In a Failed Business, Until Building a Notion and Figma-focused Startup | Partly | EO

Failed startup's parts pivot now powers 40% of online orders

Partly sells software that helps buyers find the exact automotive part for their vehicle, and its customers now account for roughly 40% of parts orders placed online. It grew out of Allgoods, a low-margin e-commerce tool the founders shut down after noticing parts was the category where buyers came from overseas. The bet is that parts is a global data problem, and eBay Australia's conversion lift proved it.

Takeaways

• Partly powers 40% of online parts orders. The platform lets buyers enter a vehicle and see the parts that fit. Customers account for roughly 40% of parts orders placed online after three years of fast growth, with investors including Figma's Dylan Field and Notion's Akshay.
• Matching a part to a car is a data problem. The industry carries around $1.9tn of spend and repeat purchases. Toyota built 300 variants of the 2015 Corolla, each with a different door handle, so buyers need an exact vehicle match. Partly tested this with hundreds of customers.
• COVID nearly killed Partly before eBay Australia. The company nearly ran out of money, and Levi put the odds of solving the problem at about 10%. His co-founder had gone three years without a salary. The eBay Australia launch showed Partly was lifting conversion rates sharply.
• Persistence only works with honest diagnosis. Levi says never giving up separates successful founders, but it only works alongside brutal honesty about whether the business solves a painful customer problem. A great team on a clear mission is hard to beat.
• A no-revenue runway plan is a terrible plan. Levi calls a plan to stay free until you work out how to make money a terrible plan, and says founders should be willing to shift the business fundamentally when the evidence points elsewhere.
• You become like the people around you. The co-founder's biggest lesson is that the people you spend time with shape you. Levi repeats Dylan Field's advice not to sacrifice team quality, saying Partly's investors showed what exceptional looks like.
• Go after the global problem. The co-founder argues that a big global problem is almost as hard to solve as a small local one. Partly has run from New Zealand since day one but is not New Zealand focused, with a London office and Europe expansion planned.

How Allgoods became Partly

1. Levi and his co-founder built Allgoods in a caravan next to a garage, working about twelve hours a day for six months, to help small businesses sell online.
2. It reached just over 1,000 business customers and 400,000 monthly users, but margins were thin and Levi judged it would never be wildly successful.