Scaling Europe
00:17:51 · Sebastian Johnson, Omer Kaplan
[00:17:51] S0: they haven't happened before. How do you see this changing the next three or five years? What other changes are coming down the line that can help companies grow even faster? [00:18:00] S1: So that's a very deep question because I think that three to five years nobody knows. I think there is also a big question around consumer shift change here. We all know about how much of purchases, transactions will be through agentic PAs, the likes of Manus and Instinet and all of that. But I do think that there is going to be democratization here. I do think that all of these tools and capabilities for the companies that will have the right partner to kind of get all of what it can offer, I think that much smaller companies will be able to become significant. Because I think that many of the things that you can do today with AI, before it was mainly only relevant for bigger companies, and I think that today also smaller companies can do it. And we've seen really similar trends in mobile games. [00:19:08] S0: Oh, really? Yeah. As in making it more accessible so that smaller individual sort of new entrants can then dominate?
00:19:08 · Sebastian Johnson, Omer Kaplan
[00:19:08] S0: Oh, really? Yeah. As in making it more accessible so that smaller individual sort of new entrants can then dominate? [00:19:16] S1: Yes. So we in our source, which was our previous company, we did something similar with mobile games where basically when we identified that there is potential, we delivered scale for them. And this was prior to AI, but what happened is that many of the indie game developers will manage to create huge hits. And I'm sure we're going to see it in consumerandecom. I'm sure we're going to see what we're calling indie, which is a bit different here. But I'm sure we're going to see these really amazing entrepreneurs with really great products that are now going to be able to get much more traction. [00:19:59] S0: And do you think there are certain product types within e commerce that are going to be easier to scale than others? [00:20:04] S1: I think that media is becoming very expensive and it's not going to change. And I think that as a result retention is key. I think that you need products that are not based on a one time only kind of experience and that you have customers and a community that keeps buying. And of course you need to know how to measure it and optimize, and it's a big part of what we're doing and how we're thinking. But I do think that this will be a very strong shift and most companies will go through being very kind of retention led and not just transactional led.
00:20:04 · Omer Kaplan, Sebastian Johnson
[00:20:04] S1: I think that media is becoming very expensive and it's not going to change. And I think that as a result retention is key. I think that you need products that are not based on a one time only kind of experience and that you have customers and a community that keeps buying. And of course you need to know how to measure it and optimize, and it's a big part of what we're doing and how we're thinking. But I do think that this will be a very strong shift and most companies will go through being very kind of retention led and not just transactional led. [00:20:42] S0: And are there companies that you've either worked with or spoken to or looked at that you believe are hitting that kind of gold standard of huge scale? That you think, okay, we want to turn 10 or 20 smaller brands into companies like that who have done it phenomenally well?
00:20:42 · Sebastian Johnson, Omer Kaplan
[00:20:42] S0: And are there companies that you've either worked with or spoken to or looked at that you believe are hitting that kind of gold standard of huge scale? That you think, okay, we want to turn 10 or 20 smaller brands into companies like that who have done it phenomenally well? [00:20:59] S1: You know, think they are amazing consumer companies. I think that most of them have succeeded because also luck was there, right? Because they really kind of had a bull's eye on a product market fit, right? And what we're trying to do is systemize it. I think of the examples of great consumer companies that they'll tell you, I don't think that they succeeded because they had this playbook and they knew what they were doing. I think that they really, you know, groans one day in the morning, thought, okay, instead of taking this green shake every morning, let's make something much more fun and have a daily pack of gummies. And I assume, I don't know, I thought it was a good idea. They didn't know it would be so successful. But I think that it's exactly something that you can make a playbook around. And it's something which, of course, we're doing. [00:22:05] S0: And sort of taking the luck out
00:22:05 · Sebastian Johnson, Omer Kaplan
[00:22:05] S0: And sort of taking the luck out [00:22:06] S1: of it and adding a structure and a process around great products. Yes. It's really knowing if your product is great. And then if it is great, then execute it. And by the way, when we execute, we want to solve every hurdle. If there is a need for UA financing, we'll get it solved. If there is a need for investment in the company, we are building the ecosystem to solve that as well. We literally want to get to a point where if somebody was onboarded to be a scale partner with ZyG, and I'm telling it out front, we're going to be very selective, but if somebody was accepted or was onboarded, their chances to succeed are extremely high, and we are devoted to making it work. [00:22:56] S0: And you're obviously speaking to a lot of ecommerce brands. You're living in this... Deep in this world. In the tech world that we live in, everybody's using AI or is playing around both in their personal lives but also a lot [00:23:08] S1: of tools. How much are consumer ecommerce companies using AI to help them scale already? Or is that something that you're not seeing at all yet? I think right now most of them are using it to be more effective, So to shorten processes, to use LLMs on their day to day activity. I don't think that they're using it in transformational way yet. I think that they, and I think that most of them, not all of them, need a partner in order to really leverage AI disruptively. And I think it's not there yet.
00:23:08 · Omer Kaplan, Sebastian Johnson
[00:23:08] S1: of tools. How much are consumer ecommerce companies using AI to help them scale already? Or is that something that you're not seeing at all yet? I think right now most of them are using it to be more effective, So to shorten processes, to use LLMs on their day to day activity. I don't think that they're using it in transformational way yet. I think that they, and I think that most of them, not all of them, need a partner in order to really leverage AI disruptively. And I think it's not there yet. [00:23:48] S0: Interesting. And then looking forward, you're partnering with you know, a range or a large number of e commerce companies. In twelve months, what will success look like? Like how will you say, okay, ZyG Score has been an enormous success and is that because you've got, you've 10x'd 10 companies? [00:24:09] S1: Is there a metric you're looking for? Success will be that every consumer company in the world that is selling at least million in dollar a year, and have this kind of repeat mechanism or a high enough AOV, something that can work on D2C, like $40 and up for example, that their dream is to be selected by ZyG. So literally everybody will want to try and get their ZyGnal and then their ZyG Score. That will be the de facto benchmark. And it will already have many dozens of case studies of companies that we literally took 10x, 20x within a year. There will be success in a year, and it will happen. [00:25:01] S0: And ZyG Score at Scaling Europe, anybody