Parliament Worker Turned Into An Amazon Seller | Guy Heretz
Episode Summary
Discover how a parliament worker turned into an amazon seller. In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – Guy Heretz, the co-founder & CEO of a leading management agency for Amazon sellers called RPGECOM, shares his personal journey into eCommerce.
Have you ever wondered how people in e-commerce get involved in this world? What paths do people follow to end up where they are? Yoni Mazor from PrimeTalk learns about one man’s interesting life story and shares how this man can help those interested in the wide world of e-commerce.
Today, PrimeTalk teams up with Guy Heretz, the co-founder and CEO of RPGECOM, a leading Amazon Marketing Services Agency that prides itself in helping all sellers, big and small, with a variety of consulting, management, and assistance services. Referring to himself as a serial online entrepreneur, Heretz has also developed RGPESCHOOL, an online training platform for Amazon sellers with more than 500 graduates, and RGPECAP, a public venture fund for Amazon businesses.
Guy Heretz discusses his interesting childhood, his brief stint in Israeli politics, and myriad other experiences that have led him to where he is today. If you are a budding online entrepreneur but you don’t know where to start in the e-commerce world, or if you have a fledgling online business and don’t know which direction to head in next, then this episode is for you!
Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of PrimeTalk. Today I'm really excited to have a special guest. Today I'm having Guy Heretz. Guy is the founder and CEO of RPGECOM, which is a leading Amazon Services Agency for sellers. Guy, welcome to the show.
Guy Heretz 0:22
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Yoni Mazor 0:25
Our pleasure, really. So today's show is going to be all about the Guy Heretz Story. So you're gonna share with us? Who are you? Where are you from? Where were you born? Where'd you grow up? How'd you begin your professional career? So without further ado, let's jump right into it.
Guy Heretz 0:42
Okay, so thanks. Thank you once again, for having me. I have a pretty interesting story because I was jumping from one country to another. So I will start with that. So I'm 33 years old right now based in Israel living next to Tel Aviv. But actually, I was born in the Soviet Union, in Moldova, when it still was Soviet Union, uh ‘87. But really, when I was really small, three and a half, we immigrated to Israel with all my family. I thought that this will be my final destination. But no, when I was eighth grade, my parents moved again, this time to Bulgaria to Eastern Europe,
Yoni Mazor 1:21
Hold on, when you moved from Moldova to Israel, what year was that? 1990?
Guy Heretz 1:27
It was ‘91.
Yoni Mazor 1:28
‘91. This is after the Soviet Union basically dissolved?
Guy Heretz 1:32
Exactly just after. Actually, my family even moved before my grandparents, even one year before, but we were just waiting for my father to graduate from there, from college. And then we moved. I grew up in the northern of Israel, until...
Yoni Mazor 1:48
Which part? What's the name of the city in the north?
Guy Heretz 1:50
Karmiel.
Yoni Mazor 1:52
Karmiel. I think there's a few interesting factories over there and they make weapons.
Guy Heretz 1:58
Yes. You're absolutely right. And there is also textiles there. And my father was working in one of the textile, leading Delta company.
Yoni Mazor 2:08
Delta textiles, they do actually, I don't know if anybody knows this, but they actually manufacture for Victoria's Secrets. They manufacture, you know, you know, garments like bras, brassieres, uh...
Guy Heretz 2:18
Not only, actually their biggest client, which takes 97% of the share of the production of the socks, for example, is NIke.
Yoni Mazor 2:25
Nike, wow!
Guy Heretz 2:26
Yeah. Nike, I was laughing with my father that if Nike will just, you know, withdraw their contracts, well Delta Socks, is collapse, will definitely collapse. But nope, they're still there. And so we moved to Bulgaria following my father. He just moved there to be the general manager of Delta in Bulgaria. And I found myself in ninth grade in a country in Eastern Europe, knowing nothing.
Yoni Mazor 2:48
Where in Bulgaria? In the capital city, in Sofia?
