Ep072: Software as a Competitive Advantage with Gordon Driscoll

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Ep072: Software as a Competitive Advantage with Gordon Driscoll

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Today on the IC-DISC Show we're talking with Gordon Driscoll. Having spent his early career at Goldman Sachs investing tens of millions into metals companies, he kept noticing they were running their operations on Excel spreadsheets and software from the 1980s. That gap became Green Spark, a cloud-based platform now in over 900 scrap metal recycling locations. In this conversation, Gordon talks about what it took to break into an industry where relationships go back generations, why he thinks most business owners are thinking about software wrong, and how his team earned credibility by acting more like a partner than a vendor. He also shares a customer story that stuck with me about a scale operator who got his first lunch break in six years. Whether you're in scrap or not, Gordon's thinking on sustainable growth, earning the right to disrupt, and treating technology as a competitive advantage rather than a cost center is worth your time. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Why a Goldman Sachs investment banker left finance to build software for scrap yardsThe massive technology gap Gordon kept seeing in companies handling tens of millions in materialsHow Green Spark grew to 900+ locations by acting like a partner, not just a vendorThe customer story about a scale operator getting his first lunch break in six yearsWhy Gordon believes you have to earn the right to disrupt an industry, and what that looks like in practiceThe mindset shift from treating software as a cost center to using it as a competitive advantage Contact Details LinkedIn - Gordon Driscoll LINKS Show NotesBe a Guest About IC-DISC AllianceAbout Green Spark Software Gordon DriscollAbout Gordon TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Gordon: And I think that a lot of folks, candidly, just because they're not used to either our model or what technology can do today, they don't realize, which is changing, they still view software as a cost center. And ultimately the tools that we're seeing and the applications that we are pushing to the industry, a lot of our customers view as a competitive advantage. Dave: Good morning, Gordon. So where are you calling in from today? Gordon: Hey, Dave. Appreciate you having me on. I'm in Brooklyn, New York today. Dave: Oh, okay. That is great. So I must say, I know a lot of folks in the scrap metal industry, service providers, yard operators, brokers, but you seem to have a particularly unique background. So why don't you tell the story from the time you graduated college? Sounds like you spent some time in investment banking in New York. And what caused you to have this epiphany that you wanted to go provide software in the scrap metal industry? Gordon: Yeah, no, of course. It's worth an explanation because looking at my background on paper from finance to scrap software, it doesn't make much sense. So yeah, started my career in financial services, spent a few years in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then moved into private equity investing, but all of that centered on natural resources, broadly speaking, but specifically the metals industry. So spent a lot of time up and down the value chain, anything from box site refineries in Australia to working with the biggest mills in the country like Cliffs or JW Aluminum or things of that nature. And then in the investing side, spent really just as much time on what I'll call the kind of conventional resource as I did the technology. And I quickly realized the businesses that we were at times giving tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars were either using Excel spreadsheets to run their business or platforms that were based in or founded in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, and ultimately saw similar patterns in the recycling industry. And by no means is using a system like that wrong by definition or inherent, but ultimately saw a massive opportunity to bring an industry that is deceptively huge that no one really pays attention to outside of the folk in the industry and folks who we saw it when we started in 2020 who are quite literally essential workers, bringing that technology to them. And it's been an awesome six years. It's been very exciting. I think that what we wanted to do, clearly the market has responded well, which I'm sure we will get into. And what's really exciting for me is not only working with the folks in this industry on a day in and day out basis, and I can talk to my relationship to the industry and general thoughts, but also specifically as technology has not really progressed linearly over the last couple years, but obviously I had some step changes with AI, being able to innovate alongside this industry and partner with our customers to bring those step changes to an industry like this. It's been super exciting. Dave: Now, well, thank you for that background recap. So let's talk about the founding of the company. So where did the name come from, Green Spark? Gordon: Yeah, great question. I...

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