Room 76 - Live From No Vacancy - Frank Pitsikalis

0:16 Speaker 1 you know how I feel. Breeze drifting on by. You know how I feel. It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's 0:52 Speaker 2 Well, here we go. Grant, it's Day 2, No vacancy 2026. How was your sleep and what did you think of this morning? 1:00 Speaker 3 I actually slept terribly, which is a shame. Yeah, I know, I know. And I thought I'd sleep like a baby because these these days are a lot of fun. But you talk literally from the minute the doors open till they shut and then you go home and you drain. 1:20 But yeah, so I didn't sleep well. However, we had a great session this morning, 10:00 panel with Kamal and Milan and an interesting combination of talents and perspective. So that was a lot of fun and here we are back at it. 1:36 Speaker 2 Here we are back at it, Frank, bringing you into the conversation. Frank from Agile says thank you for taking the time to be on a room with a view. Yeah, we had a panel this morning, Frank, where we talked about the power of happiness, joy, and the power of awe. So I'm not sure how that sits with you, but we talked about what to do if you're feeling like you're sliding into a world of being unhappy and how do you bring yourself out of it. 2:00 So let's start there with you. What do you do to keep yourself happy, Frank? 2:06 Speaker 4 I you know, one of these rituals I would do, I was a founder of a software company here in hospitality, you know, 2 decades ago, Resort Suite. And one thing I would do, I had about a 15 minute drive from my house in Toronto to my office and I would just, there was a ritual I would do and just think about everything I was grateful for right. 2:31 And just that put me in such a positive state of mind and, and I'm always been naturally happy like I've just that's just my, I'm optimistic. I'm thinking you have to be as an entrepreneur, but but that would just set me a frame of mind. No matter what came at me that day, I was just in a really positive frame of mind and and just happy with my life. 2:52 Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a practice of gratitude, isn't it? Like gratitude and mindfulness. I'm grateful for these things. We've been trying to do that ourselves. Like we're we're on the startup journey where we're founders in a business. It's not all rainbows and butterflies. People see the end product, but it's a grind to get there. 3:11 And some people we've been working with have been telling us about mindfulness and practicing gratitude things. We're grateful for things we should be noticing. Do you find yourself talking about the same things every day? I'm grateful for my health, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful for people that love me, I'm grateful for our company. 3:28 But do you ever find yourself talking about anything different when you're doing that mindfulness practice? 3:33 Speaker 4 Yeah. I would always think of things that that had happened positively, like, you know, that new customer or, or someone we're talking to a new partner, whatever it was, but just that that brought another, you know, potential positive to the business and, and to, to me, to my life. 3:51 It doesn't have to be related to business, to somebody I may have met that I just thought, wow, they, they bring a different perspective and, and I can really learn from that. So, yeah, no, I'd always try to to bring in things that are happening right now and that that I'm really grateful for. 4:07 And, and always looking at again, that positive side of things. Things happen sometimes that you know are are maybe not so positive, but but being able to actually face those and, and looking at those as an opportunity to turn those around. 4:23 Because sometimes when you have those challenges, but you get through them, the relationship with whoever that is a customer partner is, is actually that much stronger because you were able to resolve it together. 4:36 Speaker 3 So founding, founding a tech company 2020 plus years ago, that's certainly a very different time than where we are now. What was the experience like and what sort of tech company was it that you were founding back then? 4:51 Speaker 4 So so I founded a company called Resort Suite. So we were Apms company, but but had solutions and kind of an all in one solution for a hotel resort and, and, and we built spa software and, and golf and membership and really all aspects of the guest experience. 5:11 And, and so, and then we got acquired by Agilysys, who I work for now as a senior vice president of product strategy and, and all of the same things, everything that we built into that platform are all the tenants of, of what I believe, you know, is, is unique to what Julis is offering now. 5:30 So that's why I've stayed. I actually, I only had a one year contract when they acquired the company, but it's been five years now and, and I feel like we're just getting started, you know, but, but even with my company, it felt like to your point about the grind about it felt like we were a, a 20 year overnight success. 