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From Wall Street to Silicon Beach (with Jason Engelhardt) | ReForge 007 · The ReForge Podcast

0:00
Jason Engelhardt: from a pitch perspective, we were doing it a few times a year.
0:04
Jason Engelhardt: Now we've been doing it almost every month and we're getting really great speakers.
0:10
Jason Engelhardt: Joel Stevens from Bernstein flew down, from Wall Street to come and present.
0:16
Jason Engelhardt: We are getting somewhere between 130 and 150 people in the room, maybe more.
0:22
Jason Engelhardt: Another 20 or 30 people on the Zoom.
0:24
Jason Engelhardt: So we're getting people in and we're also, finding that we have somewhere between 10 and 15 institutional investors or groups that show up.
0:42
Welcome to the Reforge Podcast.
0:44
I'm Matthew Chang, and we're here to explore all things AI automation and the American worker proving that the American reindustrialization is possible.
0:55
Pivotal pressing.
0:56
Thanks for joining us today.
0:58
Let's get into the episode.
1:00
Colin Russ: Welcome back everyone.
1:02
Colin Russ: This is episode seven of the Reforge Podcast.
1:05
Colin Russ: I'm.
1:06
Colin Russ: Colin Russ, and I'm joined by our host Matthew Chang, and our guest this week, Jason Engelhart.
1:13
Colin Russ: How's everybody doing?
1:15
Jason Engelhardt: Very good.
1:15
Jason Engelhardt: Thank you.
1:16
Jason Engelhardt: Thanks for having me.
1:17
Colin Russ: Great to have you.
1:18
Colin Russ: Let me give a little background to our audience on you, Jason.
1:21
Colin Russ: Uh, you're the founder of Silicon Beach.
1:24
Colin Russ: Um, basically after a very illustrious career, you know, 20 years on Wall Street, having spent, you know, time at then or what is now, uh, PWC, um, you know, you've had institutional roles as CFOs, wealth management.
1:42
Colin Russ: Um, in the creative space.
1:44
Colin Russ: You, you've, you've got a very broad background and have accomplished a tremendous amount in your career.
1:50
Colin Russ: Um, so we are thrilled to have you with us.
1:53
Colin Russ: I know I did not do you a, do your extensive background history and experiences, any service, so I'll let you know, Matt, step in briefly to be a hype man for anything I missed.
2:04
Colin Russ: And then let's, uh, let, let's hear from you, Ben.
2:06
Colin Russ: Tell us, you know, a bit more about who you are and, and what you've done.
2:10
Colin Russ: All the things you've done.
2:13
Matthew Chang: That's my goal in life, by the way, is to transition to full-time hype man.
2:17
Matthew Chang: Um, it's way more, way more fun,
2:20
Colin Russ: I'm just paying Matt to follow you around with a megaphone and you know, talk you up.
2:25
Matthew Chang: Yeah, so, so Jason Engelhardt, you know, if you, if you check his bio, the guy's been C-E-O-C-F-O, founder, you know, raised capital, deployed capital, he is done all the things.
2:35
Matthew Chang: Um, and, uh, j Jason's been very heavy into AI since before it was a thing.
2:42
Matthew Chang: And, uh, it was about, I wanna say two years ago, Jason, you just kind of showed up outta nowhere
2:49
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
2:51
Matthew Chang: And Jason's claim was, I've lived here for 10 years or however long it was.
2:55
Matthew Chang: And I'm like, yeah, but nobody ever saw you before.
2:57
Matthew Chang: 'cause he was commuting every week to New York City to go run companies in on, uh, wall Street and in the city.
3:04
Matthew Chang: And that's very common down here.
3:06
Matthew Chang: We got a lot of CEOs like hide out in Jacksonville.
3:09
Matthew Chang: It's like there's secret hideaway, but then they go fly somewhere to do a big job.
3:14
Matthew Chang: But when Jason hit the ground.
3:16
Matthew Chang: I feel like he probably took one week off from the big time operations of, of running companies.
3:22
Matthew Chang: And then it probably drove your wife nuts is my guess, after one week and then
3:27
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
3:28
Matthew Chang: immediately turned into possibly the most prolific community builder in Jacksonville.
3:34
Jason Engelhardt: Oh, thank you.
3:36
Matthew Chang: uh, did you see that coming?
3:37
Matthew Chang: What'd you think I
3:37
Jason Engelhardt: no, I didn't.
3:38
Jason Engelhardt: That's very nice of you.
3:39
Jason Engelhardt: Wow.
3:40
Matthew Chang: So.
3:41
Colin Russ: We will have to get into the bad company drums behind you and everything too, but that that's for later.
3:46
Jason Engelhardt: Yeah, that's a whole different story.
3:47
Matthew Chang: so where Jason popped onto the scene was he just started hosting at an aggressive pace pitch events under the banner of a, a, uh, nonprofit movement.
3:58
Matthew Chang: He started called Silicon Beach, the idea of like Silicon Valley and Jacksonville Beach and kinda mashing those together and just started taking the community by storm.
4:08
Matthew Chang: I was joking on the pre-show, the wallpaper's, my LinkedIn.
4:12
Matthew Chang: So when Jason's post, if I go on LinkedIn, I just see like seven of his posts in a row.
4:16
Matthew Chang: It's, it's the whole thing.
4:18
Matthew Chang: And, um, and so he just really just immediately went in for an impact.
4:23
Matthew Chang: Uh, jumped in and helped us with our venture competition, uh, host Silicon Beach probably six times a year, Jason, be my guess, or maybe more.
4:31
Jason Engelhardt: been more than that lately, but yes.
