The Exchanges, every show

Q And is it, is it like a replacement ROI that you're selling? Like you don't need air specialists anymore, or do you like enhance, like what's the positioning?

A Yeah, it kind of just depends on the company. So, you know, we sell to flyover state businesses. I'm from Michigan. So think like industrial manufacturing distribution, those types of companies. And we really augment teams. Some people are like, you know, we might want to move accounts receivable back to sales. You know, sometimes there's people in like warehouses that do it as a part-time job, or even like our larger enterprises like Honeywell, they just don't have the account penetration. You know, think like somebody in accounts receivable can probably cover like 200 accounts a month. Uh, with AI, now you're able to cover like 5000. And so, and most companies actually are losing about five percent of their revenue trying to collect payments and matching up all the cash and handling with all the bullshit.

AI assessment note: “And we really augment teams.”

Q Walk me through maybe just a day in the life. Like what, what's going on? What are they doing? And then, and then that you're automating now.

A Yeah. I mean, they have to handle a lot of complexity, a lot of interactions, both internally and externally, and they work across like very disconnected systems. So you have a sales system, you have a finance system, you have your bank accounts, you might have inventory systems and human beings now have to go in. So like Pablo, if you were to call me, be like, Hey Tarek, I got a question about invoice one, two, three, four. All of a sudden I have to go in. I have to look for the invoice. I have to manage all that. I have to go into these different older software platforms. I might even have to use my phone to like use an RSA token. The ability is now AI can, we can handle these manual tasks across these data, and then we can actually start to learn over time and execute these workflows, and then even place like an AI phone call, an AI text message, or on the flip side, if somebody calls in, we can have AI just answer that question and then send what you need. And then triage it from there. Whereas, you know, if you put yourself in our customer shoes, you might have, like, an office manager cleaning up the plant, trying to send out payroll, and they're in Texarkana, and now all of a sudden, you know, their CFO calls them, and they're like, hey, Steve, like, bills are late by two, three days, and they're like, hey, I got, like, all these other things, plots. I want to go see my …

AI assessment note: “human beings now have to go in... AI can, we can handle these manual tasks”

Q Do you care about like, especially those first five, 10 hires, do you care about like pedigree experience, like whether they were founders before you hiring people like extremely junior, especially now with AI, like where, where are you most focused on?

A I think one of the biggest challenges from tier one and tier two venture capital firms is they're always looking for people that check a box on paper. Usually the people that check a box on paper, aren't the people that start generational companies. Um, and so you want to find the people that are a little rough around the edges, a little crazy, like, you know, might not have that pedigree. And so that's also probably because I might be one of those people. Like I went to state school, you know, grew up with a single mom in, in Michigan. Like, you know, I didn't grow up with a trust fund. I didn't like, you know, stuff like that. So I, I think you want to find people that better fit your personality. And that doesn't mean that those types of people that are not like me, Are going to be successful. I think it just is like the people that are like you and work well with you become successful. So it's also a company fit founders fit and working fit. I mean, you can find those people. You can try to build something iconic.

AI assessment note: “you want to find the people that... might not have that pedigree.”

Q How do you get them to like sign up ahead of time? Like the ROI is clear, but how do you get away from the objection of like, yeah, like, I'd love this. Like when you build it, let me know. I'll happily pay you, you know, a hundred K at that point.

A It's amazing question. The biggest thing that early on it's, you know, you hear a lot of investors like seed investors, early stage investors that they're always like, Hey, you're betting on the founder. Your early customers are betting on you. And so you need to be able to start showing them progressable milestones. Of what they want to solve and how it's getting better. You know, they're also buying in on how you're going to solve this problem for them. You got to show them like week after week, Hey, we're making progress here. We're building this, et cetera. And then also getting their thoughts because they want to invent, you know, if they're so frustrated that they're like, Hey, I'm going to find this random ass dude in New York off the streets, pay him 65,000 dollars to solve this problem for me. Clearly they're like pretty excited about trying to solve the problem. And so you just want to start showing them like these milestones along the way of like, Hey, how we're building this, how we're solving this, how we're thinking about it. What's your thoughts? Does this automate this process for you? And that's really like the fun part of competing and early stage company.

AI assessment note: “you need to be able to start showing them progressable milestones”

Q How do you transition out, by the way, to starts too? Like, how do you make that happen?

A Uh, I think it's just a conversation with the other founder of, like, you know, what got us here, you know, might not get us there in the future, and then, like, let's try to, like, round out the team, build the team, and, like, take it to the next level of growth, and, like, You know, I'm great at some things, but I would say things are starting to slow down a little bit, like reinvigorating the engine. It's also like trying to figure out, like, what do you really want to do next in your life? And also where you want to spend your energy. And so if you've been doing something for a long while and long enough, like, I don't think enough people are like, hey, I want to start something new. I'm comfortable quitting. I think Annie Duke has a really good book called Quit. You know, you only have so many shots in life, and you might as well try to maximize your next one.

AI assessment note: “I think it's just a conversation with the other founder”

Q What about once they're fully qualified to get them to a demo? What's that demo to close rate for you guys?

A I think it's going to get better and better over time. Like early on, it's definitely not going to be great. You know, as you start to build a product and the product scales and it's sustainable, like ours is much better. I think it's above the industry standard. So I'd say probably like 20% of our demos turn into deals, but like early on, it's probably like one in a thousand. You know, if you're lucky, like, uh, if you find a really good space, good product, like maybe it's better, but you know, I have a friend who started a company. He's a good friend of mine. His name's Jeff Rodman, but he always says, if it's easy, everybody would do it or like, it ain't easy, which is very true. And so, you know, you gotta be okay with it. And you also have to understand that, like, if you over promise to a customer, you're losing their trust. And so if you're like, Hey, it's going to get better. Also, this button might not work by the way, and make a joke out of it. They might respect it. And so the more you build, the better it's going to get. And so, you know, you want to see to your, the question you're asking is like, how does that conversion rate get better? Like you want to see that conversion rate get better and better as you build a better product. And that's mainly a product thing. I think less of a sales thing.

AI assessment note: “So I'd say probably like 20% of our demos turn into deals”