February 25, 2025 • 40 mins
DBB's Andy Wilson sits down this week with Brendan Howell, the visionary behind a movement to reshape the warehousing industry with an innovative model that promises flexibility and efficiency.
Forget about long-term leases; Brendan discusses how Loloft enables businesses to secure warehouse space in just one day, catering to both small entrepreneurs and big names like HelloFresh.
He shares insights into creating last-mile logistics hubs that streamline operations and boost delivery efficiency, proving that the traditional warehousing model is ripe for transformation.
The logistics landscape is evolving: Brendan and Andy explore how Loloft is transforming spaces, including a former call center in Phoenix, into modern logistics hubs that emphasize practicality and aesthetics.
From advanced supply chain strategies to repurposing suburban offices with ample parking and HVAC systems, Brendan reveals how Loloft is anticipating the future needs of both the e-commerce sector and consumers.
Andy and Brendan also dive into the potential addition of amenities like cold storage to meet the demands of quick commerce.
Brendan also shares how a strong company culture, where team members embrace equity and community, fuels their success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
My name is Andy Wilson and it'sso great that you're joining us
today.
Thank you so much.
I want to also say to all ofour viewers and listeners thank
you for our success.
We're now viewed in over 90countries and that is because of
you.
So thank you so much.
Continue to share that.
Reach out to us, don to sharethat.
Reach out to us.
Don't hesitate to reach out tome on linkedin.
(00:28):
Have any questions or commentsor suggestions.
I will read those.
Thank you for doing that.
Oh, my guest today, brendanhowe.
Welcome back.
Thank you, it is so good tohave you back then.
A year ago now let everyonelisten this A year ago in
January, we were sort of in ourstorage room with the black
curtain behind us.
Now we have a really nicestudio.
(00:50):
So we're really proud of that,and I say that with humility.
But a year ago I met this guyand I got to go tour the
facility that he was buildingand in the process and tour it
and understand your vision abouteverything.
And now you're back to share.
So I want you to talk aboutyour company.
(01:13):
I want our viewers to reallyunderstand what you do how you
do it, the great services thatyou offer.
But you know, brendan, you arereimagining warehousing industry
.
That's phenomenal.
Yeah, thank you.
Tell us how you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well.
It's kind of interestingbecause we're taking a
completely different approach towarehousing.
Traditional warehousing peoplego and work with a realtortor,
may take two or three months tofind a spot and then negotiate a
lease, sign a lease, and it'sbetween three to five years
usually, sometimes no longer.
Um, so we really wanted tocondense that down into one day
(01:59):
okay, I like this already yeah,we're all about efficiency.
Basically, a company can cometour our location, say, yeah, we
want to move in, you can tourvirtually.
We've had that before.
People just doing video toursand committing to moving into
the spaces Sign an agreement andthey can move in the same day.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And they can find that information.
Loloftcom, that's L-O-L-O-F-T,loloftcom, and I really
encourage you to go on thewebsite and look at what's going
on.
So what you're saying is thatif you need warehouse space, you
(02:42):
can get that done in one day.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, and the other sort of interesting parts of it.
Uh, you can just take as muchas you need, so you don't need
to commit to a whole warehouse.
And what we found is companiesthat may think they have a
requirement for 10 or 15 000square feet because they need a
loading dock.
They can take 500 square feetwith us and still access that
(03:07):
loading dock.
So, wow, yes, it's kind of likea whole new paradigm for
warehousing really all.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right now, what we're going to do is that there's the
big picture.
Okay, lulav is gonna have theyhave your warehousing covered
now.
There's so much more than justproduct here, so what we're
going to do for our viewers iswe're just going to take that
all apart and get deep into yourservices and get deep into how
(03:36):
you support them and all of that.
So let's start, though, withpotential customer or consumer
who needs your services.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So initially we just thought it would be small
companies like e-commercesellers, people selling things
online that were working fromhome.
They may have tried to workfrom a storage unit, which is
very difficult You're notactually supposed to Right and
there's no loading docks oranything like that usually and
then those people either go intoa 3PL, a third-party logistics
(04:10):
warehouse, or a traditionallease, and so we're really in
between the sort of work fromhome and sign a long-term lease.
As an example, one of our veryfirst actually our very first
customer came to us calledAltangle.
They've been with us since dayone and they're still with us.
Downtown Rogers, they make thisreally cool clamp that goes
(04:31):
around the stem of your bikeseat and you can clamp it onto
almost anything.
So, you can work on your bike.
They were working from home andthen they went to 3PL and they
figured they were just too smallfor 3PL.
They didn't have enough controlover their inventory.
Like they have some parts theyneed to do some final assembly
on which they can't do.
(04:51):
And then they came in with usso they took 330 square feet and
they run their operation fromthere.
So they have all their orderscome in overnight.
Someone comes in in the morning,spends two hours picking and
packing, by 10 am they're done.
But it's their own warehousethat they can operate and it's
(05:11):
lockable, secure.
They've got loading dock access.
We have the UPS, usps, fedexcome every day, the pickups, so
all their packages go out.
So that's an example of theinitial target customer.
But now we're finding we'regetting larger customers as well
, so the larger CPG brands.
(05:35):
So, as an example, hellofresh isbeing distributed from our
location in downtown Rogers, sothat's 670 square feet they're
operating from through theirfreight provider LSO.
Normally they look for 10,000to 15,000 square feet because
that's around the minimum sizethat they can run an operation
(05:55):
like that from.
The smaller, like the shallowbay industrial buildings don't
have any loading docks, so allof our facilities have full
height loading docks.
So basically, a truck comes inin the morning, fills a unit up,
they separate the orders intothe runs, all the gig drivers
turn up.
They're, like you know, uberEats-style setup and by 10 am
(06:19):
that's also empty, because thatproduct's on the way to the
consumer.
Yes, it comes and then goesstraight to the consumer, right?
Yeah, so it's really like alast mile.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I see I was going to suggest this.
Just sounds like a last mileprocess for you.
It really is.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It's kind of like it's going down that path for us
really being sort of a lastmile micro hub, yeah.
And then we've got Walmartvendors in the space.
Correct, because we're inBentonville, we've got the
location in downtown Rogers,we're just next to Bentonville,
so we have buyers come down andlook at products, so people set
them up in the warehouse there,right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
That's great and I can't wait.
We're going to get to thefuture, but we have to stay in
the present for a moment,because it's so much exciting
news here.
Now, what if you're aninternational vendor supplier?
How does that work if you'renot in Rogers, arkansas?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, so you don't need to be there.
We have sort of absenteemembers so you can do a video
tour, commit to a space and thenif you have product that's
coming in say you have a fewpallets coming in for samples or
what have you we can receivethose for you, put them away.
That's all part of the service.
(07:34):
And then you can get access, oryou can allow access to certain
people to come in, becausegenerally someone's going to
come at some point to show theproduct.
Or if you need the product sentout again, we can help with
that.
So you actually never need tobe there.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Okay, now I know because I'm going to really
encourage you to go to thewebsite and take a tour, but
sort of give us a tour okay, andbecause I've been on the tour,
I was blown away, completelyblown away the warehouse
(08:12):
facility and you had coalstorage right here at Rogers.
You have coal storage where, ifthe product needs to be in the
cooler, right, yes, and whatother things do you have besides
in the Rogers?
You may have added some thingssince I was there.
Yes, through storage.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I'll give you the sort of imaginary tour, yeah do
that.
So we go in the front door.
We have a shipping containerdoor as our front door.
Yes, just something I wanted tothrow in on the design.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Oh, I love it yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It doesn't surprise me at all.
It can be confusing for people.
Eventually they make their wayin and then we have a reception.
So we have a community managerwho runs the whole location at
reception.
Um, we have a conference roomat the front as well, so that's
an amenity that is included inyour membership, so.
So one of the key things is theone monthly price includes
(09:06):
everything.
So it includes your access tothe space, wi-fi, hvac utilities
there's no extra charges.
So we go and see the conferenceroom and then we have up the
stairs a kitchen area.
There's like a common space.
We have fresh coffee brewed allday there.
We grind the beans every day.
(09:26):
Make sure there's plenty ofcaffeine in the place.
Yeah, that's right, and that'sa pretty cool hangout space as
well.
People love to kind of hang outand you get these sort of happy
little collisions, you know,with different companies in
there.
