May 25, 2026 • 53 mins
Your store’s phones are either making you money or quietly leaking it. We sit down with Viraj from Atlog to get past the buzzwords and talk about what AI actually does inside rent-to-own operations when the goal is simple: reach more customers, collect more consistently, and stop missing calls and texts.
We break down where Atlog started and why the first wedge was collections automation in the RTO space. Viraj explains how they learned the business by visiting dealers across the country, then turned that discovery into AI voice agents that can handle inbound calls, outbound outreach, and two-way texting. For RNR Tire Express locations, that means AI that can educate callers on the program, understand store availability, and book real appointments. Viraj shares real-world performance signals, including top stores seeing 15 to 20 extra leads per week per store, plus examples of how AI can eventually take payments by phone or text and even negotiate within dealer-approved ranges.
We also get into the stuff that makes dealers nervous for good reason: integrations, security, and compliance. Viraj explains why modern systems like Revo are easier to integrate via APIs, how Atlog connects to other tools like CRMs and texting platforms, and what “AI that won’t get you sued” looks like in practice, including TCPA rules and state-by-state dialing limits. If you’re weighing AI for rent-to-own collections, appointment scheduling, or inbound call handling, this conversation gives you the questions to ask and the guardrails to demand.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
All right, that's going.
Are you good?
SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
Good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
All right.
And three.
Two.
Hello and welcome to the RTOshow.
I'm your host, Pete Shout.
And listen, every day, you guysprobably listen to a podcast.
You're going to hear me saysomething.
This is somebody I brought backtoday.
We were talking to Atlog.
Listen, these guys got it goingon.
(00:25):
But when we first talked tothem, when we last talked to
them, they were fresh on thescene.
Now I've got Virage here tellingme they're doing all kinds of
stuff.
And uh I know for a fact thatyou're going to want to hear
about it.
But first, make sure yousubscribe, make sure you hit
that notification bell so youdon't miss anything, especially
things like we do today.
Make sure you go to the podcastwebsite at the RTO
Showpodcast.com.
(00:46):
Subscribe to the newsletterbecause we talk all kinds of
stuff that you might not hear onthe podcast.
And last but not least, makesure if you listen to the show
and you like it, become asponsor.
That's how we get to stay up infront of you.
Now, my man, Virage, uh, dude,how long has it been?
It's been uh maybe a year, 18months that we met.
Has it been almost two yearsnow?
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
A little around a year at this point, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
So last year, yeah.
That's what it was.
FRD.
So I'm I'm I'm literally, guys,I'm literally doing my thing.
I'm going around, I see them,but I don't really get to see
them.
And then the next time I see youguys, well, the next time I see
anybody is an MRDA, right?
So now we're in Missouri.
We have a conversation, and uhwhat it seemed like is there was
a lot going on.
(01:28):
But before we tackle into that,let's find out a little about
because it was somebody elselast time.
I want to know what's going onwith you.
What caused you to get into theRTO space?
Because I know that you were abig part of that.
And dude, I heard that there'ssome really nice things going on
with Atlog right now.
Like I at first I was kind oflike, where are you guys gonna
get in?
You know, there's a lot of uhtrepidation in the RTO world of
(01:50):
kind of moving too fast, tooquick.
And next thing I know, you guysare on the money.
I mean, it it's happening.
So let's let's start off firstbecause uh I hear, I hear of Raj
is a historian at heart.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yes, yes, it is.
Yeah, I studied history andcomputer science in college.
So those were those are my twosubjects, and I did a lot of
history stuff in high school aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
So how does how does the how does the history guy
start with AI?
Like where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Well, I I had the computer science as well.
So I was always doing differentlike AI research.
Um, I was always coding, alwayslike building things, and then
history was just because Ireally liked reading as well.
Um, so yeah, kind of just hadboth the analytical and the more
humanities side at the sametime.
And I still do that now.
SPEAKER_00 (02:38):
So listen, uh before we get into the whole thing, I
want to talk about a little bitof the uh Virage Wild Child.
Did you actually get kicked outof high school?
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
No, I did not.
No.
I did not get kicked out of highschool.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Somebody, somebody, somebody said that it's
possible.
I was like, I don't think so.
I don't think that was the guy.
But listen, truthfully, you havethis historian, you have this
computer background.
As you're going through, thenyou end up at Vanderbilt, you
end up on the Y Combinator.
I, you know, I don't think Iasked this enough in the past,
but why is a Y Combinator makeit so much more in the field
(03:16):
that you're in, so much better?
Because being at Vanderbilt isno small thing.
Going a little bit further andbeing a Y Combinator, what does
that mean?
And what does that you knowafford you to have going into
this AI scene?
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
Yeah, for sure.
So Y Combinator, they're theoriginal funders of a lot of
companies that you've heard of.
So companies like Airbnb,Dropbox, DoorDash, and most
important definitely is OpenAI,right?
So OpenAI was founded as part ofY Combinator.
And really just being in thatecosystem, number one, what they
(03:48):
do is they give you funding totake your company off the
ground, which is reallyimportant.
And they're our first believersin terms of investors.
Um, not only that, but also youget the name, like the credence
as well.
So it's like, yes, we were supersmart and we're able to do all
of these great things and wewere able to code, but it's
really nice when someone who'slike a titan of the industry who
(04:09):
has funded really, really greatcompanies also funds you as
well.
Um, and then you also have likethat peer network.
So our mentor, David at YCombinator, he created Google
Photos.
So his apps had a billion users.
So getting mentorship from thosekinds of people is not something
that you can get anywhere,right?
(04:30):
Um and yeah, so it honestly justhelped us just with every single
part of our company, just on thefunding side, but also just how
to kind of just get off theground as well.
SPEAKER_00 (04:43):
So paint me a picture.
What does a typical day looklike for you guys?
And I know that you know, cominginto this, there was a lot of
discovery, right?
There was not only getting intothe business of AI, but finding
out how the business of AI wasgoing to affect RTO, what in
ways that you could utilize AI.
And like there's been like, andI think when we talked, even
when we talked, there has beenso much of an explosion of AI
(05:06):
directness in what everything wedo, right?
It's on our phones, it's on ourcomputers.
I can have Claude do half thestuff that I needed to do.
Now, so this is an iterationthat is here.
And I believe that, and I'vealways believed that Atlog is
like on the forefront ofushering that in.
Now, what what what does it looklike that you've how first off,
(05:27):
when did you end with YCombinator, or is there an
ending to Y Combinator?
And how did you get into Atlogin the first place?
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
Yeah, so Y Combinator itself is like a
three-month program.
So we ended in June of lastyear.
So um yeah, so that's when weended Y Combinator.
That being said, it's like anongoing process, it's a
community that lives on um, it'slike a school, right?
So it's like once you're part ofa school, you're always an
alumni forever, and you havethat community, you still have
(05:56):
those peer networks and thosementorships as well.
Um, yeah, and then specificallyjust around what things look
like on a day-to-day for us.
So especially when we were doingDiscovery, honestly, what we did
is we flew across the countryand we just visited customers in
different RTOs, RTO stores.
So we would just go in personand try to learn about their
(06:18):
different problems.
So we were in Arizona, we werein Illinois, we were in Indiana,
we were in Nashville, we wereall over.
Um, we were in Tampa and FRDA,just trying to learn about the
problems that RTO dealers had.
So before we even had a product,making sure that we were solving
a problem that was worth solvingthat matter to dealers as well.
SPEAKER_00 (06:39):
So I'm looking at I'm looking at the overall
aspect of it because I know thatas you're looking at RTO, you're
like, there are so many placesthat we can do this.
There are calls that could bemade, there are sales calls that
could be followed up on, there'sscheduling that could be done,
there could be orderingsituations, but it's never as
easy as saying, well, that's allit needs and let's get it done,
right?
So there's there's more to it.
(07:00):
First off, uh, you know, you gotto come into it, look at it, do
the discovery, like you said,find the pain points, and then
match up what you have to thosepain points or tailor what you
have.
Now that we're kind of alreadyin it, because you've kind of
gone through that, you've kindof done this discovery.
Now you're standing in front ofRent to Own.
And I've seen you do MRDA, I'veseen you do FRDA.
(07:21):
What are some of the playersthat you have that you've worked
with where somebody can go, youknow what?
I know that company.
I might want to try Atlogbecause I trust the guy that
they're working with.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
Yeah, for sure.
So our biggest one is definitelyR.
So within the RR franchise,we've been working with them.
Um, we've been working withcorporate along with a bunch of
franchisees as well.
We're working with Hometown upin Pennsylvania and in uh
upstate New York as well.
We're working with a virtual umlease-to-owned player called U
Own Leasing.
(07:51):
They've been really great.
Uh, they're headquartered downin Tampa.
And we've been uh in the workswith a few other dealers as well
that I can't name just yet.
But um, yeah, things have beengoing well on that side.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
So versus when you first came on.
Now, when I when we first cameon, and you guys might be able
to see this on the on the lastpodcast, I actually took a call
with one of the virtualassistants, and it it was it was
quite phenomenal.
It was actually it was actuallybreathtaking.
It did a pretty good job.
Now, mind you, I didn't get intoit and I didn't say I'm not
paying my damn bill.
But what I did do is I get intoit, and it was a little bit, you
(08:26):
know, it was a little bit backand forth, and the bancer was
good.
Now, fast forward 12 months, yousaid one of your biggest clients
right now is R and R.
SPEAKER_01 (08:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:36):
Can you walk me through what is happening in the
rent-to-owned space that neededAI and how were you, you know,
what areas did you tackle first?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Yeah, so honestly, so we started off just seeing
that collections is a huge, hugepart of the rent-to-owned space.
That's how the businessoperates, that's how you make
money.
You need to make sure customersare on time, and you there's a
lot of manpower there as well.
So our first stop was 100%around collections.
(09:04):
So that is something that welaunched with first UON.
Um, and then but for RR, werealized that with collections,
we would have to have all thesedifferent software integrations
and things like that.
So we started with like a moreintroduced introductory problem
around just handling inboundphone calls.
Since um R is more of like aservice-based business, they
(09:26):
sell tires and wheels.
They need to be able to handleevery single kind of inbound
call.
They need to be able to educatecustomers on what RTO is, what
the payment plan looks like,things like that, what the RR
difference is, what the benefitsare about going to R.
So it's like, how do you bringthat into a computer system?
(09:47):
And so that was like the mainchallenge that we've been having
to face and that we've been ableto get over, is that we're able
to bring kind of like theessence of what the business is
and put that into an AI, which Ithink has been really powerful
and a reason why a lot of ourcustomers like what we've been
doing.
SPEAKER_00 (10:07):
Let me ask you a question.
I know that right now R isrunning on what some might call
a proprietary system, uh, youknow, uh for their short-term uh
calling is Revo, right?
So they have Revo that'ssomething they've been using for
a few years.
This is not somewhere that'severywhere.
It's something that right now isjust at R.
Is there an advantage fromhaving something that was kind
of a little bit made fromscratch, being able to be
(10:30):
involved in some of the codingthat happens?
Or was I mean, I would imaginethere's an advantage, but like
did you catch it early enough tointegrate well, or was it
something that you had tobacktrack and kind of find some
backdoors to make it work?
SPEAKER_01 (10:42):
Yeah, 100%.
I think the best thing aboutRevo, um, yes, it's new, it's
they're really just trying topush the program forward.
But I think something that'ssuper great about them is that
the team is really good.
So the team is super responsive,they're really sharp, they're
good developers.
Um, and that's honestly the bestthing about Revo is that they're
(11:04):
all very hungry, which is greatfor us.
Um, where, you know, in a worldwhere you want to move as quick
as possible versus beforesomeone kind of eats your lunch,
um, that's where the Revo teamhas like really shined for us.
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
So, what is it that they have that allows you to
integrate so well?
Because there is some there'ssome rumors that I've heard, and
I want to, I'm gonna, we'regonna approach those a little
bit later because I hear that AIis all up in what we're doing.
But when you're talking aboutsystems, right, there are some
there's some POS systems outthere or operating systems,
whatever you want to call them,that are not easily integrated
(11:40):
with.
Now they're easy, they're eitherusing something that looks like
a dot matrix or they're using aWindows 7-based operating
system.
What is it about the systemsthat has made Revo so inertly
capable?
And are those other systemssomething that you can actually
work with?
Or are they just out of thepark?
I can't, I can't get AI to go.
SPEAKER_01 (12:01):
Yeah, so the thing about the Revo systems is that
their own developers are able todevelop um API.
So basically just likeconnections, programmatic
connections into the systems,right?
And whereas the old ones, youhave to do a lot of finagling.
You might we have had to do someof our own integrations and
things like that.
