#378 – The Real Money Is In Retail with Robert Gomez
Join Kevin as he sits down with Robert Gomez, whose e-commerce journey took him from college side hustles with prohibited items on Amazon to dominating retail spaces like Walmart.com. Robert shares the gritty details of his early pitfalls, facing legal threats from well-known brands, and how he rose from the ashes to build a retail empire. Listen in as we dissect the crucial pivots and strategic moves that propelled Robert from a risky start to nationwide success, and how these experiences carved out a blueprint for e-commerce triumph.
In their candid conversation, Robert peels back the curtain on the challenging transition from a comfortable corporate job to the unpredictable world of Amazon FBA and beyond. He recounts the meticulous process of establishing an LLC, juggling a demanding consultancy role, and the relentless pursuit of his entrepreneurial vision. The chat uncovers the delicate balance of security and risk, revealing how a steadfast commitment to an independent business venture can coexist with a corporate safety net until the scales tip in favor of remarkable growth and retail partnerships.
Hear about the nuances of building robust vendor relationships, the finesse required in negotiating terms with giants like Walmart, and the comparison between Amazon sales and brick-and-mortar retail. Robert’s story is a masterclass in business strategy, showcasing the value of face-to-face supplier meetings, the art of risk-sharing, and the impact of retail presence on a brand’s success. As we discuss the journey from $500,000 to a projected $10-12 million in revenue, Robert’s insights provide a roadmap for Amazon and Walmart entrepreneurs looking to navigate the complexities of online marketplaces and retail expansion. So, tune in and take notes – this episode is a great learning experience for anyone aiming to take their brands to new heights.
In episode 379 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Robert discuss:
- 00:00 – Robert’s Unconventional E-Commerce Success
- 04:50 – Lessons Learned From Selling on Amazon
- 07:02 – Corporate to Amazon FBA Journey
- 16:06 – Getting Nationwide Distribution With Walmart
- 19:30 – Achieving Seven Figures on Amazon
- 20:09 – Building a Business With Negotiated Supplier Terms
- 24:04 – Negotiating Terms With A Potential Buyer
- 24:30 – Building a Successful Coffee Brand
- 29:49 – Sell to Retailers, Stand Out
- 40:42 – Negotiating Retail Prices With Walmart
- 46:03 – Comparing Sales on Amazon vs Walmart
- 48:50 – The Importance of Retail in Sales
- 51:27 – Navigating Retail and Online Marketplaces
- 53:01 – Expanding Internationally and Targeting Walmart
- 56:28 – Opportunities in Retail
- 58:50 – Kevin’s Golden Nugget Tip
Transcript
Kevin King:
Welcome to episode 378 of the AM/PM Podcast. This week, my guest is Robert Gomez. Robert started his e-commerce journey many, many years ago selling items that might be a little bit questionable on Amazon, but since then he’s pivoted and he’s just blown up. And where he’s really blown up is not on Amazon, it’s in retail. That’s right. He’s crushing it in the retail stores of Walmart.com. He’s in almost every store across the country. In this episode he’s going to be talking about how he did that and what a huge difference it’s made for his business and how. You should be thinking about that too. Going to learn quite a bit In the meantime. Enjoy this episode with Mr. Gomez. Welcome to the AM/PM Podcast, Robert Gomez. How are you doing, man?
Robert:
Kevin, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be on, glad to be chatting with you.
Kevin King:
Yeah, I’m glad to be here. We ran into each other. I think it was back last year at the Accelerate conference in Seattle. Was it like September or something like that?
Robert:
Yeah, it’s all pretty blurry now, but yeah, I think at Accelerate it’s when we finally talked.
Kevin King:
I know you had a pretty impressive story and we’ll get into some of that here in a minute. You were telling me some things there. I was like man dude, you got to come on the AMPM podcast. There’s some pretty cool stuff. So how long have you actually been doing this whole e-commerce game? Did you start off on Amazon, or did you start off somewhere else, or what’s your story?
Robert:
Yeah. So if we take just a step back, I guess it goes way back to 2012. At the time of college, Made the stupid mistake of launching prohibited items sourcing from China brand. That wasn’t necessarily mine, of course, and so that got me in trouble there for a little while with Amazon.
Kevin King:
So you’re going to DHgate or one of those websites, DHgate.
Robert:
I think it was called TVC Mall.
Kevin King:
Yeah, you can buy like. This is like some beauty product and it looks very similar, has a very similar name or even, in some cases, the same name, and it turns out it’s the gray market or stuff.
Robert:
In my case it was cell phone cases, and so one thing led to another. I really was just trying an experiment, bought like $100 worth of cell phone cases and by the time they came I sold, and so got tangled up there and just sold more, and thankfully they caught me within a couple months. And next time I know I had a copy of a lawsuit in the mail saying I had to pay this much money or I was going to get sued within a couple, you know, within seven days, I think.
Kevin King:
This was the manufacturer of the phone cases.
Robert:
Yes, it was Otter, Otter, otter cases.
Kevin King:
Okay, Otterbots.
Robert:
Pour one out for them, hopefully not listening. It’s been a decade.
Kevin King:
Yeah, you’re good. That’s the statute of limitations I think is up. But it’s funny you say that in 2020,. I’ve been selling on Amazon since 2001. But in 2015, I actually started doing this whole FBA model and just try it out before I was making some of my own products and sourcing. But to try it out, I did two things. I did some arbitrage. So I went, like you know, to the dollar store and like I want to see how this process works. The shipping stuff in is Amazon, all it’s cracked up to be. So I was buying things like sense of dying toothpaste or something at the dollar store and it was selling for crazy money on Amazon. But one of the other things I did is I went to DH. I went online. I didn’t know all the stuff about the differences in Alibaba and 1686 and T-Mall and all that stuff then. But there’s one called I think it’s DHgate. I think it still exists.
Robert:
DHgate. I remember DHgate 3D.
Kevin King:
There’s this. I went on the best seller list on Amazon and the top 100 for beauty. There was this like 3D fiber lash mascara. For us guys you probably don’t even know what the heck that is, and I didn’t either, but it’s like selling like hotcakes and it’s women put it on there. It makes their lashes bigger and kind of puts this fiber kind of stuff and like makes their lashes look bigger and more sexy, I guess, and so a lot of them like it. And it comes in two different tubes One’s a dry tube and one’s like the actual liquid and you have to mix the two and there’s a brand on there doing really well. And I found them on a version of them on DHgate and I bought like a $2,000 worth of it or something. It got shipped over by FedEx. I stuck it up on Amazon and I think I even didn’t do FBA, I just did a FBM. I remember I stuck them up one morning, went to get some cereal and come back and I already sold like a couple of them and I was like, holy cow, this Amazon thing actually works. This is pretty cool and I started looking at it a little bit deeper. I was like, wait a second, I didn’t just buy this from the manufacturer. These are actually off market or out the back door or fakes. And I started seeing reviews of people saying look at the serial number, look at the UPC code or something. So I actually backed off of it and I’m like okay, enough of that, I prove that this concept works. Let me go do my own stuff. So it’s interesting that you had that same story.
Robert:
Yeah, I didn’t put two and two together a private label, build a brand and that kind of thing until, of course, what’s suspended and spend years after that sort of trying to create a account the legit way and then just really starting from scratch. And those many years kind of went by and that was 2016 when I kind of picked back up on it, because at the time I still had a corporate job till many years after that still and all that. So that’s what led me back, but I never gave up. I really thought this is it. I really understood e-commerce and this whole thing fairly well. I just really learned my lesson there. But hey, better late than never, which was still proved to be a bit early.
Kevin King:
So, in the very beginning, how did you find out about Amazon 2012? Did you see somebody on take a class and see something on YouTube or something? Come across your Facebook or something.
Robert:
It was like I started on eBay and it was like selling five, 10, you know, but I can’t remember how exactly found about Amazon, but it was like one of those things that it went from eBay to quickly on Amazon and then so, like I remember putting it on Amazon and it’s like whoa, like sold 15 without even trying. You know, like wow, what is going on, and so I maxed out my credit card, so bad, like at some point. Like you know, yeah, we can go into that Terrible decisions back early on, but yeah, that was my start.
Kevin King:
So for those. So you were up for a little while, then, for four, your account got suspended by Amazon and you got a cease and desist from the from Otter box, and so you just like, oh crap, just quit. And then what did you do those next four years? Just go back to your corporate job, or were you looking for? Something else to actually sell on there.
Robert:
I had always thought in mind of coming back to it or really doing that there. I’m very like entrepreneurial, so I’m always kind of tinkering there. But basically this was around the time that I was finishing college and then I finished college, went on and got an internship at the Siemens. I moved around the US every like six months and just on the side I started trying to do the whole real estate thing. I ended up buying a couple properties, flipping them. This was around the time that was kind of like a better economy to do that, but still like trying. I remember, like once a year or so I would try to create an account and it would like get automatically suspended or whatever. You know, like back when you didn’t know what was necessarily like still linking it, you know, together or whatever. So it was until you know 2016,. I think that finally my account was made and that was because I think at that point I ran back into an FBA course. You know, at this point it was like FBA, I remember, and I, like you know, found out more clearly okay, like let’s try it again because, like FBA is like being pushed like pretty hard, and so you know, I made an LLC and all this thing and finally was able to, you know, start that account, but I was still on my corporate job and even then switch jobs, I was doing consulting and so, like even you know, doing consulting, my main customer was Facebook, so I would be on site at Facebook headquarters, sort of like doing I’m in finance but still launching this Amazon thing on the side, like I was so passionate about it. Anybody that would talk to me about it, I would talk to them about it, like I almost didn’t care about the corporate job. It was just, you know, a means to obviously get through finance the thing. And then, obviously, you know, sort of like as a backup, but like it wasn’t necessarily about the backup, it was more like building up both things, like, you know, my credibility in both ways.
Kevin King:
So what was it about Amazon that really lured you in? What was it that made so glamorous or sexier, got you so motivated that I don’t really want to do this semen stuff for Facebook. I’d rather be doing this. Is it the freedom of it? Freedom of it? Yeah, absolutely.
Robert:
Yeah, I had this thought in my mind. It was no, it was not a matter of like if or like it was just when I would be like fully, you know, full time into doing something that I, that I entrepreneur, you know. Like I started even way before then selling websites and like with Photoshop tutorial, like forums and like just all these things, when I was, like, you know, 10, 12, 13. And so, like, all that led to one thing, led to another, like those weren’t real business ventures, and it wasn’t until I went into the corporate world, also saw how things were done and at a big, you know, at the corporate level, right, like team structures, sort of like bigger vision. And so I always knew that, you know, like, whatever sort of venture I went into next, or whatever kind of business in this case it was Amazon because it just fit the lifestyle I wanted, right, like that pitch that they always had. Right, you can literally manage your business from anywhere in the world. Basically, you’re not, you know, you don’t have a boss, etc. Etc. But, like you know, those things are exaggerated a bit, but like that’s truly what, you know, what attracted me to it and I always wanted to do it at the scale that was like a company you know, out of it. I didn’t want this to be sort of like a side not that there’s anything wrong with it. I didn’t want like a side sort of gig like Etsy shop, you know, something like that. Like it was. Like you know, I’m going to try to do it bigger or not at all, you know.
Kevin King:
So that was 2016. How long was it before you were able to quit your corporate job? Did you have some money saved up where you could quit right away, or do you have to keep working the corporate job while you? Oh man.
Robert:
I didn’t quit. I quit one time. So I quit my consulting job for like eight months or so when I thought I was going to sell my business, the Amazon FBA, when the aggregator stuff was going on Probably 2021. And then I got recruited by Microsoft and I ended up working there two more years up until earlier this year.
Kevin King:
I kept my job.
Robert:
So I secured the Walmart, which we can talk more into. But you know, basically I hung up you know my corporate job until the very end, where I had a team and everything for a long while prior to me quitting myself.
Kevin King:
So this was a side hustle then, because you’re working a 40 hour week, yeah.
Robert:
I just never treated it like it. You know it was more like my corporate job was my side hustle. Thankfully, I was kind of in a situation where I was working for Microsoft remote. My team was in Seattle. It was, just, like you know, not super involved. Also, you know my full time job has been this for a long time, you know.
Kevin King:
So what’s so? From 2016 till 2023, you kept your corporate job, so you had all the health benefits, you had all that stuff that could pay the rent, and so you could basically then reinvest almost everything into growing your business, right.
Robert:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, just growing and getting through the tough times I were supply chain crisis and all these things and just you know, starting this brand right Because 2016 and 17,. I didn’t launch with this brand. I had another brand, which I still have, is just like one listing, very like cruise control kind of brand, but it’s been sort of basically sunset, but this brand was launched in 2019. And so, yeah, that still allowed me to build up a team and build up, you know, a lot of like basically the up front work that goes into what later amounted to. You know this.
Kevin King:
So but during cope, during the high times of the aggregators, you said you had an offer from an aggregator, so you actually quit your corporate job for eight months and focus on the this business or what happened there.
Robert:
Yeah, yeah, so I had quit. Regardless, I was kind of like just wanting to sort of quit, like I mean that was the goal anyways, and the deals didn’t go through. You know, deal didn’t go through. Still, friends with the, with the sea level there, that aggregator, you know, very well known name and, yeah, you know, thankfully now, that it didn’t go through, but it was basically yeah, a lot of factors went into it but, as you remember, you know a lot of deals that would fall through based on timing, based on a lot of factors there.
