# Melissa Bridgeford

> Melissa Bridgeford is CEO and cofounder of Wizard, an AI-native shopping agent she runs with Marc Lore that emerged from stealth in February 2026 after nearly five years of private development. Wizard aims to replace endless e-commerce scrolling with a chat interface that searches the web, ranks products with zero paid placements, and checks out on your behalf. Before Wizard, Bridgeford founded Stylust in Austin, a text-based conversational shopping company that was folded into Wizard as its technical and human foundation. Earlier she spent almost a decade in finance at Guggenheim Partners and at Cain Hoy Enterprises.

- **Role:** CEO & Cofounder at Wizard
- **Organizations:** Wizard, Stylust, Cain Hoy Enterprises, Guggenheim Partners
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** MBA, Harvard Business School, B.S. in Finance and Real Estate, University of Florida, Warrington College of Business
- **Known for:** Raised $50 million Series A for Wizard led by NEA's Tony Florence, Built and sold Stylust into what became Wizard, Reported 30% conversion rates for text-based shopping, roughly 10x web e-commerce norms

## Career timeline

- **2009-2014** — Director at Guggenheim Partners
- **2014-2017** — Partner at Cain Hoy Enterprises
- **2017** — Founded Stylust, a conversational shopping startup, in Austin, Texas
- **2021** — Cofounded Wizard with Marc Lore; Wizard acquired Stylust as its foundation
- **2021-10** — Wizard closed a $50M Series A led by NEA with Accel and Marc Lore
- **2026-02** — Wizard emerged from stealth as an AI shopping agent with a Best Buy partnership

## Achievements

- Raised $50 million Series A for Wizard led by NEA's Tony Florence
- Built and sold Stylust into what became Wizard
- Reported 30% conversion rates for text-based shopping, roughly 10x web e-commerce norms
- Cofounded a company with serial entrepreneur Marc Lore
- Partnered with Best Buy for native checkout at Wizard's public launch

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Wizard emerged from stealth on February 11, 2026, with a Best Buy partnership for native in-agent checkout.
- **2026-04** — Bridgeford appeared in an extended Unite.AI interview series describing Wizard's zero-ads model.

## Links

- Website: https://wizard.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabridgeford
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/wizard_commerce
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJHKnJ7PBNk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgeyford/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/melissa-bridgeford
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-09