# Prospect Dossier: John Moran, Operations Logistics Manager, Rock Solid Logistics, Inc.

Prepared for Ripple Technologies ahead of the HTS Fit-Check Call, Thursday 6 August 2026, 11:00 AM Pacific (2:00 PM Eastern), with Adrian. Compiled 6 August 2026 from public sources. Private and confidential.

## TL;DR

John Moran is Operations Logistics Manager at Rock Solid Logistics, Inc., a family-run managed-transportation provider and freight-optimization 3PL in Brighton, Michigan (roughly 20 people, CEO Carla Vaughan, VP/COO Dan Vaughan). The cold email went to Dan; Dan passed it internally to John, who replied asking for a phone number, gave his personal cell, took our call the same day, and booked the fit-check on the phone. High responsiveness, phone-first operator.

The research changes the call: Rock Solid is NOT a licensed US customs broker. They are absent from CBP's own permitted-broker list, their site carries zero customs, tariff, or HTS language, they run 3Gtms (a TMS, not a customs-filing platform), and their lifetime US import footprint is 18 bills of lading. The word "broker" in their profile means FMCSA freight broker (MC653998, surface transportation). They do not classify goods, so there is no in-house classification volume to automate.

Where the opportunity actually sits, in order of strength: (1) their client base of Midwest industrial importers, who do carry HTS and tariff exposure, with Ripple positioned as a value-add Rock Solid puts in front of clients the same way they already give away a free freight network analysis; (2) landed cost at quote time, since duty is the part of an international quote they cannot answer today; (3) their customs broker partners, whoever clears their clients' ocean and air freight, which is a warm route to an actual ICP-fit account.

Never open with the broker-workflow pitch. Open with questions that locate the classification volume. Decision path runs to Carla Vaughan (CEO). Do not quote revenue, founding year, or headcount: all three are contested in the public record.

## The conversation so far (verbatim trail)

- Cold email (Instantly, campaign "Ripple HTS - F - Brokers Registry 2026-08", sender persona Adrian Smith, sent to Dan Vaughan, VP/COO): "DANIEL, is ROCK SOLID LOGISTICS, INC. classifying through CargoWise, Descartes or similar, or line by line by hand? Broker teams are moving to our AI because it does the first pass in minutes at higher accuracy, at a fraction of the cost, and your clients never see a difference. Pentagon Freight Services went from three weeks to fifteen minutes. Worth a look? Adrian"
- 2026-08-05, John Moran (from the same thread, Dan passed it internally): "Good afternoon, I believe you reached out to Dan over here at Rock Solid Logistics regarding your program. We're always looking to improve efficiency and I was following up on that to have a discussion on it, and see if there is any possible overlap. I have your email but not your number though. If you can, give me a call at 702-577-5705 when you have some time, and we can discuss in detail. Until then have a great day. Thanks, John Moran, Operations Logistics Manager, Cell: 702-577-5705"
- 2026-08-06: we called John on his cell. The fit-check was booked on the back of that call.
- Booked: HTS Fit-Check Call, Thursday 6 August 2026, 11:00 to 11:30 AM Pacific (2:00 PM Eastern), with Adrian.

Note the pattern: John never asked a written question. He asked for a phone number, gave his personal cell, and booked same day. He works by phone.

---

# Full research notes

## Two findings that change the call

**1. rocksolid.net is NOT them.** That domain 301-redirects to getrsi.com, which is VTX1 Internet, a rural broadband ISP in San Antonio, Texas. Completely unrelated business. Their real domain is rocksolidlogistics.com (matches the email domain, the LinkedIn page, and the Brighton address).

**2. They are almost certainly NOT a licensed US customs broker.** The official CBP Permitted Customs Brokers list (2,483 rows, including 25 Michigan brokers such as Bay Brokerage, Buckland Global Trade Services, CN Customs Brokerage, Dell Will, DJ Whelan) contains no "Rock Solid" entry anywhere, and no Brighton, MI entry at all. Source: CBP Permitted Customs Brokers Listing CSV, Dec 2025 edition (cbp.gov). The word "broker" in their profile means FMCSA freight broker (MC653998, surface transportation), not CBP customs broker. The "Brokers Registry" source list was near-certainly a freight-broker registry, not a customs-broker registry.