4:33
Matthew Chang: Yeah, and, and then, and then it's the franchise.
4:36
Matthew Chang: I think that's what's happening to you now.
4:37
Matthew Chang: You're a franchise is people are pulling you.
4:41
Matthew Chang: He's got cigar nights, he's got pitch competitions at the local universities.
4:44
Matthew Chang: He partners with the city to spotlight, you know, black and women owned businesses.
4:49
Matthew Chang: I mean, it's just really incredible.
4:50
Matthew Chang: Um, and then it's been great to develop a friendship with Jason'cause he actually does work.
4:55
Matthew Chang: So when we're working on something together, he gets his piece done, which is, is nice for
5:00
Colin Russ: Rare, rare.
5:01
Jason Engelhardt: right.
5:02
Matthew Chang: that's my intro to Jason.
5:04
Matthew Chang: Two, two years we've been buds and bopping around Jacksonville and we both have the same passion.
5:09
Matthew Chang: Let's build a city, let's build entrepreneur scene.
5:11
Matthew Chang: Let's, let's solidify a funding scene so our entrepreneurs know where to go to get early stage capital.
5:16
Matthew Chang: And, uh, he's the type of guy that you can call him any day of the week and he'll drop what he is doing, make phone calls, work his network and try to help you out.
5:24
Matthew Chang: So Jason, tell us more.
5:26
Jason Engelhardt: Thank you.
5:27
Jason Engelhardt: Well, thank you.
5:27
Jason Engelhardt: That's that's very, very, very kind of you.
5:30
Jason Engelhardt: So, yeah, so it was funny because one of the things that Matt said was he asked me a little about myself when I first met him, and he's like, uh, you've been here 10 years, where you been?
5:41
Jason Engelhardt: I was like, oh gosh, you know, but he's right.
5:44
Jason Engelhardt: I, I've been commuting back and forth to New York for the last, I don't know how many years.
5:48
Jason Engelhardt: And, uh, he's also right that I think I took a week off and then decided, okay, I needed to do something.
5:55
Jason Engelhardt: And, uh, I've been working on Silicon Beach ever since.
5:59
Jason Engelhardt: And what we do is, you know, we, you know, we run three pitch events a month.
6:07
Jason Engelhardt: And I didn't expect to go monthly, Matt and Colin, but it just appeared that there was that much activity and that much interest.
6:16
Jason Engelhardt: So I've been thrilled to do it.
6:17
Jason Engelhardt: And luckily, university of North Florida has been kind enough to always provide me space.
6:23
Jason Engelhardt: So, um, I, I've, you, you know, I do a o open office hours at a coffee shop.
6:29
Jason Engelhardt: I move around the city and I try to find coffee shops with a mission.
6:34
Jason Engelhardt: Biddy and Bose is one.
6:36
Jason Engelhardt: Um, grounds of Grace is another.
6:38
Jason Engelhardt: So I keep moving to different coffee shops that have a mission and we bring 30, 40, 50 people in, which is, you know, nice bump for them on a weekly or monthly basis.
6:51
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and then we do, we do at a cigar event at Cigar International.
6:55
Jason Engelhardt: And the reason I do it there is for the most part, people are uncomfortable walking into a cigar shop.
7:03
Jason Engelhardt: Or, or a cigar lounge or bar.
7:06
Jason Engelhardt: And the fact that they're uncomfortable means that the conversation they're gonna have is gonna be probably a little bit deeper than if they just walked into, like someone suggested a pizza place, right?
7:18
Jason Engelhardt: Because for the most part, everybody's on their back foot and they're coming in and they're going, am I really gonna smoke a cigar?
7:24
Jason Engelhardt: I've never been to Cigar bar before.
7:25
Jason Engelhardt: Am I gonna have a drink?
7:26
Jason Engelhardt: Who are these people?
7:28
Jason Engelhardt: So.
7:29
Jason Engelhardt: I kind of use that to the advantage.
7:32
Jason Engelhardt: And the other thing that I do is I make sure when people come in to try to greet everybody, but also find out who do they want to talk to, what are they looking for that they're here at this event.
7:43
Jason Engelhardt: So we get people that end up being yoga instructors.
7:47
Jason Engelhardt: Um, we get people that are uh, um, beau beauticians, and then we get all the tech people.
7:54
Jason Engelhardt: And what's amazing is at the last event.
7:57
Jason Engelhardt: I got there probably a quarter to four, and there were already 25 or 30 people in the room already networking, and I think, all right, we we're, we're being successful now.
8:10
Jason Engelhardt: So much so
8:11
Colin Russ: something's working.
8:13
Jason Engelhardt: cigar International came up to me and they said, we really need you to start telling us when you're doing this because we have to bring another bartender on board and another person in the humidor.
8:24
Jason Engelhardt: So those are really nice positive signs.
8:27
Jason Engelhardt: Um, from a pitch perspective, we were doing it a few times a year.
8:32
Jason Engelhardt: Now we've been doing it almost every month and we're getting really great speakers.
8:38
Jason Engelhardt: Um, Joel Stevens from Bernstein flew down from, from Wall Street to come and present.
8:45
Jason Engelhardt: Um, we are getting somewhere between 130 and 150 people in the room, maybe more.
8:51
Jason Engelhardt: Another 20 or 30 people on the Zoom.
8:54
Jason Engelhardt: So we're getting people in and we're also, uh, finding that we have somewhere between 10 and 15 institutional investors or groups that show up.
9:07
Colin Russ: So the, the pitches, I mean, 130 to 150 people, that's awesome.
