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Evolved Radio Podcast: Interviews with technology experts, industry thought leaders, business leaders and other interesting minds. Exploring the evolution of business and technology.
Todd Kane: My guest today is Victor Lopez.
Victor is an interesting profile,
philosophy major at UC Santa
Cruz, law degree from Cornell.
He spent his, uh, first part of his
career as an attorney structuring complex
financial transactions, then moved into
private credit at Blue Owl Capital.
What he continued to observe was that the
financial tools most businesses were using
were clunky and left a lot to be desired,
so he decided to create a solution.
That observation is eventually what
became Flexpoint, the payments company
he co-founded with Sam Kushner.
Victor and I hit it off when we
were talking about MSPs approach
to AI and, and it needs some work.
All of the focus that the tend to
put on service delivery, and we
wanted to talk a bit about how AI
can improve business operations.
Victor, welcome to the show.
Victor Lopez: Thanks for having me, Todd.
Yeah, that's, I appreciate,
having a chance to chat.
it's funny, you had⦠I think recently
you had, Michael Fass on the, on the
podcast, and he had this phrase, 'cause
I think he started his career as an
attorney too, and he had this phrase,
it's like, "The accidental lawyer."
So I, I think I'm gonna take that, steal
that, and, uh, coin it myself as well.
Todd Kane: That's right.
Usually in this industry we talk about
accidental project managers, but, uh,
there's definitely a few accidental
lawyers, uh, showing up as well.
So yeah.
Victor Lopez: They're everywhere.
They're everywhere.
Todd Kane: yeah.
Uh, so you had an unusual path into
the MSP ecosystem and payments.
Um, uh, philosophy, then law, and
then credit, uh, private credit at
Blue Owl, then you started Flexpoint.
I'm curious, what was the moment or the
deal or the conversation that you saw at
Blue Owl where it s- sort of clicked and
you were like, "Huh, financial plumbing
for small businesses is broken. I should
probably do something about this"?
Victor Lopez: Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I, I wish it was that simple, and I
wish it was, hey, like the-- there was
this aha moment that happened at this
point in time that I could point to.
Um, but the reality, uh, of it is
it was a sequence of events over the
course of, you know, a lot of time.
But if I had to point to one, uh,
specific event, it, it's probably 2018,
um, what is now probably very well-known
in the MSP market and just more broadly.
But in 2018, Thoma Bravo
acquired ConnectWise.
And so for, you know, almost 30-plus
years, ConnectWise was privately
held by Arne Bellini and his brother.
Um, and in 2018, Thoma Bravo acquired
that business, and we at Blue Owl, used
to be called Owl Rock before Blue Owl,
but that's a story for another day.
Um, we, uh, financed that transaction.
So we, um, you know, there was a
lot of, uh, there was a lot of that
went into that, including the, the
merger of Continuum into ConnectWise.
But, um, that was sort of the first
time all of us really spent a lot of
time in this, you know, at the time,
managed service provider, IT services.
Um, honestly, the first time I heard about
the space, it took me a while to figure
out what an MSP actually does 'cause it
seemed like there was 30 different things,
and then it was even more difficult to
wrap my head around this thing called the
PSA that every MSP runs their business on.
And um, you know, the irony of it all
was I, I could not wrap my head around
in those early days, why would you have
in this tool that, you know, does all
this, all these things, ticketing, et
cetera, why do you have billing in there?
Like you have ITSM, you know, in
the enterprise where, where you run
your IT, but like, why is this like
financial aspect in this ticketing tool?
And so that was kind of the beginning
of like, okay, let, let's unwrap that.
Let's understand why this is
the case and, you know, why it's
become like this over the years.
Um, and I think that was like a, a
big, um, you know, found-foundational
thought in terms of how we think
about, you know, MSPs and how
they run their businesses today.
But I think it, it kinda goes back to
that, you know, the, the moment of asking
the question like, "Well, why, why are
you creating invoices in the tool that,
you know, is managing your projects
and, you know, taking tickets and your,
your technicians are using versus, you
know, your, your accounting folks? Why,
why aren't there, you know, traditional
ERPs for lack of a better term?"
