Name: Alain Miguel
Profession: Co-founder/Chief Operating Officer, Modalyst
Age: 30
One word that describes you: Results-oriented
Alain Miguel, the one tie corporate strategist is changing the face of retail by providing a connection between retailers and brands. Modalyst, a distribution marketplace, enables independent retailers to access cool, hard-to-reach, up-and-coming brands from all over the world, and enables retailers to automate how they source unique products and fulfill customer orders, all while seamlessly adding new products into their e-commerce storefronts without zero upfront inventory costs. In minutes, an empty storefront can be filled with thousands of curated products from dozens of brands.
Modalyst—which Alain launched in January 2013 after meeting his business partner, Jill Sherman, at MIT—has enabled more than 5,000 independent stores and 700 brands worldwide to connect in ways previously exclusive to large department stores and known brands.
The idea and much of the inspiration behind Modalyst was o democratize distribution and commerce for new and growing retail businesses around the world. “Our thesis is that all independent brands – designers, makers, artisans, inventors, curators – should be able to monetize their influence as creators and tastemakers by opening up an online store, sourcing unique inventory, and selling cool products to the fast growing numbers of consumers shopping online,” Miguel tells BE Modern Man.
About 10 years ago, Miguel then a sophomore at Yale University sought to monetize his influence as a curator of fashion by launching a menswear brand. But the brand failed after just two years. “It failed because getting distribution into a global network of retailers is incredibly expensive and time-intensive,” says Miguel.
After a four-year stint on Wall Street, Miguel decided to rekindle his interest in entrepreneurship as a first year candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management. “During my first year, I stumbled upon an awesome co-founder and a disruptive idea, and decided to drop out of MIT,” Says Miguel. “But I do wear my MIT dropout badge with pride,” jokes Miguel. For months, he sustained himself and funded the early stages of the business with savings from options-trading. After months of product development, customer surveys, and many nights couch surfing in Boston, Modalyst was launched. “In January 2013, it was a minimum viable product with less than 100 customers, and today, it has exploded into a platform with nearly 6000 B2B customers,” Miguel tells BE Modern Man
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As companies such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento give merchants an opportunity to open a store online, Modalyst becomes ever more important in terms of helping those merchants automate their processes for sourcing inventory and processing orders with brands. “Our vision is to power the universe of online stores seeking cool and differentiated inventory for their consumers,” says Miguel.
The son of an immigrant mother who turned into a highly successful physician has been impactful on Miguel’s career. “She has always emphasized that success is a journey, not a destination,” Miguel tells BE Modern Man. “Make success your habit are the powerful words she used to keep me grounded and centered.” Whether it was the day Miguel received seven acceptance letters from Ivy League colleges, landed his first job at an Investment Bank on Wall Street, or earned a Dean’s Fellowship to attend MIT Sloan School of Management those words have resonated across many would-be milestones.
Selected as 2015 Forbes 30 under 30, being tapped as one of 7 business executives to participate in the Small Business Trade and Exports Roundtable (discussion) with President Obama in March 2015, growing Modalyst into a marketplace with about 700 brands and 5000 stores in over 120 countries is astonishing. “To be recognized for our leadership and experience in this space is an overwhelmingly cool reality, and one that I will never forget.”
Recognition as a leader in this space is a wonderful achievement but Miguel realizes that there are many stories like his worth telling, yet, too often, the media coverage is hyper selective about which groups of black leaders they want to celebrate. “That results in just a fractional view of what our community has to offer,” says Miguel. “For example, I believe in this year’s Forbes “30 under 30″ issue, African-Americans represented less than 8% of the
total group (of winners), and within tech, the percentage is dismally lower. If more publications start to cover our stories, then more of us will have a chance to tell our story and inspire the next generation of BE Modern Men.”It is no secret that there is a paucity of African-Americans in Silicon Valley/Alley and that the current trajectory for more representation isn’t super optimistic. “Being a BE Modern Man means that I can help write history and piece together a journey that is worth following and learning about, particularly as a black founder in the tech community,” Miguel tells BE Modern Man. “I understand that this honor is an opportunity that is tethered to a great deal of responsibility, and I plan to continue cementing the idea that there is a new path Black men can take to realize their dreams and attain success.”
The BlackEnterprise.com team salutes Alain Miguel for listening to his inner voice which told him to rekindle his interest in entrepreneurship. Today he is revolutionizing the retailer and consumer landscape one brand at a time. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of Modalyst!
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