Transcripts
I've emailed Gary Vee Mark Cuban, all these people.
Speaker:They've all replied to me.
Speaker:It's, it's literally that easy.
Speaker:I-
Speaker:Cold email
Speaker:When I first started, I spent hours just sitting in my high school
Speaker:classes just emailing people.
Speaker:Whenever you have time off, just email people.
Speaker:Simple emails like, "Hey, I'm a 3PL founder. Any advice? Like,
Speaker:what do you think I could do?"
Speaker:Welcome back to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:Family, I've missed you.
Speaker:It's been a minute.
Speaker:I am so excited though today.
Speaker:We have an incredible guest.
Speaker:Krushna Patel is here with us, and he is the guru go-to guy
Speaker:when it comes to everything 3PL.
Speaker:But also, just in general, he has a really cool story, y'all.
Speaker:He has … He's just done some really great things in terms of his career
Speaker:here in logistics and fulfillment.
Speaker:Really excited for you to learn from him today.
Speaker:So you know the drill.
Speaker:I'm Lori Boyer, your host, and we are gonna have a fun next 30 minutes to an
Speaker:hour talking with Krushna and learning all about 3PLs, and just getting you
Speaker:excited about the world of fulfillment.
Speaker:Krushna, welcome.
Speaker:Can you quickly, for our Unboxing Logistics family, introduce
Speaker:yourself and give us a little bit about your background?
Speaker:You don't have to go too far into it since we're gonna dive into that more deeply.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My name's Krushna.
Speaker:I'm the CEO of Awesome Solutions.
Speaker:And now I have to live up to your, your fabulous intro, so I appreciate that.
Speaker:I've been in ecommerce and fulfillment for, like, a decade plus.
Speaker:I started selling online when I was 13, so all my experience and everything I
Speaker:shed is, is stuff that I've actually done.
Speaker:Krushna, you seem to have had kind of this entrepreneur mindset since you
Speaker:were young, and you live it every day.
Speaker:So we're gonna talk about that, kind of what you've learned from the front lines.
Speaker:But first, before we even get started, one of the things that I love to do
Speaker:is I love to hear who have been kind of … Who's somebody who's been your
Speaker:mentor, or somebody that you've really admired in the industry, somebody that
Speaker:you've worked with or even just read about, and, and why did you like them?
Speaker:It's not industry specific, but Alex Hormozi been a, in a big part of me
Speaker:building up this, this company.
Speaker:I think a huge part of that is because I'm not a fan of, like, the, the the
Speaker:guru type of mindset business stuff, but I really like tactical knowledge.
Speaker:So like specific sales scripts, like how to clone better, how to send better
Speaker:emails, like how to do the actual work.
Speaker:I'm a big fan of that.
Speaker:Like, I believe that if if you're not given the, you know, if you're not
Speaker:dealt the best cards, then hard work can give you a little bit of that edge.
Speaker:So I, I like people like that, and Alex Hormozi does that, does that very well.
Speaker:That's fantastic.
Speaker:You and I, we're totally the same in that regard.
Speaker:I'm all about kind of the operator mindset.
Speaker:Like, there's the consultant mindset, "Oh, what's our overarching
Speaker:vision?" But then it's like, "Okay, how do we get crap done?"
Speaker:And so I love that.
Speaker:I think you and I, we're, we're friends in that way.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Back us up.
Speaker:How did you end up in logistics and fulfillment in the first place?
Speaker:Give us a little background.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So I started selling online when I was 13.
Speaker:It was… I was just doing it as a way to help my parents pay rent,
Speaker:pay the bills, that type of thing.
Speaker:In our generation of just being able to sell things online, it, it's
Speaker:very cool that you could just, you know, arbitrage that type of thing.
Speaker:So did that for a little bit.
Speaker:What did you, what did you sell, Krushna?
Speaker:It was cosmetic products.
Speaker:So the things that were given, it, it, it's stuff that's given out in
Speaker:like, essentially like defect lines, so you could sell them as liquidation.
Speaker:And it costs pennies, and you could sell them for quite a bit
Speaker:more on eBay and things like that.
Speaker:So I did that for some time.
Speaker:Then I, I tried to scale that.
Speaker:It's pretty hard to scale, so I turned that into an Amazon FBA
Speaker:store when I was old enough to.
Speaker:Scaled that up to a few million, and then learned some hard lessons
Speaker:along the way because that business is a very thin margin business.
Speaker:Took some, took some big losses, exited it, and then I started
Speaker:doing fulfillment trade for both.
Speaker:So ecommerce and fulfillment is all I know.
Speaker:Found out there was a big gap in the fulfillment and warehousing.
Speaker:A lot of lack of transparency, for better words.
Speaker:So that motivated me to start in the fulfillment space.
Speaker:That's so cool.
Speaker:Were your parents in the industries of fulfillment and
Speaker:logistics, or selling online?
Speaker:Or like, what in the world was in this 13-year-old boy's mind of like, "I
Speaker:should do this. I could sell some stuff." Like, how'd you even get that idea?
Speaker:I mean, I think it comes natural born in, in, in the people that hustle.
