Hasan Elkomey: President & Partner at LIM

^{Joe Fox (00:03.046)}
Hey everyone, Joe Fox here, president of Growave for another episode of Retain Grow Thrive. I have one of my very, very good friends here today. He's an absolute e-commerce veteran, owns one of the best agencies in the space. I'm super excited to talk to him. Not only is he an expert, he's a very, very nice guy. And I'm lucky to call him not just a partner of ours, but a friend. So without further ado, I want to introduce Hassan from LIM.

Hey, Hassan, how you doing?

_{Hasan Elkomey (00:34.207)}
Pretty good. Thanks for having me, Joe. Hassan El Komey, one of the partners here at LIM.

been part of the team since 22. My business partner Ryan started the company back in 2011 and we came in, came together and helped drive the company up to where it is today. Now we're about 200 people across 12 countries, doing a of e-commerce and acquired a few other smaller companies and helped expand our practice in other arenas. Yeah, I live out of the New York office here.

and we'll be moving to the Philly area soon enough.

^{Joe Fox (01:14.624)}
Philly, that's exciting. Does that mean you're changing the teams that you back in sports or what? Or are going to stay loyal to New York?

_{Hasan Elkomey (01:22.715)}
I Don't have it in me. They say that, you know, when you change regions, you change teams. I can't do it. It's not in me.

^{Joe Fox (01:31.476)}
New Yorker at heart. love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Hasan. And you already touched on a couple of really cool points, you know, that I want to dive into, you know, particularly around the path you and Ryan have had, you know, 200 staff across 15 countries. That's a very, very large team, right? Like a lot of the agency partners that we have jump on the podcast are a lot shorter, like lot smaller.

^{Joe Fox (01:58.963)}
haven't been in the game quite as long. I think there's not only a lot of value for merchants here today, but also a value for some of these other agencies who are looking to scale and grow. So Hassan, can you tell me what have been the two kind of main catalysts for that growth that you and Ryan and the rest of the team have found over the years? And then I guess secondary to that is

Is this what what's your major focus at the moment for growth going forth at LEM?

_{Hasan Elkomey (02:29.82)}
Yeah, totally. So a big component to our growth has been our staff augmentation model.

where we're providing our people as an extension of your team, whether you'd be an agency or brand. Sometimes you need a little bit of support in some of these arenas, whether it's a developer or a project manager, a digital marketing expert will provide our people to be that extension, full-time, part-time, or even project-based. It ramped up a lot during the pandemic and

During periods of times of uncertainty as we have today, people aren't quite hiring, but there's still project and work to be done, So who's going to do the work? And even more so when the partnership ecosystem opens up and brings in new agencies, those agencies before really proving a point on a particular platform, they need to

^{Joe Fox (03:10.214)}
Yes.

^{Joe Fox (03:15.729)}
Yep. Yep.

_{Hasan Elkomey (03:34.584)}
see if it's going to work or not, staff augmentation allows for that. So they don't necessarily have to say no to a project, knowing that they've got that runway and that support from LIM to be able to scale up and scale down to see if it really is an arena they want to play in, if there's truly opportunity there, without having to go and find the people or hire the people or build that practice, essentially. Three key areas why.

staff augmentation is here to stay and thrive is number one, you either don't have the practice, number two, you don't have the budget for the overhead, or number three, you bid off more than you can chew and you need the support to help you take that forward.

^{Joe Fox (04:21.575)}
Yeah, I love that. And I think, you know, that's such a clever business model because it's kind of one of those situations where not only can someone, you know, utilize the best talent in-house for a period of time, but they can also tap into all of the other areas of practice and expertise at Limb. Should that be, you know, the path that they need and they require. And I think, you know, you touched on it there very well, Hassan.

what's happening in the market at the moment. You know, you are hearing about, you know, certain brands and everything scaling back or or unfortunately, you know, and you and I being in this space for some time, we've gone through it before with like layoffs and things. But I think that business model is is incredible and it adds so much value. So that's really interesting. And I guess, you know, while we're sort of on this topic at the moment of what's happening in the market.

you know, at the moment, I guess to kind of set the tone of when we're recording where we're coming into, you know, end of April, start of, start of May. And where, you know, obviously there's a little bit of uncertainty, particularly in the U S around tariffs and that's sort of having a ripple effect, you know, right throughout the world. What are your kind of key points? There's a lot of merchants who will be tuning in. What are your sort of key points or key

things that you think that merchants should be really focused on now considering what's happening in the market.

