Embark on a transformative journey with Dylan Burke and his guest, the entrepreneurial maverick Ryan Williams of AcuraMet. As we peer into Ryan's remarkable shift from the realms of sound engineering to the forefront of retail analytics innovation, prepare to uncover how the fusion of security technology and marketing data is revolutionizing the way retailers understand consumer behavior. This episode promises a treasure trove of insights for those looking to refine their customer experience and drive commerce with strategic finesse, mirroring the customization we relish in online shopping.
Join us as we navigate the tumultuous seas of entrepreneurship through Ryan's lens, where the stakes are high and the rewards, even more so. From the solitary beginnings of a founder to the triumphant partnership with a CTO, Ryan lays bare the strategic maneuvers that enabled him to sail through the challenges of funding and team building. Listeners will glean wisdom from his tales of perseverance, the significance of a robust support network, and the thrill of pursuing a venture that not only promises to enhance retail experience but also exemplifies the unyielding spirit of modern entrepreneurship. Tune in to engage with a dialogue that's not just about business growth—it's about the heart-pounding adventure of creating something remarkable.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey folks, welcome back to the growing lean podcast
, sponsored by lean discoverygroup and award-winning software
firm based out of Virginia.
This is your host, dylan Burke,also known as Dige, and I'm
happy to be here today with RyanWilliams, founder and CEO at
AcuraMet.
Welcome, ryan, thank you forhaving me, it's my pleasure.
(00:24):
So, Ryan, to get us started,can you tell us a little bit
about yourself, your background,your history and what led you
to where you are today?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh well, I don't know , had a professor in college who
told me that enjoy the pathalong the way, you may end up
where you're supposed to be.
And so I graduated in soundengineering and toured with
bands and, after getting sick ofbeing on the road, somehow
(00:56):
wound up working at a highsecurity government contractor
company.
So we did a lot of governmentagencies, security, hard
perimeter security,anti-terrorist force protection.
So I was in that space forabout 10 years.
So I liked electronics fromsound and cameras and all these
(01:17):
other kind of high securitythings.
After about 10 years I justdecided it was time for me to
kind of move on.
So I went and started my ownbusiness, which I still operate
now, as a security camera,access control, security
integration business.
And then AcuraMet was kind ofborn out of it.
I was meeting with networking,meeting with marketing people
(01:42):
and local businesses and waskind of hearing similar
complaints from the localbusinesses and hearing
situations that the marketingpeople were talking about.
And then me spending money onmarketing was kind of growing
frustrated with the fact that Iwas spending this money but
didn't really know there wasn'tthat return.
It wasn't obvious.
It was like, yeah, I thinksomebody called or I think this
(02:05):
happened.
There wasn't that ability there.
I was getting that same thingfrom the business owner and I
met with one marketing personand she was telling me how she
could track where they acquiredthe customer online and then
geofence the location to thefact that they actually walked
in but lost what happened oncethey entered the store.
She liked that data and thatwas, for me, going okay.
Well, what if the cameras I'mputting in could provide that
(02:27):
data?
How do we move from thesecurity budget to the marketing
budget?
And that's what kicked off thisfor me was going down that path
of just trying to move from oneto the other, and so started
doing that, developed our ownplatform, and now we have a
(02:48):
couple of test locations outthere and are about to launch
into market.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
What does a KiraMet actually do?
If you could say it in a coupleof sentences.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, the big picture is the next evolution of
commerce.
We're tracking the customerdemographics at the location
along with the items purchased,so providing who,
demographically, is purchasingwhich items.
With that we allow the store,or the physical space, to get
better data and analytics ofwhat's going on in their store
(03:24):
who's purchasing what item.
Was there a new customer versusexisting customer?
It's conversion ratio.
Next phases will do integrationwith the inventory.
At that point we're looking atthe trends and predictions of
not only who's going to purchasewhat, but when are they going
to purchase it.
So it helped with predictivepatterns in the physical space.
(03:50):
It started from me as how do youhelp having a business as hard
enough as it is?
So how do you give somebodythat's fools to give them the
shot to help them be moresuccessful?
It automatically feels that Iguess because I've been through
it and so going through it, youfeel like you have a whole world
(04:10):
stacked against you.
It's not easy to start abusiness.
