Learn more about Kloopify at: www.kloopify.com
Find Daniela Osio on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniela-osio-4a947394/
JC: Welcome, everyone to another episode of The Future of BizTech. I’m your host, JC Granger, and I have with me another fantastic guest on the show today. And listen, if you end up loving this episode, please show your love and appreciation by following this podcast wherever you’re listening, you know, give it a five star review, put some nice comments on that it really helps the algorithm right? Because that is how other techies like you and I find cool podcasts like this. And today I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing the founder and CEO of Kloopify, Daniela Osio. Daniela, thank you so much for being on the show. Tell the audience a little bit about what you do and the company does.
Daniela: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure. Hello, everyone in the audience. So my name is Daniela Osio, and I am the founder and CEO of Kloopify. And so Kloopify is a software solution that enables enterprise-sized companies to be able to understand the environmental and ethical impact of all of their purchasing decisions. So I come from a world of supply chain, and so focusing on procurement professionals. And the reason we did that is because 60 to 90% of a company’s environmental footprint comes from their suppliers. So if they want to achieve their sustainability goals, they have to work with their suppliers. Right now in the industry, there’s a lack of tools that are supporting the procurement industry. And that’s how Kloopify was born – to help companies achieve their sustainability goals.
JC: So if I’m understanding this, right, you have companies make sure that they’re only sourcing from, you know, the good guys, so to speak, right? The ones that aren’t messing everything up on the planet kind of thing, right? So yeah, give us some examples. So I mean, you say enterprise level, but give us if you can name them, great. If not, that’s okay. But give us some examples. Maybe one or two of clients that you have, and like what their struggle was when they came to you and how you helped them out? Like, I’m curious to see, you know, how does the company get this problem? And then how they fix it?
Daniela: Yeah, well, first of all, most of it comes from new regulations that are coming in the industry where companies need to be more transparent about the environmental impact that they have. So they need to start reporting on their scope three emissions, do you know a lot about scope one, two and three emissions?
JC: I do not..
Daniela: I do a little bit of an overview.
JC: And you know what, even if I did, I bet most people wouldn’t anyway, so give us the 30,000 foot view on scope emissions.
Daniela: So scope, one, two, and three emissions that makes up the scope one emissions is what your company internally does. So your manufacturing sites, scope two emissions is the energy or electricity that you use to support those manufacturing sites. And your scope three is the rest of your value chain. So everything that you purchase, whether it’s services, or products, materials, anything like that. So when you combine all three, scope, one, two, and three, you get your entire carbon footprint, for example. And so when you’re talking about enterprise sized companies, you’re talking about companies that have 10s of 1000s of suppliers, think fortune 500, and bigger, right? And so to get all of that data to understand really the impact of every single purchasing decisions, there’s a lot of information that needs to go back and forth. So what Kloopify does is we connect buyers who are going out and buying things, the purchasers with the suppliers, who have that data about, you know, where they manufacture what they use, and we give them one portal to connect and gather all that information, and be able to run analytics and report out to shareholders stakeholders, and follow these new regulations that are coming up.
JC: This is interesting, because this reminds me of something that just happened recently. So I just took a trip recently. And when I booked my flight, there was this new little line on there that told me the carbon emissions of my flight. So walk me through that I imagine that like an airline could be one of your clients, whether they are or not. But so I’m seeing that that means they have to know the number, which means they must have this whole thing down. And they’re a highly regulated industry as well. So how is what you’re talking about affecting, let’s say, let’s start with airlines. And then what other industries that you know, are people, the average consumer seeing that is having to comply with this?
