Podcast appearances and mentions of laura behrens wu

This week, I talk with Laura Behrens Wu, co-founder and CEO of Shippo, a company that's transforming the way e-commerce businesses handle shipping logistics. If you're not in the e-commerce world, you may not have heard of Shippo, but for those who are, it's a big deal. They help businesses seamlessly get products from A to B with some of the simplest, most elegant shipping solutions out there. Laura's story is especially remarkable—she's one of the few female CEOs of a billion-dollar company, and Shippo has grown into a powerhouse, serving more than 50,000 businesses. We dive into how she's led this growth, the values that drive her and her team, and how they turned a boring problem into something extraordinary. Join me as we explore Laura's journey, her leadership, and what it really takes to build and scale a company like Shippo. Let's get to it! In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (03:40) - How Laura became the “stick figure girl” (07:45) - How optimism serves Laura and her team (11:14) - Handling customer feedback and roadmaps (21:14) - The complexities of shipping logistics (33:49) - Laura's vision for Shippo and empowering SMBs (39:21) - Improving customer experience (44:13) - Adding personality to a brand (46:52) - Building a strong co-founder relationship (57:42) - Company culture and values (01:06:19) - Leading with authenticity (01:12:09) - Lessons learned from managing remote teams (01:18:03) - How Laura's global upbringing has shaped her (01:21:57) - The role of community and personal growth (01:25:55) - Reflections on immigration and personal identity (01:29:52) - Laura's beautiful future (01:32:07) - Who Laura is becoming​ Get full show notes and links at https://GoodWorkShow.com. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@barrettabrooks.

Written version: https://www.justgogrind.com/p/laura-behrens-wu More about the Just Go Grind newsletter: Learn the tactics, strategies, and stories of world-class founders. I spend 20+ hours each week researching founders like Sam Altman, Melanie Perkins, and Patrick Collison, sharing the best insights with you every Sunday. Subscribe to the Just Go Grind newsletter: https://www.justgogrind.com/subscribe Upgrade to Just Go Grind premium and get: 4 founder deep dives each month Audio editions of the newsletter in a private podcast feed Access to a founder community and weekly office hours Upgrade to premium: https://www.justgogrind.com/upgrade

In this episode of Sit Down Startup, join Laura Behrens Wu, founder of the multimillion-dollar shipping platform Shippo, as she reveals the pivotal moments that led to staggering growth and product-market fit success. Discover Shippo's journey using customer retention tactics (8:12), an API-first strategy (13:33), and conquering the Shopify App Store with a savvy inbound marketing approach (00:35:15). Listen to this interview for a deep dive into the game-changing approaches Shippo took to thrive in the competitive e-commerce space.Apply to the Zendesk for Startups program. Qualifying startups can use Zendesk six months for free. Click to learn more: https://www.zendesk.com/lp/startup-partner/?ref=gen&partner_account=0016R00003GUn7OQAT

Laura Behrens Wu is the Founder & CEO at Shippo, a company that has raised $100m+ and was last valued at $1b in 2021. Shippo provides an API and dashboard that makes shipping easy for e-commerce businesses, marketplaces, and platforms. Prior to starting Shippo, Laura graduated from Harvard University, and was heavily influenced by a short internship at LendUp, which exposed her to Silicon Valley and startup culture.  In today's episode we discuss: Shippo's pivot-stricken origin story Finding product-market-fit, again and again and again Laura's unique take on founder-market-fit Advice on talking to users The 3 Horizons Framework for prioritizing resources across a core business and longer-term bets The email Laura sends every Sunday because of Frank Slootman's advice Referenced: Amp It Up by Frank Slootman: https://www.amazon.com/Amp-Unlocking-Hypergrowth-Expectations-Intensity/dp/1119836115 Expedia: https://www.expedia.com/ FedEx: https://www.fedex.com/ Frank Slootman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankslootman/ Jerry Colonna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-colonna-reboot/ Josh Koppelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkoppelman/ Khalid Halim: https://review.firstround.com/the-science-of-speaking-is-the-art-of-being-heard LendUp: https://www.lendup.com/ Shippo: https://goshippo.com/ Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ SMBs: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/articles/smb-business/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/ UPS: https://www.ups.com/us/en/global.page 70/20/10 rule from Google: https://www.itonics-innovation.com/blog/702010-rule-of-innovation Where to find Todd Jackson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/tjack LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0 Where to find Laura Behrens Wu: Twitter: https://twitter.com/LauraBehrensWu LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabehrenswu Personal website: https://laurabehrenswu.com/ Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps (02:36) The Shippo origin story (06:57) Why they pivoted into Shippo (11:01) How they got their first customers (13:27) The role of timing in Shippo's early success (14:40) The value of being an outsider (17:49) When founder-market-fit is and isn't necessary (19:07) The path to product-market-fit (22:06) What kept the Shippo team persisting (24:41) Advice on talking to users (29:28) Shippo's fundraising journey (34:26) Finding product-market-fit again and again (37:54) The 3 Horizons Framework (45:04) Shippo's culture and early team (49:17) Hiring people you can learn from (50:40) Laura's most impactful hires (52:12) Frank Slootman's "Sunday Email” (55:43) Laura's #1 piece of advice for founders (57:34) The most memorable influences on Laura's career

Discussing weekly tech news & topics w/ experienced venture founders. No investors. @LauraBehrensWu (Shippo) @julien (Breather, Practice) @kevingibbon (Shyp, Airhouse)

