
ShotPut (YC S15) helps fulfill product orders at a price that works for startups - justin
http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/31/y-combinator-backed-shotput-helps-fulfill-product-orders-at-a-price-that-works-for-startups/
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Skrypt
Love the ShotPut crew. Some of the hardest working founders I've met.

Admittedly we were damn pretty terrible on the shipping and fulfillment side
of our business early on and they've been a huge help getting everything
figured out for us.

You definitely want to work with these guys.

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jkestner
How do your customers handle inserts in your boxes? Seems that many products
need some really custom insert to keep from rattling around.

~~~
dasickis
Generally we call inserts: marketing messages companies put in each shipment.

There's another material called dunnage i.e. fill that is placed such as air
packs, bubble wrap, paper, cardboard, mushroom (yes a product made from
mushrooms!), etc. are used to keep the product tight.

Another method is to use a smaller box which cuts down on both shipping costs
as well as is a more secure way of securing products.

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dasickis
This is Praful another co-founder of Shotput. Happy to answer any questions
regarding tech or operations of our company and the fulfillment industry as a
whole.

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xur17
Amazon offers FBA, which allows you to store your inventory in their
warehouses, and ship products to customers via an api. How sets you apart from
this? I'm guessing simpler user interface (Amazon's leaves a lot to be
desired)?

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55555
FBA is literally 2-3x industry standard pricing and is used almost entirely in
order to increase the value proposition to buyers from/in the Amazon
markerplaces exclusively. Pretty much no one sells through other channels and
ships from FBA. Many sellers maintain a non-amazon warehouse.

Having said that, I am guessing this startup is not attempting to compete on
pricing.

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jimhi
You hit it on the nose. People rarely decide between us and Amazon, usually it
is between some random fulfillment centers their friends heard of and us. We
have been pretty competitive on price so far, but mostly our benefit is we
give total pricling upfront. Seemingly cheaper warehouses will give a low
rate, but what is the true cost of using them? Are you hiring people or paying
for mistakes they make?

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gregpilling
Ok, I just tried to use your website. I have no idea what you are going to
charge me to ship the orders.

I put in one pallet, 960 pieces at 12 per case, 80 cases. 3 pounds each, ship
as one, no special work needed.

I got a price for move in easily, but then what?

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jimhi
Hey Greg, the third step page is where we tell you the "move-out" or basically
shipping and handling pricing. Why don't you give a message at
james@theshotput.com though and I can give you a quote. You took the time to
sign up on our site, the least I can do is take the time and answer all your
questions.

~~~
gregpilling
Ok, will send

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w1ntermute
Is anyone else concerned about all these startups catering to other startups?
When the VC bubble bursts, the majority of them are going to go up in smoke.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
The shovel-sellers only make money as long as the gold rush lasts.

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dasickis
Shovels & Levis still seem to be doing well ;)

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vinceguidry
The whole point of a gold rush is that the big players haven't moved in yet,
so there's still room for a single operator to get rich.

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jimhi
Hey there, it's James one of founders of Shotput here. Feel free to ask any
questions about product fulfillment or going through y Combinator!

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robzyb
This reminds me of Dave Jones, an electronics engineer that runs the EEVBlog
on YouTube.

He created a little product, a small electronic tester, and sold them on
KS/IGG.

I remember a whole bunch of tweets and youtube videos about how much of a PITA
the fulfilment was.

I remember that he had some particular problems with international shipping
too.

ShotPut's website doesn't explicitly say that they cover international
shipping, but they do, right?

~~~
jimhi
A fulfillment service that can't ship internationally is pretty lame, don't
you think? Of course we cover international shipping! We don't mention it
because it should be a standard!

~~~
robzyb
Haha, my apologies!

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snomad
Do you handle fulfillment to Canada as well? Or US only? How about Hawaii,
Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands?

~~~
jimhi
Yes, we can ship to those countries.

Our fulfillment centers are all over the US and coming to Canada soon! But
again, they can ship internationally.

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thedogeye
Where is the scale in the business? How does it get better when it's 1,000x
bigger?

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jimhi
We are able to use our growing volume even now to lower the costs all around
(freight, fulfillment, shipping). At 1000x growth, we could push those prices
much lower. This is huge for start-ups.

Since we only deal with fulfillment once it enters the country, we have people
we would love to pass to your service too. It would be beneficial for both of
us to talk and set something up soon.

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frankdenbow
Cool to see other companies in the fulfillment space!

How do you differ from a company like Shipwire?

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dasickis
Shipwire is a fantastic company, however, their prices have been historically
high and their customer support has lacked recently. Though their
international warehouses are a huge boost to small companies that need that
capability.

Our biggest differentiator is that we give you an upfront invoice and once you
pay you'll never see a penny increase. Even your shipping is upfront (we're
working on fixing it now as we speak).

~~~
frankdenbow
Awesome, best of luck beating the big guys. Theres lots of room to innovate
here.

Small suggestion: an easy pricing calculator would definitely help on the site
before capturing email

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dasickis
We had one before but the types of products varied so wildly the ultimate cost
was different. Currently we capture all that data and give our final price
which uses our calculator.

Though we'll discuss this issue and if it keeps coming up we'll act on it.

