How This Former Internet Entrepreneur Is Building A Wine Empire

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

In 2008 Michael Dorf opened his first combination music and wine venue in NYC called City Winery. In 2013 the brand generated over $1 million in profits for his investors. Compared to his previous media and technology company called Knit Media, parent company of the Knitting Factory, Michael generated more profit with City Winery in the first year than all of his years combined at his internet company. The business now has locations in NYC, Chicago, and Napa. This fall will see the opening of the fourth location in Nashville with more expansions to be announced by the end of 2014.

Here are some lessons from a former technology entrepreneur on how to build a rapidly growing business in the old fashion world of food and hospitality, using technology as a catalyst for growth.

You can’t digitize wine, but you can music. Marc Andreessen famously said “software is eating the world” however there are just some things that will never go digital. Food, wine, and live music are just a few examples. So when Michael looked at his business, he asked himself “what is impossible to copy?” For him, live music was at the top of this list because as he said, “even the best high def surround sound Imax films can’t capture the magic of a musician performing live.”  Thus, the opportunity around the live concert business was the side of the music industry he wanted to focus on. Michael isn’t the only one to capitalize on this opportunity. From 2009 to 2013 “the rock band Phish has generated over $120 million in ticket sales, handily surpassing more well known artists like Radiohead, The Black Keys, and One Direction.” Michael and Phish focused on live music as their point of difference.

User Interface (UI) is not only important for computer screens. It’s also important for physical space. In the world of software, User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) are both critically important. It is how a customer navigates a website, what they see when they enter, how they are greeted, treated and ultimately served. A physical room is no different so when Michael designed his first venue, he strongly considered the material choices and the design elements of what a customer can touch and feel. Danny Meyer calls it “enlightened hospitality” to look at all of these elements. With the mindset of user interface, you can improve customer experience by thinking about the various movements in the physical spaces of your store, restaurant or office.

Technology is a tool to make your simple tasks, even simpler. Michael wanted a ticketing system that could allow his customers to pick their seat at a particular table, visualize it on a map, and see who was where in their 300 seat room. This capability would enable City Winery to perfectly scale the room with different pricing options and configurations. This solution however did not exist, so they spent some resources to build a custom ticketing solution for their business. Now, people can show up an hour before an event or 20 minutes late and they will still have their seats available. This created a much more luxurious approach to seating and tickets thereby creating a much better overall experience. According to Michael, “this in fact, gives people back a little time, something that has gotten more scarce and valuable in an overly digitized, super fragmented, and fast paced high tech world.”

Direct Marketing is cheaper today. Years ago, marketers would have to send a piece of snail mail to their customers. Today, emails and social media enables real time, cost efficient marketing. Sending direct emails that get through junk filters and to the radar of City Winery’s customers is a tremendously inexpensive way to stay in close touch with their community. By combining this with social media platforms, Michael and his team are able to get the attention they need in an overly saturated world of media.

Know who your customers are by measuring and analyzing data. In a larger scale organization, the ability to have a maître-de remember everyone who walks in and what their favorite wine is, simply will not work. However, by using a membership program which is tied to a POS system, Michael is able to track what kind of wine people are consuming and is therefore able to see patterns in their consumption. Their “virtual sommelier” can send suggested wines for the customers to try on their next visit. Like great sommelier with a tremendous memory, this is terrific service perk, especially the more regular a customer is. As Michael said, “this was a classic old world dining trick which we used new technology to reapply in a tangible way. If it was purely a digital suggestion box, it would not work as effectively.” When you think about your business, think about how you are keeping track of who your customers are and what they like. There are newer tools out there that can help you do this more efficiently then pen and paper.

City Winery is not just using technology, but the best of the new media’s thinking, in delivering a unique, profitable and real world experience. Besides locations around the globe, if anyone is going to be able to digitize wine, chances are good that it will be Michael.

The Band
The Band (Photo credit: tr.robinson)

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What if?

My brain is still rattling even a week later after hearing the story. Like all life or death stories, this one forces you to ask…

What if…?

What if she didn’t check Facebook at 4 in the morning?

What if the police didn’t arrive on time?

What if social media didn’t exist?

What is she was too afraid to reach out?

Like I said, the story is still reverberating in my head and it’s fitting that my sister, someone trained as a professional nurse, is playing the role of “healthcare provider” but only in a much different capacity than I would have anticipated.

So it begins..

