Value Drivers

In a recent interview, Peter Ho sat down with Jeff Perlman, the founder of Bright Power—a premier provider of energy and water management services for real estate owners, investors, and operators. The interview provides insight into Perlman's journey, the company's services, and the challenges and opportunities in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industry.

Perlman introduces Bright Power as an organization that focuses on bringing renewable energy and energy efficiency together for both existing and new buildings, primarily in the apartment building sector. The company offers services such as energy scorecards, utility bill-based energy management systems, and professional engineering and technical services to help building owners identify and implement energy-saving projects.

One of the key takeaways from the interview is the importance of finding incentives and subsidy money to make the economics of sustainable energy solutions attractive. Perlman emphasizes the significance of customizing services to fit the needs of building owners and the importance of establishing a solid market fit for their offerings.

The conversation also touches on the role of AI and machine learning in making buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable. Although the company is still in the early stages of incorporating AI into its operations, Perlman sees great potential in leveraging AI to enhance their services and make their processes more efficient.

Perlman's insight into policy issues and incentives at the local, state, and federal levels sheds light on the impact of regulatory changes and programs on the company's forecasting and business operations. It highlights the importance of staying abreast of policy changes and leveraging available incentives and subsidies to drive the company's growth and impact in the sustainable energy space.

As Perlman discusses the need for long-term planning and the impact of external factors on the company's financial forecasting, it becomes clear that Bright Power's success is intrinsically tied to the changing landscape of policy and incentives in the sustainable energy industry. The company's ability to adapt and forecast accurately based on this ever-evolving landscape will be critical to its continued success.

The discussion concludes with a reflection on the relevance of Bright Power's journey and the insights from the interview to the current global push for sustainability and renewable energy. It highlights the challenges and opportunities in the sustainable energy sector and emphasizes the importance of staying adaptable and forward-thinking in the face of evolving policies and landscapes.

Book and Podcasts mentioned in this episode

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Paperback-Box-Books/dp/0545162076

Million Bazillion podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/1QlbveZv5f9T0lo4qu8pkU

Greeking Out

https://open.spotify.com/show/7bGBGiQUxPdNiQqyb0AKM7

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

In a recent conversation between Peter Ho and Jeff Lambert, the founder of Tiicker, an intelligent software startup, the topic of conversation revolved around Tiicker, a platform that connects individual retail investors with publicly traded companies to offer perks and rewards for stock ownership. The discussion delved into the concept of verified stock perks and shareholder loyalty, with Jeff Lambert highlighting the importance of forming a connection between retail investors and public companies.

Jeff Lambert spoke about the two-sided business model of Tiicker, where public companies desire engagement with retail investors and would like to see them shop and buy their products. Tiicker enables individuals and consumers to discover stocks of brands they might know publicly traded and find rewards for stock ownership in those public companies. He emphasized the significance of creating a connection and a handshake between public companies and retail investors, allowing them to verify their ownership and partake in perks and rewards.

The conversation further delved into the various perks available to shareholders, which can range from discounts on products to special offers and invitations to events. Lambert cited examples such as getting discounts on products like appliances and movie passes, illustrating how perks can offer tangible benefits to shareholders, further strengthening their loyalty to the company.

The conversation also addressed the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to correlate stock investing with lifestyle behavior, allowing Tiicker to introduce public companies and rewards that individuals might not have been aware of based on their interests and portfolios. This AI-backed approach aims to help investors create a stock-based profile and discover publicly traded companies in categories that align with their interests and lifestyles.

The discussion also shed light on the challenges and successes of Tiicker. Lambert outlined the company's key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of dollars linked to brokerage assets and the number of perks added to the platform. He also discussed the diverse marketing strategies, including social media campaigns and direct outreach initiatives, aimed at increasing awareness and engaging retail investors.

Jeff Lambert highlighted the significance of shareholder loyalty programs and the impact they can have on proxy voting. He stressed that by creating awareness and offering perks, retail investors are inclined to vote, making a considerable difference in the voting percentages, thus contributing to a notable shift in the shareholder landscape.

