April 14, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of Investing in Accessibility, co-hosts Kelvin Crosby and Chris Maher sit down with Mike Buckley, CEO of Be My Eyes, to explore how the company is blending cutting-edge technology with human kindness to empower the blind and low vision community. Mike shares his unconventional path from corporate consulting and angel investing to leading one of the most impactful accessibility tech companies in the world.
Kelvin, a longtime user of Be My Eyes, offers firsthand insight into how the platform enhances independence in his day-to-day life—from pottery quality control to building unexpected customer relationships. Mike discusses the company’s innovative use of AI and wearables, the philosophy of building with, not for, the community, and how enterprise partnerships allow the service to remain free for users.
They also dive into the economic impact of accessibility, inclusive design, and the upcoming launch of Be My Eyes for Work, a game-changing tool aimed at reducing workplace barriers and boosting employment for the blind and low vision workforce.
This episode is packed with powerful stories, practical insights, and a bold vision for a more inclusive future.
Links & Resources:
- Be My Eyes Website: click here
- Be My Eyes for Business: click here
- Be My Eyes App: click here
- Be My AI Explainer Video: click here
- Be My AI Customer Testimonial Video: click here
- Be My Eyes + Meta Smart Glasses: click here
COMING SOON!
American Sign Language (ASL) and Captioning for each episode will be provided on our YouTube channel. Go to handle @SamaritanPartners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelvin Crosby (00:06):
Welcome to Investing in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast.
We're not waiting for change,we're investing in it.
Join us as we speak withentrepreneurs and thought
leaders that are focused oncreating a more accessible world
.
(00:33):
Hey, hey, hey! So good to seeyou even though I can't see you.
It's another beautiful day inthe neighborhood and I'm so
excited that you're here atInvesting in Accessibility.
And I tell you today I amexcited about today's guest.
This is the product that I usepersonally and I tell you, if
you ever thought about trying todo quality control using
(00:57):
pottery, but build friendshipwith people that want to help
you be able to see your qualitycontrol with your pottery.
Well, this is a software thatI've been using just to do that.
To make sure there's no cracksin my good pottery pieces that
I've been making and doing allof that.
So I'm excited to introduce youto him today.
But before we do that, let meintroduce you to my co-host,
(01:18):
Chris Maher.
How you doing, man?
Chris Maher (01:20):
Hey Kelvin, how are you buddy?
Good to see you today.
Kelvin Crosby (01:23):
I'm doing good.
So I'm excited about today'sguest.
I mean, truly, this is aproduct I personally use all the
time and I'm excited to kind ofdive into who our guest is.
Chris Maher (01:33):
Me too.
But I'm really excited todaybecause number one, Be My Eyes
is a company that Samaritan hasinvested in, so I wanted to make
sure that we let everyone knowthat, a little disclaimer.
But also I'm really excited tohear you and the Be my Eyes CEO
chat, because I know you're auser of the service, so let's
jump into it.
So, I want to welcome MikeBuckley, the CEO of Be my Eyes.
(01:54):
Mike, welcome to the show.
Mike Buckley (01:56):
Thank you so much for having me here.
Chris Maher (01:59):
It's really great to have you here, and so let's
dig into it right away.
And, Mike, you and I havegotten to know each other over
the last year plus.
We started talking beforeSamaritan invested and then
obviously have gotten to knoweach other pretty well since
that investment.
And so much going on with Be myEyes right now.
But let's start off with alittle bit of background,
because you're not the typicalstartup CEO.
(02:21):
You're actually a veryexperienced entrepreneur and
would love to hear a little bitabout your background and really
how you came to Be My Eyes.
Mike Buckley (02:29):
Sure, life takes you an interesting path
sometimes and not the ones thatyou originally envisioned.
So I was a corporate consultantfor many years, a couple of
decades, working with companieson large-scale M&A, sometimes
with companies in crisis.
I have a whole bunch of storiesabout being shipped down to
Enron for four months and livingin Houston, which is probably
(02:53):
another podcast.
But through that work, one ofmy clients, as a consultant,
became a company that was thenknown as Facebook.
And then I went into Facebookand worked as a VP under Sheryl
Sandberg and Mark for three anda half years, learned more than
I could have ever imagined, andthese are the days where
Facebook was kind of hiring5,000 people a year and it was
(03:18):
absolutely insane.
Took some time after that andbecame an angel investor.
So, chris, I did a little bitof what you're doing and I wrote
a few checks to companies andthis is not like humblebrag guys
, like literally the firstcompany I wrote a check in and
my wife told me to write morebecause she did invest more,
(03:38):
because she liked the product.
That company was sold to Apple.
And so it had like this crazysuccess and, by the way, I got
introduced from a friend of afriend of my father-in-law.
It was like there was no duediligence and it was no like, oh
, I found the jewel that washidden.
It was fortuitous luck that Igot introduced to this company.
(04:01):
But that company was based inDenmark, so I got to know a lot
of technical talent and peoplein Denmark and, of course, Be My
Eyes was founded in Denmark.
So I met the Be My Eyes guys andI loved the company and I loved
the mission and Hans thefounder is a beautiful,
wonderful, brilliant man who'sdented the universe.
(04:24):
And so I wrote I wrote aninvestment check in Be my Eyes
in 2018.
And I joined the board ofdirectors and I was a pretty
shitty board member, to behonest.
I wasn't really activelyinvolved, but, like, I you know,
I was probably one of thosejerks who's like, oh, this is
fun to talk about at a cocktailparty, right?
Oh, I invested in Be my Eyes.
And in 2021 and 22, I got alittle bit more serious and paid
(04:49):
attention to the business andthere were some struggles, very
honestly, and the boardapproached me about becoming the
chief and I took the job withBe my Eyes in December of 2022.
And I've slept a lot less since, but it been, it's been fun.
So that's how I got got you know, introduced to the company.
Sort of a weird confluence ofevents and a lot events and a
(05:12):
lot of it involving luck.
Kelvin Crosby (05:13):
So, as you were going through this and kind of
getting into Be My Eyes, I mean,so you really like there was
social aspect, and I think thisis one of the things that Be My
Eyes does really, really, reallywell is getting the social side
of the world to see that youcan be a part of a process and
(05:36):
make change and make your daybetter by participating and
helping a visually impairedperson or something like that.
And that was the initial growth.
But as Be My Eyes continues togrow and I think what's
fascinating, what you guys havebeen doing now, is really making
it for the blind users orvisually impaired users, an
(05:58):
access point to really make aproduct that surrounds the
visually impaired person's life,to give them access to
everything they might need inthe world.