It’s 4 am. My sister just got back from a night out in NYC. Like most nights out in the city, you can expect that there were a few drinks involved. Anyone that’s been out in the city until 4am can understand the way these nights work. By the time you get home, your brain and body are operating on fumes and you can only handle the important tasks. Ordering late night food and checking Facebook.

So you hit the couch, the phone comes out and Facebook opens.

The newsfeed scroll begins…

The first post in the feed is a group picture of some friends from their night out. Five girls, arms wrapped around each other, big smiles and camera poses (3 minutes ago).

The next is a status update. An update that makes you question why you’re on Facebook in the first place because it says something like, “just got home” or “lower east side.” The content of this post doesn’t really matter because it’s a completely useless post. On to the next update (4 minutes ago).

It’s from an old high school acquaintance. I say “acquaintance” because growing up my sister and this girl were “the other girls” to each other. They ran in different groups and said hi to one another on occasion.

The status update.. (I’m using a fake name here.)

“Remember the happy Jane, remember the good times we have shared. I cannot handle the pain any longer. Goodbye. I love you all. Pray for me please. Until we meet again.” (5 minutes ago)

(pause..)

“What the…”

In sheer disbelief and confusion, my sister ran over to her roommate and showed her the update.

“Is this a joke?”

Her roommate, “I don’t know but this is crazy.”

And in that moment my sister went through a series of questions that I think any reasonable person would ask in that situation.

Should I text her? Should I call her? What if something really is wrong? I haven’t seen this girl since high school. Am I overthinking this? It’s a Facebook post, it can’t be serious…can it?

“Fuck it, i’m texting her.”

“Hey Jane, this is Nicole. I just saw your Facebook update. Is everything ok?”

Within a minute, Jane shoots back a text: “Hi Nicole, I’m so glad you reached out to me but it’s too late..”

The events that followed were sudden and decisive…

Nicole and her roommate made one phone call each.

One to Jane and one to 911.

Jane had overdosed on pain killers and left a goodbye note to her friends and family. She also prepared a farewell video and left it on her computer. The police and paramedics made it to her apartment just as she faded out into darkness and became unconscious. When she made it to the ER she was hooked up to a ventilator because she could no longer breathe. Her organs stopped working and she was now fighting for her life.

Sunrise…

It’s hard to know what anyone would do in a situation unless they are faced head on with that choice. In this case, it might have been easy for Nicole and her roommate to go to sleep and brush off the update as a joke, but they made a choice. The text, the phone call, the will to act even at 4am despite having fear of over reacting and being too dramatic because of a little Facebook post.

But overreact they did…

And it helped the paramedics get there on time.

From today’s news:

Facebook Switches Default Setting to Private to Prevent Oversharing

What if…?

What if Facebook made this switch just one week ago and Jane didn’t “over share” her message?

What if Nicole didn’t see the update or take action, or “overreaction” when she saw the message?

According to the doctors and paramedics, Jane’s Facebook wall would have looked something like this upon sunrise.

“R.I.P. Jane”

Instead, Jane has a second chance at life and a newfound appreciation for the kindness and caring of human beings.

Her Facebook header now reads:

“You never know when one kind act or one word of encouragement will change a life forever.”

What if…?

Screen Shot 2014-05-22 at 4.43.58 PM

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Do You Hate Your Job? 5 Tips To Change That

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

“I knew I had to quit when I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning to go to work.”

Those words stuck with me. I heard them from a successful entrepreneur and I think about them almost every day. It’s a quick gut check against the happiness and balance in your professional and personal life.

Over the past few weeks I’ve heard similar words from countless friends and colleagues.

The lawyer that started a legal career because it was a safe and steady job.

The financier that went to wall street because of the big bonuses.

The doctor that attended medical school because the parents said they should.

The consultant that joined a big named firm because of the prestige associated with it.

To the outside world these jobs are normal. In fact, they are celebrated. But to the individual they can sometimes feel like a cage with no escape. However the good news is that I’ve seen people successfully make the switch from a career they hate to a career they love. In all of these situations, there were at least five common themes that enabled these people to make the leap of faith and recalibrate their life for a happier, more successful career.

