September 18, 2025 • 11 mins
Chon Nguyen started his career in the kitchen. As he shares on this episode of CEOs You Should Know, he became an entrepreneur but never left restaurants behind. Today he builds high-impact businesses at the intersection of technology and hospitality. He’s the founder of and CEO of Newgentek, an IT service provider offering a help desk, field services, technology infrastructure, and strategy for companies and restaurants without an IT department. He’s also the co-founder of FusionPrep, an iPad-based kitchen management platform used by restaurant operators to handle everything from food safety compliance to recipe management to operational checklists. On top of all that he’s a partner at Proper House Group, a restaurant group that has been recognized on the Florida Michelin Guide and with Bib Gourmand Awards. He’s been interested in technology since he got his first computer as a kid and talks about where we’re headed with automation and AI, how they complement each other, and why we’ll always need experts to rely on.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Bob Pittman. While Math and Magic is on break,
we're sharing with you CEOs you should know who visit
at iHeartRadio stations across America. If you're a business junkie
like I am, I think you'll enjoy hearing some personal
stories from successful CEOs. Today's conversation is hosted by morning
show host Ryan Gorman, and I'll be back with a
new season of Mathemagic soon.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Joining me in studio, I have Sean Nushan, founder and
CEO of New Gen Tech. He's also co founder of
Fusion Prep and partner at proper House Group. Shan, thanks
so much for taking a few minutes to come in.
And you've got a lot of things going on here. Yeah,
a lot of different companies talk about. Let's start with
new Gen Tech and the work that you do there.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah. New GenTech is a managed IT service provider, so
we do outsourced it for companies that don't have an
IT department or might have just a few people that
are focused on strategy, and we handle everything they might
needs to have a help desk. We have engineering, support,
field services.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And that's crucial because nobody who's working anywhere wants to
go through a situation where their stuff isn't working.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Absolutely, yeah, And we also do a little bit different
from some other MSPs, but we also do a lot
of workplace technology and technology infrastructure, so we do a
lot of the cabling and physical work. You know, a
lot of people are focused on you know, being remote
and taus all things remotely, but we're in the field
and on the ground and in the offices with our customers.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And do you find especially smaller businesses, medium sized businesses
when it comes to putting that infrastructure together. That's got
to be something where a lot of them they don't
even know where to begin.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, it's just you know, it's good to have a
partner that is focused on that so they can focus
on the things that they know best and do best.
And so we always say we keep them up and
running so they can focus on the things that they
do best.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
And that's got to be an industry where things have
grown exponentially in recent years.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Right, definitely. I mean just I mean I've been doing
it since I was a kid pretty much, and yeah,
there's always changes, you know. Now it's you know, the
big AI an automation and just like any business you're
always looking to try to do more with less, and
technology really allows them to do that, and we try
to stay on the on the forefront of that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Let's talk about fusion prep because this is really interesting.
Explain what that business does.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so at new GenTech, we part of our business
we work with hospitality companies, so we'll do restaurant it
for restaurants and audio video. I was in the kitchen
probably about twelve thirteen years ago now, and one of
the chefs approached me and said that they were having
a hard time kind of keeping everything in sync across
all of the locations. They had a paper recipe binder.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And oh wow book, yeah, and you know.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
There's you know, food crusted on it, but you know,
they were he just we were just you know, going
back and forth, and he said, you know, there has
to be a better way to do this. And a
friend of mine that had grown up with me and
was also a fellow you know, tech nerd, and one
weekend we just built out this very simple version for
them to keep everything in sync. And it just started
growing from there and they started using it and so
(03:11):
now it's a food it's a digital kitchen solution. But
it handles all food safety compliance oh wow, recipe management,
operational checklists and.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So basically you took the chaos of the bear and
you organized that's it, yeah, digitally, Yeah, but yeah, we
take paper out of the kitchen and make sure everything
is labeled and safe and handle training.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And we're in about thirty seven hundred restaurants now around
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Just started off as a weekend side hustle.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know, your weekend side hustle is much different from
the weekend side hustles of a lot of other people.
And while we're on the hospitality topic, that's what you
do at Proper House Group.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, we's same thing. I just on the journey. I
was a customer at Rooster in the till small restaurant
someoneal Heights, was about thirty seats at the time. They
had been operating for a couple of years. But just
went in and told them that I saw they were
kind of handwriting their labels like most people do in
the kitchen and told them about Fusion Prep and we
(04:14):
put it in for them and just became friends. And Ferrell,
my partner, and I were at lunch one day and
we walked by the site that is now the Nebraska
minimarret and I told them that I would love to
get involved from a business standpoint, and we built that
out and then I became partners and everything else. And
now fast forward to today and we have ten restaurants
(04:35):
that our ninth and tenth open today.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Actually, more on CEOs you should know after this quick break,
let's get back to more CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You mentioned that you've been doing this kind of stuff,
this work in technology since you were a kid. Yeah,
you just found it interesting and ractially did you teach yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I got my first computer kind of the typical story.
