November 15, 2022 • 35 mins
Join Tim in this fascinating conversation with Celso Ribiero and Otiniel Ribiero of RoadR, a new roadside assistance app.
Founder & CEO Otiniel, has 10 years of experience in technology. A strong believer in the power of positive thinking in the workplace, synergy, and solution-driven problem solving. Otiniel’s background in Tech extends as far back as childhood, where he used
to take computers apart, repair, and build them. In Angola, as early as 14 years of age, he would sell ever ything he got his hands on: games, cellphones, computer parts, you name it. In the United States, as an adult, he built and sold cryptocurrency mining rigs for several businesses, gaming computers to NBA athletes, celebrities, etc.
Co-Founder & CIO Celso, is responsible for managing the innovation process inside
the company that identifies strategies, business opportunities, and new technologies. Which leads to the development of new capabilities and architectures with partners, new business models and new industry structures to serve those opportunities.
Moreover, he has 10+ years of experience as a graphic designer. His design portfolio includes works such as Roadr ’s Pitch Deck, user and specialist apps, letterhead, One Pager, just to name a few.
Celso holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics with a minor in
Physics from Texas Tech University.
Connect with ROADR:
https://roadr.com/
Roadr - Apps on Google Play
Roadr on the App Store (apple.com)
Full Episode here: https://www.f4fspace.org/post/roadr-the-new-roadside-assistance-app-with-the-ribeiro-brothers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Chrisman (00:12):
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Podcast
for the Future.
I'm your host, Tim Chrisman, theexecutive Director of the
Foundation for the Future.
I'm joined today by two of thefounders of a startup called
ROADR the brothers Otiniel CelsoRibeiro.
(00:35):
They come originally from Angolacome to the US by way of Norway.
Otiniel is the founder and CEOof ROADR with 10 years of
experience in technologycompanies.
He is.
Constantly looking for new waysto innovate and has a particular
(00:56):
bent towards trying to improvecomputer hardware.
As early as 14, he started hissales career.
According to him, he would sellanything his hands could he
could get his hands on.
So it'll it'll be exciting tohear more about that.
Celso is the chief InnovationOfficer.
(01:17):
Where he leads the developmentof new capabilities and
architectures for ROADR.
He has over 10 years experienceas a graphic designer doing
design and technologydevelopment and holds a bachelor
of science in mathematics fromTexas Tech University.
It's it's exciting to have youboth here and yeah, let's chat.
Celso Ribeiro (01:41):
Hello, Tim.
Hello, and if I remember right,it's gonna be you and your
brother, right?
Okay.
Very good.
Hi everyone.
Hello.
Yeah, no, great having you here.
The whole idea is just trying toget a sense of, what got you
here and making the case thatpeople doing things that are.
(02:04):
Important and a big deal.
Don't always follow a linearpath.
Yes.
Yeah, of course.
No, cause the, Our listenerswant to hear is that they have a
shot at doing something.
Exactly.
They're sitting in an office,have been doing that for 30
years, or they got an arthistory degree and don't know
what they're gonna do with it.
And they have a shot to dosomething given some
(02:26):
determination, some grit andaudacity.
Yep.
Yeah.
So yeah, let's Yeah, no.
Tell me about your backgrounds.
I'm assuming you all have workedout who gets to talk first by
some sibling hand signal that Ihaven't been able to pick up on
Yeah.
I can get a head start.
Background.
So we were originally born inAngola, Central Africa.
(02:49):
Then so transition to Portugalwhere I attended elementary
school.
So we're pretty much back andforth between Angola and
Portugal, cuz Angola were aPortuguese colony in the past.
Okay.
And then, so we're, our entirelife we were in a Portuguese
education system.
And then funny enough, we end upin Norway where we didn't know
(03:13):
any English nor in region.
I was in the middle of highschool.
Yeah.
And Celso in, in the middleschool.
And we always had the passiontowards technology because our
parents, my mother, she's achemical engineer.
My father is a politician andalso an engineer with minors in
computer science.
(03:33):
So we got in trouble a couple oftimes.
He had this old IBM computers athome, so we would take parts and
he would've come home and thecomputer's not working and he
has to get his work done.
And it just started fastforward, he in depth, like
giving us one of the oldcomputers that was just sitting
in there.
(03:53):
And just out of curiosity, allwe wanted to do was play games
and Yeah.
And you just have fun.
And I will never forget it wasthe FIFA.
It came out and our GPU couldrun it.
It wasn't strong enough.
Oh, no.
So we asked him, so we asked himfor, for funds to buy it, and he
told us no.
(04:14):
And so we ended up gettingcopies of that game and we
started selling in, in, I was inmiddle school and Celso wasn't
in elementary.
So we're starting to spread,which is illegal by the way,
that were all prior copies.
But that's basically whereeverything started, so yeah,
I'll let Celso continue a littlebit on, on that background side
(04:36):
but yeah, that's pretty muchwhere our entrepreneur journey
started for the most.
Hey, you gotta do what you gottado.
If your computer doesn't workfor the game you want as a kid,
I, I've a hundred percent backedyour play on this man I can
there was so many times whengrowing up I had one thing or
another where I wanted to playman and conquer.
(04:58):
I think it.
And computer wouldn't handle it.
That for a five year old, that'sa significant emotional event.
Yeah.
If you gotta turn to a life ofcrime, you gotta do that.
Sometimes.
I get it.
You gotta and the lesson there,being able to be okay with
uncomfortable, be exactly.
Gotta be able to move in theroom full of nos, like Kanye
(05:19):
sex, and that's what got ushere.
It was many nos to get here.
Yep.
Here we are.
Yeah.
But yeah, also, yeah.
Cause this journey, it reallystarted that way and it only
kept growing and growing.
So after that, when we went to,Nor.
We are both like very active, sowe were athletes as well.
(05:40):
So we ended up taking onbasketball and I was one of the
star athletes on the team, notto do my own horn, but we
started developing, like beingaround that culture.
I think the sports culture beingaround having your teammate,
that camaraderie with yourcoach.
Yeah, it just opens up your eyesa lot.
(06:00):
Yeah, it really does.
With teammates and with otherpeople too, to, for a common go,
and this is way, I think oursocial skills took another leap,
so being able to get people tobuy into the vision of what you
guys are trying to do.
In that case, was winning achampionship for the first time,
for the school, specific school,but that mentality.
(06:21):
Carried us to, brought us to theus.
Actually, the reason why we cameto the US Oh was specifically
me, it was mostly for, cause Iwanted to be in the nba.
That was my goal.
There was nothing else.
It was either that I was gonnabe an entrepreneur.
I even remember saying that.
Yeah in 11th grade, Andeverybody looked at me like back
home in Angola.
They're like, What you goingwear here in Africa?
(06:45):
Hell, I don't see that happenanytime soon.
So yeah, but that was always myvision.
And ot, same thing.
And my younger brother too, he'salso one of the cofounders lu
Kenny.
So the household, just imaginethree, almost very competi.
Yeah, my mom used to pokecompetition somewhere or
(07:07):
another, and then when we camehere to the us, that's where we
got into crypto.
Thousand 14, 15, we startedreally building mining rigs and
selling to business.
Like on the B2B side?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We wanted to start their ownmining farms and stuff, and
that's where it all happened in.
So the car breaks down in one ofthe a very dangerous
(07:29):
neighborhood there, and we hadto wait for two, three hours.
Wow.
Fil-A And that experience leavesa better test in your mouth.
Cause not only is it expensiveyou have to pay, but the time
commit.
How stressful you are in thissituation.
