Podcasts about forum brands

Sea 4 Ep 22 “Multi-Player Brands & Are Temu & Amazon Different?” with Mike Mallazzo 8/1/2024   The author of United States of Amazon and Head of Growth at Forum Brands, Mike Mallazzo joins Summer and Scott to talk about some seriously smart things about multi-player rules applying to brands and buying media. We crack advertising in sports and why Mike believes that Temu and Amazon might be more similar than different.  Always Off Brand is Ecommerce Simplified, Learn & Laugh!    Our SPONSOR is back! They are back MAGIC MIND!!  Go to their website! https://magicmind.com/pages/hp-v1   Scott has been using Magic Mind and is the best MENTAL PERFORMANCE Shot there is out there! Our listeners get a FREE trial offer to try out Magic Mind for yourself and get the mental performance you want! Get a 3 sample pack for free! And now you can get 20% off one-time purchase and subscriptions.    CODES: ALWAYSOFF20 -  https://magicmind.com/ALWAYSOFF20   - 20% off for one-time purchases and subscriptions- the rest of the episodes   ALWAYSOFFTRIAL -  https://magicmind.com/ALWAYSOFFTRIAL  - get a 3 sample pack for free- 1st episode QUICKFIRE Info:   Website: https://www.quickfirenow.com/ Email the Show: info@quickfirenow.com  Talk to us on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quickfireproductions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quickfire__/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@quickfiremarketing LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/quickfire-productions-llc/about/   GUEST: Mike Mallazzo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallazzo/ Website: https://www.forumbrands.com/ United States of Amazon Newsletter - https://usa.beehiiv.com/ Sports podcast Scott has been doing since 2017, Scott & Tim Sports Show part of Somethin About Nothin:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/somethin-about-nothin/id1306950451 HOSTS: Summer Jubelirer has been in digital commerce and marketing for over 16 years. After spending many years working for digital and ecommerce agencies working with multi-million dollar brands and running teams of Account Managers, she is now the Amazon Manager at OLLY PBC.   LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerjubelirer/   Scott Ohsman has been working with brands for over 29 years in retail, online and has launched over 200 brands on Amazon. Owning his own sales and marketing agency in the Pacific NW, is now VP of Digital Commerce for Quickfire LLC. Scott has been a featured speaker at national trade shows and has developed distribution strategies for many top brands. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-ohsman-861196a6/   Hayley Brucker has been working in retail and with Amazon for years. Hayley has extensive experience in digital advertising, both seller and vendor central on Amazon. Hayley is based out of North Carolina and has worked in multiple product categories and has also worked on the brand side and started with Nordstrom on the retail floor.  LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-brucker-1945bb229/   Huge thanks to Cytrus our show theme music “Office Party” available wherever you get your music. Check them out here: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cytrusmusic Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cytrusmusic/ Twitter https://twitter.com/cytrusmusic SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6VrNLN6Thj1iUMsiL4Yt5q?si=MeRsjqYfQiafl0f021kHwg APPLE MUSIC https://music.apple.com/us/artist/cytrus/1462321449   “Always Off Brand” is part of the Quickfire Podcast Network and produced by Quickfire LLC.  

Join Jennifer Didier as she talks technology and fashion with entrepreneurs Kotryna Jukneviciute and Cassie Huang from Arete.  Here about their journey to build Arete and their story of how they got there.  A little more about Kotryna Jukneviciute: Kotryna immigrated to the US from Lithuania as a kid. Thanks to her artistic mother, she grew up loving fashion. She started her first venture in third grade and has been an entrepreneur ever since. Kotryna received her BA and MA from Georgetown University and was in the School of Foreign Service. She spent a few years working at the RAND Corporation, where she spearheaded international business partnerships and became known for her research on Russia.  You can reach Kotryna on LinkedIn or email her at kotryna@areteforyou.com More information on Cassie Huang: Cassie Huang grew up in Shanghai and came to the US when she was 16. A Georgetown University graduate, she started her career at Morgan Stanley as an investment banker, then joined The Cranemere Group as a private equity investor. Driven by her passion for building and entrepreneurship, she deferred her Wharton MBA to join Forum Brands, gaining experience in startup operations, e-commerce, and team building. Alongside Kotryna, she's now focused on growing Arete, leveraging her business acumen and a shared vision for impactful change. You can reach Cassie on LinkedIn or email her at cassie@areteforyou.com

What is a Wall Street word doing in eComm? Mike Mallazzo of Forum Brands tells us how it may be a DTC operator's next unlock.

In this episode, we speak with Sonya Brown, General Partner and Co-Head of Growth Equity at Norwest. Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $12.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, the firm has invested in more than 650 companies and currently partners with over 200 active companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. Sonya is focused on growth equity and buyouts investing across a wide range of sectors including consumer, retail, internet, education and business services. Her current investments include Babylist, Forum Brands, Jolyn, Junk King, Kendra Scott, Madison Reed, Senreve, and SmartSign. Before Norwest, Sonya was at Summit Partners for almost a decade. Sonya was recognized by GrowthCap as one of the Top Women Leaders in Growth Investing of 202. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to subscribe and drop us a comment.

In this Prime Talk Podcast Sponsored by GETIDA – Brenton Howland - Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Forum Brands - talks about the value Amazon sellers & brands bring to the marketplace, also more information about his life's journey. #BrentonHowland #ForumBrands About Brenton Howland of ForumBrands - https://www.forumbrands.com WE TAKE OUR NAME FROM THE ROMAN FORUM. The Roman Forum was the center of commerce for the ancient world. At Forum Brands, we sit at the center of the digital marketplace. We provide exit options to entrepreneurs, use technology to scale small businesses, and build brands into household names that consumers love. Find out more about GETIDA: https://getida.com/ Please subscribe to our channel and share your thoughts and comments below. Stay safe and healthy in the meantime!

Ruben is the co-founder and co-CEO of Forum Brands, leading its Mergers & Acquisitions team.Ruben began his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in London, and then joined TA Associates, a US-based growth private equity firm investing out of a $9bn fund globally, as an investor in Consumer and Tech. While at TA, Ruben was actively involved in driving buy-and-build strategies of some of TA's portfolio companies which resulted in more than 20 executed acquisitions, expansion into more than 10 countries, and significant value creation for shareholders. Ruben was also on the board of 7 different companies interacting closely with founders and CEOs.Ruben holds a master's in engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.He is on a mission to identify and build the next generation of world-class consumer brands through technology and strategic deal-making.Forum | We Buy & Build Amazon FBA Businesses

On today's Lunch With Norm, we talk with the CEO of Forum Brand's, Ruben Amar, about the importance of building a strong team culture in a high growth business. In this episode, learn what the first steps you should take to establish company culture are, how to you ensure your culture does not become diluted over time, and the importance of your team to continue to learn on the job. Ruben is the co-founder and co-CEO of Forum Brands, leading its Mergers & Acquisitions team. He first developed a passion for consumer brands when he was selling dead sea based cosmetics products in malls in Miami at the age of 21. He is on a mission to identify and build the next generation of world-class consumer brands through technology and strategic deal making. This episode is brought to you by Startup Club Startup Club is the largest club on Clubhouse supporting the Startup ecosystem. Startup Club offers an exciting sense of belonging to established and aspiring entrepreneurs, startup businesses, and companies wanting to Learn, Connect, and Grow. Join us for conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, subject matter experts, and more.For More information visit https://Startup.club In this episode, Co-Founder and CEO of Forum Brands, Ruben Amar is here to talk about the steps to building a strong team culture in a high growth business. Learn the key steps and what the first steps you should in order to establish company culture. Ruben is on a mission to identify and build the next generation of world-class consumer brands through technology and strategic deal making. This episode is brought to you by Startup Club.

Brenton Howland is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Forum Brands, a platform of category-leading e-commerce brands built for the everyday consumer. They provide exit options to entrepreneurs, use technology to help scale small businesses, and build brands into household names that consumers know and love. Forum partners with owners of the best everyday products selling through Amazon FBA and other 3rd party marketplaces. As long-time investors, operators, and industry experts, Forum's team represents the most trusted buyers in e-commerce. Topics Covered by Brenton Howland in this Episode How Forum Brands is innovating through acquisition in the consumer space How Brenton and his co-founders met and started Forum Brands The unique value proposition of Forum Brands and its founding team How they're leveraging data to indicate the potential for long term success of businesses Their top-down hiring strategy How they approach portfolio composition Forum Brands' early acquisitions, gaining momentum, and learning from mistakes The platform side of the acquisition process Their creative cap structure raising both VC and debt Finding investors who aligned with their unique model The benefit of investing time and energy into partnerships and people How Brenton's experience in consulting and private equity has influenced how he's running Forum Brands today Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Jon Derkits, VP of Brand Growth at Forum Brands. Scaling. Raised more than 127 million in fundings  Amazon background. We discuss:Marketing. Logistics. Advertising. Selling Basics. 00:00 How to Grow Amazon Sales with Forum Brands FBA Aggregator00:30 Jon Derkits as an Amazon expert02:46 Do they use the 80/20 rule in Amazon04:43 What's something about Amazon that people don't hear about very often06:43 Why do some of the aggregators operate in the shadows at first09:21 When trying to scale brands, what are some of the things aggregators do that some can pickup 11:00 What separates between brands that do 5K/mo, 50K/mo, or 500K/mo12:30 Do you think there's a particular basic that gets overlooked14:51 Are there brands that you took care in, turning 50K/mo and want to turn them into 500K/mo17:00 1-percent improvement guy over measure twice cut once a guy18:51 What's your Moneyball strategy19:49 Should people raise their prices on Amazon21:06 Do you guys have bought any brands that had too many variations21:55 What's the max number of variations 22:23 What other tips or tricks somebody could incorporate this month into their strategy22:57 3 rules for managing out of stock on Amazon25:15 5-minute hack for Ads26:26 Which these areas are the first one a brand owner should offload, PPC, SEO, Logistics, Design, Catalog Troubleshooting27:24 Strategy on SEO and indexing28:38 Do you guys have a matrix for the number of KWs a product has to index29:40 Based on how you search on Amazon you get different results 31:40 As an aggregator, what are the metrics Forum Brands seeking to those who want to sell their brands32:34 What's a unique thing that Forum Brands do 34:28 If I'm a brand owner and want to sell to Forum Brands, where do I nextSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)

