Podcasts about kickfurther

Popadelics, founded by wife and husband team Marilyn and Michael makes crunchy mushroom chips. They're a bootstrapped company that's used creative debt financing to fund their operations and grow to over 3000 stores. They worked with Kickfurther, which offers inventory financing to decrease their cashflow gap when producing orders for the new distributor and retailer launches. Marilyn is also still working a full time job and building Popadelics.Join me for an engaging conversation about how to build a business that works best for you.CPGrow Pitch CompetitionApplications are open for Kickfurther's CPGrow 2025 Pitch Competition! You could win $250,000 in no-cost inventory funding, plus incredible grand prizes from partners.Submission Deadline – January 31st, 2025Submit HereStartup to Scale is a podcast by Foodbevy, an online community to connect emerging food, beverage, and CPG founders to great resources and partners to grow their business. Visit us at Foodbevy.com to learn about becoming a member or an industry partner today.

You don't wanna work, but you wanna get more money. How can you do that? Well, don't spend your money. Let your money work for you. Let your money be a procrastinator ,like you, and take it's time to build you more wealth. You can get rich...eventually. Slowly but surely. Just set it and forget it Today, we're talking about easy ways to invest your money in the stock market, so you can start building wealth in one of the laziest ways possible. Up until recently, the stock market was a playing field for the elite. You needed quite a large amount of wealth and financial knowledge to get started. But it's become waaaaay more accessible in recent years, and now you can dive in with very little starting networth and just a smart phone. The secret rich people don't tell you is they don't do a lot of hard work. Most of the money they make is from their own money -- making more money. Let's dive into the secrets of how you can do this lazy moneymaking method from your phone or computer. We'll look at the different types of ways to get started with investing in the stock market in the easiest and least expensive way possible. 5. Fee Free Stock trading Apps Robinhood One of the easiest apps to use to get started in investing with stocks. It's 100% fee free and no minimum deposit, no minimum balance The trades are executed a bit slow and the current trade price is not updated as quickly compared to other paid stock broker platforms, so i wouldn't recommend it for day trading when seconds count. But for buy/hold strategies like blue chip or dividend aristocrat stocks, I highly recommend it, especially if you've never done anything with the stock market before. Has MOST stocks available, some foreign ones are missing, but they are always adding more. (Recently Nintendo for example) Use my ref link. I get a random stock and so do you. WeBull trading no monthly fee Robinhood copycat, essentially Metador trading fee free connect with friends to see what they're investing in (useful if you have finance nerds as friends and they use this app) 4. Fractional Share Investing Stockpile buy fractional shares at 99 cents per trade No monthly fee limited selection compared to a “real” stock (paid) broker but you have a lot of the big guys (Coca-Cola, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, Google, Johnson & Johnson) *FolioFirst $5 per month, but unlimited fee free trades the successor to Loyal3 3. Equity Investing Kickfurther and Slice Capital Equity investing, like Kickstarter crowdfunding but instead of a product, you get a profit Use my Kickfurther link and we both get extra “keys” to reserve an investment slot early 2. Spare Change Investing Acorns Stash auto invest “spare change”. rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar (eg. if you pay $4.53 for a cheeseburger, it'll invest the spare 67 cents) not really spare change though because it actually withdraws and invests in lumps of $5 fees are too high $1 per month for balances under $5,000 (and .25% per year for $5k+) in order to BREAK EVEN, assuming a 7% annual interest rate, you need at least $172 in your account good for building the habit of putting money in the stock market, not good for actually building wealth lazy because it's automatic, 1. ETFs, Robo Advisors, & Mutual Funds Betterment robo investor choose risk 0-100% (basically how much of your investment is stocks vs bonds) .25% annual fee of total balance no control over what you actually invest in Auto Tax Loss Harvesting (selling a share or bond at a loss for the purpose of tax benefits) the biggest robo investor So-Fi Wealth Management $100 minimum deposit no fees no control over what you actually invest in trusted. been around for quite a while as a debt consolidation service but recently started offering robo investing Wise Banyan 100% fee free $1 minimum to open account but no minimum balance no direct control over what you invest in -- tax loss harvesting kind of a new player on the field but offering a solid service so far their philosophy is to help build people's wealth (and earn a loyal customer) M1 Finance Fee free stock investing Create a “pie": Choose from professional portfolios, customize your own list, or combo of both First deposit splits evenly to all the pie “slices”, each part of your portfolio It then Auto re-balances based on portfolio performance and your deposit/withdraws Auto invest cash (from dividends), over a certain time, or not at all -You can place individual orders to buy/sell slices You can also add/remove slices as well as rebalance your whole protfolio Vanguard very low fee mutual fund and ETF trading allows you to handpick your own funds rather than have it chosen for you -you can set up automatic investments each month to specific funds Motif Thematic Portfolios 0.5% real estate, entertainment, online gaming, cyber security, precious metals, AI, crypto Impact Portfolios 0.25% Fair Labor, Sustainable Planet, Good Corporate Governance You can also build your own portfolio $5 for auto, $10 for next market open, and $20 for real time. One time fee for up to 30 stocks. trading is free for “next market open” or $5 for each real time trade Disclaimer: I cannot legally offer you any sort of financial advice or guarantee that you will make money or profit from using these apps or websites I have provided. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm just a lazy guy so take every bit of word I say about this thing with a grain of salt. It is possible to loose money in any sort of investment. Never invest more than you are willing to lose. Results may vary. Also, some links may be affiliate links, as a matter of transparency, meaning I will earn some commission if you decide to use it and place an investment. Also, we enter the Gr8 Game Room and I give my review of Super Smash Bro.s Ultimate

t's good to have a nice cozy sack of extra change in your savings, but... ..there's only so much wealth you can build with your savings. As a matter of fact, with savings, you won't really be building any wealth, you'll just kind of have a chunk of change sitting there. You can ditch any crazy shopping habits you may have and begin live frugally, adapting an easy, lazy lifestyle, then put that extra money in a piggy bank or bank account. But after all is said done, that money is just sitting there. Waiting. It's not growing; it's not making you richer. You want your money to work for you though. You want it to make you richer, not just be an idle pig oinking on the shelf. See, cash depreciates in value due to inflation and the interest you gain in a savings account doesn't even let you break even, yet alone gain wealth. It's not about how much money you have per se, but it's about how much wealth you have, how much buying power you have. You can only gain wealth, upgrade your buying power, if your money grows at a faster rate than the inflation rate. Otherwise, you're at a loss. That's where investing comes in. And on today's episode, we're gonna look at the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing It's good to have some savings before you start investing, which is why we covered Rules of savings last week. We also looked at ways on How to Start Investing With Little Money The Lazy Way in Lvl 22 before. Today, we're gonna take those savings and keep those investment methods in mind as we go into the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing 8. Calculate Your Goals on the COUCH You have to know where headed, so you can stick to it. Take your time to get to it though, of course. Procrastinate with purpose. As a procrastinator, we may wait ‘til the last minute, we may take our time, but it still gets done. We do have to know what to get done though, so we know what we're procrastinating on, what we're putting off. Calculate is part of the acronym of something I like call C.O.U.C.H ambition, which is basically the lazy way to attain your goals. I'll have a link in the show notes for a blog article where I talk about this: http://bit.ly/2T0LFUf Instead of rushing into the arena, and this case, slamming down money into the bank or an investment account as quickly as possible… ...we're first going to sit on back on our comfy COUCH and Calculate the best course of action and the details of what our end goal looks like before moving forward. Knowing our end goal and making realistic, instead of impossible dream that will never happen makes easier to move forward and attain it. Minimize the amount of years spend working and maximize the amount of years on your own Lazy Island in retirement You can even gamify your progress and turn this boring finance stuff into an RPG adventure, like a DnD campaign but...real life. Gain the loot IRL and build your own cozy castle. Check out “Lvl 10: Level Up Your Productivity with these ProcrastiN8 Gamification Apps” for more on These productivity apps can definitely be used to level up your personal finance (eg. gain xp for saving a certain amount of money, for not buying coffee or something, buying a stock, etc) ...but we can talk about how to do that perhaps in a later episode, a later quest. Here we'll dive into ways to Calculate your end goal in finances -- your retirement goal Multiply By 25 Rule Take your desired income and multiply it by 25 to get your retirement savings goal That's how much you need, total, to lay on the couch all day and not worry about how to keep the lights on the number should be HIGHER than your current amount of expenses to account for inflation Rule of 72: the time it takes to double your money is 72 divided by your rate of return 7% is the average yearly return in the stock market so it takes about 10 years to double your money think of it like a really slow cash doubling machine. you put in the money and whatever amount you put in comes out twice as much a decade later. It takes a while to “cook” but the machine runs itself. 7. Diversify Don't put all your eggs in one basket -- Don't sleep on just one pillow Make a comfortable bed with plenty of cushions If one pillow falls off, you still have plenty to keep you at rest If one stock plummets, you have a nice cozy place to sleep. Buy stocks from multiple sector (categories): Energy, Materials, Industrial, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Financials Information Technology Telecommunication Services Utilities, Real Estate, Bonds, Cryptocurrency, Commodities (oil, silver, gold), and ForEx (Foreign Exchange Market/International currencies) Mutual Fund - traded at end of day ETF (exchange traded fund) - traded during the day Equity Investing - crowdfunding that pays (Kickfurther, Slice Capital) It's like building a giant blanket fort - more pillows, more blankets = more defense 6. Relax and take it easy, man Don't make emotional decisions. Don't get worked up or upset. I mean c'mon, you don't wanna work or get worked up. You're lazy and relaxed. Remain in control of your emotions. Stay level headed and cool. Don't panic sell or buy on the hype (Facebook after Cambridge Analytica, Equifax data breach, Nintendo released PokemonGo) It'll go up and it'll go down, just ride the waves of the stock market ocean It'll be smooth sailing the less you worry about it. Also, don't obsessively check your account. This may also make it easy to get emotionally tied up in the stock market “drama” Detach yourself from your stocks emotionally. You're dating your stocks, not in a married lifelong marriage commitment to them. 5. If it's too complicated, don't even bother Stick to industries and companies you actually understand. If you're not interested, don't bother. It takes a lot of effort to research a company : look at their profits, goals, analyze their financial, ethical, and legal history, understand the strengths of its employees, have insight on the CEO's ability to make good decisions and inspire a team, track data of their ability to bring ideas to life. It's a time consuming and effortful task. Take a hobby and look at the products you purchase, the brands you use. You're already aware of what some of your favorite brands are doing (new game releases, new devices coming out) ...as well as the trends within your niche (eg. games going digital, so GameStop is becoming irrelevant) ... so it doesn't take much research or effort to know where they're going and if they're going to be profitable in the future. 4. Invest whenever you feel like it Don't try to time the market Even experts get it wrong, so as a procrastinator, don't sweat it if you do too. Procrastinate and put it off. Don't kick yourself if you miss a “golden opportunity” to buy low and sell high. No big deal. You invest when you want. You know the price will go up, eventually. You don't bog yourself down with numbers. Numbers are arbitrary. Things go up and they come back down. That's the very nature of the stock market and you accept that. You're calm about it and even when you time it “wrong” that's okay, you know it'll come back up again. I mean heck, the stock market not only recovered from the Great Depression but has far exceeded the prices pre-depression era. Deadlines don't matter, nor does stock market timing. If you worry about it, you're putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, putting yourself in the DESK trap. http://bit.ly/2ASJVWh 3. Patience. There's no rush Have realistic expectations, You ain't gonna get rich quick. Very few people do. Patience is not only a virtue, it's a lifestyle. It's the heart of what makes a procrastinator, well, a procrastinator. Be patient. Set it and forget it. Let your money grow and don't try to force it to move any faster. It'll get there, in due time. Don't worry about maximizing profits as quickly as possible, just focus on building wealth, nice and slow You'll get rich, eventually. Have patience and persistently invest. Slow n' steady wins the race. Use the turtle as your spirit animal guide to get where you want financially. 2. Be a Cheap skate Eliminate fees as much as possible. They add up quickly. You don't like to pay extra for things. You're cheap when it comes to your money, so just embrace it. Any fee you pay cuts directly into your potential profits and that's no good Annual fees, monthly maintenance fees, trading fees, deposit fees, all sorts of fees Choose an investment company with minimal fees (Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Betterment, ...or no fees at all (Robinhood, WeBull, Metador, Wise Banyan) The more fees you pay, the less money you'll make. Period. Even small fees can chip away at your wealth if you're not careful. 1. Make It Easy on Yourself Play it safe. Buy “boring” stocks (Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, 3M, Procter & Gamble) Don't stretch yourself thin trying to find the “next big thing” There are millions of start ups and most of them won't be around in 5 years. Don't spend your time or money or energy trying to strike it rich. You'll make it hard on yourself. Just take it easy and make your investment decisions easy. You don't have to make it a full time job to follow the stock market. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to check it often at all. I mean you can if you want to, again, if that's something you enjoy doing. Do what you enjoy. But if you don't enjoy following the stock market, don't do it. You've already Calculated your end goal, and how much you need to save each month to meet it, so just stick to that plan, and don't get distracted. Don't get up when something startles or excites you… Relax. Lay on back down in bed instead and let your money do all the work for you. You don't even have to lift a finger, or your head off the pillow.

