Scale your e-commerce business with the ultimate capital management partner , Viably

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:00:00

Entrepreneurship has gotten to a point where you can take

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:00:03

an idea and least fuel it enough to,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:00:06

Make a minimum viable product that you can take to market and get a sense of,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:00:09

is there a potential, need buyer, a, community that will accept this.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:00:14

Hey, Ted Huff here from FinTech Confidential.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:00:17

Are you struggling with payment technologies and feeling left behind

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from August 23rd through the 25th where it's all about the movement of money.

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Welcome to FinTech Confidential, bringing you the people, tech and companies

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that change how you pay and get paid.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:01:49

Oz, welcome to the show.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:01:53

Hey, Ted, appreciate you having me on.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:01:56

So for before we dive into all

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:01:58

the hard hitting questions,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:00

You've had over 15 years of experience.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:02

I think this is startup number six that you're working on.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:06

You coach startup founders, I mean, you're a score mentor.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:10

Dude, it sounds like entrepreneurship is like deep

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:13

in your DNA and I'd

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:17

love for you to share with everybody, how in the heck did

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:02:21

you end up falling into FinTech?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:24

Yeah, it's, it's an interesting story.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:26

Uh, I've been in the, the space, uh, for startups now, almost two decades,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:32

and coming out of, uh, the retail, manufacturing, uh, wholesale kind of

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:38

side of the world, uh, going into, uh, tech was quite interesting, uh,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:43

learning about software as a service.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:46

I've done a number of different companies all kind of in the tech

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:48

startup space and you know, I quickly realized for me the, you know, having

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:53

done large companies to move to startup and tech made, uh, a big difference.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:02:58

You know, where I found that?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:01

I could better serve kind of the, the market, the, the customers.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:04

You know, being part of the, the collaboration or bringing something from

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:08

kind of that zero to one, uh, was really a cool kind of, uh, addictive kind of thing.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:14

It's like once you've tasted that, it's, it's really hard to kind

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:17

of go back to being a kind of a cog in a very giant, uh, machine.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:21

So, uh, startup's been really kind of passion since then,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:25

and.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:27

now, like I said, you know, startup number six, uh, the, the team actually,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:31

uh, we, we've all worked together for a long time and we actually kind of went

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:36

back to after we had a previous exit say, okay, let's go solve a critical

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:41

issue that we found was, uh, a big problem for us as we started the last

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:03:45

company, which was all around capital.

, Oz Merchant: 00:03:48

this, this whole industry is very interesting that.

, Oz Merchant: 00:03:51

You know, FinTech has been rocking my world as far as just how much,

, Oz Merchant: 00:03:55

how active it is and so much, especially like in the last five

, Oz Merchant: 00:03:58

years, there's a lot of movement.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:01

Awesome.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:02

So can you, can you help us understand like that moment when you and your

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:09

partners were sitting down and saying, this is the problem we want to solve,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:14

and kind of help us understand.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:16

know, what, what was it that that got you deciding to, to make that that jump?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:04:25

To jump into FinTech

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:28

John Gordon, the ceo, when he reached out, he's

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:29

like, Hey, I wanna get the band back together this time around.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:32

, let's go solve this issue around capital.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:36

Uh, when, when it comes to, you know, whether it's SaaS companies, whether it's

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:40

for e-commerce companies, it's a space that traditional lenders, banking, just,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:45

they don't know how to underwrite it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:46

They don't know how to capitalize it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:48

And it's a, it's a problem.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:50

I mean, if you're starting something new, you need capital to kind of grow

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:53

and expand and scale the business up.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:04:56

and if we could figure out and knowing kind of that space well that if we

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:01

could go help those type of, uh, customers, then that became very kind

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:06

of close to our heart as far as, you know, we've gone through that journey.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:09

We, we know how to underwrite that type of business.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:12

We know that the kind of problems they face, and it just seemed like

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:17

a good move for us to go solve the, the itch we had, you know.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:22

A decade prior too.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:24

So if we can help, uh, future entrepreneurs, and if you look,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:27

you know, in the, the last probably like five, six years,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:30

All these universities, everybody's got programs specifically designed

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:33

entre around entrepreneurship.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:05:36

Yeah,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:36

which is, you know, great because it's, it's,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:38

you know, the, it's the thing that kind of keeps the economy going.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:41

It's the oldest kind of career profession.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:44

It's the, the, uh, whether small business, large, it's the system

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:48

that kind of makes everything run.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:50

So, uh, the fact that you can potentially learn and, and actually.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:54

not to kind of stumble your way through.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:56

It is, is nice.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:05:57

That's a big shift in where things were before.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:01

