[Music] welcome to another episode of tech unhinged where technology meets human today we are joined by a fascinating leader who’s gone from commanding Marines to commanding algorithms Our Guest is the founder of paralic a software that helps companies actually make their policies work without turning everyone into stressed out Bots when he’s willing technology he’s proving you can crush it professionally while still having a life welcome to the show Mike please please tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Summit Delivery Solutions yeah of course it’s great to be here thanks for having me um yeah like you mentioned I kind of started my career as an officer in the United States Marine Corps um that’s really where I kind of learned a lot about leadership and and how to lead and motivate people um left the Marine Corps after five years um spent some time just kind of floating around trying to figure out entrepreneurship um tried starting a few different little businesses and side hustles um and what stuck with starting a uh delivery company we uh we do delivery for Amazon and over the last four years we’ve scaled from you know when we started we had four employees and then we we we’ve scaled all the way up to over 130 employees now so it’s been a busy four years it’s been a wild ride um and two years ago well I guess it was three years ago now um I came up with the idea for what turned into Parallax um and uh that that really came from uh seeing that a need for increased fairness in the workplace so um you know through the help of code district and and a few mentors and and things uh was able to create this software that now I’m I’ve you know it started as a software that I needed for my delivery company and now you know created the um you know I saw the need that a lot of companies could benefit from it so um bringing it to Market and and and hoping to get it in front of people to to add value to their companies well Mike uh the delivery and transportation Industries rapidly evolving with new technologies like Automation and SAS solutions from your experience what are the most pressing operational challenges companies in the space are trying to overcome yeah there there’s definitely a lot um for me so my kind of Niche within delivery is last mile delivery um which is actually the most expensive part of the entire supply chain um last mile delivery accounts to about 50% of the total cost of of the entire supply chain so it’s a difficult leg of the supply chain to make efficient um and the kind of the major issues that I run into often are kind of Labor Force retention Fleet Maintenance and and you know as I mentioned just the overall efficiency of the operation um you know as far as labor retention it’s it’s kind of unfortunate that the delivery industry kind of has a stigma to it I think there’s a you know a lot of people don’t see it as a a very kind of glamorous or prestigious role which is unfortunate I think it’s a very Noble profession um and I think it’s also an industry that’s kind of full of poor management practices you know specifically last last mile delivery um and that that turns a lot of people away and it makes retention very difficult um there’s a lot of turnover in the industry um so that’s certainly one um you know as far as maintenance and maintaining a fleet you know I I have a fleet of about 60 vehicles and they are constantly going you know going down um just and uh it’s difficult it can be difficult to predict even when we’re you know we always stay on top of our preven and maintenance and everything but you know there’s there’s so many things that can go wrong with these vehicles they’re on the road literally every day um sometimes twice a day um so a lot there uh a lot to keep up and then yeah the the overall efficiency of the organization you know in terms of just making sure there there’s a lot of headaches that come with last mile delivery um you know just managing customer customer expectations you know um it’s it’s become an expectation now that you can get you know your product sometimes same day you know you can order it on and get it delivered the same day um that can be difficult to to to work with customers and understand that not all things can come the same day or next day routing is always a challenge um so yeah that’s kind of just the the I would say the big three that that I see the most um there a lot of expectations on the end of customer and then I think every company or every industry has their own challenges you know with the stigma that you talked about it’s it’s definitely I think something which we have a lot to learn on as of now bringing me to my next question what’s the craziest transformation you’ve seen in transportation and delivery technology over the past decade um I can sort of bet that it’s nothing like the Delivery Systems like 10 years ago uh I mean as far as the biggest uh change that I’ve seen in 10 years um and granted my you know I’ve I’ve been doing delivery now for four years so you know I would say that that’s where the biggest uh change has happened in being able to track vehicles and drivers um much more closely um because yeah I used to just be that you were giving somebody a vehicle and some whatever they were going to deliver and you you didn’t hear anything about the route until they got back the evolution of of Technology within the delivery Spa I mean in general obviously is is pretty incredible but especially within the delivery space I mean my first experience with delivery was um almost 20 years ago I was 16 years old and and I was doing um construction deliveries in downtown Boston I had just gotten my license and I was in a F250 in rush hour delivering you know bags of concrete to construction sit so and I I’m pretty sure I may have been using paper maps you know and that was just 20 years ago um you know and I I had a cell phone but that was really it you know once I get sent out to do the delivery the only the only feedback that the employer at the