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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:07 Speaker 3 It's very hard to, like turn a side hustle into
00:00:02:07 - 00:00:03:23 Speaker 3 something that's venture scalable.
00:00:03:23 - 00:00:07:02 Speaker 3 Everyone was telling me, you're never going to close a round in December,
00:00:07:02 - 00:00:09:18 Speaker 3 in my case, anyway, a bit of a load of crap,
00:00:09:18 - 00:00:13:11 Speaker 3 It took us a long time to find out ideal, investor profile.
00:00:13:11 - 00:00:15:16 Speaker 3 to get to that point, we had to speak to
00:00:15:16 - 00:00:17:14 Speaker 3 almost 1000 investors.
00:00:17:14 - 00:00:20:24 Speaker 3 You do deal with like 99, 95% no's.
00:00:20:24 - 00:00:23:22 Speaker 3 We took the approach. We were just going to build the actual product really fast.
00:00:23:22 - 00:00:28:11 Unknown You.
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00:01:05:15 - 00:01:06:23 Speaker 1 Nate, welcome to the show.
00:01:06:24 - 00:01:10:15 Speaker 3 Thank you. Thanks for having me. First in person one, two. It's pretty cool.
00:01:10:17 - 00:01:21:04 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's it's a really cool space that we have today. I would love to go back to the very beginning. So what was the initial problem that you and you set out to solve?
00:01:21:08 - 00:01:44:08 Speaker 3 Yeah. So, we met like, just before the at the residency. For those who don't know, antlers, Global investor, and they have an accelerator program across Australia. We basically come up with an idea to stress test that idea and then get a chance to pitch for, VC investment a couple months later. So drew and I met drew, super technical.
00:01:44:08 - 00:02:09:04 Speaker 3 I was super commercial and marketing focused. He was a ex CTO at a energy startup, and I had just launched a OVO, been part of a team doing something at Impact in London. So we kind of had that impact focus, and aligned on that front. Initially we wanted to build a marketplace to challenge Depop, eBay, Etsy, because we quickly realized that Australia is a huge textile waste.
00:02:09:08 - 00:02:31:20 Speaker 3 But, there's we're also hoarders as well. So we hold on to a lot of, a lot of clothing, a lot of other bits and pieces, fashion being the main, main piece. And so, yeah, we figured that that selling just must be difficult, which is why people hoard. And so marketplace was the first kind of venture idea that we had.
00:02:31:22 - 00:02:48:18 Speaker 3 But after speaking to, like, hundreds of buyers and sellers, it became very apparent that, buying wasn't the problem. I think there's a lot of choices to buy. It's selling. That was the problem. So instead we shifted our focus and doubled down on the seller proposition, which is something that was a little bit foreign to us at the time.
00:02:48:18 - 00:03:06:12 Speaker 3 But as we looked at it from a global, global point of view, it's actually quite a common product or people have tried to do this before. And so we felt, we hadn't heard of any of these, so therefore they can't be that big. So we decided to try and build the best one globally. And then, yeah, it just happened.
00:03:06:12 - 00:03:17:07 Speaker 3 The AI and stuff was, evolving. Drew had a master's in AI, and so we were thinking of, ways of making the product better. And and that's how we birthed shopfront. Really?
00:03:17:09 - 00:03:18:19 Speaker 1 Yeah, I love that. And
00:03:18:19 - 00:03:23:19 Speaker 1 For those that are a little bit unfamiliar with Shopfront, could you describe briefly what it is? Yeah.
00:03:23:19 - 00:03:44:05 Speaker 3 Cool. So, we are a platform or a set of tools that sit between anyone selling fashion products and all the marketplaces like Grailed, Depop, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and our first kind of products, as part of that tool set, is to list your products across every marketplace at once. So in a few clicks.
00:03:44:07 - 00:04:08:10 Speaker 3 And so when it sells on one, we'll take it off the rest. So So giving you, 4 or 5 times the chance of sale as opposed to listing on just one marketplace, but also streamlining that process of listing using AI. So image recognition and removing the background, all those bits and pieces we handle, which means When the products like fully ready, you just need to upload your photos or import your photos and we do the rest for you. including tagging.
