185 – Greetings! Get Your Ideas Out to the World with Adam Donato of Card Isle
The greeting card industry hasn’t really seen anything new in the last 50 years … except for the cards that play music when they’re opened.
Card Isle is a company, founded by three engineers, that changes that. They’ve captured all the magic that comes from a tangible greeting card and made it easier to find that perfect card.
Whether you run an e-commerce shop, take most of your orders over the phone or have a brick & mortar store, Card Isle sets you up with more selection than a Hallmark store. It also eliminates the headache of guessing what card designs will sell.
Business Building Insights
- Adam is an entrepreneur because he likes creating and doing things others haven’t done.
- Go out and talk to customers to understand what problems they are facing. Find out what needs to be solved.
- Meet people where they are already.
- Take direction on your next steps from people using your product.
- Getting the right partner makes a big difference. It must be someone you can count on and trust.
- In a company there should be a hierarchy. There needs to be one CEO, someone who will make the tough decisions.
- At the end of the day it’s the execution that matters. It’s how you take an idea and turn it into something real and tangible.
- There’s a culture to help each other in the world of entrepreneurs.
- Find a mentor who can help you be successful.
Contact Links
Gift Biz Resources
Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.
Thanks! Sue
Transcript
You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 185 the experience of
Speaker:signing the right greeting card.
Speaker:It's pretty miserable and it hasn't really changed in decades.
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue and thank you so much For taking a little
Speaker:bit of your time today and joining me on this show
Speaker:and Oh,
Speaker:are you going to be so glad you did?
Speaker:I'm going to be introducing our guests shortly,
Speaker:but you just need to know that Adam has so many
Speaker:good tips that he's going to be sharing today that apply
Speaker:to all of our businesses.
Speaker:Grab yourself a pen,
Speaker:grab some paper.
Speaker:You're going to see that.
Speaker:I'm going to say a couple of times through this episode
Speaker:that you should go back and listen to it again.
Speaker:I know I will be,
Speaker:but before we get started,
Speaker:I want to make sure you know about my newly released
Speaker:free masterclass.
Speaker:It's called how to turn your hobby into a business.
Speaker:How do you know if this is for you?
Speaker:Well, if you're starting a business right now,
Speaker:you've gotten that dream,
Speaker:but you're just not sure what steps you should be taking.
Speaker:This masterclass is for you if you're already in business,
Speaker:but something just isn't clicking,
Speaker:it's not bringing in the sales or it's just not performing
Speaker:the way you think it should.
Speaker:This masterclass is also for you to check it out.
Speaker:Just go over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash masterclass.
Speaker:I look forward to seeing you over there and for now,
Speaker:let's get into the show Today.
Speaker:I am thrilled to introduce you to Adam Denato of card
Speaker:aisle. The greeting card industry hasn't really seen anything new in
Speaker:the last 50 years except for the cards that play music
Speaker:when they're opened.
Speaker:Cardell is a company founded by three engineers that changes that
Speaker:they've captured all the magic that comes from a tangible greeting
Speaker:card, even in the digital age,
Speaker:and simply made it easier to find that perfect card.
Speaker:Whether you run an eCommerce shop,
Speaker:take most of your orders over the phone,
Speaker:or have a brick and mortar store Cardell set you up
Speaker:with more selection than a hallmark store.
Speaker:It also eliminates the headache of guessing what car designs will
Speaker:sell. Adam,
Speaker:I am so excited to get into this story.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker:I'm psyched to be here as well.
Speaker:So I met you at a convention a little bit ago,
Speaker:maybe few weeks or so ago,
Speaker:but I really don't know the story behind Cardell so we're
Speaker:going to get into all of that.
Speaker:But before that,
Speaker:I want to get to know you a little better too.
Speaker:We do this in a creative way.
Speaker:I told you that in the pre chat,
Speaker:but if you were to describe yourself through a motivational candle,
Speaker:what color would your candle be and what would be the
Speaker:quote on the candle?
Speaker:I was actually laughing with my wife about this last night
Speaker:trying to figure out,
Speaker:this was just a very different question that I'm used to
Speaker:answer again,
Speaker:what ended up coming to as far as a quote goes,
Speaker:the quote that has been sticking with me recently,
Speaker:something that that's really made me think is the guy who
Speaker:says it can't be done,
Speaker:shouldn't get in the way of the guy doing it.
Speaker:Oh, I love that.
Speaker:It captures so much of why so many of us are
Speaker:entrepreneurs that it's not that desired escape or to make a
Speaker:ton of money or anything else.
Speaker:It's that I like creating,
Speaker:I like doing things that other people haven't done before and
Speaker:so often you run into when some kind of structured organization,
Speaker:people saying,
Speaker:no, this is how we've always done it.
Speaker:This is the only way we can do it.
Speaker:That's so limiting.
Speaker:Yeah, and then as far as the color goes,
Speaker:this stumps me a little bit more.
Speaker:My wife and I enjoy getting outside a bunch.
Speaker:We do a lot of rock climbing,
Speaker:mountain biking,
Speaker:backpacking, stuff like that in the mountains out in Virginia.
Speaker:And towards sunset.
Speaker:If you look out and you can see the mountains on
Speaker:the horizon,
Speaker:they get this two dimensional kind of look and you get
Speaker:this bluish green color that sort of the mountains take on
Speaker:that color I think would be really neat.
Speaker:If you had one of those thicker candles where the wick
Speaker:burns down in the center and you see the light shining
Speaker:through the candle through that bluish green kind of coming outwards
Speaker:I think would be a really amazing glow.
Speaker:Oh, I love it.
Speaker:I can actually see that.
Speaker:So I have to ask you,
Speaker:did your wife agree with your quote in your color?
Speaker:She thought they were good.
Speaker:Yeah, she and I laughed.
Speaker:We came up with a lot of funny quotes,
Speaker:but I think that this was one that we all settled
Speaker:on. You got to have one that we can use on
Speaker:the show,
Speaker:so that's fun.
Speaker:I hope it led to some interesting conversation.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:let's get into Cardell.
Speaker:You knew your talk about with your quote,
Speaker:the fact that if it's not done the same and people,
Speaker:you know it's not something that's been done before.
Speaker:People really challenge you and question it.
Speaker:And Cardell is definitely different.
Speaker:So you're saying that it's founded by three engineers,
Speaker:so that's kind of curious.
Speaker:That gets me questioning.
Speaker:But talk about the story behind the creation of card aisle.
Speaker:Yeah, so I was doing a PhD in mechanical engineering and
Speaker:had gotten to the point where I was all done with
Speaker:coursework and was just doing research at this point actually just
Speaker:come off the discovery channel was doing this reality TV show
Speaker:about engineers and flown out to LA and done some neat
Speaker:stuff with that and came back and buddy mentioned this idea
Speaker:of this new class that was being funded by the national
Speaker:science foundation and they had run into this problem in academia
Speaker:where they've been dumping tons and tons of money into research
Speaker:and the research isn't gaining commercialized.
