Airspace is a next-generation freight forwarder specializing in time-critical shipping. The San Diego-based logistics startup moves valuable and complex packages, ranging from organs for transplant to aircraft parts to semiconductors. Coordinating such critical shipments is anything but straightforward; even the smallest delay for packages this valuable can have a catastrophic impact on businesses and patients seeking life-saving treatments.

Airspace is powered by a global network of drivers and airlines, a world-class team of experienced logisticians, and AI-powered technology to enable real-time visibility, transparency, and accountability, all working together to ensure these packages are delivered on time! With the revolutionary shipping automation platform they’ve developed, Airspace offers unparalleled visibility throughout the entire delivery process. From the moment you place your order to the package’s arrival at its final destination, shippers trust in Airspace’s ability to get these packages to their destination as intended!

Recently, Business Fortune spoke to Nick Bulcao, Founder & CEO, and Ryan Rusnak, Co-Founder & CTO, of Airspace. The following are excerpts from the conversation that ensued.

Q. What was the series of events that led to the founding of Airspace?

I’ve been in logistics for years, working to modernize the industry and innovate in time-critical logistics. I started Airspace after a family member needed an organ shipped for transplant. The shipment had basically no tracking, which meant my family had no way to know if and when it would arrive safely. This inspired me to reinvent the process for critical shipments in healthcare and beyond, bringing transparency and accountability to the shipping process to help families like mine better understand and trust that the shipments they relied on would be there. I investigated every part of the shipping process, even making deliveries myself. I documented all the various opportunities for failure: flight delays, no driver, traffic, issues at cargo facilities, etc. And, during this process, it became increasingly evident that trying to identify and solve these problems at scale manually was never going to work. I needed a partner to help automate and use technology to instantly identify these issues and react to them, or even predict them before they happen!

Ryan, Airspace’s CTO and co-founder, is a software engineer and a true inventor. He moved across the country to help me disrupt the time-critical logistics space and build a platform that could solve complex shipping problems at scale. Ryan’s expertise in machine learning meant that he could take that comprehensive data set of issues and turn it into an engine for predicting the future of any shipment. He succeeded in building a platform that allowed Airspace to route shipments with far fewer issues and to resolve issues much quicker, leading to a safer and more trusted experience for shippers. We started the business in 2016 and have never looked back!         

Q. Why did you start a delivery company when there are already huge companies like FedEx, DHL, UPS, and USPS in the sector?

Airspace doesn’t see those companies as competitors because they focus on very different types of shipments. Airspace is focused on delivering packages as fast as possible; this usually means same-day delivery (these packages cannot wait!). Meanwhile, those companies are focused on efficient next-day or multi-day delivery for packages that don’t have as much of an immediate need (like e-commerce). They are incredible companies that we look up to, but they’re trying to tackle a much different problem. Our time-critical niche within the logistics industry covers $20 billion in annual global spend. Providers in this space handle sensitive and valuable cargo and aim to provide faster, more customized, and more accurate solutions compared to larger, lower-cost parcel providers. Performance in this category is measured by speed, accuracy, and on-time performance (down to the minute), as delays or errors can have huge consequences: an hour delay can mean an organ is no longer viable, or a manufacturing line shuts down because they don’t have necessary parts. This leads to very different business models. Parcel businesses like those listed above offer services via consolidations and sweeps. They try to fill trucks or planes with as many packages as possible and then deliver them after sorting, driving down costs but making same-day delivery difficult. Time-critical logistics providers prioritize speed, getting packages directly on a plane to their final destination. This may involve passenger aircraft or even chartering a new plane to ensure on-time delivery. As a result, we see these companies more as partners that are able to address different logistics pain points and provide different service types to get customers what they need.

