In Conversation with Tarun Aleti

In Conversation with Tarun Aleti, PartRunner

Tarun moved to the US from India 10 years ago to pursue his Master’s degree. He did his undergraduate in India from IIT-Bombay in Civil Engineering and his Master’s degree in Construction Management at Northeastern University, Boston. 
After this, he pivoted his career to data science.

He worked as a consultant for the next seven years in the logistics, biotech and finance spaces. He didn’t feel fulfilled or motivated to grow so he started PartRunner with Yoshua Rozen (Founder, CEO) & Daniel Legmann (Co-Founder, Country Manager) in 2018. Since then, they’ve expanded operations to MEXICO after raising a seed round from Cemex Ventures in 2021. His focus is on Product & Technology and also advises Pre-Seed/Seed stage startups.

LMT: Can you describe your vision for the technology and product roadmap at Part Runner? How do you plan to leverage technology to further enhance and expand on-demand delivery services for businesses in the Trades, Construction, and Service Industries?

Our vision for our company is to be the biggest marketplace in the Big & Bulky last mile logistics sector in LATAM. 

In terms of product and technology, logistics is one of the oldest industries yet very non-tech in terms of operations. From product & technology, we want to build tools that enable the growth of demand & supply. We want oi improve on-demand requests and dedicated services for SMBs and Enterprise companies. When it comes to supply, we want to bring in fleet operators & ICs. The goal is to build products/solutions that add value to both demand & supply. 

LMT: Part Runner has a strong focus on safety, reliability, and professionalism in its operations. How do you envision technology playing a role in maintaining and improving these aspects as you continue to grow and adapt to the evolving needs of our clients?

The strength of our marketplace depends on the quality of our supply. We do documentation, experience-vetting on fleets, ICs that come onboard and also for vehicles - documentation, quality check, insurance, etc. 

It’s not just that we do additional checks based on project needs. From a technology point of view we are building processes that provide a seamless experience for supply and unlock opportunities for them faster.

LMT: Part Runner's services have already made a significant impact, including covering over 250,000 kilometers and making over 10,000 deliveries. What strategies and technological innovations do you believe are essential for scaling your operations while maintaining the high level of service quality your clients expect?

We have done more than 75K+ routes, 400K+ stops/deliveries in the US and Mexico combined. Once we found the value-add for the customer and how to provide it, it's all about building a scalable business model around it. 

We understand that we are in the logistics space & not the transportation/food delivery space. Understanding our customer, driver behaviour and building experiences aligned with them are key, as is knowing that you are one bad experience away from losing a customer. We have used all these learnings as we double down on growth.

LMT: In a rapidly changing technological landscape, how do you plan to stay ahead of the competition and continue to innovate in the on-demand delivery space? Can you provide examples of past experiences or initiatives where you successfully led the development of new products or technologies to address market demands and opportunities?

The only way to stay ahead of the competition is by being hyper focused on the “customer problems”. We want to focus on why they’d use our services and what value-adds we bring to them.

Year over year by iterating continuously we’ve been able to find answers and we are trying to build a product that provides this value without any friction. As we scale it's important to build a frictionless experience. For example, instead of relying on external tools we’ve built our own ATS system for supply that is enabling us to grow faster, yet at the same time, maintain quality

LMT: On a more personal note, what inspired your choice to begin working on a Last Mile start-up like Part Runner?

I wanted to do something that brings the construction & data aspects of my experience together. While I was working on another idea in the space I met Yosh (CEO/Founder of PartRunner) - he’d just gotten started with an idea to deliver parts in the construction space. I saw a lot of complementary skills and I got onboard. I had prior experience from working in XPO Logistics that also helped me in making this decision to join. 

LMT: Part Runner is focused on improving businesses in the Trades, Construction, and Service Industries with on-demand delivery. Among your notable achievements, which project or mission in your career have you found the most fulfilling so far? 

We work with a lot of SMBs & Regional businesses in the US and Enterprise customers in Mexico. The best part is that we serve customers when they need it the most. Fulfilling their emergency needs is one of our strongest value-adds. It's tough to pick one, but in general helping customers in those extremely challenging situations is very fulfilling.

LMT: What projects have you been involved in, and where will your focus be in the near future in terms of enhancing your technology and product offerings?

PartRunner started in 2018 and we have built multiple iterations and products to grow. But its really in the last 12-18 months in Mexico that we cracked our PMF that can have hockey stick growth. 

Our focus is really on building products that will solve customer problems yet at the same time add value to the supply. It's a marketplace where we need both sides growing together. 

LMT: What do you believe the last-mile delivery industry is currently excelling at, and what aspects do you think should undergo transformation or improvement? Which regions or countries do you think are most advanced when it comes to initiating and expanding last-mile solutions, and what factors contribute to their success?

Since Uber, last mile logistics in the US has seen tremendous growth, especially with customers wanting everything faster and faster. We have seen that “small parcel” delivery has almost saturated with a lot of competition and Big & Bulky too has become a bit crowded in the last few years. In LATAM too we see that Small parcel is saturated but Big & Bulky is a big opportunity and PartRunner is tapping into this market