Summary
Recently KingsCrowd sat down with William Gilligan and Michael Ferneman, the Co-Founders of Orange Marmalade. Don’t let the name make you think this is a purveyor or specialty jams — William and Michael have taken it upon themselves to shake up the world of shipping for small and medium-sized businesses.
Funding Round Details
By creating a software that allows business owners to manage every stage of the customer experience, beginning with orders and ending with the actual printing of labels and paying for postage, Orange Marmalade hopes to take a bite out a market comprised of 42 million online sellers.
Thanks to both of you for taking the time to speak with KingsCrowd. Can you provide us with a bit of background on yourselves and why you decided to start Orange Marmalade?
William: Mike and I have worked together for over 15 years. Back in 2007 we launched an e-commerce company selling to consumers. By 2012 we were on the Inc. 500 list – meaning we grew a lot.
While we did that, we were on a constant search for software that would help us with shipping and customer support and taxes and – well as the company grew so did the needs. Unfortunately, we could find nothing that worked for us. We wanted low cost, simple to use and able to grow as we did. Nothing existed, so we created our own.
For those that may not know, how would you Orange Marmalade to a stranger?
Mike: Simplified e-commerce shipping with built in business management tools.
What other similar products currently exist in the marketplace? How do you stand out?
Mike: Shipstation, shipping easy and at a high level, Netsuite. There are others as well, but those are the biggies.
Bill: We are simpler to use, at a lower cost and with greater functionality.
Can you describe what your typical customer looks like?
Bill: We have two focuses, first – the small online seller handling a few orders a month and hoping to grow. For these folks we are free to use, and as they grow, we will grow with them.
Mike: The other focus is the e-seller handling up to 400 orders a day needing a simple yet robust system that doesn’t kill their profit margin and keeps their data in one location.
What is the price point of your service, and what types of margins do you see at that price point?
Bill: We have 5 tiers ranging from free to $50 a month. All levels also integrate directly with our sister product Orange Mailer (for postage), and we offer Shippo as well. Both of these generate additional revenue.
Mike: The margins are very good as our actual costs are very low. We are presently debt free and 100% bootstrapped.
Bill: Our goal is to grow with companies so that they begin paying subscriptions AND generate revenue via the postage provider partnerships we have with Shippo and Easy Post.
How did you score your partnership with the U.S. Postal Service?
Bill: We don’t have an actual partnership with the USPS. Our partnerships are with Shippo and Easy Post. And in the case of EasyPost, they scored the agreement with the USPS.
Mike: We approached Shippo with an idea on how to generate additional revenue on our “free” accounts. When they saw our suggestion, they immediately said “Yes!”. EasyPost actually reached out to us. EasyPost was very instrumental in getting us to create Orange Mailer – our own Small Office / Home Office postage system that is now available.
Tell us about successes you’ve had so far -- we hear they love you in Poland!
Bill: Internationally we are doing well. We have at least 2 very active users overseas. In Poland we have a user that sells on Amazon Spain, Italy, Poland, UK and then also on eBay and Etsy. She travels across Europe extensively but lives in Poland. She uses our system to keep all her data in one place. We are now watching the Polish Postal Service to see if we can directly integrate with them.
We also have a big user in the UK with manufacturing in Turkey and a warehouse in the states. They use our system to handle every phase from getting the order off Amazon US, eBay, Amazon Canada and Shopify, then manufacturing, and then labeling and shipping.
Mike: We are essentially opening the door for sellers in other countries to sell in the US whie helping them grow in Europe. It is an exciting aspect of the company.
Bill: We are actually in beginning talks to determine when to open an office in the UK or Europe.
How have you funded the business and software development so far?
Mike: We are 100% bootstrapped to date – meaning Bill and I cover all the costs along with the revenue we are now generating. We are fortunate in that all the coding has been done by Bill which has saved us many thousands.
Anything else you want to share with prospective investors?
Mike: Aside from the team being good and the company having a long term vision, the math is real. There are 42 million potential users of Orange Manager as well as some 20 million potential users of Orange Mailer. We absolutely believe this company is going to be worth many millions. We know the underlying math for our competitors valuations, and our products are simply better.
Orange Marmelade is taking the lead and offering a simple solution to an all-too-common problem. KingsCrowd is currently finalizing its due diligence.
Please check back in 1-2 weeks to learn of our final recommendation and if it managed to earn our coveted “TOP DEAL” rating.
