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Dave Clark Raises $100M for Auger After Going to School of Flexport Hard Knocks Dave Clark has come out of the shadows after his ... err crash course in the educational school of Flexport (still on his linkedin btw). And it's with a new startup called Auger. From reports it sounds like: * Integrates all the supply chain and forecast data * Forecasts using AI (duh) * A "single pane of glass" * Chatbot you speak with (duh) * Dave comments that he is trying to reproduce the "end to end" planning tools he had at Amazon. * Dave comments he wants to replace Excel processes. * The VC firm Oak HC/FT says it invests in healthcare and fintech (curious). I have a few thoughts on this mission: * This is a real problem. There is a wide canyon in large companies between data lakes/BI tools, supply chain software, OMS, and financial planning software. He is 100% right this often gets done in Excel. * ... but it's hard to replace Excel. This sounds like FP&A software to me. But the AI version, you know... * To justify a no software, no revenue, no customers, barely any employees $100M seed investment on who knows what valuation, this has to be sold into Enterprises. No SMBs, please and thank you. Maybe not even mid-market, although that's what the article mentions (I don't buy that explanation). * This is going to be more difficult then thought. Enterprise software is hard, on its own. But keep reading. * Also, Enterprises are notorioiusly slow to change their supply chain software. Harder than martech or even eCommerce platforms which are difficult to supplant. * Data integration and unification is also hard on its own. And it actually does not involve skills that Dave Clark had to learn particularly much at Amazon (they built their own software) or Flexport (primarily small to mid-sized businesses with simpler systems). Other ecosystem neighbor participants may not take so kindly to having their data sucked into Auger's AI. * It seems designed to compete with the Oracle and Blue Yonder-type of supply chain solution. But Dave is smart. He knows all this already. So this means to me: * He's not actually looking to replace existing software. He's going to need to create a new category of software. Also very hard. And finally >> Dave Clark will have to create a Marc Lore Jet-style exit to make this work. I say this explicitly because Marc Lore was famous for valuing his companies far far ahead of revenue, traction or anything, finding a mark (in Jet's case, Walmart) and then pursuing them relentlessly in the hopes of outrunning their outsized valuation. Not impossible, but hard. Dave is a relentless, take no prisoners style of operator, and sounds energized to be on this journey again... which -- sounds like a big challenge that could go horribly wrong. But, that's the kind of asymmetric bet startups need to make to attain an outsized valuation. Those who are about to go into battle, we salute you.
Sam Gupta
2mo
Thanks for publishing the juicy post. I absolutely love it. - Most eComm professionals underestimate the complexity that goes into ERP or Supply Chain like software systems. - In general, planning is an easier category to penetrate than transactional systems. - You are absolutely right that this would fall under the S&OP or connected analytics category, not necessarily FP&A. FP&A is a siloed software category covering primarily finance. Just like transactional categories fight for their pie, analytics software is all over the place as well and could vary substantially across industries. What will work for retail may not for manufacturing, creating a much more limited market than what categories such as Anaplan can attack. - There is a real play for AI in the planning category, and we will see substantial changes in the market. So, most software today might evolve depending upon where Auger lands and if they can really disrupt the supply chain planning market. - The biggest challenge with the supply chain market is politics, which depends on who has access to data. There are only so many networks out there, and most large supply chain planning software vendors own it. ...more to come Rick
Tony X.
2mo
So at seed auguer is worth $1M and dave clark $99m 😂
Brian Eddy, MBA
2mo
Nice post Who tipped you off he was doing this Auger?
Eric P.
2mo
You’ve made some very good points. When I think about the end to end visibility for supply chain and logistics at the enterprise level, every single company manages it so differently that I can’t even envision a single solution to tie up these systems. This is going to end up being custom built for the first customer. It’s two waterfall. If they realize this problem quickly, they can still pivot into solving a more specific smaller problem and retain this as the long-term ultimate goal.
Albin Paul
2mo
I would love to ask Sanjay Saini as Stemly already does some or many of these aspirations around Supply Chain Single Plane Visibility, S&OP and FP&A in a single watchtower platform. For Auger or any other platforms, the big challenge is that Oracle and SAP will charge Enterprise an Indirect Usage Licence fee anytime any platform tries to read-write into their estate (especially when you are competing against a similar module or mix of modules offered by SAP/Oracle like S4/Hana)
Robert J.
2mo
Many people love to chat with Gemini or ChatGPT or Perplexity or Claude – however for whatever reason, the usage of Chat-like AI experiences vs Excel has not seen a similar uptick in 3rd party enterprise software. API-based usage of AI meanwhile is growing a bit faster. So idk, if doing this as an API service that then mid-sized/enterprise dev and tech teams can plug into and integrate with their tools (even including Excel, if need be) makes more sense than chat. I think Claude had some interesting stats on API vs general usage publicly available.
Alan Yao
2mo
This move with Auger is definitely ballsy, asymmetric for sure, infuriating for some. Dave’s taking on a problem no one’s fully cracked yet. And with 70% of large enterprises still reliant on Excel and 75% of digital transformation projects falling short of the mark, breaking into this space won’t be easy. The $100M seed round is a big bet on vision more than anything else. And I agree, if Auger can actually carve out a new software category and pull this off, it’ll be a game-changer, but it’s a tough nut to crack. It’s a high risk, high reward game. So let’s see how this one plays out.
Satish Vutukuru
2mo
I believe the key is "integrating into existing platforms", so perhaps not necessarily asking their customers to replace their supply chain systems of record (hard and painful), but building on top of them. It's still hard to justify that valuation...and very often 99% of companies out there just don't need the systems Amazon fulfillment has. It will be interesting to watch as they reveal their roadmap in "coming months".
Daphna Englard
2mo
Love your opinion and clarity on this, and I agree if this is for enterprise only how can a universal solution work for all, and have value more than their own custom software. Honestly this story reminds me of another startup that had a huge raise implying they had more up their sleeve… but all they had was a huge raise. But it will be fun to watch this one. I like Alain Breillatt ‘s comment that this announcement was frustrating and delighting. Maybe they should charge for their Follows… they might make their money back that way.
eCommerce Strategy Consultant | Strategic eCommerce Consulting to Optimize Your Results | ECommerce SaaS Positioning and Go-to-Market Strategy | Organizational Change Management | E-Commerce Expert Witness
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