From the Slums to Supply Chain Savior: How Shekar Natarajan Is Rewiring Global Logistics

Welcome to Festive Reality.

I'm your host Nadia Atual.

Making companies more efficient, cutting costs and making the consumer experience more wonderful.

That is exactly what my next guest can do.

He's an expert on that and many other forefronts, and he has a beautiful story.

Welcome to the show, Shika Nataryan.

Thank you so much, Shika.

I really would like to dive into your personal story because it has moved me.

And inspired me both.

That happens very rarely.

Especially when it's about business, but I'd like the audience to learn a little bit about your humble beginnings.

And you have a fantastic success story.

I don't know if I've arrived yet, but thanks for asking that question, because everything that I'm doing today is a culmination of a lot of miracles that happened in my life.

Yes, absolutely.

I come from slums in India where, like, you know, I lived in a house, a single room with 8 people in my house, and my dad used to cycle 15 kilometers to actually make ₹150 a month, which is $11.75 a month.

And but he never kept it for himself.

He would actually give it to his friends for their kids' education.

He would go like, you know, fight for people for their, you know, if they lost life, you know, if some of his colleagues lost life, and he would go and help them.

And so like he was an angel in many people's lives and I came to the United States with $50 in my pocket, $50 in my pocket, right?

And There were so many miracles in Nadi.

There's so many miracles in my life.

Like I was actually waiting right outside my professor's office claiming, like, you know, I'm going to meet him.

Like, you know, I was not even an invited guest over there, and he gave me like funding to be actually there, you know, in the school.

So there's miracles after miracles after miracles.

And so what I realized over a period of time, it was my father's hand, and the miracles that he performed in many people's lives was really like the reason why I exist today.

You felt blessed in a certain way, yeah, and when I had my son in 2020.

He resembled my father.

And I made a promise to him.

I said, like, I'm going to leave me and angels.

So he could experience the same set of magic.

For his life and his beyond, right, in generations to come, and that became the purpose of my company.

The purpose of my company is to use all the skills that I've learned, you know, like I've worked for some amazing companies Coke, PepsiCo, Walt Disney Company, Walmart, American Eagle.

These are all fantastic companies, and I've, I've experienced something amazing.

I've seen.

Similar to my father's hand, so many supply chain hands.

And it was for those hands I'm creating something really significant.

I want to amplify their lives.

I want to give strength to what they do, and it converges, right, like my personal story converges with my professional life with the miracles that happened to my son's promise, and it's a beautiful thing, you know, like, you know, I'm living it every day.

I'm enjoying it every day.

I love it, and by God we think like we're going to be successful because our intentions are great and we're going to work like our asses off.

Yes, I mean, it's always wonderful to not just feel good about your work but also do good with it, help people solve problems, which is what Orchestral, your company is doing.

Yes, absolutely.

Like imagine today a farmer.

Right, a local farmer has to spend $200,000 to get integrated to start selling groceries in a retail store, but if I'm like on the internet, I can live in a dorm and I can create a $1 trillion company called Meira.

The world of logistics is not accessible for anyone, and so if I am successful in this country, It's because there were so many people who helped me, but the entrepreneurship. is dying because there is not a successful way and and an efficient way to access the logistics network.

The cost of delivery, the shipping cost in the last 5 years has gone up by 50%, 50%.

Wow, I imagine, right?

Like it's a significant amount of dollars.

There are 5.5 billion packages which are late coming to your door.

There are 550 million calls made every year asking where is my package?

There are 5 drivers who are coming to your door and delivering packages every day.

And that's not what happens in the utility world.

You don't have like 5 companies coming and delivering water to your door.

You don't have like 5, you know, power companies coming and delivering power to your door.

It's like one unified system.

So the world was built for simplicity in other parts, and all we're trying to do is replicate that in the world of logistics because it was not designed for it.

It was not built for that.

How do you go about it?

Well, Instead of saying that we're going to like rip everything off and basically start all over again, which is like a nonsensical way of doing it, and ask everyone to follow our standards, what we're trying to do is just like sit on all of these platforms that already exist that are already doing things today, but they're not in, they're not designed for speed.

They're not designed for handling complexity.

They're not designed for all of the friction.

All we are doing is we're giving them capabilities to make them better.

If I'm a carrier, if I'm like locally servicing, I can connect you with other carriers, so you look much bigger than what you are.

If I'm a big carrier but I don't do like very good job in certain areas, they can access other carriers.

If I'm a shipper trying to access like a lot of other carriers, I can simplify and like make it look like as though you're accessing one UPS or one FedEx, but underneath there are many carriers who are performing the activity.

So it's making everyone in the ecosystem better than what they are thanks to AI.

We are able to do it at a much, much faster pace.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities and also risks with regards to implementing AI in this?

