January 30, 2024 • 49 mins
Join the ranks of tech aficionados and entrepreneurial spirits as we unpack the riveting tale of Dave van Beekum, the brain behind Tweeva. Dave's trajectory is nothing short of inspiring from dismantling household appliances as a curious kid in New Jersey to orchestrating the growth of a digital marketing empire in Florida. Through a nostalgic trip down memory lane, we journey with him from his first encounter with a 286 computer to establishing his personal studio—a testament to the relentless pursuit of one's passions.
Embarking on a self-taught path at just 18, Dave's venture into the world of web design and digital marketing unfolds in our conversation, revealing the innovative and sometimes unorthodox strategies that propelled his business forward. Picture a car wrapped in brand imagery cruising the streets—an eye-catching tactic that drew in clients and highlighted the crux of visibility in business success. Dave's candid revelations about the misconceptions developers often harbor towards marketing and the pivotal moments of clarity that reshaped his approach are sure to resonate with many in the tech sphere.
As we wrap up our enthralling chat, the spotlight shines on Tweeva TV and the transformative power of influencer marketing. Dave delves into the conception and growth of his startup, a pioneering digital platform ingeniously connecting small businesses and influencers in a local advertising renaissance. The underpinning message is clear: great products don't sell themselves. Instead, a concoction of press releases, social media buzz, and leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT are key ingredients in nurturing a community around a tech vision. Join us for an episode brimming with invaluable lessons and actionable insights for those eager to leave their mark on the tech industry—just as Dave van Beekum has.
Embarking on a self-taught path at just 18, Dave's venture into the world of web design and digital marketing unfolds in our conversation, revealing the innovative and sometimes unorthodox strategies that propelled his business forward. Picture a car wrapped in brand imagery cruising the streets—an eye-catching tactic that drew in clients and highlighted the crux of visibility in business success. Dave's candid revelations about the misconceptions developers often harbor towards marketing and the pivotal moments of clarity that reshaped his approach are sure to resonate with many in the tech sphere.
As we wrap up our enthralling chat, the spotlight shines on Tweeva TV and the transformative power of influencer marketing. Dave delves into the conception and growth of his startup, a pioneering digital platform ingeniously connecting small businesses and influencers in a local advertising renaissance. The underpinning message is clear: great products don't sell themselves. Instead, a concoction of press releases, social media buzz, and leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT are key ingredients in nurturing a community around a tech vision. Join us for an episode brimming with invaluable lessons and actionable insights for those eager to leave their mark on the tech industry—just as Dave van Beekum has.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dave van Beekum (00:00):
You almost have to tell and explain to people
that are not understanding your200 hours, 500 hours, a thousand
hours into the project, whatthe vision, what the goal is,
because not everybodyunderstands what Zappier is.
They just don't.
Tim Bourguignon (00:18):
Why do I need it?
Why do I?
Dave van Beekum (00:19):
need it, you can save time.
I don't need it.
Yeah, it's hard to explain, butyou have to come up with those
bigger size not goals, but it'slike a vision of what you want
to build out.
Tim Bourguignon (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Developers Journey,
the podcast bringing you themaking of stories of successful
software developers to help youon your upcoming journey.
I'm your host, tim Borghigno.
On this episode, I receive Davevan Beekum.
Dave is the co-founder andcreator of Tweeva, the world's
first social TV network forsmall businesses and influencers
(00:56):
.
A digital marketing guru,startup and TDS and tech expert,
dave is a man of many talents.
He lives in Florida with hiswife and three girls and enjoys
the beautiful outdoors.
Well, do you say Florida?
Yeah, when he's not bound toone of his many computers.
Hearing the geek in therealready.
Dave, welcome to Dave Journey,hey thanks, Tim.
Dave van Beekum (01:18):
Yeah, oh man, I am a geek from a long time ago
and Florida is beautiful, butit's hot during the summer.
It is really hot.
It's hot and sweaty.
You got to put a t-shirt on.
You can't wear one of thosecool silk the Hawaiian shirts.
It's just hot and sweaty,that's what I've heard.
Tim Bourguignon (01:37):
Been there only once, but it wasn't a winter.
Dave van Beekum (01:38):
deep in the winter, oh it's nice in the
winter, yeah but, I'm originallyfrom New Jersey, so you know
it's that cold weather, the snowin the winter, the shoveling.
You know you get down here andpeople say it's hot and heavy
but you don't have to shovel it.
That's like.
You know the snowbirds language.
Tim Bourguignon (01:55):
We'll see if it stays this way.
We'll see yeah we'll see.
Yeah, but before we come to yourstory, I want to thank the
terrific listeners who supportthe show.
Every month you are keeping theDave Journey lights up.
If you would like to join thisfine crew and help me spend more
time on finding phenomenalguests than editing audio tracks
(02:18):
, please go to our website,devjourneyinfo, and click on the
support me on Patreon button.
Even the smallest contributionsare giant steps toward a
sustainable Dave Journey journey.
Thank you, and now back totoday's guest.
As you know, the show exists tohelp the listeners understand
what your story look like andimagine how to shape their own
(02:41):
future.
So, as is usual on the show,let's go back to your beginnings
in New Jersey, new Jersey orsomewhere else, dave?
Where would you place the startof your journey?
Dave van Beekum (02:49):
Oh, that's definitely back in the days of
New Jersey.
That's almost 18, 19 years agonow.
So if I go back way, way, wayback, my dad is an electrical
contractor and he loved to justfiddle with anything.
So he would, let's say, workingat a clean room in New Jersey,
he would say, oh, are youthrowing out that switch over
(03:10):
there?
What about that air pump overthere?
And he would take home you know, a grommeted switch for a clean
room and then there'd be an airpump over here in a three phase
four 80 volt motor over thereon the counter.
And so this, this progressedfor quite a while and he had
amassed three bays in the garagejust full of different
(03:31):
electronic equipment.
Well, not electronic in theform of what we would say today,
electronic, but electricalcontracting things.
So when me and my brother were,you know, bored, we would go
play in the garage and there wasjust technology.
There was an air horn off of aboat and my brother had to
(03:51):
connect this to a 12 voltbattery.
One time, you know, scared tobe Jesus out of us, but just the
most random thing, like Iremember when I was a kid taking
a part of microwave.
And then we did that.
Oh, my brother, don't touchthose capacitors.
Okay, you know, we'd get arubber glove out or something so
we could disassemble it andthen we take it to the, to the
(04:11):
desk and we would use asoldering iron to pull off
certain capacitors and chips.
We didn't know exactly what todo with it.
But you know, that was kind ofmy really really early years,
and I think it might have beensix or seven, when my uncle
worked at Dunn and Bradstreet inNew Jersey and he was the
(04:32):
computer technician.
So he would have to upgrade ahundred or 200 computers.
And this is back when you wouldupgrade a hundred or 200 to 86s
, 33 megahertz computers.
And so he would say hey, youknow, if anybody wants one in
the family, and I would, youknow what's that, you know?
Oh yeah, I'll take one.
(04:52):
My dad got me one and it wasjust an old one, two, 86, 33
megahertz monochrome screen.
But that really started thejourney into the tech field of
computers, versus the, the, thewires and the technicals and
electrical contract in which mybrother really loves, my dad
really loved.
But something about sitting inthe chair and working on a
(05:15):
computer and seeing those thingscome up on the screen, I think.
A few months later he gave me adot matrix printer and I
started playing with that with aparallel port, and that's
really got me hooked.
So between the computer thatwas in my room and then my dad's
audio video connectors, mixingboard, we had a 16 channel Mac
(05:38):
Mac keyboard and I put thatunderneath an L shaped desk,
underneath my hanging bed, whichmy dad hung off the ceiling so
we didn't have any posts.
So I had a video, a mixer, twoVCRs, a reel to reel, you know,
total geek out.
And so my computer on one side,I had this studio on the other,
(06:01):
and I must have been 10 at thatpoint.
And so we went on vacation and Isaw this little toy thing
saying transceiver receiver, fmtransceiver receiver, you know,
broadcast to your sister's,brother's room.
I was like, oh, if I could takea headphone jack into a 1.5
millimeter, I could broadcastwhat I have to the other people
(06:23):
in the house.
And so I did so.
Then I had a little mini radiostation and check out, play my
music, and you know, and it wascrazy, but I had such a weird
upbringing of technology thatit's just this broad view of
many different things and youknow it's weird.
You have those experiences butuntil you really build a project
(06:46):
that you use them in, you kindof forget what you did because
you don't need that memory.
But yeah, so that's a littleoverview of the past history and
how I got here, how it started,and this is awesome.
Tim Bourguignon (07:01):
I love what I'm hearing in terms of not being
afraid of the technology, notbeing afraid of tinkering
putting it out, maybe notputting it out, maybe not
putting back together, puttingyour hands in there, with gloves
or without, and also on thecomputer, really doing stuff
with it and going deep in thereand trying to make something and
(07:22):
not being afraid to break it.
This is absolutely.
Dave van Beekum (07:25):
Yeah, once I, you know, my dad figured out
that I like computers.
He had an old 8088 that was,you know, his kind of office
computer and we'd play a coupleof games on that.
But once I got mine, he I thinkhe might have said, okay, now
we can go to the computer shows.
And so way back then, you know,in New Jersey I don't think it
was on the edge of New York, butKGP computer shows, I think I
(07:47):
believe it was called and hewould love, every once a month
or something, we would go thereand I used to work with him, you
know, on the side, and whenwe'd go to the show I'd say, hey
, can I buy this CG, rememberCGA graphics card?
It was like four colors, youknow, or 16 or something.
Dad, can I get this?
$45 was a lot back then.
(08:09):
Yeah, you can work it off withme at $2 an hour.
Yeah, okay, yes, yes.
And I got to play my littlecommander keen in four colors
instead of, you know, black andwhite.
And so, you know it was thengoing to find the card and, oh,
I don't have a PCI slot or Idon't have an ISA slot.
You know, it was, like you saida lot of learning get the
(08:32):
cables out, can I get anupgraded new hard drive deleting
things and then figuring out.
That was the system.
You know, it's like where Istarted way, way, way back then.
But I always had that passion.
I just I don't know why, but Iloved it.
It was not, it was my sports,it was my comic magazines, it
was all computers and technology, maybe because it was available
(08:56):
, Maybe Maybe because it wasjust sitting there, I don't know
, but it just progressed fromthere.
Tim Bourguignon (09:05):
One thing I'm not sure I got right.
Did you enjoy the technologyfor the technology, or did you
have something in mind to bedoing with it always?
And we're searching for thatthrough technology.
Dave van Beekum (09:21):
I don't know if it opened up.
I remember thinking I lovedmusic.
My mom was a choir director, mydad did audio video for church,
so I was always around audioand sound mixing.
So maybe the maybe I loved themusic, so I would then get the
Mackey board and connect all theconnectors so I could adjust
(09:43):
the bass.