Books mentioned on the podcast

Beyond High Performance: What Great Coaches Know About How the Best Get by Jason Jaggard

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-High-Performance-Coaches-Better/dp/1637554966

Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by Arbinger Institute

https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out-Box/dp/1576750949

Resources:

https://www.tiicker.com/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Show Notes

[01:14] John gave the audience a high level summary of his background. Originally, John is a mathematician. After post doc in computational neuroscience, he went into market research consulting. Five years ago, he started his first company, Agora, followed by Neoswap.

[02:02] John discussed the market opportunity of Neoswap which is pioneering a new form of commerce where it is much easier to spend things that you already own. Neoswap is orchestrating trades where a network of people simultaneously buy and sell. The company's technology is particularly useful in cases where the assets are highly illiquid.

[04:01] John took a deeper dive into why Neoswap is particularly relevant in cases where market liquidity is very limited. By using blockchain, Neoswap is able to help coordinate economic activity that is open and transparent. John believes that eventually all the valuable assets in the world will be tokenized. Multi way trading can be applied to any of these tokenized assets in the future.

[08:18] John discussed the main current use cases of Neoswap, which are primarily digital assets (e.g. web3 game). For example, Neoswap can pull together starter packs for many buyers in a single transaction. Neoswap has also facilitated whiskey smart options. There's a big untapped space of assets that have value but are currently not moving. They're just stuck in the economy and he wants to help them move. He believes the decentralized commerce is the way to get them to move.

[11:07] John shared with the audience where he found the inspiration for Neoswap. John's father is a mathematical psychologist. Family discussion around modeling individual preferences were common which led him to think about more efficient ways to unlock value in illiquid assets.

[14:59] John gaves examples of multi-way trade facilitated by Neoswap. To remove the friction between the trades, the information on people's price preferences needs to be collected.

[17:56] John discussed how AI is being used at Neoswap. AI is used to help predict individual pricing preferences (pricing model). Neoswap is using large language model to help users automate trading.

[22:10] John shared with the audience his experience in fundraising. He raised funds during the last Crypto bear market which was a difficult environment. John highlighted two key learning: (1) A founder should ask if he or she needs to raise funding? Is there a way to bootstrap the company and avoid raising funds altogether? (His first company, Agora started as a consulting company and is fully bootstrapped.) (2) Networking is key. (For example, he said if you ask for advice, then you can often end up getting money. It is better not to pitch people directly.)

[29:19] John discussed his management process (e.g. scrum) and tools used to manage the day-to-day operations at Neoswap.

[29:56] John touched on his view of remote vs. in-person work. In the near future, he plans to recruit talents around 3 geographical clusters (Richmond, VA, Poland and Dubai)

[31:48] Discussion on current cycle of AI. John believes AI can dramatically change the workflow of companies. Everybody in the world should be using as many AI tools as they can.

[36:19] John discussed the challenges he currently faces and how he is handling them. He believes that founders should look at their finances at least once a week so that you can adjust course if needed. He also encourages founders to take a longer viewpoint as entrepreneurs can learn along the way.

Resources:

https://twitter.com/john_ennis_btc

https://twitter.com/neoswap_ai

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Jon Cheney, founder and CEO of Velocity Access, discussed how he is building an enhanced ticketing platform by improving the overall experience of the patrons.

Show Notes

[01:12] Jon gave the audience a brief overview of his background. He has lived in different countries and started selling products door to door when he was 8. Before Velocity Access, he started a company called Okavu in 2016.

[04:06] Jon discussed why he was attracted to entrepreneurship. It is not about money. It is more about the process of creation (music, arts and business).

[07:45] The market potential of Velocity Access was discussed. Jon believes the market is quite recession proof and the incumbents are charging exorbitant fees on ticket processing, presenting an opportunity for potential disruption.

[09:25] The revenue model of Velocity Access was discussed.

