$12K/Month Premium Quality Gold-Filled Jewelry at Wholesale Prices – Gil Marcondes of GoldFi

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey, there’re entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Trep Talks. This is a show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business story, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Gil Marcondes to the show. Gil is the founder of a business called Gold Fi. Uh, Gold Fi. Premium quality jewelry to consumers and retailers at wholesale price and, uh, I’m learn about his today. I few question his journey.

Thank so much joining. Appreciate 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure. So, I 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: know you shared a [00:01:00] little bit, I mean, we were just talking and you said, you know, you’re from Brazil. Can you share a little bit on a little bit of your backstory, um, and what really motivated you to start a jewelry 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: business?

Um, I, I am a civil engineering in Brazil, but um, um, I definitely never worked in this field. I always was working with, um, uh, the sales. I was hired by Axon in Brazil actually. And then I worked there for like, uh, uh, as a trainee first, and then I was hired by the company and then I received an offer to come to United States, uh, in 1996 and to work for a company that they manufacture jewelry in Brazil and they are very successful in Brazil and they were moving to United States.

And, um, I decide to, you know, take the risk. And then I decided to come to the United States because I would like to know the culture in, in this country. And, uh, for me it was very challenging, but [00:02:00] uh, rewarding at the same time. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So it seems like, you know, even though you were, uh, an engineer, you somehow got into sales, so you have a sales background.

So as a salesperson, I get, um, you know, that’s kind of an important function in any business. Uh, what, how did you get idea for, for this business to start, uh, 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: on your. Um, I think I am a very creative, uh, mind, you know, I, I have, um, the, the engineering background helped me to develop this creativity as well, especially with, um, all the drawings and everything we worked in the past.

But, uh, for me, um, what it was really important in my life, of course, all the experience I had in Axu Axon and um, cuz in Brazil we pronounced assu. And then, um, when coming to United States, definitely we had to, um, uh, change the business that, um, they are developing here in the United [00:03:00] States because the business was very, going, very slow in sales.

And then the first thing we decided to do was to change the store. To make the store cuz it was just a, a store in Miami. And then we decided to change the store and make bigger and, uh, bring it to the United States. Much more product. Because we saw that, uh, for example, when you go to a company like, uh, Beba Beyond or Home Depot, you have so many products.

And because of this vast quality of products, we noticed that um, the American customer is more, uh, demanding regarding, uh, the quantity of products, the quality of the products, and you know, the variety you have to offer to them. So as soon as we change the mentality, so um, we start to, you. Uh, developing much more sage, you know, as soon as we, we change the strategy.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, so this one, the gold, gold fight, this is your business, right? Like this is, or is this still part of like the previous business that you were working? [00:04:00] 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Yeah. Well this, this business I was telling you was when I arrived to United States, this of mine. And, uh, he, he was the one that invite me to, you know, leave my secure job and come to the United States and change my life completely.

And I decided to take the risk. And, uh, then in 2013 I opened my own business. I opened a business in California. So, and, uh, then you, you can ask me why California? Cause you know, cuz we were in Miami and I don’t want to compete with my friends during the time. So I decided to move all the west. To just, uh, open my business and to take another risk as well.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that’s, that’s, um, I would say very generous of you to think of your friend in that way. Like, you know, if you want to start a business, you go to the other side of the country to, to do 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: it. I think, I think there is an opportunity for everyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s side by side or if it is, if you are in the other side of the, the [00:05:00] country and, um, you have, uh, you know, just to come with new ideas, come with.

Different, uh, kind of service to the customer. And, uh, even, uh, the price point can be different. So, so many variables that you can apply to your business that can help you. So 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: why, why so, so you were in the jewelry business before. Um, so can you share a little bit about the business model? Like, are you, um, are you actually creating this jewelry?

Are you working wi with like jewelry makers to get these pieces created or the business model more? You’re purchasing these jewelry pieces in Latin American country and then bringing it to America and selling it at a PR at 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: a profit. Uh, with my first experience with jewelry, I learned, um, so many things.

I learned how to manufacture jewelry. I learned how to sell jewelry. I learned so many things, so I’m very thankful for what they have presented to me. But I took the opportunity to learn more than they [00:06:00] present to me as well. So at the same time, I learned how to manufacture and, uh, how to present. And, uh, in Brazil we developed, um, you know, a factory in Brazil where we can manufacture everything.

So, but jewelry is like a, a watch, for example. Uh, watch factories. They don’t manufacture everything. For example, clasp. I don’t manufacture classes. Um, but, um, we have a, a good source. So classic comes to. And we assemble everything together. Uh, we have the chains, we develop everything of our designs. And, um, you know, after my first experience, my previous job, then I opened my own company.

Then I decided to, to take the, uh, things in on my hands and start, uh, drawing and learning a designs and learning, uh, so many little things that can help me and that help me, uh, to develop my, my business that the way it is. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, I mean, [00:07:00] when I was doing a little bit of a research, like your value proposition of that you’re selling your a premium quality jewelry to consumers and retailers at wholesale prices.

