CEOs You Should Know: Delta Bravo AI - Rick Oppedisano

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today on CEOs. You should knowwe have an opportunity to speak to rick
A Pedasano right now. I lovethe fact that you're called Delta Bravo,
because I know that name has aninteresting story behind it. Yeah, it's
a kind of a funny one.So my father is a Vietnam veteran.
He helped run the oldest functioning manufacturingarsenal in North America of the water of
Elite arsenal that was actually built toserve the War of eighteen twelve, all

(00:23):
right, And so he and Isuper close. He's always been my mentor.
And when we were naming this business, we were struggling and we had
a simple criteria. Just got tobe a name that everybody can say,
everybody can spell, and there's aURL available for it. Sounds simple,
So of course couldn't figure it out. So two three months go by.
So one day I'm on the phonewith my dad. You know how old

(00:44):
people sometime when the cell phone signalstarts to get bad, they think you're
not listening and they start getting louderwith you, you know. And so
I'm on with my dad and thecell phone signals going and he's getting loud
he's you can't hear me, getlouder and louder, and then he finally
starts breaking into spelling things using thenatal call letters. Who's like alpha,
India echo, And it hit me. I was like, geez, you

(01:07):
know number one everybody knows those words. And then number two, you know,
be kind of a little bit ofa left handed sleute to dad over
there, you know in terms ofyou know, his his background and his
support and our heritage as a militaryfamily. Well, speaking of your heritage,
I know that you're proud South Carolinianow, but tell me, originally
where are your people buried? NewYork? Mostly upstate New York in the

(01:29):
al Many area. I was upthere through through high school and then went
to college in Virginia and Northern VirginiaFredericksburg, and ended up progressively moving south
Raleigh. First is in Raleigh fora number of years working with IBM,
and then down to Charlotte and nowinto South Carolina and Fort Mill. You
know, it's funny living in Raleighfor a short time as I did.
That's a research triangle as they're wornout in the state of North Carolina,

(01:53):
and they have certainly a reason tobrag about it, But ma'am, what's
growing in South Carolina really is phenomenal, and you're part of that story.
So I'm glad you're part of ourpodcast today. Yeah, I appreciate it.
I feel lucky to be here.Our business and our ethos is really
tied very deeply into South Carolina.When we started this company, it was
myself and my co founder was twoguys in an idea, and you know,

(02:15):
South Carolina has been so supportive priorto this. You know, I've
started companies in different states. Ihelped to run a publicly traded company that
had operations in twenty two countries.I've probably over the years worked with at
least thirty to forty states individually.And I can tell you that there's no
state like South Carolina when it comesto opportunity, when it comes to professionalism,

(02:37):
the best compliment that I could givemy experience with the folks in South
Carolina is that it never feels likeyou're working with somebody from the state.
Feels like you're working with a professionalthat's aligned with your interests. It's got
a mutual benefit at heart. Wecame up here and we were introduced to
the folks at SCRA, and sothose folks said, geez, you know,
this idea isn't bad, And sothey made an introduction to Rolls Royce

(03:00):
and they helped subsidize a pilot ofour initial technology platform at Rolls Royce.
Now this is the engine manufacturing facilityin Aiken. It is, yeah,
yep. And what we were doingis we were using AI to predict engine
failures. The AI would automatically stoptheir process and let their folks know what
they had to adjust or fix inorder to avoid that failure before it happened.

(03:23):
And this would save tens of millionsof dollars and applied across twenty something
engines, so big impact. Andwe never would have met those folks,
We never would have had these subsidizedfunding to be able to build our application
as quickly as we did the waywe did if it wasn't for our experience
with SCRA, who then introduced usto the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

(03:46):
And that was where there's a gentlemannamed Chuck Spangler who since passed, and
Chuck's a legend in this state.He and his lieutenants Andy Carr and Ronda
Huskins. They drove from Greenville upto rock Hill to meet these two nobodies
who were interest in learning more aboutmanufacturing, and they articulated a vision and
a process for how and where wecould address manufacturing with AI. That just

(04:08):
blew my mind. That was wherewe started a zone in on manufacturing.
And so for us, the stateof South Carolina not only helped us focus
our vision, understand how we couldbetter serve communities and business in the state,
but also gave us that little kick, that little tiny introduction that's a
practical and applied way of doing business. There's a lot of opportunities in different
states where they'll provide some level offunding or a grant to help a startup.