[14:05] Jon shared his view on Velocity Access's key differentiation. He believes that there is a lot more value on both sides of the equation (venue and customers) if we can develop a longer-term relationship between the two parties. Jon gave an example on how the venue can enhanced the user experience by understanding customers' preferences.

[22:33] Jon touched on the potential of using AI to enhance venue's revenue.

[22:57] Jon shared with the audience his experience in fundraising. He believes that fundraising is a difficult (and big) part of his job (as a company founder). He also discussed his approach in handling difficult questions from investors.

[37:29] Jon discussed how he balanced growth and profitability at Velocity Access. He shared with the audience the approach of profit sharing.

[48:14] The most challenging aspects of growing Velocity Access was discussed.

Book Mentioned in this episode

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones Hardcover by James Clear

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

Resources:

https://www.velocityaccess.io/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Mike Starr, founder and CEO of Trackd, discussed how he and his team help customers minimize vulnerabilities.

Show Notes

[01:20] Mike provided a brief overview of his background. Before launching trackd, Mike worked at the homeland security department and another startup. Most of the groups he worked in the government were mission focus (i.e. not bureaucratic in terms of execution and operation).

[04:00] Mike discussed how he got the idea for trackd. Mike believes that there is better way to deal with updating routers and firewalls. Trackd is in the vulnerability and patch management space and focuses on the human condition of fear.

[07:51] Mike took a deeper dive on the vulnerability management and the market opportunity. There are typically 2 teams in organizations dealing with vulnerabilities. One of trackd's goals is to bring these 2 teams together. The market size is estimated to be $15 billion (vulnerabilities remediation, not including post breach spending).

[09:09] Mike continued on the market opportunity. There has been no real innovation in the space since the nineties when scanners came out. The assumption is that lack of the technology is the reason that people don't patch (averaging 200+ days for patch) which is not true.

[12:28] Trackd's mission is to make patch quicker. Trackd's team found that less than 2% of patches are ever rolled back. Trackd will help customers determine what is safe and how to auto patch based on customers' level of risk tolerance.

[17:07] Mike shared his experience on fund raising which he believes is similar to dating. Mike advised other founders to focus on warm intros.

[32:44] Mike discussed his current area of focus: how to fundraise successfully, how to tell a story successfully and build a sales process that is repeatable successfully.

Book mentioned on the show

The Way of Kings: Book One of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765326353?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_0&storeType=ebooks

Resources:

https://trackd.com/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Kunal Agarwal discussed how he and his team makes cyber security a first class experience for his customers.

Show Notes

[02:19] Kunal shared with the audience his interest and passion in hacking, including an incident when he was in high school.

[04:43] Kunal discussed the genesis of Dope Security and meaning behind the company name. In his view, it is critically important to build the most amazing product somebody could ever use. (UX has to be absolutely beautiful, easy to use, easy to click. No user manual required.)

[07:26] The market segmentation of Dope was discussed. It comes down to the go-to-market strategy. The company provides basically the equivalent of parental controls for the employees. It's preventing someone from having wide open access to the Internet.

[08:58] Kunal shared the key differentiation of Dope versus the bigger competitors such as Symantec etc. Dope's clients do not need a data center, instead the defense mechanism is done at the users' devices (e.g. laptops). The model of rerouting Internet traffic is old.

[13:45] Kunal went deeper into the product philosophy at Dope. It is an amazing product that just works for the customers: it does that by eliminating the headaches of the customers.

[15:24] Kunal shared with the audience his fundraising journey. As far as raising goes, he thinks it is a relationships game. Ultimately, you (the founder) needs to be introduced to the right people, and somebody has to do that for you. He touched on couple pivotable introductions made by his network which led to the funding at GV.

[20:37] Dope's team composition and value driving mentality was discussed. Although the company is a startup, the team has the process and mentality to manage tightly from a P&L and budget perspective.

[21:58] Kunal took a deeper dive on the team culture on value creation. Both he (who worked at PE backed companies before) and Amar have similar value-oriented philosophy which is trickled down to the whole team forming a critical part of the team culture.

