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Matt Kurman is the Director of Growth Programs at Convoy, a digital freight network transporting the world with endless capacity and zero waste (akin to “the Uber of freight”), as 1 of the 1st 15.

Which makes sense, given Matt formerly came from Uber , where he cut his teeth in the high octane world of marketplace startups. At Uber Matt was part of the hearty Ops team, the “beating heart” of Uber Seattle.

Back to Convoy! Over the course of 8 years, Matt went from founding member, to Supply-side expert in physical marketplaces, has been a diehard evangelist of the company, while coming from the performance heavy world of college basketball where he was a “1000 point scorer”.

This conversation was…full throttle. Very entertaining! It’s loaded with gems of amazing stories of marketplace scale & challenges; Matt brings the ruckus and energy of an athlete to a marketplace, we love it.

We dive deep into…Taking the “road less traveled” (and what that meant for Matt), the “dance” of building hard-earned trust & respect of trucking companies, 6 key principles of ops for a physical startup marketplace, breakthroughs in acquiring Supply & operating in a “Demand-lead” market, and Convoy’s ingenious flywheel that just KEEPS GIVIN’!

This episode is particularly valuable for any founder, operator, or marketer who’s involved in a PHYSICAL marketplace and needs to know the nitty gritty of a proven blueprint for scale. Booby traps are called out; you’ll definitely want to listen to this one.

BON APPETIT!

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Show Notes

• [4:18] How come Forrest Gump is your favorite movie ever?
• [7:08] Why does the quote “fortune favors the bold” resonate with you?
• [10:05] By nature, Uber & Convoy go against the grain. Do you identify with that?
• [11:20] What effect did joining have on your career & life?
• [14:25] How working at a startup is like working as an athlete on a team
• [17:16] One thing that helped Matt & other found members
• [18:58] What was it like in the early days? What was your role
• [20:04] How a traditional freight-broker model works
• [21:02] Carriers (Supply) vs Shippers (Demand)
• [21:49] 2nd responsibility of Convoy: coverage
• [24:14] What else did you learn? How did you start to understand your Carriers (Supply)?
• [27:57] 80-90% of all trucking companies are deemed mom & pop’s
• [30:20] Tips & tricks of how you built trust with Supply?
• [32:29] How trucking companies are programmed to pick up their phone
• [35:45] The mantra of “you couldn’t fail on loads”

Links from Episode

• Connect with Matt: LinkedIn |Twitter
• Convoy
• Uber
• Forrest Gump
• Bubba Gump Shrimp
• Tom Hanks wins 1995 Academy Award for Best Actor
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Dan Lewis
• David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell
• What an MC number is
• Convoy QuickPay
• Convoy Automated Detention

What ‘marketplace principle’ did you learn from Matt? Comment below 🙏🏽