Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
#dogoodwork is not a label but a way of living.
It is the constant and diligent effort to achieve a new level of excellence in one’s own life.
It is the hidden inner beauty behind the struggle to achieve excellence.
It is not perfect but imperfect.
It is the effort, discipline and focus that often goes unnoticed.
The goal of this podcast is to highlight that drive.
The guests I have on this show emulate this drive in their own special way. You’ll be able to apply new ideas into your own life by learning from them.
We will also have 1on1 episodes with me where we’ll dive into my own experiences with entrepreneurship and leadership.
Every episode is designed to provide you with ideas that you can apply and grow in excellence in all areas of your life, business and career.
Do Good Work,
Raul
INTRO
Hey, welcome back to the podcast today.
I am chatting with Nate Ruben.
Nate is the CEO of E P X, a
computer vision consulting company.
Where to shout about growing a company
out of college, growing it with children,
as well as growing a tech company
successfully through Nate's experience.
Now, Nate is on a mission
to put eyes on machines.
And anything, your eyes can see
this camera can see it better.
And he believes that our world is
seeing a paradigm shift in how we
approach computers and cameras.
That will revive the internet.
Self.
And he wants to pay a part in that
automation revolution so that we can
massively improve our quality of life
PODCAST
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447:
Nate, welcome to the pod.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447:
Hey, Raul, good to be on here.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: Yeah.
Get to connect, right?
This is cool.
We're connecting beforehand
for the first time and we're
going to dive into a podcast.
One of my dudes on LinkedIn posted
a while back about the different
age or gaps in a life cycle where
people can start their business.
usually he talks about the gap, like
Post graduation you're usually single
during that time or you're dating
your future spouse potentially and
that's a good gap to start a business
because you have more quote unquote
free time the second gap would be like
you're happily married or if that's
your path like you're married there.
And in the first couple of years
before kids, that's another
open space to start a business.
The third space you mentioned was
like, after kids go out of the house
and you're an empty nester, that's
another space to start a business.
And I'm like, that's like
living life on easy mode because
that's not really real life.
I think that's an opportunity for a
lot of people, but I want to start
off by saying, bro, you started the
business post college with three kids.
How did that happen?
Tell me more about growing
up a company with three kids.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: We'll shoot.
Yeah, I'll just say so I, I went to
so I went to university here in Utah,
studying electrical engineering.
I love building things.
I've always into Legos.
I loved I was pretty
good at math and science.
And so that was my trajectory.
And I really thought.
Once I graduate, I'm going to go
work for I don't know, defense
contractors, like what a lot of
electrical engineers will go off and do.
And I remember I interned for a
big aerospace company and they had
working on a specific intern project.
And I was like, this is great.
I had to carpool in there and I was
the last person on that carpool.
I was so excited to get my work done.
I thought I was doing a great thing.
the following summer, I back and I
said, how did you like my project?
And they're like, Oh, yeah.
where did his project go?
And it was a joke around there
'cause they just didn't feel like
their work mattered very much.
None of the engineers felt the company
does aerospace things, but you're just
a cog in a wheel and sometimes your
project gets canceled that was my first
moment where I said, I don't think I
like to work for big, giant companies.
I want to do something meaningful.
Right as I was finishing
college I had an idea.
And this is something that I talked to.
I think your listeners
have had lots of ideas.
ideas are plenty.
There's so many ideas.
Something I tell entrepreneurs is
let's not bother signing NDAs because
we both have too many ideas that
we don't have time to steal ideas.
I had an idea for my son, actually.
It was a product idea that came about
because I had my first child when my wife
and I had been married for just a year.
So it was a honeymoon baby.
And he was a premature and
he had to be on a ventilator.
They had him in the NICU.
Thank heavens.
Everything's fine.
He came home just a few days later.
And then that's when the
panic started for my wife.
So she started to wonder, is
my baby, Breathing, right?
She goes in and she's constantly
checking to the point she's not sleeping.
And so now I've got the
baby who's not sleeping.
I've got a wife who's not sleeping and
I can't make either one of them sleep
because one's worried for the other.
And that's when the idea came as, Oh,
what if I could design a product, namely
a camera that could look at a baby.
And tell if the baby was breathing,
tell if the baby was okay.
