Fashinza is an AI-driven B2B marketplace for global fashion supply chains. They make it exceptionally easy for international brands to access design to delivery in as fast as 4 weeks with very low minimums. Fashinza offers access to a transparent production process that can be monitored 24/7 with 100% control enabled by their revolutionary FactoryOS. Their goal is to create a sustainable (i.e. net positive) supply chain by 2030 and empower SMB manufacturers with Industry 4.0 solutions. Fashinza has a roster of over 250 factories that currently serves 200+ brands across 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, UAE and India. The company was co-founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Pawan Gupta, Abhishek Sharma, and Jamil Ahmad. In May of 2022, they announced Series B funding round totaling $100M USD, after 12 months of 10x business-growth crossing $150 million in annualized GMV run rate.

---

https://fashinza.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/fashinza/

Pawan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fashinza, building the future of fashion manufacturing industry using data and cloud that is more sustainable, ethical, inclusive, fast, and efficient. Fashinza is funded by leading VCs, Accel Partners (Facebook, Slack, Flipkart), and SAIF Partners (PayTM, Swiggy).

Previously Pawan co-founded Curofy, which is today India’s largest network of Doctors in India with over 50% of Indian doctors discussing patient cases with their peers to provide extremely quick and better diagnoses to their patients. Curofy was VC funded and got acquired by a large US corporate, Edifecs in an all-cash deal in 2017.

Pawan is a mission-driven entrepreneur who believes in using technology and entrepreneurship to bring meaningful change in the lives of the most needy. He was part of Forbes India’s 30 under 30 in 2018, Rising Stars by Bloomberg TV, and Young Turks by CNBC. He has also written guest columns in leading publications and has spoken at global events.

Pawan Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder at Fashinza

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawaniitd/

Abhishek is the Co-Founder and COO of Fashinza, a global tech-enabled manufacturing company helping Fashion brands source apparel using data and cloud that is more sustainable, ethical, inclusive, fast, and efficient. Fashinza is funded by leading VCs, Accel Partners, Elevation Capital, Prosus Ventures (Naspers), Westbridge, and ADQ UAE.

He hasextensive experience in product & technology, building start-ups like Flipkart (India’s leading eCommerce platform acquired by Walmart), LimeRoad, Curofy (acquired by RoundGlass USA) & BharatPe.

He is also a writer and guest author for ProductSchool, Hackernoon, Prototypr, and Noteworthy

Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder & COO at Fashinza

--

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekksharma/

In Episode 52 Richard talks with Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founders of Fashinza, about:

00:01:05 : Meet Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma

00:03:40 : Pawan and Abhishek’s beginnings in manufacturing.

00:09:13 : What it’s like to be a startup person in India today.

00:14:21 : How India’s entrepreneurial spirit is changing over time.

00:19:49 : Building manufacturing out of India.

00:26:16 : What does Fashions do and how does it work?

00:30:43 : What are some of the biggest challenges you’re seeing in the manufacturing industry?

00:36:18 : What are the three P’s that you’re focused on with supply chain?

00:40:25 : What’s some of the things that shocked people that you’re already seeing that has the opportunity to be fixed?

00:44:05 : How to build a supply chain that adds value to your customers.

00:49:04 : The importance of integrating with other supply chain solutions.

00:52:31 : The importance of being a part of a larger tapestry.

00:57:28 : What are some of the things you can do in terms of circularity?

01:02:08 : What’s coming in India?

01:05:23 : What’s coming up for the company.

Always having the itch to “do his own thing” Jason opened our Westport, MA office in January 2006 after 12 years of working for the man! He has grown our business to be the leading national search firm specializing in supply chain planning across industries such as Consumer Goods, High Tech, Medical Device, Pharma and Biotech.

He currently leads the team working with companies – as small as $25 million in size and as large as $20 billion in size – to identify top talent in areas like demand planning, supply planning, operations planning, production planning and sales & operations planning (S&OP) / Integrated Business Planning (IBP).

Taking that beyond staffing, Jason helps to run the New England chapter of the Institute of Business Forecasting (IBF), an organization committed to advancing planning practices globally. He has spoken at several ASCM and IBF events on the State of Employment in Demand- and Supply Planning.

