Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / From the Vault - Ep. 32 - Crafting Connections for Business Breakthroughs in the Entrepreneurial Hub with Josh Saffran

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From the Vault - Ep. 32 - Crafting Connections for Business Breakthroughs in the Entrepreneurial Hub with Josh Saffran · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:04
  Eric Howerton: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of big talk about small business.
• 0:10
  Eric Howerton: I am your co-host, because our host is actually out for today dealing with some sickness.
• 0:17
  Eric Howerton: He got the the vid.
• 0:18
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, he got the vid early this week, mr grand opening for the podcast video.
• 0:24
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, and he was supposed to be here interviewing with the media as well, and so was Mr Saffron, who is my guest.
• 0:33
  Eric Howerton: We have guest Josh Saffron, the great, the one and only the one, and only Mr Josh Saffron, and you came by the grand opening yesterday.
• 0:42
  Eric Howerton: It was cool.
• 0:43
  Eric Howerton: It was cool, wasn't it.
• 0:44
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I'm, I'm proud of you.
• 0:45
  Josh Saffran: I know you a long time.
• 0:46
  Josh Saffran: I don't want the tears to flow, but but to see what you built here and the people that came through and watching you in your element last night, I mean it.
• 0:53
  Josh Saffran: It was a problem for me as a good friend of yours, but just to see what you're doing here and you have all these visions you operated 80,000 feet Then to watch it come to life, live and see the people interacting here.
• 1:05
  Eric Howerton: It was super cool for me to say Well, you know, it really does come down to the team, right?
• 1:09
  Eric Howerton: I mean, we have a good team of folks here that I mean big event and they took care of everything.
• 1:15
  Eric Howerton: I mean they rocked it out.
• 1:16
  Eric Howerton: They're the ones that made it happen.
• 1:17
  Eric Howerton: So that's really cool to see.
• 1:18
  Josh Saffran: And I saw your daughters working here.
• 1:20
  Josh Saffran: They were, and I saw her friend, molly was working here, so the whole basketball team.
• 1:24
  Josh Saffran: I'm like we're rocking the shirts and I'm like, what are you guys doing here?
• 1:27
  Josh Saffran: I feel like, oh, we're working for Mr Howard to work for you, it's so cool.
• 1:30
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, it is cool.
• 1:31
  Eric Howerton: I mean it's cool to see young folks engage in business.
• 1:33
  Josh Saffran: Yeah.
• 1:34
  Eric Howerton: You know, and I think that you know on that, because we do have some young listeners that get in there trying to start up a business and whatever thing.
• 1:41
  Eric Howerton: But you know, I think the big thing for young people is is you got to show up?
• 1:45
  Eric Howerton: You know, honestly, if you just show up and you stay involved and you're actually I mean because I can tell you that a lot of entrepreneurs or even business owners are looking for people that just show up and make things happen, yeah, and that's a good lesson to learn.
• 1:57
  Josh Saffran: Well, this community and I tell my son, who's graduating high school, how this community there's a lot of who you know.
• 2:03
  Josh Saffran: Obviously you have to put in the work for the what you know, but he goes to school, he'll get a degree and he focuses.
• 2:09
  Josh Saffran: But by knowing people like yourself and being able to get themselves networked here, this is a great place for young people to start their career because there's lots of opportunities with a little bit of hard work but knowledge of the ecosystem and the people in it.
• 2:21
  Eric Howerton: Mm hmm, yeah, a lot of times it's just about and you know this and we'll get into your story but I mean it's just about getting you know, just taking that step forward, having that confidence.
• 2:29
  Eric Howerton: I mean you can't plan in business to have everything figured out.
• 2:33
  Eric Howerton: That's one thing that I've learned is like there's a there's a nice balance between strategy and action.
• 2:41
  Eric Howerton: Yep, and there's.
• 2:42
  Eric Howerton: I've seen so many folks just strategically put themselves into a corner and they never actually get anything done.
• 2:47
  Eric Howerton: Then I see a lot of folks that just take action without thinking about the long term.
• 2:51
  Eric Howerton: But you've got to find that nice little balance and you've done that with actually a couple of things I mean.
• 2:55
  Josh Saffran: Well, first of all, I I chuck I'll do say this because I was telling somebody the story last night.
• 2:59
  Josh Saffran: You and I operate super visionary and and you and I try to get stuff done.
• 3:02
  Josh Saffran: And now we've got to a point where, like, I'll bring my wife to a meeting just so we could actually put together follow ups and things Cause.
• 3:09
  Josh Saffran: Right, if you have two visionaries in a room together, we're spewing out amazing ideas, but the action doesn't follow through with it.
• 3:14
  Josh Saffran: So you have to surround yourself with the right people that are balancing out all your visionary ideas, with people that can take it and run with it and execute the vision.
• 3:21
  Eric Howerton: Well, let's get one thing straight though my, my ideas are good, Yours I mean yours are amazing, mine are just if they're just half as good as yours.
• 3:28
  Josh Saffran: I mean, I just shoot to be average some days.
• 3:29
  Josh Saffran: You should be happy for yourself All right.
• 3:32
  Eric Howerton: So, josh Saffron yes, sir, so I know that you, you're an entrepreneur.
• 3:35
  Eric Howerton: You started up the gents place here in Northwest Arkansas, yep, and we actually interviewed the, the main franchise owner, right CEO and founder, ben Davis.
• 3:46
  Eric Howerton: Ben Davis, john Alstom, ben yeah, yeah, that was a fun episode.
• 3:49
  Eric Howerton: Mark was here for that one.
• 3:50
  Eric Howerton: But you're you're one of the franchisees and you got involved in that.
• 3:54
  Eric Howerton: I mean, I think that that's a common, interesting business, because I mean, how did you?
• 3:58
  Eric Howerton: Okay, let's, let's, can we go into that?
• 4:01
  Eric Howerton: Why did you do that and what does that mean as being a franchisee?
• 4:04
  Eric Howerton: How is that helpful for starting the business?
• 4:07
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I, I I had moved here from bigger cities and when I came down here and a lot of people are I almost view it as an expat community where people are coming in from New York, chicago, boston, and I didn't like the haircutting experience here.
• 4:19
  Josh Saffran: To me it was like this Saturday to-do list go to Walmart, go to Home Depot, get your haircut.
• 4:24
  Josh Saffran: Check off the box on the transaction Sounds like something that's what you would have done before we came here and I'm watching the women on a Saturday go and they're getting their nails done, they're wearing robes and they're drinking champagne and I said so we have to figure out that aspect of the men's grooming.
• 4:40
  Josh Saffran: But also, being in a supplier community so long, I didn't love what I was viewing as a lot of this forced networking of hey, there's this big charity event this weekend, my buyer's going, so you need to go, and he didn't.
• 4:50
  Josh Saffran: He wanted to wave to you or she and you're waving, but not neither of you wanted to be there.
• 4:54
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, so I said how do we create this?
• 4:55
  Josh Saffran: Networking meets grooming, and that's really what we've done with the Gents place.
• 4:59
  Josh Saffran: Here it's like Barbershop meets Speakeasy meets Country Club and there's a huge networking aspect with lockers for members and then member lounge where we're doing really interesting meetings with folks in the community.
• 5:10
  Eric Howerton: So let me get this right.
• 5:11
  Eric Howerton: You came from a bigger city but you probably had those experiences available there.
• 5:15
  Eric Howerton: You come to a new geography.
• 5:17
  Eric Howerton: You see something missing in the market right, entrepreneurial thinking.
• 5:20
  Eric Howerton: And then you were.
• 5:22
  Eric Howerton: Did you see that vision?
• 5:24
  Eric Howerton: And then you found the Gents place Like you discovered it and brought it.
• 5:28
  Josh Saffran: I knew what I wanted to do.
• 5:30
  Josh Saffran: Okay, I knew I didn't know how to mess with POS systems and when the right retail product was having a distribution network.
• 5:36
  Josh Saffran: And so I started doing a little bit of research and said do we do this on our own or do I find somebody who's got similar vision and values that I do?
• 5:42
  Josh Saffran: And we found Ben, went to visit him in Frisco where their headquartered, met him and his wife, lauren and Emily, and I felt it was a good pairing, good match, both on the strategy, the vision and, most importantly, the culture, on the way that the business runs and operates.
• 5:56
  Josh Saffran: And so here we are, six years later and through COVID, with a business that my wife has left her nursing job to go operate and run.
• 6:05
  Eric Howerton: So I think that's a really cool point, like for a lot of those aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
• 6:09
  Eric Howerton: You kind of like honestly start off a business.
• 6:11
  Eric Howerton: I mean you know this.
• 6:12
  Eric Howerton: Like it is insane, right.
• 6:13
  Eric Howerton: Like either there's so much to do you can never get all the check marks done for the day, but being able to basically buy into a franchise like that I mean the things you talked about, the culture, the vision POS system a lot of those tops of things are already set up and going.
• 6:28
  Eric Howerton: Yeah.
• 6:29
  Eric Howerton: It allows you to actually get to business a lot faster, doesn't it?
• 6:32
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I mean, and I think you know when you have, when you're a franchisee working for a franchisor.
• 6:37
  Josh Saffran: I used to phrase a lot seeing this movie, you know how it ends.
• 6:39
  Josh Saffran: You know he has opened and run six of them on his own.
