Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast

Deliverr's product-market fit journey: Michael Krakaris on enabling Prime for all E-commerce

Sep 11, 2023

46:57

Started in 2017, Deliverr is an E-commerce fulfillment company that integrates with marketplaces such as Shopify and Walmart. The company offers a two-day shipping service to small merchants selling on these online marketplaces helping them compete with Amazon Prime. Co-founded by Harish Abbott and Michael Krakaris, the company was acquired by Shopify for US$ 2.1 bn in May 2022.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde joins Michael Krakaris and Sarah Leary (GP at Unusual) to discuss Deliverr’s path to product-market fit.

Join us as we discuss:

01:00 The insight that led to Deliverr’s founding

04:20 Why E-commerce fulfillment needed to be democratized

08:18 The value of understanding customers to achieve product-market fit

15:11 Early product-market fit signals for Deliverr

20:15 Pivoting Deliverr's business model to drive revenue

26:23 How Deliverr built and scaled its sales team

29:33 Deliverr’s breakthrough with Walmart

33:06 Deliverr's expansion: From Walmart partnership to multichannel integration

35:11 Managing E-commerce during the pandemic

40:36 Overcoming crisis through innovation

44:12 E-commerce tech post-pandemic

Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at:⁠ https://www.unusual.vc/podcast⁠

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and

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Sarah Leary is a Venture Partner at Unusual Ventures, with a focus on Unusual’s consumer practice. Prior to joining Unusual, Sarah co-founded Nextdoor, the free and private social network for neighborhoods. She can be reached at sarah@unusual.vc and

Michael Krakaris is the co-founder of Deliverr. Prior to starting Deliverr, Michael was a product marketing manager at Symphony Commerce.

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from the Startup Field Guide:

Customer Discovery

Building a sales team

Developing your founding insight