FaB LA. How to scale globally and be successful in China.

Guest speakers: Kofi Ampadu is the founder and General Partner of SKU’d Ventures (NYC), Suveen Sahib founder of Aquis and K18 Hair (San Francisco), Michael Engert founder of Very Good Light and Good Light skincare line (NYC), Hosted by Zack Parker co-founder of LUK network platform (LA) and Camille Cabale (LA).

“China is very much advanced in digital, the market of new platforms, and new shopping habits, with Pinduoduo, Alibaba, not to name all of them. What makes the Chinese market unique is, it’s not only huge but fast-moving.” Kofi Ampadu

A few figures shared by Kofi:

U.S Retail Market:

• The largest retail industry in the world; >$5T in sales
• Grown ~4% annually in the last 10 years
• Before 2020 it was undergoing a digital transformation that was accelerated by the pandemic. The U.S still lags behind in digital when compared to the Asian retail market.

Retail in Asia:

• Asia propelling the retail industry generates 75% of the global retail growth and 66% of online growth
• In the mid-2010s, APAC retail sales’ compounded annual growth is more than 4x that of the rest of the world
• This is mostly due to the fact that most of the region’s advanced digital maturity has allowed them to leapfrogged development stages of retail that the US and Europe once toiled through

The digital advancement & diversification of the Chinese market:

• China makes up 42% of the global e-comm market vs 24% in the U.S
• China’s digital ecosystem is the most sophisticated in the world, with about 940M internet users
• Bigger than the population of Europe
• Mobile payment penetration 3x vs the U.S
• Larger e-commerce platforms when compared to the U.S
• Alibaba single day sales are 7x that of Amazon Prime Day
• Tencent’s WeChat
• Social Commerce
• China has led the way with 12% of its e-com sales coming via social commerce
• WeChat — message & social media app — has the ability to launch online stores called “mini-programs”
• Launched over 2M stores since the mini-program launch in 2017
• Pinduoduo — launched as a mini-program and now is China’s second-largest online marketplace with a market cap of more than $120B
• Influencer marketing
• KOL — Key Opinion Leader — marketing
• Evolved from text & photos, to live streaming, short videos & social commerce
• Diversity within the Chinese market
• City-tier classification system offers foreign investors a practical tool to navigate the 600+ cities
• As tiers progress, cities decrease in size, affluence and move away from prime locations
• Tier 1 cities are the largest and wealthiest — often considered the megapolises of China — Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen

How to scale globally? 🚀🌏

“You need to build up awareness in other markets before entering China.”

“We began to launch building conversations and a community. We launched K18 hair in 30 countries and 30 weeks.”

“The pandemic impacted how our brand approaches market expansion. The Covid shut down helped us to focus on hairstylists, engaging with the community, and educating people about hair care and color. We tried to simplify messages, and share educational content. All the learnings helped us scale globally., Us first, then Europe and Scandinavia, and for sure Asia.” Suveen Sahib

“Focus on your community, your mission.” 🌟

“Good Light’s skincare line launched last March. How important was the community we already had from the Very Good Light blog in the resilience of the brand? Very Good Light has Millions of viewers. Her community helped us to have user-generated content, to share feedback and insights for our new skincare line. There is a trust relationship. We are fortunate our young customers share our mission, we are about gender fluidity, self-expression. We are convinced our product positioning can do well in China, especially with GenZ and Millennials. We are a very mission-driven brand.” Michael Engert

When should brands start developing a China strategy? 🇨🇳

“I invest in US-based companies, my advice would be to prepare early. Can it be too early for pre-seed companies? If you have no retail exposure in the US, have not grown your community, not learned from your community, it’s too early. You need strong foundations.” Kofi Ampadu

Choose the right partners.

“In the context of the advancement of social commerce in China, influence, live-streaming, and new sophisticated behaviors, you need partners knowing the market.”

“You need to engage with multiple touchpoints. It’s not just about T-Mall, you need to understand the rest of the ecosystem. TikTok is mainstream, we had 18 Million messages with our hashtag. We look at KOL (Key opinion leaders), beauty influencers, but also experts.”

“You also need the KOC, how to influence the prospective buyers”. Suveen Sahib

“If someone talks about T-Mall, they don’t know China. Content sharing platforms, e-commerce platforms. You need to have someone understanding the whole ecosystem.” Suveen Sahib

“It’s not just an extension of your team. For a brand like us with an emotional connection with the customer, it’s not just the distribution, are they genuinely connecting with the people. Pharmacy and Ordinary are players working with KOL, understanding pricing… Go step by step. We already prepare for next year, launching in the second semester. We received an investment from SuperOrdinary.” Michael Engert

What is one piece of advice you would give founders launching brands with global aspirations?

