[00:00:01] Welcome to your Now movie in Spanish, presented by Better Global Logistics and Supply Chain Now. This is the program we give to Spanish-speaking people in the ever-changing logistics industry. Join us as we discover the inspiring stories of our guests and learn from their collective experience. Our goal is not only to entertain you, but to foster your passion for this exciting industry and support your professional development along the way. And now, here is today’s episode of his pitching now in Spanish.
[00:00:38] Good morning and welcome back to a new episode of Supply Chain Now in Spanish. My name is Enrique Alvarez and today I have the pleasure of interviewing a very successful compatriot that she and her company, her partner, have managed to revolutionize the logistics industry on the payments side. But without further ado. Rayo Torres CIO of Sprint Rayo Charges. How are you doing? How are you doing? Good morning.
[00:01:04] Hello, Enrique. How are you doing? Good morning. Thank you very much for having me here in your program. East. Thank you very much.
[00:01:10] No! The pleasure is all mine. I am also very proud to be Mexican. And well, knowing also that we are in Atlanta Radio Yo we met recently. Then it is a pleasure to have you here with us. Thank you for taking the time to share a bit of your story.
[00:01:26] Thank you very much. Then go ahead.
[00:01:29] Let’s get started. Let’s get started. Tell us a little about yourself before we get into your career and the company you founded. Tell us a little about yourself. Tell us where you were born. Anything you remember from your childhood?
[00:01:44] Yes, of course. I am. I was born in Guadalajara and lived there for the first 20 years of my life. This one, when I was 21, I went to live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Then I came back to Guadalajara and I’ve been kind of in between here, between the United States and Mexico since then.
[00:02:04] Do you hear anything in particular that you remember from Guadalajara? Maybe something from your childhood, something from your parents, something that started to guide you on the path you have now.
[00:02:19] Yes, well, trading and entrepreneurship come from my family’s DNA. This has always been on my mother’s side, they have always been very enterprising, my uncles, my grandmother, my mother. So they were a great influence for me to take this path of entrepreneurship.
[00:02:39] Hey, and something in particular about the city I imagine I tell you Guadalajara, a very beautiful city for those who listen to us who are not from Mexico, is what do you remember about the city?
[00:02:52] Ah, because the city, the city itself is. The climate is very nice, as many know, it is very pleasant. This is in itself the city an influence I had from the city of Centro Tapatío businessman Jorge Vergara. He was also a great influence in my way of looking at business, from a humanistic approach. Omnilife’s slogan is people to care for, people. So you go further on in the podcast, I can expand on this, but he was a great businessman from Tapatío who had a great influence on my decision to become an entrepreneur, but also from the human side, no. He was a great businessman from Tapatío who had a great influence on my decision to become an entrepreneur.
[00:03:38] There is that side. Have I seen human mine and if you don’t bring it also rooted from your parents, did you see it? How do you see this human part reflected in your life again at the beginning of your career, right?
[00:03:51] Yes, yes, I have in the major weight it had, in how to help other human beings through a company, because it was my experience with Jorge’s company Omnilife. And how did it affect? It impacted my life, my siblings’ lives, my mother’s life. Not this how to improve our quality of life, although it is a multilevel and my company is not a multilevel company. In the company we now manage a humanistic culture where not only customers are right, right? But also the person who decides to work with us receives a great deal of attention and everything is centered around the human experience, both externally and internally. So it is to foster that culture within the company.
[00:04:43] This is very interesting. I’m sure we’ll get into a little more detail on this one in a few more moments. Tell us a little more about your professional career you studied, where did you study this one? How did you come to open your company?
[00:04:57] Yes, of course. Look, I studied Hispanic literature at the UdeG, I wanted to be a writer, but I dropped out because I got married and took the plunge. And it is.
[00:05:08] Writer. It is totally different.
[00:05:10] A.
[00:05:11] Logistics.
[00:05:13] Yes, yes, Saramago won his is a late writer and was asked why you won your Nobel Prize so late and why you didn’t write Before he said he had nothing to say then. Ah, I won’t take my finger off the line someday. If destiny takes me there, I will write something, but right now I have nothing to say.
[00:05:34] More writing something. So, do you have a good thing going for you?
[00:05:38] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, not really no, no, no, the muse of inspiration has come to me and I have nothing to write about right now. My passion really is to impact people’s lives through the company.
[00:05:53] Hey, well, going back to Rayo who was studying for his degree, tell us then what happened from there? How? How did you continue to grow personally and professionally?
