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This is an excerpt from Monday s (5/13) Point of Sale retail supply chain newsletter sponsored by ArcBest.
There s a startup that was first created to deliver stoner essentials to college kids but is quietly capturing the imagination (and venture capital) of the tech world, and it s time the logistics world took notice. Gopuff, founded by two friends at Drexel University in 2013, began delivering items like vaporizers, grinders and rolling papers. Soon after, munchies like Ben & Jerry s became supplemental offerings to smoking and quickly became the bulk of their sales.
The founders, Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola, both came from families steeped in brick-and-mortar retail business. Ilishayev, who emigrated from Russia when he was 2, worked for his family s sandwich shop and banquet hall business. Gola s father, who moved to the U.S. from Israel, is a well-known jeweler in the Philadelphia area. I believe this background is a principal reason Gopuff was not built to b