Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Asher Kasmin is the big dog. They didn't give me
his title at locksolutions dot com. The story behind this
is I put the word out the Houston Business Journal,
which I think does a wonderful job. It's a must
read for me. They do a digital version and a
(00:20):
print version, and Emily brings the mail in every day
at eleven when we finish, and she brings the Houston
Business Journal, and sometimes I will forward articles to her
that the digital comes out before the print, obviously because
the print has to print and mail. And she'll hand
me the paper and she'll say, why do you still
read the paper? You've already read the digital. I know
(00:41):
that because you sent me an article and told me
to call that guy. Well, I'm fifty three. I'm kind
of in that bridge between the old and the young.
The digital is nice because then it's I can forward
it and I like that and I can retain it.
But the print is nice because I like to hold
on to it and I like to tear things out
and send people a note with it on there, or
(01:03):
at least I intend to anyway. So Houston Business Journal
does something called the Fast fifty, and it's companies that
have had explosive growth over the last two years year
over year growth. So I took a photo of the
Fast fifty list and we've talked to some of those
folks and we'll be talking to more. And I posted
(01:24):
that to Facebook. I said, if anybody knows any of
these people, have them reach out to me Michael at
Michael Berryshow dot com or you can just go directly
to Michael Berryshow dot com. And out of fifty, I
probably heard from ten. You always hear from somebody that
knows of those people. Without them, I'm not going to
go tracking them down, but there were probably seven people
(01:48):
all in up to today who reached out to me
within the company of Locke Solutions. I have no idea
what they do, but I can tell you that they understand. Okay,
let me just give you this. He Saimal Tony may
not be a retail seller of vehicles, but Tony's going
to get dozens of calls today and he'll probably sell
(02:12):
some units out of it. If Tony didn't take that call,
he doesn't sell those units. So what people will do
is they sit in meetings all day try to figure
out how to grow their business. I'll tell you how
to grow your business. If everybody in the world knows
who you are and what you do and how to
reach you, the rest will take care of himself. Just
do what you do well. But if you don't tell
(02:35):
anybody what you do, businesses die because nobody knows what
they do, much more so than that they're not good
at what they do. Restaurants die not because the food's
not good, the people don't try, the chef didn't create
because there's so many other places to go. It is
a constant battle. You see how often mac is in
(02:57):
the news. Do you know what that costs, not only
in time but in energy. If you are not doing
everything you can to remind people you're here, you're dying.
Competition is a beautiful thing, but it's also vicious. Businesses
are dying every single day. Other businesses are growing at
(03:19):
the same time. It's not accidental. It's not luck. So
asher Kasmin? Is it Kasmin? Is that how you pronounce it?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah? That's correct?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Is that Jewish?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It is? Actually?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Where are they Ashkenese Jews? Where are they from?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
That is amazing. I did a twenty three and meters
and it is it is Ashcanazi, And I think it's
kind of Eastern European.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, that's where the Ashcanazis were, but you don't know
where Russia Poland.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No, I really don't, and I really don't. I don't
go back. I'm a Christian myself, but I don't go back,
and a whole lot on that side of the family.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I'll do it for you, don't worry. We'll do that
when we get off the air. What does Lock Solutions do?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, so we are a pre cast concrete manufacturing company,
and so to kind of put it in a little
bit more plainer terms, when you see manhole cover.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Asher, hold on, we were so flowsome that we missed
a break. Wait right there, so you goofball?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
What were you doing?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
You were looking up his company were supposed to go
to break? Are you in need of any pre cast concrete,
doomstones or cop cars or something? I don't You still
don't know what they do. The Michael Berry Show, lockel
o c K Solutions dot Com. Asher Kasmin is our guest. Asher.
(04:51):
I'm just going to be honest. You don't look like
a guy. You don't dress and present yourself like a
guy who runs a company like that. You seem more
kind of like a finance company like you obviously have
a custom hairdoo. You know you're kind of styled, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know who looks like the CEO of your company?
Michael Luck. He's got more of the look hey out
of out of your senior guys, Asher Kasman, Michael Luck,
David Aspino, he'd be a Spino, would be the guy
most want to have a beer with. He looks real cheered,
a real chilled, But my guess is beer is not
(05:35):
his thing. He seems kind of more like a four
to two ozero guy. Richard Burke, Chelsea and Chat Hunh.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
He's more of a tequila guy.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, I can see that he'd be the guy, just
judging by the look i'd most want to have a
drink with, because he seems like he's got he seems
like he has some some interest, like maybe he's got
a resto mod you know, trau or a sixty seven
Cadillac one inch off the ground. He seems like he'd
be a cool cat. Out of those six, only one
(06:06):
of y'all has the university from which you graduated in
your bio on the our team section, can you guess
who that is. It's not you, Hm, maybe huh?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Is it Michael Luck?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Nope, this tells you everything you need to know about
this university.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's Chad Arp and he's an aggie and so am I.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Oh, well, you don't tell it. They probably don't want
them hitting you up because they got to pay that
seventy five million dollars they paid Jimbo to leave, and
they've already cut the baseball field and had There's only
so many George Strait concerts you can have to make
up the difference. He's the only one that tells you
everything you need to know about that university. I don't
care what happens on that campus. You can argue over
(06:56):
which university is the best. And this there is no
place that the aduates will introduce themselves the trademark Howdy
like they do. There's LSU, Harvard, Yale, Miami, Alabama. There
is no place that people are prouder that they are
from than Texas, A and M. That's the fact, Yep.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
When you when you go there, you realize why it's hard.
