Zing’s Shoham is Reinventing the Suburban Cup of Coffee Experience
I had the pleasure of interviewing Avishai Shoham, the Co-Founder and CEO of Zing, a startup that is shaping the next generation of suburban commerce.
From leading Via’s product organization and autonomous business — which deliver optimized transit solutions to public transportation — to founding Evoz, which provides parents with advanced baby monitoring products and services; and multiple companies in between, Avishai has spent the last 25 years building consumer experiences that solve real world problems with data, technology and physical products.
Avishai holds a BSc EE from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Stanford GSB.
Thank you so much for joining us!
I saw your orange Zing-mobiles zooming around my suburban town. What can you tell me about the startup behind the great cafe experience I booked to my street corner?
We don’t actually get asked that often — most people just see the magic: a full cafe experience they book, walk to and meet their neighbors.
You are right, there is so much behind the scenes before you get your oat milk cappuccino made right on your street corner.
We bring the experience and convenience of a big city block to the suburbs, such as high-end cafes, juice shops, dynamic retail and more. Our goal is to make suburbia walkable, and provide ways for neighbors to connect and bring our communities together. We do this by focusing on a fully digital experience — from customer booking a Zing-mobile to a location within a few minute walk to ongoing, real time communication and fun, interactive promotions — having a fully integrated service for our customers is at the heart of everything we do.
It’s the technology behind the scenes that makes this all work — big data and smart algorithms are used to optimize a network of premium mobile cafes. And that is the secret to solving the density of demand in suburban commerce and making this into a scalable, amazing business.
What motivated you to launch your startup?
It all started at a dinner party during which I met Dan and Stephanie, who moved to our northern New Jersey suburban town with their two kids. As always in these situations, within 5 minutes, they were already talking about the parts of their city lives they missed the most — walkability, seeing “the regulars” at their corner coffee shop, the ease of grabbing an afternoon organic, protein smoothie. I am sure this sounds familiar; suburban life is generally comfortable, but something is missing, and everyone feels it.
It’s no secret that recently there’s been an exodus from cities to the suburbs. We could say that this migration is a natural progression of life for many of us; we start building families, we’re tired of eternally renting a tiny apartment and want to own our own place on this earth, or we’re simply worn out by the daily grind of city life.
This move brings a lot of upsides — space, yards, quiet — but it’s also a tough adjustment for former city-dwellers. We miss the daily social exchanges and chance encounters on the streets, the ability to fall out of bed, and walk 5 minutes to our favorite places. It’s not easy to suddenly have to drive for every single thing.
Then COVID came.
Working at home became the new norm for many, and the move to suburbs really picked up.
On top of that, the pandemic brought about a change that to this day reverberates in our collective human psyche…. We were all stuck at home, literally isolated from one another.
Now we have entered the “new normal” stage. Hybrid work models are evolving, and suburbs continue to develop. That missing element of social interaction and community is slowly coming back. Yet we’re still seeing people stuck at home far more than they used to be. And more often than not, we still get our daily items delivered.
Hey, deliveries are convenient, but some things just can’t be delivered in a box.
With fewer reasons to leave the house, people are losing opportunities to interact with one another — but communities can only thrive when there is a reason for people to come together.
So, we finally decided to do something about it — for our families, friends, ourselves — for all of us.
We decided to change the suburban experience by leveraging my experience in mobility and creating physical/digital experiences. We envisioned making suburbs more walkable, and more social — and in so doing, to bring communities together in the real world.
What is it that excites you about what you’re building?
We are creating a fundamental change in our neighborhoods that impacts people’s daily lives — what can be more exciting than that?
The importance of human interaction can’t be overstated. It’s not just a “nice-to-have.” It’s what brings color and vibrancy to our lives. The conversations, however brief; those friendly smiles in passing, the shared moments, the chance encounters that bring unexpected opportunities — we need them. And on the flip side, loneliness and isolation are damaging to humanity in every aspect. Given our lifestyles — and in particular, suburbanization and work-at-home models — it’s not always easy to get in our daily dose of adequate socialization. Our lives can feel solitary. Studies show that even after the pandemic, a higher percentage of our interactions still remain online, and we’re missing out on opportunities to foster personal connections.
