Product alignment readout

the vision the pilot

Aletcos × Nightborn
A working session to find the smallest thing worth building first.

From a big vision to a pilot that proves it.

Validated · the foundation is solid

What we
already know
is true

The problem is real

01

Retailers still source manually: calls, WhatsApp, email. Wholesalers face fragmented, unpredictable demand.

The gap is real

02

No shared reputation, ranking, quote or financing layer exists in this market today.

Discovery is done

03

You ran the wholesaler interviews first-hand. This isn’t a hunch, it’s grounded in real conversations.

Both sides feel it

04

Friction is tolerable one-to-one but breaks down, and compounds, as transaction volume grows.

The question that decides everything

Will retailers actually
switch their sourcing
channel, and pay for it?

You wrote it yourself: this is the existential risk. The ranking engine, reputation system, financing model and wholesaler marketplace all depend on transaction volume from retailer adoption. No switching means no data, no network effects, no revenue. So this gets tested before anything is built.

Three unproven bets, stacked

Why we don’t build
the platform first

Discovery + quotes + ranking + reputation + financing is a platform, not an MVP. Building it all means spending months of runway before the one question above is ever answered. If retailer switching fails, every feature underneath it was wasted.

Bet 1

Retailers abandon trusted suppliers

unproven
+
Bet 2

Wholesalers expose real-time pricing

unproven
+
Bet 3

Reputation-based lending repays

unproven
=
one platform-sized “MVP”
Two paths, two different companies

First decision: what is Aletcos?

A

Software layer

  • Subscription or commission model
  • You stay a marketplace + tooling
  • Lower capital, lower liability
  • Pricing stays transparent to both sides
B

Merchant / lender

  • Buy at €1, sell at €1.20: the markup
  • You take an inventory / credit position
  • Heavy capital + legal weight
  • Retailers can see the real wholesale price: a hidden margin risks trust

Pick the lane before a line of architecture is drawn.

De-risk
before
you build

Reputation financing

highest risk

Don’t underwrite. Partner embedded B2B BNPL (Hokodo, Billie, Mondu): they carry the credit risk and the capital, you own the ordering experience.

Wholesaler pricing

validate supply

Start with quote requests, not an instant-quote engine. First prove that even 3 wholesalers will share structured price and stock data.

Retailer switching

test first

The one thing the pilot exists to test. Everything else is downstream of it, so put the cheapest possible test here.

Win one tiny network first

Ethnic retail isn’t one market. It’s dozens of disconnected, often co-ethnic sourcing networks. Liquidity is local and per-community, so a thin marketplace spread across everyone never reaches density.

One community

e.g. one diaspora’s grocers

One category

one fast-moving product line

One city

where you can meet both sides

Hand-assemble both sides: 10–15 retailers and 3–5 wholesalers you personally recruit. A dense, winnable micro-network beats a sparse one every time.

Test the behaviour with almost no code

The concierge pilot

1
OVER WHATSAPP

Retailer sends list

A shopping list comes in over WhatsApp, their existing habit.

2
BY HAND

You gather quotes

Aletcos collects prices from the picked wholesalers, by hand.

3
ONE CLEAN OFFER

Compared offer back

The retailer gets one clean comparison and places the order.

4
THE NUMBERS

Track behaviour

Log repeat orders, time saved, willingness to pay.

Near-zero build. It proves switching before a line of platform code, and produces the baseline numbers that don’t exist yet.

Pilot success thresholds

What “validated” looks like

≥25%

of pilot retailers place a 2nd order within 90 days

<15 min

to compare suppliers and order, vs hours of calls today

3–5

wholesalers keep responding after the pilot ends

1 clear

willingness-to-pay signal: a commission or fee accepted

The first job isn’t hitting these. It’s establishing a baseline that doesn’t exist today.

The build, sequenced by learning

Phase 0

Concierge pilot

Manual brokering. Prove retailers switch and will pay.

Phase 1

Lightweight platform

Discovery, RFQ, ordering, reputation seed, invoice tracking.

Phase 2

Engine + financing

Instant quote, ranking. Financing via a BNPL partner.

Later

Expand

Forecasting, advisory, ERP integrations, cross-border.

Explicitly out of scope, for now

  • Full digital-transformation / ERP replacement
  • In-house lending infrastructure & banking integrations
  • Instant-quote & ranking engine, until supply data is validated
  • Real-time logistics, fleet tracking, delivery optimization
  • AI demand forecasting & purchasing recommendations
  • Cross-border trade, customs & compliance tooling

Saying no here is what protects the runway.

What you leave the workshop with

Let’s build the smallest thing

that tells us the truth.

A go / no-go

A clear decision on running the concierge pilot.

A focused roadmap

Prioritized Phase 0–1, nothing built before it earns its place.

A real timeline

Tied to learning, not feature count.

Aletcos × Nightborn