
Amazon Launchpad for Startups - ankit84
https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad
======
jasode
Here's my take on it and someone can chime in if I'm wrong on the details...

Imagine you're a startup/inventor that manufactures a widget that you'd like
to sell to the mass market, you could either (1) try to sell direct from your
website (2) get on the shelves of national stores like Best Buy, Target,
Walmart, etc. The "shelves" include the real ones at their brick & mortar
stores and the virtual shelves on their online websites.

(1) is hard to attract shoppers since nobody knows about your low-traffic
website. Also, you'd have to handle the hassle of fulfillment yourself. Amazon
Launchpad leverages their competency in global logistics to do this for you.

(2) is difficult to get meetings with corporate retail buyers and convince
them to carry your product. Sometimes, there are also "slotting fees"
(sometimes aka "bribes") to get prime shelf locations (eye level vs the
floor.)

What Amazon is doing is opening up their "shelves" which includes the prime
pixels real estate on their front page to promote startups' products. They are
_actively marketing_ your product. This is a different initiative from
passively showing the 3rd-party marketplace sellers on amazon product pages.

However, to filter out the low quality junk and avoid every garage warrior
trying to sell their flavor of homemade barbeque sauce, the products have to
come from "the approved network"[1] that includes firms such as a16z, Accel
Partners, etc. If we scan that list of affiliates, we'd expect the products
vetted by them to be "cutting edge" and "innovative".

What's not specified in all the press releases and FAQ about Amazon Launchpad
is the type of payment structure Amazon expects. Is it negiotiated on a
product-by-product basis? Is it flat percentage?

[1][https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network](https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network)

[2][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee)

~~~
dandare
I wish there was an AI bot that would summarize any marketing speak to such a
useful summary like you did.

Also I wonder what would such bot translate _my_ product description to :D

~~~
deepGem
This is what the NLP community would call 'abstractive summary'. It
fundamentally requires generating new sentences - which is an excruciatingly
impossible task for current AI tech, at least as far as my understanding goes.
The closest tech is the sequence-to-sequence deep networks. I am yet to dig
deeper into this subject.

~~~
lrem
There was recently a Google result here[1] where they were able to summarise a
paragraph into one sentence. It looked pretty convincing. How does your
"excruciatingly impossible" stand when confronted with that? Were the
paragraphs in that result particularly easy to summarise? Does the problem's
difficulty grow super-linearly with length of the text? Is there something
else in the way?

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12353955](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12353955)

~~~
daveguy
I would love to see that on some actual text (rather than published
"samples"). I expect the more text it has to deal with the more unintelligible
the result.

~~~
lrem
That's intuitive. What isn't is how much harder it becomes with longer text.
Imagine there is an abstract measure of "smartness" of your algorithm (that
would intuitively have some relations to your model size, teaching sample size
and so on). My question could be worded as "what is the asymptotic smartness
complexity of the summarisation problem?"

Btw, I'm not aware of existence of such a measure, which I take as a signal
it's infeasible to formulate (or I'm just ignorant).

------
gortok
Some notes:

1\. Amazon Launchpad will ask for a few sample units to test. What they
actually mean is that they sell these units. So, don't send Amazon units until
you're ready to part with them and put them in your customer's hands.

Here's Vendor Express (their vendor management system) on that topic:

> We'll sometimes request a minimum sample of free units of your product so
> that we can evaluate the demand from our customers before placing an initial
> purchase order. After your product sells, we may start issuing purchase
> orders.

So, if you're a Kickstarter or Indie-go-go project and you want to sell your
product on Amazon as well, you'll likely be going through Launchpad. This can
get... uncomfortable for you if you send them test units before your
Kickstarter backers get theirs.

2\. Amazon's ToS for Vendor Express specifically states that they can
rescind/change their Purchase Order at any moment before the product
physically arrives at their fulfillment center. I've heard stories of startups
having their P.O. reduced by half and having to eat that cost. When you're a
young startup, capital is everything.

Other resources for understanding more about manufacturing costs:
[https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-go-about-budgeting-
manufactur...](https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-go-about-budgeting-
manufacturing-costs-for-a-startup-technology-product)
[http://www.andrewjdupree.com/blog/2016/8/3/how-long-does-
it-...](http://www.andrewjdupree.com/blog/2016/8/3/how-long-does-it-take-to-
manufacture-a-hardware-product)

------
kristianc
My take on this is that it sounds an awful lot like a sensing network for
Amazon to discover which products are taking off and if it's viable to produce
a low cost clone. At which point Amazon will not only have cloned your
product, but also own your main distribution channel. Approach with caution?