Your listeners would know
sudden infant death syndrome,
you probably know what that is.
And that was the first product idea.
And yeah, it was really
amazing thing to work on.
But starting a business
still wasn't in my mind.
I actually did my master's thesis
on this particular subject, using
cameras to do something new and unique.
I'd spoken with some investors
who were actually out of state.
In fact, out of country investors.
and they said, we love this idea.
Let's go ahead and build
this thing together.
It was actually a serendipitous thing.
But most people don't come across that.
And I talked to a few people
close to me, mentors of mine,
and they said, don't do it.
They'll steal your idea.
It's not going to work out.
It's going to be a bad thing.
But I felt called to do it.
And I think one thing that a lot of
people who want to be entrepreneurs,
they wanted to be entrepreneurs cause
they want to do something great.
They just don't know what it is.
And I, what I look at it as
is you'll feel that calling.
You'll feel like you're called
to do something, and it'll
just hit you like a brick wall.
And you'll just, you'll feel
that, you'll feel compelled.
Some entrepreneurs wanna just go
out and start something and they
don't know what it is yet, and they
struggle for a little bit cause they
really haven't come across that really
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: The
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: that great idea
that just know they want to be successful.
For me it did, thankfully I
was able to get into something
early, but it was a challenge.
I'm not going to lie, Raul.
It was a big challenge because yes,
you've got the family, you're trying
to raise kids, spend time with your
kids, and yet you're putting the 67,
80 hours a week into just, Getting
everything going on your business.
And that's a challenge.
There's no other way around it.
It's just, it's a huge challenge
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: Yeah.
But it is a manageable thing, but
it's also something that I want to
compress and that's the art and the,
I wouldn't say it's a difficulty.
It is the, not to use just
your words of challenge, but.
That's what it really is.
Like you, it's a level of responsibility
where you have to know that you have
to be one healthy relationship, healthy
with your wife, relationship, healthy
with your kids, relationship, healthy
with the investors, your new boss.
And then also with the building,
the company serving the clients.
And that's, I think the art
and the challenge in itself,
where can you do that?
I think it is possible and you're
proving it, but tell us more about
what you actually did to meet the new
standards of that level of challenge.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: So I'd say
there's a level of probably the hardest
thing for me is I tend to worry about
things that are outside my control.
Don't we all, and in a business, I
would say, I told my wife, I said, I
probably get around to 40 percent of
the things that I'm supposed to do.
And then I realized that 80 percent of the
things actually didn't bring about any and
I use those numbers usually, but I would
say the majority of the work actually
spent on Oh, we got to fix this one thing.
Oh, I got to go onto this other
let's, Need to go work with
this different marketing agency.
Oh, I got to deal with this employee.
A lot of the work I did was
just scattershot haphazard.
And I felt like I was
going all over the place.
And most of the work actually
didn't equate too much.
I'd say 20 percent of my
work actually was effective.
So I think when you sit down and you think
about what will actually move the football
forward again, it's like in my business,
for example even today I do consulting,
I do contract work for other companies.
And I might want to fix how we're
doing our invoicing I want to do
our internet and our new office.
There's a little, there's like these
little things that I just want to spend
time on, but if I'm not actually going out
and meeting with a customer, go outside
and touch grass, meet with customers to
bring in those clients those other things
can be taken care of, or they can be
just pains in your butt for a little bit.
Okay.
And they're not the real
core thing on my business.
So I guess for me with SmartBeat,
which was the name of my first
company that we did baby monitoring.
I don't think I did a particularly
good job managing my time.
I think I spent way too much time on
problems that ultimately didn't matter.
So I guess the takeaway from
there is from my own failures.
I don't think I did a very good
job at that, to be quite honest.
Ultimately the company, thankfully
we were able to sell it.
Which is that big exit, right?
That's where we all want to see
ourselves is have a company, either run
it for the rest of your life or, sell
it and move on to the next big thing.
And That was a huge moment,
but man, that moment looked so
far away for a number of years.
It looked like, our bank account
hit zero many times during
that process, it was stressful.
And again, that was where
my mind kept going back and
saying, like, how do I fix this?
I got to fix this.
And a lot of times I just had
to say, it's out of my hands.
