Mom. Mommy. Mama. Mum. Mummy. Madre. Ma.
No matter what special name you have for your mom, one thing’s for sure: we wouldn’t be here without these incredible women.
IT ALL STARTED WITH MOM
Here at uShip, Mother’s Day holds a special place in our hearts.
As the story goes, it was the year 2000. The mother of eventual uShip founder Matt Chasen asked her son for help in organizing transport of a large family heirloom armoire from Ohio to Texas. Given the tools available to him at the time – yellow pages, early search engines, and truck rental – he just couldn’t find an affordable way that cost less than the value of the armoire itself. Matt simply gave up, informing mom that the armoire had to stay put in Ohio.
Fast forward to 2001. Matt and then fiancé, Heather, were moving from Seattle to Austin. The 9-foot van he ordered for their small set of belongings was sold out, leaving them with an enormous 20-foot truck to drive 2,500 miles virtually empty.
LIGHTNING STRIKES
It’s during this drive that lightning struck. Matt remembered how he failed to ship the family’s heirloom armoire. And now, one year later, he’s driving a cavernous, quarter-full rental truck down the highway. He wondered (out loud, mind you, boring Heather to tears) how he could create a way to efficiently connect people’s large shipments with empty truck space. A win-win. An eBay for shipping, if you will.
Matt would go on to take this idea into business school at the University of Texas at Austin, where he connected with fellow students Jay Manickam and Mickey Millsap. The trio honed the idea, and in 2004, they launched uShip.com.
Nearly 18 years later, all roads lead back to Matt’s mom. And now you know how a simple favor inspired the idea behind uShip, now a 220-person global shipping company.
For Mother’s Day this year, we’d like to thank all moms for inspiration big and small you’ve given us.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Here’s what our customers are saying:
Trustpilot
[amp-cta id=’8423′]
