March 21, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode of UrbanEBB, host Rico Figliolini speaks with Kyle Grob, CEO and founder of Peachtree Corners-based KGM Technologies, a precision manufacturing company specializing in firearm suppressors and expanding into medical device production. Kyle shares insights on growing a business during COVID-19, navigating ATF regulations, and how Georgia fosters innovation in manufacturing.
Just a few key takeaways:
Just a few key takeaways:
- Why are suppressors crucial for hearing safety and law enforcement?
- KGM’s role in producing stroke rehabilitation devices and scaling medical manufacturing.
- The challenges of hiring skilled workers in modern manufacturing.
- Why trade schools and vocational training are more important than ever.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Urban ebb is a gateway to the heart of our
local small cities. Urban ebb covers urban life and planning, culture,
innovative city initiatives, programs, development and politics. Here people talk
about their passions and interests and share their opinions and stories.
It's a conversation we can all learn from.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi. Everyone, this is Rico figlio Lini, host of urban
ebb here in the city of Peatre Corners, just north
of Atlanta. Appreciate you joining us. We have a great
guest today, a Peatrel Corners based business, very different in
a unique industry, Kyle Robe. Appreciate you being with me.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Kyle, Oh, thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It's going to be a good discussion on a bit
of a company, a bit of work and manpower Black. Yes. So,
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to two of our sponsors, Ivy Remodeling, Inc.
And the Eli who lives here in Peacetree Corners. Also
his family does and he does great work from designed
to build, whole house renovation or if you need an
(01:09):
extension on the house, he's the guy to look for.
They've done two hundred and over two hundred and sixty
such renovation work. So check them out ev remodeling ink
dot com. And then also Voxpopular Wells family owned also
in Peachtree Corners, and they're a company that if you
have a brand, and if you're a business and you
need to bring that brand to life, pretty much you
(01:29):
can do it. Sixteen hundred vehicle ops I think this
past year. Anything you can want imprinted, broidered, silkscream, whatever
it is. If you have a logo and you want
it on an object of any sort of challenge them.
If I can't tell you how many different things they've
put logos on, so all great stuff. Check them outvoxpopularity
(01:49):
dot com where you can find them. So I have
taken care of the sponsors who support us for our
journalism and podcasts. Kyle is the founder and currently CEO
of KGM Technology. Sir, Yeah, so based on pre Streety Corners,
tell us just quickly a little bit about what the
company is.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So a company started in twenty twelve as a kind
of a fabrication job shop, machining fabrication, and we kind
of evolved out of the automotive space and got into
the defense world. And I slowly grew over years, and
then we moved into this building in twenty nineteen and
have been growing.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Since twenty nineteen. COVID.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, so COVID was actually very good for us. We
was wide open, running multiple shifts. While many businesses were
shut down. We were we couldn't hire enough people, we
couldn't build enough product. We'll get into that because it
may be a bit of what you're going on. Now,
what's the So your.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Business is military is suppressors, which is the big, biggest part.
You told me once at one point when it took
a tour earlier a week ago, you said, we're precision manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Is that Yeah, So the back end, the wholeness of
the company's precision manufacturing. Our forward facing product is suppressors.
That's mainly what we sell to commercial, law enforcement, military, overseas,
all kinds of stuff like that. But we're in all kinds
of stuff contract manufacturing, medical device manufacturing and supply all
(03:21):
the way down to machining and research and development, and
it's just a little bit of everything. But again, forward
facing is the product line.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, sure, and you've done this since twenty nineteen, right, Well, no,
actually before that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, So we started suppressors in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
and then but it was kind of a side product
to what we were doing. Really grew in twenty nineteen
and then really kind of just kept growing through COVID
and this is you know, kind of where we are now.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Interesting. So your your family steeped in military b instant right, yeah,
role branches, I.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Guess or Brown Army and Navy Army.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, yeah, and you high veterans.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We hire a lot of veterans. We have a lot
of veterans that work for US. I try to hire
as many as we can. They make they make very
good employees. But you know, it could probably be a
whole nother podcast in itself what happens to veterans when
they come back from service and so we try to
we try to search them out and give people, give people.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
A chance well getting involved in this type of market.
Since you know you started it, has it changed it's
way you do business?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Or And yeah, because we are so highly regulated from
you know, the ATF regulates us US pretty pretty heavily.
The ability for consumers to essentially purchase the product and
all the paperwork and background check that goes in it
has evolved since we started. It used to be nine months, twelve,
fifteen months to get a product so you can buy it,
wait for your paperwork for a year or more. You'd
(04:52):
almost forget about the product, and then all of a
sudden it pop up one day. Well, last year everything
went digital, and so now everything's digital. You go for
months or years, wait time to days, hours, weeks so you.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Can order this stuff online and get chipped to you.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
No, so you you can't really ship it to your house,
so you still have to go to a dealer or
go like that. You're still submitting fingerprints, you're still submitting
your photos, but the process is now all digitized. There's
no manual entry on the ATF side. Everything goes through
much faster. And again we've seen you know, three hour
weight times where you fill out your paperwork, go to
long lunch, and all of a sudden, your expressor's approved.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So that if you have a gun permit or a
carry permit. Does that make it easy?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It doesn't really because it's a completely separate background check.
So this every suppressor you purchase is its own background check,
So you treat it like a firearm purchase every single time,
except it goes through a kind of a different It
goes through the FBI on the KNICK side, which is
their background check service, but it goes through separate, separate
checking on the ATF side as well. So it is
(05:56):
a little bit more involved process than buying a handgun
or rifle or something like that, but a similar similar
agencies touch it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I guess, Okay, this being the state of Georgia, you know,
other states have different ways of doing things. You've been
to trade shows, you know, you're involved in the industry
a bit. Do you see Georgia being a good place
to do business here in this market and.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Georgia Georgie is a very friendly state and even just
manufacturing in general. You've seen all the companies that have
moved here. You have most major automotive companies are either
building are about to build here. You got sk batteries,
You have some big companies that are moving to Georgia.
And then film, I mean film is passive here now
with all the tax breaks and so you see a
lot of stuff coming to Georgia from an industry standpoint,
(06:41):
but it's also very firearms friendly. There's a lot of
big companies here in Georgia. You have Glock here in Georgia,
you have Daniel Fence, you have a lot of really
big companies. I think Reminton's got a place here. So
it is very the you know, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina.
