This fireside chat recap is from Day 2 of FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain live event in Rogers, Arkansas. For more information and content from the event, click here.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: What the post e-commerce boom looks like
DETAILS: A discussion with Cambridge Capital’s CEO on a potential shakeout from the surge in supply chain investing.
SPEAKER: Benjamin Gordon, CEO and managing partner at Cambridge Capital and BGSA Holdings
BIO: In 2010, Gordon founded Cambridge Capital, which invests in high-growth, tech-enabled supply chain companies. Prior to Cambridge Capital, he started BGSA Holdings, a supply chain M&A advisory firm. He led BGSA Holdings in advising on more than $2 billion of supply chain transactions. He has worked with firms like UPS, DHL, Kuehne & Nagel and Agility Logistics, among others. Gordon also started SaaS logistics company 3Plex, which was later purchased by Maersk.
KEY QUOTES FROM GORDON:
On a potential e-commerce bubble: “If you get past the hype cycle and the bubble and the post-bubble kind of correction that we are in now, there’s still this huge underlying growth in e-commerce. The logistics to support that remains as important as ever.”
On the consumer being the winner of e-commerce innovations: “The massive funding of last-mile, reverse logistics, e-commerce fulfillment — all of these areas of logistics that power e-commerce, they’re all here to stay. We can debate whether some of the companies that have been funded in the last three years will fail — some of them will. … In the end, the consumer is the big winner.”
On Ukraine and Cambridge Capital’s investment in Everest Transportation Systems: “Everest is a truck brokerage company, tech-based, terrific business based in Chicago. The majority of their people three months ago were based in Ukraine, in Kyiv. What could we do to help? We created a coalition — Ukraine Logistics Coalition. You can join Ukraine Logistics Coalition and you can encourage your company and the companies that you work with to join … helping get more transportation companies to join as partners and to donate services.”