Woman Entrepreneur Building a Successful, VC Funded Business: Olivia Skuza, CEO of NuORDER (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s focus on the founding of NuORDER. What did you see in the market that led you to do NuORDER? What was the premise of NuORDER at the beginning and what year are we talking?

Olivia Skuza: That was 2010. We had the ‘aha’ moment while doing the agency business. Essentially, we were building websites for big brands. We were going to these large trade shows and producing these beautiful catalogs for very large global brands. I was looking at why the process was so antiquated.

The entire process was working backwards. Brands were using printed catalogs to build their product. They were using pen, paper, and fax machine to place orders. Nobody was leveraging digital e-commerce on mobile in any way. We saw how much it was hindering sales and hurting the business. We’ve been in B2C land for quite some time. We can’t understand why that concept hadn’t been applied to B2B. It turns out we were the first to do this. It didn’t exist.

What we quickly did was to identify some customers and brands that we had strong relationships with and say, “Are you willing to be the guinea pig and work with us?” They were very keen. That’s essentially how the idea of NuORDER was born.

Sramana Mitra: What would you do for them? What was the need?

Olivia Skuza: We facilitate commerce and allow brands and buyers to conduct their business online 365 days a year. It’s B2B commerce. It’s a two-sided platform for both the buyer and the seller. We enable brands to create digital catalogs. They are able to send proposals and create orders for retailers. We enable retailers to find brands. There is an element of discovery so they can continue to expand their offering.

They are able to plan their buys. They are able to create assortment and merchandise in addition to facilitating the order process. All of this, and still a large volume of the industry today, is completely using pen and paper. This is how they operate. These are ridiculously large companies. As a result, we help brands increase their sales, improve their operational efficiency, and remain competitive.

Sramana Mitra: It sounds like you have identified a set of B2B sellers who need help. What segment do they belong to? Where is this kind of problem particularly strong?

Olivia Skuza: We started in denim and apparel. Our first brands were Citizens of Humanity and True Religion. We really began to understand the denim and apparel space. Now, we operate in five verticals. We do home and gift, beauty, sports and active, footwear and accessories, and kids and babies. Premium brands and retailers operate within those verticals.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Woman Entrepreneur Building a Successful, VC Funded Business: Olivia Skuza, CEO of NuORDER
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