WEBVTT - Drew Henson, TOQi 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:05.680 Afro Tech Executive is our multi city series which empowers 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:09.320 corporate executives, investors, and tech moguls. And we kick off 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:11.720 our twenty twenty three series with a trip to Seattle, 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.680 Washington March thirtieth. We're in the city discussing artificial intelligence 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.160 with Jessica Matthews, founder of Uncharted. Be in the house 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.760 with us this year for an Afrotech Executive events. Experienced 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:28.040 dot afrotech dot com to learn more. I'm Will Lucas, 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.040 missus Black Tech, Green Money. I'm going to introduce you 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.000 to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.199 minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building or 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.440 simply using Texas Security, you bag this podcast is for you. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.479 Drew Hansen is an award winning designer, entrepreneur, and founder 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:54.279 currently working on cannabis related technologies. His undergraduate in engineering 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.360 physics from a university is Saskatchewan and he's got a 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.480 massive industrial design from Italy. Balances the requirements that both 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.800 feels naturally in any design strategy. So I ask them, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.319 our designer's naturally good at design, Like is this something 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:10.920 you can be born with? Or it's good and inspire 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.360 design a concept that can be taught in school. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.960 There's some parts of design that education helps. I think, 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:19.880 you know, I create a lot of things, but I 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.600 don't call myself an artist. And I do that I 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:24.360 don't know because I don't have a lot of as 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.600 much maybe faith in my art creations as I do 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.560 my engineering creations. And I can't hinge my identity on it. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.280 But when it comes to design, the difference between art 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.760 and design is functionality. It has a purpose, It serves 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.560 humans somehow in its methodology of its creation. And to 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.520 that point, education helps the size of the basket of 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.200 tools you have to reach to to be able to create. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.440 But there's great creators who have it, and there's great 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:52.240 to sorry, there's great designers who have it, and there's 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.160 great designers who don't. But you'll be more prone to 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.240 I suppose, making a mistake or doing some exposure things 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.960 like that, just because you wouldn't have certain experiences that 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:05.040 maybe would have stopped that. 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.520 It's so interesting that you said you don't call yourself 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.400 an artist in that way, and it would seem to 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.239 me that, well, let me translate that for how I 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.880 heard it, and then maybe you can clarify what you 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.519 actually mean by that. So how I hear that is 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:28.639 you're less inclined to reach and to go completely left 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.840 field or just give a whole new perspective to how 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.000 something could be presented to the world. And maybe you 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:37.640 don't mean that. So I'm looking for clarity. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.000 When I say my art, I feel like if I 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.040 was to just restart the conversation with that being the subject, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.160 I feel like my art is the digital hardware creations 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.919 I make with the zeros and the ones and the software, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.400 and how that's done, and the designs themselves and how 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.600 they come out. I can fairly honestly say from all 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.440 the hard where pieces I've gone that've created that have 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.440 made it into mass production in the world, nothing really 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.960 looked like them before, nothing really operated like them before. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.280 There's some part of them there that there's a lighting 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.359 design that you know, there's some real heart and soul 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.960 in And I think maybe that's what I could call 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.480 my art. But in the sense of how the TikTok 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.640 world sees art, which is I can create this piece 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.079 and sell it for this much money and I live 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.480 off of that, you know that definition of art, I 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.519 guess I would say I have a hard time of 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:33.840 saying I am one of. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.360 Those you know, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm glad you 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.360 said that, because I wanted to talk to you about 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.840 how how you balance the desire to create something special 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.240 with what the business needs and what the consumer needs 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.160 and what the business needs to make sense, Like, how 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:50.440 do you balance those things? 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.440 It's an interesting question. It has to do with whether 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.160 or not the products you create you consume, because what 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:04.160 I've learned is it's obviously a lot easier to create 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.880 something that you consume because you have certain insights that 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.040 don't exist if you're outside of the demographic pool of 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.360 what who actually utilizes your product. And it's okay to 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:15.440 create that way, but it's a hell of a lot harder, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:17.920 and it's a hell of a lot harder to be 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.520 not just on demographic, but to ensure that you're timing 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.120 for when you're making this thing is also accurate. And 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.760 when I talked to that, I guess my own personal 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:35.200 experience is, well, I my background in life is I 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.240 wanted to design racing technology for Formula one, and then 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.120 I pursued this long, you know, passionate journey for that, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.520 and along the way there was there was some great wins, 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.600 but I think at the core of it it was 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.599 a bit it was a bit different. So let me reset. 