Guy Heretz 2:50
No, no, actually, when I was in the fifth city, I think called Russa and it was on the border with Romania on the Danube River. And it was like something like two hours from Varna, two hours from Bucharest. And I think my entrepreneurial journey started there, because I already, you know, find myself at 15 years old, trying to manipulate my way with people, with new school where, you know,
Yoni Mazor 3:18
Yeah adapting for the second time, yeah think about it for a second, you’re adapting for the second time with the new culture, new language, new mentality, new everything for the second time. So you have to, you know, quickly adapt and evolve and find your position and find success within that sphere.
Guy Heretz 3:33
Yeah, and actually, I needed to be there only three years before the initial contract, my parents were for three years. So I needed to come back into the last year, my 12th grade, to Israel, but it didn't happen. They stayed there for 20 years. Actually they're still there. They're still there. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 3:49
So, a three, a three year event became, you know, a more than 20 year and still going event for your parents. But for yourself, you left? When did you leave Bulgaria? After three years? Or?
Guy Heretz 4:01
Yeah I graduated from an English Language School in Bulgaria. We started at 50/50 in Bulgarian and in English, right.
Yoni Mazor 4:09
And you graduated school there, right?
Guy Heretz 4:10
Yes, high school. And I thought I'm going to pursue my education in Germany, actually, a lot of Bulgarians are going to be studying actually abroad. I wanted to go on the same path. But as you know, in Israel, we have the mandatory army and military service. And I actually could, you know, postpone it a little bit, but I did want to go and study business administration, but then something happened with my patriotic feelings, and I decided to come back to Israel. Actually, it was 2002. And I just left. My parents unfortunately couldn't come with me because there was a contract, but I just came back and I was a lone soldier, soldier. And this is was like further adaptation to this situation. I’m coming back to Israel after four years, right away to the army and military service with this... It was really crazy. It was the...
Yoni Mazor 5:05
So you did 4 years in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces,
Guy Heretz 5:07
Yeah, it was actually more, it was five years. I signed up for more. I was an officer, I'm a Captain in the Reserve. And I just handled rookies. And we did like basic training for non combat soldiers in Israel. So this was my second stage where I felt a little bit that education, training, and all of this is part of, also of me. And then, after graduation, I know I'm going into politics, I really, really was into politics.
Yoni Mazor 5:40
So after you finish the military service, let's put some years on this, which year did you finish your service, the five year service?
Guy Heretz 5:47
In 2012.
Yoni Mazor 5:48
2012? About ten years ago, and the five years in the military, you took the heavy load of becoming an officer and you know, raising generations of, you know, new soldiers. So thank you for that for that service. Alright, so 2012, somehow leaving the, you know, the Army or at least army organizations are known to be non political. Nevertheless, after you graduate from there, you feel like, you know, I want to dive into all the politics. What was that? Where did that come from?
Guy Heretz 6:19
I think in the four years I was abroad, I had these patriotic feelings for Israel, and I was really missing everything that was connected to Israel, and I really wanted to do something about it. I was full of ideology, and wanted to change things. And...
Yoni Mazor 6:33
Yeah, what would you... if you had to touch where that's coming from, your ideology, would it just be because, you know, you were born and raised in Soviet Union and your parents felt the need to go to Israel because they feel, you know, this is your land or mobile economic opportunity, what was uh,
Guy Heretz 6:50
I think Zionism was the main motivator for me.
Yoni Mazor 6:55
That was in your family, or you found that at some point over time.
Guy Heretz 6:58
Nope, that was only mine. I think, also, the five years in the Army did itself, you know, added into the recipe, and all the challenges and of course, Israel is a very challenging country from all the aspects and when combining all of this, I really wanted to change things. And of course, it was not only about politics, economy and culture and everything. And I pursued the same, I had a BA in diplomacy and strategy and political science..
Yoni Mazor 7:28
Oh so in 2012 you went to school I said, if I want to enter into politics, actually, let me go to university and learn in a Political Studies.