[31:23] Kunal closed the discussion by sharing the challenges he sees as a startup founder.

Resources:

https://dope.security/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Show Notes

[01:18] Scot gave a brief outline of his background. Scot has a technology background and two career journeys: a serial entrepreneur and investor/enthusiast/mentor of entrepreneurship.

[03:29] Scot provided a high level overview of Spiffy, a mobile car care company which is nationwide. The team is trying to build Starbucks for car care.

[05:03] Scot took a deeper dive into where he got the idea of Spiffy from. Spiffy follows two important themes: services are going digital and customers want fast and seamless experience (control through an app).

[08:09] Scot shared the key market segment of Spiffy (e.g. rental car companies, fleet). They value time and convenience as they use the time saved to generate revenue.

[10:29] Scot discussed the genesis of Triangle Tweener Fund. He started the Tweeter List in 2015 (50 companies). He ended up drawing a line from a million annualized run rate to 80 million. He did this every year.

[14:49] Scot discussed why the concept of Triangle Tweener fund can be applicable/relevant in other local markets.

[18:04] The return distribution of typical VC fund was discussed. Scot shared with the audience why the Triangle Tweener fund may work well by not missing any long-tail big winners.

[22:10] The current investment algorithm of the Triangle Tweener Fund was discussed.

[24:16] Scot shared the approach of light touch due diligence used at the Triangle Tweener Fund.

[26:35] Scot highlighted some of the key elements of funding success. He believes that one of the most important factors is whether the founder has the "twinkles" in his/her eyes (passion and greed).

[29:57] The funding trend and entrepreneur climate at the RTP area was discussed.

[32:29] Scot shared with the audience how he balances growth and profitability of Spiffy by using a bottom-up and top-down approach.

The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects by Andrew Chen

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Start-Problem-Andrew-Chen/dp/0062969749

Resources:

https://www.getspiffy.com/

Stay Updated:

Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation

https://brio360.com

Follow our host:

https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Show Notes

[01:36] Palash discussed his background and the genesis of Goldcast. He came to business school with the specific intent of starting a company. The timing was right (Covid) and the market opportunity is at a point where he wanted to launch the company rather than waiting for the completion of his MBA.

[05:23] Palash walked us through the market opportunity of Goldcast. If we look at digital events as a market, it is part of both events and the content world, or the content world where B2B market operates. Three main product/market opportunities for Goldcast: i) digital events ii) content hosting iii) video editing and content repurposing market

[07:29] Palash took a deeper dive into Goldcast's differentation: the seamless experience, the ability to measure the end-to-end impact of events campaign.

[08:25] Palash discussed the target customers of Goldcast: i) companies with more than 500 employees and ii) companies with 200 to employees. The product works well with several industries: tech, financial services, insurance, legal, accounting, etc.

[10:05] The go-to-market strategy of Goldcast is discussed. The biggest source of customer pipeline is Goldcast's own events. (which also have a lot of virality)

[13:37] Palash shared his fundraising experience. (3 rounds) The key question was how Goldcast is going to differentiate in the long term and how the company will compete with all the other funded players in the market (challenging to articulate, especially in the early days the fault lines in the market were not clear.)

[16:42] Palash shared couple lessons from his fundraising experience. If an investor is not convinced about the market, then it doesn't matter what you do and how you say it or how you tell the story. (low roi effort) If an investor is to write a check, he/she has to be convinced about the market from the get go. It is next to impossible for a founder to change it.

[19:16] Palash discussed how he balances growth and profitability. The company was anchored on the burn multiple early on. It now focuses a lot on CAC payback and customer pipeline (leading indicator).

[23:33] Palash shared his approach to align and motivate the management team towards the company target and goal. He tries to make it very clear to the team the long term vision. From there it cascades into the annual operating plan which would get approved by the board. (with quarter by quarter targets) He also works hard to make sure the management team understand the variables in the operation plan and how the decision made by the team can impact the outcome.

[27:56] Palash shared with the audience his current reading and podcast listening recommendation.