I know, like there's a lot of very friendly states
when it comes to manufacturing firearms.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So how do you go about selling your product? Then,
I mean, if you go to trade show's RFPs.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So on the military side, it's more RFPs, it's more
contract basis. We partner with a lot of firearms companies
because a lot of submissions for weapon systems require you know,
we're viewed as a kind of an add on to
a weapon system. Yeah, it's an accessory. And then on
the law enforcement side, we go demos, we have dealers,
and then on the commercial side, we have distributors that
distribute to dealers, and then we have dealers that essentially
(07:29):
are walk in brick and mortar stores and we sell
directly to them as well.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So for most people that may not know, why would
someone want to suppress run the gun? Why would a
police officer, let's say, if SWAT team want suppress it?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
What makes it really the biggest one is health and
safety is the biggest one. So a from a officer
involves shooting, or say, if he shoots without air protection,
every shot is permit hearing damage. So if he shoots
one in his entire career, he's permit hearing damage is
on disability. From an auditory standpoint, so you look at
(08:03):
you know what you could do, and then you look
at you know, God forbid all the school shootings we've
had in school resource. When you shoot inside of a building,
it's even magnified, so it's very very loud in general,
and then you put it inside of a building gets worse.
So there's been cases where you've seen lawsuits where you know,
a swat team or someone's gone into a house or
a building and essentially you know, save someone, but they
(08:27):
discharge their short belt rifle inside the house and then
everyone that's not wearing air protection i e. The family,
they're all deaf for hearing damage and they end up
suing the city. And we see it a lot. And
so from a health and safety standpoint, there's that you
could look at accuracy, and then you look at on
the hunting side of being more courteous to neighbors. It
allows you to hunt closer to you know, other people
(08:48):
and stuff like that. Yeah, so there's so many things
that add to it. And then you add you know,
on the military side, it helps with being able to
you know, hide your location and just be more effective
suppressed flash and stuff like that. So a mirrored of
us is that really the big one is the health
and safety side of things.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But speaking to a to a person today that on
his old farm he used to shoot his rifle and stuff,
and he told me, he said this here pretty much God,
God says hearing a because he didn't think that he
needed and a you know, plugs or anything suppressed probably
would have helped him. Yes, well, at least the plugs
might have felt Yeah, no one thinks about that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
When no, you don't. You don't and and you look
at the law enforcement side and kind of the heat
a moment, you don't think about it. You know, it's
not something you're either fighting for your life or you know,
your split moment decision, like you don't think about putting
your pro or plowing a plug in something like that.
It's split second decision. So with suppressors, you can really
mitigate a lot of that risk. Now, does it make
(09:48):
it the Hollywood movie. No, the only thing that gets
even close to that is twenty two. And because the
subsonic is very quiet like that, But any center fire
rifle cartridge you're never going to get away from supersonic crack.
It's only so quiet you can get it. It is
a suppressor, not a silencer. And that's a probably a
very topic. It's a movie thing, yes, but in practical application,
(10:11):
they do a lot of work for the size of
the product and what you use it for.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So now, going from suppressors to the medical industry. You know,
when you showed me around and you talked to me
about mechanical therapeutic systems for a company you're doing work
for inside the perimeter, Yeah, that you almost had to
double the size of your floor space essentially.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah. So yeah, so's it's kind of an interesting story.
You know, we go back to you know, we're a
precision manufacturing company. We make contract stuff, we do defense,
we do a little bit of everything. And it was
kind of a friend of a friend. Their business was
scaling and and really needed help scaling the manufacturing side
of their product, and it was really a right place,
(10:54):
right time. It kind of fit in a warehouse. While
it's not exactly what we make, precision assembly, scaling, manufacturing,
supply chain, logistics, all that stuff, that's what we do
every day. So I'm just building something a little different
versus what I have been building. So it was a
great opportunity again the right inside of the Premiers Atlanta Company,
and it was just a really good right place, right time,
(11:16):
good fit for what they were looking for, good fit
for us on the diversification side. So it's just it
really worked, and we're growing weekly. I mean, yeah, we're
blowing walls down and yeah, we've we've tripled the space
twice now since we yarded in like October last year.
So it's very very quick.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
When I walked through and gave me the tour, I
mean there were quite a few people just in that
place doing the assemblage. Yeah, thank you. Even told me
he said, you said, how far Dan can you minion
of an inch position?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah? Like so it's like our e d ms and
some of our stuff. We we calculated microns millions of
an inch.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So that's an industry obviously you want to get more into.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, it is. It's it was interesting, you know, I
had kind of heard about the medical manufacturing side. And
the more we dug into, the more I realized how
many companies like the company we're helping are out there
and of just you know, they have a great idea,
a great concept, but they're either doctors or they're pds
or biomedical. You know, they've developed great product, but they
(12:19):
don't know the manufacturing side, or they don't know how
to scale the logistics scale changel yes, scaling so's there's
so many good ideas that maybe never ever come to
market or never could reteat reach the potential they could
because they don't know the back end, they don't know
the manufacturing. They don't know how to make five of
something's very different than making five hundreds, very different than
making five thousand. And it's just a different skill set,
(12:41):
it's a different knowledge base, and we're very good at it,
and it just it was a really really good fit
and it's something we believe in. We believe in the
medical stuff as much as we believe in the defense
of We every day we're building something to help someone else.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And to get people to understand a little bit. This
particular thing was the therapy.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a wereout going too much detail.
It's a it's a stroke therapy device. It's used for
rehab a stroke patients so that they can actually rehabit
home versus having to go into a therapy office. And
so it's just grown immensely and that products done well.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
So how do you go after that market? You know?
So if another business person you're when you when you diversifying?
It's not easy, right, You're all said in one way,
you have one hundred percent of the direction going one way?
How do you do that? If another company was listening
to this, how would they be able to diversify? So
what challenges did you see?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The challenge is like, oh, say, I said, we we
very much stumbled into this one, not saying we weren't looking,
and that's kind of how we did it. But honestly
it was it was network and the guy that owns
this company owns another company and he's an investment group
with another other. So a lot of it is networking
and being open and willing to take on a challenge
(13:57):
that you may not be like, oh, I have no
business in that. Well, if you're good at what you
do over here and you can see you can cross
the lines, you can compare, you'd be surprised at what
you can do. And then you go to the trade
shows like there're medical device trade shows, go to those
and walk around and say, hey, I'm a manufacturer or
I'm this I'm looking at getting into this market. Do
you have a need for X what I do? Putting
(14:20):
yourself out there and going like, look, this is out
of my market, but I'm good at this. I would
like to try this, and just be open and willing
to aid to fail because you're trying to fail more
than you suceive, but be willing to try. And that's
the big thing was the leap, Like we took a
leap to do this. I had a good feeling that
we could do it. But the end of the day,
(14:41):
like you still have to take the leap.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You're a CEO now and you were a founder, but
you were on the board. You're a chairman of the board.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
No, no, not a chair on the board. I was
more on the technical side. So as we were growing
the business, I was CTO and so we were heading
kind of down a different path and it was just
a the board kind of wanted to see a different
change in the in the way the company was run again.
