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Speaker 1: I mean we're in a space right now. We will

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Speaker 1: talk about AI, this digital transformation and revolution that's happening

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Speaker 1: with how technologies are built, but how companies are built,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of it is going to come down

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Speaker 1: to who are the companies that have the technical expertise

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Speaker 1: to build big companies and build them fast. And so

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Speaker 1: when you think about building out a team, especially for

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Speaker 1: my entrepreneurs who are like brand new and they're really exploring,

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Speaker 1: like I think I want to do something, the team

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Speaker 1: is like really the most important aspect.

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Speaker 2: He everybody's Brandon Butler, founding CEO of Butter atl with

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Speaker 2: another episode of butter Nomics. Since today, we have a

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Speaker 2: very very special guest. I mean I always have special guests.

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Speaker 2: I know some dope people. It's some dope people in Atlanta,

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Speaker 2: and this is one of them. Man, But he's not

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Speaker 2: just dope because of the stuff he's doing. This is

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Speaker 2: the money man right here. This is the guy you

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Speaker 2: go to for all y'all founders, for all the startups

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Speaker 2: you want to get to check the right way. You

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Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, If you want to get out

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Speaker 2: here and grow your business, I got the man himself,

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Speaker 2: mister Avalon being an avalane On.

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Speaker 3: How you doing this morning, boss?

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Speaker 1: I'm doing well, man, I'm doing well. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: having me.

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Speaker 3: How you doing man falls any better?

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Speaker 1: I'd be you.

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Speaker 3: I'm just telling you right now.

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Speaker 1: Man.

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Speaker 2: Now, now, Avalon, you are the general manager for Drive Capital.

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Speaker 2: You're also the president of Atlanta Tech Week. Let's just

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Speaker 2: talk about that for a second. Now, what exactly is

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Speaker 2: Drive Capital for those that don't know, Yeah, absolutely so

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Speaker 2: Drive Capital.

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Speaker 1: We are the largest BC firm in between the coasts,

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Speaker 1: so we manage over two and a quarter billion dollars

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Speaker 1: assets today. Drive is based out of Columbus, Ohio, and

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Speaker 1: we're truly a seed to IPO platform. So what that

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Speaker 1: means is that we're able to invest very early in

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Speaker 1: companies that are in some cases pre idea, pre revenue,

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Speaker 1: pre product, but they're thinking about maybe building a company.

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Speaker 1: And then we also have the capacity to invest in

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Speaker 1: later stage companies, companies that have shown tremendous growth opportunities

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Speaker 1: and are showing that through revenue, showing that through the

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Speaker 1: headcount that they currently have with their team, and just

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Speaker 1: showing the opportunity to really be big market defining, category

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Speaker 1: winning companies. So we have the capacity as a firm

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Speaker 1: to invest you know, very early, Like for me, we

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Speaker 1: invest in half a million dollars pre seed seed stage

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Speaker 1: company as I mentioned, up to to road stage companies

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Speaker 1: as well, so really able to service companies that are

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Speaker 1: anywhere in there typically are going to be like software

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Speaker 1: scalable startups. So it's not going to necessarily be like

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Speaker 1: a hardware you know, startup. It's not going to be

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Speaker 1: like a CpG so a customer consumer product good, but

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Speaker 1: it is going to be something that through software is

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Speaker 1: able to scale quickly and grow fast. And those are

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Speaker 1: kind of companies that we.

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Speaker 2: Look for now avalone. Look, man, you just said a

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Speaker 2: lot of smart stuff. But there's this book I love

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Speaker 2: called The e Myth.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 2: In the Myth they talk about the curse of knowledge. Okay,

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Speaker 2: and the curse of knowledge is a lot of times,

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Speaker 2: you know, you talk about stuff because you understand it,

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Speaker 2: and so if you're not careful, other people might not understand.

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Speaker 3: Slotely now understood everything.

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Speaker 2: You just said, but I got to go back from

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Speaker 2: people that's listening because I just want to make sure

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Speaker 2: they didn't miss some of those things you just dropped.

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Speaker 3: So just just for context, when you say pre sed

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Speaker 3: post Like, what exactly does that mean?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, it's a great point. So when I

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Speaker 1: say pre seed, I'm talking about companies that this is

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Speaker 1: maybe their first round of funding. Right. So if we

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Speaker 1: think about like the different types of funding you've got,

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Speaker 1: like angel funding, So there may be some network of

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Speaker 1: people who just have money and they like your idea

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Speaker 1: and they'll invest in what you're doing. You may have

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Speaker 1: a friends and family round, so people like directly in

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Speaker 1: your network. It might actually literally be your friends or family. Hey,

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Speaker 1: here's ten thousand, here's five thousand. If you got a

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Speaker 1: rich uncle, here's one hundred thousand for you to get started.

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Speaker 1: And so preseed is kind of like that next stage

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Speaker 1: where you actually have a formal institution that can invest

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Speaker 1: like institutional capital into your business or your idea. So

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Speaker 1: that's where a firm like drive like where we come

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Speaker 1: in and so it's like, Okay, we can invest x

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Speaker 1: amount of money into what you're building. We have documents

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Speaker 1: to support like not only what we believe this company

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Speaker 1: is worth, but with this investment will allow your company

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Speaker 1: to do and allow you to scale. So when we

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Speaker 1: talk about preceed and seed, you still haven't necessarily really

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Speaker 1: found like a true like product market fit. You think

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Speaker 1: you've got a good idea, may have some data to

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Speaker 1: support that this is a real problem and that my

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Speaker 1: solution actually could solve it. But typically it's going to

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Speaker 1: be kind of like on the early your kind of

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Speaker 1: curve of where companies are in a lot of cases

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Speaker 1: not making any revenue, very few customers, if any, and

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Speaker 1: the customer that you do have are probably going to

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Speaker 1: be like a paid a free pilot. It may just

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Speaker 1: be people or just using the platform and haven't officially

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Speaker 1: signed up on a consistent basis. So it's still kind

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Speaker 1: of validating that this is even a real opportunity. But

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Speaker 1: that's when I say preced that's that's more so what

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Speaker 1: I mean.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so when people come to you, and again another

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Speaker 2: another term you know, I'm sure we'll use on this

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Speaker 2: conversations like MVP minimum viable product, right, so you know

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Speaker 2: I always tell people that's the minimum viable product. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: not the minimum right, the minimal vibe Like, what do

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Speaker 2: you define as kind of an MVP when somebody brings

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Speaker 2: you a new idea? Because again, I'm sure people come

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Speaker 2: to you at all levels of ideas, right, there's people.

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Speaker 3: That have, man, I want to do this thing. I

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Speaker 3: haven't even started yet.

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Speaker 2: They've got people that have actually maybe built something, but

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Speaker 2: maybe it's not you know, that refined of a prototype

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Speaker 2: versus people that actually, you know, have built something and

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Speaker 2: maybe they have a few customers.

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Speaker 3: Like where do you all like to really get involved at?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we've invested in companies in Atlanta that

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Speaker 1: are they got an idea and and that's it. You know,

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Speaker 1: there is no product. There may be a working prototype

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Speaker 1: for what it could look like on paper, but they

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Speaker 1: haven't actually like built the software. So we've talked to

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Speaker 1: companies and investing companies at early We've talked to companies

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Speaker 1: that do have in your like you mentioned with the

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Speaker 1: MVP or very early version of their product that has

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Speaker 1: very limited functionality. You're able to do maybe like a

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Speaker 1: quick search, or maybe you're able to send like interconnectivity

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Speaker 1: via like communications like a chat or a group message,

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Speaker 1: things like that that seem pretty like simple, but for

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Speaker 1: companies that are building these products, it's actually like a

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Speaker 1: big milestones they able to say we have some of

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Speaker 1: these really interconnected products that we've built into the platform.

