Ben Jackson of Bungii

April 1, 2020 thetechtribune

An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Ben Jackson, the founder and president of Bungii, which was honored in our:

Tell us the origin story of Bungii – what problem were you trying to solve and why?

Back in college, I drove a black 1999 Ford Ranger. It was a tiny little vehicle – I hardly considered it a truck. One day, I had four different people ask if they could borrow it. You know, I’d like to consider myself a nice guy, but after the fourth request, it was frustrating. I remember lying in bed that night, much more salty than I should have been, thinking, “There’s got to be a better way”.

The next day, I was sitting next to a friend in class and I whispered to him the problem. I’ll never forget what happened next: super nonchalantly, he looks at me, shrugs his shoulder and says, “Let’s start a business”. We had no idea what we were about to get ourselves into, but we walked out of the class that day with a simple concept: tap a button, get a truck. And we’ve been pursuing that fundamental idea ever since.

What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?

I don’t want to come across like I’m incredibly smart or that I have it all together, because I really don’t. Ensuring the livelihood of over thirty employees, plus meeting the lofty expectations of investors is a significant amount of pressure that weighs heavily on me; it’s a lot for someone in their twenties to handle.

I like to compare running a startup to Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. Every time you win, you get dropped back into the ring to get punched in the face again. The other day, my little brother told me, “You make this look easy”. I kinda laughed and thought to myself: “I’m just really good at getting punched in the face”.

What does the future hold for Bungii?

The world is changing and rapidly moving to sharing-economy, on-demand models. When you study successful delivery/transportation startups like Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart, you notice an interesting trend emerging: the transportation industry is moving from something individuals own to a service they rent on-demand via technology. The big and bulky delivery space is the next major market to be reinvented.

In two years, Bungii will have a nation-wide infrastructure layer in place providing on-demand, last mile, big & bulky delivery. This includes local drivers, labor, vehicles, the platform/tech, logistical IP, partners, and end-to-end delivery value chain process/knowledge. It will be one of the largest sharing economy footprints in the US.

What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Overland Park?

Side note: Technically, we’re located in Overland Park, but that will confuse most people, even locals. A more accurate statement that 99.9% of people will better understand is that Bungii is a Kansas City based startup.

That said, we’ve raised more than $10M across two, oversubscribed funding rounds. When raising money, I was advised to go straight to the West coast, but 95% of the money came from investors outside of that region, and the majority came from Kansas City investors. I strongly believe this is proof things are quickly changing for tech across the country.

What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Building something cool requires doing a lot of uncool things, things that most cool people aren’t willing to do.

The daily grind isn’t glamorous and it’s not fun. Success is a matter of putting in the work day in and day out. There is no quick cure, magic algorithm, or one move that’s going to get you there. Hard, patient, grinding work is the variable to success.

It’s easy to look at Mark Zuckerberg or Evan Spiegel today and think how lucky they were. But they weren’t lucky. We weren’t there back in 2005 when they were spending 80 hours a week, facing setback after setback. The reason Facebook has 1.5B users today is because of years of grind, sweat, tears, and eating dirt. If your gravitation towards entrepreneurship stems from a desire to be on a yacht in the Caribbean, you’re going to lose.

One of my favorite quotes is from Andrew Winerich: “Businesses take time. You need a 10 year commitment. Businesses are not built overnight; they’re built over a protracted period of time. The winners are the people who ride the highs and the lows. Those willing to pivot, iterate, and stay the course. If you’re not willing to engage for 10 years, it’s probably not the right opportunity for you”.

So let me implore you: avoid the glamour and stay away from the bling. Keep your head down and build. And in 10 years, you’ll have it.