As more companies opt for working in hybrid or remote arrangements following the pandemic, Charlotte startup Craftom helps employers purchase and ship products to mobile workers.
"Covid hit and I remember, it was on March 12 (of 2020), most of America decided to go remote," said Caleb Musser, founder of Craftom. "And from my background and just being involved in the supply chain, wholesale resell (industry), I knew that there was no way a lot of the established enterprise legacy vendors were going to be able to figure out how to ship 500 boxes to 500 different people working remotely."
Craftom, an enterprise products platform, was birthed just before the peak of the pandemic in January of 2020. It launched operations initially inside of Musser's garage.
He identified a gap in the corporate market, noting that one organization utilizing multiple vendors to purchase and ship products to remote workers could be a hassle for employers.
"They're trying to send employees onboarding kits, and they don't know how to get this to people working all over the place," he said.
Providing a 'one-stop shop'
Musser previously founded Musser & Co., which offered corporate gifting, consulting and marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 brands as well as NFL, NBA and MLB teams. That includes the Charlotte Hornets and Carolina Panthers.
He identified the gap he's working to solve now after spending five years in that space, observing as organizations used a library of vendors — like Musser & Co. — to provide products for staff and clients.
This is where Craftom comes in, serving as what Musser refers to as an "enterprise-grade Amazon."
The startup helps streamline the purchasing, customizing, shipping and retrieval of corporate products under a single, internal platform. That's feasible through Craftom's enterprise cloud front end and marketplace back end, which connects organizations with an estimated 10,000 vendors and 1 million business-to-business products.
"Instead of having 60 different vendors, you just use the Craftom platform," Musser said. "So the one-stop shop saves them a ton of time, and then also, in addition to the vendor consolidation, it eliminates the manual work on that internal team, which is extremely important right now — where the economy's a little shaky and some companies are downsizing."
How Craftom is branching out
Musser told CBJ he recently cold-emailed Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook, explaining how Craftom aims to help IT teams buy, ship and retrieve laptops to remote and hybrid employees through its platform. After sending that pitch, the startup became an authorized Apple B2B reseller — one of several big-name brands in the Craftom marketplace.
Additionally, the startup is partnered with small businesses across Charlotte and the U.S., he said.
Craftom originally targeted B2B software and tech companies to utilize its platform. Now, the founder is working to diversify his marketplace by targeting pharmaceuticals, health care and medical industries.
Musser said, at the request of his customers, Craftom has also launched a software-as-a-service products marketplace, enabling businesses to discover, purchase and manage hardware and software.