I don't remember that young ifI had a reason, but the
technology almost gave meopportunity.
I think that's more the waythat it went is once I had it in
there and I could dream aboutit and think about it.
Oh, I could create abroadcasting studio.
I wonder if dad has a cameradownstairs.
And he did.
And then, because the mixer hadchroma key.
(10:04):
So hey, what's chroma key?
Oh, that's for green screenbackground, you know, like they
have in the news.
Tim Bourguignon (10:09):
Okay, oh, all right.
Dave van Beekum (10:11):
Well, how does that work?
You know, tried it on abookshelf, didn't work.
So, hey, mom, do you have agreen piece of material
downstairs?
Yeah, I think I got somethingand but it led to opportunities
to hey, sis, can you sit infront of that?
And you remember those Omeglesyou could connect two blocks,
they call them now and it's likethis kid erector set.
They're huge, though, about afoot long.
You should build things out ofthem.
(10:32):
Well, my parents at a young agebought these two huge, massive
sets and so we built out a stagefor like a desk, like a
broadcasting desk.
So I don't know, like I'mthinking, maybe the technology
gave me those ideas whichpresented them as the
opportunities to build or dosomething.
I didn't like start off saying,okay, I have all this stuff,
(10:54):
what would I want to do?
It was more fun to just playand connect and build.
Tim Bourguignon (11:01):
And that leads into my next question, which is
kind of always the same Was itobvious to you that you would
end up doing something like thisafterwards?
Dave van Beekum (11:13):
Well, everybody would say you know, you got to
go to college, you got to dothis, you got to do that.
I think they really told somany different ways that I could
go.
It could be audio engineering,it could be video engineering,
it could be computers.
At a very young age I networkedmy house before the internet
was really out.
I figured out I think it waslike Microsoft Enterprise,
(11:35):
outlooker, outlook, what do theycall it?
Exchange, right.
And so I networked the housewith CAT3 or CAT1 cable.
So, mom, I'll send you an email.
She's like what's that for?
Just walk down and tell me.
I was like I don't know.
But it's.
This is this program in Windows311, and we can send each other
messages.
What's an IP address?
(11:58):
Why do we need that?
So I had so many different, Ijust didn't know which one I
really enjoyed, you know.
So I didn't know at the time,but I knew I wanted to do
something like this because itdidn't feel like work.
It felt like I get to play withthis and build it and then
listen to it and change it, makesure it sounds good.
Once it sounded good,everyone's like it doesn't sound
(12:19):
any different.
Yes, it does.
This other one doesn't haveenough trouble in it, you know.
Tim Bourguignon (12:24):
So we shouldn't get into discussion if you hear
more on a wave file than on MP3.
Dave van Beekum (12:30):
Oh yeah exactly .
Napster's great, but it soundslike crap okay.
Tim Bourguignon (12:35):
No it doesn't.
Dave van Beekum (12:35):
It's the song yes it does.
Tim Bourguignon (12:39):
So how did you choose on what to do next in
this broad spectrum ofopportunities?
Dave van Beekum (12:46):
It really came out of what opportunities arose,
out of the connections thatwere built by me or either my
dad involved in those situations.
So I kind of chose the routesthat were available.
So if somebody, he would say,oh, you know, we did some
networking here, then wenetworked the church, and then
somebody would say, hey, can younetwork my business?
(13:07):
And so then I would be broughtout and, oh my goodness, now I
got to talk to people I don'tknow, can you tell them how much
you know?
And so he kind of did a littlebit of that in there too.
But the opportunities at ayoung age started that way.
It's not until really, I guess,I moved to Florida when I just
(13:27):
said, okay, I'm going toincorporate what I do into a
legal business and thenprogressively go out and look
for different customers that arein that specific industry, and
so there's a few years in there.
But that's kind of pushed myway into.
I like to work on the computer.
Websites are great because Ionly have to interact a few
(13:48):
times with the customer, but Iget to use the design, the audio
, the video and build that intoa projection of what the
business is, their image on theweb, and so nobody was telling
me this was right or wrong.
I get to look out onto the weband figure out what it is and
then do it a little bit better,and so it took a little time to
(14:09):
get to that point.
But that was about 18 when Istarted.
You know, the legal businesspiece didn't work off of
underneath my dad and then builtit out.
Tim Bourguignon (14:20):
So, until you were 18, really navigating
whatever opportunity there was,grabbing the opportunities to
learn even more and do somethingin this regard, but not
necessarily pushing on your ownin the direction of another,
just grabbing what there is.
Dave van Beekum (14:32):
Yeah, I kind of grabbed what there is.
I wasn't really into themarketing and advertising piece
of it.
I threw a couple web designstickers on my car Weirdest
thing like from the littlestadvertisement.
I remember one person hey, canyou meet?
I see I'm driving behind youright now.
Okay, yeah, you need a website.
Yeah, yeah, we do.
Can you meet me at my privatehangar at the executive airport
(14:56):
in Orlando?
I'm sorry.
Tim Bourguignon (14:57):
What.
Dave van Beekum (15:00):
Private hangar.
Why would you call somebodywith a sticker on their back
window?
You know like the weirdestthings happen from a little bit
of advertising and you learnthat over time.
But especially in our geekworld, I think in the software
side, we always have this ideaof, hey, if we build a really
(15:21):
great product, if we buildsomething that's better than
anyone else, everybody's goingto love it and I don't have to
go, yeah, and they will come andI don't have to talk about it,
I don't have to this, they'lljust realize what it is.
They haven't had 150 hours ofthought into it.
You know, we just think they'regoing to get it and it's a
mistake.
And I think a lot of devs have.
Oh yeah, but you got to do someevidence.
(15:44):
So after that piece on the backwindow, I just wrapped the whole
entire car in my company colorsblue and orange.
It was bright.
It tracked a lot of bees.
I'll say that they thought itwas like a big flower.
My wife's like so I'm going togo.
My wife's like so I'm going towaste.
She's like honey, your car, allthese stripes and the break,
(16:05):
they just.
There's bees all over the car.
But it worked really well.
It worked well, but I learned alittle bit in there.
It's like you got to do.
You can find your correctcustomer, you can find new
people and do what you love atthe same time.
Tim Bourguignon (16:19):
Did you learn this all on the fly?
While doing it, Did you pose atsome point and say hey, I need
to go grab the skills.
It's going to take three, fourmonths and do that and then come
back or go through a formaltraining.
How did you approach thislearning?
Dave van Beekum (16:36):
I just kind of said, ok, let's, let's try this.
On the back of the car and Iwas doing some SEO at the time,
so I was getting a littlebusiness from the web, from
Google, and that worked.
But I just figured she'sdriving the kids around all day,
that could be like a billboard,and it is, and people would
(16:57):
call me, I'm driving behind you.
I'm like, yeah, and I'd besitting in the office just going
like, yeah, yeah, I'm out theresomewhere.
I'm in Orlando now, because Ididn't know where she was.
But no, I didn't really sit downand plan it, I just said, ok,
let's try this, let's, let'sbuild that, let's do this, let's
design my car.
And I would sit down inPhotoshop and say this is the
way I wanted to look.
I wanted to look better thanthe other truck that I saw for
(17:20):
like a food truck go by, and soI don't know if it was better or
not, but to me, I've always hadthat.
I can see the design, I can seewhat looks good and what
doesn't look.
I could hear things to, youknow, in the audio.
So so I just use it to myadvantage and it worked until
the Florida Sun killed that,that rap.
Tim Bourguignon (17:42):
Also, it was just burning the paint, so it
was it would just peel.
Dave van Beekum (17:47):
you know it was like eventually it was just
bubbling up.
You know, this is years ago,before I had the high quality
stuff.
But I always thought, like, canI pay people to do this?
And so I asked a friend hey,let's build a little startup
where we can find cars to.
You know, pay them a couplehundred bucks a month and then
they will be all driving around.
You imagine what kind of acompany you'd have five cars
(18:07):
were driving around.
People would think you're busyall the time.
Right, and again, that that.
But.
But you hear it in in that ideais I don't really have to go
find it, just try this and itwill work.
And it's almost like the wrongway to do it.
Like you're saying, to plan itout is a lot better to sit there
and say, hey, this is the plan,moving forward, let's get this
(18:31):
many cars going.
In the first month you do oneand then by the fourth month you
have to.
It never got to that pointbecause it was just off the cuff
Try this, try that.
Tim Bourguignon (18:41):
Which is also valuable in itself.
It could be experiment basedand just trying to see the
return on this month.
Just sometimes, the return onthis month is very hard to
measure.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely is.
Yeah, at which point did youdid you start focusing on your
activities and how did youdecide on which activity to
focus on?
Dave van Beekum (19:01):
So once I became busy enough, where it was
so much work to do and the carwas working so well and I had
some SEO going locally, I thinkit was at like 12 or 15 websites
or there were pretty big jobsand I finished eight of them in
a month and I go, I just I meanI work a lot I went and got a
(19:25):
boat so I could hit things withhammers, because it was an old,
used boat.
And I'm like I just I'm sittingin front of the computer all
the time and my wife's like whatdid you just buy on Craigslist?
I was like I just got to hitstuff with hammers, I'm so
frustrated and so be cutting outa piece of rotten wood.
And she's like, what are youdoing in there?
I'm like I don't care, it's notprogramming, you know it's not
doing else.
And I realized at that point Igo, this is not working.
(19:49):
I have to be more organized.
I have to have a projectmanagement tool.
I can't just drop things infolders and you know right out a
, you know right out the to-dolist or what I have to do on the
invoice.
You have to become very, veryorganized with what you do.
And so that kind of made thisturning point of the boat was a
(20:10):
frustration of doing thingswrong and we have to change into
something that's very organizedset meetings, set schedules of
sitting down and talking toclients.
Ok, this is what we're going towork on for the next 30 days,
and no, I can't get this done intwo weeks.
We have to understand thesetimelines, and so I learned a
(20:31):
lot at that point and startedbecoming organized with an
internal database where I couldput tasks in and build out the
project before it was built.
Tim Bourguignon (20:44):
But it was still only with the air quotes,
only web development.
So websites building, or wereyou doing something else still?
Dave van Beekum (20:54):
It was still a mix of databases, web networking
.
For the guy that called me tohis private airport place, it
was I have 20 exotic cars, canwe take them out?
And I want to do a video shoot.
And so I was like, yeah, I'llgo get a camera.
(21:15):
Ok, yeah, I could do thatbecause I could do video editing
.
So we, oh, and I have a bus, Ihave a pre-vose bus, we'll take
in a mansion over here.
Can we do the mansion too?
And so we built out a DVD tohand out to other investors and
when people visit before thedays of Airbnb and Turro, to
come down to Orlando and rentthis stuff, enjoy.
(21:38):
He had four aircraft, fractionalownership and 200 properties.
