Shutterfly CEO Schneider, at home with some memorable moments
(Photo by Gabriela Hasbun)

In one of her most treasured photos, the youngest of Hilary Schneider’s (MBA 1986) three sons with classmate Jim Heerwagen is asleep on the stairs: “He didn’t want to go to bed,” she recalls. “That picture captures parenting for me and is evocative of a whole period of my life.” Schneider knows the importance of capturing these moments: As CEO of Shutterfly, she leads a 23-year-old company that got its start making photo prints of life’s memorable moments. But it also pioneered the process of turning digital images into physical mementoes, manufacturing a host of personalized products ranging from wall art to puzzles to pillows. And its acquisition, last August, of Spoonflower—an artist marketplace for custom-designed fabric, wallpaper, and other home-decor items—puts Shutterfly in a prime position to leverage consumer preference for customization.

“Five years ago, most of Shutterfly’s revenues came from paper-based goods, like photo books, cards, and calendars,” explains Schneider; today, 30 percent comes from home decor, a figure she expects to grow thanks to the Spoonflower acquisition. “You can imagine becoming your own artist for your home, creating a set of 12 dinner plates with four different styles, for example, by mixing and matching photo personalization and an artist’s design,” she says. “Consumers aren’t as interested in buying something at the mall that was mass-produced; they want the experience of authentically expressing themselves.”

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