Speaker:So we're sitting there, we're like, "What could we do?" My mom
Speaker:worked at a makeup company, in the, in the packaging department.
Speaker:So they would give out a box of the defective stuff at the
Speaker:end of the day at every shift.
Speaker:So she would come home with a few items.
Speaker:I was like, "There has to be money in this."
Speaker:So sell them for a few dollars each.
Speaker:Can't really scale that, right, because how many more defect products can you get?
Speaker:So then I realized that there's a cap to it, but being able to get
Speaker:a job at 13 is pretty hard, right?
Speaker:So, so being able to sell online is, doesn't matter how old you are it's,
Speaker:it's, it's very open to people.
Speaker:You don't need much capital.
Speaker:You could sell things that you could buy at, you know, anywhere.
Speaker:So that, that seemed like a very good opportunity at that time.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:That's a, it's awesome mindset.
Speaker:Okay, so what led you to Awesome Solutions?
Speaker:First, tell everyone what Awesome Solutions is, and you know, how you've
Speaker:ended up in that space right now.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:When I started doing FBA when you work with these wholesalers
Speaker:and these, these large companies that need to give you product, you
Speaker:need to send them to a warehouse.
Speaker:I did it in a residential, like out of my garage as long as I
Speaker:can, but as long as I could.
Speaker:But once it started to scale, it had to go to a physical warehouse.
Speaker:So signed a commercial lease.
Speaker:I was 18 or 19 at that time.
Speaker:Started doing the FBA from there.
Speaker:And the warehouse was essentially empty all the time.
Speaker:Because the way FBA works, you get inventory, you send
Speaker:it out right away, right?
Speaker:So you're not storing it.
Speaker:And then I realized that there was such a big gap when I spoke to other FBA sellers
Speaker:in how fast their inventory turned around.
Speaker:So if you start with very little money, your, your … The name of the game is to
Speaker:spin the cash flow as fast as possible, so they would get inventory, send it back as
Speaker:fast as you can so it would sell faster.
Speaker:So some of these FBA prep centers would keep the inventory
Speaker:for like seven days, 14 days.
Speaker:That's, that's a big, it was a big loss for the sellers.
Speaker:So I realized that there was such a big gap.
Speaker:So I started fulfilling myself and realized how much of a value add it is
Speaker:when you can do it quick and accurate.
Speaker:So starting, started that and exited selling myself on Amazon
Speaker:and started doing it for clients.
Speaker:Oh, I love it.
Speaker:And I love how you said you saw a gap, because I hear that so
Speaker:often from entrepreneurs is, "I saw a gap, and so I did X."
Speaker:I think a lot of us see gaps every day in our jobs, in our lives, but
Speaker:we don't take that next step, right?
Speaker:What, what tips, I guess, do you have?
Speaker:How do you motivate yourself to take the next step?
Speaker:How did you … You know, you mentioned sometimes you're born with that hustle.
Speaker:What, what if we were not born with the hustle, but we wanna get the hustle?
Speaker:I mean, what are your, what is your advice for us, Krushna?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean, I'd say it's, it's, it … There are ways to calculate it and formulate
Speaker:it to make it less, less risky.
Speaker:So getting that initial warehouse at the beginning was, was high risk, right?
Speaker:Because I didn't have much industry experience.
Speaker:But once you realize that there is a gap, you could start it
Speaker:in the smallest way possible.
Speaker:You know, sign on a client that would be very little risk.
Speaker:If it was to fail, you could say, "Hey, I apologize. Here's your money back."
Speaker:Make them whole again, and you're able to … You know, it wasn't much of a risk at all.
Speaker:You don't need to sign a 30,000 square foot facility for that.
Speaker:You could sign, like, a 3,000 square foot facility.
Speaker:You could sublease somebody else's facility.
Speaker:Like, this is fulfillment specific.
Speaker:I've tried a ton of things before I got into this, but there's ways to
Speaker:do everything at, at a smaller scale, and test it out, get proof of concept.
Speaker:I think people spend too much time, time trying to get their version one to
Speaker:become, like, the best final product ever.
Speaker:It's, it's not gonna be that way.
Speaker:The second you start getting feedback … Like, when we started fulfillment, it,
Speaker:we, we learned very early on that some of this stuff needs to be automated,
Speaker:because clients … For example, in the FBA space, clients take time to
Speaker:send labels back and forth, right?
Speaker:You can't wait for that.
Speaker:It, it, it kinda defeats the purpose.
Speaker:So we had to automate that, and now that we've done that, clients don't have to
Speaker:be involved in every step of the process.
Speaker:They love it.
Speaker:It's very easy.
Speaker:But that wasn't our version one, right?
Speaker:If you scroll back to any, if you scroll back to any person that's famous
Speaker:on TikTok, or any influencer, right?
Speaker:Go to their first video.
Speaker:You'll see that that's not their, that's not the video they post now.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Really fantastic advice.
Speaker:I hope everybody who's listening right now picked up that gem in there.
Speaker:What I heard you say was we spend too much time on version
Speaker:one, trying to make it perfect.