I don't always love talking about insurance, but I love talking about insurance with today's guest, Danielle Holyoake, because I always learn so much and end up feeling more empowered with knowledge. Danielle, is the CRO and co-founder of Amelia Risk, a CPG insurance brokerage equipped to handle all lines of commercial insurance, and I actually met Danielle through the Startup CPG Slack back in 2021 when she helped me with an urgent insurance issue. Last year, in 2022, Danielle came on the show for a CPG insurance 101 level episode of Let's Demystify Insurance - How to navigate insurance in CPG, which is linked in the show notes and may be helpful to listen to before or after this episode, as it's packed with really great information about general liability, product liability, recall, and worker's comp insurance. Today we continue with our 100 level CPG insurance knowledge by focusing in on two areas of insurance that often get overlooked, but become super important as a CPG company scales: D&O or Directors & Officers insurance and stock throughput insurance, which come into play around conversations about fundraising and inventory respectively.This episode was sponsored by Amelia Risk.Listen in as Danielle shares about: Why D&O insurance comes up during fundraising and why it's often a requirement of investors When to start thinking about D&O insurance and what it covers Why stock throughput insurance is important and surprising areas where your inventory may be unprotected How inventory is covered from an insurance perspective during freight transit, at 3PL warehouses, and why you might need insurance to protect it Examples of insurance claim and inventory loss scenarios when insurance can and cannot help, including spoilage, and temperature control issues How to find the right insurance broker and why choosing a broker before shopping for policies is important And more! Get your ticket to the Expo East Mic Drop party for a chance to win a spot on the podcast: https://tinyurl.com/4nafz284This episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpgEpisode Links: Amelia Risk website Danielle's LinkedIn Danielle's email: danielle [at] ameliarisk.com Link to our other episode with Danielle: Let's Demystify Insurance - How to navigate insurance in CPG Mic Drop Party at Expo East Giveaway: Enter the giveaway to win a spot on this podcast and The Dish by buying your ticket to the Mic Drop party in Philadelphia on September 21, 2023 here Note: Giveaway only available to CPG brands and must be present at party in-person to win. If you already bought a ticket, you've automatically been entered! Kickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Graphite Financial Links: Graphite Financial website Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here. Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (14K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

Making it to the 10 year mark as a food business is no small feat, and our friends at Soom Foods just passed their 10 year anniversary. Today we are joined by Soom's CEO and co-founder, Amy Zitelman. Amy had just graduated from college when she and her sisters started Soom, and since then, her and her sister Jackie were on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Soom has been featured by Forbes, Bon Appetit, and The New York Times, and they have grown into the trusted brand for tahini and tahini products. I met Amy at a Mental Health for Founders event that I hosted last year and was so impressed with her calm, steady wisdom, so I was so excited to share her insights with all of you in today's conversation! Make sure to grab Soom products at your local Whole Foods and Sprouts and I've linked a great blog post in the show notes where Amy reflects further on 10 years at Soom.Listen in today as Amy shares about: Starting Soom with her three sisters Why Soom focused on the foodservice channel for the first eight years and what it was like to get started and grow the restaurant channel within foodservice Launching nationally in Sprouts and Whole Foods in the past two years and how they prepared as a business The process of rebranding to prep for retail How Amy navigated having 3 children while growing Soom and her tips for growing a family and a startup at the same time What it's look liked to grow Soom from a financial standpoint from a story that almost bankrupted the business to what it was like to raise outside funds for the first time in 2021 How Soom has used EOS, or the Entrepreneurial Operating System to scale their team and build an accountability chart Amy's tips for staying grounded amidst everything And more! This episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpgThis episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgEpisode Links: Soom website & IG @soomfoods Amy's LinkedIn 10 Years of Soom blog post Entrepreneurial Operating System, Traction book Brands mentioned: Pulp & Wire, Zahav Restaurant Graphite Financial Links Graphite Financial website Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here. Kickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (14K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

Today's episode is a celebration. A celebration of 100 episodes of The Startup CPG Podcast! Can you believe it? If you've been listening since the beginning, that's amazing! If this is your first episode, that's also amazing - welcome! I want to give a heartfelt thank you to each of you as listeners and to our incredible sponsors - you all have allowed us to keep the show going!I thought to commemorate the occasion, I'd share my top 100 moments on the podcast - just kidding, I'll just share 10-ish things. From most used metaphors to most surprising stories to most actionable tips to fan favorite episodes, we're going to count backwards to the #1 moment on the podcast so far. I also made a playlist in the shownotes of all the episodes mentioned in this roundup in case you want to check out the full conversations.I hope you enjoy and would love to hear from you - what's your favorite episode or moment on the show? Send me a message on LinkedIn or in the Startup CPG slack (or post it to LinkedIn!). Also, just a quick note that it was incredibly difficult to narrow down this list of moments - there are so many incredible guests and episodes not in today's roundup - I used a mix of download data + your feedback + my own memory to curate this.Enter the July 2023 podcast review giveaway by completing this form: https://tinyurl.com/28zyjr3eThis episode was sponsored by Shopify. Go to shopify.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpgEpisode Links: Playlist with all episodes mentioned #10 - The “Pure Gold Series” with Seth Goldman (4:10): From: #51 Pure Gold Series: Ask Seth Goldman Anything! Plus the Announcement of Just Ice Tea #9 - Unlikely Meetings (6:29):  #57 Shark Tank, Sea Moss, and an Ocean of Potential with Alexiou Gibson #71 Building Content Creation Muscles - Behind Dream Pops' Marketing with David Greenfeld (+ Nowhere Bakery) #8 - Shark Tank Moments (11:43):  #80 From turning down Shark Tank offers to raising $2.7 million for Nopalera with Sandra Velasquez #77 Making a deal on Shark Tank with wildwonder's Rosa Li #7 - Marriage and Dating Fundraising Metaphors (14:41):  #60 Venture Capital & Private Equity 101 with VMG Partners' Wayne Wu #68 How to Raise $10 Million: Fundraising Aura Bora Style with Paul Voge #6 - Early Episodes (17:33):  How to Mind your Packaging, Branding, (and the Font) with Designer and Agency Owner Kirk Visola Move over coconut water - Pricklee cactus water brings health, happiness, & hydration #5 - Best Advice (23:43):  #83 Trade Spend & Retail Promotions 101 with Jake Huber (+ Niramaya) #73 In-Store Demos 101: Building a Successful Demo Program (+ Funky Mello) #81 Meet the Press: Behind the scenes on media publishing with Monica Watrous at Food Business News #4 - Fan Favorites (28:03):  #70 Angel Investing 101 with Marcia Dawood (+ Uproot Teas) #62 Affiliate & Influencer Marketing 101 with Kim Biddle #3 - Cold Outreach (31:24):  #59 Welcome to the Oat Haus! Celebrity Collaboration, Sprouts Launch, and Mental Health with Ali Bonar #92 Behind the Dream [Pie] Collaboration of Ben & Jerry's and Partake Foods with Marlo Giudice #2 - Authenticity behind the scenes (36:15):  #47 Authenticity 101: Developing a clear & authentic brand identity at SOMOS with Miguel Leal #95 GT Dave - Founder & CEO of GT's Living Foods: 25+ years of building the kombucha industry one batch at a time #1 - Liquid Death (41:37): #76 How Liquid Death is Murdering Lame Marketing with Hamid Saify July 2023 Podcast Review Contest: Enter the giveaway by completing this form (it only takes 1-2 minutes!) By completing the form, you'll be entered to win one of six prize packages, each filled with goodies from past guests: Tsubi Soup, GoNanas, Forij, Amazi, Chia Smash, Eureka Tortilla, and Nowhere Bakery. Giveaway open to US residents only, age 18+. Giveaway ends on July 31st, 2023 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be notified via email. Thank you for listening to the show and helping new listeners find us! Shopify Links: Start a free trial and enjoy 2 months of Shopify for $1/monthKickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Graphite Financial Links Graphite Financial website Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here. Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (13K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

I'm so excited to bring back a very popular guest from last year, Jenna Cameron, for another foodservice episode! We released episode #74 with Jenna during December of last year as part of the First Hire Series, and our conversation focused on first hires for foodservice sales. Our community seems hungry for foodservice knowledge and so we asked Jenna to come back on the show to walk us through the biggest players in foodservice from distributors, to operators, to buying groups and more. Jenna is currently the sales lead at SIMULATE and has 10+ years of experience in plant-based foodservice sales for growing brands.Listen in as Jenna shares about: Key term definitions to frame the conversation including operators versus buying groups versus redistributors Major distributors to know in foodservice, including details on Dot, Sysco, US Foods, and more, plus other regional distributors and how to work with each Some of Jenna's favorite operators from campus stores to Disney to Red Robin and others and specific nuances An overview of key buying groups like Compass and Aramark and how to get started with a buying group C-store & convenience store channel ideas Resources for finding a regional broker for foodservice or an advisor And right at the end we cover Groceraunt, which is incidentally my new favorite word And more! Please note that Jenna drops a ton of detailed information in this episode and if you are worried about catching the company names she's dropping, fret not! I included all the distributors, buying groups, and operators she mentions in the show notes with links.Enter the July 2023 podcast review giveaway by completing this form: https://tinyurl.com/28zyjr3eThis episode was sponsored by Shopify. Go to shopify.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpgEpisode Links: SIMULATE website Jenna's LinkedIn Link to our other podcast episode with Jenna: #74 First Hire Series: Foodservice Sales with Jenna Cameron Foodservice 101 webinar recording Companies mentioned:  Distributors mentioned: Dot Foods, Sysco, US Foods, BiRite, PFG / Vistar, Gordon Food, Chefs' Warehouse, Vegan Distribution, Shamrock, Webstaurant, FoodServiceDirect, Sunbelt Redistributors mentioned: Alpine, Dot Foods Operators mentioned: Follett Bookstores/Campus Stores, Peet's Coffee, Bareburger, Philz Coffee, Lemonade, Red Robin, Disney, Next Level Burger, Plant Power Fast Food C-Store Operators mentioned: Loop Convenience, 7-11, Plaid Pantry Buying Groups mentioned: Compass (Chartwells, Foodbuy), Aramark, Sodexo College & Universities Trade Show: NACUFS Regional brokers: Herspring-Gibbs, Acclaim, Fidler Marketing Advisors: Elohi Strategic Advisors (general foodservice strategy), Green Nature Marketing (strategic nationwide coverage), Advanced Natural Group (micromarket/c-store/corporate cafeterias) Groceraunt Trade Show: IDDBA July 2023 Podcast Review Contest: Enter the giveaway by completing this form (it only takes 1-2 minutes!) By completing the form, you'll be entered to win one of six prize packages, each filled with goodies from past guests: Tsubi Soup, GoNanas, Forij, Amazi, Chia Smash, Eureka Tortilla, and Nowhere Bakery. Giveaway open to US residents only, age 18+. Giveaway ends on July 31st, 2023 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be notified via email. Thank you for listening to the show and helping new listeners find us! Shopify Links: Start a free trial and enjoy 2 months of Shopify for $1/monthKickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Graphite Financial Links Graphite Financial website Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here. Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (13K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

We're hearing a lot about AI, artificial intelligence these days, especially with the release to the public of Chat GPT, which may of you have been experimenting with. Chat GPT can help with brainstorming, writing, coding, and more - definitely check out the free version if you haven't yet. When I first saw the demo of Chat GPT that used Instacart's plug-in in a recent TED talk (which I've linked in the show notes) and it generated a shopping list based on a prompt for a dinner party, my first thought was, “How do emerging brands fit into this picture when AI helps us shop?” How can our community stay informed about how AI is involved in shopper choices and take advantage of the opportunities available now and going to be available? Because Instacart is on the forefront of using AI in grocery and because they are the leading grocery technology company in North America, I decided to reach out to them. Lucky for us, Ali Miller, their Vice President of Product Management, Ads, was willing to come on the show! As you'll hear, I've been personally using Instacart since 2018 and love the platform and have dug into their ads platform, 3rd party tools, and their new AI features from the Chat GPT plug-in to the new Ask Instacart. I think this episode is packed with really powerful knowledge from Ali about how Instacart works and opportunities available for emerging brands to tap into this technology. Instacart partners with more than 1,200 national, regional, and local retail banners, which is approximately 80,000 stores in North America through their marketplace and nearly 6,000 brands use Instacart Ads to connect with consumers.Listen in as Ali shares about: How Instacart's 4-sided marketplace works How the platform has evolved in the last couple of years especially with ML, machine learning, and AI, artificial intelligence How Instacart is partnering with Chat GPT both as a plug-in and to power “Ask Instacart” and ways consumers are using these features Opportunities for emerging brands to keep their data up to date within the Instacart platform and use Instacart Ads to get great digital listings (despite physical shelf placement) How Instacart Ads automates and optimizes the process to your goals and how you can use Instacart to support retail launches How Instacart's customer service balances using AI and traditional customer service methods What Instacart is working on next, how quickly the platform is evolving, and the excitement on what's ahead And more! Enter the July 2023 podcast review giveaway by completing this form: https://tinyurl.com/28zyjr3eThis episode was sponsored by Shopify. Go to shopify.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Graphite Financial. Go to graphitefinancial.com/cpgThis episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgEpisode Links: Instacart website Instacart Product Library tools & all brand tools Ali's LinkedIn TED talk about Chat CPT (including the Instacart plugin) Ask Instacart release details Brands mentioned: Liquid Death, New Seasons Market July 2023 Podcast Review Contest: Enter the giveaway by completing this form (it only takes 1-2 minutes!) By completing the form, you'll be entered to win one of six prize packages, each filled with goodies from past guests: Tsubi Soup, GoNanas, Forij, Amazi, Chia Smash, Eureka Tortilla, and Nowhere Bakery. Giveaway open to US residents only, age 18+. Giveaway ends on July 31st, 2023 at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be notified via email. Thank you for listening to the show and helping new listeners find us! Shopify Links: Start a free trial and enjoy 2 months of Shopify for $1/monthGraphite Financial Links Graphite Financial website Download a free financial model template, chart of accounts template, and more here Listen to our episode with Graphite founder, Paul Bianco, episode #96 here. Kickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (12K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

