May 28, 2025 • 21 mins
William Wappler is a visionary in technology, innovation, and AI. William’s focus is on managing the rapid growth of Surgere, while supporting a strong organizational culture and exemplifying our core values. He has over 20 years of experience in directing and executing technology strategy and financial growth for global Fortune 500 companies.
Previously, as President of a leading software company in California, where he led the business in automating production control. William earned a combined degree from the University of Illinois and Illinois State and holds an MBA from Northwestern University.
Previously, as President of a leading software company in California, where he led the business in automating production control. William earned a combined degree from the University of Illinois and Illinois State and holds an MBA from Northwestern University.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is our radio CEOs you should know, and I'm
Keith Hoskins. Today our special guest Bill Woppler, CEO, founder
of Sir Jair, an AI technology company. AI is course
one of the most important words or letters in the
English language today, and many of you listening may or
may not be familiar with what the heck AI and
technology even is. When we first got in the studio
(00:23):
this morning, Bill said, how familiar are you with technology?
And I said, let's keep it at an elementary school
level today, So Bill, welcome, thanks for joining us. Tell
us first a little bit about Sir Jair and exactly
what it is you guys do.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well. First, let me say that it's a pleasure to
be with you.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I will explain a little bit about what we do,
but I'd also like to say that we're very unique
in that we're an Ohio company, and to be an
AI founded technology is fairly unique in these parts for sure,
and it's a pleasure to kind of get together and
(01:03):
talk about where the industry's going. So I'm really looking
forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Right You mentioned that your company, and as I jump
in here, you talk about the Tornado analogy that made
me really interested. So I imagine you could sort of
frame that up for the listeners, right, sure, if.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You can kind of reimagine what was going on in
that movie. Dorothy was basically a fifty five gallon drum
and it was full of small sensors and a shape
of balls, and the object was to spill it in
front of a tornado, and the tornado then would ingest
(01:41):
those sensors, and then if you recall on the computer
screen in front of one of the data analysts, sat,
if you will, a new vision of a tornado. So
we really are incorporating that same concept in what we do.
(02:01):
We basically are all about making things visible, and the
way that we do that is that we take assets
and make them intelligent. So we act like Dorothy, if
you will. Only the assets in this case are reusable containers.
They are trucks, they are people, they are cars that
(02:23):
have just been created at an automobile manufacturer. They're parts
on the road. They're about anything that you can imagine
that's mobile, and we use technology to make them intelligent
so that we can watch them, okay, and then we
share that intelligence with our clients. So our clients really
only ask one question, right, it's pretty simple, where's my stuff? Okay,
(02:49):
that's what started.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Us artificial intelligence for supply chain logistics. I think that
maybe ten fifteen years ago, people didn't have as much
of an appreciation for logistics and a supply chain as
they did since a the pandemic, and now you heard
a lot about supply chain issues, right and now. Of course,
with everybody getting things delivered quite often, people want to
(03:11):
know and that sounds to me, if I'm reading you
or hearing you correctly, that that's what your company does.
It takes all these data points from all the different
trucks and manufacturers and helps to identify a problem or
a solution for supply chain issues.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right. Well, that's absolutely true, and you're right. First of all,
logistics has always been a cost that no one wants
to pay. Secondly, in the past, supply chain has been
a very responsive industry where people want to know and
(03:46):
they assume they know where things are. But generally speaking,
practitioners in supply chain are very reactionary. They're really unsung
heroes in a lot of ways because nobody really knows
where things are, so they're always on the phone going
where's my truck. What's in it? Right? You say it's
(04:07):
in the warehouse, but we can't find it. All those
things happen every day.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So that's really the problem that we solve, is that
we if you will dissect a supply chain, we look
at where everything is moving. Then we associate intelligence to
those transactions. Wow, and we answer the question where's my stuff?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And you founded this company at a kitchen table in
North Campton, Ohio. And tell me about how your background
led you to that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Most of it was accidental. There's a couple of things
that I learned along the way.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
One is that when you build a business case for anything,
whether it's to launch company or a new product or
whatever it might be, it's a great plan. Most of
the time, that's not actually what happens.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Okay, Yeah, life kicks in.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So we're around a kitchen table, and my ambition was
to find five of the smartest people in the world
that could approach supply chain with me, which back in
the day was a new term. People didn't quite understand
what it was all about.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
In two thousand and four, there really weren't even smartphones.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, that's think about that a little bit, which is
hard to believe, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So we decided that supply chain was indeed going to
be important. We wanted to get in the middle of it.
