New Utah startup Oops offers doorstep return pickups for in-store and online purchases

An early-stage startup born in the heart of Utah's Silicon Slopes, Oops is offering doorstep return pickups for in-store and online purchases across the Wasatch Range.

Founded by Jonathan Crawley and Joseph Hatch, Oops raised a $5 million seed round led by Peterson Partners, with contributions from EPIC Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Village Global, and angel investors. The startup, which launched in June, serves neighborhoods along the I-15 corridor from Spanish Fork to Ogden, including most of Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, and Summit counties. 

Using an intuitive website and mobile app for iPhone and Android, Oops solves the pain of making returns by doing all the heavy lifting. Customers simply schedule a pickup, and an Oops driver in a signature blue van completes the return on the customer's behalf. Boxes and printed labels are not required, and all returns are insured up to $1,000.

Joseph Hatch, President, Oops: "We have an incredible opportunity to close the loop in logistics and enable a novel shopping experience where retail happens entirely from the home. The idea for Oops came as I was sitting in a UPS parking lot, the first stop on a returns escapade that I realized was about to steal my Saturday. The core value-add of the platform is to create a single, consumer-oriented touchpoint for returns and give people time back to spend doing the things that they love with the people they love." 

The Oops team is also passionate about helping busy parents spend more time with their families.

Jonathan Crawley, CEO, Oops: "Standing in line at Best Buy or Home Depot is not the best way to interact with my kids. Particularly as a working parent, quality time is really valuable for me, and doing returns just sucked that time away. This is genuinely a need for a lot of people, recalling that Oops' first customer had a broken leg and couldn't leave the house. I'm very excited about solving this need, freeing up time for people so they can do what they want to do."

Formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Collective Medical, Jonathan has deep roots in the Utah tech space, with a background in strategy and finance, having worked at McKinsey. The business concept came to Joseph while he was making returns of his own, feeling frustrated by the need to drive to multiple stores and wait in long return lines. 

With a background in venture capital, Joseph has worked most recently at Intermountain Ventures and Goldman Sachs. Oops also provides donation pickups and returns furniture and oversized items. The goal is to reduce shopping anxiety by empowering customers to buy multiple options, keep what works, and easily return what doesn't.

New customers can take advantage of a 30-day free trial, then pay $15/month for unlimited returns, or request a single pickup for $6 for the first pickup. While returns can be viewed as detrimental to the environment, Oops is built on the core value of sustainability and makes every effort to minimize environmental impact.

''We are very consumer-centric and customer-oriented, and I think that orientation means that we are going to jump through hoops to help people,'' Jonathan says. ''Fifty-five percent of returns don't end up back on shelves, and we plan on helping address that.''

www.oops.io