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Disruptors for GOOD explores social entrepreneurship and social enterprises around the world who have dedicated their lives to ethical fashion, impact investing, climate change, sustainable travel, and businesses that impact the world in a positive way. The founder of Causeartist, Grant Trahant, does one-on-one interviews with some of the most creative and impactful startups and brands around the world.
Well, Hedwig, thank you so much for joining me today. Really excited to to talk about your interesting journey. You've done a lot of cool stuff so far in your in your career, in your life, and now Powered by People is this amazing sort of network you and your cofounders have built, sprinkling sort of technology on artisans around the world to sort of build this wholesale supply marketplace for retailers, for entrepreneurs, building sort of marketplaces via websites, a lot of different things. But basically, now I've been in this, you know, social entrepreneurship impact economy for a decade, and and I've been kinda waiting to see something like this because I think this sort of empowers a lot of future entrepreneurs to get involved in, you know, building, drop shipping in an ethical space. Let's say I see a lot of drop shipping for just like, you know, iPhone accessories.
Grant:Right? And that's fine, whatever it might be. But there is I think there's another way to empower, you know, artisans and creators and entrepreneurs for their own ride around the world to give them the innovative technology that that they can use as well. So before we start before we get into Power BI people, everything it is, the mission and vision, talk about your your your journey, your career path. You know, how does a Danish army captain, you know, become, you know, an entrepreneur?
Grant:What was that path like?
Hedvig:I mean, you know, when you look back, it would be tempting, but not true to say that, oh, I planned it all along and it all fits together. But I think, you know, I guess Steve Jobs' famous, you know, commencement speech about how the you connect the dots backward, I think that is true. I think I do think the older you get, you do see that if you kind of follow your passion, I mean, that that sounds so say that. But if you kind of really kind of stay true to what you are interested in and try to make that work with light with also creating a livelihood and a career, I do think you probably end up this way. And, and so I always, you know, when I was in university, and I went to university a little bit later because I was in the army, but I I did this degree that started the year I went to university and business school, and it was mixing philosophy with, economy.
Hedvig:And it there's this classic Oxford education called politics, philosophy, and economy, which is very much about the macroeconomics and society. And this one, the the professors at at Copenhagen Business School had said, let's do microeconomics because we think that we are and this is like 20 20 years ago, 25 years ago, that we are going into a time where there's gonna be such big problems in society that we need both business and government to try to solve them together. And I was so fascinated by that because I always sort of thought there was this public private sector. You know, if you really want to create responsible, impactful business or anything, this this this in this into this space was really key. And so I think I I kind of always felt this way, but I don't know I didn't know what that meant and what career would that be.
Hedvig:I mean, that wasn't clear to me. And that's I've been when I finished high school, I wasn't sure what to study. And in Denmark, we have a very small army, but we have a big reservice corps. And so my dad said, why did you do that? I did that when I was your age, and I really enjoyed it.
Hedvig:It really taught me about leadership. I got to commend a lot of people at a young age. And then there was this amazing courses which most countries actually have, where you you learn the country, the the the language and the and the weaponry and the tactics of the enemy at the time. And dating myself, That was Russia. I mean, we'd just come out of the Cold War.
Hedvig:Yeah. But and now with the so interesting, that's back now.
Grant:That's right. Yeah.
Hedvig:Yeah. So so, you know, that's sad that that's has been the case, but so that I was trained in in intelligence, but with a view to, you know, interrogate Russian prisoners war, of course, according to the Geneva Convention. But, you know, that was a training. And it was an it was an amazing kind of training. And then I got a job at the embassy in Moscow, the Danish embassy in Moscow, and ended up spending a couple years in Moscow and then went to university late.
Hedvig:Like, I I started university when I was 24, which is
Grant:nuts. Me too. Me too.
Hedvig:Really? It's not crazy for a Dane, but I think for North America.
Grant:Very old. Very rare. Yeah.
Hedvig:Very rare. Yeah. But yeah. So good for me because I I felt there was a lot of things I did that I I was very when I finally went, I'm sure you would agree, I knew kind of I was very serious about it. And then
Grant:I was very focused.
