WEBVTT - Build your own shopping app in 10 minutes without learning to code w/ Sterling Smith 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:09.440 Afro Tech nineteen, Oakland, California. Arc Cell is founder and 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.440 cvo f Vibe Heavy, a creative collective of entertainment and 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:17.599 technology innovators based in the heart of Seattle. He's partnered 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.720 with world class prayers like Microsoft, Salesforce, Netflix, and more 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.960 to deliver engaging experiences in both the digital and physical world. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.600 He's on the nafro tex state. He's talking about securing 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.600 the bag with riding waves that are proving themselves out. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.559 Building on traction versus chasing trending tech. One of the 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.159 things I want to focus on is transversus traction. You've 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.760 come to tech conferences, everybody wants to work on the 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:46.920 sexy stuff, right AI U a r VR chat box, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.360 natural language processing? Right, Like, oh yeah, it's all sexy. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.159 But that stuff doesn't have doesn't have traction, right? And 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.840 what I talk about mass market adoption. I talk about 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.000 enterprise companies. When an enterprise company wants to buy something 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.160 and resell it has mass market adoption. If we're only 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.920 talking about ms and not bees, I'm not interested, right, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.520 because when when an Apple system has billions and trillions 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.440 of dollars flowing through it, and then there's a lot 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.000 of things you can both swim in the wake up. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.360 If you're trying to rush to the top and be 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.319 the first cat on a r v R and all 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.200 that other stuff, it might not even happen. And usually 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.280 Black people don't have the resources to throw things that 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:21.920 and the hope that it's gonna work out for them. 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.120 So I want to focus on traction. I'm well lucas, 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.040 Mrs Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna insude you to 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.480 some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.800 and brilliant ideas. If you're black in building are simply 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.840 using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.440 Sterley Smith is founder as Sandbox Commerce, which helps store 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.320 owners launch e commerce apps without having to learn the 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.520 code and in less than ten minutes. So many black 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.120 retailers are already left behind with present day tech. So 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.520 I asked telling about the future re too and what 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:02.880 it might look like to see if there's a lame 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:07.080 black people can specifically play into position ourselves for success 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.720 with the commerce in retail. Yeah, the future of retail 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:12.360 A couple of things to jump out when you hear 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.920 But when when I'm asked about the future retail is 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:21.960 headless commerce. UM. Retailers want freedom. Retailers want flexibility. They 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.000 want to they want the ability to say, hey, I'm 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:30.200 with Shopify one day, but Shopify isn't allowing me to 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.840 service my customers in this way using this third party 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.320 integration partner. So let me get at the big commerce. 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.560 And they want minimal to zero lag time downtime UM. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.520 So they want their site to be able to they 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.320 want to be able to continue to transact with their customers. 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.840 They want to be able to leverage the data and 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:52.000 owned their customer data. And uh, you know, technologies like 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.920 sandbox commerce allow for growing brands, and retailers should do 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.359 that in the same way that large brands of retailers 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.440 that you might find a Norwich frum um even markets 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.639 in the such and the like. So yeah, that's a 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.040 future retail as a broad answer, but we can we 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.639 can dive. Yeah, and we'll go deeper because I think 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.480 so much about like transactions is one thing. So if 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.320 you've got the Shopify account, you've got Woo commerce popping, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.120 or you know, you're using any of these platforms, like 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.720 getting the transaction is one thing, but so many of 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:27.720 our potentially specifically black entrepreneurs, those startups, Um, they're shipping 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.880 from their living room. You know, they're printing you know 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.639 uh ups labels and boxing up out of their garage. Um. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.760 So when you think about the transactions being in one bucket, 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.760 how do we also manage our deliverables? Because you got 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:42.440 my money, now, I want to know where my stuff 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.680 is at. Yes, yeah, I mean tools like ship station 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.360 shipping easy. Um. A couple of these budget visas are 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:54.080 fulfillment solutions that really enhance the fulfillment process, allowing you 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.800 to really take five you know, um um more control 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.040 over the moment process. You know, tools like Sandbox Commerce 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:08.280 again allowing you to inform customers about using push notifications 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.120 about the status of the product that you shipped from 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.440 your new mobile app that would have cost you a 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.600 hundred thousand dollars to build last year, but you're paying 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:17.560 a hundred dollars a month to build a mobile app 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.680 using our technology. And you know, solutions like that really 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.720 democratized access to technology like ours for people who are 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.719 frankly shipping products in their living room. I kind of 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.760 imagine what your answer might be to this, But I'm 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.719 interested in, like the inception of the idea here because um, 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.719 so many black businesses get left behind technologically just because 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.680 we can't keep up, you know. We you know, we 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.000 talked about the funding that goes to black owned businesses, 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.680 huge disparity there. Um, And then you think about that. 