“Your community matters. We knew for K18 hair that it was the power of the community of hairstylists.” Suveen Sahib

“If you have a great brand and great products, you should share it with the world. Don’t let the regulatory issues stop you. Just learn.” Michael Engert

“The Chinese market is such a large market. It’s like it’s own business unit. Traveling Chinese customers are also specific. Founders must be aware of it.”Kofi Ampadu

Bios of our FaB ✨guest speakers:

Kofi Ampadu, is the founder and General Partner of SKU’d Ventures and a Venture Advisor with Yale University’s entrepreneurship center. He is an entrepreneur, startup advisor & investor with over 10 years of professional experience. As a two-time founder, he is well-versed in the pitfalls and rewards of starting new ventures which has made him passionate about knowledge-sharing and mentorship within the startup space.

Prior to entrepreneurship, he was a strategy consultant at Accenture and an engineer at Kraft Foods. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

Suveen Sahib founder of Aquis Hair and K18 Hair. Diverse experiences across the globe-spanning consumer products, technology, startups, and innovation. Led the entry and growth of Groupe Danone’s bottled water brands in South Asia Transformed an obscure bottled water brand to make it, India’s most valued asset (exit at 7X sales). Founded a tech startup in 2006 that grew exponentially, filed two patents, and merged with a strategic player by 2008. Worked thereafter on a web-driven zoom version that was too early for its time. In 2016, Suveen saw a white space in making hair care faster, simpler, and better for all. Teaming up with this wife and business partner (Britta Cox) — co-founder of Aquis hair care, they turned Aquis into a universally loved hairtech towel brand, selling every 20 seconds across the globe within 36 months of launch. In China, Aquis became a category leader with its focus on the integrated digital ecosystem there. Suveen also identified biotech as a means to address the need for radical hair transformation with simplicity and speed and without compromising hair health. Raised over $24M in growth financing. Launched K18 biotech hair repair during the pandemic in Dec 2020. Within 6 months K18 has already expanded its footprint to cover 30+ countries and fast gaining iconic status, inspiring hair expression for all hair types and generations across the globe.

Michael Engert is the Co-Founder and President of Very Good Light. Very Good Light is the leading gender-inclusive beauty and skincare publication for Gen Z and young Millennials, and recently launched Good Light, a line of personal care products. Good Light will be launching in China next year via a partnership with SuperOrdinary. Prior to Very Good Light, Michael was an executive in marketing and operations within the apparel and beauty industries, and he also helped to build 2 high-growth digital media agencies that scaled to hundreds of millions in media spend. Michael grew up in Canada, but now lives in New York.

Zack Parker is the CEO / Co-Founder of LÜKnetwork.com

Zack is the Fab chapter leader in Los Angeles. We host webinars, clubhouse conversations, and meetings. Join the conversation, subscribe to the free newsletter with all the replays and takeaway 👉https://www.beautytechcommunity.com/

Camille Çabale, helps run the FaB LA chapter and the global community alongside Odile. She founded Connecting Dots, a consultancy dedicated to help early-stage startups & D2C brands in the clean beauty & lifestyle industry.

We are now 10,000 founders and VCs with 15 chapters. 💙💚🌏🚀🛍💅✨🤳🏾

Next meeting: October 6 2021, at 9AM PST 30 mn format with live Questions. Free for founders 👉https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fab-los-angeles-building-trust-relationships-between-founders-and-vcs-tickets-167623340925?ref=eios

Mc Conwell founded RareBreed VC.

“McKeever “Mac” Conwell II is a software engineer by trade and was a former DOD contractor with a top-secret clearance. He was a two-time founder with an exit and a failure. Next Mac moved on to the venture capital world via the Maryland Technology Development Corporation as part of their Seed Investment Team. During his four years there, Mac amassed experience leading an initiative to create the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund, the first and only, at the time, state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minorities in the country. The program institutionalized the friends and family round for black-, women-, and minority-led startups and was subsequently funded long-term by the state of Maryland. In September 2020, Mac founded RareBreed VC, a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems.”

A conversation with Charles C. Brandon, the Co-Founder/CEO of Beauty by Me — a beauty tech startup that designs and develops custom cosmetic devices. “Our first launch is iris: a custom nail polish device that empowers users to create any shade imaginable in the comfort of their own homes, salons, or their favorite retailers.”

Talk to you soon! Odile, Camille, and Zack 🙌