Hedvig:Yeah. About the opportunity to work in when once I finished my my bachelor's, I went to work for the UN as a military observer in the Republic of Georgia and the Caucasus, and then I went to America to study. And and and I studied international relations, and that time, I'd had all experience. So Me too. I will.
Hedvig:We'll learn someone right now. Yeah. We need to talk, after the podcast. But, anyway, it's it's just I I was it was a great route, you know, for me. And and so I went to Afghanistan after my degree, and and I worked for the UN and then ran a couple of charities and really liked my job and was very interested in pursuing creating this kind of value.
Hedvig:But I didn't I just didn't I think the non for profit space is constrained in many ways in the way it raises money. People are often a bit you know, can be very hard on on NGOs. And I think, you know, often people in NGOs, including myself at the time, didn't have a lot of business experience and which can be hard. And then also just the way that the money you raise is structured is not very flexible. So if you if something changes, you know, when we have investors, your investors are like as as you can do what you want as long as they have confidence in you and the idea, you can pivot.
Hedvig:You can you can you can you can fit the market, you know, as for the NGOs. Yeah. Your your hands are kinda tied, and the reporting requirements are extremely ominous. Or even compared to venture investors, you also have to report, but it's in a different way. I I really wanted to pursue creating this.
Hedvig:I really believe in poverty reduction. I really believe in social change. But I it's like, this is not the right place for me because I also felt as a younger person. I had a lot of responsibility, but I didn't have a lot of authority. And so I couldn't Yeah.
Hedvig:My ideas, I couldn't couldn't get very far with them for for lots of reasons. These systems are also a bit more bureaucratic and heavy, and, you know, there's lots of reasons for that. You know? I Yeah. But really enjoyed the time, both the decent use and and at the UN.
Hedvig:And then I I I married a Canadian who was a diplomat and who want to go back and be a politician. And so that's how I ended up in Canada. Mhmm. And that's how I started my first business because I was just sitting he was running in the suburb outside Toronto, and I came from, like, downtown Kabul, which is not particularly downtown, but it there was something wonderful and and adventures about. And suddenly, I was in this neighborhood, which is very lovely, but all the houses look the same.
Hedvig:I thought there was only an American movies. Suddenly, I'm like sitting there with a newborn in my in my model house in the suburbs of Ontario, Toronto, and I thought, What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I really hope love I really hope love will bless
Grant:you. Love still conquer all. Yeah.
Hedvig:I really hope. And, and that's how I I think because I don't I think I'm a reluctant entrepreneur. I don't know know that I had necessarily confidence, but I was kind of pushed, you know, as many people, I think, pushed into and I met people along the way who really supported me. So I guess it's sort of this yeah. I guess it was this combination of of wanting to use the driver of business.
Hedvig:And, you know, and and and the rig, I also learned in the military, this kind of relentless discipline that the military really does instill in you. And also a lot of this teaches you to work with other people. It's only about group work. There's no ego in the military and maybe a general, but not not on the on the company, level. And so I think all of these things and then always being very concerned about society and where the world is going and and, you know, thinking about things differently was that's how this all came together.
Grant:Yeah. It's an amazing path. I've talked to so many people who have been on the, let's say, nonprofit philanthropy side of of solving of solving really complex issues, you know, whether it's poverty alleviation or, you know, education in general, just water scarcity. Right? So these big problems that traditionally have been left to NGOs and philanthropists to try to solve.
Grant:But I would say the last 3 years or so, I've really talked to a lot of people
Hedvig:who
Grant:have taken that experience and moved over to the entrepreneurship side and say, you know, you know, they've done the really hard research. They understand the real problems that they're faced. And that's amazing to you know, if you're going to pitch it for money from a venture capital or something like that, you know the problem. You know exactly what needs to be built to solve it. And most of the time, these markets are pretty big.
Grant:And so it's really it's really I I always love talking to to people coming out of that philanthropic arena, let's say, and coming and and building for profit businesses from those learnings. So Far and Wide Collective, that seemed to be maybe the catalyst Yes. For powered by people. So talk a little bit about Far and Wide first and kinda what that Yeah. What that is and then maybe how that was sort of the catalyst for for Powered by People.
