Rob Van Den Heuvel, Co-Founder at Sendcloud: A Shipping Tool for E-commerce

Sendcloud is an all-in-one shipping platform for e-commerce businesses that want to grow. We started in 2012 in the Netherlands and are currently active in 8 countries. It is our mission to empower online retailers to compete by optimizing the full shipping journey from checkout to returns. By turning e-commerce logistics from a bottleneck into an accelerator, we aim to make shipping a competitive advantage.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Back in 2012, me and my partners Bas and Sabi, all ran an online store in phone accessories. Things were great, and our businesses were growing. However, we all struggled with shipping: it was both time-consuming and expensive. After some beers we decided to come up with a solution ourselves and Sendcloud was born. We asked a programmer to help us build the software and that’s how it all started.
 

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

 
Learn by doing. Be fearless and dare to make decisions. Too often, people tend to try and make the perfect business plan and spend two years on it, but really they should have implemented it years ago. You will learn more about your strategy while doing it than by planning it.
 

What can we hope to see from Sendcloud in the future?

 
We have only launched in the UK recently. 2021 will be an important year to expand our customer base and strengthen our position over here. In addition, we are working on some new features and are exploring opportunities in new markets.