Kevin King:
So you were under LOI and everything. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Robert:
Yeah, LOI, maybe you know more than a month, month and a half in, you know, to the point of basically going back and forth on the APA. You know the asset purchase agreement. So, yeah, I’m very well aware of that process and yeah, it wasn’t.
Kevin King:
So you got all your documents. You know you got your data warehouse and all your documents in order and everything had to go through that whole process of finding every little thing that they request, that you’re like. I don’t have that word. I never did that. Yeah, I’m going to go and tidy everything up.
Robert:
Yeah, thankfully my background is in, you know, finance, you know in consulting, so I kind of come from the yeah, the software, finance software, implementing sort of accounting and all these sort of systems. So it’s what I like doing anyways, like just looking at a P and L and sort of looking at numbers and making sure sort of the data flows through and like the you know the land that calls get posted correctly and all that. So they were very impressed, you know. They basically like I kept hearing for our size of business they wouldn’t run into a business that was so, you know, advanced because at some point in time I had a job and had no employees and it was still a seven figure business. You know, it was just like so automated that it was pretty intense.
Kevin King:
But that what’s the goal?
Robert:
You know, the goal was always to kind of grow it and turn it into the next thing. So when that didn’t work out, I kind of just focus on growing it again. You know, like basically executing the roadmap.
Kevin King:
So now it’s an eight figure business right.
Robert:
We’re trying, we’re run rating at eight figures at the moment and that’s because we got a contract with Walmart for a couple of our products that are at every Walmart. So when I count revenue we’re counting the wholesale sort of cost. But you know it’s a very, you know very profitable sort of side of our business now, compared to you know, Amazon, where it’s, you know it’s got its ups and downs but it’s also a bigger kind of a moat, right when you go into a retail store where you’re like a fixture on the shelf and you know it’s not every day that new products are coming into the shelf and stuff like that, right, so you get like weekly reorders and all that and that’s kind of been a lot to handle. You know originally to implement it back in May, but yeah, it’s been you know our first holiday season fully implemented on the 4000 Walmart locations.
Kevin King:
So there’s only like there’s a total of like that’s every Walmart, because there’s only like 4400 or something like that.
Robert:
Yes, it’s every Walmart except neighborhood markets.
Kevin King:
Did that start off with a small test of like 100 stores, or do you go straight to nationwide distribution?
Robert:
Yeah, we went straight to that. People still ask me how that happened. But basically, yeah, we you know we got a meeting for a coffee grinder that was a product they were interested in. You know flew to Banville, met with them there. You know I showcased some of our other products and they were interested in another product as well, you know the storage container, and so went back and forth. I thought it would be kind of a nice learning experience. You know, like try again next year. But like, hey, okay, this is really how you get into the retail source. You know, like that’s kind of what I was expecting, at least, you know, not to get myself, you know, hyped up, because we had other close calls sort of, with retailers, not that close but sort of close, and so they kind of came back and said, you know, like the thing with our products is, it’s it’s a mass market appeal. You know, think of a coffee grinder that’s like a basic sort of coffee grinder, right, like it’s not necessarily like something that will be bought more in one region than other, like something that’s more like, really, you know, leaning one way or another. So in that case I remember them asking sort of like, you know, could you handle if we allocate you a large number of stores, like I literally remember I think I was driving or something when I got that and of course you know the answer there is. You know, absolutely, this is what we do when we’re sleeping. So, yeah, I kind of knew that they were planning on, you know, basically putting us at every store and thankfully they trusted us with that. So yeah, it’s nice to see right away basically how important of a spot or a placement, a Walmart shelf is. You know.
Kevin King:
Is this your company or you have partners? You said we earlier Is it your company or do you have partners? It’s my company, it’s my Okay.
Robert:
Yeah, it’s, I own the company. Is I say we as in? You know the team. I have now trying to be a good leader here, no, but really, at least for the very longest time it was I. You know a couple of folks from Upwork, but you know, now I have an actual team like we’re building something cool, but yeah, that’s, that’s the. We bootstrapped the whole way, you know that, and pouring it back into it.
Kevin King:
That’s a way to do it and you had another source of income that that covered your living expenses that you have to worry about that on the side. That’s. I think that’s a thing that a lot of people. They want to see this Amazon business as a way to quit their job. They’re like I want to quit working for the man and do my own thing. And I know some of the most successful people in this space don’t quit their job for sometimes years and like in your case, and continue selling, continue selling and building the company before they jump in. Because a lot of people don’t realize that it’s a while before you can actually take a decent living. If you’re in the Western society, you know, if you live in Pakistan, you know 500 bucks a month might be all right, but if you live in the United States or Europe or most of Asia, then that’s not going to pay for nothing and barely pay for your phone bill. I think a lot of people underestimate how long does it take to actually grow something and where it gets to the point where you can actually take money out. Unless you start with a huge investment Up front and can ride that wave, then it’s difficult. It, like you said, you’re bootstrapping it. How long did it take you to get to seven figures on Amazon? So you said the first two years was a different product line. You still have a little bit of that dabbling, but now the, the coffee products, are your big, big, big thing out. That started.
Robert:
You said about 2018, 2019, so think of mid 2019 Launched the and that whole year, that year, the whole year, I did maybe 500,000 or so in revenue, combined with the other brand, right like this Kaffe brand maybe did you know half of that of the of the total so went from 500,000 there and then obviously cove it hit and so 2020 I did 2 million. So that was kind of the year where I went from from that to that and you know, like a Work and everything that’s like running out of stock every like two, three weeks, you know like you would ship a container in and it was just like wild times, like easily could have done twice that that year, but the only reason I was able to do that Wasn’t because of debt or anything. There’s no amount of debt at that point that I could have got to buy that much inventory, right, not paying up front 30 and 70 or whatever. It is right like, uh, if you’re a small business like that, just starting off that you there’s, you can’t get like a million dollars right like you need about that much right, like floating around and stuff to be able to. It’s a huge risk. So, uh, basically what I did was I had to negotiate Really great terms with my supplier who had gone to china and met already, like you know, pre-covid, as part of my mba. I stayed extra and kind of met a couple suppliers, but basically I negotiated 15 deposit and like the remaining balance Uh was not paid for, like 60 days after the goods arrived at the us, you know. So they were arriving selling it and I didn’t have to pay them. You know, like kind of it’s like a negative sort of cash cycle there that allowed me to Sort of scale to that. So without that certainly couldn’t do it.