Speaker:So they've been trying to figure out how do we teach
Speaker:academics, how do you take these great ideas that do amazing
Speaker:things in a lab and convert it into a commercial technology,
Speaker:something that can benefit people kind of in a big and
Speaker:a large way and should they create this class and because
Speaker:it was through the engineering department,
Speaker:it had this brilliant and creative name.
Speaker:It was called the startup class,
Speaker:so you knew exactly what you were getting and they had
Speaker:four faculty members for 30 students.
Speaker:There's like brand new class that we're trying all sorts of
Speaker:new things and day one of the class we showed up
Speaker:and everybody had to have an idea,
Speaker:had to have some kind of business concepts that we were
Speaker:going to run with and because much of my research was
Speaker:with supercomputers,
Speaker:I pitched day you basically a better version of Google,
Speaker:which I still stand by.
Speaker:I has some strong merits,
Speaker:but that was what I pitched.
Speaker:One of the other guys,
Speaker:David, who ended up being one of the other founders,
Speaker:does a lot of sailing and he pitched a technique for
Speaker:taking salt water and converting it into fresh water,
Speaker:like good solid engineering solution.
Speaker:And Stephan,
Speaker:the third co-founder stood up and said,
Speaker:well we all buy greeting cards.
Speaker:We all receive greeting cards.
Speaker:But the experience of getting that greeting card and finding the
Speaker:right greeting card said it's pretty miserable and it hasn't really
Speaker:changed in decades.
Speaker:Said this is an opportunity.
Speaker:There is something here.
Speaker:There has to be a better way of doing this.
Speaker:And halfway through the class there was this intermission,
Speaker:it was one of these like three hour long classes.
Speaker:And at the intermission we had only heard half of the
Speaker:pitches and David and I made a beeline right over to
Speaker:Stephan. So we like your idea way better than our idea.
Speaker:And the very next day we got together and started rolling
Speaker:with us.
Speaker:So one of the big focuses of the class and this
Speaker:like as an engineer is someone who likes building things.
Speaker:This was hard.
Speaker:Big focus was go out and talk to customers,
Speaker:go out and find what problems customers are facing,
Speaker:find what actually needs to be solved.
Speaker:Because so often it's easy to come up with the solution
Speaker:in a vacuum that it turns out you're the only one
Speaker:that has that problem.
Speaker:So we went out and we interviewed somewhere in the ballpark
Speaker:of about 700 strangers.
Speaker:We got thrown out of a mall twice for solicitation.
Speaker:We had like,
Speaker:it was an experience.
Speaker:So Adam is for clarification,
Speaker:you're a customer at that juncture was the end user.
Speaker:So the recipient of a card,
Speaker:not someone who would supply the cards.
Speaker:Exactly. We were heavily focused at that point on the end
Speaker:user and yeah,
Speaker:as you have uh,
Speaker:alluded to,
Speaker:we ended up shifting towards like longer-term towards the retailer.
Speaker:But at that point we were looking at the end user,
Speaker:the person buying the card.
Speaker:And what we ended up finding,
Speaker:we saw a consistent message and I think there was this
Speaker:one grandmother who embodied the message better than anybody else.
Speaker:And we ran into her and it was in one of
Speaker:those big box stores and she had the list of five
Speaker:or 10 grandkids that were having birthdays that month and she
Speaker:was picking out the perfect card for each kid.
Speaker:And she told us stories about every kid and like it
Speaker:was clear she knew these grandkids much better than someone who
Speaker:only sees their grandkids the big holidays.
Speaker:So she was looking for the perfect card for every kid
Speaker:and just like warm and rosy and really friendly woman.
Speaker:And when we asked her what she thought about the process
Speaker:of buying those greeting cards of actually finding the perfect card,
Speaker:like not what happens once you have the perfect card but
Speaker:getting there,
Speaker:she went off on this litany of obscenities that would make
Speaker:your hair curl.
Speaker:Oh that's funny.
Speaker:She'd been to four stories that morning and she was at
Speaker:that moment struggling to find a card for a middle school
Speaker:aged boy that wasn't obscene and wasn't childish.
Speaker:And ah,
Speaker:she was frustrated and we saw this theme time and again
Speaker:the people love getting the perfect card but it is often
Speaker:so hard to get that perfect card.
Speaker:So at that point we had collected this data.
Speaker:We had seen there is a problem,
Speaker:there is a large market for this.
Speaker:So the first idea that we had was we said,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:what if we kind of meld some technology into getting the
Speaker:perfect card?
Speaker:And so we reached out to a bunch of local artists
Speaker:and got some phenomenal designs from these artists and we got
Speaker:some money from the national science foundation day of the class
Speaker:to buy some printers.
Speaker:We got one of those tents that people set up,
Speaker:soccer games and whatnot that you can or tailgating that you
Speaker:can kind of hang out under.
Speaker:And we set up in front of the engineering building just
Speaker:a little before mother's day.
Speaker:And what we were doing,
Speaker:we had,
Speaker:it was the junkiest setup.
Speaker:People basically pointed at the card they wanted,
Speaker:like one of these designs that the artists had.
Speaker:They told us what message they wanted on the inside.
Speaker:And then we typed it out around a computer.
Speaker:We had a printer sitting right there and we'd hit print.
Speaker:And the big thing we were testing was if we can
Speaker:offer convenience,
Speaker:if we can offer with these local artists,
Speaker:we can make it much easier to get cards that really
Speaker:fit the people we're targeting.
Speaker:And we were at Virginia tech,
Speaker:so talk about a university that is very proud of being
Speaker:Virginia tech.
Speaker:So being able to get the local artists,
Speaker:the locally themed cards,
Speaker:making it easy for people to find the card,
Speaker:making it easy for people to access this.
Speaker:We were right there,
Speaker:it was convenient.
Speaker:And then the personalization that still gets you a professional quality
Speaker:card at the end.
Speaker:And so we ended up,
Speaker:we had to shut down early because we had so many
Speaker:orders, we couldn't print the orders fast enough.
Speaker:So we were writing down dorm numbers and petty shut down
Speaker:and we were delivering cards to the students' dorms afterwards because
Speaker:there was such a line.
Speaker:Wow, I'm going to stop this story right here.
Speaker:It's so coating Adam and I don't want to lose it.
Speaker:I want to because there's so much here.
Speaker:I want all of our listeners to capture all of this.
Speaker:I've gotten four points in your evolution of this business and
Speaker:we're not even to really what car dial is yet.
Speaker:Totally the thing.
Speaker:Have you ever heard the term blue ocean versus red ocean?
Speaker:Okay, so you totally have a blue ocean business for sure.
Speaker:Do you want us to describe blue ocean for the listeners
Speaker:or should I do it real quick?
Speaker:Okay, so blue ocean you guys is,
Speaker:you know there's a red ocean or there's a blue ocean.
