Interview with Austin Kreinz From Atomix Logistics

Do you have a great consumer brand but looking for a US-based fulfillment company that confidently gets your product into the hands of your consumers? Austin from Atomix Logistics has the answer with his unique twist on 3PL.

Hey Austin,

Thank you for joining me in this interview. We first met a year ago when you were recommended to us as a US-based third-party logistics (3PL) company.

In 2021 I was unhappy with our current 3PL and was looking for a partner with who we could grow. Within a few months of onboarding with Atomix, we found the level of customer support was over and above any other 3PL we have used.

I am keen to uncover your journey, from first starting Atomix Logistics until now.

If you have EVER worked with a 3PL or are thinking of doing so then you reading this interview will save you a tonne of time. Austin not only details his journey but outlines essential information you need to know.

It would be great to get a little background information from where you were born to where you live today. What’s your backstory?

Thanks for having me, Adam!

Before we get started, I’d like to say thank you to the entire Atomix Family. Thank you, because you’ve been an exceptional partner, and we’ve enjoyed playing a small, yet pivotal role in your brand’s growth!

The word, “Family” is not only a meaningful word but also one that is at the core of my story.

My family has owned a small logistics business in Milwaukee, WI (right by the Great Lakes in the Midwest) for almost my entire life. And to be honest, I never dreamed about working in the logistics industry (I’m not sure many kids do!), but it’s such a fascinating industry to be a part of (more on this later!)

I caught the entrepreneurship bug early and have started all different types of companies (at a much scaler scale) since childhood – from training and consulting athletes to developing an app in college. Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s in my DNA and there’s nothing quite like its risk-reward profile and the ability to create something from nothing.

Back to my childhood, I was 1 of 5 kids and had a relatively “normal” childhood growing up in a middle-class, suburban neighborhood. My childhood and early life could be summarized by three words: Entrepreneurship, Sports, and Academics.

I took the leap of faith when I was 16 years old to pursue my dream of playing D1 Lacrosse. That required me to move across the country to attend a boarding school (lacrosse was a brand new sport in Wisconsin and I was on one of the first teams).

I was fortunate enough to earn a scholarship and eventually was recruited to play Division 1 at the University of Pennsylvania. I had the opportunity to win an Ivy League Championship, to be voted captain during my senior year and graduate Cum Laude. Interestingly enough, all 4 of my brother’s played college lacrosse!

What got you into starting your own third-party logistics (3PL) company?

I like to say Ecommerce & Logistics have been my entire life.

I grew up in an SMB Logistics Family and after college, I worked on Wall Street covering the Consumer Retail Industry. I saw the first-hand impacts that Technology and Ecommerce were having on established business models.

I think growing up in the industry has given Atomix a competitive edge – it helps to understand what fundamentally works, and how to develop solutions that business owners trust, understand, and can rely on daily.

Additionally, prior to starting Atomix, I spent a year partnering with a bootstrapped $20 million+ brand to help them grow and scale – from sales/marketing to operational improvements. That’s where I really learned about the pain points of shipping & fulfillment because it came up in almost every discussion with brand owners.

3rd-Party Logistics is the starting point for Atomix. Our vision is to create a Software Operating System that enables brands to Launch (build a store), Grow (customize physical operations), & Scale (fund growth/capitalize on profitability). We have a long way to go!

Photo Credit Atomix Logistics

When I was researching 3PLs your branding really caught my eye. Your industry is not known for its stand-out branding, can you go into more detail on how you developed your brand?

Defining a “Brand” is such a fascinating exercise.

The reason we’re constantly investing in, improving, and creating a “Stand-Out” Brand is two-fold:

• Our Core Customers: Who are they? What do they want/need/like?
• Avoid Boring: Attention is hard to get, especially with 3,000+ competitors, so the hard truth is boring = ignored

To expand on that, creating our initial brand identity was a relatively easy exercise at first. It was easy because I experienced the pain points first-hand and I was, in essence, creating a solution for myself. I was aware that the majority of 3PLs have boring and outdated websites, and I knew the industry was in need of a refreshing brand that actually resonated with modern brands and entrepreneurs.

While I mentioned it was “easy” to form the initial foundation of our brand, it takes time and iteration to perfect the branding because it’s a constantly evolving identity. I think building a Brand should be a focus for any and every type of company because a Brand is how you’re identified in the market.

Our team has deep conversations about our branding. We try to take a systematic approach to how we engineer and define our brand. Since we live in a world with an overwhelming amount of solutions to our problems it’s important to be precise and focused on ourselves and our message.

Further, in the digital-first economy, we approach marketing in an almost surprising way. We say, “we have to fight for and earn the attention of people because attention is an asset that is hard to get.” Especially for us, with thousands of competitors, our Brand is so much more than our website, it’s the essence of who we are, what we stand for, and the value that we provide.

Atomix Logistics does fulfillment a little differently from other 3PLs I have had experience by using the concept of “Pods”, what are these and how do they work?

Great question!

Behind the concept was a bit of, “forced innovation” in addition to listening to our customers.

I say “forced innovation” because when I started the company I had 400 square feet of spare warehouse space to utilize. Most warehouses are designed in measurements of feet and have hundreds of thousands of square feet.

For us, we had to focus on maximizing inches and being as efficient as possible. We quickly realized we needed a much bigger space (so today we have 50x that!).

Listening to our early customers really helped develop and refine the model. Most 3PLs and warehouses are focused on efficiency and there’s a good reason for that. For us, we wanted to provide efficiency, but also create an amazing customer experience because that’s what our brands do for their customers.

