Growing Lean

Exploring the World of Entrepreneurship with Saplifl's CEO, Martin Las Manes

• Ethan Halfhide

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Unleash your entrepreneurial spirit with Martin Las Manes, the trailblazing CEO of Saplifl, making waves in the consumer goods industry. Ever wondered how a single click could launch you into the world of consumer goods branding? This episode takes you through Martin's exhilarating journey that saw him bootstrap a poster business to a staggering 1.5 million in revenue, setting the stage for the conception of Saplifl. Join us as we traverse the innovative platform that's making the impossible possible!

Martin's successes aren't boxed within the walls of Saplifl, he's a fountain of wisdom for budding entrepreneurs eager to leave their footprint in this industry. Get stirred by his white-label capabilities and the remarkable reach of his business across different countries. Don't miss out on the priceless lessons drawn from the challenges he has faced while steering his groundbreaking venture. Plus, tap into his predictions for the future of the industry and learn how to stay updated with Saplifl's progress. Buckle up and get ready for a ride that's sure to inspire, inform, and engage you at the intersection of technology and consumer goods.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the growing Lean podcast sponsored by the Lean Discovery Group. This is your host, dylan Burke, also known as Deej, and I'm here today with Martin Las Manes, ceo of Saplifl. Welcome, martin.

Speaker 2:

Hey, glad to be here.

Speaker 1:

Amazing. So let's start off by giving us a bit of history and background of your business and what inspired you to get started.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, we have built a platform that makes it easy for anyone, be it online entrepreneurs, creators, dropshippers to launch their own consumer packaged goods brand with one click. So we provide a turnkey solution where they come to our platform, design their products, link them to their online store and start selling. When they make a sale, we do everything on their behalf in terms of packaging, pre-hearing and shipping the products to the end customer.

Speaker 1:

Okay, amazing. And what got you interested in this industry? How did you get inspired to get started?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we, the co-founders of Saplifl, we launched our previous business, also in dropshipping, and it was all based on print on demand, and we bootstrapped a poster business in the US market from zero to 1.5 million in revenue, which we successfully sold it in 2020.

Speaker 2:

And after selling that business, we actually wanted to build a similar supplement brand in the US using kind of the same you know tactics, infrastructure to do it. But once we got into the market and we and understood what are the moving parts like the suppliers, buying the inventory, identifying the suppliers, then finding distributors it takes a lot of time, a lot of money upfront and effort for you to do it. So there was no like on demand one click solution and enabled us to test different types of concepts, that there's different type of brands. So, based on that previous experience, we realized that there's definitely a need for this type of platform in the market Because, first of all, first of all, we needed it and then, second of all, we knew that. We know that removing barriers of entry into an industry is definitely life for success, because print on demand has just do it in the printing industry. So we are doing the same thing in the consumer package goods industry.

Speaker 1:

Okay, amazing. And what sort? Of? What kind of products do you sell? Or white label?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so currently we are enable people to white label supplements, also beverage products like coffees. It's more related towards wellness, but as we scale the platform, we're looking into going into functional foods, candies, skincare as well, so any type of consumer package goods, vertical that is super easy to ship with the e-commerce supply chains, they have some sort of a personalization element in them and that have a long shelf life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, amazing. And what countries are you guys available in?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so currently the service seamlessly operates in the US. We ship also to internationally. But international shipments are really suboptimal. They are not optimized the best level that there could be.

Speaker 1:

Okay, amazing, and could you walk us through your overall strategy, your business strategy?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So our idea is to is to connect hundreds of different types of white label producers through a streamlined process where we literally give the suppliers equipment, software, instructions, how to do products on demand. So that's why we can very quickly grow through verticals and also geographically and at the same time, on the demand side, add more online marketplaces, like now. We seamlessly integrate with Shopify. We have Amazon, pipeline, ebay, walmart Marketplaces and any other type of online sales channel that people could distribute their products through.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's great and it must be booming because I know over the past three, four years, dropshipping has become huge. How did you guys decide to enter the market?