(12:22):
So the best thing about Revo isthat their own internal dev team
kind of set themselves up, setthemselves up for success to
make their program veryextensible and open to the right
vendors and the right partnersas well.
Um, yeah, that's really whatmakes a difference.
So that's why like building itfrom the ground up on new and
modern technology has beenreally important, um, especially
(12:44):
when we're trying to integratewith AI.
That being said, we have figuredout a few different ways to
integrate with other providers.
SPEAKER_00 (12:51):
Okay, so right now, if somebody was to hear what's
going on, which we'll cover outin a few minutes, they can feel
somewhat okay that you might beable to help them out as well.
SPEAKER_01 (13:01):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Okay.
Now we when we're talking aboutthe wheel and tire, guys, the
wheel and tire business is alittle bit different in the
sense that we're not driving tohomes to give them wheel and
tires.
What we do is we schedule themin the back shop, they come in
and we take care of them there.
Now, is there ever a time wherewe have to leave the building?
Absolutely.
You might have a flat tiresomewhere or you're trying to
provide a service, but in truth,is 95% is going to be in store.
(13:23):
And the reason that happens isbecause we gotta service tires,
they gotta be rotated andbalanced, they've got to be
aligned, and they've got to bebought and sold.
So that aspect is a little bitdifferent of it.
What I'm hearing is is that Revohas the ability, or at least the
integration ability, to have AIhelp them set schedules.
SPEAKER_01 (13:43):
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah.
So with Atlog, you can have, youcan just call someone on the
phone, an RR store that's usingAtlog on the phone at any time,
and it'll book you for anappointment.
Um, it'll understand the store'savailability, it'll understand
how many texts there are,understand what services um that
(14:03):
store offers and things likethat.
And it'll actually fully bookthat appointment and bring in
more revenue for the stores aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
So when we're talking about that, uh let's be
honest.
And I and I just want I want toget into the nitty-gritty.
Not everything works up front.
How is the integration?
How well does it work versushaving somebody on the phone?
What I mean, the success rate ofgetting these things and getting
people in the door, do you havethose type of numbers where you
can say, you know, AI booked somany, and this is the success
rate on those?
SPEAKER_01 (14:31):
Yeah.
So some of our best stores,they're booking 15 to 20 extra
leads per week per store.
Um, and those are people thatare coming in and actually like
buying things, buying services,uh, looking at tires and wheels,
um, scheduling callbacks, thingslike that.
So yeah, you if used properly,you can definitely bring in a
lot of extra revenue.
SPEAKER_00 (14:52):
How many of those AI uh integrations that you have
going on are happening, let'ssay during hours versus after
hours?
Is that 15 to 20 after hoursthat it's getting set up, or is
that during the day, or how doesthat work?
SPEAKER_01 (15:05):
20 both during and after hours.
So the way our system works isthat if you want to set it
during hours, um, it'llbasically, if someone does come
to the phone, it'll go, it'lldefault to the human.
But let's say sometimes, youknow, the store misses a
message, um, then the AI willhandle it after the phone has
been ringing for something like30 seconds.
SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
So it actually picks up.
And now what is the extent ofwhat AI does, right?
Are they calling?
It sets up an appointment andthat's it, or is there more to
it that eventually it will do,or what does it do now?
SPEAKER_01 (15:38):
Yeah, so it'll set up an appointment, and then what
we're also rolling out with adirect revo integration is that
eventually we'll be able todirectly take payments over the
phone or over text.
So the AI will be able to runthe card on file, for example,
um, based on if the customertexts, like, hey, can you run my
card?
Um, it'll be able to take apayment, it'll be able to kind
(16:00):
of do like the accountmanagement piece, it'll be able
to do outbound calls.
It's also able to do uh inboundtexts as well.
So if a customer prefers not tojust call, but they want to text
the store, um, it'll do text aswell.
And let's say someone from thestore forgot to respond to a
customer, the AI will come inand pick up that conversation to
make sure the customer is alwaysbeing addressed as well.
SPEAKER_00 (16:23):
Wow.
Uh that's pretty wild.
I'm gonna ask a crazy question,but how good is the AI at
negotiating?
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
Yeah, um, honestly, it depends on how much you want
it to negotiate.
So we have some customers wherethey'll give AI like a range
that it can negotiate from.
So it's like, I need to collect$600 from this person, but I'm
willing to take between 80 to90% of that.
(16:50):
And if you get between 80 to 90percent, then you can go ahead
and run that payment.
So the AI will actually be ableto negotiate, where if someone
says, Hey, I can't um I can'tmake a payment of$600, and then
the AI will say, Oh, can you dolike$580?
And then it's like, no, I can'tdo that.
Oh, okay, can you do somethinglike 573?
(17:11):
And so it'll choose like kind oflike a random number to not make
it seem like it's just goingdown 5%, 10% each time.
And then the customer is like,oh no, I can only do 200.
Okay, I can't do 200.
So it'll make sure to like blockitself.
Um, so it's only it's thenegotiation of it is as good as
you as you want it to be,really.
(17:31):
Um, and how creative you arewith setting it.
And we help you do that, ofcourse.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
Uh well, I mean, I like the idea.
You know, your tagline says AIthat won't get you sued, which
is a very, it's a very wildtagline.
Be honest with you, I like it.
It's catchy.
Um, so as it's negotiating, asit's setting up time frames,
what is something you knoweverybody's worried about that.
They don't want AI to make aclaim, to say something bold, to
(17:57):
do something that we shouldn'tdo, and then it gets us in
trouble.
When you say that tagline, notonly does it sound very useful,
it sounds very you knowpragmatic.
So talk to me.
What does that really mean?
When you say AI, that won't getyou sued.
And do you know somebody?
Do you know somebody who's beendown that road that has actually
had to worry about that?
SPEAKER_01 (18:15):
Yeah, no, honestly, it's because we saw it as like a
big concern for the RTOindustry, right?
There are all of these concernsaround technology, how it
operates, what if it goes offthe rails.
So we wanted to make peopleaware that that's like on our
forefront.
So not even just around the AI,but everything, or not even the
AI itself, but everything aroundit as well.
(18:36):
So you'll we'll actually be ableto handle all the TCPA rules and
regulations on a state-by-statebasis.
So like RNR has stores in tonsof states, like 30 plus states,
right?
And so what we can do is basedon each state and each state's
rules, we're able to make surethat you know the AI doesn't
call someone too many timesbased on Florida laws uh versus
(18:59):
Alabama might be different.
Um so things like that.
But then also based on what theAI says.
So you never want to sayfinancing in like an RTO
context, we make sure that itdoesn't say those words.
Um, and those are somethingthat's something that's like
really important um for us tomake sure that dealers feel safe
deploying it.
Um, and something that they'vethat we've noticed is that it
(19:21):
tends to be a lot more safe thanmaybe even a human, where it'll
never get mad at a customer,it'll never like um yeah, get
upset with them, it'll never sayanything that's totally off
script, which is something I amnot paying you, I'm not doing
this.
SPEAKER_00 (19:35):
You better give me my money, man.
Um so going from then to now,what were some of the things
that you were running into thatyou uh what have you overcome in
the last 12 to 18 months?
What is it, you know, because Iknow when you first came on the
spot, a lot of people were like,I'm not sure if this is gonna do
it.
I'm not ready to add AI to it,but the money sounds good,
(19:56):
right?
If I can do this for cheaper,listen, if anybody knows this,
right now there's a lot ofbusinesses that are going
through it.
They're oh, we're laying offthis or we're laying off that.
Well, why?
Well, because computers arecoding, computers are answering
phones, computers are gettingthe natural day-to-days kind of
done.
Yes, there are people that areneeded to do the extra, right?
When if there's some brain powerneeded, they're gonna keep them.
But honestly, like you said, uh,you know, if it if it's
(20:18):
answering the phone, if it'stexting customers, if it's
making sure schedules are ontime, it's a fraction of the
cost.
Now, I'm not saying it's good orbad, you're gonna have to make
that decision for yourself, butit's here no matter what.
When you first started, itwasn't that way.
And I don't, you know, there wasthis amount of AI that you had,
but now it's a little bit morevetted than it was.
Have you been able to like knocksome people's uh problems?
(20:42):
You know, if I if I have aproblem with it, right?
If I have a conflict, have youbeen able to overcome those in
the last 12 months with theaccomplishments that you've
made?
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
Yeah, for sure.
So I think it's a couple things.
Number one, like you said, it'sdefinitely just about education,
just like how people are feelingabout it, right?
You need something to like sitin your mind and just kind of
like, do I want this, do I notwant this, what are my
priorities?
And that's totally fine.
And yeah, that makes sense.
What we want to show, um, andespecially with our customers
(21:13):
who like took that early chanceon us, is just having really,
really good customer service.
So let's say the AI is notbehaving properly, um, and just
in ways that you didn't want itset.
We'll be on that right away.
We've had customers text us at11 p.m.
and then at 1 a.m.
we put pushed up a change to theto to fix AI.
So it's really just about likebeing there with the customer
(21:35):
and like being able to show thatlike we care um about the
customer and making sure thatit's to their specifications and
to their needs as well.
Um, that's been the biggestthing.
And by that, a lot of ourcustomers have recommended it to
their friends and can go fromthere, and then that starts just
a very natural, nice salesprocess on that side, which is
(21:58):
really great because our friendsmight have been.
On the fence, or they didn'tknow.
And so then there are those lotmore proof points about not only
the program, about thedevelopment, about the quality,
but about us as a company aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
When you're talking about AI at home, I can I can go
to my computer and I can askClaude, you know, hey, analyze
this, go through my emails,check this.
I can chat GPT something.
When you're talking about AI inthe store's location, do the
employees have a chance tointeract with the AI, or is the
AI separate from what they caninteract with during their
(22:31):
day-to-day processes?
SPEAKER_01 (22:33):
Yeah, so it really depends on how you as the dealer
want to set it up.
So we do have stores where theemployees are working directly
alongside of the AI.
So for example, on text,sometimes the employee will come
in, other times AI will come inand just like handle text with
customers.
And then we have others thatjust completely want to abstract
(22:56):
it away.
So if like they're doingprimarily outbound calls, they
just don't want employeesdealing with it.
They'll just like we'll have itall be AI.
AI does this one function andthat's it.
That's the that's the only thingthat it's doing.
So it just really depends on thestore, but we have a combination
of both.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
I I think that, you know, when when people hear AI
and they hear that it's thisoutside force and they don't get
to really interact with it, theythey get, you know, um schedules
that come in and and people, Imean, this is a relationship
business.
You know, are you getting peoplethat are like, you know what, I
don't want to take AI becauseI'm gonna lose a relationship
with the customer.
I'm not gonna be able to be ableto uh, you know, be as dialed in
(23:34):
as I once was.
And that's something that, youknow, I as a one-store,
two-store, three-store owner,I'm very interested in.
How does that work?
And how do you overcome thatwith the idea of this is brand
new and you don't have to doanything, but you don't want to
lose a relationship as well?
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, I think the main thingis that it's not just treating
it as like this black box thatyou can never see into and you
have no idea what's going on.
You just treat it as like adifferent employee, right?
Same way you just hire anemployee to maybe handle some of
your customer conversations,just because you're not
necessarily handling all of themdoesn't mean that you can't go
back and ask and see what's kindof going on with the customers.
(24:09):
You should you still have thatcustomer contact, right?
Um, but you just have likesomeone else that's taking care
of it.
And eventually, you know, maybeonce you go beyond one or two
stores, you can't handle all ofthem yourself.
Um, and so that's just kind oflike the way that we've been
approaching it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:27):
When you so we're talking about in RTO, how it
affects TRTO.
Here's a question I have.
I'm looking at something herethat says there's there's a
possibility that AI, your AI,the way Atlog deals with AI,
especially when it comes to R,is there an outside source that
you use to deal with any otherprograms than just Revo, or is
(24:49):
it just Revo now?
SPEAKER_01 (24:52):
Uh in RTO specifically, so we actually
have been able to integrate withVerseRant as well.
Um, so that's like our ownintegration that we built
in-house.
That being said, the Revointegration is like a native
integration with Revo, a lotcleaner on that side and can do
a lot more as well.
SPEAKER_00 (25:07):
What what's the help me out with that?
Because I'm glad you said that.
What is the difference betweensomething that you really have
to kind of port in or whateveryou call it?
I'm sorry, I don't know thejargon, but and and and revo
where it's like you're you'rethere's a lot more integration
because you got in at a timeframe when they could start
building the code to fit.
Like, what are thosedifferences?