• 6:42
  Josh Saffran: So how do you recruit people?
• 6:44
  Josh Saffran: Well, here's what we've done successfully and here's what we failed at and learned from this.
• 6:48
  Josh Saffran: Here's how we get members to come in the door.
• 6:50
  Josh Saffran: Here's how we advertise and market to them.
• 6:52
  Josh Saffran: Don't do these things that didn't work for us, but try to utilize this strategy.
• 6:56
  Josh Saffran: And so that's a lot easier for a franchisee as an entrepreneur, because you're seeing the successes and failures from Ben and some of the other franchisee owners that I can, I can say all right, that makes sense for Bentonville, let's follow that lead.
• 7:09
  Josh Saffran: Or this may be a different way.
• 7:10
  Josh Saffran: We want to do it, but I'm using his guidance for support.
• 7:13
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, because you can like take some of those, those positive learnings at work, and then they're about not working in your geography, right, yes, and your community, and so you had those experiences too.
• 7:23
  Eric Howerton: Do you have an example of when you might have put a little polish on something or make a little angle to kind of fit this, this specific audience?
• 7:32
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I think.
• 7:32
  Josh Saffran: I think for us, a great example was when they're in bigger markets Dallas, vegas.
• 7:38
  Josh Saffran: They're in Austin, san Antonio, houston and the airports are enormous.
• 7:45
  Eric Howerton: Yeah.
• 7:45
  Josh Saffran: We market here in at XNA, and it's there's better foot traffic, smaller, it's an easier airport to navigate, and so we've had success in marketing the Gens Place brand at the airport here.
• 7:57
  Josh Saffran: But I don't know that that would be successful at a DFW, for example.
• 8:01
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, because it's just too.
• 8:02
  Eric Howerton: I mean, it's so big.
• 8:03
  Josh Saffran: It's awesome.
• 8:04
  Eric Howerton: It's an awesome big point, Correct.
• 8:05
  Josh Saffran: So here I mean, we had giant poster boards up at launch and we had some stuff at baggage.
• 8:10
  Josh Saffran: There's two baggage claims here, perfect example.
• 8:12
  Josh Saffran: And so you're forcing 50% of the people to one or the other DFW.
• 8:16
  Josh Saffran: If you're going to market at the baggage claim, I mean, you're catching a different audience, larger numbers, but I think here you're segregating people right where you want to see them.
• 8:26
  Eric Howerton: That's pretty cool man.
• 8:27
  Eric Howerton: So whatever you've seen, that's really like like whenever you did those adaptations, like, did you come up with a new pricing or any new programs for the area specifically, or how does that work?
• 8:39
  Josh Saffran: I mean, that is one of the things with the as the franchisee is, you really have to stick to the brand status and the guidelines, and so the example that Ben used while we're opening is hey, if you think you can make a lot of money selling hot dogs, great, but you can't do that because it's not what, it's not core to what we're trying to do.
• 8:53
  Josh Saffran: So we're figuring out right now, I think, the member lounge and the locker space and the networking aspect and trying to figure out how to become bigger than what just a barbershop is and figuring out how to utilize that space.
• 9:06
  Josh Saffran: Had a coffee meeting yesterday at heroes, next door, and there's people and there's noise and there's bustle and all the things happening.
• 9:13
  Josh Saffran: But in the Gents place you have a better environment where you can start to have conversations and talk numbers and financials and angel investing in an area where you can kind of control it, as opposed to in town here at a coffee shop where there's just so much hustle and bustle and oh, you see you sitting over there.
• 9:30
  Josh Saffran: So we're trying to figure out that aspect of it, which I think is the next generation, of where the Gents place is going.
• 9:35
  Eric Howerton: That's really cool.
• 9:36
  Eric Howerton: So that's kind of like as an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial thinking you have this space, you already got all your core stuff going right, and then you start finding ways to basically amplify or take advantage of the strengths that you have in your spot.
• 9:51
  Eric Howerton: Maybe the rest of the market doesn't.
• 9:53
  Eric Howerton: So it's not just about the original idea right, which you brought to the market.
• 9:57
  Eric Howerton: You saw the need, but then as you get in there and you start working the business, you stay tuned.
• 10:02
  Josh Saffran: Well, and it clicked for me like a couple of times, because with through plug and play, we do a lot.
• 10:09
  Josh Saffran: We'll talk plug and play in a bit, but we do a lot of stuff in the investing and startup space and so we brought in a really hot startup in the area into the member lounge that you presented in the barbershop in the member lounge.
• 10:19
  Josh Saffran: Too much of an angel investors I think you were actually in that meeting right, you wouldn't do that in a traditional barbershop, not at all.
• 10:24
  Josh Saffran: I don't even think about it.
• 10:26
  Josh Saffran: It doesn't make sense, right?
• 10:27
  Josh Saffran: It's like you bring something into a barbershop.
• 10:29
  Josh Saffran: I'm getting my haircut, but now you're able to utilize that space for entrepreneurship.
• 10:31
  Josh Saffran: I think my favorite story that I may have shared with you is I was meeting with the chief technology officer from a startup and he goes where do you want to go?
• 10:39
  Josh Saffran: Let's go get coffee.
• 10:39
  Josh Saffran: I go, let's go sit in the member lounge at the Gens Place.
• 10:42
  Josh Saffran: So we walk in.
• 10:44
  Josh Saffran: It's like four o'clock on a Thursday.
• 10:45
  Josh Saffran: We have a glass of bourbon and sitting across from us is Sam, the CEO and founder owner of the Butter Biscuit, which is the hot one of the hottest places in town.
• 10:54
  Josh Saffran: Super cool dude member there.
• 10:55
  Josh Saffran: We're chit chatting and now we're talking about business.
• 10:57
  Josh Saffran: We're talking about the community, we're talking about the region, and then who pops down sitting next to us?
• 11:02
  Josh Saffran: But Asa, oh, are you serious?
• 11:03
  Josh Saffran: Former governor running for president at the time.
• 11:05
  Josh Saffran: So now we've got the four of us sitting there and all of a sudden we start talking the economy.
• 11:09
  Josh Saffran: We're talking COVID, we're talking about what's going on in the elections, we're talking about Afghanistan, and you go, we're in a barbershop.
• 11:17
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, but, it's brought this entrepreneurial spirit and this ecosystem around, the way that people are networking here in the community, and that was a really proud moment for me.
• 11:24
  Josh Saffran: But none of that was scripted, it all just happened.
• 11:27
  Eric Howerton: I think this is kind of actually just kind of hits me the value of this conversation for an entrepreneur, right, because we again, there's so many things to think about.
• 11:36
  Eric Howerton: I mean, heck, even the tax part, getting licenses from the local and state government and feds, all these different things that come in if I'm wanting to start a business.
• 11:50
  Eric Howerton: But the most important thing, I think you and I both believe in this network Building, that network showing up right, and what you're kind of doing is is you're creating a place for that.
• 12:03
  Eric Howerton: But if I'm trying to start a business, I mean it would probably be pretty valuable for me to join, you invest into the Gents place, to become a member there.
• 12:12
  Eric Howerton: Now you're introduced into this network opportunity.
• 12:16
  Eric Howerton: But then what do you have to do?
• 12:17
  Eric Howerton: You have to show up and then, when you show up, then you have to talk to people.
• 12:24
  Josh Saffran: Yep, I mean, it's this like-minded Gents, right?
• 12:27
  Josh Saffran: And so I'll tell you the funny story which you could appreciate.
• 12:29
  Josh Saffran: It's just happened yesterday.
• 12:30
  Josh Saffran: So there's a guy that I have gotten to be friends with solely through the Gents place and he has a big HR job at a big company in the community and so I've known him from there.
• 12:40
  Josh Saffran: Hey, how are you Good to see you?
• 12:41
  Josh Saffran: And then so he's hearing me talk and seeing me do some podcasting.
• 12:45
  Josh Saffran: So he reaches out and says I'd love to learn more.
• 12:48
  Josh Saffran: He shows up last night at the grant opening and now it's a connection for you about potentially podcasting.
• 12:53
  Josh Saffran: He doesn't realize how much work I'm doing in my day job with plug and play, so he's now intrigued in what we're doing and interviewing me, so to speak, to get him connected within his company.
• 13:06
  Josh Saffran: And then he brings me a friend of his who works for another company in the supply chain space.
• 13:11
  Josh Saffran: So it's valuated for him through the networking to you and potentially doing podcasting.
• 13:16
  Josh Saffran: I have now leads with two different companies that I could influence on the plug and play side, all because of this networking that started by me spending 10 minutes with him at the Gents place.
• 13:27
  Eric Howerton: That's crazy, isn't it?
• 13:28
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, and I think here's what's great.
• 13:29
  Eric Howerton: What I like about you and I having this conversation now is because I know that we both understand the value of it.
• 13:36
  Eric Howerton: But then I've been to so many events like where folks just close up when they get around to the people.
• 13:42
  Eric Howerton: Do you have any perspective or advice, like how?
• 13:47
  Eric Howerton: Like, okay, you go to an event, there's a lot of people there.
• 13:49
  Eric Howerton: What I mean?
• 13:51
  Eric Howerton: That there's this emotional barrier that a lot of people face, but you break through it every time like you're good at it.
• 13:58
  Eric Howerton: So there's probably a lot of entrepreneurs that aren't good or comfortable in that situation.
