The FreightCaviar Podcast: From Poland to Prosperity: Adam Karcz's Journey in Freight Brokerage

In this week’s episode, we sat down with Adam Karcz, CSO & Co-Founder at Iron Peak Solutions, a freight brokerage based out of Denver, Colorado. He unveils the curtains behind the Polish trucking communities from Chicago and shares the realities of running a business with your family. He also discusses the competitive nature of the industry and the importance of hunger when chasing success.

A Journey from Soviet-ruled Poland to the American Dream

Wanting to build a better life outside of Soviet-ruled Poland, Adam’s parents decided to move to the United States in 1984. “They were both educated. My dad had a degree in economics, my mom was a nurse, and it was hard starting off. Eventually, one day, a gentleman that my dad was working for gave him a chance to be a driver. He learned how to get a CDL, started driving for him as a company driver, and once he started racking up a little bit of savings, he decided to get his first truck.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

Childhood Memories on the Open Road

Adam fondly recounts the time spent with his father that eventually instilled a love for the industry. “I remember as a kid, he was always on the road and some of my fondest memories are when– you're not supposed to do this, but he'd say, ‘Hey, come on, let's go for a ride.’ And so we'd drive around Chicago or other parts of the States and make shipments or pickups and deliveries. He mostly did it when there was cargo in the back. So that way he's like, ‘Hey, this is what a truck feels like. This is what I do for a living.’ Since he was gone for a couple of days at a time, being able to spend just those few hours with him was special.”

From Engineering to Entrepreneurship

Adam eventually ended up opening a company with his sister. “ I went to Purdue for engineering. Did the gig for two and a half years of school. I was looking for a job and wasn't happy with where I was at. I was about to jump ship and move to Jersey when my sister approached me, and she's like, ‘Hey, I got this idea. What do you think about starting a freight brokerage?’ I'm like, ‘Huh? Getting into freight? I don't know how that sounds.’ She's like, ‘But it's a good idea.’ And so during that time, she helped my dad incorporate his MC a bit more. She helped run his trucking company. She did that for about two, or three years. That's how she got a job at TQL, and was there for several years. Then she came to the table with all the knowledge, and I came to the table with some hustle and we started working together.”

Navigating the Dynamics of Family Business

He also discussed the realities of working with your family and boiled it down to three pillars of a perfect business: trust, respect, and communication. “When you start a company with someone, you're basically getting married to them. Your finances are tied together. You're spending a lot of time together. You have to trust them because any one of your co-founders or business partners can pull all the money out of the bank account, go off to Tahiti, and you never see them again. So the people you work with, you need to trust. And if you trust your family, the hardest part is trying not to act like family in the office, you know, having that respect, having those boundaries. But once you kind of have that open communication, it's the best feeling in the world because you know you have each other's back.”

Thriving in the Global Marketplace

Adam also shared the realities of working in today’s global economy and the increasing competition that comes with it. “You gotta face it, we live in a global economy now. One thing we need to realize is that competition is gonna get stiffer than ever. So if you're working with countries overseas, working with employees from overseas, they're trying to make that bread like everyone else. When I go and I look for my sales reps, the number one thing I look for is, are you hungry? Because you can control your attitude. You can control your effort. I can train you, I can show you the skills. I mean, freight is not rocket science. But if you go and you put that grind in, you have those 10, 12-hour workdays, you apply yourself– that's what it takes.”

Adam’s journey from his family's beginnings in Soviet-ruled Poland to becoming a successful co-founder of Iron Peak Solutions is a testament to hard work, resilience, and the importance of family.