Well, and you brought up one

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:02

thing that that has been.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:05

Top of mind.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:05

I mean, I've been part of numerous startups.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:07

Um, I help startups all the time, especially when they're trying

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:10

to figure out, Hey, I've got this great idea, but I don't understand

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:15

what the bank is asking me.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:17

I don't speak that language.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:20

I.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:20

Can you help me bridge that gap?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:23

And, and I do a lot of that through my consulting group and we, we focus on that.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:28

But before I dive into like how you guys really helped these folks get

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:06:32

through the process of getting capital,

Tedd Huff: 00:06:34

You've gone over some really interesting things about entrepreneurship

Tedd Huff: 00:06:38

and how you guys got into FinTech, but can you describe in your own words what

Tedd Huff: 00:06:45

the mission and vision of Viably is?

Oz Merchant: 00:06:50

Yeah.

Oz Merchant: 00:06:51

Really what we're looking to do is really solve this problem

Oz Merchant: 00:06:56

for, for, uh, e-commerce folks.

Oz Merchant: 00:06:58

You know, the, the vision was really, It goes back to, you know, solving

Oz Merchant: 00:07:04

this problem a around, uh, e-commerce businesses not being able to go to

Oz Merchant: 00:07:11

any other kind of traditional means.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:14

Um, they, they wanna grow their businesses.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:16

They've got, uh, uh, scalability issues and, you know, e-commerce, if you look

Oz Merchant: 00:07:22

back in these, probably this last five, six years, it's really blowing up.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:26

And the, the market is, It could, could be a whole lot bigger.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:33

I think that's just probably under capitalized.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:35

And if we could really help this, uh, segment of the, the space that's really

Oz Merchant: 00:07:39

booming, especially, I think Covid was another factor that, uh, some businesses

Oz Merchant: 00:07:44

got impacted pretty hard, but other, you know, e-commerce re some of those

Oz Merchant: 00:07:48

spaces within e-commerce really took off.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:50

Because everybody started shopping from home.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:52

It's like, okay, I can't go anywhere.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:54

Let me just place it online.

Oz Merchant: 00:07:56

So, There, there was a big need that, you know, the, the, I don't think they

Oz Merchant: 00:08:01

anticipated, uh, all the potential growth that they were gonna have.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:05

And they quickly got to a point where, okay, I'm growing at a rate that, you

Oz Merchant: 00:08:10

know, I can't have my current kind of cash flow and stuff handle that, so

Oz Merchant: 00:08:14

I need to go find some other means.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:17

So when we looked at kind of the, the overall market, we were like,

Oz Merchant: 00:08:20

okay, what, what's really needs.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:22

to be service.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:23

Okay.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:23

They're, you know, coming from the SA space, there's a

Oz Merchant: 00:08:26

lot of players in that space.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:28

Um, we, we know it well, but it's very highly competitive when we

Oz Merchant: 00:08:31

look at small business as a whole.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:34

There's a lot of, you know, there's a huge variety from a property management company

Oz Merchant: 00:08:38

to a lawn service, to a dry cleaner.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:42

There's all different types of small businesses, but they're so different.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:47

There's nothing kind of, uh, similar in the sense of, okay, you

Oz Merchant: 00:08:50

know, how can we best serve them?

Oz Merchant: 00:08:51

And when we look at e-commerce, You know, here the, here's folks that get

Oz Merchant: 00:08:55

technology because they're already online.

Oz Merchant: 00:08:57

Here's folks that have a really, a strong community around e-commerce.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:02

Here's a community that's really growing fast, that has big needs.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:06

So it just made a lot of sense for us to kind of drill down into that

Oz Merchant: 00:09:10

specific kind of market and say, okay, how do we help serve this community

Oz Merchant: 00:09:15

and help them, uh, scale and grow?

Oz Merchant: 00:09:17

. So that kind of became our mission as we've, as we've launched and

Oz Merchant: 00:09:21

really want to partner with them.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:23

And a lot of them, you know, their strategies to go have an exit.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:26

So be part of, part of that ride.

Tedd Huff: 00:09:29

what are the, the top like 10, five or 10 challenges

Tedd Huff: 00:09:35

that you're seeing the e-commerce sellers coming up against, and

Tedd Huff: 00:09:42

how do you all, how do you step in and save the day in offering

Tedd Huff: 00:09:45

a unique value proposition?

Tedd Huff: 00:09:48

What is that that really helps them thrive?

Oz Merchant: 00:09:52

yeah.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:53

In the e-commerce space, you know, because it's, it's product rich.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:56

It's,

Oz Merchant: 00:09:56

we've coming from, uh, this is.