Todd Kane: So the, the alternative
being billing f- directly from
the accounting fla- platform would
have been your assumption then?
Victor Lopez: Or, or not even that.
I think, um, I mean, you look at like
the majority of industries, like where
you have vertical specific tools.
So like take like field services or, you
know, other markets, um, in the healthcare
space, for example, and like the tools
that they use are all-encompassing.
Yes, they do billing, but it's
very, um, it's very separated in
terms of there's the accounting
is happening in the same tool.
There's the ERP, the
financial aspect of it.
Maybe there's a CRM, et cetera.
But in, in the MSP world with the PSA, you
still need an accounting software, right?
Like you can't run your accounting
and financial books through the PSA.
And so this, uh, halfway, uh, to the
finish line, at least in my mind, I'm
sure it's, it's not, uh, the, the opinion
of everyone in the market, but you know,
it's like there's no accounting here.
You, you need another tool, but
there is this whole financial aspect.
And some of them, right, it's not
the topic of conversation today.
Some of them do it much better than
others in terms of their, uh, level of
sophistication around that, that segment.
Todd Kane: Yeah.
right, so, uh, the, the AI play, uh,
we were talking about, uh, you know,
there's, there's a lot of discussion about
AI in the industry, but you're right.
Like, I'd not really thought about this
until we connected and talk about it,
that the, probably the vast majority
of that, like 80% of that conversation
is around ticket management, triage,
helping techs, and sure, like that
stuff is important and useful, but it's
also, uh, becoming somewhat pervasive.
Like, I, I joke about this a lot that
like, uh, when I ask people what they
want AI to do in their business, they talk
about all the things that are currently
available in multiple tools, right?
Like, I'm
Victor Lopez: Yeah
Todd Kane: G- go get
those things then," right?
So what would be the alternatives that,
uh, from a backend operation standpoint
that, that you would suggest that
people are maybe less aware of where
AI could help them with their business?
Victor Lopez: Yeah, and
I, I, I agree with you.
I don't-- So I, I think the-- What
I do wanna sort of preface the,
the thought with is I don't think
there's a right or wrong approach.
I, I don't-- I, I, I do think every
single MSP owner out there, um, should
be thinking about how AI is gonna impact
their business regardless of the function.
And it, it, it makes a ton of
sense just logically why, um,
why folks are so focused on the
service delivery side of things.
I mean, you talk to most MSP owners,
and that's what gets them excited.
That's the stuff that
they like to do, right?
So th-this is kind of the,
the core bread and butter.
And so when you think about everything
else, and so what I mean by everything
else is all the operational things
that, you know, are either tangentially
rela-related to service delivery
or just not related at all but,
you know, part of the business.
So I'm talking about things like,
you know, obviously like accounts
receivable, collecting payments, making
payments, uh, doing payroll, you know,
running the business, the, the, the
actual running the business side of
things outside of service delivery.
And so it's, it's-- To me,
it's not surprising that the
focus is on service delivery.
I think that's, you know, the
vast, vast majority of the market.
And so, um, I think My perspective
is, yes, that is important.
Everyone should be focused on that,
and everyone should definitely, um, you
know, be spending time there to see how
that's going to improve their business.
But they should not stop there.
They should continue the conversation,
understand, hey, where else
can AI really have a, an impact
of my bus- on, on my business?
And, you know, I was, um, I was at Evolve,
which, you know, is these quarterly
meetings with peer groups, um, uh, just
recently at the end of May in Chicago.
I was having this conversation,
you know, with just a group of,
of, um, MSPs in a peer group.
Um, and the, the focus of the
conversation really focused on, well,
there's all these things when it
comes to service delivery, and that's
going to improve your gross margin.
These are great things that
you should be focused on.
Um, absolutely, they're
fun, exciting toys.
You know, they're shiny objects
that are gonna have improvements.
But let's talk about the boring
stuff, the stuff that's, you know,
from, from a financial standpoint,
it's the stuff that's gonna improve,
uh, you know, your operational
efficiency, your EBITDA, right?
Like this is, this is the, the thing
that every business owner in the
space is either thinking about or,
uh, if they're not thinking about it,
they're hearing everyone talk about it.