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:51.880 There was an SBA study that came out I think 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.000 there's the last time they did. It was like and 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.600 they said of black owned businesses, and well, my ethnic 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:02.760 minority owned businesses are in the by the industries for revenue, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.800 so we over index on like dry cleaners and long 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:11.360 care services, in car washes, in et cetera. The p 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.840 of our businesses are in these bottom of categories for 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.719 sales revenue. Talk about like the mission, Like what was 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.919 the idea? Because I imagine what the mission was is 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.440 to help us do better business. But like what, I'm 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.440 not happy that you said, you know, this is a 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.720 problem I want to help solve, to help, you know, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:34.440 give some balance to black owned businesses. Right, And that's 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.840 a great question. And I'll tell you I went from 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.839 being a software engineer at Walmart was my first job 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.760 out of school, um lockeed martin living in Doha, Qatar 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.760 was my second job at of school, and then Booze, Allen, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.160 Hamilton's and d C And for each of those customer companies, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.800 that were a lot of things that a lot of 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.120 a lot of shared attributes that I picked up on 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.040 the way that helped inform my decision to start Sandbox Commerce. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:10.160 Before you know, the bridge between corporate working as an 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.880 engineering individual contributor at those companies to starting Sandbox Commerce 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.080 included a step in between where I started my first company, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.440 an agency called Launch Partner, and Launch Partner the motto 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.000 there still is if it takes longer than eight weeks 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.240 to build, it's probably not an m v P. And 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.760 so today we I think built eight five m v 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.400 p s and they're still cooking. I'm no longer involved 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.240 in the day to day, but I'm the whole owner 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.560 of the company. Super super excited about that whole Another conversation. 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.599 But UM, in my experience building and growing Launch Partner, 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.640 one of the first things that I noticed that UM 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.520 we that I needed was a team. And I think 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.440 one of the answers to that question is that a 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.400 lot of UM black owned businesses, in many cases not 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.840 speaking I don't want to speak too broadly, but they 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.320 lack a team. You've got to build coalitions. You've got 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.920 to be able to convince people that you know you 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.640 you're you want to solve a bigger problem than yourself. UM, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.800 and I think that's number one. UM. But where I 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.800 learned that we may be onto something bigger, there may 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.520 be a big opportunity and helping early stage and growing 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.400 brands and retailers build mobile apps using technology was when 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:31.560 we were approached by not not just one, but multiple, um, 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:37.120 you know, diverse lead retailers expressing interested interest in building 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.360 a mobile app for their brand and at launch partner 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.360 wearing my consultant hat and really kind of it would 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.760 cost them fifty and usually on average around a hundred 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.000 and twenty dollars to launch a mobile app. And in 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:55.920 that sounds foolish because there should be technology that allows 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:01.560 you know, a growing, aspirational you brandon retailer to operate 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.760 and take advantage of data, taking advantage of push notifications, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:10.280 taking advantage of curbside pickup technology that the larger brands 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.440 are crushing it with. UM, they should be able to 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.640 do that as well. And so enter sandbox commerce that 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.360 started this really ugly, really clunky, embarrassing, really UM no 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.200 code mobile app builder before no code was a hashtag 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:28.360 before have those conversations hashtag. We started, we built out 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.720 an m VP. I think it was ten weeks if 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.880 I'm being honest. We built out something that demonstrated the capability, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.480 and ever since then have just been iterating on that. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.559 And so the inception was, you know, we started sand 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.720 Box to help those to help democratize access. You've heard 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.760 that a lot, but it's true access to the technology 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:54.240 that helps retailers um Specifically for this conversation, diverse lead founders, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.719 black founders reached our audience and actually provide a lot 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:02.559 of the services that large your brands and retailer's leverage. Yeah, 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.160 you touched on a few things that I want to 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.080 come back to, but I want to continue setting the 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.280 stage here because the story is so interesting, and you know, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:14.040 you talked about democratizing you know, the competitive landscape for 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.000 retail right for for ethnic lead, my black lead you 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.520 know companies and retailers. But there's also you know in 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.079 your in your startup story, like what plays out in 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.280 so many black lead companies, like a funding you know, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.400 issue with just trying to get going yourself. So you've 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.360 got this great product, but how do you get it 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.000 capitalized to get to market? And so let's talk about 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.240 just because I want to jump on this before we 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:44.160 get too far into um the sandbox, let's talk about 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.240 black freelancers. Because you took your skills and said, you 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.040 know what, I'm building this startup. Let me go hustle 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.640 my skills elsewhere to continue paying for this startup. Let's 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.600 talk about, Yeah, if I told you that I had 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.240 five jobs, do you think I was telling the truth 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:03.640 or life? I've five dub and it's not even. It's 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.600 not it's not even, it's not even fake. It's real. 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.720 So effectively, there was a point along this journey and 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.720 shout out to my day one We have some awesome 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.080 Day one investors. UM. I don't want to call him 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.560 out because they may get blown up, but do we 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.400 have there are people who get it and who saw 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:22.240 the vision early on, a very diverse collection of former 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.360 founders and industry experts who are like, oh, this guy 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.040 building this company. We went in and shout out to 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.960 all those people that came in early um and um. Yeah, 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.600 and so we raised an angel round, uh, just over 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.520 seven hundred thousand, not including what I put in myself. 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.080 And it didn't happen. The problem is is for many 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.120 diverse founders, that seven hundred thousand doesn't come in right away. 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.120 That seven hundred thousand came over a period of three 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.960 to four years. And when you think about raising funding 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.040 and you think about piecing together you know, seven hundred 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.240 thousand dollars and you're getting sixty five thousand dollars or 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:01.920 eight thousand dollars in a year, it's more. It feels 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:07.240 more like a um salary of any more than an 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:11.679 investment in the company. But again not discounting those investments. 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.400 But in order to really swing for the fences, you 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.160 have to be like our competitor who in half that 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.080 time raised twenty million dollars with with showing a lot less. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.000 And so you said it. You know, most many black 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.760 founders don't get the funding that our counterparts were a 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.959 white kid, right and so um, there was a period 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.160 where I realized, after just you know, bumping running into 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.040 the same wall over and over again, that um, in 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.760 order for me to be successful, in large in part 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.200 for a lot of black founders to be successful, we 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.200 can't follow the route that they teach you in the 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.680 NBA school or in you know tech Stars or some 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.440 of the some of the other accelerators that say, if 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.760 you just call a hundred people, you know, a certain 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.480 percent of those people will write checks and if you 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.640 you know, write your pitch date, your pitch deck in 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.920 this specific manner, it's going to happen. Most of my 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.040 most of my peers who I break bread with multiple 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.480 times a week, we talked about this. They all agree 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.920 that we have to take a nonconventional approach to fundraising, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.240 whether that's making more phone calls or writing memos, memorandums. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:16.600 I know that a lot of my peers have done. 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.200 That was just a very kind of bleeding edge approach 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:23.000 to fundraising today. For me, I found that after uh, 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.320 you know, speaking to the next level of investors, these 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:31.120 institutional investors that said uh no to me with more traction, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.440 more revenue, more experience, and then so said yes with 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.040 twenty million dollars in funding to my competitor, I said, Okay, 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:38.640 we gotta do some difference. So what did I do? 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.599 I started, I created a upwork account, and I started freelancing, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.000 and within twelve months, I'm not going to put it 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.000 on the record what kind of monthly income I was 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.800 pulling in towards the end of twenty just end of 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.240 this last year, because I started in I started Sterling 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.120 Smith dot dev is my website where I based the 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.839 highlighted what I'm good at as an engineer, and had 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:05.560 a call to action if you want to if you 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.600 want to work with me, visit Sterling Smith dot dev 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.719 and you can work with me. And over time I 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.640 created an upwork account that I I initially had to 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:20.200 use a white person's photograph to start winning bids, okay, 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.040 and then after and then they may be eventually validate 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.160 my idea using a picture, etcetera. But by that point 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.640 I had five stars and was doing five figures a 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.360 month in and side projects and some of them were 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.840 fractional cto roles, other were others were engineering roles. But 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.440 towards the end of last year closed out dinner. Last 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.440 year was about working actively on about six projects, all 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:49.520 in the tech space. UM and ended up going on 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.680 full time with with a company that said, Sterling, we 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:56.920 just want you to keep doing what you're doing. You 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.000 can keep your job for the time being. You can. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.840 Here's here's one person you know, here's an equity in 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.760 the company. UM and here's unlimited vacation while you continue 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:13.400 to work, you know, uh deliver um, you know with 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.200 this company. But between that and the other businesses that 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.520 I own. Literally, at one point in time, I was 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.200 working on fire projects at once um and so that's 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.400 what it's taken to really fund the company. So, inner 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:30.640 Black freelancer, to to your point, Inner black freelancer, I said, hey, 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.280 why aren't more diverse founders doing this, Because there is 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.480 a way to self fund your business um when you 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.440 are faced with the reality like I was, and many 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.280 of my peers are that the funding is either gonna come, 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.480 it's gonna take a lot longer to get it, or 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.840 it's not gonna come at all in some cases. So 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:50.920 do for self and let's go out there and get 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:52.800 it ourselves, and let's let's break bread with each other. 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.800 And so that's where black freelancer Um started. And it's 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:00.280 just it's it's it's a project that really encourages, uh, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.280 you know, it's up work for black freelancers. Many people 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.520 that I've worked with over the last year and along 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.080 the way said where can I find more black freelancers? 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.640 We want diverse teams, but they don't really want diverse teams. Well, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.520 if you're really looking looking for diverse teams, remember black 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.720 freelancer dot com. You can go and find you can 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.080 choose from a list of over twelve hundred black freelancers 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.920 across the spectrum. And that's only been the past three 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.600 months that it's been the beata's been live. So that's 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.040 where black Freelancer came about. Yeah, so I hear you saying, 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.480 you know, you had better technology than your counterpart who 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:37.320 raised you know, twenty times, you know, essentially what you 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.440 were able to raise twenty times plus. I mean it's 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.400 more than that. Um. But but tech supposed to be 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:47.640 a meritocracy. Silica valleys supposed to be a meritocracy. No, right, right, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.440 what is it that's happening here? No, No, I'm with 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.360 you know, so I'm gonna I'm gonna bit um. You know. 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.880 The reality is is that you know, I m in 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.120 the in the earliest stages, my competitor race two or 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:09.920 three million dollars without a product show. So so it's 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.320 it's and we had a product to show. Again, we 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.000 were running about six months earlier than them. Uh, they 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.240 came about, they rolled out and by the way, the 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.720 CEO of that company signed up for my product to 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.080 snoop around before he even wrote anything, and we knew 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:27.000 it we had and I called him up and because 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.200 I was like, this is kind of fishy, and those 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.080 are the days where I was calling every new customer 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.120 and uh, I called him up and he told me 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.840 his name and and I found out who he was, 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.720 and I was like, okay, well, you know, let's let's 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.120 just continue to do or do. And of course we 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:45.120 locked it down and restricted things more after that. But 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.920 the long story short is that it's this game is 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.960 not fair. It's not gonna be fair. That's that can't 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.360 be a reason why we don't succeed. Um. So that's 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:59.720 that's this, you know. Uh so Silicon Valley UM is 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.880 uh definitely not a meritocracy. I think it's it's safe 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:08.040 to say that. So I want to talk about low 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.040 code and no code. Let's start with no code first. UM. 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:15.040 You know, you hear this phrase, this hashtag you know 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.879 no code, and which is effectively saying to folks, you know, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.119 you can build an app getting the App store, getting 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:25.320 iTunes app Store, get in Google Play wherever, and not 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.159 have to write code. Is is it really no do 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.160 I still have to know CSS. Do I still don't 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.159 have to know HTML? Or is it really dragging you 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.440 dragging around buttons and dropping them into where you want them? Great? No, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.919 that's a great question. And the short answer is with 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:48.000 Sandbox Commerce, it is a no code solution, no code 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.000 which means that you can sign up and drag and 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.200 drop your way to building an app that's launched to 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.960 both app stores um and you can you can build 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.680 out that app using r interface within thirty minutes UM. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.560 Usually it takes about a week or two for the 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.760 app stores to approve it. But you're not doing that. 