Startup Highlight – Shipizy

Shipizy is a marketplace community that connects travelers with people with shipping needs all around the world. I talked with their Founder & CEO, João Pina Souza to find out more about them.

What gap in the market does Shipizy propose to fill?
There are many well identified problems in the shipping and express delivery industry in which Shipizy is focused to develop a credible solution, while turning these problems into real and great business opportunities.

Imagine how many times people lost the opportunity to send the perfect gift to someone, simply because the available shipping options doesn’t suit their needs?

With Shipizy they will be connected to people traveling everywhere at anytime, and be able to choose the one that best suits their shipping needs.

What is the biggest advantage of using your service?
One of the main advantages is that we are reversing the order of business, allowing the consumer to establish his own price. We offer the first truly global platform for “crowdshipping”. All development is based on the real needs and opportunities of our potential users.

Besides that Shipizy meets the needs of individuals on physical and online marketplaces. It has no barriers and is prepared for local or worldwide deliveries.

Trust seems to play a big role in how you operate. Can you talk about the safety measures you’ve implemented?
We develop Shipizy always in mind that security it’s so important for us as it for our users, our success depend on that.
Because of that we put all our efforts to create one of the most detailed user profile validations in the world, so it only depends on our users to improve their trust rank.

We always recommend that our users must check everything, to do not accept closed box items, touch and check if they are exactly the same as the online item description, and do not accept or send items with high values, and if they feel uncomfortable with anything just give up.

Also our features allow to users validate their multi-social networks, payment protection using a disruptive and new deliver-code system, 2-steps mobile and sms validation code, off-line identification using drive-license, ID card, others, ratings, insurance, internal msg system with process tracking, between other features.

These resources of trust and security allow users to make informed choices when they have to decide, but Shipizy is a network made by people for people, at the end is that users choose who they want to share the experience, we’ll just make the experience better.

Collaborative consumption services are growing immensely. What do you see happening in the future?
In the last decade some P2P platforms for exchange, sale, or simply to share products have emerged, and these concept of sharing economy and collaborative consumption appears in force in mid-2009 as a result of the financial crisis in the U.S. and later in Europe.

Also the global loss of purchasing power, the way of how people see the right of possession, and the advancement of technology and social networks have turn 2012 the year that more solutions arise on the market. As has been referenced by some well know online websites or LeWeb, 2014 will be the year of Sharing Economy.
These new and innovative solutions, mainly car-sharing and carpooling have played an important role in legislative changes which indicates positive indicators for a wider adoption of this type of  business in the coming years, which becomes very promising for Shipizy as a company that intends to create a new market as a solid and better alternative to the one already established.

Crowdshipping it’s exciting and innovative, but we also have to be prepared to minimise potential problems with these model.

Legal issues may be a problem of expansion in some countries, but our strategy is to grow sustainably and gradually as required and maintain the terms of the  business model without colliding with any barriers.

What is your connection with humanitarian causes?
Through partners linked to humanitarian causes and charitable institutions we intend to promote the spirit of mutual aid on a global scale. Situations where there is the need to ship goods and materials will be promoted on the platform, providing opportunities for travellers from around the world can be the missing link, no boundaries, no rewards, just for the joy of helping.

Shipizy is an important response to the current environmental crisis by reusing means of transport and leveraging voids.

What other startup is currently on your radar and why?
Despite being a personal friend of the founder and owner, I think that Doctorhome will be the first Portuguese startup with global scale in healthcare.

To find out more about Shipizy visit http://www.shipizy.com/