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.
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.
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)
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
Popular TEDxKC won’t return in 2018; organizers to focus on women, youth events
TEDxKC — one of the largest and most-popular independently-organized TEDx events in the world — won’t be back for 2018. While TEDxYouth@KC and TEDxKCWomen are expected to return in 2018, hitting pause on TEDxKC’s “general ideas” event will allow organizers to reflect on accomplishments, missteps and milestones, said Mike Lundgren, co-founder of TEDxKC. “We asked two…
Fitbit integrating Sickweather illness forecasting into new wearables
Sickweather is stepping into the wearables market. A new partnership with industry leader Fitbit is expected to see the Kansas City-based startup’s illness forecasting technology integrated into Fitbit’s new products. “Smartwatches provide a powerful platform to deliver important health tools that help our users manage conditions more conveniently than ever before,” said James Park, co-founder…
Surveys, rewards dying: Tapyness scores customer feedback with one-tap, 3-second experience
No one takes 15-minute surveys anymore, said Matthew Korte, co-founder of Tapyness, a Lawrence-based customer experience platform that provides real-time feedback via kiosks in client businesses. A typical Tapyness interaction takes three seconds, he said. “We’re down to the millisecond, and we’re aggregating hundreds of tablets simultaneously within one brand to go: ‘Here’s the health…
Lean Lab rebrands to reflect its evolution within education innovation
The Lean Lab has announced a rebranding effort to better reflect and differentiate it from other groups in education innovation, said co-founder Katie Boody. Unveiling a new look in late April, the Kansas City-based organization is now LEANLAB Education, which Boody hopes will better communicate its mission, she said. “We know the nature of our…