Thrilled to announce Ryan Leahy as our new Head of Partnerships! Ryan’s proven track record in leading cost-saving innovations & managing integral partnerships at @flexport and @Shopify will be a game-changer for our mission to simplify and supercharge global ecommerce growth.
In 2018, I wanted to build the Rocket Internet of DTC.
Pangaea would focus on the big TAM in international markets (<10% of ecom is in the US)
Here was our plan:
• Incubate / clone DTC concepts that were hitting a major cultural trend
• Launch in as many markets as possible before anyone else
• Use Facebook for marketing across geos (punt the channel diversification problem)
• Figure out ops along the way
But it wasn't a straight line.
Here's what we got right
• International sales were a massive factor in our growth. ~50% of our business came from outside the US.
• We built two sizeable 8-figure brands in 3.5 years. Lumin (men's skincare) & Meridian (grooming) are capital-efficient.
Here’s what we didn’t consider
• Building 1 large brand is hard
• 2 brands were barely possible
• 3-10 brands? Impossible
We thought we’d templatize the brand-building process by executing our paid ads strategy. But we were wrong.
Building a brand involves
• Perfecting your product experience
• A deep understanding of consumer insights
• Defining why you're selling and what you want to be known for and sticking to it
• Becoming unforgettable
We needed super creative minds obsessing over the correct problems every day to get the above right.
In the long run, we prefer to take a $50M brand to $200M+ than to build and maintain ten $20M brands.
Whenever we saw subscale DTC brands, we noticed their game got more brutal over time.
They couldn’t build the brand halo or build enough awareness to keep a low acquisition cost. Their CAC degraded, and competition existentially hurt them.
They required nimbleness and outstanding leadership to survive, even on a small scale.
Hence, we doubled down on our two most prominent brands and let go of our version (oversimplified focus on brand) of the factory model.
In the brand-building game, we're only going for #1. We're either category-defining or not worth existing.
The big international expansion insight?
We can't start 30 leading brands (quickly and with our current strengths), but our platform can power 1000s.
Our international thesis at Pangaea was spot on, but we needed a different approach.
So that’s why we started @openborderhq: International growth in a bundle.
Considering to scale internationally? Let's chat!