Stefan Haney is the CTO and Strategic Advisor for Foundry, a firm that specializes in buying and building incredible Amazon businesses. Before joining Foundry, Stefan was a 16-year veteran at Amazon, where he led several executive teams and contributed to the strategy and innovation behind the platform’s product shopping pages, checkout, navigation, and more.
With over two decades of experience in e-commerce, Stefan has a proven track record of launching new technology, delivering business results, and implementing mission-critical programs.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- What drew Stefan Haney to the business of buying and operating private label brands on Amazon?
- Why FBA businesses have become a hot commodity in recent years
- Stefan’s predictions for the future of private label brands as more aggregators enter the market
- How Stefan evaluates third-party sellers before making a purchase
- Best practices for private label brand owners looking to sell their businesses
- What does it mean to be a meaningful brand on Amazon?
- How Foundry differentiates itself from other aggregators in the market
- Stefan shares his company’s plans for long-term growth
In this episode…
As more FBA private label brand owners exit their businesses, the demand for aggregators continues to rise. This, in turn, increases demand for more entrepreneurs looking to build and sell FBA businesses on Amazon — creating a rapidly growing Amazon flywheel.
However, with the increase in private label brands on Amazon, it’s vital that aggregators effectively evaluate a business before purchase. For Stefan Haney, this means thoroughly analyzing their growth potential, conversions, and the general state of the Amazon marketplace. Stefan also considers how each new investment will fit into his growing portfolio. So, what is his advice to aggregators looking to build a successful acquisition strategy?
In this episode of the Buy Box Experts podcast, James Thomson is joined by Stefan Haney, the CTO and Strategic Advisor for Foundry, to discuss his company’s acquisition and portfolio management strategy. Together, they talk about how Stefan evaluates FBA brands before a purchase, what differentiates Foundry from other aggregators in the market, and the future of private label businesses on Amazon. Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Buy Box Experts
- Controlling Your Brand in The Age of Amazon: The Brand Executive’s Playbook For Winning Online by James Thomson and Whitney Gibson
- James Thomson on LinkedIn
- Foundry
- Stefan Haney on LinkedIn
- Stefan’s email: [email protected]
- Sebastian Gunningham on LinkedIn
- Disruptive Advertising
- eComEngine
Sponsor for this episode…
Buy Box Experts applies decades of e-commerce experience to successfully manage their clients’ marketplace accounts. The Buy Box account managers specialize in combining an understanding of their clients’ business fundamentals and their in-depth expertise in the Amazon Marketplace.
The team works with marketplace technicians using a system of processes, proprietary software, and extensive channel experience to ensure your Amazon presence captures the opportunity in the marketplace–not only producing greater revenue and profits but also reducing or eliminating your business’ workload.
Buy Box Experts prides itself on being one of the few agencies with an SMB (small to medium-sized business) division and an Enterprise division. Buy Box does not commingle clients among divisions as each has unique needs and requirements for proper account management.
Learn more about Buy Box Experts at BuyBoxExperts.com.
Podcast Episode Transcripts:
Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.
Intro 0:09
Welcome to the Buy Box Experts Podcast. We bring to light the unique opportunities brands face in today’s e-commerce world.
James Thomson 0:18
I am James Thomson, one of the hosts of the Buy Box Experts Podcast. I’m a partner with Buy Box Experts and the former business head of the selling on Amazon team at Amazon, as well as the first account manager for the Fulfillment by Amazon program, and the co-author of a couple of books on Amazon including the recent book, Controlling Your Brand in the Age of Amazon. Today’s episode is brought to you by Buy Box Experts. Buy Box Experts takes ambitious brands and makes them unbeatable. When you hire Buy Box Experts, you receive the strategy optimization and marketing performance to succeed on Amazon. We also help investors with due diligence services. Go to buyboxexperts.com to learn more. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to send a big shout out to the team at Disruptive Advertising. For off Amazon advertising, Disruptive Advertising offers the highest level of service in the digital marketing industry, focusing on driving traffic, converting traffic and enterprise analytics. Disruptive helps their clients increase their bottom line month after month. Check out disruptiveadvertising.com to learn more. Our guest today is Stefan Haney, CTO and marketplace advisor to Foundry, a firm that focuses on buying and building incredible Amazon businesses. Prior to Foundry, Stefan was a 16 year veteran at Amazon, where he helped lead several executive teams including seller tools, sales technology and customer experience teams. Stefan welcome, and thank you for joining us today on the Buy Box Experts Podcast.
Stefan Haney
Thank you, James. It’s great to be here.
James Thomson
So you and I both had the opportunity to work in Amazon, there’s under Sebastian Gunningham as the former SVP in charge of worldwide marketplaces. I remember Sebastian challenging all members of his extended team to set up their own third party seller accounts on Amazon. So every one of us could learn what it’s like to be a seller on Amazon. I set up one of those accounts and I found out it was a lot harder than I thought. Sure the marketplace was huge, but the competitive forces in play were very, very challenging. I’m curious to start our discussion today by asking you what draws you to the space of buying and operating private label brands given the day to day operations are arguably harder than holding a leadership role at Amazon?
Stefan Haney 2:28
Well Sebastian Gunningham was an amazing leader and his customer obsession. His evidence was he challenged everybody to do it themselves and rolled up their sleeves. And it worked out for me as I built different features on seller, central or architected Seller Central that I challenged my team or did myself before we even think about a line of code, call at least two or three sellers, ask them what they think of the idea how would it change their business, or even better, I found myself spending time, I would just donate a day and go work alongside a seller or watch them that was better than than working. And you saw things that took all the inputs that were required. And that might be that might be more work. But you also saw the opportunity to do two things, you saw the opportunity to bring new products to market and the power of leverage that it has for businesses to expand much beyond the region and out to multiple regions of the world. And so the entrepreneur opportunity, and the opportunity to really see the passion of founders. You know, I think I got a taste for small business when I worked in a small business High School, and then seeing people build businesses and small businesses. I find it exciting to be working alongside founders and to be working in their business enabling and bringing them to the next level.
James Thomson 3:47
So FBA private label businesses are a hot commodity today. What do you think has happened to generate this recent interest in these businesses that have been around since the beginning of the Amazon Marketplace nearly two decades ago?