So when we witness how our service brings not only convenience and great coffee, but also real-time interactions and smiles — that it literally brings people together — this is when we know we’re making the right change in our communities and in the world.
I’m also excited about how we are making the suburbs “walkable” again, and providing people some relief from endlessly driving for each necessity or pleasure. We’re bringing a great urban coffee shop experience to a corner within steps of their homes, or kids’ sports practices, or events and celebrations, or even local businesses. We can see first-hand that we are playing an important role in shaping suburban life, and creating the future of healthier communities.
This is the great thing about designing technological products. “Online” doesn’t need to be equated with “Anonymous.” Technology can and should enable real-world gains. At Zing, we are joining together physical and digital capabilities to create the complete experience for our users.
What has been your biggest challenge when growing your startup?
What we are building is so complex and multidimensional. We’re not only online; we’re also physical. We rely on operational perfection and highly time-sensitive performance. Let’s zero in on what that looks like from a practical perspective — of just how many balls we need to juggle at any moment.
First, we have the hardware. We’ve got a custom designed, connected, modular network of smart Zing-Mobiles. These are cafes on wheels that change their location over 5 times an hour. Then, we have the software, our “secret sauce;” it’s our mobile apps, algorithms that dictate which Zing-mobile services each order, complete fleet management system, and big data analysis to predict demand and select vehicle and stop locations. All these enable us to understand and optimize service to the neighborhoods we serve. Then, we are dealing with large-scale operations — ensuring service to users on demand, wherever they are. Add to that the culinary component — a constantly changing menu of premium coffee, drinks and food items — and impeccable customer service.
The complexity of bringing these components together is a significant challenge, because if any one of these parts isn’t running smoothly, we will fall short. And, none of this would be possible without the very best people in all facets of the company.
What are your future plans for your startup?
We’ve got a lot of exciting plans in the works! We’re pretty surprised at how quickly things have taken off so far — it’s only been 5 months since we had multiple vehicles on the ground, and just over a year since we started working on the Zing concept. We have an incredible, dedicated team and we are all deep in the trenches together perfecting the product and ensuring operational efficiency and precision, in one vertical and a limited geography.
Moving forward, there’s no limit to how we can bring this same vision to other suburbs. This business model has the opportunity to be scaled not only geographically, but also across many verticals.
Geographically, there are thousands of suburbs across the US. Nearly 70% of Americans are living in suburban areas, and the suburban migration trends are astounding. As this trend continues, and new suburbs are being developed or grown, they need the infrastructure and commerce to sustain their residents, but traditional commercial models are falling short. Our goal is to grow across markets in a sustainable way, and eventually to expand our product and service offering across verticals. Today we provide a premium cafe experience — but tomorrow, having our capabilities and expertise in data-driven decisions, we will recreate the city block by offering adaptive retail, and provide products and services based on real customer needs.
Society is at a crucial juncture in so many ways. We can see an evolution of employment and work habits, of retail, of community structures, and so much more. We’re now building a solid foundation, great technology and a sound infrastructure to serve these blossoming suburbs in a way that brings value and convenience without compromising the human touch.
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
When Founders first start working on their concept, there is a tendency to get attached to an idea or vision, and the more deeply you get involved, the harder it is to stray away from it.
You’ve got to be brutally honest in the beginning. Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions, shed light and call out what are the real “leaps of faith” — the things you need to prove initially. It takes a lot of time, some elbow grease and hunting for answers to tough questions, but once you do that, you’ve done the proverbial homework, and you can GO!
From here on, believe in yourself and the vision, and push ahead.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Of course, if they happen to currently be in Northern New Jersey, the best way for followers to get to know us “socially” is to experience us live! And download the App (iOS / Android)
Other than that, we’d be happy to see them on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. If they want to know a bit more about us, our direct website is https://www.zingtheday.com/ .
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
