Founding Story of American Group with Michael Schember

In this episode, I speak with Michael Schember of American Group about meeting his Co-Founder Daniel Krivickas at West Ex.

We learn that American group is up 100% YOY in Revenue during covid times.  They have been shipping a lot of alcohol and PPE.

Mike wanted to better control his customer experience by paying for an invoice if needed by a carrier. Carriers have expense accounts for entertainment, but it’s harder to get an invoice waived if you’re a carrier sales rep.

In their early days, Schember and Krivickas would work in the kitchen with manual processes, a pen, paper, and phones in the early days. They created Bill of Ladings in Microsoft Word, but that wasn’t scalable.

Six months in, they invested in 3PL Systems, a TMS. They wanted to make sure they had a business before investing in software.

American Group now has 32 full-time employees and 60 sales agents. I enjoyed speaking with Mike as he’s down to earth and a great business leader."