Hedvig:So that was the business I started, you know, for my model house in, you know, Ajax Yeah. Ontario. And, and it, you know, it had all these big ideas about how hybrid financing and how we could run things. But I think the way Far and White was set up, was also private investors, really wonderful investors. And they, it it was a small business.
Hedvig:And I think some of these big ideas, as time went by, there wasn't really room for them in the business. And so it was very I mean, it came out of a desire to connect, particularly in the beginning. You know, I've just left Afghanistan. I really wanna continue to support Afghanistan and help Afghan artisans and craftspeople and other vendors access the North American market. And then it kinda grew into Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and and and Africa.
Hedvig:And and so we kinda ended up we worked with a lot of different vendors, but I felt it was kinda constrained by the way we set up. And I admit Alison, I admit through a friend, and she was helping me on the design side because we also realized some of the products needed better design Yeah. For the North American market. You know, Amazon in Afghanistan has amazing skills, but I'm not aware necessarily of what people want in in a market, but they don't live in. So she came in to she's was very senior.
Hedvig:She went in, and she could work a little bit with me on some of the designs. And then Ella, I had met, I think we were kind of competitors. I mean, Ella had a jewelry business out of Kenya, really interesting, where she was doing sort of, you know, production amongst thousands of small workshops in one of the big slums, and she's really perfected at using technology, really exciting business. I think I noticed her because the handmade space is massive, but it's extremely analog, and it really isn't innovative. Still today, she's just not innovative at all, and it really needs to be because so many people depend on it for livelihoods, especially women, but really may very, very people, rural areas and also young people in economies that really do need this kind of progress.
Hedvig:And Ellen and I, we were we were sort of competitors. And I was really interested, and I thought she was very innovative. And I think in the beginning when I tried to befriend her and I thought, you know, I think she's just like, but we are competitors. And I was like, yes, we are. But, you know, bigger pie and we see things the same way.
Hedvig:And, you know, what is it? Rising tides, rise all ships or whatever. There's a saying there. And, actually, very quickly, was like, you're too right. And we we we we we helped each other, introduced each other to our investors.
Hedvig:And it really and then I my investors sort of said to me at some point, you have great ideas, but this business is just there is a limit to the scale of it. You know, why don't you consider, you know, selling part of it off or closing it down? And if you still feel strongly about some of these ideas that we really like, that you can't implement in this business, find some great people, you know, from cofounders and do this. And if you don't do it, we're fine with that too, which is extremely generous because they put money into my business. And, and so I did that.
Hedvig:And then I I wrote a concept that I sent to Ellen and said, how about this? She was stepping out of her business a few months later, and I began
Grant:to stop. Timing. Really good timing.
Hedvig:I mean, it took some time, and I stopped Ella for years. I mean, like, really. And, and she was like, this is a good time. Let's meet once a week. Let's talk about this.
Hedvig:And then, actually, one of my, the biggest of my previous investors and a couple of LS investors in her previous business were the first founders in in Powered by People. So it's really nice, that way around. And they were sort of saying, you know, I mean, this business still she exited it, and it's still doing extremely well. But I think many investors understand that you might not necessarily have the biggest success or a hit right away. And many entrepreneurs are great.
Hedvig:I I I bet the second or third time around. I mean, I think when you are not, you know, when you are not exiting your business the way you want, you don't feel this way. But I I can see that that is really that is what what what seasoned investors state. They totally understand this, and they that's that's that's that's a calculation in their portfolio. Yep.
Hedvig:And so yeah. Very lucky that way.
Grant:So when you try and describe powered by people to, other individuals about, like, hey. What is what is the mission sort of vision? What is the brand? It's big in sort of scope in in what it does. But when you try to give the elevator pitch, let's say, what is it?
Grant:What's the business model? And what's ultimately what you're trying to to achieve?
Hedvig:Yeah. I mean, I really like how you said it was a network. I think it really is. But it is, at the core of it, it's a marketplace. It connects buyers in Europe and North America who wants more sustainable and more unique supply, that is, you know, not not necessarily from from big factories.
Hedvig:You know, that connects those types of buyers. They can both be really big. You know, we work with West Elm, Banana Republic, Macy's, others, and small independent boutiques to this new supply of businesses, makers, vendors, whatever you wanna call them in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. And so we we make sure that connection, it's it is a matchmaking that that's frictionless, that it's as easy to source from one of those companies as it would be to buy from a vendor in China, for example. We also we make money in the connection only when the connection is made.
