Procurement
51 episodes
#6007: What a $1M AI Inference Contract Actually Contains
The sticker price isn't the deal. Inside the commit floors, discount curves, and overage traps of enterprise AI contracts.
#6002: Claude on AWS: Three Doors, One Rate Card
Same per-token price everywhere — so why buy Claude through AWS instead of Anthropic? The answer is commitments, compliance, and silicon.
#5275: Reading a Supplier in 20 Minutes
How does a two-person firm vet a supplier without a procurement team? Walk in, watch the workshop, read the room.
#5097: Who Actually Gets Paid to Test Hardware?
Real testing vs. affiliate content — and whether AI can finally separate genuine reviews from the noise.
#5058: The Hidden World of Standards Beyond ISO
Military specs, proprietary formats, and internal rules — how standards shape everything, and who really writes them.
#5022: Choosing a Real Industrial Vacuum for Your Home
How to verify true commercial grade, pick the right size, and avoid the wet-dry trap when buying a vacuum for your house.
#4976: Building a Procurement Agent That Actually Works
How to encode the weird, undocumented skills technical buyers use every day into an AI agent that won't get you audited.
#4932: How to Buy One Pegboard in Israel
Finding a single custom-sized pegboard in Israel means navigating a B2B supply chain that doesn't want to sell you one.
#4923: How the Everything Menu Actually Works
How a small kitchen with 3 cooks pulls off 150 dishes across 4 cuisines — the menu is a marketing document.
#4912: How Airlines Stock 80,000 Parts for a Single Fleet
Inside the staggering scale of aircraft parts logistics — from 450,000 part numbers to 12-hour global delivery.
#4907: Why Airlines Pick Boeing or Airbus — or Both
The real reasons airlines choose one manufacturer or mix fleets — from missile defenses to negotiating leverage.
#4810: How a Stop Sign Gets Bought: B2B Procurement Decoded
Follow a stop sign from Hartford's need to a DOT depot — and learn why B2B pricing has no catalogue price tags.
#4804: How Industrial Safety Became an Industry
From the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to OSHA and the conglomerates that own your hard hat.
#4725: Software Evaluation as a Career Path
The hidden career track for people who love evaluating SaaS tools, building matrices, and becoming the go-to software decision-maker.
#4612: Rubber Ducks by the Gross: The Industrial Supply Wonderland
What happens when a regular person shops at McMaster-Carr? Gross quantities of rubber ducks, petri dishes, and the pipe threader you never knew you...
#4591: The Tea, Bananas, and Shipping Containers of ISO
Why does an international standard specify the exact angle of a banana's curve? We explore the surprisingly sensible logic behind the world's stran...
#4555: How Open Is Government Contracting Really?
Government contracts are publicly posted, but can small businesses actually win? We break down the real barriers and pathways into B2G.
#4548: The Hidden Software Running Your Company
Inside the shadow fleet of custom apps running organizations — and how AI is making building them the default.
#4520: The Secret Rulebook of American Trucking
Why a 48x40 pallet rules U.S. trucking, wrecks ocean shipping, and costs importers billions.
#4479: What Actually Happens at a Trade Fair?
The hidden economics of why small businesses still travel the world to shake hands with their suppliers.
#4478: Digikey, Mouser, and the Hidden Supply Chain of Components
How Digikey and Mouser quietly keep the global electronics industry running with impossibly large catalogs and same-day shipping.
#4466: Free Your Shopping Cart: Dot Cart Explained
A new open file format lets you export, share, and compare shopping carts across any vendor.
#4414: Shared Shopping Carts That Auto-Order
Why cross-device cart sync fails and what it would take to build a system that orders for you.
#4402: From One Flatbed to Jerusalem: The Poppleberry Story
How a Connecticut moving company went from hauling dairy equipment to apartment moves in Jerusalem.