Robert:
And to your point, unless you have a huge investment or you have a job that was not paying you much at all you know, in that case you you’re not really quitting your job, right, like, anyways, you’re just in survival mode, like with 500, a thousand or so dollars. In my case, it became a little harder and harder every time, just getting paid more and more, right like, if you’re getting paid, you know, uh, probably my total comp at Microsoft was, you know, started with a two, right now with a one, uh, and so, like it’s just really hard to quit that, with full benefits and, you know, 401k and all these things, when you’re working not that many hours, right Like you can hide sort of in a corporate job like that, right, frankly, but that’s sort of not what I wanted, all right. And as a company, you’re also taking a leap of faith on like investing in a lot of things, right, leases on warehouses, like uh, building up a team, right like, if you want an actual company, you’re gonna one actual competent folks that are paid full time and like, hopefully you’re hiring in advance of, like how, where you want to be. So all those things combined to like me holding out to basically the very last, uh, you know moment that I could, but yeah, that was the goal. The whole way along is just to, basically, you know, to do this on my own and to build. You know my goal is to build something cool. You know something that I see on the shelves. Like you know, like I’m able to like sort of go into any store and, like you know, I go into friends houses and see if my products are like stuff like that, and it’s just like that brings a lot more joy than, like you know, any dollar sign or whatever.
Kevin King:
So in 2020, when you hit 2 million, how many employee you had yourself and you said a couple people off Upwork or do you have any full-time employees or just every time in the a’s or what would mean like me and the equivalent of Two or three bs part time, like it was very much me so. Yeah, when did you go to China to meet your supplier, the one that gave you the good terms? Early 2019 so before you had the product or after you made the product?
Robert:
So it coincided with I had my I was doing finishing up my MBA and we went as like, a two-week trip to China and so I extended an extra couple weeks to go to the Canton fair and then, at the same time, I was already looking to launch this, this coffee brand, and so I decided basically on this product, as I was on the trip or right before or whatever, so I had placed the po. So I basically like was placing the po and went to see the factory and so you know he saw that it was Nothing you know we had. That was, like you know, like he took a huge risk on me because Also, it was the factory owner, you know. So going to China and going in person there, like eating snake and just like, truly, like being there with them and like they see, like you know, you’re trying really hard to stand up a brand. Uh, I think that definitely paid off a lot later on.
Kevin King:
So did he give you terms on the first po, or did you have to prove yourself off?
Robert:
a few. No, it was. It was not on the first one. Um, it wasn’t on the first one. It was when this started happening and, quite frankly, I sort of bullied my way there because I had this opportunity to sell goods to home goods, so like as I was launching this brand before I ever had it on Amazon or whatever, the first sort of container was where the first shipment was coming in and I, on LinkedIn, just reached out to like a home goods buyer and they’re like, wow, okay, we’ll try, we’ll try, give us a couple thousand. And I’m like, okay, I’m not gonna be able to sell them because they would only buy what’s available at your warehouse. So that’s kind of how I started with, like, hey, if you want me to kind of sell more especially when covid hit, that’s when I was funny like, okay, you, you really need to kind of give me these terms if you want to, basically, more volume. And he did and I remember at some point, basically back then, trusting me you know he trusted me with at least, you know, like half a million dollars worth of goods or payments that were due, but I had the goods, you know, like things that you would not see with another supplier, even at a much bigger scale, like I’m sure you you’ve seen.
Kevin King:
And he probably did that because you went over there and you saw you had met him. If you had not have gone over there and met him, the chances of that happening are far less, because in Chinese culture, face time, face to face, sitting down, having a meal with them, spending some time with them, is crucial, and so that alone, right there, probably that trip yeah, you did your MBA, you finished your MBA stuff, but that trip made you millions of dollars just by doing. Going, meaning can’t under s can’t under emphasize how important what Robert just said Is that you need to go and meet your factory, maybe not before you place the first order, because you can’t, but if you’re going to continue a relationship with them, it’s crucial that you either go combine it with the canton fair, with a Yiwu or something else, or just get, get over there and actually sit down with them, because it goes such a long ways.
Robert:
Yeah, yeah, agreed. And you know I would say that’s the most important part of going to China nowadays is really to meet your supplier, because of course you can go to the canton fair, but nowadays it, you know, that’s kind of like going to alibaba in person, right, like you really see all the options, you know, you can feel them, of course, and all that. But really like you’re saying like Meeting your supplier it goes a very long way in their culture, especially, you know, saving face and all these, it’s definitely a plus and so that he still remembers that, and even now, you know, sort of coming full circle, sort of inviting him back to the us, you know like saying like, hey, we want to invite you when, when we, you know when we go exhibit at the Chicago trade show next march, for example, you know we, we’re saying like you guys, you know, actually come and see our brand now being exhibited to buyers.
Kevin King:
Is it gonna come?
Robert:
Yeah, yeah, awesome, awesome. It’s kind of cool getting to to come, come back that way.
Kevin King:
So you’ve got in this line, You’ve got a few different products right. You have a grinder and a few different products. Is it all the same? Manufacturer?
Robert:
A lot of our electric stuff is done through the same manufacturer, so grinders, milk frothers, and then we have coffee makers think of a simple kind of coffee makers. But we have other suppliers for other things, like our storage containers. Uh, the coffee storage containers, coffee mugs and cups come from another supplier because they’re glass. So in total I have about five different suppliers, um, for for different goods, but the bulk you know 80 of our business comes from one supplier, which sounds like a huge, huge risk, but we share that risk back and forth like a hot potato.
Kevin King:
So what is it? I mean you’re, that’s a pretty competitive niche coffee grinders, I mean there’s Thousands of. What is it about your product when you message a guy on LinkedIn and say, hey, he wants it for home goods right away? Or at Walmart saying, skip, all of our normal process, we’re putting you in all 4,000 stores? What is it about your coffee grinder? That’s so amazing. What have you done to differentiate or to market it, or what is it that makes it stand out?
Robert:
It’s definitely a tough category. I mean, uh, sort of like a staple kind of high traffic, high volume category. Uh, I saw it always as, like you know, I wasn’t necessarily going to focus on it being too competitive. I saw that it almost as a positive. I did see the category sort of being a little stale If there’s a lot of like sold by Amazon which has made it tough you know a lot in the past because you know Of the, of how to compete against them, but basically a lot of legacy brands that have that don’t innovate, you know fast, or they don’t have necessarily all the extra little features that us, coming from an Amazon world, are used to sort of like keeping up with that, I like, hey, I’m launching this product, let me put the packaging next to it. You know, something I did right away, you know from way back then, and it was like the plan all along and it just kind of stands out in the, in the listings, right. Or hey, uh, let me include a cleaning brush, right, like just simple things that you will learn that how to like uh, block and tackle, you know in FBA sort of courses. But like that, that’s the retailers are like okay, this, this brand, you know Um stands out and I think, like the, the way the brand, the, the name, the look and feel Was always with the intent in mind of being on the shelf, you know, like, so even when you know we always saw was really coffee grinders, 90% plus, 95% plus. I still sort of had a catalog of products, right, like sort of saying like oh, we’re kind of a coffee brand and like these are staples. We may not do well with all of them on Amazon, for example, but there’s different channels for each, each kind of things, and Just looking like the part, sort of this will gets you in the room. And then, of course, once you’re in the room, like why would Walmart choose us? Right, like you’re asking, why would they choose us? Uh, to go in the shelves, we had to take a product out. Right, there was already a grinder there.
