Ian Padrick | Ohanafy

ACEO - Ian Padrick 2

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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Amplified CEO with VC and serial entrepreneur, Richard Stroupe with today's guest, Ian Padrick, founder and CEO of Ohanafy He's back on the show to talk about their progress, including their current series A Round.

[00:00:24] Well Ian, thanks again for dropping by. Yeah, man. Yeah. Thanks for having me. This is, uh, we're back. We're back round two. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We, well, the, the last conversation we had, um, was so impactful and I know that you've been very busy and a lot has changed on your side. Yep. Um, so I, I'm, I'm very honored that you agreed to come back and share some updates and things that you've been working on and, and, you know, kind of tell us what works and what doesn't work and, you know, going forward, what the plans are for phi.

[00:00:54] Yeah. So you're in the middle of closing your fourth round. Yep. And this is an A round, this is our series A. This is your series. You made it. You married series A. We made it, yeah. Yeah, man, it's been a lot of work. It's very exciting leading up to this. It's been a lot of work. Yeah. Uh, but we're, we're thrilled to be here.

[00:01:14] Yeah. So, so, so from your perspective, leading from the time that you started raising mm-hmm. Your friends and family, which has been, what, three years ago now? Yeah. More. Is it more It's been three years. Yeah. Okay. Now fast forward to a couple bridges to kind of get you where you needed to be to do an A round.

[00:01:34] Mm-hmm. Um, how does that feel as a founder that obviously you've made it this far? Yeah. I mean, I think, um, I mean, I a it, it feels incredible, you know, I think it's a lot of validation that the dream and the vision that we had for this business, uh, is, you know, coming true and all the things that we thought would be possible, uh, are at the same time.

[00:02:01] I think you almost wind up with like imposter syndrome a little bit at times. Mm-hmm. Because you. You know, we haven't made it. Right. We talk about that a lot, is we've, we've achieved a lot of great things. We're excited about the direction of the business, the growth, but we haven't made it. Right. Mm.

[00:02:17] Trying to keep that mindset of like, hey, yeah, it's, it's wonderful to be at this stage and we're really excited about the future, but don't get comfortable, you know? Right. Trying to balance the excitement with also, like, we gotta keep our heads down and keep moving. Mm-hmm. You know? Right. Yeah. So, up until now you've raised just over 10 million?

[00:02:36] Yep. In the first three. Yep. And this round, you're raising roughly seven? Yes. Okay. We'll put you right in the 18, 19 mark. Right. When it's all, all in and done. So, 18 million bucks is a serious amount of money. Mm-hmm. Uh, to raise. Yeah. Uh, what, what's fundamentally different this time compared to the other rounds, you know, going back to their friends and family and a few of your bridges?

[00:02:58] I think, um, I think it's about, you know, now it's less about trying to sell the vision. And sell the proof, right? So we've had the opportunity over the last three years to, you know, uh, work out some of the kinks, go through some of the pivots, kind of find our sweet spot, really understand our ICP, uh, go win major logos and major contracts and prove that, uh, there is a market and we have a great fit in that market.

[00:03:28] And it's less about, I think, selling the vision and more about now selling, uh, the, the repeatability and the growth and starting to figure out how do we scale, right? Mm-hmm. How do we, how do we take everything that we've been doing and start designing, uh, for a, a future where we are really just trying to scale and build that repeatability?

[00:03:49] Mm-hmm. So, uh, yeah. Okay. And working with your investors and stakeholders, uh, what does investor ready. Look like for you? Because I know we're talking to a lot of founders that either we're working with as an advisory, trying to get through discovery or even through acceleration, through through fundraising.

[00:04:07] What, what does that fundraising look like? What does investor readiness look for you? Uh, I think it's, it's about repeatable growth, right? Like being able to show that what we're doing, uh, we can do in a repeatable fashion and do it easily and go, you know, from where we're at today to, you know, three, four or five x the revenue in the next 18 to 24 months.

[00:04:37] Mm-hmm. And if not more. And a big part of that is just being able to, uh, take this engine that we've been building and be able to go, you know, to the next one and turn it on faster and more efficiently and get people up and running and live quicker. So I think it's just about, um. Yeah. The, the repeatability, you know?

[00:04:57] Mm-hmm. I know a lot of people look at like the, the technology and the traction and the tam. Um, in, in some ways the team, you know, I always feel the team is, is probably the most important of the four Ts. Yeah. Um, from a fundraising point of view, looking at stakeholders and making sure that you meet their expectations, um, where do you believe their interests are aligned?

[00:05:23] Is it more the technology traction or team? What do they, what do they end up looking at? Um, yeah, I mean, I think it's all interconnected. I think that it all starts with our team internally. You know, we always talk about, uh, like how do we want to go build a big successful business that that scales and does well?

[00:05:44] Well, it's. It all ties back to this theme of turning customers into raving fans. Mm-hmm. Uh, but to do that, I think it all starts with your employees, your, your, your team first, your internal folks, and getting them aligned. Uh, if your employees are happy, then they're probably doing all the things that your customers need them to be doing so that they can be happy.

[00:06:07] Mm-hmm. And if customers are happy and becoming raving fans, then. That translates into revenue and translates into growth and happy investors and everybody's happy. So I, I think it's all interconnected, but I think it starts with the team internally, you know? Mm-hmm. We've got a big mission ahead of ourselves.

[00:06:25] We're not, uh, just selling a small chatbot widget, right. We're, we're selling a very large, wide, you know, run the entire business, uh, enterprise platform. If you're a customer of ours, you have a thousand people, then all 1000 people are using our system. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's tough. It's difficult. Um, so I think we've gotta be aligned internally first and let that translate into happy customers and raving fans and mm-hmm.

[00:06:52] You know. All that, but fundraising's still very challenging. Sure. It's incredibly hard. Yeah. But you, you give an impression, you know, at least from my optic, that it's, it's easy for you. Um, you've had a lot of VCs contact you Yeah. Over the last couple years. Um, what, what do you think has been most attractive about that?

[00:07:14] Like how did, how did you curate that relationship with all these, these VCs and investors who want to give you their money? That's a great question. Um, I don't know. I, I think that a lot of it boils down to are you, are you solving the right problems? Do you have a real opportunity? And we do. So I think that makes it easier, uh, to a degree.

