How to Build the Future With Jeffrey Cripe
Cargo Founder & CEO, Jeffrey Cripe, joined us for a fireside chat on How to Build the Future, where we discussed building and iterating products, doing the hard things first, finding strategic investors, and the future of rideshare.
Here’s some food for thought from our conversation with Jeff:
Try a startup accelerator. I think everyone in startups can agree that raising capital is tough. Especially in today’s economic environment, where VCs are pouring more dollars into fewer deals, which is setting the bar higher for seed companies than ever before. Thankfully, there are so many other options to get your startup off the ground, and startup accelerators are one of them. Jeff took us through his experience going through Techstars, a prestigious startup accelerator, and was quick to say that “applying to Techstars is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” Not only did Techstars allow him to learn how to get a company off the ground, but he was also able to raise his chances at being funded early on. Jeff said that Techstars made him “an overall better fundraiser” and he was able to raise his funding prospects, securing around $1M committed by Demo Day, and closing Cargo’s seed round soon after. If you think an accelerator may be the right for your startup, then Y Combinator and Techstars are probably the best options; Jeff noted that Techstars is much more niche (he only had 12 companies in his batch) compared to the hundreds of startups in every Y Combinator batch.
Do unscalable things, early on. One commonality seen in many successful startups is that they all started out doing unscalable things. Airbnb is a great example: at one point, Founder and CEO, Brian Chesky individually visited hosts across the nation and actually photographed their properties so that listings on Airbnb would look more professional and appealing. For Cargo, this meant testing their idea through unscalable means using an MVP. During the early days, Cargo secured a pilot test with ridesharing company, Via, which allowed them to test in 5 Via cars. Yes, 5. They iterated a Cargo box built entirely out of cardboard and packed it with products that Jeff had bought off Amazon. Every time, a car ran out of supply, Jeff would run downstairs from his office and resupply the box with his stash of goods purchased from Amazon. Logistically, it was taxing and certainly inefficient for Jeff and the early Cargo team, but that’s why doing unscalable things early on works in the long run. You begin to realize what is flawed, and what can be optimized, and then you iterate. You test again, then iterate some more. Continue repeating this process, and soon enough, your MVP will become a product, and your unscalable methods will become scalable. Cargo is now activated in 13,000+ cars…
Start early. Jeff’s advice to people who want to have a big impact on the world was straightforward: start early. He says that “you’re never going to feel like you’re ready to start a business, but it's better to start than to not start at all.” Compound interest is a good metaphor here. If you start your startup early, and you get better at what you do over time, learning more and meeting new people along the way, then there is a compound effect. It is better to start early than later because then you can actually benefit from your work and leverage what you have already done in the long term.
Jeffrey Cripe is the Founder and CEO of Cargo, a startup that strives to upgrade the rideshare experience with affordable access to daily essentials and discovery goods, while celebrating the driver. Since launching in 2017, Cargo is now in over 12,000 cars, has an exclusive partnership with Uber, and works top CPG brands, like Kellogg’s, Mars, and Red Bull to distribute their products. To date, Cargo has raised $29.4M in funding (completed Series-A this past September led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund), as they look to scale their in-car commerce service into new markets. Besides being a Techstars alum and mentor, Jeffrey was an early Birchbox employee and recently made the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list!