And then you can't leave becauseyou wanna make sure that the
person who is coming to help youand everything is somebody that
(07:51):
is trustworthy.
So you have all of those thingsgoing on.
Yeah, And what spark it.
Cause we were always like sales,right?
Selling stuff, selling, sellingcd, selling games, selling
mining rigs.
You know what, there's a needfor, let's research this company
this industry better.
And we started research.
And from then on actuallytalking with people.
(08:13):
Yeah.
Everybody had that similarexperience.
I'm like, how?
How is this, So this is almostlike the food.
Everybody gets to put some pointin life and they're like, Wow,
this is insane.
And then finally talking to theprofessionals, that's what
really sold it.
Oh, yeah.
Because they are exploited inthis industry to some degree.
Oh wow.
It's like the, It's a verydangerous job.
(08:34):
Lots of them like, One every sixdays.
Every six days dies on the jobbecause of oncoming traffic and
stuff on the freeway.
Ok.
It's very dangerous.
And to not be compensatedenough.
Yeah.
Not having the autonomy of yourown body and everything, and
you're not being able to takelike more than two weeks of
absence maybe.
(08:55):
Yeah.
Or even your vacation time isonly like two weeks.
Most of the.
Wow.
I was like learning thesestories and interacting with
them and talking with them.
It sold the whole picture and itwas like, Yeah, this is a must.
We need to do this.
So yeah, they decided to createroller.
Wow.
No my AAA experience was also inTexas.
(09:15):
What part?
Texas so it was West Texassomewhere between Lubbock and El
Paso.
I don't know exactly.
I'm actually a.
Railroad.
I'm a Texas, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was driving from Georgia toArizona.
It was in one go.
I was trying to get on a planefrom Phoenix home for Christmas,
(09:37):
and ran outta gas in the middleof the night.
Yep.
It happens.
But how did you wait?
It was hours.
Wow.
Which gave me a good chance tonap.
All things considered itprobably made my trip safer, but
not a good thing.
And so yeah, no, it's definitelya need and it's finally here,
(09:59):
know?
yeah.
C is the pilot and to then gonationwide and then
international.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Yeah, go ahead.
And what, you guys had thisexperience and you did this
research and then Mo, mostpeople stop there.
they have this, most people stopit's bad experience and say hey,
(10:20):
this sex, why did this happen?
You all went the next stepfurther and was like, Hey, how
common is this?
This is kinda weird.
And then you went even furtherand said we can fix this.
like what was the thoughtprocess there?
I think ourselves, just in lifewhere there's a challenge,
there's an opportunity and thenit just started from there.
(10:41):
Yeah.
We believe in taking one day ata time.
And this is exactly what we did.
So by ultimately what we did isa team sport.
Yeah.
Because as human beings, we areall born not perfect.
So the sum of imperfection makesit perfect.
So together we were able tobuild something that not only
(11:05):
helps people, but solves aproblem and generate many jobs.
During the beginning we wantedto we wanted to see, okay, what
are the things that we are ableand capable of doing right now?
start on the legal side throughname, registering everything.
And then on the design aspect ofit, there's something there.
We have an eye for it.
(11:25):
We're extremely detailed.
Me soso, and a lot of our teammembers, And then it started
from there was right in themiddle of the covid.
Everything was dead.
So we had a small office inHouston.
We relocated from Houston to LAtaking mine.
Now this is, nothing is open,okay?
(11:48):
This is the perfect city tolaunch this, and the market is
great.
It's the perfect fit.
And then California is the techof, of the United States.
I was like, Okay, let's do it.
So we made the trip here andstart taking one day at a time,
talking directly with thecustomers, gathering feedback.
Initially it was just thecustomer, talking to them and so
(12:10):
on, cuz we knew a little bit ofthe pain points because we
through it ourselves and then tonow getting on the specialist
side.
So with saying, we literally goand we have coffee with.
We interact with them directly.
Because the goal is to buildsomething that addresses the
customer and the specialistside, right?
(12:32):
So that they both happy.
And that's how you win.
So there are many answers thatthey have been trying to get
from the big players in theindustry, and we are here to
address them.
So we are placing.
Everything within our product.
Yeah.
And yeah yeah.
Yeah.
It's, that's basically what itwhat, how everything just played
out by just taking one day at atime and being patient being
(12:54):
comfortable with uncomfortable,like we're saying it would be
plenty of No, but the last thingyou wanna do is giving up,
right?
So the grit, like you mention,and just being, being self
motivated, being able to clap,self clap whenever there's a
small accomplishment and nowit's here so the world will be
(13:14):
able to use it and we'lldefinitely impact many lives in
a positive manner.
And that was the entire goalsince we started.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I a lot of people,Especially, the people that come
on here and talk or that, you orI hang out with, don't
necessarily recognize thesignificance of what you were
(13:35):
saying there about, Oh we justkept going.
yeah.
A thousand people told me noyesterday or there was a dozen
technical problems, but I justkept going.
It doesn't seem like a big deal.
And every single one of those ontheir own probably aren't.
But then, you celebrated everyone of these little wins.
You picked yourself up afterevery one of the little no's and
(13:57):
right now, six months, a year,two years later.
it's it's a big deal.
It turns out Thank you.
And it makes sense if youactually notice, like this is
why I mentioned the backgroundwith with sports and basketball.
Like we weren't when you startedsports.
It's very rarely, unless you arelike extremely gifted.
Yeah, genetically.
And maybe you have startedtraining since we're like four
(14:19):
years old, maybe Yeah.
Yeah.
But most of us, once we pickedup like at maybe around 11, 12
years old, you're not reallygood.
You're the worst player on theteam.
You suck.
You either going to let thatexperience hinder.
Or you're gonna let it build youup.
Yeah.
So that's where the grid comesfrom.
This is what I'm saying.
The background in basketball isvery important because I always
(14:41):
believe people need to go tostruggle, especially men
specifically.
Yeah.
We need to go to strugglebecause we need to be able to
overcome and solve problems.
This is our main agency.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's where it comes fromlosing in our home floor,
especially playing basketball,being trash.
And coming the next year on thebus, coming back from Sweden
(15:04):
back to Norway, they're like,Guys, we need to win the next
tournament in our own gym, inour own school.
We need to win it.
We cannot accept this anymore.
And that working together, likewhat you said, the team aspect,
working together figuring itout, Okay, you're better at
this.
I think you should do this nextseason.
We need to change the officemaybe this way.
(15:25):
And all of these.
It might seem like it onlyapplies to sport, but it applies
to business and life in general.
Yeah, and all the adversitiesthat we had to face, I felt in
school.
like in 11th grade, I got heldback twice.
Like it was devastating.
Literally when you went to cu Iwas about to come to the US but
I felt twice and all of myfriends already graduated there
(15:45):
living the college life andeverything, and I'm stuck there
back home knowing that this,that day I made a promise to
myself.
I was like, Every time I fail atsomething, I will never give up.
Especially if I know thatthere's a way to improve Little
by little.
Eventually you, every like athousand miles you can walk, but
it just takes one step by thetime.
(16:07):
Yep, that's true.
So taking one step and we gothere to the us graduated built
rotor, knows some top of nosefrom BC but you get this one.
The family and friends, you getyour angel invest.
Couple visits that believe inyou.
That's all you need.
You just need one.
Yes, that's true.
Then the rest is history.
(16:29):
Yep.
And all you had to do is keepwalking.
Yeah.
That's the only ways forward.
Especially imagine if your backis against the wall.
You can move, you can goanywhere.
already against the wall.
It's true.
All one way.
It's forward.
