Latest / Auto Collabs / Nice Guys and Robots with Slawek Potasz

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Nice Guys and Robots with Slawek Potasz · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  It's honestly like that one Green Day album. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs... you know, where every song was like, "Dan, dan, da-dan, dan, and dan, dan, da-na-na-na-na-na-na."
• 0:16
  And then the next so- track two was like, "Dan, dan, da-dan, dan- Yeah... dan, dan." You're like, "Come on, Billy." Yeah, I never said that. And then you layered in the Nickelback album- No... right, right over it.
• 0:26
  We never layered in Nickelback. And it was actually the same song. The sa- [laughs] Green Day, Nickelback layering, same song.
• 0:30
  Look, as a kid, as a kid, it was nice to listen to a Green Day album and know that I could likely play every song. Right? [laughs] That is why- One, four, five, one. I don't even know, I didn't know any of that.
• 0:43
  [laughs] All I know is, like, you put your hands in this position and you move it up and down the fretboard at the right places, and then you have yourself a punk song.
• 0:50
  So, I mean, I don't know if Slawek, today's guest, likes punk music. We should have asked him about it. [laughs] He's a little bit younger than I am. But there is something that he's... First of all,
• 1:01
  he is, like, one of the nicest people you will ever meet if you're going to be at a AutoCon or if you have the opportunity to meet him in person, please do. Period. He's the nicest per- people you'll ever meet.
• 1:10
  But there is something super punk rock about the way he executes. Like, he pivots- Absolutely... and executes. So there's something, like, incredibly punk rock about him, even though his persona doesn't, like...
• 1:22
  I don't know. He probably listens to screamo nonstop, but... [laughs] Yeah. Like, I think, I think... I had lunch with Slawek. He came to Nashville. And I think he smiled for the entire 45 minutes- [laughs]...
• 1:33
  even while he was talking. Like, it was just like, "Yeah, yeah, but"- He is so nice and welcoming... but- How could you say no?
• 1:39
  The punk rock, the punk rock part of that is he was on a, on a trip because he had to carry the thing that they ha- that, that they use, which is this little mini robot that they can set up in five minutes, right?
• 1:51
  They can't transport it because of the type of battery that it uses, so he can't, like, just ship it from place to place- Oh, wow Wow. Wow... because of the cost.
• 1:59
  So this guy is on, like, a, a 14-state travel trip- [laughs] Road trip... with the robot in- Sound like Ray Elam... the back of his trunk. [laughs] Right? Like, just, like, that's punk rock.
• 2:11
  Like, you gotta, you gotta lay down some tunes to be able to, to be able to do that level of travel to be able to meet dealers. So he's the most friendly and most punk rock all at the same time.
• 2:21
  And I bet you he does listen to screamo music. I would. Oh, man. I'm excited to meet this guy.
• 2:25
  And, and I'm, I'd be very thrilled if the picture that you've just painted for me at AutoCon, he's, like, wearing a top hat, a monocle, and is, like- He could pull that off... holding a cup of tea.
• 2:35
  [laughs] He's just, like- He could pull that off... he's just, like, the total opposite of everything. [laughs] Like, sophisticated. Yeah. He is... No. I mean, literally, I'm telling you. I'm telling you.
• 2:44
  Like, underneath the smile, like, straight savage. Straight savage. I love it. Full savage. I'm excited to- Well, hey, we hope that you enjoy this episode and this interview with Slawek Potasz of CarScan.
• 2:56
  [upbeat music] Oh, Slawek, thank you so much for joining us today on the Auto Collabs podcast.
• 3:08
  Um, you know, we've had a lot of, a little bit of time to get to know each other over the last several months, and I'm excited to, for this audience to hear your story and a little bit about your product.
• 3:16
  And who knows what else we'll talk about? So thanks for being here. Uh, thank you so much for invitation. It means a lot to me. And yeah, awesome, you know, to, um, to be here with you guys. Okay.
