Helping Amazon Entrepreneurs Succeed – Dylan Lam of Omirank

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to TrepTalks. Today. I am really excited to welcome Dylan Lam to the show. Dylan is the founder of OmiRank. Omirank helps e commerce businesses run successful crowdfunding campaigns and validate new product ideas. They also provide business, uh, businesses, comprehensive support from start to finish, including market research and validation, product development, crowdfunding campaign management and digital marketing, as well as helping to scale the business post crowdfunding campaign success.

And today I’m going to ask Dylan a few questions about his entrepreneurial journey. And some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business. So Dylan, thank you so much for joining me today. I really, [00:01:00] really appreciate your time.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: I’m stoked to be here on this online.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome.

So we were just chatting, and you were telling me a little bit about your business. So maybe we can get started with. A little bit about your story. Can you share a little bit, you know, how you got into entrepreneurship, um, what kind of motivated you to get into, you know, starting your own business?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Sure, sure.

Um, so, uh, so when I started e-Commerce, while I was in university, I was studying, I, I almost, uh, found my dissertation. Long story short, right?. Okay. Uh, it’s just like, uh, we started on eBay. Uh, we. Uh, at that time, I was like bringing, uh, 40 parcels, uh, to the… Uh, the Royal Mail office and then like, I just keep labeling them and then the whole, the whole, every single day I’m carrying two bags of like, uh, uh, bags.

And then like, within that, [00:02:00] the whole, when I, when I’m, and I’m on the one wheel as well. Uh, so I ride my one wheel, it’s like an electronic, uh, personal vehicle. And I ride that into the, uh, uh, post office. And then like, I lay down all the parcel on the floor. I print all the stickers, and then I just tape each of them one by one.

So by that time, like a month later, every single person in there didn’t know about me already, because that guy is special with the One wheel, with all the parts of the labeling, right? So that’s how I got started, like, uh, and then, and then, and then I just realized, oh no, eBay is like a lot. Of hassles I have to do by myself every single day.

So I move on to Amazon FBA. On FBA, uh, they will fulfill the product for me. And then I don’t have to do a lot of like, um, uh, uh, sending those products to my student accommodation. You know, I was living in first floor, you know, I literally have to get the pallet into the, into the lift and then go into the third floor.

Okay. Anyway, so, uh, that time I was like bootstrapping the whole thing from zero to six figures. And [00:03:00] then I want to bridge to the same figures and that’s why I started offering PPC services to Chinese sellers. And then by the time that we are accepting, uh, people from China, uh, from China to come to us and then we’ll run PPC for them.

And then start slowly, uh, slowly the time goes by three, three years later, we got like around 50 to 80 of, uh, uh, uh, client. And then our agency grew from, um, just like me into maybe, uh, 30. No, I think that was time. That was time. That was like 25 people. Right now we have like, uh, 50 people in our team already.

So this is how we get started, uh, for, for rank. And then we realize that a lot of them, they need external traffics to gain competitive edge. So we have them to, uh. Set up stores on Shopify, WooCommerce, and we help them, um, uh, to start running external traffic from, uh, from chatbot, from deal site. Uh, now we realize, uh, branding is important because it’s the next, uh, big things right [00:04:00] now on selling on e commerce, right?

If you’re not running a brand, you’re just going to be outsmart by the competitors eventually. And that’s why we use, um, using crowdfunding as a tool to help. Sellers to build brands.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. I mean, that’s, uh, that’s, uh, such an interesting, uh, thing. And I mean, that’s the way to do it. Like if you’re a student, I think you probably, and, and, you know, of course, if you’re interested in business, I think you’ll probably learn more by, you know, starting your own business, trying to sell something, then, you know, just going by to the school itself.

So very, very interesting story. So you said that you, you are now working with Amazon sellers. Um, Can you share, like, what are kind of the big, big challenges that Amazon sellers are facing? So I would assume that, you know, 10 years ago, probably there was less competition, right? And you can go list your product and you can get, um, you can get, uh, their traffic to [00:05:00] come and buy from you, right?

Amazon traffic. Um, now I’m assuming there’s probably a lot more competition. Amazon probably charges a very high fee as well, like if you’re using FBA and things like that. So in your experience. When you’re working with these Amazon sellers, like what are the big challenges that they’re coming to you with?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, that’s a very good question because, um, back in the days, like I started e commerce like 2014 or 14, like I could have just scaled to six figures, just like a snap because, um, people can just come and we can just, uh, buy, sell. And then we just buy again from China, from, from the inventory, uh, and then, uh, for the inventory.

And then like you sell almost our stock immediately. That was the time that e-com is booming, right? And then, right now e-comm is still booming. It’s just still like, uh, increasing the, the market, the, the market share compared, uh, like trying to beat over, uh, [00:06:00] retail because the, uh, after Covid happened.

Those consumer purchase, uh, habit, consumer, uh, buying habit has changed over the time. And everyone knows about Amazon prime or Walmart or Etsy, all those things. So the biggest problem that they, they have been facing is more on the inventory, uh, like, uh, like having, having launched a product right now, compared to the past, compared to the past, you have to store three-month worth of inventory or, uh, uh, whereas like, uh, in the past.

Uh, if you don’t have free memory for inventory, you would just rent out stock, right? Uh, same as right now, but then the, the threshold, uh, the threshold is like a higher, uh, Like four months or four and a half months, because there will be delay in logistic, there will be custom holdup. And that’s why, uh, some of the seller may go up to six months as well when it comes to inventory.

And, and there’s a lot of like systematic risks as well, that you get [00:07:00] suspension from the platform. Like I remember like back in the days, like I was, I was. I was suspending from Amazon, and then I was suspending from Facebook, uh, because of the ad containing, uh, other keyword that I shouldn’t be containing, which you have no idea what he always said.

