Shownotes
The Path to Success: "You just have to be open to all different kinds of experiences and choices that you make, because you don't know how those puzzle pieces come together in the end to paint you a really beautiful picture."
Julie Smith and Glenn Harper welcome the multifaceted entrepreneur Kerim Kfuri. From his family's immigrant background to navigating and excelling in various fields, Kfuri shares his extraordinary story of adaptability, cultural exchange, and relentless pursuit of success.
Kerim, cohost of the "Supply and Demand Show" on YouTube, founder of Global Crosswalk, and president of the Atlas Network, recounts his versatile career—from early entrepreneurial ventures like selling blueberries and custom shirts to pioneering dot-com initiatives and shifting into regulatory roles at Warner Brothers Records and the SEC.
With a background rich in finance, marketing, and international business, Kfuri reveals how he's continued to evolve alongside industry changes and chased his entrepreneurial passion, even picking up multiple languages along the way.
Throughout this conversation, Kfuri discusses the importance of human interactions, balancing differences in partnerships, and staying open to unplanned opportunities.
With heartfelt reflections on his family's influence, educational pursuits, and unique career paths, Kfuri offers profound insights into the entrepreneurial spirit and the constant drive to make a meaningful impact.
Empowering Moments
03:35 Entered supply chain via finance and experiences.
07:57 Adapting involves learning language, exchanging cultures.
09:52 Family business shaped by immigrant experience and work.
13:08 Created misterproducer.com: music industry B2B platform.
17:13 Ambition to leave a lasting impact.
20:40 Entrepreneurial leaders must self-motivate and self-regulate.
23:31 Casual encounters deepen human connections in society.
27:51 Loved science, realized medicine wasn't right fit.
31:49 "Industry shifted, aiming for audience-driven monetization."
32:38 IPO flop led to career in business law.
36:39 Supply chain management: supplier selection to delivery.
40:25 Global supply chain lacks regulatory best practices.
44:28 End game: Make impactful contributions towards goals.
46:25 Atlasnetwork.com, kareemkafuri.com, supplychainupsanddowns.com.
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Empowering Takeaways
Adapting and Language Learning: Embrace the necessity of adapting and learning new languages when moving to a new country. This effort not only facilitates communication but also fosters cultural exchange and personal growth.
Cultural and Family Influence: Your family's work ethic and cultural background play a significant role in shaping your entrepreneurial mindset. Kerim’s immigrant background and family support were foundational to his development.
Early Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial spirit can start young. Kerim's experiences selling blueberries and custom shirts as a child laid the groundwork for his future business ventures.
Market Adaptation: Entrepreneurship often requires pivoting. The obsolescence of Kerim's dotcom venture due to market changes exemplified his ability to transition and adapt, eventually leading him into finance and business law.
Value of Interpersonal Interactions: Everyday human interactions, even those as mundane as conversations in a supermarket, can provide valuable insights and opportunities. We should remain open to unexpected sources of inspiration.
Continuous Learning: Lifelong learning and re-skilling are crucial for navigating career shifts and market changes. Kerim’s journey from a dot-com entrepreneur to a supply chain expert underscores the importance of continuous education.
Facing Academic Challenges: Leverage diverse academic and professional experiences—even failures. Kerim's withdrawal from an archaeology class and pivoting career paths serve as reminders to be flexible and resilient.
Work-Life Balance Support: Having a supportive partner and work-life balance is essential for sustaining entrepreneurial ventures. Kerim’s wife played a crucial role in encouraging him to pursue his passions.
Importance of Effective Communication: In entrepreneurship, effective communication is a vital skill that can be a superpower, enabling better negotiations, relationships, and operational clarity.
Defining Success and Impact: Focus on making a meaningful impact rather than achieving a definitive endgame. Kerim's drive to make a lasting difference in various arenas is a powerful motivator for ongoing engagement and success.
Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper & Company CPAs Plus, a top 10 Managing Partner in the country (Accounting Today's 2022 MP Elite). His firm won the 2021 Luca Award for Firm of the Year.
An entrepreneur and speaker, Glenn transformed his firm into an advisory-focused practice, doubling revenue and profit in two years. He teaches entrepreneurs to build financial and operational excellence, speaks nationwide to CPA firm owners about running their businesses like entrepreneurs, and consults with firms across the country. Glenn enjoys golfing, fishing, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.
Julie Smith, MBA, is a serial entrepreneur in the public accounting space. She is the Founder of EmpowerCPA™, Founder of PureTax, LLC, COO for Harper & Company CPAs Plus, and Co-host of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast.
Named CPA.com's 2021 Innovative Practitioner of Year, Julie led Harper & Company's transition to an advisory-focused firm, doubling revenue and profit in two years. She now empowers other CPA firm owners nationwide through consulting and speaking, teaching them how to run their businesses like entrepreneurs. Julie lives in Columbus, OH with her family and enjoys travel, coaching basketball, sporting events, and the occasional shopping spree.
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Transcripts
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I'm Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [:Julie Smith.
Kerim Kfuri [:What's going
Glenn Harper [:on, Julie? You look a little tired today.
Julie Smith [:I'm very tired with a big event yesterday, and, you know, I'm not used to talking so much.
Glenn Harper [:There is nothing better than talking, especially when people listen, which is half the fun.
Kerim Kfuri [:Well, I
Julie Smith [:don't know if that's the case.