Hedvig:When there is a a personal order, we take a percentage, a cut of that. And then we also offer advanced payments to the vendor that we call the makers, because often they live in economies where, you know, factoring or pure finance, any kind of financing is very rare. And particularly, these kind of companies have a hard time getting financing. And so we've really actually been incredibly successful in the financing. Yeah.
Hedvig:I think we have financed, you know, last 2 years, $16,000,000 worth of orders alone, and now everybody takes financing.
Grant:So, you
Hedvig:know, I think you have to I think that that's well understood in marketplaces now that it's not just a matchmaking. You have to have other services both on the vendor and the the buyer side that that makes it sticky, that make people come back, that that makes it worthwhile. And so, yes, all these transactions and the advanced payments, that is is our sticking point.
Grant:And so these these artisans are all over the world, and I guess, are they in small villages, rural areas, like you said, in in Afghanistan or or Kenya or, Mexico, wherever they might be? I I guess, I was able to paint a broad brush, but I guess from the artist and maker point of view, what's what's from their perspective, who are they? Where are they at sort of in their life cycle of, like, have they been in business for a long time? Are these entrepreneurs that you train and say, hey. Yeah.
Hedvig:You can
Grant:make this cool stuff, but can you make this? Like, I I guess talk about not necessarily recruitment because you've you've had the pipeline from far and wide, it seems like. I guess I guess talk about, like, cultivating makers globally. What's the difficulty like, and and how has that been?
Hedvig:You know, on on our marketplace, people have to be makers have to be export ready, which means that they, you know, they they can speak English. They understand quality control. They can deliver on time and so forth. But we I sort of see it this way. I don't know whether the listeners can see this, but it's like the buyers are at a certain level, you know, and and buyers are they have certain expectations.
Hedvig:You can't really change those. And so the the the the challenge is to get the makers up to the standard where the buyers. And some makers are already there. You know, they they they have some experience. They have been in the market.
Hedvig:They have sold it before. They wanna sell more. And those are the ones that you see on the marketplace. If you log on, those are the ones you see. They are ready.
Hedvig:They can handle and order. And they they are mostly slightly bigger makers, you know, the but they could also be very small. There isn't I saw last week a a small one man show in Niobe called I Love NBO. Got a big order with the Smithsonian Museum in in DC, you know. So there there are smaller makers who he probably has distributed network of producers, but, you know, they you know, we've tried to match the the the makers with the buyers and and the size they have.
Hedvig:But then we have, so there can be small really small workshops, but for the West Downs and those, they tend to be a little bit bigger. Sure. At least 20 plus. And then they might have a production network around that. And those are the people that are on the marketplace that people can buy from immediately.
Hedvig:And then we have on the bigger platform, peep we have many more people registered who can benefit from our we have kind of a learning hub. What does it mean to be export ready? You know, what does it mean to have this kind of pricing? So we go on and provide all kinds of resources for people to learn that. And and that's, of course, why why do we do that?
Hedvig:You know, we do that because we we we wanna help people, but also because we are trying to create a long tail of people who can be, you know, who's gonna be next for the next year, 6 months down the line, 2 years down the line. Because that's ultimately how we are going to go and we are going to continue to have the most unique and attractive supply. And that's really where it's interesting. You know, you talked about before and I totally agree that you see I think that's the biggest change to that. I see that, you know, people who would have started an NGO maybe 10 or 20 years ago, they now can start a business because it's it's changed and it's business is seen if it's responsible as a way of solving these problems.
Hedvig:And but I would say BB had now reverted back in a sense. We've sort of said to be a we are a series a venture backed company, and our investors understand the business, of course, but they also really understand the building of technology, the sales operations, the go to market, the demand side of the business. They're very familiar with that. What what they are a little bit less familiar with is the challenges of our supply. And we've then gone back to philanthropists and said, you know, Mastercard Foundation, Gates Foundation, you live and said, you want more women connected to the market.
Hedvig:You want more youth. We have those people. We can put them into the market, but we we can't do it alone. And and and venture money is not patient. It's just not venture.