It's like, how do you improve your EBITDA?
And so that, that, that's really the
conversation from, from my standpoint
is you don't pick one or the other.
It's let's just not stop the conversation
with service delivery, and let's see
where, um, the possibilities are,
um, on, on the operational side.
And so just, you know, maybe some areas
where we've seen folks have success.
And again, I, I say this with the,
the caveat that this market, the,
the just the impact that AI is
having in this segment of the market
is evolving very, very quickly.
Like, what's happened three months
ago is very different from what's
gonna happen six months ago.
I mean, like, I mean, let's just t-talk
about, like, the market generally.
Like Claude, Claude, uh,
CoWork didn't exist in like
December of last year, right?
They-- It came out in January.
So it's like the evolution of the
market and as it trickles down to
our space, um, I think is, is, is,
um, is, is, is very fast-moving.
But I think in-- from, from
an MSP standpoint and like the
operational side, the way I think
about this is in broad categories.
It's if you're an MSP, you know, your
typical MSP, I think the stat out
there, you, you maybe have better stats
than me, but, um, eighty percent of
the market does two and a half million
dollars of revenue or less per year.
Some-somewhere around there, right?
Like roughly speaking.
Todd Kane: 90% is under a million, yeah
Victor Lopez: N-- yes, even more accurate.
Okay.
Todd Kane: Yep
Victor Lopez: Um, and so if you think
about the, the typical profile of an MSP
in that segment, it's an owner-operator
who is doing everything themselves
outside of the service delivery.
They might have some techs, et cetera,
but when it comes to everything else,
they're typically handling it themselves.
They might have an outsourced
bookkeeper, for example.
They might have an office
manager, for example.
Um, and so when I have these conversations
with business owners, the question I
always ask is like, "Well, sit down
and write down all the things that
you currently do today, uh, that are
not generating revenue for you." Okay?
And so that's generally a very long list.
Um, and so then it's in, in way
of, you know, sort of optimization.
So there's obviously, um, the sales
and marketing side, which, you know,
hopefully is generating revenue, but I'm
talking about creating payroll, you know,
sitting down policies, like everything
from like HR to like billing, e- all
these giant categories which generally
fall into the lap of the business owner.
Obviously, um, for MSPs that are larger
than the typical profile, they generally
have folks who that's their full-time job.
We work with an MSP who has 40 people
in their accounts receivable department.
So I mean, that's, that's
a lot of people, right?
Gives you the size of a, of a business.
But that's generally how I, I think about
it, and I w- when I encourage business
owners to think about how AI can impact
the rest of their business, it's generally
sit down and just write down everything
that you're doing today, every area of the
business that doesn't generate revenue,
and that's where the focus should be
Todd Kane: Yeah, I think this is really
important too, 'cause this is almost
an extension of what I think should
happen earlier on in the business.
Like, one of the things that I encourage
people to think about outsourcing
or, uh, hiring away or delegating
out in their business, uh, first
is finance becau- and two reasons.
One, there's probably someone more
qualified, like they at least they,
they may not be a CPA, but, uh, they,
they, uh, they, they at least have some
experience with bookkeeping and understand
Victor Lopez: Yeah.
Todd Kane: accounting, uh, transactions
and how to m- you know, uh, to
reconcile things, all of that.
Uh, so that's an important piece I
think to get off, off their plate.
Plus, I find most small business
owners don't enjoy this work, right?
So they tend to procrastinate and avoid
it, and then they're like, "Oh, crap,
uh, I got like, uh, $400,000 in AR
over the past three months. I guess I
should chase some of this down," right?
Like, people can get in, in some
pretty tight spots by not spending the
appropriate time to focus on these things.
But to your point, like, yes,
you should probably delegate
this stuff to a bookkeeper at the
very least and get started there.
you might want some professional help
that is⦠Again, like a lot of people
tend to think of, "Well, I've got an
accountant, and he checks on the books
like every, every quarter or usually
more like every year, and kind of
Victor Lopez: Yeah.
Todd Kane: I need to do."
Like
Victor Lopez: Yeah
Todd Kane: you kind of need a
higher cadence of visibility
on your books, right?