00:04:08:10 - 00:04:11:00 Speaker 3 And then map that to every marketplace for you. So,
00:04:11:00 - 00:04:24:06 Speaker 3 to take the listing process down from 15 or 20 minutes to 1 or 2 minutes. So, yeah, that's the initial product. And then we've got like wraparound services as well. So it's going to be, a full suite of tools.
00:04:24:09 - 00:04:26:21 Speaker 1 give me an idea of what these wrap rounds could look like.
00:04:26:21 - 00:04:52:07 Speaker 3 Yeah. So we realized that inventory is an issue for a lot of sellers, especially like, especially professional sellers. So we're working on ways that we can, find them new sourcing, sorceries, sources that I can get, more stock. There's also listing generation and tagging tools. So, so making sure the product is fit for, the marketplace getting it SEO optimized as well is important.
00:04:52:07 - 00:05:00:02 Speaker 3 And then there's a couple other features which, we're keeping under wraps for the time use case. Someone looks into this thing and wants to do the same thing.
00:05:00:04 - 00:05:17:03 Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, like, as someone that has been on Depop and, Poshmark and all those resellers, I completely understand the value proposition. Like I was also trying to sell all my clothes before moving from the US over to Australia, and it was such a cumbersome process to the point where it's just easier to donate the whole thing.
00:05:17:03 - 00:05:18:00 Speaker 3 Yeah.
00:05:18:02 - 00:05:33:01 Speaker 1 Throw it away. Yeah. And even donations like some of these, their stores, like, they can't go through the entire inventory list, and only accepting a certain amount of items because obviously the manpower to put it on is a whole other process. Yeah.
00:05:33:01 - 00:05:35:02 Speaker 1 And I would love to touch on the point of
00:05:35:02 - 00:05:43:04 Speaker 1 So there are more and more residencies, launch programs and accelerators these days designed to help aspiring founders launch business.
00:05:43:06 - 00:05:53:03 Speaker 1 You, Andrew, met in a similar setting at the antler residency program. What were some of your thoughts in terms of pros and cons building in this type of setting?
00:05:53:17 - 00:06:13:05 Speaker 3 I think if you're a first time founder, it'd be very difficult to build without that kind of setting. I just don't think it would just take you, like, 5 or 10 times longer to understand where you're, not hitting the mark in terms of how you should be setting up a business or proposition before getting into the VC world.
00:06:13:07 - 00:06:32:00 Speaker 3 And accelerators like at Antler have experts who kind of see thousands of ideas a year come through that channel so they can quickly tell you if something's, going to be looked at. Positively by an investor, because they are an investor, they can tell you that the market's not big enough. So maybe it's worth bootstrapping and all those sort of things,
00:06:32:04 - 00:06:37:19 Speaker 3 I don't think you would realize or understand if you're just trying to go at it by yourself.
00:06:37:19 - 00:06:41:16 Speaker 3 I also think you need to be full time in an ideal. So
00:06:41:16 - 00:06:50:20 Speaker 3 It's very hard to, like turn a side hustle into something that's venture scalable. because there's a lot of work that needs to be done before you even think about generating any revenue.
00:06:50:21 - 00:06:59:14 Speaker 3 Like the amount of work that we've done in the last four months is immense, and we could have never done it, as a side hustle and we've only generated a small amount of revenue so far.
00:06:59:14 - 00:07:09:17 Speaker 3 so, yeah, all the, all those little things, taking into consideration, I think, an accelerator as a first time founder, doing it for the first time, is definitely worth it.
00:07:09:19 - 00:07:30:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's great that you mentioned, building it is a full time job because I remember when I reached out to you early January, right after the holiday season's just at as you had closed a funding round. I remember you telling me you spent Christmas and New Year's completely locked in, making sure every funding document was signed.
00:07:30:18 - 00:07:38:00 Speaker 1 I love to touch on the challenge of building fast and balancing with personal time. How do you manage that?
00:07:38:02 - 00:07:40:07 Speaker 2 Yeah, I.
00:07:40:09 - 00:07:54:18 Speaker 3 It's a good question. I tell it like we're not in Silicon Valley, so I don't think we need to, like, embed this hustle culture into us here. But I think definitely if things need to be done, they just have to be done.
