Former CIO of Ryder Logistics and a founder of Logtech, a logistics startup. John Traendly is now a consultant. Being a CIO is hard work. Founding your own company is hard work plus. There’s the added bonus of a lot of risk—and no safety net. When I started LogTech in 1997, it was dotcom time. It was euphoric. We jumped right in, never considering failure as an option. It goes without saying that we didn’t become the next Google. At Ryder, my job was primarily development. We built optimization models and operations systems that we would offer as part of our logistics service. As part of the sales process, I’d end up meeting with customers about 40 to 50 times a year. When I started my own company, I thought that this experience would help me. But I learned there’s a big difference between meeting customers as CIO of a company and meeting customers when it’s your business. As a CIO, you have a captive customer base. Even when I was presenting to potential customers, sales executives had already made the introductions and done the work to get us in front of the right people. At LogTech, we were starting from scratch. It really made me appreciate sales and marketing people. RELATED LINKS See more “What It’s Like To…” storiesThey say if you build a better mousetrap, people will beat a path to your door. Not true. You need to get your message out, and that’s hard to do when there are many early-stage companies with the same objective. The other thing you realize when you start your own company is the importance of cash. When you’re a CIO, most of your costs are known in advance, and funding is provided through the budget process. When you’re at a startup, the availability of cash drives your strategy. And if you run out of cash, everyone goes home. LogTech lasted three years. In the end, we sold the technology. Now I have a benchmarking practice for logistics and supply chain operations. We’ve been able to partner with other companies, which is great because they handle a lot of the sales and marketing for us. Overall, I’d say I’ve found a comfortable niche.—As told to Ben Worthen Related content News ServiceNow continues workflow platform expansion with Utah release The company also doubles down on its customer success automation efforts, but bucks the trend by omitting GPT. By Peter Sayer Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CIO Build Automation Enterprise Architecture BrandPost Don’t buy into the hype of network observability to realize digital transformation success Just collect the right data and follow it to where it leads you. By Jeremy Rossbach, Chief Technical Evangelist, Broadcom Mar 22, 2023 3 mins Networking Feature How culture and strategic partnerships help fuel transformation Marc Hale, CTO for AIA New Zealand, recently spoke with Cathy O’Sullivan, editor for CIO New Zealand, about navigating the complexities of digital transformation, and focusing on culture to enable healthier outcomes for customers. By CIO staff Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CTO Digital Transformation Change Management Feature 10 things CIOs wish they knew from the start Go slower. Network. Tell stories. Get training. Be kind. CIOs have plenty of advice they’d give to their younger selves if they could. By Martin Veitch Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CIO Careers IT Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe