Click here for Part I & Part III

Forging a more sustainable connection between consumers and the environment

Susan Aplin is the CEO and co-founder of Bambeco, a multi-channel retailer that designs and manufactures sustainable home goods. Launched 8 years ago, on Earth Day, Bambeco is dedicated to addressing environmental change by selling ecologically sound, energy-reducing products. The company offers a wide range of furniture, home decor, bed and bath, and outdoor options, regularly cycling in seasonal and holiday-themed items. Additionally, Bambeco partners with environmentalist groups such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, and the Whole Planet Foundation.

EDWIN WARFIELD: After starting Bambeco, what led you to Baltimore?

SUSAN APLIN: We knew at this point we had revenue. The business was in operation, and we had come off The Today Show, had a very good showing, and people were really starting to look at the brand and customers were starting to come to the site. We did not have the funding to really do strategic marketing or digital marketing, so it was really word of mouth and free press in the early days. Our base was growing and we made a decision that we need to move the business to a bigger city and we needed to tap a creative talent because we needed help.

We looked at six cities. We looked at Washington, DC. We looked at San Francisco. We looked at New York. We looked at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

Through our very methodical process, we were looking for the right city—the right home that would have the right talent that would allow us to recruit and really build this out.

Baltimore was an amazing city for a variety of reasons: It had a venture fund even though we didn’t have a relationship with them. It had a vibrant port. It is a vibrant port city. We love the fact that Baltimore, as a city, is not tearing down a lot of buildings—they’re refurbishing them into offices and lofts, and that was a really cool part of the city. The mayor at the time was very active and trying to convince us to come to the city. The Baltimore Development Corporation was great to help us to get here with incentives and a location. And it was in the Top 10 Green cities in the US, which we were completely surprised about. Once we saw that, that was it. We were absolutely going to come to Baltimore.

Q. How did you initially fund the company?

A. We were friends and family, but we are very milestone driven, and the State of Maryland actually invested before we did our Series A with New Atlantic Ventures. They were a huge supporter. Then we started to bring in some additional investors in the Baltimore area, who basically helped fund the company. At this point, I knew that we needed to look at bigger funding if we were going to truly scale the company. I presented at MAVA event in Washington, DC, and that is the first time that I met Bambeco director Thanasis [Delistathis]. We were also working with the Duane Morris law firm, and Jay Cohen had been very active in making some of these introductions as well. I met Thanasis, and during our Series A, there were a few firms that were interested in participating and leading that round. We went through the process, and I knew that New Atlantic was the firm for us and it would be a terrific partner through the process.

Q. How do you intend to grow Bambeco over the next few years?

A. Just looking back to how we funded the business on a shoestring when we started, I always believed 60 degrees of separation didn’t really apply to us. We had a lot of relationships and we should leverage the relationships as long as it was brand-aligned. We could scale the company in the wholesale market with those relationships and put the brand out there, which would also serve as an advertising vehicle.

We are in Home Depot today with a very special line. We’re in Whole Foods today. We’re in Total Wine today. We’re in a number of stores across the US today, in different capacities, but the real focus is finding the right partnerships—companies who understand the brand, celebrate the brand, and want to really put the brand out there.

Today, about half of the business is coming from wholesale and half is coming from our direct-to-consumer, but over the next three years, that will change pretty significantly. The direct-to-consumer business is growing at over 100% year over year, and we will actually start to just contain the wholesale part of the business into a very tight model and really focus on the direct-to-consumer business.

Q. Tell us about your partnership with Total Wine.

A. Total Wine is a terrific partner. We first started with a few items, a few SKUs in a few stores—did very well. We expanded to all stores with those items. We were in the top items for their holiday business a couple of years ago. We then expanded into our own branded endcap with them. That did really well—high sell-through, high margin—and now we have our own ecoShop in the Laurel Store, which is just a terrific Bambeco presentation.

Total Wine is terrific company. It’s also Maryland based company and we both get to celebrate that, and they love the fact that we are based in Maryland, but they are really fascinated and interested in the sustainability market and how it complements their overall assortment.

Connect with Susan on LinkedIn

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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