• 3:27
  So I live in Syracuse, New York. And we met, I think we met in Las Vegas. Was that where we met for the first time, at Digital Dealer? Yeah. And- Wait, wait a second. [laughs] Okay.
• 3:40
  Everybody else will know why I'm laughing here in a second, right? [laughs] And so- Yes. I mean- Whoa, whoa, wait.
• 3:46
  So we met at Digital Dealer, and you told me, um, you know, everyone can tell from your accent you, you're not from around here. And, uh, and you're like, "Well, I'm actually moving to Syracuse."
• 3:56
  And Syracuse isn't essentially the, the place that everyone congregates when they come to the United States. [laughs] And so can you tell a little bit of story of, like, why you came to Syracuse?
• 4:05
  And that's probably a great way to kinda back into your, your kinda history a- and your product. Yeah, sure. Sure.
• 4:11
  So yeah, I mean, know- you know, getting to know someone from Syracuse out of Syracuse is, is, is weird because Syracuse is, like, you know, upstate New York is not definitely a hu- a huge town.
• 4:23
  However, um, Syracuse happens to host Genius Accelerator. Genius is the world's biggest accelerator for robotic startups.
• 4:32
  And the idea is they bring startups all across the globe to help boost, um, jobs creation, like high tech, uh, industry around upstate New York. And out of, like- Look at you, Syracuse. Okay. There's something going on.
• 4:45
  You got snow and geniuses. Sleepers. There you go. Sleepers. [laughs] And out of, like, 650 companies that applied, we're one of the five that were accepted. And for us, Syracuse was this very interesting place because
• 4:59
  it's still decently close to New York City. That's one thing. But then the second thing is that, um, our friends at SpinCar are from Syracuse as well.
• 5:09
  And third of all, uh, our investor and mentor, Jack Greco, who's co-founder at ACV Auctions, he's also in Buffalo. So we had some relationships there.
• 5:18
  And, uh, yeah, it was, like, a nice soft landing into, you know, the automotive space in the US. So, so that's, that's pretty much the, the, the story.
• 5:27
  They, they, they helped us, you know, to understand, like, uh, what city Syracuse, what this accelerator is about. And I'm coming from a city that had Europe's oldest salt mine, and Syracuse is called Salt City. Yep.
• 5:40
  So it's also quite, uh- [laughs] That is ironic. So te- tell us- No way. Yeah. [laughs] So, so tell us- That's wild... you, you came to Syracuse. Um, you know, you're from Poland.
• 5:51
  Tell us about, you know, like, like, what you were up to in Poland when you started getting into robotics, like, where that came from. Yeah, sure. So, um, actually, I've been to Hertz Car Rental in, uh-...
• 6:07
  uh, and it was in Tel Aviv. And I've discovered that if you've ever rented a car at Tel Aviv, uh, Ben Gurion Airport, usually those cars are, like, bad condition. They are, you know, badly scratched, badly damaged.
• 6:20
  And there is no i- no is- no, like, no reason for you to get the full coverage for such a damaged car.
• 6:26
  And so when I was returning this car, uh, I went into a strange conversation where I was accused of doing some damages I didn't- [laughs]... cause. Now- You're like- Ah... "Have you seen the cars in this fleet?" Right?
• 6:39
  [laughs] Yeah. That's, that's one thing. And the second thing is, in Israeli ap- airports, you really need to be, like, three hours before your departure because of extra safety that happens and everything. Mm-hmm.
• 6:49
  And so I almost missed my flight. And I was like, "Holy." You know? [laughs] It's 21st century. We have electric cars that can accelerate faster than a freefall, you know, from a, from airplane, uh, Tesla Model Plaid.
• 7:02
  You have, you know, self-parking cars. But you still have pen and paper and someone noting the damages, you know, on a piece of paper. [laughs] And I was like- That's great... "What the hell?"
• 7:12
  So, you know, I figured out, uh, there has to be a way to do something about it. And so because, like, inspection is, is very s- like, computational consuming, we started off with imaging.
