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b"My guest today is Laura Behrens Wu, co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo started in 2014 after Laura realized with her own e-commerce start-up that shipping was an incredibly difficult task for most merchants, so she set out to fix the problem for everyone. Shippo let's merchants small and large use its dashboard or APIs to simplify the shipping and tracking process. Our conversation focuses on Laura's background prior to Shippo, how Shippo's business and business strategy have evolved, the inherent challenges of building a shipping platform, and the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation.\\n \\xa0\\n This episode is brought to you by\\xa0Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping \\u201centerprise-ready\\u201d B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you\\u2019re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check\\xa0them out.\\xa0\\n \\xa0\\n This episode is also sponsored by\\xa0Vanta.\\xa0\\xa0Vanta\\xa0has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost.\\xa0Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at\\xa0vanta.com/patrick.\\xa0\\n \\xa0\\n For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.\\n Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called \\u201cInside the Episode\\u201d at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.\\n Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag\\n \\xa0\\n Show Notes\\n (2:57) \\u2013 (First question) \\u2013 The story of Popout and how it led to Shippo\\n (7:40) \\u2013 Challenge of working in a huge and crowded market\\n (10:36) \\u2013 How Shippo changed shipping for small businesses\\n (12:30) \\u2013 First big break in their favor\\n (13:39) \\u2013 Their master account with the major shipping companies\\n (14:39) \\u2013 Why is the shipping industry so complex\\n (16:25) \\u2013 Most painful part of building Shippo\\n (18:20) \\u2013 Advice for people in early company building\\n (19:26) \\u2013 Pricing software in early days\\n (20:32) \\u2013 The early days of Shippo and getting it to where it is today\\n (23:17) \\u2013 Going to market and targeting new customers when they\\u2019re mostly small businesses\\n (25:48) \\u2013 Partnering with a larger company, in their case Shopify\\n (27:52) \\u2013 How they think about their long-term planning\\n (30:48) \\u2013 Competing in a world where companies can own their own infrastructure\\n (32:39) \\u2013 How often they think about other competitive advantages\\n (34:20) \\u2013 Worst question an investor asked her: what if Amazon tries to copy them\\n (35:17) \\u2013 Her superpowers as a founder\\n (36:41) \\u2013 API vs dashboard and the difference in their customer bases\\n (38:52) \\u2013 What businesses that need shipping today need to know\\n (40:14) \\u2013 Changes in how businesses are being built today\\n (41:28) \\u2013 What excites her most about the future of this business\\n (43:28) \\u2013 Kindest thing anyone has done for her\\n \\xa0\\n Learn More\\n For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.\\n Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called \\u201cInside the Episode\\u201d at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.\\n Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag"