Philip Rooke of Spreadshirt presented at the Vivaldi Digital Summit on "Digital Darwinism" on June 5, 2013 in Frankfurt.

1. 1
Move at a Digital Speed
Business DNA & Rapid Evolution
Evolution = Sex, Mutation & Death

2. 2
Enabling People with Ideas to Market
Spreadshirt’s e-commerce platform lets anyone create, sell, and buy ideas
on products consumers love to wear, use, and carry.
“Come spread your ideas on
clothing & accessories
“Find, create and share
your interests”

3. 3
What does the Platform do?
1) Idea owners can place ideas on 140 apparel and
accessory base products in a virtual way.
No charges & nothing is printed until sold.
2) Articles are sold via
multiple points of sales:
- Spreadshirt own Shops
- White Label Shops
- Social Media Shops
- Amazon
- Tool Integrations
4) Spreadshirt handles the
transaction, print, delivery and the
Customer Service
5) Spreadshirt pays a profit
to the ideas owner
3) Partners own customers or
Spreadshirt/Amazon’s
customers buy the ideas.
No Minimum Order

4. 4
Spreadshirt is a Global Platform
Source:
Internet
World
Stats.
(1)
Includes:
Canada,
Mexico
and
US.
(2)
Includes:
Western
Europe,
Central
and
Eastern
Europe.
Boston
US HQ, Sales &
Marketing
Greensburg
Production & US
Operations
Las Vegas
Production
Leipzig
Global HQ &
Production)
Paris
Sales
Legnica
Production
North America(1)
Population: 347m
Internet Users: 273m
Europe(2)
Population: 816m
Internet Users: 501m
• 90,000 selling ideas owners per quarter
• Marketed to 17 countries worldwide
• 9 languages & 7 currencies
• 3.2 million items sold in 2012
• 36% in North America and 58% in EU
• Delivered to 45 countries worldwide
Amsterdam
Sales
The platform enables both
local and international ideas to market
London
Sales
Berlin
International Sales and
Marketing, QA, laFraise
4 identical factories ensure high speed
delivery, high quality and scalable service

5. 5
Examples of Speed & Evolution

6. 6
A Platform With a Winning Revenue Formula
Launching Spreadshirt
2005
2002
2003
2004
§ Spreadshirt starts
operations
§ 100 Shop Partners
registered
§ Expansion of
business model to
D2C
§ Internationalization,
launch of US
business
§ Start of own
production/fulfillment
Positioning as a platform
2009
2007
2006
2008
§ Opening of Berlin &
Boston offices
§ First
financing
round from
Accel
§ Second financing round
with Kennet & Accel
§ New executive team
appointed
Accelerated profitable growth
2011
2010
2012
§ API enables
partners to create
their own
applications
€31.8m
€45.8m
€62.1m
€0.1m
€0.5m
€2.3m
€8.2m
€16.0m
€20.1m
€26.3m
€27.8m
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
€83.0m
§ 2nd factory in North American
to open in Las Vegas
200m
In
2016

7. 7
If Your Business was an Animal

8. 8
• Food
– Animal: Acquisition of energy
– Business: Acquisition of revenue
• Absolute customer focus
• Attract customers to you
• Other sexier animals will steal them
• DNA Growth
– Animal: Evolution is exchange & recombination of DNA
– Business: Building team skills, knowledge & action
• Fast thinking and acting teams drive product development
• Product development is the sexiness that attracts customers
• Absolute customer focus should be part of DNA
Meaning of Life?

9. 9
Your Team is DNA

10. 10
• Ego led single visionary is not sustainable
– My DNA will die, retire or get poached for big money
– My team DNA already has over 500 years of knowledge & skills
• Grooming and Intelligent Design of Team DNA
– Sex: Bringing in new knowledge & skills
– Mutation: Creating new ideas
– Death: Killing old DNA and making room for new
Making Effective Team DNA

11. 11
• Aim to create a new beast
• New people = new DNA
– Do: Acquire different people
that do not fit current team
– Do not: Turn them into you
• Acquisition other companies
– Do: Buy challenges
– Do not: Bring in same
• Training may not be right
– Training slow and recycles
– New experiences
Sex in the Office: Ideas & Knowledge Sex

12. 12
• Do Not Brainstorm
– Mass mutation = bad
– 1 off events
– Often not positive ideas
• Team interaction
– Coffee Points
– Feel good manager
• Encourage Conflicts
– Creative differences
– Restructure
– Move people around
Mutation of Ideas

13. 13
• Changing DNA
– Old DNA has to go
– Phases are different
• Need staff turnover
– Pay to leave
– Restructure out
– Self poach
• Radical Moves of People
– Move to new departments
– Mix people together
Death in the Office: Opportunity

14. 14
• Healthiest DNA can Starve to
Death. Reverse Process
– Animals eat to replicate DNA
– Business replicates DNA to eat
– DNA needs purpose
• Customer centric
– Understand attracting customer
– Customer choice is one click away
• Total Customer Focus
– Meet the customer
– Understand the customer
– Adapt to the customer
Customer Focus Focus of DNA

15. 15
Example of Bad DNA?

16. 16
Beware the Selfish Gene

17. 17
Enabling People with Ideas to Market
Spreadshirt’s e-commerce platform lets anyone create, sell, and buy ideas
on products consumers love to wear, use, and carry.
“Come spread your ideas on
clothing & accessories
“Find, create and share
your interests”

18. 18
• Survival of the fittest = SPEED = best DNA
• Business Beast
– Speed is everything
– Driven by team DNA
• Manage your DNA
– Sex
– Mutation
– Death
• Customers are food
– Make DNA Customer Focus
– Total customer focus
Summary – Find the Beast in Your Business

19. 19
Thank you for your attention
Philip Rooke
CEO Spreadshirt
phr@spreadshirt.net