What does it take to tackle time sensitive logistics challenges for life sciences companies? In this episode, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/">Adam Torres</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/artugacar/">Artug Acar</a>, COO at Mercury, explore Mercury’s track record working with life sciences companies and why they have become the go to shipper for the industry. ﻿Follow Adam on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/">https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/</a> for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast:<a href="https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/">https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/</a> Visit our website:<a href="https://missionmatters.com/">https://missionmatters.com/</a> More FREE content from Mission Matters here: <a href="https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia">https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia</a>

<description>What does it take to tackle time sensitive logistics challenges for life sciences companies? In this episode, Adam Torres and Artug Acar, COO at Mercury, explore Mercury’s track record working with life sciences companies and why they have become the go to shipper for the industry. 

﻿Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.

Apply to be a guest on our podcast:
https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/

Visit our website:
https://missionmatters.com/

More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia</description>

 Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters.  com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today on the show I have Artu Ajar, and he is the  COO over at Mercury.  Artu, welcome to the show. Thanks, Adam. Happy to be here. All right. So we got a lot to talk about today. So we'll talk about transforming companies, culture, legacy systems and the ability to adapt. But before we get into that, let's get into what we like to call our mission matters a minute. So R2 at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts.  That's our mission. R2, what mission matters to you?  Yeah, so here at Mercury, a Boston based tech enabled healthcare logistics company with over 40 years of shipping expertise, we specialize in serving biotech, medical device, and life science research companies globally and offering every type of shipping that they need.  Our proprietary software platform simplifies shipping, tracking, payments, basically making logistics seamless for healthcare life science companies. Clients trust us. to handle challenging international dry ice shipments, eliminating the frustration dealing with carrier call centers like 1 800 numbers,  basically saving time on logistics.  We have dedicated teams. with proven track records and many clients have partnered with us for over 15 years. We are trusted by our clients and for healthcare life science shipping. In a nutshell, it's one team, one platform and every solution that they need.  Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that love bringing mission based organizations on the line to share what they do, how they do it, why they do it.  Well, we can all learn from it. So great to have you on. And I guess just to get a little bit further into your background, like how did you get started in business? Like, where'd all that start for you? Yeah. So I have engineering background. I started my career as a software developer here in the U S after grad school.  And then I moved into the business side to more automation, logistics, warehousing. I worked at Amazon Robotics for a while as a technical program manager. That's how I got into logistics business, more on the automation side.  Then I'm in Boston, startup, mostly around automation. I worked at startup companies.  And finally, in 2022,  there was this opportunity here at Mercury and I joined Mercury as the VP of product. So the goal was to start a digital transformation at Mercury. Mercury has been, it was founded in 1984. So it's an old company. The new owner bought the company in 2020, Josh Meadow. And then since then we are in an evolution.  I joined in 2022. Since then, we have been transforming the company. It has changed, but there's a lot more to do. Of course. Yeah. Hold on, man. Talking about the, the companies being founded in the eighties, making it old. I was founded in the eighties R2. Come on, man. I know, right. It's such a long time. Better relax with those statements.  Almost 40 years. Yeah. So R2, during the pandemic, this is when logistics really got on my radar. Like I didn't know much about logistics and all of a sudden I'm doing all these interviews and like, obviously, because logistics just touches every part of our lives, everything that we look at that we have as a consumer product or anything else, like logistics on some level is involved.  So to me over the whole pandemic and everything else I did, I don't know, all these interviews on logistics. And then I, I kind of. Was a secret little logistics wannabe like nerd. Like I didn't, I don't know much, but I know enough. And I was having so much fun with it. What, what kept you or what keeps you in logistics?  Like, what do you find? So you, you built a career in the, in the industry, in the field. Like what keeps you going in logistics? Like what's interesting to you from your vantage point? Yeah. From a top 30, 000 feet overview, it seems pretty simple, right? You take one. Item from point A, you carry it to point B.   What's the challenge? Yeah. Right. That's so good. The details and during pandemic, we all felt the pain. Yeah. And the burden on the logistics and when it doesn't work, how, how it impacts everyone's daily life. Mm-hmm . Years ago there was a blockage in the stress canal. Yeah. See how it impact all the international shipments and from construction to automotive manufacturing.  So it is challenging and you can only improve it using tech and technology drives the logistics makes it simpler, easier, seamless. So the technology enabled services side I think is the key and that challenge is really attractive. I come from a technology background, so I like to provide solutions to problems as an engineer.  