_{Hasan Elkomey (05:52.238)}
Now isn't necessarily the time to scale back the spending on your tech. We've seen this dance before, Uncertainty essentially means that now we have to look to our partners and particularly our tech partners, our solutions, what's the right fit and what isn't. Maybe the things we have in place aren't

the right fit for these times. Maybe the things we were looking at as nice to haves or perhaps something we would look at in a few years are now more on the horizon for now. think trusting in your partners who have listened and helped to get you here can help get you there. And sometimes it's not always the case, but

^{Joe Fox (06:34.052)}
Yes. Yeah.

_{Hasan Elkomey (06:48.992)}
Your agency partner is supposed to be there to really listen and shepherd and provide that proper direction. And if they aren't, you might have to look internally and externally at the right fit for you. This is what we do, right? We know the space. We work with quite a lot of partners to help kind of declutter and provide the right path forward, to kind of help automate things so that you're not having to

hire for it, Or leverage multiple products when you can leverage some out of the box components and help cut your costs and add automation and quite frankly, time. And then that's, that's our most valuable asset, the times money and I can get there faster, I can do more with less. Essentially, that's our mantra here at Limb.

^{Joe Fox (07:42.597)}
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, referring back to the earlier discussion we're having around that limb business model, I think leveraging that is so important at this particular time. It's kind of like, okay, if you if you are a merchant, you are struggling, I think it's really the time now to, you know, make sure that you are having those conversations that you mentioned around what is the right fit for right now.

I think what happens, and we saw it at the start of COVID, is merchants typically tend to shut all the doors, button down the hatches, stop all the spending. But as we saw in COVID, that was the wrong move to make. And the people and the brands that really invested in their agency partnerships really doubled down on everything that they were doing in e-comm, saw massive success. And I think we're seeing it now with the tariffs. I mean, I can't keep up with it every day.

It feels like there's a different plan of what's happening with that. I think, you know, if you're capitalizing as a brand on the uncertainty and kind of like sticking to your guns, knowing that you have a good product, as you said, leveraging your partners, whether it be your agency partners or your tech partners to really help you through this. And I think Hassan, you, you describe it really well, like shepherd you through this period of uncertainty.

That's what you need to be doing if you're a merchant listening to this. The complete wrong approach in my opinion is cutting all spend, you know, turning around and trying to bury your head in the sand with this. It's going to be a change that happens. Weather the storm with your partners correctly and continue to do good business. think at the end of the day, people are still going to purchase from brands they have a great relationship with.

Whilst it may not be a time where people are going out and searching for completely new products and making huge ticket, you know, price items, we are seeing through a lot of grow waves sort of merchants, the people who are really focusing on this retention piece and really focusing on the loyal customers that exist within their database are the ones who are doing really well at the moment. And I think the messaging needs to be correct too. I think

_{Hasan Elkomey (10:01.39)}
Thanks.

^{Joe Fox (10:04.272)}
letting your customers know that their order times are not going to be affected, the customer experience isn't going to be affected by what's happening externally in the world, I think is kind of the point set out to that.

_{Hasan Elkomey (10:17.138)}
Joe, even if their orders are being affected, it's communication. Here's what we're going to do differently because of this. Even if they're looking internally at different manufacturing options to help them keep up, to help them keep the numbers and pricing where me as a loyal customer is looking forward to.

But the communication is going to be key around that, regardless of pricing being affected or shipping time being affected. It's the communication piece that's going to really differentiate you, especially with your loyal customers. Hunkering down is not a proper tactic as we've seen. It's affected companies through the pandemic who are no longer here and have also lost market share.

^{Joe Fox (10:44.758)}
Absolutely.

_{Hasan Elkomey (11:13.346)}
You take a look at a company that has done it particularly well. Viori took the pandemic as an opportunity to grow and to scale. And everyone's like, well, no one's going out, no one's working out. Yeah, people are still working out there at home. mean, it affected Peloton too. They saw exponential growth. Again, finding the opportunity in the eye of that storm.

has helped them really scale and get to where they are today. Viori is only 10 years old. And it's hard to believe that they weren't even a contender against the Lululemon. And the pandemic has really been that opportunity that they were looking for to help scale up and find an opportunity to really get into the hands of folks who have never even heard of the brand. So I think...

there's opportunity in the silver lining of this cloud.

^{Joe Fox (12:14.83)}
Absolutely. And I think you're 100 % right. It's seeing what advantages you have in this particular market and working towards those. And the communication piece is key. think it's interesting. think, you know, I think all of us are guilty of that to some degree, right? We have a certain vision of things in our head, and we may not necessarily communicate that correctly to those around us, or we may not communicate it at all.