## Company overview

| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | Rock Solid Logistics, Inc. | FMCSA via FF Dispatch (dispatchff.com/brokers/mc-653998) |
| DBA | Rock Solid Business Solutions | FF Dispatch, FreeFreightSearch |
| What they are | Managed transportation provider / freight optimization 3PL-4PL hybrid. Not a customs broker, not an asset-based trucker | rocksolidlogistics.com/about |
| HQ | 5918 Meridian Blvd, Suite 3, Brighton, MI 48116 | LinkedIn, ImportGenius |
| Phone | (810) 588-4014 booking line | rocksolidlogistics.com |
| Ownership | Family owned, private. No outside investors found | about page |
| Headcount | ~18 to 25. LinkedIn shows 22 employees listed; Indeed states 18. The 51-200 LinkedIn band is self-selected and not credible | LinkedIn, Indeed |
| Locations | Single office, Brighton MI. No branch or port offices found | site + directories |

### Founding year is genuinely contradictory. Do not state one as fact.

- 2008 on their own current About page ("family owned company founded in 2008"), matching the rocksolidlogistics.com domain registration date of 2008-12-17 (whois) and Carla Vaughan's stated CEO start of January 2008.
- 1995 on their LinkedIn company page.
- 1993 on their own archived 2015 About page, which described a parent entity: "Established in 1993, Rock Solid Corporation is a global leader in supply chain management."

Best read: a Rock Solid Corporation lineage from the early 1990s, with Rock Solid Logistics, Inc. as the current operating entity from 2008.

### Services, verbatim from their site navigation

- Optimization: Freight Network Optimization, Freight Cost Engineering, Transportation Control Tower, Logistics Technology Platform.
- Modes: Small Package (Parcel), LTL, Truckload, Intermodal, Air Freight, Ocean Freight.
- Plus: complimentary freight network analysis (send 3 months of freight data, summary back in ~3 business days), freight bill audit and pay, claims management.

Their positioning line: "We help organizations design, manage, and continuously optimize transportation networks across parcel, LTL, truckload, intermodal, air, and ocean freight worldwide."

## Customs and trade specifics

Licensed customs broker: NO evidence, and positive evidence against.

- Not in the CBP permitted-broker list. No filer code.
- Zero mentions of "customs", "clearance", "duty", "tariff", "HTS", "import compliance", "ISF", or "entry" anywhere on their live website. Every page was scraped and keyword-swept. The only international words present are "Ocean" and "Air Freight".
- The archived 2015 site also shows no customs services.
- UNCERTAIN: early search snippets appeared to attribute "customs brokerage services" to Rock Solid. This could not be reproduced on any Brighton-company page and appears to come from similarly-named companies. Do not repeat that claim.

What authority they DO hold (FMCSA, MC653998 / USDOT 2242791):

- Active broker authority, registered since Nov 2011, continuously since reinstatement ~10 years 8 months.
- Authority categories: Broker, Property Carrier, Property Forwarder, HHG, Passengers Forwarder.
- $75,000 surety bond on file since Feb 11 2025; coverage maintained since Aug 2009.
- UNCERTAIN, worth leaving alone: one directory reports an involuntary revocation of property broker authority dated Feb 13 2025 with authority retained; a second directory shows plain "Active" with no revocation. Single-sourced and contradicted. Do not raise on the call.

FMC / OTI / NVOCC status: UNVERIFIED (the FMC public query endpoint is behind a login). No public claim of an FMC licence found. If ocean matters on the call, ask directly.

### Import footprint: real but very small

ImportGenius holds 18 total US customs bill-of-lading records for "Rock Solid Logistics Inc" at the exact Brighton address (confirmed them).

- 9 trading partners, 5 ports, top port Shanghai.
- Top partners: Honour Lane Shipping (Qingdao and Nanjing), Grallco S.A.S. (Colombia), Nanjing Sun Valley Imp & Exp.
- Origins: China, Germany, Colombia, Panama, Belgium.
- Goods across the records: PVC vinyl, aluminium packs, oatmeal and caramel spread, kitchen articles, stainless steel, mobile gantry cranes, ball screws.
- Most recent record: 2026-07-15, PVC vinyl from China, 15,029 kg, 291 rolls.

