Auto Parts 4Less Group Inc (FLES)

[Justjoe1979]

$FLES Notes from Waypoint Podcast Interview

Reposting to pin it.

Rough notes From FLES Waypoint Podcast With Christopher Davenport
Typos and mistakes may abound, did not want to take the time to edit. Listen to the podcast yourself if you want exact quotes.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1012507979?t=0h0m3s%2F%3Ftt_content%3Dtwitch_logo

WaypointJohn(WP)

Used to be on the Waypoint Discord, It’s been awhile, what have you been up to?

Christopher Davenport(CD)

Been incredibly busy on every front. Main focus Developing thautoparts4lessmarketplace launching this summer and growing the current sit lifkits4less.com and partnered with NASCAR to promote the site. Logo on the Darlington Track for the weekend. April very large increase in sales over last year and going to grow it even more. Increasing SKU count from 60k to close to 1M SKUs. Going to a cloud based server to increase the SKU count. Change code to incorporate inventory APIs. Trying to be as accurate as possible on shipping times for consumers. Helping manufacturers and customers succeed.

WP: How does an OTC company end up sponsoring NASCAR?

CD: Goal was to bring brand awareness and quality, to elevate the brand. Partnered with MBM morotsports. Small team met in Vegas and things happened very quickly, they are a budget team that has to do what it needs to get racing each week. Working with FLES to create as much exposure as possible. iRacing race that night sponsorship paint scheme was just offered for the race. Getting tons of exposure and sales are through the roof and will help us launch AP4less this summer.

WP: Lets talk about AP4less. Shift to overall marketplace for auto parts.

CD: Market today dysfunctional and disjointed, hard to run your own site, challenging for sellers and manufacturers. Marketplaces are the solution. Amazon, eBay, ETSY, Walmart, JET, even UBER, LYFT. This was overdue for the auto-parts market specifically for a catered auto-parts only marketplace. Opportunity is tremendous but extremely challenging. Fortunately they have a great partner with Commerce Pundit. Huge team with over 300 programmers that cover all aspects of e-commerce. Partenered with them on liftkits4less sales have doubled, and can go further with increase in sku count.

With CP as their partner and the lessons learned from LK4less, means AP4less platform is way overdue, going to be wildly successful.

WP: That’s the way things are going, Apple’s biggest revenue driver is the app store, which is essentially a marketplace. Being able to make a percentage on every transaction.

CD: Yes Each seller has to manage their own orders and inventory but the platform is provided to enable the transactions to happen. Additional vertical Getting it installed. Working with an installation group, will be a great revenue driver, and reduce friction at checkout. Using Paypal for payments to control for theft and fraud.

WP We want to see passion. It’s good to see and know the industry, recognize the problems and come up with solutions. You have been talking with vendors, what is the general reaction?

CD: Everyone is ultra-positive, because there is no voice advocating for both buyer and seller. Amazon tells you when to jump and how high and how far and if you don’t do it right they will crush you. They have complete and total control over the seller. Tried Amazon and it just was not a good fit, been very successful with eBay. Seller frustration on how eBay holds sellers and buyers accountable. Confident we can provide a better experience for both and feedback received has been very positive.

I was in India from Nov- Jan during COVID for front-end development, developed 85 front end pages. COVID currently exploding in India, impacting everyone, programming team working from home. Still time to deliver and still on track to launch this summer. Will be methodical and deliberate on the roll-out, there will be beta test sellers. There will be feedback and issues and we’ll work through those and roil it out through the end of the year. In 2022 pedal to the metal and onboard as many sellers as possible grow this at a very large scale.

WP: Ridiculous amount of commitment Went to India during COVID for months. Applaud.

CD: Really good we did, no one knew what was going to happen, I was freaking out. Paradigm shift in buying online. Everyone wants to get e-commerce up , but there are a lack of programmers. With CP partnership we are in a good position. Hard to hire programmers at the moment, so this is going to pay off well for everybody.

