In this episode of OutBüro Voices featuring LGBTQ professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders from around the world, host Dennis Velco chats with Christopher Berno, an LGBT entrepreneur serial startup CEO.
Christopher has worked in technology his whole career. He applies knowledge gained from past corporate jobs and past startups as accumulative wisdom to fresh and innovative startup. His entrepreneurial spirit thrives in dreams while rooted in the foundation of understanding dreams or ideas must have a practical application and solve some problems in order to gain traction In business. Investors today do rarely fund an idea. And entrepreneur must be able to either alone or through a team assemble an MVP (minimum value product) that gains traction and can be improved upon along the way. Just watch Shark Tank and you will see that investors want to know what revenue the company has already had to date. You must also understand your direct and indirect competitors as well as have a good understanding of the size of your achievable market.
Christopher on OutBüro >> https://www.outburo.com/profile/chrisberno/
Experienced Co-Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the online media industry. Skilled in Customer Acquisition, Sales, Contact Centers, Management, and Start-ups. Strong business development professional and leader of people, process and technology.
City Screen TV
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CityScreen™ helps brands and advertisers connect with audiences in locations and in ways that until recently were not possible. We integrate the latest in mobile computing technology and Smart TV hardware with our spatial media platform to create new kinds of experiences. The applications for this technology are limitless, but we’re developing workflows that improve interactions between brands and consumers and better distribute ad spend across all participating parties – including the consumer!
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Consumers want experiences from brands and that’s exactly what you can deliver with CityScreen™. Whether you bring your existing media or start your spatial advertising from a new perspective, we’ll can help you deliver engaging, informative and powerful brand experiences that transcend the mundane and delight audiences.
BYO Content
We’ve had great success in 2019 repurposing our clients existing media content to function on much bigger screens and within highly interactive advertising apps. Use your existing S3, DropBox or other cloud storage service to source media files for distribution or start making new brand experiences that maximize all the interactive features that the CityScreen™ platform offers.
Interactive Add-Ons
Consumers want experiences from brands and that’s exactly what you can deliver with CityScreen™. It’s time to think BIG because you’re no longer limited to mobile devices, tablets and desktop screens. From large-format displays to gaming consoles and VR headsets, we offer an evergreen marketplace of interactive add-ons that will take your content to a new level of interaction and immersion.
To connect with Christopher find him on OutBüro here. https://outburo.com/profile/chrisberno/
Join me and Christopher on OutBüro, the LGBTQ professional and entrepreneur online community network for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, allies and our employers who support LGBTQ welcoming workplace equality focused benefits, policies, and business practices. https://www.OutBuro.com
Would you like to be featured like this? Contact the host Dennis Velco. https://outburo.com/profile/dennisvelco/
Conversation Transcript
The below was created through voice to text recognition. We will strive to edit for accuracy as time permits. It may not be perfect. It is being provided for the hearing impaired to still enjoy the interview.
Unknown Speaker 0:02
Hi there. This is Dennis Velco with OutBüro at www.OutBuro.com. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of OutBüro voices where we have fascinating and interesting, impromptu dialogue with interesting LGBT professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders. Today we have the privilege of being joined by Christopher Berno, who is a lifelong entrepreneur. So we’re going to have some interesting stories to get to thank you so much for joining us today, Christopher.
Unknown Speaker 0:41
Dennis, good to see you. Thank you for having me.
Unknown Speaker 0:43
Absolutely. Absolutely. And as I love to do is get right in and start talking a little bit about your history. So if you could just give us a little bit of background to help familiarize and set the frame for our conversation today.
Unknown Speaker 0:58
Yeah, sure. I’d be happy to Thanks again for having me today. I think the work you’re doing is so important for so many different reasons. And so I just want to at the very onset, just say, first of all, thank you. And it’s a real honor to to be a part of it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:12
Well, I appreciate it. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:15
So, in terms of just kind of background in history, my career started right out of college. I went to school in southern Ontario. I’m Canadian, originally. And right after graduation, I got an undergraduate degree in psychology and immediately upon graduation got into the technical workspace, I guess I was brought on to work with Barnes and noble.com. And just to kind of give some context, and some timeframes here, we’re talking about the late 90s. So what did that look like in terms of technology? Well, cell phones were, I think, you know, I think my dad had his cell phone in his car at that point that was hardwired, right. So people were not walking around with their cell phones in hands like they are today. There was certainly no Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Not only was it there was no MySpace. Really the internet at that point AOL was was was happening I guess then
Unknown Speaker 2:13
I do remember that that era? Yeah, I think
Unknown Speaker 2:16
it’s really important context, right? Because if you’re I mean, I’m in my late 40s now so that context really matters because younger people watching this aren’t maybe you know, aren’t going to really understand what it meant to get into technology in the 90s. Like it meant getting into technology today. So that’s why I bring that up. But Barnes and noble.com was my first kind of foray into the technology world and what a cool time and space to be, I mean, but you know, Barnes and Noble is obviously a national brand obviously, a household brand name right. You know, when I say Barnes and Noble, you know, what they do, but back in the 90s that was it was time for a massive transition from, you know, selling books on shelves in iconic stores on Main Street. To transitioning that to the web and everything from the distribution, from the sale online too, you know, distribution and getting that book from point A to point B. So that was really my first kind of foray into tech. And I got to kind of work my way up through the ranks there. And by the time I left Barnes and Noble, I was the manager of distribution and e-commerce. So basically managing all of the touchpoints from the time the customer ordered the book online to the time that the customer received their book, and, you know, a lot of touchpoints back then. One thing I do want to say