[00:06:06] Yes, of course, look there too, because there were the jobs I had. I started working since I was 15 years old, this one I was in franchise management at Gulfstream, where I was working in the franchise and marketing department. I also worked at a friend’s uncle’s company. I was in Accounting A supporting payroll, processing vendor payments, everything, all of that. So it was like life was preparing me and even though they were very short work experiences, all that learning helped me. Later, when I had my own company to grow, the from a person not and I have been putting together the organizational architecture of the work team, departments, etc. Then this was. These work experiences were very important for me to later apply in my own company.
[00:07:05] Of course. Some recommendation or suggestion that some people made to me that throughout your career and throughout all these work experiences, you had several mentors, people you worked with and people you learned a lot from. Do you have any suggestions for people who listen to us and maybe are graduating or about to graduate, anything you can share in terms of suggestions.
[00:07:31] If he is really the person who is looking for answers, they say that the teacher doesn’t arrive until the student is ready, right? So it’s like a very personal path for each individual. This ah a as to which teachers are. Even finding in your life. What I can say is that it is a very, very mystical path to take. You don’t have to go to a very deep journey inside, because outside you are going to find many, you are going to find losses, rejections, there are clients who are not going to pay you. So you have to work a lot with your energy and your focus on how to generate abundance, don’t you? And not let it subtract all that external reality from you. So yes, in general recommendation would be to start a personal, deep work of self-knowledge and take all these tools we have as humans to be able to create new things where there are none and change realities that we are not happy or do not like. But all that is changed from the mind. There is not a lot of literature right now, a lot of schools. This being here in the Law of Attraction, for example, there is Eckhart Tolle, this I dispensation. There are too many, of too many teachings out there, but the most important is how to work on oneself on a daily basis. No.
[00:09:12] No! Totally agree. And well, it’s a great message. It actually reminded me of something my mom used to tell us a lot when we were kids, didn’t it? We now have fewer and fewer excuses for not studying and knowing things, not before. Maybe in several generations ago, well, you did things in a certain way because you didn’t know or there was no place where you could learn, but as you say now, with so much literature, with so much information technology, with so many sources to learn, well, it depends on you and that retrospection and that time to think and be aware of who you are, not to be able to move forward.
[00:09:51] Yes, of course.
[00:09:52] Tell us about it. Are you graduating from your degree program? How is the next one going? What is the next leap in Rayo’s professional career? Still in charge of Sprint?
[00:10:02] Yes, yes. In the race. I did not graduate. I am going to make one. One note. I didn’t graduate because I said I’m going to get married and I’m going to continue in the United States. And that’s where it ended. And I had children and left her halfway through this one. But at the age of 28, when I was 28, my ex-husband and I founded Cargo Sprint. There is one left. It is a payment platform for the air cargo industry in the United States. This at the time I was on an immersive journey into mindfulness, the law of attraction, self-knowledge and devouring literature on how to create the life of your dreams. At that time I felt that if I wanted to go to work at McDonalds they would not hire me or if they hired me it was for $7 an hour and I had three children and a nanny costs $15, not this one. So my professional outlook was very dark, very dark. I would say I didn’t finish my degree like and I would see $1 million dollar houses and say I want that lifestyle. I used to see ladies handling bags in the city where I live. And I said I want a car like that. He was driving a very old car, wasn’t he? Right, so then getting into this law of attraction thing and saying I can dream about that house, I can dream about that car without questioning too much about how it’s going to come to you, right? And in that inter, of that exploration of how to create the life of your dreams, this even though the external reality tells you it’s not possible, no, no, you don’t have a career or it’s not possible because maybe you have an English accent or you’re crazy. No, that’s what the world will question you about. But therein lies the difference between actually working with your thought system and with faith and imagination using it to our advantage. No, because my imagination is catastrophic and my imagination is constructive.
[00:12:20] And many times we are our own enemies, not because of the way we think of ourselves, we limit ourselves. Many times I don’t feel the human being, at least it happens to me. You have many ways, maybe negative, to think of yourself, maybe to be a little more positive.
[00:12:36] Of course. And there is a phrase that I think is from Neville, but I don’t want to make some references that are not, but it says to believe is to create. So, if you really believe it, that’s your reality. Yes. You are fat. You’re not going to be fat. Do you think you are a failure? You’re going to be a failure if you think you’re going to succeed. And you believe it day in and day out, and you feel it with your whole body, you’re going to be there. So the fabulous thing about all this is that this learning that I was exploring at that moment in my life, served me for the company, this already building it. And we started in 2012. But the first three years it was to work.
