Path to Green: How Laura Behrens Wu Turned Shippo into a Billion-Dollar Unicorn

This week, I talk with Laura Behrens Wu, co-founder and CEO of Shippo, a company that’s transforming the way e-commerce businesses handle shipping logistics. If you’re not in the e-commerce world, you may not have heard of Shippo, but for those who are, it’s a big deal. They help businesses seamlessly get products from A to B with some of the simplest, most elegant shipping solutions out there. Laura’s story is especially remarkable—she’s one of the few female CEOs of a billion-dollar company, and Shippo has grown into a powerhouse, serving more than 50,000 businesses. We dive into how she’s led this growth, the values that drive her and her team, and how they turned a boring problem into something extraordinary. Join me as we explore Laura’s journey, her leadership, and what it really takes to build and scale a company like Shippo. Let’s get to it!

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro
(03:40) - How Laura became the “stick figure girl”
(07:45) - How optimism serves Laura and her team
(11:14) - Handling customer feedback and roadmaps
(21:14) - The complexities of shipping logistics
(33:49) - Laura’s vision for Shippo and empowering SMBs
(39:21) - Improving customer experience
(44:13) - Adding personality to a brand
(46:52) - Building a strong co-founder relationship
(57:42) - Company culture and values
(01:06:19) - Leading with authenticity
(01:12:09) - Lessons learned from managing remote teams
(01:18:03) - How Laura’s global upbringing has shaped her
(01:21:57) - The role of community and personal growth
(01:25:55) - Reflections on immigration and personal identity
(01:29:52) - Laura’s beautiful future
(01:32:07) - Who Laura is becoming

Key Takeaways

Resilience and Optimism Are Critical for Entrepreneurs: Laura emphasizes that the ability to remain optimistic and get back up after failures is one of the most important traits for founders. However, she distinguishes optimism from delusion, highlighting the need to face challenges with practical solutions and clear strategies.
Customer-Centric Approach: Laura has built her company, Shippo, around a deep commitment to understanding customer needs. She continues to stay closely connected to customer feedback and has structured the company to ensure their feedback drives product decisions, especially for their top customers.
Scaling Without Losing Humanity: Shippo, despite its rapid growth, maintains a strong sense of personal connection with customers, especially small businesses. Laura shares how they’ve implemented features like delightful design elements in their platform to maintain a human touch, even as they scale to serve larger enterprise clients.
The Power of Adaptability: Laura talks about how Shippo’s values, such as “Path to Green,” guide the company to quickly shift from problem identification to solution orientation. This adaptable mindset is embedded within the company culture, ensuring that challenges are met with proactive, solutions-driven thinking.
Building a Strong Co-founder Relationship: Laura discusses the importance of having a complementary skill set with her co-founder, Simon. Their long-standing partnership has thrived because they respect each other’s roles, have no desire to take over the other’s responsibilities, and work together through personal and professional challenges with trust and aligned goals.

Quotes

“I for sure think that optimism, or the ability to stand back up when you’re like falling, is one of the most important skills that a founder and entrepreneur needs to have.” ~ Laura Behrens Wu

“We wanted to make something dry and complicated, like logistics, into a more delightful moment for our customers. Our design team thinks a lot about these small moments of delight so that when our customers use the dashboard, they get something enjoyable.” ~ Laura Behrens Wu

“At Shippo, we have a very important value, called ‘Path to Green.’ It’s about making sure that when you’re faced with a difficult situation, you’re not wallowing in it, but you’re quickly pivoting your mindset to finding a solution.” ~ Laura Behrens Wu

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