And to me it's an awesome kindof way you guys are going about
it and I think it would be goodfor people to understand, like
(06:24):
kind of give us the foundationof Be My Eyes and then kind of
give us some of the fruit thatBe My Eyes kind of has produced.
Mike Buckley (06:34):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So you know, our founder, Hans,started this out because he was
frustrated, and I mean he waspissed off at having to call his
friends and family for helpwith sighted support, right.
And so he launched this appinto the world where someone
who's blind or has low visioncan connect with a kind
(06:54):
volunteer to help with anything.
You know what's is this, thetomato soup?
Help me to connect my router,whatever the thing is.
And after it got some pressattention and after a week there
were 10,000 people who hadsigned up.
And I've used this phrase a lotbut like Hans figured out a way
(07:14):
of merging technology withhuman kindness to solve a
societal need.
And over 90% of these calls aresuccessful.
And Kelvin to your point, thevolunteers love the experience
(07:38):
and the thing just works.
It just works.
And it's lovely.
And now we do this in 150countries, 1.
3 million calls a year.
But we realized that we neededto work with the blind, and I
say with, work with the blindand low vision community to
expand our offerings, to thinkabout technological developments
, and so I think we were thefirst accessibility company to
offer kind of artificialintelligence interpretation.
(08:01):
Again, through some luck, right, I literally cold called OpenAI
in January of 2023, andsomebody picked up the phone
right and, like you know, nineweeks later we launched with
them on GPT-4, which isridiculous, right.
Like crazy.
And so now the user has theoption, their choice, their
(08:23):
power, to call another humanbeing to get sighted support or
to use the artificialintelligence to kind of
interpret the world andsurroundings.
And our big, very hard corebelief is that these tools need
to be free and accessible to theblind and low vision community,
and we pay the bills, right,through charging enterprise
(08:47):
relationships to improve theircustomer service, which you can
also access in the app, right.
A whole host of companies giveyou a visual support on their
products and services.
Kelvin Crosby (08:57):
I just want to make sure we clarify this,
because I think this is such aunique thing about Be My Eyes.
And I hope you didn't miss whatMike said that we use
corporations or other companiesto fund Be My Eyes.
This is why it can be free tothe visually impaired.
(09:18):
I think that's extremelyimportant for you to understand.
Mike Buckley (09:23):
And Kelvin, I can give the listener a really
specific example, right?
So in 2017, when blind or lowvision customers were calling
the Microsoft Customer ServiceCenter, right, those were audio
only calls.
You could only talk to theagent, and those calls took 20
minutes on average to resolve.
(09:45):
What we did is we took the sametechnology we apply for the
volunteer interaction and saidhey, Microsoft, we're gonna put
a button in our app for when theperson presses Microsoft,
they're gonna be connected toyour customer service, but
there's one big addition— yourcustomer service agent is going
to get a pop-up window to see,through the phone, the problem
(10:08):
that the blind or low visionuser is experiencing.
What was that?
It created magic.
It lowered the call times to 10minutes, so the problem got
solved 50% faster, right.
And, as you would expect, thecustomer satisfaction of the
(10:29):
blind or low vision user went upa lot because the agent could
see their problem, right.
So it fixed the problem fasterfor the consumer, it took less
time for Microsoft to address itand Be My Eyes got revenue.
And so you created a true win,win, win, right.
A win for the consumer, a winfor Microsoft, a win for us.
And now what we've done is we'veput the AI at the front end of
(10:52):
that customer experience as well, and nearly 70% of these
customer interactions are beingsolved by the AI.
But, Kelvin, here's the bigthing.
Like there's fear, right,there's, Oh, I don't want to
talk to a bot, I don't want to,like, deal with the AI.
The user still has a choice totalk to a human or use the AI,
but we're seeing nearly 70% ofconsumers use the AI to solve
(11:15):
their problem.
Why?
It works.
And these problems are nowbeing solved in an average of,
wait for it, four minutes.
So it was 20 minutes with theaudio calls, 10 minutes with the
video calls and now fourminutes with the AI.
So the consumer's like this isawesome, right, it's helping me
(11:36):
figure out my Excel sheet or myPowerPoint or whatever the thing
is, right.
Better, faster, cheaper, right,and higher customer
satisfaction.
So I know that was probably amouthful, but I think you're
right that it's important for usto understand this model and
how it works and how we can paythe bills and keep the stuff
free for consumers.
And, Mike, talk a little bitmore about how you've approached
(11:59):
inclusive design to creategreater accessibility for the
community while also servingcorporate clients in a variety
of different ways.
You folks have put out a lot ofnews lately in terms of how
you're taking the"wit Be my Eyestechnology platform and
integrating it into a lot ofdifferent areas on the
(12:21):
enterprise side.
So, if you can speak to againthe inclusive design, creating
greater accessibility but alsocreating value for the corporate
customer, because that's areally hard thing to do.
(12:57):
.
It's a huge thing, right.
Like the first thing isphilosophically, morally, our
premise is "with, not for.
" As soon as somebody tells methey're building something for
the blind community, I'm verywary.
If you're not building with andbringing the community in, I
think you have a problem in yourapproach, and so go back to the
OpenAI example.
to the OpenAI example, where wewere literally one of the first
to launch GPT-4 with them, webrought thousands of beta
testers to effort and booking,you know what happened do you
than working with?
community and them in, theygave us and OpenAI unbelievably
(13:19):
valuable feedback.
What's broken, what works, whatdoesn't work, oh my God.
It doesn't know what a guidedog is right.
Chris It doesn't is, whatwhite cane is.
Of course it does now right.
But like all this stuffcompanies, like it, and voice
and actions products, the theyand bringing in community made
(13:41):
that product better, not justfor the blind community but for
everybody right community, andso we.
the And same thing when we talkto enterprises.
Hilton is a customer of ours whonow has like one of the most
accessible hotel experiencesbecause you can use the AI or
get to a Hilton human to helpwith booking, room needs,
(14:02):
service, layout, navigation, youname it ,but like again working
with beta testers from theblind and low vision community
to make that experiencebeautiful, delightful, wonderful
.
So it's absolutely afundamental design principle and
the reality is, Chris, to thesecond part of your question,
when you're trying to getbusiness with an enterprise, the
(14:27):
problem that I see right now istoo many accessibility
companies which arewell-intentioned and, by the way
, some who have very goodproducts, they sell this as this
is the right thing to do, thisis a nice thing to do, it's the
moral thing to do.
Are those arguments true?
Of course, but do they resonatewith the CFO?
(14:48):
Do they resonate with the headof the contact center?
No, tell me the ROI of yourproduct.
Companies have shareholders.
Companies are in the businessto, yes, provide a service, but
they're in the business to makemoney.
