346. The Simple Action That Led to Serious Growth with Andrew Bart, Co-Founder of AlgoFace

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Susan Sly 00:00
Hey everyone, Susan here and I am so excited for you to have the wisdom of my friend Andrew Bart in this coming episode. Andrew is absolutely amazing. He has over 20 years of experience in C suite leadership in startups. And he started as part of the team in iCrossing, they had a massive exit. And while he was doing that part time, he started another business which grew exponentially, which also exited. And now he is the CEO and Co -founder of a company called AlgoFace, which is in the computer vision, retail space, we're gonna talk about that. The heartbeat of this episode today is around something Andrew does. That is different than any other founder I have ever met. And as of this episode, I've interviewed over 360 founders, I've invested in startups, I've led startups. And Andrew is very, very unique. So you are going to hear about something he does that you can do, regardless of the stage you're in even if you're just thinking about doing your own startup. And you can start it like this week, right now, it's going to be absolutely amazing. So make sure that you take some notes and check out this episode. And by the way, if you haven't given the show a five star review, I'd absolutely love that. I have been traveling, it is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. So stay tuned for the end, I'll give you this week's diary update and, and you'll hear or what's going on. And as I'm doing this episode today, it was when I squeezed in so we wouldn't miss a weekly episode. And I reached out to Andrew, who's a dear dear friend, and he agreed to do the show. So, so grateful for that. And I would just say to all of you just know that when something is important, we make time for it. And it isn't about really thinking in terms of our time is controlling us. It's about how we control our time. And the show is important to me, you are important to me. And we have some big announcements coming with the show we're going and growing to the next level. And so stay tuned for the short diary at the end, because I'm excited to share with you also what's been going on in terms of my growth and the startup that I found it so check it out. And here we go, with my episode with the incredible Andrew Bart, CEO and Co-Founder of AlgoFace. This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that brings the no nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly. Hey, everyone, wherever you are in the world, I hope you're having an amazing day. And as you heard, my friend Andrew Bart is here. And Andrew is not just an amazing entrepreneur, he's so seasoned. He's He's adept at being able to put together people and, and business in ways that have all of the 360 plus interviews I've done. It's very rare and remarkable. And Andrew and I met where everyone meets on LinkedIn, of course, but we have some mutual friends in common. And since then we become good friends, I even think Andrew is like my brother from another mother. Even though it looks more like my husband, Chris than me. I don't know who the mother is, or the father. But you know, we don't look anything alike. But Andrew, as you heard, has, has had some pretty amazing career milestones. And we're going to talk about a few of some of the more challenging aspects of his career today. And so Andrew, I want to thank you so much for being here on the show.

Andrew Bart 03:49
Susan, thank you for all the kind words. I appreciate you very much.

Susan Sly 03:53
Well, Andrew, I want to I want to go back. So here you go to ASU and Harvard

Andrew Bart 04:00
of the west or the Harvard, the Harvard

Susan Sly 04:03
of the West. It's also known as the biggest party school. I know such things because I have kids who've gone there. And

Andrew Bart 04:10
yes, Michael Crow has had an incredible impact and completely changed the image and the skyline I might add. You know, it's amazing. When I was there, the brickyard was, you know, filled with bars. Now it's filled with computer vision engineers.

Susan Sly 04:26
Oh, that is such a that's a great point. And Michael Crow has done an incredible job in terms of entrepreneurship and being one of the top schools in United States for innovation. When you were there, though, you are not studying entrepreneurship

Andrew Bart 04:42
and and was studying it was just different things. And

Susan Sly 04:46
and so let me jump in right there. When did you there's this whole debate entrepreneurs are born, or are they made? When did you realize that you were an entrepreneur?

