Founder Journey ft. Ryan Osten

Host: Yeah, I love that. We're kind of just, um, like we're on a high. We're just gonna keep the great stories going. So, um, to kick it off with you, similar question to before, um, because I think it's just a great way to kind of dig in initially. So, um, was there a moment it could be even when you were, when you were younger, like something that triggered the entrepreneurship journey for you or that made you just say, you know, I want to do something on my own and I want to build. What was that?

Ryan Osten: Sure. So first the thanks for having me here. This is great. Um, and I hope I can share something useful with you all. Um, so I find it's interesting because listen to a lot of podcasts, read a lot of books, and you always hear that, oh, I was building radios in my garage and I would go to my neighbor's house and he would give me pieces for the. Whatever it is. Or I had a paper route. I actually have a bit of a different story, um, than, than that. My father was, ah, an entrepreneur for his whole life. And he was, he started as an accountant, um, and bought a shoe store out of liquidation and built up a chain of shoe, uh, stores. Left, being an accountant, he had like 40 or 50 shoe stores. I was very young. I mean some of that was before I was born. So when I, like, my earliest memories was, you know, the shoe store would like sponsor our hockey team and things like that. Um, and then in this was in the 70s, going into the 80s, he had this shoe store. He bought a POS or inventory management system. Before software was cool, like totally before, like you couldn't raise money for, for software. And then eventually, um, the software business needed capital. He put in capital, uh, to that business because it was powering their, their, the shoe store and eventually sold the shoe business and went full time into the software business with these guys that he had, you know, uh, funded. And again, this was before software was cool. It was very hard to raise money, uh, at that time. And my whole upbringing, uh, growing up was my father, ah, was the CEO, founder of this tech company that he took public and they sold in 19, uh, 99 to Hummingbird. And that was just colored my whole, you know, uh, it was called PC Docs and they did document management for legal, government and so on. They acquired companies in the states, uh, they had offices all over the world. He was traveling a lot. And so I, I didn't have a lot of awareness. What was hap Like, I knew that my dad worked at this, you Know, was the leader at this big company or whatever. But. Yeah.

Host: Did this inspire you or repel you? Because I find lots of. As a kid, you almost. You go one of two ways. Either you want to be just like your parents, or you're like, there's no way I'll ever do that.

Ryan Osten: Yeah.

Host: So which one of the do for you? I guess it inspired you.

Ryan Osten: But, yeah, I think it ended up. I mean, in the end, it did end up inspiring me, but I'll say. When I was, you know, like late teens, I went to, uh, University of Western Ontario. I did a philosophy degree. I had no idea what it was, what I wanted to do. I wasn't like, I'm going to run a tech company, I'm going to work in tech. It didn't strike me at that time. Uh, and I think, you know, getting, um, to be honest, I was, you know, grew up a bit comfortable. Right. And so I think that, that also. You also hear a lot of. A lot of people that I look up to, including my father, they're like, oh, I had to, you know, do it. He had a paper route. Right. He had to, like, support his family. And a lot of entrepreneurs have the story. Or I had to, you know, that I had to, um, fight with my brothers, whatever it is. And I just, I had a pretty comfort. And I think that was actually an obstacle for me to have that upbringing because it didn't like, build that kind of drive or resilience early on. And so anyway, uh, in the end it inspired me. Uh, but it took some time to get there. Uh, uh, and that was one thing sort of leading to another. Leading to another. Me trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then eventually finding the spark. I could. I could kind of like, take that transition.

Host: Yeah, we won't even ask this question.

Ryan Osten: Just take exactly, exactly.

Host: Taking all the questions.

Speaker D: Sorry.

Ryan Osten: So I went to law school. Sorry. I went to University of Western Ontario. Didn't know what I wanted to do. Couldn't find anything. You know, I like music and I liked, you know, I obviously had interests, but nothing that, uh, was like, I'm going to make a career out of this or a business. And so I went to law school because at that, you know, that was like, okay, what you, what do you want to do? You don't know.

Host: Have gone to consulting.