And then as we progressed through the planning, we said,
we've got an idea, let's find some mid cap companies,
start working, fine, tune our plan, and then grow right.
(05:55):
Our first client was the Tempkin Company, then Alcoa, then
four then best Buy and we haven't found a mid
cap company yet.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
There's some pretty blue chief companies right there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
My goodness, Wow, very blessed and all of that success
happening in northeast Ohio. We're talking with Bill Woppler, CEO,
founder of surge Are, and you're hearing a lot about
supply chain in terms of things that make sense to
people in their quote everyday lives, where's my t shirts?
Where's the soap that I ordered? But it's also really
(06:26):
critical infrastructure like hospital supplies is getting delivered by supply
chains too. Can you talk a little bit about how
your company has helped solve some of those problems, What
things that have you've brought to the table that people
should be thinking about if they're not already thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sure. And that's now where we start to get a
little more complex. So there are technologies that are in
the industry today that use everything from RFID right, which
is a radio wave right that connects us and our
(07:00):
software to those intelligent assets. So you can put a
tag on something and we've all seen this before, right
when we walk out the door in a clothing store
and they forgot to take the tag off and everything's
going off. That is an RFID tag.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think of the number in a race like a
ten K as an RFID that's all right, And that's
how they're tracking your timeever you bet it okay.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or the chips that they put on your shoe when
you're about to start off, same thing, you step over
a reader, it energizes that tag and they know that
you cross that line. Understood, Yes, same thing, only we
have about fifty million of them in place today. All right,
We're getting about fifteen billion transactions a month that then
(07:50):
our software analyzes. And one of the things that we believe,
if I extend this just a moment, is yes, do
automotive companies like Honda and Toyota and Mazda and hundreds
of their suppliers count on us every day to know
where things are. Are my parts? There? Are they coming?
(08:14):
Can I build what I have planned for the day.
All those kind of things take place because we tell
them where they are. Our dream, however, if I can
share that is that food banks throw away about two
hundred and eighty million tons of food a year in
North America. Now that's simply because it doesn't get distributed
(08:39):
to the people that need it in a short amount
of times, if you will, it spoils before it gets
to their home. So our dream is to take not
only our technology and be servants, if you will, to
the industrial community, we're also needing to be servants to humanity. Wow.
(09:02):
So we're working, as an example with Northeast Ohio Food
Bank to work out a process that we can deploy
our technology and in fact start making sure that first
in is delivered, first out those types of things, right,
and you can do that with our technology.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You know, that's really important when you think about a
the company's values, but B when people get scared of technology.
They're scared that quote robots are going to replace them
or AI is going to take over. When you think
about AI and those uses, the ability to keep hundreds
of tons of food from spoiling and it gets to
(09:43):
needy kids.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Then you think, wow, what a great use of the technology.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, it sounds like that's where your company's headed. How
large have you become because of the work you're doing
in this industry? And was it beyond your wildest expectations?
I mean, some of the companies you're talking about never
having a mid cap company. Talk a little bit about
your company and did you grow organically? Was it just
(10:08):
great work? Talk a little bit about your team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, first of all, it was not planned. Who we
are today doesn't resemble the five people around my kitchen
table twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, we were doing
a pretty decent job. To be honest with you, I
was at the time being asked to give a lot
of speeches on what supplied chain is and where it's
(10:32):
going to go. And we happened to have been heard
by folks at Whirlpool and they approached and said, well,
we want you to do what you're talking about, come
to all of our plants and move us away from
corrugated containers to reusable plastic containers. We love the concession
(10:56):
because sustainable right, great for the planet. And it's also
really good to transport product in safer And so as
we started doing that, Whirlpool came and said, oh yeah,
well we also want you to deliver fifteen million dollars
worth of reusable containers to get this program started. Okay,
(11:20):
great Key Bank right here in town. Sure funded that
with us. Key Bank and Whirlpool said, we're all about it.