It's all the challenges thatare faced with it and if I could
pull the customer behavior andthe insights and take that
challenge away, it makes itwhere they could focus on
running a store as opposed tohaving to figure out the mindset
of the customer.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, 100%.
And the goal with the data isthat in order to get better
product placement or betterstore locations, or what is the
goal to use the data for?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well for them is to use the data where they
understand what their customerspurchase and for the fact that,
like this, they spend a lot ofthe money and time and effort to
get a customer to walk into thestore and yet people still
leave empty handed.
So, having that understandingof what the customer is looking
for, what's going on, whetherthey look into purchase and
(05:05):
making sure it's there, so whenthey show up, what the item that
they want is there, and not tomention the other items, if we
could look at trends acrossupselling and cross selling, if
you look at patterns of, hey,this demographic is purchasing
this item, but we're also seeingthat this demographic is
purchasing this other item.
Maybe here's an opportunity tooffer that.
(05:27):
It's kind of trying to blendthe commerce of what you see
online, where you add somethingto a cart and it's like, hey,
maybe you like this too, maybeyou should check this item out,
or we could do that all in thephysical space.
Give them that ability to dothat.
And so there's a lot of it where, for instance, there's a store
(05:48):
in my area that has been aroundfor 25 years and I didn't go
into it for the first time untiltwo weeks ago.
It didn't realize that they solditems there that I would have
been shopping at regularly had Iknown it was there.
It was a store that their namehas been around for 25 years.
Their items have evolved in thestore but I just knew 25 years
(06:09):
ago wasn't what I was into atthe time, and now it had other
things that I mentioned.
Just didn't even know it wasthere.
So because of that you couldtrack and know where the
purchase is.
It allows them to start doingtargeted marketing better
instead of just going like hey,come to XYZ store, maybe they
could do targeted ads thatreached out to somebody and go
(06:31):
hey, come to this store becauseyou like this item, we have this
item.
So that item may drive me intothe store as opposed to just the
store itself.
So we get some ability withthat to kind of increase revenue
on that side of it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, awesome, I love that and watch your overall
business strategy for the nextcouple of years.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
We just built out our team.
So we've added a technicalco-founder and a CMO, so hitting
the ground running.
Right now we're doing outreachto larger brands as well as some
smaller writing, someintegrations with Point of Sale
(07:16):
and then, yeah, just expandingNext couple of years.
We actually have a kind of aphase two.
It came up during our marketviability research.
We had some questions pop uptalking about credit card fraud
and charge backs, and so we wereasked if we could verify the
card holder before thetransaction occurred.
(07:36):
So we kind of ran through thesystem and realized we could do
that.
So that's kind of our phase twoNext couple of years.
We're trying to get thatlaunched.
We need a tighter integrationwith Point of Sale.
We need two-way communication.
We need to be able to acceptour match non-match
authorization.
So it just takes building someof that relationship up.
So that's kind of phase two ofit all.
(07:57):
So hope to launch that nextyear too.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Okay, awesome, awesome, and I see on LinkedIn
that you founded Acuramet almostthree years ago.
Can you tell me a little bitabout the challenges and
obstacles that have been in yourway that you've overcome to get
to the point now where you'reready to go to markets?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, that's been fun .
So it's fun to start a softwarecompany whenever you're not a
programmer.
So that's a fun challenge.
Yeah, and it's.
You know I come from.
I consider it more of aconstruction-based background.
So you know it was duringsecurity integration like we put
projects together and designedit for specific needs.
(08:42):
But we, you know you'd expectwhenever you're turning it over
to a customer, like, hey, here'sthe final product, as opposed
to getting ahead around in thesoftware world, it's like, hey,
here's kind of good enough andwe'll keep evolving it and
making changes and everythingelse.
So work through and puttingtogether.
I guess with the constructionbackground I looked at it like,
(09:05):
okay, if I can't do it, justsubcontract it out, find people.
So I put it together.
You know people I've workedwith to help with development
and things.
I needed to put things togetherin order to get it to where I
had that MVP and then startedreaching out to, you know,
investment groups and they'relike, well, it's just you, and
(09:25):
so that was its own separatechallenge.
They're like, well, you know,nobody's gonna invest in a
single person company or a solofounder company, and so that was
a challenge.
And then, understanding youknow the investment world and
part of that side of it waslearning it a little bit.
