Latest / MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle / Inside LVT’s Growth | How Ryan Porter Built His Business to a National Level

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Inside LVT’s Growth | How Ryan Porter Built His Business to a National Level · MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We got a cubicle and it was ninety dollars a month,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and we were so excited about it because we had
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: our official office right that wasn't my house. I would
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: say in Utah there's a higher percentage of people that
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: want to make a difference and really are willing to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: put the work in so they can look back and say,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in that time at LVT, there was progression in my
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: financial position, my career, and my skills and my family
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: progressed in that time.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the Mountain West Capital Network podcast, your
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Gateway to the Winner's Circle. I'm Sherry, the executive director
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: of Mountain West Capital Networks.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: And I'm Jason, president of the Mountain West Capital Network
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: and managing director at Protivity. Every episode, we sit down
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: with Utah's most visionary business leaders to cover the ideas, risks,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: and wins behind the state's fastest growing companies.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Mountain West Capital Network is best known for the Utah
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: one hundred, our flagship event that recognizes the state's fastest
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: growing businesses. But behind every number is a story, and
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that's what this podcast is all about.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: You're not just tuning in to hear what's happened you're
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: stepping inside the Winner Circle to understand how it happened.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Today, we are sitting down with Brian Porter, co founder
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and current CEO of LVT. Ryan began his career in
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: finance until he found a need in remote surveillance for
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: construction sites. This inspiration later grew into LVT with the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: help of his co founder, Bob Brenner.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Under Ryan's leadership, the company has grown from a small
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: startup to a leading provider for mobile surveillance and security technology.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: They now serve customers all across retail, law enforcement, government,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: critical infrastructure, and construction.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Ryan has guided LVT through significant growth, funding rounds, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: market expansion. Some of these include a fifty million Series
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: B in twenty twenty two and recognition on the Deloyt
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Technology Fast five hundred and twenty twenty four. Most recently,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Ryan was named an ey US Entrepreneur of the Year
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Mountain West Award in twenty twenty five. We are so
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: thrilled to highlight his work at Mountain West Capital Network today.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Ryan, Welcome to the Winter Circle. Thank you glad to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: be here. Appreciator.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: It's really good to see. Thank you for making time.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: You started kind of want to go back a little
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: bit LBT back in two thousand and five, two.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Thousand and five, and it was called originally it was
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Homeview Technologies. Okay, the original idea was live video on
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: residential construction sites. So automatically we thought homes, we're looking
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: at homes. And then as it started to grow, we
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: started getting in commercial construction. And I remember one day
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I was on a commercial site and the superintendent there said, Hey,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: by the way, you need to change your name. We're
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: not building homes, we're commercial constructions, so you need to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: change your name. And I thought it's probably time to change.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So what initially sparked the idea to start doing
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: this between between you and Bob, Like, what was that discussion?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: What did that look like? What were you doing?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I was doing construction finance at the time, construction finance
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and long term finance. And in that process, obviously you
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: have owners of the project, you have contractors, you have subs,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: there's a lot happening, there's a lot of money being spent,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of bad communication or lack of communication,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I guess you can say, and a lot of surprises
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: for everybody involved. And so I had this idea that
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: if you could see what was happening live on the project,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: then it would just it would be a way of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: sharing information and a form of communication because there's live
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: video and so you just see what's going on. And
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: so Bob came into my office one day he worked
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: in the office. He came in and said, hey, do
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: you have any marketing ideas or anything you're thinking about?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And I said, well, I got this idea, so I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: told him and we basically became partners right there. We
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: didn't even really have a discussion about it. It was
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: just okay, let's do this. And neither of us are
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: technical people, were not it people at all, but started
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: trying to research it and figure it out. And really
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: we thought it could be a service for construction. So
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: there's got to be a company out there doing it,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: So let's go find a company and see what it
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: costs and bring it in. And doing a bunch of research,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: we couldn't find anybody that was doing it. So we said, well,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: how hard can it be. Let's just try to figure
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it out and do it ourselves. We found out, Yeah,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: we found out it's really hard. And so but I
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: remember we went up we did our first project up
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in Deer Valley, we had a you know, kind of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a high end residential project up there, and we went
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: up and I mean we were it was just banned.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We were trying to figure it out, and we put
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: this we had this poll that we set up and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: we put a little fixed camera on it and got
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the internet working, and and I called my parents in California.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: They said, hey, go to this website. So they went
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to the website and so I'm talking to them on
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: my cell phone. They're in California and they could see
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: me live on this project. And the crane was, you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: bringing trusses and putting trusses on this this house, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: they were explaining what they were seeing. They could see me,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and it was just like that was kind of the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Aha moment, like there is something here, there's value here,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and it just you know, other contractors started calling saying, hey,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: we've seen this, how do we get it on our site?