Speaker:So you're saying you see a gap, you can find a way to move into
Speaker:it without a giant risk, do it.
Speaker:Just start, and then test and refine.
Speaker:Is that accurate?
Speaker:Very accurate, yep.
Speaker:What are some lessons you've learned along the way?
Speaker:Let's talk about hard lessons, you know?
Speaker:What, what can we glean from the mistakes that Krushna's made that
Speaker:we maybe don't have to make them?
Speaker:Yeah, there's a lot of them.
Speaker:There's a, I have a, I have a long notebook full of them.
Speaker:But so, to start, like, this is for my, my founders and entrepreneurs
Speaker:that, that start from nothing.
Speaker:There's something in our mindset that, that makes you want to rush the process.
Speaker:And I think one of the big things I learned is it has to take time to mature
Speaker:and fully develop before it could be you know, something that you're, that you're
Speaker:super proud of, something that you…
Speaker:You know, like a lot of this stuff looks like it's, I could go from, you know, zero
Speaker:to five million in one year, for example.
Speaker:But the point of it is to really learn and build up your skill set,
Speaker:your callus during that time period, to be somebody that can handle all
Speaker:those processes, handle those clients, handle that volume, and you don't
Speaker:want it to happen overnight, right?
Speaker:Like, if you were to achieve everything you thought of tomorrow.
Speaker:You know, your life wouldn't change that much.
Speaker:Whatever you drive, whatever you, like, whatever you, you know want
Speaker:to accomplish, it's, it's better to be in that journey and that
Speaker:destination for some time and, and really take your time to do it.
Speaker:Because the best decisions I've ever made was when I thought long-term, and not,
Speaker:like, within six months I need this amount of money, or I need this amount of growth.
Speaker:It's a really interesting contrast, because tip number one is don't
Speaker:wait to start, but then tip number two is don't rush, you know?
Speaker:And so it's kind of like you've gotta get going, so don't wait before you start,
Speaker:but also I, I, I am so guilty of it.
Speaker:Like, I kind of… I wrote it down.
Speaker:You don't want to have… You don't want it to happen overnight, and yet I
Speaker:think a lot of us do want it to happen overnight, so really interesting.
Speaker:Is there a way that you pace yourself or that you do set goals eh, but are
Speaker:able to keep the long-term in mind?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Like, Alex Hormozi says it all the time, and I, and I, and I take a lot of his
Speaker:stuff and I make my own rule with it.
Speaker:And he said the longer somebody's time horizon is how much he could
Speaker:tell how valuable they are to the game, how much they'll make out
Speaker:of this game of entrepreneurship.
Speaker:I think one of the biggest things that's helped me is when I make a decision, like,
Speaker:I'm not setting a one-month target, right?
Speaker:I'm setting, like, a five-year horizon of what I want the company
Speaker:to look like, and then I'll shrink it down into a three-year, into a
Speaker:one-year, and then that'll give me what it'll look like for the monthly.
Speaker:The goal isn't to make X amount in this month, right?
Speaker:So I would say ask yourself why you wanna make that amount of money in
Speaker:that short amount of time, right?
Speaker:I'm just setting a monetary value, but it could be with any goal.
Speaker:So you would have to ask yourself why that is, and then you'd, you'd
Speaker:be able to make a rule for yourself of how much are you thinking in the
Speaker:long hor- long-term horizon versus what are you thinking about right now.
Speaker:And I think that's all my decisions where I thought like, "Hey, if I
Speaker:got this in one year instead of one month, would I still want it?"
Speaker:Like, those have always been… If you, if you're looking for getting money
Speaker:quick type of situations, like, look back at all the times you've done that.
Speaker:Chances are you lost money.
Speaker:It was kind of start with the end in mind.
Speaker:So you picture where you wanna be.
Speaker:And I love this, 'cause this applies to everyone, not just
Speaker:founders, entrepreneurs, but in your position, in your family life,
Speaker:in your, you know, physical goals.
Speaker:Where do you wanna be five years from now?
Speaker:Okay, so imagine that, and then work backwards setting goals
Speaker:all the way up to the current.
Speaker:That's fantastic advice.
Speaker:I really, really love that.
Speaker:Anything else that you would say?
Speaker:Is there anything that you wish you'd learned earlier beyond that?
Speaker:You gotta focus on what you, what you want instead of all these side
Speaker:things, like the shiny object syndrome.
Speaker:Okay, what do you, what do you mean by shiny object syndrome?
Speaker:So I've been taught in business in general, like I've just
Speaker:picked up these cues where all revenue is good revenue, right?
Speaker:So in the 3PL space, if I could own the truck route, I'll make X amount of money.
Speaker:If I could do my own staffing, I'll make X amount, right?
Speaker:These are just examples, but you don't wanna be the master
Speaker:of, of everything, right?
Speaker:Because then you're really the master of nothing.
Speaker:So my goal is to provide the absolute best D2C and FBA fulfillment, right?
Speaker:Our goal is not to own the truck routes.
Speaker:It, it, you know, it's not, it's not to do all these, these extra things.
