Bela Musits 15:17
Yeah, well, with any new technology, there’s the early adopters, right? Then there’s the crowd. And then there’s the late to the show people. But eventually everyone gets there, if it’s a good if it’s a good piece of technology. Right. So that brings up an interesting point. How do you sell this this product? Right? Do you use direct salespeople? Do you have distributors? How does? How does your sales channel work?
David Dittenber 15:43
Sure, we just started we’ve been in development now for the better part of two years, right. So in the last three months was our first commercial launch, we did some, some small, you know, tool launching, if you will, kind of through COVID Things like contact tracing and things like that, to help make the platform a little bit more robust. But um, you know, we’ve been working in partnerships with the state restaurant associations, Michigan, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, to name a few. And so kind of working through their association members. We’ve also worked with, you know, some other industry partners like DirecTV for business, right? So we’ve been kind of utilizing their sales channels to get our inflow of business, which has worked out really well for us. And, you know, the, the best part is, is we can show value to already existing customers versus trying to just go out there and say, Hey, look at us, right, you know, which is, as you know, very difficult to kind of grow a product from the ground up. So, yeah, we’ve been trying to use those existing channels, and, you know, b2b partnerships. I think you mentioned it, companies that we’re working on a thing right now one’s called service star, which is a, an allergy of food allergy company, we’ve worked with, like I said, spot on, and others to be able, because those sales channels that are already existing, you know, I think what you were kind of saying is the validation of another line is the true way. And again, those late adopters, usually, you know, when you talk about them, they’re usually very pragmatic. They just want to see the results and make sure it works. Right. So I think that b2b model is really whether it be through association or industry partners, or, you know, just other companies that are like minded, like us, I think, are very important to that growth.
Bela Musits 17:39
Yeah. Have you guys gotten to the point where you, you do some direct advertising, or you go to trade shows, or those types of things?
David Dittenber 17:47
Yeah, we have we, and again, a lot of our lead into commercialization, we’re out there, just getting the word out. So you know, the National Restaurant Association show some of the State Association shows and regional bills, we’re doing some regional stuff here in Michigan, and then around in Florida, which are a really successful for us some of the member mixers and things like that, you know, definitely, you know, in the end, the restaurant industry is all based on hospitality. So they need to, you know, they need to see you, right, and we need to be able to kind of tell that story that we’re operators, we’re not just a technology company, so a lot of that you need to be seen. But on the other side of it, you know, we really, through those Association channels, and some of those other partners, that’s where the majority of the business so it’s, it’s good for us, because we can deal directly one on one with people and their needs also versus kind of that blanket, because, you know, you start saying machine learning and artificial intelligence. And you know, frankly, with all the buzz going on right now, it tends to get lost a little bit right, or people get a little freaked out by it. So it’s important to be able to be at the at the places where you can see and talk to people just pushing that message out.
Bela Musits 19:03
Yeah. So if I’m a, again, a small to medium size restauranteur, do I would I typically have sort of somebody on my staff or maybe it’s me, that sort of the technology person because it just seems to me, I think back, you know, 30 years, the the waitstaff wrote the order down on a piece of paper, they took it, they handed it through the window, and someone picked it up, they cooked it and out it came and that was it, and now everything’s computerized and so there’s just, you know, inventory control, resit, like you said reservations, all that kind of stuff is just all all technology based. So would I have it seems like I have to have somebody who’s at least the first level Troubleshooter for me because if something goes down, I’m like, out of business. I can’t take orders.