Daniela: Yeah, that’s a great point. And I always say that the future is going to look like the way that we put calories on food, we’re going to put environmental impact on everything that we buy, both as from a consumer perspective as an enterprise business perspective. And so you see in Europe, for example, regulations where they, companies are now forced to publicly disclose their scope, one and two emission. And then there’s new regulations coming where scope three is going to be required as well. And so you’re seeing that companies are realizing that this is going to be either a characteristic where you get to kind of be the leader in the industry, like in this airline example that you gave, where a customer makes a flight decision may say, okay, you know what, I’m going with this carrier versus that because their emissions is lower. And so this, the same thing is happening in the enterprise business world. You’re seeing manufacturers, chemical companies, who we’ve worked with most closely with that are saying, you know, we’re getting this pressure from investors, from regulators And we need to start reporting on all of this. But the problem is we don’t have the tools, we don’t have the understanding the know how, on how to do it. And that’s where we come in, right? First, we do like a current state assessment, where we tell you, Hey, this is your baseline, right? You can do some baseline analysis, with some spend data, for example. But then to get a more accurate representation, you have to really understand what your suppliers are doing. And that’s a lot of data points and a lot of collaboration that needs to be happening from a buyer and supplier perspective. And it wouldn’t be able to do or it would be very difficult to do with like spreadsheets, you’d have a desk by spreadsheets, you think about, you know, my company where I used to work prior to Kloopify, DuPont, you know, 10,000 plus suppliers, and every single one of them sending you, you know, at least 20 spreadsheets under with all of the breakdown of their sites and what they’re using and the materials and their manufacturing processes, are they using chemicals of concern or not, etc, etc. And so it’s just a lot of information. And in the future, it’s going to be demanded, it’s either going to be a carrot, where you get brand recognition, or it’s going to be a stick where you get hit with regulation, it’s one or the other.
JC: So how does your software.. so your clients log into your platform? And then what they upload all these spreadsheets, it turns out the information like what does it look like to them? To use Kloopify?
Daniela: Yeah, so first, they get a baseline understanding we do that with, we call it the Kloopify secret sauce, where we take some financial information, some scope of work information, and create a really great baseline. And then we identify, let’s say, street,-strategic suppliers, because you don’t want to be capturing all of this data. If you know, procurement, you know, and you have, you’re a buyer and you’re responsible for 100 suppliers, you don’t need to capture it from everybody, maybe you have 1000 strategic suppliers. So we you identify those strategic suppliers, and you work with them on creating a plan for them to provide you that data, they both connect on the same platform. And in the future, we’ll have ATI connections to where we’re pulling the data so they get real time. And so what, as a buyer, you see the environmental impact, and that every single supplier has to your footprint. So I’m responsible for janitorial services or for a raw material that I have to buy, I can now break it down per supplier and understand, okay, Supplier A has this footprint, Supplier B has this footprint, they both give me the same material. In the past, I’ve been giving you know 75% of my purchase order to supplier A but he has a much higher footprint, you know what I’m going to go in and make that change so that we’re transitioning that the majority of our, you know, material comes from supplier B, and you get to see in real time the impact that makes in your carbon footprint and in your ability to meet your sustainability goals. Because 85% of companies have publicly announced sustainability goals. And so, you know, we have to get closer to that.
JC: Who provides this data? So does your system have baseline data already? For the, because I know that your clients, the buyers or those of your clients at the buyers? So they’re like, hey, we need to know this information. You’re like, okay, great. But who’s reporting the numbers from their sellers from the people they’re buying from? Is it just honor system? Or is there some sort of accountability measure where your clients actually know that that really is a somewhat accurate footprint? I know it, there’s obviously, the degree of error because it just the situation. But how do your buyers know that the data they’re looking at is accurate?
Daniela: Yeah, so a lot of that comes? Well, first off, you can do it with simple Scope of Work information, the information that you have in your scope of work, whether it’s your, your product breaks down what they’re giving you, and then you’re working with your suppliers in the sense of, they sign off on the data that they’re giving off, right? So that relationship you have, okay, you already know what sites you already know, what locations and what energies used. And then both of you are going back and forth based on the scope of work based on the, and MSDC sheets that they are already providing off of that data, and you’re matching it together. And then you get in the future. You know, when you’ve identified your strategic suppliers, you would actually just have an API connection to their systems and pull directly from with their internally reporting what they’re already using, as their you know, truth source of truth. The both of you are working on that same sort of source of truth.
