The Vertical Software Podcast

We cover a number of topics including: 

Working at Constellation Software

• Why do owners want to work with Constellation Software? 
• What have you learned from your peers as you've managed Shoplogix for 3+ years? 

Shoplogix and The Future of Smart Manufacturing

• What makes you excited about Shoplogix? 
• In a lot of ways COVID-19 has accelerated the change in many industries, what have you seen in the manufacturing space recently that will stick in the long term? 
• What is the role of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) in smart manufacturing? How will Shoplogix initiate this change? 

Supporting Resources

1. [ARTICLE] Can Lean Manufacturing and the Smart Factory Co-Exist in 2020? 
2. [WEBINAR] The Next Generation of Lean into the Connected Factory
3. [WEBINAR] Fireside Chat: Manufacturers Preparedness to COVID-19

Background on Magnus Sandberg

Magnus is both an entrepreneurial operator and investor who is passionate about building innovative solutions and companies. In his role as CEO and President of Shoplogix Inc. (an operating group of Constellation Software Inc. which is Canada's best performing Tech stock the last 10 years - TXS:CSU), his mandate is to grow the business both organically and through acquisitions. The company is the leading provider of Smart Factory software solutions for manufacturers across the globe.

He was previously the Managing Director of Social Capital Partners, one of the most respected and influential catalysts in impact investing and innovation in Canada. The company invested in private companies, ran an innovation lab together with MaRS, and brought new impact products to market. He held the role of divisional head of operations at Constellation Software (primarily the Homebuilder Division)- making acquisitions and turning around acquired software companies during a time of rapid acquired and organic growth (from $150M to $538M). A native of Sweden, Magnus has worked and lived throughout Europe, North America and Australia in his previous roles with Autoliv (global market leader in manufacturing airbags, seat belts and automotive safety products) and Accenture.

He holds a Masters in Engineering and degree in business, studying at universities in Sweden, the U.S., Austria and France. He is an advisor at MaRS, sits on various investment committees of venture funds and is the vice president of a foundation. A competitive sailor, Magnus was ranked #1 in Canada and #4 in North America in match racing. 

You can connect with him here on LinkedIn.

Ralph's Story

1. What’s your story? 
2. Tell us about your journey for the past 7+ years at BlueSnap as the world embraced the concept of e-commerce.  
3. In addition to your role at BlueSnap, you sit on the board for a number of leading companies in the finance/accounting software space. What have you learned from serving on the board of companies such as MineralTree?
4. The payments industry went from being an area with limited innovation to one of the hottest areas within fintech. Where do you see BlueSnap within the broader payments and fintech market?

The Future of Payments

1. Payments are becoming an embedded function of many B2B businesses today. What does that mean for BlueSnap and the rest of the industry? What have you heard from customers?
2. I noticed that you shared a couple of posts on the concept of contact-less cards. Where are we in transition away from physical commerce?
3. How have the past 6 months impacted BlueSnap? What does the new norm look like?

Background on Ralph

"As the CEO of BlueSnap, our All-in-One Payment Platform designed to increase sales and reduce costs for B2B and B2C companies. Our teams experience in the payments industry puts us at the forefront of eCommerce innovation. Also, BlueSnap is one of the 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S., I get asked to be a broadcast commentator, speaker and author numerous articles. I also serve on the boards of BlueSnap, MineralTree, Electronic Transaction Association (ETA) and Stonehill College. Over the years I used my knowledge to grow public and private companies via innovative payment solutions. I served as the President of ACI Worldwide and was the former CEO of P&H Solutions, the pioneer of web-based cash management. I also had the honor of being named one of the Top 50 Saas CEOs as well as a finalist in the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year program."

Check out Ralph's LinkedIn Profile and more on BlueSnap here. 

As a second-generation CEO, Adam saw a void in the wealth management space and keeping up with modern technology. With the thought of making their clients successful not just in the moment, but for the future, Accutech has now grown to be an industry leader serving community banks across the U.S. 

Adam's Story

1. What was it like to take over the business that your dad, Ray Unger, had founded back in 1987?
2. How would you define Accutech’s purpose? How do you demonstrate this in the community?
3. You’ve been around this business and industry for the vast majority of your life. What excited you about Accutech in the early days and how has that changed recently?
4. You recently acquired Money Tree Software in 2019. How did you think about integrating the business with Accutech? Were there any cultural challenges that you had to overcome?

The Future of Banking

1. Define the trust accounting and wealth management technology space. What is the incumbent process/tool that you’re battling against?
2. Tell us about the relationship you’re trying to develop with your core customer – the community bank. How do you envision the role of banks and the way consumers do banking?
3. Accutech has been in the fintech space for a lot longer than most entrants. What are the biggest mistakes you see other fintech companies make today?

In this episode of the Vertical Software Podcast, we're joined by David Wadler, the CEO/Co-Founder of Vendorful. From being the co-founder of Twistage to the GM of Rich Media and Cloud products at Lexmark, David stops by to talk about rejoining the startup world with Vendorful.