So if
Victor Lopez: It's very reactive, yeah
Todd Kane: Yeah, yeah, so if you
can source that onto somebody else,
then that tends to benefit your
business tremendously, more than
I think people really recognize.
But to your point, like there's,
there's⦠You can go further down, right?
Like now you can actually pull
things off of your bookkeeper so
they're not spending, you know,
eight hours a week chasing people
and following up on AR either.
Like, there's potentially
automation opportunities there too.
Victor Lopez: Absolutely.
And, and see, and, and I think
that's, like, a key part of all
of this, especially as you think
about sort of ag-agentic AI.
Um, I think the real, uh, sort of
hesitancy and fear that everyone has,
I mean, we have⦠I have this myself,
is like, "Hey, like, the robots are
coming to take our jobs," right?
I think that's, that's the, the big fear.
And so, um, when, when you think about
service delivery, I, I don't think any
MSP owner, and maybe I'm wrong here, this
is overgeneralization, uh, is thinking
about, um, AI agents that are gonna
totally take over the jobs of their techs.
I, I, I just don't think that's
where the conversation is today.
I think what they're looking to do
is make their techs more efficient,
maybe have fewer techs than, than
needed to serve the same number of
clients, but not replace their techs.
Now, when you flip that conversation
to, um, the business owner who, again,
is going through their spreadsheets
once a week, if, if that, picking
up the phone, having a super awkward
conversation with their client, saying,
"Hey, like, you haven't sent that
check in, like, two months. What's
going on?" That's not a jo- that's
not a person's job they're replacing
potentially with, with AI, right?
That's a function of their job as
a business owner that they, to your
point, didn't-- do not wanna be doing.
I mean, you poll any business owner,
and I guarantee you nine out of 10
at least will say, "Hey, like, I
do not wanna be doing these things.
These are not the things that bring me
joy." You know, we talk about the zone
of genius, the things you're good at and
the things you actually wanna be doing,
and I would take a very big wager that
the majority of folks that have gone into
the business of IT services or just MSPs
generally do not have a zone of genius
that overlaps with, uh, things like AR or
things like running payroll, et cetera.
Todd Kane: Pacing down checks
is not high on the list, right?
Victor Lopez: Yes.
Yes.
I, I mean, honestly, I don't know
who's that, who- whose list, you
know, whose zone of genius that
would be high on the list for.
I'm sure there's someone out
there in the universe who,
like, that's⦠I love to do it.
But, um, you know, w- without being
too tongue in cheek on it, like, when
you think about the robots and the
jobs they could potentially replace
if we get to that point, like, we
should start with all the things
that people don't wanna do, right?
Like, things that we, like, no
one actually wants to be doing
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Todd Kane: Now obviously in these
recommendations, uh, I think in this area
especially, like there is always, uh,
the advice of human in the loop, right?
Like I don't think you wanna just
completely abdicate your, your
financial management and, and your,
your AR and AP follow-up, uh, to, to,
uh, to a bot without some oversight.
Uh,
Victor Lopez: Yeah
Todd Kane: you know, I, I s- I see
that a lot of MSP owners are a little
hesitant around implementation of
AI and kinda h- handing over the
reins, even on a service side.
And I think there would be even more
hesitancy when it comes to finances
of like, well, if it screws something
up, that's not, that's not just
like, uh, bad handling of a ticket.
Like there's potentially a
financial impact here as well.
So like what is the thinking
around controls for this?
And, you know, how much oversight is
required for, uh, for, for more business
operations that has a potentially l-
bigger blast radius for bad outcomes?
Victor Lopez: Yeah.
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
And I think, um, you know, the,
the big thing at the end of the day
is, like, MSPs are service-based
businesses, and so they, they are
in the business of client relations.
So whether, whether like it or not,
at the end of the day, it's, you
know, you're, you're servicing a
client, and the relationship with
those clients, um, is very important,
and the industry as a whole is
highly, highly relationship based.
Um, and so I think you're totally right
in terms of the, the relationships
and the sensitivity, especially
anytime you touch money, right?
Like, anytime it's finance related, um,
there's definitely a lot of sensitivity.
And so, I mean, broadly speaking, I'll,
I'll give you kind of two answers, how
I think about it, you know, sort of
holistically in terms of, you know, just
as a business owner myself and, like, how
other I, I think other folks are thinking
about it, and then just, like, how we
think about it at Flexpoint specifically.
Um, but I, I think holistically,
this is one of those things
where, um, again, everything is
evolving and changing so quickly.
Um, I'll give you an example.
Uh, when we started Flexpoint, you
know, just over three years ago,
the, um, the number of MSPs that were
comfortable passing on credit card
fees to their clients was probably You
know, a tenth of where it is today.
Now, every single conversation is, if
I'm not doing this already, passing
on credit card fees, how do I do it?
So over the course of, you
know, essentially three years.
And so I think that's been, you know,
and it's an example I always point to,
that's been something that's changed
pretty dramatically in the market.
And so three years ago, we'd
have conversations with MSP
owners who'd be like, "No way.
There's, there's absolutely no way.
I'm not⦠That, that's tacky.
Like, that's-- I'm not, you know, this
isn't like a, a diner where you come
in and here you have this, you know,
surcharge on, on using a credit card.
Like, you know, it's white glove service."
Now it's like, you're,
you're silly if you're not.
And I think the big thing that has
changed is, um, not just the perception
of the MSP owner in terms of like,
"Hey, like these are real dollars
that I'm losing," but, um, in terms of
their client base, it's so ubiquitous.
It's everywhere now.
You go to a restaurant,
you go to check out.
Like, it's, it's, it's almost difficult
for me to find somewhere where if I
wanna pay by a credit card, they're
not gonna try and charge me a fee.
Um, and so I think the evolution in
something like that has really, uh,
changed the perception, and I think
the same thing can be said about AI.
I think if anything, even faster.
And so I think a lot of it's going
to h- come down to, um, the folks
that are in these roles at a client.
So whether it's, um⦠And I'll just take
the example of, of paying an invoice.
Um, uh, i- if it's the people at your
client who typically pay the invoices,
cut the checks, um, I think they're
all in a very similar position.
They're all thinking about how
AI is impacting their business.
'Cause listen, Todd, there, there's
no business out there, um, and if
there is, they're, they're probably
not gonna be around for very long,
who isn't currently thinking about
how AI is gonna impact their business.
And so I think it's still early.
I think it's still early days
in terms of how, um, you know,
especially when it comes to the
operational side of things, the fi-
financial and finance side of things.
Um, but I think it's going to be a,
a very rapid evolution in how folks--
the, the comfort level of, of folks
in terms of, you know, what can AI do?
And so, um, uh, more, more practically,
so like w- within, within Flexpoint,
so we're, we're releasing AI agents
that do a lot of this, right?
And so like this is one of the
biggest things that has come up
in conversations with MSP owners.
One of the functions of our, of our
product is it, it will actually pick
up the phone and call your client
and say, "Hey, you haven't paid."
And so this was super
controversial when we first
started talking to MSPs about this.
Some of them were absolutely Nah, no way.
Like you are-- I am not having a
robot, a voice AI call my clients.
Then there's another half that were
like, "Sign me up today." Like, all those
people that I need to call take time
out of my calendar, and I want them to
know, right, like within, within, within
boundaries that they owe me something, and
I don't want to waste my time doing that.
So it was such a polarizing topic.
But what we're finding now is even
from when we first started having
these conversations in the fall of
last year to through developments
or where we are now, that opinion
has changed very dramatically.
And I think it comes down
to a couple basic concepts.
One, I think, a-as I said
earlier, it's a service-based
business, it's relationship based.
And so, um, I think the perception
initially is like, well, if, if the
robots are just gonna start calling
everyone, they're gonna start calling my
clients that I know are great clients,
and it's gonna ruin my relationships.
That's not gonna work.
So w-we think about things
in the extremes, right?
That's just like our human nature.
It's like, hey, like this
is the worst case scenario.
But when you distill it down into like
the possibilities and get really, really
precise and very, very specific around
what it can do, that's where you start to
unlock, okay, I'm comfortable with that.
I'm comfortable with an agent that
calls a very specific segment of my
customers that I've pre-approved.
They're able to escalate to me.
They're not able to do anything like
that, that as actual transaction
without a human approving it.
Okay, now I understand the comfort.
So I think the big thing, and I think
the big picture is we all need to, um,
understand what are our limitations
in terms of, you know, what are we
comfortable with in terms of, you know,
what, uh, what, what we will allow
AI agents to do within our business.
And that's gonna depend.
That's gonna depend a lot on the business
itself, the relationships they have.
And I think ultimately very similar to the
example of the credit card surcharging,
passing on the fees, I think it's gonna
be-- there's gonna be the, you know,
the people that are ahead of the curve,
they wanna get something like this done
immediately to over time, which I think
it's gonna take less than three years.
I think this is gonna be, we're talking
about twelve to s- to 18 months.
This is going to be okay I'm, I'm
doing this, but, like, this is normal
because every day I get a phone call
from my doctor's office, and it's a
voice AI agent that's telling me all
about my appointment, and it, it almost
becomes, you know, second, second
nature in the sense that, like, I'm
interacting with agents in my daily life.
And then the last thing I'll say on
this, Todd, like, if you think about
it and you switch, switch sides.
So let's say I'm calling you, Todd, and
I'm saying, "Hey, Todd, you haven't paid
your invoice in a long time." If I pick
up the phone and, you know, we have a
relationship, it's awkward for both of us.
It, it's not fun for you either.
Whereas anytime I forget to pay a
bill, if I get, you know, an automated
voice, it's like, "Oh, okay, I
appreciate that. Like, let me go do
that." There's no awkwardness involved.
I know I'm talking to⦠I, I know
I'm not talking to a human on this
side, so there's that psychological
aspect of it that I think a lot
of folks will appreciate over time
Todd Kane: Yeah.
Yeah, um, there.
Uh, uh, it's funny, the, the polarization,
I don't know the I don't know that I
see it the same way as that it's, it's,
it's becoming more ubiquitous, uh, and
there's, the people are aligning on that.
Um, I still feel that there's, there's
still a strong polarization of a lot
of people are like, "No, no, no, no.
We, like, we're not having, uh, the,
the inbound phone calls answered by AI."
Yet I know a number of organizations
where no one answers the phone anymore.
And, and the⦠It's interesting
because there's the split between
the MSPs that believe this or not,
and there's also a split between the
clients that accept it and don't.
And I don't know what it is.
Like, obviously part of
it is generational, right?
Like you don't want, you know, uh,
60-something executives calling
in and being answered by, by,
by a bot in most cases, right?
Like that's not, again, not
universally true, but I think there
are some demographic impacts of this.
But it's weird how I find people have
varying levels of success on, on,
on, uh, on the utilization of this.
That said, I think you're entirely right
that the future of this, it will be more
sort of bot i- interactions, and there's
a benefit and a curse to that, I think.
Uh, I think the, the psy⦠You're
right, the psychological impact
of that is, is totally different.
But I think it's, it's the extension,
again, of all the things that we're
learning and enabling in service apply all
the way down the line on business, right?
Like we wanna talk about having AI support
the techs and making them more capable so
they can get more work done and offloading
a lot of the menial work for them.
Same thing when it comes to, uh,
the, the finance group, right?
Like we should be enabling them, and they
don't have to go looking for reports.
Like things happen on a trigger
point or on some type of insight.
Bot says, "Hey, like
I notice these things.
You know, do you want me to,
uh⦠AR over 90 days has creeped
up over X amount of dollars.
Do you want me to start calling people?"
Like, "Yes, go do that." Like, great.
Cool, right?
I think that that enablement of staff
will just become much, much more natural
over the, 12 to 18 months, as you say.
Yeah.
Victor Lopez: Yeah, no, absolutely.
I think one, but one, one, one important
distinction I'll make in just a comment
that you said, you know, the, the group,
you, you said the, the finance group.
I think if we go back to the, the
stat that you, you shared, right?
90% sub $1 million.
Majority of MSPs that are doing sub
$1 million, they don't have a group.
They don't have a staff
that's doing these things.
