Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes / A psychographic agent turned a student app into a scalable SaaS

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A psychographic agent turned a student app into a scalable SaaS · AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

0:00
Welcome back to AI for Founders. I'm your host, Ryan Estes.
0:03
I'm not AI. Today I'm joined by Johnny and
0:06
Sebastian, the father son duo behind Talent Scout, an AI
0:10
driven HR tool born from a college startup called Juntos.
0:14
What started as a platform to help students find community
0:17
evolved into AB to B hiring tool powered by psychographic
0:21
matching. That means they're not just
0:23
scanning resumes, they're assessing cultural fit,
0:25
personality traits, and emotional intelligence, all
0:28
while staying compliant with emerging legislation around AI
0:32
and hiring. From Bolivian roots to
0:34
rainforest to LA startups and software guardrails, this is a
0:38
story about solving real problems with precision, AI and
0:42
a whole lot of heart. Whether you're building your
0:44
first product or hiring your 10th developer, there's gold in
0:47
this one. So let's dive in.
0:49
But first, some business. This episode is brought to you
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by Kitcaster, the podcast booking service that helps
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Let's get you heard. That's Kick Caster by Moeburst
1:47
and we're here to talk about talent scout.
1:49
So Sebastian, start us in with, you know, a talent scouter knows
1:54
a product that kind of evolved out of Juntos.
1:57
Will you talk to us a little bit about that?
2:00
Yeah, no, most definitely. So hi.
2:03
Hi, everyone. My name is Seb.
2:06
And so Juntos was kind of born. I, I transferred to USC,
2:10
University of Southern California as a sophomore.
2:13
And you know, the biggest issue that I encountered was finding
2:17
my people, my, my community. And they got to a point where I
2:20
felt really lonely. And, you know, I started
2:23
thinking, look, we, we have social media for content
2:26
creation, we have LinkedIn for, but it's, it's more formal.
2:32
And then we have all the dating apps, which is more so focused
2:35
on hookup culture, all that sort of stuff.
2:37
But there's not a platform out there leveraging AI, connecting
2:41
students and, and helping them find, find their people.
2:44
And so that's, that's where Juntos was born.
2:46
Juntos in Spanish means together.
2:48
It's, it's kind of a play on, on words.
2:51
My, my dad, he's, he's Bolivian. So that's, that's kind of where,
2:54
where the thinking of, of the name Juntos came from.
2:57
And really the backbone of Juntos was this psychographic
3:01
agent that, that we were able to create.
3:03
And I guess psychographic. Let me, let me just define that
3:06
for you. It refers to personality traits,
3:09
attributes and values of, of people.
3:12
And so the whole reasoning behind creating this whole
3:15
psychographic agent was so that Funtos was really able to get a,
3:19
a deep understanding of, you know, who are each of the users,
3:23
who are the students? And who can we help them find to
3:27
be able to, you know, build, build up their, their, their
3:30
connections, their community within university, Just just
3:34
just to make it easier, you know, because at the end of the
3:37
day, humans were, we're social beings and, and we need that
3:39
sense of connection, that sense of community.
3:43
Love it. So now last time we talked the,
3:47
the, the tough thing with getting something like this is,
3:50
is establishing the network effect.
3:52
It sounds like you guys looked at this product that people were
3:54
using. You're like, dude, this is
3:56
really cool. You know, what's an application?
3:58
How can we spin this out? What can come out of this?
4:00
And I, I think that's how Talent Scout got started, am I right?
4:05
Correct. Yep.
4:06
So as we were pushing out the the solution specifically in USC
4:12
and presented to potential investors, one of the the, the
4:16
questions that they came out, where else can you use the
4:19
psychographic agent to be able to capture the essence of
4:23
people, to connect with other people or in this case
4:27
specifically the use cases to be able to understand candidates,
4:31
so you can imagine to job descriptions and see if they're
4:34
a good fit for that role. So that's kind of how we all
4:38
went to that. Cool.
4:39
So and until talk about the bridge here, Seb was this kind
4:43
of a school project that became kind of a a new venture that
4:47
you're doing with your dad. I love that aspect of it.