Let's go except their mobile And how are we going
to lease something that is going to be in Iowa
one day, Michigan another day, maybe Kentucky or Tennessee another day.
(11:44):
So Worldpool and Key literally forced us into technology, okay,
and that's what launched the IoT part of our company,
where we had to find ways to track product because
we had to make sure that we could fulfill the
obligations of that lease. And then Honda heard about it,
(12:07):
and then Toyota heard about it. Then a lot of
you know, as I said before, we've been very, very fortunate.
A lot of others are hearing about it too.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well fortunate, but also you're obviously delivering a good product
and you've got great people. One of the things I
wanted to touch on is that you're proud to be
a veteran owned business, right, and that is something that
means a lot to people in Northeast Ohio across the country.
How's that impacted how you grew and how you've helped
the community there?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Wow? I will share something very briefly with you. It
was fifty years ago this week that I left South Vietnam. Wow.
That tells you how old I am.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well, but you look fantastic.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So the message I would deliver in being a veteran
known business is that some of those less from that
time remain. You know the strength of a team, you
know commitment, you understand grit, Right, it's prolonged perseverance, it's
hard work. Those attributes of being a veteran come along
(13:17):
and become decidedly part of our culture because that's some
of the lessons we want to bring. It also happens
to be why we're in Ohio. Those lessons also are
very Midwest US, like right, right, you work hard, you
understand that you don't quit till it's done. All those
(13:38):
same kinds of attributes exist right here, which is why
we didn't move to Atlanta or the coasts or Charlotte.
It was literally because of that.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Well, we're glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You know. Bill Woppler, CEO of serge Ay. We're recording
this podcast middle of April of twenty twenty five. Tariffs
conversations about them have really disrupted a lot of industries.
My supposition is the supply chain industry dramatically. Can you
(14:11):
talk a little bit about where the heck things are going,
what's going to be happening the next year.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
How can you guys help.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
That's a pretty loaded question, but give us an overview
of what we're thinking. There's so much confusion and people
need answers.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, I have bad news for you because I have
the same level of uncertainty that everyone else does. I wish,
as do all of our clients, that there was at
least some guiding light out there that could tell us
where things are going. I haven't quite seen it yet.
(14:48):
I do know that all of our clients have teams
in place that are working through planning. They're looking at
other variations of where manufacturer, how to move product. All
of those things are going through a lot of people's
minds right now. The nature of the problem really isn't
(15:12):
whether people are going to manufacture in China today and
in the future in Mexico or wherever it might be.
That's really not the issue. The real issue is nobody knows. Yeah, okay,
what do we have to do to overcome the challenge?
For us? And I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, For us,
(15:34):
it's a big business driver because our clients need to
have our technology to make those changes and to adapt
to new locations. If they move from China to Mexico,
as an example, we're not tracking sea containers anymore to California.
(15:55):
We're tracking cross border traffic that are trucked. Lots of
different things change.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, let's say this conversations are so fascinating. The world's
definitely uncertainty creates interest, but I think also angst. And
you're sensing that a lot right now with our clients,
and you can you share with us as folks that
are listening to this podcast, CEOs, you should know we
talk a lot about leadership, which you've shared from your
(16:25):
time at Vietnam, but also entrepreneurship. You know how, what's
the one good piece of advice that you could give
someone who is sitting at their kitchen table now and
wondering what they're going to do for the next twenty years,
could you kind of share something that you thought of
and how you stayed grounded and not stressed out during
that time.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I was always stressed out, Okay, I remain stressed out.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's almost harder, to be honest with you, to manage
a very fast growth company than company that's moving it
two or three percent or just starting. The challenges today
are broader. We're doing business, you know, throughout Latin America, Europe,
We're landing in China. You know, we have an office
(17:15):
in Mexico. All of those things combined, plus new industries.
