April 16, 2025 • 29 mins
How can you automate manual tasks and brokerage operations to scale faster as a broker? Listen to Annalise Davis to find out how Chain, an AI-powered freight visibility platform, can enhance collaboration between brokers and carriers, the importance of operational efficiency in the increasingly competitive market, Chain's latest feature that will improve engagement and retention within carrier networks, and the role of AI tools in leveling the playing field for smaller companies!
About Annalise Davis
Annalise Davis is the co-founder and CEO of Chain, an AI-powered visibility platform that helps freight brokers eliminate manual work. Before building tech, she and her husband ran a trucking company, giving her a ground-level view of the challenges brokers and carriers face every day.
Annalise’s path to freight tech is anything but typical: she started in medical school before leaving to pursue a more entrepreneurial path, ultimately building one of the fastest-growing platforms in the industry. Since founding Chain, she’s grown the company to seven figures in ARR and positioned it at the forefront of AI in freight.
Outside of work, she’s usually working out, reading, exploring new cities, or learning Japanese.
Connect with Annalise
- Website: https://www.trychain.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annalise-sandhu-60663786/ / https://www.linkedin.com/company/chain/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything hey oh got the foot on the gas pedal to.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The metal when I'm get to the.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Back hey Got the foot on the.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast hey Let them.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
All cross if they hate then let.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Them made them make a bigger ball.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight Coach Podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central, to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
(00:59):
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I got a very special guest and I'm going to bring her up here in a second. But I do just want to drop another little quick reminder. We did drop our weekly newsletter this morning. If you want to register for that though, go to the FreightCoach.com. I don't auto sign my contact list up for that stuff because it personally annoys me and I don't want to do that to anybody else. So if you want to receive this, it drops every Wednesday. Ask always. It's just Freight Talk in there. I'm not trying to be your life coach or a therapist or anything like that. Go to the freightcoach.com register for it. It'll auto prompt you.
(01:33):
We try and make it as easy as possible. But with that being said, anytime I can steal a founder for 30 Minutes to Talk about their journey and what they're building and especially in a emerging technology inside of the transportation space, I want to get them on the show. And with that being said, I have Annalise Sandhu on the show with Shane Anneliese. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
No, absolutely. And you know, I originally heard of Chain. You know, Chris from your team last fall in at Technovations in Jacksonville was like, I mean, he was just out there hustling and everything. And then he had been like you guys, you got to get us on the show. You got to get us on the show. I'm like perfect, man. And then we finally got everything aligned and then I met you and you know, then we met in person out in San Antonio this last week as well. So I just really appreciate you taking the time here today.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh yeah, no problem at all.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
So I lead in with this all the time and you have a very interesting not from freight coming into freight story. So like what brought you into the industry? Analise?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, I was kind of talking about it on a recent LinkedIn post. But you know, my background is actually in the sciences. So I was in clinical research. I was working at University of California, San Francisco and I was on my way to medical school and at the time I actually, you know, I met my, he's my husband today, Param. He's also my co founder and he's also from the sciences. But he had his own trucking company. You know, he was tired of working the 9 to 5 and decided to, you know, buy his own trucks and you know, give it a go. So I actually was helping him dispatch and that was kind of how like it all started and how I got my introduction into freight. And you know, there's just so much manual work that's involved running a trucking company.
(03:25):
Like you're just on the phone all day sending emails, sending text messages and you know, medicine. I talked about it on the recent LinkedIn post, but medicine, like, it just wasn't for me. Like when I got there it was just like, it was a tough path at the time I was struggling a lot and dispatching was really like a great distraction from like, you know, some of the things that I was facing at medical school. And you know, he kind of suggested like, hey, like there's a huge opportunity here to be able to solve some of the problems that we're facing on a day to day basis. Like just take a year off, like let's give this a go and like see what happens. So I actually ended up taking a year off and that's how chain got started. Never ended up going back.
(04:08):
So.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I see. Like those are the stories that I love the most. Right Is it's like I feel like a lot of people, whether they, you know, grow up in transportation or they're like doing something else and they kind of like fall into it. But you know, I mean, I know what post you're talking about. I read that yesterday and it's like I do, I resonate with that. Right. Like, it's like, there are certain things out there that event. I feel like the older I get, the sooner you understand what you don't want to do and, like, what actually drives you, the person. Happiness. I feel like you're going to. You're going to expedite into success at that one. Right?
(04:44):
Because, like, you should never wake up any day of your life and, like, be miserable about what you are about to walk in, you know, And I, when I was actually just talking about this yesterday on the show as well, is I'm like, I've just gotten to the point now where it's like, yes, there's challenges with building a business and all of that stuff, but there's a. A very distinct difference between the anxiety of, like, I will do anything, what I want, what I'm about to do today, and eventually, you know, you realize that it's like, money is not, like, if you're chasing money, you know, like, it's. It's not as satisfying as you think. Right? Especially if you hate what you're doing. And, like, the older I get, the more people I meet who said that, like, oh, yeah, I was doing this.
(05:28):
I was making way more money, but I was miserable every single day, all day long. And now I'm doing this, and I'm. I'm absolutely loving it. And you know what I love the most about your guys's story is, like, you found a need inside of the industry from doing the work. Right? It's not like you guys were outside looking in and, like, I'm not knocking anybody who's done that, but, like, you guys found multiple inefficiencies by owning your own trucks. You're like, we got to automate this, and we got to do this now.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah. I'm super thankful that, like, you know, we had the opportunity to kind of fall into it that way because, like, at the time, like, you're saying, like, I was just miserable and, like, it was just the perfect opportunity that was sitting there that, like, were already in it, like, day in, day out. Like, we didn't want to do that either. Like, we didn't want to continue the trucking company, but it was the perfect opportunity to really learn about it and say, like, hey, like, there's a huge opportunity on the table to, like, really help brokers and carriers be able to work together a lot easier. So it's kind of very serendipitous.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
No, definitely. So when you, like, have you guys always been attacking what you are Currently at chain. Was that like the initial go to market strategy with it or has it since kind of morphed a little bit here as you guys have started to kind of grow and scale?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, at the core of it has always like stayed the same. And like the core of it is like what we realized is that brokers and carriers just don't have an easy way to work together. And like as a carrier like were, you know, first we're on DAT and then we're like on, you know, we're tracking on like macro point or trucker tools. And then like we're on email or we're on G chat, like while the load is in transit. So like there's just so many different mediums where like that was causing a lot of this manual work that were facing because of the disconnect. So that was kind of like the core of where it started. We did initially start by trying to build a product like for carriers.
