# Marcus Delgado, Director of Supplier Development at Meridian Industrial Group — read of Supplier Qualify, June 12 2026 > 14 years in procurement, currently wrangling supplier intake for a 280-person industrial components manufacturer in Ohio. We build sub-assemblies for HVAC OEMs. I have one procurement coordinator, Janelle, who does nothing but intake calls and data entry five days a week. --- ## How I got here Someone named Dave Kowalski dropped a link in the ISM LinkedIn group I'm in. His comment was just "anyone tried this?" and then three people replied with question marks. That was enough for me to click through. I wasn't searching for this specifically -- I was actually on my way to look at our Ariba renewal quote and needed to procrastinate. ## What I clicked first The three bullet points in the hero: "AI answers inbound supplier calls 24/7, gathers qualification data, and scores responses in real-time against your criteria." That's basically Janelle's entire job description. If this works, I save half a salary. That's the only reason I kept reading. But then right below that: "Built by Wishdeal Studio." I had to stop. I have never heard of Wishdeal Studio. That's not a knock -- I'd never heard of Zapier in 2012 either. But it makes me want to know who these people are before I trust them with my supplier phone line. ## Where I paused The metrics box. "60% Reduction in intake labor. 10x More suppliers evaluated. 3hr Time to first qualified lead." I paused because these are extremely specific numbers. In my experience, extremely specific numbers on a product page come from one of three places: real data from real customers, a single customer cherry-picked for a case study, or someone's spreadsheet model. I scrolled down looking for the source and found this: "Honest disclosure: we don't have live customers on this idea yet." So those numbers came from the third place. That's not disqualifying -- I appreciate them saying it -- but now I have to hold the "60%" as a guess, not a proof. ## What I distrusted The stats sitting above the honest disclosure. The 60%, 10x, and 3hr figures are positioned like testimonial data. They're in big bold type with icons. They read like results. Burying the "no live customers" caveat below the fold feels like a choice. I get that you have to put something in the hero, but leading with Fermi estimates styled as outcomes is a little slippery. Also: "No fatigue, no bias, no missed signals." That third one is doing a lot of work. Missed signals in a supplier call are the whole ballgame -- certifications that lapsed, capacity claims that don't add up, evasiveness about lead times. That's judgment, not checklist. I don't know if a voice agent can catch that. The page never explains HOW it catches it. And then there's the Fermi math at the bottom: Year-1 take-home of NEGATIVE $27,000. Success odds 1 in 9. That's almost comically honest and I respect it, but it also means someone is selling me a business idea with a 63/100 adoptability score and an 11% chance of meaningful success. That's not a product. That's a pitch deck with a code starter attached. ## What would convince me One real call recording. Even anonymized, even just two minutes. I want to hear the AI handle a supplier who says "well, our ISO certification is in renewal right now" or "we're technically at capacity but we could prioritize your volume." Those are the moments where intake goes sideways and where I'd know if this actually works or if it just handles the easy calls. Failing that: a screenshot of the scoring rubric output after a call. What does the score sheet look like? What fields does it populate? Does it integrate with Ariba or do I get a CSV I have to import by hand? That last question matters more than almost anything else on this page. ## What I'd ask in an email reply 1. The hero says "Define your procurement rubric once." How does that actually work -- is it a form I fill out, a conversation with your team, or does the AI infer it from some training data I give you? And can I change it per supplier category? 2. When a supplier says something ambiguous on the call, what does the AI do -- flag it for human review, make a guess, or ask a follow-up? I need to know the failure mode before I trust this with real inbound volume. 3. What does the calendar integration actually look like on my end? My procurement manager uses Outlook and we have a shared calendar for supplier visits. Is this native integration or a Calendly-style booking link that I'd have to manually move? --- ## Verdict: on-the-fence The underlying problem is real and I have it right now. But this page is selling me an idea more than a product, and the honest disclosures -- which I genuinely appreciate -- make me feel like I'd be buying a construction kit, not a working tool. If they could show me one real call output, I'd probably schedule a demo. --- *Memo by skeptic persona, generated 2026-06-12. Studio breaks own self-grading loop.*