HomeRoots - B2B Online Shopping - Running the Bases with Small Businesses

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
and then I'm just gonna do asimple countdown from three and
then and then just a moment thereand then we'll do Do the pre-roll
and then we'll get going allright?
Sounds good three two one Rody andI'm fascinated with entrepreneurs
and small business owners plus Ilove baseball Every show I sit

(00:23):
down with a small business ownerand we discussed there running the
bases of Entrepreneurship we throwthe ball around on strategy
management execution andinnovation Plus a little fun
baseball tug Hey, thanks forjoining us today settle in grab
your cracker jacks and you knowwhat they say Playball and it's a

(00:46):
great day for a ball game Hey,thanks for joining us.
This is Randy Rody with runningthe bases with small businesses
and Today our guest he's quitesomething actually.
He's a serial entrepreneur He'sfound his passion at the
intersection of technology ande-commerce Born and raised in
Israel.
He's a software engineer by tradereceiving a BS in computer science
from HIT Israel in 2002 herelocated to new Jersey That's

(01:11):
quite a hop to lead a majorfinancial project for toys are us
Networking their physical storiesaround the globe with headquarters
This project coincided with thebeginnings of online e-commerce
Our guest strategized and led toysare us's word Technical
integration with Amazon and thensince his departure from Toyser us

(01:35):
He has launched and sold multiplee-commerce businesses and is
consulted with companies in thewholesale retail and e-commerce
Verticals He's pretty good at whathe does he was awarded the winner
of the 2013 most innovative Webstore by Amazon and in 2018 he

(01:56):
founded his latest company homeroutes and for the past four years
has been combining his passion forfurniture e-commerce and
technology to disrupt the B2Bfurniture wholesale platform Very
excited.
Please welcome to the show Gil Barlove my pleasure being here today

(02:17):
with you.
Thank you very much for your verykind words during the introduction
Wow, you you're pretty impressiveI'm gonna I want to hit you up
about that Amazon word, but firstI Have to ask because my kids were
like really he was with Toyser usand I'm like well, I think you

(02:38):
know I don't know if he was anactual employee of Toyser.
I see did a lot of work for Toyserus and they're like did he meet
Jeffrey?
Actually, I did yes, so theirheadquarters Used to be about 20
minutes drive from where I used tolive Wow, yeah, and so I used to
go there every time and Jeffreywas at the entrance Obviously into

(02:59):
their into their it'sheadquarters.
Yeah, which headquarters in it wasin Wayne, New Jersey Yeah, and
then of course within the buildingitself as you move between the
buildings You would see it Youwould see the puppet Jeffrey
Jeffrey and also every almostevery cubicle used to have a
short, you know, small version ofa puppet of Jeffrey to the trust.

(03:22):
Oh my gosh.
How fun playing out there.
Yeah, my kids and would see thepuppet Jeffrey Oh my gosh.
How fun playing out there.
Yeah, my kids love Jeffrey Yes,yes, yes, so that was probably
quite the experience I think withToyser us at that time and they
still live I was you know when youwere coming on I wanted to go like
you know, I know I've readsomething even more recent and I

(03:44):
think just within the last coupleof months They've announced a
partnership with Macy's to set upboutique shops in the Macy's
stores You can still shop atToyser us online.
I know if some of your Handy workis still amidst the code of What
you see online at the moment, butwhat was that experience like
doing work for Toyser us?

(04:07):
Especially at that time whene-commerce was really starting to
So so first I'll touch upon thefact that I'm actually I heard
about the news with Macy's andIt's fun because I had this in
conversation with my with my wifea Couple weeks back about how us
as kids, you know, it's very sadactually is many different retail
stores are You yeah from the worldand it's a sad because I do

(04:32):
remember for us as kids and as weyou know grew up and even in
Israel We've said to Toyser us wehad that you know, when you go
into a toy store and you had thiswow effect of having all those
games, activities and everything.
So, wow.
And now we're looking and I havekids, I have three kids.
experience And, you know, lookingback at them, they're missing some

(04:54):
of that experience, right?
Or I'm thinking about the futurekids, right?
It's not the same.
you know, the world is evolving,but still you have this legacy
thoughts or, you know, you can dogreat for something that was there
in a past experience of touchingthe goods playing with them,
shaking the boxes a little bit,finger out maybe what's there or
what's the lights are.

(05:14):
It's missing.
So I'm actually very happy forthem doing this partnership with
Macy's.
I will candidly admit that mydoing with them back in the day, I
doubt that it's still alive.
I would love to say that it is,but I don't think love to say that
it I would doubt that to justknowing how evolves.
I doubt.
But the experience was, I tell youwhat, so my first experience with
them was actually was not evenrelated to more of the e-commerce,

(05:36):
this was really more related onthe financial space to things and
how do you really put togetherstores from different places in
the world together in a one singlefinancial system, which was a very
challenging task.
can imagine different currencies,different way of payments,
different economies, languages,altars, the way they see money,
and it's very much different thanhow you track that.

(05:59):
But then I was lucky enough thatmy manager at that time was very
happy and very entrepreneur andspirit.
I submitted again, again, inopposed to some other leadership
members of the leadership team,but he actually was pushing me for
innovation for the terms of us.
what else can be done in thee-commerce world?
Now, they're a very hesitant tomove forward by themselves or to

(06:21):
open up their own.com store, whichis something that later on they've
done, but at the beginning,they're a very hesitant and they
were looking to find a differentway to get engaged.
Again, that was post the bubblethat burst in the 2000s and the
internet, everybody was prettymuch afraid about this, what's

(06:43):
going to happen, and even though Istarted a little bit later, but
the trauma was already there.
So the experience was to workthere with people, it was amazing.
Amazing experience.
can imagine you have toys all overthe place.
Oh yeah.
And I'm not kidding.

(07:03):
literally toys all over the place.
You can't even be, you know, it'shard to get into an argument where
Jeffries looking at you from theback of the person or to you know,
you have no candies, you know,walking around in the building.
It's tough to get.
a feel good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
very tough.
But on the other hand, it was anamazing experience for me because
I got an opportunity to prettymuch do something from scratch

(07:26):
that they did not have any touchwith up to that point, which is to
reach out to Amazon getting it,getting it with getting the the
the conflict person, get thisproject, this partnership up and
running and leading thatpartnership up to the point that
it got cured.
And it was also a good experiencefor me on a couple the And know,
you tough to get.

(07:46):
It's a feel good.
one because I learned a lot ofthings from Amazon.
Right.
I don't need to tell you Amazondoes a lot of good things.
I don't always have loverelationship with Amazon, but they
do a lot of things right.
They're good for I for them tohave, right?
In the you know, business.
You know, business.
You don't want them to doanything.

(08:08):
Yes.
You can tell you that, but youknow, it's a I've learned a lot of
techniques of work from them, andthe way that they think and the
way that they approach you'redefinitely there's a lot of
learning that I have from fromthat engagement.
And I think it's that reallyexposed me into the e-commerce
world where I knew a lot aboutinternet development, you know,
internet development.
That's why I was pretty muchtasked with that.

(08:29):
So they knew that I'm I know howto build websites.
I know how to do all that.
That was really my e-commerce waslike the next level.
Right.
So I got myself engaged with that,learning a lot of things.
And I will say that I'm verythankful for those times because
without that's what I've beendoing in just 20 years, most
likely would have never happened.
Yeah.
Well, tell us about tell us aboutthe that incredible award.
So this is going back like nineyears or so.

(08:51):
I would think, you know, to berecognized by Amazon in 2013
because by that point, they werebeast to to reckon with, right?
You know, and for you to berecognized as having the most,
what was he have to go backexactly to title that most
innovative web store out of all ofthe web stores that had to be out
there at that time?
And what an incredible to yourtalent and vision, I guess.

