Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali

The Hustle & Moiz Ali
  • 4.9 (57)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali

The Hustle presents - Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali. Join serial entrepreneur & investor Moiz Ali as he speaks with world-class builders about starting and selling the world's most successful e-commerce startups. Moiz Ali is the Founder of Native. Launched in 2015, Native is the fastest growing CPG company in the United States, and has over 1 million customers nationwide. The company was acquired by Procter & Gamble for $100 Million in November 2017, the first acquisition by P&G in nearly ten years. Prior to founding Native, Moiz was the Founder and CEO of Caskers, a flash sales site for spirits. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episodes

  1. 05/28/2020

    0108 Jake Kassan - Turning an Indiegogo campaign into a $100M exit

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

    56 min

  2. 05/21/2020

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

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

    55 min

  3. 05/14/2020

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

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

    52 min

  4. 05/07/2020

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

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

    1 hr

  5. 04/30/2020

    0104 Nik Sharma - How To Build and Invest in Great DTC Brands

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

    1h 2m

  6. 04/23/2020

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

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

    1h 29m

  7. 04/16/2020

    0102 Andrew Dudum - Bold Strategies That Propelled Hims & Hers Into Unicorn Status

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

    49 min

  8. 04/09/2020

    0101 Nick Green - Thrive Market’s Unconventional Rise to Success

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

    47 min

  9. 04/06/2020

    Coming Soon: Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali

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

    1 min
  • 9 Episodes

4.9
out of 5
57 Ratings

About

The Hustle presents - Exit Strategy with Moiz Ali. Join serial entrepreneur & investor Moiz Ali as he speaks with world-class builders about starting and selling the world's most successful e-commerce startups. Moiz Ali is the Founder of Native. Launched in 2015, Native is the fastest growing CPG company in the United States, and has over 1 million customers nationwide. The company was acquired by Procter & Gamble for $100 Million in November 2017, the first acquisition by P&G in nearly ten years. Prior to founding Native, Moiz was the Founder and CEO of Caskers, a flash sales site for spirits. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Information

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada