When CEO Robert Crump and Chief Revenue Officer John Foshee founded Porter Logistics in 2016, it was the beginning of the e-commerce revolution that has skyrocketed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In five years, Porter Logistics’ warehouse space grew from 3,000 square feet to 300,000 square feet.
“Brick-and-mortar retail continues to decline while e-commerce continues to grow,” Foshee said. “We’ve probably had four or five years of growth in a single year.”
The two co-founders met at Vanderbilt University then parted ways, Crump gaining financial expertise and Foshee going into marketing and technology. Porter Logistics started with a move to Atlanta and a cargo van.
Porter Logistics offers flexible warehouse space and fulfillment networks for small to mid-sized businesses to help them quickly ship customer orders and compete with e-commerce giant Amazon.
Now, the startup has $2.5 million in venture funding and was accepted into the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s Backed by ATL program, which honors and assists high-growth startups. Flock Safety, a crime surveillance startup that recently reached a $1 billion valuation, and CallRail, a marketing analytics firm with more than $132 million in investments, are also in this year’s program.
Porter Logistics also integrates their customers into their cloud technology stacks to allow for faster fulfillments and help alleviate the stress that small merchants may have in figuring out the “modern supply chain experience,” Foshee said.
“It’s an alternative to Amazon that offers the same type of service without having all that infrastructure,” Foshee said.
Porter Logistics is one of the many technology startups in Atlanta innovating the supply chain, an industry positioned to grow because of the e-commerce boom.
Demand for these innovations drove $52 billion into the supply chain technology space last year. Industry leaders say record investments in supply chain tech mean more money for Atlanta's early-stage startups. Verusen, Roadie and Stord are all local startups seeing massive growth as soaring shipping costs push business leaders to innovate.
Atlanta is already a hub for logistics and supply chain because 80% of the U.S. market is reachable within a two-hour plane ride or two-day truck drive from the city, making it a prime location for local companies to disrupt the industry.
The Porter Logistics warehouse and office are located on the Fulton Industrial corridor in the Westside. Porter Logistics partners with another company that ships orders to and from the warehouse.
The startup, which currently has about 40 employees, is planning an expansion to Tampa Bay, Florida, the home city of their lead investor, Florida Funders. Setting up other warehouses across the Southeast is the next goal, and the startup is gearing up for another funding round to accomplish it, Foshee said.
Porter Logistics is strategically choosing its next expansion cities to help merchants provide two-day shipping around the Southeast, Foshee said.
The next frontier for Porter Logistics is “micro-fulfillment opportunities,” Foshee said, meaning having smaller warehouse spaces within a city to accommodate same-day or one-hour shipping.
