Where the idea came from.
UNS started with a gap in the market.
At the top end of aquascaping, the most respected brands had little presence in the United States. Matt saw room for a US brand built to the same standard, and the co-founders set out to create a top-end product line that could earn a place alongside them.
Matt came to it fluent in Mandarin, with a background in supply chain and logistics, and with international trade in the family. His family’s companies in Taiwan include Leadwell, founded in 1980, which grew into one of Taiwan’s largest machine tool manufacturers by 1990, and Litz Hitech, founded in 1987, which still builds CNC machining centers for international markets.
Getting there took almost a year of researching and negotiating with over a dozen manufacturers before choosing the right partners.
What he built.
Matt co-founded Ultum Nature Systems and served as its CFO and CMO across a group of eight companies, including Buce Plant, Glass Aqua, and Aquatics Inc. Together, the group reached eight figures in combined revenue.
Matt and a fellow co-founder developed the UNS identity, with Matt helping direct the logo through dozens of early directions to the final mark.
- Final mark
The strategy from the start was a vertically integrated, highly optimized supply chain: design the product, own the manufacturing relationships, import and warehouse the goods, and sell them through the group’s own retail, ecommerce, wholesale, and distributor channels. Matt set that direction and built and led the team that ran it.
He also led design and sourcing for the hard-goods line and built the commercial infrastructure behind it: a direct-to-consumer ecommerce channel, wholesale and retail accounts, import and logistics operations, and the warehouse fulfillment process that connected them. Along the way he established the marketing, customer service, logistics, and HR departments.
Source
Product design, overseas manufacturers, supplier agreements.
Import and fulfill
Imports, logistics, warehouse fulfillment.
Sell direct
Brand, marketing, customer service, ecommerce, retail.
Wholesale and distribute
Wholesale accounts and international distributors.
The deals.
Matt traveled overseas to meet the group’s main suppliers and negotiated long-term, multimillion-dollar supplier agreements. He helped negotiate four mergers and acquisitions for the group, including real estate and asset purchases. One early deal was a merger with Art and Science for All, an established brand with a strong Amazon business.
He also built the international distributor network and negotiated those relationships himself, which gave the brand its own distribution in markets it had never sold into. Much of the brand’s global distribution today traces back to that network.
Where the network reaches today
- North America
- United States, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador
- Europe
- Regional wholesale distribution
- Asia
- Singapore, Israel
- Africa
- South Africa
- Oceania
- Australia
What it means for Inspire MC clients.
Matt left UNS in January 2023 and founded Inspire MC. UNS remains one of the leading brands in the aquascaping industry.
Matt has now worked internationally for over a decade, and that experience shapes how Inspire MC works. When we plan a client’s growth, from lead generation to intake and fulfillment, our recommendations account for the product, the suppliers, the teams, and what has to happen after the click, because we have run that side of the business ourselves.
