A Burlington Entrepreneur Plans to Launch an Amazon Rival With a Buy-Local Mission
[Originally published on Seven Days]
Bill Calfee had no work experience in the tech sector when he dreamed up Myti. Founded in 2020, the e-commerce platform will soon enable online shoppers to buy from retailers in their own communities and get their products delivered in two days or less. Consumers will have no membership dues, while local retailers — or “shopkeepers,” as Calfee calls them — will be charged only a modest transaction fee.
Calfee, 64, believes that Myti can take a bite out of the massive revenues of Amazon, the world’s third-largest company, and keep some of that money recirculating in local economies. According to his research, in 2020 Vermonters spent $423 million through Amazon and a comparable amount shipping products to Vermont.