Friday, March 9th 2018
Palo Alto, Calif. - Janitorial supplies delivery start-up Shit.ly, also known as “Uber for Toilet Paper”, closed a $20M Series A round from Kleenex Ventures and Two-Ply Capital.
Shit.ly rolled out their services to over 20 major US cities in the last few months, and now deliver to more than 1000 households a week.
According to Shit.ly co-founder & CEO George P. Fekaka, ‘We thought, “this is no way to take a dump. There must be a service out there for all those poor folks who are in an emergency and need more TP. Sure, you can always use facial tissues as a backup, but those are typically reserved for other activities.”
Back in December 2013, with just enough seed funding to cover their costs, Shit.ly opened their Tee-Pee labs out in Little Rock, Utah in order to design the perfect toilet paper. They invited the general public to come, relieve themselves and evaluate their toilet paper in the process.
“We did months of A/B testing to find the optimal thickness of the paper sheets. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing work of our 50+ volunteers who took a few minutes (or in some cases, up to 30 minutes) out of their day to help optimize our product.”
In Fall of 2014, Shit.ly encountered major problems with their manufacturers in Guatemala over a scandal that the toilet paper was marketed as “GMO-free” but did indeed contain traces of genetically modified cornstarch. Thankfully they emerged from the scandal with their reputation unsullied, in part due to a very effective marketing campaign on Facebook.
“It was a tough time for the team, because we have dedicated our lives to pushing the limits of what can be done in the services industry. When you innovate at the cutting edge of technology, there will always be naysayers to pee on your parade. This is probably what Elon Musk must have felt like back when he started Tesla Motors.”
Palo Alto, Calif. - Janitorial supplies delivery start-up Shit.ly, also known as “Uber for Toilet Paper”, closed a $20M Series A round from Kleenex Ventures and Two-Ply Capital.
Shit.ly rolled out their services to over 20 major US cities in the last few months, and now deliver to more than 1000 households a week.
According to Shit.ly co-founder & CEO George P. Fekaka, ‘We thought, “this is no way to take a dump. There must be a service out there for all those poor folks who are in an emergency and need more TP. Sure, you can always use facial tissues as a backup, but those are typically reserved for other activities.”
Back in December 2013, with just enough seed funding to cover their costs, Shit.ly opened their Tee-Pee labs out in Little Rock, Utah in order to design the perfect toilet paper. They invited the general public to come, relieve themselves and evaluate their toilet paper in the process.
“We did months of A/B testing to find the optimal thickness of the paper sheets. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing work of our 50+ volunteers who took a few minutes (or in some cases, up to 30 minutes) out of their day to help optimize our product.”
In Fall of 2014, Shit.ly encountered major problems with their manufacturers in Guatemala over a scandal that the toilet paper was marketed as “GMO-free” but did indeed contain traces of genetically modified cornstarch. Thankfully they emerged from the scandal with their reputation unsullied, in part due to a very effective marketing campaign on Facebook.
“It was a tough time for the team, because we have dedicated our lives to pushing the limits of what can be done in the services industry. When you innovate at the cutting edge of technology, there will always be naysayers to pee on your parade. This is probably what Elon Musk must have felt like back when he started Tesla Motors.”
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