time was getting was whatever I gave him you know and I would have to pick up the phone and call him and give an update you know um today we have um you know tracking devices the phone you know tracking devices through phones through the vehicle um we know where the drivers are we know where the packages are um and we know we can see every stop on an itinerary in the customer note so um you know each of these softwares has allowed for a more efficient uh operation where we can now really monitor um each individual route each individual stop and and kind of adapt uh driver Behavior we can be a lot more proactive in in changing driver behavior um which I think is a huge part of of you know the complement of technology and Driver Behavior right there’s a tighter connection there with with uh an employer’s ability to supervise and everything could be traced or tracked all right so mik accountability and policy enforcement are critical um in Industries with large disperse teams like yours right so in your opinion how has technology transformed this particular aspect of Transportation industry and where do you see room for further Innovation yeah um I mean when it comes to you know tracking accountability um and what I what I say the term I use is disciplinary infractions um you know there really isn’t a whole lot it’s it’s a very analog process it really requires um you know a manager or an employer staying on top of their employees and really patching infractions um and then uh you know it until I made my product that I couldn’t find anything that that really um solved that you know I was spending over an hour a day going through you know infractions within my company people being late absent uh performance issues accidents uh and no real way to to ensure that it’s that it was fair right you know this person has three absences this person has two absences how do I weigh those you know what’s my policy for that and scrolling through lines of data on you know an Excel spreadsheet um so you know that that kind of brought out the the idea for my software uh which seeks to automate a lot of that you know you the the user still has to input their the infraction itself uh but the software kind of tells you what to do next you know Parallax is really for probably small to midsize businesses that have mostly flat workforces right so think of a delivery company think of uh construction sites restaurants um you know Industries like that where there’s kind of all a lot of one level or same level employees and then a manager or just a handful of managers um and what it you know what it doesn’t cover is the corporate aspect right all of my employees work in person you can’t you can’t drive a a truck remotely you can’t do delivery remotely yet um but I don’t but you know what Parallax doesn’t solve is if you have two employees and one is remote and one is in person how do you justify holding a holding the the one who works in person for holding them accountable for being late when the person who works from home just has to kind of roll out of bed you know to to put it Loosely um so there’s definitely a huge there’s still a huge opportunity for increased um you know development within the field of fairness and policy enforcement um within the workplace so um it’s certainly a a difficult problem to to solve and to even approach you know um for for me I looked at the quantitative aspect right I can count how many absences someone has how many tardies um and I have you know the benefit of everybody being in person it definitely gets uh much more difficult much more complex when you start having um you know different levels of employees with different roles and responsibilities um but that’s kind of that would be really The Next Step at looking at how do you how do you have a system that has you know because you’re going to have different policies based off of position so how do you break that out how do you hold people accountable accordingly um it’s it’s a big problem you know there the most people if you ask them about their workplace they would they you know they’re going to have a story of how they themselves were either treated unfairly or how they saw someone treated unfairly according to what they think you know so um so it’s a big kind of nebulous problem and definitely difficult to to solve but there’s plenty of opportunity there well well Mike we generally do see that you know employees typically they hate the rules right so how do how does your you know automated approach make policy compliance feel less like a punishment and more like a helpful guide for them something that they would willingly want to do or ader to rather than you know feel like it it it’s just thrown on them yeah I think the first step is making sure people know the rules right um and that you’re never going to work anywhere where there aren’t rules right um so you have to be transparent with these are the rules and here’s why they are the rules right so that people can understand that um for me my personal experience is that the why kind of comes later you know because you know my operation is nearly 247 so I don’t really have time to explain the why behind every Rule and often times I don’t even have time to explain all the rules you know I I teach to the job and and just do it that way and you’ll kind of learn and then don’t deviate from that and you’ll be safe you’ll do everything right and then you can kind of learn the rules and the why behind them over time um so that I think that is huge you know it when you hold when you try and hold somebody accountable to a rule that they didn’t even know existed they’re immediately going to feel like they’re being treated unfairly right and they are you know that that’s not really a fair thing to do um so you have to be transparent with your rules and just you know start off on that that you know on the right foot of trust of of you know what I what I tell all my new hires is like hey it is what it is this is the job that you signed up for