Business with Purpose Podcast EP 58: Matt Scanlan, Founder of NAADAM, Sustainable Mongolian Cashmere Clothing
Imagine a situation in which you are literally in the middle of the Gobi desert (AKA: the middle-of-nowhere OF the middle-of-nowhere) and you are carrying two million dollars in cold hard cash. Seems crazy, right? Not too crazy for Matt Scanlan and his business partner Diederik. To be honest, Matt’s story of how he ended up in Mongolia, stuck in the middle of the Gobi desert with a group of strangers (who didn’t speak English) for a MONTH, getting to know them, learning their lifestyle, and ultimately, how he ended up starting the fairest, most sustainable Mongolian cashmere clothing company in the WORLD, is probably one of the craziest and coolest stories I’ve ever heard in my life. He’s an AMAZING story teller, his Mongolian cashmere company is so cool, but most of all, I love his vision for impacting nomadic herders in Mongolia while also disrupting the entire cashmere industry in a positive way. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but trust me… you are going to want to listen to this episode of the Business with Purpose podcast. I think my mouth was dropped almost the entire time I was talking with Matt!
ABOUT Matt Scanlan, CEO and Co-Founder of Naadam
With a background in venture capital, Matt Scanlan co-founded Naadam with his business partner Diederik Rijsemus by traveling into Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and purchasing 40 tons of Mongolian cashmere with $3M cash packed in plastic bags. They realized that by partnering directly with Mongolia’s herdering communities Naadam could secure the world’s finest materials at a fair price, and pass that savings to their customers, avoiding the astronomical mark-ups that are commonplace in the cashmere industry. The end result was a supply chain that constantly reinvested in itself.
CONNECT WITH MATT AND NAADAM:
- https://naadam.co/
- https://twitter.com/naadamcashmere
- https://www.instagram.com/naadam.co/
- https://www.facebook.com/naadamcashmere/
- https://www.instagram.com/matthewscanlan/
Check out this AMAZING video mini-documentary about NAADAM (helps to put some visual to what Matt and I talked about!):
TODAY’S BUSINESS PODCAST EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY:
GlobeIn – Visit GlobeIn.com/box and use the coupon code “MOLLY” for $10 off your premium subscription!
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