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Credit: Courtesy of Goods of Record

In an era where Amazon dominates the online marketplace and high quality is associated with brand names, 2015 Wharton MBA students Sathish Naadimuthu and Trey Sisson along with Michael Kushner co-founded Goods of Record to re-humanize the buying process.

“What we like to tell people is that we are Etsy meets Mr. Porter,” said Naadimuthu.

Goods of Record has adopted the basic concept of providing an online marketplace for skilled artisans and craftsmen of men’s goods such as wallets, belts and briefcases. Their business model exceeds the typical shopping experience by showcasing their suppliers.

In fact, the tagline on goodsofrecord.com is, “every maker has a story.” On their website, a profile introduces each artisan and his or her production process. Naadimuthu and his partners travel across the country – from Ohio to Minnesota to California – meeting these craftspeople in order to “... really tell the stories of these people so that our customers can really connect with products in a way that they are generally not able to,” he said.

And they are constantly looking for more makers to feature, whether they are scouring social media sites like Twitter or are browsing through stores in Philadelphia and New York.

When Naadimuthu completed his undergraduate degree in political science at Penn in 2008, he did not know exactly what he wanted to do. At first he tried management consulting but realized that this was not for him. It was not until later, when working for a start-up, that Naadimuthu knew that he wanted to “go even further” and act upon his own ideas. So Naadimuthu returned to Penn, this time to attend Wharton as an MBA candidate.

At Wharton, Naadimuthu not only encountered a network of support from professors and administration regarding entrepreneurship, but he also met co-founder Trey Sisson.

Naadimuthu stressed the importance in finding a business partner, advising aspiring entrepreneurs to “really just find someone you can trust and that is very much aligned with starting their own company or being an entrepreneur. ... When I found Trey at Wharton, we both knew that we wanted to start a company,” he said. “We were both super motivated to do it.”

When they scrapped their first business idea for the Wharton Venture Award, they pulled a 30-hour brainstorm session that resulted in the idea for Goods of Record.

Looking forward, Naadimuthu wants to commit to Goods of Record full-time after graduation. They are hoping to expand the number of featured makers that they offer.

“Any cool product that a guy could ever want sort of outside of electronics, he could go to goodsofrecord.com and get it,” he said.

Within three days and with free shipping that is.

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