“Don’t talk about it, be about it”
Last week, I had the privilege to give a keynote speech — which ended with the above quote — at the GetGlobal event on November 6–7, 2019 in Southern California to an audience of forward thinking, global e-commerce executives.
For those who missed it, we put our money where our mouths are and donated a portion of our profits to FreedomUnited.
Alongside Joanna Ewart-James (FreedomUnited) and Josh Halpern (CITC/GettingToGlobal), we discussed how Collaborative Commerce will level the playing field and public + private + non-profit partnerships can come together to create meaningful change in the world.
Here’s a recap of the excitement…
Why Collaborative Commerce Matters
Dreamship’s story begins with the humble upbringing of one of our partners who took his life savings to buy a bus ticket to Saigon, where he was given a chance to plug into e-commerce’s budding print-on-demand (POD) community.
POD enables merchants to build an e-commerce brand with no inventory risk and upfront capital. Instead, the supply chain and fulfillment components are powered by companies like Dreamship. POD’s inherent ability to mitigate risks and remove startup costs, combined with a massive group of motivated and hungry entrepreneurs ignited a new industry overnight and created a tidal wave of opportunity in Vietnam and many developing countries.
Our merchant star was talented and in very short order built his own e-commerce success, clearing millions of dollars per year in annual revenue. However, instead of resting on his laurels and enjoying his entry into a new stratosphere of wealth, he decided to pay it forward and bring 50 of his childhood friends to the big city where he mentored and introduced them to this life-changing opportunity. Today, these 50 friends all run their own successful e-commerce teams and share tips/tricks and a bit of friendly competition amongst themselves.
This is the first pillar of what we do: unleashing entrepreneurial opportunities for those who have been historically ignored.
Bill, Joanna & Josh discussing the power of public/private/non-profit collaboration
Our Future
Fast forward to the current day. We have over 600 international merchant partners, many of whom with similar humble upbringings who are now running $5–10 million dollar e-commerce brands. We’re on track to help entrepreneurs from the world over usher in a new future.
As that realization hit, we had to take a step back and examine our role. Is this a future worth reaching? We can change lives with commerce, but that’s a short-sighted goal. To truly change lives, we need to start with the place we all call home — Earth.
And we’re going to do it the only way we know how — enabling entrepreneurs to drive the demand. We’re connecting them to eco-friendly apparel made out of recycled materials. Meet the “Sustainabili-tee:”
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Apparel made from recycled, biodegradable materials
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Biodegradable packaging
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Better printing tech for the environment
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No forced labor in the supply chain
This is the second pillar, and just the beginning of our movement for change. Supply and demand is a potent recipe for progress, and there’s no reason why we can’t apply this thinking to the world’s greatest problems. A sampling of Dreamship’s on-demand offerings
Case in Point
This holiday season, instead of playing the normal rebate games or contests and talking about things in purely financial terms, we’re aggregating a portion of our profits and making a $10,000 donation to FreedomUnited. $10,000 is a lot of money for an 18-month old startup, but it’s worth every cent to us. We want to set an example for businesses, regardless of their size, to think bigger and start doing things that matter.
From Joanna Ewart-James, Executive Director at Freedom United: “I am delighted to receive this cheque for $10,000 and grateful to all at Dreamship and its merchandisers for making this possible. I call on all those present at the Get Global 2019 conference to join us in helping shift our world, through action and support, to a future where slavery no longer thrives.”
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Finally, a special thanks to Julian Leuthold and the entire GetGlobal team for including us and being such fantastic conference organizers. And cheers to everyone who decides to think bigger and deciding the want to get global in an ethical and sustainable way!
