Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How much business are you doing in China? What percentage of your revenue comes from China right now? Peter Mann: This year, we’re planning to do $10 million. I would say 40% would be in China this year.

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Where is your contract manufacturer in the US? Peter Mann: They’re in Connecticut. Sramana Mitra: Are you selling the new product in the US only? Peter Mann: We sell in the US, Canada, and China.

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: It’s mostly paid search-based customer acquisition – PPC? Peter Mann: That’s how we started. We have a brand that no one has ever heard before. It’s hard to get started and so PPC is the quick way to get up and going. It’s expensive, though. We’re trying to have PR and some other

Read Full Article »

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 4)

Peter Mann: Initially, I started with a couple of factories in China and started with those products to get the business started. These were mostly Chinese developed products that I adjusted and branded. It wasn’t really manufactured from the ground-up by us. Shortly thereafter, I started looking at air purifiers. In its simplest form, it’s

Read Full Article »

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What happened after Dell? Peter Mann: When I was at Dell, I learned pretty quickly that the culture wasn’t what I was expecting. At the same time, the Internet bubble burst. Dell started going through round after round of layoffs. The morale was low. It was a difficult environment from a cultural perspective.

Read Full Article »

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 2)

Peter Mann: Shortly after that, the Gulf War began and so we were sent over the Red Sea for about six months. That was a changing event for me. I got married a year out of college. We got married very young. I missed the last six months of the pregnancy and I missed the

Read Full Article »

Building an American E-commerce Company that Now Sells into China: Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Peter Mann started Oransi as a B-to-C e-commerce company. Today, 40% of his $10M revenue comes from China. This is the kind of company America hopes to see more of – selling American products to international consumers. Sramana Mitra: Peter, let’s start with your background. Where

Read Full Article »