Glenn Harper [:But Yes. Well, we've got a a great guest today. We've got Karim Khafuri, and he is the cohost of the Supply and Demand Show on YouTube, president and founder of the Global Crosswalk, a SaaS solutions platform to supply for the supply chain industry, and president of the atlet Atlas Network. Prem seems to have a panache for figuring out the fastest, most efficient way to get goods from point a to their final destination With a background in finance, marketing, and international business, working with big companies in a consulting role as well dealing with complex regulations in NASD and FINRA, Karim's journey is long and complex. He is the authority in the room wherever the term logistics supply chain conversation comes up and is emphasized by being mentioned in many of publications. We will find out a bit from this guy if he ever turns off this passion for logistics and engages in other passions. Hey, Karim. How are you today?
Kerim Kfuri [:Good. Thank you so much. What what an intro. I I I need to take you on the road with me and have to be hyped, man. That was that was great.
Glenn Harper [:I watched too much Price is Right as a kid. I don't know. It's maybe that's it.
Kerim Kfuri [:No. I real I really do appreciate you all having me here on the on the show. And, as you said, you know, I have a podcast called the Supply and Demand Show. So I'm I'm in your seat oftentimes interviewing guests as well, and and I, I do appreciate the chat. So
Glenn Harper [:Awesome. Well, you know, we try to get a little bit to know our guests. This is, you know, we'd mostly rely on entrepreneurs to listen to this so they can understand what that journey is like. And, we just like to find the story from our from our guests. And for you, I guess the first question is, you're a vault. I can't find anything about you. I don't know where you're born. I don't know where you're raised.
Glenn Harper [:I think you live in New York right now. But, just elaborate. Where where were you born at?
Kerim Kfuri [:So I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. That's from my parents are both Lebanese and came over in the seventies. You know, there's unfortunately been a lot of conflict in that part of the world for 1000 of years, not just the last, you know, however many years. And even now, we we are hearing about a lot of the craziness that is in that part of the world. But, you know, they came over. My my father is a physician, and, was a OBGYN for many, many years and delivered thousands and thousands of babies. And I grew up in the Baltimore area. I, you know, went to school there, lived there, and went off to college in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Kerim Kfuri [:I went to Washington University in Saint Louis. Go Bears. And I I studied, you know, international business and marketing while I was there at the Olin School of Business and graduated from there and started a dotcom when I was young right out of school in the in the early 2000. Actually, late nineties, early 2000 when many other people were doing that, and that went for, you know, a year or 2 until everything blew up and the dotcom bubble burst as we all may have seen or or experienced and, went back to school and and and became a dotcom refugee as many people did. That's what we were called then. And, got my master's degree in business law and finance and and started focusing more on corporate governance and regulation. And that's where my career sort of took a different turn. I worked at, the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Office of international affairs.
Kerim Kfuri [:I was in at NASD FINRA and was really on the regulatory side of the financial industry. Fast forward to, you know, a trip or 2 to Asia and my passion for entrepreneurship and and business in general, I said, you know, there's a major gaping hole. And somehow in my mind between the education and experiences in international business and these regulatory experiences and what I saw in in Asia where ideas become reality, especially on the manufacturing side, I said, you know what? There's a big gaping hole right here where people, businesses, small, medium, and large wanna make things in this global economy, and there's not enough visibility. There's not enough transparency. There isn't really enough regulations. And so there's no recourse, and there is just nightmare stories when it comes to doing business cross border. And that was the beginnings of me starting my business, the Atlas network, you know, more than 20 years ago and and everything that's come thereafter. So I sort of fell into the supply chain industry through a myriad of different experiences, both, you know, cultural being, you know, well traveled, speaking many languages, and, you know, different business experiences.
Kerim Kfuri [:And then and then, as I said, some of these consulting and regulatory pieces that just came together for me naturally. And, I love what I do, and I try to help as many businesses as I can avoid expensive mistakes.
Glenn Harper [:So, you know, when you were growing up in Maryland, did you, did you guys speak what was the home language? You speak Lebanese or American? Or are you
Kerim Kfuri [:I grew up speaking I grew up speaking French first. Jeez. So in in Lebanon, they speak French, Arabic, and English. It's got, like, 98% literacy rate. I think it's one of the highest in the whole Middle East.
Glenn Harper [:Mhmm.
Kerim Kfuri [:So I I spoke French and then Arabic and then English. And so, you know, I think my parents, when they came over in the seventies, didn't know if they were gonna go back or not. You know? They they kinda came here, and they were working and and figuring things out. And what was, you know, the beginnings of a civil war turned into 15 years until they could even go back to go see their families. So by that time, you know, we were living here, and and it was you know, life had to move forward. You had kids. They had to get an education, and off to the races, we were. But for the first, you know, couple of years, it was, you know, French and Arabic and not so much English.
Kerim Kfuri [:And that's why I started school about a year late because, you know, I didn't know what they were talking about in the class. Imagine. Imagine. So so yeah. But, you know, I speak, I speak those languages, and then through time, picked up a few others, like Spanish and a little Chinese and some Japanese and some other things that I just sorta tend to pick up when I do different
Julie Smith [:things. What do you mean just pick up? Like, you you had a trip and you went someplace and
Kerim Kfuri [:Well, the the Spanish speak
Julie Smith [:the language?
Kerim Kfuri [:The Spanish started because I was going to Spanish speaking countries, and I said, I really need to know Spanish. And because of the fact that Spanish is a romance language, it's very connected to, you know, obviously, Italian and to French and so on and so forth. I was able to pick that one up pretty pretty easy. And then, you know, obviously, traveling to Asia and doing so much work. I mean, I have 3 offices in China. I have my my teams over there and everything else. You know, you pick up, you know, certain words. I'm not gonna say all of them are good words.
