EP296 - Guardian Baseball Co-Founder Matt Kubancik  Episode 296 is an interview with Matt Kubancik (@mattkubancik), CEO and Co-Founder of Guardian Baseball. Matt is a serial e-commerce entrepreneur who was the founder of Street Moda, Co-Founder of SKU Vault, and most recently Co-Founder and CEO of Guardian Baseball. Mark is an experienced Marketplace seller, and his current business Guardian Baseball is a hybrid seller selling both wholesale and owned brands direct to consumer from a Shopify site, and via multiple marketplaces including Amazon. Guardian Baseball is an early adaptor of Buy with Prime, and shares in the interview, that they would migrate off Shopify if necessarily to keep using Buy with Prime. He also discusses a number of the current limitations with the Buy With Prime offering. Episode 296 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Friday September 23, 2022. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 296 being recorded on Friday August 23rd 2022 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott showed listeners today we have a fun interview this is kind of a both a TBT a throwback for me and then also modern discussion around by with Prime but to set it up we are very excited to welcome mat kubancik to the show welcome mat. Matt: [1:00] Thanks Scott and Jason have my own. Scot: [1:02] Matt what's your what's your current title you have you have 50 things you're always doing so I never know what to say other than. Matt: [1:08] Always doing but Maine. Scot: [1:10] Entrepreneur genius. Matt: [1:11] Yeah sometimes sometimes a genius sometimes but that's the life of an entrepreneur I co-founder and CEO of Guardian baseball.com or multi-channel hybrid direct to consumer and brand partner of you know some of the biggest. Brand names and Sporting Goods retailer so predominantly in the baseball and softball market and we're on Amazon Walmart eBay and on our Shopify site. And we were named the fastest growing e-commerce retailer by ink magazine in the Inc 5000 and number 180 overall this year. Jason: [1:48] Amazing that congratulations I definitely want to jump into it but before we do you know our listeners always like to get a little bit of a gist of our guests background and so I'm imagining you you went to college and got a degree in baseball e-commerce is that how you started. Matt: [2:05] No not at all actually spent six months in in college dropped out was one of the original I started selling on eBay 1999. Um during think my first year of high school sold baseball cards ironically and then. Started selling fashion and store stock Closeouts Retail Arbitrage early days of eBay and then when I was 18 years old. I met an executive that was retired from the Footwear industry and him and I started a company called Street motor together, and we were a early on 2000s multi-channel retailer and I met Scott through signing Channel advisor when I was 19 years old I remember signing my contract, verbally over the phone like a grain to the contract and then I went into school and said hey I'm going to withdraw after six months of Indiana University so. Dropped out and did 100 million over, 10 11 years mainly thanks to the a lot of connections Channel advisor helped me create you know Market places like Amazon eBay buy.com back in the day, a lot of the shopping channels like Shopzilla and sites like that and we exited that business in 2017. And been involved in e-commerce and various other companies and degrees. Jason: [3:30] That's an amazing story for a couple of reasons first of all I love everybody that tha