Help them understand the returnon the investment that they're
going to make in you, and it maybe multiple, right.
(15:10):
It may be saving time, it maybe saving money, it may be brand
, it may be marketing, it may bebringing more people to your
hotel, or your product orservice.
But, like, make a credibleargument financially to these
companies if you want to gettraction.
And, by the way, I'm not sayingwe've solved this, we're doing
(15:31):
pretty well, we're growing, butlike, we have more work to do
here, just like everybody else.
Chris Maher (15:35):
I think, Mike, with that last part about you've got
to have an impact on the bottomline.
That's how you get leadership'sattention.
I believe and we had thisconversation on the last on a
previous podcast where I thinkthe commitment to accessibility
and inclusion at a corporatelevel it starts, I believe it
(15:55):
starts with leadership.
And for that leadership toreally change their behavior, I
think you have to do exactlywhat you said, is you have to
show them how it's going toimpact their bottom line and
that's when it will cascadedown and you will get change
across the whole organization.
Mike Buckley (16:09):
Here's the thing, some companies do it for the
moral reason, of course, butthere's a reason.
there's not a billion dollaraccessibility company, right.
And that's because, yeah,you'll get a swath of
corporations that sign upbecause it's the right thing.
But if you want to have scale,if you want to have global
(16:31):
impact, if you want to have agreat investor return and if you
want to build something that'smassively valuable societally
and financially, you've got toaddress both sides of that
argument.
Chris Maher (16:41):
Agreed.
Calvin?
Kelvin Crosby (16:46):
I am enjoying our conversation because, at the
end of the day, what we're doingat Investing in Accessibility
is bringing awareness to thisissue that we can help you
bottom line, we're 60% of thepopulation.
And, at the end of the day, byinvesting in Be My Eyes, know
(17:09):
that's going to help your, youremployees, be more efficient so
that your bottom line getsbetter.
Also, if you have visuallyimpaired people at your hotels
or you have your visuallyimpaired people at your, on your
website, and they're callingyour regular customer service
(17:29):
and you're going to find thatthat's taking up more time and
more money.
Why don't we streamline theseopportunities so it's more
efficient?
And I think, with Be My Eyes,you've got the volunteer side,
you've got the corporation side,you've got the AI side.
We're finding that visuallyimpaired people are becoming
(17:51):
more efficient so that way wecan use more products and more
things are out there and moreservices.
And I think that alone is huge,because that then gives more
equal access for all and giveseach one of us the opportunity
to have that ability.
Chris Maher (18:13):
Yeah, so Mike, at the risk of kind of getting,
let's not get too technical onit but, something that's a
really big topic ofconversation, and I saw you
speak at CES on a panel aboutabout this, for the disability
community, is AI.
And I think there's greatapprehension about embracing it
for a large part of thecommunity and I think part of
(18:34):
that is it's unknown, part ofthat is is in a lot of the AI
models that are out there nowthere's some inherent bias, you
know, against the disabilitycommunity.
And how would you answer thatquestion when people say, "hey,
AI is not great for thecommunity and we shouldn't
embrace it at this point?
Mike Buckley (18:53):
Get over it.
Honestly, guys, it's where theworld is going, and either
you're on the train or you'releft behind.
Think about it this way.
Think about the advent of theinternet and websites.
There was this crazy gold rush.
Right, to build, to capturethis new phenomenon online,
(19:13):
right.
And what happened in that goldrush?
Every website that was built,every experience that was built,
was inaccessible.
And to this day, over 90% offreaking websites have
inaccessible elements.
We're like 30 years later,right, and so like, we have to
(19:34):
get in the game.
The entire disability communityhas to get in the game to help
bend these tools to their needs.
So that's one thing, and Idon't I don't mean get over it
in a flippant way, I mean it'sjust like well, I don't have a
choice.
Chris Maher (19:49):
But listen, Mike, I think you're right.
It's like it's here and it'snot going away.
So either embrace it and be apart of that process and the
evolution of it, or it's goingto be done for you,
Mike Buckley (20:00):
Bend the technology to your needs and get
loud about it.
And what we've seen is we'redoing almost three and a half
million AI sessions a month.
Up from nothing 15 months ago.
So there's something herethat's providing value, right.
(20:21):
There's some product market fitand we just need to continue
honing that experience andcontinuing to find the avenues
of value for people.
But I'm with you, Chris andKelvin, I think we should have
some trepidation.
We can't just give 100% trustto these tools.
(20:42):
There was this New York Timesstory or was it the Journal, I
don't remember.
There was a story about howsomeone used one of these AI
agents to shop for them and itbought something super
inexpensive for $31, and itbought 10 more of them than he
wanted.
We've got to test this stuffand be careful, but it gets
better really, really fast.
(21:03):
I do think that, ultimately,all of us, all of us on this
podcast, anybody listening,whether in the disability
community or outside, we willhave what is being called agents
working for us.
Where you'll speak into yourdevice, or your wearable, and
say, "hey, I need strawberriesand eggs, can you have them
(21:24):
delivered between four and six"and it'll be done.
Chris Maher (21:31):
And, Mike, is there a, and Kelvin for you as well,
kind of a favorite example, Mike, for you for a consumer using
Be my Eyes or Kelvin foryourself?
I know, Mike, you're superexcited about the partnership
with Meta with their smartglasses that can really create,
for the first time, hands-freeaccessibility for someone that's
blind or low vision.
(21:51):
But is there an example thatreally stands out for you about
a customer using Be my Eyes?
Mike Buckley (21:58):
Kelvin?
You got one?
Kelvin Crosby (22:00):
I got a bunch of them.
It's just a matter of who'sgoing to go first.
Chris Maher (22:05):
Kelvin, you go, why don't you go first?
Kelvin Crosby (22:07):
Okay, I think the revolutionary thing for me was
I wanted, and this is a littlebit of a selfish thing, but it
was the best, I sold so manypottery pieces this way.
But I would call Be My Eyes andI would have the person help me
with my cracks, because one ofthe biggest things with a blind
(22:29):
person those hairline cracks inyour pottery pieces you can't
find.
They're really hard to feel.
And so I would always call.
And the cool thing is thatthese people want to help.
And I would set up the tripodand then put the mug handle
right next to the camera andthey would say there's a little
(22:51):
bit of something here and Iwould work on that, get it nice.
And we would have aconversation.
And I said do you still havemore time to help me?
Because I didn't want to wasteour time.
And next thing, you know I'mbuilding this relationship with
whoever this person is and I'mgetting through all these pieces
.
And next thing they're going tomy website.
They're buying pieces.
(23:11):
There's one lady, she boughtlike 10 pieces while we were
there making, doing qualitycontrol on the pieces I was
working on.
