Doorman

Doorman gained national fame after appearing on Shark Tank in 2015. Robert Herjavec invested, believing that the growing e-commerce market made 'package theft' a billion-dollar problem. The 'Unlimited' Trap Doorman's original pitch was $19/month for unlimited packages. However, within six months of signing up, the average Doorman user doubled their online shopping volume. For Doorman, more business meant more losses. Unlike a software company where the marginal cost of a new user is near zero, every extra box for Doorman meant more warehouse space, more gas, and more driver hours. The Logistical Nightmare A traditional UPS driver might make 10-15 stops per hour in a dense city. Because Doorman promised specific, user-chosen windows (e.g., '7:00 PM to 8:00 PM'), their drivers were forced to crisscross the city to meet individual appointments. This lack of 'route density' meant their cost-per-delivery was significantly higher than the industry standard. The Final 'Forces' Join In September 2017, the company abruptly announced it was shutting down and 'joining forces with a larger team.' While they didn't name the acquirer, it was later revealed to be more of an 'acquihire' for the engineering talent, leaving the consumer service to vanish on October 6, 2017. The Legacy Doorman is the definitive case study for Logistics Unit Economics. It proved that while people want ultra-convenient delivery, they are rarely willing to pay the actual cost of it. Today, the problem Doorman tried to solve has been largely co-opted by Amazon Hub Lockers and smart-building systems like ButterflyMX, which focus on infrastructure rather than expensive, appointment-based driver fleets.