Meet Matt Thorn of Source Intelligence in Carlsbad

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Thorn.

Matt, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Jess Kraus and I founded the company back in 2009 when he sold his last company and was looking for something new. At the time, there was a lot of buzz about measuring and reducing your Carbon Footprint. There was even federal regulation on the table that was going to mean a lot of companies would have to deal with it. We thought there would be an opportunity to help companies understand the Carbon impact of their supply chain. So, we built some software to track it.

After the Carbon regulation didn’t pass, the buzz died down, but we found that big brand companies were still interested in what was going on in their supply chains, especially beyond the first supplier they usually deal with. For any given product – beyond the manufacturer or retailer that puts it on the market – there is a global network of companies that are all contributing parts, components, materials and chemicals to the product. In most cases, the companies that ultimately sell the product to the consumer have no visibility into that global network.

The software we built allowed companies to look into that global network and see the companies behind the products they were selling. In 2012 a small section of the Dodd-Frank consumer protection act came into force. That section required companies for the first time ever to look into their supply chains and make a public statement about what they found. We found that suddenly lots of big companies really needed what we had created and the company grew from there.

6 years later we are now helping companies with supply chain regulatory requirements worldwide. Covering issues such as chemical composition, ethical sourcing, and human trafficking. We are able to track that global network of suppliers and identify where there might be a risk of not only non-compliance (rules not being followed) or of something happening that would put the big brands’ reputation at risk. The issues we help companies with are not ones that most companies want their name associated with.

Our hardworking team here in Carlsbad works with the biggest companies in the world and their worldwide web of suppliers to help them keep their supply chains safe and sound. I’m proud to be part of that.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges, we deal with hundreds of thousands of companies in countries all over the world. They have trouble understanding regulations in other countries and why they are important. We also work with some very demanding big companies who have high expectations and want things to be handled with care, respect, and confidentiality.

Currently, in the United States, the climate for regulation is uncertain, whereas in other parts of the world there are lots of new regulations being launched. Navigating that global regulatory environment is very difficult. However, we believe we offer a critical service and ultimately our goal is to help keep our customers, their consumers and our environment safe.

Source Intelligence – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are known for delivering supply chain compliance solutions. We don’t just sell software for people to manage things themselves and we aren’t consultants who charge by the hour. We combine an advanced technology platform for collecting company and product information worldwide with a team of experts to communicate and guide the companies we work with. Lastly, we build up large volumes of data on these products and companies in order to ease the compliance workload and make this large challenge efficient manageable. Since we created this solution model, others have followed it, but we still lead the way in using technology and people to address these requirements.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Um, that’s a tough one, but I’m certainly very proud of the fact we have 3 of the 5 largest brands in the world as customers. I think that’s a testament to all the hard work everyone at the company has put in and being trailblazers in our field.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1921 Palomar Oaks Way, Ste 205
  Carlsbad, CA 92008
• Website: sourceintelligence.com
• Phone: 877-916-6337
• Email: lramos@sourceintelligence.com
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/sourceintelligence/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SourceIntel

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