Shipping dilemma spawns fast-growing startup

They ended up constructing a complete new firm, PackDash, which caters to the logistical wants of small- to mid-size retailers. They moved the corporate headquarters to Tucson and opened a achievement middle close to downtown in August 2021.

Now, Norwood and DiCosola are shifting to boost capital and scale up the enterprise after becoming a member of the yearling resident mentorship program on the College of Arizona’s FORGE (Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs) enterprise accelerator in July.

PackDash lately received a vote of confidence — and a shot of no-strings capital — when Norwood was awarded $100,000 by the Google Startup Black Founders Fund to advance the corporate.

Norwood, who grew up in Tucson and is a UA alum, additionally is one of 250 finalists for the Black Ambition prize, sponsored by rapper Pharrell Williams and providing 50 founders money prizes starting from $25,000 to $1 million.

Norwood stated he and DiCosola, whose wives are sisters, got here up with the thought for his or her hemp-oil enterprise Halfday CBD in 2018, when the federal Farm Act made hemp rising authorized.

On the time, Norwood was working as a contract-relations supervisor for a significant staffing agency, and DiCosola was vice chairman for a Chicago startup constructing expertise for workplace managers, after beforehand working three years in senior positions at a significant well being care tech agency.

Halfday CBD (Cannabidiol) took off, and Norwood remembers making $10,000 to $20,000 a weekend promoting merchandise at marketplaces and festivals.

“When COVID hit, we couldn’t do occasions anymore, so we had been compelled on-line,” he stated.

However the firm had severe points with its transport supplier, together with an order accuracy charge of simply 77% at one level, Norwood stated.

“It felt paralyzing as a enterprise proprietor, as a result of I couldn’t develop my enterprise,” he stated.

After discovering different logistics providers missing or too expensive, Norwood and DiCosola determined to construct their very own transport operation.

They rented out an area previously occupied by a dry cleaner on Chicago’s north aspect and transformed the area, cleansing and putting in stock racking and a transport station themselves, Norwood recalled.

Norwood stated that after speaking up the success of their achievement middle within the Chicago enterprise neighborhood, some entrepreneurs shared the identical issues and requested if Norwood and DiCosola might ship their merchandise — and a few associates supplied to put money into their logistics operation.

“We had been like, wow, this has some legs, and CBD was changing into tough to promote, so it was a pure pivot for us,” he stated.

After simply a few years, PackDash has about 50 shoppers that promote a variety of merchandise, together with diapers, pizza condiment packets, croutons and child method, together with distributors to Complete Meals and Walmart.

“We discovered this sort of area of interest we carved out of anyone who’s underneath 20,000 orders monthly, and may’t discover custom-made, versatile, reasonably priced, scalable logistics achievement providers,” Norwood stated. “You’ve bought to be doing a ton of enterprise to have the eye you want, and that’s what we’ve been capable of service.”

Generally known as a third-party logistics firm, PackDash provides a variety of custom-made providers, together with customized “kitting,” which may embody labeling and packing of particular person objects, and responsive help with a devoted Slack chat channel and agent for every shopper.

In some circumstances, Norwood stated, PackDash can also supply extra stock storage than giants like Amazon, which limits the stock of a specific merchandise its sellers can retailer in its warehouses, and likewise ship stock as wanted to firms like Amazon.

He recalled a shopper who wanted to retailer a big minimal order of diapers from a German firm, which was greater than Amazon would maintain in its warehouse.

PackDash was capable of retailer the surplus and “feed” Amazon product as wanted, he stated, noting that Amazon vehicles usually go to PackDash’s warehouses to choose up stock.

The corporate plugs its logistics expertise right into a buyer’s present e-commerce platform, schedules stock supply and storage, and handles packing and transport, and works with e-commerce methods to set off automated monitoring and supply notifications.

PackDash works with all the main e-commerce platforms, together with Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Etsy and Google.

The startup is within the means of elevating capital to develop, with plans to open 4 extra achievement facilities throughout the nation within the subsequent three to 5 years, Norwood stated.

When the PackDash founders had been trying to develop with a achievement operation within the West, Tucson naturally on the prime of the record, stated DiCosola, who visited Tucson typically whereas courting his future spouse.

“I might go to, like it, then have to return,” DiCosola stated.

It was a homecoming for Norwood, who got here to Tucson along with his household from California when he was 10, attended Catalina Foothills Excessive and acquired a bachelor’s diploma in regional improvement from the UA in 2011. Norwood, who ran monitor in highschool, served as supervisor of the UA monitor staff for 5 years whereas finding out for his diploma.

After graduating, he moved to Chicago to begin his profession and met future enterprise accomplice DiCosola.

The PackDash founders actually walked into their Arizona FORGE expertise after arriving in Tucson final 12 months.

They strolled into the FORGE places of work on the historic Roy Place constructing downtown and had been greeted by members of Startup Tucson, a nonprofit enterprise incubator hosted by the UA at FORGE, who launched Norwood and DiCosola to FORGE employees.

DiCosola, who has been concerned in a number of startups and was a mentor at a Chicago enterprise accelerator for practically three years, stated FORGE supplies workplace area and a spot to fulfill with different native entrepreneurs.

“FORGE had been a good way to be uncovered to different entrepreneurs within the ecosystem,” he stated. “A whole lot of the schooling you want as a enterprise proprietor can come from structured assets, however a lot comes from different entrepreneurs.”

DiCosola stated the corporate will probably be trying to transfer right into a a lot bigger facility in Tucson by subsequent 12 months and expects to make use of about 50 folks right here.

The corporate’s Tucson achievement middle, in an outdated brick industrial middle at 830 E. sixteenth St., is sort of at capability already at 6,000 sq. toes; its middle within the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois, is 20,000 sq. toes.

“We wish to be a part of the neighborhood and create alternatives for extra than simply ourselves, and dealing with FORGE we can’t solely get uncovered to assets and methods to boost cash and discover consultants, however we will additionally make pals and develop our community, even discover new shoppers.”

Brian Ellerman, FORGE’s founding director, stated the PackDash founders have been profitable thus far and have already attracted curiosity from native buyers, however like all fast-growing startups face challenges in scaling up.

“They simply want that mentoring and recommendation to assist them take care of that progress, learn how to do it in a method that doesn’t destroy them within the course of,” Ellerman stated.