EP273 - Amazon FBA Roll-ups with Alex Kopco of Forum Brands  Alex Kopco is the Founder and COO of Forum Brands, a roll-up of digitally-native consumer brands selling via Amazon. In this interview we discuss Alex's experiences at Target and Amazon prior to founding Forum Brands. We talk about Forum Brands specific business model and their unique tools and expertise for Amazon sellers, the Amazon FBA Roll-up trend in general, and the future of commerce. Episode 273 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday August 19, 2021. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 273 being recorded on Thursday august 19 20 21 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott showed listeners Jason as you and mr. snow two of my favorite topics are Amazon and Entrepreneurship lately there's been a lot of exciting intersections in that area as different companies have been started to kind of quote-unquote roll-up Amazon FBA Sellers and explore a. House of Brands kind of concept leveraging Amazon so we're going to dig into that topic tonight and joining us on the podcast to help us explore that is Alex kopco he is the CEO and founder of form brands Alex welcome to the show. Alex: [1:18] Thank you so much super excited to be here guys. Jason: [1:21] Alex we're thrilled to have you and Scott, that Scott wasn't just giving you lip service these are his two favorite topics so he's going to be super annoying to talk to, but before we jump into form Brands which we are excited to get to we always like to give listeners a little bit of a taste about our guest, backgrounds and how you came in your role and if I have it right I think you have kind of a perfect background for your current role. Alex: [1:48] I do yeah it's true I have spent, really the last decade in e-commerce I got my start working for Target specifically for target.com at the time when target.com was actually still being powered by Amazon Target, little known fact was the largest seller on Amazon's Marketplace back when I was there and I was part of the team, that was rolling target.com off of the Amazon platform, which was a great first experience in my career to see what this whole e-commerce thing was about working for especially a big box retailer and one is well respected as Target and is good at merchandising and all the great things that Target does it really did feel like the wild west despite it being a 50 year old company and then I transitioned was looking for just a change in life a change in scenery and you know the winters in Minneapolis can be pretty brutal and so I actually had the opportunity to go work for Amazon and Seattle where I over a number of years had basically every retail job that you can imagine at the company also did a stint at Amazon as a product manager where I was working on Amazon's physical retail stores team. [3:08] The non grocery version which was super super interesting a ton of Technology went into powering the Amazon stores as well and so I oversaw some of the technology aspects there and really, over my course of my career at Amazon fell in love with the power of data the power of. [3:26] You know under understanding customers based on what they do as well as what they say and being able to provide you know surprise and Delight moments for them regardless of whether they were online or in stores and for me you know my passion for entrepreneurship since these are Scott's two favorite things Amazon entrepreneurship. [3:45] Sort of nurtured at a very young age and happy to delve into my memory Palace there but, the the impetus for really leaving Amazon to strike out on my own was predicated on they just ongoing shift to e-commerce and the adoption and of course you know the covid-19 pandemic has, greatly sped that up but it was always a fascinating space for me and so really just had that itch and decided that the time was right at my career to make that leap. Jason: [4:15] That is awesome and so just just so I'm being perfectly clear that our listeners you loved Amazon so much that when Target stopped working with them you quit and joined Amazon. Alex: [4:25] In as many words yeah sure let's go with that hahaha. Scot: [4:32] Jason you are the chief digital officer of Target right do I have that right. Jason: [4:35] Yes one of yes. Alex: [4:37] Wrong Jason Goldberg goldberger. Scot: [4:39] Oh gosh I get that confused. Alex: [4:41] I have to confess Jason I did a double take when I first saw your name and was like this can't possibly be goldberger and then realized that I was adding an ER to your name. Jason: [4:50] Alex to make matters more confusing a you should know that the day that Jason joined Target I got three 800 LinkedIn invites from from target employees. Alex: [5:01] One of those might have been me Jason. When Jason joined he and I I forget how this happened but he and I was basically in the first meeting he ever had it Target and. Then I was in a number of subsequent meetings and so we just sort of kept running into each other and it became a running joke over the rest of my time at Target which was not that much longer that every time you ran into each other it was just you know one of those moments so it's been fun to watch Jason's career evolve. Jason: [5:33] Yeah yeah. Nobody cares but like the overlaps are are super complicated I've actually worked with Target for an awfully long time in fact I was in a conference room in Minneapolis on 9/11 with Jeff Bezos. Doing the Amazon contract the the day that the Twin Towers was hit and did a lot of work with Steve Eastman and Michael Francis and although. Alex: [5:59] Yeah yeah. Jason: [6:00] So I do have a sort of a Target history and then of course I'm at publicist which owns Sapient which was the big team that helped stand up target.com when you guys moved off of them. Alex: [6:12] That's right project Everest. Jason: [6:14] Exactly so lots of overlaps but, as per usual I just talk about all this stuff well you actually did it so so we're excited to hear about it from you but I think Scott is undoubtedly going to ask you some Amazon trivia questions first. Scot: [6:33] Yeah yes so it must have been interesting you know I haven't been as deep as you guys have at Target but I have spent a lot of time at Amazon seems like a big culture difference there what was that like. Alex: [6:46] Yeah it was a big culture difference I think the biggest difference in my experience was I was. [6:56] Well there's two two components to this first and foremost I felt like I had a tremendous amount of responsibility from the very very first day at Amazon Amazon having built much of its own technology internally you know there were there were safeguards there were checks and balances you couldn't really screw anything up but I had a lot of control over, Mi Piel which you know when I would interview people or when people would join the team I would sort of like in my business too and I was a better manager and video games for a number of years and I would liken it to my little video games or my little comic book shop on the street corner and you know we would talk about what is our window front look like today we've got to walk our store and make sure that you know some kid didn't spit gum on our floor and so it was it was very much that feel and I had the power to keep things clean and sort of do what I thought was in the best interest of customers. [7:54] Target on the other hand it is a company that has one of the most iconic brands on the planet you see that Bullseye and you just instantaneously know even if you're not, from America we pretty much know what Target is and so with that you know with, with great power comes great responsibility with great branding comes great responsibility and so my experience at Target was a little bit different in that, a we were big you're really big when I joined Amazon we weren't that big at the time and I work for Amazon Canada so we were really not that big. [8:27] Target was big and so the the conversations with vendors the responsibility that we had two guests You know despite being, working for the e-commerce arm of Target we took. Sort of the brand very very very seriously and everything was in the spirit of ensuring that people when they, interacted with that Bulls I had the best possible experience and so it was it was just a different ethos right it was a different mindset, and one worked great for one company for the last five decades the other was kind of making it up as they went along and now have become one of Earth's largest companies and there were no guarantees either way but it certainly was a very interesting, mindshift and I learned a lot of both to be totally honest with you and a lot of my reasoning for going to work for Amazon was not because Target rolled off Amazon and then I went to work for Amazon but it was because I felt like I actually wanted both sides of that coin I wanted to both have the big box retail how do you how do you take. A legacy brand and bring it into the digital world and, what about that disruption what what about that company that is leading that disruption leading the efforts of bringing retail into the digital world and so. It was a little bit selfishly I just wanted to be as well as well-balanced as I possibly could be. Scot: [9:55] So did you work for Amazon Canada the whole time are you kind of bounce between the u.s. and Canada. Alex: [10:00] So I work for Amazon Canada when I was in retail eCommerce retail for the whole time I did work very closely with my US based counterparts I worked on the initiative which is now known as narf but internally was known as Naf n which was the unification of the North American supply chain I supported the launch of Amazon Mexico and so you know one of the benefits of working for a smaller, arm within a big company as you have a lot of resources at your disposal but you also have a lot of latitude to try things I launched which prime in Canada when we bought which I brought virtual bundling technology to Canada's a twenty-five-year-old no nothing in the tech space which was incredibly interesting and again really started to give me that feel for the power of Technology, and and and Building Technology that can enable anybody in the company to be successful not just the people who know how to wield the technology. Scot: [11:03] A lot of people that have worked at Amazon that start companies they bring a lot of the management principles over is that something you plan on doing or you're just like starting with the clean white board. Alex: [11:15] Man yeah Amazon's culture is it is definitive and we certainly have borrowed, in many cases inadvertently a lot of the principles you know one of our our core leadership principles is bias for Action we have one that is called act like an owner we have one called the best ideas when which is you know, hybrid of is write a lot and invented simplify and we did this sort of inadvertently but you have to admit the principles are pretty darn good. And you know Dave Glick and I saves over at Flex we often and he does a lot of post on LinkedIn talking about the impact that Amazon's culture had on him and how he brings that to flex and I a lot of what he talks about resonates very deeply and we kind of joke about you know once an Amazonian always an Amazonian it always comes back up in some in some fashion. Scot: [12:09] Yeah someone that's an outsider and having interacted with all the different tech companies the other ones have these like little Pro way things like, yep what does it do no evil or be don't be evil or something where's the Amazons when you know and they end up being mocked by all the employees at the end of the Amazon ones they just seem so much more solid and and you know I've seen the document where they give case studies and then what not to do and what you know Jeff Bezos little stories around the principle so it it just has so much better thought out than any of the anything else I've ever seen. Alex: [12:46] Yeah yeah you know we. Even the most resistant employees I think drink at least a little bit of the Kool-Aid when you get there because it's impossible to avoid you can't not be in a meeting. Especially when tensions are high and this is the whole purpose of having strong leadership principles is so that when you can't be in every meeting and every discussion, you want people working for you to behave and make decisions in a way that are consistent with how you would do it that is the Hallmark of that of strong leadership principles and like you can read the everything store which I did when I was interviewing with Amazon and they say you know. Jeff has this thing about like oh the customer's always in the room leave the empty chair like we talked about customers as if they're actually in a room that's not that's not a lie that's not like a thing that you know has been spawned at like we literally do that we say, like what would the customer think about this how's that going to impact the CX like we care very very deeply and that's just one of the principles and so people use them in their vernacular and actually my wife still works for Amazon, and our friends sometimes get a little bit annoyed because occasionally she and I will be talking about a hard thing at work and we'll just default to, sort of the Amazon lingo and they're like you guys have to know how you sound to outside people which is. Not great. Scot: [14:14] Amazon Romance. Jason: [14:15] I do think the Amazon leadership principles are legit and you know have certainly contributed to their their culture surviving even as its scale, but just just a counter-argument to Scotts point they did add two new leadership principles this year and one of them basically is don't be evil. In parentheses it says two employees. Alex: [14:37] Yeah I mean. Scot: [14:40] That's just an overreaction to crying at the dust particle. Alex: [14:43] That was yeah I was there during during the infamous New York Times article it got some things right I got some things wrong. Scot: [14:55] Were you crying at your desk. Alex: [14:56] I was not personally crying at my desk no and I don't know anyone who did but I also would not say that I knew every single person at Amazon either. [15:13] Um It's fun fun for me not that much fun for probably listeners but I'll just give you the anecdote, Jeff is like a rare unicorn around Seattle and anytime you see him it is a Jeff sighting, and people will like stop what they're doing and immediately run back to their desks to tell everybody that they had a Jeff sighting and my only judge sightings really came from from the stage, at the All Hands meetings I was fortunate enough to work on some projects that one just do it Awards which is one of the awards where Jeff gives out a Nike shoe and there's a whole story behind that and so my interaction was limited to the. Jeff announcing a thing on the stage in my face being up on a on a wall that was those are my only sightings. Scot: [16:12] Nice to get picture of you and Jeff. Alex: [16:14] I did not yeah yeah yeah. Scot: [16:15] We can Photoshop at Jason's of Photoshop Drupal will create one for. Alex: [16:21] Yeah you can you can put my face on. Jason: [16:22] I'll put all three of us. Alex: [16:24] There you go yeah with chassis so when I was at Amazon actually co-founded an internal employee network called connected Amazon. And it really sort of started actually it started from Target honestly because one thing that Target does exceptionally well is they have all of these sort of like. [16:46] Affinity groups isn't there like employee networks and there's like an acapella group and there's you know the women who ride motorcycles group, and so I was a member of all these different sort of Target networks and I got to meet the global VP of Lego and I got to meet you know higher-ups at LinkedIn and it just was always really fascinating to me and sort of. [17:09] Made me feel really happy that I work for Target and when I started at Amazon they had a finity networks but they didn't do a lot. I mean they were they were sort of identity based and it was not. The programming just wasn't as robust as what you got from the Grassroots Target organizations and so a friend of mine and. A couple of other people got together I must have been there for months at the time, and started this group connected Amazon to try to provide some some amount of programming for that and Andy Jesse was actually kind enough to be one of our fireside chat speakers, and we booked the biggest room that they had on campus at the time I think it could fit about 400 people. And we had 400 people like an hour and a half before the fireside chat even started and so we had all these people live streaming and all the like conference rooms and one of the buildings there and from there you know it kind of took on a life of its own so I credit Andy for you know really making connected Amazon as big of a deal as it has become which I think now they've got 30 40 thousand amazonians are like registered members of connected Amazon and they've got a nice big budget and full-time people doing programming and that all came out of the grass roots. Jason: [18:28] Very cool so truth be told we could probably do Amazon stories all night and be perfectly happy but I do want to talk about foreign Brands obviously so before we jump into that into much detail Scott kind of alluded to the business model but can you kind of give us the foreign Brands elevator pitch. Alex: [18:48] Yeah so you know Scott is right in that there are a number of groups really around the world now who are looking to acquire Amazon FBA businesses do a sort of brand of Brands roll them together we fall into that but we think about ourselves a little bit differently I think the moniker that gets thrown around a lot is is aggregator. We don't see ourselves as that and you'll. Probably based on my background understand why you