Speaker:Oh, red ocean means it's shark-infested,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:There's so much competition out there because there are so many
Speaker:people doing something similar to what you're doing.
Speaker:So it could be in the way you're describing your product.
Speaker:You make cupcakes,
Speaker:for example.
Speaker:There's not a lot of difference.
Speaker:There's a lot of other cupcakes out there.
Speaker:What could you do to make yourself different so you're not
Speaker:in those shark infested waters?
Speaker:Another way you can do it,
Speaker:which is what Adam's done.
Speaker:And it was Stephen,
Speaker:Stephen, Stephen,
Speaker:Stephen, Stephen who identified a blue ocean opportunity with the greeting
Speaker:cards. If they could change the experience of acquiring and what
Speaker:that greeting card was.
Speaker:No one else is doing that.
Speaker:So it's kind of like if you can stay with the
Speaker:ocean strategy here is you go into this blue ocean where
Speaker:you're just swimming free.
Speaker:There's not a lot of competition and it makes things easier.
Speaker:Although Adam,
Speaker:I know it can be challenging too,
Speaker:so we're going to get to that in a minute.
Speaker:But, so the first thing was just identifying an opportunity and
Speaker:this opportunity was sitting right in a blue ocean.
Speaker:So that's the first thing.
Speaker:The other thing that they did was they went out and
Speaker:they did some research.
Speaker:It was kind of like a checkpoint to see if what
Speaker:they thought was such a good idea really was I.
Speaker:E. The story about the grandmother.
Speaker:Then they went out and tested a little bit further and
Speaker:this is a big point to you guys.
Speaker:You heard how he's just describing on the campus,
Speaker:they didn't have the refined end product yet.
Speaker:They hadn't spent all the money and done everything yet.
Speaker:They've brought it to a point where they could bring it
Speaker:to market and test it as like the first step of
Speaker:development. And I know there was some investment there already,
Speaker:Adam, but it was the first step of seeing whether this
Speaker:was spin to fly.
Speaker:So a lot of things moving into what would end up
Speaker:being the company they also saw,
Speaker:and this was 0.4
Speaker:demand. Yeah,
Speaker:you can have the best thing in the world.
Speaker:It's cool,
Speaker:it's solves a problem.
Speaker:But if people aren't really interested in it,
Speaker:it doesn't matter.
Speaker:You're not gonna sell any.
Speaker:So opportunity research and a checkpoint,
Speaker:developing the product,
Speaker:kind of in a rough scale,
Speaker:checking it out,
Speaker:testing the market,
Speaker:and then seeing that their demand are the four steps we've
Speaker:gotten through already.
Speaker:So Adam,
Speaker:I'm loving this story.
Speaker:I hope you don't mind that I interrupted,
Speaker:But I wanted to catch all those points for everybody.
Speaker:Not a problem at all.
Speaker:So we're at the point where you guys are delivering the
Speaker:cards because there was so much demand you had to shut
Speaker:down early.
Speaker:And so you guys had to be excited.
Speaker:Like you guys were college kids yet.
Speaker:Did you go at guys go out and have a beer
Speaker:and celebration that night or what?
Speaker:We were all definitely,
Speaker:yeah, over 21 at that point.
Speaker:Celebrations. There you go.
Speaker:That's good because you're like,
Speaker:because you were probably thinking,
Speaker:okay, we've done all this stuff.
Speaker:No, all this work and it's really working.
Speaker:Yeah. Well and it was working better than we expected it
Speaker:to work too.
Speaker:Like that was part of the excitement too.
Speaker:Sure. Okay,
Speaker:so carry on.
Speaker:So everyone got their cards,
Speaker:what happens next?
Speaker:Yeah, so at that point,
Speaker:the two big things that we identified that we really wanted
Speaker:to hone in on where the personalization and with that personalization,
Speaker:like access to local artists and being able to upload your
Speaker:own photos and being able to really get the message.
Speaker:And what we ended up seeing was even amongst college age
Speaker:guys, there were folks that were excited about this personalization.
Speaker:We even saw guys bragging to strangers about the card they
Speaker:had just designed because it was so perfect and it was
Speaker:something like we stepped back and we were thinking,
Speaker:imagine if you were in a hallmark store and some millennial
Speaker:age guys starts bragging to you about the card that he
Speaker:just picked out.
Speaker:They'd be creepy.
Speaker:Like that would be so outside the normal.
Speaker:And we were seeing that I would not have expected that
Speaker:either. So that personalization,
Speaker:like that ability to make it easy for people to get
Speaker:to the right card.
Speaker:And then the other thing we saw was being able to
Speaker:meet people where they are already being able to provide some
Speaker:sense of convenience.
Speaker:So for this,
Speaker:what we ended up and as engineers we said we can
Speaker:build anything.
Speaker:We ended up building this.
Speaker:Basically the ideal was around like a Redbox for greeting cards
Speaker:or an ATM for greeting cards.
Speaker:So something that would be completely automated that we can set
Speaker:up anywhere.
Speaker:And the very first one of these that we built,
Speaker:it's still operating today.
Speaker:It's still printing cards and it very much looks like three
Speaker:engineers built it.
Speaker:There is no design aesthetic at all.
Speaker:Like there's a screen at the height that you stand at
Speaker:and a card comes out the bottom.
Speaker:And honestly refilling this thing with anchor card or anything is
Speaker:a burden that involves disassembling most of the kiosk.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:We basically went up and down main street in Blacksburg,
Speaker:Virginia, where we're based and talked to a number of different
Speaker:retailers trying to find a home and eventually found a home
Speaker:with this.
Speaker:It's an organic grocery store and great location,
Speaker:great spot.
Speaker:That kiosk did well,
Speaker:does well today and then from there we ended up,
Speaker:the next thing we said,
Speaker:okay, there's one of these,
Speaker:or like this,
Speaker:it's an organic grocery store,
Speaker:but it's a very unique organic grocery store.
Speaker:And we said like,
Speaker:there's no way this is going to scale.
Speaker:We need to find something else.
Speaker:Going back to the university ended up convincing to put two
Speaker:kiosks on the campus and it was something that they basically
Speaker:said yes.
Speaker:So we went home and scrambled and built two more kiosks.
Speaker:Did they look the same for they?
Speaker:The big red box type things again now.
Speaker:So the first one was that that first one in the
Speaker:organic grocery store is this light funny shade of white and
Speaker:blue and it's got enough paint on it that the whole
Speaker:thing looks like it's made out of plastic because our woodworking
Speaker:skills were a little mediocre.
Speaker:The next one looks kind of like something that would fit
Speaker:in a Cracker barrel.
Speaker:It's very like stained wood.
Speaker:It's again has way more pieces than necessary.
Speaker:And then the third one we worked with some design students
Speaker:at tech and got connected with a local cabinet maker and
Speaker:that one actually looks fairly professional.