[00:07:39] Um, I think the market that we are in is extremely underserved and there's a tremendous amount of. Uh, opportunity for us to go be a very large player in the space. So I, I don't know. I think that naturally creates some ease. Not that fundraising is easy. I think it makes it a little bit easier. Um, we've also been fortunate to have some great investors behind us for a long time that we've built relationships with over the years.

[00:08:10] And I think if we looked at all of the fundraising that we've done, uh, even in this fourth round, the majority of all of our major investors have participated in every single round. Mm-hmm. And I think part of that is, yeah, they see the opportunity, they see the mission that we are, uh, focused on. But I think a lot of it too is building trust in relationships.

[00:08:33] Mm-hmm. It's something that I would, I would probably tell, you know, any new founder, uh. I don't underestimate the value of just building those relationships and spending time, whether it's, you know, eight o'clock phone calls in the evening, or 6:00 AM phone calls in the morning, or mm-hmm. Whatever. Uh, I think you've got to do everything that you can to build the, the trust and build those relationships so that when it comes time to have to go press the fundraising button, uh, you've just got people who, who truly know you.

[00:09:07] They know the authenticity. Yeah. They know the business and the mission mm-hmm. And the vision. But, you know, all of it, I think comes full circle. Mm-hmm. You know, out of all of your fundraising rounds, which has been the most difficult? Hmm. Um, I would say probably maybe our second bridge. Mm-hmm. You know, I think the first one.

[00:09:34] It was, I think they're difficult for different reasons. Mm-hmm. The first one I think was most difficult just figuring out like, how do we even do this? Right? Yeah. Like, what does this mean? What all goes into it? Um, but then I think you learn over the years, like how do you set really good expectations? So I think there were lessons learned coming out of the first one of like, you know, Hey, we're gonna take over the world.

[00:09:58] And, and then, uh, turns out like, maybe you don't take over the world now investors are, hang on. Well you, you need more money. Like, I thought we were good. So it's just, I think navigating, um, just the, the various stages of the business. Mm-hmm. And learning as you go and learning how. Uh, how these things work and how do you try and do a good job of balancing like the optimism and the vision and the excitement with also setting very realistic expectations so that when you do inevitably get to that next milestone and say, Hey, we're gonna do a bridge, nobody's confused or shocked or, um, caught off guard.

[00:10:37] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Goes back to setting and managing expectations. Yeah. With your investor base. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Was it, was it difficult just trying to translate your vision during that second bridge? Um, as far as like, executing on what the, the goal was at the time, or what was the major issue? I think it was probably a combination.

[00:11:02] You know, I think the vision has evolved a lot over the years. It's something I'm a big believer in now. I mean, you can look at the history books and look at some of the most successful companies in the world, very few of them. With what they're currently doing. Was that the original idea or the plan, you know?

[00:11:21] Mm-hmm. They kind of evolved and pivoted and mm-hmm. Over time found their sweet spot and we're no different. Um, so I think it's maybe the evolution of the vision being an early stage business, still navigating, trying to get revenue to the right points, you know, financials in a good spot. Um, and then balancing all that with investor expectations and having to reset those expectations and say, Hey, I know I told you we were gonna go do this, but turns out we actually think we're better at going and doing this.

[00:11:53] Mm-hmm. And navigating that in a way where it doesn't create, uh, concern or doubt or worry mm-hmm. But tries to create confidence that, Hey, this is actually a good thing. We're, we're really learning our sweet spot. We're figuring out who our ICP is. Um, and tying all of that back into, you know. How are we gonna go raise more money and using it as a, um, a confidence builder, I think, you know.

[00:12:21] Yeah. So in relation of, of meeting and managing expectations with investors mm-hmm. Uh, what, what's worked for you? 'cause I know it's very challenging, it's very difficult to raise capital, but you know, you're in Wilmington, North Carolina. Yep. Um, has it been, I mean, obviously has it been difficult for you to raise capital?

[00:12:39] And it seems like you've got some strategic investors aligned with you, but, but, but you make it seem easy mm-hmm. Where it's a very difficult thing. Like how did you do that? Like, what was, what were the elements that you deployed to make raising capital successful for you? I would say, um, I think some of it, a couple of it, just a couple pieces.

[00:13:00] You know, a, I think a lot of it for us in our specific situation has boiled down to having long standing relationships with some of our investors. I mean, some of our investors I've known for 15 years. Mm-hmm. Uh, even some of the ones I haven't known for 15 years, it feels like I've known them for 15 years 'cause I've spent so much time with them.

[00:13:20] Right. Um, back to building trust and relationships. Um, but I think a lot of it for us, you know, we've, and we're fortunate. I think that if you look at our founders and you look at our backgrounds and where we come from, it's not our first rodeo being a part of early stage businesses and seeing, um. What it takes to go from zero to a hundred in scale and, and not just in a business mm-hmm.

[00:13:51] In a, in a startup, but in a very similar motion. You know, I was very early on, had the great fortune of being early here at a company called Encino here in Wilmington, North Carolina, and most people are familiar with where we had almost the exact same, uh, type of motion that we're building here for the world of beverage, but for the world of banking.

[00:14:12] And, you know, it took that company 10 years to IPO. Mm-hmm. Right? It doesn't happen overnight. And I think because we've had those experiences, it's helped us try and manage expectations early on and tell our investors, I mean, you could ask them the number of words. They've probably, the number of times they've probably heard me say the word.

[00:14:34] Please be patient. Uh, is, they probably can't even count it at this point. Yeah. Because I think at least in our world, you know, we're, we're disrupting a very antiquated, legacy underserved industry that has a hundred plus year old businesses, uh, that have just always been growing up into the right. And they haven't had to think about technology that much.

[00:14:59] Uh, and it's a little bit different. There's, it's very fraternal. There's only a couple of competitors that, that we run into in the market. Um, so it creates a lot of dynamics where you have to be patient. If you're going to play in our market and win, you have to be incredibly patient. Mm-hmm. And that requires our investors to be incredibly patient.

[00:15:21] So I think it's the combination of having and building those relationships and just setting really good expectations with your investors and in our world. Trying to make sure that they understand when we say things like, Hey, please be patient. It's not because people aren't working 70 and 80 hours a week and doing everything they can to bust this thing open.

