Founder’s Friday featuring Christian Gaona @ TexChange Unbrokered

Please provide a brief description about your company.
TexChange Unbrokered is a B2B digital marketplace for private upstream firms to buy and sell raw materials, components, and services directly to other firms throughout the value chain. Our platform utilizes AI, blockchain, and supply chain mapping technology to increase efficiency, profits, and resiliency while decreasing logistics costs.

Two hashtags that best describe you 
#gamechanger #disruptor

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is my GED that I earned at Austin Community College in Austin TX. Their motto is: “Start Here, Get There”. My GED sits atop a column of degrees from ACC, St. Edward’s University, Colorado School of Mines, and soon the University of Chicago. I dropped out of high school due to the circumstances of The Great Recession, we lost our home, and I had to find my work and figure it out on my own. What started at ACC with my GED led to everything else thereafter. It is my greatest achievement, I started there, and I got here.

What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is dying without letting the world know who I am, by making a positive impact on society.

What are your top tips for balancing work and life?
Founding and leading a start-up can be an inconvenience to work life balance. One way I manage that are non-negotiables. My long-distance runs are non-neogtiable. It keeps me grounded, fit, and relieves stress.

What is something new that you learned about running a business this year?
I learned a lot about running a business this year. The most impactful takeaway was Andrew Chen’s “Cold Start Problem”. His book really accelerated my vision and provide a broad perspective looking out in a niche industry sector.

What is your most marked characteristic?
Resourceful.

What is your motto?
Aspire not to have more, but to be more.