Andrew Bart 05:00
So, you know, I, my parents are both, you know, they they ingrained it into me. So it was from a very young age that my parents, you know, injected it, you know, like my father will work until the day he dies. You know, I am certainly going to follow in suit with that. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't working. And, you know, my father, you know, as he said, he's worked his whole career, he's has his own law firm with with a partner and for 50, some years and as he said, he's been offered, you know, different corporate law jobs and things like that. But he said, I could never have anybody come to me, and the minute they would tell me to do something, I would tell him, you know, that, no, that's not the way I do it. And it's like, you know, he, there's a certain mentality, a certain stubbornness, right? That goes along with being an entrepreneur and having that mindset. And I can tell you that my parents really nurtured that stubbornness, in a healthy way. And I think, to date, it's it's served me well. And it's also served me well to have an amazing wife who also teaches me very clearly what the lanes are, as to when to shut that stubbornness down. And listen.

Susan Sly 06:29
I have well, we'll talk about Yvette in a moment. And the the incredible t shirt that you wore the other night. That we've had Andrew, so many entrepreneurs talk about their entrepreneur origin story, which is often sometimes when they're a child, we had someone sell watermelon. And one of my favorite interviews I did recently was with my friend Gregory, who is neurodivergent, he has sold 12 startups. And he sold rattlesnakes. So what was your first business? Did you have a childhood business? And if so, what was it?

Andrew Bart 07:07
I don't know that I necessarily had a childhood business. But you know, it was I can tell you that as a child, I was always very, very into computers. I mean, like I was Commodore 64. You know, I still have in my, in my garage, much to Yvette's, chagrin, many of my old computers, including I have an n, a 486, DX running OS two, you know, I can get really geeky on that stuff. And I have original manuals and everything. She's dying to throw them out. I'm sure you know, I will not I will not do that I've kind of held on been lucky enough to hold on to that. But I think being into computers, and then also being, you know, I was I'm very, I'm a civic minded sports fan and an analytics geek. And I always loved. I was very aggressively into baseball cards and trading baseball cards, and putting dealmaking together to get the kind of cards from someone else's collection that I wanted to have in my collection. And I would say that, you know, I don't know if that was the business, but it was certainly an exchange of marketplace of sorts. So maybe it originated there. But I would tell you, you know, in true entrepreneurship, you know, coming out of out of ASU, I was recruited by Jeff Herzog. And it was at the time it was International Crossing. It became iCrossing which largest search engine marketing firm in their early days of the heydays, pre, well, pre-Google was like web crawler days. And after that experience, or during that experience, I should say, I developed what's called The Carefree Pet. It was the crazy story because my my, I had a cat, and my cat passed away. And I said, Oh, my God, this cat is, you know, Queenie, she's got papers, she's, you know, nothing in our lineage of that she should have passed early. And it turned out, you know, I said, okay, something's wrong, something doesn't make sense. And I said, what was she exposed to? And I looked, you know, had the pet food tested the cat food that she was eating, I'm not going to name the brand but the bottom line is, is I had the food tested and they found formaldehyde and some nasty chemicals in it. And I said, Okay, well, this is the life moment. Well, how do I honor her? You know, I can either become a no go out and try and sue a pet company, which that's that's not going to go very far. Or I can do something to honor her. So I built a website, I'd put up Queenie's picture on the homepage and, you know, put 120 some skus up, optimize the website. And then I went into work at iCrossing the next day. And literally in year one, I mean, we were doing very healthy six figure retail revenue numbers, and I never picked up a phone, I never did anything. And I was just literally faxing orders. And at the time, we weren't on dialer, you know, we were on dial up, we were still on AOL. And so, you know, bottom line is, is over a couple years, I ended up building out, you know, multi level marketing, and I ended up building out, you know, my own private label brand, pet products I built, you know, product pairing solutions, I was selling all up and down the supply chain. And it became, you know, I bootstrap this whole business off of $4,000, and ended up selling it, you know, seven years later, for 100% realization to the the global, you know, corporate strategic partner. And that was, I mean, that's, it was came from just a my pet passing away, I have no, you know, there was no, you know, thought behind it initially. Yeah,

Susan Sly 11:22
it's interesting, you say that, because it speaks volumes about your character, you said, I could have sued them. Or I could take this, this event, this sadness, and I can do something positive with it. And that just, people need to know that that's just who you are. Like, every time I'm either on a zoom with Andrew or I see Andrew in person, he is always smiling. It doesn't mean everything in his life. He's always smiling. He's just making a choice, a concerted choice. So Andrew, how is it that you? How is it you stay positive? Like, what? Where do you get it from? Like, because I know you have wall kicking moments? Like, how do you keep smiling even when things are tough?