Ryan Osten: Exactly. There's consulting, there's law, there's banking. Right. And so I went to law school and then came out of law school, worked in intellectual property law for a year at a firm Here in Toronto. Um, law, ah, firm, not a firm. And uh, of course. And uh, so I did that for a year. It was a great financial crisis. Things were like tough and so on and didn't love that. But that's uh, where I started to get a little bit of hey, I was doing, I was doing trademark law and I could see these companies were obviously doing something interesting. I was like, you know, registering their trademarks and I was like, well, I don't want to just be a cog in the wheel. It sounds like more interesting what they're doing to like build this company or brand that I'm filing the trademark for. That sounds more interesting. And so I, I then went to a private equity fund, uh, called Kensington here in Toronto, which may know Rick Nathan and the tech scene and stuff. Um, and so I worked there as an analyst. I started doing a CFA and again I was, I was like exploring. I'm like, okay, now I'm in the private equity thing. I'm going to see a lot of stuff in business.

Host: So. So was that the idea when you moved to private equity, saying, hey, I'm want to do. I actually want to be more involved than just, you know, be just being a trademark logger. Okay. But like. Yeah, and so I'm going to go to the private equity where I can see sample.

Ryan Osten: Exactly, exactly. And I'll see a lot of things there. Right. And so there they had a, they had some tech, uh, stuff going on at that time. Rick Nathan was building the, the VC business and so on. So saw a lot of stuff there at that time. I remember like, um, D Wave, I mean talk about like a long time ago, D Wave. And there was public mobile and there was a bunch of stuff there. So I did that for like a year and a half and then I went to. It's actually, it's so interesting to kind of peel this back then I, uh, I think there I even went further where I was like, I was at the law firm being like, oh, I'm here and these companies are operating and that looks kind of interesting. And, and then I was at Kensington and I'm like, well, I'm still like a layer above. Right. The operating. And I then went to work at Blue Cat Networks and yeah, so.

Host: So how early were you at Blue Cat?

Ryan Osten: Uh, not that early. The Hyatt's were just leaving. The Hyatt were friends of ours. And so that's kind of how the connection worked for me to go there. And so I wasn't that early, like private Equity was already in there. Richard and Michael were stepping out of their day to day operating roles. It was like 2010. Okay. Yep. Um, but Richard and Michael had been great influences, uh, on me, um, over the years. And actually they were investors in Goobagoo. Uh, and so I did that for a year. That was the first, that was where I went to my first trade show, like, you know, selling software on a. And I just, I loved being in the arena.

Host: I found that, yeah, you're transitioning so well into kind of the flow of this whole interview. So, um, Gavagu, you just kind of teed that up. So, um, what did that initially look like? Now you have the inspiration, you've gone out, you've kind of exposed yourself to the excitement and the interest that you had around the building side versus perhaps what you were doing on the trademark side. So what did the initial building scaling process of a Gavagoo look like?

Ryan Osten: Sure. So I'll tell you the building scaling and I'll tell you first I'll tell you the story of how Goobagoo came. So I've heard, I've heard both, both are correct. Judges accept both. Uh, so. And uh, there's a lesson in here as well. So my father, as you can see, he's like a pretty, uh, significant influence on my life. So my father had met, you know, back in 99, he had met a, uh, guy, he was at a shoeshine in a Houston airport and he sat beside a guy named Brad Title and they started talking. Brad was from Toronto, but he was in Florida. He was in his 20s. My dad was in his 50s, probably late 50s. And Brad had started a CRM business in automotive. And uh, they, you know, made a good connection and kept in touch. And my dad was still doing PC docs and that. So this is, this is going back to, you know, uh, 2000. And so I'll keep it short. Brad reached out to my father over time. My father ended up getting involved in the CRM business in 2000 and that was the beginning of that relationship and they sold that company. Fast forward 10 years later, I was at Bluecat. Brad was starting Goobagoo and he reached out to us, to my dad. And, and so that's how I got involved with Goobagoo. And uh, Brad needed help, you know, doing legals and, and this and that

Host: for people that don't know what Gooba Goo is. Can you explain what it is?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Uh, so Goobagoo was a messaging and E commerce platform for car dealerships. So we started as a messaging chat, like a chat app essentially. So you would go to a dealership website, our chat would engage you how is on every website today. And we would try to get you into chat and you could book a service appointment, you could ask about vehicle availability, uh, you could book a test drive, whatever you needed. And essentially we would convert leads for dealerships.

