Q&A: Adam Haber Is Helping Small Businesses Compete With Amazon

LEVITTOWN, NY – A business owner, entrepreneur, and financier who lives in Roslyn, Adam Haber is on a mission to help Long Island small businesses compete in the age of Amazon and big box stores.

Haber has established multiple businesses and created jobs, attracted capital and managed complex budgets throughout his multifaceted career, and in January 2021 he launched his latest venture, Trellus, a same-day delivery service and marketplace company that serves local businesses and customers.

For 22 years starting in 1987, Haber was a commodity options trader, working for firms such as CRT and Pioneer Futures, before establishing his own trading group in the 2000s. Today, he is a non-operating principal of ScanlanKemperBard, a Portland, Oregon-based commercial real estate merchant bank, and an angel investor who is a member of the Long Island Angel Network. He has also been a board member of various tech and consumer product startups, currenly including Halla, a grocery basket optimization company, and Green Zebra Grocery, a Portland-based farm-to-table grocery. Haber also owned three restaurants, including the former Lula in Mineola.

He has also worked in the municipal and non-profit spheres, including as director at the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) in 2015-2016, and as deputy chief of Economic Development and Government Efficiency from the Town of Hempstead in 2018-2019. He has served on the Board of Education in Roslyn School District (2009-2010) and currently sits on the board at Hagedorn Little Village School. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, he initiated Project Long Island, an organization that repaired more than 200 storm-damaged homes in Long Beach under the umbrella of a disaster relief organization.

Haber ran for the office of Nassau County executive in 2013 and a state senate seat in 2016.

Haber will deliver a talk “How Small Businesses Can Thrive in An E-Commerce World” at the Levittown Chamber of Commerce general meeting at VFW Hall, at 55 Hickory Ln., at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 16.

Patch sat down with Haber to discuss his new business, upcoming talk and career.

What is the most important point you would like your audience to take away from your upcoming talk?

Adam Haber: That there is help for them to compete against Amazon and big box ecommerce by competing on a level playing field with time to get their goods same-day within a couple of hours.

Describe your latest venture, Trellus, a same-day delivery service, and how it’s designed to help Long Island’s small businesses compete with e-commerce.

Haber: Trellus is an on-demand, same-day delivery service and marketplace that’s designed to drive new customers to local businesses and give them an alternative to shop local and get their goods quicker then they ever could anywhere else, as opposed to going to Amazon or purchasing online.

Where did the idea for Trellus come from?

Haber: I was driving my son to college and along the way all I saw were big box stores, Target, Walmart and Wendy’s, and no unique stores like they have all over Long Island, and I felt like it was a soulless place that I would never want to live.

And then I started to see on my ride home on the train from [New York City] all the local merchants struggling and all the empty storefronts, and I thought there had to be a way to create a vibrant small business community where people would want to live and shop. And that’s where the idea came from.

What other general strategies do you think small businesses can take to compete, whether directly or indirectly, with the likes of major companies such as Amazon and Walmart?

Haber: Promoting to your customers on your website and when they come into speak to you and through social media—that you offer on-demand delivery same-day, and that is the best thing they can do. When people want to purchase something, they don’t want to wait a day or two, they want it immediately. And now they can do things quicker than anyone else can by using Trellus.

How would the principles of Trellus apply to small ecommerce businesses?

Haber: Trellus made it as simple as possible for small businesses to offer delivery. So we integrate with Shopify so consumers can choose same-day delivery if they want. And we want local e-commerce businesses to use us. We don’t work with big box stores or chains. But we want [local e-commerce] businesses to grow as quickly and efficiently as possible, and mirror their logistics partner to help them accomplish that goal. And we spend a lot of our own money in creating awareness of Trellus and driving new customers to the marketplace to shop locally.

Your career encompasses a diversity of ventures, from financial trader and investor, to restauranteur, to commercial deliverer, to municipal finance and economic development and non-profit work. Where do you think these wide-ranging interests come from and how has it helped you in your career?

Haber: I’m inquisitive and I love to learn how things work, and I’m constantly trying to improve who I am as a person. And I love meeting people, and that’s led me down many different paths and created an enriching and fulfilling life.

What do you enjoy most about the work that you do?

Haber: That you’re helping customers and merchants through a very simple task of getting them products they want from their local businesses versus going off somewhere else. And that helps create thriving small business downtowns, it helps home values, and it helps everybody in the loop. So, it’s rewarding to create jobs, help businesses and help consumers, and it’s a win-win for all.