Guy Heretz 7:37
Yes, yes, right away. I jumped into college, three years, graduated with distinction by the way with diplomacy. I was traveling in my last year doing diplomacy, public relations for Israel, and that was my passion. I was…
Yoni Mazor 7:53
What year was that? 2015? 2016?
Guy Heretz 7:55
Yeah 2015 I graduated and jumped into politics right away, to one of the parties in Israel, if you know Lieberman, and
Yoni Mazor 8:05
What's the name of the party? Uh Lieberman’s party?
Guy Heretz 8:08
Israel Our Home. Yisrael Beiteinu.
Yoni Mazor 8:10
Yisrael Beiteinu, Israel Our Home
Guy Heretz 8:13
So it’s a right wing party. Yes.
Yoni Mazor 8:16
Very patriotic party. More on the right wing side of the map, in Israel a political map. So how'd you roll into that organization, I mean, into that party?
Guy Heretz 8:26
Uh I had a friend in college that was participating in some field work in the party and they started to take me with him and I fell in love with the action, with emotions, with everything. I was, you know, across roads, yelling in uh demonstrations and everything. One of those and I started my actual mentorship already during the second year of my work and after that in the third year, and after I graduated, I jumped in the parliament, into the Knesset. So I went working as a parliamentary assistant to one of the MPs.
Yoni Mazor 9:04
And you were going daily to work in the Israeli parliament?
Guy Heretz 9:06
Yeah, I thought this was going to be my path, definitely. I always like had this kind of, you know, the entrepreneurial business mindset behind it, but when in the college years, it was put aside for a new passion. And when going into, inside the parliament, then something happened. Okay. Yes, because there, suddenly there was a huge gap between the ideology that I came with, and to the practice that is going on, you know, in the corridors of the Parliament, and I figured out two things. First is that to be a public servant for the public, you need to kind of sign a contract, a public contract with them, and it's just getting worse. I say it like this because you start from the bottom and every time you, you know, raise yourself or become a, you know, member of Knesset or minister of Parliament or a minister or something like that you just, the responsibility, the time consuming, is much more and I am a family guy. And this was like a first stop mark for me, a sign for me to stop and think. And also I figured out that I'm, I think I'm too good as a person to be, you know, you need to be a little bit dirty politics, you can that you can not...
Yoni Mazor 10:24
You can’t avoid the dirty politics that are in politics. So the two components that shifted your mindset: One is when you realize how demanding, right, the roles are to be a public servant and it's ruthless. And it's brutal. And it's not stopping, ever. It's just you know, when you, once you’re in the mix, it's high pressure constantly, right? And then the second component to add to that is that sometimes you have to, you know, get yourself in dirty politics and tricks and sticks to stay, to keep a position or stay alive. And that's really the nature of politics. And it's not so simple for ethical people to fully immerse themselves in, and feel comfortable in that position. So you threw yourself to the water, you tested it, and you realized “I can swim here but I'd rather not, you know, swimming in a dirty swamp. I'll find cleaner waters, where I can, you know, a clean and ethical way and you know I put all my energy and passion into something that it's clean, it has a lot of potential of helping others and hopefully makes a good income.
Guy Heretz 11:26
Yes. And there the shift happened just before I left the parliament with a friend that was doing, uh engaging with drop shipping. This was the era of drop shipping from Amazon to eBay.
Yoni Mazor 11:38
What year was that? The year of drop shipping?
Guy Heretz 11:39
2015, 16, 17, before eBay started to close accounts for people who are doing drop shipping. But this was the first time I heard about e-commerce, about online entrepreneurship, about online business. And I started with that. I took a course and I established my first business in eBay. And the work was interesting but too much work for little margins. And also there was some changes in eBay and the policy and
Yoni Mazor 12:12
But explain to us for just a short moment. What is the business model of droppings? You know, so anybody in the audience who's not familiar, drop shipping from Amazon to eBay, what does this all mean?