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Speaker 1: So really, when we think about like where we've been

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Speaker 1: able to invest. It's been super early. So companies that

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Speaker 1: have like literally just an idea and maybe something like

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Speaker 1: people talk about like backup Napkin. We've done that to

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Speaker 1: companies that are in market and they do have a product,

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Speaker 1: and they do have functions, and they do have features

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Speaker 1: of the product that allow people to see like what

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Speaker 1: this could become if it were to work. So we've

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Speaker 1: been able to do that across really that whole preceed

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Speaker 1: to seed stage. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now when people bring these ideas, what are some of

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Speaker 2: the things that you're looking for, Like, you know, I

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Speaker 2: let's step away from kind of the more refined, you know, products, right, Like,

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Speaker 2: I know a lot of people are still in that

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Speaker 2: early stage and then they think they have an opportunity

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Speaker 2: to think they might see something when somebody comes to

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Speaker 2: you that early Yeah, you know, what are the things

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Speaker 2: that you kind of look forward to, say, you know what,

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Speaker 2: there might be something here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And that's a great question. I mean there's

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Speaker 1: a few things. I think One it's it's the founding team, right.

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Speaker 1: I think when you talk about companies at this stage,

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Speaker 1: you don't have a lot of things figured out, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: let's just be clear, like when you're talking about a

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Speaker 1: company that maybe you've built something, maybe you haven't the team,

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Speaker 1: and really the opportunity really realizing like how how talented

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Speaker 1: that team is, how technical that team is. Are they

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Speaker 1: building in like a big market? So when I say

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Speaker 1: a big market, I'm thinking about like total addressable markets.

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Speaker 1: So the way that we define that is thinking about

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Speaker 1: how many customers exist in like a given geography. So

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Speaker 1: we always say, like in the US, so how many

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Speaker 1: of your customers exist, like times, how much you're willing

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Speaker 1: people are willing to pay for this product? And can

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Speaker 1: that get to a billion dollars or more for your

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Speaker 1: total addressable market? So when we think about the kind

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Speaker 1: of companies that we back, it's got to be big markets.

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Speaker 1: It's got to be companies that have really technical teams

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Speaker 1: leading it. Because one, you're able to control that cost internally,

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Speaker 1: you're not outsourcing that to some other team or some

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Speaker 1: other country somebody else doing it. It also allows you

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Speaker 1: to keep your proprietary knowledge proprietary, so nobody else is

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Speaker 1: building what you're telling them to build, because they could

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Speaker 1: then go and sell that or recreate that for somebody else.

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Speaker 1: So there's a defensibility that's inherent in you and your

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Speaker 1: team building it. It also allows you to better understand

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Speaker 1: like if I'm selling you these headphones and I built

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Speaker 1: these headphones, and I'm going to start getting feedback on

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Speaker 1: these headphones I'm talking to customers, I'm going to very

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Speaker 1: intimately know like what are the problems where the opportunities

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Speaker 1: as opposed to sending it to somebody else to do.

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Speaker 1: So when we think about like what we're backing and

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Speaker 1: what we're supporting is going to be companies that are

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Speaker 1: building their own software, building the technology themselves and building

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Speaker 1: in like really really big markets. Because we look for

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Speaker 1: unicorns like that or a company that has a potential

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Speaker 1: to be something of that scale. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And do you think, you know, when you're coming up

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Speaker 2: with these ideas, you know, do you like ideas that

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Speaker 2: more lean into you know, the consumer market more like

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Speaker 2: enterprise you know markets for like you know, large organizations,

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Speaker 2: Like where do you think the opportunity for that kind

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Speaker 2: of growth that exists?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I think a lot of it is going to

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Speaker 1: be like businesses, like who's paying for this stuff? Yeah? Right?

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Speaker 1: You know when you talk about.

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Speaker 2: Selling Microsoft, That's what I'm saying. To build something you

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Speaker 2: can sell to Microsoft.

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Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, Like who are the organizations that have like

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Speaker 1: the capital and the resources to like pay for your product.

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Speaker 1: Because again, kind of going back to that market sizing

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Speaker 1: like equation and exercise, You've got to think, like I've

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Speaker 1: got to hit, you know, if I want it to

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Speaker 1: be a big billion dollar company, I've got to hit

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Speaker 1: a lot of customers who are willing to pay on

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Speaker 1: a recurring basis a specific amount of money every month.

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Speaker 1: And so it's typically going to be going at enterprise

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Speaker 1: or maybe even like a mid market. We have a

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Speaker 1: lot of companies that have the capacity to pay for

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Speaker 1: your product on a regular basis. Uh, sometimes D two

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Speaker 1: C is hard. It's a customer acquisition costs to that

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Speaker 1: as well. And then again you're talking about a customer

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Speaker 1: base that maybe isn't able to pay on a regular basis,

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Speaker 1: like consistently at a high enough level for it to

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Speaker 1: make sense to become a big company. And again when

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Speaker 1: I say big, I say billion dollars. Yeah, this big

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Speaker 1: company could be a million dollars for some folks, but

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Speaker 1: for what we're looking for, it's got to be billion

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Speaker 1: dollar or more market size for it to make sense

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Speaker 1: to justify a potential investment.

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Speaker 2: So let me retranslate that what he just said from

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Speaker 2: up people on the East side real quick. So again,

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Speaker 2: if you want to make a lot of money, or

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Speaker 2: you want to go with some of these big companies

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Speaker 2: and raise money, it makes a lot more sense a

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Speaker 2: lot of times to try to sell your product of

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Speaker 2: service to a large company, to a fortune five hundred

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Speaker 2: company where they don't have a problem spending ten twenty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars a month on that product of service once

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Speaker 2: it gets to that point, versus building something smaller. You know, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you can one hundred percent build an app in the

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Speaker 2: app store sell it for ninety nine cents a month.

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Speaker 2: The problem is what he's talking about with customer acquisition

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Speaker 2: is that at a certain point too, it costs you

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Speaker 2: money to acquire each one of those customers nine nonsense.

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Speaker 2: And then also the deal what's called churn. So you

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Speaker 2: might have people that sign up for your app and

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Speaker 2: pay nine nine cents a month, but you know what happens,

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Speaker 2: people's debit card, they lose their car, they got change

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Speaker 2: their number. Absolutely, they look at their statement like why

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Speaker 2: the hell am I paying for this? And they cancel it,

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Speaker 2: and so you have to replace those people. A lot

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Speaker 2: of times when you go to these big, large organizations,

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Speaker 2: once they make a commitment, they're probably in it for

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Speaker 2: a few years, which also then helps you all from

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Speaker 2: the standpoint of saying, you know what, I can forecast

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Speaker 2: this revenue more consistently. So absolutely sometimes again, but one

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Speaker 2: thing I've kind of learned over my life is it

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Speaker 2: takes about the same amount of effort to get a

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Speaker 2: big check as a small check if you really kind

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Speaker 2: of sit down and think about it, So you might

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Speaker 2: as well try to lean into the big check, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely I think that that, And it's spot

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Speaker 1: on your breakdown and your analysis there. It's like, how

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Speaker 1: do you put the right resources into going after the

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Speaker 1: right customers, especially like you talked about with churn, Like

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Speaker 1: how do you as a company kind of identify, like

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Speaker 1: who is the right customer so that you can understand

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Speaker 1: what's the profile of not only who you're selling to,

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Speaker 1: but who is the type of customer that might churn

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Speaker 1: because you might be selling it to the wrong person.

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Speaker 1: It may seem like this this is a solution that

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Speaker 1: they need, but you're selling it to the wrong person,

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Speaker 1: which could create more turn which makes it more expensive

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Speaker 1: to run your business because you're constantly trying to find

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Speaker 1: these customers that if you're not selling it the right

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Speaker 1: way or selling the right product, ultimately, it's gonna make

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Speaker 1: your job twice as hard, you know, to grow and

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Speaker 1: to scale.