That's it.
Yep.
Keep going.
No.
No.
I think it's incredible inhearing these stories.
(16:50):
It's, every one of'em starts ina different place.
but they all end in the sameplace, which is no, we just kept
going.
just kept going.
And we figured it out.
And most of the innovation thatcame out of it was an accident.
We didn't set out to make all ofthese different things.
And I'm sure that's a similarstory with rotor where most of
the IP and the work you'vedeveloped, you did cuz you had
(17:13):
to not because you thought, Oh,we should make this like
Exactly.
it becomes organic because youstart having to be creative, I
think outside the box all thetime, especially when you don't
have the fines right away.
Yeah.
Every decision is crucial fromwho is going to do this.
How long do we have to finishthis aspect of the app and
everything.
Everything is like, who shouldwe bring on board?
(17:34):
it's just.
And you started it.
So as you two your brother whatwas that like, bringing more
people on?
What, how did that go?
I guess It just, it all startedI was part of the new chip
accelerator program.
Okay.
And a lot of relations to a newchip.
Having meetings, events, postalsand mentors.
(17:59):
LinkedIn For sure.
And just surrounding ourselvesfor like-minded individuals.
Yeah, and This is key.
This is key here, because if youdon't do that, you'll waste a
lot of time because it's imagineif you are listening to your
radio station 96.5 and you puton 96.4, for instance, and
(18:20):
there's a lot of noise in thebackground.
You can't even hear the music.
Yeah.
So we have to surround.
With like-minded individuals,they sync so that way you can
hear, the music clearly.
Yeah.
This is exactly what we did.
So we had guys that wereinitially on the team that it
just didn't fit the culture.
(18:40):
Sure.
And it wasn't just the right pitfor us.
And organically as we kept goingand learning more understanding
the business side start.
Operating and engaging with guysin the industry from advisors.
So we were able to get our cto,which gave us a huge boost.
(19:01):
We were able to bring in ourmarketing eye, which was one of
the latest pick up that we hadthat joined the team.
Yeah, it took us to a wholenother level as far as the
branding aspect and so on.
And yeah, all the components,they all play a vital.
In the company.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(19:22):
It starts with a strong team.
You have to have a strong teambecause if not, you are not
going to be able to not onlyjust launch and then scale,
Yeah.
It's very important.
Yeah.
No and as alluded to selectingthe team even, Selecting people
out can be as important as whoyou bring up.
It's like a marriage.
It's like a.
(19:43):
Yeah.
Which is, in one way a nice wayto start a business is with,
siblings, you're stuck with yoursiblings, Absolutely.
We compliment each other, so Iknow exactly.
And this started early on,throughout childhood, know's c
Yeah.
So I'm I'm selling the games.
He's getting a percentage aswell on everything that he's
selling.
And now here we are, we havethis product.
(20:04):
That is going to impact so manydifferent lives.
And by it all started somewhereright.
And understanding each other.
So we've been in sync.
He knows my weaknesses, I knowhis weaknesses and vice versa,
even our brother Lu Kenny.
Yeah.
He has his friends as well andthe vice versa.
It just goes like But yeah, no,that's one of the most important
(20:25):
lessons.
Yeah.
I always think that people.
Is one thing.
First of all, we don't knoweverything.
It doesn't matter what industry,how long you've been in the
industry.
Yeah.
you have to be, you have to haveintellectual humility.
Know that you dunno everything.
And most importantly, don't beafraid to admit that you're
wrong.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The matter of fact, the onlyreason why we're here is
(20:48):
because.
I humble enough to admit that wefailed here and here, and we
need to take accountability forthat and correct it.
And if we can't fix itourselves, we need to bring
somebody that can fix on theteam.
Yeah, that's literally whatchanged.
What I think this is one of ourbiggest advantages.
We have self aware enough tounderstand, like he said, our
(21:08):
weaknesses, the rest of our teammembers weaknesses, and we
surround with people ourselves,with people like that.
Everybody on the team is exactlythat.
It doesn't matter how great theyare, what they do, they all have
the same mentality.
So we always complement eachother and we always bring more
people to round out the team tomake sure that we have a full
vision of what we're doing, notjust a myopic vision.
(21:30):
So that is the number one thingto me, admitting that you're
wrong because you'll make a lotof mistakes in correcting if you
can, or bringing somebody thatcan.
Yeah, no I still remember you.
Realizing that it was moreimportant to show, when I'm
(21:51):
interviewing for a job or whenI'm talking to an investor to
show what I failed at.
and why I'm not that personanymore.
like that went againsteverything I was taught as a
your learn.
Maybe I was not taught, learnedas a kid where it's no, you show
'em what you're good at, alwaysshow'em the best parts.
(22:12):
But.
No, you're exactly right.
Show up to an investor, show upto a job interview and tell'em,
Look, here's all the ways Imessed up and here's all the
things I learned from'em.
I'm not gonna make thosemistakes again.
I'm gonna make some other onesguaranteed.
But, I'm pretty good at learningfrom the times I mess up
Exactly.
Yeah.
And you mentioned, you guys.
(22:34):
Willing to admit when you don'tknow something.
And I think, we see this in alot of different industries that
people who have been in therefor a long time just assume they
know how it's supposed to work.
Everything works this way.
This is how it always will work.
And it's people who come in fromthe outside who are like, Why?
I don't understand why it worksthis way.
(22:56):
Why do you have to, do X, Y, andZ that are able to actually see
change?
And I'm willing to bet that's abig reason why you guys have the
traction you do.
Yeah.
Very true.
Organically as humans, we wereall born seekers.
We want answers and so on, andit kills me when, for instance,
(23:16):
one of the issues with a lot ofentrepreneurs is not being able
to do that as for help.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They can figure out everythingthemselves.
Yep.
Which is completely wrong.
You were spend countless hourstrying to learn.
Yeah.
You can learn those skills,which is great, but let's say
for instance, marketing, right?
Let's say there's someone that'sbeen doing this for 20 plus.
(23:40):
It's so much better.
Instead of hiring outsourcingthe marketing and bringing
someone in that you can learnfrom practically on a day to day
basis.
Start from point A to point Band learn every step of the way.
You learn so much.
I learn, I'm learning so muchtowards marketing now.
I'm learning so much applyingwith the service providers.
(24:03):
Yeah.
By talking directly with.
Why?
Because I cannot find all theanswers from Google.
Yeah.
Industry's completely different.
It's not yeah.
Systematics, you'll be able toget a lot of data and so on.
No, you'll buy all.
We bought so many differentreports, but there's just
crucial and missing points thatonly the guy that is there on a
(24:25):
day to day basis on a job cangive you those answers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What we're.
And that's what social we'rejust touching on as well, being
able to know that we just don'tknow it all.
And it, and then from there, youare able to pretty much achieve
anything.
Yeah.
No, I think that's, that's wellsaid, It's Weird, once you
(24:46):
realize that and are able toactually start living it.
And being comfortable in thatis, is a huge differentiator.
Especially in startups, we'rewe've talked around a little bit
of, rotor and how the storybehind it, and so people can
probably guess, but what exactlyis rotor?
(25:08):
Yeah, so basically rotor,quoting New York Weekly here is
the Uber for assistant Uber ofroadside assistant.
So basically the approach camefrom the mindset.
On the customer side, right?
On the drivers, Yeah.
We usually get stranded and wenever know when that's gonna
happen, right?
(25:28):
So when that happens, you needsomebody who can come with
certified, who can come to helpyou, but at the same time, you
have the control in your hands,not the opposite way.
You have to ask for help, andthen your insurance providers or
whoever.
It's going to control thelogistics and you just stay at
the mercy waiting to see what'sgonna happen.
Yep.
Yep.
(25:48):
Putting the power back in yourhead, which we call like safety
in your hands, you'll be able todecide all of those factors for
before you accept the service,right?
Yeah.
Over the service.
And the same goes for the otherside.
So the spec, this is where itbecomes the Uber so the
specialist can use his skillset.
Yeah.
Like I said, this is adangerous.
(26:09):
Oh yeah.
You put your life on the lineevery time you are on the
freeway with the traffic at 70miles per hour plus.
So you really have to be carefulwith if you're not in like
position where people can seeyou and stuff like that.
So they wanted the autonomyback.
This is the one thing thatindustry has failed to realize
They're trying to keep themconstrained in like their
(26:31):
employees and contractors.
Like we have to work on aschedule and have a big salary
and stuff like, When they areseeing all other industries
being disrupted.
We have Uber now taxi drivers,and everybody can now monetize
that gig.
Economies in full effect.
And everybody from influencers,everybody wants their own
platform, wants to do thingstheir way to some degree.
(26:53):
Yeah.
So it's a natural fit.
So we bring both needs andthat's what we are providing.
So basically we are providing,like for this, Five services
with charging, doing the nextone coming soon, which is
towing.
Tire change, do lock gas perfuel and also jam.
(27:14):
Those are the services that theservice providers will be
providing, and it gives thecustomer the, and this is also a
key differentiator.
Not only do you have this on themen's side and on the emergency
side.
Yeah.
But you can also schedule this.
Oh, so if you have a flat tirethat you know, or maybe you went
out of town and you're comingback and you need somebody to
jump your battery.
(27:35):
Yeah.
You can schedule that ahead oftime and have somebody two days.
The moment you travel from, Idon't know from Vegas back to LA
Yeah.
To help you with that so you canschedule those services too.
So it gives them more of a.
More volume.
Yeah.
Also work with, because justworking on the man's side,
you're not gonna have as manyrequests every day.
(27:56):
It's not consistent.
You can really business thatway.
So now we're bringing, we'reunlocking the other demands that
was not tapped, and we're tryingto bring all this other services
to compliment that.
Okay.
Okay.
And I'm, all the times I've usedroadside assistance.
it's always been my insuranceprovider has paid for it.
(28:17):
So are you all then coordinatingwith insurance companies to try
to be a provider for them?
Yeah.
That's a great, that's a greatquestion.
The goal is initially as we goto the market now on the B2C
side, it will be just like Sosowas saying like Uber.
So you can, yeah, you wanna goas you need service, but also
(28:38):
we'll offer a yearly me.
You can pay$9 a month or ahundred dollars a year, and you
get up to two servicesinitially.
And then our goal is to increasethose as well.
Yeah.
Gain much more traction and beable to provide perks and so on
to our community and users.
But here's the catch from theB2B side.
(28:59):
Our technology can be also usedby service providers, like in
just insurance company.
Who's your insurance?
S A S A A.
So let's just say for S A andRotor, we have a partnership.
They can easily wide labeltechnology.
Yep.
And licensing fee.
So whenever now you go on arotor app, all you have to do is
(29:21):
type in your policy number.
And s A gets notified wheneverany services requested by you
and they take care of all thebilling for you so you don't
have to pay anything out ofpocket and so on.
Think of rotor day operatingalmost like PayPal for
e-commerce.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You go to multiple stores, youshop online, but then when it's
time to pay, you check outPayPal.
(29:41):
So we operate that way on theb2b.
Okay.
No that's cool.
Yeah, Yeah.
And you guys said you'relaunching in Los Angeles or have
launched?
Here it's available.
And you should download, by theway.
Yeah.
Even though you're not here inLos Angeles, but you can
download and the goal is we arelooking to analytics and base on
(30:05):
demand.
So we'll start targeting othermajor cities in.
So let's say if you're inChicago, for instance, and we
see a huge demand in Chicago,we're like, Oh, it's looking
pretty good here.
Let's deploy and make itavailable in Chicago.
No that's good to know.
So our listeners, whereverthey're at, download the app on
(30:25):
Apple Store and Google Android.
And then based on where wherewe're downloading or where we're
creating accounts, no, you candownload it.
You just won't have serviceproviders at that particular
location.
So in la but by gathering andjust getting the demand that we
(30:47):
need.
So we'll be able to see peek andpoint, Okay, this is a right
fit.
Think we should make the move tothe city.
And then, this is for you.
This is giving the power back tothe community.
it's the app built for thecommunity and power by the
community.
So that's what we need.
No, Yeah.
No, and I love the idea that, ifyou want to have this in your
town find 500 a year yourclosest Facebook friends and
(31:08):
tell'em all to download.
Is there, to that, and maybethere's not.
By the way, App is free.
Okay, that's good.
What, is there a threshold forwin?
How many people in a city beforeyou it's worth it to move in
there.
I think our threshold is around2000.
(31:29):
Okay.
Okay.
I think I can find 2000 peoplearound DC Yeah, let's do We'll
bring it to dc It's actually agreat it's a good market as
well.
Yeah.
Especially because everybodydrives so crazy and so there's a
constant need.
Or some sort of service Yeah.
This is great.
This is great.
(31:49):
I love it.
Love it.
Yeah.
No, and I think the mostexciting part is, connecting
this these kids who playbasketball and.
Just didn't wanna be stuck in abad neighborhood.
Waiting for somebody to fixtheir car with.
Right Now, solving that problemfor other people.
(32:10):
You didn't go to school forroadside assistance.
You didn't, you don't havedegrees in automotive.
Technology.
I don't think I, I only checkedyou two's degrees.
I didn't check your brothers Butlike you saw a problem you're
solving it.
And I think that's an excitingexciting story.
Thank you.
It means a lot.
It means a lot to.
(32:33):
Finally the lights at end.
The Exactly.
And that's the thing.
So yeah you raised a precede.
You've got a solid team.
You're launch, you're launchedin la what's the next six, 12
months look like?
Yeah.
Other than DC because I gottaget 2000 people, so you pencil
that in.
But one of the cities where it'sjust the worst too, between
(32:56):
hassles and the nation.
Of course we are already inCalifornia, so we'll take it
also to San Francisco, but weare launching in Houston, in
Dallas as well.
Okay.
The worst cities too, between USNation.
And then the goal from there iscontinuing to grow.
In the next six months we opento, to work with, other players
(33:17):
in the industry as well, like wewere mentioning.
We can providers.
Yeah.
They can, we can work togetherand improve the industry.
And yeah, it just, taking oneday at a time and and being
present even in this, and youhave to be present.
That's true.
Because the past, it's areference in the future simply.
Yep.
Expectations and many more.
(33:38):
Yep.
So our goal is to be present andfocus on the things that we have
right in front of us andimproving them.
Yep.
And taking one day at a time.
And I think eventually when youdo that, that's the key to
ultimately happiness and.
Are you able to achieveanything?
It's true.
It's true.
Yeah.
No, and I I know we're gettingclose on time here and is there
(34:01):
anything we missed out?
Cause otherwise that was a greatplace to end.
The, actually that's everything.
Just like you was justmentioning, just download the
app and go.
And Apple store.
This is for you.
It's for the people and it'sfollowing whatever you need,
(34:24):
wherever you go, whenever youneed any type of services,
right?
Your pocket and you don't haveto wait for countless hours is
here for you.
Let's improve and change thisindustry together.
Applying also to the users andthe service providers.
