Postmates

Postmates is a logistics company that operates a network of couriers who deliver goods locally. Postmates is closely compared to Uber because of its use of mobile phones to receive orders and dispatch delivery drivers. As of December 2014, Postmates operates in 18 U.S. cities. Postmates was founded in 2011 by Sam Street, Sean Plaice, and Bastian Lehmann and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. In December 2014, Postmates opened its application programming interface to merchants to allow small businesses to compete for speedy delivery of consumer goods with larger companies such as Amazon. The company also announced in December 2014 that it had completed its millionth delivery and that it had over 6,000 drivers in its network. Postmates is part of a category of businesses that rely on mobile phone applications and their Global Positioning System capabilities to quickly match inventories and consumer demand. Postmates co-founder Bastian Lehmann calls the company anti-Amazon, saying “Amazon comes along and builds a warehouse outside a city. We like to say the city’s our warehouse. We try to understand the inventory available, hacking the city, and having a fleet of delivery people that distribute these inventories.”