5:52 Yeah, you know. 5:53 Speaker 2 That's what that's what it, that's what it exactly what it feels like. People say, wow, you've been so successful, so, so fast, like like it was easy. It's it's not easy. So go back to the start of resort suite. How did that come about? Like what, how did you finish school? What did you do? 6:08 And how did you actually come up with the idea to start a, a piece of hospitality software and and conceive resort suite? Did it start in a, in a garage like Apple? Like how did it? How did it all happen? 6:19 Speaker 4 So, so I, I actually again studied computer science. I, I was hired by Ernstein Young and I did management consulting and IT and then I joined a startup and was working in Silicon Valley and, and the, the technology was a development tool kind of technology to build complex systems and, and so I was doing. 6:42 Speaker 2 In any industry specific. 6:44 Speaker 4 No in any. 6:45 Speaker 2 Industry. 6:46 Speaker 4 And then my fiance at the time, her family owned a resort north of Toronto, about 90 minutes north of Toronto. And, and that resort was a ski resort, it was a golf resort. And they were opening a spa and they just had this House of Cards of of systems. 7:03 Speaker 2 We've we've got that. 7:04 Speaker 4 Now, Frankenstein of systems. And so they asked me to just do a study to look at what's out there. And I, I was shocked at, at the fragmentation in the industry of all these different providers that nobody could deliver a unified guest experience. 7:21 And, and with my background in, in, in software, I said, listen, I can put a team together, we can build a product that doesn't exist in the market. And, and then, so you'll have something to run the resort and then I'll have something that I can take to market. 7:36 And that was kind of how we bootstrap the funding of building resort Suite and and and so and we started in 2000 and we pretty much finished development in September 2 thousand 19110. 7:51 Speaker 2 My goodness. 7:51 Speaker 4 So, but you know, we had other, some other customers lined up. So we just made sure that the product was better. So we just focused on, on, on the product itself and, and, and yeah, we we built a great following a lot of customers, you know, that that had, you know, full service resort kind of properties that that wanted that, that unified guest profile. 8:14 Speaker 2 What was the feeling like then when September 11 happened for you? Because you're dealing with a national tragedy, but you're also dealing with something that could have destroyed your life's work at that point. 8:26 Speaker 4 No, absolutely it was. I mean, it was a shocker to all of us, right? I mean, you see on the news things happening in other parts of the world, but we with terrorism and everything else, but we never deals images of seeing planes going into into buildings was was was hard on on the psyche, right And so. 8:47 Speaker 2 It was almost like it was unreal. Yeah, it. 8:49 Speaker 4 Was exactly and so, but at the same time you also just thinking about we've got to continue to push forward, right? We can't we can't let this defeat us. A dark moment like this, we've, we've got to be resilient and get stronger and focused on the things that we can control, right? 9:07 And so our our team, you know, again dug in and, and we were able to to continue to press forward. 9:14 Speaker 2 So if you then go and reflect on your founders journey, yes, you've developed a huge amount of resilience as anyone that starts a company does. Are there any life lessons that you can draw from that journey of being an entrepreneur with an idea? 9:32 And then ultimately, I'm assuming that you did very well on the exit. You're now working for the company that's the the acquirer as well. I mean, that's also complex, I guess, like it's, it's guess it's I guess it's hard to hand over your baby to a big company that's going to do what it wants to do with it because they've paid, paid you for it. 9:50 What are the key learnings that the entrepreneurial learnings that you've had along the way? 9:55 Speaker 4 Yeah. I mean, and I thought, you know, when with, with the Jewelsons that acquired us, I thought it was such a great fit for, for our customers, for obviously for myself, as you said, you know, on, on the exit, I didn't, I didn't have to continue to work. 10:12 I, I, you know, for me, this is just a life passion and, and I and I just love doing it. And, but at the, at the end of the day, it, it also was good for our staff. So I knew our team was well taken care of and, and had, you know, that future for, for our customers that we could, you know, move them to a new cloud platform through Agilysys. 