The Exchanges

Q And again, it's a very hot space. There's a lot of companies in this space. Is your onboarding very similar to the rest? People are connecting their payroll, their bank accounts, and you're sort of combing data to, to, to find these rewards. Is that accurate?

A Um, a little bit different for us. We've been focused. There are a couple of companies that are working in the, in the smaller, in the smaller spaces, in the startup space, in the SMB space. We're focused primarily in the enterprise space with big fortune, 500 companies. We have about 30, uh, fortune, 500 companies that we found on our own. We also signed a pretty big deal with a big advisory firm, and we're onboarding in the process of onboarding more than a hundred of their customers on our platform. So we're a little, a little bit different, not necessarily connecting into To payroll, our companies usually work with big ERPs like SAP and Oracle financials, uh, but a similar process nonetheless.

AI assessment note: “not necessarily connecting into To payroll, our companies usually work with big ERPs”

Q Yeah. I mean, that's one of the reasons you take the strategic investment there. And I mean, by, by, by their customers, I assume you mean all the builders that they work with or the developers or the things of that nature. Is that what you mean?

A Well, Ryan, Ryan is not a, not a, not a builder per se. They're, they're an advisor, uh, very similar to the big four. They're actually the fifth largest in the world in terms of advisory services. And so they had, they do have builders, but they have just about any industry you can imagine. They've got, uh, they've got customers in and they're doing a lot of work In a lot of different industries, they're, they're leveraging our technology so that, so that they have the best technology and the best advisory services, and they can really serve their customers in a way that they never had before, as well as, as well as tether those customers to Ryan using this advanced technology.

AI assessment note: “Ryan is not a, not a, not a builder per se. They're, they're an advisor”

Q I see. Okay. That makes sense. Flesh out your team for me. How many folks on the team today?

A We've got, uh, we've got about 25, 25 folks on the team, majority on the tech side. Uh, we, we just, Um, hired a number of new folks on the enterprise sales side, which has been great for a while. There was just kind of me running around selling a lot of stuff. Now we actually have a, a professionalized, uh, professionalized sales team. Uh, and, and it's been, it's been really fun for the folks that have come over. We, we, we intentionally hired folks out of the, um, out of the kind of the treasury management space, folks that were very comfortable talking to a CFO, a controller tax team. Uh, and those guys have all done great. They've got fat pipelines and we're starting to really bring in a lot of deals.

AI assessment note: “We've got about 25, 25 folks on the team, majority on the tech side.”

Q You bet. Thanks for, uh, thanks for making the time. Now look, uh, tax R&D and credits is a hot space. Entrepreneurs know they're owed something, but they don't want to spend the time combing through tax law to figure out what they're owed. How are you playing in the space?

A Well, it's a, it's an interesting one. So credits and incentives, um, is, is, is almost like a developing space in a sense. They've been out there for quite some time. There's literally a trillion dollars of credits and incentives that are out there and available for various organizations. And we're trying to democratize, uh, the process by which people can discover, manage, and monetize these credits and incentives. So we've developed an incredible platform, a purpose-built solution specifically for this space. Where, uh, companies can come, they can find the credits and incentives that might be owed to them, and they can work with us and their advisors, uh, to, to work their way through and stay in compliance and actually monetize these, these, these, this important asset class.

AI assessment note: “we've developed an incredible platform, a purpose-built solution specifically for this space”

Q And so what's the sales pitch there, right? You know, you're finding tax credits. You're saying, Nathan, your company is owed 535,000 dollars because of tax credits X, Y, and Z. Where can you add additional value so people will pick you over other competitors who are finding the exact same credits available?

A Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. So the, our process is just, is a little bit different. If you think about big fortune, 500 companies, they're building distribution centers, warehouses, retail stores, Uh, they're building sustainable energy project like wind farms. They're doing all these big, big capital expenditure projects. What we often find is the tax departments don't have the time, nor do they usually have dedicated resources to identifying and securing all of the credits and incentives in a particular space. So that's really where we step in. So our sales pitch sounds something like this. You guys are probably owed quite a bit of money from the government for either projects that you worked on in the past or projects that you have planned to work on in the future. You can certainly work with one of the big advisors, Ryan, or one of the big four or somebody like that. But what our product does is it actually injects technology, looks at all of your site locations, and then helps to figure out exactly where, uh, credits and incentives could be owed to you. It's a, it's not too unlike like a rocket mortgage. So instead of going directly to a bank to try and to secure a mortgage for your house, you go to rocket mortgage, you put in some information, rocket mortgage, then goes out and finds all the Primary, secondary, home equity loans, whatever it is that, that a parti…

AI assessment note: “what our product does is it actually injects technology, looks at all of your site locations”

Q And where do you anticipate sort of pouring that fuel on the fire? Is it a sales motion? Is it more engineering? Is it something else all of the above?

A Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's all of the above. We'll, we will need to continue. Our, our product is, is outstanding. Um, I'm actually so impressed by when I interviewed for the, for the role, uh, one of the top, um, recruiters here in LA, you know, asked me to take a look at it. And I looked at the product and I was like, this is amazing. These guys have raised, this is before the Ryan, uh, the Ryan deal. So they've raised no money, completely bootstrapped. And the product was, was outstanding. I I've seen the, I've seen the opposite quite a bit. I've, I've been the part of a number of companies where, um, The sales team was amazing, but the product was, was kind of lagging. A lot of, I call it sales fairy dust was sold. In this case, the product is amazing. Uh, and we just had to sort of build out the business and the, and the, um, uh, infrastructure infrastructure side. So I think, um, I think the, we will use the funds to continue to enhance the product, drive features into the product, of course, hire a bigger sales team, spend more money in marketing, spend more money with, with PR, uh, and really get that, get our message out, get our product built. And get it, get it into as many hands as we possibly can.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's all of the above.”

Q Founders listen and go, I want to get a CEO of the quality of Lawrence. How the heck do I have to incentivize a guy like that? I mean, can you obviously don't tell me specifics, but to the degree you can, I mean, can you tell me it's obviously comp plus equity? I mean, did you get more or less than 10% equity in the business?

A Can't share my cap table with you, but, uh, they, they, they, they paid me well. I've got a great equity stake, um, in, in the company. And I will tell you, like, I've got this book over sitting over my right shoulder here, you know, start with why I think for me, I was more interested in finding a company, uh, that had a real strong why message, a real, a real passion project for me. I've done a lot of things. I've had some success in my career, which, which is all great, but I really want to do something where I could, I could give back a little bit too. Now, while we're on this Sort of rocket ship ride. The great thing about, uh, credits and incentives is that it really does, uh, help society. It helps, it helps Main Street America. I love the name Main Street from one of our competitors, uh, cause they're kind of doing the same thing. Uh, but it's, it's, you know, things like.

AI assessment note: “Can't share my cap table with you, but, uh, they, they, they, they paid me well.”