[00:15:41] Mm-hmm. It's because it, we can work a hundred hours a week. It won't change the, the speed at which the market moves. Mm-hmm. And we've gotta be, I think, uh, in alignment on like, hey, we'll do everything we can on our side, but we also just have to give this thing time for people to see it and trust it and start to let it spread.

[00:16:02] So, yeah. Right now, and you've had conversations with some tier one VCs Yep. All over the United States. Yep. So, so clearly Wilmington, North Carolina does not scare the major VCs. Mm-hmm. Um, no. You, you don't believe your location in Wilmington has been a hindrance? No. It's interesting. Um. Of all of the tier one VCs that we've spoken to, I think every single one of them knows about Wilmington.

[00:16:30] Mm-hmm. I think there's been enough interesting stories that have come out of here. Um, you know, Encino, right? Vantaca had a great, um, uh, success recently. Um, you know, people are familiar, I think with the entrepreneurial spirit, sort of Silicon East mm-hmm. Uh, over here. Uh, so it's interesting. I don't think I've ever had a call with a tier one VC that said, uh, hang on.

[00:16:56] Where's that? I don't. Or there. Oh, yeah. I'm familiar. We're talking to a company there the other day, right? Mm-hmm. So I think, um, I don't think it scares them. And I think that if anything, it's kind of an interesting, weird, almost like situation where we live in such a small town here at the beach in North Carolina, but it has such a great hotbed for this type of thinking and entrepreneurial spirit.

[00:17:20] Mm-hmm. You know, startups. Mm-hmm. And you haven't really taken money from any large vc, it's mostly angels, I would imagine. You know, you've got like a good roster of some solid, deep pocketed angel investors, but you haven't taken any money from even North Carolina VCs. Mm-hmm. Because I know they've talked to you as well.

[00:17:42] Yep. Is there a reason why you've kind of strategically have aligned yourself with that type of capital versus more of a larger VC shop? Yeah. Um, I think that we are just so focused on the, the long-term business that we think we can build. Uh, and you know, everyone obviously, you know, different venture firms are gonna approach things differently and it's not to, you know, put them all in one bucket and say they all operate the same.

[00:18:16] But I think by and large, you know, sometimes you'll hear stories about like, oh, well we brought this partner in. And then we just had to kind of change how we operated. We just start focusing on the wrong things and it's just, we gotta, you know, prioritize revenue over everything. Mm-hmm. And not to say that, you know, that would always be the case, but I think we are focusing on building a business that is highly profitable, self-sustaining, uh, uh, can go back to the theme of patients can go build a very large, multi-billion dollar outcome mm-hmm.

[00:18:50] Um, in our industry. And I think we're just very sensitive to the people that we bring in and put on our cap table and give a seat at the table. Mm-hmm. 'cause we want them to be aligned to that long-term vision. Right. We prioritize right now, uh, that long-term alignment over valuation. Mm. You know, we talk about it all the time when we sit in our, in the room and we, we think about, okay, the next raise and who are we gonna work with and who should we not work with?

[00:19:21] Uh, and we talk about that concept of, you know, bringing in the wrong partner at a higher valuation mm-hmm. Will actually cost you more money over the long term mm-hmm. Than bringing in the right partners, even if it's at a lower valuation in the short term. Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Well it's, you've done a great job and it's like I mentioned, thank you.

[00:19:43] It's, it's very, it's very difficult. Yeah. It, if, if any, if any founders listening to this podcast right now, they should check out your example is a case study of how to raise capital strategically on a path to a and getting to an A is very difficult, you know? 'cause you know, as you mentioned, you've, you've had some.

[00:20:05] Some hard choices to make along the way and some strategic pivots and trying to make sure that your stakeholders and your, uh, investors are aligned with your employees. So it's, it's a, it's a true juggling act. So, yeah. Now, now heading into the pivot that you made, you know, strategically, it's been a couple years now that you've made the pivot, and I know it took some time to kind of execute on that vision.

[00:20:33] But one of the things that I find interesting with your model is how your team handles customer discovery and specifically building those relationships with those customers. Because you work in an industry, as you describe it, is very traditional using some archaic technology. So of course, they're very, um, fearful of of change.

[00:21:00] Mm-hmm. There's a cost to change. Yep. Um. So, so how are you handling your discovery in a technology, you know, environment where the technology is very old, archaic and, and have to educate them on, on the newer trends of technology? Yeah, I mean, I think, um, I think there's a few pieces to unpack there. Um, you know, we always talk about what's the one constant in business, right?

[00:21:29] It's change, uh, in our industry especially, there's a lot of change happening. Mm-hmm. There's consolidation, there's new categories, there's new products, uh, pricing. There's, you know, even new generations and their consumption and their habits and how that impacts the broader market. So, you know, our industry is experiencing a lot of change, and it's the same, you know, every business is constantly evolving and constantly changing.

[00:21:55] So I think, you know, how we think about discovery is with that sort of being the underlying, you know, foundation that we keep in the back of our minds. It's like, okay, well then we have to get past all of the surface level stuff and get to the root. Mm-hmm. And understand it's not a, it's not even so much about, you know, what the customers think they need or want or are asking for.

[00:22:20] It's more about like, understanding their business at such a deep level. You know, we've gone in and sat in rooms for two day on sites with folks who have been in the industry for over 50 years. Um, you know, we've been doing it for four and we've been told, man, like one of the things that was most, uh.

[00:22:41] That caught us off guard was just how well you guys know our business. 'cause we've been, we know our business very well 'cause we've been doing it for 50 years. You guys have been doing it for four and really focusing in this area for just a couple. Mm-hmm. Like, how do you know the business that well then it's just, you know, it's long nights and weekends and work and, um, putting in the effort.

[00:23:01] But we always talk about like, our job is not to go in there and be Yes men and just, oh, you want this? Got it. We'll build it. It's okay. Got it. But why and what is the business challenge we're solving for and what are the outcomes that you're expecting to receive if we go do this? Mm-hmm. Because if it doesn't tie back to, you know, value, um, it, it's probably not all that important.

[00:23:29] Features are cool and dashboards are awesome and, and pretty, and we've got a lot of areas in our system that are very pretty. And we can make them prettier, but if they're not driving value, if they're not getting to, uh, the type of outcomes that our customers are looking for, when they, they decide to make that change, right?