Jason’s recruiting career is built on a 12-year foundation serving ERP and Supply Chain needs in both domestic and international markets. While at Siemens Business Services, he leveraged his engineering background and German fluency to solidify SAP consulting engagements with multi-national organizations. Jason then spent 5+ years at AMR Research in Boston (now Gartner), a leading research and advisory organization focusing on the supply chain best practices and applications being leveraged to help cut costs and increase revenues. Jason earned a BA in German and a BS in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Rhode Island.

Jason Breault

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbreault/

LifeWork Search is a full-service search firm. Founded in 2006, they have grown into the leading national recruiting firm specializing in supply chain planning and procurement across industries including consumer goods, food & beverage, high tech, medical device, pharmaceutical and biotech.

LifeWork Search

---

https://lifeworksearch.com/

linkedin.com/company/lifework-search/

In Episode 51 Richard talks with Jason Breault from LifeWork Search about:

01:44 - Jason’s origin story and how he got to where he is.

06:21 - Looking back on the early stages of SAP’s value proposition in supply chain.

11:44 - How he got into supply chain recruiting.

16:48 - Why did Jason choose to focus on supply chain?

20:57 - Why did it take so long for supply chain to grow from a blue collar function to a corporate function?

25:29 - What has changed in the company’s DNA when it comes to supply chain?

30:49 - How technology has changed the role of the Chief Supply Chain Officer.

35:04 - What is the future of supply chain leadership?

39:15 - How Jason looks for disruptors?

43:11 - How innovation is a skill set that can be applied to almost any industry.

48:59 - How does Jason see megatrends playing out throughout the next decade?

52:54 - The importance of finding the key ESG circularity metric so everyone can speak commonly around their initiatives.

VERSES is a next generation AI company and developer of COSM™, an operating system for AI, which powers context-aware applications that bridge the gap between digital and physical systems. COSM generates a unified intelligent network of contextualized data, policies, simulation models, and workflow automations that can be shared within and between organizations.

https://verses.io

GABRIEL RENÉ is a technologist, entrepreneur, author with a 25-year career in the Technology, Telecom and Media Industries specializing in emerging technologies like AR / VR / AI / IoT / DLT and their applications for industrial, fintech, govtech and global standards organizations. He is the Founder and CEO of VERSES Labs a Spatial Web Software development group. He is also Executive Director of the Spatial Web Foundation, and an international Bestselling author of "The Spatial Web"

Gabriel René, CEO & Founder @ VERSES.IO

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-ren%C3%A9-0201902

The Spacial Web on Amazon - http://surl.li/dlpgf

JAMES HENDRICKSON joined VERSES in July or 2022 having an accomplished background in both strategic and commercial leadership at the intersection of supply chain and technology, most recently leading Strategic Partnerships and Alliances for the robotics automation company Berkshire Grey. During his prior tenure with Honeywell, he led product development, engineering and channel teams who delivered solutions and built strategic partnerships that addressed a variety of supply chain challenges.

James Hendrickson, President & GM, VERSES Enterprise

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmhendrickson

In Episode 50 Richard talks with Gabriel René and James Hendrickson of VERSES about:

0:01:03 : Gabriel's education and start in AI

0:03:51 : What’s happened since the early 90s with advanced technologies.

0:10:04 : James’s origin story and how he met Gabriel.

0:15:50 : Can the tech behind VERSES be applied to things besides Supply Chain?

0:19:48 : The Spatial Web is not about text and media content.

0:25:19 : How do Digital Twins apply to the Supply Chain?

0:31:17 : How do you face the idea of individual networks vs a global network?

0:37:17 : What’s happening in the Web today and why have siloed approaches failed?

0:43:30 : How do you see The Spatial Web playing out in the future?

0:48:44 : How do you see the Spacial 3.0 protocol being adopted?

0:50:22 : How active inference and neural nets effectively work.

0:55:09 : The human world in a machine friendly way was the was the invention.

0:59:11 : 3 dimensional PLUS space, or N dimensional space.

1:02:00 : VERSES looking ahead to 2025.

Jason is co-founder and CEO of Shipium where he guides the company’s vision towards becoming the world’s best supply chain technology platform for ecommerce and retail. Prior to founding Shipium, he spent 19 years at Amazon as VP of Retail Systems and VP of Forecasting & Supply Chain. While there, he owned the global software and operations group that powered Prime, Subscribe & Save and Pricing. He is a University of Washington grad, and an engineer at heart who loves solving complex scaling problems.

