Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali

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Latest Episodes:

0108 Jake Kassan - Turning an Indiegogo campaign into a $100M exit May 28, 2020

Today’s topics: (1:08) Moiz introduces Jake Kassan of MVMT, a men’s watches, accessories and lifestyle brand. (14:00) Jake discusses the operational issues he encountered when first starting MVMT. (17:40) MVMT did about $1m its first year, with most growth coming organically. (24:20) Moiz and Jake discuss their experiences with venture money and the state of startup founding. (30:03) Jake explains where MVMT is spending money on advertising today. (33:32) MVMT paid an influencer $150k for a post, but eschews big payments like this now, unless it’s an ongoing partnership. (39:10) Jake discusses the Movado-MVMT acquisition. (45:30) Jake talks about life post-acquisition. (51:37) Moiz and Jake discuss the future of DTC.

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0107 Chris Davis - Scaling to $170m in 4 Years and Then Going Bankrupt May 21, 2020

Today’s topics: (1:10) Moiz introduces Chris and discusses what Loot Crate is (“Comic-Con in a box”). (2:58) Loot Crate launched in 2012, by 2016 had $170M in revenue (with 600,000 subscribers) and ranked as the fastest growing e-commerce company by Inc. (6:00) Chris discusses marketing strategy with Facebook vs influencers and the importance of authenticity with influencers. (12:23) Chris discusses the kind of products Loot Crate has and how to get exclusive products and license deals. (14:11) Chris discusses raising money early on and later while the company was more successful. (18:30) After crazy initial growth, Loot Crate started losing money by growing too quickly, spending too much on marketing, and having too many products among other issues. (25:20) Dealing with debt and complexity in cap structure. (30:01) Moiz and Chris give their takes on inventory as a DTC company vs. selling brick and mortar. (34:30) Loot Crate went bankrupt (Chapter 11) and later acquired, Chris describes the process. (40:30) Chris explains what works today for marketing (fundamentals haven’t changed). (44:29) Moiz and Chris talk when to trust and not trust your gut when growing your business. (47:11) Chris lists what he would have done differently.

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0106 Jesse Horwitz - From 0 to Nine-Figures, How Jesse Horwitz Built a DTC Giant May 14, 2020

Today’s topics: (1:01) Moiz introduces Jesse Horwitz, founder and CEO of DTC contacts brand, Hubble. (03:02) Jesse explains the origins of Hubble. (05:57) Hubble soft launched, collected about 2,000 emails and began shopping the idea to investors. (06:45) Hubble raised $3.5M in May 2016, $3.7M in October and launched in November. (08:20) Jesse explains the process of procuring manufacturing partners. (21:02) Jesse discusses Hubble’s early advertising and where it was deployed. (16:00) Moiz tells the story of how Instacart got into Y Combinator by sending their interviewer a case of beer. (18:35) Hubble has diversified customer acquisition channels, but Facebook is still number one. TV and search are two and three. (21:32) Jesse reflects on how DTC brands are a product of Facebook just like TV content was created by the likes of P&G. (23:12) Hubble uses “pay-per-ticket” to verify prescriptions. An outsourced team of agents race to verify the preseptions. (28:20) Jesse discusses Hubble’s customer service operations. (31:40) Hubble outsources media buying. Jesse discusses how this is helpful and hurtful. (34:10) Jesse discusses the state of Hubble finances. It’s breakeven and still has cash in the bank. (39:10) Jesse gives his opinion on secondaries and taking money off the table. Hubble offers this to employees as well. (41:40) Jesse’s goal is to build a great business and be in control of their own destiny. (43:40) Jesse explains the venture capital cycle and its impact on funding. (49:00) Moiz asks, how should startups prepare for the economic downturn? (57:20) Jesse has been working with Andrew Yang to help with his fundraising efforts.

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0105 Paul Tran - How Manscaped Created a Nine-Figure Business by Inventing and Dominating the Pubic Grooming Industry May 07, 2020

(0:57) Moiz introduces Paul Tran, the CEO and founder of Manscaped, founded in 2016. Manscaped sells grooming products (3:25) Paul discusses the ages and gender of Manscaped’s customers (5:40) Paul talks about the lack of options in the pubic grooming space for men. Manscape capitalized on a white-space (9:10) What goes into creating the actual products (the “Lawnmower”). Manscaped sees itself as both a hardware and software company (13:40) All marketing, development, etc. are done inhouse at Manscaped. No agencies are used. They want to be super knowledgeable about all aspects of the business. Has 72 employees. (16:05) Paul reveals the origins of Manscaped’s marketing and branding (22:10) Paul talks about the challenges of scaling outside of Facebook and Google (29:20) Getting the messaging right and the initial growth of Manscaped. (33:40) Which messaging didn’t work initially? (36:18) Paul talks about the importance of running your marketing. (38:00) How to succeed being bootstrapped and the issues with raising venture too early. (44:50) What does Manscaped’s acquisition channel mix look like today? (47:55) Paul explains how roles are organized at Manscaped and the importance of hiring. (53:10) What are failures Manscaped has run into? (57:12) Paul talks about the move into brick and mortar. (58:18) There is a certain amount of seasonality in DTC, Paul explains when they see the biggest bumps. (59:55) Paul discusses using influencer marketing and how to get the most out of it. Paul suggests avoiding micro-influencers since you get limited data from them? (1:03:40) What is your (Paul’s) goal with the business? Paul thinks about creating a multi-generational business instead of one built solely for being acquired.