And then you know, sometimesluck works out in your favor
(09:48):
that the person that you hiredto develop the project for you
initially, you know is actuallyinterested in coming on.
You know it helps.
We had a working relationshipat that point.
We kind of knew how each other,you know, the mindset was and
we got introduced through amutual friend, so that part kind
of helps.
(10:08):
It kind of helped land throughthe you know, the team that way.
So now we kind of have thatgoing on.
But yeah, there's just I meanit's a fun challenge I mean
through, you know currently soI'm self-funding it, so
everything kind of goes through.
Whenever I can, I'd pay forthis or, you know, try to cover
(10:30):
the cost, and so that's its ownseparate thing.
My biggest challenge has beenfacing time-wise.
You know I do have anotherbusiness that I run day to day.
That's like the securityintegration company, so it's
smaller in a regional location.
But you know it's having abalance.
At that time, which is what Irealized that was kind of the
(10:54):
and this was recent, within likelast month kind of my I had a
moment with it is that having ateam helps.
You know you go out and start abusiness on your own.
I, in my case the company haswith the four there were.
You know there were Twobrothers and you know there's
challenges with that and so whenI went out of my own I'm like I
(11:16):
don't want to deal with that, Ijust want it to be me, and then
that's it.
But you realize that you knowthat help I mean just bringing
on.
You know that CTO was like it'slike this big weight was lifted
off.
I was like, oh, I don't have toworry about that anymore, I
don't have to focus through it,I don't have to deal with it.
I just call him and say, hey,can I do this?
(11:39):
Can I say this, can I?
And he's like, yep, that's nota big deal, and then just kind
of run with it.
And so, and even day to day,I've started working with Some
other security integrationcompanies within my area, kind
of planning for those next stepsof me not being involved every
day with that, and ran acrossSimilar people to me who you
know have struggled bythemselves.
(12:00):
You know they have employees,but it's just them and it
started with just being thesound of board going like, hey,
as a small business owner,you're stuck, it's you.
There's not necessarily body totalk to.
You know you have a problem.
You can't like talk with yourtechnician or one of your
employees and be like, hey, Ihad a bad day today.
I kind of work through it.
So having that sound in boardand just he and I talking and,
(12:22):
you know, going through issuesthat's kind of a thing I
realized the last six months orso is like Building a network of
people that are in the sameposition you are and then
bouncing stuff off of each otherand just kind of being there to
have that.
Well, if it is just you, givesyou that extra.
You know that little somethingextra.
If you calling a prom boy,let's talk about it, so that's
(12:45):
something that you know.
It's really been a big benefithere lately.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay, amazing.
And what is your plan Goingforward?
Is this a product that's goingto be for small, small stores,
or you even looking to get intothe larger chain stores?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
When I initially started it, my intent was to
gear it towards small stores.
I assumed when I got startedthis that you know, every big
store was doing this already.
And so there are some systemsthat can run some analytics in
retail.
They run the analytics on thecamera themselves.
So it's a bigger, more costlyinstall and so and I've talked
(13:29):
to a couple of business that hadlooked at it and the price was
just, it was just too out ofreach for, and so that that was
my main focus is going how do wedo it in a way where it's cost
effective?
There it, you know, mom and pop, it can go in, it could be
affordable, and then kind ofduring the research, I kept
getting introduced to likelarger and larger companies, and
that's when I realized theyweren't doing it either.
(13:50):
So the approach has been rightnow.
The approaches were actuallylooking at both.
So you know we've had talkswith larger companies.
Larger company it's a longerlead time.
You have to go through Moremanagement with that, but we're
also talking.
So the our test markets nowhave been, have been smaller
stores.
They may have, you know, momand pop may have three or four
(14:12):
locations.
So a couple other ones thatwere looking at that.
Have, you know, 10 or 20, sojust in that range where it's
easier, because I could talkwith the business owner, we
could have a conversation andthey could say yes in a week and
we could get started, asopposed to going through the
management on the larger ones.
And it gives us the chance to,you know, clean up some things
(14:34):
right.
Integration so you know we'rewriting integration now with For
light speed, which you knowthey have a large customer base,
so it gives us a better, youknow, in the next step is like
what we just go target thosecustomers.
So in building thatrelationship, those point of
sale companies, there's beenturnover.