So it was what are we going towork on?
How can we build this and thenmaintain the website and can we
put this in a database?
So it was a lot of mix, but itwas probably a lot of.
I wouldn't say it was the besttime of my life, but it was a
(21:58):
lot of fun to jump and be partof those different pieces.
The problem is it's not focusedon that one thing, so I could
see myself losing a little bitin video development, because
unless you're constantly invideo development, working in
Adobe Premiere or Final Cut, youkind of lose the edge.
And the same on the Photoshopside.
(22:20):
You kind of had to relearn iton the week that you were
working on it, so I was gettingmy head going.
Ok, this works so well, but foronly so long, and eventually
there's going to be people thatgrow up that will be
professionals in all thosespecific areas.
I think I don't know if thatwas in days of like Joomla and
Mambo, where they had the CMSs,the relational database CMSs,
(22:46):
and so that was working.
But every time they do anupgrade, something would change.
I'd have to go in and figureout OK, what changed over here,
what changed over there?
That was before the days ofWordPress was so popular.
But yeah, I had to learn atsome point to let go of the
reins a little bit and findpeople to do those things.
Tim Bourguignon (23:04):
So you still kept this multiverse of
activities, just not did them onyour own.
So your company was stillunfocused or focused on all
those things I'm not sure whichterminology you would use, but
you yourself were doing just thesubset over there.
Dave van Beekum (23:19):
Yeah, I was doing little pieces of that, but
I was tending to say, ok, I didthat little video thing here, I
did this, I did that.
But that's really not as muchfun as sitting here and focusing
on coding and developing,because if you code and develop
something, you can scale it.
I can't scale taking a pictureof an aircraft or getting inside
(23:40):
of a private jet with a 20millimeter wide angle lens and
doing a back out shot Like whatare you going to do with that
after it's done?
So it was fun, it's unique, butit's over the next day.
It's like, ok, it's gone.
So was I able to take my timeand scale it?
No, ok.
(24:00):
Then what are you after?
Fun or scale?
And I said, ok, I have to thinkscale the family, the what?
Ok, how do we get rich?
How do you build?
How do you take a break fromthe craziness is build something
at scale.
So that started to work in mymind as find other smart people,
find other people to partnerwith.
Tim Bourguignon (24:22):
And was that fun as well for you?
For what?
To find other people, to findthem and then have them do
something else for you no,because it's hard to find good
people.
Dave van Beekum (24:32):
It's really hard to find good people.
Tim Bourguignon (24:35):
It doesn't need to.
Yeah, how did you manage thatscaling then?
Dave van Beekum (24:39):
I didn't scale as far as I could have.
So I would scale the few peoplehere or there and then the
economy would shift or the jobswouldn't come in, because the
marketing wasn't perfect.
If it was based upon, if thecar was being driven or whatever
, it wasn't as perfect as itcould have been.
So it never got to the point offull time.
(25:00):
But it was take this job piecehere, subcontract there and get
the jobs done.
But it was always reliant onthe next big project that came
in.
Tim Bourguignon (25:09):
OK.
So when did that phase of yourlife end, or is it still running
?
Dave van Beekum (25:14):
It's a little bit running here and there for
past clients, but eventually Ifigured out.
I said I just want to work on aproject.
So when I was doing those 8 to10 projects I was like, ok, can
we just build this out into onepiece where all of the time and
effort let's take the video andthe audio and the development
(25:34):
and the coding and build thisinto one project with a partner
that is maybe good at sales andmarketing pieces, and then they
do those and I can do mine.
And so I found a few partnersthat wanted to build and scale a
big food ordering service, butnot for retail to retail.
(25:57):
This would be business tobusiness.
So let's say, a smallrestaurant would look at
multiple distributors in theirtown and they would say, where
can I get 50 pounds of chickenthis week?
Where can I get 100 pounds ofthis or 25 pounds of mozzarella
cheese?
And there would be multipledifferent sources.
So then I got to use not thevideo per se but the pictures
(26:22):
and the coding and the databasedevelopment and the mobile app
development all into one project.
And that took several yearswhere we patented this project.
But then we never got that oneto market because we didn't have
the right connections.
But I liked the idea ofbuilding with that team of
people all focused on one thing.
(26:43):
In the startup world, and that'sreally where I had that change
of OK.
You could do 15 differentprojects for people, but unless
they're doing their ownmarketing, you can't scale that.
You built that little piece forthem, but it's really reliant
on them.
So under a startup world, youhave a lot of control to say
what are we doing today, whatare we doing tomorrow?
(27:05):
What's the next six months?
Look like we don't have to say,hey, are you going to do
marketing?
No, I can't do marketing rightnow.
I just wanted a website, I justwanted a video.
Ok, well, what are we doing now?
I don't know.
They'd go and just disappear,right.
So I loved the idea of buildingthat one project and it kind of
from then on it was more one ortwo main projects that I was
(27:26):
focusing on.
Tim Bourguignon (27:27):
OK, but still in a co-founder role in all of
those projects.
Dave van Beekum (27:33):
Not all the projects.
The food one was not aco-founder, it was just a coding
expert.
It was probably eventuallygoing to be a co-founder because
I was one of the main peoplebehind it, but that project gave
birth to actually Tweeva, whichis what I'm working on now, and
that's same partners butco-founder.
(27:54):
And that's where I loved usingall those ideas, sure.
Tim Bourguignon (28:00):
Do you want to tell us how Tweeva came to be?
Dave van Beekum (28:03):
Okay.
So Tweeva was built out fromthose same partners that were in
that food distribution industry, but they were restaurant tours
.
So we were sitting in one ofthe restaurants and I just
looked up at the TV one time andI said how dare Pizza Hut Do
they not know who you are?
How dare they advertise theirpizza in your restaurant?
(28:24):
And we kind of chuckled alittle bit.
And you know, we sat there, wesaw Domino's and a few others
and I just thought I think weall kind of combined together,
is there a way that we cancreate a TV channel for small
businesses, but kind of liketheir own TV channel, where they
can select what they want onthe TV and give their opinion?
(28:49):
Hey, I don't want to see thatcommercial or don't show any
other food commercials in mybusiness, but have it also a way
that small businesses canadvertise?
And that came from my partnersaying hey, there's a plumber
sitting over here, he's eatingfood.
Okay, I just talked to thisperson.
They have a leak in their house.
(29:09):
I love to connect them.
So he would say go, put yourbusiness card up at the front.
And so I said, you know, wecould put something on the TV.
He said great, great, let'sjust take a picture of their
business card, put it on TV.
I said no, no, no, it can't be.
Can't be this like low qualitybusiness card.
It has to be something,something nice.
And so you know we could gowith a slide.
(29:29):
You know, call me, I'm the bestplumber in the city.
And that might be nice.
But it evolved into moreinfotainment, like why don't we
show the plumber working on ajob in the city?
Like you know that popular TVshow, this Old House where they
go in and fix the?
(29:49):
You know they fix a plumberpipe and they spend 10 minutes
doing it.
We could spend three, three orfour, but it's advertising who
that business owner is to thatperson.
And so it kind of changed fromjust the advertising screen to a
little bit of businesses, alittle bit of news, weather,
their social media, right.
(30:10):
So the business, when theywould post something on Facebook
, it would automatically getadded to their TV.
So if you walked in and youdidn't follow, them, you might
say oh cool.
They just I didn't know theywere active on Facebook, New
follower, right.
So it builds their audience.
But this is now unique to everysingle business that you walk
(30:31):
in.
It's not streamed down onechannel.
Every business has the abilityto say, yeah, I want to show
this at my business or I don'twant to show this at my business
.
So that's kind of how Tweebaworks.
But oh, I missed.
The main part is this is also acommunity TV, so you and me can
(30:53):
walk up to the TV and add ourown piece of content or an
advertisement on the TV.
So let's say that there's aparade going through town, right
, and I take a picture of theparade, I can share it onto the
TV.
So now this can be shared toall the TVs in the community or
just the one TV.
But it kind of gives everybodya chance to see it.
But it kind of gives everybodya little bit of view of what's
(31:16):
going on.
Now that could be the parade ora Christmas event or maybe
something, a ballet event that'shappening, you know, oh, come
to this show, or a high schoolmusical, who knows?
But major cities have this.
It's called, like Orlando,channel 11, channel 12.
I forget what it is, everymajor city has one, but around
(31:39):
every major city there's like500 small cities that don't have
a TV channel.
So that's what we wanted to dois give back the business owner
the ability to advertise ondifferent TVs.
And it can't be, you know,cross competitive, but it would
be food to doctor office, doctoroffice to food, right Lawyer to
(32:01):
food, food to lawyer.
That works, no food to food, nolawyer to lawyer, no dentist to
dentist.
But it gives the ability for usto create a little network for
small businesses and influencers.
Tim Bourguignon (32:15):
That makes a little sense.
Is this the original idea thatyou just described, or is this
what it became?
Dave van Beekum (32:21):
It definitely became that In the beginning it
was a slideshow of pictures thatwere dynamically created based
upon if people were there or not, but semi, you know, slideshow
Like just pieces of like littleads.
It was weather.
What I really think we grew onis the influencing side.
(32:42):
That's really taken off, Idon't know the past couple years
.
The influencing side is hugebecause you can give a business
owner a lot of these tools, butthey're not necessarily going to
do it.
Like I jokingly say, back when Igrew up, if I had a shoulder
camera which my dad had, youknow and I plugged it in and I'd
be like all right, record, andI'd hit the big red button, if
(33:05):
anybody saw me, they'd be like,wow, he's shooting something
professional, right, yes, nowyou could take an iPhone 4K or
an Android 4K, lift it up and,with the right lighting, they
could be potentially shootingprofessional, yeah.
And so the problem is not thatwe don't have the camera, the
(33:29):
problem is that we don't have aplace to put it.
That seems valuable to us.
So, yes, a business owner couldput it on social media, but he
doesn't know if he should, ifthe lighting is correct, if this
is that.
So there's this whole differentindustry that's created called
influencers, where they know howto use the video piece and the
(33:52):
audio piece and the media pieceand they know what looks good on
each network.
And so for Tweeva, influencersare very powerful, because you
could be an influencer with500,000 followers and be sitting
in a cafe and no one would knowwho you are, especially if one
town over Now with Tweeva TV, ifyour face showed up on the TV
(34:16):
while you were sitting there ona show like, oh, okay, who's
that over there?
I think that's a person on TV.
Right, that's him.
That's him.
Yeah, that's him.
That's him.
Okay, cool.
What about the plumber?
When's the last time you saw aplumber or a lawyer in the same
restaurant that you were in?
You wouldn't, because the ad isgoing to be $50,000 and he's
(34:39):
eating at a different place.
But if I can make the ad fivecents, I can allow anybody to
advertise that content on TV.
But you still need that alittle bit of help from those
influencers, because they knowhow to frame the shot.
