2018 Startups to Watch: Super Dispatch takes shipping partners into the digital age
January 16, 2018 | Traci Angel
Editor’s note: Startland News selected the top Kansas City firms to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. The following is one of 2018’s companies. To view the full, ranked list of Startups to Watch, click here.
[divide]
Super Dispatch first delivered its concept to the trucking and hauling industries with professionals and managers adopting the Kansas City firm’s technology. Now it’s time for the next leg of the journey.
“We have evolved to taking an entire trucking company and digitizing it,” said founder Bek Abdullayev.
[pullquote]
1) Plexpod
2) PayIt
3) Bardavon
4) Rx Savings Solutions
5) Swell Spark
6) Mycroft
7) Super Dispatch
8) Made in KC
9) RFP365
10) Ruby Jean’s Juicery (tie)
10) Cambrian (tie)
[/pullquote]
When Abdullayev created the company four years ago, he hoped to streamline the paperwork, receipts and confirmations of shipments for companies and their fleets. Bringing the idea to fruition took experimentation, as well as communication with operators and truckers, he said. Getting drivers and others on board with an idea that would completely revamp their bookkeeping systems took time.
“At first, not everyone had a smartphone,” Abdullayev said. “But that has changed. In the last couple of years it has been driven by peers and what is causing our growth are referrals and word-of-mouth.”
Revenue grew 10 times more in 2016 than in 2015, Abdullayev said, and 2017 brought revenues increasing about 300 percent from 2016.
“That puts us at a huge milestone as a team in crossing into seven figures,” he said.
In doubling its size to about 19 full-time employees, Abdullayev said the team is focusing on its growth.
“We went from being a nuanced pop-up shop to having a space at the table,” Abdullayev said. “We were taken seriously and now we can start discussing much larger problems.”
Super Dispatch’s next frontier aims to find digital solutions to connect those needing to ship materials with trucks that can haul it.
“So far, we have focused on the carrier side and streamlined that,” Abdullayev said. “We want to help the shippers find space and then track the shipment and get paid fast. There’s $700 billion of shipments and they are looking at message boards and calling people. Our platform can be to streamline that.”
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC’s ‘Horn Doctor’ handcrafts jazz preservation, keeping soul, tradition alive on Vine Street
Across the historic intersection at Kansas City’s 12th and Vine streets, B.A.C. Musical Instruments operates as one of the few remaining American factories handcrafting professional brass instruments. “This is where all the musicians would hang out back in the day,” said founder Mike “Horn Doctor” Corrigan, gesturing toward the Paseo sunken garden beside his shop.…
Autotech startup revs after patent stall; signature tech removes emissions, waste from diesel logistics
Fresh fuel is pumping into NORDEF after the Kansas City autotech company finally received patent approval for its signature product, co-founder William Walls said, pushing the pedal on its mission to disrupt the automotive fluid industry. Four years after applying for a provisional patent for its technology to produce diesel exhaust fluid on-demand — and…
rOOTS KC grows into third location, planting shop in River Market ahead of World Cup
Initially setting its roots as a pop-up plant shop in 2020, Dee Ferguson’s leafy business has grown to three Kansas City locations. The secret is in the soil, she said, describing a strategy for cultivating customers through free, evergreen plant care support and “community-rooted spirit.” [pullquote] The name rOOTS comes from Dee Ferguson’s surname: Oots.…
Summer funding pushes CarePilot to team hires, AI accolades, healthtech product launch
Fresh off its summer capital infusion, a Kansas City-built AI startup that helps doctors focus on patients instead of administrative tasks is earning industry recognition and dropping another new product, said Joseph Tutera, sharing credit for the milestones with behind-the-scenes talent. “We have a young team and they don’t have the encumbrance of a prior…