?? The History of Carryr - How It All Started

Some stories are told with a clear journey from A to B, this one begins way back before the journey was even realised.

Like many of us, I officially started my career in retail; on the shopfloor amongst the madness.

I chose to do this as I had something bigger on my mind, I wanted to build my own home recording studio.

At the age of 14, I found my creative and entrepreneurial streak by producing and engineering music for up and coming artists across the internet. I had zero experience but a lot of passion. I just downloaded some software and started.

In 2009 I really started to find my feet and got to a point where I needed to upgrade my software and really wanted to get a microphone, a small mixer and a few sample packs and plugins. This led to my first ever experience in delivery with a company called Yellow Pages (you know, those big yellow catalogues of business' phone number, remember?).

These have now been extinct for a while now but the equipment I was looking at totalled around ï¿¡150, if I remember correctly, which would take me a while to save up my school dinner money if I starved myself throughout the day (previously done in 2006 to afford a drum kit, which I wasn't allowed to buy in the end).

So, at the age of 14 what did I do? I convinced my mum to take up a cash-in-hand job of delivering Yellow Pages (I was too young to apply). We'd use her car and split the money. For two weeks straight we ploughed through a mountain of the yellow books we had stored in our living room during the summer evenings after school. Not many of my friends knew why I didn't want to meet after school, but this was it. And I received my first ever paycheck and bought exactly what I wanted – I felt like I was on top of the world.

When I left school I wanted to build something a bit bigger, I wanted to build a recording studio that could incubate some of the best talent in the local area. My mum had just moved out and me and my dad didn't have much between us so I sent out a bunch of CVs and got hired to fold t-shirts at JD Sports. Despite other peoples opinion, I found it quite therapeutic.

Whilst studying Music Technology and working part-time, I began to build what I always dreamed of with what little I had:

Two years went by in no time, I finished my studies and got accepted at the SAE Institute in London. This was my only choice due to the diversity of equipment I could learn on and all of the connections I could make. I spent 6 months reading, back to front, the manuals of all of the mixing desks and tape machines they had.

I had three months left until I had to disappear off into the sunset, but something else started to catch my attention, and day-by-day I started to obsess. I loved the dynamics of retail. I loved merchandising wall and window displays. I loved getting a sense of fulfilment each time I helped a customer. I wanted to learn more and couldn't leave this all behind just yet.

Turns out that the student loans and grants wouldn't completely cover the course and accommodation anyway and my dad tried but didn't quite have enough to help out with so after a few weeks of thinking I decided to push through, save up and apply again the year after.

I went full time and very quickly began to learn more and started to progress. I loved it. Next year came by and I was starting to dip my toes into the water of management – this was never the plan but I just let it all unfold (just like that first t-shirt I got hired to fold) and put further education off a little longer until I was "ready".

You're probably thinking; what does Carryr have to do with all of this. Well, this is the pivotal moment where things started to fall into place.

By getting into management I started to understand the drivers of business a lot better, which inspired me. I really wanted to start something for myself. But I didn't know what just yet. At the age of 21, I thought about my personal development and what I felt I needed to work on. Being naturally introverted, I wanted to strengthen my sales confidence and I developed a curiosity behind the psychology of sales. So what did I do?

I applied for a sales job to sell furniture at DFS.

My friends and family supported me but they weren't entirely sure if I'd do well at it. After a couple of months of trial and error, I found my flow and used my personality to my advantage and really, REALLY enjoyed it... I was pretty good at it too. The money was great as well, the most I ever made – I couldn't believe it.

It was here where I developed a great friendship with a colleague and both decided to start a side gig together in our spare time. He mentioned he'd previously been a courier and suggested we could start with that and see what happens and have a look into property as we start to make some money, I went with it. I never really thought much of logistics but I was open-minded to give it a try.

We convinced a bunch of people with vans to help us out and then we started knocking on business' doors around Cambridge. We faced a tonne of rejection but pushed through. A couple of months went by and we got our first inbound call... CHA-CHING!!!