10:35 And, and so it was just a win, win all around. And, and that was, that meant a lot to me because it's not just, you know, that exit at the end of the day, you want to make sure that your team is taken care of that they also did well on, on that. We had, you know, many of our team that were, were also shareholders, you know, in the, in the company. 10:52 So, so it was, it was, it was a good experience. 10:56 Speaker 2 Did you start with Resort Suite? Thinking about the exit or was it ever a question to sell or like could you have just gone you know what thanks very much but we're having too much fun here we're just going to keep going or or is that in in the software world is that not what really I. 11:15 Speaker 4 Mean certainly in the back of your mind you're, you know, at some, at some point, but we had so much on our plan, everything that we were doing. So Ramesh Sreenivasan is our CEO and when Ramesh called me, I'd never, never met Ramesh. So he just called me. 11:31 He says, hi, I'm Ramesh and and he and I was at my son's hockey practice. So he said, Frank, I just wanted to, to know if you ever thought about being acquired. I said, yeah, one day, I don't know if that day is today, but but but one day I, I thought it was probably the way that this will go. 11:51 And then the more I, I talked to Ramesh because I competed against Agilosus and, and just thought it was, you know, older technology. And so when I started talking to Ramesh and understood the vision for everything that, that was being built and, and where everything was going, all cloud native technology and, and all like, like resorts, we'd having a unified and now what we call intelligent guest profile. 12:17 I just thought, OK, this is, this is exactly what I, what I've always wanted to do. And I just didn't have the resources, the development resources that we now have at Agilesys. And, and so for me more and more just like, OK, this is a really good fit because I would have had to probably spend, you know, three or four, $5,000,000. 12:37 We are projecting our product to run in the cloud to run, you know, in, in the ways that we would need it to. And and this had already been started with Agilesys. 12:47 Speaker 2 Very cool. Are you happy? 12:49 Speaker 4 I am. 12:50 Speaker 2 And are you happy with all those decisions that you had to make? 12:54 Speaker 4 I am, I am, I, I think you just learn from, from every one of them. And, and, and now you know, with the jealous, I've got a role that I, I feel like I'm really contributing. So if, if I didn't, if I just kind of collecting a paycheck, then that just wouldn't be, that wouldn't be fun. 13:10 I, I would not be engaged. But I just feel like we, we are doing things so uniquely and, and what the what the we feel the market really needs. 13:19 Speaker 3 And is it obviously Ramesh calls and says, have you thought about being acquired? But you've got very specific thoughts in your head about where you're going at that point in time. 13:34 Then you, I guess, entertain the conversation and you go, OK, there's there looks like there might be some cultural alignment here. This might be good. Was there any other like competing interests at the time or was that just a universal thing where someone who clearly ended up being a great partner called you at the right time? 13:56 Speaker 4 Yeah, you know, obviously Agilysys was more of a strategic buyer. So for me it it, it just made a lot of sense. There were, there were others at the table that were I would say more like a like AP firm or maybe a payments play. 14:14 You know, there was, there was one that really was just focused on, we just want to acquire you and, and convert everybody to our payments and, and, you know, make money that way. But that's, that would not be a great existence. It wouldn't be great for our customers because they're going to get forced into a payment, you know, because now that company is focused on that payment revenue. 14:34 And, and I just didn't feel right about that. Even if, even if the outcome was even more more for me, it just wouldn't have been good knowing that, OK, my customers are now going to get forced, you know, to, to have to, to make decisions that I would not have thrust on them. 14:51 So, so in the end it it just worked out because it was a great strategic fit and and a great culture fit for our team and our customers. 15:00 Speaker 2 You took less than you could have. A lot of people say that, yeah. 15:05 Speaker 4 I but I don't, I don't think, I don't think, I think and, and I have to say it, Josis was very fair. We talked about evaluation. There's a lot of when you start dealing with PE firms, they'll start retreating the deal, they'll start changing things. 15:20 They'll say, oh, we found this in in diligence, Ramesh, you know, we agreed on on valuation and. 15:30 Speaker 2 Shook hands. Shook hands. 