4:49
Like what was the the switch? Did you meet somebody on the
4:52
app? You're like, I'm not lonely
4:54
anymore. We might as well make a book
4:55
off. Oh, that's, that's, that's
5:01
really funny. No, so really it, I guess Juntos
5:06
it's, it's inception was back in January of 2024 and you know,
5:11
it, it was what is it? I, I was finishing up my my
5:16
sophomore year. Well, that, that, that first
5:18
semester, fall semester, sophomore year, and I just, I
5:22
wasn't at a good point mentally, emotionally, I, I felt like,
5:26
well, I'm in the school surrounded by so many cool
5:28
people, but I haven't been able to meet them.
5:31
And so I was like, I know what I need to do.
5:34
I need to break out of my shell. I need to put myself out there.
5:38
But for me that, that took a lot of work, you know, a lot of
5:42
therapy and, and kind of me overcoming those mental barriers
5:45
that for a long time had had held me back.
5:46
And I was like, the work is important, Don't get me wrong,
5:51
But I want there to be an easier way for students who are just
5:57
less, But I don't want to say less, less willing to put in the
6:02
work because I know kind of everyone is, but they're,
6:05
they're just kind of like they, they feel stuck.
6:07
And so that's, that's kind of how Juntos came to be.
6:12
And, you know, after that I, I started talking with my dad and
6:16
he said, Oh, you know what? This, this is something that's
6:18
there's, there's something here and my dad was able to connect
6:22
me with two of his his developers that he had worked
6:25
with in the past and we started getting rolling and that's,
6:28
that's really from that, from that point moving onward.
6:33
I think it was summer of 2024. Excuse me, yes, summer of 2024
6:38
when, when we're like, OK, we're either going to do this or we're
6:41
not going to do this. You know, like every, every kind
6:43
of startup has has that moment. And after thinking about it, we
6:47
were like, all right, let's, let's go full force.
6:49
Let's, let's see where this takes us because that's, that's
6:53
the one thing that's really exciting within the startup
6:55
world is you never know, you know?
6:59
And thus Talent Scout is born and you know, to kind of tie a
7:03
bow on it, basically, this is a, a fantastic AI enhanced software
7:08
for HR hiring directors that can basically screen massive amounts
7:14
of, of resumes and applications, not only for just basic kind of
7:20
like qualifiers like a this, this is this job is in Denver,
7:24
you know, so that qualify a certain amount, you know, do you
7:27
have to have XYZ that's going to disqualify amount?
7:30
What hiring I think directors understand is that like, boy,
7:33
you put a, you put application on indeed, you put application
7:37
on LinkedIn and you're going to get hundreds and hundreds,
7:40
hundreds of applicants and somehow you're supposed to parse
7:42
through all that information. Well, it's impossible.
7:44
So what talent scout does is parses through all that, not
7:48
only just kind of like with the quick qualifiers, but then you
7:50
guys kind of have this psycho psychographic information that
7:54
you develop from Juntos that determines whether this is going
7:57
to be a good cultural fit, a good professional fit.
8:00
Maybe you could talk about those elements of that the the
8:03
psychographics that that hire hiring people can use to to
8:08
screen the candidates. Yeah, 100%.
8:12
So the inflection point was to be able to bring value from the
8:16
get go to the users, whether it's B to B or B to C to your
8:20
question. So to be able to have precision
8:25
and to be able to value if it's a good fit, whether it's
8:28
cultural soft skills or hard skills, right?
8:32
We develop at six dimensional evaluation mathematical model.
8:38
OK, there we, we consider analytical piece of this
8:43
innovation creative, ethical. And and the way we do it is that
8:49
for every single role, if we think about it, whether it's for
8:52
the sales position, whether it's for a nurse or whether it's for
8:54
account manager, there's always weights that you can just divide
8:59
that, right? So for example, if you're
9:02
someone more technical, you may need some analytical more weight
9:06
on the analytical traits versus to be more resilient or
9:12
assertive, right? So our model, what he does, he
9:15
clearly analyzes the job description, it breaks it down
9:18
and identifies the traits that really help us identify the best
9:23
candidates. Love it.