So it, to me, it seems like that one of your value proposition is really the pricing that you’re doing. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s not, you know, the high end pricing you are giving. Bringing this jewelry at a more of a wholesale, uh, pricing, kinda a thing. Can you share a little bit about, you know, what’s the, what was the rationale behind creating that kind of a strategy, like competing on prices?

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, the idea, uh, was okay because when we opened the online business in 2021, We decided to go online because of the covid, because of the problems we had in Los Angeles. So we had to close the store and we say, okay, we don’t want to go anymore this way, because of the overhead was so high at the same time.

So we opened the online business [00:08:00] and the, the proposition was, Okay. We don’t have any customers online, right? So I need customers, I need people to, uh, get to know my problem. I need them to, to try it and to see if it’s good, if they can repeat their purchase with us, uh, as long as they are. Extremely happy with the product, with the price point and everything.

But what happened in this business is we want people to become a retailer. So sometimes we have a lot of customers, they start to buying some pieces for them and for the family, and then they decided to, you know, start selling because the price point is so good. They can, you know, double the price. They can triple the.

And they can start making money. And that’s when we start educating customers how to make money with our products. So that’s why when we open the online business, a hundred percent online business, now we decide to go, okay, we’re gonna go full. Wholesale with the [00:09:00] least price we can do it and we gonna give to everyone the opportunity to start their business or to buy from us as well as a retailer or you know, a wholesaler as well.

So, and some people can say, well, but it’s not much fair if you do this. Um, I would say for the contraries fair, because, Um, you give opportunity for the small people, small business, they wanna start a small business. You can help them to fulfill their dreams, to have a business as well. And at the same time, you know, you are, uh, educating them how to make money, selling jewelry, you know, and having a, a good source of jewelry as well.

So that’s why we decided to go with this value 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Pro. I mean, this is, uh, really interesting. Um, I guess my question would be, you know, um, on your website, like you’re selling jewelry, which is 18 K Gold, for example, let’s say, uh, I’m assuming like gold is [00:10:00] kind of similar price anywhere in the world, right? So if you buy, uh, uh, gold in Brazil versus US versus, uh, you know, Europe, anywhere else, I’m sure like there’s some sort of a standard standardization in gold prices.

So to me it, it seems like you’re not really, um, you’re not really discounting the price of the gold itself, but more, more so like the price of labor or, or the labor that goes into building the jewelry pieces. 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, well, uh, in reality, you know, our pieces is underneath. Brass. And then we cover with gold 18 Kara Gold or 14 Kara Gold.

Um, okay. In the, when we do this, we, we are creating a sub for the real solid gold. And when you create an opportunity for people to have, uh, you know, um, let’s say, um, [00:11:00] uh, pieces that is very similar to the, to the very expensive one and the jewelry. So you are giving them the opportunity to, to have a product that they can be very happy, especially because of the quality.

And second is Hyperallergenic is waterproof so people can wear them and can really dissatisfied at the same time without the. The big money that they have to put on the, uh, to purchase just one ring, let’s say. So when you do this, you create an opportunity as well for them, you know, to sell the product.

But, uh, uh, gold is a commodity. It doesn’t matter which part of the cut the, the world you are, the price is gonna be the same. There is some isolation from country to. And, uh, the only thing for us that is very, very important is the, uh, source of the gold. And in our case, for example, we buy directly from Mina in Brazil, which they are is O 14,000, which they are very [00:12:00] conscious about the nature and they’re very conscious about how to extract the gold from the nature and provide to us to transform and make a.

Awesome. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That, that sounds great. So when you started the business, um, was it, uh, I mean right now I see that you have a lot of skews. Uh, and in order to have all these skews, I’m assuming that requires a significant amount of investment, uh, to, to buy like the, the stock. Can you share a little bit how you got started?

Did you put your own money into it or did you start off with like a smaller number of skews and grew over time? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: When I, when I start here in United States, in this company, this jewelry company, so I was able to make a lot of money, especially cuz we grew exponentially. Uh, we start, we start selling like, uh, let’s say $20,000 a month.

And then after six months we were selling a hundred thousand dollars a month. And I was by commission during the time and I was able to make, uh, [00:13:00] a good, a good amount of money. So I took my own money when I decided to leave the company and I opened this, uh, uh, company in California. So I, I took the complete, the whole risk to myself and I was very interesting cause.

Uh, I had to support myself. I had to support the family and, uh, I struggle a lot at the beginning, especially in California cuz it’s so expensive. Everything there is so harsh, hard and, um, but at the same time, I was able to fund the business. During that time I was able to, to buy, to sell and at the same time, uh, make some profit and, uh, and retain some customers as well.

That helped us to be where we are at. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, so, so right now you are completely, your business is completely a hundred percent online. So I mean, you, you must have had to learn, um, online marketing or, you know, what, what are the main ways you acquire customers? [00:14:00] Like how do you, um, how do you get, um, the right kind of people that you’re looking for?

I mean, you’re looking for more of like retailers. How do you, uh, how do you reach out to them? Is it more completely online or is there some sort of a direct sales strategy also where, you know, you, you call and contact different retailers and try to, uh, share about your products 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: also? Um, well, the online experience I’m trying to sell online since the 2000 and, uh, every, every, every time I try it, I.

