This week I am talking to my new friend Nick Arambula – founder and CEO of Neighbor. Nick is from the Tuft & Needle mafia and is now off doing his new thing bringing a new category of outdoor patio furniture to the market. Nick is incredibly intelligent and this is a great episode especially if you nerd out on market positioning and product design. You can watch the episode on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.

What does it take to build a successful direct-to-customer e-commerce business? To build and scale a business that mostly deals with bulky items online, you must focus on brand visual representation, product design, and a genuine interest in the industry.

In this episode of The Capital Stack, we have Nick Arambula, the Co-Founder & CEO at Neighbor and former executive at bedding brand Tuft & Needle. Neighbor is a Phoenix-based outdoor furniture company bringing a unique perspective of sophistication, design, and distinctive customer service to the outdoor furniture category.

Listen in to learn how to build and scale a direct-to-consumer business model that captures value with a much leaner team. You will learn about the ups and downs of being a founder and the importance of being intentional to do a good job.

What You Will Discover:

·       [02:20] The three reasons why Nick and his partners started Neighbor and specialized in outdoor furniture.

·       [07:22] How they’re building a reasonably sound business model by capturing value with their products.

·       [10:23] The strategy that has allowed Neighbor to scale with a much leaner team.

·       [12:25] He describes their mechanism of bringing customers and generating sales online.

·       [17:34] The importance of having a physical presence to compete and scale your retail business properly.

·       [19:04] How they approach product bundling and build a flat-packing strategy for easier shipping.  

·       [24:56] How they raised capital and through the storm of a non-profitable year for retail.

·       [27:11] Nick compares his role as an executive at Tuft& Needle and as the founder at Neighbor.

·       [32:35] Why it would be wrong for an investor to underwrite Neighbor as Tuft& Needle.

·       [35:51] Random questions with Nick!

Memorable Quote:

·       “There are categories in retail where you have to have a physical presence for your business to scale in a way that you can compete with some of the incumbents in the space.”– Nick [17:49]

Connect with Nick:

·       Website: https://www.hineighbor.com/

·       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-arambula-90775726/