9:28
So you guys are, I know you're around you Caprice, but you
9:33
already haven't. How does that kind of, I'd love
9:36
to hear just this, this beginning journey of startups.
9:40
You know, I think a significant part of this, this audience is
9:45
probably, you know, sitting on the fence ready to take the big
9:48
plunge. So you know, from from last
9:51
January 2024 to now, what's that experience been like and where
9:55
you guys headed? It's a roller coaster of
10:01
emotions when those are great than others.
10:04
But that's part of the sort of world, right?
10:06
And that's something that I believe you have to couple
10:11
things that you have to consider right when you get into the
10:14
venture of creating something. This is part of the DNA, part of
10:18
the DNA that you have to be able to manage those emotions, right?
10:21
One day is great, One day is not so great, whether it's something
10:24
technical, whether it's a client that's not satisfied with the
10:27
solution itself. So to be able to manage that,
10:30
it's, it's, it's, it makes it fun, right?
10:32
Not every day, every day is different, right?
10:35
So that that's something that really helps put some energy
10:39
into the solution and the fact that you get some solid
10:42
feedback. In our case, this is the first
10:44
time in all the in the couple decades that are being in a tech
10:47
world that none of the clients say jolly but not they never put
10:52
it out. They always say, get excited and
10:54
say, wow, let me try it out, let's move on.
10:56
So it's been really a nice journey to be able to get some
11:00
solid feedback from experts in the HR war.
11:03
Yeah. Well, this kind of this kind of
11:08
product is kind of has a little bit of controversy.
11:11
You know, people are a little bit concerned that, you know,
11:14
you're who's in the mix that maybe you're getting screened
11:17
from, from AI. It's giving you an unfair
11:21
disadvantage. You know, in Colorado, you know,
11:25
there was a legislature that passed by the governor, Governor
11:28
Polis here that actually prohibits certain kinds of
11:32
screening using AI for, for for jobs and applicants.
11:37
Maybe talk a little bit about that.
11:41
Yeah, that actually that bill plays to our advantage.
11:45
And the reason why is because we have strategically using AI and
11:50
the whole process flow that we use.
11:52
What does that mean? AI could be something sometimes
11:55
out of control and to be able to make it precise, we put all the
12:00
all the boundaries by developing putting a lot of code.
12:04
But furthermore, the tool itself was designed to be able to
12:08
empower and bring the data that's needed for the hiring
12:13
managers to make educational decisions, if that makes sense.
12:17
So in other words, we're not just giving you a score and say
12:21
Ryan's great. It gives you, it just breaks it
12:26
down and it tells you all the evidence.
12:28
And all the evidence comes either from the self-assessment
12:31
that's generated by the tool or the resume of the candidates.
12:35
So it's like the guardrails are in place on the AI that if
12:39
somebody was just dumping resumes into GPT, then it has
12:42
the opportunity to hallucinate or it has whatever bias is built
12:46
into that particular LLM. But rather this is is it is
12:51
specifically designed to prevent that.
12:53
It sounds like a. 100% in fact I have.
12:58
I had an experience with a team of and a consulting firm that
13:02
seasoned the tool and the audience was the VP of HR couple
13:06
of the recruiters and one of the recruiters said, turned around
13:09
and said, well, I can do this with Chop GPT, right?
13:13
The short answer to that is potentially, but if you fit
13:18
everything in Chop GPT, the results that you're going to get
13:22
are going to be clearly different than what we do.
13:25
So that's why behind the scenes there's the whole infrastructure
13:29
and guardrails that that you just.
13:30
Yeah, well, I mean, it seems like you might be able to put a
13:32
Moat around the business, you know, because if you can get
13:35
whatever compliance sanction, then you're the go to source.
13:38
Because I mean, it could be at least in Colorado, it sounds
13:41
like it might be illegal to just jump dump things into GPT or
13:45
Gemini or whatever and pull it out.
13:47
I mean, that's that creates pretty cool market share
13:50
opportunity there. I like it.
13:53
OK, well, go ahead. Sorry.
13:57
That was just I, I think that's the future of AI, right?