know our model is not to do a high volume of deals it's too it's to be principled and disciplined. In the deals that we do do and we are much more focused on building, a concentrated portfolio and specific categories that we believe we can turn into like household Staples and so actually as much as I love Amazon and again you're right we could probably spend you know two hours just swapping stories about that. Our goal is to. [19:52] Take fledgling brands that we believe have a lot of potential and put them wherever the customers who want to shop for those products are shopping and that maybe on Amazon and we hope that it is but even if it's not, we'll find ways to make sure that our products are available for the customers who want to buy them and so, what that means is we might review a thousand deals a year and will acquire a handful of them rather than you know. Does it meet our basic minimum criteria if yes then we'll proceed and so it's just a little bit of a different a different mindset for us and it causes our employees to make decisions differently which is. And literally the document that we have when we due diligence is called the what you have to believe document it's do we actually believe in this brand can it actually become a consumer household staple. If yes then there's a whole bunch of other criteria that we review if no we're okay passing on a deal and it's nothing against the brand owner it's nothing against the seller we're just very disciplined for what we're looking for. Scot: [20:58] And then so it is a busy space so how would you help help me kind of have a mental map of how you guys fit in so there's there's thrashy oh there's like one out of Austin whose name I can't remember there's a couple others, how would you kind of feel that you guys differentiate from from the pack. Alex: [21:20] Yeah we're we differentiate in two ways first and foremost like I was describing where operators first. Right we my two co-founders both come from the investing World they run a very efficient Ma, process the other kind of oversees the holding company in the structure within I oversee all things related to Brand growth and I have a team of probably fifty percent X amazonians who have have a similar mindset as me which is again we build we believe in the power of a brand and we believe in, brand Equity we believe in the direct-to-consumer space as a way of making sure that were able to reach customers who get genuine value out of our products, and so that's us was the most exciting thing so we're again very selective in our deals secondarily is our Tech and Scott we were kind of, bantering about this you know before we started recording but we are, highly highly highly focused on building and integrated omni-channel system, internal to form Brands and this is not this is not meant to be a knock to any of the software out in the world but my belief is that. [22:39] Is that there is value to Building Technology that suits the company that we are trying to build rather than having to build a company that suits the technology that's available to us today. And again it sounds like a semantic difference but it's a big mindset shift, from my team where every single employee regardless of whether you're in Mna Corporate Finance or marketing you're all product managers every single person is tasked with finding ways to automate the automatable use data to make decisions ask for systems that we either don't have or that are underdeveloped so that we can build something that works for form Brands and makes each and every one of our employees more efficient. Scot: [23:23] Give us an idea of the scale like where are you guys maybe Capital raised or number of Brands kind of in your your pack if you will anything you can share but obviously don't want anything super confidential. Alex: [23:35] Sure sure so we're not disclosing the number of brands that we have right now but we did recently announced a 27 million dollar series a equity raise led by Norwest Venture partners are seed was done by and FX at a Palo Alto and so you know that that 27 million that we recently raised is is being put two purposes one hiring hiring like crazy building out the team of world-class operators first and foremost and then secondarily is to a focus on technology and that is you know scaling up our Tech stack hiring a high-performing you know World Class Tech Team, we've got a number of data scientists and we're already finding ways to optimize our businesses that we do owned by way of machine learning it's also we actually use machine learning to help identify high quality Brands to potentially reach out to as well and so again it sort of tech underpins everything that we do and we're investing very heavily in that space. Jason: [24:43] Awesome and you kind of mentioned that you were being selective on Acquisitions like do you have. Any specific criteria like are most your criteria around Financial metrics to other particular product categories or particular. Go to market models are things that like sort of play into your your preferred portfolio companies. Alex: [25:06] Yeah so we are focused on certain categories categories that we refer to sort of colloquially as. I thought I was going to put your that word and I totally got it colloquially as consumer durables so we steer clear from food and beverage, we steer clear from you know fad related items we I mean you could really like an us to sort of, New Age Procter & Gamble where we're focused on you no pets and home and kitchen, patio lawn and garden we have you know we play in the fitness space the outdoor space and so these are really things that are like, you know you would go, to your cousin's house and open up their cabinets or look in their closet and you would find a bunch of our products there that's what we're really focused on so we will stay away from like clothing we don't do fashion brands, um and from there you know we have what we call the four pillars because as a good Amazonian I love my Frameworks, but you know it's are sort of M A decision-making framework which you know we're very transparent about when we get, into the conversation with Sellers and it's something that you know our approaches to be very seller friendly we. [26:32] Over index in the hand-holding because we want to make the deal as comfortable as possible. My co-founder Reuben who leads all the MMA efforts he still personally gets on all the calls with Sellers and so Financial profile matters category matters but again a lot there are a lot of other considerations that go into that what you have to believe what we have to believe collectively as a team as an investment committee as operators as brand builders, and so were we are. We view these deals as puzzle pieces that we look to fit together. Scot: [27:13] Is part of your strategy to so you acquire these Brands you get them you know I think there's probably some consolidation where you know what we've seen with other players is a review of the packaging bringing them over into a Consolidated marketing team usually some consolidation around sourcing and fulfillment, and then you get your technology platform let me play pause there is that is that you guys do all those things. Alex: [27:41] Yep absolutely I mean I think a lot of that is you know and most of the players us included are what at most two two and a half years old so these are like there's still a lot of table Stakes stuff. To be done with these with these Brands as we're fitting them into our process and our portfolio for sure. Scot: [28:00] Gonna think I know the answer this one but I'll ask anyway so then you know one strategy and I'm obviously a big proponent of this is if you can do acts on Amazon you can do you kind of typically do you know the same amount call it you know X again over on other channels is part of your your plan to then go across different online channels with the brands or do you really want to just kind of focus on Amazon for a while and DoubleDown based on on the platform Super Bowl. Alex: [28:31] My Amazonian this is about to show here so we have what we have the concept of Amazon's day one we have we have play books which we called a0 and A1, and the day Zero playbooks are sort of that table Stakes stuff can we consolidate at ports, can we you know is are there opportunities for us to redo the packaging, will get deep into the reviews and apply NLP to reviews to make sure that we have a good understanding of what customers like and equally important what they don't like about the products that were acquiring and so we'll do all that day 0 stuff, to sort of get our house in order and that is predominantly Amazon focused right most of these businesses, do the vast majority of their sales on Amazon and so. [29:20] For us to be world-class operators like we must be world-class at Amazon that that is core to the strategy. From there we move into day one because at Amazon it's always day one, so really it's day forever but we call a day one and those are the things that a our technology Powers right and Scott you know the power of optimization of being able to have an integrated platform where, data from one part of the business marketing. Informs actions in another part of the business product development and design packaging pricing right and so our ability to tie these things together these sort of disparate data points actually build a mental model and I, I'm sure that my team is so tired of the phrase mental model because I preach it constantly but that's really what it's about for us as building that mental model so. [30:10] That was a long-winded way of answering your question which is yes we will be opportunistic brand by brand, um in channels off Amazon and you know we're operating in eight countries right now we are operating across five or six channels and so our footprint is already, diverse and you know were a year old at this point. Jason: [30:37] Awesome side note you can always tell a tech first company when they start counting at day 0 instead of day one. Alex: [30:45] Exactly I'm so glad Jason that you picked up on that. Jason: [30:49] I'm tracking and so that reminds me I do want to kind of. Cook down into your Tech stack for a second but before we do I'm just always curious like it seems obvious like one of the big. I'm sort of investment theories here would be you acquire these companies and you have. Unique expertise capabilities and Tech that then causes those companies to be more valuable. You help them become more efficient on Amazon more successful etc etc and that that accelerates the value of your investment. Each of those companies probably had some unique skill sets like I'm always curious. Like does it work out that those companies are able to help each other very much and are using like. Are you providing most of the value-add or are you acquiring a lot of value-add from these individual companies that then benefits the rest of the portfolio. Alex: [31:48] Yeah yeah you know currently it has been. The former we are providing most of the value-add. So where we are actually seeing things move is as the space becomes. More well-known I mean there are so many sellers right so many many many of them do still do not know that an exit. Is an option for them many still are under the misconception that e-commerce. I don't want to do this anymore I guess I'll just shut my store down I'll go on Permanent Vacation mode and that is tragic to me. Because they have loyal customers they're generating real cash and so it's a shame for companies to shut it down what we're seeing more and more in the conversations that we're having with. [32:42] Perspective Cellars is. [32:45] This desire to remain plugged into the brand and frankly this is how we win deals. In a lot of cases is because we care very deeply you know Simon sinek has one of the most viewed, TED Talks ever right we should start with why and that is how we start we start with why did the entrepreneur start this business, and sometimes it was like I don't know I was in college and needed some extra beer money or I had to pay rent or whatever other times it was you know my mother had this malady that caused her not to be able to do a certain thing and so I found this product and decided that maybe it could help other people right and every single story is different and so we learn a lot in the stories but we also do learn a lot from the sellers and we're super flexible with our pricing structure we don't have sort of a. We don't really have like a take-it-or-leave-it style we want a suit. [33:44] Sellers in the ways that that works the best for them and so some are willing to take a little less up front but they want to benefit and participate in the upside over the next year we're happy to do that and the extent that they want to be plugged in and. Launch more products and use our Tech and you know get support from our team, we're happy to do that as well and so it really is a case-by-case basis there's no sort of one sweeping, you know this is how we do it forever flexibility is kind of the name of the game for us in a lot of ways. Jason: [34:16] Got it and so let's talk about that that Tech stack for a second I'm always curious what people. Decided to build and find the most value and building like are you mostly building tools around. Catalog management and digital shelf for you doing like magic pricing logic are you doing like ad. Buying and placement and all that like what what sort of problems are you trying to solve with the tax debt with your Tech stack for to the sellers. Alex: [34:46] I'd be curious to hear what your next two items would be Jason because everything you just said and more actually where we started was we started with an engine that I alluded to earlier that helps us identify high quality assets that meet our criteria that's where we began, and so we you know started plugging into a variety of datasets from a variety of companies, tying it together you know applying our own modeling on top of it and now use that to identify brands, the tertiary benefit from that is when you have a lot of data at a category level. [35:30] You can start to also Benchmark yourself, and so we've been able to you know build benchmarks and say what should what should this company be doing what could this company look like what what if scenario A through Z happened where would we fall, in this space and from there it's kind of grown organically and so catalog management I mean you can't run a direct-to-consumer business. On one channel let alone many channels let alone in multiple GEOS if you don't have a strong sort of item master so we certainly, started their focused very heavily there in the early days to make sure that we had, a sound way of tying all of these data points together across customers across orders across products and brands. [36:17] And from there yeah I mean there are natural extensions in all facets right pricing drives forecast, and our forecast drives our inventory Buys in our inventory buys Drive how much warehousing space we need or our consolidation at various ports are ordering Cadence and. Guys let me know if you want to talk about the state of the supply chain right now around the world but that is a huge problem in and of itself and so we've invested heavily in, Tech in Building Technology that gives our people visibility to every single step of the supply chain so that we know, day by day minute by minute where goods are. Because as I'm sure you guys know if you fall out of stock like falling out of stock especially on Amazon as a really really really really big deal, because not only is there the Miss sales from that but you also have to then reinvest to you know get your advertising spun back up and to reclaim potentially your spot in Search and that's really expensive to do and so, The Economic Opportunity there is not just well we have you know Air Freight. For extra holding costs or Miss sales but it's also advertising its also customer experience it's also, bundles which also fall out of stock if a component is out of stock and so the blast radius is wider but we have a way to tie that all together and be able to make smarter economic decisions based on that. Jason: [37:46] Yeah that's a super important point and I'm still shocked how many people don't don't get that but if you're out of stock for three days out of a month at Target and you was three days worth of sales. Um but you're out of stock at Amazon and what happens is you fall to what's called page 2 of search which is equivalent to being delisted. And then you've got to earn your way back and so that's funny like my, question about your text deck I'm always curious how people answer because well in the old world those were all separate tools and you could kind of buy best-in-class tools from all these different vendors and each one did a point thing but my hypothesis in like, Dynamic digital shelf world is. All those tools have to be integrated because they're all totally dependent on each other like you like I'm shocked how many Amazon sellers are buying ads on out of stock. Alex: [38:43] Oh my gosh. Jason: [38:44] And like you know I mean it like just all these things are so so interrelated in a in a way that, that is a very different model than traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Alex: [38:56] That's right you know we were opening up our office and one of the. Super lame ideas that I had for a decoration was to build a physical value chain of paper chain and. I thought it'd be really fun to you know first and foremost has have everybody's names on it because Dan the day you don't have a company if you're only as good as the people that work for you that is. That is true without exception. Over the long run at least but but you're absolutely right right like the interrelationship between every single. [39:33] Touchpoint of a company whether you're again MMA