MIKE MANGINO | July 23, 2018

Mike Mangino is HubTran’s Chief Technology Officer and unofficial voice of reason. His broad base of experience in both the corporate and start-up worlds prepared him to forge new frontiers with HubTran. He is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

What We’re Listening To

Last week, all of HubTran got together in Chicago for our second annual company summit. We spent three days together talking about what we’ve been up to and where we’re going. It was a great opportunity to get to know each other better. During the summit, a number of podcasts came up in discussion. I loved hearing about what people listen to, and wanted to share our podcast list! I was excited to see the variety of what we listen to. Sure, How I Built This is popular, but I was happy to see a variety of non-technical podcasts as well.

Kofi Gumbs

Lead Developer – Receivables Platform

Kyle Slattery

Lead Developer – Factor Platform

Charlotte Moore

Software Developer

Randy Schmidt

Integration Lead

Mike Mangino

CTO

I love learning new things, especially about psychology and how we think. Hidden Braindoes an amazing job of this. How I Built this gives me an opportunity to learn from other’s mistakes and gives me the push to keep improving. Last but not least, This American Life is a wonderfully produced program that tells interesting stories about our world.

More Articles You’ll Love

HubTran Announces Partnership With Freight Management Systems to Provide a Seamless Document-Management Solution to Lower Costs and Reduce Manpower
HubTran, the transportation industry’s leading back-office automation platform, today announced a partnership with Freight Management Systems (FMS), an industry-leading transportation management system (TMS) provider.
Josh Asbury
April 21, 2020
Introducing HubTran's Automation Revolution Webinar Series
Since nearly everyone is working from home these days, we are working on a series of webinars intended to help our 3PL, Broker, Factor and Forwarder customers gain immense in the transportation back-office.
Josh Asbury
April 20, 2020
Weathering Market Volatility with Variable Cost Structures: Software Pricing Edition
Businesses always need to be vigilant about controlling costs. With the rise of economic uncertainty, the need to reduce financial risk is more pressing than ever. In this ongoing series of white papers, I discuss new ways to reduce and eliminate fixed costs.
Josh Asbury
March 31, 2020
Operating at Your Best While Preparing for the Worst
Economic uncertainty should be a call to action for managers across the transportation sector to assess how their businesses could be affected by an economic slowdown. Fortunately, new technology solutions can create new ways to prepare. For example, by reducing costs and better managing risks, companies can ensure that factors and other transportation players are protected against the threat of a volatile economy.
Tom Durrenberger
March 30, 2020
Factor Update: New Portal Features
This note is to let you know that we’ve added two new features to our Factoring platform: 1. The ability to require specific fields in our client portal before clients submit invoices. 2. From the portal, giving clients the ability to enter funding methods and automatically passing these into FactorSoft.
Tom Durrenberger
March 27, 2020
A COVID-19 Update From HubTran
As everyone around the world makes plans for their businesses and families around the COVID-19 situation, we at HubTran stand ready to help our customers through uncertain times.
Josh Asbury
March 17, 2020
A Synergy That Will Help Logistics Companies See Growth
Teknowlogi and HubTran Join Forces to Increase Automation for Their Logistics Clients.
Josh Asbury
March 16, 2020
Towards More Effective Communication
This is a really exciting post for me to write. For the first time in quite a while, I’m writing about something technical! At HubTran, we’ve found supportability to be an incredibly important part of writing software. We have a BackupIntegrationFile model that stores every file we receive and send as part of our third party integrations. This includes flat files, JSON documents and anything else that’s passed back and forth. We’ve found it to be a life saver when troubleshooting issues with our partners. The downside of this model is that it’s huge! We have hundreds of millions of records stored. We had a purge process that would clear out old records, but recently it just stopped working. Figuring out why was a lot of fun!
Mike Mangino
March 12, 2020
Faster Feedback
If you’re a developer who has done TDD, you probably know what a big difference fast running tests make. By isolating your code and limiting dependencies, you can get quicker feedback which allows you to make progress more quickly. At HubTran, we’re using that same concept of rapid feedback as a way to verify customer value in our features.
Mike Mangino
January 30, 2020
Self-Selection in Hiring
“I appreciate getting to know you, but I’ve decided not to accept your job offer.”
Mike Mangino
January 16, 2020
HubTran Named to the 2020 FreightTech 25 List
HubTran makes the FreightTech 25
Josh Asbury
January 16, 2020
Chicago-based HubTran Taps J.P. Lauz for Customer Success Role
