Dhruv Saxena is the CEO of ShipBob, a technology company that streamlines shipping and order fulfillment for e-commerce businesses. Dhruv co-founded ShipBob in May 2014 with Divey Gulati, out of YCombinator. Prior to ShipBob, he spent two years as a software developer at InContext Solutions, another Chicago startup. And previously he spent a few years as a research assistant at Purdue University.
ShipBob has raised a total of $62 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and Y Combinator.
Shipbob provides same-, next-, and 2-day shipping for e-commerce companies of all sizes taking the hassle out of storing, picking, packing, and shipping products. The startup aims to help small to midsize e-commerce companies ship their products at speeds similar to Amazon.
Listen to the full discussion here:
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 here.
Connect with the Guest:
Dhruv Saxena: LinkedIn | Twitter | Company Website
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- How is ShipBob unique? What is special about the product?
- Hot manage threats and disruptions in the market
- ShipBob’s International Expansion Strategy
- Lessons learned growing from 100+ employees to 450+ employees
- Every single thing the employees do must be optimized
- Trust that the team around you is as wise as you.
Show notes:
- [01:27] Tell us more about your background. You started in the research assistant and then moved to be the founder and CEO of a startup – ShipBob. How did this happen?
- [06:51] What is the story behind ShipBob? And why did you decide to found it?
- [11:47] What are some examples of the clients you work with?
- [18:19] How do you make money? Can you give us more details about your pricing model?
- [21:13] What is your strategy for international expansion?
- [24:24] What differentiates ShipBob from the next type of a similar service?
- [27:26] What do you think might be the biggest threats or disruptors to your journey later on?
- [33:15] How do you delight end customers while considering their immediate clients? How transparent is it to the end consumer to have encountered innovative shipping services?
- [36:19] How do you manage onboarding? How do you train them? How do you get your newly graduated staff to speed in terms of logistics and Supply Chain Management knowledge?
- [44:46] Have you needed lately any senior executive from outside the company? What is the most challenging part about finding and attracting the right talent?
- [51:50] What are the most difficult hard skills to find for your team? How about soft skills?
- [54:24] What are your biggest struggles so far in your journey as an entrepreneur?
- [59:35] Looking back at the ShipBob story so far, what are the things that make you most proud of?
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