Shownotes
Get ready to listen to what Nathan has accomplished and then listen again to what his age is. Yes he is one of those guys: an Outlier, an adventurer. Great story of stepping out and how that can lead you to a business with amazing growth and an even better future. Would you be willing to head to where the entrepreneurs are to launch a business? Not sure I would but that’s why Sourcify is doing so well.
Mentioned:
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00:00] Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week. You know Gaye Lisby million dollar arbitrage as Edge and list. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what. It’s a great opportunity. You know you can build a big Amazon business. You don’t need a lot of capital when you start. I mean we all started you know most of us started selling books and then move into retail arbitrage. That is the place that you can turn your money. The vastness and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set by learning those skill sets you can get the best bang for your buck. And so Gase group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s more than just a list service they’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day. Right. Monday through Friday.
Stephen: [00:00:50] However there’s also a mentor ship that goes on and that mentor ship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy but it’s more important to understand why to buy it. And it’s that you know learning to fish or just getting fed. You know you really want to learn because ultimately you want to strike it on your own. And this is a great way to do it. So how about seven days free trial how about a free trial. Right. Very very cool. So it’s amazing freedom to come forward slashes a mouthful the word momentum carries a hyphen. And you put in the word arbitrage. So it’s amazing freedom does come forward slash momentum dash arbitrage and you’re going to get a free trial in Gase group. You got to tell her I sent you right. I also have the link in the episode. But it’s such a great opportunity.
Stephen: [00:01:40] She is amazing amazing I’m in that group. So you’ll see me there an amazing amazing person who’s there to answer your questions who’s there to help lead you and help guide you and that’s what Kay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You
Stephen: [00:01:55] will be blown away. And again it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode. Reachin you know Sellar labs Jeff Cohen and the team they have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label we also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles you know or multi packs that kind of thing which a lot of people do but we use scope to help us figure out what are the key words. And so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell what you’re going to sell what category find that like product. Find the top couple sellers and find their keywords. Boom magic. There you go. You copy the best because it’s working. And guess what. That’s a proof of concept and scope allows you to do that.
Stephen: [00:02:42] So it’s Sellar Lapps dotcom forward slash scope Sellar labs dotcom buzzword slash scope use the code word momentum and you’re going to get a couple days free trial and you’re going to save a little bit of money and you get to get some free keywords. It’s worth every penny. I’m in that group. Come and check me out. Celebes dotcom forward slash scope again use the word momentum. Solutions for e-commerce. Karen Locher great great great group. I’ve
Stephen: [00:03:11] been using them for a long time and I guess over 2 years and I’m in there and pages like everybody else. Yes she’s a sponsor of my show but she makes me pay. And I get the same 50 dollar discount that you can get. Oh by the way you’re going to get that through my link and my link only. Oh and you’re also going to get the free inventory health analysis. Great way to start 2018 get your inventory in line and Karen will help you do that. We use it for everything. I mean basically you know long term storage fees coming up. Guess what she will evaluate. She’ll make some recommendations. And also check check check take these out this return blah blah blah blah blah. And magically it’s done. I
Stephen: [00:03:49] love it. Love it. Love it. I love the fact that they take and get rid of stranded inventory for me. I see it in there. And then next time I go in and it’s gone. Love it love it love it. Got an IP infringement. She’s going to help you work your way through that. This is the kind of service that you get from Karen Locher that solutions for the number for e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum. Right. So you got it forward slash momentum and you’re going to save 50 dollars a month six bucks a year by just clicking that link. She pays me. I want to hide that I never do. I’m always upfront about that but it doesn’t cost you anything additional. And you’re going to get that inventory Health Report the only way you get that is through mine link solutions.
Cool voice guy: [00:04:33] The number for e-commerce dotcom forward slash momentum welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people the products and the process of commerce selling today.