(07:19):
Since that was our experience, we quickly realized that carriers are just a tough market to sell into. They don't care as much about the manual work as we did while were carriers. And it just makes more sense from an efficiency standpoint to start with the brokers. Since the brokers are the ones that have the load, they're the ones that are driving the process and facing the inefficiencies a lot more acutely. So kind of morph over time to the brokerage side.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
No, definitely. So, so what would you say, you know, for those of you who, for those of the people who are listening to this that weren't at tia, they haven't like they've seen kind of the AI rush inside of transportation. What is it that you guys are out there trying to accomplish for the brokerage operation?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, for sure. I think like the, we started an interesting place. So like were pre AI, we started off as really a collaboration platform. We have the visibility, the tracking. The tracking is just like a dot on the map. What we saw is that there's still a ton of work that happens in between. You have to have a medium to be able to collaborate and to be able to communicate with your carriers. That's where it started. I think now it's really morphed into. Once the APIs for AI became available, it's now super easy to layer those kinds of things in, to be able to automate a lot of the manual work that people are doing day to day.
(08:47):
So yeah, what we do is like we have the visibility aspect, but then we also look at the SOPs and say like, okay, what are the routine tasks that you're doing day in, day out? Some of the customers are confirming arrivals, departures, in and out times, even very customer or warehouse specific requirements like, you know, you have to have a vest or a hard hat at certain locations that people previously were having to remind the driver each time. Those are the kinds of things that we automate. But I think the difference is that we don't just like automate one task and then say like, okay, we're done.
(09:22):
Like we really work throughout the load life cycle and like allow the AI to step in for the manual tasks when it's needed, but then really empower like the rep to be able to stay still, you know, do their work a lot easier even if it's not with AI.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, I mean for me, operational inefficiencies will kill a business so fast. And you know, especially inside of freight, right. Like I, you know, on any average month we're working front with eight to 10 different shippers that are out there. They all have different requirements for every single shipment. And then on top of that, every facility that it's going into has a different requirement associated with it. Right. Some of them are first come, first serve, some of them are by appointment, some of them need a 20, a 24 hour heads up even though they're first come first serve. Some want a 60 minute heads up even though they're first come first serve. There's a bunch of different things that are out there and I feel like a lot of people are focusing on the wrong automation for their businesses. I truly do. Right.
(10:20):
And you know, I see a lot of stuff out there, I talk to a lot of different companies and I'm not knocking anyone out there, but I feel like for a lot of businesses, Annalise, especially me, coming from my perspective, like, you know, I've bootstrapped a couple of companies now and for me it's like, how do I do less with more? How do I make sure that I'm delivering consistency for every single shipment that's out there while I'm able. Like I was mentioning before the show here when were talking, like I already made 30 cold calls today, right. So I'm already looking up how do I become a little bit more efficient with my day so I can free up more of my time. You understand this.
(11:00):
As a founder, there's always something that needs to be done and sometimes you're pulled in a different direction and if you slip up one time A lot of customer relationships are fragile early on and you don't want to miss a critical step early on that costs you business in the long run here. And this is something where, this is where an automation tool can come into play that can like, exponentially increase the punch you're packing out there in the market.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think, like, when people are thinking about automation, you know, it's. It's like one thing to automate, just, you know, like, let's say like a phone call, for example, or like an email or a text message. But then you have to think about, okay, like, let's say theoretically I'm able to like fully automate this one task, like, what tools are my reps using or like my tracking agents using, like, in between, to be able to accomplish the other work. So there's still like a lot of work that's left on the table.
(11:53):
So I think people need to think about AI in a holistic manner to say, like, what is like a tool that I can use that not only helps me with like, automation of tasks, but it also helps like, the reps to be able to do their work easier in between. So I think that's kind of what's missing for a lot of AI, just not freight. And outside of freight as well.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, I, after seeing a bunch of stuff at conference and then, you know, talking to a few of my friends who've built companies inside of it, I've already, like, I was talking to my business partner about it this morning. I'm like, I know exactly where we're going to develop and deploy AI inside of our organization. I'm not going to talk about it publicly because it's going to be a competitive advantage for us. But I've been seeing enough of it, right? Because it's like I'm all about automating everything but the customer and the carrier experience, right? Like, when they call, I want a human to pick up the phone, right? Like, I'm not against any AI voice agents that are out there, but me personally, my company will always have a real person picking up the phone.
(12:50):
It's just a personal preference of mine at the end of the day. But everything behind the scenes, 100% automate the shit out of that, right? Like, there should be literally nothing. Like, I shouldn't be writing anything down on a piece of paper, right? Like everything should be documented. Processes should be available for everybody out there. Because, like, doing less with more is what most companies are always trying to find, right? Like, they're always like, in my whole perspective on a lot of this is how do I hire the right people for it, right? Like, I don't want to have to hire five hoping one work out. I want to just hire the one person, arm them with the right tech stack where they can do the work of five people, right?
(13:31):
But then again, my caveat on top of that is always Chris Jolly and his companies will never have cap commissions. So I am not doing this for you to make me more money. I'm doing this for you to make more money as well with that. And then again, it's like, how do you compete out there in a market that's saturated? Freight brokerage is saturated. There's 20 some thousand competitors that are out there calling your customers at any given moment, waiting for you to drop the ball. And I'm sure you guys are probably experiencing something like this as well, right? Like, there's a ton of technology companies that are out there. You guys are probably asked all the time, how are you different from everybody else?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh, yeah. I think definitely, like, there's right now, like, a lot of confusion. It's definitely competitive. I think in general, there's like just a, a ton of different. Like, even if you don't just look at AI itself, you just look at freight tech in general. Like, there's so many different things that you have to evaluate as a freight broker and it can become very confusing. I think, you know, what we like to say to our customers is like, focus on, like, just, you know, make sure that you're close to the ops floor. And like, this is a problem at larger companies, right? Where a lot of people are. Where like the C suite is disconnected from like, what's actually happening on the ops floor.