And then like on chatbot as well, in many chat, like they, they restricted from the policy of it, of you can sending mass message from 24 hours rule. And then, uh, in Amazon, there’s a lot of like, uh, gray term of service, uh, those gray hat, uh, what we call them. And then we slowly, they will turn them into.

Because in the past, uh, they will try to, uh, restrict all the policies and that’s by a gray hat or a white hat can become a black hat in our sentence. And then you would create in, and then you would get the, um, uh, POA, which is, uh, Uh, plan of action that your account will get suspended, uh, and then your keyword will get withdrawed.

And then, uh, you have your plan of action and you still might not be able to [00:08:00] get your account back. That’s the problem with Amazon seller. And then like, um, uh, the problem here is like, uh, example is like you and we are not building a real brand when it comes to selling on Amazon. I once, I once asked my friend, uh, if you, if your customer, uh, referring to their friend.

Where did they buy your product from? Would they say they got it from Amazon or they’re going to buy it from your brand, right? Let’s say your brand is ABC. They will for sure say, uh, Amazon because. They fought, they are Amazon brand, but not a easy brand. So that’s a problem. And that’s why we started understanding, uh, to really get an edge on the market.

And you really have to, uh, know how to do the branding by owning the asset, by creating a community in order to. Uh, to get them to buy from you again, uh, for the repeat purchases. Um, so, uh, [00:09:00] that’s a challenge that they have no matter from systematic risk or, uh, non systematic risk or inventory and cashflow and branding.

Those are mainly all the challenge that right nowadays to build a e commerce, you know, we have the all phase.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think in the consumer products, um, category, either you are You know, if you are selling a product, either you have to come up with something very different than what’s existing in the market.

Like your value proposition is, you know, much better than the existing product in the category. Or you have to, as you said, build a brand, right? Like you have to. You know, if there’s five products that are, that look the same, that function the same, you know, uh, you have to create a brand where people can recognize your product and, you know, and that brand could be like, you know, maybe your customer service that you’re, you offer that, you know, I’m giving you the [00:10:00] best customer service and things like that.

So, so it’s a very good point that you bring up that branding is kind of the differentiator in e commerce today. So with that in mind, um. Can you walk me through like a process of a client coming to you with an idea? You know, I have X product, right? How do you kind of go about advising them or helping them with this, uh, this entire process of helping them build the brand and then getting them on, on Amazon and also, you know, helping them to drive traffic and sales.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Right, right. So it, it all starts with an idea, right? Um, a lot of clients, they come to us, like they might have an idea. Which is not going to be a problem because we have a lot of case studies showing that, uh, idea, uh, we can generate it easy by using a different method, like with our proprietary method right now, using AI, using, uh, keyword dev, keyword gap, uh, or maybe, uh, [00:11:00] search volume, uh, or maybe, uh, cross sell, upsell from his existing portfolio, and then we will be able to easily come up with a Idea, uh, easily, right?

Uh, we can talk about the case study later on. The case study, uh, really shows that like, uh, how we can able to, uh, by helping them from no product into like a very successful product. Um, but then when they come to us, of course, it’s idea first, and then we deal with the product. And then, uh, the unique things that we are doing is we validate the product first.

By the mean of validation, we’re not just talking about looking at the search topics, looking at the, uh, QA gap. No, not all that. We really put them into, um, Facebook, um, testing. So that’s the thing. Like I come, I come from a job shipping background where before, uh, Like, uh, when I was back when you’re back in uni, like I do job shipping as well in that time And then, uh, I do a lot of like a testing of a campaign Say we got like 20 product and then you get maybe only one product that [00:12:00] is winning, right?

And that’s why testing product is a thing It’s like engraved in me already like we keep testing product whereas on amazon seller the nowadays approach is always preaching uh, just thinking about the keyword gap and all the um, uh Search problem or, uh, just a minor tweak, right? Yeah, all those things get you a edge in the Amazon marketplace, but what if you’re off Amazon?

If you’re off Amazon, have we been testing whether or not the messaging, the angle? Uh, all the creative, what resonate to them, because eventually when you run PPC or, or like display at all videos at, uh, on Amazon, there is a max, there is like a cap, right? For you to drive more traffics, you have to rely on external, either from athlete marketing, either from, uh, uh, immigrants’ outreach or from, um, uh, any sort of like a deal side, like to drive it there.

But then the most end quick way is [00:13:00] always. The external traffic from pay app, right? And that’s why we, uh, to, to really know what another product works. We really find the product first, if they are having any potential to drive external traffics. Right. And, um, if that product still didn’t find the message.

We’ll keep tweaking until when. I mean tweaking, I mean, tweaking the product, uh, uh, uh, features, right? We four features, we, we tweak the color, right? We have a, we have a designer here to just keep, keep heavy changing the color, uh, or the look of it, or we from A-U-S-B-C to USPA, or maybe it’s from USPA, uh, to free USPC, uh, et cetera, right?

And then we just have you manipulate the images and find the right message that resonate to the audience. And then we’ll eventually come up with the, uh, the right idea, uh, the right angle that resonate to the, uh, uh, a [00:14:00] buyer, right? So we create enough engagement while we are creating the community as well, because they are seeing you, how you develop the product.

So that’s the, that’s the hard-working part when it comes to the, uh, foundation stage, uh, uh, from research to five days to pre-launch to generate a, a list of product, uh, to, Sorry, a list of email to, uh, to use for the hype when it comes to launching the product. On the launch day, right? And after the launch day, uh, until that day, they still don’t have to invest in cash at all.

