Scaling with Innovation: David Broe on Global Growth and AI in Supply Chain

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Scale2Day Podcast! In this 30-minute masterclass, host Scott Bewley, founder of Scale2Day.com, dives into the world of global business scaling with special guest David Broe. David is a seasoned entrepreneur with a remarkable journey, transitioning from commercial banking to co-founding two groundbreaking companies: FreightWatch and Overhaul.

In this episode, David shares his entrepreneurial insights, from tackling supply chain risk management to driving rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how Overhaul harnesses AI to enhance services and how a strong company culture plays a key role in scaling globally. Whether you're a seasoned executive or an aspiring entrepreneur, David's bold yet humble approach offers practical advice to propel your business forward.

Tune in for actionable insights on scaling your business across borders, navigating supply chain risks, and leveraging innovation to fuel growth. Let’s get started!

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Scott Bewley [00:00:01]:
Hi. I'm Scott Bewley, the founder of Scale2Day.com, where we help you scale your business to new heights. This podcast is a 30 minute master class on how to scale your business across borders. It's where I interview seasoned executives and entrepreneurs who have built, scaled, and turned around businesses. Listen in to get great nuggets of knowledge from experts in 30 minutes by joining the podcast. David, look. It's, it's great to have you on the podcast today. Good good to see you.

David [00:00:40]:
Thanks, Thanks for the invite.

Scott Bewley [00:00:42]:
No no no worries at all. It's really excited about hearing your your story and scaling your business. Yeah. So look look, let let's let's dive in. So may maybe you could start by telling us a bit about your your background for for our listeners and, how your business works and that type of

David [00:00:57]:
thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, after college, I started off in kind of banking, in kind of the commercial lending with ICC Bank or Bank of Scotland for those who were based in Ireland. And, that's where I met Barry Conlon, who's the cofounder of Overhaul, where which is where I am now. He was doing an MBO of a company called FreightWatch, which is his first startup. And I was in my late twenties, had loads of ideas, and he said, well, they all sound great. Why don't you try and do that for real? So he kinda challenged me to to leave my safe job in banking and go into the entrepreneurial world.

David [00:01:30]:
So that was FreightWatch. We built that business up, sold us to a Fortune 50 company at a time called United Technologies, which no longer exists. It got split up. And then we after that, we set up Overhaul. And, actually, last year, we bought that company back, which was kind of fun. So, yeah, kind of in a neat circle to the whole thing. And then we're in Overhaul. What we do is is supply chain risk management for high value or or sensitive cargo.

David [00:01:57]:
We, it's a technology platform at at the center of it all. We pull in as much in transit telemetry as we can to get visibility, and then we did try and scan that information for any anything that's going wrong. And if something goes wrong, we we alert everybody that something's going wrong. And if if it's very wrong, like a test or something like that, we actually jump in and and fix it or try to fix it, and we're we're pretty good at fixing it as well. But the main idea of the platform is to prevent risk rather than respond to risk.

Scott Bewley [00:02:29]:
Brilliant. So so it must have been a big, a big leap, and it will come back obviously to Overhaul, but it must have been a big leap to go from, like, a nice sort of safe banking job into the world of, entrepreneurship.

David [00:02:40]:
Yeah. It was. But I I think I had spent about 6 years doing it, and I kinda knew it wasn't I wasn't fitting in. You know? It was like, I was doing well. I was, you know, enjoying it to a point, but I I thought, like, long term, that wasn't for me. So the when the opportunity to jump into the crazy world of entrepreneurship kinda came up, I knew that was more my my bag. So I I I went for it. I I did regret it initially.

David [00:03:06]:
I did I did kinda go, oh my god. What have I done? After about 6 months, yeah, I kinda got into the groove of it then.

Scott Bewley [00:03:13]:
Great stuff. Great stuff. So so just tell us a little bit about, yeah, about yourself and what might surprise, listeners about you. You know, you're you're a pretty seasoned entrepreneur. You've got an amazingly successful business. You're in a number of countries. So, maybe tell us a bit about yourself and then about the countries that you're operating in.

David [00:03:30]:
Yeah. I think we're the the service what we do, like tracking shipments, is very global. So we're I think we're about a 180 countries on last check-in terms of where we're providing coverage. Where we physically have people, I think that's 17 countries. You know, Latin America, EMEA, USA, and and Asia. So we're pretty pretty global, but plenty of places where we don't have boots on the ground. What what people might find is kind of slightly different or unusual, Like, it's all supply chain and business and all that, but I actually also have a a live music promotion company that I'm involved with. We do it at music festival in in in Ireland here.

