Neil Patel

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

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Scott Gravelle has now raised well over $200M to forge the future of manufacturing automation and the next generation of the supply chain. His venture, Attabotics, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Export Development Canada, Teachers’ Venture Growth, Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), and Honeywell.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • Fundraising and staving off takeover attempts in a crisis
  • The future of automation in the supply chain
  • The difference in corporate governance in the US versus Canada
  • Hiring and managing your team
  • When to let people go, even when it is incredibly hard to do so

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For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

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Moreover, I also provided a commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400 million (see it here).

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About Scott Gravelle:

Scott is the co-founder, CEO & CTO of Attabotics, the world’s first 3D robotics supply chain system for modern commerce. He drives the company’s vision, product design, and technical innovation, and has put together a team of relentlessly capable executives to move Attabotics forward.

Over his 25-year career, Scott has been an innovator in the integration and implementation of digital manufacturing technologies, as well as a machine designer and entrepreneur.

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Connect with Scott Gravelle:

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have a very exciting founder. You know it’s a very very interesting journey. You know that that he’s say taking on you know now he is definitely on a rocket ship and. We’re gonna be learning all about it. You know, definitely a very inspiring story and I don’t want to wait you know make you wait any longer. So let’s say let’s welcome our guests today Scott Gravel welcome to the show.

Scott Gravelle: Um, thank you it says it’s fun to hang out with you.

Alejandro Cremades: So give us a little of a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up there in Canada. Okay.

Scott Gravelle: Um I appreciate you know, warm weather and sunshine. Um, it’s interesting I talk with all of my american friends and growing up in Canada there. Everyone’s afraid of the cold but you can always dress up warmer. But. Almost the same experience as growing up in Texas The only difference is in Texas when it’s too hot. You can’t go to the playground. Um, it makes you it makes you resilient makes you appreciate. You know, good streaming video. Um when when winters are long and winters are dark but it gives you lots of time to work on things. So I’ve appreciated you know. Growing up in a country that gives a crap about its people so that’s been good for me.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing now now in your case. Um you know we see the business side. You know, very interesting how you’ve been pushing it. You know and and that that that that kind of like entrepreneurial spirit too. No I mean did you have anyone in the family or or what did that happen later. So.

Scott Gravelle: Um, no I grew up blue collar middle class I think everyone’s expectation expectations of me were to go be some kind of tradesperson like most of you know my family extended family Uncles and aunts and I did um I used to be a cabinet maker. So I followed that path. But what I found was I was always looking for new ideas and I think it has more to do with satisfying my my Adhd than entrepreneurial spirit. Um I get bored easily so I discovered the best way to deal with that was to learn. And so that’s what you know led me down the path of starting a couple a couple of my own businesses and certainly this one was just.

Alejandro Cremades: Now we’re gonna be talking about what you’re up to in just a little bit you know which is really exciting. Ah, but but what? what? what got you into the arms for into the arm forces. What was what was that experience.

Scott Gravelle: I didn’t have good enough grades to go to university and I was working actually at a hospital I used to set apart lug machines for profusionists back of the day and I worked with a physician’s assistant and I wanted to be ah, a surgeon who wasn’t a doctor like him. And there’s 2 paths go become a surgical nurse or go be a medic in the armed forces. So I signed up and started basic training on my twentieth birthday in the canadian armed forces of eastern canada to become a medic.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow. So what kind of stuff were you doing there.

Scott Gravelle: Mostly washing trucks and rolling bandages when you’re low man on the tote pole you you get to do all the grunt work. But I I got really really good actually at treating warts and doing vasectomies. Um.

Alejandro Cremades: Ah.

Scott Gravelle: I so work that I did when I was in the army. Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Ah, that’s incredible I mean obviously after this, you know it gave a perspective I mean you moved to Calgary and and then you study the nursery. So.