15:31 Speaker 4 And never once did they wavered and once did they retrade the deal. So and no matter what the others were. And the others also had a bit of an earn out. This, this for me was it was the only regret I had is he offered me stock. 15:49 He offered me. Do you want to just take it in stock? Do you want to take it in cash? And so I didn't know all the inner workings of Agilysys. So I just thought I'll take the cash. If I'd taken the stock, it'd be worth like 4 times. It's it's quadrupled since, yeah. 16:05 Speaker 2 Oh dear. Well, that's I mean, you made the call. That's one. That's one of. 16:08 Speaker 4 Those decisions. 16:09 Speaker 2 That you talked about. 16:10 Speaker 4 Yeah, OK. I would have changed that. 16:13 Speaker 2 So let's talk about Agilesis. Who are they? What do they do? Well, for those of us that are listening that don't know anything about Agilesis so. 16:20 Speaker 4 Agilesis is an enterprise software player in hospitality and and really has an entire ecosystem of products, but each of them are our best in class. And if you look at our point of sale solutions info, Genesis used by over 1000 Hiltons globally. 16:42 We've got now preferred with IHG, with Marriott, with you know, a lot of, a lot of the brands. If you go to the Vegas Strip, every casino on the Strip is either our PMS customer, our POS customer or both. 16:58 Speaker 3 Right. 16:58 Speaker 4 And so, so, so big, big on the gaming side, some of the largest hotels in the world, you know, 56000 rooms, you know, running our PMS, but also like Marriott in, in the US and Canada stand basically the majority of 8000 hotels are now moving to, to the Agilysys PMS platform. 17:21 And, and they also have standardized on, you know, 500 of their properties already run our spa solutions. You know, they're also preferred supplier for Apos. So, so the, the company is, since I started, I've been on, we've been on this great ride. And not because of me, just because it was just the right time to join. 17:38 That's why, you know, I've, I've been riding this, this wave, but we've had 18 record quarters of record revenue. And so it's, it's been a great and I feel like we're still just getting started. Like it's, it's, it's an ex. You've got a big. 17:51 Speaker 2 Runway still. Yeah, absolutely. 17:53 Speaker 4 It's so. 17:54 Speaker 3 Interesting the scale piece, right? And in Australia, understanding the scale particularly of somewhere like America. So in when I got my first job as a finance person, financial controller, like 20 something years ago and I remember seeing a magazine and it had a guy who was the same job but for like A6000 room thing in Vegas and he was sitting on the bottom of his Maserati, right? 18:22 And I was like, that's what I want, right? That's the job I want, right, But thinking of like a, a property that big, but we don't even have one that's a quarter of that size in this country. I think our biggest is about 900, right just over a. 18:34 Speaker 2 Thousand. Yeah, the. 18:37 Speaker 4 The. 18:38 Speaker 2 Four points down at at on on the other side of Darling Harbour. Yeah, so. 18:44 Speaker 3 It's so interesting in terms of a market. So when you when you come out here and you're talking about the products and the scale, what do you see in in this market? Well, and. 18:56 Speaker 4 And we and I would say it's not just vertical complexity, it's also horizontal complexity. And I would say it's the horizontal complexity that I think we are uniquely suited for, right? Is that when I have a hotel that has a spa, that has great dining experiences, that has, you know, obviously the hotel side, if you have golf, if you have a big meeting part of your business, the more that you have we, I feel like our ecosystem of products, it's kind of less is more, right? 19:29 And they're just all designed to work together and just make things so much easier. You don't have to have interfaces between all the products. I've got one guest profile, one itinerary, one booking engine that can book everything. And so even A50 room property, but that happens to have a spa and a great restaurant. 19:47 And like we're we're working with a group here that we're now rolling out across 20 of their their properties. And you know, it's it it they're the many of them are that size. They're they're in the Blue Mountains and, you know, have, you know, quite a few of the the properties there all together. 20:05 Then you can, you know, book a room here and have dinner over here and use the spot another property and be able to to coordinate all of that. That's. 20:13 Speaker 2 Cool. Yeah, Jerry Schwartz is just here. Jerry is the largest independent owner of hotels in Australia. He owns the Fairmont Resort at Leura. This has been a bugbear of his for a long time. You should meet him. He he's got a spa, golf course, ice skating. 