We'll sit down and we've gotlittle coffee groups that have
popped up, people just hangingout in the mornings and having a
cup of tea or a cup of coffeeand chit-chatting.
(09:47):
Then we've got a block ofbathrooms, and one of the key
things with us with bathrooms isthey're all separate boxes so
you can't see anyone's feet.
I just I don't know what.
I just don't like seeing otherpeople's that's hilarious in the
bathroom, um.
And then we've got like a bigsort of common workspace around
the corner.
So there's we call it likededicated desk memberships, so
(10:11):
people have their own desk in anopen space but they have all
their own stuff on there, soit's their little sort of place
to work.
We have eight private officesin that location, so they're
completely private, sealed, sothey hold sort of three to five
people in each one.
(10:31):
Then we have the micro warehouse, so sort of the main crux of it
is the warehouse spaces.
So they go from 125 square feetup to 1,500 square feet.
They've all got glass doors inthe front.
So architecturally it's abeautiful space.
We have solid timber all downthe walls.
(10:52):
We like to use some nicematerials so you don't feel like
you're in a grubby oldwarehouse.
It's a very clean environment.
We've cut a lot of holes in thewalls to let light in.
We try and get as much naturallight in as possible.
And then on the other side ofthat we have the loading dock.
So we've got two full heightdocks so we can take 53 footers
(11:16):
up to those docks and thenthere's a ramp or you can drive
in or the carriers can drive inevery day to pick up the
packages.
It can drive in or the carrierscan drive in every day to pick
up the packages.
So we kind of find it'sgenerally pallets and small
packages out.
Sometimes it's pallets andpallets out as well.
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Well, your business is growing.
Yes, right, it's doing well.
Okay, now great job on the tour, thank you, but you've got to
go and check it out when you goto the website and check out.
So it's simple, it's clean,it's efficient and I like the
(11:55):
idea.
It's a membership fee andyou're done.
You don't have to worry aboutanything else.
You've got all of theseamenities, all of this service
and the warehouse, storage andand and and the delivery trucks
coming and going, uh, and you goin and do your work.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Then you can get on and run your business exactly
because we really wanted to takethe bottlenecks out of, yeah,
logistics and storage piece thatcompanies experience and we
experienced that when we firstcame to town.
It was the genesis of thiswhole business.
So for us, compressing thosetimelines from three months to
(12:37):
one day was a real pleasure forus.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's incredible, but you know what that is.
It's incredible, but you knowwhat that is.
It's efficiency.
And if I had my product there,if I was a vendor and had my
product there, and I know that Icould create that much
efficiency.
That's more of that.
Well, that's just profit,that's service, that's sales,
that's revenue.
That's all for you because ofthe speed of business, and it
(13:03):
really is about the speed ofbusiness.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And you're figuring that out really well.
So it's like yeah, exactly.
And the other thing is theflexibility like we offer.
Uh, we say you get one get outof jail free card and you move
in so you can downsize, uh oncein your membership.
Yeah, because, say, if you comein and you take a space that's
too big, we can't afford this.
Yeah, then we let you downsize.
It's obviously subject toavailability in the space.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then you can upsize as many times as you like
, because we want it to bemindful of the realities of
business, because business isn'talways up and to the right
Right, and especially whenpeople come into new markets
Like someone comes into, youknow, say, the into Bentonville,
northwest Arkansas market youknow they may want to test the
(13:51):
market so they can come in forthree months.
So that's the other thing.
You're not committed long-term.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah, so you can take threemonths as the minimum.
Then we offer three to sixmonths, six to twelve or twelve
plus, and we offer, like youknow, tiered pricing, discounts
based on the term right okay,wonderful, okay now, rogers
(14:12):
arkansas, that's the bill,that's the facility we're
talking about now.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Um, let's move beyond , rogers arkansas.
Okay, talk about your vision,and then I would love to talk
about let's do that where you'regoing around, that, uh, but is
your vision changed, or?
Or, um, maybe have you lookedat when you began what your
(14:39):
vision was?
Now what is your vision?
And then, where are you going?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
and then I will back into some of that and talk about
it yeah, I mean um, the vision,the vision that the overall
vision hasn't changed, um, butprobably the way to get there
has changed a little.
So we still plan on sending out500 locations in the next five
to seven years across thecountry, um, and that means we
(15:03):
can basically hit 80% of the USpopulation with 30-minute
delivery times, which is a realwin for us.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, five in your location.
Eight to 10 years, five toseven.
Oh, five to seven years.
Okay, all right, excuse me.
Yeah, I know what am I thinking.
Eight years, okay, yeah, fivein your locations.
Five, five years, five, sevenyears.
And how close.
(15:33):
You said 30 minutes 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, it's 80 percent of the population 30 minutes 80
.
You sound like walmart, yeah,well, it's for us, we're going.
I mean, those guys areobviously very big, yeah, but
we're going small.
Yes, so we think the future forlogistics is smaller and more
distributed.
So, you know, getting locationsclose to the consumer so that
(15:59):
things can be delivered quickly.
It's, you know, it's a trendand I've talked to some people
who We've got access to someinteresting people.
Yeah, being in this part of theworld, yeah, and we're seeing
trends overseas, just seeingwhat's happening with quick
commerce.
People want stuff fast.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
See, that's the thing that you're doing, because
you're right, Amazon.
We'll just talk about Amazonfor a moment.
We were happy with two days fora while, but we're not even
where we wanted one day now andthey're doing it.
In some cases there's somerestrictions to that in
locations, but I have found inbeing in different parts of the
(16:41):
country that Amazon it may betwo days in Arkansas, but I've
been in different places wheretheir fulfillment center is
closer you get it one day.
So what you're trying to, whatyour goal is, let's build small
work.
Let's get it to you withinhours, you know, in minutes, and
I think that's brilliantbecause that's where consumers
(17:04):
are going.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, exactly so.
And we've always had thatvision of, you know, being that
kind of being able to facilitate, you know, to facilitate the
last mile and quick commercepiece.
And I suppose the early changeof the vision was how to get
there.
Initially we were targetingindustrial properties, but we
(17:27):
shied away from those because wefound when we first got started
there was high demand for thespace.
They were usually in parts oftown where people don't really
want to hang out.
Ironically, there's limitedparking and the spaces usually
aren't conditioned.
Some of the old ones didn'teven have sprinklers, Right,
yeah, so we're looking forsmaller.
(17:48):
That's one reason we're lookingat suburban offices.
Nobody wants them.
Plenty of parking, They've gotHVAC sprinklers.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And they're close to rooftops for delivery.
Right yeah, so the overallvision hasn't changed, but the
way to get there is kind ofevolving over time.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Right, okay To talk about your latest openings.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
So Phoenix is the latest location to open and that
is a call center that weconverted.
So I used to have Aetna, theinsurance company.
They were in the space and itwas about a 300 seat call center
.
So we just went in andbasically stripped out the.
It was like a bunch of chicken,chicken coops, like you know,
(18:37):
the cubicles, cubicles, yeah,yeah, right, yeah, we stripped
out the cubicles.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
That's a good name for them actually, but anyway,
because I've been in thosecubicles a lot in my lifetime,
so yeah, it was kind of like ashame.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it was kind of like a shame.
I hated to throw that stuffaway.
It was all steel case furniture.
Yeah, it was super expensive,like US made but nobody wanted
it Right.
Like we spent money getting itproperly disassembled, hoping we
could actually recycle itsomehow and sell it, yeah, and
it ended up going for scrap.
Oh, that's bad, yeah, yeah,there was just no demand for it,
(19:10):
so we stripped that out andthen basically built our
warehouse units in the space,put some loading docks in so we
had to punch some holes in thewalls because there was no docks
, because it was an office putan 80-foot concrete pad out the
back and now we can take the bigtrucks and do it.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, one of your people sent me a photo and
information of the location Cool, and I'm looking at it.
It's beautiful.
I'm just selling you it.
Thank you, and you know I loveit because it's a great space,
not only to have your product,but a great space to work and to
relax and bring people in,customers, potential clients,
(19:53):
whatever, bring in and set andvisit and talk about your future
, your company or product.
It's so.
It looks so inviting andcomfortable.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Thank you, we wanted to make a like a nice space.
Um, you know, my ultimatebackground was aircraft
engineering.
