LEADERSHIP Conversations with the Captains of Industry
A Bolt From the Blue
Mark Ang was only 12 when he and his brother demolished and rebuilt a sixplex apartment building with their father, a property developer. At 14, Ang helped manage construction for the family business. “I was involved in scoping, nancing, getting quotes, working with architects, and ultimately working with the trades to execute the project,” he says. So Ang was already a seasoned business professional when, in his early 20s, he founded Second Closet, a Toronto-based valet storage company that grew to ve locations across Canada. Second Closet later transformed into GoBolt, a technology and logistics company on a mission to build the world’s largest sustainable, vertically integrated supply chain network. Ang is GoBolt’s co-founder and CEO. He recently talked with IL about the company’s history, its current priorities, and his own evolution as a corporate leader. IL: In your construction days, how did vendors respond when they saw a young teen walk into a meeting to strike deals? Fortunately, because our side of the table was paying the bills, they couldn’t react too negatively. And I probably got a bit more leeway when I asked for discounts, because they would think, “This is kind of cute.” I leaned into that. IL: How did Second Closet evolve into GoBolt? As a valet storage company, Second Closet would pick up and store people’s stuff, then bring it back whenever they wanted it. Our vision was that people would use us to maximize their space by storing seasonal possessions. But most people were storing for the long term. My co-founder and I didn’t want our legacy to be that we helped people hoard their stuff more ef ciently. So we shifted focus. Fortunately, several major brands including Chanel and WeWork were using us for business needs. We decided to pursue more of that business. Slowly we morphed into a third-party logistics provider for brands, providing storage, ful llment, and last-mile logistics. IL: What keeps your customers awake at night? They’re hyper-focused on ef ciency. Logistics and supply chain are a massive cost for many of our brands and for most of the retail world. We’re having more discussions about how to
Mark Ang CEO, GoBolt
An admitted workaholic, Mark Ang does a day’s worth of work before 8 a.m. While he is there for his team any time of day or night, he is a shockingly hands-off leader who encourages autonomy and gives his team space to spread their wings. by Merrill Douglas
10 Inbound Logistics • June 2023
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