While discussing, Anna explained that carriers, despite being in competition, are looking at one another as partners to help minimize spend and improve the level of service. Customers are expecting things faster and cheaper, and carriers need to lean on one another’s capabilities to come through and meet those expectations.

“There is a balance between technology, between satisfying customers, and understanding for the company what will be the best decision, to partner with someone, to maybe accept or not accept the parcel because it's not covered zones,” said Anna.

“The higher tides raise all boats in the harbor. Where we called it competition historically, maybe more recently, we call it partnership. This is all moving the industry forward,” responded Mike.

Mike commented that tracking is a critical component to success in this space, and that not only has technology evolved to make today’s standards possible, but also that it’s been a critical factor in the evolution of the culture of the industry.

“Tracking is a place where partners ultimately make their way into the ecosystem,” said Mike.

“A lot of e-commerce companies, not only commerce, a lot of customers who are looking through the shipping solutions, there could be warehouses, e-commerce, DTC, they are looking into optimization. And I think tracking information, collecting data based on the tracking, is something that can help. Because it's accuracy, it's a data prediction, it's understanding who is sticking to their promises in terms of carriers,” responded Anna, referring to how tracking and data analytics connect.

She then made note of how tracking technologies have inspired healthy competition in the industry, stating, “The big four and all carriers, regional too, they're investing. Because then they saw the competition of independent tracking companies who are helping shippers with analytics. And I think this is very healthy competition because they already have all the data. Carriers already have data, they just haven't properly used it.”

Mike asked Anna about her experiences with modern product development in a post-Covid remote or semi-remote environment.

"Here (in the tech space), it's actually become much easier to set up the call, understand our targets, our KPIs, what we're looking for,” Anna noted, pointing out that it’s not as easy when a physical presence is necessary like it is at Better Trucks, where there are warehouses and trucks that need people to run them.

She also noted a big opportunity remote work has provided: flexibility in hiring. Hirees don’t have to be present. They can live anywhere. It opens up a much wider talent pool.

Mike chimed in with, “Post-pandemic, as you stated, we've learned to revisit the way in which we have our team structured, revisit how and where we're looking for talent. It's not exclusive to the market where we've got our technology team physically sitting. And so there's been a ton of changes and yet at the same time, there is a very real need that these packages need to be physically handled in person,” acknowledging how different the changes were in tech spaces versus the in-person part of the industry.

Mike brought up an EasyPost Tweet he had seen highlighting Anna’s work advocating for women in STEM fields, asking her to explain her passion and what she’s doing to change the stereotypes that may hold girls back from pursuing a STEM career.

“I grew up in Moscow where people have a little bit different opinion for women having STEM education. And I grew up in mathematical school. I finished my mathematical school and engineering university where we have a lot of girls and it was actually very honorable until I came to the United States and understood the really big gap, that STEM is not promoted here,” stated Anna. “I am doing a lot of mentoring. I'm helping women with their resumes, some refugees, how to adapt to the American market, how to pursue engineering careers here. Because I think it's important to have different views, gender-wise, culture-wise, on the products."

“The more folks that we bring into this industry, the different perspectives that we can get, the more female and non-binary leaders that we can help build up, all the better for future generations to follow,” responded Mike.