(04:33):
Now, in most startups, that'snot the problem. The problem is
finding a landmark customer, like alighthouse customer sometimes they call it. That'll
give you the time and the interestto help you understand exactly the kind of
product that you need to develop inorder to kind of cross that chasm from
R and D into an enterprise product. And so a ten thousand dollars grant

(04:55):
here and there that's not going todo that for you. However, a
warm introduction to a significant brand namewith a significant opportunity for you to help
them. That's an opportunity for youto apply your solution. You mentioned Rolls
Royce, Is that the same story? For instance? I believe it New
Core or Continental. I'm thinking ofother companies. Jeez. Yeah, we've
got a number of them. Soyou know, we've were to probably run
ninety manufacturers and so it's yeah,it's an interesting story. And yeah,

(05:19):
you know, it's important to kindof understand what we do. Delta Bravo
in itself is a development platform that'sused to create AI applications that solve complex
problems in high value industries. Sowhen you think about what that means and
kind of who we work with,primarily manufacturers and civil infrastructure teams. So
our goal is to improve business andquality of life in this state and beyond.

(05:43):
And so I'll say it's just aquick analogy. I've been seven years,
eight years since we've been doing this. I've driven all around this state
and when I drive past places likethe old Gailian lower plant in Darlington or
the Carlisle finishing plant, my heartbreaksbecause you see these old, old,
hollowed out plants that have been closeddown due to inefficiency. All right,
Both of those plants got closed downbecause they didn't understand how to forecast demand,

(06:09):
they did not understand how to managecost per unit, They did not
have the tools to keep people.And when you see those plants closed down,
two things happen. Number one isthat economically just destroys these towns.
The state has to create new rulesand new laws to try to incentivize beg
people to revive these facilities because crimeis going up, and so you have

(06:30):
this subsidization that has to occur fromthe state in these towns from a health
perspective, from a crime perspective,that the cost of these towns skyrockets and
the quality of life is degraded,in some cases beyond repair. What's crazier
is that if you take a lookat that Carlisle finishing plan or that Gilian
Lord plan, two good examples godown the road. Sixty miles down the

(06:54):
road from that Carlisle finishing plan,water systems in Colombia are being affected by
the forever chemicals that have been seepedinto the ground from that plant due to
its inactivity. Gaily A Lord plant, same thing forever chemicals impacting the facilities
and communities that our children go to, our schools, the water we drink.
So when I think about our business, at some level, I'm an

(07:15):
American exceptionalist, right. I believethat we live in a country where we've
been given the freedom to access technologieslike AI, to access capital, to
access other people that have similar capabilitiesto help us build something. At some
level, it's our duty to buildsomething that's going to make a difference,
a difference in the businesses in ourstate, the communities in our state.

(07:39):
And so that's why we focus onmanufacturing number one, not just because it's
a critical aspect of our GDP.We need you know, this population situation
is crazy too, man. Thisdepopulation is real, and we need to
find a way. This is whatAI is good for in manufacturing is finding
a way to turn one person intothree. Because new babies aren't coming to

(07:59):
the rescue, more peeople aren't comingto the rescue. In a high interest
environment, new capital is not comingto the rescue. So we've got to
figure out how to use AI tohelp manufacturers reduce cost per unit, improve
quality, improve throughput while reducing waste, while reducing downtime. So that's the
mission with manufacturing, and our missionwith civil infrastructure is similar. When you
see this waste being created and youstart to understand the challenges that rural water

(08:24):
systems have in maintaining water quality andmaintaining equipment reliability. This is another area
where AI can play a major rolein helping the limited amount of people perform
the tasks that they need to performin order to maintain water safety, water
availability, water quality. So thoseare the areas that we're focused on right
now. So really manufacturing and thencivil infrastructure with a focus on water systems,

(08:48):
roadways, and energy. A coupleof things you mentioned that you've worked
with companies in thirty or more states. You gave South Carolina high praise for
the South Keline Department of Commerce andseveral other agencies. You know, a
lot of people, like my neighborwas interacting with the water department the other
day in the city of Columbia,got very frustrated. You know, a
lot of times when people think abouta federal state or a local agency,