That means, we dedicate “Pods” (essentially mini-warehouses) within our facility to an independent or group of brands. By doing so, we manage our clients by brand and product and can customize their unique requirements based on their standards. The approach enables us to be more flexible and responsive in order to customize operations for brands, as opposed to over-systematizing a solution that dilutes the brand’s ideal customer experience.

Additionally, we layer on our real-time, text-messaging customer support platform with 2 dedicated Team Members.

First, the Pod Manager, who handles the brand’s physical operations on a daily basis, and

Second, is the Customer Success Manager, who handles all the technology, integration, billing, and administrative questions.

We enjoy taking the customer experience to the next level because when our brand partners are more successful, we are as well.

Photo Credit Atomix Logistics

I have worked with 3-4 US-based 3PLs in the last three years and experienced a few common failures. I am interested to know what mistakes you have seen 3PLs make?

The short answer is – The nature of the logistics industry has a lot of moving parts, and as such, we jokingly agree with Murphy’s Law that states, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

That being said, we’ve both seen and experienced a few common failures:

• Miss Shipments: Sending the wrong product or having a carrier lose a shipment accounts for 3-4% of orders (the industry average). The most common root issue is the lack of Scan-based Systems or SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). We implemented a fully-scan-based process, which required barcoding 3,000+ warehouse locations and 50,000+ units, in early 2022 and reduced our Error Rate to less than 2%.
• Accountability & Ownership: Most warehouses have a standard organizational chart. Meaning, Pickers/Packers solely pick/pack orders and Customer Support who are based overseas or in a separate office. The reason being is the focus, specialization and profitability which are all fair reasons, but I’ve witnessed this deteriorate cultures and create unmotivated employees which ultimately reduces performance and in turn profitability and customer retention.

This goes back to my point of re-thinking the industry. We have our office 10 feet from our Pods and have employees with hybrid responsibilities that extend between customer support and operations. For us, this has created a unique employment offering that results in a better experience for our customers and our team (a win-win).

Customer support has always been an issue with most of the 3PLs I have worked with, especially when a fulfillment company handles thousands of clients. How do you guys manage support?

I touched on this before so I’ll keep this one brief!

Here’s a great example that signals our value of customer support –

My first full-time hire was our Director of Operations & CX, Patrick Day. While it’s just a title, we fundamentally view the Customer Experience (CX) as the most important part of our business. We’d be crazy not to because if our customers aren’t happy then we’re not doing our job of achieving operational excellence.

For us, we’re growing from 50 to 150 brands in 2022, and I can promise that our customer experience will continuously improve and be a defining feature and benefit of partnering with Atomix.

Interestingly enough, the concept of the “Pod” intrinsically creates an improved customer support experience. We are systematically required to manage brands with dedicated team members. To my knowledge, no other warehouse in the U.S. empowers their warehouse team to take ownership and manage part of the customer support experience in the same way we do.

As we scale, we’re constantly adding new team members to dedicate the same level of service regardless of the brands’ size.

What challenges did you face when setting up Atomix?

Warehouse space!

In early 2021, before we moved into our new, renovated warehouse (20,000 sq. ft.), I had to rent shipping containers outside our spare warehouse space because we were growing so quickly.

We’ve had so much demand to open a West Coast facility, we’ll be opening one early next year! It takes a team and weeks of preparation to rapidly and accurately roll out a new location.

Technology

Approaching logistics in a differentiated way comes with inherent challenges. We’ve been licensing a 3rd Party Software App and it lacks the necessary customizations for our business model and growth plan. As a result, we have invested months into creating a proprietary warehouse and inventory management system. The process requires experienced developers/software engineers and a significant amount of investment.

It’s the most fun challenge to solve because our platform’s intelligence and eas-of-use will be game-changing for the industry and extremely impactful to our business and our partners.

You have grown significantly over the past year. Can you tell us about your growth and if you’re happy to share your secret?

That’s The Million Dollar Question.

I’ve read hundreds of similar stories and studied the best business leaders across history and the world, and I’ve yet to find the one-and-only true secret.

That being said, I’ll share how I operate:

I work, eat, and dream about Atomix and I’ll never stop. (Some people interpret that as narcissistic or too obsessive. I think they’re wrong.)

First, I can operate that way because I genuinely love what I do and have an insatiable desire to learn and improve.

I believe my passion and business-obsessed personality have helped attract similar people that want to make a difference and impact in the world in addition to being successful. Without our team, we would never have been able to grow so quickly.

I use the word love because the nature of early-stage businesses is intrinsically full of risk and uncertainty. Inevitably, plans will change and people will respond unpredictably. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to make it work. If I don’t inherently love what I’m doing, how would I expect myself to work tirelessly and to expend all my effort into growing a business?

Lastly, I use the words, “never stop” because when it comes to learning, improving, and growing you can never reach your limits. There is always something to learn and it’s important to remember the Winston Churchill quote,

to improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

I wish there was a secret because it’d make my late nights a lot shorter!

But until then, my advice is, “get started & never stop.”

What’s next for Atomix in the next 1-2 years?

Great question!

2022-23 Plan:

• Rollout Our Proprietary Software Platform: Mid-2022
• Open West Coast Warehouse: Early 2023
• Increase Current Warehouse Capacity: Up to 100,000 sq. ft. 2022
• Hire New Team Members: 10→30 in 2022 and 80 in 2023

Photo Credit Atomix Logistics