It’s the same old story. An established and successful company valued in the millions (or billions) up and disappears in a swift annihilation at the hands of a scrappy startup that was deemed unthreatening a few years — even months — earlier.

You probably can’t imagine life without Netflix but it wasn't long ago that Blockbuster Video dominated the rental space.

The first question is how? How can a company with everything to lose actually lose it all to those with nothing?

The next question is, who’s next?

Let’s look at classifieds. This space saw an awesome transformation during the dotcom boom with the inauguration of Craigslist. Before that you were reading your local newspaper. Next came Kijiji with a more intuitive and user-friendly interface — also a huge improvement. Both companies should be recognized for their accomplishments but that was over 10 years ago. Not much has changed since.

Maybe that’s the cycle and maybe they’re not to blame. Maybe it’s too big a risk for them to change.

It’s the same reason a 40-something man who has a wife and 3 kids doesn't quit his job to pursue a startup. It’s not that it’s not worth it, it’s that the risk is too great. The stakeholders (aka his family) wouldn't allow it.

The thing is, chances are Dad is gonna be OK. Such is not the case for companies who fail to innovate. Regardless of why they've failed, to us and everyone else it’s all the same. Your service now sucks and you stopped caring about your users back in 2008.

The technology exists to improve the online marketplace experience in the pockets of every person who uses them yet they haven’t changed.

At SHUFL we want to be that change. Our goal is to be the next local marketplace.

Our team consists of 7 founders. This is unheard of but there’s a reason.

In the start we were 2 teams working on the same problem in the same city. We also happened to get along great. 6 months later we’re out here in Toronto delivering cookies to promote our app and we wouldn't have it any other way.

[Picture of us delivering cookies]

More than to seize an opportunity, we built SHUFL with feeling. And even though it sounds cliché, we believe that we can help make your neighbourhood, city — and the world — a better place.

There’s nothing quite like it and as long as we’re being honest you’ll probably either love it or hate it — just let us know either way ☺

@getshufl
getshufl.com

-Francis, Rishabh, Canute, Ash, Aubrey, Paul and Sascha

P.S. Click here if you live in Toronto and want free cookies!