#566 Scaling Trust in Logistics: David Soileau on AI, Operations, and Leadership

Mehmet: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to an episode of the CTO Show with Mead today. I'm very pleased joining me from the US David Soileau. He is the co-founder and CRO of Gophr. Of course, you know, as usual, I don't steal much from my guest time. I keep it to them to use themselves. But just as a tease for the audience, we're gonna talk of course about an interesting story of David, his background and how, you know, he became a co-founder.

We're gonna talk about, you know, logistics, uh, lost mile delivery, and. A little bit about entrepreneurship also as well. Without further ado, David, thank you very much for joining me here today. Um, usual question, traditional question. Tell us more about you, your background, your journey, and what you're currently up to.

David: Yeah, tha thanks. Thanks for having me. It's a, it's a pleasure. Um, so we started with Gophr originally as a marketplace, right? Um, so a little backstory on me. Uh, I should start with first. Um, I spent 12 years in the Marine Corps. Um, I got a master's [00:01:00] degree in technology management and, uh, and I, and I worked in the oil refineries, uh, as a crane operator, um, for, for, for several years.

And Gophr was just kind of a, a thought that really Warren Vandiver our CEO and, uh, and co-founder came up with, um. And our idea, you know, his idea and, and what it kind of morphed into was a marketplace for people to, uh, shop local stores, get same day delivery, uh, kind of like, uh, a mom and pops answer to, uh, Amazon.

Well, we got hit with COVID in 2020 when we launched, and then back to back hurricanes in, uh, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. And it just shut us down. Um. And the industrial clients, Cummins in particular, Cummins, north America, got a hold of us and said, Hey, can you deliver our stuff, our, our, our engines, our engine parts, [00:02:00] you know, pieces, hydraulic parts, all that.

Um, and we said, yeah, I mean, we, we needed a pivot. And, and it just kind of sucked us in. And from there, we just really became an on demand delivery company, right? Logistics company where our customers could. Type A to and from address, um, what they were shipping, and instantly get a quote and, uh, their, their full fleet at their fingertips from cars all the way up to 18 wheelers and full tracking, full accountability.

Digital bill of ladings, um, really just revamped the idea of industrial logistics, commercial logistics, if you will. And it from there, uh, we really made that, that pivot. You know, by 2023 and, uh, full force into the industries and, and still doing pharmaceuticals and some retail deliveries, but mostly into the industrial.

Mehmet: That's great. And thank you again, [00:03:00] David, for sharing this. Um, you know, everyone. Who I interviewed on the show, you know, the, the, the pandemic was like a major event. So we call it like pre and post pandemic. So, so there's a, this moment that I think it happened to everyone, maybe sometimes on the personal side, sometimes it's on the business side.

Now, if I want to dig more into what you're currently doing, David, so when we talk about industrial buyers, you know, and um. These operations teams, they, they don't care much about buzzwords. So they want one thing. We want our goods to be shipped and on time and delivered on time. So if I want to dig into the problem here that you're trying to solve, what are usually some of the hidden costs of unreliable?

Uh, similar delivery, uh, businesses that most leadership teams, you know, sometime they underestimate, so they think it's easy to do. [00:04:00] 

David: Uh, I, I think the biggest thing is accountability, right? So we, we deal with problems like traffic, um, vehicle size, right? Where a particularized vehicle is needed and the. The, the, the agency, the third party delivery service sends the wrong size vehicle.

Um, or, you know, traffic's unaccounted for. You don't know where the driver is. You don't know if he's actually stuck in traffic or not. Um, and so we've mitigated these problems with our tracking, um, you know, as far as traffic goes, and, um, you know, making sure it, it holds us accountable like we have to leave on time because our customers can see on the map where the drivers are.

So if the drivers aren't on time to a spot, right? It's, it's very clear. It's, it's easy for, you know, basically we're, we're telling on ourselves by having this tracking so accurate. Um, and on, on the other side of things where the [00:05:00] correct vehicle needs to be sent, um, you know, it's, it's as simple as the, you know, first off the, the shipper, the customer gets to select the vehicle size.

