Hey everybody, welcome back to Vision Pros. I'm
your host and coach, Fletcher Ellingson. Today
on the show, we have got Mr. Chris Brunelli.
He's from Surpass Solutions. And Surpass Solutions
is an electronic data interchange company. Now,
I warned him, I don't know what that means. I
don't know if you know what that means, but we're
gonna find out because it may be something. that
your company is ready for. Chris Brunelli, welcome
to the show. Thank you very much, Fletcher. Great
to be here and part of Vision Pros, so appreciate
being on the show. Hey, you know, electronic
data interchange, you know, if you want to end
a party, you can start talking about it, you
know, and it's a real sizzler. but it's something
that uh believe it or not powers about 80 of
b2b commerce right um you know websites and e
-commerce sites get all the you know get all
the views right but when you're talking about
actual volume right and and dollar value it's
about this technology that is quite old right
it predates the internet and uses positional
flat files essentially to share business documents
like purchase orders and you know invoices and
shipping information right and it's it's how
uh much of commerce actually happens so um you
know what we do is we help entrepreneurs that
are you know have kind of tapped out the direct
to consumer you know e -commerce and amazon channel
uh to to try and uh punch uh up uh you know go
from seven figures to nine figures um by uh going
retail right and you know if you go retail you
have to support edi there's no option there and
then the question is how how do you do that right
and there's a bunch of providers like us that
that help you know, kind of bring that to life
for them and then integrate with systems that
they use in their own business. Right. Like to
manage their inventory and track their orders.
So those entrepreneurs generally live in, you
know, some kind of a software that that helps
them do that. And and our stuff integrates with
those kind of softwares. So hopefully that helps,
you know, kind of. Yeah, it does. I'm going to
and I'm going to bring a spotlight back to something
you said, because when you said this. The wheels
begin to turn for me. And so I'm going to assume
that that's going to happen for some of our audience,
too. You said that when a company reaches a certain
point where perhaps they've been selling on Amazon
or similar platforms and they've tapped that
out, they've maxed out there, they're like, hey,
we're not seeing increased revenues now. This
is where you come in. And and now they're going
to be going more direct retail. Is that accurate?
That's right. Yeah. So, you know, the the old
adage, right, whatever is good enough to get
you there is not good enough to get you where
you want to go. Right. Yeah. So, you know, that's
that's the same here. Right. You've got to be
able to, you know, think about, you know, if
you're doing really well and you've crested.
you know, a million dollars in revenue and your
customers love you. You know, if you're looking
at, you know, the, you know, kind of the entrepreneur
journey, right? You want to start by. proving
that everyone loves the product and generates
some revenue and no better evidence than that,
right? And then, you know, eventually the people
that you want to impress aren't just the customers,
but, you know, maybe a national retailer that
could really change the trajectory and change
the life of the business, right? There's a colleague
of mine in the space who says, you know, build
a business worth selling. right and you know
um you know being able to get the right revenue
uh up uh and the right revenue multiple at exit
is a goal of a lot of the entrepreneurs that
we work with and and there's no better way to
do that than you know partnering with the right
people and and getting the right you know kind
of the getting the tech side you know perfect
so that everyone's in in harmony and and you
know in alignment so right and that's where you
all come in because the the companies that you
support they're busy creating their widgets or
whatever they're creating yeah consumer goods
generally some food beverage some apparel okay
yeah great kind of folks and that and that's
their specialty that that they know how to do
that they're good at that and what you're coming
in to um aid them in doing is really scale at
that next level um and that's your specialty
is that is that exactly right fletcher i mean
these guys you know and and i use guys generally
right but they they um you know they're uh really
good at their core competency creating products
that do well that that people love right uh but
they might not manufacture their own products
right they might not even warehouse their own
products right they use their partings for a
lot of this stuff but you know um and what we
do is we help them focus on their core competency
right uh traditionally they would require a bunch
of software tools to be able to do what we do
as a managed service for them right um so you
know that allows them to you know not have to
invest heavily in it talent or consultants or
all that other stuff they just want a turnkey
operation to be you know in lockstep compliance
with their retail trading partners right yeah
walmart and and target and the like they have
know uh famously thin margins right they they
operate on supply chain execution and efficiency
so um you know and that means getting that part
of the business right and uh so we handle that
for our customers so that they don't have to
right got it got it okay yeah so so a company
looking to get to that next place they're definitely
going to need services that you provide to help
them do that effectively right instead of a lot
of trial and error that's it you know there's
there you know it's a big market and it's been
around for a really long time since it predates
the internet right so yeah you know there's all
types of ways to go about it generally there's
a you know an outsource versus in source right
there's 70 000 people on linkedin with edi in
their title right and uh they get paid well right
because it's it's it's tough stuff it's it's
it's gnarly right and it's tough to get right
and you need smart people when when those type
of problems persist right but not everyone has
the budget for you know uh you know going out
and grabbing one of these and adding them to
the team or you know they're at a transitional
phase or you know they want to focus on their
core competency and leverage people like us to
go you know help them you know be in lockstep
compliance with with those big retailers and
uh you know play with the big dogs without necessarily
having you know big dog expense right so yeah
yeah okay good good good so thanks for all of
that that paints a much clearer picture in my
mind and hopefully in the mind of our our listeners
and someone is going to hopefully self -identify
and go like oh that's that's the type of company
that i need to be considering for our next move
um now the show is called vision pros and i yeah
i need to find vision as a clarified story that
lives in the brain that's intended to manifest
in the physical realm so what i want to know
is chris what is your vision well i got a few
but i'll you know the i guess ultimately um my
vision for the future is one where consumer packaged
goods food and beverage entrepreneurs can go
to market for less right and what we're seeing
in ai is uh changing the scope of um software
enabled startups right uh they're going from
you know needing huge staffs of programmers to
people vibe coding and then having you know a
programmer tighten it up and and go to market
right um so we're seeing the the cost of entrepreneurship
dramatically reduced And I think we'll see that
across the entire market. Right. And we hope
to help, you know, obviously usher that in. You
know, that's our vision for our own business.
