Episode 225
225. Sam Speaker, gamrpod, Esports Furniture, Micro Studios, Target Customers And Business Models
In this episode, with special guest Sam Speaker (Founder & CEO of gamrpod), we discuss innovation in esports furniture, the challenges of building hardware, the target customers and business models for gamrpod, and so much more!
Transcript
Welcome to the business of esports podcast, the official podcast of esports. We
Announcer:explore the intersection of business and esports, one of the fastest growing industries in the world
Announcer:and the future of fine. Please welcome your host Paul esports. Prophet Dawalibi. The business of
Announcer:esports podcast begins now.
Paul Dawalibi:From the keyboard to the boardroom. This is the business of esports podcast. I am Paul
Paul Dawalibi:the profit that will lead me I'm joined today by my friend and co host, The Honorable Judge Jimmy
Paul Dawalibi:burrata. For those of you who are new here, welcome to the official podcast of esports. What
Paul Dawalibi:we do is we cover the most pressing, gaming and esports topics news of the week, we look at all of
Paul Dawalibi:it through a business and C suite lens, we dissect, we analyze the business implications of
Paul Dawalibi:everything happening in this amazing industry. For our regular listeners. Thank you guys for tuning
Paul Dawalibi:in every week. Thank you for all the love the five star ratings and reviews. If you haven't already,
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Paul Dawalibi:content. Anything you do is appreciated. We really, we really wouldn't do this without you
Paul Dawalibi:guys. We couldn't do this without you guys. Jimmy, how you doing this week? We're back home.
Unknown:I am still not rested. Paul, I don't know about yourself. But we have a really special
Unknown:episode this week at a special time. First of all, it's me the fourth So may the fourth be with you.
Unknown:Listening to it, probably on the fifth or sixth? May the Fourth be with you guys. Also, I have my
Unknown:my lightsaber hilt here next to me. I'm gonna show it off on my own for tonight. Yeah, well, I won't
Unknown:tease what it's about. You'll have to show up to the live show. And yeah, I mean, we were at PAX
Unknown:last week we were at FTX salt. It's been a busy time.
Paul Dawalibi:In between PAX East and the crypto Bahamas slash FTX salt conference. It was I mean
Paul Dawalibi:it was crazy. Back to back and like these are not small gatherings. These were massive, massive
Paul Dawalibi:productions. incredible to see incredible to be a part of I think I'm curious which one which one
Paul Dawalibi:did you enjoy more Jimmy which and what did you What were the takeaways from each one? Let's put
Paul Dawalibi:it let's start with
Unknown:that. But they were so different you know and I it's hard to know where to start Pax had
Unknown:130,000 people it was true gaming culture at its finest. So many of you by the way that listen that
Unknown:came and listened and showed up in person to introduce yourself to us. Incredible. And thank
Unknown:you for showing up for making the trip for saying hey, and a couple of emails beforehand, giving me
Unknown:the heads up as well that you'd be there that was really great to meet so many of our fans and
Unknown:friends in person after the lockdown packs was different though, right? Because it was massive.
Unknown:It's gaming culture. It's just kind of showing off games and costumes and really just experiencing
Unknown:what gamers like and do. Crypto Bahamas was more. It wasn't buttoned up because there's so many guys
Unknown:right wearing like hoodies, and you know, crypto, that kind of culture. But it was different. It was
Unknown:a different crowd entirely. It was much smaller. Everyone's like, oh, how was the Bahamas? I said I
Unknown:could tell you how the conference rooms were like we did spend that way to do
Paul Dawalibi:a half day at the beach with our laptops, because with our laptops getting
Unknown:work done getting content out for every for all of our listeners. They're just
Paul Dawalibi:away from crypto Bahamas. For our audience. I'm curious, did you have any?
