"A Larger Boat in Choppy Waters" (Pattern Acquires Onsen Towels, with Nick Ling, CEO)

Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

Pattern Brands has just announced that they’re acquiring Onsen Towels.

What was it like to see the market go from 20,000 using Shopify as a platform to now 2 million? Well, Nick Ling can tell you. What is it like to help founders become millionaires? He can tell you that, too.

Phillip takes some time with Nick Ling to talk about Pattern’s Acquisition of Onsen, how they build trust with founders, and why they hold strong views loosely as they build differently.

Time and Trust

• “Good brands aren't built overnight. It takes time to build a loyal audience and a really great product.” - Nick
• Building trust is a very important aspect of how Pattern approaches brand acquisitions.
• “It's never been more exciting to be an entrepreneur and consumer in general. There's a much bigger community and there are a lot more interesting ideas bubbling to the top.” - Nick
• The past couple of years have been the toughest yet for eCommerce businesses because there have been so many challenges to navigate and also big growth to be had
• “As a company what we're trying to do is keep an open mind towards how you really can grow brands in the evolved environment that we have today.” - Nick
• “Brands are more valuable as brands than just products because you're buying into a way of life and you build trust.” - Nick
• “You're an incubator on a few levels. You're building brands, and you're building brand operators, and you're building people with aspirations who seem to want to go build things for themselves.” - Phillip
• At Pattern Brands there are new problems to solve all the time because they are building in a very different way

Associated Links:

• Check out Onsen at OnsenTowel.com
• Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
• Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

Learn more about Nick Ling and Pattern at PatternBrands.com or on Twitter.

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