I can do the best I can, but whether
that investor says yes or no, it's
out of my hands whether we get that.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: can control.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Yeah,
whether we get that distributor
agreement or not, it's out of my hands.
You just do the best you can.
If the result's unfavorable, you
just have to be able to let it go.
And so that was a still, it still was
a hard thing for me to try not to worry
about things that are outside my control.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: Fast
forward to today, what would be some
of the key insights that, you are
applying based on the experience?
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Yeah.
I think now today, thankfully I'm not
under the there's a big difference,
especially for I don't, when you
take on venture capital or angel
money or anything like that, it
is a different type of business.
Just, it's a different animal.
I determined I want to stay clear of
taking that type of capital again,
because it was a lot of stress.
You just are stressed all the
time with businesses like that.
So my current company, I'm self funded
we bootstrap everything and it means we
grow a little bit slower, but we grow at a
pace that's comfortable with my lifestyle.
I do spend late nights in the office.
Of course I do rush jobs for clients.
Of course, but Now when I'm thinking
about, okay, what's the next two or three
months of revenue going to look like?
Do I have enough things in my
funnel to keep my people busy?
I learned to turn off that part of my
brain and I literally, just have to
stop thinking about it, do something I
love, go on a hike, like I said, touch
grass and get out of my own head for
a little bit because ultimately you
can drive yourself a little bit crazy.
So that's something that again,
I think for that emotional
wellbeing is a huge driver for me.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: I hear you.
And so optimizing your time, focusing
on what you can control, then also
knowing how to, I wouldn't say turn
off parts of your brain, but just
put your focus on something different
versus always like on, on go mode.
Tell me more about like the
iterations that you made.
So the first business cameras
to review breathing, which
is pretty freaking awesome.
That IP is pretty, pretty interesting.
How did you iterate from
there to where you are now?
And like, why, what made you land here?
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: I, when we
were purchased by another company,
when that happens, you usually sign
an employee agreement, they like
to have a founding team around.
And so I did that for a number of years.
And I got to do more of the engineering.
Again, I got to use more of the
engineering side of my brain.
Cause when you're running a business,
you don't have time for any of that.
And
Did that for a number of years.
But it got to be.
I don't know, bureaucratic.
I was, again, I now felt like I was
back in that big defense company
where I'm just in there with a bunch
of other people, not really doing.
I think the best work that I could.
And I will say this, I had a
team with me that I just loved.
I love the team that I created.
All of us came from our old
company to the new company.
And we all left, we started a new company
and what's interesting here is that
we actually, as opposed to the last
company I did, where I said, here's
the market, Here's the product, right?
Here's how I'm going to deliver
the product in let's go, let's
build this because something
that I think it's Steve blank, he
wrote the startup owner's manual.
He says a startup is a temporary
organization in search.
Of a scalable and
repeatable business model.
And I love that, right?
The startup is actually
looking for a business model.
It's not guns a blazing.
Let's do sales.
Let's do this.
It's really just searching
for that business model.
And so right now we actually
are a little bit like a startup.
We act and a company at the same time.
So as a company, I
trade my time for money.
That's all it is.
It's a very simple thing.
I will consult other
paper monitor companies.
I'll do other engineering
tasks related to cameras.
And so we have a handful
of us here that do that.
But in my heart of hearts, I know
that as an entrepreneur to build the
kind of value I need to have assets.
And one of those assets can be
like IP or a product or some kind
of a service that you're selling.
I would say we're now back in search
mode and saying, what can I identify?
What problem is not being
met right now in the market?
And it's actually a really fun experience
because again, we're not out of cash.
We're not in that capital crunch scenario
that I was in the first business.
And yet you can take your time
and really flesh out some ideas.
So it's a really fun space to be in.
the stress level has come down
dramatically for me personally.
it's fun to be able to approach
your career with some curiosity.
Be curious, be looking for some problems
that you may have an advantage in solving.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: Let's
lean into that in a second.
That's pretty interesting that you are
a company, but you're also a startup.
A long time ago, even like more than
10 years ago when I was back in school.
There was a company recruiting at
our university who was proud to
say we're a 17 year old startup.
Because they're like, Oh, you want
to work for a startup environment?
And I'm like, that's not
how this thing works.
