Michael Ronen (Branded) - Why He's Building a Portfolio of Amazon Brands, The Aggregation Opportunity within eCommerce and Why He Left SoftBank Investment Partners

Our guest today is Michael Ronen, co-founder and President of Branded. Branded acquires and partners with top performing Amazon sellers. So as you can imagine, we’re going to be talking about creating brands on Amazon. Previously, Michael was one of the Managing Partner’s at SoftBank Investment Partner’s historic Vision Fund 1. We discuss the opportunity within eCommerce while at SoftBank vs. Branded, building brands on Amazon vs. off Amazon. What was your initial attraction to invest in early and growth-stage companies? How did you end up at Softbank? Why did you leave Softbank to start Branded? What was your initial attraction to the Amazon ecosystem? Was there anything you thought some of the earlier aggregators were missing that lead you to want to jump in? What are synergies amongst your portfolio? What categories are attractive? What’s the goal of a brand? What’s a successful revenue goal? Modern foreign thinking brand focused on personal care Brands that have patent or design - how is Amazon as a partner? One company is building an incredible infrastructure - AWS You have the intent to buy How do you build a brand based off of a listing? How do you build a brand on Amazon where you are just another listing? What’s the strategy at Branded? How do you think about differentiation from others? Why the focus on consumables? How do you think about synergy amongst your brands? How did you go about building your team? What’s your approach to retaining founders? What was your approach to fundraising? How many companies do you look to buy? How do you think about the best categories? Do you get nervous about Amazon private labels? How is Amazon a great partner? What are your criteria for acquisition? What are the advantages of acquiring Amazon brands vs. Shopify / DTC brands? Does there have to be a retail / brick-and-mortar strategy in order for you to be interested in the brand? What’s one book that inspired you personally? One book that inspired you professionally? Lea Coca - CEO of Chrysler - Autobiography Swim with the sharks without being alive - Harvey MacKay “Play Nice But Win” - Michael Dell What’s one piece of advice for founders?