• 14:02
  Eric Howerton: But how do you overcome your own self barriers?
• 14:05
  Eric Howerton: Because you've definitely had to do that.
• 14:07
  Josh Saffran: There's not anything magical about I think it's a couple of things.
• 14:10
  Josh Saffran: I mean, I get invited to lunches, coffees, networking, and so you sort of pick the ones that you wanna go to.
• 14:15
  Josh Saffran: Otherwise you're gonna burn out super quick.
• 14:17
  Josh Saffran: But I think one thing I've learned in being here in this community for 12 years is you don't wanna be overbearing on the sale.
• 14:25
  Josh Saffran: It needs to take a little bit of time, and so yeah, that's good.
• 14:28
  Josh Saffran: And you agree with that.
• 14:29
  Josh Saffran: And so what I mean by that is had somebody showed up with this in a new individual I introduced last night and said hey, you want a podcast?
• 14:35
  Josh Saffran: Here's the pricing.
• 14:36
  Josh Saffran: I wanna sign you up.
• 14:36
  Josh Saffran: It would have been such a turn off.
• 14:38
  Josh Saffran: But if you're talking about the vision and how it could help him in long term and maybe you don't close the sale on that moment, but over a period of time your equity with this individual is growing so much.
• 14:50
  Josh Saffran: I had a great meeting the other day with a guy and I've chatted with him a couple of times Good to see you.
• 14:54
  Josh Saffran: We just got some funding for plug and play in the healthcare space.
• 14:57
  Josh Saffran: That's great.
• 14:57
  Josh Saffran: Let's grab coffee.
• 14:58
  Josh Saffran: I'd like to work with him.
• 15:00
  Josh Saffran: So he reached out to me and goes hey, we'll grab coffee on March 4th.
• 15:03
  Josh Saffran: So I didn't sell anything in the moment, but it's set up an authentic relationship where I knew that down the road, as trust is built and equity is built, there's an opportunity that he is now more interested in me as opposed to I'm selling something on the fly and I'm so turned off by it.
• 15:20
  Eric Howerton: It's so funny to me because it's simple, right, like this whole economy, all the technology and all this stuff is moving so fast and there's all these pitches going on.
• 15:29
  Eric Howerton: You got investors that are investing this and that, but at the end of the day, if you said it, establishing that credibility, right, and how do you?
• 15:37
  Eric Howerton: And you can't go into it with a quick sell mindset, like you and I.
• 15:41
  Eric Howerton: Actually, like when we first met, I mean it wasn't like hey, man, buy this from me.
• 15:46
  Eric Howerton: It's like hey, I'm Eric, this is what I do.
• 15:48
  Eric Howerton: This is where I was born, where I was raised, what I've been doing all my life, and I want to know this about you.
• 15:52
  Eric Howerton: And then, because I think it's really important, like you need to be able to trust who you're working with.
• 15:57
  Eric Howerton: At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how big the company is, that sign on the check.
• 16:01
  Eric Howerton: They want to know and people like doing business with people that they like and that they trust and they can believe in.
• 16:09
  Eric Howerton: They're not gonna fail them.
• 16:11
  Josh Saffran: Yep, but here's the challenge that comes along with that is somebody that's working for somebody else in many cases has a quota, has a number, has a sale that they have to hit for the day, and so they have to figure out how to balance that I have numbers and KPIs and results and bonuses and commissions versus the longterm.
• 16:28
  Josh Saffran: I always talk about relational selling versus transactional selling.
• 16:31
  Josh Saffran: I love the relational selling.
• 16:33
  Josh Saffran: It does take time, but I think those are the ones that you want to partner with longterm, understanding that you still have to sell stuff today to pay the bills tomorrow.
• 16:42
  Josh Saffran: It's gotta be a good balance, but I prefer the relational piece quite a bit.
• 16:46
  Eric Howerton: Well, and I think that too, when you look at sales so I'm gonna make this point as an entrepreneur, maybe you'll agree with this I mean, ultimately, your biggest job as the entrepreneur is sales.
• 16:56
  Eric Howerton: No doubt you have to be the number one salesperson.
• 16:59
  Eric Howerton: You're campaigning, all this type of stuff, so you're involved in everything, but you cannot ever let go of that sales.
• 17:04
  Eric Howerton: You always have to know that you're spotting that and what I kind of like about the whole sales thing and you're a little bit more of a mathematician than I am.
• 17:13
  Eric Howerton: I know Two plus two that is.
• 17:15
  Eric Howerton: But I mean, like if you were, if you talk about KPIs or you have sales quotas that you gotta meet because you gotta drive revenue, especially if it's your own business and you're thinking that way.
• 17:26
  Eric Howerton: But if I were in that spot, I would say, okay, if I start out with zero connections in the community, the first thing that I'd be doing is I know that I must show up.
• 17:35
  Eric Howerton: I've got to go, start building relationships, shaking hands, kissing the babies, right, all that stuff, just like you're in politics or something.
• 17:43
  Eric Howerton: You have to be in those places and show up and then, as you start building that network and that community, you've shaped all these hands, then you're gonna start getting meetings of where you can actually go in and demonstrate your capabilities and et cetera.
• 17:55
  Eric Howerton: But I'll see a lot of people that go fill that bucket up of relationships and they drop it off and now they get over here in this transactional mindset without ever nourishing over in the relational mindset.
• 18:07
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I think it's being your authentic self and understanding it.
• 18:11
  Josh Saffran: I think what's interesting is Emily, as a great manager who runs Emily, and I have a great manager who runs the Jens place and we never talked to her about how much did you sell today or what did you sell today.
• 18:23
  Josh Saffran: And the model is unique is if you bring in and have a culture where you have happy people working there, they come to work with a smile, they provide a great service.
• 18:33
  Josh Saffran: On Eric Howerton Eric Howerton leaves feeling empowered, confident, and then Eric is going to spend money right.
• 18:41
  Josh Saffran: So when you build it that way and you create something that's real and tangible, where it's enjoyable to go to work and you feel valued at work but then this is the relational side of stuff those things end up paying the transactional element of the bills that are due for rent and payroll and everything else.
• 18:57
  Josh Saffran: So it's a really interesting way to do it, but that brings credibility to you and your business because you're creating an environment that people want to be a part of.
• 19:05
  Eric Howerton: At the end of the day, people buy things because they're getting value from it.
• 19:09
  Eric Howerton: In your business with the Jens place, it's the experience.
• 19:15
  Eric Howerton: I come there, I come as a member and I have an experience and I leave with that confidence.
• 19:21
  Eric Howerton: I leave with that good experience and so it's not a question if I'm going to continue membership or I'm going to come in, or even when I leave, and there's all these products on the shelves there, like it's there in front of me, and I just had a good experience with professionals and these are the products that Jens place is selected, and so I'm actually expecting the same value of those products that I got, just with the service in the bag.
• 19:48
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, and the way that we try to explain it.
• 19:50
  Josh Saffran: And they get very intimidated.
• 19:51
  Josh Saffran: When Eric Howerton comes in, successful business person, they get a little intimidated of how do I sell to Eric?
• 19:57
  Josh Saffran: And we just explain it to them.
• 19:58
  Josh Saffran: Think of yourself as the doctor, right.
• 20:01
  Josh Saffran: Think of yourself as the nurse that's prescribing Eric.
• 20:04
  Josh Saffran: You went to the doctor and they give you this prescription.
• 20:09
  Josh Saffran: Thank you To fill out, and you don't go get Advil.
• 20:12
  Josh Saffran: You get the prescription because that's what you're telling.
• 20:14
  Josh Saffran: So if Shelley or Maggi or whoever is cutting your hair and says, eric, in order for you to maintain this look at home, you need to take this, you're gonna go, okay.
• 20:22
  Josh Saffran: Okay, right, you guys, you don't know any better.
• 20:26
  Josh Saffran: That's not where you may be a business executive that's closing multi-million dollar deals, but they're an expert in this space that's educating you on the way to recreate this.
• 20:33
  Josh Saffran: Look, it's the same thing.
• 20:35
  Josh Saffran: You're not gonna go get Advil when the doctor's prescribing this prescription to you.
• 20:39
  Josh Saffran: That's right.
• 20:40
  Eric Howerton: It's simple, it's really simple.
• 20:42
  Eric Howerton: I think we overcomplicate it.
• 20:43
  Eric Howerton: Yes, very much so.
• 20:44
  Eric Howerton: And then when, as a company gets bigger, they start overcomplicating because everybody's watching the numbers, everybody's got these quotas, all these things to meet.
• 20:50
  Eric Howerton: But at the end of the day, I mean, it is about that one-to-one relationship.
• 20:55
  Eric Howerton: I mean, and you can do a one-to-many right.
• 20:57
  Eric Howerton: That just happens, like if you're selling to a bigger company and you have one contact that can then control bigger things, that's a good thing.
• 21:06
  Eric Howerton: But that's still that relationship is so critical to that.
• 21:09
  Josh Saffran: Absolutely 100%.
• 21:10
  Eric Howerton: You and I think very much alike in this space, so on at Gents Place.
• 21:14
  Eric Howerton: What's cool that you guys are kind of innovating right now, like on the service product side, or whatever you might be doing.
• 21:22
  Josh Saffran: I think the biggest thing that we have done in the last two years is really go back to the focus on the community and Emily, my wife and business partner.