Read: 18 lifetime records is a rounding error. They appear on ocean paperwork occasionally as consignee or notify party for client freight. They are not moving meaningful container volume and they are not the party classifying goods.

## Tech stack

Confirmed: 3Gtms (3G-TMS), first-party evidence.

- Their "Client Login" links to a white-labelled tenant: rocksolid.3gtms.com.
- Their own copy: "Rock Solid Logistics deploys customized transportation management environments through 3G TMS, providing enterprise-level logistics infrastructure."
- Their online booking form asks for "Your 3GTMS Password", confirming 3Gtms is the system of record.

No evidence of CargoWise, Descartes, or Magaya anywhere. Consistent with not filing customs entries.

AI language already in their marketing: they twice claim "AI-assisted analytics" and "AI-assisted shipment monitoring". They are not AI-hostile.

Other: Google Analytics, Bootstrap Icons, IONOS hosting. Their TLS certificate fails validation on rocksolidlogistics.com.

## People

| Person | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Carla Vaughan | CEO, confirmed | linkedin.com/in/carla-vaughan-2847b152. CEO since Jan 2008. Prior: CFO at Kaiser Logistics; earlier at Unishippers. Based Brighton MI. She is the real decision maker. |
| Dan / Daniel Vaughan | VP / COO, confirmed | linkedin.com/in/dan-vaughan-35026213. Located South Lyon, MI. 500+ connections. |
| John Moran | NOT publicly verifiable | No LinkedIn profile, directory entry, or web mention ties any John Moran to Rock Solid Logistics. Every "John Moran in logistics" result belongs to Moran Logistics (Pennsylvania) or Omni Logistics (California). His absence is consistent with a ~20-person family firm where only leadership maintains profiles. Trust the call, not the web. |
| Raymond Alvarado | VP of Sales | RocketReach org chart |
| Yuri Becerra | Director of Operations | RocketReach org chart. John's "Operations Logistics Manager" title likely sits under Becerra. |

Company LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/rock-solid-logistics-inc (353 followers, 22 employees listed).

Carla and Dan Vaughan are near-certainly related (family-owned business, shared surname, both in leadership). Handle that assumption carefully on the call.

## Scale signals

Revenue: no reliable figure.

| Source | Claim | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| PrivCo | $5M revenue, 23 employees | Most plausible |
| Prospeo | ~$1.88M revenue | Plausible low end |
| PrivCo (second render) | $380M revenue, $50M Series B, $120M valuation | Reject. Impossible for an 18-25 person family firm with no press. Template/placeholder data. |

Best working estimate: $2M to $5M in net revenue, roughly 20 people. Gross freight billings could be several times that, since brokerages book gross. Let them correct you.

Customers and industries: archived testimonials name Radix Wire Company, Applied Precision Systems, Acoust-A-Fiber, and Pace Incorporated. All Midwest industrial and component manufacturers. No named automotive OEM or Tier 1 client found; do not assume automotive.

Growth signals: actively hiring (Logistics Coordinator open in Brighton, "Rock Solid Logistics is expanding"); website recently rebuilt with AI-forward messaging. News, press, funding, recent posts: none found.

## Fit for Ripple's AI HTS classifier

Honest verdict: weak-to-poor product fit as a primary buyer. Bring this to the call rather than discovering it live.

Why the core premise does not hold:
1. They do not file customs entries. No CBP licence, no filer code, no permit.
2. No customs software.
3. Lifetime import footprint of 18 bills of lading. No classification volume to automate.
4. The ~20-person team is organised around carrier management, rating, and freight audit. No compliance, customs, or trade titles anywhere.
5. Nothing in their marketing or job specs mentions tariffs, duties, or classification, in a period when every genuine customs operation is loudly talking about tariff exposure.

The three angles that still work, in order of strength:

A. Their clients, not them. They serve Midwest manufacturers and distributors who import. Those importers carry the HTS classification and tariff exposure. Position Ripple as something Rock Solid can put in front of its own client base as a value-add. They already give away a free freight analysis, so a free tariff exposure scan is a natural bolt-on to a motion they already run.

