My new job

I’m delighted to say that I will be joining Easyship from February 11th. Easyship is a leading cross-border logistics software, backed by some top VC’s including: Rubicon Venture Capital, One Way Ventures, Kima Ventures and Picus Capital.

A big change from my last 4 years providing A.I. driven Content Delivery Network services, but then that was a radical departure from Cyber Security solutions before that and Social Business Solutions before that and then Web Analytics before that. It wasn’t the shipping technology space per se that I was looking into; in fact I’ve never looked for any particular industry genre or vertical space when looking at potential employers. Every company I’ve ever joined has been a radical departure from the previous one, and no two employers have ever been in the same space - other than being some sort of High-Tech proposition.

It’s more about the stage of company (with one boring mistake somewhere in the middle…no prizes), the potential for hot growth and the fun, dynamic, agile “get s*** done”, exciting start-up environment that I accidentally fell into when I was 23 years old and have loved ever since. That hot growth environment can lead to great success. One employer doubled revenue 5 years in a row prior to IPO and acquisition, another went from $16m to $89m to $367m of revenue in just 3 years before a huge IPO and yet another was a stellar IPO and then later a $1.8 Billion acquisition. I’ve been blessed to work together with the Leaders, the Rockstars and the A-Players that helped make those stories happen. It doesn’t always happen of course, but that’s half the fun. Life is boring without taking some risks, and you minimize risk by teaming-up with super smart and energetic people who have great ideas and great execution.

Who is Easyship?

Easyship is a hyper-growth provider of B2B cloud-based shipping and logistics technology. It has an all-in-one shipping platform made for global eCommerce and crowdfunding. Its goal is to help unlock global markets for the retailer via its Cloud platform. The platform integrates with major online marketplaces, crowdfunding platforms and shippers and automates everything from in-cart checkout to delivery. Its founders were Forbes 30 under 30 winners and the company has won multiple awards for its technology. Most recently it won the Gold 2019 Stevie Award for “Transportation Company of the Year”. Incredible for what is actually a technology company. They’ve signed mega deals with leading eCommerce providers, as well as a newly announced Indiegogo exclusive partnership. These guys know what they are doing, they are growing super-fast and the leadership team has an energy about them that is reminiscent of other great start-ups I’ve seen.

Is it relevant?

Very. Let’s look at the eCommerce space. These days it’s actually just commerce. As Scott Gibson once said, “There is no such thing as a digital strategy, just strategy in a digital world”. Well, here’s the thing, whatever product you are selling, you need to get it to your customers, but “going global” is harder than you might think. Understanding what products can be sent to which global markets requires expertise that not all retailers want to be faced with. They often have to think: “Can I ship products via air to Country X or can I ship products containing batteries or perfume to country Y? What are the rules, regulations, taxes and duties that I need to complete? What are the tax thresholds per country? What commercial invoices and paperwork have to be legally included? Will my end customers be hit with taxes or duties?”

Navigating this minefield, which is different from country to country and from product to product is a nightmare. The paperwork and required knowledge becomes prohibitive for many retailers who often, therefore, just ship to their own territory and miss out on the global market. This is exactly why 70% of U.S. retailers (yes I said 70%!) don’t ship outside of their own country. The number one reason they give is that it’s just too complex to manage.

Yet at the same time shipping is a multi-trillion dollar global business which no cloud provider has really owned or optimised. Giving the end user wider choice based on speed, price or a mixture of both known as best “value” is a strong competitive differentiator. As well as providing better choice to the end-user, lowering workload for the merchant and allowing them to focus on core competence is important too. That is where Easyship comes in. Putting a Cloud Solution to work that picks the best shipper each time, a solution that understands taxes duties, invoices, legal obligations, shipping routes, carrier capabilities etc and ultimately gives my clients better service through options while integrating seamlessly, at the touch of a button, to my website is an awesome proposition.

Is it disruptive?

Hugely. Some vendors, as I mentioned earlier, can’t or won’t ship outside of their own regions, and when they do it’s often to a finite set of markets. No one else is yet leveraging a truly global network that benefits the end user in price and speed options, but also benefits the eCommerce merchant in margin, complexity and agility. By leveraging Easyships huge network of over 250 global couriers and shipping providers (DHL, TNT, UPS, FedEx and hundreds of others) the eCommerce merchant also gets much much better rates - while removing a huge headache and opening up to a huge global marketplace.. Think of Easyship as a universal Adapter-Plug that opens up new markets and new sources of revenue, while doing for shipping what Groupon did to purchasing. What’s not to like?

What problem does it solve?

It makes “going global” a far easier proposition for retailers, removing the large amounts of admin required to truly globalize an eCommerce proposition.

It increases the margin the eCommerce merchant makes, due to Easyship’s scale.

It gives the end consumer better service with “fastest”, “cheapest” and “best value”, being a combination of both, options available.

Does it scale?

It really does. With over 400% YoY growth, Easyship went from 15,000 to 40,000 customers last year. Their Cloud Solution has been designed from the ground up to provide massive scale. It has a value proposition suitable for both midmarket and Enterprise eCommerce merchants directly, while also having a very solid technology partnership play. It has a free entry point which helps to lower acquisition cost and it is being used, at the other end of the spectrum, by several of the global eCommerce Titans as THE shipping solution of choice. It also integrates as an offering into other key players such as Shopify.com, BigCommerce.com and Netsuite. The company has very healthy finances and some great VC backers behind them.

Can I make an impact?

I’ve sold both direct and indirect for years. I’ve lived on four continents and done business in every region of the world. I’ve been lucky enough to build and manage high-performance teams in multiple successful companies. In a start-up you find ways to win. I’d like to think I’m creative and very hard working. I’m excited, hungry and can’t wait to get started. Oh, and I buy lots of stuff online…