchises run in the family: Wetzel’s husband, Rick,
owns Wetzel’s Pretzels.)
As of
September, iSold It (www.i-soldit.com) had eight stores open
and more than 250 under contract in the United States.
Wetzel,
who worked for 15 years in marketing and new product development
at Nestlé, Unilever and Procter & Gamble, says
the comprehensive general management training she received
at the Kellogg School was invaluable, as was learning the
importance of building a strong brand.
“I
love brand management,” Wetzel says. “Building
new brands is the most exciting thing you can do.”
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