Our CEO and Co-founder Lidia Yan joined the “Recurring Revenue Rockstars: Success Stories You Haven’t Heard” panel at the Recurring Revenue Conference in April to talk about being a woman in the trucking industry, what separates the company from its competitors, and the driver shortage. Watch the full panel, courtesy of the Recurring Revenue Conference and Sutton Capital Partners, below or click through this link to watch it on Vimeo. Here are some quote highlights:
On Lynwood, where NEXT Trucking is headquartered:
“It’s the center of logistics. We’re surrounded by truckers. Our product team goes out to the warehouse to talk to truck drivers, so we understand their needs very well, so that’s how we can build a product that’s really servicing the needs of the truck drivers.”
On the challenges of starting a business in the trucking industry:
“I think the biggest surprise I had was how difficult it was…I’m an Asian and I’m an immigrant, [and] I have an accent, and I’m a founder in the trucking space, which is 96% male… we delivered $11 million for our first year, … we were profitable, we had less than 20 people, we were using the money very efficiently, but it took us 3 months [to secure funding]. I got questions like, ‘How long have you been in the U.S.? Do you even drive a truck?’”
Her advice to entrepreneurs:
“Set your goal, your vision clearly, bring in the people who share your vision – who understand your mission of the company [and share] common goals, and drive toward that vision together… we enjoy working with each other, we enjoy coming into the office every day, so this is something that is very valuable that we are very fortunate that we started very early.”