about that timeframe, which was kind of interesting is that you know, Amazon was not a household name then. Right, and just kind of looking back. It’s kind of cool to remember, and I was part of this too, and certainly, you know, hindsight is 2020. And I think Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking back but at the time, I remember actually Amazon being mocked by my superiors You know, that the senior leadership team at Barnes and Noble and I remember one particular all-hands meeting where they are saying like, oh, does anybody want a toaster, you know, with that bestseller. And what they were implying was that it’s just silly to have this place where you can go and get everything you need on one website, we’re going to focus on books and slowly books. And now history, you know, has a way of showing who the winner is going to be in those scenarios, right. And looking back, you know, it’s really it was really, you don’t realize that at the time, but you’re learning so much, you know, as you’re even if you do have a job with a company, you’re not ready to be an entrepreneur yet that you can soak up so much learning during that process of working for other companies and, you know, finding opportunity in other companies. But I belabored that, but Barnes and noble.com was an incredible learning experience for me. I got recruited out of there with a.com out of San Francisco, and it’s funny because.com used to mean something like, you know, it’s like kind of the, what we used to call startups that you working for a.com Right, right. We’re the the.com bubble burst of 2001 but it was a wireless company called Omni sky and what a cool I mean just going from, you know, a household major brand like Barnes and Noble to a startup that basically no one’s heard of before Omni sky.com and basically what they did as cell phones were starting to take on more popularity and more and more people were adopting cell phone technology and mobile in their hands. It was still it was only voice at that point in time so if you take a time machine back now to say to 1999 or 2000 cell phones were in people’s hands but all it was voice. So again, context it might be hard for someone like a millennial or you know, Gen Gen Z to wrap their mind around but a mobile device all it was voice there was no chat. You certainly weren’t sending files and you certainly weren’t watching video you were talking and that’s about it. And what these guys did back in 2000 was create a cradle if you want for your phone, which allowed you to connect to the internet and move data with cellular packets. So it was the very first time that you could actually transmit text data as we do now with text messages. And at that time, it was just so monumental. And it was an absolute no brainer for me to take that job. And I was managing their technical support operations. And so like I said, it was a San Francisco based startup called nice guy. And that was just such a great experience to in a different way. I’ll say one thing that’s, you know, a pivotal moment in my career was September 11. And, you know, it’s just I remember that day, I remember where I was, and we had so many of our customers were actually in, you know, the World Trade Centers and literally within two weeks of September 11 2001, we were, you know, we were closed
Unknown Speaker 6:51
Wow.
Unknown Speaker 6:52
Yeah, really fascinating and it’s
Unknown Speaker 6:56
tragic and, but, but fascinating and great lessons. Well
Unknown Speaker 7:00
You know, what’s interesting is that, you know, yes, that was devastating to a building and several buildings around. I actually lived in New York at the time, and was just blocks. You know, I actually had people from that area, because I, one of my clients was Deutsche Bank. And it was right across the street. I don’t know if you recall, back when that was happening. On TV, there would be this big dark, almost black, it was very dark brown building that had the American flag on it. I do and they kept showing, well, that was the Deutsche Bank building, and so that I was there and I was there. I was working on that client during all of this. And so I had actually and then I had friends who lived right across the street, closer to the harbor area. And so when my ex and I we Got a condo apartment on 10th? And between 10th and ninth on 20. Oh, well, so you,
Unknown Speaker 8:08
Chelsea? Well, we were like considered Chelsea.
Unknown Speaker 8:13
Just as the galleries were going into that area moving up to that area and so actually had people walk because you couldn’t get a taxi you could obviously couldn’t do subway. And so they would they actually walked to our apartment. So, within about two hours of all of that happening, we had three people, three additional people. One couple who lived there and one guy that was work was on his way to work in the building, get diverted and going, Oh my god, I can’t go back all the way to Brooklyn where I lived. So can I come to your place? And we’re like, yeah, crazy. So but but what’s interesting is is that having that happen to us To that to that building and the surrounding area affected a.com so, so, so much that they had to close their doors, you know, you would think that those businesses like, you know, it didn’t shut down Deutsche Bank, it didn’t shut down, you know, those other businesses. So, you know, we don’t have to necessarily get into that. I just thought that that was very interesting that that event would have caused that calm to go under.
Unknown Speaker 9:25
Indeed, and I think it’s just things change. All right. I mean, things change things, change in global economies, things change in markets, things change in your home, things change in life. And I think, you know, I couldn’t have been on a higher high in my career at that point in time, right. And to go from just in terms of income, autonomy, excitement for the product for the future to unemployed, you know, in in San Francisco and really not sure what’s next because nobody was hiring that. I mean, I mean, it was, there are a lot of parallels to what’s happening happening today with COVID. I mean, I wouldn’t eat I don’t think you can’t go apparent, but in terms of just the amount of change that’s happening, I mean, I’d say that this is 100 times, September 11, in terms of change that’s coming down the pipeline as a result of it, but the world changed that day. And you know, as well as I do, and I’m sure people who are old enough to remember that here can relate to that. But it’s important the lesson and the takeaway from that is that things do change, right. And that can be great for in terms of creating new opportunity for new startups, you know, one thing leads to another and the rest of the story really is that’s kind of, you know, going through that September 11 experience and being unemployed, and really kind of propelled me into the work that I’m doing today and got me into, you know, the hosting industry, which was really, you know, in its early, early days, back then, if you, you know, even trying to explain something like a domain name to somebody back in 2000. You know, I would get it a lot like, Well, what do I need a domain name for? What do I need a web page for the Yellow Pages. You know, I can get a newspaper ad like I don’t need your you know, your Um, your witchcraft website stuff? Yes. Can you remember those times? I mean, it was real. I mean, that was silly today, but it was real back then.
