In 2014, Jett McCandless launched a supply chain management company, project44, that promised to usher in new technology for the world of logistics and shipping.

Previously, major players in the industry had relied on complicated, old-school, World War II-era systems. McCandless saw the opportunity for an update with web-based technology for the 21st century.

But he wasn’t just taking a wild guess.

Instead, McCandless was leaning on years of on-the-ground experience, including a grueling job as a truck dispatcher where he first started thinking about ways to improve efficiency.

“I think it happens to a lot of folks that are in these roles. They think that something could be done better, and if you stay with it and really think about it, that’s essentially what happened here,” he told Founder Brew.

McCandless went on to other logistics companies and even founded a management consulting firm. By the time it came to start project44, his experience gave him a deep knowledge to pull from.

An outsider, he says, might’ve parachuted in without an appreciation for the reality on the ground.

“When you look at the folks out of San Francisco or the coastal cities without the logistics experience, they might get a $5 million, or even a $50 million check, but they usually actually approach the industry in a fairly arrogant way,” he told Founder Brew.

Instead, McCandless felt he knew better how to judge inefficiencies on paper, and how to work with customers.

“We have a lot more empathy for all the partners that are in the space, and I also have more respect for them,” he said.

Inspiration in the trenches

In 1999, Jett McCandless started working as a trucking dispatcher in Portland, Oregon. He had to keep track of shipments all over the city from his desk, with only faxes, two-way radio calls, and a mental map of Portland. The job could get very intense, McCandless recalls.

“A lot of people got kidney stones because you could never get up and use the restroom,” he told

But, it also taught him the realities of what people in the industry are up against. For example, when a shipment is late, it’s not just because someone is failing at their job.

“That guy’s out there with a blowtorch freezing his hands, trying to get that diesel line to warm up so he can get the products that he takes a lot of pride in getting delivered. I think that folks outside the industry don’t see that,” he said.

McCandless wondered early on about how operations could improve. He even suggested the idea that would later become his startup to his boss.

“I looked over at my boss the first day, and I said, ‘Hey, we have this internet thing at school…I said, ‘Why don’t we just connect our two systems, you know, with the internet?’ And he said, ‘Shut up, kid. Keep answering the phone,’” he recalled.

It would take over two decades for him to perfect that idea.

Inefficiency as a feature

On paper, as McCandless sees it, the power dynamics within shipping might look fairly straightforward.

“It assumes that everyone’s a rational actor. It often discounts how fragmented the industry is,” McCandless told Founder Brew.

Instead, McCandless knew significant nuance was hiding within each carrier’s operation, which includes trucks, cargo planes, and barges. They each have different infrastructure, equipment quality, and company cultures—which all affect their on-time performances out in the world.

Instead of forcing every carrier into a one-size-fits-all reporting standard, McCandless built that chaos into project44.

Carriers could instead keep the “secret sauce” of how they run operations and, even though it’s more work, project44 takes the responsibility of standardizing their data for other partners.

“We said, ‘Hey, let’s meet the carriers where they’re at, so they can put their best foot forward with the technology that they have,’” McCandless explained.