🟠 BrandLand #06. Mateusz Haberny, founder & CEO of Oakywood
🟠 BrandLand #06. Mateusz Haberny, founder & CEO of Oakywood
From a family tradition to a team of almost 30 people 🙌. Sustainable growth without sacrificing ownership 📈.
Welcome to BrandLand 👋: We tell stories about impactful brands from around the world.
🎙️ Today is time for interview #06
Today’s e-com BrandLand guest is… 🙌 Mateusz Haberny!
Mateusz Haberny, founder & CEO of Oakywood 🪵🪚, a Polish brand founded in 2017 that specialises in workspaces accessories and customized desks made of wood. Their priorities are sustainability and quality 🤝 . Mateusz has a masters in IT & econometrics and founded the company together with his father and brother.
Topics at a glance:
💬 Conversation topics
✍️ Key learnings from the interview
🕑 Time stamps and topics
💬 Conversation topics
Mateusz’s love for wood runs in the family; his dad had a workshop in the backyard and Mateusz and his brother used to help him out and have their own projects. Now they are running Oakywood together. A part from explaining how they founded the company back in 2017, Mateusz also talks about…
…their first product and how it was launched into the market
…if the company is profitable
…the role of Etsy and other marketplaces & the transition to their own webshop
…the salary he pays himself
…their product pipeline
…what is their optimal ROAS
…the split between B2B and B2C
…the pros and cons of controlling all stages of production
…the marketing set-up and their monthly ad spend.
…the financial set-up
And much more!
The brand's commitment to consciously source their materials ♻️, their high quality products & their innovation has gained our admiration. Great job!👏
❗Poll alert! - Founding a company early inexperienced, or later with more experience?
This is a question that we ask in all our interviews - so we would like to know your opinion👇
Let us know in the comments the reason why👇💬
✍️ Key learnings from the interview
Our personal key learnings from the interview are the following:
Identify growth opportunities: Oakywood is primarily a B2C business at the moment. Recently they have also seen interest & success in B2B sales, with corporate clients. Because of that, Mateusz explains that more efforts will be put into B2B in the future.
Going for it: Mateusz was studying a master's degree in IT economics and decided to drop out in order to pursue Oakywood full-time, finding the entrepreneurial path more engaging and fulfilling. It was definitely the right step for him at that time 👏.
“I think many people simply delay the decision to start the company because they think they will be prepared, but you will never be.” - Mateusz
Approach to growth and funding: Mateusz is cautious about external funding, preferring to grow sustainably without sacrificing ownership. He believes that rapid growth may not always be sustainable in the long run.
Challenges of sustainable sourcing ♻️: Obtaining FSC-certified wood is one of the biggest challenge of the company due to availability.
At first, the challenge was to get the certification... Once you go through that certification, you will be audited every year. So there will be a challenge every year for you to go through that audit. I would say currently the challenge is to get the material simply to get the FSC certified material which is sometimes really lacking on the market in terms of supply. - Mateusz
Customisation as an advantage: Oakywood’s ability to customise its products is seen as a competitive advantage. Since Oakywood controls all the steps of their production process, they can personalise their products, meeting the unique needs of their customers. By having their own production team and processes, Oakywood also maintains control over the quality of their products.
Performance marketing & new marketing landscape: Oakywood places a strong focus on Google and Meta platforms for advertising. Mateusz also explains the need to explore new channels like Pinterest and TikTok to reach customers effectively.
“Well, we do see the shift like rising costs, especially in the main marketing channels like Google and Meta. We are testing some other platforms like Pinterest as well as TikTok…” - Mateusz
Product validation: Mateusz explains the first steps of Oakywood and the transition from Etsy - a handmade goods marketplace - into their own webshop. He explains that Etsy provided them with the product validation that they needed before investing the resources into their own website.
“I started on Etsy and then like a year later when I saw that, you know, on Etsy people are buying these things, they are looking for accessories like that. And then I created the webshop.” - Mateusz
One-man army to team building: Initially, Mateusz handled all aspects of the business himself, from product design to marketing. Over time, he expanded the team, with his brother and father joining for production, and later a designer for product development.
Mateusz’s passion for Oakywood has captivated our team. Watch the full interview to get an overview of how the business has developed from a family tradition to a team of almost 30 people👇:
Below you can find the exact times when discussing a specific topic. This allows you to move back and forth where you find the most interest. Enjoy it! 👇
🕑 Time stamps and topics
(00:00) Snippet
(00:31) Mateusz’s background and founding the business with family
(04:38) Starting on Etsy and transitioning to an own website & beginnings of the brand
(12:20) In-house production and challenges
(18:10) Yes or no questions
(21:56) Marketing (channels, B2C vs B2B)
(27:40) Product pipeline & materials
(31:41) Financing, profitability and ownership
(33:30) Personal questions (salary, biggest fuckup and favourite brand besides Oakywood)
Thinking about bringing your e-com brand to Switzerland? 🇨🇭
Do you have an impactful brand and want to bring it to Switzerland? Book a meeting with our founders to get to know each other 😃
Jens Bergermann: Working in purchasing & sales of consumer brands for over 8 years.
Previously helped to scale DeinDeal.ch and Amorana.ch until exits. Passionate about branding and distribution strategy. Let’s talk!
Nicolas Huxley: Building brands on Shopify for over 9 years.
Previously founded Elephbo.com and Tauschtoni.com. Love to build and support brands with purpose. Happy to jump on a call!
👈 Previous interview
On the previous interview we had a chat with Xavi Rius, co-founder and CEO of Citysens 🌿, a Spanish brand that specialises in self-watering systems for indoor plants. The brand has an important focus on sustainability, transparency and social impact 🤝 . Follow along to discover how Xavi’s academic background has shaped him into an entrepreneur.
Check it out here:
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