Latest / Unstuck Pod / Video AI that Sees Risk (Marc Glasser and Jamie Schneiderman)
Transcript
- Jamie: Welcome, Mark. It's great to have you. Thanks so much for being here. those who don't know you, what you do, what you've done, ⁓ please ⁓ like them some more insight, more information and kick this off. That'd be great. Thank you. Marc: Thank you. I'm currently in the technology space, a lot to do with risk management and technology, but that goes back to my career in risk management. And I've had a very career. I retired about two years ago of chief of chemical security from the US Department of Homeland Security, and that was within the CISA Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency within Department of Homeland Security. that was, it's a great program. It was a ⁓ chemical risk management program. was the chemical anti-terrorism standards law, which was enacted in the field. So it was a meaningful and the most valuable thing about that is the excellent application of risk management. As we know, in risk management, if you're putting a dollar of expense towards something, it's actually like a dollar of profit. So we have to keep in mind that in risk management. And it's got to be a high ROI on that. And then after I left the Department of Homeland Security, I actually became Vice President of Business Development for a company called 27 North, which makes excellent overlanding expedition of vehicles. So part of that was doing a six month, 25, say 11,000 mile van trip. It was amazing. And the vans are yachts on wheels. They're just amazing. Always off grid, never have to plug in anywhere. Beautiful vehicles, very capable. So that was an amazing experience. mean, my dog did it. So I think he had his as good a time, maybe better than I did. So that was amazing. Jamie: Wait, so I'm sorry to interrupt you, you and your dog were in these vans, were you sleeping in the vans or are you stopping? You're sleeping in the van. ⁓ Marc: Yes, yes, a complete it's a it's got a refrigerator, freezer, shower, toilet, dual induction cooktop, ⁓ heating systems, air conditioning. It's got a off road capable system and it's on a Mercedes, a fully loaded Mercedes Sprinter van. So you have all the yeah. And it is actually beautiful. If anyone's interested in ⁓ that the name of the van is that I named it was Jack and it's Jack for all jacked up in a good way. And it's It's Jack Van Legend on all social media it's actually going to be in a Paramount picture movie. So that's really fascinating. It's got about a two minute dedicated scene. So that's kind of cool ⁓ product ⁓ So, know, that was always important in our field. ⁓ So pretty exciting. was such a beautiful country. We have so much to see and the beauty of a van or RV, especially like ⁓ a that can park almost anywhere. don't have to never went to an RV park. ⁓ Jamie: Yeah Marc: At six months, I spent $200 on lodging and it was, my mom wanted to see it and she's in Manhattan, so I spent $171 one night in Manhattan and the other one was a $30, my 90 year old mom, by the way, who had a big kick out of it, we went down, we drove down Wall Street, know, doing to all the places in New York and then I spent $30 for five days at Mount Hood. Other than that, I always stayed for free, so that's another advantage of this kind of. Jamie: Yeah. Marc: But anyway, great experience and ⁓ what I got out of it was I need to do something that really taps more into my creativity and intelligence, not that there's anything wrong with my life, it's amazing. And ⁓ it what an experience, a great experience. And the takeaway was that you really have to pay attention to ⁓ things that crossing your path, like things that are statistically impossible that happen. I'm just going to really quick story but it illustrates it. ⁓ A friend of mine got a parking permit for me to stay in Santa Monica, the street of Santa Monica. had a great friend named Michael that I lost contact with. And so I said to my friend who lived in Santa Monica, I know Santa Monica is a big place, but I got to ask you, do you know my friend? And gave the name and no, don't know your friend. What's his address? I gave the address and here you go. Ready for this? bedroom window looked into his bedroom window. I'm just crazy. And then there's a part two. ⁓ Jamie: No way. Marc: There's a part two to this. So I went and picked up dinner com. we talked like, hey, you know, we'll get together. Can't get together tonight. He had dinner plans. We'll get together the night. But so then I'm walking around Santa Monica. I usually take my dog, but I left him in the van. And then I walk around, look at restaurants. I look into this window. It's a Italian restaurant. couldn't read the menu. So then I go inside and I hear Mark and it was him. So I have 20 of those. And, so of those type of experiences. So it just. really pay attention to what the universe presents. And that was fascinating. So a little thank you for entertaining that side note. And so then I went to 27 North, VP of Business Development. Exciting, great product. Really, we build, and almost any expedition vehicle company will build what I would call portals to experiences. That's what it is. Jamie: Sure. Marc: And then I went to Rowan where I am now, which is an amazing company. It's a video analytics AI startup, right? And we are the best out there. We have our own ⁓ We a great leadership team. ⁓ They all the boxes, Ivy League you got it all. And it's the of any and all this technology applied to basically video. it'll review about an hour of video in about three minutes. And of course, that time will come down and it'll tell you what's going on. You can also put in look for certain clues or whatever you want to look for. It'll do that. And of