And it was great.
I was like I didn't realizethat's going to Be My Eyes would
be a marketing strategy.
Mike Buckley (23:25):
That's awesome.
Kelvin Crosby (23:29):
That to me is like, and the thing is,
obviously there's some rulesaround Be My Eyes and so forth,
but at the same time, what it isand like I've talked to other
Be My Eyes like volunteers whenthey're not on and they're like,
you know, It just warms myheart that I hear that, that
(23:55):
it's not my phone, it's thatsound.
I gotta go help a blind person.
I'm gonna go do that right nowand I'm gonna go do that and I'm
gonna be excited about it, andthey're like hello?
They're not sure what they'regetting themselves into, but
normally they're coming awaylike I'm feeling good and to me
(24:16):
that's awesome.
Mike Buckley (24:17):
I'll do two short ones.
The one that happened recentlywas I talked to a guy who had
told me that he had nevertraveled on a plane before
without the assistive servicesfrom the airport.
Right, and he had his Ray-BanMetas, and he called a volunteer
and he did an experiment and hegot through the airport on his
(24:39):
own, with the volunteer's help.
He didn't call the service fromthe airline and he was kind of
emotional when he talked aboutit and talked about it as power
and independence.
And that made me fired up, man.
And I think about those words,those two words a lot—p ower and
independence.
Working with the community, tolike to like explode those.
(25:03):
And so I and you know his pointwas, look, if I've got my dog
and a roller bag, how the hellam I gonna use my phone?
Kelvin Crosby (25:10):
Yeah.
Mike Buckley (25:11):
Right, so the wearable was a big deal.
The other one that I love, justbecause it was like bizarre.
I talked to a couple and theylost their parakeet in their
house and they used Be My AI tofind it .
And it was like up in thecorner of a living room, like on
a plant and they're like thiswas
Kelvin Crosby (25:31):
This is awesome.
Chris Maher (25:35):
S o, Mike, as we start to wrap up here, if you're
able to share, what's on thehorizon with Be My Eyes?
If you can share some of themost recent partnerships and/ or
ones that are coming down thepike.
And then just more broadly, interms of just accessibility in
general, and the opportunity yousee there.
Mike Buckley (26:08):
On the technological side we are most
excited about wearables.
Hands-free generally, right, aswell as voice activation.
The ability to interact withany computer or Be My Eyes or
even our app, using your voice,should change the game.
I think about this, like,imagine someone who speaks Hindi
in rural India, opens our appfor the first time and has never
used technology before.
What if that person could getthe assistance that Be My Eyes
offers just by talking to it andasking it, "hey, can you help
(26:32):
me read a document?
" or whatever the thing is?
That's truly exciting.
So, wearables and voice, andthen a little bit longer down
the road, because I think weneed to be careful as to having
your own personal assistant orpersonal agent.
Kelvin Crosby (26:47):
I would take that right now.
I don't care how personal, howcareful we gotta be.
I'll take that right now.
Because, at the end of the day,it's a big deal, it's huge.
I mean the fact that I couldliterally get an email and then
be like, all right, just tellthem this.
And then make it nice andpretty.
(27:08):
Or it will tell me "oh Kelvin,we got 10, 15 orders and we need
you to process.
Then I say, all right, go getit, send it to the shipping
company and have them package it, make it all ready to go and
move.
You know, like, that to me is agame changer from a business
(27:32):
standpoint, and more efficient,and the more I can be solo, you
know I love being a soloentrepreneur.
Chris Maher (27:41):
Yeah, your independence and autonomy right?
Kelvin Crosby (27:48):
Yep,
It 's huge thing.
The other one that I spend agreat deal of, and we spend a
great deal of time thinkingabout, is, and Kelvin, I'd love
to interview you separately justto to hear your views of this.
But, like, we spend a lot oftime thinking about what are the
the broader pain points forthis community?
Right, of course, visualinterpretation is the basis one,
(28:10):
but, like, think about beyondthat.
Navigation?
Nightmare, right.
There are some decentnavigation apps out there now,
but, like, very few of them aregood at solving the last 20 feet
.
Yeah, you can tell me what theStarbucks is, but what the hell
is the door?
And so we try to think aboutlife holistically, of what are
(28:33):
the other pain points that wemight be able to solve through
the application and throughtechnology.
So I'm spending a lot of timeon that.
And then the other one is,Kelvin and Chris you know the
stats better than me about blindand low vision employment.
(28:54):
The one I trust the most says75% is either unemployed or
underemployed.
And so we are going to launch aBe My Eyes for work product.
And if we design it the way Ithink we are going to design it,
and it should launch, hopefully, next quarter, it should act as
kind of like a meta layer ofsoftware that makes the other
software and other things in theorganization more accessible.
So we launched a Be my Eyes forWindows application last year
(29:15):
and, like, surprisingly, itstill gets like 2,500 downloads
a month.
So we know that there's anenterprise need and a kind of
work productivity need and ourbelief is that if we can work
with the community to make theworkplace more accessible, we
may be able to beneficiallyimpact employment and we may be
able to help the blind or lowvision employee be even more
(29:38):
productive in the workplace.
Because the little known thingat many employers is -- you
know who knows how to solveproblems and figure out a bunch
of shit and get through a lot ofbarriers?
Blind people! You want thosepeople.
What's the line from A Few GoodMen?
You want me on that wall, right, but you want these people
(30:00):
solving problems for you becausethey solve problems every
freaking day .
And we just need to providebetter tool to make the
workplace less of a nightmarefor a smart and resilient and
super creative group of humanbeings.
So, I tell you, this has been anawesome conversation.
(30:22):
Chris, are there any last thingsyou want to plug in here before
we wrap up?
Chris Maher (30:32):
.
So Mike, as we get ready tosign off, how can people learn
more about Be my Eyes, where canthey go?
Mike Buckley (30:35):
So the first thing to do, easiest thing to do, is
download the app.
Whether you're sighted and youwant to be a volunteer, or
you're blind or low vision andyou want to check out the
interpretation tools.
It's free, it's easy, it'sseamless and you can provide
feedback.
That's the first thing.
If you're a company and you'reinterested in better connecting
and better serving a growingconsumer base.
(30:56):
Blindness may double by 2050,if you believe the World Health
Organization for various reasons.
These are your consumers.
Talk to us about our enterprisesolutions.
We can make your customerservice and your workplace
better, faster, cheaper.
And it's incumbent on us tobuild that revenue so we can
(31:17):
continue to provide great,innovative, free products and
services for the community andcreate this flywheel.
Those are my two big plugs.
Kelvin Crosby (31:27):
Well, that wraps up Investing in Accessibility.