00:07:54:18 - 00:08:00:18 Speaker 3 It was a weird thing over Christmas and New Years because Everyone was telling me, you're never going to close a round in December, like you.
00:08:00:18 - 00:08:13:03 Speaker 3 Basically, if you haven't raised in November, you might as well just cut around and and just reengage in January, which to be honest, thought was, in my case, anyway, a bit of a load of crap,
00:08:13:03 - 00:08:21:05 Speaker 3 because if you've got interested parties, and, you know, people that you speaking to that are pretty warm, I think you should just carry on.
00:08:21:07 - 00:08:44:08 Speaker 3 Yeah. Trying to close that over Christmas, because if they like you and they keen to invest in you, they will, and they won't wait two months to do it because they could have missed the boat. So, and we have had that where there was some potential investors, that might not have been ready and then reengaged, in January and haven't been able to, unfortunately, get them on board because the round had already closed.
00:08:44:08 - 00:09:07:18 Speaker 3 So, yeah. But in terms of personal life and work life, I'm massive in trying to balance both. But just make sure you're fully optimizing the work side. So I try to de-stress as much as possible, in the evenings and weekends, but sometimes it's not possible. So you need to, like, pick your battles in a way.
00:09:07:20 - 00:09:13:07 Speaker 3 For example, I've got engaged in the middle of pitching, like in September.
00:09:13:09 - 00:09:14:08 Speaker 2 Yeah. Thanks.
00:09:14:13 - 00:09:40:07 Speaker 3 But, like, this is like, deep into when we were in fundraising mode. And I think that helped take a bit of the pressure off the whole experience. I think if I was just in a cave, like fully focused on one part of the business, you almost get to tunnel visioned into what you're doing and then allow yourself to like, breathe and like re, refocus or readjust your focus.
00:09:40:09 - 00:09:59:18 Speaker 3 And obviously that's my experience, I think some other businesses and some other, sort of times in your business journey, you can't take that breather, which is completely fair. But I think, things like having a partner, not having a dog, making sure I exercise. Like those are three key things that really helped me for the last 12 months.
00:09:59:20 - 00:10:21:14 Speaker 3 I feel like if I was just by myself, it would be. Yeah, I might not have even got this far because I'd just be too burnt out. I think managing burnout is incredibly. Yeah, important because you can obviously grind, grind, grind for six months, but then if you switch it off for three months because you, you literally can't do anything like this, that can do more damage than, than good.
00:10:21:15 - 00:10:23:09 Speaker 2 So yeah.
00:10:23:11 - 00:10:36:18 Speaker 3 Yeah, that's my take on on balance, I think it's incredibly important. And yeah, I've definitely seen it. A lot of other successful businesses take on board that same mantra. We trying to yeah. Not not, not burnout. Really.
00:10:36:24 - 00:10:37:21 Speaker 2 Yeah.
00:10:37:21 - 00:10:53:10 Speaker 1 yeah. And I can't imagine, like, dealing with all the kind of rejections regarding, like, fundraising that must have been taken a mental toll as well. Yeah. If you weren't taking that time, like, burnout is definitely something like on the horizon.
00:10:53:10 - 00:11:04:19 Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, it's like we took the approach because, like, I just came from four years in London, so my network was, super thin in Australia when it came to like people who would invest. And so we
00:11:04:19 - 00:11:14:09 Speaker 3 It took us a long time to find out ideal, investor profile. And so to get to that point, we had to speak to almost 1000 investors.
00:11:14:09 - 00:11:27:12 Speaker 3 potentially not speak to, but reach out to almost 1000 investors, just on the whole spectrum of investors, just to kind of see who had interest and who was a fit, which is an incredibly time consuming process.
00:11:27:14 - 00:11:30:14 Speaker 3 But it was necessary because, like you said,
00:11:30:14 - 00:11:33:24 Speaker 3 You do deal with like 99, 95% no's.
00:11:33:24 - 00:11:57:12 Speaker 3 And if you're not targeting enough investors, every know can be a really big hit to your kind of, potential pipeline of investors. And I don't think many people understand that that's the you almost need to treat it like a sales pipeline, especially in the pre-seed stage where you don't have much revenue or product like a fear or customer love and things like that.
