Here we are, at the beginning of 2024, where the possibilities for the year ahead are endless! Somehow, we are already nearly four years into our journey at Telegraph, and the new year seemed like a great time to share a bit more about how we collectively came to be. A couple of months ago, our founding trio – Harris Ligon, Shachar Astor, and Amaro Luna – sat down and gave the Telegraph team their play-by-play recount of the earliest days of Telegraph. Not only was this a fun conversation to listen to, but it also helped lay the foundation for this blog. If you are like some of our newer team members, you may be wondering: what was the impetus for Telegraph? Why name the company Telegraph? What were the first couple of years like, and how are we setting ourselves up for future success? Kick back with us while we share the story of Telegraph: The Beginning!
What’s In a Name?
Raise your hand if you immediately got the connection between Telegraph and railroads! Don’t worry, not everyone does! Throughout the history of freight rail in North America, telegraphs have been universally aligned with the railroads. They were designed to allow instant communications over long distances, and served as a mechanism for rail stations to be able to communicate the arrival and departure of trains. Think about it: this was a time without signaling systems or dispatchers (beyond the telegraph operators), and telegraphs were instrumental in preventing collisions, truly serving as the first safety mechanism for railroads. For our founding trio, it was always about Telegraph signaling two things: an existing infrastructure and a technology system that made the process of doing business with railroads easier. At first glance, it may not seem like the most intuitive name, but the historical significance between telegraphs and railroads made Telegraph the perfect choice.
Setting the Stage
Now that we understand the origin of the name, let’s dive into how the company came to be in the first place! Picture this: three experienced operators join Uber Freight – a startup within a startup, if you will – back in early 2017. There was a lot going on at Uber those days, and, while it may have been a little chaotic at times, it was also a great time for innovative minds. Amaro notes that there was, “no red tape, as far as rules for what you could do”; they just figured it out, and it was that mindset of just figuring it out that drew the three of them together in the first place. They quickly found that not only did they work exceptionally well together, but their collective enthusiasm and operational expertise made them a successful team for the organization.
And then, 2020 happened. We all became remote workers. We woke up beside our laptops, went to bed with them still clutched tightly in our hands (No? You didn’t do that?), and otherwise, lived and breathed our jobs. It was during this time that Harris found himself doing two things: encouraging Amaro and Shachar to think about challenges they wanted to tackle, and also pacing up and down his driveway contemplating how to best share this great new idea he’d had with the two of them. Having spent ten years working varying roles at multiple Class I railroads, Harris was intimately familiar with the freight rail space, including the challenges of doing business with railroads and the opportunities that could make it easier and more accessible. Furthermore, having scaled technology at Uber Freight alongside Shachar and Amaro, Harris knew that the three of them could build amazing, scalable, and enterprise-ready freight rail software. After he had thoroughly worn out a few pairs of shoes, Harris picked up the phone and called Amaro, and then they both called Shachar, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Being Vulnerable in an Already Vulnerable Time
2020 was a year marked by vulnerabilities – we were in the throes of a global pandemic, we had a faltering economy, wild fluctuations in the venture markets, and an unprecedented shortage of toilet paper. Amidst this chaos, our trio embarked on a mission to infuse technology into an industry not renowned for widespread innovation or the adoption of modern software at scale. It was a time when the three of them relied heavily on the relationship and trust built over several years of collaboration, in order to turn their idea into a tangible product.
“I think the way that we got really excited, stayed focused and engaged was by figuring out very early on that we can lean in and support each other,” Harris reflected. “We were also very methodical about wanting to get as close to customers as possible to make sure that we not only shortened our development time, but reduced the error rate in designing a solution. I think that was the number one thing that we did – getting close, staying tight, and focusing in on customer research.”
Shachar went on to say that, “I think it was really about having conviction and being a contrarian in that we were seeing a problem in the market that was in desperate need of a solution. That’s what got us through those early days in 2020 – conviction around the problem that we needed to go out and solve, conviction on the fact that we knew how to build technology, we knew how to build culture. We just needed to go out and get that first yes. More would come after that.”
Building a Culture of Optimism + Excellence
Drawing from their collective experience, it was paramount to build a strong culture rooted in optimism and a working environment where people are empowered to produce the best work of their careers. It is easy to write words on a wall and say that is what you want your culture to be. It is much more difficult to action that culture every day, and to ensure that the company culture is serving both the needs of the business and the needs of its people.