Uh, and that’s the thing when you launch on Amazon, you have to invest in 30 days of inventory or 90 days of inventory immediately. But yeah, uh, with us. You only, when you start with, uh, carbonate, you get the money first from Kickstarter, and then you go on to place your order with your manufacturer. Right.

The flexibility that just, just like, um, limitless, uh, [00:15:00] because, uh, when you sell Amazon, you’re limited by the product look and shape immediately. But then if you are on carbonate, you can still tweak things. You can set up the order later. Maybe a year later, it’s still legit to do that. As you’re not running away.

From, uh, from, uh, after you get the money, uh, so we help them to improve the cashflow. We help them improve the inventory, the storage fee as well, uh, uh, making sure that they have final data. They’re putting their brand and email list and then community that can be used for a second launch, right? The more you launch, the easier it’s going to get because you’ve got your entity that you’ve built already.

And that is essentially, we call it the future proof product launch formula because without this formula. You are stuck with just selling on Amazon and you’re just another Amazon brand.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That makes a lot of sense. Um, so basically you use a crowdfunding platform. You put the product. Basically, you don’t [00:16:00] necessarily need to have a product, but you can use the photos and You know, the copy and you tweak it to, to, to figure it out until, you know, if people are kind of engaging with it, you know, and, and, um, and kind of, uh, contributing to your campaign.

And then once your campaign is successful, then of course you take that money and you, you, then you invest on product and then you go about fulfilling the orders and things like that. So that, I think that makes a lot of sense and I think it’s a great way to risk, risk, risk, manage your, your product launch and also business.

What is the. I guess my next question would be more from a crowdfunding perspective as well. So I’m, I’m assuming even on the crowdfunding platforms, there’s probably a lot of, uh, competition or a lot of people who are kind of coming up with new ideas and running crowdfunding campaigns. Is there a challenge to On these platforms to get your [00:17:00] campaign views from people, like, what can you do so that when you launch that campaign for validating your idea that you are actually ensuring that people are actually viewing that page?

Is there a challenge in that?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Right? Um, to ensure the campaign is being viewed, the page, right? Um, so let’s talk about what does it mean by successful in the past. And what is my successful vision, uh, like now, because back in the day, crowdfunding, uh, before they, uh, no one knows a lot about it, uh, it was used to a heaven for all the, uh, product creator, because you could just put a product in there.

And then, uh, without marketing, without a lot of effort, you will generate maybe a few hundred K in all of a sudden, right? Right. The landscape right now is different because, [00:18:00] uh, when people understand the. maturity of the market. Like there’s a lot of choices. You can, you can launch, you can get an innovative product, uh, maybe on Amazon as well, or SE or, or, or Pinterest as well.

Uh, so people have choices and there’s a lot of labels saying that Amazon, I’m sorry, Kickstarter is a scam because once they get the money, they will just run away. So all those things, it just became a core challenge when it comes to Kickstarter. But that doesn’t mean that, uh, uh, I guess that doesn’t work.

We have a lot of cases that it works because we don’t treat Kickstarter as in like a, uh, a platform that you just put a product and that’s it. We really put in all the hard work and then we make sure that, uh, you, you get the eyeball from the hype that you’re building. Uh, we are a marketer plus product innovator, uh, right now when it comes to, uh, our role on the, on the Kickstarter as an e commerce seller.

Okay. So, um, so how to get eyeball [00:19:00] to, to the, to the listing page, right? So we do pre-launch right before the pre-launch we do this validation, right? During the validation, that’s the thing that I didn’t talk earlier on is. When we do validation, we already come with a group that were willing to, uh, develop the product with you.

As in that you keep sending survey, you can ask them feedback. Right. And then that’s where you first generate the first type. Okay. And after the first type, uh, you build the community. While you’re doing pre-launch campaign. So during the pre-launch stage, uh, we will be uh testing, uh, uh, audience, uh, as in prospecting I think like I’m uh, uh, I think like, uh, let’s say a phone like you might go on to Uh, uh office worker.

You might go on to tennis user or maybe uh Just, uh, let’s say, uh, iPad user because it’s Apple, right? Uh, so, by, by [00:20:00] testing all the, uh, different prospects, you’re able to come with different audience, and then you use different images and, and angle to get hyping up your phone, and then, uh, you will put them into a group, right?

Then that’s where you build, build a second stage of hype, which is a community. Right. We use group infiltration by having us to, uh, go on the other group to talk about the product with a indirect way to get them to, to put them into our group. We use pay ad to, uh, to speak to them, resonate with them and come to our group.

And then we use content to nurture them for our email, our chatbot and our group posting. And that when it comes to launch day. They are the one who are the major force who will help you achieve your launch goal. In maybe just the first hours, I mean, I’ve launched a campaign that achieved the goal in just half an hour.

This is like the power of hype, right? [00:21:00] Okay. Okay. So that would be the launch day eyeballing skill. But then during the, after the launch day, like maybe, uh, let’s say, uh, on the second day, first day, uh, fifth stage, uh, we, we, we collaborate with people, right? We collaborate, uh, with our pre marketer there is like a lot of our pre marketer that are always looking out for a new product.

Right, uh blogger, uh, or maybe a YouTube influencer or maybe a Press release, right? We call this a snowball effects because by the day when you launch the product and when you hit the goal, uh and then you’ve got a few influencers who have mentioned about that already. Then we start pitching the, uh, the big media outlet like search or Android police, like all those media outlet, seeing you having success in the past and seeing people talking about it and they know the buzz.

And that’s why they were willing to talk about your product. Right. And of course, we have a PR network as well that they were willing to talk to the editor because of the things that we have been doing. So, uh, there’s no working [00:22:00] effects, it’s real. And that’s why we have to do a lot of the launch day. Get a success and then you can have a lot of leveraging power up to that, right?

