[00:00:05] It’s time Supply Chain Now Radio broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

 

[00:00:29] All right. Good afternoon. Scott Luton here with you once again. Lively Supply Chain Now Radio. Welcome back to the shows. We’re not broadcasting in Atlanta today. We’re broadcasting live from the South Carolina fall Logistics tech talk in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina at the Gilliard Center, which took me three hours to figure out how to pronounce that, Greg.

 

[00:00:46] And there’s still some dispute. Yes.

 

[00:00:49] Oh, we’re broadcasting as we continue broadcasts in partnership with the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness. This event, we’ve already had several interviews of folks participating and speaking, you name it. It really highlights some of the innovative companies and leaders that are driving, not just a Logistics industry, Ford, although that’s the focus, but the business, just the business landscape here in the state of South Carolina, which is certainly booming, took quick programing note. Like all of our series on Supply Chain Now Radio, you can find our replays on a wide variety of channels Apple podcasts, SoundCloud, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast from. As always, we’d love to have you subscribe to your messy thing. So as you might have heard my esteemed co-host once again this morning, Greg White Serial Supply chain tech entrepreneur and trusted advisor and board member Greg. How we doing? I’m doing great. It’s great to be here. Yeah, great dinner last night. It’s hard not to get a great one here yet.

 

[00:01:44] Funny how often people say that. We say, oh, we went to this great restaurant down in the French Quarter and there’s like they’re like, yeah, it’s hard to go wrong.

 

[00:01:54] Ryder is right. But we went to the smallest I think it was definitely one of the smallest great restaurants. If you don’t like it, get bumped. Don’t go there yet. 167 raw, great food, grayer people. Very intimate is what you could say.

 

[00:02:09] Yes, great service. And enjoy the conversation. But today, we’re talking with movers and shakers that are making things happen and really in the end, supply chain. And from a different vrai, different perspectives so far. Portes Right.

 

[00:02:22] So government entities, a startup and one of the largest tire companies in automotive companies in the entire world. Yep. So quite a broad range today.

 

[00:02:31] And this episode we’re going to talk with a business leader that’s helping other businesses happen right across across the landscape. And certainly in Supply chain, the US will welcome in Michael Rentz CEO and co-founder of Anti-matter. How you doing, Michael? I’m doing great. Thank you for having me. You bet. And I don’t know how you going to sleep. You got it. You’re driving a lot of activity. And the matter is just one of the chapters in the book, right?

 

[00:02:57] That’s right. That’s right. And welcome to the Supply chain Innovation Capital.

 

[00:03:01] I love it. I knew he was going to have something to say about that. Look, it’s pretty good. I love it when you know what?

 

[00:03:08] This is our second stint. And second of it. Charleston in the span of a month. Right. And we are hearing plenty of testimony that backs up Barça, no doubt. Right. And including estate and infrastructure. Gets it and realizes that they can’t be obstacles to growth. They’re really, really think. Yeah. Yeah. So but before we get all that and for talk about anti-matter, Michael, tell us more about yourself.

 

[00:03:31] Yeah. And I’m born and raised in South Carolina and Lexington County, West Columbia. I went to undergrad at USC, studied civil engineering, made my way down to Charleston, did a JD MBA here. And through that program, the MBA program, specifically my mentors, Jim Newsome, who is is now risen to the level of a legend. Really? Right. CEO Sports Ray D’Alessio has years in South Carolina Ports Authority, and he introduced me to Supply chain and Logistics. And I haven’t really looked back since. You mean you didn’t hear about Supply chain in your kid’s books when you were young? I did not know. Amazing, isn’t it? Not by that name.

 

[00:04:09] So. So he it since Jim kind of introduce Sheer connected to it world. What? What was that first kind of epiphany? First thoughts, man. This is a much bigger space. And I thought what what was some of the things you were thinking about?