Speaker:So shiny object syndrome could be in any vertical, but even in … The, the
Speaker:bigger you grow in business, the more things will pop up and opportunities
Speaker:that are, that are sickening to turn down, to be honest with you.
Speaker:How do you, how do you assess them, Krushna?
Speaker:How do you decide if it's a, a shiny object you should go
Speaker:for or it's one that, like, we're putting that on the shelf?
Speaker:I mean, you have to ask yourself, would, would saying yes to that opportunity
Speaker:reduce your chances of what you're looking to get out of your current opportunity?
Speaker:So that original five-year goal, even, you're like, "Is
Speaker:this even playing into that?"
Speaker:Yeah, like, if I started a trucking company or another company, would that
Speaker:affect what I do in the 3PL space?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Like, I would have less time and resources to put into it, so that would
Speaker:therefore make it affect my current goal, and that's not what I want.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:So if somebody's trying to get started in it, like, how do you
Speaker:develop relationships or mentorships?
Speaker:Or I know that's a big piece of any entrepreneur founder's journey.
Speaker:What, have you found any tips for getting kind of advice from
Speaker:people who have been there?
Speaker:Email people.
Speaker:It's, it's literally that easy.
Speaker:I-
Speaker:Cold email
Speaker:… A lot.
Speaker:I spend, like, when I, when I first started, I spent hours just sitting in my
Speaker:high school classes just emailing people.
Speaker:Whenever you have time off, just email people and ask them, like, you know,
Speaker:don't, don't say, "Can I pick your brain?"
Speaker:Nobody, nobody will ever want to say yes to that.
Speaker:But simple things like I've emailed Gary Vee Mark Cuban, all these people.
Speaker:They've all replied to me.
Speaker:And simple emails like, "Hey, I'm a 3PL founder. Any advice? Like, what
Speaker:do you think I could do?" And I've gotten a response from people that you
Speaker:wouldn't believe, even, even deals with companies that are way above our, our
Speaker:standard of what we could purchase at the time when we were selling on Amazon.
Speaker:Like, those are some of the largest manufacturers and distribution companies
Speaker:in the US, and I've worked with, I've worked with at least half of them.
Speaker:So it's just a cold email.
Speaker:"Hey, can I work with you? This, this is what we do." you know, I'm hungry.
Speaker:I'm, I'm here.
Speaker:I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to build this partnership here for the long
Speaker:term, and people wanna invest in that.
Speaker:So they're interested in starting young.
Speaker:That's such good advice.
Speaker:I've found that myself as well, that it's surprising how often people do respond.
Speaker:You'll get 95% who don't respond, but you get that one or two who reach back out,
Speaker:and, and it is … I- it can be massive.
Speaker:Some of my biggest deals have been from a cold email.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, and it-
Speaker:That's incredible
Speaker:… It's not always an ask either.
Speaker:It's like, "Hey, Merry Christmas." And then it's like, "Who is this guy," right?
Speaker:"Who's bothering me?" There's stuff like that, gets into that
Speaker:type of conversation, right?
Speaker:Like, it, it really can flourish.
Speaker:It's the same thing with in, in in-person networking, but email is,
Speaker:like, vastly accessible to any folk.
Speaker:You could search anybody's email, shoot them an email, ask.
Speaker:You know, like, some of the best people that have interned for us have been
Speaker:people that just send me a cold email like- Yeah … "Hey, can I, can I
Speaker:intern?" They don't go through my team.
Speaker:They just send me an email, and they're just like, "Hey, you know, if something."
Speaker:I'm like, "All right.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:This guy hungry.
Speaker:Let's-"
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:… What's up?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:They've got that, that something.
Speaker:Or, when I hire people for my team, I'm always as well.
Speaker:I feel like we can teach so many skills.
Speaker:You can teach a lot about business.
Speaker:You can teach a lot about fulfillment.
Speaker:You can't always teach that, that drive, that hunger, that, that You
Speaker:know, attitude of, of moving forward.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And, and even, like, back to what I was saying before about being
Speaker:patient, about the actual journey, that, that's not to be confused with
Speaker:being able to make decisions, right?
Speaker:Making decisions fast is, is very important.
Speaker:As an entrepreneur, emailing people, like, getting work done is obviously, is, it's,
Speaker:it's one of the most important things.
Speaker:But being patient in the long term, the goal that you set, right?
Speaker:Just realizing that every day you compound and become a little bit better.
Speaker:So send that email, make that phone call.
Speaker:Do what you think might not work, and let the universe take, you know, take
Speaker:control of a little bit of that, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that's so true.
Speaker:Make decisions fast.
Speaker:Time kills all deals, we hear.
Speaker:So absolutely make the decisions fast, but keep the patience in the long-term
Speaker:process, that we don't freak out, don't get distracted by shiny objects.
Speaker:Anything else that you would give as advice?
Speaker:We're gonna move over to our 3PL section, talking about, I have
Speaker:some questions about running a 3PL.
Speaker:But any other final advice for people who are entrepreneurs, founders,
Speaker:just wanting to get to where you are?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Aim to be a little bit better every day.
Speaker:Send that email.
