Losing things sucks. It's even more frustrating when something isn't actually lost, but rather left behind in a location, such as an airport or sports stadium, making it difficult to return. My friend Caitlin knows this very well; She still hasn't been reunited with the phone she lost at the Oktoberfest on September 27, despite confirming in November that she has it.
While Oktoberfest is a more extreme example, people leave a lot of things behind in hotels, on transportation, and at events. For example, New York's MTA transit system collected more than 18,000 lost items from 2018 to 2023, and that time includes when people were sheltering in place during the pandemic. Boomerang believes ai can fix lost and found items.
The Miami-based startup created software that uses machine learning to match images and descriptions of lost items. Customers, who can range from gyms to theme parks, upload photos and descriptions of their lost items, while consumers do the same for the item they lost. If there is a match, consumers can choose to pick up their items or have them shipped.
This model hopes to get consumers to return their items faster while also replacing the current system of people repeatedly calling customer service phone lines to get updates on their items, according to Boomerang co-founder and CEO, Skyler Logsdon.