• 21:32
  Josh Saffran: She started 501C3.
• 21:34
  Josh Saffran: Oh really, and we've hosted two events now in the community to give back and as you know how important that is here, and so we've done two bourbon tastings, steak dinners, and we've raised.
• 21:45
  Josh Saffran: Last event last year we netted $50,000 to charities in one evening and so again, it's sort of hubbed through the barbershop but it's a 501C3 that is utilizing the networking from there and the events have been just what's the nonprofit that she's?
• 22:05
  Josh Saffran: So it's the 501C3 that she started and the charities that we're focused on.
• 22:09
  Josh Saffran: One are veterans based and one is pancreatic cancer.
• 22:11
  Josh Saffran: So every year we have a.
• 22:12
  Josh Saffran: Half goes to a veterans charity and then half goes to Pancan.
• 22:15
  Josh Saffran: And when these people come in the first year we did it the lady from Pancan came in and she was expecting like 1500 bucks.
• 22:23
  Josh Saffran: And we walk in and we hand her a check the first year for 15,000 and she started crying.
• 22:27
  Josh Saffran: And this is all through one evening, one event in town, where again we talked about the authentic networking 80 dudes hanging out, drinking bourbon, eating steak and bidding on things for local charities.
• 22:39
  Josh Saffran: It's wonderful.
• 22:40
  Josh Saffran: So it's been a big passion and the ability for us to give back in the community is really important.
• 22:45
  Eric Howerton: You know, when you research a lot of the successful entrepreneurs, you know wealthy individuals, whatever it might be.
• 22:51
  Eric Howerton: I mean, if they didn't, what makes them gives them satisfaction is helping others, you know.
• 22:56
  Eric Howerton: And so I mean I think that that's awesome that you guys are doing that, and I mean it's fantastic to do that.
• 23:01
  Eric Howerton: It gives you personal value and being able to help other people out.
• 23:05
  Eric Howerton: That.
• 23:05
  Josh Saffran: Well, you've been in this community a long time.
• 23:07
  Josh Saffran: I mean, you see, there's folks that are very fortunate, knock on wood.
• 23:09
  Josh Saffran: And then there's others that are less fortunate and I know that you came up similar upbringing to me, that you didn't have what you have today.
• 23:15
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, and I and you have the opportunity to make this community better and do things for others in a great area that we live and super important, and it means a lot.
• 23:27
  Josh Saffran: Emily, last year, through the Gens Place, she went and purchased, procured like 80 turkeys that she went and delivered to Title III schools and walking in with turkeys for Thanksgiving and watching these, the principles, the tears, as we're giving turkeys.
• 23:42
  Josh Saffran: We don't give cash because you never know where the cash is going to end up.
• 23:44
  Josh Saffran: You give somebody a turkey that can make a Thanksgiving meal through the Gens Place.
• 23:48
  Josh Saffran: How rewarding is that.
• 23:49
  Josh Saffran: And, by the way, it's a barbershop, right.
• 23:51
  Josh Saffran: But we're doing all these other cool things.
• 23:53
  Eric Howerton: You know, I think that that same mentality of like, if you can set up a business and this is kind of my philosophy these days I don't know about you, but I like starting businesses that I know is going to help people, whether it's in business or even folks that might have, you know, might have less fortunate circumstances, but also just people that are trying to do businesses right.
• 24:14
  Eric Howerton: I mean like having that vision of where, ultimately, your product or your service that you're developing and selling is helping somebody else, continue to achieve and just do better for them.
• 24:25
  Eric Howerton: I mean, I think that's the right approach period 100%, 100%, 100%.
• 24:29
  Eric Howerton: Yep, so talk to us a little bit about Plug and Play.
• 24:32
  Eric Howerton: So you got Gens Place that you own, right, you're a busy guy.
• 24:35
  Eric Howerton: Gens Place that you own, we just talked about that and then.
• 24:39
  Eric Howerton: But you also work with Plug and Play.
• 24:41
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, gens Place we opened six years ago and this kind of like you, it was my strategy and vision idea.
• 24:47
  Josh Saffran: We worked with Ben.
• 24:48
  Josh Saffran: Emily left her job at nursing and she sort of runs the day-to-day operations and we have a great manager.
• 24:54
  Josh Saffran: So I can kind of watch what's going on from 30,000 feet and sort of swoop in when she has a marketing requester and needs help with some strategy and vision.
• 25:02
  Josh Saffran: Plug and Play is my job.
• 25:04
  Josh Saffran: Plug and Play is what I'm spending my time on.
• 25:07
  Josh Saffran: It's an interesting business model.
• 25:08
  Josh Saffran: It's a VC out of Silicon Valley.
• 25:11
  Eric Howerton: ACB in venture capital.
• 25:12
  Josh Saffran: Capital.
• 25:12
  Josh Saffran: Yes, thank you, and the CEO, who you had met up with when he was in town.
• 25:17
  Eric Howerton: He's such a cool guy.
• 25:17
  Josh Saffran: He's like the second investor in Dropbox and some of these companies.
• 25:22
  Josh Saffran: He's writing 50,000 checks, turning them into tens of millions of dollars, and he said there's something there about the startup ecosystem and helping mentor these folks.
• 25:31
  Josh Saffran: Plug and Play does.
• 25:32
  Josh Saffran: Here in Northwest Arkansas we have a team of five that's focused in the supply chain vertical.
• 25:36
  Josh Saffran: We have 20 plus verticals all around the world focused on insure tech, fintech, supply chain, crypto, and we started a sports tech one in Frisco, working down there by the Cowboy Stadium, and we mentor and accelerate startups.
• 25:53
  Josh Saffran: But what we do that's unique is we then partner and marry them up with corporations that are looking for help to solve challenges.
• 26:00
  Josh Saffran: So give you an example we do a lot in the robotics space, so folks are looking to figure out how to automate the entire supply chain network.
• 26:11
  Josh Saffran: There's not a lot of people when you stand up at a conference and say who grew up wanting to unload trucks by hand or who wanted to case pick or piece pick on a line, and so there's a labor issue labor shortage there.
• 26:25
  Josh Saffran: So we're spending a lot of time in the robotics space helping figure out how to automate in the supply chain, and the startups we're working with all around the world can help solve these problems quicker and faster for these corporations.
• 26:39
  Eric Howerton: So, if I get this correct, plug and plays is the more of it is.
• 26:45
  Eric Howerton: I guess it's kind of a half and half job, Like you're constantly working with the big corporations and really just trying to understand their bullet point of problems that they're facing, because I mean there was a really big problems for them and it's hard for big corporations to probably innovate and to be entrepreneurial right.
• 27:02
  Eric Howerton: I mean we see that a lot but it's kind of that's a hard nut to crack.
• 27:06
  Eric Howerton: I think very, very few major corporations have really done that.
• 27:11
  Josh Saffran: They all say they do, they all have teams to do it and some of them do it very well.
• 27:14
  Josh Saffran: But when you're a cruise ship I always use this example right and you're going due East and you wanna turn the big cruise ship, it's hard to do.
• 27:22
  Josh Saffran: But you have a speed boat or a motor boat, which is what the startups are, and they can turn and move on a dime and super entrepreneurial fast thinking and so they're trying to solve a specific problem.
• 27:33
  Josh Saffran: And when you could marry that up with a corporation that's got money to do a pilot and then a commercialize it, it's really a good match.
• 27:42
  Josh Saffran: But you have the most important thing for plug and plays working closely with this company to understand exactly what they're trying to solve.
• 27:49
  Josh Saffran: We worked with somebody that said, hey, I wanna solve, I'm in a robotics space, I'm like dude that's at like 6 million feet up in the air and I need you to pull that back to a level where I can digest it, because there's so many things happening in that space right now.
• 28:02
  Josh Saffran: What are you really trying to solve?
• 28:04
  Josh Saffran: How early of a startup are you looking for Meaning?
• 28:07
  Josh Saffran: Are you like pre-seed and seed like really early?
• 28:09
  Josh Saffran: Or do you need case studies from somebody that's been doing years and years and years of work with other companies, and what is your tolerance for risk.
• 28:16
  Josh Saffran: And then let's bring them together for you in the form of what we call a deal flow, or sitting down and doing formalized introductions.
• 28:23
  Eric Howerton: That's so cool, Such a huge value to the entrepreneur too.
• 28:26
  Eric Howerton: Because I mean a lot of times like as if you're an entrepreneur, start up in that space, I mean you're like man, I got a great solve here, I can solve this problem.
• 28:36
  Eric Howerton: Then it all of a sudden becomes I can solve a hundred different problems.
• 28:38
  Eric Howerton: And if I'm trying to go out and build my business and then you're talking to all these major corporations or even other businesses like you're now the one that has to crystallize that and that takes significant amount of time, yeah, and expertise.
• 28:53
  Josh Saffran: Well, well, here's what I love.
• 28:54
  Josh Saffran: So if a startup is saying that that we work with, whether we invest in them or don't invest in, so we invest in a small percentage of the ones that we keep within our global network.
• 29:03
  Josh Saffran: Some of them we think we want to, we want to invest in and partner with, and other ones were just networking and introducing.
• 29:08
  Josh Saffran: But imagine that you're Eric Howard in a startup A, b and C.
• 29:11
  Josh Saffran: You have this really cool product and you say, geez, I love an introduction to Maersk, I love an introduction to Procter Gamble, I love an introduction to Nike, I love an introduction to Mercedes, but you don't know how to do that.
