He Discovered Retail’s Biggest Weakness During His Time at Apple And Then Raised $64 Million To Address It Amit Sharma is at the heart of what’s next in retail. His startup Narvar has raised tens of millions of dollars and is pioneering new customer experiences for some of the retail and eCommerce brands you love most. This founder has gone from Mumbai to the Bay Area, and not only worked with some of the world's leading online and offline retailers but launched a startup which is helping both new and legacy brands offer the rest of us a modern and enjoyable shopping experience. I had the great pleasure of interviewing Amit Sharma on a recent episode of the DealMakers Podcast. During the show, he shared his journey as an entrepreneur, the process of raising capital, and how to resolve complex problems at a high scale. From Mumbai to the Bay & Mastering Supply Chain Management Wanting to learn more about the fundamentals of business and to be in the heart of the action, Amit Sharma left India and his work as a data engineer to pursue an MBA at Duke University.
After graduating he enjoyed an incredible spree working with some of the best-known brands around like Citi, Williams-Sonoma, Walmart, and Apple. Some of the top lessons he took from these experiences include:
Making sure you're adding value to the customers that you're serving · The importance of driving meaningful results · The implications of changes in customer experiences · How to handle supply chain logistics on a large and global scale · The value of building an ecosystem · Understanding the eCommerce customer journey
The Opportunity & Reality of Being an Entrepreneur Working on the end-to-end customer experience at Apple, Sharma didn't see any technology platform or solution that would serve the needs of a big corporation.
Sharma realized that if big companies can't solve it, there must be a need for the rest of the retail industry to offer these experiences to the end-consumers. That was the moment he decided to build something that could be very fundamental for countless businesses, while drawing on his pedigree in supply chain experience and product innovation.
Making a leap from a comfortable job at a company like Apple to going out on your own to start from scratch requires a leap of faith for anyone. Even more so, if like Amit you are married, have three kids, and family responsibilities. Making sure your family is fully supportive and behind you is critical. If that backing is not there, then it might not be a long-term sustainable option. Fortunately, this founder found the support he needed at home and decided to go for it.
While it has worked out well for him, that doesn’t mean everything went according to his expectations. The Roller Coaster Of Entrepreneurship Amit says it took 18 months to get through the first round of funding. The journey of a founder is never a straight line. He says it is important in the early days to only worry about thinking six months out. Get through those milestones. A lot may change on the way. Just stay flexible. One of the hardest things you may face and have to overcome is the business you’ve built is no longer viable and not going to scale. That’s what pivots are for. The moment when you realize a big pivot is necessary are dark days as an entrepreneur. For Amit, the best way to weather the storm is by figuring out what are the things that are driving meaningful results.
He says “Finding people that can give you candid feedback whether they're your customers or prospective customers, or your investors, or your employees,” is important. It’s vital. Determine what are the things you need and make it happen. The Art of Fundraising Narvar has raised close to $70 million. They’ve amassed some really great investors including Accel, Battery Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Crosscut Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Haystack, Scale Venture Partners, and Salesforce Ventures. Wanting to be a true enterprise platform Narvar realized it needed to be a global company, and that meant understanding the cultures they were ingrained in, not just having plenty of funding or a network. They’ve found bringing in Salesforce as an investor was incredibly valuable to this. It has allowed them to connect with many other entrepreneurs and companies that have already been through expansions to Europe and Asia. It meant being able to avoid making mistakes that other growth companies already made when they entered into new markets. When it comes to fundraising, Amit says it is very important to keep a willingness to learn mindset and maintain curiosity. He is admittedly not an extrovert himself. Yet, he says this thinking will allow you to get out and talk to people without hesitation.
From his perspective, founders should listen and learn from your perspectives. Startups are essentially your take on a problem, and how you are solving for it. He says that “when you are being authentic about these things you are looking to get back whether it's advice, input, or feedback, or a connection, or a request, people are generally in Silicon Valley and in the Bay Area are open to helping you out.” Growing & Adapting in the New Retail Environment Narvar's business model is a SaaS platform focused on helping brands and retailers inspire long-term customer loyalty, at all steps of the customer journey.
Today they have roughly 300 people, U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, offices in London, Munich, and Paris, as well as a team in India. They have roughly 650 enterprise customers and are growing at approximately 70% year over year. Clients include brands like Neiman Marcus, Levi’s, Sephora, Home Depot and Bose. Stay Flexible If you are going to found a startup, you’ve got to be flexible in how you arrive at your milestones and goals. Amit’s parting piece of advice is really to embrace ambiguity. It’s one of Narvar’s core values. It’s something discussed in every interview with potential hires.
Listen into the full podcast episode to find out more, including:
Lessons learned from working with companies like Apple or Walmart · The supply chain process · End to end customer experiences · Fundraising strategies