You know, I came up working inwhen I was young, working in
mechanics workshops because Ijust loved getting my hands
dirty, and then in aircrafthangers and always I was always
surprised by how crappy thehangers were and how crappy the
(20:22):
break rooms were, all that kindof stuff.
It was just yeah the bareminimum of everything.
Yeah, so I wanted to createsomething, um, not extravagant,
but something that's just warmand inviting, and if you do
things right, you can do it witha reasonable budget and make a
really nice product that peopleare proud of and want to spend
time in and your location is 10minutes from the airport.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it's very central.
That's wonderful, yeah, yeah,I'm very familiar with this part
of the Phoenix Because I hadthat area at Walmart at one
point, arizona and all the westand it's a great city and I can
see such a need for this Becauseit's located really close to,
(21:06):
as you talked about, yourconsumer.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yes, yeah, I mean it's a great building, it's very
modern.
When it's uh, it's a great,great building, it's um, you
know it's very modern.
Um, I think it's 10 years old.
You know, everything is a greatworking order, so it made the
conversion really easy.
Um, it's basically, you know,we're looking for more of those
types of buildings, right andwith, with the way the office
market's gone, it's it's a goodtime for us.
(21:30):
It is not a good time for theoffice landlords.
No, I saw it, but we canactually help them.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
All right, so you've given us an update present,
mm-hmm.
Okay, we talked a bit about thefuture.
Well, phoenix, now tell ourviewers about the future.
Where are you going?
I know what you said earlier.
You know within five years Imisquoted that because that's
(21:56):
crazy, but that's exciting.
But talk about the future ofthis and you've talked about why
.
But any additional information?
Because I think what I knowwhen I was talking with your
people and I learned a lotbecause I asked a lot of
questions.
But this is new.
Retail omnichannel is changingrapidly.
(22:18):
That's why we started thispodcast.
It's because the movement inretail it's not brick and mortar
anymore, it's all thee-commerce piece and way beyond.
But delivery has to change too,and that's what you're doing.
You're changing what I call thefront end of it, if you will,
(22:40):
the product side.
You're changing this and you'reupdating it.
So talk about the future, whereyou see all this.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's funny because I've kind of got this crazy
vision for the future ofconsumer goods getting into
houses.
So the ultimate future is youwant something, it gets
teleported into your house sonow you're an aircraft engineer
in this company and so I've gota look at that.
You get, okay, we're not quitethere.
What's a step back?
(23:09):
Yeah, so I'll see.
The next step back is uh, youwant some product.
Then you have some sort ofdevice like a 3d printer and buy
the ip online that gets made inyour house.
Yeah, so we're not quite thereyet.
Yeah.
So one more step back isnothing's produced until it's
actually sold.
Yeah, so you want to buy aproduct, you buy it and then
it's produced just in time.
(23:30):
Yeah, just for you.
And we we're kind of not quitethere yet.
So one step back is we need toget products, predict what
people want and get them closeto where they want them.
So that's kind of where we areright now.
That's kind of my crazyprediction for the future, as I
see things moving.
But there's a lot of productsput in the supply chain now and
(23:53):
people just hope that they'llsell and they don't, and then
they discount them and there'sjust all this junk around the
world.
So we're trying to help reducethe amount of waste as well and
the amount of stuff that's justshipped around that people don't
want, right, and also, if weknow people want them, get them
close to where they want them,because people want stuff fast,
(24:21):
usually before e-commerce camealong.
You want something, you go tothe store.
Now you want something, you maygo to the store, but if you can
order it on your phone it turnsup in 30 minutes why go to the
store?
Right, you save yourself a lotof time.
So I think we're really sort ofbuilding this to help with the
future of commerce.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Get stuff in people's hands faster.
You're definitely the cuttingedge.
Is there?
A lot of people in this spaceAre barely at this point?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
you're, you're developing this space it's kind
of like a nascent space.
So there are some operatorsoffering like kind of low cost
fractional warehousing, um, butthey don't really seem to.
You know, they're usuallyreally really big locations,
sort of 100, 150, 000 squarefoot.
Yes, um, you know, we're moreinterested in sort of 100,
150,000 square foot.
Yes, you know, we're moreinterested in sort of the 20 to
(25:13):
50,000.
So for us we'd rather have twoor three small ones, right,
whereas someone else may haveone big one.
Yeah, because we can get thedistribution piece nailed down
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I like it, yeah, I like that, I think that's.
But that also gives you theopportunity to accomplish your
vision of being closer ExactlyCloser to the consumer, or the
customer, yeah, right, and Ithink that's critical for the
future, because when I get intheir house and teleport it,
yeah, yeah, well, yeah, it'sgoing to take a little while.
Before long you'll be justwalking stuff over.
Okay All, when are your nexttargeted locations for sites?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So we've got.
I was looking last week in WestPalm, so we're pretty keen on
Florida.
We've got a site secured inMiami downtown.
We're looking at one in BocaRaton and West Palm and that
kind of let's just cover themajority of that populated area.
Right, we've got Tampa.
It's under construction now.
Yeah, oh okay, yeah, yeah, sothat's um.
(26:18):
We're just a demolition acouple of weeks ago, so we're
starting to swing hammers in thenext couple of weeks.
Um, we've got a site inhillsborough, oregon, um, just
by the intel factory.
Yeah, um, so it's like a nicepart of town there, um, and then
we've got we've got a pipelineof like 30 other deals we're
looking at right now.
Great yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
It's awesome.
This is so exciting.
I'm so proud for you and yourteam.
Thank you, what you're doingand that's one of the things
that's so awesome now aboutretail we mentioned earlier
retail on the channel.
I was just having aconversation before for you
where you and I began our chatwith someone and we talked about
the speed of change that'staking place in retail and Omni
(27:00):
Channel today.
But what you're doing, you'reservicing that speed and you're
going to speed it up even withyour process.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, so we're trying to be a facilitator and be
platform, yeah, for companies tocome in and actually enable
them to okay.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
All right, a couple of things I want to.
I want us to talk to our guestsabout and, uh, because this is
so interesting, so yeah, but youalso you talked about your
growth strategy and some of themarkets that you're looking at
and it's pretty broad, uh and so, but you are backing this up
with financially.
Uh, with, you're working onthis 10 million seed round.
(27:39):
Yes, yeah, can you talk aboutthat at all?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
yeah.
So basically, um, you know, weraised a pre-seed round to kick
us off, um, and, yeah, we raisedthat 1.4 million bucks to to
sort of get some money in thekit and validate the concept.
Now that we've validated thebusiness and we have rubber on
the road, it's really time toaccelerate.
(28:02):
So the $10 million he ran isreally to accelerate our growth.
We have very low we're verycapital efficient as a business,
right, um, like all of the, thecost of the build outs for the
locations is put onto thelandlord, um, and then, um, you
know, that just basically getsadded to our rent.
So, you know, we end up sort ofamortizing it over time but we
(28:26):
don't have the cash out lay outfront, um, so we can use that
money for operations andmarketing, so we're not using it
to build out locations, right,yes, it's really to accelerate
the growth and find newlocations, build the team um,
and we've got a really solidyeah, we've got a small team
right now, but a very solid team.
Um, and on the growth side, likerichie, who you spoke to, um,
(28:49):
he was um, he's kind ofinteresting to quickly touch on.
He was at Google, then AOL andSalesforce, the senior recruiter
, and then he joined my laststartup, drop it, in San
Francisco, and then when COVIDkilled that um, he went to
Quartet Health as a seniorsenior talent role and then he
(29:10):
was head of talent at mavenclinic.
So he grew the headcount from200 to 802 years.
Yeah, yeah, that's aventure-backed startup.
Sequoia put like 178 millioninto them.
Um, so he's he's running all ofour talent and operations, you
know.
So we've got people like him onthe team who can help us really
(29:30):
accelerate so we can quicklyput the capital to use to
achieve scale.
Yeah, yeah, we know what weneed to do right, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I just shout out to richie it's been great, uh,
working with us, workingtogether, excellent, so great.
Yeah, absence, thank you.
Okay, um, you've got.
You've got great people behindyou financially too, based on
what I've read.
So congratulations on that,thank you.
Yeah, so that's always good.
Yeah, we got lucky there.
Yeah, you are, so that's good.
(29:59):
Okay, we talked about thepresent, a bit the future.
You're well capitalized.
You're ready to go grow.
