Cinci shipping startup Frayt to audition for Shark Tank
July 2, 2019
Cincinnati shipping startup Frayt has been invited to audition for Shark Tank.
Founder Clancy Boyer pitched the hit show’s producers on June 18 at event held at Rhinegeist Brewery. He had 90 seconds to explain the company and get out his ask.
“For my team at Frayt, we’re excited at the possibility of getting in front of a Shark,” he said. “We all watch the show. It’s an honor to be recognized for our hard work and to know we have an idea that’s at least interesting at these stages.”
Frayt is a marketplace platform for peer-to-peer shipping. It matches people with all kinds of shipping needs to a network of independent drivers with vehicles ranging from sedans to cargo vans.
“Shipping is a very opaque process. It’s a big mystery how it actually happens,” Clancy said. “We want to democratize shipping and delivery so that everybody has access.”
Whether you’re shipping for a retail chain, or baking cakes in your home kitchen that you need delivered, Frayt can service anyone, Clancy said.
The first prototype of the Frayt app launched in the Cincinnati/northern Kentucky region in November 2017. They spent the first year or so working out the kinks with a close-knit group of shippers before being accepted into the Brandery’s gBETA Accelerator.
Today, Frayt’s service area is stretching into Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville & Lexington. The app has been used to ship as far as Phoenix, Orlando & Connecticut. After hiring a sales rep in February, the team has watched business grow from 15 matches in January to 326 matches last month.
“We don’t compete with the big trucks, and we don’t want to,” he said. “We believe there’s plenty out there at that smaller level that we want to serve.”
If the company makes the final cut to get on the show, Clancy will be asking the Sharks for connections to national retailers. Right now, Frayt is serving B2B & B2C in the industrial supply market, picking up that last mile of delivery. The next market the company wants to target is individuals who purchase items that won’t fit in their cars, or order items online for store pickup, but don’t have the time to do the pickup, Clancy said.
“You buy it in-store, we’ll pick it up for you,” he said.
For more information on the platform, visit www.frayt.com.