My background why I said, I wasn't running the day
to day most more on the manufacturing side and technology
(15:10):
and patents and stuff like that. And so Board made
a made a shift and and I took back over
the company. You know, I go from running it many
years ago to running again, which happens a lot in
small companies. And it was a we wanted to head
down the manufacturing path, and that's what I know. So
we made a change and I stepped back in last
(15:31):
year and been riding the train ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It's great to have a company expanding and doing well
at the corners. Yeah, happy to be here being an
employee of veterans, being steeped in family and military and stuff.
You do outreach, you do community fundraising in that field.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
In the area. Yeah, we we do again more in
the defense space, but we we do. We do some
charity work with with several organizations, and again we donate product,
We do stuff for rifles and fundraisers, and we do
a lot of stuff like that because I really do
believe in giving back to the market and giving back
to those people. So it's it's something we we do
a decent amount of. I would like to do more
(16:17):
this year. That's kind of what We're trying to find
some other organizations that they do stuff with, but we
try to do as much as we can. We have
a there's one group and I'll be happy to say
the name, but Guardian Guardian Group and it's Guardian Long
Range and they have a precision rifle series. It's a
shooting competition, but it's it's for fun and they have
four or five stops are all around the US, and
(16:39):
we outfitted all their their rifles that they let people
use for trials stuff like that. We outfit all the suppressors,
so maybe their first competition experiences with a suppress rifle.
So we do stuff with them every year. A guy
named Gary's when they founded that so great group, but
he has a lot of most of his stuff is
for foster kids. It's foster kid himself and he as
(17:00):
every single dime and that goes right into helping foster kids,
helping place foster kids.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
How does think that is cool? I didn't think about that. Yeah, So,
you know, leadership company, what comes to mind when you're
you know, when you're looking ahead for the next few years.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Really, my my biggest push is diversification is trying to
grow the medical side for sure, grow my contract manufacturing,
and really try to build, you know, some stable streams around.
And everyone knows the farms industry goes up and down.
It's always cyclical, and so trying to build build a
larger company where I can have some overlying pathways and
(17:46):
diversify and stuff like that so that I can clip
the waves and be able to grow the business without
relying as much on a very cyclical market. So that's
that's really the big try. We're pushing a lot of technology.
We're trying for a patent a year or patent every
two years. Yeah, we're four. We're four deep already with
two more applied. So we do a lot on the
patent side, on the testing and development side, but yeah,
(18:08):
growing the medical is really the big one. I'm focusing
on the next year or so. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
The the one of the things you happen in house
is a fire and range, you told me, and you
can put a fifty caliber.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, so we shoot up to fifty calendars. Yeah, So
we have a we have a it's a it's a
lab as much as it does a range where we
can do all of our instrumentation, and we we we
develop based on data, so we we use it. We
shoot it in almost every single day we're doing testing
and development. We do you know, demos for customers and
stuff like that. But yeah, we've pretty extensive room back there.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
It's amazing small, smaller than this conference. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's not. It's not a very big it's not
a big long range, but it's it's heavily instrumented.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I can't even imagine shooting a fifty caliber and how
that would sound.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Oh it Uh, it'll unsuppressed, it'll lift the ceiling tiles,
it will pressurize a room. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So, so lots of work expanding, looking towards the future
and stuff. One of the biggest problems, I guess we'll
get what we're going to go right into that is
finding employees. Yeah, finding skilled employees or motivated employees. Maybe
not even skilled, maybe motivated.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Does that I'll trade motivation for skill, I'll trade because
what we do is kind of unique. Even on the
manufacturing side. You know, we have we have very nice machines.
We we do things to a very very high tolerance.
And even with the machining background, we found that some
people have either you know, preconceived notions or bad habits
or stuff like that. So we're getting to the point
(19:35):
now where I would rather have someone that has a
little bit of mechanical aptitude, some basic knowledge, or someone
out of trade school and I'd rather just teach them
and finding someone that will even on the medical side,
I'd rather have someone come in that wants to just
come in and work every single day, take pride in
the product they put out. You don't have to even
be that knowledge about what we do. I'll train you
(19:57):
and do whatever we need to do. But someone to
actually really coming to do it is the It's been
one of the biggest struggles we find. We multiple you know,
staffing agencies and all stuff like that, and we have people.
We had some people the other day that came in
for four hours, just left during lunch, never came back,
and yeah, just it's it's the workforces is it's been disappointing,
(20:18):
I guess, and seeing especially on the technical side, I
mean the craves, the crates, the trades, the crafts, like
a lot of that stuff is dying, like people are not.
You look into like tool and die. Oh that's not
that's not so those people will know how injection mold
stuff works. And with that, the craftsmen that build those tools.
That is a dying art. There's no there's only one
(20:40):
or two schools in the US that do it. I
don't know any of those guys who make less than
six figures, none of them. And you know, you look
at plumbers and electricians and welders. I come from a
welding background. I knew plenty of welders in the nuclear
field that have multiple houses and multiple states. They never
wanted for money. They always had plenty of money. Because
it's such a very small niche thing and there's not
(21:03):
many people that go into it. And so what we
found with the growing we've had to do a lot
of automation because we cannot get the people. So we're
putting robotics in. We're putting automation system in just because
I have a certain number of parts that I have
to make a day, and we're not hitting the numbers
with the people we have. It's really hard to find
people that want to come in and work. And we
(21:24):
have a climate control facility. The nicest machines that our
oldest machine see and C machines from twenty eighteen. The
oldest machine we have in the whole building. Most stuff
is within two years old. So we work highest machines,
highest quality product this and just having someone come in
every single day and want to work. It's it's been
very difficult to find. And that's it. It's been, I
(21:47):
guess upsetting a little bit of how how hard it's been.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I think we talked a little bit about that when
it was here last time, and you're on the board
of Maxwell High School.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Technical, I thought, yeah, well, Maxwell High School it's a
vocational high school. Essentially, it's a trade high school. They're
ever in Lawrenceville, I think, so high school kids in
Gwennett County if they want to go to that program,
I want to say it's junior and senior year. If
they are heading down that path, they essentially will get
bus to Maxwell for half their day and come back
and they have machining and welding, HVAC, nursing, culinary, carpentry,
(22:23):
all kinds of stuff. And you can get some vocational
certificates in high school over there. And so I sit
on the board over there and I help advise of
curriculum of what what do kids need to learn if
they want to head down this path and want to
head down I don't care if it's machining or engineering
or anything like that, Like what are basic skills. I mean,
(22:43):
we have people that come in in their twenties that
don't know what a screwdriver is.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I mean it's like that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
But until you until you meet people, and you know,
I don't think the school systems are doing people favors.
