Founder Friday: Andy Cloyd & Anders Bill, Co-Founders of Superfiliate 🗣️
Issue #43
Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund that highlights companies across our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our 43rd edition we are featuring Andy Cloyd & Anders Bill, co-founders of Superfiliate, a modern referral program that enables merchants to empower their most influential customers, influencers, ambassadors and affiliates, to promote the brands they love in exchange for rewards.
Prior to starting Superfiliate, Andy Cloyd and Anders Bill were already active in the early stage and eCommerce space. Andy worked at Cultivation Capital and Revolution focused on software investing, following two years as a Venture for America Fellow. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Finance. Anders previous startup, Darkroom, powers thousands of artist and creator storefronts enabling them to sell their works online seamlessly. He has an Economics degree from Boston College (Magna Cum Laude, in case you’re keeping tabs).
The pair met serendipitously after a roommate fell through on a lease at the last minute and Andy was invited to step into their shoes by a mutual friend. Less than a week after their first meeting the two found themselves living together. What was supposed to be a short term arrangement turned into an extended stay, full of late night brainstorming sessions, ultimately discovering their shared views on the eCommerce world and vision for what Superfiliate could become.
While each of us likely spends a couple of hours per day scrolling through our social media feeds, some of us do not realize just how much of that time we are actually being sold to. Enter “Affiliate Marketing,” which is one of the leading revenue drivers for brands - some of which capture as much as 30% of their sales from this tactic.
Affiliate marketing is when an “affiliate” promotes a brand’s products and that promotion leads to a sale, resulting in the brand paying the affiliate a commission. Affiliates come in all shapes and sizes, from a hobbyist blogger to full time content creators and influencers including musicians, athletes, actors and actresses.
Given the headwinds that brands continue to face around finding profitable channels to acquire new customers (See Alpaca VC’s ‘Brand Discovery Report’), the need to diversify into new advertising strategies has become table stakes, with marketers increasingly opting for affiliate as their primary choice. Perhaps this is no surprise as influencers are very good at convincing people to buy products and already have a large, trusted following of consumers. [A recent report found that 20% of brand marketers rank affiliate as their most successful channel, with 54% ranking it among their top three.]
Enter Superfiliate, which removes all the friction from creating and managing affiliate programs. It provides fully customizable shopping experiences for affiliates to send their audiences to, and has proven to drive increased sales and conversion. Creators can tell the brand’s story in a way that is authentic to them, curate their favorite products, and get paid for the sales they generate. Click here to view a storefront demo powered by Superfiliate.
Superfiliate is an eCommerce SaaS company that allows brands to easily create a modern referral program and drive more sales. The service enables anyone, including influencers, customers, ambassadors and other affiliates, to promote brands they love through an incredibly easy-to-use, beautiful user experience, and earn rewards.
Since launching last year the company has moved quickly to add brands onto the platform, including Florence by Mills, Dr. Squatch, Olipop, Hiya Health, Beam, Mudwtr & others, and is on track to serve over 100 more by end of year. You can book a demo here, tell them I sent you, and let me know how it works out!
Describe your company in 5 words or less?
Andy: Personalized Storefronts for Creators + Customers.
Anders: Cobranded Creator/Customer Landing Pages.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Andy: To build a product and a team that we're proud of and learn a lot along the way. Also to see if I have what it takes - naively, I had given a lot of advice as an investor with limited operating experience. It was time to see if any of that was actually worth anything!
Anders: After investing in a handful of CPG companies, we saw that the best brands were executing a frontend strategy in the form of cobranded landing pages for their best affiliates, influencers and customers but this strategy never scaled. Word of mouth has never been a more important channel for brands yet there has been so little innovation. We want to build a platform that allows a brand to unify their word of mouth strategy across referral/loyalty, affiliate and influencer while allowing them to deliver a best in class frontend experience for their customers and creators.
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Andy: Get started - taking the leap isn't about having all the answers but rather having the confidence and drive to figure out where the opportunity is and solve the problems that come up along the way. Once you go all in, you quickly become one of people thinking most about a problem and if you talk to enough people, they'll probably bring you a problem worth solving.
Anders: Create a narrative driven thesis on the product you want to build, pitch it to as many thought leaders in the space that you can and then deeply reevaluate the assumptions that underlay that thesis. Ideally you can build an MVP during this process and continue to run retrospectives on those same product assumptions.
What do you love to do in your free time?
Andy: I walk, listen to books and podcasts, talk to friends, play music, and go see my favorite band Goose. All powered by a borderline dangerous amount of caffeine.
Anders: I love to surf and be in the ocean as much as I can!!
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Andy: Florianopolis, Brazil! It’s where so much of our team is, and it has such a rich history and culture. We're also lucky to have some pretty good guides when we're there. Our team there is family, and we feel that way every time we visit.
Anders: Southern Brazil -- Much of our team lives down there and it is one of the most welcoming + diverse environments.
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Andy: Spotify - it gives me information and music, my two favorite things.
Anders: Loom - recording a video vs typing a long email brings me so much more joy and creates so much more alignment with those I'm talking with.
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Andy: Perseverance - there are 1,000 times where you could and, in some instances, maybe even should give up but you have to keep going.
Anders: Striking the balance between conviction and doubt.
Want to invest with SuperAngel?
Join SuperAngelSyndicate.com. Once accepted, syndicate members are invited to review deal memos whenever I have a new investment to share, and can choose to invest or pass based on their own discretion. Minimums generally start at $2,500 and priority allocations are given to SuperAngel.Fund LPs on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to request an invitation to the syndicate.
Join SuperAngel.Fund. Unlike the syndicate, the fund is my primary investment vehicle and provides diversified exposure to every company SuperAngel invests in, one of the most important attributes of a successful early stage portfolio. LPs also receive priority access to co-investments. Click here to request more information on the fund.
SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund led by Ben Zises that invests in Consumer (CPG, eCommerce SaaS), PropTech & Future of Work.
Why am I receiving this?
You are receiving this email because you are either a friend, co-investor, associate, or connection of Ben Zises or SuperAngel, who at one point expressed interest in receiving updates and other correspondence from me. If you received this email in error, please accept my apologies and feel free to unsubscribe at the link below.