• 7:25
  So, like, you know, background removals, photography robots, some inspection space. So, so yeah, that's, like, long story short.
• 7:34
  Right now maybe is not, like, ideal time for, you know, car rental market, just because of the pandemic and decline in business travels and everything. However, you know,
• 7:44
  ideally in years from now, if you will be, you know, returning the car to airport, you will have, you know, your car inspected with our technology. Wow. That's, that's- So- I never heard that story before.
• 7:55
  I knew your product. That's an incredible story. I love when, like, product comes out of personal pain. [laughs] Because there's always, there's always just an ex- Like, I think about...
• 8:07
  And, and this is, this is a terrible example, but I think about the guy that, I don't know if you've heard the commercials, like the cooler pillow, right? I think it's, like, the MyPillow or something like that.
• 8:17
  And he's like, "I always hated when a pillow wasn't cool enough," right? You know that guy's gonna sell something and create something really cool in the market.
• 8:26
  So, you know, uh, uh, you, you have s- have had a lot of success overseas.
• 8:31
  What's it been like kind of coming into the US market, understanding the dynamics of the rental market, the dealership market, and, and how the interaction with merchandising or even condition displays is maybe different from what you've experienced, uh, i- in, in your home c- country?
• 8:49
  Yeah. So, uh, I'm just trying to, um... So that was, that was my, that was my experience. I w- Oh, sorry. Uh, yeah. What I wanted to show is, oh, like here, you know, mind blown.
• 9:01
  So, uh- [laughs] That's like- He just showed, he showed an image, if you're just listening, of, like, someone with the, like, nuclear explosion over their head because their mind was blown. [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
• 9:13
  So, um, first of all, size of the market is just unreal. I mean, literally unreal. If you ever come to, to Poland, we sell, like, you know, 800,000 cars a year. I would say new cars in our country.
• 9:27
  And Poland has population of Canada. So we're in a situation- That makes sense. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, Carvana sells more cars per year I guess than our entire country buys new cars.
• 9:38
  [laughs] You know, that's the level of, of, I would say, yeah. Wow. So, so that's one thing. Then the second thing is that I would say, uh, the biggest dealerships in Poland sell maybe 40, 50 cars per rooftop. Mm.
• 9:53
  And those are, like, decently built dealerships. I, I, I was actually speaking about this with my wife two hours ago.
• 10:01
  And we were just going through, through a near Volkswagen dealership, which is, like, one of the biggest in our city.
• 10:07
  And I stopped there at the traffic lights and I counted how many cars are parked around the dealership, and this is the biggest dealership in, in our town. They had 25 cars parked. 25.
• 10:16
  I mean, that's kind of the way it is right now too in the US. That's, yeah. [laughs] New cars. That's right. That's, like, everywhere. But those were used. But we get- Those were used. Oh, those are used inventory.
• 10:23
  Those were used. Wow. Right. [laughs] Yeah. Well, because they don't typically have ground stock of new, right, in, uh, where you're at, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, the, like, that's it.
• 10:34
  And then, you know, you just drive through those huge auto plazas. I was actually f- few weeks ago, I was in Denver. And I was just driving through a auto plaza center, however you call it, in Denver.
• 10:45
  And for straight five minutes of going 20 miles an hour- [laughs]... I was actually having my phone glued to the, you know, uh, windscreen.
• 10:53
  And I was just recording, like, footage, like, you know, doomsday, where you just go through cars, cars, cars for sale. And you're like, "Holy." [laughs] You know? Th- this is just amazing. So yeah- Wow...
• 11:05
  the scale of the market is unreal. And the maturity of your market is also awesome. I mean, you guys have, you know,
• 11:13
  s- solved for so many things, like, you know, uh, like chatbots, uh, call cell- call center bots that automatically respond, you know, maturity of your F&I products, all of that. Like,
• 11:26
  most Americans finance their ci- their cars. In Poland it's maybe, like, 30% or 40% at least. Oh, wow. The rest is paid with cash. Wow. So that's also super, you know, com- completely different perspective. So- Wow...