Guy Heretz 12:24
Well, just finding a product on Amazon, selling the same product on eBay, with a little bit of margin for me, let's say for $1 more. And whenever somebody buys from me on eBay, I just fulfill the order from Amazon to his...
Yoni Mazor 12:41
So once you order from Amazon, you buy it, and you put the address of the customer from eBay, you ship it there. But how do you find those products where there's a price gap yourself with tools?
Guy Heretz 12:52
Well, there are some tools and methods. I was studying some strategies. There were some really cool tools in that time so monitors, that monitors also the prices, changes everything. And it was pretty easy, but you needed to really invest in it and to scale it to a big amount of products in order to see significant margins and then I heard about Amazon FBA, this was really the entrance of FBA to Israel. 2016, the first course made it into Israel. And I just jumped over also on this and I said, “Okay, let's figure out, maybe it will be much more suitable for me”. Actually, I entered it with my girlfriend, now today is my wife, and I even I was reminding her that we did it, we split even the course 50/50 it was that moment...
Yoni Mazor 13:49
Instead of going on a date, let's go to a course, split the bill and keep it romantic but also a business.
Guy Heretz 13:55
It was really funny but yeah, we were living together, starting, you know, working in some work just to hold up the house and the home, and in the night, in the evening starting an Amazon and it was really cool. It took me seven months to launch my first product on Amazon and I did all the opposite things from what was learned. Like the course said no technological products, no you know complicated, no expensive products first time and I had a really good feeling about Bluetooth headphones. It was the year that Apple released their phones with no you know, connection, it all went to Bluetooth, and it was a really good actually product. And I brought it just before Q4 and...
Yoni Mazor 14:43
It was the fall of 2017 or 16?
Guy Heretz 14:46
16 I think yes, and it was really hit. I bought 1000 pieces, sold everything in one, in 45 days. And I thought hey, hell this is Amazon. So I didn't figure out this is Q4. And it's happening only in December, and I really freaked out. And I ordered a double amount of 2000 earbuds and it was like 30k, thirty thousand dollars, it was all my money. And then, and then, you know, January came, and silence, silence and huge amounts of, you know, feedbacks and bad reviews game. And I didn't, you know, they didn't do an inspection in China, and all the lessons that I had to learn, I learned in this way, the bad way. And it took me after that almost a year to sell off, you know, all the stock that was stuck there. And this is actually where 95-90% of you know, nine out of 10 sellers are pulling back their business. And yeah...
Yoni Mazor 15:58
I took a hit. I know, it started as a wonderful promise. I took a few punches, a few hits, and I think, you know, I'll try to look for something else.
Guy Heretz 16:08
Yeah, but I thought to myself, what? Should I go back to Parliament? What do I do? Like I was really passionate about that, I was studying non stop. And I really wanted to do it like second round, and to do it better. And actually, this moment, it was a really hard moment. Because you know, as an entrepreneur, you need to have your surroundings, a very supportive environment. And I didn't have this one from my own family. And you know, what? Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 16:42
So you mean, your family that says, you know, keep doing this entrepreneurial stuff, you know, stay in business, you look ahead, keep going. And they, they were more in the impression of, you know, you get a professional to get a job, maybe be a company or maybe in politics, the government job, stuff like that. That was kind of the discussions?
Guy Heretz 16:58
Yeah, stop playing with your PC. That was the phrase and go get a real job. You started as the most expensive private college in Israel for what, and this was the sayings and it was really hard. But I really, really felt that first of all, this is the future like e-commerce, I felt this is the future. Now we know it's the future, this is actually the present, but it's already also the future still. And I really also learned from my lessons, from my mistakes. And I knew that in order to be better, I need to just do the same, but not, you know, going and falling in the same holes. And I took actually a loan, a little bit from the bank, later from my parents, and I said, Okay…
Yoni Mazor 17:48
I mean, that's impressive, even though they were not really supportive, on a discussion level, on a financial level, they said here's some, here's our money. Do we believe in you?
