阿里巴巴

A 15-year-old entrepreneur building a £200k business. If you feel called to create something - act on that impulse. No matter what age. Harrison Nott proves how innate business instinct, amplified by the world's most powerful digital supply chain at Alibaba.com, can drive extraordinary success. Keep rising, Harrison! #YoungEntrepreneurs #BusinessWithoutBarriers #Cocreate

Having an idea is one thing, transforming that into a scaling business is a whole other kettle of complex, unpredictable fish! 🫖🐠 That’s exactly what was discussed at the recent Alibaba.com x Kickstarter CoCreate panel discussion at the O2 alongside the wonderful Kickstarter CMO Courtney Brown Warren and fellow founder Eniye Okah creator of BEAME. It’s refreshing to share the ups and downs of running a startup with others navigating a similar path of unpredictability, and to pass on some of that lived experience to others aspiring to do the same 🔊 Aside from the technicalities of designing a product and setting up a UK supply chain for POTR (of which there have been many!), one of the key takeaways shared during our discussion was: ⭐️ It’s never too early to start building a brand! ⭐️ This is a truth I learned after failing to do this with previous attempts to bring my own products to market - I spent 3 years designing a cycling multitool that never saw the light of day, let alone a bike ride! Fortunately, this really was key to the success of POTR’s launch - we built a community long before product launch! It was great to learn of the parallels with Eniye when building BEAME and how the process of early product testing helped her cement an enthusiastic early adopter base prior to launch. This is where platforms like Kickstarter come into their own - a space to not only raise the capital you need to launch a new business, but build a long term community who become your brand champions from day 1 🙌 Very thankful to Heather, Bianca and Courtney from Kickstarter and Ciara from Alibaba for the invite to participate in this event. It was wonderful to connect with the Kickstarter and Alibaba.com teams in person and share startup stories with so many other creators. I hope the experiences we shared have helped others on the next step of their startup journey 🚀

I had a great time last week joining Alibaba.com’s CoCreate Pitch Athlete Track and support visionary entrepreneurs with Athlete365 I witnessed firsthand the resilience and drive in every contestant which, I think, mirrors the spirit of sporting competition. Wishing all the startups the best of luck on their journey ahead! #StartupSpirit #ResilienceUnleashed #AlibabaCom #CoCreatePitch #AthleteEmpower Alibaba.com

J'étais la semaine dernière l'invité de COCREATE, l'évènement annuel de Alibaba.com organisé pour la première fois en Europe. En compagnie notamment de Rio Ferdinand (légende du football UK), Sara Davies MBE (Dragon's Den, la version UK de QVEMA) et Everette Taylor (CEO de Kickstarter), nous avons asistés à de nombreux pitchs d'entrepreneurs venus présenter leurs innovations. Alibaba a aussi mis le paquet sur l'IA côté développement, notamment avec une approche agent qui permet de faciliter le commerce B2B. D'un point de vue très pragmatique, cela m'a amené à partager cette réflexion suivant sur l'avenir de l'IA : Je suis persuadé qu'avec l'apparition de tous ces nouveaux outils qui simplifient le déploiement business, nous arriverons assez rapidement à la première licorne qui n'aura qu'un seul employé fondateur... Il devient désormais possible pour quasiment n’importe qui de développer et lancer un business en connectant fournisseurs, fabricants et logisticiens partout dans le monde pour assembler, vendre et expédier pratiquement n’importe quoi. La conséquence est simple : si une large partie de l’exécution devient accessible à tous (comme Shopify et Stripe l’ont fait pour l’e-commerce), alors la vraie valeur se déplacera vers le marketing, l’acquisition de trafic et la capacité à vendre et convertir. À suivre ! #AlibabaCom #AIMode #B2BInnovation #NextGenTrade #WeCanMakeIt
#StartupSuccess

The three paradigm shifts that have completely changed the global B2B industry. Kuo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com, on why AI is the biggest shift yet. “Since I joined Alibaba.com in 2017, we’ve experienced at least three paradigm shifts.” 1. PC → Mobile “Back in 2017, most B2B work happened on PCs. As we built our mobile apps, 80% of traffic shifted from PC to mobile. Younger entrepreneurs now run global sourcing from anywhere on their phones.” 2. Listings → Transactions “We went from a yellow-page model to a transactional platform. We now enable trusted payments, logistics, and order protection, 30 million orders a year and $60 billion in GMV, a 10× increase in seven years.” 3. The next shift: AI “AI will transform the B2B world even more than it transformed the consumer internet. It’s the biggest paradigm shift we’ve ever seen.”

If you source on xn--2c2hubacb3bu.com or run an e-commerce brand, the 𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲 is about to change your first 30 hours of work. I recently got to test drive it on camera with Alibaba. Over the last year, like many, I have been obsessed with AI. At IMEX Sourcing Service(s), we do daily AI sessions to up our AI Game. We already feel the impact on speed, analysis, and internal workflows. What I’ve been curious about is this: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲. If there is one company with the data and infrastructure to make AI useful for international trade, it is Alibaba. They sit at the intersection of AI innovation and the world’s largest B2B trade platform. So when they asked me to be the “sourcing guy” in their new video for the upcoming AI mode, I was genuinely excited. The AI-Agent Mode is great for • Quickly validating or discarding new product ideas - great for e-commerce sellers and offline retailers • Getting a first pass on which regions make sense for a product • Building an initial spec and price map before you ever message a factory • Automating repetitive tasks • Letting humans focus on relationship building, negotiation, and risk management 𝗦𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀. It is about shrinking the fog of uncertainty at the start of every sourcing project. You still need to walk factory floors, drink BaiJiu (Optional!), and enjoy Chinese hospitality while you discuss terms. AI just means you can do that with a much clearer shortlist and better questions. From what I understand, AI mode on Alibaba will go live in the next few weeks. In the meantime, 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗼 is already live as a standalone tool and has come a long way since I first tried it about 9 months ago. Alibaba has kindly agreed to offer my network a trial of Accio at $1/Month for three months (normally $30/month for Pro). If you want the code, 👉 comment 𝗔𝗖𝗖𝗜𝗢 below and make sure we are connected - I will DM you the details. To help this reach the right people: 👉 If you know 𝗲-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀, 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴/𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 who should see how AI will change early-stage sourcing, tag them. 👉 And I am genuinely curious: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀? 𝗣.𝗦: Big thanks to Alibaba.com and Kuo Zhang for letting me be part of this project and for pushing real innovation in the sourcing space.