When it launched with its first iPhone app last December, Soma-based Postmates represented what its founder, Bastian Lehmann, called “a FedEx for local deliveries” here in the city.

Its goal was to get every store in San Francisco to start using couriers to make home deliveries– something few merchants have done traditionally.

“But we met some resistance from the stores; they had lots of questions,” says Lehmann. “I realized we weren’t going to achieve our goal anytime soon.”

Meanwhile, while merchants may have been hesitant, consumers were not.