Robert:
It’s not like Walmart has never sold grinders. The thing is like it’s pretty sort of like when you go into retail, like there’s no middleman, right in my case, right, like you know, it’s my company, it’s my brand and it’s between me and the buyer. You know, normally those huge brands, they have a distributor or like a wholesale sort of setup. And then you know they have offices in new york and then a huge team in europe and all these things. Like I have none of that. You know like Walmart could retail it lower than the one that was there before. They’re likely gonna get it at a better cost from me because I don’t have those huge overhead costs there and for me I’m gonna make more money on it than I would have. You know, because you know I just go straight from the factory owner to them. You know sort of Um, so it just worked out that way, where you know we’re used to just battling a lot harder on Amazon, on ad cause and and like you know, like just doing all these things like you know, to make sure that we stay relevant. And like you know you can, you can be in the top four, you know, by nine am and then by you know by one pm. It’s like you you’re in the top 12 and then you know there goes, you know, some of your revenues. So you know having those skill sets Really helped at least sort of try to stand out for retail.
Kevin King:
I think the name is important too. You did good branding with the name. I mean, instead of uh, you know, I know there’s other companies out there oxo and other other companies, but those names don’t really say enough. But your name the Kaffe the way, in the way it’s spelled, in the way it’s done, is actually that lent, that, right there, gives it almost instant credibility. Like this is what I want over something else. I was really really smart. So naming Something is is crucial. Don’t don’t overlook, overlook the fact of a brand name, even though, if you’re not known, a Word like that and the way you spelled it you spelled it interestingly is Instantly says something. It’s just like you know, when some, somebody else, launches a I don’t know, I’m just trying to think as an example here. We’re the Netflix of Auto repair or whatever. I mean you know the immediate, immediately. You don’t have to explain how is your auto repair shop different that’s probably not a good example but how your auto repair shop is different. You just like immediately plan a seed, that where the Netflix everybody identifies and they know what Netflix is. You’ve kind of done that in your branding name as well, right?
Robert:
Yeah, no, exactly. And it’s funny because some people at times have been like, oh wait, I’ve seen, I’ve seen your brand, you know a target on the shelves. You know, I know we’re not a target on the shelves, but like they’ll say something like that where it’s like okay, it just sounded like you know a brand that you’ve seen on the shelves or something and it means literally like coffee and some other languages in Europe. So it was a little tough to trademark at first. But you know that was kind of with the intent in mind of just like. You know, you go on Amazon and you see some brands, some products that look great, right, but you see the brand names and it’s like, okay, I can’t even tell you know necessarily what it is right, I’m not even going to go into sort of Chinese brands.
Kevin King:
Yeah, some, yeah to tell us weird. Like brands are just made up, weird, strange words, just so they can easily get a trademark on them. Right? They think, yeah, I know you did a good job there. So, when it comes to back on the Walmart, so did you reach out to Walmart and set up the meeting in Venville, or did they reach out to you? Or did you go through a agent or a special program? We went through a broker.
Robert:
You know there’s many brokers that do this. We had brokers already in the past that they just were not successful in getting us a meeting. But you could also reach out directly, you know, like the way that I did with home goods, or I do that myself also for other retailers, and you know we’re in talks with other retailers as well. But it’s basically reaching out to the buyer and then, you know, most retailers review their lines the color line reviews Once a year or so, you know. So basically Allowing them to sort of let you in the line review. So there’s a lot of chance there, right, it has to be a buyer that wants to change their shelves, right, because, as we mentioned, the shelves are filled up right, so it has to be a buyer that’s motivated to change whatever is on there. Either just you know a new buyer that’s coming into it and wants to, like you know, spice things up, or you know it could be that you’re locked out because the buyer is just sort of a lifer and doesn’t want to change many things. Right, but like, if they invite you, then you know it’s a matter of proving, you know, presenting why you’re better than kind of what’s on the shelf. You know, and I went to that, that process of like, okay, like here’s what you have on the shelf and here’s how they do on Amazon or a targetcom or whatever, and versus us, right, who has more views, who has a lowest BSR, like all these kind of things that I put on a chart and I just kind of easily present in front of them and said, you know, like, give us a shot and you know it takes a buyer. That also. You know, trust you with that.
Kevin King:
How much of your success in getting in Longhorn do you think was based on what you’ve done on Amazon, like the reviews that you’ve gotten and the ratings and the sale, so that actually got their attention Very much in the meeting.
Robert:
In fact the buyer was had Amazon pulled up and she could. She was saying how, you know, why were you at this price at certain dates or like what you know like? So they were very well aware of Amazon and and you know, in fact you have to sort of guarantee EDLP. You know everyday low price. So you know, on Amazon we can’t go kind of competing on that specific skew. You know UPC Against the Walmart one, so very much that Amazon led to this. You know they wouldn’t have even found us, they wouldn’t have paid attention to us If we didn’t at least look and play the part on Amazon. And of course that led to other products kind of coming in right. So once you’re in their ideal situation is less vendors rather than more vendors, right, if their whole coffee section could be covered by, just you know, 4, 3, 4 or 5 vendors Is much better than every item. Is a different vendor, right? Because they have to onboard the new vendor, it doesn’t look well on the shelves, right? No product looks the same, and so that’s kind of our pitch to them. It’s just more like hey, we don’t. Just, you know, we’re not like a one hit wonder, we have, like the, the key sort of staple items, and they all look great on the shelf, you know, and like, and Better cost, better retail to you, all the things above, but like they’re also going to look better, you know like, and you’re going to deal with one vendor, you know. So that’s kind of like our, our approach there and certainly works like we’re being listened to a lot more on. Like grocery stores. So think of a grocery store where in their coffee section is very much that way, where it’s all different vendors, you may find a coffee grinder from here, a milk frother from over there, a french press coffee maker from there, and it all looks like just random products on the shelf, right, I suppose? So hey, here’s five to six you know products in a row that are, you know like, well branded and like basically all the products you had.
Kevin King:
Anyways, just at better prices and better costs is Walmart selling you on Walmartcom as a one p, then are they, are you? So you’re not doing three p, you’re as a one p, so they have a one p account.
Robert:
But they, those two items, they do one p and the rest you, we still do three p and when they run out of inventory on one p it it falls back into our three p. So and your, broker.