• 29:23
  Josh Saffran: Do you think they're taking a phone call from you?
• 29:25
  Josh Saffran: Or are they taking a phone call from folks like us who have this global network where there were 550 companies like that that we're working with, across their entire innovation team?
• 29:35
  Josh Saffran: And that's the value, one of the main values that we provide to the startups is making these introductions.
• 29:39
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, because, like if I was a big corporation and I know I can talk to one person or one company that's got multiple opportunities, like my time is valuable at the High High Corporation, right, and I've got this problem or these problems I have to solve, it'd be great to have five problems I need to solve, talk to one company like Plug Play, and then you have this network and you can kind of help you're helping me marry that as well as a corporation.
• 30:04
  Josh Saffran: Well, think about this for a second.
• 30:05
  Josh Saffran: Add a good chuckle, because we were in front of a potential customer and somebody at a senior level in the organization said we need to get ourselves more embedded and understand the robotics space.
• 30:15
  Josh Saffran: Great, okay, so that's a top down request.
• 30:17
  Josh Saffran: So this guy tells me he's on Google all day Googling the top robotics companies.
• 30:22
  Josh Saffran: So now he's outreaching to these companies.
• 30:25
  Josh Saffran: Oh yeah, I can do that.
• 30:26
  Josh Saffran: Oh yeah, so I offer pennies on the dollar.
• 30:27
  Josh Saffran: So now he's like this is too good to be true.
• 30:30
  Josh Saffran: But so he doesn't know what he doesn't know.
• 30:32
  Josh Saffran: And, of course, this company is going to say I got a call from a big corporation, sure, I could do.
• 30:36
  Josh Saffran: What we do is we source and vent all these companies and then we go I, yes, you called company A and they're good, but I have four case studies with company B and C that are probably more relevant and I've seen their work and I could tell you this is a better fit for you than this company.
• 30:53
  Josh Saffran: So we're finding the companies for them, we're vetting them out and we're making recommendations as to who the best one is for you and why, as opposed to you Googling startups in the robotics space and picking up the phone and making calls and not knowing what's going to be on the other end of the phone.
• 31:10
  Eric Howerton: You know all right, so let's get into the entrepreneurial side, like these startups.
• 31:13
  Eric Howerton: If so, if I was listening to this show right now and I was a tech startup, I'd be like geeking right now because I'd be like man, I need to get tapped into plug and play because here they have they have all these connections with these corporations Super great opportunity.
• 31:28
  Eric Howerton: But I want to connect with you as a startup, like how do how do I approach you Like and how can you help me?
• 31:35
  Eric Howerton: Or I mean, do I need to?
• 31:39
  Eric Howerton: What kind of?
• 31:39
  Eric Howerton: What kind of credibility do I need to have?
• 31:41
  Eric Howerton: Do I even approach you?
• 31:43
  Eric Howerton: What's that process look like?
• 31:46
  Josh Saffran: I think I get lots of requests on this stuff, and so I am the guy that's managing the corporate relationship here in Northwest Arkansas, and so we have a team, a venture team, solely focused on startups in the supply chain space.
• 31:57
  Josh Saffran: So I'll get people in the community coming to me with ideas and I'll say not the right fit for plug and play, you're too early.
• 32:04
  Josh Saffran: You know.
• 32:04
  Josh Saffran: You have an idea that you wrote down on a piece of paper.
• 32:06
  Josh Saffran: Okay, come back to me when you have a business plan.
• 32:09
  Josh Saffran: And you have a business plan and you have a little bit further out.
• 32:12
  Eric Howerton: So what is what is that?
• 32:13
  Eric Howerton: That?
• 32:13
  Eric Howerton: When you say a business plan a little bit further out of the ideation, so the first thing is what problem are you trying to solve?
• 32:20
  Josh Saffran: Okay, right, that's the most important thing to me is there's an issue that I'm trying to solve Okay, that makes sense From a fountain.
• 32:26
  Josh Saffran: Then I want to see who the founder is like.
• 32:28
  Josh Saffran: What's your?
• 32:29
  Josh Saffran: And?
• 32:29
  Josh Saffran: I'm brand new, but I have three or four different mentors.
• 32:32
  Josh Saffran: One graduated from Harvard and has three exits, you know one.
• 32:36
  Josh Saffran: One's a robotics expert in supply chain.
• 32:38
  Josh Saffran: So, okay.
• 32:39
  Josh Saffran: So now I see you got a group of people that are giving you guidance, that are believing in your product and your brand Because they checked you out, correct, okay, so you want to understand that too.
• 32:48
  Josh Saffran: Those are the like early things to me.
• 32:50
  Josh Saffran: What problem are you trying to solve?
• 32:52
  Josh Saffran: Who are you and kind of who is backing you from an ideation standpoint?
• 32:55
  Josh Saffran: Um, and then then the next piece is like what is your launch plan and how are you trying to get out to market and what's your competitive playing field look like?
• 33:05
  Josh Saffran: Okay, so you may have a really cool idea, and I can go into our proprietary software called Playbook, and, and, and type in what you're trying to do.
• 33:12
  Josh Saffran: Hey, there's 37 startups that are doing this and they're all further ahead than you.
• 33:17
  Josh Saffran: You may want to tweak, or you may want to think about something else.
• 33:20
  Josh Saffran: Uh, you may want to find a way that you're going to differentiate yourself than the other 37.
• 33:25
  Josh Saffran: So those are the early conversations that I like to be a part of, and if I find something that I find of interest here, roland parsed that off to our venture team and say do you want to have a conversation?
• 33:36
  Josh Saffran: And at that point they then say Josh, I think it's investable for us.
• 33:40
  Josh Saffran: Remember, we're pre-seed and seed, so we're very, very early.
• 33:43
  Josh Saffran: Okay, let's have a meeting, or?
• 33:45
  Josh Saffran: Probably not investable.
• 33:46
  Josh Saffran: And here's why.
• 33:47
  Josh Saffran: Well, let's put them into our Playbook, where a corporation may then get an introduction to them from anywhere around the world, because a company like Avalvo may be looking to solve this.
• 33:58
  Josh Saffran: And we find them in our, in our database.
• 34:00
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, that's so cool, so I'm getting kind of excited about this.
• 34:03
  Eric Howerton: For, for any listener, right, like so do I have to hit if you're pre-seed and seed, like like first of all, for an entrepreneur like I was talking to somebody about this the other day, this little little little sidetrack here.
• 34:15
  Eric Howerton: But I was at an investor gathering a couple of months ago and we had a bunch of investors in the room, right, really smart people, you know, and they got, and all these investors, you know investment groups have a lot of investment capital and they're looking to invest.
• 34:33
  Eric Howerton: You know, as an investor, you want to be able to place money and make it work.
• 34:38
  Josh Saffran: Correct.
• 34:38
  Eric Howerton: Right and you want to make multiples on that.
• 34:40
  Eric Howerton: It's just the way the shit goes Quickly, quickly and with highest returns possible.
• 34:45
  Eric Howerton: That's what all of it's about.
• 34:46
  Eric Howerton: The problem that I saw in that room was is okay, I remember me being an entrepreneur, you know, or as an entrepreneur, I don't know anything about raising capital.
• 34:58
  Eric Howerton: I don't know anything about the way all these, this, this other world, works in the whole financial industry.
• 35:05
  Eric Howerton: I just know I have an idea, I have a market need that I will solve.
• 35:09
  Eric Howerton: I can go solve that.
• 35:10
  Eric Howerton: And so what I did not know, especially in the early days, was how to even raise capital and, to be honest with you, a lot of the the VC firms, private equity firms, all these different ways to access capital was really intimidating.
• 35:23
  Eric Howerton: There's so many acronyms, there's so many levels, and you said pre seed and C, then there's series A and B and there's all these things going on and I felt like in that room it kind of dawned on me.
• 35:34
  Eric Howerton: It was like where are the founders?
• 35:36
  Eric Howerton: The founders weren't in the room.
• 35:39
  Eric Howerton: That's kind of like one of the big problems, right, because a founder can be from so many walks in life and I think that there are some professional founders out there, right yeah, that are going down kind of Multiple exits, yeah, with multiple exits.
• 35:51
  Eric Howerton: But then what about this genius?
• 35:53
  Eric Howerton: Because a lot of times I see the founders that really like I mean, why didn't Bezos right, or why didn't Sam Walton or any of these other, or Elon right, like in the very beginning they didn't know anything about all this stuff.
• 36:08
  Eric Howerton: But, man, I mean, wouldn't you love to have been one of the first investors on those folks?
• 36:12
  Josh Saffran: But this is where, when I talked earlier with you, I said that when you and I sit down, we need somebody else to be in it, Because you and I are very similar in the way that we think you and I, if we founded a company together, it would not go well, because we both have this similar thinking, similar mindset.
• 36:28
  Josh Saffran: So I was just mentoring a startup company through one of the programs here recently and these guys were good.
• 36:34
  Josh Saffran: They had a really good idea and there were three founders and they were all the exact same.
• 36:37
  Josh Saffran: They all were the sales guy each of them.
• 36:40
  Josh Saffran: And I said guys, I said I love you and I love your idea.
• 36:42
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, and they said what mentorship advice can you give me?