Speaker:It's got much more of a present,
Speaker:it has clean lines and that the design that we ended
Speaker:up basically tweaking from then on.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Yeah. She,
Speaker:we ended up got a couple of kiosks on Virginia Tech's
Speaker:campus S and these continued to do well at this point.
Speaker:We went out and did a small fundraising round from some
Speaker:friends and family that got us to the point where we
Speaker:were able to get a fair number,
Speaker:more kiosks out at different local stores,
Speaker:a handful of other colleges,
Speaker:a couple of other universities,
Speaker:and then we got a really cool opportunity with Rackspace,
Speaker:which is this big tech company.
Speaker:It competes with Amazon and Microsoft in different fields and with
Speaker:Rackspace they have this huge headquarters down in San Antonio and
Speaker:something like 10,000
Speaker:employees. One of the big challenges we were facing with universities
Speaker:is that for a third of the year they're empty.
Speaker:So a corporate campus provides a lot of this team feel
Speaker:of a college campus.
Speaker:It's just not empty.
Speaker:It's also full of people that have much more disposable income
Speaker:than college students.
Speaker:So we set up with Rackspace.
Speaker:That went really well,
Speaker:started scaling that into a number of other corporate campuses where
Speaker:with like Intel,
Speaker:we've got a kiosk recently with Cisco.
Speaker:From there we started scaling into military bases,
Speaker:so primarily army and air force bases.
Speaker:And after doing this for about a year or two,
Speaker:we ended up getting connected with some convention.
Speaker:There was a fellow that came up and said,
Speaker:I've got this eCommerce website,
Speaker:I'm selling gifts,
Speaker:and he said,
Speaker:I would love to be able to offer a greeting card,
Speaker:so I would love to be able to do something because
Speaker:at this point we've got 9,000
Speaker:designs and all sorts of core personalization and everything else and
Speaker:it's a really nice card when you print it out.
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:I want to be able to offer that,
Speaker:but I want to be able to offer that through my
Speaker:website. So we went back and worked with our developers and
Speaker:ended up building a solution that was really easy to plug
Speaker:into a website and something that all of that smooth design
Speaker:experience that we had provided for the customers that had been
Speaker:honed over years of working in different locations and being able
Speaker:to find something that even the most helpless guy in a
Speaker:rush could find a card that his wife would be happy
Speaker:with it.
Speaker:We had that already and we were able to take that
Speaker:and plug that into this guy's website and he was thrilled.
Speaker:So what we've been doing since then is we've actually seen,
Speaker:it looks like this is just kind of the way everything
Speaker:is shifting.
Speaker:There is such a huge market right now.
Speaker:You talk about ocean,
Speaker:no sharks,
Speaker:where there is this huge opportunity to be able to partner
Speaker:with all of these different retailers who are in some kind
Speaker:of gifting business.
Speaker:And one of the things that really helps a gift to
Speaker:stand apart that really makes that gift unique and personalized and
Speaker:lets the recipient know just like exactly how you're feeling is
Speaker:that personalized greeting card.
Speaker:And we make it easy for any retailer of any size
Speaker:offer greeting cards.
Speaker:Wow. So do you still do the kiosks then also and
Speaker:the online or has everything now transitioned to online your eCommerce
Speaker:platform? There are still key asks out there,
Speaker:the rush stoke kiosks doing business.
Speaker:But the vast majority of our resources right now are going
Speaker:towards either folks with like a website placing orders or weave
Speaker:in about a week or two we're going to be launching
Speaker:this system that makes it easier for folks place an order
Speaker:over the phone for them to be able to design a
Speaker:personalized card brief in brick and mortar shops.
Speaker:But it's something that's very much moving away from that focus
Speaker:around automated kiosks.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:So the automated kiosks are kind of in maintenance mode because
Speaker:you've got them out there,
Speaker:but you're seeing the opportunity is leaning the other way.
Speaker:Yep. And to use the wonderful entrepreneur term we are,
Speaker:we're pivoting the company in the direction of these standalone as
Speaker:opposed to automated kiosk solutions.
Speaker:Well and much more scalable for you and also maintenance-free.
Speaker:Exactly All this talk is bringing to mind our sponsor.
Speaker:Let's hear from them right now.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store.
Speaker:Craft studio in seconds.
Speaker:Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
Speaker:Share With everybody so they truly understand.
Speaker:If they were to be producing one of the cards,
Speaker:what's the process that you go through to make a card?
Speaker:Do you do this as if you are the person who
Speaker:has card aisle in your store or do you do this
Speaker:as a customer who's online?
Speaker:I'm not sure which you take it whichever way it's supposed
Speaker:to go.
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:Yeah, so I'm going to take it from the perspective of
Speaker:the retailer just because that way you can see both sides
Speaker:and so your customers come to your online shop.
Speaker:Just the way they would make any purchase and we can
Speaker:set it up for your customers that they have two avenues
Speaker:to buy a greeting card.
Speaker:One option is just like any other upsell,
Speaker:so if a customer has the option of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:maybe they wanted to change the shipping,
Speaker:maybe they want faster shipping or maybe they want to add
Speaker:a of wine to a gift basket or a Teddy bear
Speaker:to a floral arrangement or anything else like that.
Speaker:They've got the option of adding a personalized greeting card.
Speaker:And so here there's just going to be a nice button
Speaker:on your page that says add a personalized greeting card.
Speaker:When a customer clicks that button pop up appears in that
Speaker:popup, they can search for a card much the same way
Speaker:you would use Google to search for images or anything else.
Speaker:And they can search by occasion.
Speaker:They can search by recipient,
Speaker:they can search.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you're looking for a card with rainbows and unicorns,
Speaker:you can search for a card with rainbows and unicorns.
Speaker:And we have a fair number of those.
Speaker:I bet you do.
Speaker:They also have the option if they want to upload their
Speaker:own photograph for their own image,
Speaker:they can do that as well.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:And one other thing that,
Speaker:just as a brief aside,
Speaker:they can do all this from their phone as well.
Speaker:So this is something,
Speaker:it looks good on a computer.
Speaker:It looks just as good on a cell phone.
Speaker:So important Adam as you know,
Speaker:cause everyone's mobile now.
Speaker:And that's also where most people have their photographs.
Speaker:So if they want to upload a photo,
Speaker:there's a really good chance of that photo is on their
Speaker:phone already.
Speaker:Right? So they pick the cover on the inside.
Speaker:All of our artists will offer three suggestions because we found
Speaker:there's nothing more terrifying than a blank card where you have
Speaker:to come up with your own story.
Speaker:So the artists will offer three suggestions and then then the
Speaker:customer can personalize it.
Speaker:They can pick one of the suggestions,
Speaker:they can edit it.
Speaker:And what we see is most customers will pick one of
Speaker:the suggestions and then tweak it to personalize it.