(14:42):
Like, just sit down on the ops floor, like, observe the, observe your employees and see, like, what are the tasks that they're just doing, like day in, day out. Focus on that from a freight tech perspective. Like, don't just choose something because it's the next shiny object. Like, really evaluate. Like, you know, what are people, where are my. Where is my company spending the most time? And then just take it one step at a time. I think that's the right way to go about implementing any tech, whether it's AI or not.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. And I was talking about this because I was an instructor at the sales summit on Saturday at that conference. And my whole perspective is it's different from a lot of people because I sold and developed a book of business Pre Covid and I've also sold and developed a book of business post Covid as well. And it's two completely different sales styles that are out there. The opportunities are few and far between. Now where Pre Covid it used to be, you know, you get to have a couple of conversations with somebody, eventually they're going to give you a prove it shipment. Eventually it's going to happen. Now not so much, right? Like you might just be added in and then like it could be a year before you actually see your first shipment. That's out there.
(15:50):
And from my perspective, operationally as well, how are you going to differentiate yourself out there? Right? Saying you communicate is not going to move the needle anymore, right? Like you have to be in. And another, you know, hard part about this is as well is you really everything that you're saying in a sales call with a shipper, they've been told 100 times before, right? Like really the only way you're going to separate yourself is when you persistently follow up and get that shot. But then the way you execute upon that shipment, that's every shipment is an audition for the second shipment and then the third. At this point, right? Like there is so much competition that's out there where it's like if you slip up once they like, I understand that there's relationships, but there's no need to keep you around, right? Like this.
(16:36):
The stakes are that much higher. And if you're going to compete with the largest providers that are out there that are heavily funded, that spend more on donuts in a day than you might be able to spend on tech in a year, you know, to be able to compete with that, you have to find those competitive advantages. And I feel operational efficiencies is where you need to start and invest heavily. And especially if you are a startup or a small organization and you're trying to scale and you have 10 different shippers that have 10 different requirements are out there, you can't slip up, right? And it's so fragile early on. So it's like that's what I'm the most excited about with what you guys are doing. Because it is about operational efficiency. That's where I'm all about, right?
(17:18):
Like I want to kill my customers with service and communication that they've never experienced before. And I don't want to miss. I can't afford to miss on anything.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, yeah, we've definitely seen that. I think like what happens is that when you have like data and you have communications that are spread across like so many different channels and then the customer asks you for an update. Then now your rep is like, you know, they're going into this platform and then they're going here, then they're going there and then God forbid they forgot to follow up on something and then now they're trying to chase down the carrier. So I think that's where like you're saying the operational efficiency piece is key to be able to have all of that context in one place and then it just allows you to then focus on service.
(18:03):
I think like the biggest differentiator like one is that you know, this kind of tech or not tech, but like this level of service is going to become an expectation and as a result you need tech that allows you to be able to do that. And then your company can focus on the relational aspect and really like, you know, now the human aspect, whether it's with the carriers and providing them an amazing experience so you can keep your carriers in network or whether it's with the customer and providing an amazing customer experience, but you need tech to be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So yeah, I think the biggest competitive advantage that most brokers constantly overlooked is, you know, the carrier experience with them. Yeah, you know, like right now it's different because there's excess capacity in the market. Right. There is no drive, there is no driver shortage. Right. Like contrary to what any headlines you see, there are no driver shortages. If there was, there would be freight sitting on docks for days on end right now because there aren't enough trucks and not happening anywhere. Well, I can't say anywhere. I get in trouble when I use, but it's not happening at the scale that some people are trying to make it sound out there. But my, you know, my whole thing is you know that's one thing that we rely heavily on inside of my company is reusing the same drivers time and time again.
(19:17):
If they're in the area, we want to find that out. We want to build that process around it to where anytime an opportunity comes up inside of their target market, because that's where the real professional freight brokers play is they're like, I want to book that guy who's just running Houston Denver and then you just let him know every single time that Houston Denver is available and then just rinse and repeat with that. And then they build up that familiarity with your shippers, receivers, all of that stuff. And then that there's a trickle down that comes with that. But you know, from my perspective though, that will be the big competitive advantage that a lot of people are overlooking right now. Because the market is soft is where it is.
(19:50):
And most individuals out there are still in the mindset of let's just drive down those rates on carriers, let's rinse and repeat, let's find somebody cheaper, let's do that. Every broker who's listening to this is going to roll the rise and say, like, we don't do that. The hell you don't talk to an actual trucking company. I talk to a lot of trucking companies. I talk to a lot of them who are afraid to come on this show out of fear of repercussion for what will happen if they come out and speak their truth. And again, I always like to interject that any trucking companies that want to come on this show and have an open and honest conversation about your experiences out there, this is a safe space, right?