• 11:38
  that's like, that's like a little bit opposite. So you and I were, were talking when you first moved here. And, um, you know, you had to buy a car. And you were trying to get- Yeah...
• 11:47
  you know, all, all your bank accounts in line. And you said to me you were surprised by how difficult it is to move money around in the US banking system, right? Yeah.
• 11:57
  Because in Europe you can just transfer money from bank to bank. And Michael Cirillo, it's a shame he's not here right now, he says the same thing.
• 12:03
  When he moved, he just recently moved to Texas from Canada-And he said he was just s- shocked at how difficult it was to move money from bank to bank or place to place.
• 12:13
  And so, uh, that being the truth of the banking system in Canada and Europe, um, you just seem like the opposite is true in the auto industry, where you come and you realize, like, auto dealers have...
• 12:22
  They're actually far ahead, and they actually have solved a lot of problems. Yeah. Exactly. So I would say because of the- What, what car did you end up buying, by the way?
• 12:31
  [laughs] So actually, I, I was so, I would say, angry at some of the prices. I was actually driving rentals for half a year. [laughs] So that's, like, what I did.
• 12:42
  And, uh, having said that, it's good I did that because I cracked, like, four windscreens from, like, you know, small stones and everything. [laughs] So that was a good move to do.
• 12:52
  Uh, however, uh, one interesting thing is that, I would say Poland, you know, we've been... After Second World War, we've been part of, like, the, you know, Iron Curtain and stuff like this.
• 13:04
  So in 1989 when Soviet, the Soviets left our country, um, we started quickly copying, you know, best practices from w- Western world.
• 13:13
  And so there are some aspects, like banking systems, like shopping malls, like, you know, um, um, um, uh, telecom industry, where we just, I would say, did not make some of the mistakes that the Western world did. Mm.
• 13:28
  But at the same time, from a capitalistic perspective, you know, a real estate, if you ever go to, like, you know, real estate pictures in Eastern Europe, they suck.
• 13:37
  Like, you take pictures, you know, with your thumb in, uh, in the lens. [laughs] You have, you know, chocolate spread over your lenses. Picture is awful, terrible.
• 13:45
  [laughs] Nobody cleans their house before taking pictures of the house for sale. Stuff like this happens. The same with cars. Uh, so in this case- [laughs]...
• 13:53
  you know, um, I would say, like, unlimited data plan for 4G, 5G is, like, you know, $10 a month, and you get, like, highest speed internet ever. Uh, banking system is awesome.
• 14:06
  It's super easy to transfer cash and everything. But at the same time, the auto industry is, like, you know, so far behind in so many aspects. So yeah, that's, that's, like- Wow, what a dichotomy... even the most simple.
• 14:16
  Yeah. Even- So, so in Poland, you're saying for, like, 10 or 20 bucks a month you get, like, super fast 5G unlimited, no problem. Let me put it- Well, that's most of the world. Yeah. Mm.
• 14:26
  That's most of the later developed world that- Oh, right, 'cause they started their- Because they started... Telecom started in wireless instead of having to deal with unwinding the wired- The frequency and-...
• 14:37
  e- ecosystem... basing it around that. That makes a lot of sense. Yes. It's, it's, it's, it's actually, it's actually the same issue that auto has from a technology perspective. It's literally the same. What...
• 14:48
  You've heard Ben talk about this, and both of you know Ben. But, like, the fact that auto was the earliest adopter of a system like a DMS now actually- Yeah...
• 14:57
  makes it harder for, uh, auto to adjust from a tech perspective.
• 15:00
  Similar other countries, because, uh, because America had telephone service first, it actually h- makes it harder for us to adapt, adopt, you know, these wireless technologies.
• 15:11
  So it's a really interesting correlation, where, like, there's some things that are ahead, some things that are behind.
• 15:16
  And you know, I, I, I even th- But I think about, like, what you're doing with CarScanner and, and things like taking pictures and then background removal and all that type of stuff.
• 15:26
  Every company that I know that's doing anything similar to what you're doing is actually not based in the States.
• 15:33
  Have you, have you seen that as, like, a, like, y- or, or have you been surprised that it's not something that's in the market currently as far as a development resource? Yeah. So two things that shocked me.
• 15:44
  First of all is that, uh, DMS refreshes, I would say, maybe twice or three times a day, which is, uh, a common practice. And it's just unreal for me that, you know, if you have your Viauto shots- Yeah...
• 15:58
  you have your images actually done, captured, whatever, and you need to wait for the next refresh that happens at certain hour. Mm. Uh, instead of just doing, you know, API call to force refresh.
• 16:10
  This is super interesting. And you know, uh, that's one- Can you explain that a little bit? Because I think there's some people that, like- Yeah. Oh, for sure... I, I...
• 16:16
  Like, for me, caught that right off the bat, right? I even caught it. But there's some people that are like, "Why, why is that-" I even caught it. [laughs] Yeah. Paul got it, right?
• 16:24
  But there's some people that are like, "Why is that an issue?"
• 16:26
  What's, what, what's the barrier that you're saying we should be able to cross from an efficiency or merchandising perspective but we're not able to at this point? Can you, like, just go a level deeper for us?
• 16:37
  Yeah, sure. So I'm a freak, and I'm really trying to better understand, like, you know, what are the, what are the problems that we could solve with, with, with our engineers.
• 16:46
  And so one thing I've understood and realized is that when you have actually a technology like a turntable, like CarScanner, you can, you know, have your images, like, the photo turn time of, let's say, half a day or something like this, even though those technologies actually, you know, um, can capture the images right away.
• 17:06
  And at the same time, uh, when you have, like, you know, lot vendors, sometimes it can be three to four to five days for images just to get captured and get online.
• 17:15
  And I was just trying to understand the, like, you know, where the delays are coming from.
• 17:19
  And one thing I've learned is that some DMS systems are configured in a way that they refresh, and they look, and they search for new images for a given lot number maybe twice a day, maybe three times a day.
• 17:32
  So even though you photograph this car at 9:00 AM in the morning, maybe you'll need to wait till noon or 3:00 PM for the next- Mm... search in the database for updated images.
• 17:42
  Which is, like, you know, it's technical limitation which is so old school because of the way they just look for new images.
• 17:51
  If this was, you know, done with, like, a modern approach, it could be instantaneous, like, you know, five-second delay maybe. Hmm.
• 17:58
  And right now it's just fixed, or I would say, you know, a task every six hours checks, check if new images are there.
• 18:05
  So yeah, that's, that's interesting delay, which is- Well, and when you think about that- Which is easy...
• 18:09
  from, like, a used car operation perspective, you know, we are on, uh, this morning, on the morning of recording this podcast, we are on, uh, talking about used car efficiencies w- Mm-hmm...
• 18:18
  on, on Clubhouse and looking at, like, the time to merchandising is so key.To a used car operation's ability to be profitable.
• 18:27
  Because the longer that goes, the harder it is to maintain a profitability because you get further away from the appraised value.
• 18:34
  And so things like you're saying, like our industry needs to solve for, because if you have a nine-hour time period from when something is ready to be fur- fully merchandised to when it does, think of the volume of shoppers that could have seen your inventory in that timeline that you miss out of.
• 18:51
  So I'm glad you're poking the hole on that because I think there's more people that need to hear, like, it's... There's, there's a whole loop of technology that creates a barrier to actually a great customer experience.
• 19:03
  'Cause man, if I'm shopping at, like, 3:00 PM one day and I don't know that car's available 'cause I can't see the images, and then all of a sudden I don't have the accessibility to get that car and I go and purchase something else, like that's a bad customer experience as an overall, like, industry whole, right?
• 19:18
  For sure. 100%. 100%. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable. So, so let's, let's talk about... I w- I would love to talk about your product for a second because I think it's super cool.