[00:23:49] If we're not tying it back to an, an increase in efficiency or driving more revenue or, uh, helping them cut cost right, then it probably doesn't matter. So I think just keeping those things sort of, uh, at, at the foundation of how we think about discovery shapes a lot of how we approach it. And some of our team, we've spent a lot of time and the consulting side of things prior to this business.

[00:24:16] So I think a lot of times we try and wear that hat. Mm. Put our consultation hat on and say, Hey, you know, we're here for you. We're your partner. We want to hear what you want. We're not necessarily going to agree to it all, and we'll be on the same page. We'll, we'll talk about that. If we agree not to do something, you'll know why and you'll agree with it.

[00:24:33] Right. We'll all, we'll all, uh, work through that. But I think it's just a combination of those things and trying to worry less about what you're hearing on the surface level and get to the root. Mm-hmm. And say, okay, well, you know, 'cause we will run into situations where we'll go through a discovery and a customer will say, well, we need this.

[00:24:53] I go, okay, well why? And I say, well, because of. And by going deeper, some call it picking the scab, right? By going a little bit deeper and trying to get to the root. A lot of times what we learn is, hang on, this isn't a technology need or ask, this is actually a process issue. We could build a bandaid around the process issue with technology, but that's a worse outcome for them.

[00:25:18] Why don't we instead just work with their team and say, well, hey, we have another customer over here that's already solved that by doing this, and they just made a tweak in their process. Right? So just trying to balance all that, right? Yeah. So when you're initially talking to. Customers. Yep. And clients.

[00:25:38] Are you, you're meeting these people at conferences? Like how do you, how do you make that initial touch point? Like where are you meeting these people? Yeah. Uh, it's a good mixture. I mean, we do a lot of events in our industry. Um, so we do meet a lot of folks at conferences. Uh, we get a lot of inbound interests as well.

[00:25:57] So sometimes we'll start with a simple zoom call. Um, but just, you know, it, it's a good mixture. I think in our industry too, it's a lot of word of mouth and a lot of relationships that have been built over the years. So, you know, we'll get an email out of the blue that says, Hey, you know, I was talking to so and so and we're looking for this, and they mentioned you guys and would love to set up some time, you know.

[00:26:19] Right. But we're also really big on doing things in person. Uh, maybe a little old fashioned in that regard. I think shaking hands, uh, breaking bread together like that stuff goes a long way. Mm-hmm. I think in 2026 when everything's digital and everyone's on Zoom calls and AI's running around everywhere, sometimes it's good to just sit down with someone in a room and build and never require it.

[00:26:43] You gotta get on a plane and you gotta go do that, but it's, it's worth it. Right, right. So planting some seeds early in the lifecycle, whereas you're just trying to get your name out. Hey, this is what we do, this is how we do it, you know, here's your competition. Let us know if you want any more data. And then obviously they come back around and say, yeah, I remember talking to you.

[00:27:05] Yeah. I think, um, maybe kind of tying into that, um. I think we've learned over the years, it's almost like this concept of the more you chase something, sometimes the less likely you are to get it. And because it, what, what does it ultimately do? It, it means that you're not being authentic. You're just doing whatever it takes to go get the thing that you're chasing.

[00:27:30] Right. Versus if you try and flip that on its head and say, well, hey, you know, as, as much as I, if it was, you know, a customer, as much as I would love for them to be our customer, as much as I would love for our revenue to grow, let's just be our authentic selves and mm-hmm. Not try and sell so hard sometimes and, and just educate.

[00:27:50] Mm-hmm. We try and do a good job of balancing, you know, we need to be selling. Of course, we have investors. They, they, you know, they, they want us to be selling. Yeah. We want to be growing the business, but I think we've learned over the years that. The less we sell and the more we educate and just inform and show people plant seeds early, show people how we're different, how we can solve the problems that they have in a way they've never been able to before, uh, positions us to ultimately get the outcomes that we want with them.

[00:28:22] Might take a little bit longer than you want it to. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I think it's maybe just trying to think about it from a different lens of like mm-hmm. Not chasing it and more just being your authentic self and, and, and part of the education side. You know, I, I agree with you. I think the harder you sell, the less value you seem to have for someone else.

[00:28:46] It's almost like you need to create value. Yeah. And your angle of, of, um, trying to educate them. You know, for example, here are the trends. Here's what the consumer is purchasing, um, and here's what we predict the future's gonna look like because of tariffs, because of changing habits mm-hmm. And so forth.

[00:29:08] Um, and you do a good job. You, you've gone to conferences and you've actually been a speaker. Yep. So it allows you a platform to kind of tell your story and, and educate them on the industry and why they should make investments in the future. Um, and you do a lot of blogging and videos Yep. Uh, online, and I think you're doing a good job there.

[00:29:31] Um, are there any other type of PR or outlets that you're using for the educational side? Um, not yet. I mean, we do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn, as you mentioned. We do a lot of videos there. We're actually producing a pretty cool series internally right now for a big customer that we're working with. Uh, like, like a, a case study wise.

[00:29:57] Yeah, exactly. And we're, we're calling it like follow the journey, uh, as we go through what is a big implementation. Mm-hmm. Uh, we're trying to give the industry that we serve, kind of that behind the scenes look at what does it mean to partner with us and why is it so different from what they've done in the past.

[00:30:14] Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause I, we, we think that the right customers who see that will be very attracted to that and be able to look at that and say, man, like that's what I want. That's the type of relationship I need with my vendor, right. Not just the one where I sign a contract and they hand me a login and I never see them again.

[00:30:30] Um, but, you know, I think we do a lot of the traditional stuff. We, we definitely take up any speaking engagements that we can, uh, in our industry. We've done a bunch of panels over the years. We sponsor a lot of those things where we can, we do a lot of videos on LinkedIn. Uh, we'll do a lot of things too internally and with some of the associations that we work with in our space where, you know, we'll get to write, um, like email newsletters that go out to the whole industry.

[00:31:00] Mm-hmm. So not as much video there, but still getting to kind of put our voice and author content that, you know, gets in front of our, our potential customers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Um, obviously another thing that works really well for you is, is relationship building. Um, going back to your industry, it is a very tight knit industry.