But, you know, our real vision is is to enable
these entrepreneurs to go to market and to do
everything that, you know, better equipped, better
financed, bigger shops are able to accomplish
for far less. Right. and and do a far better
job at it right impressing their customers with
with what they can do i like that and i'm gonna
uh i think it's important to reiterate what some
of these important points so bear with me because
that's how i learned uh is by kind of is that
did i get that right right so what i heard you
just say is your vision is in a nutshell to to
make scaling to that next level just simply more
affordable um in the retail market that's right
okay yeah helping consumer goods entrepreneurs
scale in retail uh without the traditional expense
and the traditional tooling and the delays to
be able to get that tooling right to be able
to support thousands of transactions right that's
really a huge burden that we're able to lift
off and that's our vision of the future is is
one where you know everyone has that You know,
that bar lowered and you can now, you know, get
into those situations and and, you know, you
go from, you know, the farmer's market to, you
know, an eight figure or nine figure enterprise
within a much shorter time frame if you're able
to focus on your core competency. I love your
messaging here. And it's and again, I want to
highlight it because I've been an entrepreneur
all my life. And when I think of scaling. So
I'm in the coaching space, so it's a very different,
scaling looks very different there. But when
I think and I see new products go to market and
we have a farmer's market in our town and a lot
of those people are like, they have big visions.
For myself, because I have been in manufacturing
as well, the thought of how to get from here
up to there seems so daunting. That it could
for many entrepreneurs just like, nah, we're
not even going to try. So when I hear you, when
I listen to you, and the reason like that might
occur for many entrepreneurs is because like
too many hoops, not in my wheelhouse, and the
expense is massive, right? So your messaging
is really important to be heard is that there
are ways you don't have to figure it out. all
by yourself that's right we have the methodologies
and we're really committed to making this way
more affordable than it's ever been yeah i mean
something that's been more you know a less a
guiding vision in my own life right is you know
they is somebody else did it right take a look
around Right. Who else is doing this right now?
Right. This is figureoutable. Right. And, you
know, if you really want to scale your business
and that's a big goal of a lot of our customers
and a lot of the people we talk to, you know,
we get it. Right. And, you know, we've we've
helped a lot of people along the way. And this
is, you know, you know, this is stuff that you
can learn how to do and and build it up. Right.
Yeah. And, you know, it's. it's such an you know
there's obviously there's a whole bunch of landmines
there's a whole bunch of things that you know
but you know as uh someone once said you know
you'll arrive at those you know junctions bridges
crossroads with all of the facilities that you
know you're equipped with today and you figured
this much out so far so go for it yeah i love
that attitude yeah because the people who have
done it they've they've trailblazed the way proved
that it can be done, that means it's actually
going to be even easier for those who are following
behind. Absolutely. And, you know, there's a
whole bunch of vendors out there like us, right,
that are, you know, in this space. We exist solely
because we've got a better way to go about it.
And we've helped people do a better job than
what the previous iteration was. And if people
can apply that to anything and just say, who
out there is able to help me? And that's where
I want to go. How do I leverage the knowledge
and the experience and to see what's out there?
feel so you know alone or or not feel like you
know they've got to do this all themselves right
um you know if they can just squelch down the
um you know kind of the the pride and and open
up the learner's mind uh anything possible yeah
i like i like that open up the learner's mind
um you also mentioned that like there are a lot
of companies like yourself um like like the company
um surpass solutions so i'm gonna give you an
opportunity differentiate yourself why why you
guys yeah so the technology has been around for
you know 50 plus years so um how is other technologies
changed you know throughout that time is is measurable
right we've gone You know, from from, you know,
manned flight to space flight. So and the technology
industry, you know, my first EDI business was
one that came at the onset of cloud technology.
Right. Where all of a sudden you're taking stuff
off of their local server, sitting underneath
someone's desk. Right. And, you know, putting
it up where we could, you know, take advantage
of of scale up in the cloud. Right. The other,
you know, the. The piece that's ultimately the
biggest difference for Surpass is that we're
not a tool, right? There's a saying out there
that says tools are for fools. I think it's from
Slootman, the Snowflake CEO and ServiceNow CEO.
And we provide a managed service, right? It's
very, very stark contrast between using software
tools to orchestrate the ins and outs of EDI
or... using a managed service with a software
tool so that it effectively provides you the
same, you know, benefits, right? Being EDI compliant,
having that done for you, not incurring penalties
and chargebacks from your customers, right? Making
sure that your bills are getting paid because
your invoices don't have errors and all that
stuff, right? Ultimately, a managed service provider
is, you know, something that people consider.
And when they do, we hope they consider Surpass.
Right on, right on. Well, I think that's a good
place to begin to wrap this up. If people have
heard you and they're like, hey, I want to talk
to this Chris Brunelli guy, because maybe they're
at that next point, right? What's the best way
to get in touch with you? Yeah, just surpass
.biz and hit contact. I'm also on LinkedIn. If
anyone wants to look me up there, by all means.
I love to chat with new people and learn new
things and see how their business is running
and see if we can help. Right on. All right.
So that was surpass .biz. You can also look Chris
up on LinkedIn. Chris. Thanks so much for your
time here. I wish you all the best. Great. Thank
you so much, Fletcher. Really appreciate the
opportunity and your time today. Thank you for
being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned
in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to
seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.