[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
[Voiceover]: Today's checkout features Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa. Founded in 2009, Flippa has 3 million users worldwide who can browse for e commerce businesses, content sites, SaaS, businesses, apps and digital services. As a matchmaker to connect buyers and sellers, Flippa's notable sales include Mark Zuckerberg's former website, Facemash, overnight success story, shipyournemisglitter.com and retweet.com Blake, welcome to the checkout.
Nathan Bush: We have heard all about what you're up to@flippa.com, how e commerce businesses can buy and sell online. And even if you're curious, just get on there and have a look at what other businesses are buying and selling for. But we're here to learn a little bit more about you. Five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Blake Hutchison: Wow. Wait, what a great question. Well, I still reckon the weirdest thing to buy online, given the sheer size of it, is a mattress.
Nathan Bush: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Blake Hutchison: Sleeping Duck.
Nathan Bush: I kind of set that one up for you, though. I thought you were going to say buying a business.
Blake Hutchison: Yeah, good point. I've sold a business, but I haven't bought a business.
Nathan Bush: What did you sell?
Blake Hutchison: My own company on Flippa.
Nathan Bush: Wow. Is that before you were CEO or as CEO?
Blake Hutchison: No, no, before I was CEO. In fact, a long time before I was CEO back in 2014 or 15. Right.
Nathan Bush: Wow. Love the experience. Obviously.
Blake Hutchison: Yeah. You know, Flippa's very different these days and it's really hard to sell a business and Flippa makes it so easy.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, beautiful. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Blake Hutchison: Yeah, it's a great question and I'm gonna give you a horrible simple answer, which is I'm obsessed by the simplicity of Amazon's user experience. So I have to say Amazon. But I must admit, I am quite a big fan of homegrown Aussie retailers who kind of copy cat concepts and do it really well. And so I mentioned them before. The Sleeping Duck experience is actually really, really strong.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, we had a great conversation in the main episode around Amazon and how buyers often see it as a value add of being integrated with the Amazon marketplace. So it was a really interesting perspective for me. Number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
Blake Hutchison: Probably buying shit stuff from somewhere else and Marking it up for short term ash grab.
Nathan Bush: Have you seen an influx of quick drop shipping businesses trying to flog off on Flippa?
Blake Hutchison: Dropshipping was huge about 18 months ago and so we saw a lot at that point in time. We actually, the only ones we see now are actually they've been around doing it for long enough that it's actually in their case good quality, sustainable and proven over many, many years. But there were those who had six month old, one year old businesses and they're typically not long term viable and so don't buy a six month or one year old e comm business.
Nathan Bush: It's dropshipping spotted a mile away. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Blake Hutchison: Yeah, so I would, I would read Black Box thinking the reason I like that is it's about learning from your mistakes, analyzing what worked, what didn't work, and then reinvesting where you have knowledge. The other thing is, which is up to my right here is the, the hard thing about hard things. Highly recommend that book. And then if you want to be a cheat, just download Blinkist, because I do that and listen to both of those in 15 minutes. And so instead of recommending another podcast, I would just download Blinkist and listen to those two books.
Nathan Bush: Beautiful. And we can't leave without mentioning the Exit podcast, which is Flippa's own podcast. One million downloads. But obviously a great source of inspirational stories all over the world of founders who have sold their business and achieved, you know, the goals that they set out with.
Blake Hutchison: Yeah, listen to the Zappos co founder and his story, which is obviously incredible. But there's so many wonderful examples of business owners who have built outstanding businesses, scaled them and then their exit stories, how they found the buyer, what the buyer asked them, why it almost fell over in some cases. They're great learning for everyone.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, awesome. All right, number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is online. Thank goodness for that. I don't think you even need to explain that, do you?
Blake Hutchison: No, I wouldn't have thought so. I mean, I'm not suggesting that omnichannel is not a thing, of course it is. But I still think that you get greater selection, greater choice, greater a better price, greater global accessibility. There's just so many obvious advantages from the best online retailers and best product practitioners making their wares available online.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, and you shared some great insight about that in the main episode around buyers who see this as obviously bit choppy water around E commerce and online at the moment. But know that the long term trend of buying online is strong. So they were great insights.
[Voiceover]: Blake, thank you so much for joining
Nathan Bush: us on the checkout.
Blake Hutchison: Thank you Nathan.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Blake, jump back into episode 273 where Blake shares his thoughts on what makes an e commerce business investable. He also shares how to make the exit process smooth sailing for all involved and why he believes in those who execute today and measure tomorrow. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