^{Joe Fox (12:43.694)}
but I think, you know, responsible brands need to communicate as much as possible. So on that note, Hassan, tell me a little bit more about, you know, we've spoken about what Lym does. We've kind of, you know, addressed some of the things that you do for customers. Can you walk me through your ICP a little bit? Obviously, there's kind of going to be a few different ICPs, whether it be, you know,

you doing the stuff augmentation or it be you working, you know, and implementing and all of those sorts of things. So who is, you know, a great example of a, of a ICP fit for you at Lent.

_{Hasan Elkomey (13:24.282)}
It's.

It's hard to pinpoint because, and I hate this question and I hate it. I also hate the answers that come with it, right? I think it's really difficult to pinpoint because essentially we no longer see competition. We see partnerships and opportunity because we're working with other agencies. We collaborate with other agencies.

^{Joe Fox (13:32.813)}
Sorry.

_{Hasan Elkomey (13:55.182)}
And it's hard to explain to mom and dad because like, what do you mean Coca-Cola and Pepsi are fierce, you know, competitors or they're enemies, right? It's a different industry that we're in where we collaborate with one another. We're working with some very, very amazing brands as you've seen from our website, SMB brands that you've never heard of, like already Strong Meals.

all the way up to like a Red Bull or a Gerber. I think that dynamic and different verticals across SMB and enterprise allows us to bring teachings to others. It allows us to be able to say, why don't, hey, Viorio, why don't you talk to Gerber, right? We might be able to learn from one another. You don't compete, but you have similar, you know, practices, similar.

^{Joe Fox (14:52.416)}
Yeah, yeah.

_{Hasan Elkomey (14:52.718)}
manufacturing processes and similar logistics and supply chain. Why don't you guys have a conversation? It gives me such great joy when I'm able to connect those dots agnostically. There's no trying to sell you something here. You're hearing it directly from up here that doesn't compete, where you guys can just openly communicate.

and truly learn from one another, we know what the path should be for some of our merchants. And we might provide these recommendations. But

In many cases, they've been either programmed or told something differently and they need to hear it from a peer as opposed to a vendor. How can I move this needle forward? How can I declutter a few of the things that I've got? Is this really the right solution for me?

^{Joe Fox (15:49.534)}
Yes. Yep.

_{Hasan Elkomey (16:00.62)}
And if so, why and how can we implement it? And how long is it going to take me? And really, truly, what's it really going to cost me? You get that agnostic perspective from a peer, another merchant. So bringing those together really, really does give me great joy.

^{Joe Fox (16:19.689)}
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's such a good way of framing it and looking at it. And I think it's like, you know, it's the same as in our industry. Obviously there's so many different, you know, kind of solutions on a SaaS side of things in terms of, you know, particularly in the Shopify ecosystem. But I think there is, you know, enough room for everyone. think everyone has great partnerships, but I also think there's great learnings that everyone can share particularly.

_{Hasan Elkomey (16:47.054)}
Okay.

^{Joe Fox (16:48.172)}
You know, on the partnership side or on the sales side, even the CS side, think, you know, I am really does sharpen iron and learning those things from different successful organizations is super cool. You mentioned a brand there, Jerva, which I personally think is very cool. some of their products. What was some of the key things you found, you know, in particular for that brand that worked incredibly well when, to achieve the growth.

that they've had and what you've helped them be able to do.

_{Hasan Elkomey (17:21.281)}
Yeah, Gerber's been on Shopify forever. there's a lot that merchants don't know that essentially comes with Shopify. There are out of the box things that you can leverage. There are things that you need to double click into that Shopify does that you need to scale up from. That's essentially out of the box.

In many cases, lot of merchants don't know what they fully have and what they can truly leverage. Shopify continues to add to its platform. And in a lot of these cases, we need to help provide that education to the merchants to say, hey, by the way, you know, we can do this, right? That's where our support model comes in, right? This is what we do. part of our service. It's essentially tied into it.

Hey, we're already supporting you, right? You don't need to do all of this other stuff. You can leverage this functionality to help cut time and cut your costs. And you don't have to leverage all these other things, right? When you outgrow it, yes, we can flip the switch for something a little bit more next level for you. But the educational aspect is key when communicating with our customers.

^{Joe Fox (18:25.672)}
Yes.

_{Hasan Elkomey (18:44.034)}
Don't talk down to your customer, right? Don't assume that they know this stuff. This is what we do. So it's different because you don't know what they do fully, right? Like you know what they do, but you can't do what they do on their end, just like they can't do what we do here. So I think a little bit of empathy in that conversation really does go a long way. Do not talk down to your merchants. Do not talk down to these clients that you've worked so hard with. Collaborate.