[00:13:22] This is a lot. It is the other part of the equation. I mean, one thing is to create, to believe, but well, someone has to go out and wake up early and work, that is, it does not take away the fact that you worked extremely hard to achieve what you have now and well, it is a great pride, but well, tell us a little more about that first stage of entrepreneurship, which is normally not only the most difficult, but normally it is also the one you learn the most and the one that really forges the type of company that you will have later on. So tell us what were your main concerns, difficulties, challenges you faced in those early parts of the venture?
[00:14:06] Well, at that point it was a matter of being patient. It is to understand and nature is very very wise, isn’t it? So when you see and sow an apple seed, you don’t expect to get apples the next day. It would be illogical, wouldn’t it? So why do we want to see results from a company? Put us the Ferrari or the Porsche or the yacht per year, right? Then I found it very useful a talk I saw from the founder of Yakult, which is another company that is very strong in Jalisco, where he said that Mexican companies fail a lot and before five years have already closed because? Because the entrepreneur is not patient with the company. You have to see the company as a long-term project and understand that it is not going to buy you the house, the yacht and the car in 20 years. In the beginning you have to live to nurture it and make it grow just like you would take care of a seed of If you want it to grow and mature and produce apples, then you have to take care of it and give it all that seed in the beginning. So, the first years I had no salary, I lived on a salary, that is, everything was reinvestment. The first million dollars we earned in the company is how we reinvest it, how we continue to grow and everything has been like that, that the company was not, it was not that today my father has 1 million dollars, what car, what house am I going to buy, but how, how am I going to reinvest it, right? So we have to be very patient with the company’s results and see it as if it were a baby that we have to take care of. And we won’t demand from a baby a seven year old to give you the results of a 20 year old? Not to have very, very firm medium and long term objectives.
[00:16:08] Totally agree and very good suggestions for the people who listen to us and who are in other Spanish speaking countries. Not necessarily, maybe Mexico or the United States. Tell us a little bit about two things one. What was the opportunity you saw in the industry? In other words, what is the charge? Why would Sprint be successful? What was the problem you wanted to solve? And well, for people who may not be so familiar with the process of these air cargoes, well, tell us a little more in general terms. Well, what was the opportunity you saw? And then what does it actually do? In other words, how does it work in general? Sprint cargo?
[00:16:51] Yes, of course. Look at the idea. No, I will not. I’m going to steal someone else’s intellectual assets. No, not me, it wasn’t me I wasn’t in the industry This my ex-husband. He is a fraud for Water and was a broker in the United States. No? And one day he. He is very, very creative. He has a very bright mind. His name is Joshua Wolf and he is the founder and now CEO of the company. He’s obsessed with giving perfect customer service, isn’t he? And one day he had difficulties with a load and he had to pay storage and he was very frustrated because he loaded Facility in the United States. At that time they only received checks and wanted a check and there was no way to pay electronically. Then he came to me one day and said Hey, I’m going to make a payment platform and I’m going to put printers in every airport and we’re going to print our checks. And you can pay on the same day. It was not this one. It was their way of making the payment process more efficient. I, in fact, did not hear it. He had had 20 other ideas that had failed. I said Ah, yes, of course.
[00:18:09] Well, and without knowing. No knowledge of logistics. I also obviously didn’t know what was going on through your husband at the time. But no, it wasn’t. Integral now.
[00:18:19] Totally. Very good notions, because all the time I was listening to it, living it, chewing it, it was my whole world, wasn’t it? At that time, then when I hear the story I tell you okay, do it.
[00:18:34] It didn’t sound like there was opportunity there, I imagine. Well, well, not at first, otherwise maybe not.
[00:18:41] I said, well, it’s going to be one more idea among many. It weighed on me because the initial investment was $6,000 which I figured was going to be our down payment on a minivan. And I said but I’m not going to be mean, am I? He is only dedicated to work because I am going to be the bad guy and tell him no, you can’t spend them.
[00:19:00] They are going to give a good chance at the end of the day to.
[00:19:03] Both. I thought it was going to be the truth, that it was going to go in the trash. No, I wasn’t doing much. Since the platform was there, I said Let’s see then what is the business model, right? So we earn $5 for each payment. The other $5 is paid by the courier and our handling fees of $10. And I started to begin.
