Last-mile logistics software company GoShare Inc., which utilizes technology to connect businesses and people with delivery and moving truck and van owners, has been moving its revenue in a positive direction since its founding nine years ago.
CEO Shaun Savage and his GoShare team have seen a nearly 180% growth in revenue from 2020-22, from $3.9 million in 2020 to $6.2 million in 2021 to $10.8 million in 2022.
The company, whose first employee and investor was Savage’s mom, has also doubled its headcount, from 21 in 2021 to 45 this year, Savage said. That doesn’t even count the thousands of drivers of box trucks, cargo fans, pickup trucks and sedans that are part of the company’s delivery professionals.
A three-time Connect “Cool Company” honoree since 2019, GoShare’s initial mission remains the same – organize the world’s trucks to make them more accessible and useful. GoShare digitizes the last mile and middle mile of the supply chain to optimize the utilization of delivery vans and moving trucks.
The company’s original plan was to act like Uber or Lyft and allow trucks and vans to be hired by individuals for on-demand pickup at a retail store with the ease of an app.
“Before GoShare, I think the typical response from the retailer would be like either, ‘Go rent a truck’ or ‘We have a local delivery provider,’ who is like one person with a van, ‘and they’ll call you in a couple of days and schedule something for you in a week or two.’” Savage said. “I think what we’ve done has just made the process so much easier, and we’ve found a way to organize all these trucks that are out on the road and are never being used to their full capacity.”
While there are other companies that provide similar services, Savage said what separates GoShare from competitors is that it focuses on making the process as seamless and easy as possible, “and that happens through the technology.”
25,000 Delivery Professionals at the Ready
Savage said that also its network of about 25,000 active delivery professionals across the United States are closely vetted and screened. He said only about 8% of its applicants are activated, and that once they join with a one-time fee, they become members of GoShare.
“We want to make sure that we have the highest quality network of delivery professionals,” he said. “It’s a high-risk business – we’re sending them into customers’ homes to deliver furniture.”
GoShare has expanded its reach on the other end of the delivery spectrum, through partnerships with local businesses and retailers – including Costco, Tesla and Pepsi. It also does less-than truckload (LTL) freight shipment moving and business-to-business logistics when companies need to move items from a warehouse to a distribution center or transfer products between stores.
The consumer side of the business was a big part of GoShare early on but Savage said it “has definitely become more B2B focused over the last few years” with about 80% of its revenues coming from businesses.
Savage said the company’s original two markets were San Diego and his home state of New Jersey.
“We’ve now grown to serve about 75 markets across the United States, covering about 10,000 zip codes in total in 31 states,” he said.
From Paint Business to Logistics
Savage said the roots of GoShare started 20 years ago, when he was attending the University of Delaware and studying history with plans to become a lawyer. He started a house painting business through a franchise model and said he learned there is a need to get paint and materials delivered to job sites.
Savage said he spent a tremendous amount of time at Sherwin-Williams – which at that time didn’t offer a delivery option but now has GoShare — having to figure out the logistics of paint pickup, mixing and then taking the paint as well as moving ladders and other supplies “all over the place.” He also worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer in advertising and marketing, and at a tech startup that focused on software for search engine optimization.
When he founded GoShare, Savage reached out to some of his old colleagues who were software engineers, to write the code for mobile apps and the website and application programming interface (API).
“I did not have a background in writing code and that was an incredibly important component of the business,” Savage said. “I ended up hiring a really young guy who was a (computer science) student at San Diego State and on a one-year student visa (Francisco DeCastro)… and he’s now our Senior VP of Engineering.”
Savage said there’s been some bumpy roads for the company.
During the middle of 2020, GoShare was planning on raising a Series A round of funding of $8 to $10 million, but the pandemic led to venture capital being pulled back.
“We kind of missed that window and we had a setback in Q2, and we had this kind of like blemish on our record that we always had to justify and explain,” Savage said. “It made it really hard for us to raise money that year. We did end up raising another financing round in of 2021 of about $3.5 million. And that was helpful and necessary at the time and allowed us to hit a couple of milestones.”
Savage said the company is currently seeking new investors “to continue to grow the company.”
“We think that we’re just barely scratching the surface,” he said. “We want to continue to expand geographically, across North America first, and then beyond.”
GoShare Inc.
FOUNDED: 2014
FOUNDER & CEO: Shaun Savage
HEADQUARTERS: Rancho Bernardo
BUSINESS: SaaS marketplace logistics
REVENUE: $10.7 million
EMPLOYEES: 45
WEBSITE: goshare.co
CONTACT: cs@goshare.co
SOCIAL IMPACT: Savage has worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters San Diego and also a mentor for the nonprofit incubator EvoNexus. He has also worked with TechStars San Diego as a mentor.
NOTABLE: GoShare made Deloitte Fast 500 this year in 2023 and SDBJ fastest-growing No. 10 for medium-sized company.
