RouteSmith Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP OF THE MONTH

INITIAL LIGHTBULB

As a side project in 2004, Jeff Smith, a software developer at American Express in Denver with a background in higher mathematics, wrote a software application for a friend, the owner of a Dallas-based appliance distributor with a fleet of 10 trucks. Smith's software helped his friend streamline his routes and drastically cut planning time, which was a part-time job in itself. "He kind of drove the design of it," said Smith. "The software evolved from there. We sort of learned the hard way."

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Smith asked AmEx co-worker Matt DeWolf if he was interested in helping develop the software into a business. DeWolf jumped at the opportunity, and both left their jobs in 2005 to officially launch Route Smith early that year. They landed Denver-based Mattress King as a customer in August and now have four employees and 15 accounts.

IN A NUTSHELL

While Federal Express, UPS and big trucking companies have used route optimization and planning software for decades, small and medium-sized businesses have historically been priced out of the market. Thus, route planning remains "extremely manual" for many of these companies, said DeWolf, the company's president of sales and marketing. "We fell into a piece of the supply chain that hasn't been automated yet.

"What really is different and unique about (Route Smith) is we can effectively handle small customers, whereas everybody else has these big, server-side applications that are extremely expensive. We got a new customer yesterday and he said, 'The best I could find was $16,500 and $500 a year for maintenance, and that was bare bones.'"

RouteSmith fills this market gap with its pay-as-you-go service with a $75 setup fee and 99 cents per delivery thereafter. Most of RouteSmith's 15 customers are billed around $1,000 a month. "The more you use the system, the...