Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the ecommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we have a conversation with Brandon Young from Data Drive.
Brandon Young is a winning Amazon seller and consultant, considered by many to be one of the leading experts in Amazon Private Label and Amazon SEO. His own brands sold more than $25 million just on Amazon in 2022 and are on target to achieve $30 million in 2023, making him one of the only coaches who is actually practicing what he teaches. His strengths lie in his in-depth knowledge of Amazon’s ranking algorithm and ability to create data-based processes which improve the success rates and profitability of FBA businesses.
Three years ago, he founded Seller Systems, a mastermind community with educational content for Amazon sellers (www.seller-systems.com). Today Seller Systems has over 1,200 members, of which over 300 are 7 and 8-figure brands. Last year, with the help of his CTO, Florian Ilia, Brandon and his wife Jennifer launched Data Dive, the most powerful product research and optimization tool for Amazon sellers. Data Dive is quickly gaining popularity with over 2,500 global paid members ranging from newbie sellers to billion dollars brands.
A graduate of Nova Southeastern University’s esteemed Wayne Huizenga School of Business, Brandon is passionate about e-commerce, SEO, brand building, technology, startups, and investing.
Connor: Hey Brandon, thanks for taking the time to chat with us here. We love getting to know our partners better so that our community can benefit from what our partners are offering and doing in the industry. To get started, can you give us a high level overview of Data Dive and how it got started? 
Brandon: Appreciate you guys for sharing this tool with your members and audience. Data Dive is the most powerful product research and optimization tool. It started by us taking data from other tools like Helium10 and running our own algorithms and macros on the data to display more powerful insights. Our knowledge of the Amazon ranking algorithm, combined with our data insights, reduce risk, maximize rank potential, and ultimately increase profits of our users.Connor: That’s awesome! Can you dive a bit more into the products and services that you offer to help ecommerce businesses get ahead of their competitors? I’m sure our audience would love to know exactly what problems you could solve for them. Brandon: The first tool is for product validation. It is the “Product Scorecard.” We all want to know the risk and reward of doing a product. Data Dive gives you a series of questions to answer using the data insights we provide. After you fill it out, you get a quantifiable score that will help you understand the competitiveness of that niche, the risk of choosing to do that product, and what opportunities you may have to do that product better than the current best sellers.
The 2nd tool is our listing builder. It breaks down the keyword data into root words and phrases and combines that with relevancy scores to help you write a listing that will maximize your rank potential on Amazon. It’s very easy to see what roots and keywords you are representing and which you are missing, so that you can have an advantage over the competition. As of May, you will have AI assist in writing a listing with the data that we’ve optimized for you!
The 3rd tool is our PPC tool. We allow you to launch hundreds of PPC campaigns with just a few clicks. Not only that, we up stream the PPC directly from the keyword research and data insights. This way you can group your campaigns by root word, making them far easier to push traffic towards groups of keywords and optimize with similar performing keywords.
The next tools to release over the next few months are going to be our keyword tracker and advanced rules based PPC tools V1. We know the importance of knowing where you currently stand organically on hundreds of keywords that drive sales. More importantly, you want to see the impact your marketing and optimization efforts have on organic traffic and ranks. We will provide innovative ways to display this crucial information, so that you can pull levers that deliver direct impact to your business.
Connor: Jumping off of that…if there was one problem you’d say that Data Drive solves best for your clients, what would it be? Why? Brandon: We help users make solid decisions based in data. There’s a lot of white noise in the space around tools and data, and we feel that we’ve boiled it down to the most important information you need, and gone deeper in that direction. These data based decisions will improve the chances that your product launch is successful, as well as help you optimize your currently products.Connor: As the company continues to grow over the next year, what are your plans for expansion? Any new products or offerings or enhancements to your current products? Brandon: The implementation of AI is awesome and coming out very very soon, and will make it easy to write bullets that convert well + have SEO optimized keywords. The things we are most excited about are our PPC tools and keyword tracker. Tracking progress is crucial for growth. Things that are measured can be improved. The PPC tools will provide rules that no other tool provides. With a deep understanding of what is most important for a seller and their business; growth and profitability.
Connor: And how specifically would you say that Data Drive and your team is different from other similar businesses in the industry?Brandon: I believe we have an incredible advantage because we are large sellers. My CTO is a 7 figure seller who started from scratch in the Inner Circle 3 years ago. My wife and I will do over $30 million this year with our own brands. This provides a crucial advantage when it comes to building effective tools that people actually need and want. A lot of the other tools are not led by sellers anymore and it feels like they build tools for the sake of building tools. Connor: What made you decide to get involved in the product development space? What’s your starting eCommerce story? From what we’ve found, a lot of business owners in the space have fun stories of how they first started…
Brandon: We started our first private label brand in 2016. It was a couple years before we really solved how Amazon works and what data to look at. In 2018 we started teaching with Seller Systems. Since then we have personally created over 100 millionaires! Entrepreneurs who started with us from scratch or from a product or two and have grown their businesses to a valuation of over $1 million.
Teaching is a great way to go deeper, create processes, and really develop stronger understanding. In 2022 we launched Data Dive, after automating a lot of the tenuous data manipulation processes that we would teach. In this short amount of time, we have grown to over 2500 paid subscription users.
Now my team gets to use Data Dive, go faster, and learn new lessons that we can teach and automate back into Data Dive.Connor: Love it! Talking more about the eCommerce industry, where do you see it going in the next 1-2 years? Any unique predictions that you could share?
Brandon: The future is in AI product development combined with becoming more efficient at supply chain and SEO. You will need to make and create incredible looking products with incredible looking content. But you will make it profitable through launch and SEO tools like Data Dive.Connor: Giving you an open mic for a minute, what is something you’d want the EcomBalance audience to hear?Brandon: The most important thing about this business is going to be around product selection and optimization. Choose products that score well in the scorecard, that have high opportunities of success and low chances of failure. Then test new product designs against current best sellers with softwares and audiences before placing your order.
Secondly, always be learning. Every success and every failure is an opportunity to improve.
Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well. Brandon: Most entrepreneurs are busy driving growth and value in their business. They don’t have time for bookkeeping and finance. We were in the same boat for the first few years of the business. Don’t neglect your finances, the insights provided are invaluable in your growth. Get a bookkeeping service early, it will make your life a lot easier.
Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today? Brandon: Visit www.SellerSystems.com to watch a free masterclass on how we use data to make millions on Amazon or to join our private mastermind and community, The Inner Circle, Visit www.SellerSystems.com. Check us out here to sign up for Data Dive.