Speaker:Make that phone call, right?
Speaker:Do your thing.
Speaker:Be yourself.
Speaker:I, I hear a lot of advice about people doing like 100 different things at once.
Speaker:Find your few things and, and absolutely kill it.
Speaker:Like, if you wanna post on LinkedIn as, as your marketing
Speaker:channel, you know, crush that.
Speaker:Like, the D2C brands we talk to and the ones that do really well, they mastered
Speaker:Shopify, for example, so well, and then they go to another sales channel
Speaker:because people are asking them to, "Hey, when are you gonna be on Amazon?"
Speaker:"Hey, when are you gonna be on TikTok?" Right?
Speaker:They didn't sign on to every single one of those from the beginning.
Speaker:It was let the, let the demand come to you.
Speaker:Once you start getting good at one channel, people will come to you.
Speaker:So, so focus on that.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:It's like do, take what you're already doing and do it better
Speaker:instead of just doing more.
Speaker:Sometimes we're like, "More, more, more, more, more." But instead,
Speaker:if you take the things you're already doing and just improve it a
Speaker:little bit each day, killer advice.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So we do have a lot of founders listening, but we also have a lot of 3PL leaders,
Speaker:fulfillment, operators, logistics.
Speaker:You know, we got the, the, we run the gauntlet here at Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:So I thought that we could ask a little segment, ask the owner, put you in
Speaker:the hot seat, and see specifically kind of advice that you have.
Speaker:So if you were gonna start a new 3PL specifically tomorrow, ground
Speaker:up, what is something that you might do differently from day one?
Speaker:That's a really good question.
Speaker:So I would say that I would focus, I would focus very much on the
Speaker:communication aspect of the 3PL world.
Speaker:So this is something that I've done, and it's played a large role of our success.
Speaker:But I would do it even more- emphasize then how I did it because there are a
Speaker:lot of 3PLs in the game, but the ones that are clearly communicating, the
Speaker:ones that are there to show that, A, we're reliable, we're with you when you
Speaker:scale, that makes a huge difference.
Speaker:Cause nobody wants to have an issue and then talk to an AI agent, right?
Speaker:So that's what I was gonna ask you.
Speaker:Where's the balance between kind of the AI communication, which is massive
Speaker:in customer support right now, and, and for, for good reasons, right?
Speaker:It can answer a lot of basic questions.
Speaker:And then the human element.
Speaker:Like, how are you balancing that?
Speaker:What are, what are, what is your advice specific to 3PL?
Speaker:Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker:I, I think that it's, it's a … It has to be based on the
Speaker:tier of what support is required.
Speaker:So there's certain things that are like, "Hey, where's my
Speaker:order?" An AI agent could do that.
Speaker:It doesn't matter who, who responds to it essentially as long as
Speaker:they do it in a timely manner.
Speaker:But things that get a little deeper, like if it's something invoice related,
Speaker:if it's something that's order specific, like duties, things like that, that are
Speaker:harder to systemize with an AI agent.
Speaker:Of course, there's some great ones out there, but a lot of time they wanna ask
Speaker:follow-up questions to a natural human.
Speaker:So in my personal opinion, like when I call a larger company or chat
Speaker:with them, I love to speak to an agent so then I can kind of put some
Speaker:feeling into it, things like that.
Speaker:So those types of things I would say is it's, it's good for an AI agent to
Speaker:an aspect, but it sh- there should be enough company resource that somebody
Speaker:can get to with claims that require it.
Speaker:No, I love that.
Speaker:Do you have a, an SLA or, you know, something on how quickly you recommend
Speaker:people try to be getting back?
Speaker:Is it based on the level of customer, you know, how, how big of a customer they are?
Speaker:Do you, I guess just do you have any tips in general with that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We don't do it based on the size of the customer.
Speaker:Everybody we sign on would be treated to that same standard of communication.
Speaker:It's usually under 20 minutes for any standard business operational
Speaker:SLA is, is just set at 20 minutes.
Speaker:That's usually set for every day, Monday to Sunday.
Speaker:If it's something that requires like a, a technical problem, things like that, those
Speaker:could take up to three hours, four hours.
Speaker:But it is much faster than the standard just because if it was me on the
Speaker:other end, I would want that same level of communication and respect,
Speaker:so we do that for our clients.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think of it often from my own perspective.
Speaker:We're all consumers ourselves, so I do know as well when I'm, like, speaking
Speaker:with an AI agent or something, I don't mind doing it, but I want to know that
Speaker:I could access a human if I want to.
Speaker:I hate those looped systems where I feel like I don't know how to reach someone.
Speaker:And yeah, so we still gotta have that available.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:What about any other technology specific?
Speaker:We get a lot of questions about that.
Speaker:What technology capabilities would you feel like must have from
Speaker:day one, or even from day 272?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would say all the basic stuff.
Speaker:I think people overcomplicate it a little bit.
Speaker:So it depends obviously on what category of fulfillment you wanna be in, right?
Speaker:B2B, D2C, retail, like there's different avenues to it.
Speaker:But standard, you want a WMS that's gonna take care of all
Speaker:of your inventory management.