Bloomberg News Crypto Reporter Olga Kharif discusses her Businessweek Magazine cover story FTX Leaves an Empty Black Box Where Due Diligence Used to Be. Former US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez shares his observations from the G20 summit. Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of Shippo, explains how 2022's supply chain crunch may permanently reshape holiday shopping. And we Drive to the Close with Emily Hill, Founding Partner Bowersock Capital Partners. Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomberg News Crypto Reporter Olga Kharif discusses her Businessweek Magazine cover story FTX Leaves an Empty Black Box Where Due Diligence Used to Be. Former US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez shares his observations from the G20 summit. Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of Shippo, explains how 2022's supply chain crunch may permanently reshape holiday shopping. And we Drive to the Close with Emily Hill, Founding Partner Bowersock Capital Partners. Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Successful startups need to solve a problem, but there is a big difference between a founder knowing a problem exists in the abstract and a founder experiencing the pain points firsthand and developing ways to solve it. Laura Behrens Wu is the Founder and CEO of Shippo, a shipping platform designed to give every merchant access to the best-in-class tools and technology reserved for retail giants. Over 100k brands trust Shippo to ensure their customers love how their products are delivered. In this episode, Laura takes us through the product-market fit journey of Shippo and her journey of evolving as its CEO. Join us as we discuss: The origin story of Shippo when Laura first launched the company in 2014 How Laura approached the path to find product-market fit Shopify app vs API company - solving the chicken and egg shipping problem How the pandemic affected Shippo and what it was like making decisions amid all the chaos happening in the logistics and supply chain industry How Laura invested in herself as a founder and CEO About Unusual Ventures — Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building infrastructure software and application-level companies. Unusual was founded in 2018 with the mission to reinvent the venture capital engagement model by serving entrepreneurs with an unprecedented level of hands-on services. Described as a partner versus a top-down stakeholder by its portfolio companies, Unusual is laser-focused on serving exceptional founders and teams building innovative products. With offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, and Boston, Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, Harness, 
and Vivun. About Sandhya Hegde — Sandhya is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in enterprise SaaS companies. Previously an early employee and executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandhya) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/). Further reading: Customer validation: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/pmf-customer-validation The Unusual Guide to pre-seed: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/building-conviction CEO/founder prioritization template: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-ceo-and-founder-prioritization Leading through uncertainty: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/leadership-through-crisis

This week, Alexis gets non-technical with Laura Behrens Wu, Founder and CEO of Shippo. They talk about Winston Churchill, utilitarian knitting, filthy hobbits!!, roller skate swag, and the next big YouTube star (you'll never guess who it is). You can find Laura on Twitter at twitter.com/LauraBehrensWu. You can find Alexis at twitter.com/yayalexisgay, instagram.com/yayalexisgay, tiktok.com/@yayalexisgay or sign up for her email list at bit.ly/hellofromalexis.Find Non-Technical at twitter.com/NonTechnicalPod, instagram.com/nontechnicalpod, or tiktok.com/@nontechnicalpod.--This episode is sponsored by Acrisure, a Fintech and global leader in Insurance, Real Estate Services, Cyber Services, Asset & Wealth Management and more. Acrisure combines human and high-tech to help businesses and people grow and protect what they worked so hard to build. And they are no stranger to growth either – increasing revenue by 100x in less than a decade and operating as the 6th largest insurance broker in the world. Sound interesting? Go to www.acrisure.com to request a quote or find a solution.

To celebrate 10 years of SaaStr, we're revisiting some classic podcast episodes. Up today: Harry Stebbings interviews Shippo Co-Founder and CEO Laura Behrens Wu. In April 2016, Shippo had only 22 employees and was just beginning to scale. They've since opened new hubs in Austin and Dublin and in 2021, hired Employee number 200.   Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the

There are many shipping solutions available to brands today, but are any of them truly easy to use, transparent, and scalable? Laura Behrens Wu couldn't find one, so she and he business partner built it themselves. Now, their company, Shippo, is valued at more than $1 billion, has thousands of customers, and is making shipping easier for all kinds of brands. How? Find out on this episode.Tune in to learn:Why Laura rejected feedback she got from Y Combinator (6:35)Behind the scenes of how Shippo actually works (10:50)Is free two-day shipping necessary? (24:30)How do you innovate and bring the tech stack to the next level? (29:15)Mentions:Shoe DogUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

