DocShipper is a Disruptive startup founded with the purpose of transforming and digitizing the import and export industry.
Personal experience
How did you come up with this idea? - Founder
At each stage, importers and exporters alike face an archaic industry: they must use a different provider for each step in the supply chain. Moreover, the market is dominated by large players whose concerns are more focused on generating dividends than optimizing their customers' experience.
During my internship during my studies, at the end of 2015, my supervisor and I thought that there was something to be done with freight forwarding or international logistics.[Logistics Software] Initially, I didn't have the ambition to be an entrepreneur, but if I couldn't find what I wanted to do, I thought I should create it. This is how DocShipper was founded.
Tell us how you make your day-to-day decisions
You cannot lead without being decisive. And when you’re a leader, your decisions will affect other people, not just you. Because of this, I consider all the moving pieces and potential consequences of a decision.
1) When did you think that DocShipper was done?
To be honest, we haven't had a problem so serious that it would jeopardize our financial situation. However, I can say that the first two years after the company was founded were a bit challenging because we had implemented a long-term marketing strategy. So in the short term, the revenues weren't stable.
2) Where you thought “DocShipper” did it?
So, over the years we have reached more and more ambitious milestones. We are proud today of what we have been able to accomplish. If I have to mention only one, it is the turnover we have generated in 2021. In fact, we have gone from 600k USD to 4.5M USD, which is almost 700% growth, thanks to the efforts of our collaborators who joined us. And last but not least, we have opened an office in Lebanon to support young talents during this period of crisis.
How do you measure your success?
For me, being in total control of your business and being able to bootstrap the fastest possible is how I measure success. We have been in bootstrapping since the very beginning. Therefore, we are self-financing: the profits generated by the activity finance the company’s development. But we expect to raise funds at the end of 2022/early 2023 to accelerate our global expansion. We are putting the final touches on the shift from a startup-style structure to the multinational that we want to be.
Industry and Business:
How has DocShipper equipped itself to deal with the Covid-19 situation better?
It didn't really affect us. It affected the shipping process, space availability, and finally, the cost. In the meantime, it is killing our competitors, so we are just grabbing their flow, which is an opportunity that we didn’t miss.
What changes are you expecting in the Industry in the near future and how do you plan to cope with those?
This new era of logistics is based essentially on digitization, or more precisely on the automation of business and logistics processes, and the networking of devices and companies with one another which is something that we’re already working on. We will continue to improve our processes and establish more partnerships with agents in order to better support our customers during all stages of the supply chain.
What sets you apart from other players?
The client's needs are unique. No two operations are alike. They can be similar. But there is a lot of uniqueness in this business. Everything is different: the country of origin, the country of destination, the regulations, the company, the budgets, the expectations... Our goal is to bend over backwards to satisfy the client, something that the big players in the market do not do.
They have a process, but they don't necessarily provide this assistance, especially in terms of flexibility and the way we support them. Behind this, we will provide the customer with advice, which is what will allow us to stand out from the crowd. Sometimes, we will advise the client not to do what they wanted to do at the beginning, depending on their business. Traditional players don't really do that. When a client does business with us, he will be followed by one person.
Who should opt for your services?
Any individual or company, who wishes to delegate to a professional either all the steps or only one step of the supply chain. This includes finding a reliable supplier or manufacturer, quality control, international transport and 3PL services.
Final Question:
One thing that you would like to tell everyone that you think has the power to change lives.
If you have a business idea that you think will work out, don’t be afraid to take the risk. Nothing will change if you will stay in your comfort zone.