As you brought up before, we're doing business in the
pharmaceutical business now, and we are markedly different with a
lot more people. And that I will tell you is
the stressors are much higher than they were five people
(17:38):
around a table. But I would share this about being
an entrepreneur. First of all, it starts with a broken
strand of DNA. You have to be mentally ill to
want to start a small company because the failure rate
(17:59):
of small companies is just so enormously high. Yes, so
no sane person would jump into that swimming pool. Yeah,
and the water's deep, right, And so the first thing
I think you have to do is to have somebody
that is the number nine person, or you know, in
(18:20):
the Israeli Masad, one of the things they do if
everybody in the room agrees, they select one person the
ninth person, and that person has to disagree. They have
to have an argument just so that it grounds everybody
and forces them to debate the decision.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think that's a brilliant way to think about entrepreneurialism too,
because you're not going to be the ninth person.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Wow, but you need the ninth person right for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So the first thing I would suggest to a new
entrepreneur is to find your ninth person. I think that
the second thing you should do is understand that you're
going to be challenged financially as well as all of
your The knowledge and expertise you bring to that new
(19:12):
company will be challenged far beyond anything that you imagine,
so you have to keep learning. And then lastly, I
would say that our growth has been dependent on working
very very hard to know what our clients want. As
I said, we're not anywhere near what we started. As
(19:34):
you know, we moved to an IoT company because of Whirlpool.
Then we moved to a software company because of Johnson Controls. Right,
we're an AI company now because if we're creating fifteen
billion transactions a month, that's too much for people to synthesize,
then analyze, and then take action. It's just too big.
(19:57):
So we created an AI with our software simply to
be like a coworker. You can imagine an AI coworker
sitting next to you thinking about all of those sensors
that flew up into the tornado, right, and rather than
you succumbing to that pressure, AI is there to help
(20:21):
you through your day. So now that's almost defining us.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Bill, this has been a fascinating conversation and great advice,
some of the best advice I've heard on CEOs.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You should know. Look for that ninth person.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And for those of you listening today and you're interested
in Sirgair, it might be a great company for you
to join, or it might be a great company for
you to consider, right.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Bill will take all comers.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
There you go, Well, I think you're enjoying this conversation
as much as I am. This is CEOs you should know.
Bill Woppler, CEO, founder of surgea air here in northeast Ohio.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Bill, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was great to join you.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Thank you for your time, and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.
You should know today's show was produced by Bob coatesaid,
I'm Keith Hotchkiss.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
We'll see you next time.
This is our radio CEOs you should know, and I'm
Keith Hoskins. Today our special guest Bill Woppler, CEO, founder
of Sir Jair, an AI technology company. AI is course
one of the most important words or letters in the
English language today, and many of you listening may or
may not be familiar with what the heck AI and
technology even is. When we first got in the studio
(00:23):
this morning, Bill said, how familiar are you with technology?
And I said, let's keep it at an elementary school
level today, So Bill, welcome, thanks for joining us. Tell
us first a little bit about Sir Jair and exactly
what it is you guys do.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well. First, let me say that it's a pleasure to
be with you.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I will explain a little bit about what we do,
but I'd also like to say that we're very unique
in that we're an Ohio company, and to be an
AI founded technology is fairly unique in these parts for sure,
and it's a pleasure to kind of get together and
(01:03):
talk about where the industry's going. So I'm really looking
forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Right You mentioned that your company, and as I jump
in here, you talk about the Tornado analogy that made
me really interested. So I imagine you could sort of
frame that up for the listeners, right, sure, if.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You can kind of reimagine what was going on in
that movie. Dorothy was basically a fifty five gallon drum
and it was full of small sensors and a shape
of balls, and the object was to spill it in
front of a tornado, and the tornado then would ingest
(01:41):
those sensors, and then if you recall on the computer
screen in front of one of the data analysts, sat,
if you will, a new vision of a tornado. So
we really are incorporating that same concept in what we do.
(02:01):
We basically are all about making things visible, and the
way that we do that is that we take assets
and make them intelligent. So we act like Dorothy, if
you will. Only the assets in this case are reusable containers.