(09:09):
frustration automatically comes to their minds.Sure, so to hear someone like yourself
who not only brought an idea,but found encouragement, found opportunity, found
of warm welcome, found an availabilityof funds to project yourself to the position
you are now. That seems likea foreign concept for I'm sure for a
lot of people that may be listening. There's a couple of foreign concepts.
One of them is that we area bootstrap company. So when you think

(09:31):
about AI companies, tech companies,the traditional path is to secure some level
of venture capital or some level ofinitial investment. And what you do is
you use that investment to kind offumble your way around and find product market
fit. And then by the timeyou do that, you getting another investment
in another investment. Yeah, andthen all of a sudden, you as
the founder are a minority owner inthis business. You're an employee again,

(09:54):
because there's other people around you thatare steering the direction of, you know,
of your business in way that facilitatetheir investment. I've been in that
situation, you know, where I'veworked with VC, I've been in the
situation where I've worked with private equity. I've been in a situation where I
ran a publicly traded company. Andso in the situation of Delta Bravo knowing
that we wanted to do something thatwas a little bit more significant from a

(10:18):
societal perspective. It was important tome that we maintained private control of the
business. This is why we're ableto build the software, own the intellectual
property. We're able to make thedecisions and choices that we can. We
run the staffing and the culture theway we run it. And when I
think about South Carolina, the levelof importance that they've played in our ability

(10:41):
to do that, I can't speakhighly enough because ultimately, when you take
a look at the South Carolina MVP, I didn't have to build a sales
team in the first two years ofthis business because I worked with them as
partners who, along with Commerce,would introduce us to key players at places
like a Continental or a Rules Royceor a coed text. There's an number
of them, Elkam Silicones. Imean, we could go on and on

(11:03):
great businesses, great people, andthat was how we capitalize the business.
We capitalize the business through real revenue. And so when I think about going
back to the experience with Commerce,in particular, when you work with state
funded entities agencies, there's a lotof politics, right there's a lot of
I guess you could say, justyou know, knots that you got to

(11:24):
untie along the way to get intowhere you want to go. We have
not had that experience here. Ifeel that the Department of Commerce is uniquely
focused, uniquely aligned. That isvery clearly a function of leadership, very
clearly a function of well articulated direction. So when I know who to call,
I know what to talk about.You know, the expectations of my

(11:48):
on my end are clearly articulated backto me. They're realistic and achievable.
And so I feel that Commerce hascreated an environment for people that want to
have serious businesses here to work withthem to facilitate that growth. And you're
seeing it. You're seeing it withthe investment in the state ten fifteen billion
dollars coming into the state in thenext several years. Because here's the reality,
ten fifteen billion dollars in manufacturing investmentcoming in tens of thousands of jobs.

(12:11):
I mean this, Think about scoutdown the street right, here's the
reality. Where are these people goingto come from? Where you're going to
find enough people to make complex decisionson continuous processes in real time? How
long is it going to take totrain those people. And this is really
where AI comes in for manufacturing itas a ton of value. At its
heart, I think AI is aboutworkforce readiness. It's about the idea of

(12:35):
taking data from all these different placesin a complex process and giving an operator
the information they need rate then inreal time in the firefight. I got
to do this right now. Thisis what's important. This is what's going
to maximize the probability of me havingan excellent production outcome. If you take
the amount of time in confusion andtraining that most manufacturers spend and operator,
if you take that off the table. So for example, the newcre before

(12:58):
Delta Bravo experiencing quality problems scrap problems. So when you make something and you
make it poorly, doesn't pass qualitystandards and they're steel scrap. That's expensive.
Now, what was happening is thatthey were training people. It would
take them six to nine months trainfolks on this process. They make fourteen
hundred different products. Imagine, Ay, Jonathan, here's a three ring binder
that's three inches thick full of fourteenhundred products. Picks. Get learning and

(13:24):
don't screw this up, because ifyou do screw it up. It's going
to cost us a lot of money. We're not going to like that.
And to be clear, New Corehas a pretty good educational system and that
they oh, that's an incredible company. That is probably one of the best
run companies I've ever seen in mylife. And there they're fantastic. But
what was happening is that the typesof training and the types of processes that
we're used to educate and onboard theprevious generation, we're not connecting with the