marketing for and growth supply chain. Every single decision that you make has a ripple effect on every other person and so you know when we think about our organizational structure we try to be as flat as we can be we purposefully encourage people to meet, their counterparts in other organizations so that they're not just sitting in a silo and saying well I'm on the marketing team, and that is a supply chain problem not my problem actually it is because you're about to blow your budget getting that thing back on page 1 off the page of Doom because this thing went out of stock so you need to be in lockstep so you can pull back on the spend so that you're not buying spending 40 percent of your budget on out-of-stock, right especially if it had a sin God forbid falls out of stock it's a big deal and people need to be talking about it but my biggest thing and I beat this drum constantly is the problem with having. You know 25 Point Solutions is then you have 25 dashboards you have to look at you have 25 systems you have to log into and you have to make the connections yourself and sorry but like human brain it gets tired people have a bad night people have a bad day and you make mistakes but by being able to pull it all together visualize it in one space. [40:55] And see. How pulling lever a effects object Z like that that is what we constantly push ourselves for and constantly drive toward. Jason: [41:07] Yeah yeah and so you kind of answered you ask me like what would the next things on my list be for your road map and you kind of the name them right its supply chain and analytics for those, for those very reasons you just covered sidenote are you hosting your Tech stack on Azure did you did you go Google Cloud platform or azure. Alex: [41:26] Wow I think you're kidding but no Amazon Amazon web services all the way. Jason: [41:33] I'm shocked that makes a lot of sense now but as soon as you try to expand off of Amazon to those other platforms your that's going to become a. Alex: [41:41] Yeah I know we use some gcp products we use looker we use five Tran for some API connection so we're you know we started on AWS because frankly. They gave us free credits and so why are they sticky with that. Jason: [41:57] Yeah yeah that I hear that's a decent business. Um the you open the door to a super interesting topic right now which is like supply chain and product liability particularly around holiday this point. Um earlier this week Target and Walmart both had earnings calls and they both assured investors that they were well positioned for holiday but why. You hear from any of the suppliers and it sounds a little dicey no one can hire anyone everybody's Factory workers are on strike. Um tons of disruptions in Asia right now going the wrong way I'm on pandemic stuff like what what your POV for Holiday are we are we in for some pain or is it overblown. Alex: [42:44] I mean by your gifts now is my POV you know it I think it's going to be tough I think it's going to be tough I don't think, well I don't know covid is the big. The big asterisk to everything I'm about to say because we've already seen in Ningbo for example the poor shut down for a couple of days because of a couple of covid cases they're one of our factories got completely flooded by the typhoon I mean, there are already so many issues beyond the fact that there are at any given time 50 boats trying to get into the port of LA and. Some of those containers belong to us some of those containers belong to Target and Walmart and so we're kind of all collectively in. This for lack of a better term we're in this boat together the difference is. [43:40] The Big Box retailers and a lot of the big players have you know a much much larger physical Warehouse footprint where presumably. They have seen these potential issues coming and have you know, bought Goods in advance of meeting to get them on store shelves you know we certainly have but as early as we thought we were, we probably could have even been a month or two earlier because we're still seeing delays really across the board. Um and it's and a lot of it is international a lot of it is domestic right like will get bumped from you know delivery from point A to point B and you know Kentucky to New Jersey and you know UPS won't show up. And that's not a knock on UPS like maybe their truck driver got covid right I mean there's so many small things that compound the delays. I think it's going to be tough. And I hope I'm wrong like I'm saying this but I really hope I'm wrong I hope we all get to sleep very happily at night because we had, great holiday season kids are happy and we're all happy I really hope that's the case but we're preparing for the worst. Jason: [44:53] I know that it's possible for both to be true right like Target and Walmart could have enough leverage that they do believe they're going to be okay from a supply chain and it could be the rest of the world that. Um struggles but right side note on the demand I think Home Depot also had an earnings call this this week and they mentioned that they got there first. It's mid-august they got their first shipment of Halloween goods and they're already out. Alex: [45:22] Oh man oh man. Jason: [45:25] Yeah so / your shop early comment I think yet not only is availability a problem but also. As you know everything's just getting more expensive because the cost of those containers and shipping and everything just keeps, keeps going up and that that leads me to part 2 of why I'm not going to sleep this holiday period last holiday Scott coin This this term that got a lot of Attraction ship a get in, and we talked about you know the fact that like obviously covid drove everyone online and so there was this you know. [45:58] Outsized demand for for e-commerce fulfillment and you know UPS and FedEx have a finite ability to flex to meet that. The I'm curious like it seems like it's going to be an equal or bigger problem, this year and I'm chuckling because the United States Postal Service just announced that they discovered this new business practice, the FedEx and UPS have been doing called surcharges so now even even US Postal Service is looking to do holiday surcharges and they're you know all the quotas for Holiday are already out, and of course your friends and Amazon are you know largely the one and only, retailer add scale that owns their own a lot of their own Last Mile so I do you is is that an advantage for being on the Amazon platform are they likely to run out of capacity and constrain fbas like do you. Worried about fulfillment this year and how that's going to impact holiday at all. Alex: [47:02] I am less worried about outbound fulfillment as I am inbound because of what you just said which is capacity constraints. And you know any listener who has an Amazon business knows that. [47:16] There was a change this year we're while because last year Amazon started imposing, skew level caps right and so even if you had a portfolio that was concentrated around one or two top selling products that do 85 percent of your sales you know at least you could probably be okay on those even if you hit caps on sort of your tail selection they moved to a model which is, it is at the account level now a cat and we were all super happy about that because we said well we have all these new products that we're launching and because they have no sales history we can only Trickle, 20 units in at a time we followed a stock another 20 units we fall out of stock in the problem with the domestic delays is we could be out of stock for three weeks. On that right even if our warehouse is next door to the Fulfillment center, we could still not have our products sellable again for 3 weeks and there is nothing that will kill your cold start product launch faster thinking out of stock, right and so that that has been an issue throughout the year and they kept saying you know July 1st the Caps will be lifted and they were and some cases and they weren't and other cases and so my big concern is just that we won't have the capacity, available to us at FBA to get all of the goods in that we need to get in and so even if we are have a dozen two dozen. [48:40] You know, thousand shipments waiting there's nothing that you can really do there's no one that you can pick up and call and say hey can you like you know nudge nudge wink wink get my stuff in faster you just can't do it and so you just wait. [48:52] And that's a really uncomfortable spot to be in so you know and then and so we operate in Canada right we have seen on Amazon Canada where, the whole fulfillment centers have shut down due to covid and you see promised dates go from 2 days for Prime shipping to seven days for Prime shipping no matter which zip code you put in no matter where you say you are in Canada we've had some of our products that. [49:17] The prime delivery date is a Six-Day window and that has been the case for months. And so outbound from that perspective it does depressed demand that's why I'm saying by stuff sooner because you might get a Six-Day promise, but yeah I'm more concerned about the inbound and being able to keep Goods on the digital shelves through the through the entirety of the holiday season, because you can't you can't remanufacture that demand and if we come out super super heavy like, maybe it helps us through Lunar New Year which was also pretty tough last year but yeah it's going to be really interesting and so again we're doing everything that we can to try to. You know make sure that all of our ducks are in a row all of our goods are Stateside everything's ready to go. On the chance that we can actually get you know Goods moved in but it'll be a struggle. Jason: [50:14] Yeah yeah and as you alluded to the Canadian Supply chains even more fragile because one of those sled dog teams get sick and a whole Province gets cut off namjoo. Alex: [50:24] I had I had Xboxes the year Xbox One released idexx boxes on a train. In the middle in the dead center of the country and we literally sent a helicopter to pick the Xboxes up, the train and fly them to Toronto so that we could actually meet because we took pre-orders right and we had to meet release date delivery on those Xboxes so we've done some crazy stuff to make it work in Canada. Jason: [50:52] Yeah that's a whole new new definition of air air freight geez. The the drones will hopefully sell help with that I did want to you mentioned that you were seeing kind of the the caps and quotas moving from from skews two categories, one interesting hypothesis I've heard from a bunch of like reasonably high volume Amazon sellers at the moment is. As the catalog has gotten so huge and there's like some counts like 800 million skus in the catalog now, um there's a hypothesis that Amazon is strongly preferencing new skus and so a lot of people have said that they feel like. The the caps and quotas that they're getting on, mature skews that in the old days like your quota would have just gotten bigger every year based on your sales history that they're now running into this new problem, Amazon is reserving a fair amount of space for new stuff instead of the old stuff and I can imagine, that's scary and or problematic in in your business model have you seen that at all is that viable. Alex: [52:03] I have seen shatter about it that is we have empirically not seen that to be the case for our brands. We also don't operate in every category you know I'm sure there are plenty of higher-volume you know on a brand by brand. Basis sellers out there who are seeing crazy stuff, for us like I said we're launching a whole host of new products and it's 20 units at a time and then you sell out but now your cap is 60, you're like awesome I have three times the cap but it's still 60 it's not 6,000 which is what we would need to actually you know generate the volume that's going to get us on page one and so. While our you know top-selling products we are running up against caps there as well it has not been. [52:56] The issue really comes from when you have a brand level cap your best selling products are inevitably going to take up most of the calf. And in order for us to hold a rational level of Safety stock it doesn't leave a whole lot of extra space for the new products and so you know again we're not really seeing that that. You know thought bear out in our businesses doesn't mean that they aren't. But yeah it just we don't we don't pun intended we don't put a lot of stock in that right now. Scot: [53:35] The, one question we've been following this kind of Amazon versus Shopify debate and we've had some folks on talking about headless Commerce, have you guys thought about you know another big strategy for anyone selling on Amazon is it open up your own website have you guys chosen a platform there or do you have any opinions about kind of where the e-commerce platform Wars are going. Alex: [53:59] I have a lot of opinions we are so the direct to Consumer space, is is what we firmly believe is like very core to our ability as a company to build long-term value. To have a website that customers interact with engage with our loyal to no no to find products from we believe that score for some Brands more than others right, we have inherited. By way of acquisition most people just spin up a Shopify account and then fulfill the FBA and so we have predominantly leaned into Shopify as a platform for now I think. [54:51] We are still so focused. At this time especially at this time in making sure that we're in stock on Amazon and that we have sort of that nuts and bolts Day Zero operational excellence with Amazon which is core to our portfolio that we haven't, we haven't we haven't dedicated a tremendous amount of resources and fully kicking the tires on all of the Headless options all of the other platform options we've had conversations with all of them we haven't actually, made a concerted effort to say we are 100% doing away with Shopify in favor of X for these reasons we haven't seen the need quite frankly. Scot: [55:35] And then so you've been in the retail game for quite a while one of our kind of favorite ending questions is if you kind of think forward let's say 3 or 5 years kind of take you out of the, the current where do you where do you see e-commerce? Alex: [55:52] Wow I asked a flavor of this question when I interview people. Scot: [55:56] We're turning it on you. Alex: [55:58] So What this is bringing up is feelings reactions to a lot of the changes around consumer privacy you know iOS 14 and all of their for the platforms, that were. You know I'll say hoovering up data and applying it and sometimes great ways and in other times may be less great ways I. [56:29] It hurts me a little bit inside because what I believe is that actually. [56:36] The the ability for us to build like to use data to build products that Delight customers. That is core to again building long-term value and I also believe in this is getting back to the question that the ability. To reach customers where they want to shop with the products that they're most interested or that that suit them the best I think we've taken a step back from that. And my hope is that we will continue to evolve responsibly. As a society and as companies as Leaders of sort of this new wave of retail in a way that can still surprising Delight customers that can deliver product innovations that are meaningful and they're not just you know we, wiggle a little here we do a little dongle there and today it's a new product because it's actually fundamentally not like I love you. The next 3 to 5 years as an evolution toward getting even smarter about the products that were building even better at, reaching consumers who are actually interested in what we're, selling so that you're not just on your endless Scroll of social media and you're getting hit with ads that are is completely irrelevant and it sort of degrades your experience on that platform and the degrades the brand experience and that's what we care about we care about the brand experience. Jason: [58:02] That would be awesome if it plays out we'll have to see ox. Alex: [58:05] We will see. Jason: [58:06] Exactly well hopefully you'll be like retired and fabulously wealthy so you'll just be be watching it from Jeff Bezos jot but that's gonna have to be where we leave it because it's happening again we've used up an hour of our listeners time. I know it goes fast we've certainly enjoyed chatting with you if listeners have any comments or questions they're encouraged to, hit us up on Twitter or leave us a note on our Facebook page and as always if you enjoyed this episode we sure would be grateful if you jump on iTunes and give us that five-star review. Scot: [58:41] Alex we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule dominating the Amazon aggregation world and if folks want to find you online what's kind of the best place to you are you on the the Twitter box are my spacer where do you hang out online. Alex: [58:58] Oh my gosh do I still have a MySpace account that's kind of scary. Jason: [59:02] He has a Twitch account he's he's twitch he's a twitch streamer. Alex: [59:06] That's right yeah no you can find me on Twitch no I am predominantly on LinkedIn you can connect this me follow me on LinkedIn shoot me a message there feel free to drop me a line Alex at foreign Brands.com otherwise I am on the Twitter box but I am. Sadly not as much of a contributor as I wish that I that I wish that I could be I'm just not that funny. Scot: [59:28] Well I think you did pretty good here on the show you were funnier than Jason which is what's actually kind of a low bar but. Jason: [59:33] Yeah don't I don't let that stop me for god sakes. Scot: [59:35] Do you think is the most activity out of his grumpy old man tweets. But that's a topic for another show but thanks we really appreciate the time and. Jason: [59:49] Until next time happy commerceing.