Um, and, and there's different ways to do this, right? AI helps the customer select the right vehicle size. Um, and at the same time our drivers see in the driver app what vehicle size it is and they, they know to be very careful 'cause they don't want to get somewhere in a car when it needs a truck, right.

So, um, there's a lot of visibility there. And we actually gray out some of these deliveries for our drivers to where, you know, if, if all you have is a car, you're, you can't take this load. You don't even see the load. Right. So, um, that's just two of the, the, the mitigations we've, we've taken. Um, for those big problems.

Right? Uh, the other thing is bill of lading. So documentation's tough. Mm-hmm. Uh, a big problem is for these, these delivery agents, right? These, these third parties, they'll, they'll go make [00:06:00] a delivery, they got paperwork, it has to be signed, and they've gotta bring it back to the origin. Um, this causes a big problem, right?

It's a free delivery A lot of times. Uh, what we've done is we've made it all digital. So where. The, the recipient, the recipient is actually signing on the phone of the driver and that digitally signs the documentation and it digitally sends back to the origin. Um, it's not perfect for every case. Some of these larger ticket items do require a physical copy, um, but it's been able to satisfy probably 99% of our deliveries.

Just digital documentation is all it takes. And it solved a huge, uh, you know, fiscal and, um, you know, headache. A, a large headache 

Mehmet: right in, in such industries, usually, David, because you mentioned about sometime there will be requirement for, uh, physical stuff to happen, like signatures and so on. So when you build something like Gophr, what was [00:07:00] like.

The harder part. Was it like, you know, convincing people with the, you know, adopting the tech itself that you have built? Was it like customer trust? Was it like the driver network? Uh, if you can, you know, shed some lies on these because I think, you know, there's a lot to unload there. 

David: Well, yeah, so I mean, you hit the nail on the head, really, uh, with, with getting the, the adoption.

So we're changing behaviors that have been set in stone. Many of the businesses that we service are, you know, they, they've been in business for almost a century, some of 'em over a century. They've been doing things a certain way. Um, you know, they were slow to adopt email and mm-hmm. You know, now they've been in email for the past, you know, 30, 40 years.

So now it's getting them into, um, you know, the app world or even just logging into a dashboard on a website to use the Gophr services. Um, you know, so, so there's [00:08:00] definitely a barrier there and that that holds, you know, the second point you made with trust, I mean, getting them to trust software where instead of emailing a person, they're filling out a form on the go for dashboard and.

They, they press go and they just trust that it's taken care of. Now, we've mitigated this where, you know, they, they get alerts and notifications saying, Hey, you know, a driver has picked this up, right? A driver has accepted your load, and then you can see that driver's little ping on the map. So, you know, there the, the trust is kind of satisfied that way, but you're still, you know, you haven't talked to anyone still.

Um, and. So the, the trust has been, has been tough, right? So we, we added an extra layer to that where, okay. Um, you, you can see when a driver picks up the load, uh, you can see that they had accepted it, picked it up. You can see where they're at on the map. You can now even call or text that driver. So you can have that, that real person, [00:09:00] you know, uh, kind of guarantee.

Like, all right, I've, I've talked to a person, you know, this is actually happening. I, I trust that it's getting done. Um, and that, those have been the, the two biggest ones. Now, the third thing you mentioned was finding drivers. Mm-hmm. We have a big problem with that. Big, uh, we've really focused on paying, uh, you know, paying well, right?

Paying our drivers well and paying them instantly. So as soon as an order is completed, they get paid. And that, that kind of keeps us top of mind for them. You know, especially the, these car drivers that are, they're doing Uber and Lyft and things like that. So when they see a go for order, they're like, yes, I want that because I know I'm gonna get paid right away.

I'm gonna get paid a lot more. Right. Because the, in industrial movements just, you know, industry standard, it pays more than a food delivery. Right. So 

Mehmet: right now, now one thing also, which is I, I believe it was one of the, I'm not sure if I should call them challenges. If they were like, uh, you know, like, um.[00:10:00] 

Like. You know, these obstacles to cross, you know, I'm trying to, to find like the, the right thing, uh, word to describe this. You know, I had some, you know, interaction with people in logistics. Uh, I didn't work in the sector, but you know, back in the days when I was technology consultant, so I was trying to understand, I always used to do, to understand the nitty gritty of the business to try to see like how these guys operate, how they think.