One of the hottest topics in our Slack community is brands looking for the right co-packer, and since this is something that I often help brands navigate outside of my work at Startup CPG, it's a topic near and dear to my heart and I wanted to bring on one of my favorite co-packers to talk with, Motherlode Co-Packing in Colorado. Our guests today are Kit Maxfield, their Chief Marketing Officer and Partner, and Adam Bender who is their New Product Development Manager. I met Kit and Adam through my work at Boyle Brands and have always been impressed by their organization and willingness to educate, so I'm so excited to share this 101 level conversation where we establish some of the basics of working with a co-packer.Listen in as Kit and Adam shares about: The co-packer business model Day-in-the-life of a co-packer that affects communication, timing, and relationships with brands How a co-packer scales up a recipe for their facility Why co-packer relationships are different than other vendors Best practices for outreach to co-packers Tips for successfully navigating onboarding with a co-packer And more! Because this topic is near and dear to my heart as an operations person and it's the area spend the most time freelancing in, I've added in some extra context and term explanations throughout the episode and linked a bunch of resources in the show notes that can help you navigate the world of co-packing. Now let's hear from Kit and Adam!This episode was sponsored by Shopify. Go to shopify.com/startupcpgThis episode was sponsored by Maven Agency. Go to strategymavenagency.comThis episode was sponsored by Kickfurther. Go to https://www.kickfurther.com/startupcpgEpisode Links: Motherlode website Kit's LinkedIn Adam's LinkedIn Brands mentioned: Primal Kitchen Useful resource articles on co-packing:  3 Things To Have Before You Reach out to a Contract Manufacturer Turnkey vs. Tolling in a Contract Manufacturing Relationship The Thrill of the Search - The Journey of Searching for the Right Contract Manufacturing Partner 3 Costly Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Working with Co-packers Co-Packing 101 Shopify Links: Start a free trial and enjoy 2 months of Shopify for $1/monthStrategy Maven Agency Links: Strategy Maven website Book your free account audit here Kickfurther Links: Kickfurther website See how much inventory funding you qualify here Show Links: Join the Startup CPG Slack community (12K+ members and growing!) Follow @startupcpg Visit host Jessi Freitag's Linkedin or website Questions or comments about the episode? Email Jessi at podcast@startupcpg.com Episode music by Super Fantastics

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther, a successful crowdfunding platform. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Sean's driving goal has been to create a solution to one of the most difficult problems that businesses face: funding the production of their inventory. Fittingly, Sean created Kickfurther to fund inventory for direct-to-consumer and major store brands such as Target, Amazon, Aldi, and more. In addition to running Kickfurther, Sean also works as an Entrepreneur Mentor at Rutgers Business School. In this episode… As a product business in today's market, where can you access funding for new inventory to fulfill purchase orders and invoices? If you're unable to secure funding through traditional sources, how can you build your brand? Sean De Clercq and his team at Kickfurther created a cash-flow-friendly solution for product entrepreneurs. With inflation creating a ruckus in the marketplace, it can be daunting for entrepreneurs to acquire loans. Sean helps people turn their cash into physical goods, which are then placed on consignment with growing product businesses. If you're a brand owner and need inventory without taking on debt, this episode is for you.  In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Sean De Clercq, CEO and Co-founder of Kickfurther, to talk about growing a company by 80% in 2022 through consignment funding. Sean discusses funding and connecting businesses, the ins and outs of co-op financing, and future goals for Kickfurther. Stay tuned! 

If you're in the eCommerce world and have any kind of inventory-based business, you know how growth can be a double-edged sword: the faster you grow, the larger the POs that you have to place and the more likely you are to slip into a negative cash flow. Ben Tregoe is the CEO and Co-Founder at BainbridgeGrowth.com, a company that helps eCommerce businesses with advanced financial modelling and evaluating different options for financing their growth. He joins me today to talk through some of the options and the pitfalls that eComm businesses can face as they grow. Listen in as Ben shares some of the biggest mistakes that brands make when it comes to financing, as well as the importance of thinking well into the future when looking at all the options available. We also discuss the best financing options for every stage of the eCommerce business (including PO factoring, mezzanine debt, and the Kickfurther model) and the one area where many don't focus enough when it comes to financing options. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3PY7Fgd Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.   Want to hear about new episodes and eCommerce news round-ups?  Subscribe via email.

In this episode of E-Commerce with Coffee?!, host Nate Svoboda is joined by Kickfurther CEO Sean De Clercq to talk about Kickfurther, the marketplace inventory financing model, and the democratization of e-commerce. Among many helpful insights, Sean gives us some short and sweet bullet points to entrepreneurial success: Identify a problem Solve it better than others Have good margins Open up wholesale Increase volume Leverage volume to negotiate discount Scale, scale, scale Sell Ready to take in the wonderful insights Sean has brought to the show? Grab yourself your favorite brew, kick back, and enjoy! What to listen for: Sean gives us the breakdown on Kickfurther. Inventory financing is a tough game to play, both for those looking for funding and those looking to fund. Bringing a marketplace model to the inventory financing game, Kickfurther brings down the barrier to entry for both sides. As most breakthrough solutions, Kickfurther is born out of experience. Sean's time in wholesale showed him that, paradoxically, doing well can drive you bankrupt. More specifically, scaling is expensive, and getting ahold of that capital was simply not an option for many businesses. The solution? Bringing the marketplace model into the picture. Sean gives us a crash course on the marketplace model which, essentially, works as crowdfunding for inventory financing. On one side, brands are vetted and evaluated as to how likely they are to succeed. On the other side, funders are evaluated and presented with possible good matches. This process helps democratize the financing process, connecting growing brands with available capital directly, instead of having to rely on industry contacts and connections. Since Kickfurther vets who might or might not be a successful business on the platform, there must be some differentiator to look at. When it comes to entrepreneurs, Sean explains that brands who have big margins and have found a niche market are the ones that tend to do very well. Identify a special opportunity and go after it aggressively. Why doesn't every brand with a niche market make it? Sean says that one of the biggest mistakes is charging too little. Small margins and low prices may seem like a great way to attract customers, but it leaves little-to-no chance for scaling, which can ultimately be the brand's downfall.

Endeavor's network mentors many CPG companies across the U.S. hearing their challenges related to funding their manufacturing and inventory costs. And, we believe sometimes rethinking supply chain, means rethinking access to capital. After chatting with cofounders of Kickfurther, Sean De Clercq and Erik Straub, we've learned just how often funding solutions don't typically match the natural cash flow cycle of a product-based business and the challenges associated with traditional lending. Kickfurther is building the go-to resource for funding growth brands by connecting people across the US through their active marketplace and today, they share how companies can maximize their scale potential through their innovative solutions. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/endeavornorthamerica/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/endeavornorthamerica/support

Other Funding Sources https://go.thesmbx.com/invest/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=SMBX-branded-keywords-september-2021&utm_content=branded-keywords-ad-1&utm_term=branded-keywords&utm_term=smbx&utm_campaign=SMBX-branded-keywords-september-2021&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6811423545&hsa_cam=14660093993&hsa_grp=130008721129&hsa_ad=546062566057&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-14081102171&hsa_kw=smbx&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjw0a-SBhBkEiwApljU0g7EjSFQAc_hahL2B7IP05OCwQ9e2rfd-KSp9hjQC3dBYmLjWPIHyBoCA94QAvD_BwE (SMBX) https://www.embercompany.co/ (Ember Co) https://www.kickfurther.com/ (Kickfurther) https://www.settle.com/ (Settle) https://assembledbrands.com/ (Assembled Brands) https://circleup.com/ (Circle Up) https://enrichher.com/ (EnrichHer) https://www.wayflyer.com/ (WayFlyer) https://7figuresfunding.com/ (7Figures) Connect with Nopalera https://my.captivate.fm/www.nopalera.co (Website) https://www.instagram.com/nopalera.co (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/nopalera.co/ (Facebook) https://www.sandraliliavelasquez.com/ (Follow Sandra) https://www.sandraliliavelasquez.com/ (Submit a business question)

How do you launch a product that revolutionizes an entire industry category?  And how, as a female founder do you get other women and men back your mission by investing in your vision?  In today's episode, join me and my amazing guest who is revolutionizing the bra industry by giving women a choice of flexibility and comfort with a natural shape. Today we are speaking with Annette Azan.  Annette is a 25-year fashion industry veteran and wellness visionary. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has worked with fashion risk-takers including Diane Benson, Norma Karmali, and Donna Karan, launching, developing, and driving sales for brands such as Urban Zen, Diane B., and Episode. She is also the creator and CEO of Nuudii, a proud women-founded, women-led business with the mission of creating products that make lives easier, wardrobe choices broader while offering everyone a chance to reconnect with their bodies, fostering both emotional and physical wellbeing.    [00:01 - 05:26] Opening Segment I welcome our guest: Annette Azan  A background in business, not design How Annette, from a family of entrepreneurs, became a professional fashion designer turned business owner How innocence has helped her to her success   [05:27 - 12:42] Women, Boobs and Capital Comfort and the New Age of Feminism How Annette got investors at the beginning of the Nuudii system Kickstarter Campaign versus Wefunder Campaign   [12:43 - 22:37] Women Investors in the Men-Filled Investing Community Why Women Investors are Not as Active as Men Conversations on money, investing, and value Annette's Moment of Doubt and Frustration while Building her Business The Number One Lesson for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs Check out Kickfurther   [22:38 - 28:31] Closing Segment  Annette shares her vision for Nuudii and shares a bit about their new and upcoming product   Connect with Annette through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Get your own Nuudii by visiting their website. USE THE CODE: DebLifeAfterCorp for 15% off your first purchase. Become an investor in Nuudii on WeFunder. Join the Kickstarter campaign and get perks for purchasing the NEW Nuudii backless! SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A FIVE-STAR REVIEW and share this podcast to other growing entrepreneurs!  Get weekly tips on how to create more money and meaning doing work you love and be one of the many growing entrepreneurs in our community. CLICK HERE to join our private Facebook Group!  Connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, or checkout our website at www.lifeaftercorporatepodcast.com   Tweetable Quotes: “Breasts are the last part of our body, we've been able to reclaim these women.” – Annette Azan “Women are not just looking at our product from a standpoint of is this a good investment? Women think about the product as something for themselves.” – Annette Azan “Asking is never easy. But you learn to push through the discomfort because that's how you're gonna get investment.” – Annette Azan  

https://www.kickfurther.com Sandra Hamlett grew up in New York City and focused her interests on a career in the arts, especially in the area of creative writing and journalism. After getting a job while in college working with a printing brokerage firm she found herself thrust into the world of sales.   What was supposed to be a receptionist role, turned into client acquisition and vendor relationship pro. She loved helping clients tell their stories to their customers. This led to a career in publishing sales working at METROPOLIS Magazine where she focused her attention on helping small businesses to find their markets to grow. After a move to Buffalo, NY, Sandra found a natural fit with Kickfurther's mission of giving  start-ups the resources they need to scale.       About Kickfurther:  Kickfurther is the world's first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility. Kickfuther supports women-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned businesses by creating special funding on its pay as you grow Kickfurther Pro Subscription Program. Businesses with 50% ownership or greater by either a person of color, woman or US veteran are eligible to receive up to 80% off unlimited funding starting as low as $400/month. This program is revenue based and allows companies to fund more inventory while paying on financing.

