The Fort #135: Chris Koerner - Building a 3PL & Fulfillment Behemoth for Small eCommerce Businesses
Chris Koerner is the Co-Founder and CEO of SendEats.com where they offer 3PL for Ecommerce so that companies can focus on building their brand.
On this episode, Chris starts with a great story about his mission to Hungary for the Church of Latter-Day Saints, his entrepreneurial journey starting and selling E-commerce businesses before starting SendEats at the beginning of the pandemic, and some of the ups and downs they've experienced in their year of operation. Finally, Chris tells an incredible story of partnering with the Crypto giant John McAfee, his passion for crypto, and some parenting stories. Enjoy!
Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris
Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com
Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/
Chris Koerner on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/serialtrep
(03:19) - Chris’ Background
(05:33) - Chris Mission for The Latter-Day Saints in Hungary
(09:22) - What is the goal of the Mission?
(10:39) - How did you know if you were doing a ‘good’ job on your mission?
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(13:51) - Were you good at handling rejection before the mission?
(14:11) - The Backstory of Starting Sendeats.com
(20:08) - What's something you missed at the beginning but you’re working on now?
(23:16) - When is someone big enough to outsource their e-commerce?
(23:43) - What does your 80-hour week look like?
(26:19) - Where does the risk lie in your business?
(27:09) - Do you need an insurance policy for each customer?
(27:49) - Partnering with Amazon, Shopify vs. Amazon
(33:04) - What has COVID done for E-commerce adoption?
(34:57) - How are you finding customers?
(35:13) - Is there a customer you won’t take?
(36:37) - How do you bill customers?
(37:21) - What’s the most difficult product you ship right now?
(42:11) - How are FedEx and UPS working to protect themselves from Amazon?
(42:57) - What do you look for in a building?
(43:23) - How well-positioned is DFW from a logistics standpoint?
(45:37) - Is physical location the most important factor in logistics?
(46:32) - How are you receiving products?
(47:05) - What’s the hardest part about the business? How do you tackle these issues?
(48:42) - Are there technology opportunities in this space?
(49:53) - Who are your competitors?
(51:04) - Does Amazon still win?
(51:44) - Does faster shipping change actually change anything on the shipping end?
(53:19) - What value do you get out of Trends?
(54:57) - What’s your plan with this company?
(55:47) - Will you end up taking over the insurance side of this business?
(56:39) - Cardboard Box Supply
(57:08) - What’s the worst day you’ve had in this business?
(59:38) - Partnering with John McAfee
(1:13:50) - How does 2017 feel vs. now when it comes to Bitcoin?
(1:15:00) - How did you get into Crypto?
(1:16:48) - Why do swaps exist?
(1:18:02) - Whatever happened to John?
(1:19:06) - Are we still early in Crypto?
(1:19:34) - Chris’ Crypto Pyramid Scheme Story
(1:23:03) - What’s something you think about a lot?
(1:24:23) - Was there any experience you had as a child that shaped you?
(1:26:30) - Raising Kids & Screen Time
(1:30:17) - Wrap Up
The FORT with Chris Powers is produced by Straight Up Podcasts