Innovating While Scaling and IoT Company

Carlos Ponce (00:06):

Good morning everyone. Welcome to another episode of Tech Leaders Unplugged. Today we are getting, once again, unplugged, this time with Brandon Afari, the co-founder and CEO of FUZE technology. Brandon, welcome to the show,

Brandon Afari (00:26):

Thank you for having me.

Carlos Ponce (00:28):

And of course, Wade Ericsson my fellow teammate and co-host and co-hosting today. Welcome Wade again, as ever.

Wade Erickson (00:37):

Hello everyone. Thank you.

Carlos Ponce (00:39):

Let's get it started. All right, so let's start with you, Brandon. Tell us a little about us and the audience, a little bit about you and your background, and anything you want to say about yourself. And then of course, we're going to ask you about the company, but tell us a little bit about you first, let's start there, please. And again, welcome to the show.

Brandon Afari (00:59):

Thank you for having me, guys. Quick backstory. As you mentioned, co-founder and CEO of FUZE technology before this venture. I actually am a CPA by trade. Not many people know that. But undergrad graduate school at USCI is a diehard Trojan, kind of like you Wade. Went on, and I did the corporate thing for a little bit. I was at Deloitte and left Deloitte. I entered this world of entrepreneurship over the last five, or six years. I've been an entrepreneur through and through, so worked on a few ventures before co-founding what is now FUZE and, charge FUZE, but it's been, been quite an exciting journey getting to where we are today.

Carlos Ponce (01:44):

There you are. Thank you so much, Brandon. And okay, now tell us a little bit about the company itself, FUZE technology. What do you guys do? What's your value proposition?

Brandon Afari (01:56):

Yeah, so FUZE technology, we're, we're in the heart of IoT, the internet of things. This is all basically in a world of hardware, and software integrations. I won't, you know, bore you guys with the details of it. But really where we are is we're building a platform for hardware products. The product that, you know, is out and open today that we're talking about right now is Charge FUZE. This essentially is similar, similar to the city bikes and bird scooter models, where instead of locating scooters, you're actually locating charging stations where guests and users can rent a portable charger that has all three charging functionalities built into it to charge any device. And you as a user can actually drop this power bank at any station in our network. So, if you're at a stadium venue in Los Angeles or in New York, you could rent a charger, watch the sporting event, watch the concert, leave the concert, take this with you, and drop it off at the local bar. That's right around the corner. So, we've really created this network and the company of FUZE technology is all about hardware products that offer convenient solutions for people.

Carlos Ponce (03:04):

Awesome, thank you so much, Brandon. Alright, now let's move on to the topic itself. As chosen by you, we're going to be talking about innovating wild scaling an IoT company. We're going to be discussing intricacies in prioritizing innovations while executing current strategies. All right, so this is an interesting topic. So let's start with that. Why did you choose this particular topic and why did you feel it was relevant for today's day and age, please? Thank you.

Brandon Afari (03:37):

Yeah, so I think, you know, the last like 10 years, especially in the world of like venture, we've seen and heard of so many hyper-growth startups. And I think now we're, we're kind of pivoting into a time where you're going to see, you know, some startups make it and some startups simply don't. And really the reason is that you know, it's all predicated on how you scale. And at the same time how you prioritize. And I think, you know, one of the most exciting things, what we've done today is, is, you know, we we're dabbling in a lot of different products. We're dabbling in a lot of industries, and the balancing act that we, we face as a company too is, you know, how do we continuously scale with the strategies that we set forth for the team while behind the scenes innovate for two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now. So I think that is you know, one of the challenges many companies face, I think it's one of the things that we you know, focus on as a company. It's how do we scale correctly at the same time? How do we provide innovative solutions that don't hinder our growth? You have to be focused, you have to prioritize correctly. And I think that's what, you know, hypergrowth is all about.

Wade Erickson (04:48):

Oh, you're on mute, I think Carlos.

Carlos Ponce (04:51):

Sorry. Yeah. Goes with the territory, you know, in today's day and age. Alright, so thank you again Brandon, and well Wade I think you had some questions you want to take over.