Kerim Kfuri [:There may be some bad words in there.
Glenn Harper [:Why don't you mean something?
Kerim Kfuri [:You pick up words that are, important when you need to use them. And, so so, you know, that's just more fun things rather than just real linguistic education.
Glenn Harper [:I think that's one of the craziest things is, you know, most Americans, like, the I can't even speak English well, let alone other languages, but it seems like most people that are immigrants that come in, they're multilingual, like, whatever that is, and it's easy for them. Did you find it was easier, or is it just something like, I just really wanna learn it? Because, again, when you can start getting more than 3 languages, you you usually have a a skill set there.
Kerim Kfuri [:You know, I think I think that when people come from other countries, they feel as though it's a necessity to basically adapt. And in doing so, picking up the language is one of the key things to do that. I feel the same way when you travel to other countries. You know, we, as Americans, we have this idea that, hey. You know, everybody else should just speak English. But the reality of it is is that there's a there's a misconception on kind of the cultural exchange when you believe that or think that that should be the case. You know, when if you meet in the middle, that's where the culture is really you know, where everybody has a good information exchange, and you really grow and learn as a person, in my opinion. And I'll tell you a perfect example with Spanish back that we were just talking about Spanish.
Kerim Kfuri [:I remember going to Spain the first time, and I spoke no Spanish and what my experience was like. And then I had gone to Spain, let's call it a year later after I picked up more and became a little bit more fluent and conversational. Night and day experience. Doors open up for you. People wanna experience. They wanna know about what you're doing, who you are, this and the other. So there's this there's this balancing act where language really connects us, regardless of culture. And when you try to make those efforts, those go forward efforts, I think people really appreciate that.
Kerim Kfuri [:So, you know, that's my belief about
Glenn Harper [:that. I I feel that's talking to a lot of people that, you know, you just gotta at least try to speak the language, and people will help you out. And maybe not the French, they're kinda funny that way. But everybody else, if you at least try, they're like, okay, who's given an effort, we'll we'll work with them.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. I mean or or in the or in the worst case scenario, it's just like a funny joke. It's like, oh, you're trying. You're so cute. And Get out of here.
Glenn Harper [:Well, so when you're growing up, like so you're you're born here. Correct?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes.
Glenn Harper [:Baltimore? Okay. So growing up, did your mom work too or just your dad?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. So my you know, it's one of those, again, those those kinda immigrant type of stories where business becomes a family business. So my mom was, a health tech back in Lebanon, so she would draw blood and she was used to working with patients and things of that nature. So as my father did more and more with his practice and opened up some private practices for his, you know, for his, OBGYN practice, my mom helped run those offices with him and, you know, helped work with the staff and make sure things were going well and so forth, which made it interesting because we ended up being raised, me and my sister, by, you know, kind of a village. And the village was, you know, 2 grandmothers, you know, cousins that were around, and some uncles, and this, that, and the other, because my dad, as a OB GYN, basically, would sleep at the hospital. You know? If if a if a lady is gonna go into labor at 3 in the morning, you know, that's where you gotta be there. And so so I I really I didn't, unfortunately, see him as much as I would like to growing up because, you know, he was always working. But that also rubbed off, I think, from a work ethic standpoint onto me and why I understand this idea of working in the day and in the night because I saw that growing up as a kid.
Kerim Kfuri [:And my mom was right there by his side, you know, helping in in all the ways she could too. So yeah. They they did they became a good a good team.
Julie Smith [:As a child, did you get to work at the office? Like, were you, you know, did you kinda get integrated into that family business, or did you ever do anything entrepreneurial growing up that, you know, would have been a foreshadow for what was to come?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes. So, I mean, never working in that business because of the sensitivity of, obviously, women and very private issues.
Julie Smith [:Well, I didn't know if you got to, like, you know, clean me off afterwards or, like, you Right. Do the shredding or whatever.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, you know, I definitely made it around around to the office now and again. And and, originally, I was thinking that I would maybe go towards medicine because that's what I knew, and my grandfather was also a doctor. So I was thinking that those were directions that I was gonna kinda go in. So I I had some immersive experiences where I'd go to the hospital to see my dad, or he would let me kind of walk some of the floors and have those experiences. But my real entrepreneurial side, started early, very early, probably 6, 7 years old.
Kerim Kfuri [:We had a blueberry bush that was that would produce just like bushels of blueberries. And I never forget, you know, just grabbing them and going to the side of the street. Like, kids have, like, a lemonade stand, and it was kinda like blueberries for sale. Right? And then I remember then later on, being into, you know, in the in the early nineties and and things getting into different kinds of clothings and, you know, you start looking more at, you know, what's cool and what you're interested in. And I remember, you know, buying a 100 shirts and having them press with my own logo and design to try to sell them in the mall. And, you know, this was, again, these beginnings of, you know, commerce and, you know, we're building a product here, and we're making it, and we're selling it, and, you know, trying to understand, supply and demand and customer needs. So yeah. I mean, it started with some of those kinds of fun experiences.
Kerim Kfuri [:My biggest my first big entrepreneurial venture was definitely the dotcom I created in the, in the late nineties, early 2000, which was called misterproducer.com. The idea of that was a business to business for the music industry. I've always been a music person, and so I was working for Warner Brothers Records as, like, an internship, and I saw all the fragmentation in that industry. And so I decided to create a a platform to try to help with communication between, artists and and venues and people who are trying to buy and sell, you know, musical equipment and music industry professionals, and there's there's many different entities, almost similar in many ways to the supply chain. Now there are many different entities that need to talk to each other. And so that was my first kind of really big entrepreneurial venture. I graduated early to actually start that dotcom, and, you know, we all wanted to we all wanted to take over the world at that time, and some of us did.
Glenn Harper [:Florida days. Florida days. You know what's funny? You're definitely on the side of this in the bell curve of just one of those entrepreneurs that just started young, but your, capacity to get things done and learn things is way on the other side of the spectrum, like languages, running businesses, and just insatiable appetite to do all these things. And it it wasn't focused on just, like, I'm gonna go do a job. It was like, I got all this other stuff I can do, which is kinda cool. And that is something that, again, I don't this would definitely be something genetic. Some people are just born with it, and some people kinda learn it. I don't wanna say you had an advantage because it sounds like you were just born with it, but you it's a it's a you're definitely a smart guy that can put all this stuff together and recognize that superpower early.
Kerim Kfuri [:You know, we're the we're the product of our experiences. You know? Absolutely. I believe so. I don't I wouldn't necessarily say it's a genetic thing. I think that we you really have to have different levels of exposures, different people in your life that come along and sort of say, hey. There's a mountain top up there, and you can climb to the top of that if you really want to. So I'm a big fan of mentorship. I had an uncle of mine who was like that.
Kerim Kfuri [:He was a person who really just believed that if you dreamed you could build this castle in the sky, it was just a matter of finding, you know, some bricks and some mortar and start building, and you'll you'll be there. You'll it'll make it'll it'll manifest itself from ideas into those realities. So I had that from a young age with with some good people around me. And and and, yeah, there is there is some background to it. I mean, the reality of it is is that the the Lebanese people are the Phoenicians. Right? The ancient traders of the of the old world created the alphabet. Right? Phonetics comes from the word Phoenicians. And so, you know, there is some of that there going on, but, you know, that that that only goes so far.
Kerim Kfuri [:You really gotta just as an entrepreneur, you gotta wrap both arms around it and go.
Glenn Harper [:So you
Julie Smith [:Well, so you were in college doing an internship at the Warner Brothers.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes.
Julie Smith [:And you decide to graduate earlydischarger.com.
Glenn Harper [:Correct. But before that, remember, he triple majored. Okay? We tripled majored in finance, marketing, and international business, and he decides to graduate early.
Julie Smith [:I'm tired. I'm telling you.
Kerim Kfuri [:It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. You started this one day. You said you were tired, and I was like, how far are we gonna go with this story?
Glenn Harper [:Yeah. You're making it.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes. There there's a lot of dynamics here. There's a lot of, you know, I just I don't know. I I guess I guess Do you
Julie Smith [:just have this internal thing? I think this is sometimes hard for other people to understand. Do you just wake up in the morning and you've got to get everything out of every day? Like, there's just this internal burning inside of you, just motivation, determination, or does it come from something else?
Kerim Kfuri [:I think it comes from I think that's exactly what it comes from. I think that all of us are here for a finite period of time. Right? We don't know how long it is. And there are some of us that their main ambition in life is to, like, leave a mark, to do something that is lasting even beyond who we all are. And I think that that's kind of what that's sort of my wiring over here. You know, I wake up with sort of a bigger goal and intention to to really make an impact. And and that could be an impact not just, you know, on others or on business. You know, it could be just in your own family, or it could be with your own health, or whatever it may be.
Kerim Kfuri [:But that I think is what is the driving force for me, to be impactful with the things that I do or choose to do in business or in life or in pursuits or whatever it may be. And, that's, I think, the foundation of how I'm wired. Other people have a different, pursuit, you know, to just appreciate every moment and take their time. Others want to have a a more simplistic, type of of way of living and existence that's based upon different balancing points and structures. There's nothing wrong or not right about it. Each one of us lives the life that we're gonna live and how we're wanting to live that makes us fulfilled and happy. For me, it is about making impacts wherever I can.
Glenn Harper [:When when did you decide or realize that you were going to move with purpose and intent and direction? Like, was that something that was
Julie Smith [:I think you said 6 or 7.
Kerim Kfuri [:Well, I
Glenn Harper [:think that was just but, I mean, selling some stuff. But, I mean, like, you're, like, I'm gonna take everything and put it in the day. What like, is that was it really that young?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Wow. It was that young. It was. And it was with again, it was with the same thing. You know, I remember perfect example, in playing sports. I played a lot of sports as a kid, basketball, tennis, you know, any kind of sport you could really think of. And I do remember that, you know, I was really good at tennis, and I loved basketball, but I wasn't good at basketball.
Kerim Kfuri [:So what did I end up doing? I ended up basically playing in the rain, in the snow, whatever moment I could to just play and play and play and play and play. And so I could really, really improve because my focus and goal, as you said, goal focused was to make the the teams in school. Like, to make those teams, which were really difficult, had a lot of great athletes, and it was it was a challenge to get in, especially coming from, you know, not a really good background in in this sport. And I just worked and worked and worked, and then, you know, I made it on all the teams. And that was just again, it was like there was a focus. There was a goal. I put it all into it, and and I I made it that dream a reality.
Julie Smith [:I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a really random question, but I promise there's an end to it. Okay. Popped in my head as you're you're describing this. Do you feel like growing up and maybe even now that you're kind of a loner?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because of the fact it doesn't mean that I don't have support around me. You know, I've
Julie Smith [:got Yeah. I don't mean that necessarily.
Kerim Kfuri [:I of course. But but and that's important too because, you know, you have to have the support of your family and your friends and other people to to have some levels of a benchmark. But, yes, you are when you are a true entrepreneur and a leader, an entrepreneurial leader right? There's a lot of entrepreneurs, but an entrepreneurial leader you're on your own island. You are on your own island. You basically have to wake up every day and be the cheerleader for yourself more than anyone else will be, and you are definitely the one who has to just, you know you know, pull up your pull up you know, roll up their sleeves and say, let's let's get to it, or, hey. You need to take a break right now because of the machine's broken. You can't help anything else or anyone else or do anything else. So there's this there's this push and pull and and sort of self regulation that you have to do as well.
Kerim Kfuri [:But, yeah, it's a good it's a very good question.
Julie Smith [:Well, I feel like you wake up and you're, you know, you're a little tunnel vision. Right? Like, you know what you wanna get out of your day. And so I think I would find that it would be tough to possibly have others that maybe don't have that same focus in your day day to day because you you're you've gotta keep going. Like, I I envision you on this mountain and, like, you've gotta go straight up to the top, and those people are loners. Right?
Glenn Harper [:You're so far ahead of everybody that they just can't even keep up.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Right? Yeah. And they
Glenn Harper [:don't even know where you're going because you're just going ahead. You don't give a f what anybody thinks. Right? I mean, you know what you wanna do, and you're just gonna do it, which is which is I do
Kerim Kfuri [:I do care what other people think, but I don't always take their advice.
Glenn Harper [:You know what you want, I guess. Yes. You go do it, and it's not their dream. It's your dream. It's But
Julie Smith [:I think you're probably you have enough EQ to know whose opinion or who you know, whatever the fact you say you care about what other people think to know what matters and what doesn't. I think you probably have a really great filter for noise, and you probably had that really early on to be able to have that kind of focus.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes. But at the same time too, this is where I believe sometimes your inspiration or your knowledge comes from those areas that you least expect. So if you live in a scenario with blinders on to say, I can filter out the noise as you sort of called it, then you may miss some of the most integral, points or or some really, key information or a unique philosophy that you would have never even thought to look at or or, or examine.
Julie Smith [:So a real life example of that?
Kerim Kfuri [:I mean, it's just it's just anything. I let me give you a perfect I mean, it's not I won't give you a real life example because I can't think of one off the bat, but I'll just I'll just paint one for you. Okay? If I go to the supermarket and I am, you know, buying something, you know, from, you know, someone who's at the cash register, let's say, and we end up engaging in a random conversation about whatever it may be, my attention and focus turns to that person. I don't know that person. I I don't value, devalue, or look at it in any other way other than the fact that it's a human interaction. And that in that human interaction, there's gonna be something of value that's gonna come about, even if it's a good morning, a good morning. And you say to yourself, wow. These are 2 human beings that are recognizing each other and basically, like, talking as, like, you know, as members of society.
Kerim Kfuri [:So I guess my what I'm trying to say is is that I think there are others that filter that stuff out. Those commonplace interactions and those kinds of dynamics with others because they may not find them valuable or they say, hey. It's not in my purview of what I'm trying to do today. But I try to tend to find all of those things that they have value.
Glenn Harper [:So I think what you're probably trying to say is what most entrepreneurs have to learn to do and is that the it is you have to be comfortable being in the uncomfortable, which is total chaos all the time. And you have to be aware of all these things happening, but you're gonna filter out what's good, what's bad, what's good, bad. But you don't like, I don't think I don't think you meant, like, shut it down, but just knowing how to filter the things that'll help you. But sometimes, and this happens to me all the time, You you it's a random thing, and you find out that that connection was probably one of the most best ones you ever had in your life. That you wouldn't think you'd have to go talk to this person or see this, and next thing you know, it's something incredible that you didn't realize. Right?
Kerim Kfuri [:And it's always those. Always though. Oh, it's always the unplanned that ends up working out the the the way that it had to work out.
Glenn Harper [:The randomness.
Kerim Kfuri [:Exactly. You're like, wow. If I hadn't stepped in this thing or I didn't drop that piece of paper, if I wasn't 5 minutes late or this all these little tiny dynamics, then this thing wouldn't have happened and that thing wouldn't have this, that, and the other. So, you know, we plan as much as we can, but we have to be open to whatever sort of is is manifesting in our direction.
Glenn Harper [:Love it. So how did you pick, Washington University? Like, how'd you say, well, I wanna go there? Is it some was just scholarship? Was it sports? Was it just
Kerim Kfuri [:that's a
Glenn Harper [:far away from home?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. So, basically, it was, to be honest with you, the best school I got into. I and I and I absolutely could not get into that school today. I think I think the last time I looked at it, it's a 4 point o and a 1600 GPA, and then you still don't even get in or something like that. So it was really, really hard then, and it was even harder now. And I you know, I've got a son who's, gonna be 16 years old, gonna start looking at these college applications in a couple years, and I don't envy these kids now. It's harder than ever to get into universities, these days. But, yeah, I went there.
Kerim Kfuri [:I loved it. It was just far enough to be, you know, away. It was called the Yale of the Midwest. They held the world's fair in the 1900. A lot of very famous, writers and and business people and mavericks came out of it. Anheuser Busch is based there. St. Louis, Missouri.