 

[00:04:21] Yeah. I mean, it’s really hard to avoid that being in Charleston. You know, in business school and then driving over the Ravenhall every day and, you know, seeing the vessels and the containers and the cranes and at the same time kind of recognizing they made us read The Wall Street Journal and Business School, which I, you know, very much loved. But you noticed the influx of of large corporates and in manufacturing to the southeast and really just putting two and two together, like, how does all that stuff get here? Get away from here. And then our director of our MBA program introduced me to Jim. And then on top of that, developed the passion in my early twenties for traveling and and seeing the world and as far as a career was concerned. You know, there’s really. Not a better opportunity. Career wise then supply chain international trade to see the world and to work with different cultures across different time zones.

 

[00:05:09] And so that was it. You know, Jim, actually, when I went to the first time I ever met Jim, he he knew I was in law school. And so we’ve got to make sure first that you do want to be a lawyer.

 

[00:05:20] And so he he set me up with 10 meetings with lawyers around around town.

 

[00:05:25] And I met with them and I came back as I still don’t want to be a lawyer. He goes, all right, now we can talk Supply chain Logistics.

 

[00:05:30] And so that’s how I got introduced to it.

 

[00:05:33] Well, you’re speaking to kind of the global community. I mean, in this in this modern day Amazon age, it truly is a global India in Supply chain communi global, for that matter, global in business community jerai. And I love the emphasis on eminent innovation here in Charleston. We see it at events. We see it with some of the things that the South Carolina Council Competiton Competitiveness are doing. Right.

 

[00:05:58] To ensure we talked early on earlier episode in schools talking supply chain with third, fourth fifth graders, which is certainly innovative because as your your joke you’re speaking to. Traditionally you didn’t hear about Logistics and Supply chain and even manufacturing. All right. So let’s talk more, Michael, about anti-man.

 

[00:06:18] Tell us about, you know, what led you and your co-founders to establishing it. What it does and maybe what where we’re headed there.

 

[00:06:26] Yeah. So anti-matter was born really out of my house in North Jersey when I was working for mayors. As any millennial trying to create a side hustle for some supplemental income. It started as a 3D printing supply company, you know, due to our experience at mayors. We knew the resin boom that was happening in the Gulf, so I knew I could buy plastic cheap and sell it. So we started trying to do that and selling to universities. But in the process, I met a company called bater Box, which is a startup I’m now had a partnerships with and tried to sell them our 3D printing material. What really got to know the founders and found an obsession with with entrepreneurs and really people willing to risk it all for something they believe in and jumped in hands on with operations while working at Maersk and tried to help them grow. And within five months I procured a very large scale government contract and realized I love that. And you know, and I was good at it. And so it quickly turned from a 3D printing supply company to a venture building studio, not venture capital, because we didn’t have any money, but that’s what it was. And so we looked around the network at other early stage companies that we knew and that we could reach out to and ask them if, you know, instead of taking on some money, would you be willing to let us go out and see if we could procure a government contract or a large scale, you know, climb corporate p0 or something? Yeah. And one hundred percent of them said, yeah. Wow. And that’s how it was born. So that’s what you’re doing that.

 

[00:07:50] I mean, you’re helping them get these earth-shattering accounts that really set him up to be free of venture capital. Yeah. I mean temporarily, right?

 

[00:08:01] Yeah. I mean, essentially that’s that’s what it is. I mean what what they would do with a large scale investment without diluting the shares is, you know, it would hire somebody like us, like outsource, outsource business development or somehow to source the manufacturing or really a wide variety of things that any early stage company needs.

 

[00:08:20] And we said, hey, we’ll come, we’ll come do it for you for free. And then whatever, you know, whatever revenue we bring in, we’d like to take a slice of it. And typically, that process. Now, this is where our business model is different. But we found some articles from BCG and some other places that have kind of corroborated this was in that process is typically like three, six, nine month sales cycle of going out to procure that large of of a PEO. Right. Or government contract. And typically what they’ve found is they like the way we worked. And I say that with air quotes because they thought we were polished. And that was simply because we came from Maersk. You know, a northern European Danish company, very, very well structured and process oriented. And, you know, we sent good emails essentially to a scrappy entrepreneurs that was impressive. And so through that, we’d procure some type of contract, you know, a retainer. And then the last phase of it was instead of taking the commission for the revenue, we’d like to exchange it for equity.