[00:31:26] Um, a lot of families and corporations have been around for a long time. Uh, obviously it's very difficult for them to, um. Make strategic changes, uh, especially from technology point of view. 'cause there's, there's not only the investment themselves, but you have to train your staff. Mm-hmm. Sometimes your staff doesn't have the skills for the technologies.

[00:31:49] You have to train them. Um, so there is an evolution here, but, um, how has relationship building been a part of your journey on customer discovery? Yeah, I mean, I think it's everything. Um, we, I think it's a day one thing. You know, if it's our very first conversation, we've never met you before, we're gonna jump on a call, do more of an introductory type of call.

[00:32:17] We are, we are looking at that immediately. Uh, and we're trying to do a good job to reciprocate that. Like how do we start to build trust and start to develop the relationship? And I think some of that is a just. Being authentic and being yourself and being honest about what the business is really good at and what it's not good at.

[00:32:36] Mm-hmm. I think it's almost refreshing for our customers and our prospects when they go into a sales cycle with us. We're not there trying to sell them. We're there trying to just be honest about who we are and what we're focused on. And hey, if that's a good fit, well we should keep talking. Mm-hmm. If it's not a good fit, well that's okay.

[00:32:54] Maybe we'll see you down the road. And I think that almost catches people off guard because they're like, well, hang on. Like you, where's your sales rep? Why am I talking to you? Like, well, 'cause you know, I'm here and we're gonna figure out if there's a good fit here. And I think in our space specifically, you know, as you mentioned, change is very hard.

[00:33:15] We tell everybody, you know, if, if they tell you it's not, they're lying to you, you should probably just run the other way. Right. Like and, but we use that almost as a measuring stick to try and gauge what is the. You know, on their side, what is the level of executive alignment look like? Are they gonna mandate this thing and push it because Yeah.

[00:33:36] You know, some of their folks may be very resistant to change. They maybe don't have the skills to change. Um, and if they don't have the right level of, you know, executive oversight, mandating and, and setting expectations that guys, this is the direction we're headed. Mm-hmm. Then these programs fail. And we always talk about this concept of, uh, we don't want our customers to just feel like customers.

[00:34:02] We want them to feel like partners. Mm-hmm. And I think, you know, they're very different. That's a different relationship. A partnership is a two-way street. You know, there's mutual, um, understanding and there has to be. Uh, alignment, I think between our team and their, is that, Hey, we're gonna do the things that we said we're gonna do, and you guys have to do the things that you said you're gonna do.

[00:34:26] Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that a lot of that, it just boils down to trying to, back to the, the earlier part of the question, trying to establish that relationship early on and, you know, have everything just revolve around building trust. You know, trust is not given it's earned, right? Mm-hmm. So you show them who you are, you talk about the things you're good at, things you're not good at.

[00:34:52] I think honestly, some of our, our best deals that we've ever done with customers are the ones where we told 'em all the things we can't help them with and we're not good at, and we can't do and won't do because they just appreciate the honesty. Mm-hmm. You're not trying to sell me, you're just trying to be real about what you can or can't do.

[00:35:09] Yeah. Um, especially in a world of over promise and under deliver. Yeah. Seems to be, uh, consistent in every. Sector, including politics. Yeah. In the world economy. Yeah. Um, so it is kind of refreshing. Yeah. So I guess you're coming from a perspective of saying, look, you know, we're just authentic, honest people.

[00:35:28] Here's what we do, here's what we don't do. And if you want to talk about how we can maybe transform your, your industry and your business cycles, let us know. And they're, they probably appreciate that kinda level of just straight straightforwardness. I think it goes back to some of what we talked about earlier, right?

[00:35:47] If our mission is to turn customers into raving fans, well then we don't go chase revenue. We go chase customer success. Mm-hmm. And if we're chasing customer success, then happy customers will translate into revenue. I think you just have to trust that. So I think it's about, you know. You as, as your own business.

[00:36:07] How are you thinking about that? How are you prioritize? Because you know, a lot of businesses, they just want to chase revenue and grow sales and mm-hmm. You know, uh, that's fine. That's just not our model. I think that we're really big believers and if you do the right things by our customers, you know, you follow through on those commitments.

[00:36:25] You pick up the phone when they need you, you challenge them, right? Mm-hmm. At times. 'cause maybe the things they're asking for don't make any sense. And you've, and, and you know, it's not everything. Sunshine and rainbows, and it's always green, sometimes it's red. And you have to have really difficult conversations and say, Hey, mm-hmm.

[00:36:42] You guys told us you were gonna do these things and you're not doing them, and we gotta get on the same page and mm-hmm. We'll jump on a plane and be there in a day and sit down together if we need to, or let's figure this out. Right. Um, but yeah, just trying to. Pull all that together, you know? Have there been a few specific elements that have changed customer's position in trying to become more flexible of using your technology?

[00:37:08] 'cause like you, like you said, you're working in an environment well that's very traditional, uh, it's very hard to change, especially large ERP type technology systems. Um, what's been, what's been a major shift? Is it the economy? Is it trends? Is it the competitors aren't doing something? Like what, what's been a few of the green flags for you to become successful?

[00:37:29] I think there's a couple. Uh, I think some of it does boil down to the broader market that we serve forever, ever and ever. Uh, in our industry, things have just been up and to the right. So I don't know when, when you run a. A very highly profitable business that's just always growing and always performing.

[00:37:50] You don't really have to think about technology that much, right? Is, I mean, why, why would you? Everything's going great. Um, now with the way that, uh, some of the trends in the market, look, there's just a lot of companies that are, they might be declining now. Best case, they might be flat or barely growing, and they see a lot of horizon, you know, good things on the horizon.

[00:38:16] But we're kind of in this period where they're just, they just don't wanna go backwards. They want to at least maintain or even grow slightly. And some of that boils down to, well, how can we do things in a more efficient manner? Right. We might have a thousand people, you know, do we need a thousand people?

[00:38:35] Um, or we might have systems that just make us so inefficient because everything's so disconnected that we're having to do all this rework. You know, we talk to customers all the time. Who are using some of our competitors, and we'll go through a, a multi-day discovery and, and very deep analysis and will get asked the question like, what did you learn?

[00:38:57] You know, what was your biggest takeaway? And so many times it's, well, our biggest takeaway is you're not actually using any of those competitors to run your business. You're just using Microsoft Excel to run your business. It's just 93 spreadsheets and a bunch of people who keep it all kind of duct taped together.

