WEBVTT - Lounibos on SOASTA Technology (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>He could have been a contender in baseball, but he

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<v Speaker 1>decided he was going to be a success in the

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<v Speaker 1>world of technology. Tom Lunabus is the chief executive of

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<v Speaker 1>SOSTA and he joins us now in studio. Tom, thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for coming in. Great to be here, Thanks for having me.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, do the quick setup, because I bet if

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<v Speaker 1>I went to the University of San Francisco, I think

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<v Speaker 1>I'd find something that would be a remnant of your

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<v Speaker 1>infielder status. Way too much insider baseball knowledge there. Um. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm a little unique in the Silicon Valley where we're

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<v Speaker 1>a tech community made up of engineers. And I an

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<v Speaker 1>odd career in sports where I played baseball for four

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<v Speaker 1>years under a kind of a legend in USF and

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<v Speaker 1>what started off as being talked into going to play,

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<v Speaker 1>I ended up being in the Hall of Fame at

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<v Speaker 1>us F, bait for Baseball and drafted by the Minnesota Twins.

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<v Speaker 1>And but you know, life always has different crossing points

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<v Speaker 1>than I ended up going into tech and not. There's

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<v Speaker 1>not a lot of us that actually gotten that direction.

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<v Speaker 1>So tell us about SOLS Tess tells how you got

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<v Speaker 1>connected in what the company does. Well, So does a

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<v Speaker 1>really kind of cool company in terms of the customers

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<v Speaker 1>we use. You know, we we we work for UH

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<v Speaker 1>five largest digital brands in the world, and as a company,

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<v Speaker 1>it's it's a little bit of a story of getting

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<v Speaker 1>the band back together again. Ken Gardner and I started

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<v Speaker 1>a company back in the nineties around analytics Advanced Analytics UM,

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<v Speaker 1>and we started seeing as more brands we're going to

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<v Speaker 1>go direct to consumers with marketing campaigns selling a million

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<v Speaker 1>tickets for the Olympic Games, or a new iPhone seven

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<v Speaker 1>gets launched, that they're going to drive a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>traffic to web and mobile applications. And the thing that

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<v Speaker 1>we all understand, if that site is down or if

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<v Speaker 1>it's slow, all of us consumers are three clicks away

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<v Speaker 1>from buying the same thing from somebody else. So we

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<v Speaker 1>built a platform UM that in some ways mimics what

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<v Speaker 1>Amazon does in terms of understanding customer experience and a

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<v Speaker 1>platform that allows our brand ends are five digital brands

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<v Speaker 1>to simulate Cyber Monday and Black Friday and Halloween and

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<v Speaker 1>and in big marketing events or or UM you know,

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<v Speaker 1>for hallmarket's UH their super bowl is Valentine's Day where

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<v Speaker 1>they get so many folks coming through so we're helping

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<v Speaker 1>them understand their customers online and we're improving their perform. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>so you also have the c p I and index

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<v Speaker 1>that measures how users respond to the digital experience and

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<v Speaker 1>how speed and response is nous of the side influences

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<v Speaker 1>engagement and conversion rates. Digital speed. You know, we've all

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<v Speaker 1>kind of become addicted to it, and I think at

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<v Speaker 1>the same time also we kind of fight against that addiction.

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<v Speaker 1>It's neural. I mean, you know, speed is kind of

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<v Speaker 1>inbred into us in all ways. And what we've been

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<v Speaker 1>able to analyze is that we go on these websites

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<v Speaker 1>and if they're slow, um, we're not very happy. And

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<v Speaker 1>so the engagement with the customer is usually cut short.

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<v Speaker 1>They may not watch the full video if they're fat Austin,

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<v Speaker 1>you're liking what the experiences, You're more engaged, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>the key to the game. So what is the number

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<v Speaker 1>one thing people do wrong? It makes a slow experience.

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<v Speaker 1>And I'm the first one I really want to watch

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<v Speaker 1>a video online. I just want the information I want

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<v Speaker 1>to read. It would be really enticing for me to

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<v Speaker 1>watch the video. Well, sometimes it's the video itself, it's

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<v Speaker 1>the content and how long they play it. So you know,

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<v Speaker 1>if you play some videos at fourteen seconds versus ten seconds,

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<v Speaker 1>you'll see a drop off of lots of different consumers.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it's just creating a marketing event where everybody goes

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<v Speaker 1>to the website at one time, so it could be load.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it hasn't been optimized to you know, the device

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<v Speaker 1>that you're particular to or the browser you're not particular too.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's a very you know, delivering um brand and

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<v Speaker 1>consumerism to to the marketplace is very complex and sophisticated

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<v Speaker 1>these days, and what these brands are getting is very

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<v Speaker 1>sophisticated on how they understand the consumer experience. But it's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of things that create something that could break.

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<v Speaker 1>Tell us about the public cloud, how do you do

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<v Speaker 1>subscribe it to people? And describe also the growth that

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<v Speaker 1>you're seeing there and why it's relevant. And we're particularly

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<v Speaker 1>interesting in that area because we built the company around

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<v Speaker 1>cloud computing when there was very little cloud computing. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>I was in when we introduced Sosta. The gentleman that

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<v Speaker 1>introduced us was the founder of cloud computing. It's Andy

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<v Speaker 1>Jassey who runs Amazon z Aws and Andy h This

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<v Speaker 1>was at the first cloud event back in two thousand

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<v Speaker 1>and eight. What made it interesting for our use case,

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<v Speaker 1>and our use case became particularly interested in cloud computing

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<v Speaker 1>computing industry was I needed a thousand servers for a

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<v Speaker 1>very short period time. In other words, the way that

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<v Speaker 1>we test these applications is we have to simulate millions

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<v Speaker 1>of consumers going to the sites, and you may need

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<v Speaker 1>a thousand servers to do. No one had a thousand

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<v Speaker 1>servers in their test lab. And so what cloud computing

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<v Speaker 1>does is it gives you, especially public clouds, gives you

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<v Speaker 1>access and availability and affordability to capacities server capacities which

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<v Speaker 1>I needed and I consume in large ways, and I

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<v Speaker 1>can only pay. I only pay for what I use,

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<v Speaker 1>so I will only I may pay forty cents an

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<v Speaker 1>hour for for a server, but if I'm using a

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<v Speaker 1>thousand servers for six hours, it's a very small amount

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<v Speaker 1>comparatively buying him for the the whole quick final question, Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>how do you make money on this? Well, all of

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<v Speaker 1>you know there's over two trillion dollars that are transacted

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<v Speaker 1>online every every year, and so our ability to save

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<v Speaker 1>and um to make sure that those two trillion dollars

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<v Speaker 1>actually get done is the key to the game. So

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<v Speaker 1>where the insurance policy for the industry. I like the

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<v Speaker 1>insurance is a very lucrative business. Tom Lunabus, thank you

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<v Speaker 1>so very much. He's chief executive officer at SOSTA. He's

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<v Speaker 1>based in San Francisco, joining us in New York. This

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<v Speaker 1>is Bloomberg