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How it started
It all began with one man and his cigars.
Founder Brian Desind had a growing collection and a genuine passion for sharing his knowledge and love for cigars. What started as a few online trades quickly evolved into Privada Cigar Club, a thriving ecommerce brand built on storytelling and community.
By sharing knowledge on tasting notes, flavor profiles, and origin stories, Brian turned a personal hobby into a movement of cigar lovers around the world.
As the community grew, so did the orders. And while that kind of growth is every founder’s dream, it also brought new challenges. Boxes piled high, staff worked late, and customers waited longer than usual. What once felt exciting began to feel overwhelming.
During one of their biggest November sales, the team faced a three-week backlog, even being fully staffed up. That was the turning point. Something had to change, and fast!
Finding automation that fits
Brian began looking for a way to streamline fulfillment without adding more people or expensive systems, but every option he found seemed to be built for large enterprise operations, not fast-growing and small businesses like his. Most of them were too complex, too costly, and too big to make sense for Privada.
That’s when he came across Pio, a warehouse automation system that offered the power of enterprise technology from AutoStore, in a format made for smaller spaces and teams. It checked every box that others didn’t: simple, scalable, and accessible.
For the first time, automation actually fit. It was affordable, quick to install, and easy to scale as the business continued to grow.
Fast, simple, scalable
When Pio switched on, the difference was immediate.
Orders that once took hours now flew out the door. The team could finally use their time to refine workflows, organize stock, and stay ahead of demand.
Fulfillment became faster, smoother, and far easier to manage:
- 6× faster order processing
- 80% less manual work
- Industry leading accuracy
- Staff trained and ready in under 1 hour
“It’s like a jet pack.You can do things with Pio that you just can’t do without it. Even on busy days, the system keeps up.”
Brian Desind
Founder of Privada Cigar Club
Real Results That Add Up
With Pio in place, fulfillment wasn’t just faster, it worked better in every way.
“Let’s talk real numbers. There’s no other solution for a hundred thousand dollars that lets you transform your business like this.”
Brian Desind
Founder of Privada Cigar Club
Pio gave Privada access to enterprise-grade automation at a small business price, putting the kind of technology once out of reach now within their hands. The difference was clear: orders shipped on time, the warehouse ran smoothly and stayed organized, and the team finally had the breathing room to think ahead instead of just keeping up.
For Brian, that space unlocked new possibilities. With fulfillment under control, he could focus on building new subscription brands and expanding the Privada community that started it all.
Read the full Privada story here: Privada — When your passion takes off, fulfillment shouldn’t slow you down
