The ultimate local ecosystem: Our investment in Nearby

2020 tethered us to our homes. But it also reimmersed us in our communities.

We walked the same neighborhood loops and frequented the same coffee to-go windows. I think I now know what color cars everyone on my street drives. Generally we saw more — a lot more — of what was nearby our own homes. This included our local merchants.

Alongside the “Support Local” and “Online Only” and, then, “Out of Business, We’ll Miss You” signs in my own downtown, I also noticed the piles of Amazon boxes at the ends of driveways on weekly trash pick-up mornings. Talk about stark contrast. The pandemic wreaked absolute havoc on local businesses.

Many communities not only noticed but actively sought ways to support them and shop local. The Creator Economy broadly truly took root over this past pandemic year, in part because people want to show direct support for the people and brands they love. But shopping small, especially when it comes to everyday living, is more than a little complicated. While digital progress has rapidly accelerated, supporting your local small business still is not straightforward: store hours and item availabilities are inconsistent, and finding or purchasing online is riddled with challenges. In the face of an always-on Amazon, it still takes real effort even as a motivated consumer to shop small.

More of us than ever have gone looking for ways to support our neighbors. If we are going to spend, why not spend local? What if we could connect with our neighbors — merchants, residents, and local civic leaders — and together define and coordinate how our contributions are made? More local art shows, public school fundraising, outdoor yoga with a local band. Heck, I’d literally subscribe to my local town just to keep it alive and well. Once our local towns are “shoppable”, imagine next jumping on and shopping Austin, or Charleston, or Chicago from home.

Local merchants need help. Not just coordination and customers, but also the technology to enable it all.

Lucky for them, April Underwood became completely obsessed with solving this problem and quickly found other like-minded, experienced, local advocates to join her in the pursuit. April was on the early team at Twitter, most recently was the Chief Product Officer at Slack, and is a Board Member at Zillow. Problems of communication, collaboration and local communities are quite literally her specialty. I’ve had the privilege of knowing April for more than 10 years now, and she is unstoppable. That’s true of everything she does, but I’ve found that she is particularly dogged in her pursuit of leveling the playing field for small businesses.

The team launched Nearby late last year and today we are excited to announce our Series A investment. Nearby is a digital marketplace that connects people with local makers, merchants and creators. With Nearby, local customers can order products knowing they’ll arrive both quickly and from local merchants, meaning they are reinvesting their earnings in local employment and service providers. Together, Nearby and the communities they serve are creating a sustainable, thriving ecosystem for owners, their employees, and everyone else who lives nearby.

Indeed, Nearby couldn’t be arriving at a better time. This impulse to shop small — like so many other changes the pandemic necessitated — is here to stay. Having worked at and invested in companies like DoorDash, ClassPass, Nextdoor, Tundra, and Uber, among others — I’ve seen first hand the power of the local economy. I know what it takes to stand up this infrastructure and the challenge of converting consumers’ habits, and the key ingredients are all here.

And by making it easier for neighbors to shop locally, Nearby has also seen exciting early traction: the company started in Oakland, and not long after launching a pilot in 2020, was able to drive $100,000 more revenue for local businesses. The waitlist of towns across America asking for Nearby to come is astounding. And because Nearby is registered as a Public Benefit Corporation — a special structure that helps outline benefits beyond shareholder value — it’s clear in its priorities to improve economic opportunity for small business owners and use its technology platform to effect positive climate change.

Nearby will become the platform that brings back the pleasures of shopping, improving discovery and creating a cohesive experience in a sea of fragmented offerings. For us shoppers, our doing good can mean our communities do well.

We couldn’t be more excited to partner with April and the Nearby team, alongside brilliant friends at Obvious Ventures and GV, to be a part of this extremely exciting and important adventure.

See you around the neighborhood.