As a side project in 2004, Jeff Smith, a software developer at American Express in Denver, wrote a software
application for a friend, the owner of a Dallas-based appliance distributor with a fleet of 10 trucks.
Smith’s software helped his friend streamline his
routes and drastically cut planning time. “He kind of drove the design of it,” said Smith. “The software
evolved from there. We sort of learned the hard way.”
Smith asked AmEx co-worker Matt DeWolf if he was interested in helping
develop the software into a business. DeWolf jumped at the opportunity, and
both left their jobs in 2005 to officially launch RouteSmith early that
year. They landed Denver-based Mattress King as a customer in August and now
have four employees and 15 accounts.
While Federal Express, UPS and big trucking companies have used route
optimization and planning software for decades, small and medium-sized
businesses have historically been priced out of the market. Thus, route
planning remains “extremely manual” for many of these companies, said
DeWolf, the company’s president of sales and marketing. “We fell into a
piece of the supply chain that hasn’t been automated yet.”
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