Prince Ghosh is the co-founder and CEO of Factored Quality, a digital quality control platform that helps over 100 consumer goods brands manage global supply chains. In this interview, Prince shares his journey from being an aerospace engineer at NASA to founding Factored Quality, discussing his experiences with Y Combinator, the evolution of his company, and the challenges and insights he's gained along the way.
Can you tell us about your background and what led you to Factored Quality?
By training, I'm a mechanical and aerospace engineer. I ended up working at NASA with a defense contractor, originally thinking I was going to be an aerospace engineer. However, I spent more time understanding how aerospace parts are made and how they're moved across the world. After leaving NASA, I took the principles and problems I learned there and applied them to my work.
Initially, I aimed to help buyers and suppliers in the supply chain collaborate across product development, manufacturing, and supply chain processes. I thought we were going to sell to other aerospace and defense companies, given my background, but it turned out to be really hard to sell into those industries. So, we pivoted a bit and landed on consumer goods, CPG, and retail as our beachhead vertical.
As we were building Workbench, I saw an interesting opportunity emerge repeatedly: helping brands not just run their supply chain processes better with software but also verify the quality of the factories they work with globally and the quality of the products and parts they order. When speaking to operators, they'd say that working with factories to bring a product to life is challenging, but before even starting the product development process, they have little trust and visibility into who the factory is or what inventory they're manufacturing. They'd ask if they could trust that the inventory coming in would be sellable, the right quality, quantity, size, material, color, and shape. This led to the idea of Factored Quality.
Today, I think of Factored Quality as a software layer plus a managed marketplace where consumer brands can come in and book third-party quality control inspections or audits. It's similar to how large enterprises work with Deloitte for financial audits; consumer brands work with us to run third-party audits of their factories worldwide and inspect their inventory as it's being manufactured before it's imported and sent to end consumers. So, it's a single platform—a portal through which consumer brands can work with their factories end-to-end across their entire supply chain.
What inspired you to launch Factored Quality?
The inspiration for launching Factored Quality came from a pivotal collaboration during my time building Workbench. We met a New York-based company that helped consumer brands and retail companies source factories, launch new products, and manage their supply chains as a services agency. This partnership became a turning point for us.
While working closely with them, they proposed an idea: "What if you came in, sat inside of us as an internal platform team, and we incubated this concept and idea of Factored Quality together?" They had seen the challenges from a service perspective, while we had approached it from a software angle. This collaboration allowed us to combine our insights and create a more comprehensive solution.
I've found that so much of my life and career has been shaped by these fundamental meetings and interactions with people who play an outsized role in transforming the direction and trajectory of my life. This partnership was one of those pivotal moments that led to the creation of Factored Quality.
A lot of times with customers, they have so many different requests. How do you kind of balance that bridge of still being able to create software that applies to different industries?
Balancing customer requests while creating widely applicable software is indeed one of the hardest challenges we face. I approach this by thinking about the concept of a pivot, much like in basketball. A pivot doesn't mean moving aimlessly around the court; it's about keeping one foot planted while moving the other.
When iterating through feedback, I always consider it through this lens of a pivot. Just because a customer requests something out of left field doesn't mean we should immediately act on it. Instead, we ask ourselves:
Is this request rooted in infrastructure we've already built?
Does it align with our existing capacity or know-how?
Why should we be the best team in the world to build these product features?
This approach helps us evaluate customer feedback without getting overwhelmed. It ensures that we're not just reacting to every request, but carefully considering how each potential feature fits into our overall strategy and capabilities.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you faced in building such a scalable platform, aside from customer feedback. Is there anything else that you found difficult?
Building good, high-quality, scalable software is indeed a real challenge, even as technology has advanced. One of the fundamental challenges we eternally face as a rapidly growing company is deciding whether to build for the immediate future or for the longer term.
When designing software and infrastructure, we constantly grapple with the question: Do we build for the needs of tomorrow, or do we build for the needs of the next year? Sometimes these two approaches align, but often they can be very different. This creates a significant challenge in the product development process.
The biggest question we have to consider is how much time and effort we should invest in solving problems that may or may not arise in the future. It's a delicate balance between preparing for potential future needs and addressing immediate requirements efficiently.
This decision-making process is crucial because it impacts resource allocation, development timelines, and overall product strategy. We have to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of each approach, considering factors like market trends, user growth projections, and technological advancements.
Ultimately, this challenge of balancing immediate needs with future scalability is something we internally have to question and think about constantly as we continue to grow and evolve our platform.
How was your experience with Y Combinator?
My experience with Y Combinator was truly magical and transformative. It's important to understand that getting into YC doesn't mean you've "made it" - it's just the beginning of your journey. However, the 12 weeks spent there can have a lasting impact on you as a founder.
One of the most powerful aspects of YC is the community it creates. You're surrounded by other founders who are going through similar experiences or are further along in their journeys. This community encourages everyone to share their stories, which is incredibly valuable.
The structure of YC includes weekly group meetings and dinners where successful founders come to share their experiences. I vividly remember our first night when the founders of Airbnb spoke to us. They shared their entire journey - from renting out their extra bedroom to becoming a publicly traded company. They spoke candidly for three hours about every up and down they faced.
What struck me was how captivating these stories were. In a room full of 200 typically attention-deficient founders, there was pin-drop silence as we all listened intently. You walk out of these sessions feeling enchanted and filled with a sense of wonder and belief.
These experiences are crucial because they show you that success is possible. While it won't be easy, you can see that there is a pathway forward. This belief is half the battle in the early stages of a startup when everything seems impossible.
YC creates an environment where you can see the possibilities, learn from others' experiences, and gain the confidence to pursue your own path. It's not just about the practical advice or connections - it's about instilling that sense of belief and wonder that can sustain you through the challenges of building a company.
Is there any advice that you would give your younger self at the start of the founder journey that you want to share with other potential founders?
If I could give advice to my younger self at the start of my founder journey, I'd say this:
This journey will be harder than anything you can humanly imagine in many ways. Not being fully aware of that, and having a youthful curiosity about the world and a bit of naivety, is actually one of the most powerful things you can have. I don't think anyone would embark on this path if they knew just how incredibly challenging it would be.
The biggest reassurance I'd give my younger self is about dealing with uncertainty. I used to feel deeply anxious and worried about the uncertainty that comes with being a founder. I'd tell myself to get over it and lean into taking risks. That's ultimately what got me to where we are today.
I'd encourage myself to never let go of the ability to take risks and to believe and trust in my abilities. That's the biggest and, in many ways, the only thing you have at a young age.
The last six months have been an incredibly challenging time, and it's reinforced for me how important this mindset is. So, to other potential founders, I'd say: embrace the uncertainty, hold onto your ability to take risks, and trust in yourself. It's going to be incredibly hard, but that youthful curiosity and willingness to take chances might just be what gets you through and helps you succeed.
Factored Quality is one of the CWRU-founded ventures in the CWRU Alumni Venture Fund portfolio.
This article was written by CWRU Alumni Venture Fund Fellow Arohi Mehta, computer science major in the class of 2025.