Hone in on your transferable skills. A friend recently described his job to me. He does “platform sales to financial institutions and hedge funds.” When I asked him what that meant he said, “I’m basically a waiter. My tables are my clients. My dishes are my financial products. My tips are my commission. And my job, is to basically keep my tables happy and answer any questions that the customers may have.” A waiter on wall street. Pretty simple. But a good waiter must have good people skills and good people skills are transferable to any industry. However, it’s not just people skills that are valuable. Organization, communication, and leadership are also very important. We sometimes take these intangibles for granted, but if you can hone in on your strongest transferable skills then you can figure out where else they might be applied in a setting that you enjoy.

Leverage your transferable knowledge.  Another friend of mine has been working in commercial real estate for the past few years. When he took a sales leadership position at a new technology startup, someone asked me, “what does a commercial real estate broker know about startups?” I said, “not much. But he knows more about real estate sales than anyone I know and for a technology startup that is focused on the real estate market, that’s a pretty big asset to have.” Sometimes a career change isn’t as big of a change as you think it is. If you have deep industry knowledge it’s likely that there are multiple opportunities and jobs that could benefit your experiences.

Try something new. I recently saw a Facebook status that said “Learning how to code. I’m a nerd and I love it.” In a million years I would have never guessed this person to learn to code or to even know what “ruby on rails” means. In school, you’re required to take classes in different disciplines. But just because school is over it doesn’t mean you should stop exploring new horizons. Take chances. Open new doors. Learn something new because you might actually enjoy it and it may very well lead to a new, professional path.

Ask for help. There is absolutely no shame in asking for help when help is needed. Sometimes it’s easy to let pride get in the way but as someone once told me, “ducks that quack get fed.” If you want to make some changes but don’t know how then simply pick up the phone, write an email and share your thoughts with someone. It’s human nature for people to help one another but no one can help you unless they know you are looking for it. So don’t be shy. Ask for help.

Recognize the difference between quitting and recalibrating. I wonder what Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburg’s parents thought when they decided to drop out of school. Is that considered quitting? If it is then I plan to quit something as often as possible. There is a big difference between giving up and realigning your goals and objectives. Sometimes people are afraid to “quit their job” because it’s viewed as just that, quitting. But the thing is, it’s not. If you have a game plan and a strategy in place then you owe it to yourself to “quit” so that you can recalibrate your path to success and happiness.

Follow me on Twitter at @DanReich.

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The Mobile Startup That Almost Shutdown Is Now On Nearly 1 Billion Devices. How Did They Do It?

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

For every mobile app valued at over $16B, there are hundreds if not thousands of their failed counter parts. But while some of these apps die off, some of their companies figure out a way to survive and in some cases, create real value by reinventing their businesses. Andrew Levy, Rob Kwok and Jeeyun Kim are one of the best examples of this transformation, and this is how they went from a broken mobile app to a dominant player in the mobile enterprise space. Here is a 6 part breakdown of how they went through that transition and attracted some of the best investors, customers, and ultimately achieved market penetration of nearly 1B devices worldwide (and counting).

Now for some disclosure(s): #1. I am a shareholder of Crittercism. #2. I’ve known Andrew my whole life.

Part 1. The Beginning And The End
In 2010, Andrew, Rob and Jeeyun started out by building their own mobile apps however they quickly realized that those apps had their own set of performance problems. They were slow, they were laggy, and they had a smorgasbord of bad reviews in the app store. Certainly not a great way to start a company. Like any good engineer would do, they problem-solved and asked a simple question: how do we fix and diagnose these issues more easily?

Part 2. The Pivot
They decided to build a lightweight version of a crash reporting tool that they desperately needed for themselves and after speaking at a few meetups about their new tool, they began to validate their idea with others people in similar shoes. They realized that the lack of transparency for understanding mobile app performance was a very big and far reaching problem.  Although they knew they were on to something, they wanted to be sure they were solving a “hair on fire” problem.

Part 3. Proving The Pivot Is Worth It
In order to prove that this opportunity was really worth their time, they also created a landing page with a beta signup list that attracted a significant number of signups. This validation was important because they were bootstrapping and running out of money. Andrew told me that he literally had a spreadsheet with a list of jobs on it and was contemplating the end of the business altogether.

Part 4. Getting The Right Resources
Once they had a working product, Andrew and the team applied to an incubator called AngelPad, which was founded by a bunch of ex-Googlers. As a result of their quick iterations and early traction, they were able to get into the program. This provided the team with some much needed capital and social proof which helped them focus and lay the foundation for a much bigger business.