[00:39:15] So I think, you know, some of it is the market itself, um, creating some urgency for people to think differently. Some of it is, uh, the dynamics of this next generation that you hear a lot about and a lot of focus on. In our industry, there's a lot of folks that are, uh, because in our world it's a, it's very much a family business owned industry.

[00:39:39] Um, you know, multi-generational. And you've got a lot of folks who are now stepping into those leadership roles and taking over the business, um, you know, from their parents. And these are folks who order their groceries on Instacart and have right packages show up from Amazon every day. Mm-hmm. And they're very used to technology and leaning into that.

[00:40:02] And then when they get handed the keys and they see some of the things that are being used to run the business, they're like, I, I can't use this. You know, I'm used to Amazon all day. Mm-hmm. And you're on opposite ends of the spectrum. So I think some of that helps us. Right. We're very modern, uh, tech stack.

[00:40:18] Everything we do runs on Salesforce. Um. So, yeah, I dunno all that. I lost my train of thought there at the end of where I was gonna go with the other side of it, but, so, so as the changing guard would say, as, as new new leadership comes in that are more tech friendly and tech savvy, so they're, they're more, um, open for change.

[00:40:40] Mm-hmm. As far as replacing technology to become modern. Um, has AI played a part in anybody's decision in trying to improve efficiency? Absolutely. I mean, everyone in our space is at least thinking about and talking about ai. One of the big suppliers that we work with did a study, I think two years ago to look at the wholesalers in the network and say, you know, what percentage, what percentage is actually using, or at least thinking about using AI in the near future.

[00:41:13] And I wanna say it was like 13%. It was very low. They did the same study the next year, about a year ago now, 60%. So it's, the interest is there now, as we know. Uh. AI starts with good data. Uh, a lot of times what we find is customers who are excited about the opportunity to, Hey, how can I inject AI into my business?

[00:41:37] Well, we've got a lot of ways that we can do that. Let's look at where you're at and, oh, okay. Hang on. Well, like, you want to go from very old antiquated system with really bad data. You're not even automating anything today. Don't even worry about AI yet. We gotta get some automations in here. Right? Get some efficiency gains and some wins.

[00:41:55] So it's almost, we talk about this crawl, walk, run mm-hmm. Of, you know, you're in the crawl phase today. Let's get you walking, and then yeah, let's figure out very quickly after how we can get you running. So I think everyone's talking about it, thinking about it, very interested in how it's going to evolve this industry for the better.

[00:42:16] Um, it's just about, I think, for us, balancing the excitement with what can they realistically do right now. Versus, Hey, with a little bit of time and maybe a change in how we think about some of the different processes, what could we also get to pretty quickly, you know, not too far down the road. Right.

[00:42:37] Yeah. Well, that's very exciting. Yeah. Um, you know, obviously when you, when you focus on building champions and building a fan base and, and with your customers, obviously there's a lot of excitement. Um, can you share any cool success stories, uh, that you've had recently? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think one of the really big ones, um.

[00:43:04] We just released, we, we released a new product not too long ago, uh, that we had been building in conjunction with one of the largest suppliers in the country who has a very large wholesaler network. Uh, that was a labor of love and, um, a lot of lessons learned along the way 'cause it was a brand new product for us.

[00:43:23] But that product's now live, uh, we've got a couple of customers using it, great success, loving it, and we're very excited about, uh, just some of the operational efficiencies that it's gonna create for them, um, you know, in our world. Uh, and it's, it's an e-commerce solution, right? Okay. So, uh, in our world there's a big push towards getting a lot of the retailers that order from our wholesalers into, you know, a retail ordering platform.

[00:43:55] Um, you know, you can think an Amazon like experience just B2B, but. I think what we're most excited about is we didn't just go turn on a simple, you know, ordering portal. There's a lot of really exciting features that are either there right now or very quickly coming. You know, how we dynamically serve up, um, banners to the right retailers at the right time, at the right time of year, or how we dynamically serve up pricing and promotions to help try and drive more sales, which, you know, the retailers as well need and want because if they're getting the right products at the right point, uh, they're flying off the shelves and then they're happy and then the wholesalers are happy and the suppliers are happy.

[00:44:39] And so that's, that's one that we're really excited about. I think it's gonna have a lot of legs and traction for us. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. So you're closing your round. Sounds like you've got customer pipeline, you know, very defined. Um, how, how do you see the future?

[00:45:01] Like, obviously customer success, um, sounds like it's a big component of, of how you make these customers happy and you, it sounds like you got a feedback loop that's actually helping create new content, new products and services for all your customers, which is great. I think all startups should not only, you know, develop that early on for your MVP and getting yourself validated, but, but then having that feedback loop even through your entire cycle so that your customers can help you shape the future vision of your application.

[00:45:35] Mm-hmm. Um, so going forward, uh, what is the, what does the growth look like for you? Like, how, how are you gonna challenge yourself? And now that you're raising a fresh $7 million round, um, what are your areas of growth look like? But then tying all of that back, I think to. You know, where are we investing? I think if you look at our company today, like we don't have a sales team right now.

[00:46:02] Everything is customer success. Everything is product. Um, I'm probably the closest thing we have to a sales team right now. We're really proud of that. As crazy as that may sound, um, we're especially in our market, you know, it's not the same for every market obviously, but in our market, we've got enough momentum with some of our big wins and some of the customers that we're working with, that all we have to do is just make them successful, uh, and the rest will follow.

[00:46:31] If we turn them into raving fans, they'll tell their friends and their friends will. Be more naturally inclined to give it a shot because their friends just had great success and they said, well, look at this, and mm-hmm. Man, the way we used to operate was we had to have this over here and these seven people all doing these things and now like, boom, I just got a dashboard.

[00:46:52] I can see it pulled up anytime, right? Mm-hmm. Um, so I think we're really focusing on over investing in customer success and over investing in product. If we had the best product. And we have the best customer success team, then revenue and sales will take care of itself. Mm-hmm. Right. So I think it all, maybe to tie back to the, the earlier question, it's all kind of circular, right?

[00:47:18] It starts with our employees. If we take really good care of our employees, right, they'll take really good care of our customers. You know, they'll build the best products for our customers. They'll pick up the phone for our customers. Mm-hmm. And our customers will go tell all the other folks that we hope to become customers.

