Advancements in Space Technology: "I found this niche skillset of working with engineers to outsource carbon fiber assemblies or sub components of the actual structure of the rocket across Falcon nine and dragon. So imagine just very complicated designs and some of the most brilliant engineers in the world constantly iterating on and trying to get Falcon nine fully reusable as a product or just like, to work and, like, fly."

Challenges of Growing a Probiotic Brand: "For those of you who run supply chain, and especially for being in charge of 24 unique, clinically kind of studied strains from around the world, keeping those bugs away from heat and humidity and from activating before they actually got to the right part of the customer's digestive system was like my entire challenge."

Challenges of Supply Continuity During Covid-19: "Getting through Covid and keeping all of our customers supplied and happy and continuing to grow very fast as a business is something I'm very proud of today, but also something I saw as that something incredibly difficult to navigate."

Building Relationships in Supply Chain Management: "And so another really, like, fundamental lesson I would tell everyone is like, go see them in person. Like, if those manufacturers or people are going to be, like, relevant or important to your business, go treat them like humans. Go actually ask about their lives. Get to know who they are, because things are going to go wrong or break, and you're going to need their help to unbreak it. And honestly, one of the most full circle moments is my most trusted co packer, the team or business that put the capsules into our very weird, long, narrow necked pouches that are the refill pouches of seed."

Strategic Supply Chain Adaptation: "Something that's been really cool to witness at Pelagic, you go from I'm embedded in the high complexity level of the seed operation to now getting to see tens to a couple hundred different operations and how they're built is that you can actually start to map almost these like very distinctive volume or complexity or growth moments and be very honest with your supply chain and your, and the rest of the brand builders on like when it's time to shift or when it's time to add redundancy and another like piece of your supply chain into your system."

Evolving Workforce Dynamics in Tech: "And so what I tell founders is like, at least let us audit and tell you very transparently, like you, what level of hire you need to run these operations. So we could save you from hiring a COO and you just kind with a great ops manager who can cover a lot of the basics with really fantastic tooling and a starting operational infrastructure on top of that, I am blown away by the AI age that we are now living in and its implications and the power of some of those tools in the math. Fundamentally that is supply chain. And so our fractional operators are starting to be, on a cost basis level, actually more competitive than you would pay in terms of, let's say a small amount of equity and a salary range for that full time operator, which is what I overall, I see the most capable talent in the venture ecosystem moving into this fractional model more and more because there's so many tools out there to like market yourself and become accessible. It's a different lifestyle."

Efficiency in Business Scaling Strategy: "And people, I think, make the mistake of sometimes saying like, oh, cogs will get better as we scale with climbing volume of orders, we're going to get all the cost savings we need. And I would just argue that you're leaving so much opportunity on the table there, like actually leveraging and negotiating those volumes and shopping them out to many other very capable, high trust, super experienced manufacturing partners, is what you should be doing at many different steps along that build and scale journey."

Effective Strategies in Supply Chain Management: "I think you should always lean on experts who understand exactly what import of codes you should be using or how to keep optimizing those solutions. I would maybe then, like, the best kind of guidance I can give is like, it's not worth it to do it yourself and it'll always go slower than you expect."

Evaluating Outsourcing Partners for Business Growth: "I think one of the highest friction, or most fear causing changes to make, if not your manufacturer, is your three pl or your outsourced manufacturing partner. There are so, so many options out in the market, and they are all, I don't know why, but they're very complicated. They're priced very differently. They have all different competencies, or ways they were created, or ways they run, or advantages or disadvantages. And so we find ourselves helping a lot of people just feel like they can actually switch to a new distribution warehouse and partner, and it's usually only once they're creating acutely awful problems for their customers that they consider making that switch."

The Power of Operational Dashboards in Business: "The other one is that was hugely powerful, like, impactful at seed, was this idea of building a really powerful dashboard that works for you, that consolidates all of your purchasing, your cogs, your inventory, and your supply data, and really taking the time to define those inputs and trust the supply side of your organization just as much as you do your demand... That is a very, very powerful tool that we call Ops hub, that we encourage and build for clients very frequently, that I would encourage people to do sooner rather than later, before you start having to untangle a lot of historical spend and a giant mess that your future acquisition partners don't love seeing and has to get cleaned up eventually."