Listen in podcast appIn this week's episode of Reformed Millennials, Broc and Joel discuss how markets are reacting to world events, rate hikes and insane commodity spikes. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.If you aren’t in the Reformed Millennials Facebook Group join us for daily updates, discussions, and deep dives into the investable trends Millennials should be paying attention to.👉 For specific investment questions or advice contact Joel @ Gold Investment Management.📈📊Market Update💵📉RATE HIKES - What do they mean?There’s a myth, a misconception in the market that the Fed allegedly rescues falling markets with rate cuts and easing measures, and vice versa for when the market is overheated.This myth began in 1987 during Black Monday, when Alan Greenspan’s Fed cut rates after the crash, creating an impression that the Fed was directly responding to the stock market.This is when the (mis)belief that the Fed would put a floor under a a falling market stuck.Nevertheless, if we analyze the data, it actually demonstrates that the Fed stood pat for most corrections, and cutting cycles typically arrive during bear markets, just as coincidence.There are only two occasions in history where the Fed’s cutting cycles corresponded with market low-points.1. The first is the aforementioned Black Monday of 1987, and even for this case. If we take a look at the situation back then, it’s not so much that the Fed made international moves that contributed to history, but rather that the bear market started amid a global liquidity crisis. With excess liquidity, the rates should have been flat, or down, but that wasn’t the case.Thus, the Fed’s rate cuts were vital to unfreezing credit and ensuring banks and clearing houses would have access to liquidity they needed, while the market was under severe stress.2. The second occasion was the rate cut in 1998, when stocks were reacting to the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM).There was fear in the market that this collapse would lead to a domino effect, ending in a banking meltdown.Generally, when people fear a banking contagion, liquidity in interbank funding markets dry up.The Fed’s action to cut rates during this time helped keep money moving, and ensured that banks met their regulatory obligations.In order to understand the recent discussion revolving around the importance of the Fed’s actions, we need to understand human nature.People love finding narrative threads and grand explanations because we’re biologically wired to make sense of the world that way.They confuse correlation and causation, and zero in on evidence that supports their view and shuns whatever suggests otherwise.But it’s important to remember that in most cases, a fact that everyone knows, tends to be closer to myth than reality, and even if it weren’t a myth, the fact that everyone knows it does not give us an edge in the market.SummaryMarket shocks are caused by surprises. News about a pandemic or cyber attack that catches investors off guard is much riskier than macro events that are predictable and can be anticipated. Given that the markets are efficient (which I believe they are), it's rational to assume that news about the Fed's rate hikes, and people reaction to it are already priced in. While short term volatility is definitely expected, we believe that the likelihood of this event becoming a trigger for a multi-year recession is extremely unlikely.💸Reformed Millennials - Post of The Week“Unless you buy a stock at the exact bottom (which is next to impossible), you will be down at some point after you make every investment. Your success entirely depends on how dispassionate you are towards short term stock price fluctuations.” -Joel GreenblattNot all current losses mean the same thing. It depends on what each investor wanted to do with that position, their time frame, risk management and Portfolio process.If someone no longer holds conviction in the position (that is showing a big loss) and is only holding with the hope of making it back to even. You better cut your loses and run.BUT if someone understands the business, bought for a very LT hold (also adding over the months and years as the Company executes), most of the current drop is Macro related while the company is performing well - some people refer to this as bag holding. I would just call it a normal part of being a LT shareholder.If we expect to hold positions 5-10 yrs (as long as thesis holds), we would be delusional in thinking that none of the tranches bought along the way would never show a big loss (either due to major Macro events, valuation cool-offs or occasional Business stumbles).Volatility and occasional big drawdowns are par for the course for any Business focused long-term investor.Stocks fall...10% once per year or so20% every 5 years30% every decade50% a few times per centuryAs long as you...Own qualityHave a long investment time horizonAre diversified across asset classesHave good cash flowYou can keep calm and think long-term.Shopify Partners With Shippo - Ben ThompsonFrom Modern Shipper:Selling products online is easy. But shipping those products is not, as e-commerce merchants contend with continuously increasing customer expectations around speed, price and convenience. Shopify customers, though, are about to receive a massive boost to their fulfillment capabilities through the company’s integration with Shippo for Platforms, a new offering launched by Bay Area-based Shippo on Wednesday. Shopify will become the first platform to leverage the solution, starting in European markets.Shippo is similar to a service like Bringg or Walmart GoLocal that allows sellers to leverage fleet capacity to fulfill e-commerce and other orders. But the Shippo for Platforms offering is geared less toward retail businesses and more toward marketplaces — its value lies in enabling those e-commerce platforms to offer their buyers and sellers a premium shipping experience. Platforms that sign on to the new service will be able to leverage Shippo’s prenegotiated rates, integrated billing services and a global network of over 85 carrier partners.Shippo is a company that has been on my radar for a while, particularly after the company raised money at a $1 billion valuation last summer only months after raising money at $495 million; the company announced it had 100,000 customers at the time with its software shipping solution.To find out more about what Shippo is and why Shopify might want to partner with them, I talked with Shopify founder Laura Behrens Wu. Behrens Wu is originally from Germany, but ended up in San Francisco, where she first got the entrepreneurship bug, and only then realized that shipping was her passion. We discuss what Shippo is and isn’t, the company’s path to this major deal with Shopify, and muse just a bit about where exactly passions come from.NFT CRASH:The Financial Times says that it is not just my NFT that is plunging in value. The gist:Internet collectibles ranging from cartoon apes to artsy doodles have plunged in value as real-world conflict and a broader cryptocurrency slump begins to unwind one of the past year’s biggest speculative frenzies.Digital items known as non-fungible tokens burst into mainstream culture last year, as several animal collections including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats and Pudgy Penguins spiked in price, aided by celebrity endorsements and social media hype. By the end of 2021, nearly $41bn had been spent on NFTs — making the market almost as valuable as the global art market.But almost as rapidly, large portions of the market have begun to deteriorate, leaving novice investors with big losses and raising questions about the long term outlook for NFTs.The average selling price of an NFT has dropped more than 48 per cent since a November peak to around $2,500 over the past two weeks, according to data from the website NonFungible.Daily trading volumes on OpenSea, the biggest marketplace for NFTs, have plummeted 80 per cent to roughly $50mm in March, just a month after they reached a record peak of $248mm in February.I think 99.5% of people knew that NFT would crash. We didnt know when it would happen but it always seems so easy to predict in hindsight. Recently i listened to an amazing podcast with Alex Danco. He told this story about band t shirts and how NFTs are just an extension of that identity produced by a band shirt.It really struck me because hes right. The underlying technology still remains that you can identify ownership of digital goods. and this organization is important but it certainly doesnt mean that old web2.0 ideas will be migrating...Twitter of web3 is going to be twitter.Same with youtube and instagram. The switching costs are too great.And this cost is the anchor and the opportunity.🌊 Canadian Companies To Peruse 🌊INVERT - Stop Doom Scrolling. Start Proud Browsing. Start Taking Action.Welcome to Invert. We’re funding carbon reduction and removal projects, and building a platform that puts the power to fight climate change in your hands. 🔮Best Links of The Week🔮Morgan Housel — The Psychology of Money, Picking the Right Game, and the $6 Million JanitorCapital Allocators Interview Josh Wolfe - Caution and Innovation at Lux CapitalAlex Danco - What is Web 3.0 All About with Jim OshagMeta makes Russia Really MAD - Trading ViewCanadian House Prices SPIKE - BNN Bloomberg This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reformedmillennials.com