Host: So Brad reaches out to you, says I need help. So just jump in full know, full feet first, head first, whatever the saying is, it's okay. I'm going to come join, be an employee, a co founder. So what, what exactly happened there?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, for sure. So before I forget, the lesson there is you never know who you're going to meet that's going to change your life. Um, a, ah, meeting at a shoeshine in a Dallas airport or Houston airport from my dad 13 years before that changed my life which put me on a trajectory with Goobagoo and where I am today. Like, it's crazy how one thing can change and then, um. Okay, so the question was uh, oh, how, how things progressed. Yeah, yeah. So we uh, were helping out legals, we did a little friends and family financing, that kind of thing. The company was mostly bootstrapped and eventually after a year and a half or so at Blue Cat, I went to work full time in the business as it was growing, I mean it was still small, it was still sub a million in revenue and, and a uh, handful of customers. But it seemed like a good opportunity and I didn't have much opportunity cost, as much opportunity costs at that time in my career, as I would say now when I'm making a decision. Um, and so I literally started with carrying a bag, meaning doing sales. Right. I was cold calling dealerships. I had no understanding of this market. I'd never done true sales before. You know, I had worked as a lawyer and a partial business development person at bluecat and that was my extent of my experience operating a business. So I started cold calling dealers, having a number every month. Uh, and that was, that was where it truly started.

Host: So cold calling, I think m one of the sales is one of the most important thing founders do. It's one of the most shunned thing. When we go through university, like anyone, Dubai's lots of founders go through university and we're taught sales is bad, especially we think of the used car salesman. So you're now selling to salespeople. What was that experience like? And how did you get over it and how did you get success? Like, tell us like, you know, especially you, you were a law firm and I imagine law firm had a brand name. If you're calling from a company, uh, less than 1 million sales, how do you figure out how to call? Like what was it like?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, you just do it. Like I didn't have the. So firstly I'll say I find it unbelievable that there's no sales courses in like traditional universities. I don't know what they have today. It's wild. Like they should be teaching that in high school frankly. Like how to do sales, uh, whatever. You know all of the. Yeah, like you're out there to learn yourself. It's crazy. Crazy. And it is one of the most important skills uh, in business. So doesn't matter what you are even if you're selling yourself, uh to for a role or whatever. So how I did it, I literally just did it. I had no training and I would just kind of, you know, you have to take a lot of rejection so you have to get comfortable with that. Which you're never fully comfortable with it. I mean it depends on the type of person you are but. And um, I would try to get the right person on the phone and just sell. And I was doing and say hey, you know, I'm Brian from Gooby Goo. Have you heard of us? We increase lead conversion on your website through chat will take your conversion from 1 to 2%. I was doing all the wrong things. Like I see. You know, first of all nobody cares what your name is uh, when you're calling them right. And you need to have sort of permission based opener. So today we do it very well. And my head of sales is like I love watching people do cold calls and it's a weird thing like on LinkedIn or whatever.

Host: Um, but you know, watch like TikTok cold sales videos. Do you?

Ryan Osten: No, I actually think TikTok's poison. So I don't have TikTok or Instagram. LinkedIn is my only kind of addiction. Um, um, but, but it's the same thing. Like you see the kind of same stuff on LinkedIn. So uh, so the answer to your question is I just did it. And I think that that's actually what you do with entrepreneurship also.

Host: So I want to do a quick follow up question here.

Host: What was you taking all my questions?

Host: I'll let you get back. Just do you remember the first sale? You remember that first time when someone said yes?

Ryan Osten: I remember a few. So I could probably talk about those. I don't remember which was the true first.

