Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands | Technology How to Protect Your Margin When You're in Retail ft. Akash Raju
Nov 19, 2025
Akash Raju, Co-founder and CEO of Glimpse, discusses the often-overlooked world of retail deductions that can cost brands up to 5% of their revenue. He shares insights on how hidden fees and invalid deduction claims can drastically affect profitability. Akash explains the advantages of automation in managing deductions, revealing Glimpse's impressive 91% win rate in disputes. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding deductions for consumer brands entering retail and the potential to regain lost revenue, which can be reinvested for growth.
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Retail Contains Hundreds Of Hidden Fees
- Retail hides hundreds of fee types that quietly erode margins and vary by retailer and distributor.
- Brands commonly lose up to 5% of revenue to invalid deductions, which can equal hundreds of thousands annually.
Discovery While Sampling For Brands
- Akash and his co-founders discovered deductions after running a product-sampling business and talking to 500 brands.
- They found brands lacked efficient ways to review deductions and built Glimpse to solve that pain point.
Many Deductions Are Incorrectly Claimed
- Invalid deductions often claim short shipments or errors that contradict a brand's signed shipping documentation.
- Many of these incorrect fees go unreviewed so brands lose recoverable revenue.