David [00:04:08]:
So, yeah, that's that's kinda different. People always gonna say, how did how did that happen? So it it it was an interest from college that I kinda kept going. Although it's

Scott Bewley [00:04:17]:
Amazing. Yeah. Brilliant. And do you play any instruments yourself?

David [00:04:20]:
No. No. I'm just a a consumer.

Scott Bewley [00:04:23]:
Brilliant. Not a producer. Yeah. So so I guess, you know, pro probably one question is, you know, you've had some amazing successes. And, you know, what what what do you think has been your biggest success?

David [00:04:34]:
I think the the acquisition of FreightWatch, you know, as the successful acquisition and the successful integration of it to our new company, so we that we did last year. I think that was a big a big move and a big success because it has been successful, you know, because there was the overhaul business that we had set up was was quite different than in a lot of ways. The name tells you the clue. We would try to overhaul what we were we had done before. So we tried to do something that was very different, and, you know, there's a there's a there's a lot of different emphasis that we kind of pulled in. So we were buying something that was quite different, but we knew it well because we had built it. And then being able to successfully integrate the 2 things together did was a big achievement, took a lot of planning, major project. That that was overhaul was 450 people at the time, very global, very established.

David [00:05:22]:
It was 30 years old at that stage being acquired by a 6 year old company that was, you know, very had lots of immature processes but cool technology. So it was a it was a nice, it was a big project and a big achievement. So Cool.

Scott Bewley [00:05:36]:
So how did you manage the culture difference? Because, you know, you you you're a small, not small. I shouldn't say small. You're you're an entrepreneurial global company acquiring a small company. So how did how did that kind of work?

David [00:05:49]:
Yeah. It was, we we actually just didn't compromise. Actually, one of the real important early things in overhaul was that we were very pointed and thoughtful about our culture and what we what we thought was our part of our culture code and what what isn't. And if it's if it's not part of the culture code, it's not been it's not been tolerated. That was very important for us in Overhaul to be successful. So when we acquired FreyWatch, we were very open, transparent, but we were very clear. Like, this is how we we think it's an enhancement. You know, this is a great culture.

David [00:06:22]:
This is and and why it's a great culture is because of our culture code. So and get on the train or if you don't wanna you know, it's not fit for you, you know, that's that's okay. You know, what we what we're not doing is compromising. We weren't blending 2 together. We were it was an overall culture that was gonna win it.

Scott Bewley [00:06:38]:
Okay. So so that's pretty important point you were saying there. So you talked about a culture code. Can you tell us a little bit what what you mean by culture code?

David [00:06:46]:
Yeah. Yeah. It's a culture code. It's kind of a it's basically a series of kind of, like, statements or, you know, mantras that we kinda go by. You know, there's, you know, 12 different things from all from, like, we want to encourage kind of a teaching learning culture to absolute honesty. Honesty is a really important thing. Like, in a lot of companies, people can be kind of very political in their answers or kind of measured. We're like, just really just tell us, you know, we're fast moving.

David [00:07:12]:
I got a company. Everybody in the company, no matter what level or stage of their career, we wanna hear what they have to say, hear their insight. We want them to be absolutely honest. So that's something that we just really, you know, try and pull through as much as we can.

Scott Bewley [00:07:26]:
Brilliant. So so, you had quite a a varied career. Maybe you could tell us what's been your favorite job so far and and why.

David [00:07:33]:
Yeah. I think the the overhaul one, obviously, because I was there from the start, like, list right from the start when it was like a phone call and an idea and, hey. What do you think of this kind of stuff that was going on? And then being able to, like, that culture point, you know, really put your stamp on something early. And then, you know, you do have to nurture it, but then you do have to kind of evolve as you get bigger and older as a company. But, yeah, that whole journey has been has been great. Brilliant.

Scott Bewley [00:08:03]:
Brilliant. So and now, you know, you're covering a lot of countries. You've got a lot of people in different places. Can can you walk us through an example of how you scale the business?

David [00:08:10]:
Yeah. So I think when we were we came into COVID, I think, when we had about 40 or 50 people, and then we left and we had 220. So it was really rapid growth because supply chain, as everybody remembers, was a real big problem, and everybody wanted to have visibility on where their stuff was and what the problem was and how to solve it. So it just was a tremendous kind of boon to our our business. So as we were, like, we had to do a lot of things very quickly. And one of the things I did learn out of that was just it was trying but also there was a ton of opportunities. So you but at the same time, you have to place your strengths, you know, not not try and do everything at once, build everything at once, just be really good at a couple of things. Yep.

