Interview with Jack Underwood, Co-founder and CEO at Delivery Experience Company: Circuit

Circuit is a software company that is focussed on fixing the broken delivery experience for drivers, couriers/retailers, and soon recipients. Our first product, Circuit Route Planner, which was developed in 2017 is an app for delivery drivers that enables them to plan better routes and deliver faster – saving on average an hour per day. Our second product Circuit for Teams expands on this by allowing companies to manage multiple drivers, capture proof of delivery and send recipient notifications.

2020 saw a huge rise in online delivery and, as our recent survey* shows, 85% of those who shop online will continue to shop with about the same or more frequency online over the next 12 months. With increasing e-commerce comes increased demand for delivery and it is therefore vital that the broken system is fixed.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Over the last decade, I have been on a mission to build better and simpler mobile experiences though looking at apps with a fresh perspective and a focus on design. In 2016 I was in need of a route planner and having looked at the available opportunities I realised that the current product offering was poor but that people were still buying them; this offers a great opportunity.

While we originally built the product as a general route planner it became clear that delivery drivers are the main customers and so since then all developments have focussed on building the best app possible for them. However, our mission has now expanded as it has become clear that the issue problems with last-mile delivery stem far deeper than just delivery. We’re therefore now aiming to fix the delivery experience for all parties in this ecosystem – customer, driver and retailer.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
With online retail sales seeing the equivalent of five years of growth in just 12 months in 2020, for those involved in the ecommerce supply chain it has been a very busy year. During the pandemic, our drivers were busier than ever supplying medicines, food, DIY materials and clothing to locked-down customers.

In April 2020 we saw 10x more delivery drivers sign up compared to February 2020 and since then we have continued to grow, tripling our ARR in 2020. As a result of our growth during this time we were pleased to help businesses that were struggling – new retailers, who had suddenly had to switch to delivery, were offered 50% off the app and charities were offered 90% off.
 

What can we hope to see from Circuit in the future?

 
At Circuit we’re always building on our existing apps, tweaking the product to improve customer experience. For example, we just added a vehicle packing feature to the Circuit Route Planner so that drivers can track where each package has been placed inside their vehicle.

We’re also planning to develop our Circuit for Teams software so that it’s better for larger retailers who are managing up to 15 drivers across different parts of the country. And finally, as our mission is now to fix the whole last-mile delivery ecosystem we’re working on an application for the customer that will help them better manage and track their deliveries and communicate with the drivers and retailers.