B. Landed cost at quote time. They quote ocean and air lanes. Duty and tariff is the part of landed cost they currently cannot answer. Classification-driven landed-cost estimates would let them quote a complete number. Real gap, nice-to-have rather than bleeding neck.

C. Their customs broker partners. Whoever clears their clients' ocean freight is licensed, files entries, and does classify. Ask who they hand clearance to. Warm route to an actual ICP-fit account.

Discovery questions worth asking:
- Who handles customs clearance when you coordinate an ocean or air import for a client: a broker partner, or does the client bring their own?
- Are you licensed on the customs side, or purely FMCSA freight brokerage?
- Since the tariff changes, how often are clients asking you about duty and landed cost, and where do you send them?
- Is 3Gtms the single system of record, or is anything separate for international?

Recommendation: treat this as a partner or referral conversation, not a direct HTS sale. If it drifts toward a direct purchase, qualify hard: their situation fails on the core problem, they do not classify goods.

## Same-name companies (all ruled out, do not confuse)

| Entity | Location | Why it is not them |
|---|---|---|
| rocksolid.net (redirects to getrsi.com) | San Antonio, TX | VTX1 Internet, rural broadband ISP |
| Rock Solid Logistics LLC (rocksolidlogistics.info) | South Holland, IL | Warehousing, snow and ice management |
| Rock Solid Logistics LLC (USDOT 2923268) | Schererville, IN | Asset-based trucking; the entity behind the Indeed company page and rocksolidlogistics365.com |
| Rock Solid Logistics (rocksolidlogistic.com) | Unspecified | Trucking opportunities and driver support |
| Rock Solid Shipping (rock-solidshipping.com) | Unspecified | Likely source of the stray "customs brokerage" snippets |
| Rock Solid Supply / Rock Solid Equipment | Panjiva records | Unrelated importers |
| JF Moran | New England | A genuine customs broker; surfaces on "Moran" searches, no connection |

Verification anchors for the Brighton company: 5918 Meridian Blvd Ste 3, Brighton MI 48116; MC653998; USDOT 2242791; rocksolidlogistics.com; (810) 588-4014.

Address note: FMCSA-derived records list 10381 Citation Drive, Suite 200, Brighton MI 48116 (mailing PO Box 1767), and an older directory lists 315 East Grand River Avenue. Meridian Blvd is the current operating address per their own site, LinkedIn, and 2026 customs records.

## Confidence summary

| Claim | Confidence |
|---|---|
| rocksolid.net is not their domain | Certain (live redirect) |
| Real domain is rocksolidlogistics.com | Certain |
| Not on CBP permitted customs broker list | Certain (official CBP file) |
| Not a licensed customs broker / does not file entries | High |
| FMCSA freight broker MC653998, active | Certain |
| Runs 3Gtms as system of record | Certain (first-party) |
| ~18 to 25 employees | High |
| Carla Vaughan is CEO and true decision maker | High |
| Dan Vaughan is VP/COO | High |
| 18 lifetime import BOL records | High (address-matched) |
| Revenue $2M to $5M | Medium (sources conflict) |
| Founded 2008 | Medium (1993, 1995, 2008 all sourced) |
| John Moran works there | Unverified publicly (trust the call, not the web) |
| Feb 2025 authority revocation event | Low (single source, contradicted). Do not raise. |
| PrivCo's $380M revenue / Series B | Rejected as false |

## Key source URLs

- https://www.rocksolidlogistics.com/about
- https://www.rocksolidlogistics.com/optimization
- https://www.rocksolidlogistics.com/modes
- https://www.rocksolidlogistics.com/analysis
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/rock-solid-logistics-inc
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-vaughan-2847b152/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-vaughan-35026213/
- https://www.dispatchff.com/brokers/mc-653998
- https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2026-02/TA-015%20Broker%20Permit%20Contact%20List%20Final%2012.2025_0.csv
- https://www.importgenius.com/importers/rock-solid-logistics-inc
- https://rocketreach.co/rock-solid-logistics-inc-management_b402c42cfc0a50ab
- http://web.archive.org/web/20150228065235/http://www.rocksolidlogistics.com/about
- https://transportationrecovery.com/freight-brokers/rock-solid-logistics-inc/
- https://brokersnapshot.com/Company?dot=2242791&prefix=MC&docket=653998