Unknown Speaker 11:09
Oh, yeah, I can remember I’ve owned a couple of, you know, dot coms and have tried it, you know, the entrepreneurial thing was trying to launch things and having to try to explain to family members and friends. It’s like, well, you have your website, why do you need a domain name? Well, that’s the URL, the address that you put in? And then what is this hosting? Well, you
Unknown Speaker 11:33
already have a
Unknown Speaker 11:34
domain name you talked about, why are you Why do you need to spend more money on hosting because that’s where the files reside on. You know, it’s just like, oh, mg, trying to explain it. Getting back to your your, your point on for for the younger folks out there. Talking about the history, you kind of brought back a memory of mine like to share for a moment and came up in the military working in computers and helped open the very first technology calling center help desk or fifth corps military based in Frankfurt and so forth. And so I was working first on 286 is, and we were so excited when 386 has come out. Okay, folks out there, look it up.
Unknown Speaker 12:21
You don’t know what I’m
Unknown Speaker 12:21
talking about. I’m gonna have to look it up. I think 3d suck it up.
Unknown Speaker 12:24
Yeah. Well, and before that was a 286. It was a processor speed. Oh. And so you know, we’re talking back When, when, you know, there wasn’t even Microsoft right now. And so that was really funny. So I was used to using dos based commands to get things done and your your word processor was totally text based. There was no there was no mouse, there was no visual interface. It was all text on the screen. And I when I my ex and I came back from Germany, I started working for this company, I helped build their, their database in their marketing group. And I remember this one day, he and I went to some friend’s house. And Jeff and Jeff. And Jeff, they they say, Jeff, the hottie. He was also into computers. And he’s like, hey, Dennis, you know, because you knew I was into technology as well. He goes, Hey, Dennis, come up here want to show you something on my computer? And I’m like, sure. He goes, like this. It’s called Windows. I was like, Oh, my God. That’s that. That’s magical. I mean, it was, yeah, it was like Windows 3.1 or something. And so from that point on, it was like, Yeah, I mean, I remember the very day that I first got introduced to Windows And that was like back in 1991 or 92. So, yeah, we’ve come we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?
Unknown Speaker 14:10
Yeah. And I think that’s really important. Those are really important lessons. I think everyone’s you know, future focused, which is great. But at the end of the day, the technology’s changed. But humans haven’t. I mean, I’m not a I’m not a biologist or an anatomist. But our brains have not changed the way the computer chip has changed, right. Our processing power has not kept up with Moore’s Law, like what you just talked about. There’s no brain to 86 386 46 I mean, our our ability to intake information, process information and input information as humans really hasn’t changed that much, but the technology around us has. So that context that you’re talking about, that’s why history does matter, in my opinion, Dennis and that’s why, like if I could, that’s why I’m so passionate and so grateful to be able to be here because that’s the advice I want to share is that it doesn’t matter. You need to look back in order to be able to look forward well. You do need to look back like when the TV was introduced if you’re if you are looking to be an entrepreneur and you are looking to bring valuable products to market because at the end of the day, humans have not changed in the past 500 years technology sure as hell has. But we have not our brains to process the same way. So going back and understanding how societies took to the radio how societies took to TV how societies took to Sony Walkmans, how societies took the cell phones, to web to mobile, it really matters and it can really help you provide context and help you you know, formulate your plan and your products if you are looking to get into starting up a company. So looking back matters, and I think us old guys have a lot to offer in that regard. Because I think when I talk to people who don’t pay attention and don’t go look back,
Unknown Speaker 15:52
they’re missing an opportunity, I think, I believe,
Unknown Speaker 15:55
yeah, I totally can see that point. You know, having a little bit of an understanding of the sociology and psychology and you know that’s a, the more you understand and or yourself or the more you you read you listen to podcasts about it or you have someone on your team or within your realm of being a mentor or friend who has that kind of perspective is important because you’re right there has to be that point of understanding how it fits within the scope and the realm of products and services and also the the the adaptability but the adoption of products and services you know, how does this mesh with where we are today, and you know, unless you’re a real unless you have the money, you know, for you know, for example, Apple when they first came out with Their eye, their their iPod, you know, music in this tiny, tiny box was like the size of my, you know hand, right? Tiny, but you could store digital music. But no one knew you wanted to do that. Now, the good thing is, is that app, Apple had the bank account and the wallet to to
Unknown Speaker 17:25
create the demand.
Unknown Speaker 17:28
You know, if you’re if you’re a bootstrap startup, if you’re creating something that’s never been out there before, you have to see where the gaps are, and fill a gap. And then do really great, you know, bootstrap marketing and so forth to get there. But if you follow just on the cusp of the trends, and then create what’s called a minimum value product, to test that introduction of that product and then improve it over time, as as it gets adopted, and you start getting those Early, early customers, so let’s kind of transition into, you know, city screen. Tell us a little bit about that. And, you know, kind of the, the the why, what, what started that for you? I’m always interested in understanding the why because it’s the driver that keeps you focused and working on something even though that you might have naysayers.