Unknown:The Crypto world is really interesting. You know, everyone thinks when they think gaming,
Unknown:the intersection of gaming and crypto, you think blockchain played or earn type of structures,
Unknown:right? And that's just not the half of it. I think the takeaway for crypto Bahamas was cool, we found
Unknown:an awesome way to utilize this new technology that works very well in a financial sense, but the
Unknown:creativity and what it can be and Welby are really just scratching the surface. And so when you hear
Unknown:certain gaming communities that don't appreciate NF TS or other gaming companies that are trying to
Unknown:add a play an urn model, again, very early iterations very early attempts to enter the space
Unknown:and see what we can do here. I just think that there's so much to do that. I'm still very bullish
Unknown:on it despite the gaming communities early, negative reaction towards it.
Paul Dawalibi:I really feel like at least at least half of the crypto Bahamas conference was
Paul Dawalibi:involved in gaming in some way or another like there is a there's definitely a recognition in the
Paul Dawalibi:crypto community that gaming is in is critical to the success of their entire industry. I think I
Paul Dawalibi:was speaking on a panel, obviously, I think we'll be coming out with that content for everyone to
Paul Dawalibi:watch. I think it was a very interesting panel. And, you know, my views on all of it, I think
Paul Dawalibi:were, I don't know, controversial, shocking to that crowd. But the intersection between crypto
Paul Dawalibi:and gaming is clearer than ever in my mind and the excitement around that intersection is clearer
Paul Dawalibi:than ever. And it's a great segue to we have a big announcement, which will might be out by the time
Paul Dawalibi:you listen to this probably will be out by the time you listen to this. I'm not gonna I'm not
Paul Dawalibi:gonna give it away just yet. But, you know, we've dominated in gaming, we've recently dominated in
Paul Dawalibi:Metaverse, I wouldn't be surprised if you see us dominating in crypto on the content front, either
Paul Dawalibi:so or also, I should say. So interesting announcement to look forward to. And definitely
Paul Dawalibi:exciting conference. I mean, the the kinds of people we met. Special thanks also to Tim Lowe,
Paul Dawalibi:who arranged you know, our panel at PAX East. One of the most well connected guys in all of esports
Paul Dawalibi:in gaming. So huge shout out and thank you to him. And thank you to all the people who showed up both
Paul Dawalibi:for their our panel at PAX East, which was stacked, and our panel at crypto Bahamas which was
Paul Dawalibi:also stacked. And to the folks at Dell tech bank, I want to just say special thank you to them.
Paul Dawalibi:Deltec not a sponsor of the business of esports. But definitely sponsored all of the content, we
Paul Dawalibi:produce the crypto Bahamas, so cool class, you know, class Class Act all the way in terms of an
Paul Dawalibi:organization and the people and could not have done what we did at crypto Bahamas without them.
Paul Dawalibi:So definitely go check them out bank based in the Bahamas, and very much crypto focused. So Jimmy,
Paul Dawalibi:we got an amazing guest this week. I don't want to take too much more time. I know we're going to
Paul Dawalibi:spend a lot of time talking about this conference in other content that we're going to be putting
Paul Dawalibi:out so there's just so much crypto Bahamas content and packs content that you guys will look forward
Paul Dawalibi:to I hope and let's jump into today's episode, because we do have an absolutely absolutely
Paul Dawalibi:amazing guest. We have none other than Sam speaker Sam is the CEO and founder of gamer pod maybe one
Paul Dawalibi:of the coolest hardware, you know calling gaming hardware. For lack of a better word here,
Paul Dawalibi:companies that I've seen in a while. I'll let Sam talk about what they're doing. Sam, welcome to the
Paul Dawalibi:business of esports podcast.
Unknown:What's up guys, you got me a little excited talking about taxis. And from here, I just
Unknown:kept it up.
Paul Dawalibi:It was a crazy, crazy week and a half Sam, but for our listeners who don't know
Paul Dawalibi:about you about gamer pods would love a little bit of your story how you got into gaming, why you got
Paul Dawalibi:into it? And what you guys are doing a gamer pod because I do think it's so unique. It's so cool.
Paul Dawalibi:would love for you to tell our viewers about it?