There are rules and regulations that that govern how we do this job that’s just you know everybody’s got to follow some rules these are the ones that you guys got to follow if follow them you’ll be successful simple as that right um and I’m I’m clear and transparent about what rules are mine that might that I might be able to change you know and then I’m clear and transparent about rules that aren’t mine right we we’re subject to Department of Transportation regulations we’re you know we’re subject to the rules of the road and and you know proper operation of vehicles so um you know you I think that’s really what it comes down to is being transparent with what the rules are and why they exist um and that that empowers people because now they feel much more informed you know the last thing you want to do is get thrown a a a set of keys to a truck and then go guess how you’re going to do your job you know no one wants to guess how to do their job no one wants to just guess how to be successful they want to you know you got to give them a road mapap to success yeah yeah that makes a lot of sense sustainability and efficiency are you know becoming the major priorities for transportation and delivery companies I’m sure you’re also um you know keeping the these interview while planning what’s ahead so how do you see that Automation and data driven Technologies contribute to these goals of you know sustaining and being efficient in the longer run yeah I mean um you know again I’ll speak M you know as much to last mile delivery as I can um because again last mile is the least efficient part of the entire delivery process um you know that when when it comes to fuel efficiency it the packages the cost to deliver a package in gallons of fuel goes up the closer it gets to the customer right so um so that’s huge you know that the fact that 50% of the cost to deliver a package is in the last mile you know that that’s a massive opportunity for for increased efficiency so um you know a few ways that that problem’s being worked right now is you know some autonomous vehicles um and uh you know I think that’s that’s quite a ways away um you know that that this is a a highly there’s there’s absolutely a human element to the job that um we we’ll see if if autonomous vehicles can really make it happen um I think another area is alternate fuel sources alternate energy sources um you know regardless of a person’s view on fossil fuels and things like that I think the writing on the wall is there that we’re going to have electric delivery vehicles you know we already do have them um and I think those are going to become more widespread um and obviously that that would save potentially on on fuel efficiency costs um and then I think also looking at um just route optimization and how to how to make sure that you know one big area that that makes things inefficient is reattempts delivery reattempts or um being unable to deliver a package at all or um having to coordinate rescues you know if one truck starts to fall behind and and another truck needs to go link up with it and alleviate you know take off some of the packages there that that’s a cost right that’s that’s unplanned fuel um fuel usage so you know that it’s you got to kind of balance everything and how do you you know break down the inefficiencies within Last Mile and create a solution for it that doesn’t cause a problem somewhere else right so you have to kind of come in with a light touch um and find solutions that work for the current operation otherwise you’re going to have to redo your entire operation right so so yeah overall I I think the biggest ones coming are going to be you know the electric vehicles um and then alternate fuel methods we we have vehicles right now that are um compressed natural gas um not exactly sure how they’re more fuel efficient but I guess they are um so yeah I think those those are going to be the the two biggest you know when it comes to fuel efficiency uh those are going to be the two biggest kind of bangs for our buck Mike as someone who’s built a SAS product for this industry uh what advice would you give to Business Leaders looking to integrate custom Technology Solutions to their operations and yet to stay competitive as well yeah I think if you’re not innovating or or looking for ways to innovate you’re you’re probably gonna die a slow death you know you’re just gonna get you’re just gonna get beat by by the companies who are you know is the reality like you have to look to the Future and understand that development is accelerating right you know it it took us you know 60 years to go from the first plane to getting to the moon and now you know that just accelerates even even more and more with technology so I guess with that my advice would be you know you have to look at ways to innovate um and weigh it with the size of your company um you know for me I don’t I don’t my company doesn’t have a massive budget to have a research and development division but I think every company should have a research and development right aspect to it so in a company like mine I am the research and development you know division where I’m looking into new things I’m coming up with new ideas and um and ways to implement them uh but you know in in a different company maybe that looks like iron intern maybe it looks like just having a conversation with with experts like like code district and and other software development companies um and just getting the conversation started on where technology can take you right um with AI you know now the it seems like a Google an internet Google can come up with things on their lunch break that we’ve never seen before you know so yeah so you gotta stay involved in the conversation you got to look to um honestly you got to look to the younger Generations you know who are kind of like college age they’re they’re often times on like the Leading Edge of of Technology uh within the world really you know um and then as far as like some specific um you know tips