Wade Erickson (05:04):

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, to stay on the topic here you know, the IoT space has been you know like you said, 10 years or so as a moniker and really looking at tracking you know, small even the size of your pinky, you know, little receiver transmitters and those kinds of things all the way up to, like you said, bikes and, and scooters and those kinds of things that then allowed you to look at mobile chargers, which obviously in, in big cities when people are moving around and they get low on their phone, that that can obviously be very high anxiety. So, I, you know, I can see where, unlike the scooter craze you know, that I think was a, a little bit of flash there. And in a trial you know, you obviously have a need that has been there a long time. So, tell me a little bit about some of the things in the IOT space that affect you and whether it changes in the mobile applications to the tracking to the GPS, to, you know, all the kinds of things that involve, involve in tracking a small charger where it's at, you know, how to get it returned, those kinds of things.

Brandon Afari (06:31):

Yeah. And, just to step into, Wade, I guarantee you that after this you're going to be thinking about us 24/7. Every person that comes across our company you know, they always have this aha moment. And the next thing, you know, everywhere they go afterward, they, they think, you know, oh my God, I wish I had a charger right now. Oh my God, I wish I had a charge right now. So, mark my words, you're going to be emailing me and texting after this interview. But yeah, no, to answer your question. So, IoT is just a very intricate space in and of itself. I'd say, you know, how our system works and, just to dive a little bit deeper, right? You could interface with our hardware in different ways, but really at the premise of everything is, you know, you could actually download our app, you could locate a station anywhere in your city, right? We have all different station types for, again, restaurants, casinos, hospitals, for stadium venues, all different sizes you could pick up and drop off from any station type as well. And that's how the ecosystem works. All our stations run in a standalone fashion, right? So, it's, it has its own 4G built-in connection WIFI enabled as well. But really, the premise of IoT, is connectivity, right? It's, it's how you create devices in a network, in an ecosystem where you're able to get data from these stations via an actual connection, right? That's what, it's what, what keeps the whole ecosystem afloat. So it's a very, very, very intricate industry especially because it's, it's evolved so much over the last you know, 5 to 10 years. You know, and I think where we pride ourselves is, is we're building a platform for success more than anything. So everything we have is, is built in-house. We've built out custom solutions for our own connections with our stations and our systems. And the goal is you always have to make sure that your ecosystem is, you know, up and running 99.9% of the time. So you have to have full control. You have to make sure you're optimizing things constantly so that you can give that simple experience of someone just coming to a station, scanning a QR code, and renting this charger, right? So you guys see it as a charger pops out. We see it as, you know, a bunch of things happening and, you know, behind the scenes to allow you to have that single experience,

Wade Erickson (08:48):

You know and you say platform. So, you know, I I, there's many things that we might want to track in life, right? And make a business around. So are you looking to take this platform that right now you have a particular service around mobile chargers, do you see extending this platform into other rentable trackable things that you would then either build as a business yourself, or, and, and I'm not going to obviously ask you to share those because that would leak a little bit of some you know, IP there, but I'm intrigued about the platform. Because You really have two things going on here. As you said, people focus on mobile chargers. I look at the platform, that's the gold right there. Because You're tracking things, you're making transactions, you're charging for things, you're having deposits for those. And if they don't return 'em, you know, there's obviously going to be a collection of that because that's a, you know, at least a couple, probably a hundred dollars device at least, you know. And so tell me a little bit about thinking about those strategies as being an entrepreneur of really two things here. You got the mobile service and the events and all the different venues that you have to negotiate those licenses and agreements with, but then you really have a platform that you could expand that could have been used for the scooters, it could have been used for the bikes, you know, had you wanted to move in that direction. So tell me a little bit about that thinking you got going on.