00:11:57:12 - 00:12:10:22 Speaker 3 It's really just you selling the business and the mission and where it could go. And the market size, which are not exact sciences. So it's really about, yeah, treating it like a sales pipeline essentially.
00:12:10:24 - 00:12:18:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. So seems like the fundraising process was smooth sailing. Do you want to tell us more about it?
00:12:18:09 - 00:12:42:00 Speaker 3 Yeah, I wouldn't say it was smooth sailing. I'd say it took us about five months to close, maybe a bit less. For the first two months, it was. So I had warmed up a lot of investors. I had had, like, my top five that I thought were almost the sure thing before I started fundraising. I had a sure thing, but I was pretty confident, which was such a naive thought to have.
00:12:42:02 - 00:12:57:08 Speaker 3 And then I kind of set I was fundraising, like I, I call it pressing go or a lot of people call it pressing go. And it's like, all right, we're fundraising now. And it's kind of when you send out the update to the investors and be like, okay, ready to engage? Like, let's, let's kind of see if we can proceed to next steps.
00:12:57:10 - 00:13:18:01 Speaker 3 And for the first two months, because I was so focused on this batch of investors that I thought were going to convert, it was almost like either radio silence or long delays between replies. And then it was after a month or so, it was like one, no. Then the second no, and then the third no. And then, on top of that, all the outreach you're doing on LinkedIn, you're getting no, no, no sorry.
00:13:18:01 - 00:13:42:07 Speaker 3 No deploying like just you're constantly bombarded with no's. And that was because it took us a long time to get the first yes. And then try and figure out what that profile of a yes investor looked like, and then double down on them. And it's kind of like kind of like finding your ICP for, for business, finding your first set of customers, like, takes a while and that takes a while to find that ideal customer profile.
00:13:42:07 - 00:14:04:15 Speaker 3 And then once you do, you kind of just go aggressive on targeting that customer. I think we took the same approach for fundraising. Because until someone says yes, you don't really know where everyone sits. Yeah. Especially like I said, at our stage, I think later stage or when you're more important in market or if you're a second time founder, these things probably come a bit more naturally and organically.
00:14:04:17 - 00:14:30:00 Speaker 3 But yeah, as a first time founder, it's really just like figuring it out as you go. A lot of the time. Which I, I'm semi prepared for, but I wasn't fully prepared for by any means. And I think if I was to go into another fundraise, I'd be a lot more strategic. That process, I think you just need to go through that, shitshow of a process like that, all that know and all that.
00:14:30:02 - 00:14:45:15 Speaker 3 Yeah. All that, all that negative feedback, constructive, but negative feedback and then kind of come out the other side resilient and ready for the next one. So yeah, that was my kind of takeaway, but it wasn't easy by any means. Really, really difficult as kind of.
00:14:45:19 - 00:14:46:16 Speaker 1 Yeah.
00:14:46:18 - 00:14:54:03 Speaker 3 Yeah, a lot of the things that people say, it was like the opposite outcome. It was kind of. Yeah, just learning as you go.
00:14:54:05 - 00:14:58:19 Speaker 1 And out of curiosity, like, how many months did it take you to get your first. No. Yes.
00:14:59:00 - 00:15:15:13 Speaker 3 So we had a couple yeses pretty quickly, but they were like in the form of ten K, 15 K, 20 k. So in the first couple of months, we maybe had 75 to 100 K in angels kind of not committed but like very warm.
00:15:15:15 - 00:15:16:04 Speaker 1 Yeah.
00:15:16:06 - 00:15:37:12 Speaker 3 But at the back of your mind you've got a target of 750. You can't just get away with 100 K like that's why it's great. But you can't close around on 100 K because you know you're not doing them a service and it's just not going to get us enough to get to that next stage. So it was still very stressful, even though you are getting some yeses.
00:15:37:14 - 00:16:08:21 Speaker 3 And then I think the big pivotal point was, getting a more sophisticated ad angel on board for, for, for like 50 K who also had a great, network and presence and, reputation in the industry that we were building in. And then shortly after that, we got our first VC, and this was all kind of 2 or 3 months into the fundraise, which, I say was unexpected, but was, yeah, I didn't kind of that wasn't how I thought the fundraise is going to go two months before.