My parents, you know, put it in front of me,
and I just took off and was very curious about it.
I got my Microsoft certification in high school, my MCS
I was at the time. I was one of the
youngest in the country. Now, of course they do this
normally in high school, but but yeah, I just I
(05:23):
got that certification and knew early on that that technology
was going to be, you know, a focus for me.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How much have things changed from when you first started
getting into it to where we are today.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I can only imagine, I mean, it changes, yeah, so quickly.
I think the big thing for me, especially as I
got into business. I would always think like, eventually this
will be so easy that maybe people might not need help,
you know. And I guess that was a naive approach,
but thankfully, you know, it just continues to get more
complex and and you know, you use it as a
(05:58):
tool and and and we know the tools.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So from what you've seen, let's talk about AI for
a moment. Yeah, where are we headed?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I mean, it's going to change. It is changing work
today our customers. I'm one of the things that I
love most about my job is that I get to
work with people in a bunch of different fields and
verticals and different businesses, and we have a front row seat.
So I think, you know, we look at manufacturing and
how they're using it to interpret data, you know, sales data,
supply chain. You know, we use it to automate workflow,
(06:32):
so onboarding new employees, offboarding new employees, making sure they
get integrated into different systems. But so you know, there's
sort of automation and AI. I think automation is sort
of how can we make things easier, more efficient? And
then AI is really like how are we using you know,
analyzing the data to make better decisions to drive the
business forward. And and so where we really help them
(06:54):
is sort of put to bring everything together. So take
distributed systems, data information, bring it together in a way
that they can and make better decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
From your vantage point, is this something that is going
to take away jobs that's a big concern. Is it
something that is going to be more like an assistant
for those who are working? How do you see it
impacting that the workforce more broadly?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I definitely think it will eliminate some jobs, you know,
hopefully with any transition that me and people are you know,
uh move to other you know areas where they can
provide value. But it's certainly you know, making things easier.
I mean everyone uses chat GPT by now. I feel
like if they're in business just to you know, have
it be a supplement or and aid, but to have
(07:39):
you know, that power behind you to help you automate
tasks and move faster, I think is how I would
describe it. I think it's going to be very disruptive.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Do you find that a lot of the businesses that
you work with, do they have a general idea of
how to make AI work for them? Or we're in
a phase right now where everybody is just maybe a
little overwhelmed and not sure what to do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I think it's a very early stage we have this.
You know, there's a saying in it called shadow it,
but it's it would be if someone you know works
in a large company and then they open up chat
GPT and start dumping corporate data into it's yeah, feedback, right,
and so that's part of you know, sort of what
we what we think about too. But I you certainly
(08:26):
see it more prevalent across them the entire organization, and
people are sort of know what's coming and are doing
their best to figure it out. And so to the
extent we can help them navigate that.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
If you're a smaller medium sized business and you really
haven't gotten started on any of this stuff yet, what
should they know and do you have any any tips
for them based on how you've been working with other
companies and have gotten other companies integrated into all of this.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I think it's like a muscle. I mean, so you know,
you you really just have to you know, try right,
and you tweak the prompts and and of you know,
any tool yeah right, I mean I can think of
the just the other day, you know, negotiating contracts and
reviewing as part of my thing. We obviously have counsel
that we rely on, but as an example, you know,
I can upload those and get feedback quickly so that
(09:16):
you know, you pay by the hour for an attorney,
but I'm sort of going in there with a little
more insight and information that they can shorten that. Yeah,
So I mean that would be one example, but every
day I'm sort of toying with that and having it
open and seeing how best to leverage it.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And last question for you on this and this is,
you know, fantastic insight into this you know thing that
we're all trying to wrap our heads around. The accuracy. Yeah,
that's been a big question too. How much do you
rely on AI? What have you seen?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's always trust but verify for yeah, you know, yeah,
so always double check it. But yeah, I've seen it
sort of that you know, they call it hallucinations, And.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Like with that contract we're talking about, you'll eventually talk
to an attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Absolutely, Yeah, you would never sort of push it right
through you and have somebody sign it. But yeah, it's
a tool and just like anything else that it relies on,
information that it has learned from, and so I think
you're always going to have that. I think you're going
to always need to rely on experts to make sure
that everything is buttoned up.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
For small business owners medium sized companies listening right now
who want to utilize what you can provide, what's the
best way for them to find you and reach out
to you on LinkedIn?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Just search me on LinkedIn, New gen tech dot com,
Fusion Prep dot com, and proper Housegroup dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
All right, Sean NuGen, founder and CEO of New Gen Tech,
co founder of Fusion Prep and partner at Proper House
Group with us for our CEO spotlight. Sean really appreciate
the time and insight. Thanks so much, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
N I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening to CEOs. You
should know we'll see you next time.
