Please give a warm Georgia Tech.

Welcome to our guest miter.

Thank you thank you thank you very much.

Thank you could turn out for Halloween.

So I'm going to speak to
a to a class later and

I'll be curious whether
I have the same turnout.

Thanks for having them.

It's a pleasure to be here.

And I'm always honored because I
didn't actually go to college so

I'll start off my story.

I grew up here in Atlanta.

And.

I actually I went to Southern tech and
wanted to be an engineer and

I lasted about six weeks.

And I realize what you just kicked my butt
because I realized I had never learned how

to study school would always
come easy to me it was excellent

with math science and so I never
really had to concentrate very much.

And then I got to then I got
to go to southern tech and

I realized I was not prepared.

So I quit.

And I thought you know I'm going
to quit I get a part time job I'll

do something in the next semester of
the retool up I'm going to go back and

I'm going to be more diligent.

And I want to work at a company on
the south side of the city here is called

Dixie tool and die in Dixie too and I made
stamping dies for the automotive industry.

They did machining.

And I started off the lowest position.

I started off unloading
steel off of trucks.

And I moved up to running
machines that were cutting

the steel milling machines lathes
getting dirty but I loved it.

I just I was fascinated by
taking a piece of metal and

turning it into something that was that
was valuable whether that be a mold or

a metal stamping die or
a part that went on an airplane or car.

And so I was.

Because I was pretty passion that it was

decently these we got at it and then so
I was like nineteen years old and

I remember this day I'm in the shop and
I'm running the machine.

And the owner comes out and he says he's
about computers and this was a long time

ago this was like one thousand nine
hundred two is and I said why.

And I didn't and he said well we just won
this contract with Ford Motor Company.

To participate in the first
of all digital car project.

They're not going to produce any
paper drawings it's all going to be

digital files CAD files computer
aided design files three D..

And.

You know it's the kind of surveyed some
of the other people have been here a long

time and.

They really they don't know that they're
scared of computers they don't want to get

involved and what I'm happy to do it.

I'm happy to do it and

the next thing you know I'm in I
am this nineteen year old kid and.

Detroit Michigan sitting
at Ford Motor Company.

Looking at these three D.
models of this car.

This was like space a stuff back then.

And they're talking about the project and
then we were supposed to make some

metal stamping dice for a fender and
some window trim and I thought.

OK I'm trying to act cool and calm.

So I come back to Atlanta.

And then this equipment shows up
that we had that we had bought and

it was this massive computer system and
these C.N.C.

machines are computer controlled if any of
you have seen these they're there they're

pretty cool technology or the computers
drive these machines to do to do cutting.

And we had a very short timeline.

So I got I got the participate and
in manufacturing at the point where.

Edgell ization.

Really entered it.

The computers were very expensive
the machines were very expensive and

the technology was very immature.

So when we would create these programs
from the software to run the machines

it didn't quite work so I did teach myself
how to write software to start off with

Pascal really old language that
would modify these files and

then the machines wouldn't quite do what
they were supposed to do at the time.

So I'd have to modify it with attachments
for different things to the machines.

So I was so I learned manufacturing
from the ground up learn machining.

Programming machine design automation
how to make things move little bit

Aleck Tronics the right place at
the right time and being curious right.

And I've always been the kind of person
that when someone believed in me or

said I know you can do this I'm going to
go to the end of the earth made it happen.

Because I knew the owner of the small
company that I worked for was depending

on me he had invested a lot of
money he had taken his contract and

he had depended on me to figure it out and
to make sure that we delivered those

metal stamping dice to produce the
components to Ford Motor Company on time.

Why he believed in me had no idea
I was playing so above my head.

But that has been a motivator for me and
I think that's one of the leadership

lessons that I took from that moment
that I have applied with other things.

So I did that for about.

Work at that company for about six years.

And then I had a call from a recruiter.

Asked me if I would have
interview with Northwest Airlines.

So I went to Northwest Airlines.

And I didn't really understand
why I was going there.

But when I went and I met with the people
that were running technical operations.

And they told me that
they had some challenged.

This was this was in the late eighty's.

And they were just going gangbusters for

it in the aviation industry and
when they would try to get spare parts for

airplanes or something like that
when their plane was broken.

It was really tough and
they were getting so

they would go to the manufacturer
Boeing or Thommy.

Della Douglas and they would come
back with six weeks eight weeks

three three months lead time on a part and
that's not good.

The airline business I mean you're
canceling flights you're losing a lot of

money for canceling flights and
they said we have this idea.

We want to set up.

Rapid manufacturing cells in the U.S.
Europe and Asia.

