Q&A: Tyler Scriven, CEO & Founder @ Saltbox

Tell me more about yourself. Growing up...when did you get an interest in startups/technology, vs. when you developed an interest in the space you’re in? 

My name is Tyler Scriven, and I’m currently the Co-Founder & CEO of Saltbox. I started my first company when I was a sophomore in high school. By my junior year, I’d somehow negotiated with my school’s principal to allow me to leave school two hours early to run my business; thus, my love for entrepreneurship began. My passion for entrepreneurship expanded in 2009 when I moved to Silicon Valley and joined Palantir Technologies. For the first time, I got to experience the challenge and thrill of being part of a hyper-growth startup. After six years at Palantir, I walked away with a lifetime of lessons that I was eager to apply on my own eventually. 

My journey to starting Saltbox began in 2016 when I acquired an e-commerce company named True Glory Brands. Despite its ultimate success, the company struggled with the challenges of finding proper physical workspace and logistics support. Over time, I realized that we were not alone and that millions of small and medium businesses across the country who work with physical goods and need warehouse space were struggling with the same issues. Ultimately, my experience with True Glory inspired me to build a company to solve these problems, and Saltbox was born. 

What problem does your company solve?

Saltbox offers an integrated co-warehousing and coworking product to businesses that handle physical goods, whether they be small-scale e-commerce entrepreneurs or large national enterprises. In addition to our purpose-built spaces available on flexible terms, we provide on-demand logistics and distribution services and the community resources such businesses often lack access to.

 What was the hardest part of launching your company? 

Having spent so much of my career in and around startups, the hardest part of launching my own was simply making the decision to do it. Why? Because I’m keenly aware of the deep sacrifices and challenges (but also the joys) that come with founding and leading a company pursuing hyper-growth and know it not to be a decision to be taken lightly.

What was your team like on day one vs. what your team looks like today?

On day one my team was comprised of me plus three other co-founders. Since that time one of my three co-founders has left the company (though on great terms) and we’ve grown to be a team of eight.

Tell us about partnerships… How have partnerships helped you grow your company? What kind of partnerships are important for a startup?

Partnerships, specifically with real estate landlords, lies at the core of our business model. We partner with landlords in order to bring new Saltbox locations to market. Doing so allows us to avoid the complexities and potential pitfalls of buying or leasing properties directly. Further, it allows us to create proper, long-term alignment of incentives.

Tell us about your partnership with XYZ. How did the relationship begin?

My partnership with Ross and XYZ started quite some time ago! Ross and I first met when I joined Palantir back in 2009. At that time Ross was, among other things, an incredibly valuable advisor to the company and we struck a friendship in the course of our work together. Since that time we’ve continued to find opportunities to work together in different capacities over the years, most recently as the first and largest investor in Saltbox.

How has working with XYZ and Ross been advantageous, especially in the space you’re in?

Ross is the perfect VC partner. He’s a brilliant and creative thought-partner. He welcomes the opportunity to roll up his sleeves, and he takes his commitment to his founders incredibly seriously. There’s never been a time when I needed Ross and he wasn’t available. 

What’s a concrete problem that you solved with XYZ? 

There are so many examples. The reality is that Ross and his team operate as a true extension of our team. Anytime there’s a notable problem or opportunity to be discussed Ross is fully engaged in much the same way as my two co-founders.  

 To mention a few examples, ever since I met Ross, there were so many invaluable conversations including when I first started thinking about the problem that Saltbox solves. Early on, Ross recognized my empathy for who we call the Concrete Class--entrepreneurs running physical goods based businesses, their unique real estate needs, the depth of understanding I had of the problem and the technology necessary to help such businesses thrive. I remember him saying ‘This is the business you need to go build’. And he was the first to invest. 

After we set out to build the business, Ross was so instrumental in helping us prioritize product features that would get us to grow the business fastest as well as differentiate us as a unique company.  He helped us identify the right milestones that demonstrate our growth such as the number of facilities we should open, the logistics and technology product features we should build, etc. 

Ross played a key role in helping us grow the team. He worked closely with me to think about the right senior executives to hire at each stage who will yield the fastest growth and impact that’s necessary for running the business but also for raising our next round. He even helped close individual hires guiding how we think about the right role and compensation structure to ensure the right setup for us and the candidates.

And of course, Ross helps us think through fundraising by helping guide the conversation around the right inflection points at which we should be raising money and how we should be thinking about valuation vs the size of the round.  

Saying the least, we’re always getting access to Ross’ years of experience and we’re grateful for that. 

What are the key milestones you’ve already crossed as a company? And what milestones are on the horizon? 

Our company is young; however, we successfully launched and filled our first location this year despite the challenges of the pandemic. We’re now shifting our focus towards rapid expansion. 

What’s your vision for the future of your company?

On the surface, Saltbox is building purpose-built physical workspaces (cowarehousing) for businesses that handle physical goods. However, our true vision is to play a far more expansive role in enabling our customers to start, grow, and scale their companies, literally from the ground up. We believe that we are still in the early stages of a transformational shift in our retail economy moving to an e-commerce and logistics based world. To that end, there will eventually be millions of small businesses that require enablement to reach their full potential. Whereas companies like Shopify are enabling this new generation of entrepreneurs from the ‘clouds’ down, Saltbox is enabling them from the ‘concrete’ up. 

How did XYZ enable you to go faster? 

Very simply, XYZ has given us both the capital and the autonomy needed to run as fast as we can.

When was a venture perspective uniquely helpful?

One of the most frequent discussions that Ross and I have is some derivation of ‘how fast is too fast’. It’s one of the most fundamental questions at play when building a venture-backed startup and I find that Ross consistently brings a timely and unique point of view to the discussion.  

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made? (i.e. something that didn’t go according to plan that resulted in a valuable lesson learned)

The best mistake I’ve ever made was to join a startup as a co-founder only to determine some four months later that I was unhappy and in the wrong place. There was, however, a valuable lesson learned. I came to realize the critically important nature of being truly passionate about the problem that you’re solving as a founder. There simply is no substitute for true passion. 

What should founders look for in a VC? What are the signs of a potentially fruitful partnership vs. what pitfalls should be avoided?

First and foremost, I believe that your lead VC needs to be someone you genuinely connect with in ways beyond the business. These are truly life long relationships and it’s important that there be a strong foundation in place to lean on when things are challenging. Ideally, this is manifested as true friendship, but minimally there must be something more than binds you together than just the business.