And I failed so many times. You know, I tried to sell in 2004. Then in 2013 I tried to open another store online and, uh, always failing, always selling $50 a month or a hundred dollars a month. And, uh, I, I came to a point that I say, wow. And I, and I tried some companies to help me. I, I. Start with, uh, [00:15:00] one company and they, they, they charge a lot of money from at the beginning, but, uh, it didn’t work.

Then I try another company in Miami, a marketing company, and they say, wow, you’re gonna make, uh, wonderful in your life and you’re gonna change our business. But, uh, I didn’t sell the same way, and I felt, uh, I felt like a mm, something is missing right here. Or I, I’m doing something wrong. Or, you know, these people don’t know what to do, or I’m selling the wrong product, or the design is wrong, or the price point is not right.

But, uh, there’s a time for everything in life actually. And, um, in 2000, uh, uh, 2020 when we had the covid, everybody start buying. Everybody started buying line. And I had a friend, I have a friend, and she, she come to me and she said to me, Hey, why don’t you sell online? I said, I tried so many times and I always fail.

And she told me no, but, uh, you know, I’m, I have some friends and they are [00:16:00] selling and they’re selling, they’re doing well. Why you are not doing well? And then, you know, I was a little bit, uh, thinking if I should or should not because I was so burned out about that. Then I decide, okay, I’m gonna try. And she told me, try ay cause ay is a good solution.

Um, so many people there. And then I start reading about, ay and I saw 85 million women buy from ay. Mm-hmm. And then I thought, okay, lemme try this platform. Let’s see if it works. And then I put everything that there and started working by myself, everything by myself. And then started working little by little.

In two weeks we sold almost 1500. No. And for me, $1,500, uh, was like amazing because I never sold any fame. Mm-hmm. And then, and then I had a very bad, uh, news from Etsy. They closed my store and I said, why did they close my store? And, uh, I don’t have the answer until today. [00:17:00] Uh, okay. They never, they never told me the reason to close my store and they closed my store and then came the frustration.

You know, came like a, a thoughts like, uh, okay, you are failing again because you know, now they are not allowing you to sell when you are succeeding. And then the same friend came to me and said, uh, you know, try Shopify. I’m gonna sell online. And I say, oh my gosh, let’s, let me do again, let me try again.

And then I develop my home. Uh, Uh, I did everything on, on Shopify, and I started doing little by little products by product, picture by picture, you know, description, prices, everything, uh, I have done by myself. And, uh, another employee that I have in, in California. And, uh, we, we worked together and then the first month we start selling some products.

And of course, we invited all the AEC [00:18:00] customers to buy from this store now. And the first day we sold more than $600 when we opened, and then of course went down. But, uh, I started learning more about, uh, marketing and, um, and then about s. Um, and I noticed that, uh, my company was, you know, uh, positioned in Google very well, was positioned like in just a few months.

And then I start, uh, learning more about the seo. And one of the, one of the important things we have to develop about the SEO is, uh, to be very detail-oriented. You have to put all the, all the, the, your work there, you have to your. You know, and you have your expertise about the words as well, the wording when you are, you know, uh, typing which kind of word the customer’s gonna look, you know, gonna, uh, to find your, your company and, uh, what is the company you [00:19:00] have to, uh, compete with.

And then I start, you know, searching and searching online, and I start understanding how people search, uh, our product online, because I was finding, uh, my competi. And then I start, you know, understanding a little bit more and put it into work. All this, these details in terms, for example, um, we have done, uh, blogs, we have done, you know, important blogs because it’s not just, I’m gonna fool my websites with blogs.

It’s not, it’s not that the point, the point is put information that people are looking. You know, uh, the right information is gonna make a lot of difference. Um, one thing that I decide to do, I decide to, to have some solid, bold on my website. And people say about Why are you selling solid, bold if you sell gold field?

And then I thought, because some solid, bold customers can be curbed, a gold field customers as well. [00:20:00] So it is not about, uh, just the keywords. It’s about, uh, the. How you attract the customer to come to your website, to buy your other product, because they never thought about the other product. You always thought about the solid goal, but what about, you know, they find this wonderful product that is there for them with a price and uh, with a, uh, uh, amazing quality.

So then I start having more customers and more customers start trying. And, uh, what really changed the website? Was when I noticed a lot of repeating customers. So today for example, we have 40% repeating customers buying, uh, every month from us. 40% is a, is a huge number. Yeah. More than 40%. Wow. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, I mean, I definitely want to ask you more about the competition, but um, I’m very curious.

You know, Etsy kind of shut you out. And I’m wondering, so did you, uh, [00:21:00] you tried contacting them and they never, like, there was no way to contact them or did, they didn’t give an answer like, what happened there? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Yeah. Etsy, the big companies, Etsy, Facebook, uh, whenever you, you deal with these companies, they’re so big, they really don’t care about small business.

You know, I felt this way. I felt very frustra. Especially because, uh, when I started growing my business and start feeling excited about the business, they just close it. And, uh, I sent so many MAs. I had so many support. I called them and they never gave me an answer. Say, you know, we just decided to close the store, but why?

