AI First: How Fura Grew 800% During Freight Slump | Logistics

Summary View Transcript Fura's CEO Jeff D'Angelo sits down with FreightWaves to reveal how his AI-first brokerage achieved 800% growth in just three years, turning a $150K loss into $1M profit, all while operating in a challenging freight recession.

Learn about their unique roll-up strategy, Fura, an AI-first freight brokerage, grew from $10 million to $90 million in revenue over three years by combining organic growth with six acquisitions targeting brokerages in the $10 million to $30 million range.

Co-founder and CEO Jeff D'Angelo attributes the expansion to a standardized operating model he likens to Chick-fil-A, offshore staffing, and process automation that holds SG&A expense to roughly 39% — well below the industry norm of 60% to 80%.

The Pinwheel acquisition illustrates the playbook: headcount dropped from 26 to 8 while the business swung from a $150,000 loss to $1 million in profit and GMV jumped from $12 million to $30 million. D'Angelo said most acquired brokerages plateau around $20 million to $30 million due to process gaps and limited technology access.

On carrier vetting, Fura uses AI-assisted compliance checks on every shipment — verifying driver, equipment, VIN, and trailer photos — with a human final review.

D'Angelo said the Montgomery ruling will pressure smaller brokers without compliance infrastructure and called on large shippers to share liability risk through collaborative standard operating procedures.

Fura targets $10Mu2013$30M brokerages, applies automation and offshore staffing to cut SG&A to 39% Pinwheel acquisition cut headcount from 26 to 8 and flipped a $150K loss into $1M profit AI-assisted compliance runs on every shipment, with human sign-off, to address post-Montgomery carrier vetting risk Julie Van de Kamp [0:00] Welcome back.

Jeff D'Angelo is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Fura, an AI-first brokerage that grew from $10 million to $90 million in 3 years. Wow. In the world'su2014 in the worst freight market he's ever seen. Jeff, welcome to FreightWaves Today. Thanks for being here. Jeff DeAngelo [0:16] Thank you. And my dog's here too.

I think I talked to your producer. Julie Van de Kamp [0:20] Oh my goodness. Jeff DeAngelo [0:22] She doesn't leave my lap throughout the day. Malcolm Harris [0:25] Jeff, this isu2014Julie Van de Kamp [0:26] So now we need to know her name and a little bit about her before we get into all the questions. Jeff DeAngelo [0:30] So this is Birdie.

Julie Van de Kamp [0:33] So my puppy's name is Birdie. Jeff DeAngelo [0:35] Oh, if we were going to have a female dog, which is great, she's amazing, I had to be able to name it. And I'm a big golf fan, so I had to name her something that, uh, I don't make a lot of lately. Malcolm Harris [0:51] Hilarious. 10 out of 10. That's a great one.

So, uh, well, we have Birdie in pocket, so So this is great. This is going to be a fantastic interview. Thanks again for being here, Jeff. Jeff DeAngelo [1:00] No, thank you. I watched a little bit of the Provancha interview. He's great. He was one of our first customers at Turvo.

Malcolm Harris [1:09] Yeah, no, Jason is a phenomenal guy and great conversation. And talk to us aboutu2014 because you guys are an AI-first brokerage, $90 million run rate, built during a freight recession, may I add. Give us a 30-second version of what you're building and why specifically now, Jeff. Jeff DeAngelo [1:26] Oh, that's a great question.

So, um, not only we are an AI-based brokerage, it's really a bunch of tools, not just AI, but we're a roll-up. So we buy, you know, traditional brokerage companies. We digitize as much as we can. As a matter of fact, we focused on, you know, the perfect shipment.

People call it what they will, but everything we think, uh, in the process of freight brokerage, most of it can be automated and you really have to hire for great people, like the best in the world. And for us, it's about growing inorganically, but we've grown a lot organically as well. Julie Van de Kamp [2:09] Definitely.

So tell us how, part of how you do that. So I think I read a stat that 39% SG&A expense is your number versus obviously other brokers have significant, I would say like 60 to 80% SGA expense. So how does that number define your model? How do you get there? What are you guys doing to make that possible? Jeff DeAngelo [2:34] It's a lot of work.

It's a heck of a lot of work. But, you know, we believe in, you know, what we call a zero-waste supply chain.

So, you know, one of the first things we do is We offshore to amazing team members, and I think a lot of people offshore, but the folks that we offshore are, you know, they're just as good, in some ways better than our onshore, you know, folks that I've seen in the marketplace before. They're all company people, though, you know, they're not individuals.

We standardized everything that we do. So, you know, one of theu2014 I was talking to someone earlier today and I said one of the things that we probably do different is