This new Miami techie is already building his next company — and it’s backed by Goldman Sachs’ CEO
If you were wondering when these new Miami techies are going to start building new companies, it has already begun.
Goody, an app that allows users to easily send gifts to friends, coworkers and anyone else in their networks with a smartphone, has been quietly under construction for the past year by developers in Miami and elsewhere.
Leading the team is Edward Lando. Lando is business partners with Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer in their new Miami-based startup building project, Pareto Holdings; Pareto is a Goody investor.
“I see Goody as a Mia“It mi-based company,” Lando said. He hopes to have about half of its 27 employees in Miami, and is looking to open an office here by the fall.
Though it only launched in December, Goody already has the backing of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who was part of Goody’s latest, $13.1 million investment round. Solomon did not disclose details about his investment, which followed an infusion from Marylandbased venture group New Enterprise Associates.
Lando created Goody because, he said, there is still not a seamless way to send someone a physical gift without knowing their address. And that’s just one pain point of shopping for a friend or acquaintance.
can take a long time to figure out what to send, or maybe someone’s address has changed — there are a bunch of details that make the current way difficult,” he said. “We wanted to build an easier way so you can send a lot more gifts.”
A Goody user can send a co-worker, for example, a box of cookies even if he or she has only an email address. The Goody app sends a link that, when opened, allows the recipient to enter the address themselves and have the cookies shipped directly.
“It’s just a better experience — a super seamless way to send a gift to someone else,” Lando said. “And you can do it in five or 10 seconds versus shopping around for 30 minutes or an hour.”
Lando has already signed up a host of vendors looking to reach their users more directly, including bed sheet provider Brooklinen, Levain Bakery, Food52 food-and-kitchen online retailer, and Le Labo, an Estée Lauder perfume brand.
Therein, Lando says, lies an even bigger opportunity for Goody. As life continues to shrink down into phones, brands need new ways of reaching customers. A killer app is still waiting to be developed to make phones the channel for shopping digitally, Lando said — and there is no reason why Goody can’t be the one.
“We’re at a unique moment in time with e-commerce,” he said. “There’s
an explosion of new brands coming out, and they all want to get in front of their customers — but right now, one of the only channels is for them to buy ads,” he said. “They’re all looking for other channels, and something like Goody would be a way for them to do it.”