Adam Torres and Seal Bin Han discuss eCommerce entrepreneurship.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Fulfillment, sourcing and marketing for eCommerce entrepreneurs can be challenging. In this episode, Adam Torres and Seal Bin Han, CEO of Hook Holdings, explore Hook Holdings and how it helps eCommerce businesses thrive.
About Hook Holdings
Hook Holdings provides eCommerce-as-a-Service, handling marketing, sourcing, and fulfillment under one roof. Their teams specialize across three key touch points for brands: marketing, fulfillment, and sourcing.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today I have Seal Bin Han on the line and he’s CEO over at Hook Holdings.
Seal, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. All right, so as we were kind of warming up here, so you’re well you met and I guess our, our, one of our first introduction, I know, you know, the other co founder here, Sharag, but you’ve been out to one of our real estate events, so I should say welcome back to the mission batters community, but good to catch back up with you.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I love all of your events. You guys are prolific with what you guys do. Love it all Very kind. And so seal just to dive into this episode We’ll we’ll start it the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute So as you’re aware seal our mission is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs executives and experts.
So that’s what we do day in and day out that’s our mission. So seal what matt what mission matters to you? we aim to lower the barrier to entry for e commerce entrepreneurs through Holdings, where we provide fulfillment sourcing and marketing resources for all of our clients. Hmm. what got you into, e commerce?
Like, how’d all that begin? So we sort of just fell into it. We started with the agency the creative agency and You know in the beginning we did mostly political work funny enough And you know, wait a minute from political work to e commerce. How bad That’s awesome. Yes Well, politics is a 90 percent of the headache and 10 percent of the revenue.
But, you know, so as we were scaling, we, we met a lot of different e commerce entrepreneurs really young guys building exciting product suites, and we just wanted to, to, to be able to support them. And, you know, as we grew we started adding on additional services. And so we, we acquired a couple of warehouses, started providing a fulfillment services.
And then eventually some of these entrepreneurs asked us to help them source their products. And so we have good relationships over in Asia and started building those supply chains for them. And so yeah, but that’s sort of how it happened. It was very organic not, not a top down thing at all.
And so one of the things that you mentioned your is part of your mission is lowering the barrier of entry. So, I mean, talk to me a little bit more about that barrier. Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of e commerce entrepreneurs specialize in, you know, like one or two one or two things. Usually it’s like, they’re very good product designers or they care deeply about, you know, some sort of some sort of product that’s missing in the market.
But when you jump into becoming an eCommerce entrepreneur, there’s a lot of sort of white spaces that have to overcome. And so we just identified 3 key areas where we saw eCommerce entrepreneurs struggle the most with 1, of course, being growth marketing. Like, how do you get your voice out there?
How do you scale? Scale your brand in terms of brand awareness with consumers. Another being fulfillment and just, you know, supply chain in general. Like, how do you get products from your warehouse out to the consumer as quickly as and efficiently as possible? And the 3rd being product sourcing. Like, do we actually manufacture our products?
What countries are best for plastics versus metals versus woods, things of that sort. And so we just wanted to provide those entrepreneurs with a suite of tools for them to be able to scale more efficiently and focus on the things that they are good at so that we can do the things that we’re good at.
And so like, what kind of, what kind of e commerce entrepreneurs are you, are you kind of working with, I guess, let’s go there. And I guess, cause it’s, and maybe you can give examples by the, if you choose to, you don’t have to drop a name of a company, but if you want to, you’re welcome to know it’s, it’s, it’s completely okay.
But like, what kind of niches and entrepreneurs are you working with? Yeah, so we’re industry agnostic. So I can sort of walk you through a case study where, you know, during COVID Actually, I guess a better one would be sort of during the Trump presidency, there was the Trump tariffs for China.
And so if you’re manufacturing certain products, certain consumer goods out of China, you’re hit with this, like, 25 to 50 percent tax on top of your goods, which, you know, either gets passed on to the consumer or to the retailers, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot of companies tapped us to go and find them an alternative source as quickly as possible.
