Alexi Suvacioglu On Raising $70 Million To Help Older Adults Live Independent Lifestyles By Delivering Essential Products

Alexi Suvacioglu’s entrepreneurial story is about passion, resilience, and calculated risk-taking. Having successfully founded and exited multiple ventures, his journey is a testament to the transformative power of adaptability, teamwork, and vision.

Alexi’s latest venture, Because, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like 7GC & Co, Khosla Ventures, Almoayed Ventures, and Sprint VC.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Entrepreneurs must clearly articulate their solution’s value proposition to potential investors.
• Transitioning from a private to a public company demands transparency, scalability, and adaptability.
• Building investor confidence hinges on leadership’s track record and vision alignment.
• Tailor pitches to investor priorities, focusing on long-term growth potential and clear ROI.
• Insights from industry veterans like Alfred Mann can shape entrepreneurial success.
• Deep technical knowledge is vital for innovating in complex fields like healthcare.
• Effective leadership requires perseverance through the rigorous demands of scaling and fundraising.

 

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About Alexi Suvacioglu:

Alexi Suvacioglu has diverse work experience spanning various companies and roles. In 2001, they started their career as a Consultant at Accenture, focusing on Marketing and Finance solutions for top-tier CPG clients.

Alexi then joined eBay in 2008 and 2009, holding positions as a Manager and Senior Manager in Internet Marketing. During their time at eBay, they led AdCommerce and managed the full P&L for eBay’s Product Ads business in the US.

In 2010, Alexi co-founded Oohilove, an entertainment eCommerce company focused on designer accessories. The company was later acquired by Entertainment Shopping AG in 2011.

Alexi then co-founded ZenDeals in 2011, serving as the Chief Product Officer and a Board Member. ZenDeals utilized machine learning and automation to generate high-quality eCommerce coupon data on the web.

Alexi also worked at RetailMeNot as a Director from 2013 to 2015 before becoming an Advisor at Theneeds, Inc. from 2013 to 2016. In 2015, they joined Yewno, Inc. as the Chief Product Officer.

Yewno is a knowledge engine that helps overcome information overload by using Computational Linguistics, Network Theory, and Machine Learning to mimic the human mind’s ability to understand concepts.

In 2017, Alexi became the CEO, Co-Founder, and Board Member of Because, a health and wellness brand focused on older adults. The company aims to become the #1 trusted brand for older adults and help them lead vibrant, independent lives.

Additionally, Alexi served as an Advisor at Innovation Endeavors, a venture capital firm, during various periods in their career, demonstrating their expertise and influence in the tech and entrepreneurial space.

Alexi Suvacioglu holds a BA degree in Geography from King’s College London. Furthermore, Alexi has pursued a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Connect with Alexi Suvacioglu:

• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• TheOrg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today we have a really exciting guest joining us. He’s an amazing founder. He’s done it multiple times. The last company is a rocket ship you know that he’s building with actually someone that I know, an amazing guy, a friend. ah And they again, you know very inspiring combo. We’re going to be talking about the building, the scaling, financing, exiting, also how they got started with their current business. Even though at the beginning they had no money, how to really push you know on the e-commerce side of things without really having the cash or the or the or the bulletproof a war chest you know that people would need. ah But again, you know we’re going to be really having an enlightening conversation, quite inspiring. So without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Alexei Shubachoglu. Welcome to the show.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Thanks, Akan, for great to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: so Originally born in, let me get this right, in Australia, but you went to Italy ah quite early in your life. so How was life growing up for you?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Oh, it was ah it was awesome. So, yeah, I was ah born in Sydney, Australia, and I grew up in in Milan, Italy, where I spent most of my my childhood. You know, it’s it’s fascinating. The the experience of growing up in such a passionate and rich ah culture that is immersed in in food and sense of community as well, I would say profoundly shaped me. I was fortunate growing up in Italy that I got to play a lot of soccer.

Alexi Suvacioglu: including playing for AC Milan, which was a super fun experience. After college, went into consulting, did six years of that, focused on large CPG brands, worked a ton with Coke and Kraft Foods, for example, and then…

Alejandro Cremades: and how ah how was that How was that when it came to problem solving?

