Ali Kriegsman Built An Empire And Raised $9M For Her Business
Ali Kriegsman is a force. She started Bulletin as a newsletter and side hustle in 2015 with her cofounder. Seven years later, Bulletin is a multimillion dollar wholesale marketplace connecting brands and retailers with tens of thousands of users—and it was recently acquired by tradeshow business, Emerald.
It took Ali a few pivots to land on the online wholesale marketplace idea. Bulletin started as a shoppable newsletter spotlighting up-and-coming founders and brands—just a side hustle at the time.
In 2016 Ali and her cofounder, Alana Branston, took their side hustle full time, adding IRL popup market events to promote the newsletter and where brands could be discovered by retailers (brands paid to be included). Then, another shift to permanent brick-and-mortar shops, and finally to the Bulletin that exists today.
When it launched as a newsletter, Bulletin was bootstrapped, and Ali says it was barely bringing in any money. But, within two months of launching the online marketplace in 2019, monthly marketplace GMV (gross merchandise value) surpassed Bulletin’s cumulative monthly sales across all permanent stores they had open at the time. Obvi, they took this as a sign to go all in on the online marketplace.
Ali raised venture capital for this business: first a $2M seed round ahead of opening three permanent stores across New York, then a $7M Series A to grow the online marketplace.
No matter how the business pivoted, Bulletin has always pursued the same goal: to democratize wholesale access for brands. By facilitating thousands of wholesale orders via Bulletin, Ali has learned exactly what buyers are looking for in brands.
Ali's DOs for brands looking to land stockists:
Have strong product photography and great editorial photography that tells the story of your brand and ideal customer.
Make sure you have robust product descriptions that are in your brand voice.
Put together a "brand knowledge kit" so that buyers have the education they need to train their retail staff.
Build a community for your buyers! Ali says standout brands have a dedicated Instagram for buyers, send samples and newsletters, and treat them like VIPs with off-sites and events.
Ali's DON'Ts for brands looking to land stockists:
Don't approach buyers with the same cookie-cutter email template. You would customize an email to influencers or potential brand partners, so craft your stockist outreach around each specific buyer's tastes that you sleuth out through online digging.
Don't show up to the store IRL unannounced. While this used to be super OK for brands, this is a big no today with retailers understaffed and feeling overwhelmed.
Unlike other platforms, Bulletin has a discovery feed to help brands get noticed by retailers. And Ali says brands should post regularly, including photos of the founding team, to tell your story.
Brands can also super charge their Bulletin page with keywords, so be sure to add relevant, timely keywords that retailers might be looking for. An example would be adding "fall cozy" or "spring colorful" to your page in anticipation of what's trending for the season, on top of any literal tags like "vanilla candle".
What's the latest for Ali and Bulletin? After scaling the business and raising over $9M in venture capital funding, Bulletin was acquired in 2022 by Emerald Holding, a trade show company known for their business-to-business events.
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