course, the predictive aspect of that. Very powerful. And we also a commitment to understand that technology may displace some jobs. So we have a commitment. And one of those is we have a ⁓ nonprofit. called Heroes, where we actually are in the process of setting up for first veterans and then former first responders who are retired, where they actually will help them use our tool. And it's also the entrepreneurship. They'll have their own account and they can make their own sales. They can generate whatever they want to do. So we understand about the responsibility about technology and some of what we do may displace people. So we want to make sure that our technology is an opportunity. for anyone that would be disrupted with it because we now know technology is disrupting so many jobs and lifestyles. So we understand that obligation to society. So I'm very proud of that as well. And it's very exciting. mean, the power of video as we know and then to apply AI and analytics to it is just amazing. And of course, we have that human in the review. We feel that's important, right? And we're not going to... And I think the other way to package technology, whatever anyone is dealing with is... Jamie: somebody. Marc: it frees people up to do more things, right? It's kind of like the, what in the turn of the steam engine, you know, change society, right? It actually, the steam engine led to people not having to be into, in the fields, right? They could free their mind up, free their activities up. And I think that's how you have to look at technology that it's not replacing you, it's augmenting you and for you to free up what you're better at, what you want to do. oh, and. And one side note too, I know a lot of people use these large language models and I think that if somebody uses it to replace their human thought, well, it's going to degrade their human thought. But it can amplify it. we say, instead of saying, what ⁓ should I paint my house? You say, I live in Seattle, I have a Northwest exposure, I'm concerned about resale rates, ⁓ concerned about the harsh seasons that we have here ⁓ whatever else. These are my favorite colors. So that's it. it can augment our thinking, that's the powerful part of technology. Jamie: Yeah. And so, no, and I, and I love the point that you're making about ⁓ leveraging, that technology will displace people and in some cases in a lot of jobs, but also, but the real power is environment augmentation. I think that's really a great way to phrase it. ⁓ Let go back to the, to Rohan for, ⁓ for I want to, I want to build on it. So you're talking about video analytics. you're using AI what, for what key app, like what are the primary applications that you're thinking when you talk about it? Cause you could, it could be analytics for a lot of things. So what is it and where are the places where it's ⁓ value, at a level. Take things up to the next sort of take, take things in the next level. ⁓ Marc: I mean, what comes to mind from a lot of people first would be security, all the security cameras, right? And again, it can be programmed to do anything. Say it's summer and you're surveilling a crowd and there's somebody wearing a jacket, or their hands in their pockets, is there an imprint of a weapon, that kind of threat. There is no really limit to how it can be used. It can be used to even monitor to... to watch different types of tools or it can be, for instance, if you're, some human is looking at all these controls and they have this big dashboard and they have more of like an analog system and these lights that go from green to red, right? And so you have a human watching this panel with 30 of these, you can actually, again, it's all, we all know how powerful programming is and line of code, can. it can be written to do almost anything. instead of having a person looking at 30 of these that go from green to yellow to red, you can have ⁓ analytics do it. And then ⁓ would trigger it. so again, I think the important thing that we stress here, kind of what we touched upon that it's freeing people up to do things that humans do better at. instead of ⁓ person watching 30 of these switches indicate green, yellow, red, they'll look into, they'll spend their time looking into what happens when one does transition from one color to the next. So, but it's, that's a great question that you're asking the power of it and the power is what do you want to do? And it can be done generally. And then I think the other important thing, and we know this about technology is the more that we can apply to the whole decision-making process, not just this is what we do in our specific industry. This is how it ties into everything else. So we have another tool, Rowan News. so you can have, say you have a data center and you're using our tool. And of course, it'll alarm for security threats or whatever you want to program it for. But this other tool monitor what's going on around you. And for example, we know how important it is for data centers to function when maybe the power is disrupted. So ⁓ Rowan News will monitor like, weather conditions going on and say there's a storm coming, that's hours away. It'll say, okay, how is your ⁓ generator? Is it ready to go? And then even beyond that, ⁓ this technology is so fascinating. It can also monitor the diesel fuel supply in the area. So say after three days, you're down 50%. It's like you better think about going out and getting more fuel. So it's just integrating ⁓ great ⁓ is going to go beyond a specific function. If you will, connect all the dots. Jamie: No, no. And so I love this point. And I think this is a great point. I think so. So let me let me I want to I do want to hear about that. I know there's more. I know there's lots more, by the way, about