9:12
Colin Russ: I mean, to be able to be doing something like that, plus with, you know, more than a dozen institutional investors, that's just a dream mix for any aspiring entrepreneur.
9:20
Colin Russ: What are the areas that you're seeing a lot of these entrepreneurs come in and pitching from?
9:24
Colin Russ: You know, is it all ai, AI rappers?
9:27
Colin Russ: Is it weird mom and pop shops?
9:29
Colin Russ: You know, what?
9:29
Colin Russ: What is it you're seeing?
9:31
Jason Engelhardt: Yeah.
9:31
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, I'm not seeing mom and pop shops and that's okay.
9:34
Jason Engelhardt: 'cause I'm not sure we're, we're catering to them.
9:36
Jason Engelhardt: What I am seeing is innovation and disruptive technologies.
9:43
Jason Engelhardt: So it's not all ai.
9:45
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, but when I do say that I had a guy that pitched last time, he takes Basalt rock and he crushes it, and from there he creates it into a, um, a ribbon and then wraps it to create, um, rebar.
10:03
Jason Engelhardt: Now the interesting thing about it is it's lighter than steel.
10:07
Jason Engelhardt: It's stronger than steel, and it doesn't corrode.
10:11
Jason Engelhardt: So if you're an engineer like Matt, and you understand if you're building a sea wall, right?
10:17
Jason Engelhardt: The concrete is porous, that salt water gets through the concrete and starts to rust out the, the, uh, rebar.
10:25
Jason Engelhardt: Well, that's a problem.
10:26
Jason Engelhardt: And you see it when you drive around almost any place, whether it's a sea wall or it's a, it's a bridge.
10:33
Jason Engelhardt: You see that, that start to rust.
10:36
Jason Engelhardt: This won't do that.
10:37
Jason Engelhardt: So these guys, this is a new, innovative product, new innovative company, and they're pushing this forward.
10:43
Jason Engelhardt: Fascinating.
10:45
Matthew Chang: So we held, we hold the, um.
10:47
Matthew Chang: Probably the city's largest, uh, funding event every year called Jacksonville Venture Competition, although it seems like Jason's gonna be taking, taking over soon Uh, and so we do the formal pitch.
10:59
Matthew Chang: We'll qualify what, five to six companies, Jason, Jason said as a judge and brought some funders through the room and nominated several the startups.
11:07
Matthew Chang: And, um, and then one of his selections won and then they were funded.
11:12
Matthew Chang: Uh, the Chen Robotics Fund was happy to take the, the headline.
11:16
Matthew Chang: On the funding, and it was a, a Mayo Clinic doctor plus his business partners that created accessories for the robotic surgery market.
11:26
Matthew Chang: So the, the big innovation for a lot of these surgeries is the robotic surgery equipment, right?
11:31
Matthew Chang: That you could actually, uh, perform these surgeries, you know, faster healing time and all the benefits as to why most surgeons that have access to robotic surgery are going that way.
11:42
Matthew Chang: But just like after the iPhone was created.
11:45
Matthew Chang: We needed 10,000 accessories for it.
11:48
Matthew Chang: You know, phone cases, screen covers, charging mag chargers, like whatever.
11:53
Matthew Chang: Um, the surgeons that were doing the surgery kept saying, I wish we had insert the accessory for the catalog here.
12:02
Matthew Chang: Uh, that would make our surgery easier.
12:03
Matthew Chang: So some local physician, um.
12:08
Matthew Chang: And his team developed an American made, uh, sanitary accessory kit to make surgery faster.
12:15
Matthew Chang: They increase the cycle time of the surgeries and lower costs.
12:18
Matthew Chang: So that's an example.
12:19
Matthew Chang: Jason, you, that company's called Suture Shield and you found them probably, I'd guess six months before the pitch competition.
12:28
Jason Engelhardt: Easily.
12:28
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
12:29
Jason Engelhardt: Yeah.
12:30
Matthew Chang: and worked with, have a feeling put on stage a few times so that they were polished.
12:35
Jason Engelhardt: I, I, I did, I put them on stage a few times.
12:38
Jason Engelhardt: I helped them with their pitch.
12:40
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and the part that I found most interesting, which is what changed their pitch, because this is not a field that.
12:47
Jason Engelhardt: You know, I, I'm really in was the fact that the suture shield, which is about this big, actually goes inside the body.
12:56
Matthew Chang: Yeah.
12:57
Jason Engelhardt: And that was lost on me from their pitch.
13:00
Jason Engelhardt: So once they actually started to show that and created the, the, the, um, the video of how this actually works, that's when people went, oh my gosh, look at this.
13:12
Jason Engelhardt: This is really amazing, right?
13:14
Jason Engelhardt: Because, you know, you don't, you don't think about it as much, but these robots, they operate inside the body, right?
13:23
Jason Engelhardt: When you have arthroscopic surgery, many cases, those are robots, right?
13:28
Jason Engelhardt: So if you're having hernia surgery, it's probably a robot with two little poke holes in your belly and they've, they've blown air in to make the cavity larger for them to work with.
13:43
Matthew Chang: He's finding everything, Colin.
13:45
Matthew Chang: And when you look at, when you look at Jason's companies on the first pitch, just being fair to entrepreneurs, they're probably all a pass, right?
13:54
Matthew Chang: By the time they've been with Jason 3, 4, 5 months, and they've, they've kind of sharpened their message and professionalized, uh, the way they think.
14:01
Matthew Chang: Uh, they're all a go, like all of them.
14:05
Matthew Chang: You know, every, every company Jason's ever brought to something I've done is you're like, gosh, I wish.
