Hong Kong Startup Series: Awesome Ship – Winner of Startup WeekendGlobal Startup Battle

Awesome Ship is an application that helps online merchants improve their customers’ satisfaction by actively tracking their packages, no matter what courier is being used, and notifying them of the latest shipping status directly via SMS, email and Twitter. Awesome Ship recently won the first Startup Weekend Global Startup Weekend Battle. The competition was designed to foster friendly competition and community awareness among the global Startup Weekend community. Fifty winning teams from Startup Weekend events that took place Nov. 11-14, 2011 and Nov. 18-20, 2011 were given the chance to compete to become the ultimate Global Startup Battle winner. More than 36,000 people participated in the contest via the Startup Weekend Facebook fan page.Product Features of Awesome Ship:

1. Free Push Notification – Send shipping status notification to your customers through Twitter, emails or SMS automatically in their languages.

2. Shipping Insight – Enjoy free analysis on shipping status of all your orders and solve shipping problems before customers ask.

3. Save Time and Money – Spend less time answering customer inquiries and get refunds from shipping companies for delayed, damaged or lost items in time.

4. More Return Customers – Online merchants can take actions before customers notice any shipping problems. Clear customers’ worries about shipping status and improve customer loyalty.

Awesome Ship was born at Startup Weekend Hong Kong which was organized from 18th to 20^th November. The idea came from Teddy, the CEO and co-founder, who owns an online store and realised that lots of manpower is required to handle customers' queries regarding package shipping status. He had a solution for providing a better after-shipped service and thought other merchants may want the same - thus he attended SW HK and looked for opinions or business partners who agree with his idea. 

“We not only won the Startup Week Hong Kong, but also the Global Startup Battle in the following week - this strengthens our belief in our startup for sure. Because of that, we also got approached by quite a few big online merchants from the US who showed interest in the product - this confirms that our product will not just work in HK but also globally. We will present our idea at DEMO Asia and Launch Conference in Feb and Mar 2012. Another key factor is that we received so much help from the Hong Kong startup community. Even though it is relatively new, people here are very supportive and helped us to reach many key people” says Andrew Chan, cofounder of Awesome Ship on how the startup was born at Startup Weekend and how they pursued its development.

Since the launch there have been many new developments at Awesome Ship. They not only want to target online merchants but also reach out to individual customers who send out packages daily. From now to March 2012 (the Demo Asia and Launch Conference) they want to focus on production, where they will have closed tests for online merchants. They have hired 3 developers right after winning the SW HK, and will grow the team after March. They are also looking at Series A funding in 2012.

Sign up for their newsletter at http://www.awesome-ship.com/ to be notified about their beta testing.