From an outsiders perspective, the logistics sector only presented unanswered questions rather than a sense of fulfilment. And, at the time my girlfriend would orders loads of clothes online and EVERY. SINGLE. TIME., the delivery experience would let her down. Orders would get delivered when she wasn't in, the orders didn't get delivered in time, orders would get stolen from "safe places", delivery companies had awful service, etc. It was usually me that would end up chasing up such enquiries, which of course got me frustrated too. As it turns out, everyone else I spoke with had been through similar experiences and have just accepted these standards.

I entered the rabbit hole.

"I could schedule a same-day delivery for a business easily, why an earth can't the average consumer do the same with their online orders..." I started to think back to my days at JD Sports; "if the product is stocked locally, what's stopping delivery companies collecting from the local store and delivering straight to the customer when they want it?"

I started to feel a level of responsibility, I felt like I HAD to solve this problem of inconvenience that so many people experience on a daily basis.

"Imagine the amount of stress I could reduce and the time I could give back to people."

In 2017 I started reading more and more about startups, technology and companies like Uber and Deliveroo. I had to be part of this. I packed up everything, bought a bicycle, moved into my girlfriends' parents house (which led to living in a glorified shed for 9 months) and signed up as a rider to deliver food in the evenings. I just wanted to learn.... and earn!

I also started selling a bunch of products on the Amazon marketplace to see if I could get an inside perspective on the customer experience. Quick lesson: don't try to sell electronics with a UK power socket into another countries' marketplace.

Here's my last day at DFS with some great friends:

I couldn't believe it. This gig work would have been an absolute game-changer when I was building my studio!!

Each night I met more and more riders. Another obsession – when will it end! With every rider I met, I asked them about their experience and expressed my excitement like a giddy puppy. This was the missing piece to my never-ending puzzle.

I decided to sell all of my music equipment to fund the build of an app. Things were still a little hazy but I just wanted to start something and figure out the details.

Here comes the most expensive mistake I've made thus far:

I contracted a software development company to make an Uber-style MVP; an app for a customer, the other for a rider. Instead of moving people, it was "things" – I wanted to do EVERYTHING. I started knocking on the doors of a bunch of different SME's and NO ONE wanted to use it. Ouch!

After a few months of recalibrating, I started to build out a network of people in the startup scene to get some advice. I didn't know what I was doing. With hindsight, I wasn't focused enough and I wasn't targeting or understanding the problem well enough.

I was back at zero so I started looking into no-code solutions to start experimenting and also began to actively look for someone to bounce ideas off. I met someone called Mike on an online forum and, very quickly, became really good friends – plus, he was from Cambridge too. We spent hours debating about everything and began bouncing ideas around.

At the time he was building an app where shoppers could find fashion products in their local area. Which I took an interest in and helped out here and there. He did the same with me. It all dawned on me. I just realised how large the broken delivery experience was with the fashion and apparel e-commerce market.

I got my head down and built a Facebook Messenger chatbot where a shopper can send a link to a product they wanted from a retailers site and I'd get it from the store and deliver it to them within an hour. We had a few successful deliveries, but mostly failed requests as the store didn't have the product or size in stock. I needed to access inventory desperately and needed to be a delivery option upon checkout.

Here's me delivering our first order:

After months of interviews and trials of finding the right technical co-founder, I had no luck. However, I didn't realise that the answer had been right in front of me for nearly a year, but the timing was everything – a relationship needed to flourish naturally. After so much help and technical advice Mike eventually gave in and I finally convinced him to become a co-founder with me. It felt right so right!

After the chatbot phase, we started to build out a system that would make our delivery option appear upon checkout and could also read inventory levels to validate eligibility. It took a while to build and figure out but, during the development, I started to reach out to prospective retailers and eventually got introduced to an awesome brand; The Cambridge Satchel Company.

Towards the end of 2019, they agreed to give us a go and on Valentine's Day 2020 we got our first order, delivered by myself on my bike!! (that customer also got a fresh red rose with their order)

More recently in 2021, we've hit a huge milestone of 100% month-on-month growth for two months in a row and we're now looking to push the growth even further with many more retailers and new locations.

The story to be continued... If you want to be part of it as a Retail Partner, Investor or even an early team member then feel free to send me a message at chris@carryr.com ??