• 36:44
  Josh Saffran: I go bring in somebody that understands the investment in finance space.
• 36:48
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, bring in somebody that understands the marketing space.
• 36:50
  Josh Saffran: They don't have to be an employee, but you guys are all really good, but you're all in the same lane, yeah.
• 36:55
  Josh Saffran: And so bring in a diverse team, whether they're where somebody that you're hiring or somebody that's mentoring you, or somebody that's a paid consultant, somebody that's an infractional role, but bring somebody in that rounds you out so you can get through all of these things.
• 37:11
  Josh Saffran: Because, to your point, if you don't know the investment space, don't try to figure it on your own.
• 37:16
  Josh Saffran: Bring in an expert that can help.
• 37:17
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 37:19
  Eric Howerton: And so, all right, let's go back.
• 37:20
  Eric Howerton: I'm sorry I sidetracked a little, matt, but are you telling me that if, if I am a founder and I have an expertise and I see a market need in robotics or whatever it might be, I could literally have just a plan that I've kind of written out about the problem, the market need, and I've done my thinking.
• 37:39
  Eric Howerton: You need, you need these founders to do their thinking right and do homework, look at the competitive landscape.
• 37:44
  Eric Howerton: They do their own Google, they do all this.
• 37:46
  Eric Howerton: They need to spend the time to basically build out this plan of what they see that the solve of the market is, have their network of advisors with them and so putting that on the resume.
• 37:56
  Eric Howerton: But I could literally bring you something that has zero revenue.
• 37:59
  Eric Howerton: I haven't even gone out to the market or selling, but I could go and say hey, josh, here's my idea, here's how I think it's going to work.
• 38:05
  Eric Howerton: Do they need to perform a two Like say, hey, look, I'm if I get X amount of dollars, or this is kind of my revenue scale here and this is what I see, the market opportunity.
• 38:15
  Eric Howerton: So they need to come with that too, right, yeah?
• 38:17
  Josh Saffran: You have to have.
• 38:18
  Josh Saffran: I mean you can't just have an idea.
• 38:19
  Josh Saffran: It's just too early.
• 38:20
  Josh Saffran: I mean that's the first place I want to start talking to somebody.
• 38:23
  Josh Saffran: But you actually have to have some revenue, you have to have business, you have to have so humors.
• 38:26
  Josh Saffran: You do have to have all of that stuff.
• 38:28
  Josh Saffran: You have to be yeah.
• 38:29
  Josh Saffran: I mean to be that's.
• 38:30
  Josh Saffran: That's really investable.
• 38:31
  Josh Saffran: Otherwise, you're just a really cool idea.
• 38:33
  Eric Howerton: Glad we, I'm glad we touched on that.
• 38:34
  Eric Howerton: No, no, no, no, it's fine.
• 38:35
  Eric Howerton: I mean the deal is is like.
• 38:38
  Eric Howerton: I mean I think this was valuable about this podcast, right?
• 38:40
  Eric Howerton: Is that if somebody's sitting here listening to this that you're not getting, or even any investor is not getting, or even a bank, or getting phone calls of where you're having to spend that time?
• 38:49
  Eric Howerton: It'd be so great if you had five founders that came to you, already had the pieces in place to talk to you, you know, and they need to understand these different investment groups right, like you wouldn't do the same thing to a private equity group, correct?
• 39:04
  Josh Saffran: Right.
• 39:05
  Eric Howerton: You want to have like years of business and it's got all this stuff and they're going to help take it to another level.
• 39:09
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, One of the things I'm seeing a lot of momentum on in the community is exactly this there's a lot of smart founders that don't know how to start, where to go, who to do?
• 39:19
  Josh Saffran: Do I talk to startup junkie?
• 39:20
  Josh Saffran: Do I talk to plug and play?
• 39:22
  Josh Saffran: Do I talk to endeavor?
• 39:23
  Josh Saffran: How do when do I talk to Nelson Peacock and Seraphino at NWCouncil?
• 39:27
  Josh Saffran: How do I get my funding through the Arkansas Economic Development Council?
• 39:31
  Josh Saffran: When do I reach out to the Walton Family Foundation?
• 39:33
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I hear the Walton family has RCC, and when do I go see them?
• 39:38
  Josh Saffran: New Road Capital there's a lot of noise.
• 39:40
  Josh Saffran: Angels 412.
• 39:41
  Josh Saffran: There's a lot of spaces.
• 39:42
  Josh Saffran: So I think that the community is trying to do a better job in helping put together a roadmap of where you start, how you move.
• 39:50
  Josh Saffran: Some companies are starting to put that stuff in place to make it easier, as you come up with your idea, follow these steps.
• 39:57
  Josh Saffran: So there's a lot of work being done in that space right now.
• 40:00
  Josh Saffran: Where's that?
• 40:01
  Eric Howerton: resource at today.
• 40:02
  Eric Howerton: Or is it live, or is it coming off?
• 40:05
  Josh Saffran: Endeavor is doing some work in that space.
• 40:07
  Josh Saffran: They did a lot of interviews last year.
• 40:08
  Josh Saffran: They recently launched something.
• 40:10
  Josh Saffran: I don't know how widespread it is.
• 40:12
  Josh Saffran: Ok, the U of A has spent a lot of time in this space as well, so I think it's done.
• 40:18
  Josh Saffran: I just don't know that it's out there as it needs to be shared right now.
• 40:22
  Josh Saffran: Ok, I could be wrong on that, but I know there's been a lot of thinking and work that's gone into this space.
• 40:27
  Eric Howerton: Well, I can say, if you're listening to this podcast, I think what would help us here if you shot us a note and say you're interested in this, because I think that there's opportunity here to demystify the roadmap.
• 40:40
  Eric Howerton: I mean, you can be a founder, there is a founder or there are founders, but then there's the way to get capital and grow and scale a business and fund the business.
• 40:49
  Eric Howerton: Do you meet all this stuff like we need that roadmap right and be cool to have another podcast when we kind of start to mystify on that and and how can you get this thing launched?
• 40:59
  Eric Howerton: Much the right ways to go.
• 41:00
  Eric Howerton: I think they could be heck of freaking podcasts of its own.
• 41:04
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I mean, if there's a program called gore up the greenhouse outdoor recreation programs, yeah, that's a Phil Schell hammer.
• 41:09
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, and you're familiar with that for some of your passion work, it's great.
• 41:11
  Josh Saffran: And so what they do is they're they're starting this stuff.
• 41:14
  Josh Saffran: Really, he's works for the university.
• 41:16
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, they're catching these guys early with ideas, they're putting him with mentors, they're they're trying to get, they're getting them through an accelerator.
• 41:22
  Josh Saffran: And then, when they get through with the program, what are the next steps?
• 41:25
  Josh Saffran: Well, is it a?
• 41:25
  Josh Saffran: Is it a plug-and-play?
• 41:27
  Josh Saffran: Is it a startup junkie?
• 41:28
  Josh Saffran: Like, where do you, where do you go?
• 41:29
  Josh Saffran: Once you've sort of been through this program and it's a great question, like, yeah, what, what is next?
• 41:34
  Josh Saffran: And and where do you go?
• 41:36
  Josh Saffran: There's a company in town called lives in.
• 41:37
  Josh Saffran: Andrew is a fantastic Entrepreneur.
• 41:41
  Josh Saffran: He does some great outdoor men's clothing.
• 41:43
  Josh Saffran: Hmm, it's a fantastic story and he's investable.
• 41:46
  Josh Saffran: People have now written him checks in the community, hmm.
• 41:49
  Josh Saffran: And he's a local guy with a brick and mortar and an e-commerce business over on 8th Street.
• 41:53
  Josh Saffran: You got a great brand, great products, and people are now writing checks to him in his program.
• 41:58
  Josh Saffran: All right, here in Benville.
• 41:59
  Eric Howerton: That's fantastic, man.
• 42:01
  Eric Howerton: So Plug-and-play like, is it?
• 42:03
  Eric Howerton: So if I'm a founder, I got an idea.
• 42:05
  Eric Howerton: All this stuff we talked about in the tech space, some of the things you mentioned Can I go to a resource with plug-and-play to understand?
• 42:12
  Eric Howerton: If you're the right folks, I need to reach out to do my homework before I Ping Josh Safran.
• 42:18
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, I mean there's.
• 42:18
  Josh Saffran: There's in-bound email through our website.
• 42:20
  Josh Saffran: You know we're plug-and-play tech center, so there's ways to find us.
• 42:23
  Josh Saffran: You could find me directly here in the community Cool you kind of and when you go out to the website, figure out which vertical that you're looking to solve we again are you in a sustainability space food average, new materials and packaging and look at some of the areas that we're focused on and solving.
• 42:38
  Josh Saffran: It's all out there on the website, okay, and then reach out to me locally and I could funnel you into things.
• 42:43
  Josh Saffran: Additionally, on the supply chain specifics up front, we do a major event here every year, yeah, and we've great event to co-host it, thank you.
• 42:52
  Josh Saffran: We're co-hosting it with the University of Arkansas on the supply chain school, nice, and it's April 25th at the momentary and we already have two amazing keynote speakers and we have over a hundred people signed up Over two months out.
• 43:04
  Josh Saffran: So this will be a 400 person event and if you want to see plug-and-play live in action, come to the event register it's no charge on April 25th.
• 43:13
  Eric Howerton: Well, I'll keep you a VIP seat.
