The Sourcing Gals

Erin Souder and Jackie Hutson
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

From idea to inventory 📦 Your trusted guides for sourcing, manufacturing, and scaling your product overseas. Hosted by industry experts Erin and Jackie, we help female founders launch product-based businesses without the overwhelm using our proven Smart Start Method™. Each week, we break down: ✦ Sourcing strategies that save you time and money ✦ Manufacturing insights from real-world experience ✦ Profit-boosting tactics for product brands ✦ Founder stories and unfiltered lessons learned Ready to Dig in Further? https://www.thesourcinggals.com/social

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 83: Hire It Out or DIY: A Startup Founder's Guide

    Should you DIY everything to save money, or outsource it all because you don't know how? The Gals say the answer is usually somewhere in between. They walk through Amazon agencies, compliance, logistics, 3PLs, product development, photography, and web design, sharing their own expensive mistakes and the AI tools that have changed the math in the last six months.

  2. Oct 15

    Episode 82: We Built an AI Agent with Alibaba: Meet the Target Costing Coach

    It's finally official. Jackie and Erin unveil their new partnership with Alibaba and Accio Work: a Sourcing Gals branded agent, the Target Costing Coach, built into the Accio platform (avatars and all). Accio invited a select group of 10 to 20 industry experts to build agents, and out of five topics the Gals pitched, they chose the one they coach on more than any other: finding your target price before you ever talk to a factory. They walk through how the agent works, why it asks questions instead of just spitting out a number, how they stress-tested it during beta (including a board game organizer it flagged as not viable), what they saw at Alibaba's Co-Create conference, and why tools like this will let founders and agile businesses move faster than the big corporate "cruise ships." Links & Mentions Accio Work (Alibaba's AI sourcing platform): https://www.accio.com/work/app?src=p_pn_thesourcinggals The Sourcing Gals Target Costing Coach: Click 'AGENTS' on the left navigation and then scroll to select FACTORY TARGET COST by The Sourcing Gals Accio Sourcing Assistant: Accio's native agent that replies to factories on your behalf Co-Create: Alibaba's annual conference and pitch competition where the agents were unveiled Other Accio expert agents mentioned: competitive market research / retail readiness, focus grouping, Amazon and Amazon influencer programs, website building, Shopify The earlier Accio episode they reference Questions: ask on Spotify or YouTube, or email hello@thesourcinggals.com

  3. Oct 7

    Episode 81: Looks Expensive vs. Is Expensive: What Really Drives Product Cost

    What makes a product expensive, and what just makes it look expensive? The Gals break down real cost drivers across leather, t-shirts, footwear, sweaters, and small goods, plus the cheap details that read as premium and the "luxe" choices your customer may not care about.

  4. Sep 30

    Episode 80: How We Built Our Offshore Team (And What AI Still Can't Replace)

    You're doing the editing, the emails, the social posts, the store outreach... and the actual business is waiting. In this episode of The Sourcing Gals, Erin and Jackie break down how they built a team of offshore employees who edit this podcast, run their social media, design jewelry, and support their brands. They cover what it really costs, how they find and vet people with a paid test project, what goes in the job agreement, and which roles AI has started to replace (and which ones it hasn't). If you're stretched thin and wondering whether offshore help could work for your product business, this episode walks you through the whole process from search to first paycheck.

  5. Sep 23

    Episode 79: Overwhelmed? Here Are the Tools That'll Actually Save You

    Recorded live from a hotel room in LA — on a tripod improvised from a roly suitcase, an upside-down trash can, and a loafer with a protein bar stuffed inside — Jackie and Erin break down every AI tool currently running their business and how differently they each use them. They cover Asana, Claude, Gemini, and more, plus how they each personally manage founder overwhelm, before revealing the real reason they're in LA: Accio (the Alibaba-owned AI sourcing tool they talk about constantly) flew them out to help build an official Sourcing Gals branded skill inside the platform.

  6. Sep 16

    Episode 78: You Got the Retail PO — Now the Real Work Begins

    You landed the retail PO — congrats, now the real work starts. Erin and Jackie break down what's buried in the fine print (payment terms, marketing allowances, compliance, delivery windows, chargebacks, markdown dollars, returns) and why a good sales rep can pay for itself. If you're about to fulfill your first retail PO, this is the heads-up nobody gives you before you sign.

  7. Sep 9

    Episode 77: What Do We Actually Do? Pulling Back the Curtain on The Sourcing Gals

    After years of talking about clients "in air quotes" without ever really explaining what they do day to day, Jackie and Erin finally pull back the curtain. They walk through every service The Sourcing Gals actually offers — from Launch (for founders with an idea who haven't gone to market yet) to Gold Glove (full-service product development through PO and delivery) to their B2B and fractional sales work with established brands — and share real client stories, including one who chose to stay small on purpose and one who wasn't ready for Gold Glove yet. They also open up about the team they've quietly built behind the two of them.

  8. Sep 2

    Episode 76: "The Founder Trap: Designing for You, Not Your Customer"

    Most product ideas start as a personal problem the founder needed solved — which is exactly what makes "design for your customer, not yourself" so hard to actually do. Erin and Jackie dig into the founder trap of building for your own taste instead of the market you're trying to serve, using real examples from their own brands, their Abercrombie days, and founders inside their Founders Circle. They cover how to separate brand vision from personal preference, how to filter real customer feedback from loud outliers, and how one founder's willingness to let go of her original vision turned into her biggest opportunity yet.

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5
out of 5
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About

From idea to inventory 📦 Your trusted guides for sourcing, manufacturing, and scaling your product overseas. Hosted by industry experts Erin and Jackie, we help female founders launch product-based businesses without the overwhelm using our proven Smart Start Method™. Each week, we break down: ✦ Sourcing strategies that save you time and money ✦ Manufacturing insights from real-world experience ✦ Profit-boosting tactics for product brands ✦ Founder stories and unfiltered lessons learned Ready to Dig in Further? https://www.thesourcinggals.com/social

Information

  • Creator
    Erin Souder and Jackie Hutson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Erin Souder and Jackie Hutson
  • Show Website
    The Sourcing Gals

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