So let's just recap for amoment for everyone.
And there is one thing I wantto touch on Now AI.
Let's touch on that.
Then we'll summarize for ourguests and our viewers on this,
(30:24):
but talk about how is AI workingin this.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So Paola, my co-founder, she runs, like she's
said, of marketing and I meanshe's, and she's another one
that's got a great background inin media and marketing from
mexico city originally, familyof big in marketing and you know
she's done some pretty bigprojects in the us.
Um, she's really kind ofspearheading the push with ai.
(30:48):
So a lot of people talk aboutai in in the business, in their
business, and they can be veryvague on how it's being used or
what they're doing with it.
Right, and it's funny I've gotto ask this question a couple of
weeks ago I've got a friendwho's a professional basketball
player, like this guy, sevenfoot tall.
(31:09):
He came down to phoenix.
We were sitting there talking,you know I mentioned ai and he's
like can you give me an exampleof how you actually use it?
Yes, um, so all of our teamhave like the pro license for
chat ggp.
So, um, and pale is basicallymaking everyone use that daily.
So just as a tool to refinemessaging, um, check your emails
(31:34):
to make sure that message isgetting across clearly,
concisely.
Uh, write copy for ads.
Um, just some basic uses there.
Even you know, like I receivedan information, an offer
memorandum the other day.
It's like 60 pages for aproperty.
I uploaded it to JetGTP and itsaid summarize in one page,
(31:55):
right.
And then I said find me localpumps for this deal so I can see
how it stacks up.
And that would have taken ananalyst a couple of hours maybe.
Right, it took this thing like40 seconds.
So we're just scratching thesurface of how we're using it.
That's just one way, but for us, we're looking at the future,
(32:17):
of how we're going to reallyintegrate it into our business
and it's looking at where thepackages are going that are
coming out of the space and thenfiguring out how routes can be
optimized.
Because if we've got multiplecompanies delivering, doing last
mile delivery in the space, andsay you've got two companies in
our space and they're bothdelivering to pinnacle right in
(32:40):
the country club, well, if weknow that, maybe you can send
one.
Absolutely, you know so.
So looking at just I mean it'sall pattern recognition, right,
when you boil AI down, it's justlooking for patterns and
different scenarios.
So, yeah, we're really going tostart to, as we get more volume
through the business, look athow things are coming in, how
(33:02):
things are going out, and startusing it to analyze and optimize
all the members and the spacesright.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I think that's excellent because up use it to
analyze and optimize the membersand the spaces, right?
I think that's excellentbecause all that does is create
efficiency, productivity for notonly your company, but also for
your users, their customers,consumers.
It's excellent and you've donethat.
Okay.
Now let's summarize for amoment.
At the beginning of our podcast,I said you're reimagining
warehousing.
You really are, and I'm excitedfor I'm.
(33:30):
I'm excited for you, I'mexcited for your team.
Uh, I really am.
That's why I wanted to have youback, because you're intrigued.
Uh, a year ago I've beenthinking about this and, uh, you
know, and so it was veryintriguing to me because of my
passion retail and omni channel,yeah, and so you're really
doing that.
So let let's go okay.
First of all, we talked aboutyour services.
You're one stop.
(33:50):
You offer everything, right?
I mean, like you said, you haveyour products there, you come,
your office is there, you wantto call it that your space,
human and your workspace, yourmeeting space, and you have
unique restrooms, but no, youknow, but everything's there,
yes, space and you have uniquerestrooms, but no, you know,
(34:11):
everything's there.
It's there.
So, from your amenities andservices, it's one stop.
You have it all.
You don't have to, okay.
So I think that is sophenomenal for people that need
a space, like you have to startrowing from their garage, if you
will, okay.
(34:32):
Secondly, procinct Soundssimple to me and I like that.
You get out of the jail car.
Get out of jail free car.
Get out of the jail free car,yeah you know that's pretty cool
, but I mean, you know, reallyyou don't know what you don't
know, so you get in there If youneed to downsize it.
You work with your customer,your consumer.
I think that we talked aboutthe space options, the
(34:58):
flexibility you have there.
Again, you go up and go downand is all your facilities going
to have the cold storage Are?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
you doing that at all .
We're just testing it a coupleto see what the demand's like.
Yeah, yeah, but in Phoenixwe've got someone who wants it
already.
So you know, because it's quitean expense to build out, we
just need to make sure there'sdemand in the market, but my
feeling is there will be inevery market because, especially
with, like you know, quickcommerce, there's a lot of cold
(35:29):
goods.
Yeah, yeah, yeah that peoplewant to need to ship, so, um,
and even, like you know,bringing veggies, if people are
shipping grocery items, theyneed to be kept chilled, right
so sounds like your target.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
You've got a good uh target market strategy.
Sounds like it.
Again, when we talk to space,we talk flexibility.
We talk pricing.
We talk service amenities,locations, like you said, you're
getting smaller.
You're creating smallerlocations so you can get closer
to your consumer.
The customer Funding and growthSounds like you're doing really
(36:07):
well there, and growth soundslike you you're doing really
well there.
Um, how, how about your?
You know, I'd love you to talkabout your cult, your company
culture, as we wrap up, becauseI mean, you didn't you didn't
like to start this.
You give I'm sure a person likeyou has given this a lot of
thought.
You know what you want, whatyou want it to be, how you want
(36:29):
when people work there.
All of that, and then anythingelse you'd like to add.
Talk about that, because Isense something there with you.
Yeah, we've got a.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I mean everyone's bought into the vision of what
we're trying to achieve andreally the key thing thing is
helping other companies andenabling small business, because
I suppose everyone in thebusiness is very empathetic of
other people and other companiesWith the cultures.
(37:04):
It's very like I said we'revery capital, efficient, very
scrappy.
Everyone believes in what we'redoing.
Everyone's taken a pay cut fromtheir previous roles for the
equity piece in the business, sothey really believe in the
business and I see that as agreat sign.
I say come and join us if youwant to be underpaid and
(37:27):
overworked and then engage thereactions.
And that's really what thepeople on the team are doing.
They're investing their time,which is the only thing you
can't get back into buildingthis.
There's a real strong sense ofcommunity in the company.
Everyone gets on really well.
(37:48):
I mean everyone works hard, butwe like to have a real strong
sense of community in thecompany.
Everyone gets on really well.
You know, I mean everyone workshard, but we like to have a
laugh as well, because we thinkwe're creating something pretty
special.
It's not just another, you know, like incremental change to
something or another widget orsomething like that.
So yes, and you know we've allI mean me and Richie have worked
(38:12):
together before before.
You know it's our second rodeotogether in a startup.
Yeah, yeah, great, yeah.
So yeah, good, good team andyou know, very small and very
agile.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, it's critical, yeah yeah well, my guest brendan
howe, ceo, a little off.
Wow it's.
It's always a greatconversation with you.
It's intriguing.
I really enjoy being aroundpeople like you because it just
creates so much energy andexcitement.
(38:42):
I only hope the best for you.
I know you're going to do well.
I'm going to have to just callyou out and ask you to come back
in another year, though.
Yeah Well, maybe we don't waita year now With as fast as
you're going to do well, I'mgoing to have to just call you
out and ask you to come back inanother year though.
Yeah Well, maybe we don't waita year now.
You know the fastest you'regoing to start moving.
Maybe we come back, but we dowant to keep up with you.
We want to share your journeywith our viewers.
I think this is something thatwe're going to look back on,
(39:04):
because you truly are creatingchange.
Change is hard, but you'redoing it and you're you're
getting out there and you'reswimming was it's what we were
taught at walmart.
You're swimming upstream, andit's hard and swimming against
the current, but you're doing itand the way you're doing it I
(39:25):
applaud you for.
Thank you, thank you.
Anything you'd like to addbefore we get out of here?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
um, I just want to thank you for having me back on
the show.
It's always a pleasure to sitdown and have a conversation.
Um, yeah, like a it's it's.
It's a great experience and, um, it's really nice to see you
know people like yourself.
With the background you have,recognizing what we're doing,
because often when you buildsomething from scratch, you
(39:53):
don't really know if somebodywants it or if it's going to
work.
Yeah, and now that we'veactually got rubber on the road,
we do see that it's actuallyfilling a need for people.
So that feels good as well.
So it's good to be recognizedand for us and the team to see
we're on the right good as well.
