Highlights from their conversation include:

• Why Michael started SwagUp  (1:10)
• The supply chain challenges behind getting startups their Swag (5:26)
• How SwagUp manages forecasting product availability (9:13)
• Opportunities for innovation in the swag supply chain (14:28)
• How the swag supply chain works today (17:20)
• Managing quality control for customer swag (20:28)
• How Michael has built learning and growth into his daily habits (26:35)
• Where to look for future opportunities for innovation (30:10)

Dynamo is a VC firm led by supply chain and mobility specialists that focus on seed-stage, enterprise startups. Find out more at: https://www.dynamo.vc/

Highlights from their conversation include:

• HV Capital’s investment thesis (1:30)
• Felix’s background and career arc (2:26)
• ‘State of the Union’ on European road freight (5:23)
• Incumbent obstacles to innovation (11:28)
• Freight accumulation as a model for growth (15:20)
• HV’s POV and investment in construction logistics (18:45)
• Investing €1,000,000 in a single growth area (24:35)

Dynamo is a VC firm led by supply chain and mobility specialists that focus on seed-stage, enterprise startups.

Find out more at: https://www.dynamo.vc/

Highlights from this episode include: 

• Launching Pactum as a start-up (2:50)
• Reaching pareto optimality in negotiations (4:45)
• Use case description of negotiation with vendors (6:23)
• Benefits seen and value created for customers and suppliers (12:28)
• Example of Pactum in retail (20:15)
• Where Pactum fits into the future of the supply chain (21:57)
• How launching a second startup compares to launching your first one (24:01)
• Determining pricing strategy and utilizing profit-sharing (26:01)
• Lessons learned from having an engineering team in Estonia (28:50)

Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to autonomously offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The system adds value and saves time for both the Pactum client and their negotiation partner by aligning their values to determine win-win agreements via an easy-to-use chat interface that implements best-practice negotiation strategies. The company is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. Find out more at pactum.com

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Post-Brexit fallout for supply chain (1:30)
• How the pandemic has changed the VC playbook (4:18)
• Market opportunities around sustainability (5:23)
• Innovation in mobility (10:28)
• Leading and Lagging European OEMs (12:54)
• Temperature of the European venture markets (17:15)
• Biggest lessons learned since starting cargo.one (34:52)

Dynamo is a VC firm led by supply chain and mobility specialists that focus on seed stage, enterprise startups.

Find out more at: https://www.dynamo.vc/

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• What cargo.one is building (1:15)
• How Oliver and Moritz started two businesses together (2:18)
• cargo.one’s ideal customer profile (5:49)
• How air freight handled operations for years and how that’s shifting (8:09)
• Value add for freight forwarders (10:54)
• Building an organization that provides technology that scales (14:15)
• Generating value on both sides of the marketplace (19:08)
• Importance of cargo.one’s aggregation and workflow (21:13)
• Global ambitions and perspective of cargo.one (26:44)
• Adapting to cultural differences in an international marketplace (32:09)
• Biggest lessons learned since starting cargo.one (34:52)

cargo.one’s platform allows for users to search for quotes, compare real-time quotes across airlines, and then directly book quotes with instant confirmation. Find out more at: https://www.cargo.one/#How-it-works

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• David’s story and pivoting from his original idea (1:36)
• Tapping into the European road freight market (4:57)
• Balancing organic and inorganic growth (9:12)
• Understanding what motivates the team around you (13:39)
• Re-inventing business models, including with autonomous trucks (17:06)
• Fostering trust with carriers and shippers (21:10)
• Managing a wide network of carriers (24:23)
• Employees contribution to sennder’s culture (28:09)
• David’s effective habits and advice for entrepreneurs (30:41)

sennder places a focus on digitization and automation of all road logistics processes and positions itself as Europe’s leading freight forwarder that connects shippers with a fleet of thousands of trucks. Find out more at: https://www.sennder.com/about-us

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Michael’s backstory in logistics and autonomous vehicles (2:21)
• Ryder and Gatik’s collaboration (6:17)
• Autonomous vehicle diagnostics, hardware, and maintenance (8:49)
• Dealing with different drivetrains (15:39)
• Building scalable solutions across geographies (18:58)
• Locking down a solid playbook for scalability (20:38)
• Developing transparent and collaborative partnerships (22:12)
• A bullish outlook on autonomous vehicles (25:38)

Gatik, the leader in middle mile logistics, delivers goods safely and efficiently with its fleet of light and medium duty trucks. Its fleet of autonomous box trucks is available in multiple markets including Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Ontario. Focusing on short-haul, B2B logistics for the retail industry, Gatik enables its customers to optimize their supply chain with affordable convenience. Find out more at https://gatik.ai/about/

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights of this conversation include: 

• Transfix’s origin story (1:35)
• Applying software to create a competitive advantage and drive people toward the future (5:05)
• With every segment of the supply chain being digitized, where is the digitalization really accelerating? (9:10)
• Learning to harmonize the digital and the physical to become a world-class 3PL (14:14)
• Addressing criticism of margins in digital freight brokerage and driving value (18:30)
• Full truckload vs. less than truckload and listening to AI to solve problems (28:05)
• Challenges of going from a start up to a scale up and knowing when to step aside as CEO (38:41)

Drew McElroy co-founded Transfix in 2013 with the goal of creating a simpler, smarter and more sustainable freight ecosystem. Learn more about Transfix at transfix.io.

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Building a next-generation transportation management system (1:03)
• Announcing Rose Rocket’s Series A and discussing bringing a horizontal software to address multiple trucking verticals (6:09)
• Providing transparency with a platform layer (11:30)
• How Rose Rocket solves problems for its customers (15:36)
• The Rose Rocket shipper portal and a freemium model (17:21)
• Three points on what makes Rose Rocket stand out (19:56)
• Business best practices, pricing strategy, and scaling culture (21:21)
• Making adjustments to office life (28:30)
• Lessons learned from being a Canadian business (31:03)

Rose Rocket is a platform transportation management software (TMS) that helps manage the unique needs of today’s transportation companies, helping improve communications with systems, customers, and the people who move freight. Find out more at: https://www.roserocket.com/

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Mike background and growth and expansion at Pure Storage (1:33)
• Mike’s responsibilities as VP of Operations (6:22)
• Current state of the hardware supply chain (8:56)
• Risk mitigation lessons learned from previous disasters and disruptions (11:44)
• Visibility in the supply chain (14:08)
• Preparing for the worst and planning for the best (19:54)
• Near-shoring and manufacturing renaissance in North America (23:23)
• Startup collaboration (25:20)
• Opportunities for growth in the industry (26:34)

Pure's data solutions enable SaaS companies, cloud service providers, and enterprise and public sector customers to deliver real-time, secure data to power their mission-critical production, DevOps, and modern analytics environments in a multi-cloud environment. Find out more at https://www.purestorage.com/company.html

About The Future of Supply Chain:

During each episode of The Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss their story, views on the industry, and how we can collectively build the future of supply chain together.