It's hard to tell from the outside. That's what they say.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So you kind of bragged with the pe after your
name professional engineer. What is your engineering degree? In what year?
And why don't you have A and M on your bio?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, and I'm not sure which bio you're referring to,
but I'm.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
On your website, Kasman. Oh, would you like me to
read it to you? You probably don't know, You'll probably have.
With over two decades of designing structural precast products and
concrete mix designs for the electrical, power, communication, water, and
industrial sectors, Asher is focused on creating solutions in the
construction industry. More important, he is dedicated to helping make
(08:01):
a positive impact in the lives of his friends and family,
including his coworkers, customers, and vendor partners. Our focus as
a company is to create an environment that challenges our
people and provides them opportunities to grow personally and in
their careers. We continue to build a team and culture
aligned with our values, which has in turn created a
high functioning organization with a focus on a responsive customer service.
(08:24):
We will be remembered as a company making a lasting
impact in the lives of our people and partners. Nothing
really about you.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Asher, Well, it's not about me. I mean, that's that's
the thing I know.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
But when I went to that page, I kind of
wanted to know about you. That's kind of mission statement stuff. Also,
Asher doesn't sound like the kind of name of a
guy that's in pre cast concrete.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, I'm trying to change.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's that's kind of that's kind of a New York
private equity guy. Look him up see Ramona Grees. So
do did you start this company?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I did? I did it. Yeah, I founded it back
in twenty thirteen. And and actually Michael Lucky was he
was employee number two and a guy I had worked
with for a while. And yeah, we started from nothing
from scratch.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Well, y'all have obviously done very well.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
It's been good. We've had a good We've had our
growth spurts over the years. I mean, we're about to
be at twelve years at the end of this year,
and we've gone through some really good patches and you know,
but to be honest, there's been a lot of challenges
as well. So it hasn't been all roses the whole time.
But we've definitely, especially over the last several years, have
(09:49):
seen a lot of growth obviously, and you know, but
really it is you go back to that bio. It's
really the team that's gotten us there. That the growth
of our company really started to accelerate when I I think,
what I realized, I need to get out of the
(10:11):
way and stop being such a bottleneck and start, you know,
letting our team really you know, grow the business. And
that's when we started seeing this acceleration. So that leadership
team you just talked about huge part of why we
made this list this year.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Asher take exactly sixty seconds and explain what pre cast
concrete is, Ramon, can you count us down sixty seconds.
Let's hear your elevator. This is to your kids' fourth
grade class.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Go okay, So there's a lot of pre cast, prefabricated
concrete out there. But what we do, what we focus
on is mainly structures that are underground that are used
for accessing and protecting a lot of the underground utility.
So when you're running power lines underground, communication fiber, when
(11:04):
you have dormwater drainage going underground, there's a whole system
under there, and so we we design and manufacture the
concrete structures that are all underground. So when you see
a manhole cover or you see a door in the roadway,
what's under there is a concrete room of some size,
(11:27):
and that's what we're making. And so our focus is
really on more specially custom engineered structures, and we typically
we find ourselves doing a lot of the industrial type
project facility.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I know you're going to think I'm kidding you, but
I'm not. I think that's fascinating, all the stuff that
goes on that we never see in the brain power
that goes nine of this country. I will die for
display to Michael Berry shows a big honor to be
living in the United States. How did you come up
the name Locke? Locke? Is that for John Locke? Is
(12:03):
it trustworthy?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It's a real It felt like it's a real, solid name.
But it's actually the name of my first my firstborn,
my son Locke, who's thirteen years old.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Locke Sebenhauser. What was his name? I always wonder when
people do that, when you name the company after your kid,
what are the other kids think?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, that's you're right. My wife would tell me I
was pretty short sighted. I've got two girls who are
are younger, but at the time when I actually created
the name, I only had one. But the two other
girls later on were not very happy when they kind
(12:49):
of started to realize what happened.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So I normally like to start a conversation where somebody
doesn't know where we're going with some kind of off putting,
awkward questions just to see how they handle them, and
then we get into the normal stuff. So I'm going
to move to phase two with your permission. All right,
was anything I asked sort of awkward or you thought
(13:12):
to yourself? How did we end up there?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
No, no, not at all. I just check it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Uh so, so tell me who are your biggest clients?