We want to be able to take
parts off of an airplane.

Reverse engineer them quickly if we can't
find it somewhere in the market to buy it.

Because on the airplane at
the airplanes back in the air and

we and we have learned about your
background of that that's right.

So fantastic opportunities
I want the airline.

Set up these these cells.

Where we set up.

Laser scanners early early laser
scanners coordinate measuring machine.

Sophisticated equipment software and

we were able to a really increase
fleet utilization by keeping

airplanes out of the hangar and
back in the air so that waiting for parts.

So I did that I learned all learned a lot.

And so I finished that project and then
there were a few other things they asked

me to look into along the way when it came
to technologies related to maintaining

airplanes maintaining jet engines and
some of the stuff what it was

was it was obvious when I looked at it
that there was room for improvement and

one of the jet engines had
these fan blades on them and

the fan blades have that they wear
when they go through the air and

they're they're pulling the air
through the rain Sandusky's erosion.

It's very hard to measure those and
they were but

they always want to err
on the side of safety.

So they felt like maybe they were
throwing away too many of these

these jet engine blades and
he's played for thousands and

thousands of dollars apiece and
there's hundreds of them in an engine.

So they have to build look into that.

So I come up with a system using
laser scanners that would take

a blade from a jet engine.

Scan it with laser beams
mapping inside of the software.

And determine if it was still
in usable condition and

then turn figure out the mass of
the blade based on the geometry and

then how to best distribute them in the
engine and order to get the best balance

conditions so that when the engine runs
it wasn't too heavy on one side or

the other then Eastern Airlines

goes out of business about that point and
there was actually Gulf War happens

Eastern Airlines goes out of business
Midway Airlines went out of business.

There was a there was a lot happening and
Northwest Airlines was working for

Sol that.

As an opportunity.

They want to pick up those routes they
need to get airplanes in order to go

pick up those routes so
the call from from my boss and they said.

OK you're now have a new
role affected tomorrow.

You were a project manager aircraft
acquisitions what I mean about

airplanes and he says no but
you're the kind of guy you figure it out.

You figure it out.

You don't let go.

You're going to get it done.

No we can trust you with this.

Come see me tomorrow I want to see him and
he said we need thirty airplanes.

We need to put them in service as fast
as possible to pick up some routes.

And we don't have a lot of money
airlines on the verge of bankruptcy.

And so that we talked about
the resources that I had and

he said this is going to be
a really good experience for you.

Because this is going to be
an opportunity to lead something

where you're not a technical expert.

You don't know airplanes you don't know
all all the things that go along with this

you're going to have to assemble a team
of people from from finance from

from aircraft engineering from
avionics flight operations

figure out how to put it all
together who to rely on and

how to trust information from different
sources to to put into something.

So the first deal.

That I described.

Looking around were
where you get airplanes.

And I found a broker in New York
that owned some airplanes

that were being turned in on lease
from Alba Tahlia in Rome Italy.

So we bought these airplanes for
a million dollars apiece and

they were in the life they were run out
the engines were were at the end of life

the avionics was old everything.

So I bought these airplanes for a million
dollars apiece and then it was like Now

we had to get them overhauled refurbished
new interior new avionics all the stuff.

And we didn't have the capacity to do it.

So different companies were calling
on me that new aircraft modifications

and one of the companies was in
Israel tell of the of Israel called

aircraft industries and they said if
you'll bring these airplanes to Israel.

We'll do all the work and
we'll finance it and then they brokered

a deal with the US government gave us
tax credits for You want Israel to do

this I thought man this is this is
a great great learning experience.

So I did the first five
airplanes I lived in Israel for

almost a year with five
airplanes great international.

My first experience of really
being outside of America.

I grew up in Atlanta.

So the Southern boy deer
hunting the whole thing.

And so it was it was really eye opening.

So we would.

Take these airplanes
paid million dollars for

and put five to six million
dollars in overhauling them.

And getting them up to speed again.

Sort recertified and
then we would sell them for

eighteen to twenty million dollars
to a bank and lease some back.

So it turned into a fantastic
cash raising strategy.

So I did thirty airplanes
all over the world different

aircraft modification centers.

And then next thing you know I
learned a lot about airplanes F.A.A.

liaison bringing together people with
these different sources meaning engineers

technical procurement finance people

in order to figure out you
know who's telling the truth.

Who's on track who isn't on track and.

Then I became director of technical
operations for the airline running a nice

chunk of a major airline how
it was pretty proud of it and

here's a guy I didn't go to
college scratch my way out learn.

