Kyle
In reading the pitch from Swiss startup Nearbors I immediately started thinking about Zaarly. The pitch talks about being too busy to go out shopping for groceries or food and having someone else do it for you. Zaarly has done well in some big city markets and is deploying across other medium markets in the United States, so why not have a similar startup in Switzerland?
Well after watching the video below, I quickly realized that Nearbors has taken part of the Zaarly concept a lot further and they’ve combined mobile payments.
Here’s how it works:
Say you’re on deadline either working from home or the office. It’s lunch time and you need some groceries or a decent salad and sandwich. With Zaarly you put the request out there and hope that someone responds.
With Nearbors, there is a community of folks out there waiting for your Nearbor requests. Nearbors, neighbor couriers sign up for the service, have GPS enabled on their phone and receive “jobs” while they are enroute.
So now say Sally is passing by Panera and they are networked into the Nearbors program. I can order a half sandwich and macaroni and cheese and have Sally bring it to me on her way back to her office.
The best part is that through Nearbors they already have my payment information. When Sally gets to checkout she shares a QR code unique to my payment information order and voila it’s paid for. I can see where Sally is enroute to my home or office in the app and then when she arrives I can click the app one more time to pay her a “commission”.
This idea is very well thought out and according to co-founder Ryan Vannin they hope for global expansion. We got a chance to talk with Vannin who’s native tongue is Italian, so please look past his English and onto this great idea.
What is Nearbors?
Nearbors is a community driven platform that gives the ability to people already in movement to purchase and deliver local goods faster, cheaper and more efficiently on behalf of people unable to move.
We solve the problem of having purchased items at home faster and cheaper than ever before. We strive to create a seamless buying experience from the beginning to the end of the shopping experience.
We want to help individuals unable to move to have their purchased goods at their homes more efficiently and at the best value worldwide.
Nearbors reaches these goals by avoiding unnecessary costs (e.g., for paying couriers) and by leveraging key mobile technology and solutions (e.g., NFC or mobile payments). What’s great, it’s that it adapts to other markets (e.g., for helping elderly or disabled individuals). In a few words: Nearbors enables the fastest and least expensive way to receive your purchased items at home. Anywhere.
In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)
Nearbors with its platform connects people that is unable to move with people available and ready to do tasks (in particular shopping) for them.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Barbara Vannin
By completing her previous studies (Business Administration & Psychology) with an MBA in Business Innovation and her experiences in both organization and management, our co-founder leads the project with an unbeatable precision. She’s in charge for the strategic planning, financial and accounting services. She’s also the director of a leading consulting agency specializing in communication & corporate strategy for startups and SMBs based in Lugano. She’s passionate about business and innovation and her interests range from technology to fashion. She’s upfront with everything web 2.0 and in love with the color pink.
Ryan Vannin
Studies in Informatics (2 years of PhD). Owns a degree in Communication and Marketing. He went on to develop various experiences in the field of communication and consulting for companies and institutions; spent some stints in the US and, over the years, he has been involved in organizing in-company training courses and in teaching wed design and development at the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland. With a lifetime passion for advertising, creativity and web design, in 2008 he set up a consulting agency specializing in communication and corporate strategy with a focus on startups and SMBs. He’s into everything tech-startup and is a self-taught geeky-style developer.
Where are you based?
We’re currently based in Massagno, near Lugano, in the Southern part of Switzerland. We’re 50 miles from Milan and our main language is Italian.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
Switzerland is ranking #1 in terms of innovative country. In general startups were tied to industrial or medical fields and came from a direct scientific background. Think of Logitech and other pharma-kind business of the last decade.
In these last years in Switzerland attention from institutions and investors towards tech or web based startups is growing. In Ticino, were we live, last year the Government has established the Foundation Agire, a public founded institution to help and support local innovative startups with seed or first round fundings. The admission rate is very low, but ensures the highest quality of the projects. We hope to be one of the startups funded in the next round.
How did you come up with the idea for Nearbors?
We already have a business, an ad agency. We’re working from home and the nature of our business sometimes is really demanding. It occurs that we don’t even have time to go out and do some shopping. So, one day, in March 2012, after ordering the tenth time pizza from a local delivery service, we wanted to eat something different. Remember: we don’t live in a big urban area and, a part from pizza or a couple of restaurants that offer delivery service, there’s no way to receive stuff at home.
We were wondering how it was possible that in a hyper-connected world nobody thought to connect people who are in need of something with people who potentially are available and ready to help?
So we posted a shopping list on Facebook and saw that our friend’s response was great. This threw the base for a MVP and then we decided to develop a prototype and show it to friends and family. Meanwhile services such as Postmates and TaskRabbit emerged and we thought that the timing was perfect to try and develop a services which merges community, technology and shopping experience.
How did you come up with the name?
Well, Nearbors combines two words: near, local, not far from home and neighbors/neighborhood. Usually friendly neighbors are live-savers. We thought that a customer using Nearbors has to feel like asking a favor to a friend or a neighbor.
What problem does Nearbors solve?
We solve the problem of having purchased items at home faster and cheaper than ever before. We strive to create a seamless buying experience from the beginning to the end of the shopping experience.
What’s your secret sauce?
Hard work, few hours of sleep, a lot of caffeine, passion and motivation. Plus we’re sure that Nearbors is a great idea and we are committed 100% to make it happen!
Are you bootstrapped or funded?
We’re bootstrapped, but we’re on a short-list for a seed funding round in early January.
What is your goto market strategy?
We’re almost done with our beta and soon we will release some invites. We’ve more than 1’000 subscribers and this will help us test and progress with a final release of the platform. Meanwhile we will start all the “classic” market activities while preparing to launch. We are also waiting to sign a contract with the local government for a test phase, but working with institutions requires months (which we don’t have).
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
We’re still facing a lot of challenges. Among these the state of current mobile payment (NFC or software based?) is one of the priorities. A second priority is to rise some funds in order to have the same “weapons” as our closest competitors, who each have raised millions in these last months.
What’s next for Nearbors?
We’re planning to move in the US in the coming months to focus on our market entry.
Linkage:
Sign up for early beta access to nearbors here