David [00:08:53]:
You know? And be very good at those things, and then, you know, you can fill out the solution as you go on. You know? But that that kind of play to your strengths. Don't try and do too much too quickly even though you have to move really quickly was a key lesson from that whole pro that whole process of we we hired, I think, 200 people without having to ever met them. You know? And they had to bring onboard them to culture and all the rest of it, but really worked well.

Scott Bewley [00:09:14]:
Amazing. Amazing. So you you you spoke about doing a few key things well. What would you say some of the key things were that, overhaul is is done well?

David [00:09:22]:
I think we've got the we've got the product and the resolution and the way we organize and the way we build our platform really, really you know, after a few few a few bumps in the road, I would say it was also a pain saying, but that's a real area of strength. And kind of interestingly, we've got a I suppose I don't know if we we didn't know when we were doing it, but when the Gen AI stuff came out, all the kind of documentation we've done, the work we've done to kind of have a strong digital core was really important. That has now put us in a great position to kind of really leverage those kind of very exciting tools. I think that's something that we did we did we did well somewhat mindfully and then a little bit lucky as well when the because Gen AI kinda came out and kinda solved a ton of problems that were ton tough to solve.

Scott Bewley [00:10:06]:
Brilliant. Look. I'm sure you don't wanna give away the secret sauce, but, do you wanna tell us a little bit about what, AI tools that you use or how you're applying AI in your business?

David [00:10:16]:
GPT is the main one because we're kind of on the Azure platform, and it's it's it's important that we we can do it in a in a proprietary setting, you know, because of the we're using our our customers' information to train the model. So we need to be we can't just do that in an open source format. But what what we're doing is, as I described, like, we're trying to ingest a lot of in transit telemetry from various different sources and identify quickly if something is at risk or not. That that's a very difficult process, you know, because it's so it's out in the you know, this is a shipment that's traveling across the world, multiple different formats. It's a it's a very big ask. We do have humans in the loop. So we let we have a combination of the tech doing the work and then a human confirming what the what the tech has has seen. But that loop feedback loop is really powerful when you have the the because you're constantly retraining.

David [00:11:08]:
Human is saying, you got it right this time, so well done. Or no. You got it wrong. We need to do these following steps to basically arrive at this conclusion. And then that's a that's a kind of a initiative process that just gets better and better as we go. So it's it's it's very exciting what it can do to the company and to the effectiveness of what of what we're what we're doing.

Scott Bewley [00:11:26]:
Brilliant. Brilliant. So it it sounds like, you know, a lot of there's been a lot of talk around people, you know, saying, you know, AI is gonna take over our jobs, but it it sounds like an overhaul that's actually created a lot of jobs.

David [00:11:37]:
Yeah. Well, it's gonna it's it's really gonna deliver for the customer, which has made the supply chain safer and and more resilient, and then that will then be a kind of demand creator for us, which will create jobs.

Scott Bewley [00:11:48]:
So what what do you think what's one lesson, you know, your career has taught you that you think everyone should learn at some point in their life?

David [00:11:55]:
You know, we we've had to deal with a lot of, like, international, differences, cultures, different markets, different different solutions. I think one of the things I've learned is is that kind of phrase, you know, be curious. You know, be curious about why it is such as as it is. You know? Don't say, oh, well, I've invented the best solution. I just have to make sure everybody realizes that. You know? And, you know, that's that's my job is to kinda go out and convince them all of that. There may be a reason why that's your solution doesn't work in that particular market. There might be a reason why your culture doesn't really, you know, land in that country, you know, or that particular sort of type of person.

David [00:12:30]:
So just be curious and, you know, not like jump on, oh, well, they're a bad person or that's just a bad customer. You know, there there's a there's a couple of follow-up questions that you can probably you may lose the customer or lose the person, but you will have learned in the process, you know, at least if you're at least curious enough to kinda ask those follow-up questions. I think that's been a it's been a big theme that we really used and brought it into our culture code actually that trying to get everybody to be curious when they're in, you know, interpersonal conflict with their colleagues. You know? Think about, well, what's driving the other person versus what just just knowing what you know, what you know, what you know, what's driving yourself, but what's driving the other person can be important.