Hedvig:It's not great. It's just not structured that way. Right? So
Grant:They they can subsidize sort of the training maybe for women and
Hedvig:then You talked about that you were impressed with us. I mean, I'm I'm so impressed with you and what you do with the course artists because this is exactly what's you are kind of in this space. I feel where you are you're you're kind of highlighting both sides. And I and I think that it's really important. I've always had this idea of kind of a hybrid business model that, you know, in the sense, a hybrid financing, which I feel we we are sort of achieving at the moment.
Hedvig:We have the venture backers that take care of certain things, and then we have these philanthropists. And, of course, it's you have to really balance these relationships. You have to really understand how to manage 2 very different kind of financing that are restricted in different ways. And and and the philanthropic side, a little bit more restricted, you know, because also these organizations are non profit maximizing and charitable in nature. And so, of course, you have to respect that and make sure that the money is spent in a way that really supports this.
Hedvig:But I think this you these we can all learn how that works well. But and I think, you know, given what the world looks like, I think the model that we are trying to tone and and and and make better and tighter, a lot of businesses could benefit from that. Not just in our space, you know, everywhere. And, you know, I I think that's it's really becoming important. I think what I wanted to to to compliment you on is I think one of the main things for making this model work is information on both sides, making the fair interface and the and the venture capitalist more comfortable with each other, really making making both understand what the other party is trying to achieve, you know, how they can leverage each other.
Hedvig:Because in a way, the philanthropists are derisking some of the investment coming from venture. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's the other way around. The the philanthropists make, you know, the the venture, you know, the philanthropists like the venture involved because they see they know that a venture investor wouldn't have invested without there being a reasonable chance that this was a really sustainable model because, of course, economic and social and environmental sustainability are all connected.
Hedvig:You know, they you know, people our vendors won't be successful if our business isn't successful. And so I think people have so much more in common than what separates them. And and everybody is. It's like I always say powered by people in in any business. It's like having the perfect dinner party Friday night.
Hedvig:If you get all the right people around the table, it's amazing. And food has to be good too.
Grant:Yes. You
Hedvig:know, maybe a bit of wine. But, you know, but it this is the same. It's about getting all the same stakeholders. And it is a bit more complex because it's a more diverse group of stakeholders, but our world is also, I would admit, I I I would I would say it's getting a little bit more complicated. I mean, when I was a kid, there was also conflicts.
Hedvig:We didn't know they weren't as you we didn't get them in on social media feed every day, but we learned about it in newspapers. The the environmental layer is is is much more threatening. You know, it's a much more complicated that we didn't that wasn't as much focused on in the in the seventies and eighties. And so I think that, oh, it's only natural that that these things, the business models and stakeholder relationships and the stakeholder network is that is changing and and perhaps coming a bit more diverse as everything else in the world is.
Grant:Yep. I I I've been honing in on this word outcome
Hedvig:Yeah.
Grant:And outcomes for, like, the last 6 months and trying to be and trying to to understand this landscape where, you know, philanthropists or NGOs, their focus their outcome is, like, I guess, poverty alleviation or, you know, literacy. Maybe it's financial literacy or just reading literacy or whatever it might be. It's like they they had this outcome of or or it's just, like, solving for for clean water. Right?
Hedvig:Yeah.
Grant:And it seemed like they have been reluctant to kind of derisk, let's say, you know, venture investing because they because VCs might have a they have a different outcome sort of metric. Mhmm. But I see it where it's like they like you had mentioned, they can help each other so much.
Hedvig:They can
Grant:to deliver that outcome. And to me, it's the instead of the reluctance to work together for various reasons, right, maybe it's, you know, philosophical. Yeah. But if the outcome is what the real North Star is, then these 2 sort of entities have the ability to produce outcomes. And that is the main objective and everything else should be relevant.
Grant:You know, every Yeah. Everybody's egos and everybody's, you know, philosophies are just what are the outcome we are trying to achieve? Yeah. I think these two areas of society can work pretty actually hand in hand to get outcomes achieved. And that's what I'm optimistic about and and sort of what motivates me is is that.