Kerim Kfuri [:So they were pretty lenient with the, the enjoyment of your college experience, let's call it, which was fun. And it was just it was a great it was a really great place. St. Louis was kinda like a sister city to Baltimore, like, where I grew up. So I was like, hey. You know? So they're like, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Baltimore, like, the same city in, like, just, like, different places. At least I I sort of find that to be the case.
Kerim Kfuri [:So I I really enjoyed it down there. The the curriculum was very, very difficult. I went down there originally to do medicine, like I said, because the Washington University was the 3rd in the country with regards to kind of undergraduate medical, direction.
Glenn Harper [:At this point, you still were going for med school.
Kerim Kfuri [:Right? Originally.
Glenn Harper [:Wow. Okay.
Kerim Kfuri [:Originally. So I went down there thinking I was gonna do that. And then when I took chemistry and and the average was a 30 in the class, I was like, oh my god. This is gonna be horrible. And then the reality was that I love the science, but I didn't really think that I wanted to, not service of, you know, medical human care. I loved science, but not so much that aspect. So my mind started to change about what I really was doing there and what I really wanted to do because to be a doctor and be a good one, you have to really that's that's gotta be your main focus, which is the patients. And then
Julie Smith [:semester did you switch and still triple major?
Kerim Kfuri [:After the first.
Julie Smith [:Keep drinking more coffee.
Kerim Kfuri [:After the first. Okay.
Glenn Harper [:After the first.
Kerim Kfuri [:After the first, I basically said, I'm just like
Glenn Harper [:But it just hit you.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. It just hit me. And I had a couple little fun ones along the way too in college. I think all of us try the unique classes. I think the best one for me was archaeology because I loved Indiana Jones. Right. Okay. I was like, why not? You know? I I could do this.
Kerim Kfuri [:This would be great. And it was the hardest class I ever took in college. I actually had to withdraw from. I had to take a withdraw from it because I failed the first test, and and the second test, I was just on the pathway to failing. So when I spoke with this professor, and she was wonderful. She was a preeminent archaeologist in the industry and and so on. I said, you know, I really thought it was gonna be this. And she's like, you thought it was gonna be Indiana Jones? I said, yes.
Kerim Kfuri [:I did. Yes. I did.
Glenn Harper [:Where's all the adventure? I I don't and the romance. What do we digging rocks. Yeah.
Kerim Kfuri [:Nothing in a rocks.
Julie Smith [:Acting for the non major, and I had to, like, like, literally sway the person to give me an a because I thought, oh, I'm great at public speaking. How could this be terrible? Well, I'm not good at faking anything. So I understand where you're coming from.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. It was really hard to just kinda do that. And, you know, the the professor said, listen. You're just gonna take a withdrawal. It won't impact your GPA. It just means that you you paid for classes that you get no grades for. Easy peasy. I I was like, alright.
Kerim Kfuri [:As long as we're not having a real train wreck here. So, yeah. You know, I had I had that was that was interesting, but it's a great experience. I did sports, as I said, towards the tail end of my junior and senior year in high school because I played basketball and I could jump out of the gym, they were like, look. We want you to basically do high jump, triple jump, long jump, and hurdles. And I was pretty fast. So I said, alright. Let me give it a shot.
Kerim Kfuri [:And I ended up being really, really good at at high jump and, and and the field events. And that helped me. There was no, there was no, scholarships or anything like that in the application process as well to get to the to the university. So I went down there and and I, you know, was gonna do sports and looked around and said, they're not giving me any money and, you know How's it going then? This is Saint Louis, and I'm already here and, you know, am I really gonna do this and, you know.
Glenn Harper [:Were you a Fosbury flop kinda guy, or did you try to do it this way?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Fosbury flop for sure.
Glenn Harper [:Oh, make it happen. Well, you know, it's it's funny. And, again, we we get to see some really unique individuals that on their journey, what they do. And then for somebody that's entrepreneurs, motivated and trying to create and do things, all of a sudden you switch and say, well, I'm gonna go work for the for the agencies that from a private company standpoint, the great Satan, like, you're at FINRA. Like, you're squeezing me. I can't do anything because you're putting all these regulations on me. How did you switch from being a creator to an enforcer of regulation? Is this
Julie Smith [:Well, I wanna know what happened to the dotcom era.
Glenn Harper [:Oh, well, I mean And
Julie Smith [:then then we'll that'll lead us into that. So
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Sure. So, basically, in short, trying to catch a tiger by the tail would be the way to explain that. What I mean is is spent a year and a half to build this beautiful platform, and in that year and a half, the entire industry changed from a revenue model standpoint, right, where everybody was trying to make money on online advertising. And in the end, people just the model shifted towards just bring a bunch of a big population, and you can maybe do some subscription based models and do different kinds of economic metrics to essentially monetize in this space. And the goal of all of these, you know, .com entrepreneurs at the time was, we'll build it. They'll come. It'll get big.
Kerim Kfuri [:We'll do an IPO, although we have no money that we've made whatsoever, and everybody will cash out and will make 5 gazillion dollars. Well, by the time our platform was done and ready, that whole market had just dried out. And, you know, businesses were going out of business, and there really was nowhere to kind of go with it. So in the end, you had all these great people with great ideas and great technologies, but no business models. That was kind of the case for me and 1,000 and 1,000 and 1,000 of others. So, you know, again, when that happened, that was the moments where I had to kinda shift my direction and and think about what I really needed to focus in on, which was building up more of my financial acumen and business experiences. And and I got a master's degree, from American University in Business Law and Finance, and then did the whole pathway of, you know, SEC and the regulatory side and so forth, which was amazing experiences to work in those organizations, but at the same time, was not feeding my entrepreneurial fire in any way. So, you know, after a while, I just had to recognize that.