 

[00:09:15] And we started to build out our own portfolio. And that’s that’s what we do. Mm hmm.

 

[00:09:19] So I like as I was doing my homework, checking out your Web site, like one of the phrases on there that really stuck out. Everything we do is through the lens of love, grit and consciousness. That’s all right. What does that mean to you would tell us what why does that fit your group?

 

[00:09:36] Yeah, I mean, again, working that matters. We you know, and Mr. Muellers especially, you know, we found that the importance of something like values or principles, as Ray Dalio would call it, or anything like that. It’s really easy to operate a business or make decision when things are good. It seems to be a bit trickier when things aren’t so good. And that’s where I think. The importance of values comes in and essentially we use it as a lens and we try to view everything through that and then align fundamentally with the people we’re working with. You know, the only thing we know about with early stage founders doing thing we know about financial projections or that they’re wrong. And so we’re really looking to invest in it. The time, would you say 100 percent? Yes. And so we’re really roughly a hundred percent roughly. So we’re really looking at the people and having those types of eyes love great and consciousness, which was born out of a coffee shop in Montclair, New Jersey, with my co-founder, Sean Langston Hughes out in San Francisco.

 

[00:10:32] Now the rest of the bear love out of New Jersey. I know, right. And you gotta you gotta you gotta reach deep. That’s where the grit comes in. That’s right. I think grits are truly southern attribute.

 

[00:10:45] So switching gears a little bit, but really, I mean, grits, great Segway here because I want to get your thoughts on the state of the startup community within the global indie in Supply chain. And that’s an important supportand distinction because that is only become a more prevalent viewpoint, perspective in the last few years. Really. Right. So for so long, supply chain meant one thing, just the movement. Right. And not to say just because that’s important. Transportation’s the background is a backbone of the in the in supply chain. But you know, the prevalent worldview is kind of infrom procurement, into production, into warehousing, into transportation. And then to your recent blog article with reversal just a reverse Logistics and returns. That is all those functions make up today’s global and in Supply chain community. So let’s get you to weigh in. Michael Al-Qeada state of the startup component to that.

 

[00:11:38] Yeah. Supply chain. Everybody’s got a different definition these days. It seems like. But it what it really is, is a loose collection of a bunch of different industries, whether it’s trucking, warehousing, ports, ocean carriers. So it’s a loose collection of all these different industries. And you know, one of the things I’ve noticed is that a lot of people try to innovate and iterate specifically in one of those verticals. Take trucking, for example. They design these solutions that are effective in the end in trucking. And I think up to this point, one of the one of the biggest issues you’ve seen it is they designed these solutions without an orientation or even awareness of the entire supply chain. And so when that when that solution scales up and trucking and it’s time to tie into some, you know, two to a warehouse or a port, it’s rather ineffective.

 

[00:12:22] So by definition, almost like an incubator or an accelerator that takes different startups from all of those different verticals, trucking, warehousing in Sheer, tech, things like that. And they’re all designing their solutions in their respective verticals. But with that greater orientation, that’s where you start to see real change. And so that is actually what I think is lacking, is you see a lot of startup activity, whether it’s on Twitter out of Chattanooga with freight waves or Atlanta or New York or California, Berlin, South America, wherever it is. One thing is they haven’t really found a place to consolidate all that activity yet. There isn’t like a true physical location to do something like that. So noggins you’re aiming for. Yeah, that’s certainly what we’re aiming for here is I’m you know, I’m using the brand equity of Charleston to lure these these founders from around the world to come live here and go through an accelerator or an incubator and see if we can’t make a difference.