Now, one of the things that always came to mind is about, you know. How operations are done properly about, you know, also like how the discipline can be, you know, always be, uh, on track and of course the scale. Now, from your experience, David, what are like some of the metrics people in this space should be obsessed, you know, about, to make sure that, you know, we should not actually miss on this.

Is it like delivery times? Is it like. You know, the amount [00:11:00] of, um, how many times you have delivered and, you know, there was no broken items or something like this. Like what? Define really like what we call the operation excellence, if you want discipline and which allow us at the same time to scale. 

David: Yeah.

So I think, I think that the big question is, okay, what, what is the definition of a successful delivery? Right? Mm-hmm. So it's, it's, I would say time to, to pick up the order, right? So from the creation of the order by the customer to the acceptance of the order by a driver. And then that's just one metric.

And then it's from the, the time from creation to pickup of the order. Which sometimes is different 'cause, 'cause you'll have scheduled orders and things like that. Um, and then there's the time from acceptance of an order to pick up an of an order and then you've, you know, and that, that's just really all those three metrics are before the [00:12:00] order's even been.

Um, you know, a delivery's actually started. Um, so then you have, um, successful deliveries measured in. Um, you know, the, the safety of the item being shipped, right? So, um, anything being broken, lost or stolen, um, you know, or misplaced. Uh, so, so you've got, you've got those metrics, right? Of su successful deliveries.

And then it's, um, you know, drive time to delivery time, right? So, you know, our software tells us how long it should take to get it from point A to point B. How long did it actually take us? And, and. Our track record, right? Our data shows that we have been very successful on this. We're about 99% successful across the board on all, you know, all metrics that we measure.

And, and that's due to our software being, uh, so, so highly sophisticated with the feedback of our customers and our drivers. Taking [00:13:00] all that into account and building out the most accountability friendly software, right? You know, like I mentioned earlier where our, our customers can see when, when the load is, is accepted by a driver mm-hmm.

They can see where the driver is that accepted it and they can talk to the driver directly. So it's really hard to hide mistakes there. Um, so you know, that, that keeps the driver honest, that keeps us honest and, and keeps the customer in the know. Right. So those have been the biggest pieces of that. Um, and, and again, the pay is right.

So our drivers know as, as, uh, contractors, they know that if they don't do a good job, they may not get picked for the next delivery. Right? There's, there's a chance that that company says, Hey, we don't want that driver again. Right? Um, it's happened a couple of times where they're like, eh, you know, I'd really prefer this guy and instead of this guy, right?

And it's, Hey, you know, the customer has, has a choice, right? So we've, we've [00:14:00] kind of tailored that, um. And, and it's worked so far, right? The, the other day we did, uh, a delivery from Wisconsin to Louisiana. It was a 23 hour drive. Actually, it was a 22 hour drive. And it was a car load and that we actually did it with a team, right?

So two drivers in one vehicle, and they made it in 23 hours. So they, they actually only stopped for a total of an hour along the way for that 22 hour delivery. Um, and so great metrics like that, right? It, it really is a big deal. Now you have some deliveries that are 10 minute deliveries, right? Where it might be 15 minutes of, of delivery time, right?

You know, they've hit traffic or, you know, got stuck at a gate going into a, a, an oil refinery or something like that, right? Um, so there's a lot of, a lot of pieces that constitutes a successful delivery. Um, but those are the biggest, biggest metrics is like, um, you know, breaking loss or broken loss or stolen and, uh, time to [00:15:00] pick up and drop off.

Um, and time from creation to acceptance by a driver. Uh, those are probably the, the three biggest ones. Um. That you have to maintain 'cause it will make or make or break your relationship with customers. 

Mehmet: Yeah, so, so, you know, when you were mentioning all these, like the, the, the picture that came to my mind is like, all these stack together.

