This July, the startup Routora, co-founded by Notre Dame seniors Luke Blazek and Brian George, was featured on a billboard in New York City’s Times Square. Blazek and George purchased the ad space in Times Square after reaching the milestone of offering 50,000 drivers in over 90 countries and saving drivers over four million minutes total in driving time.
Blazek and George co-founded the app, which uses artificial intelligence to plot the fastest route for delivery drivers, in 2022. This spring they won the ACC InVenture “People’s Choice” Award for the startup, representing Notre Dame at the competition.
George emphasized the importance of the advertisement to the company for increasing app usage.
“Getting a billboard in Times Square has significantly raised Routora’s profile, putting our brand in front of a global audience,” George said. “This exposure has not only enhanced our visibility but has also sparked conversations about potential partnerships, opening doors to new opportunities.”
Another recent change for the company has been the development of a product to manage delivery services for companies with small fleets.
“Managers were looking to essentially regionalize their drivers, and then kind of optimize based on their starting location. So we kind of heard from a number of our customers that this was something they wanted,” Blazek explained.
The product was designed by three former Amazon engineers who now work for Routora and is due to be officially launched next month.
The company is also in talking stages with the New York City Department of Buildings about a partnership to use Routora’s technology to optimize driving time for the government department’s drivers. The technology would maximize the efficiency of building inspectors’ stops as they work.
“That’s very preliminary, we’re just in talks now, but that kind of opportunity is exciting, just to feel like: ‘Hey, we could potentially be working with the City of New York,’” Blazek said.
Blazek said Routora hopes to also develop similar partnerships with other cities in the United States.
The company was originally supported by the IDEA Center at Notre Dame and received grant money through the project. Blazek said he still works with advisers from the center and plans on hiring more people who are currently involved at the center. Most importantly, he explained, the IDEA Center helps to connect students to the broader Notre Dame alumni network.
Blazek said he hopes to do another “speed pitch” at the IDEA Center this year in the hopes of receiving more grant money. He said he also plans on competing in the Center’s McCloskey New Venture Competition later in the year.
Blazek said another key priority for the company this year is to bring in more software engineers. Routora also plans on tweaking parts of its free mobile experience in order to better entice customers to upgrade to the premium version of the app. He said he also hopes to create more congruity between the website and the mobile version of the software.