 

[00:13:16] Well, I think that’s you know, that’s a really good perspective. It’s interesting to have you relatively new to the industry, recognize that. But it is very common for people to develop these things in silos. For instance, I was in Supply chain before I was even in technology and supply chain. And and what I’ve learned about transportation is I was even in retail before. But what I’ve learned about transportation in just the last few months, I didn’t even realize what went on because when we cut a p0 as a retailer for tools in China or wherever it was, we we just sent it to those people. We called expediters and they took care of, you know, ships and trucks, trains and containers and that sort of money. So it is really interesting how siloed it is and it does need to be integrated. Right. And to some extent, there needs to be a container for the single source of truth. Right. One of the initiatives that I’ve tried to undertake is to identify that if you think about let’s just think about a forecast. A warehouse management system has a forecast of supply chain planning a replenishment, you know, whatever a manufacturing ERP system has a forecast and they all calculate it with that siloed mentality. You need to recognize what the source of that forecast is and then distribute it and translated in the appropriate fashion to make sure that not to get too technical. But yeah. None of that will create fashion, that is to make it useful to every aspect of the business. And that’s kind of what you’re after, it seems like. Yeah.

 

[00:14:48] I mean, generally like with the v.c market is today, a lot of these are terrified of hardware. You know, they only want to invest in software, but like the maverick d.c’s. And there’s a fantastic. Documentary on Netflix called Something Ventured, which talks about the beginning of a v.c. They were not scared. They were fearless. And what is going to take in this industry is going to be a heavy part of hardware. I mean, if you look at the last great innovation in our industry, it was the invention of the container in 1956. And what that day was injecting deformity, you know, throughout the entire supply chain from end to end. And that’s, you know, it’s not just going to be hardware, but that’s certainly what I’m looking for is something that creates some type of connectivity by way of uniformity with hardware and software.

 

[00:15:32] Malcolm Persil McLean think is how you pronounce the last name containerisation. We named our research team after Malcolm. Because your point it reveler, it changed the industry and completely right and made it made. You know, I think when we think about Supply chain, when the first words, especially these days you think about is is finding efficiencies. And boy, what a platform. That big shift allowed it to find a lot more efficiencies. Right. And standardization, to your point. OK. So any other and Greg, turn the tables on you because you’ve got plenty of startup experience when you are little, though.

 

[00:16:09] Let’s let’s talk. Well, let’s go.

 

[00:16:12] But I want to get your weigh in, because one of the observations we’ve made on some other shows is that the big behemoths in the industry are much more open to working with startup businesses or early stage businesses. Is that what you’re seeing as well?

 

[00:16:27] Yeah, I mean, yeah, for sure. I mean, essentially outsourcing research and development by way of playing in the asset class of startups is what I think any corporate venture capital would say. Well, have you seen these days?

 

[00:16:39] Yeah, you have me here. You know, we said this earlier. You are either disrupting or you are about to be disrupted, something like that. Yeah, I am sure. And big companies. So I’m from Wichita, Kansas. So I know Koch Industries fairly well. They have a department of disruption, which is laughable. I’m going to have a strongly worded email from HHS coped soon. But to think that big companies can disrupt is counter not just counterintuitive, it is impossible. They are too embedded in their and too invested in their methodology to be able to do that. And what they need to do and I think that’s what Chase, for example, is trying to do are point A is trying to do in Atlanta is is to find those companies that can actually enact disruption and tightly engage with those companies that need disruption to to change, change or adapt their business model. Exactly.

 

[00:17:37] So, Michael, how do you. One of the challenges we’ve heard about extensively is the need to kind of train big companies on how to work with startups. Right. You see a similar gaps or challenge with some of the work you’re doing.

 

[00:17:49] Yeah, for sure. I mean, there’s you know, when you when you engage, you know, an incubator accelerator like TechStars, like Y Combinator. You know, some of those top tier accelerators, you know, in addition to the obvious, which is they bring you startups from all over the world and you invest in them. You also there are the you know, the unquantifiable parts of that, which is startup culture and talent and seeing around corners and how to be dynamic and how to be nimble and all those things.

 

[00:18:20] And like, you know, you may acquire a very early stage company just for the talent, you know. And, you know, a lot of those are mentor driven accelerators where, you know, 50 to 100 employees beyond just the investment are part of the accelerator and they’re working with these startups. And that’s certainly invigorating. And they take that back, I think, to their daily processes that they are, you know, employed to do at their corporate’s.