[00:19:23] Tell us about it because that is very interesting and I think it is worthwhile. In other words, with one more, more practical example. Let’s say a fast forwarder has to pick up some cargo from a warehouse at the Atlanta airport, for example. But what’s going on? In other words, what does the platform do that did not happen before? You used to have to bring your check as an opening act or well, tell us, tell us you, you, you got it. You are the.
[00:19:45] Expert. Yes, of course. When. When air cargo arrives in the ocean it is very easy. The charges are not that complicated to pay because you have two months in advance to know what payment, what charges you have to pay to release your cargo at the port. But airfreight is much faster. Everyone in the cargo industry is going to know what air cargo moves. So you can’t have a booking one day and the next day it will be ready. And you have to release it. No? Then in. In air cargo, at the time of import there are many people who become cargo stakeholders. Then there is the airline and there is the great Genuine Agent, which is the cargo agency subcontracted by the airline. To pick up the cargo there are some charges called Import Service charge or and SB that you have to pay to the freight forwarder who is the boss and working in Agent for them to release the cargo to you. At that time it was $45. Now that, that, that rate is already at $170 in $100. So if they don’t pay that money for cargo handling to the cargo agency subcontracted by the airline, they can’t pick up the cargo in that time. Many or the vast majority of everyone wanted nothing more. Paid by check. Yes, the price.
[00:21:12] As he had to bring the truck, the person who was going to pick up, that is, the person who picked up the cargo, brought his check and.
[00:21:19] And not the trailers, that some trailers advanced payment on behalf of the footer and charged five or $10 for that check. But since it is not the trail business and then they had a hard time reconciling with the customer, right? So many did not want to do it. The hotel had to send a FedEx or a yuppie overnight like that and it cost $20 or $25. It did not cost at that time this entity and send its own check. And you know what operations and accounting.
[00:21:51] Coordinate with the truck driver so that when the check arrives it is already there and then they find it, because it may be.
[00:21:57] And then it was destined. But and excuse me.
[00:22:00] He did not receive it or did not go to work that day.
[00:22:03] You will be.
[00:22:03] It came out a.
[00:22:04] Expense that was left under the coffee or the accountant did not register it well, so it was a big problem and many trailers were rejected because there was no payment or even though the payment was already made, it was not, and besides, the process was very inefficient because internally for him it was for Operations to go and ask accounting for a check and if Accounting went out to lunch or did not go to work or something else, the load gets stuck and he would.
[00:22:30] Truck driver is wasting his time there and many times.
[00:22:34] They charge the return. You know that they charge for a lap they give and if it was for.
[00:22:39] Blame it on three hours or ten minutes as it is the same for.
[00:22:43] They. So here what we changed is that the operator in the operations and weather operator could be put in. Now our platform made the payment. We would send the check the same day by courier who were at the major U.S. airports. This and we would give an invoice to the operations al who had 14 days to pay with us.
[00:23:12] So you were funding that yes and giving the physical check to you?
[00:23:17] Yes, of course.
[00:23:18] All charges Handling Agent Brown.
[00:23:22] So it was very beneficial for people in power operations because they would say What a beauty! My payment goes out the same day. I don’t have to worry about anything. And then my turkey department in.
[00:23:36] Mi.
[00:23:36] Company at their own pace, working at different, very different rhythms. They take out the check whenever they want, they do not process it, they put it in the system and then everything was, it made life much easier for them, also internally for Free Waters.
[00:23:55] And what year are you talking about this year? When he started putting up printers and things like that.
[00:24:01] In 2012, in 2002. That’s the story that typically he brought his printer and he was the courier in Atlanta, so he was on easy charge. He ordered Facility with an internet hotspot, this one printing checks and he would hang on his dashboard, form with his checks, the one he had accumulated from customer requests and deliver them, not this one. Little by little we were doing as the Cargo Facility looked like it was in charge of Sprint. Sprint charge and see our checks and they were more and more this volume. We have already started to make alliances, electronic payments, this one or install the printer right there, of course this one. So we have already been making efficiencies in our system and also making strategic alliances. This is how we started.
[00:25:01] And that was from you saying to be patient, wasn’t it? In other words, the first three years was to reinvest, reinvest at what point? Because at the beginning you just confessed to us this one that you thought was just another idea, you were at what point do you change your point of view a little bit and say hey, no, this, this really does, does it have, does it have legs and is it going to go somewhere, at what point does it change and what? Do you remember that one, that change? Maybe when you start getting into the business too?