Speaker:You want it to have at least, at, at the bare minimum, you want it to have
Speaker:transparency on all pricing, so clients can see what the shipment cost was,
Speaker:pick and pack cost, where the products are located, all of those things.
Speaker:Ideally, you would want something that tracks the exact second something
Speaker:is received and all that good stuff, because then clients have transparency,
Speaker:and you could track it throughout.
Speaker:So that would be a huge thing for a WMS that I would … Yep, I would say that's
Speaker:a, that's a big non-negotiable, because people don't wanna pay invoices that
Speaker:they don't know the breakdown of, right?
Speaker:So you wanna have those things.
Speaker:But I would, on the other side of that, I would also say to be cautious of not
Speaker:getting a WMS that's so complicated that you need somebody full time to be playing
Speaker:with the inter- you know, the back- the back end of it to get everything rolling.
Speaker:You want it to be simple enough for clients, but also robust
Speaker:enough that you could do billing and all those transparent things.
Speaker:Well, I think there's two things.
Speaker:Sometimes we have systems that we have a lot of features
Speaker:we don't need and don't use.
Speaker:Sometimes we have things we could actually use, and we aren't even aware.
Speaker:So I think when it comes to technology, we should also be checking in
Speaker:regularly and be like, "Are there features I should actually be using
Speaker:that I'm not using?" Because I think we all fall into that trap, too.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:It's, it goes back to the version one type of thing, right?
Speaker:Like, you don't wanna sign that with the WMS from day one that takes, like, 10
Speaker:weeks to integrate with your systems.
Speaker:Like, you, you don't want that, right?
Speaker:You wanna start with something smaller, start with something that's lower
Speaker:risk essentially, right, less cost, things like that, beginner level, and
Speaker:then you can scale it up from there.
Speaker:Switching WMSs is, it's obviously takes some work, but it's better to start
Speaker:smaller and then grow to what you need.
Speaker:'Cause you'll learn in that process what things matter to you as a 3PL.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:That's fantastic advice.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So let's talk about carriers and carrier flexibility.
Speaker:That's something that overwhelms 3PLs sometimes.
Speaker:How do you manage, I guess, carrier flexibility?
Speaker:How is it different, what are you seeing differently in the carrier landscape
Speaker:now to even five, 10 years ago?
Speaker:What, what is your advice around carriers?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:There's a ton of regional carriers popping up in at least in the last few years.
Speaker:I would say that it's very important to be flexible with them, because some of
Speaker:them have very competitive pricing for certain ranges and certain pricing I
Speaker:mean, in, in certain weight classes.
Speaker:So I would say that's, that's a very big concept.
Speaker:Definitely having your floaters out there is big, right?
Speaker:Like, have the ability and have the conversations with these
Speaker:carriers to see what it looks like.
Speaker:Always, always negotiate with your carriers as much as you can, right?
Speaker:Obviously, sometimes that requires bringing some volume.
Speaker:But to your advantage, you could try to, to, to scale with them.
Speaker:Mention that we're starting off a little small, but we, we have the, you
Speaker:know, we have these few things in line that are gonna help us scale, right?
Speaker:So those types of things I think are, are really big, but being flexible is huge
Speaker:because clients want specific services.
Speaker:Some of them want pictures on delivery, some of them want certain
Speaker:flexibilities when it comes to duties or international shipping.
Speaker:So you wanna have your, your net cast wide enough where you have
Speaker:those different service levels for each client's requirements.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I think it's so true.
Speaker:We see…
Speaker:Because we live in the carrier world here at EasyPost, and, you
Speaker:know, we're carrier-agnostic.
Speaker:We work with, like, all the carriers basically.
Speaker:But there are some really huge financial opportunities that people
Speaker:are often missing out on because they don't realize, like, oh, if I just
Speaker:change service level, or if I changed, you know, this lane, or I change…
Speaker:That there are a lot of opportunities out there.
Speaker:And I think people sometimes get scared of some of the regional carriers.
Speaker:I don't think you need to be.
Speaker:I think that there's a lot of opportunity there.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Yeah, I would say, I would say definitely get feedback on the carriers.
Speaker:Most likely if they're, if they're pitching you, they pitch somebody
Speaker:else, and there's some other 3PLs that are working with them.
Speaker:So put your feelers out at any networking event, in any chat that you're in,
Speaker:and you know anybody you know and, and see how their experience is.
Speaker:It's likely gonna be similar for you depending on what area you're in.
Speaker:So I would say that's, that's a huge thing.
Speaker:There's a, there's a vast amount of knowledge out there.
Speaker:You could, you could definitely get it.
Speaker:There is.
Speaker:It goes back to our, our point from earlier.
Speaker:People are happy to help more often than we think.
Speaker:So even though they're your competitor, even though, you know, reach out.
Speaker:We're still a community.
Speaker:Okay, what are you seeing from the consumer expectation?
Speaker:Kind of from brand expectations.
Speaker:Are you seeing things that brands need or, or they're focused on that are different?
Speaker:Or what, just what can we expect from brands these days?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Yeah, I think more, more than before they wanna see transparency.
