Manufactured v/s Sourceeasy
The Manufactured team launched our website, our VIP app and re-released our PRO app into public beta recently.
I’m super proud of what we’ve built. Bringing the ease of building, managing and scaling contract manufacturing supply chains to SMBs, small teams inside larger brands and new startup brands is something I’ve been trying to do since 2013.
As some of you might know, I used to run Sourceeasy — that shut down in end 2017 and filed for bankruptcy in Jan 2018.
Along with Sourceeasy’s demise, my personal life took a massive nosedive both, financially and personally — I was sued by ex-employees and lost (partially); I ended up owing a bunch of money on my personal name (and still do) because I took personal risk in Sourceeasy; I was sued in India and managed to stay arrest warrants; I lost all my relationships with my co-founder, and I ended up bankrupt, and homeless in end-2017.
But this post is not about my personal trials. Well Not here and Not now.
This post is about *WHY* I wanted to build Manufactured after losing everything I owned in Sourceeasy. And why this time it*IS* different”.
The core problem with contract manufacturing in the world has not changed in 6 years. If anything, it‘s gotten worse.
Brand and Vendor Fragmentation is challenging incumbents like never before.
Factories are getting smaller. Trade wars are increasing costs.
Meanwhile, even behemoths like Amazon are struggling to keep up with new “challenger brands” who are giving the incumbents a run for their money not just in Apparel and Footwear, but in CPG, FMCG, Beauty, Travel, Home.
And finally, the long tail of boutiques, small brands is going mainstream in the startup world when a company like Faire receives >$100M in funding.
But the truth is: contract manufacturing is still broken.
Vendors fear outcomes and hide bad news. This is a basic human instinct (Flight) in the base part of our brain. Hide the issue and pretend it will miraculously resolve itself.
Stop reporting problems and the problems will go away. Maybe they won’t notice it. Maybe it’ll just be acceptable. Maybe everything will be happy again.
(There’s also just malafide intent but thats not solvable by software. Thats just bad faith.)
The biggest reasons for this mistrust are the failure to Communicate and incumbent Behavior.
Even though a bunch of tools have been built for the Brand side — Backbone PLM, BeProduct, Techpacker, Cala, Sourcify, Anvyl, to name a few, the actual digitization of vendor management and manufacturing is still broken.
Teams are getting smaller; Brands are starting up *every* day; distribution is getting easier and easier; and while *sourcing* seems to be a solved problem, vendor management, order management and production management is NOT.
So there’s no real debate about the need for a robust lightweight contract manufacturing software solution. The real debate is HOW.
Sourceeasy tried to fix it with the vertically integrated “Full Stack” approach. Like Flexport but for 1 single industry: Apparel.
We took liability, tried to be at the center of the transaction, collect a margin to align success and incentives with the brand.
We offered design, development, sourcing, manufacturing, financing and delivery all under 1 roof, in 1 software tool. Our software was a PLM system (builds techpacks, develops samples, sized products, completes specs), an ERP system (issue POs, invoices, track accounts) and a WIP system (order tracking, project management, etc).
But at the core of it, our system didn’t automate the key parts of the puzzle. The full-service approach made clients and vendors interact less with the software and old habits died hard. Most of the production tracking data was 2nd hand.
And that was our A-ha moment. We realized that true automation comes from 1st hand data. 1st hand data comes from real time interactions. Real time interactions come by reducing friction to collect the data. Reducing friction comes from fitting into current and existing behaviors.
If you ask a travel agent to book you a plane ticket, its not really automated.
Manufactured, (originally “The Apparel Network”) — we were still trying to solve this problem for the Apparel industry. But as we went out into the market with a landing page (and not much else) we realized that this problem is everywhere: CPG, Food, FMCG, Cosmetics, Home, Souvenirs, Footwear, Furniture, Luggage, Fashion… And we realized that Every Industry will need a contract manufacturing solution. So when we decided to build Manufactured. Not just “The Apparel Network”
The biggest difference with Manufactured is that we’re not trying to re-invent the wheel.
Using Excel to build techpacks? Upload them to your product
Using Email to communicate? Add our system as a CC.
Using Whatsapp and WeChat exclusively? Hook into those systems.
Managing multiple vendors and partners for 1 order? Add them ALL to 1 project.
Sending WIP reports to your boss and peers? Send reports to any external email.
And the best part? Its low cost, easy and simple. and AFFORDABLE.
No complicated setups. No forms to fill. No dashboards to update. Just simplified project management. for $99 / month.
And so at the base of it, while Sourceeasy was trying to solve “Every Problem” for small brands in 1 industry, Manufactured is only trying to solve “One Problem” for small brands in Every Industry — how to digitize manufacturing.
In the end, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Manufactured is open for business and welcomes every single one of you brand builders out there to learn more about us and sign up at www.manufactured.com
Thank you,
Pranay