So it's good to be recognizedand for us and the team to see
we're on the right path as well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Right, congratulations.
Congratulations to you, okay,to all our viewers.
Thank you for joining in again.
It's been such a great.
I'm just so humbled that you'rehere.
You come and listen to us andwatch us, so it means so much to
us here at Doing Business inBentonville.
Follow the story.
Go to lowoffcom, check it out.
(40:33):
You're going to be impressed.
And, brendan, again all my bestto you and your team.
Thanks, andy.
All right, thank you everyone.
Goodbye.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
My name is Andy Wilson and it'sso great that you're joining us
today.
Thank you so much.
I want to also say to all ofour viewers and listeners thank
you for our success.
We're now viewed in over 90countries and that is because of
you.
So thank you so much.
Continue to share that.
Reach out to us, don to sharethat.
Reach out to us.
Don't hesitate to reach out tome on linkedin.
(00:28):
Have any questions or commentsor suggestions.
I will read those.
Thank you for doing that.
Oh, my guest today, brendanhowe.
Welcome back.
Thank you, it is so good tohave you back then.
A year ago now let everyonelisten this A year ago in
January, we were sort of in ourstorage room with the black
curtain behind us.
Now we have a really nicestudio.
(00:50):
So we're really proud of that,and I say that with humility.
But a year ago I met this guyand I got to go tour the
facility that he was buildingand in the process and tour it
and understand your vision abouteverything.
And now you're back to share.
So I want you to talk aboutyour company.
(01:13):
I want our viewers to reallyunderstand what you do how you
do it, the great services thatyou offer.
But you know, brendan, you arereimagining warehousing industry
.
That's phenomenal.
Yeah, thank you.
Tell us how you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well.
It's kind of interestingbecause we're taking a
completely different approach towarehousing.
Traditional warehousing peoplego and work with a realtortor,
may take two or three months tofind a spot and then negotiate a
lease, sign a lease, and it'sbetween three to five years
usually, sometimes no longer.
Um, so we really wanted tocondense that down into one day
(01:59):
okay, I like this already yeah,we're all about efficiency.
Basically, a company can cometour our location, say, yeah, we
want to move in, you can tourvirtually.
We've had that before.
People just doing video toursand committing to moving into
the spaces Sign an agreement andthey can move in the same day.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And they can find that information.
Loloftcom, that's L-O-L-O-F-T,loloftcom, and I really
encourage you to go on thewebsite and look at what's going
on.
So what you're saying is thatif you need warehouse space, you
(02:42):
can get that done in one day.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, and the other sort of interesting parts of it.
Uh, you can just take as muchas you need, so you don't need
to commit to a whole warehouse.
And what we found is companiesthat may think they have a
requirement for 10 or 15 000square feet because they need a
loading dock.
They can take 500 square feetwith us and still access that
(03:07):
loading dock.
So, wow, yes, it's kind of likea whole new paradigm for
warehousing really all.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right now, what we're going to do is that there's the
big picture.
Okay, lulav is gonna have theyhave your warehousing covered
now.
There's so much more than justproduct here, so what we're
going to do for our viewers iswe're just going to take that
all apart and get deep into yourservices and get deep into how
(03:36):
you support them and all of that.
So let's start, though, withpotential customer or consumer
who needs your services.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So initially we just thought it would be small
companies like e-commercesellers, people selling things
online that were working fromhome.
They may have tried to workfrom a storage unit, which is
very difficult You're notactually supposed to Right and
there's no loading docks oranything like that usually and
then those people either go intoa 3PL, a third-party logistics
(04:10):
warehouse, or a traditionallease, and so we're really in
between the sort of work fromhome and sign a long-term lease.
As an example, one of our veryfirst actually our very first
customer came to us calledAltangle.
They've been with us since dayone and they're still with us.
Downtown Rogers, they make thisreally cool clamp that goes
(04:31):
around the stem of your bikeseat and you can clamp it onto
almost anything.
So, you can work on your bike.
They were working from home andthen they went to 3PL and they
figured they were just too smallfor 3PL.
They didn't have enough controlover their inventory.
Like they have some parts theyneed to do some final assembly
on which they can't do.
(04:51):
And then they came in with usso they took 330 square feet and
they run their operation fromthere.
So they have all their orderscome in overnight.
Someone comes in in the morning,spends two hours picking and
packing, by 10 am they're done.
But it's their own warehousethat they can operate and it's
(05:11):
lockable, secure.
They've got loading dock access.
We have the UPS, usps, fedexcome every day, the pickups, so
all their packages go out.
So that's an example of theinitial target customer.
But now we're finding we'regetting larger customers as well
, so the larger CPG brands.
(05:35):
So, as an example, hellofresh isbeing distributed from our
location in downtown Rogers, sothat's 670 square feet they're
operating from through theirfreight provider LSO.
Normally they look for 10,000to 15,000 square feet because
that's around the minimum sizethat they can run an operation
(05:55):
like that from.
The smaller, like the shallowbay industrial buildings don't
have any loading docks, so allof our facilities have full
height loading docks.
So basically, a truck comes inin the morning, fills a unit up,
they separate the orders intothe runs, all the gig drivers
turn up.
They're, like you know, uberEats-style setup and by 10 am
(06:19):
that's also empty, because thatproduct's on the way to the
consumer.
Yes, it comes and then goesstraight to the consumer, right?
Yeah, so it's really like alast mile.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, I see I was going to suggest this.
Just sounds like a last mileprocess for you.
It really is.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It's kind of like it's going down that path for us
really being sort of a lastmile micro hub, yeah.
And then we've got Walmartvendors in the space.
Correct, because we're inBentonville, we've got the
location in downtown Rogers,we're just next to Bentonville,
so we have buyers come down andlook at products, so people set
them up in the warehouse there,right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
That's great and I can't wait.
We're going to get to thefuture, but we have to stay in
the present for a moment,because it's so much exciting
news here.
Now, what if you're aninternational vendor supplier?
How does that work if you'renot in Rogers, arkansas?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, so you don't need to be there.
We have sort of absenteemembers so you can do a video
tour, commit to a space and thenif you have product that's
coming in say you have a fewpallets coming in for samples or
what have you we can receivethose for you, put them away.
That's all part of the service.
(07:34):
And then you can get access, oryou can allow access to certain
people to come in, becausegenerally someone's going to
come at some point to show theproduct.
Or if you need the product sentout again, we can help with
that.
So you actually never need tobe there.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Okay, now I know because I'm going to really
encourage you to go to thewebsite and take a tour, but
sort of give us a tour okay, andbecause I've been on the tour,
I was blown away, completelyblown away the warehouse
(08:12):
facility and you had coalstorage right here at Rogers.
You have coal storage where, ifthe product needs to be in the
cooler, right, yes, and whatother things do you have besides
in the Rogers?
You may have added some thingssince I was there.
Yes, through storage.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I'll give you the sort of imaginary tour, yeah do
that.
So we go in the front door.
We have a shipping containerdoor as our front door.
Yes, just something I wanted tothrow in on the design.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Oh, I love it yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
It doesn't surprise me at all.
It can be confusing for people.
Eventually they make their wayin and then we have a reception.
So we have a community managerwho runs the whole location at
reception.
Um, we have a conference roomat the front as well, so that's
an amenity that is included inyour membership, so.
So one of the key things is theone monthly price includes
(09:06):
everything.
So it includes your access tothe space, wi-fi, hvac utilities
there's no extra charges.
So we go and see the conferenceroom and then we have up the
stairs a kitchen area.
There's like a common space.
We have fresh coffee brewed allday there.
We grind the beans every day.
(09:26):
Make sure there's plenty ofcaffeine in the place.
Yeah, that's right, and that'sa pretty cool hangout space as
well.
People love to kind of hang outand you get these sort of happy
little collisions, you know,with different companies in
there.
We'll sit down and we've gotlittle coffee groups that have
popped up, people just hangingout in the mornings and having a
cup of tea or a cup of coffeeand chit-chatting.
(09:47):
Then we've got a block ofbathrooms, and one of the key
things with us with bathrooms isthey're all separate boxes so
you can't see anyone's feet.
I just I don't know what.
I just don't like seeing otherpeople's that's hilarious in the
bathroom, um.
And then we've got like a bigsort of common workspace around
the corner.
