The Future of Supply Chain: a Dynamo Ventures Podcast

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh talks with John Urban, the now-retired co-founder and president of GT Nexus. John shares his experience founding, scaling, and selling his supply chain software business. Highlights from their conversation include:John Urban’s background (1:32)The innovations of GT Nexus “The slowest overnight success” (3:29)Challenges with over interest in visibility and whether visibility is a means to an end (6:20)Consulting with young companies to take the supply chain to the next level (10:19)AI and digitization (15:02)Long-term adjustments for good sparked by a global pandemic (17:01)How John decided to lean in and work with the companies he’s with today (21:09)Product-oriented advice for startups in the supply chain (24:54)Selling software into an industry that is slow to adopt software (26:57)Digesting decades of experience (30:19)GT Nexus is now Infor Nexus. Find out more at https://www.infor.com/aboutAbout 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.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh talks with AK Schultz, the CEO and co-founder of SVT Robotics. SVT Robotics connects businesses to robots, using its SOFTBOT Platform to enable clients to rapidly deploy enterprise robot technology.Highlights from their conversation include:SVT Robotics’ mission and AK’s introduction to automated logistics (1:27)Tackling the inefficiencies and barriers built into industry software that prevent them from communicating with each other (3:52)How customers integrate SVT Robotics (10:04)Advice for the lead to deal cycle (20:42)The most surprising thing learned building SVT (25:10)Rapid-fire questions for AK (27:00)SVT stands for Simplicity, Velocity, and Transparency. Find out more about SVT Robotics at https://www.svtrobotics.com/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.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh talks with Avi Gellar, co-founder of Maven Machines. They discuss the incredible opportunities to help trucking operations run more efficiently, successfully, and profitably with modern software platforms.Highlights from their conversation include:Avi’s MIT computer science background and how the trucking industry drew him in (1:10)The decision to have Maven’s home base in Pittsburgh (3:46)Building a cloud-based platform that integrates with all areas of a trucking company (8:43)Measurable transformation in use cases (14:53)Focusing on the driver’s experience (19:14)Comparing the value of unified, integrated platforms with unbundled programs (21:48)How the role of the driver evolve in the near future (26:26)Founded in 2014, Maven Machines positions itself as the leading fleet management technology provider for trucking companies. Find out more at https://mavenmachines.com/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. 

*From time to time we’ll re-air a previous episode of the show that our newer audience may have missed.*In this week's episode, we sat down with Rich Tompkins, VP of Southeast Operations at Veryable to discuss flex labor solutions and helping businesses navigate surge and scale issues in today's workplace environment.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh is joined by Tom Ruth, VP Americas at Quuppa. Headquartered in Finland with US offices in Washington D.C., Quuppa is a leading provider of Real-Time Locating Systems, using Bluetooth as a primary transport medium.Highlights from their conversation include:An introduction to Quuppa and Tom’s background and role at the company (1:09)The evolution beyond passive RFIDs in Real-Time Locating (5:26)How listening mode works for Quuppa’s locators and how it differs from beaconing (12:35)Tracking assets and building processes around that (17:07)A reference of location tracking technologies (22:30)Use cases of Quuppa customers (29:00)The future of an open tag ecosystem (31:25)Quuppa helps companies achieve more with location across all industries. Find out more at https://quuppa.com/applications/use-cases/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.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh talks with David Warrick, Microsoft’s Global Supply Chain GM. Together they look at how the supply chain industry is on the cusp of going from a stagnant system to being a “thinking, living, breathing supply chain.” Highlights from their conversation include:Microsoft’s global supply chain and David’s engineering background (1:22)David’s responsibility to make sure the right product gets to the right place at the right time (9:24)Dealing with the demand for the latest Xbox (10:31)End-to-end visibility and turning events into supply chain events (12:21)Is RPA where the value is? (17:23)How automation will impact the supply chain (20:08)The cognitive supply chain (24:10)Digital transformation and layering on top of ERP (29:50)Excitement about opportunities in the present and future of the supply chain (33:28)Microsoft’s global supply chain will have 1.3 million unique ship-to locations this year. Find out more about Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/aboutAbout 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.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh is joined by Nate Wells, SVP LTL Operations & Innovation at XPO Logistics. Together they look at the state of affairs in the LTL space, discuss ways XPO is pushing innovation, and talk about the idea of “finding your goldilocks”.Highlights from their conversation include:Nate’s responsibilities at XPO and his background (1:12)State of LTL in 2021 (5:28)Improving the LTL space with gamification (9:49)Simulation and optimization (15:28)Leaning into data and automation (19:14)Quick takes about current events in the supply chain (23:40)XPO Logistics is a top-10 global provider of transportation and logistics services with a highly integrated network of people, technology and physical assets. Find out more at https://www.xpo.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.

*From time to time we’ll re-air a previous episode of the show that our newer audience may have missed.*In this episode, we sit down with Bruce Welty, Founder and CEO of Quiet 3PF to talk about autonomous robots, warehouse logistics, and the future of e-commerce and omni-channel fulfillment.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.‍

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh is joined by Mark Ford, COO of BlueGrace Logistics. BlueGrace is a mode-agnostic, full-service 3PL that, among other things, differentiates itself by how it handles LTL and truckload, its managed logistics, its transparency, live data, and more.Highlights from their conversation include:Overview of BlueGrace and Mark’s career (1:07)State of the market today and being flexible with changes (7:16)Managed transportation offering (12:17)Focusing on the things that give you a competitive advantage (17:07)How technology benefits employees (19:22)Balancing internal development with external collaboration (22:46)3PLs need to differentiate themselves by what they do best (25:30)Bid fatigue and strategy (28:17)Opportunity in the supply chain (32:54)Founded in Tampa, Florida, in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics takes a progressive approach to transportation management to help customers of all sizes drive savings and simplicity into their supply chains. Find out more at https://mybluegrace.com/about-us/about-bluegrace/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.

On this week’s episode of The Future of Supply Chain, Santosh chats with Rob Garrison, founder, and CEO of Mercado Labs. Mercado’s import management system connects importers with suppliers, partners, and products, connects product with demand, and connects team members together. Using a SaaS platform, Mercado looks to transform the first mile of logistics, a complex part of the supply chain that still relies heavily on spreadsheets and emails.Highlights from their conversation include:An introduction to what Mercado Labs is working on and who Rob is (1:14)Rob’s take on the current state of imports (6:21)Why Rob thinks things will normalize by the end of April (9:55)Data’s role in dealing with uncertainty (13:43)Benefits of having an import management system in place (16:14)Plan, buy, move workflows (21:38)Contrasting first mile and final mile (25:00)PSP: people, service, profits (31:13)Mercado Labs, based in Dallas, Texas, transforms supply chains with its import management system by connecting products, suppliers, and teams with customer demand. Find out more at https://mercadolabs.com/why-mercado/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.