Bootstrapping to $33 Million: Freightwise CIO Richard Hoehn (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How much were you burning during this period?

Richard Hoehn: We were running $45,000 a month for a while. You definitely need some runway. 

Sramana Mitra: Where does this money come from?

Bootstrapping to $33 Million: Freightwise CIO Richard Hoehn (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What did you have to plug into to make this happen? Based on what you’re describing, integration was involved. Can you talk a bit about what it entailed to get this client to a point where you could start charging them on a gain-share basis?

Richard Hoehn: A good amount of client integration was involved in terms of how they needed to bring the data back in for their ERP systems. We often try to provide value on multiple levels.

Bootstrapping to $33 Million: Freightwise CIO Richard Hoehn (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get into the details. How did you launch the company?

Richard Hoehn: We bootstrapped the company. Freightwise has almost no debt. The way we did it is, we loaded cash in and bootstrapped it. We made one key decision early on that we would build our platform rather than buy it.

Bootstrapping to $33 Million: Freightwise CIO Richard Hoehn (Part 1)

Freightwise is No. 2 on the Inc. 5000 for 2018. Amazing bootstrapping story.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Richard Hoehn: I grew up in Switzerland. I did an apprenticeship as a machinist – the tool and die maker. After three years, I decided I wanted to go back to school and learn more about computers and technology.

Building a Mission-Driven Company from Sweden: Anders Ankarlid, CEO of A Good Company (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: In terms of customer acquisition, what is working for you?

Anders Ankarlid: We have a reward program. We have ambassadors that we don’t pay. If they like our products, they can get discounts. We are doing Google Ads and Facebook marketing. Facebook marketing has shifted a lot into being really competitive.

Building a Mission-Driven Company from Sweden: Anders Ankarlid, CEO of A Good Company (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What is your hottest selling product?

Anders Ankarlid: Every new product that we are launching goes up as the new blockbuster. We have an assortment of stone paper notebooks. It’s a replacement for pulp-based stationery products. You take leftovers from the construction industry. You cross the stones. You make it into pellets and then you press it into paper.

Building a Mission-Driven Company from Sweden: Anders Ankarlid, CEO of A Good Company (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What was the next step? How did you get to this company?

Anders Ankarlid: I always had this sense that I will some day come back to e-commerce and bring all of the experience I have gained. Then in the summer of 2018, it was extremely hot in Europe.

Building a Mission-Driven Company from Sweden: Anders Ankarlid, CEO of A Good Company (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the trajectory of that group of e-commerce sites? Did you raise money? Did you bootstrap?

Anders Ankarlid: This was very early on. This was pre-Facebook in Scandinavia. Most of the sales were related to price comparison apps.