Shipium makes fast and cheap shipping possible by coordinating previously disconnected steps of the supply chain through an API-first platform deeply integrated into existing systems.

Jason Murray, CEO & Co-Founder, Shipium • 19-year ex-Amazon VP

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-shipium/

https://www.shipium.com/

In episode 49, Jason Murray talks to Richard about:

0:02 : Meet Jason Murray.

3:55 : How did Jeff Bezos go from bookselling to ecommerce?

9:09 : What was the key to success in digitization of the supply chain?

14:13 : What are the lessons that supply chain will be taught on the next 10 or 20 years?

20:46 : The importance of data in the ecommerce experience.

26:11 : How the world saw Amazon transfer from books to ecommerce underneath the covers.

32:18 : The psychology of Prime members and pricing.

39:44 : The three steps of the manufacturing sales process.

46:48 : What do you see disruptively in the next five to seven years that may or may not be a part of this disruption?

53:52 : What’s coming up for Shipium in the next year?

Fostering a lifelong commitment to growth and excellence in his personal and professional endeavors, at fifteen years old Jason Azevedo began his first manufacturing company with $600. As a nationally-ranked wrestler during the start of his entrepreneurial journey, Jason used his spare time to study business and hand-built most of the early robotic manufacturing machinery used by his business. Resourceful, capable and self-taught, to this day Jason still uses these early skills to help his employees build, maintain, and repair virtually any piece of equipment used in production.

Even while rapidly scaling his companies, Jason never lost sight of the things that were important to himself, his family, the people he employs and the world at large. At nineteen he’d founded one of the first large Breast Cancer charities, “Goals for a Cure,” a nationwide, top ten ranked non-profit soccer tournament that attracts teams from countries across the globe. Throughout his career, Jason has worked on the boards of several prominent causes including a nationally-recognized non-profit group focused on upward growth with cash reserves in the millions, and helped successfully pull one of the top five Christmas events in the country out of bankruptcy.

Jason has lead over 2000 employees and runs multiple companies offering clients a wide range of industrial manufacturing services including metalworks, plastics, electronics, and packaging options. Winner of multiple international product awards and no stranger to philanthropy, Jason works closely with chemical companies in developing safer, more environmentally-friendly industrial processes.

With 200+ million in career revenue, Jason and his teams have moved or rearranged the majority of his production facilities from China to the USA in a profitable manner, and he is working to acquire and build additional manufacturing companies throughout the United States. Having founded and scaled dozens of large companies, Jason is committed to transferring 100% of the ownership of these new acquisitions to the employees of those businesses in due time.

Jason Azevedo, CSO at MRCA

---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-azevedo-6ab41426/

https://www.instagram.com/jasonazevedomrca/

MRCA

---

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mrca1/

https://mrca.net/

MRCA is a venture capital firm who's aim is to revitalize American companies through increased employee wellness, enhancements in process, machinery, energy, and communication.

In this episode of Supply Chain Next Podcast, Host Richard Donaldson speaks with venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and business leadership veteran Jason Azevedo about:

• Jason’s origin story in the world of manufacturing

• How manufacturing moved away from the US

• When manufacturing started getting distributed out to lower wage economies, that’s when the world turned into a global economy

• How circularity has an impact on the speed at which manufacturing starts to happen

• How to make manufacturing more collaborative

• What’s he believes is going to happen to manufacturing

• Amazon now being seen as a supply chain company

• Whether the pace of change changes the SCM equation or if the rate of change in manufacturing changes it

CHARLIE PESTI is the world’s best PUBLICIST of Shipping, Supply Chain, and Logistics Technologies. Focused on the supply chain and logistics sectors, he and his shop pride themselves on being the only premier, full-service PR, and Marketing agency in the space. They are a global team of passionate and specialized professionals helping clients with Brand Recognition, Media and Public Relations, Content Marketing, Social Media, Web Traffic, and Lead Generation.