Kerim Kfuri [:And and my wife actually, you know, said, hey. Listen. You know, you're you're getting miserable here. You probably wanna go off and do what you really wanna do, so you just might as well go and do it. And that that was what I needed. I needed I needed that backup, that support back to your original, point that you had had before.
Julie Smith [:My curiosity, where did you meet your wife?
Kerim Kfuri [:Not not a straightforward story either. Not a straightforward story. Not.
Julie Smith [:I'm seeing a seeing a pattern here.
Glenn Harper [:She was checking out the grocery store. It's obvious. Yeah.
Kerim Kfuri [:Is that a We I was traveling I was traveling with my with my parents and my sister on a trip in Spain, and it was at the time, I don't even I think they still have these kinds of tour groups like ABC tours or Apple tours where you can you go to these countries and you have, let's say, 8 days. You take a bus all around the place. You you fly in. They give you all these hotel accommodations, and you just have a a really great experience where you see a country in in a period of time. So there was this, group that was called ABC tours at the time in the nineties. And, my parents and my sister and I went to Spain and Portugal, and my wife was with her family on the same trip. And we met. And we met on this trip, and we basically hit it off.
Kerim Kfuri [:And we're in different cities for the first kind of 3 to 4 years of our relationship and, you know, just stuck it out and continue to, you know, see each other, and and then, you know, we went from there. We just kinda grew our relationship from there. So, yeah, met met in in a different country.
Glenn Harper [:And That's crazy.
Julie Smith [:What does she do?
Kerim Kfuri [:My wife is, a New Yorker, and her background is in, you know, human resources. And she's worked for a lot of large scale law firms and and, and financial institutions, really, you know, hiring and and and doing a lot of, you know, HR related, talent related business and functions. So she's
Julie Smith [:just curious if you guys, you know, enter
Kerim Kfuri [:No. No. There's no. No. And and that there there's a big yin and a yang there. And that's and that's good. I think that that's an important thing. We're very different in those ways.
Kerim Kfuri [:But on the important things, we're in the same place. So that's that's good.
Glenn Harper [:So you're doing all these things, and then all of a sudden, this 2 by 4 hits you in the forehead, and you go, wait a minute. We gotta get some kinda format or, technology that can match up buyers and sellers, manufacturers, shippers? And, again, can you give, like, a less than a minute answer of logistics? It is a big term. What does it mean in your world? What is the base definition of logistics for the average listener? Because they would have no clue probably.
Kerim Kfuri [:Sure. So I'm gonna give you two terms. I'm gonna say supply chain management of which logistics is a part of that. Right? So my big work, my big business that I do is supply chain management, which is assisting, customers and and businesses to build, supply chains, which is supplier selection, prototyping, manufacturing, quality control, logistics, meaning shipping and transport, getting it from kind of point a to point b, delivery, warehousing, reordering. That whole entire life cycle that I just said, that is what we help businesses do that do not have the resources to do so. They don't have the knowledge to do so, the wherewithal, whatever you wanna say. Or we also even help companies that do have those capabilities, but have disruptions in their actual supply chain where they need better suppliers, better quality control, better, you know, sourcing and and procurement and logistics and everything else. Because breakdowns happen, you know, manufacturing capability shift.
Kerim Kfuri [:And this industry, more than anything else, is riddled with ups and downs. I mean, that's literally why I wrote the book, which I think you all know, which is supply chain ups and downs. That's my book. Is all about the chapter 1 is get ready for a bumpy ride because it's it's just completely, wrought with things that you can control with best practices, dotting i's, crossing g's, you know, measuring twice, cutting once, all this kind of, you know, foundational, support. But there are so many unknown variables that impact everything that we as consumers, when you don't see goods on the shelves anymore or prices skyrocket or students that are now studying this or business professionals that are hearing the word supply chain being thrown around need to know. You know, something happens in the political environment, supply chain can be impacted. There's a war somewhere. There's a natural resource squeeze.
Kerim Kfuri [:There's natural disasters. There's all kind all kinds of things that basically, you know, impact the consumer the global consumer economy. And this is this is the area that I write a lot about and I talk a lot about because I've been a practitioner of this for for several decades now, and, that's really where a lot of the thought leadership is coming from around the world of supply chain. Yeah.
Julie Smith [:So I I I'm the person over here who has to close the loop. Right? Like, I've got it's all gotta make sense to me. So explain to me you're working at FINRA. Yep. And your wife says, you know what? I can just tell you're you're not happy. You gotta go do your thing.
Glenn Harper [:Yep.
Julie Smith [:How do you get to this?
Kerim Kfuri [:So, basically, you have to run parallel tracks when you're an entrepreneur. I I am not a big fan of, let's just cut this thing off and go to this thing. So with that in mind, you know, in the last kind of years, I was in the corporate world. I started building this idea and building the methodology and started
Julie Smith [:But how did you come up with this idea? Like, I just and again, this is me just trying to, like, logically, rationally think through this. Like, all the things that you've done before, all those don't equal what like, what gave you that idea? What was your moment? What happened? What triggered you? What relationship made you go this route?