14:01
Everyone is looking from two different perspectives.
14:03
So how do we control AI that doesn't rule our lives, right?
14:07
So which is great and that's the way it should be.
14:09
Everyone should look at AI as a pool and not as a overall
14:13
solution that's going to do magic and solve your.
14:15
Problem Levitt OK, so let's do a use case.
14:18
I'm I'm hiring a developer. What's the process, how do I
14:24
sign up, and what do I need to do with a tool?
14:32
Simple, it's a plug and play solution.
14:34
All I have to do is just logging into the talent scout.
14:37
The first thing that you do, you can upload the job description.
14:41
Within minutes you're gonna get a the the town scout will will
14:45
analyze it, create the ideal profile for the candidate.
14:48
It will also identify the essential requirements and
14:50
skills and break it down also and identify stress scenarios.
14:54
And the stress scenarios are used to be able to measure the
14:57
the experience of the candidates and also some additional like
15:01
cultural failure. What not with that.
15:04
As a result, you get a couple things.
15:05
One, the self-assessment that's broken down in 10 questions and
15:09
each question has pre 3 predetermined answers.
15:12
The cool thing about it is that the answers there's not right or
15:15
wrong because again, as we test our the solution with clients,
15:21
they also say, but Johnny, our candidates can just drop this in
15:23
chapter PT and get the right answer.
15:25
But because we use this six dimensional model behind the
15:28
scenes, there's again, there's not a good answer or not.
15:31
It's about measuring if the candidate it's able to answer
15:36
accurately so he can get a a picture of that.
15:39
So that's one way that you can source candidates.
15:42
The other ways, if you are using LinkedIn or if you're using
15:46
indeed, whatever it is, we can streamline all the candidates,
15:52
rest of us and plug it into the talent sky automatically.
15:55
And at the end, you get a rank and classify and clearly
15:58
identify who are the top candidates and more importantly,
16:02
the all the evidence that comes along with that doesn't make
16:06
sense. Yeah.
16:07
Totally, No, I love it. And you know, it is helpful
16:09
because there's a lot of banana peels, you know, there is a lot
16:12
of compliance. Obviously, you know, people
16:14
can't discriminate for race or gender or sexual orientation or
16:20
age. You know, a lot of people are
16:22
talking about age discrimination now, you know.
16:26
So how are you building those guardrails in?
16:28
And then maybe what are some attributes that you can filter
16:31
by? So for example, if I had a BBQ
16:33
company, it's like I don't want any vegans working for me.
16:36
You can't have vegans working around my my PQ spot.
16:39
So how, how do you kind of determine the the the guardrails
16:44
that you do place on the software?
16:47
So when you are dynamically selecting the sensible
16:50
requirements, you can or delete those.
16:52
OK, so one of the things that we do is prevent for example
16:56
gender. So if you say I'm looking for
16:59
only females, then that change is not going to be applied and
17:03
into that into this reprocessing or evaluating the candidates.
17:07
So dynamically we can control that.
17:10
So in a way that's you have control, but yet also we have
17:14
traceability. So for some, for example,
17:17
someone wants to do an audit of how you the process was done,
17:22
you have a report that you can access to it and provided to you
17:26
and have that transparency that you're looking for.
17:30
Amazing, said. What do you think you're going
17:33
into your junior, senior year in college?
17:34
What do you think about this startup world?
17:39
So, you know, I, I actually just graduated from college.
17:42
Oh, Congrats. I didn't realize that.
17:45
Yeah. Thank you so much.
17:47
I appreciate that. You know, for me, the startup
17:50
Rd. it's it's definitely it's it's interesting.
17:55
And I mean that in, in the best way possible for me at least,
18:00
the learning perv that everyone who has been a part of the
18:05
startup road or who is thinking about becoming a part of the
18:08
startup Rd. is, is something that it's, it's, it's unlike
18:13
anything I've ever experienced. You just kind of you jump into
18:17
it quick. Everything moves fast.
18:19
You're wearing lots of different hats, you're working with lots
18:22
of different people. Even if your team is lean, for
18:25
example, right, for, for, for the Junto team and, and the town
18:28
scout team, we have some advisors, we have the devs, but
18:32
I mean, apart from that, right, right.