Hedvig:Yeah. And I I I just couldn't agree more. And I I think it is you know, this this hybrid financing model, I've had the idea of this for 15 years. I mean, I'm clearly not the only one, but I really I've understood the need that this business could only really work if this happened. And it took me this long, I mean, to to make that happen.
Hedvig:And I, you know, I think it's not gonna take other people as long. And I think, you know, that's back to, you know, my colorful journey. But, you know, I think I was able to make this work in the end. I mean, we, not just me, but we, but we had the, you know, we have the advantage in the business that I had been in economic development. I I understood the vernacular of the philanthropist and the because I used to work for them before.
Hedvig:I I I, you know and I think that's where some of it comes in because, you know, most philanthropists, you know, they're set up in a way. They have a board. They have a strategy. They have an outcome that they, as a foundation, is trying to achieve. And you really have to, you know, as you will have for the venture investors, you you have to really think about what it when you go and and talk to them about money, I think sometimes it's it's really as simple as language.
Hedvig:How can you put your business in a language that that makes it easy for them to to to to fund you? You know, how can you look at their strategy, what they're trying to achieve? Because sometimes language can be can be the divider and it really doesn't have to be because venture language is distinctly different from the language we use on in development and economic development and philanthropy. But as you agree, the the outcome is really often the same, how you get there and some of the tactics. And that's where sometimes things could be hard because, for example, if a philanthropist want to support more and more access to financing in Kenya, for example, for women, you may not be able to use the same interest rate as you did in the business because they can't make money on
Grant:that. Sure.
Hedvig:They they they wanna they wanna de risk your ability to go further. And if there is a loss, they will say, well, a certain loss is okay because we want to push the limits. And then we learn what works and what doesn't work. And so there is some things in your business model where you will have to negotiate and figure out how you do it. But I think it's about creativity and, bucket.
Hedvig:But, you know, so I would say to everybody who's trying to make these models work, try to really look at spend a bit of time trying to understand who you're trying to raise money for. We do you do that with your venture capitalists. You spend a lot of money trying to understand what is that fund trying to do? Who have they invested before? What what seemed to really make them interested?
Hedvig:Do the same with the philanthropic investor. Like, what what does their last board meeting look like? What does their Mhmm. Metric look like? And and then then try to translate your business into that.
Hedvig:I think that some of it is as simple as that.
Grant:Yeah. Yeah. I wanna get back to to the makers real quick
Hedvig:Yep.
Grant:For a minute. Like, what are they actually, like, making? I guess, give us an idea of what the products are and what the West Elms of the world are are buying, and the Smithsonian Institute are buying it, and all these retailers. Like
Hedvig:Yeah. Well, we have seen success is in, you know, people, you know, wanting something that's handmade or at least very, very mostly hands handmade, high quality, good design, more contemporary looking, not maybe as crafty. And and so, for example, one great example of that is is, Siafu Home. It's a textile company in Nairobi, Kenya that has has seen incredible growth in the last couple of years. They we sold them into Liberty's, into West Elm, and they've made this incredibly beautiful, cotton, you know, textiles, you know, napkins and blankets and tablecloths and and and and placemats, something like that.
Hedvig:But the colors are vibrant. It's contemporary design, but it's all, you know, traditional hand heirlooms. So how can you translate these old skills and and techniques into a product that looks a bit more contemporary and fresh? We have Itza Wood in the jungle of Guatemala. They they work, you know, around a paper mill, and they take the the the offcuts of wood, and make beautiful things.
Hedvig:So it's it's wood that you would have been waste. But now it's it goes into being super beautiful home decor holders and and other beautiful, very contemporary looking. They're also both in in Liberty's and West Elm. And there's so many cases of that. So, you know, it can be a local group that, you know, that has done well, and we've helped them a bit on the elevation and new connections and Yep.
Hedvig:But also sometimes, most people have, of course, gotten there totally by themselves, and the best thing we could do was to connect them to additional buyers and and, and and finance them if they needed that. And so it's a very, very vibrant community of really beautiful products and people who really, you know, did this this maker community that can be both quite small makers and and and, you know, rural, urban, and can also be relatively big. It's a very sort of beautiful community. People are very helpful to each other. It's obviously by nature because it's doesn't require a lot of industrial techniques or really very sustainable.
