Gilt Groupe Inc., an eight-month-old luxury goods e-tailer, might seem an unlikely home for an executive with Susan Lyne's résumé. Credited with rescuing Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., from which she stepped down as CEO in July, Lyne had her pick of jobs, with rumors swirling that she could have secured the top spot at Time Inc. or Oprah Winfrey's new cable company. It came as a surprise to some when Lyne, 58, whose previous jobs include serving as the founding editor of Premiere magazine and president of the Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Entertainment, took over as chief executive from Gilt Groupe co-fonder Alexis Maybank, who has moved into the chief strategist role.

Then again, Gilt Groupe is no ordinary Web 2.0 startup. The invitation-only site, which offers limited-time discounts on designer goods (somewhat like an online version of the classic New York Garment District sample sale), is on track to be one of the fastest-growing Internet companies ever, with revenue in the tens of millions this year, says Kevin Ryan, CEO of AlleyCorp., the New York holding company that is the majority owner.

Ryan says Gilt Groupe has the potential to become a $1 billion company and needs someone of Lyne's caliber to "make big decisions as we expand into whole new categories."

Ryan knows a little something about fast-growing Internet companies. He is the former CEO of DoubleClick Inc., which was sold to Hellman & Friedman LLC for $1.1 billion in 2005 (and subsequently sold to Google Inc. for $3.1 billion earlier this year). He says furniture, wine, champagne, vacuum cleaners and even cars may one day be sold by Gilt Groupe, which also is backed by Matrix Partners, which invested $5 million in it last year.

Tech Confidential asked Lyne about her decision to join Gilt Groupe, competing with other companies with similar ideas such as Ideeli Inc. and HauteLook.com and growing the company, which expects to reach 1 million members and double its staff to 200 employees over the next year.

Gilt Groupe has nowhere near the brand recognition of the other companies you have worked with. Why were you drawn to it?

Gilt Groupe has grown the membership virally, not by spending money on customer acquisition. Friends e-mail invitations to other friends. The membership is growing daily by many thousands of people, so hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people have gotten an e-mail from a friend saying, "Oh my Gosh, you've got to join this. They have incredible stuff at amazing prices." When a new business is treated as a gift you can give a friend, that's very compelling.

On the brand side, the company is discreet about who they're in business with. Because it's a membership-based sales proposition, companies can sell luxury goods at significant discounts from retail and not feel it's going to hurt their base business. We're doing it in an environment that's brand appropriate. Every brand featured on Gilt Groupe is a brand you would find on the same floor of a department store. Our brand partners feel comfortable being in company with the other brands that sell with us. The way the products and brands are presented online is unique.

Every sale is brand exclusive. They're not mixed into a universe of three other brands or a hundred other brands. All of those things add up to giving real comfort to high-end luxury brands.

What do you bring to Gilt Groupe?

I bring a lot of relationships in the media businesses and in the corporate world that will allow us to both grow awareness and our brand base. But I would also say that I learned both at Disney and at Martha Stewart the value of a brand, particularly when you are a consumer-facing company, and really protecting what the brand promise is. You have to be very aware of what your customer expects from you, and nurturing that relationship is key. The companies that do that are the companies that survive and flourish.

How is the Gilt Groupe brand different from Martha Stewart, and what does the Gilt Group brand represent?

It is definitely very different not having a person who embodies the brand. This is about building a brand and a business that is tied to an idea, not to an individual.

I wish you were asking me what the Gilt Groupe brand means two weeks from now, because that is one of the exercises we're going through right now, and I might give you a somewhat different answer then. Right now, the brand promise is that we will be your personal shopper and give you an assortment of the best, at prices that are a "wow." In this current economic environment, that is an even better brand proposition than when it was first imagined. That concept of being able to bring the best product in a certain category to people online so that there's an easy way to acquire it no matter where you live is clearly something that has legs and can grow.

What's first on your agenda?

That's a hard question. I'm really trying to understand why decisions were made, which is always an interesting process because you come in from the outside and say, "Why haven't they done X? It would solve X problem." But, certainly, in a smart company like this, they have looked at the pros and cons of various decisions very closely. So I'm doing a lot of listening right now so that I don't make a misstep that could hurt our core business. The first big thing for me is to try and work on a long-term strategic growth plan.

How will you keep the allure of exclusivity that the invitation-only model gives you as you grow?

Well I won't tell you exactly how, but it starts with brand architecture as we grow the business. It's not expanding a single site to be all-inclusive. It's about creating tiers and unique groups that continue to feel exclusive to that customer base.

For more on Gilt Groupe, see our Behind the Money video interviews with AlleyCorp CEO Kevin Ryan and Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, who continues her role as Gilt Groupe's chief merchandising officer. -- Mary Kathleen Flynn