Andrew Bart 12:07
So, um, well, first of all, you know, we've already covered Yvette, I mean, my wife and my family is they keep me grounded. I can never get too high, because she's very good at bringing me down to earth. And keeping me in line. And I can say that also, you know, my parents raised me in a way that, that, you know, the analogy of, you know, love the janitor as much as the CEO. And, you know, my mother, in particular, not taking anything away from my father by any stretch, but they you know, they are amazing parents, and very honorable, very integrity driven. And, but my mother, you know, was in the workforce at a time when there were not a lot of women that were very few, as a matter of fact, women executives, and, you know, she, I literally would be in work with her a lot and see what she went through. And she would always tell me, that, you know, when she was also in, in very scenarios, in businesses that were very old boys network driven, and I saw the barriers that she she bashed through, literally. And she would tell me, you know, that you have to appreciate absolutely every little thing. And very often, that statement about the janitor and the CEO, it's funny because she would always tell me that, you know, it's the executive assistant of the person, who's the head, right? That person has seven bazillion things going on, but the executive assistant is the one who makes all that happen. And they are the conduit and so you better damn well be as nice and keep that you know, relationship strong and keep a positive. You know, appreciative, you know, pursuit to everything and I think you know, I was raised to be humble I was raised to to take the inputs and and certainly Yvette has kept it going.

Susan Sly 14:39
If you, Yvette is absolutely incredible and on. You host at a well I don't know, you host ,you facilitate is I guess the thing I'm looking for it. So one of the things we were talking about and and Andrew and I just started talking and we were talking I was like we have to do a show because we are like catching up talking, you know, like we speak every week. But, you know, a lot happens in our weeks as entrepreneurs. And, and we were talking about the the weekly meetup that Andrew facilitates, and the first time he invited me, we bonded. Also, you know, being boy parents, and just like, you know, having, you know, kids that are, you know, we're raising them differently. They're there were they're around adults. And I'm a big proponent, I was just talking to Chris, about,my husband, Chris about that today. Like, I just brought Emery, our youngest to HIMSS. I brought her to Intel when I was in Silicon Valley, and I want her to learn. And so you and Yvette on Wednesdays, you facilitate this meetup where entrepreneurs come and venture folks come and you know, we just all like chat, we have some wine and your son is there. And I want to talk about where did you first get the idea to do that? And and how did you get it all organized? Because it's, it really is genius. And, and Whitney Wolfe Herd did it as she was preparing to launch Bumble. Getting folks together, getting their feedback. So So what inspired you to do it? And when did you do your first one?.