Kerim Kfuri [:Right. So, basically, it was a combination of all of those things that had come before, which was those educational experiences, my experiences at FINRA, and at the SEC, which was all about risk mitigation and all about kind of control matrices. So and and my previous experiences in technology, creating my .com, which was a communications based platform looking to communicate between entities that don't know how to talk to each other appropriately, going all the way back to just my global mindset as far as language and travel and who I am. And this all came together in a sort of, combination in my mind to say, this is an industry in global supply chain sourcing procurement that is broken. It's missing all of these regulatory best practices and mechanisms to really be able to be as successful as it can be. And who's having the problems and suffering because of that? Consumers do. Small to midsize businesses that have 2 pennies to rub together, they make some really bad decisions, and then they're just out of business entirely. And they're and that's what entrepreneurs look for.
Kerim Kfuri [:Right? They look for the problems, and then they try to create the solutions accordingly. And that was the the the beginnings of how I created my company and the technologies we've developed and the best practices and and all of the things that I've been doing for for a good time now. So it it always disjointed until it wasn't. It all kind of came together in this, you know, in this kind of combination, to be something unique and interesting. And that's what I hope that people can get out of, I guess, our conversation here, is that you may have very divergent, interests or goals. And in the end, they all could compile to end up being a synthesized path for you. You just don't see it or know it at the time. And that's why you just have to be open to all different kinds of experiences and and and and, choices that you make, because you don't know how those puzzle pieces come together in the end to paint you a really beautiful picture.
Kerim Kfuri [:And that's sort of how it came together for me.
Glenn Harper [:It's like, you're working, doing your thing, and you heard the soft knocking on this other door. And you're like, wonder what's in there. And they're like, here we are. Global entrepreneur that you are now. So, you know, as we try to figure this thing out as, as entrepreneurs, again, the journey is the fun part. Right? And how you get there and where you get and where you're at, you're at top of your game. You're doing the thing. You got, you know, businesses all over the all over the world.
Glenn Harper [:And here we are, and then Julie's gonna ask her coveted question of
Julie Smith [:Which one? Now you're putting me on
Glenn Harper [:the spot.
Julie Smith [:What is your superpower?
Kerim Kfuri [:Communication? That would be it. I think that I know how to speak, to people. I know how to resonate with different people. I understand the concept of know your audience. When I'm with certain people, I can speak in a particular way. When I'm in other places, I can speak in a different way. And I believe that that's the thread that connects us all, really. The ability to communicate effectively, and with purpose, when it matters and and with sensitivity in other cases.
Kerim Kfuri [:And and and so I think communication is my is my superpower, the the ability to communicate.
Glenn Harper [:I would agree with that.
Julie Smith [:It's a good answer. Let's see. Are you looking for my Yes.
Glenn Harper [:I'm looking for the final one.
Julie Smith [:My last and final question for you. It's the hardest. That's why we wait till the very end.
Kerim Kfuri [:It's a doozy.
Julie Smith [:So you don't hit, like, leave meeting.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes.
Julie Smith [:What is your end game?
Kerim Kfuri [:End game. We talked about it before, and and it is pretty vague. What it is is is to basically make an impact. And I'm making an impact in particular ways today. I don't know if it will be the same ways in the future, but my end game is to always make an impact with the things that I am doing and that I care about, to not really be the one that's sitting on the sidelines, but to be to be the one who's kind of pushing the boulder up the hill to towards an end. And and that that could be in the end to, you know, improve my golf score. I don't I don't know what it's gonna be or oh, I don't think it's gonna be that. I know that it won't be that for sure.
Kerim Kfuri [:But I I do I do believe that it's about, you know, making an impact with everything that I do.
Julie Smith [:You answered it perfectly because we already knew the answer. There is no end game for you. You have way too much determination, motivation, experience, and all those things that you will continue to do what you just described. It just depends in what arena.
Kerim Kfuri [:Yes. Correct. 100% true. And and, hopefully, I continue to find arenas that excite me and interest me. Because when I don't have that, then it's done.
Glenn Harper [:That's it. And and there it is, is it took so long to get here. Now you know most of the secrets, if not all, and you're constantly learning. Why would you stop now? It makes no sense. What are you gonna do at home? Just around, play golf? It'd be terrible. I mean, I love golf, but you can't do that. So I'm still making an impact, which is what it's all about. Well, tell you, we just can't appreciate you enough having you on the show.
Glenn Harper [:Lots of good nuggets on this one, and, we can't wait to, put this out there. If you wanna give a a couple plugs to a couple of your companies and where people can find you, that'd be awesome.
Kerim Kfuri [:Sure. I appreciate it. My main global supply chain solutions company is the atlasnetwork dotcom. For the thought leadership, philosophy and leadership, it would be at my personal website, which is kareemkafuri.com. And then if anybody's interested in my latest book that I just put out, it is supply chain ups and downs.com. And those are really the big ones. Other than that, I'm on LinkedIn and all the other kind of social stuff. So
Julie Smith [:We will make sure to get it all in the show notes too so our listeners can get there quickly and easily.
Glenn Harper [:Kareem, it's a pleasure having you on the show. Wish you the best, and, don't work too hard. I'm just kidding. Keep doing you're having too much fun. It's not even really work, to be honest, when you when you enjoy it. Correct?
Kerim Kfuri [:Yeah. Thank you so much. I really, appreciate it. Great questions. You know, really, we we dug in deep on this one. I
Glenn Harper [:love it.
Kerim Kfuri [:But but I really did. I really appreciated the time. Thank you all.
Glenn Harper [:I appreciate it. Thanks a million.
Kerim Kfuri [:Thanks, guys.
