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 simple in ambition: 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]. The team's public profiles suggest a blend of operational and commercial focus, with Hickey listed as Chief Revenue Officer in one source [RocketReach profile, 2026] and Albarracín citing a decade focused on consumer experience [Mateo Albarracín LinkedIn post, Feb 2025]. For a company positioning itself between retailers and consumers, that mix is logical.
A network, not a warehouse
The core product thesis rejects centralized fulfillment. Instead of building massive distribution centers, 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]. This positions JENNi as a liquidity layer for local inventory, a bet on the untapped value of goods already sitting on shelves within a few miles of a customer.
The early wedge is likely small to medium online merchants using platforms like Shopify, who struggle with stock-outs and slow shipping. JENNi's promise is to turn those local stores into a smooth extension of their own inventory. The platform reportedly handles transactions via Stripe, suggesting a focus on streamlining the financial flow between buyer, seller, and fulfiller [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. Amazon continues to shrink delivery windows. JENNi's differentiation rests on its asset-light, networked approach targeting general merchandise. The bet is that a dedicated software layer connecting disparate local inventories can be more capital-efficient and flexible than owning the fulfillment footprint. The risks, however, are substantial and familiar.
- Liquidity begets liquidity. The classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem. Stores need demand to participate; merchants need abundant, reliable local stock to trust the system. Solving this requires significant merchant acquisition and ground-level operational hustle.
- The margin squeeze. Instant delivery is expensive. JENNi will need to balance fees between merchants, delivery partners, and consumers carefully. A thin software take-rate may struggle to cover the cost of orchestrating a complex, low-margin physical transaction.
- Proving the wedge. The concept is broad. Success will depend on identifying and dominating a specific initial vertical,be it electronics, home goods, or apparel,where local inventory is dense and delivery urgency justifies the cost.
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 or customer satisfaction. Given Jones's background and the team's recent assembly, a pre-seed or seed financing round is a near-certainty on the horizon to fund this land-grab phase. The question for potential backers won't be about the vision, which is clear, 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. The first check to fund that blueprint, and who writes it, will be the next concrete signal to watch.
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