Scott Bewley [00:13:06]:
Can you can you share a pivotal moment in your career that significantly kind of shaped your your style of leadership? Because you know you've got one of the biggest challenges in the world which is adapting your style to many countries And, you know, I guess, I'm not sure were your first market that you opened up in. And what what did you learn kind of along the way dealing with those kind of different cultures in terms of how you shaped your leadership store?

David [00:13:33]:
Yeah. We we were very much a built for America kind of solution and company. It's our biggest market. So we we we kind of the 2 2 cofounders are Irish, but we we've set our sights on America from day 1. Barry is always that's the cofounder. He's the CEO. He's he's based in Austin, Texas. So so we are very much American, but Irish, which is kind of an interesting, mashup.

David [00:13:54]:
What influenced my style was post. When we sold the first company, FreightWatch, to United Technologies, which just at the time was, I think, in the 14 50, it was a 60, $70,000,000,000 company, conglomerate. And we kinda lived in that world for a couple of years of, like, you know, corporate America, like, big big corporates. And, you know, ultimately, because I left, you know, I was I wasn't I wasn't a fan, but I definitely learned that sometimes that kind of heavy process, a lot of review can kinda pull the best out of an idea and knock it into shape. You know, you can definitely slow things down, but there's something in it. And that kind of that has kinda echoed forward for me, you know, where it's like, okay. Well, let's be let's be really rigorous. Ask all those questions.

David [00:14:39]:
Be curious, you know, before we make the thing. But try and do it really quickly because we're you know? So that was Pivotal's kinda kind of approach to drive my approach anyway.

Scott Bewley [00:14:50]:
Yeah. Brilliant. So so I guess you've you've won a number of, big contracts in different places. How do you find, business in the US or other other countries compared with Ireland or Europe?

David [00:15:00]:
I'm a big US fan if from the way the economy works like and the way the the business culture is because it's quite straightforward and direct. And that can be you can get a bit harsh, but it's also you know if there's a deal pretty quickly rather than in Europe. You can kinda it's a it's a it's a longer, slower, more collaborative consultative process. And sometimes you can kinda be spending quite a lot of time as on a deal that's really you know, it could be 2 or 3 years out. You know? So and as a start up, making those choices of where to invest your time and energy is super important, you know, existential sometimes. So, you know, the the US based business culture, I think that's one of the reasons it's so good for start ups because you're you know, you can find your groove. It's big enough that no matter what how small your niche, there's a probably a sustainable business there. You just need to figure out an efficient way of getting at it.

David [00:15:55]:
You

Scott Bewley [00:15:55]:
know? Brilliant. And and for those entrepreneurs setting up, and I know you you've had a you know US focus from the start, but if you're if you're setting up in the US like it's a massive country, how do you pick which state or where you're gonna actually set up and what what kind of helps drive that decision?

David [00:16:09]:
Yeah, I mean it's that's it is huge. Like, I mean, the there's some states that are the size of countries. You know? Like, I think Texas is the same size as France. It it really is based on your business model. You know? I I'd say let go where your customers are. Like, that's where why we are in Austin, Texas because there's a big there's a big technology company that's headquartered there that was a very important client of ours. So I think go where your customers are because when you're you do have to build a US business. You have to have boots on the ground.

David [00:16:37]:
You can't do it from flying over and back. So wherever your customers are are it's a concentration of, I would suggest you go there. But we've also always leaned into the Irish network. It's it is very good. The GAA club or, you know, whatever, that kind of I think we hired our first who are still with us for with 5 or 6 of the people. We we hired our first kind of 10 people, and we went we had to hire them quickly because we just won a contract. And we went to local GA club and said, have we any young Irish people who, you know, who'll just kind of jump at a job? Who and we got a lot of people who were over in the j one. They all joined the company, and they're still there.

David [00:17:13]:
A bit 5 or 6 of them, 8 years later, and all are doing really well. So, yeah, lean into the Irish network, it would be a piece of advice there also.

Scott Bewley [00:17:22]:
Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. Great. So so, must be quite tricky because you're working in a lot of time zones. How do you kind of manage the the time zones? And, kind of probably more importantly, you know, since COVID, how do people, like yourself as an international entrepreneur, maintain a healthy work life balance and a pretty demanding role that you have where people are trying to grab your time and kind of put you under pressure and you're kind of you you're probably doing things in in countries that work on Sundays and, working different hours and stuff like that and weekends. And how how do you balance that up?

