Shyp launched in 2014: take a photo of anything, and a courier would pick it up, package it professionally, and ship it via the cheapest carrier. The company raised $62M from Kleiner Perkins and Sherpa Capital, operating in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, LA, and Miami.
Company Data
- Founded: 2014 — Kevin Gibbon, Joshua Scott
- Total Funding: $62 million
- Failed: March 2018
The economics were the killer. Shyp charged customers the discounted shipping rate with no margin, making money only on a $5 pickup fee. That $5 had to cover courier dispatch, packaging materials, and labor—and it didn't come close. Higher volumes only made the losses bigger. A pivot to B2B came too late.
Key Lesson
If you're not making money on your core transaction, no amount of volume will fix it. Revenue must exceed costs at the transaction level.