They are trucks, they are people, they are cars that
(02:23):
have just been created at an automobile manufacturer. They're parts
on the road. They're about anything that you can imagine
that's mobile, and we use technology to make them intelligent
so that we can watch them, okay, and then we
share that intelligence with our clients. So our clients really
only ask one question, right, it's pretty simple, where's my stuff? Okay,
(02:49):
that's what started.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Us artificial intelligence for supply chain logistics. I think that
maybe ten fifteen years ago, people didn't have as much
of an appreciation for logistics and a supply chain as
they did since a the pandemic, and now you heard
a lot about supply chain issues, right and now. Of course,
with everybody getting things delivered quite often, people want to
(03:11):
know and that sounds to me, if I'm reading you
or hearing you correctly, that that's what your company does.
It takes all these data points from all the different
trucks and manufacturers and helps to identify a problem or
a solution for supply chain issues.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right. Well, that's absolutely true, and you're right. First of all,
logistics has always been a cost that no one wants
to pay. Secondly, in the past, supply chain has been
a very responsive industry where people want to know and
(03:46):
they assume they know where things are. But generally speaking,
practitioners in supply chain are very reactionary. They're really unsung
heroes in a lot of ways because nobody really knows
where things are, so they're always on the phone going
where's my truck. What's in it? Right? You say it's
(04:07):
in the warehouse, but we can't find it. All those
things happen every day.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So that's really the problem that we solve, is that
we if you will dissect a supply chain, we look
at where everything is moving. Then we associate intelligence to
those transactions. Wow, and we answer the question where's my stuff?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And you founded this company at a kitchen table in
North Campton, Ohio. And tell me about how your background
led you to that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Most of it was accidental. There's a couple of things
that I learned along the way.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
One is that when you build a business case for anything,
whether it's to launch company or a new product or
whatever it might be, it's a great plan. Most of
the time, that's not actually what happens.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Okay, Yeah, life kicks in.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So we're around a kitchen table, and my ambition was
to find five of the smartest people in the world
that could approach supply chain with me, which back in
the day was a new term. People didn't quite understand
what it was all about.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
In two thousand and four, there really weren't even smartphones.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, that's think about that a little bit, which is
hard to believe, I know.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So we decided that supply chain was indeed going to
be important. We wanted to get in the middle of it.
And then as we progressed through the planning, we said,
we've got an idea, let's find some mid cap companies,
start working, fine, tune our plan, and then grow right.
(05:55):
Our first client was the Tempkin Company, then Alcoa, then
four then best Buy and we haven't found a mid
cap company yet.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
There's some pretty blue chief companies right there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
My goodness, Wow, very blessed and all of that success
happening in northeast Ohio. We're talking with Bill Woppler, CEO,
founder of surge Are, and you're hearing a lot about
supply chain in terms of things that make sense to
people in their quote everyday lives, where's my t shirts?
Where's the soap that I ordered? But it's also really
(06:26):
critical infrastructure like hospital supplies is getting delivered by supply
chains too. Can you talk a little bit about how
your company has helped solve some of those problems, What
things that have you've brought to the table that people
should be thinking about if they're not already thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sure. And that's now where we start to get a
little more complex. So there are technologies that are in
the industry today that use everything from RFID right, which
is a radio wave right that connects us and our
(07:00):
software to those intelligent assets. So you can put a
tag on something and we've all seen this before, right
when we walk out the door in a clothing store
and they forgot to take the tag off and everything's
going off. That is an RFID tag.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think of the number in a race like a
ten K as an RFID that's all right, And that's
how they're tracking your timeever you bet it okay.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Or the chips that they put on your shoe when
you're about to start off, same thing, you step over
a reader, it energizes that tag and they know that
you cross that line. Understood, Yes, same thing, only we
have about fifty million of them in place today. All right,
We're getting about fifteen billion transactions a month that then
(07:50):
our software analyzes. And one of the things that we believe,
if I extend this just a moment, is yes, do
automotive companies like Honda and Toyota and Mazda and hundreds
of their suppliers count on us every day to know
where things are. Are my parts? There? Are they coming?
(08:14):
Can I build what I have planned for the day.