Alexi Suvacioglu: proceed

Alejandro Cremades: you know what did What did you learn about grabbing big problems and breaking them down into small problems and and going one after the other?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, I mean, you you nailed it. Consulting is ah is all about that. It’s ah um small teams with very aggressive timelines. So a lot of prioritizing and a lot of chunking. And it’s really about that roadmap, that Gantt chart. Right. I think starting your career in consulting is something that I actually highly recommend.

Alexi Suvacioglu: If I were to do it again, I’d probably do it because it’s it’s truly formative. You learn a lot and you learn also across different companies and across different cultures and different realities. And it’s really sort of, it’s like a mini ah life lesson crammed into a couple of years.

Alejandro Cremades: And what about, you you were talking about AC Milan, you know what I mean?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Obviously see playing soccer and then at a competitive level is is pretty remarkable. I know that Luca, for example, he was also your co-founder, a water polo professional.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, more hardcore.

Alejandro Cremades: I mean, really, really amazing. I mean, he’s a big guy.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: You don’t want any problems with Luca, right? I mean, he’s an amazing guy too. But the I guess the the the competitiveness, that competitive spirit, how do you think, you know, it has a helped you you know in your professional career and perhaps being an entrepreneur too?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, it’s a wonderful question. So for me, and I still to this day, when I talk to the team, there’s a ton of similarities between playing professional sports or playing competitive sports and the business side, right? Especially when it’s involves the team, because there’s only a certain amount of things that you can do on your own to succeed, right? So it’s really about how do you best work and how do you best leverage each other’s strengths to fulfill a certain mission. um In soccer specifically, it’s ah it’s about bringing you know your A-game every day. It’s about training. So if you don’t train, it’s very hard that as a team and as an individual, you will grow. And the same thing applies to the business world. like Very rare things that we do are sprints.

Alexi Suvacioglu: It’s a marathon, right? It’s a championship, right? And the way you win is by you know doing your best every day and having people and surrounding yourselves with people that can challenge you and can stretch you every day to accomplish you know that goal.

Alejandro Cremades: So, for you after the consulting years, you decided to shift gears and you went to Stanford. And one thing that is really surprising to me was that instead of, you know, you’re obviously there, land of innovation, opportunity. I’m sure that was quite impressive for you coming from Europe because in Europe, at that point, you know, the whole startup ecosystem was almost non-existent. But I’m wondering,

Alejandro Cremades: Why? After being exposed to that, you decide to choose the corporate route or working for somebody else versus starting something of your own.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah. i I felt I personally wasn’t ready at the time, right? And I wanted to learn, and this is, you know, the period in ah late 2000s from at the time amongst the best players in the ecosystem. And that’s what effectively led me to eBay, right? For me, it was, they’re clearly doing something right. It’s a juggernaut growing, you know.

Alexi Suvacioglu: triple digits year over year. So let me immerse myself in that culture and ah learn. And that’s what effectively led me there. And that seeing the inside of a company with obviously its advantages and disadvantages is what led me then to have full confidence that I could do something on my own.

Alejandro Cremades: I mean, talking about doing something of your own, at that point, all you knew was working for somebody else. Obviously, coming and being raised from Italy is a different mindset. It’s similar to the mindset in Spain, where I’m from, where it’s all about you know either becoming a banker, a doctor, or a lawyer. and I’m sure that back then, you know the whole startup thing you know was was kind of like still new.

Alejandro Cremades: ah so How did you rewire the way that you were thinking, you know the culture that where you were coming from, in order to really be okay with the idea of jumping into the unknown?

Alexi Suvacioglu: All right.