(09:12):
What were some, I guess, what madeit so innovative at the And really
a test.
Yeah, so first thank you for that.
So I'll give the audience a littlebit of a background what was the
web store, but Amazon around 2011,12, 13, thinking even up to maybe
the 15, 2015, if I'm not mistaken,with the dates, they used to have
that technology that they canlaunch, you can launch website

(09:36):
that sits on their platform.
Like similar to what Shopify istoday or big commerce, but Amazon
actually did something similar tothat to whoever sold on Amazon at
that time, and also whoever wantedto sell online, but wanted to use
Amazon infrastructure, right?
So I wanted to obviously have myown website at that time, wanted
to push, you know, merchandise tothe consumer, so I came on board

(10:03):
to Amazon.
But because of my experience inthe past, with Amazon, you know, a
decade earlier, and my ownexperience in ink commerce, and I
helped different brands, actuallyfound myself continuously working
with their tech team, side byside, by introducing more and more
features, that actually gotimplemented throughout, you know,
different iterations.
Right.

(10:23):
And I think they recognized me atsome points, as the person who
maybe have fed them with the mostamount of feedback and features,
and things that eventually rolledout to my own website at that
time, that they said, okay,there's something going on here.
And I pretty much had an opendialogue for close to two and a

(10:44):
half, three years, just on the webstore.
And I was there like, well, theyhad open channels, communication,
feature requests, everything,pretty much they acted, almost
like an open door, like animmediate access, their
technological and businessdevelopment team, and features
were rolled out and deployedrelatively quickly, based on the
feedback that I kept on givingthem.
And I kept on doing that for twoplus two and a half years.

(11:07):
And I think that's really whattriggered that.
Again, it was built upon some ofthe relationship that I built a
decade earlier with Toys of Ross.
Sure.
And the people kind of moved thatalong, and that's what triggered
that eventually, and one day theycame forward and said, okay, we
want to give that a word.
Yeah.
You had something to do themarketplace?

(11:29):
Well, good Well, good for you.
Congratulations.
Yeah, no kidding.
That is awesome.
I am curious.
So was the web store that you hadat that point, imagining it had to
be successful, because I can'timagine that they would continue
to, you know, support you if youwere selling something crazy and
weren't selling anything.
So had to be in a great successfulventure for you.

(11:54):
Are you still have that particularventure or a Oh, that particular
venture I exited.
I sold out my part of it.
Amazon also in time have, I thinkaround 2015, or 16, a little bit
better, they sunset thistechnology.
They actually moved it right outto something else, and they move
it to be all part of their AWS,like a bigger thing, and they kind

(12:15):
of sunset this one specifically,and move to something else.
So that was the business of thattime was housework.
So I got a lot of experience inthe housewares, a little bit
things for the home, the core, whowere helping different brands.
Nice.
Yeah, their brands in some line.
It was an amazing experience forme personally.
A lot of what's called DTC, likedirect consumer sales.
And actually that was what plantedthe idea, the beginning for what

(12:38):
I've been doing since 2018, whichis home-roads.
a Yeah, very exciting.
So you grew up in Israel.
I am curious.
Always interested withentrepreneurs and a little bit of
their background, because I'malways wondering, is there a
common gene, right?
Some kind of genetic code that'sin individuals that make them
entrepreneurs, make themsuccessful entrepreneurs.

(13:00):
Did you come from an Notnecessarily my two parents were
CPAs.
I came from a very standardfamily.
Parents that are CPAs, fourbrothers, some of the youngest, so
two of my brothers are lawyers.
And another one is a policeofficer slash also, some type of
CPA.
All right.
You do in CPA on the side.

(13:22):
Very standard.
Nothing.
I won't say anything into Perno orin that space.
But I was always fascinated withcoding, with software development.
That's one of was maybe 10 yearsold, 11 years old, even earlier
than that, that I wrote differentprograms in All things I've done
when I was.
was just going to ask you thattime, what language my son loves

(13:44):
coding.
That's where he is going to pursuea career.
And you know, he's learning alldifferent kinds of codes now.
They have so many different thingsthat I'm like, I've never even
heard of that.
But in the day, it was basic C++and Pascal.

(14:04):
Yeah.
All those things.
I started this world, heaming tothis world when basic was there.
The punching cards were alreadylong gone from the world.
Heaming to this space when I wasdoing basics.
And I just remember just buyingmyself a book.

(14:27):
I was like 10 years old orsomething like that.
Well, maybe I got a book from myparents at that time.
And I remember just writing thethrough the scripts, typing it in
and just seeing what happened,what happened, what happens.
And then trying again, then try tochange something.

(14:48):
And I remember loving it.
And then he was actually could notafford myself a new computer.
And my teenager days and I kind ofmoved away writing code and
computers and computer games andall that.
And so when I came back.

(15:22):
So when I first came back into thecomputer world, if you want to
call it, actually did not comeback necessarily as a software
developer.
I came back as a graphic designer.
So I learned how to play withPhotoshop.
Right.
At that time was also freehand.
But I must admit that I was just,okay, I was not talented.
That was not my talent.
But I kind of knew how to dothings.
Yeah.
I knew how to move things arounduntil the point where I realized,

(15:43):
okay, that I need to go back tosoftware development, start
learning it by myself for a coupleof years.
And then I have to finally love.
And then the passion drove youforward to do.
Yeah.
I love I love that.
Now in Israel, when you thinkabout, and I'm not saying
everybody's like that, you know,everybody's an individual is its
own being, right?

(16:05):
So they have their own background.
But there is, there is somethingabout coming from Israel with the
center of manure spirit.
Because they, it's starting.
It's actually maybe not thatflattering when I'm going to say
it, but they don't teach you orderin school.

(16:25):
They teach okay?
And what I'm trying to say by thatis that they, like almost
everybody does what they want.
But you have a certain frameworkin which you work with, but you're
always in the courage to breakthrough, to change it, to
challenge it.
Always.
That's like you've been, you'resitting in a classroom and you
said you need to sit in aclassroom, but you always

(16:47):
encourage to find ways or findreasons why you should not be
sitting in a classroom.
Do you think you should not sit inthat classroom?
And if so, what are thealternatives that you propose for
learning?
What are the options that you feelthat you can do?
So you're constantly encouraged tothink outside the box and change
the existing reality of things.
And this is, and this is somethingthat So Israel, but at least from

(17:09):
the countries that I've beenexposed to over the years, it's
very unique in just the way oflife, right?
It's a small country.
Yeah.
And everybody, a lot of peoplehave their trauma from their, you
know, whatever happened in Europe,the hall costs.
So everybody's sometimes,sometimes even a different mode,
they're trying to do, trying toget the best of whatever they can

(17:34):
and trying to protect themselves.
So you're constantly in do Iimprove myself?
You're never, you're never in apoint where you sit still because
looking to change, innovate, thinkabout, promote yourself, think
outside the box.
Where else is going to go?
Just that type of whateverhappened in that, and that will
say Jewish history really caused.
Punted a certain gene, peoplethinking outside the box.

(17:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Just do it.
And Israel is.
With all the love, it's not aneasy country always to live in.
And if that's security issues, yougot that issue, not in the tough,
it's not in the pleasantneighborhood.
And so you're, you're at thathistorical aspect, along with the
court reality.
And it's just creates a certainmelting pot that something
constantly comes out of it.
And so I think I was.
Who of my first jobs after, youknow, after the graphic designer

(18:21):
engagement for me was really inthe startup world of Israel.
I started off.
My first job was a softwaredeveloper.
And I in Tel Aviv and semi in LA.
a company that was Step was alsowhat got me exposed to more the
American market at that time.
And so I've learned really fromthe bottom, you can say of the

(18:43):
organization of how startupsoperates and what are their
expectations and the way of lifeof the startups.
And then my next job was more onan management level of a startup
where I was still doing subcoding,what's it doing, but I had a staff
of developers, staff of projectmanagers, staff of team leaders,
and I had to manage them all.