David Dittenber 19:52
Yeah, and so you know, it’s a really, I think, even post pandemic it became more difficult for For that regional operational person, right, especially in a multi unit that they’re trying to cover and, you know, let’s say eight to 10, restaurants, yeah, outside of it, right. So you’ve got, you know, in bigger groups, you might have five regionals, you know, reporting up to a, a director of operations. So, you know, every client is different, right, and how they handle that, because you’ve got, you know, kind of the Chief Technology Officer, or some of this even would go into the, like the security officer right at the top level. But on the operations level, you know, you have to, you know, you have to have the people that understand that what you’re trying to do is help them run their operations better. So, you know, the true proof in the pudding, in my opinion, is around those operational people, right. And then usually, that leads you back to a director of ops that’s trying to solve some problem, whether it be, hey, my, Labor’s too high, hey, my food cost is too high, you know, my communication across, you know, kind of the regions aren’t where it needs to be that sort of thing. So, and again, being a startup we’d have, we’ve had to kind of go smaller than bigger to start, right, we’ve had to go in and prove, you know, and some betas and things like that with the regionals that we could indeed solve their problems. And more importantly, it’s as easy as we say it is to get it up and running. Because the number one reason that an operations person or even a C level person is going to be apprehensive about new technologies, just the time and the adoption rate, right. And so it’s not really the money, right, and we’ve got a good case in terms of ROI, what we can save, and what we can make them. And then what we can just save them, because we do have all the tools kind of integrated that comm for free with our platform. But at the end of the day, their biggest challenge is, where’s the time going to come from? Right? That’s right. And so I think that’s been the challenge, wherever you’re going to enter out whether it be, you know, sea level, or operations or kind of that operations lead, you know, you have to prove to them that this isn’t going to be like, Hey, we’re going to sacrifice our guest experience to go in for a new technology platform, because they’ve done that so many times. And it’s just, you know, it’s detrimental to the guests. Right. And that’s what we’re all here for, we’re here to make sure that the guest has a good experience.
Bela Musits 22:22
Yeah, yeah, excellent point. Excellent point. And anyone who’s been around for a while, you know, they’ve, they’ve had some not so great experiences with adopting new things, they haven’t worked out like they wanted them, either the staff hates it, or their customers hate it, or it doesn’t deliver, or what if it doesn’t, then some of these are really critical to your operation, right? If they go down, your restaurants closed, you can’t function. So some of these things are really, really important. So people are cautious by with after they have some experience, they get very cautious, I think, and rightly so. So I think that’s one of the big challenges for any entrepreneur starting a new business, is this sort of getting that confidence? And being able to, to convince the new potential customer that yes, indeed, you can rely on us? Yeah, I know, we’re a small company. But you know, we’re focused on this to making sure it works for you. Yeah, and what,
David Dittenber 23:18
you know, this, a little bit of the backstory just quickly is, on that note, I wasn’t an operator, but I went and made sure that we, from a technology standpoint, went and had people that understood what we were trying to do at a much higher level. So we were lucky, being from Midland, Michigan, they have a bunch of really smart data architects, and so forth with Dow Chemical being here. And you know, these were guys that did, you know, this type of integration with people like SAP, or if they didn’t do things correctly at the right times, chemical plants were going to blow up, right, so so so again, it was all about trying to make some utilize technology to make something that would do exactly what you just talked about, have a really small imprint, in terms of what they had to change, let’s let’s adapt to their operations versus making, you know, their operations adapt to technology. And so it’s a trust factor. It’s a and I think, again, you know, artificial intelligence and machine learning is this big buzzword right now. But people have been burnt by it before, right, automation and all these really sexy, cool words. And then all of a sudden, after a few years, it goes by the wayside because they tried to do too much and we wanted to do something that was practical, simple and affordable, that utilize the technology in the right way that could really you know, show difference and have influence versus oh my god, I’m gonna have robots running around the restaurant, right? That’s so that’s kind of practical, simple, cheap. I always say affordable, but I’m more on the cheap realm, right being an operator, right?