Simon Kreuz ist Mitgründer der Shipping Software Plattform Shippo. Simon und seine Mitgründerin Laura Behrens Wu haben Shippo 2014 als junge deutsche Unternehmer in San Francisco gegründet und zu einem der wenigen LogTech Unicorns hochgezogen. Jetzt ist Simon zurück in Deutschland um von hier aus das Europageschäft anzustossen. Gemeinsam mit unserem Host Boris Felgendreher spricht Simon unter anderem über folgende Themen: - Die Shippo Gründungsgeschichte (2013/2014) - Die ursprüngliche Vision - Anfangs-Finanzierung und Anfangszeit - Die Entwicklungsschritte der Plattform über die Jahre - Wichtige Veränderungen im E-Commerce Bereich: Amazon, Marktplätze, Endkonsumentenverhalten, DTC-Boom, COVID, etc. - Shippo Funktionalitäten heute, Weiterentwicklung Daten-, Datenanalyse, datengetriebene Entscheidungen, Automatisierung - Die Vorteile für die Nutzer - Carrier-Netzwerk und Partner - Technologie-Mindset der Shippo Shipping-Partner - Die Integrationen zu anderen E-Commerce Tools - Die Wachstumspläne, internationale Expansion (Europa, Deutschland) Links: Shippo: https://goshippo.com/ BVL.digital: http://bvl.digital/ BVL: http://www.bvl.de/

Laura Behrens Wu, Simon Kreuz und Georg Räth | Eigentlich wollten die Shippo-Gründer nur für ein Praktikum in die USA. Stattdessen bauten sie dort ein Vorzeige-Startup auf. Inzwischen wird das Unternehmen mit 500 Millionen Dollar bewertet. Doch die Gründer hatten es anfangs schwer im Silicon Valley: Ihnen fehlten Kontakte und nicht jeder dort ist Ausländern gegenüber offen eingestellt. Wie sie diese Hürden überwunden haben, hört ihr im Podcast.

Accelerated by dire circumstance, ecommerce had record growth over the past year. But behind all those order confirmations and tracking numbers, supply chains and logistics were stretched further than ever.Returning guest Laura Behrens Wu is the CEO and founder of the shipping platform, Shippo and she had a front row seat to watch the rapid growth of brands and shipping providers. In this episode, she's unpacking the past year of shipping from every perspective: consumer, brand, and carrier.Visit the Lumi blog for links, charts, and images.

Born and raised in Germany, Laura Behrens Wu came to Silicon Valley at 22 to intern at a Y Combinator-backed startup. In just 4 years, she decided to 'figure out shipping' and built Shippo, an E-commerce software startup which raised more than $57 million in funding and now serves one-third of businesses exporting from the U.S.  I met Laura in 2017 and witnessed her incredible growth from a YC intern to a WTO speaker alongside Jack Ma. As the CEO of a 170-person company, she’s had big expectations to live up to. Her struggles as an entrepreneur remind me of the early days of Justin.tv, and her story breaking into the Valley as an outsider is a testament to all young founders worldwide hoping to make it big. 

My guest today is Laura Behrens Wu, co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo started in 2014 after Laura realized with her own e-commerce start-up that shipping was an incredibly difficult task for most merchants, so she set out to fix the problem for everyone. Shippo let's merchants small and large use its dashboard or APIs to simplify the shipping and tracking process. Our conversation focuses on Laura's background prior to Shippo, how Shippo's business and business strategy have evolved, the inherent challenges of building a shipping platform, and the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:57) – (First question) – The story of Popout and how it led to Shippo (7:40) – Challenge of working in a huge and crowded market (10:36) – How Shippo changed shipping for small businesses (12:30) – First big break in their favor (13:39) – Their master account with the major shipping companies (14:39) – Why is the shipping industry so complex (16:25) – Most painful part of building Shippo (18:20) – Advice for people in early company building (19:26) – Pricing software in early days (20:32) – The early days of Shippo and getting it to where it is today (23:17) – Going to market and targeting new customers when they’re mostly small businesses (25:48) – Partnering with a larger company, in their case Shopify (27:52) – How they think about their long-term planning (30:48) – Competing in a world where companies can own their own infrastructure (32:39) – How often they think about other competitive advantages (34:20) – Worst question an investor asked her: what if Amazon tries to copy them (35:17) – Her superpowers as a founder (36:41) – API vs dashboard and the difference in their customer bases (38:52) – What businesses that need shipping today need to know (40:14) – Changes in how businesses are being built today (41:28) – What excites her most about the future of this business (43:28) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

Laura Behrens Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Talia and Jeremy first met the shipping API company in 2017, and as early investors in Shopify, they observed firsthand the explosion of independent e-commerce companies. Thanks to Shopify, merchants could easily set up their stores online. Thanks to Stripe, merchants could easily accept payments online. Yet shipping remained complex and opaque. After our first meeting with Shippo, Bessemer quickly realized how their solution was the critical missing piece of the new “e-commerce stack,” streamlining and optimizing shipping operations for merchants of all sizes and types. In this episode, Jeremy and Talia talk to Laura about her entrepreneurial journey and Shippo's evolution. Takeaways: Persevering while pitching investors: “Everyone was very friendly as we raised our Series A, but it is still soul-crushing to hear a no after a no. At that time, we knew if we wanted to stay in San Francisco, we'd need to raise a certain amount of money to qualify for a certain visa. So, there was a lot on the line. The main lesson I gleaned was that every no was an opportunity to learn and improve my pitch for the next time. By the time I got to the people who ended up investing, I was very prepared to answer all of these questions. I've also iterated on the story so many times that by then, it was very fluent. And in hindsight, all of that practice went to good use.” Research partners, not just the VC firm: “I think it's important to not take an introduction to just any partner at that VC firm. But you want to make sure that you get access to the right partners,” Laura said. “The simple example here is, if you are an enterprise business, you don't really want to be introduced to the consumer partner, who might not understand your business as well. Once I understood who the right partners were at those firms, I then sat down with the VCs that had done my seed round to figure out what our connections are to potential Series A investors.” Re-evaluating Shippo's early-stage metrics: “I think there is no one-size-fits-all around early-stage metrics. It needs to be something that's the right fit for your business,” Laura said. “Our product helps them ship packages, so the more packages they ship, that's a good indicator for us growing, and people being happy and satisfied with our product. So, the seed and Series A round were raised based on shipping volume. [Shortly after Talia and Jeremy got involved] we started realizing that volume and net revenue wasn't perfectly correlated. So, while we're growing volume, we weren't growing net revenue. And what that meant for us was that we were going after customers that were expensive to acquire, because they were larger. Therefore, we were bringing in high shipping volume, but we didn't have the right pricing, or the right product to command that pricing. At that point, we realized that volume for the sake of volume just didn't make sense anymore. We'd have to look at how we're able to monetize that volume, and how we can grow in a more sustainable way.” To learn more about Laura's journey go to https://www.bvp.com/atlas/this-is-series-a