And I never received a. A real answer, uh, that makes sense to close my store. I don’t know if it was some competitor saying or that I was there or something like that. I don’t know. I really, everything is supposed, uh, is in my, is my imagination and I dunno, you know, what, [00:22:00] what exactly are the reason. Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, is there, um, Are there any, so, you know, a lot of businesses who sell in the us you know, the, the main go-to destination. Like, for example, for mo a lot of com commodities businesses go to China or, you know, Southeast Asia to, to buy products at a lower cost and, and bring it, uh, to US or Canada. Um, are there any, um, Doing business or bringing these items from Brazil?

Are there any restrictions? Are there any, um, you know, does us charge any additional fees? Um, when you bring these items to, to the us, uh, what are the considerations? Like if somebody a business wants to, uh, you know, buy, purchase, purchase items or, or getting manufactured in Brazil? Um, What are the considerations for, for businesses to, uh, to, to do that?

Uh, is it [00:23:00] easy, 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: is it difficult? Well, in Brazil is a little bit difficult, I would say, but, uh, of course it is improving, um, because the way the Brazilians work is the completely different culture than the chineses. I have an, uh, a nice experience in China because I lived in China for 40. Because I was, I was building a project, a huge project that, uh, was amazing because I learned a lot how the Chinese work.

And I learned a lot about the culture and about, uh, you know, the business itself. And I was in, um, factories. They are specialized in findings. Another factor I specialize in casting another one, you know, in, uh, laser. And, uh, but they work really fast and, uh, much faster than the Brazilians. Much faster. But when you work too fast, you lose the quality.

[00:24:00] That’s a huge difference. And in Brazil, what we have is really the quality because we work a little bit slowly, but, um, we can, we can supply, you know, the quantity. People ask us, of course there’s no problem. But, uh, takes a little bit more. You know, whenever you want, uh, let’s say, uh, a nice shoes. Or anything that you, you want for yourself, uh, or a ring, something like that.

You want something very nice made, you know, for the price point you are paying and even if it’s, uh, inexpensive, you want something with quality. I have a lot of customers, you know, if I don’t send the the mice jewelry for them, of course they’re gonna complain. It doesn’t matter if they pay $5 or $10, you know, they, they will complain.

You need to make the customer really satisfied. In Brazil, um, of course when we, we bring the, the jewelry to the United States, we pay 11% of the total invoice as a [00:25:00] tax. And, uh, but, uh, one of the things that is getting very, very expensive is, uh, shipping. Shipping rate is, Tremendous. A huge difference.

Nowadays you have to be very careful and especially because, uh, some companies, they really don’t care about, uh, your small business. You know, they, they will, you know, sit with you if you’re a big company. If you’re just a small business, they put some, some sales rep rep to talk to you and that’s it. But the sales rep, they have some limitations, right?

And we need to be able to negotiate better rates. You know, uh, for example, last, this last month of February, we in, we, we bring to United States, we brought to United States, um, like, uh, 200 and uh, 30 pounds of merchandise. So 230 pounds in one shipping, three messages, and we spend more than $1,000 just for that, you know, in, in shipping.

Then we [00:26:00] have to pay, uh, 11% of the, the, the tax from the United States, which in the past, uh, some different governments, they didn’t charge us anything, but right now they’re charging us 11%. So I think that’s, that’s mainly the problem. Another problem is because, for example, in China, they have, uh, They can have any equipment they want very easily.

Even they can manufacture their own equipment in Brazil, we have to, I import a lot of equipment. So that’s another, you know, uh, setback for us. And, um, sometimes some product, some machine comes from Switzerland or Italy or we, which is a, a very expensive countries to manufacture those kind of machines, but, uh, makes the completely difference when you are manufacturing the product.

You know, even, uh, uh, if you want to engrave some pieces. If you, if you buy a Chinese machine and if you buy [00:27:00] American machine is, the American machine is much better than the Chinese one. So you gotta be a little bit conscious and, uh, see if it is worth or not when you’re doing this kind of thing. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you, so you do have some sort of a manufacturing plant or some, some sort of, um, manufacturing, uh, facility in Brazil that, that actually creates these and it’s easier, it’s cheaper to create it there rather than, you know, do that in the us.

Uh, and then basically they ship it and, and, and then you are able to 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: sell it in the us. Uh, it’s our, you know, we, I have people working for me there, we have in Brazil as well. Uh, we are very small company, but, uh, with, uh, uh, a big dream. So I, I have some relation with, uh, the, the best factory in Brazil. And, um, we, we have this kind of relation where, you know, we.

Everything. We draw everything and then we [00:28:00] design, and then we go to the prototype process, then we go to the, um, casting process and uh, we, we go to the gold process. So we do everything by ourselves, but we have support from whenever we need from another factors as well, which is like a con conglomerate that we have.

Just to, to support our business in the United States. And, um, it’s interesting because our relationship is like, uh, a partnership because we have all of them, you know, with us and, uh, they wanna have, uh, very good supplier in the United States because they don’t have it. So I am, you know, the number one, I think the number one supplier for them in the United.