Guy Heretz 17:56
They actually saw how hard I'm working...really hard, like for 20 hours per day, it was all about either working in a physical work to get the money to invest in Amazon or live, or just working on my business. And yeah, they support it, they support it. And the second round, in the second product, it was a whole different thing.
Yoni Mazor 18:21
I think this is already 2018 right. 2018 you started right in late 2016. You started with, you know, good momentum because it was you know, Christmas Q4, then 2017 you're stuck throughout the year with inventory. You're, you know, picking up the pieces together trying to get out of that situation. But 2018 hopefully,
Guy Heretz 18:41
Actually, I didn't wait for one year with the Bluetooth. I started right away with a new brand. Just in between, I had to, you know, get rid of the earbuds. But I jumped in really quick afterward, like the second quarter after Christmas. And I started from scratch. But that's this time, with like a brand started in really, like no branding. invested a lot of it. And it was arts and crafts, things like office supplies, call it arty, lots of. Actually, this was the idea of my wife. She saw that you guys in the States really like the baby shower, and the gender reveal party is something that we don't have here. But she saw that people are selling you know, the parts by themselves like the “mommy to be” sash and everything. And we just bundled everything. And we were one of the first ones...
Yoni Mazor 19:30
So you guys are saying that you identified a cultural thing inside the United States where many couples you know, married couples, they are expecting a baby. So even before the baby is born, they have this you know, baby shower, where there are gifts, there are decorations, and then maybe a ceremony to name the baby or expose the name of the baby. Stuff like that, something that is not really too familiar, I guess in the Middle East, to say the least. But in Israel as well. But nevertheless, your wife was able to identify that. That’s super interesting.
Guy Heretz 19:57
Yes, and we were the from among the first on Amazon selling and providing bundles, just the bundles, and sets for like five, six decorations in one set. And it was a really good business for one year. After like we're, we were implementing everything by the book and it really went well. Until the Chinese made the jump in. the jump in, you know, in 2018, late 2018, and this is like paper products This is like the butter and bread of Chinese factory…
Yoni Mazor 20:30
Yeah made out of paper, the cost of production is very low and for them, it's a bonanza because it can put all their manufacturing muscle into penetrating.
Guy Heretz 20:38
Exactly and they did penetrate the niche and the category. And slowly by slowly it was just not profitable. And but I still had the chance to even duplicate my business into the EU and even to Australia. I was one of the first I think in Israel that was selling arts and crafts in Australia. And it was really great, good lesson, made some money, got my investment back and started you know to launch other products I started to think about different, other different brands, and but at that time I already knew the game. Like I felt like okay, I can first live on that, you know, and this living...
Yoni Mazor 21:24
Make an income, economically you can actually rely on, you know, find this as a reliable source of income for yourself because, you know, to find the opportunity, build it, create it, make it you know, launch it in the market and make a profit out of it, see where the trend is going, if you can stay, or maybe need to leave, and maybe even develop another layer and another layer. So it makes it, you know, much more in terms of confidence you feel much more confidence financially and professionally.
Guy Heretz 21:49
And also I did a huge step now because I was able to leave my kind of student work or student job. I was working in a very fancy high-class restaurant when I did the minimum work and had a maximum salary. This was all about making money and had a type for Amazon. But then I could really leave that job and work 24 hours on Amazon.
Yoni Mazor 22:13
And where were you living or where are you living now in Israel? Are you still in the North? Karmeil?
Guy Heretz 22:17
No, no, I'm in the center, in Ramat Gan. And this was a huge shift in my time. Well you know, today that time is more expensive than anything, and suddenly I had lots, much more time, and that's it. And we started to, then we decided to go, with my wife, already then my wife, abroad. Like, if you heard about digital nomading a little bit...
Yoni Mazor 22:48
So you decided, you both decide to become a digital nomad. But let's touch your wife's position for a moment. So she was there with you as an entrepreneur working with you or she had a different track?