Part 5. Focusing
The first version of Crittercism was focused on two things: crash reporting and user feedback (you can think of it like an in-app support forum). They thought this solution was one product but after a closer look, they realized it was actually two separate offerings. The crash reporting side was growing much quicker then the support side, and the fact that Andrew, Rob and Jeeyun come from engineering backgrounds made it even more evident that this is where they should be focusing their time and energy. Again, the team shutdown part of their business and it freed them up to focus on their core strengths.

Part 6. Scaling
By building out a solid crash reporting tool, the team was able to wedge themselves into the mobile enterprise market. But now they are going after a much broader opportunity for mobile app performance management (mobile APM). It was the most visible, relatable problem that every one of their potential customers faced. As a result, the team was able to quickly attract large enterprise customers like Netflix, and parlay those initial use cases into a portfolio of new customers.  Today that portfolio is growing by leaps and bounds. The Crittercism software is now installed on approximately 1 billion devices and analyzes all aspects of a mobile app’s performance.

That’s not bad for a company that almost closed up shop and it serves as a good reminder that not everyone needs to be the next WhatsApp, and that pivoting, if done correctly, can lead to big opportunities.

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How Retail Is Evolving In An On-Demand Economy

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

It’s been widely discussed that Amazon plans to enter the brick-and-mortar retail game. This is ironic because it is Amazon that put many brick-and-mortar retailers out of business in the first place. Circuit City, Borders and Blockbuster all succumbed to the dynamics of e-commerce and companies like Barnes & Noble, Sears and K-Mart aren’t too far behind. Big box retailers carry fewer product lines and holding inventory presents significant risks. Consider that in the last four years, cumulative sales of brick-and-mortar retailers shrank by $30 billion and as Jeff Jordan rightly points out, “these trends are only accelerating.”

In the past, brands would have to fight for shelf space and customer access and that gave power to the larger retailers.  Today, anyone with a product and a website can build their own sales channel and that is creating enormous shareholder value for the digital players. This creates a new set of challenges for brands and retailers.

On one hand, building an online-only business has cost and distribution advantages. There is no need to invest in large amounts of inventory and you aren’t subjected to retailer buying terms or expensive overhead for rent. This is a large reason why companies like Bonobos and Warby Parker experienced success early on and why many brands looked to copy the online-only model.

On the other hand, having a physical presence has proven to drive sales with meaningful volume and be an effective channel to reach new customers. Take Quirky as an example. The company claims that brick-and-mortar retail partners are key to Quirky’s success, driving 85% of the company’s revenue, with the rest coming from online sales through Quirky.com, Amazon, ThinkGeek, Fab.com and other e-sellers.”

So the challenge becomes this: how do businesses leverage the benefits of a physical store while removing the challenges that are destroying brick-and-mortar retail?

One startup company thinks they’ve solved this problem by taking inspiration from successful businesses with marketplace dynamics like Airbnb. In just nine months, a startup called Storefront has created one of the largest online marketplace for brands, artists and designers that are in need of temporary retail space. This model allows brands to create engaging, physical experiences without taking on the overhead of long term leases that are putting so many retailers out of business. Imagine a future in which Fitbit is sold in gym lobbies across the U.S., IKEA is on college campuses during move-in week, and the hottest Kickstarter campaigns are available for pre-order or purchase at Best Buy.

UNIQLO Pop-Up store at Union Square station
UNIQLO Pop-Up store at Union Square station (Photo credit: MTAPhotos)

Nick Roberston, CEO of the fast growing ASOS is thinking along these lines as well. “Being a digital fashion brand, it is important we never lose a digital element to what we’re doing, however based on consumer reaction and participation, I think we will be looking at more new and innovative ways we can get our brand in front of the customer for a physical experience in the future.”

Will a company like ASOS use Storefront? It’s very likely. Hundreds of brands have opened their own store and generated millions in sales revenue. And when you consider that 80% of all economic output takes place in urban areas, it further validates the idea that having a cost-effective physical presence makes a lot of sense.

From the New York Times, “whenever a city doubles in size, every measure of economic activity, from construction spending to the amount of bank deposits, increases by approximately 15 percent per capita. It doesn’t matter how big the city is; the law remains the same.” NYT

That law is quite compelling and Jeff Bezos knows it is. It’s perhaps part of the reason Amazon is opening a distribution warehouse in the densely populated tri-state area and why Jeff is quoted as saying that  “We [Amazon] would love to [do physical retail], but only if we can have a truly differentiated idea.” Being closer to the customer creates better experiences and improves economic efficiencies. In the case of retail, maybe the “differentiated idea” is simply about getting to your customers, quicker, cheaper and more intimately than anyone else and having an on-demand storefront seems like a pretty powerful way to do just that.