And this is a big, large scale and challenging enough problem to solve. And it's not going to go away by centuries, people move things from A to B. And now we are moving things between continents and for companies like Mercury, even harder, because you need to get things from point A to point B at a given timeline under given certain conditions, temperatures.  So it is quite challenging and working in the life science and obviously as a shipping company, you can, you know, presumably you can ship anything, right? Hundreds of thousands of shipments happening every year. Like, I understand it's a mass scale operation, but I know one of the specialties in one of the niches that you happen to specialize in his life sciences.  Like, what kind of, like, I'm just trying to figure this out, like my Amazon package that came to me, like, that sounds like a certain type of, you know, logistical nightmare for somebody. But like, when you get into life sciences, I don't know if it's like, talk to me about that. Like unique problems, unique challenges, unique values that you add for your clients.  No, good point. Like in healthcare life science, it's different than we order packages from Amazon. You order  your laptop and it shows up and if it comes two days late, it's not a big deal. In healthcare life science, it matters. So that's why it's time temperature, time and temperature sensitive time.  Can you give an example of that? Like why it matters? Like an example, right. So we ship.  samples, diagnostic kits medical devices. If it doesn't get to a certain point  and it doesn't transfer at a certain temperature, you may ruin. Let me give you an example. A customer of ours was running a study in Michigan and for them to put together that study, it took them many years.  They flew people to Michigan to run that study. And one of the parts of that device was missing. So, and that was a critical piece. They ordered it. It got stuck in the customs and, but we didn't do the shipping at the time. It wasn't our client. They couldn't solve the problem. They reached out to us, our team  put together a solution.  Put together a backup plan. The test, the study was the next day. So it's very time critical.  Eventually the part was in Ireland. The study was in Michigan.  What we did was we found the part in Ireland. We found an onboard carrier. That person got the part, got on the plane, came to Michigan Detroit first, Detroit from Ireland.  We arranged the transportation, ground transportation, at the time the flight arrives in Detroit.  They took the part, they drove to Michigan, and they ran the study. So if you miss any of these, if you can't really orchestrate all of this, then they were gonna lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the time, so this sounds more like a James Bond mission.  Then  you need to  logistics. You just described like James Bond mission, right? And if one of them fails, the next one can not really handle the transfer. So that's like a dedicated team. They know what they are doing.  A strong network so you can coordinate all of these things, finding an onboard career in Ireland and a driver at the time when the plane arrives in Detroit.  Those are like challenging tasks and you have to be on top of everything. Like  another one, this is more like temperature sensitive. Certain samples in life science, they have to stay at a certain temperature throughout the transfer.  And they may have a certain shelf life, like 24 hour shelf life. This was in DC  and they needed to ship this 24 hour shelf life.  Like you're done. You mess up.  Yeah, exactly. So you can't really miss that. So, and you can't control everything like the weather.  So we arranged everything. It was supposed to be on the plane from DC to Boston and it was winter. There was a snowstorm. They canceled all the flights, all the flights  in, in DC and the surrounding airports,  it was 10 PM at night and our team overnight team, late shift.  They found a way they arranged the driver around 11 PM. The driver picked up the package,  drove to Boston  and winter and made it on time to the final destination.  So again, you need to be on top of that shipment, track everything, have a strong network, and we can do this globally, not only in the U. S. If you need anything somewhere in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, we can provide this level of service.  So that makes it more challenging.  I know one of your roles and one of the things that you, that you've worked very hard and diligently on is really making sure that Mercury is at the front of the pack in terms of like, in terms of systems, in terms of Upgrading in terms of making sure they're delivering.  Like, talk to me a little bit about your role as COO and just some of the things that you've been implementing.  Well, my role as a CEO is basically making sure the train leaves on time and then everything runs smoothly, cross functionally in the organization. So I report to the CEO and then there's the sales function,  there's operations, there's technology, product development.  field operations, partnerships. They all have to work in synchrony and that harmony. It's the key and the communication within these teams. That's the core job that I own.  And beyond that, each team, they are accountable. They have their responsibilities. They have the expertise. So they know all the details.  My job is really being an integrator.  I mostly like to call myself an integrator more than a CEO. So I make sure the systems work perfectly well, and we provide the best service.   And so the size of companies, types of companies, we talked about life sciences, but is this for small businesses, middle market, is this for, you know, enterprise only, like, like get into that a little bit.  So we have a wide range of clients. Primarily we focus on small to medium sized clients. Those can be startups at incubators  to medium sized companies, to some public companies.   Our focus is really mid sized companies at these days, but we can serve a variety of sizes and ranges. The reason is they start as a startup, but then they scale pretty quickly. We have clients started like 10 years ago with us, very small at an incubator. Today, they are one of our biggest clients. Wow. So that's gotta be gratifying to watch that growth, right?  