In Temecula, California, Ideal Fulfillment is proving a better warehouse job is possible.

Founded in 2018 by Chris Barlog and Chris Page, the company emerged after the realization that third-party logistics providers weren’t getting it right. So Barlog and Page decided to build something better on their own.

Long-Term Thinking in the Face of Short-Term Pressures  

Prior to the company’s launch, Barlog worked as a propulsion-systems engineer, supporting test and flight operations for liquid-fuel rocket engines. On the side he and some friends launched an Amazon FBA retailer, but working with fulfillment centers was a mess.

“They didn’t have the software in place to handle it,” Barlog said. “Communication was rough. They would often lose our inventory, or the counts would be off, so we’d have to chase them down for that. I thought, This is ridiculous. We could do better.”

That frustration, combined with Page’s experience helping a family member with fulfillment, turned their side project into a full-time venture. They left their jobs to commit to Ideal Fulfillment. “Jeff Bezos quit his little warehouse company to focus on space,” Barlog nimbly posted in his LinkedIn bio. “I did the opposite.” 

A Different Kind of Warehouse Job

Warehouse labor is often associated with long hours, high turnover, and oppressive performance tracking. Ideal Fulfillment offers something different. Employees adhere to the standard 40-hour week, with optional overtime. There are no strict productivity quotas or constant surveillance.

“We’ve had a number of employees who actually left and went to Amazon,” Barlog said. “But they returned, because the hours and expectations are ridiculous. You have to hit metrics every day; otherwise, your job’s on the line. People appreciate the predictability here.”

The company’s team includes around 20 employees, with a core warehouse staff of 12. Most have been with Ideal Fulfillment for years, and the culture favors creative problem-solving and collaboration over top-down control.

The Retirement Benefit Nobody Asked For

Despite a stable team and positive environment, Barlog struggled to gain traction with retirement savings. “I’ve always been passionate about investing and retirement planning,” he said. “But when we offered a Simple IRA through Fidelity, only one person signed up.”

The process was a headache. Employees had to complete and snail-mail paper forms, while Barlog had to log in weekly to manage contributions. For a workforce that skews younger and prioritizes take-home pay, it just wasn’t clicking. Besides, nothing is more discouraging — no matter the age group — than going on a scavenger hunt for a postage stamp. 

To be fair, the admin burden was manageable with only one enrolled employee, but the experience spoke a bigger truth about wage earners’ inability to realistically plan for retirement.  

“If you’re making $20 an hour and living in Southern California, thinking about retirement can feel impossible,” he said. “Most people would rather take an extra dollar per hour than a long-term benefit.”

Finding a Better Fit

Things shifted when Barlog came across an ad on Instagram for Basic Capital. He’d just finished reading Lifecycle Investing, too, so the power of compound interest “was fresh in my mind,” he recalled.

“I’ve read a lot of books around the topic,” Barlog continued, “and the benefit of Basic Capital’s leverage has the potential to provide outsized returns, compared to other options. Plus, it just looked a lot more user-friendly for everybody. ” 

 Barlog and Page rolled out Basic Capital with a 3% employer match. An onboarding visit from the company’s CEO, Abdul Al-Assad, followed, and participation rose from one employee to six. One team member even committed 10% of his paycheck to the financing plan.

“It was good to just have a dedicated time where all the employees sat down and had an honest discussion about retirement savings,” Barlog said. “For a lot of them, that was literally the first time. That was the initial spark.”

A Long-Term Bet 

Barlog knows offering a retirement benefit (particularly a 3% match) adds costs to the business. But for him that’s not the point. “This is our team,” he said. “These are people we care about. I want them to be setting themselves up for success, you know?”

Ideal Fulfillment isn’t aiming to scale like Amazon or squeeze every single minute for efficiency. It’s trying to build a business that works for customers as much as the people running it.

“I’m definitely passionate about investing for the future,” he said, “and so it’s cool to help a few others get on that path.”

Investing in People, First

At Service Professionals in Union, New Jersey, a simple idea drives the business forward: Treat workers like the future depends on them, because it does.

From plumbing and HVAC to electrical work, these trades can’t be automated or outsourced. “AI’s not messing with us,” said president Richard Bogda, who founded Service Professionals in 1994 and currently employs 117 workers and technicians. “Private equity’s not messing with us. Our guys have a better shot at a secure future than most college grads.”

The Labor Shortage Is Real  

Job openings in home services are increasing with a promise of stability, but the industry faces a deep talent shortage. In the Garden State alone, for every six plumbing licenses that expire, only two new graduates emerge from vocational schools to enter the field. It’s hard work. People stepping into roles as plumbers or electricians face arduous tasks — crawling through ducts, braving the elements — and yet, there aren’t enough people out there who are willing or know how to do it.

Rather than compete in a broken hiring market, Bogda built his own in-house trade school to recruit, educate and retain new talent. “We actually prefer to take somebody who doesn’t have any experience,” Bogda explained. “Put them through school, mentor ’em, and then, whether some guys get in a truck in six to eight months — or some it takes two years on the electrical and plumbing side — that’s where our success is.”

Thinking Beyond Pay

Investing in training programs and mentorship was a start, but Service Professionals knew that long-term loyalty had to be earned. When workers feel genuinely invested in, well, their work, they stay. They grow. It’s about hearts and minds, not hands and feet. 

Wages in the trades hover around $60K, but there's a ceiling. Raising pay can often squeeze already-tight margins, and Service Professionals realized that to truly stand out, they needed to offer more than a paycheck.

So they started rethinking benefits, including retirement.  

Modernizing the 401(k) With Basic Capital

Casey Timorason, head of growth and a former tech recruiter, stumbled across Basic Capital while scrolling Reddit. “I made a lot of bonehead mistakes with my 401(k) and was looking for a way to catch up,” he said. “A lightbulb just hit. Like, Hey, the world kind of needs something like this. The average, everyday person in my situation should be able to play catchup, or set themselves up better.”   

Basic Capital helps employers supercharge their workers’ retirement savings — turning a $1 contribution into $5 using term financing. It’s designed to help employees who earn typically modest incomes kick-start compounding for their nest eggs, and without burdening the business’s bottom line. 

The impact was felt right away. Employees were energized by the product: 

• Participation in 401(k) plans jumped from 30% to 50%

• 7% average paycheck contribution

• 65% allocation to Basic Capital financing

A Blueprint for the Trades

The concept also resonated with COO Evin Bogda, who returned to the family business after working in commercial real estate. He was struck by the chance to modernize how his tradesmen could build wealth.  

“Our industry as a whole, is kind of like a lagging indicator behind a lot of the stuff we’ve been exposed to in our lives,” Evin said, “which would be, like, bigger tech companies. Like, how do we bring the benefit packages that they have to the everyday Americans that we employ? Whether it be a new 401(k) or after-hours babysitting, a way to make the experience at Service Professionals completely different than any other trade company. It was in that initial search that we found Basic Capital.”

Attracting the Next Generation of Talent

As Evin and Timorason continue to make the experience at Service Professionals completely different than any other trade company, at the heart of it all they’re also building on one of Richard’s founding beliefs: to invest in the right people, and give them a reason to stay.

“When I hire somebody, my job is to give you the resources and the opportunity to be successful,” he said. “What you do with those is totally up to you. So, our job is to pick the right person who’s going to take that education, that opportunity, and run with it.”