Take this, no, no, don't waituntil the sun is down a little
bit further so you don't getshadows underneath your eyes,
and they do a really good job ofthat.
(35:00):
But yeah, this is a long-windedanswer too.
It's grown and evolved with thetechnology.
I think, like I did before, isyou play with the technology,
you see opportunity and then youkind of lean in that direction.
Okay, let's take that piece andkeep working with this and keep
moving forward, okay that makesa lot of sense.
Tim Bourguignon (35:23):
We don't have that many TVs in Europe in
restaurants.
It's kind of low-key comparedto the US, but I remember my
time in the US and it was reallythe presence of those TVs
everywhere and really part ofthe ambience.
It makes a lot of sense in thiscontext.
That's really something thatbrings a lot of bells.
Dave van Beekum (35:38):
Yeah, we don't want it to be TV as far as
distracting, we like the wholebring whatever that restaurant
is to the TV.
So, instead of like for theItalian restaurants that we were
testing and building in thefirst phase, we sat there like
how do we bring the Italian viewinto it?
Oh well, let's go find somedrone footage of Italy.
(35:59):
You know some of the populardestinations, play that, play
the chicken, parm and this, andsome employees that are in the
kitchen.
Tell the customers who theserver is.
And does the server have a dogat home?
And does the server drive amotorcycle on the weekends?
Because what we're trying to dois not just be focused on oh,
(36:22):
this technology is the best, wecould do everything.
Oh, we'll design it and theywill come.
It's, how do we integrate thattechnology to help a little
relationship between justsomebody sitting at a table and
then talking.
You've been there before, Iknow it.
You've sat at a restaurantright with another person, your
(36:42):
wife and you look over andyou're like those guys don't
even talk to each other.
It's so weird to just like lookaround and the server comes
over.
I'll have this, thank you, andthey put it away.
What's missing there is a littlebit of connection of
information, something thatmatches.
So it might be.
Oh, I saw you drive amotorcycle on the weekends.
Oh, that's so cool.
(37:02):
Yeah, it's my boyfriends, butwe'd love to go out here.
And oh, my nephew drives amotorcycle.
Now we have a connectionbetween those people and if you
think about it, where are wegoing next Friday?
You're gonna go to a brand newplace or you're probably gonna
go.
Oh, let's go see how thenephew's doing.
Or I heard they went to college, or the kid went to college.
Let's go talk to them and itbecomes more of that
(37:24):
relationship.
This is more like it waswithout tech, but we're using a
little bit of that tech tostimulate those little pieces of
information.
So I don't wanna be a TVchannel, I wanna be a connection
into the community where we canhelp people, right?
So yeah, it has definitelymorphed from this advertising
(37:46):
screen into how do we integrateand help people connect more.
Tim Bourguignon (37:51):
So that means there is a possible future where
that TV would not disappear buttake way less precedence in
your business, because you founda different way, maybe better
way, for some context to createthose connections.
In the context of restaurants,yeah, it could.
Dave van Beekum (38:09):
If it's not part of the TV, it could be
something else a QR code thatconnects people, or a game right
, it wouldn't be TV per se, aswe think TV is, but it could be
a game on Friday night thatwe're using the TV to get a clue
and we respond on our phone,but it's something that's
happening.
Or a scavenger hunt around thecommunities where the TV is not
showing news, but it might beshowing an Easter egg and you
(38:32):
have to go to all thesedifferent businesses and find
the golden one.
You know, it could be anythingbut just being a little digital
screen that's not given away toa soap opera.
Or like I was sitting in thisone pizza shop waiting to talk
to a manager and he was on oneof these cable channels
Discovery or something and itwas this man who murdered his
(38:52):
girlfriend.
And I'm sitting here at like mytwo slices of pizza going, okay
, I'll give you 30 seconds, seewhat happens.
And he's like he drove to thedarkest side of Arizona where
there's no cell phone, and I'mlike, okay, and then he took
duct tape.
I'm like what are we going withthis?
And then he went to this roadand made a left.
(39:13):
I'm like you guys are just,what are you doing here?
You're giving peopleinstructions and I said you
really don't have anythingthat's going on in the community
that's better than this.
Okay, there probably is, butthere was a disconnect into what
should I show at my restaurant.
Some people like this channel.
Okay, maybe it started off atthe cooking show, but by three
pm in the afternoon that stationhas nothing left, so they're
(39:36):
playing that.
Could we benefit the personsitting there?
Okay, in my town we have anationally recognized football
team, high school football team.
I've never seen a catch or atouchdown anywhere on local TV
because it doesn't exist.
So can that be shown?
(39:57):
Can somebody be sitting there?
Or are you with a professionalcamera or their iPhone, be
shooting a couple of highlightclips and sharing that to the
community?
Absolutely.
Then we have a tennis, we havea basketball Of all these things
that could create what peopleare missing today.
I want recognition.
(40:17):
I want recognition.
People will take a lower pay ata job for recognition because
they think, oh, to get mesomewhere.
How many kids are looking forthis?
Let's get them on talking,developing their own little TV
spots.
This is all possible, but thenetwork has to be built out.
So yeah, this is again along-winded answer, but the
(40:39):
vision, that's the forwardvision of what can you do with
it.
Tim Bourguignon (40:43):
And I love that .
I love that your vision is notdefined by the technology, but
really by what you aim to becreating with it.
And if that changes I mean ifthe technology changes well, so
what?
The vision is still valid, it'sstill what you're after and
that is gorgeous.
That's what you want forbusiness really.
Dave van Beekum (41:01):
Yeah, we have in the patent some piece for AR
goggles that if we're lookingeither at a screen or an
indirection, can something popup and we can talk about that
thing, something local, andwe're always looking forward to
that next piece in that nerdworld where you literally have
to be 20 years forward andlooking in that direction.
(41:21):
But yeah, doesn't matter whatit is that end goal is and I've
learned this is not.
It is very technology, but youalmost have to tell and explain
to people that are notunderstanding your 200 hours,
500 hours, 1,000 hours into theproject what the vision, what
the goal is, because noteverybody understands what
(41:45):
Zapier is.
They just don't why do I need?
it.
Why do I need it?
You can save time.
I don't need it.
Yeah, it's hard to explain, butyou have to come up with those
bigger size not goals, but it'slike a vision of what you want
to build out.
Tim Bourguignon (42:04):
It's an either vision, it's a vision.
Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
That's exciting.
I wish you all the best of luckwith SWIVA for the future.
Dave van Beekum (42:12):
That's really cool.
Thank you, thank you.
Tim Bourguignon (42:15):
For the advice piece I usually end up on.
I'd like to come back to onething you said, where you were
describing yourself as atechnologist and saying well,
you didn't say I, you didn'tpronounce it this way,
necessarily, but you saysomething like hey, if you build
the right thing, people aregonna come, it's gonna work.
No need for marketing, and I'veseen this so many times, being
(42:36):
guilty of that as well.
What would be the best adviceyou would have for the listeners
?
To start stepping out of thismindset, Start dabbling a little
bit on marketing, Start makinga little bit of noise about what
they do and not only relying onthe inherent qualities of the
(42:56):
products that are definitelythere but nobody knows about.
Dave van Beekum (43:00):
So we went through a business accelerator
and they had talked about in thevery beginning of when you were
trying to build your startup,and this was a $10,000 course.
And then they bring you to VCcapital and they had said
they've looked at our projectand said where's your press
releases, where is your Facebookgroups, where are your emails
(43:27):
that you would send to potentialcustomers?
And we said, well, we'refocusing on development, we're
focusing on building the productwe're focused on.
And they said, you know, that'scalled a development loop,
where you just keep saying, oh,I'll build this for this person
and I'm gonna build this forthis set of groups.
And so I think the piece thatwe missed in the very beginning
(43:48):
and I've missed for quite awhile because I was in behind
the scenes is talk about yourproduct.
Even if you get five littlecustomers in the very beginning
to be interested about what youdo, they can bring you to five
or 10 more.
And that's the way that youwanna really scale in the
beginning, because when you havea problem, something doesn't
(44:11):
work.
If somebody doesn't know you ordoesn't understand that
long-term goal, they just say,oh, it doesn't work, it will
never work, and they just cancelthe subscription, whereas if
they understand that goal forthe longer term, oh well, this
guy has been working in tech forso long and this is one of the
things that accumulation of.
(44:31):
He used to do video and he usedto do audio and now he's
building out a TV network.
Give him a week or two, thatbug will be fixed.
See, that response iscompletely different from
someone who understands youcan't get that from somebody
just hits your website from asearch.
They don't understand what'sgoing on.
(44:51):
So when you have those firstcustomers not even customers,
let's just say the first peoplethat are really looking at you
or you come up with an idea, youwanna build it.
You have to build that visionand the goal and back it up with
what they refer to as media,which is a press release.
Or this is what we'redeveloping.
There's a team of engineers inrestaurant and tech building out
(45:16):
a small business TV channel,blah, blah, blah and that's a
press release.
And then you'd send out emails,right, and talk about what
you're developing this week orthis month or the next six
months.
If you're serious, right, ifyou're building a little baby
product, you wanna just get itout to a couple hundred people.
It's not gonna be that big of adeal.
But what we're trying to focuson is something big, and I think
(45:36):
most people when they get intoa startup, they want to build
something big.
So you don't have to do that ahundred times.
I think maybe five or 10 in ayear would be plenty.
Right, once every month, onceevery two months, you just send
something out and you startbuilding a wait list.
That's a very important thing,too Is if you have a product you
(45:58):
talk to people out.
Hey, give me your email.
Because when we got to theventure capital, they said oh
man, this is such a greatproduct, you must have 50,000
people waiting for you.
And we said, well, no, probably.
Yeah, no, we can't lie.
It was like no, we don't,because we went through.
Well, we actually had aco-founder pass away too, so we
didn't get to where we shouldhave been and there was a little
(46:22):
pause in there.
So we had a couple of issues.
But that first piece of adviceis if you are in the tech world,
please focus a little bit onthat marketing outside.
And what you can do much easierthan what we could have done
previous to ChatGPT is oh, Idon't know how to save this in
(46:43):
the press release.
I don't know what kind of titleto write Use ChatGPT, train it
to what your product is and thensay, hey, I want to not give
away a lot of information, but Iwant to give enough away to
peak interest.
Give me a title in thedescription for Facebook Group
or Facebook Post or something.
And just learn that if you canacquire five emails a week from
(47:06):
average people that canunderstand what you're trying to
sell, you'd be in a much betterplace than 98% of startups.
Tim Bourguignon (47:16):
Amen to that, Dave.
Thank you so much for thisadvice and for sharing your
story.
That was really cool.
Where would be the best placeto continue this discussion with
you?
Dave van Beekum (47:25):
So you can find me and Tweeva on all those
social media platforms.
So you can go to twevacom.
That's our website.