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.560 I just I lost my train of thought as to 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:55.560 why I brought that point up. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.600 Now this is good, this is super good. I'm really interested. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:00.600 Okay, so let's reset asking the ques and again, just 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:01.760 you can have it reframed. Yeah. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.960 So I was interested in how you balance the consumer 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.360 needs and what the consumer wants versus actually what the 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:08.520 business needs. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.400 So but you always are trying to make something that 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.080 the business needs. If you're making it under your business umbrella, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.880 that's kind of the starting point for the conversation. But 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.080 how you craft that solution and what you craft and 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.760 why you craft it still can have different answers. And 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.640 when I was talking about having insights versus not having 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.400 insights right now, so I always My parent company is 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.560 twenty two b in my product design studio, and from 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.839 there we focused on things at the intersection of art 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.800 and technology and art and design. But when we first 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.280 created something, I want to create things that help people. 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.520 And the first thing we created was seem Technique. You know, 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.440 in that company, we created a personal safety IoT platform. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.480 It had a mobile application that an Uber driver or 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.840 anybody work by themselves could use to share not just 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.559 where they are. Because I felt like that was easy, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.919 that was done, that was accessible. That's just by my friends. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:07.400 But if you you know, used by my friends, or 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.520 you send up that red flag that you're in danger 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.840 once or twice, that kind of a system doesn't really 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.640 have much usage. So what we're talking about is how 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:19.000 do you share your current state with context? And that's 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.279 where I felt there could be an advancement in that area. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.240 And so you know, we created an app that allowed 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:25.880 you to share what you see, what you hear, and 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.320 where you are synchronized to your GPS data live stream 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.600 to five people, and it had a good application for 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:38.760 Uber drivers. Then we extended that to we've expanded that 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.440 to loan workers, targeted degmographic of people who just work 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.560 by themselves and might need access to such technology. But 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.480 we really landed on a good home with realtors and 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.320 people doing open homes. For example. Now I am not 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.920 a realtor, I'm not somebody doing an open home, and 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.280 in this situation, I don't have certain insights, but we 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.479 went ahead because I was very certain that the product 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.919 we were creating was needed, was something that was valuable 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.040 and I still do this day contend that, you know, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.760 we and then we created a wearable device called the 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.080 Lotus that had a built in microphone and speaker, but 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.760 it also synchronized to your SERI or Google Assistant. And 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.560 this is like six seven years ago right now, So 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.000 it was like on the cusp of when Google introduced 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.240 this technology. We were at cees on that launch here 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.480 with them, and you know, I guess the point I'm 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.960 trying to make is when I was in that company, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.760 we were basically trying to sell do you feel safe? 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.800 And you know, to the point about doing something and 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.760 selling it and having those insights. I've been consuming cannabis 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.840 my whole life for medicinal purposes, and on top of that, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.640 I've been creating technology my whole life. So when it 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.200 comes to now having a cannabis technology company where our 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.480 goal is to become, say the dis in of the industry, 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.760 it's not just to have a vappen. It's a lot 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.920 easier to create products that are on target push forward 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.320 the business versus even if they're on my personal agenda. 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:08.000 As I guess the point to bring it all the 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:09.240 way back to the question. 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.800 Yeah, yeah, And I'm interested in your take on It's 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.120 one thing to say, you know, you you pushed for 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.400 because you believe that, you know it was needed in 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.600 the marketplace. It's one thing for people to want what 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.120 you have. It's another thing that they're willing to pay 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.880 for it. How do you you know balance? How did 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:30.440 you know that they would pay for this? 