2012 is shaping up to be a great year for uShip-- we're planning big updates to the site, and we will be launching a number of brand new features and industry-changing tools for our customers and partners.
With that said, we're currently looking for new talent! uShip will be aggressively hiring this year, particularly for developers and software engineers. If you're interested in joining our team, submit a resume and cover letter to jobs@uship.com.
The Olympic Games have borne many legends-- Mary Lou Retton, Michael Phelps, Eddie the Eagle, and the Jamaican Bobsled team, just to name a few-- all world-class athletic innovators in their respective sports.
On Saturday, Jan. 21, a new league of innovative legends emerged for the first-ever Austin Startup Olympics, a 10-event competition hosted at the uShip offices in downtown Austin. Eight Austin startups competed in the Games-- Adlucent, Boundless Network, Build-A-Sign, Mass Relevance, SpareFoot, Spredfast, uShip and Whaleshark Media.
Oh, and uShip won.
The Games We Play
Each company sent a team of "Olympians" to compete in ten quintessential startup "sports," including ping pong, foosball, an obstacle course relay, flip cup, pop-a-shot, darts, beer pong, darts, shuffleboard, Connect Four and trivia from Geeks Who Drink.
The event put a humorous spin on Olympic pageantry. The opening cermonies included the traditional torch-lighting, a trumpet fanfare, a fantastic rendition of the National Anthem, and the release of a dozen doves to commemorate the event.
uShip and our competitors played not only for pride, but also for charity. Each company chose a charity to receive winnings from the event. Charities chosen included the Austin Children's Museum, Austin Pets Alive, Austin Pro Bono, Capital Area Food Bank, Communities in Schools of Central Texas, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas , Kure It, and Livestrong/Lance Armstrong Foundation. Sponsors for the event include Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Cedar Door.
The idea behind Startup Olympics: in the tough, round-the-clock work environment of early-stage companies, these are the games we play to blow off steam. We truly hope the event grows in coming years to bring exposure to Austin's dynamic business environment and startup community.
Challenge to East and West Coast Startups
On that note, we're tossing out a challenge to startups from around the country, particularly from Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston and other startup hubs. Many companies will converge on Austin for the SXSW Interactive conference beginning March 9. We're encouraging out-of-area startups to bring their best to SXSWi for a friendly bout of competition at uShip. Interested companies should visit StartupOlympics.org for contact information.
At uShip, we love when our members tell us more about themselves and what brought them to uShip through our uShip Stories. With that in mind, we thought some of our users would like a behind-the-scenes look at who we are and how we work.
The Building
uShip’s World Headquarters occupies a restored warehouse-style building in beautiful downtown Austin. The structure was once a general store that sold feed for livestock. Across from the office, passers-by will note our green uShip school bus. There you’ll also find our flagship RV, Help on Wheels, which often carries shipments for our Highway to Help charitable shipments program.
Arrival
When you come to visit, a friendly uShipper will meet you in the lobby. The entryway features many of our awards, team photos and press clips— and also boasts a 12-foot fiberglass stool left behind by the building’s previous tenants (they couldn’t get it into their new building!). The stool is now the proud perch of the uShip duck and his school bus.
Take a Lap
As you walk through the first bay, you’ll pass by the Marketing and Business Development teams. These teams manage our search optimization (ever Googled “auto transport?”), online ads, copywriting and strategic partnerships with other organizations. On the first bay, you’ll also find Accounting and our Strategy, Reporting & Analytics team, which measures the effectiveness of our tools, products and changes to the site.
Hanging a left, you’ll find our kitchen (and if you’re lucky, we’ll be busy cooking something delicious).
Making another left, you’ll see our second bay, where the product development, quality assurance, design and IT departments reside. In addition to making sure the site is always working correctly, they work tirelessly to design new products and features that improve our users’ experiences on the site.
Continuing on, you’ll find the inbound sales team at work in the third bay, before coming full circle.
The Voices on the Phone
Heading upstairs, you’ll get to meet the lovely folks that answer your emails and phone calls. Our buildng’s loft space is home to our Community, Trust & Safety (CTS) department. You really have to meet them in person to understand how dedicated they are to problem solving and making sure users have a great experience on uShip.
Hop Across the Atlantic
Though not a component of our regular tour, we thought we’d invite you to take a look at uShip’s International office. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, our European office handles operations for Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. The team in Amsterdam works closely with our headquarters to ensure the best possible experience for our members across Europe.
We hope this gave a good glimpse of the team working for you at uShip. Thanks for taking the virtual tour – we’d love to hear from the people that really keep our business moving.
Questions? Comments? Want to see more? Let us know!
Jumping into the cab of Scott and Susie Bawcom's Ford F450 truck, you’d think you just walked into an Apple Store.
The Bawcoms are die-hard Apple fans who use the tech products to run Dream Time Transportation (uShip profile), their shipping business of Nashville, Tenn.
Their gadget lineup would make Steve Jobs proud: 2 iPhones, an iPad2, a MacBook Pro and Apple’s iCloud service. They also have Comcast Xfiniti 4G Wi-Fi and a Rand McNally Intelliroute TND 710 Truck GPS.
And with 100 percent of their business coming from uShip.com, the Bawcom’s iPhones and iPad are loaded with uShip’s free mobile app so they have complete control of their account while managing customers’ shipments of boats, aircraft, RVs, cars, motorcycles, snow mobiles, and ATVs.
A&E announced that the series premiere of "Shipping Wars" was watched by 3 million viewers on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals.
According to A&E, the back-to-back episodes averaged 3.0 million total viewers and 1.6 million adults 18-49 and 25-54. The audience grew from the 9:00PM episode to the 9:30PM episode among adults 25-54 (1.5 million to 1.6 million) and remained steady with adults 18-49.
If you weren't able to tune in, Shipping Wars follows six independent truckers who competitively bid to transport oversized, bulky loads found on uShip.com. From rookie haulers to seasoned veterans, no shipment is too big or too bizarre for these carriers competeing in a high-stakes, deadline-driven race where any setback can cost big bucks.
Meanwhile, Gnomie continues to get around, seen today on Perez Hilton, which reported on the show's strong debut:
A&E's new real-life series 'Shipping Wars' (which features uShip.com) has been receiving some nice reviews and visibility -- but what's not to like about a giant gnome and American's independent truckers? Tune in Tuesdays at 9/8C to catch all the action, only on A&E. Here's a run-down of the buzz...
uShip is an online shipping marketplace that connects people with customer-reviewed transport companies
that can move hard-to-ship items such as cars, motorcycles, horses, heavy equipment, households, boats. Read More