Bela Musits 24:59
So Excellent, excellent. So I want to talk a little bit about sort of starting this business from an entrepreneurial perspective. So like, what were some of your sort of big challenges in the early days,
David Dittenber 25:12
you know, just the, you know, coming from a person who had done multiple LLCs, and multiple businesses, and I felt like I had a pretty good handle on, you know, kind of the aspects that you needed to run business, whether it was liability management, insurance, you know, accounting, all that type of stuff. But startups are, it’s a, it’s a different animal, right? You know, and we were self funded for the majority of our journey up until about six, eight months ago. And I didn’t know anything about convertible debt, and, you know, safes and all that type of stuff. So there were, there were a lot of things on that side, that we really needed to get good representation around us that had been there and done that almost like we did with the technology, let’s not go out there and reinvent something, let’s go to someone who has done done this before, knows where the pitfalls are in, I still want to, you know, put an asterisk behind that it still doesn’t mean these businesses will be successful, you can do everything, right. And it’s a very difficult process. But I we surround ourselves with a good team of people. And then like I said earlier, I’m big in a mentor network. And we’ve been really lucky to have people that whether it be from big business, or you know, just people that can give you that insight to make sure that you’re you know, and so we have a really great advisory board, I think the challenge was coming up with the Advisory Board and the people that can challenge you to stay and move in the right path. Right, versus, you know, being it, I think that the other thing that is it would be very easy to say, as an operator, I’m so in love with the solution. And not that you’re not passionate about the solution. But sometimes you need to adjust those paths based on what the market and what the customer needs. Right? That’s those are a lot of things that people would advise us on to be like, let’s continue to move forward and those areas, so that that was a lot of the challenge, just really kind of wrapping your hands and head around all those things and getting them to work together. Plus, just, you know, realizing how difficult it is to get in front of people to validate yourself in a market. That’s, frankly, Doggy Dog technology is a different animal. Right. And so you need to you know, those were those were some of the things that were challenging and continue to be challenging, right, they’re ever changing.
Bela Musits 27:43
Yeah, excellent. You know, at Rise25. Here, we’re sort of big fans that publicly acknowledging people who’ve sort of been influential in our lives and have helped us Is there anyone you want to give a kind of a shout out to that’s that’s, you know, helped you along the way and be really influential?
David Dittenber 28:00
I have a, I have a few. And then yeah. And, you know, the first one was an early mentor of mine, his name was John, Lord John was a former healthcare executive that moved into town, in the Bay City where my first restaurant was, and John was a guy that, you know, had a network, and you had to earn that trust and the ability that he would, you know, that you weren’t going to go embarrass him. But you know, we really, he was really great at kind of preparing me for some of these situations that you really, you know, you can’t simulate right, you can read about them, but you need to, you need to be around executives and people that have been there in order. And John was really great, and introduced me to some great people, like some people locally here that I respect. Dave Kappeler, who’s the former CIO of Dow Chemical. And then one of our lead investors is Andrew Liveris, who’s our, who’s the former CEO of of Dow Chemical? And Andrew just retired. So just being able to be around people like that. Yeah. Right. But you just, you know, and they, they, they introduce you to other people within networks that just are it’s, it’s, it’s almost surreal, some time coming from that town that I talked about, you know, sitting in some of these places that we, you know, just grateful to be able to have some of those great influences around it. Yeah.
Bela Musits 29:22
That’s great. That’s great. Thanks for doing that. It was very good. So where’s a good place for if listeners want to find out more about you guys? Where’s the best place for them to go?
David Dittenber 29:32
Yeah, the two best places are website byod.ai. And then LinkedIn is just BYOD. And yeah, both of those. You can go schedule a demo. We have some informational videos that we have on there that kind of go through the the integrations and you know, kind of trying to simplify it a little bit. So yeah, all the information on those two sites.
Bela Musits 29:54
Perfect, perfect. Well, we’ll make sure that all that information is in the show notes for our listeners. And so is there something that I have not asked you that you’d like to share with the audience? No, I think,
David Dittenber 30:07
No, I think, you know, the last point that you were talking about in terms of, you know, people that are influential. I just think that I, you know, I, whether any of the talks that I do, or anybody that I’m around, I just encourage people to reach out, right. They think that there are not opportunities are but with groups like Rise25. And think, you know, there, there is a robust network of people that have been there and done that, you know, and people that are in these industries, I just really, you know, encourage the young entrepreneurs to reach out to anyone that they feel, and what’s the worst that can happen, they’re going to tell you now, or they don’t have time for you. But you know, if you do get that opportunity, you want to make sure that you’re prepared, because there’s nothing worse than showing up at a sea level meeting and act like you’ve never, you know, you’ve not done any preparation. So, yeah, that that would be it. I love that I love the concept behind Rise and I’ve listened to a couple of the other podcasts. I love what you guys do.
Bela Musits 31:04
Well, thank you very much. Thanks. That was great way to close this podcast out. David, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. I really enjoyed our conversation.
David Dittenber 31:14
Yeah, me as well. Thanks for having me, Bela. I appreciate it.
Outro 31:16
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