 

[00:18:44] Absolutely. And, you know, you mentioned point a, Greg. Some of the work they’re doing in Atlanta. Michael, when and when and whenever you’re up with. Up next on the folks, they’re doing a great job of facilitating and helping the startups that are playing a role in the supply chain space with the companies looking for new ways of solving old and new problems.

 

[00:19:05] Yeah, and that’s that’s exactly. I mean, so the Charleston Supply chain meetup and you know, that’s what I run. But that is a sister chapter of the New York Supply chain Meetup, which is actually the worldwide Supply chain Federation, which was started by Brian Away and Lisa morales’ halibut based out of New York City and their season venture capitalists up there with not really a background in Supply chain. And that’s exactly what they’re they’re trying to create their own in two years and now and they just had their annual conference where buyers meet builders. And that was the theme of the conference at the Microsoft headquarters in New York. Love it. And you know, they had startups from all over the world, Israel, South America, Africa, Asia, the United States, and then the buyers of those potential products. You know, the large corporates that you would expect. And that’s exactly the theme. You know, they I think I see most prevalent in the Supply chain Logistics startup. World is, you know, how do we get these new ideas? These new products to test it and then eventually acquired by the ones that need it most?

 

[00:20:04] Mm hmm. Well, let’s go broader here. I want to get you to weigh in on kind of. If you look at beyond the startup component of the Supply chain Business Committee, what are some of the other supply chain trends, challenges, issues that are on your radar more than others right now?

 

[00:20:22] Yeah. I mean, weirdly enough, I think in Sheer tech is going to be the quickest to, you know, find a find its way in the quickest to get acquired. When I was at Maersk, you know, we hired McKinsey to figure out what the three potential disruptors would be. One was blockchain. The other was trade, finance. And the third was insurance. And so Maersk is securely in all three of those, obviously, with the trade lens, Javy with IBM and then their trade finance team, which is what I was part of while I was at Mariscal. But in-shore tech, you know, with our access to data points, you know, Michelin is putting RFID and tires now. You know, there’s just so much data out there. And I think the quickest place to use it is, is something in an insurance, especially cargo insurance. So, you know, it’s not my field of expertise, but that is certainly what’s on my radar the most is waiting for one of those to pop up, because I think that’ll be the easiest path forward that nobody’s really talking about. And then. Yeah. So that will be the first one that I think is an interesting one.

 

[00:21:18] The before I want to ask you more about something you mentioned the Charleston Supply chain meetup. Before I do anything else, any of the trending topics. You know, beyond and Sheer tech that that you’ve been dobbyn into more lately.

 

[00:21:30] Yeah. So I’m I’m not going to talk about the obvious ones like digital freight forwarding and stuff like that. I think that saturate and I don’t really know if they’re solving any real problems. I’m looking for things like connectivity. So like where a truck meets, meets a meets a warehouse. Kevin NATOs startup out of Greenville, a true low time, I think is the most fantastic startup I’ve seen. I always joke with the guys in New York, Brian and Lisa. Guys and girls in New York, Brian and Lisa, about we got to get the industry to twenty ten before we can get it to 2020. And that is certainly what what Kevin’s doing with true load time. And I encourage everyone to research that and figure out a way to support it, because that’s certainly what the industry needs. But no, I’m looking for, like I said, hardware and software solutions somewhere that’s trying to solve like something like a live load where a truck backs up to a warehouse. And how long does that take? And is there anything you can do to create some type of uniformity across the globe with that? You know, it’s to me, it’s unreasonable that that can take anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours and that totally throws off the forecast and then magnifies the bullwhip effect. And that’s really the problem.

 

[00:22:37] And supply chain, from my perspective, a huge problem. And, you know, it’s something that that parallels that kind of from a nonmetallic standpoint is just how how drivers are treated. Oh, yeah. Sylvie’s right. And one of the things that that that I go back to The LA Times we talk about. Obviously driver shortage. And some of the transportation challenges that exist in this era are big common threads in our shows. If there’s a great image on LinkedIn and it was a checking account or at a typical manufacturing operation and it had a taped beat up word document or a written 14 years ago, coffee stained, you know, dogood all the stuff. And it was a message to the drivers that checked in. Don’t ask more than once where you know, when you can leave. And it just laid out these these old fashioned just just kind of painting the picture like like you’re communicating to a second class citizen. Right. And we wonder why. You know, truck driving is has got a stigma or we wonder why we’re struggling to find that next generation. And in many ways and in and out, we missed on the whole, unfortunately, we’re mistreating our drivers. They keep the economy. I mean, they they keep our industry and economy moving, you know?