David's Story

1) You have an interesting combination of experience with recruiting and development; after selling Twistage in 2004, how did all these experiences help you grow as an entrepreneur?
2) How do you go from being a very good salesperson to back to building products?
3) What was your experience like in terms of going through the sales process of Twistage, getting the rewards of an exit but also staying along with the business and seeing it get integrated?

The Future of Vendorful

1) How do you gauge when and when not to listen to your customer; to give more future-oriented bets in regards to Vendorful?
2) How do you think big data and AI impacts the space of E-procurement and your strategic sourcing?

Background on David Wadler

Over the course of his career, David has used his experience in managing sales, developing software, production management, and now CEO/Co-Founder of his second start up. Through his first startup with Twistage, which was sold to Lexmark International in 2013, David became the GM of Rich Media and Cloud Products at Lexmark in order to help integrate Twistage to its new regime. Now, with his second go around in the startup world, David is helping customers reimagine eSourcing and vendor management through Vendorful. 

Listen in as Suthen gets to chat with David about Lexmark's acquisition of Twistage and how trusting your team is the best way to a successful startup. 

Levi's Story

1. You went from working as a Chartered Accountant at small to mid-sized companies to building a software company. What was that transition like?
2. Tell us about Ceterus. What pain points were you first trying to solve? How has that evolved?
3. Accounting software is a relatively competitive space – and yet Ceterus continues to grow quickly. How much do you actually focus on your competition?

The Future of Accounting

1. There are a number of software companies looking to automate various processes that used to be done over Excel. Where are we in the transition from spreadsheets to software?
2. What kind of role can accounting software play as businesses shift toward trends such as remote work, e-commerce and etc.?
3. What is the role of an accountant/financial leader in a small business today?

Background on Levi Morehouse and Ceterus

Levi Morehouse is the Founder and CEO of Ceterus, a company with the mission of empowering small business entrepreneurs and the accountants who serve them with industry-specific automation and reporting technology. Founded in 2008, Ceterus takes an innovative approach to accounting using technology backed by professionals to provide time-saving and insightful solutions. Today, their end-to-end solution empowers thousands of franchise entrepreneurs and CPA firms nationwide. Headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, Ceterus has raised millions in venture capital and been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies for the past four years.

A former CPA and small business entrepreneur himself, Levi writes and speaks regularly about the future of the accounting profession, with his thought leadership pieces featured in publications such as Forbes and Accounting Today. He has also been featured as a speaker for Startup Grind by Google, the Southeast Fintech Conference, and the Intuit Connect conference. In addition, he has been featured on podcasts such as Real Clear Radio Hour, The Tech Life Podcast, the Success in Business Podcast, and the Startup Sense Podcast. 

Jean's Story

1. Your background is fairly unique where you didn’t start off in the space of smart city/vehicle technology. How did you go from studying philosophy, to becoming a sales leader, then building a logistics business and now starting BusPatrol?
2. How would you compare and contrast the business models of Nuage, CV Logistics and Bus Patrol? Did you have to change the way you studied the business and customers?
3. Conventional thinking teaches to go after large addressable markets. Smart bus technology doesn’t necessarily come to mind when you look into this. Why did you choose to work on this problem?

The Future of Smart Cities

1. Assuming social distancing stays in place for the foreseeable future, what kind of opportunities do you anticipate for Bus Patrol?
2. Smart cities have been a trend that’s been talked about for the past 5-10 years. The progress we’ve made so far leaves a lot to be desired. How do you see the evolution of smart cities?
3. If you weren’t working on BusPatrol, what areas of safety technology would you be working on?

Background on Jean Souliere and BusPatrol

Jean Souliere, Chief Executive Officer of BusPatrol, is on a mission to bring safety to our communities and awareness to all residents across the country. After many years of working in the high-tech industry for companies such as NetSuite and Oracle, Jean decided to strike out on his own. He opened a high-tech business in transportation logistics. In an effort to expand his business he began to research other avenues for expansion. He discovered an opportunity when his research turned up evidence of neglect in transportation safety in our country’s’ school bus systems.

Stephany's Story

1. It’s hard to imagine the likelihood of someone without an engineering background to starting one of the most innovative supply chain technology companies today. What got you interested in learning about supply chain? How did you become an expert?
2. You went from building and running a consulting company to creating a software company (tealbook). How did your prior experience help you? What did you have to ‘unlearn’ from Matchbook?

The Future of Procurement 

1. The past few months must have felt like someone just pressed the fast-forward button on e-procurement. What are some of the changes that you’ve seen?
2. Explain the concept of supply chain agility. How can companies with legacy systems build this up?
3. What are some of the common data gaps that enterprise companies overlook? How do you get leaders to hold themselves and their vendors accountable to measurable outcomes?

