In his keynote on the future of moving, Louis Massaro challenged moving owners to claim their purpose. So when you’re putting out Friday morning fires or sending your crew into triple-digit temps, you know why you’re doing it.
“You’re here to build a business, not buy yourself a job,” says Louis. “Maybe your purpose is to step up and lead. Maybe it’s philanthropy. Maybe it’s spending more time with your kids. Know your purpose—and be unapologetic about it.”
What’s your purpose?
You're not just hauling boxes. You’re carrying someone’s life to their next chapter—to their future. You're unburdening them, so they can grieve or plan or chase dreams without all the (literal) weight on their shoulders.
That matters.
What’s our purpose?
And what does it have to do with yours?
To answer that, let’s rewind...
Tobe Thompson built a career in software, rising in the ranks from network engineer to CTO. When the startup he worked for was acquired by a giant Japanese company, he decided to quit and pursue an idea he’d had rolling around in his head since 2010: to build moving software.
(Tobe shared his story on a recent episode of the Movified Podcast👇.)
“A friend of mine owned a big moving company, and I was at their office one day. The software they were using was just awful. I told him I’d help him find better software, and he said, ‘We’ve looked. There’s nothing else out there.’”
Undeterred, Tobe went searching for better software. A few weeks later, he returned to his friend and said, “You’re right. There’s nothing else out there.”
As a software consultant and former developer, Tobe told his friend, “I can build something better.” And he meant it.
His friend said, “You should.”
Tobe never forgot this conversation. He talked about it often enough that his now-wife told him he had to “do something about it or shut up.”
That’s when he founded SmartMoving.
“I had a wife, a kid, a baby on the way,” Tobe recalls. “I had zero income for a year and a half. I convinced my top engineer from a previous company—the best developer I’ve ever met—to partner with me. And the two of us got to work.”
Movified host and owner of Salmon’s Moving & Storage, Mark Hirschi, remembers what it was like before there was good moving software.
“Everything was in Excel or looked like Windows ’98. It was so hard to find a good CRM system that actually worked.”
In 2018, with nothing but screen designs on his laptop, Tobe flew out to a moving conference in Arizona. “I talked to every mover I could find, getting business cards and showing them what I was thinking.”
No one liked their software. Fed up and without better options, many movers had resorted to building their own software—rigid solutions that were a pain to maintain and nearly impossible to scale.
“That’s how we started. Just listening to movers.”
With a software background and no pre-conceived notions of how a moving company should be run, Tobe’s approach was simple: solve problems every mover has.
“I was back at my friend’s moving company one day. One crew was delayed, so another crew had to fill in. There was no digital inventory in the software there were using, so the dispatcher started texting the crew one by one the list of inventory. My head exploded.”
In a chance meeting with Louis Massaro, Tobe shared an early version of his moving software. Louis eventually came on as a partner to help build the platform thousands of movers use today.
“Everyone wanted Louis in their corner. I was willing to give him some skin in the game so we could build something special.”
From an idea that to root over a decade ago to a team of nearly 50 and growing, we’re still listening. Still learning. Tobe knew the purpose of his software company, even before it existed, and it's never changed:
To help moving company owners and their employees live better lives.
That means working 20 or 40 hours a week instead of 80. Making enough to pay your people a good wage, with money left over to reinvest in your business, give back to your community, or take the vacation you so badly deserve.
Hopefully, our purpose helps you achieve yours.
That's our why. What's yours?
Whether you choose our software or someone else's, make sure it does these 10 things.