So you offer better customer experience for the end user. Like, um, you know, whoever is sending the package right? Or whatever that is. And you know, the way you just described, it's like so easy. I can imagine, you know, like, it's like I'm ordering DoorDash or Uber Eats or like whoever people they use in their countries for ordering food.

So it's the same. Experience, but except it's like actually for, um, you know, industrial use and anything, you know, you can, you can, uh, think about it. So this is really great because, you know, I, and I like to highlight these details because this is show David [00:16:00] also, um, like how much time you have spent on understanding.

You know your users and what they need. Exactly. And again, you know, giving them the best experience that they can have ever because, you know, like comparing to status quo, I would say maybe they had to go find a company, maybe read some reviews. Maybe these reviews are not like, very accurate and they're not in, you know, any way, uh, informed about what's happening.

So we are giving them all these insights like. Uh, almost live so they can see what's happening. They can interact with the drivers. So this is great actually. Now I want to go, we will not go into the technical details. We'll not talk about the bits and bytes of course, but you are a software platform at the end of the day, David.

Mm-hmm. And I've seen like also you talk about AI now in your industry. When you say AI powered, what [00:17:00] does it mean exactly? Like how me as. A customer for Goffer, would, would, would see this or I would feel the benefit out of it if I want to simplify it this way. 

David: Yeah. So there's, there's, there's a couple of ways and, and we have more products, uh, that are, that are coming out soon, but that the first way is we, we have a pick to ship option where you can simply snap a photo of an item.

And it pulls the weight and dimensions and the name of that item and categorize what vehicle is needed to move it. Um, so that's our pick to ship option. It, it lives in the app itself and it's, it really speeds up the process of, you know, figuring out what vehicle to use right. And, and making sure that the right vehicle is chosen.

Um. And the, the other way is in our dashboard, you can type in, you know, Yamaha piano and press, you [00:18:00] know, the, uh, the a AI assisted and it spits out the same information. It tells you, you know, this is how much this weighs, this is what you're gonna need to move it. Um, so one of our new products that's coming out is called the Go Pilot, and the way this works is you.

You know, your driver's gonna take a picture of the load once it's secured and it pulls the information for that and makes sure that it follows the FMCA, uh, standards, the DOT standards safety, everything is taken to account and it's a go or no go, right? Hey, no, go srap it. Fix this. It tells you what to fix.

And, um, if it says go, it's good to go. Everybody's got the peace of mind that this load is strapped down securely. Um, within regulations and, you know, it mitigates problems, right? Those broken, lost or stolen things. Mm-hmm. Um, so super, super cool stuff, and we've got some more things coming out with [00:19:00] ai. Um, and actually a, a Google extension is, uh, is rolling out here soon.

Um, just to speed up the process and, and to mitigate any, uh, you know, fallacies, right? Any, any problems that we have in order creation. 

Mehmet: David, there is a topic, which again, it came up from different guests, um, in different businesses, right? So when, when you implement the ai, it's great. So because you're trying also to benefit out of the technology in the way that you described for, for your vertical in specific.

But we talked also about having this balance between, you know, using AI automation while keeping the human. In the loop. Right. So when it comes to what you do at Gophr where human stays in the loop, like what are like some of the things that, you know, you believe always a human should be involved in that and Yeah, we can rely maybe on [00:20:00] AI for part, part of the task that I can do, but I wouldn't give it to the AI a hundred percent.

What? That would be maybe one or more, I don't know. 

David: So, I mean, with everything we do at the end of an order creation, it, it, it involves a confirmation, right? So there's always gonna be a confirmation page, Hey, is this, does this look right? And it's a to and from address what the items that are being shipped when it needs to be picked up or delivered.

You know, those are always, maybe not always, but at least for the foreseeable future, they're gonna be checked by a human. Right. Um, whether that's the shipper or, you know, go for internal, um, it will be checked. Um, having that, uh, you know, as long as there's, there's people in the mix, in any part of it, you know, there has to be a check and balance from, uh, you know, service provider to customer in almost any industry.