Scott Gravelle: Um, yeah, nursing yeah I the armed forces actually did budget cuts in the canadian armed forces and I was. Offered a different job other than the one that I’d signed up for so I didn’t want to do that so they actually laid me off and packaged me out and I took that time and I went and moved to Calgary to go study for bachelor’s of science in nursing because that’s the other path to go becoming a physician’s assistant.

Alejandro Cremades: So so so that’s pretty much what happened so you studied nursing and then you would be helping a ah physician that that’s kind of like the um, the path.

Scott Gravelle: That was that was the goal. But once again, budget cuts you know Canada has socialized medicine. So when I graduated from university they were closing down all the hospitals and it’s a union jobs so that made it difficult to find a role so I went back to what I knew which was to make things.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: So so why and why making them in California you know what? what? what got you to move there.

Scott Gravelle: So went back to cabinet making. Girl you know that’s usually what way why you move all over the world is you meet a girl and so I followed down to yeah California and I lived to southset of Santa Cruz and I was really fortunate that I worked with a milwork company that was doing like really high end interior work.

Alejandro Cremades: I.

Scott Gravelle: So I got to do kind of the best of cabinet making them a work down there and you know projects where we’d work on for a year that were incredibly detailed using beautiful stuff and um then moving back to Canada you know I went from doing high end millwork in California to now you know being. Key accounts manager for a mill workshop a kitchen cabinet company. So from building kitchens and and work to designing them and then running a theme of estimators and that was a different switch for sure.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, no kidding now when you did the first ride on a long board did that happen in California and did that happen in Canada.

Scott Gravelle: Ah, that happened in Canada um I was actually looking to do some dry land training because I used to be a competitive hand glider pilot I used to tour the world racing hand glidders and I wanted to do something that was active and exciting. When I wasn’t flying so I decided that you know long boarding would be the thing but I bought a longor I was just say I bought a longboard from a company and I wrote it for two days and it broke and they did nothing to support me so I thought that’s kind of crappy that I could build a better one myself. So then I started building long boards.

Alejandro Cremades: So how hot.

Scott Gravelle: And more people wanted long board. So then I started a longboard manufacturing business.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow and that was the first business. The first like a company that you were that you were building. No I mean obviously the other ones you know were more on the contractor you know type of side of things with the cabinets. But but here you went at it. So so what happened with this company.

Scott Gravelle: Um, became the fifth largest long board skateboard manufacturer in the world which is like saying you’re a tadpole in a puddle wasn’t a huge market. Did it for 5 years spent half the time starving because you make a lot of money you know from March until July. And then you don’t make any money. Um, and so I shuttered the company after 5 years and it took all of the experience that I had kind of built up doing a lot of automated manufacturing actually and I spun that out into a consulting business where I was helping companies integrate and into um.

Scott Gravelle: Inject digital manufacturing strategies into the workflows so Mill workshops cabinet shops of course are also bottling and plastics companies and stuff like that.

Alejandro Cremades: So how do you go from consulting now now to to what you’re up to at this point I mean obviously you know the background you know anyone that that would think about it all from from nursing to to now you know being an entrepreneur of of of this company.

Scott Gravelle: Right.

Alejandro Cremades: I Mean what was that sequence of events. You know that needed to happen for you to bring this company to life.

Scott Gravelle: Well I’ve always built things my entire life. You know I grew up seeing my my parents and my uncles and aunts always just making things very incredible practical people so building things all my life and then certainly cabinet making and then. And cabinet making craft started to get displaced by technology and I didn’t want to be displaced so I became very good at the technology so computer computer aided manufacturing and so I can like a doctor do little as cnc machines I could talk to the animals so to speak and. I was doing a consulting gig and needed a buffer at the end of a manufacturing line. So I designed a buffer that had movable storage and so I found a company that actually had robots that move shelves that would have helped in that buffer. So I called them. And they said that they you know? Thank you They’re no longer accepting inquiries and hung up on me and I was like who the hell doesn’t want my money and it turned out that that company was just acquired by Amazon a week and a half before for $775,000,000 and that sent me down a rabbit hole because I started looking at supply chain automation for the first time. Always been in manufacturing automatimion and looking at it I saw that most warehouse automation of supply chain automation was some derivative of a human- centric environment and what I mean by that is human beings are two dimensional. We walk on the ground we drive on the ground we need road hallways aisles.