My email is daveatweevacom, andjust we're on all the social
media so you can hit me up onsocial media.
You can email me or just visitthe website.
Tim Bourguignon (47:46):
And we'll add links to the show notes in the
show notes.
So just scroll down, click onit.
Everything will be there, Dave.
Anything else on your plate?
Dave van Beekum (47:55):
You know, I'll say if you're a small business,
you know, if you have somethinga little foot traffic business,
a restaurant, we'd love to haveyou join the network.
And if you're an influencer,same thing, we'd love to have
you join the network.
You heard it you have a mobileapp too, so you can download the
apps in the iOS and the Androidstore.
Tim Bourguignon (48:15):
Awesome.
Well, I'd link to that as well,Dave thank you so much.
Dave van Beekum (48:18):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was a lot of fun going backin history and talking a little
bit about how we started thewhole thing.
Tim Bourguignon (48:25):
It's real to hear that, and this has been
another episode of DevPostJourney.
I will see each other next week, Bye-bye.
Thanks a lot for tuning in.
I hope you have enjoyed thisweek's episode.
If you like the show, pleaseshare, rate and review.
It helps more listenersdiscover those stories.
You can find the links to allthe platforms the show appears
(48:49):
on on our website devjourneyinfoslash subscribe.
Talk to you soon.
You almost have to tell and explain to people
that are not understanding your200 hours, 500 hours, a thousand
hours into the project, whatthe vision, what the goal is,
because not everybodyunderstands what Zappier is.
They just don't.
Tim Bourguignon (00:18):
Why do I need it?
Why do I?
Dave van Beekum (00:19):
need it, you can save time.
I don't need it.
Yeah, it's hard to explain, butyou have to come up with those
bigger size not goals, but it'slike a vision of what you want
to build out.
Tim Bourguignon (00:33):
Hello and welcome to Developers Journey,
the podcast bringing you themaking of stories of successful
software developers to help youon your upcoming journey.
I'm your host, tim Borghigno.
On this episode, I receive Davevan Beekum.
Dave is the co-founder andcreator of Tweeva, the world's
first social TV network forsmall businesses and influencers
(00:56):
.
A digital marketing guru,startup and TDS and tech expert,
dave is a man of many talents.
He lives in Florida with hiswife and three girls and enjoys
the beautiful outdoors.
Well, do you say Florida?
Yeah, when he's not bound toone of his many computers.
Hearing the geek in therealready.
Dave, welcome to Dave Journey,hey thanks, Tim.
Dave van Beekum (01:18):
Yeah, oh man, I am a geek from a long time ago
and Florida is beautiful, butit's hot during the summer.
It is really hot.
It's hot and sweaty.
You got to put a t-shirt on.
You can't wear one of thosecool silk the Hawaiian shirts.
It's just hot and sweaty,that's what I've heard.
Tim Bourguignon (01:37):
Been there only once, but it wasn't a winter.
Dave van Beekum (01:38):
deep in the winter, oh it's nice in the
winter, yeah but, I'm originallyfrom New Jersey, so you know
it's that cold weather, the snowin the winter, the shoveling.
You know you get down here andpeople say it's hot and heavy
but you don't have to shovel it.
That's like.
You know the snowbirds language.
Tim Bourguignon (01:55):
We'll see if it stays this way.
We'll see yeah we'll see.
Yeah, but before we come to yourstory, I want to thank the
terrific listeners who supportthe show.
Every month you are keeping theDave Journey lights up.
If you would like to join thisfine crew and help me spend more
time on finding phenomenalguests than editing audio tracks
(02:18):
, please go to our website,devjourneyinfo, and click on the
support me on Patreon button.
Even the smallest contributionsare giant steps toward a
sustainable Dave Journey journey.
Thank you, and now back totoday's guest.
As you know, the show exists tohelp the listeners understand
what your story look like andimagine how to shape their own
(02:41):
future.
So, as is usual on the show,let's go back to your beginnings
in New Jersey, new Jersey orsomewhere else, dave?
Where would you place the startof your journey?
Dave van Beekum (02:49):
Oh, that's definitely back in the days of
New Jersey.
That's almost 18, 19 years agonow.
So if I go back way, way, wayback, my dad is an electrical
contractor and he loved to justfiddle with anything.
So he would, let's say, workingat a clean room in New Jersey,
he would say, oh, are youthrowing out that switch over
(03:10):
there?
What about that air pump overthere?
And he would take home you know, a grommeted switch for a clean
room and then there'd be an airpump over here in a three phase
four 80 volt motor over thereon the counter.
And so this, this progressedfor quite a while and he had
amassed three bays in the garagejust full of different
(03:31):
electronic equipment.
Well, not electronic in theform of what we would say today,
electronic, but electricalcontracting things.
So when me and my brother were,you know, bored, we would go
play in the garage and there wasjust technology.
There was an air horn off of aboat and my brother had to
(03:51):
connect this to a 12 voltbattery.
One time, you know, scared tobe Jesus out of us, but just the
most random thing, like Iremember when I was a kid taking
a part of microwave.
And then we did that.
Oh, my brother, don't touchthose capacitors.
Okay, you know, we'd get arubber glove out or something so
we could disassemble it andthen we take it to the, to the
(04:11):
desk and we would use asoldering iron to pull off
certain capacitors and chips.
We didn't know exactly what todo with it.
But you know, that was kind ofmy really really early years,
and I think it might have beensix or seven, when my uncle
worked at Dunn and Bradstreet inNew Jersey and he was the
(04:32):
computer technician.
So he would have to upgrade ahundred or 200 computers.
And this is back when you wouldupgrade a hundred or 200 to 86s
, 33 megahertz computers.
And so he would say hey, youknow, if anybody wants one in
the family, and I would, youknow what's that, you know?
Oh yeah, I'll take one.
(04:52):
My dad got me one and it wasjust an old one, two, 86, 33
megahertz monochrome screen.
But that really started thejourney into the tech field of
computers, versus the, the, thewires and the technicals and
electrical contract in which mybrother really loves, my dad
really loved.
But something about sitting inthe chair and working on a
(05:15):
computer and seeing those thingscome up on the screen, I think.
A few months later he gave me adot matrix printer and I
started playing with that with aparallel port, and that's
really got me hooked.
So between the computer thatwas in my room and then my dad's
audio video connectors, mixingboard, we had a 16 channel Mac
(05:38):
Mac keyboard and I put thatunderneath an L shaped desk,
underneath my hanging bed, whichmy dad hung off the ceiling so
we didn't have any posts.
So I had a video, a mixer, twoVCRs, a reel to reel, you know,
total geek out.
And so my computer on one side,I had this studio on the other,
(06:01):
and I must have been 10 at thatpoint.
And so we went on vacation and Isaw this little toy thing
saying transceiver receiver, fmtransceiver receiver, you know,
broadcast to your sister's,brother's room.
I was like, oh, if I could takea headphone jack into a 1.5
millimeter, I could broadcastwhat I have to the other people
(06:23):
in the house.
And so I did so.
Then I had a little mini radiostation and check out, play my
music, and you know, and it wascrazy, but I had such a weird
upbringing of technology thatit's just this broad view of
many different things and youknow it's weird.
You have those experiences butuntil you really build a project
(06:46):
that you use them in, you kindof forget what you did because
you don't need that memory.
But yeah, so that's a littleoverview of the past history and
how I got here, how it started,and this is awesome.
Tim Bourguignon (07:01):
I love what I'm hearing in terms of not being
afraid of the technology, notbeing afraid of tinkering
putting it out, maybe notputting it out, maybe not
putting back together, puttingyour hands in there, with gloves
or without, and also on thecomputer, really doing stuff
with it and going deep in thereand trying to make something and
(07:22):
not being afraid to break it.
This is absolutely.
Dave van Beekum (07:25):
Yeah, once I, you know, my dad figured out
that I like computers.
He had an old 8088 that was,you know, his kind of office
computer and we'd play a coupleof games on that.
But once I got mine, he I thinkhe might have said, okay, now
we can go to the computer shows.
And so way back then, you know,in New Jersey I don't think it
was on the edge of New York, butKGP computer shows, I think I
(07:47):
believe it was called and hewould love, every once a month
or something, we would go thereand I used to work with him, you
know, on the side, and whenwe'd go to the show I'd say, hey
, can I buy this CG, rememberCGA graphics card?
It was like four colors, youknow, or 16 or something.
Dad, can I get this?
$45 was a lot back then.
(08:09):
Yeah, you can work it off withme at $2 an hour.
Yeah, okay, yes, yes.
And I got to play my littlecommander keen in four colors
instead of, you know, black andwhite.
And so, you know it was thengoing to find the card and, oh,
I don't have a PCI slot or Idon't have an ISA slot.
You know, it was, like you saida lot of learning get the
(08:32):
cables out, can I get anupgraded new hard drive deleting
things and then figuring out.
That was the system.
You know, it's like where Istarted way, way, way back then.
But I always had that passion.
I just I don't know why, but Iloved it.
It was not, it was my sports,it was my comic magazines, it
was all computers and technology, maybe because it was available
(08:56):
, Maybe Maybe because it wasjust sitting there, I don't know
, but it just progressed fromthere.
Tim Bourguignon (09:05):
One thing I'm not sure I got right.
Did you enjoy the technologyfor the technology, or did you
have something in mind to bedoing with it always?
And we're searching for thatthrough technology.
Dave van Beekum (09:21):
I don't know if it opened up.
I remember thinking I lovedmusic.
My mom was a choir director, mydad did audio video for church,
so I was always around audioand sound mixing.
So maybe the maybe I loved themusic, so I would then get the
Mackey board and connect all theconnectors so I could adjust
(09:43):
the bass.
I don't remember that young ifI had a reason, but the
technology almost gave meopportunity.
I think that's more the waythat it went is once I had it in
there and I could dream aboutit and think about it.
Oh, I could create abroadcasting studio.
I wonder if dad has a cameradownstairs.
And he did.
And then, because the mixer hadchroma key.
(10:04):
So hey, what's chroma key?
Oh, that's for green screenbackground, you know, like they
have in the news.
Tim Bourguignon (10:09):
Okay, oh, all right.
Dave van Beekum (10:11):
Well, how does that work?
You know, tried it on abookshelf, didn't work.
So, hey, mom, do you have agreen piece of material
downstairs?
Yeah, I think I got somethingand but it led to opportunities
to hey, sis, can you sit infront of that?
And you remember those Omeglesyou could connect two blocks,
they call them now and it's likethis kid erector set.
They're huge, though, about afoot long.
You should build things out ofthem.
(10:32):
Well, my parents at a young agebought these two huge, massive
sets and so we built out a stagefor like a desk, like a
broadcasting desk.
So I don't know, like I'mthinking, maybe the technology
gave me those ideas whichpresented them as the
opportunities to build or dosomething.
I didn't like start off saying,okay, I have all this stuff,
(10:54):
what would I want to do?