Host: Pretend you did just like tell us

Ryan Osten: what it was like yeah. So, first of all, it's a great feeling, like, if. Especially if you get a one call close, which I, you know, in my current company, like, been doing. That's fresh in my memory. Uh, I remember. I remember there was a group called Performance Auto Group, which some people may know here in Toronto, right there in Brampton. And I got them on the phone, got a meeting with them, and I went in and pitched them in their, you know, in their boardroom. And we had a good product. And so it. It was. It was not hard to pitch. Like, it was. We had clear differentiation, at least that we could communicate. And, uh, we were able to articulate that. And it was an advantage to me to go see the customer. Like we were selling against. We were very much in the US But I was here in Toronto, and so I was like, selling people in Canada. And it was an advantage to be able to go into the stores and look at the. And see the people face to face, which I think is, uh, also a lesson, is to get in person. If you can. Of course, you can't always get in person. We're doing tons of stuff over Zoom and this and that, but that was a big advantage. Yeah.

Host: So now you have somewhat of a strategy in what you're doing to scale. Uh, so now you're getting customers. So what was one of the most valuable pieces of customer feedback that you were getting? That whether it helped you maybe pivot the product? Like, what was. What was something that was very valuable, that. That helped, maybe take it to the next level?

Ryan Osten: Yeah. So I'm going to fast forward a few. A few years. So we talked a lot about chat here. Uh, and I'm going to just add something to the story as I move through the years. Pretty quickly, Brad came to me. I. I started doing, uh, other things. I was like, hey, our website sucks. Like, we should make this better. And he's like, okay, go do that. And he was, uh. And early on, our, um, we had a CTO who went kind of awol, and we had two devs over in Ukraine, and we didn't know them because. Because the CTO was the connection. And so it was, hey, Ryan and I, I spoke a little more tech than. Than him, let's say, at that time. And he was like, hey, can go get these guys on board? Like, this is a big, you know, we're Gonna. We have 200 customers and we don't know our devs. Uh, and so that led to me becoming coo just to kind of bridge that gap to your question. Uh, 2016, 2017 we were with one of our customers at our Christmas party and he was talking about how this company called Modal at the no Drive Motors at the time, they, they actually didn't make it. They uh, they, they went bankrupt and they were helping him sell cars online. So they were helping dealerships compete with Carvana and Clutch at Clutch uh, didn't exist at that time but for the Canadian flavor. And so he was like they're helping us do that. They're building an experience on our website where we can do everything from the trade in to the financing to the warranties and you know submit the order. And the goal was to get a full E commerce experience. And so that piece of feedback led to us building that product which became a big category in this, in the space, the automotive space. The uh, automotive calls it digital retailing. This is what and which is E commerce. And so we ended up building that. That was a huge catalyst for us growing our next wave of the company because if we stayed in chat that was kind of getting commoditized and so on. So we really had to uh, build more breadth in our product offering. And so that product led us through our next phase of growth through Covid which selling online was a big deal with these stores. They were closed, they were freaking out and then ultimately getting acquired.

Host: Seamless transition. So wasn't lost the easiest panel ever. Um, so acquisition now is happening. So again a question that I know we hear a lot about and you probably get asked a lot of it just like so how does, how do those conversations happen? What are they like what are you sharing, learning? Um, just kind of go through the acquisition process and I know Alex can double click on a few things from there.

Ryan Osten: Yeah, there's a lot of learnings there. Firstly I'll say it's very hard to sell a company. So you know you see in the news this company gets acquired, that company gets acquired. It's hard. And so when you do uh, and we went through the process three or four times, we hired bankers through, through the years.

Host: So you were actively hiring bankers to sell?

Ryan Osten: Yes, yes. And at that time we had inbound and we could feel the time was right and our uh, say why didn't you want to. Yeah, so well I mean there's a number of reasons. So firstly we, we had done it a few times. We had hired bankers. We had had an offer before from a strategic called live uh person at the time they're a public company and uh, number wasn't right. It was A few years earlier. And so everyone kind of has a number in their mind. When I'm investing in a company also, like angel, whatever, sometimes I'll ask the founder, like, what's your number? Like, what's the number that you know when. If you get for this business you're selling? Um, and so everyone kind of has a number in. In their mind. And we had a few failed, uh, over the years, a couple failed processes, which is very, very common. Like I said, it's very hard to sell to get to the point where you're going to find a buyer who everything aligns. Yeah, go for it.

Host: So when you say failed process, there's a couple. There's one. We didn't get an offer we liked or we start negotiating, post an offer and it fell apart. So was it the number or was it like the details? Who's going to be CEO or what's this transition look like?

