Speakers:
Alex Saltonstall, C-Founder, FYUL
Ilan Elad, President, Kornit Digital Americas – Kornit Exec Champion
Alex Sultenstall, CEO of FYUL (the company formed by the merger of Printful and Printify), unpacks how print-on-demand transforms unpredictable, viral demand from a business risk into a competitive advantage — using the explosive, unanticipated success of K-Pop Demon Hunters as a real-world case study of a trend that neither its creators nor Netflix saw coming.
Sultenstall traces why demand certainty is eroding across markets (more inputs driving faster-moving trends, the rise of micro-communities and niche affinity, and e-commerce’s “anything you can imagine exists” expectation), and explains why POD adoption still takes years even when the benefits seem obvious — pointing to lingering quality perceptions and the very different go-to-market strategies required for entrepreneurial merchants versus entertainment/licensing partners. He also details FYUL’s approach to AI (including AI-generated product mockups that let merchants ditch generic stock models), its hybrid first-party/third-party production network, and why sales/service, technology, supply chain, and day-one delivery all have to align for a company to successfully enter a new vertical.
Key takeaway: As demand becomes harder to predict, the companies that win won’t be the ones chasing trends after the fact — they’ll be the ones who’ve already built the design, marketing, and on-demand production infrastructure to instantly capitalize on a trend the moment it appears, without overcommitting inventory before they know how big or how long it will run.