• 43:15
  Eric Howerton: Thanks bro, I appreciate that it's pretty cool anything, for you had to put the two on the spot on the biggest podcast in the networks right now, just so you could give me an invite.
• 43:24
  Eric Howerton: Done, I appreciate, so that's really cool.
• 43:27
  Eric Howerton: I think that what I'm also trying to get across to any entrepreneur is do some homework, like you, like in your late nights or whatever you're doing right.
• 43:36
  Eric Howerton: Do your research, look on the sites, understand who you're about to approach.
• 43:41
  Eric Howerton: If you're trying to erase capital, or if you have an idea and you need that capital, or you need to understand what stage you're at and, even when there's not a roadmap available, build your own roadmap.
• 43:51
  Eric Howerton: Understand this a little bit.
• 43:53
  Eric Howerton: And then you need to start investing your time, yep, so that I can have a good conversation with you when I meet.
• 43:59
  Eric Howerton: Because, in all honesty, if I have a shot at meeting with Josh Saffron right, it would be much better if I came, and I'm new about plug-and-play what you're trying to do, what's your mission, your values, who you're connected with and I can align my problem, salute my solution to a problem With you.
• 44:17
  Eric Howerton: You're gonna be impressed in that meeting, right?
• 44:18
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, and I'm a soul it kind of go back on our previous conversations.
• 44:22
  Eric Howerton: I, as a founder bring Josh Saffron value.
• 44:26
  Eric Howerton: That's a good way to start a relationship.
• 44:28
  Josh Saffran: Absolutely.
• 44:29
  Josh Saffran: And I'm not talking about buying me coffee, right, I must not just coming.
• 44:32
  Josh Saffran: You come to me.
• 44:33
  Josh Saffran: And the two things again.
• 44:34
  Josh Saffran: If you're bootstrapping, right, you don't need any funding whatsoever at all.
• 44:38
  Josh Saffran: But you have an idea and you want to get in front of Nike or Walmart or General Mills or like that?
• 44:44
  Josh Saffran: Like great, bring me that avenue.
• 44:46
  Josh Saffran: If you're looking for an early investment, come to me.
• 44:49
  Josh Saffran: So I almost like two pitches.
• 44:51
  Josh Saffran: So, yeah, one is an investable pitch and one is a pitch that I can then share with corporations as to why you're gonna help them solve problems, and I don't really care which one or where you're looking to go.
• 45:01
  Josh Saffran: And when we invest in companies also, we don't take any equity.
• 45:05
  Josh Saffran: So that's another really zero, okay.
• 45:09
  Eric Howerton: How the hell does that work?
• 45:10
  Eric Howerton: Sorry for my bad language.
• 45:11
  Josh Saffran: No, no, I mean some, some accelerators.
• 45:13
  Josh Saffran: They'll, they'll, they'll ask for a piece of the company.
• 45:16
  Josh Saffran: We are gonna invest and and buy Parts of the company, will be an investor and preceding seed, but but to go through our program as an accelerator, we don't ask for any, any equity in the company.
• 45:28
  Eric Howerton: So there's two levels, right, like you can get into what you called that.
• 45:30
  Eric Howerton: We would you call this the software, the network playbook, playbook, yeah, so to get in the playbook.
• 45:36
  Eric Howerton: You're not, you're not getting anything out of that, this zero.
• 45:39
  Josh Saffran: I mean the start, the start something.
• 45:41
  Josh Saffran: So it's too good to be true, but but our business is one, we're investing in you and we're gonna make money on the exit.
• 45:47
  Josh Saffran: Or two, we're gonna get our corporate partners to to contract with us, yeah, and so then we're gonna introduce you to corporate partners.
• 45:55
  Josh Saffran: So the startups are almost like it's too good to be true and the answer is it is.
• 45:57
  Josh Saffran: You get to come through us, get into our network, learn, grow, mentor and then be pushed out into the real world to get you either the investments that you need or Relationships and introductions to corporate partners.
• 46:10
  Eric Howerton: So all this is a side's business model they set up for yep, did he's?
• 46:14
  Eric Howerton: I'll load it.
• 46:14
  Eric Howerton: We gotta have a mama shows he is.
• 46:17
  Josh Saffran: I tell you he is incredibly smart.
• 46:18
  Josh Saffran: Like, yeah, his brain, the stuff that goes on.
• 46:21
  Josh Saffran: We had.
• 46:22
  Josh Saffran: We had a company that I had introduced, introduced him to, and we were just walking through our corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley.
• 46:29
  Josh Saffran: He didn't know that these people were here.
• 46:31
  Josh Saffran: He didn't know who they were.
• 46:31
  Josh Saffran: I introduced them to him and he goes oh, I almost invested in something that you invested in years ago.
• 46:37
  Josh Saffran: And they go, oh, yes, it's doing very well for us.
• 46:40
  Josh Saffran: And he goes it's worth X today, right, and they go, yeah, like to the penny.
• 46:44
  Josh Saffran: So this is a company that, like he didn't know, was walking in the door.
• 46:48
  Josh Saffran: He didn't know the startup that that they had invested in.
• 46:51
  Josh Saffran: Like he had done no homework and he knew that specific company, what it was worth, and he was almost like, say, I wish I'd invested in them.
• 46:58
  Josh Saffran: How did he know that?
• 46:59
  Josh Saffran: I'm like I don't know how.
• 47:00
  Josh Saffran: He like it was amazing.
• 47:02
  Josh Saffran: No prep work, nothing.
• 47:03
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, man.
• 47:05
  Eric Howerton: It's just what here's.
• 47:07
  Eric Howerton: Here's the thing, josh, what I would say to any entrepreneur founder and you're thinking about getting into the entrepreneurism space.
• 47:16
  Eric Howerton: If nothing else, it's fantastically fun and you get to meet some of the coolest people that are out there, the movers and shakers, people that are wanting to make a difference, add value, make changes, make things better.
• 47:29
  Eric Howerton: I mean it's great to be in that group of folks.
• 47:33
  Eric Howerton: It's energizing, you know, and I look at it as like it's an honorable experience To look back at my career and just see the hundreds of people, thousands of people that have met along the way and been able to provide value back to, and then I mean it's just, it's rewarding, it's absolutely when I would tell you, having come here almost 13 years ago as a CPG selling to Walmart Until about two to three years ago, I didn't realize how vast the entrepreneurial startup ecosystem is here in Northwest Arkansas.
• 48:06
  Josh Saffran: There's so many things happening with Walmart, from buying and selling as a Clorox and a Coli and all these other ones but and it's fantastic and it's what built this community to where it is but watching the innovation and watching what's going on, whether it's in the outdoor recreation space, whether it's in some of the stuff we're doing in supply chain, all the health tech stuff that's going on right now, with what Alice Walton is doing and involved in there's a whole other world out there, above and beyond, incremental to what's going on in buying and selling at Walmart and all the great stuff that Tyson and JB Hunter doing I am so blown away by all the thinkers, all the entrepreneurs and all the visionaries.
• 48:44
  Josh Saffran: They're continuing to evolve this community versus where it was 10, 15 years ago man.
• 48:49
  Eric Howerton: I'd even say that, even like in the last few years, and plug-and-play was one of the originators of Initiating this investment.
• 48:57
  Eric Howerton: You know we brought together that bridge right.
• 49:00
  Eric Howerton: You can now be an entrepreneur, founder with an idea and you have somebody that you can go approach to help fund and Capitalize that and get that network.
• 49:09
  Eric Howerton: You were talking about that network to me.
• 49:11
  Eric Howerton: I would say, like what I'm?
• 49:12
  Eric Howerton: I'm almost I'm super interested in that network, right, if I would have had that back in the day I could have fast-forward so much of my six, you know, my any success that I had, you know, by the years, you know painful, painful experience, a lot of circumstances, trying to get connected with the right people.
• 49:31
  Eric Howerton: That Time is the most precious currency in the world.
• 49:35
  Josh Saffran: Yep, and that's as that, and you're amazing at it and it's one of the things I love best if I can introduce somebody to somebody that can help further the individual, the economy, the community.
• 49:45
  Josh Saffran: Everybody in Northwest Arkansas is really focused on that so many people, and it's amazing what this group can solve together.
• 49:53
  Josh Saffran: Right, everybody getting out of their own amount of coffee meetings I'm having, and I know you do the same thing, where you're trying to Network with somebody to somebody else and figure out what they can do, and that person that introduces you to someone and then they Should have someone else and you go, wow, right, like, it's like almost like the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation here.
• 50:09
  Josh Saffran: Oh, you know Eric Howard's in.
• 50:10
  Josh Saffran: Oh yeah, how do you know them?
• 50:11
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, this is how he can help you, or I can help you, or he can help this whole ecosystem.
• 50:17
  Josh Saffran: You go wow, like, and this stuff doesn't happen in New York City, right, it's just so big and vast.
• 50:22
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, this community is perfect for this whole thing man, I just want to State on record Thank you for everything you do, because I mean you really live this out like I mean you're I mean just even yesterday You're helping me and I appreciate that and I mean I think that anybody that's listening to us, that's trying to get off the ground and get going, getting to know you, approaching you, getting connected with you, is gonna be highly valuable for them and I appreciate you doing that.
• 50:46
  Eric Howerton: For what, for everybody around here, really do well.
