End of chapters, new beginnings

Second update on my journey to the next startup

Last days at forto

Erik & I during my last 10x company all-hands. We stayed in our office, instead of the big room. To give a better experience for remote participants. Always something new, even on the last day ;)

After 4 years at forto, I am now in the final stretches of an amazing journey. I'm grateful to have been allowed a part in taking this company from 70 to 850+ forties, from 5m to >300m revenue per year and an astonishing >550m EUR funding (from 20m in '18). I am proud to see our progress towards making shipping products as easy as sending an e-mail. I am very curious to see what comes next!

When I was cleaning up my laptop I found “historic” pieces of documents, especially in 2018 when I joined. Back then freighthub was failing to hit all targets. Revenue, gross profit, customer churn. If I look back now - the key thing that helped us overcome those challenges was really the team. The entire team was pulling in the same direction. Hiring and finding the right people at your side is crucial.

That being said: I am still looking for co-founders - let me know if you know somebody who might be a fit ;) I am looking for technical (software engineering) and sales/marketing profiles :)

The TECH talent shortage

I've learned a couple more things about the problems of the lack of technical people (engineers, product managers, designers…) through interviews and research.

Breaking the problem down

Essentially there are four ways to address this problem. (1) help companies hire better & faster (2) increase the supply by training people with technical skills (3) increase the efficiency within TECH organizations. Or (4) find alternative ways to build software (low code, no code solutions).

Recruiting is broken, oh so broken 💔

Initially I thought I would not look into #1 recruiting, but then I talked to recruiters/talent acquisition experts, to hiring managers (the people responsible to hire & possible manage a person) as well as candidates. Oh boy: nobody and I mean nobody is happy.

Recruiters have to reach out to hundreds of candidates - numbers increasing - to close a single hire. Hiring managers spend ever more time in interviews, feel like there are not enough good candidates and they hate the feeling that they might be wasting time with a candidate. And candidates want companies to really spend time explaining to them how they can contribute to a bigger mission, which most companies fail at.

I want to understand WHY I would be the perfect person to join a company. Instead they send me bad LinkedIn messages without even reading my profile. - Senior Software Engineer Candidate

Since the shortage will worsen, all of these problems are only bound to get worse in the next years.

Long story short: I will also look into recruiting going forward. The pain is real.

Turning the tables

One idea that I haven't been able to get out of my head is this: what if you don’t try to solve all these problems for the employers. What if you take a 'TECH talent first’ view instead? Build a company FOR the engineers, product managers and designers.

In a market where talent supply is getting worse, is there a chance to build a real business that helps people live a better life AND address parts of the employers problems? I am very curious about this and will keep investigating it.

War in Ukraine & Startups

Yesterday I was sitting in the car on the way to visit my grandmother. Before us was a grey Skoda. Clara recognized the “UA” and blue and yellow on the plate. The war has arrived in normal life - “Alltag” as we would say in Germany. Nothing is normal, yet life goes on. I have seen many people in my direct environment impacted personally. Colleagues and ex-colleagues with family trying to get their mothers and sisters out. Some from Russia with parents denying the war exists and some with parents they are trying to get out. It feels a bit weird to go on vacation or continue working on my startup ideas, when there are larger things going on in the world. After some internal debate I have decided to continue my donations and continue on my own path. It seems to be the best way for me to contribute. Is this an “easy way out”? Should we/I do more? I will continue to debate with myself.