How Manifold was founded

Seven years ago, I began my journey in the logistics industry at Convoy. My initial role involved automating the execution of freight shipments, ensuring each shipment was completed successfully. As I gained experience, I shifted focus to automating bidding on spot freight and later, worked on encouraging larger carriers to collaborate with us by developing tailored technologies for their needs.

Throughout my tenure at Convoy, I encountered numerous opportunities to enhance the logistics sector through automation. However, a particular challenge during my work on bid automation struck me the most: the lack of standardized integration with various shippers. Few shippers had APIs, and those that did were often unpredictable and cumbersome, making seamless integration a constant struggle. This issue resonated deeply when I worked on the carrier side, where I discovered that larger carriers faced even greater challenges, juggling double the integrations with both brokers and shippers.

Driven by a desire to solve this widespread industry challenge and inspired by tools like PLAID, which simplify financial integrations, I saw the potential for a similar solution in logistics. The idea for Manifold began to take shape.

The end of last year marked a pivotal moment: Convoy went bankrupt, coinciding with the right time for me to pursue my lifelong ambition of founding a company. Together with my co-founder Andrew, we applied to Y-Combinator with our idea and were fortunate to be accepted. We spent three exciting months in San Francisco as part of the Y-Combinator W24 batch, laying the groundwork for Manifold.

This period has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, marking just the beginning of what I hope will be a transformative journey in reshaping the logistics space with innovative solutions.