It is an annoyance that every office worker, apartment dweller, or condo owner understands: Seemingly-endless problems that come with delivery drop offs. Even when a driver has the address, it can be difficult to find the exact door, floor, or entrance where a package or food delivery needs to go.
It was a problem that Emory student and two-time entrepreneur Shashwat Murarka experienced a lot while he was interning in New York City one summer as he was getting orders delivered to his apartment.
Although Google and Apple Maps get you to the right address area, they aren’t able to guide the driver all the way to the doorstep of the customer. That is where friction occurs, Murarka told Hypepotamus. But the Quantitative Sciences student, who moved from India to the US to pursue his undergraduate degree, knew that this was ultimately a problem that machine learning could help solve. He said that the iterative nature of machine learning could help drivers learn from past mistakes and help make future deliveries smoother.
That was the reason Murarka and his team launched Doorstep.ai, a B2B “API as a service” startup. The first-of-its-kind “visual guidance system” works to address the “last 500 feet in the last-mile delivery process.” The team’s intelligent algorithms (AI/ML) and are designed to help drivers make the quickest delivery drop offs possible. The vision of the company is to create the first ever mixed reality real time guidance experience for delivery drivers even inside apartments and buildings.
MEET THE TEAM
Murarka said Doorstep’s target customers are third-party delivery teams, global supply chain and ecommerce companies. In order to better understand these types of customers, Murarka told Hypepotamus that he and other members of the team spent time as Uber Eats and DoorDash delivery drivers.
Murarka has brought on Rishhabh Goel (CIO) and Sheel Patel (CTO) to help grow the early-stage team. After building the MVP, Murarka worked on scaling with help from his alma mater, Emory University. During his last summer on campus, he was part of the first incubator cohort at The Hatchery, Emory’s innovation hub. Murarka said the program helped him refine his product and get ready for the investor pitch circuit.
He also took home the top prize and audience award at First Pitch Fridays University Edition (created by Venture Atlanta, Startup Atlanta and TiE University).
DELIVERING WHAT’S NEXT
The early-stage startup has gained some impressive traction in a short couple of months. To date, the platform has brought on 500 users and made 3,000 independent deliveries. Murarka said that the startup has achieved 100% accuracy and reduced dropoff times by 45% on average.
Investors have started to take notice.
The team recently got accepted into the Antler Founder Residency Program in New York With Antler VC. The firm will be investing $500k into the startup as well ($250k initially and then the rest as follow-on capital). Additionally, Kleiner Perkins scout Sean Henry has also invested in Doorstep.
Murarka said the funds will go towards product development.
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Featured photo: Shashwat Murarka on LinkedIn