Follow me on Twitter at @DanReich.

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Bitcoin And The Two Things You Need To Know

The bitcoin logo
The bitcoin logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

The discussions that are happening around Bitcoin feel a lot like those from the early days of the internet. It’s like when my parents asked me about AOL dial-up. “Who is the computer calling? Now the questions are, “what are these Bitcoins and can I see what one looks like?”

I discussed this topic with a handful of Bitcoin entrepreneurs and Bitcoin investors and so I figured it made sense to lay out some high level thoughts on Bitcoin for my own sanity and hopefully yours. To start, I think there are two important ways to think about Bitcoin.

1. Bitcoin as a currency.

2. Bitcoin as a technology.

Bitcoin as a currency.  Like all things throughout history, we know that change is inevitable and currency is no different. Once upon a time forms of money included cattle, salt, shells, and precious metals. As time went on the world evolved and so did the currency that went along with it.

As Thomas Friedman would say, today the world is flat. Our telecommunications make it dead simple to communicate and transact with anyone, anywhere around the world at any moment in time. In short, Bitcoin is a new currency that was designed for this new world. In this video, Eric Vorheese does an excellent job explaining the evolution of money and why the characteristics of Bitcoin, as compared to gold and our dollar, make Bitcoin such an intriguing form of currency for a digital world. That analysis look something like this:

Scarce? Convenient? Secure? Central backing?
Gold Yes,there is only so much of it in the earth. No,it’s very heavy. Kindof, depending on where you store it. No, no single authority owns gold.
US Dollar No, the government can print money, which they often do (inflation). Yes, its lightweight paper. No, it can be counterfeit. Yes, the government provides its full faith and credit to the US dollar.
Bitcoin Yes, only ~21M bitcoins will ever be created. Yes, it’s digital. Yes, it’s secured by math puzzles that only super computers can solve. No, like the internet, it’s not owned or controlled by any single entity.

Only time will tell if Bitcoin can survive as a currency but fundamentally, it makes sense to me that there should be a currency specifically designed for a hyper connected, digital world.

Bitcoin as a technology. To fully understand what Bitcoin can mean as a currency, you must also understand how it works at the technology layer. This video does a nice job explaining the technicalities of Bitcoin, but the core innovation of Bitcoin is that there is a public ledger that is very secure because of some complicated math. Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures describes it this way:

At the heart of bitcoin is a fundamental innovation: a distributed public ledger. A ledger in accounting is a book that you cannot edit once you have written in it. Instead, if you have made a mistake, the only way to fix it is to add another transaction to the ledger that undoes the error. As we know from accounting fraud, problems arise when people figure out ways to transact without recording it in the ledger or making ex post changes to the ledger (this is why Quickbooks isn’t really an accounting system). The bitcoin ledger is the so-called blockchain which uses the fact that there are many copies of it that are broadly distributed combined with a fair bit of math to ensure that once a transaction has been recorded in the blockchain that transaction can not be changed after the fact. There is no other widely used protocol in the world today that accomplishes this: with bitcoin anyone can make a statement (a transaction) and have this be recorded in a globally visible and fixed ledger.

Years ago, information was controlled and distributed by single entities. This is why media conglomerates and newspaper companies were so powerful. When we talk about how the internet disrupted those companies, we are really saying that new protocols created the disruption. The protocols provided a way to send and receive instantaneous information without anyone’s permission. The protocol behind Bitcoin is providing the same type of disruption only instead of sending information without any third-party involvement, we are now able to send money without any third-party involvement. In essence, we are democratizing money and rewriting the rules for how commerce can be conducted.

This creates a tremendous amount of opportunity. Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angel List published a piece in Wired magazine about the future possibilities of Bitcoin. Here is a clip:

 Just as the web democratized publishing and development, Bitcoin can democratize building new financial services. Contracts can be entered into, verified, and enforced completely electronically, using any third-party that you care to trust, or by the code itself. For free, within minutes, without possibility of forgery or revocation. Any competent programmer has an API to cash, payments, escrow, wills, notaries, lotteries, dividends, micropayments, subscriptions, crowdfunding, and more. While the traditional banks and credit card companies lock down access to their payments infrastructure to a handful of trusted parties, Bitcoin is open to all.