Kevin King:
How does that work, the broker they got you in? Does he just take a flat fee? Does he get a cut of every PO? Or how does that work?
Robert:
Percentage of sales. So he’ll take three percent of sales.
Kevin King:
Three percent of sales, so three percent of every payout you get from Walmart. He’s, he’s getting.
Robert:
Yep, but keep in mind for how long a period each other. There was no upfront commitment from us, right. So that’s usually a pretty low percentage as well. I’ve seen more, like five or six percent, but essentially forever, forever. But the the thing is they were gonna work and do all this work even if they didn’t get us in. They didn’t get us in but we were not gonna pay anything unless they ever got us in and we were able to execute and we got paid. You know, so it was like a lot sort of had to happen for that um, and you know gladly, sort of we had the same arrangement with another broker for target. You know that’s how we got on Target.com as 1P. But uh, we’re only on the calm and uh for other retailers as well. You know like uh, sort of some that are kind of spreading a couple other Retailers, but so how do you deal with the financing on?
Kevin King:
you get a big po from from Walmart. Is it your factory still doing the financing, or did you have to go out and factor invoices? Or are you in a position now when you you’ve got some money and you can? You can ride those ways, because Walmart’s what net 60 that’s, and then they don’t always pay on time 55.
Robert:
They pay on time. From what I see, they’re pretty up front and everything has been straight up there. But still, you could imagine, if we’re always sort of tied on cash for holiday season, how this holiday season was just, you know, even even more tight because of because of Walmart, right, and uh, you know, thankfully our supplier does honor those same terms, you know. So the same kind of 1585 sort of terms, but it did require extra financing, basically getting extra debt, you know temporary sort of debt, and of course, just the cash flow and stuff. But uh, yeah, certainly, at least it’s something that you see moving right, you, you land a container, it goes right, almost right out, right, like, and you see it sort of move at profitable, very predictable sort of uh, you know clips. So you know, then it makes you feel a lot more comfortable and just investing at least into those cues and like the ones that they want to further bring in and stuff.
Kevin King:
So you said earlier that you were able. One of the reasons Amazon, I’m not Amazon Walmart was willing to kick out the other guys that you could work with better margins, and so the other guys had too many layers of bureaucracy, uh, involved. So how, when you go in and sit with Walmart, do they? Do they dictate the price to you, do they? Do you go in? You say, hey, um, you know my wholesale price is it’s four dollars and 26 cents, uh. Or do they say we’re gonna sell this for, we’re gonna, we’re gonna sell this for 8.95 and we’re gonna pay you 320, take it or leave it, um, how does that? How does that process? How does that process work?
Robert:
they ask you for your cost, um for sure, and then they may even ask you to kind of sharpen your costs.
Kevin King:
You know that kind of you’re actually your true cost or your wholesale price to them no, your wholesale price to them, when they say cost, that means uh to them.
Robert:
Yeah, you never reveal sort of what, what your cost is, um, but they do ask for your, for your wholesale cost, just because you know that’s how they talk to brands, um, but yeah, it’s a tricky thing because you don’t want to be so far off that they were expecting, uh, some hemisphere and you came in from another hemisphere, right, and at the same time you kind of don’t want to leave money on the table. Right, they were willing to take it for this much, uh, but you came in right at that much. So it kind of depends where the conversation or how they started the conversation. I mean, that’s just kind of negotiating one-on-one is, uh, don’t be the first one to talk, but at the same time, if they kind of ask you for cost, you kind of want to go with a little bit of room. You know you got to keep in mind that you have a, you have a broker, you have kind of these things. So, uh, we went in, you know, with healthy. You know what we consider healthy and you know we were asked a couple times to sort of lower, basically, but it wasn’t like we were far off. It was like you’re talking about cents and stuff at that point. So thankfully, it was that, I would say. On the reverse side. So for another product that we’re kind of going to Walmart, at some point they came to us and told us at what price they wanted to retail it, which is very different, and it’s sort of key piece of info, right, because if they tell you where they want to retail it, you can reverse engineer your way into what cost to tell them, rather than going cost plus on what you got it for, right. So basically, that’s something that we did after with another product. It wasn’t like they didn’t say, hey, come to us and give us your best cost on this, this product. It was like, hey, do you have a product like this that, uh, we can retail for this?
Kevin King:
and we said, yes, you know, say no more uh, even though you didn’t have it, you figure it out yeah, this is hope that they’re not listening. No, it’s like the Chinese way, can you do this? Yes, yes, and then they go back and like figure out how to do it. Yeah, exactly, that’s, that’s the right answer, for sure. What about? Um? They have? There’s other fees a lot of people don’t realize too. There’s like co-op fees, advertising fees, um, return, you know, allowance for returns and stuff. How much of that do you have to factor in when you’re building these costs?
Robert:
yeah, so that you know those. They’ll tell you that in the negotiation. But, uh, thankfully in this case it’s like a true fixture on the shelf. We didn’t have to like commit to advertising or anything like that for them to like give us that spot. Uh, it’s basically, you know, on the shelf as part of their modular um and there is a very small return and allowance fees which is, like you know, very low, like less than 2%, you know, when we’re used to, you know like a return allowance of like much higher than that on Amazon, right, um, certainly nowadays. So it was kind of like that like less than 2% for return allowances and like 1% for basically for them to come pick up the goods at your warehouse, which is gladly do it, you know, like because they schedule shipments, send the trucks and all these things, and all you do is all you do is have the pallets ready every week and they a truck will show up and you know they’ll take it and oh really okay. One of them, one of their trucks or the they partner with one of their trucks and they do partner on some of them, but mostly it’s their trucks. So yeah, we have about one or two trucks that come every week oh, that’s cool and they just charge 1% of the po for that 1%. It’s amazing, yeah, and you don’t have to like call, you know schedule or do all these things sent to Amazon, right, like it’s really like. You package it, you know, label it, palletize it and it’s just there and they come. You know pick it up where’s your warehouse?
Kevin King:
is your warehouse in the Atlanta area or where’s your? Yeah, so they don’t care that, they don’t tell you we need you to have a pickup in California and a pickup here, like Amazon, has you split to three different warehouses.