Everyone that is listening rightnow, this is for you.
Rotor is here and let's.
(34:44):
Ready to roll.
Cool.
And we'll in we'll include thelinks.
They'll be in the descriptionhere.
So you guys can click on'em,download the app, check out
their website.
And also the Instagram page.
And the Instagram we post Daily,Pretty much twice a day.
Yeah.
And you get the insights onwhat's coming.
Like we're gonna have a bigannouncement today actually,
(35:07):
Okay.
You should name and the next andtomorrow too.
Those two, There's two bigannouncements coming.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Yeah, we'll include a link thereas well.
Alrighty.
It was a pleasure.
It was a pleasure.
It was a pleasure too.
Thank you both for being here.
Take care.
You as well.
You as well.
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Podcast
for the Future.
I'm your host, Tim Chrisman, theexecutive Director of the
Foundation for the Future.
I'm joined today by two of thefounders of a startup called
ROADR the brothers Otiniel CelsoRibeiro.
(00:35):
They come originally from Angolacome to the US by way of Norway.
Otiniel is the founder and CEOof ROADR with 10 years of
experience in technologycompanies.
He is.
Constantly looking for new waysto innovate and has a particular
(00:56):
bent towards trying to improvecomputer hardware.
As early as 14, he started hissales career.
According to him, he would sellanything his hands could he
could get his hands on.
So it'll it'll be exciting tohear more about that.
Celso is the chief InnovationOfficer.
(01:17):
Where he leads the developmentof new capabilities and
architectures for ROADR.
He has over 10 years experienceas a graphic designer doing
design and technologydevelopment and holds a bachelor
of science in mathematics fromTexas Tech University.
It's it's exciting to have youboth here and yeah, let's chat.
Celso Ribeiro (01:41):
Hello, Tim.
Hello, and if I remember right,it's gonna be you and your
brother, right?
Okay.
Very good.
Hi everyone.
Hello.
Yeah, no, great having you here.
The whole idea is just trying toget a sense of, what got you
here and making the case thatpeople doing things that are.
(02:04):
Important and a big deal.
Don't always follow a linearpath.
Yes.
Yeah, of course.
No, cause the, Our listenerswant to hear is that they have a
shot at doing something.
Exactly.
They're sitting in an office,have been doing that for 30
years, or they got an arthistory degree and don't know
what they're gonna do with it.
And they have a shot to dosomething given some
(02:26):
determination, some grit andaudacity.
Yep.
Yeah.
So yeah, let's Yeah, no.
Tell me about your backgrounds.
I'm assuming you all have workedout who gets to talk first by
some sibling hand signal that Ihaven't been able to pick up on
Yeah.
I can get a head start.
Background.
So we were originally born inAngola, Central Africa.
(02:49):
Then so transition to Portugalwhere I attended elementary
school.
So we're pretty much back andforth between Angola and
Portugal, cuz Angola were aPortuguese colony in the past.
Okay.
And then, so we're, our entirelife we were in a Portuguese
education system.
And then funny enough, we end upin Norway where we didn't know
(03:13):
any English nor in region.
I was in the middle of highschool.
Yeah.
And Celso in, in the middleschool.
And we always had the passiontowards technology because our
parents, my mother, she's achemical engineer.
My father is a politician andalso an engineer with minors in
computer science.
(03:33):
So we got in trouble a couple oftimes.
He had this old IBM computers athome, so we would take parts and
he would've come home and thecomputer's not working and he
has to get his work done.
And it just started fastforward, he in depth, like
giving us one of the oldcomputers that was just sitting
in there.
(03:53):
And just out of curiosity, allwe wanted to do was play games
and Yeah.
And you just have fun.
And I will never forget it wasthe FIFA.
It came out and our GPU couldrun it.
It wasn't strong enough.
Oh, no.
So we asked him, so we asked himfor, for funds to buy it, and he
told us no.
(04:14):
And so we ended up gettingcopies of that game and we
started selling in, in, I was inmiddle school and Celso wasn't
in elementary.
So we're starting to spread,which is illegal by the way,
that were all prior copies.
But that's basically whereeverything started, so yeah,
I'll let Celso continue a littlebit on, on that background side
(04:36):
but yeah, that's pretty muchwhere our entrepreneur journey
started for the most.
Hey, you gotta do what you gottado.
If your computer doesn't workfor the game you want as a kid,
I, I've a hundred percent backedyour play on this man I can
there was so many times whengrowing up I had one thing or
another where I wanted to playman and conquer.
(04:58):
I think it.
And computer wouldn't handle it.
That for a five year old, that'sa significant emotional event.
Yeah.
If you gotta turn to a life ofcrime, you gotta do that.
Sometimes.
I get it.
You gotta and the lesson there,being able to be okay with
uncomfortable, be exactly.
Gotta be able to move in theroom full of nos, like Kanye
(05:19):
sex, and that's what got ushere.
It was many nos to get here.
Yep.
Here we are.
Yeah.
But yeah, also, yeah.
Cause this journey, it reallystarted that way and it only
kept growing and growing.
So after that, when we went to,Nor.
We are both like very active, sowe were athletes as well.
(05:40):
So we ended up taking onbasketball and I was one of the
star athletes on the team, notto do my own horn, but we
started developing, like beingaround that culture.
I think the sports culture beingaround having your teammate,
that camaraderie with yourcoach.
Yeah, it just opens up your eyesa lot.
(06:00):
Yeah, it really does.
With teammates and with otherpeople too, to, for a common go,
and this is way, I think oursocial skills took another leap,
so being able to get people tobuy into the vision of what you
guys are trying to do.
In that case, was winning achampionship for the first time,
for the school, specific school,but that mentality.
(06:21):
Carried us to, brought us to theus.
Actually, the reason why we cameto the US Oh was specifically
me, it was mostly for, cause Iwanted to be in the nba.
That was my goal.
There was nothing else.
It was either that I was gonnabe an entrepreneur.
I even remember saying that.
Yeah in 11th grade, Andeverybody looked at me like back
home in Angola.
They're like, What you goingwear here in Africa?
(06:45):
Hell, I don't see that happenanytime soon.
So yeah, but that was always myvision.
And ot, same thing.
And my younger brother too, he'salso one of the cofounders lu
Kenny.
So the household, just imaginethree, almost very competi.
Yeah, my mom used to pokecompetition somewhere or
(07:07):
another, and then when we camehere to the us, that's where we
got into crypto.
Thousand 14, 15, we startedreally building mining rigs and
selling to business.
Like on the B2B side?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We wanted to start their ownmining farms and stuff, and
that's where it all happened in.
So the car breaks down in one ofthe a very dangerous
(07:29):
neighborhood there, and we hadto wait for two, three hours.
Wow.
Fil-A And that experience leavesa better test in your mouth.
Cause not only is it expensiveyou have to pay, but the time
commit.
How stressful you are in thissituation.
And then you can't leave becauseyou wanna make sure that the
person who is coming to help youand everything is somebody that
(07:51):
is trustworthy.
So you have all of those thingsgoing on.
Yeah, And what spark it.
Cause we were always like sales,right?
Selling stuff, selling, sellingcd, selling games, selling
mining rigs.
You know what, there's a needfor, let's research this company
this industry better.
And we started research.
And from then on actuallytalking with people.
(08:13):
Yeah.
Everybody had that similarexperience.
I'm like, how?
How is this, So this is almostlike the food.
Everybody gets to put some pointin life and they're like, Wow,
this is insane.
And then finally talking to theprofessionals, that's what
really sold it.
Oh, yeah.
Because they are exploited inthis industry to some degree.
