Episode Details

Craig Fuller and Joe Lynch discuss why Chattanooga is the Silicon Valley of trucking. Craig and his company, FreightWaves is one of the reasons, Chattanooga is called the Silicon Valley of Trucking.

Craig Fuller is CEO and Founder of FreightWaves, the only freight-focused organization that delivers a complete and comprehensive view of the freight and logistics market. FreightWaves' news, content, market data, insights, analytics, innovative engagement, and risk management tools are unprecedented and unmatched in the industry. Prior to founding FreightWaves, Fuller was the founder and CEO of TransCard, a fleet payment processor that was sold to US Bank. He also is a trucking industry veteran, having founded and managed the Xpress Direct division of US Xpress Enterprises, the largest provider of on-demand trucking services in North America. Craig earned a Bachelor of Business Administration/Entrepreneurship from Baylor University.

FreightWaves is the leading freight intelligence provider, offering current digital intelligence and context to the freight community on a central platform. FreightWaves'​ SaaS product, SONAR, is the leading freight market analytics tool and dashboard, aggregating billions of data points from hundreds of sources to provide the fastest data in the transportation and logistics sector. FreightWaves.com, the company's news site, is the leading provider of news and commentary for the transportation and logistics space. FreightWaves also hosts conferences under Transparency and MarketWaves branding and is a co-developer of the first futures contracts dedicated to trucking spot rates.

[01:04] Tell us a little bit about you and your company.

• I am Craig Fuller, founder and CEO of FreightWaves, which is based in Chattanooga, TN. I grew up in a trucking family and worked in my dad's company.
• FreightWaves is the leading Freight Intel provider, offering current digital intelligence and context to the freight community on a central platform.

[03:50] Your content at FreightWaves is so insightful. I've noticed that to write about logistics, you have to know logistics.

• We tried to get the traditional trucking press to write about what we were doing, but it was apparent that they didn't understand the content.
• Out of frustration, we decided to write our own content.
• Our writer was on vacation, so I once wrote about a hurricane under his name. That's when the site exploded.
• We actually do hire a lot of great writers that don't have experience in the space and combine them with market experts.

[08:54] Why and when did you start FreightWaves?

• The business started in 2016, but we didn't get our first venture funding until 2017.
• I didn't want to go back to work in the family business. I wanted to do something on my own.
• My brother is the CEO of that business now, but my father is still active in it.
• I'm sure that my brother faces difficulties because the vision was created for him.
• We have to report to our board, but they're very supportive which gives us room to do things how we want.

[15:05] Steve Case has a venture fund and tour called The Rise of the Rest. Tell us about it and why he named Chattanooga the Silicon Valley of trucking.

• His theory was that he could go find startups in smaller cities to pitch to touring venture capitalists.
• FreightWaves won the tour's stop in Chattanooga.
• This city has more people connected to logistics per capita than any other city in America, so it was only natural that Chatta