Okay To for the person is all for other things and then of course like the main traffic is still your head because you have Tested all things already before you know, what angle to which thing right during the prospecting stage. You’re just prospecting You haven’t scaled your head yet, right after that you start scaling your head with all the lookalike audience, with all the, uh, uh, UTM and then the conversion, uh, API.

So you can do it, do remarketing on Facebook. Sorry, I mean, uh, remarketing on YouTube and, and, and Google as well. Right. So that is how, how we are able to, uh, create ecosystem, uh, during the launch day. It’s like Facebook remark and retargeting. From Google audience, Google, uh, remarketing from Facebook audience.

We even ran a native as well on tabula. No jokes. And it’s really working because, [00:23:00] um, uh, people really love to, uh, uh, uh, like article style to convince people Kickstarter and that works. Right. Um, Um, yeah, there’s a lot of tactics that can go for, uh, uh, but I think that we have enough time to talk about that.

Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: definitely. No, I think that makes a lot of sense. You do a prelaunch where you kind of create the bus, then you launch on and make sure that, you know, the traffic from the prelaunch comes to the site, you know, they make your campaign successful. And then you go from there and then you kind of scale that, uh, into, into ongoing success.

That makes a lot of sense for sure. Um, in terms of your clients, like, do you focus on certain product categories? Like, do you have an ideal client, or you can basically, you know, anybody who comes with their product, you can look at, yes, you know, this is the problem that I’m trying to solve. This is the product, and you can kind of adapt to that.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, it’s a very good question because a lot of people think that launching on Kickstarter [00:24:00] has to be very innovative. Uh, if you’re not innovative enough, then, um, that is not, uh, uh, going to drive any sales. Uh, true in the extent that, uh, That for Amazon seller is not true. I see. Like if you’re a developing product, then you already get a competitive edge about that because I’m going to give you a custom case study.

Okay. Um, so there’s a bottle, uh, call, uh, oops, uh, call a Ringo. So Ringo is actually a, a, a bottle, uh, just a bottle with max eight. Right. Because right now there’s a lot of MagSafe product. Uh, so you, they, they replace the cap with a MagSafe, uh, uh, uh, phone stand. And then that is already a product that go on to Amazon, they generate 300K.

Right. And then right now it’s on Amazon, uh, for, I think if I last time I checked, it’s like a 10K a month. So that was last time I checked the way they have no reviews when they have reviews. I doubt 10k is a time. All right. So, so that [00:25:00] one of the tricks, uh, tweak is about connecting the, uh, the consumer behavior, uh, shifting, uh, uh, Uh, my co behavior, uh, trend because of the technology advancement, right?

Because technology advancement always happens, right? Where, uh, I don’t have MaxA and that’s why I play MaxA for a bottle, right? And that is how, how they come up with a new product, right? Is it innovative? No, it’s not innovative. It’s like, we’re just combining things. We are just connecting. And that is what exactly Amazon knows the best.

They always know how to improve a product. They know how to create new bundle on a new color, new material or new functionality. Right. So, um, that, that, if you think that, that is still, it’s still hot. Okay. I’m going to give you one example that is like, uh, that is, that is just mind blown. Okay. So there’s a, there’s a brand called Missing.

Missing is actually a brand that who create a baking tray. A modular baking tray. [00:26:00] Okay. Uh, so, uh, um, so it’s cheat, cheat and missing. Okay. So that baking tray, um, that they are doing is, uh, they do 3 million. Okay. They are the, they’re the first comer in Kickstarter. They do 3 million of the modular baking trays.

Okay. It was amazing. Right. They, because they got like, uh, they got, uh, uh, this is not the first time they launched on Kickstarter. They got email this already. Right. But this is not, I want to tell you, what I want to tell you is the second, the second brand called Chishit. Right. Chishit come in looking at, uh, uh, uh, the, uh, the first comma baking tray through like, Oh shit, this is a bit like, uh, not quite convenient.

So they just added a handle, the baking tray. And they generated 100K with that product, right? So it’s 3 million compared to 100K. You can say that 100K is not as successful. It’s [00:27:00] second comer, right? But no, the opportunity behind is so huge because you created a brand, you created a opportunity for you to go into the kitchen niche, right?

And then you also created a audience that you can use in the future. And all the creative asset you can already use in kicks on Amazon or SEO eBay in the future and, and that, uh, the story here is not just about a Kickstarter or, or, or it’s not just about first comment or second comment is all about. Um, taking the leap, uh, to try to do one thing that is different, and you will still gain result, right?

Um, yeah. Um, maybe do you, do you want to say in case study, maybe, uh, there’s a lot of them that can share. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, yeah. If you have a more, I mean, I’m curious to know, I mean, this baking tray idea definitely seems, it seems very interesting. Have you seen any products or any clients where, you know, when you look at the product, it’s like, just like any other commodity, like very general [00:28:00] item, but then when you launch it.

You know, it, it really created a huge, uh, revenue for the, for the, for the client.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Yeah. Um, um, so, uh, how about Osnap or Popsocket, do you know what, what, what’s Popsocket? Uh, Popsocket is actually, uh, the, the phone holder, like where you put it back and then you pop it out. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s Popsocket. Right.

And then there’s a company called, uh, Osnap who come in, uh, they, they added a magnet behind. Yeah. And then they make the, uh, the, the thing behind like a bit thinner and then they just put it on Amazon. That’s what I mean. And then they are just, they are just like getting, I think 1. 5 million at that time.

Right. So, so do you, do you remember, like I was talking about just a baking tray, they get 3 million and then, but then with the old snap and pop socket still amazing, they got 1 million, but it’s 3 million, I guess 1 million. So there’s no [00:29:00] like a hard and true understanding that is it has to be commodity or is it has to be innovative in order to get a huge amount of audience.

