Marc Hostovsky (Minoan) - How he's creating 'native retail', connecting ecommerce and in real life experiences to try out products

My guest today is Marc Hostovsky, founder of Minoan. Minoan connects people with products in spaces that feel like home. This is a concept that Marc calls native retail. We discuss what’s missing today when it comes to trying out products, the intersection of ecommerce and retail and what is actually native retail. Here are the questions I ask Marc: What was your attraction in ecommerce? Why did you want to work in ecommerce? What were some of your learnings at Walmart that have impacted you? What were you doing at Walmart? The importance of pace and hiring Hiring missionaries vs mercenaries What was the insight that led to the founding of Minoan? Why did you decide to build a product that wasn’t in ecommerce but was around physical retail or native retail? Not really having products to shine Why do people like shopping in stores? Real world shoppable experiences - be in moments of use, integrating commerce What are the use cases? Walk us through when and why a customer would use Minoan? Is the goal to eventually to become an online retailer or stay as a marketplace? What’s the customer experience like? How did you first approach hotels, Airbnbs and other places?How do you partner? How do you monetize? Is it a marketplace model? How do you work with brands? What was your approach to growth?What types of properties do you look for? What was your approach to raising money?What was challenging about the process? What’s one thing you would change about the fundraising process? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?Why Buddism is true? By Robert Wright Competing Against Luck What’s one piece of advice you have for founders?

Om Podcasten

The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.