14:10
Matthew Chang: Why do we have to pick one?
14:10
Matthew Chang: Why can't we pick four?
14:11
Matthew Chang: Let's pick four winners,
14:13
Jason Engelhardt: And that was a great thought last time.
14:15
Jason Engelhardt: The last time we did the, the venture competition, right?
14:17
Jason Engelhardt: People were like, well, how do we fund all of these?
14:20
Jason Engelhardt: And that's the goal.
14:21
Jason Engelhardt: So what we're finding is that people are elevating their game before they get to the pitch competition now.
14:28
Jason Engelhardt: And I have people come before they pitch to see it, and they go, yeah, well, I'm not ready.
14:35
Jason Engelhardt: I know you're not ready, but this is the level of caliber you have to be at.
14:39
Jason Engelhardt: So what I'm doing now, Matt, is I'm starting to create an incubator to get people ready and I'm working with the city to help fund this.
14:51
Jason Engelhardt: I'll be going out to probably some, some, uh, companies too, to see if I can get some charitable donations to help fund this.
14:59
Jason Engelhardt: Um, but I think it's important for the city of Jacksonville, we don't have that innovation that that incubator.
15:07
Jason Engelhardt: To help these founders grow, which eventually means jobs for the area.
15:14
Jason Engelhardt: So I met
15:15
Matthew Chang: Colin, just for your background and for the audience, Jacksonville is headquarters for a couple Fortune five hundreds, so we do have a a pretty decent.
15:25
Matthew Chang: Uh, corporate base.
15:27
Matthew Chang: We also have a lot of kind of utility institutions.
15:29
Matthew Chang: We've got military bases and we're a railroad hub.
15:32
Matthew Chang: We have a, a, you know, a top sea port, you know, so we have kind of that infrastructure layer.
15:38
Matthew Chang: Uh, and we have, I would say almost inadvertently created a couple unicorns over the last 20 years.
15:46
Matthew Chang: Probably our biggest one that's waiting to exit right now would be, um, fanatics.
15:52
Matthew Chang: You know, they, they, they built a massive
15:55
Colin Russ: and everything.
15:55
Colin Russ: Yeah.
15:56
Matthew Chang: Yeah, yeah.
15:56
Matthew Chang: All the pro sports merchandising.
15:59
Matthew Chang: They've built a massive operation with Jacksonville, you know, Jacksonville founding Jacksonville roots, and, um, and now they're into the, the e-comm stuff, the sports betting, you know, all that add on to sports.
16:13
Matthew Chang: But we don't really have a feeder program.
16:15
Matthew Chang: Like those are, those are rare.
16:17
Matthew Chang: And we, we just had, uh, who was it?
16:19
Matthew Chang: Dow Jones just bought one of our companies.
16:21
Matthew Chang: Jason,
16:22
Jason Engelhardt: Oh, I, I'm not aware of that.
16:24
Matthew Chang: the Black Fi, black Knight Financial exit, which
16:26
Jason Engelhardt: Oh, yes, I'm sorry.
16:27
Jason Engelhardt: Yes,
16:28
Matthew Chang: Yeah.
16:28
Matthew Chang: I think that went to ICE or, or uh, Dow Jones, uh, parent company.
16:33
Matthew Chang: And, and so we do have these success cases, but it's not, it's not like spinning out like you have in other cities until now.
16:41
Matthew Chang: So like the velocity, how many startups are you touching per year, Jason?
16:46
Jason Engelhardt: I do.
16:48
Jason Engelhardt: Well, so I see between, between two and 3000 pitches a year, but I end up, I end up highlighting eight a month.
16:58
Jason Engelhardt: That the common pitch.
17:01
Jason Engelhardt: So it's, it's a decent number.
17:04
Matthew Chang: A, that's
17:04
Colin Russ: one of the things that, you know, we're just saying across the country is just a huge shift of, uh, kind of next generation and, and frankly, you know, a lot of millennials even.
17:13
Colin Russ: Um, looking at entrepreneurship as a viable kind of career path, kinda the way forward.
17:19
Colin Russ: 'cause they want more control over their life, their time, their schedule, what, whatever.
17:24
Colin Russ: Um, and so you see that increased affinity towards I wanna be my own boss, I want to build something.
17:31
Colin Russ: But you know, to Matt's point, you don't have these feeder programs that the supportive infrastructure.
17:38
Colin Russ: To really make that possible.
17:40
Colin Russ: And so at its core, it sounds like that's what Silicon Beach is, is that it's that, you know, not quite venture studio, but kind of the incubator, you know, and facilitator to get these companies ready.
17:51
Colin Russ: Or maybe you can speak a bit more to that.
17:55
Jason Engelhardt: I didn't originally start with the incubator, right?
17:57
Jason Engelhardt: I started with pitches that are supposedly companies that have MVPs and they're really ready to go to help them accelerate and scale, right?
18:06
Jason Engelhardt: So that really is more the venture studio perspective.
18:09
Jason Engelhardt: And I, I do work with a lot of companies in that area.
18:12
Jason Engelhardt: I also have Matt, one of the companies that pitched last year.
18:15
Jason Engelhardt: We're in conversations with a, um, let's say a publicly traded foreign company for a potential exit.
18:23
Matthew Chang: Nice.
18:23
Jason Engelhardt: Okay.
18:24
Jason Engelhardt: So, so it really does run the gamut.
18:26
Jason Engelhardt: What I did see though, there is a, there was a, an, a incubator in the Jacksonville, let's say adjacent area, and they're stopping because it's hard to make money at that, right?
