SHIP SHOP: Two former UPS managers build a beachfront tech company to beat back the giant parcel deliverers.

• Author: Mildenberg, David

The adjoining picture makes it very clear: Keith Byrd and Travis Burt don't take themselves too seriously. These guys started their logistics consulting business in a 200-square-foot storage closet in Emerald Isle's South Swell Surf Shop, which is co-owned by Byrd. But there's nothing simplistic about their success story, which stems from decades of experience moving stuff from warehouse to front door. Transportation Impact LLC helps more than 600 clients trim spending on shipping parcels and loads of products ranging from computers to golf clubs. Based in the Carteret County beach town, the consulting business has ranked among Inc. magazine's 5,000 fastest-growing U.S. companies for the last five years. It is on pace to post revenue of $31 million this year.

Partners Byrd and Burt, both 54, credit much of their success to lessons learned during a combined 43 years at Atlanta-based delivery giant United Parcel Service. Byrd started as a driver, while Burt joined as a part-time warehouse worker. Before the entrepreneurial bug bit in 2008, Byrd's last post was at the company's headquarters, while Burt was a senior regional manager based in Greenville.

"Our wives and family members thought we were crazy for leaving good-paying jobs," Byrd says. What was crazier was their assumption that UPS wouldn't care about their new venture. Their business proposition, after all, aims to reduce the delivery company's take by showing shippers ways to save money.

"Others told us that the company would come after us, but we thought, 'No, we don't move packages, and we haven't done anything wrong.' But UPS did sue us." After several months, the duo settled by agreeing not to sell their service in the Carolinas for two years.

"It made us get out of our comfort zone and knock on doors," Byrd says. It took time to get the business moving, as the founders have not taken private-equity investment and added only one other partner, Doug Starcke, who runs an affiliated business, First Flight Solutions. "We ate beanies and weenies for a while," Byrd says. They initially targeted prospects in Southeast towns where they could avoid hotel expenses by spending the night with relatives or friends.

Their concept impresses chief financial officers befuddled by transportation invoices. Transportation Impact gets paid a percentage of savings secured for customers, who must spend at least $200,000 annually on shipping charges. Not charging an upfront fee helps the company get in...