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Speaker 2: So one of the things you also talked about, which

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Speaker 2: I want to kind of go back on, is the

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Speaker 2: need for a good team or a technical team. I

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Speaker 2: think one of the things that a lot of people

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Speaker 2: don't really realize because I hear it all the time.

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Speaker 2: I was a software engineer. I used to build websites

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Speaker 2: and apps for a long time, and people would come

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Speaker 2: to me with these ideas, Man, I want to build

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Speaker 2: the next Facebook, I want to build the next this,

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Speaker 2: the next that. And the problem is they weren't technical.

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Speaker 2: So to your point, they're having to go and either

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Speaker 2: find somebody to go build it. And now all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden they get that sticker shock of being like, oh,

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Speaker 2: to actually build an app, Yeah, that's going to take

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Speaker 2: you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars to actually not

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Speaker 2: just build it, but to do the UX, to do

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Speaker 2: the architecture behind it, actually do the coding, to get

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Speaker 2: the iterations of it. So all of a sudden, they

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Speaker 2: start to realize like how big that project actually is

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Speaker 2: the point of having you know, So that's the whole thing, right,

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Speaker 2: if you're not technical, if you don't have a technical background,

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Speaker 2: it's great and makes a lot of sense to go

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Speaker 2: find somebody with that background that can help you build

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Speaker 2: and y'all become partners because to your point, it's a

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Speaker 2: lot harder to sell something when you have to basically

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Speaker 2: outsource all the.

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Speaker 1: Work, right, absolutely, yeah, I mean it's harder, it's more expensive.

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Speaker 1: It really puts you at a disadvantage in a lot

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Speaker 1: of ways. And so I've had this conversation with founders,

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Speaker 1: and I've had founders who've like been like, no, I

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Speaker 1: don't need anybody technical to have a model, but you

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Speaker 1: got to think about the especially if you're a founder

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Speaker 1: that has already been invested in and that capital you

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Speaker 1: have is a precious resource. And so when you have

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Speaker 1: a resource, you have to treat it like that. And

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Speaker 1: so when you think about the money that you're spending

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Speaker 1: on things that ideally you could be building internally. To

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Speaker 1: your point, like if you've got a co founder who's

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Speaker 1: like hyper technical and is your CTO, like you guys

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Speaker 1: can play off of each other's strengths. But it's important

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Speaker 1: to have a team with those balances, know where you're strong,

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Speaker 1: know where you're weak. And a technical aspect of it

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Speaker 1: is like critically important. I mean, we're in a space

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Speaker 1: right now. You talk about AI, you talk about like

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Speaker 1: kind of this digital transformation and revolution that's happening with

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Speaker 1: how technologies are built, but how companies are built, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of it is going to come down to

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Speaker 1: who are the companies that have the technical expertise to

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Speaker 1: build big companies and build them fast. And so when

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Speaker 1: you think about building out a team, especially for my

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs who are like brand new and they're really exploring,

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Speaker 1: like I think I want to do something, the team

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Speaker 1: is like really the most I think at this stay

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Speaker 1: is the most important aspect because we've backed teams that

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Speaker 1: they started on one path and they went a completely

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Speaker 1: different path within months. And sometimes people think, oh, it's

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Speaker 1: a failure, like I had this idea, I thought it

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Speaker 1: was going to work. But honestly, what we look for

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Speaker 1: is like those teams that are smart enough to realize, hey,

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Speaker 1: this isn't working, and why it's not working. It could

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Speaker 1: be a lot of reasons. It could be a space

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Speaker 1: where it's hyper commoditized. And when I say commoditize, it

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Speaker 1: means that everybody has access to build the exact same product.

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Speaker 1: So what you're doing really isn't that different from anybody else,

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Speaker 1: or it's easy for somebody to recreate that. So thinking

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Speaker 1: about those is like, how are you building products? How

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Speaker 1: is your team building products? Again, it all comes back

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Speaker 1: to team and so I think, like, especially as I

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Speaker 1: mentioned that we're in the space with technology really becoming

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Speaker 1: even more part of our lives, if you're going to build.

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Speaker 3: A company in this space, you got to have the

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Speaker 3: right team to execute and to do it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, we won't come back to AI in a second,

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Speaker 2: but let's let's let's double tap on teams for a second.

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Speaker 2: So what are some companies and some teams that you've

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Speaker 2: invested in that you've really seen, you know, that infusion

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Speaker 2: of capital kind of you know, be the rocket fuel

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Speaker 2: they need to go to the next level.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, super proud of some of the teams that

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Speaker 1: you know, we've had a chance to invest in. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have one that really proud of a company that

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Speaker 1: actually was in Charleston and moved to Atlanta, a company

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Speaker 1: by name of Scout. So what Scout does is they

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Speaker 1: create and create version and deploy AI agents into your enterprise.

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Speaker 1: So basically what that means is that they're able to

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Speaker 1: create applications inside of your organization to help you audit,

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Speaker 1: mat and accomplish different things in your workflow. So they

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Speaker 1: could help you create an app to understand your data better.

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Speaker 1: They could help you in ways that really help you automate,

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Speaker 1: you know, some of the different tasks that your organization

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Speaker 1: has on a regular basis. So you go back to

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Speaker 1: this automation, You go back to these agents that can

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Speaker 1: do and create infrastructure inside your organization with your data

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Speaker 1: or data from your customers. So Scout was a team

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Speaker 1: we invested in. We invested half a million into that team.

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Speaker 1: In November of last year, they moved to Atlanta, worked

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Speaker 1: out of our office here in Atlanta, and the guys

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Speaker 1: just continue to just grow and Skie like I would

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Speaker 1: literally come into the office, these guys are already in here.

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Speaker 1: They're like, hey, look we just added some more customers.

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Speaker 1: Hey look the revenue just keeps going up. So it

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Speaker 1: literally was like one of those like picture perfect opportunities

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Speaker 1: where you see real growth happening for a startup and

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Speaker 1: those guys you know, now we invested again in their

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Speaker 1: seed round in April and we invested ten million into

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Speaker 1: that team, and they're just continuing to just crush it.

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Speaker 1: So we've seen like with the capital can be like

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Speaker 1: real rocket fuel, you know. And I think it's important

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Speaker 1: also on the same point, if you're an entrepreneur and

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Speaker 1: you're listening to this and you're like, wow, like, what's

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Speaker 1: the right kind of capital? Because venture capital is not

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Speaker 1: for everybody, you know, Like there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: business models where you want to get paid back right

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Speaker 1: right right, and also have some ownerships over somebody. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're going to own a little bit of your company

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Speaker 1: and as you continue to grow, like that ownership scale

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Speaker 1: is important for for for vcs. So it's important for

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Speaker 1: folks who are thinking about being entrepreneurs to identify what's

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Speaker 1: the right type of capital. It could be alone, it

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Speaker 1: could be non diluted equities. When I say non diluted,

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Speaker 1: it means that whoever is giving you that money is

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Speaker 1: not going to own a piece of your company. From

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Speaker 1: a venture capital standpoint, there is an ownership expectation when

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Speaker 1: we give you capital. So it's not hey, here's a

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Speaker 1: free check. It's like, no, we're owning a piece of

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Speaker 1: what you're building because we believe in what you're building.

