Investor Daily Soham interview

The following coverage appeared on Page 24 of Investor Daily, print edition (Bahasa) on September 26, 2022. An overview of responses has been provided in English below.

Please tell us about your career journey until you achieve your current position?

I began my career as a Mentorship Manager at Avanti Fellows, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide affordable, high-quality education to disadvantaged students aspiring to study in India’s top universities. My next job was as the Head of Sponsorship & Public Relations at Saarang — the annual social and cultural festival of my alma mater, IIT-M, followed by serving as a campus ambassador for Teach For India, representing the organization at the same institution.

Things took a different turn when I joined Deutsche Bank as an Analyst in 2013. While working there, I met Dhruv, Himanshu, and Sahil — the co-founders of Shipsy. Before we established Shipsy, I founded Mappr, a platform aimed at improving traveling. 

Do you have any reasons why you decided to build a tech company and be the CEO?

We saw massive problems in the last mile segment of the logistics industry. In fact, last-mile inefficiencies are substantial, comprising 53% of the overall logistics costs. Manual processes, legacy systems, and siloed communication have been challenging the industry for decades. A tech-driven solution that seamlessly enables visibility across multiple participants, processes, and touchpoints and automates and optimizes operations to improve logistical efficiencies was the need of the hour. 

The aim of creating Shipsy was to work towards building an OS for the global supply chain and logistics industry. An OS where every stakeholder, be it an enterprise, a logistics service provider, shippers, freight forwarder and delivery executives, can collaborate, analyze, decide and execute everyday logistics operations efficiently. We are rapidly moving ahead in turning this vision into a reality.

What are your strategies to manage the company?

We strongly believe in having a flat hierarchy that creates a work environment that contributes toward creating future leaders and drives a good sense of ownership of the work one does. I firmly believe in providing equal opportunities, and our People Success team is constantly working on unearthing innovative ways to keep my fellow Shipsians engaged, happy and motivated. The latter part is equally important as we are now a remote-first organization. As an organization, we promote activities that help our people grow as professional individuals. It can be through courses they want to pursue, training sessions across departments, off-site activities, books they want, hackathons, and more. 

Customer obsession is another critical driver of our everyday operations as we are not just technology providers to our customers but their partners in growth.

What is your philosophy of life and how do you implement it in corporate culture?

I am a strong believer in first principles thinking, just like the rest of our Shipsians. It helps the organization unleash myriads of creative possibilities that, in turn, arms us to solve unique and complex customer challenges in the most innovative ways.  

What is your leadership style (especially when you solve the company’s problem)?

Leadership style is developed over the years and is a blend of multiple traits, some of which come naturally or are gradually picked up on the way to better yourself.

When faced with a challenge, following first-principles thinking works well for me as I try to do the right thing over convenient ones. The second point to consider is its impact on a team level. One cannot make a strong team out of people operating in silos or ignoring them from your decisions. So collaboration is one critical aspect. Moreover, thinking out of the box, thinking big but efficient is the key— one has to be mindful of where they invest their resources. Over the years, we have built the attitude of customer obsession as they are the muse of our constant and ground-breaking innovations. 

In the technology industry, especially technology for logistics, where is Shipsy’s brand positioning now? What are Shipsy’s competitive advantages compared to other competitors?

We are one of the leading SaaS-based logistics management solution providers globally. We have 170+ customers across courier, express, and parcel service providers, manufacturers, eCommerce players, retailers, on-demand delivery providers, and healthcare providers. 

To summarize, today, the world’s largest tyre manufacturer, the world’s leading pizza delivery chain, a Fortune 100 exporter, and a leading 10-minute grocery delivery company — run on Shipsy. Over 30 million deliveries are powered each day through our platform. Our vision is to become the de-facto logistics operating system globally, such that every shipment being delivered, whether to a consumer or to a business, whether domestically or internationally, is powered by Shipsy.

Technology adoption in the logistics and supply chain industry still remains low. Hence, we have a plethora of technology providers focusing on this area. But most have their competencies in particular areas of the supply chain. Shipsy, on the other hand, provides robust capabilities that actually help businesses manage supply chain operations, right from optimizing cross-border logistics, enhancing first-mile operations, and improving middle-mile costs to driving delightful and cost-efficient last-mile delivery operations. 

We excel in providing tangible business outcomes and benefits in the guise of cost-efficiency, better customer experience, faster time-to-value, accurate decision making, rapid scalability, logistics sustainability, and much more.

How about Shipsy’s business performance in the first 2022 semester?

We are going through a hyper-growth stage. After Dubai, we recently set up our regional HQs in South East Asia. At the beginning of this year, we raised Series B funding worth USD 25 M from A91 Partner and Z3 Partners. Our existing investors Info Edge and Sequoia Capital India’s Surge also participated. From 220 last year, our people strength today stands at 350+, and from 2021 to 2022, we have recorded 3x growth. 

What is the target for the next semester in 2022 and what is your strategy?

We will keep expanding our operations in new markets and establish regional HQs in the US and UK. We will also keep investing in onboarding top talent from across the globe. 

We recently launched our product-led growth Shipment Tracking module at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ 2022. This will enable customers to seamlessly scale usage of Shipsy’s advanced no-setup and instant access container tracking app according to their needs. It will also empower businesses to gain actionable insights and alerts on incidental costs, boost logistics transparency and achieve more. 

Shipsy is in the process of creating a robust network of strategic, channel and technology partnerships to drive mutual growth and expand offerings.

Anything else that you are still eager to achieve (personally and for Shipsy)?

We have come a long way, but there is still a mountain of work left to be done to ensure that the global logistics ecosystem is more sustainable, profitable, efficient, and resilient. 

Like I said earlier, we envision being the de-facto operating system globally, such that everything being delivered — whether to a consumer or to a business — domestically or internationally — is powered by Shipsy.

Personal Questions

How do you balance life and work (company, family, society)?

Multitasking at times can be counterproductive. I start my week with three tasks that I must pick and close in those seven days. So prioritizing my tasks helps me to concentrate on what needs my attention the most each day. It’s a great way to stay organized and see the events clearly. 

What is your life target in terms of career and personal achievement?

In Sir Robert Baden’s words, I would love to leave the world a little better than I found it. This does not just refer to supply chain and logistics. Contributing towards creating a richer and more value-driven employment ecosystem, nurturing talent to develop future leaders, and many other such goals define achievement for me.    

Who is/are the people that contribute to your career most?

It would be my family, Shipsians, co-founders, and our customers.

Do you have any special hobbies that you do after office hours?

I prefer staying fit and following healthy routines. So focusing on holistic health holds a good part of my day beyond office hours. I love my early morning workout, meditation, taking long walks in the evening, and playing table tennis and tennis whenever I get time. 

What do you do with your family during weekends/holidays? 

With COVID, it has been difficult for us to spend time traveling with the family. But now, as things are looking a little better, we ensure that the family visits each other every week, and we meet for breakfast, if not dinner. It doesn’t matter where you spend your time with family. Being together itself makes such a difference. Shipsy is my family, too. It is equally important for me to ensure I get to know them and understand their aspirations.

SHIPSY MEDIA CONTACT

arjun.alva@shipsy.io