Since the start of COVID-19, we have made unprecedented advances in e-commerce. Coined the “great retail acceleration”, US E-Commerce Penetration (as a % of retail sales) grew from 5.5% to 16% from 2009 to 2019. Within 8 weeks post Apr 2020, it grew from 16% to 27%. We have experienced 10 years of e-commerce growth in the last 8 weeks alone. When we think of e-commerce, we often talk about the frontend; both Shopify and Amazon are public tech darlings in the market right now and with good reason. But what we often don’t talk about is the unsexy backend - delivery of e-commerce. It’s why I was so excited to chat with Laura Behrens Wu, Founder and CEO of Shippo. Simply put, Shippo has created the best multicarrier software layer for e-commerce businesses to help streamline the fulfillment process. Laura has raised $60M+ from some of the best investors in the world on the backs of continual explosive growth pre-COVID and post-COVID. We touched on a number of topics in this discussion and Laura intricately explained the nuances of how to think about shipping in a time of explosive growth and operationally how she is leading her business during COVID.

It was so nice to reconnect to Jack Morrison to talk about his company, Scythe Robotics. Scythe builds autonomous lawnmowers to sell to commercial lawn care companies. Jack and I first got connected at Boulder Startup week in 2016, and three years later, here we are. On this episode, we dive into questions like:What are you building at Scythe?What fundamental problems does Scythe help solve?Is the lawnmower owned by the city, a family, or a commercial company?What knowledge did you have going into Scythe?What goes into building an autonomous lawnmower?What is Lidar and Radar, and which one did you pick for Scythe?Do you have plans to go beyond commercial neighborhoodsWhat is the sales process for Scythe’s lawnmowers?Do you see other companies using autonomous robots in different verticals? What do you think about Boston Dynamics?How do you see cities using parking lots in the future?What do you think about Tesla?Tips for starting a companyAnd more!!!Learn more about Jack on his website here. Thanks for tuning in!What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

This was a fascinating conversation with Justin who is the creator of Matrix, which is a venture-backed ESports team. This was a deep dive into this space, and it was super interesting to talk to a pro like Justin who is on the ground floor making it happen. He answers questions such as:What is Matrix?What are Esports?How are Esports growing so quickly?How did you get into Esports?How does someone make a team within Esports?What elements make up a team? Coaches, players, sponsors? What else?How do you use democracy within the Matrix team?How far off are we from playing and watching Esports in virtual reality?Can Esports teams be venture-backed or is it entirely sponsorship based?What interests you about interplanetary inhabitation and cryptocurrency?How do you think about innovation in the crypto space? Is being a first-mover too risky?What do you think of Libra?What advice do you have for someone who wants to start a company?Find Justin on Twitter here and find Matrix on Twitter here. Thanks for tuning in and see you next week! :)What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

I had a great time talking to Hamza Zia, who is the CEO of GitStart. They are creating a whole new way that companies can recruit technical talent + a new way to engage developers looking for work. He also has many insights on the future of education in this awesome conversation. Today, we dive into: What is GitStart?How does the model work for companies? For developers?Is GitStart considered a coding competition?How do you pay fort coding tasks within GitStart?Your model feels ripe for blockchain technology. Have you thought about implementing blockchain?Does GitStart feel like an agency to the companies?Where did the inspiration for GitStart come from?Are you going horizontal or keep it vertical for near to mid future?What’s the master plan for GitStart?Who’s innovating on the social side of the college experience?What does the future of education look like in next 50 years?What advice do you have on starting a company?Learn more about GitStart here. Thanks for tuning in! See you tomorrow.What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

This was a great conversation with Elena Nadolinski, who is the CEO and founder of Beanstalk. She is a whiz and super insightful person when it comes to blockchain, crypto, and all the way to remote work. She is also a Pioneer, like many of my other guests. ———Quick note - You’ll hear a sound in the background for the first third of the video. This will go away in the middle of the recording.—————In this conversation I ask her some of the following questions: Can you dive into your background?What is Beanstalk?What is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin?What are some practical use cases of blockchain and cryptocurrency? Why does privacy matter in cryptocurrency?How are you making your own blockchain?When’s the killer app coming? Why hasn’t it come yet?What is Libra and will Libra matter in a century?Is it too early to build on blockchain technology or is it perfect timingWhat do you think about when you’re not thinking about Beanstalk?What is the remote ecosystem missing to help it breakthrough?If you had $100,000,000 to invest, what areas would you invest in first?Will investors be more remote-friendly in the future?What advice do you have for early professionals who want to have a great career?What tips do you have for someone who wants to start a company but doesn’t know the best step?Thanks again for tuning in. You can catch Elena on Twitter here. You can find Beanstalk right here. Thank all for tuning in and I’ll see you tomorrow :) And if you haven’t subscribed yet, you know what to to do.