Stephen: [00:04:48] Here’s your host Stephen Peterson welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 272. Nathan. Now if you listen to this guy and you’ll be like this dude knows what he’s talking about. Man I can’t believe it. And then we’re going to wait till he does say he’s 23. Did he say he did this stuff at 19. Did he say yes all those things. Yes. Did he go to China at 16. And you know. Yes. All those things. Yes. And I think that’s what’s so cool about them and that’s why he’s having such incredible success again. He’s not afraid because he doesn’t have the boundaries that we’ve all been you know cautioned with he’s just willing to try it and go take them and get the most from it. Take advantage of it I guess. What I was trying to say.
Stephen: [00:05:37] Am I just blown away very impressed. And I just love what his company does because some of the challenges that he’s solved are challenges that I’ve come up against myself and private label and it’s very very cool the service they offer and he’s going to give you a discount. And again I do not benefit. Steve doesn’t benefit in any way other than you having success. Let’s get into the podcast.
Stephen: [00:06:02] Welcome back to the e-commerce boom in a podcast very excited about today’s guest because I’ve been watching him from the sidelines and I see I see action not like you know in a negative way. I mean just like real positive action in a lot of activity and a lot of people talking about it and I just think that that’s so important to figure out you know what’s happening in this world and anybody who can buy me time who could save me time I’m in. And Nathan Resnick Welcome Nathan.
Nathan: [00:06:31] What’s up. Thanks so much for having me.
Stephen: [00:06:34] You know we have a mutual friend Greg Mercer and that’s how I got connected with you actually was somehow it came through his group or something like that.
Stephen: [00:06:42] And your name came up a couple different times and I just saw that you like this this is good business taken up.
Nathan: [00:06:54] I mean it’s really been incredible. Greg is a great guy and you know really just a matter of continuing to grow.
Stephen: [00:07:00] I think you align yourself with the right people and good things happen and you do the right thing and you get a good reputation. So let’s talk about your company and then the excitement of it and then we’ll go backwards because I want to hear how you got into this company. But I want to make sure people hear the company name and the good news that just came out totally.
Nathan: [00:07:17] So you know my name is Nathan Resnick. I run a company called Sourcefire. We’re the fastest growing e-commerce sourcing platform helping hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world both big and large I mean everyone that’s just starting out is using salsify to bring new products to life or even 8 going on 9 for your company you are using salsify to add price visibility to their product array. I guess the exciting news you touched on is we’ve just gotten a Y Combinator so we’re in their program right now which has been an incredible experience. I’m actually up here in San Francisco for Waikawa inheritance. It’s just been incredible to be in that program.
Stephen: [00:07:54] It’s very exciting. And so eight in nine figure that’s big big sellers but that doesn’t mean that salsify is only geared towards large sellers right. I think the other way I think the other extreme. It’s a niche advantage for smaller sellers because they don’t have a team they don’t have a department to help develop right.
Nathan: [00:08:13] Exactly exactly I mean so I would say probably about you know almost 75 percent of our users through salsify are smaller sellers than it’s growing and you know as these smaller sellers continue to use us and grow with us the bigger sellers are taking notice and realizing wow I can you know save money and save time when manufacturing is sort of fine. So it’s really caught on on on both sides of the spectrum and you know those a nine figures are even the marketplaces themselves. I mean we’re talking and we’re stuck com top hat an easier you know market places that are doing over a billion dollars in sales and trying to help them control some of the supply side of the marketplace. You
Stephen: [00:08:56] know and we’ll get into what sorts of it does. But I mean specifically it helps you that manufacturers in China specifically or other countries too.
Nathan: [00:09:05] I guess I would say it’s all across the world. I mean you know our growth really develop the global sourcing platform. So we work with factories across Mexico across Thailand Vietnam India acts and I mean really all across the world.
Nathan: [00:09:20] I will say that you know most of our base in terms of the factories that we prevent are in China. We’ve got an office in Gwangju so if you’re ever in the Gwangju you’re definitely let us now lay them out for a stroll with I’m just wandered down there.