Guy Heretz 22:57
No she did. She was with me like 80% because all the technical side, you think it's, you know, Amazon and building brands and everything. It sounds sexy, but it's not.It's, there's a lot of stats, there are numbers and everything.
Yoni Mazor 23:11
Very data-driven, very data-driven. That, this is where she comes in to help?
Guy Heretz 23:16
The opposite. That was my part. And she took a step back and only helped me with the branding and marketing and everything. And she was actually my partner all the time. When we left Israel, we sell, sold everything from the furniture, the car, everything. And we said this is what, we’re going to an adventure.
Yoni Mazor 23:38
And this is what year? 2018?
Guy Heretz 23:40
Yes, yes. Yes. We had the income, we could afford it. And we said let's go to see our suppliers. Let's go and say hi in China to all our suppliers, make some business trip, go to the control fair in Guangzhou. And we did it all. We were there. We were in Vietnam, we were in Thailand, we lived a little bit in Koh Samui for four months. And after that,
Yoni Mazor 24:08
You mainly focused on Asia, with being a digital nomad?
Guy Heretz 24:12
Yes, that's, this was the destination. And then we settled a little bit for six months in Singapore, we had the friends there, and it was, this was the boost, I think, for my entrepreneurial fire, living in Singapore as it's like living in the future. And even though e-commerce was not, you know, infiltrated there, but it still was really inspiring, working in such environment. And this was the big jump in my thoughts about what's next. Okay, I have a business on Amazon. I was already working with my nowadays partner, Pawel, who was who had the software, a Chrome extension, finding the reviewer before when it was allowed. And actually, I was his client, and we started to work every single day, you know, on Zoom or Skype just working together on our businesses on Amazon. And first of all, this was the first time I had another partner, a new partner, who is an Amazon seller from from zero also. There was a big jump there in my knowledge and everything that we could share, with one another, and also started to speak about what's next. When you come back to Israel, let's do something big. Like we heard, I actually was in Singapore, there is a headquarters of Amazon in Singapore. And there was a holiday there. And I was sitting in a restaurant, next to me was a senior manager from Amazon, who is responsible for the localization of going Amazon into new countries. And there was already some talks about Amazon going into Israel. And I just, you know, came to him, and I said, in the restaurant, Yes, where there was like an event. So I was able to mingle with him a little bit. But I, you know, my Israeli nerves, and my chutzpah, I just came over and said, “Please tell me or, if you can't tell me, just nod: Is Amazon is coming to Israel or not?” And he said, of course, I can't tell you. But, you know, he delivered me the message. So I came back to my partner, I said, “Hey, Amazon is coming to Israel. And actually, there is no amazon.co.il yet, but there is something that called local delivery. So the penetration of Amazon has already happened last year in Israel. They provided some options for sellers also to do things here. And when we came back, finally to Israel, we went...
Yoni Mazor 26:44
When’d you guys get back? 2018, or already it was 2019?
Guy Heretz 26:47
19? Yeah, 19.
Yoni Mazor 26:49
Which part of the year?
Guy Heretz 26:52
Oh, when was it? I think just before the year ended, I think in the summer, though, in the end of 2018. And then I started 2019 already in Israel. And there was a lack of agencies in Israel in a matter of, there was a management service here. And there are some big companies already, but no, no agency that provided, you know, A to Z solutions and services, like drill-down services for sellers, doing the hard work for them. And this was the first time we said, okay, let's start building something and an agency. And we were really good at PPC and pay per click, Amazon advertising. And we started with one friend, two friends that we just came to them and said, “Give us the, you know, no money just give us the opportunity to show you what we can do”. And it was a great success with just, you know, two, three clients, one on one working with them, helping with their PPC. And suddenly they talked about us to their friends. And here the magic happens, started to happen. We traveled once again to China, this time with my partner for just another business trip and went to Hong Kong, in February 2019. And then something happened like we did some lives from China. And on our Facebook group, we opened the business page, and we started to deliver some content to some, some Amazon Israel, Amazon sellers. And when we came back, suddenly, we had like, dozens of clients knocking on our door. And we said, okay, something is happening now. Now we need some help. And then we figure out that we need some VAs and some help. And there was the start of RPGECOM in 2019. And just a little bit after that. We partnered with another, Pawal, by the way...