Speaker 2:

And yeah, Well, I guess it comes back to our previous business and the fact that we wanted to launch our own brand and then we realized that there must be a need for this type of platform, and we've been in the market less than two years. So we launched in October 2021. And we are experiencing pretty much hyper growth with organic, which is organic, pretty much so. In 2021, we did 200k in revenue, in 2022, we did 800k and now in 2023, we are on track to get to 6 million in revenue. So we are scaling very fast our operation.

Speaker 1:

That's amazing, and what challenges have you faced or obstacles to get to this point? So I'm sure there have been many, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Of course, there's been a lot of challenges. One is you constantly need to find a balance between the supply and the demand. So, for example, let's say a year ago, we were struggling more kind of identifying who could be the sellers. How do you find them, how do you approach them, why the revenue is not growing so fast as you want and you kind of question yourself whether it's even needed. So you go through these cycles of different types of challenges. Versus today, demand is not our problem and it's actually the supply is our challenge. So how do we fulfill all those orders in a timely manner? The warehouse is getting too small, we need more products, we need more inventory, etc. Sorry, yeah, it's my kid, no worries. So basically those are the challenges.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, amazing. And where do you see your industry heading? Because I know dropshipping is still going to be huge for a while, so where do you see it heading in the next couple of years?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we are literally innovating in the consumer package goods what we are doing. This type of on demand process it doesn't exist. It's very difficult for the white label producers to grasp it because they're very focused on traditional distribution channels, mainly through offline retail and huge volumes, and they're not that good in software as well, versus we're pretty much coming into that industry as a software company and totally revamping the ways how a process of manufacturing a white label good should be looked at, how it can be changed and improved for better, meaning that you don't need to just produce large volumes of MOUQ. You could actually ramp up the production as you go and as you see the real demand coming from the market. So I think this is what we are focused on and what we're going to change in the coming three to five years within the consumer package goods space, and our team believes it's a pretty much revolution and nothing like this existed the market at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's an incredible business. What was? Do you remember the milestone achieved that you thought like, hey, I'm actually really good at this, I'm going to be successful. Do you remember that point? Or?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think you gain confidence over time. So, of course, as more and more questions get answered, there's more and more like this less and less wiggle room for the unknown factors. You become more confident and you realize that the vision can work. And I think it has happened in this past, like even three to four months, where we see this start to grow at the high perf, high perf speed pretty much, and that's, of course, gives one confidence. And another is that for this half year I've been talking a lot with our customers and understanding what are their needs, and everybody's amazed by what we have built and what we've achieved, and that gives us strong confidence also. That is really needed. So, yeah, Okay, great.

Speaker 1:

And what advice would you give to other businesses looking to get started in this industry, or even other people wanting to dropship their own products using your supply store?

Speaker 2:

So don't overthink launch really fast, Choose your products, prepare the branding, experiment and test, Because people get demotivated, they lose discipline, they are not able to execute on their kind of things that they want to do. So my suggestion is really to do it super fast and then improve along the way. Yeah, pick your niche, understand what is your niche, which direction you want to build the brand around and the products, which niche you want to sell. And third, if once you've picked a niche, how are you going to reach that niche? What are going to be your distribution channels? Either you have already built a following or you understand some. You need distribution channels for that specific niche that others haven't figured out yet. So I would say those are the top three things to focus on.

Speaker 1:

Amazing. Thank you, and Martin, thank you for being on the show. Before we end this, what is the best way for people to get in touch with you, if you are open to that or if you have any offers for them that they could take advantage of?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure, anyone can reach out to me on LinkedIn, martins Lasmanes, and just write me a DM if they want to learn more about what we're doing and also follow our journey on Twitter. So, at Martin Lasmanes. You can find me there and I share a lot of learnings about how we're building this company and what struggles we go through, how we're pretty much making this into a world-class organization.

Speaker 1:

Amazing. Thanks, martin. I really appreciate it and I'm looking forward to see where your business goes in the next couple of years. I'll definitely be following your story, thank you.