you. But I want to just dig a little deeper on this one thing. Here you are. You have a technology that can do so much. Right. So so, you know, of the things I hear all the time from founders is, but we could do this and we could do this. And like it could it could it could. How do you or how have you thought through or how has the team thought through? We know it can do so many things, but where do we focus? How do we make the biggest impact? What's the right place to be as we're focusing forward with this technology, at least today, at least for now? Marc: Yeah, that's a great question. So with all technology, including Rowan, think you need to have your basic package, right? What most people want, right? And then you also have to figure out, you know, the affordability of your service too. So we have the basic packages that probably take care of what 75 % of the customers want, but then we have the custom tools. So here's standard package. Here's what it does. Do you want something that goes beyond that? Do you want something that has very special needs? Do you have a beehive and you want to monitor the queen bee coming in and out or whatever it is that can do that, right? So you have your basic package and then which will meet most of your customers needs. And then you can build upon that and have it specifically designed, whether it's a simple, small organization or enterprise wide. So I think the flexibility of having we, your company, we figured it out too. what the basic needs are. This is what most people want, most companies want. And then if you need something beyond that, it can be anything. And then we have the custom programming to do that. And also another advantage is, again, the same principle applied to the expense of your product. it's software as a service. You could go on today, $54, sign up a month and use this for ⁓ you want to use it for. And pretty inexpensive. And then you have the enterprise wide accounts that will do whatever needs to be done. that's a great question about a, think you should know your customer base and have the standard package that meets what most customers want or two or three levels of that. And then beyond that, you offer the custom aspect for anything the customer values and that they, it's investment ⁓ for to have some custom program. Jamie: Yeah. No, and, and, and, no, I appreciate that answer. I always think about it. It's like, what's the problem that you're solving, right? What, right. The, what, what is the thing that somebody needs, right? What's the problem you sort of start from who your customer is and what problem they need solved. And then your product can solve it. Cause a lot of times people will say to me again, but it, but we could also solve this and this and this it's like, we are. Gotcha. Marc: Yep. Jamie: But what is the, as you've said, what's the primary pack that you're thinking, talking about the product, what's the primary package, what's the primary focus, what's that? Cause that's what the world will know you as first and foremost. then someone's using it, it can open the door to other things. got it. Marc: Yeah, and I think like you're saying, have to value like technologies to free people up, right? I mean, so for instance, we, you know, security application, you don't need a data center or a command center where you have, know, 10 security professionals reviewing a hundred monitors now. So you can, you can free those people up to go reduce your response time, interact more with customers. So I with any technology. Obviously, we know it's already replacing mundane task, right? And that's mundane tasks that humans used to do. But then you can free them up to better represent your business, to be more in contact with your customers. Whatever it is that brings your company more value to these companies, now you have humans that are freed up to do that. And just one more point, the argument, too, about autonomous driving vehicles and, you know, people, unfortunately, people have died through autonomous vehicles. Jamie: Yeah, I like that. I love that. Marc: something like 95 % of all car accidents were human error. So people have to keep that in mind, balance that with what, anyone dies, the result of technology. But then if you also figure in 95 % of humans' accidents with cars are human error, well, there was something that can help with that. Jamie: Yeah. Well, the autonomous vehicles also don't get distracted by their phones or by, you know, ⁓ spilling coffee on themselves or anything else. Right. So again, I appreciate that. not nothing is perfect. The question is, is it better? How much does it improve? ⁓ think it's a great, a really great point. Okay. So I got you off track and I want to, this is cause ⁓ love this. You and I could do hours and hours, but I, ⁓ ⁓ busy. ⁓ so let's talk about you. You talked about Rohan and, and. what you're doing there and we talked about heroes and, but there's more. So I would like you to keep, keep going. I'd love to hear more about. Marc: So another one is array or array risk management. So it's basically the risk management of risk management. first of all, risk management is a great decision framework for almost anybody. Some know there's four phases of risk management. There's prevention. I don't want to live where there's an earthquake. I don't want to experience, fine, I'll live somewhere where there's no earthquake risk. there's mitigation, well, I'm going to live somewhere where there's earthquake and I'm going to make sure that the building codes in my house is built to withstand your average earthquake in that area. Then there's the acceptance part, right? Okay, well, I understand. I accept it and that's it. I'm not going to do anything about it. And finally, for