18:33
The team's very lean. But going back to my initial
18:36
point, it's it, you learn a lot super fast.
18:39
And, and that for me is something I, I love learning.
18:43
I, I love being a part of these environments, these movements
18:48
where people really, they're, they're trying to create things.
18:53
They're, they're trying to innovate, they're trying to come
18:55
up with their own solution to a problem that sometimes they,
19:00
they just experienced. Which if that's the case, you
19:04
know, it's, well, you need to make sure that your problem is
19:08
something that not just you are experiencing great, but, but
19:10
everyone else's too. Or else it's like, well, this
19:12
will work great for you, but not for everyone else.
19:15
Which you study in college. So I studied international
19:20
relations and global business. Cool.
19:23
Yeah. And yeah.
19:25
Please. Well, I was just going to say,
19:27
are you going to make a a career of it with a talent scout?
19:30
Is that what you're is it or are you looking for a job?
19:34
You know, I that's, that's, that's the question of the
19:38
century. Or both.
19:41
You know, I, I got, so after I graduated, I, I got caught up in
19:48
this mindset. I said, you're on a timeline.
19:51
Once you finish college, you got to go get a job, you got to
19:54
start saving for retirement, all these sorts of things.
19:56
And I got caught up with it and I felt terrible.
19:59
I'm not going to lie. I, I got to a point where I got
20:02
offered a job in New York City, which, which was my dream and I
20:06
didn't take it Why? Because after putting in all the
20:10
work for. Well, trying, trying to get a
20:15
job right, applying interviews, meetings, all that sort of
20:18
stuff. I, I guess I'm, I'm also someone
20:22
I'm, I'm a very, what is it like, like obsessive person,
20:28
which which is something I'm working, you know, but I, I got
20:33
obsessed with OK, Sid, you need to get a job.
20:35
And that was all that was on my mind.
20:37
I was, I was consumed by it. And so when I got the position,
20:42
I, I was already burnt out. I was like, why?
20:44
I, I just spent the past month and a half selling myself
20:48
overtime and I don't want to have to sell a product, you
20:52
know, So currently, I guess coming, coming back to your
20:56
initial question, which please let me know if I'm going on too
20:59
many. No, it's great.
20:59
I appreciate it. But you know, right now I'm, I'm
21:06
learning to just go with the flow of life.
21:09
Just take a step back and put, put my ego, not, not so much
21:14
push it to the side because at least for me, then then it
21:16
becomes even louder. But just don't, don't let it
21:19
influence my my actions and how I approach life on a day-to-day
21:23
basis like it has in the past. It's for you, man.
21:25
It's important to listen to your gut, you know, And as far as
21:28
retirement, just yellow into Bitcoin, we're all good, you
21:37
know? Yeah, cool, let's do the let's
21:41
do the lightning round. You guys ready for the lightning
21:43
round? Hey founders, let me ask you
21:47
this, are you building with AI or getting left behind by it?
21:52
If you're serious about scaling smarter, faster and bolder, you
21:56
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Founders. Now back to the show.
22:46
I would love to hear both of your answers to this one.
22:49
What's something you wish you knew earlier?
22:56
How? Let Sebastian go.
22:57
First. Well.
22:59
I think I asked. Yeah, let me see here.
23:13
You know, I think for me, it definitely has to do with like
23:19
team environment, team culture for me, surrounding yourself
23:23
with the right people, that's, that's something that is
23:25
incredibly important to, I mean, not, not just in in the startup
23:29
world, but also in life in general.
23:31
You know, like you, you want to surround yourself with people
23:34
who are open minded, who are transparent, who are good
23:37
listeners, who ask a lot of questions, all these sorts of
23:40
things. Because at the end of the day,
23:42
those are the people who are going to push whatever it is
23:46
you're trying to do, whether it be on a personal level or
23:48
whether it be on a professional level to that next next stage,
23:53
you know. So I think definitely having the
23:58
right team behind you is is something that is incredibly
24:01
important and and well within the starter port.
24:05
Yeah. And to me it's more looking
24:09
back, it's not about having a or build a great product.
24:14
It's having the right network to be able to go to market
24:19
initially. So what does that mean?
24:21
So the clients that we got so far, it's basically word of
24:25
mouth, right? People that see my work in the
24:30
past, connections that they seen that that I work with, they open
24:34
up the doors and that's how we started to get the traction,
24:38
right. It doesn't matter the
24:39
credibility behind the individuals of the team, it's
24:44
huge and not only for the investors, but also for the
24:47
company, because at the end of the day, we're all humans and
24:50
we're connecting among each other and we're trying to
24:53
position a solution. Yes, it's got a solve a problem,
24:56
but behind the, the scenes there's, there's other humans,
24:59
right? So bottom line, I I feel that
25:03
part of the success is having as a good network that helps you to
25:09
to get the traction, the initial traction that made it.
25:12
You know, Johnny, I've never met somebody from Bolivia before.
25:15
It's so cool. How, how has Bolivian culture,
25:19
you know, influenced your career?
25:21
Like what? What do you carry with you from
25:24
Bolivia if there's something you could put a finger on?
25:30
When you come from a underdevelopment country,
25:34
there's no, the word no doesn't exist.
25:37
You always have to come up with a solution and you have to be
25:40
very creative about it, right? Yeah.
25:42
Because not everything is easy, right?
25:47
So you always have to come up with something to be able to
25:51
compensate whatever if there's a gap in your life.
25:55
And also one thing that I've seen is the strong foundation of
26:00
mental. It's clearly, you know, I, I
26:04
think a solid foundation that it was provided to me through my
26:08
education, obviously in my household.
26:10
Am I called? Yeah.
26:12
What's it like? I, I was just, I pulled up a
26:15
couple of quick facts here and it's, it's like it has a
26:19
mountains, it's very mountainous.
26:20
It sounds like La Paz is the world's highest capital at
26:23
12,000 feet. That's bananas.
26:28
You know what's interesting? That's so high so Well, let me
26:34
give you another perspective, right?
26:36
So when someone talks about Bolivia, everyone thinks about
26:39
the mountains, right? But no one really realizes.
26:43
About 60 to 70% of the country is close to the sea level.
26:49
So it's rain forest. What?
26:52
But the majority of the population and everything around
26:55
it, the capital is in La Paz, which is a high altitude.
26:59
I'm from the valley, which is basically a little bit higher
27:02
than the mile. So this is kind of like home
27:05
surrounded by mountains. Where I come from is the valley.
27:10
So we have the, the, it's a very pleasant climate throughout the
27:14
year. So we have just like here, the
27:16
fall, just like Colorado, right? So we have The Four Seasons and
27:19
whatnot, but the majority of the country is just very forest.
27:24
So it's unknown to even for the Bolivians, Yeah.
27:26
You're not going in there, is there?
27:28
Like Jaguars and stuff. We've done that before.
27:33
We we just in this flooding hotel in the middle of the
27:37
Amazons just for three nights and pitch dark new technology.
27:42
It was wonderful. It sounds so cool.
27:46
How about for both you guys, Is there a a CEO or entrepreneur
27:50
that you really admire or that you're following?
27:57
That's a good question. I mean, they're they're, I like
28:01
to read and you know, the guy that started behind LinkedIn.
28:04
Yeah. I think he is someone to look
28:10
up. And the reason why is because
28:12
you never know in real life how it is.
28:14
But at the very least, he's one of those guys that he's very
28:17
open to help. He's built linking with that
28:22
vision of to be able to connect people at a different level
28:26
outside of the social aspect, right?
28:29
And he continues that path, right.
28:32
So he's he's also involved as a board director for all part of
28:37
the boards and other companies. So, but I appreciate the fact
28:40
that he's always involved in causes that are to help people
28:45
across the world. Reid Hoffman.
28:47
He's part of PayPal Mafia too, wasn't he?
28:50
That's right. It's one of those guys.
