A Ship Captain Built 'Sailor's Cart' to Help Seafarers Buy Toothbrushes & iPhones.

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Apr 18, 2025

Welcome to Series Bee, where we review early-stage, seed-stage or even pre-seed startups like VCs should (but their biases would never let them) - with zero fluff, no corporate lingo, and total honesty.
This week’s startup? Sailor’s Cart, captained by ex-mariner Capt. Akee Sharma, trying to bring e-commerce convenience to a group the world tends to forget - seafarers.

What is Sailor’s Cart?

Sailor’s Cart is a maritime e-commerce platform that delivers consumer goods, from iPhones to toothpaste to instant noodles, directly to a shipping vessel’s gangway.

Their promise is simple: “Whatever you need while you’re at sea, we’ll get it to you.”

What Problem Are They Trying to Solve?

Let’s be real: seafarers keep the world economy afloat, quite literally. But when it comes to shopping for themselves, they’re stuck relying on overpriced port vendors, shady on-deck salesmen, or praying for a decent shore leave.

You’re bringing smartphones across oceans, but can’t buy one for yourself without being exploited or even scammed (for a lack of better words)? That’s the kind of absurdity Sailor’s Cart is tackling.

And it’s not just about luxury. It’s about toothpaste. Shoes. Snacks from home. Little bits of dignity in a brutally isolating job.

Something that Capt. Akee Sharma said in a YouTube podcast with Karanvir Singh Nayyar really struck out to me - “We are earning well, but still miserable.”

This quote stings. And it’s what makes the problem very real.

What Is Their Solution?

What Sailor’s Cart is building is part logistics platform, part concierge service. Seafarers browse a catalog or request anything they want (seemingly via WhatsApp or their website directly). Sailor’s Cart sources it from verified suppliers, clears customs, and delivers it on board when the ship docks.

As of April 2025, it seems like they’ve already served over 2,000+ seafarers across 55 ships. From what I can tell, it’s largely bootstrapped and managed directly by the founder himself and a strong team, including advisors and industry veterans.

“It’s like Amazon for seafarers... except we deliver comfort, not just parcels.”
- Capt. Akee Sharma

How Do They Make Money?

Their current model is cost-plus delivery, not margin-on-product. This could be considered smart because it ultimately builds trust in the long run. Especially since most transactions are still cash on delivery.

But it also begs the question: how scalable is this trust-intensive model?

What happens when it’s 5,000 orders a month, not 200?

That’s probably a key challenge for them - operational complexity increases exponentially, especially across borders and with port-specific customs protocols. These kind of operational or logistical complexities definitely cannot be an afterthought. I’d be interested in learning more about how they view this and plan to approach this challenge.

What’s the Founder Like?

While I haven’t had the pleasure of speaking with him directly, Capt. Akee Sharma is seemingly one of the more authentic founders out there!

He’s not a typical business school founder. He’s not just blindly going after giants in the e-commerce space. He’s doing this because he lived a problem, saw the pain, and couldn’t unsee it.

Another thing I picked up from the podcast -

“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

- his words, and it shows.

That kind of focus? You can’t fake it.

What Does the Execution Look Like?

Right now, Sailor’s Cart is:

Operational in Singapore
Serving multiple ports and anchorages
Expanding to Dubai, Hong Kong, Brazil, and maybe India soon

No app. No bloated SaaS platform. Just direct channels (for now), logistics partners, and a relentless belief in earning seafarers’ trust.

This isn’t flashy. But it seems to work for the people for whom it’s been designed.

They’ve found a channel that meets seafarers where they are, not where investors want them to be.

The only gap that I’ve been able to identify? Long-term defensibility. As the idea scales, it risks being copied by players with deeper pockets or broader infrastructure. But again, I’d love to learn more because this gap is not specific to Sailor’s Cart, pretty much applies to all kinds of early stage ventures.

What Does the Marketing Look Like?

What Sailor’s Cart has in spades is authenticity and emotional resonance. Their branding isn’t “disruption” or “maritime 2.0.” And, as someone who’s seen a ton of maritime ventures, it’s good to see a startup in this space doing something other than carbon intensity.

It’s empathy at scale that Sailor’s Cart is offering. That’s rare, especially in the maritime sector.

But I feel the current version of the brand lacks polish. The website feels outdated. The design? Minimal. The story? Undersold.

They have golden content in the form of founder interviews, powerful quotes, and real human stories - but they haven’t fully capitalized on that narrative potential.

The Series Bee Scorecard

This is purely intuition and secondary data based. Again, I’d love to learn more about Sailor’s Cart and how they’re planning to tackle some of their scalability puzzles.

Swipe Right or Left on Sailor’s Cart?

Swipe Right - with cautious optimism.

This isn’t a unicorn yet. But it’s a camel - tough, built for the long haul, and serving a community that sadly no one else cares about.

I wish Sailor’s Cart nothing but the best. I wish to see this idea scale to unimaginable heights!

Have you used Sailor’s Cart before? Do you have some thoughts on this too? Comment down below, let me know!

Series Bee