(13:46):
current generation. Folks my age aregoing to read that three ring binder,
but the younger generation, these earlytwenties, mid twenties, you know,
they kind of want that in frontof them on a screen. And so
we did that with AI. Wetook data from this really complex steel making
product making process and calculated it allin front of them and would tell their
operators what to do in real timeto maximize the quality of the products that

(14:07):
they were making and minimize this dealscrap and waste associated with the process.
And so that training cycle went fromsix to nine months down to a week
or two. Think about how muchmore valuable the employee can be to the
company that think about the risk ofattrition because you go and train somebody for
nine months and they leave you.Now, my gosh, what a waste
of time. Now we're in troubleagain, right, It's a heck of
a lot different when it's one week. Tell me about the workforce right in

(14:28):
this and how people can utilize thefacilities we have institutions we have now that
can play into being a successful employeeor a successful entrepreneur like yourself. I
have a few opinions about this,some more controversial than others, but I
think we've got an incredible opportunity totransform the educational system to address this,

(14:48):
particularly here in the state. I'ma fan of bringing back trade schools.
I'm a fan of critical thinking,skills, first principles, and these things
are not being presented in a dominantand exciting way to our students anymore.
I tend to like the trade schoolis better than the big universities, and
we work with all of them.Okay, so what we've been doing just

(15:09):
again a little little context. Sothere's a gentleman that's on our board.
SAME's cannut floor. Canute was theprevious CEO of BMW Manufacturing in his time
since retiring in late twenty twenty one, Canute has been working with the College
of Charleston to help transform their educationalprogram to better prepare students for jobs in
industry. So, what we havefound and what others have found, is

(15:33):
that when these kids come out ofcollege, they're not ready. And it's
a combination of maturity, it's acombination of skills general time management type stuff,
how do you work? And soCanut's effort, he brought us into
this, and he's brought a numberof others, including Louke Kennedy from Nephron
Pharmaceuticals, folks from Georgia Pacific.We've got another number of folks that are

(15:54):
involved in this effort. And whatwe're trying to do is partner these university
students and trade schools students with industryplayers earlier on in the process. Instead
they've given a kid an intern whenthey're a senior, Let's start them off
as freshmen, and let's make thisa three four year program so by the
time they graduate, number one,they have a job ready for him.
Number two, that job is herein South Carolina. That's another big thing,

(16:17):
right, going back to all thisnew investment where are these people going
to come from. We've got tokeep our best talent in the state.
And then number three, when theycome into that job on day one,
they have a level of familiarity withwhat's expected. They have a level of
familiarity and how to create value quicker. So those are the things that we're
working on from an education perspective.Partnering with the College Charleston, partnering with
a University of South Carolina, partneringat some level with Clemson, partnering with

(16:41):
the trade schools York Tech for example, partnering with the Governor School Danny Dorsel
down there we're working with. SoI'm a big proponent of rethinking the way
that we educate and promote education withinthe state, within the schools, and
within the industry. So I'm hopingthat I'm sure a lot of people here
in this podcast are thinking, thankGod, someone is actually other than and
our elected officials. We don't seemto have enough private sector of voices that

(17:03):
are speaking. And I know thegovernor's commitment this year with the budget in
particular, is like forty three percentof the budget we're spending on education,
and a lot of the people readingthe articles of the paper. Whether all
that information is accurate or whether it'sa descriptive enough, doesn't really give us
a reliance as a taxpayer and asa parent that we're actually going to spend
money to help our kids have anadvantage not only to get through and get
a great college education, but what'sthe payoff. Yeah, So here's some

(17:27):
of the controversial aspect of my opinionon this. I believe that the Department
of Education at some level needs tobe reevaluated and the money that flows into
the Department of Education should potentially bererouted directly to the state. Secondly,
that money instead of being used forlate educational programs, so when you know

(17:48):
when folks are sixteen, seventeen,eighteen, and further, I think that
that money should be redirected to earlyeducational programs. When you think about giving
more people the ability to be moresuccess let's be real for a second.
The number one form of governance isthe nuclear family. When children are in
an environment early on and they canfeel secure, they can feel safe,

(18:10):
and they can feel confident to learnto grow, that is what sets them
up to be successful at sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty years old.
If they don't have that solid foundation, you can give them anything you
want, and as a late teen, early twenties person, the odds of
success are not going to be anygreater. So I think that from an
educational perspective, got to reevaluate howwe're using that thirty forty percent of the

(18:33):
budget, and that money should comeback to those local schools, and that
should be dedicated towards early childcare,better education in the early childcare system.
Less focus on the noise of identitypolitics in the schools, this gender politics
stuff. I don't think anyone that'sa parent that's really invested in this necessarily
feels that that helps their child learnanything useful. That's just the reality.