Scott Gravelle: To access everything. Um and I figured nature probably had a better idea of how to organize storage and I found it when I saw a documentary about leaf cover ants and. Had an aha moment of what threedi dimensional storage could look like and how movement could happen within that storage matrix and started drawing and drafting and then spent 2 years trying to find a legitimate reason not to do this because it’s scared the hell out of me and I never.

Alejandro Cremades: What was scary about it. What what was scary about it.

Scott Gravelle: When you’re selling $5000 with the long boards to a skate shop is 1 thing when you’re selling you know, five million to fifty million dollars projects to fortune you know 500 companies. It’s a very different thing and I would say I failed at longors I shuttered the company after 5 years because I couldn’t really support myself and my family doing it. Um. So the fear of failing again the fear of risking again the fear of now elevating a business to a completely different level. You know $5000 orders with the $5000000 orders is very very different. Um, so I said to myself that. And I’m going to go find the reason not to do this but I wouldn’t let the reason be that I was afraid you know I p wasn’t defensible would work customers wouldn’t want it. The market wasn’t growing to support it. There had to be a real reason I never found it here. I am.

Alejandro Cremades: So then you know tell us about the moment that you’re like screw it. Let’s do it and and also what didn what ended up being the business model aboutotics for the people that are listening to to really get how you guys are making money too. So.

Scott Gravelle: A.

Scott Gravelle: So The the original kind of business model is that we would manufacture and sell as Cap X with recurring revenue and services. Um a fulfillment solution for modern Commerce now. That’s not just robots. That’s not just racking and bins. It’s software and intelligence and integration and insights so we started building off of some unique Ip The the fulfillment engine for Modern Consumer Behavior which is single item pick. With order consolidation. Um in a highly highly dense solution with flexible automation that could be deployed closer to the consumer that was kind of the peace and I bravely or naively probably both and was both Maybe you know. Wise and stupid to bite off a huge chunk of of this piece of the puzzle because building hardware is certainly more challenging the software but building hardware and software and embedded at communications and process and structure was a big big. Piece of this but I felt it was the piece needed to actually make substantive change to resolving a problem and that’s what we’ve been working On. Um since we started I originally thought I was just going to prove it out and sell the Ip Um, but everyone that came that was interested in the I p.

Scott Gravelle: Told us that we were moving faster than they ever could and just to keep going so we kept going and now it’s six and a half years later um over 300 employees you know, been on ah an interesting funding jersey journey close to our series c here. November um, and thankfully that every turn of the world seems to validate the work that we’re doing you know consumer.

Alejandro Cremades: And how did you? How did you go? Obviously your background you know completely you know, ah unique, right for for taking this thing on how did you go as well about surrounding yourself.

Scott Gravelle: Is.

Alejandro Cremades: By the right people that perhaps you know may have the answers that you didn’t have given your background. So.

Scott Gravelle: You know what? every story is about people. Um, and I can say that I have found some amazing people to surround myself with and have also had the misfortune of surrounding myself with some people that were far from helpful. And the biggest learnings that I’ve had is you know dealing with people and I started building robots because dealing with people’s hard and machines are actually kind of easy comparatively? Um, but the biggest part of this journey in this story is. Is about people I think you nailed it I have an incredibly strong team around me right now but that wasn’t always the case and fighting through that and the changes in people. You know as a business grows not everyone grows with the business. And the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is realize that not everybody gets to be part of the entire journey and that that was hard and disappointing. But I’m I’m glad we are where we are now and I’m glad I’m with who I’m with now.