And they're like, cause it takes, it takes partners.  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the challenges, you know, them very well from the start, you know, their needs, they know you well, that's a great example. In certain situations, we start to work with them after they grow. These days we focus on more midsize to larger institutions, companies,  we partner with them.   We haven't really focused on the fortune 500 companies yet. Not at that scale, but as we grow, we will reach out to a broader,  broader range of companies. Yeah. So you've been in this industry for a long time. I'm curious from your vantage point, like what do you find? It doesn't have to be just at Mercury.  I just mean like in logistics in general, logistics, shipping, like the whole thing. Like, what do you find interesting? Like what, what trends or what things do you find the most interesting, right?  I mean, it is not new. One is automation. Like  it's a broad topic when it comes to automation. Everyone these days talk about AI and then we say AI, it's a bit overrated term, but for the sake of this conversation, let's use AI.   It's automation basically. And automating repetitive tasks at a company like Mercury or similar businesses in logistics. Freight brokers, freight forwarders.  There are many repetitive tasks like getting a code from a carrier, responding and tracking packages. All of these tasks these days can be automated.  You can even respond to a phone call. We were testing one of the AI systems. They can respond and answer the questions like a human. It's amazing.  And beyond that in logistics, I was on the automation side. That's mostly within the warehouse. Like I worked at a company called right hand robotics peace picking company rather than humans picking Packages or items from a tote and then putting into a box robots can do that pretty well I worked at amazon robotics amazon acquired kiwa systems Now, there are many companies using similar technology, moving shelves or items in the car, in the warehouse.  So people don't have to walk around a large warehouse, autonomous trucks. I was just reading the other day. Kodiak, that's an autonomous tracking company. They are making a big progress and selling autonomous trucks. They will be on the roads. So all these systems will make  logistics seamless less painful, more predictable, and hopefully less expensive for everyone.  And to be honest, I worked at the warehouse, like when I was at drama Amazon robotics. They wanted everyone to go to a warehouse and work there for a week. When I say work, like a week was enough for me it's really tough to be in a warehouse, you don't see the sunlight and work in that noisy environment and do the same thing again and again, it's really not as humane.  So it's better to have robots. I know some people will say, well, what's going to happen to people's jobs. What are they going to do? It's a pain. The transition will be will not be seamless, easy, but working at the warehouse is not an easy task for humans, to be honest. Yeah. Well, R2, this has been great having you on the show.  I enjoyed learning more about Mercury, what you're doing as COO, how you're working with the company, also just the the track record of Mercury and the work they're doing, not just in life sciences and really handling challenging,  difficult tasks, but also just, I mean, hundreds of thousands of shipments every year.  So helping and serving lots of clients. That being said, I mean, what's next? What's next for you? What's next for Mercury?  Yeah, as a company, we are really scaling at this point, we want to grow even faster, but in a robust way. We are not in a rush. We are a private company. We don't have any VC funding behind us, so no one is really forcing us to grow faster.  We grow at a very steady pace. We want to make sure we provide the best quality of service to our clients first and then grow. We are going to grow within the US, more Salesforce, North America, we are going to expand to Europe. So that's our goal.  And then let's see where it's going to take us. We try to plan ahead, but we don't plan like 10 years out.  We have some vision. We know how the future will shape but that's our main goal dedicated to healthcare life science. Like that's the key. We don't want to tackle with many small problems. This is big enough. Hmm.  Amazing.  And if somebody's listening or watching this and they wanna follow up and they wanna learn more or follow Mercury and also your journey, how do they do that?  Yeah, they can visit our website, ship mercury.com. If they wanna ship something as a test, they can even use our guest shipping option on our website. They don't need an account. They can just come and request a shipment. Super easy. If they wanna reach out to us, they can talk to our sales team. One of our specialists from operations can help.  They can reach out to me from LinkedIn. I'm happy to help.  And for everybody watching, just so you know, we'll put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven't done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.  This is a daily show each and every day. We're bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. Well, so again, hit that subscribe or follow button and our two man. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks Adam. Appreciate it.

What does it take to tackle time sensitive logistics challenges for life sciences companies? In this episode, Adam Torres and Artug Acar, COO at Mercury, explore Mercury’s track record working with life sciences companies and why they have become the go to shipper for the industry. 

﻿Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.

Apply to be a guest on our podcast:
https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/

Visit our website:
https://missionmatters.com/

More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia

Mission Matters Marketing with Adam Torres

Transforming Companies: Culture, Legacy Systems, and the Ability to Adapt

Transforming Companies: Culture, Legacy Systems, and the Ability to Adapt

Description