So that’s another thing that help us a lot during the development and, uh, during the, the price point. And, uh, even for example, um, we are creating some innovation right now in jewelry and, uh, [00:29:00] I am always bringing innovation to the, uh, Brazilian factories in Brazil to transform the. So we transformed the PR wave, which is different from Brazil, and it is different from, you know, what the, the, the country is doing at this point and, um, during this innovation.

So we bring this innovation to United States at the same time. And, uh, we offer to our customer things that are never was offered before. It’s a little bit at the beginning to convince people to come with them of innovation, but it’s. Because when you come with something new, really attracts a lot of, uh, new customers to your 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: business as well.

Definitely. Now, um, I know you mentioned, um, uh, uh, uh, competition a little bit, uh, in the US do you find that there are a lot of other businesses that are selling the same kind of products, which is like this category of gold filled, uh, [00:30:00] jewelry, um, and is. You know, how, how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?

Is it really the design that that is the differentiating factor? Yeah. 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, I think, uh, each person behind the business, uh, has a mentality and have, uh, its own creativity. And, uh, in my case, for example, I think, uh, for example, we can have so many companies. As long as everybody think for themselves, they can transform their business their way and then can be more successful than others.

If you, if you, um, if you don’t innovate, if you do just sell, uh, classic styles, um, you always gonna sell for the same customers you or you can sell even for the, the millennials or new customer. If they’re gonna transform this jewelry, for example. But, uh, whenever [00:31:00] you are competing with another companies, you have to be very creative because you have to create your own pieces.

You, you can, I cannot just look what they have and copy them. I have to look what they have and be different from them and, uh, offer something different to my customer that I really will attract my customers. So that’s why we, at this point, we have so many companies that sell gold. But the real ones are the ones that really worry about the customer and not worry just about the profit.

That’s the difference. We need to worry about the customer first. Always. And as soon as you are working with the customers are being, this is start to flourish in another way, differently way. That’s what I believe. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. Are you selling mostly in the US right now? Are you also selling like Canada, internationally, other markets or just us?

So, 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: um, We basically, we start selling, um, at the beginning, let’s say [00:32:00] behind, uh, let’s put back in 1996, we were selling only for the, for the Latinos, for the Hispanic market. And then with, uh, when we opened online, we start selling to United States, to Americans, so to everybody in United States. But, uh, now, after, you know, almost two years, we are selling two countries in Europe, uh, Canada.

Uh, we are selling to. Which for, for me was Wow. Unbelievable. You know, Japan, for example, we have Japan customers buying from US, Australia. Uh, in Europe, we, we sold basically most of the rich countries like, uh, Germany, uk, uh, Spain, France, and even Italy. And to sell to Italy for me was, was really something that I.

Because Italy for me is like a, you know, the best jewelry in the world is in Italy. And now I have the Italians buying from us. [00:33:00] And, uh, we have some customers there is, is, uh, very interesting and they’re, you know, repeating customers and they love our jewelry and, uh, they are reselling our jewelry in Italy, which, uh, which you know, for me is, is, uh, very, makes me very.

Uh, proud of, uh, what we have accomplished until now. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s awesome. Uh, in terms of your customer acquisition, I know you mentioned that you are doing, uh, organic, um, and, and things like that. Um, are you also doing any kind of paid search or, you know, driving customers from social, you know, social marketing or you know, just organic social, like what, what are some of your best acquisition channels and, and.

Once you have them, you said, you know, 40% of your customers do, uh, buy again. How do you engage them? Is it completely off, you know, hands off? Or do you like do email marketing and both kinda things also? [00:34:00] 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: We do. We, we do everything basically, you know, but of course, not everything, let’s say, but, uh, mainly everyth.

Um, we have Instagram, we have the shop in Instagram, we have the shop and Facebook, we have Pinterest, we have uh, uh, Google Ads, um, which is mainly the one that we invest the most. Um, we have, um, but now for example, Pinterest investing a lot in Pinterest because we understood a lot of women love to you. To work with the board and, uh, you know, to ping what they love it.

And, um, it’s helping us, you know, to bring more customers to our, to our store and to show them at the same time that is, uh, important. Not just to buy for themselves, but uh, you know, it’s opportunity to open their own business. Um, and we are always, um, uh, sometimes we invest more in digital marketing.

[00:35:00] Sometimes we hold a little bit. And, uh, we work with the, uh, season, uh, the season parts. For example, now we had the, uh, for example, the, the Valentine’s. In February. So we invested heavily to bring more customers to buy jewelry, not just for the loved ones, but uh, for themselves and to learn more about the, the business.

So I think we, you have always to think about you. You cannot just live there and say, okay, every month I will pay this. In marketing, if you don’t analyze everything, if you don’t see the insights, if, if you don’t care about what you are doing, the results is gonna be. You know, low and, uh, it’s not gonna bring what you are looking for.

You always, you have always to revisit and revisit again and revisit again, and just check if you are doing 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: correctly. Definitely. Um, in terms of your team, are you, uh, do you have a team of people or some people who [00:36:00] help you with some of this marketing stuff or, you know, are you the main, uh, you know, one person run business, you know, some, some help in Brazil, but, uh, if you mostly doing the most of the work?

