Five Questions With…Well.ca’s Ali Asaria

By Mark Evans in Five Questions With... No Comments Tags: , , , ,

In the wake of Well.ca raising $1.1-million from a group of angel investors, I fired over a few questions – actually, five – to the company’s founder and CEO, Ali Asaria:

1. What’s your take on the financing landscape for Canadian start-ups?
There is a lack of good investment options in Canada. Any entrepreneur that’s tried to raise financing here knows that. But the solution to this problem isn’t so clear — it’s a complex problem that will require the slow organic development of a startup business ecosystem.

It doesn’t really matter for us entrepreneurs: all we should be focusing on is building long-term sustainable business models that scale. That’s our job.

2. How do you account for Well.ca’s strong growth?
Well.ca’s growth is entirely based on word-of-mouth marketing — we don’t spend a penny on traditional marketing. The strategy is simple: over deliver on value to the customer, treat them like family, and they will tell their friends.

Our approach to business is important part of what’s brought us here. We’ve always focused on building a culture of doing more with less, we’ve always made sure that we measure everything that we do, and we’ve always poured our hearts into showing our customers we care.

3. Have you made any strategic adjustments or changes that have really paid off recently?
One of the smartest things we’ve done recently is to publish statistics on every line of operational profit and expense to the entire company on a weekly basis. Every single person in our company knows where every dollar goes in our operations, marketing, and staff costs in order to fulfill orders.

At first, this move was a scary one. We worried what would happen if we were so transparent about our numbers. In the end, it was one of the smartest moves we made: financial transparency builds trust and accountability within our company. Everyone knows what they can do to help the bottom line. It makes absolute sense now.

4. In terms of growth, where do you see Well going? Do you have a focus on particular verticals?
One of the unique parts of our business is that there is nothing in our DNA that binds us to selling only health products — our style of being super-nice to customers, our unique software and our distribution model can work in many verticals. In that sense we have a lot of options.

Still, for the time being, we have a lot of health and beauty related verticals that we’re pursuing this very second. Stay tuned for more brands in more categories.

5. Any advice to entrepreneurs looking to grow an online business?
The thing we’ve learned the most is that integrity is the most important thing in building a business. When building an online store, it’s really easy to forget that each site-visitor is a real person. Large online businesses need to look towards small, friendly local businesses on how to establish relationships based on smiles, honesty, and kind words.


All’s Well With Well.ca

By Mark Evans in Main Page 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

One of the challenges facing many Canadian start-ups is getting growth capital so it’s exciting to see Well.ca raise $1.1-million from a group of angel investors led by ex-eBay Canada managing director Jordan Banks.

While Well.ca is still have a relatively modest profile, that may quickly change if the Guelph, Ont.-based company can continue its impressive growth, which has seen sales more than quadruple over the past year, while the number of visitors has soared by 135%.

Well.ca CEO Ali Asaria said the company had the luxury of being able to select from a group of U.S. and Canadian investors attracted by the company’s growth and cash flow positive status.

In addition to Banks, the angel investment group includes:

- Hilton Silberg, an entrepreneur who founded the Day Night drugstore chain in the Hamilton area, which successfully competed with national chains for 17 years before being sold to Rexall Pharma Plus in 2007.

- Andrew Sloss : general manager of Kijiji Canada, Canada’s leading online classifieds site, and formerly country manager of eBay Canada.

- David Ceolin : an expert in customer relationship management, founder of Digital Cement, a marketing services company sold to Pitney Bowes in 2007.

Banks said the investment was driven by Well.ca’s technology and potential:

“I’ve seen many creative strategies employed to capture the potential of online retailing over the years. What sets Ali and the entire Well.ca team apart is the scalability of their amazing technology and their collective ability to execute, which are both used as a means to providing an incredibly rich and evolving customer experience.”.

While more Canadians are embracing e-commerce, there’s still only a small group of fast-growing e-commerce local start-ups capitalizing on it. In addition to Well.ca, this group includes players Wishabi.ca, TigerDirect and RedFlagDeals.

Seth Godin on Social Networking

By Mark Evans in Uncategorized 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

Here’s an interesting video of Seth Godin talking at a recent conference about social networking, “fake networking” and the value of “real relationships”.

It’s an interesting observation, particularly given how many people have been trying to build out their LinkedIn and Facebook networks during the current economic slowdown.

As much as these digital networks can be useful and build relationships in some respect, they are different beasts than personal (real-life) relationships where the real value lies.


Is P2P Dying?