28:52
With Elon and all those guys, man, that the, the early Silicon
28:57
Valley crews are just, I mean, the wealth that they've got now,
29:04
Peter TL, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, David Sachs, unbelievable,
29:10
these guys. Quick, quick question for you,
29:15
Ryan, and, and I'd also open this up to you, Paul, but is
29:18
there one trade that you see in these, in these big guys that
29:25
for you they've, they've mastered and and that's what
29:28
really takes them to that next level or brings about that, that
29:34
success that they. Would you guys, boy, you know, I
29:37
think a lot of that has to do with capital and be in the right
29:40
place at the right time. You know, they, they did very
29:45
well and as such, kind of like, I think the whole Silicon Valley
29:50
VC ecosystem was kind of largely built by them and in the rules
29:54
they kind of built the game. So they kind of had an unfair
29:57
advantage, you know, But those guys, you know, I, I like the
30:01
big power mogul guys, but when I'm thinking about like
30:04
entrepreneurs, I really like, I like, like Shaq, you know, I
30:08
think Shaquille O'Neal is just amazing because he, he does
30:10
everything he's got, you know, he's entertainment, he's an
30:14
athlete, he's a DJ, He is, he sells products, he invests in
30:19
products. I, I, I think at the diversity
30:22
and just his demeanor, plus I just, you know, he can dunk and
30:26
tear off the back. That's cool, but you know, I and
30:30
I suppose Elon has some of those characteristics too.
30:33
I mean, shoot, even Sax, you know, Sax has a humongous
30:35
podcast now and he's like what the he's like the the Bitcoin
30:39
and AI czar for for the Trump administration.
30:42
I think some title like that. But you know, all those guys,
30:47
you know, right place, right time.
30:51
But they really were the right guys, too.
30:53
They have grit and determination.
30:54
I, I am inspired by that. You know, with all of Elon's
30:57
crazy antics, it's still hard not to like, totally admire what
31:01
he does. His companies are unbelievable.
31:06
Yeah. Yeah, it's I, I, I agree.
31:10
I think that those people are just 100% focus and it doesn't
31:16
matter what he takes, they just get things done right.
31:19
So, and I think in the setup world, that's a critical to be
31:23
able to accomplish something because whether it's a technical
31:27
challenge or overcome the, the, the economic, economic
31:32
environment or whatnot, you just need to get it done.
31:35
There's always a creative way to just overcome those things.
31:39
Depends, I guess I, I, I would agree with to an extent.
31:45
And then sorry, Ryan, I, I didn't mean to call you off.
31:47
I think for me, though, what's really also important is knowing
31:54
when something is not working and when you need to pivot or,
31:57
or when you need to change directions so that you know,
32:02
you're, you're able to gain, gain, gain more traction.
32:06
Because I think a lot of people they're, they're not open to
32:11
seeing, well, they're not open to looking at themselves
32:14
objectively and, and, and seeing their faults and, and their own
32:17
company's faults. And I mean, that's, that's
32:19
something that's hard. Why?
32:20
Because for a lot of people, I mean, right, this, this, this is
32:24
their company. And, and, you know, for, for
32:26
them to admit like God, this, this isn't working.
32:29
And, and we need to pivot or we need to move in a different
32:33
direction. It's, it's hard to do.
32:36
So I think just that's, that's, that's another thing that as as
32:40
important as grit and determination and, and all those
32:45
characteristics or personality traits are, I think, you know,
32:48
apart from that, being able to just change direction quickly
32:53
and, and right to align your product to what the customers
32:56
are looking for or, or the enterprises, whatever it is, if
32:59
it's B to CB to BI, think that's something that's, that's just as
33:03
important too. And then I think Elon Shaq, all
33:07
those guys, right? They've, they've probably
33:08
learned throughout all their different ventures.
33:10
It's like, yeah, I, I can push so hard on something.
33:14
But you know, ultimately if if it's not working and we can't
33:17
change it to make it something that people do like it's not,
33:22
it's not going to do. Do well, but it sounds like
33:25
you're you're kind of a guy that knows when it's time to make a
33:28
change. You jump on those change what
33:29
what's the trigger for you? How do you know when it's time
33:33
to make a change? Yeah, that's an interesting
33:38
question. So I, I, I guess let me just
33:42
relate this back to Juntos. So Juntos had been in
33:44
development since January of 2024.
