Today's guest is Chad Rubin of Skubana, all those ecom stores out there gearing up for Black Friday, you'll want to listen to this.

Having worked in corporate finance covering internet stocks, Chad started his own ecommerce storefront in 2008. As CrucialVacuum.com Chad discovered a real need to solve the most serious problems of order processing and inventory management that cause millions of dollars in losses for e-commerce sellers every year. Like most of the best SaaS products out there, the need to solve these pain points was how Skubana was born.  

Tell us about what your software does for people?

• If you think of Shopify, it is everything you can see above the earth, whereas Skubana is everything below ground.
• Skubana makes it possible to manage your online store operations, especially if you are going multi-channel.
• Skubana helps ecommerce companies run and automate their businesses.

How does Skubana differ from competitors?

• They built it from their own challenges, which means it works extremely well.
• They have built inventory and order management systems together. They have unified the software.

How did you help found Skubana?

• He had a problem that he needed to solve for, he needed a multi-channel system that actually worked.
• He couldn’t find any software that truly solved his problem.
• They started Skubana to solve the problem.

What made you decide that you needed to build your own software?

• Had was working with his business partner to try and get a software solution.
• When they realised they could not get pre-built software to adequately solve their issues they decided to build one themselves.

What were some of the moments when you realized what the software needed?

• Chad gives credit to his business partner DJ, who pointed out that what they needed was not just an inventory system but an operations platform with everything unified.

What sort of problems did you have when you scaled and grew?

• They needed more investments than they initially thought

What made you decide to narrow the vision for your software?

• Going after specialized expertise has tremendous value.
• At a Shopify conference and saw a presentation that made them realize that with an open API allowed people to build into their software, which would allow others to build into their platform and essentially do some of the work for them.

What did you do to keep your family afloat while building Skubana?

• Chad is a first generation Amazon seller, which brings a lot of benefits.
• His store helped to fund him while he was building Skubana.
• He didn’t take a paycheck from Skubana for a long time.

What difficulties did you face when starting the company and how did you overcome them?

• Getting people to believe in their software.
• He made a list of the top 10 ecommerce entrepreneurs he wanted to get involved and invest. 
• After his first investor many others followed, and eventually he got 2 people from that top 10 list.

What sort of questions do investors ask during the seed round?

• You will need to think through every aspect of your business logistics. One seed investor asked what’s happening with Chad’s other business and what his role in the new business was.
• Think through all the hard topics so that you have an answer.
• Have some proof of concept conversations to better ready yourself for the real conversations.
• Make a pitch deck, and send it out and ask for feedback. Build a relationship with potential investors.

How has the business changed from the early days?

• The stakes are higher
• They have a bigger team
• They have a much better product
• They have better product market fit
• They have become more focused on what they are great at

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that are just starting out?

• Being able to find light in the dark times, and get through them helps you come out a better person.
• There is always room for the best on the open market.
• What works for one person may not work for you, follow your own rainbow.
• Find the people who have the problem your product solves.

Resources:

Chad@Skubana.com

Websites: 

Skubana

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