Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company: SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In terms of customer acquisition, what has been the driving narrative? What strategies worked for you?

David Menning: It really comes down to the discipline of how one runs the business and how one runs a marketing team. There’s discipline and then as a result of that, how you apply marketing efforts to different marketing channels. First and foremost, it really is the principle of how you actually apply the logic internally to analyzing the marketing channels and the marketing opportunities.

Let’s say you go sell a $100 product. You have 40% gross margin. If you want to be profitable and have 5% to 10%, you may want >>>

Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company: SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back a little bit to the chronological story. In 2007, did you open up all of these English-speaking markets?

David Menning: It was a step-by-step approach. In 2007, we were still trying to improve the Australian market. We were trying to improve the experience of the customer. Eyeglasses is quite a complex product. It has a complex part in the checkout process where the customer has to put in their lens details. This is something which we continued to do in 2007.

I think it was 2008 when we actually started moving into other English markets. That was also very successful. Then on the back of that, we then started moving into non-English markets. In 2008 to 2009, we started translating our website and localizing >>>

Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company: SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Google AdWords did exist already. Google AdWords was easier because it wasn’t as competitive and the prices of keywords was lower.

David Menning: That was the main marketing channel in that initial period. There were also a few marketing channels that existed. You may recall comparison shopping was also a big thing back then. You could actually type in a product and see different sellers comparing their products. eBay was also quite strong. It was really through analysis, discipline, and focus on listing and measuring that allowed us to grow over a period of years.

Quite quickly, we also identified that the same demand also existed in other English markets in the world. It was at that point that >>>

Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was the first year that you started selling? Was it 2006?

David Menning: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: What transaction volume were you able to reach in the first year that you were selling?

David Menning: When talking about growth, one has to put into perspective how one attains growth.

Sramana Mitra: Absolutely. >>>

Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company: SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Why optical? Where did that idea come from? What was your background or any of your co-founders’ background that drew you to that particular idea?

David Menning: We weren’t really optical-specific in terms of our expertise. We were rather entrepreneurs and savvy young business people. We were looking at identifying niches or business ideas with a lot of opportunity for the future. As mentioned, we saw that books were being sold online. You may recall that back in the day cameras were much more expensive in America and Australia than in Japan.

If you travel to Japan 15 years ago, you can buy those sorts of cameras much cheaper than in other parts of the world. It was >>>

Bootstrapping a Global E-Commerce Company: SmartBuyGlasses CEO David Menning (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

David has bootstrapped a global e-commerce venture from Hong Kong. Splendid execution!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

David Menning: I grew up in Sydney. I’ve been educated in Australia. In my later years, I studied at universities overseas both in Canada and Japan for a little while. It was this time when I was abroad spending time in different countries that I was exposed to different business models, cultures, and people. >>>

Investors Discuss E-Commerce Startup Trends in Podcasts

Entrepreneurs working on e-commerce startups face unique challenges today. You can learn more about the trends investors specializing in e-commerce startup financing are seeing by listening to the following 30-minute podcast interviews. These VCs and seed investors also discuss the key indicators they look for in the startups they invest in.

Daniel Gulati, Principal and Head of Seed Investment Practice at Comcast Ventures, discusses e-commerce startup trends and what can and cannot be venture financed at this stage, and why.

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What are E-commerce VCs Looking for with Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures

E-commerce has been around ever since Amazon came into the market in the mid-nineties. What has changed and are there still opportunities in building e-commerce ventures?

Here, you can hear the perspective of Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures on all that and more:

Come talk to me to brainstorm, strategize, weigh your funding options.