So one of them is like Squatty Potty, which was manufacturing bamboo products out of China. We moved the production over to Vietnam and then helped, you know, reduce their, their cost of goods sold in a time that was a little wild for, for any sort of product manufacturer. Yeah, that, that makes a, that makes a lot of sense.
And when you think about things like fulfillment, sourcing marketing, like typically these are all going to be different agency functions or, you know, even supplier functions. I mean, all of these different things, but correct me if I’m wrong, you’re, you kind of have your hand in all of these different areas for e commerce entrepreneurs.
Am I off on that or? Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s correct. So we just wanted to create a familiar experience for our customers. So, you know, you start with you know, either sourcing, you start with fulfillment, or you start with with digital marketing with us, and then you move through the other suite of tools that we provide.
It’s a consistent experience. You deal with you know, the, the same product manager or project manager across those three categories. And When we can prove that we can provide value in one Avenue, it’s very easy to sort of upsell the other services on top of what we’ve what already doing for the company.
like, that’s making it easy on them, like, me about what the normal or the typical experience would be somebody that’s not working with a Hook Holdings or, or a company that has that type of setup. Like, what does it normally look like? Yeah, I want to get this. I want the people to understand what it means when we say lowering the barrier of entry.
This isn’t just lip service. Yeah, yeah, so when you deal with, like, product sourcing, you usually deal with, like, 3 or 4 different agents that you find somewhere online or LinkedIn. They go out looking for a bunch of different factories. You know, you sort of have to trust, but verify your, your relationship with them.
Sometimes you even have to fly there in person. It’s a pretty disparate system and there’s a lot of friction whenever you’re sourcing products. And then, you know, for fulfillment most, 3PLs or third party logistics companies that handle fulfillment here in the U. S. are sort of operating in, like, the, still the 1990s where it’s like, you know paper and pen or, or at least Excel’s And how they manage your, your fulfillment processes and then for, for digital marketing, I mean, there’s just millions of agencies and you just don’t know which 1 to work with.
So what we provide is sort of the clarity where you can just work with 1 partner. We execute on all 3 sort of divisions very well. And we really just aim to prove it to you by working on just 1 small project in the beginning. And then, you know, as we deliver, Okay. customers tend to add on those additional experiences that we can provide.
Yeah, that’s awesome. That, I mean, that’s, it’s great because when we think about like, even just what you just now described, the amount of time, the amount of time and effort to, and then like what you mentioned about the, the Trump, the tariff, all, all the other things you were talking about, like that was, that was Even respect, even companies that thought they had it figured out.
And then there’s an external factor that comes in, you know, now you got it, you got to pivot, you got to change, you got to do something else. So having that advocate that’s, you know, kind of in that 360 approach, if you will it seems to me like you’re really almost, you know, partners from the standpoint of really having to understand your client’s businesses too.
Cause you can’t. Like you wouldn’t be able to have your, you know, your say or have or provide value and input in all those different sections. And if you didn’t like intimately know those companies, it’s just not going to happen. Not yeah, a lot of times we actually like, do the visual identity, like logo development, brand guides for our customers through our agency, and then end up helping them develop their products.
And then, of course, handle the fulfillment experience as well for our customers. And so You know, a sense, our team sort of plugs into a lot of different companies and become their sort of outsource in source team, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. what’s typically a good fit to work with, with your firm?
Like, is there a size of company? You already said it’s agnostic in terms of like, I think, I believe you said that in terms of like industry, but like, is there a size of firm or like, what’s like, how does, because people will listen to this and they’ll be thinking they may be the right fit. They may not.
Yeah, I would say you know, if you’re manufacturing between, you know, at least about 5 million or 10 million worth of inventory that’s good for our supply chain business for our agency business, even if you’re just getting started, we’re a good partner to help you sort of develop the look and feel of your brand and you know, how your brand engages with customers online.