And so it, it goes back to
what I was saying around
like it's the business owner.
This is the person, right?
Like they're not making
their techs more efficient.
It's like they're
removing things from that.
So I think that's a huge component of it.
There's obviously the
dollars and cents impact.
There's, there's a big thing there.
But unfortunately, and, and you probably
know this Todd very well, is, you
know, unfortunately a big area that MSP
owners, you know, just an area where
they just don't value the time in the
same way is their own time, right?
Like it's, it's easy that for them to
say, "Well, Johnny my tech, um, you
know, I get 10 more hours out of him
and so I can make, you know, whatever,"
versus, you know, I, I, I get-- I
free up 10 more hours in my time not
doing, you know, the books or whatever.
Um, it, it, they don't equate the
time in the same way unfortunately
but, um, you know, hopefully
over time, uh, we get there
Todd Kane: Yeah, I
strongly agree with this.
I, I wish people would
value their time more.
Um, and I think because owners have
sort of a d- uh, a different gear, and
they're perfectly comfortable to work
a 60-hour, 80-hour week wh- when it's
required, and that eventually sort of
becomes the norm because they're like,
"Well, you know, I, I don't necessarily
have the money, uh, to hire additional
staff," or, uh, whatever justification
that they, they make for those things,
not recognizing those investments will
absolutely pay back, uh, in enablement
within the group and probably create
more profitability down the road.
Uh, and if nothing else, just the
quality of life matters, right?
Like sure, you can hustle hard for, you
know, five, even eight years sometimes,
uh, and, and put in the hours and put in
the sweat for, for building your business.
But at some point, like, what is that for?
Like, do you wanna spend the
next 10 or 15 years of your
life working 80 hours a week?
Like, some people genuinely enjoy it,
but you know, also, you wanna work
on the things that give you a lot of
joy and in that genius zone, right?
That's probably not the menial work
of business operations and just sorta
pulling the levers and sending the
emails and, and doing follow-ups.
You wanna be focusing on, you
know, developing an AI strategy,
spending more time with clients.
Like, sure, if you're gonna spend 80
hours a week in the business, figure out
where that time is at least valuable.
And, and, and as you noted, like to do
that, you have to be able to offload
the, the l- the more routine work.
And, uh, as that should be done
in service, it should be done in
the business operations as well.
Yeah.
Victor Lopez: Yeah.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, it's, uh⦠A- and
that's a huge part of it.
So we had, I, I w- you know, a story
I always tell is, like, you know,
we had someone who literally their,
their, their comment was, "Well, now
I can go to my son's baseball game on
the weekends." And it's like y- y- you
kind of take those things for granted.
It's like I don't, I don't sit there
now and spend five hours on the weekend.
And I say this as a business owner myself.
It's like we're, we're always
the first people to sacrifice
when it comes to things.
It's like, okay, someone has to do this.
Well, I don't want to put it on my techs.
I'm gonna go, you know, spend the weekend
working on this, or, you know, I, I
need to close the books or whatever.
And it's like, okay,
I'm gonna spend my time.
So it's, uh, it's always, it always comes
down, um, to, to the owner themselves.
Todd Kane: Yep.
Well, it's been great.
Uh, really appreciate your, your coming
on and, and, uh, getting-- nudging us
to think more about, uh, automation,
AI opportunities in, in the business
further down the chain outside of service.
So, uh, this has been awesome.
Uh, uh, if, uh, people wanna chat
with you or reach out to you,
I'll link to you, uh, to your
LinkedIn profile in the show notes.
Uh, any other shout-outs or people, uh,
uh, asks of the audience of, of where
to direct them or to engage with you?
Victor Lopez: Yeah, just,
uh, find me on LinkedIn.
I'm pretty active there.
Um, but yeah, hopefully the, the main
takeaway here and, and what I always
like to, to leave around this is, you
know, just start the conversation.
There, there isn't something
that, you know, there isn't a big
thing that you have to do today.
It's just like, hopefully this just
starts the conversation around,
okay, where else can AI really
have an impact on my business?
Todd Kane: Excellent.
Thanks, Victor
Victor Lopez: All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, Todd