Most EDI contracts never get shopped. Grace Sharkey puts the retention number at 96%, and legacy providers price like they know it: a few thousand a month for the service, then a separate managed fee to make sure the service does not break. Orderful just raised $35 million to go after that second line item.
We also get into what eight freight tech vendors are actually building with AI, why Uber Freight ran through a twelve month token budget in four months, and how a Japanese toilet maker ended up inside the AI chip supply chain.
In this episode:
▪ Why eight freight tech vendors are all pointing AI at boring, repetitive workflows instead of flashy agent demos
▪ The question every buyer now asks before a software purchase: did you try building this yourself first
▪ What Grace learned building her own lead follow-up droid, including the data storage mistake that broke it
▪ Why hourly billing breaks down when execution gets cheap and judgment becomes the product
▪ How legacy EDI pricing actually works: per transaction fees, managed service fees, and chargebacks
▪ Inside Orderful’s $35 million round from Koch Disruptive Technologies and New Road Capital
▪ The Every Man Jack migration: 57 trading partners, six months, and what happened to the EDI team
▪ How a Japanese toilet maker became a critical supplier in AI chip manufacturing
▪ Seven shipping containers lost when an Antarctic ice shelf calved into the sea
▪ Sri Lanka’s tea and cinnamon trade, and why most of the country’s port activity is transshipment
Presented by SPI Logistics:
SPI Logistics has spent more than 40 years building the best freight agent program in North America. What separates them is what they do not have: no in-house brokerage, which means no internal brokers competing for your book of business. If you are in freight sales with an existing book, or already agenting and need better admin, finance, IT, and technology support, hear directly from SPI agents and their leadership team on the Everything is Logistics site.
Links and resources:
– Grace Sharkey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-sharkey-%F0%9F%9A%9B%F0%9F%A4%96%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8F-31940765/
– Orderful: https://www.orderful.com
– CargoRex AI use cases guide: https://cargorex.io/research/ai-use-cases-in-logistics/
– Ceylon Artisan Tea Association: https://cata.lk
– Donate to Sisters of Sri Lanka via Maersk’s Head of Trade and Customs, Janet Labuda, by sending a check to Janet’s address at: 6060 Trotters Point Ln. Gainesville, VA 20155
Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday: https://youtube.com/@everythingislogistics
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