After gaining critical international experience at Citibank and earning his MBA from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, J.P. Lauz has joined HubTran, creators of invoice processing automation for the transportation industry. As Director of Customer Success, Lauz onboards new customers and continually helps them improve effectiveness and reduce costs.
Josh Asbury
December 17, 2019
Joshua Asbury Joins HubTran in Executive Management Role
HubTran has named Josh Asbury to head the company’s key 3PL segment. Josh brings the expertise he gained building sales, sales engineering, and customer service teams at Liferay, an open source digital experience platform. In his VP role at HubTran, Asbury is charged with accelerating the company’s already impressive growth and market presence.
Matt Bernstein
September 25, 2019
Foreign Keys and Indexes
This is a really exciting post for me to write. For the first time in quite a while, I’m writing about something technical! At HubTran, we’ve found supportability to be an incredibly important part of writing software. We have a BackupIntegrationFile model that stores every file we receive and send as part of our third party integrations. This includes flat files, JSON documents and anything else that’s passed back and forth. We’ve found it to be a life saver when troubleshooting issues with our partners. The downside of this model is that it’s huge! We have hundreds of millions of records stored. We had a purge process that would clear out old records, but recently it just stopped working. Figuring out why was a lot of fun!
Mike Mangino
July 5, 2019
Roundtable on Logistics
Four industry executives shared their insights with Crain’s Content Studio on how technology and other innovations are meeting the pressing demands of digital commerce in one of the tightest labor markets in years.
Matt Bernstein
June 24, 2019
Hidden Costs in the Transportation Back Office
With increased focus on the back office, transportation companies are now beginning to recognize a variety of hidden costs and problems.
Matt Bernstein
June 19, 2019
Saying Goodbye
This week we are saying goodbye to Ally, our amazing customer support rep. While we’re sad to see her go, we’re incredibly excited about her next thing. You see, she’s not leaving us for another tech company or for another support job, she’s leaving us to be a writer for a TV show. How could we be upset about that?
Mike Mangino
May 22, 2019
McLeod Software Partnership with HubTran Showing Great Results at Becker Logistics, Ready to Benefit other 3PLs
“Working with Matt Bernstein and his team has allowed us to build a solution to improve the back office processing of carrier payment auditing, and in turn speed the invoicing and cash collection from their customers. Improved efficiency in the back office allows our PowerBroker customers to grow while keeping overhead in check,” said Robert Brothers, Director of Product Development for McLeod Software.
Mike Mangino
May 21, 2019
Assumptions and Confidence
Over the last few years, Michael Niessner and I have spent a lot of time looking at patterns that predict the success and failure of both software products and software engineers. We’ve done this both to improve our success rate at HubTran, but also to help us understand how to hire better software developers. While we’re still working on finding the secret to success and better hiring, we’ve found at least one combination of traits that is a sure sign that failure is around the corner. If we see Assumptions and Confidence, we know we’re looking at trouble.
Mike Mangino
May 16, 2019
Starting with Value
I’ve been working on our 7 minute demo for the FreightWaves Transparency 19 conference. You might think that as CTO I would focus on the cool technology here at HubTran. While we have great technology like Elm on the front end, I won’t be mentioning it. The technology isn’t what’s important, it’s the value we deliver that matters.
Mike Mangino
May 2, 2019
Interview Questions
Over the last year, I’ve been doing a lot of interviewing. As in, I have at least 8 interviews scheduled this week already. I’ve easily done more than 100 interviews in the last twelve months. During that time, I’ve learned a lot about interviewing. When I first started, my interviews were mostly rambling conversations. I had a few questions in mind, but I mostly just chatted with people. I did a great job of hiring people I liked to talk to, but my track record in finding high performing candidates was more mixed.
Mike Mangino
April 18, 2019
AI in Trucking
Transport Topics talks HubTran and discusses how artificial intelligence and machine learning Are driving breakthroughs in freight efficiency.
Matt Bernstein
March 1, 2019
Some Valentine's Day Love for Radical Candor
Several of us just finished reading Radical Candor. I can say without reservation that it is one of the best management books I’ve read in a long time. At the same time, I’ve never read a book that pointed out my managerial shortcomings so quickly.
Mike Mangino
February 14, 2019
Blind Hiring
We’ve been doing a lot of hiring at HubTran recently. As part of that process, we’ve been looking at how we hire, specifically at how our unconscious biases can shape our first impressions. I was excited to see another company is thinking about this problem:
Mike Mangino
December 20, 2018
Now with HubTran, Revenova delivers instant back-office automation to 3PLs
