Please, introduce yourself and your business.
My name is James Malley and I'm the CEO and Co-Founder at Paccurate. Have you ever ordered something small online, like a pen, and it shows up on your doorstep in a box the size of a microwave? We provide software that helps ecommerce brands and others pack parcel shipments more efficiently.
How did you start your business?
It started as a side hustle for my co-founder and I when we were doing freelance development for shippers and shipping software companies. We noticed there wasn't any truly robust "cartonization" software on the market and decided to build it ourselves.
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
In the early days, it was mostly SMBs signing up. When the pandemic hit is when we started to see large enterprises come on board. It was the first time we were saving companies millions of dollars instead of thousands.
It was definitely surreal- early on we didn't have a huge amount of ambition for our tech. Today because of the demand, we're creating a whole new category of fulfillment software that we call "Packaging Intelligence."
What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?
I definitely had an entrepreneurial spirit early on, and some of the things I did make me cringe to this day. The most tame thing was ordering cheap stuff from the Oriental Trading Company magazine, like rope bracelets, and selling the eaches to kids in school at horrifically marked-up prices.
I raided my sister's jewelry kit and sold the cheap copper chain links as fake earrings. Among the most cringey, writing spoof song lyrics based on pop music at the time (Don't go chasing waterfalls by TLC comes to mind), and literally selling them printed out on paper.
Weird Al was my hero at the time.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
Honestly because we sell into enterprise critical operations, trade shows are actually the most effective lead gen initiatives. For b2b enterprise saas, relationships still matter quite a bit.
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
I tried a couple different things after college, including a convoluted for-profit fundraising social network.
It was the last time I tried to build something nobody asked for. I don't regret it, because just trying something is the best way to learn.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
We're software-only, so our biggest expense is payroll, and we try to pay people well.
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
Delegation. As we've grown, learning to trust my team mates hasn't been easy, even though I only hire people that are more talented than I am. It's one thing to know intellectually that you can't do everything. It's another to "let go."
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week?
I mostly work on strategic partnerships, and support our marketing/sales/product teams as needed. We've got great leaders in each department, but I'll jump in to help with closing deals and customer support.
When you're growing fast, there's this feeling of building the plane while you're flying it, so I stay plugged in to everything that's going on and try to establish processes to make things more efficient and mitigate risks.
Beyond that, we're still at the phase where I'm the spokesman for the company so there's interviews, webinars, and other presentations that I will prep for and perform.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
The value engineering aspect of b2b sales. When we started, I had a "if we build it they will come" mindset.
In reality, you need to really dig in with most prospects and make it very clear what the use cases are, where every $ of value is created, and how it's relevant to their business strategy.
What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
Work/life balance. I've never been a "grindset mindset" type of founder that romanticized 20 hour days, but neither did I think there was an easy way of launching a business.
I've definitely struggled with not letting work interfere with family and friend obligations. Ultimately, if I become an epic success but there's nobody to share it with, what's the point? I'm more mindful of that these days but it's hard.
What is your best advice for someone who wants to start their own business but feels completely stuck?
Whenever I feel stuck I just talk to more people. "Networking" is one way to think about it, but I've been lucky enough to develop a network of trusted advisors/mentors who have already had long and successful careers. It's worth building this network of relationships early.
Check out James' website, here: https://paccurate.io