Neal is a legend at growth. Period. He co-founded Bell Curve, a premiere agency to help startups with growth that have worked with Outschool, Clearbit, Envoy, and many others. From there, he co-founded Demand Curve, a company aimed to teach founders how to do growth themselves, for a fraction of the cost of an agency. On this episode, we dive deep into many topics, including: What is Demand Curve?What is the origin story of Demand Curve?What was it like transitioning from an agency to a tech startup. Is there a difference?Is Demand Curve good for CEOs who want to hire for a growth lead, or is it better for founders who want to grow their company themselves? What space would you consider Demand Curve In?What’s the 10-year vision for Demand Curve?Steps to think about growth as a startup founder:Where should a founder focus on first if they want to grow their company?How would you invest $100,000 into growth for a startup? How does someone evaluate when to push the pedal on growth for their company?What is the biggest mistake that early-stage startups make around their growth?What tips do you have for a first-time founder?This was such a fun episode to do with Neal and I hope you learned something new about startup growth. I know I sure did! As a reminder, find Demand Curve right here and you can find Neal on Twitter right here.What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (f20r)! f20r is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

Hannah was a blast to talk to. She is the Founder and CEO of YC backed company, Localyze, which helps international employees relocate without needing to deal with dozens of websites to stay compliant. Localyze does it all. In this conversation, we dive into:What is Locayze?What is the current way that people relocate for a job?How does Localyze improve the process?What’s the origin story?What is your big vision for Localyze?What industries interest you outside of what you’re actively working on?What was it like scaling from Founder to now becoming a CEO and manager?What tips do you have for people wanting to start their own company?And tons more! I hope you enjoy this episode with Hanna. Find her on Twitter here and learn more about Localyze here. What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (FTF)! FTF is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

It was such a blast to have Chris, the CEO of Trainual, on the podcast. Chris is a friend from the Phoenix startup scene and is one of the nicest guys out there. He is also one of the most successful, with Trainua being one of the hottest companies in the valley. In our conversation, he answers some of these questions:What is Trainual? How does Trainual work for users?How did you get the idea?How did you get your first users? What is it like building a rocketship in Phoenix?How do you think about fundraising vs. bootstrapping when starting a startup? What have been some of the biggest learnings from this journey so far?What advice to you have for future business owners?And tons more!Chris is such a smart guy and it was so fun having him on the podcast. If you want to learn more about Trainual, check it out here. Want to catch Chris on Twitter? Find him right here. What is Forward Thinking Founder?Welcome to Forward Thinking Founder (FTF)! FTF is a podcast and publication where I interview high potential startup founders, usually before they hit their Series A. Past guests include Austen Allred, Daniel Gross, Leah Culver, Laura Behrens Wu, and many more.Consider it the opposite of “How I Built This”. Instead of interviewing someone after they are successful, we interview early founders with a little traction and a big vision, and hear what they want to will into the world and why. This is Forward Thinking Founder. Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

On today's episode of Gritty Founder, Kreig Kent talks with Laura Behrens Wu about building and scaling Shippo. Laura shares advice on product development, raising money, company culture, hiring, and finding your own leadership style. Laura Behrens Wu is a co-founder and the CEO of Shippo, the multi-carrier shipping platform. Laura founded Shippo after personally experiencing the obstacles businesses face when setting up shipping operations for her own ecommerce store. Today, Shippo powers shipping for platforms, marketplaces, warehouses, and ecommerce businesses. From one place, companies are able to instantly access multiple shipping carriers for real-time rates, shipping labels, international paperwork, package tracking, and return logistics. Some Questions Kreig Asks Laura: - How did you take the first step when building Shippo? (10:18) - How did you know what to build? (12:58) - What is the most important ingredient a founder needs in order to build something successful? (14:29) - After speaking to over 120 investors, when did you actually hear a ‘yes’? Did you ever want to give up? (16:22) - Other than making the decision to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision that you made? (23:02) - What advice would you give founders who have multiple ideas and are not sure which idea to pursue? (24:25) - What are some of the biggest lessons in your journey as a founder that have impacted the way you work? (31:52) - What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time? (35:02) In This Episode, You Will Learn: - How Laura became an entrepreneur and why she started Shippo (4:43) - How Shippo works (9:21) - Advice on getting customer feedback (11:24) - Be persistent and determined (14:42) - When fundraising, be able to show metrics (16:46) - You will never know what will work and what won’t work unless you try (24:56) - Your product doesn’t need to be perfect in the beginning (25:11) - Laura’s thoughts on hiring and company culture (26:32) - Reference checks for investors are just as important as for employees (30:31) - Hire slow and fire fast (31:40) - Benefits of working with a CEO coach (32:09) - Find your own leadership style, don’t try to be like someone else (33:36) Connect with Laura Behrens Wu: Twitter Shippo Also Mentioned on This Show... Laura’s favorite quote: “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ―Paulo Coelho Laura’s book recommendations: Waking Up by Sam Harris Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

We talk about our thoughts on a book called Exhalation by Ted Chiang which goes into the influence of technology on our lives. I highly recommend this episode, the book, and finding out more about Shippo if you need help shipping. 

Erik is joined by Laura Behrens Wu (@LauraBehrensWu), co-founder and CEO of Shippo, and Talia Goldberg (@taliagold), venture investor at Bessemer. They start out by talking about how Laura started Shippo and how the team iterated through different ideas to get to what the company is today. She tells the story of trying to get attention from investors for a space that was not too familiar to them.Talia talks about Bessemer’s investments long ago in then-new retail companies like Staples and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and where they are thinking about where they want to invest.They move on to talking about the rise of direct-to-consumer and consumer packaged goods, and discuss how companies like Shippo can help new entrepreneurs get to market. They discuss some of the changes in e-commerce over the years and how new channels like Instagram are helping create a new relationship between consumers and brands.They also talk about companies that Talia wishes she had invested in but didn’t, their recommendations for entrepreneurs looking at the space, and their requests for startups.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg, and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined by Laura Behrens Wu (@LauraBehrensWu), co-founder and CEO of Shippo, and Talia Goldberg (@taliagold), venture investor at Bessemer. They start out by talking about how Laura started Shippo and how the team iterated through different ideas to get to what the company is today. She tells the story of trying to get attention from investors for a space that was not too familiar to them.Talia talks about Bessemer’s investments long ago in then-new retail companies like Staples and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and where they are thinking about where they want to invest.They move on to talking about the rise of direct-to-consumer and consumer packaged goods, and discuss how companies like Shippo can help new entrepreneurs get to market. They discuss some of the changes in e-commerce over the years and how new channels like Instagram are helping create a new relationship between consumers and brands.They also talk about companies that Talia wishes she had invested in but didn’t, their recommendations for entrepreneurs looking at the space, and their requests for startups.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg, and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