(20:24):
Like, I'm not going to do anything because I know how shitty brokers can be, right? Like, I've been doing this for a long time. I think like the ones who can really. The brokers out there that apply the right tech stack inside of their organization to again focus on the fundamentals more than anything. Because like I have yet to meet a shipper. I'm not saying they're not out there. I have yet to meet a shipper or a prospect who is even concerned what my technology looks like behind the scenes. Right? Like, yeah, it's a value add, but it's not a requirement for the most part. Right. I'm sure there's some people out there that do.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And I think like we've been through like a few market cycles now and like people often forget like, you know, when the market swings one way or it swings in another way, people often kind of forget. And I think a lot of like you're saying a lot of the, you know what AI automation is like missing today is like, yes, there's like an excess of carriers right now, so your phones like will be blowing up. But when the market swings then like, how are you, like, what tools do you have to make sure that you're able to like engage your repeat network of carriers. So I think that'll be key as well to be able to make sure that you kind of are diversifying and building those relationships in advance.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
What's one thing that you guys experienced as a carrier that chain solves now, right? Like with that broker experience that's out there. Is it like just missing information? Kind of walk me through something like that. Situational.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. So from like the carrier perspective, like let's say you're working with a couple of different brokers. You'll, you'll be able to see like the loads in a single place. So you're not like hopping around between like different places. And then you can also just chat like right on the platform. So we do enable, like let's say that you want to, you know, ask what the pickup number is. Let's say that you want to be able to like update the ETA yourself. All of that's kind of available. So it's really, you can think about it almost like a task like collaboration, like platform where you can see what needs to be done, you can contribute there instead of like having to, you know, go on email, pick up the phone and all that.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, it's, you know, for us, I mean that's one of our big things, right? Is you know, making sure. Because like we always call and verify everything. Shippers receivers locations, make sure the addresses are right, hours of operation, they have a forklift on site that can lift the product. We like, we try and do that and then we pass that along to our carrier, right? Like we try and make sure that they're aware of that and that like we've actually found in talking with our drivers that's one of the biggest value adds that we do is that we do call ahead. We do let the receiver know what's going on. We do verify that they have the right equipment just in the event things change, right?
(23:13):
Because like we've had, you know, like working in the open deck space because that's all we do, right? We do flat steps, Conestoga's, rgn, stuff like that. Things change in transit all the time, right? Or it's like, hey, actually that lift is, didn't make it from the other job site, so just send it to the other job site, we'll have it offloaded there instead. And it is just getting ahead of it, right? I've never had a driver complain that they were told two hours prior, hey, actually go to this location, not that location, unless it's 400 miles away, which that fortunately, knock on wood, hasn't came across our desk yet. But again, it's just about getting ahead of that, right?
(23:44):
Because I don't want my customer, you know, like if I'm out there soliciting business and I think this is a misstep or an oversight by people as well is. Is every time that you deliver a load into a receiver, that's your customer's customer. Right. So you want to make sure they have a seamless experience with you as a broker and as a carrier, because that gets back. Right. Like, I've seen that happen more times than not. Hey, we want those guys to deliver to us because they're calling ahead, they're having conversations with us, they're letting us know. And then for the broker to be able to pass that along to the driver, it's crucial. Right. And you just can't have a, oh, shoot, I didn't think of that in the moment style thing because it's just going to cost you business. Right.
(24:23):
Because there are people out there who don't miss a step with it.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah. I think that the key is just like making sure that everybody has the information that they need and it's kind of centralized. So I think that's kind of a big part of it. It's just like, you know, having communication, whether it's between the driver and the dispatcher, anybody at the brokerage, having them kind of all in a single place really helps with just keeping everybody aligned, keeping everybody on the same page. And when issues arise, everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, yeah. What's next for chain? What does the rest of this year look like? I mean, is there anything that with the amount of companies that are kind of coming into the market, do you see that as more of an opportunity that you guys have been around for a while now and you are established and you've kind of worked through some of those beginning, you know, we'll call them hiccups that every business inevitably has to go through.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, yeah. It's definitely. It's helpful that we've been around a while. I think I'm like, grateful that we actually started before AI because it allowed us to think about fundamentally how we're solving the problem a lot different. Like, if I were to start an AI company today, especially if I came from outside of the industry, I would probably think about it more in terms of like, you know, like, okay, I see people on the phone. I see people doing like, XYZ tasks, like, okay, let me automate that. I think we're thinking about it from really like a fundamentally, like a collaboration standpoint. And some of the features that we're working on now is like, you have carriers that are tracking, so how do we re engage them for backhauls?
(25:56):
So that was one of the features that actually we released Today is like, now carriers can see available backhauls. So we're kind of thinking about it from the angle of like, how do we keep that carrier in network to a lot easier. You're working with them, they're trusted, so, you know, just have them on the backhaul. So those are the kind of features that we're working on is collaboration like along now, kind of the capacity side as well.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, it's. It's going to be interesting to see where things develop. Right. Because I feel like with a lot of stuff in, you know, inside of AI and tech is. I mean, it's moving at a rapid pace. Right. Like the development, some of the stuff that's coming on out there. And I know that some of it, you know, especially in AI is only going to be as smart as you training it. Right. Because that's kind of the whole point of it. But like, it's going to be interesting to see where in a few years where everything kind of is right. And I'm just excited like as somebody who's trying to scale lean out there and you know, and I'm not doing that from a cheap standpoint.
(26:54):
I'm doing it because like, I want like when you bootstrap a company, you know, like you got to actually have money in the bank. You guys, like, not everybody just has investors and access to millions of dollars worth of capital at the end of the day. And that's what I'm the most excited about with it. Right. Is, is it's like that. I feel like it's going to be that competitive advantage for us as we grow in scale is having our team have the right technology that they're armed with so we can pack a bigger punch. Right. Like, I want to be able to fight above our weight class earlier, you know, because it's not going to be for a lack of skills in transportation knowledge. At the end of the day it is.
(27:28):
It's tough to compete out there from a financial perspective when people are always more heavily funded and they have larger budgets and everything. But like, I'm just. Maybe I'm just dumb enough to think that I can fight weight class. And I feel like with a lot of companies that are coming up in the tech space, I'm going to be able to prove it here and just, you know, it's going to take me a little bit of time, but I'm going to get there.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. I think, you know, at the end of the day, if you focus on the customer experience and like, that's like your obsession. Then I think you'll go a long way. It definitely helps. And like, your validation is like your revenue because you're selling, because you're actually building something that's valuable. So I think that part's key as well.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Now, that's 100% accurate. Annalise, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you guys got going on?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, you guys can go to tri chain.com is our website. Also, just feel free to drop me a message on LinkedIn if you have any questions, any follow ups, or anybody from our team as well.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Perfect. Annelise, thank you so much for joining me. That is going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen. As always, if you got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. You guys, if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, which you better because she is just literally has a play, a tool for your toolbox here to exponentially increase your output, you guys, so hit them up. But most importantly, you guys, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you saw value, that's how your network's gonna see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon. We don't have any cool outro, Annalise. We just the run.