Jon Derkits of Forum Brands joins us on The Ad Project podcast this week to talk through his experience strategically purchasing and growing Amazon FBA brands. Jon personally has an impressive background working for Amazon directly, where he led the third-party marketplace for consumer electronics on the Amazon Canada side of the business. Features like north American remote fulfillment subscribe and save and seller fulfilled prime all came out of his team during his time at Amazon. Jon notes that empowering Amazon brands to grow was probably the highlight of his time at Amazon. Now with Forum Brands, Jon still gets to engage with sellers, help them build, kick start the next chapter of their lives by taking their business off their hands and continuing their legacy. How do people who are looking to potentially sell their brands really help to increase their valuation or help to set themselves apart? How do you figure out who to reach out to if you're looking to sell your brand? Tune in for answers to these questions and much more.

Communications platform Zoom has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire real-time machine translations (MT) solutions developer Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions – Kites. The terms of the transactions remain undisclosed.Cloud-based multi-channel commerce platform Shopify has brought down app store commission rates to zero for developers making their first $1M in revenue. Commission rates are cut for other developers (earning over $1M/year) as well, from 20 to 15 percent. This new revenue share model is extended to Theme Store developers as well.Sequoia Capital India has welcomed 23 startups for the fifth cohort of Surge, its scale-up accelerator program for Indian and Southeast Asian startups. Surge 05, as the VC firm calls it, comprises 40 percent of SaaS and DevTools companies that have been building products for global markets ever since their inception.Visier, a cloud-based analytics platform, has secured $125 million in a Series E investment round, valuing the company at $1 billion and has turned unicorn. Visier is a Canadian company that has created a big-data engine that can consume and analyze data from various HR and related apps. It offers a big-data engine it developed that can connect to any of those apps, absorb the data they contain, and match it up to provide current-state representations and increasingly predictive insights.Peak, a venture capital firm located in Amsterdam, has joined the German market. It has announced the launch of its fourth €66 million fund (approx. USD 78.5M). Peak's initial investments vary from €250K (about USD 0.2 million) to €4 million (approx. USD 4.7 million ). A large portion of the VC's new fund has been set aside for follow-on rounds, which will assist portfolio entrepreneurs from pre-seed to Series B and beyond.Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, has raised $12M in Series A funding from a16z. The company was launched in 2020 and has shared details of its revenue figures, team size alongside the announcement. The proceeds from this funding would be used to build its data platform, enhance user experience, among others.JFrog, a DevOps platform, paid $300 million for Vdoo. The purchase will be made using a mix of cash and stock. Vdoo will remain a distinct SaaS offering for the time being, according to JFrog. New updates will aid in support of the JFrog platform, and by 2022, the two businesses will have a completely integrated solution.Forum Brands, a platform for growing and acquiring consumer brands, has announced its raise of $27 million equity funding in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investors NFX and Concrete Rose participated in the financing round. ShipBob, a global logistics company, has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round, making it a unicorn. The company then provides its clients with a merchant application that allows them to keep track of inventory and connect with warehouses to choose which goods to pick and ship to fulfill orders. It works with several shipping companies to deliver products to customers. It claims to work with over 40 firms, including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Square, and Squarespace.The assets of edX have been acquired by 2U, Inc., a global leader in education technology. Through one of the most comprehensive free-to-degree online education systems, 2U and edX will reach over 50 million learners worldwide. Combining 2U's industry-leading marketing capabilities and edX.org's burgeoning marketplace, which saw over 120 million visitors in 2020, is expected to provide a scalable and sustainable marketing advantage. Virti, an interactive and immersive training platform, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Descenture Capital, reports indicate. Virti, founded in 2018, provides a platform to help companies train their employees via virtual training modules and simulations. With Virti, companies could build their own training modules and simulations without the need for coding and use AI, natural language processing to analyze a user's performance and provide feedback. In 2020, it was included on TIME magazine's annual best innovation list.GitHub and Open AI have collaborated to launch GitHub Copilot, which leverages artificial intelligence to help one write code efficiently, reports state. The product is currently available for limited technical preview, available on its website.San Francisco-based co-op, announced its close of seed funding round, where it raised $5.8 million led by Sugar Capital. Shopify, Bessemer Venture Partners, Indicator Ventures and RiverPark Ventures participated in the round.Gympass, the $2.2 billion corporate health unicorn, has received $220 million in a Series E investment. Gympass exclusively works with companies who pay a one-time charge for a platform (app) that lets their employees pick from a choice of wellness programs.  10club, an Indian startup similar to Thrasio, has raised $40 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Fireside Ventures and an unnamed investor. In India, 10club is one of a few dozen companies aiming to duplicate what is known as the Thrasio-model. Several companies, like Thrasio, are attempting to buy brands that offer midrange to high-end items in markets with little competition.In a seed round, Jetstream, an African supply chain network, received $3M. Jetstream was founded by Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor to monitor and regulate their own cross-border supply chains. Jetstream's business model is straightforward. It charges for all of its services, including freight, clearing, and banking. Customs clearance is charged at a set rate that changes depending on the tax type and location of the shipment.Acceleprise has officially rebranded itself as Forum Ventures, a name more fitting to its aspirations and activities, it states. Simultaneously, it has announced the launch of its $13.2M seed and $17.2M fourth fund for pre-seed B2B SaaS startups respectively.Ramco Systems' software would be used by Aden Ports Development Company. Its ERP software for APDC's container terminal aims to reduce the manual tasks involved in its HR and finance operations via digitization. The software comes with a set of new, upgraded features and technologies.Wonderflow, an AI-based customer feedback data startup, has announced that it has raised €16.5 million (approx. USD 19.6 million) in a Series B funding round led by Klass Capital. Other participants include P101, ITALIA 500, and Dutch top manager Jan Bennink. Los Angeles-based Arrows, a software provider helping companies onboard customers, has announced its raise of $2.75 million seed funding from Google's AI-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures, and 47 other angel investors. The company has listed the investors on its website.Boundless, a remote employment platform, has raised €2.5 million (USD 2.9 million) in a seed funding round led by Ada Ventures and FYRFLY. This platform enables businesses to compliantly hire people globally while providing their employees with perks and opportunities in the nation where they work.

