The crowd who regard US$10m as a milestone are the money men: The venture capitalists who typically bankroll startups, taking progressively larger stakes in a business after Dragon’s Den-style negotiations, in seed and Series A, B and C raises.
But Plummer – who owns 91% of Starshipit – has never taken a cent in outside capital.
Its push into warehouse management systems was funded from cashflow and there are no capital-raising plans.
Plummer grew up on a farm in Hawke’s Bay. He was bundled off to boarding school (Christ’s College) in Christchurch, then enrolled at Lincoln University to pursue a degree in natural resource engineering.
“It didn’t really go very well,” Plummer says. “It got to the point I couldn’t continue. So I went around all the different faculties and asked everyone how quickly I could get a degree.” The Computer Science Department said they could wrap things up quickly.
“It was on the back of a failed engineering degree, but it was a good match. I loved it. It was a really good match for my skill set. And that’s how much I ended up in this industry.”
After an OE in London, Plummer settled in Auckland in 2004 where he founded MaSal, whose eponymous software made it easier for big organisations to upgrade their apps.
Just a couple of years later, in a rapid-fire series of transactions, MalSal was bought by American software firm ScriptLogic for around $1m, with Plummer staying on.
ScriptLogic was acquired shortly after by Quest, which in turn was snapped up by Dell.
Plummer worked for Dell for several years as a senior software architect before he crossed paths with Alex Webster, the owner of upmarket retailer Coast – which was grappling with the best way to fulfil its growing online orders.
Plummer put together software for address labelling and courier dispatch, and the company known today as Starship it was born (Webster owns the 9% outside Plummer’s holding).
It was hard graft in the early days. “It took a while to get to the point where I could pay myself a salary,” Plummer says. He briefly considered outside investment, but in the end decided to tough it out, bootstrapping from his savings for the first few years. His MalSal money was ploughed into Starship, rather than going toward a house in Auckland), notwithstanding the stress of a young family.
It paid off as fashion retailers Trelise Cooper, Superette and Quicksilver signed on.
Starshipit partnered with DHL and NZ Post in New Zealand and, from 2015, DHL and Australia Post across the ditch. Today, DHL is a global partner for Starshipit. The Auckland firm has a white-label service with the courier giant that’s used in more than 100 countries.
Plummer engineered his start-up’s software to integrate with popular e-tail platforms. A Starshipit dashboard can appear on Shopify’s admin screen, for example.
Mask up, lockdown
The pandemic was a defining moment.
“It was very uncertain times and, with everything closing down in New Zealand, we weren’t sure what was going to happen,” Plummer says.
“We had a massive increase in uptake. A lot of small businesses wanted to get online for the first time and a lot of traditional retailers put a lot more investment into their platforms – and they had to react fast. It was a crazy time. Our growth was really strong. And we’ve seen a lot more focus on e-commerce since Covid.”
AI arrives
Today, the biggest threat and opportunity comes from AI.
Is Plummer worried about “vibe-coded” opposition? The Starshipit founder says, “You can’t necessarily go to some API docs and start building stuff. You have to talk to all the couriers and know how they work.” There are ever-shifting tariffs and other messy real-world complications that make it a bracing area for newcomers, even with help from artificial intelligence.
Having said that, Plummer is a major fan of the new technology. “What’s happening with AI is just quite incredible. It opens up so many possibilities.
“Internally, we are getting rid of some of the systems that we use [made by third parties], and we’re rebuilding them ourselves. It’s easy and it can be highly beneficial because you get to build something based on your workload.”
What’s next?
How will the next few years play out? Does Plummer see Starshipit doubling size? Would he cash in with jumbo Series A or a trade sale?
“I get asked this all the time. But the truth is I have never really had a plan. One of the best things about having no outside investor is you can just focus on working closely with customers. I don’t have an exit plan. I’m open to all possibilities.”
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
