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Episode description
How young outsiders changed the shipping industry by finding product-market fit again and again | Laura Behrens Wu (Shippo)
In Depth
Sep 28, 2023
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1 hr 1 min
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Episode description
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
How young outsiders changed the shipping industry by finding product-market fit again and again | Laura Behrens Wu (Shippo) | In Depth podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