(19:05):
You know, also traveled a lot inEurope at that time for that job.
And so I had to work with otherstartups pretty much all over
Europe.
Right?
A lot of big organizations, smallorganizations, startups, and I got
a lot of that.
So I was really groomed in thatenvironment.
And when I relocated here, Ibrought something with me.

(19:26):
Yeah, yeah.
I hope I brought Yeah, issue, notin the yeah.
I I love how you explained andkind of detailed the educational
focus in Israel.
Because as you were saying that,I'm thinking to myself, I've had
this exact conversation with oneof my friends who's from another
country as well.
And we talk about the educationsystem.

(19:47):
We both have sons that are in highschool here.
And we talk about their educationexperience.
And it is, I would say almost theexact opposite.
You will think this way.
Here's the box.
This is how you do this math.

(20:12):
And there's no other, there's noencouragement to, as you define
what was happening in Israel,there's no chaos.
It'll one chaos.
They're doing everything they canto kind of stop down chaos.
Right?
very unique.
It starts off.
Again, it's for good and for bad.
Right?
I mean, I'm not saying that only aperfect thing.
But it's just a way of, it juststarts off for the, I want to
describe you a situation where,you know, here I have, that kids
went to school here.
All my kids were born here.

(20:33):
So I have three of them, I lovethem.
And, you know, when I remembergoing to stick in them to school
in the morning, and you know, theyneed to form a line.
Right.
Right.
And then the line is very clear.
You don't push you, you stay whereyou are, and wait until the
teacher calls you, and then youwalk in very nicely, politely, and
then organize them.

(20:54):
And Israel, forget, forget aboutit.
You don't play in the world.
Listen, if you're not going topush yourself into the classroom,
you're not going to get in.
And you have a time to get in.
In other words, the door is goingto get shut, and you won't get in.
And then you got to, then you gotto come up with the reason why you

(21:18):
thought that you cannot be in theclassroom by that time.
But you got to push and pull.
And you got, there's no lines.
There's no waiting.
You just, just take charge andfind your seat.
And it just, that's, that's whatI'm saying by this chaos.

(21:39):
Right.
Right.
Right.
It starts off from this young ageof, you got to push yourself
forward if you want to get whereyou want to go.
Right.
And I think this is very, mm,it's, it's, it's, it's, as a
parent, it's different from whatI've seen and experienced as a
child.
Yeah.
Versus what I'm seeing here in, inthe States.

(22:01):
Again, I live in New Jersey.
So maybe it's not like that inevery state.
I'm not saying it's an don't playRight.
And maybe it's only in my schoolwhere I live that it's a single
as, but it's, it's very much of adifference between the two places.
Again, I'm not saying what'sbetter, what's worse.
Just, this is the situation.
Yeah.
A lot of people, I guess, maketheir choices, but definitely the
encouragement to think outside ofthe box is, I think a benefit.

(22:23):
I think that is incrediblyimportant because, and what I try
to tell my kids is because theworld they're growing up in really
has no boundaries, right?
I mean, they are competing andwill be interacting with people in
Cleveland, in Tel Aviv, inBaghdad, in London, everywhere,
right?
And so their world really has noboundaries.
So you need to be thinking outsideof your little environment here
and really begin to question whyand how can you and where can we
take this and really get, whetheryou're being entrepreneurial or

(22:45):
not, I think it's not really thepoint, but it's encouraging that
real independent thought, becausefrom that, this is my belief,
anyway, is that from that realinnovation will begin to take hold
in thought and ideas and And I cantell you, for my own personal
experience, through all thecompanies that I've worked for or
the companies that I was theowner.
I've always used global workforce,always.
I mean, since whenever I remembermyself, 20 years ago, 25 years

(23:08):
ago, always use global workforce.
Again, there's different regionsin the world where it's better to
use certain skillset than others.
But it's, so for me, it was morelike a small village.
I love the world.
And you can use talent fromdifferent places in the world and
utilize them for your needs.
And this is something that I had alot of conversations about that
with friends, family, with othercoworkers, with other people in

(23:29):
the past.
Everybody's that advocating forremote work.
I know that there is a lot ofdebates online and social media,
remote versus hybrid versus inoffice, versus just where's that.
And I'm not going to start thedebate here.
But I just want to say one thingabout the remote work and people

(23:49):
have to keep that in mind, right?
That it's all good to work remote.
But just keep in mind that thisworld keeps getting smaller and
smaller.
You've got to be the best that youcan be in the field that you are

(24:12):
operating in, because if you willnot, or someone that is back and
make, especially, let's say,especially in American market, OK?
And especially where we are rightnow.
If you're not going to be the bestthat you can, or the best there
is, if there is someone that isjust as good as you are, or even

(24:34):
better than you, and is in adifferent place in the world that
their cost, their compensation isless going to have a hard time.
Yeah.
You're going to have a hard time.
And especially, I tell you, we arein the trusted area.
It's one of the more expensiveareas in the states.

(24:56):
Even if you find someone from, Idon't know, more in London than
yours, you can find people thatare the cost less to do the same
type of a job and to do the samequality, or even that.
So you've got to always, so if youare into this remote, remote aim,

(25:17):
just keep in mind, you've got tobe the best of the best version of
yourself.
If you want to be, or if you wantto stay relevant in the market, of
a different work mode that bringssome other qualities that the
remote work and not that bringsYeah, well, that's what I try to
tell my kids as well.
You're competing with millions andbillions of people.

(25:39):
It's not people in Cleveland.
It's not the people in your highschool.
It's, you know, you are, it is aworldwide adventure.
And you've got to set yourself upso that you would be
distinguishable from others.
E-unique, you have to be, and Ithink to your point, you have to
be the best that you can be.
And make yourself stand out inwhatever way that that can be.

(26:01):
So see, if we could talk justhours, I'm so fascinated about
your experience in Israel.
I was a Yeah, I could, I could goon and on about that.
Well, let's talk about, so let'sfast forward to today, or really,
I should say, 2018.
You came upon, and I think youeven mentioned this when you're
describing your award-winningwebsite with Amazon, that's

(26:22):
probably really where the seed wasplanted in regards to home
furniture and machines and homegoods.
And then it really kind ofblossomed in with home roots.
And people, you can go check itout, homeroots.co.
That's.co.
And so tell us about home roots.
How did you decide, all right,let's launch this thing.
And what is it, because it'sdifferent, right?

(26:43):
It's a little different Yeah, sosince since I started my
employment, my project with Toysor Us, up to the point of home
roots, I was a lot in the, I wasmainly operating or living and
breathing in the e-commerce worldof E2C business to consumer, D2C,
direct to consumer, it's basicallythe same thing, just different
acronyms.
So I've been operating a lot ofthis.

(27:04):
But I always thought, andespecially after this web store
came along, I said, OK, I get thedirect to consumer world.
I get the solutions that are outthere.
But now I want to do somewholesale.
After doing, it's almost doing 15years of direct to consumer, I
feel like I want to do more ofwholesale.

(27:24):
I really want to do morewholesale.
I wanted to go one step backwardin the supply chain.
And I was looking for a platformthat I can actually sell my
product some.
And I came to the conclusion thatThere isn't such a platform.
And the only way for me, if I wantto do wholesale, is to go to trade
shows and exhibit there.

(27:47):
Now I've attended many trades.
those I also done exhibiting inthe past myself.
But I was looking for a digitalsolution.
So I knew that I want to get intothe B2B world.
I knew that I want to get into thewholesale.
The question was, okay, what willI go next?
What will I do?
So the first I started more on thehouse, where sports, beauty, all

(28:09):
those other things that I hadexperienced with in previous lives
and previous that I've worked at.
But I remember one day, a goodfriend of mine had invited me to
High Point Show, which is in NorthCarolina, and said to me, okay,
listen.