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Speaker 1: But that is a part of the conversation. So I

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Speaker 1: think it's important for entrepreneurs to understand like what's important

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Speaker 1: for them and the growth of their company, Like long term,

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Speaker 1: do you want to be the next Soft or Google

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Speaker 1: or Uber or are you comfortable with saying, Hey, maybe

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Speaker 1: I have a slightly lower outcome, but I have more

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Speaker 1: ownership of my company. I can control my company in

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Speaker 1: a way that feels right for me and for the

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Speaker 1: kind of growth that I want. Because from a BC perspective,

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Speaker 1: like I said rocket Fuel, like, that's the expectation if

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Speaker 1: we invest in you, we're expecting this to become the

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Speaker 1: next billion dollar outcome, Right, So that's something that you

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Speaker 1: as a as a founder, as an entrepreneur, you got

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Speaker 1: to really think like long and hard on what's the

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Speaker 1: right kind of capital for your business, for your customer

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Speaker 1: and ultimately for you and for your team's goals. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of times too when people hear

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Speaker 2: about because we hear about all these like big numbers, Oh,

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Speaker 2: this company raises amount of money but are they raising

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Speaker 2: you know, ten million dollars here or a billion dollars there.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, let's just of course correct people. This money

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Speaker 2: doesn't just go into the founder's pocket, right. I mean

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Speaker 2: a lot of these founders too, you know, they're either

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Speaker 2: taking very modest or no salaries at all a lot

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Speaker 2: of times to help because they're reinvesting that money. You

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Speaker 2: know what, do you kind of see those founders using

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Speaker 2: those kind of investments for what are the typical things?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think scut again is kind of

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Speaker 1: a great example because they put that money like directly

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Speaker 1: back into the product. They put it back in the product,

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Speaker 1: put it back into the team so higher.

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Speaker 3: So they didn't go buy Lambos.

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00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:10,720
Speaker 1: They didn't go buy Lambo. I didn't have to have

437
00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:13,480
Speaker 1: that conversation with them. But you're right, like some folks,

438
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 1: you know, again, it goes back to the team. It

439
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,119
Speaker 1: goes back to the judgment, the discernment of leadership in

440
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,760
Speaker 1: that team. And I know when it's early, it's like, man,

441
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,920
Speaker 1: some of the different things we're talking about are a year,

442
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:25,800
Speaker 1: two years down a road. But it's important to invest

443
00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:27,879
Speaker 1: in the right people who can make those decisions and

444
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:31,720
Speaker 1: can understand Hey, we got, you know, all this capital, Now, like,

445
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 1: what are we spending that money on. We're spending on

446
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,920
Speaker 1: the things that are durable, things that are investable, and

447
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,960
Speaker 1: the things that ultimately will allow us to get to

448
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: the next major milestone, the next inflection point of growth,

449
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:44,399
Speaker 1: and it's going to be product, and it's going to

450
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:47,879
Speaker 1: be building these new features into whatever you're building. And

451
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:50,919
Speaker 1: I'm talking from a software perspective now, but even if

452
00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:54,080
Speaker 1: you're a hardware company, or if you are a service

453
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:57,399
Speaker 1: based company or a customer goods company, still kind of

454
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,280
Speaker 1: reinvesting back into your team, reinvesting back in to your

455
00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:03,600
Speaker 1: product is always going to be, in my opinion, like

456
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,000
Speaker 1: the best way to move forward, because you could spend

457
00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,360
Speaker 1: it on everybody's salaries. You mentioned some folks, Hey, I'm

458
00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:11,720
Speaker 1: not going to take a salary this first year, and

459
00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:13,800
Speaker 1: we've had founders who've done that, and it just you

460
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,600
Speaker 1: got to be very mindful. Again, it's a precious resource

461
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,600
Speaker 1: capital and if you run out of it, company's dead.

462
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,960
Speaker 1: So how are you managing that is a really important piece,

463
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:24,960
Speaker 1: specially for teams that are like this early, you know

464
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:25,879
Speaker 1: in their growth.

465
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:29,720
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, Now, another part of like you know, raising money.

466
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,159
Speaker 2: I think people don't also think about it is just

467
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:33,720
Speaker 2: you can raise too much money, yeah too, and that

468
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 2: can kind of come back and bite you.

469
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:34,959
Speaker 1: Right.

470
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,479
Speaker 2: So if again, if you you know, if your company's

471
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:39,760
Speaker 2: worth making up a million dollars, and you know you

472
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:42,600
Speaker 2: raise too large of a percentage of that, you're kind

473
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,119
Speaker 2: of upside down, right, Like how can founders avoid those

474
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 2: kinds of situations?

475
00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:48,360
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think it's a great point. I think one

476
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:51,440
Speaker 1: it's understanding like what are your real capital needs? So

477
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:53,320
Speaker 1: like if I talk to a founder, I'm like, all right,

478
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,440
Speaker 1: Like I had a conversation with a founder earlier this week,

479
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: and we were talking about like how much capital they needed,

480
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,359
Speaker 1: and not just capital to umber the bills, you know

481
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:03,359
Speaker 1: and make sure the lights are on, but like what

482
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 1: capital you need to get to growth? And as I

483
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,080
Speaker 1: mentioned a little bit earlier, like the next inflection point.

484
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:10,560
Speaker 1: So that could be, Hey, we have a customer milestone,

485
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:12,720
Speaker 1: we're trying to hit twenty customers this year, we're at ten,

486
00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:16,080
Speaker 1: how do we use as capital for marketing or outreach

487
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 1: for customer acquisition? Right, So like thinking about like how

488
00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,760
Speaker 1: capital is us in that way, but then also thinking

489
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,120
Speaker 1: about like how are you using capital for a team

490
00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:26,240
Speaker 1: because you got to pay people. You know, you yourself

491
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,800
Speaker 1: as the CEO might take a step back, But if

492
00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 1: you're going to hire good quality people, how do you

493
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,680
Speaker 1: allocate that kind of money from a raise? So those

494
00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,080
Speaker 1: things are important when you're thinking about how much you need.

495
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:38,800
Speaker 1: And also that ties back into like how you value

496
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:41,479
Speaker 1: your company as well, or how a VC is going

497
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,639
Speaker 1: to value your company, right, And a lot of that

498
00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,520
Speaker 1: is the percentage that we take or that we are

499
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 1: seeking to own is going to correlate from the amount

500
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,479
Speaker 1: of capital that we've invested into what we determine as

501
00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,440
Speaker 1: a valuation for that company. Right. So I think it's

502
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,720
Speaker 1: important to understand this is the valuation that we as

503
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 1: a company believe that we're worth. This is how much

504
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: capital we need to get to this next point. It's

505
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:05,920
Speaker 1: important for you as a founder to be able to

506
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:09,520
Speaker 1: sell that vision to whoever your investors are, which you're

507
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:11,920
Speaker 1: really just kind of like a form of a customer, right, So,

508
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 1: like how do you like articulate a vision to your customers,

509
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: whether they're paying you or they're investing in you. So

510
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:20,399
Speaker 1: it's important to be able to think about that so

511
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:22,840
Speaker 1: that you're not asking for more than you need because

512
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:24,399
Speaker 1: to your point, like that capital is not doing you

513
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,119
Speaker 1: any good just sitting in a bank like that is

514
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,479
Speaker 1: money for growth from a VC perspective, So you've got

515
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:32,159
Speaker 1: to be able to allocate it in a way that

516
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,159
Speaker 1: accommodates and also enables growth. And so I think it's

517
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 1: important for entrepreneurs to understand that because I talk to

518
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,520
Speaker 1: some founders who think they can just raise and raise

519
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,119
Speaker 1: and raise, like, no, slow down, what do you need

520
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,119
Speaker 1: right now to get you from from point A to

521
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 1: point B? And you got to use that capital accordingly.

522
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean I've even told founders of the

523
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,639
Speaker 2: people that work in the past too, right, like raising

524
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 2: money sometimes is a full time job.

525
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:54,080
Speaker 1: You know.