And so I've been really trying to help where I can,
and and you know, try to say, like, look, let's
try to teach people young. I didn't have that when
I was in school, Like I had to learn everything
the hard way.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, and you were talking about this to start at fifteen,
I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So I started machining in you know, high school. I
started welding at twelve. I grew up on a farm
twelve and so it's one of those that you know
I had. I was. I had a very good upbringing,
like I was shown. My great grandfather was a master carpenter,
great uncle was a master machinist. Like I grew up
in a trade family and so like I got to
(23:35):
exposed that stuff very very young. I was very lucky
a lot of people aren't like that. Most of their
parents are maybe an IT or finance and they want
to go be a machinist or be a welder or
something like that. So there's no you know, maybe the
parents don't know how to get into that, and so
the kids find out a later date. Well what if
they could start finding out high school they start learning,
you know, your STEM school is your vocational school, that
(23:57):
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I think like Paul Duke's STEM for example, they are
a hybrid school, right, so it's you have kids that
are technically STEM kids, but then you also have other
kids a learning CAD and three D printing stuff like that,
so more of technical stuff that they can actually leave
the high school knowing that stuff and then find the
job doing it. So that's the only place I know
(24:21):
that's like that, short of the we're at science and
technology high school. I forget where that is now. But
when I grew up, I mean granted this, you know,
my high school was fifty years ago for a century.
That's horrible, okay, But when I grew up, we had
shop classes, so middle class printing class. In fact, I
(24:45):
took printing. I should have taken the auto class, but
because that really works now. But I took printing and
when I was going to college, I worked at the
print shop right around the corner. So I made good
cash because there weren't that many people that knew it,
and I literally could run two or three parent presses
at the same time. There were small presses. But there
were even people back then that would be like, well,
(25:05):
what are you in a rush for? Why are you
doing what you're doing? And I'm like, because getting bored
running this long run in this one press, I could
do this other one while this is going. So it
is to some degree motivations, some degree technical knowledge. Yeah,
but a lot of us still drive, yes, drive for
sure to be able to make that money. I mean
(25:25):
most parents think, I think, well, I don't know about
most parents. What I think is people got into this
four year college degree thing, which is way more expensive
now than it used to be. And you're looking at
people who was at the head of Open AI. It
was essentially saying you don't have to go. The head
of the video wasn't It was like, you used to
(25:47):
want to be able to send your kid to do
computer programming, and he's essentially saying you don't all, No,
don't need to be doing that anymore because it can
be done in plain English on open AI essentially. So
where are they going? Good question, mart, I see signing
bonuses for ten grand on HVAC here in the metro
(26:07):
area something. Yes, how do you solve that? I mean
you're on the board of the high school, but how
do you?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, but as one high school, yes, and it's one
high school in a state, and I know there's other
vocational schools in other states. A lot of it just
seems to be the state has to look at it holistically,
in the whole, in the whole state, and go like, look,
this is worth putting money into. This is not football,
this is not baseball, This is not your supports sports
like that. It is an alternative path that is not
(26:36):
your commonplace. So it really has to come. And I'll
give a state of Georgia and even Gwenett County very
very good accolades of you know, taking the leap on
that school and funding that program and pushing it and
keeping to push it and grow it and so. But
but it has to start at a state level. The
state has to be able to go this is worth
(26:58):
putting money into future because you have to do it
now for the kids that are coming up. Yes, you know,
if you want to get it, if you want to
you know, if you want that kid as an elementary
school right now to look at that that program already
has to be in place so that he will know
about he or she will know about it by the
time I get into middle school, and then by the
time I get in high school, they can apply for it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I think there's a stigma, but the stigma needs to
go away also, right because there's a stigma like you're
not going to college.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, and you're not going to amount to anything if
you don't go to get a four year degree.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And it used to be okay, if you knew computer
engineering and programming you come out of school. Some people,
some leaders in that industry would say, don't waste the
four years. We'll train you during the four years for
me now yeah, yeah, I mean Google used to do that.
Some of these other companies started doing away with four
you degree like minimums, yeah, to be able to do
that because they weren't finding what they needed. But now
(27:49):
they're finding it a different way. So but I agree
with you. I mean, funding that type of stuff makes
a whole lot of sense. But it's taking that stigma
away to say, you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay to be a Plummerkay, to be a carpenter, it's
okay to you know, wash cars, Like because I have
a friend of mine who started washing cars. Then he
managed a car wash. Now he owns six of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So again it's it's a bit of it's a bit
of drive.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah. But but he had to drive, and he knew
that he had to start somewhere. And I think a
lot of people are scared of starting at the bottom
of something. Yeah. And and but it's it's it's one
of those that like they're all these crafts, all these
trades are very inviting. They want people, they're begging for
people to come work.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You know what, you don't You don't need to drive
as much, you need to be able to. I think
take pride what you do. Sure, you don't need to
go into something and say, well, I want to stop
my own business because some people don't want to. They
want to do a night to five. That's fine, that's fine.
They can make lots of money doing that.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
They can make good money.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah, check out the company. All right, So we've we've
sort of come to the end of of our interview.
Has it Is there anything I've left out that we
haven't talked about that do you think you should mention?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
No is that I can go on for days about
the labor and trade schools and stuff like that, but no,
I said, this is kind of a little bit of
my story and kind of where we've come from, where
we're heading, and what I'm passionate about individually and what
i want to do for the community.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Excellent. So if you will want to find out about
the company, check out the website. I'll have the Actually,
what is the website.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It's kgmdash tech dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yes, tech dot com. I have the link in the
show notes as well. If you have any questions for Kyle,
just email them of the website right or leave your
comments in the you know, depending if you're watching this
on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube, or if you're watching
this on audio podcast, just send the comments to me
and all forward it to connin So, but thank you everyone.
(29:47):
Thank you to our sponsors as well to Vox Popular
and Ether're Modeling Inc. Appreciate you all being with us.
Share this Urban podcast with your friends and if you look,
if you know any and that's looking to get into
the technical fields, KA could be a good mentor probably
I would think, yeah, thank you Kyle, Thank you, Sir,
(30:07):
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Thank you guys, Thank you for joining us on another
episode of Urban Ebb. If you enjoined today's conversation and
want to stay connected with the heartbeat of our local cities,
be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.