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And so it just it just organically grew and continued
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to grow. And like I said, it's a it's a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: bootstrap company. We didn't have any funding or anything. We
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: just we just kept plugging away. But from the beginning
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: we were subscription based, so we took care of all
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the equipment, We did the installation, the maintenance, everything was
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: it was really we wanted to be the easy button.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Just you need to see this live. We take care
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of everything, and so it was a subscription. Yeah, that's great.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: And Ran as it relates to two thousand and eight,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: I know, there's you know, kind of the housing crisis.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: So obviously that affected your business and you had to
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: pivot away from residential.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe highlight that for the listeners. I mean, what did
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you do, how'd.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: You anticipate that or had you handle that challenge?
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: It's interesting. So obviously what happened in two thousand and eight,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to two thousand and seven, at the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: height of all of it, right, you know, if you
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: go back to that time, spec homes were going crazy
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: praise values were out of sight with valuations, and we
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: were actually looking to expand to if you remember the market,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: we were going to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and we were getting offices and people set up and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: lined up there. And I went into Bob one day,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: you know, as we were getting ready for this, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, this there's a problem here when you
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: look at kind of if you dive into it, the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: signs were the amount of spec homes that were on
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the market, the amount of negam financing that was being
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: done for long term financing on it, and the appraise values.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It's just a recipe for disaster. And so we looked
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: at it and said, even though we started off with
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a focus on construction, we said we need to look
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: other places besides construction because this is going to come
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to an end. Didn't know when at that time, but
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: recipe for disaster. And so what could we take from
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: what we learned in going to other verticals or other opportunities.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And so in two thousand and eight we started working
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: with Utah Department Transportation and they had this need of
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you know, they have snow clouds all over the state
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and when it would snow, they guess where the snow's
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: at and they would get of one to send the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: trucks out and remove the snow. So their need was
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: if you could put you know, live video in these
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: really remote areas, then we could just get on and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: see and we could time it perfectly to be really
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: efficient with their snow removal. The other part of that
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: there's always whenever there's a bubble or a boom with residential,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be a commercial boom that follows that because
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you put the houses up, now you need all your
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: stores and restaurants and everything to follow. And so we
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: were looking at it and saying, okay, we could get
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: more into commercial because we'd learned more. So let's focus
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: on commercial construction and then work with Utah Department Transportation.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And that's really what kept us alive through two thousand
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and eight two thousand and nine. It was hard, though
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: it was tough.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned earlier that you were a bootstrap company,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: So at what point did you and boy get to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: where you were like, you know what, this is kind
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: of the real thing, And not that a bootstock company
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: isn't real, because it is, but where you needed to
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: have like systems and structure and all the things. Because
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: right now, to listen to you tell the stories, kind
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: of you guys figuring it out. But where were we like, wait,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: we need to be more.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: It's a good question, And I don't know if there's
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a specific time. We had a unique situation because we
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: were building a software platform. There's all of the it
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and enterprise cloud platforms. But then we also had this
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: fleet of equipment that we owned and maintain and deploy
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: all over the country. And so you've got a hardware
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: side to it that is manufacturing, and there wasn't really
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: anybody to learn from, and so we were inventing the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: whole time. And then you have the software side of it,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: where you're inventing the software and innovating on the software side.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: So it just it organs ganically grew, and it just
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: every month that monthly subscription would get bigger and bigger.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: The head count kept getting bigger and bigger, and so
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it was just this organic growth that continued to move forward.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And I look at it's kind of like we started
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and five and we didn't take our
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: first round of funding until the last day of twenty twenty.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So we went fifteen years of cash crunch like pain
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and suffering, right fifteen years now. I am proud of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the fact that in that time we never missed a payroll,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: which is hard to do. But you have these different
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: elements of building a software company and building a hardware
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and acquiring all the equipment for a fleet. So it's
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: it was difficult to do. So at what point did
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: we realize this is something? I think, you know, I
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: can look back and look at the customers that came
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to us, and the customers kept kind of getting bigger
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and bigger and bigger. And so when we started to
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: get into national level customers, you know, we got into
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Fortune one hundred and Fortune and fifty companies and they
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: were buying and expanding and growing. I think that was
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that was when you're like, Okay, this is this is real.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: There's something here. We we actually have a value add
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to the market and people are willing to work with us.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I love that, and I love that you mentioned growth.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: You know, I think one of the things that I
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: noted just looking doing my research that you know, your
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: growth rate was one hundred and twenty percent from twenty
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: eighteen to twenty twenty two. I mean that just year
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: over year growth rate from an revenue perspective. That's tremendous success.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: I mean that is just amazing. What Ryan, what leadership
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: skills or what you know? Obviously you started small, but
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: what leadership and other core skills were needed as you continue.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: To grow at that rate? What? What?
