"Together Talks" feature # 132: Rhombus/Two Eagles Distillery presented by KLS, freight company
Some Background on Rhombus/Two Eagles Distillery
For today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS had the chance to speak with Jesse Zien. This is a unique feature as Jesse is the co-founder of two businesses, Rhombus and Two Eagles Distillery.
Rhombus: Rhombus was founded by a group with experience from many different levels of running a business. Their team has started companies, managed teams, and developed businesses both large and small. They all agreed that there was a better way to solve business problems.
Work with an experienced innovative company that takes the time to understand your business and it’s needs
Rhombus has developed a niche staffing group with some of the best talent in the industry.
They specialize in individuals with Credit Card industry experience and specialized IT talents.
Two Eagles Distillery: Is the passion project of three friends with a thirst for finely crafted spirits and a simple belief that quality matters. They are very proud to be the first Distillery in Mount Prospect, a near suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Beginning with their flagship offering, 100 Mile Vodka®, Two Eagles is focused on creating the highest quality spirits and beverages, sourcing local ingredients and listening to the wants of their clients and the community.
When did the company begin?
Rhombus: Started in 2012.
Two Eagles: Started in 2017.
Story of how it was created?
Rhombus: I worked in the credit card industry since about 2008 as a member of merchant acquirer, which helps businesses be able to accept payment via credit cards. It is processed by another party and that party known as the processor gets a percentage of the fees that are collected. At the end of the month each account gets this data file of every transaction, you have 30 days to confirm it is accurate. There was no way for us to check thousands of pages of data. I decided to create an algorithm that would do the work for us and I discovered there was about a 9% variance, which doesn't sound like a lot, but the monthly check we were getting was close to a half a million dollars. I had just finished school so I continued to build out the algorithm. Eventually the company I was working for was bought out, but they didn't buy me or my algorithm. I realized I had the asset with my software, so I decided to put it to use and work for myself.
Two Eagles:
My friend Matt and I got talking over dinner about a side job. He was interested in essential oils because there was a gap in the market for how much you could order. Our concern was if this flopped, then what would we do? Matt said make whiskey. I said that sounds much more fun, why don't we start with that. A couple years later we created our distillery.
Partner with KLS
KLS offers LTL and FTL for both dry and reefer transportation.
Our nationwide coverage provides companies a reliable, consistent, and dependable logistics partner to handle your trucking needs.
For more information on how we can help call our office today 708-980-0920 or reach us via our email quote request here!
What have been the biggest challenges?
Rhombus: Finding clients, we are asking them to take their revenue source and hand it to us and trust us with it. The data they share is potential customers for us, but realistically the small amount of income we'd earn from those accounts will never outweigh our reputation. Our integrity matters most. instead we focus on educating our clients to provide them the most value possible.
Two Eagles Distillery: Learning that is is still illegal to do this at home in this country. You can brew beer at home and become a master brewer before opening your own spot, but you can't do that with whiskey. The other big challenge was the equipment. Everything is new and advanced, but because we were learning we wanted something a little older that we could get acclimated with.
Reflect on a goal you set and how it made you feel to accomplish it?
Rhombus: Our goal was to bring more integrity to the payment world. We can't take full credit for the changes in the industry, but I definitely feel we were part of the transition and it operates for the better now.
Two Eagles: We've gone from a 2,000 square foot facility to over 6,000 now. Recently we have been able to take a small percentage of our sales and give back to local scouting. Both Matt and myself were scouts, so this is a cause that is very important to us.
Your journey of becoming an entrepreneur?
My entrepreneurial journey started when I was dating my wife and I went to a jeweler. He pulled out a diamond, I said, yes, that's it. He said, you can't afford that. And I said, okay, well, how do we make this work? And it turned out, he needed a website. That's how the entrepreneurial bug started. I'd always had ideas and I actually had worked on a couple ideas in college with a with a good friend that we never never incorporated or never took anywhere.
My wife has to deal with every time I see an idea or something, I wonder how I could fix that. So to anyone who is dating or married to an entrepreneur, I'm sorry on your behalf!
How have you grown as a leader?
I've learned to enjoy the journey. There is no end in sight. You have to enjoy all the comes with it. There is bad moments and bad days, but don't lose sight of what you are chasing. Don't focus on money or getting rich becuase it's not about that, it's about doing stuff that you love.
What do you need to work on as a leader?
You have to make sure that you know your personal life. You have to make them work together because if you neglect the people in your life that you love and you care about, you're not going to be happy. And if you're not working on your business you're not going to be happy, so finding that balance and making sure it all works is is difficult but it's it's essential. I have two young boys and making sure I am present is critical to me. Instead of chasing my next big idea for me, I want to work on things that they are interested in and get them involved. Right now it's going to be scouts, for my oldest is, he's a cub scout and I'm going to be getting involved in that.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
Helping people. I remember in high school when you'd sit down and figure out what are you going do. I was fortunate that I went to Loyola Academy, which was a great school. They actually had counselors. that sat there and asked us things like, what motivates you? I had a great school counselor that sat there and talked to me for a while. And the only thing I could figure out was I was helping people.