JC: So how do consumers or even your clients know what a higher low level is? So for example, the one thing I didn’t like, about like that information came on the airline ticket was like, here’s the emissions I’m like, okay, cool, compared to what like, I have no idea what this parts per million or whatever data they put there. There’s no like industry average or average, as of you know, last year and this is this much better. Or comparing this other airlines, you know, it’s very new. So I get that maybe, you know, they’re still working through the kinks, but I stare at it. I’m like, well, that’s cool information, but I don’t have any baseline to compare it again. So how do your clients or even just regular consumers even understand what that number even means and if it’s good or bad, because if everyone’s bad, right, if you’re like, oh, that’s better than the other guy. It’s like, Yeah, but they’re all really bad. You know? Yeah. How do you combat that lack of baseline knowledge?
Daniela: So let’s go back to you said, let’s say that every one is that, right? The first step is even identified. If you you know, sustainability in itself is a new Hot Topic, right? We’ve talked about it for a while. But now we’re putting a lot more pressure and knowledge and forcing companies to do the right thing, whether it’s reporting, but I think you start with identifying the ones that you create a baseline, and then you start moving your money towards companies that are doing better than others. So most companies, and let’s say the smart companies don’t have single source suppliers, right? They don’t have only one supplier providing this one material, because you run the risk of business disruptions of supply chain disruptions. And so what you’ll be able to do, at least at the bare minimum is compare to suppliers, and find the one that’s at least better than the other. And then once you started working with that, then you can go out to market with some knowledge of already what the baseline is. And as you’re running RFPs, gather more information. And in the tool, you’ll be able to see this is my current state, these are my goals, this is where I want to be. Either you continue to work with strategic suppliers to get you closer to there, or you go out with already the knowledge that you have and try to find what’s better, right, and you keep moving towards a better world or a better solutions or strategic suppliers that are going to get you closer to where you want to be.
JC: So your tool can almost act like a PR tool in a way too. Because the way I envision it, is if I’m using your system, and I’m it’s helping me understand and keep my suppliers accountable, or switch suppliers and whatnot. It’s an accountability tool in itself, right? And then but I could also for myself, I could say, Well, hey, over the last six months or last 12 months, we have we have a dashboard, it shows that we’ve gone down. How I could screenshot that and put that on my social and be like, look, we are ensuring sustainability. We’ve made these changes, and we will continue to do so. You know, buy our stuff, right?
Daniela: Exactly!
JC: Okay. Yeah, that’s really interesting. I like that. Very cool. Okay. Well, then let me ask you a question about your business and how you operate. So I’m a marketing guy by trade. So I speak El Marketing. What are you doing to get though you’re on the podcast? That’s one thing. Okay, cool. PR. What else are you doing? What are your main channels for promoting Kloopify?
Daniela: Yeah, so mostly, we’re right now building a brand on LinkedIn, on our website. And we are a startup, we were founded in the middle of the pandemic, when we identify that there was a huge need, I worked in procurement before this I worked at at DuPont for various years and in different roles, and I and I spent my time there, trying to learn as much as possible. And while I was there, I also had the privilege of creating a name for myself in the world of supply chain, whether it’s, you know, winning awards, like 30, under 30, from the Institute of Management, or just recently winning a international transform award from the future Insight Network, which is a huge network for supply chain executives. So we’re using that to continue to build our brand and go out there through LinkedIn through those platforms. Right now, what we’re focused on is really executing on the early innovators that we have, we’ve got five Fortune 300, companies that have signed on as early innovators to really drive this platform. And with those, we’re gonna grab use cases, success stories, and really put it out there to the market, and continue to expand our reach and get more of a market share. So that’s our kind of next incoming step.
JC: Very cool. So let me ask you, this will kind of go back a little bit. Yeah. What? Like, why did you start the company? You work to Dupont, right? Imagine you were doing poorly there? Right? You know, what was it about either your job or the company or just yourself? Like, what was that moment where you said, I’m going to go on my own? This is what I’m going to make, like, what got you there?