In this episode with the insightful and thoughtful Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of Shippo, we talk about a varsity of far ranging topics. A few of them include:- The future of Logistics and Shipping- The evolution of a startup CEO- The API Economy- Machine/brain interfaces - The impact of Sci Fi Novels- Black Mirrors Bandersnatch and that type CYOA entertainment avenues- AND SO MUCH MOREI hope you enjoy the episode!  Get on the email list at forwardthinking.substack.com

Laura Behrens Wu is the founder and CEO of Shippo. Laura, 26 years old, and Simon Kreuz, 28 years old, they started Shippo in 2013. Laura had her first experience with a startup while working as an intern at a startup company LendUp, which was a Y Combinator alumni startup (as the combinator that invested in Dropbox, Airbnb, and many other top startups). She grew up in Germany, China, Ecuador, and Cairo went to school in Switzerland and started Shippo in the U.S.Discover more details here. Some of the highlights from the episode:Shopify, Facebook Marketplace - PartnersOffering shipping options to grow their businessBuilding tech experiencesHelping them FedEx to reach more clients - smallerCompetitor or not - Amazon.com or Alibaba - how do you compete with this guys?Amazon is driving the shipping standard - so our clients come to us for help to competeCustomization and authenticity - tell a certain story - millennialsTalking about a hard time when being an entrepreneur - founders go through a huge amount of pressure.Follow us on:Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Wba8v7Twitter: http://bit.ly/2WeulzXLinkedin: http://bit.ly/2w9YSQXFacebook: http://bit.ly/2HtryLdSupport the show (https://www.alcottglobal.com/category/podcast/)

Laura Behrens Wu is the founder and CEO of Shippo. Laura, 26 years old, and Simon Kreuz, 28 years old, they started Shippo in 2013. Laura had her first experience with a startup while working as an intern at a startup company LendUp, which was a Y Combinator alumni startup (as the combinator that invested in Dropbox, Airbnb, and many other top startups). She grew up in Germany, China, Ecuador, and Cairo went to school in Switzerland and started Shippo in the U.S.Discover more details here. Some of the highlights from the episode:Shopify, Facebook Marketplace - PartnersOffering shipping options to grow their businessBuilding tech experiencesHelping them FedEx to reach more clients - smallerCompetitor or not - Amazon.com or Alibaba - how do you compete with this guys?Amazon is driving the shipping standard - so our clients come to us for help to competeCustomization and authenticity - tell a certain story - millennialsTalking about a hard time when being an entrepreneur - founders go through a huge amount of pressure.Follow us on:Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Wba8v7Twitter: http://bit.ly/2WeulzXLinkedin: http://bit.ly/2w9YSQXFacebook: http://bit.ly/2HtryLd

In this episode, Laura talks about her experience being a young CEO from a different country, how she built Shippo's culture from the top-down, and how her executive coach made her more like Steve Jobs. Laura Behrens Wu is the founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo simplifies shipping for eCommerce companies by offering discounted shipping rates and a streamlined solution across all different shipping providers. It’s Amazon-level shipping for all e-commerce stores. Laura, featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017, runs a 65 person team based in San Francisco.

In this episode, Laura talks about her experience being a young CEO from a different country, how she built Shippo's culture from the top-down, and how her executive coach made her more like Steve Jobs. Laura Behrens Wu is the founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo simplifies shipping for eCommerce companies by offering discounted shipping rates and a streamlined solution across all different shipping providers. It’s Amazon-level shipping for all e-commerce stores. Laura, featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017, runs a 65 person team based in San Francisco.

with Cristina Cordova (@cjc), Augusto Marietti (@sonicaghi), Laura Behrens Wu (@laurabehrenswu), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) APIs (application programming interfaces), observe the guests in this episode of the a16z Podcast, can be described as everything from Lego building blocks to Tetris to front doors to even veins in the human body. Because the defining property of APIs is that they're ways to send and receive information between different parts, that is, communicate between software applications (which often map onto different organizational functions/services in a company too). APIs therefore give companies access to data and competencies they wouldn't otherwise have -- or better yet, that they no longer need -- by letting even non-tech and small companies combine these building blocks to get exactly what they want. Which means companies today -- including non-tech companies and small companies -- can focus on their core competency instead, access bigger data, and get superpowers to scale and compete with the Amazons of the world. But what does all this mean for design -- after all, APIs are interfaces between software, not people -- and for other stakeholders (finance, ops, etc.) beyond developers? Who do you sell to? How are APIs changing not only the (inter)face of business today, but how entire companies are being formed from -- or around -- them? This conversation considers all this and more, featuring: Cristina Cordova, who leads partnerships for Stripe, which builds infrastructure for the movement of money including payments processing; Augusto Marietti, CEO and co-founder of Kong, which helps companies manage secure APIs and microservices; Laura Behrens Wu, CEO and co-founder of Shippo, which powers multi-carrier shipping for all kinds of commerce; in conversation with Sonal Chokshi.

Laura Behrens-Wu had no interest in entrepreneurism nor shipping – and yet here she is, entrepreneur supreme, as cofounder and CEO of Shippo, a company dedicated to ease up the complicated, costly yet necessary field of getting stuff where it needs to go. Shippo has big customers, like eBay Canada, but it mostly caters to small and medium size businesses, like ecommerce stores operating out of bedrooms. The company has recently raised $30 million and is zipping along with 65 employees. Hear Behrens-Wu talk about the setbacks, the inspiration and lessons learned as she dived into the very thing she never knew she wanted to do.

