64: Laura Behrens Wu, Founder and CEO of Shippo

Since the start of COVID-19, we have made unprecedented advances in e-commerce. Coined the “great retail acceleration”, US E-Commerce Penetration (as a % of retail sales) grew from 5.5% to 16% from 2009 to 2019. Within 8 weeks post Apr 2020, it grew from 16% to 27%. We have experienced 10 years of e-commerce growth in the last 8 weeks alone. When we think of e-commerce, we often talk about the frontend; both Shopify and Amazon are public tech darlings in the market right now and with good reason. But what we often don’t talk about is the unsexy backend - delivery of e-commerce.

It’s why I was so excited to chat with Laura Behrens Wu, Founder and CEO of Shippo. Simply put, Shippo has created the best multicarrier software layer for e-commerce businesses to help streamline the fulfillment process. Laura has raised $60M+ from some of the best investors in the world on the backs of continual explosive growth pre-COVID and post-COVID.

We touched on a number of topics in this discussion and Laura intricately explained the nuances of how to think about shipping in a time of explosive growth and operationally how she is leading her business during COVID.