If you have a story to share or know someone
who does, we'd love to hear from you. The pulse
(30:29):
of Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Berkeley Lake, and Muluth beats through
the dreams, actions and stories of some great individuals we
feature until next time. This was urban Ebb, your gateway
to the heart of urban living.
Urban ebb is a gateway to the heart of our
local small cities. Urban ebb covers urban life and planning, culture,
innovative city initiatives, programs, development and politics. Here people talk
about their passions and interests and share their opinions and stories.
It's a conversation we can all learn from.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi. Everyone, this is Rico figlio Lini, host of urban
ebb here in the city of Peatre Corners, just north
of Atlanta. Appreciate you joining us. We have a great
guest today, a Peatrel Corners based business, very different in
a unique industry, Kyle Robe. Appreciate you being with me.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Kyle, Oh, thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It's going to be a good discussion on a bit
of a company, a bit of work and manpower Black. Yes. So,
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to two of our sponsors, Ivy Remodeling, Inc.
And the Eli who lives here in Peacetree Corners. Also
his family does and he does great work from designed
to build, whole house renovation or if you need an
(01:09):
extension on the house, he's the guy to look for.
They've done two hundred and over two hundred and sixty
such renovation work. So check them out ev remodeling ink
dot com. And then also Voxpopular Wells family owned also
in Peachtree Corners, and they're a company that if you
have a brand, and if you're a business and you
need to bring that brand to life, pretty much you
(01:29):
can do it. Sixteen hundred vehicle ops I think this
past year. Anything you can want imprinted, broidered, silkscream, whatever
it is. If you have a logo and you want
it on an object of any sort of challenge them.
If I can't tell you how many different things they've
put logos on, so all great stuff. Check them outvoxpopularity
(01:49):
dot com where you can find them. So I have
taken care of the sponsors who support us for our
journalism and podcasts. Kyle is the founder and currently CEO
of KGM Technology. Sir, Yeah, so based on pre Streety Corners,
tell us just quickly a little bit about what the
company is.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So a company started in twenty twelve as a kind
of a fabrication job shop, machining fabrication, and we kind
of evolved out of the automotive space and got into
the defense world. And I slowly grew over years, and
then we moved into this building in twenty nineteen and
have been growing.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Since twenty nineteen. COVID.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, so COVID was actually very good for us. We
was wide open, running multiple shifts. While many businesses were
shut down. We were we couldn't hire enough people, we
couldn't build enough product. We'll get into that because it
may be a bit of what you're going on. Now,
what's the So your.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Business is military is suppressors, which is the big, biggest part.
You told me once at one point when it took
a tour earlier a week ago, you said, we're precision manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Is that Yeah, So the back end, the wholeness of
the company's precision manufacturing. Our forward facing product is suppressors.
That's mainly what we sell to commercial, law enforcement, military, overseas,
all kinds of stuff like that. But we're in all kinds
of stuff contract manufacturing, medical device manufacturing and supply all
(03:21):
the way down to machining and research and development, and
it's just a little bit of everything. But again, forward
facing is the product line.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, sure, and you've done this since twenty nineteen, right, Well, no,
actually before that.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, So we started suppressors in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
and then but it was kind of a side product
to what we were doing. Really grew in twenty nineteen
and then really kind of just kept growing through COVID
and this is you know, kind of where we are now.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Interesting. So your your family steeped in military b instant right, yeah,
role branches, I.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Guess or Brown Army and Navy Army.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, yeah, and you high veterans.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We hire a lot of veterans. We have a lot
of veterans that work for US. I try to hire
as many as we can. They make they make very
good employees. But you know, it could probably be a
whole nother podcast in itself what happens to veterans when
they come back from service and so we try to
we try to search them out and give people, give people.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
A chance well getting involved in this type of market.
Since you know you started it, has it changed it's
way you do business?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Or And yeah, because we are so highly regulated from
you know, the ATF regulates us US pretty pretty heavily.
The ability for consumers to essentially purchase the product and
all the paperwork and background check that goes in it
has evolved since we started. It used to be nine months, twelve,
fifteen months to get a product so you can buy it,
wait for your paperwork for a year or more. You'd
(04:52):
almost forget about the product, and then all of a
sudden it pop up one day. Well, last year everything
went digital, and so now everything's digital. You go for
months or years, wait time to days, hours, weeks so you.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Can order this stuff online and get chipped to you.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
No, so you you can't really ship it to your house,
so you still have to go to a dealer or
go like that. You're still submitting fingerprints, you're still submitting
your photos, but the process is now all digitized. There's
no manual entry on the ATF side. Everything goes through
much faster. And again we've seen you know, three hour
weight times where you fill out your paperwork, go to
long lunch, and all of a sudden, your expressor's approved.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So that if you have a gun permit or a
carry permit. Does that make it easy?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It doesn't really because it's a completely separate background check.
So this every suppressor you purchase is its own background check,
So you treat it like a firearm purchase every single time,
except it goes through a kind of a different It
goes through the FBI on the KNICK side, which is
their background check service, but it goes through separate, separate
checking on the ATF side as well. So it is
(05:56):
a little bit more involved process than buying a handgun
or rifle or something like that, but a similar similar
agencies touch it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I guess, Okay, this being the state of Georgia, you know,
other states have different ways of doing things. You've been
to trade shows, you know, you're involved in the industry
a bit. Do you see Georgia being a good place
to do business here in this market and.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Georgia Georgie is a very friendly state and even just
manufacturing in general. You've seen all the companies that have
moved here. You have most major automotive companies are either
building are about to build here. You got sk batteries,
You have some big companies that are moving to Georgia.
And then film, I mean film is passive here now
with all the tax breaks and so you see a
lot of stuff coming to Georgia from an industry standpoint,
(06:41):
but it's also very firearms friendly. There's a lot of
big companies here in Georgia. You have Glock here in Georgia,
you have Daniel Fence, you have a lot of really
big companies. I think Reminton's got a place here. So
it is very the you know, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina.
