One day, after standing outside an ArrowMyFood customer’s door for over 5 minutes, I asked myself “why can’t there be a delivery box where I can leave the delivery and head out.” After all, the customer had already paid for it and I didn’t need to collect cash from them. A couple of weeks later, after I ordered an iPhone for my sister, the courier left a note saying we missed a delivery on the door even though we were at home. My sister was flying out of the country the next morning, so I called to have the package held so we could pick it up in the morning. Of course, when I arrived the next morning to retrieve the package, it could not be found — they needed more time and my sister needed to board her plane. What should have been a simple delivery cost me an additional $200 to ship overseas.
What if we could make an automated mailbox?
I had experienced the inconvenience of missed deliveries before, but that iPhone fiasco was the last straw.I knew I couldn’t be the only one who had experienced this problem either, so I put my research background to work. After scouring through academic papers and articles about delivery issues, the history and future of the mailbox, and anything else I could find about consumer shipping, I realized I was not alone. Further more, because I had experienced this both as a customer and a courier, my passion for a better solution became unquenchable that — it felt like an addiction.
I set out to solve the problem and knew I had to make an automated mailbox. The most talented engineer I know is Nathan Armentrout. He is a genius maker who could quickly understand any hardware and most markets. Once I came up with the initial concept for the automated mailbox, I knew I had to recruit Nathan.
Picking the right technical founder
Some say “your Co- Founder is like your life partner,” someone you will spend years with working on your startup. So it’s common startup knowledge that you have to be very meticulous when picking a co-founder, it should preferably be someone you have known and worked with for a while.
Nathan and I met one day in college after having free lunch in the engineering building of the University of Louisville. I saw a posting for his teams’ capstone project, an app/system that created a geofence around the university and would track the user’s location once they entered within the boundary of the geofence. My degree is in Geographic Information Systems/Science and so I was immediately captivated by the post. His presentation on the project was ridiculously creative and engaging. It was in that moment I told myself that I will build something great with this guy and since then we had worked on small projects and hung out together.
Nathan had also encountered the problems of missed deliveries and just recently had a close friend who moved to another state, experience this inconvenience. After moving and having his belongings shipped to his new place, his package was left outside, got stolen and he had nothing to wear, etc. So when I told him what I wanted to do, he immediately jumped on board and that’s how mailHaven was born.
What will the future bring
Startups are not always sexy, they don’t always have to be a medium to share selfies, not that selfies are a bad thing. I believe startups should solve big problems and provide value to customers, the economy, as well as adjacent markets. An automated mailbox is not necessarily sexy but can solve the hemorrhaging at the last link of the supply chain by eliminating last mile delivery failures
We are currently in the production stage of our engineering prototype and are very excited about our progress. We hope to cut that the huge cost in the last mile of delivery so that it can be passed on to the consumer, cost of shipping is the biggest factor that influences customer shopping habits/frequency. If we win, everyone wins, including online vendors and the economy as a whole. Our goal is huge, but our passion to solve this problem is insane and are optimistic about the role we will play in the future of logistics.
If you have ever had this problem before, please share your experience in the comments section.