Ryan Osten: Right. I think fail. Fail is probably the wrong word that I used. And um, the answer to question is no offers. So we went out and then the bankers were kind of like, eh, I don't think it's going to work this time kind of thing. We did have that offer that I mentioned before. Just the number wasn't right. And so. But we had gotten to a point where we were much larger, uh, and the market was very good and we fit a, uh, we were one of the sort of most significant independent companies in automotive where, you know, if you're looking for an acquisition target as a strategic. Or, or we had strategic and we had, uh, financial, uh, sponsor. But if you're looking as a strategic. We were one of the top companies kind of to buy. And so, you know, then you're thinking of, okay, should we. Is this it? Or do we keep going? Of course. And you know, I think, you know, Wayne, I think you kind of alluded to it somewhat as there's a number of factors, you know, and you've, you just, you have to assess those and feel when the time is right and you know, you could go like, uh, I said it's very hard to sell a company. So you don't want to not. You don't want to like, have unrealistic. Yeah. And you don't want to like, hold on. If there's tons of risk in the business necessarily, you're taking a risk. That's all right. You may want to hold on. I don't know what the right answer is for everyone, but obviously it was the right answer for Zuckerberg not to sell For a billion. But you know, so it's all. And so the, so we sold to Reynolds and Reynolds. Uh, we went through the, uh, we had a few offers, we accepted their offer. And yeah, we kind of went through an arduous four month process of due diligence and then acquisition. I can answer more questions about that.

Host: Was it Reynolds and Reynolds, the best price? Like why? How do you choose? Like when you have a few options on the table? And I've seen this a few times, but like I'd love to hear your, you know, is it just, hey, give us a top dollar. It's like an auction, eBay, you got it. Or was there other factors that you considered?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, so I think it's different for every situation.

Speaker D: For sure.

Ryan Osten: Right. Um, price mattered a lot. Price mattered a lot. Ability to close matters a lot. Right. Because. And so they had uh, all that. And you know, you know, I think at the time we felt also that it was a good home for the company because we were such a good strategic fit for them. So Reynolds and Reynolds is a, uh, is a huge software company in the automotive space. If you've ever been to a dealership and you're like, why are they still using these blue screen dos stuff? That was them. Uh, now it's not all like that anymore, but they run the, what's called dealership management system, the DMS of a, uh, dealership. It's accounting and kind of like an ERP for, for dealerships. And so we were a great strategic fit. We were like all the great things we could do together. We could connect our digital retailing. Now we can use your data, you know, the DMS and tie it in and all that. And so we, we felt it was a great home for the company. And I think so the two things, price and great home for the company were the two reasons that, that we chose them.

Host: Yeah. And so, um, do you have another question about anything? Yeah. So I was gonna actually take us to what you're doing now. So life post acquisition, um, light flow. So for everyone here and those listening, can you just get us up to speed on, on what you're building, what it is? And um, just so we have an understanding for sure.

Ryan Osten: So light flow. So when I was finishing up my, I spent three years at Reynolds and when I was finishing that up, I could see a tremendous amount of disruption that was happening from electric vehicles in automotive. So you know, dealerships in the industry has been selling one product for a century, the gas vehicle. And now they have to sell EVs and these things were on dealership lots. And um, they need to sell EVs, they need to sell plug in hybrids, there's mild hybrids, there's going to be extended range EVs, there's all these different products and the systems, the training and everything within the dealership not set up for selling uh, ev. So our, we Lightflow, we are a, we call ourselves an EV revenue platform. We are a suite of tools to help dealerships thrive with electric vehicles. And our mission is to help dealerships sell millions of EVs over the coming years.

Host: Um, and just quickly on that, um, just kind of the interest and fascination like around like the automotive space is it just stem from. It's what you, it's what, you know, you've been ingrained in it or is it just truly as you say, like there's just such an opportunity there and you just really like what, what's the fascination?