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: What did you you know? What type of positions did
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: you feel I saw recently, you know, the CFO and
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: other key positions recently within the last year. What you know,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: as you grew, what were those leadership skills that you
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: saw that you needed.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I think kind of our style in the company, especially
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: with Bob and myself and the other leaders in the company,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: we we approach everything like there's experts and there's people
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: that know their craft really well, and so I don't
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: expect to be an expert on everything when I when
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I walk into a room, into a conference room, I
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: assume that everybody else is smarter than me at what
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: their expertise is, and they are. And so we just
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: asked a lot of questions. We went to a lot
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: of people. We constantly asked questions and got feedback. I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: remember early on we actually started in the CIDO building.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: So City of Worm had a incubator program. It was
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: called SIDO and it was on State Street there where
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: we had an office. And I remember like we got
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a cubicle and it was ninety dollars a month, and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: we were so excited about it because we had our
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: official office, right that wasn't my house. And part of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: that they had a committee or a board of advisors
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: that we would meet with every couple months. And at
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: that time, we were really we were a hardware and
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: we kind of band aid together some software website stuff
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to be able to see the video feed, but we
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: weren't a software solution, right, And I went to one
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: of these meetings where one of the advisors said, Hey,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: you really ought to be looking at the software side
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: of this, the software platform. You've got this hardware, you've
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: got this service, but the real value is in the software.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And I said, Okay, thanks, appreciate that. And I remember
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: walking out of there saying, he does not understand what
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: we're doing. Why would he Why would he give that advice? Right,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: he doesn't know what we're doing. He's you know, spent
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: an hour with us. And ultimately, you know, fast forward
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a few years, we started building the software platform, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: that's really was the differentiator. And I think, like hindsight,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: one of those examples where just listen to people who've
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: been there and done that and seen it, because there's
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: there's value in everybody. Everybody can give you something that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: can help you. And I didn't recognize it at the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: time with him, but but uh, lesson learned from me.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I love that, and and and maybe ran you know,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: from a mentoring perspective, maybe highlight you know one or
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: two or three key men mentors along the way. I mean,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: where there advisors, where they're you know, investors I've or
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: part of it. But what individuals played a significant role
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: in helping you? Obviously this person did because he asked
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: some of you some questions that ultimately became very valuable
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: for your organization. But were there other people involved that
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: really helped you along the way.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: We had a unique partnership in the company. So there
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: was Bob Brenner who had an equipment background, manufacturing background,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: so he took the role of all the equipment field
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: operations manufacturing. Then you have Steve Lindsay who was a
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: partner who understood the technology and he built the software platform.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And then you have Dave Stuttard who was the sales,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: go to market networking background, and then myself there was
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: kind of finance, administration, operations, those type of things. And
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: between the four of us, you know, they say partnerships
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: are really hard, and they are. You know, there's yeah,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: there's it's difficult, but the four of us found a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: way to make it work, and we really you know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: it's hard, it's painful, it's scary. We found a way
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to just feed off of each other, so when somebody
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: was having a bad day, the others could recognize it
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and build you up. So that core group of four
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: was really critical to the success of the company through
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: those you know, through those years of trying to figure
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it out, and then we would just reach out to people.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: So you know, I can think of through the process.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: One of the this will sound kind of strange, but
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: some of the mentors for us were our customers. So
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: our customers, you know, you get into the larger scale customers,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: you know, national customers, and they could see our grit,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: they could see the position that we were in, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: they became real champion for us. And we could actually
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: go and talk to them and and have you know,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: trusted conversations with them where we could be transparent, we
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: could be open. They knew the level that we were at,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: so we didn't have to act like we were bigger
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: than we were, but we could ask them questions and say,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: how would you you know, you always try to read
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the mind of the customer and what they're thinking, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: we just built these relationships where we could just ask
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: them and say, hey, we're thinking about innovating this or
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: going this direction, give us feedback, what do you think?