Hedvig:It mostly uses, you know, local raw materials. And there's not a lot of waste because people actually can't afford to waste. Yeah. It's just not. And so, it's by nature.
Hedvig:And it it really is a community that that needs the opportunity. And I think it's sort of, you know, where you have Etsy, which is often makers that are 1 or 2 people, they don't actually wanna grow. Etsy went into wholesale in 2014 and 13, but stopped again because many of their makers didn't wanna grow. This is the size of the business.
Grant:It's a part time job for the it
Hedvig:was a part time job. It's a very beautiful community. We are the next level up. If you want to really grow your business and become a full time entrepreneur, then PBP is your place where you can find, you know, common ground with other people who believe in the things you believe in.
Grant:How does the maker process work for one to to become? Is it is it inbound right there? Are they just reaching out to 2 guys? Okay.
Hedvig:And then people reach out, and then we we have a due diligence process where that has to anybody can register online and Mhmm. Benefit from our webinars and our learning hop and and all the things that we do there. Any anybody can can do that. It's name, company name, email. That's basically it.
Hedvig:If you want to sell on the marketplace and be seen by buyers I should also say, if you can you can even before you try to get on the marketplace, you can set up a digital profile. You can if you have a buyer somewhere and you wanna use our payment rails or our financing, you can create an order, send it to your buyers. So you can actually use our order management. Interesting. Any anybody can you anybody's welcome to use that because there isn't a lot of business to business tools in many of these communities.
Hedvig:And this Yeah.
Grant:That's great.
Hedvig:People don't have credit cards, so they can't use some of the things that you and I would would use. So anybody can use platform and our order management tool. If you wanna get on the marketplace, we do need to see that UI export ready. You do you you can you can carry a conversation in English around an order. You, you can do you you you understand the quality.
Hedvig:You understand what it means to deliver on time. So we ask a number of business oriented questions, and then we also, ask a number of questions associated with ESG, you know, make sure that because we we do want to be a sustainable marketplace. It is so every maker has to ask a basic number of questions to get on, and then most bigger buyers require much more, you know, rigor. And so we have some assessments that we ask. They are self reported, but we ask makers to go through a larger number of questions, where they answer questions about their the social and and and environmental, and and governance structure.
Hedvig:And so we have that kind of data, and we can then share that with some of the the the bigger clients.
Grant:Beautiful. I'll end on a couple of questions here. One would be, you know, putting my, let's say, ecommerce entrepreneur hat on. If I if I wanted to to build, you know, a drop shipping, you know, marketplace, but I'm not a West Elm. Right?
Grant:I'm not, like, I'm just a, let's say, just a digital entrepreneur, and, you know, I spin up a a store on Shopify. Can I plug in to the powered by people API and get, you know, inventory on my site and then sell as a drop shipper? Is that possible?
Hedvig:That's exactly what you can. At the moment, it's particularly easy with Shopify. A lot of people are on Shopify.
Grant:Yeah. Yeah.
Hedvig:And so we have a plug in there. You can go on to partbypeople.com. You'll see dropship, follow the link. And I think it's a great way. I mean, what we saw after COVID was because of all these supply chain disruptions people saw, particularly for bigger buyers, maybe not so much a smaller buyers, but pretty much everyone had at the end of COVID, too much inventory because things had come late.
Hedvig:And so we realized that people wanted to update their collections, but maybe didn't have the cash to buy new inventory. And so, you know, with dropship, you can get on to our dropship catalog. We have, you know, thousands of SKUs. You simply pick those, and you can create your own shop with PVP powered SKUs, and you Yep. You're not out of pocket.
Hedvig:And it's really easy. So I would encourage people who are interested in that to visit us.
Grant:Last question I have is you've done so many cool things. You should have built in this space. You're you're sort of adding features on here and there. I think the the financing thing is just such a such a natural progression, such a smart move by you and the team. For the next, let's say, 5 years or so, what are some of the goals and successes you and the team would like to achieve?
Grant:What does that road map sort of look like?
