Looks like real inflation from 2018 to 2024 was 25% over that time frame, so I think that was the collapse.
I don't think we are going to see things get worse from now, maybe they will even stabilize. But generally, we just went through a massive inflationary period that will be felt for a while.
I don't anticipate supporting only folks who trade paper with no ownership of the physical commodities.
There are teams who trade physical and do risk management with futures, and we may have some overlap there. But anyone who only traders futures isn't in our immediate customer profile.
Thanks! We are excited too. I've worked in construction software for many years, and really enjoyed the space. I am excited to jump into this domain and learn a lot about the industry.
I certainly think it is possible to have an even more focused platform.
We are starting with our network in soft commodities and I think it's possible to get pretty far just focusing on a smaller subset of commodities. Our long term goals and aspirations definitely include additional commodity industries as well.
We are building flexible tools from the foundation to support multiple industries.
This could be a really exciting roadmap for the long run. We actually believe there is enough of a market just selling solutions and tools to traders and producers that we haven't really thought about an "open API" sort of solution.
We have had ad-hoc conversations about the possibility, but I do think it could be an impactful solution if done correctly.
Yes we have taken a look at existing freight management tools. We are trying to go even more specific and manage specifically raw commodities and their shipment processes. There are enough specific criteria that go along with managing these supply chains that we believe we can provide compelling tools out of the box for our customers.
We are looking into how to best provide route planning into our product. I'm certain we will need to have accurate pricing information available. Thanks for the link!
Yes this is our approach. We noticed that all our customers spend a significant amount of resources getting their tech infrastructure configured. We want to "supercharge" their existing solutions, not rip and replace.
Today, and for the next few years, we don't anticipate competing directly with Cargowise. We see ourselves as an application that lives on top of Cargowise / CTRMs, etc. That allows a holistic view of operations from a single place.
Yes you have some really good points. There are a lot of business problems to overcome here!
Our CEO Philip is exactly that, a commodities trader with 8 years experience and a wide network for us to tap into.
As for every commodity market being different with its own intricate details, you are right. We are taking an approach to start in agriculture (sugar, coffee, cocoa) because these have similar supply chains. However, we are building configurable tools from the foundation to support more complex customizations to allow companies to easily tailor the solutions to their needs.
We have also had some calls recently with commodity producers who have shown a lot of interest in the platform so far, because they many of them manage their own logistics teams internally, which opens up an additional market outside of just the big trading players.
We have had this thought was well. It's tough to go into a vertical with software because you end up with tools that make it easier to get an edge, and then why not just trade yourself?
Generally, we just enjoy building software and it suits our personalities better. But we do believe that it is a good benchmark for our product to think, "could we use our tools to have a better edge in the market if we were a trade house."
I really doubt that, trade capital and relationships are what define those houses, not their tech stack. Some of them are already pretty advanced from an in-house development perspective and could compete with the best of commercial-ready in the market trading platforms and data sources.
Yup, I should have worded that a bit more carefully. It would appear to me that they could be rebuilt, but still need the key ingredients of a trading house.
for what i have seen in the demo it looks very very good. And I agree with a teak here and there this sw can be adopted by a range of trading houses of any kind of commodity, including the big ones with refineries. The difficulty in building systems like these, even if AI driven, is the myriad of business rules and the different specifics of each commodity trading.
I don't think we are going to see things get worse from now, maybe they will even stabilize. But generally, we just went through a massive inflationary period that will be felt for a while.