So there's we call it likededicated desk memberships, so
(10:11):
people have their own desk in anopen space but they have all
their own stuff on there, soit's their little sort of place
to work.
We have eight private officesin that location, so they're
completely private, sealed, sothey hold sort of three to five
people in each one.
(10:31):
Then we have the micro warehouse, so sort of the main crux of it
is the warehouse spaces.
So they go from 125 square feetup to 1,500 square feet.
They've all got glass doors inthe front.
So architecturally it's abeautiful space.
We have solid timber all downthe walls.
(10:52):
We like to use some nicematerials so you don't feel like
you're in a grubby oldwarehouse.
It's a very clean environment.
We've cut a lot of holes in thewalls to let light in.
We try and get as much naturallight in as possible.
And then on the other side ofthat we have the loading dock.
So we've got two full heightdocks so we can take 53 footers
(11:16):
up to those docks and thenthere's a ramp or you can drive
in or the carriers can drive inevery day to pick up the
packages.
It can drive in or the carrierscan drive in every day to pick
up the packages.
So we kind of find it'sgenerally pallets and small
packages out.
Sometimes it's pallets andpallets out as well.
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Well, your business is growing.
Yes, right, it's doing well.
Okay, now great job on the tour, thank you, but you've got to
go and check it out when you goto the website and check out.
So it's simple, it's clean,it's efficient and I like the
(11:55):
idea.
It's a membership fee andyou're done.
You don't have to worry aboutanything else.
You've got all of theseamenities, all of this service
and the warehouse, storage andand and and the delivery trucks
coming and going, uh, and you goin and do your work.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Then you can get on and run your business exactly
because we really wanted to takethe bottlenecks out of, yeah,
logistics and storage piece thatcompanies experience and we
experienced that when we firstcame to town.
It was the genesis of thiswhole business.
So for us, compressing thosetimelines from three months to
(12:37):
one day was a real pleasure forus.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's incredible, but you know what that is.
It's incredible, but you knowwhat that is.
It's efficiency.
And if I had my product there,if I was a vendor and had my
product there, and I know that Icould create that much
efficiency.
That's more of that.
Well, that's just profit,that's service, that's sales,
that's revenue.
That's all for you because ofthe speed of business, and it
(13:03):
really is about the speed ofbusiness.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And you're figuring that out really well.
So it's like yeah, exactly.
And the other thing is theflexibility like we offer.
Uh, we say you get one get outof jail free card and you move
in so you can downsize, uh oncein your membership.
Yeah, because, say, if you comein and you take a space that's
too big, we can't afford this.
Yeah, then we let you downsize.
It's obviously subject toavailability in the space.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then you can upsize as many times as you like
, because we want it to bemindful of the realities of
business, because business isn'talways up and to the right
Right, and especially whenpeople come into new markets
Like someone comes into, youknow, say, the into Bentonville,
northwest Arkansas market youknow they may want to test the
(13:51):
market so they can come in forthree months.
So that's the other thing.
You're not committed long-term.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah, so you can take threemonths as the minimum.
Then we offer three to sixmonths, six to twelve or twelve
plus, and we offer, like youknow, tiered pricing, discounts
based on the term right okay,wonderful, okay now, rogers
(14:12):
arkansas, that's the bill,that's the facility we're
talking about now.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Um, let's move beyond , rogers arkansas.
Okay, talk about your vision,and then I would love to talk
about let's do that where you'regoing around, that, uh, but is
your vision changed, or?
Or, um, maybe have you lookedat when you began what your
(14:39):
vision was?
Now what is your vision?
And then, where are you going?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
and then I will back into some of that and talk about
it yeah, I mean um, the vision,the vision that the overall
vision hasn't changed, um, butprobably the way to get there
has changed a little.
So we still plan on sending out500 locations in the next five
to seven years across thecountry, um, and that means we
(15:03):
can basically hit 80% of the USpopulation with 30-minute
delivery times, which is a realwin for us.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, five in your location.
Eight to 10 years, five toseven.
Oh, five to seven years.
Okay, all right, excuse me.
Yeah, I know what am I thinking.
Eight years, okay, yeah, fivein your locations.
Five, five years, five, sevenyears.
And how close.
(15:33):
You said 30 minutes 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, it's 80 percent of the population 30 minutes 80
.
You sound like walmart, yeah,well, it's for us, we're going.
I mean, those guys areobviously very big, yeah, but
we're going small.
Yes, so we think the future forlogistics is smaller and more
distributed.
So, you know, getting locationsclose to the consumer so that
(15:59):
things can be delivered quickly.
It's, you know, it's a trendand I've talked to some people
who We've got access to someinteresting people.
Yeah, being in this part of theworld, yeah, and we're seeing
trends overseas, just seeingwhat's happening with quick
commerce.
People want stuff fast.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
See, that's the thing that you're doing, because
you're right, Amazon.
We'll just talk about Amazonfor a moment.
We were happy with two days fora while, but we're not even
where we wanted one day now andthey're doing it.
In some cases there's somerestrictions to that in
locations, but I have found inbeing in different parts of the
(16:41):
country that Amazon it may betwo days in Arkansas, but I've
been in different places wheretheir fulfillment center is
closer you get it one day.
So what you're trying to, whatyour goal is, let's build small
work.
Let's get it to you withinhours, you know, in minutes, and
I think that's brilliantbecause that's where consumers
(17:04):
are going.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, exactly so.
And we've always had thatvision of, you know, being that
kind of being able to facilitate, you know, to facilitate the
last mile and quick commercepiece.
And I suppose the early changeof the vision was how to get
there.
Initially we were targetingindustrial properties, but we
(17:27):
shied away from those because wefound when we first got started
there was high demand for thespace.
They were usually in parts oftown where people don't really
want to hang out.
Ironically, there's limitedparking and the spaces usually
aren't conditioned.
Some of the old ones didn'teven have sprinklers, Right,
yeah, so we're looking forsmaller.
(17:48):
That's one reason we're lookingat suburban offices.
Nobody wants them.
Plenty of parking, They've gotHVAC sprinklers.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And they're close to rooftops for delivery.
Right yeah, so the overallvision hasn't changed, but the
way to get there is kind ofevolving over time.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Right, okay To talk about your latest openings.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
So Phoenix is the latest location to open and that
is a call center that weconverted.
So I used to have Aetna, theinsurance company.
They were in the space and itwas about a 300 seat call center
.
So we just went in andbasically stripped out the.
It was like a bunch of chicken,chicken coops, like you know,
(18:37):
the cubicles, cubicles, yeah,yeah, right, yeah, we stripped
out the cubicles.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
That's a good name for them actually, but anyway,
because I've been in thosecubicles a lot in my lifetime,
so yeah, it was kind of like ashame.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it was kind of like a shame.
I hated to throw that stuffaway.
It was all steel case furniture.
Yeah, it was super expensive,like US made but nobody wanted
it Right.
Like we spent money getting itproperly disassembled, hoping we
could actually recycle itsomehow and sell it, yeah, and
it ended up going for scrap.
Oh, that's bad, yeah, yeah,there was just no demand for it,
(19:10):
so we stripped that out andthen basically built our
warehouse units in the space,put some loading docks in so we
had to punch some holes in thewalls because there was no docks
, because it was an office putan 80-foot concrete pad out the
back and now we can take the bigtrucks and do it.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, one of your people sent me a photo and
information of the location Cool, and I'm looking at it.
It's beautiful.
I'm just selling you it.
Thank you, and you know I loveit because it's a great space,
not only to have your product,but a great space to work and to
relax and bring people in,customers, potential clients,
(19:53):
whatever, bring in and set andvisit and talk about your future
, your company or product.
It's so.
It looks so inviting andcomfortable.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Thank you, we wanted to make a like a nice space.
Um, you know, my ultimatebackground was aircraft
engineering.
You know, I came up working inwhen I was young, working in
mechanics workshops because Ijust loved getting my hands
dirty, and then in aircrafthangers and always I was always
surprised by how crappy thehangers were and how crappy the
(20:22):
break rooms were, all that kindof stuff.
It was just yeah the bareminimum of everything.
Yeah, so I wanted to createsomething, um, not extravagant,
but something that's just warmand inviting, and if you do
things right, you can do it witha reasonable budget and make a
really nice product that peopleare proud of and want to spend
time in and your location is 10minutes from the airport.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it's very central.