Mike, thank you so much forbeing on the podcast and, like I
always say, go live beyond yourchallenges and we'll see you in
two weeks.
(31:47):
Thank you for listening toInvesting in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast wherewe invest in change for
accessibility, not wait forchange.
If you want to follow us, youcan find us on YouTube or
LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners.
If you would like to invest inSamaritan Partners, email Chris
at chris@samaritanp artners.
(32:08):
com.
If you'd like to learn moreabout us, go to www.
samaritanpartners.
com.
You can take the first step ininvesting in change by giving us
five stars and sharing thispodcast with everybody that you
know, so we can spread the word,so that we can give access to
all by Investing inAccessibility.
Welcome to Investing in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast.
We're not waiting for change,we're investing in it.
Join us as we speak withentrepreneurs and thought
leaders that are focused oncreating a more accessible world
.
(00:33):
Hey, hey, hey! So good to seeyou even though I can't see you.
It's another beautiful day inthe neighborhood and I'm so
excited that you're here atInvesting in Accessibility.
And I tell you today I amexcited about today's guest.
This is the product that I usepersonally and I tell you, if
you ever thought about trying todo quality control using
(00:57):
pottery, but build friendshipwith people that want to help
you be able to see your qualitycontrol with your pottery.
Well, this is a software thatI've been using just to do that.
To make sure there's no cracksin my good pottery pieces that
I've been making and doing allof that.
So I'm excited to introduce youto him today.
But before we do that, let meintroduce you to my co-host,
(01:18):
Chris Maher.
How you doing, man?
Chris Maher (01:20):
Hey Kelvin, how are you buddy?
Good to see you today.
Kelvin Crosby (01:23):
I'm doing good.
So I'm excited about today'sguest.
I mean, truly, this is aproduct I personally use all the
time and I'm excited to kind ofdive into who our guest is.
Chris Maher (01:33):
Me too.
But I'm really excited todaybecause number one, Be My Eyes
is a company that Samaritan hasinvested in, so I wanted to make
sure that we let everyone knowthat, a little disclaimer.
But also I'm really excited tohear you and the Be my Eyes CEO
chat, because I know you're auser of the service, so let's
jump into it.
So, I want to welcome MikeBuckley, the CEO of Be my Eyes.
(01:54):
Mike, welcome to the show.
Mike Buckley (01:56):
Thank you so much for having me here.
Chris Maher (01:59):
It's really great to have you here, and so let's
dig into it right away.
And, Mike, you and I havegotten to know each other over
the last year plus.
We started talking beforeSamaritan invested and then
obviously have gotten to knoweach other pretty well since
that investment.
And so much going on with Be myEyes right now.
But let's start off with alittle bit of background,
because you're not the typicalstartup CEO.
(02:21):
You're actually a veryexperienced entrepreneur and
would love to hear a little bitabout your background and really
how you came to Be My Eyes.
Mike Buckley (02:29):
Sure, life takes you an interesting path
sometimes and not the ones thatyou originally envisioned.
So I was a corporate consultantfor many years, a couple of
decades, working with companieson large-scale M&A, sometimes
with companies in crisis.
I have a whole bunch of storiesabout being shipped down to
Enron for four months and livingin Houston, which is probably
(02:53):
another podcast.
But through that work, one ofmy clients, as a consultant,
became a company that was thenknown as Facebook.
And then I went into Facebookand worked as a VP under Sheryl
Sandberg and Mark for three anda half years, learned more than
I could have ever imagined, andthese are the days where
Facebook was kind of hiring5,000 people a year and it was
(03:18):
absolutely insane.
Took some time after that andbecame an angel investor.
So, chris, I did a little bitof what you're doing and I wrote
a few checks to companies andthis is not like humblebrag guys
, like literally the firstcompany I wrote a check in and
my wife told me to write morebecause she did invest more,
(03:38):
because she liked the product.
That company was sold to Apple.
And so it had like this crazysuccess and, by the way, I got
introduced from a friend of afriend of my father-in-law.
It was like there was no duediligence and it was no like, oh
, I found the jewel that washidden.
It was fortuitous luck that Igot introduced to this company.
(04:01):
But that company was based inDenmark, so I got to know a lot
of technical talent and peoplein Denmark and, of course, Be My
Eyes was founded in Denmark.
So I met the Be My Eyes guys andI loved the company and I loved
the mission and Hans thefounder is a beautiful,
wonderful, brilliant man who'sdented the universe.
(04:24):
And so I wrote I wrote aninvestment check in Be my Eyes
in 2018.
And I joined the board ofdirectors and I was a pretty
shitty board member, to behonest.
I wasn't really activelyinvolved, but, like, I you know,
I was probably one of thosejerks who's like, oh, this is
fun to talk about at a cocktailparty, right?
Oh, I invested in Be my Eyes.
And in 2021 and 22, I got alittle bit more serious and paid
(04:49):
attention to the business andthere were some struggles, very
honestly, and the boardapproached me about becoming the
chief and I took the job withBe my Eyes in December of 2022.
And I've slept a lot less since, but it been, it's been fun.
So that's how I got got you know, introduced to the company.
Sort of a weird confluence ofevents and a lot events and a
(05:12):
lot of it involving luck.
Kelvin Crosby (05:13):
So, as you were going through this and kind of
getting into Be My Eyes, I mean,so you really like there was
social aspect, and I think thisis one of the things that Be My
Eyes does really, really, reallywell is getting the social side
of the world to see that youcan be a part of a process and
(05:36):
make change and make your daybetter by participating and
helping a visually impairedperson or something like that.
And that was the initial growth.
But as Be My Eyes continues togrow and I think what's
fascinating, what you guys havebeen doing now, is really making
it for the blind users orvisually impaired users, an
(05:58):
access point to really make aproduct that surrounds the
visually impaired person's life,to give them access to
everything they might need inthe world.
And to me it's an awesome kindof way you guys are going about
it and I think it would be goodfor people to understand, like
(06:24):
kind of give us the foundationof Be My Eyes and then kind of
give us some of the fruit thatBe My Eyes kind of has produced.
Mike Buckley (06:34):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So you know, our founder, Hans,started this out because he was
frustrated, and I mean he waspissed off at having to call his
friends and family for helpwith sighted support, right.
And so he launched this appinto the world where someone
who's blind or has low visioncan connect with a kind
(06:54):
volunteer to help with anything.
You know what's is this, thetomato soup?
Help me to connect my router,whatever the thing is.
And after it got some pressattention and after a week there
were 10,000 people who hadsigned up.
And I've used this phrase a lotbut like Hans figured out a way
(07:14):
of merging technology withhuman kindness to solve a
societal need.