Today the Biz Bros chat with Sean on ways to grow brands and compete with larger brands that take over supply-chains! Are you a business owner whose growth is limited by the inability to fund both enough inventory to meet demand and the other costs involved with developing, growing and expanding a business? Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther, the first inventory funding platform for physical product brands. He founded the company to help product brands purchase inventory to meet demand and trajectory without being limited by cash on hand, and improve margin by unlocking volume-ordering discounts. Listen as Sean discusses how to overcome cash flow challenges in growth mode. To learn more about him, tune in and check out: https://www.kickfurther.com/

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther. The world's first online inventory funding platform. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Sean's driving goal has been to create a solution to one of the most challenging problems that growing businesses face: Overcoming funding the production of their inventory. Fittingly, Sean started Kickfurther to support inventory for direct-to-consumer and major store brands such as Target, Amazon, Aldi, and more. A native of Watchung, New Jersey, De Clercq studied philosophy at Rutgers University before. Beginning his career in a supply-chain management company and later growing a merchandising firm where he encountered the financing issues that would inspire founding Kickfurther, which took him to Boulder in 2014 to attend the Boomtown Accelerator. In addition to running Kickfurther, Sean also works as an Entrepreneur Mentor at Rutgers Business School. With Kickfurther, your payment obligation only begins once your sales are made. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders cause without customized repayment schedules. Free up capital to invest in scaling your business without impeding your ability to maintain inventory.

Sean De Clercq, CEO of Kickfurther will join Lesley Hensell, Co-founder of Riverbend Consulting to discuss the primary reasons brands face cash flow issues. What funding options do sellers have. And how growing brands can compete in a supply chain that favors larger brands! Join us. 

In today's episode, my guest is Sean De Clercq the CEO and Co-Founder of Kickfurther. They are an inventory funding platform that helps growing Shopify brands to scale faster. They do this by funding the inventory that brands need to meet demand and overcoming the cash-flow pinch that newer inventory orders can cause a business. By funding enough inventory to meet demand it allows for cash on hand to scale marketing, development and growth. I'm excited to learn and share more about this creative funding opportunity for Shopify brands.What You Will Learn TodayWho is Kickfurther and how are they serving growing Shopify brands.How to fund inventory to meet demand by eliminating stockouts.How Kickfurther is intentionally a different funding option for DTC Shopify brands.Links And Resources MentionedKickfurtherAxis GearThis episode is brought to you by Attentive, the most comprehensive text message marketing solution for modern Shopify brands. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're an entrepreneur with inventory challenges, discover the risk-free services of Sean DeClercq's Kickfurther.com, which sources and places inventory for buyers and sellers across the business spectrum.  This is the kind of service the internet was made for: fast, efficient, global connections to make the supply chain move more smoothly.  A fascinating invention unlike others in this space.Subscribe to the podcast! Visit TheBizCall.com to become a guest on the show and plug your business!

David Koifman - David is Head of Growth at Kickfurther, the first online inventory funding platform for CPG brands, with a background in fintech. He's also deeply involved in the supply chain, logistics, and multi-channel distribution and how to streamline each to improve operations. Does your business need funding?  Get fast funding for up to $2M in inventory for a cost up to 30% cheaper than other financing options. Kickfurther funds are available when you need to pay your suppliers, and you don't need a purchase order or accounts receivable to access funding.

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Sean De Clercq, CEO at KickFurther, a 7-year-old platform helping DTC and eCommerce brands raise inventory finance through crowdfunding.Managing inventory levels is a perpetual puzzle for businesses dealing in physical products. Have too much and the costs eat into your profits. Too little and you risk being sold out and losing orders to the competition. Solving this problem through timely funding allows businesses to reap the benefits of placing bulk orders, being in control of their inventory, and ultimately boosting profits.Kickfurther has innovated the way businesses can raise this crucial working capital, and it is through crowdfunding. Investors on their platform can fund inventory that will eventually be sold to someone else, and earn a commission along the way. This model offers a different and often quicker way for businesses to fund working capital.In this episode, Kunle and Sean talk about using crowdfunding to fund your inventory. You will get to hear about the challenges businesses face with Cash Flow and Conversion cycles, and how crowdfunding could be a great way to raise working capital. This is a great episode for business owners and anyone interested in alternate sources of capital.-----------SPONSORS:This episode is brought to you by:MESAThis episode is brought to you by MESA Workflow Automation. Mesa is THE only automation platform that enables all Shopify merchants to create workflows that automatically carry out repetitive tasks and focus on their business.  TRY MESA FOR FREE OVER 14 DAYS on GetMesa.com or search for MESA on the Shopify App Store.Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  RewindThis episode is brought to you by Rewind - the #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 80,000 online businesses.Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and MVMT Watches rely on Rewind.Cloud based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind Backups, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention '2x ecommerce'FamousThis episode is brought to you by Famous.Famous enables brands on Shopify to easily build beautiful landing pages and product pages that include custom video, animations, and more. All pages built on famous are optimized for storytelling and selling on desktop and mobile. Famous’ software allows you to build your pages in minutes without code, so you don’t need a developer. You just need to want to build a better experience for your customers. Famous has worked in the past with many leading online retailers including Honest, Justfab and more. You can try it for free at famous.co/2x. ShipBob This episode is brought to you by ShipBob. ShipBob is an end-to-end global fulfilment provider trusted by thousands of DTC brands. With the recent launch of their first UK fulfilment centre, in London, merchants that work with ShipBob now have access to ecommerce markets in Europe as well as North America. ShipBob was ranked the #1 Fulfilment Tech Platform by AdWeek's Retail Award and enables affordable 2-day shipping. Get your products picked, packed, and shipped. Go to Shipbob.com/2x to get $500 in free shipping credits today.

Jon talks with Sean De Clercq, CEO of Kickfurther, all about the importance of the triple bottom line, making a social impact, and the heart of the business. Sean has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther.   Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon’s Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Sean De Clercq: Website: https://www.kickfurther.com/  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kickfurther  Twitter: http://twitter.com/kickfurther  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kickfurther/ 

On this podcast, we talk a lot about what makes Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns successful. I believe a huge part of this is introducing you to new, innovative techniques and tools that can set you apart from the pack. Today I've brought on the CEO of Kickfurther, an extremely promising platform that not too many people know about yet. Kickfurther empowers creators to finance their minimum order quantities for e-commerce. It's basically crowdfunding for inventory. The crowd finances the purchase order, and you pay them back as the inventory sells. Pretty cool, right? I think you're really going to enjoy today's conversation. I'm excited to share this new tool with you all! I know that I'm pumped about it. Enjoy. Resources and Tools Mentioned on the Show Learn more about Sal’s Mastermind Community Audit a Crowdfunding Class for Free Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended! Download their free shipping and fulfillment checklist. The Gadget Flow: Their website reaches 28 million people per month! They have a new unboxing series on YouTube where you can get your product unboxed by a tech expert. You can also get feedback for your campaign by using Crowdinsight. Kickfurther  

May 12, 2021 Kickfurther Sean De Clercq and Cinergy Financial Founder Cindy Couyoumjian

Aaron Bray, CEO & co-founder at Phylum is our feature guest this week. News from Crocs, SpotX, Galvanize, Kickfurther, Automox, Lares, Optiv, Red Canary and a lot more! Support us on Patreon! Fun swag available - all proceeds will directly support the Colorado = Security infrastructure. Come join us on the new Colorado = Security Slack channel to meet old and new friends. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com This week’s news: Join the Colorado = Security Slack channel Colorado casinos enter new, more lucrative era Crocs rolls out the red carpet for record growth SpotX acquired for $1.14 billion Galvanize announces new CEO as demand grows for IT talent - Denver Business Journal Colorado startup Kickfurther closes $5.9M for physical product crowdfunding platform Boulder-based IT management platform closes on $110M in Series C funding Social Profiling – OSINT for Red/Blue Risk Scoring Basics | Optiv Does signed mean trusted? The Mimikatz dilemma Job Openings: Echostar - Senior Security Engineer Trail of Bits - Application Security Engineer (US or Canada only) Splunk - Senior Security Specialist Deloitte - Cybersecurity Operations Manager Direct Defense - Principal Application Security Consultant Guild Education - Senior Security Engineer Zillow - Senior Security Engineer, Insider Threat Epic - Senior Security Engineer Ibotta - Senior Security Engineer Coalfire - Head of Inclusion and Diversity Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: C.Springs Cyber - Hybrid First Friday - 5/7 ISSA Denver - May Chapter Meeting - 5/12 Denver ISSA - Women In Security: May Meeting - 5/13 ASIS - CRIME PREVENTION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN TO DISCOURAGE VAGRANCY - 5/13 Security Champion Programs - Necessary? What works? What doesn't? - 5/14 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Just as Amazon is the go-to marketplace for buying stuff online, Kickfurther strives to become the world’s first ever marketplace for inventory funding. Through its ingenious business model, the platform allows emerging brands to get access to funding relatively early in their journey in the competitive CPG space. This move has the positive effect of bridging the funding gap between founders and angels that would otherwise just widen further with time. Join in as Elliot Begoun talks to the platform’s founder and CEO, Sean De Clercq and learn why Kickfurther is something that all new founders definitely need to check out. Sean also shares a bit about his personal entrepreneurship journey plus some additional insights on the topic of funding in general.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here’s How »Join The TIG Talks Community today:tigbrands.comFacebookLinkedIn

There’s a lot of creative solutions to funding your business, and this one is no exception.In this episode, Sean De Clercq of Kickfurther shares how they crowdsource funds to cover inventory for businesses of various sizes and the unique benefits that come with it. Enjoy!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEHaving a solid foundation in unit economics gives the ability to raise additional growth capital very efficiently.You can get far as an entrepreneur by understanding your unit economics just from your data.Take the first steps. It’s better to know anything than to know nothing.You can never get to a win-win if you don’t know what the other party wants and they don’t know what you want.App: Salesforcehttps://www.salesforce.com/ap/?ir=1Book: The Promised Land by Barack Obamahttps://www.amazon.com/Promised-Land-Barack-Obama/dp/1524763160Never Split the Difference by Chris Vosshttps://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B014DUR7L2TODAY’S GUESTSean De Clercq is the founder and CEO of Kickfurther.Kickfurther helps businesses to have crowdsourced funding for their inventory.Connect and learn more about Sean and Kickfurther here:Website: https://www.kickfurther.comEmail: sean@kickfurther.comIf you want to learn more about the eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand, click here:https://mindfulmarketing.co/products/full-growth-planIf you've been paying attention and your brand is ready to GROW, apply now to be the one new brand we take on this month!https://mindfulmarketing.co/applyWant to join a network of founders and executives who know your unique challenges in scaling your E-com brand from 7 to 8 figures? Apply to join our Ecom Executives Mastermind here: https://Mindfulmarketing.co/mastermind

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther.com. He has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther, a marketplace for consignment. We find out the best scaleable solution when it comes to funding a growing business. You'll Learn: If you should consider funding E-commerce businesses. What the difference is between “investing in” vs “funding” a business. The difference between equity and debt from the E-commerce business. What criteria they use to decide who to fund. What the minimum size of the business has to be to get funding.    

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther.com. He has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther, a marketplace for consignment. We find out the best scaleable solution when it comes to funding a growing business. You'll Learn: If you should consider funding E-commerce businesses. What the difference is between “investing in” vs “funding” a business. The difference between equity and debt from the E-commerce business. What criteria they use to decide who to fund. What the minimum size of the business has to be to get funding.    

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther.com. He has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther. We find out the best scaleable solution when it comes to funding a growing business.   You'll Learn: The problems with funding inventory. How the principle of "discounted purchase of future revenue" works. The difference between equity and debt from the E-commerce business. When to not fund inventory via debt. How Kickfurther works for your business. Criteria to get funding.    

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther.com. He has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther. We find out the best scaleable solution when it comes to funding a growing business.   You'll Learn: The problems with funding inventory. How the principle of "discounted purchase of future revenue" works. The difference between equity and debt from the E-commerce business. When to not fund inventory via debt. How Kickfurther works for your business. Criteria to get funding.    

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we interviewed Sean De Clercq, co-founder and CEO of Kickfurther. Kickfurther works by connecting growing startups to a community of people who help these startups fund the production of their inventory. Learn how Sean solved his own cashflow gap by creating a community that helps entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways How Sean's background in supply chain management and entrepreneurship led him to encounter inventory finance issues How Kickfurther connects growing startups to a community of individuals that can help startups raise funds How guerilla marketing helped Sean and his co-founder launch Kickfurther Tips Sean has for entrepreneurs looking for funding from investors What Kickfuther's plans are for the future Links Kickfurther Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript

The world is moving toward being decentralized in every area from the internet to big business. What that means is that the way we do things will change, and in some cases, those things are already vastly different than the norm we all have grown accustomed to.Funding and investments are one aspect of the business world that for a long time have operated in silos. But the tide is shifting, and David Koifman is helping to democratize the world of investment through his work at Kickfurther.Kickfurther is an investment platform that uses the power of crowdfunding to help CPG companies fund their inventory and production runs. Most of the deals on Kickfurther are fully funded and closed within minutes, which proves there is an appetite for this kind of investment in the general market. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, David explains the model and its benefits to both businesses and investors, and he explains how crowdfunding will continue to make an impact on ecommerce companies in the decentralized future. Main Takeaways:Democratizing Investment: For too long, companies have been at the mercy of financial institutions to help fund early production runs or other operational costs. And while that solution works for some, we think that new solutions are still needed. Opening up investment opportunities to the general public is a peek into where the world of funding is headingKeep Proving Yourself: When a company gets a bank loan and pays it off, the business is seen as more successful and its credit rises. A similar thing happens when a company uses crowdfunding for inventory: by delivering the inventory the crowd has purchased and then opening up a new round of funding, a business is building credibility with a consumer and broad investor audience that it otherwise would not have been able to reach.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is Stephanie Postles. And today we're talking to David Koifman, the head of growth at Kickfurther. David, welcome to the show.David:Hey Stephanie. Great to be on the show.Stephanie:I'm glad to have you. So I was looking through your background and I was hoping we could start there because I saw that you've been in sales and partnerships and business development, and it seems like you've had a wide ranging career. So I wanted to hear a little bit about what you did before Kickfurther, and what brought you here.David:Before Kickfurther? I was in marketing right out of college. And then I went into the world of startups in financial technology. I began as a sales rep and grew within a small organization to a much larger organization, led the team, and basically built out sales account management partnerships. And then we were getting to a stage of growth where I wasn't feeling the excitement that I initially felt and joined the team at Kickfurther to do it all over again. So I've been here three and a half years. It's been awesome. We've grown tremendously, and I'm very excited about the next few years to see where it will go.Stephanie:Awesome. So you've always, always had the startup bug, where you're looking for that crazy hectic environment, fast growth.David:Yeah. It's like I see myself as a sales guy who doesn't like just selling. What I like is building the sales process, building the team, understanding the customer. So a little bit more beyond just knowing individual customers and building a book of business.Stephanie:Yep. Got it. So tell me a bit about what Kickfurther does.David:So Kickfurther solves a unique problem that every consumer goods business faces in their early stages of growth. You'll see a lot of companies are funding on platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo. These are crowdfunding platforms where businesses raise money to fund their first production run. Production run is when a business is producing inventory. Inventory is the product that they sell. So as that business completes their crowdfunding campaign or determines that they have product market fit, they will need to come back and order more product. Sometimes, they're buying that product from a supplier, maybe a manufacturer in China or here in the U.S., somebody that produces a finished product, and then they receive it in their warehouse and they sell through it. Sometimes they're buying a bunch of raw materials and making a product themselves. Usually that's the case in food or some health and beauty applications.David:But the bottom line is that costs a lot of money, and the faster the business grows, the more they have to invest into inventory upfront. You have to pay for that inventory, it takes months to produce, and then you get it into a warehouse and then you start selling it to customers. And then your customers start paying you. So there could be a long amount of time from when you need to outlay that cash to produce the inventory until you're able to recoup that revenue and put it into the next production run. So as businesses grow, they encounter this cash flow pinch, and Kickfurther solves that pinch. We have developed a marketplace on kickfurther.com, where we will vet companies and structure deals. And then a community of users will come to those deals and participate in purchasing the inventory for that business. The business will then produce the inventory, sell it, and pay back Kickfurther and the users who participated in the deal; we'll make some money and get to do it all over again.Stephanie:Yeah. Very cool. It reminded me of, I saw quite a few real estate investment platforms like this too, where you get the fund, the next three or whatever it may be. So it seems like they're popping up in different ways to have a Kickstarter approach, but also getting people in the market who have the funds to be able to fund this inventory or investments or whatever it may be. So is that the main way that Kickfurther is different, where it's sourcing investment from the community instead of traditional lenders or actual investors?David:Yeah. So I mean, what we're doing is using the power of crowds rather than financial institutions. There's a lot of solutions out there that take money. They borrow money from banks and other financial institutions, and then present it to businesses and take a cut. And what we're doing is creating that opportunity for any individual on the internet, somebody who has money sitting in their bank account, and they want to use that money to make money by participating in a purchase of inventory for a consumer goods business. And so what we do is, it's not a loan. It's not an investment, it's actually a consignment agreement. So what we're doing is purchasing inventory for a business and consigning it to them to sell on our behalf. And as the business sells that inventory, then that triggers the consignment, and then we invoice them for it and they buy it back plus their cost of funding.Stephanie:Got it. Okay. So how do you make sure that you're bringing on companies onto your platform that won't make you nervous, where it's like, are you actually going to sell all this inventory? Because I'm not trying to cover that cost.David:Yeah. Well, there's a pretty thorough diligence process that we go through for every business that goes on the platform. We evaluate everything from their revenues to their supply chain, to how they distribute that product. And it's all verified through documentation. So it's not like anybody can come to us and say, Hey, we need money," and then just go up on the platform. There's a diligence process, just like there would be going to a bank or any other financial institution. I would say our uniqueness is we look at supply chain and distribution, and we assess risk in a very specific way. It's different from a bank. So some of our customers, everybody wants to go to a bank. Bank money is the cheapest. You want to go to a bank and get a line of credit and fund your business that way.David:However, if you're a small business, whether you're a restaurant or a clothing store, the bank looks at you the same. They say, how long have you been in business? Are you profitable? How much have you sold? Whereas we're looking at a very specific sector of small businesses that are consumer goods, businesses with supply chains. And we understand the intricacies of that supply chain and then how they get that product to their warehouse, get that product from the warehouse to the customers, and collect that money through their distribution channels. And so we use that information to determine who has access to capital on Kickfurther.Stephanie:Got it. Yeah, what's cool is that you guys are acting as like the trusted source, so that the community doesn't have to do as much due diligence, or I don't know if they do any at all, but you're acting as like the mediator, to be like, "We've done all the research. We know this company, and it's for the most part trustworthy," and then people can come in and fund that based off of your research and due diligence.David:We do verify all the information that's presented about the company. The individuals still do decide which deals they participate in. And that's based on what they read in the public profile. Some of them will go investigate more. Some of them will actually ask questions on the platform. So you have the ability as a participant to ask the owner or CEO questions before you participate, or during the deal, about distribution or how they're making products, or what if they're worried about competition? Any topic is welcome. There's a lot of additional diligence that an individual can conduct before they make the decision to participate.Stephanie:Cool. And is there a risk rating of, okay, this company is more of a startup one, this is going to be their first time raising money here; we're going to give them a risk rating of this? so maybe you have a higher payoff because of that if they end up selling all the inventory, or how do you guys think about the risk-based approach when it comes to getting investment?David:It's not as simple as just boiling it down to a one to 10 scale or something like that. But there's a lot of categories which each one of the customers that we fund will be shown in. And so you can look at how many years in business, what their revenue range is, how many different wholesale buyers they have, how many times they've gone through the supply chain and produced with their supplier. So there's a number of different elements that, that are categorized in terms of risk.Stephanie:Got it, cool. And what is the average return for someone? If I were to go in there and invest right now in a deal, is there an average range of what you make over one year or that a longer time horizon?David:So the deals range in duration from two to 10 months. So the way we compare deals is on a profit per month basis, and businesses will offer anywhere from one to two percent per month. And so you can annualize that in a way where, if you participate in a deal and then that money comes back to you, then you can redeploy it into another deal. And if you continue doing that, let's say 1.5% a month will translate to about 18% per year.Stephanie:Got it, cool. So what kind of struggles do you see ecommerce brands having right now when it comes to ... Obviously not having money to fund inventory is the high level problem, but maybe what kind of sticky situations do you see brands getting in by either waiting too long to get funding or not even thinking about it. What are some stories that you have around the whole inventory funding?David:Yeah, I think the biggest thing to do is to be proactive and understand what solutions are out there and how to use them before that need comes around. Because being desperate is the worst time to be looking. And if you've run out of inventory as a business owner, you're missing out on opportunities to sell. So like you could have a really successful Q4, and then you get to Q1 and people still want to buy your stuff, but you're all out. And then you placed an order with your supplier, and the supplier takes two months to produce. And then maybe you're in a position where you have to air freight instead of going on the water and you have to pay a lot more money to get it there faster. So there's all sorts of obstacles that come into play. And that's ecommerce.David:A lot of the businesses that we work with are multi-channel sales. So they're selling ecommerce and then they're selling to target or Best Buy or REI. And those companies will place orders, if you don't deliver those orders when you say you will, then you're probably going to lose that opportunity or at least jeopardize it in the future. So it's important to make sure that you have the inventory ready when you're going to need it. And you also don't want to have way too much. So if you buy a lot, and then you don't sell at the rate that you expected, you have a lot of cash sitting in the form of inventory in your warehouse. Sometimes it's going to go bad, if it's a crude product or it's just cash that you want to spend on advertising to sell the product, but you can't because you don't have it.Stephanie:Cool. So if I'm a new brand and I'm looking to crowdfund my inventory, what are some best practices that attract the investors in the crowd? What kind of things do you see connecting with people? How would I write up a good post right now to attract funding for someone to help with my inventory?David:The most important things are that you've done it before. So we don't work with businesses that are doing their first production run. We did in our very early days, and, as you can imagine, it's much higher risk. So we only work with businesses that have at least $150,000 in sales. And once they've demonstrated that, it's good to talk about how you work with your suppliers, what sort of things you do to ensure that you're going to receive the product that you want to receive within the timeframe that you plan on receiving it. So being conservative with time estimates, making sure that you have testing in place so that once your supplier says the product is ready, that somebody goes in and looks at it and you don't get a bunch of broken stuff.David:And then once it arrives, it's important that you have reliable distribution. People want to see good reviews. People want to see lots of reviews. And I would say, if there's somebody who's selling to a wholesale customer and they just have one customer who is placing large orders, that's pretty high risk. Because if that customer decides they don't want to buy anymore, who are they going to sell that product to? So those are the kinds of things that users on Kickfurther are taking a look at, reading through the profile, to decide if they're going to participate. One thing I will say that we haven't touched on is how fast these deals fund. So it's good for us at this point. It means that there's an imbalance in the marketplace in our favor. So the deal flow that we put up gets funded oftentimes in minutes.Stephanie:Yeah, I know. I noticed that, because I'm like, "Hmm, maybe let's see if I should investigate these deals." And I think it looked like everything was sold out, or it was all met to the limit. At least the two I was looking at. And it seemed like it happened really quick, where I'm like, "Hmm, this is competitive."David:Yeah. It's super competitive. So we have the ability to scale our deal flow pretty substantially without having a concern for deals funding fast enough. And as a user, if you're thinking about participating, you're going to get emails, you got to act on it fast. And so we put deals up. They have about 24 hours before they launch. And they always launch at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. And if that, there's hundreds of people that are clicking, trying to get into deals like within a minute or two of 5:00 PM, when they usually fill up.Stephanie:Wild. I think you need more deals then for people to get in on.David:Yep. That's my job. I've been working hard on it. So we we've grown quite a bit. We have aggressive growth goals for 2021, and so far we're on track. It's early, but it's an exciting time to be at Kickfurther.Stephanie:That's great. So what brands are you trying to get on the platform right now? Who are you trying to convince to get on there?David:There's a lot of repeat customers, and we have really good retention. We average over four deals per customer, but they're all across the board. We're pretty product agnostic. We serve anybody who either buys or makes physical goods and then sells them with the exception of regulated things like alcohol, tobacco, firearms, THC, anything that's temperature controlled or perishable. Because of the consignment agreement nature of the contract, the inventory is our collateral in these deals. So we don't want it to go bad. And we want to make sure that it is available to anybody who participated in the consignment, they have to be able to purchase it.Stephanie:Yep. Oh, got it. So if the inventory doesn't sell out, you guys essentially have it in a warehouse, and me as an investor could be like, "I want one of those t-shirts then." Is that how to think about it?David:Yes, that is a way to think about it. So if the business is unable to sell the inventory, and they're unable to pay back Kickfurther and their users for the cost of it, then Kickfurther, based on our contract, will require a delivery of that inventory to us, at which point we'll attempt to sell it, and all the proceeds of that resale goes to the participants in that agreement.Stephanie:Have you had to do that yet?David:We have had to do that. We've been around for seven years. So it's happened, but these days it's very infrequent, and that's why these deals fund so fast as people who are participating on Kickfurther have great returns and they tell their friends about it and they the deals. So the performance, overall, is strong.Stephanie:Yeah, got it. So when I'm thinking about, as a business myself, getting credit and working with banks, you're building up your business credit worthiness. When you get traditional loans, I know we had to take on a couple of last year and it does help being like, "Oh yeah, we took on this size loan, we paid it off." How do you view crowdfunding in that kind of sense? Is it building up a business's credit worthiness or is it so siloed still at this point that it doesn't actually build up the financial view of the businessDavid:In some ways, it does, and in some ways it doesn't. It isn't considered debt to them. So it doesn't operate the same as taking out a loan and paying it back. But there's a lot of transactions that still occur that show the business is selling and making money. So their business credit will improve as a result of that. But yeah, it's kind of a mixed situation.Stephanie:Yeah, yeah. That seems tricky. Because it seems like a really good avenue to not only help the businesses, but then also bring in a lot more players. It seems like it's much more decentralized, which is great. The whole world's moving in that way, but if you can't really use it, be like, "Oh, look at these three different loans I have right now, the market funded them." I feel like the world needs to move to that place, the more of that crowdfunding and the decentralized approach is coming to the forefront.David:Well, the world is moving in that direction, but what's really cool is Kickfurther moves in that direction with the clients themselves. So as we establish a relationship with a business and they come back for repeat deals, we increase their limits substantially. And they have access to lower rates. Basically, they're earning credibility with this community. So let's say they offer one and a half percent per month on their first deal and they complete on time, and then they come back, they can offer less. It's really in the hands of the business owner what they want to offer, and the community, the marketplace, will decided if that business has earned that rate and are able to fund it at a lower cost. So as a customer at Kickfurther, as your revenues grow, you'll be able to take on more funding with Kickfurther, buy more inventory, and do it at a lower cost.Stephanie:Got it, okay. So you're building up that credit worthiness, just in a different hub, but you're doing that by just performing well and, yeah, that makes more sense.David:We will work with businesses who are starting at 150,000 in annual sales, and all the way up to 30 million. So there's quite a range of growth in service by Kickfurther. There's businesses that, once they reach a certain stage, either they're not accelerating as much as they used to and they have the cash flows to fund their own inventory and continue producing, or there's other businesses that have been long and around long enough where they are now exciting to banks and other financial institutions that have very low cost lending.Stephanie:Yep. Is there any guidance or any point where you're like, "Oh, you should probably just reinvest revenue or profits instead of getting a loan." Do you ever give guidance on that? Because I could see a lot of businesses always being like, "Oh, at such a low rate, why don't I get loans?" But then quite a few businesses have a lot of cash on their balance sheet too, and they don't know how to fully deploy it, but they're just so used to getting low interest loans. Is there any point where you've actually advised a company like, "You guys are good. Maybe you should reinvest profits." Or do you even see it from that angle?David:I don't think anybody's coming to us if they don't want additional capital. And I am always very transparent with everybody, and [inaudible] make sure you know, what your options are. We don't make money off convincing you to do one deal. We want that long-term engagement [inaudible] coming back. But I think the reason people come to Kickfurther is they have an opportunity with a buyer, or sales are growing so fast and in a channel where they want to launch a new product, they just don't have the cash to be able to do that. And that's why they're looking for funding solutions. And maybe they go to their equity investor and they say, "Hey, I need some additional capital to be able to take advantage of this opportunity." And the VC says, "You know what, why don't you seek some non-dilutive capital for that? That's a much better use of, why give up five or 10% of your ownership just so you can produce the next run when you're going to have to do another one and another one and another one after that?"Stephanie:Yep, yeah. That makes sense. So, since you're deep in the crowdfunding space, I'm sure you just see opportunities all around. So much stuff could be crowd crowdfunded. Where do you see that world headed? What kind of new opportunities do you see popping up in that space? Or what do you think is missing right now, where crowd funding could be meeting a need?David:I think there's a lot of money and power in crowds. And there's the ability to cut out middlemen and big entities that have been around for a long time and empower individuals to help these business owners grow. It's also not just the money that's coming from them. Why are people deciding to participate in these deals? A lot of them believe that they have an advantage and they have the knowledge in the space. So maybe they want to help the business owner. I've had plenty of users come to me and say, "Hey, I actually work in this space. And I have a couple of distribution opportunities that I'd like to connect with your client about." And I'll make a direct introduction, and all of a sudden they acquire a new sales channel. Or somebody who's got a lot of money and they want to do a side deal. Yeah, I am looking for equity investors, let me connect these two people.David:So those kinds of things happen rather frequently. And that's not going to happen when you're working with a sales rep at a bank. Because everything's coming from the bank's bank account. And actually the money that the bank is using is just coming from account holders and their deposits. So if you're storing money in a bank, the bank is using that money to lend to businesses and whoever else. So we're cutting that out of the mix. And I think it's good for everybody involved.Stephanie:Yeah, I think it's a good reminder too, about diversifying investments and why finding opportunities. Yeah, you don't want to just keep your money in a bank and let inflation just wither it away to nothing. So, yeah. It's cool to hear about opportunities like this that are very different, but will definitely help diversify your portfolio.David:Yeah. And it's really fun, from our standpoint, to work with all these young business owners. I mean like the business is young, not the individuals per se, but some of them just started a few months ago and they've had some real success. Some of them, it's a family business that's been around for a couple of generations, and all of a sudden they're discovering that ecommerce is a way to skyrocket the business. They have a really good product; they just haven't put it in front of the right audience. And they're figuring out how to make this happen financially, and we're there to help them. And it's just really great to be side by side with them as a partner and see that growth.Stephanie:Yep. Yeah. It seems like there's also could be a lot of international opportunities. I know that's a lot more risky once you start going that route and finding people who are doing much smaller scale ventures and being able to help back that, then turn into a bigger thing. But I have read a few stories of finding people doing amazing things in other countries, but they just don't have any kind of funding. Or they can't buy inventory for even 10 things to sell. And yeah, it seems like there's a lot of opportunity around the world, but of course it'd be much more risky trying to vet those projects and companies.David:It is definitely a challenge. It's something that we're considering doing down the road. You probably start with Canada and some EU companies, but there's different regulations in different countries. And also, if we get into a bad situation with a client, we have to pursue them legally. So working in a foreign legal system is very costly, and we try to help businesses out, and so our margins are pretty slim. So being able to afford that kind of activity is probably a ways down the road for us.Stephanie:Yeah. So what are you guys looking forward to for the next, maybe, two to three years? What are you planning for? You said you were going to be growing really quickly this year. What kind of things are you putting in place right now and where do you want to be in the next couple of years with Kickfurther?David:I'd say we want to be a household name for inventory funding. A lot of people are starting their own businesses. And we want to create an opportunity for them to grow at the rate that they're able to grow and have access to capital. And so our goal is to put our name out there in a way where it becomes recognizable to all business owners who are in the right space for us.Stephanie:Yep. Very cool. Yeah, Amazon be a good space, but then sometimes those one-off products that are being sourced and sold on there. So maybe that's not the best space. I'm not sureDavid:Those people are business owners and growing too. So if you have one product that's selling really well, and that's what you want to focus on, sure, that's great.Stephanie:Cool. All right. Well, let's shift over to the lightning round. The lightning round is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I'm going to ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready, David?David:I'm ready.Stephanie:All right. What one thing will have the biggest impact on ecommerce in the next year?David:Probably the state of the world. So the ability that people have to shop and travel and continue to live their lives the way they did before lockdowns and quarantine.Stephanie:Yep. All right, cool. If you had a podcast, what would it be about, and who would your first guest be?David:I don't think I would have a podcast.Stephanie:What would you have then, a clubhouse? What would you have then?David:A clubhouse. I think that, honestly, I was a little bit foreign to this whole world of supply chain and inventory finance when it came to Kickfurther, and I've discovered a passion for helping these business owners. So I think the clubhouse that I would have would be one where business owners get together and talk about different solutions that help their business grow, and what vendors they use and what are best practices, just an exchange of information across business owners and vendors.Stephanie:I like that, because yeah, I think even thinking about, "What manufacturer should I use? And how do I even source those people?" Still always feels like a black box and it's referrals. Or you have to know someone and that'd be a good one.David:We make quite an effort to make those resources available to our customers. So, as we go through our diligence process, we cover a lot of topics, and oftentimes customers will identify pain points, and we will say, "If you're interested in these, this is a partner of ours, or we've got a few different options or people you can talk to, to learn more about the solutions in this space."Stephanie:Yep. Cool. What's up next on your reading list?David:Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins.Stephanie:Okay. Nice. Where are you traveling to next when it's easier to travel again?David:In two weeks, I'm traveling to Salt Lake City to go skiing, but that's a drive for me.Stephanie:Yeah.David:Big skier. And whenever the snow comes, I'm out there.Stephanie:I love that. All right. And then the last one, what is your favorite piece of tech that you're using right now? It can be personally or with the business.David:Don't hate me, but it's my iPhone 12 Pro.Stephanie:What's to hate? I have the same thing. It's my favorite. It has the best cameraDavid:I bought it for the camera, but it's really fast. It's a computer in my pocket that does pretty much everything my actual computer does.Stephanie:Yeah.David:Super valuable piece of tech.Stephanie:Yep. I agree. All right, David, thanks so much for joining the show. Where can people find out more about you and Kickfurther?David:Kickfurther.com is the best place. You can find me on LinkedIn, David Koifman, and I look forward to connecting with anybody who's interested. Also, if you're a business owner listening and you're interested in funding with us, you can go to our website, fill out an application, or you can just email me david@kickfurther.com.Stephanie:Yeah.David:Thanks so much, Stephanie.Stephanie:Cool.David:It's good to be on here.Stephanie:Yeah, thanks, David. All right. See you.David:Take care.

Today we interview Sean De Clercq - he is the founder and CEO of Kickfurther. Sean has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Those businesses that make physical products always have the same challenge. They typically have to pay for their inventory before they receive revenue from selling it. This is a balancing act that requires a financial partner and businesses have used a variety of different financing sources, both traditional and fintech. But there has never been […] The post Podcast 281: Sean De Clercq of Kickfurther appeared first on Lend Academy.

Inventory Financing & Crowdfunding for eCommerce Brands - with Featured Guest Sean De Clercq of Kickfurther

Sean De Clercq is the CEO of Kickfurther, a successful crowdfunding platform. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Sean's driving goal has been to create a solution to one of the most difficult problems that businesses face: funding the production of their inventory. Fittingly, Sean created Kickfurther to fund inventory for direct-to-consumer and major store brands such as Target, Amazon, Aldi, and more. In addition to running Kickfurther, Sean also works as an Entrepreneur Mentor at Rutgers Business School. In this episode… Are you a business owner who is looking for a fast and effective method to fund your inventory? Or, are you an investor searching for low-risk and high-paying investment opportunities? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then keep listening! Kickfurther is a successful crowdfunding platform that appeals to both business owners and investors. With Kickfurther, e-commerce and consumer product business owners can fund hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory in mere minutes. Additionally, with its 97% success rates and 10-11% annualized returns on all investments, this platform is a lucrative opportunity for new and experienced investors alike. In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Sean De Clercq, the CEO of Kickfurther, to discuss effective crowdfunding and strategic investing. Listen in as Sean explains the ins and outs of raising funding for e-commerce inventory, the benefits of investing through Kickfurther, and how you can receive $250,000 in lending at no cost through his incredible giveaway! Stay tuned.

Kickfurther talks about financing best practices and is giving away $250,000 in no-cost financing this month. https://grow.kickfurther.com/2020-giveawayWhat is Kickfurther? Get fast funding for up to $2M in inventory for a cost up to 30% cheaper than other financing options. Kickurther funds are available when you need to pay your suppliers. How did you come up with the idea for Kickfurther?Family business in supply chain. Started up physical goods business. Big retailer orders. Alternative cost of financing would have lost money.What are some different options/considerations for funding a growing amazon or CPG business?SBA loans can be helpful.Common mistakes when financing?Being too optimistic on sales projections. Better to under promise and over deliver. Financing to pay back too quickly can backfire.What are some best practices for managing supply chain and inventory financing to address cashflow constraints caused by fast growth?Diversify distribution channels.Build redundanciesFresher Products funded on KickFurther, an My Amazon Guy client - https://www.kickfurther.com/coop/holiday-bbq-toolsBook club: Never split the difference.First deal financed $1,400. Funded by community never met."Couldn't believe how quickly I got funded."Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)

David Koifman, Kickfuther – The Sharkpreneur podcast with Seth Greene Episode 428 David Koifman David Koifman is Head of Growth at Kickfurther, joining the team in late 2017. His background is fin-tech sales, and since joining Kickfurther he has expanded to a passion and knowledgebase in supply chain, logistics, and multi-channel distribution. The Kickfurther growth team helps hundreds of brands in different industries all working in a cash-constrained environment to maximize growth and keep up with demand.   Listen to this informative Sharkpreneur episode with David Koifman about bringing businesses and backers together to fund production with Kickfurther. Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show: ●     How you don’t have to be an accredited advisor to participate on Kickfurther. ●     Why using Kickfurther simultaneously helps investors and business owners. ●     How Kickfurther helps businesses grow faster than traditional business loans. ●     Why Kickfurther is different than peer to peer lending and group lending. Connect with David: Guest Contact Info Twitter @kickfurther Instagram @kickfurther Facebook facebook.com/kickfurther LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/kickfurther Links Mentioned: kickfurther.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David is the VP of Business Development at Kickfurther, which helps e-commerce brands scale through a unique approach to finance.  On this podcast, we talk about the Ecommerce life cycle, the problems that businesses face while growing, various solutions to funding problems, and how Kickfurther can help SMBs and online store owners. To learn more, visit: http://honestecommerce.co Resources: David’s LinkedIn page: www.linkedin.com/in/davidkoifman Kickfurther’s website: kickfurther.com Mike Michalowicz’s book, Profit First: profitfirstbook.com Visit gorgias.link/honest to get your 2nd month with Gorgias free! Ethercycle’s crowdfunding app for Shopify apps.shopify.com/crowdfunder-diy-pre-order-crowdfunding-campaigns-for-shopify Visit klaviyo.com to schedule a demo! Visit postscript.io/install for a free 30-day trial! To get updates on our new episodes and exclusive deals from our partners, text HONESTVIP to 72599 and join our VIP texting list!

