Because of her family’s background in plastics recycling, Saureen Desai knows a lot about shipping and logistics. She knows, for example, how businesses that need to ship things spend hours, whole days even, on the phone with logistics companies trying to get the best deal.
Imagine you make T-shirts, and you’ve got to ship a few containers to China. There are any number of carriers (logistics providers) that will do the actual shipping for you, which is theoretically a good thing because the competition drives down prices. But practically speaking, how do you figure out who will give you the best price? Well, you get on the phone.
And, well, that’s not very efficient.
Saureen and her husband, Somil Desai, knew there needed to be a better way — so they decided to create it. Enter ShipLync.
The duo have created a platform that’s essentially “the Expedia for logistics” — a one-stop shop for getting quotes from different service providers, booking a service provider and (importantly) keeping track of necessary documentation.
ShipLync makes money by taking three percent of what the logistics provider’s quote is — up to $20. The company doesn’t want to be overbearing on cost — Saureen and Somil hope to make a little money on a lot of deals rather than a lot of money on just a few.
For shippers the value proposition is clear — no more long days on the phone tracking down unruly information. But for logistics providers there’s an incentive too: namely, ShipLync brings in business and works as a lead generating tool.
— ShipLync Inc (@ShipLync) November 1, 2016
The Columbia, Md.-based company is a member of 1776, and Saureen recently brought the team a win in the 2016 Vinetta Project $20K challenge. While there are some competitors in the space, ShipLync’s founders’ connections within the logistics industry caught the attention of the VC judges at Vinetta.
The company works with a bunch of different logistics service providers, and has customers on the shipping side, too. That said, Somil told Technical.ly in a recent conversation, the company’s focus right now is on acquiring new users — they’re investing in marketing (and hiring!) to that end.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