And over 90% of these calls aresuccessful.
And Kelvin to your point, thevolunteers love the experience
(07:38):
and the thing just works.
It just works.
And it's lovely.
And now we do this in 150countries, 1.
3 million calls a year.
But we realized that we neededto work with the blind, and I
say with, work with the blindand low vision community to
expand our offerings, to thinkabout technological developments
, and so I think we were thefirst accessibility company to
offer kind of artificialintelligence interpretation.
(08:01):
Again, through some luck, right, I literally cold called OpenAI
in January of 2023, andsomebody picked up the phone
right and, like you know, nineweeks later we launched with
them on GPT-4, which isridiculous, right.
Like crazy.
And so now the user has theoption, their choice, their
(08:23):
power, to call another humanbeing to get sighted support or
to use the artificialintelligence to kind of
interpret the world andsurroundings.
And our big, very hard corebelief is that these tools need
to be free and accessible to theblind and low vision community,
and we pay the bills, right,through charging enterprise
(08:47):
relationships to improve theircustomer service, which you can
also access in the app, right.
A whole host of companies giveyou a visual support on their
products and services.
Kelvin Crosby (08:57):
I just want to make sure we clarify this,
because I think this is such aunique thing about Be My Eyes.
And I hope you didn't miss whatMike said that we use
corporations or other companiesto fund Be My Eyes.
This is why it can be free tothe visually impaired.
(09:18):
I think that's extremelyimportant for you to understand.
Mike Buckley (09:23):
And Kelvin, I can give the listener a really
specific example, right?
So in 2017, when blind or lowvision customers were calling
the Microsoft Customer ServiceCenter, right, those were audio
only calls.
You could only talk to theagent, and those calls took 20
minutes on average to resolve.
(09:45):
What we did is we took the sametechnology we apply for the
volunteer interaction and saidhey, Microsoft, we're gonna put
a button in our app for when theperson presses Microsoft,
they're gonna be connected toyour customer service, but
there's one big addition— yourcustomer service agent is going
to get a pop-up window to see,through the phone, the problem
(10:08):
that the blind or low visionuser is experiencing.
What was that?
It created magic.
It lowered the call times to 10minutes, so the problem got
solved 50% faster, right.
And, as you would expect, thecustomer satisfaction of the
(10:29):
blind or low vision user went upa lot because the agent could
see their problem, right.
So it fixed the problem fasterfor the consumer, it took less
time for Microsoft to address itand Be My Eyes got revenue.
And so you created a true win,win, win, right.
A win for the consumer, a winfor Microsoft, a win for us.
And now what we've done is we'veput the AI at the front end of
(10:52):
that customer experience as well, and nearly 70% of these
customer interactions are beingsolved by the AI.
But, Kelvin, here's the bigthing.
Like there's fear, right,there's, Oh, I don't want to
talk to a bot, I don't want to,like, deal with the AI.
The user still has a choice totalk to a human or use the AI,
but we're seeing nearly 70% ofconsumers use the AI to solve
(11:15):
their problem.
Why?
It works.
And these problems are nowbeing solved in an average of,
wait for it, four minutes.
So it was 20 minutes with theaudio calls, 10 minutes with the
video calls and now fourminutes with the AI.
So the consumer's like this isawesome, right, it's helping me
(11:36):
figure out my Excel sheet or myPowerPoint or whatever the thing
is, right.
Better, faster, cheaper, right,and higher customer
satisfaction.
So I know that was probably amouthful, but I think you're
right that it's important for usto understand this model and
how it works and how we can paythe bills and keep the stuff
free for consumers.
And, Mike, talk a little bitmore about how you've approached
(11:59):
inclusive design to creategreater accessibility for the
community while also servingcorporate clients in a variety
of different ways.
You folks have put out a lot ofnews lately in terms of how
you're taking the"wit Be my Eyestechnology platform and
integrating it into a lot ofdifferent areas on the
(12:21):
enterprise side.
So, if you can speak to againthe inclusive design, creating
greater accessibility but alsocreating value for the corporate
customer, because that's areally hard thing to do.
(12:57):
.
It's a huge thing, right.
Like the first thing isphilosophically, morally, our
premise is "with, not for.
" As soon as somebody tells methey're building something for
the blind community, I'm verywary.
If you're not building with andbringing the community in, I
think you have a problem in yourapproach, and so go back to the
OpenAI example.
to the OpenAI example, where wewere literally one of the first
to launch GPT-4 with them, webrought thousands of beta
testers to effort and booking,you know what happened do you
than working with?
community and them in, theygave us and OpenAI unbelievably
(13:19):
valuable feedback.
What's broken, what works, whatdoesn't work, oh my God.
It doesn't know what a guidedog is right.
Chris It doesn't is, whatwhite cane is.
Of course it does now right.
But like all this stuffcompanies, like it, and voice
and actions products, the theyand bringing in community made
(13:41):
that product better, not justfor the blind community but for
everybody right community, andso we.
the And same thing when we talkto enterprises.
Hilton is a customer of ours whonow has like one of the most
accessible hotel experiencesbecause you can use the AI or
get to a Hilton human to helpwith booking, room needs,
(14:02):
service, layout, navigation, youname it ,but like again working
with beta testers from theblind and low vision community
to make that experiencebeautiful, delightful, wonderful
.
So it's absolutely afundamental design principle and
the reality is, Chris, to thesecond part of your question,
when you're trying to getbusiness with an enterprise, the
(14:27):
problem that I see right now istoo many accessibility
companies which arewell-intentioned and, by the way
, some who have very goodproducts, they sell this as this
is the right thing to do, thisis a nice thing to do, it's the
moral thing to do.
Are those arguments true?
Of course, but do they resonatewith the CFO?
(14:48):
Do they resonate with the headof the contact center?
No, tell me the ROI of yourproduct.
Companies have shareholders.
Companies are in the businessto, yes, provide a service, but
they're in the business to makemoney.
Help them understand the returnon the investment that they're
going to make in you, and it maybe multiple, right.
(15:10):
It may be saving time, it maybe saving money, it may be brand
, it may be marketing, it may bebringing more people to your
hotel, or your product orservice.
But, like, make a credibleargument financially to these
companies if you want to gettraction.
And, by the way, I'm not sayingwe've solved this, we're doing
(15:31):
pretty well, we're growing, butlike, we have more work to do
here, just like everybody else.
Chris Maher (15:35):
I think, Mike, with that last part about you've got
to have an impact on the bottomline.
That's how you get leadership'sattention.
I believe and we had thisconversation on the last on a
previous podcast where I thinkthe commitment to accessibility
and inclusion at a corporatelevel it starts, I believe it
(15:55):
starts with leadership.