Um, and having that interaction [00:21:00] is, is really the bridge between. This, this software adaptation, right? Where, where users are starting to a, a adopt these, these practices of using software more and more in the industry, um, it, it just has to have human interaction. And as, as AI gets better and better, we're able to kind of move that human interaction more into the, you know, uh, digital realm where it doesn't have to have as much human interaction, just a quick check, right?

The checks get faster and faster. We're able to confirm orders faster. Um, and it, it, it keeps everything mitigated properly. Um, but I think that answers your question. 

Mehmet: Yeah, it does indeed. Now. Uh, because we mentioned a, uh, uh, sorry. We mentioned, um, um, COVID and we mentioned like, you know, stuff that happens, um, in, in, in, in business, you know, that might affect us.

Um, [00:22:00] you know, like, uh. If you want to zoom out and like, see what could be some, um, of the risks, you know, for businesses where Goffer can come into the place and say, Hey, like, you know, like despite this or despite that, this is why using goer would give you an edge. And, you know, unprecedented times in when, when things like COVID happens and, and so on.

So I'm trying also here to find out like the risk mitigation that you might be able to offer David for businesses. 

David: Well, uh, the, the biggest risk mitigation is you, you pay for what you use, right? So when times get slow, uh, and, you know, we, we were still operating during COVID and, uh, and delivering for different companies even though, you know.

The, the stay at home order was in effect. I mean, that helped out a lot. People were able to work for us, [00:23:00] uh, on the side, right? If their job said, Hey, go home, you know, whatever. Mm-hmm. You're furloughed or you're, you know, you're, you we're, we're gonna have to lay you off. Right. They could pick up a job with Gophr.

So that helped us with manpower. And at the same time, um, when times got slow, money got slow for, for the companies, right? And so being able to just, Hey, we got a delivery today. Let's use Gophr, no delivery tomorrow. We don't have to pay anybody. Um, so it was, it was good with, with giving businesses the option for a, a pay on demand, right?

Um, on demand use of a delivery service. And I guess the, the next piece of that is, is really giving the, the full scope, our full fleet to a business where you've got car drivers all the way up to 18 wheeler drivers. And so what this helps out with is offering. Customers, more [00:24:00] delivery options, more affordable options.

So your retail stores and pharmacy stores can, can offer delivery. Um, you know, just like that, they can say, Hey, you know what, we have a full fleet now, um, we now offer delivery, and it can be the go for delivery fleet. And no one has to know who Gophr is. They just have to know that, that their stuff's getting delivered and it's gonna be delivered on time and it's gonna be delivered professionally.

So. Whether it's a, a natural disaster or, you know, an epidemic, we can, you know, we can service anybody and everybody 

Mehmet: that's, that's, you know, good to know, especially, you know, because people, when, when they question, um. A business model is similar to you. So they, they try to, to find out like, okay, like o of course I'm sure you save them time and money and you know, all the things that you mentioned.

But I think talking about the risks sometime, uh, from a [00:25:00] B2B perspective has a lot and a lot of, of, um, uh, positive effect, I would say. Right. So, um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's incredibly, uh, important. Um. I want to talk about the margins, David, usually in this market, right? So we know that logistics is very margin sensitive and unforgiving.

So on the, you don't have to share the financials of the company, but you know. How challenging is it? Because, you know, I'm asking this question because I started to see in different regions. I know in the US you know, it's a huge market. Like you have, it's an well established market, right? So, and, and you and, and the gig economy itself, you know, people knows about it.

I'm seeing in the emerging market, whether like it's in, you know, part of the Middle East, you know, Southeast Asia. So these things are now getting up, but the competition is so fierce, right? [00:26:00] And. Sometime, you know, we, we start to talk about startups, about, okay, how, how they gonna make money and if they make money, are they able to make, you know, good margins so they can sustain from your point of view?

Like, what is that true first? Maybe, maybe I'm mistaken, I don't know. And if, if, if, if it's not true, like what are like some of the things. Other startups in the logistics sector can do to make sure that, you know, they can pass these, um, low margins or margin sensitive, uh, uh, effects that might, uh, you know, pop up on the surface.