• 19:28
  Um, why don't you just give us a quick synopsis of what it is. Let, let us know what it does, what it is, and where you're heading with it. Sure.
• 19:37
  Um, imagine, uh, an even ugly looking parking lot somewhere on the side of your, you know, uh, dealership. You have an So just a park-... environment... a parking lot in Syracuse, imagine. Imagine. Right. For example.
• 19:50
  [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] And, and then imagine that we have a robot that, uh, within f- five minutes is ready to roll, and you can just drive in the cars to the robot space.
• 20:01
  And every two and a half minutes you can have very smooth looking 360, which has superimposed virtual background, so it looks, you know, a bit like Carvana-like experience.
• 20:11
  You get interiors, you get instant background removal on that, and you can also create still images.
• 20:17
  So no matter what's the, like, you know, uh, how sh- badly short-staffed you are or how little space you have or how little budget you have, you don't need to invest tons of- tens of thousands of dollars into a photo booth that's indoors.
• 20:31
  You don't have to have a trained employee because within 10 minutes YouTube video your new employee already knows how to, you know, become a pro in taking images.
• 20:41
  And third of all, um, you can create a very nice looking 360 spins which are super stable, super smooth.
• 20:48
  And then if you are looking at the time to the market, right now the market standard is that, you know, you send your images somewhere to Asia, and they manually superimpose and replace the background to your dealership building.
• 21:01
  And we do this in, like, 30 seconds. So we have two days shorter time to market with manually edited photos as well. That's, that's what we do.
• 21:09
  So, like, a car photography robotized assistant that can be deployed anywhere in five minutes. And, and this is what generation robot? Is this your first generation? Yeah.
• 21:20
  This is our first generation robot, but this is... Like, officially it's first generation. Unofficially it's, like, you know, fifth, fifth revision. Right. [laughs] Right.
• 21:27
  [laughs] That, that we better, like, You're like-... close it and... "This is WD45"... count it as the very first. Yes. Right. [laughs] Right. [laughs] Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And so- No, that's really c- Go ahead.
• 21:38
  Z- so when you're, when you're thinking about, like, well, one, just extremely cool that in two and a half minutes you can have a full vehicle photoed with background removal and superimposed background image.
• 21:50
  That's, I think, a game changer for any dealership that understands, like, speed to market. But when you think about the possibilities, because my st- my brain starts to go, like, a bunch of different ways.
• 22:02
  What are the unique ways in which you see this technology being used outside of just merchandising?
• 22:08
  'Cause I'm sure you've kind of thought of, uh, among those use cases and w- and there's so many innovative dealers that are trying out new things that I'm thinking, like, if you the creator of this robot have, have thought of those use cases, there's probably a dealer out there that goes, "Ah, I could do that," right?
• 22:22
  Yeah. So, um,
• 22:24
  I have the at- I would say, attitude not like of a pushy salesman that tries to sell something off the shelf, but rather someone that tries to understand the problem and only if I see a fit to a problem I, I, I would try to come up with a solution.
• 22:37
  And so the problem I've learnt about, you know, after NADA, Digital Dealer, Automotive Intelligence Summit, you know, ASOTU Con hopefully in, in few days from now, is that number one issue is, uh, I would say, uh, employee retention from, like, operation perspective.
• 22:53
  But from, like, business and strategy perspective is collecting, getting inventory. And so, um, with our photography robot we try to solve a bit for, like, you know, the retention problem, the, and stuff.
• 23:06
  However, from, like, a low inventory level perspective we're, we're trying to better understand, um, how we could deploy those robots with some extra hardware to look, you know, for the underbody to inspect for damages, and actually create, like, a trade-in, a automated trade-in station where, you know, a average Joe could just, you know, have the car inspected and then get offers from dealerships nearby.
• 23:34
  Mm. So then, you know, the dealership could actually, I would say, get much more opportunities of acquiring cars, uh, 24/7. Wow. I love it. Yeah. So really just- Well-...
• 23:46
  bouncing from kind of wholesale uses to almost retail uses in a way. Yeah. And, and used vehicle acquisition.
• 23:55
  I mean, I think about putting that thing on a, on a strip mall, like, right out front, manning the station and just telling people to drive through and buying their cars, right? You're mobile.
• 24:04
  If you can set it up in five minutes, you can, you can go anywhere and just acquire some cars, so.
• 24:09
  Well, Slawek, I really appreciate you being on and, and we appreciate you being on, uh, not just for your accent but your insights and your understanding of the dynamics of industries across countries.
• 24:20
  Uh, excited to hang out with you at ASOTU Con and, and share with more people, uh, your fancy little robot. And, uh, yeah.
• 24:28
  So on behalf of myself and Paul Daly, uh, thank you so much for joining us on Auto Collabs.Thank you so much.
• 24:35
  Really great to be here, and see you at the SOTU Con in Philly, and hopefully, you know, run those stairs at 5:00 AM. Somebody did a event there, so, you know, see you at the Rocky Stairs. That's right. Absolutely.
• 24:48
  [upbeat music] So you probably got the impression that we were talking about in the beginning of the super nice guy that is incredibly thoughtful and can figure out the angle in how to bring it to market.
• 25:01
  Um, I love the origin story, by the way. [laughs] Yeah, the origin story of... I, I love when it's a personal, it's almost like a per- personal vendetta to an issue. Yes.
• 25:12
  It's like, "No, I will not be had by that rental company- [laughs] That's the savage part... and I'm gonna make the thing that nobody else is gonna be had either." Um, and then to, to hear his story of, like,
• 25:24
  taking that product to market in the European market and then coming to the US market and, and the way he had to do that and the, and the, and the different way, like, through C- Canada and then Syracuse, and I had no clue that Syracuse was, like, a hotbed for, you know, for AI, for these technical startups, like, wild stuff.
• 25:43
  Paul, you're like, you're in this, you're in this place that is- [laughs]... is becoming more interesting by the day, right? We don't like people finding this stuff out because it actually is an awesome place to be.
• 25:52
  [laughs] That's great. That's outside of the snow, although I guess some people love the snow there.
• 25:57
  Um, but then just the energy that he's talked about, like, being with and among dealers and understanding the, the differences and the idiosyncrasies of the American market as compared to the European market, even things like financing, moving money around.
• 26:11
  Like, it's just, you know, we had the interview with Michael Johnson, uh, and, and, uh, uh, from Australia.
• 26:17
  It really is, I think it's key for us, especially in a moving market right now, to try and understand the way that OEMs and the way that dealers across the world are, are interacting with customers.
• 26:27
  It's important for us to take from these different pockets, and, and him bringing not just that technology, but insights from, from Europe is, I think, important for our industry. I think that's the big eye-opener.
• 26:38
  The more people that we speak to in the industry, in the retail community from different countries, it's, we're starting to, you know, um, debunk this idea that America or North America's always been so much further ahead.
• 26:52
  We are in some ways. Mm-hmm. But in other ways, we're like, "Whoa, they've already been doing things a certain way in their country.
• 26:58
  They've already had to deal with certain legislation or things of that nature, and had to get really creative in how they build their business."
• 27:04
  So I always enjoy conversations where we get to sit and learn from somebody who's got different perspective, and of course, that's the whole point of why we're doing this podcast, Auto Collabs.
• 27:13
  We hope you enjoyed this episode with Slawek, and did I say it right? Oh, my gosh. You did. You're good. No. You got it. It just rolled right out. [laughs] Nailed it. Biggest fear is getting people's names wrong.
• 27:22
  But we're so glad, and we hope you enjoyed this episode of Auto Collabs. On behalf of Paul Jay Daly, comments here, myself, Michael Cirillo, we'll catch you on the next episode.
• 27:31
  Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 27:44
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 27:52
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? [laughs] Are we rolling yet? Not yet.