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0104 Nik Sharma - How To Build and Invest in Great DTC Brands Apr 30, 2020

Today's topics: (12:24) Nik gives his background, hes an investor in a handful of DTC startups. He’s hands on, does something for each brand every week (14:20) Getting domain names and handles for a startup. Nik just paid low 5-figures for judy.co (16:00) Moiz talks about how he came up with the Native name and dealing with trademark issues. Had to pay high 6-figure to get native trademark. (19:10) Talks about Nik’s brand Judy. Disaster kit - launched recently. Talk about founders and their backgrounds. (22:40) General talk about state of DTC today. Brandless shut down, Outdoor voices issues. And how will economic down-turn affect this? (31:15) Blowback around Outdoor Voices and Away. Moiz says he was Joe Exotic when running Native (37:00) Native got huge publicity once, but only drove an extra $25k in sales. Why court press then? (40:00) Talks about how to get press coverage (44:00) How to find good agencies (marketing, pr, etc)? (49:34) What agencies do you (Nik) recommend? (54:40) What are other industries that need to be disrupted? (55:50) What DTC brands do you (Nik) admire right now? (1:00:00) Discuss how much of your budget should be allocated to brand versus performance. (1:08:00) Moiz discusses subway ads Native was supposed to run on NY subways this summer. Bc of covid, ridership down 90% (1:12:20) How can someone starting out today learn about DTC advertising? Nik says he just talks to a lot of people. Looks at what other brands are doing. (1:20:04) They discuss the possibility of brands cutting acquisition costs by sharing audience

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0103 Kara Goldin - Hint Water’s Alternative Fundraising Strategies, Superbowl Ads, & Most Effective Marketing Channels Apr 23, 2020

(01:15) Kara’s story to how quitting diet soda inspired her to start Hint (7:20) How did Kara figure out the right formula? (11:52) Hint’s process & formula to make the create the end product (15:15) Hint’s bold move to not add preservatives (20:25) Hint’s first big break: Google (25:15) How Hint is servicing companies during COVID-19 (27:05) At what point did Hint raise money? (28:45) Why Hint raised from a family office, opposed to a VC (33:18) Discussing Hint’s brick & mortar storefront presence vs online (43:51) Pricing between different retailers, and how to navigate that challenge (47:35) Were expos effective for growing Hint? (50:00) Hint’s crazy Superbowl Ad story (59:00) Biggest marketing failures and how it has shaped Hint’s strategy today (1:04:50) How does Kara allocate marketing budgets? (1:12:30) Hint launching into new categories and the thought process behind it

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0102 Andrew Dudum - Bold Strategies That Propelled Hims & Hers Into Unicorn Status Apr 16, 2020

Moiz (@moizali) is joined today by Andrew Dudum (@andrewdudum), founder of hims (@wearehims), hers (@wearehers), and Atomic (@joinatomic). Today’s topics: (1:20) Andrew breaks down Atomic (2:25) How does Atomic spin up companies? (5:13) Atomic’s portfolio of innovative companies (8:16) Atomic’s founder resident program (11:50) Him’s road to unicorn status (16:00) How did hims make $1M in their first week? (18:30) Branding agencies that helped hims achieve their signature aesthetic (21:00) Him’s incredibly unique branding strategies & how they execute on the ideas (25:21) The importance of building a brand for the long term success of a startup (28:21) Managing attribution for him’s advertising (31:45) Is him profitable in 2020? (35:19) Regulatory hurdles that challenged him’s initial start (37:25) How is him’s building a moat against competitors? (41:00) Diving into him’s provider network and prescription process (42:22) How is COVID-19 affecting hims? (45:00) Where is the DTC industry heading in the next 5 years?

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0101 Nick Green - Thrive Market’s Unconventional Rise to Success Apr 09, 2020

Moiz (@moizali) is joined today by Nick Green, founder of Thrive Market (@thrivemarket) - a membership-based retailer offering natural and organic food products at reduced costs. Today’s topics: (0:47) - Moiz introduces Nick Green, and they discuss the history of Thrive Market (3:48) - How Nick and the founding team bootstrapped the business (5:09) - Groupon for x, and other fashionable business models (6:34) - Discussing Costco’s scale and negotiating position (8:08) - How much did Nick put down to start the business? (11:11) - Why Magento (12:27) - Shop Tribe, Thrive Market’s former alias (13:30) - Native’s trademark issues pre-M&A (15:30) - How did Thrive Market get their first $100,000 in sales? (19:49) - How much did Thrive Market raise from influencers? (21:28) - Are there any investors who originally didn’t want to invest, but came back at Series A? (23:46) - How big is your catalog at Year 1? (25:49) - Is there a North Star metric for understanding customer retention? (29:33) - What are some of the fastest-growing categories at Thrive Market? (32:46) - Where are you spending your money on paid acquisition channels? (35:18) - What are your top 3 performing channels? (38:03) - What is Nick’s favorite product on Thrive Market? (38:29) - What’s the most popular product on Thrive? (38:55) - Nick’s favorite indulgence product (39:55) - Will Thrive Market ever sell their products in brick and mortar stores? (40:05) - COVID-19’s impact on Thrive Market (40:59) - What is the exit strategy for Thrive?

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Coming Soon: Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali Apr 06, 2020

On April 9, The Hustle launches a new podcast, Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali. Why Moiz? He took Native from $0 to $100M in 28 months, so he can ask the tough questions that only operators have the right to ask. His rapid-fire, straight-shooting style unveils the nitty-gritty details, techniques, and strategies behind billion-dollar brands like Thrive Market, hims & hers, Hint, and more.

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