SNAPDRAGON was set up in 2016 after founder Rachel Jones became the victim of an online counterfeiting scam, where her award-winning baby product, Totseat, was copied and sold online by fraudsters. Jones and Jet Doran, who worked at Totseat at the time decided to set up a company to fight against online criminal gangs of counterfeiters and copycat products. Two years later, company now works with a diverse portfolio of clients in the UK and US including Harris Tweed, Morphsuits, Johnstons of Elgin and Glencairn.
Name: Jet Doran
Age: 34
Position: Director
WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS CALLED?
SnapDragon
WHERE IS IT BASED?
Edinburgh
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WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
SNAPDRAGON was set up because the founder Rachel had her own product – an award-winning high chair for babies – counterfeited. In 2013 a fake version of it appeared. Because of the safety of the product she wanted to do something about it. We used our intellectual property portfolio to remove counterfeit goods as far as we could. We spent a few years advising other brands on what to do. There was a realistic gap in the market for small companies facing this issue so we set up SnapDragon to help others.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
WE sign users up to packages depending on their budget and the level of infringement. We use software to search marketplaces for counterfeit products. We become familiar with the brand’s IT portfolio and what trademark they have.
We have a fantastic loyal customer base. People say it has been a great service and that it was more affordable than expected. People think of costly legal action when it comes to counterfeit products but it doesn’t have to be that way.
People are also surprised at how quick the process is. We can have a counterfeit product removed from sale within a matter of hours. We also have a skilled multilingual team so we can communicate with businesses all over the world which makes a huge difference. People are often surprised at the impact on revenue, they start to see sales increase because they are no longer losing out on sales of counterfeiters who have become the competitors.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
THE fact we have experienced this ourselves makes a huge difference because we can tell brand owners that we understand what they are going through. For a small company the impact of counterfeit goods can have a huge emotional impact, and we know what’s at stake for them. The software is at the cutting edge of scams in online marketplaces.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
WE started in the baby and nursery industry because that’s where we came from ourselves and we grew from there. Now we protect brands in all kinds of areas from glassware to textiles – we work with Harris Tweed which is an iconic Scottish brand.
ARE PEOPLE BECOMING MORE AWARE OF COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS?
I THINK so, there’s lots of press about it – particularly when it comes to safety products. People are becoming more suspicious of online sales that are too good to be true. There’s a 20% increase in online counterfeit products every year.
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It is also worth commenting on the scale of the problem. The statistics of the cost of global trading counterfeit goods is estimated to be at half a trillion dollars every year. We recently launched a new Swoop software – this is really significant because it is publicly available to any brand owner from one man to large companies to take ownership of the problem they might have. We offer a two-week free trial and the way it works is that it lets companies track fake products themselves. The tech is based on word and image searches. It is easy and quick to set up the process. They can check whether the product is counterfeited or not.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?
THE daily gratification from securing fake and dangerous products removed from sale. I also enjoy feedback from customers who are seeing positive results.
It is good to be part of a global movement. It’s a great feeling to protect customers revenue, safety and reputation.
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