Watch: How Gnarly Nutrition Scaled with iDrive's Proactive Shipping & Fulfillment Solutions

Brett Haskins: Hi, Lisa.

Lisa De Vargas: Hi, Brett. How are you?

Hunter Boone: How's it going, Brett?

Brett Haskins: Good, Hunter. Thanks. I sure appreciate your time. I just have a couple questions for you all and our best learning is directly with the brands. So, what is it that you guys do there? Just while we're waiting a sec. Lisa, what is your role there?

Lisa De Vargas: So, I'm the Head of Finance. I started full time in February. I was contracting for about a year before that and have known Shannon personally for the last decade, give or take. When she was given the CEO position, I thought it'd be a fun jump to check out the space.

Brett Haskins: Hunter, what about you?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, I've been with Gnarly for coming up on five years. Initially started managing their customer service and then kind of moved into helping Shannon with operations when she [00:01:00] was in the CFO or COO role. And then when she made the move to CEO, it just made sense. So, I've worked with you, guys, since the get-go with the warehouse and changes and new partners – everything A to Z.

Brett Haskins: Nice. 

Hunter Boone: But yeah, right now I'm the Director of Operations.

Brett Haskins: Let's get started just so you know, we don't have to go too long. And when Shannon comes in, she'll be able to speak to some of these. Were either of you, guys, involved at all in the kind of 3PL selection process or warehouse selection process or partnership? Either of you, guys, involved in that decision making or in kind of what went into that?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, that was, I think, three years ago when we moved over to you, guys. You guys were great to go have meetings with to see the facilities. We knew that a lot of order errors that we were experiencing before wouldn't happen. Yeah, it was pretty easy decision for us to make.

Brett Haskins: Cool. And you met with – did you meet with Tyler and [00:02:00] Adam or just Adam or –? 

Hunter Boone: Off the top of my head – it's been a number of years – met with, I think, three or four people when we sat down and discussed systems and how everything transition-wise would go.

But everybody that we met with was really helpful just answering our questions and helping us better understand how the move would go. 

Brett Haskins: What were you looking for in a new 3PL? 

Hunter Boone: Yeah, obviously, a better systematic process that a 3PL would have – employees that were responsive was a big part of it; the potential to grow into a facility that would be able to accommodate that, and you guys are definitely something that made sense at the time. And then, yeah, just responsiveness was a big thing for me as far as my insight just to make sure that if anything did come up, I would be worked with a team that would be responsive and helpful. And you, guys, have been great.

Brett Haskins: Awesome. Awesome. Were you looking at some other 3PLs in addition to iDrive at that time or – was iDrive a [00:03:00] referral for you, or how did that work? How did you find us?

Hunter Boone: I think iDrive was a referral that Shannon got from somebody. There were a couple out of state because we wanted to have where you guys have [in terms of] locations – you're in the West and then also on the East Coast – just to make shipping times more rapid. And I think the fact that you, guys, are based in Salt Lake as well was a big selling point for us, just because our manufacturer's not too far from where you are. 

I know you, guys, just moved a couple months ago. Yeah, not necessarily moved, but opened up a new location.

Brett Haskins: Yeah. 

Hunter Boone: That was a big factor as well, just to know that — and once manufacturing was done with everything, it was a short shoot down the street to get things into fulfillment.

Brett Haskins: Good, good. Kind of because you're the Director of Operations – you interact with the warehouse – you probably also interact a little bit with like, I think it's Daxton here on the shipping side.

Tell me a little bit about, you know, that experience and how you work with iDrive on a, you know, semi regular [00:04:00] basis.

Hunter Boone: Yeah, Daxon has been really great without us having to, I guess, bother him too much. He's been proactive in providing reports around our shipping costs quarterly, and then any changes that we make on our website around shipping rates, or how to make something happen and have it integrate with iDrive, he's been really responsive. Within 24 hours, he's on top of whatever it is that we ask him to do. So, he's been a really great help to all of the changes that we've made since we launched our Shopify website.

Brett Haskins: Okay, and what are some of your standard requests to Daxton? Like from a brand's perspective, what sort of requests would you make to Daxton or what type of reports would you ask him for?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, just around shipping – the carriers that we use; what volume we're using through each [carrier] and the cost associated to them. For the most part, we've had you, guys, rate shop – just comparison quarter over quarter – what that looks like, and if it makes sense to potentially look into a different carrier that's available [00:05:00] cost-wise.

So, just working with Daxton on those details and cost around shipping. He's been great.

Brett Haskins: Good. Good. How important is that to you, guys? If you take everything that you care about, right? And, you know, is the cost of the shipping, let's say, as important as the time in transit, or how long it takes to get to the customer? Take me through your thinking around, you know, what are the most important things that you expect from a 3PL partner?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, I guess when it goes back to the carrier cost-wise, it's more important for us for our customer to have a good experience and when they have tracking [of the shipment sent] to them, where they're going to have a relative understanding of when a package is going to show up.

Cost-wise, we'd rather go with a carrier that costs a little bit more, that's going to create an experience for our customers, where that doesn't put pressure on our customer service team, and also creates a good experience for, per se, a new customer that orders something for the [00:06:00] first time and doesn't have an issue with shipping.

I mean, if you can seam that up into a good experience, I think, overall, as long as the product is something they're into, that's just going to be a better experience.

Brett Haskins: What would you say the average time in transit is for your customers? What are – what are they demanding? What are they expecting? Two-day, three-day, five-day?  Where's that sweet spot for your customer base?

Hunter Boone: Yeah. I mean, I feel like in this industry, supplements, it's – obviously, Amazon has the same day and that's not realistic. I think with a smaller brand that sells something that's more unique to the customer but yeah, I mean, as long as it gets to a customer within three to five days, they're happy.

And the majority of our customer base is on subscription. So, as long as they roughly know once something ships within a week of it being shipped, it's going to be received, I think everybody's excited about it.

Brett Haskins: Yeah, what do you use for tracking notifications? Do you use [00:07:00] carrier-updated text and email, or do you use a third party service for that? What do you, guys, use?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, your guys' system pushes tracking info from the carrier and then, that's emailed as well as text. 

Brett Haskins: Okay. Yeah.

Hunter Boone: There's updates on that end.

Brett Haskins: Have you ever thought about using a little bit more sophisticated branded tracking that shows them their product or suggests even other products, or kind of provides a way to stay in front of the customer and market to the customer continuously from the time that they check out to the time the product gets delivered?

Hunter Boone: Yeah through our website, Shopify, that's all built in. When I say your system pushes tracking, it is all communicated through our Shopify system.

Brett Haskins: Yeah, so you're using – okay, good. Good. Cool. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about your growth in the last couple of years. Have you, guys, grown since you've been with iDrive? What are some of those kind of key factors for [00:08:00] you in growing? Maybe just share some of that information if you could.

Hunter Boone: Yeah, I mean, I roughly know I don't dive into that too deep. I don't know, Lisa, if you have kind of Year-over-Year growth line.

Lisa De Vargas: Yeah from '20, '22, '23, we had about 40 percent growth. We're looking at about 20 percent growth in this current year.

Brett Haskins: With that growth, though – I mean, 40 percent growth clip is significant. I mean, that's pretty big year over year. Did iDrive help you handle that smoothly? Did that go okay with those increased amount of orders? Did that work out okay for you, guys?

Hunter Boone: Yeah, I mean, experience-wise, honestly, wouldn't be able to tell the difference between year previous to this year or this last year. So yeah, I mean, you, guys, handled it great.

Brett Haskins: So, that went pretty smooth. Good. If you could point to maybe one or two of the most valuable things in a 3PL relationship and shipping partner relationship, what would that be?