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And they would do that. And so we built these
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: really tight relationships and they're bought in and they want
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: you to succeed, so they help you and guide you.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: The other ones are we brought in some investors in
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Pelion here in Utah is one of them.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: We brought in Lead Edge also at that time, and
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: we were able to lean on them quite a bit
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: to say, help us through these next stages. Here's what
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: we have, here's where we're at. You have the ability
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: to see a lot of different companies help us navigate
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: through this growth and through these challenges. So we leaned
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: quite a bit on you know, they were basically board
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: members but investors, and they were always given us advice
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and direction. I love that. Thank you.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: You know, to be this small core group and then
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: to bring in investors later on, what were the qualities
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: that you were looking for? Like how what made you
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: decide on somebody like Pelion like this. I've heard it
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: described as kind of like a marriage, you know, like
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: this is a long term relationship, So like, did you
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: go into it looking for certain qualities.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we actually met with a lot of different groups,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and we weren't necessarily actively out trying to find somebody.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: It's just it just constantly came in. As we were growing,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: there was interest, and so they were constantly coming in
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and we kept meeting with people and it just never clicked.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: There just wasn't that you walked away feeling like they
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: want to invest and they want to run a period
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: of time and they want to sell out and move
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: on to the next one. And we weren't looking for that.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: We were looking for real partners that could help us
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and had a longer term timeline and willing to get
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: in the trenches with us and help us. And so
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: as we started meeting with them, it was obvious that
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that was their style. That was you know, we weren't
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: just a transaction for them that comes in, runs its
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: time and leaves. They wanted to participate in the growth
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of the company, really help But it is like a marriage.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Ups and downs. One of the things that keeps coming
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: up for me when I'm when I was looking into you,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: as people say about you, and you probably already know
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: this or maybe you don't. But and you're a great listener,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: do you do you hear that a lot? I mean,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: and I think about when you're going out and you
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: just set a second ago. You know, a lot of
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: your mentors are your customers, and so I think there's
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of customers that you know, deal with customers
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: in the world and they're like, yeah, you know, no
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: one is listening to me, you know, who am I whatever?
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: But what do you think it is that that makes
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: you such a great to be recognized with such a
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: great listener.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's the approach of I want to learn
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: and we want to learn, and if you're talking constantly,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it's hard to listen and learn. And so you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of times when somebody's talking explaining something to you,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you're already in your mind thinking about how you're going
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: to respond to them, and to force yourself to just
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: say no, just stop and listen and sometimes listen there's
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: there's awkward silence because is they'll explain something and I'll
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: just like pause and listen and then think about it
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: before I respond. And I think it's I think it's valuable.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you think about it, we from two
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: thousand and five to twenty sixteen, we weren't a security company.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Everybody thinks that, well, if your camera is your security,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and we didn't look at it as security. We looked
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: at it as information to create efficiency. So live video
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: gives you real time information that's valuable if you use
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it the right way. Now, the fact that it's a camera,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the fact that it's out there and it's recording, then
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: there's an element of security to it. But in twenty sixteen,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: we didn't have anybody in our company that was from
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the security industry at all, and so now we're breaking in.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Customers kept saying, hey, you've got to be security. We
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: need security. And so because we didn't have in house expertise,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: we had to listen to the people and we had
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to really understand the problems that they were dealing with
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and not assume that we knew what they were dealing with.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: And a lot of times if you don't listen, you
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: make assumptions in your head, and there's and then you miss. Right. Well,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: we didn't have the resources and the capital to miss,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: so we needed to really understand what the issues were
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and make sure that we were putting our time into
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: building the things that would solve their problems. And if
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you approach conversations like I'm going to figure out I'm
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: going to learn something in this conversation that's going to
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: be valuable to me, then you're more intent on listening
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: to be able to learn that. If if I'm talking constantly,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to learn anything because I just I'm
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: just going to keep talking. And so sometimes you have
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to force yourself to do it because you want to respond,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you want to chime in, but if you can just
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: pause and listen, it's helpful.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I just thought that was such a great compliment. You know.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: You think of all the compliments you can receive out there,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: and to have somebody say about, you know what, just