Ryan Osten: Oh, it's funny because when I was. I remember being at the last big. There's a big trade show every year called nada National Automotive Dealer Association. And I remember being at the last one as, as Reynolds and Gooby Goo. Seeing everything we had built with the big boot. You know, it's like we're part of Reynolds and all this stuff. And I thought it was going to be my last one. And I was like, you know, it was, it was definitely a bit emotional after spending a decade in the industry and all the people. Because it's a very close industry and there's a lot of friends. Right. As with many industries, uh, they do. So they say that automotive chooses you. You don't choose automotive. I was. And I always felt like, hey, I'm not an automotive guy. Like all through Google I was like, I'm not an automotive guy. I'm in tech. Like, like I'm, you know, this is just a SOP along the way. And uh, I did really, you know, when I looked at that moment, I, I was going to miss it. And I really do love the industry. What's so great about the industry? There's great people, there's great problems to solve and you know who your target customer is. You're not building some, you know, horizontal kind of SaaS solution where you're trying to find your. So, uh, so. So that's the answer to why automotive. And I wanted to. I'll say one more thing. I wanted to increase my probability of success for the next venture and staying in automotive, I think.

Host: So you knew your customers, you had contacts. So uh, when you Wanted to start. What'd you do to launch it? Like did you just wake up one morning say okay, let's go. Did you, do you have to recruit people? Did you raise money? Like tell us about the, the founding.

Ryan Osten: Yeah, journey, yeah. So back to the lesson of you never know who you're going to meet that's going to change your life. So the first one was Goobagoo. My dad met the guy, you know, 2010 years earlier. So I went to a climate conference at Mars and this was, I was, you know, two years into Reynolds, I went to a climate conference at Mars, being like, okay, like what am I going to do next? You know, there's a climate thing, seems like there's some tailwinds in climate at the time. And uh, uh, let's go check out this, what's happening here? So I sat next to a guy who was in between jobs, struck up conversation, we exchanged numbers, whatever, and then maybe, I don't know, four or six months later he sent me an email saying, hey, I am now working at Diagram, which is a venture studio, uh, in Montreal. We're looking at the EV space and you're an automotive guy. And so he had said to them, hey, I met an automotive guy, let's talk to him. And so that started a relationship with Diagram and I started the business with Diagram. Yeah. So, and then there was, there was many months of trying to figure out what the idea was and this and that and refining it and then even decided if I wanted to do it with, do the business.

Host: But yeah, so context for people that don't know Diagram. Diagram is Montreal based, started by um, the Mare family and a couple entrepreneurs and they basically are like a studio where they find the founders and provide initial capital and provide shared services. So quick question about the EV space. Um, it's our future, depending on who you ask.

Host: Mhm.

Host: So lots of industries have a lot of volatility when you start up do startup, but I feel like your space seems to be more volatile. It's either in Canada, I think we just heard that all of us will be driving. EVs are shot in 10 years and if you go to the States right Now they're like, EVs are evil. Unless you're musk. So how do you take the volatility, the headline volatility in the industry? How does it affect you building a startup?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, it definitely adds another emotional element to it. I think there's two elements. There's one is like seeing all of it every day and then the other is how you communicate it to the customer, communicate to the customers and stuff. So firstly, you got to believe in whatever you're doing. And so we do believe long term that the trend is EVs are here to stay. And so the fact is, if EVs are, we don't uh, need the world to go full EV tomorrow for our business to succeed. By the way, just so you guys have context, we're building Carfax, ah, for EV batteries. So EV battery health reports for a used ev. So when you buy used EV as a dealer or a consumer, you, you know the health of that battery because the health varies between um, especially in uzv. So um, so we keep that long term focus that hey, the world's going EVs and they're here to stay. And we don't need 100% EV adoption overnight for this business to work. Right. We do need it to grow, um, and we do believe it will grow. It's hard, it's hard on a day to day basis. So you see the headlines every day with customers and stuff. Like we narrow our icp, our ideal customer profile down right now to dealers who have EVs on their lot and we actually say to them, we don't care. Like it doesn't, um, it doesn't matter really how fast the transition happens. The fact is you have EVs on your lot today and you need to move them every day. That, that ev, those EVs are, those 10, 20 EVs are on your lot. They're costing you money from financing because you finance those vehicles and you gotta move them. So that's really uh, our, our approach right now. And uh, we don't need the uh, the transition to happen kind of overnight.