Stephen: [00:09:34] But it’s funny because today it’s in China. You know look back 20 30 years it would have been in another country. And you know I think that part of the reason big companies are attracted to in the old days the only way to go and vet these companies was to go and visit yourself right there to send teams. It was granted it was you know there’s communication issues and so now the fact that this is available I think is a big deal. So we’re going to get there. We’re going to go into the details I’m going to let you pick your whole thing Steve doesn’t benefit other than listeners get a discount Steve doesn’t benefit so let’s go. How you got into this. Now you’re not an old dude like me your younger guy. How did you get into the e-commerce world.
Nathan: [00:10:17] Yeah that’s a great question and you know for me I’m going to jump back to high school and I’m I’m 23 years old and are 20.
Stephen: [00:10:25] But you’ve heard me say socks older than that Kelly loaches like what’s he talking about socks older than us. Yeah.
Nathan: [00:10:31] So you know really my whole story starts in high school because you know I guess I wanted to be different and so my freshman year of high school I started studying Mandarin Chinese and really it took off during my junior year of high school where I actually made the decision to become a foreign exchange student and I made that decision to live in China with a host family that didn’t speak English and attend a local Chinese high school. I
Nathan: [00:10:53] mean I was one of we had 48 students on my program. So I was one of 48 students in the world to fully immersed in China for a full year.
Stephen: [00:11:02] The second pullback their second who suggested this. I mean they didn’t come in one day and like you know wake up in this dream I want to go to China. What were your parents directing saying hey this is the future. What was it that click here. It
Nathan: [00:11:16] was my neighbors. I
Nathan: [00:11:18] had a neighbor who had a very you know global background and so he had done this program the year before me and he took me to lunch at this Chinese restaurant. And he’s like you know speaking near fluent Mandarin and the waiter Italian all these unbelievable stories. And I’m like you know I’m like man and you know I think I’m going to check this program out. And it was called school year abroad for anyone that’s looking into studying abroad or has kids they’re looking into studying abroad. It’s a great way to start in high school and you know at first my mom was Nathan that sounds great you should go for it.
Nathan: [00:11:49] And then when I got in the program she was like I don’t know a whole year.
Nathan: [00:11:55] And it was you know for me I think really what pushed me to go was I had a whole older sister I knew what I was going to do in high school that junior year. If I stayed in Maryland where I’m from. And I realized you know let’s just take this shot and see what happens it’s only a year and at the time I was 16 years old. You know I went over there just with a completely open mind because I didn’t even know what to expect. You know I’d read about the Chinese economy booming and growing so fast and I wanted to be involved and I always had a very international global mindset. I not read. You know entrepreneur magazines or ink magazines and and really was fascinated by these entrepreneurial stories. And so I figured you know hey let’s let’s let’s go to China and see what is actually going on on the ground floor. And I went over there and it was it was my life. I
Nathan: [00:12:43] mean it was crazy because I remember the first two weeks they put it in this orientation that was supposed to help us get comfortable with the culture and just the scene over there and we were like maybe probably two three hours outside of Beijing and they put us in this like dorm where it had concrete floors you know no Internet no nothing. I’m thinking myself Oh man like what did I get myself into like a person from the outside world. And that’s what I thought the program was going to be. I
Nathan: [00:13:11] mean when we went on some amazing hikes those first two weeks and really got to you know connect with other students in the program but it wasn’t until we got back to the outer skirts of Beijing where we found out who are host families were going to be in. I mean you know I was extremely fortunate to have a host family that welcomed me with open arms and that you know even to this day I talked to them on chat about once a week. I mean it’s just incredible to grow and connect with people on such a global scale like that. And by the end of that year I mean you know they really felt like like real family. I mean I call my host mom mom I call my host dad dad and I had a younger brother who as you know seems like a real brother to me now. So
Nathan: [00:13:52] it’s been a you know incredible experience to see this come full circle and in China you know that year in 2010 when I was living there we started selling you know basically knockoff products on eBay and yeah this was a quick learning experience. And you know here’s the thing when you have you know beats headphones for example let’s say Bede’s needs a priest you know 100000 units. The factories that are producing that are 100000 units they can’t produce exactly 100000 units. I
Nathan: [00:14:24] mean there’s going to be...