Well, you know, like a lot of people in this world are fascinated about going to Mars.

I'm not one of them.

I mean, I'm fortated for somebody else, but I like to stay on earth or they're fascinated by creating a poem or they're fascinated by creating a picture, right?

And making movies.

Well, there's a real problem to solve.

Global logistics is $11 trillion. $1.3 trillion is lost in orchestration efficiency, right?

What if we we're able to use every one of our resources better and make it like more efficient?

That's what we are trying to solve.

And in this crusade it's going to be a long.

Journey, it's going to be a long journey, but we have a lot of partners.

I have one of the largest national carrier working with us.

I have one of the biggest, like, basically shipping networks that ships about like 300 million parcels working with us to actually partner with us.

So these are all giving us the momentum as we begin the journey because we're able to relate to them.

We're able to empathize with the problems they have.

And so the promise of AI is not just efficiency.

It's not just like scaring people, it's actually amplifying your strengths that you have humans, companies, entities amplifying the data, the processes that you have, and make them like come to life that way you can do what you're really good at, and that creates the transformation.

It's a.

Grassroots revolution that we're trying to go after and you know it's really that like, you know, I've lived in all these large companies.

My role, like if you ask every one of my companies, they would say this guy's a disruptor, you know, he would come and basically change things that's utter.

What for you so you know, and I told myself if I was able to do for like 5 companies, what if if I did for the entire industry and what we are able to do with one company and like you're repeating that with 5 companies now you get all the kind of the learning and the experience and the scars and the bad to be able to say how do I navigate this world.

And for me, I've had an amazing team.

My, my team that like I have today, they actually go climb the mountain every day, though they may not have oxygen.

You know, so that is the passion we have.

Like people have come to work for us, not primarily because, like, and they don't feel like they're working in a company.

They work, they're working for a mission.

And they are committed to this mission and we are finding that there are more and more people like that who are really committed to us.

And so we're building this ecosystem and we're not trying to build everything ourselves.

We're saying we're going to create the races where the innovators can come innovate.

So it's kind of an open platform that actually lets innovation thrive.

It's like the only thing that comes like close to what I'm trying to do is internet.

When the internet came along, it was a net new asset.

No one knew that an Amazon can be built, an Uber can be built, or Airbnb can be built, but it happened.

It happened.

So if you build the foundational elements, right, innovation is going to thrive, and that's what I'm betting on.

I'm betting on that.

And I'm betting on the fact that we can bend the cost curve and we can create magical experience in people's lives, and people don't have to say supply chain fail us.

I'm not getting the vaccines.

I don't have the stuff on the on the shelf.

I don't have basically like, you know, the diapers when I need them.

We are like, you know, causing a lot of friction and supply chains are limited because of the systems we have, not because of the human effort that goes into it.

And I want to be able to change that not by disrupting everything but by connecting everyone.

And something tells me that when you're hiring people, you're not the one who is looking first of all at their resume, but you're looking at their mindset.

Absolutely.

Like, you know, it's a creator's mindset, right?

It's, it's entrepreneurship.

It's basically like, you know, I'm so proud to say my, my CTO left a very high paying job and just walked into this because she believes in it.

Right, my CFO left everything on the table and came and basically started working for us.

Like, you know, he was a controller in the company, right?

Like my, my chief product officer was a guy who built the very first supply chain planning system in the world, and it's publicly traded even today.

And he is part of this journey.

So I got like this amazing people who are just bound together by the vision and the mission we have.

What are we going to go after?

And that I'm telling you like my life is a series of accidents.

I have many angles on my shoulder.

I don't know where they come from, probably my dad, but like.

They manifest like this every day, every day.

I hope that you will visit us again because we want to follow your journey and want to see how you're building this beautiful company to a giant.

It already seems pretty big when I'm hearing about the size of your team, but your spirit is great, and I'm so, so glad that you came.

Visited us and shared your story with us.

Thank you so much.

It's like, you know, like, yeah, I know that you could have spent the time with anyone like today, but thanks for doing it for me.

Like I'm really grateful to you.

I appreciate and I appreciate you coming and sharing and also sharing your mindset and what drives you.

It's not in your case, I can tell it is not just a profit driven.

It's it's a mission.

It's a mission to do something great and great legacy.

God has basically been super kind with me and like, you know, like I had like amazing roles in many big companies and if it was all about money, I could have stayed and like, you know, done it all my life, you know, just like just go in, clock yourself in, clock yourself out, but that's not what is needed in this world.

What people need like for my, my son 20 years from now, I want him to enjoy the Mother Earth.

And we all deserve to leave a better future for our kids.

Those are the best final words.

Thank you so much.

This was another episode of Perceived Reality.

Join us again, Nick.