Speaker:So they might add like an inside joke,
Speaker:they might put two,
Speaker:Bob loves Sam and they've got the card.
Speaker:Then they click add to order and they're done.
Speaker:So it's basically they pick the cover,
Speaker:they personalize the inside and they hit add to order.
Speaker:From the customer standpoint,
Speaker:that's it.
Speaker:They're done.
Speaker:The one other Avenue,
Speaker:as I mentioned,
Speaker:like they can do it as an upsell.
Speaker:They could also do it if they just wanted to buy
Speaker:a greeting card and they do that exact same process.
Speaker:So they pick a card,
Speaker:they personalize it,
Speaker:they add it to the order.
Speaker:Once the card has been added to the order,
Speaker:you get the,
Speaker:as the retailer,
Speaker:you would get the purchase order,
Speaker:you can choose specifically,
Speaker:these are all the things that this customer ordered.
Speaker:Here's the shipping address,
Speaker:here's all of the information that you need to fulfill that
Speaker:order and in that information we'll provide you this unique five
Speaker:digit code.
Speaker:You take that five digit code you entered into the printer
Speaker:that we've sent you and the printer that we stent is
Speaker:like the easiest printer in the world was set up.
Speaker:You don't even need to connect it to a computer.
Speaker:It's simply a printer that sits on a shelf anywhere you
Speaker:want. You connect it to the internet and you're done.
Speaker:You enter this five digit code into the printer.
Speaker:That five digit code uniquely identifies as that card card print
Speaker:out for you.
Speaker:You've got that card on the nice high quality cardstock that
Speaker:we provided you with.
Speaker:You've got these nice envelopes that we provided you with.
Speaker:You put the whole thing together and however you're going to
Speaker:fulfill that order,
Speaker:whether it's in a box or hand delivery,
Speaker:you don't have the card to go with it.
Speaker:Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker:Adam. So let me ask you this.
Speaker:So I can't buy a car directly from aisle.
Speaker:I would buy a good card from someone who has the
Speaker:process within their shop.
Speaker:Right? That's what we encourage.
Speaker:We do offer,
Speaker:if anybody wanted to buy a car directly from us,
Speaker:they could do that.
Speaker:But we would much prefer to pass that business out to
Speaker:out to all of our retail partners.
Speaker:And the big goal is pretty much like,
Speaker:as you mentioned in the introduction,
Speaker:we want to give the partners that selection of basically more
Speaker:selection than a hallmark store,
Speaker:but without having all of that inventory and needing to worry
Speaker:about is this card going to salary,
Speaker:is that card going to sell?
Speaker:Because the cards,
Speaker:they're not printed until somebody buys the card.
Speaker:Right. So it opens up floor space for someone who has
Speaker:a brick and mortar too,
Speaker:which is always important to have as much floor space for
Speaker:displays as you possibly can,
Speaker:but then someone as a consumer could also,
Speaker:let's say I had three cards that I needed to send
Speaker:out. I could just do it right from my own home
Speaker:because of brick and mortar or online.
Speaker:Same. You could just buy the card only if you wanted
Speaker:or you could buy the card and the product.
Speaker:Any options.
Speaker:Exactly. Wow.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I want to walk through because we started with the steps
Speaker:earlier. I want to walk through and continue after we talked
Speaker:about the demand,
Speaker:I don't know if you guys listened to this,
Speaker:but I'm hearing this from you,
Speaker:Adam, this whole way through and give biz listeners.
Speaker:I would love for you after we're done,
Speaker:take this from the top and really listen to how Adam
Speaker:talks. He continually is bringing in the benefit for the consumer.
Speaker:He was doing it when they were researching and he does
Speaker:it even when he's talking about the product.
Speaker:He talks about the ability to personalize where they can utilize
Speaker:local artists,
Speaker:meeting a customer where they are already.
Speaker:So being right in the same footpath,
Speaker:which obviously makes it convenient towards a purchase.
Speaker:So he's always talking about benefits.
Speaker:Then they tested their first model,
Speaker:so remember they had that kind of more rough draft on
Speaker:a college campus.
Speaker:Then they tested it with the kiosks,
Speaker:three different versions there too,
Speaker:which was interesting.
Speaker:And Oh my gosh,
Speaker:your story,
Speaker:you have so many great things at them.
Speaker:Then fundraising,
Speaker:so you notice where that came through within the system.
Speaker:They had a concept developed,
Speaker:they'd done a lot of testing before they actually went out
Speaker:and did fundraising.
Speaker:So really important.
Speaker:I'm not sure we're not going to go into fundraising here
Speaker:because there's so many good things here.
Speaker:We can't do everything,
Speaker:but I just want people to recognize where that was in
Speaker:the process.
Speaker:Then step-by-step with the kiosks they started getting into Rackspace,
Speaker:some significant corporate buildings,
Speaker:military bases,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:step-by-step, you see how it keeps elevating up and up and
Speaker:up. And then really significant point here is that you were
Speaker:listening when that person came and said,
Speaker:what about online?
Speaker:What about e-commerce?
Speaker:Cause that like you could have so easily discounted that idea
Speaker:and said,
Speaker:no, you know we are knocking it out of the park.
Speaker:Look at the names of the places where we have,
Speaker:you could have just stayed with that,
Speaker:but you guys were open enough to listen and look.
Speaker:Now it pivoted into the biggest opportunity available to you right
Speaker:now. Right,
Speaker:which is online because you can virtually offer this to the
Speaker:world. And I would,
Speaker:I don't know this for sure,
Speaker:but I would think in a much easier way cause you're
Speaker:not having to make these kiosks now maintain and support them,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:This platform being online is so much easier in that vein.
Speaker:I'm sure there's other things too that aren't as easy.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:give his listeners,
Speaker:I would love for you to go back and listen to
Speaker:this and here because even when we got into the online
Speaker:platform you were starting to talk about what those benefits are.
Speaker:You know in terms of being able to do it right
Speaker:online you don't have the floor space you need like all
Speaker:the benefits.
Speaker:I just wanted to run through that now.
Speaker:So here you are.
Speaker:You've got the systems in play,
Speaker:what's happening now.
Speaker:So right now we're continuing in this spirit of experimentation.
Speaker:We are looking largely at retailers that do some level of
Speaker:gifting. We just this past weekend went to floral trade show
Speaker:out in California,
Speaker:met some amazing florist.
Speaker:It was a very similar feel to what we got at
Speaker:the gift basket conference where we met you Sue that just
Speaker:amazing entrepreneurs doing really interesting things and the kind of folks
Speaker:that are interested in trying new things and looking at better
Speaker:ways to serve their customers.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun being around like minded people that
Speaker:are looking to go out there and basically shake up the
Speaker:same industries that we're looking to shake up.
Speaker:And so what we're doing right now is we're pretty much
Speaker:in that stage where we've got a really solid product and
Speaker:we're looking to scale,
Speaker:we're looking to find out which industries this works best in.
