Working at a brand new startup

My name is Donovan Martin and I am a Political Science major with a minor in entrepreneurship. I’m currently working at a brand-new startup, native to the Winston-Salem area called SwipeBy. SwipeBy is an app that essentially gives your favorite restaurants a drive-through by adding curbside service. The app allows users to order food from local restaurants in the area. Once the user arrives at the pick-up point, the restaurant is alerted and a server will bring your food right to your car. At SwipeBy we want to streamline the take-out process and deliver service to our customers that hold a higher value to the consumer. We do that by charging nothing extra to our users.

My job title at SwipeBy is “Regional Brand Ambassador.” I am on the frontlines of our business, making sure all the processes are carried out properly in restaurants. I meet with the owners, managers, hosts, and waiters of many different restaurants and evaluate how they use our service to see where we can improve. I also have a technical support role to some degree. Each restaurant has an android tablet that is preloaded with our app and software to keep things up and running smoothly. Still, when things are not going so well, I go to the restaurants and assess the issue. I make sure all restaurants are online and showing up on our app and deliver support when they are not. This role is also evolving and will soon add a growth component.

The growth component will allow me to make new acquisitions of restaurants throughout the area and fine-tune my understanding of the service, our business model, and scaling. I’ve also had the opportunity to be a part of our marketing meetings and brainstorming sessions. I’ve chatted with people on the streets about the business. I’ve also met with Carl, the founder of Swipeby, on multiple occasions, to share how I think the company is doing and what I believe can help us improve our success. I am very excited to see where things go from here and how new additions to our team help us to grow.

Working at a startup that is in its beginning stages is a very cool experience because we are taking calculated risks with everything we are doing. Being able to see these risks pay-off or fail will be an incredible learning experience. For that, I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.