Supply-chain software startup eyes breakthrough
For many large companies, outsourcing is the norm as they seek cost savings at almost every level of production. Jason Tham, a former Kellogg’s employee, saw an opportunity to help reduce the risk of something going wrong at each outsourced step. His solution: to create software that would streamline the supply-chain process and reduce costs even further.
Using research compiled by his father, an engineering professor, and $40,000 in personal capital, Tham built the software and launched Toronto-based Nulogy Corp. in 2002. Tham’s signature PackManager product is an all-inclusive Web-based software that helps the middlemen in the supply chain — called contract packagers — improve their operating efficiency by tracking their inventory, production and labor information in real time. Contract packagers provide the creative packaging and displays that help make a product more attractive to consumers.
THE PITCH
Tham’s research shows the Consumer Packaged Goods sector, which includes big brands such as Kellogg’s, Proctor & Gamble and General Mills, outsources close to $20 billion annually to contract packagers. He predicts that number to triple over the next several years.
Earlier this year Tham raised $600,000 in seed funding, mostly from angel investors, to help expand Nulogy’s sales and marketing push, with the intention of winning more contracts and bringing in more revenues. “Today the challenge is bringing the right people on board and being able to get enough of them,” said Tham, who has grown the company from its original five founders to 19 employees. “Our goal in the next two years is to have Nulogy synonymous with contract packaging and manufacturing software.”
TAKING IT TO THE EXPERTS
Chris Golec has been down the road Nulogy is embarking on, having founded and sold a similar enterprise software company – Supplybase – in the mid-90s and said the critical thing for Tham and his partners to keep in mind is: how their product reduces the risk associated with supply-chain delays.