Oz Merchant: 00:09:58

Software as a service base was really, you know, it's software, but it's

Oz Merchant: 00:10:01

still delivered as a service here.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:03

Actually got hard, tangible products, which has a whole supply chain.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:08

And if you look at what happened during Covid, I mean the whole supply

Oz Merchant: 00:10:11

chain got disrupted and that became a big problem for a lot of companies.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:16

Meaning that either the demand was really high because people started

Oz Merchant: 00:10:20

shopping online, but supply chain got all kind of thrown outta whack,

Oz Merchant: 00:10:25

uh, the cost of containers, you know.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:27

I think five x six x, uh, during this period of time and

Oz Merchant: 00:10:32

getting goods became very hard.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:35

So there's been a lot of challenges for e-commerce.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:38

And during that time, you know, there was a lot of boom where

Oz Merchant: 00:10:41

there was a lot of consolidation.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:43

Uh, people started looking at, okay, who's looking to sell at this point, a

Oz Merchant: 00:10:47

lot of aggregators came in with private equity money and bought up a lot of

Oz Merchant: 00:10:51

e-commerce businesses at that time.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:53

Uh, some that were healthy, some that were not so healthy.

Oz Merchant: 00:10:56

and during these kind of, uh, last couple years, you know, the challenges around

Oz Merchant: 00:11:01

supply chain, even though I've gotten a little bit better, the other big challenge

Oz Merchant: 00:11:05

has always been, okay, uh, how do I, how do I take you to the next level?

Oz Merchant: 00:11:09

How do I have enough capital?

Oz Merchant: 00:11:11

It's what's interesting, you know,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:11:12

i've been in a

Oz Merchant: 00:11:13

lot of different spaces and e-commerce is one of those

Oz Merchant: 00:11:16

if you're actually successful.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:18

you actually need more money.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:19

It's actually harder and because, more challenging because you're successful,

Oz Merchant: 00:11:23

meaning that the moment you, you know, you try out a, I'm gonna bring in a small

Oz Merchant: 00:11:27

sample size of a particular product.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:30

If that does well, then you quickly need to have enough money to go buy more.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:34

Cuz you don't wanna spend all

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:11:35

the money on

Oz Merchant: 00:11:36

you know, marketing that particular product, uh, getting the, the

Oz Merchant: 00:11:39

traffic there and then be outta stock.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:42

So you're taking this kind of ongoing risk that you, you, you've got really

Oz Merchant: 00:11:47

small kind of window to say, okay, yeah, there's enough interest here yet this is

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:11:52

SKU is gonna

Oz Merchant: 00:11:53

work.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:54

This particular product, uh, you know, color, whatever it may be, is gonna work.

Oz Merchant: 00:11:58

, I gotta go buy some more and get that, uh, kind of replenished

Oz Merchant: 00:12:01

fast enough that I don't sell out.

Oz Merchant: 00:12:04

So success in this space has its, you know, its own set of challenges.

Oz Merchant: 00:12:10

It's, uh, own costs that, you know, in that sense we're failing.

Oz Merchant: 00:12:13

It doesn't, if it doesn't work, then yeah, you're out.

Oz Merchant: 00:12:14

That money, it didn't move as fast as you wanted to, but if you're

Oz Merchant: 00:12:17

successful, it's even more costly.

Oz Merchant: 00:12:20

So the.

Tedd Huff: 00:12:22

so you, you, you talk about the, the, the, the seller

Tedd Huff: 00:12:24

getting really successful, needing to shore up their inventory.

Tedd Huff: 00:12:29

And I'm guessing you guys stepped.

Tedd Huff: 00:12:30

Step in to help them manage that, that capital piece of it,

Tedd Huff: 00:12:35

and really step into helping them manage their finances overall in

Tedd Huff: 00:12:41

order to continue that success level.

Tedd Huff: 00:12:44

Can you, can you give some examples to how you've done that and what makes

Tedd Huff: 00:12:50

you different in solving that problem?