 

[00:23:58] Yeah, without a doubt. Again, I come from an ocean carrier background. So trucking is my expertise. But, you know, I think certainly what we can all do is some type of awareness like we’re talking about it and giving the truckers and the people that are closely associated with them a platform. I know Jim Nuzum, I can’t think of a better leader in the industry. Certainly does that. And every chance he gets with all the accolades the port’s getting now, he elevates the truckers and brings awareness to it. And, you know, I don’t know if any of the current start ups out there are trying to solve. I know with Kevins, you know, true load time is publishing true load times at depots, you know. So, you know, you might have a four hour haul from Charleston to to Asheville, but that turnaround time, you know, isn’t published. It may take three hours and it may have it better off going to Knoxville, you know, where it is a 30 minute and coming back. So he’s trying to create some type of visibility there. And paying them also by the hour as opposed to the model. So I love that. Yeah. So, again, I can’t go too deep because it’s not my expertise. And I’ll leave that to Kevin. But yeah, I mean, with regards to truckers.

 

[00:24:58] They are certainly the lifeblood of the industry here. And that needs to be elevated.

 

[00:25:04] Absolutely. All right. So the Charleston Supply chain meetup you founded, I guess, this chapter or this this offshoot from a New York based.

 

[00:25:14] Right. Yeah. So I was a I started attending it when I was in New York and tried to build some software for Mayor Scott through the do the Supply chain Meetup meeting eventual co-founder there. And I wasn’t planning on coming back to Charleston. I left Maresca in July of twenty eighteen and I moved back south. I was actually thinking about Atlanta. And a lot of my friends were here. So I was. You know, come in. Come in here. And I kind of noticed a blossoming entrepreneurship scene with like co-working spaces. That was not here when I left in 2016. Well, I just got here and looked around and I kind of noticed what I alluded to earlier, which is that this place is perfect for Supply chain innovation. I can go deep into that. I’ve identified four things, but I wrote a white paper on that idea and simultaneously I reached out to Brian and said I’d love to stand up a Charleston Supply chain chapter. And he agreed and he helped me facilitate that and gave me all the marketing stuff and the infrastructure necessary to do that to make it as easy as possible.

 

[00:26:11] And then I just promoted it. And, you know, it’s free, which I think is a big culture change in the south. If you look at the startup communities in New York and Silicon Valley, everybody understands the idea of giving first. Right. So we made it free to everyone, which it will always be free as long as I’m in charge. And then we wanted people from both inside and outside the industry that was super important to us simply because you can’t read the label from inside the jar, you know, and how are we going to effectively solve any problems that have been plaguing us for 30, 40, 50 years without a new set of eyes. And the final thing is it’s a really big industry. You know, there’s supply chain isn’t just, you know, optimization equations and operations. There’s finance, marketing, sales, h.r. Customer service, you know, administrative work. So it’s you mean we need every design argue design. Yeah, it’s product design is now a partisan blotch. Yeah, exactly. So it’s a super big industry. So we need everybody and. And that was the impetus behind the Charleston Supply chain Miura.

 

[00:27:09] And so to our listeners, if you will learn more about the Charleston Supply chain Meetup, T.C. H. S ACMD dot com.

 

[00:27:17] That’s it. Yeah. The acronym for. Yeah.

 

[00:27:20] Okay. So how can folks Michael, if they want to follow up with you on some of things you’re leading, some things you’re doing, some things you’ve shared with us. Yeah. You’re a very passionate individual which you can pick up in in one of my first impressions with you. Thank you. And you’ve driven. I mean, I think you’re not not to be dramatic here, but I think when you sit down with someone that’s passion and intense about what they’re doing, you notice it is it is very highly noticeable. So I wish we had about three more hours to supplement this conversation to die and fix things more. Yeah, but so how can our listeners get in touch with you?