526
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 2: I don't think people really kind of understand they kind

527
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 2: of think is you know, I think that there are

528
00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:58,440
Speaker 2: times when you raise and there are times when you

529
00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 2: kind of go to work because the amount of work

530
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 2: that it takes to go out and have those conversations

531
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,480
Speaker 2: to tailor pitches the different vcs, to make the time

532
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:08,640
Speaker 2: to do follow ups and have them do their due

533
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 2: diligence like that can take a toll in a company

534
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,720
Speaker 2: as well. So what do you think about that? Like,

535
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 2: is there kind of a time to raise, it a

536
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 2: time to build, or you think you should always be raising.

537
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 1: I think you should always be raising, or at least

538
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 1: at least I have that mindset. I think look, listen, listen.

539
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,240
Speaker 1: You can look at even like open ai. Open Ai

540
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,440
Speaker 1: just close what one hundred and sixty billion dollars valuation

541
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,680
Speaker 1: for fundraising and they raised earlier in the year, and

542
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 1: that's one of this is one of the largest private

543
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 1: companies in the world. I mean, they're valued more than

544
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: many companies that are being publicly traded right right now.

545
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,879
Speaker 1: So when you think about like what your mindset should be,

546
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 1: should always be in a mindset of like I'm always raising,

547
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:48,600
Speaker 1: even if you're not necessarily going to pitching, you've got

548
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 1: to constantly think, especially like in the space that we're in,

549
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 1: you know, with AI and how expensive it is to

550
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 1: train models, how expensive it is to leverage the infrastructure

551
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,639
Speaker 1: of an open ai or a Microsoft or a Google,

552
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: Like it's very expensive. So you've got to have that

553
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:07,239
Speaker 1: mentality of just always raising. I know people don't want

554
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,960
Speaker 1: to hear that, but that is a reality because it

555
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,480
Speaker 1: takes so much capital in a lot of cases to

556
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 1: be able to scale that. So when I talk to

557
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,160
Speaker 1: founders about just kind of like the mindset around fundraising,

558
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 1: there's also an emotional toll that it takes on you too,

559
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 1: because you're getting told no. You might have one hundred

560
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: calls and you're probably getting ninety nine point five percent

561
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,119
Speaker 1: are going to be a no. It's rare that a

562
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 1: lot of times in you know, a span of fifty calls,

563
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,639
Speaker 1: one hundred calls with investors that you're going to get

564
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,359
Speaker 1: a yes and so, and sometimes investors don't follow up,

565
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: or sometimes they ghost you, or sometimes you're not really

566
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,880
Speaker 1: clear on what next steps look like. So you wonder,

567
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 1: like what do I need to do to be investable?

568
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,879
Speaker 1: And I have a lot of founders be like I

569
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,159
Speaker 1: thought I was having a great dialogue with an investor

570
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 1: and they just completely ghosted me. And so that process

571
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,800
Speaker 1: emotionally in addition to the fact that it is time consuming,

572
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:56,680
Speaker 1: like you talked about, it is a full time job

573
00:23:57,119 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 1: to fundraise, fundraise effectively, and it's not easy, you know.

574
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 1: So I have to salute all the entrepreneurs, all the founders.

575
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: I'm not a founder. I've been an operator. I've worked

576
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: for startups, and I know how that that grind can

577
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: be and especially if you're the founder, you're the CEO,

578
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,359
Speaker 1: and like it sits with you when people are just

579
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 1: like no, like your idea, your baby, no. You know,

580
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 1: it's tough. It's tough, and I, you know, in my role,

581
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: like I say no a lot. I mean I try

582
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 1: to say it, you know, with a smile on my face,

583
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 1: try not to be a jerk about it. But I

584
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,200
Speaker 1: mean I have to say no a lot, and you know,

585
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: it's part of the job. But I think for entrepreneurs understanding,

586
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: at least from my perspective, it is not personal. It

587
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 1: is strictly about business and you've got to be able

588
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,119
Speaker 1: to articulate why your business is going to be a

589
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: business that an investor you know, ultimately wants to invest in.

590
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 2: You bring up a good point and something I definitely

591
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 2: want to touch on, you know. Like one of the

592
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,159
Speaker 2: things I've definitely heard and even experienced myself is a

593
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,399
Speaker 2: lot of times, especially for founders of color, sometimes it

594
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 2: is hard for us to raise money or you know,

595
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 2: for lots of different reasons. Right Sometimes again, I've look,

596
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 2: I'm a Georgia's head guy. I've been in the pitch

597
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 2: meetings and I've seen groups of people that don't look

598
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,399
Speaker 2: like me, you know, get opportunities that I feel like

599
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 2: I should have gotten. Sometimes it could be sometimes there's

600
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 2: a better idea. Sometimes it feel like there's a little

601
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 2: bit bias in there because certain investors honestly like to

602
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 2: invest with certain types of people, right Like, they've invest

603
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 2: in people that they feel like, you know, they have

604
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 2: a history of doing certain things, and especially for founders

605
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 2: of color, we have a challenge with that, and I

606
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 2: think that's why it's so important with what you're doing now. Again,

607
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 2: not to say that just because somebody comes to you

608
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 2: and they're black, they get a check, But you know,

609
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:40,679
Speaker 2: what is it that founders of color can do when

610
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 2: they're going out in here and pitching whoever they're pitching

611
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 2: to make themselves you know, more interesting and more like,

612
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 2: you know, somebody want to actually invest in them.

613
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's a great, great topic, and

614
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 1: I wish we had more time because it's honestly something

615
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: we can spend a lot of time on. I think

616
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 1: one of the biggest opportunities I see, especially like in

617
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: our community, is we've got to get outside of some

618
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: of our our networks and get inside of some of

619
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: these other networks. So you talk, you brought up a

620
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: great point with you know, being at Georgia Tech and

621
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,159
Speaker 1: seeing and being around kind of the startup culture and

622
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 1: around the ecosystem, and there are all these different bubbles

623
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: in cities like Atlanta, especially when it comes to like

624
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,159
Speaker 1: startup funding and startup allocation, and so thinking about like

625
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 1: where are these bubbles, where are these groups? A lot

626
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: of the investing that happens is folks that are in

627
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 1: your circles, Folks that you know, like when I talk,

628
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: when I think about the companies that we've invested in,

629
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 1: in some cases it's been companies that were referred to

630
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: us from people that we trusted. So those are other

631
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 1: investors sometimes other founders that we've invested in. So there

632
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 1: does kind of become this kind of cyclical like effect

633
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,959
Speaker 1: of people that are in your network who are referring like, hey,

634
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: here's a deal you know that either we passed on

635
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: or we think is a really good opportunity. You should

636
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 1: check it out. Hey know the founder, I've worked with them,

637
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: I think he's really good. Fitch, you guy's thesis. So

638
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: from an investor standpoint, we all kind of have a

639
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 1: similar kind of discerning eye. So if somebody's going to say, hey,

640
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: I think you should take a look at this, you're like,

641
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: you're more willing as an investor because it's somebody in

642
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,680
Speaker 1: your network. So the advice I would give to founders

643
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 1: and this isn't easy, So I don't want to make

644
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: it seem like it's this easy. But I think it's

645
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 1: stepping outside of our networks and getting into some of

646
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: these other networks, whether it's other investor networks, other entrepreneur

647
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: networks that are going to get you more exposure for

648
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,400
Speaker 1: what you're doing and what you're building, that will give

649
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,280
Speaker 1: you access in theory to other investors who maybe don't

650
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: look like you and could potentially give you a shot.

651
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 1: And I think also I've heard this mentioned a lot

652
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: of times where people feel like, especially for underrepresented founders,

653
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,360
Speaker 1: that we're over mentored and underfunded, and I think there's

654
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: some truth to that. But I do think it's important

655
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: to make sure that you're building a world class company,

656
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: and sometimes you do need to go through an accelerator

657
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 1: or a pitch competition, or have a mentor or have

658
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: an advisor who's connected or has a network that can

659
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: help you and get you to that next stage, as

660
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: far as the next stage may be, Hey I want

661
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: to raise my first amount of capital, or hey I

662
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: need help find in my first customer, right, who can

663
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: I plug in with that has access and can help

664
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: me and can get me to that next level. So

665
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,160
Speaker 1: I think it's important to think about what our networks

666
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: look like because that's ultimately this is a relationship game, right,

667
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: And so if you don't have the right relationships, it's

668
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: going to be tough no matter who you are to

669
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,160
Speaker 1: raise capital. And so I think there's a huge opportunity there.