Unknown Speaker 18:26
Sure, I think,
Unknown Speaker 18:29
you know, just in terms of the why, I know. Well, I learned you learn a lot right as you go. And part of that learning process to is learning what I what I like to do, what what I’m good at what other people thought I was good at, but also what kind of got me up in the morning and got me, you know, really jazzed about what I was going to work on that day, that week, that quarter. And over time in the in the hosting industry, I, you know, just was fortunate enough to have some great mentors, kind of helped me develop my leadership skills and as a result of that, you know, took on more responsibility. Growing teams globally working on different continents and working as an X pack just tons and tons of learning kind of lead up to helping me understand what really what mattered to me the most in terms of my career and what I wanted to do. And I really, I found, you know, as I was taking assignments working for in the hosting space, was that I got just naturally kind of thrown into the worst kind of problem situations that they had, right. And that’s where people just kind of put me and but it really gravitated to that I kind of gravitated to where the action was. I was not a maintainer, I learned that about myself, I was not about, you know, like a lot of managers these days are just about doing more faster, better, more faster, better, more, faster, better. And that’s great. But there’s, you know, diminishing returns on that at some point before you start burning people out and you start burning systems out and you start just burning out. I know. And the reason I’m an entrepreneur now and the reason I’m an I’m a serial CEO of startups, Yo now is because I like that that ramp. And that’s kind of you know, I totally agree
Unknown Speaker 20:06
I get it like
Unknown Speaker 20:09
To me it’s revealed to me that that build phase taking nothing taking absolutely nothing but an idea and creating a brand. They’re creating a brand creating brand recognition and seeing that take root, you know, take hold and take root and start to grow. And and knowing that all of your efforts are you’re seeing your efforts come to fruition I so rewarding. It’s like that is it and yeah, so sorry. I didn’t mean I don’t mean to cut you out. They’re just like, That, to me is like the most exciting thing when things get to be so routine. That’s why I’m a horrible employee.
Unknown Speaker 20:57
Bo
Unknown Speaker 20:57
duly noted the guys
Unknown Speaker 21:00
If it’s routine, I’m a fab. I’m a fantastic consultant. Like you parachuting in to problem situations in my past career I was really well known for that. So you can take the worst account with the worst personalities the worst situation where projects were way over budget under delivering and hostile clients I would parachute and within three months have it turned around and have them sign a new contract because they love the work but put me in the put me in the same situation where even working in a large corporation where I have to go to work every day. And and it’s doing the same thing processing the same kind of answering the same kind of questions routine, routine routine. Oh my gosh, you might as well slit my wrists and put me in the ground.
Unknown Speaker 21:54
But you know what, though, Dennis, you know, what’s important is that those people like I wouldn’t have the same level of success that I have to Without those maintainers right without though that is so critical in a business, right? It is those people who have that because you take some people and you put them into the startup scene, and they just go bananas, right? Like it’s late, they got it. It’s too crazy. So if there is people if there are people watching that are those maintainers and really good strong leaders that kind of take the torch and take it into the next five years. Those are the people that make us the money really, because they, you know, they rally the troops and keep people focused on the prize and the end game and moving towards that constantly improving. that’s invaluable to me. So those people are wicked valuable. It’s just not me. Or do apparently,
Unknown Speaker 22:39
yeah, well, well, and I don’t mind like like I could see out
Unknown Speaker 22:43
Euro in in you know, I have a growth plan as revenue comes on. But it’s it’s the to put it like my ex of 17 years. He was he’s he’s a software developer and hit you know, his idea of security is, is being employed by someone going in and sitting in a cubicle, where he has, you know, Suzy on one side and Joe on the other and he sees them every day. And you know, he’s working on a project that management has given him. And and that’s okay. I’m not that’s not I’m not trying to be negative. I’m just saying that that which is actually one of the huge contentions in our personal relationship because we’re, he is that kind of a person that had to have routine routine, routine, routine routine. And I’m the kind of person who thrives on change, and a risk taker. And so
Unknown Speaker 23:44
yeah, I’m not I’m not a good employee.
Unknown Speaker 23:48
It does take a village. I know that’s a no, it’s a political. I don’t mean to politicize anything here, but it does take a village really to grow an empire. It does. It does. And so, and a lot of one of the problems I find with a lot of startup communities is that they alienates you know, it’s all about that startup that idea. Ideas are worthless dentists, they’re worthless until they’re acted upon and to get them to a point where you’ve got traction in the marketplace. It takes a village, it takes a unique team. And part of being, you know, a great entrepreneur is assembling that team. So I believe startup community should be there should be just as many operations managers, career operations, managers, directors, you know, customer service people, I want those people on my startup teams, I look for them, because you can have 1000 idea people around you you’re not getting shit done. And I’m sorry, you can beat that out. Now. 1150 I need to take a two second break. Can we can we put a time marker here? I’m so sorry. But I’ve got a power issue and I need to. Yeah, no worries. And timeout. Yep, sure.
Unknown Speaker 24:47
I can just cut this out.
