Micro-warehousing startups like Ohi offer direct-to-consumer brands Amazon-like levels of fast shipping. Business Insider spoke to Ohi founder and CEO Ben Jones about the life-changing accident that helped inspire Ohi, and why he thinks most consumers will soon demand two-hour shipping in the coming years.Ben Jones, the founder and CEO of micro-warehousing startup Ohi, knows firsthand the convenience that e-commerce can provide customers.
"During that time I was very limited," he said. "I was pretty much stuck at home. I couldn't go to shops, I couldn't carry a thing. And so I became completely reliant on e-commerce." When Jones eventually graduated from Stanford in 2018, he knew what kind of business he wanted to launch. He wanted to expedite shipping speeds for direct-to-consumer brands to compete with the likes of Amazon. And the way to do that, Jones decided, would be through micro warehousing — a delivery strategy that involves Ohi creating small fulfilment centers in densely populated urban areas to help DTC brands become less reliant on UPS and FedEx to complete orders.
"If you fast forward five years time, can you imagine a world in which consumers are going to expect everything within a matter of hours?" Jones said. "Well, yes. And a lot of VCs realize that."