670
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 1: And I'm always happy to talk to founder met talk founders.

671
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: Literally that's my job. So I talk to founders every day,

672
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 1: but I try to share that with them. Like you

673
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: got to think, you know, globally around like what are

674
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: your needs and who can help you get to that

675
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 1: next inflection point as a business and even as a

676
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: person as a CEO, as a founder. So it's important

677
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: to really kind of step outside of those networks and

678
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: find where the resources that can help you again with

679
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,479
Speaker 1: funding or finding customers, or getting getting the name out,

680
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: getting the word out about what you're building.

681
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean you know, like like you just

682
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 2: mentioned open AI, right, Like you know, Sam Altman the

683
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 2: president of open Ai, but he was also the president

684
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:05,479
Speaker 2: of why Combinated, right and why combedyd created all these

685
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 2: amazing startups and drop Box and everything in between. Right,

686
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 2: So he had that huge network of people that not

687
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 2: not only that, but he actually got placed as a

688
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 2: president had a network. Then he's had a network. He's

689
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 2: been able to invest in a lot of these companies

690
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 2: because I believe he's not even taking a salary right now,

691
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 2: you know, because he made so much damn money startups.

692
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: Now, well that's about to change now, but you're right change.

693
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it's gonna change completely. But yes, he

694
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: I mean, but that's ultimately kind of where where he

695
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: started with. And it's these networks and even here in Atlanta.

696
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got these networks that have just been tremendous.

697
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: You know. You think about the work like the David

698
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: Cummings you know, has done with Atlanta Ventures, Atlanta Tech Village,

699
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: and he's created so many have been a part of

700
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: so many successful companies in Atlanta, Like you know, Calendly

701
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: is a great example. You know, sales Loft, you know Terminus.

702
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: I mean, there's been some fantastic companies and if you

703
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: look at where that has been over the last twenty years,

704
00:29:57,360 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: he is a perfect example of that. And it's created

705
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: the the fantastic companies with these great founders who were

706
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: in these networks. So it's important, Like the networking piece

707
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 1: is like critically important. So I can't say that enough

708
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: to founders who are listening, Like, you've got to be connected,

709
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: and you got to make a real effort to get connected,

710
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: you know, into the ecosystem.

711
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out to David from Atlanta Tech Village. But

712
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 2: you are also the president of Atlanta Tech Week. Yeah,

713
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 2: one of the founders or the founder of AI Tinkers.

714
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: Right, not the founder. We launched the AA Tinkers Atlanta chapter.

715
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: Shout out to my guy Joe Heitzberg, who is the

716
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: CEO founder of AI Tinkerers. Tinkerers is global, Okay, you

717
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 1: could literally go to any continent outside of Antarctica and

718
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: find an AI tinker meet up somewhere happening like right now.

719
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 1: So just you know, big shout out to Joe allowing

720
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: me my guy Andrew Tabot with Lean Squad to lead

721
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 1: that for Atlanta. So we just launched AI Tinkerers a

722
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: couple months ago our first event, our first partnership was

723
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:56,479
Speaker 1: with Google. Shout out to the team of Google, my guy, Breise, Louis, Moritz, Disha,

724
00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 1: everybody over there at Google who'd just been tremendous partners

725
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: to work with. And then we had our second event,

726
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: you know, with BAM and Microsoft. So shout out to

727
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: John McKinley America Smith, excuse me, just tremendous partnerships that

728
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 1: we've had where people see at the same way I

729
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: see it, where I believe Atlanta's the next global AI hub,

730
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: and the talent is here, the tech talent is here,

731
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: the startups are here, the infrastructure and ecosystem is here.

732
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: We just got to make it happen. And it's events

733
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 1: like AI Tinkerers that are truly bringing together AI developers,

734
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: AI ecosystem builders, program managers, engineers, technical founders, and they're

735
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,479
Speaker 1: coming to these events and they're finding community, they're finding

736
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: potential co founders, they're finding hey, I needed a full

737
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: stack engineer. Hey great, we can, let's make something happen.

738
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: Or they're just hearing these presentations from the community, like

739
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: people are building and using AI in all kinds of ways,

740
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 1: from as simple as Hey, let me just go go

741
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: to chat GPT put in a prompt around how to

742
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: do my homework or how to do something really simply

743
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 1: to like really building like the infrastructure behind some of

744
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: the most complicated and complex technologies in AI that we're

745
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 1: seeing today. So you're finding like that cross section and

746
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: it's just been really cool to help like cultivate and

747
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: curate those experiences so far.

748
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was really interesting to me again because

749
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:10,640
Speaker 2: we were talking about like technical co founders to just

750
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 2: you know, the reality is, yeah, a couple of years ago,

751
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 2: if you didn't know how to code, you had to

752
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 2: go find somebody. You still need to go find a

753
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 2: person or a technical co founder now, but the amount

754
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 2: of knowledge you can get one and using these AI

755
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 2: tools to you know, build little things, build scripts, kind

756
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 2: of help you get to an MVP a lot faster.

757
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 2: It is very interesting. Then you put that on top

758
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 2: of a tool like a cursor AI for example, right,

759
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 2: like if you can code, that makes you ten times

760
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:33,959
Speaker 2: more efficient.

761
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: Absolutely.

762
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:36,560
Speaker 3: I guess my question for you is like, what are.

763
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 2: The trends you're seeing from an AI standpoint that people

764
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 2: if they're getting ready to build, they should be building

765
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 2: something they shouldn't be building it for like right now,

766
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 2: they should be building it you know, for the future essentially,

767
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 2: and the future is really moving really quickly because of AI.

768
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 2: So what are some of the trends you think you

769
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 2: know that people could you know, jump on some of

770
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 2: those ways for over the next couple of years and

771
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 2: build you know.

772
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 1: The next big thing with Yeah, I think the biggest

773
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: thing right now is like agents.

774
00:32:58,080 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 3: Agents.

775
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, so when we talk about agents, you know,

776
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: agents are really like from an infrastructure level, are going

777
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: to be these automations that do work for you as

778
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: an organization. So what I mean by that is that

779
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: if I have an agent that's able to aggregate data,

780
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: is able to manage data that I have, and do

781
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 1: it wherever we're you know, a lot of times you

782
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: would have needed like another person, You would have needed

783
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: like someone who's super you know, either hands on with

784
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: the product to execute some of these tasks. Now you

785
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: have agents that you can train to do these things

786
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,840
Speaker 1: for you, which helps simplify and automate a lot of

787
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: these different workflows. Like a great examples inside of healthcare

788
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: and just kind of thinking about you have these really

789
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 1: complicated processes like for revenue cycle management. Think of things

790
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: of like denials management, Like if you get denied for

791
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: an insurance claim, there's a real like manual process to

792
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: manage that. So just think about if you have a

793
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 1: AI that could automate when you get that denial letter

794
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: and also automate when you respond back like hey, I

795
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: disagree with this assessment. AI is communicating that. So I

796
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 1: think like how technology is going to be built is

797
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 1: going to be in the agent space. I think also

798
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: like AI assistants, which are slightly different but really you're

799
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: more like kind of an application built on top of

800
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: a large language model. You know. AI assistant could be

801
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 1: something that helps you keep up with your tasks, something

802
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:22,800
Speaker 1: that you could ask questions to, something that becomes like

803
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: a companion, you know, something that you confide into, something

804
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:27,919
Speaker 1: that helps you get more healthy or get more fit,

805
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: you know, more productive with certain tasks. So I think

806
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 1: like AI assistance is like one place that's like under tapped,

807
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:36,280
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of companies building in that space.