And you know, is there is therea program now that somebody
(25:30):
could say, you know what, I'drather go to this operating
system because it's gonna workmore, or are they gonna get the
same regardless of the factunless they do something like
Revo where they include you inbuilding it from ground up?
SPEAKER_01 (25:40):
Yeah, honestly, like there are different programs
where a vast majority of themyou can integrate with.
That being said, for RTOspecific operating systems, I'd
say just because like Revo'sbuilt on newer technology, the
developers are able to be a lotmore nimble in the way that they
create integrations.
So that just gives us uhinherent advantage on that side
(26:04):
rather than having to do kind ofkind of go through hoops to get
the integration done.
Not that we can't do it, it'sjust that it's harder and more
expensive.
Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:15):
So how does the how does the AI integrate?
I mean, you're talking about AI,right?
And the way I integrate with uhAI is I go to my computer, I I
log it in and gives me ananswer, whether I have it do
something or something likethat.
Now that it's it's in thesystem, because you know, I've
heard it plenty of times.
I don't want to do this becauseI don't know where my customers'
information is gonna go.
It's gonna have to go in mysystem to be able to find
certain things, not necessarilylike a social security number,
(26:37):
but it's gonna have to knowtheir name, their phone number,
their email address, the simpleintegrations.
I don't want that going anywhereelse.
How do you get it to work withthe system if it's not because I
mean you don't put, I would say,a server inside stores.
So how does it, how does theintegration work?
Does it reach out through anonline, a secured online source
and then it it comes back andperforms functions?
SPEAKER_01 (26:59):
Yeah, so we have like a secured well for the Revo
one, totally different.
But for the others, we have likea secured um like VPN connection
that we use to kind of just likegrab the data.
Um, and then just worrying aboutlike data side, we of course
have direct controls in place tomake sure all the data is
(27:19):
secure.
Just like if you were signing upwith a new provider, like a new
CRM provider.
If you're using HubSpot, you'regonna have to give the data
somehow to HubSpot, right?
So that's just kind of like theway that we think about it.
If you wanted to do anything andyou wanted to, yeah, it's like
depends on like what you want itto do.
If you wanted to not have anyinformation at all, then maybe
(27:42):
like that log system isn't thebest for you, and you just want
maybe just like a normal likevoicemail or like an auto
attendant or an IVR would bebetter.
But if you actually wanted to betaking action, to be doing work
for you, to be taking payments,to be scheduling appointments,
things like that, and actuallybringing additional revenue and
value to your business.
(28:03):
Um you just have to like be ableto give it the proper data to do
that.
And again, just kind of goingback to the point of you
wouldn't you wouldn't tell astory employee, oh, like try to
book an someone's appointmentwithout having access to the
calendar, right?
Um, that just wouldn't makesense.
And so that's just kind of likethe same, the same take that we
that we have on that side.
(28:24):
So we do have like a secureconnection to get the data.
Um, but yeah, it is definitelysomething that we have to prove
and be able to have trust withour customers as well.
SPEAKER_00 (28:34):
So, how do they all use one point?
I mean, right now, uh, and Idon't know how many stores that
you have, I know that RR hasover 200 plus locations, not to
mention anybody else that you'reworking with.
As something goes on, one forone store is 200, two for two
stores now 400, three for threestores, yeah, and and so on.
As this goes on, how does thedata integration work?
(28:56):
And and is there a is there anoverload point for the AI?
Is it developed in a way thateach store has its own access
point and its own situation?
SPEAKER_01 (29:04):
So it's there there isn't Yeah, each store has its
own access point.
I think the their the limit toour data is quite high.
Um, so we're not super worriedabout like that being
overloaded.
You could probably put like 15.
We we have customers who give us50,000 people to call per day.
Um, and that's totally finewithin our system.
(29:26):
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:28):
50,000 calls.
SPEAKER_01 (29:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
When uh when so when you call, is that call show up
as the the business or is it anoutside number that calls?
SPEAKER_01 (29:39):
We register the call to be in your like locality.
So if you're your store's inOrlando, then it'll have an
Orlando zip code and then it'llsay like your business's name on
the on the phone call as well.
SPEAKER_00 (29:51):
You know, I would I didn't even think about this
before we got on.
I should we should have had ademo, right?
We could just like call righthere on the podcast and be like,
hey, who's that?
You know, and it's it's it's therebo guys.
So is there any otherthird-party uh and not operating
software, but is there any othersoftware that's integrated into
what you guys are doing rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (30:12):
Yeah, I mean, what is there anything that you had
in mind?
I guess like specifically, wecan integrate with just about
anything as long as they have anAPI.
So we've put in integrationswith like different calendars,
Outlook, Shop Monkey, Setmore isanother one that we've been
working on.
Podium is like another software,texting platform that we've been
working with.
(30:32):
We've been we've worked withcustom software as well.
Um HubSpot is another one.
So basically, just like anysoftware that has an API would
we'd be able to integrate into.
SPEAKER_00 (30:44):
Okay, so that's exactly that's exactly what I
was asking.
Like not only is the operatingsoftware that we use your being
able to get into, but you alsohave the integration for the
third-party software that wehave to use, like testing, like
the CRMs and the funnels that weuse, the schedulers that we have
to get people in, um, and andthe before and after hours, all
that is integratable for whatyou do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
Exactly.
Yeah.
And if we don't have an existingintegration, we'll write one for
you for free.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:11):
Oh, it's and it's for free.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
Hey, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:15):
So when you have these different industries,
right?
Because I'm I have been in thetraditional furniture industry
for a long time.
I am now in the wheel and tireindustry, but regardless of the
fact they're both RTO, they'recompletely different.
When you're when you're workingon the programs to do one or the
other, is it a big shift?
And does it make a lot ofdifference when you're working
(31:36):
with the AI?
It should is the is there a timeframe where I could say, you
know what, maybe he's doingreally good on the wheel and
tire side, but not good on theon the furniture side right now.
I should wait.
Or do you have it locked downwhere Outlock can do the AI
situation regardless of whetherit's shed, virtual online,
furniture, tire and wheel?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Yeah, honestly, we can do it for all.
So naturally, when we were firstbuilding up our system, we knew
that we would be going into likea variety of different um like
sales, sales types, wheel andtire, furniture, shads, RVs,
etc.
And so we designed our systemfrom the ground up to be able to
actually handle all of thosedifferent nuances, right?
(32:15):
So the system already knowsabout the nuances between
furniture RTO versus wheels.
Um, and that's something that'simportant and that we we have
been very intentional about fromthe very beginning, which has
also allowed us to kind ofswitch between um those two
contexts very quickly.
So it's not just one size oflike a one size fits all AI.
(32:36):
So it's like custom to each andevery store, and we're able to
make that custom very quickly aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (32:42):
All right.
Well, that's good.
That's great, actually.
Now I'm hoping that maybe we canname drop a little bit.
I know you mentioned we wetalked about Revo and we've
talked about Versarant.
That is a huge chunk, but it'snot all of it.
Is there is there any otheroperating software out there in
the RTO world that you can sayad log is definitely the ad log
(33:04):
AI is definitely going to workand is set up and ready to go
for this?
SPEAKER_01 (33:08):
Yeah, so honestly, like the the third biggest is of
course high touch and synergy.
And so that is something that wehave been working on.
Um honestly it's just because wehaven't had a client on high
touch yet.
So I think once we once we'reable to sign a client on high
touch, we should be good to goon that side as well.
I've took a taken a long look attheir systems and things like
(33:30):
that.
It's like pretty confident thatwe can use the same approach um
that we did with First Rent toto integrate with high touch as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
So your your job reaches thousands.
Thousands.
But I've only seen a few of youguys.
Are you guys scaling up yet?
Or is it AI you don't needanybody else, or whatever?
I've seen John, I've seen you.
I mean, how how many people areon a team now?
SPEAKER_01 (33:57):
Yeah, we just hired our first engineer.
Um, and honestly, like we wewant to keep the team small.
It it just doesn't really makesense to um to scale it before
it needs to be, I guess.
Um we've done like I think apretty good job of being able to
like handle all of the volumeand we do work kind of long
hours, but that's also okay.
(34:19):
Um and yeah, so yeah, we justhired a first engineer, we're
looking for another one, butyeah, we're we're probably gonna
keep it under under 10 for awhile at least, just because
with AI you can do so much, soso much more where you don't
necessarily have to growheadcount to to an extremely
large amount without uh yeah, inorder to to to deploy code.
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
Now you with all the compliance that you have,
especially now that you, yeah, Imean you have a tight-knit team,
everybody's kind of doingeverything.
You got compliance, you've gotdifferent states, you've got
different mandates, whether it'sfurniture, tire and wheel,
virtual, whatever the case is.
I I'm curious, who what job doyou have?
(35:01):
Like, is it is it like doeseverybody do everything?
Is that kind of the way it worksright now?
Because you said you hired anengineer, but like it sounds
like everybody's got a littlebit of everything going on.
SPEAKER_01 (35:10):
Yeah, I mean the engineer is really just doing
the coding, but me and John aredoing just everything.
So like one day I'm coding, oneday I'm doing sales, one day I'm
doing legal stuff, talking tolawyers, things like that.
So it's all over for us, for meand John.
But you know, that's that's fun.
Um, we enjoy it, so it's it'spretty good.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm gonna put a picture up
here of uh our little Christmas.
Uh it was close to Christmas, alittle after Christmas,
actually.
We had the we had the meetingdown in uh in Orlando, and uh,
we got a little picture that I'mgonna post up.
So you can see you can see Verizand John looking great there.
Um as as you go forward, what'snext?
I mean, so we have schedulingsoftware down to assign.
(35:53):
So you're saying that you canincorporate things like Shop
Monkey and HubSpot and Podiumand do things like that.
So that's already there.
The sales aspect of it, you'remaking 50,000 calls in in
depending on who it is.
So it could be a few hundredthousand a day that this is
reaching out to.
What's next?
I mean, I know that I say that12 months after you've initially
(36:14):
started.
So there might not be a next fora long while.
But I mean, what's the next stepfrom here?
Right now, we've got datacenters that are going up
everywhere, and I got glassesthat can answer half my
questions.
What's next for Atlog AI?
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
It's really about making our program as accessible
as possible to just any RTOdealer.
So I think that starts withnumber one, the integrations,
making sure it's properly beingsynced to your data and the
software that you're alreadyusing.
Number two is actually insteadof just like us going to us to
(36:47):
have to configure the AI everytime, giving some of that power
back um back to the end user aswell.
And in overall, just likeimproving the end user
experience for all of ourcustomers.
So making our feedback loopsfaster, making it so that we
don't have to, it doesn't takeuh two hours to edit the AI, it
can take two minutes, right?
(37:08):
So a lot of it's improving likeour own internal processes as
well.
But really at the core ofeverything is just making it so
that this is extremelyapproachable to any RTO dealer.
They don't have to think tothink twice about it.
They can upload their process,they can talk to us for a little
bit, and then you can turn it onright away.
Um, and I think we've beenmaking a lot of steps in that
(37:30):
direction, which I'm reallyexcited about as well.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Well, I think you're doing something right because
the business insider namedAtlog, one of the 10 most
exciting AI agent startups at YCdemo day, is spring of 2025.
What was that like to havesomebody say, hey, these guys
are one of the top 10 to get itdone?
SPEAKER_01 (37:51):
Yeah, no, it was really exciting.
Um, we didn't actually even knowthe article was being written
about us, but the fact that itwas um so I think that was even
cooler that like they didn'tthey we didn't even talk to them
about it.
Um, and so yeah, we're we'rereally excited about that as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (38:07):
Yeah, I mean, I you know, being part of something
new and and that something thatstands out can be very daunting,
especially when you're in anindustry that is like, you know,
they're relatively like we wehave these relationships with
people.
We don't want to get rid of, youknow, we only have we have small
staffs, right?
They're actually five to sevenon average, depending.
Bigger stores might have acouple more, but you know, you
(38:28):
you run with a small staff,you're very integrated into the
communities that you're in.
I mean, when you're when you'reon the other side, which you are
all the time, and somebody says,Why in God's name would I put AI
in my store?
What is it gonna do for me?
And how much better can it getwith what you're doing if I'm
not personally involved in it?
I don't have that relationshipwith somebody because it's gonna
(38:50):
be, you know, something on thephone is talking.
What are some of the points thatyou would give somebody and say,
these are all the things thatI'm telling you that you will
get with us that will benefityou through whatever time frame?
SPEAKER_01 (39:00):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I think the biggestthing is that a lot of customers
actually feel more comfortabletalking to it.
So especially when you'retalking in Spanish, um, we've
seen a huge lift in Spanishspeaking customers and Spanish
speaking uh geographies as well.