I know, like there's a lot of very friendly states
when it comes to manufacturing firearms.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So how do you go about selling your product? Then,
I mean, if you go to trade show's RFPs.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So on the military side, it's more RFPs, it's more
contract basis. We partner with a lot of firearms companies
because a lot of submissions for weapon systems require you know,
we're viewed as a kind of an add on to
a weapon system. Yeah, it's an accessory. And then on
the law enforcement side, we go demos, we have dealers,
and then on the commercial side, we have distributors that
distribute to dealers, and then we have dealers that essentially
(07:29):
are walk in brick and mortar stores and we sell
directly to them as well.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So for most people that may not know, why would
someone want to suppress run the gun? Why would a
police officer, let's say, if SWAT team want suppress it?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
What makes it really the biggest one is health and
safety is the biggest one. So a from a officer
involves shooting, or say, if he shoots without air protection,
every shot is permit hearing damage. So if he shoots
one in his entire career, he's permit hearing damage is
on disability. From an auditory standpoint, so you look at
(08:03):
you know what you could do, and then you look
at you know, God forbid all the school shootings we've
had in school resource. When you shoot inside of a building,
it's even magnified, so it's very very loud in general,
and then you put it inside of a building gets worse.
So there's been cases where you've seen lawsuits where you know,
a swat team or someone's gone into a house or
a building and essentially you know, save someone, but they
(08:27):
discharge their short belt rifle inside the house and then
everyone that's not wearing air protection i e. The family,
they're all deaf for hearing damage and they end up
suing the city. And we see it a lot. And
so from a health and safety standpoint, there's that you
could look at accuracy, and then you look at on
the hunting side of being more courteous to neighbors. It
allows you to hunt closer to you know, other people
(08:48):
and stuff like that. Yeah, so there's so many things
that add to it. And then you add you know,
on the military side, it helps with being able to
you know, hide your location and just be more effective
suppressed flash and stuff like that. So a mirrored of
us is that really the big one is the health
and safety side of things.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But speaking to a to a person today that on
his old farm he used to shoot his rifle and stuff,
and he told me, he said this here pretty much God,
God says hearing a because he didn't think that he
needed and a you know, plugs or anything suppressed probably
would have helped him. Yes, well, at least the plugs
might have felt Yeah, no one thinks about that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
When no, you don't. You don't and and you look
at the law enforcement side and kind of the heat
a moment, you don't think about it. You know, it's
not something you're either fighting for your life or you know,
your split moment decision, like you don't think about putting
your pro or plowing a plug in something like that.
It's split second decision. So with suppressors, you can really
mitigate a lot of that risk. Now, does it make
(09:48):
it the Hollywood movie. No, the only thing that gets
even close to that is twenty two. And because the
subsonic is very quiet like that, But any center fire
rifle cartridge you're never going to get away from supersonic crack.
It's only so quiet you can get it. It is
a suppressor, not a silencer. And that's a probably a
very topic. It's a movie thing, yes, but in practical application,
(10:11):
they do a lot of work for the size of
the product and what you use it for.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So now, going from suppressors to the medical industry. You know,
when you showed me around and you talked to me
about mechanical therapeutic systems for a company you're doing work
for inside the perimeter, Yeah, that you almost had to
double the size of your floor space essentially.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah. So yeah, so's it's kind of an interesting story.
You know, we go back to you know, we're a
precision manufacturing company. We make contract stuff, we do defense,
we do a little bit of everything. And it was
kind of a friend of a friend. Their business was
scaling and and really needed help scaling the manufacturing side
of their product, and it was really a right place,
(10:54):
right time. It kind of fit in a warehouse. While
it's not exactly what we make, precision assembly, scaling, manufacturing,
supply chain, logistics, all that stuff, that's what we do
every day. So I'm just building something a little different
versus what I have been building. So it was a
great opportunity again the right inside of the Premiers Atlanta Company,
and it was just a really good right place, right time,
(11:16):
good fit for what they were looking for, good fit
for us on the diversification side. So it's just it
really worked, and we're growing weekly. I mean, yeah, we're
blowing walls down and yeah, we've we've tripled the space
twice now since we yarded in like October last year.
So it's very very quick.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
When I walked through and gave me the tour, I
mean there were quite a few people just in that
place doing the assemblage. Yeah, thank you. Even told me
he said, you said, how far Dan can you minion
of an inch position?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah? Like so it's like our e d ms and
some of our stuff. We we calculated microns millions of
an inch.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So that's an industry obviously you want to get more into.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, it is. It's it was interesting, you know, I
had kind of heard about the medical manufacturing side. And
the more we dug into, the more I realized how
many companies like the company we're helping are out there
and of just you know, they have a great idea,
a great concept, but they're either doctors or they're pds
or biomedical. You know, they've developed great product, but they
(12:19):
don't know the manufacturing side, or they don't know how
to scale the logistics scale changel yes, scaling so's there's
so many good ideas that maybe never ever come to
market or never could reteat reach the potential they could
because they don't know the back end, they don't know
the manufacturing. They don't know how to make five of
something's very different than making five hundreds, very different than
making five thousand. And it's just a different skill set,
(12:41):
it's a different knowledge base, and we're very good at it,
and it just it was a really really good fit
and it's something we believe in. We believe in the
medical stuff as much as we believe in the defense
of We every day we're building something to help someone else.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And to get people to understand a little bit. This
particular thing was the therapy.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a wereout going too much detail.
It's a it's a stroke therapy device. It's used for
rehab a stroke patients so that they can actually rehabit
home versus having to go into a therapy office. And
so it's just grown immensely and that products done well.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
So how do you go after that market? You know?
So if another business person you're when you when you diversifying?
It's not easy, right, You're all said in one way,
you have one hundred percent of the direction going one way?
How do you do that? If another company was listening
to this, how would they be able to diversify? So
what challenges did you see?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The challenge is like, oh, say, I said, we we
very much stumbled into this one, not saying we weren't looking,
and that's kind of how we did it. But honestly
it was it was network and the guy that owns
this company owns another company and he's an investment group
with another other. So a lot of it is networking
and being open and willing to take on a challenge
(13:57):
that you may not be like, oh, I have no
business in that. Well, if you're good at what you
do over here and you can see you can cross
the lines, you can compare, you'd be surprised at what
you can do. And then you go to the trade
shows like there're medical device trade shows, go to those
and walk around and say, hey, I'm a manufacturer or
I'm this I'm looking at getting into this market. Do
you have a need for X what I do? Putting
(14:20):
yourself out there and going like, look, this is out
of my market, but I'm good at this. I would
like to try this, and just be open and willing
to aid to fail because you're trying to fail more
than you suceive, but be willing to try. And that's
the big thing was the leap, Like we took a
leap to do this. I had a good feeling that
we could do it. But the end of the day,
(14:41):
like you still have to take the leap.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You're a CEO now and you were a founder, but
you were on the board. You're a chairman of the board.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
No, no, not a chair on the board. I was
more on the technical side. So as we were growing
the business, I was CTO and so we were heading
kind of down a different path and it was just
a the board kind of wanted to see a different
change in the in the way the company was run again.