Yoni Mazor 28:53
So your partner Pawal or there’s another Pawal in the mix?
Guy Heretz 28:55
Yes. And he was also genius in PPC, he had a great course in Russian for the Russian market. And when we heard about this course, we just said, let's come over, let's do it in Hebrew in Israel. There's were no courses in Israel whatsoever about our PPC and this was the year that Amazon changed on almost everything about PPC, lots of new features, they change the algorithm, they change everything. And we were the first to deliver this really up to date content. It was in Hebrew. Yeah, the course was a hit. And it also provided with us with the money that we needed to scale us, our business, and to bring more people and and hire and take some offices, and I think was this was in the summer of 2019 the huge boost and then we started with different other you know opening departments creative department and Account Management Department, but slowly by slowly we did ours. And then we figure out hey, we are working like like a startup, with the startup mode. We are, we are a startup, let's raise some capital. And that's what we did, we started to find to look for investors. No, no, you know, something big just a private investor there, investor and we had some contacts. And we started to speak in the end of the year, beginning of 2020 already with some investors, and then the Corona, just, you know, knocked on our door. And we thought, “Oh, Jesus, what is going to happen with, first of all, with our business, with all the negotiations with investors?”, and the magic happened, just the opposite, like, you know, Amazon exploded during COVID-19? And we said, “Yes, please, now, let's talk!”. And then it happened, we raised half a million of dollars, half million dollars. And it was big money for us. And we invested in, also in our company, but we also established another company for investments for digital assets. Now, we also raise money or give the opportunity to people who don't want to, you know, have their own business on Amazon, just to take part and to invest in it in order to have a passive income, or, actually, we're just saying to them, we know the job, invest in us, we will do it for you, we will share their revenue. And this is how the other company RPGCAP also started its way. And that's it today, we have almost 30 workers, and offices, headquarters in Tel Aviv, and we are doing lots of different projects, software development for ourselves. And the school, the online school where we teach Amazon from scratch, and then also advanced courses, like in PPC for sellers. And also we do some conferences. And the idea now is, okay, we have a, we’re familiar already in Israel, the Israeli community, and now we look abroad to the States. So brace yourself, we're coming.
Yoni Mazor 32:08
Wow. So what a pivot and change your life from being in the Israeli parliament, you know, doing, you know, dealing with all the politics and all the complexities involved? Now you guys are finding yourself, you know, in the complexities of e-commerce, finding tracks to success, and empowering the industry by first of all managing brands and creating brands, right? So that's created great growth, you have a track for learning, right? So the sellers can, you know, there's content, there’s education, they can find their own path to growth. So that helps. If anybody is not even involved to learn or understand, but they know that there's money to be made in e-commerce, they can invest funds and have a passive income by basically being a partner or investor in a brand or an Amazon storefront that generates revenue and income. And now, you know, once you have a good handle on the digital market, you feel like there's, you know, global expansion is available, and the sky's the limit. So, it seems...
Guy Heretz 33:04
You summarized everything perfectly.
Yoni Mazor 33:06
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I find it fascinating the multi-layered of pivots that you experienced over the years. So let's do a quick recap on your entire story. Right. So born in Moldova, right? What was the city there where you were born in?
Guy Heretz 33:21
Chișinău, it’s the capital.
Yoni Mazor 33:23
What's it called?
Guy Heretz 33:25
Chișinău
Yoni Mazor 33:25
Chișinău? I think in Hebrew we say Chisenev, right?
Guy Heretz 33:28
It's Chisenev. But when you write it in English, it's Chișinău. Like they say, Yeah,
Yoni Mazor 33:33
Got it. So born in Chișinău, oh, three, four years old, you know, migrate to Israel. You know, spend a few years there and then go back to Europe, to Bulgaria. Spend a few years there actually finishing high school. Go back to Israel, but now you're a soldier and not even a civilian anymore. Instead of doing the regular three years, you're doing five years growing other soldiers educating other soldiers kind of getting the first experience in really educating and supporting others, I would say. But this is serious because in the army there are a lot of that you know, there's risk involved there's guns and stuff like that there are weapons there's a discipline you know, you're creating warriors right so to speak, but now you're creating digital warriors or e-commerce warriors so to speak. But after the army, you go to school and you realize politics is the name of the game for you because you know, your ethics, your values, your passion for your country, your patriotism. You do a little bit of time there, you actually got yourself into the Israeli parliament, which is an achievement on its own merit, and its own value. But um, you realize, you know, it's not as it appears to be, there's a much more complication involved. Plus, it's, you know, sometimes there’s a need to play dirty. So you find a new opportunity with e-commerce, you launch. You get a short taste of success, but then you know, a failure that did not knock you out of the game. On the contrary, you said let me draft everything I got you to know, my time, my soul, my family, even though on a theoretical level, they disagree. On the financial level they eventually help, which is pretty amazing, even though they're all there all the way there in Bulgaria, right, they're still there. And then you will relaunch, you taste success. And that led to another success of creating a partnership with Pawal. Right. And that generates another success of creating an agency, which led to another success of creating a school, right? And effectively a school with courses, which led to another success of you know, creating an investment firm. And raising capital and now seeing the world as a potential ground for you guys to grow. So that's kind of the story of Guy Heretz, and thank you for sharing that. Extremely interesting, unpredictable, I cannot invent this kind of story myself. So, I find that to be a great example of constantly learning, constantly adapting, constantly, you know, pursuing your targets and goals, realizing who you are, how you are, what are you good at? What are you, you know, what do you connect to? What do you connect less to? Whatever you connect to it, you know, you try to maximize the full potential. So thank you for that. Alright, so now I want to kind of close the episode with two components. Right? If you know, the first component will be if somebody wants to learn more about you and connect with you, where can they find you? And the last thing would be is, what is your message of hope and inspiration for entrepreneurs listening out there?
Guy Heretz 36:20
Well, actually, the message is, when I hear you summarizing everything I went through, I just figured out that the entire path I had, this is exactly the entrepreneurial path that you know, one person will face now when goes into Amazon or online. Because of that adjustment, the adaptation that you need to have online, everything is super dynamic, everything is changing. What was right in Amazon, two months ago, is absolutely different right now. And this is exactly the mindset that you need to have. And when I think, the most important message is that if you feel that I cannot handle this anymore, or I see just black. Wait, patience and determination is, I think, is the key. And whenever you're down, there's only one way to go, right? Up. And this was exactly what happened to me so many times. And I think the best message, the best lesson is just hearing someone that was been there, and learning from him. And if you feel like this, and you hear that, and you are encountering the same problems, you know, just brief... Everything, there is a solution for everything. Absolutely. And you need to also, you know, find your own path. You're your own partners, your own things that make you happy and passionate about and this is what I did. And yeah, that was my message.
Yoni Mazor 37:55
Amazing. So if somebody wants to connect with you and learn more about you, where can they find you?
Guy Heretz 38:00
Well, I think everybody who goes, who can go to Google, and just write RPG e-comm will find us. But if not, you can write us on our email office at RPGecomm.com.
Yoni Mazor 38:14
So office at RPG e com. Right RPG e comm dot com. And then you're also very active on social media, on Facebook. So look out for that, for the group as well. Alright guys, thank you so much. Wish you much more continued success for you for both Pawals, for your wife, everybody in the team. And I thank everybody for listening and joining with us today. Until next time, they say.