Laura Behrens Wu is the CEO and co-founder of Shippo​, a platform that's powering ecommerce shipping by simplifying the world of parcel delivery. From getting labels to tracking info, Shippo is a platform that's offering competitive, carrier-agnostic, parcel shipping solutions at any scale. There is no one-size-fits-all way to ship, but customers' expectations have changed in the last few years, thanks to Amazon. Amazon has shifted the status quo, and now customers to expect free and fast delivery from businesses of all sizes, without compromising the product or process. Building for this speedy future of ecommerce is where Shippo shines, innovating to reduce friction from the time a customer checks out to the time they receive their package. In this episode, Laura breaks down why shipping dates are pivotal for customers, and how to use shipping to differentiate and grow your brand. Links and images from this post are on the Lumi blog.

Shippo CEO Laura Behrens Wu talks about key e-commerce shipping issues. Last Mile Experts' Marek Różycki analyses new delivery subscription services from Australia Post and NZ Post.

Laura Behrens Wu is the CEO and cofounder of Shippo.Read the transcript here.

Everything you need to know about e-commerce and shipping to your customers is HERE! Laura Behrens-Wu joins us from Shippo and not only is this episode jam packed with everything you NEED to KNOW to increase your customer experience but they have generously given our audience an EXCLUSIVE e-book about the State of Shipping in Commerce on our website www.2babestalksupplychain.com Laura Behrens Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Shippo, the shipping platform that connects businesses with a global network of shipping carriers to print labels, track packages and more. Behrens Wu co-founded Shippo after personally experiencing the obstacles businesses face when setting up their shipping operations for her own e-commerce business. www.goshippo.com We hope you enjoy this episode! Remember to visit our website http://www.2babestalksupplychain.com/ AND Follow us on social media: @2BabesTalkSC

As we enter the run up the holiday season, more and more people will be relying on Amazon Prime to deliver their gifts the following day. It then occurred to me just how much Amazon Prime has raised our expectation levels. We no longer accept to wait for more than 5 days for an online order. We don't care about how busy the poor local post office is at Christmas because they know Amazon can do it.So I found myself asking HOW can small businesses compete and then came across Shippo Startup Shippo recently announced a Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures and also welcomed Albert Wenger to our board. Shippo powers shipping for businesses. With one simple, scalable API they have built a solution to help developers connect to a network of shipping providers and print shipping labels in minutes. Connect with multiple carriers, get discounted shipping labels, track packages, and more with just one integration.Shippo help businesses compare shipping rates, print discounted shipping labels, and track shipments, with a goal of making shipping easy and affordable for everyone. I invited Shippo founder and CEO, Laura Behrens Wu onto the show to learn more. Guest Info https://goshippo.com/ @LauraBehrensWu  

Laura Behrens Wu, the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Listen as Laura talks about how a laundry list of shipping obstacles with her previous e-commerce store birthed the idea for Shippo. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Things About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Patrick Collison Favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “I wish” If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Trust that things will turn out right”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:45 – Nathan introduces Laura to the show 02:13 – E-commerce business Laura had 02:27 – Started at Shopify 02:40 – Sourcing unique items from NGO 03:07 – Shipping problem 03:32 – Revenue with the e-commerce business 03:50 – Laura was 21 when she started her business 04:13 – Financing with Shippo 04:17 – Drop shipping 05:08 – Typical shipping pricing 05:30 – Shippo shipping rates 05:58 – Volume metric 06:07 – Doing millions of packages a month 06:30 – Negotiation with shipping providers  06:44 – Based on projected volumes 07:00 – Shippo is a pay-as-you-go; not SaaS 07:20 – Sample price per package shipped 07:30 – What if I’m shipping a 10 lbs. dumbbell? 07:44 – “We only provide the software” 08:06 – How Shippo works in an e-commerce website 08:10 – Will compare different shipping providers 08:30 – Not a standard shipping rate 08:47 – How the shipping providers get the package from the seller 09:07 – Why clients use Shippo’s service 09:37 – Shipping providers are not tech company 09:55 – Number of unique customers 10:12 – Average shipping volume per month 10:29 – Memebox 11:10 – Nathan’s proposed deal for Shippo and Memebox 11:54 – They raised $9M in 2014 12:20 – Team size 12:50 – Use of the extra money 13:23 – Minimum monthly revenue 13:33 – Upselling 13:50 – Shipping insurance 14:11 – Tracking as a product 15:28 – Bigger revenue stream 15:37 – $ 7 million in series A round, March 2016 16:00 – How to keep the balance when you have a big account 16:38 – Travel expenses last month 17:25 – Will you sell the business for $ 47 million? 17:45 – Ideal exit assuming there’s a good fit 18:03 – Built an app on top of Shopify 18:11 – Connect with Laura through her Twitter, LinkedIn and email 20:00 - The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Keep your customers updated and excited. Spend money on the right things and appreciate what you have. Don’t get upset on your first try – everything falls into place given patience and time.   Resources Mentioned: Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal  developers. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. @LauraBehrensWu – Laura’s Twitter handle LinkedIn – Laura’s LinkedIn account laura@goshippo.com – Laura’s email address Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives  

Joining us today on The Official Saastr Podcast is Laura Behrens Wu, Laura is the Founder & CEO @ Shippo, the API and dashboard for all your shipping needs. They have raised from the likes of SoftTech, 500Startups, SLow Ventures and many more incredible investors. In today's show with Laura we discuss:   What are API’s and what do they allow us to do? With API’s developer adoption is crucial, what has worked for Laura in terms of finding developers, onboarding them and ensuring developer retention? How much of a role does content marketing and education play in a complex product and tech stack, like Shippo? What strategies have been the most successful in educating potential clients? Why does Laura believe transparent pricing is so fundamental? How does Laura harness the freemium model while attempting to onboard large corporate clients What do the next 20 years hold for Shippo? What will it take to reach the milestones?   In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear: Most challenging element of building Shippo? Biggest advice to SMB’s on shipping options? The fundraising process: What was it like?   If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings Saastr Laura Behrens Wu