Came back with a bank window down yelling now money anything hey oh got the foot on the gas pedal to.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The metal when I'm get to the.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Back hey Got the foot on the.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Gas pedal to the metal when the lane moving fast hey Let them.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
All cross if they hate then let.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Them made them make a bigger ball.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey what is up ladies and gentlemen? We are back. We are live. It is the Freight Coach Podcast, the top podcast in transportation coming to you guys every single weekday, 8:30am Pacific, 10:30 Central, to break down some industry headlines. But most importantly, you guys provide some actual insight into what you can do with all of this information. If this is your first time tuning in, welcome. This is the real side of freight, ladies and gentlemen. And I say that before every single show. And what I mean by that is I only speak with transportation professionals because at the end of the day, you guys, I want to talk to the right individuals who have done what you're looking to do or who are currently doing what you're trying to achieve.
(00:59):
So you can take that information, apply it, utilize it, and see a meaningful difference in your business and your life. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I got a very special guest and I'm going to bring her up here in a second. But I do just want to drop another little quick reminder. We did drop our weekly newsletter this morning. If you want to register for that though, go to the FreightCoach.com. I don't auto sign my contact list up for that stuff because it personally annoys me and I don't want to do that to anybody else. So if you want to receive this, it drops every Wednesday. Ask always. It's just Freight Talk in there. I'm not trying to be your life coach or a therapist or anything like that. Go to the freightcoach.com register for it. It'll auto prompt you.
(01:33):
We try and make it as easy as possible. But with that being said, anytime I can steal a founder for 30 Minutes to Talk about their journey and what they're building and especially in a emerging technology inside of the transportation space, I want to get them on the show. And with that being said, I have Annalise Sandhu on the show with Shane Anneliese. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
No, absolutely. And you know, I originally heard of Chain. You know, Chris from your team last fall in at Technovations in Jacksonville was like, I mean, he was just out there hustling and everything. And then he had been like you guys, you got to get us on the show. You got to get us on the show. I'm like perfect, man. And then we finally got everything aligned and then I met you and you know, then we met in person out in San Antonio this last week as well. So I just really appreciate you taking the time here today.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh yeah, no problem at all.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
So I lead in with this all the time and you have a very interesting not from freight coming into freight story. So like what brought you into the industry? Analise?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, I was kind of talking about it on a recent LinkedIn post. But you know, my background is actually in the sciences. So I was in clinical research. I was working at University of California, San Francisco and I was on my way to medical school and at the time I actually, you know, I met my, he's my husband today, Param. He's also my co founder and he's also from the sciences. But he had his own trucking company. You know, he was tired of working the 9 to 5 and decided to, you know, buy his own trucks and you know, give it a go. So I actually was helping him dispatch and that was kind of how like it all started and how I got my introduction into freight. And you know, there's just so much manual work that's involved running a trucking company.
(03:25):
Like you're just on the phone all day sending emails, sending text messages and you know, medicine. I talked about it on the recent LinkedIn post, but medicine, like, it just wasn't for me. Like when I got there it was just like, it was a tough path at the time I was struggling a lot and dispatching was really like a great distraction from like, you know, some of the things that I was facing at medical school. And you know, he kind of suggested like, hey, like there's a huge opportunity here to be able to solve some of the problems that we're facing on a day to day basis. Like just take a year off, like let's give this a go and like see what happens. So I actually ended up taking a year off and that's how chain got started. Never ended up going back.
(04:08):
So.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I see. Like those are the stories that I love the most. Right Is it's like I feel like a lot of people, whether they, you know, grow up in transportation or they're like doing something else and they kind of like fall into it. But you know, I mean, I know what post you're talking about. I read that yesterday and it's like I do, I resonate with that. Right. Like, it's like, there are certain things out there that event. I feel like the older I get, the sooner you understand what you don't want to do and, like, what actually drives you, the person. Happiness. I feel like you're going to. You're going to expedite into success at that one. Right?
(04:44):
Because, like, you should never wake up any day of your life and, like, be miserable about what you are about to walk in, you know, And I, when I was actually just talking about this yesterday on the show as well, is I'm like, I've just gotten to the point now where it's like, yes, there's challenges with building a business and all of that stuff, but there's a. A very distinct difference between the anxiety of, like, I will do anything, what I want, what I'm about to do today, and eventually, you know, you realize that it's like, money is not, like, if you're chasing money, you know, like, it's. It's not as satisfying as you think. Right? Especially if you hate what you're doing. And, like, the older I get, the more people I meet who said that, like, oh, yeah, I was doing this.
(05:28):
I was making way more money, but I was miserable every single day, all day long. And now I'm doing this, and I'm. I'm absolutely loving it. And you know what I love the most about your guys's story is, like, you found a need inside of the industry from doing the work. Right? It's not like you guys were outside looking in and, like, I'm not knocking anybody who's done that, but, like, you guys found multiple inefficiencies by owning your own trucks. You're like, we got to automate this, and we got to do this now.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah. I'm super thankful that, like, you know, we had the opportunity to kind of fall into it that way because, like, at the time, like, you're saying, like, I was just miserable and, like, it was just the perfect opportunity that was sitting there that, like, were already in it, like, day in, day out. Like, we didn't want to do that either. Like, we didn't want to continue the trucking company, but it was the perfect opportunity to really learn about it and say, like, hey, like, there's a huge opportunity on the table to, like, really help brokers and carriers be able to work together a lot easier. So it's kind of very serendipitous.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
No, definitely. So when you, like, have you guys always been attacking what you are Currently at chain. Was that like the initial go to market strategy with it or has it since kind of morphed a little bit here as you guys have started to kind of grow and scale?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, at the core of it has always like stayed the same. And like the core of it is like what we realized is that brokers and carriers just don't have an easy way to work together. And like as a carrier like were, you know, first we're on DAT and then we're like on, you know, we're tracking on like macro point or trucker tools. And then like we're on email or we're on G chat, like while the load is in transit. So like there's just so many different mediums where like that was causing a lot of this manual work that were facing because of the disconnect. So that was kind of like the core of where it started. We did initially start by trying to build a product like for carriers.