(28:30):
And he knew me from the e-commerceworld.
So, listen, you know, I startedthis new business.
I started as a VP of businessdevelopment in this new company.
I want to do a lot of wholesale,but everybody's here, our sales
reps.
I feel like they're gonna retiresoon.

(28:52):
I don't want to rely on them.
There's no, just come over, justtell me what you think.
And I remember flying over, and Isaid there were more like a fly on
the wall for like five days,actually, and I don't know if
anybody been in High Point, NorthCarolina, but the show there is

(29:13):
not like the typical trade shows.
It's like you're literally walkingand blocks in the streets.
It's just, it's like a city.
In every showroom is, everycompany has its own showroom.
So you walk between stores in acity, and that's how you walk the
show.
You use, you know, they have golfcarts, they have like, shuttles.
It's a whole thing.
It's a huge, huge, How is it gonnasay, how big is that?

(29:36):
The floor must be It's huge.
It's not a typical event that yougo through.
So I remember spending them, andwe went to different
conversations, you know, throughdifferent exhibitors, one after
the other, and pretty much aconversations were the same.
Between the reps, between thedesigners, between the store
owners, e-commerce folks,everybody had the same
conversation.
And you could see how the youngergeneration, younger by younger,

(29:57):
I'm saying my age that time, andthe little bit younger, maybe even
two, three, five years older thanme at that time, how they were
very frustrated.
Because we grew into, we were in ahybrid, well, I'm calling myself
the hybrid world, when we grew upin a non-digital environment.
So we know how to operate in anon-digital environment.
The younger generation, they onlyknow digital space.

(30:19):
They don't know how things work,otherwise they don't, they didn't
grow up into that.
And you got the older generations,which more like my parents
generation, which for non-digitalspace.
So how my generation really notfind themselves in the space and
they were looking for a change.
And I remember coming back fromthe show, and I said, okay, I know
I want to do B2B, I just found myvertical.

(30:41):
I just found the industry that Ineed to get involved in.
And actually I planted it, and Iworked on that for three years
before I actually launched theplatform in late 2018.
So I did a lot of work on the backend with research, market, the
vetting suppliers, vetting buyers,trying to prep things on the back
end, building up the platform.
Initially I coded it myself, andthen after a while, I brought on

(31:03):
board offer developers to help meout.
And then we launched.
And so the whole purpose ofHubroots is to provide a platform
for small business, medium-sizedbusinesses around the globe that
are selling furniture and homedecor items to get into the
American market.
And give them the platform tostart playing and selling and
obtaining a market share in NorthAmerica by getting their products

(31:25):
sold by retailers locally.
That's the essence of it.
And of course there's a lot ofother things in between, but
that's the major essence of Soit's interesting because as I'm
listening to you describe Hubrootsbecause I guess maybe dig into the
platform a little bit because Iknow you have customers.
And so when I say you have homeroots customers that are estate

(31:46):
developers, but you also have likeother big retail store, like Home
Depot and Loves and AshleyFurniture.
And so can I go to Loves and like,hey I want to buy, I don't know,
outdoor, the patio set maybe formy space out here.
Would I find products by a homeroots that are listed on Loves?
Yeah, you can actually go now onLoves.com or Home Depot.com and

(32:08):
you will search for home roots,you will see your products.
They're being, they're being sold.
And there are actually productsthat are manufactured.
Many factories basically havebasically offered us to sell to
those retailers.
The whole thing about our platformis that we work with factories all
over the world.
Right.
And we give the platform for thefactories to get their products

(32:31):
inland.
So we get their products broughtinto the US.
Right.
And then list those products onour platform.
So they have like the back endsystem where they can actually
upload all the specs of theproducts.
So they do that.
And the moment once they've donecompleting it, we're then taking
all this product information,specification, and then we
syndicate that to differentretailers.

(32:53):
then those retailers then offerthat for sale to the end consumer.
And of course, if those, we alsodeal with a lot of companies that
they don't have retailers, youknow, websites like home stages,
designers, property management,they don't always have site, but
they can still come to ourwebsite, register or apply to
become a buyer.
We just make sure it's a legit,you know, registered company in

(33:16):
the state.
And then they can browse our sitevery similar to any other consumer
site.
So our goal is really to make theshopping experience, the B2B
shopping experience, similar toB2C.
That's really the thing.
Nice.
Nice.
Okay.
So it's also lacking in industry.
You can imagine like how, Nice.

(33:38):
Nice.
to be and to large extent isstill, if you want to buy a
wholesale, the whole purchaseorder, RFQ, this whole process is
just very daunting.
So we're just, you know, you'vegot to buy, you need to buy
something, not a problem.
You log in like any other cost onthe any other website, the Amazon

(33:58):
or whatever.
You go, you search for whateveryou want, you add it to your card,
you check out, and boom, and justsay, you know, you know, when it's
coming out to, it's going to getdelivered, you know, the date, the

(34:23):
range, you know, right, right.
Very, very simple.
Interesting.
So if I, Randy was in a factoryand building some great rocking
chair, I could list with you as aseller, and then you're going to
help go pitch it or make itavailable, I should say, to the
other, the buyers that are yourclients or home root clients,

(34:48):
right.
Yeah.
So I could still end up in homedepot or lows if I, yeah, if I
worked at it.
So you have, then through your,this model then, and as we were
talking, even before we startedrecording, so you have your own
distribution centers, home roots,you have one in Cleveland here.

(35:11):
So I said, hey, this stopped byCleveland.
We could have gotten together.
Well, yeah, of this distribution,how many centers do you have?
I could still end up right now wehave three.
So we have one in New Jersey, onein the Ohio, Cleveland, and we
have one in LA.
Yeah, what's going to we to say?
At least one in the West Coast.

(35:32):
I'm sure.
Yeah, got to Yeah, got to bethere.
Yeah.
I love Yeah.
I love the idea that you have yourmanufacturers that they have to
have their product in the US,certainly for a lot of different
reasons.
So that is terrific.
I think we had found as well, andthis was from, I think, a news
article, a news release from NewJersey.

(35:56):
So this is back in March thatsays, home roots is raising, I'm
looking at this number, and Ican't decide whether it was a
mistake, and I didn't ask our teamwhether it's like, was that?
It's either 12 million or 12billion.
I can't figure out that I've got alot of zeros here, and I'm like,
is that missing a zero?
Or is that supposed to be thesense number?

(36:19):
team 12 billion.
So you're we're raising 12 millionthan in New funding.
started the process.
Okay.
All Okay.
All right.
So how's that going?
I guess.
So this was back in March on theannouncement.
Here we are in September.

(36:39):
Yes.
So we're halfway there.
All right.
Way to not entire complete.
We still got work to do.
And we actually, as we wentthrough the process, we realized
that we don't need as much rightnow for our operation.
So we scaled it back.
again, the whole purpose of thatis to fuel the company and move
faster.
And get to our get to, you ourdreams soon and then later.
That's pretty much what what it'sall about.