Always trying to to
exceed expectations and

I'm an executive at a major
airline I feel good.

Another one of those phone
calls from a recruiter.

Said haven.

How would you like to be
a reseller of value added reseller

CAD CAM software the computer
aided design software.

In computer aided manufacturing software.

And I said I've got
a great job at an airline.

I haven't used that stuff in a few years
that was back when I was working in a shop

and said It's a unique opportunity because
we're representing a couple of companies

that want someone to start a business and
sell the software and we've got about two

thousand customers throughout the South
that we want to roll into this deal or

to become like a mega mega dealer for
Texas to the Carolinas and.

I still wasn't wasn't so
hot on it and then they do.

They asked they can come see me they
did they talked about it more and

they will tell you about the numbers and
I said well these two thousand

customers that we're going to give you
are all paying thousand dollars a year.

In software maintenance just to
get the grace of the software and

the dealer gets fifty percent margin.

So I thought what if you're telling me I
could start a business with two million

dollars a year in revenue and a million
dollars for my to run my business off

hire a couple people around and
all this and I said yeah.

That's fantastic.

Great.

So I went back a few days later
quit my job at the airline

bought a little laptop computer.

Inherited two thousand customers.

All across the south and I did the hire
a couple people got an office.

This is also I never
thought I was going to be

an entrepreneur I had never expected
it but I did have a good background for

it with my manufacturing background
I've learned some good business stuff.

And I am but so I start thinking
OK now I've got to protect this

I got to protect this business
I got to love my customers and

I start traveling throughout the South
Meeting them having a little of their

time teaching them tricks
about the software.

And I notice that one of the things
that happened is happening

is my customers they don't
really care about software.

They're really care what I have to say.

They think like meeting each other.

And my customers that are designing things

are going off in the corner with
my manufacturing customers.

And they're talking they're looking
at drawings that say can you get me.

Can you get me a quote on this.

Can you make this for me.

And then as I go visit my
customers individually

by design customers are saying
we've designed this widget.

You know anybody that can make it and
my manufacturing cuts we have capacity.

You know we might need something
made in one day I introduce a couple

of my customers and
I'm driving out a parking lot heard.

Commercial for Lending Tree dot com
request your mortgage lenders compete.

And that was a eureka moment for
me I felt I got

what I wanted something manufactured and
I did what I wanted factories to compete.

And so I went home I couldn't let
go of the idea registered U.R.L..

Long one manufacturing quote dot com and I

started writing the software and I didn't
know a lot about P.H.P. and at the time.

But I taught myself and
wrote this very cheesy web site and

no real database experience so everything
was a flat file or a flat file and

the next week a few days later I
introduced it to my customers and

I thought this is going to be
a great community builder for

my CAD CAM customers.

I didn't know it was
going to be a business.

So I introduced them.

They start using it and

I'm spending all week editing that text
file because every time I add the comma.

To the company name or something.

It's throwing off all the field and I have

opening that file like in rapid succession
saving that they put in the commas out.

And so I finally quickly help
me with the database and

do a better job than me but it wasn't long
people started hearing about it and he was

sort of calling me saying Hey can I join
your marketplace so that what you call it.

And.

I never I never wrote a business plan for
it.

I didn't know what those.

It was going to a business.

And the people.

So what they call me I would say are you
are you do you need CAD software do you

need camp software for my customers
like no we already got got it and

they were out of my
territory that I covered.

I said OK you know what for

my non software customers
thousand dollars a year.

People are sort of checks.

This is fantastic.

Right.
This is great.

And I just.

Getting calls from all over the world.

People in China Malaysia and

with Eastern Europe Latin America and
we join your workplace.

OK sure.

And so so
I start having to hire more more people

to help me start having to
build out infrastructure and

services like we had to really
have to build real infrastructure.

And.

So I am now getting I'm now
spending at a rate that is

more than I have coming in on the other
business or more that I'm making sales.

So I do the old fashioned way.

I take out a credit cards.

I cash in my four A one K. every savings
I have a mortgage the house to the hilt.

And.

And because I know how to really
know how to raise money and

I didn't have a business plan and
I wanted to go raise money and

it was happening so
fast I didn't have time to stop and do it.

I just you know I love those credit
card applications coming in the mail.

You know thank you very much.

Yes yes.

So find it the old fashioned way.

And then and then I started you know
the way the software business worked.

They would send me when I would sell
something I would collect the two

thousand dollars for the software and

then I would pay a thousand dollars to
them so I did some creative financing so

instead of doing that like right away
sort of being in twenty days and

thirty days and forty five days I
started building up a balance there.