(07:19):
Since that was our experience, we quickly realized that carriers are just a tough market to sell into. They don't care as much about the manual work as we did while were carriers. And it just makes more sense from an efficiency standpoint to start with the brokers. Since the brokers are the ones that have the load, they're the ones that are driving the process and facing the inefficiencies a lot more acutely. So kind of morph over time to the brokerage side.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
No, definitely. So, so what would you say, you know, for those of you who, for those of the people who are listening to this that weren't at tia, they haven't like they've seen kind of the AI rush inside of transportation. What is it that you guys are out there trying to accomplish for the brokerage operation?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, for sure. I think like the, we started an interesting place. So like were pre AI, we started off as really a collaboration platform. We have the visibility, the tracking. The tracking is just like a dot on the map. What we saw is that there's still a ton of work that happens in between. You have to have a medium to be able to collaborate and to be able to communicate with your carriers. That's where it started. I think now it's really morphed into. Once the APIs for AI became available, it's now super easy to layer those kinds of things in, to be able to automate a lot of the manual work that people are doing day to day.
(08:47):
So yeah, what we do is like we have the visibility aspect, but then we also look at the SOPs and say like, okay, what are the routine tasks that you're doing day in, day out? Some of the customers are confirming arrivals, departures, in and out times, even very customer or warehouse specific requirements like, you know, you have to have a vest or a hard hat at certain locations that people previously were having to remind the driver each time. Those are the kinds of things that we automate. But I think the difference is that we don't just like automate one task and then say like, okay, we're done.
(09:22):
Like we really work throughout the load life cycle and like allow the AI to step in for the manual tasks when it's needed, but then really empower like the rep to be able to stay still, you know, do their work a lot easier even if it's not with AI.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, I mean for me, operational inefficiencies will kill a business so fast. And you know, especially inside of freight, right. Like I, you know, on any average month we're working front with eight to 10 different shippers that are out there. They all have different requirements for every single shipment. And then on top of that, every facility that it's going into has a different requirement associated with it. Right. Some of them are first come, first serve, some of them are by appointment, some of them need a 20, a 24 hour heads up even though they're first come first serve. Some want a 60 minute heads up even though they're first come first serve. There's a bunch of different things that are out there and I feel like a lot of people are focusing on the wrong automation for their businesses. I truly do. Right.
(10:20):
And you know, I see a lot of stuff out there, I talk to a lot of different companies and I'm not knocking anyone out there, but I feel like for a lot of businesses, Annalise, especially me, coming from my perspective, like, you know, I've bootstrapped a couple of companies now and for me it's like, how do I do less with more? How do I make sure that I'm delivering consistency for every single shipment that's out there while I'm able. Like I was mentioning before the show here when were talking, like I already made 30 cold calls today, right. So I'm already looking up how do I become a little bit more efficient with my day so I can free up more of my time. You understand this.
(11:00):
As a founder, there's always something that needs to be done and sometimes you're pulled in a different direction and if you slip up one time A lot of customer relationships are fragile early on and you don't want to miss a critical step early on that costs you business in the long run here. And this is something where, this is where an automation tool can come into play that can like, exponentially increase the punch you're packing out there in the market.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think, like, when people are thinking about automation, you know, it's. It's like one thing to automate, just, you know, like, let's say like a phone call, for example, or like an email or a text message. But then you have to think about, okay, like, let's say theoretically I'm able to like fully automate this one task, like, what tools are my reps using or like my tracking agents using, like, in between, to be able to accomplish the other work. So there's still like a lot of work that's left on the table.
(11:53):
So I think people need to think about AI in a holistic manner to say, like, what is like a tool that I can use that not only helps me with like, automation of tasks, but it also helps like, the reps to be able to do their work easier in between. So I think that's kind of what's missing for a lot of AI, just not freight. And outside of freight as well.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Yeah, I, after seeing a bunch of stuff at conference and then, you know, talking to a few of my friends who've built companies inside of it, I've already, like, I was talking to my business partner about it this morning. I'm like, I know exactly where we're going to develop and deploy AI inside of our organization. I'm not going to talk about it publicly because it's going to be a competitive advantage for us. But I've been seeing enough of it, right? Because it's like I'm all about automating everything but the customer and the carrier experience, right? Like, when they call, I want a human to pick up the phone, right? Like, I'm not against any AI voice agents that are out there, but me personally, my company will always have a real person picking up the phone.
(12:50):
It's just a personal preference of mine at the end of the day. But everything behind the scenes, 100% automate the shit out of that, right? Like, there should be literally nothing. Like, I shouldn't be writing anything down on a piece of paper, right? Like everything should be documented. Processes should be available for everybody out there. Because, like, doing less with more is what most companies are always trying to find, right? Like, they're always like, in my whole perspective on a lot of this is how do I hire the right people for it, right? Like, I don't want to have to hire five hoping one work out. I want to just hire the one person, arm them with the right tech stack where they can do the work of five people, right?
(13:31):
But then again, my caveat on top of that is always Chris Jolly and his companies will never have cap commissions. So I am not doing this for you to make me more money. I'm doing this for you to make more money as well with that. And then again, it's like, how do you compete out there in a market that's saturated? Freight brokerage is saturated. There's 20 some thousand competitors that are out there calling your customers at any given moment, waiting for you to drop the ball. And I'm sure you guys are probably experiencing something like this as well, right? Like, there's a ton of technology companies that are out there. You guys are probably asked all the time, how are you different from everybody else?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh, yeah. I think definitely, like, there's right now, like, a lot of confusion. It's definitely competitive. I think in general, there's like just a, a ton of different. Like, even if you don't just look at AI itself, you just look at freight tech in general. Like, there's so many different things that you have to evaluate as a freight broker and it can become very confusing. I think, you know, what we like to say to our customers is like, focus on, like, just, you know, make sure that you're close to the ops floor. And like, this is a problem at larger companies, right? Where a lot of people are. Where like the C suite is disconnected from like, what's actually happening on the ops floor.
