For everyone who previously used their office printer to print physical documents, the coronavirus has made things slightly more difficult.
And if you relied on printing at one of the dozens of coffee shops equipped with wireless printing from Chicago startup PrintWithMe, you have even fewer places to print your stuff.
With most of Chicago's workforce now at home, and many people lacking a quality at-home printer, PrintWithMe saw an opportunity to bring on-demand printing delivery to the city's work-from-home workforce.
Starting March 23, PrintWithMe began offering delivery to customers in Chicago and Brooklyn---its two largest markets---allowing users to get their printouts sent to their home in just 2-3 hours. Users email their documents to a PrintWithMe email address, and the files are printed at one of the startup's delivery drivers' homes. PrintWithMe equips its drivers with printers, who make contact-free deliveries with appropriate sanitation protocols, CEO Jonathan Treble said.
"It didn’t really sink in that our coffee shops would all of a sudden lose pretty much all of their traffic until Gov. Cuomo in New York and Gov. Pritzker said they were looking very closely at shelter-in-place orders," Treble said. "We’ve lost a lot of our coffee shop revenue."
The startup has so far made nearly 300 total deliveries between Chicago and New York, charging users $2 for the first page, $0.50 a page for pages 2-5, $0.40 for 6-10 and $0.20 for anything beyond 10 pages. It also charges a $5 delivery fee, which goes entirely to the driver, Treble said. PrintWithMe currently employs three drivers and is looking to onboard more as demand increases. Each of its hires has been someone who lost their previous job due to the economic strain caused by the virus, Treble said.
For PrintWithMe, which also serves co-working spaces and apartment buildings, coffee shops represented about 50 percent of the startup's revenue, Treble said. And with most in-person coffee shops shut down during shelter-in-place orders, that part of its revenue was "literally decimated."
"It was a pretty dramatic reduction in revenue for us," Treble said. "The delivery service is recouping some of that revenue. We’re not there yet, but it's growing."
PrintWithMe's shift to delivery is one of the more dramatic business pivots required of startups dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a business that once relied on a constant stream of coffee shop traffic, PrintWithMe had to become a logistics operation almost overnight.
Founded in 2014, PrintWithMe has created a network of wireless printing stations in cities across the country. More than 300,000 people have printed over 7 million pieces of paper using PrintWithMe. Treble said some of the most common use cases for its delivery service have been return shipping labels, business proposals and contracts, and tax documents.
Treble said PrintWithMe plans to continue offering delivery even as shelter-in-place orders are lifted "as long as it makes economic sense for our drivers and for us."
"We think delivery is a viable option for customers," he said. "It's a value-add that can outlive the coronavirus."