Speaker:So as we get into this, this new world of AI and being able to make invoices
Speaker:in like a blink of an eye, right?
Speaker:Like, you want to be able to have accurate breakdowns of everything.
Speaker:People wanna see what they're paying for, and I think that's absolutely fair.
Speaker:I would do the same thing if I was a brand.
Speaker:So that's, that's definitely what they're, they're looking for, right?
Speaker:Like, if we put ourselves in the perspective of the brand, that,
Speaker:the communication being top tier is, is a very big deal, right?
Speaker:There's plenty of 3PLs, right?
Speaker:It gets commoditized quite a bit, but the level of service you get
Speaker:from your different 3PLs is vast.
Speaker:It's the difference between you being able to sleep good at night or not,
Speaker:right, as the brand owner or, or the operations person for the brand.
Speaker:So I'd say that's a big deal.
Speaker:Pick your partner, not, not the company itself, but pick the
Speaker:people that you're gonna work with.
Speaker:Mm. Well, that's a good quotable one there.
Speaker:Pick the people you're working with, not necessarily the company.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:So one of the things that I've was thinking about when it comes to the 3PLs
Speaker:is the fact that, you know, when you're a brand, so if I'm shipping just for myself,
Speaker:or as you knew when you were shipping for yourself, if, if something changed, it
Speaker:changed for your whole company, right?
Speaker:When you're a 3PL, you're dealing with so many different companies where it's
Speaker:like this company might be wanting to add a new carrier all of a sudden.
Speaker:This company over here might be wanting to do something cool with
Speaker:their unboxing, while this, you know, somebody over here is dealing
Speaker:with wanting to change their speed.
Speaker:Or how do you manage, I guess, being pulled in a lot of different
Speaker:directions and knowing where to focus?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, the first thing is the team, right?
Speaker:The people you have surrounding yourself is, is the most important thing.
Speaker:So you wanna set up people that are accountable for each step of the process.
Speaker:So clients in the onboarding process, they'll get their first
Speaker:impression of your company, right?
Speaker:You wanna have that be a very good experience for them.
Speaker:So even when it comes to getting pulled in different directions, you wanna
Speaker:have somebody that's gonna manage those shipping carriers for that client and
Speaker:be able to map that for them right away.
Speaker:You wanna have somebody on the claims side that's gonna be able to help, right?
Speaker:So everybody's, you know, everybody starts somewhere.
Speaker:I was, I was that person for every single position at some point, and then
Speaker:you're able to, to then scale out and.
Speaker:Okay, wait, wait, I wanna back up.
Speaker:I wanna hear that again.
Speaker:So you were that person for everybody, like within Awesome Solutions,
Speaker:or you mean back when you were…
Speaker:Are you recommending people try out all these different
Speaker:positions, like as a leader?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So you're not gonna be the best at, at everything, right?
Speaker:Customer service, there's, you know, you're not gonna
Speaker:be the best at everything.
Speaker:But when we started, we just didn't have the funding to be able to hire people.
Speaker:I'm, I'm sure a lot of people start that way.
Speaker:We never raised money, so we're fully bootstrapped.
Speaker:We start from a certain place, and I was the person that handled
Speaker:the sales, the customer service, the shipping carrier negotiations,
Speaker:everything on the tech side, right?
Speaker:So you, you start in that position, and I was essentially
Speaker:the warehouse manager, right?
Speaker:Like, that's, that's how it begins.
Speaker:And then you start to get people that can have more skills than you, right?
Speaker:So, like, my warehouse manager is much better at that than I am.
Speaker:My claims department is better at that than I would be.
Speaker:So you get people that are better, and then you empower them.
Speaker:Like, you are able to invest in them, provide them better knowledge, take
Speaker:care of them as people, and then you're able to scale to being able to do things
Speaker:that clients want at, at, you know, at the speed of whatever speed they need.
Speaker:That's a cool thing with being a founder is that really boots
Speaker:on the ground experience.
Speaker:How do you pull back?
Speaker:I've worked with a lot of different CEOs over all the years.
Speaker:Some of them are fantastic.
Speaker:Some of them have trouble letting go of thinking that they know the
Speaker:warehouse better, or they know, because they have run those roles.
Speaker:How do you get yourself to step back and trust your people?
Speaker:It's hard.
Speaker:It, it takes some time to, to process all that, but, but knowing that if you're
Speaker:the CEO of a company and your hands are in everything, that you're gonna have
Speaker:to make peace with the fact that you'll be at a certain volume, and that's okay.
Speaker:But for people that want to scale or want to grow, you can't be
Speaker:involved in every process, right?
Speaker:Like, you won't know every box that goes out.
Speaker:You won't know all of that.
Speaker:But you can be very involved still in the communication and
Speaker:all the higher level things.
Speaker:So I think that's a huge game changer.
Speaker:For, for us, one of the biggest things is our goal is not to take- You
Speaker:know, 100 clients right now, right?
Speaker:Like, that's, that's not our plan.
Speaker:We don't, we're not an enterprise level 3PL where, where we
Speaker:just take numbers, right?
