After 2 incredible years at Shipitwise it’s time for me to move on
I remember Aleksander returning to home on February 17th 2015, informing us he’d decided to pursue the idea behind Shipitwise together with Anna, Olari and Ragmar. For the rest of the night we shared some ideas on it and I promised to help when possible.
At the time, I was busy building my own technology company, QuikTract, and did not think about joining this fight. Still, I did share my knowhow with Alex and wanted them to succeed.
However, once I returned from Draper University (and retired QuikTract), Alex asked me to join the team. At first, I was still in an advisory / in-house legal help position, as I had just established another business and was thinking about starting a VC fund.
Over time, I joined Startup Wise Guys accelerator team and did my best so Shipitwise would be admitted to the program. Once there, we lost our head of marketing and I proposed to take it over. So for the next 3–4 months, I was hustling on two positions until the program ended — then I joined Shipitwise full-time.
What followed has been an incredible journey.
There’s been ups and downs but I’ve loved every bit of it. All of it has helped to shape me as an individual, while giving a chance to meet hundreds of great people. During that time, I:
- Travelled to visit clients, conferences and investors in 7 countries, including Austria (Pioneers Festival), Dubai, Finland (Arctic15 & Slush), Latvia (TechChill), Lithuania (Login), Portugal (Web Summit) and the United Kingdom (for many reasons)
- Participated not in one, but two Garage48 hackathons
- Completed Startup Wise Guys acceleration program
- Applied and got rejected from 500Startups
- Raised 2 rounds of funding (via Funderbeam)
- Pivoted twice, finally finding the niche we could dominate
- Became completely transparent towards our investors
- Served both the ex- and the incumbent presidents of Estonia, as well as the ex-Ambassador of the United Kingdom
- Helped one of our teammates start his own venture
- On-boarded our first three foreign teammates
I’m still in awe when I reflect on everything that has happened to me in the last 2 years. I’m grateful for all the help I’ve received from so many friends, family, advisors and supporters in that time and I see it as a great responsibility to pay it forward and pass along what I learned to others who are looking to find their own path in startups.
Why move on?
I still love the idea and people behind Shipitwise. I know it’s possible to make travelling easier for everyone by taking away the hassle of dealing with excess baggage. I’d love to only travel hands-free. I truly believe all of this will succeed, and I’ll continue providing my help when possible.
Still, I feel to have reached a point where it’s time for me to find new challenges. Not because Shipitwise is ready. On the contrary, we’ve entered to a new phase — one that calls for different kind of mindset and skills. We’ve agreed that the company needs to change it’s way of marketing to something more cultivated, while focusing on the markets we’ve already entered. At the same time, we’re working towards getting cashflow positive as soon as possible by pushing our content towards the customer that would buy now.
Given this, I came to conclusion it’s time for me to move further. In stepping away, I want to give everyone a chance to move towards all that we’ve agreed upon, while not disturbing it with my personal goals.
With that, I see myself as Shipitwise’s biggest cheerleader and even though I’m not active, we’ve agreed I’ll still advise ’em when possible. For example, I’ll keep on assisting Alex with the current fundraising process.
Personally, I’m really excited for Shipitwise’s next steps and have full confidence in Aleksander, Anna, Olari, Ragmar and the rest of the team.
What’s next for me?
After lots of reflection in the last few weeks and coming to the conclusion to leave, I’ll first take some time off and simply finish reading some books. Meanwhile, I’ll write a couple of posts and give a few speeches.
Eventually, I’m looking to join a starting or an existing team that needs a hustler to do marketing, public relations, on-boarding, sales and perhaps investor relations. Meanwhile, I’m open for completely new areas, as long as they include travelling or perhaps relocating.
At the moment, I’m already talking with a couple of teams and we’ll see where it all leads. However, for the next few days, I’ll simply try to spend time with Lele, enjoy great food and have meaningful conversations with people around me. La Vita è bella!
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