David [00:17:58]:
Yeah. And supply chain is 247. You know? So the the what we do is is 247, and we have staff working 247. So, yeah, no. That is that is a it is an issue, and and it's definitely something that because the work is never done, you know, so there's always something to do. But it is so important that you don't burn yourself out, you know, and, you do take those times. Actually, in the freight watch business, we had a more we had a bigger Asian footprint, and that was a killer because as based in Europe, they they were trying to get you as early as possible because that was the start of the end of their day. And then you kind of would clear clear that out, and then the US and Mexico would come on stream, and they're trying to drag you, you know, late into the evening.

David [00:18:35]:
So you just have to be disciplined and kind of say these are things I just won't will not do. And actually, early in the pandemic, as a company, we we started to kind of realize, like, we blocked out like, everybody in the company, we blocked out 2 hours a day, kinda like lunchtime and and evening mealtime, and it's just like you cannot go into that time. That is people have to have their their mealtime with their family. You know, even though you're working at home, we're like, you cannot have a meeting in this time. And that was that was really good because it was kinda healthy because we what we were doing was it was just back to back meetings right into the evening because you had nothing else to do because you're you're, you know, in lockdown. But that it was it was a good thing, and we did kinda draw limits on it. And it was very important to do, but it wouldn't be something I'm I'm naturally good at in terms of get striking the balance right. But I I do try and use the clock to my advantage, which is and we're predominantly US on the US time zone.

David [00:19:32]:
So I do try and take that quiet time in the day. Sure. So if I'm talking to you Yeah. It's no worth.

Scott Bewley [00:19:38]:
What do you do to unwind, yourself then in the in the spare time? How do you, how do you

David [00:19:44]:
I I find the kids and the getting into their sports and kinda that's very it takes you out of out of yourself and your kinda headspace. I used to do some coaching with sports. I thought that was brilliant. There's nothing like 30, 10 year olds to, you know, you're trying to trying to manage them to say, you know, you're not thinking about anything to work at that for that hour and a half or whatever. So, yeah, I think that kind of stuff was I find very useful to kinda break you out of here. It's the thought process.

Scott Bewley [00:20:10]:
So do do you have any advice for entrepreneurs that are starting out or trying to scale a business?

David [00:20:15]:
Yeah. I get asked that question kind of a bit, and I just have to go on my experience, which is this kind of a phrase that it was just gonna be be bold, but humble. So you have to constantly be action orientated, I think. You We have always been that we've been bold, you know, going after that customer, you know, taking chances, being kind of forthright in your thing. But also you have to be humble because even when it's going really well, like, there's some surprise coming somewhere, you haven't got it all worked out. It isn't, you know, a rocket ship to the moon. You know, we're hands free. You know, everything needs to be worked continuously and just be humble even when things are going great.

David [00:20:51]:
That because I think if you're if you're not humble, that's where the errors start kicking in. You overstretch. Yeah. You take too much on. And, I personally use it at a company, and then and then things can go bad. Things can kind of roll from there.

Scott Bewley [00:21:05]:
Sure. Sure. So is there any question that you wish that I asked, that I have been asked? And how would you answer that question?

David [00:21:11]:
No. I think I I I always think, you know, that kind of question, was it worth it, you know, is is a good one, you know, which is like, given all the sacrifices you make and the rewards you make, is is is is the startup life, you know, a good life, you know, a kind of a the entrepreneur kind of thing, a one to one to go after. I I do think it is, but I do think you have to really be careful of that kind of balance and the burnout risk, you know, because, you know, when you get into this onto the treadmill, it just keeps running. You know? And that can be exciting, but, you just need to be careful about how much you stay on that treadmill.

Scott Bewley [00:21:49]:
David, that's been fantastic. There's some, great gems in there for people who are scaling their business and and, you know entrepreneurs who are just starting out. So look, we really appreciate your time and joining us today. So thanks very much for your advice.

David [00:22:06]:
Thanks Scott, appreciate it.

Scott Bewley [00:22:07]:
Talk soon. Thanks very much. Thanks, David. Thanks for joining me, Scott Pearly, and our expert guest on this episode of the Scale Today podcast. I hope you're leaving with actionable insights to help you scale your business to the next level. Found value in today's conversation? Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast, and don't forget to share it with your fellow entrepreneurs and leaders who want to grow across borders. For more information, visit us at scaletoday.com. That's scale, the number 2, day.com.

Scott Bewley [00:22:38]:
Let's keep pushing your business to new heights one step at a time. See you in the next episode. Bye for now.