Interview #10: Sam Joseph

Keeping track of hundreds of retail accounts, let alone thousands, can be super cumbersome and manual. Stuff can fall through the cracks. I had the pleasure of chatting with Sam Joseph, the founder and CEO of Vismerch, an AI-enabled sales operations management platform for CPG brands. Thank you so much for joining, Sam! I am super excited to share this conversation.

This is the tenth conversation in an ongoing series with movers and shakers in the retail industry. Is there anyone you want to hear from? Please be sure to drop their names 👇

The following conversation has been lightly edited for context and clarity.

Sam Joseph: I am the CEO and founder of Vismerch. I'm a software engineer by trade. I spent most of my career building B2B software, but my first job was actually working for my family business. We were in retail distribution, and experienced firsthand the problems that Vismerch is solving today. I built the internal systems for our family business. Paying attention to the industry, I realized that there is not much software for CPG brands, especially for emerging ones. The same issues that we were dealing with [on the distribution side], the rest of the industry is dealing with [too]

At its core, the missing piece is a system of record or data layer for the CPG industry. Vismerch provides that by bringing all of that data together. We give you a complete picture of what is going on at the store level by combining all your disparate data sources. You are able to get much deeper analytics and insights, especially when you line it up with AI. It takes combined context to get these insights. There's also a CRM element to the platform. When we onboard new customers, we typically get 5-10 spreadsheets, ingest them, and bring it all together.

SJ: I think the CPG industry is so challenging. First, you have to get a buyer to approve your product. Then, once you get on shelves, your actual job starts. That is really where a lot of brands struggle and fail. The out-of-stocks: are you actually on the shelf? Do those stores carry your SKUs? We will find brands that think they are in 200 stores with their 4 products. In reality, maybe 20% of those stores will actually have the full assortment. [In this scenario,] you are flying at 80% compliance. 


Then, on top of that, we can tell the brand about the distributor issues. It's really about finding those holes where brands are literally bleeding money and identifying them. The distributors, the retailers, they all have their own vested interest. They are not necessarily worried about the specific brands. It is really up to the brand to make sure that they are running at 100%. That is really what the platform allows you to do. It gives you the ability to look at your operations from a 360-degree view, and see actually where a business is going [distribution-wise].

SJ: Once they have their pilot, they are in-store, and they are making sure it's on shelves. They usually have a merchandising team, or they're actually in-store [themselves]. I would recommend that if you are doing a pilot, try to do it close to home, so you can have as much control over it as possible. You really need to be in those stores, making sure they are on the shelf, making sure the facings are there, and the pricing is correct. Then, you are also most likely going to be on promotion after your first few weeks of going into stores. You need to make sure those promotions execute, because if you're not executing, it will affect you. If you're in a highly competitive set, like beverages, those facings are constantly being changed, constantly being fought over. If you are not coming [in], if you're not doing what you should be, then they will replace you. The brands that I think succeed are the ones that realize that once you get on the shelf, that is when the battle starts. You need to make sure you either have yourself, the team, or someone in there to make sure the shelf is properly set up.

SJ: That to me is one of the hottest topics of this industry. If
you are managing hundreds to thousands of locations, potentially geographically dispersed across the country, you are rarely responsible for actually getting [the product] there. You are [typically] dealing with distributors, which is another set of relationships. To me, [the best practices] come in two stages. You need a system or process for keeping track of all of that. I think if you leave it to chance, things will just naturally fall through the cracks. In your early stages, things like Excel or Notion are great tools. I think where brands run into a lot of friction with them is that those tools are not necessarily built to reflect the industry. You need to model the distributors, retailers, and how they all interact. At a certain point, you will outgrow spreadsheets, and that's really where a system like ours comes in. I would not say every single brand should be on our platform, but if you start to get into distribution, then you want to have processes in place, and you want to have mature processes in place. Start off with some way to organize everything and then move to an actual system.

SJ: I think brands are getting more capabilities. With technology and data, there are so many cool software platforms now in the industry that I think AI has unlocked for this industry. Brands are utilizing the data that is being provided to them and making sure they show that to retailers; then they're having data-driven conversations. I think that's what's really going to define the brands that succeed, the ones who are going to be taking advantage of that data, taking advantage of all the information out there, and using that to build their brand, and to defend their shelf space. 


SJ: I would say AI to me fits in bounded workflows. Then you do have the really powerful platforms with AI deductions and other AI and machine learning [application]. There is still so much room to grow what brands can ultimately do and other workflows. I think we are still very much in the early stages of AI. I am really excited about what will move on from bounded workflows to actual, true AI automation. You can't build off of chaos. If you don't have data, if you don't have infrastructure in place, that is why businesses struggle to build with AI.

SJ: I love all the beverages. I have really ventured in. All these better-for-you brands coming out, and that's what I love. [I like] any opportunity I can to improve my health and just make myself a little bit better. That is what I really love about a lot of these products. I think it reflects consumers’ [opinions]. There is so much attention to health and what is going on in our bodies. I think it's a movement toward people wanting healthier, real stuff. 


NSP: Hell no, it's not dead. My family was in the book industry for a long time, and I remember they were saying that Kindle was going to destroy the bookstore industry. Everything was going to move to electronics. Look at how Barnes & Noble is doing. No matter what, across industries, people prefer experiences. Online will take some people out of going into brick-and-mortar. [However], I think consumers still like that there's a cool experience of being in-store. I think it's only gonna get better. I think retailers will get better at having more experiences in the stores.

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