Tech + Talk: Fireside chat with Shaun Chong

[2016-08-26 Fri 19:20:00] speaker: Shaun Chong, CTO Ninja Van event: Tech + Talk, General Assembly

new monthly event from GA, Q&A with CTOs

was doing a fashion startup, bringing down the cost of custom clothing encounter problems with existing last mile delivery services

started Ninja Van in April 2014

important to get involved in the operations and figure out the pain points, eg delivery to HDB flats

providing visibility to the users of the service

consolidating multiple delivery orders to lower the overall costs, similar to vehicle routing with time window

driver engagement, operations, people management

no single domination player in SEA, each country has its own main payer. e-commerce growing fast, setting up partnerships in SEA is a pain point.

150-160 vehicles in Singapore + partnerships with other companies to utilize their fleet during peak periods

Technical team of 27 in SG and 6 in Indonesia, including 2 data analyst

Ninja Collect allows customers to pick up from a collection box or partner retail shop. Determine the location of collection points based on data.

Geocoding is much harder in Malaysia compared to Singapore. Postal code is not detailed enough, need to use the address string.

Offer bonuses to drivers with above average performance based on the delivery record.

Technology: Java + Play framework, kafka, nodejs, legacy php

Extending the network to Philipines by partnering with local players to get started.