And then I decided one way to get
out of the software business.

So I found the company to buy that
reseller business from me to take on

the balance that I had built up
there as well as give me some cash.

The next thing you know so
I'm in the marketplace business full time.

It's a couple years into it.

Business is going well it's growing.

I've got to got to it to a nice
break even stamp what element of

invest like crazy because.

Those were the days we
had to get advice for

him for structure it wasn't like
the cloud that you have today.

And so

the end once I start to look around I
realized there were a lot of competitors.

And I had never stopped
to look when I started.

So I didn't know where I was headed and

then there was some lean times
there in the early two thousand and

all these venture funded
competitors that I had that had

hundreds of millions of dollars funding
they imploded because they couldn't build

their business fast enough to catch up
with their capital consumption needs.

Where we were sort of the Little
Engine That Could just coming along.

So a subscription to our service by
a stapler so another one chair and

so we sort of grew in
lockstep with the market.

Two thousand and
five that late two thousand and five.

Become the prettiest girl to party.

I start getting calls from she teased
acquires a private equity firm saying wow

you've created a marketplace in
the world's largest industry.

This is going to be big because we got
the e Bay effect early on write it.

People go where people are.

And we want to buy you know
we want to buy a company.

I think this is great could
pay off credit cards.

I'm taking very little salary.

It's been hard.

And I also knew I was facing some
big challenges facing big challenge.

I'd to globalize.

I think had to back up and rebuild
the technology was when I started it.

I didn't realize how complicate it was
going to get I started you build the whole

thing in the ad that on the ad the next
thing you know you got a mess right.

So I thought will be great.

I'll sell the business somebody else
to go to somebody else can rebuild it.

I'll take my cash and go home.

So then I decided to go with
a large public company from France.

And.

We go through months of due diligence and
planning and how we're going

to integrate and it's more money than I
thought ever see in my life so I want.

I have hit the jackpot.

I'm going to pay off debt.

I want to go to the beach.

And I can get about a week from closing
the deal and the money in my bank account

and I can a call from a guy says Hey I
work for Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon.

Jeff would like to meet you are going
to be in Seattle and I can be.

The pope of the Internet.

Cause you go right.

So I guess I'm going to
airplane a couple days later.

I go to Seattle.

I show up.

I'm at Amazon and
I'm in the lobby and I go.

Well the reception it's like
I'm here to see Jeff Bezos and

she looked at his file looked like.

Yeah.

I think she's a have a see something.

All right.
I'm getting pumped.

Right.
This is like

a Prius closing deal one
of my friends a set me.

So she said.

So there and he calls and she says OK.

Someone from Mr bagels his office will
be down to greet you in a moment.

I mean untasted now
the coolest got a lobby

your bias filled out job applications.

I'm going up to meet the man so.

We go up.

And I still don't really
understand why he called me.

So I go and he comes in and
he's like great to meet you and

just start peppering the how
do you know how to do this and

I was so I'd go through a background
quickly like I came up in manufacturing.

I learned technology an early age I ran
operations an airline that's what I

learned all this stuff and he's like well
you know why did you choose a revenue

model that you chose description model and
I went through why I had chosen that.

And he was just peppering me
the questions for about an hour and

I hardly got to talk rather than
just answer his question and

I feel that why am I on
the firing line here.

And how we're goes by and he Jeff.

Well I got to go handlers come as
I'm going to hell just happened and

I leave and
I go back to my hotel room and again.

As he's leaving.

I think OK as a cat in a picture as
walking out the door you can look like

a bag of picture and wish I had taken my
name tag off it would have been cool.

So I got this picture.

And.

Hasn't.
So if I go back about the hour later I get

a phone call from this lady that works for
him personally and she said.

Jeff said to send you a term sheet that
he wants to be in business with you.

And it did you guys talk about
terms some like no we didn't.

And she said well let
me let me talk to him.

So she called me back and
said Jeff says that.

This is a very rare opportunity
that you are uniquely prepared.

In this crazy career you've had at
the right moment in time in the world's

largest industry.

And he wants to be part of it.

And that we should figure out
you know a way to work together.

So why don't you tell me like what
kind of investment that you'd want to

have you want to sell some of the company.

I'm under in the a with
this public company.

So I said.

That's fantastic.

I'm flattered but
I don't need an investor you are OK.

Chelsea back suggests that he's
not taking no for an answer.

So this rocked along with a few back and

forth or
where they said they sent us an offer.

Anyway.

And I turned it down not
because it was a great offer

I just I'm marching toward this
lot of money into my bank account.

So finally.

Jeff calls me and said let's talk.

