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What’s next for Shipt’s Bill Smith? – AL.com


After raising up a $550 million startup in Birmingham and transforming app-based delivery services nationwide, what’s next for Bill Smith?

The founder of Shipt isn’t saying much. But while not giving an interview, a recent blog post, as well as Smith’s biography, may offer a few hints.

Earlier this month, Shipt announced that Target executive Kelly Caruso is replacing Smith, the company’s founder, in the top job. Smith, 33, will continue to serve as an advisor to the company.

Shipt was Smith’s brainchild, and he saw it through its 2014 launch and its 2017 acquisition by Target. He was on hand last year when the company announced an expansion of its Birmingham operations and plans to hire 881 new Birmingham-based workers.

He called his time with Shipt “the most fulfilling experience of my career.” A high school dropout, Smith started his first business when he was 16. He went on to manage his own cell phone businesses before founding Insight Card Services, which he sold in 2014 to Green Dot Corp.

But Shipt – sometimes dubbed “Uber for groceries” – gained a foothold in the marketplace once Smith was able to narrow its focus down, with help from his family.

“They say inspiration hits you when you least expect it,” Smith wrote. “For me, it hit like a ton of bricks one afternoon in 2015, standing in a parking lot, after my wife and I shopped for groceries with a crying toddler and a fussy newborn.”

That experience helped Smith narrow the Shipt concept down to grocery delivery, an approach that helped the company blossom. first in mid-level Southern cities and then to other parts of the country.

For some, the question of what Smith’s next business concept will be may not be as important as where it will be located. One aspect of Smith’s career has been his emphasis on building in Birmingham.

Last year, at Sloss Tech, he told the crowd, “We made a conscious effort to build in Birmingham, and it was easier than I thought it would be.” He went on to compare the area’s tech scene to the economic impact of Mercedes-Benz coming to Alabama in 1993, saying he’d like to see a similar effect.

When Caruso was named to the CEO position, Smith said his exit was “a good time to get back to my passion, creating and building early stage companies.” In the blog post, Smith said he’s got other ideas. As he noted in remembering the moment of inspiration for Shipt, “it wasn’t the first time inspiration struck.”

“I’m a startup guy at heart, and I can’t wait to get back to my passion. Looking ahead, I’ll be pursuing a new venture which I’ll share details on soon,” he wrote.

What might a new idea look like for Smith? An interview he gave last year with CNBC might offer an insight. Smith said at that time that, while he earned a GED and spent some time in college, he does not believe conceptualizing and starting up businesses is something that can be taught, It has to be about finding out what people need.

“I think that business is all about just getting out there and solving problems, and I don’t know if you can really teach entrepreneurship,” Smith said. “I think that it’s kind of a flaw to think that you’re going to go to a school, and someone that’s never been an entrepreneur is going to teach you how to be an entrepreneur, you know?”



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