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, CartText, and Forum Brands** “Try to hold on to as much equity in the business,” says Alex Waite, Co-Founder of Shameless Pets, as she talks about ways through which a network, friends, and expertise can help in handling the potholes on the road to business success. She mentions that many people liked their products more for their taste and nutritional properties than for the upcycling solution. They have everyday treats, soft biscuits, gentle treats, jerky, and eight different flavors for some of the products. In the second half, she talked about: * What is her advice to handle business challenges * Gratefulness for another co-founder * Take care of yourself along with your business * How online sales helped during the pandemic * What kind of feedback they receive * What sorts of products are available * Can pets go plant-based? * How the brand changed because of the pandemic Join Ramon Vela and Alex Waite as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Shameless Pets, visit https://shamelesspets.com/. * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world's most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying, and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit mutesix.com/storyofabrand. * This episode is also brought to you by CartText. Are you interested in improving your Abandoned Cart Recovery rates? Cart Text is Powered by real people, not bots, not AI, real people. Cart Text will contact & engage with your customers in real-time to make the sales you missed. One by one, CartText will convert your abandoned carts, churned subscriptions, and billing-related issues using live agents + SMS. Real people, getting the job done. To learn more, visit https://carttext.com/. * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you're interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call.

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, CartText, and Forum Brands** “All-natural, clean labeled health-supporting fun little treats,” that's what you'll get at Shameless Pets. In the first half of this Feature, we have Alex Waite, Co-Founder of Shameless Pets, a brand that uses a sustainable solution called upcycling that rescues and transforms misfits and surplus food into high-quality treats for your pets. Alex went to school for human nutrition and food science. She had experience with the R & D department too. She became excited about the ideas and potential related to upcycling and wanted to be part of it. Besides making delicious treats for your pets, this brand focuses on the consumer experience and environment. We discussed: * The support she got from others * Overview of Shameless Pets * The ingredients used in making their product * How food waste needs to be better utilized, managed * Why the Consumer has power (to help the environment) * Where she got the idea for this brand * Her background and entrepreneurship * How she started with nutrition composition * Unexpected experiences and more... Join Ramon Vela and Alex Waite as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Shameless Pets, visit https://shamelesspets.com/. * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world's most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying, and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit mutesix.com/storyofabrand. * This episode is also brought to you by CartText. Are you interested in improving your Abandoned Cart Recovery rates? Cart Text is Powered by real people, not bots, not AI, real people. Cart Text will contact & engage with your customers in real-time to make the sales you missed. One by one, CartText will convert your abandoned carts, churned subscriptions, and billing-related issues using live agents + SMS. Real people, getting the job done. To learn more, visit https://carttext.com/. * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you're interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call.