[00:25:28] Yes, of course. Look, it was in 2012, in March he proposed me to make the platform. I said okay, spend the $6,000 and we’ll see. And the platform comes out in June. It was ready, wasn’t it? A very, very, very basic one. I didn’t even have a login. East. Then he hands it over and I start asking him how he is going to operate internally. He explains me his idea, how much is the charge, for each request and I start making my models. So I went into my Excel, I said let’s see if we can get a thousand payments. It is so much money 2003 thousand. How much freight does it move instead of being like my financial model? So super, super in Excel, right? So I said Ah, this has great potential. Yes, as long as we take out a thousand payments per month on application.
[00:26:21] From minivan depot.
[00:26:23] There is no more, we already have enough to eat, right? At that time he was working, so he changed. Big change was that you have the opportunity, but out of fear.
[00:26:34] There is not. When you risk leaving your job.
[00:26:37] Sure, life pushes you around. So they are very good pushes. Then there came a time, in October 2012, when the platform was delivered to us more or less in July and it is the company registered on July 5, July 4 or July 5, 2012. And we didn’t do anything out of fear, because he had his job, it was safe. So we cling there to what is safe and known and it is very scary what is unsafe, what you do not know and the unknown is not this one. So in October he gets fired from his job, this one and I tell him, you know, don’t look for another job, let’s do the platform, it’s already there, we have to do it. I prefer to fail, to fail together and say when we are 60 years old, but let’s try or die at 60 with your pension safe here, with our house secure. But to say. What if we had done it and died with that doubt? I said I’d rather fail a thousand times. Cañona. So to die with the doubt and uncertainty of what would have happened. If we pursue our dreams, then I don’t look for a job, and I really, really, sometimes I got into this kind of job search, I said I could get this job and I was hesitant, but I didn’t say anything. Then we went on and on and on and on. And that’s when the company started. But life, I tell you, pushes you around, doesn’t it? Sometimes the ugliest things that happen to you are for a purpose. If you are never fired from your job, never.
[00:28:27] Would have, never.
[00:28:27] They had started, never, ever, because he was comfortable. Ah, it’s just that I’m working because it was stepping out of his comfort zone for both of us, running out of income. This him having to go through all the airports in the United States to install printers was a very difficult decision, with three children to.
[00:28:49] In a country that was also relatively new to you, right?
[00:28:53] Yes, this one for me was. It was that part for me, more than the country was the children. I mean, I have three kids, I have to pay the mortgage on the house and how are we going to survive? No, so what’s going to happen? It was crazy. All the people were telling us. What do you mean, you’re not going to look for a job? No? So this was a decision that was taken together, but that is the difference, not to say I’m going to believe and I’m going to go for it with my eyes closed. And if I crash, well, God will provide, not this one, but it is there to apply everything you have learned, this one about life and to say ok, this is my moment of test, because those moments of test and to say what I am made of and then you have to be congruent with what you say you want and what you do.
[00:29:53] Yes, it is. I think the easiest thing in life, not everyone would want x or y thing, but hey, you are actively working day and night to achieve it. And well, that’s where you divide the people who get to fulfill it and the people who don’t get to fulfill it. And well, in a very successful way you did it. Tell us about how you were a little bit settled, since you knew that you were going to get through that stage of having been extremely difficult and stressful for you as a mother of three children, as in a country here in the United States as well, but how? Yes, what’s next? In other words, at what point do you say ok, well, now you have to start believing, you have to start growing, put a structure in place, hire how, how did you imagine or how? How did you solve all the following problems that come from having a new company, right?
[00:30:41] Yes, as I said, the first three years there was no first payment, that is, the first few months we did not even receive a payment request. It wasn’t like ah, what a father! But no, no, no one is encouraged, right? Then they started to put requests to us.
[00:31:00] Not here in Atlanta or people who are of tact who already had or conformed those early believers in enterprise.
[00:31:07] The era. He would talk on the phone and say there it is, payment platform that you can use and people are like oh, yeah, right, and he was the first one. The first was a company he worked for, which was mdi. They are some brokers in Milwaukee, this one and they were the first as users, not this one. And little by little it was running because we obviously didn’t have any money for marketing campaigns. So it was running like that, someone would see that it worked and that it was not a fraud and they would say ah, this is very good. Then by word of mouth it began to be recommended, but it takes a long time. Organic growth, three years without receiving capital, because we are a bootstrap company, we did not borrow or take capital from anyone to start the company with our own profits. We continue to grow. Not this one in two. Late 2014.