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Animal-Science-Evolutionary-Psychology/dp/0679763996

Acquired (Podcast)

https://www.acquired.fm/

Link to Goldcast's website:

https://www.goldcast.io/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Show Notes

[01:17] Adam provided the genesis of Thatch. Paying for healthcare is really painful and complex. It is painful for the business. It's painful for the employees. Thatch is founded to alleviate the pains for employees and employers.

[05:17] Adam took a deeper dive on how Thatch can help employers and employees. They set a budget, use a bunch of data and visualizations to make it easy for them to know how much to budget, and then everybody on their team gets a debit card that they can use to pay for healthcare the way that they want. They can also pick the health dental and vision insurance that they want directly through Thatch.

[07:43] Discussion on why Thatch may be able to save money for employers/employee healthcare costs.

[08:28] Adam discussed the type of companies that can benefit from Thatch. He believes that the range of companies can vary from startups to mid-size companies.

[10:15] Discussion on how Adam and his team tailors the product by listening to customer needs

[12:26] Adam shared with the audience the current the go-to-market approach of Thatch which is primarily through word of mouth by delighting customers.

[15:20] Economics/revenue model of Thatch is discussed.

[16:44] Adam discussed his fundraising experience and lessons learnt.

[20:49] Adam shared with the audience how he handled difficult investor questions.

[21:57] Thatch's capital allocation priority is discussed.

[23:33] Thatch's management process is discussed.

[25:30] Continued discussion on Adam's management philosophy

The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Faster-Than-You-Think/dp/1982109661

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis

https://www.amazon.com/Going-Infinite-Rise-Fall-Tycoon/dp/1324074337/

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.

Elaheh Ahmadi, founder of Themis AI, discusses how she and her team plans to empower the world to create and deploy trustworthy AI.

Show Notes

[01:15] Elaheh provided an overview of Themis AI and the genesis of the research.

[03:34] Discussion on recent developments of OpenAI and how Themis AI's product may be relevant to the industry. There's the anxiety in the AI community about the power of these applications. Themis AI may be able to help alleviate some of them.

[06:14] Elaheh provided an overview of the how a machine learning may fail. The vulnerability may be bucketed into 3 main categories: 1) model uncertainty 2) label uncertainty and 3) representation bias

[10:46] Elaheh took a deeper dive in the core of Themis AI's technology. When we have a data set for AI, what could potentially go wrong? Themis AI aims to solve the problem in a general sense, instead of only solving it for a specific domain/case.

[11:41] A critical component of a good AI model should be able to tell you that if the machine doesn't know the answer, it should tell you directly rather than making something up (hallucination). As such, there is a need for having a systematic solution to addressing these type of failures/vulnerabilities.

[16:29] What are the reasons or sources of failures of the model? That's basically Themis AI's approach of bringing different diagnostic tools to the end users who are machine learning engineers and scientists and helping them diagnose their models and pinpoint what is causing the model failure so that they can then further improve it.

[20:41] The company is industry agnostic because its technology is agnostic to model and data. And the profile of the target customers are basically any companies who are building their own models for different applications. Themis AI is bringing them state of the arts technology and research, the only place they can find an automated solution to make the models uncertainty aware. This saves companies a lot of time and R&D effort.

[22:55] Elaheh discussed how Themis AI could be a useful tool for companies (such as OpenAI) who focus on LLM.

[23:37] Conversation on fund raising and lessons learnt.

[30:26] Elaheh discussed the company's beta release over the summer. It selected about 5 customers from the wait list for priority access. Now it is moving beyond those beta customers and accepting new clients and talking to many companies in different industries.

Book Mentioned in this episode

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution by Uri Levine

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Love-Problem-Solution-Entrepreneurs/dp/1637741987

Stay Updated: Please visit Brio360 on other episodes and resources on driving value creation https://brio360.com

Follow our host: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhocm

Please note that information provided in the podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation to take any particular action, nor an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or services presented. It is not investment advice. Brio360 does not provide legal or tax advice.