us financial experts too, it's the transference of risk so you can have an insurance policy or any combination of. So think just so risk. decision-making framework is great with those four phases of risk management. So what ArrayRM is basically racking and stacking risks, ⁓ times when risk is looked at individually and not altogether. basically, we can go into an organization and if you're spending, that organization is spending $100 million on risk management activities, we can show you how to spend $80 million and be prepared for most likely or consequential events. ⁓ It's the ROI of risk management or the risk management of risk management. So a lot of power to that. Again, ⁓ career has been in risk management and applying it ⁓ different areas. And this is just another area that it can be applied to. ⁓ Jamie: So. Let me, I want to jump in on that because I, cause I do want to make sure we're talking also about growth and how you're thinking. So I get the, conceptually, I completely buy. understand the idea of risk management, stacking risk, stacking risk management on top of each other and going into an organization thing, we can save you $20 million and give you better risk management as part of that. Right. So 20%, that's a, that's a huge thing. So I would imagine that typically speaking, you're talking to larger organizations, right? Bigger dollars, right? some time to do that work. ⁓ in the organization are you reaching out to? this like a CFO? this? ⁓ Marc: Yeah, a chief financial officer will be there. And if you ask them that question off the top of your head, what are you spending risk management activities on and how much are you spending and how did you make that decision? Obviously, it's complex and they generally don't know. and I think what the value for ArrayRM is, again, with any business, you have that domain expertise, right? We have that domain expertise and it's a space where you can't learn to fly, right? You need to have the knowledge to do that. And then this also applies into almost every organization. We have some sort of compliance aspect. it also touches upon compliance. ⁓ there's also, as we know, insurance. maybe not only is there a way to save money in the application of risk, but perhaps there's even an insurance discount, right? Because you are actually addressing the most likely or consequential event. So I think ⁓ something that we should be aware of as well. And anything we're talking about here, know, technology is fast paced and, you know, changing today at a changing today, actually today. But I think, you know, and what we're doing here and in all tech startups, it's more value proposition and it takes time, right? This all takes time. And I think another thing we can't lose sight of, especially now with is, you know, the human side, right? The human side of what we're doing. Jamie: So OK, no, and I agree. me, Mark, I want, so I actually, so back to it, but it is, and this is actually a human piece. are you, but really, I'm fixating on your growth. I want to just talk growth. So when going and selling, it's someone's calling you, you're calling them. And then I want to understand, because you mentioned ⁓ when you about risk management, for example. they don't know. Like I don't, I don't actually don't know all my risk management or my risk mitigation. don't know all the things we're doing. So I actually don't even know what I don't know. And so I find that both, it's both exciting to hear when you're selling, but it's also a little daunting because you're talking to a customer that doesn't just say, I know I've got this. I know I'm overspending. I know I'm under prepared. So how do you, how do you go about tackling that inbound, outbound? What are you thinking when when that's happening? Marc: especially for startups, the biggest risk aren't on people's radar. They're just not on there. So they're blind spots. So ⁓ We help identify what they are. And it's again, you can accept it that, OK, I understand that's a risk. But now I don't have the resources to address that risk. It's not consequential enough. But you need certainly have to have the knowledge to at least understand that. That's very good point. And it's the subject matter experts, right? Again, the domain expertise. ⁓ And only is it something in whatever when we don't have the deep knowledge that we need to, but even if we did, it's not cost effective for us to address it. So I think those are very good points. Jamie: Okay. let's, so let, let me, let me shift to this. So so I, there's all, you have a lot going on. So there's a lot going on. You have a lot going on, a lot of businesses and the, your experience, I'm sure again, we could talk about all sorts of things, but I'd like to talk a little bit just about challenges, whether it's the last. whether it's at some point in the past with one of the businesses that we're talking about, whether it's more recent, like something specific. I think what everybody loves to, I want to hear is growth challenges you've had with growth, right? So most companies about like 80 % hit growth plateaus. They can't get past. almost everyone just tries to push power their way through. is that the answer. But I'd love to hear if you've got examples of things that you've done, ⁓ you've made, adjustments, anything that's either experiences you had with that or ⁓ you're at in the last little while that you've had some challenges with. That would be great. ⁓ Marc: Yeah, I think almost all of us have this challenge. Like, how do you get attention? Right. There's so much competition just to be heard. You could be the best solution ever. But how do you get that decision maker to talk to you. Right. That's the biggest challenge. mean, We have all, you know, We have