[00:32:08] For reference and sorry to interrupt you in 2012 at the end. How many payments did you process in that year? More or less zero. What about 2013? Zero also.
[00:32:17] Maybe 20.
[00:32:19] 20 for the whole year?
[00:32:20] Yes, 20, 30 yes. And the.
[00:32:23] 2014.
[00:32:24] 2014 we have already started to grow more and we will have processed around 1,000, 3,000 in the whole year. So it was our metric, my my, my main objective was in the first, in the for a month, for every month to process a thousand payments. And we would tell people we want to process a goal, a thousand payments a month, because that was already a salary. Worthy for us than to pay the mortgage and food. If then the first goal was 1,000 payments per month. We would say that to people and they would laugh and say hahahaha, nobody needs that. Do you know how many payments we are processing right now? This question above 170,000 monthly payments.
[00:33:13] 170 out of a thousand was the goal, they did not reach a thousand, they were a thousand for the whole year, at 170,000 per month.
[00:33:21] Per month.
[00:33:22] Now in the past year.
[00:33:24] Yes, no, the goal was a thousand a month, a thousand a month which gave us a decent minimum to be able to.
[00:33:30] In 2014 the total for the year was not, it was not one thousand.
[00:33:34] They were about 3005 thousand payments this 2014. Then we start to grow and I get into it full time. In January 2015 this I already hired someone here for my home and we were starting to gain traction before I went to work. A friend of mine that I was running with was very good and I told her ah, well come work with Joshua and there she is. She was the second person to join the team after Joshua is still with us working. Her name is Ana Vazquez and I was the third person until 2015. So it’s three years of going day in and day out and believing that this is going to work, right? In 2015 we exploded. By the summer of 2015 we decided to set up our back office in Mexico and start developing the entire organizational structure of the company. In Mexico. We moved to Guadalajara to live, we left Pitch City and that was another leap of faith, not to say what am I going to do. I already have my house, my home, my nest, my children, my toys, their toys, etc. And to leave everything one day and go to another house to start from zero the next day is very difficult. Of course, that was another leap.
[00:35:03] Of faith, but it was all a very strategic move and it also worked out very well for them not to have your entire backoffice in Mexico, this one. Tell us a little bit about that process or the advantages of having a backoffice in Mexico, because I am sure that many companies that are listening to us could benefit from countries like and not only Mexico, not any country in Latin America I think has the same opportunity to do what you did.
[00:35:29] Yes, of course, and in fact it is something that the big companies HP, Oracle and BM are doing in Guadalajara. All call centers in Guadalajara also serve customers such as Amazon Bank of America. Atenti then it is a is a is a is a is a is no longer something new.
[00:35:58] And it is proven.
[00:35:59] If it is not, it is, and especially now with COBIT they can work remotely from anywhere, well, that’s it. It is already very, very fluid. It benefited us a lot because Guadalajara is a technological hub for the country, right? Then in 2017 we decided to open our software lab and instead of continuing to outsource we started recruiting engineers and set up our own software lab this one. And there it is. Based in Guadalajara.
[00:36:31] Is your software also yours?
[00:36:33] Yes, yes, the software, all the tools we have are developed by us. We also have an engineer in India and some in the United States, but most of the software force is in Guadalajara.
[00:36:50] 100% Mexican talent. Yes, of course. Hey, and it’s part of the idea, to license some software or not is simply you use it exclusively us.
[00:37:01] We are using it, we use it as a payment platform, so it’s not really something that can be licensed. We do the Wide Table, for example, we have iPod. They have their payment platform with us and and. But there is the mark of them. Then we make White Label. No, we do not charge a license fee. It is absolutely free for them. And the only thing we acquire are the transactions, not this one. But they have their own brand, they keep the identity and everything, and we do everything that is the platform.
[00:37:44] Hey, going back now, skipping several years, well, we know it’s a successful company, fully established, very creative and they continue to innovate. What is it? What is the next step in your. In your strategic vision? East. Let’s go a little bit into the future, where do you see the growth that you can tell us about in the future? What is your perspective? A little of what is going to happen in the next 5 to 10 years?