That's wonderful, yeah, yeah,I'm very familiar with this part
of the Phoenix Because I hadthat area at Walmart at one
point, arizona and all the westand it's a great city and I can
see such a need for this Becauseit's located really close to,
(21:06):
as you talked about, yourconsumer.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yes, yeah, I mean it's a great building, it's very
modern.
When it's uh, it's a great,great building, it's um, you
know it's very modern.
Um, I think it's 10 years old.
You know, everything is a greatworking order, so it made the
conversion really easy.
Um, it's basically, you know,we're looking for more of those
types of buildings, right andwith, with the way the office
market's gone, it's it's a goodtime for us.
(21:30):
It is not a good time for theoffice landlords.
No, I saw it, but we canactually help them.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
All right, so you've given us an update present,
mm-hmm.
Okay, we talked a bit about thefuture.
Well, phoenix, now tell ourviewers about the future.
Where are you going?
I know what you said earlier.
You know within five years Imisquoted that because that's
(21:56):
crazy, but that's exciting.
But talk about the future ofthis and you've talked about why
.
But any additional information?
Because I think what I knowwhen I was talking with your
people and I learned a lotbecause I asked a lot of
questions.
But this is new.
Retail omnichannel is changingrapidly.
(22:18):
That's why we started thispodcast.
It's because the movement inretail it's not brick and mortar
anymore, it's all thee-commerce piece and way beyond.
But delivery has to change too,and that's what you're doing.
You're changing what I call thefront end of it, if you will,
(22:40):
the product side.
You're changing this and you'reupdating it.
So talk about the future, whereyou see all this.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's funny because I've kind of got this crazy
vision for the future ofconsumer goods getting into
houses.
So the ultimate future is youwant something, it gets
teleported into your house sonow you're an aircraft engineer
in this company and so I've gota look at that.
You get, okay, we're not quitethere.
What's a step back?
(23:09):
Yeah, so I'll see.
The next step back is uh, youwant some product.
Then you have some sort ofdevice like a 3d printer and buy
the ip online that gets made inyour house.
Yeah, so we're not quite thereyet.
Yeah.
So one more step back isnothing's produced until it's
actually sold.
Yeah, so you want to buy aproduct, you buy it and then
it's produced just in time.
(23:30):
Yeah, just for you.
And we we're kind of not quitethere yet.
So one step back is we need toget products, predict what
people want and get them closeto where they want them.
So that's kind of where we areright now.
That's kind of my crazyprediction for the future, as I
see things moving.
But there's a lot of productsput in the supply chain now and
(23:53):
people just hope that they'llsell and they don't, and then
they discount them and there'sjust all this junk around the
world.
So we're trying to help reducethe amount of waste as well and
the amount of stuff that's justshipped around that people don't
want, right, and also, if weknow people want them, get them
close to where they want them,because people want stuff fast,
(24:21):
usually before e-commerce camealong.
You want something, you go tothe store.
Now you want something, you maygo to the store, but if you can
order it on your phone it turnsup in 30 minutes why go to the
store?
Right, you save yourself a lotof time.
So I think we're really sort ofbuilding this to help with the
future of commerce.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Get stuff in people's hands faster.
You're definitely the cuttingedge.
Is there?
A lot of people in this spaceAre barely at this point?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
you're, you're developing this space it's kind
of like a nascent space.
So there are some operatorsoffering like kind of low cost
fractional warehousing, um, butthey don't really seem to.
You know, they're usuallyreally really big locations,
sort of 100, 150, 000 squarefoot.
Yes, um, you know, we're moreinterested in sort of 100,
150,000 square foot.
Yes, you know, we're moreinterested in sort of the 20 to
(25:13):
50,000.
So for us we'd rather have twoor three small ones, right,
whereas someone else may haveone big one.
Yeah, because we can get thedistribution piece nailed down
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I like it, yeah, I like that, I think that's.
But that also gives you theopportunity to accomplish your
vision of being closer ExactlyCloser to the consumer, or the
customer, yeah, right, and Ithink that's critical for the
future, because when I get intheir house and teleport it,
yeah, yeah, well, yeah, it'sgoing to take a little while.
Before long you'll be justwalking stuff over.
Okay All, when are your nexttargeted locations for sites?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So we've got.
I was looking last week in WestPalm, so we're pretty keen on
Florida.
We've got a site secured inMiami downtown.
We're looking at one in BocaRaton and West Palm and that
kind of let's just cover themajority of that populated area.
Right, we've got Tampa.
It's under construction now.
Yeah, oh okay, yeah, yeah, sothat's um.
(26:18):
We're just a demolition acouple of weeks ago, so we're
starting to swing hammers in thenext couple of weeks.
Um, we've got a site inhillsborough, oregon, um, just
by the intel factory.
Yeah, um, so it's like a nicepart of town there, um, and then
we've got we've got a pipelineof like 30 other deals we're
looking at right now.
Great yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
It's awesome.
This is so exciting.
I'm so proud for you and yourteam.
Thank you, what you're doingand that's one of the things
that's so awesome now aboutretail we mentioned earlier
retail on the channel.
I was just having aconversation before for you
where you and I began our chatwith someone and we talked about
the speed of change that'staking place in retail and Omni
(27:00):
Channel today.
But what you're doing, you'reservicing that speed and you're
going to speed it up even withyour process.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, so we're trying to be a facilitator and be
platform, yeah, for companies tocome in and actually enable
them to okay.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
All right, a couple of things I want to.
I want us to talk to our guestsabout and, uh, because this is
so interesting, so yeah, but youalso you talked about your
growth strategy and some of themarkets that you're looking at
and it's pretty broad, uh and so, but you are backing this up
with financially.
Uh, with, you're working onthis 10 million seed round.
(27:39):
Yes, yeah, can you talk aboutthat at all?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
yeah.
So basically, um, you know, weraised a pre-seed round to kick
us off, um, and, yeah, we raisedthat 1.4 million bucks to to
sort of get some money in thekit and validate the concept.
Now that we've validated thebusiness and we have rubber on
the road, it's really time toaccelerate.
(28:02):
So the $10 million he ran isreally to accelerate our growth.
We have very low we're verycapital efficient as a business,
right, um, like all of the, thecost of the build outs for the
locations is put onto thelandlord, um, and then, um, you
know, that just basically getsadded to our rent.
So, you know, we end up sort ofamortizing it over time but we
(28:26):
don't have the cash out lay outfront, um, so we can use that
money for operations andmarketing, so we're not using it
to build out locations, right,yes, it's really to accelerate
the growth and find newlocations, build the team um,
and we've got a really solidyeah, we've got a small team
right now, but a very solid team.
Um, and on the growth side, likerichie, who you spoke to, um,
(28:49):
he was um, he's kind ofinteresting to quickly touch on.
He was at Google, then AOL andSalesforce, the senior recruiter
, and then he joined my laststartup, drop it, in San
Francisco, and then when COVIDkilled that um, he went to
Quartet Health as a seniorsenior talent role and then he
(29:10):
was head of talent at mavenclinic.
So he grew the headcount from200 to 802 years.
Yeah, yeah, that's aventure-backed startup.
Sequoia put like 178 millioninto them.
Um, so he's he's running all ofour talent and operations, you
know.
So we've got people like him onthe team who can help us really
(29:30):
accelerate so we can quicklyput the capital to use to
achieve scale.
Yeah, yeah, we know what weneed to do right, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I just shout out to richie it's been great, uh,
working with us, workingtogether, excellent, so great.
Yeah, absence, thank you.
Okay, um, you've got.
You've got great people behindyou financially too, based on
what I've read.
So congratulations on that,thank you.
Yeah, so that's always good.
Yeah, we got lucky there.
Yeah, you are, so that's good.
(29:59):
Okay, we talked about thepresent, a bit the future.
You're well capitalized.
You're ready to go grow.
So let's just recap for amoment for everyone.
And there is one thing I wantto touch on Now AI.
Let's touch on that.
Then we'll summarize for ourguests and our viewers on this,
(30:24):
but talk about how is AI workingin this.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So Paola, my co-founder, she runs, like she's
said, of marketing and I meanshe's, and she's another one
that's got a great background inin media and marketing from
mexico city originally, familyof big in marketing and you know
she's done some pretty bigprojects in the us.
Um, she's really kind ofspearheading the push with ai.