Hi, I'm Bob Pittman. While Math and Magic is on break,
we're sharing with you CEOs you should know who visit
at iHeartRadio stations across America. If you're a business junkie
like I am, I think you'll enjoy hearing some personal
stories from successful CEOs. Today's conversation is hosted by morning
show host Ryan Gorman, and I'll be back with a
new season of Mathemagic soon.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Joining me in studio, I have Sean Nushan, founder and
CEO of New Gen Tech. He's also co founder of
Fusion Prep and partner at proper House Group. Shan, thanks
so much for taking a few minutes to come in.
And you've got a lot of things going on here. Yeah,
a lot of different companies talk about. Let's start with
new Gen Tech and the work that you do there.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah. New GenTech is a managed IT service provider, so
we do outsourced it for companies that don't have an
IT department or might have just a few people that
are focused on strategy, and we handle everything they might
needs to have a help desk. We have engineering, support,
field services.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And that's crucial because nobody who's working anywhere wants to
go through a situation where their stuff isn't working.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Absolutely, yeah, And we also do a little bit different
from some other MSPs, but we also do a lot
of workplace technology and technology infrastructure, so we do a
lot of the cabling and physical work. You know, a
lot of people are focused on you know, being remote
and taus all things remotely, but we're in the field
and on the ground and in the offices with our customers.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And do you find especially smaller businesses, medium sized businesses
when it comes to putting that infrastructure together. That's got
to be something where a lot of them they don't
even know where to begin.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, it's just you know, it's good to have a
partner that is focused on that so they can focus
on the things that they know best and do best.
And so we always say we keep them up and
running so they can focus on the things that they
do best.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
And that's got to be an industry where things have
grown exponentially in recent years.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Right, definitely. I mean just I mean I've been doing
it since I was a kid pretty much, and yeah,
there's always changes, you know. Now it's you know, the
big AI an automation and just like any business you're
always looking to try to do more with less, and
technology really allows them to do that, and we try
to stay on the on the forefront of that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Let's talk about fusion prep because this is really interesting.
Explain what that business does.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so at new GenTech, we part of our business
we work with hospitality companies, so we'll do restaurant it
for restaurants and audio video. I was in the kitchen
probably about twelve thirteen years ago now, and one of
the chefs approached me and said that they were having
a hard time kind of keeping everything in sync across
all of the locations. They had a paper recipe binder.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And oh wow book, yeah, and you know.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
There's you know, food crusted on it, but you know,
they were he just we were just you know, going
back and forth, and he said, you know, there has
to be a better way to do this. And a
friend of mine that had grown up with me and
was also a fellow you know, tech nerd, and one
weekend we just built out this very simple version for
them to keep everything in sync. And it just started
growing from there and they started using it and so
(03:11):
now it's a food it's a digital kitchen solution. But
it handles all food safety compliance oh wow, recipe management,
operational checklists and.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So basically you took the chaos of the bear and
you organized that's it, yeah, digitally, Yeah, but yeah, we
take paper out of the kitchen and make sure everything
is labeled and safe and handle training.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And we're in about thirty seven hundred restaurants now around
the country.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Just started off as a weekend side hustle.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know, your weekend side hustle is much different from
the weekend side hustles of a lot of other people.
And while we're on the hospitality topic, that's what you
do at Proper House Group.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, we's same thing. I just on the journey. I
was a customer at Rooster in the till small restaurant
someoneal Heights, was about thirty seats at the time. They
had been operating for a couple of years. But just
went in and told them that I saw they were
kind of handwriting their labels like most people do in
the kitchen and told them about Fusion Prep and we
(04:14):
put it in for them and just became friends. And Ferrell,
my partner, and I were at lunch one day and
we walked by the site that is now the Nebraska
minimarret and I told them that I would love to
get involved from a business standpoint, and we built that
out and then I became partners and everything else. And
now fast forward to today and we have ten restaurants
(04:35):
that our ninth and tenth open today.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Actually, more on CEOs you should know after this quick break,
let's get back to more CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You mentioned that you've been doing this kind of stuff,
this work in technology since you were a kid. Yeah,
you just found it interesting and ractially did you teach yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I got my first computer kind of the typical story.
My parents, you know, put it in front of me,
and I just took off and was very curious about it.
