18. E-Commerce Scaling in the “New Normal” with Yoni Kozminski, Founder and CEO of Escala

Yoni Kozminski of Escala and MultiplyMii joins the E-Commerce with Coffee?! podcast to talk about scaling in e-commerce. Yoni got his early experience working on operations optimizations and strategy with brands like Sony and Mastercard. Now he’s focused on e-commerce, drawn in by exciting scaling opportunities there.

In fact, one of Yoni’s companies, MultiplyMii, connects brands with executive-level offshore hires. Why? Start-ups can scale faster with more accessible budgets while still gaining the specialized talent they need. Most of the roles brands fill this way, Yoni says, start with job titles that didn’t even exist five years ago. Listen to the full episode to learn what Yoni has to say about this and other changes in the digital landscape.

What to listen for:

• Right out of the gate, Yoni talks about how businesses today can identify needs and talent. These go hand-in-hand because, in the world of e-commerce, half the roles needed today are job titles that didn’t exist five years ago.
• Yoni got his own early experience in operational infrastructure and strategy for brands like Sony and Mastercard. That’s where he first learned how to determine bandwidth and create the business model that he used for MultiplyMii. Listen in to learn how his company finds executive-level talent specifically for the e-commerce ecosystem.
• Yoni’s other business, Escala, is a consulting firm born to help e-commerce brands leverage people, processes, and technology. The origin story of Escala and MultiplyMii is well worth a listen to the full interview!
• “I thought we were bringing on a Chief Marketer,” Yoni says of one recent project. “But it turns out we were bringing on a Chief Growth Officer.” Listen in to hear what this example tells us about uniting needs with talent—as it turns out, most businesses looking to scale in today’s environment don’t even know the best titles for the roles they actually need to be filled.
• E-commerce represents a professional ecosystem that didn’t exist even five years ago. As consumers, our entire interaction with some brands is now completely digital. Roles like Funnel Specialists, Chatbot Specialists, and even UX and CX professionals have to be on brands’ radar today, and Yoni elaborates on why.
• Yoni then gets into some of the key signs that a brand is ready to scale out its team. For example, are high-producers burning out (or at risk of burnout)? Listen to the full episode to learn what Yoni says should come next.
• The biggest challenge in scaling an e-commerce business, Yoni explains, is the transitional phase when brand leaders get processes on paper. This is also the crucial moment when a brand should start creating a deliberate company culture. Yoni explains how company leaders should be prepared.
• Toward the end of the interview, Yoni wraps with an Abraham Lincoln quote: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” Yoni loves this quote in the context of scaling an e-commerce business, and he makes it clear why. Listen to the full interview to hear what he has to say!