Who buys this stuff?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
We are are bigger clients, so we deal.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
With I got they all said you could, you could
tell their name. They don't mind.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Uh well, I mean generally speaking that we work with
firms that are dealing with industrial and really heavy commercial projects.
So a lot of EPC, engineering, procurement, construction firms.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Okay, I'm a big boy, no contract.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well okay, I mean, just to give you some examples,
some people like the Bechdels, the Floors, Zachary's, McCarthy's, those
kind of companies. Is that they do, they are and
they do complex projects. And that's where we find ourselves
because of the custom nature you know of our work,
(14:12):
we find ourselves in those kind of projects.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I asked my friend Dane Berson. He owns a company
called Accurate meter in Supply and they do like meter boxes,
underground pipes and things like that. And I said, do
you know Locke Solutions. It's a precast concrete concrete product company.
Is it a competitor or a supplier? And he said,
(14:36):
we use their competitors. And I said who is that?
And he said rock Solid del Zato Oldcastle, South Houston precast.
So I said, why not Lock? And he said, well,
we were already using the others when they were starting,
and Lock tends to be more electrical and communication type projects.
(14:58):
Is that perception true?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That that is true? So when we first started, you know,
those those were the areas that we focused on. But
those other precasters you just named, those are good companies.
We don't compete directly with most of them, so there's
a lot of pre cast type products you can make.
Those particular companies tend to do more standard what I
(15:26):
consider commodity type products.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
You see what he's doing, and that's like they're not
really competitors. They're great guys. If you want boring trash.
What we do is specialized, value added, highly sophisticated. But
those guys are great. I mean sometimes you need, you know,
your basic run of the mill. I love that aster,
keep going.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
You couldn't have said it better. But that's the truth.
And that's that's typical of the pre cast industry to
be efficient, make the same product day in, day out.
But we're a little bit of a niche, so we
focus on areas that other pre cast companies really don't
don't want to go play in.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
So if one of these big always like a Bechtel,
makes a purchase from you, and we're talking you're you're
not sending out a po or invoice for you know,
four thousand dollars, we're talking a million, four million, eight
million a pop.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah. The projects, yeah, the projects we get involved in, now,
I will tell you we do. We will do projects
that are four thousand dollars, but we'll do projects that
are twenty million dollars, so anywhere in between. But but yeah,
we tend to find ourselves on those larger, more complex
projects that require you know, really custom engineered product.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, not that run of the meal stuff like those
other companies. All Right, I got a minute and a half.
I want to ask you this twenty thirteen. This, this
business requires a lot of capital. How did you start?
Did you have equity behind you? Do you have investors?
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I went out and uh convinced the bank to give
me a small business loan, which I did have a
few uh wells Fargo is actually the one I started
with and a few friends and family that that put
in some initial seed money with me, and and that's
how we started it. You know, really a lot of capital. Good,
(17:20):
there's a lot of capital involved, you're right, the equipment,
you know, just the nature of manufacturing and bringing in
I mean, I'm looking.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
At what y'all do. What was your initial raise?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
We started with a million dollars?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Are you serious to do what y'all do? That's uh,
that's aggressive. Good for you, and you don't get paid
till the back end. That business is terrible for that.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
It's worse in restaurants. The cast cycle is very difficult.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes, what did y'all make?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
We did fifty four million?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And what will you do this year?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
We'll do north of sixty.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Wow, how many employees?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I've got about one hundred and eighty five right now?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Is I saw you had a plant? Do people call
that instead of Alvarado? Do they call that Alvaredo? Have
I heard that?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah? We say Alvaredo.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Okay, yeah, I've heard that. I don't know why that is.
So you have two plants and you have one hundred
and eighty five employees. How many of those are in operations?
I mean non sales, non admin?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, so we actually have three operations. We have another
one down by Victoria, Texas as well, but out of
those one hundred and eighty five, I would say about
one hundred and twenty or you know, producing on the floor,
producing product.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I'm impressed. I love these stories. Asher, all kidding asides,
It's very impressive what you've done. Good for you.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I think we should be.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Friends with me.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
They're on all me to Geno. You want to go
to it with me? If I have if, they'll probably
want to have a long are of what we will.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Some team must be right.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
If you're listening to Michael Barry Mary telling both earlier,
(32:32):
she said, our whole office, her and her nurses, Our
whole office is laughing about you talking about the nurses
and what we do every day. She said, I guess
I feel that way about the guy who had to
come up and pick come and pick up the dead
dog in the road on our street. I said, yeah,
(32:52):
I guess those are kind of the same thing, and
she said, no, they're not. Nurses and doctors get to
see the rewards of our efforts. There's nothing better. It's
highly gratifying. But the dog person, well, I guess he's
glad that the little old lady's happy that the dead
dog's not out in the middle of the yard, in
the middle of the road in the summer, in one
(33:15):
hundred and six degree heat, where he has swelled up
and then exploded all over. Yeah. I mean, I guess
that's gratifying when that's gone