So there's that challenge of youget started and you get down
(14:58):
the pathway and that personleaves and you kind of got to
start all over again.
So we're looking at what's kindof the easy path to entry right
now.
Small regional is easier to getin with 100 percent.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Can you tell me a little bit about the technology
that you're using?
Are you making use of anyartificial intelligence for the
data analytics, or how does itwork without going too much into
your proprietary technology?
Can you tell me a bit about howit works?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, so we're using a modified version of facial
recognition.
We are not identifying anybody,we're just pulling demographics
off.
So we're using a point of saleor we're using a camera built
into the point of sale so we'recapturing the information.
When you're checking out,you're looking down or pay with
(15:51):
your credit card, there's acamera built in or we have
options where we can put acamera.
Then we're doing it that waywhere we capture demographics
and the receipt at that point intime.
We're also about to launch atest at a drive-thru, so we'll
actually capture the demographicat the drive-thru because they
never enter the location.
(16:12):
So we could pull it there Then.
Yeah, so the next step of thatis, once we pull the data in of
who, demographically, you'repurchasing what that's part of
it is we're going to run throughand use AI to look at the
trends and predictive modelingat that point in time.
So that's the next step with itis to look for not only who is
(16:34):
purchasing what, like I said,who's going to purchase what.
So we find those trends andpatterns at that point in time.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay, amazing.
And if we were to sit down in12 months time and everything
that could have possibly goneright has for your business,
what would the business looklike then and what has changed?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
That's a fun question , I mean.
I imagine it would be changedto be really hectic, a lot of
lack of sleep, the opportunityto grow and improve.
At that point we'd have a lotof data.
We would also have the abilityto really show how we're
(17:26):
benefiting the customer.
And so, man, I don't know.
It's one of those things thatdeciding to start a software
company when you're not asoftware developer it seems like
a pipe drain, let alone in andof itself.
But to go like all right, it'srunning now, and a year from now
, what's this going to feel like?
(17:46):
I honestly don't know what it'sgoing to be Like.
I said, a crazy ride?
I'm sure I don't know, but I'mnot sure.
On that one, it seems like afar time away to this point.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Awesome, you're just riding the roller coaster and
seeing where it takes you Justriding the roller coaster yeah,
at this point yeah, amazing.
So we are coming to the end ofthe interview, but before we go
I wanted to ask if you couldgive one piece of advice to
other business owners looking tostart a business in today's
world.
What would that advice be?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
To just gotta do it.
It's hard and it's not gonna beeasy and it's gonna be
stressful, but at the end of theday I decided to do this
because if I didn't I wouldalways regret it.
So I've listened to podcastsand read books and do these
things and you know what?
You try it and it doesn't workand you fail.
(18:56):
You learn something from thatand you move on to the next
thing, and so you just kindahave to go for it.
And the other thing is to buildout a network.
We are in the age now I'm intothe world and it's not really
the ideal world for software,software technology startups,
but with the age we live in now,you could kind of meet people
(19:20):
and connect with people from allover, and so that's a benefit
that does help.
So that's something I would dois just go like, just jump.
I actually had somebody tell methat I was putting all this
stuff together and I met withsomebody at the local
development district, the SmallBusiness Development Council.
(19:44):
They're a lot of them andthat's another thing.
Look into that.
The universities, they offerit's free coaching.
They'll assist whichever waythey can.
And one of the guys told mehe's like look, sometimes you
have to jump off the cliff andjust build the parachute on the
way down, and that's when youkind of really like, yeah, you
can think about it forever andnever do it, or you just kind of
jump and figure it out as yougo, and so that's kind of my
(20:07):
advice is just you just figureit out and go for it.
So that's what I'd probablyrecommend 100%.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I love that analogy.
It reminds me of the rollercoaster analogy, which it can be
scary at times, the ups and thedowns, but once you get off it
you had a good time at the endand you want to do it again.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So you just got to ride.
Yeah, you want to do it again,exactly so.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Ryan, thanks for being on the show.
I have really enjoyed learningmore about this and I'm super
excited to see what the futureholds for you.
What's the best way for ourlisteners to reach out to you,
if you have any offers for themor if they're looking to follow
your journey?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
The sales at accuremetcom is kind of our.
I mean the email address.
The website is.
I built it.
It needs work.
