Founder Friday: Dipti Desai, Founder & CEO of Crstl 🌐🛒
Issue #47
Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund that highlights companies across our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our 47th edition we are featuring Dipti Desai, Founder & CEO of Crstl, a B2B commerce platform that enables brands to scale beyond direct-to-consumer into other sales and distribution channels such as retail, online marketplaces, and wholesale accounts.
Dipti is a Silicon Valley veteran who has held multiple leadership roles in product and engineering at growth-stage startups across adtech, logistics, and SaaS. Prior to Crstl, Dipti was a Product Management and Strategy Lead at Uber. There, she oversaw a suite of more than eight data products, managed a team of 40 engineers and helped launch a crucial data platform to support the rides marketplace. Dipti has an Electrical Engineering Degree from Virginia Tech and Master’s in Public Policy with a focus in Technology from UC Berkeley.
Unlike some founders who experience a lightbulb moment, the idea for Crstl did not come about quite as simply. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Dipti offered her expertise to help a nonprofit sell masks and other PPE online. Her job was to develop a digital storefront so that consumers could purchase supplies without leaving their home. However, what she discovered as an eCommerce seller was a total lack of data transparency, no consistency in information availability and limited visibility into supplier logistics. Along with other brands she spoke with, it was very difficult for them to understand what was going on in their business. And, as they reached a saturation point selling via their own websites (AKA DTC), they started to think about what comes next.
Looking deeper into this problem Dipti saw the challenges that emerging brands and small businesses faced when trying to expand into other channels such as “big box retail”, online marketplaces, and wholesale. Namely, they were ill-equipped technologically to handle all the data, logistics, connectivity, compliance, testing & certification required by leading trading partners, such as Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, and CVS to name a few.
What Dipti learned was that all the major retailers and their key suppliers use a data standard called EDI, which stands for electronic data interchange, to transact with each other. EDI allows for the streamlined exchange of information between parties while enabling compliance across each’s unique specifications. By using EDI, organizations including brands, retailers, suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers, could quickly and securely send and receive purchase orders, ship notices, invoices and share dozens of other required document types with each other.
However, it turns out, there were very few EDI solutions and the ones that did exist were extremely dated, cost-prohibitive and geared for developers as opposed to business owners, operators and non-technical teams. Enter Crstl 🎉.
Crstl is a modern B2B commerce network for modern brands, fulfillment providers, and retailers. Their cutting-edge EDI platform seamlessly connects merchants to an extensive network of retailers, distributors, ERPs, WMSs, and more, – enabling them to grow their business with ease, reliability, and automation. Click here to learn more.
Dipti started to realize the enormous market opportunity to modernize this category that would also leverage her experience building data products at scale, and recruited Suparna Gharpure as Head of Engineering, along with other extremely talented team members to assist in her efforts. Today, Crstl has more than 50 customers who account for millions of dollars in transactions between brands, retailers and wholesale distributors including UNFI and KeHE, with tons more more in the pipeline!
Given their early success Crstl was featured in TechCrunch earlier this year, and has become a constant mention in industry reports, such as those by Bain Capital Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Fulfill.com.
Know someone that might be interested? Click here to sign up for a free demo.
Can you describe your company in 5 words or less?
Dipti: The modern B2B commerce network.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Dipti: Democratizing data access.
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Dipti: Don’t do it if you thrive on external validation; make sure you are rooted in internal validation while focusing on solving a problem that genuinely motivates you.
What do you love to do in your free time?
Dipti: Travel and be outdoors.
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Dipti: With Covid, travel has been limited. Got a chance to explore the Santa Cruz mountains and surrounding redwoods after all these years in the Bay Area, which was a reminder to be grateful for many things.
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Dipti: Work life is Google Docs. Boring answer, but it’s just so easy to use individually and across a team. Personal life is WhatsApp, which is one I use a lot more now as my friends and family are more distributed than ever.
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Dipti: I’ll let you know when I’m a successful founder : ) But I do know that grit is essential – it is a lot of grinding away in obscurity while facing numerous obstacles every day, without any obvious acknowledgements or rewards coming your way for a long time, if ever.
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