18:39
Jason Engelhardt: For the most part, it becomes a, um, a pipeline or feeder into your organization.
18:46
Jason Engelhardt: So I looked at this and I said, we really can't have this disappear.
18:51
Jason Engelhardt: Um, Jacksonville's too big of a city and too important for us not to do it.
18:56
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and I'm, I'm a kind of guy that says, if there's no one leading, I have to fill the void, rightly or wrongly.
19:03
Jason Engelhardt: And so I came up with this concept and I went to the city and I said, we need to do this because from an education perspective, this is part of the future of the city.
19:13
Jason Engelhardt: So while I, you know, it wasn't my initial intention, it's something that's very important.
19:18
Jason Engelhardt: So I feel like I have to get involved and, um, I've brought a lot of people in that, uh, are gonna help teach.
19:26
Jason Engelhardt: I'm not gonna teach every program, every class.
19:28
Jason Engelhardt: I couldn't possibly do that.
19:30
Jason Engelhardt: Um, but I brought in people, um, from University of Florida University, uh, north Florida, Flagler, uh, and JU to help.
19:40
Jason Engelhardt: Because the reality in my mind is it affects all of us.
19:45
Jason Engelhardt: Um, so how do I bring the right people in to give the right class or course to whoever it may be or whatever that topic may be.
19:55
Colin Russ: On our last episode, Matt and I went into education very broadly and, you know, a, a litany of issues we obviously see with that.
20:04
Colin Russ: But one of the core things is we hit on was really having the education piece tied to the needs of the businesses, basically preparing people to meet the moment.
20:17
Colin Russ: And so it, that's, it sounds very much like that is a, a core piece of what you're doing.
20:23
Jason Engelhardt: It, it's exactly a core piece and I'm, you know, you also find that not everybody's gonna do well in a classroom setting, you're gonna speak to them differently in whatever this setting is going to be.
20:36
Jason Engelhardt: And there's gonna be a lot of learning going on there because of it, but it's gonna be a lot of real world learning, right?
20:42
Jason Engelhardt: I go and, and I've had the privilege of speaking at University of Florida, all those universities.
20:47
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, um, um, I was just over at Jacksonville University.
20:50
Jason Engelhardt: I did, uh, Flagler, uh, I've done UNF number of times.
20:54
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and it's talking to these, these young people about entrepreneurship and the, the beauties and the pitfalls and the challenges.
21:04
Jason Engelhardt: And I've had some very positive feedback because it's been very honest with them.
21:09
Jason Engelhardt: It's not just book, you know, let's turn to page 60, or whatever it may be.
21:13
Jason Engelhardt: It's really, this is what it is.
21:15
Jason Engelhardt: And for the most part, what I do is I put up one slide, which is just like a, a word bubble that tells you the different things that happened throughout my career.
21:25
Jason Engelhardt: And I will tell you whatever the story is of anything you want to talk about.
21:30
Jason Engelhardt: So I don't really walk in with an agenda.
21:32
Matthew Chang: One of the things that Jason does really good, Colin, is like he mentioned, he is, he is got a startup and they're onto something.
21:40
Matthew Chang: They may be ripe for a kind of a, I call it a innovation exit to a publicly traded Jason.
21:46
Matthew Chang: So it's, would that be fair that the, the company's not really buying the financials they're buying, buying the IP or the, the idea,
21:54
Jason Engelhardt: They're buying the ip.
21:56
Matthew Chang: right, exactly.
21:57
Matthew Chang: Jason is really good at being agnostic.
22:01
Matthew Chang: So I mentioned, you know, we gave the example of how he supported the venture competition and got one of his mentored companies funded, you know, by their first vc.
22:10
Matthew Chang: He also pushes to private equity.
22:13
Matthew Chang: I've seen him push to private credit.
22:15
Matthew Chang: He takes people to larger company exits, strategic exits.
22:19
Matthew Chang: Like he, that's, that's one of the unique things is a lot of the times online when we listen to the venture crowd, it's just like venture, venture venture.
22:26
Matthew Chang: Right.
22:27
Matthew Chang: Well that is such a small portion of businesses and it's not, it's not the right path for everybody.
22:33
Matthew Chang: And so that's kind of the cool thing about going through Silicon Beach and Jason is he doesn't really care.
22:38
Matthew Chang: Is it venture?
22:38
Matthew Chang: Is it private equity?
22:39
Matthew Chang: Is it something else?
22:41
Matthew Chang: He doesn't really care.
22:42
Matthew Chang: He kind of maps and says this, you're a good fit for this channel.
22:46
Matthew Chang: And the messaging for each of those channels is really different for a company builder.
22:52
Jason Engelhardt: Thank you.
22:53
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
22:53
Jason Engelhardt: Mm-hmm.
22:54
Colin Russ: we're gonna shift, uh, gears here briefly.
22:57
Colin Russ: We, we have, uh, some fun little questions that we like to kind of get into with everybody.
23:01
Colin Russ: Um, first one is, what is your AI tool of choice that you, your default go-to?
23:07
Colin Russ: And the second one is, what is the last thing you asked it?
23:14
Jason Engelhardt: I, I discovered, uh, two things I'll share.
23:17
Jason Engelhardt: Um, one is I discovered notion recently.
23:20
Jason Engelhardt: The Notion database.
23:21
Jason Engelhardt: I'm not sure that's exactly ai, but oh my God, I'm starting to use that and build it out for, for a few projects I'm working on that are big and complex.
23:31
Jason Engelhardt: I, I use chat GPT and it has become my therapist.