WP: Moving toward digital purchasing, everyone is more open to it. How has that affected you sales?

CD: Sales have exploded. We are extremely fortunate; we were really small e-comm company up until 2019. Brad(lead IT) and I went to India in early 2019 to figure it out, how do we want to do this? Settled on hiring/partnering development firm. Changed lk4less from 1 man show to full on team. Digital marketing has exploded, with new capital PPC is really driving sales! Having CP as a partner is great. Confident sales this year will be very strong and SKU count will grow significantly allowing for greater sales and improved customer satisfaction. Going to be an exciting year. Oh and we’re launching a MP

Using all the lessons and revenue of LK4Less to help develop this marketplace, very difficult for someone in a different situation to do this without burning millions of dollars. Very healthy way to approach the market.

WP: Helps that you have experience in the industry. You know what the sellers and the customers want.

CD: I’m an industry guy, Have an install shop grew up busting knuckles. I understand what’s important. People tell me good luck with that or I hope it happens. It’s going to happen it is already happening and it is happening relatively fast! I was in India in November, we are launching this summer, sometime after June 20th. Roll out a great product slowly, learn fix and then push the gas pedal and blow it out of the water. A lot of confusion on competion, we are not competing with the CarId’s and the rockauto’s we are here to help them sell more, install, willcall, NAPA, Autozone give us your API’s to drive customers to your store.

WP: Virtually no risk to list?

CD: No listing fees, looking for experienced sellers, not new guys, only looking for quality sellers.

WP: Biggest obstacle in the next few months?

CD: Coding something that’s never been coded before. Almost daily calls with team leads, working through it on a daily basis. Amazing coders but don’t know the mind of the American seller and consumer. They are passionate about the project and are 100% onboard. Young workforce. Very talented but being affected by COVID. On track/ on time. It’s fast have the working version on my phone I can pull up. This is amazing and exciting.

WP: Internal milestones? What’s phase 2 after phase 1 is complete.

CD: Very methodical. Phase 1 marketplace, phase 2 is really the installation service. Working with a company. Hypothetically, black Friday sale get it installed for half price. Huge opportunity for B2B vetted wholesale buyers can get additional discounts. So many Ma and Pa shops are paying full retail on eBay for parts, because they don’t know where else to source them. Bringing Value to the industry.

WP: Provides ma and pa shops with cheaper parts and with installation services drives customers into local shops.

CD: Excited for the future. Can’t dropship on Amazon anymore, margins are to slim, the manufacturer can sell direct with greater margins. AP4less can act as a distribution channel to customers they already are contracted with.

WP You have been able to do this on a tight budget. Where are you at with the REG A? Will you need more capital?

CD: Well the REG A is out and we hope people will buy through it to help us grow, to pay off debt marketing and development. Raised 2.5M of 15 M open through the end of the year. Big goal is to get to NASDAQ. Critical goal for us. Trying to get there as quickly as possible. Some requirements on the cusp of meeting. Feels like it is very achievable this year, but definitely next year if not this year, hoping for this year.

WP: If anyone can do it you can, going to India was impressive.

CD: I’m just hungry and want to get this built before someone else does. I can’t wait. Marketplace is us pivoting to the market demands. Drop shipping was a great model, margins getting thinner, and manufacturers are going more direct to consumer, I have to do this marketplace or be forced out. Anything motorized, EV or combustion from cars and trucks to Jet ski’s boats and RV’s. Hard to know where to go first for an auto part.

WP: parts for EV like TESLA PITA to get parts. Could this be a big market for you?

CD: If there are any TESLA parts MF out there AP4less will be a great solution. 3rd part TESLA parts manufacturers are out there but hard to get their parts marketed. This gives a larger platform to expose their parts. Stay tuned!

WP What got you into the OTC

CD looking to raise capital. Can go to friends and family, or go to VC. VC wasn’t attractive because they want control. OTC was a way to maintain more control over the company and control over the direction. Get to NASDAQ and become the face of the Auto-parts industry.Rough notes From FLES Waypoint Podcast With Christopher Davenport
Typos and mistakes may abound, did not want to take the time to edit. Listen to the podcast yourself if you want exact quotes. WaypointJohn - Twitch

WaypointJohn(WP)

Used to be on the Waypoint Discord, It’s been awhile, what have you been up to?

Christopher Davenport(CD)

Been incredibly busy on every front. Main focus Developing thautoparts4lessmarketplace launching this summer and growing the current sit lifkits4less.com and partnered with NASCAR to promote the site. Logo on the Darlington Track for the weekend. April very large increase in sales over last year and going to grow it even more. Increasing SKU count from 60k to close to 1M SKUs. Going to a cloud based server to increase the SKU count. Change code to incorporate inventory APIs. Trying to be as accurate as possible on shipping times for consumers. Helping manufacturers and customers succeed.

WP: How does an OTC company end up sponsoring NASCAR?

CD: Goal was to bring brand awareness and quality, to elevate the brand. Partnered with MBM morotsports. Small team met in Vegas and things happened very quickly, they are a budget team that has to do what it needs to get racing each week. Working with FLES to create as much exposure as possible. iRacing race that night sponsorship paint scheme was just offered for the race. Getting tons of exposure and sales are through the roof and will help us launch AP4less this summer.

WP: Lets talk about AP4less. Shift to overall marketplace for auto parts.

CD: Market today dysfunctional and disjointed, hard to run your own site, challenging for sellers and manufacturers. Marketplaces are the solution. Amazon, eBay, ETSY, Walmart, JET, even UBER, LYFT. This was overdue for the auto-parts market specifically for a catered auto-parts only marketplace. Opportunity is tremendous but extremely challenging. Fortunately they have a great partner with Commerce Pundit. Huge team with over 300 programmers that cover all aspects of e-commerce. Partenered with them on liftkits4less sales have doubled, and can go further with increase in sku count.

With CP as their partner and the lessons learned from LK4less, means AP4less platform is way overdue, going to be wildly successful.

WP: That’s the way things are going, Apple’s biggest revenue driver is the app store, which is essentially a marketplace. Being able to make a percentage on every transaction.

CD: Yes Each seller has to manage their own orders and inventory but the platform is provided to enable the transactions to happen. Additional vertical Getting it installed. Working with an installation group, will be a great revenue driver, and reduce friction at checkout. Using Paypal for payments to control for theft and fraud.

WP We want to see passion. It’s good to see and know the industry, recognize the problems and come up with solutions. You have been talking with vendors, what is the general reaction?

CD: Everyone is ultra-positive, because there is no voice advocating for both buyer and seller. Amazon tells you when to jump and how high and how far and if you don’t do it right they will crush you. They have complete and total control over the seller. Tried Amazon and it just was not a good fit, been very successful with eBay. Seller frustration on how eBay holds sellers and buyers accountable. Confident we can provide a better experience for both and feedback received has been very positive.

I was in India from Nov- Jan during COVID for front-end development, developed 85 front end pages. COVID currently exploding in India, impacting everyone, programming team working from home. Still time to deliver and still on track to launch this summer. Will be methodical and deliberate on the roll-out, there will be beta test sellers. There will be feedback and issues and we’ll work through those and roil it out through the end of the year. In 2022 pedal to the metal and onboard as many sellers as possible grow this at a very large scale.

WP: Ridiculous amount of commitment Went to India during COVID for months. Applaud.

CD: Really good we did, no one knew what was going to happen, I was freaking out. Paradigm shift in buying online. Everyone wants to get e-commerce up , but there are a lack of programmers. With CP partnership we are in a good position. Hard to hire programmers at the moment, so this is going to pay off well for everybody.

WP: Moving toward digital purchasing, everyone is more open to it. How has that affected you sales?

CD: Sales have exploded. We are extremely fortunate; we were really small e-comm company up until 2019. Brad(lead IT) and I went to India in early 2019 to figure it out, how do we want to do this? Settled on hiring/partnering development firm. Changed lk4less from 1 man show to full on team. Digital marketing has exploded, with new capital PPC is really driving sales! Having CP as a partner is great. Confident sales this year will be very strong and SKU count will grow significantly allowing for greater sales and improved customer satisfaction. Going to be an exciting year. Oh and we’re launching a MP

Using all the lessons and revenue of LK4Less to help develop this marketplace, very difficult for someone in a different situation to do this without burning millions of dollars. Very healthy way to approach the market.

WP: Helps that you have experience in the industry. You know what the sellers and the customers want.

CD: I’m an industry guy, Have an install shop grew up busting knuckles. I understand what’s important. People tell me good luck with that or I hope it happens. It’s going to happen it is already happening and it is happening relatively fast! I was in India in November, we are launching this summer, sometime after June 20th. Roll out a great product slowly, learn fix and then push the gas pedal and blow it out of the water. A lot of confusion on competion, we are not competing with the CarId’s and the rockauto’s we are here to help them sell more, install, willcall, NAPA, Autozone give us your API’s to drive customers to your store.

WP: Virtually no risk to list?

CD: No listing fees, looking for experienced sellers, not new guys, only looking for quality sellers.

WP: Biggest obstacle in the next few months?

CD: Coding something that’s never been coded before. Almost daily calls with team leads, working through it on a daily basis. Amazing coders but don’t know the mind of the American seller and consumer. They are passionate about the project and are 100% onboard. Young workforce. Very talented but being affected by COVID. On track/ on time. It’s fast have the working version on my phone I can pull up. This is amazing and exciting.

WP: Internal milestones? What’s phase 2 after phase 1 is complete.

CD: Very methodical. Phase 1 marketplace, phase 2 is really the installation service. Working with a company. Hypothetically, black Friday sale get it installed for half price. Huge opportunity for B2B vetted wholesale buyers can get additional discounts. So many Ma and Pa shops are paying full retail on eBay for parts, because they don’t know where else to source them. Bringing Value to the industry.

WP: Provides ma and pa shops with cheaper parts and with installation services drives customers into local shops.

CD: Excited for the future. Can’t dropship on Amazon anymore, margins are to slim, the manufacturer can sell direct with greater margins. AP4less can act as a distribution channel to customers they already are contracted with.

WP You have been able to do this on a tight budget. Where are you at with the REG A? Will you need more capital?

CD: Well the REG A is out and we hope people will buy through it to help us grow, to pay off debt marketing and development. Raised 2.5M of 15 M open through the end of the year. Big goal is to get to NASDAQ. Critical goal for us. Trying to get there as quickly as possible. Some requirements on the cusp of meeting. Feels like it is very achievable this year, but definitely next year if not this year, hoping for this year.

WP: If anyone can do it you can, going to India was impressive.

CD: I’m just hungry and want to get this built before someone else does. I can’t wait. Marketplace is us pivoting to the market demands. Drop shipping was a great model, margins getting thinner, and manufacturers are going more direct to consumer, I have to do this marketplace or be forced out. Anything motorized, EV or combustion from cars and trucks to Jet ski’s boats and RV’s. Hard to know where to go first for an auto part.

WP: parts for EV like TESLA PITA to get parts. Could this be a big market for you?

CD: If there are any TESLA parts MF out there AP4less will be a great solution. 3rd part TESLA parts manufacturers are out there but hard to get their parts marketed. This gives a larger platform to expose their parts. Stay tuned!

WP What got you into the OTC

CD looking to raise capital. Can go to friends and family, or go to VC. VC wasn’t attractive because they want control. OTC was a way to maintain more control over the company and control over the direction. Get to NASDAQ and become the face of the Auto-parts industry.