[00:47:33] How many employees do you have right now? 26. 26? Yeah. And, and obviously with the fresh round of capital you're gonna start recruiting. Um, has it been difficult for you to recruit good talent? No. I mean, not difficult. I think we're fortunate that we have a lot of applications. I think for any given role we put out there, we get 300 plus applicants within a couple days.

[00:48:00] Um, and these aren't just North Carolina residents? No. All over, you're, you're, you're implementing a remote model as well? Yeah. I mean, we have a big footprint here in Wilmington, but we've got a handful of folks today who are remote up and down Eastern Seaboard. I think a, a lot of small companies have a challenge with that.

[00:48:18] Mm-hmm. Like they, they feel like they need to actually see their people every single day. And I believe if they become comfortable with the remote model, they can tap into, you know, different resources that are not geographically available. Um, and, and being able to scale faster. Uh, obviously speed to market is, is key, so, well, yeah, and I mean, being in Wilmington, North Carolina, it's not the largest city, uh, to, to pull talent from.

[00:48:47] Right. So I, but I'll say, I think for us, we've. Done a good job of building a, a pretty strong base with our headquarters here. And now we're more focused on let's just go find the best people. Mm-hmm. And even if they're not in Wilmington or they don't want to be in Wilmington, that's okay. You know? Mm-hmm.

[00:49:07] Um, at the end of the day, if they're doing the things we, we need them to do and making our customers happy, that's all we care about, you know? Mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah. Has anybody tried to attempt you to move to California? Uh, to the Valley, or not to California, Denver or Austin. We've had some, some folks who have said, like, have you guys ever thought about relocating to Atlanta or Charlotte, you know, bigger cities here.

[00:49:32] Mm-hmm. Um, which, you know, easy answer is No, we're good. We're I, you're set. You're, we're set. We're happy here. Okay. Good man. I, I, I think that there is. There's, it is just such a, a great culture to be a part of here. You know, even like business aside, um, you know, having our family live at the beach and being able to make that part of like our child mm-hmm.

[00:49:57] You know, our children growing up. Um, that stuff goes a long way. I mean, we do like beach cleanups as a team. We do VTO days where we'll go out, um, and try and inject like the, the area that we live in, right into the culture and the fabric of our business. It probably makes sense to open up an office and keep our headquarters here, but eventually maybe an office in California so that you can kind of tap into some of the resources and investor net community out there.

[00:50:26] Um. I talked to some of my other founder CEOs and I'm always asking, you know, why, why don't you consider North Carolina? Mm-hmm. It's a great place to live. There's great people, schools are great. You know, there's a good supply of talent. Um, you know, the, the cost of living is relatively cheaper than other large metro areas.

[00:50:48] And every one of them tell me like, Nope, we gotta go where the customers are, you know? And then they tell me, where's your customers? Oh, California, Austin. Or Denver. Yeah. It's all over. Or, or dc Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, well, those areas are, are very expensive to live in. Yeah. You know? Uh, so you, uh, well, I think it, I think there's, I think there's a balancing act, right?

[00:51:10] Like you said, we're very happy here, but as we continue to grow, yeah. We'll, we'll probably have to look at opening some other offices, especially just thinking about time zones, right? Mm-hmm. Thinking about, hey, if we always want our customers to have the best. You know, support that they possibly can. And, and we do.

[00:51:29] Then we've gotta have people who are available that are in the same time zones and same hours and working the same schedules mm-hmm. As, as they are. So that's a big piece of it. So what areas are you hiring in right now? Uh, product and customer success. Yeah. Okay. Uh, I mean, everything, um, whatever we can do to, to build more, uh, faster and whatever we can do to make sure that our customers are always feeling like they're the only customer.

[00:51:57] You know, we have, we have customers today who, you know, we get asked all the time, like, what's your average response time? And we're like, man, we've got customers who will call us and five minutes later we're calling them back and saying, Hey, refresh your screen. And they're like, oh, awesome. We're good to go now.

[00:52:13] Yeah. And like, that's just unheard of for them. Yeah. But we, we really think about. Our business and, and how we position ourselves while we are a technology company. And our, our offering is a technology product. We think about this, it's the, it's the scales, right? It's a 50 50 balance. So we've gotta have the product, but we've gotta have just as good customer success and support.

[00:52:38] Mm-hmm. And not just as we go through implementation, we always talk about, uh, our go live. It's just the starting line. It's not the finish line. Mm-hmm. It's the finish line to the implementation, but it's the starting line of the relationship. Mm-hmm. You know, the, the now that we're using it and adopting it and making it part of the fabric of the business.

[00:52:57] Mm-hmm. Um, so it's that ongoing success and we've gotta balance the scales and make sure that as great as the product is, they could say just as many good things about the team that supports them. Mm-hmm. You know. Mm-hmm. Well, it sounds like you're hitting on all cylinders as always. You got people throwing money at you.

[00:53:18] Uh, it's very easy for you to raise money. Um, and it sounds like your, your pipeline is exploding and you're about to hire. So if anybody's out there listening, wants a job at phi, they're hiring, um, what does the next six to 12 months look like for you? Um, I mean, obviously you've, you know, now the, the hard part's done.

[00:53:40] Now you've gotta execute on the vision and kind of scale this model. And, um, where do you think you're gonna be over the next, uh, you know, one to two years? I think right now, um, with a lot of the, the big ones we've had lately we're, we're really focused on building this, this machine, um, making it very repeatable so that the next few that come behind them can.

[00:54:08] Uh, go live on our platform that much easier, that much faster. Um, so I think it's, right now we're kind of building the machine, and I think the next six to 12 months, 18 months is then about proving the machine. Mm. Like proving that the systems that we've built, the things that we've put in place can help us scale in a very efficient way.

[00:54:32] Mm-hmm. And in a very, as, as, as friction free as can be for our customers, so that when they go through what is, you know, for most of our customers, it's the largest technology change they've ever made, right? Mm-hmm. Because it's, it's the, the system touches everything. It's their core platform. Uh, so they don't want to do it very often.

[00:54:52] They wanna do it once every, like 20 years and never touch it again. So, trying to make that process as easy as it can be, not just with the product, but also our approach, right? How do we gather information? How do we digest that? How do we. Uh, send that back in a, in a manner that is very, uh, concise and makes sense and that the customer can make sense of, and make quick decisions from.