(37:01):
But yeah, we actually scaled back.
We didn't we realized we didn'tneed that much of money after
certain development.
It took place between June of thisyear.
Well, that's pretty exciting,though.
So it can great.
Relations for even for gettinghalfway and kind of wrapping that

(37:21):
wrapping that around I am kind ofcurious what led you to I guess
maybe this specific category soyou've You've You've kind of been
in this home goods homefurnishings for long before Home
roots, but why that particular onewas it?
You know, was there something thatyou to that or you just kind of
happened to fall into it?
You've stuck with it becauseyou've learned for learned it So

(37:44):
So mentioned something but plantedthe seed for me what put it as as
one of the candidate categorieswas I first visited the high point
right so that was the first thingthat kind of made me think more
about that category And as I wasresearching that category more and
more I realized that this isreally a problematic category One

(38:05):
because it's very antiquated ormore More antiquated most other
verticals retail verticals thatexists out there, right?
The way it's been sold In to themass or the way it's been sold to
the retailers in such a way thatone it's not it's there's there is
no Standards that the industriesfall and everybody does whatever
pretty much they want.
It's very fragmented Meaning youyou cannot really identify a

(38:26):
leader or a group of leaders inthis industry So there's no common
leader no one no one really leadsthat organization or holds a
majority of the market chain Andthen it's a very difficult
industry to operate with operatingthat many companies actually don't
want to deal with And mainly it'sbecause of the logistics Right
logistics of it is difficult ifyou just look at warehouses Not

(38:49):
every warehouse want to deal withfurniture actually majority of
them do not want to deal withfurniture Which makes it very
difficult to To Operating then yougot yourself the logistics aspect
of shipping transportation.
I ask you can I interrupt just asecond Yeah, well, I wouldn't they
want to have I'm trying to thinkof like well, it's big But what do
they care if it's a warehouse?

(39:12):
It's you know, you're paying persquare foot So you know as the
seller or the leaseholder ofWarehouse you're like, you know,
I've got a couch and it's taken upa lot of space in my warehouse
that I'm paying X You know persquare foot But why on the other
end?
Why wouldn't they want furniture?
Sometimes it's the equipmentsometimes the number of people

(39:36):
that needs to handle it There ismore tendency to cause damages if
the warehouse personnel is notequipped or not trained to handle
it and Just it's very hard tostore furniture on On multiple
racks.
I'm gonna start throwing afurniture on the fifth or a
seventh, you know Level with aforklift trying to kind of you

(40:16):
know ticket right now that is justnot something that You're risking
that causing damage through themerchandise.
There's a lot of risk So if yourwarehouse is not equipped for that
you usually don't want to dealwith that, right?
I think at the past it's bulky.
It's heavy Sometimes if yousomething get returned back Now
you need more than one person,right carry this furniture and
what you do with that It's just itor even if you need to dispose it.
not where you're gonna dispose it.
It doesn't go into your averagedumpster In some cases you you're
not allowed because of certainmaterial in the furniture Not
allowed to dump it regularly likeother things This is to go through

(40:39):
special dumping Many were justthey just don't want to deal with
it.
It's just too much headache Letthem get the case backs of things
that they want to move X-Multiside-abs It can palatize them
easily.
just in and out in and out So Idon't blame where perhaps that
they don't want to deal with thatBut that's a challenge.

(41:03):
Then you got the truckingindustry.
I love the trucking industry But Iwould love more if they can help
With more with furniture Therearen't that many carriers that
specialize in handling furnitureEverybody can tell you that they
will handle furniture, but I rightnow like other things This is also
a risk of damages.

(41:23):
They tend to damage themerchandise because they don't
know how to handle it within theirown lanes That's one issue the
second issue is that it's not thateasy or straightforward to book a
shipment with a truck It's reallynot and actually the average
e-commerce guy or retail storeowner They don't know how to book
a shipment with a truck Theyreally don't but they need the

(41:44):
goods to move out move fromwherever it is to wherever the
customer Is it and since you gotthat gap knowledge With handling
the trucks many just say okay, youknow what?
I just don't need it.
I don't want to deal with that Sowho's who's gonna deal with that?
That's a big question on one handyou've got the manufacturers or
you got the importers who said Idon't want to deal with the

(42:05):
trucking because if there is anydamages or any scheduling pick-up
I don't want to deal with that.
So the suppliers, the vendorsdon't want to deal with that.
it's not on me.
The retailers don't know how to doit.
They're simply majority of themreally don't know how to do it.
And then you've got a point of,okay, there is a gap here.

(42:29):
I don't want to do it.
I don't want to touch it.
So this is also where Homewoodcomes into the play where actually
our system knows on a manicallywith the different trucking
companies and the warehousesystems.
And so we schedule those pickups,we coordinate the pickups, we
coordinate the deliveries, and wemake it easier for both sides

(42:51):
actually to transact.
And we also take theresponsibility, you know, in case
there's any issues with thetrucking companies, we take full
responsibility for any delays,damages, shortages, misdeliveries,
whatever, it's on us.
We're gonna take care of it.
And so it makes the buyers feelmore confident, more comfortable
with actually buying the goodsfrom us because they know they
don't have to worry about it.

(43:12):
And the suppliers are happybecause for them, it's an
action-on-ball buyer that actuallyproduce something and don't give
them the hassle.
Right.
I don't want to deal with trucks.
It's yours.
Your merchandise, you're gonnamake sure it's delivered.
So all this drama is gone,dissolved, and we'll just make it
easier for both sides to just,hey, you like the product?
Right, right.
Well, it Right, right.
Well, it sounds like, yeah, itsounds like you really have

(43:33):
created solution for both of thosesides of the transactions, so to
speak, and the B2B, and thatallowing each of them to stay in
their lane, do the things thatthey do best, all right.
Let the manufacturers make it, letthe retailers sell it, and you'll
take care of the in-between,right?
To the connecting point.
So, you know, good for you, forlike defining true problem and
creating a true solution, I guess,in it.

(43:54):
So you've been doing e-commercefor so Yeah, years, 20 plus years.
And I can only imagine it.
Just had a guest on, I thinkactually, I don't even think the
show has aired yet.
And we're talking about, andagain, in today's world and
post-pandemic, that barriers toentry in starting a business is
almost nothing these days.

(44:14):
I could start a new businessbefore I go home this afternoon if
I wanted to.
And I could have a website up.
If I wanted to do an e-commerce,sell t-shirts, I could have a
website.
I could have an LLC, a website up,and selling before six o'clock, if
I wanted to here today.
The barrier to that is almost noteven there, aside from my time.

(44:35):
And so a lot of people, I'm sure,have and will kind of jump into
this e-commerce pool.
Now you are doing it in a muchbigger way than anything that I
would probably even attempt to do.
And I'm sure that there's allkinds of aspects in running an
e-commerce brand that tends to beunderestimated.
I guess is where I'm trying tocircle this question around.
Can you give an example or maybeexplain some of those things that

(44:58):
people in your particularexperience just don't have a
thought about or underestimatedthe, listen, this is an issue you
have to think of some brain powerbehind Yes, I can tell you.
I had many conversations.
Many people told me, okay, we'regoing to start up an Amazon
business.
Or I like to go on, you know, Ijust set up my Shopify store.
It's so simple.
Why you've been talking about howyou're saying it's a little more

(45:19):
effort, why you need to work hard?
Hey, see I got my website up andrunning, you know, before and the
day.
And they're right.
And you said it's pretty much verymuch right.
It's not that difficult to launchan e-commerce a fully operational
e-commerce matter of hours.
It's really not that big of adeal.
I really not.
I'm going to be, you may want tolearn some few things.

(45:45):
You may tweak some few things, butagain, you're not looking at a
large amount of effort in order toestablish yourself.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, I didn't say I would do itsuccessfully.
I just said I could do it.
No, whether I. To good No, whetherYes, whether I I sold anything.
Now that's a whole nother Yeah,that's all I have a question.

(46:07):
Yes.
And what many newcomers, what isway, and need to be aware of, is
that it's not just about launchinga website or starting a business
in Amazon.
At the end of the day, you've gotto find products that sell.
And that's a task.
It's not an easy task.
You're going to find a lot ofgrooves out there and different
Facebook groups that's going totell you how to find the perfect

(46:29):
product that you can make millionsof.
That's what they are millions ofothers who are in the same or
YouTube or similar Facebookstreaming posts and whatever that
they're all going after the ofwatching.
not saying you should not, but I'msaying it's not easy as it may
sound.
It's very difficult and you needto know how to go about it.

