Inside the Win takes you behind the scenes as Telarus experts break down real customer challenges and reveal how strategic partnerships turn ambitious ideas into real-world success. In this episode, VP of Networking & Mobility Graeme Scott and Senior Engineer Brinton “Gundy” Gunderson explore a seemingly simple request for a massive 10-gig circuit that led to uncovering a rapidly growing startup with a thin DevOps-led IT team. What began as a bandwidth question evolved into a full architectural deep dive, connecting gaps between construction managers, IT stakeholders, and operational teams. The Telarus team uncovered critical needs around resiliency, network design, security, access control, and site-deployment timelines that fiber alone couldn’t support. By listening closely and educating the client through each phase, the team transformed a single-circuit inquiry into a million-dollar infrastructure opportunity with ongoing recurring revenue. This episode highlights how curiosity, collaboration, and solution mapping can unlock long-term strategic wins for partners and customers alike.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Inside the Win, We'llbreakdown real world wins,
showing you exactly how strategic partnership with our
experts empowers you to tackle your most ambitious
opportunities with confidence. Let's jump in.
Hey everybody. Welcome to another version of
Inside the Win. My name is Graham Scott.
I'm the Vice President of Networking and Mobility here at
(00:20):
Telaris and really excited to bejoined today by one of our fine
engineers, Mr. Britton Gunderson, known affectionately
as Gundy on the Team Britain. How are you, my man?
How you doing today? I'm doing great Graham, Thanks
for having me excited to chat. Awesome.
Yeah, We love doing these sessions because it really
(00:41):
helps. I think our advisors understand
that usually these opportunitiesdon't come in the way they end
up, right. And then walking them through
this process as to how we get from point A to point BI think
is really important. So let's talk about this one
pretty cool opportunity. And it came in as a circuit, a
request for a circuit and a rather large circuit.
(01:03):
So talk a little bit about that.Yeah, and, and Graham, I love
highlighting this. This is the most fun part of my
job, just understanding what a customer is doing, why they're
doing it and, and, you know, getting to a solution in the
end. So yeah, this one started out
pretty curious, Really large request for a 10 gig Internet
circuit for a gas station and EVcharging station.
(01:26):
So why would they, you know, whywould they need such a crazy
amount of bandwidth? So that was the first spark of
curiosity to dig in. So we held a call with the
client and we really just started digging into what they
needed, what their, what the requirements were and learning
more about the business, how they're set up, what their plans
(01:46):
to do, etcetera, what and reallywhat this service was for.
So that was initially just the basis of the first call.
That's it. Got it.
And so then once you get on thiscall and you start getting under
the hood, kind of learning a little bit about this business,
you found a fairly fragmented and a very small IT team that
you were that you were working with really kind of undermanned
(02:09):
with a lot of different things going on within the
organization. Yeah, just like in every
opportunity that we start to diginto learning about the
organization, how they're set up, what, what type of
challenges, challenges do they have from an IT structure
perspective. In this case, it was a dev OPS
organization. So their IT team was built.
(02:30):
First of all, this is a start upcompany.
They're growing really rapidly. And so their first initial team
members, part of the IT group were all dev OPS.
So, you know, understanding interfaces and bandwidth and
what how thing everything's going to plug in together.
They understand that that's all there and they're very highly
intelligent. But maybe they haven't done that
(02:52):
before. Maybe they haven't connected a
circuit to a firewall, to a switch, etcetera, and
architected that infrastructure before.
So understanding that that was probably the case right up front
and knowing that we needed to guide a little bit of the
conversation around that. That was.
That was the initial call. Got it.
So then you've got a couple of these stakeholders that you've
(03:14):
now engaged with, you sort of talked through what they're
trying to accomplish, what theirstrategy is, what happened
there. At some point you were dealing
with a construction manager, is that right?
Yeah. So we, we had entered the
conversation after they this, this company had already started
(03:34):
a a few projects. So one of those we, we were
started out by sourcing the Internet circuits.
As, as this progressed and we communicated that there, that we
had more capabilities than just sourcing Internet circuits, we
started to get into conversations further and
further into the the architecture and into the
network. So at one point we'd already
(03:57):
started to talk to the the construction managers.