(30:48):
So a lot of people talk aboutai in in the business, in their
business, and they can be veryvague on how it's being used or
what they're doing with it.
Right, and it's funny I've gotto ask this question a couple of
weeks ago I've got a friendwho's a professional basketball
player, like this guy, sevenfoot tall.
(31:09):
He came down to phoenix.
We were sitting there talking,you know I mentioned ai and he's
like can you give me an exampleof how you actually use it?
Yes, um, so all of our teamhave like the pro license for
chat ggp.
So, um, and pale is basicallymaking everyone use that daily.
So just as a tool to refinemessaging, um, check your emails
(31:34):
to make sure that message isgetting across clearly,
concisely.
Uh, write copy for ads.
Um, just some basic uses there.
Even you know, like I receivedan information, an offer
memorandum the other day.
It's like 60 pages for aproperty.
I uploaded it to JetGTP and itsaid summarize in one page,
(31:55):
right.
And then I said find me localpumps for this deal so I can see
how it stacks up.
And that would have taken ananalyst a couple of hours maybe.
Right, it took this thing like40 seconds.
So we're just scratching thesurface of how we're using it.
That's just one way, but for us, we're looking at the future,
(32:17):
of how we're going to reallyintegrate it into our business
and it's looking at where thepackages are going that are
coming out of the space and thenfiguring out how routes can be
optimized.
Because if we've got multiplecompanies delivering, doing last
mile delivery in the space, andsay you've got two companies in
our space and they're bothdelivering to pinnacle right in
(32:40):
the country club, well, if weknow that, maybe you can send
one.
Absolutely, you know so.
So looking at just I mean it'sall pattern recognition, right,
when you boil AI down, it's justlooking for patterns and
different scenarios.
So, yeah, we're really going tostart to, as we get more volume
through the business, look athow things are coming in, how
(33:02):
things are going out, and startusing it to analyze and optimize
all the members and the spacesright.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I think that's excellent because up use it to
analyze and optimize the membersand the spaces, right?
I think that's excellentbecause all that does is create
efficiency, productivity for notonly your company, but also for
your users, their customers,consumers.
It's excellent and you've donethat.
Okay.
Now let's summarize for amoment.
At the beginning of our podcast,I said you're reimagining
warehousing.
You really are, and I'm excitedfor I'm.
(33:30):
I'm excited for you, I'mexcited for your team.
Uh, I really am.
That's why I wanted to have youback, because you're intrigued.
Uh, a year ago I've beenthinking about this and, uh, you
know, and so it was veryintriguing to me because of my
passion retail and omni channel,yeah, and so you're really
doing that.
So let let's go okay.
First of all, we talked aboutyour services.
You're one stop.
(33:50):
You offer everything, right?
I mean, like you said, you haveyour products there, you come,
your office is there, you wantto call it that your space,
human and your workspace, yourmeeting space, and you have
unique restrooms, but no, youknow, but everything's there,
yes, space and you have uniquerestrooms, but no, you know,
(34:11):
everything's there.
It's there.
So, from your amenities andservices, it's one stop.
You have it all.
You don't have to, okay.
So I think that is sophenomenal for people that need
a space, like you have to startrowing from their garage, if you
will, okay.
(34:32):
Secondly, procinct Soundssimple to me and I like that.
You get out of the jail car.
Get out of jail free car.
Get out of the jail free car,yeah you know that's pretty cool
, but I mean, you know, reallyyou don't know what you don't
know, so you get in there If youneed to downsize it.
You work with your customer,your consumer.
I think that we talked aboutthe space options, the
(34:58):
flexibility you have there.
Again, you go up and go downand is all your facilities going
to have the cold storage Are?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
you doing that at all .
We're just testing it a coupleto see what the demand's like.
Yeah, yeah, but in Phoenixwe've got someone who wants it
already.
So you know, because it's quitean expense to build out, we
just need to make sure there'sdemand in the market, but my
feeling is there will be inevery market because, especially
with, like you know, quickcommerce, there's a lot of cold
(35:29):
goods.
Yeah, yeah, yeah that peoplewant to need to ship, so, um,
and even, like you know,bringing veggies, if people are
shipping grocery items, theyneed to be kept chilled, right
so sounds like your target.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
You've got a good uh target market strategy.
Sounds like it.
Again, when we talk to space,we talk flexibility.
We talk pricing.
We talk service amenities,locations, like you said, you're
getting smaller.
You're creating smallerlocations so you can get closer
to your consumer.
The customer Funding and growthSounds like you're doing really
(36:07):
well there, and growth soundslike you you're doing really
well there.
Um, how, how about your?
You know, I'd love you to talkabout your cult, your company
culture, as we wrap up, becauseI mean, you didn't you didn't
like to start this.
You give I'm sure a person likeyou has given this a lot of
thought.
You know what you want, whatyou want it to be, how you want
(36:29):
when people work there.
All of that, and then anythingelse you'd like to add.
Talk about that, because Isense something there with you.
Yeah, we've got a.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I mean everyone's bought into the vision of what
we're trying to achieve andreally the key thing thing is
helping other companies andenabling small business, because
I suppose everyone in thebusiness is very empathetic of
other people and other companiesWith the cultures.
(37:04):
It's very like I said we'revery capital, efficient, very
scrappy.
Everyone believes in what we'redoing.
Everyone's taken a pay cut fromtheir previous roles for the
equity piece in the business, sothey really believe in the
business and I see that as agreat sign.
I say come and join us if youwant to be underpaid and
(37:27):
overworked and then engage thereactions.
And that's really what thepeople on the team are doing.
They're investing their time,which is the only thing you
can't get back into buildingthis.
There's a real strong sense ofcommunity in the company.
Everyone gets on really well.
(37:48):
I mean everyone works hard, butwe like to have a real strong
sense of community in thecompany.
Everyone gets on really well.
You know, I mean everyone workshard, but we like to have a
laugh as well, because we thinkwe're creating something pretty
special.
It's not just another, you know, like incremental change to
something or another widget orsomething like that.
So yes, and you know we've allI mean me and Richie have worked
(38:12):
together before before.
You know it's our second rodeotogether in a startup.
Yeah, yeah, great, yeah.
So yeah, good, good team andyou know, very small and very
agile.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, it's critical, yeah yeah well, my guest brendan
howe, ceo, a little off.
Wow it's.
It's always a greatconversation with you.
It's intriguing.
I really enjoy being aroundpeople like you because it just
creates so much energy andexcitement.
(38:42):
I only hope the best for you.
I know you're going to do well.
I'm going to have to just callyou out and ask you to come back
in another year, though.
Yeah Well, maybe we don't waita year now With as fast as
you're going to do well, I'mgoing to have to just call you
out and ask you to come back inanother year though.
Yeah Well, maybe we don't waita year now.
You know the fastest you'regoing to start moving.
Maybe we come back, but we dowant to keep up with you.
We want to share your journeywith our viewers.
I think this is something thatwe're going to look back on,
(39:04):
because you truly are creatingchange.
Change is hard, but you'redoing it and you're you're
getting out there and you'reswimming was it's what we were
taught at walmart.
You're swimming upstream, andit's hard and swimming against
the current, but you're doing itand the way you're doing it I
(39:25):
applaud you for.
Thank you, thank you.
Anything you'd like to addbefore we get out of here?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
um, I just want to thank you for having me back on
the show.
It's always a pleasure to sitdown and have a conversation.
Um, yeah, like a it's it's.
It's a great experience and, um, it's really nice to see you
know people like yourself.
With the background you have,recognizing what we're doing,
because often when you buildsomething from scratch, you
(39:53):
don't really know if somebodywants it or if it's going to
work.
Yeah, and now that we'veactually got rubber on the road,
we do see that it's actuallyfilling a need for people.
So that feels good as well.
So it's good to be recognizedand for us and the team to see
we're on the right good as well.
So it's good to be recognizedand for us and the team to see
we're on the right path as well.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Right, congratulations.
Congratulations to you, okay,to all our viewers.
Thank you for joining in again.
It's been such a great.
I'm just so humbled that you'rehere.
You come and listen to us andwatch us, so it means so much to
us here at Doing Business inBentonville.
Follow the story.
Go to lowoffcom, check it out.
(40:33):
You're going to be impressed.
And, brendan, again all my bestto you and your team.
Thanks, andy.
All right, thank you everyone.
Goodbye.
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