Alexi Suvacioglu: So the the leap you know from employee to entrepreneur, for me, is less about ah skill set and more about identity. right As an employee, your job is to excel within a defined set of parameters. right And those parameters are typically set you know by the person you report to or by the org in which you work in. right Whereas an entrepreneur, you need to define the parameters yourself, right? There is no one telling you how hard to push, how big to dream, and how to literally prioritize ah many things, right? um And that sort of requires a radical shift in mindset, in ownership, right? And in a lot of doubts along the way, right? And that’s something that ah

Alexi Suvacioglu: is hard, right? And that’s why when you talk to our entrepreneurs, right, they talk about this emotional roller coaster that they experience because it can be a very lonely journey and there’s up and downs. And this is where, you know, for example, you mentioned Luca, why it’s so awesome to have a co-founder. And that was also sort of a choice that conscious choice that I made in the journey in terms of like, okay, there’s only a certain amount of things that you can control and what you can control is who you work with right on what you work with, on what you work on, and where you work on.

Alejandro Cremades: So All High Love ended up becoming the first rodeo. And then you know obviously first first company, first exit.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: So not bad. So what were you guys doing there? How did you get started with All High Love and and how was that journey, that first rodeo?

Alexi Suvacioglu: it was ah It was awesome. It came at the right time with the right right ah set of folks. What we did there was we built we saw that eBay was not present within or weaker in the and the segment of designer and luxury goods, especially around handbags. So we built an innovative marketplace ah focused on a very specific niche of super high-end luxury bags, so a lot of Chanel and Dior, and it was an auction model, right? And as you probably know, growing up in in in Spain and in Europe, the

Alexi Suvacioglu: Check size of these items is extremely high. So you’re talking about very high AOV, right? And therefore, sort of ah we were able to get the flywheel going super, super fast.

Alexi Suvacioglu: And within you know a year and a half, two years, ah we got a very good offer to get acquired, and we ended up taking it. So that was a little bite.

Alejandro Cremades: but was What was that like, you know the first day you know time that you were finally exposed to the full cycle as an entrepreneur? like Being able to see the build-up, the scale-up, and then finally you know reaching that finish line. how How was that? What kind of perspective do you think that gave you?

Alexi Suvacioglu: I could probably talk for hours about this. ah I mean, fortunate and lucky that you get to see the whole life cycle because every step of that poses very different and radical questions, right? ah From, you know, how fast do you go? Where do you push? Is this the right time to yeah ah let go of your baby and you know join forces and get acquired, all of that, right? So incredible lessons learned.

Alexi Suvacioglu: um very hard for me to say if I were to go back would I do it the same way because you make the best decisions at that point in time in your career right in your journey but it’s ah super fortunate because I am aware that you know the odds against any entrepreneur are you know super super thin so being able to see that whole life cycle and then being able to see that life cycle again and getting the opportunity now with a current venture to see it a third time I feel you know super super fortunate.

Alejandro Cremades: So then, as they say, once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. So send deals, you know comes knocking as the next opportunity.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, I guess once addicted, always addicted, right?

Alejandro Cremades: That’s right. So what what what what what was that journey like? and And again, another exit, so quite amazing.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, always stayed true to sort of ah and the that sort of the consistency and trend across all of those is, you know, I love consumer internet and sort of spent the past 15 years focused on e-commerce. And the progression from where I loved the Zen deals was effectively with the same or very similar teams, almost same team, right? We decided to form as a group together and tackle the discount saving side of the equation. The the interesting, the first one was um a marketplace, so it’s a ah lot about ah making sure that the flywheels work. The second ones and deals was a machine learning play on coupons. So technology was actually the differentiating factor there. Right. So I got to ah get exposed to the importance of building a high engineering ah leadership culture.

Alexi Suvacioglu: to get that ah right. But again, super fortunate that you know within a couple of years, RetailMeNot at the time publicly traded, ah the largest sort of coupon player in the world came ah reached out to us and were very interested in what we were building as a technology. And ah we felt that it was the right opportunity, the right time to generate some pretty significant um exit opportunities for everybody, so and and to return quite a bit of capital for everybody. So we did that.

Alejandro Cremades: So, second transaction that you do here, obviously there’s a lot of founders that they are listening to us that are dreaming with that moment or of of reaching the finish line, know as ah of of the vision and everything that they’ve done you know with their business.

Alejandro Cremades: what What would you say are the three biggest lessons that you’ve taken away from from going through two M and&A transactions, and and and maybe what would you do differently? you know If you were to tackle another M and&A you know a third time around, let’s say now with a with because?

Alexi Suvacioglu: So the first, which is outside of ah anybody’s control is luck, right? ah In both of those transactions, we did not sort of seek the exit, but the acquirer came sort of to us, right? And that’s just sort of pure luck. What led to that? Super hard for me to sort of pinpoint my finger. Was it, you know, an article in TechCrunch? Was it, you know, or the the network, something that we posted on LinkedIn or our growth rates?

Alexi Suvacioglu: who knows, and maybe probably a factor of all of those. So I think one thing we can’t control is luck, right? But you can’t control how you show up. I think that’s a nested with within that. the The second one is to really know where you stand and who you’re competing against, right? So at at the early days, and this is with ZenDeals, we actually perceived retail muon as a competitor. So we were even, you know,

Alexi Suvacioglu: shying away from them so when they came knocking on our door we’re like okay this is like are they fishing for information right so the the lesson learned there is keep an open mind because where you may see a threat it may actually be an opportunity right and um that the end within that and this is a cross having worked there across both you know publicly traded companies and and and and smaller companies, you tend to, or at least so far, you tend to overestimate

Alexi Suvacioglu: the sophistication of companies, right? So when I’ve when i’ve you know worked for these larger organizations, several times I was underwhelmed by, oh, is that all they do? You expect them to have you know super sophisticated algorithms or super sophisticated dashboards, but it’s pretty rudimentary once you’re on the inside. So um this is sort of what led us in that particular instance to, like Technology can be a heavy differentiator, right? And we actually underestimated how much of a differentiator it can be because post-acquisition we realized, oh, wow, you know we were pretty far ahead. So the lesson learned there is there’s always a good moment to sell, right? And you could either sell too early and you know leave money on the table, or you could try to sell too late. But as the company grows, there’s always a smaller pool of acquirers, typically, right?

Alexi Suvacioglu: So that is something that any entrepreneur should keep in mind. You know, if you want to sell your company and want to make numbers up for a million, there’s a lot, a lot of acquires. Ten, less so. A hundred, it starts to be maybe, you know, 10 or 20. And then if you go past that, you’re really talking about two or three. So just be mindful of of that. ah The last thing I’ll add is you always know the entrepreneur You will know more than the acquirer as to where the business is at and the opportunities to you know accelerate whatever you’re doing through the acquirer. So I think a key point and the last thing I’ll mention here is

Alexi Suvacioglu: for the acquire it’s they’re just starting the relationship right so and it really is a a relationship because an entrepreneur is like oh i’m gonna exit it’s like no they’re acquiring an asset a team a technology right a business uh and for them they want to know you know how is this business going to grow over the next you know two four years so whereas an entrepreneur thinks about the end of that journey the acquire look at the beginning and there’s also seeing middle ground with besting and all that stuff as they try to sort of maximize the returns for everybody. But ah it’s it’s that lens that leads to the greatest upside for everybody.

Alejandro Cremades: So after send deals, which was the um the the last exit, basically you helped in obviously doing the vesting and resting, as they would say, with RetailMeNot, which was the acquire. But then after that, you helped other founders you know in building their business. And eventually, Luca comes knocking, and you guys come up with the idea of because. So how did because come about? and And yeah, what were the sequences of events to bring it to life?

Alexi Suvacioglu: So in interesting, Luca and I are culturally pretty aligned, both grew up in Italy, actually with ah grandparents in the room next door. right And this is sort of pivotal. um The current venture called because it was actually born out of a desire to create meaningful solutions for older adults. right um This is a very unsexy demographic, and that’s what attracted us to it. I mean, if you look at the trends,

Alexi Suvacioglu: The world is aging. We’re aging every day. As we’re talking, religion is getting older. ah And if you just take a step back in the US, 10,000 people every day turn 65 years old. right And this is not only a US issue. right It’s a European issue. Look at Spain. Look at Italy. Look at Japan, Asia. There’s massively aging demographics and very few, if almost not nobody is myopically and or rentlessly focused on ah this demographic. So when you take a step back, what attracted Luca and I to this opportunity is that we felt growing up with aging grandparents, we saw the challenges that they had in their lives. And we felt that it was at the right moment in time to start building a company, a brand, a platform.

