In this week’s episode of The FreightCaviar Podcast, we sit down with brothers Javier and Pablo Palafox, the Co-Founders of HappyRobot, an AI communication platform, built specifically for logistics. We caught up shortly before its official press release. They discuss their vision for the company, the process behind making the software, and their thoughts on the future of the industry.
Meet the Palafox Brothers
The two were born in sunny Guadalajara, Spain, and like many people in the industry, they didn’t initially plan their futures working in logistics.
Javier, with a bachelor’s degree in Law, as well as a bachelor’s in Science, went from living in Spain to working at the economic office for the Spanish embassy in Mexico at the age of 27, helping companies manage their businesses. In 2014, he started working for Bertolli, as FP&A and Revenue Manager, at their branch in Mexico. Two years later, he was offered a position in the United States. He jumped at the chance and relocated to Dallas, TX, where he continued working for the company as FP&A and Revenue Manager, and later CFO and Vice President of Finance, until April 2023.
In the meantime, Pablo moved to Madrid to study computer science and ended up earning a double master’s degree in Science from both the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Technical University of Madrid.
It was Javier, with his background in econometrics, who encouraged Pablo to explore AI.
The Founding of HappyRobot
The two always dreamed of working together someday. At one point, they even looked into building software that helped users find the best houses in Spain and sell them to people. Although this plan hit a dead end, it sparked the idea for what today is HappyRobot.
“A platform to build AI workers for the supply chain. That was our vision. That’s who we want to be and who we hopefully already are. We wanted to build this little brain for logistics to make the workforce happier, working less crazy hours, but more efficiently.”
The Team Behind the HappyRobot
They eventually flew Pablo’s best friend, Luis Paarup, today the company’s CTO and Co-Founder, out to Germany. They quickly got to work, with some help from the Y Combinator, a startup accelerator for entrepreneurs.
They explained how the software works with the help of what they call, their ‘few-shot learning’ system– in other words, training by giving the software an example of a conversation. It’s quite simple.
“You really don’t need coding abilities. You just need to know how to explain things.”
Pablo also discussed the process of making the audio for their product sound natural and human-like.
“We’ve trained our own transcribers and fine-tuned the LLM piece, as well. As for the voices, we just do some little tricks that make it kind of click.”
Addressing AI Concerns
Of course, with the use of AI on the rise, and the discourse surrounding it taking over people’s jobs, Javier is quick to calm down the fears of those worried about being replaced by technology and offers insights on how to make the most of it by using their software.
“Learn how to work with this technology and leverage it. You have to get involved and be more proactive. Check out the new options that we’re talking about. You can very easily search and filter for what’s the best one and proactively make calls.”
Building a Growing Impact
They’ve already built an impressive portfolio, with over fifty companies being served by the company across the supply chain, including clients such as Schneider and Circle Logistics. Clearly the sky is the limit for Pablo, Javier, and the entire HappyRobot team.
They shared exclusive insights on the future plans for the company with us.
“A better voice experience, but not only. We’re entering email, text, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, all those multi-channel capabilities. We want the AI workforce for the supply chain to be like a multi-channel or omni-channel.”
The Road Ahead
With AI slowly but surely dominating the industry scene, one can only imagine what the future holds for HappyRobot. But one thing is for sure, we’ll be hearing more about them very soon.
Listen to the entire interview on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or watch it on our YouTube channel.