Daniela: Yeah, I have always wanted to start my own company. I have grandfathers were both entrepreneurs. They were immigrants to Venezuela from Spain. And they both started their own companies. And my father was an immigrant to the United States always taking risks for you know, the dream of creating a better life. And during the pandemic, I did what I think a lot of people did, which was I took inventory of my life. And I said, Am I doing the things that I want to be doing? And why not? And the answer was fear. Fear was a big reason on why I wasn’t making that jump because I entered Dupont, with the goal of just doing as many things as possible. I was an asset scheduler at a manufacturing site I led $60 million have been through one of the largest mergers in history when Dow and DuPont merge and split into three and then I created, I did all of this great work. And so I was like, Okay, I learned a lot. I learned what I needed to learn. And then I decided it was time. It was time I, it was time for me to take a risk for me to invest in myself and this maybe sound a little bit morbid, but I thought, if I were on my deathbed, would I be happy with the choices? Would fear be a good enough reason for me not have taken that risk? And the answer was no, the answer was absolutely no. So I made the leap, made the jump. And actually a fun fact is that my father at the time was working in Shanghai, China, he does business development, there has always been in the forefront of business development when it comes to sustainability. But because of the pandemic, he moved back. And so we got to geek out a lot over the pandemic being locked in, you know, we had nothing better to do than to geek out together. And we started to go out and do a lot of customer discovery and start to go out to the market and be like, Hey, what are some of these big issues, what’s coming up, and we knew sustainability was going to continue to gain momentum. And so you know, Kloopify was born. And here we are.
JC: That’s awesome. Okay. Well, I have to ask the question, because the title of this podcast being The Future of BizTech, let’s talk about the future. Where do you see the sustainability? Let’s say, you know, software industry going in the next, you know, 5-10 years? You know, you’re one company. I imagine you’re not alone. But you may not have a ton of competition, either. Do you see a lot more companies popping up because of this new trend? Do you see technology or regulations? You know, pushing this forward? You know, where do you see the industry, your industry going in the next five years or so?
Daniela: Yeah, I mean, I think the future of climate tech is huge. It’s a new industry. But you’re seeing that there’s a lot of investor money going into clean tech, you see that there’s a huge push. I mean, if you think about like black rocks, recent announcements, all of their investments are going to go towards sustainable companies. And they’re going to move everything that everyone that they invest in, has to have sustainability initiatives, they have to be announced. And they have to show the progress that they’re making, I have the privilege of talking to a lot of CEOs and C suite level people. And they say in every single meeting, sustainability is brought up one, at least one. And that wasn’t like that in the past. So I think that there’s going to be a huge push, and you’re going to see a lot of new tech coming out in the clean tech space, you’re going to see a lot of money going to clean tech solutions. And you’re gonna see a lot of innovation, because there is a huge demand for it. But there’s also just a huge desire for it too. I mean, you see students that are coming out of college, and they get interviewed of what are the most important topics to them, and what do they, you know, value when they’re looking for employers. And sustainability is either the first or the second one that they pick. And that’s just going to give you kind of an insight of how much we’re going to hear about this, it’s going to be a buzzword that everyone’s going to be talking about. And I think in order to differentiate yourself, you need to have data to prove it. And that’s the backbone of Kloopify is giving employee giving purchasers the data and the insights that they need, so that they can make, you know, smarter choices.
JC: Very cool. Okay. So let’s do the second part of this question, which is, where’s the future of Kloopify, right? My audience likes inside scoop, some You got any cool on the roadmap, coming up any new features or four capabilities that you don’t have, you know, launched right now?
Daniela: Yeah. So we had, we launched an early innovators group, and we had maxed it out at five, and we filled out capacity for that. So we will be launching a beta version of the solution for general market use here in the middle of 2022. So if you are you like what you heard today, if you’re interested, make sure you kind of follow us on LinkedIn, connect with us on our website, we have a blog. So feel free to put in your information there and be on the lookout because I think it is the future clean tech is the future and every company is going to need solutions to support their sustainability initiatives. Whether they do it because they want to because they want to, you know, be get the carrot and be the first in the market or whether they do it because regulations are forcing them. That’s up to them, right? But it’s better but solutions are going to be needed. And if you’re an entrepreneur or you dream of being an entrepreneur, I would say cleantech is a is an amazing industry and amazing space to go into. Because not only is it fulfilling and there’s a lot of opportunities to be successful, but you’re doing something that’s going to ultimately better the earth and be helpful for future generations. And so two birds one stone.
JC: Yeah, well, on that note here, let me ask you a question for advice for the audience. Is there a certain book, or documentary or podcast or something that you recommend that’s absolute must watch or must read if they’re interested in this entire topic?
