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Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#41

Post by kamilszybalski »

Lots of exciting movement in this space. Since you've mentioned Canada, I'll throw a shoutout to my friends at Emerge commerce https://emerge-commerce.com and clearco https://clear.co

The latter provides a new funding mechanism for e-commerce companies.

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#44

Post by cjisakow »

eganist wrote: post #43

The referral feature isn't clear to me - would someone refer the contact info of the target business, or one's own contact info for further conversation? I'm assuming the latter. And congratulations!

Thanks we are moving fast and building things that don't scale! its just a form right now, and then I email you a referral agreement that say's we will pay you if we close the transaction. I'll go in and update the text on the form to make it all more clear.

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#45

Post by AllanFischMB »

kamilszybalski wrote: post #41

Lots of exciting movement in this space. Since you've mentioned Canada, I'll throw a shoutout to my friends at Emerge commerce https://emerge-commerce.com and clearco https://clear.co The latter provides a new funding mechanism for e-commerce companies.

Kamil we agree with you there is a significant amount of positive activity in this market and those are great companies. What is a great outcome of this is that the entrepreneurs and e-commerce sellers and operators have more options. Moonshot is excited to provide great options for e-commerce company operators as we are we are cut from the same cloth. Moonshot is unique in that we are very excited to have the entrepreneurs join us and bring their companies to the next level while we also offering an option of a traditional acquisition, both great options.

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#46

Post by jsonne »

Most of the bigger and better DTC marketing agencies I know are making the same move as your concept. Buying or starting internal brands as they can scale them better and more effectively than their clients can. Why are you different / better?

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#47

Post by trashhagcute »

You mention taking companies public. I actually used to do consumer PE for a family fund with a buy and hold / long term growth strategy like yours. We advised founders, grew cpg companies, took them public. I really never saw a CPG company go public without expanding into brick & mortar at some point - do you think this has changed? Are you planning to help your brands enter b&m retail if it makes sense down the road? It was often a big reason CPG companies wanted PE backing, frankly. Also, lmk if by ecomm you really meant ecomm retailers in which case this is irrelevant.. seems like you meant dtc cpg.

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#48

Post by motives »

cjisakow wrote: post #13
MattGaiser wrote: post #2

Is your goal to essentially become a conglomerate of niche e-commerce firms or do you eventually intend to resell the companies you acquire to others?

We plan to be long term holders, eventually taking the company public. We look at Constellation Software up in Canada (where Allan is based) as a great model. The entrepreneurs often stay with the company since they know the customer and product better than anyone. Then with shared resources, best practices, and talking to their peers they can grow their business.

Forgive me for my naivety, but whats the point of the founders staying when you're taking out almost all the potential upside for them by acquiring them? Surely if they believed in the ability for their company to succeed long term they'd stick by it without taking an acquisition early. If your advantage is capital and experience, why would they not just go for a debt based option like clearbanc and retain their potential upside?

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#49

Post by mbesto »

55555 wrote: post #10

What's the actual business model here? Y Combinator shouldn't be backing a tiny PE fund, so this can't be that. What's the angle? There must be some financial engineering in the buyout or some unique plan for post-sale.

> Y Combinator shouldn't be backing a tiny PE fund, so this can't be that.

Why not? YC backs a lot of things that don't necessarily look like a classic "software company".

Re: Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

#50

Post by cjisakow »

trashhagcute wrote: post #47

You mention taking companies public. I actually used to do consumer PE for a family fund with a buy and hold / long term growth strategy like yours. We advised founders, grew cpg companies, took them public. I really never saw a CPG company go public without expanding into brick & mortar at some point - do you think this has changed? Are you planning to help your brands enter b&m retail if it makes sense down the roa…

would be awesome to talk and hear more about your experience. we absolutely are looking at omni-channel, something that is different from some of the early players in the space. We are starting with ecommerce because these founders have developed product market fit and are doing it profitably. As a platform we can help them get on other marketplaces (e.g. walmart, target, international amazon) and then into physical retail. The sale cycle there is longer as you know, but having a top rated product on amazon is already catching the attention of brick and mortar buyers.
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