My background why I said, I wasn't running the day
to day most more on the manufacturing side and technology
(15:10):
and patents and stuff like that. And so Board made
a made a shift and and I took back over
the company. You know, I go from running it many
years ago to running again, which happens a lot in
small companies. And it was a we wanted to head
down the manufacturing path, and that's what I know. So
we made a change and I stepped back in last
(15:31):
year and been riding the train ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It's great to have a company expanding and doing well
at the corners. Yeah, happy to be here being an
employee of veterans, being steeped in family and military and stuff.
You do outreach, you do community fundraising in that field.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
In the area. Yeah, we we do again more in
the defense space, but we we do. We do some
charity work with with several organizations, and again we donate product,
We do stuff for rifles and fundraisers, and we do
a lot of stuff like that because I really do
believe in giving back to the market and giving back
to those people. So it's it's something we we do
a decent amount of. I would like to do more
(16:17):
this year. That's kind of what We're trying to find
some other organizations that they do stuff with, but we
try to do as much as we can. We have
a there's one group and I'll be happy to say
the name, but Guardian Guardian Group and it's Guardian Long
Range and they have a precision rifle series. It's a
shooting competition, but it's it's for fun and they have
four or five stops are all around the US, and
(16:39):
we outfitted all their their rifles that they let people
use for trials stuff like that. We outfit all the suppressors,
so maybe their first competition experiences with a suppress rifle.
So we do stuff with them every year. A guy
named Gary's when they founded that so great group, but
he has a lot of most of his stuff is
for foster kids. It's foster kid himself and he as
(17:00):
every single dime and that goes right into helping foster kids,
helping place foster kids.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
How does think that is cool? I didn't think about that. Yeah, So,
you know, leadership company, what comes to mind when you're
you know, when you're looking ahead for the next few years.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Really, my my biggest push is diversification is trying to
grow the medical side for sure, grow my contract manufacturing,
and really try to build, you know, some stable streams around.
And everyone knows the farms industry goes up and down.
It's always cyclical, and so trying to build build a
larger company where I can have some overlying pathways and
(17:46):
diversify and stuff like that so that I can clip
the waves and be able to grow the business without
relying as much on a very cyclical market. So that's
that's really the big try. We're pushing a lot of technology.
We're trying for a patent a year or patent every
two years. Yeah, we're four. We're four deep already with
two more applied. So we do a lot on the
patent side, on the testing and development side, but yeah,
(18:08):
growing the medical is really the big one. I'm focusing
on the next year or so. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
The the one of the things you happen in house
is a fire and range, you told me, and you
can put a fifty caliber.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, so we shoot up to fifty calendars. Yeah, So
we have a we have a it's a it's a
lab as much as it does a range where we
can do all of our instrumentation, and we we we
develop based on data, so we we use it. We
shoot it in almost every single day we're doing testing
and development. We do you know, demos for customers and
stuff like that. But yeah, we've pretty extensive room back there.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
It's amazing small, smaller than this conference. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, it's not. It's not a very big it's not
a big long range, but it's it's heavily instrumented.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I can't even imagine shooting a fifty caliber and how
that would sound.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Oh it Uh, it'll unsuppressed, it'll lift the ceiling tiles,
it will pressurize a room. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So, so lots of work expanding, looking towards the future
and stuff. One of the biggest problems, I guess we'll
get what we're going to go right into that is
finding employees. Yeah, finding skilled employees or motivated employees. Maybe
not even skilled, maybe motivated.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Does that I'll trade motivation for skill, I'll trade because
what we do is kind of unique. Even on the
manufacturing side. You know, we have we have very nice machines.
We we do things to a very very high tolerance.
And even with the machining background, we found that some
people have either you know, preconceived notions or bad habits
or stuff like that. So we're getting to the point
(19:35):
now where I would rather have someone that has a
little bit of mechanical aptitude, some basic knowledge, or someone
out of trade school and I'd rather just teach them
and finding someone that will even on the medical side,
I'd rather have someone come in that wants to just
come in and work every single day, take pride in
the product they put out. You don't have to even
be that knowledge about what we do. I'll train you
(19:57):
and do whatever we need to do. But someone to
actually really coming to do it is the It's been
one of the biggest struggles we find. We multiple you know,
staffing agencies and all stuff like that, and we have people.
We had some people the other day that came in
for four hours, just left during lunch, never came back,
and yeah, just it's it's the workforces is it's been disappointing,
(20:18):
I guess, and seeing especially on the technical side, I
mean the craves, the crates, the trades, the crafts, like
a lot of that stuff is dying, like people are not.
You look into like tool and die. Oh that's not
that's not so those people will know how injection mold
stuff works. And with that, the craftsmen that build those tools.
That is a dying art. There's no there's only one
(20:40):
or two schools in the US that do it. I
don't know any of those guys who make less than
six figures, none of them. And you know, you look
at plumbers and electricians and welders. I come from a
welding background. I knew plenty of welders in the nuclear
field that have multiple houses and multiple states. They never
wanted for money. They always had plenty of money. Because
it's such a very small niche thing and there's not
(21:03):
many people that go into it. And so what we
found with the growing we've had to do a lot
of automation because we cannot get the people. So we're
putting robotics in. We're putting automation system in just because
I have a certain number of parts that I have
to make a day, and we're not hitting the numbers
with the people we have. It's really hard to find
people that want to come in and work. And we
(21:24):
have a climate control facility. The nicest machines that our
oldest machine see and C machines from twenty eighteen. The
oldest machine we have in the whole building. Most stuff
is within two years old. So we work highest machines,
highest quality product this and just having someone come in
every single day and want to work. It's it's been
very difficult to find. And that's it. It's been, I
(21:47):
guess upsetting a little bit of how how hard it's been.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
I think we talked a little bit about that when
it was here last time, and you're on the board
of Maxwell High School.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Technical, I thought, yeah, well, Maxwell High School it's a
vocational high school. Essentially, it's a trade high school. They're
ever in Lawrenceville, I think, so high school kids in
Gwennett County if they want to go to that program,
I want to say it's junior and senior year. If
they are heading down that path, they essentially will get
bus to Maxwell for half their day and come back
and they have machining and welding, HVAC, nursing, culinary, carpentry,
(22:23):
all kinds of stuff. And you can get some vocational
certificates in high school over there. And so I sit
on the board over there and I help advise of
curriculum of what what do kids need to learn if
they want to head down this path and want to
head down I don't care if it's machining or engineering
or anything like that, Like what are basic skills. I mean,
(22:43):
we have people that come in in their twenties that
don't know what a screwdriver is.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I mean it's like that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
But until you until you meet people, and you know,
I don't think the school systems are doing people favors.