And for that leadership toreally change their behavior, I
think you have to do exactlywhat you said, is you have to
show them how it's going toimpact their bottom line and
that's when it will cascadedown and you will get change
across the whole organization.
Mike Buckley (16:09):
Here's the thing, some companies do it for the
moral reason, of course, butthere's a reason.
there's not a billion dollaraccessibility company, right.
And that's because, yeah,you'll get a swath of
corporations that sign upbecause it's the right thing.
But if you want to have scale,if you want to have global
(16:31):
impact, if you want to have agreat investor return and if you
want to build something that'smassively valuable societally
and financially, you've got toaddress both sides of that
argument.
Chris Maher (16:41):
Agreed.
Calvin?
Kelvin Crosby (16:46):
I am enjoying our conversation because, at the
end of the day, what we're doingat Investing in Accessibility
is bringing awareness to thisissue that we can help you
bottom line, we're 60% of thepopulation.
And, at the end of the day, byinvesting in Be My Eyes, know
(17:09):
that's going to help your, youremployees, be more efficient so
that your bottom line getsbetter.
Also, if you have visuallyimpaired people at your hotels
or you have your visuallyimpaired people at your, on your
website, and they're callingyour regular customer service
(17:29):
and you're going to find thatthat's taking up more time and
more money.
Why don't we streamline theseopportunities so it's more
efficient?
And I think, with Be My Eyes,you've got the volunteer side,
you've got the corporation side,you've got the AI side.
We're finding that visuallyimpaired people are becoming
(17:51):
more efficient so that way wecan use more products and more
things are out there and moreservices.
And I think that alone is huge,because that then gives more
equal access for all and giveseach one of us the opportunity
to have that ability.
Chris Maher (18:13):
Yeah, so Mike, at the risk of kind of getting,
let's not get too technical onit but, something that's a
really big topic ofconversation, and I saw you
speak at CES on a panel aboutabout this, for the disability
community, is AI.
And I think there's greatapprehension about embracing it
for a large part of thecommunity and I think part of
(18:34):
that is it's unknown, part ofthat is is in a lot of the AI
models that are out there nowthere's some inherent bias, you
know, against the disabilitycommunity.
And how would you answer thatquestion when people say, "hey,
AI is not great for thecommunity and we shouldn't
embrace it at this point?
Mike Buckley (18:53):
Get over it.
Honestly, guys, it's where theworld is going, and either
you're on the train or you'releft behind.
Think about it this way.
Think about the advent of theinternet and websites.
There was this crazy gold rush.
Right, to build, to capturethis new phenomenon online,
(19:13):
right.
And what happened in that goldrush?
Every website that was built,every experience that was built,
was inaccessible.
And to this day, over 90% offreaking websites have
inaccessible elements.
We're like 30 years later,right, and so like, we have to
(19:34):
get in the game.
The entire disability communityhas to get in the game to help
bend these tools to their needs.
So that's one thing, and Idon't I don't mean get over it
in a flippant way, I mean it'sjust like well, I don't have a
choice.
Chris Maher (19:49):
But listen, Mike, I think you're right.
It's like it's here and it'snot going away.
So either embrace it and be apart of that process and the
evolution of it, or it's goingto be done for you,
Mike Buckley (20:00):
Bend the technology to your needs and get
loud about it.
And what we've seen is we'redoing almost three and a half
million AI sessions a month.
Up from nothing 15 months ago.
So there's something herethat's providing value, right.
(20:21):
There's some product market fitand we just need to continue
honing that experience andcontinuing to find the avenues
of value for people.
But I'm with you, Chris andKelvin, I think we should have
some trepidation.
We can't just give 100% trustto these tools.
(20:42):
There was this New York Timesstory or was it the Journal, I
don't remember.
There was a story about howsomeone used one of these AI
agents to shop for them and itbought something super
inexpensive for $31, and itbought 10 more of them than he
wanted.
We've got to test this stuffand be careful, but it gets
better really, really fast.
(21:03):
I do think that, ultimately,all of us, all of us on this
podcast, anybody listening,whether in the disability
community or outside, we willhave what is being called agents
working for us.
Where you'll speak into yourdevice, or your wearable, and
say, "hey, I need strawberriesand eggs, can you have them
(21:24):
delivered between four and six"and it'll be done.
Chris Maher (21:31):
And, Mike, is there a, and Kelvin for you as well,
kind of a favorite example, Mike, for you for a consumer using
Be my Eyes or Kelvin foryourself?
I know, Mike, you're superexcited about the partnership
with Meta with their smartglasses that can really create,
for the first time, hands-freeaccessibility for someone that's
blind or low vision.
(21:51):
But is there an example thatreally stands out for you about
a customer using Be my Eyes?
Mike Buckley (21:58):
Kelvin?
You got one?
Kelvin Crosby (22:00):
I got a bunch of them.
It's just a matter of who'sgoing to go first.
Chris Maher (22:05):
Kelvin, you go, why don't you go first?
Kelvin Crosby (22:07):
Okay, I think the revolutionary thing for me was
I wanted, and this is a littlebit of a selfish thing, but it
was the best, I sold so manypottery pieces this way.
But I would call Be My Eyes andI would have the person help me
with my cracks, because one ofthe biggest things with a blind
(22:29):
person those hairline cracks inyour pottery pieces you can't
find.
They're really hard to feel.
And so I would always call.
And the cool thing is thatthese people want to help.
And I would set up the tripodand then put the mug handle
right next to the camera andthey would say there's a little
(22:51):
bit of something here and Iwould work on that, get it nice.
And we would have aconversation.
And I said do you still havemore time to help me?
Because I didn't want to wasteour time.
And next thing, you know I'mbuilding this relationship with
whoever this person is and I'mgetting through all these pieces
.
And next thing they're going tomy website.
They're buying pieces.
(23:11):
There's one lady, she boughtlike 10 pieces while we were
there making, doing qualitycontrol on the pieces I was
working on.
And it was great.
I was like I didn't realizethat's going to Be My Eyes would
be a marketing strategy.
Mike Buckley (23:25):
That's awesome.
Kelvin Crosby (23:29):
That to me is like, and the thing is,
obviously there's some rulesaround Be My Eyes and so forth,
but at the same time, what it isand like I've talked to other
Be My Eyes like volunteers whenthey're not on and they're like,
you know, It just warms myheart that I hear that, that
(23:55):
it's not my phone, it's thatsound.
I gotta go help a blind person.
I'm gonna go do that right nowand I'm gonna go do that and I'm
gonna be excited about it, andthey're like hello?
