Innovator Spotlight: Goran Krndija and Gabe Deale of Gozova

A new episode of the Innovate Fort Worth podcast dropped last Tuesday with guests Goran Krndija, Founder and CEO of Gozova, and Gabe Deale, COO.

What is Gozova?

Gozova is not your typical hauling and delivery service. Instead of overpaying for a professional moving service or dealing with the hassle of doing it yourself, Gozova provides a simple alternative solution: “A truck when you need it.” Whether you need to put a few items into storage, move from residence to residence, or even deliver a large item from store to home, Gozova has you covered. Simply go to their website or download their app and schedule the time that works best for you, and then let the innovative new company do the rest. Normally Gozova offers two ‘workers’ with a truck, who can move your items wherever they need to go and even do small odd jobs and labor if necessary.

Gozova’s goal is to “Move Anything. Simply.” Now, if you’ve ever moved anything, you know the process is anything but simple. More like simply frustrating. And that’s exactly why Gozova exists. Like any good business idea, it identified a problem, addressed a need, and filled a gap in the ecosystem.

“I was in college at UTA and I had a lot of international friends. It was one evening where I was hanging with them and before I even came to their house I saw these two girls and they were trying to go from a second floor down with a couch and I asked them as to what they were trying to accomplish and their answer was they were moving from one dorm to another and couldn’t find anybody with a truck to help them out…”

Normally a business might struggle to get off the ground during the first few years of operations due to a small budget and operational inefficiencies. However, these obstacles can be overcome, whether by sheer will, experience, or maybe even a little luck. After all, it only takes one well-connected client who gushes to their friends, offering recommendation after recommendation. It also helps if that client were to write a glowing blog review about your business…

“As far as our market goes, at first we targeted a lot of college students because we saw this happening on campus at UTA, let’s talk to some TCU students. And then it kind of surprised us when one of the TCU students used our services and I got a phone call from their parent and she’s like, ‘Is this something just that TCU students can use or can we use it?’ So we definitely let the parent use it… she wrote a blog about us and then a bunch of parents here locally in Fort Worth jumped on the app and started using us.”

After sustained growth throughout the DFW area, Goran and Gabe decided to broaden their horizons and think bigger. Gozova took their business first to Waco, and then into Austin and Houston, with their eyes now set on out of state expansion into key cities such as Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

“When you get your expansion model down to every six weeks being able to do so consistently and scalably and not break anything internally, that’s the time where you really have to stomp the gas pedal and bring your offerings to those remote markets.”

Many might argue that there are all kinds of moving and hauling and delivery services nowadays, and in such a diluted market, there’s no real opportunity for long-term success. However, Gozova believes they have found the sweet spot in the moving market.

“So when people realize that I can get the affordability and the convenience factor without having to do it myself, they’re like ‘Where do I sign up? This is fantastic.’”

What’s more, because of this combination of convenience and cost-effectiveness, the company believes they are truly in a category of their own, and they might just be right. Where else can have someone else move practically any item, anywhere, for a fraction of the cost of a traditional moving service?

“A lot of people think that the folks that look just like us are our core competitors, and the truth is, that they’re not yet. They’re really not because if you got a room of people together today, Let’s say you got 50 people together and you started asking them ‘who would you use for a service like ours?’ No one has ever heard of a service like ours.”

As with most companies in this Covid-19 environment, Gozova took a bit of a hit initially. Rather than addressing the problem from a dollars and cents perspective, Gozova chose the compassionate human one, which turned into a partnership with non-profit United Way of Fort Worth.

“We saw a lot of people and companies in pain and getting laid off… so we said, ‘how can we help?’ So the first thing we did, we actually partnered with United Way… to help other individuals out. Our first goal was to help others and let everything take care of itself going forward.”


Due to Gozova’s continued success, they are looking to keep expanding and growing, and as with most businesses, they need capital. The company is looking to close a seed round worth $2 million by late August.

Want to hear more about the origin of the name Gozova, Goran’s incredible journey to the United States, and Gabe’s leap from the cybersecurity sector to a moving company?  Listen to the full episode here, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Need anything moved, simply? Book a mover and a truck here.

Listen to more episodes of Innovate Fort Worth here, and be sure to check out each guests’ favorite Fort Worth Innovator.

 


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