So some stores might not alwayshave a Spanish speaker on staff,
or the Spanish speaker might beout.
(39:21):
Um, and that's something that'sreally important is that you
always quote unquote have aSpanish speaker on staff.
Um, the second part is that wedon't necessarily want you to
lose that customer touch, right?
It's just that I'm sure everysingle one of these dealers, you
have someone sitting on thephone for three to four hours a
day who might not get throughall of their calls and they are
(39:44):
just getting hung up on, they'renot getting any answers, they're
trying to call these people,trying to text them, and then
you don't necessarily even knowif all of those, if every
customer is being contacted aswell.
Wouldn't it make more sense tohave that person instead of just
being on the phone, notnecessarily talking to anyone,
but actually being in the store,talking to customers, selling,
(40:05):
actually creating those humanconnections where you can have
that like more monotonous taskbe done for significantly
cheaper and be way moreproductive with the customers
that are right in front of you.
Um, that's something that'sreally important as well, right?
It's like, why are you staying?
No, no need to stay in the backof the store just on the phone.
You can just be with thecustomer, guiding them through
(40:28):
your shop and your experienceand why your your store is
better than the rest of thecompetition.
So it just gives you more time,time back to to spend with
everyone who's in front of you.
SPEAKER_00 (40:38):
Well, let's let that pendulum swing the other way.
Instead of being trepidatiousabout what you have going on,
and I'm not really sure if Iwant to do this and whatever the
case is, you mentioned earliervirtual rent-to-hown, which is
something that I want to ask youabout because you do sales
calls, you do collections calls,you do scheduling.
What are the chances uh in thenext couple of years we're gonna
(41:02):
have a very small Atlog-ish typeof crew where there's only two
or three and they're running acompany 90% through AI?
Is that a goal of Atlog?
Is that a goal of some of theguys that are on the virtual
side to say, you know, I I can,I don't want to say completely
eliminate because you're neverreally gonna be eliminate the
human interaction.
But, you know, I have thesecalls being made.
(41:23):
I have this being scheduled fordelivery, I have, you know, this
as far as collection calls goingon.
I can kind of maneuvereverything in this way.
Is that a version of what'sgoing on right now, or are they
going to that in the future?
SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
Um, I'd say for us specifically, we're down, we
aren't going to that.
And in we like to service theRTO industry.
We wouldn't want to become likea huge RTO player.
Um, I I don't know if I cannecessarily speak for any of the
virtual players, but what itseems like it is not going in
that direction because there'sstill so many like operational
(41:58):
things that you have to fix.
Um, even a virtual model wherenow your customers are all over
the country making sure you havethe right partners, uh, making
sure you're assessing risk andthings like that.
So it's just like a differentset of problems, really.
So I don't I think it would bereally cool if you could run.
I mean, if anyone wants to run athree-person virtual rent-owned
(42:19):
company, like let me know, andwe'll get you on Atlog right
away.
We're all just like it'spossible, we can talk about it.
But um honestly, I don't know ifI've I don't know if I've seen
that just yet.
Maybe, maybe it could be apossibility.
It is something that it's notit's not out of the realm, it's
not out of the realmpossibility, but so far in what
(42:40):
I've seen, I don't know ifanyone's going towards that.
SPEAKER_00 (42:43):
I mean, it my my natural instinct is to go, okay,
because you you have those guysare gonna say, I don't know if I
want to get rid of somebody, Idon't know if I want to cut down
the manpower.
I am worried about this or I amworried about that.
But again, on the other side ofthat pendulum, you might have
somebody be like, well, this isan opportunity to kind of run it
by myself.
You know what I mean?
I could work six days a week ifI'm only working five hours a
day and just let and kind of letthe business run itself.
(43:06):
And, you know, as far as AI isconcerned, I don't think it's
ever going to cut down.
I think it's only gonna getbetter unless we have a big
asteroid that comes and wipesout half humanity.
I think it's gonna be AI.
I I do think at some point intime we're gonna have to worry
about uh Skynet or whatever, butuntil we get there, please don't
please don't come after me.
I'm just saying that that's athat's a whole nother thing.
So you know, going into the end,going into you know the twilight
(43:30):
of of the conversation, somequestions that I wanted to ask
you, and you know, some of thepersonal, some are business, but
I think that you are you are theguy to ask some of these
questions.
The best piece of advice you gotfrom Y Combinator.
Best piece of advice.
SPEAKER_01 (43:50):
I'd say I got a lot of advice at Y Combinator.
I think the best one was a lot.
Along the lines of it was ourmentor, and he was saying it's
just like, stop asking me whatto do and just do it, and then
you'll find out like the theanswer for yourself.
(44:12):
It's like we spend all this timetrying to like pontificate on
like what the best solution is,what is the best strategy, what
is like the all of the strategystuff, and honestly, the best
thing to do is just to do it,right?
Um, and I think that's reallylike brought on dividends for us
as a company.
Of like sometimes we'll get inthese long drawn-out arguments
(44:35):
of like what could be, andinstead it's like, what if we
just try it?
And then we'll see what actuallyhappens.
And I think that's like been thebest thing of like, what if we
just tried to do somethinginstead of just like asking if
is it possible or is it not?
SPEAKER_00 (44:50):
I like that.
I I don't know.
I've I've gotten myself intosome crazy situations.
That's almost how I ended up onthe podcast.
And we're like, hey, we shouldjust try it out.
And then you know, years later,but I definitely understand that
piece because there's been somany times that you get
paralysis by analysis, andyou're just kind of like, I
don't know what to do.
And it's like, just do it, dude.
Just go out there and do it.
Um, if you could go back andtell yourself one thing before
(45:10):
you walk near your first RTOstore, what would it be?
I'd say they're not ready.
They're not ready.
SPEAKER_01 (45:25):
No, honestly, I'd say I'd say I don't I don't even
know.
I I'm just like we when wewalked into our first RTO store,
I don't even know if we had anyidea of anything that was going
on.
Maybe it's just like they have amore open mind than you might
think, right?
So it's like there you're gonnafind like a wide variety of
(45:46):
characters in every industry.
But something that I we'vereally enjoyed about RTO is that
a lot of people are at leastwilling to hear you out.
And I think that, like justbeing able to know that and like
internalize that um has beenreally powerful as well because
you do get to your firstbelievers, you do get to that
first contract, that first bigcontract, and that really would,
(46:08):
you know, just help keep megoing.
And I think that belief has justkind of helped me stay, helped
us stay in the industry andhelped us keep going and just
keep uh just keep providing goodstuff, good software as well.
SPEAKER_00 (46:20):
Okay.
And uh in five years, in youropinion, what does a well-run
RTO tire store look like?
Is it is it all is it 15% moreintegration of AI?
Is it you know what what is it?
Are we are we walking in andjust punching, you know, digits
on a screen and all of a suddenmy car is gonna get taken care
of?
What do you see in the next fiveyears?
SPEAKER_01 (46:41):
Yeah, I think the in five years, it's not even just
about just it's all AI, it's notall AI.
I think the main goal should behow can you get as many
customers as possible?
That's like the main goal.
So I think in five years, everyRTO store, every RTO attire
store, whether that's AI or AIenabled or not, um, should try
(47:04):
to have 1.5x the number ofcustomers, number of people
renting items.
And I think obviously we try toenable that where you can do
that without necessarily scalingheadcount or expanding your
footprint a ton.
Like that's a core thesis to towhat we're trying to do is like
help you grow without having togrow your expenses as well.
(47:24):
Um, but I'd say even if you dothat without us, I think any RTO
business should just try to dothat.
Um try to go the grow thecustomer base as much as they
can.
SPEAKER_00 (47:36):
What so what do you want RTO dealers and RR
franchisees listening uh to do?
If they were listening, whatwould you say to do right after
this episode?
SPEAKER_01 (47:50):
I'd say go to at log.ai, book and demo.
Um, but yeah, honestly, I thinkjust have like an open mind
about where you can maybe savemoney.
And not only that AI is justhelping you save money, but
think about how it can help yougrow as well.
I think there is like a a verybig phenomenon around like any
(48:13):
kind of software has to cutexpenses by X amount to make it
worth it, which I 100% agreewith.
But even just beyond that, youcan look at the growth.
And we can show you our growthnumbers that we've been
providing for our customers aswell, where with new technology,
new innovation, no matter whatit is, if you invest in it, it
will pay off in the long run,where you will be ahead.
(48:36):
And at least if you understandit and you know what's going on
with it, it will 100% grow yourbusiness and just grow that
customer base as much as youpossibly can.
And so I'd say try to give it atry, and you might be surprised
on how much it can help you out.
SPEAKER_00 (48:54):
You know, last question, uh, and I am glad that
you said that.
Last question is since theadvent of Atlog AI integrating
in the RTO industry, is therenumbers to say since AI has been
integrated, we have eitherincreased revenue or decreased
the amount uh towards the bottomline when it comes to the amount
(49:16):
of labor we have or whatever thecase is, is there a correlation
to both?
Hey, we increased the percenthere, we decreased the percent
there, so therefore it's two anda half, five and a half percent.
Is do you have any of those uhtangible numbers to say on
average this is what a storegains by using an AI?
SPEAKER_01 (49:33):
Yeah, so I can't give you exact numbers just to
for client confidentialitypurposes, but we have seen that
in our most successfuldeployments, they're saving on
headcounts, so that tends to bebetween four to six thousand per
month that they're saving.
And then we've also seendelinquency percentages go down
(49:54):
in stores across the board aswell.
And then also we've seen the AIis collecting at sometimes 1.5x
to 2x the rate greater than ahuman might.
So really that's been yeah, andso that's been really, really
great for us as well.
You just always have thatconstant contact, you have very
(50:15):
strict guidelines, you have thatum, yeah, it's just following
your exact process, right?
And so we can see not only likecost improvements and savings on
that side, so on headcount, orwhether that's just moving
people around, making them moreproductive, but also just on the
efficiency of the calls as well.
SPEAKER_00 (50:37):
I you know, you got now out of everything I think
you said, that number based onthe collection calls that are
made, and you're talking about1.5x or a little bit higher,
that's a lot.
Now, would you attribute that tojust basic consistency?
SPEAKER_01 (50:52):
Yeah, I think it's a couple things.
Basic consistency is a big one.
I think consistency is uh yeah,consistency around the calls,
but also just the availabilityto meet the customer where
they're at, whether that's onthe phone, over text, in
English, in Spanish, in French,right?
You really are able to adapt toyour customer a lot better when
(51:14):
you're using a system like ours.
SPEAKER_00 (51:17):
Well, I will tell you guys, in French is gonna
work.
R and R uh Tire Express isactually now in Canada.
They should be opening up thismonth.
I'm sure that you guys are gonnabe a little bit uh uh a part of
that.
And listen, I want to see youguys opening up your own
location, and we'll see how manyuh people we see how many people
we can do with it.
Me and Viraj are gonna be in theback uh doing a little thing
(51:37):
like this.
I'm gonna be talking about it.
He's gonna be doing the AI.
Maybe we can run it with oneperson.
Guys, we do appreciate you beingon.
Virage, always uh just I loveseeing you, man.
I love seeing out and about.
I'm glad to have you on the showto answer a couple questions
that I had regarding this, and Iknow we've answered some of your
questions, but if you have anymore, make sure that you email
me, Pete at the RTOShowpodcast.com.
Let me know.
Hey, this is for at log, and Ihave a question.
(51:59):
That way I can get an answer foryou.
If anything, we can do it again,have them on.
We might have like uh uh an atlog AI conversation.
I don't know if we're just gonnareplace Virage with the AI guy
and it's gonna have like anavatar, but we can see and make
that happen.
I would tell you guys, we aretrying to be anywhere where you
are.
That's Facebook, Instagram,LinkedIn, YouTube where you're
gonna see this.
(52:19):
Make sure again that yousubscribe, that you like the
channel, that you go anywherethat you can, buy a shirt, buy
some swag, show us some love,get on the newsletter, and uh
guys, I'm gonna tell you it'sbeen great.
Vraj, real quick, how doessomebody get a hold of Atlog?
SPEAKER_01 (52:35):
Well, you can either just go to our website, at
log.ai, book a demo, um, or youcan email me directly.
So that's Vraj V-R-A-J atatlog.ai.
I'll respond within 10 minutes.
And you can also I have mypersonal phone number in my
email footer as well, so you canuh text or call me at any time
(52:56):
as well.
SPEAKER_00 (52:56):
Uh just so you guys know, Viraj is not asleep.
So he will he I've I have seenthe pictures of the text
messages back at two o'clock inthe morning.
They are they are staying alittle busy.
They're not necessarily gonnareach out to you, but if you
reach out to them, you might geta message back.
