We are building Shotput to fully automate direct-to-consumer deliveries. It’s important that people spend their time with family and friends working on problems that expand humanity. Instead we push millions of people into routine manual labor that reduces their role in society. Over the next 10 years, we will develop self-driving vehicles, autonomous cargo airplanes & ships, smart containers, and fully automated warehouses.
As with all interesting journeys, we have to start small: building software systems and establishing a high-tech ops team that simplify coordination of shipping products directly to your customers.
People spend an incredible amount of time and energy just managing infuriatingly arcane aspects of business such as warehousing and transportation.
The Landscape
Logistics means coordinating people to move stuff from point A to point B within a certain time frame. It’s a convoluted business because of the complicated coordination schemes people have developed over the years.
The current model of logistics made sense when the Internet was called ARPANET and mobile phones were still white papers discussed through Bell Labs’ corridors.
The last 10 years have completely upended the way communication and coordination occurs globally, especially in the context of logistics. The modern world of logistics, however, has continued to persist with amazing companies like Flexport, FreightOS, Convoy, and others.
Tasks involving more than 2 people become more difficult to complete, especially on time. Additionally, costs are often misunderstood because coordinating people takes a variable amount of time.
This causes people to inaccurately estimate the price and in some cases, it can be lower than they expected. They end up losing money for everyone involved and the product doesn’t even reach its destination on time, if not at all!
Why Shotput Exists
Because of these frustrations, we built Shotput so that we can use new technologies to manage work across companies which allows us to precisely calculate costs & time.
Taking the technology further will help us provide analysis for larger companies so they can better understand their supply chains. In turn, this allows them to make optimizations that will reduce their costs and time to reach their customers.
As we further develop more software that provides continued value to our existing and new customers, we will continue investing into R&D of automating supply chains which will further improve our cost & time profiles.
Looking to the Future
Finally, we’ll enter a world where people no longer have to work on boring tasks of calling each other to find statuses, putting stuff into boxes all day, and traveling long distances mostly at night away from those they love.
Instead we can be free to think strategically and freely about what we’re building, who’s our customer, and how we can best serve their needs.