Yeah, that’s, 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: that’s a very nice question. Very important question that people needs to understand my answer, especially because it’s an opportunity to underst. You don’t need to spend, uh, big money, uh, book money with, uh, uh, marketing companies. You have to understand a little bit about marketing. You have to, uh, learn yourself a lot, of course.

But for example, Pinterest, uh, Facebook, uh, Google, all of them. They. How to, uh, market your product. For example, I had a Zoom meeting with, uh, Pinterest advisor and she, you know, she helped me to create all my advertising and she teach me a lot of things. [00:37:00] So I think this is a great initiative, uh, initiative from, uh, Pinterest and the other companies that is doing this as well.

And I am always open to listen what people needs to offer, uh, have to offer. And, uh, how they can, you know, bring value to our investment at the same time. So I think that’s, that’s the way, for example, Shopify, um, they always give you, uh, some little insights in your dashboard. Hey, why don’t you, you know, put your, your product on Shopee.

Ah, why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that? It’s like, uh, offering us, Hey, you have to do this. If you follow the steps, you can bring a lot of attention to our store at the same time. And people normally they say, no, no, I’m not gonna do this. I don’t care about that. I’m gonna do the way I think. But, uh, they are the expertise, so they bring a lot of expertise to my business as well.

So my team, basically, [00:38:00] I am the one doing everything. In regards of the marketing, especially because I had a bad experience in the past. Mm-hmm. And I invested like a $15,000 in marketing in to one company in Miami. And they didn’t help me. They didn’t help me at all. Then I learned my lesson, I say, no, no, I have to take care of my own business.

So I have to put my own hands put to work, my brain put to work and, uh, get expertise from everybody that wants to, you know, help. To increase my business and to, to be more, um, profitable or, you know, to be, uh, in many channels of where people can see our business. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. Now you did mention that there’s, uh, the shipping is a challenge, you know, especially bringing items from Brazil.

Um, how do you manage the shipping and fulfillment? To your customers. Um, do you warehouse everything yourself? Which I’m assuming is, is easier because, you know, jewelry is kind of like a delicate, uh, [00:39:00] smaller product. Uh, so it’s easier probably to, to store it, but then also when you’re shipping it out, uh, are there any challenges there or do you charge your customers shipping costs?

How do you, how do you manage, uh, Uh, warehousing and fulfillment aspect of it. Yeah, shipping. 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Shipping is very challenging. My, but, uh, we have our warehousing sands, California and here is the creative office. And, um, in California we have, uh, everything there. So our process is organized by, um, uh, the skill numbers, you know, um, and we, we control the inventory and everything.

Um, we fulfill everything by ourselves. We have, uh, employees there working for us. Uh, we have a manager that, uh, uh, she’s part of the business and she help us with, uh, to, to control everything. And we use the Shopify shipping, uh, the way they provide to. But, um, [00:40:00] we have negotiated with FedEx and now we are gonna introduce FedEx as well, because we have U S P S U Ps and dhl, but now we’re gonna add FedEx as well.

Um, and I’m doing by myself as well. So, uh, all the connection from FedEx to the, the Shopify, I’ll be responsible to do this. And, uh, the only problem and very challenged part of the, the, that we need to find a solution is the, It’s more to related to, uh, secure, you know, the shipment, let’s say. Because, cause nowaday nowadays we have, um, some orders that is more than $1,000 and go up packages.

So we need to insurance, we need to take care of this part. So we are very aware of this situation. And then we start changing. And now, um, we gonna, we are building a wholesale. Where we can, you know, ship from this wholesale page and customers can be, uh, [00:41:00] uh, insured in every package that is more than $200, let’s say, because all packages to up to $200, they are insured by Shopify.

But after $200, we have to ensure and we have to charge the customers. About the insurance because imagine if we pay the insurance for that so the customer will be responsible for the insurance and we can ship, you know, in peace of mind cuz that’s what we need in this business. Especially when you are sending a lot of, uh, products to, uh, let’s say retailer or wholesaler, then a wholesaler.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So these, these retailers and wholesalers. I do see that you have like a fair wholesale section on your website. Are they ordering? Like do you create like a wholesale account for these retailers so that they can purchase from you again and again, or do they just come to your website and, uh, how do you manage like the wholesale price, like your, the pricing that you have on your regular website that’s wholesale to begin with, so it doesn’t really matter, like you’re not giving any special prices to.[00:42:00] 

Wholesalers or do, are you creating like different accounts for, for them? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: This is, this is basically the least price we have is the cheapest one, is the, the wholesale one. But the idea is, uh, we are gonna transform our business. We wanna, we wanna brand. Gold five in a different way where the retail is gonna pay for the retail price, but the wholesalers is going to, you know, sell wholesale.

But as I told you at the beginning, we were very open because we wanna bring in customers. To try the product, to understand the product and um, and to become a wholesaler as well. But, uh, at this point where we are selling, you know, much better and, uh, we, uh, we grow our customers range the whole United States from other countries as well.

So for us it’s, it’s very important to protect our customers as well, and, uh, give opportunity to the new ones that is. Through a website where they can, you know, [00:43:00] connect to this website and then can have access as long as they really want to, um, be in the business, the jewelry business. This is, I think it’s 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: extremely important.