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, CartText, and Forum Brand**   In the first half of this Feature, we meet with Wade and Danielle Papin, Co-Founders of Pyrrha, a brand made from meaning. Danielle and Wade wanted this brand to be authentic to who they were, and they wanted it to represent something, whether those are feelings, emotions, or a personal meaning. Put another way, anything and everything that makes us human. That's why their jewelry is unique and perhaps a little flawed because it's human. In part 1, Wade and Danielle share their journey as they reminisce about their past, their struggles and help us understand why Pyrrha is not just a jewelry brand. This is their story. We discuss: * An overview of Pyrrha * Their lives before Pyrrha * Quitting their jobs and the birth of Pyrrha * How they juggled business and personal life * Lessons learned from their experience * Their past unbalanced life * How Pyrrha is organically made Join Ramon Vela and Wade, and Danielle Papin as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Pyrrha, visit: https://pyrrha.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world's most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying, and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit: mutesix.com/storyofabrand * This episode is also brought to you by CartText. Are you interested in improving your Abandoned Cart Recovery rates? Cart Text is Powered by real people, not bots, not AI, real people. Cart Text will contact & engage with your customers in real-time to make the sales you missed. One by one, CartText will convert your abandoned carts, churned subscriptions, and billing-related issues using live agents + SMS. Real people, getting the job done. To learn more, visit https://carttext.com/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you're interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call.

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, CartText, and Forum Brands**   In the second part of our Feature, we continue our conversation with Wade and Danielle Papin while they talk about the ideology behind their designs. Wade describes their line of jewelry as “An evergreen line.” Pyrrha doesn't conform to the latest trends; Pyrrha's designs are personal. Danielle describes their designs by saying, “There's protection, there's love, there's empowerment.” That is what Wade and Danielle want their jewelry to be: personal and symbolic. In part 2, we focus on the designs and the philosophy behind the brand, how they function as a company, and the whole process of making unique jewelry. We discuss: * The inspiration behind their designs * How their jewelry is authentic * How their designs have history behind them * How they had difficulty starting their idea * What people say about their jewelry * How their jewelry is imperfect and personal * Pyrrha as a B-Corp * A message to the listeners Join Ramon Vela and Wade, and Danielle Papin as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Pyrrha, visit: https://pyrrha.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world's most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying, and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit: mutesix.com/storyofabrand * This episode is also brought to you by CartText. Are you interested in improving your Abandoned Cart Recovery rates? Cart Text is Powered by real people, not bots, not AI, real people. Cart Text will contact & engage with your customers in real-time to make the sales you missed. One by one, CartText will convert your abandoned carts, churned subscriptions, and billing-related issues using live agents + SMS. Real people, getting the job done. To learn more, visit https://carttext.com/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you're interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call.

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, Forum Brands, and Honeycomb Credit**   In the first part of this Feature, we sit down with Stephanie Grace Schull, Ph.D., inventor, and founder of Kegelbell. It is a brand dedicated to helping women solve the issues surrounding weak pelvic floor muscles and all the side effects they cause. After recognizing the issues surrounding feminine health, Stephanie decided that she could no longer wait for others to solve the problem. Hence, she took it upon herself to invent a solution. Kegelbell is a new type of pelvic floor trainer for women that’s safe to use. As Stephanie mentions in the episode, “We're up to scanning the horizon, saying what needs to be there and isn’t because of market forces, taboo society, business models … what doesn't exist that needs to that will make our lives exponentially better.” In part 1, we discuss Stephanie’s mentor experience; The 100 Ft Overview of the brand; Changing the societal norms for the modern woman; Applied feminism; Breaking belief systems; Reflecting on societal issues; Changes in the marketplace; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Stephanie as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Kegelbell, visit: https://www.kegelbell.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world’s most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit: mutesix.com/storyofabrand * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode is also brought to you by Honeycomb Credit. With Honeycomb Credit, you can transform your customers into your biggest brand advocates by giving them the chance to lend directly to your growing business. Brands looking to expand nationally, buy equipment, or launch a new product have used Honeycomb to get the funds they need while engaging their customers in a whole new way. Learn how to level up your customers today visit https://www.honeycombcredit.com/brand

**This episode is brought to you by MuteSix, Forum Brands, and Honeycomb Credit**   In the second half of this Feature, we sit back down with Stephanie Grace Schull, PhD., inventor, and Founder of the brand, Kegelbell. It is a brand dedicated to helping women solve the issues surrounding weak pelvic floor muscles and all the side effects they cause. In the last episode, we went over the importance of Kegelbell, not only for women who use the product but for encouraging a safer educational environment for modern women with questions. As Stephanie mentions, “women were suffering in silence, and they weren't getting good solutions … the marketplace wasn't providing great solutions because of the silence.” With inventions like Kegelbell, Stephanie hopes to help create a better society that recognizes all physical needs for women despite any prior stigmatization. In part 2, we discuss: Making the shift to Direct to Consumer; Breaking societal taboos; Building a community; The future of Kegelbell; Where to reach Kegelbell; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Stephanie as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Kegelbell, visit: https://www.kegelbell.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF MUTESIX. MuteSix is the leading agency in performance marketing. They have been in this space for nearly eight years, growing and scaling the world’s most recognizable e-commerce brands with breakthrough creative, targeted media buying and data-driven results in every step of the funnel. They're currently offering listeners a FREE omnichannel marketing audit. Their team of auditors will perform a deep dive analysis into your current marketing efforts and identify which strategies might be budget wasters and which strategies will improve performance. The audit covers all digital marketing channels, including Facebook, Google, Email, Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Influencer, Programmatic, and Website CRO. For your free digital marketing consultation, visit: mutesix.com/storyofabrand * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode is also brought to you by Honeycomb Credit. With Honeycomb Credit, you can transform your customers into your biggest brand advocates by giving them the chance to lend directly to your growing business. Brands looking to expand nationally, buy equipment, or launch a new product have used Honeycomb to get the funds they need while engaging their customers in a whole new way. Learn how to level up your customers today visit https://www.honeycombcredit.com/brand