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: a really good listener.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Now we've probably had a check with my wife and
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: see if she so that was my next question. If
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: she agrees that I'm a good your.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Wife say, what would your parents say?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: My wife would probably say I'm not a great listener.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Put that phone down right, yeah, you know, speaking of
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: you know, and again I don't want this to be
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: a negative thing, but you know, as as leaders, and
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: we've had a lot of opportunities to talk to too
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: many leaders of various companies and various industries that have
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: highlighted mistakes and mistakes that they've made that they learned
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: from and it was it was valuable in their learning
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: and growth. Is there is there at that you made
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: as a leader that hindsight right looking back, you're like,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: I'm glad that that happened because of XYZ.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think probably one of the biggest obstacles that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I have had to overcome that would be considered mistakes
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: in certain situations, on certain decisions, I procrastinate making the decision.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: And you know there's people who are just like, issue
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: comes up, all hands on deck, solve it, no matter what,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And I tend to pause, and I tend to wait longer.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: And I can look back over the course of the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: last twenty years and I can see plenty of examples
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: where I should have moved faster, I should have taken action,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I should have just made the decision quicker. And I
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: think it's probably a little bit of hesitating or pausing
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: out of fear, like I don't necessarily want the answer,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: So maybe time will help solve this. But you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I think and I still deal you know, I still
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: deal with it. This uh, procrastination or just believing that
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: time will help solve things. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So I think that's probably one of my main learnings
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: that if there is an issue, letting it go isn't
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: all isn't most of the time, that's not going to
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: solve it. It's better to just hit it head on.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I always say wait today, Like.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: In my mind, it's like wait three months and see
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: what happens.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Rather than.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: With your company, do you have well, we were looking
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: at your values statement. You know, the values that you
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: have within your company, and so you've obviously grown, You've
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: had to do a lot of hiring. What are the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: qualities and the things that the value values that you
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: have within your company that are just standard that when
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: you're looking to bring somebody onto your team, these are
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: the rule you know, this is what we look for, right.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Good question. I mean, obviously all the moral and ethical
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: things are requirements, right, but some of the things that
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for. There's a lot of noise in the world.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I think we're bombarded with it every day. The messaging
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: that we get on any topic, political, social agendas, whatever
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: it may be. Are these loud voices of the extremes
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: on either side whatever the topic is. And I think
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: for us individually and as a company, you can get
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: wound up in that and a lot of energy goes
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: into thought and time dealing with those things. And so
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for people that are just grounded, that understand
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: what they're trying to do, what their goals are, that
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: they're aggressive, that they're proactive, but that they're not spending
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of time in these things that they can't
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: control or that don't really matter, you know, because we're
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: life safety and security now, every unit that we deploy
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: is making that environment more safe and secure, and we
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: like we believe it because we see it. When you
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: think about these locations. Take a convenience store. They're dealing
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: with drugs and gangs and violence and terrible things that
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: are having into people in these type of locations, and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the employees are scared to be there, the customers don't
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: want to go there, right because there's just this element
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: that is unsafe, And we can deploy a unit there
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and we literally watch the bad element just get up
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and walk away. And so with that, there's a DNA
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: inside the company of everybody that's there that is like
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: we're passionate. We care because it actually makes a difference
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to the people that are in those environments, and we
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: see the results. You know, we deploy, we do studies,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: We see the results of the reduction of crime and
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: violence in these areas and it's real. And so we're
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: looking for people that want to participate in that passion
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: that they want to be a part of a hyper
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: growth company that gives them opportunities, gives them experience that
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: they want to do something great in their communities that
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: are all across the country because we see it every
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: day and it's believable, and then an environment that can
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: help their personal lives. You know, we're not the type
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: of company that's your your sweatshop, work people around the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: clock till they can't take it anymore and they leave.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: You know, the like good solid companies should help the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: employees and families to progress. You know, if somebody comes
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and works at LVT and they spend whatever it may be,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: three years, five years, ten years, I hope it the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you know, if they leave and they go on to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: somewhere else that they can look back and say, in