00:16:08:23 - 00:16:33:01 Speaker 3 So, and then and then even then when it's kind of secured for 300 K, for example, it's still not enough and you're still thinking, okay, I've got this VC, I've got this angel. But then they're also going to be disappointed if I don't hit the 750. So I almost got to go even more aggressive now that I've got like the first people in, because you could potentially then lose those investors if you don't get the rest of the investors.
00:16:33:03 - 00:16:55:12 Speaker 3 Not to say that they put a contingency on me or anything. They're actually very founder friendly investors. It was just psychologically, you're thinking, I don't want to disappoint these investors when I've told them that, you know, that I'm going to aggressively target XYZ ahead and hopefully achieve a positive outcome. So, yeah, contrary to what people think, I think people think that you get the first investor and the rest follows.
00:16:55:12 - 00:17:17:16 Speaker 3 But I think if you get the first investor, you almost double your pressure to get the rest. So, you got a bit more confident, of course. And you've got a bit more leverage to engage new investors, but, it doesn't make it like ten times easier or anything. I think you just have more pressure to, like, execute and and aggressively, find the missing pieces of the puzzle for your for your fundraise.
00:17:17:18 - 00:17:23:23 Speaker 1 Yeah. And then I'm curious, like how did you thought about, like, reaching out to the for some of the first few angels?
00:17:24:03 - 00:17:46:23 Speaker 3 Just LinkedIn, to be honest. Yeah. I did this thing where I reached out to a lot of people had so many calls, like 20 or 30 calls a week, and then every time some would say, you know, I'd try and get them to introduce me to someone else. So I'll try and keep that pipeline building. And even if it was a negative experience, not a negative experience, but like a constructive experience, try and get something positive out of it.
00:17:46:23 - 00:18:02:19 Speaker 3 And a lot of the time, if that potential investor likes you but at the business wasn't right for them, they'll likely point you in the direction of someone they might know who might be interested. I just kept that, kind of kept that referral pace going until we found the right fit.
00:18:02:19 - 00:18:05:00 Speaker 3 But yeah, it was it was mainly LinkedIn outreach.
00:18:05:00 - 00:18:29:02 Speaker 3 I'd say, that was and then a little bit of networking events in person. Also like reaching out to investors on their website. So submitting the pitch deck on their website form and things like that. We tried like everything was I would say I was like very relentless in our process of outreach. Like, I wasn't I almost wasn't letting the nos affect like the next step.
00:18:29:02 - 00:18:38:23 Speaker 3 It was just like, okay, no, let's move on to the next one. And try and find that that needle in the haystack, which I think everybody tries to tries to do.
00:18:39:00 - 00:19:07:00 Speaker 1 Yeah. And I also say congrats on the team for raising 800 K. Yeah. In a very tough funding environment, especially towards the end of the year. And some of the things that you mentioned in terms of being relentless and, creating bridges through referrals and building warm connections, I would love to learn a bit more about, like, how you thought about building and maintaining relationships with investors, advisors or even potential customers.
00:19:07:02 - 00:19:28:02 Speaker 3 Yeah, I think, I think that all important like, to be honest, all the people that have said no to us are still on our current investor updates. So keep them informed on where the business is at, because a lot of the time, you know, we were pre-revenue we were in, sustainability and e-commerce, which, you know, for some people isn't the sexiest sort of industry.
00:19:28:04 - 00:19:48:24 Speaker 3 And it just wasn't the right stage for a lot of the people were speaking to, for example, which speaks to a lot who want to see, a few hundred K in IRR or, customer love. That's like showing real good retention and minimal churn, which we just weren't able to do with our products. And our product didn't really have a simple MVP that we could test out.
00:19:48:24 - 00:19:55:06 Speaker 3 It was kind of I mean, there was, but it wouldn't really demonstrate the viability of the actual product. So we
00:19:55:06 - 00:20:00:08 Speaker 3 We took the approach. We were just going to build the actual product really fast. into like the leanest version possible,
00:20:00:08 - 00:20:15:19 Speaker 3 which we're at now. And then, yeah, just find the early believers who understood the space. But, yeah, I would say that even all the nos, we still keep engaged because a lot of them have come back to me and like said, congrats.