Alejandro Cremades: So then I guess say as part of that you know because that’s a very important point I mean the company that you know you have today you know is is’s always moving right? and it’s always growing. It’s always you know, different type of skill sets different type of um people that that you need. So I guess. You know, but 2 questions here come to mind to Scott one is how do you go about? now you know, bringing the right people I mean is there like certain you know type of criteria or or perhaps like a question or something that you do to make sure that you’re not making a mistake and then also. Ah, what point do you realize that maybe the company has outpayed certain individuals and how do you go about rearranging things.

Scott Gravelle: Um, so picking people is hard. Um, you don’t at the level I’m looking for for support because I realize that I can’t keep my job as Ceo. Unless I surround myself with incredibly strong people to make up for everything that I’m not you know I think I’ve got the the charismatic startup founder thing kind of nailed but to be a good professional Ceo is a completely differentql skill set. You know one is about passion and fire and drive and and the other one is about communication and consistency and and leadership and they’re different. Um, so what I try to surround myself with is a people to challenge me. Um. I don’t need yes people in my life I have a strong enough opinion. It can stand my own but I want people that challenge me because the best ideas come out of really good passionate discussion and the best idea should always win. Um I have found that.

Scott Gravelle: Hiring from my personality type hiring weak people insecure people is always a catastrophe I don’t want to eat them for lunch but unless you have a strong informed opinion. It’s It’s it’s challenging for me to interact with those people so I look for strength I look for security I look for confidence I look for curiosity but the number 1 thing passion. Do they have a fire in their belly to come do this with me. Because any intelligent passionate person can learn to do whatever they need to do to contribute wherever they need to and that’s what I’ve seen about the most successful people in my organization are people that really give a shit and are smart enough to learn whatever they need to. But also secure enough to admit that they don’t know everything they need to know and when you’re doing something that’s never been done before the most dangerous thing you can hire is someone goes. Oh I know exactly what needs to be done. We’re just going to do it like I did it before that’s that’s goes the hell out of me. And the other part your second part of the question is I the biggest mistake I’ve ever made is not acting um as as quickly as I should haves knowing that people didn’t fit into the ah the way the organization is evolved.

Scott Gravelle: Wasn’t right for them wasn’t right for the company. Um I am the king of second and third chances. Although I have a reputation within some of being a bit of an ahole. Um I care about people and I want to do everything I can to support them. Um. But the worst part is is after they failed on the third chance and you knew it after the first one you weren’t doing them or yourself a favor and so recognizing that if people are changing as quickly as a business needs them to. And they’re not motivated to change and if there’st a different seat for him on the bus the where they can contribute then they need to get off the bus and that’s hard that sucks.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, yeah, big sometimes you know you try to to put people. You know where they’re not performing into different seatds. They keep failing and then obviously that has a ripple effect into other employees too now. So cost opportunity for everyone.

Scott Gravelle: Um, yeah, yeah because the business changes so fast like it really does. It’s it’s like when you have little kids you know they seem like a lump for the first six months that doesn’t do anything and then they become self-aware discover their hands like you know they’re walking. You know they’re talking they’re exploring and before you know it they’re graduating high school you know and they develop so quickly that you know use a pair to caregiver mentor to that child. They need different people in different situations in their lives. Because the the child grows and develops so quickly in the business the same way and if you’re not growing and developing even though you might have been here first or 1 of the first 10 or 20 people if you’re not growing and developing to meet the needs of the business. Um, it’s hard to see the business. Growing without you and that’s like people have been the hardest part about building robots by far and my group.

Alejandro Cremades: And now for this for this thing actually I want to follow up on that you know people. Um, you guys have raised quite a bit of money and you know when you raise money you know to I mean you’re getting it from people that you know you’re hopeful that they’re going to be bringing value in addition to the money because there’s no shortage of capital right.

Scott Gravelle: Yeah, yeah, yeah I.