Unknown Speaker 25:01
So, that brings us I guess to you know, the project that I’m working on now. So as a kind of a serial startup CEO and that’s kind of how I positioned myself in the market. I selected this particular project to work on for a bunch of different reasons. But what basically we’re working on now it’s kind of mashing up if you look at you know, mobile phones today, you look at tablets, even desktop computers, laptops, there’s those screens have so much interactivity to them, you’re you’re either it’s either got touchscreen capabilities, or you know, we’re texting sending files, but our our biggest screens are TV screens that are in our living rooms, and waiting rooms and all over the everywhere we look really, they’re pretty much still a one way street in terms of transmission informations flowing from a central server, you know, out and the flow is going one way and what city screen does is create a kind of an abstract layer on top of the TV that makes your TV work a whole lot more like your phone or your tablet. And really kind of changes your living room experience. So by incorporating gaming functionality, transmitting information, really kind of socializing the entertainment space, more so call it like a second screen experience. So as you’re watching your favorite reality TV show, you can now watch it with your friends and family. And also creates a tremendous amount of advertising, really contextual advertising opportunities for brands and advertisers that want to connect, and really provide the audiences with really cool new experiences that were never possible before on TV. So it’s a really exciting space. It’s new, kind of, to your point a little bit earlier, Dennis, it’s it’s much easier when you have a budget to create the demand. I think that’s the term that you used a few minutes ago and that was very well put, I think that’s where you know, we struggle the most right now is creating the demand and the way you do that is by showing people what it’s capable of. So it’s um, it’s a really exciting space to be in right now. And, you know, hopeful that that the next three or four years are going to create a tremendous amount of opportunity. Um, if I may just one point I want to put remember we talked about a few minutes ago around change in September 11. And I think, you know, what we’ve gone through together collectively as residents of planet Earth, you know, COVID-19. And that’s their thing. That’s just another example of massive change. And one of the interesting things for us is, as we were creating, you know, interactive second screen applications for smart TVs or smart TV app, but COVID-19 has really changed. And we realized, you know, as we were down and you know, this year, we’re supposed to be about getting the MVP to market and really starting to connect with our audiences and our advertisers. I mean, that was all halted in March. It kind of took us back to the drawing board and really what we understood is that we’ve got a product here that allows us to interact with TV and in public areas and retail locations in doctors offices. In schools allow you to interact with much, much, much bigger screens at scale and interact with large audiences with big screens without any kind of touching, right? You don’t have to touch the screen. You use your mobile phone and interact with the screen, you can gain you can take coupons with you, you can download files from that big screen onto your phone. And so my point is that sometimes when it looks really awful, and another there’s a lot of Believe me, it’s hurt us. It’s we’ve had to go back to our board and our investors and explain, you know, what we’re doing with this time, it’s their money. Right? And but really kind of interesting, because now we can come back to the marketplace when the time’s right, which is sooner than later, I believe and show that we’re capable of a whole lot more than we even thought we were capable of as a result of, you know, COVID-19 and having some time to reevaluate.
Unknown Speaker 28:52
Oh, very, very interesting. I don’t know if it’s on your radar, but it just popped in my head, as which is how the Conversations go.
Unknown Speaker 29:02
But the not only, you know, the the
Unknown Speaker 29:06
one is, you know, like being in a doctor’s office and being able to, you know, have on the screen, you know, information, maybe the doctor, there was a doctor in Columbus, Ohio that is while sitting in the waiting room. He always had health information on, like YouTube channels of health information, and then he would come on and talk about it. But you know, like, in today’s time, too, you know, you probably don’t want to be sitting in the doctor’s waiting room if you’re even allowed anymore. You may have to be sitting in your car waiting. But you know, those magazines don’t touch them. Because you don’t know who’s who’s been there before and what what illness they had and it was, you know, now now in retrospect was kind of gross and creepy to begin with.
Unknown Speaker 29:59
It does seem like there’s that Funny, I was just thinking that the other day too is like something like, it just seems gross to touch that.
Unknown Speaker 30:05
Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 30:05
another thing to just again off the top of my head is I recall reading a news article, probably now close to eight or nine months ago,
Unknown Speaker 30:18
where you know, like,
Unknown Speaker 30:19
sorry, McDonald’s but, um, you know, there’s those touchscreens that they have in a lot of McDonald’s where you can order your food, they, they did samplings of those, and the vast majority of all of them had, you know, fecal matter on it. So, you know, poop particles from people going to the restroom, and or not even there, but previously to that, and then, you know, using their fingers on those screens, and so that’s a touch point. Now, that could that we have recognized could also transmit COVID you know, in addition to that, other particles And so that would be interesting to, you know, as you’re looking at your technology in what you’re doing is, you know, possibly how to create an interactive menu for restaurants of all sizes. To take advantage of this and be able to, you know, to order while they’re standing, you know, in line or you know, beforehand.
Unknown Speaker 31:29
Yeah, just for the more technical people and even if you’re not if you want to research it, first of all, we’re city screen TV comm not to plug shamelessly sorry, Dennis, but no more your logos
Unknown Speaker 31:38
right there.
Unknown Speaker 31:40
More importantly, would be if you’re interested in the technology that drives it, we do work on open source we’ve assembled the open source technology in a way that creates a valuable brings tons of valuable value to the market. But if you want to research we’re running on socket.io. That’s kind of the open source technology that we’re using to power our Smart TV or Smart TV to mobile applications. So it’s socket IO technology and it allows you to create these touchless experiences. And you’re right, Dennis. I mean, yeah, I mean, I, those seems so modern last year walking into a Burger King or McDonald’s and seeing those screens and then, you know, just directed the order to that, but I wouldn’t touch that thing with a with your finger today, you know, like, no, and so yeah, I think the future is very, very bright. And it it that was not on our radar.
Unknown Speaker 32:30
Last year at this time.
Unknown Speaker 32:33
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 32:34
this is opening up possibly, indeed new opportunities and creating, obviously then not only the opportunity for you to think about the the new fields, new new ways in which it could be used.
Unknown Speaker 32:51
But then creating the demand,
Unknown Speaker 32:53
right, indeed,
Unknown Speaker 32:54
you know, very, very, very interesting. It’s gonna be an interesting ride.