“Our integration with HubTran provides customers with a seamless solution to quickly process carrier documents and settle loads efficiently. Combined with our integrated accounting automation, customers can significantly reduce time and cost associated with back-office processing while accelerating revenue generation.”
Matt Bernstein
November 30, 2018
The Power of Being Wrong
When was the last time you said “You’re right, I’m wrong?” If you’re like most people, it’s probably been a while. For most of us, those words are hard to say, especially about things that really matter to us. As hard as it is, saying “I’m wrong” can be incredibly powerful.
Mike Mangino
November 29, 2018
What You Say and What You Do
As we build and grow HubTran, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the culture we’re trying to build. I’ve written about the HubTran values before. Obviously these values are part of our culture, but they aren’t the whole story. It’s one thing to talk about what kind of culture you want, it’s another thing to make it real.
Mike Mangino
November 20, 2018
Scaling Economically
I’m excited to be a panelist at Digital Ocean’s TIDE SF: The Power Of Simplicity next week.1 Preparing for the panel gave me an opportunity to organize my thoughts on how we scaled HubTran. In particular, I’m going to focus on server scaling today. I’ll write more about scaling other parts of the organization in the future. Are you in San Francisco? You should come by! It’s free!
Mike Mangino
November 8, 2018
Confidence and Competence
Over the last few years, I’ve worked with more than 20 kindergartners as they play soccer for the first time. At the beginning of every year, I can pick out the kindergarteners immediately. When we start to warm up, they look scared. They lack not only basic soccer skills, but also the confidence to try the drill we are performing. This can lead to a self defeating cycle. If you never gain basic competence, you won’t have the confidence to continue to push yourself and learn.
Mike Mangino
November 2, 2018
Sometimes You Throw It Away
Not all ideas are good.
Mike Mangino
October 19, 2018
What We're Listening To
Last week, all of HubTran got together in Chicago for our second annual company summit. We spent three days together talking about what we’ve been up to and where we’re going. It was a great opportunity to get to know each other better. During the summit, a number of podcasts came up in discussion. I loved hearing about what people listen to, and wanted to share our podcast list! I was excited to see the variety of what we listen to. Sure, How I Built This is popular, but I was happy to see a variety of non-technical podcasts as well.
Mike Mangino
September 25, 2018
Let's Talk Naming Y'all
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. – Phil Karlton
Mike Mangino
August 23, 2018
Hiring and Technical Interviews
Hiring is one of the hardest problems in software development. When we hire, we’re trying to determine if a person has not only the technical skills necessary to work at HubTran, but also the interpersonal and communication skills. We need to know if they share our values and are capable of working remotely. At the same time, we need to help them decide if HubTran is the kind of company they want to work for.
Mike Mangino
August 16, 2018
Practice and Intentional Improvement
I’ve written before about being intentional about improving. About a year ago, HubTran started moving our main application over to Elm. We’ve recently hit the point where we have more Elm code than JavaScript in production. This is exciting, but as a person who hasn’t really learned Elm, it’s also a bit scary. Over the last few months, I’ve really started digging in to Elm. At the same time I’ve started playing organized soccer after taking 30 years off. These things may not seem related, but bear with me for a bit.
Mike Mangino
August 2, 2018
What We Can Learn from Niecy Nash
As a person who runs every day, I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts. A few weeks ago I heard Sam Sanders interview Niecy Nash and was struck by a comment that Niecy made...
Mike Mangino
July 27, 2018
Transport Topics Panel — Logistics, Accelerated
See how industry experts view the impact of technology and innovation on the logistics business and how HubTran fits in. Click here to see this 3 minute video excerpt.
Matt Bernstein
July 25, 2018
HubTran Starts a Book Club
One of my favorite parts of being the CTO of HubTran is building an amazing team. We try to do that a number of ways. Obviously, we want to hire outstanding developers (I’m mmangino@hubtran.com if you are interested in learning more!) but we also want to help the team improve. One method we’re using is a book club.
Mike Mangino
July 23, 2018
TIA Capital Ideas 2018: Make More Money and Work 4x Faster. Meet Your New Back Office at Booth 512.
HubTran is proud to be exhibiting at the TIA Capital Ideas Conference, April 8–11, 2018. Come see us at Booth #512 to learn how we can help your back-office work 4x faster.
Matt Bernstein
April 6, 2018
The Tech Revolution: You’ll Get It Wrong
The logistics tech landscape is changing fast. In a recent article published by TIA, our CEO Matt Bernstein provides his advice for logistics companies trying to navigate the dynamic business landscape we all have to deal with. The bottom line? Most of us will probably get it wrong… but that’s okay.