Why are you rejecting my offer.

I said because.

I'm broke.

And there's a lot of money
coming in my bank account.

And I'm I'm kind of scared that
I've got to globalize a business.

I've got to rebuild technology.

And in the end he said fantastic.

I've built one of the biggest
Internet businesses on the planet and

I can give you some advice there.

You'll figure it out like you've done
everything else in your life and

he said and.

You know the price that the money that
you're thinking about selling this

thing for
is you're going to see is trivial.

When you look at how big of an impact
that this is going to have on the world.

And so I went out to see
if we come back to Seattle

and we were able to deal.

And he said but you know you better get
out of the other deal first right so

I called my what a lawyer's And
they said go with seller's remorse.

So I called up the Enquirer and

said I just don't think that I
can go through with the deal.

It's my baby I want to
continue to grow and

I don't want a car park to become
part of your large company.

And they were not very happy but
they ultimately recent their offer.

So then it came back into
my lap globalize rebuild.

So the for so I start thinking OK I've
got a marketplace running I've got

companies that are uploading
their designs and

then manufacturing companies that are you
know are bidding on finding lead.

That's a marketplace I know the next.

The most important thing is to have
people that want to buy if you

people want to buy you can People
that want to sell will come right.

So I thought with a big hit The next
biggest body of buyers of manufacturing

outside of America is in Europe.

So I went to Europe.

Looking around I want to buy a company and
they based in Switzerland.

That produces that produced.

Software as a service for

large companies to manage their
procurement of manufactured items.

So I bought that company to Swiss engine.

Twist technology multi-lingual
out of the gate.

This is great.

I will rebuild my marketplace
on top of that platform.

That I knew the next thing I had to do was

the predominant in Asia
the world's factory.

So I went darted spent time in China.

And wound up opening in two thousand and
two thousand and

six I opened up an office of a wholly
owned foreign entity in Shanghai.

Today I got one hundred
employees in Shanghai.

And from Shanghai we take care of China
but also Malaysia Taiwan Vietnam Korea.

So so fast forward.

So today with M.F. to dot com We
facilitate three to four billion dollars

a month in manufacturing sourcing
companies in fifty countries.

And by volume it's one of the largest
Internet sites in the world by volume.

Now it's not a household name because it's
manufacturing it's not it's not a group on

but I tell you what it's got more
staying power because because

things get they right.

And we're in a really really
interesting point in time.

With the digitalisation and
technology conversion.

Convergence that is
happening in manufacturing.

Now if I think back to what you know
many years ago when I started my

my career at what that software in the
computers in the complexity what it cost.

Today the software to do three D.
design is very cheap and

easy to use the machine
tools will cost three

four five hundred thousand
dollars to take that code and

cut apart have now come on a Ties
where there are a lot cheaper right in

there even getting down to the level where
people are putting them in their homes.

It's almost like the photo of
the photographic in the photo

industry going for.

In dark rooms.

To where people would take would send
off their photos and wait a week and

then they would take them and
drop them off and go back in an hour now.

You just print them that same
type of a technology convergence.

Is happening in manufacturing and

it's opening up some really
really interesting possibilities.

So when when the process when everything
is digitalized when it goes from

a cad three D. design to CAM software
into a machine that can repeat it.

Now manufacturing capacity.

It starts to look like
printers on a network.

It's not like the old days we had
to have a guy that had lots and

lots of skill running this
very specific machine.

We're not just looking for
work a passive the exist.

Companies that have traditionally.

Produced a product at one factory in a low
cost country whether that be in China or

anywhere and then shift the points
all over the world are now thinking

about how do I take this one million
widgets and distribute them all

around the world where my consumers are
and produce them in the local market and

flavor it on demand to those
consumers based on their taste.

And that's the stuff that
we're facilitating So

what I realized was when people started
referring to us as a factory in the cloud.

I had no idea when I started this
that I was laying the groundwork for

something that would be a global
infrastructure for the world's digitalized

manufacturing economy and we're really
started to hit home was a baby.

Eighteen months ago I got
a call from the Department of

Defense United States promo defense and
so they asked me to come.

We had a meeting and
they talked about some of the challenges.

The Department of Defense has.

So they.

Spend a couple hundred billion
dollars a year buying parts and

supplies that thing to
support war fighter.

That's how they refer to it as the war
fighter and they do in a relatively old

school old technology kind of way and
they want to make them more modern

and they said we're looking for a way to
connect up the Department of Defense and

all the things that we buy to
the United States industrial base for

a couple of reasons and a couple of those.

Directly hit on the ability for
us to defend ourselves.