So the construction managers literally were working as part
of the IT team to do infrastructure deployment.
And in this case, The Who designed the firewall and land
services didn't match that appropriately with the Internet
circuits. So we got on the phone with one
(04:18):
of the construction managers as he was literally trying to
connect to the firewall, to the Internet and just connecting
A-Z. And what had to happen that
that's what was missing is somebody to connect the dots
from the Internet to all the wayinto the infrastructure.
So and in this case it was a it was a project manager.
Yeah, that's. That's pretty, you know, I
(04:40):
wouldn't say that's typical, right?
But you never know who you're going to be dealing with on some
of these opportunities. And especially when you're in a
start up environment, you've gotso many people that wear
different hats. You know, sometimes you're
talking to somebody that you wouldn't expect.
So Britton, talk a little bit about what the when was the
moment where you kind of knew, all right, we've got something
here. These guys are starting to lean
(05:02):
in. Like, what was it that kind of
made you realize, OK, this is we're going to win this one
here? Yeah, I think there was, There
was 2 points. There was first, the initial
qualification that there is a real opportunity here and
second, when we knew we had, those were definitely two
different segments of the conversation.
(05:24):
I think the first one happened when we understood what type of
growth strategy they wanted to have over the next couple of
years and also how their IT teamwas structured.
They were so thin that they really were going to have to
lean on an outside group to helparchitect and and push to help
them hit their milestones. But second, it really took
(05:47):
several meetings with different groups.
So meeting with operations, meeting with the IT team, which
was DevOps, but also the construction manager, we met
with all three groups individually and made sure the
messaging was the same. We have this solutions map, we
can hit all of these swim lanes and we have these capabilities
(06:07):
will help and and be your procurement arm, but also the
glue that ties everything together.
So educating what is between projects, so meaning you know
the land infrastructure and the Internet infrastructure and what
components need to happen and what to expect in between.
(06:28):
Awesome. SO obviously great, great
progress on this one. Talk a little bit about where we
are today, what we ended up with.
You know, we started with a fairly large circuit.
Where is the deal today and whatdo you see going on with this in
the next couple of months? Yeah.
So interestingly we went from that very large circuit down.
(06:48):
We we actually scaled it down toa smaller set of circuits, but
with resiliency. So that's the first thing is we,
we talked about resiliency, whatthe requirements for the
business were, but we added HA and resiliency into their
firewall into their switching into their A PS, how they track
vehicles coming in and out of the property.
(07:10):
So we added ricotta and access control security cameras
literally as we every conversation we would have, we
would add a component to the theinfrastructure.
We also found out that one of the troubles is they deploy
sites so quickly and the legacy telco fiber infrastructure
(07:32):
processes do not match their timelines.
So we had to come up with a way to deliver a site and get it
into production before a fiber connection would get there, but
with more than a cellular. So we relied on our wireless
partners to do wireless microwave Internet.
But that's, that's The thing is we, we just are really in a, a
(07:55):
listening mode and education mode of understanding the
requirements and then deliveringsolutions based on those, you
know, real world challenges thatthey're having.
And it's going to continue. This is, there's a really
exciting account, very fun account to work with.
So and the TA has done such a good job in messaging, staying
(08:17):
in contact and, you know, wrinkling the cats that are
around a project like this. Yeah, I love it.
So let's talk numbers, right? We started off with a 10 gig
circuit, so far billing on a monthly recurring basis well
over 20,000, right? So pretty good.
But then a huge equipment numberon this one, right?
Right, right. So we're up and over $1,000,000
(08:39):
NRC, so one time infrastructure cost.
There's management layers on to that.
And you know, as we discovered with their IT, their slim IT
group, we're going to have management fees and things that
feed into this. But from a circuit, pure circuit
perspective, we're at around $20,000 in monthly MRC, which
(09:00):
is, which is not a gigantic deal.
However, this is one that's going to happen over and over
again. Every two months another site
will turn up and what a great account.
It's a It's a fun account. Awesome.
Yeah. So take a step back right out of
the gate, figure out what's going on here.