on how to you know if you have a new technology right and and you want to implement it into your company there’s really a few things that you have to consider um I would say the first especially for last mile delivery is you have to consider the human element you know these this this is a job that is done by humans right and sure autonomous vehicles are being worked on you know whatever that looks like uh but if you’re like me and you own a company like mine you don’t have time to wait for the autonomous vehicles you know my operation it goes so you have to consider the human element uh people don’t want to get their tasking from a robot they don’t want to uh you know work for a computer they want to work for other people uh so so that’s important you can’t over rely on your technology to get the job done right it has to complement your current operation um and it has to work with within your culture and the environment that you’ve you’ve created in your company um you know for us for my company I have about seven managers you know if I came in with some technology that completely change the way that we’re doing something that’s going to be a much bigger implementation phase as oppos and it could entirely change the way the company looks right if you try and tell a carpenter to use a a Welding Tool it’s just not going to work right like and and so you have to be considerate of that you have to understand that people are used to working a certain way and when you bring in a new tool for them to use there’s going to be a period where they need to adapt um I think as a leader you kind of you do have to probably force it on people because people are are normally resistant to change um so you have to force it on them to a degree uh but if you find yourself you know months down the road still forcing on people I think that’s indicative of of a misalignment between your culture and the tool that you’ve created and that’s really something to consider as well um and I think also you have to be very open to feedback you know that can’t you can’t come up with Solutions in a vacuum especially for anything as complex as a business um you know changing one thing in one part of your company might affect everything else it might affect one other thing um so that implementation has to be very uh calculated and very um methodical so that you’re seeing the changes that that um result as as uh as you implement this new technology um and yeah I mean you know I guess if you’re looking for a place to start I would always start with what’s quantitative right um I think that you know that’s how data works is off quantities and numbers so you know again with Parallax you can count how many times someone is absent you can count how many times they’re late and by how many minutes um you know so that’s kind of a good place to start to create a foundation to handle the quantitative aspect getting into the qualitative aspect is is kind of a different Beast right how do you how do you systemize and create a software around a qualitative aspect is is a much harder uh Target to hit you know so Mike where do you think AI is ultimately going to take us or probably you know small to medium level organization like yours is it is it that we get onto the band bagget or adapt slowly just like you referred earlier or how do you really you know see it working out yeah it’s a tough it’s a it’s it’s a tough thing to to try and predict right that we we really have not seen anything like AI you know it it it’s one of those pivot Points in human history of where is this going to take us you know and um and globally things are just happening very quickly so you know I think it’s going to make probably kind of low lower level software development may be a little bit easier you know may I it’s not all easy with AI you know there there’s environmental factors to consider as well um but I think it’s going to make technology it’s going to embed technology even more in our lives um it’s it’s going to assist with a lot of things I think there’s going to be a lot of predictive models that come out of AI um which could be very beneficial um you know just for example again in last m delivery with uh Fleet Maintenance you know if if there’s a system that is able to predict when individual Parts might go down you know having that data so that I know oh okay this part goes down typically breaks around eight months and my software tells me at six months that I need to order a new part in case that one breaks right now I that that that results in less downtime so yeah it’s an interesting question is is where where is AI going to take us um and you know it it really could take us anywhere and then you know in in in about five or six years is kind of when people are expecting to see uh new developments and supercomputers and and and trying to get those more accessible to people uh you know that has the ability to change everything too so it’s a very difficult thing to predict I think um I would I would probably encourage uh people to or fellow bit I guess I’ll speak myself I won’t I won’t give any advice on it I think for me I would be apprehensive to build anything or rely on anything that is AI as of right now just because it’s it’s new um it’s uh you know my operation is still so hum driven that AI could could kind of lack that human element um so I think I think you just have to be careful of of what you’re using AI for um and and its pros and cons uh but with that said you also always have to have your finger on the pulse for when AI you know when you get the confidence in AI um and AI products and knowing when they can you know benefit your company right um you know just as an example of that I was using you know just a couple years ago I was I was using a handwritten calendar and then I moved to an electronic calendar and now I have a AI assisted calendar app right because it’s kind of like okay is this thing gonna get me in trouble probably not you know it’s it’s gonna it’s gonna help me out so um so