Working With A New Broker?

Hello everyone,

I am an account manager at an established brokerage/3PL. My top client is looking to start their own brokerage to handle their freight, and wants to bring me on board to run/operate that business on their behalf. (Luckily I have no employment contract preventing me from doing so, before you ask.) It's a very exciting opportunity!

However, I have two primary concerns:

1. That I can continue to provide the level of service, covering their freight at my quoted rates, as they've come to expect from me. Will carriers not call on or refuse a load from a new broker just because they are new? My current shop has a policy for new carriers requiring 60 days of active authority, so I'm not sure if many carriers have a similar requirement. Most but not all of my loads are covered on inbound calls through the major load boards, but they're relatively easy loads that pay okay, without any special requirements other than the usage of a blind BOL at delivery, nothing crazy, so my hope is carriers will call on the freight that gets them where they want to go at an acceptable rate, no matter the broker. The client (and soon-to-be new employer) has been in business for well over 10 years and the new brokerage would be set up as a subsidiary of the main holding company, so they should not have credit concerns. Do I have anything to be worried about?
2. That we are setting up the business appropriately. As this is a new venture for me as well as my client, I'm strongly advising them to lean on the resources of the TIA as they provide, through membership, plenty of resources and model contracts to guide us through launch. Plus their new broker resources offer 6 months free of AscendTMS Premium, which at least according to reviews is a top-of-the-line platform with the features needed to make the workload manageable for 1 person (me). I'm reading though on this site that TIA isn't really relevant to carriers so is it worth it? What about Ascend, is the premium version as good as they say? (TMS sales reps please don't pitch here, I get this is a warm lead but I'm trying to focus on the main question in the subject.)

What are your thoughts? Any advice for someone about to jump into the deep end? Thanks very much!