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.959 Because we we had people that paid us, and you know, 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:40.160 when we when we made the when we made the 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.640 device itself, we actually showed up to cees at various 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.160 points in the year, at various points in the product cycle, 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:53.040 to effectively ascertained from our initial prototypes, was there market 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.319 for this not only just in user base, but was 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.840 there a market for this in retail distribution buyers around 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:03.400 the world, you know, And the all the signs said yeah. 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.760 Every time we had to go through some form of research, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:07.880 the markets said yes. And we ended up getting into 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.960 best Buy. You know, we ended up almost being acquired 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.360 by a company whose name I probably shouldn't say, so 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.400 I won't, but we you know, we were we were 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.520 right there. And but I think the thing in business 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.760 that's interesting is you missed by a bit, You missed 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.280 by a Matt doesn't matter. You miss you miss, you know, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.520 And so a lot of that for me, whether it 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.559 was timing, whether it was other stuff, it pushes you 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.920 to really try and consider why it was that the 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:37.960 business didn't get where the business needed to go, even 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.400 if I thought I was satisfying those personal This is 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.360 what this does need to be for me to go 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:44.599 to sleep at night. You know. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:47.360 My next question, I'm going to tee this up in 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.839 a specific way because I was in a Ikea some 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.440 years ago and I saw this poster that they had 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.640 on the wall and there it was about their design 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.280 and pricing, and it was talking about they decide what 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.719 something was cost first, and then the cost of it 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.760 will dictate how they produce it. So they're going to 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.120 make a chair, and they're going to make a twenty 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.679 four dollar chair, and therefore it has to be produced 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.679 a certain way. And so getting to the point my 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.120 question is sometimes things fail, not because they're not needed 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.520 in the marketplace, not that because there's no demand, but 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.320 the price you know of it just doesn't make sense. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.319 And so you could have decided to instead of making 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.839 it with some sort of plastic, making it with a 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.760 different type of plastic, therefore the price, you know, can 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.439 come down. So how do you know which levers to 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.680 pull when you know that there's a need in the marketplace, 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.199 you know there's some desire in the marketplace, How do 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:45.679 you know which levers decide whether this thing will be 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:46.599 successful or not. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.480 There's as much market research as you can do. But 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.719 you know, I hate making this quote because I know 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.360 it's just such an overused quote. But somebody likes Steve 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:00.360 jobs are the best. Like, people don't really know what 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.040 they want, right, And so if I'm gonna sit there 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.559 and try and market test, and I'm gonna say, I 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.800 know I can sell a twenty dollars version of X. Okay, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.240 that makes perfect sense. We can go and we can 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.000 try and create a twenty dollars version of X, and 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.920 we'll go forward and we'll do that. And that is 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.720 a that is a way that a lot of companies, sorry, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:22.959 let me just turn it out. That is a way 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.800 that a lot of companies operate. However, most of those 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:32.120 companies didn't make the iPhone. Most of those companies aren't 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:37.199 the chat ChiPT you know. And so yeah, there's a 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.800 whole lot of like zoom boxes that we can sell 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.360 for twenty bucks or whatever it might be, or you know, 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:50.840 but there's there's something to be said about combining as 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:56.040 much as you can know with some thing that has 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:01.160 insights in something, and then just in two suitively understanding 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.280 this is a cliff, a cliff that's worth at least 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.640 looking over, you know. And at the end of the day, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.600 it's almost like when it comes to creating product, creating 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.319 companies or anything of that nature. You know, when a 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.360 lot of people ask when do you think it's perfect? 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.080 When do you think it's finished? There is no there 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.000 is no There is no perfect there is It's good 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.800 enough to go out and I'm comfortable that it's going 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.920 to deliver on its experience. And I think maybe bringing 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.440 it back to a fundamental difference between art and design, 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.720 design does have a point where it's supposed to deliver 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.880 on a promise, and at that point in time, I 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.440 can be more relaxed about the visual cues of something 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.040 or the aesthetic component of something, which is only one 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:43.920 part of that thing. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:44.480 You know. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.599 Yeah, Oh, I was just watching you answer that, and 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.400 you made me think about how just having the design 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.199 is probably not enough. You got to be able to 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.680 communicate the whys and the hows and the reasoning behind. 