ambush on air: Live from Directions NA with FreightPOP

Sam Bush: Hello, hello and welcome to this episode of Amish on Air. I'm your host, Sam Ah Bush. And as always, bringing you topical content all around. Sales, marketing and partnerships in the micro vertical focus of Microsoft. Okay, so I'm here. I am live at Directions North America in Orlando in the middle of a walkway trying to record, but it's working out. Okay. But, um, I have got my friend from Freight Pop here to talk today, so give me a little intro.

Guest: Hi, Sam. Thanks so much for being here. Sam just ambushed me on the floor,

Sam Bush: pulled me in, I said, we're going to do this.

Guest: This was fantastic. Not planned at all. So happy to be here and chat through FreightPop, Microsoft. All things ISV, ERP, relations, integrations, AI, anything.

Sam Bush: Yeah. Okay, so what the heck is FreightPop?

Guest: FreightPop is an AI supply chain solution. Right. So we automate everything from procurement and, uh, inbound shipments for manufacturers and distributors all the way through outbound shipments on pallets to the end customer. Think anything. Ltl, Full truckload, Ocean Air Rail Freight. It's in the name. We try to keep it simple.

Sam Bush: I love it, I love it. The supply chain girly in me is all locked in. I totally understand. Totally into it. How long have you been at Freight Pop?

Guest: I have been at Freight Pop. Let's see, I'm in my sixth year now. For you, six out of the company's been around for about nine or ten.

Sam Bush: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, okay. What were you doing before?

Guest: Before this? I was actually at a small boutique venture capital firm working on helping startups, uh, get in touch with angel investors, other, you know, boutique, uh, VC firms. Capital providers, basically.

Sam Bush: Yeah.

Guest: Uh, it was a ton of fun. Freight Pop was actually one of the first. I'm sorry, one of the, One of the capital providers I worked with was one of the first investors in freightpop. And that's how I ended up meeting Kurt Johnson the CEO and Justin Dixon the CRO. And so, yeah, just kind of like a serendipitous way that I kind of fell into.

Sam Bush: Oh, I love that, I love that, I love that. Uh, learning supply chain. One of the hardest industries. I feel like there's so many terms and knowledge.

Guest: Yeah.

Sam Bush: And you've got all these really big, like. Yes. You have all these really big old heads who have been doing it forever.

Guest: Yep.

Sam Bush: And you walk into a room and you're like, I've been in supply chain for two years and they look at you like you don't know anything. Right. Do you feel like you can walk into a room now after six Years in the industry and focus, I think

Guest: it's always, I think it's always a moving target. I'm certainly still learning just as much, you know, now as I was six years ago. However, just like anything in the technology space, supply chain has come leaps and bounds in the last six years. Right. So not only did you see like Covid kind of change the way that everything worked from, from a cost perspective, um, but then obviously technology has made, you know, leaps and bounds, um, even just in the last six months.

Sam Bush: Oh, absolutely.

Guest: As, as we've seen just across the board. Definitely wouldn't consider myself an expert in supply chain yet. Right. I'll give it another maybe 20 years.

Sam Bush: Yeah, exactly. I think you kind of have to.

Guest: Yeah, yeah. Um, but, uh, but we're just, we're all, we're all kind of heads down and learning at the same pace now and working to make sure that, you know, we can optimize every section of it that is open for it.

Sam Bush: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the reason I ambushed him on the show floor is I really like the demo, like visual on their, um, kiosk. So my biggest kind of critique to everyone here is stop showing me boring inside of business central automated flows. Right.

Guest: Like demos.

Sam Bush: Literally. You guys are in a block of, I think there were six of you all in one section and they all had business central videos. And I'm like, how boring, right? And you guys have this interactive like wheel and spoke vibe going on. Like, obviously I'm going to stop and lock in and see what it's about.

Guest: I love that.

Sam Bush: So tell me a little bit about the methodology behind how you guys approach the market and what you're doing with AI and all that fun stuff.

Guest: Absolutely. Yeah. My marketing team will be so happy to hear that you said that. We're glad the booth caught your attention.

Sam Bush: Yes.

Guest: Um, so there is now, as we move into this world of AI, right, as it relates to erp, eventually what we're seeing already happen, and what's eventually going to happen is integrations are going to move from kind of the standard, kind of deterministic API endpoint to endpoint. Right. Field mapping to this non deterministic MCP integration where agents are going to work with other agents to get stuff done. Right. They're going to, they're going to negotiate with each other and it's going to be, it's going to be more of

Sam Bush: a, uh,

Guest: uh, solution. It's not going to be a solution as much as it's going to be like, uh, I guess, like A, A product, right?

Sam Bush: Yeah. Okay.