So I'm gonna tell you guys don'twork too hard.
I appreciate everything you do.
And I'm gonna tell you,listeners at home, thank you so
much.
And remember, get yourcollections low to get your
(53:19):
sales high.
Have a great one.
SPEAKER_01 (53:21):
Thanks, Pete.
SPEAKER_00 (53:22):
We're all set, man.
Um, real quick, how are youdoing?
Everything, uh you you guys arestaying busy?
Yeah, yeah.
Things are good.
Uh, we're are you uh
All right, that's going.
Are you good?
SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
Good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
All right.
And three.
Two.
Hello and welcome to the RTOshow.
I'm your host, Pete Shout.
And listen, every day, you guysprobably listen to a podcast.
You're going to hear me saysomething.
This is somebody I brought backtoday.
We were talking to Atlog.
Listen, these guys got it goingon.
(00:25):
But when we first talked tothem, when we last talked to
them, they were fresh on thescene.
Now I've got Virage here tellingme they're doing all kinds of
stuff.
And uh I know for a fact thatyou're going to want to hear
about it.
But first, make sure yousubscribe, make sure you hit
that notification bell so youdon't miss anything, especially
things like we do today.
Make sure you go to the podcastwebsite at the RTO
Showpodcast.com.
(00:46):
Subscribe to the newsletterbecause we talk all kinds of
stuff that you might not hear onthe podcast.
And last but not least, makesure if you listen to the show
and you like it, become asponsor.
That's how we get to stay up infront of you.
Now, my man, Virage, uh, dude,how long has it been?
It's been uh maybe a year, 18months that we met.
Has it been almost two yearsnow?
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
A little around a year at this point, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
So last year, yeah.
That's what it was.
FRD.
So I'm I'm I'm literally, guys,I'm literally doing my thing.
I'm going around, I see them,but I don't really get to see
them.
And then the next time I see youguys, well, the next time I see
anybody is an MRDA, right?
So now we're in Missouri.
We have a conversation, and uhwhat it seemed like is there was
a lot going on.
(01:28):
But before we tackle into that,let's find out a little about
because it was somebody elselast time.
I want to know what's going onwith you.
What caused you to get into theRTO space?
Because I know that you were abig part of that.
And dude, I heard that there'ssome really nice things going on
with Atlog right now.
Like I at first I was kind oflike, where are you guys gonna
get in?
You know, there's a lot of uhtrepidation in the RTO world of
(01:50):
kind of moving too fast, tooquick.
And next thing I know, you guysare on the money.
I mean, it it's happening.
So let's let's start off firstbecause uh I hear, I hear of Raj
is a historian at heart.
Is that true?
SPEAKER_01 (02:02):
Yes, yes, it is.
Yeah, I studied history andcomputer science in college.
So those were those are my twosubjects, and I did a lot of
history stuff in high school aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
So how does how does the how does the history guy
start with AI?
Like where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Well, I I had the computer science as well.
So I was always doing differentlike AI research.
Um, I was always coding, alwayslike building things, and then
history was just because Ireally liked reading as well.
Um, so yeah, kind of just hadboth the analytical and the more
humanities side at the sametime.
And I still do that now.
SPEAKER_00 (02:38):
So listen, uh before we get into the whole thing, I
want to talk about a little bitof the uh Virage Wild Child.
Did you actually get kicked outof high school?
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
No, I did not.
No.
I did not get kicked out of highschool.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Somebody, somebody, somebody said that it's
possible.
I was like, I don't think so.
I don't think that was the guy.
But listen, truthfully, you havethis historian, you have this
computer background.
As you're going through, thenyou end up at Vanderbilt, you
end up on the Y Combinator.
I, you know, I don't think Iasked this enough in the past,
but why is a Y Combinator makeit so much more in the field
(03:16):
that you're in, so much better?
Because being at Vanderbilt isno small thing.
Going a little bit further andbeing a Y Combinator, what does
that mean?
And what does that you knowafford you to have going into
this AI scene?
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
Yeah, for sure.
So Y Combinator, they're theoriginal funders of a lot of
companies that you've heard of.
So companies like Airbnb,Dropbox, DoorDash, and most
important definitely is OpenAI,right?
So OpenAI was founded as part ofY Combinator.
And really just being in thatecosystem, number one, what they
(03:48):
do is they give you funding totake your company off the
ground, which is reallyimportant.
And they're our first believersin terms of investors.
Um, not only that, but also youget the name, like the credence
as well.
So it's like, yes, we were supersmart and we're able to do all
of these great things and wewere able to code, but it's
really nice when someone who'slike a titan of the industry who
(04:09):
has funded really, really greatcompanies also funds you as
well.
Um, and then you also have likethat peer network.
So our mentor, David at YCombinator, he created Google
Photos.
So his apps had a billion users.
So getting mentorship from thosekinds of people is not something
that you can get anywhere,right?
(04:30):
Um and yeah, so it honestly justhelped us just with every single
part of our company, just on thefunding side, but also just how
to kind of just get off theground as well.
SPEAKER_00 (04:43):
So paint me a picture.
What does a typical day looklike for you guys?
And I know that you know, cominginto this, there was a lot of
discovery, right?
There was not only getting intothe business of AI, but finding
out how the business of AI wasgoing to affect RTO, what in
ways that you could utilize AI.
And like there's been like, andI think when we talked, even
when we talked, there has beenso much of an explosion of AI
(05:06):
directness in what everything wedo, right?
It's on our phones, it's on ourcomputers.
I can have Claude do half thestuff that I needed to do.
Now, so this is an iterationthat is here.
And I believe that, and I'vealways believed that Atlog is
like on the forefront ofushering that in.
Now, what what what does it looklike that you've how first off,
(05:27):
when did you end with YCombinator, or is there an
ending to Y Combinator?
And how did you get into Atlogin the first place?
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
Yeah, so Y Combinator itself is like a
three-month program.
So we ended in June of lastyear.
So um yeah, so that's when weended Y Combinator.
That being said, it's like anongoing process, it's a
community that lives on um, it'slike a school, right?
So it's like once you're part ofa school, you're always an
alumni forever, and you havethat community, you still have
(05:56):
those peer networks and thosementorships as well.
Um, yeah, and then specificallyjust around what things look
like on a day-to-day for us.
So especially when we were doingDiscovery, honestly, what we did
is we flew across the countryand we just visited customers in
different RTOs, RTO stores.
So we would just go in personand try to learn about their
(06:18):
different problems.
So we were in Arizona, we werein Illinois, we were in Indiana,
we were in Nashville, we wereall over.
Um, we were in Tampa and FRDA,just trying to learn about the
problems that RTO dealers had.
So before we even had a product,making sure that we were solving
a problem that was worth solvingthat matter to dealers as well.
SPEAKER_00 (06:39):
So I'm looking at I'm looking at the overall
aspect of it because I know thatas you're looking at RTO, you're
like, there are so many placesthat we can do this.
There are calls that could bemade, there are sales calls that
could be followed up on, there'sscheduling that could be done,
there could be orderingsituations, but it's never as
easy as saying, well, that's allit needs and let's get it done,
right?
So there's there's more to it.
(07:00):
First off, uh, you know, you gotto come into it, look at it, do
the discovery, like you said,find the pain points, and then
match up what you have to thosepain points or tailor what you
have.
Now that we're kind of alreadyin it, because you've kind of
gone through that, you've kindof done this discovery.
Now you're standing in front ofRent to Own.
And I've seen you do MRDA, I'veseen you do FRDA.
(07:21):
What are some of the playersthat you have that you've worked
with where somebody can go, youknow what?
I know that company.
I might want to try Atlogbecause I trust the guy that
they're working with.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
Yeah, for sure.
So our biggest one is definitelyR.
So within the RR franchise,we've been working with them.
Um, we've been working withcorporate along with a bunch of
franchisees as well.
We're working with Hometown upin Pennsylvania and in uh
upstate New York as well.
We're working with a virtual umlease-to-owned player called U
Own Leasing.
(07:51):
They've been really great.
Uh, they're headquartered downin Tampa.
And we've been uh in the workswith a few other dealers as well
that I can't name just yet.
But um, yeah, things have beengoing well on that side.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
So versus when you first came on.
Now, when I when we first cameon, and you guys might be able
to see this on the on the lastpodcast, I actually took a call
with one of the virtualassistants, and it it was it was
quite phenomenal.
It was actually it was actuallybreathtaking.
It did a pretty good job.
Now, mind you, I didn't get intoit and I didn't say I'm not
paying my damn bill.
But what I did do is I get intoit, and it was a little bit, you
(08:26):
know, it was a little bit backand forth, and the bancer was
good.
Now, fast forward 12 months, yousaid one of your biggest clients
right now is R and R.
SPEAKER_01 (08:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:36):
Can you walk me through what is happening in the
rent-to-owned space that neededAI and how were you, you know,
what areas did you tackle first?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Yeah, so honestly, so we started off just seeing
that collections is a huge, hugepart of the rent-to-owned space.
That's how the businessoperates, that's how you make
money.
You need to make sure customersare on time, and you there's a
lot of manpower there as well.
So our first stop was 100%around collections.
(09:04):
So that is something that welaunched with first UON.
Um, and then but for RR, werealized that with collections,
we would have to have all thesedifferent software integrations
and things like that.
So we started with like a moreintroduced introductory problem
around just handling inboundphone calls.
Since um R is more of like aservice-based business, they
(09:26):
sell tires and wheels.
They need to be able to handleevery single kind of inbound
call.
They need to be able to educatecustomers on what RTO is, what
the payment plan looks like,things like that, what the RR
difference is, what the benefitsare about going to R.
So it's like, how do you bringthat into a computer system?
(09:47):
And so that was like the mainchallenge that we've been having
to face and that we've been ableto get over, is that we're able
to bring kind of like theessence of what the business is
and put that into an AI, which Ithink has been really powerful
and a reason why a lot of ourcustomers like what we've been
doing.
SPEAKER_00 (10:07):
Let me ask you a question.
I know that right now R isrunning on what some might call
a proprietary system, uh, youknow, uh for their short-term uh
calling is Revo, right?
So they have Revo that'ssomething they've been using for
a few years.
This is not somewhere that'severywhere.
It's something that right now isjust at R.
Is there an advantage fromhaving something that was kind
of a little bit made fromscratch, being able to be
(10:30):
involved in some of the codingthat happens?
Or was I mean, I would imaginethere's an advantage, but like
did you catch it early enough tointegrate well, or was it
something that you had tobacktrack and kind of find some
backdoors to make it work?
SPEAKER_01 (10:42):
Yeah, 100%.
I think the best thing aboutRevo, um, yes, it's new, it's
they're really just trying topush the program forward.
But I think something that'ssuper great about them is that
the team is really good.
So the team is super responsive,they're really sharp, they're
good developers.
Um, and that's honestly the bestthing about Revo is that they're
(11:04):
all very hungry, which is greatfor us.
Um, where, you know, in a worldwhere you want to move as quick
as possible versus beforesomeone kind of eats your lunch,
um, that's where the Revo teamhas like really shined for us.
SPEAKER_00 (11:18):
So, what is it that they have that allows you to
integrate so well?
Because there is some there'ssome rumors that I've heard, and
I want to, I'm gonna, we'regonna approach those a little
bit later because I hear that AIis all up in what we're doing.
But when you're talking aboutsystems, right, there are some
there's some POS systems outthere or operating systems,
whatever you want to call them,that are not easily integrated
(11:40):
with.
Now they're easy, they're eitherusing something that looks like
a dot matrix or they're using aWindows 7-based operating
system.
What is it about the systemsthat has made Revo so inertly
capable?
And are those other systemssomething that you can actually
work with?
Or are they just out of thepark?
I can't, I can't get AI to go.
SPEAKER_01 (12:01):
Yeah, so the thing about the Revo systems is that
their own developers are able todevelop um API.
So basically just likeconnections, programmatic
connections into the systems,right?
And whereas the old ones, youhave to do a lot of finagling.
You might we have had to do someof our own integrations and
things like that.
(12:22):
So the best thing about Revo isthat their own internal dev team
kind of set themselves up, setthemselves up for success to
make their program veryextensible and open to the right
vendors and the right partnersas well.
Um, yeah, that's really whatmakes a difference.
So that's why like building itfrom the ground up on new and
modern technology has beenreally important, um, especially
(12:44):
when we're trying to integratewith AI.
That being said, we have figuredout a few different ways to
integrate with other providers.
SPEAKER_00 (12:51):
Okay, so right now, if somebody was to hear what's
going on, which we'll cover outin a few minutes, they can feel
somewhat okay that you might beable to help them out as well.
SPEAKER_01 (13:01):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Okay.