Matt Bernstein
March 6, 2018
Pay Attention: The “Uber for Freight” Concept and Other Logistics Startups Are Here to Stay
A recent article published in TIA’s Journal of Logistics has a warning for the industry about not dismissing how disruptive new technology and start-ups will be for the industry.
Matt Bernstein
March 5, 2018
ProfitStars and the IFA commend HubTran’s positive impact on factor operations
ProfitStars and the IFA (International Factoring Association) have both given recognition to HubTran, and we couldn’t be more proud.
Matt Bernstein
February 2, 2018
JOC cites HubTran as “tech pioneer” that helps 3PLs gain competitive advantage
A recent article from the Journal of Commerce addresses the growing technology gap among 3PLs and highlights HubTran as one of the “tech pioneers” who’ve created effective ways to help 3PLs leverage technology and gain competitive advantage.
Matt Bernstein
January 30, 2018
DAT Keypoint Integrates HubTran, to Automate Freight Brokers’ Back-Office Operations
DAT Keypoint announced their integration with HubTran that enables logistics and transportation providers to automate business critical back-office processes.
Matt Bernstein
November 29, 2017
Bibby Transportation Finance Uses AI Platform to Speed Up Services and Increase Accuracy in its Factoring Process
Bibby has deployed HubTran to speed up their processing work and provide a user-friendly portal to clients. Here’s their press release.
Matt Bernstein
October 19, 2017
Shout out for HubTran! 2017 Top 50 3PLs: Investment and Consolidation Maintain Traction
The trend set over the past few years for mergers and acquisitions has hardly subsided, and a fresh injection of equity investment is transforming the marketplace. At the same time, shippers may expect to see 3PLs continue to purchase high-tech “solutions” and hire young professionals for implementation.
Matt Bernstein
August 22, 2017
HubTran CEO Selected as Finalist for The Executives’ Club Innovator of the Year Award
“To be recognized in this way alongside other Chicago-based companies is a great accomplishment for the HubTran team,“ says Matt Bernstein, HubTran CEO. “We’re looking forward to continued growth and innovation.”
Matt Bernstein
June 7, 2017
Welcome to the new HubTran blog!
To get started, we want to share a bit about the software development team at HubTran. In particular, we want to talk about our core values and some practices that support our values.
Mike Mangino
June 1, 2017
Back-office Efficiency Makes Winners (and Losers) in the Transportation Industry
HubTran COO, Brian Rudich, had this article published in the January 2017 issue of The Logistics Journal
Matt Bernstein
April 25, 2017
Logistics Providers Embrace HubTran Back-Office Automation
HubTran today released the names of 11 third-party logistics providers who have recently implemented HubTran back-office automation. They join the many brokers and factors who have adopted HubTran since its official launch just one year ago.
Matt Bernstein
December 27, 2016
NFI Discusses HubTran and Back Office Efficiency in Logistics Tech Outlook
David Broering, SVP - NFI Integrated Solutions for NFI, and one of HubTran's first customers, wrote an excellent article for Logistics Tech Outlook.
Matt Bernstein
December 27, 2016
Technology that Powers Transportation is Born and Raised in Chicago
Technology that Powers Transportation is Born and Raised in Chicago.
Matt Bernstein
November 1, 2016
HubTran Named One of Chicago’s Most Innovative Companies
HubTran has been selected as one of the top 100 finalists in the running for the 15th annual Chicago Innovation Awards.
Mike Mangino
September 19, 2016
Best Practices and Innovation in Back Office Operations
Matt Bernstein, HubTran CEO, and Hussein Yahfoufi, VP of Technology and Products at eCapital, co-authored this article for the August 2016 issue of Commercial Factor.
Matt Bernstein
August 21, 2016
HubTran Names Brian Rudich COO
Rudich will oversee HubTran's growth as the provider of choice for advanced transportation back-office automation software.
Mike Mangino
August 3, 2016
Artificial Intelligence Comes to Brokerage
Read Matt Bernstein's article from the April 2016 issue of The Logistics Journal
Matt Bernstein
May 14, 2016
Journal of Commerce features HubTran in article on freight payment
HubTran was recently featured in the Journal of Commerce. Excerpts are here or you can click to get to the full article:
Matt Bernstein
March 24, 2016
Aljex Offers HubTran Platform to Customers
HubTran is excited to partner with Aljex, one of the leading transportation management systems.
Matt Bernstein
February 23, 2016
HubTran Wins 2015 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition
We are honored to win the 2015 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition award for promising new ventures.
Matt Bernstein
January 25, 2016
MercuryGate Extends Invoicing and Document Management Solution with HubTran Integration
MercuryGate, a leading provider of transportation software, has integrated with HubTran to automate back-office processing for their customers.
Matt Bernstein
December 10, 2015
HubTran launches back office automation
Thanks to our friends at FleetOwners.com for the coverage!
Matt Bernstein
December 3, 2015

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