Q. How has Airspace grown since its founding? How has innovation contributed to the company’s growth?

Airspace was founded seven years ago and has quickly become a global leader in time-critical logistics! We are growing about 50% annually, despite a huge decline in global air freight in 2023. Airspace’s growth in the face of industry headwinds has cemented us as the fastest-growing critical logistics provider in the world! One of the main drivers of growth for Airspace has been our international expansion. Strategic investments in extending our product and in adding incredible people have helped us expand on a global scale. International revenue grew from less than 8% of our revenue to over 33% in the past year. Airspace’s primary innovation is our patent-protected AI routing platform, which optimizes package routes using data from hundreds of sources: driver performance, airline data, weather, traffic, etc. As the data in our system grows, the routing engine gets smarter, more adaptable, and more accurate. This allows for routing decisions that are instantaneous and optimized for each shipper’s needs, enabling faster, safer deliveries.

Q. Can you talk about Airspace’s innovative platform?

Airspace provides best-in-class services via three interworking strategic components: a worldwide network of drivers and airlines, a patented routing platform, and an experienced logistics team supported by technology. Our network streams live data about every step of a shipment’s journey; our machine-learning platform uses that data to predict optimal routes and autonomously monitor shipment paths; and our industry-leading experts use the platform to coordinate with our network and understand shippers’ needs. Some examples of our platform analyzing risk and constraints to create the optimal route include: (1) healthcare companies sending organs via safer and less likely-to-be delayed routes but needing more communication; and (2) manufacturing customers choosing a riskier route to deliver faster and therefore maximize their production uptime. Coordinating urgent deliveries by hand has traditionally been a challenging, time-consuming, and error-prone task. The countless potential routes, along with unpredictable variables like weather, traffic, and errors, make optimization difficult. Airspace’s technology streamlines this process, leading to faster and error-free delivery.

Q. How important is innovation for the company? What steps has the company taken to promote and nurture innovation within its team?

Innovation is one of our five core values and is at the heart of our strategy and culture. We invest heavily in innovation through our Research and Development team, which makes up 1/3 of all employees. Airspace R&D is a high-octane team that has a mixture of entrepreneurial strengths and is focused on understanding customer needs and creating solutions alongside industry leaders. They are guided by the following principles: Let machines do what machines do best so that humans can do what humans do best! This strategy uses Artificial Intelligence to make important processes faster and more efficient. We build tools to help skilled logisticians create quick and accurate solutions for customers and ensure that shipment data is exhaustively captured in a digital record. Intuitive and easy-to-use design! Airspace aims to ensure that innovation reaches the right users and is easy to adopt. We believe that even the best technology can fail if it is not optimized for the user. Innovation is a partnership between technology builders and customers in need! Airspace also promotes a cross-functional culture of innovation. We encourage every team to design creative solutions to problems that appear in any organization. One example of our entrepreneurial and creative mindset is our ‘Hackathon’. It’s a meeting where business leaders and R&D team members collaborate for a few days to find new solutions for overlooked problems. Throughout the year, team members consistently strive to innovate and enhance Airspace’s efficiency, benefiting both themselves and their colleagues while also enhancing the customer experience!

Q. What are Airspace’s plans for the future?

Airspace is continuing to expand internationally! Historically, we’ve prioritized shipments within the US, mainly in aerospace and healthcare. Over the past year, we’ve expanded globally at an incredible pace, primarily with semiconductor and automotive shippers. To support these customers, we’ve built up our network in Europe and Southeast Asia and are further expanding our capabilities to support these new geographies. Expanding internationally means accounting for the new risks and complexities of cross-border moves. Navigating different border requirements, languages, airline partners, and customs processes makes international expedited shipping even more difficult. We believe Airspace is well-suited to impact this space, and our recent international growth proves it. Our technology anticipates package misplacement, flight delays, and ensures reliable delivery times, all of which are major challenges when crossing borders! Using Airspace means increased stability for our shippers’ operations that depend on these essential components, even in the face of supply chain uncertainty. We are already seeing huge growth internationally, growing 250% in 2023, and have already established offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Malaysia, with plans for additional locations in Asia soon!

Meet the Founders

Nick Bulcao is the founder and CEO of Airspace. Nick is a serial entrepreneur with a long history in logistics.

Ryan Rusnak Rusnak is the co-founder and CTO. Ryan has a background in software engineering, helping design software to better understand data and make decisions.

“We make complex shipping operations faster and safer than ever with a platform that keeps your team in control and in-the-loop.”