So we can start with customers that are, you know, you. Just getting started. And then for a fulfillment business, I’d say, you want to be shipping on at least a thousand separate orders a month for us to be a good fit there. What do you like about working with e commerce entrepreneurs and founders?
I feel like there’s, you know, there’s kind of the service entrepreneurs that there’s the product guys or gals, whatever. What, what do you like about working in that niche? Yeah, I want to say just something like very like visceral about like having a physical product that you can like touch and So in my office, we have this wall of a bunch of different products that we’ve helped for six weeks Denise, that we’ve helped scale and we just want to keep adding more products to that wall and turn it into a big showroom one day.
Yeah, that’s great. I love it. I, I had a feeling cause I always just feel like there’s always this other side of having that physical product or that thing you ship or that you sell or that you get to see somebody else use and, you know, get value out of it. It’s just a, you know, nothing against service businesses, it’s just a different, it’s just a different model.
So I’m always interested about what people are seeing. Yeah, there’s something special about, like, walking through, like, a Target or a Walmart. Yeah. And just, all these different, like, logos you’ve helped design, all these different products you’ve helped source. Yeah, it’s a very, just, sort of, personal and physical experience, I would say.
So you have a unique vantage point in, in e commerce, just, you know, with what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, , any interesting trends or things that you’re noticing that you just want to comment on like, like what gets you excited right now in e commerce? Yeah, I, I would say well, there’s, you know, it’s an ever changing landscape.
Let me ask the question and say, hold on, it’s March 13th, 2024 for anybody that’s watching this in a year, go ahead. Okay. So there’s a of geopolitical changes that are happening right now. And so a lot of like what we’re hearing from sort of the end retailers, sort of like the Walmarts, the Costco’s, you know, the targets of the world is diversifying your supply chain.
So, you know, a lot of times it’s simpler and easier to just work with one manufacturer, one factory for, you know, whatever products you’re developing having some geographical, know, sourcing from plac places like Indonesia, Ma India. That will, very your risk profile when yo retailers. And so that’s
Hmm. Interesting. that makes a lot of sense because if you think about like for like the stores themselves, it’s further down the line there, they’re looking at from a different perspective. Like their product in the shelves.
Right. Cause nobody wins if that product doesn’t get to the shelf. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And you never know what’s going to happen with, you know, country a or country B. And so you know, having a diversified supply chain and sourcing from a variety of countries, a variety of factories that, makes you a much more attractive candidate to be able to work with the large retailers in the U S right now.
Hmm. we’re all entrepreneurs here, like you know, or executives let, let’s dream for a moment. Like tell me more about your vision for hook holdings going forward. Like, where do you see this thing going? Yeah, I think we would continue to add sort of more businesses under our sort of parent company to continue supporting entrepreneurs and you know, better delivering on our mission to sort of lower that barrier to entry to eCommerce for eCommerce entrepreneurs.
Wonderful. Ciel, if somebody is listening to this and they want to follow up and they want to connect and learn more what’s the best way for them to do that? Yeah, you can go to hookholdings. com and you can sort of fill out the lead form right there and then our team will get in touch. And for all of our sub companies, it’s diamondhook.
com, supplyhook. com, and hooklogistics. com. Perfect. And then for everybody that’s listening, we’ll put, we’ll put that information in the show notes so that you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and listening to an episode and you haven’t hit that subscribe button yet, Hey, here’s your personal invitation.
Hit that subscribe button. We have many more mission based entrepreneurs and executives coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing, and if you’re a long term listener, leave us. That review. If you’re enjoying the content, Hey, let other people know about it too, because the more reviews we have, the better helps us get the message out and the word out to a, to a broader audience.
So we, we really do appreciate it. Seal again, so much fun having you on the show. I, am privileged and I can’t wait to continue to watch the success of hook holdings and see what you come up with next. So thank you so much for coming on. Thanks so much for having me.