Um, what we are aiming for is always, uh, uh, do what the seller want to do. The seller might want to launch aggressively, which means that they have to invest more ad. The seller wants to, uh, provide, um, Minimum budget and want to launch it profitably, which is good. But then you aim to have a lower amount of, uh, revenue, right?

So, but some of them, it’s just about the name and, uh, they want to be a brand outfit. They want to use that portfolio to go to retail distribution. And that’s why they have like 100 K, 200 K of S band that could go up to. Uh, three million, three million, right? So, so that is the uh, story behind it depends on the strategy that they take They want to go for and then we’ll uh side by side go on with them.

Uh, either We will uh, it’s a course that they’re taking from [00:30:00] us or the coaching call Uh that will just advise them to do things, right? Um, maybe one more case of the as in, um This is what we do, uh, storytelling. We help client to turn the exact product that was launched on Kickstarter that generate, uh, 38k in the past is a baking stone.

Okay. So baking stone is like, uh, uh, a stone that you put into, uh, often, often, and then we hit up your, your product. Uh, your, your, your food more evenly and then it, uh, cook it faster. Right. So what we do is we launch the same thing. Okay. Uh, that was a steel, but right now we are a marble. Right. Which is like, I don’t see there’s a big difference.

It’s just like a color changes. But then the fundamental is just the same. Just making stone. Um, but then the way that we help them do is, uh, compared to the last campaign. Uh, this, this campaign, we’ve got like, uh, I think 130 K yeah, one year for a cake. And then, [00:31:00] uh, we were helping them to dissect all the benefit and to elaborate all the story as in like, why do you need this?

How can this benefit help you while you’re cooking? By doing this storytelling part, we turn a same product from 48 K to one for the game. Right. But of course, there is a catch. We have, uh, they have launched a product in the past, uh, with us and that baking product is a second product. And that’s why they were having a, uh, a, a, a huge success, uh, even before they have to invest in too much on the app.

Um, so the essence here is even not the same problem, even if you can launch the same product with no change, you can still generate a huge amount of revenue. Right. So are you,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: um, so you are saying that the, the more, you know, if the goal is to keep on building, um, keep on bringing revenue, it’s important to do continue to do [00:32:00] launches again and again.

So it could be, it could be the same product, maybe something a little bit different and you are launching that. So it’s like, you know, you’re coming up with variation of products or you’re coming up with, you know, maybe new products, but the idea to kind of. continue to drive revenue, new revenue is continuing to do new launches.

Is that, uh, uh, would that be, would that be correct? Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Our motto is always launching always. Because there is some behind that is, um, when it comes to, uh, Kickstarter, of course you’ve got the email list. Okay. Uh, but then think about the recurring backers. If you’re on Kickstarter, you are likely to be buying.

Recurrently from the same brand. Right. Um, so the statistic that we have is 25%, 25 percent who bought your product in the past, who buy from you again, whereas on Shopify, you only get maybe 10 percent or less. So for [00:33:00] that fact, that’s why you want to launch a second product. The better you, uh, the second campaign that people love your product, they will always buy from you again.

Um, And we help clients to develop a product that is similar to the first product that is compatible, right? And that’s why it’s not, I mean, people from the past, they, they bought the first product. They always want to buy a second product to make it an ecosystem. Right. And thirdly, Kickstarter sending out email for us as well.

Um, so you have your email list, you send email, and when you make an update on the old campaign, Kickstarter send out email, uh, on behalf of you as a campaign creator. And that’s why you get two touch point in all sudden, right? If you send one more email, you’ve got four touch point, right? So one more email, your email, Kickstarter email.

And then the second one is your email, second email, and then you got four touch point. You heard that like, uh, seven touch point to convert one, one, uh, one buyer. That’s so true. And that’s why, um, when [00:34:00] you use the message update, uh, correctly, uh, you will really create a hype without too much effort. Right.

And that’s the reason behind like. The kickstart email is just gorgeous because you don’t have to care about the DKIM, SFP, or all the reputation that you need to do. Kickstart is doing that for you already. And whoever was taking a Kickstarter newsletter, they’re likely to open your newsletter as well because they used to buy from you.

So that is the idea behind of once you launch the first time, the second time it’s going to be way easier.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think that makes a lot of sense. And, um, I think you, you kind of mentioned it before, but if somebody’s looking for a new product idea, they should go and find what’s existing, what’s doing really well in the market on Amazon or somewhere else and try to find a way to improve it and then launch it yourself.

I think that’s a, that’s a good way to find, uh, To kind of ensure that, you know, you’re going to have a good [00:35:00] launch, I guess, um, what is your, um, uh, so a client comes to work with you, um, what is your kind of, um, billing structure, your pricing structure, like what can they expect from you in terms of, because you’re kind of taking their idea and bringing it to market and making revenue for you, like, do you kind of charge them percentage fee?

Do you charge them flat rate fee? Uh, is it? You know, different for every client. Can you share a little bit about your, um, you know, how, how does it

Dylan Lam of Omirank: work for you? Yeah, it’s different than every, every client for every client, because different clients have different needs for a backpacker, you’re in for a lot of like a moving part in there, the backhoe, the seat, uh, the, this, the, uh, the, the.

Backpacks were to solve them starting from left and right, right? Uh, so [00:36:00] it depends on like how many factory we’re working with it depends on like a lot of like QC or a different kind of like, uh Inspection that we are doing for them. It’s like, I really can’t give a, uh, a thing because everyone, we customize it, but then I can give you a ballpark as in like, we have a, uh, we have, we would charge, because if you think about cavity, we are a sourcing company in the same time, we’re a marketing company and we are also like a advertising company.

And then we also, uh, uh, helping them to maintain the, uh, the storefront as well in the future, right? So each of the stage we charge them. And then, uh, uh, for, for that amount that we are charging, uh, it will be, um, uh, for that. period of time. And then if you exceed that period of time, then we’ll just charge you additionally.

And then if you’re, uh, if you’re launching campaign, because we want to make sure that we are, uh, uh, helping you the most, and then we are, we are getting commission from the amount raised [00:37:00] as well. So in different stage, we customize it differently. To different people depends on what they need. Some of people, some of people, they don’t need to be different product.

They just come to us to just launch a product. Some of the people would just come to us to just say, I need the pre-launch only from you guys. Uh, so that’s why it’s really hard to say, uh, uh, the total budget, but then that is how we dissect into small

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: stages for them. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about your team?

I think you mentioned you have 15 or 50 people right now. 50. Yeah. Okay. Um, can you talk about, I mean, there’s so many different aspects that you’re helping people with, uh, everything from creative to marketing, to branding, to, you know, sourcing and so forth. Um, yeah. What does your team look like right now?

Uh, do, does everyone work, uh, from the same place? Is it kind of like a distributed team and, uh, Uh, what kind of support kinda you provide to the customer?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Yeah, so, um, uh, we have a team from Hong Kong, uk and [00:38:00] then Taiwan, China, and Philippine. Right. So that’s where, uh, we all. Uh, we work, uh, we work, we all work virtually.

Um, and then, uh, in, in China of course, it’s like event inspection and then it’s about, uh, procurement and also product development as well. Uh, and there’s like a project manager in Taiwan that connected China team, uh, with the, uh, team and the UK team is more on the, uh, cooperating and marketing, um, and then media buyer as well, uh, in the uk, uh, and HR as well, spreading around, uh.

Uh, sorry, HR is in the Taiwan as well. And then also we have these like position managers spreading around different countries as well. Because, um, different countries have their own strength as well. Uh, some of them shine, some of them like, uh, they are, but to be fair, I think it’s like more on the, on the person itself.

The person itself, uh, if you are talented enough, if you know how to, uh, communicate carefully and using logical, uh, manner to execute a task, then you will be assigned a different position. [00:39:00]

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. That, that, that sounds really great. Um,

what, I mean, you’ve been in ecommerce, and you’ve been working with clients, uh, for a bit now, um, do you also do your own product launches? Like what has, I mean, is it, um, is it profitable to sell on Amazon at all? Because there’s so much competition and I’m assuming Amazon takes a lot of fees. Like if, if, if a person has an idea for a product or let’s say they, you know, they saw, they looked at the market and they came up with some sort of an improvement on an existing product, do you.

Do you recommend people selling on marketplace like Amazon, or do you recommend, you know, they start their own website, their own, uh, thing and, and sell it there because probably the fees structure is much better there, right? The better profit margins.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Yeah. Like on WooCommerce. Yeah. Uh, that, [00:40:00] that’s, that’s, that’s a good question.

Uh, although, although like I hate Amazon. Uh, but then Amazon is still a place that, like, uh, can, uh, can drive a mass amount of, like, pressure. Uh, so. put it in this way. Uh, I would recommend you not to launch on Amazon. Uh, so you can easily not put all that in one basket. That’s, there is a lot of things that there’s a lot of, uh, uh, seller that make mistake, uh, uh, launching on Amazon that end up like you’re just a end up ending up a Amazon brand.

Um, whereas if you don’t, Uh, launch on Amazon, you’re missing out a lot on the table as well, because there will be a lot of knockoff product, uh, become your combinator eventually. And you will be losing your market share if you just launch it on your website. Right. Uh, so, uh, that’s why a hybrid way between, uh, carbon thing to Amazon.

And to eventually you have to go to your [00:41:00] website, right? Because it’s a whole supply chain. So this is what I see. People start with, uh, dropshipping or, or Amazon. Uh, they all end up going to the same place, which is, uh, when you are going up to seven figures or nine figures, you always have to go to your website.

Uh, uh, if you use nine because you’re still on Amazon, you’re doomed because you could have get suspended just tomorrow easily. Right. And that’s why, uh, you can’t afford not to diversify at the time. Right. But then the earlier you diversify, the better it’s going to be. I’m seeing my customer, it’s going to be, uh, in 60 and 40, 60 percent is outside of Amazon and 4 percent is on Amazon, right?

Um, so that is the healthiest, uh, uh, uh, uh, portfolio. Uh, if I see that they start going back to, uh, uh, 50 to Amazon, then I would use whatever mean to, uh, balance the traffic to make sure that the, [00:42:00] the portfolio is still not fully on Amazon. I think

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: that makes a lot of sense because it’s, it is definitely a risk if you, because Amazon or any other marketplace, it’s, it’s, it’s a different, that’s not your business.

Like you’re, you’re using their marketplace. So they have all the power in a way, right? They can, uh, they can kick you out. They can change their rules. They can increase their fees. And so it can like overnight have a huge impact on your business So I think it makes a lot of sense to have 60 percent of your um of your business, uh that you kind of own on your own um, so, uh What is your, um, uh, like your own business?

Of course, you’re running this agency. What is kind of your future, uh, vision for this business? Are you, um, are you looking to continue building this agency? Um, Are you kind of doing your own e commerce products? Uh, what is kind [00:43:00] of, where do you see yourself and your business five years down the road?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: So, uh, I’m a multiple seven second sellers first.

I want to say that, okay, because like, uh, uh, I don’t want to sell my brand. I want to continue to keep my brand. That’s what we’re offering service right now, to bootstrap the brand to eight figures, nine figures. Okay. That’s the first thing. Okay. Second thing is like, uh, uh, for the whole, whole, uh, agency thing, uh, I’m seeing like a infrastructure.

We hopefully that we can build this over the supply chain, uh, to help, uh, customer to really, um, uh, go into, uh, customization. Okay, so this I don’t think not everyone knows this concept because uh, I what i’m what i’m predicting that the future consumer behavior is always in customization because uh when everyone can offer the same thing Which will end up customized, uh, which end up customize, uh, whoever can customize who will be in the [00:44:00] market, right?

Mm-Hmm. And that’s why, um, I want to build a, uh, uh, in the future a, a warehouse that comes with highly customized, um, uh, operation that you can just send your product in and then we’ll pick and pack in a way that is scalable. Can

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I, can I ask a question? When you say customization, can you give me an example of what that means?

Like, is that, does that mean that customer can say, I want your product in color, red or color black? Is that the customization or is it something else?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Uh, yeah. Uh, you, uh, different shape, uh, different accessory. Uh, different as in like a bundle. So right now, you are offering bundle as in like a, uh, as in like A-A-S-K-U self.

Mm-Hmm. . But right now, uh, to make it highly customizable. Uh, we, uh, we hope that we can achieve to, as in like you were sending all your accessory to me, whenever, uh, uh, your customer choose, we’ll pick and pack for you into [00:45:00] the bundle that they want. Whereas you’re, whereas if you’re not doing that, you are either fixed into just free bundle and there’s some item in there, uh, your customer might not want it.

So that is the customizable solution that we hopefully we can offer in the

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: future. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Now you work with other businesses, so I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of mistakes that others, other businesses make. Um, maybe you can share like one or two big mistakes that maybe you have made in your own business journey.

Uh, you see other clients make big mistakes. Um, and what can new entrepreneurs, new e commerce entrepreneurs learn, learn from them? Like what are some of the big things you would want other entrepreneurs to avoid?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, selling on Amazon or selling on any marketplace without aim, aim. Because, uh, being an owner seller, you are keep, you’re just making a minimum margin.

As an [00:46:00] eCommerce seller, right? Because, uh, because you, you, you are, you are like, uh, get getting all the fees to, uh, strike PayPal, uh, Amazon, eBay. Right. And, and that’s why, um, uh, for, for them to really, uh, really squeeze margin out is always in the operation. Right. Think about where they can, uh, uh, optimize, uh, from the.

operation part they’re doing from the supply chain, uh, from operation or from the, uh, even the, uh, Manufacturer side as well, uh, that they have to build one sheet, uh, you know, to get credit terms as well. Uh, those add ups, or as if you just think about, uh, uh, uh, you could have just, uh, you could have just like, um, Sorry, what do you, what was the reason I was saying the first thing?

Uh, you, you,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you were, you were talking about, [00:47:00] uh, you know, how, because you know, uh, the margins, you know, the, these Amazon marketplaces or payment platforms take away most of your margin. Um, the only way for, for businesses to optimize it through.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: operations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, there’s so much thing just coming to my mind.

I just can’t. Okay. You can start over if you want. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, let’s do it again at that point. If you ask me again, please. Sure. Sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, yeah. So, I mean, it’s really about mistakes and failures, right? You know, as a businesspeople, you don’t always get everything right on the first try. Right. And I’m sure you’re working with a lot of clients, so you’ve seen others make a lot of mistakes.

Like what are some of the mistakes or failures you would want entrepreneurs to avoid?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Oh yeah. Uh, starting, uh, with an aim, right? Yeah. Some people might aim, um, to be, uh, say, exited, uh, in two years. Some people might aim to, uh, expand [00:48:00] the infrastructure without aim, uh, you’re trying to suicide, right? Same as the same goes with our plan.

You could, you plan to suicide. The reason behind it is there’s so many things that you might not know what’s happening behind the scenes. And if you just come in the market, compete without, uh, uh, aim, eventually, uh, you will fail. I’ll share a story. Uh, story is the reason why, uh, a lot of sellers that can offer a product with such a low margin, uh, there is three different ways to look at it.

The first way. It’s because then they don’t bother about the margin from e commerce. They bother what’s after the post purchase. They have already meticulously designed the funnel to come up with a high lifetime value, [00:49:00] knowing that if I can, if I can convert this guy into a, uh, a 1, uh, screen protectors.

Then I will be able to upsell them something in the future, right? And that’s something that we can’t see. Secondly, there’s a lot of governance subsidies. Or different kinds of subsidies that we don’t see, right? A lot of sellers, uh, that can, they could offer, uh, such a low margin, uh, product that you can work around how they can sell that low.

It’s not because they are selling at a loss, because they have subsidies from different places to try to capture the market share. Right. And, and things like that is not within your country of policy, then that’s why you would not understand. That’s why you have to do a very, uh, comprehensive research to know if there’s a price for don’t bother to go around about that, that product.

Thirdly, [00:50:00] um, something that we cannot see, uh, when it comes to, uh, um, Amazon is, it was mind blowing. It’s mind blowing. It’s money laundry. So, people just want to, uh, uh, move money out of the country, right? Okay. Emerging, emergent reason, uh, uh, uh, if they try to go onto the high street and try to move the money, right?

They can’t, the high street off the counter, they will say. I will offer you 50 percent off. If you pay me 100, I will give you 50 back. So I will give you back in us or in Canada, right? But then, uh, on Amazon, they can get only. Uh, 30 percent of the hunter after they all, they do the operation, they will get 70 percent afterward.

So that is the unknown, uh, thing that, um, not everyone knows about, uh, [00:51:00] because they just thinking about the country is like, uh, buy and sell, you go to China, you buy this and buy that. And then you sell it on Amazon. There’s a lot of unknown, uh, money that you don’t know. And that’s why we’ve dealt a aim.