Unknown:Yeah, so I mean, just to kind of give you an overview of what the product is, you know,
Unknown:gamer pod is the first ever dedicated live streaming and content creation micro studio. You
Unknown:know, it's four feet by four feet, and takes up a tiny footprint. And so So enter in, there's a full
Unknown:PC, dual monitors, and you can really equip it with you know, whatever you need to create the
Unknown:content you're looking to create, whether it's a microphone, webcam, or just game, you know. So
Unknown:that's gamer pod. You guys want me to get into my background a little bit.
Paul Dawalibi:Yeah, we'd love your background, how you got into doing this, why you got into
Paul Dawalibi:doing this just some of your story.
Unknown:It's it's a long story. I started out in high school playing, playing some competitive Halo
Unknown:three, which you know, you guys have been around you. You know how big Halo three was pretty much
Unknown:everyone wanted to be a competitive Halo three player was about to go to MLG Anaheim at the time.
Unknown:This was back in 20 Oh, nice. Now 2009 Maybe. And, you know, my parents not knowing how big gaming
Unknown:and esports is they urged me to go to my soccer tournament instead that weekend. So it ended up
Unknown:working out, you know, got a scholarship to go to Temple University and play division one soccer.
Unknown:And while I was there my first day at preseason camp, I met my now business partner, Dalton
Unknown:Carroll. And we ended up living together all four years. We'd like to think we went to school and
Unknown:majored in gaming in the dorm rooms rather than accounting and audio engineering for Dalton, which
Unknown:were our actual majors. So you know, like I said, I went into accounting after college, I went and
Unknown:work for a big four accounting firm. Dalton went a much more exciting route. And he ended up at
Unknown:milkboy Studios in Philadelphia where he was recording artists slike Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill
Unknown:and all these big artists, I was over there, you know, looking at Excel documents and crunching the
Unknown:numbers. So yeah, so that we kind of broke apart a little bit. And then I moved out to Los Angeles to
Unknown:join a startup kind of on a whim. And at that time, I decided, you know, I'm lonely in Los
Unknown:Angeles, as crazy as that sounds. Maybe I should start my right. Maybe I should start my, my
Unknown:streaming career. So, you know, I went on to, I think it was like, I feel which website one of the
Unknown:many what, I buy power now, it was probably I buy power, went on their website, start building PC,
Unknown:got to the end, and I saw the PC was like $3,000. And I was like, Jesus, how does anyone afford to
Unknown:get into this? So I kind of put that on the back burner. And then after moving back east, you know,
Unknown:I was at a consulting firm back in accounting, and was in between in between projects, and was just
Unknown:on IGN at, you know, that was kind of the big one at that time. Still pretty big, but and I saw an
Unknown:article about ninjas $20,000 streaming studio. And I just kept thinking like, this is getting out of
Unknown:hand. How are kids that are watching ninja stream? You know, looking at him the same way young
Unknown:basketball players look at LeBron, and how do they then go and try to pursue live streaming?
Unknown:Coincidentally, I jumped from that website on to TechCrunch and was reading about these office
Unknown:phone booths that are starting to pop up and open workspace, working environments. I was like, Oh,
Unknown:shit, what did we slap these two together? And then we could put these out in the public and let
Unknown:kids use them. I mean, it seemed to be a great idea. So I hit up Dalton, and told him about my
Unknown:idea. And Don was like, Dude, we got to do this. He was in the he was in the midst of purchasing a
Unknown:PC, and couldn't afford it, obviously, with the price of PCs as they're going through the roofs.
Unknown:So we decided to go in his garage and start building out our first gamer pod unit. Which was
Unknown:rough. To say the least it was rough. But we like to say the best companies were started in a
Unknown:garage. And that's where we built the first game or pod unit.
Paul Dawalibi:I'm curious Sam, why ruff. And while you're talking about this, for those of you
Paul Dawalibi:listening, unfortunately, it's a little bit hard to describe. It does look like a sort of an
Paul Dawalibi:enlarged phone booth set up for gaming and streaming. I will. I will put it up here while
Paul Dawalibi:you're answering this question, though. What is like what was so tough in the beginning? What was
Paul Dawalibi:that major challenge?