Speaker:And we're also looking at how do we set up our
Speaker:existing retail partners to be even more successful.
Speaker:So one example of that,
Speaker:we've heard feedback talking mentioned very early on with the 700
Speaker:interviews, we're really focused on learning from the people that are
Speaker:using our product,
Speaker:what's working from them.
Speaker:And we've been hearing from a lot of the folks that
Speaker:have our e-commerce plugin that they do a significant number of
Speaker:their orders over the phone.
Speaker:So we were saying,
Speaker:how can we help you be successful with those orders over
Speaker:the phone where you can include a greeting card?
Speaker:And so some of the ideas,
Speaker:and we're still in this experimental stage,
Speaker:so anybody who is existing like existing retailers that we're working
Speaker:with or other folks that are interested in trying something out,
Speaker:we're totally game to run experiments and what we're looking at
Speaker:right now is something where when somebody places an order over
Speaker:the phone,
Speaker:there's either an email address or phone number that goes with
Speaker:that order to be able to allow you to follow up
Speaker:with that customer afterwards.
Speaker:We can do it.
Speaker:Once that order is placed,
Speaker:we can set it up that you get one button to
Speaker:push and we're looking at integrating this into a point of
Speaker:sale, so nothing new to learn,
Speaker:nothing new right there you hit add a greeting card.
Speaker:That customer buys the greeting card.
Speaker:When they placed the phone order,
Speaker:you then hit that button,
Speaker:send them an email.
Speaker:They have six 1224 hours,
Speaker:whatever you determined as the time would they design the card?
Speaker:They now design it at their convenience and you know this
Speaker:customer is looking for that personal,
Speaker:that high quality experience.
Speaker:That's why they called you in the first place and now
Speaker:you're able to elevate their experience,
Speaker:make their life easier,
Speaker:make their gift better,
Speaker:and you make a little more money off of the sale.
Speaker:Perfect. This is a perfect segue because we're,
Speaker:I wanted to go,
Speaker:you must've been reading my mind Adam.
Speaker:Okay. This is something that has not existed before.
Speaker:How did you start thinking about a pricing structure?
Speaker:Again, with the spirit of experimentation,
Speaker:we tried stuff out.
Speaker:We reached out to some local folks that we knew that
Speaker:we had a little more of a relationship with,
Speaker:found out what they were paying for similar kinds of products
Speaker:and said,
Speaker:okay, if that's what you're paying for a similar product,
Speaker:here's how we can either meet or beat that or here's
Speaker:how we're going to provide you something that offers so much
Speaker:more value than what you currently have that you're going to
Speaker:be game for paying a little bit more.
Speaker:Okay, so you weren't just looking for a low price play
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Cause the whole experience is different.
Speaker:The interaction and the result is different.
Speaker:It's so customized.
Speaker:People are willing to pay for that.
Speaker:Exactly. And we ended up finding in the greeting card market,
Speaker:if you're looking at the end user,
Speaker:there's actually not that much price sensitivity.
Speaker:And you'll find a lot of people whine and complain all
Speaker:the time about how expensive greeting cards are.
Speaker:But at the end of the day,
Speaker:most people when they're buying a card,
Speaker:they need the card so they're going to buy it.
Speaker:So our mentality was we said,
Speaker:okay, there's the option to gouge customers,
Speaker:but that's not really in our company ethos.
Speaker:That's not the culture we want to build.
Speaker:So we said we want to look for what's a fair
Speaker:price. And so for most customers,
Speaker:somewhere in that ballpark of about $5 seem to be something
Speaker:that people would pay it.
Speaker:It would feel fair,
Speaker:they wouldn't feel ripped off,
Speaker:they'd be happy with it and everybody could move forward.
Speaker:Well not only that,
Speaker:but I'm kind of feeling from your description,
Speaker:cause I haven't actually seen one of these cards yet,
Speaker:is that it's also a keepsake.
Speaker:It's not just a card.
Speaker:Now, granted I get that there are a lot of people
Speaker:out there who keep and retain their cards.
Speaker:Right. But this if you're able to add a personal photo
Speaker:or for sure sayings like all of that,
Speaker:this is something that people are gonna really keep and maybe
Speaker:even display the photo.
Speaker:You never know.
Speaker:So it's way more than just a card.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:And the material is you mentioned without seeing the card to
Speaker:just describe it briefly.
Speaker:We actually did again,
Speaker:as with everything else,
Speaker:a fair amount of customer research trying to find what's the
Speaker:best card stock.
Speaker:And as I'm sure many of your listeners are aware,
Speaker:there are innumerable options for ways that you can buy card
Speaker:stock. And our initial plan was as engineers we figured more
Speaker:options are better.
Speaker:So we gave people about half a dozen options for cardstock
Speaker:and it turned out most people know nothing about cardstock and
Speaker:half a dozen options just like shut them down.
Speaker:It's too much.
Speaker:It's too much.
Speaker:And it's one of those things where we've got a bunch
Speaker:of cart designs on the cover.
Speaker:The average consumer is really good at picking.
Speaker:I like this design and we're really good at processing a
Speaker:bunch of visual information quickly.
Speaker:So we haven't seen that slow anybody down.
Speaker:But choosing instead of like 9,000
Speaker:cards, that was easy.
Speaker:Nobody had any problem.
Speaker:And we provide really easy search tools.
Speaker:So you're not looking at 9,000
Speaker:cards at once,
Speaker:but picking that card stock that shut people down.
Speaker:So what we ended up going with was we found 90%
Speaker:of our customers liked this one particular card stock after they
Speaker:had a chance to feel all of them.
Speaker:So like I got to interact,
Speaker:I got to play because that feels almost like what you
Speaker:would expect from a small boutique store where it's got on
Speaker:the cover little bit of texture.
Speaker:It's almost like a canvas type texture.
Speaker:And then on the inside is a nice smooth matte finish.
Speaker:And what we've found is that photographs or vector graphics or
Speaker:any other image looks really good on the cover.
Speaker:And it's something where even when folks are uploading photographs,
Speaker:because every now and then you'll find someone that only has
Speaker:that low resolution photo of grandma,
Speaker:but that's the photo that they love of grandma.
Speaker:It smooths out that pixelation a little bit.
Speaker:So every image looks really good on the cover of this
Speaker:and it feels good when you hold it.
Speaker:Well that worked out really well too because then someone who
Speaker:has this printer doesn't have to have multiple different cards because
Speaker:then just in terms of the consumable,
Speaker:it would be more expensive.
Speaker:Exactly. And it's another element in processing.
Speaker:What if they don't put it on the right card stock,
Speaker:you know all of that.
Speaker:So it ended up,
Speaker:your research really went in your favor too.
Speaker:It did on this one.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And I love the fact that you're talking about with pricing,
Speaker:you weren't looking at being the lowest price,
Speaker:you weren't just going to compete on price,
Speaker:but you also recognize that what you're providing with the customization
Speaker:has greater value.