Brandon Afari (10:17):

Yeah, so I, I'd say short term, medium term this is obviously the focus reason why is just because of need. I think you referenced it before too. Even if you can pick compares to like the scooter companies out there, I think there's a difference between like, you know, an amenity and an actual need. And phone charging is an actual necessity. Again, whether you're at a festival, an event, you name it, it really is a necessity. And, you know, the way we're looking at things right now is, and this goes back into the scaling piece and prioritization piece. We do have, you know, different product lines that we're looking into, you know, down the road, 2024, 2025. But I think, you know, for us right now, we're really hyper-focused on getting this product out there. We do have a few things that we're going to be launching next quarter and again in 2024. But for now, it's, it's, you know, we have a product that relates to everybody, right? As a consumer, it relates to every venue. So again, a restaurant, a casino, a bar you know, I just to touch up on some of our, even our partners, right? We, you know, we're backed by Live Nation. We have national partnerships with, live with Live Nation ASM Global Westfield Simon. So we're working with some of the biggest companies out there. And the reason is, is that, again there is a need and they do want this service inside their venues. So right now it's about, you know, us filling that gap. We have, you know, quite a ways to go. We were, you know, in about, give or take, 40 states today. But we really are focusing on saturating the main market still. So, a lot of growth. We're really trying to push charge views, making sure that we provide the best, best, best experience for consumers and the best experience for venue partners. And then and from there, I mean, the goal is, as you mentioned, right? It is a platform that we're focusing on. We're trying to focus on scale what are the future innovations and iterations of this product or even of new products that we plan to launch. And if you focus on building a great platform there are endless possibilities. So that's how we're looking at it. And we're always focusing just to, you know, just to reiterate, it's like, where is that the highest point of need? So, you know, again, charging is, is probably the biggest need today, especially with this TikTok generation you know, Gen Z coming in. But yeah, two years from now, three years from now, it could, could vary. And we're, we're planning on again, new exciting products down the road.

Wade Erickson (12:45):

Great. One other question. I wanted to pivot just a little bit away from the company and technology and talk a little bit about you and some of this entrepreneurial you know, endeavors that you've kind of tackled at a quite young age. You went to USC - go Trojans! - and double mass, I mean, double Bachelor's, masters jumped into Deloitte. I imagine that tax masters are what drew you to Deloitte and their tax services there. And then you jumped into the packaging company, national Packaging products, and then we're the CEO at a young age which is, you know, an achievement in and of itself. Most people never get to have that level their whole career. And then you jumped out and started your own company. Tell me a little bit about your experiences in Deloitte, maybe your upbringing that gave you the courage to take on a CEO position of a company, as well as leave that, and then go and do something on your own. That's, that's all very, very heavy confidence for, for a young person. And maybe there a folks watching that would love to understand how you got to that point.

Brandon Afari (14:00):