Unknown:Yeah, for sure. I mean, so like I said, I come from an accounting background. You know, I
Unknown:used to build. I did a little bit of skateboarding back in the day. So I used to build some really
Unknown:rough plywood ramps out in my garage at the time, and then put them out in our driveway and skate
Unknown:them. So the whole thing was really built by plywood. And luckily, we had some power tools. And
Unknown:were able to cut up some sheet metal, which there's a whole story about, well, it's actually
Unknown:not that long of a story. Dalton was cutting some sheet metal and some shrapnel flew off, blew about
Unknown:30 feet hit the ceiling came down hit me right in the chest. My shirt, I thought I was dead. But
Unknown:obviously I'm still here, right. But yeah, I mean, it was rough. But I think you know you're ballin
Unknown:on a budget. You're both working full time jobs doing this on the weekend. And, you know, we were
Unknown:trying to build out a proof of concept to see if this really makes sense. And we threw my I buy
Unknown:power PC in there that I bought a couple of years prior. And we were like, oh shit, this is this is
Unknown:going to work. So
Paul Dawalibi:So So Sam, I see three potential business models here. And I want to sort of dive
Paul Dawalibi:in. Yeah, who? Who is the target customer for game or pod? Right. That's the crux of the question
Paul Dawalibi:here. Yeah. And I see three sort of options. And let me let me lay them out the way I see them. And
Paul Dawalibi:maybe you can, you can jump in here. Option one is sort of crazy people like me who you know, I just
Paul Dawalibi:want to put this in my house somewhere or at my office somewhere because, you know, I want
Paul Dawalibi:everything that's cool. And that's gaming related. And it's sort of you know, it's the call it more
Paul Dawalibi:high end gaming customer. I see that as sort of one one potential path. The second is Have you
Paul Dawalibi:open like locations where you, you know, you put 50 of these in them. And it's sort of like a land
Paul Dawalibi:center on steroids. And you charge people, I guess, by the hour to use them. And the third is,
Paul Dawalibi:you put these sort of the way the ATM business model works, which is like, you know, your local
Paul Dawalibi:711, I'm exaggerating, to me, a boy puts one of these in their store. And there's a rev share with
Paul Dawalibi:the 711, or something like that, where people who come and play for a few hours 711 gets the foot
Paul Dawalibi:traffic and maybe a little bit of, you know, revenue, and you keep the bulk of it. Now, I don't
Paul Dawalibi:know if I've missed the mark. And none of these three are where do you know where you're headed?
Paul Dawalibi:But how are you thinking about the business side of gamer pot?
Unknown:Yeah. And, Paul, I kind of wish you were some of the investors that we've pitched to,
Unknown:because you're already like, 80% of the way there on what our business model looks like. And I'm
Unknown:still trying to explain to them what a an Xbox controller is, and why it's uncertain games, it's
Unknown:better than M and K. But, you know, I think you're spot on, on a lot of these kind of the first one
Unknown:you touched on, which would be you the experience, you know, gamer that's super dedicated and
Unknown:hardcore. That's not really our focus right now, I think, you know, we're working internally on, on
Unknown:developing a product just for that individual, it will likely be a lot lighter, our units are 750
Unknown:pounds. And, and, you know, take some effort to install. But we're working on a unit that's a
Unknown:lower price point, a little less weight, and a little less, like intruding on on someone's space
Unknown:for for your home. Now. If you you know, the office behind you, we definitely are targeting
Unknown:offices like that. Where this can be utilized, as you know, a podcasting room or just a creative
Unknown:environment where someone can really isolate themselves from the craziness that is like the
Unknown:open workspace. So you have the open workspace office pod is a pretty saturated market at this
Unknown:point. But none of them come integrated with any technology beyond just lighting and some very
Unknown:minor ventilation, our units were very specific towards the content creation office. So someone
Unknown:like you that's creating podcast or doing video content, or vlogging. Our units have ventilation
Unknown:for the user, and then separate ventilation for the PC itself. You know, you guys are aware of how
Unknown:much heat is created. It's insane. You really start to learn whenever you're in closed with a
Unknown:PC, which our first unit was a whole. It got to like 110 degrees in there. It was nuts. But yeah,
Unknown:I mean, I think, you know, we're working on a product that is going to be direct to consumer.