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:02.640 Have you experienced, perhaps you know, a counterpart or even 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.480 a classmate, somebody who had remarkable things but couldn't communicate 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.360 it therefore couldn't find success, or just aware of the 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.800 concept and what happens there that could allow those people 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.439 to find better success being able to communicate versus just 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.640 having great notes and great designs on a sketch pad. 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.600 Yeah. I think there's like two levels to that question. 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:32.880 On the first level, you have communication of your own ideas, right, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.600 and the ability to work within your team, the ability 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.160 to show somebody, I thought, the ability to do whatever. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.439 And you know, for me transitioning from an engineer to 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.040 a designer because my undergraduate's engineering physics. I then did 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.920 a whole bunch of motorsports stuff. I did a data 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.880 acquisition internship in Indianapolis. But when I was in Italy 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.280 and I was shifting over to becoming a designer, and 0:13:58.360 --> 0:13:59.599 I was just trying to be humble and say, I 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:04.040 don't know if about you know, like, I was just 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.840 really trying to see the difference. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.480 And I think. 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:14.800 I think somebody who can't communicate their simple ideas to 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.080 their team that's one problem. That's something you can learn. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:24.160 And you know, my mentor in Italy, Alberto Fraser, he said, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.080 I'll teach you three things. One how to draw because 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.640 you can't draw, and he used a lot more expeditive 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.440 language than that too. How to think like a designer 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.760 and not an engineer because they're fundamentally different. And three 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.000 quality of life. And that's another conversation. But on the 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.920 subject of drawing, you know, there is a book called 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:43.280 Learning to Draw with the Right Side of the Brain, 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.720 and it's a fantastic, fundamental book that if you go 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.880 through their exercises, it is undeniable that you will be 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:51.520 able to draw at the end of it. I absolutely 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.360 guarantee it. And so it basically rewires your brain from 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.040 seeing the world with the left side, where you're analyzing 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.920 shape system and patterns. You know, when you were a kid, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.840 if somebody asked you to draw an eye, you weren't 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.160 going to do the half circle with the other half circle. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.280 But now as an adult, almost every single adult will 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.640 draw an eye as that because they've been trained on 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:14.920 that as the symbol for that. But if you were 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:16.880 a child and you said draw that eye, they would 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.280 actually just try to draw the contours as they saw it, 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.360 and that's the fundamental difference, is just learning to draw 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.400 it as you see it versus how you think about it. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.240 And once you kind of free yourself from that shackle, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:32.400 you know, communication abilities at least quick sketch ones become 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.760 more proficient. So on that first level, i'd say that's 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.720 the answer to that question of if somebody was lacking 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.000 a communication ability, it would definitely affect their ability to 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:48.080 communicate because the beauty is in the details. And you know, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.520 one time I was working on a hangar designed for 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.800 Valentino with my mentor. It was his client, not mine, 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.320 and he sat there and we printed out what we 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.160 did from the digital files. But then he just sit 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.200 there with a pencil and went over it like forty 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.760 fifty sixty times until he was like, nah, that's the curve. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.160 And so there's a small part of just knowing the 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.680 fundamental tools that helps you really master those digital ones, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.280 even if you are the more advanced students who thinks 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.400 you're great at communication. And then I would say the 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.960 second level to that answer is me, I am terrible 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.680 at communicating in certain regards. I am horrible at posting 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:29.280 on social media, and when you don't show the world 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.600 what you're creating, and the only mediums that the world 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.200 accepts these days, nobody knows who you are what you create, 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:39.240 And so you know, I am the poster child for 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.840 I never really wanted to be famous. I just wanted 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.600 to make things that help people. But in today's world, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.520 when the things you create other people now depend on 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.600 and livelihoods start to depend on, you kind of have 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.040 to let go of the original reasonings and learn some 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.320 new communication tools, because I guess that would be what 0:16:58.360 --> 0:16:58.920 you're hampering. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.639 What inspired you to use your talents in the cannabis industry. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.760 I we were coming out of seeing Technic, which is 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:15.160 that personal Safety at Platform had one hundred thousand dollars left. 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.240 I had just burned quite a significant chunk of change 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.840 trying to make it work because we kept getting really 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.639 positive indicators that were just like, Okay, we should figure 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.200 this one out a bit longer. And you know, to 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.720 that point, I'm still happy everything went the way it is. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.720 I still have to recover the damage that that created, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:36.360 but you just learned so much from it, and I think, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.440 I think, what do I think? What do I think? Okay, 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:41.440 ask me the question again. 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.760 Yeah, I'm interested in what inspired you to use the 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.119 talents and gifts you've been able to develop in the 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.000 cannabis industry versus you know, all the other things you 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:53.800 could have selected. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.280 So my dream in life was Formula one racing tech. 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:05.320 I ended up getting flown to England to defend a 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.440 technology design against the other ten best selected in the 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.560 world in a Formula one competition that Renau put on. 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.119 And you know, I spent a year in Indianapolis very 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.720 graciously with Team Wattwalker Racing and got to see the 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.639 track life. And you know, when that was my initial dream, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.240 it just seems so unattainable. But then when I was 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.360 twenty six and I was in the F one facility, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.200 I was like, I can hang with the best in 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.200 the world in this. But then when I had to 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.800 go back to Italy and my mentor was like quality 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.840 of life. Bringing that into the conversation, now, how do 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.000 you want to live your life? He's like, don't I 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.159 want to be able to see my daughter. So I 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.520 gave up being the head designer at ray Ban and 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:45.680 I was like, I want to be able to eat 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.520 Chinese food. I want to live in a real city. 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:49.560 I want culture. I can't live in the middle of 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:51.520 nowhere for the rest of my life just because I 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.400 want to pursue Formula one. And so when it came 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.359 to what I could use my skills for, I just 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.840 really realized I love designing tech, you know, I loved 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.840 just the final applications for it. And when it came 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.960 down to, you know, starting it now, seem had about 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:12.920 one hundred thousand dollars left in the bank account, and 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.720 it was, well, now's the time because here in Canada 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.359 it's fully legal federally. It's something that I have the 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.000 insights on, you know, growing up, I started consuming Canada's 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.560 very young, and to a point where, of course, at 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:30.840 certain times everybody have uses something when they're a child, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.600 but it was very medicinal, like I sat almost every 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.920 day through calculus. I finished calculus and bilingual diploma, so 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.879 I finished calculus in French. For anybody who says, you know, 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.680 cannabis destroys the child's mind, well it was helping me 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:46.800 sit through mine. I got through that, and then I 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:52.000 went to university, so I know firsthand what it's like 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.040 and what it means to certain people, I suppose and 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.840 I also know that when it comes to something like alcohol, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.320 people have decanters in their homes, these very beautiful crystal vases, 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.320 vases what you want to say, I call it, and 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.440 the world will walk into somebody's home and be like, 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.680 here's a nice bottle of wine. What a beautiful decanter. 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.000 Let's get smashed now and celebrated, and it's like this 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:21.200 culture that's kind of interesting when people don't. People have 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.840 basically debranded alcohol from being a drug. They're like, that's 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.119 not a drug, that's alcohol, but it's a definition a drug. 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.639 And so what I always thought was lacking was the 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.680 injection of something that could create pieces in the cannabis 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.440 sector that were officially decanter level grades. So somebody walks 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.119 into a home, you can invite them into the conversation 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.720 just with the object itself and then soften the experience 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:52.240 and then ultimately elevate it for everybody. So really that 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:54.600 I just I thought I had something to offer, you know, 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.800 I when all the technology in cannabis that I feel 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.320 is relevant exploded onto the scene in the various places 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:06.400 it did, you know, like the volcano with analog dial 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:08.800 over a decade ago in Los Angeles, when people started 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:10.880 figuring out to pass a little bag around was a thing. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.160 You know, there's a certain moment in time when concentrates 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.919 came out. That company called Gpenn captured all of everybody's attention, 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.680 and we're producing a device called the micro g and 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.080 that that was a moment in time. But what's different 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.359 about us and everybody else is I guess the word purpose. 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:26.879 You know. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.160 I don't want to just take any of those little 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.920 things and make a small adjustment on it. I want 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.760 to find holes where we're just not fulfilling our promise 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:41.879 as creators that have functionality requirements, not just artistic requirements. 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.160