Alejandro Cremades: So so what has been that experience you know too and how much capital have you guys raised and how that has changed over time because I know that the last day round that you guys did tool hours that was massive heavy lifting.

Scott Gravelle: Yeah, the last couple have been heavy lifting hardware is expensive hardware takes time and more time than I originally thought naively and more money than I thought so I’m thrilled that we’ve received the support that we have from people that believe in the vision and share the vision of the Future. So Super thankful for that. But like people the people that invest in you in the early early stages um might not be the same people you need in the later ones.

Scott Gravelle: And the value you need as an early state startup from your investors. Um, those investors might not be bearing in the same value you need as a growth business. But the thing is I’m unlike people that are employees. Um, they all. Investors all maintain an equity position in your business and an interest in your business until you’re in a position to change that so you can’t just let them get go on with their lives so you have to be the the choices you make early on in who joins you on the journey start the journey with you. And who your investors are in the early stage or some of the biggest most important decisions you’ll make and any early stage company thinks that any investment is great and I would caution anyone to think really really long and hard about what vision you have for the business and whether or not that investor. Someone that will help you on the entire journey and um, but you don’t know you don’t know that you know people coming with the best of intentions and the best stories and you know, um, but time time and and situations change.

Alejandro Cremades: And and Scott and how much capital have you guys raised to date. So.

Scott Gravelle: Um, think we’re just over 180,000,000 plus another eighty million canadians about 50,000,000 us in grants. Um.

Alejandro Cremades: So tell us about 2 about fighting a takeover during a fundraising round I mean well come on you gotta you gotta give it give out give us the battlefield stories.

Scott Gravelle: Oh yeah, yeah, well I’ll write a book and I’ll name names. But until the book’s published I’m I’m not going to name too many names but we had an investment we’ll offer from a fortune 50 business. Ah, before covid hit and it was a couple hundred million dollars at a really really healthy valuation and we were kind of arguing about you know how much control a company like that should have as a minority shareholder in the business and then covid hit and. They thought that it was great instead of making an investment and argu about control that they actually try to acquire the business for a couple hundred million bucks which would have been a tragedy and at the same time you know everyone was scared in early covid. Everyone was fearful about what the future looked like. So there was ah there’s a group of road stage investors that you know shareholders that thought liquidity would be safer for them than leaving it in the business. So when you’ve got kind of aggressive kind of. Aggressive investor that wants to buy your business at below market and a group of shareholders that are scared themselves and figure that selling is the best thing for their best interests. Um, it doesn’t make for a warm and fisy environment to figure out how to keep moving the company forward and um.

Scott Gravelle: I Learned a lot about people in that experience on how money can make people pretty shitty and fought, really hard with a very very tight group within the business um to go actually raise the funding the company needed to say No Thank you. That acquisition offer and politely saying No. Thank you to that being in a position. Um, to say we’ve raised money We don’t need to consider your acquisition offer anymore was one of the more satisfying moments of my career. Um I.

Alejandro Cremades: No kidding.

Scott Gravelle: People that know me say that my biggest fuel is a bit of f you energy I love to prove people that don’t believe in me, you know I like to prove them wrong because happiness and success is the best revenge you can ever have I don’t dwell on on bringing any and energy to any of the people that you know have been you know. Detrimental I guess to my my anxiety and mental health. Um, but I do know that success and happiness drives them crazy my success and happiness drives them crazy so it was really really challenging to try to hold your life together your personal life together your family life together. Feeling responsible for the amount of people that depend on me for their paycheck and their family’s well-being in a world that was so uncertain in early covid and you know that in the first the first year of covid like vcs weren’t even answering the phone anymore. They were just desperately trying to figure out how to save their own portfolio companies. So finding um a great group with the the teachers’ innovation function now was called this. Ah the teachers’s venture platform at Ontario teacherss pension plan. That believed in the you know the future of automation and supply chain. Um and made an investment in us at a very pivotal time. Um and weren’t predatory in doing so I have a lot of respect for.

