Roadie Raises $10 Million To Revolutionize The Shipping Industry

Most people use United Parcel Service, Inc. UPS and FedEx Corporation FDX to ship items overnight, but few options are available for faster or same-day shipping. In some cases a courier might actually cost more than the value of the item being shipped.

This poses a significant challenge to individuals who need something immediately, but either can't afford the shipping fee or simply don't have any way to send the item fast enough.

Roadie, a new startup from serial entrepreneur Marc Gorlin (co-founder of Kabbage), wants to change that.

The concept is pretty simple: when an item needs to be shipped, users jump into the Roadie app and see if any drivers (known as "Roadies") are headed in the right direction. If Bob lives in Detroit, Michigan, and he wants to send a lamp to Chicago, Illinois, he can see how many people are headed from Detroit to Chicago and when they plan to leave.

This allows individuals to ship items faster and cheaper than most alternative options. It also gives Roadies the chance to make some extra money during a commute they had to endure anyway.

"We had missed out on the opportunity to invest in his last company, Kabbage," Court Coursey, managing partner at TomorrowVentures, told Benzinga. "We were really impressed with him as an individual. We ran into him about six months ago and he wanted to have a meeting. We talked about Roadie and got very excited about it. We liked the characteristics. We like [startups] where you're basically transforming a legacy industry. It's something that puts added cash in someone's pocket that's already taking a trip."

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TomorrowVentures (the investment vehicle from Eric Schmidt) is one of many firms that joined Roadie for its $10 million Series A investment.

"I also like it from a user perspective that when you're shipping something that's odd-sized or you need something sent in a timely fashion, you're not having to run to a packaging store to get all the bubbles and peanuts and all that crazy stuff to ship a package," Coursey added.

Jim McKelvey (co-founder of Square), UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Mellon Group, Tom Noonan (former CEO of ISS) and Warren Stephens also participated in the round.

"It's a great concept and Marc's a known commodity," McKelvey told Benzinga. "I've worked with Marc before. He's a hard worker. He puts together great teams. The concept is strong, but it's going to require a lot of execution and Marc's just the guy you back. He's fantastic."

Frustration = Inspiration

Gorlin didn't start Roadie after reading about some problem that needed to be solved. The idea came to him after learning that a box of tile (which he needed to repair his condo in Florida) would arrive four days late. He didn't find this out until after he had already spent several hours driving to Florida.

"I'm sitting there on the Interstate overpass of I-65 in Montgomery," Gorlin told Benzinga. He pulled over after getting the bad news.

"I look north and I see all these cars going north," he continued. "I turn the other direction and I see all these cars going south and I say to myself, 'There's bound to be somebody leaving Birmingham right now heading to Montgomery. If I just knew who they were, surely they could throw a box of tile into their trunk. I give 'em $20 -- they're coming here anyway! In fact, there's probably somebody leaving Birmingham right now going all the way down to Pensacola and I could go down there right now and pick it up later today.'"

Then it hit him: "There's somebody going everywhere all the time."

"That's the core of [Roadie]," said Gorlin.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.