Iowa Tech Podcast host Kaylee Williams interviews Drake Bauer, CEO and cofounder of Proaction, newly rebranded from Flete. Bauer explains the name change reflects the company’s ethos: helping transportation organizations shift from reactive to proactive operations. The domain aligned, the timing clicked, and Proaction launched this week.
Proaction offers fleet management software—a single pane of glass for inspections, maintenance, asset tracking, and analytics. Bauer says many fleets still rely on spreadsheets, whiteboards, paper, and clunky legacy tools. Proaction aims to unify workflows, reduce inefficiencies, and deliver real-time visibility at scale.
On building the right product, Bauer admits certainty is elusive, so the team ties roadmap priorities to clear revenue opportunities and iterates quickly if wrong. The company wins early despite being young by delivering exceptional customer service. Cofounders include COO Colin (customer experience and operations) and CTO Jamie (engineering and rapid fixes); they pride themselves on responsiveness and fast, customer-driven updates.
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They intentionally “do things that don’t scale”—on-site discovery, whiteboarding processes, and mapping tech stacks—to reduce steps and consolidate tools. Their first MVP came from a week spent on a rental car customer’s office floor. Proaction is launching a Midwestern roadshow in a branded Sprinter van to shake hands, share donuts and coffee, and deepen relationships across cities like Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, and more.
Bauer highlights industry nuances: champions are often former drivers or mechanics; decision-makers differ; fleets vary (vocational, OTR, rental, equipment); and language matters (“tractors and trailers,” not “semi-truck”). They often compete with entrenched Excel, so empathy and respect are crucial.
Vision: help companies bring fleet management in-house, displacing traditional FMCs by offering an integrated, intuitive platform that can cut costs dramatically. AI is central: Proaction’s document center auto-scans and categorizes any paperwork; “total recall” lets users query KPIs instantly; integrations let teams work via Slack/Teams. They even hired a Director of Innovation (Danny) to keep Proaction on the cutting edge—using recording pins, searchable transcripts, and content tools internally.
Fun closer: Bauer’s morning routine includes espresso and a sip of olive oil (inspired by a Greece honeymoon). Desert-island picks: Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged and Christopher Nolan films like Inception, Tenet, and The Dark Knight.