Now we when we're talking aboutthe wheel and tire, guys, the
wheel and tire business is alittle bit different in the
sense that we're not driving tohomes to give them wheel and
tires.
What we do is we schedule themin the back shop, they come in
and we take care of them there.
Now, is there ever a time wherewe have to leave the building?
Absolutely.
You might have a flat tiresomewhere or you're trying to
provide a service, but in truth,is 95% is going to be in store.
(13:23):
And the reason that happens isbecause we gotta service tires,
they gotta be rotated andbalanced, they've got to be
aligned, and they've got to bebought and sold.
So that aspect is a little bitdifferent of it.
What I'm hearing is is that Revohas the ability, or at least the
integration ability, to have AIhelp them set schedules.
SPEAKER_01 (13:43):
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah.
So with Atlog, you can have, youcan just call someone on the
phone, an RR store that's usingAtlog on the phone at any time,
and it'll book you for anappointment.
Um, it'll understand the store'savailability, it'll understand
how many texts there are,understand what services um that
(14:03):
store offers and things likethat.
And it'll actually fully bookthat appointment and bring in
more revenue for the stores aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
So when we're talking about that, uh let's be
honest.
And I and I just want I want toget into the nitty-gritty.
Not everything works up front.
How is the integration?
How well does it work versushaving somebody on the phone?
What I mean, the success rate ofgetting these things and getting
people in the door, do you havethose type of numbers where you
can say, you know, AI booked somany, and this is the success
rate on those?
SPEAKER_01 (14:31):
Yeah.
So some of our best stores,they're booking 15 to 20 extra
leads per week per store.
Um, and those are people thatare coming in and actually like
buying things, buying services,uh, looking at tires and wheels,
um, scheduling callbacks, thingslike that.
So yeah, you if used properly,you can definitely bring in a
lot of extra revenue.
SPEAKER_00 (14:52):
How many of those AI uh integrations that you have
going on are happening, let'ssay during hours versus after
hours?
Is that 15 to 20 after hoursthat it's getting set up, or is
that during the day, or how doesthat work?
SPEAKER_01 (15:05):
20 both during and after hours.
So the way our system works isthat if you want to set it
during hours, um, it'llbasically, if someone does come
to the phone, it'll go, it'lldefault to the human.
But let's say sometimes, youknow, the store misses a
message, um, then the AI willhandle it after the phone has
been ringing for something like30 seconds.
SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
So it actually picks up.
And now what is the extent ofwhat AI does, right?
Are they calling?
It sets up an appointment andthat's it, or is there more to
it that eventually it will do,or what does it do now?
SPEAKER_01 (15:38):
Yeah, so it'll set up an appointment, and then what
we're also rolling out with adirect revo integration is that
eventually we'll be able todirectly take payments over the
phone or over text.
So the AI will be able to runthe card on file, for example,
um, based on if the customertexts, like, hey, can you run my
card?
Um, it'll be able to take apayment, it'll be able to kind
(16:00):
of do like the accountmanagement piece, it'll be able
to do outbound calls.
It's also able to do uh inboundtexts as well.
So if a customer prefers not tojust call, but they want to text
the store, um, it'll do text aswell.
And let's say someone from thestore forgot to respond to a
customer, the AI will come inand pick up that conversation to
make sure the customer is alwaysbeing addressed as well.
SPEAKER_00 (16:23):
Wow.
Uh that's pretty wild.
I'm gonna ask a crazy question,but how good is the AI at
negotiating?
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
Yeah, um, honestly, it depends on how much you want
it to negotiate.
So we have some customers wherethey'll give AI like a range
that it can negotiate from.
So it's like, I need to collect$600 from this person, but I'm
willing to take between 80 to90% of that.
(16:50):
And if you get between 80 to 90percent, then you can go ahead
and run that payment.
So the AI will actually be ableto negotiate, where if someone
says, Hey, I can't um I can'tmake a payment of$600, and then
the AI will say, Oh, can you dolike$580?
And then it's like, no, I can'tdo that.
Oh, okay, can you do somethinglike 573?
(17:11):
And so it'll choose like kind oflike a random number to not make
it seem like it's just goingdown 5%, 10% each time.
And then the customer is like,oh no, I can only do 200.
Okay, I can't do 200.
So it'll make sure to like blockitself.
Um, so it's only it's thenegotiation of it is as good as
you as you want it to be,really.
(17:31):
Um, and how creative you arewith setting it.
And we help you do that, ofcourse.
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
Uh well, I mean, I like the idea.
You know, your tagline says AIthat won't get you sued, which
is a very, it's a very wildtagline.
Be honest with you, I like it.
It's catchy.
Um, so as it's negotiating, asit's setting up time frames,
what is something you knoweverybody's worried about that.
They don't want AI to make aclaim, to say something bold, to
(17:57):
do something that we shouldn'tdo, and then it gets us in
trouble.
When you say that tagline, notonly does it sound very useful,
it sounds very you knowpragmatic.
So talk to me.
What does that really mean?
When you say AI, that won't getyou sued.
And do you know somebody?
Do you know somebody who's beendown that road that has actually
had to worry about that?
SPEAKER_01 (18:15):
Yeah, no, honestly, it's because we saw it as like a
big concern for the RTOindustry, right?
There are all of these concernsaround technology, how it
operates, what if it goes offthe rails.
So we wanted to make peopleaware that that's like on our
forefront.
So not even just around the AI,but everything, or not even the
AI itself, but everything aroundit as well.
(18:36):
So you'll we'll actually be ableto handle all the TCPA rules and
regulations on a state-by-statebasis.
So like RNR has stores in tonsof states, like 30 plus states,
right?
And so what we can do is basedon each state and each state's
rules, we're able to make surethat you know the AI doesn't
call someone too many timesbased on Florida laws uh versus
(18:59):
Alabama might be different.
Um so things like that.
But then also based on what theAI says.
So you never want to sayfinancing in like an RTO
context, we make sure that itdoesn't say those words.
Um, and those are somethingthat's something that's like
really important um for us tomake sure that dealers feel safe
deploying it.
Um, and something that they'vethat we've noticed is that it
(19:21):
tends to be a lot more safe thanmaybe even a human, where it'll
never get mad at a customer,it'll never like um yeah, get
upset with them, it'll never sayanything that's totally off
script, which is something I amnot paying you, I'm not doing
this.
SPEAKER_00 (19:35):
You better give me my money, man.
Um so going from then to now,what were some of the things
that you were running into thatyou uh what have you overcome in
the last 12 to 18 months?
What is it, you know, because Iknow when you first came on the
spot, a lot of people were like,I'm not sure if this is gonna do
it.
I'm not ready to add AI to it,but the money sounds good,
(19:56):
right?
If I can do this for cheaper,listen, if anybody knows this,
right now there's a lot ofbusinesses that are going
through it.
They're oh, we're laying offthis or we're laying off that.
Well, why?
Well, because computers arecoding, computers are answering
phones, computers are gettingthe natural day-to-days kind of
done.
Yes, there are people that areneeded to do the extra, right?
When if there's some brain powerneeded, they're gonna keep them.
But honestly, like you said, uh,you know, if it if it's
(20:18):
answering the phone, if it'stexting customers, if it's
making sure schedules are ontime, it's a fraction of the
cost.
Now, I'm not saying it's good orbad, you're gonna have to make
that decision for yourself, butit's here no matter what.
When you first started, itwasn't that way.
And I don't, you know, there wasthis amount of AI that you had,
but now it's a little bit morevetted than it was.
Have you been able to like knocksome people's uh problems?
(20:42):
You know, if I if I have aproblem with it, right?
If I have a conflict, have youbeen able to overcome those in
the last 12 months with theaccomplishments that you've
made?
SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
Yeah, for sure.
So I think it's a couple things.
Number one, like you said, it'sdefinitely just about education,
just like how people are feelingabout it, right?
You need something to like sitin your mind and just kind of
like, do I want this, do I notwant this, what are my
priorities?
And that's totally fine.
And yeah, that makes sense.
What we want to show, um, andespecially with our customers
(21:13):
who like took that early chanceon us, is just having really,
really good customer service.
So let's say the AI is notbehaving properly, um, and just
in ways that you didn't want itset.
We'll be on that right away.
We've had customers text us at11 p.m.
and then at 1 a.m.
we put pushed up a change to theto to fix AI.
So it's really just about likebeing there with the customer
(21:35):
and like being able to show thatlike we care um about the
customer and making sure thatit's to their specifications and
to their needs as well.
Um, that's been the biggestthing.
And by that, a lot of ourcustomers have recommended it to
their friends and can go fromthere, and then that starts just
a very natural, nice salesprocess on that side, which is
(21:58):
really great because our friendsmight have been.
On the fence, or they didn'tknow.
And so then there are those lotmore proof points about not only
the program, about thedevelopment, about the quality,
but about us as a company aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
When you're talking about AI at home, I can I can go
to my computer and I can askClaude, you know, hey, analyze
this, go through my emails,check this.
I can chat GPT something.
When you're talking about AI inthe store's location, do the
employees have a chance tointeract with the AI, or is the
AI separate from what they caninteract with during their
(22:31):
day-to-day processes?
SPEAKER_01 (22:33):
Yeah, so it really depends on how you as the dealer
want to set it up.
So we do have stores where theemployees are working directly
alongside of the AI.
So for example, on text,sometimes the employee will come
in, other times AI will come inand just like handle text with
customers.
And then we have others thatjust completely want to abstract
(22:56):
it away.
So if like they're doingprimarily outbound calls, they
just don't want employeesdealing with it.
They'll just like we'll have itall be AI.
AI does this one function andthat's it.
That's the that's the only thingthat it's doing.
So it just really depends on thestore, but we have a combination
of both.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
I I think that, you know, when when people hear AI
and they hear that it's thisoutside force and they don't get
to really interact with it, theythey get, you know, um schedules
that come in and and people, Imean, this is a relationship
business.
You know, are you getting peoplethat are like, you know what, I
don't want to take AI becauseI'm gonna lose a relationship
with the customer.
I'm not gonna be able to be ableto uh, you know, be as dialed in
(23:34):
as I once was.
And that's something that, youknow, I as a one-store,
two-store, three-store owner,I'm very interested in.
How does that work?
And how do you overcome thatwith the idea of this is brand
new and you don't have to doanything, but you don't want to
lose a relationship as well?
SPEAKER_01 (23:47):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, I think the main thingis that it's not just treating
it as like this black box thatyou can never see into and you
have no idea what's going on.
You just treat it as like adifferent employee, right?
Same way you just hire anemployee to maybe handle some of
your customer conversations,just because you're not
necessarily handling all of themdoesn't mean that you can't go
back and ask and see what's kindof going on with the customers.
(24:09):
You should you still have thatcustomer contact, right?
Um, but you just have likesomeone else that's taking care
of it.
And eventually, you know, maybeonce you go beyond one or two
stores, you can't handle all ofthem yourself.
Um, and so that's just kind oflike the way that we've been
approaching it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:27):
When you so we're talking about in RTO, how it
affects TRTO.
Here's a question I have.
I'm looking at something herethat says there's there's a
possibility that AI, your AI,the way Atlog deals with AI,
especially when it comes to R,is there an outside source that
you use to deal with any otherprograms than just Revo, or is
(24:49):
it just Revo now?
SPEAKER_01 (24:52):
Uh in RTO specifically, so we actually
have been able to integrate withVerseRant as well.
Um, so that's like our ownintegration that we built
in-house.
That being said, the Revointegration is like a native
integration with Revo, a lotcleaner on that side and can do
a lot more as well.
SPEAKER_00 (25:07):
What what's the help me out with that?
Because I'm glad you said that.
What is the difference betweensomething that you really have
to kind of port in or whateveryou call it?
I'm sorry, I don't know thejargon, but and and and revo
where it's like you're you'rethere's a lot more integration
because you got in at a timeframe when they could start
building the code to fit.
Like, what are thosedifferences?
And you know, is there is therea program now that somebody
(25:30):
could say, you know what, I'drather go to this operating
system because it's gonna workmore, or are they gonna get the
same regardless of the factunless they do something like
Revo where they include you inbuilding it from ground up?
SPEAKER_01 (25:40):
Yeah, honestly, like there are different programs
where a vast majority of themyou can integrate with.
That being said, for RTOspecific operating systems, I'd
say just because like Revo'sbuilt on newer technology, the
developers are able to be a lotmore nimble in the way that they
create integrations.
So that just gives us uhinherent advantage on that side
(26:04):
rather than having to do kind ofkind of go through hoops to get
the integration done.
Not that we can't do it, it'sjust that it's harder and more
expensive.
Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:15):
So how does the how does the AI integrate?
I mean, you're talking about AI,right?
And the way I integrate with uhAI is I go to my computer, I I
log it in and gives me ananswer, whether I have it do
something or something likethat.
Now that it's it's in thesystem, because you know, I've
heard it plenty of times.
I don't want to do this becauseI don't know where my customers'
information is gonna go.
It's gonna have to go in mysystem to be able to find
certain things, not necessarilylike a social security number,
(26:37):
but it's gonna have to knowtheir name, their phone number,
their email address, the simpleintegrations.
I don't want that going anywhereelse.
How do you get it to work withthe system if it's not because I
mean you don't put, I would say,a server inside stores.
So how does it, how does theintegration work?
Does it reach out through anonline, a secured online source
and then it it comes back andperforms functions?
SPEAKER_01 (26:59):
Yeah, so we have like a secured well for the Revo
one, totally different.
But for the others, we have likea secured um like VPN connection
that we use to kind of just likegrab the data.
Um, and then just worrying aboutlike data side, we of course
have direct controls in place tomake sure all the data is
(27:19):
secure.
Just like if you were signing upwith a new provider, like a new
CRM provider.
If you're using HubSpot, you'regonna have to give the data
somehow to HubSpot, right?
So that's just kind of like theway that we think about it.
If you wanted to do anything andyou wanted to, yeah, it's like
depends on like what you want itto do.
If you wanted to not have anyinformation at all, then maybe
(27:42):
like that log system isn't thebest for you, and you just want
maybe just like a normal likevoicemail or like an auto
attendant or an IVR would bebetter.
But if you actually wanted to betaking action, to be doing work
for you, to be taking payments,to be scheduling appointments,
things like that, and actuallybringing additional revenue and
value to your business.
(28:03):
Um you just have to like be ableto give it the proper data to do
that.
And again, just kind of goingback to the point of you
wouldn't you wouldn't tell astory employee, oh, like try to
book an someone's appointmentwithout having access to the
calendar, right?
Um, that just wouldn't makesense.
And so that's just kind of likethe same, the same take that we
that we have on that side.
(28:24):
So we do have like a secureconnection to get the data.
Um, but yeah, it is definitelysomething that we have to prove
and be able to have trust withour customers as well.
SPEAKER_00 (28:34):
So, how do they all use one point?
I mean, right now, uh, and Idon't know how many stores that
you have, I know that RR hasover 200 plus locations, not to
mention anybody else that you'reworking with.
As something goes on, one forone store is 200, two for two
stores now 400, three for threestores, yeah, and and so on.
As this goes on, how does thedata integration work?
(28:56):
And and is there a is there anoverload point for the AI?
Is it developed in a way thateach store has its own access
point and its own situation?
SPEAKER_01 (29:04):
So it's there there isn't Yeah, each store has its
own access point.
I think the their the limit toour data is quite high.
Um, so we're not super worriedabout like that being
overloaded.
You could probably put like 15.
We we have customers who give us50,000 people to call per day.
Um, and that's totally finewithin our system.
(29:26):
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:28):
50,000 calls.
SPEAKER_01 (29:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
When uh when so when you call, is that call show up
as the the business or is it anoutside number that calls?
SPEAKER_01 (29:39):
We register the call to be in your like locality.
So if you're your store's inOrlando, then it'll have an
Orlando zip code and then it'llsay like your business's name on
the on the phone call as well.
SPEAKER_00 (29:51):
You know, I would I didn't even think about this
before we got on.
I should we should have had ademo, right?
We could just like call righthere on the podcast and be like,
hey, who's that?
You know, and it's it's it's therebo guys.
So is there any otherthird-party uh and not operating
software, but is there any othersoftware that's integrated into
what you guys are doing rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (30:12):
Yeah, I mean, what is there anything that you had
in mind?
I guess like specifically, wecan integrate with just about
anything as long as they have anAPI.
So we've put in integrationswith like different calendars,
Outlook, Shop Monkey, Setmore isanother one that we've been
working on.
Podium is like another software,texting platform that we've been
working with.
(30:32):
We've been we've worked withcustom software as well.
Um HubSpot is another one.
So basically, just like anysoftware that has an API would
we'd be able to integrate into.
SPEAKER_00 (30:44):
Okay, so that's exactly that's exactly what I
was asking.
Like not only is the operatingsoftware that we use your being
able to get into, but you alsohave the integration for the
third-party software that wehave to use, like testing, like
the CRMs and the funnels that weuse, the schedulers that we have
to get people in, um, and andthe before and after hours, all
that is integratable for whatyou do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
Exactly.
Yeah.
And if we don't have an existingintegration, we'll write one for
you for free.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:11):
Oh, it's and it's for free.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
Hey, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:15):
So when you have these different industries,
right?
Because I'm I have been in thetraditional furniture industry
for a long time.
I am now in the wheel and tireindustry, but regardless of the
fact they're both RTO, they'recompletely different.
When you're when you're workingon the programs to do one or the
other, is it a big shift?
And does it make a lot ofdifference when you're working
(31:36):
with the AI?
It should is the is there a timeframe where I could say, you
know what, maybe he's doingreally good on the wheel and
tire side, but not good on theon the furniture side right now.
I should wait.
Or do you have it locked downwhere Outlock can do the AI
situation regardless of whetherit's shed, virtual online,
furniture, tire and wheel?
SPEAKER_01 (31:53):
Yeah, honestly, we can do it for all.
So naturally, when we were firstbuilding up our system, we knew
that we would be going into likea variety of different um like
sales, sales types, wheel andtire, furniture, shads, RVs,
etc.
And so we designed our systemfrom the ground up to be able to
actually handle all of thosedifferent nuances, right?
(32:15):
So the system already knowsabout the nuances between
furniture RTO versus wheels.
Um, and that's something that'simportant and that we we have
been very intentional about fromthe very beginning, which has
also allowed us to kind ofswitch between um those two
contexts very quickly.
So it's not just one size oflike a one size fits all AI.
(32:36):
So it's like custom to each andevery store, and we're able to
make that custom very quickly aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (32:42):
All right.
Well, that's good.
That's great, actually.
Now I'm hoping that maybe we canname drop a little bit.
I know you mentioned we wetalked about Revo and we've
talked about Versarant.
That is a huge chunk, but it'snot all of it.
Is there is there any otheroperating software out there in
the RTO world that you can sayad log is definitely the ad log
(33:04):
AI is definitely going to workand is set up and ready to go
for this?
SPEAKER_01 (33:08):
Yeah, so honestly, like the the third biggest is of
course high touch and synergy.
And so that is something that wehave been working on.
Um honestly it's just because wehaven't had a client on high
touch yet.
So I think once we once we'reable to sign a client on high
touch, we should be good to goon that side as well.
I've took a taken a long look attheir systems and things like
(33:30):
that.
It's like pretty confident thatwe can use the same approach um
that we did with First Rent toto integrate with high touch as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
So your your job reaches thousands.
Thousands.
But I've only seen a few of youguys.
Are you guys scaling up yet?
Or is it AI you don't needanybody else, or whatever?
I've seen John, I've seen you.
I mean, how how many people areon a team now?
SPEAKER_01 (33:57):
Yeah, we just hired our first engineer.
Um, and honestly, like we wewant to keep the team small.
It it just doesn't really makesense to um to scale it before
it needs to be, I guess.
Um we've done like I think apretty good job of being able to
like handle all of the volumeand we do work kind of long
hours, but that's also okay.
(34:19):
Um and yeah, so yeah, we justhired a first engineer, we're
looking for another one, butyeah, we're we're probably gonna
keep it under under 10 for awhile at least, just because
with AI you can do so much, soso much more where you don't
necessarily have to growheadcount to to an extremely
large amount without uh yeah, inorder to to to deploy code.
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
Now you with all the compliance that you have,
especially now that you, yeah, Imean you have a tight-knit team,
everybody's kind of doingeverything.
You got compliance, you've gotdifferent states, you've got
different mandates, whether it'sfurniture, tire and wheel,
virtual, whatever the case is.
I I'm curious, who what job doyou have?
(35:01):
Like, is it is it like doeseverybody do everything?
Is that kind of the way it worksright now?
Because you said you hired anengineer, but like it sounds
like everybody's got a littlebit of everything going on.
SPEAKER_01 (35:10):
Yeah, I mean the engineer is really just doing
the coding, but me and John aredoing just everything.
So like one day I'm coding, oneday I'm doing sales, one day I'm
doing legal stuff, talking tolawyers, things like that.
So it's all over for us, for meand John.
But you know, that's that's fun.
Um, we enjoy it, so it's it'spretty good.
SPEAKER_00 (35:29):
I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm gonna put a picture up
here of uh our little Christmas.
Uh it was close to Christmas, alittle after Christmas,
actually.
We had the we had the meetingdown in uh in Orlando, and uh,
we got a little picture that I'mgonna post up.
So you can see you can see Verizand John looking great there.
Um as as you go forward, what'snext?
I mean, so we have schedulingsoftware down to assign.
(35:53):
So you're saying that you canincorporate things like Shop
Monkey and HubSpot and Podiumand do things like that.
So that's already there.
The sales aspect of it, you'remaking 50,000 calls in in
depending on who it is.
So it could be a few hundredthousand a day that this is
reaching out to.
What's next?
I mean, I know that I say that12 months after you've initially
(36:14):
started.
So there might not be a next fora long while.
But I mean, what's the next stepfrom here?
Right now, we've got datacenters that are going up
everywhere, and I got glassesthat can answer half my
questions.
What's next for Atlog AI?
SPEAKER_01 (36:27):
It's really about making our program as accessible
as possible to just any RTOdealer.
So I think that starts withnumber one, the integrations,
making sure it's properly beingsynced to your data and the
software that you're alreadyusing.
Number two is actually insteadof just like us going to us to
(36:47):
have to configure the AI everytime, giving some of that power
back um back to the end user aswell.
And in overall, just likeimproving the end user
experience for all of ourcustomers.
So making our feedback loopsfaster, making it so that we
don't have to, it doesn't takeuh two hours to edit the AI, it
can take two minutes, right?
(37:08):
So a lot of it's improving likeour own internal processes as
well.
But really at the core ofeverything is just making it so
that this is extremelyapproachable to any RTO dealer.
They don't have to think tothink twice about it.
They can upload their process,they can talk to us for a little
bit, and then you can turn it onright away.
Um, and I think we've beenmaking a lot of steps in that
(37:30):
direction, which I'm reallyexcited about as well.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Well, I think you're doing something right because
the business insider namedAtlog, one of the 10 most
exciting AI agent startups at YCdemo day, is spring of 2025.
What was that like to havesomebody say, hey, these guys
are one of the top 10 to get itdone?
SPEAKER_01 (37:51):
Yeah, no, it was really exciting.
Um, we didn't actually even knowthe article was being written
about us, but the fact that itwas um so I think that was even
cooler that like they didn'tthey we didn't even talk to them
about it.
Um, and so yeah, we're we'rereally excited about that as
well.
SPEAKER_00 (38:07):
Yeah, I mean, I you know, being part of something
new and and that something thatstands out can be very daunting,
especially when you're in anindustry that is like, you know,
they're relatively like we wehave these relationships with
people.
We don't want to get rid of, youknow, we only have we have small
staffs, right?
They're actually five to sevenon average, depending.
Bigger stores might have acouple more, but you know, you
(38:28):
you run with a small staff,you're very integrated into the
communities that you're in.
I mean, when you're when you'reon the other side, which you are
all the time, and somebody says,Why in God's name would I put AI
in my store?
What is it gonna do for me?
And how much better can it getwith what you're doing if I'm
not personally involved in it?
I don't have that relationshipwith somebody because it's gonna
(38:50):
be, you know, something on thephone is talking.
What are some of the points thatyou would give somebody and say,
these are all the things thatI'm telling you that you will
get with us that will benefityou through whatever time frame?
SPEAKER_01 (39:00):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I think the biggestthing is that a lot of customers
actually feel more comfortabletalking to it.
So especially when you'retalking in Spanish, um, we've
seen a huge lift in Spanishspeaking customers and Spanish
speaking uh geographies as well.
So some stores might not alwayshave a Spanish speaker on staff,
or the Spanish speaker might beout.
(39:21):
Um, and that's something that'sreally important is that you
always quote unquote have aSpanish speaker on staff.
Um, the second part is that wedon't necessarily want you to
lose that customer touch, right?
It's just that I'm sure everysingle one of these dealers, you
have someone sitting on thephone for three to four hours a
day who might not get throughall of their calls and they are
(39:44):
just getting hung up on, they'renot getting any answers, they're
trying to call these people,trying to text them, and then
you don't necessarily even knowif all of those, if every
customer is being contacted aswell.
