Earlier this week, Parcelly hosted an exciting event for students from HEC Paris Business School, as a component of their ‘HEC in the UK’ initiative. Our CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Steinhauser led an engaging and insightful discussion on his entrepreneurial journey; covering how Parcelly has become what it is today and the importance of effective business planning and leadership. The event was a big success and gave students valuable insights into their own individual entrepreneurial endeavours.
The session started with Sebastian asking the students about themselves and their entrepreneurial plans, with students giving examples across all different industries. It then covered Sebastian’s background and path into investment banking. Sebastian shared how the idea of Parcelly came to be, recounting his personal experiences with failed deliveries to his home address while he was at work. For Sebastian, the penny dropped in 2013 when he noticed colleagues ordering large appliances to the bank post room to avoid a missed delivery. Knowing he wasn’t the only one experiencing these difficulties helped the idea of Parcelly to form.
Parcelly then evolved into a solution that bridged this last-mile gap surrounding out-of-home deliveries by enabling alternative delivery methods to local pick-up points. Sebastian’s vision developed into an app that enables the processing of any incoming or outgoing item. Today, the Parcelly software offers a variety of services that can blend seamlessly into a broad range of environments. For example, operating Click&Collect and Hyper-local Warehousing solutions in commercial real estate.
A key theme of the event was speaking of how a business’ focus can change. Sebastian detailed how there have been major shifts in the Parcelly business, for example, transitioning business operations from a B2C audience to B2B back in 2019 due to industry and societal changes, further accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Sebastian highlighted how, in recent years, more carriers are embracing the idea of a network with mindsets moving away from traditional parcel technologies to agnostic ones. These industry shifts have proved beneficial to Parcelly, whose network operates a carrier-agnostic platform.
During the Q+A session with students, various topics were brought up including how we sell the Parcelly platform to stores, how to overcome business setbacks and Sebastian’s decision to leave investment banking. One of the students, interested in co-founding a company, asked Sebastian for advice on that topic. Sebastian spoke about the value of having a business partner, in his example Michael Kuhlmann, with the key being to find one (or multiple business partners) with whom you share a mindset but have different strengths to operate a mutually beneficial relationship.
Sebastian Steinhauser, CEO and Co-Founder of Parcelly:
“I’d recommend always trying corporate experience and having some funds before diving in [to starting a business]. However, if you have everything at hand to start, do it! ”
Overall, the event was great for students to hear about both the successes and challenges business life can bring. We hope it left them feeling motivated and inspired to pursue their own business plans. As a company, we are passionate about supporting young entrepreneurs and encourage them to learn about fast-growing businesses first-hand. If you are interested in learning more about the career opportunities at Parcelly, we encourage you to check out our careers page.
