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The big different is cost. We do not have to store any inventory so we can offer the same service for a much lower price point. Instead of a company shipping a

The big different is cost. We do not have to store any inventory so we can offer the same service for a much lower price point. Instead of a company shipping all their items to amazon, we will fulfill out of your storage/office/home/coffee shop. Plus you don't have to be as organized to pre-ship all your items to amazon's warehouse. Etsy/eBay/Shopfy sellers love it. btw CEO of Shyp here.

bosstwizz 12y ago
How do the economics of dispatching somebody to pick up an item within half an hour work?
- kevingibbon 12y ago
  its really about demand and pickup density. This is why we will launch in major cities first. We spend less than 1min on average pickup up peoples items. So once we are able to get enough demand within a close proximity everything works out great.
  - michaelt 12y ago
    Interesting. What's the model in terms of vehicle ownership and driver salary? Will you be paying the driver a set rate for a set shift driving a company vehicle, as the likes of UPS do, of will you be paying the drivers per collection with them supplying maintaining and insuring their own vehicle, like Uber and Yodel? At the point you become profitable, how many pickups/packages will each driver do per hour, and how much pay will each driver make per hour/pickup/package? How much of the market do you aspire to cover - will your model extend to most of the country, or just dense urban areas with high levels of demand?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
avalaunch 12y ago
Do you have an api? I can imagine a bunch of ebay tools making good use of it. Also, do you still use EasyPost?
- kevingibbon 12y ago
  We do not have a public api yet ;) We used Easypost initially but have since moved off them.
free2rhyme214 12y ago
Kevin - What if Amazon, UPS, Fedex start picking up consumers items? This appears to be your unique advantage which reminds me a lot of Instacart/Uber in a sense of bringing the solution to the customer instead of having the customer coming to you.
- kevingibbon 12y ago
  They already pickup peoples items. However they are not setup logistically to handle 5-20min pickup times. They do something called a milk run which requires them to pre-schedule their routes before hand. They absolutely could offer this service in the future, it would just be logistically very difficult to build it into their current operations. Our unique advantage is our product/experience UX and our focus on packaging. UPS, Fedex, USPS and our other partners all love us. They see us filling a much needed gap in the market. Just as stripe does for visa/mc/etc. What these shipping companies are the best at is moving many packed items over large distances. Their logistics networks are unparalleled to no one. We just see a large gap in the first mile.
  - ErikRogneby 12y ago
    Great explanation of your value prop. Do you have a timeline for roll-out to other cities you can share?
    - kevingibbon 12y ago
      We are launching NY in October. Then looking to stamp out cities as quickly as possible. We have the barrier of a warehouse in every city + packers but just like anything once you do something enough times you get really good at it. Looking to be extremely aggressive on city rollout.
      - larrys 12y ago
        "We have the barrier of a warehouse in every city" I'm assuming when you do you are going to be locating your warehouse near Fedex/UPS depots then?
robryan 12y ago
I don't get the economics of this. For example if you send more than 20 a month you get free pickup. In this scenario, with the example tshirt I would be paying $2.85 for you to pick it up, pack it with your own materials and cover shipping? Even if you got the shipping for half of that, won't the pickup and packing materials/ labour cost way more than a couple of dollars?

bosstwizz 12y ago

How do the economics of dispatching somebody to pick up an item within half an hour work?

kevingibbon 12y ago
its really about demand and pickup density. This is why we will launch in major cities first. We spend less than 1min on average pickup up peoples items. So once we are able to get enough demand within a close proximity everything works out great.
- michaelt 12y ago
  Interesting. What's the model in terms of vehicle ownership and driver salary? Will you be paying the driver a set rate for a set shift driving a company vehicle, as the likes of UPS do, of will you be paying the drivers per collection with them supplying maintaining and insuring their own vehicle, like Uber and Yodel? At the point you become profitable, how many pickups/packages will each driver do per hour, and how much pay will each driver make per hour/pickup/package? How much of the market do you aspire to cover - will your model extend to most of the country, or just dense urban areas with high levels of demand?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

avalaunch 12y ago

Do you have an api? I can imagine a bunch of ebay tools making good use of it. Also, do you still use EasyPost?

kevingibbon 12y ago
We do not have a public api yet ;) We used Easypost initially but have since moved off them.

free2rhyme214 12y ago

Kevin - What if Amazon, UPS, Fedex start picking up consumers items? This appears to be your unique advantage which reminds me a lot of Instacart/Uber in a sense of bringing the solution to the customer instead of having the customer coming to you.

kevingibbon 12y ago
They already pickup peoples items. However they are not setup logistically to handle 5-20min pickup times. They do something called a milk run which requires them to pre-schedule their routes before hand. They absolutely could offer this service in the future, it would just be logistically very difficult to build it into their current operations. Our unique advantage is our product/experience UX and our focus on packaging. UPS, Fedex, USPS and our other partners all love us. They see us filling a much needed gap in the market. Just as stripe does for visa/mc/etc. What these shipping companies are the best at is moving many packed items over large distances. Their logistics networks are unparalleled to no one. We just see a large gap in the first mile.
- ErikRogneby 12y ago
  Great explanation of your value prop. Do you have a timeline for roll-out to other cities you can share?
  - kevingibbon 12y ago
    We are launching NY in October. Then looking to stamp out cities as quickly as possible. We have the barrier of a warehouse in every city + packers but just like anything once you do something enough times you get really good at it. Looking to be extremely aggressive on city rollout.
    - larrys 12y ago
      "We have the barrier of a warehouse in every city" I'm assuming when you do you are going to be locating your warehouse near Fedex/UPS depots then?

robryan 12y ago

I don't get the economics of this. For example if you send more than 20 a month you get free pickup. In this scenario, with the example tshirt I would be paying $2.85 for you to pick it up, pack it with your own materials and cover shipping? Even if you got the shipping for half of that, won't the pickup and packing materials/ labour cost way more than a couple of dollars?