Yeah, appreciate it. I'd say you know, just give the backstory from when I was, I guess, 18 years old, right? I, I've always been a very ambitious, ambitious kid. I, I've worked on, you know, numerous ventures in the past, and I think it, it's, it's funny because you know, when you're in school, right? Especially, and USC is a great school, right? Phenomenal school. I went there for, you know, my undergrad in business, and I also got, my bachelor's in accounting as well. But it's, it's funny when, when you start out, right? It's, you know, you're focused on the business model and all these like, like things that yes, like, it, it does matter, right? But you know, a lot of times most people get stuck in this like, modeling world, and they, they don't end up executing. So, I'd say that, you know, even leading up to FUZE I've executed on a bunch of things. I've failed at quite a few things. And it's funny because now, like at the stage where I'm at now, it's like all these failures and all these ventures that I kind of you know, push forward down push forward on made this process that much easier. So, I do want to reiterate that like, it is very important at, a young age to continuously try, try, try. And it is not just okay to fail, it is actually very important to fail because you're never going to, you know, get your first venture, right? It, it just, it's not, it's not possible, right? And it's okay, right? That's, that's how it's supposed to be. But I'd say that, you know, leading up to that, you know, even why I, I studied accounting, even why I worked at Deloitte, it was actually never to be an accountant in any way. It was I actually wanted to learn something that was applicable to all businesses. And I will say that like, probably the most important thing that, I did was, was I got my dual degrees, right? So I studied accounting on top of business, and I got my master's in business taxation. And those two things, like to this day, right? Like I, whether I'm analyzing other companies or whether I'm looking at my own company you know, when it comes to financial statements, when it comes to the numbers, I know my company inside and out. So when it, you know, comes to dealing with investors, when it comes to dealing with, you know internal parties, it's very important to have that foundation. And I do think it was probably the best decision I made at a young age, right? Every entrepreneur is different. People say, you know, you don't need to go to school, start your own business, that's fine too. For me, I think just this particular degree with what I wanted to do and the way my mind works was very, very helpful. So, you know, ironically, I'll say one more thing. The reason why I actually got, I got my master's is because you know, I actually at, a very young age got my offer at Deloitte. So, when I was like 19, I got, when I was a sophomore, junior in, in college, I did all these likes, leadership programs. I actually got my offer very early on. I actually did the master's program because I didn't want to go straight into Deloitte out of undergrad. And I actually got a scholarship for it, a partial scholarship for it. So it was like a, okay, you know what, like, let's go into it. Like I'm not ready, to go down the corporate path. And during that time too, there were some small ventures that I was working on. You know, that didn't come to fruition, but it was, it just gave me time, right? And that's why I did it because I knew I could manage school and I could manage these, these other startup ideas. And then, you know, from a personal standpoint beyond that, because I ended up leaving Deloitte, yes, I did enter the world of manufacturing. And I'd say like one of the things that was so important, I'd honestly say there's actually two things. Number one circle of friends, okay? You know, you go to college, there's different experiences that you get out of it. You know, some people go for the enjoyment, and that's great. You definitely need to enjoy those, those four years. And some people go for the enjoyment, but they also focus on their future too, right? And you have to understand like, what do you want to get out of this? And, you know, if you want to go down to invest in banking, that's great. If you want to go down to consulting, that's great. Everything's great. It's all about preference. There's no right answer. But I'd say that the single most important thing for me personally with this endeavor, and the last like six, seven years of going down this, this world of the route of entrepreneurship was surrounding yourself with the right people. And I know that there are numerous books that talk about this, but my entire circle of friends, they're, they're self-made entrepreneurs. It‘s really crazy to sit to say, but I have people that when they were 25 years old, from zero, from zero, right? Exited there, their companies and, and, you know, at a young age, at 25 and I was with them, and I was living with them, right at 22, 23 when we were talking about their venture. I was talking about my venture. And what you have to understand is that it's, it's so important to surround yourself because when you surround yourself with those people, those types of people, every single day you're talking about your ideas. And every single day you're talking about your issues. So, every day when you come home and you're talking about this problem with this company, or I have to make this decision, and these decisions, again, they don't relate to one another, but in some ways, they do, right? Because some people, again, there are always similarities from a business standpoint with what an entrepreneur goes through. So, you know, I, I will say that the, the most important thing is surrounding yourself with the right people. You, you have to, and right, people can mean d different things. Again, it's not always about starting a business. It could be, you know, if you're an artist, right? If you're a, you know, again, if you want to be an accountant, right? So be it, but surround yourself with people that, you know, align with this vision that you have for yourself. Because it's compounding. It takes time to get to the point where your mind is ready to accomplish what it's meant to accomplish. So I'll say that's the one most important thing, the next most important thing. You know, I, I, I'd say for me personally, I was lucky enough to have you know, a, a father that you know, let me kind of pave my, my own path and, and, and really, you know, supported it. And, and he was you know, his brain works like an engineer, so he really taught me how to be methodical in my thinking. And I think that was very important because, you know, the way I run our company today, it's, it's a very methodical manner. So, you know, the lessons that he's taught me to this day have impacted the way I operate my business. Because, you know, I'm not just making decision decisions in a rushed manner. I'm really assessing things, assessing ROI and you know, there's this balancing point too, right? It's, you know, again, at my core, I am an entrepreneur, so there's this balance of intuition, but also analyzing the decisions in front of you because it is extremely important for, you know, any entrepreneur, to not just go in blindly. There's data in front of you and you see that there's a world, and sometimes people just say, oh, this sounds right, and they just make that decision. But if you're not doing your part and, you know, taking on the due diligence to ensure that you're actually making the right decision in my opinion, that's, that's poor entrepreneurship. So you have to really, you know, focus on intuition and also analyzing the decisions to the best of your ability.

