EP25: Founding and scaling a logistics unicorn, with ShipBob Co-Founder/CEO Dhruv Saxena
Dhruv is the Co-Founder/CEO of ShipBob, the leading global omni-fulfillment platform designed to provide small and medium-sized businesses access to best-in-class supply chain and fulfillment capabilities.
Dhruv started ShipBob in his Chicago apartment in 2014, and has scaled it today to over 7,000 e-commerce brands, with fulfillment centers around the world. They’ve raised $300m+ and have achieved a $1B valuation.
In this episode we discuss:
- Going from an Electrical Engineering PhD to building things
- How did you end up building things?
- What were some early ideas and products you tested?
- What led you to the problem you’re solving with ShipBob?
- How did you build conviction to quit your job and start ShipBob?
- Founding ShipBob and finding Product Market Fit
- What was the problem you were trying to solve?
- What was your initial solution?
- How does third party logistics work and what was new about ShipBob?
- How did you solution evolve over time?
- How important was timing with e-commerce wave and how did you approach competition?
- What were some of the biggest inflection points that drive growth?
- When did you know you had strong product market fit?
- Approach to blitz-scaling
- How did you approach scaling an operations heavy business?
- What was your approach to getting the unit economics right before scaling?
- How did you approach fundraising and finding the right partners for your business?
- How did you approach blitz-scaling and how did you evolve your role as a leader?
- What advice do you have for founders making the transition from pre to post PMF mode?
- Logistics market and recent disruptions
- What are some of the challenges you and your customers are facing?
- What have been some of the recent headwinds and tailwinds for e-commerce brands?
- Closeout questions
- What is the most challenging/difficult feedback you’ve received — how have you processed it and incorporated it going forward?
- What are you optimizing for at this point in your career and how has that evolved over time?
- What are your superpowers that you find yourself leaning on often?
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