Ben Jones sold his last-mile delivery company, Skipcart, in 2022. Now he is back with a new bet on local commerce, this time from the other side of the counter. His new venture, JENNi, is a pre-seed startup building what he calls a "decentralizing commerce" platform [Ben Jones LinkedIn, 2025]. The idea is to connect the physical inventory sitting in local stores directly to online demand, fulfilling orders instantly through a network of delivery partners.
The Skipcart founder's second act
Jones is the anchor. His experience building and selling an on-demand delivery operation in San Antonio provides a tangible foundation for a logistics-heavy play [San Antonio Business Journal, Mar 2022]. He is joined by three co-founders: Mateo Albarracín Duque as COO, Alan Hickey, and Patrick Walther [Mateo Albarracín LinkedIn post, Feb 2025].
A network, not a warehouse
The core product thesis rejects centralized fulfillment. JENNi appears to be software that turns any local store's back room into a potential node in a distributed network. A Shopify app listing for "JENNi Local Commerce" describes it as providing "instant backup inventory" for merchants, fulfilling orders via partners like DoorDash when a seller runs out of stock [Shopify App Store, 2026]. The platform reportedly handles transactions via Stripe [jennipro.com, 2026].
The crowded field of instant
Instant local commerce is not an empty battlefield. Giants like DoorDash and Uber have built vast networks for restaurant and grocery delivery. JENNi's differentiation rests on its asset-light, networked approach targeting general merchandise. Risks include the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem, the margin squeeze of instant delivery, and the need to identify and dominate a specific initial vertical.
The next twelve months
For a company founded in January 2025, the immediate roadmap is about proof. The team must demonstrate it can sign a critical mass of local stores in a single geographic market, prove reliable fulfillment times, and show merchants tangible uplifts in sales. The question for potential backers won't be about the vision, but about the execution velocity in a space where capital has historically been burned on customer acquisition.
The company's stated mission is to decentralize commerce [Ben Jones LinkedIn, 2025]. The more immediate, measurable goal is to prove that a software layer can reliably source a specific product from a local store and get it to a doorstep within hours, profitably. If Jones and his co-founders can crack that unit economics puzzle in San Antonio, they might just have a blueprint for a new kind of local commerce network.
Sources
- [Ben Jones LinkedIn, 2025] Ben Jones LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-jones-8b9846146
- [San Antonio Business Journal, Mar 2022] 40 Under 40: Ben Jones, Skipcart | https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2022/03/25/40-under-40-ben-jones-skipcart.html
- [Mateo Albarracín LinkedIn post, Feb 2025] Mateo Albarracín LinkedIn announcement post | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mateoalbarracinduque_big-news-im-excited-to-share-that-activity-7369018477174628352-_Oys
- [RocketReach profile, 2026] Alan Hickey Contact Information | https://rocketreach.co/alan-hickey-email_29214200
- [Shopify App Store, 2026] JENNi Local Commerce - Instant backup inventory | https://apps.shopify.com/jenniapp-1
- [jennipro.com, 2026] JENNi Pro FAQ | https://jennipro.com/faq