NOVEMBER 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 25
ADAM HABER, COFOUNDER AND CEO OF TRELLUS LONG LIVE LOCAL BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
Adam Haber is the cofounder and CEO
of Trellus, an on-demand, same-day
delivery service and marketplace that
formally launched in January 2021. The
Long Beach-based business currently
works with businesses in Nassau
County and as far east as the Sagktikos
Parkway in Suff olk, and delivers from
all of Queens to Montauk.
What need does your company meet?
We’re much less expensive than a
courier service, about half the price
or even less. The merchant partner
buys a shipping label, just like with
UPS. That alerts the closest driver to
come get it. You don’t have to call a
courier service. It’s user friendly. You
don’t even have to interact with us. The
purpose is to service only small businesses
and create a marketplace that
can compete with Amazon where you
can on-demand order anything within
the service radius of our platform and
get it quicker.
Is your goal to help local businesses
compete with companies on the
internet?
Our business model is to give the small,
downtown business and home-based
businesses getting their butts kicked
by Amazon a way to compete. We’re
helping them to compete in time. I feel
that having a fl ourishing downtown
helps the community thrive. It helps
with home values and quality of life.
Is this the shop local message?
Every politician says, “Shop local, save
energy.” People will only do something
if it adds value to their lives. Shop local
and get things quicker is a lot diff erent
than shop local.
Why is it called “Trellus?”
A trellis is a network that connects things
together in gardens. The website domain
name was $27,000. Spelling it with an “us”
was 10 dollars. It was much better for us.
It checked several boxes for us, a unique
word, a recognizable brand.
How did you get involved with this?
I do a lot of venture investing. My background
is in fi nance and real estate. I
probably have 50 investments in startups.
This is one I’m all in on. With the
others I’m a limited partner and passive
investor. With this one I’m a cofounder
and putting capital in and very excited
about helping small businesses compete.
Where’d you get the idea?
In 2016, when my son and I went to visit
colleges, we went to several colleges
around the country. He ended up going
to Wake Forest. There were no or few
individual stores where the person
knows your name, what you like. The
small-town feel wasn’t there. I saw
Northern Boulevard have empty storefronts.
Why? Because Amazon provides
goods and services cheaper and people
don’t have to leave their homes. I thought
if we can do the same thing, it would
work. People want convenience.
How did you create the company?
I partnered with Brian Berkerey and
JR Jensen. I went door to door to get
feedback, to see if there was a business
there. Aft er I had signed up 40 or 50
businesses, we knew we had something
special. We’re raising $2 million in seed
money, which we’re probably going to
close on very shortly.
How widely is Trellus used?
So far we have 90 businesses. Some
libraries like using us. We have special
rates for nonprofi ts. We have a nonprofit
diaper-delivery company. We work
with services, fi rms like legal fi rms, for
paperwork. But the crux of our business
is small and home-based business.
We do an average of 100 deliveries a day
and are growing rapidly. Some of our
merchant partners end up working
with other businesses. This isn’t just
“B” to “C.” It’s also “B” to “B.”
What categories do you work with?
We do not do cooked food. It’s an extremely
crowded space. We created
an advertising platform, a marketplace
where we drive people to shop local.
People click on the links of the website
of our merchant partners or even call
them. They shop with the businesses.
They can do UPS and curbside pickup.
If they want to do same-day delivery,
they use us. We integrate with Shopify,
so it can be a selection at checkout if you
want it the same day.
Where do I go if I want to use your
service?
The website is bytrellus.com. As a
consumer, go to our marketplace. Click
on any of the categories. We do food,
butchers, seafood shops, bakeries,
chocolate shops, and candy. Most of
our deliveries are within two hours.
We guarantee them the same day. We
only do small, independently owned
businesses and franchisees to give
them a way to compete.
What’s the cost?
There’s a fee for a business to be on
our marketplace between $9.99 and
$99 a month, depending on how many
deliveries they do. The delivery fee
within 5 miles is between $6.99 and
$9.99 up to 50 pounds, as long as it’s in
one box. If it’s outside 5 miles, it’s $1.50 a
mile above that. When you do multiple
deliveries, we have a batching system.
We’re so much less expensive than UPS
or a courier service. As a consumer, it’s
up to the business whether they eat the
cost of delivery or pass the cost on to you.
Our drivers get tips from consumers, if
they want to give them.
Do you expect Trellus will be even
busier for the holidays?
Our businesses have already said
we’ll be doing many more deliveries.
A lot of the toy stores, chocolate
shops, those businesses and more
are going to be very busy during the
holidays. We’re ready for the holiday
seasons. If people want to shop local
and get it the same day, even up to
Christmas Eve, we’re here.
Are you hiring?
We’re hiring rapidly, executive positions
in marketing and tech, and we always
need more drivers. Just look at our website
to see what positions we have.
How do you hope to expand?
We sign up merchant partner businesses
in all of Nassau County and in
Suff olk out to the Sagtikos, however
we are expanding rapidly and plan on
being all over Long Island by the end
of the fi rst quarter of next year. We’re
going to off er a lot of services. We’re
going to off er credit card processing,
advertising, basket optimization services
to have bigger sales.
CORNER OFFICE
Adam Haber
"We’re ready for the
holiday seasons,"
says Adam Haber.
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