Hedvig:I think it's really scaling the business, growing the business. And, you know, and that means on both sides getting, you know, many, many more buyers on board, big and small. We are interested in working with everyone who is interested in more sustainable and unique supply. So really scaling that and become, you know, a much, much bigger play relevant bigger play on the market. If you want more sustainable, unique supply, we really are.
Hedvig:We can work with you, big or small. Please contact us. And also on the maker side, I think at the moment, we are trying to build out our technology to make it as easy as we can for the buyer. Obviously, everything starts with an order. Otherwise, we can't help anybody on on the maker side.
Hedvig:And but we are also the part of the business I'm very involved in is the supply side of the business. And how can we also build out the technology downstream? How can we make it much how can we build out our technology to make it really easy for any maker anywhere to get online? You know, start using our tools even in the local market because we know that local sales leads to international sales. And so it is the way to get in there.
Hedvig:And even if you aren't ready to engage directly with us, how can we provide much better tools for you to be able to grow your business? And then, you know, we can we can follow you once you're on the platform. We can see. And if you use our payment rails, we can see how well you're doing. And as soon as you have a bit more business, we can then lift you into the economy and we really create an ecosystem where people everybody's welcome and people can get access to more and more services as they move up the value chain.
Hedvig:That's really the dream we want to have. And it's going to take another 5 years to build out these systems. But it's a big sector. You know, we estimate those 300,000,000 people in our sector. And as I said in the beginning, it it is a a still surprisingly analog sector, and then that really should change.
Hedvig:And we're we're working extremely hard at doing that, you know, with an increasing, you know, group of of stakeholders who also want to see this happen. So that's really the dream, you know, that that we become that default sourcing option for buyers, and we become that solution for makers who that on ramp that brings everybody into the market. Because I think the 3 of us, cofounders, we are extremely motivated. Like, I know you are more equal access to the global market. You know, globalization hasn't worked for everyone.
Hedvig:How can we do better?
Grant:Yep. No. I think we're hitting a good a good point in time in history, and, obviously, the evolution of technology is
Hedvig:is Yes.
Grant:It's taking a lot of what we need to get done there, but, you know, technology is one layer. And I think the financing layer is another massive huge one. Another huge market of, what a lot of entrepreneurs are working on too is building that that financial layer, you know, for for those, couple billion people that don't have access to Yeah. Absolutely. More than that.
Grant:That they don't have access to that financial layer that is obviously pretty foundational to to any economy that needs to be built, and especially the entrepreneurship and creative economy needs that
Hedvig:Absolutely.
Grant:Financial layer of, you know, even something, you know, like payments. You know, not
Hedvig:even starting on
Grant:credit or
Hedvig:I know.
Grant:Or anything like that. Like, simple just, payments and the ability to to get paid fast and have these data tools and look at that business. I think another beautiful thing is is enabling these makers to almost use Power BI people as their sort of back end dashboard for their business, which is another layer of, layer of revenue that's possible for you
Hedvig:guys Mhmm.
Grant:Too. You know?
Hedvig:And and that's really what we are seeing. I mean, I think we yes. We have a marketplace today, but will we have a marketplace in 5 years? I mean, I think what we are really hoping is we can bring people into the market on our operating system. And then, you know, this omnichannel, people's own e commerce of various platforms, maybe even competitive platforms that people can sell on.
Hedvig:And multiple I think the future is where you sell multiple places. How can we enable that and make that increasingly easy?
Grant:Yep.
Hedvig:That's really that's that's our goal. You know, there's this highway. How do we get everybody on the highway and how can we make multiple revenue streams and share sales channels possible for people. That's that's yeah.
Grant:Well, thank you so much for taking the time. This was amazing conversation. I I knew it would be. I've been a fan of what what you and Allison and Ella have have built for a for a while, so I'm glad we finally got to do this. Best of luck to you and the team for the next decade to come.
Grant:Keep up the amazing work.
Hedvig:Thank you so much. And I was really wanna thank you. I was so happy when I saw you launched, and and I think you really are, you know, a great force for bringing everybody together. And we we haven't really had this. We had there's not a lot of champions.
Hedvig:That's one thing I think this this all of us who have this vision is is missing. No matter what sector you're in, it's people who can sort of highlight the opportunities and bring people together. That's that's it's key, I think. So we wanna thank you for giving us all light.