I mean, a lot of advisors probably be like, hey, 10 gig
circuit, where do I send you thepaperwork?
(09:22):
But taking that process is actually unlocked a much larger
opportunity. So good stuff.
Britton, Thanks so much for joining us on this one.
We hope you guys out there enjoyed it.
These conversations are happening every day with the
team at Solaris. So if you're not working with us
on this stuff, we'd love to haveyou join the team.
Thanks for tuning in. We'll catch you on the next
(09:43):
Inside the Win.
Welcome to Inside the Win, We'llbreakdown real world wins,
showing you exactly how strategic partnership with our
experts empowers you to tackle your most ambitious
opportunities with confidence. Let's jump in.
Hey everybody. Welcome to another version of
Inside the Win. My name is Graham Scott.
I'm the Vice President of Networking and Mobility here at
(00:20):
Telaris and really excited to bejoined today by one of our fine
engineers, Mr. Britton Gunderson, known affectionately
as Gundy on the Team Britain. How are you, my man?
How you doing today? I'm doing great Graham, Thanks
for having me excited to chat. Awesome.
Yeah, We love doing these sessions because it really
(00:41):
helps. I think our advisors understand
that usually these opportunitiesdon't come in the way they end
up, right. And then walking them through
this process as to how we get from point A to point BI think
is really important. So let's talk about this one
pretty cool opportunity. And it came in as a circuit, a
request for a circuit and a rather large circuit.
(01:03):
So talk a little bit about that.Yeah, and, and Graham, I love
highlighting this. This is the most fun part of my
job, just understanding what a customer is doing, why they're
doing it and, and, you know, getting to a solution in the
end. So yeah, this one started out
pretty curious, Really large request for a 10 gig Internet
circuit for a gas station and EVcharging station.
(01:26):
So why would they, you know, whywould they need such a crazy
amount of bandwidth? So that was the first spark of
curiosity to dig in. So we held a call with the
client and we really just started digging into what they
needed, what their, what the requirements were and learning
more about the business, how they're set up, what their plans
(01:46):
to do, etcetera, what and reallywhat this service was for.
So that was initially just the basis of the first call.
That's it. Got it.
And so then once you get on thiscall and you start getting under
the hood, kind of learning a little bit about this business,
you found a fairly fragmented and a very small IT team that
you were that you were working with really kind of undermanned
(02:09):
with a lot of different things going on within the
organization. Yeah, just like in every
opportunity that we start to diginto learning about the
organization, how they're set up, what, what type of
challenges, challenges do they have from an IT structure
perspective. In this case, it was a dev OPS
organization. So their IT team was built.
(02:30):
First of all, this is a start upcompany.
They're growing really rapidly. And so their first initial team
members, part of the IT group were all dev OPS.
So, you know, understanding interfaces and bandwidth and
what how thing everything's going to plug in together.
They understand that that's all there and they're very highly
intelligent. But maybe they haven't done that
(02:52):
before. Maybe they haven't connected a
circuit to a firewall, to a switch, etcetera, and
architected that infrastructure before.
So understanding that that was probably the case right up front
and knowing that we needed to guide a little bit of the
conversation around that. That was.
That was the initial call. Got it.
So then you've got a couple of these stakeholders that you've
(03:14):
now engaged with, you sort of talked through what they're
trying to accomplish, what theirstrategy is, what happened
there. At some point you were dealing
with a construction manager, is that right?
Yeah. So we, we had entered the
conversation after they this, this company had already started
(03:34):
a a few projects. So one of those we, we were
started out by sourcing the Internet circuits.
As, as this progressed and we communicated that there, that we
had more capabilities than just sourcing Internet circuits, we
started to get into conversations further and
further into the the architecture and into the
network. So at one point we'd already
(03:57):
started to talk to the the construction managers.
So the construction managers literally were working as part
of the IT team to do infrastructure deployment.
And in this case, The Who designed the firewall and land
services didn't match that appropriately with the Internet
circuits. So we got on the phone with one
(04:18):
of the construction managers as he was literally trying to
connect to the firewall, to the Internet and just connecting
A-Z. And what had to happen that
that's what was missing is somebody to connect the dots
from the Internet to all the wayinto the infrastructure.