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: that time at LVT, there was progression in my financial position,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: there was progression in my career and my skills and
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: my family progressed in that time. And if that happens,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: then then we're successful. We're doing what we need to do. Yeah,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: that's great, that's great.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I would just for those we have listeners that are
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: starting a brand or starting a company, entrepreneurs, what advice
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: would you give them?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously you've.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Learned some things and you've had success, you've had some
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: bumps along the way, But what what advice would you
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: give those that are, you know, thinking about or even
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: starting a new company.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. I've talked to a lot
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: of people. I want to start companies and have started companies,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and it's exciting. If it's inside of you, then you
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: want to do it and you want to prove that
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: you can do it. Right. There's there's just like, hey,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I want to be an entrepreneur and I believe I
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: can do it, so you have to try it. The
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: advice that I always give to people is it never
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: goes as fast as you think, and no matter how
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: good of a business plan you do, it never goes
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: according to plan. And so what I see happening is people,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: will you have your personal lives and your personal finances,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and they think, oh, we're going to be profitable in
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: three months, for six months or whatever it is, and
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: it just it rarely happens, and so they budget their
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: personal finances for that three month Period's second example of
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: somebody that's you know, take me, I was mayor married
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: with two kids under the age of three when we
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: started the company. And if you have your budget and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you run your business and you're not hitting the financial
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: targets that you need, then you start to put too
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: much time into your personal finances and thinking about it
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and stressing. Now your energy is going to how are
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: you going to pay your mortgage and your rent and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: put food on the table. Then the energy that needs
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: to go into the business. Does that make sense? Yeah
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: for sure. So then you get into this point where
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: it's taking longer. How do I get more money? Oh,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I'll use credit cards, right, And then your spouse or
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: whoever else is like, wait, I'm getting nervous. This isn't
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: going according to plan. And now we're tapping into credit
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: cards and then it's like, oh, let's tap into the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: equity line on the house, right, And you start this
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: process which just creates so much stress and pressure your
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: personal life. And then if you have partners, then you
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: have this stress of hey, I don't want to bail
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: on my partners, but I'm in trouble financially at home,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: and so you just you start this downward spiral and
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: so right or wrong. One of the things that I
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: did in our family I saved up a certain amount
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: of money that I put into an account, and I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: told my wife because when we got married. Before we
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: got married, I said, listen, I'm going to start a business.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The warning and we are.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: My dream was to invent something that I could develop
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and take to market and have people pay for it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I it was just like if somebody would pay money
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: for an idea that I had, I thought that was
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the coolest thing. Yeah, And so I told my wife, listen,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: we're gonna take risk, and we're gonna risk it all.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: She's like, Okay, don't know what that means, but yeah,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: she didn't very small when you start out, so you know,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: it's not a big deal sack. Right. So I went
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to her and I said, Okay, we have this money
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: that we've saved, we're putting it into this account. Here's
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: the rules. This money is enough money to cover us
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: for you know, a year or two years, whatever the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: amount was, for our expenses to stay alive, to feed
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the kids, to pay for everything. The rule is, I
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: can continue to work on the business, but if I
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: ever touch a penny of that money, then that is
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the indicator that says, Ryan, you have to stop the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: business and you have to go get a job, right
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and bring income in. So that was the stop that
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: was put in place to never get into the credit
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: cards in the line of credit and put us in
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: a financial distress, right, And so we got down two
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: dollars of almost tapping into that money. But but that
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: was a way for my wife to say, Okay, we're
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: always gonna have money to pay the mortgage, pay the cars,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: put food on the table. So I don't she doesn't
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: need to worry about that, and I don't need to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: worry about that. But if you don't have those rules
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: set up upfront, then you find yourself like, hey, one
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: more month, let me just go borrow this much money
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: because one more month we're gonna get the contract and
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: we're gonna get paid. And it just never happens that way.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And when you compound the stress of personal finances on
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: starting a business. It's near impossible to commit all of
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: your time and energy to the business. So that's my
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: that's my advice. You have you have rules set up
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: to control your personal finances, it's good and follow those