Oh wow.
It's like the, It's a verydangerous job.
(08:34):
Lots of them like, One every sixdays.
Every six days dies on the jobbecause of oncoming traffic and
stuff on the freeway.
Ok.
It's very dangerous.
And to not be compensatedenough.
Yeah.
Not having the autonomy of yourown body and everything, and
you're not being able to takelike more than two weeks of
absence maybe.
(08:55):
Yeah.
Or even your vacation time isonly like two weeks.
Most of the.
Wow.
I was like learning thesestories and interacting with
them and talking with them.
It sold the whole picture and itwas like, Yeah, this is a must.
We need to do this.
So yeah, they decided to createroller.
Wow.
No my AAA experience was also inTexas.
(09:15):
What part?
Texas so it was West Texassomewhere between Lubbock and El
Paso.
I don't know exactly.
I'm actually a.
Railroad.
I'm a Texas, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was driving from Georgia toArizona.
It was in one go.
I was trying to get on a planefrom Phoenix home for Christmas,
(09:37):
and ran outta gas in the middleof the night.
Yep.
It happens.
But how did you wait?
It was hours.
Wow.
Which gave me a good chance tonap.
All things considered itprobably made my trip safer, but
not a good thing.
And so yeah, no, it's definitelya need and it's finally here,
(09:59):
know?
yeah.
C is the pilot and to then gonationwide and then
international.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Yeah, go ahead.
And what, you guys had thisexperience and you did this
research and then Mo, mostpeople stop there.
they have this, most people stopit's bad experience and say hey,
(10:20):
this sex, why did this happen?
You all went the next stepfurther and was like, Hey, how
common is this?
This is kinda weird.
And then you went even furtherand said we can fix this.
like what was the thoughtprocess there?
I think ourselves, just in lifewhere there's a challenge,
there's an opportunity and thenit just started from there.
(10:41):
Yeah.
We believe in taking one day ata time.
And this is exactly what we did.
So by ultimately what we did isa team sport.
Yeah.
Because as human beings, we areall born not perfect.
So the sum of imperfection makesit perfect.
So together we were able tobuild something that not only
(11:05):
helps people, but solves aproblem and generate many jobs.
During the beginning we wantedto we wanted to see, okay, what
are the things that we are ableand capable of doing right now?
start on the legal side throughname, registering everything.
And then on the design aspect ofit, there's something there.
We have an eye for it.
(11:25):
We're extremely detailed.
Me soso, and a lot of our teammembers, And then it started
from there was right in themiddle of the covid.
Everything was dead.
So we had a small office inHouston.
We relocated from Houston to LAtaking mine.
Now this is, nothing is open,okay?
(11:48):
This is the perfect city tolaunch this, and the market is
great.
It's the perfect fit.
And then California is the techof, of the United States.
I was like, Okay, let's do it.
So we made the trip here andstart taking one day at a time,
talking directly with thecustomers, gathering feedback.
Initially it was just thecustomer, talking to them and so
(12:10):
on, cuz we knew a little bit ofthe pain points because we
through it ourselves and then tonow getting on the specialist
side.
So with saying, we literally goand we have coffee with.
We interact with them directly.
Because the goal is to buildsomething that addresses the
customer and the specialistside, right?
(12:32):
So that they both happy.
And that's how you win.
So there are many answers thatthey have been trying to get
from the big players in theindustry, and we are here to
address them.
So we are placing.
Everything within our product.
Yeah.
And yeah yeah.
Yeah.
It's, that's basically what itwhat, how everything just played
out by just taking one day at atime and being patient being
(12:54):
comfortable with uncomfortable,like we're saying it would be
plenty of No, but the last thingyou wanna do is giving up,
right?
So the grit, like you mention,and just being, being self
motivated, being able to clap,self clap whenever there's a
small accomplishment and nowit's here so the world will be
(13:14):
able to use it and we'lldefinitely impact many lives in
a positive manner.
And that was the entire goalsince we started.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I a lot of people,Especially, the people that come
on here and talk or that, you orI hang out with, don't
necessarily recognize thesignificance of what you were
(13:35):
saying there about, Oh we justkept going.
yeah.
A thousand people told me noyesterday or there was a dozen
technical problems, but I justkept going.
It doesn't seem like a big deal.
And every single one of those ontheir own probably aren't.
But then, you celebrated everyone of these little wins.
You picked yourself up afterevery one of the little no's and
(13:57):
right now, six months, a year,two years later.
it's it's a big deal.
It turns out Thank you.
And it makes sense if youactually notice, like this is
why I mentioned the backgroundwith with sports and basketball.
Like we weren't when you startedsports.
It's very rarely, unless you arelike extremely gifted.
Yeah, genetically.
And maybe you have startedtraining since we're like four
(14:19):
years old, maybe Yeah.
Yeah.
But most of us, once we pickedup like at maybe around 11, 12
years old, you're not reallygood.
You're the worst player on theteam.
You suck.
You either going to let thatexperience hinder.
Or you're gonna let it build youup.
Yeah.
So that's where the grid comesfrom.
This is what I'm saying.
The background in basketball isvery important because I always
(14:41):
believe people need to go tostruggle, especially men
specifically.
Yeah.
We need to go to strugglebecause we need to be able to
overcome and solve problems.
This is our main agency.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's where it comes fromlosing in our home floor,
especially playing basketball,being trash.
And coming the next year on thebus, coming back from Sweden
(15:04):
back to Norway, they're like,Guys, we need to win the next
tournament in our own gym, inour own school.
We need to win it.
We cannot accept this anymore.
And that working together, likewhat you said, the team aspect,
working together figuring itout, Okay, you're better at
this.
I think you should do this nextseason.
We need to change the officemaybe this way.
(15:25):
And all of these.
It might seem like it onlyapplies to sport, but it applies
to business and life in general.
Yeah, and all the adversitiesthat we had to face, I felt in
school.
like in 11th grade, I got heldback twice.
Like it was devastating.
Literally when you went to cu Iwas about to come to the US but
I felt twice and all of myfriends already graduated there
(15:45):
living the college life andeverything, and I'm stuck there
back home knowing that this,that day I made a promise to
myself.
I was like, Every time I fail atsomething, I will never give up.
Especially if I know thatthere's a way to improve Little
by little.
Eventually you, every like athousand miles you can walk, but
it just takes one step by thetime.
(16:07):
Yep, that's true.
So taking one step and we gothere to the us graduated built
rotor, knows some top of nosefrom BC but you get this one.
The family and friends, you getyour angel invest.
Couple visits that believe inyou.
That's all you need.
You just need one.
Yes, that's true.
Then the rest is history.
(16:29):
Yep.
And all you had to do is keepwalking.
Yeah.
That's the only ways forward.
Especially imagine if your backis against the wall.
You can move, you can goanywhere.
already against the wall.
It's true.
All one way.
It's forward.
That's it.
Yep.
Keep going.
No.
No.
I think it's incredible inhearing these stories.
(16:50):
It's, every one of'em starts ina different place.
but they all end in the sameplace, which is no, we just kept
going.
just kept going.
And we figured it out.
And most of the innovation thatcame out of it was an accident.
We didn't set out to make all ofthese different things.
And I'm sure that's a similarstory with rotor where most of
the IP and the work you'vedeveloped, you did cuz you had
(17:13):
to not because you thought, Oh,we should make this like
Exactly.
it becomes organic because youstart having to be creative, I
think outside the box all thetime, especially when you don't
have the fines right away.
Yeah.
Every decision is crucial fromwho is going to do this.