(46:51):
So that's one challenge.
How to find the products thatconsumers really want.
And then how do you promote thoseproducts in the e-commerce world?
Again, like yourself, there aremillions who are trying to promote
products.
Usually promoting products doesnot come for free.
You need to put in some moneyaside for marketing.

(47:13):
Now, there's different marketingtechniques.
There's pure advertising, whetherthat's on social media or on
Google or on differentmarketplaces, such as Amazon or
Walmart or whatever.
There's the affiliate marketing.
There's the influencer marketing.
You got to pick your lane based onthe niche of products that you're
actually trying to sell and becreative about.

(47:34):
The thing is that what I dorecommend for people who want to
start their own e-commercebusiness.
First of all, you got to put somemoney aside.
Put a few thousands of dollarsaside for identifying products and
spend some marketing money towardstrying to promote them into the
market and see whether thisproduct has some type of a demand.

(47:57):
Is there a consumer that is reallyinterested in purchasing the
product?
know.
It's not going to work.
So I recommend for people not tobuy large quantities of
merchandise just because you likea certain product.
The fact that you like doesn'tmean that others You mean there's
no certainty that my coffee mugwith dogs is going unless you want
to buy from yourself, there's no.

(48:20):
There isn't.
I'm sorry to say, there isn't.
And it's tough.
I'm not saying.
And it's easier.
It is easier to find products thathas potential on Amazon because
the way that Amazon set themselvesup.
There's also some good ways tofind Google that have different
trends and there's different toolsfor finding potential products
that may sell.
But you need to get some fewsamples when you put a lot of

(48:44):
money into the inventory.
Get some few samples and testthings on a market.
Put some money behind onadvertisements, and try to promote
it and see whether it's can yieldsome returns.
Now, don't expect that you'regoing to see all the money back.
Don't expect that every product isgoing to work.

(49:06):
Actually, the majority of yourproducts will not work, but what
you do need, if you're really intoit, if you're really passionate
about it, then you should not giveup after the first, the second, or
even the third product.
Just keep on trying and you'llfind your angle.
And it's enough that you find onehome run, one back to baseball.
It's enough that you find one thatyou're good.
Now you have a baseline where youcan actually start.

(49:26):
I also recommend, it's also notthat easy, but I also recommend
trying to get in touch with awholesaler that their products
have produced evidence that theyhave demand in the market.
So if you're able to become acustomer of that wholesaler, now
you have products that canactually sell and you can win some
of the sales in the market.
That can give you some money tothen go on this new adventure of

(49:47):
building up your own products,building up your own brand, and
give it a try out there in thespace with what sales and what's
not.
Again, that's in case you want towork in the DTC world.
Now, if you want to work in theB2B world and happens to be in a

(50:11):
furniture or home decor space, yougo to home.
Yeah, you just give.
Yeah, you just give.
You just give if Gill will call inthere.
Yeah, with the curving.
That's good.
Oh, shoot.
Yeah, with the curving.
That's good.
Oh, shoot.
Yeah, get us a sample.
There we go.
Well, that's good advice.
So that's, you know, and probablyto sum that up, even though the

(50:32):
barrier of entry is fairly small,you can't underestimate, you know,
identifying that killer productand as well promotion and
marketing, you still have to sityourself apart.
The world doesn't need anothercoffee mug with dogs on it.
And, you know, and so yes, so yes,yes.
I tell you one more piece ofadvice that I know for many

(50:55):
entrepreneurs for starting.
And what most of you're going toneed to spend your time, again,
that's my piece of advice.
If someone really want to be ontop of it, is to learn from others
how to do the marketing piece orlearn from others or to identify
what potential products may begood.
You have to learn it by all means,you need to do it yourself.

(51:21):
Right.
Don't let others do it for you.
They're never going to do it asgood as you.
And they're never going to be ontop of it as much as you want.
And the fact that you actuallygonna do it yourself, you're gonna
become better at it.
Every time you're gonna comebetter and better and better up to

(51:44):
the point where you're gonnaactually be able to fine tune your
offering in the market.
You're gonna be able to besuccessful about that.
And then once you have a baseline,then it's also easy for you to
bring someone underneath like avirtual assistant to someone that
are gonna receive the from you.

(52:08):
And they can now do the grant workof the day to day with your
supervision.
So I really recommend for peopleto do it hands on.
Like learn from others, don't tryto learn everything by yourself.
I promise because it's gonna costyou a lot of money.
Try to learn from others, try tolisten in.
But at the end of the day, don'tlet others do the work for you

(52:31):
just at the beginning, the firstproduct, second product, do it
yourself.
And that way you learn the wholescope of what it is to sell
online.
I right, good advice.
All right, for those thinkingabout e-commerce anyway.
All right, so Gil, here we go.
It's that And it's time for theseventh inning stretch.
Oh, seventh inning stretch.
Before I hit the record button, Idid ask Gil, do you like baseball?

(52:53):
And it's like, well, I've been toa couple of Yankees games.
So put you in the ballpark anyway.
So that's good.
Okay, so here we are.
This is the time here.
I get to ask you some fun baseballtrivia here.
And no, I have listeners that tuneinto the show only for this
particular aspect of the showbecause they're always
fascinating.

(53:13):
But so the research team tried todig in, find out a little bit
about you, a little bit about homeroutes.
And they came up with thisquestion I thought was actually
pretty interesting because even Ieven learn a lot of stuff.
I'm a big baseball fan and I learna lot of stuff when we throw these
things out.
Baseball in Israel.

(53:33):
Did you know there Yes.
Very good.
Yes, I did.
Yes.
But it's relatively a recentthing.
Very good.
Yes, I did.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
So the first, what we'll sayprofessional, or maybe even
semi-professional baseball field,was built in 1979 in Israel.
Yes.
And I'm not even going to, I'mgoing to try to pronounce this.
So please forgive me.
Hold in Kabut, Yes.
And I'm not Kabut, Kazer.
Is that Kazer?

(53:53):
Kazer maybe?
Is that How do you spell it He's agood Zor.
He's a good G-Zor?
Is there?
G-Zer.
What's good Zor?
That is where the Yarken sports Isthere?
G-Zer.
What's Oh, I can tell you.
What's in the world?
Take a look at Israel.
It wasn't as big.
It wasn't as big as it was.
It was you.

(54:14):
What's in the world?
Take a look at Israel.
It wasn't as big.
It wasn't as and soccer.
Yeah.
And Judo.
Judo, I think.
Well, right now, right now thereare 13 teams in the Israeli
Association of Baseball, the IAB.
So there you go about that.
But that's not your question.
That's just a little bit ofbackground.

(54:34):
So to give you an idea, right?
When we got baseball, it'shappening in Israel.
It's not that old.
Here's your question.
Has there ever been an Israelimajor league baseball the really
don't know the is pretty easy.
You got a 50-50 I'll go for Yes.
Yes.
Home run.
Yes.
So in the gentleman's name, yes,is Dean Kremer, HR-EMER.
Kremer.
He's not an Oh, so he grew up inIsrael.