David: I think, I think the, the real answer to that is, is really who we are, right? And remembering that we're a tech company, the more that we can rely on and outsource to our technology. And to ai, the less overhead we have, right? So we have a, a [00:27:00] full-time staff at Gophr of five people. Um, it is, it is very low overhead and what this allows us to do is to have lower margins, right?

We keep everything digital, um, from, from accounting to dispatch, you know, as, as much as possible where it takes very little manpower. That's, that's really the, the best way we've been able to, to scale and, um, protect ourselves from, you know, having to, having to worry about, uh, you know, the margin to, to a, to a big degree, right?

Being able to, um, kind of have lower margins and maintain, uh, you know, a particular revenue and, and keep our margins at a safe level. And even, you know, sometimes, uh, lowest margins in the industry. Right. Um, and we do have some new products that I can't speak too much on, on the financial side of things, but, but [00:28:00] more of the SaaS piece where we're, we're really just a software that you're paying for and you technically, you're paying the, the driver directly.

You know, there's no markup on the driver, there's no margin on the driver. You're just paying a software fee and it's, you know, very small. And actually we show our customers how much they're saving by using us this way. Um, so they're, they're literally paying what a driver would make and how much a vehicle costs to keep up and no markup.

So it's actually, our pricing is the lowest in the industry because of that. 

Mehmet: I want to shift gears a little bit, uh, David, and ask you like something, um, more generic, I would say, but I believe it's very important so. Um, shifting or like transitioning from military to, to a startup leadership? It's, it's, it's, you know, like it's a big shift.

Any, and of course I know like people who work in armies all [00:29:00] over the world, like I, I met a lot of them, whether in the us, uk, Australia, even. Part of, uh, you know, the emerging markets. So I know that discipline, I know, you know, the, the kind of leadership you, you, you, you learn there, right? But is there anything, and we hear, heard a lot about the stories of what you can learn from there, but are there few things that, you know, maybe some habits that you had to, um, change or maybe few things that you had to unlearn and relearn again to, to fit into the um, uh, in the startup world?

David: Yeah. So I mean, one of the biggest things is, okay, not everybody moves as fast as a Marine, right? It is just me, me and Warren Vanderberg are both Marines and, um, you know, we just, we gotta make sure we check ourselves, like, Hey, look, you know, we're, we're gonna jump and move on something really quick. You know, with, with not as much thought.

Sometimes we should put more thought into things right before we just jump on it, which, you know, that's been a little [00:30:00] more learning. Like, Hey, wait, let's take our time to really think this through. Um, but kind of maintaining that understanding that people aren't as, you know, mission oriented as we are.

You know, the adapt, overcome, you know, one of the, one of the phrases that's, that's unique to the, to the Marine Corps, right? Improvise, adapted, overcome. Um, you know, it's not always that, that instance, sometimes it's like, Hey, look, you know what? We're, we're not gonna do this project, right? This is something that's outside of our scope.

Let's not do it. Instead of saying yes to everything, um, that's probably the biggest one. The other pieces, uh, really is just, you know, understanding that, um, you know, not everybody, uh, is, is a good customer, right? I mean, it kind of goes along with the, you know, hey, we're not gonna do every single project that comes along the way.

Mm-hmm. But, uh, you know, just learning who to say yes and who to say no to. And, uh, those, those are really the biggest pieces, uh, everything else. I mean, having that mission oriented mindset that the Marine Corps gave us, uh, has been huge. [00:31:00] Um, not really seeing our company structure like a, a corporate structure necessarily.

Mm-hmm. But like, hey, we've got a mission and every man needs to be on the same page, you know, and we've gotta, we've gotta move towards the objectives and, and accomplish this mission successfully and safely without any casualties. Right. 

Mehmet: Right now, how, on the other side, how also, you know, having this experience helped you in maintaining, I would say, as a leader now, you know, because you know, you're part of the leadership in, in the company to maintain, you know, clarity, especially when you have these.

Pressure. Right. Uh, I'm not sure if, if you are investor backed or not, but I'm sure like, you know, even if there are no investors, like. Our families are waiting and we need to like deliver results, right? So people, they always, they say, yeah, like, founders feel miserable because of the investors. That's not always the case because you actually, you need [00:32:00] to deliver for yourself first, for your families, for your, you know, people who trusted you.

