chrt

What do they actually do

chrt provides a time‑critical transportation management system (TMS) used by shippers and courier operators to run urgent, high‑value deliveries. The stack includes a shipper portal and API to create orders and share live maps/ETAs, a dispatcher portal for assigning and monitoring jobs, a driver mobile app for proof‑of‑delivery, IoT trackers for minute‑by‑minute location and environmental data, and payments/invoicing to bill shippers and pay drivers (chrt.com, Docs, Trackers).

A typical shipment flows like this: a shipper creates an urgent order via the portal or API; chrt matches it to a vetted courier (broker/marketplace model); the driver accepts in the app and completes pickup/delivery with required scans/photos/signatures; real‑time location comes from the driver app and/or chrt trackers; recipients get shareable live tracking links; billing and payouts are handled in‑product (Docs, YC launch post, Trackers, homepage features/pricing).

They also sell airline‑approved trackers and list subscription pricing tiers aimed at different courier sizes, indicating the product is live and transacting today (Trackers, homepage pricing).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Hospital or clinical logistics teams moving specimens, organs, or medical devices: Any delay or temperature excursion can ruin a sample or affect patient outcomes; they need minute‑by‑minute tracking, temperature monitoring, and guaranteed proof‑of‑delivery rather than phone calls and paperwork.
• Manufacturing plants or procurement teams avoiding production line downtime: Late deliveries cause costly stoppages; current carriers/tools often lack reliable live ETAs, rapid courier matching, and fast invoicing to speed fixes.
• Small courier operators and independent drivers: Coordinating by phone and juggling multiple apps wastes time; they want a single driver app for assignments/POD and faster, predictable payouts with pricing that fits small teams.
• Freight forwarders or 3PLs handling time‑sensitive shipments: Legacy systems don’t expose real‑time APIs/SDKs or automated carrier matching, forcing manual coordination and slowing hand‑offs and customs processes.
• Enterprise logistics/operations teams with strict SLAs (healthcare and industrials): Too much manual phone‑tag to prevent/resolve exceptions; limited visibility into at‑risk shipments; they need automated alerts and corrective actions to avoid SLA breaches.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run hands‑on paid or discounted pilots with nearby hospital labs, manufacturing maintenance teams, and small courier operators, including loaner trackers and waived setup, and provide white‑glove ops support to guarantee SLAs and generate case studies.
• First 50: Convert pilots to paid bundles (software + devices), recruit regional courier partners with rev‑share/guaranteed‑load agreements for capacity, and use early case studies and YC visibility for targeted outbound to similar hospitals/manufacturers and inbound from couriers/3PLs.
• First 100: Hire a small sales/account team to pursue enterprise RFPs and paid integrations via the API/SDK, formalize a certified courier partner program for reliably brokered orders, and add self‑serve content plus regional recruiting to deepen both shipper demand and courier supply.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Near‑term, chrt’s TAM sits at the intersection of same‑day B2B delivery (~$9.9B in 2024), medical courier/specimen transport (~$6–9B), and spare‑parts logistics (~$14.1B) — all multi‑billion markets growing quickly (Grand View — Same‑Day, TBRC — Medical Courier, Allied — Medical Courier, FortuneBI — Spare Parts Logistics).

Bottom-up calculation:

Adding same‑day (~$9.9B), medical courier (~$6–9B), and spare‑parts (~$14.1B) yields a focused global TAM on the order of ~$25–35B today, treated as an upper bound due to overlap across segments (Grand View — Same‑Day, TBRC/Allied — Medical Courier, FortuneBI — Spare Parts).

Assumptions:

• Figures reflect B2B/time‑critical slices; some shipments are double‑counted across categories (upper‑bound view).
• chrt monetizes via subscriptions, per‑job fees, devices, and add‑ons; TAM is revenue pool, not take‑rate revenue.
• Focus is global; regionally de‑duplicated SAM would be smaller but still multi‑billion.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Onfleet: Last‑mile delivery management software with driver app, dispatch, routing, APIs, and proof‑of‑delivery; strong for fleets/shippers but not a brokered courier marketplace or IoT‑tracker seller (Onfleet features, API).
• Bringg: Enterprise delivery orchestration that unifies owned fleets and many 3PL partners with automation and carrier selection tools; competes for large shippers needing multi‑carrier control (Bringg platform, Network).
• Roadie: On‑demand same‑day marketplace with API and tracking, focused on broad consumer/retail and bulky items; overlaps on brokered urgent jobs but not medical‑grade IoT/telemetry (Roadie Same‑Day, API docs).
• Zipline: Instant logistics via autonomous aircraft for medical and temperature‑sensitive deliveries; a hardware+service operator rather than a TMS/marketplace for third‑party couriers (Zipline).
• GoFor: White‑glove and same‑day B2B delivery operator in North America, focused on big/bulky and construction/industrial customers; more operator‑centric than platform/IoT‑first (GoFor).