Unknown Speaker 33:01
So if you could, you know, as an as a serial entrepreneur, what has been some of the kind of the biggest challenges whether in this particular company city screen TV comm, or, or others that you’ve had, you know, so, you know, so maybe someone is, is out there and looking at this time and saying, you know, maybe they’re out of a job, or they realize the volatility of their employment. And maybe they’re saying, you know, maybe that idea I have is time to go for it. What are some perhaps, tips or things that you would you would say, you know, pay close attention to or be conscious of, or, you know, what kind of advice would you have for a budding entrepreneur?
Unknown Speaker 33:58
Well, first of all around ideas because that’s where it starts right?
Unknown Speaker 34:03
I said it earlier I said ideas are useless. And I said that a little bit flippantly. But at the end of the day, it’s it’s it’s very easy to get, there’s all these startup forums that are are flourishing, right. And they’re going to absolutely grow exponentially as a result of what we’ve been through with lockdown and stuff like that people coming up with ideas, getting into these communities trying to sell them. But the bottom line is that those ideas need to have plans formulated around them, teams formulated around them, and plans and put in place and then executed against in order for them to kind of get any value. There are people that will disagree with me on that. But my experience shows because I’ve failed colossally trying to pitch ideas in the heyday of kind of pitching right and, and did the circuit globally, which costs me and my organization’s dearly so learn from my mistakes, if you will. Don’t pitch ideas you need to pitch product so really understand the problem that your product is solving. I we’d encourage you, if you next time you’re talking to an entrepreneur or start, just ask them that simple question, what problem is out bureau solving? What problem is city screen solving? What problem is company x solving with that product? And you’d be surprised how many people get tripped up on that simple answer. So really understand that and then understand what the what the value of that solution is to that population of people or what, whether you’re making plant food or whatever it is, what what is the, what’s the market for that? How many people are affected by that problem. And if you can, if you can connect those two dots, then you can start to get really smart people paying attention to you. But so many people missed that point. They’re so hung up on the idea and get so emotionally attached to the idea. And then and then they can’t figure out why someone’s not willing to write a $3 million check or a $300,000 check for them and it just doesn’t work that way. People make it look very easy. You know, and I think that’s part of probably a marketing it’s not it’s not it. I’m not trying to make it sound harder than it has to be, but you really have to do the work.
Unknown Speaker 36:05
Oh, absolutely, absolutely is. You know, you always hear about the success stories, you know, in ink magazine and forbes.com. And it sounds like these companies just sprung up overnight and are an overnight success and they’re not. There’s possibly years and years behind them. And even even because an entrepreneurs journey is typically not one hit unicorn wonders, right? You typically like yourself. I’ve had a couple of companies myself in the past and different focusing on different areas. And but each was a learning opportunity. And you know, what I took away from serving fortune 100 fortune 1000 level or fortune 500 level companies and technology and business processing. I put into practice Here what I learned running in a state sale business actually where I had to attract both the home owner estate owner and a following of people in a city that would literally follow me every other week around the city, you know is like wow that’s like getting a following online. And because these folks would come out, snow, rain or sleet because they knew I always took the best best clients best homes. And they loved my all I tried to always have mid century modern, which is my thing, but any rate is a unique to see exactly a problem. And there’s there’s a lot of ways to kind of analyze that. And I encourage folks to check out several articles on out bureau comm Again, that’s OUT bu r o.com. There, there’s tips for You know, if you’d like to be an entrepreneur thinking about, you know, ideas, there’s an article on doing what’s called SWOT, that is your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, evaluating market space. It gives you great advice on doing that. And even give the example of you need to really look at all of your potential competitors and your competitors, you know, are are things you may not even realize. So, so we talked about that, for example, you’re also competing with as a gym, for example. So let’s say you want to start a gym. So part of your competitors is YouTube,
Unknown Speaker 38:48
and Facebook, because
Unknown Speaker 38:51
if someone is sitting on their couch just twiddling away on on Facebook, then they’re not in your gym. Now, you know, you might Like that, because they’re still paying their monthly fees, but but you know, so it talks about looking at your, your competitive space and really thinking about more than just your, your direct competitors, but your indirect competitors as well and even people who might think of you as a competitor, even though you don’t think of them and what that helps with all of that there’s also articles on creating a business plan.
Unknown Speaker 39:29
Looking at your marketing and so forth.
Unknown Speaker 39:33
And what I have found and I will admit, I am a
Unknown Speaker 39:39
as I’ve described it before, I’m a
Unknown Speaker 39:44
ready,
Unknown Speaker 39:45
shoot, aim. Kind of a guy.
Unknown Speaker 39:49
I had to think about that person. Ready, shoot, aim. Got it.
Unknown Speaker 39:55
Well, I’m there you know, one of the one of the things too, is You need to do your homework, you need to do your analysis. But sometimes people will get so in the weeds on analyzing that they then don’t take action. And so one of my statements that I have, which I’ve said in my interview with Larry, his magic and miracles happen when you have faith Believe in yourself, and you take action. That’s awesome because if you do not take action, nothing will happen. It’s just like, you know, I’m learning YouTube I learned something every single day. And so right now I’m taking the creating my my content stack through doing interviews like this. So there’s a video, which becomes podcast I’m out Bureau is now on 13 different apps, plus, I transcribe that into using AI into text well I could watch all the videos on how to optimize your YouTube channel, the YouTube channel, I could sit there and I could spend four hours a day watching you other YouTube videos on how to create an optimized YouTube videos, right? But if I don’t actually put it into practice and actually start doing it, nothing will happen. Right? And so, and I’m also being an entrepreneur right now of one being a company of one, self funded bootstrap and so forth. You know, I myself can get into oh my gosh, I have the LinkedIn group, I have the website, I’m trying to free content, I’m trying to do videos and so forth. But at the end of the day, every single day, I do something that moves out the road forward, something, whatever that is. And I think that’s a real lesson. It’s like if you do have your idea, you can be an idea guy. You can be an idea person, let’s say sorry, non gender binaries and females out there. You can you can be the idea person, and that’s fantastic. But unless you have unless you’re committed to that idea, and you begin researching the idea to your point to see is this viable is what problem does this solve? Why is this important to you? Why would this be important to someone else? Right? Because I could, I could have the the, I could have the next idea for a fantastic you know, coffee mug, but unless I unless I start putting it into practice unless I start actually working on it. All it is, is a bunch of ideas. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Like that, because they’re still paying their monthly fees, but but you know, so it talks about looking at your, your competitive space and really thinking about more than just your, your direct competitors, but your indirect competitors as well and even people who might think of you as a competitor, even though you don’t think of them and what that helps with all of that there’s also articles on creating a business plan.
Unknown Speaker 0:29
Looking at your marketing and so forth.
Unknown Speaker 0:33
And what I have found and I will admit, I am a
Unknown Speaker 0:39
as I’ve described before, I’m a
Unknown Speaker 0:44
ready shoot, aim. Kind of a guy. I had
Unknown Speaker 0:49
to think about that person. Ready, shoot,
Unknown Speaker 0:51
aim. Got it.
Unknown Speaker 0:55
Well, I’m there you know, one of the one of the things too, is You need to do your homework, you need to do your analysis. But sometimes people will get so in the weeds on analyzing that they then don’t take action. And so one of my statements that I have, which I’ve said in my interview with Larry, his magic and miracles happen when you have faith Believe in yourself, and you take action. That’s awesome because if you do not take action, nothing will happen. It’s just like, you know, I’m learning YouTube I learned something every single day. And so right now I’m taking the creating my my content stack through doing interviews like this. So there’s video, which becomes podcast I’m out Bureau is now on 13 different apps, plus, I transcribe that into using AI into text well could watch all the videos on how to optimize your YouTube channel, the YouTube channel, I could sit there and I could spend four hours a day watching you other YouTube videos on how to create an optimized YouTube videos, right? But if I don’t actually put it into practice and actually start doing it, nothing will happen. Right? And so and I’m also being an entrepreneur right now of one being a company of one, self funded bootstrap and so forth. Um, you know, I myself can get into, oh my gosh, I have the LinkedIn group, I have the website, I’m doing free content, I’m trying to do videos and so forth. But at the end of the day, every single day, I do something that moves out the road forward, something, whatever that is. And I think that’s a real lesson. It’s like if you do have your idea, you can be an idea guy. You can be an idea person, let’s say sorry, non gender binaries and females out there. You can you can be the idea person, and that’s fantastic. But unless you have unless you’re committed to that idea, and you begin researching the idea to your point to see is this viable is what problem does this solve? Why is this important to you? Why would this be important to someone else? Right? Because I could, I could have the the, I could have the next idea for a fantastic you know, coffee mug. But unless I unless I start putting it into practice unless I start actually working on it. All it is, is a bunch of ideas. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 3:46
And platforms like this, like what you’re working on, create opportunity for us to take action, right. So like you’re creating a path for us to take some action and get the word out there about products and services that we’re working on. So that’s why that’s the value that you’re putting into the marketplace, right? Which is wicked valuable. And also, I would just also say is that don’t underestimate the, the value of this asset or these assets that you’re accumulating and sharing with other people. Right? Think of it you know, I somehow I doubt this will ever be the number one video on YouTube that you know, that crushes the server. However, the long tail kind of effects of something like this, even if it helps like four people, right, it was worth the hour we spent together in my opinion, and that would do it 100 times over again.
Unknown Speaker 4:29
Absolutely. For me, it’s it’s valuable to have visibility of entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders who happen to be LGBTQ so that other LGBTQ persons out there can see and hear from them and know that they can do it to
Unknown Speaker 4:53
100%
Unknown Speaker 4:54
and so on out bureau comm there is a group so if you create your profile file you can actually join groups similar to joining groups on Facebook or LinkedIn. There is an out startup group that’s ran by fantastic lesbian entrepreneur. Everyone is also able to create a group for themselves, their, their industry, their geographic focus and so forth. groups on out bureau can be public, meaning that they are open and searchable indexable by search engines, they can be private where you have to be a group member in order to see the content and they can also be secret so for example, you know if you if you want to work with your clients and communicate with your clients or create just a group, where you know, you and your people involved in your business and city screen would like to have a collaboration space but wanting to not use Other systems, that’s a that’s a capability, I would always like to also remind people that you are able to indicate whether you are open to being a mentor of other individuals on the site on your professional profile and indicate the idea of the areas in which you are open to being a mentor. And then you can also indicate whether you would like to be a mentee, you would like a mentor, and the areas and then using the search filters. Under the members search, you’re able to locate each other. But you’re also able to see when you’re searching for other people, whether that’s industry location, and so forth, you’re able to connect and friend each other just like similar to Facebook and LinkedIn. And once you do that you’re able to direct message. So it’s a platform in where you can create meaningful relationships. seek out opportunities and for example, you’ll be able to connect with Christopher on the site and learn More about the business and directly message him to find out how you might be able to use city screen solutions in your business. So so being an entrepreneur is also lots of work right? We spend lots of lots of hours during the day and sleepless nights. So what are some of the ways Christopher that that you kind of de stress, reconnect and so forth? What are perhaps maybe some of your hobbies or things that you like to do? I just I
Unknown Speaker 7:35
for the past year, I’ve been kind of by Coastal I’ve been bouncing back and forth between Los Angeles and my domiciled home based in South Florida and Broward County. But I’m in upstate New York right now in a farm kind of environment. I took a gardening this year Oh my God, I feel like so like as soon as I’m done work, which is never I’m like taking time out to go like water my plants and stuff like that. Dennis, I love it. I can’t tell you how much my partner is actually like like looking out in the eye. First of all, we’re not used to having this much space and this much green around us and my partner, you know, look out and be like, Oh my God, he’s out there watering the plants again, What’s his problem? I love it. So yeah, I think having hobbies and other things that kind of distract you, you know, as long as they’re controlled, right? And when you come back, you come back kind of refreshed with the open mind and able to you know, address the same problem from a different perspective. I think just honestly, my advice around this would be take such good care of yourself. No one else is going to do it for you. You know, the food you put in your body the rest you get. I know there’s all this talk about staying up all night, but that’s not me. I mean, I I am a seven hour sleep guy, and I get it. I get it. And if you have to wait for my deliverable, I’ll let you know responsibly but I get that sleep I get that exercise. I take really good care of my body. And especially you know, as I’m getting older,
Unknown Speaker 8:53
you know that that matters more and more.