So you had this business for, let’s say about 10 years now, I guess. Um, and, uh, um, you know, it, it definitely seems like growing any business is very hard work and, you know, it takes time to build a business. Um, what, uh, what is your vision for the next 10 years? Of course, I know you said you want to, you grow, continue growing in this business.

Where do you, where would you like to see your business like in 10 years? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, well, the first 10 years was really hard. Was not easy. Was not easy at all. You know, because I, I think I did take a lot of risk. But if you don’t take the risk, you know, you can regret. So I took my risk and was worth it. And, uh, [00:44:00] for many times I, I thought, well, I’m gonna close my deal, my, my business.

I’m not going to, to pursue this business anymore. For many, many times I had this kind of thought, but, uh, you know, one day I heard someone saying, uh, you know, the bears in front of you is there just for one. Just to make sure if you’re gonna pass for them and continue our pathway. So for me, it was really important to listen to this and, uh, from time to time, you know, something new was coming to us and was giving new opportunities.

Was giving opportunities, was even, uh, something that I thought, wow, this seems to be divine because, you know, you, when I was in my worst situation, I, I closed one of my biggest deal, you know, so, I think because there is like a, if you are pursuing, if you really want to be in this pathway, you know, go until to the end, you know, when you don’t have any more, [00:45:00] uh, strength in yourself.

But, uh, you know, for the 10 years, the next 10 years, Um, I really want to grow, um, our business online, and I want to keep our business online. I don’t wanna go back anymore for the Bri Mortal business. Uh, I think, uh, the present is online. It’s not, the future is online. The present is online. Mm. But the overhead.

You can see with, uh, the real estate, what is happening in the world, even in the world, in the, the United States as well with United States is horrible. For example, our rent nowadays is $10,000, $20,000 for very small space. And, uh, the only way you can give this money back to the customer is going online.

So imagine if I am renting a business or you know, a warehouse, a huge warehouse. That I am paying, uh, a huge overhead that I have a huge overhead. So I have to, to give [00:46:00] this back to the customer. Cause I, I need to be pro profitable as well. So if I am doing everything online and if I have my overhead, very low, very low.

So of course I’m, I’m gonna be much more competitive. And this is, this is what I want. I want to produce everything by my ourselves in Brazil or, you know, bring some important pieces from another part of the world as well to put in Brazil and to bring here and, uh, for example, we wanna, uh, I think one of the important things in the world is innovation, as I was telling you before.

So we are gonna bring not the same kind of jewelry, we’re gonna, uh, add components in our. For example, we don’t have, uh, fresh pearls always assimilated pearls or is fake pearls, oh, because we wanna, uh, keep the cost low, but we have customers that are looking for, uh, real fresh pearls with both fill. So [00:47:00] we are, you know, being creative to give the customer different approach to the jewelry at the same time.

So I want customers to feel appreci. Whenever we are, uh, innovating in the, this jewelry business. Uh, so during this 10 years, the next 10 years, I wanna invest more in designs, more in production with a new components. Like, uh, let’s say, oh, I’m gonna put now, uh, some jams, um, some even lab diamonds we can put in our Jeep and we can.

Uh, in a completely different way. Cause I never heard anybody putting lab diamonds in, in Goldfield. But we can do this. Why not? It’s an opportunity. So I think, uh, we need to be very innovative whenever we are thinking about it next 10 years. And, you know, my passion is to build jewelry. My passion is to build something, you know, as a civil engineer, I wanna build and, uh, create something.

I think [00:48:00] this is extremely important to my company and to everybody that is part of the company as well, and our customers as well. So, I hope both can become a brand and I hope we can really have stockists, we can have retail. And, um, we can also custom make, we can, because that’s one thing that we are doing, we are doing a lot of, uh, white label, uh, uh, jewelry, custom jewelry, and a lot of customers come to me asking to create something for them.

And this is happening, uh, quite often. Uh, and I’m very happy with that because this brings me the passion for the, you know, Jewelry building something for them that they are very happy with the product, the final product, this is extremely important, uh, to my vision and uh, to the mission of the company as well.

And now our mission is really to provide what, you know, the best jewelry needs category. Um, because [00:49:00] we want customers to be very satisfied with our product. And if it’s not satisfied, we are try, you know, we. To find ways to make them satisfying. You know, that’s, 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah. Now in every business’ journey, there’s always failures, there’s mistakes made.

I’m sure in your last 10 years, you know, there were some failures and mistakes, male lessons learned. What is like the one big top mistake that comes to your mind that you know, that helped you learn, grow as an entrepreneur? You know, what did you learn? What can other entrepreneurs learn from your. 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, that’s, that’s a good, fantastic question as well.

When I, when I moved, I think I had two mistakes when I opened my business. First mistake was, was opening my business in Los Angeles. You don’t need to go over that. Just open right here. It doesn’t matter, you know. Com competition is always competition. It doesn’t matter [00:50:00] if you are the West coast or if you are in the east.

And second, second mistake. Uh, I changed the core of my business when I opened, uh, cuz I start, uh, uh, buying from suppliers in China and uh, in, uh, some Koreans, uh, bringing instead of, uh, my own a product, I was bringing product from my competitors. I was buying from them. You know, and bringing to my business because I changed the course because at the beginning I say, Perhaps I should sell, you know, ou uh, more like a, the statement, uh, jewelry with, uh, rhinestones.