**This episode is brought to you by ATTN Agency, Forum Brands, and Repeat**   Not just any ordinary sticker but textured sensory adhesives- that's what Calm Strips delivers to its customers. In the first part of this feature, we have Michael Malkin - founder of Calm Strips, a brand that helps you reduce fidgeting, regulate restless energy, and increase focus. Michael worked at Apple for 13 years, but he left in 2020. He wanted to start something of his own, so he decided to launch his own brand. Today he will tell the story behind the brand. From composing a comic book to running a cookie business, Michael shares his experiences. In part 1, we addressed these topics: The support he is grateful for; Overview of the brand; Where he was before; Why he started this company; His experience with Apple; Story of his comic book and cookie business; What he did before launching Calm Strips; What reactions they received during the pandemic; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Michael as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Calm Strips, visit: https://www.calmstrips.net/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF ATTN Agency. ATTN Agency is a full-funnel growth and performance digital marketing agency with proven strategies to scale and optimize direct-to-consumer brands through tactical media buying, data-driven analysis, and unrivaled creative services. If you are looking back on this year wondering what went wrong or what could have gone better, or if you're starting to put together your game plan for 2021, I have one piece of advice: you need to talk to ATTN Agency. I’ve interviewed several of their clients, and I can say that they are the best in the business. ATTN represents some of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, delivering month-over-month results. For a comprehensive, no-obligation, 14 point audit of your social, search, shopping, email, and SMS channels, visit: https://www.attnagency.com/storyofabrand/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode was brought to you by Repeat. Repeat is the easiest way for your customers to reorder products they love. Repeat will automate a frictionless reordering experience for the largest part of a CPG brand’s customer base: The non-subscriber. Repeat uses machine learning to analyze one-time shopper behavior, automates reorder notifications, and delivers personalized replenishment carts that aid in up-sell and cross-sell efforts. The result? Higher LTV, better margins, and more insights on your best customers. To learn more, visit https://signup.getrepeat.io/

**This episode is brought to you by ATTN Agency, Forum Brands, and Repeat**   In the second part of this Feature, Michael Malkin, Founder of Calm Strips, starts by recounting the brand's experience during the pandemic. He then moves on to designing and customization. They saw a need for solid colors and not just comic themes. That is how he learned to find the right opportunities. He explains the money-back guarantees along with shipping and much more. Then he shares the new ideas their team is working on. He gives some pieces of advice to other entrepreneurs. In part 2, we discuss: The Calm Strips designs and customizations; How the company operates along with the offers; How searching for the right opportunities is important; Why does the process work; What are their plans and target for future; What guidance he has for other entrepreneurs; Where people can get Calm Strips; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Michael as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Calm Strips, visit: https://www.calmstrips.net/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF ATTN Agency. ATTN Agency is a full-funnel growth and performance digital marketing agency with proven strategies to scale and optimize direct-to-consumer brands through tactical media buying, data-driven analysis, and unrivaled creative services. If you are looking back on this year wondering what went wrong or what could have gone better, or if you're starting to put together your game plan for 2021, I have one piece of advice: you need to talk to ATTN Agency. I’ve interviewed several of their clients, and I can say that they are the best in the business. ATTN represents some of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, delivering month-over-month results. For a comprehensive, no-obligation, 14 point audit of your social, search, shopping, email, and SMS channels, visit: https://www.attnagency.com/storyofabrand/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode was brought to you by Repeat. Repeat is the easiest way for your customers to reorder products they love. Repeat will automate a frictionless reordering experience for the largest part of a CPG brand’s customer base: The non-subscriber. Repeat uses machine learning to analyze one-time shopper behavior, automates reorder notifications, and delivers personalized replenishment carts that aid in up-sell and cross-sell efforts. The result? Higher LTV, better margins, and more insights on your best customers. To learn more, visit https://signup.getrepeat.io/

**This episode is brought to you by ATTN Agency, Forum Brands, and Honeycomb Credit**   Bringing Loving-kindness into your body - that's what Grace's Goodness wants to deliver with their products. In the first part of this feature, we have Grace Ventura, Founder of Grace's Goodness, a plant-based sipping broths company. Grace had been working as a health and wellness coach, massage therapist, and yoga teacher for the past 30 years and a mother to six children. Today she shares insights into building a brand as well the challenges of her journey. In part 1, we discussed: The Support she received; Overview of the brand; Her early career; Her inspiration behind the company; How she started working on the business; What efforts she made at the beginning; What kind of response they received; What is her advice for newcomers; How she would have done things differently if given another chance; Why personal values should stand equal to brand values; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Grace as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Grace's Goodness, visit: https://gracesgoodness.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF ATTN Agency. ATTN Agency is a full-funnel growth and performance digital marketing agency with proven strategies to scale and optimize direct-to-consumer brands through tactical media buying, data-driven analysis, and unrivaled creative services. If you are looking back on this year wondering what went wrong or what could have gone better, or if you're starting to put together your game plan for 2021, I have one piece of advice: you need to talk to ATTN Agency. I’ve interviewed several of their clients, and I can say that they are the best in the business. ATTN represents some of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, delivering month-over-month results. For a comprehensive, no-obligation, 14 point audit of your social, search, shopping, email, and SMS channels, visit: https://www.attnagency.com/storyofabrand/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode is brought to you by Honeycomb Credit. With Honeycomb Credit, you can transform your customers into your biggest brand advocates by giving them the chance to lend directly to your growing business. Brands looking to expand nationally, buy equipment, or launch a new product have used Honeycomb to get the funds they need while engaging their customers in a whole new way. Learn how to level up your customers today visit https://www.honeycombcredit.com/brand

**This episode is brought to you by ATTN Agency, Forum Brands, and Honeycomb Credit**   In the second part of this feature, Grace Ventura, who is the founder of Grace's Goodness, continues with the story of Beyond Broth and the lessons they learned. She reveals the name change and repositioning of the brand. She merrily explains the ways through which a brand can learn the needs of the customers. She discusses how her family members assist her in creating new recipes. She then gives some review of the current recipes and her vision of things to come. In part 2, we discuss Her experience with Beyond Broth; Customer reaction when they used different ingredients; Appreciation during the pandemic; What they added in their recipes; What are the substitutes available; Her view of a healthy life; What you'll find on the website; Where people can find the products; and so much more. Join Ramon Vela and Grace as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand. For more on Grace's Goodness, visit: https://gracesgoodness.com/ * OUR SHOW IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF ATTN Agency. ATTN Agency is a full-funnel growth and performance digital marketing agency with proven strategies to scale and optimize direct-to-consumer brands through tactical media buying, data-driven analysis, and unrivaled creative services. If you are looking back on this year wondering what went wrong or what could have gone better, or if you're starting to put together your game plan for 2021, I have one piece of advice: you need to talk to ATTN Agency. I’ve interviewed several of their clients, and I can say that they are the best in the business. ATTN represents some of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, delivering month-over-month results. For a comprehensive, no-obligation, 14 point audit of your social, search, shopping, email, and SMS channels, visit: https://www.attnagency.com/storyofabrand/ * This episode is also brought to you by Forum Brands. Have you built an online brand that consumers love? Do you sell in consumer categories that are essential to everyday life? Do the majority of your sales go through Amazon FBA? If this sounds like you, you should get to know Forum Brands. Forum is a team of expert investors, operators, and many ex-Amazonian, who provide entrepreneurs and owners with the most efficient and lucrative way to sell their e-commerce businesses. If you’re interested in exploring a sale and cashing out years of your profits in one day, visit us at https://www.forumbrands.com/ to schedule a 30-minute call. * This episode is brought to you by Honeycomb Credit. With Honeycomb Credit, you can transform your customers into your biggest brand advocates by giving them the chance to lend directly to your growing business. Brands looking to expand nationally, buy equipment, or launch a new product have used Honeycomb to get the funds they need while engaging their customers in a whole new way. Learn how to level up your customers today visit https://www.honeycombcredit.com/brand

Got a successful Amazon business? If so, are you asking yourself how to take it to the next level? Or, have you ever considered cashing in on the business that you built?    In this talk, you'll hear from Ari Horowitz, CEO of Yardline, on how to get funded - with strategies to purchase new inventory, invest in advertising, and grow both top-line sales and profits.   You'll also hear from Chris Bell, Founder & CEO of Perch, and Brenton Howland, Founder & CEO of Forum Brands, on how to get acquired - the business behind scaling a profitable brand.

Alex Kopco is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Forum Brands, a CPG operating company that buys Amazon FBA businesses and grows them into world-class consumer brands.  Prior to founding Forum Brands, Alex worked in vendor and product roles at Amazon for over five years. During this time, he co-founded Connect@Amazon, an internal organization of global employees designed to connect Amazonians through professional networking and social opportunities. In this episode… What should FBA private label brands do to prepare their businesses for sale? According to Alex Kopco, if a business founder wants to achieve a smoother sale, they should be as open as possible with potential buyers. When vetting businesses to buy, he looks for sellers who allow him to get under the hood of a brand to see what he's working with. In order to move the selling process along, Alex recommends that sellers prepare all business reports, financial records, and information necessary to close the deal. They should also be proactive and open about notifying the buyer about potential issues that may arise in the course of the purchase—such as pending trademarks, a lack of stock, and any other issues that could affect business operations. This way, both the seller and the buyer can be confident in the sale. Alex Kopco, the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Forum Brands, joins James Thomson in this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast to talk about the best practices for FBA private label brands looking to sell their businesses. Alex discusses the importance of both parties being open and transparent during the selling process, why he uses brokers as a primary source of deals, and how his firm differentiates itself from other FBA investors on the market. Stay tuned.

In this episode, we hear from Ruben Amar the Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Forum Brands. The topics covered include: The co-founder dynamic - The three people driving the business The importance of the right partners and a team What it takes to have your brand/business acquired by Forum Brands The difference between managing a 1m vs 5m business Building a brand worth buying LET'S CONNECT: LinkedIn Instagram MultiplyMii Escala Successful Scales This podcast is also available on the Successful Scales YouTube channel. For podcast verification: orhqbjdRw7RStHjL29aB