Oz Merchant: 00:12:54

Yeah, the, that's executive issues is that coming in and helping them

Oz Merchant: 00:12:59

with the, the capital is, is critical.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:01

Uh, and, and knowing when, I mean, you know, as a business, as business

Oz Merchant: 00:13:06

grows and scales, Having the capital needs varies throughout kind of that,

Oz Merchant: 00:13:11

that life cycle, that journey, and the better you can plan for that.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:15

Planned capital is always gonna be cheaper than unplanned capital needs.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:18

So the better you have understanding of when you're needing capital,

Oz Merchant: 00:13:21

how much you're gonna need.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:23

Most likely it's gonna be much, uh, more cost effective for you than

Oz Merchant: 00:13:27

just getting surprised with it.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:29

So we're coming in not only from the prospect or perspective of helping them

Oz Merchant: 00:13:33

with the capital, but also helping them understand the business overalls to when

Oz Merchant: 00:13:37

they need the capital, uh, as well as, uh, understanding, you know, how, what, what's

Oz Merchant: 00:13:42

the right strategies to have in place.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:45

It's a combination of things, and that's the whole idea of kind

Oz Merchant: 00:13:47

of the building, the platform.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:48

The way we did is, We really want to help 'em on kind of all those fronts, uh,

Oz Merchant: 00:13:52

and, and think of it more holistically.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:55

So, you know, there people, e-commerce folks are selling

Oz Merchant: 00:13:57

on a variety of channels.

Oz Merchant: 00:13:58

They may be selling on Amazon, they may be selling on Walmart, doing DDC

Oz Merchant: 00:14:01

through a Shopify e-commerce store.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:03

To be able to step back and kind of look at the business holistically.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:07

and understand, okay, what are all the different costs, uh, happening here

Oz Merchant: 00:14:10

that are kind of outside of that kind of particular channel to say, okay,

Oz Merchant: 00:14:15

there's additional, uh, payroll costs.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:17

There's consultants I'm working with, there's, uh, storage fees,

Oz Merchant: 00:14:21

three pls that they're working with.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:22

So there's maybe all these kind of, uh, after the initial, say the, the

Oz Merchant: 00:14:27

cogs and uh, and the the fees that you may be paying for the platform,

Oz Merchant: 00:14:30

there's all these other additional expenses that are across the board.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:34

So be able to kind of identify all those and make sure you're factoring

Oz Merchant: 00:14:38

all that into understanding how healthy the business is financially.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:42

So I'm, I'm hearing cogs.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:44

I'm assuming that means cost of good.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:46

Sold.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:47

Yes, exactly.

Oz Merchant: 00:14:48

Yeah.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:49

Yeah.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:49

So I mean, it's so funny when you start to talk about different things in FinTech.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:53

And FinTech is the hugest alphabet soup there ever is.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:57

on a call.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:57

We had a conversation.

Tedd Huff: 00:14:59

About risk.

Tedd Huff: 00:15:01

And I don't think we did.

Tedd Huff: 00:15:03

I, I don't think we had a real word in the entire sentence other than

Tedd Huff: 00:15:08

conjunctions to tie things together.

Tedd Huff: 00:15:10

And it was all acronyms.

Tedd Huff: 00:15:12

It was, it was hilarious.

Tedd Huff: 00:15:14

Uh,

Oz Merchant: 00:15:14

That's how the world of Amazon is.

Oz Merchant: 00:15:16

I've seen it getting into it.

Oz Merchant: 00:15:17

It's just literally one acronym after the other.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:15:20

How does Viably set itself apart from

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:15:22

its competitors in the capital space, and what unique features and services

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:15:29

do you offer to these e-commerce businesses when they need the help?

Oz Merchant: 00:15:33

the approach we took was we actually built the platform

Oz Merchant: 00:15:37

and kind of layers, so we built the, the banking layer initially

Oz Merchant: 00:15:40

and then added in the funding layer.

Oz Merchant: 00:15:42

And then, uh, we added in this whole software, uh, layer where really helping

Oz Merchant: 00:15:47

the businesses see what the current cashflow situation is looking like

Oz Merchant: 00:15:52

across all the channels, uh, as well as be able to forecast to say, okay.

Oz Merchant: 00:15:57

What can I do with the existing cash flow?

Oz Merchant: 00:15:59

Can I go launch a couple of new product lines?

Oz Merchant: 00:16:03

Can I uh, add some product variations?

Oz Merchant: 00:16:06

Can I get more aggressive with my ad spend?

Oz Merchant: 00:16:09

Be able to forecast all those and run the different scenarios and see

Oz Merchant: 00:16:13

what the impact is on the cash flow.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:15

And, you know, the kind of natural byproduct of that is that people

Oz Merchant: 00:16:20

are like, okay, well I want to go execute on this strategy.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:22

It makes kind of sound sense for me to do.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:24

So.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:25

. But for me to do it well, I'll need additional capital to do so.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:29

So I can either decide, okay, well I'm gonna not do five skews that I'm gonna

Oz Merchant: 00:16:34

launch, I'm gonna do three based with my existing cashflow, or, you know, it

Oz Merchant: 00:16:38

makes sense for me to do five and take additional capital to go execute on that.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:42

So it's really empowering the seller, having data-driven knowledge to say

Oz Merchant: 00:16:47

what's right for you in your business based on the goals you have, uh, and

Oz Merchant: 00:16:50

where you're at at in that journey.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:53

Um, you know, some sellers are.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:55

, you know, very new and, and they're getting scaling things up.

