Two Amazon veterans just raised $6.5 million for an analytics tool that gives smaller companies the data insights they need to compete with Amazon itself

SoundCommerce

SoundCommerce cofounders Jared Stiff (left) and Eric Best.

• SoundCommerce, an e-commerce data analytics tool, announced on Wednesday that it raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Defy Ventures.
• The company was started by two Amazon veterans that worked on third-party seller features for the e-commerce giant.
• Cofounder and CEO Eric Best told Business Insider that SoundCommerce gives everybody access to the same ways of looking at data that have helped Amazon grow into the behemoth it is today.
• Best said the funds will be used to roughly double his 15-person team, with a focus on data analytics and machine learning engineers as they continue to expand access to SoundCommerce's platform.
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After several years leading Amazon's third-party seller strategy, Eric Best knew what made or broke a company trying to turn a profit on the e-commerce giant's platform. Now, he's putting that insider knowledge to good use.

Best's company SoundCommerce is a data analytics startup that lets e-commerce sites access and act on the type of data that has made Amazon such a massive success. On Wednesday, SoundCommerce announced it raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Defy Ventures to take on Amazon in its own backyard.

"As Amazon has grown and evolved it was clear to us, and most of the market, that what has made Amazon so successful as an e-commerce company is not their ability to market but how they've used data and optimized operations to drive great customer experiences," Best told Business Insider.

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According to Best, SoundCommerce is a one-stop shop for any e-commerce company trying to manage multiple points of sale across Amazon, a website, and a traditional storefront. The software aggregates data across the tens of vendors any one company might be using, like site builder Shopify or returns processing software Returnly, to manage parts of the business to streamline routine queries like tracking a customer's order.

"Any direct-to-consumer brand is running on 30 or 40 separate [software-as-a-service] tool sets," Best said. "The great irony is that they are easy to get up and running, but the hard part is when you start to ask simple or sophisticated questions about your business and you discover all these tools are siloed and running independent of each other."

It's a process Amazon has succeeded in streamlining, Best said, because it has near-total control over its inventory, across warehouses, trucks, and customer account data.

"I think what Amazon does well is bring discipline to every decision they make," Best said. "There's little intuition or gut instinct that goes on at Amazon; moment-by-moment decisions are completely driven by data science, and we're trying to take a page from that playbook."

The bigger picture

Defy Ventures partner Neil Sequeira tells Business Insider that online shoppers are moving away from wholesale or one-size-fits-all retail experiences online the same way they did in the physical world. He believes that as more retailers offer online storefronts, and as investors continue to back new consumer brands, Amazon and Walmart will lose ground with customers that are willing to pay a little more for something "authentic."

"While it makes sense for large distributors to consolidate brands, consumers would rather pay a little more to have apparel they like or a product they value to be something that is unique and special and fits their tastes," Sequeira told Business Insider. "It's why you are seeing a lot of direct-to-consumer companies. This proliferation is a reflection of consumers' tastes; as long as they can get the product fast and get what they want, why not choose what's best for them and why not choose which channel to go through."

Best told Business Insider that the seed funding will help roughly double his 15-person team in Seattle, with a focus on data analytics and machine learning engineers as they continue to expand the software's capability and onboard new customers.

"We want to help consumer brands blaze an independent trail to the shopper," Best said. "We're helping brands change the world by forcing them to act and think at the same degree of sophistication that Amazon applies."