I got my Microsoft certification in high school, my MCS
I was at the time. I was one of the
youngest in the country. Now, of course they do this
normally in high school, but but yeah, I just I
(05:23):
got that certification and knew early on that that technology
was going to be, you know, a focus for me.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How much have things changed from when you first started
getting into it to where we are today.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I can only imagine, I mean, it changes, yeah, so quickly.
I think the big thing for me, especially as I
got into business. I would always think like, eventually this
will be so easy that maybe people might not need help,
you know. And I guess that was a naive approach,
but thankfully, you know, it just continues to get more
complex and and you know, you use it as a
(05:58):
tool and and and we know the tools.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So from what you've seen, let's talk about AI for
a moment. Yeah, where are we headed?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I mean, it's going to change. It is changing work
today our customers. I'm one of the things that I
love most about my job is that I get to
work with people in a bunch of different fields and
verticals and different businesses, and we have a front row seat.
So I think, you know, we look at manufacturing and
how they're using it to interpret data, you know, sales data,
supply chain. You know, we use it to automate workflow,
(06:32):
so onboarding new employees, offboarding new employees, making sure they
get integrated into different systems. But so you know, there's
sort of automation and AI. I think automation is sort
of how can we make things easier, more efficient? And
then AI is really like how are we using you know,
analyzing the data to make better decisions to drive the
business forward. And and so where we really help them
(06:54):
is sort of put to bring everything together. So take
distributed systems, data information, bring it together in a way
that they can and make better decisions.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
From your vantage point, is this something that is going
to take away jobs that's a big concern. Is it
something that is going to be more like an assistant
for those who are working? How do you see it
impacting that the workforce more broadly?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I definitely think it will eliminate some jobs, you know,
hopefully with any transition that me and people are you know,
uh move to other you know areas where they can
provide value. But it's certainly you know, making things easier.
I mean everyone uses chat GPT by now. I feel
like if they're in business just to you know, have
it be a supplement or and aid, but to have
(07:39):
you know, that power behind you to help you automate
tasks and move faster, I think is how I would
describe it. I think it's going to be very disruptive.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Do you find that a lot of the businesses that
you work with, do they have a general idea of
how to make AI work for them? Or we're in
a phase right now where everybody is just maybe a
little overwhelmed and not sure what to do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I think it's a very early stage we have this.
You know, there's a saying in it called shadow it,
but it's it would be if someone you know works
in a large company and then they open up chat
GPT and start dumping corporate data into it's yeah, feedback, right,
and so that's part of you know, sort of what
we what we think about too. But I you certainly
(08:26):
see it more prevalent across them the entire organization, and
people are sort of know what's coming and are doing
their best to figure it out. And so to the
extent we can help them navigate that.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
If you're a smaller medium sized business and you really
haven't gotten started on any of this stuff yet, what
should they know and do you have any any tips
for them based on how you've been working with other
companies and have gotten other companies integrated into all of this.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I think it's like a muscle. I mean, so you know,
you you really just have to you know, try right,
and you tweak the prompts and and of you know,
any tool yeah right, I mean I can think of
the just the other day, you know, negotiating contracts and
reviewing as part of my thing. We obviously have counsel
that we rely on, but as an example, you know,
I can upload those and get feedback quickly so that
(09:16):
you know, you pay by the hour for an attorney,
but I'm sort of going in there with a little
more insight and information that they can shorten that. Yeah,
So I mean that would be one example, but every
day I'm sort of toying with that and having it
open and seeing how best to leverage it.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And last question for you on this and this is,
you know, fantastic insight into this you know thing that
we're all trying to wrap our heads around. The accuracy. Yeah,
that's been a big question too. How much do you
rely on AI? What have you seen?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's always trust but verify for yeah, you know, yeah,
so always double check it. But yeah, I've seen it
sort of that you know, they call it hallucinations, And.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Like with that contract we're talking about, you'll eventually talk
to an attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Absolutely, Yeah, you would never sort of push it right
through you and have somebody sign it. But yeah, it's
a tool and just like anything else that it relies on,
information that it has learned from, and so I think
you're always going to have that. I think you're going
to always need to rely on experts to make sure
that everything is buttoned up.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
For small business owners medium sized companies listening right now
who want to utilize what you can provide, what's the
best way for them to find you and reach out
to you on LinkedIn?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Just search me on LinkedIn, New gen tech dot com,
Fusion Prep dot com, and proper Housegroup dot com.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
All right, Sean NuGen, founder and CEO of New Gen Tech,
co founder of Fusion Prep and partner at Proper House
Group with us for our CEO spotlight. Sean really appreciate
the time and insight. Thanks so much, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
N I'm Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening to CEOs. You
should know we'll see you next time.
Host
Bob Pittman
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