Overdose & Chill: Live

This week on Chill, we’ll chat with legend Lina Calabria @ Bellroy.

Lina is Co-Founder & COO of Bellroy, a premium Australian accessories brand. Having spent the last 11 years filling her days working to grow and nurture Bellroy’s sales and operations, Lina is passionate about the useful tools of lean thinking and the theory of constraints, which she applies through Bellroy and wherever else she can.

With a strong background in business strategy, Lina has a forward-thinking and innovative approach, coupled with responsible business practices and sustainable manufacturing principles.

Overdose. CEO Todd Welling and Lina will discuss entrepreneurship, growth, challenges, the impact of the pandemic on the accessories space, and strategies for success in the new global commerce landscape.

On this session of Chill, we’ll chat with the great Lindsay Moore @ Marketplacer. Lindsay is Vice President of Partnerships & Customer Success at Marketplacer, a leading ecommerce marketplace platform. Having spent time at SAP, Salesforce, and Zmags, Lindsay has deep industry experience and expertise across the tech and commerce ecosystem.

Overdose’s Andrew Potkewitz and Lindsay will discuss growth & global expansion, the commerce & marketplace landscape, the impact of the pandemic, and what role marketplaces will have going forward.https://overdose.digital/chill/056-lindsay-moore-marketplacer/

This week on Chill, we’ll chat with Megan Blissick @ Signifyd.

Megan is a Senior Partner Manager at Signifyd, a leading “eCommerce Protection” platform (fraud prevention, chargeback protection, and shipping/delivery insurance), Megan has deep industry experience, ranging from brand management to digital marketing and advertising, in addition to building partnerships throughout the SaaS ecosystem.

Overdose’s Andrew Potkewitz and Megan will discuss growth, global expansion, the impact of the pandemic on the fraud and shipping/delivery space, and protection strategies for the holiday season.

This week on Chill, we chat with Stephen Wright @ Crate & Barrel.

Crate & Barrel Country Manager for Singapore and Malaysia, Stephen has been immersed in this global brand for the past 14 years. Beginning his C&B career in 2001 representing the Greater Atlanta Area, he has since relocated to Singapore, where he heads up the region’s operations.

Overdose’s Iestyn Keyes and Stephen will discuss growth, global expansion, the challenges of entering new markets, the impact of the pandemic on the homewares space, and strategies for success in the new global commerce landscape.

This week on Chill, we’ll chat with veteran tech entrepreneur Thomas Gottheil @ Frontastic.

Co-Founder of Frontastic, Thomas has been immersed in the tech space for much of his career. After spending time at ARKTIS GmbH, he went on to found and lead SHOPMACHER eCommerce GmbH & Co. KG. Thomas and Frontastic are now leading the Headless/Composable commerce & FaaS space.

Frontastic is a Commerce Frontend Platform that enables fast-growing brands to build amazing websites easy and fast on top of headless by removing the complexity for developers and giving business teams autonomy and flexibility

Overdose EMEA’s Daniel Höhnke and Thomas will discuss the rise of Headless & Composable commerce, entrepreneurship, growth challenges & successes, ecommerce & marketing strategy, digital solutions, trends & approaches through pandemic recovery.

This week on Chill, we’ll chat with the great David Janovic @ RJ Living. Recently named one of the Top 50 People in Ecommerce by Joomag, Inc., David is the Founder and Managing Director of RJ Living, an innovative Australia-based furniture brand that thoughtfully creates urban and modern designs that enhance a home’s natural beauty. Overdose Melbourne’s Laura Jackson and David will discuss entrepreneurship, growth challenges & successes, ecommerce & marketing strategy, digital solutions, trends & approaches through pandemic recovery.

In this episode of Chill, we chat with the indefatigable Sam Penny @ Cheese Therapy. Now “Cheesemonger” at Cheese Therapy, Sam is an entrepreneur, extreme swimmer, public speaker, and Ambassador for Just Like Jack. Prior to Cheese Therapy, Sam spent many years in the beauty space and then turned his attention to growing Elementa 5. Since 2015, however, Sam has been on a mission to bring the world of delicious, artisanal cheese directly from the makers to Australians’ front doors.

Overdose Brisbane’s Elliot Schoemaker and Sam discuss entrepreneurship, growth challenges & successes, ecommerce & marketing strategy, digital solutions, ecomm trends & approaches through pandemic recovery, and their mutual passion for all things cheese.

Sam Penny

Sam Penny is the type of person who can’t sit still. He’s achieved a lot of things: he’s been in the army, he’s a civil engineer by trade, and he’s into mad swimming adventures (like swimming an ‘ice mile’ in 3.9-degree water; and being the first person in the world to attempt to swim the English Channel in winter). His greatest skill, he says, is pure grit—he is driven to push himself further than most would dare to.

He helps others to strive too: as Ambassador for Just Like Jack—an organisation dedicated to helping kids with disabilities participate in events that most people take for granted.

Not surprisingly, on the business front, Sam is relentless. A passionate entrepreneur, he’s set up entrepreneur networks for Queensland University of Technology; he’s had a successful medical device company; he’s had a chain of not-so-successful hair salons­­—“My biggest mistake was a chain of hair salons,” he confesses.

He learned, moved on, and found his entrepreneurial utopia; for the past four years, he’s been mongering cheese. “Everything has seemed to have culminated in this great business that my partner Helen and I have created, called Cheese Therapy.”

Cheese Therapy

With his can’t-sit-still nature, it’s no surprise to learn that the Cheese Therapy idea was conceived during a time when he was meant to be relaxing on holiday in the Pacific island of Vanuatu. Instead of letting thoughts and ideas float by like clouds in the tropical sky, Sam’s mind was churning away, formulating his next business idea.

Sam and his partner, Helen, had been shopping at Vanuatu’s main supermarket, French-owned Au Bon Marche, and were blown away by the massive cheese counter bursting with French cheeses, terrines, and foie gras—cheeses and epicurean produce they hadn’t seen back in Australia. Here they were, in a little undeveloped island, with an abundance of foreign delicacies. “It made me realise we’ve lost our deli scene in Australia. We’re now served up some pretty bland, homogenised products in our major supermarkets, where it’s all about margins and there’s not a lot of heart and soul in many of the items that you see on a shelf.”

So, they decided they would go home and start a cheese club. Sam says they wanted to get their hands on some great cheese and figured if they could get enough people in the club, they could fly cheese in from abroad. “That was the limit of our market research, it was based on what we wanted, but I think many great ideas come out of passion, and then it’s just down to the numbers. Can we find 100 people? Can we find 200, a thousand people to be part of this cheese club?”

Cheese Therapy was launched; for the first four years as a small-scale operation with Sam and Helen doing it all—cutting, wrapping, packing, and sending the cheese. Then, an event in January 2020 changed the course of the business: Australia’s devastating bush fires.

In this episode of Chill, we chat with Jonny Blake, Channel Account Manager @ BigCommerce. Overdose’s Strategy Director for North America, Keith Karlick, and Jonny discuss ecommerce tech ecosystems, BigCommerce updates, growth challenges and successes, digital solutions, and ecomm trends and strategies through pandemic recovery.

Jonny Blake

Jonny Blake was brand new to ecommerce when he joined BigCommerce in 2018; within two weeks of him taking his seat, the ecomm behemoth received a massive $65 million private equity cash injection, and he’s had to buckle in for a fast ride.

Now, as BigCommerce’s Regional Channel Account Manager for the Pacific Northwest and the Mountain Southwest, Jonny oversees everything from onboarding, training, enablement, certifications, and all the blocking and tackling that comes with building out a BigCommerce practice.

BigCommerce

Those first big rounds of capital raising in 2018 were followed by an IPO in August 2020, and it’s been an era of meteoric growth for BigCommerce. They’ve released a lot of new functionality and have hired over one hundred employees globally.

Keith, who’s been in the agency ecosystem for five years (starting at Mercutio, which merged into the Overdose family in June 2021), says BigCommerce initially came along and filled a gap in the market—a need for a SaaS platform that worked across both mid-market and enterprise clients. Other providers weren’t really looking at B2B; manufacturers selling at the mid-market company level were left high and dry—they were maybe too large or too complex for industry go-to, Shopify. And they weren’t being looked after by the top end of town—the true enterprise platforms. BigCommerce stepped in as a really good solution for that mid-market service. 

Fast-forward to today, and BigCommerce is considered one of the top players within the industry across most sectors.

This week on Chill, we’ll chat with Neel Bhatt @ Shopify Plus. Now Head of Partnerships, Southeast Asia, Neel is an industry veteran, having spent time at PayPal, Lazada, Easyship, Neteven, and Rakuten. Overdose’s Iestyn Keyes and Neel will discuss ecommerce tech ecosystems, Shopify updates, growth challenges & successes, digital solutions, and ecomm trends & strategies through pandemic recovery.

On this episode of Chill, we’ll chat with the great Nick Lyford @ Rembrandt Menswear. Rembradt has been in the menswear business since 1946, helping folks make a smart choice from ready-to-wear, made-to-measure, suit hire, and alteration services.

Now Marketing Manager at Rembrandt, Nick has spent time at Fishbrain, Kin, Humankind, and Rembrandt Suits. Overdose’s Jodi Irving and Nick will discuss, growth, challenges and successes, digital solutions, and ecomm trends and strategies through pandemic recovery.