You are deemed to fail, right? That’s, that’s the two sentences.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Awesome. That makes a lot of sense. Now we’re going to move on to our rapid-fire segment. In this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a one or two words or a sentence or so. Um, do you recommend any books for entrepreneurs?

One, one book recommendation, uh,

Dylan Lam of Omirank: and why? Oh, there’s so many book. Okay. Um, um, um, can I give two books, please? Sure. Yeah, sure. Sure. Oh, okay. So, so I would say, uh, for personal development, it’s going to be the one thing, right? Um, yeah, like that. I was like a, a person about [00:52:00] that, uh, so, so strongly about, uh, but the one thing is going to be helping you to scale your company into the next level.

If you focus on multiple things, you could focus in crypto, you focus on, uh, uh, uh, stock, and then you come to a property. And as well as like this, right, you want to you do one thing right first before you move on to the next one. And that’s why one thing is very important. And for those who are suffering the procrastination, the one thing will help you Take action.

Right? And then second one is the breakthrough advertising. Oh my God, that’s the, that’s the most expensive ever bought it. Customer was like a hundred, uh, uh, dollar to buy that boat. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Bot. Um, so that boat, uh, that book is boring to be fair, but then it always give me new idea because we always.

All of us knows, um, when it comes to marketing, it’s all about, uh, cold, uh, hot and warm tropics, right? But in the book, I was able to, uh, educate you, uh, as the most [00:53:00] fundamental stuff, the basic stuff about marketing that I wouldn’t, I was never think about that because the way I learned that was not from the mental, the way that I learned that just from the internet, right?

In the past, when I was in uni, right? And that’s why whenever I read that book, I always learn new things for how to apply new things into my e commerce brand marketing campaign.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. I mean, Brexit advertising. Yeah. It’s a very, very famous book. So yeah. Great, great recommendation there. Uh, also, also the one thing as well, um, an innovative product or idea that you currently are excited about.

Any product, an idea that you’re kind of like using or feel excited about?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Okay, uh, AI. Okay. I, I, I’m into 3d as well. 3d printing. I’m in 3d printing. I’m in, and right now AI is just amazing. I, I, I have all the solution, mid journey, uh, uh, to see with the division and AI, uh, for charge to be all the things, all the solution.

[00:54:00] We have that for the company. And now I’m, I’m exploring about how to use AI to, uh, to create. Rapid prototyping with 3d printing as well. That is for me.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. So you do three 3d printing as well. You have your own 3d printer. Yes, I do.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Oh, awesome.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, well, I would say, uh, ClickUp and Slack, but that’s too generic. What if I, I would just continue my last sentence as in 3D, uh, scanner. Right now I can use my phone to scan around my product and then I can just print it. That is the thing that I want to recommend. That is just so mind blowing. Can you imagine how fast is your product going to be in the future?

And Uh, I always think that everyone must have a print printer at home in the future after 10 years later, so you can just print whatever you want. Wow. That’s

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: awesome. I didn’t know that you [00:55:00] can scan anything and then it will print it. Wow. Another startup or business that you think is currently doing great things?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, it’s going to be having something that deal with AI. Uh, I, I, I have no, I have not much idea about that, uh, for, for that. But then, uh, another link, I, I always want to, another link from Elon Musk, I think, uh, that, that kind of thing. Because I always think about, uh, the way that we learn stuff right now. I read, I read a book like every single week, right?

Like, but I’m not like, uh, Bill Gates. He can read a book in a day. So I was like, how can I do that? The only, the only excuse I can think about is I need the neural link to put it into my, my, my mind, learn that much of things in a day. Right.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So. For sure, for sure. Yeah. I think, you know, Neuralink, it’s the idea, maybe, you know, what, I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Matrix.

It’s like, if you want to learn a new language, you basically just download [00:56:00] it, right?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Exactly. That is just, that’s just potential. I’m just always so excited about the future, like I don’t

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: want to or business person whom you look up to, or someone who inspires you?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Um, uh, I won’t call it a peer because he’s so much far behind me, far forward than me, um, which is, uh, Russell Branson. I think Russell Branson was able to leverage the connections and leverage what he knows about to create such a big community and software and then things that he’s investing behind.

Um, it’s something that like I admire, like, um, It’s always like about leveraging, uh, but not ruining your reputation, uh, because after you have all those things, then you can, uh, leverage so much more afterward.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. Final question, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Uh, [00:57:00] don’t go to the mainstream. Uh, if you go to the mainstream, as in that, if everyone tells you, uh, launch your product in this way, launch product that way on YouTube. Don’t trust the guy from YouTube, any guy, okay, because, uh, uh, they are not the guy who really, uh, hands on on what he’s doing, even though he’s hands on, uh, he…

He might not using the right path as well. Um, uh, if you ask me, uh, for my portfolio right now, if, if I can achieve what I can do in the past, no, I can’t. I could have just done six figures in just like two months or three months in the past. Right now to achieve, uh, even six figures, not talk about seven figures.

I mean, it takes time. At least like half a year or a year in order for you to get there. Wow.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, Dylan, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much. It was, it’s been an interesting conversation. Um, thank you for sharing your story, for sharing about your business and, you know, services, how you help your [00:58:00] clients achieve success in e commerce with Amazon and, and, uh, crowdfunding and, and also, you know, Uh, building their own brands.

So yeah, thank you so much again for joining me today at Trip Talks. If anybody wants to get in touch with you or inquire about your services, what is the best way to do that? Um,

Dylan Lam of Omirank: um, so you, you guys can just, uh, message me on LinkedIn or Instagram, uh, digital Dylan, digital Dylan,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: digital Dylan. Okay. All right, Dylan.

Um, thank you so much again. Uh, and, uh, yeah, wish you all the very best in your business.

Dylan Lam of Omirank: Have a good

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: night. You too.