By Mark Evans in Music 5 Comments Tags: , , ,

Do you download as much free music these days using P2P services?

Anecdotally, the number of people building their digital music collections using P2P appears to be shrinking – a development highlighted in a recent New York Times article.

It is a stark contrast to not that long ago when downloading free music was something done by many people, who never thought about the legal consequences. Even when the RIAA went on the warpath by suing people, it had little impact on how people behaved.

This trend, however, seems to be changing, and it strikes me as having a lot to do with availability. Rather than having to “own” a song or CD, a growing number of people are content to simply access what they want when they want using services such as Pandora, Songza, MySpace and Spotify.

Many of these services are free, allowing people to get a musical fix without having to dig in their pockets. Of course, if they like what they hear, there are lots of options – iTunes, etc. – to quickly make a digital purchase.

Stepping back from the fray, the apparent decline of music acquisition using P2P is stunning given it was so prolific anot that long ago. This isn’t to suggest the music industry will thrive again because the business models have clearly changed, and will continue to evolve.

That said, it is impressive to see how Spotify, a Swedish music streaming start-up that has taken Europe by storm, has become one of the hottest startups.

Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek hit the hammer on the nail when he told the NYT that:

“Piracy is essentially the consumer’s wish to have everything on demand. It’s not like people want to necessarily have it for free,” adding that piracy has thrived because due to the lack of services “that allowed people to discover new music and easily share music with friends.”

Are you still downloading music using P2P? If so, why?


Wanted: New, Shiny Social Media Toy

By Mark Evans in Social Media 6 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Can you hear it? It’s coming but you don’t exactly know what it will be yet?

In this case, “It” is the next big thing in social media that a growing number of people seem anxious to see emerge. It’s not a huge outcry yet but it’s coming so be prepared.

Here are a couple of clues:

1. A story on Social Media Today asking “What’s the next Twitter of the social Web?”, in which the author explored whether the “next big thing” is location-based social networking, or video such as 12Seconds.TV or Qik.

2. A story on Mashable with the headline “Foursquare: Why It May be the Next Twitter”, and a declaration that “Foursquare has all the right ingredients to be one of this year’s big hits”.

The reality is the digerati is getting restless. Twitter has been red-hot for the past eight to 10 months but Twitter is losing its appeal as the shiny, new toy.

The digerati want something new and exciting to get excited about. Twitter is still cool but it’s becoming too popular and widespread to be seen as the property of bleeding and leading edge.

So, what is next? Maybe it’s Google Wave, or mobile video now that the new 3G S iPhone is equipped with a video camera. Or maybe it’s location-based services using smartphones with GPS.

Whatever the next “It will be, the natives are getting restless for something new and shiny.

What do you think it will be?

Update: Here’s a blog post from SocialWayne asking whether Posterous is the “next big platform”.


The Dangers of Working 24/7

By Mark Evans in Social Media 8 Comments Tags: , ,

I was talking to someone recently who mentioned how many of his friends were disenchanted with work, including some who had decided to resign rather than grin and bear it.

In discussing the possible explanations, one of them was the downside of being connected all the time through the Web, e-mail and smartphones. It means people are working longer and harder – and working even when they’re not at work during “working hours”.

In a sense, many people are working all the time – a situation exacerbated by the current economic climate in which employees are being asked to do even more as companies reduce costs.

The question is whether “all work, all the time” is just the way it is these days. In a wired world with the ability to be connected pretty much anywhere, can you ever escape work? If not, what does that do for your personal/family life, and work/life balance?

Here’s a few more scenarios to fuel discussion:

- A friend of mine told me when he goes on vacation, he works from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. every day. Then, he turns off the computer and Blackberry until 7 a.m the next morning.

- A colleague told me his boss has recently said there’s no need to respond to e-mail after 8 p.m.

- Chris Brogan, a social media consultant, recently sent a newsletter that included a snapshot of a “typical day”, which suggests he works 12 to 14 hour days.

- Amber Naslund, a community manager with a social media analytics company, said she works 10 to 12 hour days, including nights and weekends.

While I’m probably as bad anyone who works within the Web, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the dangers of being unable to digitally disconnect.

I look at many people who active on Twitter from early morning to late at night, and wonder whether this is unhealthy, or simply the way it works these days.

I wonder about a world in which it’s difficult, if not impossible, to not be connected; a world where Twitter has to be constantly monitored, and replies to e-mail done ASAP.

More food for thought: check out this video in which Renny Gleeson talks about the “culture of availability”


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
1 2 3 4 5