Reveel is a leading Parcel Shipping Intelligence platform that enables companies to level the playing field with major carriers, such as FedEx and UPS. The company’s unique technology enables shippers to break free of expensive parcel shipping consultants with an easy-to-use software app that brings transparency to the black box of carrier agreements. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Reveel’s co-founder and CEO Josh Dunham to learn more about the company.
Josh Dunham’s Background
What is Dunham’s background? Dunham said:
“I founded Reveel in 2006 with my business partner, creating the world’s first self-service parcel shipping intelligence platform. The goal was to use our industry experience and the latest technology to help businesses that rely on parcel shipping get smarter about their shipping expenses, transforming complex data into savings.”
“Before Reveel, I worked in various sales capacities at DHL, consistently ranking within the top 1% of nationwide sales achievers. I have a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Pepperdine University – and as a past president of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), I am very passionate about helping young entrepreneurs succeed.”
Formation Of Reveel
How did the idea for Reveel come together? Dunham shared:
“In my previous role handling sales for a company entrusted with the resale of DHL services, I quickly noticed a glaring absence of pricing transparency within the shipping industry. It struck me that smaller shippers often enjoyed more favorable discounts compared to their larger counterparts.”
“I took it upon myself to chat with our pricing department as this seemed off. I learned that these variations resulted from superior negotiation tactics by smaller vendors, or in other cases the presence of competitive bids. When these situations arose, we offered enhanced discounts to win the business. I quickly came to a realization: the opacity surrounding pricing left shippers clueless about the potential rates available to them. Shippers were left to rely solely on assurances from their carrier representatives that they had secured an optimum deal. They had no way of knowing if this was the truth or not. Little did these shippers know, these representatives were incentivized by the margins of the accounts they managed, so it was unlikely all their deals were optimal for anyone other than the representative.”
“It was at that juncture that I and my business partner resolved to establish a company dedicated to fostering transparency within the shipping landscape, helping to even the odds with the big two carriers – i.e., FedEx and UPS. This is where the initial idea for Reveel came from.”
“As we talked with potential prospects and industry leaders, the idea evolved into developing a data and analysis platform for shippers, giving them accurate data about their own shipping profiles and the fees charged by the carriers, so they could optimize their shipping processes and obtain the best deals possible.”
“As the CEO of Reveel, I am responsible for creating and advancing the corporate strategy and vision of the business. I also directly oversee the technology and operations departments, helping to ensure that our platform is meeting the current and future needs of our customers.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Dunham’s favorite memory working for Reveel so far? Dunham reflected:
“It’s very difficult to choose just one specific memory. Early on, I look back on some of the early wins we had when it was just my business partner and I doing sales. Since then, as the company has added more employees, I really value watching our employees get married, start families and buy their first houses. Not only do I feel great for each employee, but I feel honored to take a small part in the journey with them.”
Core Products
What are Reveel’s core products and features? Dunham explained:
“At Reveel, our core mission is to empower shippers to optimize their shipping spending, leveling the playing field with major industry behemoths like UPS, FedEx, and others.”
“We arm businesses that depend on parcel shipping with the easy-to-use technology needed to dissect their specific shipping data and information. Our SaaS-based Shipping Intelligence Platform gives customers the power to swiftly gauge the financial repercussions of adjusting certain variables, such as packaging size or shipping speed, carrier fees and surcharge changes, and regional vs. national carriers. Through real-time monitoring and comparative analysis, the platform continuously scrutinizes agreements and produces actionable insights aimed at cost reduction.”
“In short, Reveel empowers customers to leverage the power of data science to capture significant ROI.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Dunham and the team faced in building the company? Dunham acknowledged:
“Operating a business, it seems we run into challenges daily. My philosophy is pretty simple when facing challenges: start with the goal (or desired outcome) in mind, empower a capable team and act with transparent conversations and actions.”
Evolution Of Reveel’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dunham noted:
“Reveel’s business has evolved over time from that of a managed service, back-end business to that of a customer-facing, SaaS platform provider. Technology has always been core to our company and a part of our offering, but a couple of years ago we noticed something important – businesses that relied on shipping were growing weary of the traditional consulting model that the majority of the industry relied upon.”
“Taking a step back, for years shippers have navigated in the dark, lacking visibility into their shipping operations and lacking the capability to scrutinize the multitude of shipments processed daily. It was impossible to even ascertain the fairness of their current carrier contracts or detect potential losses. Many have been blindsided upon receiving quarterly invoices, discovering they unknowingly incurred overage charges due to slight package discrepancies or, worse yet, realizing they’ve been operating at a loss due to expired surcharge exemptions.”
“To help identify such risks and to take advantage of best practices and carrier contract negotiation expertise, most shippers have for decades turned to a long established and mature market of parcel negotiation consultants. At our founding, Reveel was such a firm and like our competitors, we adhered to the industry-standard compensation model – a gain share arrangement whereby we received a percentage of the savings obtained for clients over a specified period.”
“We saw that shippers were frustrated and fatigued with the never-ending cycle of consultants’ fees. Every time they engaged a consultant to help them save money, their consulting fees subsequently increased.
One of the goals in creating our platform was to provide companies with actionable data and real-time insights – what they need to radically lower their parcel shipping rates, compare their performance to peers with a similar shipping profile, and negotiate much better terms and conditions in their carrier contracts. Our technology provides parcel shippers with direct access to the very information they need to do what they previously paid consultants for, but to do it better.”