33:49
After one year, by January of 2025, we were ready to push it
33:53
out. Within the first three months,
33:55
we were able to acquire 200 plus users from 5 different
33:59
universities here in the States. And I was, I was really, you
34:04
know, it's, it's always cool to see why.
34:05
OK, there, there are actual people using this platform that
34:09
myself and, and my team built. It's, it's, it's really cool,
34:12
super fulfilling. And, and in the midst of all
34:16
this is also where, where the talent scout came about, because
34:20
ultimately B to C is something that's in this day and age to
34:27
me, consumers have a lot more of the purchasing power than than
34:31
they did prior, which is mainly because there's so many
34:34
different options, you know, And so with that being said, it, it
34:39
wasn't, we weren't able to build on top of that.
34:42
And so that's, that's kind of where we, we, we transitioned
34:44
the model to leverage what we had created with Juntos, the
34:47
psychographic agent and, you know, move, move towards AB to B
34:52
# scout SAS, SAS product. But I guess that, that, that was
34:57
just a timeline to help people who are listening get, get a
35:00
better understanding of, OK, well, where, where, where did
35:03
town scout come into play? And, and how did that relate to
35:06
Juntos? But in May of 2025, when I was
35:10
graduating, I, I decided to take a step back from Juntos.
35:12
And you know, this is something that when you put as much work
35:17
as myself and, and the team did, like I, I, I mean, we shout out
35:24
bed and, and, and Rafa our, our 2 developers.
35:27
These guys were such a pleasure to work with and, and, and I
35:31
love working with them and, and they were so incredibly hard
35:34
working and, and tenacious and resilient and determined.
35:38
But you know, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of just this feeling.
35:43
It's like right now is not the right time and you just have to
35:46
trust yourself and, you know, will it come back around?
35:52
Who am I to say? I don't know?
35:54
And, and, and I choose not to think about it.
35:56
Why? Because again, I've, I've gone
35:59
consumed with things like that in the past, for example, the
36:02
job hunt. And whenever I get consumed by
36:04
something, it doesn't do me any good.
36:06
And so I've, I've, I mean, in this case for me, it was just a
36:12
matter of, or I said, it's not the right time, things aren't
36:15
flowing. So I want you to take a step
36:17
back and I want you to pursue something else.
36:19
Love it. Before we wrap up here, I want
36:22
to give a shout out to flag football because the cool thing
36:27
about me and you, Johnny, is that our our daughters are our
36:30
best friends, you know, and they both were great football
36:36
players, you know, like Lorena was a monster on the football
36:40
field. And you know, for folks that
36:43
don't know, flag football is coming up in a major way.
36:47
You know, my daughter had a couple of offers to go play, go
36:51
play flag football at the college level.
36:53
You know, there are D2 schools because there's not really flag
36:56
football like an official sport and on D1 schools yet.
37:00
But I really hope there is. I hope that gets adopted soon.
37:04
I think it might be because this is a huge recruiting tool for,
37:08
for kind of JUCO and, and D2D3 schools is are these flag
37:12
football programs? And for people that don't know
37:15
and haven't spectator sport. So I I would just be remiss and
37:20
not. To give a shout out.
37:22
To flag football, because all the fun I had watching, you
37:25
know, our daughters play play football last year, the year
37:29
before, it was amazing. So shout out to them.
37:33
Yeah, well, I, I love. The fact to see the girls, how
37:36
conditions they are when they're playing right, it just, it just
37:40
wonderful, very competitive, fun to watch it.
37:43
So I I think it's in the right path.
37:45
Yeah. Where can folks find you?
37:47
Online. Just go to Apps.
37:52
Dot talent scoutsystem.com and I'll I'll drop the the the link,
37:58
but it it's it it's very simple. Once you're there, we have you
38:02
can just log in and you're you're there ready to use.
38:08
Cool. SAB, Johnny, thank.
38:09
You so much for coming on the show.
38:11
Really appreciate your time. Oh, likewise.
38:15
Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Ryan, so much looking
38:17
forward. To continue this conversation.
38:19
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