They're not sure what they'regetting themselves into, but
normally they're coming awaylike I'm feeling good and to me
(24:16):
that's awesome.
Mike Buckley (24:17):
I'll do two short ones.
The one that happened recentlywas I talked to a guy who had
told me that he had nevertraveled on a plane before
without the assistive servicesfrom the airport.
Right, and he had his Ray-BanMetas, and he called a volunteer
and he did an experiment and hegot through the airport on his
(24:39):
own, with the volunteer's help.
He didn't call the service fromthe airline and he was kind of
emotional when he talked aboutit and talked about it as power
and independence.
And that made me fired up, man.
And I think about those words,those two words a lot—p ower and
independence.
Working with the community, tolike to like explode those.
(25:03):
And so I and you know his pointwas, look, if I've got my dog
and a roller bag, how the hellam I gonna use my phone?
Kelvin Crosby (25:10):
Yeah.
Mike Buckley (25:11):
Right, so the wearable was a big deal.
The other one that I love, justbecause it was like bizarre.
I talked to a couple and theylost their parakeet in their
house and they used Be My AI tofind it .
And it was like up in thecorner of a living room, like on
a plant and they're like thiswas
Kelvin Crosby (25:31):
This is awesome.
Chris Maher (25:35):
S o, Mike, as we start to wrap up here, if you're
able to share, what's on thehorizon with Be My Eyes?
If you can share some of themost recent partnerships and/ or
ones that are coming down thepike.
And then just more broadly, interms of just accessibility in
general, and the opportunity yousee there.
Mike Buckley (26:08):
On the technological side we are most
excited about wearables.
Hands-free generally, right, aswell as voice activation.
The ability to interact withany computer or Be My Eyes or
even our app, using your voice,should change the game.
I think about this, like,imagine someone who speaks Hindi
in rural India, opens our appfor the first time and has never
used technology before.
What if that person could getthe assistance that Be My Eyes
offers just by talking to it andasking it, "hey, can you help
(26:32):
me read a document?
" or whatever the thing is?
That's truly exciting.
So, wearables and voice, andthen a little bit longer down
the road, because I think weneed to be careful as to having
your own personal assistant orpersonal agent.
Kelvin Crosby (26:47):
I would take that right now.
I don't care how personal, howcareful we gotta be.
I'll take that right now.
Because, at the end of the day,it's a big deal, it's huge.
I mean the fact that I couldliterally get an email and then
be like, all right, just tellthem this.
And then make it nice andpretty.
(27:08):
Or it will tell me "oh Kelvin,we got 10, 15 orders and we need
you to process.
Then I say, all right, go getit, send it to the shipping
company and have them package it, make it all ready to go and
move.
You know, like, that to me is agame changer from a business
(27:32):
standpoint, and more efficient,and the more I can be solo, you
know I love being a soloentrepreneur.
Chris Maher (27:41):
Yeah, your independence and autonomy right?
Kelvin Crosby (27:48):
Yep,
It 's huge thing.
The other one that I spend agreat deal of, and we spend a
great deal of time thinkingabout, is, and Kelvin, I'd love
to interview you separately justto to hear your views of this.
But, like, we spend a lot oftime thinking about what are the
the broader pain points forthis community?
Right, of course, visualinterpretation is the basis one,
(28:10):
but, like, think about beyondthat.
Navigation?
Nightmare, right.
There are some decentnavigation apps out there now,
but, like, very few of them aregood at solving the last 20 feet
.
Yeah, you can tell me what theStarbucks is, but what the hell
is the door?
And so we try to think aboutlife holistically, of what are
(28:33):
the other pain points that wemight be able to solve through
the application and throughtechnology.
So I'm spending a lot of timeon that.
And then the other one is,Kelvin and Chris you know the
stats better than me about blindand low vision employment.
(28:54):
The one I trust the most says75% is either unemployed or
underemployed.
And so we are going to launch aBe My Eyes for work product.
And if we design it the way Ithink we are going to design it,
and it should launch, hopefully, next quarter, it should act as
kind of like a meta layer ofsoftware that makes the other
software and other things in theorganization more accessible.
So we launched a Be my Eyes forWindows application last year
(29:15):
and, like, surprisingly, itstill gets like 2,500 downloads
a month.
So we know that there's anenterprise need and a kind of
work productivity need and ourbelief is that if we can work
with the community to make theworkplace more accessible, we
may be able to beneficiallyimpact employment and we may be
able to help the blind or lowvision employee be even more
(29:38):
productive in the workplace.
Because the little known thingat many employers is -- you
know who knows how to solveproblems and figure out a bunch
of shit and get through a lot ofbarriers?
Blind people! You want thosepeople.
What's the line from A Few GoodMen?
You want me on that wall, right, but you want these people
(30:00):
solving problems for you becausethey solve problems every
freaking day .
And we just need to providebetter tool to make the
workplace less of a nightmarefor a smart and resilient and
super creative group of humanbeings.
So, I tell you, this has been anawesome conversation.
(30:22):
Chris, are there any last thingsyou want to plug in here before
we wrap up?
Chris Maher (30:32):
.
So Mike, as we get ready tosign off, how can people learn
more about Be my Eyes, where canthey go?
Mike Buckley (30:35):
So the first thing to do, easiest thing to do, is
download the app.
Whether you're sighted and youwant to be a volunteer, or
you're blind or low vision andyou want to check out the
interpretation tools.
It's free, it's easy, it'sseamless and you can provide
feedback.
That's the first thing.
If you're a company and you'reinterested in better connecting
and better serving a growingconsumer base.
(30:56):
Blindness may double by 2050,if you believe the World Health
Organization for various reasons.
These are your consumers.
Talk to us about our enterprisesolutions.
We can make your customerservice and your workplace
better, faster, cheaper.
And it's incumbent on us tobuild that revenue so we can
(31:17):
continue to provide great,innovative, free products and
services for the community andcreate this flywheel.
Those are my two big plugs.
Kelvin Crosby (31:27):
Well, that wraps up Investing in Accessibility.
Mike, thank you so much forbeing on the podcast and, like I
always say, go live beyond yourchallenges and we'll see you in
two weeks.
(31:47):
Thank you for listening toInvesting in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast wherewe invest in change for
accessibility, not wait forchange.
If you want to follow us, youcan find us on YouTube or
LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners.
If you would like to invest inSamaritan Partners, email Chris
at chris@samaritanp artners.
(32:08):
com.
If you'd like to learn moreabout us, go to www.
samaritanpartners.
com.
You can take the first step ininvesting in change by giving us
five stars and sharing thispodcast with everybody that you
know, so we can spread the word,so that we can give access to
all by Investing inAccessibility.
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