All those kind of things take place because we tell
them where they are. Our dream, however, if I can
share that is that food banks throw away about two
hundred and eighty million tons of food a year in
North America. Now that's simply because it doesn't get distributed
(08:39):
to the people that need it in a short amount
of times, if you will, it spoils before it gets
to their home. So our dream is to take not
only our technology and be servants, if you will, to
the industrial community, we're also needing to be servants to humanity. Wow.
(09:02):
So we're working, as an example with Northeast Ohio Food
Bank to work out a process that we can deploy
our technology and in fact start making sure that first
in is delivered, first out those types of things, right,
and you can do that with our technology.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You know, that's really important when you think about a
the company's values, but B when people get scared of technology.
They're scared that quote robots are going to replace them
or AI is going to take over. When you think
about AI and those uses, the ability to keep hundreds
of tons of food from spoiling and it gets to
(09:43):
needy kids.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Then you think, wow, what a great use of the technology.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, it sounds like that's where your company's headed. How
large have you become because of the work you're doing
in this industry? And was it beyond your wildest expectations?
I mean, some of the companies you're talking about never
having a mid cap company. Talk a little bit about
your company and did you grow organically? Was it just
(10:08):
great work? Talk a little bit about your team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, first of all, it was not planned. Who we
are today doesn't resemble the five people around my kitchen
table twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, we were doing
a pretty decent job. To be honest with you, I
was at the time being asked to give a lot
of speeches on what supplied chain is and where it's
(10:32):
going to go. And we happened to have been heard
by folks at Whirlpool and they approached and said, well,
we want you to do what you're talking about, come
to all of our plants and move us away from
corrugated containers to reusable plastic containers. We love the concession
(10:56):
because sustainable right, great for the planet. And it's also
really good to transport product in safer And so as
we started doing that, Whirlpool came and said, oh yeah,
well we also want you to deliver fifteen million dollars
worth of reusable containers to get this program started. Okay,
(11:20):
great Key Bank right here in town. Sure funded that
with us. Key Bank and Whirlpool said, we're all about it.
Let's go except their mobile And how are we going
to lease something that is going to be in Iowa
one day, Michigan another day, maybe Kentucky or Tennessee another day.
(11:44):
So Worldpool and Key literally forced us into technology, okay,
and that's what launched the IoT part of our company,
where we had to find ways to track product because
we had to make sure that we could fulfill the
obligations of that lease. And then Honda heard about it,
(12:07):
and then Toyota heard about it. Then a lot of
you know, as I said before, we've been very, very fortunate.
A lot of others are hearing about it too.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well fortunate, but also you're obviously delivering a good product
and you've got great people. One of the things I
wanted to touch on is that you're proud to be
a veteran owned business, right, and that is something that
means a lot to people in Northeast Ohio across the country.
How's that impacted how you grew and how you've helped
the community there?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Wow? I will share something very briefly with you. It
was fifty years ago this week that I left South Vietnam. Wow.
That tells you how old I am.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Well, but you look fantastic.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So the message I would deliver in being a veteran
known business is that some of those less from that
time remain. You know the strength of a team, you
know commitment, you understand grit, Right, it's prolonged perseverance, it's
hard work. Those attributes of being a veteran come along
(13:17):
and become decidedly part of our culture because that's some
of the lessons we want to bring. It also happens
to be why we're in Ohio. Those lessons also are
very Midwest US, like right, right, you work hard, you
understand that you don't quit till it's done. All those
(13:38):
same kinds of attributes exist right here, which is why
we didn't move to Atlanta or the coasts or Charlotte.
It was literally because of that.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Well, we're glad you're here.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You know. Bill Woppler, CEO of serge Ay. We're recording
this podcast middle of April of twenty twenty five. Tariffs
conversations about them have really disrupted a lot of industries.
My supposition is the supply chain industry dramatically. Can you
(14:11):
talk a little bit about where the heck things are going,
what's going to be happening the next year.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
How can you guys help.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
That's a pretty loaded question, but give us an overview
of what we're thinking. There's so much confusion and people
need answers.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, I have bad news for you because I have
the same level of uncertainty that everyone else does. I wish,
as do all of our clients, that there was at
least some guiding light out there that could tell us
where things are going. I haven't quite seen it yet.
