Welcome back to the Startup Junkies podcast!
Hosts Caleb Talley, Matthew Ward, and Jeff Amerine sat down with Jigesh Vora, the founder and CEO of SwiftGo. Jigesh comes from a family of businessmen, was a professional consultant for one of the Big Four retailers, and has a background in startups. For his third startup, SwiftGo, Jigesh decided to tackle one of the biggest problems with in-store shopping: checkout lines. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Matthew, Jeff, and Jigesh discussed how the application works, addressed questions about competition and hesitant users, and dreamed about the exciting future of SwiftGo and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Thanks for tuning in!
Show Notes:
(2:04) Origin Story
(5:07) How the Application Works
(6:41) Competition
(11:03) Developed for Shoppers
(20:38) Securing Intellectual Property and the Future of SwiftGo
(26:25) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
(29:03) The Most Exciting Piece of Running SwiftGo
(31:06) Raise Venture Capital or Fund Organically?
(33:37) Landing the Plane – Advice to Younger Self
(38:32) Connecting with SwiftGo
Links:
Quotes:
“As they say…simple is tough, right? When you think about it, it’s tough to build something that is simple, and it took us a while.” – Jigesh Vora, (5:22)
“The exciting part [of running SwiftGo] is being able to pivot quickly and build things and be creative. And then in the future, see those happen. I think that that’s the most exciting part. So yeah, it can be tiring at times. It can be stressful at times, but it never gets frustrating is how I put it…Our decision is our own…If we don’t believe in it, we change and we do something we believe in.” – Jigesh Vora, (29:47)
“The one thing I would definitely pass on [to my younger self] is, don’t be stressed…when you believe in something, be okay with standing your ground…be okay with taking the shot and yeah, it might not work out, it might work out, but it’s your shot and go with what you feel like.” – Jigesh Vora, (34:19)
Solving the Customer Experience Issue
Hosts Caleb Talley, Matthew Ward, and Jeff Amerine sat down with Jigesh Vora, the founder and CEO of SwiftGo. Jigesh comes from a family of businessmen, was a professional consultant for one of the Big Four retailers, and has a background in startups. For his third startup, SwiftGo, Jigesh decided to tackle one of the biggest problems with in-store shopping: checkout lines. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Matthew, Jeff, and Jigesh discussed how the application works, addressed questions about competition and hesitant users, and dreamed about the exciting future of SwiftGo and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Retail Experience is Changing
“As they say…simple is tough, right? When you think about it, it’s tough to build something that is simple, and it took us a while.” – Jigesh Vora, (5:22)
Jigesh did a lot of his shopping in person, and like many others, he grew impatient trying to locate items and having to wait in checkout lines. As a result, Jigesh and his team devised a simple yet innovative solution with a smart cart app called SwiftGo. With this platform, customers download the specific retailer’s app, go to the store, scan the barcode on the cart they are using to sync with the SwiftGo app, scan their items and place them in the cart, then pay through the app before leaving. Customers can also search for an item in the app and find the exact location, thus omitting the biggest frustrations with shopping in-store.
Addressing Competition
Many apps designed to simplify the in-person shopping experience still require customers to stand in a line. Stores like Amazon are trying a similar smart cart process where customers skip lines altogether, but they employ expensive visual recognition technology that is largely unable to be scaled to multiple retailers due to equipment and costs.
With SwiftGo, existing shopping carts are retrofitted with cost-effective equipment that uses weight as a data point instead of visual recognition. The equipment also requires infrequent calibration and has a longer battery life than most. These strategies help SwiftGo keep costs lower for themselves and for retailers looking to utilize the technology, and altogether improve the experience for the retailer and the customer.
Funding and Future of SwiftGo
With plans to fund their startup organically, the team at SwiftGo can work at their own pace and adjust as needed without the stress of a timeline that venture capital requires.
Jigesh is excited about the idea of pivoting quickly, being creative, offering a product he believes in, and being part of a fast-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northwest Arkansas.
“The one thing I would definitely pass on [to my younger self] is, don’t be stressed…when you believe in something, be okay with standing your ground…be okay with taking the shot and yeah, it might not work out, it might work out, but it’s your shot and go with what you feel like.” – Jigesh Vora, (34:19)
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