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: rules and follow rules.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: There can be rules, but you must follow that right.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: So real quick, I do want to talk about AI
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: and surveillance and how it raises real questions with privacy,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: how that data gets used, How does LBT manage all
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: of that, and what do you have in place and
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: what do you see coming down the road as far
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: as challenges.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's interesting because especially with live video, you're
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: always dealing with privacy. And I guess, first off, in
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: our contracts, our agreements with our customers, our customers own
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: all of the data. So it's it's we are the
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: vehicle that creates the data, but they own it. And
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: so even if we want to go look at video,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: you know, if they need us to look at something
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and try to gather video, it's with their authorization. So
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: we're not using their video to train models or to
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: get in and look at you know, just for fun.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: It's with a purpose and it's with authorization. So that
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: is a distinct position that we've taken that we don't
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: own the data. That they own the data and we
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: can help them with it, but it's their data to
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: use how they want. With AI coming into the world now,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it opens up opportunities to do so much more dad
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: especially when you're dealing with video, to be able to
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: use that video not just for life safety and security,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: but for marketing and for logistics and distribution and maintenance
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and facilities, on and on and on, right, and that's
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: gonna happen. It's going to come. Earlier this year, we
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: went to a third party company, research company, Harsh Company,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and they went out and interviewed I think it was
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: over two thousand people. They asked a series of questions
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: about this idea of AI and data and privacy because
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it's becoming a topic. It's a hot topic, right for sure,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: especially in the political environment that we're in and then
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the social agendas that are going on and all of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: these feelings and ideas, right And it was surprising because
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: all of the data that came back was we're okay
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: with innovation in with AI and with video. The voice
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of the people was we just want controls and rules
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: around it. We don't want data to be collected and used. However,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: somebody wants to use it or a business wants to
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: use it. So there was an overwhelming response of Hey,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: this can be really valuable and helpful for us for
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: society in the future, but control it and have rules.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, as video and AI and
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: intelligence and innovation has happened so quickly, I think there's
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: a number of companies that didn't have those rules set
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of and so it has caused concern. We luckily were
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: very proactive with that back in you know, when we
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: were earlier of setting up our contracts that the customer
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: owns the data, not us, and so it put us
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: in a position to really just add value to the customer. Yeah,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: that's a great, great response.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: You know, Ryan, you've been obviously recognized EY Entrepreneur of
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: the Year. Mountwest Capital Network we've recognized you two years
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: in a row. Congratulations by the way for both of those,
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: and then also number fifteen within the security industry as
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: far as fastest growing companies in America, which is just amazing.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: How does that feel?
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, what are those recognitions?
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: You know, do they do anything I mean.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Obviously, you know, it supports what you know, you've been
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: able to accomplish and your team is accomplished. Obviously, but
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: what is it, how does it mean? What does it
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: mean to you?
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Obviously, you know, I probably don't over rotate on it
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: when I when I hear those things, I'm like, hey,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: there's there's a team of people and some great people
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: that that have been a part of the growth of
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the company, and so credit goes to to the entire team.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I think also we we timed it in in a
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: way that that was really valuable. It was a need
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that was there, and so the innovation of the team
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: and the vision of the team was able to fill
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: a niche and a need at the highest you know,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: the largest companies in the country, you know, and that's
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: really what what had the growth behind it. And so
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I I think for myself, I think it's somewhat validating
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: the that the company and the people have have. You know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of the hard work and the effort that's
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: gone in is you know, we're seeing results with some
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: success from that. But you know, every day a new
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: day and you have to continue to you know, the
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: problems today are our real problems that we're trying to
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: deal with. So I there's no thought in my mind
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: that's like, hey, we've arrived, we've made it. The numbers
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: might be bigger, and the problems are bigger, and the
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: issues are bigger, and and luckily we have we have
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: great people that are really passionate about the business and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: willing to help.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: That's a great response. Well, obviously we have a love
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: for Utah and you founded your company here in Utah,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: and we just always love to ask the question like
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: how do you feel being based in Utah has impacted
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: your company and the growth and success of your company?