And maybe you've seen pictures or

movies from World War two when the U.S.
government.

Commandeered U.S.

industrial capacity and they had everybody
building tanks and trucks and bombs.

Regardless of what you did
they did they took it now and

that was referred to as ability to search

the ability to surge and they said
we don't have the ability to surge.

What would happen if we had in the vent
now there's something that happens

where we have to defend ourselves and we
don't have any production capacity in this

country so
we need to build digital infrastructure

that connects America's manufacturing
this critical infrastructure.

Just like the national highway system
just like here traffic control system so

that we know who has capacity to produce
what any given moment in time and

it looks like what you have Bill is you've
already laid that infrastructure and

with Yes I have.

It was and so we went through a process
and they they did a proposal and

we won that contract and April what it's
called connecting American manufacturing.

And I'm pretty excited about it.

I think it does a lot for us from a from a
department of defense before perspective.

From being more efficient with
the taxpayers' money being more reactive.

But there's also.

Just like the highway system just
like the air traffic control system.

There are commercial
benefits that happen from

because manufacturing is
important to our country.

It's important to our economy.

It's how we create wealth and
and a lifestyle in this country.

And by allowing us to be
extremely efficient extremely

persistent with our manufacturing doing
it in a digitalized way a digital a whole

façade now it doesn't make a lot of sense
to go to the other side of the world to go

to a low cost country some stuff certainly
should be made there because it's where

the consumers are but when you think
about it a digitalized way and

it gets spread out everybody
gets a piece of the pie and

I think this digitalisation
of manufacturing

facilitated by a factory in the cloud
is the new industrial revolution.

It's good for
our economy it's good for our country.

And I'm just excited to get up and
go to work every day building it out so

I will stop with my talk there and
entertain any questions.

Factories

or the other benefactors that
are part of your network.

I merely industrial products for
the consumer products.

It's primarily industrial products and
we've got hundreds of

thousands of companies like Black and
Decker Motorola whirlpool.

So it depends right it can be.

Black and
Decker using us to get molds made for

the plastic components they
go into a power drill.

Dana Corp for
drive train components to into a car.

It's everything boats cars airplanes for
cell phone cases you name it.

So I guess my question would be that if
you had if you pick consumer products

could this be the marketplace that they're
not your my people used to say it often or

wants to do initial were
products that doesn't

obviously doesn't have
the manufacturing capability to do it.

So they're looking for
a contract manufacturer.

I guess my question is would this be
a place not your could turn to that would

put factories in competition for each
other to produce or consumer products.

Absolutely.

Yes if I could make that clear that
yes I get that happens every day.

And one of the things that's really
a true so a lot of the big large

companies use us for
their their products that manufacture but

we have inventors and
entrepreneurs every day and

we have some guys we have companies
starting up which become quite virtual

right there a couple of a couple guys
in Boston a company called Boss dig and

they design after market auto
parts a couple guys graduated mit.

They never had to buy any equipment
because they just leveraging this virtual

factory.

And one of guys came to visit me recently.

From from Boston.

Each one to tell me about
how happy he is this exist.

He said we were.

The they were they were
passionate about V.W.

vans and I started coming up
with some cool bumpers and

some some things to customize these
vans other people started wanting.

So he said we've been.

We didn't know how to weld or
do machining or laser cutting and

we didn't have the money he said but
we made the designs and we went and

actually dot com We uploaded it.

We started finding factories and
he said that we never know

how our sales are going to be are we
going to need to produce more or less.

He said.
So what you really have is a virtual

factory of unlimited size
that can scale up and

scale down with no investment on my part.

This is great.

I was like wow I love that.

So I get I get the best analogies
from the customers like that.

My name is to mean bad and I'm a fourth
year business ministration major and

I was just wondering if your revenue model
has changed since you partnered up kind

of with Amazon do you take any commissions
now or is it still subscription.

So the two things are first of
all it's I'm partnered up with

Jeff Bezos personally not Amazon.

And I think we always will be
the state that because just

a public company they don't
have any interest in an image.

And the revenue model has
not morphed very much.

It's a membership based right.

There's a couple components to it.

So the people who are doing the sourcing
buying the manager for free.

And in the factories that
want to gain customers pay

an annual membership fee which ranges from
a couple of thousand dollars a year to

thirty thousand dollars a year.

Pence on the categories and
geographies and the thing and.

I would absolutely love to be
in the percentage business of

taking a percentage of the transactions.

What makes me nervous
about that is a lot of

the competitors that I had
early on that went away.