20:28 Speaker 3 Rink ice skating rink movie. 20:29 Speaker 2 Cinema all in this resort and it's all it's all very hard to book. SO1 system over the top makes a big difference. In fact, his Mercure hotel, like if you talk about the Vegas Strip, Vegas Strip probably is EU s s most prominent hotel precinct. 20:46 Speaker 4 I, I, I would say yeah, for, for that type of experience for sure. The the larger hotels actually we don't. 20:52 Speaker 2 Have a precinct like that. So Jerry owns a 500 room hotel in Sydney, but we've got a few of those scattered around. But nothing like A6000 room like the mansion. Yeah, unbelievable. And as a hotel junkie, you must just go into those places and go. I mean, the scale of this is just insane. 21:09 They're like cities. They are and. 21:11 Speaker 4 And, and, and I've been behind the scenes right where you know, you know where all the guests the casino is and all the but you go behind the scenes and it is a whole other city like the. 21:22 Speaker 2 Kitchen what? What is it? What is the kitchens? 21:25 Speaker 4 The staff where the staff eat, they're full restaurants, they're full scale operations that are serving just as the employees can you think. 21:34 Speaker 3 About like executive housekeeper, you'd have like 6. Yeah, You know what I mean? Like there'd be a heap of these. It's unbelievable. Yeah, like. 21:41 Speaker 2 Resorts, Resorts World in Vegas, number of hotels on the same precinct, but operated on the same platform. Is that, is that the way that it works? Is that, do you know that product, that property? It's absolutely. 21:53 Speaker 4 Resorts World, yeah. And then they just launched, they just basically switched over to our, our POS and they, they have a where you can actually go to a kiosk and, and order from multiple vendors and have it all kind of brought to you. It's they have. 22:08 Speaker 3 A very unique. 22:09 Speaker 4 Concept but but yeah so we're we're we're now they've now put in our info Genesis POS in the resorts world. So what's your? 22:17 Speaker 2 Take of Australia, then the hospitality industry in Australia well versed with the states. For us, the States is the most mature hotel market in in in the world. We're getting there, but we're still got a lot of work to do. Tell us what your opinion of the Australian hospitality industry? 22:35 No. 22:35 Speaker 4 I think, I think these remarkable experiences, you know, across Australia that Australia has to offer is, is, is amazing. And, and all the hoteliers that we've met with, you know, one of our, our clients, you know, Hamilton Island that we're working with and, and others that a large one that just switched over is switching over to, to our, to our platform. 22:59 And, and they've called the, the project Oasis. And I won't say what the O stands for, but they're moving this product to Agilysys system. And and so they that's how they named their OK. 23:10 Speaker 2 That's cool, that's cool, but. 23:12 Speaker 4 It's. That's the project. 23:14 Speaker 2 Name the project name. 23:15 Speaker 4 Oasis Project Oasis. So, yeah, so the hoteliers are, are, are, you know, very nimble and innovative and, you know, and open to a lot of a lot of ideas and, and, and, and sometimes I'll I'll say, although the American market is, you know, mature and in a lot of senses. 23:36 I've also learned a lot from working with hotels in, in, in New Zealand or in, in the, in Australia or in the UK, like with resorts, We, we were doing a number of properties there that the consumer was much more open to using, say mobile technology and wanting to do things serve themselves. 23:58 Whereas in the US it was, you know, just, I just want to pick up the phone, right. So it's as much the travel consumer which which is different and much more open to technology and things that you can offer. 24:12 Speaker 2 Is that right? The the travel consumer in this part of the world is more open to change. I feel that way, yeah. 24:18 Speaker 4 Absolutely and. 24:19 Speaker 2 Where do you think that comes from? Like how? Why does that happen? 24:23 Speaker 4 I don't know. It could just been from accessing mobile technology and using your mobile device. Some markets are further ahead for mobile payments and other things that in the US, like the US for a long time they were still doing chip and signature. 24:38 They just did not want to put their PIN in, right. So you insert your card, but you still have to sign a bill, right? 24:44 Speaker 2 And. 24:45 Speaker 4 Like the UK and Europe and, and even in Canada, they had chip and pin for, for years, right. And so it just seemed like they were slower at at adopting certain technologies that I found other markets like Australia more open to. 25:01 Speaker 2 What's the what's the feeling like between Canada and the US? Oh, right. 