By Riley Kaminer
“The last six months have been like five years for our development as a company,” Grip founder and CEO Juan C. Meisel told Refresh Miami.
How did Grip get there? In short, product-market fit.
Grip serves direct-to-consumer shippers of perishables: everything from human-grade pet food and ready-to-eat frozen meals to organic and natural meats to specialty frozen products requiring refrigeration (e.g., probiotics) and beyond. This is a big – and growing – segment, arguably the next growth wave for food and beverage companies.
Millions of successful shipments later, the company has experienced upwards of 400% growth over the last year as it is transforming from a niche player in perishable goods shipping to a comprehensive logistics solution provider. The idea is that Grip can enable these D2C players to focus completely on their product, marketing, sales, and more – all while Grip handles the end-to-end shipping process for them.
“Before, our solution was like a better car – a significant upgrade, for sure,” Meisel explained. “But if you need to travel 1,000 miles, you wouldn’t choose a car, you’d take a plane. That’s the leap forward we’ve made. Now, by integrating with our platform, it’s like our customers are flying in a whole new way.”
Meisel explained that Grip has strategically expanded its national footprint by launching fulfillment facilities in California, Texas, New Jersey and Florida, with plans for an even larger facility in the Sunshine State. This move eliminates reliance on third-party warehouses, giving Grip greater control over the shipping process.
The company is delivery partner agnostic, working with whichever carrier makes sense on a package-by-package basis. (Due to the sensitive nature of the products they ship, they do not use USPS, which has been plagued by major delays.)
Grip has also streamlined operations by developing its own order management system. This eliminates the need for businesses to cobble together various systems, allowing them to seamlessly connect with Grip’s platform for automated order processing, shipping decisions, and fulfillment. Grip’s OMS integrates directly with popular point-of-sale systems like Shopify.
So far, the company has raised around $2 million in funding. This includes a partnership with Microsoft whereby the tech giant provided Grip with a grant to use its services.
Half of Grip’s 30 corporate employees are based in the company’s Downtown Miami headquarters. That overall number of employees balloons when you include workers in its shipping facilities. At the moment, Grip has five open roles across data, finance, operations, and client experience – with Meisel signaling that there are more on the horizon.
Meisel remains tight-lipped about its upcoming projects, hinting at some AI-powered developments on the horizon. But the company’s focus is clear: to revolutionize perishable goods shipping by harnessing the power of tech.
“We’re looking at the industry from the perspective of how to bring shipments up to speed with the technology that is required to give customers the high-quality experience they expect,” he said.
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