• 50:48
  Josh Saffran: Thank you.
• 50:49
  Josh Saffran: That means a lot and I appreciate it as well.
• 50:50
  Josh Saffran: I mean, it's it's stuff where you want to pay it forward.
• 50:53
  Josh Saffran: You want to help others.
• 50:54
  Josh Saffran: Others had helped same thing who I had.
• 50:56
  Josh Saffran: Others helped you earlier on.
• 50:57
  Josh Saffran: You to been much further along and I look at it Like, like, how do you continue to play this thing forward and get people connected?
• 51:03
  Josh Saffran: There's a lot of cool things happening right right in this community and it's just a matter of really one person being introduced to somebody else.
• 51:10
  Josh Saffran: That's gonna solve a lot of these challenges.
• 51:12
  Eric Howerton: And I would say that anybody that's listening it's not in this community.
• 51:15
  Eric Howerton: You have a community like it's really about community.
• 51:18
  Eric Howerton: It really is, I mean it.
• 51:19
  Eric Howerton: I think one of the cool things about ours is that Sam Walton really initiated.
• 51:24
  Josh Saffran: Who was an entrepreneur?
• 51:24
  Josh Saffran: Right, you look at water and go this is a massive company, but he had an idea.
• 51:28
  Josh Saffran: Yep, and that's where it came from.
• 51:30
  Josh Saffran: Same thing with Tyson, same thing with JB Hunt, same with Arkbest all these companies started out of an idea from an entrepreneur, and people don't think that way about those companies they're they're huge.
• 51:39
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, started with an idea and their founders were connected and they were civic leaders around here and they were charitable giveers, very focused, very community.
• 51:46
  Eric Howerton: I mean all of them, all of them, everyone else.
• 51:48
  Eric Howerton: And so if you're, if you're a founder and entrepreneur and you are really going to try to become rich, you're really putting yourself in a vulnerable position to be disappointed.
• 51:59
  Eric Howerton: Yes, but if you're coming as a founder and you're like I want to improve the market and help other people and provide a service or product that amplifies the economy and helps all these people around and I will receive the value back, then you're on the right track and people will flock to you.
• 52:15
  Josh Saffran: In the latter of what you just said and the front one, people will see through you Hell yeah and not be interested in working with you.
• 52:21
  Eric Howerton: I've seen it happen so many times.
• 52:23
  Josh Saffran: Yes, example of example it's painful to watch and, by the way, it may be the best idea in the world, and it doesn't get traction for exactly that reason.
• 52:31
  Josh Saffran: People don't wanna be here to see a check.
• 52:33
  Josh Saffran: They wanna be here for the big ecosystem, and so some good ideas fail.
• 52:37
  Josh Saffran: Another average idea succeed just because of the way that they go about doing it.
• 52:43
  Eric Howerton: So true.
• 52:43
  Eric Howerton: Anything else you wanna say about Gents Place, plug Play or any last advice to the entrepreneurs founders out there.
• 52:51
  Josh Saffran: Be courageous.
• 52:52
  Josh Saffran: If you have an idea, talk to somebody about it.
• 52:55
  Josh Saffran: Don't worry about somebody stealing your idea.
• 52:57
  Josh Saffran: I mean, if you want people to sign had.
• 52:59
  Josh Saffran: Somebody approached me and asked me to sign an NDA before I had any further conversations and I was happy to do so and I was able to point him in the right direction and move.
• 53:06
  Josh Saffran: But if you're at a job today that you don't love and you're super entrepreneurial, I would also recommend doing a personality study and understanding what motivates you.
• 53:16
  Josh Saffran: It clicked for me when I joined Plug Play how important variety is in my work life and I was realizing I didn't love the same line review every year with different items, like I just I realized that variety inspires me and not doing the same thing every day, and that's proved to me how entrepreneurial I am.
• 53:33
  Josh Saffran: So if you're somebody that's like that and likes a variety and you have an idea, you'll be kicking yourself 10 years down the road.
• 53:39
  Josh Saffran: I wish I had talk to somebody.
• 53:42
  Josh Saffran: Sit down with Eric, sit down with me, schedule time and have those conversations.
• 53:46
  Josh Saffran: They may go nowhere, but it may be the greatest thing that you've ever done in your life because you had the opportunity to talk to somebody about what you're trying to do.
• 53:54
  Eric Howerton: I want to have you back.
• 53:55
  Eric Howerton: I want to have you back and let's get down to that a little bit, because, at the end of the day, entrepreneurism is, I would say, majority emotional.
• 54:04
  Josh Saffran: And it's scary.
• 54:05
  Josh Saffran: It's yeah, it's scary Like do I leave my job where I got a paycheck coming in every two weeks?
• 54:10
  Josh Saffran: It's safe, it's comfortable.
• 54:13
  Josh Saffran: I don't love it.
• 54:14
  Josh Saffran: It puts food on the table.
• 54:15
  Josh Saffran: But if I left my job and went to do this, it may be amazing, but I may not be able to afford my rent.
• 54:21
  Josh Saffran: I made it before my mortgage payments, but I think it's the greatest thing ever and I love it.
• 54:25
  Josh Saffran: So how do you find that?
• 54:27
  Josh Saffran: How risk averse are you?
• 54:29
  Josh Saffran: And how do you then figure out what's right for you?
• 54:33
  Josh Saffran: Do you take a partner Right?
• 54:34
  Josh Saffran: Do you bring in investors?
• 54:35
  Josh Saffran: This is the stuff that's really important, but don't sit on an idea.
• 54:39
  Josh Saffran: If you have a really good one, figure out what to do with it.
• 54:42
  Eric Howerton: All right, we're gonna do another episode, maybe a few more, to kind of get into that, because I'm very passionate about that conversation, because that's I mean, I was not.
• 54:52
  Eric Howerton: I would not put myself as a super, super smart person, but I did have a tremendous amount of passion, still do.
• 55:00
  Eric Howerton: I mean, there's something that drives and I know there's just so much to uncover there as to why.
• 55:07
  Eric Howerton: And I think that I'm with the guys actually talking to somebody last night that has always had ideas, but it didn't even self-proclaim that he is not an entrepreneur and I'm like you don't really know that, bro.
• 55:19
  Josh Saffran: Yeah, well, to your point.
• 55:21
  Josh Saffran: The last thing for me.
• 55:21
  Josh Saffran: I mean when you surround yourself with the right people.
• 55:24
  Josh Saffran: We've talked about it a few times my plug-and-play team here.
• 55:26
  Josh Saffran: There's five of us and I can call us the fab four and Josh right, and I've surrounded myself with the right people that are rounding out the things that I'm not very good at and the accumulation of the five of us is a really good team.
• 55:38
  Josh Saffran: Josh has his role, but the other guys and gals are doing a tremendous amount of work and we're getting our brand out there in the community.
• 55:46
  Josh Saffran: But again, it's the group and putting yourself, understanding your vulnerabilities and where you're not good at, and bringing the right people to support you and take care of your blind spots.
• 55:55
  Josh Saffran: People want to help you.
• 55:56
  Eric Howerton: They do All right, Josh, so I'm gonna make any last pitch for you.
• 56:01
  Josh Saffran: Just thank you for having me here.
• 56:02
  Josh Saffran: The podcast studio is gorgeous and amazing.
• 56:05
  Josh Saffran: Thanks, man.
• 56:05
  Josh Saffran: If you're an entrepreneur and want to do some podcasting, this is the place to be in Northwest Arkansas.
• 56:10
  Josh Saffran: I'm so proud of you and what you've done here, and this is just the beginning.
• 56:14
  Josh Saffran: This is a great, great spot and I'm real excited to see where you take it.
• 56:17
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, man, it is exciting.
• 56:18
  Eric Howerton: I love the team too.
• 56:19
  Eric Howerton: Man, the team's geeked out.
• 56:20
  Eric Howerton: That's one of the most rewarding things.
• 56:23
  Josh Saffran: But also I know all of them.
• 56:24
  Josh Saffran: They also round out your right, like the stuff that you're not great at, they're fantastic at, which is why it's a great team.
• 56:29
  Josh Saffran: Hell yeah, that's one thing out there Even.
• 56:31
  Josh Saffran: Parker Even or shoot.
• 56:36
  Eric Howerton: Definitely even Parker, hey.
• 56:38
  Eric Howerton: So our last pitch here for big talk about small business hey, listen, folks, get online, go to our site, sign up for our newsletter, reach out, say hi, get connected, pitch the idea of coming on the show.
• 56:50
  Eric Howerton: We love that stuff and don't forget to like, subscribe all that fun stuff, because we need money, like everyone else needs money.
• 56:58
  Eric Howerton: Everybody needs money.
• 56:59
  Eric Howerton: Everybody needs some money.
• 57:00
  Eric Howerton: But we do appreciate you all listening.
• 57:02
  Eric Howerton: I'm really stoked out about our listeners here in this podcast.
• 57:05
  Eric Howerton: I think it's gonna be really helpful.
• 57:06
  Eric Howerton: Josh, we're gonna have you back, man.
• 57:08
  Eric Howerton: Always a pleasure.
• 57:09
  Eric Howerton: Good combo, bro.
• 57:09
  Eric Howerton: Thanks for everything you do.
• 57:10
  Eric Howerton: Again, appreciate you.
• 57:11
  Eric Howerton: Thank you, eric, you got it, man.