Scott Gravelle: Any venture capitalist now that understands that although there’s deals to be had you are building a relationship with that business and that entrepreneur and if if the if the first interaction feels more like date rate you’re not going to be building a great relationship. And so I am thrilled that every investor that has joined the company in the last couple years sees this as a partnership and not just a short-term opportunity and. Picking like said picking the people they work with I’ve been incredibly fortunate to to find some great people having learned the lessons I learned early on and applying those now like our cap table is getting incredibly strong with some very diverse but helpful. Actually investors that can help build the business and take it to the next level.

Alejandro Cremades: And to that point um about the investors you know. Obviously you guys were dealing there with a very challenging Time. You know it sounds like you know you had this acquisition on the table. Ah you were getting pressure from you know some of those investors that were scared to really go for with that transaction. How were you able to get the enrollment. You know, ah and and and and jumping that future that you were living into so that they would jump with you in order to put this on a hold and be able to bring this other alternative that was actually much better I mean.

Scott Gravelle: Um.

Alejandro Cremades: You didn’t have that at that point So how were you able to get them enrolled to really believe with you in in the fact that there was a better future. Okay.

Scott Gravelle: Um, they didn’t believe they just didn’t have majority and and um had I not taken the other investors and showed them a value for their investment.

Alejandro Cremades: Okay.

Scott Gravelle: Not that group like not the group that wanted to sell but I still had to prove to the other members of the cap table and the board that we had a very viable opportunity and good funding to keep moving it forward to make sure that they didn’t want to sell and. I was able to show that bringing some you know new money and new investors into the cap table because the early stage guys that wanted to sell. Not only did they want to sell but we’re actively having conversations with the acquiring business. Um, at the detriment of the of of my company there was there is a bit like so it’s going to be an interesting chapter in the book. Theres there was a bit of a conspiracy going on there. Um, it was very satisfying to kind of head that off at the table and do what was in the best interests of the business and the best. You know, interests of the stakeholders of the business. Not just what was in the best interest of a small group of you know, real estate investors that wanted some liquidity. Um and I’ve learned you know when I talk about evolving as as a Ceo versus a charismatic startup founder. Um.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah.

Scott Gravelle: Understanding Canadian corporate governance which by the way is different than us corporate governance and in us corporate governance is what’s best for the shareholders canadian corporate governance is what’s best for all of the stakeholders. It has to be what’s right for the business first and. Leveraging that improving that this decision was what was right for the business. Um, and that allowed that allowed that process to move forward in every contract you have shareholder agreement you have there’s drag along voting. You know if a majority or a super majority agrees to something. Um, then everyone has to go home. Come along for the ride and um, they might not have agreed to what was being done at the time because they desperately wanted their cash out of the business but it wasn’t right for the business to sell at that point at it. And a depressed market at ah at a lower than ideal valuation to basically a kind of a predatory entity that was looking to take advantage of the macroeconomic climate that existed in early covid that was not what was right for the business um prove that move forward. Um. And thankfully covid validated what antibiotics does there was increased consumer adoption to to you know digital shopping digital commerce um, and now inflationary pressures labor pressures real estate pressures are validating what we do even more.

Scott Gravelle: So I am thankful that we’re not a luggage company you know because Covid didn’t really Validate. You know that piece but for us like we keep getting the reassurances and encouragement that we need for our product or solution and the opportunity the you know and the the tam. That exists for what we do.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing now Scott imagine that you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world where the vision of autobiotics is fully realized what does that world look like.

Scott Gravelle: Um, interior we joke around saying we’re you know Robots building robots to take over the world. Um, our robots are kind of stupid though. So don’t be too threatened. Um, the world.