Robert:
They just come and get it and nearby Atlanta and they take it from there and put it through their distribution system and get it where it needs to go yeah, because every week we ship out to 42 different distribution centers, but they actually come pick it up together, so they take it actually to a consolidation center and from there they split up the 42 pallets and send them to their distribution centers who send them to the stores or whatever. But yeah, basically we ship every week to all their distribution centers, which it’s like 42, but yeah, but it’s amazing the way they just come pick it up in pallets and that’s it. You know, don’t need to arrange for that, so it makes the transaction and just the relationship there so much easier. Right, like you focus on, like you know, other parts of the business rather than like the just scaling that. You know it took like getting, it took like getting a PHC. You know like just to be able to like apply the labels correctly and like all these things. And, quite frankly, that’s why I hadn’t even quit my job, because I was still like nervous leading up to it. You know we’re supposed to deliver. You know like I think like 75 000 units or something like next week or something, and I didn’t know how to label them necessarily, because they gave you about three or four days that you have to like label everything and send it out. So I’m still thinking, who knows, I’m gonna send these 75 000 units, a truck is gonna come pick them up, but they’re gonna be lost somewhere in the Walmart network world and they’re not gonna make it to the stores, you know and of course that’s not what happened, but like they were literally like we didn’t label them correctly, they didn’t apply fees and stuff like that, but like there were parts where it took a while, like the way we automate labels now and all that, like it was just coming in like a fire hose, like I couldn’t bring from it fast enough and it was just like.
Kevin King:
You know, we did what we could, but now, you know, we got it down pat a lot of people don’t realize, like when you’re dealing with these big hostors, that the labels have to be in a certain spot on the box, like a quarter inch off the bottom left, or what? A quarter inch off the bottom. And facing this way and there’s all these rules and a lot of them will penalize you. They’ll take deductions if you put it in the wrong place.
Robert:
There’s some retailers that are known more for that. Like they take almost advantage of the vendors in that way. Walmart like really makes it known like what they want, like the standards and all that. They give you all these booklets, like it’s a matter of like, really sort of like going through it and your carton has to be a certain way, certain markings, like your box you have to have certificates, like all these things. I had to go on like as such a time timeline for us to hit that, that, uh, go live of may so, when it comes to this, let’s look at a little bit of math here.
Kevin King:
So what? How much do you sell this item for? What’s the retail price for, like, say, the grinder?
Robert:
we retail at 2499 it’s like the MSRP, and so at any time on Amazon it’s anywhere from 20 to 25, you know, in the in the range, okay, so let’s call it 20 bucks.
Kevin King:
It’s 20 bucks on Amazon yeah, Amazon’s taken 15 percent, so they’re taking three dollars off of it, yeah, and then they’re taking the fulfillment cost, which I don’t know how much. This is five eighty or five, sixty years in the fight, so roughly nine dollars right there. So now you’re down to 11 dollars left over. What’s your landed cost roughly six, seven so seven dollar land cost. So for everyone you sell on Amazon without PPC, without storage fees, without any of the other, um these, it’s roughly a four dollar. In this example I mean this is not exact stuff, but this example it’s four dollars. Uh so, and what then? What do you when you sell it to Walmart? What do they sell it for in the stores?
Robert:
They sell it for 1788, so 1788 in the stores.
Kevin King:
What’s the your wholesale price to them? They get it roughly for uh mid 11th, so you’re making about the same four dollars yes, clear, clear, clear, very unclear, with nothing else maybe the one percent that’s after the one percent for picking it up and everything. They’re three percent to uh to your broker. All that’s already out. So you’re making about four bucks. So you’re making almost the exact same money with no hassle of hijackers, no hassle of PPC, no hassle. What’s the latest trick and hack to get this, in which one of those sells more per month?
Robert:
Walmart still, of course. Yeah, Walmart, Walmart will do, yeah, Walmart will do. Uh on the slow months. I just passed uh 25, 30, 000 units, uh, a month at least. Of that grinder we have two products the other one doesn’t sell as well. It sells. You know, maybe like a fourth of that, but we’re talking about just the grinder here.
Kevin King:
Uh, yeah, we sold 25, 30 000 units of it so 30 000 units through Walmart in a in a slow month before the holidays kicked in. And then what would that same month on Amazon be? It would be uh eight to ten thousand units, eight to ten thousand units, and out of that four dollars you’re having. You I’m assuming you’re probably doing some PPC and some other stuff, right?
Robert:
Of course ppc. Yeah, absolutely so yeah so.
Kevin King:
So basically, the lesson here is Amazon. Without Amazon, you wouldn’t you said it earlier you wouldn’t would have never been in Walmart because you wouldn’t have had that history and the reviews and to show how you’re different. But the real money is not on Amazon, the real money is in Walmart, it’s in retail. That’s a lesson that a lot of people, I think, can’t get their head around is that they’re like I’d rather go. Most people don’t realize that. Yet, as big as Amazon is and as great as Amazon is, something like 85 percent or whatever the number is these days of all sales still happen in retail. Uh, they, people want to go down, they need a coffee grinder now. They don’t want to wait till tomorrow to get it from Amazon, or four hours or six hours. They they want it now, they want to touch it, they want to feel it, they want to open it up, they want to see what it looks like, um, and then there’s a lot of people that just, they don’t have credit cards, they don’t shop online, they don’t trust it. Um, so I think there’s a big lesson there is that Use that everybody. Amazon still an amazing opportunity and it’s a great place to launch and to prove out something. But once you’ve proven that, do your damnedest to get into retail. So are you in Walmart. You said you’re also with a couple products and target. Now right.
Robert:
Well, we’ve sold for a while now target.com, macys.com, homedepot.com, like QVC, like all the coms. You know the goal we were just throwing darts, making sure our brand could be basically everywhere and in stores. But basically they all told us, do the comms sort of thing. Right, those were just easier to do. But yeah, that was the goal is always to get into retail. So any sort of vendor relationship is much better than 3P in our eyes, and so any sort of partnership there would. It’s kind of stuff that I’ve been working on for a while.
Kevin King:
So once you get into Walmart, that’s the granddaddy of them all, that basically everybody else then follows, follows in line. So when you call somebody else and they’re like oh yeah, we’ll take, you’re in Walmart, okay, we’ll take it. It’s almost like a justifier, right, like you’ve made it to the cool kids club.
Robert:
Yeah, we’re seeing a lot more People accepting our samples. Yeah yeah, and the key thing is like, for example, target, we had a buyer there that’s been there for 12 years, doesn’t want to change anything Because she goes by whatever market share reports, right, she doesn’t care what you do on Amazon sort of thing, right, like. And so now we’re showing on the market share reports as a number one grinder and all of retail, literally throughout all Retail our grinder sells almost three times more than the second place kitchen aid and these, these brands that you’ve heard of, right, so we stick out now, right, because of that Walmart placement being the intro offer there. But they, you know, they start basically answering more because of that, like Basically, the success there, or like knowing that we were able to execute on that level, right, like that kind of like to them says something as well.
Kevin King:
What’s the biggest issue with going from the mindset of Amazon to the mindset of wholesale? Is it you have to Do a lot more documentation and prove that it’s child safety and meets all these regulations that you might not have to do on Amazon, or is it? Is it filling out settings, setting up on the what they call the ERM, the EDM system or ERP systems or whatever it’s called?