Speaker:Our goal is to take a brand on, nurture them through the
Speaker:process, really onboard them.
Speaker:So we have, we have quotas set where we'll limit the amount of people that we take
Speaker:on after we hit a certain amount, right?
Speaker:Like, that's, that's our process.
Speaker:So we know that we can provide a very high level of service for that customer.
Speaker:Mm. So discipline.
Speaker:I, it sounds like a lot of self-discipline in terms of sticking
Speaker:with what your goals are, but also sticking with, at some point I have
Speaker:to trust my people if I want to scale.
Speaker:And so that's part of my discipline, is stepping back and letting them
Speaker:run, and then seeing what happened.
Speaker:It's not like you can't pivot later.
Speaker:Okay, this has been so good.
Speaker:We're just about out of time, but I have a couple of questions
Speaker:I wanna make sure we get to.
Speaker:One thing I would just love to hear, as you are that boots on the ground
Speaker:person there, what do you see happening, like, in the 3PL world in the next
Speaker:five years or so with technology, with AI, with ecommerce booming,
Speaker:with consumer expectations shifting?
Speaker:Do you have a crystal ball?
Speaker:Like, what, what kind of things do you think we should be looking for, Krushna?
Speaker:That's a great question.
Speaker:I, I'm gonna look back at this and see, see if what I say comes true.
Speaker:Oh, sure.
Speaker:I'm gonna send it to you in five years.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I … Oh, I, I … So I think there's gonna be a lot of automation
Speaker:going on, like, like everybody could see.
Speaker:But I think a lot of the 3PLs that are gonna do really well are gonna be
Speaker:the ones that, that have that boots on the ground type of experience
Speaker:with their customers, right?
Speaker:So going back to the AI agent type of thing, we want to
Speaker:have people talking to people.
Speaker:So clients are gonna have, they're gonna see a, a big price reduction, obviously,
Speaker:when they invest in the initial robotics and the, the automation infrastructure.
Speaker:But I think that'll lead to its own set of issues.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the brands that want more human-specific approaches are gonna come
Speaker:to 3PLs that are on the smaller side, and ones that are less enterprise level.
Speaker:So I think we're gonna see a little bit of a divide there.
Speaker:Yeah, I could totally see that.
Speaker:I, well, I'm gonna send it to you in five years, but I do think we've got
Speaker:some growing pains, 'cause there are huge opportunities, but sometimes
Speaker:we're over-investing a little bit towards the automation side, where the
Speaker:human element may become one of those big differentiators in the future.
Speaker:So this has been so great, Krushna.
Speaker:If somebody wants to learn about running a 3PL, they want to reach
Speaker:out and get advice, just like you said when you were cold emailing
Speaker:people from your high school classes.
Speaker:I hope none of your high school teachers are watching this right now.
Speaker:If they want to … Maybe they are, you know, doing fulfillment, I mean, or
Speaker:doing you know, maybe they're a seller.
Speaker:How can they get in contact with you?
Speaker:What's the best way, I guess, first, to learn about Awesome Solutions itself if
Speaker:they're interested in using your 3PL.
Speaker:But second, just contacting you.
Speaker:Are you LinkedIn, email?
Speaker:What, what's the best ways?
Speaker:Yeah, LinkedIn's definitely the best way.
Speaker:They can search me up.
Speaker:If you could, if you could put my link in the bio so they can search me up there.
Speaker:It's just-
Speaker:Will do it
Speaker:… Krushna Patel on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I post, I post whenever my team yells at me to post.
Speaker:So they'll see that.
Speaker:They'll see that happening there.
Speaker:If they need it, if they need any information on fulfillment, they can
Speaker:go to awesomesolutionsnj.com, and over there there's a contact form.
Speaker:So any brands that wanna reach out can just go directly on there, and then
Speaker:we'll take care of that from there.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:And one other question with Awesome Solutions.
Speaker:Is there an ideal audience?
Speaker:Like, is there somebody, if they were listening right now, that you would
Speaker:say, "You are a perfect fit for us."
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:When it comes to D2C brands, we're looking for D2C brands that are high volume, so a
Speaker:minimum of 2,000 orders going out a month.
Speaker:And the way we do things is for those brands that have a surge of orders,
Speaker:for example, like TikTok shops.
Speaker:So we're partnered with TikTok shops, we're partnered with Amazon.
Speaker:We're, we're here to provide to the brands that are looking for
Speaker:high-touch fulfillment with a lot of ease on their end, so we could
Speaker:handle that entire process for them.
Speaker:Throughout the US?
Speaker:Throughout the whole world, actually.
Speaker:Whole world.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:So if that is you, completely recommend that you reach out to Krushna.
Speaker:He is fantastic.
Speaker:Really gives you that personal touch.
Speaker:But this has been so great.
Speaker:I've learned so much from you today.
Speaker:I feel a little bit motivated to maybe, like, look for where I'm
Speaker:seeing some gaps, be a little bit better tomorrow than I am today.
Speaker:So thank you again, Krushna, for being here.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Pleasure's mine.
Speaker:We'll see you next time.