[00:38:10] Yes, of course. Look, I was actually at the freight conference there. It was air cargo in London last week and very strong changes are coming for the air cargo industry. They are focusing on digitization at 300%. No? So, there are a lot of companies with very interesting proposals for the digitization of the operational processes that are now being done manually, and we are all going through a transition right now, right? So for me, for our company, which started in a disruptive way to digitize the payments area, this is our next step, is to continue to create innovation for the industry. We have another product which is Spring Pass and Spring Pass is a super noble product, it is not a platform as such, it is already a hub for the ecosystem, not where there can be interaction between the power and the trilateral and the office. Facility and visibility for the airline. So this hub concentrates on the pick up in cargo clothing in the AM air cargo agencies with Spring Pass. Can the trailer driver do from his abu from his phone a check in before he shows up for the cargo, for example, or the The hotel may have the visibility of where this blind spot arrives that AC already offloaded the plane because the airline is good at giving cargo tracking, but once he gets to the cargo Facility who knows what happened, right? So we have these, these metrics and through Spring the visibility is given. No, this is a.
[00:39:57] Product, they are as soon as it is.
[00:40:00] La. When this product is in development, we have been with it for five years, five years and we are in about ten airports. We are in Atlanta with a cargo facility, we are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Florida and East Texas. We have about 20 cargo facilities with ten different 16 that are in the system and we are installing systems and systems one after another. It is free of charge. East Facility. We set up the check in, the kiosk that does the check in and check out and we manage all this system for you at no cost. So the objective of this product is to digitize the process, to create operational visibility for all stakeholders. This and also as collateral, we have a positive environmental impact, because if we can make the trailer driver not to wait for three hours with the trailer on outside the cargo hold, it will reduce the air pollution load around the airports, right?
[00:41:33] What separates? This is a very important issue. You were telling me last time we talked that the sustainability part of and all these green initiatives to save the planet are important to you and therefore to Sprint, right?
[00:41:47] Yes, of course. I think all companies should have an ethical sense of being aware of the impact that we generate. Then we can’t. Destroy the negative impact of our footprint that we leave on the planet in a way to see how we can make it less or less impactful and how we can contribute. Fortunately we are not in manufacturing and software. It’s very noble, isn’t it? But either way. Either way, if through our tools we can create efficiencies that leave a better planet for other people, we are very happy with that. Or not.
[00:42:30] No? Totally. And well, it is a very responsible way to be the leader in the industry and it is a pleasure to talk to you, I think we could schedule several calls and have some other episodes, in fact I would like to talk to you again in a few future months. I think you are in as you were saying, not at the center of many changes in the industry, technology is critical and will remain critical for many years to come. Then congratulations, I am proud and pleased. And congratulations to you and obviously to your partner and obviously to all the people that work for Sprint Cargo, because you are definitely a model, a role model and again something that highlights the potential that Latinos have around the world and people in particular from Mexico. In your case.
[00:43:22] Yes, of course, that’s how this one is. I think that we as entrepreneurs have the responsibility to believe in our talent, not this one, and to know that we have talent in Mexico, which I am very proud of. Our team is really hard-working, they are very cheerful, we have a very nice internal culture, and we also integrate very well with the culture of our counterpart in the United States, we also have people in the United States, directors, they enjoy living with Mexico when they go to the posada, the tenth anniversary party, so this is what it is. The truth is that we have a lot, many tools in Mexico that we as entrepreneurs can take advantage of, especially in software development. There is a very big opportunity. But there is a topic that I would like to invite all businessmen, that is, because Mexico is manufacturing software for other companies, because we do not have our own unicorns, because we have to manufacture software, right? Then encourage entrepreneurs and all the entrepreneurs I know, I mean, let’s see, think, how can you innovate, how can you create, if we have the how to do it. In our country we have a lot of engineers, because we didn’t start making our own Facebook, our own Instagram. So we have to question ourselves from that point of view, not only in commerce, not only in business, the company is not only selling something, but in software there is a great opportunity. E-commerce is a very nice business so we need to rethink our companies. How we can integrate them into an e-commerce modality.
[00:45:21] No? I totally agree and well, it is a very good call for all Mexican and Latin American businessmen, not to think about how we can continue to be protagonists in the different industries and in the different markets. No, we are already doing it, as you rightly say, at the end of the day we are renting software for other companies. Why? Why not be those companies? Then you are absolutely right. And once again, thank you very much for giving me the time to discuss this with you. Obviously we wish you all the best, you have our full support and again many many congratulations. Anything else you would like to share with our audience?
[00:46:02] No, nothing. There were some questions that you toasted around that was? No, no, I don’t remember what they were.
[00:46:09] You remember one that didn’t.
[00:46:11] Did I feel good?
[00:46:11] You wonder if, if casual.
