In this bonus Episode of Truckers and Nerds, we announce CloudTrucks Series B, a $115M new round of funding.

In this episode, Tobenna sits down with:

• Steve Sloane: Principal at Menlo Ventures, Sloane likes to invest in SaaS applications, marketplaces and robotics
• Feyza Haskaraman: Investor at Menlo Ventures, she works closely with Steve on Menlo Ventures Supply Chain Investments
• Kanyi Maqubela: Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in mission-driven technology companies at the earliest stages

In today’s episode we discuss:

• Background story on Menlo Ventures — Steve Sloane and Feyza
• Background story on Kindred Ventures and why Kanyi, an early investor, decided to invest in CloudTrucks — Kanyi Maqubela
• The supply chain crisis in 2021 and the value CloudTrucks brings to the logistics sector — Kanyi Maqubela
• Excitement for the future of CloudTrucks and the logistics industry broadly — Feyza

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Steve Sloane: I think what's common in all the Investing that Feyza and I do is what we call “Inflation Fund Investing.” So, we are looking for companies that really have strong product market fit. But really important is the end market to go after in the early days in their journey and it's just so obvious on how big they are having or how big of an impact they will continue to have and certainly we put CloudTrucks in that category so we are very excited to be investors.

Feyza Haskaraman: And when we think about space, we say logistics is like the backbone of our economy and by no means are we exaggerating. By rough measures, this is coming from our work in the space, we, just as investors, contribute to roughly about 8% GDP in the United States and 70% of that is driven by trucking.

Kanyi Maqubela: Our Investment in CloudTrucks came very very early in our trajectory and the reason we exist is because we wanted the kindred experience with founders at the beginning of their journey and partner with them deeply through the life of their journey. There are a couple of areas that have been of particular interest for us and those include the really big economy and frontier areas and as we like to say “where there are no roads.” We are Investing frankly at the beginning in the people and so our initial Insights and instincts on CloudTrucks really came down to strong teams and great missions.

So, Flex makes me think about a really interesting stat that i've been tracking over the last couple of months. Which is that there are almost 11 million job openings that have gone unfulfilled at the moment in the United States. And yet there are almost 9 Million people who are unemployed. We’re at absolutely once in a generation literally historic transition for how people work and why because that means that those companies that are at the forefront of redefining work for the better regular Americans stand to win the future. And so part of what makes Flex and Cash so exciting to me is putting more flexibility in the hands of these business owners. These independent drivers putting more cash in their pockets quicker, giving them more transparency about the way they work is going to make their jobs better.

And what I'm most excited about it all is the fact that this company is timed, not only in the midst of a crisis and as Winston Churchill said “Crisis is a terrible thing to waste” and CloudTrucks has done an amazing job of rising to the occasion and supply chain aspect of it.

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Truckers & Nerds is hosted by Tobenna Arodiogbu, CEO and founder of CloudTrucks.

Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about CloudTrucks? Visit our website at cloudtrucks.com.