So and in this case it was a it was a project manager.
Yeah, that's. That's pretty, you know, I
(04:40):
wouldn't say that's typical, right?
But you never know who you're going to be dealing with on some
of these opportunities. And especially when you're in a
start up environment, you've gotso many people that wear
different hats. You know, sometimes you're
talking to somebody that you wouldn't expect.
So Britton, talk a little bit about what the when was the
moment where you kind of knew, all right, we've got something
here. These guys are starting to lean
(05:02):
in. Like, what was it that kind of
made you realize, OK, this is we're going to win this one
here? Yeah, I think there was, There
was 2 points. There was first, the initial
qualification that there is a real opportunity here and
second, when we knew we had, those were definitely two
different segments of the conversation.
(05:24):
I think the first one happened when we understood what type of
growth strategy they wanted to have over the next couple of
years and also how their IT teamwas structured.
They were so thin that they really were going to have to
lean on an outside group to helparchitect and and push to help
them hit their milestones. But second, it really took
(05:47):
several meetings with different groups.
So meeting with operations, meeting with the IT team, which
was DevOps, but also the construction manager, we met
with all three groups individually and made sure the
messaging was the same. We have this solutions map, we
can hit all of these swim lanes and we have these capabilities
(06:07):
will help and and be your procurement arm, but also the
glue that ties everything together.
So educating what is between projects, so meaning you know
the land infrastructure and the Internet infrastructure and what
components need to happen and what to expect in between.
(06:28):
Awesome. SO obviously great, great
progress on this one. Talk a little bit about where we
are today, what we ended up with.
You know, we started with a fairly large circuit.
Where is the deal today and whatdo you see going on with this in
the next couple of months? Yeah.
So interestingly we went from that very large circuit down.
(06:48):
We we actually scaled it down toa smaller set of circuits, but
with resiliency. So that's the first thing is we,
we talked about resiliency, whatthe requirements for the
business were, but we added HA and resiliency into their
firewall into their switching into their A PS, how they track
vehicles coming in and out of the property.
(07:10):
So we added ricotta and access control security cameras
literally as we every conversation we would have, we
would add a component to the theinfrastructure.
We also found out that one of the troubles is they deploy
sites so quickly and the legacy telco fiber infrastructure
(07:32):
processes do not match their timelines.
So we had to come up with a way to deliver a site and get it
into production before a fiber connection would get there, but
with more than a cellular. So we relied on our wireless
partners to do wireless microwave Internet.
But that's, that's The thing is we, we just are really in a, a
(07:55):
listening mode and education mode of understanding the
requirements and then deliveringsolutions based on those, you
know, real world challenges thatthey're having.
And it's going to continue. This is, there's a really
exciting account, very fun account to work with.
So and the TA has done such a good job in messaging, staying
(08:17):
in contact and, you know, wrinkling the cats that are
around a project like this. Yeah, I love it.
So let's talk numbers, right? We started off with a 10 gig
circuit, so far billing on a monthly recurring basis well
over 20,000, right? So pretty good.
But then a huge equipment numberon this one, right?
Right, right. So we're up and over $1,000,000
(08:39):
NRC, so one time infrastructure cost.
There's management layers on to that.
And you know, as we discovered with their IT, their slim IT
group, we're going to have management fees and things that
feed into this. But from a circuit, pure circuit
perspective, we're at around $20,000 in monthly MRC, which
(09:00):
is, which is not a gigantic deal.
However, this is one that's going to happen over and over
again. Every two months another site
will turn up and what a great account.
It's a It's a fun account. Awesome.
Yeah. So take a step back right out of
the gate, figure out what's going on here.
I mean, a lot of advisors probably be like, hey, 10 gig
circuit, where do I send you thepaperwork?
(09:22):
But taking that process is actually unlocked a much larger
opportunity. So good stuff.
Britton, Thanks so much for joining us on this one.
We hope you guys out there enjoyed it.
These conversations are happening every day with the
team at Solaris. So if you're not working with us
on this stuff, we'd love to haveyou join the team.
Thanks for tuning in. We'll catch you on the next
(09:43):
Inside the Win.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
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.