Scott Gravelle: Supply chain world consumer expectation globalization. The growth of the middle class and emerging marketsney and China um, creating a larger consumer class is putting a burden on the exist supply chains and the environment and the world and the cost like Amazon’s still not making money. Selling stuff. They’re making great money with cloud services but there needs to be a fundamental change to the way we think about the movement of goods and commerce and I take inspiration from the biggest leaps and efficiency. Have happened historically in supply chain and they were all about creating standardization for automation a forklift only works if you have a palette and palette racking and trucks that fit the pallets but a palette is a standardized interface for automation and a forklift is standardized. Move palettes around a warehouse and that changed warehousing um the barcode introduced by Kmart back in the day is a digital way of identifying a product instead of putting individual price tags on cans of beans dramatically shifted but it’s not just a barcode It’s a laser scanner. It’s a computer and network communication.

Scott Gravelle: Vietnam war the us department of defense instituted containerized shipping but it’s not just a container. It’s the ships. The ports the cranes the trucks, the trains and that opened up global commerce for multimobile transport. Because you’re only now having to move containers what you put in containers can be incredibly variable, but everything is optimized for moving containers now and that has changed global economies. Um, there needs to be another transition now to using. Ah, standardized interface for automation and the data intelligence that comesmbs now with aggregated data cloud ai private lte. You know, got for bid I say blockchain ai um, that.

Scott Gravelle: Creates efficiencies in supply chain that have never been possible before my vision for antibiotics is to put a distributed democratized supply chain in every major market to bring goods closer to the consumer which lowers transportation cost which lowers Time. It. Also. If you get stuff same day next day. It Lowers Return rates reverses the burden of of reverse logistics creates more profitability in a shared ecosystem like that. But there needs to be an aggregated ecosystem of inmarket microfulfillment in a broad network that. Utilizes the data analytics as well as shared transportation to democratize fulfillment for both the consumer and and retailers and Brands. So My vision is. To work with our partners that bring all of these different pieces together like I’ll never build a private lte or five G networking business I’ll never build a Cloud company I’ll never build robotic each picking. Um. But our technology becomes a platform where all these companies now can start applying the values of of these emerging technologies in to create efficiencies that have never been seen in supply chain before and that’s my goal. So if I wake up tomorrow. My goal is that I can order a pair of black suede.

Scott Gravelle: Size nine and a half adidas gazelles get them same day and and know that it cost the environment. The planet the retailer and me less in doing so.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing. Well hey that will be a beautiful world now Scott Imagine you know we we just talked about the future. Imagine you know like we take a look at at the past imagine I put you into a time machine and I bring you back in time I bring you back in time you know, maybe.

Scott Gravelle: Um, sure.

Alejandro Cremades: Time where you were thinking about starting a business you know of your own and you have the opportunity of having a chat with that younger self and you are able to give that younger Scott 1 piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why given what you know now.

Scott Gravelle: The bigger idea you have the more disruptive the idea you have the more likely you are to find support the less likely you are to and encounter competition and if you’re going to put effort. Into anything pick the biggest idea because it’s the same amount of effort does doing the smallest 1 but you’ll have a chance of making a bigger difference for yourselves. The people that believe in you and hopefully the world. Um, don’t be afraid of big disruptive things incremental. Ideas are not safer than big ones. So think big and believe that if you if you are solving a big enough problem that you’ll find all the support you need to go do it.

Alejandro Cremades: I Love is God That’s so profound now for the people that are listening. You know that would want to um, reach out and say hi what will be the best way for them to do so.

Scott Gravelle: Um, I’m I’m the very first Scott at antibiotics though it’s Scott atadebiotics dot com and I’m happy I’m happy to connect with anybody if if any if in any way I can pay forward. Um.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing.

Scott Gravelle: Support that I’ve received by helping someone avoid some of the mistakes that I’ve made I’m happy I’m happy to do so. That’s how the world becomes a better place.

Alejandro Cremades: Absolutely well Scott thank you so so much for being on the deal maker show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

Scott Gravelle: I Really appreciate the time This is a great conversation I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

* * *
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Neil Patel

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