Background on Stephany Lapierre and Tealbook

Stephany Lapierre is the founder/CEO of Tealbook, a highly coveted supply chain thought leader, and one of the most influential minds in emerging data technologies. She has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain, and her company, Tealbook, has both been named a Top 50 company to watch by Spend Matters and won the Cool Vendor Award by Gartner. Prior to Tealbook, Stephany spent 10 years building a successful strategic sourcing and procurement consulting firm focusing on large scale sourcing optimization projects.

Justin's Story

1. What’s your story? What got you interested in the space and led you to co-found FR8nex, and more recently, Rose Rocket?
2. Tell us about Rose Rocket’s platform as a service and how is this technology a game-changer for the trucking industry?
3. Why is it an exciting time to currently be innovating within the freight/trucking space?

The Future of TMS Systems

1. The freight industry is currently being reinvented in many ways with the advent of AVs and new entrants like Tesla and Uber poised to capture market share. How are you thinking about this?
2. With the shortage of drivers potentially increasing over the next 5-10 years, what type of role can technology play in replacing this dwindling driver population? 
3. How much do trucking companies stand to gain by undergoing digital transformation and investing more in data-driven solutions?

Background on Justin Bailie and Rose Rocket

Justin Bailie is the co-founder and president of a Silicon Valley-based startup RoseRocket, a modern TMS for LTL carriers. Consistently recognized as a top industry influencer Bailie has been quoted and/or contributed to over 30 national and international publications including INC magazine, Huffington Post, and the Globe and Mail. Bailie is recognized as a subject matter expert in the logistics industry and consults with businesses on business modernization and systems, marketing to the millennial economy, and sales 2.0. He is also a published author, keynote speaker, and father of three.

This week we're excited to interview Pankaj Malviya from Pulpstream. 

Here are some of the topics we go through: 

Pankaj's Story

1. Starting a business is equivalent to having kids in my mind. You’ve managed to start three different businesses and exited 2 of them. What did you learn from each company? 
2. What does bootstrapping mean to you? What kind of flexibility has it given you? 
3. How would you define the growth stages of a software company?

The Future of No Code

1. Being an engineer back when you worked at HP is a lot different from today. Tell me more about the no code movement.
2. What role do you see Pulpstream playing in the no-code movement? What makes the product special?
3. It looks like you’ve built businesses off of a number of market inflections. If you were to start another business today, what area would you focus on?

About Pankaj Malviya and Pulpstream

Pulpstream was founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneur Pankaj Malviya, which is his third technology venture. His first two companies were acquired.

Pankaj brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software design and development to the venture. His business-critical solutions are in use by some of the world’s largest enterprises including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Randstad, Software AG, and AT&T.

Before founding Pulpstream, Pankaj was founder and CEO of LongJump, one of the first Platform as a Service offerings. LongJump was acquired by Software AG for $35 million under his guidance. Subsequently, he led Software AG’s cloud initiatives as GM of Agile Apps.

Pankaj was a key architect at Hewlett-Packard, where he guided a team that built a CRM for the company’s Home Products division. The solution was implemented in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. The expertise he gained there laid the foundation for his first startup, which was called Relationals. The startup provided an on-demand CRM platform that integrated customer information with an automated sales process within a scalable platform. He built upon that concept to build LongJump.

This week we're excited to interview Scott Wolfe Jr. from Levelset.

Here are some of the topics we go through:

Scott's Story

1. How did your family shape you as an entrepreneur? What did you like and dislike about family-run businesses? 
2. Why did you decide to raise capital (vs. bootstrapping)?
3. Where is Levelset headed next? 

 
The Future of Construction

1. The construction space is one of the few industries where we haven’t seen widespread adoption of software solutions (especially amongst individual contractors). How is that changing? What role do you think Levelset can play in this? 
2. COVID-19 has obviously changed a lot of things. Have you seen any behavioral shifts in the construction space? 
3. Let’s fast forward to 2040. What does the tech stack of a contractor look like? 

About Scott Wolfe Jr and Levelset

Scott is a husband, dad, and entrepreneur in New Orleans. Bothered as a lawyer at the unfairness for the little guys, Scott founded Levelset to even the $1 trillion construction playing field. He's on a mission to make payments less stressful for contractors and suppliers across the globe. Headquartered in New Orleans, Levelset now has more than 200 employees and is used by thousands of contractors and suppliers nationwide to make payments easier, faster, and less stressful on billions in contract value each year. Scott has led Levelset through 4 rounds of venture capital financing, raising over $47 million in outside investment from top-tier international venture capital firms like Horizons Ventures, S3 Ventures, Altos Ventures, Operating Venture Capital, and Brick & Mortar Ventures.

Levelset is a natural combination of Scott’s life experience. His father and grandfather were general contractors, out of law school he practiced construction law as founding partner of Wolfe Law Group, and since high school he’s owned and operated a software and design company, The Web Lab.

If you're like to learn more about Levelset, check out their website here at www.levelset.com.