Wouldn't it make more sense tohave that person instead of just
being on the phone, notnecessarily talking to anyone,
but actually being in the store,talking to customers, selling,
(40:05):
actually creating those humanconnections where you can have
that like more monotonous taskbe done for significantly
cheaper and be way moreproductive with the customers
that are right in front of you.
Um, that's something that'sreally important as well, right?
It's like, why are you staying?
No, no need to stay in the backof the store just on the phone.
You can just be with thecustomer, guiding them through
(40:28):
your shop and your experienceand why your your store is
better than the rest of thecompetition.
So it just gives you more time,time back to to spend with
everyone who's in front of you.
SPEAKER_00 (40:38):
Well, let's let that pendulum swing the other way.
Instead of being trepidatiousabout what you have going on,
and I'm not really sure if Iwant to do this and whatever the
case is, you mentioned earliervirtual rent-to-hown, which is
something that I want to ask youabout because you do sales
calls, you do collections calls,you do scheduling.
What are the chances uh in thenext couple of years we're gonna
(41:02):
have a very small Atlog-ish typeof crew where there's only two
or three and they're running acompany 90% through AI?
Is that a goal of Atlog?
Is that a goal of some of theguys that are on the virtual
side to say, you know, I I can,I don't want to say completely
eliminate because you're neverreally gonna be eliminate the
human interaction.
But, you know, I have thesecalls being made.
(41:23):
I have this being scheduled fordelivery, I have, you know, this
as far as collection calls goingon.
I can kind of maneuvereverything in this way.
Is that a version of what'sgoing on right now, or are they
going to that in the future?
SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
Um, I'd say for us specifically, we're down, we
aren't going to that.
And in we like to service theRTO industry.
We wouldn't want to become likea huge RTO player.
Um, I I don't know if I cannecessarily speak for any of the
virtual players, but what itseems like it is not going in
that direction because there'sstill so many like operational
(41:58):
things that you have to fix.
Um, even a virtual model wherenow your customers are all over
the country making sure you havethe right partners, uh, making
sure you're assessing risk andthings like that.
So it's just like a differentset of problems, really.
So I don't I think it would bereally cool if you could run.
I mean, if anyone wants to run athree-person virtual rent-owned
(42:19):
company, like let me know, andwe'll get you on Atlog right
away.
We're all just like it'spossible, we can talk about it.
But um honestly, I don't know ifI've I don't know if I've seen
that just yet.
Maybe, maybe it could be apossibility.
It is something that it's notit's not out of the realm, it's
not out of the realmpossibility, but so far in what
(42:40):
I've seen, I don't know ifanyone's going towards that.
SPEAKER_00 (42:43):
I mean, it my my natural instinct is to go, okay,
because you you have those guysare gonna say, I don't know if I
want to get rid of somebody, Idon't know if I want to cut down
the manpower.
I am worried about this or I amworried about that.
But again, on the other side ofthat pendulum, you might have
somebody be like, well, this isan opportunity to kind of run it
by myself.
You know what I mean?
I could work six days a week ifI'm only working five hours a
day and just let and kind of letthe business run itself.
(43:06):
And, you know, as far as AI isconcerned, I don't think it's
ever going to cut down.
I think it's only gonna getbetter unless we have a big
asteroid that comes and wipesout half humanity.
I think it's gonna be AI.
I I do think at some point intime we're gonna have to worry
about uh Skynet or whatever, butuntil we get there, please don't
please don't come after me.
I'm just saying that that's athat's a whole nother thing.
So you know, going into the end,going into you know the twilight
(43:30):
of of the conversation, somequestions that I wanted to ask
you, and you know, some of thepersonal, some are business, but
I think that you are you are theguy to ask some of these
questions.
The best piece of advice you gotfrom Y Combinator.
Best piece of advice.
SPEAKER_01 (43:50):
I'd say I got a lot of advice at Y Combinator.
I think the best one was a lot.
Along the lines of it was ourmentor, and he was saying it's
just like, stop asking me whatto do and just do it, and then
you'll find out like the theanswer for yourself.
(44:12):
It's like we spend all this timetrying to like pontificate on
like what the best solution is,what is the best strategy, what
is like the all of the strategystuff, and honestly, the best
thing to do is just to do it,right?
Um, and I think that's reallylike brought on dividends for us
as a company.
Of like sometimes we'll get inthese long drawn-out arguments
(44:35):
of like what could be, andinstead it's like, what if we
just try it?
And then we'll see what actuallyhappens.
And I think that's like been thebest thing of like, what if we
just tried to do somethinginstead of just like asking if
is it possible or is it not?
SPEAKER_00 (44:50):
I like that.
I I don't know.
I've I've gotten myself intosome crazy situations.
That's almost how I ended up onthe podcast.
And we're like, hey, we shouldjust try it out.
And then you know, years later,but I definitely understand that
piece because there's been somany times that you get
paralysis by analysis, andyou're just kind of like, I
don't know what to do.
And it's like, just do it, dude.
Just go out there and do it.
Um, if you could go back andtell yourself one thing before
(45:10):
you walk near your first RTOstore, what would it be?
I'd say they're not ready.
They're not ready.
SPEAKER_01 (45:25):
No, honestly, I'd say I'd say I don't I don't even
know.
I I'm just like we when wewalked into our first RTO store,
I don't even know if we had anyidea of anything that was going
on.
Maybe it's just like they have amore open mind than you might
think, right?
So it's like there you're gonnafind like a wide variety of
(45:46):
characters in every industry.
But something that I we'vereally enjoyed about RTO is that
a lot of people are at leastwilling to hear you out.
And I think that, like justbeing able to know that and like
internalize that um has beenreally powerful as well because
you do get to your firstbelievers, you do get to that
first contract, that first bigcontract, and that really would,
(46:08):
you know, just help keep megoing.
And I think that belief has justkind of helped me stay, helped
us stay in the industry andhelped us keep going and just
keep uh just keep providing goodstuff, good software as well.
SPEAKER_00 (46:20):
Okay.
And uh in five years, in youropinion, what does a well-run
RTO tire store look like?
Is it is it all is it 15% moreintegration of AI?
Is it you know what what is it?
Are we are we walking in andjust punching, you know, digits
on a screen and all of a suddenmy car is gonna get taken care
of?
What do you see in the next fiveyears?
SPEAKER_01 (46:41):
Yeah, I think the in five years, it's not even just
about just it's all AI, it's notall AI.
I think the main goal should behow can you get as many
customers as possible?
That's like the main goal.
So I think in five years, everyRTO store, every RTO attire
store, whether that's AI or AIenabled or not, um, should try
(47:04):
to have 1.5x the number ofcustomers, number of people
renting items.
And I think obviously we try toenable that where you can do
that without necessarily scalingheadcount or expanding your
footprint a ton.
Like that's a core thesis to towhat we're trying to do is like
help you grow without having togrow your expenses as well.
(47:24):
Um, but I'd say even if you dothat without us, I think any RTO
business should just try to dothat.
Um try to go the grow thecustomer base as much as they
can.
SPEAKER_00 (47:36):
What so what do you want RTO dealers and RR
franchisees listening uh to do?
If they were listening, whatwould you say to do right after
this episode?
SPEAKER_01 (47:50):
I'd say go to at log.ai, book and demo.
Um, but yeah, honestly, I thinkjust have like an open mind
about where you can maybe savemoney.
And not only that AI is justhelping you save money, but
think about how it can help yougrow as well.
I think there is like a a verybig phenomenon around like any
(48:13):
kind of software has to cutexpenses by X amount to make it
worth it, which I 100% agreewith.
But even just beyond that, youcan look at the growth.
And we can show you our growthnumbers that we've been
providing for our customers aswell, where with new technology,
new innovation, no matter whatit is, if you invest in it, it
will pay off in the long run,where you will be ahead.
(48:36):
And at least if you understandit and you know what's going on
with it, it will 100% grow yourbusiness and just grow that
customer base as much as youpossibly can.
And so I'd say try to give it atry, and you might be surprised
on how much it can help you out.
SPEAKER_00 (48:54):
You know, last question, uh, and I am glad that
you said that.
Last question is since theadvent of Atlog AI integrating
in the RTO industry, is therenumbers to say since AI has been
integrated, we have eitherincreased revenue or decreased
the amount uh towards the bottomline when it comes to the amount
(49:16):
of labor we have or whatever thecase is, is there a correlation
to both?
Hey, we increased the percenthere, we decreased the percent
there, so therefore it's two anda half, five and a half percent.
Is do you have any of those uhtangible numbers to say on
average this is what a storegains by using an AI?
SPEAKER_01 (49:33):
Yeah, so I can't give you exact numbers just to
for client confidentialitypurposes, but we have seen that
in our most successfuldeployments, they're saving on
headcounts, so that tends to bebetween four to six thousand per
month that they're saving.
And then we've also seendelinquency percentages go down
(49:54):
in stores across the board aswell.
And then also we've seen the AIis collecting at sometimes 1.5x
to 2x the rate greater than ahuman might.
So really that's been yeah, andso that's been really, really
great for us as well.
You just always have thatconstant contact, you have very
(50:15):
strict guidelines, you have thatum, yeah, it's just following
your exact process, right?
And so we can see not only likecost improvements and savings on
that side, so on headcount, orwhether that's just moving
people around, making them moreproductive, but also just on the
efficiency of the calls as well.
SPEAKER_00 (50:37):
I you know, you got now out of everything I think
you said, that number based onthe collection calls that are
made, and you're talking about1.5x or a little bit higher,
that's a lot.
Now, would you attribute that tojust basic consistency?
SPEAKER_01 (50:52):
Yeah, I think it's a couple things.
Basic consistency is a big one.
I think consistency is uh yeah,consistency around the calls,
but also just the availabilityto meet the customer where
they're at, whether that's onthe phone, over text, in
English, in Spanish, in French,right?
You really are able to adapt toyour customer a lot better when
(51:14):
you're using a system like ours.
SPEAKER_00 (51:17):
Well, I will tell you guys, in French is gonna
work.
R and R uh Tire Express isactually now in Canada.
They should be opening up thismonth.
I'm sure that you guys are gonnabe a little bit uh uh a part of
that.
And listen, I want to see youguys opening up your own
location, and we'll see how manyuh people we see how many people
we can do with it.
Me and Viraj are gonna be in theback uh doing a little thing
(51:37):
like this.
I'm gonna be talking about it.
He's gonna be doing the AI.
Maybe we can run it with oneperson.
Guys, we do appreciate you beingon.
Virage, always uh just I loveseeing you, man.
I love seeing out and about.
I'm glad to have you on the showto answer a couple questions
that I had regarding this, and Iknow we've answered some of your
questions, but if you have anymore, make sure that you email
me, Pete at the RTOShowpodcast.com.
Let me know.
Hey, this is for at log, and Ihave a question.
(51:59):
That way I can get an answer foryou.
If anything, we can do it again,have them on.
We might have like uh uh an atlog AI conversation.
I don't know if we're just gonnareplace Virage with the AI guy
and it's gonna have like anavatar, but we can see and make
that happen.
I would tell you guys, we aretrying to be anywhere where you
are.
That's Facebook, Instagram,LinkedIn, YouTube where you're
gonna see this.
(52:19):
Make sure again that yousubscribe, that you like the
channel, that you go anywherethat you can, buy a shirt, buy
some swag, show us some love,get on the newsletter, and uh
guys, I'm gonna tell you it'sbeen great.
Vraj, real quick, how doessomebody get a hold of Atlog?
SPEAKER_01 (52:35):
Well, you can either just go to our website, at
log.ai, book a demo, um, or youcan email me directly.
So that's Vraj V-R-A-J atatlog.ai.
I'll respond within 10 minutes.
And you can also I have mypersonal phone number in my
email footer as well, so you canuh text or call me at any time
(52:56):
as well.
SPEAKER_00 (52:56):
Uh just so you guys know, Viraj is not asleep.
So he will he I've I have seenthe pictures of the text
messages back at two o'clock inthe morning.
They are they are staying alittle busy.
They're not necessarily gonnareach out to you, but if you
reach out to them, you might geta message back.
So I'm gonna tell you guys don'twork too hard.
I appreciate everything you do.
And I'm gonna tell you,listeners at home, thank you so
much.
And remember, get yourcollections low to get your
(53:19):
sales high.
Have a great one.
SPEAKER_01 (53:21):
Thanks, Pete.
SPEAKER_00 (53:22):
We're all set, man.
Um, real quick, how are youdoing?
Everything, uh you you guys arestaying busy?
Yeah, yeah.
Things are good.
Uh, we're are you uh
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