It's like I said it's not thereyet but it's wwwaccuremetcom.
I don't do social media, butsomebody is there so Acuremet's
(21:13):
around on, I think, twitter andInstagram and all the other ones
, so I look forward to talkingto somebody.
So it's great to just hearother people's struggles and
what they go through, and that'sbeen.
The benefit of this is that youhear them talk about their
customer problems and whatthey're dealing with, and so
it's interesting conversationsto have 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Well, thanks again for your time today, ryan, and I
wish you all the best.
I'm looking forward to seeingeverything.
I appreciate it, thank you.
Hey folks, welcome back to the growing lean podcast
, sponsored by lean discoverygroup and award-winning software
firm based out of Virginia.
This is your host, dylan Burke,also known as Dige, and I'm
happy to be here today with RyanWilliams, founder and CEO at
AcuraMet.
Welcome, ryan, thank you forhaving me, it's my pleasure.
(00:24):
So, Ryan, to get us started,can you tell us a little bit
about yourself, your background,your history and what led you
to where you are today?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh well, I don't know , had a professor in college who
told me that enjoy the pathalong the way, you may end up
where you're supposed to be.
And so I graduated in soundengineering and toured with
bands and, after getting sick ofbeing on the road, somehow
(00:56):
wound up working at a highsecurity government contractor
company.
So we did a lot of governmentagencies, security, hard
perimeter security,anti-terrorist force protection.
So I was in that space forabout 10 years.
So I liked electronics fromsound and cameras and all these
(01:17):
other kind of high securitythings.
After about 10 years I justdecided it was time for me to
kind of move on.
So I went and started my ownbusiness, which I still operate
now, as a security camera,access control, security
integration business.
And then AcuraMet was kind ofborn out of it.
I was meeting with networking,meeting with marketing people
(01:42):
and local businesses and waskind of hearing similar
complaints from the localbusinesses and hearing
situations that the marketingpeople were talking about.
And then me spending money onmarketing was kind of growing
frustrated with the fact that Iwas spending this money but
didn't really know there wasn'tthat return.
It wasn't obvious.
It was like, yeah, I thinksomebody called or I think this
(02:05):
happened.
There wasn't that ability there.
I was getting that same thingfrom the business owner and I
met with one marketing personand she was telling me how she
could track where they acquiredthe customer online and then
geofence the location to thefact that they actually walked
in but lost what happened oncethey entered the store.
She liked that data and thatwas, for me, going okay.
Well, what if the cameras I'mputting in could provide that
(02:27):
data?
How do we move from thesecurity budget to the marketing
budget?
And that's what kicked off thisfor me was going down that path
of just trying to move from oneto the other, and so started
doing that, developed our ownplatform, and now we have a
(02:48):
couple of test locations outthere and are about to launch
into market.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
What does a KiraMet actually do?
If you could say it in a coupleof sentences.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, the big picture is the next evolution of
commerce.
We're tracking the customerdemographics at the location
along with the items purchased,so providing who,
demographically, is purchasingwhich items.
With that we allow the store,or the physical space, to get
better data and analytics ofwhat's going on in their store
(03:24):
who's purchasing what item.
Was there a new customer versusexisting customer?
It's conversion ratio.
Next phases will do integrationwith the inventory.
At that point we're looking atthe trends and predictions of
not only who's going to purchasewhat, but when are they going
to purchase it.
So it helped with predictivepatterns in the physical space.
(03:50):
It started from me as how do youhelp having a business as hard
enough as it is?
So how do you give somebodythat's fools to give them the
shot to help them be moresuccessful?
It automatically feels that Iguess because I've been through
it and so going through it, youfeel like you have a whole world
(04:10):
stacked against you.
It's not easy to start abusiness.
It's all the challenges thatare faced with it and if I could
pull the customer behavior andthe insights and take that
challenge away, it makes itwhere they could focus on
running a store as opposed tohaving to figure out the mindset
of the customer.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, 100%.
And the goal with the data isthat in order to get better
product placement or betterstore locations, or what is the
goal to use the data for?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well for them is to use the data where they
understand what their customerspurchase and for the fact that,
like this, they spend a lot ofthe money and time and effort to
get a customer to walk into thestore and yet people still
leave empty handed.
