Our Senvo Investment — Founder Mode Turns The Improbable Into The Inevitable
Our team at defy.vc is proud to announce our investment into Marie Kober and Dr. Ulas Turkman, the visionary founders of Senvo. On the surface, this was an improbable deal for us to lead; but it serves as an example of how the drive and passion of two founders can make even the seemingly impossible become a reality.
We met Marie via an introduction from a 20-year friend and former colleague at General Catalyst, Isaac Kato, who called (breathlessly) and said he was introduced to an incredible founder that I had to meet.
Isaac Kato founded Two Ravens, a venture fund that we help support at defy.vc that seeks non-traditional founders outside of Silicon Valley who are creating industry-altering businesses in categories where Isaac and his network can help. There is nothing more “Defy” than that; but we are based in the Valley, and given our focused sourcing and creation model, we don’t often invest internationally.
We do trust our friends though! So, we sent the Senvo website to Nick Bulcao and Ryan Rusnak, the founders of Airspace, which was our first investment out of our first fund. These two know logistics inside and out, having built a massive nine-figure AI-powered logistics company. They told us about the lack of transparency in the industry, the challenges with data, the problems caused by some agents in the processes, the need for audits, and the difficulty in executing the Senvo vision generally. They also said if this could be solved, the opportunity would be massive.
Our team at defy.vc then looked at the unique European market which, in most categories, is very different from the US and other foreign markets. Logistics can get more complex given the different languages, borders, changes in regulation, weather, and even the fact that the ancient cities and streets make it beautiful but also a logistical nightmare. As shipping directly to consumers and businesses becomes more ubiquitous, the complexities of the European market coupled with the entrenched incumbents have made the barriers significant. That being said, I always think about the incredible value Booking.com created, by building a European hotel reservation system that allowed foreign travelers to access historic and unique hotels and in turn helped spur the development of the entire industry. Surely there are more of these opportunities, ripe for investment and primed to make a positive impact on the people and economies of Europe.
Still, we were skeptical as we prepared for our meeting with Senvo. While this was an introduction from a friend and in a space we know well (both of these things being characteristics of a “Defy” deal) the business was based in Berlin, on a continent where logistics are naturally challenging, with entrenched incumbents and in an industry that often resists change. We had received a lot of questions from our well-heeled friends in the space so it seemed like a very unlikely investment…until we met Marie. From the moment we talked to her, it was clear she was ready, willing, and able to build a massive company in this space. And that she was special.
Marie grew up in Germany, but lived for part of her childhood in the US and had a keen understanding of the global logistics market, having worked for five years at a behemoth: DHL. There she learned what had to be changed, using AI, data, and technology to ensure that shipments and packets were planned, priced, delivered, and received with precision. Now, Senvo customers have immediate ROI and are armed with audit functionality to ensure their partners are treating them fairly. The wider vision is to be a central data platform for logistics with transparency, visibility, and AI functionality, allowing for easy use cases and no need for complex interaction with existing systems.
When peppered with questions and concerns, she answered each one with a calm but data-driven answer. We pushed back on the challenging market, but Marie explained that Europe was the perfect place to start, because building there creates a moat, like those which surround German castles, preventing others from entering. We pointed out that we were based in California and that the distance was hard for us, but she told us it was the perfect complement to her deep European network and that she wanted our logistics expertise as well as access to the founders in our portfolio and the Valley to help her execute on her vision. She was poised, thoughtful, driven, prepared, passionate, agile and creative. By the end of our meeting, it was clear to us that she would move mountains to make the business succeed, and in convincing us, proved that she was capable of just that. It takes a founder with those skills to change our perspective and make us realize that Senvo wasn’t just a deal that we wanted to do, but rather one that we had to do.
We called Isaac back immediately after talking to Marie and told him he was right — we had to figure out a way to do a deal with her. She had other interested parties but we switched into sell mode and eventually met with Marie, got to know her story over dinner, and even attended a concert together in Amsterdam to finalize our partnership. Marie brought in some leading angels in the logistics space across Europe and partners like Fund F as well as our friend Isaac, who we get to partner with on this and many other opportunities.
Senvo is a lesson learned and a story about the power of founders. The reason Paul Graham likes to talk about “founder mode” is that the skills, attributes, and decision-making that led Marie to convince us to get out of our comfort zone are the very same ones that will make her a successful leader of Senvo for many years to come. We pride ourselves at defy.vc for zigging when others zag — we started this firm to do seed+ and A rounds when most firms were moving upmarket, we had our busiest quarter as a firm in mid-2020 when our industry stopped, and we made almost no new investments in 2021 when everyone else was off to the races and pace and pricing seemed unsustainable (which it was). However, every now and then we need a nudge ourselves, and it takes teams like Marie and Ulas to push us a bit outside of our comfortable place, and in doing so, turn the improbable into the inevitable.
Neil and the Defy Team
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