They tried that manufacturing is complex
a lot of times collaboration that needs to

happen people need to talk about a drawing
or a CAD model or have a phone call and

people wound up inadvertently cutting
the marketplace out of the deal.

The marketplace is work when you can
keep the parties somewhat anonymous or.

If the transaction is so

small it's not worth circumventing
the marketplace in large transactions.

A few percentage points is a lot of money.

It's worth it be worth going around.

So we we've stuck with that model but

I think I think over time we figure
out ways that we become part of

the transaction stream as we start to so
what take the payment.

And different things where
it becomes more natural.

But until now building the building
the herd continuing to.

Build the critical mass to build
the the moat around the castle

the membership model has worked
out without really well but

I like the way you're thinking because
you're thinking about the right thing

or to compare with even within this debate
is collapse afterward they imploded.

So do you think you benefit from not
having those invest in early on and

what do you think you will tear
the company differently or

do things differently if
you do have those invested.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

I absolutely think that too
much money too early on.

Is is a curse.

I thought because I think the companies
that got a lot of funding and

when they hired a lot of people they built
a lot of overhead a lot of bureaucracy.

And all of a sudden you
have this big burn rate.

And the business isn't quite
ready to support that yet.

And then over a while the divestitures
get tired of and continuing to invest and

they just they just they just pull
the plug and because I think.

Yeah.

When I started this twelve years ago
it was kind of early in the cycle that

manufacturers were ready to adopt
doing business via the Internet.

And so my revenue started off very small.

And as the adoption rate
continued to happen.

It got bigger and bigger.

So we grew along with
the adoption rate my company got

bigger as the market got bigger as
the market got ready for it and

one of the lessons I think I've learned
from that is no matter how much money

you throw at something to try
to prejudice and adoption curve.

I don't think you can
significantly prejudiced.

I think you can make so
you can inflection.

You have a bit of an inflection
point I don't think you can right.

Totally shift an adoption curve
people are going to drop away and.

By dumb luck.

I grew at the same rate as the market
was adopting by staying lean and mean.

Funding it all for
the revenues that came in the good.

And it's from a medical engineering
student so recently I've seen

a lot of like interesting developments in
sort of open source manufacturing like C.

three D. printers stuff like those warning
if you thought there's any future in that

sort of do it yourself manufacturing and
if so how does that affect your business.

Yeah I think I think it's really it's
a really fascinating conversation.

And the home that the you know
the maker movement is cheap three D.

printers now there's cheap little C.N.C.
desktop mills and lathes and

that technology is really really evolving
and I think you see that you see

the rise of things like Etsy or
people are designing niche products and

making them in many home factories
cottage industries are developing.

I think it's fantastic.

I think that's I think we're going
to see a lot more of that and

that's what I mean when I refer
about the new industrial revolution.

I think we're seeing these micro
factories that are going to start up and

able by three D. printing.

And prospect think it's a good
thing because I think that

we become more of the of the cloud
which facilitates putting those people

together at the right moment I you know
we have some users today which are people

that produce that have
a product they sell it on Etsy.

But then they use us to
figure out how to produce it.

If I'm someone that does three D.
printing a little bit of C.N.C.

milling in the area near where
they just sold the product.

Fantastic distributed manufacturing.

So yeah I mean I think it's I think
that's that's a key component of

the new industrial revolution.

Hi I'm

a graduate computer science and and
be a student here at Georgia Tech.

I just be interested to get your
perspective on what you see as the blue

collar opportunities.

That the first national revolution brought
about in is it that in this second.

New wave of manufacturing that
the the blue collar worker like yourself

ends up becoming the entrepreneur in
all these kind of me micro mills.

I think the ability to make something
will always be a good skill to have.

There's a tremendous shortage of
people that know how to make things

in this country.

It just wasn't the path that parents and
their children now for

good reason manufacturing
left the country.

If not I want to encourage
their children to go pursue

a work in manufacturing become
a machinist become a tool and die maker.

It just wasn't a good career choice.

All the sudden now we have a shortage and
it's and

it's not what people think of right
because of the digitalisation

people think of manufacturing a smokestack
and welding it sparks flying.

I don't want this today.

It's very computer intensive it's three D.

modeling it's programming
sophisticated machines robots.

It's.

I think it's called quite a project
I think is cool and we need we need

people to get interested in that because
there are job openings many of them.

Many of my customers tell me
today their number one problem

is finding people that have an interest
and a passion and the right skill set.

With computer literacy with math skills
the willingness to get their hands dirty.

Well in this to work.

There's a shortage of those people and
I have hundreds of companies that use my

service that would love to grow if they
don't have the right talent to grow.