social media, right. I mean you know, LinkedIn, whatever, you know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok you know, of all the different media outlets, you where do get your news source from? Is it Is it Bloomberg? Is it the Economist, is it ⁓ MIT review, technology review. I think to your point, I think the biggest challenge is just getting somebody to listen to you, whether it's a phone call, whether it's an email, whether it's somebody reaching out to you through LinkedIn or whatever social media platform you're trying to get your customers on. That's the biggest challenge. And I think sometimes we still underestimate the power of the ⁓ contact and the people we know. So It's important to have that domain expertise, but also to know people in the industry. So, you you I had great conversations before this. So now you know, we're, we're business friendly, we're, know, we can reach out to you and say, hey, you know, I had this idea, I thought about this, or do know somebody who does this? So that's the power that you need to have that, that personal contact, however that is, and it can be through technology. I have several LinkedIn platforms. when joined the Department of Homeland Security, they said for ⁓ ethical and other reasons, I could only list on my LinkedIn profile what I did for the Department of Homeland Security. So I actually ⁓ had different profiles. So I had what I did for them, and then I had what I did otherwise after hours, which of course was always approved by the ethics department. So those are two distinct LinkedIn pages. is a practitioner and one is more of a... a scholarly thought leader profile. And now I have a third one, which is context intelligence, which is more technology governance issues for institutions, companies. So having those networks and actually specifically having whatever your outreach is or your, if you will, your PR platform, have that geared to your audience and you ⁓ may to have it specific. to me, LinkedIn has been very powerful. ⁓ Yes, if any platform you're going to have people that are trying to get a hold of you or there's a small percent of fraud with anything we do. But LinkedIn has been very powerful. Yeah. Jamie: Sure. I love it. OK. So if you could wave a wand and change something that you've done, ⁓ so there's lot of great things that you've done or are doing. But if there's one thing that you wish you had done differently, Recently further back. I love to think about it in the context of some of these businesses Is there something that stands out to you that you're like? I wish or I wish I knew this You know 12 months earlier 24 months earlier that type Marc: No, I mean, to me, I love that expression, trust the process. And I think I am where I am because exactly what I went through. And do have one regret. think maybe years ago, Staples had ⁓ paper clips on sale for and I only bought 100 and I should have bought 200 now. ⁓ But I don't. think. ⁓ To me, my life, first of all, I've been fortunate to have a lot of different experiences, a lot of silos, great silos. ⁓ I think ⁓ that I've done is because of something I did good or bad that led to where was. ⁓ And something negative could be a motivator as well. ⁓ I for an organization. had a ⁓ terrible That was motivation to leave. But I do appreciate now, and this was decades ago, I do appreciate the people I work with more because of that, and I don't take it for granted. But I think that's a great question to ask you can change something, what would you change? And think not to on it too long, but learn what you need to learn. If you need to vent because it, vent and then move on. So I think that's a great application ⁓ strategy. And think it's also important just to what to have faith, have faith in yourself, have faith in what you're doing. And not doesn't could be in a religious sense. It doesn't have to be in the religious sense. Could be a spiritual sense. It doesn't have to be. But again, it can that you are who you are and you're on your right path. And yes, you're going to be ups and downs are going to be good days, bad days, maybe good years and bad years. But just focus on what's happening and what you can do about it, what you can learn and then where that will take you. Jamie: No, I love it. OK, so you've been very generous with your time, and I appreciate it. Where can the who are listening, watching, ⁓ where they find you, follow you, see what you're doing? If want to share. Marc: Yeah, thank you. LinkedIn is the best I have. It's M-A-R-C-G-L-A-S-S-E-R-D-H-S because I used to be at Department of Homeland Security as my practitioner profile. So it has to do with the professional space I'm in. It's beyond that too, but it's mostly in that realm. And then I have M-A-R-C-G-L-A-S-S-E-R on LinkedIn and that's more of the scholarly thought leader technology governance page. And I do post at least once a week on all of them. I'll pick an article and I'll assess it and say what the value of it is. And then the third one is my latest one, which is Context Intelligence, which is the name on LinkedIn. And again, that's the institutional governance, more applying to institution and businesses, educational, any institution. So that's the best way to ⁓ out and get a hold of me. I'm above the follow-up, think. about 30,000 connections so I can be followed, have over that amount. But reach out to me on that platform, let's monitor each other and it's a great way to learn, a great way to get in touch with each other. Jamie: I love it. I think that's great. ⁓ And by the way, add links and things in the description. We'll make sure when we do that. So ⁓ to wrap this up, ⁓ guys, thank you so much for watching. And we'll see you in the next episode. Marc: Thank you. Thank you.