What do you do if you need to get something delivered right now? Traditional shipping services won’t do – those will take at least a day or two. An Uber won’t work without a passenger in the vast majority of cases. And what if you don’t have the time to drop off the delivery and return it back home?
Enter DropIT, a supply chain services company providing an on-demand personal delivery service for individuals, small businesses and enterprises. Founded by local South Florida entrepreneurs Brett Newman, Grant Cardone, Jared Yellin and Ronald Hans in late 2021, the startup is currently closing a $250,000 pre-seed round.
“The two requirements for DropIT are having a debit card and a mobile phone,” Hans explained to Refresh Miami.
“Those consumers traditionally have items that they own that are very time consuming for them to take to another location,” he continued. “Sometimes they are not able to take them, sometimes it’s cost prohibitive. Sometimes it’s a round trip where it’s time intensive.”
Consider a busy executive who realizes she forgot her passport on the way to the airport. With DropIT, a driver could save the trip by quickly ferrying the document right to the executive.
Another key use case for DropIT is for deliveries of products from businesses that do not have their own delivery infrastructure, such as dry cleaners. There is also a B2B opportunity for DropIT: enabling enterprises such as consulting companies to help get critical items to their staff out in the field at the drop of the hat. These deliveries will be fully insured, with the company offering a premium priority delivery option for users in a real pinch.
The DropIT model is also advantageous for drivers in the gig economy, who can supplement their income by doing DropIT deliveries on top of work on other platforms. “We want drivers to be able to make more money while working the same amount of time,” asserted Hans, noting that drivers can undertake DropIT jobs to fill the dead time between other gigs.
The startup is housed within 10X, Cardone’s recently-launched incubator, which is based in Aventura. According to Hans, Cardone plays a day-to-day role in the company as a partner as well as an investor. Hans also asserted that investors into DropIT include other angel investors with real estate portfolios.
“It was a really exciting opportunity for us to be part of the first class of 10X,” said Hans. He praised their model whereby the 10X team helps founders develop the first iterations of their products on a technical level – a service that traditional incubators do not typically provide.
DropIT expects to launch an alpha of their service just after the close of the first quarter of this year, with a beta launch by mid second quarter. By the end of the second quarter of 2022, they plan for DropIT to be available to all consumers in ten key markets.
Strategic partnerships form a large part of DropIT’s expansion plans, including working with influencers and influencer platforms to make a splash soon after launch. Hans, who has spent the last 20 years of his career working with global startups, has his sights set on Latin America as a market that is particularly relevant for DropIT.
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