Speaker:So it sounds like your price point is absolutely perfect,
Speaker:but I want to take,
Speaker:there are so many places we can go with this story
Speaker:and such limited amount of time.
Speaker:So I want to talk a little bit about some of
Speaker:the rough patches cause it's not all beautiful story.
Speaker:As you progress through all these steps,
Speaker:there had to be some challenges.
Speaker:Can you share with us one of those stories?
Speaker:Yeah, so one of the things that you need when you
Speaker:get an automated kiosk,
Speaker:you need some way of accepting payment.
Speaker:And so we had these credit card Raiders initially and the
Speaker:credit card readers are designed for vending machines like a Coke
Speaker:machine or a snack machine.
Speaker:And if you've ever seen inside a Coker machine,
Speaker:this is not high tech fancy anything else.
Speaker:This is like stone age kind of technology,
Speaker:but it works and it's really robust.
Speaker:But what we had was something,
Speaker:we had a computer,
Speaker:we had printers,
Speaker:we had a lot of much more modern technology inside our
Speaker:kiosk. Well you also probably had to accept credit cards.
Speaker:You're not going to put in $5 worth of coins.
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:yeah. Without a doubt.
Speaker:It was only credit cards that we were accepting.
Speaker:So we had that card swipe on there and so we
Speaker:had taken these card swipes from vending machines.
Speaker:We had worked with the manufacturer and he assured us that
Speaker:this would work with just through like a standard USB connection.
Speaker:And so we had these credit card readers plugged in and
Speaker:it was again,
Speaker:like I did,
Speaker:this was not a smooth customer experience.
Speaker:There was the little screen on the credit card reader and
Speaker:at some point in the process we had a big arrow
Speaker:that told customers,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:look down at that screen because we couldn't actually do any
Speaker:interaction because it was just this very simple credit card reader.
Speaker:And the first one we got,
Speaker:it worked great.
Speaker:That first credit card reader we put on the first kiosk,
Speaker:no problems.
Speaker:The next one we got for whatever reason worked 70% of
Speaker:the time.
Speaker:Oh, we had set it up on this kiosk at Virginia
Speaker:Tech's campus and had that credit card reader set up there.
Speaker:And we sat in,
Speaker:babysat that kiosk for like two weeks.
Speaker:Well we tried troubleshooting so this was pretty much any time
Speaker:during normal business hours one of us would be sitting there
Speaker:in the student center watching the key class.
Speaker:Oh no.
Speaker:And we were doing like all sorts of things working with
Speaker:the vendor.
Speaker:The vendor shipped us a replacement,
Speaker:turned out the replacement also had this same bug and finally
Speaker:sorted out.
Speaker:But it was a lot of hours of hanging out in
Speaker:the student center watching pupil and Oh my gosh.
Speaker:What year was that Adam?
Speaker:I believe that was 2014 So I'm trying to place it
Speaker:about the time when some of the mobile card readers came
Speaker:out. So it was probably right at that time or just
Speaker:before? Just before.
Speaker:So there really wasn't a lot of that technology available yet.
Speaker:Exactly. Yep.
Speaker:All alright.
Speaker:So you guys are sitting there.
Speaker:So talk about customer service right there.
Speaker:Although you got a chance to talk with the people who
Speaker:were interested.
Speaker:So that's kind of good cause you could do a lot
Speaker:of research.
Speaker:Then also if you want to look on the bright side
Speaker:of that problem,
Speaker:really hard to find the bright side.
Speaker:Yeah. So how did this all get resolved?
Speaker:So we ended up finally after having these two troublesome units,
Speaker:we said,
Speaker:why don't we tried switching the unit with the switching the
Speaker:credit card reader off of the original Kia.
Speaker:It's the one that had been working and bringing that over
Speaker:and that ended up basically illuminating it right there.
Speaker:That turns out we managed to get very lucky or unlucky
Speaker:depending on how you frame it and getting to bum units
Speaker:one right after other.
Speaker:And Yeah,
Speaker:after that it turned out because of the way that we
Speaker:were using the credit card readers,
Speaker:it was a little off label.
Speaker:So when we were working with the vendor,
Speaker:the credit card readers that didn't work for us still work
Speaker:fine for the vending machines.
Speaker:And so he would go through and he would actually test
Speaker:every credit card reader before he sent it to us to
Speaker:see. Is this one of the ones that will work with
Speaker:the USB connection or is this one of the ones that
Speaker:only works in a vending machine?
Speaker:Gotcha. One boy that talks about the quality of your vendor
Speaker:too though.
Speaker:It does And important for all of us.
Speaker:That's just a good little side note is having vendors who
Speaker:will go the extra mile for you.
Speaker:You only need those card readers not to work a few
Speaker:times, especially when you're getting into some of the larger named
Speaker:companies where they're going to say,
Speaker:just get this out of here.
Speaker:We're not interested.
Speaker:Exactly. And so now today I'm assuming that the card readers
Speaker:are running nice and smooth.
Speaker:Yeah. We're actually not using those card readers anymore.
Speaker:Yeah, we built our own system from scratch now.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:So already you,
Speaker:David and Stephen all still partners in the company.
Speaker:We are still partners in the company.
Speaker:Yep. Share a little bit of insight in terms of how
Speaker:that works because I know several for sure,
Speaker:but I'm sure there's way more than that of our listeners
Speaker:are in partnerships and sometimes that can be challenging.
Speaker:And you know I think of a partnership is maybe two
Speaker:people. You guys are three.
Speaker:So what advice do you have for people who were in
Speaker:partnerships? Yeah,
Speaker:so one of the early thing is that we ended up
Speaker:finding was having the partnership because all three of us are
Speaker:folks that going through school and whatnot,
Speaker:we were not people that liked working on teams and getting
Speaker:that right partner makes a world of difference and so having
Speaker:someone that you can count on,
Speaker:someone that you can trust,
Speaker:someone that you can really go to bat for and know
Speaker:they're going to do the same for you,
Speaker:that's huge.
Speaker:And then along those lines,
Speaker:by having somebody else,
Speaker:inevitably you're going to come on rough times.
Speaker:You're going to come on times when you're hanging out for
Speaker:two weeks watching kiosk or when revenue's not where you want
Speaker:it or anything else,
Speaker:and having somebody else who's in the trenches with you,
Speaker:having somebody else who is the error and feeling the burn
Speaker:just the same way you are.
Speaker:I feel like for us that is a significant reason why
Speaker:we're here because this is,
Speaker:as all of us are aware,
Speaker:like this is not a journey for the faint of heart
Speaker:By any stretch.
Speaker:Yeah. One other thing that was kind of counterintuitive to us
Speaker:initially, but we started out with no hierarchy.
