A former Telogis Inc. executive aims to free up time for office workers and other employees by providing pickup and concierge services during the day via smart phone app.
“The problem is not uniquely mine,” said MyShoperoo founder Krishna Vanka, who’s juggling demands of entrepreneurship and his 3-year-old son, Aditya. “This is a common [issue] for all employees.”
The Aliso Viejo-based company has signed a handful of corporate clients since its July launch, including shared-office provider TechSpace, where it’s headquartered. Two human resources benefits companies are also aboard: BeaconPath in Mission Viejo and TriNet Group Inc. in the Bay Area—the latter with 2,000 workers.
Vanka wants a hundred clients by year-end and has begun by targeting tech firms—which like the service as a recruiting and retention perk to offer workers—and the HR industry, loaded with companies that have networks of corporate clients who may also seek out the service.
Driver’s Seat
Businesses pay $79 a month per employee; costs can decline based on more users, who offload shopping, dry cleaning runs, and ordering goods and services from local businesses, excluding restaurants.
AI-based software creates optimum routes for drivers—“shoperoos”—who shuttle between businesses and the workplace.
Requests logged by 1 p.m. are completed by 4 p.m., within a 5-mile radius; longer trips are done by the next day. Food comes in freezer bags keeping contents cold for up to six hours.
Users pay only for the goods or services with no added fees.
On an average day, 20 to 30 users access the service.
Sharing Rides
MyShoperoo holds potential benefits for others within its developing network: local independent retailers and drivers from ride-sharing companies such as Uber or Lyft.
The company pays $25 an hour for its afternoon crunch time, which commonly coincides with some of the slowest-demand periods for ride-sharing.
“We’re tapping into this time frame when they’re not making money,” said Vanka, a graduate of the Los Angeles chapter of the Founder Institute, a startup accelerator in more than 180 cities (see Startups & Innovations column, page 32).
The service intends to help funnel business into the local economy, drawing consumers to flower shops, pet stores, bakeries and others and potentially away from online retail.
“We’re trying to reverse the cycle,” said Vanka, who’s hyperfocused on growing the business in OC. “If we can do this in Orange County, we can do this anyplace.”
He raised more than $100,000 last year from friends and family to get the bootstrapped company off the ground.
Car Guy
Vanka became the first product manager at Telogis in 2013, shortly after the telematics specialist raised $93 million in a Series A funding round led by Menlo Park investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, now Kleiner Perkins.
Aliso Viejo-based Telogis used GPS technology and proprietary software to help commercial fleets create better routes, track shipments and deliveries, manage mobile workforces, and smooth workflows.
By the time he left Telogis in 2017, he was vice president of product management, responsible for half the company’s annual revenue, which topped $100 million at the time.
His departure came a year after Telogis was acquired for $900 million by Verizon Communications Inc. The software maker is now part of a unit called Verizon Connect, which manages vehicle fleets.
