He’s bringing change to the delivery app industry’s Doorstep
He’s bringing change to the delivery app industry’s Doorstep
https://www.unc.edu/posts/2026/03/17/hes-bringing-change-to-the-delivery-app-industrys-doorstep/
Publish Date: 2026-03-17 14:54:00
Source Domain: www.unc.edu
During his first few semesters at Carolina, Sheel Patel ’24 delivered meals for DoorDash. At times he found the experience frustrating.
He’d pull into a gigantic, winding apartment complex with little direction on which building, floor or doorstep he was supposed to take the food to.
That frustration eventually blossomed into an innovative business idea.
Patel is the chief technology officer for Doorstep, a New York City-based company he co-founded with Emory University graduate Shashwat Murarka. Using patent-pending sensor fusion technology, Doorstep provides precise indoor and outdoor tracking for last-mile delivery services. The technology integrates with delivery driver apps to track movements inside buildings — all the way to a customer’s doorstep.
Doorstep provides more precision than traditional GPS technology, often unreliable indoors — especially in cities with tall buildings like New York.
The goal of Doorstep is to “close the information gap,” Patel said.
“How can we give the consumer any additional bits of information on where someone went into a building to drop off your package?” Patel asked. “Where did they park? Where did they enter? Did they take an elevator?”
Doorstep quickly caught the delivery market’s attention. Last fall, the startup raised $8 million in seed funding, led by Canaan Partners. Forbes recently spotlighted Patel and Murarka on its prestigious 30 Under 30 list in the transportation and aerospace category.
“It’s an honor, without a doubt,” Patel said. “I think over time, I will feel the effects of all those things. At a base layer, it is just nice to know people care about what we’re working on.”
Entrepreneurship at Carolina
Doorstep isn’t Patel’s first startup.
A computer science major with minors in public policy and data science, Patel came to Carolina with an inquisitive spirit and a love for creating gadgets and software. As a sophomore, Patel was CTO of a matchmaking dating app with friends…
