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Get to know our Founder and CEO, Jim Sharkey
Jim Sharkey
Founder & CEO, Chicago
June 2013. From Seattle, I moved across the country to Philly - where I knew no one and had never lived - to launch Mochila on my birthday. As one does.
Upper Montclair, NJ. I grew up on the East Coast, with stints out West post-college (ski patrol in Park City, grad school at Stanford, and Seattle with Amazon). Then Philly, and then recently, I moved to the Midwest and the suburbs. I’m currently living on the North Shore in Chicago with my wife and two kids. And as it turns out, I love it.
Ice cream scooper at Friendly’s.
Boston Red Sox (passed down from my father, a Boston native), Philadelphia Eagles (from my stint in Philly and seeing the Eagles win the Superbowl in 2018), and Chicago Cubs (my current hometown team).
Mostly hidden in that I haven’t had a chance to get out much and really go for it lately at some of my favorite spots, but I love to ski. My dad started me on skis as soon as I could walk, and getting my 2 year old son and 4 year old daughter up on skis and introducing them to skiing the past few winters has been pretty much my favorite parenting feat to date.
I love good pizza...but also enjoy the convenience and simplicity of a nice store-bought frozen pizza too.
The first time I saw Mochila's software take an entire order all the way from pick to pack to ship (way back in 2014) was one of the most satisfying moments of my professional career.
It wasn't because the software for that first beta version was so powerful or bug-free (it was assuredly neither). It was because I was seeing this seed of an idea - that a powerful technology platform could deliver an exceptional fulfillment experience for modern brands - finally germinate.
I didn't fully appreciate it then, but owning our own fulfillment software has given us the power to optimize every aspect of fulfillment. Some features - like rate shopping shipping carriers to lower shipping costs - I envisioned from day one. But other features I only grasped their true importance after working with and learning from our clients.
One example is the complex requirements that come with filling orders for major retailers that require EDI: there are the technical EDI integration requirements as well as specific packaging and prep requirements that vary depending on the item, the retailer, and the client. The only way to ensure these requirements are accurately met in a scalable way is by having a powerful software solution that is very flexible.
Another example is the ability to offer personalization services - everything from gift wrap and personalized notes to more complex offerings like embroidery. Handling and refining these kind of complex offerings would be virtually impossible without having our own software platform.
For me, this ability to constantly invent, innovate, and improve our fulfillment operations in a way where we have the freedom and power to evolve both software and process design simultaneously is what gives me a thrill every day at Mochila.
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