Sean Percival @percival Venture Partner, 500 Startups

Top 5 Ways to Crash an Ecommerce Business

Passion Out Strips Experience 1

Pro Tips

•  Constantly be hiring smarter people than you •  Know your arrogance is going to be expensive •  Get some serious industry BFFs

Shipping Fails 2

Customer Happiness Over Time

Order Placed Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

L --

- Hap

pine

ss -

-- J

Stoked

Concerned

Pissed

You Ruined Christmas

Happy

Out for blood

We both said things we didn’t mean

Pro Tips

•  Go to a 3PL ASAP •  Fight with your vendors more •  Set good expectations with customers •  It’s worth discounting when you screw up

Margins You Can’t Fix 3

Pro Tips

•  Test upfront (then test more) •  Avoid discounting •  Make the tough price switches early •  Find secret unsexy revenue

Fundraising Screw Ups 4

Pro Tips

• Ecom words to never use with a VC: •  Subscription commerce (or the trend of the moment)! •  Lifestyle brand! •  Curated artisanal experience! •  Celebrity endorsement! •  It’s Pinterest for…..!

• Never go out in Q4 • Know your numbers

You Suck at Marketing 5

Pro Tips

•  You have try 10 things to get 1 that works •  Learn to ankle bite the big dogs •  Assume 100% of sales come on a 2nd visit

Thank You