25:06 Speaker 4 Now, yeah, and and Canadians are so nice, like yeah. 25:10 Speaker 3 You know. 25:10 Speaker 2 But Canadians, this perception, Canadians, Irish and Australians, they kind of feel very similar, yeah. 25:20 Speaker 3 They and I think they get, they generally get on pretty well and growing. 25:23 Speaker 4 Up in Toronto and Toronto feels a lot like every, every time I'm in Sydney, I feel like I'm home. Like I feel that there's a vibe, the multicultural part of it. It's just, it feels very much like like Toronto and the people and, and everything else. And I just think there's just a lot of rhetoric, you know, like, you know, you know, the 51st state and all of those kinds of things. 25:44 That's annoying. 25:45 Speaker 2 That's annoying for Canadians. It's it's. 25:47 Speaker 4 Deeply annoying. It's insulting. 25:48 Speaker 2 You know we. 25:49 Speaker 4 You know, we, we're very proud to be Canadian and to now call like the lake that I've grown up on that I can see from my house like. 25:59 Speaker 2 America. Like America? 26:00 Speaker 4 Right. So that that's not OK in my book. And it's just, it's just, you know, trying to deflect from, you know, they, they need to work out a trade deal and, you know, and, and, and that's, that's important for, I think for both countries. 26:15 Speaker 2 Odd for you being a Canadian and a lot of business being in the US, like I'm sure you've got to hold your tongue a bit. Although in saying that and this, my word's not yours. Of course he doesn't doesn't seem to be overly popular in the US. 26:30 Look. 26:30 Speaker 3 I think he can be popular. Like two things can be true. He can be popular and what he says on anything can be unpopular. So I think, I don't think I've never heard many Americans support like America or right. 26:45 They're like, we don't care, like golfer. 26:47 Speaker 2 Golfer America. Yeah, like this. 26:48 Speaker 3 Stuff's nonsense, right? Like my price of gas, like all the things that everyone always worries about, right? So the challenge though, is, is actually not not responding, right? And he makes that very difficult for like your Prime Minister, it's very difficult not to have to engage. 27:06 And so I think we've talked about it before, but when the midterms finish, he's irrelevant, right, pretty much from that point on. So he's really only got a short window and he's really trying to pack everything in. And I think we've talked about it before, but I think the thought process was that this run thing would all be done before the midterms and it would be a good thing, right? 27:28 But it's turned out to be the opposite. So some of these silly deflections come out and it's interesting, you know, you take. 27:35 Speaker 4 It with a grain of salt, right? Just sort of. 27:37 Speaker 3 That's it. It it's. 27:39 Speaker 4 It's his style, it's the art of the deal, right? And so he just, he exaggerates to make a point. He, you know, hopes that he's going to he's going to. So if you end up here, like in the middle of of where maybe that's where he ended up wanting to be. 27:54 But if he takes you way over here and now you're, you're all worried. And then in the end he negotiates. That's where he always wanted to be. But it's his style. And and that's, you know, and, and probably most Americans realize that, that it's just, he's just being, you know, that's just his style. 28:12 And, and, you know, it's just, it's hard to be on the other end of it, right when you hear those. 28:15 Speaker 3 Things and. 28:16 Speaker 4 And there's people that maybe they don't realize that it, it, it, you know, and they actually are mad at Canada for not just turning over. And we'll just do, we'll just do what you say you want us to do, right? And but no, it's, it's, it's all going to end, you know, in the way it needs to end. 28:35 Speaker 2 Well, one thing that is you cannot dispute is that a war in Europe right now and a war in the middle, Well, the conflict in the Middle East is not good for tourism, no. And it's. 28:47 Speaker 4 It's interesting because I I just went to Dubai. Was that the Arabian travel market last? 28:52 Speaker 2 Yeah, before this. 28:53 Speaker 4 And yeah, I mean, it's and, and I think they really appreciated that, you know, people like myself came in for for, for that event in light of everything else that's going on. But, but, but it was, you know, Dubai was buzzing if things were still, you know, happening and, and everything else. 29:12 So, you know, I, I again, I think it's just one of those temporary things that we just need to get beyond and, and then but, but all of these, you know, definitely affect tourism for sure. It feels. 29:24 Speaker 2 Like in Australia at least that and we are a long way away, which is a good thing. It feels like there's a whole lot of people that have sort of said, you know what, there's all this stuff going on, but stuff it, let's just get on and get stuff done. What in spite of all of that, let's just get on and do good things. 