Episode Transcript
Steven (00:06)
Hi, Aleks. How are you doing?
Aleksandra (00:08)
I'm fine, thank you.
Steven (00:09)
Good to hear that. Thanks so much for coming along today. We'll be talking about you and your startup called Vanfill. Thanks so much for being here. In the Startup Onion, we're always trying to ask the same questions. I'm just going to go through those questions today. The first one is, what's your background?
Aleksandra (00:31)
I'm originally from Poland, where I graduated in cross-cultural psychology, media psychology, and cultural studies with specialisation in Japanese culture. As you can hear, there's no tech involved in that and I'm building a tech startup. But after I graduated, I was working in advertising, marketing, and later on in product management. I was actually hired by Samsung R&D Centre in Poland, where I worked as a product management office specialist, PMO specialist. Together with one of my Korean colleagues, we actually built from scratch a PMO department for Android commercialisation in Poland in mobile and wearable devices. During that time, I also gained certification in Prince and agile.
Aleksandra (01:30)
Then I moved to Scotland with my now husband because we fell in love in Scotland, so we decided that we stay here. But unfortunately, not soon after we moved here, I started to have more and more health issues. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and it leads to few operations. Because of that, my recovery time was like a few months and it created a gap in my employment. Because of that gap in employment and because it was also during the Brexit time and I'm from minority group and I'm a woman.
Aleksandra (02:18)
It was really hard for me to find the job. There was these walls that I couldn't break through, but I didn't give up and I was deciding, okay, so I will upskill myself. I will learn new things around graphic designing, social media, digital advertising and things like that. I was involved in different organisation, volunteering and learning also new skills to see, okay, maybe there will be some opportunity for me. Then I learned about the Women Returner Programme run by AAI, Employability. It was aimed for supporting women from minority groups to help them to get the jobs and to learn how to deal with this gap in employment. And thanks to this, I got the contract as a Productivity Executive in one of the startups. This was my first experience working with a startup.
Aleksandra (03:23)
During that time, I also applied for business competition in UHI College in Inverness, because I came up with the business idea. Then it was crazy. I was accepted to different programmes like Impact30, Pathfinder, Accelerator and then CodeBase, a First Steps Techschaler programme, which really helped me to learn different things around how to build and run your business, what tools you can use to help you with that.
Aleksandra (03:59)
I've grown a lot of strong network as well now where I am building my own startup.
Steven (04:09)
Thanks to that. Cool. Okay, wow, there's a lot there. Your background is you're from Poland. You've got a cultural studies background, a Japanese focus. Then you worked in the corporate space. The corporate space exposed you to a bunch of tech to thinking about Android and apps. Then you moved to Scotland. Then basically an employment situation pointed you towards thinking about building your own startup.
Aleksandra (04:36)
Yeah, I think it was because at some point I realised, okay, there's this wall I can't get through. I was trying my best. Maybe now the best approach will be creating my own doors to go further. And this is when I thought, okay, I want to build something by myself.
Steven (04:53)
Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you. I think that happens to many people. There's all sorts of motivations that are there to build your own thing. Okay, so next question then. What's your startup called?
Aleksandra (05:06)
It's Vanfill.
Steven (05:07)
Vanfill. Okay, cool. And what's the elevator pitch? What does your startup do?
Aleksandra (05:12)
Vanfill is a mobile application. I'm connecting both businesses and individuals with transport providers to transport their goods using empty spaces in vans and trucks to not only try to reduce the transport cost, but also to reduce carbon emissions at the same time and save both sides time.
Steven (05:36)
Cool. Thank you very much. That was very clear, very succinct. Thank you. How does that startup change the world? What's the big thing you're looking at changing?
Aleksandra (05:47)
Well, one of the things that I want to achieve is to help to optimise the usage of the trucks and the vans because the less space wasted per run means less runs are necessary there and then it can help to cut traffic on the roads, especially in North of Scotland, it's crazy. So if I can do anything to help with that, it will be perfect. But also to cut, reduce the pollutions and support smaller businesses as well in challenging times to lower the costs for their businesses as well and to open up for different possibilities for cheaper and more accessible transport of the goods. But also, I also was like, in my mind, I wanted to through that to help them to build one big network and to build this collaboration between different transport providers and between different businesses and organisations as well.
Steven (06:54)
What's the part of this that excites you the most, this space? Is it the social impact piece? Is it the environmental factors? Is it the bringing people together? What would you say? What was the most exciting bit for you?