Guest: So it's going to be very interesting to see, uh, to see how that works. But Freight Pop, and it's very, very early in the stages. Right. I think Microsoft has already released like very limited direction to its partners. Same with other ERPs as well. Right. I don't think anybody, even, even the big talking heads at Microsoft know exactly where this is gonna go.

Sam Bush: No, nobody knows.

Guest: And so what's happening at the ISV level like freightpop is we're just trying to get in the best position to make sure that whenever they do give us that direction of here's how we want you to interact with our MCP and with our agents and here's how we want you to build around that, that we're ready for that. Right. And that ah, we actually have our own MCP and our agents deployed that can start to replace some of this kind of already outdated API infrastructure. And so that's what we're really focused on, on more of the broader supply chain.

Sam Bush: Whole hook.

Guest: Yes, the broader spectrum, not just the TMS anymore. Now we're talking order management system as it relates to individual agents that are working to pull information from Microsoft. Transportation management, warehouse management, all of that. Um, so that's where we're headed.

Sam Bush: Yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting. Okay, so this is your first directions.

Guest: It is, yes.

Sam Bush: Uh, tell me a little bit about why you decided to come.

Guest: Yeah. So Microsoft is uh, a uh, unique ecosystem and it is huge and oftentimes just because of that, difficult to navigate. Right. Anyone's fault. It just is what it is. And so uh, we've had some success working with the VARs in the ecosystem to help them understand that Freight Pop fills a gap. Right. Uh, freightpop fills this, this gap that's kind of not for, for maybe some sub verticals within the BC and FNO space. It's just not served. Those customers aren't served by, by a solution. So we've come in trying to meet with as many VARs as possible. So that's why we're here at Directions. Specifically we will have a booth at uh, ah, Summit in Nashville. Yeah, we're going to show, we're going to have a big showing there. I think we've got like a big 30 by 30 or something like that. So that'll be great. The whole team will be there. We're really trying to make like a splash.

Sam Bush: I'm excited to see everybody.

Guest: But this show, specifically Directions, Alina and I are here really just trying to meet with as many VARs as possible. And it's less about selling them on what Freight Pop does and just educating them that a solution like this exists.

Sam Bush: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think my biggest advice to people trying to get into the Microsoft channel. So I've been in the channel for 10 years. This will be my ninth directions. I love the show. Uh, but what is the most bang, for my money? The best. The things that I can do, the best for me are sitting at the bar from 7pm until it closes. That's when I get all my combos with my. That makes sense because we're all. We're all a little bit in sauce here.

Guest: A little.

Sam Bush: This is our favorite time to kick off.

Guest: A little bit loose.

Sam Bush: Yeah. We don't have part. We don't have customers here. We don't have prospects here. We get to just be with our friends in that sense.

Guest: Yeah, you're right.

Sam Bush: It's very unique. Uh, sponsoring this is different than anything. It's. It's really like, bars aren't going to walk up to your booth typically, so you have to find these ways to navigate it. So I'm happy to see you guys here.

Guest: Yeah. Thank you. We're happy to be here.

Sam Bush: Yeah. I think we're going to keep doing these things.

Guest: Yeah.

Sam Bush: And keep going to be out here.

Guest: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll be out here again next year, like you said. Whether we're, um, showing up with the booth or maybe just walking and trying to get into more of those conversations and sessions. Yes. Yeah, that may be, uh. That may be the strategy moving forward for Directions specifically.

Sam Bush: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a conversation show. Yep. That's what I tell everybody. I'm like Directions media sponsor. They know I fully support them. But for me, I'm here as my own entity, not for do op or for anything. And I'm here focused really on, like, deepening relationships with people I've known forever.

Guest: Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Bush: It's like a. I call this my, like, comeback tour every single year. It's like a family hang.

Guest: Yeah, silly.

Sam Bush: It's the best.

Guest: Yeah.

Sam Bush: Um, okay, well, anything else you want to share about your time here or your time in Orlando?

Guest: No, Orlando's been great. Hasn't, uh, been as humid and hot as I was expecting it would be. Me, too. Um, it's been really nice. We've had some really great conversations. We're going to continue having great conversations. So anyone that's listening this today or tomorrow that is here at the show, come and see us at booth 33. And Sam, thanks so much for having me and free pop on the. On the show.

Sam Bush: Definitely. I'm excited. And we're golfing in a couple days. Uh, of course, I'm not golfing on booth babing in my cart, but I'm excited to share some champagne.

Guest: We're going to get some. We're going to get some bars and partners out there with us.

Sam Bush: Yeah, we are. We are. Well, I'm excited. Thanks for hanging and everybody listening. Thanks as always. Listening to my kookiness. We'll see you soon. As always. Party on.