[00:55:17] And just try and compress timelines and try and compress the, the amount of effort that it takes to pull this off. Mm-hmm. That's a big focus for us. So it would be proving that all of those things that we put together are, are working. Mm-hmm. You know? So you're currently raising seven at 30. Mm-hmm. Is that correct?

[00:55:35] Yeah. And this is your A round, so that puts you basically at 40. Um, do you see the valuation over a hundred in about a year or two or Oh yeah. Do you, yeah. Is that just based on your pipeline and your interest at this point? Yeah, I think we have a, a pretty stellar pipeline. Um, we've actually have to. Tell folks to give us a little bit of room right now, as much as we want to sign new customers and grow revenue mm-hmm.

[00:56:05] We've got some very strategic, uh, projects that we're working on that are also reshaping a lot of our product and our approach that for those that, uh, are waiting to get started with us, they will benefit greatly from. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think we are, we're very confident with the pipeline that we have and the, the prospects that we're talking to, that revenue's gonna grow very quickly from here.

[00:56:31] Mm-hmm. As soon as we're, we kind of use the analogy that we didn't, uh, we haven't turned the sales engine off. We're just, we're in neutral for a minute because we want to get geared up and ready for what we know is the flood gates that are about to open. Mm-hmm. We want to make sure that, you know, we're, we've, the product is, uh, as buttoned up as it can be.

[00:56:53] Uh, it's always evolving, but there's a lot of really great, uh. Enhancements that are coming out of the work that we're doing. Mm-hmm. So getting those into a really good, solid state and just continuing to improve our process with customer success. How do we approach implementations? How do we gather data?

[00:57:10] Mm-hmm. How do we easily get people's, uh, historical data into new systems? That's always a big part of it. Mm-hmm. Um, so just almost slowing down so that we can speed up. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. And how has all this success affected your personal life and are you working some crazy hours? I mean, it sounds like the party is just now about to start.

[00:57:34] Yeah. And I know it's a lot of work that led up to this, this level, but, um. Yeah. I mean, are you taking care of yourself? You look like you are. I'm trying. Yeah. Uh, you know, I'll shout out to my wife, uh, who holds down a lot of the day to day for us at home. Mm-hmm. So that I can be focused the way that I am.

[00:57:52] Um, yeah. I mean, a lot of travel. I'm on the road almost every week. Um, you know, sometimes it's multiple cities in a given week or we've got conferences and events we're going to. Uh, so it's definitely picked up. We've gotten very busy, but it's a good problem to have. We're very mm-hmm. Glad to have that problem.

[00:58:11] Um, but, you know, I think it's also a balancing act. I've got two young kids. Mm-hmm. I've been married for 12 years, so you, you've gotta work your tail off to make these things a success, but you've also gotta not lose sight of, uh, what's ultimately most important at the end of the day. Right. And get that time that you need.

[00:58:32] You gotta recharge the batteries, you know? Right. We tell people all the time. Hey, I'd rather lose you for a week than lose you. 'cause you're just burnt out and fried. Mm-hmm. So it's trying to balance, you know, it's the work hard, play hard, you know? Mm-hmm. We work really hard. Let's, let's play hard too and, and have some fun, you know?

[00:58:50] Mm-hmm. We can build a very successful business and have a lot of fun along the way, so why not? Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. Well, again, congratulations. Thank you. It's a, it's a major success for you and I'm, I'm very happy for you, your family and all your employees and shareholders. Um, can't wait to see you, uh, what happens over the next one to two years and, and see how far this journey can go.

[00:59:13] What, to run this back again. Yeah. Well, I'll bring you back from round three. Um, I, I don't know if I asked you the first time, but like, what is your exit strategy? Mm-hmm. You know, have you thought about that far? Because usually we tell people, you know, you have to have an end in mind to kind of work towards Yeah.

[00:59:29] Yeah. Because otherwise you just kind of get stuck in the, in the loop, man. I, I think that. Yes. You, you've, you gotta have a strategy in mind. At the same time, I tell people, 'cause I get asked this question every week, and I, I tell everybody, I also think it's a little bit of an impossible question to answer fully.

[00:59:49] Mm-hmm. Because you just don't know what's around the corner. Um, you know, where we stand today, our thinking is that, uh, you know, if you look at the competitors that are in our space, everybody's owned by private equity. Mm-hmm. Right? We're not, we don't have, even the, the venture capital firms we talked about earlier, we don't even have those folks involved.

[01:00:13] Right. So I think it's a very big advantage for us as we go into the market. Uh, and I think it's very refreshing to the customers that we talk to. Mm-hmm. You know, we've been asked all the time, well like, hang on, how are you guys funded? 'cause they've seen what the alternative looks like. Uh. You know, when it's not set up the way that we're set up, so mm-hmm.

[01:00:35] I think we're really leaning into that. Um, you know, and I think we see a vision where we can build a very profitable company very quickly and do things like pay dividends back to investors while we continue to grow the business. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I think an IPO is something that we think about, right?

[01:00:57] That could be on the table one day. And that's an interesting path because, you know, you retain control of the business. You may, you're still a, you know, you're a publicly traded company, but you still run the company. Mm-hmm. Um, versus just selling out to private equity and losing control of everything.

[01:01:15] And you, you've seen countless stories of, you know Right. What happens there. Mm-hmm. So I, I think that there's a lot of options on the table. Um. I don't know. I think we're mostly just focused right now on making sure our customers are happy and spreading the word. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. And I think, I think those things will sort themselves out when we get down the road.

[01:01:35] I think opportunities will present themselves and we'll discuss that as a team and figure out what's the best path for our customers and our employees and yeah. Sounds great. Yeah. Well, thanks again for stopping by. Thank you for having me and sharing your updates. Yeah, absolutely. This has been awesome.

[01:01:51] Thank you. 

[01:01:52] Alright, take care. 

[01:01:53] Amplified CEO is produced by Topsail Insider, edited by Coastal Carolina Network, and sponsored by Cape Fear Ventures. For more information about Amplified CEO, Richard Stroupe, or Cape Fear Ventures, please contact Christa at (910) 800-0111 or christa@topsailinsider.com.