 

[00:27:54] Yeah, I mean, I’m fine with everyone emailing me. So it’s just Michael at anti-matter 3D, the number three, the letter D dot com linked and always, you know, as G Michael Rentz Junior, I mean and that’s the same as my Twitter, although it’s nothing but like really philosophical quotes from, you know, 20th and 19th century philosophers probably.

 

[00:28:15] But well, and you’ll have an infamous Instagram account at anti-matter. Right.

 

[00:28:22] Yeah. I saw the website. Yeah. We haven’t gotten to that in a long time. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:28:29] We have Instagram as well. So I’ll think you were supposed to raise that. No, no it’s I didn’t get about it.

 

[00:28:35] Now I’m fundraising right now. And so that’s like the weirdest psychological process.

 

[00:28:39] I think anybody that’s ever done it can and can tell you that. So I’m trying I think we’re really close and something super special is about to happen here. So I’m head down trying to make that happen for everybody. So we’ll see ending. That is an all consuming task. Mm hmm. Yeah, I know it is. That’s that’s where we are.

 

[00:28:59] All right. So you me here throughout the day, tech talk here. Yeah. There are these supply chain innovation capital of the world. That’s right. And that’s where I’m gonna to that. Please do.

 

[00:29:09] You know, it’s not going to matter too long because eventually they’re both going to expand so much. It’s gonna be one city. Charles Blow. I mean, as soon as we get to that Charleston high speed rail system.

 

[00:29:21] Yeah. You know, we’ll get we’ll be off to the races.

 

[00:29:24] Well, really have enjoyed getting the meet. You’ll better learn more about what you’re up to. And Michael Rentz CEO and co-founder of Anti-matter, also founder of the Charleston Supply chain Meetup. You’ll find a means to connect with him in the show notes, pages. Michael, thanks for your time here today. Thank you all so much. I appreciate it. You bet. All right. To our audience. Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned as we continue our coverage of the 2019 South Carolina fall. Logistics tech talk. Be sure to check us out on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, YouTube. Else you get your podcasts from. Of course, you can find. All of our past episodes and the events we’ll be at. Got a pretty healthy event county coming up. Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. What’s your favorite event?

 

[00:30:05] We’re heading to the next six months for December.

 

[00:30:09] Supply chain Verusen universe Logistics up. We could be there.

 

[00:30:13] That’s our virtual joysticks association because it’s in Vegas.

 

[00:30:16] Vegas? That’s right. Have you heard the reverse Logistics Association? No, I have not. So a global organization based in Atlanta, the Tony Sciarrotta former Philips Supply chain leader. And they are doing excellent work. Really? Really? Yeah. I think there’s a lot of companies, big, small and whatever all points between struggling with returns and struggling to reverse Logistics Tony’s approaches.

 

[00:30:39] He’s basically trying to work himself out of a job that he is. He’s trying to create a scenario where it’s less likely when you prevent or you prevent misunderstandings that cause returns to occur. I mean, it’s it’s a really good perspective.

 

[00:30:55] You mentioned a kind of a psychological case study or work in progress. I think consumer behaviors as it relates to returns in that whole and it’s a fascinating.

 

[00:31:06] We cannot forget that the consumer is part of the supply chain. I think there is no last mile. That’s right. Not end at the door, a demand chain. Now I’m waiting for somebody to toss a coin. You know, it’s funny because it was that, you know, people called it that probably 15, 20 years ago. Yeah. And it. Yeah. Look, I think it’s a network. I don’t think it’s a start at all.

 

[00:31:27] It’s a circular supply chain. That’s what people need to move towards. It is pressure.

 

[00:31:31] We can’t have a post script conversation to the red meat episode here.

 

[00:31:36] And you can’t stop us and stop. Man. In fact, you can’t write. That’s great.

 

[00:31:42] Michael Rentz to our audience for Greg White Scott Luton the entire Supply Chain Now Radio gang. Have a great week and we will see you next time on Supply Chain Now Radio.  Thanks everybody.