“Today, we update the platform every two weeks, adding improvements and enhancements learned from our customer engagements.”
“Last summer we announced several new major features and enhancements to the platform as well, adding self-service contract management, where the platform guides customers on how to craft the best agreement with their carriers; enhanced agreement monitoring, where the platform creates a digital twin of a complex shipping agreement to let shippers try out different options; and anomaly detection, where the platform monitors shipping costs and alerts users to any unexpected changes in cost.”
“More updates are on the way soon. We recently expanded the number of carriers our customers can analyze themselves, and will soon be enhancing their ability to contrast and compare the different options that various carriers offer.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Reveel’s most significant milestones? Dunham cited:
“The first milestone for any company is when you officially get started, which for us was in 2006. But as the industry and our value proposition to customers evolved there were some other big milestones along the way.”
“In 2019 we made an acquisition which really helped us to bring our vision – a technology platform that companies could use to optimize shipping expenses – into reality. This acquisition sped the evolution of Reveel into the shipping data experts we are today.”
“From there, our Shipping Intelligence Platform was built out, and officially launched in summer of 2021. It’s been a busy, but great, few years since then – and last summer we reached some tremendous milestones: we now manage more than 200 million lines of shipping data for customers, and have saved over $400 million for them along the way.”
“In the coming months we’ll see a couple more milestones come to fruition, as new product features are added, including probably the most significant new tool since the platform launched. More on that will have to wait until a bit later this year.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Dunham about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We recently worked with a private equity firm that had investments in more than 30 portfolio companies, extending across a wide range of industries, from defense and manufacturing to retail. Whether it is helping underperforming businesses realize their full potential or empowering innovative new entrants to achieve aggressive growth plans, the firm’s established approach drew on time-tested ideals and practices to optimize their investments.”
“There was one business function that remained a challenge for them, even in organizations with mature data-driven operations: parcel shipping.”
“The firm found that the majority of their investment companies could not say with any certainty whether they were getting a good deal from their carrier compared to their competitors, or even if they were missing overt and obvious mistakes that could lead to significant cost increases.”
“The firm’s managing director shared that: ‘I’ve literally seen companies ship entire product lines at a net loss for months because they had no way of knowing that they were being charged additional special handling fees by their carrier, because the box they were using was a half inch too large – until they found that fact buried in a quarterly invoice,’ he adds. ‘Most companies today don’t even act to get the refunds they are entitled to when the carrier fails to satisfy their service level guarantees, for example when packages arrive late, because they don’t have visibility over their own parcel shipping operations. And that’s to say nothing of managing them in a strategic manner that empowers the business to offer discounted or free shipping in a way that generates additional sales and other top line growth.’”
“Five of the companies were business-to-business companies selling industrial parts across a wide range of industries. The remaining two were online and catalog retailers of parts serving various markets, among them the custom automotive and marine sectors.”
“Although some larger items were shipped via freight carriers, the vast majority of purchases made were delivered to customers via FedEx or UPS. Parcel shipping was also a material cost line item for all seven companies.”
“The firm turned to our shipping intelligence platform for help. We found cost savings that almost immediately exceeded those delivered by their expensive consultants, including several common sources of savings and increased EBITDA.”
“These included:
- Surcharges that expired before the end of the contract or which could easily be avoided
- Situations in which packages unknowingly exceeded oversize thresholds – a reality that in some cases led to products being sold at a loss
- Technical errors, including incorrect address fields that led to additional carrier fees
- Use of the wrong carrier product when a less expensive alternative – for example, ground shipping versus air express – was sufficient to meet customer expectations and service level guarantees”
“In the first quarter of using Reveel’s Shipping Intelligence™ platform the seven portfolio companies used the insights it delivered to easily save $3,185,313 with no risk and no CapEx investment. Not surprisingly, EBITDA also increased as shipping costs were proactively decreased and used to help generate additional sales. Across the portfolio of seven companies, enterprise value increased by $24 million.”
“The firm was so happy with the results, that the managing director has gone on to use our platform when vetting new companies for investment or acquisition.”
Revenue
When asking Dunham about the company’s revenue, he revealed:
“While I can’t share specific revenue numbers, I can say that annual recurring revenues increased 50% last year, and last September we reached the milestone of having more than $2 billion of parcel spend managed through our platform.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dunham assessed:
“Our total addressable market basically encompasses any business that relies on parcel shipping to get products to customers. As the past holiday season showed, reports of e-commerce’s decline were premature. The industry continues to expand – and so are we. We began with the big two – FedEx and UPS – but customers can now manage DHL and other carriers using the self-service tools of our platform.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Reveel from its competition? Dunham affirmed:
“Our differentiators are easy: customers can immediately see the difference between a SaaS platform they can manage themselves and the expensive and frustrating consultant contracts of old.”
“More than just the business model difference is our technology itself – it does what it’s supposed to – save customers time and money – and is easy to use. When we said self-service we meant it. Our data science approach to the issue creates transparency where there was none, and finally levels the playing field between shippers and carriers.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Dunham concluded:
“In the future, we strive to make the platform even more useful for our customers. While it already does an amazing job analyzing customer shipping profiles, finding ways that shipping operations and procedures can be improved to save money, we believe that the future is one of comparisons and optimizations. There are so many options from so many national and regional carriers that it becomes almost too much for a business to understand and take advantage of without help. That is where we believe Reveel can step in.”