It was more fun to just playand connect and build.
Tim Bourguignon (11:01):
And that leads into my next question, which is
kind of always the same Was itobvious to you that you would
end up doing something like thisafterwards?
Dave van Beekum (11:13):
Well, everybody would say you know, you got to
go to college, you got to dothis, you got to do that.
I think they really told somany different ways that I could
go.
It could be audio engineering,it could be video engineering,
it could be computers.
At a very young age I networkedmy house before the internet
was really out.
I figured out I think it waslike Microsoft Enterprise,
(11:35):
outlooker, outlook, what do theycall it?
Exchange, right.
And so I networked the housewith CAT3 or CAT1 cable.
So, mom, I'll send you an email.
She's like what's that for?
Just walk down and tell me.
I was like I don't know.
But it's.
This is this program in Windows311, and we can send each other
messages.
What's an IP address?
(11:58):
Why do we need that?
So I had so many different, Ijust didn't know which one I
really enjoyed, you know.
So I didn't know at the time,but I knew I wanted to do
something like this because itdidn't feel like work.
It felt like I get to play withthis and build it and then
listen to it and change it, makesure it sounds good.
Once it sounded good,everyone's like it doesn't sound
(12:19):
any different.
Yes, it does.
This other one doesn't haveenough trouble in it, you know.
Tim Bourguignon (12:24):
So we shouldn't get into discussion if you hear
more on a wave file than on MP3.
Dave van Beekum (12:30):
Oh yeah exactly .
Napster's great, but it soundslike crap okay.
Tim Bourguignon (12:35):
No it doesn't.
Dave van Beekum (12:35):
It's the song yes it does.
Tim Bourguignon (12:39):
So how did you choose on what to do next in
this broad spectrum ofopportunities?
Dave van Beekum (12:46):
It really came out of what opportunities arose,
out of the connections thatwere built by me or either my
dad involved in those situations.
So I kind of chose the routesthat were available.
So if somebody, he would say,oh, you know, we did some
networking here, then wenetworked the church, and then
somebody would say, hey, can younetwork my business?
(13:07):
And so then I would be broughtout and, oh my goodness, now I
got to talk to people I don'tknow, can you tell them how much
you know?
And so he kind of did a littlebit of that in there too.
But the opportunities at ayoung age started that way.
It's not until really, I guess,I moved to Florida when I just
(13:27):
said, okay, I'm going toincorporate what I do into a
legal business and thenprogressively go out and look
for different customers that arein that specific industry, and
so there's a few years in there.
But that's kind of pushed myway into.
I like to work on the computer.
Websites are great because Ionly have to interact a few
(13:48):
times with the customer, but Iget to use the design, the audio
, the video and build that intoa projection of what the
business is, their image on theweb, and so nobody was telling
me this was right or wrong.
I get to look out onto the weband figure out what it is and
then do it a little bit better,and so it took a little time to
(14:09):
get to that point.
But that was about 18 when Istarted.
You know, the legal businesspiece didn't work off of
underneath my dad and then builtit out.
Tim Bourguignon (14:20):
So, until you were 18, really navigating
whatever opportunity there was,grabbing the opportunities to
learn even more and do somethingin this regard, but not
necessarily pushing on your ownin the direction of another,
just grabbing what there is.
Dave van Beekum (14:32):
Yeah, I kind of grabbed what there is.
I wasn't really into themarketing and advertising piece
of it.
I threw a couple web designstickers on my car Weirdest
thing like from the littlestadvertisement.
I remember one person hey, canyou meet?
I see I'm driving behind youright now.
Okay, yeah, you need a website.
Yeah, yeah, we do.
Can you meet me at my privatehangar at the executive airport
(14:56):
in Orlando?
I'm sorry.
Tim Bourguignon (14:57):
What.
Dave van Beekum (15:00):
Private hangar.
Why would you call somebodywith a sticker on their back
window?
You know like the weirdestthings happen from a little bit
of advertising and you learnthat over time.
But especially in our geekworld, I think in the software
side, we always have this ideaof, hey, if we build a really
(15:21):
great product, if we buildsomething that's better than
anyone else, everybody's goingto love it and I don't have to
go, yeah, and they will come andI don't have to talk about it,
I don't have to this, they'lljust realize what it is.
They haven't had 150 hours ofthought into it.
You know, we just think they'regoing to get it and it's a
mistake.
And I think a lot of devs have.
Oh yeah, but you got to do someevidence.
(15:44):
So after that piece on the backwindow, I just wrapped the whole
entire car in my company colorsblue and orange.
It was bright.
It tracked a lot of bees.
I'll say that they thought itwas like a big flower.
My wife's like so I'm going togo.
My wife's like so I'm going towaste.
She's like honey, your car, allthese stripes and the break,
(16:05):
they just.
There's bees all over the car.
But it worked really well.
It worked well, but I learned alittle bit in there.
It's like you got to do.
You can find your correctcustomer, you can find new
people and do what you love atthe same time.
Tim Bourguignon (16:19):
Did you learn this all on the fly?
While doing it, Did you pose atsome point and say hey, I need
to go grab the skills.
It's going to take three, fourmonths and do that and then come
back or go through a formaltraining.
How did you approach thislearning?
Dave van Beekum (16:36):
I just kind of said, ok, let's, let's try this.
On the back of the car and Iwas doing some SEO at the time,
so I was getting a littlebusiness from the web, from
Google, and that worked.
But I just figured she'sdriving the kids around all day,
that could be like a billboard,and it is, and people would
(16:57):
call me, I'm driving behind you.
I'm like, yeah, and I'd besitting in the office just going
like, yeah, yeah, I'm out theresomewhere.
I'm in Orlando now, because Ididn't know where she was.
But no, I didn't really sit downand plan it, I just said, ok,
let's try this, let's, let'sbuild that, let's do this, let's
design my car.
And I would sit down inPhotoshop and say this is the
way I wanted to look.
I wanted to look better thanthe other truck that I saw for
(17:20):
like a food truck go by, and soI don't know if it was better or
not, but to me, I've always hadthat.
I can see the design, I can seewhat looks good and what
doesn't look.
I could hear things to, youknow, in the audio.
So so I just use it to myadvantage and it worked until
the Florida Sun killed that,that rap.
Tim Bourguignon (17:42):
Also, it was just burning the paint, so it
was it would just peel.
Dave van Beekum (17:47):
you know it was like eventually it was just
bubbling up.
You know, this is years ago,before I had the high quality
stuff.
But I always thought, like, canI pay people to do this?
And so I asked a friend hey,let's build a little startup
where we can find cars to.
You know, pay them a couplehundred bucks a month and then
they will be all driving around.
You imagine what kind of acompany you'd have five cars
(18:07):
were driving around.
People would think you're busyall the time.
Right, and again, that that.
But.
But you hear it in in that ideais I don't really have to go
find it, just try this and itwill work.
And it's almost like the wrongway to do it.
Like you're saying, to plan itout is a lot better to sit there
and say, hey, this is the plan,moving forward, let's get this
(18:31):
many cars going.
In the first month you do oneand then by the fourth month you
have to.
It never got to that pointbecause it was just off the cuff
Try this, try that.
Tim Bourguignon (18:41):
Which is also valuable in itself.
It could be experiment basedand just trying to see the
return on this month.
Just sometimes, the return onthis month is very hard to
measure.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely is.
Yeah, at which point did youdid you start focusing on your
activities and how did youdecide on which activity to
focus on?
Dave van Beekum (19:01):
So once I became busy enough, where it was
so much work to do and the carwas working so well and I had
some SEO going locally, I thinkit was at like 12 or 15 websites
or there were pretty big jobsand I finished eight of them in
a month and I go, I just I meanI work a lot I went and got a
(19:25):
boat so I could hit things withhammers, because it was an old,
used boat.
And I'm like I just I'm sittingin front of the computer all
the time and my wife's like whatdid you just buy on Craigslist?
I was like I just got to hitstuff with hammers, I'm so
frustrated and so be cutting outa piece of rotten wood.
And she's like, what are youdoing in there?
I'm like I don't care, it's notprogramming, you know it's not
doing else.
And I realized at that point Igo, this is not working.
(19:49):
I have to be more organized.
I have to have a projectmanagement tool.
I can't just drop things infolders and you know right out a
, you know right out the to-dolist or what I have to do on the
invoice.
You have to become very, veryorganized with what you do.
And so that kind of made thisturning point of the boat was a
(20:10):
frustration of doing thingswrong and we have to change into
something that's very organizedset meetings, set schedules of
sitting down and talking toclients.
Ok, this is what we're going towork on for the next 30 days,
and no, I can't get this done intwo weeks.
We have to understand thesetimelines, and so I learned a
(20:31):
lot at that point and startedbecoming organized with an
internal database where I couldput tasks in and build out the
project before it was built.
Tim Bourguignon (20:44):
But it was still only with the air quotes,
only web development.
So websites building, or wereyou doing something else still?
Dave van Beekum (20:54):
It was still a mix of databases, web networking
.
For the guy that called me tohis private airport place, it
was I have 20 exotic cars, canwe take them out?
And I want to do a video shoot.
And so I was like, yeah, I'llgo get a camera.
(21:15):
Ok, yeah, I could do thatbecause I could do video editing
.
So we, oh, and I have a bus, Ihave a pre-vose bus, we'll take
in a mansion over here.
Can we do the mansion too?
And so we built out a DVD tohand out to other investors and
when people visit before thedays of Airbnb and Turro, to
come down to Orlando and rentthis stuff, enjoy.
(21:38):
He had four aircraft, fractionalownership and 200 properties.
So it was what are we going towork on?
How can we build this and thenmaintain the website and can we
put this in a database?
So it was a lot of mix, but itwas probably a lot of.
I wouldn't say it was the besttime of my life, but it was a
(21:58):
lot of fun to jump and be partof those different pieces.
The problem is it's not focusedon that one thing, so I could
see myself losing a little bitin video development, because
unless you're constantly invideo development, working in
Adobe Premiere or Final Cut, youkind of lose the edge.
And the same on the Photoshopside.
(22:20):
You kind of had to relearn iton the week that you were
working on it, so I was gettingmy head going.
Ok, this works so well, but foronly so long, and eventually
there's going to be people thatgrow up that will be
professionals in all thosespecific areas.
I think I don't know if thatwas in days of like Joomla and
Mambo, where they had the CMSs,the relational database CMSs,
(22:46):
and so that was working.
But every time they do anupgrade, something would change.
I'd have to go in and figureout OK, what changed over here,
what changed over there?
That was before the days ofWordPress was so popular.
But yeah, I had to learn atsome point to let go of the
reins a little bit and findpeople to do those things.
Tim Bourguignon (23:04):
So you still kept this multiverse of
activities, just not did them onyour own.
