By GREGORY ZELLER //
From the Everything Happens for a Reason Department comes Adam Haber, who’s made multiple unsuccessful runs for public office – and instead of wading through the Albany muck, wound up doing something that can actually help the regional economy.
Haber ran for New York State Senate in 2014 and 2016 and finished second both times (“Good in the Olympics,” he notes, “but not in politics”). Now, along with cofounders Brian Berkery and J.R. Jensen, he’s running Trellus Networks, a regional delivery service aiming to become the Amazon of Long Island.
Actually, the 2021 startup’s ambitions are more noble than that.
Launched in January, Long Beach-based Trellus is certainly interested in turning a profit; the cofounders have so far invested a combined $200,000 putting the wheels in motion. But it’s also keen on helping other small businesses improve their bottom lines – no mean feat in an era overrun with superstores and digital-shopping alternatives.
“I used to be in finance on Wall Street,” Haber told Innovate Long Island. “I’d commute home from Manhattan to Roslyn, and I got tired of seeing all these small businesses go out of business.
“And when I drove my son to college in North Carolina, all I saw was Walmart, Target and Wendy’s, like the background in a cartoon, repeating over and over again,” he added. “It was a sterile environment that I’d never want to live in.”
Adam Haber: Electing to make a difference.
For the self-described “avid venture investor” – a member of the Long Island Angels Network with several small- and medium-sized business investments under his belt – the solution was clear: Especially in the Age of Coronavirus, small brick-and-mortar businesses needed a weapon against Amazon and other super-chains with home-delivery fleets.
Enter Trellus, which guarantees same-day product deliveries (50 pounds or less) from businesses registered with the Trellus Marketplace, a categorically grouped list of regional enterprises.
“We click through to their website,” Haber noted. “We don’t handle their transactions and we don’t handle their money.
“Uber and Doordash are partners with all these restaurants,” he added. “But that’s not how it works with us.”
Instead, when a customer buys a product and schedules a delivery, the Trellus Marketplace business – which pays a monthly listing fee – purchases what is essentially a shipping label. Trellus then sends a driver to the business to pick up the product and hustle it over to the buyer.
The logistics innovator caters only to Long Island-based small businesses – no big box stores, according to Haber, and no restaurants.
“We’re not competing with Uber Eats,” Haber noted. “We’re filling the space between them and [United Parcel Service].”
Trellus currently fills that space with eight full-time employees and 46 “gig drivers,” who use their own vehicles – à la Uber – to pick up and deliver the goods. Running the show, and making the occasional delivery themselves, are the three cofounders, who each brings a specific talent to the table.
Complementary: Trellus Networks founders (from left) Brian Berkery, Adam Haber and J.R. Jensen play well together.
Haber, aside from his investment experience, is the sales specialist; Berkery, president of Long Beach-based Creative Vibe Advertising, is the marketing ace; and Jensen, founder of New York-based based niche studio Face Piece Creative, is the website designer and primary programmer.
“It’s a great partnership,” Haber said. “This idea really took meeting the right people, who have expertise in other areas.”
It also took the right region, brimming with customers and countless small businesses that – thanks to the proliferation of online shopping, the bottomless COVID pandemic and other factors – are forever teetering on the edge of ruin.
“The local butcher, the local florist, the small business on Main Street,” Haber noted. “Shopping local is what makes a community a community.
“I wanted to help preserve that,” he added. “And we realized there were incredible businesses opportunities in doing that.”
For now, the Trellus Marketplace is only recruiting businesses throughout Nassau and “about 10 miles into Suffolk,” according to Haber, and will deliver only to Queens or Long Island, to ensure deliveries “in a timely fashion.”
But stay tuned: The company is kicking off a $2 million seed-investment round that could significantly change its scope.
Fresh take: Restaurants have Doordash, but Long Island bakeries have a friend in Trellus.
In addition to funding the purchase of a van fleet to accommodate larger deliveries, the new funding will expand Trellus’ operational area, with Brooklyn and Manhattan next on the list.
From there, the sky’s the limit, with expansion beyond Greater New York on the drawing board.
“We’re considering going to [the District of Columbia], and running trucks along the DC-Philadelphia corridor,” Haber said. “We may end up franchising the business in other cities.”
Basically, the formula can be repeated anywhere there are customers interested in shopping local and small businesses seeking an advantage against the mighty box stores – which is just about everywhere, according to Haber, an entrepreneur doing more to help the regional economy than he ever could as a political pawn in Albany.
“Every politician says ‘shop local,’ but they don’t do anything to help,” he said. “We’re here to become a local alternative that really supports small businesses.
“We’re a faster alternative than UPS and we’re less expensive than most courier services,” Haber added. “And this is not some mom-and-pop business – we have plans to make this a true national alternative to what’s out there.
“There’s such a huge need for this.”
Trellus Networks
What’s It? Same-day local delivery service focused on Long Island small business
Brought To You By: Cofounders Adam Haber (the sales guy), Brian Berkery (the marketing guy) and J.R. Jensen (the computer guy)
All In: About $200,000, covering website costs and a proprietary “batching system”
Status: About 150 deliveries per day, and just getting started