(14:48):
I do know that all of our clients have teams
in place that are working through planning. They're looking at
other variations of where manufacturer, how to move product. All
of those things are going through a lot of people's
minds right now. The nature of the problem really isn't
(15:12):
whether people are going to manufacture in China today and
in the future in Mexico or wherever it might be.
That's really not the issue. The real issue is nobody knows. Yeah, okay,
what do we have to do to overcome the challenge?
For us? And I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, For us,
(15:34):
it's a big business driver because our clients need to
have our technology to make those changes and to adapt
to new locations. If they move from China to Mexico,
as an example, we're not tracking sea containers anymore to California.
(15:55):
We're tracking cross border traffic that are trucked. Lots of
different things change.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, let's say this conversations are so fascinating. The world's
definitely uncertainty creates interest, but I think also angst. And
you're sensing that a lot right now with our clients,
and you can you share with us as folks that
are listening to this podcast, CEOs, you should know we
talk a lot about leadership, which you've shared from your
(16:25):
time at Vietnam, but also entrepreneurship. You know how, what's
the one good piece of advice that you could give
someone who is sitting at their kitchen table now and
wondering what they're going to do for the next twenty years,
could you kind of share something that you thought of
and how you stayed grounded and not stressed out during
that time.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I was always stressed out, Okay, I remain stressed out.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's almost harder, to be honest with you, to manage
a very fast growth company than company that's moving it
two or three percent or just starting. The challenges today
are broader. We're doing business, you know, throughout Latin America, Europe,
We're landing in China. You know, we have an office
(17:15):
in Mexico. All of those things combined, plus new industries.
As you brought up before, we're doing business in the
pharmaceutical business now, and we are markedly different with a
lot more people. And that I will tell you is
the stressors are much higher than they were five people
(17:38):
around a table. But I would share this about being
an entrepreneur. First of all, it starts with a broken
strand of DNA. You have to be mentally ill to
want to start a small company because the failure rate
(17:59):
of small companies is just so enormously high. Yes, so
no sane person would jump into that swimming pool. Yeah,
and the water's deep, right, And so the first thing
I think you have to do is to have somebody
that is the number nine person, or you know, in
(18:20):
the Israeli Masad, one of the things they do if
everybody in the room agrees, they select one person the
ninth person, and that person has to disagree. They have
to have an argument just so that it grounds everybody
and forces them to debate the decision.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think that's a brilliant way to think about entrepreneurialism too,
because you're not going to be the ninth person.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Wow, but you need the ninth person right for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So the first thing I would suggest to a new
entrepreneur is to find your ninth person. I think that
the second thing you should do is understand that you're
going to be challenged financially as well as all of
your The knowledge and expertise you bring to that new
(19:12):
company will be challenged far beyond anything that you imagine,
so you have to keep learning. And then lastly, I
would say that our growth has been dependent on working
very very hard to know what our clients want. As
I said, we're not anywhere near what we started. As
(19:34):
you know, we moved to an IoT company because of Whirlpool.
Then we moved to a software company because of Johnson Controls. Right,
we're an AI company now because if we're creating fifteen
billion transactions a month, that's too much for people to synthesize,
then analyze, and then take action. It's just too big.
(19:57):
So we created an AI with our software simply to
be like a coworker. You can imagine an AI coworker
sitting next to you thinking about all of those sensors
that flew up into the tornado, right, and rather than
you succumbing to that pressure, AI is there to help
(20:21):
you through your day. So now that's almost defining us.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Bill, this has been a fascinating conversation and great advice,
some of the best advice I've heard on CEOs.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You should know. Look for that ninth person.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And for those of you listening today and you're interested
in Sirgair, it might be a great company for you
to join, or it might be a great company for
you to consider, right.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Bill will take all comers.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
There you go, Well, I think you're enjoying this conversation
as much as I am. This is CEOs you should know.
Bill Woppler, CEO, founder of surgea air here in northeast Ohio.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Bill, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was great to join you.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Thank you for your time, and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.
You should know today's show was produced by Bob coatesaid,
I'm Keith Hotchkiss.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
We'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.