So, having that understandingof what the customer is looking
for, what's going on, whetherthey look into purchase and
(05:05):
making sure it's there, so whenthey show up, what the item that
they want is there, and not tomention the other items, if we
could look at trends acrossupselling and cross selling, if
you look at patterns of, hey,this demographic is purchasing
this item, but we're also seeingthat this demographic is
purchasing this other item.
Maybe here's an opportunity tooffer that.
(05:27):
It's kind of trying to blendthe commerce of what you see
online, where you add somethingto a cart and it's like, hey,
maybe you like this too, maybeyou should check this item out,
or we could do that all in thephysical space.
Give them that ability to dothat.
And so there's a lot of it where, for instance, there's a store
(05:48):
in my area that has been aroundfor 25 years and I didn't go
into it for the first time untiltwo weeks ago.
It didn't realize that they solditems there that I would have
been shopping at regularly had Iknown it was there.
It was a store that their namehas been around for 25 years.
Their items have evolved in thestore but I just knew 25 years
(06:09):
ago wasn't what I was into atthe time, and now it had other
things that I mentioned.
Just didn't even know it wasthere.
So because of that you couldtrack and know where the
purchase is.
It allows them to start doingtargeted marketing better
instead of just going like hey,come to XYZ store, maybe they
could do targeted ads thatreached out to somebody and go
(06:31):
hey, come to this store becauseyou like this item, we have this
item.
So that item may drive me intothe store as opposed to just the
store itself.
So we get some ability withthat to kind of increase revenue
on that side of it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, awesome, I love that and watch your overall
business strategy for the nextcouple of years.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
We just built out our team.
So we've added a technicalco-founder and a CMO, so hitting
the ground running.
Right now we're doing outreachto larger brands as well as some
smaller writing, someintegrations with Point of Sale
(07:16):
and then, yeah, just expandingNext couple of years.
We actually have a kind of aphase two.
It came up during our marketviability research.
We had some questions pop uptalking about credit card fraud
and charge backs, and so we wereasked if we could verify the
card holder before thetransaction occurred.
(07:36):
So we kind of ran through thesystem and realized we could do
that.
So that's kind of our phase twoNext couple of years.
We're trying to get thatlaunched.
We need a tighter integrationwith Point of Sale.
We need two-way communication.
We need to be able to acceptour match non-match
authorization.
So it just takes building someof that relationship up.
So that's kind of phase two ofit all.
(07:57):
So hope to launch that nextyear too.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Okay, awesome, awesome, and I see on LinkedIn
that you founded Acuramet almostthree years ago.
Can you tell me a little bitabout the challenges and
obstacles that have been in yourway that you've overcome to get
to the point now where you'reready to go to markets?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, that's been fun .
So it's fun to start a softwarecompany whenever you're not a
programmer.
So that's a fun challenge.
Yeah, and it's.
You know I come from.
I consider it more of aconstruction-based background.
So you know it was duringsecurity integration like we put
projects together and designedit for specific needs.
(08:42):
But we, you know you'd expectwhenever you're turning it over
to a customer, like, hey, here'sthe final product, as opposed
to getting ahead around in thesoftware world, it's like, hey,
here's kind of good enough andwe'll keep evolving it and
making changes and everythingelse.
So work through and puttingtogether.
I guess with the constructionbackground I looked at it like,
(09:05):
okay, if I can't do it, justsubcontract it out, find people.
So I put it together.
You know people I've workedwith to help with development
and things.
I needed to put things togetherin order to get it to where I
had that MVP and then startedreaching out to, you know,
investment groups and they'relike, well, it's just you, and
(09:25):
so that was its own separatechallenge.
They're like, well, you know,nobody's gonna invest in a
single person company or a solofounder company, and so that was
a challenge.
And then, understanding youknow the investment world and
part of that side of it waslearning it a little bit.
And then you know, sometimesluck works out in your favor
(09:48):
that the person that you hiredto develop the project for you
initially, you know is actuallyinterested in coming on.
You know it helps.
We had a working relationshipat that point.
We kind of knew how each other,you know, the mindset was and
we got introduced through amutual friend, so that part kind
of helps.
(10:08):
It kind of helped land throughthe you know, the team that way.
So now we kind of have thatgoing on.
But yeah, there's just I meanit's a fun challenge I mean
through, you know currently soI'm self-funding it, so
everything kind of goes through.
