Team-Building and Customer Success with Brad Perling

That's what's exciting to me about being on the show . I think this is one of the best podcasts to listen to because of the actual , real content that you're delivering .

There's no one better to share the founder story than the founder who has lived it and the people around them who've experienced it , whether it's coworkers or co-founders , or a spouse or your family that you're going all in on something , and it's terrifying to do that by itself , but it's even more frightening to do it alone .

I think it's a special element of our show in particular is that I always say the companies are interesting , but the people are way more interesting . Let's start with your company , though it's difficult sometimes to describe what a company like yours does , I'd , rather than me , try to explain it . What does Bitfreighter do ?

We allow logistics companies to create and automate the life cycle of a load , from quoting automation to tendering automation , to load acceptance automation , load updates , status updates and then invoicing , all directly with their shippers . That is ultimately what we help solve .

We cut down on the manual processes that happen internally at a logistics company , whether it's quoting manually or building loads manually or updating loads manually or sending updates manually . All of those things can be integrated directly to an enterprise TMS via EDI or API . We handle basically the systems talking .

We make sure that , like I like to say , we're the carrier and make sure that the systems are receiving the information in the language they expect to receive it in .

They were already thinking about efficiencies . That's what really , I think , got me into technology from early on in logistics is the creativity that company had . I was employee number 17 there when I got hired and started as a dispatcher .

Where did the first tiny idea come from when you thought maybe I could build something , or was that I ? Maybe I should just start a company right now ? What was it ? A middle of the night Uh-huh moment ? Or was it something that built over time ?

And then I was the first guy that started their business development , which had like three or four people cold calling and trying to go get more business at this logistics company .

And then I was the first guy that started what they called the optimized division , which had reefer , flatbed and all the small customers so basically , three different groups of people that I managed , about 70 employees . And then 2015 came . I was really happy doing that . 2015 came around .

There was another project they wanted me to go start because I was really good at really getting things off the ground and I was like you know what ?

I think I want to try to do this on my own and I partnered with a buddy of mine who had started a logistics company a year or two before and so got that going and we grew that business to about 50 people and in 2020 , when COVID hit , that company was doing really well actually and I was working from home , had a bunch of time on my hands and thought ,

maybe , like I really would love to build a technology company and my mind is always thinking about efficiency . How can I move more freight better ? You know , how do I apply operational efficiency and the things I learned building both companies the first company and then the second company I really was able to take with me to start Bitfreighter .

They're brokering deals and I grew up listening to my mom talk on the phone all day long selling houses and I think that's a big part of my inspiration is seeing her do that , and I always asked her why not build a big business ? And she never had that drive to go build a big real estate company . She just wanted to work for herself .

And I think I feel like I'm taking it a step further and taking what I learned from her and actually doubling down on it and creating companies around those skills that I just picked up on as a kid .

It doesn't happen very often , but more and more what I'm hearing from early stage founders and founders of smaller companies is they're not looking for the $100 million exit . A lot of folks are looking for a lifestyle where they can do things their way and have the chance to build something that they've always wanted to , but it also fits into their life .

It's not their entire life , it's not 80 hours a week , it is . I want to be able to spend time working on things that interest me in a way that is true to my own values , and it may not have to be the largest company in the world .

I mean , that sounds a little bit like your mom , that she found something that she was passionate about and obviously was very good at and that's enough . And I think that's a really strange thing for an entrepreneur to say or to get to of saying this is enough , I don't need more 100% , that is .

But yeah , I mean , her motivation was her kids right , and so having a six-figure part-time job , as she would call it , and being able to spend time with the family was just enough for her .

That's going to be something I have to explore a little bit more and try to find my own motivations for why am I always working so hard for the next level or the next thing ? Because that never stops . If more of us could be content with what we have and where we're at , maybe our stress levels and anxiety levels would be a little bit lower .

I don't know about you , but that's my message for me for the day .

I think that when I look at building things all the things that I've built I feel like that's what I'm really good at is seeing the vision . The thing that I'm really , I think , the best at is finding great people to surround myself with .

. You're not the first founder to say that . It's also one of the reasons why I intentionally capitalized the word founder . When I use it in any writing , I prefer to refer to entrepreneurs as founders rather than CEOs , or rather than entrepreneurs , because founding something is not only rare , but it's the earliest possible thing .

Everybody can be a CEO of something that somebody else built , and it's not necessarily their thing , although it is also their thing , of course . But the idea of what a founder does as the earmark of their professional identity to me holds more gravity , almost , than a fancy title . That's why I capitalize that .

I think it's meaningful and it's a sign of respect , and I look up to founders every single day . If you had to choose a title that doesn't make you feel like an imposter , what would it be ? Pastoral success .

Your customers will be happy , they can feel it , they know when people are at a company and they're just showing up because it's just a job .

I think when I look at me as a CEO and a founder , I think it all goes back to making sure that I have happy people and that we're doing the right things for the people at Bitfrater and then ultimately that trickles down to a phenomenal customer experience .