Host: I do want to open up to audience. You have any last questions before we go to audience?

Host: I was just to close it out. Um, you know, room full of founders here, you clearly built um, multiple things that are pretty meaningful in Canada here. So what would be your advice to those trying to do the same?

Ryan Osten: Look, there's a million reasons something won't work. And most people will never try to like build something. And so if it's not for everyone, if you have it in you and you want to do it, just start with something. Don't wait for perfect. Uh, it's something even I, you know, wanted to wait for. Perfect. It doesn't exist. And the key is to get into the arena and once one action begets the next action. So you do one thing, you try that, you talk to people, whatever it is. You put it out there and then you just keep moving forward. Yeah.

Host: And you never know who you'll meet. So be open.

Ryan Osten: That's right. That's good.

Host: That's a good one. Uh, all right, uh, questions for Ryan. Just put your hand up nice and high. We'll run you a mic and again

Host: I'll ask if you stand up, if you were sitting before, just so we can see you.

Host: Yeah.

Speaker E: Hi.

Speaker F: Oh, is this on over the mic?

Host: Slide it up.

Speaker E: It's lit up, but okay.

Ryan Osten: Yeah, you're good.

Speaker E: All right. Hi, my name is Indra. I run an AI company. We haven't talked about that, which is amazing today. Um, and so by day I sell AI to insurers, and by night I worry about what I'm doing, I worry about the future of jobs. And I was wondering, both of you, um, the industries you're in, it's on a trend. There's volatility, but EVs will need salespeople. There is always going to be financing, but internally, within your organizations, um, you must be pressured to make bets about where AI is going, make some bold bets, and at the same time some cautionary things where you want to m. Maybe see the tech stabilize. So what is your appetite towards AI and how do you think over the next year it might impact your hiring?

Ryan Osten: Well, I mean, we're small, so it's a little bit less, um, from our workforce. We're 10 people. So, uh, I don't think, I mean, in the way it'll affect our hiring is just our engineers are more efficient and can, um, build faster. So maybe we don't need to hire maybe as much as we would have five years ago or something like that. But I also think it's very hard to predict where things are going to go, uh, in, in anything. I mean, we can look back at the history of prediction and see all the things that were wrong. I mean, obviously AI is going to make a huge impact, but we don't know exactly what, uh, what that will look like. Um, from my perspective, we're. I'm constantly thinking about how we could build, how, how we can use AI in our product. Obviously we're using it in our day to day activities. Um, but, uh, how we can build it into our, our product to drive value. And not just to check a box, but actually to drive value. I could throw a chatbot into our widgets, but it's not, it's not really going to drive value. It's just going to be a checkbox. So, um, yeah,

Host: yeah,

Speaker D: hi. It's on. Yeah, Hi, I'm Fernando Yanes. Um, I had a question. So from your experience as ah, uh, founder and now as an investor as well, so both hats, um, do you think there are some signs for early startups to stop bootstrapping and start fundraising beyond just running out of savings to actually bootstrap? What are other signs that would tell me or other entrepreneurs to say, okay, it's the time to actually go, go look for funds?

Ryan Osten: Yeah, so I think uh, capital is a means to an end. So I don't think, you know, you should raise money. We bootstrapped the first business, right. Goobagoo was bootstrapped. And that, you know, obviously helps a lot on the outcome and stuff like that. I think that you should raise money when you need to, you know, it shouldn't be, I'm going to start a company and I'm going to raise money. You raise money if you need, if you need to in order to reach your goals, right? If so, um, that's one thing I would say and uh, the other I would say is that if you're going, if you need to raise money to reach your goals, you need to look at what are the milestones that you need, like what position do you need to be in in order to raise that money? Do you need some initial customers? Um, you know, you need revenue, perhaps you need some validation or you need someone on your team with credibility to raise from, from investors. So uh, what are those elements again? If, if you want to raise money because it aligns with your ultimate outcome and the goals, what are the m. What are the milestones that you need to achieve in order to raise that money? And I would also say go talk to investors. Like, just start talking. You'll learn, you'll learn, you'll learn, you'll take rejection and eventually you'll get to.