Oz Merchant: 00:16:58

Others are really kind of at the point where they're shifting from growth to

Oz Merchant: 00:17:02

more profitability, get their EBITDA looking nicer so they can have a

Oz Merchant: 00:17:05

potential exit in the next 12, 18 months.

Oz Merchant: 00:17:08

So based on that, it varies.

Tedd Huff: 00:17:11

You're giving them all the tools to decide if they need capital.

Tedd Huff: 00:17:14

What happens once they've realized, Hey, I need to get capital?

Tedd Huff: 00:17:18

Do they go down to the local bank?

Tedd Huff: 00:17:20

Do they pick up?

Tedd Huff: 00:17:22

You know, the loan shark's phone,

Tedd Huff: 00:17:24

what do these guys do in order to get the capital they need to, to get moving?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:29

Yeah, the way we built the platform is as they're

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:31

running those scenarios, they can say,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:33

this is a plan I've built up.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:35

I click,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:36

fund this plan and they get,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:37

different offers right through the platform.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:39

We are the institution that's

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:41

bringing that to you.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:42

So we're providing the, the different offers based on the,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:46

the health of the business.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:17:47

So it's all coming from us, and they can decide if it makes sense for them or not.

Oz Merchant: 00:17:52

could they go to their local bank?

Oz Merchant: 00:17:55

Probably not

Oz Merchant: 00:17:55

because traditional banking is looking at, uh, the business differently.

Oz Merchant: 00:17:59

We're very future and forward looking, uh, approach where it's really about

Oz Merchant: 00:18:04

the, the, the health of the business.

Oz Merchant: 00:18:06

Uh, doesn't matter what's kind of happened in the past, long as you know,

Oz Merchant: 00:18:10

the business is trending in the right direction, most likely you're fundable.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:17

If I'm an e-commerce person

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:19

that's selling good services,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:22

How does your.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:25

Platform cater specifically

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:28

to the needs of that very ideal customer to help them overcome the capital

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:18:34

challenges, to really propel them forward.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:39

There's different types of sellers in the space, So we've

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:43

got a couple of different product options.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:46

So

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:46

if they're, say for example, redoing retail arbitrage or online arbitrage

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:50

Typically on a lot of the marketplaces where you're having to wait 14 to 18

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:54

days, depending by the time ACH settles, you're, you're, you know, you're talking

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:18:58

about two and a half weeks roughly just to get access to your money so

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:02

that you can do something with it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:04

they need.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:04

Capital like every day.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:06

If they, the quicker they have access to money,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:08

For that person, you know, we've built this

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:10

cash advance type product

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:12

they're getting that kind of realtime same day, uh, funding.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:16

By having that every day makes it a whole lot easier for them to keep kind of doing

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:20

the purchasing, keep getting more sales, so it allows them to grow much quicker.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:24

. Other types of sellers where maybe

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:28

wholesaler or authorized reseller

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:30

or they are, uh, Brand builders where they're actually, you know, buying all

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:35

the raw materials, working with a co packer, uh, and, and producing a product

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:39

or even an importer where it's, uh, you know, bringing in goods from overseas

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:43

and they need, you know, 20, 30% down now and they need another 70, 80%.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:48

and.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:48

60, 90 days to release the shipment.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:51

Those are

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:52

different needs for that type of seller.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:54

So having a growth capital product for that type of seller makes a lot more

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:19:57

sense because they need cash in, in larger chunks, but also at different intervals.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:03

So really building something to serve the audience is what we kind of opted for

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:08

and, and just made a lot of sense, uh, because that's how we can help them scale.

Tedd Huff: 00:20:15

How does viability platform.

Tedd Huff: 00:20:20

Really harmonize the diverse tasks, whether it be financial or

Tedd Huff: 00:20:25

modeling, or looking at inventory to help them create a budget.

Tedd Huff: 00:20:31

How does it create that seamless, seamless, and efficient experience

Tedd Huff: 00:20:36

for the e-commerce sellers?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:40

A lot of the e-commerce sellers,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:41

they're managing it to a degree, and, and they're usually, they're

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:44

managing it through spreadsheets.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:45

Uh, a variety of different spreadsheets.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:46

The fact that we kind of built in APIs that we connecting into your, your

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:50

Amazon storage, your Shopify stores, Uh, into your bank and your credit cards,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:55

bringing all that data in real time.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:57

Normalizing that data so that you can quickly see, you know,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:20:59

how's it being categorized?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:01

This is all the types of revenue I have now, what do I want to do with it?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:05

And, and the fact that we're looking at it, you know, across.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:08

all the different streams, so it's not just siloed into one particular channel.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:12

It's getting that holistic picture that's oftentimes what's missing

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:16

for sellers and just understanding the business at that level.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:19

Um, so if we can help in that and, you know, make, just like I said, make

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:24

better data-driven decisions, it's, uh, I think a, a better win for them.

Tedd Huff: 00:21:29

Can you share a real life example of how viability has

Tedd Huff: 00:21:32

transformed a e-commerce business or e-commerce sellers business,

Tedd Huff: 00:21:40

and how you made their journey smoother, more

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential:

: 00:21:42

efficient and thus

Tedd Huff: 00:21:44

just more successful?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:46

One of our earlier customers was, uh, coming

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:49

out of, uh, Q4 of last year.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:53

They were, you know, they're growing rapidly and unexpectedly as you know.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:21:59

Q4 often happens.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:00

You can always, uh, especially in kind of if you're selling on Amazon

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:03

stuff, you may have, uh, expectations that I'll do this well, but oftentimes

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:07

you're still kind of, uh, doing more than you, than you'd expect.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:11

You're kind of, uh, anticipating that, okay, I'll have this much growth

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:14

that you end up surprising yourself.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:15

Well, once again, with these, in this space, every time you have that

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:19

surprise, it gets even cost later.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:21

So, This customer, you know, data opted in for doing kind of cash events, which

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:27

for some businesses makes, uh, sense even if you're not doing arbitrage.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:31

, in this case, you know, it is a, it was a good strategy for q4.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:35

But moment you got into q1, it's not as effective a strategy.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:39

So we worked with them to quickly, you know, pay off, uh, all the, the

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:43

cash advances as well as giving 'em capital enough to do all the reach

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:47

off for post holiday inventory.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:49

And from there

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:49

started working with us and every time we were looking at this is kind

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:52

of a partnership, uh, and getting to a point where if I can, uh, , I

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:22:57

guess beginning of q2, uh, he started working with a new vendor and this

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:01

particular vendor was like, we only do a hundred percent upfront.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:04

We're not, uh, doing, you know, breaking up the, the, the, uh, the

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:09

cost over like, you know, 20, 30% and then 70% or 50 50 needed cash upfront.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:14

And you know,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:15

he called me like it's seven o'clock and I had said, Hey, I need to place order.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:19

, I gotta have, you know, a, a big chunk of money by like tomorrow to place this order

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:23

so that I'm not, you know, missing out on certain time in, in my Q2 for a timeframe.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:28

By 6:00 AM the next morning he had the money in his Viably account

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:31

and basically placed the order.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:23:33

How does Viably foster partnerships

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:23:35

with other e-commerce technology companies and platforms and.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:23:43

How do some of these collaborations, I guess you could call them, contribute to

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:23:50

mission of empowering e-commerce sellers?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:54

it's been critical.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:23:55

The e-commerce space is so tight to the community, uh, and partnerships

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:00

is really what it's about.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:02

We want to basically partner with, uh, with that whole ecosystem

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:05

and say, okay, these are all the different services and stuff that

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:07

you're probably touching anyway.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:08

Then how can we embed ourselves in that process?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:11

So we're looking at just not only kind of a partnership from the standpoint of just.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:17

You know, playing well with others, but really adding con

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:19

technology layers to streamline the experience for sellers so that,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:24

the less they're spending time doing administrative stuff, the

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:27

more time they can better service their kind of, uh, end customers.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:24:31

So you mentioned freight carriers

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:24:33

as being like a good friction point.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:24:36

Point that you've removed,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:24:37

what are a couple additional friction points that you've either removed or just

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:24:42

made a little bit smoother that would really stand out to, to the audience?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:48

Another is anything around, the ad spend for most of these

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:52

people who are doing brand there, there's, there's a significant ad spend to make

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:56

that whole brand kind of come to life.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:24:59

usually the brands will have a particular spend that's normal for them throughout

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:04

the year, but every time they're launching a new sku, they're gonna bump

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:07

up or, you know, ramp up that marketing for that particular new product.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:11

That means they need additional capital to go do that.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:15

A lot of times they'll say, okay, I'll, I'll cover this with my cash flow because

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:18

these are levers I can pull up and down.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:20