00:20:15:21 - 00:20:40:05 Speaker 3 Really happy to see your growth. And I know that they'll be super valuable in the next 6 to 12 months when we kind of start thinking about that potential next fundraise, or part of our growth. So, yeah, I mean, I just kind of kept it authentic, to be honest. I wasn't trying to sell anything that wasn't true, or I wasn't trying to position us as like, you know, the something that we weren't.
00:20:40:05 - 00:20:57:24 Speaker 3 And I think that resonated with investors. I took a very personable approach. And I think that paid off. And I think that's. Yeah, you can't be too aggressive, but you've got to be relentless. So it's like figuring out this nice balance where people can get a feel for you as a founder of the business, as a founder.
00:20:58:01 - 00:21:12:13 Speaker 3 But you're not coming across as cocky and just, naive in where it could go. So, I think we maintain that. Well, and now it's just about demonstrating, demonstrating that as a business is what we're doing in this next phase.
00:21:12:15 - 00:21:17:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, I love that. And it seems like fundraising is really a full time job hunt.
00:21:17:10 - 00:21:53:14 Speaker 3 Yeah, 100%. I think that's why I, I don't think the CTO should ever be in pitches, or at least like the initial call because, you know, you do hundreds of pitches potentially. That's hundreds of hours that could be put on product development as opposed to, pitching. And it is a full time job. So I think, you know, you should have just one dedicated person in the team, for fundraising and the CTO or CTO, whoever else is in your team should only really be brought in either as part of due diligence or as the technical check or whatever the process is for that particular investor.
00:21:53:16 - 00:22:19:01 Speaker 3 I think I've seen a lot of people bring the full team on for every pitch, and that's where I could kind of really put your business on a standstill. Yeah. Which is, yeah, when it takes like six months, it is not, not really good for the business. Because you also want to be showing like product development and uplift in your, capabilities and new customer channels and new integrations, like, you want to be sprinkling all this stuff through your fundraise as well.
00:22:19:01 - 00:22:21:12 Speaker 3 So yeah. Yeah.
00:22:21:14 - 00:22:39:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's super valuable. And I want to segue a little bit and talk about some broader industry trends that you're seeing. So we're kind of in this new era of sustainable fashion. So second hand clothing, recycled fabric, textiles, what is driving the shift?
00:22:39:03 - 00:22:57:23 Speaker 3 I think, it's a combination of cost of living and just awareness of people. I think the buying side is, is probably a lot better. Is definitely a lot better than the selling side. So, like I said, going back to why we started shop front, I think people are open to buying second hand. I think that's that's obviously on the up.
00:22:57:23 - 00:23:15:09 Speaker 3 Everyone knows the market is huge and exploding. You've got brands now dabbling in the second market, etc. but I still think there's like a lot of friction in the selling process. And I think that's that's kind of where we want to see more of a behavior change and more of a shift. And that will ultimately get more stock on the buyer side.
00:23:15:09 - 00:23:37:24 Speaker 3 So you can obviously see the impact if more people are selling, more people can buy. And I think that supply side is the root, root piece of the puzzle and which the piece that we want to solve. But yeah, trend wise, I think it's, it's like when things are so expensive and inflated you, I think buying second hand is just the more sustainable and economical choice.
00:23:38:01 - 00:24:07:14 Speaker 3 Yeah. And personally I, I've, I like 9080 to 90% of my wardrobe is either from Depop or eBay or salvos or something. And I think that you find more, durable clothes, like better lasting clothes, things that have stood the test of time in terms of trends and quality. So I just think consciously people are starting to be aware of that, especially when you can buy stuff from like Boohoo and whatnot, and they'll break down after 1 or 2 as like people are going to catch on to that.
00:24:07:14 - 00:24:16:00 Speaker 3 And that's obviously a more expensive habit than buying something secondhand or higher quality that is more sustainable.
00:24:16:02 - 00:24:32:16 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. That's super cool. And I'm curious, other than the kind of automation side which, shelf fund is helping, what are other bottlenecks that you see in the operational workflow of a second hand seller?