“One thing we have all valued highly is the concept of being an owner, the concept of simplifying problems, empowering others, and ensuring that no job is too big or small for anyone,” Amaro said. “Each of these, in isolation, can be a part of a culture, but you have to literally live them. You must practice them to actually produce the results that you want.”
The team recognized that the very first step in building a good culture is finding amazing people to help build it. Culture does not evolve in a silo. It is not built by one, or even three people. Hiring thoughtful, pragmatic, and diverse people from the outset ensured the values the leadership team already had in place would permeate the organization. One such hire was Lucas Scavone, our head of engineering. Not only did Lucas demonstrate the “just figure it out and own it” mentality that had served our founders well, but, with over 15 years of software engineering experience, Lucas had effectively designed and deployed enterprise software at scale. Furthermore, he developed an industry-leading engineering team that is paving a path for innovation for operators across the supply chain. We have been fortunate in cultivating an all-star team across the organization. From engineering to operations to marketing, our people show up for Telegraph each and every day, and we could not be more thankful for them, or the cultural values they help us live.
Pioneering New Supply Chain Opportunities
It was clear that something was different about freight rail, in comparison to other shipping modes. There was some challenge that had caused it to be overlooked when it came to the technological revolution. Having spent years working in the industry, Harris intimately knew the friction tied to planning and monitoring shipments across multiple rail lines and systems – a lot of manual reporting, spreadsheets, mainframes straight out of the 1980s – it really isn’t a pretty picture. Amaro and Shachar’s eye-opening experience came during an early research session with a shortline, which revealed their manual tracking process in detail. During a period of supply chain disruptions, social isolation, and misnomers, it was evident that rail operators and customers simply needed better technology to work together.
Harris reflected, “I knew it was really tough for customers. I remember having to extract data from an 87-page mainframe report to manually create reports for the same large intermodal shippers every morning. But I think it is easy to normalize that process when you’re in it, and so I was still really surprised, when we started joining these calls, that somebody was having to key in to this mainframe, and then pull this information up, and then make the best decision they could with incomplete information – maybe getting it right 50% of the time. And when you think about 140,000 miles of track, 1.6 million rail cars, 600 railroads operating in North America, that’s a lot of 50% guesses.”
A lot of time was spent in the early days doing user research – observing the existing processes, listening to the pain points, and understanding exactly how better technology would be impactful for rail operators and customers. By employing design thinking principles, Telegraph set out to redefine the modern rail operator’s experience from the ground up.
“I have a vivid early Telegraph memory of dialing in every morning, about 5:30 Chicago time, with one of our shortline railroad partners. 25, 35 people on the call and they were quite literally walking down a list of how many cars spotted, what is coming inbound from the Class I railroad, 20 different metrics they were measuring. And that was really the a-ha moment for me personally,” Shachar says. “This is all available data, but the key was: could that data be aggregated? Can it be disseminated to the right person at the right time? So it really clicked for us that we could build a solution that would make these peoples’ lives better.”
They recognized a massive opportunity and were confident that the Telegraph team was capable of tackling it. They didn’t immediately know the solution, or what they would bring to market, but they did know how to figure it out – how to do the research, how to talk to users, how to understand their challenges, and dig deep into the problems. The team understood that creating more opportunities to do business with railroads would, in turn, create a more sustainable, cost-effective supply chain for shippers, and would allow businesses to focus on growth and improving their customer service experience.
Here for the Long Haul
From the very beginning, Telegraph has been committed to positively transforming the freight rail industry and creating a more sustainable and efficient supply chain for the future. What began as just one of the many innovative ideas born in 2020 has now evolved into a company that saves hours every day for rail operators, both in the office and out in the yard.
Our mission remains steadfast: to make doing business with railroads more efficient for customers and to streamline information and planning for rail operators. Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, our focus is on expanding our business while serving both our customers and employees. Here at Telegraph, we lead with the ABCs – Always Begin with the Customer, that is. We are convinced that understanding our customers’ needs, and developing technology to simplify their lives is the key to success.
We are on a journey of innovation and transformation in the freight rail industry. We invite you to climb aboard for the ride! If you would like to see for yourself the value of the Telegraph platform,schedule a demowith our team!