808
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:38,320
Speaker 1: But I think AI agents, which kind of goes a

809
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:40,839
Speaker 1: little bit deeper into the infrastructure of how these AI

810
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 1: you know, organizations are built and how companies will soon

811
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 1: be built, you won't need as many people in the future.

812
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 1: You're going to need fewer people because you could just

813
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:50,440
Speaker 1: train AI to do a lot of the work that

814
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 1: we've been doing for the last however long. So I

815
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,319
Speaker 1: think like those are some of the trends that we're

816
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 1: taking like a really close look at and seeing some

817
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: of the industries that are like ripe for disruption, like manufacturing,

818
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,840
Speaker 1: I mentioned healthcare, marketing. I mean, there's all these places

819
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,800
Speaker 1: that have been like very manual that maybe won't necessarily

820
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: replace a human, but might augment the work and make

821
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 1: you more productive as an employee at your job.

822
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I said, you know, you might not lose

823
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 2: your job AI, but you can definitely lose your job

824
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 2: a person knows how to use AI. Yeah, And I

825
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,239
Speaker 2: think what people have to understand is over the next

826
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 2: couple of years is this AI becomes more you know,

827
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 2: integrated into everything, the marginal cost of knowledge is going

828
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 2: to essentially go to zero. So in other words, you know,

829
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:33,719
Speaker 2: you used to have to go to a lawyer and

830
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 2: accountant and get charged, you know, three hundred dollars an

831
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 2: hour just for basic research. To your point, now you

832
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 2: can tap int like some of these large language models.

833
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:42,320
Speaker 1: Or you know.

834
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,760
Speaker 2: So again there's there's Maria out here besides chat gipt pell,

835
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 2: I just want to say that right now, there's moriau

836
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:49,799
Speaker 2: Beside chat gipt. One of my ones that I've loved

837
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 2: to use lately is a lot of notebook LM for example.

838
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 2: So you can literally go to notebook LM. You can

839
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 2: drop in, you know, hundreds of documents about you know,

840
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,120
Speaker 2: legal cases, and then it will literally create a summary.

841
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,479
Speaker 2: You can create a podcast for you Yeah, it'll literally

842
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,560
Speaker 2: take all that information create a podcast with two different

843
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 2: people talking about it. So if you're kind of a

844
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 2: more audio based learning like I am sometimes and I'm

845
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 2: always on the move, I could just pop this in,

846
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:15,040
Speaker 2: listen to it in the car and get educated about

847
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 2: all these cases and then even talk to and ask

848
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 2: you questions. Right, So, this stuff is coming, and I

849
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 2: think a lot of people don't understand that. They think

850
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,399
Speaker 2: the disruption is just going to be like on one side,

851
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 2: but it's going to be able to touch in so

852
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 2: many different industries. Yeah, what are some of the energy

853
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 2: that you think are kind of like getting right for disruption,

854
00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 2: you know, beyond you said manufacturing, what are some other ones?

855
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like I said, manufacturing, I think healthcare,

856
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:38,320
Speaker 1: I think marketing. I mean, I think honestly it's like

857
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: I think those areas of first you mentioned, like even

858
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 1: legal potentially, like things that have been highly regulated are

859
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: going to now be changed when you think about like

860
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 1: the integration of AI and just with the capacity and

861
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: capabilities that AI can do, is they can do a

862
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 1: lot more, you know, with with less hands. And so

863
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,839
Speaker 1: I think, like any industry, again highly regulated, I think

864
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 1: is definitely right for disruption. I think also like how

865
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 1: these technologies are built is going to be a really

866
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: critical point, especially in the highly regulated spaces. So, you know,

867
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: early this week this week in Atlanta for anybody who's unfamiliar,

868
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: is you know, Venture Atlanta Week. And so we had

869
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 1: a conversation shout out to my folks with Black VC,

870
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: Slawson and Co Collapse Capital SBB. We had an event

871
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,360
Speaker 1: on on Tuesday where we talked about, like you know,

872
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,439
Speaker 1: it was a form around you know, bias in AI

873
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,439
Speaker 1: and inclusivity in AI and like what does that look

874
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 1: like on the types of data that this these AIS

875
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,280
Speaker 1: are being fed. How do we make sure and ensure

876
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 1: that it's like it's being done responsibly, being done ethically,

877
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:41,800
Speaker 1: and so how the technology is going to be leveraged

878
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,799
Speaker 1: inside of these organizations, especially the industries that we talk

879
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: about that are ripe for disruption is a is a

880
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 1: critical part because if we don't have these these ais

881
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:57,319
Speaker 1: trained on being inclusive of different looking people, underrepresented organizations

882
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: and groups, gender roles. I mean, there's so many different

883
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,399
Speaker 1: areas where this data doesn't always reflect people from multicultural

884
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: or from diverse backgrounds. So it's important that that data

885
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 1: is up to date, it's inclusive, you know, of the

886
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: entire community, and inclusive of a larger data set, which

887
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: ultimately will make the AI smarter. AI is only as

888
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 1: smart as the data that you're feeding it, so it's

889
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 1: important that we're thoughtful also about like what type of

890
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 1: data that is being trained on to make sure that

891
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: it's inclusive of all of us. Otherwise we're going to

892
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: lead to a lot of the same outcomes that are

893
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,440
Speaker 1: going to be even worse because the technology is going

894
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,520
Speaker 1: to be embedded into how these companies are built.

895
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again I think you said something earlier. Something earlier.

896
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:38,800
Speaker 3: It was also very interesting.

897
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,880
Speaker 2: It's just it's not always the big sexy thing, you know,

898
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:44,800
Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunity in some very boring manual

899
00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 2: processes and businesses that a lot of people overlook. So

900
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 2: if you're in some of these organizations, if you're in

901
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 2: a company and you have a good understanding of how

902
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 2: different processs might work, and you're like, you know, this

903
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:56,280
Speaker 2: could be more efficient, like that could be the spark

904
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 2: that leads to an amazing idea, right, Like you don't

905
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 2: have to be come up with new innovation, Like I said,

906
00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 2: you might be innovating denial letters for insurance companies, whereas

907
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 2: the average person doesn't see that kind of thing. Because

908
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 2: you're in there and you understand the process and you've

909
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 2: done it, you see a unique opportunity, right.

910
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean in another industry like accounting, Yeah, right,

911
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 1: Like these industries that are like very manual, very rules based.

912
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,040
Speaker 1: There's a certain methodology for how certain things are processed

913
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: or done. Those are one hundred percent with AI is

914
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,320
Speaker 1: like perfect at right, And so when you think about

915
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 1: like these industries that are just ripe construction, you know,

916
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:32,880
Speaker 1: we talk about manufacturing a little bit like these areas

917
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:34,839
Speaker 1: where it's like, okay, there's rules in place on how

918
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 1: certain things have to be done. You can easily train

919
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: an AI to do something very similar, if not better

920
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 1: than how it's being done manually. And so like those

921
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 1: are the areas that we look at were like wow,

922
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: like okay, there could be a huge company. And there

923
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: will be huge companies because AI is replatforming almost every industry,

924
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 1: you know, So even if it's not necessarily you know,

925
00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:58,320
Speaker 1: something that may seem obvious, there's going to be some

926
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:01,439
Speaker 1: level of machine learning or AI that is like really

927
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:04,800
Speaker 1: going behind the scenes and making that a more efficient process.

928
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,279
Speaker 1: So all of that is happening, you know, like in

929
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 1: real time.

930
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 2: And I know we're talking about tech, but one thing

931
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 2: I think is also important is that you know, everybody

932
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:15,800
Speaker 2: I always say everybody doesn't have to be a founder.