Daniela: Oh, in the topic of sustainability, I would say just in the topic of entrepreneurship and mindset, and I would say anti fragility to look up the book anti fragility it is a concept that I very much like, where we benefit from the chaos, we benefit from the stress, we learn how to, not just be resilient or bounce back, but to actually be better. And I think in the future of business, that’s the concept that everybody needs to kind of ingrain into their culture is that, you know, when you have a disruption, whether its supply chain, or whatever it is, don’t try to go back to the normal try to be better than that try to get stronger, faster, smarter, whatever it is, from the chaos. That’s one aspect. And then on the same on the other side of the of the token, there’s a book on self compassion, and I think that it’s super important in today’s day and age to learn how to have conversations with yourself in your mind, and how to also have compassion for yourself, because we have many times compassion for those around us. But those conversations in our mind aren’t always the nicest, and especially if you’re going to go into entrepreneurship, where it is just hard but super rewarding, but super difficult and emotional. And I mean, everything that you can imagine put into one, the ability to have compassion with yourself is what’s ultimately going to enable you to keep going whenever you think that you can’t.
JC: Well, I’ll tell you that first book, The anti anti fragile or anti fragility, I forget which one it was, but I have that on my reading list. I literally already bought that one. And I haven’t gotten to yet I’ve got a whole long list, but that one is one that was recommended by someone else as well. And you’re right you know, I always say it was comes entrepreneurship, I always say it’s a trail of tears to the golden kingdom. Right? Like there’s no good story that no one ever said, oh, yeah, so I had this idea. And then I called someone they gave me money, and then we launched it and it worked. Like that’s, like that’s never uttered ever. Right?
Daniela: No.
JC: Don’t get me wrong, some stories are better than others. But there’s a Trail of Tears leading to that to that.
Daniela: Oh absolutely, absolutely and if you, you listen to other entrepreneurs, they all have the same thing to say they’re like, oh, no, there’s so many times I cried a laugh and did all of that within like, 30 minutes of each other.
JC: Yeah, yeah. I like watching the memes where it has shows like the hours in the day and like, the emojis of emotion that goes through it, you know? And I always say it takes a certain level of psychosis to be entrepreneur, like, we’re all a little crazy, right? Like me..
Daniela: Absolutely without a doubt.
JC: Here’s the thing, either we’re crazy or really bad at math, because why on earth would we attempt something that we know has like a 97% chance of failure, right? Like who says, Yep, I’m gonna put all my chips on that number like, crazy.
Daniela: All the time. I was like, I know when I first and when I’m on, you know, I’m on the ups and downs. And when I’m on the down, I always think like, why can’t I be normal? Like Daniella? Why couldn’t you have been normal? Why couldn’t you have stayed in your corporate job and been normal? But like, I can’t, there’s something. There’s something not right.
JC: Our parents were right. And you know what I mean, when I say that, I don’t have to say what they said. We know what they said about us. Yeah. But, but here we are, right? So how can people reach you personally or the website, they need to, you know, some people listening might want to just reach out directly because they got a big deal for you. So what’s some contact info you can give up?
Daniela: Yeah, if you want to reach me, I’m always available via email, feel free to send me an email Daniela@Kloopify.com, my LinkedIn also Daniela Osio. O-S-I-O, please feel free, send me an invite and send me a message. I’m pretty good at responding to everyone who’s kind of reaches out and I love helping others and supporting and sometimes you know, if you’re an entrepreneur and just need someone to vent to I’m, you know, I’m always in here and always, always there to lend a helping hand because there have been plenty of hands that can lend to me. And so I think that if you have the privilege of getting help, it is your responsibility to give help as well.
JC: Well, it’s true. It’s like the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a self made millionaire. Everyone had somebody at some point no matter what the helps them out. So that was everyone listening out there. Again, if you liked what you heard today, be sure to subscribe this podcast, give it that five star rating and a little bit of writing behind it. So other techies like us can find it and enjoy learning. But all these amazing and helpful b2b software’s on the market today, like Kloopify. Daniel, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it and wish you the best of luck with the company.
Daniela: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.