Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Vazhekatt.
Hi Tom, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I founded my company from the ground up in my dorm room at UT Dallas. As the CEO of Routora, a Dallas-based route optimization company, I’ve had the privilege of steering our dedicated team of seven toward creating a platform that significantly impacts drivers globally. My previous volunteer work in the delivery industry helped me gain insights into small business routing challenges. I noticed that while extensive routing solutions are standard for major transportation/delivery companies, these systems are neither effective nor affordable for the expanding small business and gig economy segments, pointing to a clear market gap for a tailored routing solution. As a computer science student with a passion for environmental sustainability, I used my technical background to build a simple solution. Our AI-driven platform automatically reorders your stops to ensure the quickest and most fuel-efficient route for your trip.
Now, in my senior year at UT Dallas, our user base has grown to over 40,000 drivers from 90+ countries around the world. Following the launch of our mobile and web applications, we’ve seen substantial organic expansion not only in delivery but also in areas like real estate, sales, field services, and home health care. In aggregate, Routora has saved users over 2 million miles and 47,000 hours, reducing CO2 emissions by 934 metric tons and saving over $300,000 in fuel costs. Our work has not gone unnoticed. Routora has been featured as #89 on the App Store’s Top Charts in Navigation and highlighted by major publications like Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, and Bloomberg– alongside TV interviews with CBS and ABC News affiliates in Dallas.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As my first business venture, the journey has been anything but smooth. One of the biggest struggles has been adjusting to our global growth. When we first started seeing users coming from other countries, we knew we needed the right infrastructure and legal policies set in place, and that was exactly what we did. Some of the technical/legal improvements included integrating Stripe, which took care of international payments, and also setting up a policy for the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union. However, our work did not stop there. We wanted to make the user experience the best it could be, no matter where our users came from. We made our Routora Google Maps Chrome Extension compatible with the most popular languages internationally. This means that no matter what language you use our platform in, we will provide you with your optimized route in the same language. This adjustment has contributed to our now growing user base from over 90 countries around the world.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Routora?
Mainstream mapping platforms today, like Google and Apple Maps, can navigate to multiple destinations. However, for those with flexible stops, these platforms cannot optimally re-order stops for the fastest sequence–which could save hours. I first experienced this challenge in high school while running errands for my parents, tasked with retrieving items from various locations throughout the city without knowing the best sequence to visit them. Later, in college, my role in the delivery sector with a Texas non-profit organization opened my eyes to the extensive scale of this issue for small businesses and gig drivers. I realized that route optimization solutions in the marketplace today were built for larger corporations looking to manage a fleet of drivers. This left a gap in the market for the rapidly growing gig economy and small businesses like Trusted World, which needed a route planning solution to cater to them. This is when my company, Routora, emerged.
The fundamental idea behind Routora is highly scalable. As the demand for efficient logistics and transportation grows across various industries the need for a route optimization solution catered for small businesses and gig drivers increases. Our growth to date has been almost entirely organic, with our user base expanding across the globe. Routora’s growth originally came from the delivery sector, in particular Amazon Flex delivery drivers who were unhappy with Amazon’s Flex app. The total addressable market for the delivery sector is massive and substantially growing, but in the past year, we’ve observed significant growth in adjacent markets. We have paying customers coming from various sectors, including real estate—particularly realtors managing multiple listings—and field services, encompassing solar installation, landscaping, and home repair. Additionally, we serve home healthcare providers, such as doctors and nurses, who visit patients from home to home.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
My interests growing up were all over the place. As an avid athlete, I grew up playing soccer competitively, and I currently play on the UT Dallas Men’s Club team. I also grew up playing chess and have observed many adjacencies to the strategy behind chess and the strategy behind growing a business.
Pinpointing a single driving force behind my entrepreneurial journey is challenging. Like most entrepreneurs, money and the autonomy that comes with building a business are great motivators. However, I would say my biggest motivator is having a genuine impact on the people who interact with my business. My Christian faith has taught me to use our limited time in this world to leave a positive mark, and nothing motivates me more. I remember starting programming projects in my dorm room, thinking even if just one person found them useful enough to improve any part of their life, it would be worthwhile. Many drivers later, my route optimization company Routora is being used not just to enhance efficiency and save costs but to significantly reduce carbon emissions. As a college student with a passion for technology and a commitment to environmental sustainability, I saw an opportunity to address a universal challenge faced by drivers and small businesses worldwide. Now, through Routora, I’ve been able to combine my technical skills with my aspiration to make a difference, proving that even as a student, it’s possible to spearhead change and positively affect lives and the environment on a global scale.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.routora.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/routoraapp/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-vazhekatt-6672641ab/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@routora4455