(18:55):
I'm a proponent of thinking bigger,thinking about how do we take a look
at our state and start raising childrenthat are responsible, critical thinkers that help
grow this state and make it great. So good example, I was in
a meeting with some folks in theAerospace Council. These are folks from Blockheed
Boeing, and we were talking aboutthis issue. One of the ideas that
I brought up was, Hey,if we understand that the state's bread and

(19:18):
butter here is manufacturing, and we'retrying to grow this aerospace business. We've
got BMW here. This is cool. I mean, when you were a
kid, what was cooler than carsor planes? Nothing. Now, where
I'm going with this is that sincewe know that the bread and butter of
this state is going to be manufacturingautomotive aerospace, why aren't these these companies
like BMW and Boeing, why aren'tthey in the schools sponsoring an aerodynamics project

(19:44):
for second graders. I mean whenI was a kid who had things like
the soapbox Derby for cub Scouts.And believe me, if you think those
concepts are too complicated for a secondgrader, I'll learn you're crazy. All
they gotta do is, like youknow, roll a stone down a hill
and we'll start to understand in aerodynamics. So I just feel that there's so
much opportunity for us to ring thestate's industry and the state's critical pieces into
the education system earlier, to createa more secure, safe learning environment for

(20:10):
students earlier. And that's going tobe a drive success, not necessarily these
late stage programs. Now, asyou talk about the South Carolina Department of
Commerce and you speak with a lotof people internationally about the state of South
Carolina and how you're growing here.Do you find that you're getting more and
more questions from different companies about howthey could possibly take advantage of not onlking
the opportunities you described through the SouthCarolina Department of Commerce, but also through

(20:33):
maybe the workforce that we're going tobe planning to educate better, and then
how they could integrate their own companyinto the state of South Carolina. Absolutely.
So the way that we interact inthat conversation is that we let the
customers know, Hey, you're amanufacturer or you're a civil infrastructure agency,
your primary business is doing what youdo. Your primary business is not AI,

(20:55):
right, it's not data science.And so what we'll do is we'll
say we have a program, it'scalled the Delta Bravo Data Scholar Program,
and we will identify a candidate ata regional university or a college or even
a trade school, and we willbring them into the project with that customer,
and we'll have them on for ayear, year and a half on
our work with that customer, witha contractual relationship that stipulates that they go

(21:15):
through that year a year and ahalf that they will receive an offer from
that customer. So this bridge isthat gap. Right, So if they
want to start operations in South Carolinaor if they want to grow this competency
internally, Man, is this agreat bridge. This is what you can
do own your business, right whenyour interest are your own and you're a
first principal thinker and you've boostrapped thebusiness and you own it. This is

(21:36):
the stuff you can do because thisis not like a commonly scalable thing.
So if you go when you talkto a venture capital person or a conventional
finance person and they and they say, you know, hey, this business
is evaluation is going to be predicatedon this high volume, low mix scalability.
And that's great for businesses that wantto do fairly and consequential things.
You know, if you want toget somebody to click on a button more,
you know, build software to dothat. That's scalable, that's that's

(22:00):
super repeatable. That's not what we'retrying to do here. We are trying
to make a difference kind of likethink about it like a concentric circles diagram,
right with the center circle that we'restarting with is South Carolina, and
the central difference that we want tomake is making is restoring American leadership and
manufacturing starting here at home, andrestoring quality of life to our communities starting

(22:21):
here at home. Well, wecertainly seem demonstrated in the ways that other
countries have been able to advance anythingfrom pharmaceuticals all the way over to chips,
and we have seen other countries jumpin and take our leadership position.
If we can bring that back andwe can get in South Carolina into the
heart of that so that it notonly becomes, as you say, a
South Carolina issue, but a nationwideissue, that would certainly put our state