Robert:
Yeah, that’s tough. That’s tough, but it’s just equally as tough to sell like on target calm, you know, because you’re a vendor and you had to do all these things anyway. So we’ve been doing these kind of onboarding things for a long while and so like the documentation really from Basically you need certification on your products but you should kind of have them already for Amazon, so like if you’re selling already sort of a high-volume item on Amazon, it’s likely you already had that or your factory already had that. So it’s not even that. It’s just like basically being able to Execute and making sure you manage your catalog so that it doesn’t conflict with your Amazon. Right, if you had a one product sort of Catalog and then you sold it on Walmart, it’s gonna mess up your buy box. Similar how I did to us. You have to sort of Look at the you know the skew mix or like sort of launch it as a different variation or something like that. But it’s just sort of structuring your catalog and road map so that it fits a retailer and it fits your online thing, because you need Amazon sort of, even if it’s like a branding exercise where you’re just there people see the brand or whatever, but like you need to be there at the very least you use the same UPC across all channels or do you have a specific UPC?
Kevin King:
We do yeah you use the same. Do you use you’re you and I like Amazon’s transparency program, or that’s not an issue really?
Robert:
No, it’s not. It’s not really an issue. They can’t necessarily get it too much cheaper to make a profit on Amazon, so we don’t necessarily run into that the problem.
Kevin King:
Are you hoping to go international with this, or is there any talk of Walmart taking you to other, to Mexico, to other marketplaces?
Robert:
No, not there. But we’re starting with the low-hanging fruit of just literally, like you know, Amazon, Mexico, Canada and then Europe on the FBA side, just because we can kind of offer our suppliers ready for that as well. So, just the low-hanging fruit. But we really have so many retailers here in the US that it’s kind of like we’re just attacking that full force because, like it doesn’t have to take a Walmart, so like if Walmart takes one product at 4,000 stores is the same as like public’s taking Four or five products with their thousand stores, right. So which they’re likely to do because they want kind of like that selection like we were talking about, right. So it’s really like a lot can happen and it’s just like products we already have. So it’s a matter like okay, here you go, we’ll ship them out on a weekly basis, like fairly simple. So we really want to just exploit that, the retail strategy there.
Kevin King:
Do you have your own warehouse now. Are you still using 3pL?
Robert:
No, yeah, I’ve had my own. It’s only 7,200 square feet total now. So we make, we, we make. Do what we’ve got. Truly maximize it. How many?
Kevin King:
people are working for you now.
Robert:
We have about 12 full-time people and seven agencies that we use for various things.
Kevin King:
So like PPC and all that kind of stuff is job.
Robert:
PPC production management for Walmart actually in China. I use an agency now they handle basically my contact with the factory PR agency. They were very well for us email marketing, yeah, those kind of things, rather than having employees. You know, sometimes we feel the agency relationship works a lot better and sometimes you know, like, our executive team now is basically just, you know that our full-time and we consider that, like you know, the core. So yeah, and then of course, the contractors. I use a lot of contractors when containers are arriving and loading and loading. I don’t count as a at his employees, it’s just, you know, kind of daily workers.
Kevin King:
So from $500,000 in 2018 to $2 million in 2020, what’s 2023 roughly?
Robert:
We’ll do likely a seven and a half, but we’re run rating to do maybe 10 to 12 in the next 12 months.
Kevin King:
So now I bet one of those aggregators that turned you down before might be. If they, if they still have any money left to invest, they may be like man. We missed out on one here.
Robert:
Well, they’re very close friends. Let’s just say that they’re pretty close friends. We still keep in touch and everything.
Kevin King:
So, sorry, you look at the cell, then at some point you’re building this to sell, or you just? You just enjoying running it’s a while and see where it goes, or do you hope to Take? Take some more.
Robert:
To the same kind of buyer that would have bought in 2021. Let’s just say that. But you know it is the type of business that you got to get to profitability and like we’re profitable, so that’s great. You know you just want to be profitable and see what happens because you have a lot more leverage. But at the same time, I know that when we hit certain thresholds like you know the age figure or like the you know mid-seven figure sort of profitable Business you get a sort of different buyer, sort of a P buyer, potentially inject money and sort of like really try to blow it up.
Kevin King:
So if KitchenAid, if KitchenAid comes to you and says we want to buy you for 25 million, you might listen.
Robert:
I may listen. That’s right. That’s the sort of buyer. But they better hurry up before.
Kevin King:
Hurry up while the price is good, because it’s going up right.
Robert:
That’s right.
Kevin King:
Cool man. Well, Robert’s, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you and I this Thanks for sharing your journey, your story, here. Hopefully it’s inspired some people that they need to wake up and take another look at retail and see what they can do there, because there’s tremendous opportunity in that space.
Robert:
Absolutely Glad to help or console, that buy some folks as well. But uh, yeah, I do this. You know I’m passionate to be doing this. I feel like any day that I get to do this and not the corporate world is, you know, living on my dream. So awesome.
Kevin King:
I agree with you. So if people want to follow you or learn more or see the story, what’s the best way for them to do that? If they want to Get in touch with you, yeah, just directly.
Robert:
LinkedIn, Robert Gomez. You know, just go directly in the DMs. That’s where all the business transactions and things go down the LinkedIn DMs, gladly.
Kevin King:
And it’s okay to say the name of the company or you rather keep that?
Robert:
Yeah, no, the name of my brand is Kaffe. So kaffeproducts.com, or Amazon.com/kaffe. Yeah, the holding companies for Q brands because we have a couple brands, but yeah, that’s, that’s the name of the brand.
0:57:39 – Kevin King:
Awesome. Well, Robert, thanks again for coming on. As we all know, Walmart’s a great opportunity, but there’s a lot bigger opportunities out there as well, especially if you can get in the retail. Retail is still something like 78 to 84 percent of all sales. Depends on who study you’re looking at and, as Robert has shown us, getting into all the Walmart stores is just a major, major boom for his business. So hopefully you’ve got some insights and you learned a little bit of things from Robert. We’ll be back again next week with another awesome episode. Also, don’t forget, if you haven’t yet, sign up for my newsletter. It’s free every Monday and Thursday, billiondollarsellers.com is the website, billiondollarsellers.com. You don’t want to miss it. It’s like a twenty five thousand dollar mastermind in your inbox twice a week. And don’t forget, the virtual Billion Dollar Seller Summit is coming up. February 20th to the 22nd. That’s right online. You can do it from anywhere in the world. February 20th to the 22nd. Information’s a billiondollarsellersummit.com. Brand new websites coming out in a couple weeks, so don’t miss that. They’ll have all the speakers and I have all the information for you. So hopefully you can join us, and before we go, I’ve got some words of wisdom for you. The fastest way to get to where you want is to follow in the footsteps of someone who has done it before. The fastest way to get to where you want is to follow in the footsteps of someone who has done it before. See you again next week.
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