Shannon O'Grady: I mean, on the shipping partner relationship, [00:09:00] I'd say, and Lisa can speak to this probably better than I can, but where, you know, carrier costs is a big piece for us – and, you know, so we're always – Hunter and I have looked multiple times to see if we can lower our costs, and your team, whether it be, you know, helping Hunter integrate different carrier options for our customers or looking at – I always forget the name – but some more regional carriers and using those to bring down carrier costs, like, looking for ways that we can see a reduction in what we're paying, I feel like your team has been helpful in that. Of course, we're – we would love them to continue to be helpful, but they have done a lot and that's great to have them so, I guess, intertwined and invested in us as a customer.

Brett Haskins: Was iDrive referred to you by someone originally?

Shannon O'Grady: Gosh, it was such – it feels like a lifetime ago. I can't remember. I know that, yeah, I [00:10:00] remember in those introductory meetings, a big driver of it, you know, of the interest in iDrive was the improvement in software that we would be experiencing when moving from our previous 3PL partner. Hunter can speak to this, but Hunter and I had a lot of anxiety and headaches both in terms of the control we had with the software system that was being used with our previous partner, but then also how their use kind of led to the management or mismanagement of products, as well as inventory issues and a number of issues.

So, I'd say on different – many different levels, we were intrigued. But I want to say that carrier price was the very first thing that kind of, you know, drew us in or the first thing, that your team led with.

Brett Haskins: Gotcha. Gotcha. I assume that you, guys, are using the BlueBox Customer Portal in the software. Is that –

Shannon O'Grady: It's been great. [00:11:00]

Brett Haskins: Okay, that's been good. I was going to say, how's that been? And even more importantly, is there anything that you wish that product had that it doesn't?

Shannon O'Grady: I'll let Hunter answer that question, because he's in there more than I am, but I've been pleased with it.

Brett Haskins: Great.

Hunter Boone: No, it's been night and day from our previous 3PL. Just the ability we have to go in and edit things or make changes to an order, tt's nice that that's synced with your warehouse team, just where we have at any point until the package is basically labeled with the shipping label and we have the ability to go in and edit or change things which previously, that's where a lot of the hangups, like Shannon mentioned, were with our previous 3PL. Just reaching out to get an address changed was a headache.

Brett Haskins: Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, if you do think of anything, Hunter, please shoot it my way. I'm always super curious about features that you're looking for, need, want. Very interested in those. 

Last question. First part of the question is, would you recommend iDrive to [00:12:00] another company. And the second part of the question is, what would you say about iDrive to another company, if they approached you looking for a 3PL.

Hunter Boone: I'll let you go, Shannon. 

Shannon O'Grady: Sure. Yeah. I would definitely recommend it. I'd say both in terms of the warehouse team that has worked through us – worked with us through, you could say, errors that were Gnarly's, as well as some errors that may have been on their team, like their ability to assess a situation and figure out what needs to be done and then put a plan of action in place has been great, and that's, you know – we've worked with that through fulfillment issues, we've worked with that through inventory count issues. Just had really great experience with the warehouse team as a whole. 

We've had various account managers during our time with iDrive and each one has been super responsive. So, I'd say the team as a whole has been great to work with.

And then I've really [00:13:00] appreciated the fact that there's a separate arm whose focus is on shipping and helping us fine tune that, because as Lisa said it, it is very much a cost and one that we're looking to, you know, decrease as much as we possibly can. So, it's great knowing that there's a whole separate arm that is dedicated to helping us do that.

Brett Haskins: Okay, great. Hunter, anything to add to that or –?

Hunter Boone: I mean, just to simplify all the experience that we've had I would definitely recommend you, guys, to any customer that wants to move to a new system and know that they're going to comfortably grow into whatever their business looks like.

Brett Haskins: I really appreciate you guys jumping on and answering a few questions. And just thanks again for your time.

Hunter Boone: Thanks, Brett. 

Shannon O'Grady: Thank you, Brett.

Brett Haskins: All right. Have a good day.