What Made This Amazon Brand Buyer-Ready

All right, I'm here with Anna Shram, who recently got acquired on Acquire.com. Anna, how you doing today?

Hey, Andrew, thank you very much for inviting me. I feel very good and actually happy just because I'm celebrating the completion of the deal of selling my business with Acquire. So it's really a great moment when we have this podcast.

Yeah, excited to hear more about it. Before we dive into that, do you want to just give a brief introduction of yourself for people that may not know you?

Yes, sure. I'm Anna. I'm based in Germany, but originally from Azerbaijan. And my background is actually marketing, law, and international business development and innovation. And actually, I started my business around 2 years ago as an attempt to build something on my own, creating the new brand and setting up my new company. And it was very interesting, very enriching experience. But then I was coming to the decision that I want to try something different in my life. But I think that we'll talk a little bit more in details about this journey.

Love it. Tell me about the business. What did it do? Let's start there.

So it might sound very basic. I was the Amazon seller, but I was not the one of this Amazon seller who wanted just to buy something cheap on Alibaba and then resell it on Amazon and become millionaire by 30. That was not my journey. I really wanted to create a true brand with a story, with a heritage, with the opportunity for the future growth, and I truly believe I succeeded. So I created the own brand for their home products and kitchen products with Italian heritage and traditions and designs. So it was quite sophisticated product, and it was maybe quite an unusual approach for the Amazon sellers where most We are used to have more commoditized products, but apparently it was working. So it was quite successful launch with very positive consumer reviews, minimum returns, Amazon Choice recognition, and that was my business.

Amazing. How'd you get the first customers?

Well, I was selling exclusively at Amazon, so of course it was Amazon bringing the customers. Unfortunately, know the names of them. But of course, getting the first purchase was probably the hardest one. I was using the Vine platform program that Amazon is providing to give the first reviews, and once the first reviews were there, pushing the PPC campaign was allowing me to start selling. And once you get positive reviews and you get more visibility, the algorithms of Amazon start to pushing you up, and that's how it all was built.

Got it. So the— I don't know anything about Amazon. The strategy, it sounds like, is mainly getting reviews, and by doing that you get more visibility, then you get more customers, and you just kind of work on that whole strategy.

Yeah, it sounds very easy. And to be really honest, when I started this business, I was living in a little bit naive world that, okay, I am a marketer, I love to create the brands, I know how to position, I know what consumer wants and how to create the good products. And I was thinking like, okay, I don't want to deal with all the operational stuff myself. I will outsource this at Amazon, paying them the commission, and they will take over the whole operational hassle. But it's not how it works in reality. Of course, in the beginning, it sounds and feels very, very promising and easy, but in fact, it is like adopting a tiger. When it's a little one, you see a nice video on YouTube or Amazon or Instagram, like, how cute is to have a tiger? And you think, like, wow, I can do the same. And while the tiger is it feels like, okay, it's not a big problem. It's not much of a difference than having a puppy. But while the Targa is growing, you see also how growing the issues and the stress and the level of destruction, something goes wrong. And that if some mistakes can be forgiven by the small pet, by Targa, it's not going to be forgiven. And that's how it feels a little bit to be the Amazon player. So like, it's not that you're outsourcing your headache. No, you're getting this just just in a little bit different form.

That makes sense. What was the hardest part about running a business like this? Was it working with Amazon? Was it actually building the product? Was it doing the shipment?

It was building, working with Amazon for me personally. I don't know, I cannot judge the experience of the others, but working in the Amazon operational system was probably the hardest, understanding how the algorithm works. And also, you know, what was my biggest realization there is that What started as a dream of freedom, like what I was saying, I can focus on what I really love, is becoming for me personally as a sophisticated prison where you have to comply to all of the operational requirements that are, believe me, there are a lot. And like a full dependency on the platform because as I mentioned, I was exclusively Amazon seller and that was probably the hardest realization and the reason why I decided that Well, actually, despite the fact that I really loved what I created with my brand and with my products and with the whole story, what I realized is continue operating in this setup is something that I don't want to have for my future because I want to have a good sleep at night. And like being based in Europe and having the business in the US, meaning my working hours will be mostly skewed to the night hours. That was something that I didn't want to sustain with.

That makes sense. My next question is, is why did you decide to sell the business? But it sounds like, uh, you were just getting tired of the grind with Amazon and all the operational needs. Is that right?

In a way, yes. And also thinking like, is this really what I wanted? Is this really something that I was initially building? And the answer was not. And of course it was not an easy decision, to be really honest. Once you create something as your baby and you put put so much heart and blood and stress and everything into this, it's very hard to say goodbye. And of course, when I would start to be exhausted with this operation, I was thinking about different strategy, scaling this up, scaling it down, extending the, like getting out of the platform and extending the footprint of my brand, or exit strategy. And what helped me really a lot is really tone down my emotions, switch on my strategic brain, think about the other possibilities that I have outside of this business model. And at the end, the idea of selling the business was feeling like it's the right way to do this.

I think that makes a ton of sense. How was the first couple weeks on Acquire? How'd you hear about the platform? What was your expectations and how did it go?

So first of all, the story about how I get to know this. I mean, AI is now dominating our life everywhere. And of course I'm using sometimes ChatGPT as my consultant to check the logic and so on. Like thinking about the options, discussing, it was with my personal assistant ChatGPT. It came up with an idea that, hey, if you want to escape, there are the platforms how you can do this. That's the first time how I learn about Acquire. And it was not the only platform where I started, but honestly, I must admit that my experience with Acquire was exceeding my expectations. And what struck me the most was how founder-centric their experience was. After the years of operating in the platform where I as the founder can feel myself as exchangeable and not so important. Here I felt like I'm in the core of everything. I feel the genuine interest towards me from the people, especially Rosa, who was my counterpart and acquirer and who was assisting me throughout the whole process of acquisition. That was really revealing and it felt very safe, secure. And of course, you know how, you definitely know from the other founders, like how emotional it can be, how insecure a founder can feel. What you guys created was really taking out a lot of this stress for me.