So how that experience help actually in, in maintaining this clarity because, you know, again. Based on my discussions with a lot of founders here on the podcast and outside, one of the things, and a lot of investors and operators told me this, like sometimes the reason why founders they drift or maybe sometime they give up, is because they don't have this ability to grow under pressure.

So for you, of course, maybe your. You know, background help you. And the reason I'm asking you this, is this something that we can learn outside of the armies? If, if I never went to the Army or maybe, you know, I, I don't know, you know, I wasn't able to go, can I learn even something that can let me be more, I would say, um, capable to, to, to maintain, you know, my sanity.

[00:33:00] Let me call it this way, when there's high pressure. 

David: Yes. I mean, the, the biggest thing I would say is goals, right? The, the military definitely sets goals and, and, and a mission right? In the military is constructed out of a goal, right? What is my purpose? Mm-hmm. You know, we, we have to orientate ourselves to the, the purpose.

Okay, I want, you know, I need this much revenue by this time, you know, with this much margin to acquire this much net profit. Right. And, you know, just doing the math on it, right? And you, you figure out what you need, where you need to be. And then, you know, the second step to planning that mission is, you know, to actually figure out what, you know, what steps I need to take to get to that mission accomplishment, right?

And then, you know, okay, so is, is the mission accomplishable? Do I have enough time with this goal, with this goal that I'm trying to reach? Do I have enough time to, to accomplish the steps that it takes to achieve this goal? [00:34:00] And then the third piece is to actually do it and to supervise it. Right? And, um, that's not the exact order that they taught us in, you know, anyone from the military listening would, would be like, no, that's not the oodle loop.

Or that's not, you know, Bais. Right? Which is some, some crazy acronyms I won't get into. But, um, you know, but that's the gist of it, right? So make a goal, um, you know, make the timeframe. And make the, the, the steps, right? And then make sure that you can accomplish those steps within that timeframe and then act, right.

So, and that's really the most important thing is, you know, we can make goals all day. We can figure out the steps to take, but if action and follow up aren't there, if supervision isn't there, um, it, it doesn't get done. So that's, and that's something everyone can learn and, you know, some learn it the hard way, some learn it the easy way.

Um, it's just learn it as fast as you can. Make goals, find the steps, accomplish the steps, and you, and you win. Um, and, and we've seen that, you know, it seems like [00:35:00] 99% of the businesses that fail, they, they, they give up, they fail to act, right? So when something does go wrong, you say, okay, I'm gonna find, you know, I'm, I'm gonna build a bridge across this.

Or I'm gonna find a way around this mountain, or I'm gonna go up and over, you know, nothing's getting in my way. Um, and that's really a possibility. I mean, that's what we had to do after the hurricanes, after COVID, we adapted and we pivoted. And when we pivoted into another industry, it was, okay, you know, can we do this?

What do we need to get it done? And we made that happen. 

Mehmet: That, that's great advice actually. And I agree with you on, you know, regardless, as you said, if it's related to the Army or not, I think the purpose, the goals, why you're doing what you do, right? Like, you know, when you wake up, why, why you go and do few things.

The first thing first, right? 'cause you know for sure you have a purpose. You need to define it. Um, and I've seen people who fail to do this and they think, yeah. You know, like. Uh, yeah, I [00:36:00] like to do this. But you don't feel really this passion, this determination. 'cause they don't have defined, in my opinion, the purpose why they do what they want to do now building, and this is for founders or to be founders?

Not necessarily in, in logistics. David. Like in, I would say in operations, heavy businesses. Right? What you can say they have to avoid in the first year, like at. Any cost? Like what are like some of the pitfalls you say like, Hey guys, make sure you don't do these things. What would that would be? 

David: Oh, I would say definitely is pace yourself, right?

And not pace yourself operationally. Pace yourself financially. So whether it's investors or your own money, um, or you're using profits. Um, is, take your time. You can do a lot more with, a lot less than you think. [00:37:00] And this is super important. I mean, you know, ev everyone makes mistakes. We, we made plenty of mistakes early on where we spent money on things we shouldn't have.