Cause I'm also a pupil of blank, right?
That was our key thing.
The business model lean startup, all that.
And the startup is
essentially, you're right.
Search for the business model.
But you said something interesting.
You're living in both planes.
You're a company, but
you're also searching.
How do you navigate between that?
And how do you know you found it?
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447:
It wasn't Steve blank.
there's this thing called
the wow factor test.
I'm trying to remember the guy.
I'll try and send you the link.
he talks about the wow factor test.
So right now, even as a company
I never did consulting before
This is new for me, Before I was trying
to build something to sell to B2C.
Now I'm B2B.
I'm selling my products and my
services to other companies.
It's very custom.
I'm, okay, show me what you want to build.
Let me show you what you're doing,
with other companies, you're trying
to help them build a strategy.
I'm trying to help them build a
product or a thing or a widget.
When I first got into this, I
said, there's probably lots of
tools to help me manage this.
There's probably a good CRM, a good
ERP, which, enterprise resource planning
I thought there's probably some good
software that will help me manage this.
And I really, for my particular
field, haven't found one.
I have five different tools I
have to get to work together.
And it's this kludgy thing that I use.
And so that's an area where I say
this is an interesting problem.
And so what it looks
like in my day to day is.
Talking to customers, divvying out
work, managing, a handful of projects.
And in my head, I'm thinking,
I bet I could do a lot more
projects if I had this tool.
And so I just pick at it because we
happen to be the users of what we want
to build and we know how to build it.
so as I talked to my customers and
interacted with them and I say, what
would you think if I could give you a
report that did X, Y, and Z, and they're
like, not really a big deal to me, Nate.
It'd be like, got it.
And I check it off as something
I'm not going to build Into
my little side project.
And so that's that open curiosity again,
where instead of just, okay, I'm going
to sit down and do my Excel spreadsheet
and do my word document and send a
bunch of emails and take a bunch of
time doing the same thing over and over
again, is there a way I can automate
this to make this a lot easier for me?
And maybe build a
product at the same time.
I think all great products do start
from a need like they all start
from some kind of need because it's,
chances are there's other people
like you who have that same need.
So yeah it's interesting,
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: wow
factor when you get feedback will
this actually solve your problem?
But when you're looking at the
wows, like it has to resonate
with them or can you explain that?
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Yeah.
Oh, you can see it visually.
I like to, I actually like
to be talking to them.
usually I'm not in the same room.
Usually it's something like this, but
I like to see the reaction because
it's just body language, right?
They can be like, yeah, Nate, love it.
It's such a great idea anyway.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447:
They're looking away.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447:
Look, anyway, we gotta.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447:
away, shoulders down yeah, sure.
Whatever
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Yeah if it gives
them some pause, if they ask a question,
I think wow factor is the idea is if you
got a room of like 10 of your prospective
customers together and you gave them,
Basically your one minute pitch.
And you asked them on a scale
of one to 10, one being super
boring, 10 being amazing, like
where does this idea land for you?
And if you're somewhere seven, eight,
nine, and 10, you probably, have something
that you can actually start iterating
on and asking more questions and diving
into, but if you have something that's
six and below, or at least if you have
something that's four five or six,
you probably just need to tweak it
three and below it's no good, right?
So that's, you.
It's just a nice data driven way to get
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447:
to lean into features.
Yeah.
do you suggest like founders?
Cause right now it's like you run the
agency, but you're also finding what
SAS or what opportunities can I build
on top of this, that could be its own
product, standalone in the future.
And we can invest all our efforts on that.
That seems to be a, not out.
It's not very common, but it is a
trajectory that I've seen agencies take.
Is that something that you just
want to do because you always
want to build that next thing?
Or is it something that you would
recommend anyone who provides services,
find something that you could leverage
technology to solve a core problem with.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Yeah.
Yeah, that's it's a good question.
A mentor of mine would, he's Nate,
if you're going, we all have 168
hours every week, every one of
us has the same number of time.
And so if you're going to be
spending your time on something,
spend your time on something
big, don't make it like the tiny.
And I think I do have that mindset,
like you were just, describing
of, I like to think of how can I
scale this if it's a good idea.
But again, I say that.
With the caveat that premature
scaling is the enemy.