Charlie Pesti - CMO (Chief Make-It-Happen Officer) at CHARLIE PESTI

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-pesti-6088718/

https://www.pesti.io/

--

Priyanka Ann Saini - Managing Director at CHARLIE PESTI

https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankaannsaini/

A marketing, content and PR aficionado, Priyanka has worn many hats since the beginning of her 15-year career. Her foray into the professional space began with her love for writing. She has authored children’s books and penned a motivational biography series to encourage reading among young adults under Shree Publications. She has worked with publishing giants like The Hindu on a limited-edition luxury bridal magazine that enabled her to connect with Richard Branson’s PR team as well as that of the Burj-Al-Arab. She has worked with the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) to develop Teacher Learning Programs (TLPs) in the humanities domain and was on the Editorial Board of the prestigious Defense Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, India. Additionally, she briefly worked with The Princeton Review as a Mentor and Counsellor to prospective MBA and Ph.D. students, helping them to understand their strengths, realize their goals and get into their dream universities, many of which were Ivy League Colleges.

In this episode, Charlie and Priyanka talk with Richard about:

• Marketing and advertising in the Supply Chain sphere

• Charlie’s work with a German logistics technology company, and his work setting up business in Europe

• Priyanka’s transition from Journalism to Communications at Charlie Pesti

• The risks of entrepreneurship and strategies to foster innovation

• Logistics/SCM industry reluctance to change and the desire to bring change to the space for the better of the industry

• Charlie Pesti being at the forefront and a proxy for everything that's going on and technology adoption in supply chain

• Technology Supply Chain being all the rage with the new wave of professionals coming into the industry

• The importance of solving problems by giving clients confidence backed by knowledge, experience, and research

• Charlie’s approach to marketing B2B vs B2C

• Supply Chain tech production positioning strategies

• Translating those position strategies into content strategies

• Why SCM and Logistics companies need to focus on collaboration, operations, integrations, to make things work with regards to marketing their product or service in 2022 and beyond

• What Charlie and Priyanka see as the current and incoming industry megatrends

• One of the positives coming out of the COVID pandemic is that Supply Chain has hit the mainstream media and the headlines

• How this has made Supply Chain sexy for the new generation of potential professionals

Tiffanie Stanard is known for following all her passions – an anomaly in many sorts because she is a techie, a creative, media personality/producer & an award-winning entrepreneur.

Tiffanie has been named a U.S. Delegate for the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, One of the 15 Women Changing the Face of Technology by Philadelphia Business Journal, Innovator of the Year, One of the Top 100 Women Visionary Leaders to Watch by Innov8tiv Magazine, among many more honors (see below). Stanard founded Prestige Concepts (PC) over ten years ago – formerly an award-winning brand enhancement agency. We focused on bridging the gap between clients and customers with technology solutions. Expertise: Branding, Marketing, Business Development, Vendor Management/Partnerships, Technology.

Stanard is the Founder/CEO of Stimulus, a relationship intelligence SaaS platform that uses data and analytics to help companies (of all sizes and industries) make better purchasing decisions. Our team is backed by amazing investors including Google for Startups, Darco Capital, Juno Capital, the City of Philadelphia and more – with growing support from our partners including Microsoft.

During years’ of working with non-profit organizations, Stanard created ConTechs, Connect + Tech = Community program, teaching technology and business skills to urban communities through a specialized curriculum. To date, ConTechs has provided over 5,000 hours of training partnering with local and national partners.

In addition to serving on boards and committees, Tiffanie has moderated and participated in numerous events from Keynote Speaker to Brand Ambassador, discussing entrepreneurship, branding, diversity, technology, community outreach and more. Because of years’ of working in the entertainment industry, Stanard was hired to work with Radio One, Philadelphia as a host and radio show producer for Philly Speaks. The radio show is an informative outlet for Philadelphia residents to discuss important topics.

Stanard became a Brand Ambassador/Keynote Speaker for Microsoft’s STEM program, a national event organized in over 10 cities. Stanard’s keynote speech, “Find Your Voice with Technology” explores five steps for all ages to become builders of innovation.