Small businesses that produce physical goods sometimes have trouble getting the funds required to get an inventory going. Kickfurther changes all that, helping companies that sell physical goods raise funds for inventory from a community of eager backers. David Koifman, Kickfurther’s Head of Growth, shares his valuable insight on fund production, inventory, investment, and the deals that help businesses and their backers achieve success.Support the show (http://buildingabusinessthatlasts.com)

David Koifman is Head of Growth at Kickfurther, a business that helps hundreds of brands in different industries all working in a cash-constrained environment to maximize growth and keep up with demand. With a background in fin-tech sales, David's knowledge base has expanded to supply chain, logistics, and multi-channel distribution. He joins the show today to share his incredible insight on the challenges of growing and scaling businesses. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://thedrawshop.com/24

DAVID KOIFMAN is the VP of Business Development at KickFurther. He works directly with hundreds of growing product brands to understand their needs and structure funding Co-Ops. He also builds strategic partnerships that enable efficient acquisition channels and address the challenges faced by the growing CPG businesses. Previously to this role, David led a client-services team for a successful fintech company to a 100x increase in accounts. During this show we discuss: How you can get the money you need to buy inventor to sell online How to get money to buy products to sell on Amazon 5 questions you need to answer about your inventory to get the money you need The biggest problem with getting the money you need to buy inventory and how to solve it Using crowdfunding to get the inventor you need to sell online How to affordably get the money you need to buy inventory How to access thousands of financial backers who want to give you money now Ways to get money in an hour to buy inventory for an ecommerce business How to help entrepreneurs get money while earning a 14%+ return The easiest way invest money into privately owned businesses Using fundraising to get enough money to aid in scaling your business 3 strategies I can use to resolve my e-commerce cash flow issues About purchase order financing Using purchase order financing to help your e-commerce business Important things to know when you want to scale and market your product brand

On today's podcast, I'm pleased to welcome one of the people I've helped out through KickFurther, Kyle Bergman. Kyle started out in the tough retail industry, working as a merchandiser for Bloomingdale's, the Macy's Crown Jewel until he came up with the great product of his own, Swoveralls -- a mix between an overall and sweatpants. However, getting to this point in business didn't come easily. Tune in to find out how Kyle started in ecommerce, how he used his experience to succeed in the world of retail, and how he came up with his own product.   

After a week of staying put, here I am back on the road and going through Reno on the way to Las Vegas. I was in Dallas for Scott Voelker’s first-ever Brand Accelerator Live event. It was a slightly different crowd than what I was normally used to. But, I still got to hang out with some old friends and even some EcomCrew Premium members. All our big podcast fans out there would know that I try to do my part and give back to the community by investing in up-and-coming ecommerce brands. And I do it on KickFuther.com. In fact, we did an entire episode on them a few weeks back. And on today’s podcast, I get to chat with the owner of one of those businesses I’ve helped out. John Castrano has had years of experience in the beauty and grooming industry before starting Tame the Beast, a men’s grooming line. But getting the business to where it's at now has been quite the journey. Listen as John recounts he got started in ecommerce and give a glimpse at how the business is doing some five years later. As always, here’s a list of timestamps so you can jump right into the good parts. How the Beast brand started (9:28) Early struggles to get the business up (15:43) Finding investors (18:11) Post-accelerator phase (22:58) Breaking down the numbers (32:31) Take part in our free Importing from China webinar on October 8, 10 AM PST. Reserve your spot now! And if you want to try out Kickfurther for yourself, head over to ecomcrew.com/kickfurther. Questions or comments?  Feel free to leave them below.  Finally, if you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a review on iTunes. Until next time, happy selling!

It’s a new month and change is coming to the EcomCrew Podcast.  If you haven’t listened to last Thursday’s goals update, I talked about us reducing the number of episodes in a week from two to one. We want to provide you with the best possible content and, in order to do that, it was a decision to go for quality over quantity. Today’s episode is something that I believe fits the bill. As entrepreneurs, we tend to fall prey to our own success. The struggle to keep up with growth often means that our cash flow takes a beating. Affording inventory can become a real problem.  This is why I’m excited to have Kickfurther CEO Sean de Clerq and VP of Business Development David Koifman on the show.  Kickfurther is a platform that brings together businesses with inventory funding needs and individuals looking to grow their money on ecommerce. The platform helps cash-strapped businesses grow by raising funds from individual buyers to pay for the business' next order. When the business sells the inventory successfully, the individual buyers get paid and earn a profit. In this episode, you’ll learn: How a Kickstarter campaign and Sean's financing problem gave birth to the idea of Kickfurther - 2:34 How Kickfurther deals first came together - 8:23 How Sean found early backers who trusted their brand-new platform - 10:35 Criteria for a business to be on the platform - 19:08 Step-by-step process for a business to get funding - 23:53 Timeline for a business to get funding  - 28:13 Kickfurther's finance charges - 29:59 What returns have been historically for investors - 36:22 Risk factors - 44:38 Consignment setup - 48:44 Special Kickfurther deal for EcomCrew listeners - 53:43 If you want to try out Kickfurther for yourself, head over to ecomcrew.com/kickfurther. Learn how to develop defensible and winning products you can build your business around. Sign up for this month’s free webinar. Get a copy of the Amazon Domination book here.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Time truly flies. We’re just a quarter away from the holidays. That means a ‘goals update’ is long overdue. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as I get to cover a lot of ground and take you on the journey I’ve been on this year. It was definitely an eventful eight months. I sold one of our best-selling brands, freed up my time, and am now able to spend time in the RV on extended road trips while doing the EcomCrew Roadshow. There were misses here and there, but significantly more wins. If you haven’t listened to my previous updates, you can listen to them here and here.  And now to the meat and potatoes of this episode. I’ve listed down the 19 goals along with their corresponding timestamps so it will be easier for you to follow along.  Sell a brand. (3:52) Position another brand for sale in late 2020. (4:38) Getting back to location independence. (5:32) Reducing debt to zero dollars. (8:04) Hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. (9:01) Take at least 10 weeks of personal travel. (10:59) Record 6 or more episodes of the Roadshow. (12:53) Invest in at least 1 ecommerce business. (14:16) Lose 10 more pounds. (15:21) Visit the Philippines office in 2019. (16:13) Start selling our services for EcomCrew. (17:03) Significantly improve the quality of the podcast. (17:50) Film season 2 of the 5 Minute Pitch. (19:35) Break each of our brands out into different companies. (20:40) Start hosting personal events for EcomCrew. (22:09) Speak at 6 industry events. (23:11) Shift to doing things that only bring me immense personal fulfillment. (24:23) Do intermittent fasting for all of 2019 and eat less meat. (24:59) Not to drink the rest of 2019. (26:40) Learn to find and develop products that stand out from all of the me-too crap everyone else is selling. Sign up for the September 12 webinar. Try out Kickfurther today! Get $500 off of Kickfurther's services when you sign up for a business account or receive $10 when you join as an investor. I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of the podcast. As always, feel free to leave a comment below. If you think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. Till the next one. Happy selling!  

WTCBN Podcast interview with Sean De Clercq, CEO of Kickfurther. Join host Craig Turner, World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara President, and Sean for their discussion on financing business and inventory growth, particularly in international markets. Learn how Kickfurther is revolutionizing financing options for small, growing businesses in international trade. 0:39 - About Trade Credit Insurance Agency 1:44 - What is credit insurance? 2:34 - What competitive advantages do credit insurance provide? 6:22 - Credit insurance as protection from current uncertainty 8:13 - Peace of mind 9:34 - Trends in global trade risk 12:31 - WTCBN Global Business Administration (GBA) Program - Fall, 2019

Sean De Clercq: Sean has years of experience in the supply chain industry. When seeking financing for his merchandising company, he came up with the original idea behind Kickfurther.  

It's good to have a nice cozy sack of extra change in your savings, but... ..there's only so much wealth you can build with your savings. As a matter of fact, with savings, you won't really be building any wealth, you'll just kind of have a chunk of change sitting there. You can ditch any crazy shopping habits you may have and begin live frugally, adapting an easy, lazy lifestyle, then put that extra money in a piggy bank or bank account. But after all is said done, that money is just sitting there. Waiting. It's not growing; it's not making you richer. You want your money to work for you though. You want it to make you richer, not just be an idle pig oinking on the shelf. See, cash depreciates in value due to inflation and the interest you gain in a savings account doesn't even let you break even, yet alone gain wealth. It's not about how much money you have per se, but it's about how much wealth you have, how much buying power you have. You can only gain wealth, upgrade your buying power, if your money grows at a faster rate than the inflation rate. Otherwise, you're at a loss. That's where investing comes in. And on today's episode, we're gonna look at the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing It's good to have some savings before you start investing, which is why we covered Rules of savings last week. We also looked at ways on How to Start Investing With Little Money The Lazy Way in Lvl 22 before. Today, we're gonna take those savings and keep those investment methods in mind as we go into the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing 8. Calculate Your Goals on the COUCH You have to know where headed, so you can stick to it. Take your time to get to it though, of course. Procrastinate with purpose. As a procrastinator, we may wait ‘til the last minute, we may take our time, but it still gets done. We do have to know what to get done though, so we know what we're procrastinating on, what we're putting off. Calculate is part of the acronym of something I like call C.O.U.C.H ambition, which is basically the lazy way to attain your goals. I'll have a link in the show notes for a blog article where I talk about this: https://www.procrastin8r.com/blog/couchacronym Instead of rushing into the arena, and this case, slamming down money into the bank or an investment account as quickly as possible… ...we're first going to sit on back on our comfy COUCH and Calculate the best course of action and the details of what our end goal looks like before moving forward. Knowing our end goal and making realistic, instead of impossible dream that will never happen makes easier to move forward and attain it. Minimize the amount of years spend working and maximize the amount of years on your own Lazy Island in retirement You can even gamify your progress and turn this boring finance stuff into an RPG adventure, like a DnD campaign but...real life. Gain the loot IRL and build your own cozy castle. Check out “Lvl 10: Level Up Your Productivity with these ProcrastiN8 Gamification Apps” for more on These productivity apps can definitely be used to level up your personal finance (eg. gain xp for saving a certain amount of money, for not buying coffee or something, buying a stock, etc) ...but we can talk about how to do that perhaps in a later episode, a later quest. Here we'll dive into ways to Calculate your end goal in finances -- your retirement goal Multiply By 25 Rule Take your desired income and multiply it by 25 to get your retirement savings goal That's how much you need, total, to lay on the couch all day and not worry about how to keep the lights on the number should be HIGHER than your current amount of expenses to account for inflation Rule of 72: the time it takes to double your money is 72 divided by your rate of return 7% is the average yearly return in the stock market so it takes about 10 years to double your money think of it like a really slow cash doubling machine. you put in the money and whatever amount you put in comes out twice as much a decade later. It takes a while to “cook” but the machine runs itself. 7. Diversify Don't put all your eggs in one basket -- Don't sleep on just one pillow Make a comfortable bed with plenty of cushions If one pillow falls off, you still have plenty to keep you at rest If one stock plummets, you have a nice cozy place to sleep. Buy stocks from multiple sector (categories): Energy, Materials, Industrial, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Financials Information Technology Telecommunication Services Utilities, Real Estate, Bonds, Cryptocurrency, Commodities (oil, silver, gold), and ForEx (Foreign Exchange Market/International currencies) Mutual Fund - traded at end of day ETF (exchange traded fund) - traded during the day Equity Investing - crowdfunding that pays (Kickfurther, Slice Capital) It's like building a giant blanket fort - more pillows, more blankets = more defense 6. Relax and take it easy, man Don't make emotional decisions. Don't get worked up or upset. I mean c'mon, you don't wanna work or get worked up. You're lazy and relaxed. Remain in control of your emotions. Stay level headed and cool. Don't panic sell or buy on the hype (Facebook after Cambridge Analytica, Equifax data breach, Nintendo released PokemonGo) It'll go up and it'll go down, just ride the waves of the stock market ocean It'll be smooth sailing the less you worry about it. Also, don't obsessively check your account. This may also make it easy to get emotionally tied up in the stock market “drama” Detach yourself from your stocks emotionally. You're dating your stocks, not in a married lifelong marriage commitment to them. 5. If it's too complicated, don't even bother Stick to industries and companies you actually understand. If you're not interested, don't bother. It takes a lot of effort to research a company : look at their profits, goals, analyze their financial, ethical, and legal history, understand the strengths of its employees, have insight on the CEO's ability to make good decisions and inspire a team, track data of their ability to bring ideas to life. It's a time consuming and effortful task. Take a hobby and look at the products you purchase, the brands you use. You're already aware of what some of your favorite brands are doing (new game releases, new devices coming out) ...as well as the trends within your niche (eg. games going digital, so GameStop is becoming irrelevant) ... so it doesn't take much research or effort to know where they're going and if they're going to be profitable in the future. *4. Invest whenever *you feel like it Don't try to time the market Even experts get it wrong, so as a procrastinator, don't sweat it if you do too. Procrastinate and put it off. Don't kick yourself if you miss a “golden opportunity” to buy low and sell high. No big deal. You invest when you want. You know the price will go up, eventually. You don't bog yourself down with numbers. Numbers are arbitrary. Things go up and they come back down. That's the very nature of the stock market and you accept that. You're calm about it and even when you time it “wrong” that's okay, you know it'll come back up again. I mean heck, the stock market not only recovered from the Great Depression but has far exceeded the prices pre-depression era. Deadlines don't matter, nor does stock market timing. If you worry about it, you're putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, putting yourself in the DESK trap. https://www.procrastin8r.com/blog/desktrap 3. Patience. There's no rush Have realistic expectations, You ain't gonna get rich quick. Very few people do. Patience is not only a virtue, it's a lifestyle. It's the heart of what makes a procrastinator, well, a procrastinator. Be patient. Set it and forget it. Let your money grow and don't try to force it to move any faster. It'll get there, in due time. Don't worry about maximizing profits as quickly as possible, just focus on building wealth, nice and slow You'll get rich, eventually. Have patience and persistently invest. Slow n' steady wins the race. Use the turtle as your spirit animal guide to get where you want financially. 2. Be a Cheap skate Eliminate fees as much as possible. They add up quickly. You don't like to pay extra for things. You're cheap when it comes to your money, so just embrace it. Any fee you pay cuts directly into your potential profits and that's no good Annual fees, monthly maintenance fees, trading fees, deposit fees, all sorts of fees Choose an investment company with minimal fees (Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Betterment, ...or no fees at all (Robinhood, WeBull, Metador, Wise Banyan) The more fees you pay, the less money you'll make. Period. Even small fees can chip away at your wealth if you're not careful. 1. Make It Easy on Yourself Play it safe. Buy “boring” stocks (Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, 3M, Procter & Gamble) Don't stretch yourself thin trying to find the “next big thing” There are millions of start ups and most of them won't be around in 5 years. Don't spend your time or money or energy trying to strike it rich. You'll make it hard on yourself. Just take it easy and make your investment decisions easy. You don't have to make it a full time job to follow the stock market. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to check it often at all. I mean you can if you want to, again, if that's something you enjoy doing. Do what you enjoy. But if you don't enjoy following the stock market, don't do it. You've already Calculated your end goal, and how much you need to save each month to meet it, so just stick to that plan, and don't get distracted. Don't get up when something startles or excites you… Relax. Lay on back down in bed instead and let your money do all the work for you. You don't even have to lift a finger, or your head off the pillow.

