You’re switching apartments. You need to think about work, selling stuff and how you are going to buy a new bed. With everything going on you completely overlook how you are going to get all of your belongings to your new place. It’s too late to book a moving service and you are preparing to just move it yourself. But wait! With the new moving company, Zootly, your problems are solved. Zootly’s mobile friendly o- demand service is providing just what you need when life gets hectic.
Founder Rudy Callegari tells of his plans at attacking the residential moving market and how he hopes to help out the stressful mover.
Tell us about the product or service.
Launched in 2015, Zootly is an on-demand moving application created to solve the problem of getting things from point A to point B as easily as possible. Using licensed, insured, and experienced moving partners, consumers have peace of mind when moving just about anything. By offering short-notice moving, Zootly goes beyond digitizing their services changing the moving and logistics industry on the whole.
How is it different?
Zootly is New York’s first on-demand moving service, and operates the largest fleet of moving vehicles in the city. While traditional moving companies require reservations made days, weeks or even months in advance, Zootly allows consumer and commercial users to secure a truck and movers on short notice.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
The residential moving market is $1 billion a year – in New York City alone; that’s $45 billion annually nationwide.
What is the business model?
We work with licensed, insured, top-ranked moving company partners to provide short-notice transportation and moving support to consumers and businesses. We vet our partners very carefully, combing through obvious sources such as social media reviews but also talking to the NYDOT, insurance companies, and with the companies themselves. We also provide in-app costumer ratings. Our customers appreciate that we’re providing them with the best in the business to solve their moving needs. Since client acquisition can be both difficult and expensive, our partners appreciate the qualified new business, and we share the revenue.
Is there enough demand for moving to justify an on-demand app?
Absolutely! The national moving industry has revenues of $45 billion annually, yet up to 50% of all their trucks are empty at any given time. So from a business partner perspective, Zootly is really solving the problem of new customer acquisition and utilization of excess inventory. From a consumer perspective, we’ve become so accustomed to using our phones to book or get something on short notice – food, transportation, services – that taking something that is traditionally kind of a pain to arrange and plan, and making it fast and easy completely makes sense. In addition to making the transaction really simple, we’re also saving consumers hours of time that would be spent in research to get estimates and qualify reputable moving companies.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We are just launching now, so in our first six months what we would like to see is the widespread adaptation of Zootly for consumer and commercial moves in New York. We’ll also start our North America expansion, entering other major markets, and we’ll continue to vet and add top-quality licensed, insured moving and logistics partners.
If you could be put in touch with one investor in the New York community who would it be and why?
Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures – their focus on transforming existing markets into next-level offerings is inspiring.
Why did you launch in New York?
New York has special meaning to us – as a lifelong Brooklynite, this is my home. And I’ve moved 22 times in the last 20 years, so I understand how hard it is to get things from point A to point B in this town!
Where is your favorite place to visit in the area in the fall?
I love Fire Island this time of year!
