Automating the Front Office

I’ve been on a few go-to-market teams before, but I’ve never felt the level of validation I felt at Fabtech. 

It’s one thing to believe in your product but usually, it takes time for people to really grasp the value of a new solution. You believe in it, you know it solves a problem, but that real world validation can be a slow burn.

FabTech transforms the McCormick Center into an industrial wonderland - robots weaving around, AI-powered welding systems, automation on display at every corner, and all the heavy-duty tech you can imagine. And then there was the Purchaser booth - tucked in the back corner (the way back corner), talking about the thing no one else was: the ten hours it takes to source a single part.

Walking in, we were excited but unsure. Would people see that automating the front office is just as crucial as automating the factory floor? Would they understand that this “old school” administrative burden is actually a massive hidden cost?

The answer was a resounding yes. 

Stepping into Fabtech this year with the Purchaser team was like watching the puzzle pieces just fall into place in a way I hadn’t quite felt before. It was conversation after conversation with people nodding along and saying, “Yes, this process sucks. Can you fix this?!” And that’s what makes me so excited for the future because we’re not just automating a process, we’re changing the way people think about that process.

What really blew us away was that the problem we’re solving isn’t niche, it’s universal. It’s been buried under “this is just how it’s done” for decades. But at Fabtech, the second we said it out loud, people didn’t need convincing. They already knew. And that kind of instant recognition? And seeing that immediate market validation was like a breath of fresh air. For the first time, it didn’t take months of convincing people that this was a real pain point. They knew it right away, and they were ready for a change.

It didn’t matter if we were talking to a CEO, a supply chain manager, an engineer who just got roped into helping with procurement or a sales team lamenting about how miserable their sourcing team was. The reaction was the same.

So here we are, turning an old-school administrative headache into an opportunity for real innovation. I couldn’t be more excited about the road ahead. We’re changing the way procurement is done, making life easier for everyone from the Owner/Operators to the project managers, and finally bringing the front office into the 21st century.

And that is something truly special. That is the reason I am so incredibly excited to evolve and improve buying at its core…that and sure, the trillion dollar addressable market.

Not all innovation is as cool as automated robotic welding machines. Some of it lives in email threads and spreadsheets. Here’s to automating the unsexy side of business.

If you want in on it, let’s book some time to talk and we will give you 30 days of free access.