And it's what I really love about our companies. Rhombus does a great job helping individuals that are out there following these accounts and helping these small businesses, especially to process credit cards. But at the end of the day, they don't have that capacity to understand are they being paid correctly? Being able to help them has been very rewarding. We have a little display of all the brands we work with. Walking by that is the motivation of wow, we made this a reality for people, and that's awesome. That's what we want to keep doing.
What is your why?
My why is the help. That's what I do. I just help. That's what pushes me is helping other people. It was very difficult early on, trying to pick a career, trying to pick what to go into.
It's definitely hard to apply it somedays, but it's also, very useful to not only know it, but also be able to apply it. I remember one of my first jobs in my early 20s was working at AT&T in a cell phone store, which was during second iPhone launch. That was brutal. That was a brutal experience. Please, if your cell phone is not working, don't go yell at the kid working at the phone store. While it was a brutal job, at least once a day, I had a client or a customer that would come in that I could actually help. Being able to do that is very rewarding for me, and that's my why.
If I can help somebody, it's a good day.
If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your industry?
All alcohol is gluten-free people, it always has been. There's one company that put it on the bottle and then they made it legal to put it on the bottle or they said you can't put it on the bottle anymore because it's inherently true. That company got to continue advertising it. But people to this day ask if a certain alcohol is gluten-free, the answer is yes, 100% of the time!
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
Rhombus:
We helped a pumpkin farm out in California significantly and changed how they do business. It is a family owned pumpkin farm, Pumpkin City out in Orange County. They're great people. We made huge advancements for them with payment technology. This company has been in business for over 50 years. They got that point where how do we how do we hand this off to the next generation? They've gotten to the point where they have grandparents coming who went when they were when they were kids. It was probably one of the most rewarding things for Rhombus.
Two Eagles:
The we did it moment was early on, the first or second weekend of COVID, no one knew what was going on. Matt, Aaron, and I said ok we are going make hand sanitizer. Aaron was coordinating pickup with the police chiefs and the fire chiefs who kept coming in. He was trying to figure out how to like raise awareness that we're doing this. We got here in around 7 a.m. and when we ended it was around 9 p.m. We were just sitting there and we agreed we helped everyone that day. We were beaten to the ground and we knew we had a long journey ahead of us with what was going on, but looking back Matt said, regardless of what happens now we were success at some point.
Interested in being featured with "Together Talks"?
KLS is booking our upcoming schedule now!
Contact us as we would love to learn your story and share it amongst our audience.
Weekly we provide 2 companies our platform to expand their reach courtesy of our campaign. Let's collaborate!!!
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Jesse Zien, co-founder, of Rhombus and Two Eagles Distillery for today's "Together Talks" feature.

Business Resources!
Look at our new page HERE designed to provide excellent opportunities that may be of interest to you. These are a compilation from our chats within our "Together Talks". If you have any suggestions please let us know as we would love to provide more valuable insight to our community!
Klimson Logistics Solutions - Together Talks with Rhombus/Two Eagles Distillery feature # 132
*Klimson Logistics Solutions is an Industry Leading Customer Service 3PL. Our focus and commitment to our clients has us striving to be the BEST customer service 3PL for LTL, FTL, Reefer, and Drayage in the country. KLS, freight company, is a 3PL providing nationwide logistics solutions. KLS shipping services include: LTL freight, FTL freight, Reefer LTL freight, Reefer FTL freight, and Drayage. Klimson Logistics Solutions thanks you for viewing our marketing campaign, "Together Talks". If you have any interest in being featured or questions regarding your freight operations please contact us today!
Why KLS?
Our precise and reliable effort.
We handle every shipment with the exact same process. It does not matter if you move one shipment a year or ten per day, you will receive the same level of customer service from us. When we started this company, we had one goal in mind, treat every shipment like it was our own. With our vast knowledge of the industry, we understood what a customer would want from a communication standpoint. We applied that process to be the standard here at KLS. Our reliability and being able to depend on our consistency is why we have such long-standing relationships with our clients.
Our Process?
Every shipment in our industry starts with a quote. We are firm believers that time is money, thus we strive to have quotes back in a 5-10 minute reply time for LTL and FTL, any FCL quotes are at the mercy of the carriers getting back to us. For LTL we have the flexibility to quote both off of NMFC and also Density depending on the carrier. Utilizing our services, you’re allowing us to use our expertise to class your freight accordingly to ensure we are providing the best rate we possibly can.
Once a quote has been submitted and a client chooses to proceed with KLS handling the arrangement of the shipment our full process begins. We create the BOL that will be used for the shipment. If it is a new location for our system, we will obtain all the important/special details (reference numbers, contact details, shipping hours, closed for lunch, dock/doors, etc.). We meticulously build every detail into our software for all future shipments involving that location. After we have both locations built and necessary reference numbers have been applied we will tender the shipment to the carrier. We use this method because it provides us a real time pickup number from the carrier to obtain updates prior to pickup. Our staff will either email the BOL directly to you or to the shipper (at your request) the minute after the tender has been accepted by the carrier. LTL carriers require a 2 hour window prior to close time in order to schedule it for a same-day pickup attempt.