933
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,360
Speaker 2: Everybody's not a CEO. There's a lot of people that

934
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,720
Speaker 2: are very stressed out because they're trying to build companies

935
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:23,560
Speaker 2: and maybe a lot better as a number three, number four, number.

936
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,920
Speaker 3: Ten in an organization.

937
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 2: Just if you want to get into this space, but

938
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 2: you don't necessarily see yourself as a founder, maybe you're

939
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 2: not super technical. You know, everybody's not a developer by trade,

940
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 2: Like where are some other areas that people can get

941
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 2: kind of involved in this.

942
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 3: AI space because I'll tell you this.

943
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:39,879
Speaker 2: I will say this, and I think this is something

944
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,279
Speaker 2: people overlook a lot is there are a lot of

945
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 2: ways to make money that don't require you to actually

946
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:45,919
Speaker 2: be a cod or. I have a friend of mine,

947
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 2: his wife worked at Airbnb and customer service, and you know,

948
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 2: she came there when they already probably had five hundred employees.

949
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 2: They hadn't gone I think they may be at ipo'd already.

950
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,479
Speaker 2: But because she was there, she got equity. She became

951
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 2: a millionaire working in customers. So I think one thing

952
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 2: people should also be looking at is what are some

953
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 2: of the companies that will be evolved on the next

954
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,760
Speaker 2: couple of years. If you're actually you know, if that's

955
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 2: a way to for you to build wealth, look at

956
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 2: these companies that are you know, that are getting big,

957
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 2: that are that are getting investments, that are growing. Find

958
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:15,880
Speaker 2: out how you can kind of be a part of that.

959
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 2: But to my earlier question, like, what are some other

960
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:20,840
Speaker 2: roles just in the AI space, maybe if you're not

961
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:22,719
Speaker 2: as technical, that it might make sense for somebody to

962
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 2: look at to get involved in so they can kind

963
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 2: of ride the wave and benefit from all these changes.

964
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 1: Happen. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think and that's a

965
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: great example. Like I'll raise my hand. I'm non technical,

966
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: so I didn't come from a technical background. I'm not

967
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 1: a founder. You know. I've worked for startups, but I've

968
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,479
Speaker 1: never been a founder. So there are many different types

969
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 1: of roles. Everybody, to your point, who's in technology is

970
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 1: not necessarily coding software day in and day out. There

971
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: are other skills, there are people skills you mentioned, like

972
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: customer service. I think customer service is another space that's

973
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 1: going to be disrupted.

974
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, I saw something this morning about it.

975
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:54,719
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, customer service is a space where whether

976
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: you're talking about a call center, whether you're just talking

977
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 1: about like customer care, customer support, customer success. I mean,

978
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 1: there's all these roles that still will very much involve people.

979
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:05,919
Speaker 1: You look at the data, the data shows people still

980
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,719
Speaker 1: want to interact with people people. They will interact with

981
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 1: an AI to an end, but they ultimately want to

982
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:12,960
Speaker 1: have that human touch. So there's still going to be

983
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,520
Speaker 1: a lot of these spaces. We talked about marketing. I

984
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: think you can have some marketing that's maybe like a

985
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:22,560
Speaker 1: marketing copy that's done with AI, but I don't think

986
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 1: that you're going to completely eliminate the imagination of a

987
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 1: highly creative marketer, right, So, I think like there are

988
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,920
Speaker 1: spaces that we're still see a big you know, like

989
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 1: human presence in that the AI is going to augment

990
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,799
Speaker 1: the work. It'll make you more productive, it'll be more

991
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 1: of an assistant. Hey, I'm a marketer. I just need

992
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,360
Speaker 1: a copy written real quick. Damn, let me go to

993
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,280
Speaker 1: Chad GPT and knock that out. But I'm still executing.

994
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 1: I'm still creating the creative behind the design. So there's

995
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 1: still these spaces. But I think we just got to

996
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: be thoughtful about when and how we use AI. But ultimately,

997
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,360
Speaker 1: I think like customer support, customer service, like that's a

998
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: huge piece Again. People want to talk to people, even

999
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 1: though there are AIS that now sound exactly like people

1000
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: that you might talk to in a customer service or

1001
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 1: onboard and call, but people want to know that there's

1002
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: a human touch at the end of the day.

1003
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:09,840
Speaker 3: Absolutely.

1004
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 2: Well, look, man, this has been an amazing conversation. Before

1005
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 2: we get out of here, what's one piece of advice

1006
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 2: you give to like an early stage founder, you know,

1007
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:19,399
Speaker 2: somebody that is really interested in working with a company

1008
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 2: like drive capital again, get some of that rocket fuel

1009
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 2: to take their business to the next level.

1010
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, if you're a founder out there and you're building,

1011
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,120
Speaker 1: like connect with me, right. Like if I had to

1012
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 1: give some advice on that, I would say, whatever you're

1013
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 1: gonna do, like half conviction behind it, Like don't try

1014
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:39,759
Speaker 1: to jump into this because oh, you're just trying to

1015
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:41,759
Speaker 1: raise capital or oh you think it's cool to be

1016
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: a founder. A lot of times being a founder is

1017
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: not cool, and it can be lonely, and it can

1018
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:48,800
Speaker 1: be frustrating, could be a grind, it could be stressful,

1019
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 1: and so getting into it for the right reasons. The

1020
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: founders that I've seen that have been successful, like they

1021
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,719
Speaker 1: care deeply about the problem that they're solving, and so

1022
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 1: that's the fuel because you're going to need that on

1023
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 1: those days you don't want to get out of bed,

1024
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: on those days where you've got ten TH's in a

1025
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,640
Speaker 1: row from customers and from investors and you feel like,

1026
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,399
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this anymore. It's that why,

1027
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 1: Like what is your why? Understanding that as a founder

1028
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:15,360
Speaker 1: and the entrepreneur is ultimately like that's the piece that

1029
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: I would hope that anybody listening like comes away from

1030
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,360
Speaker 1: this from or like have a real sense of like

1031
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:22,279
Speaker 1: being grounded. And what you're doing is for what are

1032
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: the reasons you're doing it for? And ultimately is to

1033
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 1: solve big problems that we have in the world, which

1034
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:28,879
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them. So how do you create

1035
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: something that solves it in a meaningful way? And if

1036
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:34,280
Speaker 1: you do it right, the rest of it hopefully ultimately

1037
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:36,520
Speaker 1: will work out. But doing it for the right reasons,

1038
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 1: evaluating your why, and then just just leaning in and

1039
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,720
Speaker 1: making it happen. And if you're a founder in Atlanta

1040
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 1: or thinking about Atlanta and you want to build a big,

1041
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:50,720
Speaker 1: massive startup, please reach out to me Avalon Bingham on LinkedIn.

1042
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,720
Speaker 1: You can find me in a lot of different different

1043
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,399
Speaker 1: outlets and also on different social media platforms, but please

1044
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: reach out. I would love to have a conversation absolutely.

1045
00:44:58,160 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 3: Avalon, thank you so much for pulling up. This has

1046
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 3: been a mint And that's the pod. Y'all.

1047
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:05,239
Speaker 2: You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,

1048
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 2: Brandon Butler. Comments feedback. Want to be a part of

1049
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 2: the show, send us an email today at Hello at

1050
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 2: butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia

1051
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,359
Speaker 2: at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with marketing support from Queen and Nike.

1052
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,799
Speaker 2: Music provided by mister Hanky. If you haven't already hit

1053
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:23,400
Speaker 2: that subscribe button, then never missed an episode and be

1054
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,680
Speaker 2: sure to follow us on all our social platforms at

1055
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:28,759
Speaker 2: butter dot at L. Listen to button Nomics on the

1056
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:32,360
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.