So will this Bitcoin thing work? Is it a good investment? Should you buy some Bitcoins?

I have no idea. But what I do know is that this feels very much like the first time I signed on to AOL and that to me is very exciting.

It’s a new world.

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Startup CEO: Would You Max Out Three Credit Cards To Start A Business?

Image representing Alec Lynch as depicted in C...
Image by None via CrunchBase

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Would you max out three credit cards, spend your life savings, and take on loans from family and friends all for some cool website idea? In January 2008 Alec Lynch did just that and started a freelance marketplace in his garage called DesignCrowd.

Today, Alec and his team announced a new round of financing putting the company’s total fundraising to date at $6.3 million. Back in March, I was able to spend some time with Alec to hear about how he took his small garage-based startup from Sydney Australia and $60,000 in debt, to multiple locations worldwide and $1 million per month in revenue.

Dan Reich: What were you doing before DesignCrowd?
Alec Lynch: I studied Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).  I loved it and did well academically (I was awarded a $36,000 scholarship and the University Medal).  When I graduated from UTS I was 20 and started my first business with a friend from UTS (Adam Arbolino who studied a Bachelor of Science in IT).  Our business was online CRM software and, while it ultimately failed, we learned a lot of good lessons.  After this, I went to work in strategy consulting at Booz & Co where I worked for 2 years.  While I was there I had the idea for DesignCrowd.  In 2007, a few weeks after scoring a promotion, I quit my job at Booz and moved back home to live with my mum and start DesignCrowd.

Reich: What gave you the idea for DesignCrowd?
Lynch: While I was working in strategy consulting at Booz I was constantly looking at different industries.  I had a personal interest in the design industry, as I’d been building websites since I was 14 and I could see three key problems in the traditional design industry: for small businesses buying design it was 1) slow 2) expensive and 3) risky (you never knew what you were going to get back).  One example that highlighted these problems for me was the release of the London Olympics logo in 2007.  It cost £400,000, took one year to make and was absolutely panned by the public and the media.  I thought to myself  “wow, imagine if they had run a global design contest for £40,000 or even £10,000?”.  I knew they would’ve received thousands of designs and ideas from around the world and saved half a million dollars.  At the same time, I could also see a lot of friends graduating with degrees in creative disciplines but struggling to find work.  Essentially, I could see the dynamic for a marketplace that could disrupt the traditional design industry.

So is Alec and his team disrupting the traditional design industry? According to Techcrunch, “the company currently has over 250,000 registered users in 197 countries, including 100,000 designers and says it recently hit $12 million in design projects through its site, a figure that it expects to exceed $20 million in 2014.”

When I asked Alec back in March what his ultimate goals were, he said “our goal is to pioneer crowdsourcing around the world.”

And with the latest round of financing of another $3 million it looks he is one step closer to that goal. Not bad for someone that maxed out three credit cards and moved back home wit his mum to start some nifty website called DesignCrowd.

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Startup CEO: How To Build A Double Sided Marketplace In the Fashion Industry

Textile Supplier with President George W. Bush

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Websites like eBay and Amazon have transformed the way people buy and sell products. With a current market cap of $68B and $151B respectively, it’s clear that efficient and highly engaged marketplaces between buyers and sellers can provide real value to both parties.

A new NYC based startup realized the same marketplace dynamic could be applied to a different part of the retail value chain, and in a very specific but necessary category: textiles. Until recently, textile suppliers from around the world had no way to conveniently sell their products in a global marketplace.

I caught up with Benita Singh, the CEO of Source4Style, to learn more about how she is building an online marketplace for a very interesting but critical part of the fashion business.

Dan Reich: There are hundreds of online marketplaces in existence today. Alibaba.com is one example. When did you realize there was a need for a textile marketplace?

Benita Singh: Throughout my career, I spent a lot of time at trade shows, on expensive sourcing trips and even on sites like Alibaba. And it wasn’t unusual for a two-week sourcing trip to India to result in finding only one new supplier. So I learned early on that it was a highly-fragmented market.

At the same time, many of my “best finds” were suppliers that didn’t showcase at the biggest trade shows. And their online presence was limited to a three-page static content site.

We then started to do some research on the market opportunity. In one of our surveys with independent designers, we heard that they spend up to 85% of their time sourcing and navigating the complex textile supply chain. And among the larger fashion brands, we saw that since 2008 travel budgets on the production side of the business were dropping. Couple all these industry trends with the rise of B2B marketplaces and we saw a clear opportunity.