Host: Yes. So I'm going to jump in here. First of all, advertising for tomorrow. We're having a whole stage about, uh, raising money. So I don't know if we have spots available or not, but you go check out our website and see if we have space. But I think the big myth in this ecosystem is the only way to get capital is through venture. I'm a venture investor. I think it is one of the ways. But I think a lot of companies, you need to determine why you need the money and what's the right type of money. The best money is your customers paying you. Of course that's not always available, but there is a lot of grants there is loans, there's angel investors. So I think when you need, you know, you need capital, you should figure out what type of capital you need and then to some extent that capital will tell you you're a match for it when you go out to get that money.

Host: Uh, any more questions? Just oh, right there. Perfect. The mic is on this time. What specific strategies have helped you accelerate B2B sales cycles without resorting to hard selling, particularly in dealership owner led conversations?

Ryan Osten: O

Host: good questions.

Ryan Osten: So our sales are very transactional. They're not long sales cycles. Firstly I'll say um, we try, we sell with integrity so we're honest with customers. Hey, if we're not a fit we tell them right. Even if they're um, you know, perhaps wanting to buy or whatever, if we don't think they're going to get value. Um, um, we build relationships with customers. Trade shows have been very effect are very effective for us. We go, we build relationships there. And um, I think you also want to get to the point where you understand, I mean you call it product market fit, understanding the value that you're going to provide to them. So you say hey, if you sign up with us because you are you know a ideal um, customer profile, whatever, you're going to typically experience these benefits and then we're going to help you um, track, track that and that's worked very well for us um, in, in our you know, sales process. Uh but you know you got to get out there, get in front of customers whether it's, whether it's cold, calling email, trade shows inbound and uh, and good things will happen.

Host: Separate yourself publicly, funnel as non.

Ryan Osten: And I feel like

Host: that very relationship building.

Ryan Osten: I yeah it's not one thing. So relationships definitely uh, brand and brand's all about values like who you are getting out there speaking, stuff like this. Like I'll cut some, some video from this if I get the video and I'll put it on and people will see it and, and this and that and being authentic about that. You also have to have a key, a differentiation message for sure. Right. Like you need to know, communicate how you're different from your competitors. And obviously if you're in a market that's so saturated you might need a different market or a different spin on it, uh, that kind of thing. Uh, for us we've been in a market where there's, there's uh, there, there is opportunity, um, still. But yeah, so that's what I'd say.

Host: I, I did see one more question there. Let's Get. Make that the last question. Can we get the mic out to them?

Ryan Osten: Hey there. Hey.

Speaker F: Thanks for sharing your story. Uh, so I'm Austin with an A.

Ryan Osten: Um, right on, man, Salesforce.

Speaker F: And just curious about your automotive story.

Host: Right.

Speaker F: Um, my, my question was actually very similar to hers as well. Right. Like this industry has what, like hundreds, uh, of thousands of dealerships. And what I was very curious about was, you know, if you had to go back in time and you think, you know, what would you tell yourself in order to accelerate that growth to them, to, to reach out to all these dealership. Is it, is it still trade shows? You know, is it, you know, or is like the whole social thing working better? Like, how would you really accelerate?

Host: Sure.

Ryan Osten: So, I mean, I'm not sure I would in terms of like accelerating growth. I think at Goober Goo, we had a strong outbound sales team. Uh, I probably would have hired more of them. And, uh, that was. It depends on what stage of the company, you know, of the. In the company's life cycle you're at too. If you're at the early stages, nobody knows you. And so it is getting out there trade shows. Nobody's going to know who you are if you're just sitting at your desk doing LinkedIn posts and emails. Right. Uh, again, it's no one thing. Um, but you have to get out there and uh, establish yourself as a, I don't like the word thought leader, but you need to add value. Like get out there adding value to the, the market, whether it's through education, whether it's through helping, you know, solve whatever problem you can as you scale and the business now has some legs under. Then you're going to have to scale, I mean, depending on your business. But for us, you got to scale a sales team. Right. Um, and that's, um, outbound, um, inbound as well. But, uh, yeah, I mean there's, there's no single strategy or science to it.

Host: Brian, thanks so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your insights. Can we get a round of applause, please? Thank you.