That's amazing. That's definitely what we aim for at Acquire. It's a hard process to sell a business and, you know, we try to be supportive every single step of the way. When it comes to the buyer that you sold to, what about them made you decide to sell the business to them? Was it their offer? Was it their demeanor? Did you get along with the person really well? Was there anything that stood out?

Um, so first of all, that was not the first buyer who contacted me. I was, um, communicating with two other buyers before my actual buyer came up. And he struck me with the honest— honesty, directness. He was asking for to share my asset seller package. And after that, immediately we set up the call. It was the end of December. So the whole connection was just around the New Year's Eve. But the very first meeting was very positive, talking about my business, talking about he's ambitious, why he's why he's doing this acquisition and so on. And it felt very right. Like, maybe it's a little bit naive approach also from my side, but I didn't want to kind of, you know, having my brand ending up somewhere in the trash bin of some acquisition agencies. But I knew and I felt like it's getting into the good hands. And it was also very good feeling. So it was a good chemistry from the very beginning, good level of trust. My buyer was really professional. He's very professional and I think it's not his first acquisition made from the platform of Kwai. So it was also like feeling that's gonna work. But also I must be also honest, I was preparing myself well for this acquisition. So I was not just bringing the mess of my business into the platform, into the offer, but I was really thinking like, okay, what I'm selling, I'm not selling the Amazon account, I'm selling the brand, the story, and the future business. Potential and codifying the future perspective is one thing which is very important while you're preparing your business for sale. But on the other side, like, today I'm in, tomorrow I'm out. So how can I make sure that the business can operate without me at least the same good or hopefully better when I'm out of the business? So I was really thinking and keeping those two things in mind, preparing the initial documentation. It really helped. So I would believe like a proper preparation is 80% of the success, at least in my case. I don't know if you have the same experience.

100%. Yeah, 100%. And you'd be surprised at how many acquisitions we see where it's a win-win acquisition just because you and the buyer get along so well. I've always thought that's extremely important because they need to share a similar vision as you as to where the business, you know, can go post-acquisition. And then to help get buyers interested, being prepared is 100%. The name of the game, especially doing things like where you can show that the business can operate without you. And if someone's going to buy the business, they're going to be able to operate things and keep things continuing as you did as the founder. So that's massive. Great job on that. Did you do anything to celebrate? What did you do on the day the acquisition closed? Did you go to a nice dinner or anything?

I did, but to be really honest, the process of delivering all the due diligence took a little bit longer and I was hoping to celebrate probably 2 months earlier than it actually happened. So by the moment it, uh, it finally happened, I was already focusing on something else. So, but yes, it was a nice dinner with a glass of wine.

Amazing. Um, if you were talking to another founder and they were looking to sell their business, what's a couple pieces of advice you think you'd give them?

Um, so as I probably already mentioned, like, um, first of all, change your head from I'm the head of my business into I am selling the business. So what is the benefit your buyer will get? So you really need to change the shoes of operational leader into the seller of the asset. Once you do this, it helps you to do different positioning, different arguments, and it really changes the perspective. The second thing is really try to codify and structurize your mess. I mean, I'm talking about mess, and I can say most of the businesses are like this, especially if it's a small business run by one person or there's a small team of people. It's very important to structure the processes, the key decision points, the operational model, and so on. The more transparent— first of all, understand this yourself, And the second, try to articulate it correctly. So once you do this, I think that, that will help you tremendously in negotiations. And what was really helping me is just to calm down, you know, like I would say that probably the selling of the business is something emotionally I underestimate and getting the head cold and rational was something that was really helping me, like not trying to think about that I have to decide everything further, or I should dictate my new buyer how the business has to evolve, or I don't know, like all of this emotional thing that we sometimes do thinking of this as our baby or something that we're keeping responsibility for. I think that here we should a little bit cool down.

I think it's great advice. I agree with all of it. I think a big part of selling your business is understanding that you're in sales and you need to speak with every buyer and you need to figure figure out what's really appealing to buyers and not necessarily just think, you know, this is a great business and buyers are going to approach me. You know, like you said, putting on a different hat where you're actively selling the business and following up and sharing new information, that can make all the difference when you're going through an acquisition. But my last question, what are you doing next? What's next for you?

I have many different ideas already in my head popping up. I know for sure that I don't want to go into the platform dependency and risk exposure that I had in my previous business experiment. And to be really honest, I think that with this experience, I really gave myself kind of a second MBA where I could learn the whole process starting from creating the business, operate it, like establishing this, creating the brand, uh, uh, positioning, finding the consumers, but also, um, structurize the whole process and exiting. So one of the area where I'm thinking about is like, can I help some other people with, with my knowledge? Can this experience that I've got be useful for somebody else? That is something that I might also consider for the future.

Right on, I love that. And I'm sure there's a ton of people out there that definitely benefit from your story. If people want to find you online and hear more about your story or just connect with you, where can they find you?

I need to think about this because so far I was not having that any professional channel, but let me think about this. I can share with you my email address.

Okay, sounds good. Well, Anna, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and congrats again on the acquisition.

Thank you so much. It was really a great pleasure working with you and your team, Andrew. Really appreciate.

Appreciate it. Cheers.