And so I've been really trying to help where I can,
and and you know, try to say, like, look, let's
try to teach people young. I didn't have that when
I was in school, Like I had to learn everything
the hard way.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, and you were talking about this to start at fifteen,
I think, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So I started machining in you know, high school. I
started welding at twelve. I grew up on a farm
twelve and so it's one of those that you know
I had. I was. I had a very good upbringing,
like I was shown. My great grandfather was a master carpenter,
great uncle was a master machinist. Like I grew up
in a trade family and so like I got to
(23:35):
exposed that stuff very very young. I was very lucky
a lot of people aren't like that. Most of their
parents are maybe an IT or finance and they want
to go be a machinist or be a welder or
something like that. So there's no you know, maybe the
parents don't know how to get into that, and so
the kids find out a later date. Well what if
they could start finding out high school they start learning,
you know, your STEM school is your vocational school, that
(23:57):
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I think like Paul Duke's STEM for example, they are
a hybrid school, right, so it's you have kids that
are technically STEM kids, but then you also have other
kids a learning CAD and three D printing stuff like that,
so more of technical stuff that they can actually leave
the high school knowing that stuff and then find the
job doing it. So that's the only place I know
(24:21):
that's like that, short of the we're at science and
technology high school. I forget where that is now. But
when I grew up, I mean granted this, you know,
my high school was fifty years ago for a century.
That's horrible, okay, But when I grew up, we had
shop classes, so middle class printing class. In fact, I
(24:45):
took printing. I should have taken the auto class, but
because that really works now. But I took printing and
when I was going to college, I worked at the
print shop right around the corner. So I made good
cash because there weren't that many people that knew it,
and I literally could run two or three parent presses
at the same time. There were small presses. But there
were even people back then that would be like, well,
(25:05):
what are you in a rush for? Why are you
doing what you're doing? And I'm like, because getting bored
running this long run in this one press, I could
do this other one while this is going. So it
is to some degree motivations, some degree technical knowledge. Yeah,
but a lot of us still drive, yes, drive for
sure to be able to make that money. I mean
(25:25):
most parents think, I think, well, I don't know about
most parents. What I think is people got into this
four year college degree thing, which is way more expensive
now than it used to be. And you're looking at
people who was at the head of Open AI. It
was essentially saying you don't have to go. The head
of the video wasn't It was like, you used to
(25:47):
want to be able to send your kid to do
computer programming, and he's essentially saying you don't all, No,
don't need to be doing that anymore because it can
be done in plain English on open AI essentially. So
where are they going? Good question, mart, I see signing
bonuses for ten grand on HVAC here in the metro
(26:07):
area something. Yes, how do you solve that? I mean
you're on the board of the high school, but how
do you?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, but as one high school, yes, and it's one
high school in a state, and I know there's other
vocational schools in other states. A lot of it just
seems to be the state has to look at it holistically,
in the whole, in the whole state, and go like, look,
this is worth putting money into. This is not football,
this is not baseball, This is not your supports sports
like that. It is an alternative path that is not
(26:36):
your commonplace. So it really has to come. And I'll
give a state of Georgia and even Gwenett County very
very good accolades of you know, taking the leap on
that school and funding that program and pushing it and
keeping to push it and grow it and so. But
but it has to start at a state level. The
state has to be able to go this is worth
(26:58):
putting money into future because you have to do it
now for the kids that are coming up. Yes, you know,
if you want to get it, if you want to
you know, if you want that kid as an elementary
school right now to look at that that program already
has to be in place so that he will know
about he or she will know about it by the
time I get into middle school, and then by the
time I get in high school, they can apply for it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I think there's a stigma, but the stigma needs to
go away also, right because there's a stigma like you're
not going to college.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, and you're not going to amount to anything if
you don't go to get a four year degree.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And it used to be okay, if you knew computer
engineering and programming you come out of school. Some people,
some leaders in that industry would say, don't waste the
four years. We'll train you during the four years for
me now yeah, yeah, I mean Google used to do that.
Some of these other companies started doing away with four
you degree like minimums, yeah, to be able to do
that because they weren't finding what they needed. But now
(27:49):
they're finding it a different way. So but I agree
with you. I mean, funding that type of stuff makes
a whole lot of sense. But it's taking that stigma
away to say, you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay to be a Plummerkay, to be a carpenter, it's
okay to you know, wash cars, Like because I have
a friend of mine who started washing cars. Then he
managed a car wash. Now he owns six of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So again it's it's a bit of it's a bit
of drive.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah. But but he had to drive, and he knew
that he had to start somewhere. And I think a
lot of people are scared of starting at the bottom
of something. Yeah. And and but it's it's it's one
of those that like they're all these crafts, all these
trades are very inviting. They want people, they're begging for
people to come work.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You know what, you don't You don't need to drive
as much, you need to be able to. I think
take pride what you do. Sure, you don't need to
go into something and say, well, I want to stop
my own business because some people don't want to. They
want to do a night to five. That's fine, that's fine.
They can make lots of money doing that.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
They can make good money.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah, check out the company. All right, So we've we've
sort of come to the end of of our interview.
Has it Is there anything I've left out that we
haven't talked about that do you think you should mention?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
No is that I can go on for days about
the labor and trade schools and stuff like that, but no,
I said, this is kind of a little bit of
my story and kind of where we've come from, where
we're heading, and what I'm passionate about individually and what
i want to do for the community.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Excellent. So if you will want to find out about
the company, check out the website. I'll have the Actually,
what is the website.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It's kgmdash tech dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yes, tech dot com. I have the link in the
show notes as well. If you have any questions for Kyle,
just email them of the website right or leave your
comments in the you know, depending if you're watching this
on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube, or if you're watching
this on audio podcast, just send the comments to me
and all forward it to connin So, but thank you everyone.
(29:47):
Thank you to our sponsors as well to Vox Popular
and Ether're Modeling Inc. Appreciate you all being with us.
Share this Urban podcast with your friends and if you look,
if you know any and that's looking to get into
the technical fields, KA could be a good mentor probably
I would think, yeah, thank you Kyle, Thank you, Sir,
(30:07):
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Thank you guys, Thank you for joining us on another
episode of Urban Ebb. If you enjoined today's conversation and
want to stay connected with the heartbeat of our local cities,
be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.
If you have a story to share or know someone
who does, we'd love to hear from you. The pulse
(30:29):
of Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Berkeley Lake, and Muluth beats through
the dreams, actions and stories of some great individuals we
feature until next time. This was urban Ebb, your gateway
to the heart of urban living.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.