Una Brands and the Ecommerce Aggregator Supply Chain in Asia Pacific with Kiren Tanna
Kiren Tanna, CEO of Una Brands, shares the backstory behind his ecommerce aggregator company & dives deep into the supply chain of the space across Asia Pacific.
Fresh out of the studio, Kiren Tanna, chief executive officer and co-founder of Una Brands joined us in a conversation to discuss the e-commerce aggregator company and their business footprint across Asia Pacific. We started with Kiren's background working in ecommerce startups before Una Brands and then deep dived into how Una Brands have built their presence prominently & quickly within the last year. He also shared how the whole ecommerce aggregator supply chain works, from how they approached a seller for an acquisition, valuing the seller's ecommerce brand all the way to sale and then scaling the brand across the region. Last but not least, he shared what great will looks like for Una Brands in the years to come.
"As well as in terms of profitability, we've been able to grow the brands as well as make them more profitable. So having a track record really matters because as part of our purchase consideration, we also share the upside with sellers. So with us, the investor, we're able to extract the maximum upside from the brand and be the right stewards of the brand. That's something which we spend a lot of time building. Those capabilities and having that reputation, which then sets us apart and helps us win many deals in competitive situations." - Kiren Tanna
Introduction
- Kiren Tanna, Co-Founder and CEO of Una Brands (Linkedin, @kirentanna)
- We always start with the origin story for our guests who come on the first time. How did you start your career?
- Prior to Una Brands, what is the experience that you gain from the entrepreneurial ventures you have undertaken?
- What are the lessons in your career journey that you like to share with my audience?
- Before we go into the main conversation, can you baseline for my audience what an ecommerce aggregator is?
Una Brands & the Ecommerce Aggregator Supply Chain in Asia Pacific
- To start, can you introduce Una Brands and the current vision and mission as an ecommerce aggregator?
- What is the market gap that Una Brands as an ecommerce aggregator seeks to address and how has been the journey so far?
- What is the geographical business footprint for Una Brands?
- Who are the investors behind Una Brands?
- An interesting way to have this conversation is to look at the supply chain for the ecommerce aggregator from identifying the brands to scaling the business after seller exit. How do your team in Una Brands assess whether a brand has the potential to scale? What are the factors to consider when acquiring a brand from a seller?
- How does Una Brands convey its value proposition to a seller before acquiring their business?
- From a seller’s perspective, what do they need to prepare before putting their business to a sale by Una Brands?
- Once the decision is made to sell the brand over to your company, what is the mental model behind putting a valuation on exit?
- After acquiring a couple of brands, what worked and what did not work? What would you have done differently?
- Once the seller hands over the brand to Una Brands, what happens from there and how do you help the brand to scale?
- What are the challenges that Una Brands as an aggregator have to cope with while scaling given that you have expanded across nice markets and built a team of > 150 employees across Asia Pacific in a single year?
- Given that Una Brands has entered China, can you share how unique the Chinese market is given its own plethora of ecommerce platforms and aggregators?
- What are the key decisions that you need to get right in order to say that your business has successfully expanded into China?
- What distinguishes Una Brands from the other aggregators in the market, be it global like Thrasio or regional like Rainforest?
- How do you see the ecommerce aggregator landscape and what are the key trends that you expect the landscape to change within the next few years?
- What does great look like Una Brands in the next few years?
Closing
- Any recommendations which have inspired you recently?
- Kiren's recommendation: Tony Hsieh, "Delivering Happiness"
- How can my audience find you?