HISTORY
After the successful launch of an ecommerce business in 1998, founder Jef Sewell faced a conundrum. Outsourcing fulfillment to third-parties made sense for his growing business. It brought scale to meet rising and unpredictable demand. But what it gave in peace of mind, it cost in intimacy.
When you self-fulfill, it’s easy to make shipments feel personal. You can drop in a note. You can write on the packing slip. You can add a freebie for a VIP. When someone else ships your inventory, you lose these options.
Over lunch at Austin’s Oasis restaurant with long-time friend Joel Bush, they asked the question:
“What if we started a fulfillment company that brought the scale of a 3PL wHILE RETAINING THE POWER TO PERSONALIZE?”
And so Amplifier was launched.
GUERRERO PRODUCE
In 2004, while touring the abandoned L.O.Guerrero Produce warehouse on Austin’s east 6th street, we came across this pepper plant.
It was growing, alone, straight up from the solid concrete bed that made up the dock. Covered in pigeon feathers and guano, a seed must have fallen into a crack long before. Somehow, in those hostile and unfriendly conditions, that seed found a way to bear fruit.
That was all we needed. We told the landlord, “We’ll take it.” We signed the lease on our first true dock-high warehouse. Twenty years later, that little pepper is still somehow reminding us.
TODAY
Amplifier’s innovative and reliable logistics continues the relentless pursuit of our founders’ original vision: