Raaja Nemani spent eight years learning the ins and outs of e-commerce as the CEO and co-founder of Bucketfeet, a Chicago footwear startup that sold to Threadless last October.
Now, he's on to his next venture---taking what he learned at Bucketfeet and bringing that expertise to more e-commerce companies.
In January, Nemani and his business partner Chris Toy launched Rogue Advising, a strategy firm focused solely on online retail. Rogue helps companies optimize their digital marketing, and tailors strategies that fit each specific business.
"The last 20 years of retail ... have been a bloodbath," Nemani said. "Even the strategies that people were using to build massive e-commerce companies 10 years ago, from Bonobos to Warby Parker, today are completely different."
Nemani said Rogue takes a holistic approach to assessing a company's e-commerce strategy, looking at how well a business is advertising on places like Google, Facebook and Pinterest, as well as other channels like email marketing. Rogue conducts a digital marketing audit for a company, sets a marketing strategy, and then helps the company execute its plan.
Rogue has worked with about 15 clients ranging from venture-backed consumer startups to large global retail brands. Nemani declined to name any clients specifically, but he said in four months Rogue is doing about $3 million in run rate sales.
The idea for Rogue began when Nemani started advising other e-commerce startups after Bucketfeet's acquisition in October. Nemani was able to take the issues he faced at Bucketfeet, both positive and negative, and bring that expertise to other entrepreneurs. After connecting with Toy, a friend and early Bucketfeet advisor, Nemani decided they could turn their part-time consulting into a full-time business.
Bucketfeet, which raised $28 million in venture funding over its lifetime, wasn't immune to today's difficult retail climate. The company experienced downsizing and closed its three brick-and-mortar stores. The business was hurt by relying on an inventory-heavy model, Nemani said, and last year it pivoted to an on-demand strategy where 100% of the company’s supply chain and production moved to a made-to-order model. Nemani declined to disclose the terms of the Threadless acquisition.
Today, Nemani can bring lessons learned, as well as his network of e-commerce and marketing connections, to other businesses that are looking to improve their digital strategies.
"We’re really excited by all these shifts in e-commerce because we think that the people that approach it correctly ... have this huge opportunity," he said. "This retail bloodbath is only going to get worse over the next five years for the people that don’t adapt."