And I graduate.

Here from biomedical engineering
which is more than just a question.

It seems that a lot of
what you guys are doing

is providing excess ability to
kind of identify the capacity.

Now this one even.

You're insisting countries in terms
of the manufacturers and the buyers

for one is there a certain I
guess message the madness in

terms of which countries you're
looking at and the second is this idea

of accessibility something that you're
seeing that maybe in developing economies.

Maybe the ones that don't
have as a stabs value chains.

Is it providing an opportunity maybe for
through for

startups for some sort of economy
to grow by having all the sudden

access because they'll have
potentially access online or

they might he will have some
that mean a factory capacity.

Yeah.

So the fifty countries I mean markets are
very markets are very efficient and hair.

Right.

And I can tell you we didn't go to say
well let's pick out these countries and.

What happens is the the market
the market drives the buyers drive it.

You know when a large company says we want
to have this manufacturer we want to have

that mag manufactured in this country or
this region for a strategic reason.

Then they start doing a lot of
sourcing there they put it out and

they put it on to our system.

They say we're looking for
suppliers to produce this and X. region.

Well all the sudden that then we would
start to get members in their region.

So the markets work in our efficient.

You know converse of one of things we're
seeing right now a lot of companies

are want to bring it back to America.

For all for a lot of reasons.

So the big research to move
back to America right now.

But you're exactly right that it opens
up opportunities for small businesses.

So the accessibility.

I've been all over the world to
companies that were very very

small village in some remote place all
the sudden now they're connected and

they're getting customers from remote
areas of the world they never would have

they never would have perceived.

And it plays right into what's
happening in the world in manufacturing

especially is you can't
be a generalist right.

You can't say we make.

We make chairs and podiums and cars and

boats you have to figure out what
it is you do extremely well.

Be the best in the world
at making that one widget.

And then cast a really wide global
net to find those customers.

I have a friend here in Atlanta
actually Phoenix metal stamping.

That he's.

Army Ranger went to West Point got out and

took over his father's
metal stamping business.

And the business was doing OK but
they were kind of they weren't making

a lot of profit but
they were they were doing OK.

And he decided to focus and he said
the thing that they made the most money

on was you bolts and little bolts that are
all that you shave the threads on each end

there's a metal piece that goes over and
over and he says

that's all we're going to make we're
going to become the best in the world.

You bolts the business has grown
ten times in a few years ten X..

My focus.

Right.
But when you focus on something like that

you now got to go all over the world
to find who Jubal It's and

that's the new types of new
types of opportunities.

This is opened up.

I really enjoyed your story.

Thank you so

with medical device manufacturing
there are some real specific needs.

And they're starting to be

localized manufacturing centers popping
up like my here at Georgia Tech.

I was wondering if you think down the dot
com platform might be a good way to

connect.

Customers to places like that.

That we have a we actually we have a lot
of medical device manufacturers that use

our system has a lot of suppliers
that have the right sort of occasions

that use the system and
that's one thing we've had to figure

out over the years I guess one
of our largest customers and

not the medical aerospace
company in France called.

So aviation they make business jets
fighter jets for French military.

So we've had to you know.

Build in all the rules of how
to how to cater to the arrows.

It's industry same thing in
the medical device industry.

So all that all that logic is built
in intellectual property protection

connecting with suppliers have
the right right sort of for patients so

absolute most of the components really
there's there's there's remolding this

micro machining they go and go in the
components and those people are aligned.

I am critical of the fourth year business
student here and I was just wondering

you were talking a lot about how
important it was to serve your customers.

How have your relationships with your
clients changed since before the cloud

and after.

You know I've got so many customers.

In different in different
places of the world that it.

It's like it's like any way any internet
business you have to figure out how to

create how to create some
sort of a loyalty affinity.

People packed passionate evangelists and.

I travel I so I also spent time across
the U.S. across life all over the world.

We have have of the do all do.

Media stuff and
trying to put a face on the company.

Right.

I'm squeezing you know
we've got close to close

to two hundred employees there's a lot
of stuff that happens behind the scenes.

But I constantly will see
you know post online or

something where people think
it's two guys in a garage.

So I work from home.

And there's a lot more that goes
into it to make that happen.

So we spent a lot of time how
to humanize bring a face to it.

Speak with customers make
it accessible whether

it's whether it's you know phone numbers
where they can call us or even mail or

a live chat or videos we put out or
seminars around the world

because it's really easy to not
understand your customer and

that's really the death to any company
when you lose touch with your customers.

And it's thank you so much for
coming to Georgia thank you.