Removing Supply Chain Barriers with Tech
Some of the most successful startups are so because the founders innovated an inefficient legacy process that no one bothered to question prior. And that’s exactly how SmartCert, a platform that automates the transmission of certs and documentation throughout a company’s entire supply chain, came to be.
For co-founder Lyndon Lattie, the bottleneck created by document exchange between the manufacturers and distributors he worked with in the aerospace industry was all too real. It was a manual process that often led to missing paperwork and a series of unwanted downstream effects — delays, critical parts being quarantined or scrapped, and ultimately, a poor customer experience.
And if it was hindering his industry, chances are others were dealing with the same issue. So, Lyndon and co-founder Lonni Kieffer set out to change it, building a platform that streamlines and centralizes the document exchange process. The duo launched SmartCert in 2020, and being first-to-market, quickly realized education would have to be core to their marketing strategy — not many search for a solution to a problem that’s simply been accepted as the norm.
While that still remains a challenge, with Lyndon’s background in aerospace and Lonni’s in marketing strategy, SmartCert is on the path to becoming the new industry standard.
In this Collective Conversation, Lonni shares what the journey has been like pioneering a platform and attempting to revolutionize industry standards.
What is SmartCert?
SmartCert automates the exchange of required documentation for critical supply chains like medical, aerospace, electronics, and the food industry. Right now, the process for exchanging this documentation from business to business in the supply chain is manual and inefficient. They’re often relying on physical paperwork and there’s a high risk of that paperwork being lost along the way. Missing paperwork means that companies have to spend hundreds of man hours every year trying to track that down and avoid their parts being quarantined and ultimately scrapped. SmartCert comes in as a universal platform that finally allows companies all to communicate digitally on the same system. You can receive a SmartCert from your vendors with the documentation, process that internally, and pass that information along to customers.
What prompted the need for SmartCert?
My co-founder Lyndon Lattie spent 20 years in the aerospace industry. He was a sales executive for manufacturers and distributors. He felt the pain himself in the fact that missing paperwork often held up orders he was processing for his customers. He knew that this was a problem that every company felt along the supply chain and he wanted to do something about it.
How long did you spend building it prior to launch?
It took us about a year. This started on a napkin like many startup companies begin and we partnered with a local technology company in Gilbert called Tech Fabric who helped us bring our idea to life.
What’s been one of the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Right now, there is no standard platform for this. We are first in our market and people don’t go to a search engine to look to solve this problem because it’s been an accepted cost of doing business. A lot of our challenges have been in that awareness and education piece of making sure that people understand that a solution exists. It’s definitely on its way to being an industry standard.
What’s been one of the biggest contributing factors to growth?
Lyndon’s network was obviously helpful. Our beta customers that provided incredible feedback in our first year were many companies he had built relationships with over the years.
The beautiful part of our business model is that if you are using SmartCert to send cert packages to your customers, they’re creating a free account to receive and process them. You probably want your vendors to also be sending documentation the same way. This really creates a really powerful network effect. You can start to think about how the spiderwebs of this translates pervasively through the industry.
What’s next for SmartCert?
We’ve dipped our toe in other supply chains like automotive and the food industry but we really want to take this transfer platform into the future and think of it more as a collaboration platform. There’s a lot of communication between companies when certs are incorrect or missing. We want all of that communication to also be part of the collaboration tool we’re providing companies.
What brought you to the StartupAZ Collective?
We closed our seed round of funding earlier this year. Our lead investor is local to Arizona and recommended that we reach out to Brandon and Diana. We knew that being a part of the Arizona technology movement was incredibly important to us. We had the great opportunity to be able to be considered for the 2022 cohort.
We’re a few meetings in and I would say, it has already been pretty life-changing. You can reach out to family and friends when you have the highs and lows related to startup life but there’s nothing like people who are in it with you. The communication that we have in our time together in the cohort has been instrumental in sharing ideas, lamenting on challenges, and offering solutions. That’s been amazing. It certainly feels like a tribe and one that I know I can depend on and I can’t wait to help other companies along the way
What advice would you give to other startup founders in Arizona?
I would first say, be proud. I love the momentum right now that Arizona represents for technology. It’s not just about the East and West coast anymore. There are a lot of us here and we all really should band together and take advantage of the momentum that we’ve created. There are a lot of companies who want to celebrate your path and help with your progress. I think that StartupAZ collective is a great place to get started.