In episode 046, Tiffanie talks with Richard about:

---

- How Tiffanie fell into supply chain

- Her love of relationship management that developed

- The development of Tiffanie’s entrepreneurial bent through her high school business program

- Career path shift from payroll to vendor management

- Tiffanie’s decision to create a business versus building her own company and brand

- Mixing her love of radio and advertisement and experience as producer and host at Philly Speaks on 100.3FM

- The importance of business and leadership influencing in today’s marketplace

- Stimulus Inc.’s start, and identifying the intersection of vendor, buyer, and data insights to create relationship building tools, and a proprietary score, that help companies make the best sourcing and purchasing decisions

- Global vendor management and supplier diversity over the long term to increase supply chain resiliency

- Migration of B2B commerce from in-person to e-commerce platforms and using data points to map the consumer experience in that space

- Pitfalls of creating a vendor relationship with an unverified company and Tiffanie’s vision of Stimulus as a type of due diligence platform to ensure that a material source is a best fit

- How Stimulus fits into the Circular Economy while aiding the capital sustainability of organizations

- Tiffanie’s Post-COVID actives and focus on conferences to build the Stimulus brand and her mission to make Supply Chain au courant as an industry

- Stimulus Inc.’s successful seed round raising $2.5MM and a positive outlook for 2023

Ryan Hunt is a physicist and bioengineer with degrees from the University of Georgia. Ryan has a passion for circular technologies including algae, photosynthesis, bioconversion and biopolymer manufacturing. Ryan co-founded ALGIX that creates sustainable technologies for environmental restoration and biomaterials under the BLOOM brand. His team collaborates with government and corporate partners for cleaning freshwater ecosystems and transforming municipal, industrial and agricultural waste products into renewable plant biomass and bioproducts.

• On episode 45 of Supply Chain Next, Ryan W. Hunt talks with host Richard Donaldson about:

• The background of Bloom and Algae X

• The high-level process of replacing oil/petroleum with algae biomass

• His background and education at University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia

• The interest held in quantum mechanics, nano technology, physics, and electromagnetics

• Working as an undergrad in bio and ag engineering

• Being inspired by his home aquariums to investigate algae based fuels

• The challenge of scaling algae-based fuels while making it price competitive

• Polymer replacement in apparel and its durability

• Setting up manufacturing centers in Asia

• Inspiration from Elon Musk’s forward thinking

• Work in India currently mixing bio-oil with crude

• How Bloom is injecting material into the supply chain while sequestering Co2 from the atmosphere

• Seaweed and soybeans used in early research in 2009

• Interest from packaging companies in large-scale production

• Jumping in feet-first in 2014 with a $12 million dollar raise and a factory

• Importance of ESG reporting and measurements to companies in investment

• Entry into 3D printing using algae-based filament

Marc de Wit is a Director at Circle Economy, an impact organisation that guides businesses, cities, and nations towards adoption of a circular system. Marc is a recognized thought-leader on implementation of the circular economy. In 2018 he initiated the Circularity Gap Report: an annual yardstick for the circular state of the global economy¬. He brings nearly 15 years of strategy and implementation experience in advising companies and governments in developing circular strategies and implementing circular solutions.

Kyle Ritchie is the sustainable design lead at CannonDesign, a multi-disciplinary firm that creates better built environments. He is an adjunct professor at Boston Architectural College, and founder of the Circular Economy Studio, and he partnered with Eric Corey Freed to write “Circular Economy for Dummies”.

Lisa Morales-Hellebo, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, is currently co-founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, an organization that is changing how supply chain professionals learn about, collaborate, and adopt supply chain innovation around the world. She is also co-founder and general partner of REFASHIOND Ventures — an NYC-based, early-stage supply chain technology venture fund that invests in start-ups refashioning global supply chains. Lisa has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets and is profiled in the bestselling book; Disrupters: Success Strategies from Women Who Break the Mold. A distinguished speaker Lisa has keynoted numerous events and participates in panels covering technology, supply chain, logistics, venture capital, fashion tech, women in tech, diversity, and more.

On episode 44 of Supply Chain Next, Marc de Wit, Kyle Ritchie, and Lisa Morales-Hellebo have a round table discussion for International Supply Chain Day (Jun 4)

Marc de Wit is a Director at Circle Economy, an impact organisation that guides businesses, cities, and nations towards adoption of a circular system. Marc is a recognized thought-leader on implementation of the circular economy. In 2018 he initiated the Circularity Gap Report: an annual yardstick for the circular state of the global economy. He brings nearly 15 years of strategy and implementation experience in advising companies and governments in developing circular strategies and implementing circular solutions.

In this episode, Marc de Wit talks about the circular economy and the journey Circle Economy takes to double circularity in global supply chains in the next decade.