But every time you use cash flow for that, you're probably taking a hit

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:24

from our standpoint, you know what's, it's a growth capital.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:27

that may mean let me go, you know, hire some folks and,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:30

uh, get a storage facility.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:32

So payroll and storage may be the right move, uh, for using that capital.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:36

It's really what's the next best move that you need to make, that you can

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:40

justify the, the capital you're getting.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:25:42

How do you take that money to make more money out of it?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:25:45

When you look at the ways

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:25:46

that you get the data in,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:25:48

are you pulling the data in from like a, a CRM like Konnektive or sticky io?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:25:55

Are you pulling in data from chargeback providers like Chargebacks 9 1 1

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:00

? What kinds of integrations

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:04

built in the marketplace that.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:07

Really help you have better data for you to make better decisions

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:12

for the e-commerce sellers

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:15

how are you making it more seamless for them to, for you to see the data and

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:21

for them to deliver the data to you.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:23

Hey, Tedd Huff here from FinTech Confidential.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:26:26

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Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

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Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:00

Don't let the future of Commerce pass you by and join me at MPC in Atlanta

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: 00:27:05

from August 23rd through the 25th where it's all about the movement of money.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:12

At present it's with, directly with

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:14

like Amazon and Shopify and,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:16

the banks and credit cards.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:17

But over time, that's exactly kind of the direction we want to go.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:19

The more.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:20

Data points we can bring in.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:23

When it comes to funding, it's all about mitigating risks.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:25

So, you know, the, more data we have, the, the more assurance underwriting team has,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:31

the easier it is to underwrite businesses.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:36

So when I start to look at

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:38

all of these really complex pieces of data analytics.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:43

you just mentioned machine learning and AI in there as well.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:46

So you've got all these, these things going on,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:49

how small of a company.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:27:53

Fits your product and do they ever grow out of it?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:27:58

It goes back to money's an amplifier.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:01

If you're doing the right kinds of steps, more money's gonna, you

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:04

know, help fuel the right kind of decisions and, and strategies.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:07

We wanna really help companies when they've, you know, gotten some traction.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:11

They've figured out, okay, yeah, this particular skew is working.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:14

It's getting some traction.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:15

I've figured out some of the ad levers that, okay, I can move the product and

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:20

it's cost effective for me to do so.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:22

Then more money just helps you scale.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:24

So that's why we, when we look at kind of 10,000 as that kind of

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:27

sweet spot of saying, okay, hey, you probably figured out some things.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:30

You're, you're moving in the right direction, at least with one sku over

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:32

time, you'll do it with additional SKUs and you'll keep growing.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:28:35

So that becomes kind of a, a key deciding factor to say, okay, is that,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:28:42

so you mentioned like the variance in

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:28:45

how small to how large, and I can only imagine that they're gonna have different

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:28:51

needs and customer success and support, especially in the rapidly involving

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:28:58

FinTech and e-commerce landscape.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:29:01

How does Viably ensure that they're giving a top notch customer service experience

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:29:09

or customer experience in general?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:11

we've got probably three different types

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:12

of folks that are new sellers

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:13

new sellers that are working with mentors and consultants that are

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:16

really helping kind of, uh, shape the, the moves they're making.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:19

And then even say real entrepreneurs, they've had exits, um, you know, in

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:23

the past or multiple exits in the past.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:25

So now they're.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:26

, the whole goal is let me do it quicker and faster and bigger.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:29

So, you know, that is a different type of customer and we wanna basically

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:33

work with, you know, all of them to say, okay, how do we help scale you?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:37

What's your exit plan?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:38

And a lot of times, you know, we find that okay, that's, they're not there yet.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:43

So we help them say, okay, let's start thinking about kind of.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:46

What is your exit?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:47

Where, where are you going with this?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:48

Because some of the, the best businesses, they kind of work backwards.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:51

They strategize, you know, we have another customer I'm working with.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:53

It's like, you know, he knows, uh, in thinking of 2026, that's his ex.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:58

He knows.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:29:58

And when he wants to have an exit, he knows where he wants EBITDA to be.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:01

He knows how much money he wants to put in his pocket.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:04

It's a beautiful thing when you could have that much kind of clarity because

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:07

now you know, kind of when you're moving in the right directions, if you're

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:11

off the mark where you need to play, catch up and it's like just, you know,

Oz Merchant: 00:30:15

have you seen that diagram where A to B always seems like a straight

Oz Merchant: 00:30:19

line, but the reality of it is looping all over the place before you get

Tedd Huff: 00:30:23

I know

Tedd Huff: 00:30:23

exactly which one you're talking about.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:25

and, and that's the reality.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:26

So, but if you never have that b.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:29

You don't know where you're headed.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:30

You don't know, and with any type of business, there's, there's an

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:33

arc where there's a, probably an optimal time to sell, not only from

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:38

a exit and kind of money standpoint, but also from the standpoint of.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:42

You cross that and you're gonna hit burnout, you're not, you lose

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:30:46

the interest, you lose the passion.