So your company was stillunfocused or focused on all
those things I'm not sure whichterminology you would use, but
you yourself were doing just thesubset over there.
Dave van Beekum (23:19):
Yeah, I was doing little pieces of that, but
I was tending to say, ok, I didthat little video thing here, I
did this, I did that.
But that's really not as muchfun as sitting here and focusing
on coding and developing,because if you code and develop
something, you can scale it.
I can't scale taking a pictureof an aircraft or getting inside
(23:40):
of a private jet with a 20millimeter wide angle lens and
doing a back out shot Like whatare you going to do with that
after it's done?
So it was fun, it's unique, butit's over the next day.
It's like, ok, it's gone.
So was I able to take my timeand scale it?
No, ok.
(24:00):
Then what are you after?
Fun or scale?
And I said, ok, I have to thinkscale the family, the what?
Ok, how do we get rich?
How do you build?
How do you take a break fromthe craziness is build something
at scale.
So that started to work in mymind as find other smart people,
find other people to partnerwith.
Tim Bourguignon (24:22):
And was that fun as well for you?
For what?
To find other people, to findthem and then have them do
something else for you no,because it's hard to find good
people.
Dave van Beekum (24:32):
It's really hard to find good people.
Tim Bourguignon (24:35):
It doesn't need to.
Yeah, how did you manage thatscaling then?
Dave van Beekum (24:39):
I didn't scale as far as I could have.
So I would scale the few peoplehere or there and then the
economy would shift or the jobswouldn't come in, because the
marketing wasn't perfect.
If it was based upon, if thecar was being driven or whatever
, it wasn't as perfect as itcould have been.
So it never got to the point offull time.
(25:00):
But it was take this job piecehere, subcontract there and get
the jobs done.
But it was always reliant onthe next big project that came
in.
Tim Bourguignon (25:09):
OK.
So when did that phase of yourlife end, or is it still running
?
Dave van Beekum (25:14):
It's a little bit running here and there for
past clients, but eventually Ifigured out.
I said I just want to work on aproject.
So when I was doing those 8 to10 projects I was like, ok, can
we just build this out into onepiece where all of the time and
effort let's take the video andthe audio and the development
(25:34):
and the coding and build thisinto one project with a partner
that is maybe good at sales andmarketing pieces, and then they
do those and I can do mine.
And so I found a few partnersthat wanted to build and scale a
big food ordering service, butnot for retail to retail.
(25:57):
This would be business tobusiness.
So let's say, a smallrestaurant would look at
multiple distributors in theirtown and they would say, where
can I get 50 pounds of chickenthis week?
Where can I get 100 pounds ofthis or 25 pounds of mozzarella
cheese?
And there would be multipledifferent sources.
So then I got to use not thevideo per se but the pictures
(26:22):
and the coding and the databasedevelopment and the mobile app
development all into one project.
And that took several yearswhere we patented this project.
But then we never got that oneto market because we didn't have
the right connections.
But I liked the idea ofbuilding with that team of
people all focused on one thing.
(26:43):
In the startup world, and that'sreally where I had that change
of OK.
You could do 15 differentprojects for people, but unless
they're doing their ownmarketing, you can't scale that.
You built that little piece forthem, but it's really reliant
on them.
So under a startup world, youhave a lot of control to say
what are we doing today, whatare we doing tomorrow?
(27:05):
What's the next six months?
Look like we don't have to say,hey, are you going to do
marketing?
No, I can't do marketing rightnow.
I just wanted a website, I justwanted a video.
Ok, well, what are we doing now?
I don't know.
They'd go and just disappear,right.
So I loved the idea of buildingthat one project and it kind of
from then on it was more one ortwo main projects that I was
(27:26):
focusing on.
Tim Bourguignon (27:27):
OK, but still in a co-founder role in all of
those projects.
Dave van Beekum (27:33):
Not all the projects.
The food one was not aco-founder, it was just a coding
expert.
It was probably eventuallygoing to be a co-founder because
I was one of the main peoplebehind it, but that project gave
birth to actually Tweeva, whichis what I'm working on now, and
that's same partners butco-founder.
(27:54):
And that's where I loved usingall those ideas, sure.
Tim Bourguignon (28:00):
Do you want to tell us how Tweeva came to be?
Dave van Beekum (28:03):
Okay.
So Tweeva was built out fromthose same partners that were in
that food distribution industry, but they were restaurant tours
.
So we were sitting in one ofthe restaurants and I just
looked up at the TV one time andI said how dare Pizza Hut Do
they not know who you are?
How dare they advertise theirpizza in your restaurant?
(28:24):
And we kind of chuckled alittle bit.
And you know, we sat there, wesaw Domino's and a few others
and I just thought I think weall kind of combined together,
is there a way that we cancreate a TV channel for small
businesses, but kind of liketheir own TV channel, where they
can select what they want onthe TV and give their opinion?
(28:49):
Hey, I don't want to see thatcommercial or don't show any
other food commercials in mybusiness, but have it also a way
that small businesses canadvertise?
And that came from my partnersaying hey, there's a plumber
sitting over here, he's eatingfood.
Okay, I just talked to thisperson.
They have a leak in their house.
(29:09):
I love to connect them.
So he would say go, put yourbusiness card up at the front.
And so I said, you know, wecould put something on the TV.
He said great, great, let'sjust take a picture of their
business card, put it on TV.
I said no, no, no, it can't be.
Can't be this like low qualitybusiness card.
It has to be something,something nice.
And so you know we could gowith a slide.
(29:29):
You know, call me, I'm the bestplumber in the city.
And that might be nice.
But it evolved into moreinfotainment, like why don't we
show the plumber working on ajob in the city?
Like you know that popular TVshow, this Old House where they
go in and fix the?
(29:49):
You know they fix a plumberpipe and they spend 10 minutes
doing it.
We could spend three, three orfour, but it's advertising who
that business owner is to thatperson.
And so it kind of changed fromjust the advertising screen to a
little bit of businesses, alittle bit of news, weather,
their social media, right.
(30:10):
So the business, when theywould post something on Facebook
, it would automatically getadded to their TV.
So if you walked in and youdidn't follow, them, you might
say oh cool.
They just I didn't know theywere active on Facebook, New
follower, right.
So it builds their audience.
But this is now unique to everysingle business that you walk
(30:31):
in.
It's not streamed down onechannel.
Every business has the abilityto say, yeah, I want to show
this at my business or I don'twant to show this at my business
.
So that's kind of how Tweebaworks.
But oh, I missed.
The main part is this is also acommunity TV, so you and me can
(30:53):
walk up to the TV and add ourown piece of content or an
advertisement on the TV.
So let's say that there's aparade going through town, right
, and I take a picture of theparade, I can share it onto the
TV.
So now this can be shared toall the TVs in the community or
just the one TV.
But it kind of gives everybodya chance to see it.
But it kind of gives everybodya little bit of view of what's
(31:16):
going on.
Now that could be the parade ora Christmas event or maybe
something, a ballet event that'shappening, you know, oh, come
to this show, or a high schoolmusical, who knows?
But major cities have this.
It's called, like Orlando,channel 11, channel 12.
I forget what it is, everymajor city has one, but around
(31:39):
every major city there's like500 small cities that don't have
a TV channel.
So that's what we wanted to dois give back the business owner
the ability to advertise ondifferent TVs.
And it can't be, you know,cross competitive, but it would
be food to doctor office, doctoroffice to food, right Lawyer to
(32:01):
food, food to lawyer.
That works, no food to food, nolawyer to lawyer, no dentist to
dentist.
But it gives the ability for usto create a little network for
small businesses and influencers.
Tim Bourguignon (32:15):
That makes a little sense.
Is this the original idea thatyou just described, or is this
what it became?
Dave van Beekum (32:21):
It definitely became that In the beginning it
was a slideshow of pictures thatwere dynamically created based
upon if people were there or not, but semi, you know, slideshow
Like just pieces of like littleads.
It was weather.
What I really think we grew onis the influencing side.
(32:42):
That's really taken off, Idon't know the past couple years
.
The influencing side is hugebecause you can give a business
owner a lot of these tools, butthey're not necessarily going to
do it.
Like I jokingly say, back when Igrew up, if I had a shoulder
camera which my dad had, youknow and I plugged it in and I'd
be like all right, record, andI'd hit the big red button, if
(33:05):
anybody saw me, they'd be like,wow, he's shooting something
professional, right, yes, nowyou could take an iPhone 4K or
an Android 4K, lift it up and,with the right lighting, they
could be potentially shootingprofessional, yeah.
And so the problem is not thatwe don't have the camera, the
(33:29):
problem is that we don't have aplace to put it.
That seems valuable to us.
So, yes, a business owner couldput it on social media, but he
doesn't know if he should, ifthe lighting is correct, if this
is that.
So there's this whole differentindustry that's created called
influencers, where they know howto use the video piece and the
(33:52):
audio piece and the media pieceand they know what looks good on
each network.
And so for Tweeva, influencersare very powerful, because you
could be an influencer with500,000 followers and be sitting
in a cafe and no one would knowwho you are, especially if one
town over Now with Tweeva TV, ifyour face showed up on the TV
(34:16):
while you were sitting there ona show like, oh, okay, who's
that over there?
I think that's a person on TV.
Right, that's him.
That's him.
Yeah, that's him.
That's him.
Okay, cool.
What about the plumber?
When's the last time you saw aplumber or a lawyer in the same
restaurant that you were in?
You wouldn't, because the ad isgoing to be $50,000 and he's
(34:39):
eating at a different place.
But if I can make the ad fivecents, I can allow anybody to
advertise that content on TV.
But you still need that alittle bit of help from those
influencers, because they knowhow to frame the shot.
Take this, no, no, don't waituntil the sun is down a little
bit further so you don't getshadows underneath your eyes,
and they do a really good job ofthat.
(35:00):
But yeah, this is a long-windedanswer too.
It's grown and evolved with thetechnology.
I think, like I did before, isyou play with the technology,
you see opportunity and then youkind of lean in that direction.
Okay, let's take that piece andkeep working with this and keep
moving forward, okay that makesa lot of sense.
Tim Bourguignon (35:23):
We don't have that many TVs in Europe in
restaurants.
It's kind of low-key comparedto the US, but I remember my
time in the US and it was reallythe presence of those TVs
everywhere and really part ofthe ambience.
It makes a lot of sense in thiscontext.
That's really something thatbrings a lot of bells.
Dave van Beekum (35:38):
Yeah, we don't want it to be TV as far as
distracting, we like the wholebring whatever that restaurant
is to the TV.
So, instead of like for theItalian restaurants that we were
testing and building in thefirst phase, we sat there like
how do we bring the Italian viewinto it?
Oh well, let's go find somedrone footage of Italy.
(35:59):
You know some of the populardestinations, play that, play
the chicken, parm and this, andsome employees that are in the
kitchen.
Tell the customers who theserver is.
And does the server have a dogat home?