Carlos Ponce (20:55):

Great. Thank you so much. Again, Brandon, I was listening to you and I couldn't help, but when you mentioned you have to surround yourself with the right people I couldn't help, this is a little parenthesis. I once watched an interview with the author Wayne Dyer, and his daughter reached out to him for help, and he gave her all this advice, right? On how, and, and she said, you know, I dad, I'm going through this and this and that. And he said, well, you have to surround yourself with the right people, you know, just told her the same thing. And she said that's why I'm reaching out to you, her father, her own father. So it was like, so I hear you when you say that. So thank you for sharing that part with us. Brandon, there are a couple of things well before we're about to wrap up. We're, unfortunately, we're coming up on time. And I want to just briefly touch on the tech part, if I may, on the tech component of the conversation. So, we are talking about intricacies in prioritizing innovations while executing current strategies. Okay. So, the first thing that I, that I want that I wanted to ask you is what would you say that one of the greatest let's, let's put it this way, greatest hurdles in, in prior trying to prioritize it, prioritize innovations while executing on current strategies would be, you know, because you're talking about intricacies, so what are these intricacies you're talking about?

Brandon Afari (22:26):

Yeah, you know, I'll tell you, you know, we're at the stage now where again, we're, we're no longer a, a startup, right? We're at this hypergrowth stage. And you know, I'd say a lot of them, the intricacies, and difficulties now, it’s really, you know, listening to our customers. And our customers aren't just the people using this, it's also, the venues that have our products. So it's taking the information from our customers and understanding, you know, because they don't have the answers, we're supposed to have the answers to what's better, what's newer, where we need to go. So, you know, the ability for us to, you know, and the intricacies really have to do with getting information from these, these venue partners, these consumers that are using the product interfacing, and just customers as a whole. And taking that back to our product team and understanding like, what do we want to iterate on while simultaneously pushing out the new, because at some point too, you don't want to cannibalize what you're also pushing out at the same time. And you also don't want to slow down the growth by saying, hey, no, we got to stop, roll this new product out, and then start rolling with this new solution. So the balancing act really comes in with, you know, getting as much information as you can, plugging it into your, you know, product roadmap, and then understanding that you still have to push current strategies out and focus on now, okay, when is the timely manner to launch this new innovation or this new solution, or this new product. So, this is why it's so intricate because it all goes hand in hand. You can't just develop products without understanding the consumers. You can't just, you know, launch a product with understanding, not understanding where your current strategies are. So this ecosystem, like internally as a company is, is just this wheel that keeps on going, and you have to keep on you know, working on all fronts to make sure that you're, you're doing the right thing all at all times.

Carlos Ponce (24:14):

Great. Awesome. Thank you so much again Brandon. And before we go, I have a quick announcement to make. So, stay with us as we go on the air, Brandon we're on Friday, and we're going to be talking with Peter Mullins. He's the Chief Marketing Officer at Set Sale, that's a company platform called Set Sales. It's a tech company software as a service company. The topic is going to be data, data anchors, and charting the course to Revenue Excellence with Sales Data Mastery. That's what we have for this coming Friday, the 22nd at 9:30 AM Pacific as ever, right here on Tech Leaders Unplugged. And with this being said, the only thing left for me to do Brandon, is thank you big time for having been with us on the show, having shared your journey, and basically, you know, looking forward to being kept abreast of your upcoming endeavors. Of course. And that's again, thank you big time. And again, thank you Wade as ever. Okay. Alright.

Brandon Afari (25:22):

Thank you guys for having me. All right. Appreciate it guys.

Carlos Ponce (25:25):

Absolutely. See you next time and stay tuned for more Tech Leaders Unplugged. Thank you.