(22:42):
in the position of strength. Well, here's the challenge. Sounds great,
it's a classic says easy does hardbecause there is a serious opportunity cost to
this. So when you decide thatyou want to bring supply chain back from
foreign countries into the US, there'sgoing to be a learning curve, there's
going to be a set up curve. What do you think about it.
Most of the manufacturers that we workwith, if they start a new line

(23:03):
again, they put a new machineon a new line, it'll take them
six to twelve months to get thatmachine up to the quality spec that is
acceptable for it to create mass productiongoods. Now, imagine doing that for
a whole plant in fifteen twenty lines, and then all the people that are
associated with that. Okay, Sothere's a lot of complexity to this.
And again this is another great applicationwhere AI fits in. So if you're

(23:26):
able to take that optimization cycle fora new line or a new machine from
six to twelve months to five weeks, if you're able to take that training
cycle for these new people from twomonths or three months to two days because
they have these AI copilots that peoplelike us could build for them, right,
And that's thing. I don't seea world at all where people working
in a manufacturing plant don't have somesort of an AI copilot, don't have

(23:48):
some sort of an assistant that's calculatingreal time data and communicating with them in
a way that tells them what todo in the moment based on what's happening
right now. That is the future. That is it. We don't have
that, we don't compete. That'where I see the opportunity cost of the
supply chain moving back in is thatif we look at it and do things
that a traditional way because we're scaredof things like AI or we're scared to

(24:10):
rock the boat. The opportunity costis going to dwarf the opportunity. So
the great news for South Carolina onseveral different levels is if you're currently in
business in the state of South Carolina, if you're not familiar enough of what
the Department of Commerce is doing andhow it can affect your business, and
how you can use not only thedepartment, but also the other person's involved
with project to advance your company andmake sure you stay on the cutting edge.

(24:30):
If you're a student, maybe weshould help students understand how to interview
more so than just apply, findways to help put them on the path.
Which is great in the way thatyou bridge that. Hopefully you'll be
able to inspire more companies to dothat. The bottom line is it helps
grow the state. It makes fora better opportunity for communities large and small.
As you mentioned a few minutes ago, bring back to life some facilities

(24:52):
that maybe have gone by the waysidebecause they weren't forward thinking enough, and
now we have the technology available orreads people to learn more about AI.
Don't be afraid of it. Embraceit because it's going to be part of
our future. If you want tobe part of the future of South Carolina
business and you want to be aresident here and reaching your own personal goals,
utilize the availability of our tech systemas companies like yourself get more integrated

(25:17):
in that opportunity. These are allupsides for the state of South Carolina.
Yeah, and I'll say this isa great place to find purpose, all
right. So I think that findingpurpose is so significant right in your own
personal development. That's what defines peopleis when they find their purpose. We
have a state here, we're earlyon, you know, we can show
these children this is the automotive process, this is the aerospace process, this

(25:38):
is the continuous chemical process. Stuffthat'll get their mind going. This is
how we can use these processes tomake the state around us, to make
society better, to make the countrybetter. Right, Taking them through these
processes earlier is going to undoubtedly helpthem find purpose faster. These kids are
growing up in a world where they'redevoid of purpose. The fact that both

(25:59):
of their parents have to work,the fact that they've got to depend on
devices, the fact that the contenton those devices is highly distracting in many
ways, the fact that the brainsare still developing all the way through the
twenty five years old and you seethese rises and all these different things like
add stuff like this. Finding purposeis harder than ever. And this is
a state that's helped me find purpose. This is a state that has the

(26:21):
opportunity to help our kids and ourcommunities, our parents, and our businesses
continue to explore purpose in a meaningfulway. You are a refreshing, encouraging
voice to hear in the state ofSouth Carolina from deep inside of what the
Department of Commerce, as you mentioned, is helping to develop. I'm hoping
that you will continue to stay herein the state of South Carolina. I

(26:41):
wouldn't want to be anywhere else.Good for you. I'm glad to know
that you're a fellow South Carolinian.Rick A Pedsano, founder and the CEO
of Delta Brabo Artificial Intelligence based outof Fort Mill, South Carolina. Thank
you so much for being here.Appreciate it. Jonathan, thank you for having me