Ryan Gnesin (Elevate Brands) - Investing and Scaling Amazon Brands

My guest today is Ryan Gnesin, founder of Elevate Brands. Elevate Brands buys consumer-leading Amazon FBA brands and elevate them to their full potential. This is a little bit of a different episode as the focus is creating and scaling brands on Amazon and how you can leverage Amazon across other channels.

And there you have it, it was awesome having Ryan on Twitter at @ryangnesin

Here's some questions I ask Ryan:

1. Looking at your resume, you were in life insurance and commodities trading. What was your attraction to ecommerce and Amazon?
2. What was the insight that led you founding at the time Recom Brands and what was the opportunity did you see?
3. Walk me through your due diligence process when analyzing Amazon brands?
4. What are typically the multiples and how do they change from brands who are omnichannel?
5. How do you go about building a brand on Amazon?
6. What's your approach to portfolio construction and category?
7. Why was $55 million the right amount for your fund (congrats on fundraising!)?
8. What's your ideal (realistic) return when you acquire a brand?
9. Do the brands you acquire typically also have their own DTC channel?
10. Once you acquire the brand, is your value add consolidating the supply chain / cutting costs or is it revenue growth?
11. Do you ever have your brands go omnichannel?
12. Do you ever get nervous about copy cats? Either from Amazon or competitors?
13. How do you analyze different Amazon markets and think about market expansion?
14. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
15. What's one piece of advice for founders?