23:37
Jason Engelhardt: What I mean by that is when I'm up at two o'clock in the morning and I'm strategizing and I can't sleep, I talk to chat GPT about freaking everything, and it's been helping me to organize things.
23:48
Jason Engelhardt: I still write everything longhand.
23:51
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and I still, like, there's a, uh, uh, I'm working on something with the military right now and I had a read just because it's who I am, like the 600 page requirements.
24:01
Jason Engelhardt: I could have probably dropped it into, um, chat GBT and asked it to gimme the summary.
24:08
Jason Engelhardt: I couldn't, I, I'm always fearful I'm not gonna be able to speak to something, so I still have to go through it.
24:15
Jason Engelhardt: I still have to write everything longhand and I drop it in there to make sure it helps me organize it, polish it, um, and most importantly, spell check and make sure my sentences aren't like one sentence from beginning to end.
24:29
Colin Russ: It's always, always pretty clutch.
24:31
Colin Russ: I, I wish I had had that benefit in, you know, high school for my writing.
24:35
Colin Russ: I probably would've gotten a little bit better grades, but hey.
24:39
Jason Engelhardt: But you still have to do the work.
24:41
Matthew Chang: Colin, you should have gone to Purdue.
24:42
Matthew Chang: 'cause then you don't have to write.
24:44
Colin Russ: I know, I know.
24:45
Colin Russ: Could've just drawn in my, stuck with my math and stuff would've been better.
24:49
Matthew Chang: Jason.
24:50
Matthew Chang: Last episode we talked about Colin got accepted to Purdue for engineering.
24:54
Matthew Chang: Then he chased a girl to a liberal arts school to major in political science.
24:58
Matthew Chang: And uh, so I guess you had to do a lot of writing as a result of your choice.
25:03
Jason Engelhardt: Oh my.
25:04
Jason Engelhardt: So, so Colin, did you marry her?
25:06
Colin Russ: Oh God, no.
25:08
Colin Russ: I don't even think I saw her after the tour.
25:09
Colin Russ: I was just, you know, 18-year-old hormones,
25:12
Jason Engelhardt: All right.
25:12
Jason Engelhardt: I'm sorry to hear that.
25:14
Colin Russ: eh, you live and learn, right?
25:16
Colin Russ: It's not, not life altering or anything.
25:18
Jason Engelhardt: Right.
25:20
Colin Russ: All right.
25:20
Colin Russ: Well, thank you.
25:21
Colin Russ: So I guess getting back more onto the topic, um, you know, let's talk about what's next for Silicon Beach.
25:29
Colin Russ: You know, where do you see it going, you know, not just in next year,'cause obviously you're saying thousands of pitches.
25:35
Colin Russ: Um, but what does that trajectory look like in terms of impact in Jacksonville more broadly, the, the portfolio or the companies you're helping?
25:42
Colin Russ: You know, let, let's talk about the future a bit.
25:45
Jason Engelhardt: Well, I, I've actually taken a, maybe it's a pivot, maybe it's a natural progression.
25:50
Jason Engelhardt: And Matt, I don't know if I shared this, this with you, but, um, I'm creating Silicon Beach development, which is, um, I'm actually working on pretty large scale.
26:02
Jason Engelhardt: Development pro, pro, uh, projects.
26:04
Jason Engelhardt: Some are here in the city of Jacksonville.
26:08
Jason Engelhardt: Others will be throughout the state.
26:11
Jason Engelhardt: So I'm working with the state, counties, cities, um, different aspects of the military.
26:17
Jason Engelhardt: I'm on my way up to Capitol Hill soon.
26:20
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, so it's, it's absolutely fascinating how one thing just continues to lead to the next.
26:25
Jason Engelhardt: Um, but it, it all.
26:27
Matthew Chang: real estate development, right?
26:29
Jason Engelhardt: I don't consider myself a real estate developer, but yes, I'm talking about real
26:33
Matthew Chang: be built, it's like land and buildings.
26:36
Jason Engelhardt: So I have, I'm partnering with people that actually do the construction and private equity people for that.
26:44
Jason Engelhardt: What I'm doing is I'm doing what I do, which is, I'm making, I'm making the deals.
26:50
Jason Engelhardt: Um, so I, I'm seeing areas where.
26:54
Jason Engelhardt: It would be nice to have leadership, and I'm filling those voids, whether it is for the military at one airport or another, or a military base, or it's, you know, FDA clean room capabilities, whatever it is that I'm, I'm seeing from people I'm talking to, I'm just stepping my way right into it.
27:13
Matthew Chang: Colin, we finally got into manufacturing.
27:16
Matthew Chang: So Jason's got basalt rock ribbons that replace rebar in high corrosive marine environments.
27:25
Matthew Chang: He is
27:25
Colin Russ: gotta be built somewhere.
27:27
Matthew Chang: tiny, tiny little surgery accessories for robots to use.
27:32
Matthew Chang: Uh, are you going full made in USA on us?
27:34
Matthew Chang: Jason?
27:35
Matthew Chang: Is that what just happened?
27:36
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, all of this is made in the USA?
27:38
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
27:40
Colin Russ: So it is possible, despite the critic's claims, it is possible.
27:44
Colin Russ: Go
27:44
Jason Engelhardt: Everything is made in the USA.
27:46
Jason Engelhardt: I didn't think about it until you just said that, Matt.
27:49
Jason Engelhardt: But, um, it, it's not only that, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's all focused on how do we help the US um, manufacture, do advanced manufacturing, um, and, you know, prepare ourselves for the future.
28:05
Matthew Chang: Yeah.