yeah I mean you got to do your homework and you got to know what you’re getting into you got to keep your finger on the pulse uh to know if it’s going to be worth it to you yeah but then you know do you imagine yourself um leading Bots maybe 10 years from now placing the deliveries for you kind of hope not you know um it could be a massive not that I hope not you know it’s just you know when you look at Global Systems right if we have all of you know if all of our delivery vehicles are autonomous what are all the deliver the people who used to be delivery drivers doing you know um how how are they getting their paycheck now um are the roads safer with autonomous vehicles on there are are um you know with delivery drones do I have to worry about delivery drones falling out of the sky you know the these are kind of the the the kind of the communication that needs to happen in implementing these these big softwares and new technologies you know it has to because it happens so quickly the general population has to understand it I think a little bit better um so yeah I kind of you know I’m I’m apprehensive to be uh excited about autonomous vehicles doing delivery for us um you know and there’s an aspect to that of if if something breaks in one of my trucks right now you know I sometimes I can get in there with a wrench or some type of basic tool and fix it if my vehicle is just running off a stack of batteries you know I’m not gonna be able to fix it I’m gonna have to call someone to to to to really get in there and do a bunch of stuff that I you know that I don’t understand so um so yeah there’s a there’s a very steep learning curve with it for sure amazing um well Mike I I kept this question um towards you know the sort of the ending of our conversation that you know being in the Marines and then you know all the way to being this Mike you know leading his own SAS based product and being in the delivery and transformation industry himself um how did this happen you know or what brought you to the technology side of the world yeah um good question um so my degree out of college uh is in systems engineering so I have familiarization with kind of how systems work and uh and how technology can absolutely benefit and uh it just kind of seemed like a logical flow like a logical you know when I look back it seemed like I kind of maybe was uh making decisions on what I was doing next just because it looked like fun um but now now that I look back it seems like everything very logically flows um in that you know Parallax is a software that complements the human element which from my experience in the Marine Corps I’m very very familiar with the human element um and that gave me a big leg up for when it came time to start my delivery company um and you know that experience in the Marine Corps has been instrumental in the success of my delivery company especially in terms of our culture um and our fairness within the company uh that has been really key um and I think it’s just having a a mindset of constant Improvement and and process Improvement of you know I I just I found myself doing this task every day of comparing all these infractions and scrolling through and looking through how many times has this person been absent and this person and who’s on probation who’s on suspension I think I just got frustrated with it and I kind of felt like there has to be a better solution a better and more efficient way of doing it um and from there you just kind of follow the breadcrumbs you know you just you do a little bit each day um like I said re research and development you know I I I didn’t know a lot about this stuff I still would say that I don’t know about you know about software development um but you know you just got to know the right questions to ask and and you know you have to look at um how are you validating your assumptions how are you questioning your assumptions um what experts are you talking about how how is the trust that you’re building with with your resources um and you can you can go as as slower as fast as you want um depending on you know your timeline your budget so it it really is it’s it’s weighing all of those um those attributes to to see if it’s the right thing for you but I I I definitely don’t think it’s something that anyone should be intimidated by necessarily you know um the you don’t need to have a background in engineering or technology to find a solution that involves technology you know um so I would I would encourage anyone if they think they have a good idea you know start the conversation and and see if see if the idea that you’re thinking of is something worth investing into um and there’s you know there’s plenty of resources out there um you know plenty of of things to look at for self-study that that are going to point you in the right direction and yeah there there’s there’s definitely more efficient ways of going about it than I did and uh you know I’m I think I’m in a pretty good spot now so um so you know mistakes happen and and you just kind of learn from them and and keep moving no I just I just loved your honesty there and I think that the um listeners would also love that part you know being an advocate of um work life balance yourself were you um at some point in your life dealing with no balance at all where it was all work and no life and then there was a point when you figured out how important it is to strike one I I don’t think there’s I me maybe there is but I’ve never heard of somebody starting a successful company without working really hard in the beginning at least in the beginning um I’ve never you know it it long days and long hours are part of life I just think it’s important that um as a leader that I’m looking for ways to not make that Perpetual right um there have definitely been times where I’ve worked 24 hours straight you know or or you know 20 hour days for for months on ends you know um and that’s a certain way you know that’s a choice that’s a way that I chose to live in those times because