And does the server drive amotorcycle on the weekends?
Because what we're trying to dois not just be focused on oh,
(36:22):
this technology is the best, wecould do everything.
Oh, we'll design it and theywill come.
It's, how do we integrate thattechnology to help a little
relationship between justsomebody sitting at a table and
then talking.
You've been there before, Iknow it.
You've sat at a restaurantright with another person, your
(36:42):
wife and you look over andyou're like those guys don't
even talk to each other.
It's so weird to just like lookaround and the server comes
over.
I'll have this, thank you, andthey put it away.
What's missing there is a littlebit of connection of
information, something thatmatches.
So it might be.
Oh, I saw you drive amotorcycle on the weekends.
Oh, that's so cool.
(37:02):
Yeah, it's my boyfriends, butwe'd love to go out here.
And oh, my nephew drives amotorcycle.
Now we have a connectionbetween those people and if you
think about it, where are wegoing next Friday?
You're gonna go to a brand newplace or you're probably gonna
go.
Oh, let's go see how thenephew's doing.
Or I heard they went to college, or the kid went to college.
Let's go talk to them and itbecomes more of that
(37:24):
relationship.
This is more like it waswithout tech, but we're using a
little bit of that tech tostimulate those little pieces of
information.
So I don't wanna be a TVchannel, I wanna be a connection
into the community where we canhelp people, right?
So yeah, it has definitelymorphed from this advertising
(37:46):
screen into how do we integrateand help people connect more.
Tim Bourguignon (37:51):
So that means there is a possible future where
that TV would not disappear buttake way less precedence in
your business, because you founda different way, maybe better
way, for some context to createthose connections.
In the context of restaurants,yeah, it could.
Dave van Beekum (38:09):
If it's not part of the TV, it could be
something else a QR code thatconnects people, or a game right
, it wouldn't be TV per se, aswe think TV is, but it could be
a game on Friday night thatwe're using the TV to get a clue
and we respond on our phone,but it's something that's
happening.
Or a scavenger hunt around thecommunities where the TV is not
showing news, but it might beshowing an Easter egg and you
(38:32):
have to go to all thesedifferent businesses and find
the golden one.
You know, it could be anythingbut just being a little digital
screen that's not given away toa soap opera.
Or like I was sitting in thisone pizza shop waiting to talk
to a manager and he was on oneof these cable channels
Discovery or something and itwas this man who murdered his
(38:52):
girlfriend.
And I'm sitting here at like mytwo slices of pizza going, okay
, I'll give you 30 seconds, seewhat happens.
And he's like he drove to thedarkest side of Arizona where
there's no cell phone, and I'mlike, okay, and then he took
duct tape.
I'm like what are we going withthis?
And then he went to this roadand made a left.
(39:13):
I'm like you guys are just,what are you doing here?
You're giving peopleinstructions and I said you
really don't have anythingthat's going on in the community
that's better than this.
Okay, there probably is, butthere was a disconnect into what
should I show at my restaurant.
Some people like this channel.
Okay, maybe it started off atthe cooking show, but by three
pm in the afternoon that stationhas nothing left, so they're
(39:36):
playing that.
Could we benefit the personsitting there?
Okay, in my town we have anationally recognized football
team, high school football team.
I've never seen a catch or atouchdown anywhere on local TV
because it doesn't exist.
So can that be shown?
(39:57):
Can somebody be sitting there?
Or are you with a professionalcamera or their iPhone, be
shooting a couple of highlightclips and sharing that to the
community?
Absolutely.
Then we have a tennis, we havea basketball Of all these things
that could create what peopleare missing today.
I want recognition.
(40:17):
I want recognition.
People will take a lower pay ata job for recognition because
they think, oh, to get mesomewhere.
How many kids are looking forthis?
Let's get them on talking,developing their own little TV
spots.
This is all possible, but thenetwork has to be built out.
So yeah, this is again along-winded answer, but the
(40:39):
vision, that's the forwardvision of what can you do with
it.
Tim Bourguignon (40:43):
And I love that .
I love that your vision is notdefined by the technology, but
really by what you aim to becreating with it.
And if that changes I mean ifthe technology changes well, so
what?
The vision is still valid, it'sstill what you're after and
that is gorgeous.
That's what you want forbusiness really.
Dave van Beekum (41:01):
Yeah, we have in the patent some piece for AR
goggles that if we're lookingeither at a screen or an
indirection, can something popup and we can talk about that
thing, something local, andwe're always looking forward to
that next piece in that nerdworld where you literally have
to be 20 years forward andlooking in that direction.
(41:21):
But yeah, doesn't matter whatit is that end goal is and I've
learned this is not.
It is very technology, but youalmost have to tell and explain
to people that are notunderstanding your 200 hours,
500 hours, 1,000 hours into theproject what the vision, what
the goal is, because noteverybody understands what
(41:45):
Zapier is.
They just don't why do I need?
it.
Why do I need it?
You can save time.
I don't need it.
Yeah, it's hard to explain, butyou have to come up with those
bigger size not goals, but it'slike a vision of what you want
to build out.
Tim Bourguignon (42:04):
It's an either vision, it's a vision.
Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
That's exciting.
I wish you all the best of luckwith SWIVA for the future.
Dave van Beekum (42:12):
That's really cool.
Thank you, thank you.
Tim Bourguignon (42:15):
For the advice piece I usually end up on.
I'd like to come back to onething you said, where you were
describing yourself as atechnologist and saying well,
you didn't say I, you didn'tpronounce it this way,
necessarily, but you saysomething like hey, if you build
the right thing, people aregonna come, it's gonna work.
No need for marketing, and I'veseen this so many times, being
(42:36):
guilty of that as well.
What would be the best adviceyou would have for the listeners
?
To start stepping out of thismindset, Start dabbling a little
bit on marketing, Start makinga little bit of noise about what
they do and not only relying onthe inherent qualities of the
(42:56):
products that are definitelythere but nobody knows about.
Dave van Beekum (43:00):
So we went through a business accelerator
and they had talked about in thevery beginning of when you were
trying to build your startup,and this was a $10,000 course.
And then they bring you to VCcapital and they had said
they've looked at our projectand said where's your press
releases, where is your Facebookgroups, where are your emails
(43:27):
that you would send to potentialcustomers?
And we said, well, we'refocusing on development, we're
focusing on building the productwe're focused on.
And they said, you know, that'scalled a development loop,
where you just keep saying, oh,I'll build this for this person
and I'm gonna build this forthis set of groups.
And so I think the piece thatwe missed in the very beginning
(43:48):
and I've missed for quite awhile because I was in behind
the scenes is talk about yourproduct.
Even if you get five littlecustomers in the very beginning
to be interested about what youdo, they can bring you to five
or 10 more.
And that's the way that youwanna really scale in the
beginning, because when you havea problem, something doesn't
(44:11):
work.
If somebody doesn't know you ordoesn't understand that
long-term goal, they just say,oh, it doesn't work, it will
never work, and they just cancelthe subscription, whereas if
they understand that goal forthe longer term, oh well, this
guy has been working in tech forso long and this is one of the
things that accumulation of.
(44:31):
He used to do video and he usedto do audio and now he's
building out a TV network.
Give him a week or two, thatbug will be fixed.
See, that response iscompletely different from
someone who understands youcan't get that from somebody
just hits your website from asearch.
They don't understand what'sgoing on.
(44:51):
So when you have those firstcustomers not even customers,
let's just say the first peoplethat are really looking at you
or you come up with an idea, youwanna build it.
You have to build that visionand the goal and back it up with
what they refer to as media,which is a press release.
Or this is what we'redeveloping.
There's a team of engineers inrestaurant and tech building out
(45:16):
a small business TV channel,blah, blah, blah and that's a
press release.
And then you'd send out emails,right, and talk about what
you're developing this week orthis month or the next six
months.
If you're serious, right, ifyou're building a little baby
product, you wanna just get itout to a couple hundred people.
It's not gonna be that big of adeal.
But what we're trying to focuson is something big, and I think
(45:36):
most people when they get intoa startup, they want to build
something big.
So you don't have to do that ahundred times.
I think maybe five or 10 in ayear would be plenty.
Right, once every month, onceevery two months, you just send
something out and you startbuilding a wait list.
That's a very important thing,too Is if you have a product you
(45:58):
talk to people out.
Hey, give me your email.
Because when we got to theventure capital, they said oh
man, this is such a greatproduct, you must have 50,000
people waiting for you.
And we said, well, no, probably.
Yeah, no, we can't lie.
It was like no, we don't,because we went through.
Well, we actually had aco-founder pass away too, so we
didn't get to where we shouldhave been and there was a little
(46:22):
pause in there.
So we had a couple of issues.
But that first piece of adviceis if you are in the tech world,
please focus a little bit onthat marketing outside.
And what you can do much easierthan what we could have done
previous to ChatGPT is oh, Idon't know how to save this in
(46:43):
the press release.
I don't know what kind of titleto write Use ChatGPT, train it
to what your product is and thensay, hey, I want to not give
away a lot of information, but Iwant to give enough away to
peak interest.
Give me a title in thedescription for Facebook Group
or Facebook Post or something.
And just learn that if you canacquire five emails a week from
(47:06):
average people that canunderstand what you're trying to
sell, you'd be in a much betterplace than 98% of startups.
Tim Bourguignon (47:16):
Amen to that, Dave.
Thank you so much for thisadvice and for sharing your
story.
That was really cool.
Where would be the best placeto continue this discussion with
you?
Dave van Beekum (47:25):
So you can find me and Tweeva on all those
social media platforms.
So you can go to twevacom.
That's our website.
My email is daveatweevacom, andjust we're on all the social
media so you can hit me up onsocial media.
You can email me or just visitthe website.
Tim Bourguignon (47:46):
And we'll add links to the show notes in the
show notes.
So just scroll down, click onit.
Everything will be there, Dave.
Anything else on your plate?
Dave van Beekum (47:55):
You know, I'll say if you're a small business,
you know, if you have somethinga little foot traffic business,
a restaurant, we'd love to haveyou join the network.
And if you're an influencer,same thing, we'd love to have
you join the network.
You heard it you have a mobileapp too, so you can download the
apps in the iOS and the Androidstore.
Tim Bourguignon (48:15):
Awesome.
Well, I'd link to that as well,Dave thank you so much.
Dave van Beekum (48:18):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was a lot of fun going backin history and talking a little
bit about how we started thewhole thing.
Tim Bourguignon (48:25):
It's real to hear that, and this has been
another episode of DevPostJourney.
I will see each other next week, Bye-bye.
Thanks a lot for tuning in.
I hope you have enjoyed thisweek's episode.
If you like the show, pleaseshare, rate and review.
It helps more listenersdiscover those stories.
You can find the links to allthe platforms the show appears
(48:49):
on on our website devjourneyinfoslash subscribe.
Talk to you soon.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!