How long do we have to finishthis aspect of the app and
everything.
Everything is like, who shouldwe bring on board?
(17:34):
it's just.
And you started it.
So as you two your brother whatwas that like, bringing more
people on?
What, how did that go?
I guess It just, it all startedI was part of the new chip
accelerator program.
Okay.
And a lot of relations to a newchip.
Having meetings, events, postalsand mentors.
(17:59):
LinkedIn For sure.
And just surrounding ourselvesfor like-minded individuals.
Yeah, and This is key.
This is key here, because if youdon't do that, you'll waste a
lot of time because it's imagineif you are listening to your
radio station 96.5 and you puton 96.4, for instance, and
(18:20):
there's a lot of noise in thebackground.
You can't even hear the music.
Yeah.
So we have to surround.
With like-minded individuals,they sync so that way you can
hear, the music clearly.
Yeah.
This is exactly what we did.
So we had guys that wereinitially on the team that it
just didn't fit the culture.
(18:40):
Sure.
And it wasn't just the right pitfor us.
And organically as we kept goingand learning more understanding
the business side start.
Operating and engaging with guysin the industry from advisors.
So we were able to get our cto,which gave us a huge boost.
(19:01):
We were able to bring in ourmarketing eye, which was one of
the latest pick up that we hadthat joined the team.
Yeah, it took us to a wholenother level as far as the
branding aspect and so on.
And yeah, all the components,they all play a vital.
In the company.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(19:22):
It starts with a strong team.
You have to have a strong teambecause if not, you are not
going to be able to not onlyjust launch and then scale,
Yeah.
It's very important.
Yeah.
No and as alluded to selectingthe team even, Selecting people
out can be as important as whoyou bring up.
It's like a marriage.
It's like a.
(19:43):
Yeah.
Which is, in one way a nice wayto start a business is with,
siblings, you're stuck with yoursiblings, Absolutely.
We compliment each other, so Iknow exactly.
And this started early on,throughout childhood, know's c
Yeah.
So I'm I'm selling the games.
He's getting a percentage aswell on everything that he's
selling.
And now here we are, we havethis product.
(20:04):
That is going to impact so manydifferent lives.
And by it all started somewhereright.
And understanding each other.
So we've been in sync.
He knows my weaknesses, I knowhis weaknesses and vice versa,
even our brother Lu Kenny.
Yeah.
He has his friends as well andthe vice versa.
It just goes like But yeah, no,that's one of the most important
(20:25):
lessons.
Yeah.
I always think that people.
Is one thing.
First of all, we don't knoweverything.
It doesn't matter what industry,how long you've been in the
industry.
Yeah.
you have to be, you have to haveintellectual humility.
Know that you dunno everything.
And most importantly, don't beafraid to admit that you're
wrong.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The matter of fact, the onlyreason why we're here is
(20:48):
because.
I humble enough to admit that wefailed here and here, and we
need to take accountability forthat and correct it.
And if we can't fix itourselves, we need to bring
somebody that can fix on theteam.
Yeah, that's literally whatchanged.
What I think this is one of ourbiggest advantages.
We have self aware enough tounderstand, like he said, our
(21:08):
weaknesses, the rest of our teammembers weaknesses, and we
surround with people ourselves,with people like that.
Everybody on the team is exactlythat.
It doesn't matter how great theyare, what they do, they all have
the same mentality.
So we always complement eachother and we always bring more
people to round out the team tomake sure that we have a full
vision of what we're doing, notjust a myopic vision.
(21:30):
So that is the number one thingto me, admitting that you're
wrong because you'll make a lotof mistakes in correcting if you
can, or bringing somebody thatcan.
Yeah, no I still remember you.
Realizing that it was moreimportant to show, when I'm
(21:51):
interviewing for a job or whenI'm talking to an investor to
show what I failed at.
and why I'm not that personanymore.
like that went againsteverything I was taught as a
your learn.
Maybe I was not taught, learnedas a kid where it's no, you show
'em what you're good at, alwaysshow'em the best parts.
(22:12):
But.
No, you're exactly right.
Show up to an investor, show upto a job interview and tell'em,
Look, here's all the ways Imessed up and here's all the
things I learned from'em.
I'm not gonna make thosemistakes again.
I'm gonna make some other onesguaranteed.
But, I'm pretty good at learningfrom the times I mess up
Exactly.
Yeah.
And you mentioned, you guys.
(22:34):
Willing to admit when you don'tknow something.
And I think, we see this in alot of different industries that
people who have been in therefor a long time just assume they
know how it's supposed to work.
Everything works this way.
This is how it always will work.
And it's people who come in fromthe outside who are like, Why?
I don't understand why it worksthis way.
(22:56):
Why do you have to, do X, Y, andZ that are able to actually see
change?
And I'm willing to bet that's abig reason why you guys have the
traction you do.
Yeah.
Very true.
Organically as humans, we wereall born seekers.
We want answers and so on, andit kills me when, for instance,
(23:16):
one of the issues with a lot ofentrepreneurs is not being able
to do that as for help.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They can figure out everythingthemselves.
Yep.
Which is completely wrong.
You were spend countless hourstrying to learn.
Yeah.
You can learn those skills,which is great, but let's say
for instance, marketing, right?
Let's say there's someone that'sbeen doing this for 20 plus.
(23:40):
It's so much better.
Instead of hiring outsourcingthe marketing and bringing
someone in that you can learnfrom practically on a day to day
basis.
Start from point A to point Band learn every step of the way.
You learn so much.
I learn, I'm learning so muchtowards marketing now.
I'm learning so much applyingwith the service providers.
(24:03):
Yeah.
By talking directly with.
Why?
Because I cannot find all theanswers from Google.
Yeah.
Industry's completely different.
It's not yeah.
Systematics, you'll be able toget a lot of data and so on.
No, you'll buy all.
We bought so many differentreports, but there's just
crucial and missing points thatonly the guy that is there on a
(24:25):
day to day basis on a job cangive you those answers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What we're.
And that's what social we'rejust touching on as well, being
able to know that we just don'tknow it all.
And it, and then from there, youare able to pretty much achieve
anything.
Yeah.
No, I think that's, that's wellsaid, It's Weird, once you
(24:46):
realize that and are able toactually start living it.
And being comfortable in thatis, is a huge differentiator.
Especially in startups, we'rewe've talked around a little bit
of, rotor and how the storybehind it, and so people can
probably guess, but what exactlyis rotor?
(25:08):
Yeah, so basically rotor,quoting New York Weekly here is
the Uber for assistant Uber ofroadside assistant.
So basically the approach camefrom the mindset.
On the customer side, right?
On the drivers, Yeah.
We usually get stranded and wenever know when that's gonna
happen, right?
(25:28):
So when that happens, you needsomebody who can come with
certified, who can come to helpyou, but at the same time, you
have the control in your hands,not the opposite way.
You have to ask for help, andthen your insurance providers or
whoever.
It's going to control thelogistics and you just stay at
the mercy waiting to see what'sgonna happen.
Yep.
Yep.
(25:48):
Putting the power back in yourhead, which we call like safety
in your hands, you'll be able todecide all of those factors for
before you accept the service,right?
Yeah.
Over the service.
And the same goes for the otherside.
So the spec, this is where itbecomes the Uber so the
specialist can use his skillset.
Yeah.
Like I said, this is adangerous.
(26:09):
Oh yeah.
You put your life on the lineevery time you are on the
freeway with the traffic at 70miles per hour plus.
So you really have to be carefulwith if you're not in like
position where people can seeyou and stuff like that.
So they wanted the autonomyback.