Alexi Suvacioglu: that can help them in the aging ah process, right? And the the aging of populations is one of the most profound societal changes that will happen in the next couple of decades. And to this date, we are still wildly ah unprepared unprepared for that.

Alejandro Cremades: So for the people that are listening to um get it, what ended up being the business model of because? How do you guys make money?

Alexi Suvacioglu: the We went on a pretty wild exploration. Once we locked in the demographic, we started thinking, as like how can we best you know build a company and a business that does well and does also good good financially. We spent a ton of time interviewing ah older adults and trying to uncover you know their needs, their desires, which went into their homes, there’s a lot of sort of ethnographic ah user research. And ah what emerged was the probably most unsexy category, which is that of incontinence. So bladder protection products, right? um We didn’t know much about that time. And the more we we looked into it, the more we realized that it’s a

Alexi Suvacioglu: highly recurring purchase. It’s a need, right? And if you take a step back, it impacts 40% of older adults in the US, and it’s a multi-decade need. You know, talk about baby diapers. It’s something that many of us are familiar with, right? um Typically, you want your kids to graduate from a baby diaper after three years.

Alexi Suvacioglu: With older adults, right it typically starts impacting. Butter lakes start to happen in mid to late 60s. And it lasts for the entirety of of of of the life of older adults. There’s a lot of stigma, so it’s one of those taboo topics. right And if you see the changes that have happened in so other verticals, whether it’s you know shaving, even your sensitive parts, whether it’s menstrual products that now are out in the wild and you know the conversation is starting to change. So we thought that there was an opportunity to innovate with and for older adults, starting with this very myopic set of products.

Alejandro Cremades: So in this case, I mean, you guys didn’t start with much cash. So how did you weather you know the challenges you know without having you know that much capital at the beginning?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah, we we we purposely decided to put some of our money, but not a lot because we wanted to fail fast and cheap. right And we wanted to get an understanding of the most important questions as quickly ah as as possible. So you know there’s this adage. Some people call it fake it before you make it. right Some people call it the painted door test. But literally for the first, I would argue, nine months.

Alexi Suvacioglu: right We came up with a list and said, okay, these are the most important questions from, you know, customer acquisition costs, to retention, to cross-sell, to, you know, unit economics, you name it, that will dictate our ability to to grow or not. And all of the rest is just execution. So let’s just focus on this and concretely we didn’t even have any manufacturing relationships. So we found we went to Malibaba, we found the most random older adult product, and we said, this is it. We’re going to sell this. It’s less about the product. We want to know, are older adults willing to buy these items? Are they willing to keep buying these types of items? And let’s but start getting feedback.

Alexi Suvacioglu: ah we don’t You don’t need a 3PL. You don’t need a fancy website to do it. All you need is you know a phone number and our iPhone. So literally for the first couple of months, Luca and I in my garage were you know Packing boxes, running the ads, ah picking up the phone when it was ringing, delivering the boxes to you as to UPS. So I think it’s very important for any founding team to have a 360 degree visibility into the business, because once you do that, it helps you understand

Alexi Suvacioglu: some of the friction points, where you can double down what’s working, what’s not working, right? So over time you have different challenges where you need to let go, but at the beginning you need to be, you know, relentless and myopic in owning the full customer experience and trying to get those questions early on. We knew we could get manufacturing relationships if the business was there. We knew we could scale customer support if the business was there. So those were not the most important questions to answer.

Alejandro Cremades: I know you guys have also raised over $70 million, bucks um which is public. um But I want to ask, how has it been through the journey of raising that kind of money for a company like this? What have been the life cycles and the financing cycles you know um like to to to raise this kind of money?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Our journey has been ah you know both challenging ah and rewarding, right? As a VC-backed company, ah super proud that we’re working with incredible investors who share the same vision of addressing this underserved yet vital demographic, right? So fortunate to ah work with the likes of Mike Volpe at Index Ventures and David Wyden at CoSLA. You know, those are sort of one of the largest investors on our cap table.

