Who this is
Dana von der Heide is co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of Parcel Perform, an e-commerce logistics software company headquartered in Singapore that now operates under the name Perform.AI. Born in Berlin, she grew up with her grandparents in Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, studied communication, political science and psychology in Berlin, and got into logistics through DHL's corporate strategy team in Asia. Eleven years ago she founded Parcel Perform with a former DHL colleague: the company integrates 1,200 carriers, processes more than 100 million parcel updates a day, employs around 200 people and has offices in Singapore, Berlin, Vietnam, Amsterdam, London and Chicago. Its investors are SoftBank and Cambridge Capital; customers include Puma, Nespresso, Zalando, Shopify and TikTok. After eleven years in Asia, Dana now lives in Berlin with her young daughter and still works across time zones.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
How did Dana von der Heide make Parcel Perform AI-native?
Through an internal programme called "All in AI" that launched a year and a half ago. Every employee has a 30 percent AI goal with an incentive, everyone has access to Claude Code and builds their own applications on sandbox days. AI is built into every product: identifying the carrier from a tracking number, predicting delays, detecting fraudulent returns and sending morning alerts when parcels in the warehouse behave differently than usual. Dana herself has Claude read her emails and Slack messages and prepare replies. To the episode →
Why did Dana von der Heide found her company in Singapore?
Dana and her co-founder both worked for DHL in Asia and loved the lifestyle and pace there. In corporate strategy they had seen that online retailers wanted a cross-carrier tracking standard that DHL didn't want to build. Founding in Singapore was, in their view, easier than in Germany; setting up the German entity later was harder than the founding itself. Today Singapore is the headquarters, with further offices in Berlin, Vietnam, Amsterdam, London and Chicago. To the episode →
What does Dana von der Heide advise on sales and conferences?
Don't go to startup events, go to the conferences where your customers are. Announce your attendance on LinkedIn beforehand, use the side events, try to speak yourself and follow up with your contacts immediately, ideally while still on the train. Afterwards, don't send a generic presentation but a personalised demo in the customer's branding, which Dana now builds in two minutes. Customer success stories in which customers tell the story themselves work better than any advertising of your own. To the episode →
Quotes
„… man geht ja unglaublich gerne als so junger Gründer auf diese ganzen Events mit den anderen jungen Gründern und freut sich darüber massivst. Aber da sind halt deine Kunden nicht.““As a young founder you love going to all those events with other young founders and you're thrilled about it. But your customers aren't there.”
„Also jeder, der bei uns arbeitet, hat gerade ein 30-prozentiges AI-Ziel.““Everyone who works with us currently has a 30 percent AI goal.”
„… ich habe zum Beispiel aufgehört, meine E-Mails zu lesen. Ich lese sie nicht mehr. Claude liest meine E-Mails und meine Slack-Nachrichten und alles, was sonst in meinem Arbeitsleben passiert.““I've stopped reading my emails, for example. I don't read them anymore. Claude reads my emails and my Slack messages and everything else that happens in my working life.”
„Deine Kunden werden die Agents. Und Agents ist piep egal, was für eine Marketingkampagne du da laufen hast, sondern die gucken sich rein deine Daten an … wer die Daten nicht optimiert und verfügbar hat, wird nicht mehr vorgeschlagen.““Your customers will be the agents. And agents couldn't care less what marketing campaign you're running, they look purely at your data. Whoever doesn't have their data optimised and available won't be recommended anymore.”
„Und einfach nicht drauf hören, auf sich selbst vertrauen. Und vielleicht klappt es nicht, aber es ist wert.““Just don't listen to them, trust yourself. Maybe it won't work out, but it's worth it.”