Whenever I can, I'd pay forthis or, you know, try to cover
(10:30):
the cost, and so that's its ownseparate thing.
My biggest challenge has beenfacing time-wise.
You know I do have anotherbusiness that I run day to day.
That's like the securityintegration company, so it's
smaller in a regional location.
But you know it's having abalance.
At that time, which is what Irealized that was kind of the
(10:54):
and this was recent, within likelast month kind of my I had a
moment with it is that having ateam helps.
You know you go out and start abusiness on your own.
I, in my case the company haswith the four there were.
You know there were Twobrothers and you know there's
challenges with that and so whenI went out of my own I'm like I
(11:16):
don't want to deal with that, Ijust want it to be me, and then
that's it.
But you realize that you knowthat help I mean just bringing
on.
You know that CTO was like it'slike this big weight was lifted
off.
I was like, oh, I don't have toworry about that anymore, I
don't have to focus through it,I don't have to deal with it.
I just call him and say, hey,can I do this?
(11:39):
Can I say this, can I?
And he's like, yep, that's nota big deal, and then just kind
of run with it.
And so, and even day to day,I've started working with Some
other security integrationcompanies within my area, kind
of planning for those next stepsof me not being involved every
day with that, and ran acrossSimilar people to me who you
know have struggled bythemselves.
(12:00):
You know they have employees,but it's just them and it
started with just being thesound of board going like, hey,
as a small business owner,you're stuck, it's you.
There's not necessarily body totalk to.
You know you have a problem.
You can't like talk with yourtechnician or one of your
employees and be like, hey, Ihad a bad day today.
I kind of work through it.
So having that sound in boardand just he and I talking and,
(12:22):
you know, going through issuesthat's kind of a thing I
realized the last six months orso is like Building a network of
people that are in the sameposition you are and then
bouncing stuff off of each otherand just kind of being there to
have that.
Well, if it is just you, givesyou that extra.
You know that little somethingextra.
If you calling a prom boy,let's talk about it, so that's
(12:45):
something that you know.
It's really been a big benefithere lately.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay, amazing.
And what is your plan Goingforward?
Is this a product that's goingto be for small, small stores,
or you even looking to get intothe larger chain stores?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
When I initially started it, my intent was to
gear it towards small stores.
I assumed when I got startedthis that you know, every big
store was doing this already.
And so there are some systemsthat can run some analytics in
retail.
They run the analytics on thecamera themselves.
So it's a bigger, more costlyinstall and so and I've talked
(13:29):
to a couple of business that hadlooked at it and the price was
just, it was just too out ofreach for, and so that that was
my main focus is going how do wedo it in a way where it's cost
effective?
There it, you know, mom and pop, it can go in, it could be
affordable, and then kind ofduring the research, I kept
getting introduced to likelarger and larger companies, and
that's when I realized theyweren't doing it either.
(13:50):
So the approach has been rightnow.
The approaches were actuallylooking at both.
So you know we've had talkswith larger companies.
Larger company it's a longerlead time.
You have to go through Moremanagement with that, but we're
also talking.
So the our test markets nowhave been, have been smaller
stores.
They may have, you know, momand pop may have three or four
(14:12):
locations.
So a couple other ones thatwere looking at that.
Have, you know, 10 or 20, sojust in that range where it's
easier, because I could talkwith the business owner, we
could have a conversation andthey could say yes in a week and
we could get started, asopposed to going through the
management on the larger ones.
And it gives us the chance to,you know, clean up some things
(14:34):
right.
Integration so you know we'rewriting integration now with For
light speed, which you knowthey have a large customer base,
so it gives us a better, youknow, in the next step is like
what we just go target thosecustomers.
So in building thatrelationship, those point of
sale companies, there's beenturnover.
So there's that challenge of youget started and you get down
(14:58):
the pathway and that personleaves and you kind of got to
start all over again.
So we're looking at what's kindof the easy path to entry right
now.
Small regional is easier to getin with 100 percent.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Can you tell me a little bit about the technology
that you're using?
Are you making use of anyartificial intelligence for the
data analytics, or how does itwork without going too much into
your proprietary technology?
Can you tell me a bit about howit works?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, so we're using a modified version of facial
recognition.
We are not identifying anybody,we're just pulling demographics
off.