Aleksandra (07:06)
I think helping other people and solving some problems within that because I'm a person that since I was little, I really loved helping people. So if I can do something through my business to do that, to support others and to help them, that this is, I think, the most exciting part, especially if we can do on the top of that something that will help an environment without putting extra effort to this, that this is amazing. But in addition to that, I also love that I want to inspire other people as well, maybe not by only Vanfill, what they're doing, but by building the business as a person who lives with chronic illness and living with chronic pain to motivate those people to go there and also start building their own businesses and to prove to others that we are a bunch of people who are creative, resilient, and we have lots of skills that we can use to be successful.
Steven (08:21)
Cool. Thank you. How big is the total addressable market size for the business you're building? And what do you think the future of the space you're in? Is it an AI piece? What does it look like?
Aleksandra (08:39)
In 2022 in UK, the market size of the road freight transport, measured by revenue was around 35 billion. And it has grown 1.2% per year on average between 2017 and 2022. And there's over 1.6 billion tonnes of work of goods transported every year in the UK. They are transported by approximately 4.2 million vans and 3.2 million trucks. Among all of these vans and trucks, 20 % are running empty and over half of them are running partially loaded. This is a huge numbers and a similar situation is happening in Europe as well. It's like one in five road transportations were empty. We're out of France. Cool.
Steven (09:47)
I guess there's so much that can be done there. There's a huge productivity increase as possible. What would you say are the most exciting developments in the space? Any new trends you're aware of?
Aleksandra (10:00)
I think in both, in transportation, logistics, but also in building the applications and things like that, it's this more and more tools that you can use as even non-tech person like me to build your business like note-code tools, which I, for example, learned Figma to build my own prototype and it saves me a lot of money. And the same, there's AI open to us, there's a lot of new possibilities which can be introduced in applications and serving the transponder logistics. I think that those two things are most exciting. You never know what new tools will be introduced and how you can use them to help solve problems in this industry.
Steven (10:50)
Cool. Thank you very much. Who is your ideal customer?
Aleksandra (10:55)
Because my business is to site the marketplace. On one hand, it is businesses and individuals who are looking for more efficient and accessible ways of transporting their goods. On the other hand, there's transport providers of any kind who have empty spaces in their vehicles and are interested in making additional profits by filling those empty spaces. And in both cases, it will be amazing if they will be also having in their minds that they want to do something for environment. And many companies nowadays are actually asked to prove that. This is good for me.
Steven (11:39)
Do you think you've got product market fit?
Aleksandra (11:45)
From the very first moment when I mentioned my business idea, I was really getting lots of lot of interest and the questions about when it will be ready and when they can start downloading the app and using it. I was talking with different types of potential customers. Based on this positive feedback, I started building the prototype. It was great because I was testing the idea actually before building anything and it makes it way easier. They were already businesses who were asked me to inform them when the app will be ready to use and I'm getting those constantly questions around that. The more I'm attending different networking events and... Yeah, so I already saw, sorry, from the very moment when I introduced the idea during the competition that the interest was huge and this was actually putting a lot of pressure on me because I felt that I need to build it as quick as possible rather than do it slower.
Steven (13:06)
Yeah. So it's more like idea market fit at the moment, but you're still working on the product. Okay, cool. What's the one big thing that would help you the most? If you had a magic wand and you could make something cool happen, what's that one big thing that would help you the most?
Aleksandra (13:23)
Team, to have my own team. I think it will be really game-changing for me to be able to build a team working together on VanFill. It will help me to speed up things and address more customers and provide them with the best customer service.
Steven (13:44)
Okay, cool. Thanks very much. It's a little bit more of a emotive question. But if you close your eyes in five years' time, what are your hopes for your company? Where would you see yourself? How many people are working for your startup? What turnover are you looking at? Just in ranges, maybe even.
Aleksandra (14:04)
I'm seeing VanFill fully operating around the UK and planning to conquer Europe. I will have probably around 15 team members hired and aiming for to run around 5 to 10 million.
Steven (14:28)
Okay, thanks very much.
Aleksandra (14:30)
Ambitious!
Steven (14:30)
No, it's great to be ambitious. It's what, we need more of that. What would you say the bottlenecks are for growth? What's holding you back?
Aleksandra (14:41)
Again, I think the resources, the people, time and money to hire the people, I guess, are the bottlenecks for me for growth right now.
Steven (14:54)
And at the moment, you're kinda bootstrapping.
Aleksandra (14:56)
Yes, I'm bootstrapping for now and doing as much as I can by myself. As I mentioned earlier, I've learned NoCode tools to build myself the prototype rather than to pay somebody to do that.
Steven (15:09)
Yeah, NoCode tools are awesome. Not just to get that MVP ready, but also to understand what the stack looks like. What's the backend? What is the frontend? What's the database? All those kinds of questions.