You don't wanna work, but you wanna get more money. How can you do that? Well, don't spend your money. Let your money work for you. Let your money be a procrastinator ,like you, and take it's time to build you more wealth. You can get rich...eventually. Slowly but surely. Just set it and forget it Today, we're talking about easy ways to invest your money in the stock market, so you can start building wealth in one of the laziest ways possible. Up until recently, the stock market was a playing field for the elite. You needed quite a large amount of wealth and financial knowledge to get started. But it's become waaaaay more accessible in recent years, and now you can dive in with very little starting networth and just a smart phone. The secret rich people don't tell you is they don't do a lot of hard work. Most of the money they make is from their own money -- making more money. Let's dive into the secrets of how you can do this lazy moneymaking method from your phone or computer. We'll look at the different types of ways to get started with investing in the stock market in the easiest and least expensive way possible. 5. Fee Free Stock trading Apps Robinhood One of the easiest apps to use to get started in investing with stocks. It's 100% fee free and no minimum deposit, no minimum balance The trades are executed a bit slow and the current trade price is not updated as quickly compared to other paid stock broker platforms, so i wouldn't recommend it for day trading when seconds count. But for buy/hold strategies like blue chip or dividend aristocrat stocks, I highly recommend it, especially if you've never done anything with the stock market before. Has MOST stocks available, some foreign ones are missing, but they are always adding more. (Recently Nintendo for example) Use my ref link. I get a random stock and so do you. WeBull trading no monthly fee Robinhood copycat, essentially Metador trading fee free connect with friends to see what they're investing in (useful if you have finance nerds as friends and they use this app) 4. Fractional Share Investing Stockpile buy fractional shares at 99 cents per trade No monthly fee limited selection compared to a “real” stock (paid) broker but you have a lot of the big guys (Coca-Cola, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, Google, Johnson & Johnson) FolioFirst $5 per month, but unlimited fee free trades the successor to Loyal3 3. Equity Investing Kickfurther and Slice Capital Equity investing, like Kickstarter crowdfunding but instead of a product, you get a profit Use my Kickfurther link and we both get extra “keys” to reserve an investment slot early 2. Spare Change Investing Acorns Stash auto invest “spare change”. rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar (eg. if you pay $4.53 for a cheeseburger, it'll invest the spare 67 cents) not really spare change though because it actually withdraws and invests in lumps of $5 fees are too high $1 per month for balances under $5,000 (and .25% per year for $5k+) in order to BREAK EVEN, assuming a 7% annual interest rate, you need at least $172 in your account good for building the habit of putting money in the stock market, not good for actually building wealth lazy because it's automatic, 1. ETFs, Robo Advisors, & Mutual Funds Betterment robo investor choose risk 0-100% (basically how much of your investment is stocks vs bonds) .25% annual fee of total balance no control over what you actually invest in Auto Tax Loss Harvesting (selling a share or bond at a loss for the purpose of tax benefits) the biggest robo investor So-Fi Wealth Management $100 minimum deposit no fees no control over what you actually invest in trusted. been around for quite a while as a debt consolidation service but recently started offering robo investing Wise Banyan 100% fee free $1 minimum to open account but no minimum balance no direct control over what you invest in -- tax loss harvesting kind of a new player on the field but offering a solid service so far their philosophy is to help build people's wealth (and earn a loyal customer) M1 Finance Fee free stock investing Create a “pie": Choose from professional portfolios, customize your own list, or combo of both First deposit splits evenly to all the pie “slices”, each part of your portfolio It then Auto re-balances based on portfolio performance and your deposit/withdraws Auto invest cash (from dividends), over a certain time, or not at all -You can place individual orders to buy/sell slices You can also add/remove slices as well as rebalance your whole protfolio Vanguard very low fee mutual fund and ETF trading allows you to handpick your own funds rather than have it chosen for you -you can set up automatic investments each month to specific funds Motif Thematic Portfolios 0.5% real estate, entertainment, online gaming, cyber security, precious metals, AI, crypto Impact Portfolios 0.25% Fair Labor, Sustainable Planet, Good Corporate Governance You can also build your own portfolio $5 for auto, $10 for next market open, and $20 for real time. One time fee for up to 30 stocks. trading is free for “next market open” or $5 for each real time trade *Disclaimer: I cannot legally offer you any sort of financial advice or guarantee that you will make money or profit from using these apps or websites I have provided. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm just a lazy guy so take every bit of word I say about this thing with a grain of salt. It is possible to loose money in any sort of investment. Never invest more than you are willing to lose. Results may vary. Also, some links may be affiliate links, as a matter of transparency, meaning I will earn some commission if you decide to use it and place an investment.* Also, we enter the Gr8 Game Room and I give my review of Super Smash Bro.s Ultimate

  Chris Deardorff is a driven and creative marketing professional.  He possesses in-depth global sales and marketing experience working with Fortune 500 companies such as GE, Medtronic, Terumo BCT, and Seagate Technologies. He also has consulted and worked with numerous startups and small businesses including Kickfurther, Pixmoto, Fanzee, EvolveLab, Zometool, Clexia, Incuiry, Ascent CC, and FloDoggie. Throughout his twelve-year career, Chris has been responsible for developing story, marketing and business strategies that have generated rapid, double-digit financial growth and success. His experience includes developing story concepts, marketing and business plans, product roadmaps, and go-to-market plans that have helped companies effectively launch, market, and grow new products. Chris is currently completing the Stanford Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program. Chris also has an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado - Boulder.   https://magicflightstudios.com/   StoryHinge http://storyhinge.com Where we dig deeper into story and story creation.  We amplify personal stories to consider more possibility and realize more potential and happiness in life.

What you are going to LEARN in this episode: Why traditional inventory finance is so inefficient How crowdfunding can solve delays throughout your supply-chain What’s the difference between Kickstarter and Kickfurther The Problem: Retailers currently offer difficult terms and expensive financing costs when funding inventory for smaller businesses. Payments are made 30-60 days after inventory is delivered which slows down the entire supply chain and makes small businesses less efficient and profitable. How Kickfurther solves the problem: On their online platform, individuals (like you and I) are able to choose which companies we want to invest in and who we want to purchase inventory for. We then OWN this inventory and when it sales, we get a return on our investment. Kickstarter vs Kickfurther Kickstart is a “pre-order aggregator” and is used to fund ideas. People will pay you upfront for future delivers. Most of these companies are not actually cash-flow positive and are in the market research phase. With Kickfurther, you are not taking deliver of the physical products (as you are in Kickstarter) instead you are funding an established company’s inventory. This shortens the timeframe of financing the inventory, helps the business sell more product and gives you an ROI on your investment. Kickfurther removes the middleman and takes the banks and large lenders out of the equation and instead connects businesses and smaller investors. Launched Jan 2015 and currently has >10,000 users which ~25% are active investors. Most members are buyers since the companies they are investing in and buying the inventory for have established sales channels, but you are welcome to take delivery and sell the inventory on your own (not recommended). Sean’s Advice: “Keep answering your customer’s emails for as long as possible because there’s nothing better than direct feedback from your customers.” Contact Info: Website: https://www.kickfurther.com/ Email: contact@kickfurther.com Wanna join the Liberty Entrepreneurs Facebook Tribe?! Apply by sending an email to info@libertyentrepreneurs.com or tweet to me @libertyepodcast (please introduce yourself and what you are passionate about and working on) Would you please rate me on iTunes? https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/liberty-entrepreneurs/id1057809945?mt=2

Make money on the brands you love with Kickfurther. CEO Sean De Clercq talks about how he’s helping companies turn existing customers not only into investors but also their best sales team. Also, FogHorn’s CEO David King talks about one of the biggest problems facing our connected world: An explosion of data. FogHorn Systems promises to solve the data challenge in an innovative way – processing data within the sensor itself! In this week’s “The Edge” series, he’ll explain why this is the biggest breakthrough in iOT (Internet of Things) today. And in “HealthTech”, our quest to find better, safer, faster, and cheaper healthcare products leads us to Bloom. Co-founder/CEO Eric Dy talks about how his new device will save expecting moms from false alarms that cost a lot of time, money, and hassle because of needless trips to the hospital during their third trimester.

Kickfurther Company Demo at LendIt USA 2016

Success has killed more than a few companies that had plenty of orders, but not enough affordable funding to finance sufficient inventory. Sean De Clercq and his company, Kickfurther, solve that age-old problem. Kickfurther is a unique business-funding marketplace in which investors – rather than taking equity in a company – actually purchase a share of its inventory. In exchange, the investors get a potential return on their money that trumps the stock market, mutual funds, and real estate. Reputation coach and host Dean Rotbart brings his Monday Morning Radio microphone to Boulder, Colorado this week to take his own inventory of how Kickfurther is revolutionizing small business financing. Video: Watch Dean and Sean in a video version of this week's Monday Morning Radio   Photo: Dean Rotbart (l) and Sean De Clercq in BoulderPosted: February 8, 2016Monday Morning Run Time: 39 minutes 10 seconds Dean Rotbart will next present his popular Reputation Tool Chest Workshop at Wizard Academy on February 16th and 17th. Let Dean teach you to how to build an unparalleled online reputation for you or your business. 

PitchIt @ LendIt featured eight pitches from exciting startups and a panel of five judges who are respected angel investors and venture capitalists. The eight startup finalists include: Crediyo, LoanHero, Able Lending, Sharestates, Ascend Consumer Finance, REAMERGE, CashForce, and Kickfurther.

Many people have grown tired of passive investing. Sure, the data show that the more remove the human elements -- our evolutionary biases -- the better we perform in the stock market. But many investors are getting more and more excited about participating more with their investments (I believe that's what's behind much of the excitement behind angel investing). Enter Kickfurther. Part investment platform, part crowdfunding platform, and part ecommerce site, this new company enables people to finance small businesses and earn an equity-like return. I'm Zack Miller, your host on Tradestreaming Radio, and I'm joined by Sean De Clercq, Kickfurther's founder and CEO to discuss how investors are rolling-up their sleeves and helping the next generation of small businesses grow. ***Thanks for joining us on Tradestreaming Radio -- I'm very grateful for your time. It's awesome learning about these new tools and technologies together. If you're listening to this episode on iTunes, please give it a ranking and rating so that others know of the value you're finding in it. Thank you ahead of time.****