When Vijaya Neela and her husband, Kannan Ramachandran, launched aThingz a decade ago, they were not chasing a round-number anniversary so much as taking what Ramachandran jokingly described as a leap off a cliff together.
“The difference,” Ramachandran said, “is we believed strongly enough in the view — and in each other — to jump.”
That leap became aThingz, the Southfield-based supply chain technology firm now celebrating its 10-year anniversary. From the start, the couple set out to build a company that could help businesses make faster, smarter decisions without the layers of corporate red tape they had seen elsewhere.
Neela, president and CEO of aThingz, and Ramachandran, her husband and business partner, both came to the company after careers at Hewlett Packard and in automotive and advanced analytics work.
From that vantage point, they said, they repeatedly saw companies struggle to turn technology and data into timely, confident business decisions — and saw an opportunity to build something more practical and responsive.
That frustration became the opening for aThingz, which develops AI-driven tools to help companies manage supply chain, logistics and financial decisions. In plain terms, Neela said, the company’s platform is designed to help businesses plan better, spend smarter and respond more quickly as conditions change.
aThingz is now celebrating its 10-year anniversary from its headquarters in Southfield, where Neela said the company chose to plant roots because of the city’s central location in metro Detroit and easy access for customers and the airport.
What began locally quickly took on an international footprint: Neela said the company added operations in India within months of opening, later expanding to Mexico and Dubai as it grew its reach.
The company has grown organically and remains self-funded, a point of pride for both founders. Ramachandran said that unlike many startups that launch first and figure out the business model later, aThingz opened in December 2015 with a revenue-generating customer already in place, making the company cash-flow positive from day one.
That early start, he said, was “unusual — but it was built on trust: trust between the founders, trust in their network and trust from customers willing to take the journey” with them.
aThingz began with consulting work, using hands-on experience to better understand the market before building out its technology solutions. General Motors was among the company’s earliest clients and remains one of its largest, Neela said.
For Neela, the anniversary is less about longevity for its own sake than about proving the company has made a difference.
Both founders said the company’s success is tied closely to the success of its customers. Ramachandran said aThingz has always aimed to deliver tangible value quickly — not in a distant promise, but in ways customers can see and use right away.
Looking ahead, Neela said she wants the company’s impact to multiply in the next decade, growing from a business serving a handful of clients into one with a far broader global presence.
As for where the company will be 10 years from now, Ramachandran first offered a joke — “on a beach somewhere” — before turning serious. With more innovation ahead and more value to create for customers, he said, the future is bright and the sky is the limit.