Tedd Huff: 00:30:47

We've talked about how you're helping e-commerce

Tedd Huff: 00:30:52

sellers stay ahead of the curve.

Tedd Huff: 00:30:55

How does viability stay current with the latest FinTech

Tedd Huff: 00:31:00

e-commerce trends and innovations?

Tedd Huff: 00:31:02

And how do you plan to adopt to evolve the platform to

Tedd Huff: 00:31:07

continue to serve your customers?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:11

Yeah.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:11

That's, you know, especially if you look back, uh, over the last few

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:15

months, uh, after SVB and stuff, it, uh, it woke everybody up.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:20

I, I think, uh, you know, there were certain assumptions everybody made

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:23

about kind of the, the banking sector and, uh, and FinTech as a whole.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:29

It's, shook some people up, and we'll see what it does,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:33

We wanna look at it from the standpoint of we building, kind

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:35

of making sound bets are, are we kind of helping the companies grow?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:40

It helps that we've kind of been there, done that this is not our first time.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:44

We as a company are as well as kind of, you know, having our CU customers trust

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:48

as and partner with us as we kind of grow and, and scale our business and help

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:31:53

our customers scale their businesses.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:31:56

What pearls of wisdom do you have

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:31:58

for those in startups or fintechs that just wanna take their business

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:32:04

or their career to the next level?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:32:07

And what have you learned along the way that could, could shed

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:32:10

a little bit of light for them?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:12

Having been in the Startup space for, for a

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:14

number of years, probably the most recent Aha has been around inside

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:19

the e-commerce space and just looking at the creativity that folks have,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:26

, it's just mind boggling of that,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:29

the products that are out there.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:32:31

Mm-hmm.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:32

and every day I think like Amazon gets 30, 200 or

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:35

3,700 new sellers every, every day.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:40

They're innovating and they're coming up with ideas and solving problems, and

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:44

The fact you can, you know, go do something.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:48

The fact entrepreneurship has gotten to a point where you can take.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:52

an idea and least fuel it enough to, you know, make a, an make a minimum

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:32:58

viable product that you can take to market and get a sense of, you know,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:02

is there a potential, uh, need buyer, a community that will accept this.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:08

It's just a, a very interesting time that we're living in.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:12

And.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:13

I'm just glad to be kind of a part of that ecosystem and the community.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:33:17

So if you were to distill all of that down into

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:33:21

one specific piece of advice for a startup founder, whether it be

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:33:26

an e-commerce or otherwise, What would that one piece of advice be?

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:33

Wow.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:35

Let's say.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:41

Do it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:41

Just do it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:43

Iterate, do it some more.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:46

Iterate.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:48

There's so many people that, that don't take the chance, they don't

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:52

bet on themselves, and I think they shortchange themselves there.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:33:58

There's amazing amount that you can learn through that journey.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:03

You know, you can't, I don't think you can lose if you go down this path, I

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:07

mean that you get informationally richer.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:08

You learn more about the, the economy, the business, the how money flows

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:14

about yourself, uh, as a person.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:16

So just taking the action and doing it.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:20

I think, uh, the net effect is you, you win it away.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:34:24

I've really enjoyed the time talking

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:34:26

through, learning about you, learning about your perspectives, learning

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:34:29

about viability, and what it offers out to the e-commerce side of the house.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:34:35

What is the best way to get in touch with you, Oz?

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:34:39

To learn more about what is going on there at Viability.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:44

So for me, uh, I'm easy to follow.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:46

Uh, and my handles, uh, at Oz Merchant, whether it's Twitter, uh, LinkedIn,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:51

the, the company is, uh, ly is just run vitally, R u n v i a b l y, uh, dot com.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:34:57

And that's also the same for all the handles, Twitter, TikTok,

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:35:02

LinkedIn, Instagram, all those.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:35:05

Oz.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:35:06

I appreciate the time.

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:35:07

I look forward to learning

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:35:09

more about Viably, seeing it

Huff - Fintech Confidential: 00:35:12

continue to grow, and watching it just explode along with e-commerce.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:35:18

Awesome.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:35:19

Ted, thanks so much for having me.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:35:20

I really appreciate this and, uh, just granting me this audience.

Oz Merchant - Viably: 00:35:23

It's great.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential :

: 00:35:24

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