(54:55):
He played, let me say, give you alittle background.
In 2015, Israeli senior nationalteam pitcher came the first
Israeli selected in the majorleague baseball draft.
So that was in 2015.
He decided so he was in, must havebeen when we say Israeli senior
national team.
So it was when he was in highschool because he was drafted by
the Padres in 2015.
Turned it down, decided to go withhis college commitment, played for

(55:16):
UNLV, University of Nevada LasVegas here in the States.
After playing with him, he thenwas drafted by the Dodgers.
And then in 2019, he reached lastAAA.
And In 2020, Prammer, it is debutfor the Baltimore Orioles as a
picture becoming the first Israelicitizen to pitch in the major
leagues.
Wow.
There we Yes, so You always seekto find info that's enlightening

(55:37):
and stump are.
Yeah, no, it's a it's a kid.
As a kid, as a in Israel, it wassomething that we just watched on
TV mainly from the, you know, whatwas happening here, right?
The major media.
It's a big right.
And in Israel, it wasn't that itwasn't played that much.
Right.
It's listed on the official orprofessional manner as far as I
remember.
Yeah.
It's good.
It's The major good.
It's good.

(55:57):
It's building.
It's coming.
It's on a job.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, let's get back into it.
So I am sure as, you know, smallbusiness owners, a small business
owner, we have our ups, we haveour downs, right?
We smacked with the pandemic,right?
We have our challenges, right?
I'm sure you have had thosechallenges as well with home
routes.

(56:18):
Can you tell us a story?
Maybe one of those times, thosechallenges are hard times that you
had to face when you first startedyour journey with home routes.
How did you So I remember goingback to our advice on e-commerce,
right?
But you can have the same advicefor anybody who wants to start a

(56:39):
business and sell something,somewhere, okay?
Someone.
And the first thing is that youneed to find someone who's going
to supply you with the productsthat you were interested in
selling.
Right, someone who's going to bewilling to do business with you,
but on terms that you deemed to beacceptable, okay, or fair or
something that you can afford.
And the challenge that I had withhome routes at the beginning was
that I got a lot of nose.

(57:06):
And every time I went to mybusiness was different.
Like you said, the world didn'tneed another month holder with, I
don't know, some puppy dogs, puppyeyes on it, right?
But it's just I was looking for,have a different business, a
different business mom.

(57:26):
And when I went to pitch mybusiness to suppliers domestically
overseas, I got a lot of nose.
No, we're not interested.
No, thank you, not for us.
No, we don't understand what youwant.
No, we don't understand what youdo.

(57:46):
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye.
No, no, bye, bye, bye.
That was pretty much majority ofmy, to the beginning.
It was just to know.
It's pretty deflated.
It is.
It's, I could tell you that if Iwas not doing it for the passion
and for my belief in doing it, Iwould most likely break already.
You're thinking, okay, you know,you start off, you will launch in
your business, you register,you're so happy.

(58:10):
You keep the registration of thecompany, you're kind of framing
it.
You're proud of it.
You are a business owner official.
And then reality hits you.
And then you need suppliers,doesn't matter.
You need customers, obviously.
You need suppliers.
And you're only going to be asgood as the suppliers that you
work with.

(58:32):
And you need someone who's goingto be willing to supply.
Assam in the streets, someverticals, it's not that big of a
deal, right?
The suppliers that you need, youknow, in the software industry,

(58:55):
suppliers that's really morewhoever's going to be willing to
view the cloud, host your computeror your host beer website or it's
covered or whatever it is, it'seasier to actually get it going.

(59:18):
But if you're in the CPG world,you really need tangible goods.
And so it's tough.
So you got to be able to perfectyour pitch to suppliers.
Oh, my nice advice on this, firstof all, to explain yourself in
such a way that they canunderstand what you really want.

(59:40):
And I realized that the problemwas not with them.
At least I want to say that, thatit wasn't with them.
It was about more about my pitch.
And how did I or the way that Iexplained the business to them?
It just didn't understand.

(01:00:02):
Word that it was too early forthat time, right?
And once I started tweaking mypitch and once I started tweaking
the audience that I was pitchingit to, business started flowing,
suppliers started to come onboard.
So it's about what you say and whodo you, who are you going to say

(01:00:25):
it to?
Two important things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then so that was my experienceat the beginning.
Yeah.
And third advice is don't give up.
Right.
Don't give up.
As long as you've got some moneyin your pocket, don't all good
advice.
Absolutely.
Keep pushing on.

(01:00:46):
Let me tell you.
Inwards e-commerce, doing businessonline.
the về zdäbother, to quit.
are so accustomed to seeingreviews, right?
So I could go, I could look up abusiness, I could search for a
business, they pop up with alittle map, and they got 35 five
star reviews or whatever, right?
Two one star reviews.

(01:01:07):
Believe in comments, all over theleft and right.
And it's a challenge.
a challenge for the local smallbusiness because they get these
things.
They want clients, customers toleave reviews.
At the same time, they alwaysstruggle like the negative review
or a one star review.
I imagine in your world, and asyou are massively, you know,
platform that you are distributingfrom an online sales platform, how

(01:01:30):
do you handle reviews?
How do you handle, I guess, youknow, if you look at them, how do
you respond to them?
What kinds of thoughts do you havewith that that you might be able
to share with other folks just,you know, that are, I mean, their
local small businesses andhandling their the first couple of

(01:01:51):
reviews are the most importantones, right?
That will start off with that.
So I think, I think whatever yousell, you got to make sure that
you got to think in the futuremindset, not just scoring mindset.
For example, if you know that yougot a customer who's upset, that's
something, it really doesn'tmatter what, go what you can, just

(01:02:12):
to satisfy their needs and whatthey're asking for.
Because if you're waiting onreviews, and those are among your
first customers, if they're goingto bad mouth view online, it's
hard to recover, especially thebeginning.
You know, if you're already 200reviews in, or 100 reviews in, and
then somebody says something notthe end of the world.
I'm not going to bring it down tome.

(01:02:34):
But if you get your first one,two, three reviews and they're all
bad, that's, that's, that's hard.
tough to recover.
It's very, it's almost in thepast.
It's very tough to recover.
So you got to go beyond andbeyond, you made them to be even
fair.
There's no fair.
You got to, you got to make thecustomer happy.

(01:02:56):
If it means that you lose money,lose money.
Think about that as, as done,certainly as losing money, think
about it like a marketinginvestment.
that's hard.
It's Right.
You really have to think longterm, not just the short term, one
transaction, one review, youreally have to think long term, am
I in this just today, or am I wantto be in business a year from Yes.

(01:03:22):
And I have to, especially in thebeginning, while you're still
small, you're still most likelyyou texture the customer directly.
And if it's not you who takes careof the customer directly, and you
just launch your business, then Irecommend you to do take care of
your customer by yourself and notlet somebody else do it because
the first couple reviews, thefirst couple feedbacks are the
most important ones.

(01:03:43):
if the customer are going to behappy, they're going to tell their
friends.
But you don't want them to telltheir friends.
Somebody once told me, I rememberwhen I was in an economic class,
or I don't know what social studyclass that I remember white was,
but I remember the ratio betweensomebody says something good about
you to something sad about you isone to 10, which means on every

(01:04:04):
one, on every 10 good customersthat are happy, it's enough that
one will not be.
that just wipes out all the 10good ones.
That's it.
And so you don't want that one,you don't want it.
you got you got a handle yourcustomers reviews are so super
important.
Tell in our case, in our platform,if we do get bad reviews on
specific products, we tend to takethem down.

(01:04:25):
And we take the product down.
We take the product down.
Yeah.
We take we completely take itoffline.
then we give the supplier, we givethem an effect or an opportunity
to address the concerns of theirreviews.
Right.
Maybe sometimes it might be justmisunderstanding.
we give some room for a dialogue.
But at the end of the day, youknow, if it's a production issue

(01:04:48):
or whatever it is, then we mayneed to take the product down
entirely and keep the customerhappy in different ways and maybe
offer some alternatives to them.
That's the way that we tackle thatin our platform.
Right.
But if you operate outside of ourplatform, I will say that if

(01:05:08):
somebody left product down.
We take the product to reach outto them, try to listen, try to
reason with no guarantee that theywill ever change it.
But at this regard, try try toWhere it's open for you.
Just emphasize this.
all the points making is just haveto think long term, not just this

(01:05:28):
particular instance.
So, um, so you've got all this newmoney flowing into home routes.
You've got great ideas, obviously,passionate about what it is that
you're doing.
What's on the horizon for homeroutes?
What do you see around the corner?