~~~
jdcarter
There's certainly precedent for that:

[http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-
bes...](http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-best-
products-on-amazon-and-selling-them-for-less-1652879/)

However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a
distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with you
later. On the other, you'd have to run your own distribution, and it's less
likely your product would ever take off in the first place.

~~~
Pyxl101
> However it may be a risk worth taking: on the one hand, you have a
> distribution channel that could help you take off, but might compete with
> you later.

If you're worried about this, then you should also worry that competitors
might compete with you anyway, whether or not you use their distribution
channels.

The real question to consider is whether using their channel makes them _more_
likely to compete with your or less, weighed against the other tradeoffs.

------
bobsky
It's not evident what's new, but this initiative was announced a year ago,
here's the article: "Amazon Takes On Product Hunt, Shopify With Launchpad, An
All-In-One Marketing And Sales Portal" [1]

[1][https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/28/amazon-takes-on-product-
hu...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/28/amazon-takes-on-product-hunt-shopify-
with-launchpad-an-all-in-one-marketing-and-sales-portal/)

~~~
firloop
That headline pitting Product Hunt and Amazon against each other is kind of
funny because they eventually teamed up around Launchpad.

[https://medium.com/product-hunt/teaming-up-with-
amazon-d7f9a...](https://medium.com/product-hunt/teaming-up-with-
amazon-d7f9a05fa6a1)

~~~
giarc
The amazing thing is the growth of PH from simple mailing list to important
part of the startup ecosystem.

------
billyshih
I've been using this for my dog toy that I launched on Kickstarter and it has
worked out amazing. The only downside is you don't have control over what they
price at since you're selling products wholesale to them. But for the amount
of work that it takes (very little), it's a great trade off.

~~~
egypturnash
Are there any costs beyond (I assume) wanting to buy your thing at a wholesale
price? I've got a graphic novel I just kickstarted and am curious about this
program, but they won't take any applications that aren't about a month from
shipping.

------
josu
Why is their logo so degraded [1]?

[1] [https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/boost/la...](https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/boost/landing/img/FormLogo._CB314969857_.jpg)

~~~
apetresc
Amazon has got this weird thing with low-quality JPGs, and especially text-as-
images for all their announcements. Every time they announce a new Kindle or
something, the front page becomes a giant image of a "letter from Bezos" with
artifacts the size of grapes.

It's constantly surprising to me how sophisticated and careful they are on
every single other aspect of their business, except for this one.

~~~
ChicagoBoy11
Is there any chance that it could be intentional? Everyone knows Amazon's
product page, for instance, is some of the most optimized real estate on the
internet, I don't know any designer who looks at it and doesn't immediately
want to start saying everything that is wrong with it. Could they, in this
case, also be optimizing for something that we aren't considering?

~~~
tkxxx7
Perhaps to signal affordability.

------
kdamken
This looks like a site that someone in a foreign country who was trying to
pretend to be amazon would make to trick people.

Did they fire all of their designers or something?

~~~
dansze
I'm not convinced they hired any in the first place, based on what their
branding and internal processes.

------
rm_-rf_slash
I'm sure I'm not alone in having concerns about how ruthlessly centralizing
Amazon is making the shopping experience for just about everything but
groceries (because I will never trust anyone to pick my meats and produce for
me), but if Amazon Launchpad works as well as this advertisement claims it
will, then I cannot for the life of me think of a better means and marketplace
to trial new products.

Maybe if your product does really well they'll set you up with a Dash button.

~~~
tedmiston
> because I will never trust anyone to pick my meats and produce for me

Even the grocery store themselves? eg Kroger ClickList

~~~
maxerickson
A store I go to usually has good produce but occasionally fails to take aging
stuff off the shelf. Getting the picker to follow my subjective taste as far
as what is too old is a bit of a problem.

Of course the solution is for the store to rotate the produce faster, but
there is probably a reason they don't.

~~~
tedmiston
I know from a friend working on the project that this is a common sentiment
about produce. I'm not sure if it's something they have addressed yet. For my
preferences I think it could be doable:

How do you want your bananas? [a scale of 5 banana pictures from bright green
to spotted... pick one]

------
Negative1
This is an interesting idea in that it basically becomes the store for post-
kickstarter projects that had traction but not enough to negotiate a contract
with major retailers. Great idea -- I hope it takes off (no pun intended).

