Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The newest company to change the world of tech could well be Volcanic, a sales-as-a-service platform built for retail sourcing. It's like Amazon, but business to business, where retail stores can come to source products both online and for their brick-and-mortar stores.
According to the Volcanic website, thousands of brands and retailers work with the company to source merchandise. Among those are Whole Foods, Scheels, Marshalls and more.
The key value propositions of Volcanic are first the streamlined vendor documentation and EDI integration, which shaves months in the sourcing process for retailers. Second, the easy access prospective buyers have to brands and retailers. Third, the much greater efficiency for brands to find and communicate with the right buyer and the right time of their review cycle, increasing their chances of landing big box retailers. The buyers can message the retailers with questions, product requests and to build connections, which is kept within the category and not lost with the buyer's transfer or resignation, which is crucial for smooth transition for the buyer's organization and for the brands to continue with momentum.
Within the Volcanic marketplace are different categories of products — though you can find virtually anything you're looking for. Some categories include pets, natural products, health and beauty, home and garden, kids and more.
If you're a brand who is hoping to reach more prospective retailers, you can list your products with Volcanic. Once you list your products, Volcanic will start recommending you to key buyers in your space.
"Retail sourcing has been one of the most antiquated and clunky industries when it comes to efficiency. Volcanic really has changed all of that, and brands and retailers have taken notice, as it has pumped fresh oxygen into an industry that has desperately needed a face-lift," Sarah Ross, a brand expert who has worked for notable brands like S'well water bottles and Free People says.
As an example, Justin Drage, an industry expert, says it's almost like using a dating or social media platform. "Think of some of the attributes that you would find in Tinder, Netflix, and Facebook, and now merge these data points in a platform that operates almost like an Amazon feel but for B2B product sourcing," Drage says.
Retail sourcing has been one of the most antiquated and clunky industries when it comes to efficiency. Volcanic really has changed all of that, and brands and retailers have taken notice, as it has pumped fresh oxygen into an industry that has desperately needed a face-lift.
–Sarah Ross
How it started
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Jeremy Brockbank had been working on his new vision, Volcanic, to solve the way brands and retailers matched with each other. His vision was to make a one-click solution for retail that would allow buyers' swipe history to predict what similar buyers had sourced and vouched for. But in March 2020, the world changed, and along with it, retail sourcing.
Brockbank says since the pandemic, this industry is headed in a new direction where sourcing in an efficient and predictive manner is key. Now that his vision is coming to life, he's looking for other like-minded people to get involved in growing Volcanic.
Sunnie Giles, a previous general manager of Corporate Brand Marketing for Samsung, says, "Volcanic's business model is a radical innovation in that it delivers a dramatic improvement in efficiency and customer experience. It transforms the many-to-many relationship between retailers and brand where they have to process vendor docs and integrate EDI with each one, which is hugely inefficient. Volcanic transforms this into a one-to-one relationship where you only have integrate once, which shaves months off the buying cycle. We're poised to catapult into a massive growth stage."
Angels, venture capital, and debt
For most tech companies, the road to capital is built from Series A to Z. This is great for investors who are associated with Venture Capital and Private Equity groups. But most residents in San Diego (or any other part of California, for that matter) don't feel the same upside when a company goes from seed to success.
Brockbank, however, has leveraged creative ways to give every resident a level playing field when betting on Volcanic. Platforms such as Seed Invest, We Funder, Start Engine, and Republic allow certain companies to raise up to $5 million per year, from non-accredited investors (those who don't have assets totaling $1 million or more in their bank account).
"What's great is that people, like my own mom, who raised a large family as a single parent, and not a ton of extra cash, can jump on our latest discounted valuation for as little as a $200 investment and in a matter of four or five minutes," Brockbank says.
Volcanic has seen its valuation soar from $1.5 million a couple of years ago to $29.8 million. But Brockbank wants to involve those interested before he tries to scale the company.
"You never know with investing, but we're hoping that the next $5 million raised can help us reach north of a $100 million valuation before we continue on with our Series A. Giving the public an opportunity to be a part of this feels like the right thing to do, and we think we can get it there," Brockbank explains.
AI, predictive analytics, and metadata
Not all artificial intelligence is to be feared, unlike some of chat-based AI. In fact, analytics-driven AI can lead to more efficiency for retailers who have lost substantial margins to Amazon and e-commerce in general.
"As a buyer, the industry is suffocating without tools to leverage efficiency for those responsible for bringing in products for their shelves, whether they be digital or physical," Richard Diamond, former vice president of Office Depot and OfficeMax says.
"Volcanic is all about giving retail a much-needed tech facelift and the traveling to trade show route in hopes to source the right SKU, at the right price at the right moment for the right white space, is downright impossible without these features. It simply isn't efficient enough," Diamond says. "The only way forward is to offer buyers the benefits of AI that can suggest to them, where they should be sourcing, based on prior activity.
"The reason why people report a more pleasurable experience with entertainment apps is because they know your history, and do the sourcing for you. It is no different. And this is exactly how you level the playing field with Amazon— by being more efficient."
Brent Burden, another seasoned business vet formerly with Costco and now the SVP of sales at Lumineaux who has seen a meteoric rise of his own, has ear-perking praise for the industries. "Volcanic potential ceiling is incredibly high given the virtual platforms we all connect on daily. Category managers sourcing new brands via social media and e-comm platforms is inefficient and competitive brand sourcing lacks two-way connectivity. Volcanic solves these problems with a social media-aligned user experience, connecting innovative brands to buyers in real-time with real-world benefits for both sides of the buying paradigm."
Tyler Dickman, the former co-founder of Simply Mac, an Apple reseller who sold to GameStop in 2013, was early to the Volcanic investor sideline. "Sourcing has always been the thorn in the retailers' side, and if Volcanic can truly move from a sophisticated marketplace to collecting meta-data from buyer and brand habits like we think it can, then the upside is absurd. Time will tell if we have lighting in a bottle, but if we are right, we might be sitting on something here."
