Capital Efficient Startup, Venture-Scale Growth: ShipMonk CEO Jan Bednar (Part 1)

Jan has built a tremendous company with very limited capital infusion. Love the strategy.

Sramana Mitra: Where are you from? Where were you born, raised and in what kind of family background? 

Jan Bednar: I was born in the Czech Republic in a rural town of about 5,000 people. I grew up there until I was 17. I played hockey semi-professionally. I eventually got a scholarship and went to the US to play hockey in Florida, which is pretty rare. 

Sramana Mitra: What year was that?

Jan Bednar: That was 2008.

Sramana Mitra: What did you study?

Jan Bednar: I studied Management of Information Systems. When I moved to the States, I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My dad was an entrepreneur. He had a small business.

I’ve always looked up to it as the way to financial and personal freedom. My personality would never allow me to work for anybody else. In a way, I didn’t really have a choice.

When I went to the US, I knew that one day I would want to start a business. I actually had a business when I was in college. We were buying products in the US and then shipping them to Europe.

I’ve always been passionate about technology. I wanted to get a little bit of the edge besides what I’ve been learning by myself, so I studied Management of Information Systems. 

Sramana Mitra: When did you come out of college?

Jan Bednar: 2014.

Sramana Mitra: Did you start a company right away?

Jan Bednar: Pretty much. My first company was started right when I started college. It was 2010. 

Sramana Mitra: What was that company into?

Jan Bednar: That was a package forwarding company. It was buying products in the US and then shipping them internationally. When I was graduating, I applied for a bunch of business plan competitions. I won all those competitions and got into an accelerator program.

By the time I graduated, I got $75,000 in cash and coupons for lawyer and marketing agencies, and free warehouse space for a year. About six months later, that business was still doing okay, but I saw this new opportunity that was coming around.

That’s when ShipMonk was started. I ultimately ended up selling the first business. ShipMonk started in mid-2015. 

Sramana Mitra: At that point, how much revenue was the first business generating?

Jan Bednar: In 2014, we did $100,000 in revenue. Then in 2016, we did a million, but three-quarters of the million was from ShipMonk. It was probably a $300,000 business. 

Sramana Mitra: But you did have some free cash available from the other business when you started ShipMonk?

Jan Bednar: I had some free cash but I also had the $75,000 that I won.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Capital Efficient Startup, Venture-Scale Growth: ShipMonk CEO Jan Bednar
1 2 3 4 5 6