Unknown Speaker 8:55
Yeah, absolutely. Well, definitely. So far, you know, the the outdoor garden is a big theme. So you know that it’s a connection of nature. It’s it’s something I can do. I enjoy it. I’ve always enjoyed it. You’re in my past. With my exes I would we have purchased homes. I always purposely purchased kind of the ugliest house in the best neighborhoods with the worst yards. And as my realtors would always be like, what you know, why are you doing this? It’s like, yeah, it’s because well, I probably won’t like if some if I bought a house with already the garden. The likelihood of me liking it all is slim. And so why, Yeah, why? Why would I be paying top dollar for something I don’t like or why would I be paying top dollar for a kitchen remodel? That isn’t my style, right? I’d rather buy a house. That, that practically just has good bones and needs everything done that so that’s one of my hobbies when I can when I’ve done it in the past, and I personally like to hike and walk a lot. So I average about three to four miles a day. Now that’s good stuff. Yeah, it’s great, great to connect. And you know, I can’t stress for folks, how, how often I actually solve problems while I’m on my Xbox. So sometimes I listen to meditative music. Sometimes I’m listening to you know, my beats my dance music, my EDM. Sometimes I’m listening to podcasts, about entrepreneurial ism, and so forth. And, but even if I’m listening to music, I’m often still thinking about my problem is I, as I have had to tell people, it might look like I’m not doing anything but I’m out. Working. Even if I’m just sitting in the city, I’ve had to tell, you know, neighbors, do you see me just sitting in the backyard, you can say hello. But unless I initiate a conversation, I’m probably working, even though it might not look like it.
Unknown Speaker 11:19
I can relate to that. I think that that whole, you know, work to your knuckles bleed Silicon Valley startups, I think it’s gonna die hard death over time and people are going to realize that you are, you know, your your can be a very well optimized machine yourself as a human right. If you treat the machine properly and maintain it, treat it properly, exercise it, give it rest and let it reboot. I think we’re going to find that that’s a lot more tied to success and going at burning the candle from both ends for decades.
Unknown Speaker 11:52
Absolutely. What I like to do in as folks will see in the writings that I do, as I define it, I say success as you define it because so often people get hung up in in you know the the trying to catch up with the Joneses trying to have is you know thinking that success is having the you know $4 million house that you see on the canal with the big million dollar boat behind it and so forth. But you know yeah and so it’s a you know, whatever, whatever your happiness is, and you know, you have to find that for yourself. So, so one plug on being on being healthy. If you have not seen the episode or heard the episode we unfortunately didn’t do the video at the time. There is the the episode four. Oh geez. My name My brain is blinking. The holistic eating health coach, Episode Three. Name is escaping me. I’m so sorry. But it’s Jason anywho go out do a link on it.
Unknown Speaker 13:15
Dr. Jason is I watched that. Yeah, I watched that. That was excellent.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
Oh, geez, I’m gonna have to Okay. Now I need to go back so that I have this here. I will do a link on the site. That is no Timothy Timothy sugar. Okay. So he’s a, a holistic health coach for eating healthy. So I’m going to be having additional books here as well as focusing on your life. But do take a listen to that as well. You have the opportunity. So Christopher, thank you so much for giving us a little bit of insight into yourself. Your journey everyone has a very, interesting journey, I think because it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a thing of taking the choices and the opportunities presented to you and what you do with it. So, in some of your insights on the entrepreneurism journey, it’s so much to talk about there, that’s going to be the mainstay of our conversations moving forward. So, I would love to at any point, when you are ready, if you would love to come back and give us some examples, and maybe a demo of Sydney screen TV in action would love to see that maybe with some case studies of how some potential customers or how potential organizations could use that product as it is evolving. We would love to have you there perhaps we’ll be able to connect you up with some folks who are in the group. So Thank you so much for your time your days. Absolutely. Christopher Thank you so much. And again for everyone viewing and watching this is Dennis Falco without bureau comm that is OutBuro.com. If you would like to see past and future video interviews, please subscribe on YouTube, as well as check out out euro comm podcast page where you’re able to see all of the current 13 and awaiting more places where you are able to listen to this episodes on the go. Perhaps you’re at the gym, in the car, or so forth. Thank you so much for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you in the future. Join us now on out bureau.com where you belong and your voice matters. Bye-bye
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