(01:05:51):
What's the next great Okay.
So there's a, there's a couple,there's a lot of things, not, not
everything I can disclose.
Sure.
One of the things that we do wantto help, we want to make it more
affordable for factories to bringtheir goods into the US.
Very simple.
We want to bring the merchandisehere and spare the needs for

(01:06:12):
retailers here to go overseas.
We want everything here as much aspossible and bring the markets
here.
And we want to let the people andthe companies operate domestically
as if they were originally adomestic registered company.
But that's, that's really one ofour major initiatives right now is
to make sure that factories canimport their goods in an
affordable way, dimless way, andjust make it easier to, for, for

(01:06:36):
factories to operate here.
We believe that, you know, as faras there's a lot of, you know,
there's obviously some factorymanufacturing that is done here in
the States, but it's still verymuch small.
And I predict that it will stayrelatively small just because of
the workforce, the cost of living,everything else, and also the

(01:06:57):
materials at the raw materials,majority of them are not in the
US.
They have to be imported elsewherefrom elsewhere.
Yeah, there are some few, youknow, wood material stuff in
Texas, for example, there's a fewfarms and stuff.
The majority of it is reallyoverseas.
So we're working on thatinitiative, something that can

(01:07:19):
tell you that we're putting a lotof efforts into it.
And then the next thing is wereally want to help manufacturers
that are having challenges withEnglish, still do business in the
US.
So imagine that you do not speakEnglish that well, you still want
to sell your You know how to sellyour products, and you got great
products.
Why should that be a limit?
Why your language or the lack ofknowledge of language should be a

(01:07:43):
barrier for you to operate in herein the States?
I mean, I'm coming from, you know,I'm not, I wasn't even great
myself, right?
Been a while, I've been here morefor more than 20 years, but I know
the issues, I know the issues havecome from different country.
And the challenges of gettingacclimated, I'm thinking about a

(01:08:03):
person who doesn't even leavehere, doesn't understand the local
culture, doesn't understand the Doyou want to make it easier for
them?
They're still room here, they'restill the men for their products.
And if there is, I can't believethere is, let So it's like a,
yeah, some good a, yeah, some goodinitiatives, yeah.
In the future, it's going to be ona global scale, and enable guys
who are operating here in theStates, go elsewhere and do the

(01:08:25):
same.
Other continents to othercountries, to other regions in the
world, where they don't haveaccess to right now, because they
don't understand the language,they don't understand the culture,
they don't even know how to start.
They don't know, they don't knowwhere to go, not a problem.
You're going to bridge it forthem, you're going to make that

(01:08:47):
bridge and we're going to make iteasier.
So it's not just inbound into theUS, bringing everybody into the
US, even though that's what we'refocusing on right now, but in the
future, it's going to be on aglobal scale.
Everybody can sell anywhere.
The talent will prevail, thequality will prevail.
And if you got a good product witha good demand, a good price,

(01:09:10):
wherever you come from in theworld and wherever you want to
sell, there's no have no limitsfor At the bottom of the ninth,
and you've talked about so much inso many different kind of aspects
of operating a small business, butat the bottom of the ninth, this
is where we kind of ask all of ourguests, but advice do you have for

(01:09:31):
rookies in the game, right?
Or those who have already havetheir business up and running,
looking for some guidance, you'vegiven so many nuggets of gold,
that you have more words, youOkay, you can send some advice on
the marketing about how to startbusiness, the products, what you
have to the suppliers, everythingelse I've given something by
Sunday marketing about how tostart business the products what
you have to the supplierseverything else I'll try to touch

(01:09:51):
up on something totally All rightthere we go.
All right.
Let's touch on their counting sideof things.
Okay.
back to the family roots to CPA's.
Here we are.
This is how it was brought.
So I'm bringing all of that in.

(01:10:12):
Yeah.
or out.
Full circle.
Look at that.
Pay attention to your books.
I know.
and really serious about it, youknow, at the beginning of it
stuff.
And what's more important issales.
You want the sales before anythingelse.
But always keep in touch and keepa close look in what's happening
in your books on your own personalexpenses, the company's expenses,
different programs that youregister with and over time you

(01:10:34):
don't pay attention, you're notusing them anymore, but yet you
still pay for them on thesubscription fee or whatever, all
those things, then they take awayfrom your bottom line, which takes
away from what you take home outof this business that you're
building.
So my piece of advice is on thebooks, record whatever you can.

(01:10:58):
If you don't have the time, thenagain, you can always hire someone
even overseas.
There are marketplaces such aspork or guru.com, other different
platforms like that that you canfind a global workforce and they
can help you with some of thebookkeeping, some of the
recordings, so you don't have tospend the time, it's not an

(01:11:19):
expensive workforce.
It's super important.
You've got to pay attention toyour expenses, you don't go over a
budget.
Sometimes you don't pay attention,you say, okay, it's only 50 bucks
a month.
And that's also another 100 bucksa month.
Big deal, I'm selling $5,000 amonth already.
It gets to Yeah, thanks Chris.
It's like a little nickel anddiamond, all of a sudden you got
Yeah, exactly.

(01:11:41):
It's the small thing that youdon't pay attention that takes
away from your own profits.
And sometimes you don't even needthem.
You don't really need them.
So that's my piece of advice.
Just pay attention to this, recordit, make sure that you look at
your P&L, look at your reports,understand the reports, know some
financial acronyms that's superimportant.
And my opinion, again, it's secondto gen sales generations because

(01:12:03):
that sales, they're nothing else.
Right, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
But once you get through salescycle into a motion and you've got
it going, go back.
This is what I collect the backoffice, protecting your base,
making sure that it's solid.
And you're not...
Right, it doesn't any tension, youthink that you're making a lot of
money and then you start lookingat the books and say, oh, sure,

(01:12:24):
I'm actually not.
So, and it's super good.
Why?
And why am I not picking mysubject fat salary at the end of
the month?
I own my own business.
I don't have employees or maybe Ihave one to hook up the
disappointing surprise.
Like, what?
Wow.
Very practical advice.
I don't think we've ever had aguest that said, look at your

(01:12:48):
books, keep track of your books.
Yes.
I love that.
That was great advice.
Well, listen, Gil, it's been sofun having you on the show.
I've truly really have enjoyed theconversation.
I think I could talk with you foranother hour, just about growing
up in Israel and education andentrepreneur as a whole.
So maybe we'll have to do part twoof this conversation another time.

(01:13:08):
I'll be more than happy to.
Yeah, yeah.
But thank you for being on theshow.
And folks, you can go connect withGil.
You can reach out to homeroot.co,which is their website.
And they've got contactinformation there.
Also, you can hook up with Gil onLinkedIn, either on the homeroot's
profile or Gil.
And what would you have a, do youknow off the top of your head,
your LinkedIn another time.
I'll be more Yes.
So after LinkedIn, if you have GilBar Dash Lab, you can.

(01:13:30):
And there you there you are.
There you are.
All right.
Again, thanks, Gil.
Really appreciate it.
It's been a lot of fun.
And, folks, that's the ball game.
Thanks for joining us today.
If you like our show, please tellyour friends, subscribe, and
review.
And as we like to say, we'll seeyou around the ballpark.
Running the bases with smallbusinesses is brought to you by 38

(01:13:59):
digital market.
A digital marketing agencycommitted to client growth with
lead generation, higherconversions, and increased sales.
Connect with us today at38digitalmarket.com.

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