I was building something you know and I I’m an entrepreneur and I I like starting businesses a lot of people don’t want to do that you know and I think as a leader you have to be aware of that and you have to be aware of the stress that you’re putting on people by trying to encourage them to work more I think most people want to come in do a job be treated fairly be paid fairly and then be able to go home and kind of be left alone you know and just and just be be free to do their stuff and uh and they should have enough time in the day to do that you know um so you know aside from when I was in the Marine Corps the times where I’ve worked really long hard day and the Marine Corp is kind of a different Beast of its own you you got to work hard there um but those days you know where I’ve worked long hours um for weeks or months on end that’s largely self-inflicted you know that was that was my choice to do that um and I think if when it comes time to ask my employees to to work longer hours or harder hours it’s important that I’m aware that I’m asking them to do that and that I don’t do it frequently you know and that it’s really only when we need to do it and I explain to them why we need to do it and once you know these deliverables are met everybody go home you know um I think that’s that that is a really big piece to um cultivating an environment where people enjoy their jobs because of what it offers them right um you know I always tell my employees your job is meant to support your life not necessarily be your life you know it probably isn’t the number one thing in your life you know people have families they have kids and pets and hobbies and and all that that admittedly they probably care a lot more about than their job but you got to have a job to to pay your bills right so it’s just the way that it is I think a lot of leaders unfortunately uh miss that and and they expect their employees to work like they do and and and that isn’t fair to do you know like no one is going to care about your business or your operation as much as you are um and and to expect people to is a little bit um kind of naive you know and so you got to give their people their time to breathe and relax so that when those periods come where you need to work hard they’re ready to work hard you know and they’re not burnt out um and then there’s certainly some businesses where that mentality is part of the business you know um where that hustle and long hours and and and um you know burnout is is part of the deal um I think that’s a choice you know and uh it’s not really an environment where I choose to go work but some people also like that but again I think the majority of people want to come in and have work be a routine part of their life um that supports the the other aspects of their life you can also probably Market yourself as a boss who Advocates work life balance and do the rest for you right you know in this world yeah and you know I I’ll admit like I probably wouldn’t do well in uh you know Investment Banking or something where that where 20 hour days 16 hour days is is kind of the norm there um but you know I’m not in investment banking for a reason you know I don’t want to inflict that on others um I think leaders just need to be aware of how hard they’re working their people what else is going on in in their people’s lives and and keeping in mind exactly that that people have lives outside of work you know um and uh be you know be respectful that treat people as people you know what is that one hard learned lesson that you gained all these years um be it if you want to relate it to technology or your life in general to where you are today I think you got to know when it’s time to really get involved and when it’s time to to step back and let your people work um you know and that you know in the Marine Corps the we did long hikes right we we put packs on our back that weighed a lot of weight and we walked really far really fast um no one’s going to do that for you right it’s your pack you got to pick it up and you got to carry it and you got to pull your weight um and I think leaders sometimes think that because things are busy that they need to get involved um because you feel like oh there’s a lot of weight and I need to carry it too I think uh the part of the art of leadership is is knowing okay this is something my my team is busy and the best way that I can help is get out of the way right they they know what they’re doing I need to just get out of the way because sometimes my presence stresses people out you know they start oh the boss is around like we got it you know um so so the boss being around can sometimes be a distraction so know when you’re a distraction know when you’re providing value know when you’re not providing value when my team is really busy my managers are working really hard on on on things sometimes it’s better for me to work from home and just be available to support them you know um because again you know the leadership or you know leadership being present can cause chaos and I think everybody uh in the workforce can relate to that you know you’re you’re quietly being productive at your desk you’re having a great day getting a lot of stuff done and then all of the sudden your boss’s boss’s boss shows up it’s going to disrupt your whole workflow you know and now you’re not working on that project that that boss’s boss’s boss you know assigned so now you’re getting behind because of the person so I think that that’s a hard lesson to learn um I think you know when I started in my leadership positions you know in the Marine Corps I really felt like I needed to be involved in every little thing uh and it took me a to realize oh I’m actually making this worse by being here you know I need to trust my people more um and and let them do what they’re good at you know well Mike it was incredible hearing you thank you for giving our listeners a peak into the future of transportation and delivery thank you Robbie great being here [Music]