Speaker:We were all three equal partners in this and all decisions
Speaker:were made kind of by unanimous vote and this worked well
Speaker:initially when we were kind of small,
Speaker:kind of moving slow,
Speaker:but as we started to scale,
Speaker:this gets to be unwieldy,
Speaker:but it was something that internally,
Speaker:none of us were the ones that were going to make
Speaker:waves. We didn't want to be the ones to change it
Speaker:and when we went out and did like after that friends
Speaker:and family round of investment,
Speaker:we went out and a much larger round of investment from
Speaker:handful of angel investors and some institutional investors and the things
Speaker:that they shared and they said this isn't a mandate,
Speaker:but something that would be really good if it happened is
Speaker:you need to come up with a CEO.
Speaker:You need someone that's going to be taking the rain,
Speaker:somebody who is going to make the tough decisions and someone
Speaker:who at the end of the day is the one that
Speaker:really owns any of those tough decisions and the responsibility.
Speaker:That was rough.
Speaker:That was something that changed the structure a lot.
Speaker:And honestly the way we ended up doing it was we
Speaker:flipped a coin and said whoever wins gets to be CEO
Speaker:for a month and if it works well for a month,
Speaker:you get to continue being CEO.
Speaker:And I won the coin toss and still CEO today.
Speaker:Well, congratulations on that.
Speaker:I was expecting you to say Stephan,
Speaker:because it was his idea initially.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:so one of the other things that we found that's interesting
Speaker:is that in the startup world,
Speaker:ideas are almost cheap.
Speaker:Like there's a lot of people that have ideas.
Speaker:A lot of people that have different brilliant ideas.
Speaker:They come up with anybody that's watched shark tank that said,
Speaker:Hey, I came up with that idea.
Speaker:However far back you realize that ideas have been around,
Speaker:but at the end of the day it's the execution.
Speaker:And it's how do you take that idea and turn it
Speaker:into something like real and tangible that really sets things apart.
Speaker:So the idea was like clearly that was huge,
Speaker:which that made a world of a difference,
Speaker:but that's step one of many,
Speaker:many, many steps.
Speaker:And so have you also then divided responsibilities?
Speaker:So everyone is heading a certain function within the whole We
Speaker:have and it's something,
Speaker:one of the things that I really like about working with
Speaker:David and Stephanie is that we have a rough breakdown,
Speaker:but there are different times when something big comes in where
Speaker:we're able to really shift and kind of overlap a lot.
Speaker:So there isn't like one task that only one person can
Speaker:do And if there's something that happens or comes up that
Speaker:someone has a real skill in being able to handle,
Speaker:then you just send it over there.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:Wonderful. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Okay. So I loved your comment that you just made,
Speaker:which was about,
Speaker:it's one thing to have an idea,
Speaker:it's another thing to be able to move forward on that
Speaker:idea and then actually have it work.
Speaker:Because just like you're talking about all the different steps and
Speaker:all the pivots and adjustments and testing and all of that
Speaker:that you've done to get to the point where you are
Speaker:now and to hear you saying you're still open to new
Speaker:ideas, other testing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:wherever this is going to lead you in the future is
Speaker:spectacular. It's great words of wisdom for someone who's just starting
Speaker:out, what else would you say to somebody who is thinking
Speaker:they have their idea,
Speaker:they're thinking of moving forward.
Speaker:You've given them a million ideas right here,
Speaker:so that's fabulous.
Speaker:But what would you say on a motivational side for someone
Speaker:who just hasn't taken that action yet?
Speaker:So coming from academia,
Speaker:that was my original plan.
Speaker:I told you at the beginning going for the PhD.
Speaker:My original goal was I wanted to be a mechanical engineering
Speaker:professor. And that's still something like somewhere in the future that
Speaker:will likely happen.
Speaker:But one of the big differences that I saw between academia
Speaker:and the world of entrepreneurs is the willingness of entrepreneurs to
Speaker:help other people.
Speaker:And it's something that I don't know if it's the realization
Speaker:that we all know just how hard this is and we
Speaker:all know just how little we'd be able to accomplish without
Speaker:the help of other people.
Speaker:I don't know quite what it is,
Speaker:but it seems like in this world of entrepreneurs,
Speaker:there is such a culture of being able to help each
Speaker:other and being able to support each other and being able
Speaker:to figure out ways of collectively solving a problem together and
Speaker:going out and being willing to go and talk to these
Speaker:folks. Being willing to find mentors and being willing to find
Speaker:the folks that can help you be successful.
Speaker:I think it's just going to save you so much time
Speaker:because there's so many things that other people have done,
Speaker:other paths that they've been down that they've been down the
Speaker:path. You don't need to reinvent that wheel.
Speaker:Yeah, you can walk the path so much faster.
Speaker:Exactly. Perfect.
Speaker:I love that advice and now because you've shared so much
Speaker:with us,
Speaker:we would like to share with you,
Speaker:I'd like to present you on behalf of myself and all
Speaker:the listeners a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:So I love creating,
Speaker:I love starting things and I love especially with the ear,
Speaker:like I love being an entrepreneur.
Speaker:And so inside my box,
Speaker:this is pretty much the ability to build a career around
Speaker:entrepreneurship, to be able to continue to do this,
Speaker:to have it something where Cardell is one of many startups
Speaker:that I get to do over my lifetime.
Speaker:This is just the first,
Speaker:right? This is just the first.
Speaker:Okay, so we're going to keep our eye on you to
Speaker:see what else comes up along the way.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Is there one single place where you would direct any of
Speaker:our listeners who are out and about right now and just
Speaker:want to touch base and see a little bit more about
Speaker:what car dials about,
Speaker:where's one single place that you would send them?
Speaker:Our website,
Speaker:so it's cardinal.com
Speaker:and one of the things with the name,
Speaker:just as a quick side story,
Speaker:initially when we were doing research,
Speaker:we kept talking about going to the car dial.
Speaker:Like in the grocery store you go to the car dial
Speaker:and me,
Speaker:I'm married to an English teacher so I know how to
Speaker:spell words correctly.
Speaker:My other founders as engineers kept spelling aisle like a grocery
Speaker:store aisle I SLE.
Speaker:So when it came time to come up with a name
Speaker:for the company,
Speaker:we kind of enjoyed the idea of card aisle,
Speaker:but I L is spelled ISL E and the logo,
Speaker:it has a nice colorful to can and would go with
Speaker:the Island theme a whole lot.
Speaker:So the website is cardell.com
Speaker:and with IO spelled ISL Lee.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's kind of a jab and give his listeners,
Speaker:you know that there'll be a show notes page attached with
Speaker:also the links to social media sites and anything else we
Speaker:decided to put on there as well as the top point
Speaker:in this very,
Speaker:very valuable interview.
Speaker:I hope you guys go back and listen to this again
Speaker:and again because there is so much here for all of
Speaker:us. Adam,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate connecting with you today and talking about your whole
Speaker:story and I look forward to seeing what comes next with
Speaker:you. I know it's going to be great.
Speaker:Thanks again.
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