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?
00:06:40 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[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? [00:06:51] S1: I mean, I love being a founder. Like, I've been in startups for ten years personally, and it's been in really good startups, really bad startups as well. I think just like having been both on the engineering side and the sales side is really useful kind of, it's really nice to be a generalist as a founder, right? Like I can both do tech news analytics, whatever is needed of me, and now that we're a team of 18 people, I find that my best thing that I can do is just unlock people wherever it is. Like if it's in sales, then I'll jump into sales. If it's something in engineering, so for me personally, being able to do everything in the company is a really nice thing to do. [00:07:28] S0: And you mentioned you've been through some good good startups and bad startups. What have been some of the learnings from your time working and operating, now you're applying as a founder?
00:07:28 · Sebastian Johnson, Gustav Bang
[00:07:28] S0: And you mentioned you've been through some good good startups and bad startups. What have been some of the learnings from your time working and operating, now you're applying as a founder? [00:07:39] S1: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, like, the biggest learnings to do what we do now also is is, like, from straight out of, like, the Legora playbook and Max, who's, a brilliant founder, really one of the best in the EU, About simplifying things, right, like every time we have a decision, pick the most ambitious, most risky of those two decisions. Makes every single decision very easy. You know, if you're building into a complex area, don't oppress it as complex, right? Just simplify it and make sure that what you're building is simple. But then on the contrary, like, I would say just in general, not being too aware of the market size that you're building into. I think in my experience, building startups, it's easier the harder it is. It seems very contradictional, but if you're building into something very large, like a huge vision, big mission, then it becomes easier to raise funds, it becomes easier to attract great people, Like all these things become actually easier, right? So if you think, I'm just going to do an easy start, I'm going to pick this like easy area, then you're going have more competitors, you're not going to be able to raise. So [00:08:45] S0: yeah. That's really interesting. It's like actually... Yeah. Yeah. What did you say? The easier it is, the harder... The harder it is, the easier it is. [00:08:52] S1: Yeah. It looks like a...