Andrew Bart 16:21
So, again, family is everything to me, and, and you've heard me talk about my mother. My mother, you know, she had a lot of positions as a fundraiser. Over a 40 year career, that, you know, she took me everywhere. As a child, I mean, everywhere, and she would, she would guide me and teach me in these environments. So we would be in a room with ultra high net worth, you know, for philanthropic fundraising events, and she would stand at the door, and I would stand next to her. She would say, you're gonna stand next to me, and you're gonna shake every person's hand that comes in, and we'll be here at the door, and you will shake everyone's hand on the way out. And she said, as people flow into the room, she would say, Okay, Andy, I want you to tell me because she calls me Andy, not Andrew. But she, she said, Andy, I want you to, I want you to look around the room. And I want you to tell me who the most important person you think is, who do you think is the most important person in that room, and then I'm going to tell you, if you get it, right, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you who they are. And I'll walk you up, and I'll teach you how to introduce yourself to them. If you get it wrong, I'm gonna start to give you hints and pointers, how to identify that person. And so she like gave me hints, she would say, Look at the person with their back to the bar who's not focused on the bar, but everybody is walking up and talking to them. And they're the focus, you know, anybody that can pull attention from the bar in a conference, that is a that is an indicator. Top right, farthest from the door, as you walk in the room for farthest to the right, the farthest away, that person wants to be off, you know, away from everybody and have people go across the room to them and the right people go to them. And then, you know, you got the person in the middle of the room, who was obviously the one that wants to talk to absolutely everyone. So she would like nurture me in these through these scenarios. And, I mean, endlessly. She I mean, she taught me everywhere in the world to her different, you know, fundraising events and other excursions. You know, so that was a, you know, something I was exposed to, and my children, I take, you know, it, I don't want to be anywhere without my family. I mean, I'm, I, you know, and Yvette is hilarious, because we go to technology conferences, and her superpower is on display. In these in these conference environments. I will stand in a spot and I'll be in a conversation, and she will go, I'll be back and she'll disappear. And then she will come back with somebody, you know, with the tugging their arm and go, you need to meet my husband. You know, Andrew, he thought this person does x. And you know, Andrew, you tell him what you do, and then she will evaporate and come back and by the time she's done, there's like a pool of you know, five to seven of us that I've never people I never knew and they were engaging. So you asked a question about Brix, and Brix and Wines in Carefree at North Tom Darlington Drive in Cave Creek Road. I mean, bottom line is, is I've been a frequenter, of Brix and the proprietor Brian for and as what you know, Nancy for a long time for 14 years, 15 years and even dating back to their location down the street. I used them bike down their bicycle. And bottom line is I can't answer the question of when it actually started. But I just started inviting people. Because I want to, you know, do good things with good people and be around good people in life. And then I started, you know, I said, Okay, as different people started to come consistently, I said, Well, you know, what are you doing these days? What's what's important to you? And when I asked them, you know, one, one or more of the individuals, what would what's important to them, I said, I'll tell you what I know, you know, so and so does this, and so and so does this, I'm gonna have them come up next week, and then I'll just introduce you to and or three, and, you know, you guys go off on your own, I'll keep the glasses full. And, you know, you'll figure out your ways to connect, and it just evolved organically. And, you know, like I just described, what it has become is like I have now and you are obviously, you know, a part of one of these, in particular, where I had some friends coming in one from Toronto, and one from Bentonville, Arkansas. And they're trying to lay roots here, in in the technology ecosystem. And so I mean, I'll bring 10, 15 people or so, you know, who are movers and shakers, and in areas that help to connect, get them connected to achieve and accomplish the goals that they want. But as you explain, there's no real agenda, it's come drink wine, have a lobster food truck, you know, there may be some live music, and just get to know each other. And that's pretty much it. And it's, you know, it's grown into something on its own, organically. Well,

Susan Sly 21:58
Andrew, it's and it's so beautiful, because it's unstructured, and you just have this gift. It's you know, you you have more than one superpower of just making people feel good. And you are very kind. And you're also very smart. And to your point you growing up I was when I just did my talk last night in Silicon Valley. For the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, I had two slides, my dad. And my dad always said the same things as your mom, it's like, just be kind to everyone be kind to. Growing up in a restaurant, be kind to the person bussing the table, be kind to the person. And I do even like checking into the flight this morning, just stopping, commenting on the girls like her shirt, her nails like and just having a conversation. I love what you said, what is important to you? I didn't even tell you this, this Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, I won't say the name. But one of my friends who came with Mia and I, got a date that night of Brix. So who knows, hey,

Andrew Bart 23:04
I'm gonna tell you a very good friend of mine who I believe you may have met up there. Who's a consistent, regular, he's a very close friend of mine. And he, we were at Brix one night, at one of these get togethers. And he ended up you know, meeting a lady up there who they they've been together for some time now. And they have an amazing relationship. And, you know, I just, they both are like, on the it's been it's not like it happened yesterday. But they are on cloud nine years later. And it's it's fun to watch and it just continues to expand the the core group of people. That's the other thing that is organically started to happen is you know, there's there's a group of people that come every week now. And that core starts to continue to build just without any, any force application to it. Yeah,