So we're using a point of saleor we're using a camera built
into the point of sale so we'recapturing the information.
When you're checking out,you're looking down or pay with
(15:51):
your credit card, there's acamera built in or we have
options where we can put acamera.
Then we're doing it that waywhere we capture demographics
and the receipt at that point intime.
We're also about to launch atest at a drive-thru, so we'll
actually capture the demographicat the drive-thru because they
never enter the location.
(16:12):
So we could pull it there Then.
Yeah, so the next step of thatis, once we pull the data in of
who, demographically, you'repurchasing what that's part of
it is we're going to run throughand use AI to look at the
trends and predictive modelingat that point in time.
So that's the next step with itis to look for not only who is
(16:34):
purchasing what, like I said,who's going to purchase what.
So we find those trends andpatterns at that point in time.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay, amazing.
And if we were to sit down in12 months time and everything
that could have possibly goneright has for your business,
what would the business looklike then and what has changed?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
That's a fun question , I mean.
I imagine it would be changedto be really hectic, a lot of
lack of sleep, the opportunityto grow and improve.
At that point we'd have a lotof data.
We would also have the abilityto really show how we're
(17:26):
benefiting the customer.
And so, man, I don't know.
It's one of those things thatdeciding to start a software
company when you're not asoftware developer it seems like
a pipe drain, let alone in andof itself.
But to go like all right, it'srunning now, and a year from now
, what's this going to feel like?
(17:46):
I honestly don't know what it'sgoing to be Like.
I said, a crazy ride?
I'm sure I don't know, but I'mnot sure.
On that one, it seems like afar time away to this point.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Awesome, you're just riding the roller coaster and
seeing where it takes you Justriding the roller coaster yeah,
at this point yeah, amazing.
So we are coming to the end ofthe interview, but before we go
I wanted to ask if you couldgive one piece of advice to
other business owners looking tostart a business in today's
world.
What would that advice be?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
To just gotta do it.
It's hard and it's not gonna beeasy and it's gonna be
stressful, but at the end of theday I decided to do this
because if I didn't I wouldalways regret it.
So I've listened to podcastsand read books and do these
things and you know what?
You try it and it doesn't workand you fail.
(18:56):
You learn something from thatand you move on to the next
thing, and so you just kindahave to go for it.
And the other thing is to buildout a network.
We are in the age now I'm intothe world and it's not really
the ideal world for software,software technology startups,
but with the age we live in now,you could kind of meet people
(19:20):
and connect with people from allover, and so that's a benefit
that does help.
So that's something I would dois just go like, just jump.
I actually had somebody tell methat I was putting all this
stuff together and I met withsomebody at the local
development district, the SmallBusiness Development Council.
(19:44):
They're a lot of them andthat's another thing.
Look into that.
The universities, they offerit's free coaching.
They'll assist whichever waythey can.
And one of the guys told mehe's like look, sometimes you
have to jump off the cliff andjust build the parachute on the
way down, and that's when youkind of really like, yeah, you
can think about it forever andnever do it, or you just kind of
jump and figure it out as yougo, and so that's kind of my
(20:07):
advice is just you just figureit out and go for it.
So that's what I'd probablyrecommend 100%.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I love that analogy.
It reminds me of the rollercoaster analogy, which it can be
scary at times, the ups and thedowns, but once you get off it
you had a good time at the endand you want to do it again.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So you just got to ride.
Yeah, you want to do it again,exactly so.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Ryan, thanks for being on the show.
I have really enjoyed learningmore about this and I'm super
excited to see what the futureholds for you.
What's the best way for ourlisteners to reach out to you,
if you have any offers for themor if they're looking to follow
your journey?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
The sales at accuremetcom is kind of our.
I mean the email address.
The website is.
I built it.
It needs work.
It's like I said it's not thereyet but it's wwwaccuremetcom.
I don't do social media, butsomebody is there so Acuremet's
(21:13):
around on, I think, twitter andInstagram and all the other ones
, so I look forward to talkingto somebody.
So it's great to just hearother people's struggles and
what they go through, and that'sbeen.
The benefit of this is that youhear them talk about their
customer problems and whatthey're dealing with, and so
it's interesting conversationsto have 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Well, thanks again for your time today, ryan, and I
wish you all the best.
I'm looking forward to seeingeverything.
I appreciate it, thank you.
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