~~~
phonon
Yup, pretty much exactly.

[http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005323/en/](http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160727005323/en/)

"Amazon Launchpad announced today the creation of a Kickstarter Collection
(www.amazon.com/launchpad/kickstarter), featuring more than 300 Kickstarter
products available for purchase on Amazon.com"

[http://www.amazon.com/launchpad/kickstarter](http://www.amazon.com/launchpad/kickstarter)

------
Animats
Blackbox.cool [1] just got run over by a tank.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12356218](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12356218)

------
blairanderson
I used to sell hardware to amazon. Here's my take on this.

This boils down to a whitelist which allows companies to skip the traditional
sales/retail-contract process required for a manufacturer to become a vendor.

This is not a service that Amazon will sell, essentially a loss leader to get
vendors into the network.

Normally for brands that are new, Amazon requires a unique product line or
price or some differentiator. A well established rep can easily get them in
the door.

I typically recommend that brands: 1\. Start selling online ASAP 2\. Start
selling on Amazon ASAP 3\. As sales grow, become an Amazon vendor

------
webtechgal
A quick question here while I check some more:

Are pure-play software (SaaS etc.) and/or digital goods startups eligible for
this?

~~~
trjordan
I can't imagine it is. The benefits appear to be:

1) Initial marketing testing through Amazon storefronts. 2) Fulfillment and
logistics. 3) Promotion on the same level as other Amazon products.

This doesn't seem valuable to pure-software products.

------
mandeepj
Although, amazon is saying they welcome all startups but looks like this
launchpad is only for companies having a physical product. I think you can't
apply if you have an app to launch.

------
Mahn
Your product has to be absolutely extraordinary to pass such an extensive list
of vetting partners [1], in which case there's a good chance you would do fine
selling on your own and generating your own word of mouth buzz if you ask me.
If you invent the next iPhone you are _probably_ going to do well even if
don't sell on Amazon.

[1]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network](https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad/network)

~~~
fpgaminer
Doesn't seem that way to me, as a lot of the products that end up on Launchpad
have a below 4-star rating, and they seem to currently have about 3,000
products listed. I also don't see how a lot of those products really deserve
to be in the list.

------
jedicoffee
-_- [https://www.blackbox.cool/](https://www.blackbox.cool/)

~~~
govindpatel
well I am not sure what does this comment has to do with "Amazon Launchpad",
But they have a really cool header animation.

------
bignis
I'm interested in the flip side of this. How, as a consumer, can I discover
cool new products from startups that Amazon thinks are noteworthy? I wish the
also announced an section of the website like amazon.com/launchpadproducts
where I could see a list of qualified products.

~~~
fpgaminer
They've been popping on the Amazon home page for me for about a year now, and
usually one of the graphics will link to a larger list of launchpad products.
I like to check it out every now and then see if there is anything interesting
(it's how I discovered that Amazon started carrying Soylent products). This
link seems to work to cut right to the listings:
[https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=br_imp?node=12034488011&pf_rd_i...](https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=br_imp?node=12034488011&pf_rd_i=desktop&tag=progranism-20&_encoding=UTF8)

EDIT: Actually, there's a link right at the top of the OP's page titled "Shop
the Store"

------
estefan
Interesting. I've just been reading about using alibaba with freight
forwarders and shopify to create online shops where you can sell on Amazon.
This might make it even easier.

~~~
pjc50
That's kind of a low-margin business though, because it's so easy to get into
and you're not really adding any value as a alibaba reseller.

~~~
estefan
It depends on what you're having manufactured. I was thinking of original
products.

But I'd be doing it more to learn about supply chains, manufacturing, etc. and
the problems people face. Plus, some of those sites support plugins and have
their own ecosystems, so I might see opportunities for automation other people
have missed.

------
dmritard96
One thing to note - they started out taking pre-orders but decided they didn't
like this as they realized the startups have no control over their shipping
schedule...

------
rexreed
This looks like it's only for physical products? I was hoping to see something
for digital services built on AWS

~~~
smcnally
They have the AWS Marketplace
[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace)

That along your lines?

------
CodeSheikh
A potentially decent platform for hardware products. I would like to see
something similar for software products to.

------
govindpatel
when I saw the word "amazon launchpad", I thought it has something to do with
amazon web services.

later, I found that both are completely different from each other.

------
threepipeproblm
Featuring Lieutenant Wesley Crusher

------
vonklaus
Stripe Atlas for retail.