You know, if we'd have just thought it through a little bit more, we'd have been like, Hey, we could save that money and not do this. We'll do this instead. Um, so that's probably the most important thing when someone gives you advice like, Hey, you should do this. Check it. Ask two or three other people, make sure that every expenditure is 100% valuable.

Map out the ROI that you expect and, and see it through. And, you know, that's, that's really the, the most, um, important piece I say is, you know, don't overspend. Um, there's always a cheaper option. Um, you know, or, or, you know, there's the right option, right? So sometimes it's expensive, sometimes it's cheap.

Sometimes you know it's free. But make sure it's worthwhile before you do it. 

Mehmet: That's great advice. Great, great advice. David. [00:38:00] Now, uh, you know, back to Gophr and, you know, you mentioned like you're building some stuff. I would not ask this very cliche question, but, you know, what's the ultimate goal? Like, how, how do you see the company in couple of years?

I, I don't know, one year, two years, like, you know, where do you envision Gophr to be? 

David: Well, um, growth is everything, right? So we are currently, um. We, we span across the United States, right? Kind of, uh, peppered out through the United States. Um, what we're looking at is really saturating a lot more markets.

Um, we would like to really take over the, the Northeast a lot more, uh, the Midwest and, uh, the Northwest. Um, and, and we have, uh, customers popping up and, uh, placing orders in these areas already. Mm-hmm. Um, but really a lot more saturation. Um, that's, that's pretty much our biggest goal. Is, uh, is getting to more saturation, getting our SaaS, uh, built up and, uh, and, and [00:39:00] really, um, more products, right?

More software products that makes logistics easier. 

Mehmet: That's great. And, uh, very ambitious. Um, goals, I would say. Um, as you are coming to, to an and David, like again, a traditional question, any final things maybe I should have. Ask you and you want to share with the audience and of course where people can get in touch and learn more.

David: Um, I mean, I think, I think that that was a lot of great questions. I really, really was. I think the biggest thing is, is to, to go for it, right? Um, uh, there's not really a bad idea, a bad business idea, um, just maybe not fine tuned business ideas. So, so find it, fine. Tune it. Uh, test it, check with people around you.

Um, and then to get in touch with us, uh, you can visit our website@Gophrapp.com. That's G-O-P-H-R. Apps.com, um, or find us on LinkedIn, [00:40:00] Facebook, Instagram, and uh, we, you know, we're always happy to chat with people and, uh, and find new ways to do business. Um, so give us a shout. 

Mehmet: Great. Um, for the audience, you don't have to go and search.

I'm gonna put all the links in, in the show notes so you can find them. If you're listening on your favorite podcasting app, you'll find them in the show notes. If you're watching this on YouTube, you'll find them in description. Well, David, really, I enjoyed also the conversation. Um, and I like when I talk to people like yourself, who they have skin in the game, they know what they're doing, and they are willing to share.

And this is why the show exists, because, you know. People ca like yourself come, you know, they, they talk about what they do and at the same time they share the stories that they have learned, you know, down the, down the line. So this is really what's good. Thank you very much for sharing your time today.

Thank you. And this is how usually I end my EPIs. For the audience, if you just discover this podcast, you know, by luck, thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed. Give me a favor, subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you are one of the people [00:41:00] who keeps coming again and again, the loyal.

Followers, fans. Uh, I can't thank you enough since 2026 and even since last year I was repeating myself every episode because, you know, I feel I need to do it more. I'm very grateful because of you on the, the show made. It, it in its place to, to be on the top 200 podcasts, uh, chart the Apple Podcast chart in different countries of every country where like roaming somewhere again, this doesn't happen, you know, by itself.

This because you are recommending, you're telling other people about the show and we are trending in some countries. I'm still waiting for the people in the us, some other countries also as well. But that's fine. We are doing fantastically well. The downloads are increasing months on months, which, um, make me happy also as well.

So thank you very much for, you know, your encouragement. And as I say, always stay tuned for a new episode very soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.