Rayah Rahman. Provided photo
Rayan Rahman has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Well, at least since he saw the 2010 movie, “The Social Network,” which tells the story of the creation of Facebook.
“That social thing,” Rahman said, “it changed the whole world.”
Rahman isn’t looking to do that with his international shipping startup, Airposted. But the George Mason University senior management major does see a problem-solving and eventual financial opportunity.
The idea is pretty simple. Someone going overseas purchases and delivers a requested product to someone in the country the traveler is visiting. The connection is made on the airposted.com website, where the transactions are negotiated.
“They have an idea and it seems to make some sense,” said David J. Miller, executive director of George Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the School of Business. “How you actually execute it and understanding who really wants this, that’s what they have to figure out.”
The idea sparked when Rahman, of Woodbridge, Va., paid $350 to ship a $100 pair of Nike shoes to a family member in his native Bangladesh. Using Airposted eliminates the shipping fee, replacing it with a fee negotiated by the buyer and traveler.
Airposted holds the fee and the money to purchase the product, reimbursing the traveler when the delivery is made.
“It’s just a very George Mason start-up in the global nature of it,” Miller said.
Since its September launch, Airposted’s website has received more than 600,000 hits, about 20,000 people have registered as users and more than 200 deliveries have been made, Rahman said.
Right now, the company is focused on building its brand, so it isn’t charging for the service.
Raisa Rahman. Provided photo
So far, Rahman and co-founders Raisa Rahman (Rayan’s cousin, who studied marketing at Mason) and Mithun Molla have put what Rayan called “quite some time, money and effort” into the company.
Many purchase requests come from India, Southeast Asia and Africa, often for electronics that are cheaper purchased in the United States. The key is finding enough travelers to make the deliveries. That is where Mason’s Innovation Lab tries to help.
Rayan and Raisa meet with the group there every two weeks to brainstorm. How can they cultivate investors? Where should they put their limited advertising dollars? Should they sponsor meet-up events? Should they go to the airport and interview travelers to gauge their interest?
“Something Rayan and I always say, ‘If there is a problem, there is a solution,’ ” Raisa said. “We’re going to find a solution to all these problems. We really do have a good idea.”