29:41 And I think there's like and I think Grant just said it, there's there's so many more entrepreneurs in the room at this show this year than there ever has been before. That's that's good for the industry. Now, I think it's hard because there's a lot of us entrepreneurs are going to find it really tough and we've got to work out a way to to bring those entrepreneurs together to, I know, somehow make change. 30:05 But it's good that people are deciding to do different stuff like this. This store just here, Frank, this is Australian made coffee and who would have ever thought that there's coffee in Australia? It's coffee made here. It's it's in the northern part of the country. 30:22 It's the only coffee in the world that is that is grown at sea level. And it's a premium product that we export it all and these guys have said, well, stop exporting it, let's build it, let's make it here. And and it's incredible stuff. Yeah, I think the. 30:36 Speaker 3 Common thread from everyone we've spoken to Entrepreneurial is there is actually a like you built your product from a, from a need, right? That whole necessity, the mother invention and all that. So you've, you've seen in a, in a family setting, a resort that needed a specific product. 30:55 You got to see it, test it, hear from people what their bug bears are and really worked at and that then becomes what happens. And I think that's what we've heard the last day and 1/2 is people who are seeing things and going, hey, you know what, what there's a, there's a, a runway there and I'm going to take it. 31:13 And I think people having the, we've talked about it before, but people having the courage to make those moves like that's, that's pretty inspiring seeing a lot of that well. 31:22 Speaker 4 And and you know, the interesting thing is, is now with AI like innovation connects so much faster too, right? But you also there's a flip side to that. You get a lot of these flash in the pans where they just feel like they can, they can build a product, but then, you know, the grind part of it, right where OK, but you've got to still do the same things in order to it. 31:42 It can't just, you can't just snap your fingers and, and replace all the, the people work, the things that you need to do, the human part of the business that you need to grow and improve yourself and, and all of that. So there's some expectations that needs to, you know, need to be brought, brought in for any entrepreneur to, you know, to just put 1 foot in front of the other and keep doing the right things every day. 32:06 And before you know it, you'll be in a, in a really good place, right? That is. 32:09 Speaker 2 Our responsibility in an AI world, and we'll wrap it up, Frank, I know you've got a, you've got plenty of people to see. But in an AI world, our responsibility is actually to teach people the traditional way of doing things. Because if you don't know the questions to ask it and you don't know when it spits out things that are not quite right, it's not, it's not a useful tool. 32:28 But if you teach people a traditional way and the the right way of, of connecting and the traditional way of doing things, the grind and you and you sort of can construct a set of knowledge that is well founded, critical reasoning, well thought, then AI becomes a really enabled tool. 32:46 But if you don't know how to do that, then it's not, it's not really that good. Like for I watched the way 18 year olds use AI versus the way that a 50 year old uses AI. The 50 year olds actually got a superpower. The 18 year old, there's a whole lot of stuff they don't know and and they've got to build that. 33:03 Speaker 3 And they just they. 33:04 Speaker 4 Give it too much context, right? Whereas. 33:05 Speaker 3 If you can. 33:06 Speaker 4 Structure your data in a way that it's reliable and it's and then you put the AI and do the work on a a very narrow scope of what you want the AI to do. Yes, and it can be. 33:15 Speaker 2 Very possible, right? You're almost validating what you expect to see, right. Exactly. Good stuff. All right, great to talk with you, Frank, and congratulations on on what you've built. You've chosen a song by George Michael and Aretha Franklin. 33:31 I knew you were waiting. Why did you choose this song? 33:34 Speaker 4 Well, actually it's my my wife and I. It's going to be our 1010 year anniversary and congratulations. 33:39 Speaker 2 One of those those. 33:39 Speaker 4 Second chances in life for both of us. And. And yeah, so it was very special to us. So you knew? 33:45 Speaker 2 That she was waiting for you and vice versa. 33:48 Speaker 3 That's fantastic. 33:50 Speaker 2 Good stuff Frank. Nice to meet you. And this is I knew You Were Waiting, but what knew you were waiting by George Michael and Aretha Franklin.