Have you benchmarked against what some of the SaaS in the freight management category ? For instance Cargowise has a few modules to digitise and reconcile invoices, bills of lading etc .. besides the competition angle I’d also advise you look at it from an integration angle as lots of traders already tools etc
Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
31–40 of 48 posts
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#32Do you happen to be hiring for customer service positions?
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#33Hey guys,
Congratulations with the launch.
I’m an ex-tcf banker turned software developer (mainly frontend). I’ve worked 10 years in trade finance world as a relationship manager and credit analyst and i know from first hand how pain in the ass it is to deal with the archaic methods in the tcf world.
I’m keen on learning if you already have ideas around improving the financing side of things. In the end, finance is big part of the commodity business. Also it would be a huge benefit if you can improve the processes around fraud prevention. Not an easy task and not necessarily a tech problem, but definitely a historically huge problem in commodity trade.
Also any ideas around making this more like an open api where banks, warehouses, logistics companies and traders can integrate and stay in sync with each other?
Just wanted to mention these few big pain points from my experience.
I hope your platform can address some of these issues.
Best of luck
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#34You might want to try doing something like https://www.xeneta.com/ too, giving shipping price data
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!
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#35Have you benchmarked against what some of the SaaS in the freight management category ? For instance Cargowise has a few modules to digitise and reconcile invoices, bills of lading etc .. besides the competition angle I’d also advise you look at it from an integration angle as lots of traders already tools etc
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.
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#36Hey guys, Congratulations with the launch. I’m an ex-tcf banker turned software developer (mainly frontend). I’ve worked 10 years in trade finance world as a relationship manager and credit analyst and i know from first hand how pain in the ass it is to deal with the archaic methods in the tcf world. I’m keen on learning if you already have ideas around improving the financing side of things. In the end, finance is b…
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.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
So it is not a fully fledged TMS such as Cargowise from Wisetech, correct?
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.
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#38I'm not super familiar with the overall-commodity trading platform. But one of the more empowering businesses in the grains business has been "Bushel" - https://bushelpowered.com Is it possible to have a trading platform focused on "grains business" only ? Or does that deviate from your core value proposition?
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.
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#39This is pretty cool. I have no idea of this industry, but good to see YC and founders tackling something off the beaten path.
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.
Re: Launch HN: CommodityAI (YC W24) – Shipment management for commodity traders
#40Could your software be useful to institutional commodity futures traders who do not participate in physical markets?
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.