28:06
Matthew Chang: And, and Colin, if you, you know, you're gonna have to be our guest from here on out for some of this stuff in Jacksonville.
28:11
Matthew Chang: You can, uh, you can pack it up and export it back to, to Erie.
28:16
Matthew Chang: Um, but one of the, one of the crazy things, uh, that we see time and time again, our founders here and a lot of the innovation, our building things.
28:27
Matthew Chang: These are not apps.
28:29
Matthew Chang: Nobody, nobody here is trying to scale a language model or something that's kind of esoteric and it's just software code.
28:36
Matthew Chang: Sure.
28:36
Matthew Chang: You have some of that.
28:38
Matthew Chang: You have, yeah.
28:39
Matthew Chang: Lots of atoms and, and these are the types of towns.
28:41
Matthew Chang: I, I constantly argue that the types of towns that produce a lot of really compelling hardware tech that has to be manufactured right.
28:50
Matthew Chang: Um, it, our place is like a, like a Jacksonville, Florida, like a Kansas City.
28:56
Matthew Chang: You know, those are the, those are the towns where when people think about it, innovation, they're thinking about real physical things and they're not only going after this internet scaling phenomenon, they just wanna build things that make the world better.
29:08
Matthew Chang: You know, whether it be surgery or rebars or what have you.
29:11
Matthew Chang: So.
29:14
Colin Russ: I mean that, that's important stuff and that, you know, obviously we've hit on it, I don't know how many times, but I think that's where we see, you know, a lot of the future of production development is just, it's not in Silicon Valley, it's not in, you know, San Francisco or necessarily, you know, the, these traditional tech hubs, but it's quote unquote more real world.
29:33
Colin Russ: These places where there's real problems to solve and these are the product of people solving those.
29:38
Colin Russ: So these facilities you're developing, I know we're starting to get, you know, near the end here, but, you know, let, let's talk, you know, briefly about are these gonna be the facilities to, for, for people producing that stuff?
29:51
Colin Russ: Are we talking more just space for companies to, you know, build out of be startups type thing or what's that gonna look like?
29:58
Jason Engelhardt: Yeah, it, it, so one of the facilities is going to be, um, advanced manufacturing research development and testing.
30:08
Jason Engelhardt: Um, for, I don't wanna get into what it, what it would be at this point yet, but it, it has a, a, a military implication to.
30:16
Jason Engelhardt: It.
30:17
Jason Engelhardt: Uh, the other one is, um, from an FDA approval perspective, it's very hard to find the right place that you can actually test your products usually has to be sent out someplace.
30:32
Jason Engelhardt: But to have an environment that allows you to research, develop, and test in a, in the proper environment, right?
30:41
Jason Engelhardt: Being a clean room or something like that, and creating a innovation.
30:46
Jason Engelhardt: Space for that is something that doesn't really exist.
30:51
Jason Engelhardt: But we have a lot, you know, a, a big, a big industry for Jacksonville happens to be medical.
30:59
Jason Engelhardt: So to me it, it makes logical sense to put it here,
31:04
Matthew Chang: Yeah.
31:05
Jason Engelhardt: So
31:05
Colin Russ: there's a market, there's a need and somebody's gotta fill it.
31:08
Jason Engelhardt: right.
31:09
Jason Engelhardt: So if, if, if we can fill it, that brings more jobs to Jacksonville.
31:14
Matthew Chang: yeah, and, and, and I want to bring up a point that Jason is, which mentioned the feeder program.
31:19
Matthew Chang: So with Silicon Beach currently, it's kind of like.
31:23
Matthew Chang: This is, this is a compliment by the way.
31:24
Matthew Chang: It's kinda like lit little league baseball, right?
31:27
Matthew Chang: And to have elite high school teams, to have elite, you know, players going to university in your region, you gotta start'em young, right?
31:35
Matthew Chang: You gotta really develop those players early.
31:37
Matthew Chang: Um, when you drive around Jacksonville, you've got Mayo Clinic, university of Florida Hospital, St.
31:46
Matthew Chang: Vincent's, multiple other chains, the Baptist Hospital.
31:51
Matthew Chang: Um, MD Anderson, they're all right here.
31:54
Matthew Chang: Those are the consumers of the experimental drugs and the therapeutics,
31:59
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
31:59
Matthew Chang: That's who's, that's who's using it.
32:01
Matthew Chang: And then if you look at just, I mean, for me and Jason's house, Mayo Clinic's like three miles away.
32:07
Matthew Chang: Um, when you just look at the stuff that kind of spills out of it, you know, their campus is kinda like an aircraft carrier or a military base by itself.
32:16
Matthew Chang: It's just a tremendous amount of people it takes to run that operation.
32:20
Matthew Chang: So every doctor that really does great ends up kind of eventually spilling out to start their own idea.
32:26
Matthew Chang: Um, having access to space like this, that is the barrier, right?
32:32
Matthew Chang: Why do big companies do all the drug development?
32:34
Matthew Chang: Because big companies are the only ones that can afford billion dollar factories where you can do this experimentation, right?
32:41
Matthew Chang: And then the other, the other part would be military.
32:45
Matthew Chang: We've had a good lesson this year of, of modernization military that's been kind of center.
32:51
Matthew Chang: Uh, obviously everything's changing, right?
32:53
Matthew Chang: Everything is changing.
32:54
Matthew Chang: So the old rules of war are going away.
32:56
Matthew Chang: New rules are coming in.
32:57
Matthew Chang: The, the military does not have a close connection.
33:01
Matthew Chang: We have, how many bases do we have, Jason?
33:04
Matthew Chang: We have two or
33:04
Jason Engelhardt: I.