And this, this was not my expertise. So I, I went through this business and, uh, I learned a lot about the business and I don’t wanna go this way anymore. I, I should, uh, at [00:51:00] the beginning it doesn’t. If I am, you know, going out of a, a business that I, I’m not working them with them anymore. So you have to create your own business, but you don’t, you don’t need to go out of, uh, what you learn.

You gotta keep simple. You gotta keep the way you learn and you gotta make your own business. I think that’s was my biggest mistake because it took time for me to learn that I need to work with, uh, what I learned to, to work. So, and uh, and as soon as I start working with the product that I, I had experience, then everything came to the place and everything started working correctly.

And I start to flourish in my business and business start to, to doing well. You know, 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: definitely, I mean, you need to have your authenticity and, and bring your own flavor to it. Otherwise you just become, uh, just another duplicate of what already exists. Um, Now we’re going to move on to our [00:52:00] rapid fire segment.

In this segment, I’m going ask you a few quick questions that have answer them maybe in one, one or two words, sentence or so. Uh, do you have any book recommendations for entrepreneurs? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: In my case, uh, little habits because I am without routine and I need. And so I learned, I learned reading this book routine.

So routine is very important to make you 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: succeed an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: about innovative products. Um, so or idea well, This, this new product we are bringing, we are building this product is, uh, with Fresh Pearl that I told you already.

Okay. So we’re gonna make components with Fresh Pearl in, uh, Goldfield, and I’m gonna put together and I’m gonna offer to the market something that I never, never heard anything [00:53:00] doing this 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: a business or productivity tools or software that you would recommend or a productivity 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: tip. Um, We have a software that I, we are just implementing right now for our production because we have so many steps.

But, uh, this is mainly in Brazil because we have, uh, you know, this softer, which is called brainwave in Brazil. But, uh, also I, I love the, the Shopify Plus, which they, they gave us this opportunity as well because it is, it’s more like, uh, And give us, uh, helped me, helped me a lot, uh, you know, to create things that, uh, at the beginning with the, the just regular Shopify was a little bit more, uh, prestigious, more complicated.

Okay. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, a startup or business, um, in e-commerce, retail or tech that you think is currently [00:54:00] doing great things. So a different business that you think is doing good. 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um, Well, I’m gonna tell you a different one. Uh, it’s called ri, they sell clothing. It’s like, uh, lulu. And, uh, their website works, um, wonderfully.

I think the way they have prepared a website is fantastic. Got, 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: uh, how do you spell that? 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: V U O R. Worry. Okay. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’ll check it out for sure. Uh, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to, so, or someone who inspires 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: you? Uh, my father for sure is the one that inspires me because he is, uh, he used to be a banker and, uh, but I, at the same time, he always was doing something new.

He opened a gas station. When he was working as a banker, he had a, he had a business like home deep in [00:55:00] Brazil. Small one, you know, of course not the size of Home Depot. Very small, just one. And, um, he always was an inspiration for me because he’s a entrepreneur and, uh, but, uh, he al always was very, uh, uh, has this, his way of doing business.

And at the same time, Diplomacy. The way he, he teach me, I think helped me to grow as a person. Um, and of course I learned there is a friend, his name is, uh, Ricardo, uh, Taur. He always helped me as well with his insights. Uh, he works for Visa and, uh, you know, some people just close to you can make a lot of difference just with one.

One word can make your you shine, can make you really go in different direction in your life. 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. Last question, best business advice you ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?[00:56:00] 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: Um,

I think, uh, the best business advice is, uh, never give up is one thing. And always. Always keep learning. It doesn’t matter if you are 50 years old or if you are 60 or 70 years old. My, my grandmother, she’s 95 years old and she knows how to, to use the iPhone. She knows how to, you know, send me WhatsApp, uh, or record a message on the WhatsApp for me.

This is unbelievable. She’s 95 years old, so she’s an inspiration for me as well. And, uh, I think we need to keep innovating, as I told you. Innovation is this kind of, uh, advice that I receive that are wealthy is, is innovation. It doesn’t matter, you know, what you are doing. If you’re innovating, you are receiving a lot of, uh, wealth in your life.[00:57:00] 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. Well, Gil, uh, that’s a really great advice and, uh, um, yeah, I really want to thank you again. Those were all the questions that I had today. So thank you again for, uh, sharing your time, for sharing your story. Uh, you know, a lot of the struggles that you went through and how you’ve grown your business.

Um, so yeah, thanks again for your time today and for joining me today 

Gil Marcondes of GoldFi: at Trep Talk. It was my pleasure. Was my pleasure. It’s, uh, it’s a wonderful to give an interview like that because make you think. And make you, uh, you know, have thoughts about your business and if you’re doing well, or if you’re doing, if you’re going to direct direction.

So thank you and, uh, you know, congratulations to your, uh, business as well, and I hope you, you know, much success in your endeavors. I really appreciate the 

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: feedback. Thank you. Thank you again. Really appreciate it.