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.680 Our client success team at Sandbox Commerce is doing that 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.879 now um at um tools using tools like web flow 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.879 and Bubble, and there are a handful of others that 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:23.960 are crushing it right now. I think web blows on 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:25.920 on track to be a billion dollar company if it's 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:30.200 not already UM now. They're, in my opinion, considered low 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.119 code solutions. UM. So there's a degree of dragging and dropping. 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.880 But to really fine tune UM the solution, you you'll 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:39.560 need to know a little bit of CSS and Java 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.440 script and or Java script um. Uh. And but one 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.440 thing that I can talk that I admire about web 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.639 Flow is that what also makes them successful for less 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.560 technical um users of the platform is they have a 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.640 ridiculously rich resource library of videos and they I think 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.600 they have some called web Flow universities to where if 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.560 if you're non technical even and you're trying, you you 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.280 have the time and energy to spin up on you know, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.000 without having a computer SCE degree, you can modify the 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.919 user experience by using the resources they have And frankly 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:17.560 that's where we want to be and that's where we 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.520 plan on being with with sandbox Commerce, but low code 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.840 and no code. The differences is that with no code, 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.680 the promises you can build complex technology without running a 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.480 line of code. Check out Sandbox Commerce. If you're a 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.600 retailer uses sandbo uh shopifier big commerce, you can you 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.359 can prove me wrong if if you like. But web 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.000 Flow is a tool, is a low code solution that 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.040 allows you to to do that as well. So you've got 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:49.320 you know, retailers with physical locations who have had to 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.879 iterate two years ago, they say a decade ago to 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.200 build websites, or maybe two decades ago now to build websites, 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.400 and then they had to have an app. And now 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.400 you've got so, and now you've got people selling directly 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.000 via Instagram, like and Lesten, I just want to run 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:06.800 my business. I just want to sell my t shirts. 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.359 I just want to sell you know, my eyelashes whatever like, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.520 whatever you like. I just want to sell my stuff. Like, 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.199 where should I be focusing my attention if I'm not, 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:16.959 If I don't want to, this is the next thing. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.119 I gotta go do that because you just told me 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.720 a year ago I had to have an app. Now 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:26.280 now you're telling me I gotta have my Instagram store popping. Yes, 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.400 So I mean I think that you start with the fundamentals. 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.560 You start, you know where you are, and you look 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.080 at the resources to include time that you have at 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.879 your disposal, and you do the best that you can 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.560 at that, and then you try. You measure everything. You 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:47.920 measure engagement, you measure responses, you measure shales. Um. You know, 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.760 UM Sandbox Commerce were having a tool in data right 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:55.840 now called Sandbox Social to help bring your shoppable Instagram 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.320 outside of Instagram and and incorporate tag damages and blog 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.200 posts and things like that. That is for the more 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:06.240 advanced and kind of the more mature business or influencer, 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:08.879 you know, if you're looking to sell t shirt your hats, 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:11.800 you should. I would I would advocate first that you 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.280 use a tool like Shopify or big commerce to build 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.720 out a website, because you you really need to have 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:22.000 a website so that you're not getting UM taken advantage 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.920 of by the fees that tools like Amazon my charge UM. Right, 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:28.720 So I would start with a website, and I would 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.040 make that the best representation of what you're selling. And 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:36.240 then once you are firmly established UM and you're you've 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.480 proven out the potential of the website, then you begin 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:40.959 to keep your head on the swivel and look at 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.440 other opportunities to you know, double down. But don't don't. 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.080 It doesn't need to be that complicated UM as far 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:52.360 as UM, you know, doing everything at once. Now, when 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.199 it's time to build an app, you should certainly look 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.200 at sandbox commerce because you're gonna save a lot of time, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.520 a lot of money, and you're also going to keep 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.160 the money to community and so all for all these reasons, 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.080 it's a no brainer to your sandbox commers UM. And 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.359 there are other tools that can provide you the list 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.080 offline well of tools that you that you may want 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.639 to also keep in mind to share with you some 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.080 of your guests later on future episode. Well, let's do 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:17.120 that now, because I wanted to talk about, like, what 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:20.080 are some let's say, I just I don't want to 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.520 be the biggest you know, I don't want to be 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:24.600 an engineer, but I want to learn how to run 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:29.359 my retail store better. Right, and so other than sand box, 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.159