33:06
Matthew Chang: Two or three.
33:07
Matthew Chang: We have, we have an aircraft carrier base and we have a naval air station.
33:09
Matthew Chang: We might have another one.
33:11
Matthew Chang: Anyways, we got a lot, we have a lot of military assets in the region.
33:15
Matthew Chang: But there is no feeder to get the materials and the innovation they need into the base.
33:22
Matthew Chang: And then, uh, we've got from us, Jason, what is it about a less than an hour's drive to Kings Bay, which is the nuclear sub headquarters
33:30
Jason Engelhardt: Yes.
33:30
Jason Engelhardt: Yep.
33:31
Matthew Chang: I, it's all right here.
33:32
Matthew Chang: Like the national defense is right here.
33:33
Matthew Chang: We, Jason and I are lucky.
33:36
Matthew Chang: We see, we hear the sound of freedom every day outside.
33:38
Matthew Chang: Like every day the Jets and the helicopters
33:41
Colin Russ: Beautiful roar.
33:42
Jason Engelhardt: Matt, Matt, if, if you even go further than just Jacksonville, right?
33:46
Jason Engelhardt: And out a little bit, all of Florida is filled with military bases.
33:52
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and there are some you know of and some you don't know of.
33:56
Jason Engelhardt: Um, so to Matt's point, providing them with a space.
34:00
Jason Engelhardt: For their vendors, a space that they can have direct feedback and their, and the military is part of that loop all of a sudden, so that you're not developing things and you're waiting six months to get a, a, a, you know, a reply to have everybody in a certain area.
34:20
Jason Engelhardt: Focusing on whatever it may be, whether, like you said, whether it's uh, uh, Mayport or, or JJAS, right?
34:26
Jason Engelhardt: But to get their, their feedback quickly and to get it in their hands is so important.
34:33
Jason Engelhardt: And that's changing the military right now.
34:35
Jason Engelhardt: And, and, um, secretary Hef is one of the people right now who are saying that, you know, we need to cha change this bureaucracy and start moving quicker.
34:46
Jason Engelhardt: Right.
34:47
Jason Engelhardt: That leadership is allowing us to have these conversations and create public private environments for
34:55
Matthew Chang: was gonna ask if you view this as a, as a P three, because when you say FDA or you say military, those are federal institutions, but you're, you're, the development is, is catering to bridge the gap between a federal institution and a private sector innovation to meet that need.
35:11
Matthew Chang: Right.
35:12
Jason Engelhardt: It has to be, I, I, I, there's no way I could build this without them and without their guidance and without their regulations to follow whatever those rules are.
35:23
Jason Engelhardt: Right?
35:23
Jason Engelhardt: I spent the, the morning with, uh, at, at a military base, um, you know, working with them to identify what are some of the rules I have to think about.
35:33
Matthew Chang: Amazing.
35:35
Jason Engelhardt: Yeah.
35:35
Colin Russ: gotta be able to, uh, meet, meet the customer where they're at, if you will.
35:39
Colin Russ: So it, you know, makes perfect sense.
35:41
Colin Russ: Well, we are coming up on time, but before we leave Jason, where can people find you?
35:47
Colin Russ: Where can they reach you?
35:48
Colin Russ: What are the socials, what.
35:49
Colin Russ: Website, all that good stuff.
35:51
Jason Engelhardt: So I am at, um, Silicon beach.ai.
35:58
Jason Engelhardt: That's our website.
35:59
Jason Engelhardt: Um, I'm always on LinkedIn like Matt says, and I, I, you know, I'm always posting.
36:05
Jason Engelhardt: We have events constantly.
36:06
Jason Engelhardt: You could find those on.
36:08
Jason Engelhardt: On Silicon beach.ai as well.
36:11
Jason Engelhardt: I don't really use other socials'cause I don't find them to be really business focused, in my opinion.
36:16
Jason Engelhardt: Um, and I want to keep business separate from, from pleasure and the stuff I post on a personal perspective is just funny, ironic jokes.
36:24
Jason Engelhardt: I don't do anything business on there.
36:26
Matthew Chang: Memes encouraged.
36:28
Jason Engelhardt: Yes, exactly.
36:30
Jason Engelhardt: You know, I, I'm, I'm even much more sarcastic personally than I am in business.
36:35
Colin Russ: Well, Jason, thank you so much.
36:38
Colin Russ: This has been great.
36:38
Colin Russ: I feel like we could have gone for another hour easily, just talk about all the different things you've got your hand in.
36:43
Colin Russ: Um, but you know, really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.
36:46
Colin Russ: Say it sounds like you are really doing some important work, so please keep at it, keep doing the great things you're doing for the community, um, and for their audience.
36:57
Colin Russ: I'm Colin, you can reach me on socials on X, particularly on at that, Colin, at that Colin three as.
37:04
Colin Russ: Um, and you can find me on LinkedIn as well.
37:07
Colin Russ: And Matt.
37:08
Matthew Chang: Yep, you got my handle here.
37:10
Matthew Chang: Easy to find on X and LinkedIn or check us ai.
37:15
Matthew Chang: Thank you.
37:16
Colin Russ: And make sure you check out our website, Reforge Pod.
37:21
Colin Russ: Check us out on the socials too and then you can talk to us or listen again next week,
37:25
Jason Engelhardt: thank you everybody.
37:26
Jason Engelhardt: Thank you for the opportunity.
37:31
Thanks for tuning in to the Reforge Podcast.
37:34
Make sure to like, subscribe and follow us on all of our social media at the Reforge Pod.
37:40
We'll see you next time.