Once the gift-giving frenzy subsides, what's typically left in the wake of the holiday season is the need to return a pair of shoes that are too big or a shirt that's the wrong color.
This year, Bryn Mawr-based Dropupp wants to solve that problem for you.
Dropupp picks up, packages and returns unwanted online purchases for households across the Philadelphia area. Founded by Naial Casanovas Mack, the young startup is looking to take advantage of the heightened need for its services following the holiday season. That includes dressing up like the Grinch to shoot a promotional video and what Casanovas Mack projects will be at least a 30% increase in pickups during January.
Casanovas Mack, who grew up in Spain, saw all of the boxes that are discarded through online orders and knew that, inevitably, some of those orders would need to be returned. Re-boxing is just one part of the hassle of returning items, but so too is going to a post office where long waits and short hours are the norm. Casanovas Mack founded Dropupp in April 2022, and launched the platform six months later.
Initial funding came in the form of a $25,000 convertible note from venture capital firm Launch.
Currently, the startup services all of the Main Line down to West Chester and into Philadelphia. Casanovas Mack said that his goal is to "conquer" the Philadelphia area in 2024 and gain enough traction to begin expanding to metro areas like New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in 2025. Casanovas Mack is shouldering much of the startup work himself and has a team of independent contract drivers that do pickups.
Dropupp offers a free trial for two pickups with four items per pickup. It then charges $8.99 per pickup or $20 for a monthly subscription with up to four pickups per month.
"Users, it's hard to get them at first, but once they use it — I'm a little biased — but they say it just blows their mind because it's so convenient," Casanovas Mack said.
Casanovas Mack said Dropupp saw increases in returns prior to Christmas and he expects business to ramp up significantly in January once people have time to decide on returning holiday gifts.
In 2024, Casanovas Mack is focused on social media marketing to organically expand Dropupp's customer base. The new Grinch promo video is one step in that direction, and so too is an influencer partnership with Brooke Goldstein, a fitness blogger that runs Fitness Finds on the Mainline. Casanovas Mack said he's in talks with other fitness influencers to help grow the startup's social media presence in the coming year and sees opportunity to grow Dropupp's brand through Instagram and TikTok.
"It’s hard to sell to people, but to create entertaining content that [people will] sit there and watch for 30 seconds, that gets the most views," Casanovas Mack said.
A fundraising round is also in the cards for 2024, Casanovas said. He hopes to raise a pre-seed round in the range of $100,000 to $200,000.