[00:46:14] One. One was for me to tell you about Harvard. Huh?
[00:46:19] Tell me about Harvard.
[00:46:20] Okay. Lately, in the last year I took up the education side of the issue and I was at IPADE doing the two-year course in Guadalajara. And I also went to MIT for an innovation course and Harvard was also an innovation course. So this is in reference to what I leave the public with. Sometimes we fall into our comfort zone and our ego to say oh, I founded this company, if your company is already doing well, to say ah, I am, wow, I am great because all your workers tell you oh yes boss, of course, not everyone has applied, but then yes, if it would be an invitation to challenge ourselves, to be a bigger person in every way, not only spiritually, but also intellectually. And continuing education opportunities are plentiful. Harvard has its online business school at MIT and has its online business school. So we should keep ourselves updated and resume our studies, because right now the world is changing a lot from 2000 to 2022. Not now, companies cannot be managed in the same way. So would it be inviting them not to say to our people I want you to be better, I want you to give your best effort, I want you to study, keep working hard, but to start with our example and say you know what I am going to do to be a better version of what I was yesterday? And that means studies. This implies self-knowledge in all human aspects mind, body, soul and spirit. Work and work and work and work on them. And Harvard, MIT and IPADE were part of this and will continue to be because you plan to continue studying and they give you very important tools for the company.
[00:48:19] Well, and if you can send us some links of all these companies and opportunities and programs that you are in, this one that you had the opportunity to participate in, we can also put them in the notes of our interview so that the people who listen to us, not only learn from your example, but can get into more detail if they are interested. And as you say, I think it’s a very, very good suggestion for all entrepreneurs and for everybody to invest in investing in themselves, in their personal growth.
[00:48:50] Yes, education is very important, they are courses that you attend for a week and they change mental paradigms. And the one at MIT was like that, we went to Design Thinking. This Design Thinking session is very interesting because sometimes we say I am an innovative company, but if you don’t have the innovation method in your DNA and you know the process because it is a process, then you can’t call yourself innovative. If we really want to innovate, we have to look at the most innovative mile in the United States, which is there in Boston with MIT, and learn from them. Not having the humility to say I don’t know everything, let me see what I can learn.
[00:49:32] Heck, I’m sure I forgot several other questions.
[00:49:34] Well, you.
[00:49:35] Thank you. Isn’t there something else you want to remind me of? Because, I mean, everything you’ve done is pretty interesting. So there is some other that. What would you like not to answer?
[00:49:47] Me. I think that’s all it is. And the invitation? Well, not to human development, not just to make more money or to be more successful, but because I believe that as entrepreneurs we have a responsibility to be leaders and to inspire our teams by example, not to go inward, a journey of self-knowledge, of being, of being alert, self awareness and exploring that part of ourselves every other day. Because it is not reading a book or going to a school, but this self-observation, meditating, being present in where we are standing today.
[00:50:30] Not a very good lecture, the one you gave us today. So thank you again for taking the time to talk to me and to our Supply Chain audience in Spanish. I will bother you again in a few more months to see if you can come back to us. I think everything you’ve said has been not only very interesting, but maybe we could have gone into certain aspects of what you said in more detail, but Rayo, like the people listening to us, how can they? Contact us. As you may know a little more about Sprint charges such as. How can those who listen to us locate you?
[00:51:09] A Thank you very much. Is my LinkedIn link there? I am very active in this professional social network. You can send me a LinkedIn if you have questions, share experiences, go ahead. I am happy to share my experiences. Sometimes the entrepreneur’s path is a bit lonely and we can’t go with our questions to our friends or family, can we? So my inbox is open for you to send me a message hey, I have this situation or I was interested in some point of my talk this you have doubts. I am an open book so I am super happy to provide my experiences.
[00:51:53] And well and your company we are going to put all the information. I was told that the website is a good way to contact your company, if someone is listening, if they want some service, if they want to start working with you, that is the best.
[00:52:05] Yes, of course, our domain is cargo sprint dot com and there I think we also pass LinkedIn and Facebook’s league. They do have Twitter, I don’t. Then we can also connect through there and in the sprint dot com cart we also get our e-mails.
[00:52:28] Perfect. And again, thank you very much for everything. It is a pleasure to talk with you, as always to all of you who are listening to us, if you are interested in talks like the one we had today with Rayo Torres, please do not fail to subscribe again. My name is Enrique Alvarez and thank you all for listening to your Play now in Spanish.