(14:42):
Like, just sit down on the ops floor, like, observe the, observe your employees and see, like, what are the tasks that they're just doing, like day in, day out. Focus on that from a freight tech perspective. Like, don't just choose something because it's the next shiny object. Like, really evaluate. Like, you know, what are people, where are my. Where is my company spending the most time? And then just take it one step at a time. I think that's the right way to go about implementing any tech, whether it's AI or not.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. And I was talking about this because I was an instructor at the sales summit on Saturday at that conference. And my whole perspective is it's different from a lot of people because I sold and developed a book of business Pre Covid and I've also sold and developed a book of business post Covid as well. And it's two completely different sales styles that are out there. The opportunities are few and far between. Now where Pre Covid it used to be, you know, you get to have a couple of conversations with somebody, eventually they're going to give you a prove it shipment. Eventually it's going to happen. Now not so much, right? Like you might just be added in and then like it could be a year before you actually see your first shipment. That's out there.
(15:50):
And from my perspective, operationally as well, how are you going to differentiate yourself out there? Right? Saying you communicate is not going to move the needle anymore, right? Like you have to be in. And another, you know, hard part about this is as well is you really everything that you're saying in a sales call with a shipper, they've been told 100 times before, right? Like really the only way you're going to separate yourself is when you persistently follow up and get that shot. But then the way you execute upon that shipment, that's every shipment is an audition for the second shipment and then the third. At this point, right? Like there is so much competition that's out there where it's like if you slip up once they like, I understand that there's relationships, but there's no need to keep you around, right? Like this.
(16:36):
The stakes are that much higher. And if you're going to compete with the largest providers that are out there that are heavily funded, that spend more on donuts in a day than you might be able to spend on tech in a year, you know, to be able to compete with that, you have to find those competitive advantages. And I feel operational efficiencies is where you need to start and invest heavily. And especially if you are a startup or a small organization and you're trying to scale and you have 10 different shippers that have 10 different requirements are out there, you can't slip up, right? And it's so fragile early on. So it's like that's what I'm the most excited about with what you guys are doing. Because it is about operational efficiency. That's where I'm all about, right?
(17:18):
Like I want to kill my customers with service and communication that they've never experienced before. And I don't want to miss. I can't afford to miss on anything.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, yeah, we've definitely seen that. I think like what happens is that when you have like data and you have communications that are spread across like so many different channels and then the customer asks you for an update. Then now your rep is like, you know, they're going into this platform and then they're going here, then they're going there and then God forbid they forgot to follow up on something and then now they're trying to chase down the carrier. So I think that's where like you're saying the operational efficiency piece is key to be able to have all of that context in one place and then it just allows you to then focus on service.
(18:03):
I think like the biggest differentiator like one is that you know, this kind of tech or not tech, but like this level of service is going to become an expectation and as a result you need tech that allows you to be able to do that. And then your company can focus on the relational aspect and really like, you know, now the human aspect, whether it's with the carriers and providing them an amazing experience so you can keep your carriers in network or whether it's with the customer and providing an amazing customer experience, but you need tech to be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So yeah, I think the biggest competitive advantage that most brokers constantly overlooked is, you know, the carrier experience with them. Yeah, you know, like right now it's different because there's excess capacity in the market. Right. There is no drive, there is no driver shortage. Right. Like contrary to what any headlines you see, there are no driver shortages. If there was, there would be freight sitting on docks for days on end right now because there aren't enough trucks and not happening anywhere. Well, I can't say anywhere. I get in trouble when I use, but it's not happening at the scale that some people are trying to make it sound out there. But my, you know, my whole thing is you know that's one thing that we rely heavily on inside of my company is reusing the same drivers time and time again.
(19:17):
If they're in the area, we want to find that out. We want to build that process around it to where anytime an opportunity comes up inside of their target market, because that's where the real professional freight brokers play is they're like, I want to book that guy who's just running Houston Denver and then you just let him know every single time that Houston Denver is available and then just rinse and repeat with that. And then they build up that familiarity with your shippers, receivers, all of that stuff. And then that there's a trickle down that comes with that. But you know, from my perspective though, that will be the big competitive advantage that a lot of people are overlooking right now. Because the market is soft is where it is.
(19:50):
And most individuals out there are still in the mindset of let's just drive down those rates on carriers, let's rinse and repeat, let's find somebody cheaper, let's do that. Every broker who's listening to this is going to roll the rise and say, like, we don't do that. The hell you don't talk to an actual trucking company. I talk to a lot of trucking companies. I talk to a lot of them who are afraid to come on this show out of fear of repercussion for what will happen if they come out and speak their truth. And again, I always like to interject that any trucking companies that want to come on this show and have an open and honest conversation about your experiences out there, this is a safe space, right?
(20:24):
Like, I'm not going to do anything because I know how shitty brokers can be, right? Like, I've been doing this for a long time. I think like the ones who can really. The brokers out there that apply the right tech stack inside of their organization to again focus on the fundamentals more than anything. Because like I have yet to meet a shipper. I'm not saying they're not out there. I have yet to meet a shipper or a prospect who is even concerned what my technology looks like behind the scenes. Right? Like, yeah, it's a value add, but it's not a requirement for the most part. Right. I'm sure there's some people out there that do.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And I think like we've been through like a few market cycles now and like people often forget like, you know, when the market swings one way or it swings in another way, people often kind of forget. And I think a lot of like you're saying a lot of the, you know what AI automation is like missing today is like, yes, there's like an excess of carriers right now, so your phones like will be blowing up. But when the market swings then like, how are you, like, what tools do you have to make sure that you're able to like engage your repeat network of carriers. So I think that'll be key as well to be able to make sure that you kind of are diversifying and building those relationships in advance.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
What's one thing that you guys experienced as a carrier that chain solves now, right? Like with that broker experience that's out there. Is it like just missing information? Kind of walk me through something like that. Situational.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. So from like the carrier perspective, like let's say you're working with a couple of different brokers. You'll, you'll be able to see like the loads in a single place. So you're not like hopping around between like different places. And then you can also just chat like right on the platform. So we do enable, like let's say that you want to, you know, ask what the pickup number is. Let's say that you want to be able to like update the ETA yourself. All of that's kind of available. So it's really, you can think about it almost like a task like collaboration, like platform where you can see what needs to be done, you can contribute there instead of like having to, you know, go on email, pick up the phone and all that.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, it's, you know, for us, I mean that's one of our big things, right? Is you know, making sure. Because like we always call and verify everything. Shippers receivers locations, make sure the addresses are right, hours of operation, they have a forklift on site that can lift the product. We like, we try and do that and then we pass that along to our carrier, right? Like we try and make sure that they're aware of that and that like we've actually found in talking with our drivers that's one of the biggest value adds that we do is that we do call ahead. We do let the receiver know what's going on. We do verify that they have the right equipment just in the event things change, right?
