In this debut episode of The CEO Spot, Rick Watson sits down with Dipti Desai, Founder and CEO of crstl, for an unfiltered look into one of the most quietly powerful protocols in commerce—EDI.

From her early days as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley to building mission-critical infrastructure for today’s omni-channel brands, Dipti shares the journey that led her to found crstl—a SaaS network designed to modernize the way suppliers and retailers communicate.

We explore:

• The surprising origin story of crstl during the PPE crisis
• Why EDI is more like the English language than a piece of legacy tech
• The difference between the application layer and the protocol layer—and why it matters
• How penalties, complexity, and digital transformation are reshaping supplier operations
• Why crstl doesn’t charge by seat and how it's enabling real collaboration at scale
• The future of B2B commerce in an age of AI, API, and protocol convergence

Whether you’re a founder, brand operator, or just EDI-curious, this episode unpacks how structured data exchange is fueling the future of retail—and why ignoring the "boring" infrastructure could be your biggest mistake.