Nekane NKN’s path to Global Market Expansion
NKN Nekane is a Spanish fashion brand founded in Barcelona in 2002, known for creating unique, bohemian-inspired clothing designed for women with a free spirit and strong personality. The brand focuses on handcrafted garments with meticulous attention to detail, using carefully selected fabrics, trimmings, and finishes. Within Nekane NKN, Montse is the Founder. “We have seen a very strong interest in our offering and defined ambitious growth targets for the coming years. In order to accomplish that growth, we quickly realized we’d need help in bringing in potential distributors and speaking to people that could find value in our designs. We simply did not have the bandwidth internally to facilitate this engagement, establish the necessary partnerships, and create additional revenue streams.”
The team at Nekane NKN looked at various options.“We considered bringing people on. But we also understood that the costs and risks associated with this would be significant. We did not want to work with call centers since they would not be able to approach our target personas in the personalized, tailored manner that we require. Besides, staff turnover within such organizations tends to be high. Then we came across The Founders Hub. They offered a very flexible model at a very sensible cost.”
Nekane NKN also looked at other firms offering outsourcing options but decided that The Founders Hub was the best fit. “The Founders Hub’s history and connections in the retail and fashion domains made the difference. This felt like a natural match. Besides, The Founders Hub has a global presence. A lot of our current showrooms and agents reside in Europe, and having a partner that could help reach out and establish relationships globally was very helpful. Also, The Founders Hub’s business model is partially commission-driven. There is a nice balance between the fixed cost and success fees.”
In the meantime, the relationship between NKN and The Founders Hub has become very strategic in nature. “The Founders Hub business development managers were like members of our team. They understand that, ultimately, nobody wants to overpromise and underdeliver, and that there are all kinds of discussions to be had on how to do this, from fine details to very structural industry issues.
The Founders Hub helps us to refine our offering by proposing different packages and client engagement models. They have assisted us in optimizing our messaging and increasing our conversion rates, by providing input on the prospecting list for distributors and agents internationally and our overall marketing strategy.
This has culminated in a very strong incremental interest in our offering, which should translate into business as budgets become available. Our expectation is that this is one of those situations where momentum builds and success breeds success.