Native's Last-Minute Trademark
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A story about how Native Deodorant's trademark acquisition nearly derailed their sale to P&G.
"We had a huge issue with the trademark. We tried to use the Native trademark but somebody else owned it. It became difficult and we had to acquire that trademark. We bought it 5 days before we ended up selling the business to Procter & Gamble.
When chatting with other potential buyers, they would say 'We're not going to give you an offer for your business until you own your trademark.' I really think one of P&G's advantages was they were ready to move forward in the acquisition process with the contingency that we buy the mark before closing.
The trademark ended up costing us a high 6-figure price. But P&G was willing to proceed with the deal knowing we still needed to acquire it, while other potential buyers wouldn't even make an offer until we owned it."
Moiz Ali
Moiz Ali is the Founder of Native. Launched in 2015, Native is the fastest growing CPG company in the United States, and has over 1 million customers nationwide. The company was acquired by Procter & Gamble for $100 Million in November 2017, the first acquisition by P&G in nearly ten years. Prior to founding Native, Moiz was the Founder and CEO of Caskers, a flash sales site for spirits. Moiz graduated from Harvard Law School in 2009. In addition to his work at Native, today he is an active investor in over 100 startups, and a speaker on stages across the world.