This is the one thing thatindustry has failed to realize
They're trying to keep themconstrained in like their
(26:31):
employees and contractors.
Like we have to work on aschedule and have a big salary
and stuff like, When they areseeing all other industries
being disrupted.
We have Uber now taxi drivers,and everybody can now monetize
that gig.
Economies in full effect.
And everybody from influencers,everybody wants their own
platform, wants to do thingstheir way to some degree.
(26:53):
Yeah.
So it's a natural fit.
So we bring both needs andthat's what we are providing.
So basically we are providing,like for this, Five services
with charging, doing the nextone coming soon, which is
towing.
Tire change, do lock gas perfuel and also jam.
(27:14):
Those are the services that theservice providers will be
providing, and it gives thecustomer the, and this is also a
key differentiator.
Not only do you have this on themen's side and on the emergency
side.
Yeah.
But you can also schedule this.
Oh, so if you have a flat tirethat you know, or maybe you went
out of town and you're comingback and you need somebody to
jump your battery.
(27:35):
Yeah.
You can schedule that ahead oftime and have somebody two days.
The moment you travel from, Idon't know from Vegas back to LA
Yeah.
To help you with that so you canschedule those services too.
So it gives them more of a.
More volume.
Yeah.
Also work with, because justworking on the man's side,
you're not gonna have as manyrequests every day.
(27:56):
It's not consistent.
You can really business thatway.
So now we're bringing, we'reunlocking the other demands that
was not tapped, and we're tryingto bring all this other services
to compliment that.
Okay.
Okay.
And I'm, all the times I've usedroadside assistance.
it's always been my insuranceprovider has paid for it.
(28:17):
So are you all then coordinatingwith insurance companies to try
to be a provider for them?
Yeah.
That's a great, that's a greatquestion.
The goal is initially as we goto the market now on the B2C
side, it will be just like Sosowas saying like Uber.
So you can, yeah, you wanna goas you need service, but also
(28:38):
we'll offer a yearly me.
You can pay$9 a month or ahundred dollars a year, and you
get up to two servicesinitially.
And then our goal is to increasethose as well.
Yeah.
Gain much more traction and beable to provide perks and so on
to our community and users.
But here's the catch from theB2B side.
(28:59):
Our technology can be also usedby service providers, like in
just insurance company.
Who's your insurance?
S A S A A.
So let's just say for S A andRotor, we have a partnership.
They can easily wide labeltechnology.
Yep.
And licensing fee.
So whenever now you go on arotor app, all you have to do is
(29:21):
type in your policy number.
And s A gets notified wheneverany services requested by you
and they take care of all thebilling for you so you don't
have to pay anything out ofpocket and so on.
Think of rotor day operatingalmost like PayPal for
e-commerce.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You go to multiple stores, youshop online, but then when it's
time to pay, you check outPayPal.
(29:41):
So we operate that way on theb2b.
Okay.
No that's cool.
Yeah, Yeah.
And you guys said you'relaunching in Los Angeles or have
launched?
Here it's available.
And you should download, by theway.
Yeah.
Even though you're not here inLos Angeles, but you can
download and the goal is we arelooking to analytics and base on
(30:05):
demand.
So we'll start targeting othermajor cities in.
So let's say if you're inChicago, for instance, and we
see a huge demand in Chicago,we're like, Oh, it's looking
pretty good here.
Let's deploy and make itavailable in Chicago.
No that's good to know.
So our listeners, whereverthey're at, download the app on
(30:25):
Apple Store and Google Android.
And then based on where wherewe're downloading or where we're
creating accounts, no, you candownload it.
You just won't have serviceproviders at that particular
location.
So in la but by gathering andjust getting the demand that we
(30:47):
need.
So we'll be able to see peek andpoint, Okay, this is a right
fit.
Think we should make the move tothe city.
And then, this is for you.
This is giving the power back tothe community.
it's the app built for thecommunity and power by the
community.
So that's what we need.
No, Yeah.
No, and I love the idea that, ifyou want to have this in your
town find 500 a year yourclosest Facebook friends and
(31:08):
tell'em all to download.
Is there, to that, and maybethere's not.
By the way, App is free.
Okay, that's good.
What, is there a threshold forwin?
How many people in a city beforeyou it's worth it to move in
there.
I think our threshold is around2000.
(31:29):
Okay.
Okay.
I think I can find 2000 peoplearound DC Yeah, let's do We'll
bring it to dc It's actually agreat it's a good market as
well.
Yeah.
Especially because everybodydrives so crazy and so there's a
constant need.
Or some sort of service Yeah.
This is great.
This is great.
(31:49):
I love it.
Love it.
Yeah.
No, and I think the mostexciting part is, connecting
this these kids who playbasketball and.
Just didn't wanna be stuck in abad neighborhood.
Waiting for somebody to fixtheir car with.
Right Now, solving that problemfor other people.
(32:10):
You didn't go to school forroadside assistance.
You didn't, you don't havedegrees in automotive.
Technology.
I don't think I, I only checkedyou two's degrees.
I didn't check your brothers Butlike you saw a problem you're
solving it.
And I think that's an excitingexciting story.
Thank you.
It means a lot.
It means a lot to.
(32:33):
Finally the lights at end.
The Exactly.
And that's the thing.
So yeah you raised a precede.
You've got a solid team.
You're launch, you're launchedin la what's the next six, 12
months look like?
Yeah.
Other than DC because I gottaget 2000 people, so you pencil
that in.
But one of the cities where it'sjust the worst too, between
(32:56):
hassles and the nation.
Of course we are already inCalifornia, so we'll take it
also to San Francisco, but weare launching in Houston, in
Dallas as well.
Okay.
The worst cities too, between USNation.
And then the goal from there iscontinuing to grow.
In the next six months we opento, to work with, other players
(33:17):
in the industry as well, like wewere mentioning.
We can providers.
Yeah.
They can, we can work togetherand improve the industry.
And yeah, it just, taking oneday at a time and and being
present even in this, and youhave to be present.
That's true.
Because the past, it's areference in the future simply.
Yep.
Expectations and many more.
(33:38):
Yep.
So our goal is to be present andfocus on the things that we have
right in front of us andimproving them.
Yep.
And taking one day at a time.
And I think eventually when youdo that, that's the key to
ultimately happiness and.
Are you able to achieveanything?
It's true.
It's true.
Yeah.
No, and I I know we're gettingclose on time here and is there
(34:01):
anything we missed out?
Cause otherwise that was a greatplace to end.
The, actually that's everything.
Just like you was justmentioning, just download the
app and go.
And Apple store.
This is for you.
It's for the people and it'sfollowing whatever you need,
(34:24):
wherever you go, whenever youneed any type of services,
right?
Your pocket and you don't haveto wait for countless hours is
here for you.
Let's improve and change thisindustry together.
Applying also to the users andthe service providers.
Everyone that is listening rightnow, this is for you.
Rotor is here and let's.
(34:44):
Ready to roll.
Cool.
And we'll in we'll include thelinks.
They'll be in the descriptionhere.
So you guys can click on'em,download the app, check out
their website.
And also the Instagram page.
And the Instagram we post Daily,Pretty much twice a day.
Yeah.
And you get the insights onwhat's coming.
Like we're gonna have a bigannouncement today actually,
(35:07):
Okay.
You should name and the next andtomorrow too.
Those two, There's two bigannouncements coming.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Yeah, we'll include a link thereas well.
Alrighty.
It was a pleasure.
It was a pleasure.
It was a pleasure too.
Thank you both for being here.
Take care.
You as well.
You as well.
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