00:24:32:18 - 00:24:56:07 Speaker 3 Logistics is a huge one. I think, especially in Australia. It's just very hard to move stock, particularly large amounts of stock from, like, one place to another warehouse. It's just massive time sink costs sink, and it's not really environmentally friendly if you're kind of moving, goods through transit constantly. So, I think that's a big bottleneck.
00:24:56:07 - 00:25:04:20 Speaker 3 We have some ideas of how we can support that, especially from, like a, from a supply side for the sellers and, excess stock.
00:25:05:23 - 00:25:28:10 Speaker 3 Side. But, yeah, we haven't really cracked that yet. So I think logistics is a bottleneck. Pricing is a bit of a weird one. So it's purely based on because obviously it's not a new, item. It's based on demand. So you'll see, like some second hand shoes, for example, might be worth more than their retail price, but some other second hand goods you would never be able to sell at a higher than retail.
00:25:28:10 - 00:25:50:00 Speaker 3 It has to be like 20, 30, 40% less than retail. So, bit more accuracy on pricing is something that I, and there's a lot of businesses doing that really well, especially in like the UK and other areas. But for now we kind of just rely on, on scraping and other things and our, sort of, data points.
00:25:50:02 - 00:26:06:24 Speaker 3 So, yeah, pricing is a different one. I think that's where a lot of the, conscious, decision making comes from as well. Like if you're selling something like how much do I sell it for is one of the biggest sort of question marks. Am I like and if you overprice it, your chance of sale heavily decreases.
00:26:06:24 - 00:26:21:01 Speaker 3 If you underprice it, you know, maybe not getting as much as you should. So all these sort of decisions, I think, play a role in that friction, piece. But, yeah, we're looking at ways we can, fix that to.
00:26:21:03 - 00:26:22:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's super cool.
00:26:22:11 - 00:26:43:00 Speaker 3 And measurements as well. I think sizing sizing plays a big role in the secondary market because each brand has a different size chart. And if you're talking about vintage clothes that might have shrunk or stretched, you can you can kind of mislead or misinterpret if something's going to fit you. So accuracy on measurements is important. I think I can play a role in that.
00:26:43:00 - 00:26:46:10 Speaker 3 So we're exploring its pieces in that space too.
00:26:46:12 - 00:27:09:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's super cool. And definitely as a buyer, I can definitely relate with all of these struggles. While like buying second hand items, especially buying them online. So like Depop, Poshmark and things like that. Yeah. So moving forward, exciting 2025 coming up, what are some of the team's top priorities?
00:27:09:19 - 00:27:31:24 Speaker 3 Yeah, we're now a team of four, which is a five, actually, which is exciting. So that our new dev start this week, we've got a new marketing community manager who's fantastic. It's really just about finding, I wouldn't say product market fit. That's where we can take a bit longer by launching and finding out first, solid community of sellers, I think is what we want to get to this year.
00:27:32:01 - 00:27:48:17 Speaker 3 As well as exploring some of these other relationships that we can tap into. So, whether we go down a sort of B2B route and just finding new ways of accessing sellers, we also really want to engage the long tail of sellers. So people who maybe aren't professional but like sell casually, like to a clear out.
00:27:48:17 - 00:28:09:22 Speaker 3 So how can we best provide tools for them to, to sell things much easier without having to be a professional seller? But making them feel like a professional seller, if that makes sense. The kind of, building some excitement into the process, is what we want to explore. And I think ultimately we just want to be that first point of call where if you're selling something, it's like, can you shop around to sell it?
00:28:09:24 - 00:28:13:15 Speaker 3 That's like the dream for anyone selling fashion.
00:28:13:17 - 00:28:20:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, I love that. And seems like a really fun and busy year ahead. Well, I.
00:28:20:01 - 00:28:22:13 Speaker 3 Wouldn't say it's fun for.
00:28:22:15 - 00:28:22:23 Speaker 2 It is.
00:28:23:03 - 00:28:24:03 Speaker 3 It is fun. It is fun.