Reich: Any entrepreneur that has built a double-sided marketplace will tell you how hard it is. How are you building both the supply and demand for Source4Style?

Singh: At the beginning, we focused exclusively on building up the supply side of the marketplace. In our case, that was getting a critical mass of textile mills onto the platform. Within three months, we were working with suppliers in over 30 countries. We learned that we must have a baseline of supply before we could go to the demand and start the engine.

We’ve also learned that the two sides of your marketplace may very well have two very different reasons for wanting to be part of your platform. For our buyers, it’s about discovery and access. They want to be able to replicate the inspirational experience of walking a trade show floor 365 days a year, and that’s how we present Source4Style to them.

Our suppliers on the other hand want a more practical tool to help them streamline their leads, follow up with potential buyers and track conversions from sample requests to purchase orders.

It’s critical to learn the value proposition for each side of your market. For our buyers, we have to effectively merchandise and market. For our suppliers, we have to really focus on building a great SaaS platform for them to help manage their global business.

Finally, your influential first adopters can help you grow both sides of the marketplace. Some of our buyers bring their suppliers onto the platform because they want to use Source4Style to manage all of their sourcing. These buyers are also offering case studies that are inspiring others in the industry to give us a try.

Reich: You had to build a global business pretty quickly. What challenges did that entail and how did you overcome them?

Singh: Sourcing is inherently global, so yes, we had to become an international business pretty immediately. Operationally, we built a dynamic platform that allows buyers and sellers to confirm final pricing before proceeding with a purchase order. This accounts for currency fluctuations in the 36 countries where our suppliers are now based. We also brought on local agents in key markets like India and Italy who help us to both onboard new suppliers and ensure that their collections and data are kept up to date.

We have a global market on the buy side as well. And with a small team, we have to provide top-notch service around the globe. This isn’t easy and it means our phones are ringing around the clock. But I consider it the best incentive to grow quickly and intelligently!

Our next steps are to translate Source4Style.com and optimize our platform in key markets as well.

Benita’s work is paying off. In less than two years Source4Style has created a presence in over 76 countries. More recently, they partnered with The Council of Fashion Designers of America to provide their members with “concierge-level access to their comprehensive online sourcing marketplace.”

Startup CEO: How To Build A Double Sided Marketplace In the Fashion Industry Read More »

5 Tricks To Get Press For Your Business Or Startup

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Celebrity Photographers at the Tribeca Film Fe...

So you spent a few months, perhaps even a few years, to develop the most cutting edge and revolutionary widget. This widget could be anything ranging from a new product or device to a new company or startup. The bottom line is that the development phase is completed and now it’s time to get the word out. You run through your marketing list. Social Media? Check. PR firm? Check. Paid Media? Check. Events? Check. As you run through the list you realize that it’s the same list every other company would put together. You think you have an extraordinary product or solution and yet, you’re plan is about as generic as they come. Having worked in the trenches as a founder and startup employee, I know firsthand what this marketing laundry list could look like.

But for the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to sit on the other side of the table as a contributor for various publications like Forbes, HBR, and other industry specific outlets. As a result, I’ve personally been pitched dozens of stories that are “game changing” or “disruptive.” What I learned is that most of these pitches are in fact, not “game changing” and moreover, some of the methods used to acquire the sought after press is shockingly abysmal.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are some tips to avoid the generic PR trap and ways you can achieve meaningful exposure for your new widget or business.

Build a targeted list of writers and journalists. I was once pitched a story about a non-profit in Africa. While I love nonprofits and love Africa (although I’ve never been there), this type of story is one I’d most likely never write about. Spend some time to identify who the best writers are that are most likely to benefit from your story. Journalists are always looking for good, relevant content. Make sure your story aligns with their experience and area of focus.

Let the writers know you’ve read their work. Most people respond best when they are shown personal attention. Journalists are no different. When pitching your story, start with a personal reference to grab their attention. You can reference a previous article they wrote or mention a past achievement:

“Hi Dan, I thought your last article on startups was …”

This will demonstrate that you were thoughtful and respectful of the person’s time. Check out their profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Do some homework first.

Pitch a story, not your company or product. If you are looking for press coverage it’s because you want a broader audience to know about your product or service. To do this, try to tie your company or product to a hot trend in current events so that it becomes relevant to a broader base. For example, one recent company I covered was building a new home security system. Instead of pitching me on their product, they pitched me on the fact that they raised over $180,000 on their own crowd funding site during a time when crowd-funding was getting a lot of attention. The story was how they raised money. The result was more coverage for their company.

Don’t hire a PR firm to do it. I respect the hustle of people trying to make their business grow. So when I get an email from a hired PR shop, I think to myself, why didn’t the founder of the company send me the note instead? If press is so important to them, why push it off to someone else? Steve Jobs for example would personally spend time, lots of time, chatting up the press. Be like Steve. Spend some time curating relationships with those that can help amplify your message.

Make it exclusive to that journalist. Journalists love exclusive stories because in the world of content exclusivity is a competitive advantage. When trying to get press coverage, let the journalist know that you will make your story available to them and them only. This will create more motivation for that person to write a story about you.

When it comes to press coverage just remember that journalists are people and not robots that crank out words in publications. If you can craft a story that is unique, adds value to a specific journalist, and can convey the message in a personal and respectful way, then it’s a win-win for everyone involved. The journalist will get a great story to write and you will get some nice exposure for your new shiny object.

5 Tricks To Get Press For Your Business Or Startup Read More »

From Law To Liquor: How One Corporate Attorney Left Law To Start A Luxury Tequila Company

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Over the past few months I’ve heard the same brutally refreshing remarks from a handful of friends: They all want to quit their job as a lawyer so that they can pursue a business of their own. As one corporate lawyer friend put it, “it’s rewarding to help my clients with their business but I think it would be entirely more satisfying if it were a business of my own.”

This is one of the reasons a new tequila company called Qui Tequila was launched. Pete Girgis, a once corporate attorney, felt the same way and decided to leave his corporate gig so that he could launch a tequila company. Pete put it this way.

“I was at a big firm where I felt like a cog in the wheel.  There wasn’t a sense of creation.  Growing up, my father was a small business owner who owned liquor stores that I managed while in school. I had a passion for the spirits business and was lucky to have met my cofounders while practicing law. We are like brothers.  We saw a great opportunity in the luxury tequila market. Now every time I walk into a bar or restaurant and see someone enjoying Qui, it is incredibly satisfying.”

Pete’s leap of faith to start his own business is now paying off. His tequila is now carried by dozens of liquor stores like Sherry-Lehmann, Bottlerocket Wine & Spirits, Park Ave Liquor Shop, Chelsea Wine Vault and prestigious hospitality venues like the Bowery Hotel, the Standard, Lure Fishbar, Casa La Femme, Darby, 1OAK, the General, and La Cenita.

Although hard work and hustle are two key ingredients to Pete’s success, he was able to share some more tips for future x-lawyers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Education Matters. Although he doesn’t practice law anymore, Pete’s academic background as a JD/MBA provided him with critical building blocks to build his business.

“If I had to do it over, I would have still studied law and business. Starting a successful business is incredibly challenging and big businesses can have lots of complexities. I’m a firm believer that a strong foundation in the business and the legal worlds only helps your likelihood of success.”

Create a unique product. Pete and his team spent a lot of time meticulously developing a product that they would be proud of and the once lawyer is now a full blown tequila connoisseur.

“On the product side, Qui is the first Platinum Extra-Añejo Tequila in the world. So after the tequila is made, it rests in French Bordeaux and American Whiskey barrels for three and a half years.  This aging process gives it a rich flavor, character and beautiful aroma. Then we filter it 9 times and distill it a third time for an incredibly smooth finish. No one has done that before and as a result, we just won Gold in the Spirits of the Americas Competition.”

Have a good distribution strategy. In the world of liquors and spirits, it is incredibly difficult to stand out. Pete and his partners figured they could create a unique product and distribute it in a competitive landscape by targeting specific market segments.

“We knew that New York was one of the most challenging spirits markets in the world, but if we could win here, we could go anywhere.  We set out to create a brand that was more elegant, sophisticated and cosmopolitan then the rest with a juice that was equally as refined.  So far, Qui has had great traction in the fashion, film, music and art worlds because of our focus on strong product-market fit and distribution.”

So if you are thinking about leaving your corporate job to start your own business, just remember that hard work, hustle and good planning can pay off. And then maybe you too will see your product in a nice window display like the one above.

From Law To Liquor: How One Corporate Attorney Left Law To Start A Luxury Tequila Company Read More »

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