Susan Sly 24:10
I love that and before we shift gears to AlgoFace too, because I just want everyone listening to the show and you know wherever you are in the world since it is a global audience, this is something you can do. Just get a group of people together don't. People don't want to go to yet some other structured thing you know. Even for The Pause we're hosting a Cocktails and Conversations. And I got the idea from you know, Whitney Wolfe Herd as I said. When she was getting ready to launch Bumble, she spent a year going to college towns, getting girls together. If you had a dating app, what would you want in it and we're doing the same thing, you know, with women's health and just bringing, you know, not just women together because why would we? Right? Like bringing men, bringing women together, having coversations and I'm gonna give a shout out to Jen Pelca and Une Femme Wines. I had Jen on the show. I am, disclosure investor in her company. And Jen is sponsoring our Cocktails and Conversations. So it's like even better because we have Une Femme Wines, and great folks coming to it. And when Andrew over the summer, I know you're decamping to another location, and you're going to pick it up there too. And just invite some folks weekly and get them together. And I think that's, that's one of your zones of genius is just it you don't have to wait to attend a networking event. You just make your own networking event.

Andrew Bart 25:34
Oh my god. It's so funny that you mentioned that because I am I you know, Algo Face, the my company that you mentioned. We got into the Fuel AI ML accelerator sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation and I went down to Bentonville for four months. And I, I'm not going to say I recreated the exact same thing, because the venue, the venues are a little bit different. But the exact same concept. And in Bentonville, there's a wine bar called Ramo. And it's in like 100 year old home. It's it's a really neat property with massive, you know, massive trees out back with with cicadas chirping in it. I mean, it's really charming. And what I did when I was in Bentonville is literally I just said to people, you know, how can I help you? You know, they're like, wait a minute, you're coming into the fuel accelerator, we're supposed to be mentoring or helping, you know, get you connected to the community. I said, No, no, how can I help you or Bentonville? What can I do to contribute to the community? I'll tell you what, why don't you meet me at you know, the Ramo on Thursday nights? And, and, you know, we'll sit down and talk about it. And they were number one there. They're like, you know, the same thing happened organically, more people continue to show up and everybody goes, Oh, are you going to Andrew's Ramo wine night? And it's sort of, you know, it's a thing, it became a thing. And then they also, you know, the, the Bentonvillians, I guess they they you know, the reputation is, you know, Andrew came in and asked, you know, didn't didn't ask for anything. You know, he came in and asked how can he you know, how can I help? And that it's it comes from authenticity, and a desire to get the communities connected. And now I'm working on getting Bentonville and, and you know, Scottsdale Phoenix Metro connected. So

Susan Sly 27:50
that's, that's probably your next company after all. Have to do with wine and connecting, it's like already investable, right, like valuation. And, and Andrew, as we're coming, you know, let's, let's shift gears for a moment, because there's so much substance in already what we've spoken about. You know, get people together, have no agenda, show up to serve, and which you and I are that when you and I had that first lunch, and I called my husband after we had lunch and I, I called him and I said, Andrew just shows up to serve. And Chris said, but that's what you do. That's like all the time you you're always figuring out how do I give more in value? Without an expectation, right? And so now you've already had this amazing career as an entrepreneur. And now let's talk about, AlgoFace. Because AlgoFace, first and foremost, I am learning from you. In my past entrepreneurial career, we did not do grants. We did you know, is straight up normal, quote, unquote, fundraising, and you're always texting me like, do you know about this grant? Do you know that this grant, do you know this grant, and I love that you're looking at the company so holistically, and from from a variety of places, but for people who don't know what AlgoFace is, could you could you share? Like what is the company? What is it about who is it for? And full disclosure because I have to disclose legally, I am an advisor to AlgoFace so I will disclose that

