Ryder’s acquisition of Baton enabled extended reach, co-founders say

BIOS: Prior to co-founding Baton, both Berberick and Robert served in the technology startup space. Berberick worked roles with Google, Accenture and Mindtribe, and he sports bachelor’s degree and master’s from Stanford University. Robert has worked for BuildZoom and Bain & Company, and he has a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a master’s from Stanford. 

KEY QUOTES FROM BERBERICK and ROBERT: 

“We thought that by selling our software [to Ryder], we could have a much bigger impact in the industry as a whole than if we’re just running our own fleet. We want to democratize the technology that we built for everyone.” — Robert

“As a founder, you have to live in this sort of paradoxical world where, on one hand, you have to be this evangelist of this crazy idea. And everyone’s gonna see you as the one that decided to go for it all, and you have to convince people of this crazy, incredible vision. And you also have to be incredibly paranoid at all times that your business is going to fail. … You have to be maniacal about understanding and have a very clear story for what assumptions need to be true for your business to eventually turn over and become economically positive to grow.” — Berberick

“Our mission is to build this fast-growing, Silicon Valley-based innovation arm. We’re going to really take the foundation of Baton and use that to power a wave of fairly transformational products for Ryder. So, it’s really trying to have the benefits and the speed and fast-paced nature of the startup with the resources and scale of Ryder. And our mission has always been the same: We want to eliminate waste in the supply chain, and we think Ryder is the best way to do that.” — Berberick

Related links:

• Ryder buys logistics tech startup Baton, which it had invested in previously

• Digital drop-freight platform Baton lays off 25% of workforce

• Baton launches local fleet backed by AI-driven schedule optimization technology