00:28:24:03 - 00:28:38:22 Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, yeah. Thank you for joining us. Your stories and insights have been super helpful. Yeah, I would love to see what the team has going on in 2025 and then maybe hopefully have you back and talk about progress. Yeah.
00:28:38:22 - 00:28:42:13 Speaker 3 Looking forward to see how the podcast evolves as well. So yeah, thank you.
00:28:42:14 - 00:28:42:20 Speaker 1 So
00:28:42:20 - 00:28:48:24 Unknown You.
00:29:26:19 - 00:29:55:18
00:31:07:22 - 00:31:21:23 Speaker 1 cool okay. Awesome. Yeah. The only thing I might ask is if we can take some photos for thumbnails. Yeah. For like real thumbnails.
00:31:22:00 - 00:31:24:05 Speaker 3 Like just here.
00:31:24:07 - 00:31:29:18 Speaker 1 I don't know. I haven't thought about this. I was trying to go with, like, a. Yeah.
00:31:29:20 - 00:31:37:00 Speaker 2 Let's do, like, a quick, Yeah. For the camera. Yep. Oh.
00:31:37:02 - 00:31:46:04 Speaker 1 Wait. Can we make sure that it's, like, appropriate for reals. As in, like, let's, like vertical. Like it could be as big and then cut to vertical.
00:31:46:04 - 00:31:46:18 Speaker 3 Yeah.
00:31:46:20 - 00:31:49:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, sorry. Vertical. Yeah.
00:31:49:18 - 00:32:01:07 Speaker 2 I. Want. Yeah. Can you would.
00:32:01:09 - 00:32:03:20 Speaker 1 I feel you're beating me so much into a fashion.
00:32:05:07 - 00:32:07:12 Speaker 3 I, I was struggling and still.
00:32:07:14 - 00:32:11:01 Speaker 2 See Andrew another function.
00:32:11:03 - 00:32:12:05 Speaker 3 So hot today I don't know what's,
00:32:12:10 - 00:32:14:24 Speaker 1 Oh. So freaking hot today.
00:32:15:01 - 00:32:27:08 Speaker 2 I think. Okay. Ready? 123. One more. One to. Yeah. Okay.
00:32:27:10 - 00:32:28:01 Speaker 1 Okay.
00:32:28:03 - 00:32:35:06 Speaker 2 Cool.
00:32:35:08 - 00:32:45:07 Speaker 1 Oh, can we do some standing ups? Yeah. I feel like that's kind of. I'm sorry. I don't know.
00:32:45:09 - 00:32:50:17 Speaker 1 And then we might just take some photos of you, you know? Okay, I might do some of some of just you.
00:32:50:19 - 00:32:53:24 Speaker 3 Got lots of headshots.
00:32:54:01 - 00:33:03:11 Speaker 2 Ready or, to stream.
00:33:03:13 - 00:33:07:07 Speaker 2 Ready. One, two. Three.
00:33:07:09 - 00:33:14:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. And, like, if it's possible, could I have you sitting down and then can you hold the tag? Yeah, yeah.
00:33:20:01 - 00:33:21:16 Speaker 2 Please.
00:33:21:18 - 00:33:23:24 Speaker 1 We do this. Sorry.
00:33:24:01 - 00:33:26:02 Speaker 2 Or.
00:33:26:04 - 00:33:28:04 Speaker 3 I do like the name of the podcast.
00:33:28:06 - 00:33:32:24 Speaker 1 Thank you. I was trying to go with something else, but then someone stole my favorite one.
00:33:33:04 - 00:33:33:23 Speaker 3 Oh. Was it?
00:33:34:00 - 00:33:36:02 Speaker 1 It was like, behind the hustle.
00:33:36:04 - 00:33:36:13 Speaker 3 That's good.
00:33:36:18 - 00:33:41:07 Speaker 1 So I know, right? Yeah. Thank you.
00:33:41:08 - 00:33:41:24 Speaker 2 Cool.
00:33:42:01 - 00:33:50:00 Speaker 1 Cool. Yeah. Let us know if, like, we can be helpful in, like, helping you think of that. Like how you do like the I think.
00:33:50:00 - 00:33:55:06 Speaker 3 Yeah. This I'd love to pick your brain on this sort of content because I wouldn't know where to start with.