Aleksandra (15:21)
Later you can be so excited. Later on, you can go to present that and say, listen, I build that and and it is easier than to pivot and update things after getting the feedback and time saving as well rather than...
Steven (15:39)
Cool, thank you. We've got a final blast of four questions that are much more about startup culture, about the space we're in. What would you say is your favourite thing about startup culture?
Aleksandra (15:53)
I like the flexibility of the startups, the ability to grow that quickly while still shaping the idea of the product according to the new learnings from the customers, what they need and situation on the market. I also love the opportunity to wear many hats in their business because you can learn and gain so many different skills through that and have this experience. Also, I love learning those tools that I mentioned like no-code tools to design things by myself and to taking part in different networking events, meeting other inspiring business people and that these environments support each other so much. And I already got so much help from other entrepreneurs and mentors and advisors in this field. So yeah, I think this is what I love the most.
Steven (16:57)
Yeah, that's really great to hear because we're really trying. I think there's lots of good people in Scotland who are really trying to help with that. And it's great to hear that the people are seeing that happen as well. Having said all that, what would you say? Is there some part of the startup culture piece that you don't like? What is your least favourite part?
Aleksandra (17:17)
Maybe it's not that I don't like. It's rather that I find it more challenging. And as I mentioned about the flexibility and ability to pivot quickly, it also means that the very high uncertainty and you need a lot of decisions to pivot or not pivot. It puts you in the stressful situations. And also this opportunity to wear multiple hats, it is great for personal growth, but for some people, could be very stressful and time-consuming. There's highs and lows in building and running the startups, but I guess the heights are great. But I guess the highs are great, but the lows are something that gave us the opportunity to learn and to grow and to learn your lessons and then implement this further, like what to avoid and what to do next.
Steven (18:22)
On that, have you got any earned secrets, any bits of advice you have for other founders, anything you'd like to share?
Aleksandra (18:29)
Oh, there's a lot of this. But I will try to minimise. But I think that one of the main thing is to don't give up no matter what. I know that we constantly hear about the start-ups not giving up or something, but I think that remember that every step forward, even the small step, it's still improvements. So even there's challenging times, you can still pause, take a breath, take time, and then again, go back and move forward and to learn from your failures. Also, maybe to raise funds on the very beginning, try to do as much as possible by yourself and learn and build as much as you can and later focus on raising money because it's also time-consuming. So when you don't even have your own MVP and prototype, rather than focusing on building something to prove and to show your potential customers, you'll be going around and spending a lot of time applying for things. So I guess no good tools here are right for that.
Steven (19:53)
Yeah, fundraising is really hard. It's a long, long thing to do.
Aleksandra (19:56)
And also talk with your potential customers as much as you can before building anything. I spent months on conversations, making connections and learning as much as possible before I actually build something. And also to remember that it's your journey and to don't compare yourself so much with others, but only with yourself from the past. So be inspired by others, learn from them, but only compare yourself with your past self because everyone starts from a different point and in different circumstances. And comparing yourself to others can quickly lead also to some negative feelings. And other business founders go through the same or similar hardships as you. But if you don't have very close relationships with them, you will not know what is behind the curtains. I think this is very important and to reward yourself for small achievements and to see how much you improve and where are you right now comparing with your past.
Steven (21:18)
It's a tough journey, isn't it? You learn so much about yourself.
Aleksandra (21:22)
Yes. I also learned that and it really makes my life as an entrepreneur easier because I had ups and downs and I was really feeling bad when I was comparing myself with others, with their journeys. But then I remember someone in the mentor said, Alex, okay, so tell me how it was last year that day, like tell me your journey. And then I realised how much improvement I did and I was impressed by what I achieved. I was like, okay, I wasn't forgetting about that.
Steven (21:58)
Yeah, no, that's a really good thing to point out. Alex, final question. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the startup community? Again, we're recording those podcasts for people like yourself to hear from each other. Anything else you'd like to share?
Aleksandra (22:18)
I think on the note that I just was talking about is to remember that it's okay not to be okay. We are all humans and we are going sometimes through bad moments in our lives. To remember to be kind to yourself and to remember that even small steps matter and that nobody's perfect, literally nobody's perfect. And to be sure that you have this work-life balance, and I know everyone's saying about that, and I think that we need to be constantly reminded about that, and don't also let others rush you and listen to your guts as well, because sometimes you need to decide that, okay, you have these all advices, but is it actually close to your values? Is it actually what you think that is something that you want to introduce in your startup, in your business? Yeah. Remember to still be yourself in that.
Steven (23:25)
That's a great note to finish on. Thank you so much. Thank you.