Oftentimes the starting is I have an idea or I've seen something done and I think I can do it better , or maybe it's I want financial rewards that go along with it , and that's the primary motivator . Those are not always enough to sustain a founder years into the company's existence or in the later stages of a company's life cycle .

Where , would you say if you look out the front windshield , the next five years , what keeps you going ?

I have big vision and big goals for Bitfrater to get to a thousand plus clients . I think that being able to help people and uncover those rocks of where people are being taken advantage of in the integration space because it's unknown , is what is really driving us to create this company that I don't have .

I wanted to grow to 100 plus people that we can affect and change people's lives and help people grow and offer a company that is forward thinking . A lot of those thoughts I get from one of the books I just read was by Reed Hastings no Rules Rules . I think it goes back to how we run the company .

I know I'm going on a tangent here , but I think when we look at growing Bitfrater over the next three to five years , what is the goal ?

The goal is to offer jobs that are unlike many out there , where people can come work here , be treated like adults , give them the freedom and responsibility to do their job and give them the flexibility to work from home and really have a modern workplace . I think , as we do , that we become more competitive in the space .

I'm talking about bootstrapping . It took us to 12 months or so to actually write the software . My partner in CTO , brandon he spent nights and weekends and had a day job writing Bitfrater so that we didn't have to take a loan out , we didn't have to give up any equity .

That took maybe not 12 months , but more like 9 months , and then went live in December 16 , 2020 is when we went live with the first Logistics Company . Then it took another 3 or 4 months to actually get another client , a paying client . That was like 14 months and you lay in bed at night thinking , okay , does anybody really need this ?

Are there people out there ? You start questioning yourself , contemplating if you're actually solving a big enough problem , even though we had a ton of people interested when we launched the company , so much so that we had to take down all of our marketing and stop selling because we weren't ready .

You start really thinking about that because the only thing that matters is will people pay you for this ? Is it something that people need ?

I think that is one of the hardest things in the early goings is you're laying in bed at night questioning whether or not there's enough people out there that need your service , just being able to have the confidence to wake up in the morning and get after it every day .

I think that is probably one of the toughest things as a founder is those early days when you're questioning yourself if you're actually going to be able to make it work .

Those are the most optimistic and uncertain time of the entire experiment and it's really neat to get to hear these stories because they're each one is entirely unique . But you're not alone .

There are so many others who have done something similar and in our industry we're just gathering more and more of these founders together through this podcast and getting them together each month and having conversations and supporting one another . More information on that soon .

I'll share a bunch of information in future episodes on a really neat founder community that's emerging , but the stories are both universal and entirely unique . So I think my last question for you then , brad , would be this I know who inspires me . It's people like you who inspires you and who are you thankful for .

And then my buddy Long Story Short , the first logistics company that I started at . I'm very thankful for my bosses there . They gave me a free MBA program in logistics . They made us read 30 plus books on education , motivation , leadership , sales the full gamut of leadership books that we had to read to be part of the leadership program .

But those first four bosses I gave me an opportunity to come dispatch trucks for them and then continue to see where I could go and believing in me and giving me more and more opportunities to help grow their business .

And then , from there , partnering with one of my best friends in logistics and then also my newest co-founder , Brandon , who has helped us build Bent Frader . I mean there's just so many people I'm thankful for that have inspired me and keep driving this forward .

I mean our VP is at Bent Frader for taking the risk of stepping down from their roles that they had for 10 plus years and deciding to come be part of a startup employee's number , like four and five at Bent Frader and then , ultimately , I think that a lot of founders need because it's the times at night when you're laying in bed and you're questioning yourself

they need those foundational people around you and that's really the key to my success is the people I've surrounded myself with and my family , my wife and my mom and dad .

We have a really good family unit that continues to cheer us on , and I think that it's more about surrounding yourself with the right people and being on the right bus , and that's really what continues to build Bent Frader , and one of the things that I want to say just quickly about our story is in my story is that you never really know what little things ,

as you're growing up , will end up being part of where you'll end up . And the one thing that I always think back on I think is hilarious is we used to in the car on family road trips .

When I was a kid , to pass the time , my dad gave us a CB radio to talk to truck drivers , and that was what we did to pass the time and I didn't think it was weird at all at the time . It was actually a lot of fun talking to the truckers . I'm like thinking back about this now .

Wow , that was foreshadowing what I would do for the rest of my life is being in logistics and talking to truck drivers and doing it as a kid . It was a lot of fun . I think that's a big part of the inspiration is , and it's funny . That's a little thing , but it just probably made me who I am .

Yeah , thankful for all of those opportunities I've been given . Obviously , you got to end of the day , you got to take advantage of your opportunities .

As soon as you have an opening in your schedule today , you start making phone calls and saying thank you . You'll be amazed at the boost that it gives you . We are all rooting for you . We can't wait to hear what you're up to next and we'll have to check in six to 12 months from now because I want to hear an update on where

you're at .

And , of course , thank you to all the founders who trust us to share their stories .