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Like is there something special about Utah?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I think there's there's multiple parts to it. I
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: think the the culture here in Utah. I think part
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: of that is is just the culture in Utah, but
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: also the education programs here. There's just a high caliber
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: of people, yeah, that are driven that at their core
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: understand progression. Uh. You know, there's this idea of progression
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that that put the effort in, whatever the effort is,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: that you're going to get better and you're going to move.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And I don't think that's everywhere. You know, there's there's
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: pockets of people that are really driven. But I would
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: say in Utah there's a higher percentage of people that
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: want to make a difference and really are willing to
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: put the work in. So you get this high caliber
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: of people that want to make a difference, and and
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: so we're able to hire from that pool of people.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: The other thing is is we do full manufacturing, So
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: we have a facility in Spanish Fork that's a full
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: fabrication manufacturing assembly facility, and so we get all different
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: types of personalities and skill sets, you know, from welders
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: and assembling to to sales to you know, software development.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: You get the whole spectrum of people, which is unique
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: because you get to see and work with all different
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: types of personalities that I think helps the company. Then
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: I think the other part of it is there's there's
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: something about Utah. When when we leave and we go
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: out and meet at these corporate offices of all these
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: different companies, it's shocking to me how quickly the people
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: will say, there's just a trust there that we built
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: in a relationship that we built quickly. And this isn't
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: necessarily me going to me, this is this is you know,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: we hear it over and over from our teams. But
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: there there's just hey, we we can trust l VT. Yeah,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: and you respond and you listen and you help us.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: And so you know what is that is that culture?
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Is that the company There's it's hard to put your
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: finger on, but there's something about Utah. It's just different.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: It's different.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: Now, I love that. We love to ask the question
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: because it's a fun one to hear different answers. Looking ahead,
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: what's next for your business and how can our listeners
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: be part of it?
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what's it's a whole new world with
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: AI and innovation, and so as you think about it,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: you know, we have this physical infrastructure that's deployed all
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: across the country in really all of the roughest area
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: of the country. You know, your highest traffic areas, your
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: highest crime areas, your critical infrastructure, your logistics and distribution
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: hubs were deployed in all of those hot spots of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the country with equipment and infrastructure that we own. But
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it's also infrastructure that we can continually innovate and add
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: value to. So it's not a widget that does its
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: one thing. It's evolving and learning constantly. And so you
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: know how for people that want to be a part
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: of that and look at the opportunity there. We're always
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: looking for people to bring their skills and experience and
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: personalities into the company because we look at that and say,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: there's so much more we can do beyond just life
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: safety and security. It's you know, when we're twenty one
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: years into this and I feel like we're just now
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: starting to scratch the surface of what's possible because innovation
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: is just moving so fast. It's great.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: I know, just personal story, like if I am somewhere
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: that I'm not feeling comfortable in and I see I look, look,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: I look for that box and to see like is
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: this it just I don't know, it brings me comfort
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: and so I there everywhere. They are everywhere, and so
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: thank you.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Obviously it's funny because people will say they park next
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: to them, Yeah, you do because they feel like it's
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: you know, and we'd say, how a trailer with cameras
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and a speaker do anything, But it actually creates a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: controlled environment. Yes, And when there's control, bad things are
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: less likely to happen. And so you know, we're really
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: focused on the deterrent side of it and creating that
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: controlled environment to create safety.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I'm glad I feel that, my kids feel that. My
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: daughter the other day was in a parking lot and
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: she even mentioned, you know, I know they have security.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: I saw the box and and I was like cool, Okay,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Like no, it's it's real, it's real thing. So anyways,
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I love it awesome. So thank you for joining us today.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: You're a busy, busy person and I was looking forward
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: to meeting you. I haven't met you before, and so
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: this has been a joy for me. Your story is
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: so inspiring to us, and it's involving something that probably
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: impacts us in more ways than we know. It's been
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: a pleasure to talk with you, and we're proud to
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: highlight work.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you all.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: These many years, twenty years and hope to be hearing
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: from you from yours for years to come.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: And for our listeners who want to learn more, where
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: can they find and connect with you?
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Best place is LVT dot com. You can go to
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: go that. We're just to put a plug. We're always
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: hiring great people, so come to the side, look what's
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: available and then you know, any questions from me, happy
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: to reach out to me directly.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Love that and to everyone listening, thank you. For joining us.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: A special thanks to the launch Pod team, Johnny, Christine
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: and Rachel for producing our show, Zachary Reid for his
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: vision and direction as producer, Katie Brown, Operations Specialist, for
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: keeping us in line and on track, Garrett Lawson and
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Kevin Jessup for serving as our Mountain West Capital Network
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: podcast chairs.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: Don't forget to leave us a five star review and
• 46:53
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• 46:56
  Speaker 3: the leaders shaping our business future. There's nothing that we
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: appreciate more than hearing from our listeners, rate, review, and share.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Winner's Circle.