My name is Kwadwo, one of the cofounders of Shypmate. Shypmate is a way for people in Nigeria and Ghana to buy items and goods from the US and get it delivered through a traveler heading to one of those countries. We pay the travelers, the shoppers get their item at an affordable shipping price, and everyone is mostly happy. Perry Ogwuche, another cofounder, immigrated from Nigeria to the US for school and as a student had a pretty hard time finding an affordable way to send things back home. He often would wait until a friend was traveling back before sending things. So we started Shypmate to facilitate that behavior and process.<p>We'd love your thoughts on feedback on the idea and process. People can make orders through the website, WhatsApp number, or email. We only deliver items that have been purchased through Shypmate and never let travelers carry items that Shypmate does not buy directly. On the other end, shoppers can meet travelers at the airport or pay an extra fee for local delivery. Our goal is to make international shopping and shipping affordable and fast in countries where UPS, Fedex, and DHL charge too much.
Why not purchase these items via your company, batch them up into pallet-sized shipments, then arrange for commercial air transportation? You can then provide commercial invoices, cover any duty and taxes, have insurance to cover the goods from loss or damage during transport, and (bonus!) comply with the importation laws of the destination country.<p>I bet that would work out to be less than $25/item and you wouldn't have to count on mules to do your legwork for you.<p>It might even work out well as a UPS/Fedex competitor, saving shipping costs by batching shipments together and allowing you to expand into other countries. Though I'd be very surprised if this isn't already a solved shipping/logistics problem. It's not like transporting items between countries hasn't been around for centuries already; although existing solutions don't have the novelty your company brings to the table: offloading legal compliance onto your mules.
This is really a great idea.<p>The number of issues surrounding the idea (customs, legal issues, etc.) are obvious, and the discussions around them reminds me of the questions thrown at many of the other major sharing economy start-ups initially (Uber, AirBnB, et al.), but with a good team and some experimentation they will figure them out, as other major startups have done and continue to do.<p>People who have spent a good chunk of time in countries outside the US, already know people have been informally doing this en masse for a _long_ time. I have family in in West Africa who would be using this years ago if available, and I have lived in Asia, and other countries where every time I travel there are friends and friends of friends who ask me to buy and carry goods on their behalf, in both directions.<p>To me it seems Shypmate is just creating a formal system for these actions to take place, and if successful, will make it more efficient, useful, and available to more people while extracting some value for themselves (as any startup seeking profitability should).<p>Good luck to the team. I think there is a lot of potential here.
From the FAQ:<p>>When you reach your travel destination, the shopper will come pick up the product from the Airport and we will pay you (the traveler) as soon as the shopper receives and confirms that they have the product.<p>This seems like it introduces a lot of risk for the traveler. What happens if the shopper receives an item, but doesn't confirm it with Shypmate?<p>Further, as somebody that travels internationally fairly often, I'm not sure I'd be willing to do this. How are import/customs duties and declaration of goods handled? I can't find any information on the site. Further, given that this more or less looks like a scheme to skirt normal channels for importation of goods, what's going to stop the local customs authorities in Ghana or Nigeria from detaining travelers for participating in (what appears to be, though may not actually be) an illegal imports business?
It all sounds good until someone finds a way to sneak some drugs into one of the packages ... tends to work out poorly for the smugglers in a lot of countries.
Interestingly, this is not even the first smuggling business that Y Combinator has funded: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/13/backpack-connects-you-with-travelers-so-you-can-purchase-items-in-other-countries/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/13/backpack-connects-you-with-...</a>
You may consider trying this with Turkey, as well. Informally, friends and family do this kind of thing pretty regularly, and it was also common practice among colleagues at my company's Istanbul office.<p>Though it obviously doesn't offer the protections of a more formal arrangement, there is a Facebook group now to support connecting people – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/417504741672236/" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/groups/417504741672236/</a>
Normally I wouldn't note a startup's name for being similar to others.<p>But Shypmate, in the same industry as Shyp <i>and</i> Postmates (personal couriers), might receive some objection.
What has led to this opportunity in the first place? Restated: what's broken about shipping goods to Ghana and Nigeria currently that leads to high prices from the status quo shipping companies? What is the single biggest factor leading to high shipping costs?
How do you handle credit card / PayPal fraud? When I think about it, this is about the best cash out service I can think of. Carders and phishers are going to love you. The goods are going to be out of the country long before anybody notices any fraudulent charges on their accounts. Guess who is going to be left holding the bag?<p>EDIT: I hope your OPSEC is top notch. Your platform is going to be such a jummy target to all miscreants. Imagine what fun they could have if they had unrestricted access to your backend.