SWIPEBY is an AI commerce platform for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). To learn more about the company, Pulse 2.0 interviewed SWIPEBY CEO Carl Turner.
Carl Turner’s Background
What is Turner’s background? Turner said:
“I am from Berlin, Germany, and already, as a child, had started minor entrepreneurial ventures, so when it was time to decide where to study it was pretty clear that I wanted to be in the US in a very practical, entrepreneurial-minded and solution rather than problem-oriented environment.”
“I went to Wake Forest University where I completed Bachelor degrees in Finance and Computer Science – and ironically, I actually went on a more corporate track and gained experience working with Google (Hamburg), A.T. Kearney (Dubai), and The Boston Consulting Group (Kuala Lumpur).”
“In the end, I found my way back to my entrepreneurial passion and I co-founded SEON, a startup democratizing access to fast security response, starting with South Africa and neighboring markets, and soon later launched SWIPEBY.”
Formation Of SWIPEBY
How did the idea for the company come together? Turner shared:
“I was first exposed to drive-thrus when I first moved to the US from Germany. I loved the concept but saw that it was only limited to very large restaurant chains. The idea for SWIPEBY began because I wanted to order from small, local restaurants with the convenience of drive-thru. I knew curbside pickup could be very popular with customers but would also help small, independent restaurants compete with the large chain next door.”
Core Products
What are SWIPEBY’s core products and features? Turner explained:
“SWIPEBY is focused on helping small-to-medium-sized businesses grow and thrive in a very competitive environment. In essence, our mission is to help the little guy compete against the big guy.”
“We start with a foundation of custom white-label online ordering. If the customer doesn’t have a website, we can build it for them very quickly. SWIPEBY was originally based on the concept of a virtual drive-thru, or curbside pickup. We offer that along with no commission delivery. We tap into delivery driver networks like UberEats and DoorDash to offer the closest, lowest cost driver for pickup and delivery.”
“Building upon that foundation enables us to offer features that help businesses engage with their customers and improve their operations. Features like an AI guest assistant that provides upselling and cross-selling services, AI Review Manager that crafts replies for review comments, AI Direct Message Manager that crafts replies for social media direct messages, AI Remarketing that drives return guests with personalized emails, AI Call Deflection that handles incoming calls, and other features like Loyalty and Rewards, Coupons and Discounts, AI generated food photos, etc.”
Evolution Of SWIPEBY’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Turner noted:
“SWIPEBY originally provided a drive-thru anywhere. We launched customizable geo-fencing technology to deliver a seamless experience for both the staff and customers. We offered delivery at a very low price but expanded upon it by integrating and building an algorithm that connects our customers to a large network of delivery drivers. We also launched a loyalty and rewards program.”
“When we saw the power of AI, we knew we could put it to effective use for our customers. We immediately started building features that would use the data we collect and put it to work to benefit our customers. ”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Turner cited:
“Building AI-driven features is historically our most significant milestone. Our core vertical has been restaurants, and we’ve expanded into other verticals like convenience stores, liquor stores, and smoke and vape shops. These are verticals where there is value in online ordering. Now, with the AI-driven features we’ve developed, we’re expanding into service-driven businesses, like hair salons and doctor’s offices. These verticals don’t necessarily need online ordering but find Reviews and Direct Messaging Management plus phone answering to be especially useful.”
“Another milestone is our approach to sales based on a better understanding of our sales cycle, which is short and requires quick response and an easy purchase because our target customer is quite busy and needs a partner who can help them solve problems fast.”
“As a result, we’ve ramped up our team by creating an accelerated hiring/training process to get account executives in the field quickly. We started this in December 2023 and have already been rewarded with substantial growth.”
“Also, at the request of many prospects, we’ve had some important integrations with POS companies like Toast and Square. We’ll be adding Clover, TouchBistro, and NCR/Aloha integrations in the next couple of months enabling us to onboard independent restaurant chains and small growing franchises.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Turner about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Marscotti’s Pizza is a restaurant outside of Canton, OH. The owner, Scott Conaway, recently shared his story with the Canton Repository.”
Funding
When asking Turner about the company’s funding information, he revealed:
“We raised millions to date to build the entity of the platform. As things stand, we will focus on growing the business for the next year, likely without additional funding as our unit economics are self-sustaining.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Turner assessed:
“If we just look at restaurants and SMB brick and mortars, we are looking at a $12 billion market in the US. Our goal is to eventually target SMB in general from restaurants over real estate agents to startups and across the world.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Turner affirmed:
“An application of AI that is specifically for small-to-medium sized retailers, understanding of our target customer and their needs, and our ability to be nimble.”
“We capture data and put it to work for our customers. Our integration of AI in the platform addresses the needs of our customers in terms of reducing workload by creating efficiencies, improving customer service, enhancing and making marketing more effective, and improving the guest experience.”
“Most of all, we are a champion of the independent brick and mortar retailer and understand what it takes to be competitive against the larger commercial retail chains. And, since we are a smaller enterprise and the way we’ve designed our model, we can be very nimble and responsive to customer needs.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Turner concluded:
“We’re quickly ramping up the size of our sales team. We started the year with a team of five sales account executives and expect to finish 2024 with over 100. While we started with restaurants and know them very well, we’re getting traction outside of this industry. At first, we thought we would expand to basically any brick-and-mortar business that could benefit from our features that extend from online ordering. We’ve had success with convenience stores, smoke shops, and liquor stores. Now, with our AI-driven business services, we’re getting a lot of interest from services-based industries. We have pilots out with large chains of beauty centers and chiropractic offices.”