^{Joe Fox (18:55.453)}
Yes!

_{Hasan Elkomey (19:14.068)}
Communicate, empathize.

^{Joe Fox (19:16.574)}
Yeah, yeah, I think that's fantastic. It's really nice to hear that because I think a lot of the time, you know, merchants can be wary that they're getting sold a solution. The solution is just kind of dumped on them. have no idea how to use it. It sounds fantastic when it's sold to them. But I think that's a really cool, you know, I wouldn't say it's super unique, but it sounds like it's a very big ethos within the organization.

that you ensure that everyone that you're working with is empowered to use the solution to its fullest. So I love to hear that.

_{Hasan Elkomey (19:54.194)}
Or Joe, it might've even been inherited, right? Like I only just joined the company and now I've got, I'm responsible for all of these other things and, or we acquired another company. Now we're inheriting this system or this platform or this process. So there's a gap there, right? When you're

having to take on something that you've never done before. Like I've always worked with Shopify. Now we've got Magento. I don't know Magento. How am I going to figure this thing out? How am I truly going to manage this? I've managed multiple e-commerce platforms before and worked at number of companies, but not this particular platform. And it really goes a long way when you're able to lean on your partner, your agency or solution partner to help with filling in that gap.

You at GrowWave, you guys have done a fantastic job in truly communicating with your merchants and coming to their level to really speak with them on like, hey, maybe this isn't the right fit because you're leveraging this platform, but maybe it's time to really look at your platform and here are some solutions forward and being able to do that.

^{Joe Fox (21:10.161)}
Absolutely. Yeah. No, thank you for that compliment. I appreciate it, my friend. And I think it's really been a big thing. I think that that is, particularly, you know, in, the landscape and everything that we spoke about at the moment, it's, we're very focused at the moment on ensuring that our existing customers are utilizing the tool to the absolute limits of its ability. And I think

when it comes to us, you know, focusing on who we're to integrate with next, what product updates we're going to do. It's very driven by what is going to be the most valuable for the customer. And we're really customer centric product development focus. That sounds like a bit of a word salad, but I think it really is true. think, you know, we, we can't be the only ones deciding what direction to take the product.

_{Hasan Elkomey (21:57.554)}
you

^{Joe Fox (22:07.621)}
It needs to be led by the customer, by our agency partner, by those who are delivering this solution and adding the most value to merchants. And I think, you know, you and I have spoken about this a couple of times. It's if you're not providing that level of value to a merchant and you're not helping them get the most out of out of the tool, you're going to be gone. Like that's I think that's the honest truth, because it's.

It's particularly in SaaS, it's competitive at the moment. As you said, there's so many tools and options and all of these sort of solutions in the market. So if you're not continually striving to deliver something that's constantly increasing value, something that's consistently proving ROI, you're just going to be uninstalled and no one wants that for anyone. So I appreciate that compliment.

Couple more things. I really like, you know, your approach around this staff augmentation piece. I think that's super unique. I haven't really had anyone on, you know, so far as a guest to be able to talk about that. Is there a way for, you know, particularly there's going to be a lot of our customers seeing this. Is there a way that, I've got a couple in mind after having this conversation. Is there a way that our customers can kind of

you know, reach out to you directly or is there something that you want to kind of extend to any listeners today so that they can kind of explore that process or have an initial discussion with you or your team.

_{Hasan Elkomey (23:50.224)}
Yeah, totally. mean, you can head to our website, golim.com or info at golim.com. Even if it's just a simple question of like, hey,

Do we really need it? What do you think? Right? Or how do you guys set up your model? And I locked into a contract, right? There are no contracts, right? I mean, you've got like 30 day get out clause. This isn't a ball and chain situation. We're trying to make it real easy. If we have to lock you up to be your partner, there's a problem here. We have to work to be your partner.

And it's why I brought up that point previously, Joe, to say you're approaching it consultatively, At GrowWave as opposed to, hey, you're just another notch, right? And we're moving on to the next. What else can we do? How else can we help? What are some of the challenges that you're seeing? I might be able to connect you with the right solution or the right partner to help take that forward.

I think if more people do this, it'll just be a better world for our merchants and their customers too, to make things a little bit easier. So that's the approach model here. We're not here to sell you. We're here to shepherd and to guide and to consult where we can. And if we're the right fit, cool. If we're not, we'll help point you in the right direction. That's the approach.

^{Joe Fox (25:10.514)}
Yeah.