Alexi Suvacioglu: But if you take a step back, it’s actually outside a small pool of folks that get it. It’s shocking how many investors, even to this day, don’t care about this slice of the population, right? Or just don’t focus on it, right? So many VCs overlook the senior demographic, ah failing to recognize what is becoming an immense potential, right? ah So the challenge is investors always chasing the next hot thing, right? The older market hasn’t yet become that hot thing, right? Even though now with some of the healthcare care initiatives, they they’re starting to ah to to wake up. So

Alexi Suvacioglu: What we did to overcome this is you know numbers and metrics in a nutshell. right um so A key focus during all our fundraising efforts has been demonstrating the scalability of our of our model and the deep connection that we built with our customers.

Alejandro Cremades: So, as you were saying, I mean, those those investors are like big time investors, right?

Alexi Suvacioglu: so

Alejandro Cremades: And and you know obviously, when when investors like that, ah employees or even customers, now that are getting really excited about the future that you’re living into, they’re betting on a vision.

Alejandro Cremades: So, I can say, when it comes to the vision, if you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world where the vision of because is fully realized, what does that world it look like?

Alexi Suvacioglu: Yeah. For us, it’s becoming the most trusted brand for this demographic. So when you say you know vacuum cleaner, you think Hoover. When you think tissues, you think Kleenex. For us, it’s when you think of a brand that can help our parents, grandparents. You think of because this demographic has a variety of of of of needs and desires, right?

Alexi Suvacioglu: ah they do not want to age in a skilled nursing or memory care facility. It actually, once they go to these types of places, it shaves years of their lives. So the dream for us is to enable older adults to live the life that they want to live and help in the background by delivering products and services that they need. Because in many cases, they can’t ask their next door neighbor because they don’t know. They can’t ask their children, right? So they’re literally left to their own devices. And the solutions and products and platforms that are out there today fail, this demographic.

Alejandro Cremades: So we’re talking about the future here, but I want to talk about the past and doing so with a lens of reflection. So imagine I was to put you into a time machine. and I bring you back in time. I bring you back to 2010. That moment where you are thinking, hey, I think i I have a good understanding of what I could be doing you know on my own as an entrepreneur, and and maybe it’s time to go at it. Imagine you’re able to be right there with that younger Alexia, and you’re able to give your younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why, given what you know now?

Alexi Suvacioglu: For me, it would be just just do it, honestly, right? ah just do it and dream big. ah It’s really about the the journey. And unless you know you can have a million business plans, but it’s when the rubber hit hits the road that things get real. right Many folks, and I was also partly tempted to like, oh, can I still do corporate life and do something on the side? right And in many cases, you need to like cut those ropes and fully launch yourself

Alexi Suvacioglu: ah wholeheartedly into your next endeavor. right which um you know That’s something that I would recommend everybody consider. ah Very hard to do multiple things at the same time. and to yeah If you do it, do it well. Do it wholeheartedly. Put your A-game out there, um as we touched on before.

Alejandro Cremades: Love it. For the people that are listening that would love to reach out and say hi, or for those that would like to learn more about because what is the best way for them to do so?

Alexi Suvacioglu: It would be on ah on on LinkedIn. We’re very active there through our company page as well as through my personal page there. yeah

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well, Alexei, thank you so much for being on the Dealmaker show today. It has been an absolute honor to have you with us.

Alexi Suvacioglu: Thank you, Alejandro. Awesome.

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If you like the show, make sure that you hit that subscribe button. If you can leave a review as well, that would be fantastic. And if you got any value either from this episode or from the show itself, share it with a friend. Perhaps they will also appreciate it. Also, remember, if you need any help, whether it is with your fundraising efforts or with selling your business, you can reach me at al*******@pa**************.com“>al*******@pa**************.com

 

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