(23:13):
Because like we've had, you know, like working in the open deck space because that's all we do, right? We do flat steps, Conestoga's, rgn, stuff like that. Things change in transit all the time, right? Or it's like, hey, actually that lift is, didn't make it from the other job site, so just send it to the other job site, we'll have it offloaded there instead. And it is just getting ahead of it, right? I've never had a driver complain that they were told two hours prior, hey, actually go to this location, not that location, unless it's 400 miles away, which that fortunately, knock on wood, hasn't came across our desk yet. But again, it's just about getting ahead of that, right?
(23:44):
Because I don't want my customer, you know, like if I'm out there soliciting business and I think this is a misstep or an oversight by people as well is. Is every time that you deliver a load into a receiver, that's your customer's customer. Right. So you want to make sure they have a seamless experience with you as a broker and as a carrier, because that gets back. Right. Like, I've seen that happen more times than not. Hey, we want those guys to deliver to us because they're calling ahead, they're having conversations with us, they're letting us know. And then for the broker to be able to pass that along to the driver, it's crucial. Right. And you just can't have a, oh, shoot, I didn't think of that in the moment style thing because it's just going to cost you business. Right.
(24:23):
Because there are people out there who don't miss a step with it.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah. I think that the key is just like making sure that everybody has the information that they need and it's kind of centralized. So I think that's kind of a big part of it. It's just like, you know, having communication, whether it's between the driver and the dispatcher, anybody at the brokerage, having them kind of all in a single place really helps with just keeping everybody aligned, keeping everybody on the same page. And when issues arise, everybody knows.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, yeah. What's next for chain? What does the rest of this year look like? I mean, is there anything that with the amount of companies that are kind of coming into the market, do you see that as more of an opportunity that you guys have been around for a while now and you are established and you've kind of worked through some of those beginning, you know, we'll call them hiccups that every business inevitably has to go through.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, yeah. It's definitely. It's helpful that we've been around a while. I think I'm like, grateful that we actually started before AI because it allowed us to think about fundamentally how we're solving the problem a lot different. Like, if I were to start an AI company today, especially if I came from outside of the industry, I would probably think about it more in terms of like, you know, like, okay, I see people on the phone. I see people doing like, XYZ tasks, like, okay, let me automate that. I think we're thinking about it from really like a fundamentally, like a collaboration standpoint. And some of the features that we're working on now is like, you have carriers that are tracking, so how do we re engage them for backhauls?
(25:56):
So that was one of the features that actually we released Today is like, now carriers can see available backhauls. So we're kind of thinking about it from the angle of like, how do we keep that carrier in network to a lot easier. You're working with them, they're trusted, so, you know, just have them on the backhaul. So those are the kind of features that we're working on is collaboration like along now, kind of the capacity side as well.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, it's. It's going to be interesting to see where things develop. Right. Because I feel like with a lot of stuff in, you know, inside of AI and tech is. I mean, it's moving at a rapid pace. Right. Like the development, some of the stuff that's coming on out there. And I know that some of it, you know, especially in AI is only going to be as smart as you training it. Right. Because that's kind of the whole point of it. But like, it's going to be interesting to see where in a few years where everything kind of is right. And I'm just excited like as somebody who's trying to scale lean out there and you know, and I'm not doing that from a cheap standpoint.
(26:54):
I'm doing it because like, I want like when you bootstrap a company, you know, like you got to actually have money in the bank. You guys, like, not everybody just has investors and access to millions of dollars worth of capital at the end of the day. And that's what I'm the most excited about with it. Right. Is, is it's like that. I feel like it's going to be that competitive advantage for us as we grow in scale is having our team have the right technology that they're armed with so we can pack a bigger punch. Right. Like, I want to be able to fight above our weight class earlier, you know, because it's not going to be for a lack of skills in transportation knowledge. At the end of the day it is.
(27:28):
It's tough to compete out there from a financial perspective when people are always more heavily funded and they have larger budgets and everything. But like, I'm just. Maybe I'm just dumb enough to think that I can fight weight class. And I feel like with a lot of companies that are coming up in the tech space, I'm going to be able to prove it here and just, you know, it's going to take me a little bit of time, but I'm going to get there.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. I think, you know, at the end of the day, if you focus on the customer experience and like, that's like your obsession. Then I think you'll go a long way. It definitely helps. And like, your validation is like your revenue because you're selling, because you're actually building something that's valuable. So I think that part's key as well.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Now, that's 100% accurate. Annalise, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. How does anybody reach out to you guys to find out more about what you guys got going on?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, you guys can go to tri chain.com is our website. Also, just feel free to drop me a message on LinkedIn if you have any questions, any follow ups, or anybody from our team as well.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Perfect. Annelise, thank you so much for joining me. That is going to be it for today, ladies and gentlemen. As always, if you got value in what you heard, subscribe to the show. You guys, if you're feeling really ambitious after this one, which you better because she is just literally has a play, a tool for your toolbox here to exponentially increase your output, you guys, so hit them up. But most importantly, you guys, rank the show on itunes and Spotify, because if you saw value, that's how your network's gonna see value as well. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys and we'll be talking to you soon. We don't have any cool outro, Annalise. We just the run.
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