The following morning you’ll receive an email from us. It will either provide the reason the pickup was missed (driver’s trailer filled up, driver missed the close time, truck broke down, shipper said no freight, etc.) or if the pickup was successful you will receive the PRO (tracking) number from us, along with the eta for delivery. Our staff will track it throughout the duration of transit and advise if anything happens that will alter the estimated delivery date. The day the shipment delivers we will email you with confirmation and the POD (Proof of Delivery), should you require it.
Your shipment has been quoted, scheduled, picked up, and delivered. The next step is waiting for the carrier to invoice us and make sure the rate matches up. If it does, we close out the invoice from the carrier in our system and automatically your invoice is created and sent to the requested party at your company. In the event the carrier has an additional charge on their invoice “Variance”, we will never send you an invoice with an additional charge without first identifying you of the charge.
Let us repeat, NEVER WILL WE JUST BILL OUT AN EXTRA CHARGE WITHOUT YOU BEING NOTIFIED.
You are our customer, we represent you. Should the carrier provide an extra charge on an invoice, “Lift gate, additional weight, reclass, detention, etc.) We notify you of the charge via email first. Second, within that email we identify what is required should you choose to dispute the charge. Again our goal is to honor your request, if you want to dispute, we will dispute. During a dispute we will provide you updates every step along the way. Once a dispute is closed out, whether it is approved or rejected, then we will invoice you as the invoice has been resolved.
For reference, our company only had 6.2% of all shipments go to dispute in 2022 and we successfully won 91% of those disputes on behalf of our customers.
This is our process for every single shipment you move with us. We don’t cut corners, we don’t hide from difficult situations. We believe in being available, honest, and transparent. We don’t ever want to tell you that a shipment is lost, damaged, misrouted, but it is our duty to notify you the second we find out something has gone wrong. We hate to present bad news, but it is part of the job. What you can guarantee is that we will work a shipment all the way through and turn over every stone until we get a resolution for our clients.
Services offered?
Our core business is LTL and FTL. Within these options we have options for both dry and refrigerated/frozen. We also offer FCL/Drayage options. Our company as a 3PL has nationwide options and services clients across the US.
Let’s breakdown our services more in-depth
LTL:
Standard and Guaranteed
CFS (Imports & Exports)
Tradeshows
Hazmat
Anything that is on a pallet can be moved LTL. Typically LTL is up to 10 pallets, but the sweet spot for a carrier is 6-8 pallets at most for an individual shipment. LTL quotes are good between 5-30 days depending on the carrier. LTL can be quoted either via NMFC or density to determine the class (we do this for you).
Volume:
Anything over 10-12’ of space in the truck is the technical rule for a volume shipment. When we run a quote for you we will determine if it qualifies for volume and provide you a rate if available. Volume moves allow you to get a reduced rate for larger shipments. The caveat to volume shipments it the quotes are only valid for 3-7 days and they move on capacity between terminals. If a terminal is backed up they will move their LTL freight first before the volume freight, which can lead to longer transit times for volume moves.
FTL/Dedicated/Expedited: 53’ Dry and Reefer 26’ Box trucks with lift gate Sprinter Van The main difference for FTL vs LTL is space and transit time. For standard pallets you can fit either 26 or 30 pallets in a 53’ dry van. The other main difference is transit time, for FTL each day counts in the transit time, whereas LTL does not count the day of pickup, weekends, or holidays in their transit time.
Reefer/Frozen:
LTL and FTL
We specialize working in the CPG space with food manufacturers. We regularly deliver to
the following locations:
Kehe
UNFI
Core Mark
DPI
Wegmans
Cugini
H.T. Hackney
Netrition
HEB
ALDI
Chambers and Owens
EBY Brown
Nassau Candy
Harris Teeter
Wakefern
NU INC
Long Distribution
What makes KLS different?
There are thousands of freight brokers and 3PL in our industry. Barrier to entry is rather easy and agents or owners will often hire sales people without any intention of properly training them. It results in high turnover for many freight companies and a forgettable experience for the client. We choose to operate differently through our consistency. We truly care about doing right by our clients and prospects too. While we would love to help provide our services to every company we speak with, that just isn’t realistic. We won’t always be the right fit for every company that moves freight and that is ok. Our authenticity as a shipping company sets us apart from the competition and that is backed up by our testimonials. We also run a marketing campaign bi-weekly called “Together Talks”. We interview, highlight, and promote two businesses every week. Our goal is to grow our network, make new connections, and learn something new with each collaboration. Check it out on our website and if you’re interested in being featured reach out.
Our company also runs a year long charity promotion. Book your first shipment through KLS and we donate to the charity of your choice in your name. Our way of thanking you for giving us an opportunity to show you the KLS way and what makes us one of a kind. This entire package is what we offer to every prospect and every client. Our goal is to help provide answers that customers may have when it comes to shipping. We want to always be available as a resource and will always offer a lending hand whenever we can.
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