Andrew Bart 29:29
AlgoFace, you know, we make it easier for enterprise level companies to build and deploy Face AI solutions. So we're that infrastructural layer at our core. And then we can also build on top of that core, you know, applied AI solutions and. What you know, I'm talking about things like virtual trialing in retail, anything from here to here. And then vital sign detection, being able to take your blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen level. Things like that from a phone or a tablet, any device with a camera on it. Being able to enable hyper realistic digital avatars, we make the cheekbones, the lips and the eyes, the where the humanity is shown the human emotion comes through, we're able to enable that hyper realism in a digital avatar. And, you know, we work with the likes of Samsung and companies like Beauty Industry Group, which is the largest hair extension manufacturer and seller, and in the United in North America, actually. The but, you know, we have a host of enterprise level and upper mid market companies that we support across a horizontal slate of, of, of opportunities. Oh,

Susan Sly 30:52
and I'm, and we'll have to do another episode and talk about AI and computer vision because the, you know, there's a lot there's a lot for us to unpack. And so I would just encourage everyone, I'm gonna, Andrew and I, are gonna give you some homework, just think of us as your, you know, Big Brother, Big Sister, coming alongside you, and especially for those of you and you know who you are. Because we're all at the tech events, my friends, who come up and say, I listened to the show, Susan, and I'm thinking about starting my business, you know who you are. So, perhaps today's episode really is focused on why don't you just open a few bottles of wine and get some friends together, figure out you know, what's important to them and, and let the let things flow to you, as opposed to trying to make it so hard. Like when I think about Andrew, Andrew is in a state of flow, because he's not a 'hard-a-holic'. He's not trying to make things so rigid. A he's he's allowing things which doesn't make him a you know, less of a CEO. In fact, it makes him a much more effective CEO. So, Andrew, I want to thank you so much for being here. We're gonna have to do a second episode. AI is a big episode we can't like didn't know.

Andrew Bart 32:12
Truly. Oh, my God, AI is endless. You have to compartmentalize. You know, what we can boil down to computer vision or language models? Or, you know, we'll have to break it up.

Susan Sly 32:24
Yeah, we 100%. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for being here. And then thank you for sharing your wisdom. Thank you for sharing part of your journey, we have a lot more to unpack. And thank you for sharing your advice. This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. And we know a lot of people out there are introverted, they're nervous, they might, you know, whatever the case is, just get people together. Just get them together and allow that magic to happen. So Andrew, thanks again for being on the show.

