00:01:11 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:01:11] S0: And that's super interesting. Is is that how it came about? Did you hear about this sort of, like, archaic problem? And then you were, okay, we could build a business in that place because I can't imagine this was, like, a problem that you had yourself. [00:01:22] S1: No. None of us were compliance managers before starting Complir... I mean, my CPO team, she had worked in packaging for Jabra, so she actually had some ideas about the amount of work, but what happened was, I mean, I just came out of Legora, and we had sat in the offices of a Swedish law firm, basically, like, just forward deploying ourselves, being, like, uncomfortably close to the end users. And we did the same. So we we actually just went out to some of the biggest retailers in Denmark, asked them, hey, guys, we wanna dive into this problem. It's not something you recognize. And Flying Tiger responded only after a week. So we got this deal, you know. We don't charge anything. We just get some free lunch, get some free offers, and we sat there for a whole year, basically just diving into the complex domain, deleted a ton of code again, because like we just build stuff in so many directions. We almost like, kind of see this as like one big board of problems, right? And we wanted to find the problems that was the most valuable to solve. And there are a lot of problems in this space. So that was for me a really good signal that this was a good business to build up on. [00:02:24] S0: What was that experience like sitting in those offices for a year?
00:02:24 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:02:24] S0: What was that experience like sitting in those offices for a year? [00:02:29] S1: I mean, at the very end, we were, like, seven people sitting in the hallways. So at some point, we kind of had to go out, but it was just so nice. Like, even today, we have 20 customers now in different sizes, and I think Flying Tiger for us are, like, our best friends. Right? Like, we have really close relationships with most of our customers, but we can basically ask them anything. Like, even if new customers come with new requirements, we can use Flying Tiger as specialists that knows about any type of product. So it's like kind of having extended regulatory arm that we can always use and kind of cross check our findings with. [00:03:02] S0: And and was there a moment in time where you realized, okay, we've built something meaningful here, we've built a product that actually solves this problem somewhat?
00:03:02 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:03:02] S0: And and was there a moment in time where you realized, okay, we've built something meaningful here, we've built a product that actually solves this problem somewhat? [00:03:10] S1: For sure. Like, I think we built point solutions first, like, didn't wanna build the whole stuff. So the first thing we built was a translation tool. Sounds simple, but in our world, like, doing translations, if you do it wrong, you might have a whole container having to be destroyed or product recalled. So it can it can be quite ugly. We did that, and we saved Flying Tiger €300,000 a year on just that. And that was where I think both us and Flying Tiger, we were like, oh, shit. Like, we can name at least 20 features that will do this. And then we... That were where we, like, turned around and said, like, okay. What's the full life cycle like? What is the very early phase of a product during development or sourcing all the way to that it's live on the shelves all over the world? But, like... Yeah. [00:03:55] S0: And you went you went through you went through YC. What what point was that in your journey?
00:03:55 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:03:55] S0: And you went you went through you went through YC. What what point was that in your journey? [00:03:59] S1: Yeah. That was so... We raised the pre seed. We were 10 people working full time, and then we went to YC, like, bit more mature than the average start up, I would say, which was actually a good thing for us because we had already like an operation around sales. We already had a product that was quite mature. And then in YC, of course, it was like super short term, three months. Everyone moved to San Francisco, locked in in a big house. I did customer calls from 3AM because most of the customers are European, so that's quite tough. But like we've we quadrupled our revenue in those three months, so it was a really, really nice and fast way to go from pre seed to seed. And also, like, kind of bringing that energy into a European team, whereas, like, the ambition level now for the company is just 10x what we... What it used to be. [00:04:46] S0: And how is the actual YC process itself? I mean, it sounds like go... Like, a lot of companies are trying to go there to sell to other companies who are in their batch. It's probably not so relevant for you, but it sounds like they've played a role in maybe lifting the ambition up, getting you to move faster. What were some of the other benefits of of being there?
00:04:46 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:04:46] S0: And how is the actual YC process itself? I mean, it sounds like go... Like, a lot of companies are trying to go there to sell to other companies who are in their batch. It's probably not so relevant for you, but it sounds like they've played a role in maybe lifting the ambition up, getting you to move faster. What were some of the other benefits of of being there? [00:05:03] S1: Yeah. Exactly. Like, I think for most companies, like, they can sell to the batch. Right? We didn't have that benefit. And you don't see that many retailers in in the San Francisco area, so we didn't, like... It wasn't for geographical reasons. We would still do it again in a heartbeat. Like, I just think the, like, the speed of iteration. I I also had the experience during Legora, and I saw how that impacted the company. Like, the ambition level in Legora, back then it was called Lia, was also high, but, like, something changes when you're going through YC. I'm sure there are some mentoring and you get some inspirational talks from Chesky, but it's also just, like, the kind of... Like, the community around just doing things is really... It's a really strong energy that you cannot avoid when you're there. [00:05:45] S0: Yeah. That's so interesting. It's just like the the ambition of everybody there must be so crazy high that it's...
00:05:45 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:05:45] S0: Yeah. That's so interesting. It's just like the the ambition of everybody there must be so crazy high that it's... [00:05:50] S1: Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. Everyone has this ambition, like, and grandiose idea. And, like, one thing I really like, which I noticed is, like, some of my friends who also found companies and so on, like, we start scaling almost too early. Like, they insist, many of the founders there, like, they kinda iterate on the problem for a long time before scaling up, and they're thinking about, oh, what would this look like if we had 10,000,000 in revenue, right? Already when they have no revenue, they think about that, which I think is a really good move because it's just so much easier to solve for those scalability issues when you're still small. Yeah. [00:06:27] S0: That's really interesting. So, like, fix the issues of the future today and, like, build the framework, the infrastructure, the architecture that enables you. When you get to those moment, you've already got those systems and processes in place. Exactly. [00:06:36] S1: Yeah. Super simple and scalable system that you know is just gonna be able to grow. [00:06:40] S0: How are you finding the journey personally? I mean, it sounds like you've had a bit of a crazy ride already, spending a year in those offices, then being in YC and doing customer calls at 3AM. What's been the the personal experience been like?