It is the enemy I'm convinced of all
small businesses, or at least startups
that are pursuing a scalable venture.
They prematurely scale.
Like I could just say, this is, my
business is exactly I'm going to build
this product for my business and I could
probably do it for my business, but
it might not work for anyone else and.
So it's those it's those questions.
I'll be honest, Raul,
I haven't found that.
Wow.
I haven't gotten enough.
And talking even to my current clients
that I work with to be like, yeah, this
is something I totally need that the
real people are actually like, My, my
competitors, people I work with for
business, they're the ones I want to
actually use this type of software.
Yeah.
And I do, I talk to him all the time.
So when I've ruminated a little
bit more on it, I think we'll
spring into action, but I don't
think I answered your question.
You really said do you we're in a unique
position really at this point where
we are bootstrapping our own company.
Where we have a company,
so half of us is a company.
And then there's a part of us
that says we're really just
searching for that next big thing.
And it could just be the software
that helps us run our, Yeah.
Internal R and D exactly.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447:
which is pretty cool.
Like you mentioned, it is a unique
opportunity where it's not, you have
to make a sale with that new R and
D the business is running afloat.
Things are running properly,
but this is a new opportunity.
And I think this is a place
where people can get to.
And usually when I work with clients,
I talk about helping them get to
a new baseline because right now
they're here and then they increase,
they go up the staircase of growth.
And then there's a new baseline.
And from there, you can have a different
vantage point, either do more of the same
and continue to grow, or in this case,
look at what else you can build and have
new opportunity to build on top of that.
And it's a really unique place to be at.
And like you mentioned, it's lower
stress and it's more, I get to do it.
Cause I can, not because I have to
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: And
think about, it's just fun.
If you're looking at just the
things that you hate to do.
And you're like, I hate doing this.
And you're like, not
looking forward to Monday.
Cause you're like, I
have to do this again.
And if you can just flip the script
a little bit and think, how could
I make this thing that I hate doing
all the time better or easier,
How can I automate this
so that my life's easier?
And so you're playing this
little puzzle with yourself.
You're trying to figure out
how can I, Organize things.
a little differently.
you do this all the time.
I'm sure.
but that problem solving
the act of solving your own
problems is a fun thing to do.
If you can find joy in that,
then I think it changes your
whole approach to your business.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: I love that.
Nate, I think this is
a good place to close.
Where can people go to learn
more about what you're doing.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447: Sure.
You can find me on LinkedIn,
Nate Rubin epxtech.
com is our website.
And yeah, there's a contact form there.
You can reach out to us
and be happy to talk.
raul-_1_06-06-2024_112447: Cool.
Put those links in the show notes.
Nate, thank you again.
nate_1_06-06-2024_122447:
Yeah, it's awesome.
Thanks, Raul.
Thanks for having me on.
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
If you'd like to get more of
these podcasts, please go ahead
and subscribe to wherever you're
watching or listening to the pod.
If you have any suggestions or questions
that you want me to answer on the
pod, or you have a guest that you want
me to interview, please go ahead and
email me all of your suggestions and
questions at podcast at do good work.
io that's podcast at do good work.
io.
If you'd like to give me public
feedback, you can go on Apple
Podcasts, and from there, you
can leave up to a 5 star review.
I would greatly appreciate that.
If you'd like more free resources where
you can get my best strategies to help you
increase your company's performance and
scale profitably, where you can get hand
picked articles to propel your growth, and
you can get trainings and discussions that
I give freely online, as well as low cost
resources, Such as my books and guides.
You can get all of that
by going to dogoodwork.
io forward slash free dash growth
dash resources 90 percent of all
these resources are not behind any
email opt ins you can get instant
access by going to dogoodwork.
io forward slash free dash growth dash
resources Now, if you'd like to accelerate
your progress and shorten the gap between
information and action and start seeing
results in your business, let's work
together to increase your company's
performance and scale profitably and
serve more clients without the overwhelm.
You can request a free clarity call
to see how we can best support you to
reach your goals by going to DoGoodWork.
io forward slash apply.
Again, that's DoGoodWork.
io forward slash apply.
As always, it's an honor to be
a small part in your journey.
This is Raul Hernandez.
Do good work.