^{Joe Fox (25:30.949)}
Love that, love that. Yeah, that's fantastic. I definitely get a big sense. I mean, you'll like this as a human being, but also in business as well. There's a big sense of care there. And, you know, I really love that. think that's super important because at the end of the day, you know, life is short. We're all in this ecosystem. We all want to help people. Most of us want to help people. So I really love that care factor, my friend. That's fantastic. One last question because

You and I always see each other all over the place when we're traveling. We always bump into each other, whether it's conferences or all sorts of events. And I know that you're a huge family man, so I'm gonna caveat this with you can't say you're family, but what is one thing that you can't live without, like one object? Is it, do you have a particular book or a particular item that you consistently take with you?

when you're traveling, what's something you can't live without? And it can't be a person.

_{Hasan Elkomey (26:34.448)}
OK. Darn.

My phone count

^{Joe Fox (26:42.949)}
You can use phone if you want, is there is there something something specific about it? Is it is it, you know, Spotify so you can catch up on podcasts? Is it Kindle so you can read books on the road or

_{Hasan Elkomey (26:52.973)}
Yeah.

I think my music really helps keep me grounded, right? I mean, just to unplug and then plug in, routine of waking up in the morning, doing my workout and listening to music as a part of that. If I'm working even, I'll have some music playing. mean, it really...

helps me keep into that rotation. It's similar to, I guess, someone who has like chew gum, right? I do it with music and it, music holds a lot of memory. Music helps me think and get into the motion of things. And not many people really know that about me. But I'll just have it playing in the background and, you know, it's just part of that process if I'm on a flight.

_{Joe Fox (27:49.731)}
I that.

^{Hasan Elkomey (27:55.808)}
It's music. Even if I'm reading a book, I can listen to music and read a book. I can listen to music and, you know, go through my emails and it just helps it flow a little bit more enjoyable, right? When you have something like that and the background just going. It's part of my routine.

^{Joe Fox (28:01.498)}
Nice, nice.

^{Joe Fox (28:17.607)}
I love that, I love that. And just to expand on that one little question, I won't dig too much, but what's like, are you all genres? Is it a bit of everything? I know we've slightly discussed this because of one particular kind of thing in the past, but is there like one genre that you can think of that you're particularly listening to a lot of at the moment?

_{Hasan Elkomey (28:32.13)}
Thank you.

_{Hasan Elkomey (28:41.55)}
It depends on what I'm working out, there's going to be something different than, you know, reading through emails or reading a book, right? Different levels. So if I'm working out, it might be hip hop, might be EDM. You might throw a little old school biggie in Tupac.

^{Joe Fox (28:45.945)}
Okay.

^{Joe Fox (29:06.38)}
yeah. Love it.

_{Hasan Elkomey (29:10.248)}
or some some Tiesto and Armand Van Buren raid if I'm really hitting those milestones on my Peloton. So really depends on what you're doing. If I'm just flowing through and going through my emails, I want it to flow. If it's a Friday and I'm going through my emails, I might have something a little bit more upbeat to get me through. But I am a friend of all genres.

^{Joe Fox (29:39.447)}
I love that. I love that. That's how I know if someone is actually really into music is that they can appreciate a really wide, you know, kind of genre catalog. So absolutely love that. I'm going to hit you up with some Spotify playlists. I think my gym ones are getting a little tiresome. Awesome. And so I guess last things last, I know we're kind of out of time. Hassan, what is the best way, you know, if anyone in the audience wants to reach out to you, wants to follow?

_{Hasan Elkomey (29:54.957)}
guy.

^{Joe Fox (30:09.315)}
you know, everything that you're doing over at Liam and, know, essentially reach out and have a discussion with you.

_{Hasan Elkomey (30:17.102)}
Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. There's only one Hassan Al-Khimi. And if you find LIM on LinkedIn, it's linkedin.com, know, it's slash LIM. There's only one, which is pretty cool. But you can find me there and I'd be happy to help.

^{Joe Fox (30:30.617)}
Yep. Pretty lucky. I love that.

^{Joe Fox (30:41.047)}
Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much, my friend. So good to see you as always. I'm sure we're to bump into each other very shortly at one of these conferences and sort of connect offline after this. But thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate you as a friend and as a partner at GrowWave and everything that you're doing. And, you know, once again, a big compliment about your ethos and what you guys are doing in the market and in our sphere.

Thank you so much for that, Hassan. Appreciate it and thank you for coming on.

_{Hasan Elkomey (31:15.608)}
Yeah, thank you for having me.

^{Joe Fox (31:17.284)}
Cheers.