Andrew Bart 32:54
Thank you much love. I appreciate you. I

Susan Sly 32:58
love you too, brother. All right, everyone. Well, that is a wrap for this show. I will see you in the next episode. All right. So getting people together with wine like, I know. It's revolutionary. It's not it's something we can all do. And it's something I've started doing and hosting the first one - Cocktails and Conversations here in Scottsdale. And I plan on hosting another one in Silicon Valley. So if you're you are in the Bay Area, and you're interested in women's health, whether you're a VC or an entrepreneur, please reach out to me just go to Susansly.com. and message me and I would love to invite you to my Silicon Valley event. We're going to do another Cocktails and Conversations one in Orlando and also one in Atlanta. Lots of things going on. So in this week startup diary, as I am recording this, I am so stinking tired. I have been on the road for a week. I left for Orlando. My flight was delayed. I was with two of my daughters. My youngest daughter, my oldest daughter, and we got into Orlando at four in the morning. And my oldest daughter Avery, who you've heard on the show, we had two and a half hours of sleep and we wanted to go to Epcot. And she's like I'm all in for Epcot, I will do whatever I need to do. And it just goes to show you we can always find energy for something we're excited about. So two and a half hours of sleep. We went to Epcot and we were there with Mia, the co founder of TPT. And we did the whole park. And my youngest daughter, she was crashing and it was like it was a great day. And then we were supposed to have a dinner that night and I was honestly wishing I was like oh my gosh, somehow someway. I you know, I want to do business but I'm also tired and so as Like, you know, I really am a believer in prayer and intentionality. And one of the people we were supposed to have dinner with her flight was canceled, someone else's flight was delayed, ended up, no one could do dinner. And I was kind of like, yay. So I ended up in the room, ordering DoorDash with my daughters, and it was the best night. The next day, I had meetings with the committee that I can't disclose currently what we're planning, but it's something massive for 2025 in the healthcare and tech space and said all day meetings, and the fun thing was two people I really want to connect and I would say one of my superpowers is connecting people. And they ended up meeting each other and finding out they live 30 minutes apart from one another, they have so much in common. And it was just amazing. So how fun it was to just watch that relationship unfold to introduce them and step back side a business breakfast and meetings. And then we went to our friend Meredith Lowe's place for a photoshoot and then we had a business dinner. Then I get back to the room. I'm like, Oh, my goodness, it is like I am so ready for bed. But the girls were like, Mama, do you want to watch an episode of The Last Airbender? I'm like, okay. All right, well do it. So it did that got up the next morning, every day when I'm traveling, I always make sure I get up and work out. So I got up, did a quick workout. And I had to set up my first meeting in the morning was 830 in the morning with Hewlett Packard and friends that I have there. And then I had another HP meeting Hewlett Packard Enterprise. That's what he stands for, and a third one. And then I had some time to walk the show floor at HIMSS, which is a massive healthcare conference. Meet some amazing folks. And then it was time for another meeting another meeting, a cocktail party, and I got to go to Sally Frank's book signing. Sally Frank is the Global Head of healthcare startups for Microsoft and TPT, my new company is in that ecosystem. So it was great. And Wednesday, I flew home and I got home. And there was all kinds of chaos ensuing with our cats, if you can believe this or not. And so I landed, I went to PetSmart .Thank you PetSmart. And got some calming stuff for the cats and got my laundry done and got reorganized. And then the next morning at 745, I got up and I brought my youngest daughter with me and flew to Silicon Valley, because I was going to Intel to hang out with a friend of mine, Carolyn Henry, who is one of the CMOS over at Intel, and then go from there to the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, where I was keynoting. And candidly, I was a little bit nervous. I'm like, Okay, I'm talking about AI in Silicon Valley. But the thing is, I have to remind myself that I have been CEO of an AI company that has deployed at scale, which is rare. I'm not an a quote unquote, AI influencer, actually talking about AI, deploy AI. And it was incredible. So I keynoted and I met so many amazing people. I met some amazing young people who were benefiting. They were studing cybersecurity and benefiting from the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. I met incredible teachers. Teaching is the most noble profession on the planet. God bless you. And then I got to be on a panel with Sandra Rivera, Carolyn Henry, Dr. Monica Stoni, and we're talking about the future of women in AI and the disparities in terms of women in AI and data sets. And it was absolutely incredible. And my heart was just so full. So it's been an incredible week. And from a startup perspective, we are planning our first cocktails and conversations which is coming up. It will have already happened by the time you hear the show. We are focused on our angel rounds. So we're talking to investors and some investors, I'll be very candid are like not the right fit. So probably a no and which is a bit different than other startups that are out there. And then we are getting our product ready. We are getting the architecture has been vetted, signed off on, we're building out our product and getting that ready for going to the market and building out our plans for next year already and the year after that. And so it there's a lot going on. And as I record this diary, this weekly diary, it's Friday night, and I've just made dinner for my kids. I have poured a glass of wine and as much as I love you all I'm gonna go hang with the kids, drink my wine and have my dinner and decompress after a full week, recharge, have a massage and top up my batteries and get ready for a week ahead. Anyway, I love you all so much. And thank you for listening to this diary. Please show the show, please give us a five star review. I'd love I read all your ratings, all of your reviews. So please do that. And get ready for next week's diary. All right, take care. God bless and I will see you in the next episode. Hey, this is Susan and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship. If this episode or any episode has been helpful to you, you've gotten at least one solid tip from myself or my guests. I would love it if you would leave a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts. After you leave your review. Go ahead and email reviews at Susan sly.com. Let us know where you left a review. And if I read your review on air, you could get a $50 amazon gift card and we would so appreciate it because reviews do help boost the show and get this message all over the world. If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to Susan sly.com That's where all the show notes live. And with that, go out there rock your day. God bless and I will see you in the next episode.