Shyp raised $62M to kill the post office — and shipped itself out of business

Shyp launched in San Francisco in 2013: an on-demand shipping service — tap the app, someone collects your item, packs it and ships it through USPS or the major carriers, all for a flat $5 fee. Investors loved it at the height of the on-demand boom: a $50 million Series B led by Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr in 2015 took the valuation to $250 million, on $62 million raised in total.

The flat fee was the trap: packing a laptop cost something else entirely than packing a bicycle, yet both carried the same $5 price. Shyp expanded to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, chasing growth rather than unit economics; Gibbon later admitted falling for the 'growth at all costs' trap and keeping 'popular-but-unprofitable parts of our business running'. In July 2017 the company retreated to San Francisco alone and cut staff. It was too late.

On 27 March 2018 Gibbon shut Shyp down, effective immediately: 'My early mistakes in Shyp's business ended up being prohibitive to our survival. For that, I am sorry.' Five years, four cities and $62 million ended in one blog post.