Scaling operations and supply chains at world-class companies like Athletic Greens and Sugarfina

Join Ben Smith's private mentorship program to get personalized advice that will help scale your business.

credits per session

5.0

(25+ sessions)

Available: Wednesday, Sep 27th at 4:00pm
Fast and consistent responses

Ben Smith

AG1 - Chief Operations & Supply Chain Officer

Available: Wednesday, Sep 27th at 4:00pm
Fast and consistent responses

What is MentorPass?

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Welcome to the new school of mentorship.

About Ben

PLEASE NOTE: I do not advise any companies with a nutritional supplement product. Leading innovative operations strategies to facilitate hyper-growth and global scalability is the hallmark of my 16-year career. I have experience living in the US, UK, Australia and China, managing teams of over 500, overseeing >$200M budgets, and optimizing operations for >$750M P&L. I am passionate about forging strategic partnerships and relationships to drive growth, reduce costs, improve operational processes, and drive incredible customer experiences. I am committed to establishing a culture of performance and data-driven decision-making to create a collaborative culture among globally dispersed teams. I joined Athletic Greens as their COO and presently serve as Chief Supply Chain & Operations Officer, where I oversee our end-to-end supply chain, customer service, quality assurance, people, strategic projects, product safety and product development.

Reviews

5.0

Travis H

The first of many calls with Ben for me, I think! It was just a 30min session but I’ll be dissecting it for a week. Ben was super methodical in all his responses and clearly prepared well. Because of this, he delivered so much clarity and value in such a short space of time. He used his knowledge and experience to offer specific insights/ advice and even offered a few extra minutes to finish answering all my questions. Gonna book 60mins next time! 10/10 would recommend.

Kevin M

It was great talking with Ben about operations, growth, and business in general. He is super sharp and gave me some great perspectives to think over as I work to grow my company. I have a better sense for my company's weak points after our call. He also shared some helpful resources that will help me make better hiring decisions. Thanks Ben!

Matt L

Had a 30-minute session with Ben and it was incredibly valuable and insightful. As an aspiring high-level COO myself, it was great to get his perspective on how the COO role develops with scale, the challenges he's faced, how org structure evolves, etc. Will definitely be back for another session at some point! Cheers

Mehul P

My call with Ben was incredible! He provided very specific advice that I can directly convert to action at work. He was very thorough, thoughtful, and honest with his responses. This was most definitely the first of many calls with him!

Harel L

Had a great call with Ben! he gave me several ideas on how to reduce the costs of supply chain and came up with a strategy that i can do ASAP, i believe it will save my business a lot of money down the road, thanks Ben!

Kevin G

Ben was great- has a deep breadth of knowledge on international commerce and all of the nuances that go into setting it up, but more importantly thinking about it the right way and the best plan of attack.

VNDL P

My session with Ben was 11/10. He was thoughtful, prepared, inquisitive and generous. He followed up afterward and gave me an overall, extraordinary experience. I would highly recommend talking with Ben!

Highlights

Chief Operations & Supply Chain Officer at Athletic Greens

Partner with the CEO on the strategic vision to oversee our end-to-end supply chain, customer service, people, HR and culture, product safety, product development, and IT functions. Athletic Greens is a hyper-growth business with direct-to-consumer operations in the USA, UK, Europe, China, and Australia.  Enabled hyper-growth in 3 years, at a >$1.2b valuation by creating strategies focused on improving and scaling functions across supply chain, customer service, talent & HR, technology and product innovation that enable growth.  Generated millions in annual savings by re-negotiating our contract manufacturing agreement which also protected our intellectual property, increased our volume buying power and ensure this key supplier had robust business continuity and disaster recovery process in place.  Scaled manufacturing and fulfillment with zero downtime to achieve hyper-growth in 2 years. Built the operations senior leadership team to enable growth and implemented a geopolitical risk mitigation strategy  Achieved carbon-neutral certification within 12 months by creating an internal sustainability function and driving a culture of accountability across the organization.

COO @ Sugarfina

Oversaw operations for three company-owned production and fulfillment facilities in the US, Mexico and Canada, employing over 500 people producing over 30M units per annum. Oversaw Supply Chain, Technology, Customer Service and Product Development Departments  Created the supply chain, operations, and technology strategies to enable growth from $24M to over $64M in 2 years.  Delivered ~$6.4M in COGS reduction through labor and tax structure incentives by relocating a large manufacturing and fulfillment operation with over 200 people to a Maquiladora in Mexico.  Achieved less than 2% attrition while closing a production and fulfillment center employing >200 people.  Designed and created a quality control app with real-time dashboard for metrics, taking the quality control rate from ~75% to >98% on average.

COO @ Fame & Partners

Served as a business partner to the CEO on the organization’s financial, budgeting, and administrative processes— with an eye to continuously developing and improving systems. Manage all global operations in US, Australia and China.  Setup company supply chain in Suzhou, China, including product development and production teams.  Enabled 300% revenue growth by designing and executing the supply chain and logistics scale strategy.  Reduced average on-demand garment production time from 9 days to 5 days.  Improved customer satisfaction by setting up the US and Australian returns center operations (3PL) and fully automating returns from request to refund without associate intervention.  Designed an on-demand manufacturing and quality control system to enable rapid scale and material improvements in quality.

General Manager, Australia - Williams-Sonoma

Lead Operations for Williams-Sonoma's expansion into the Australian market from start-up to $100m in annual revenue in less than 3 years. Oversaw a DC Budget and P&L management of $22M per annum to manage national transport hubs in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Singapore. Led full operations management of over 2M units outbound and 600 FEU’s inbound per annum and overall inventory management of circa 14K+ SKUs and 800K units across multiple locations.  Reduced Australian supply chain costs >$10M by negotiating activity-based cost model with 3PL.  Achieved a 30% increase in demand by cost modeling current eCommerce shipping charges and presenting a more profitable and appealing charge structure.  Delivered a 25% reduction in receiving labor by designing an automated carton receiving and label printing system for the retail stores.  Created and executed strategy to support Australian country growth from zero to $100M in 3 years, including establishing a 360K ft2 main distribution center and regionalized transport hubs in each capital city of Australia.

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Refund unused credits w/in 15 days of purchase.
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Next available:

Wednesday, Sep 27th at 4:00pm

5.0