Wayfair co-founders to share secrets to success at Durland Lecture

In their senior year as Cornell engineering undergraduates, Niraj Shah '95 and took an entrepreneurship class that inspired them to co-found CSN Stores, now Wayfair, an e-commerce juggernaut worth over $9 billion.

Three decades later, Shah and Conine will share insights from their entrepreneurship journey at the 2026 Durland Lecture, which is free and open to the Cornell community, April 21 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium. The conversation will be moderated by Andrew Karolyi, the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

"Niraj Shah and Steve Conine are shining examples of Cornellian entrepreneurial excellence," Karolyi said. "Their agile, forward-thinking leadership turned Wayfair into a household name, and we couldn't be prouder. Their Durland Lecture will be a great opportunity for the SC Johnson College and broader Cornell community to learn some of the secrets of their success."

Shah and Conine plan to walk through strategies they used to rapidly scale Wayfair from a niche media furniture distributor into a home goods powerhouse. Heading Wayfair since 2002 has developed their executive leadership instincts, they said, which they want to share with future leaders starting out in the same place they did.

"The growth was incredibly exciting, but it also led us to solve many problems by simply adding people," Shah said. "Over time, we realized that approach wasn't sustainable. It took us a while to build the discipline and operational muscle to balance efficiency and profitability with growth and market share. Today, that balance is ingrained in our culture, and we benefit from a flywheel where efficiency fuels growth, and growth in turn drives greater efficiency."

The annual Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture Series brings distinguished business leaders to campus to share timely and impactful insights with students, staff and faculty.

"AI is making entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before," Conine said. "If you're passionate about something and comfortable with risk, building a business is a powerful way to take control of your own destiny. The tools available today can help individuals move faster and operate more efficiently than ever."

Nina Collavo is a writer for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.