Unknown:But right now we're focused elsewhere in offices, universities, which we can talk more about that,
Unknown:that's turned into what we're seeing is one of our biggest opportunities. Your second one was like an
Unknown:esports center, right? So we have our first unit we ended up placing in Tapi Sports Center in
Unknown:Philadelphia, which is this really cool, like, dungeon sounds bad, but it's in a basement in
Unknown:Chinatown, and you kind of walk in, you're transported.
Unknown:If you walked in the place, you would be like, okay, that kind of makes sense. But, you know,
Unknown:this is cool. So, but they were really, they were really awesome. They let us place the unit and
Unknown:collect some data. And their, you know, their patrons really loved it that kids spending six,
Unknown:seven hours and they're, you know, they're able to stream on a high end PC for $4 An hour rather than
Unknown:going out and dropping several $1,000. And we had, you know, some really dedicated users that it was
Unknown:pretty awesome to see, we would tune in to see their streams. It was the whole thing. But so what
Unknown:we're doing is we're placing, like one or two units in esports centers, as opposed to what you
Unknown:suggested, which is having a whole facility dedicated to a bunch of gamer pods. Yeah. And then
Unknown:I guess the third one that you mentioned, is what we call a remote access unit, which, you know, you
Unknown:would walk up to it it would be you know, we think an airport or like you said a 711 we would think
Unknown:more maybe more a target or inside of a mall. But you walk up you scan your car, the door unlocks
Unknown:And you can you can start streaming. So that's something we're working on, we're working with
Unknown:kind of a big corporate partner, trying to work out the details on that to get them on board. And
Unknown:you know, we're a startup so money's tight, we could always use the help there.
Unknown:Sam, first, I just want to say major kudos to just having a dream and a vision, and literally going
Unknown:into the garage and making it happen. We have a lot of listeners here on the show that always ask
Unknown:how do you get started? What What can I do? And you do it right, like, like you adult? First
Unknown:question for me. And I definitely want to get into the schools that you're working with and some of
Unknown:the application and what that business model looks like. But before we get off topic as to the actual
Unknown:design, or rather, before we leave that topic of the design itself, and I understand this is
Unknown:definitely a question for Dalton. But you as the representative, the company, I'm sure have more
Unknown:than enough info for us on this. The acoustics, the engineering, the thought, because, you know,
Unknown:again, Paul, put it up here for those watching for those listening, GA Mr. pod.com, beautiful,
Unknown:beautiful design glass panels on the side, sleek, sharp corners. doesn't sound anything like this
Unknown:plywood and steel. Which part like you said was hot and probably, you know, so I'm just curious
Unknown:what you can share in terms of that you had mentioned pool ventilation acoustics that the
Unknown:system, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the product itself? If you don't mind?
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, our design stories is a pretty crazy one. You know, obviously, we started the company
Unknown:in 2019, when I started the company, we built the first unit in our garage, and then incorporate it
Unknown:in late 2019. And from that point, we realized, like we need to either design and manufacture a
Unknown:soundproof environment. That's, you know, more professional can withstand a commercial setting,
Unknown:or we need to outsource it and, you know, find someone that can manufacture at least the base,
Unknown:you know, the shell, so to speak. So, you know, we did what a lot of young companies do that are
Unknown:trying to manufacture product, we went to Alibaba, and started searching, soundproof booths being
Unknown:manufactured in Asia. And COVID hit four months later, right after we put our deposit down on a
Unknown:manufacturer out there, and it was a mess. You know, honorable Jimmy berada, we, we had to thread
Unknown:you know, claim that we were going to start illegal suit, which, as you're well aware, is
Unknown:nearly impossible as someone in the US working with someone in the backwoods of China. I'm sure
Unknown:they can bring it on. They did until I was, you know, persistent. And I think, you know, this
Unknown:persistence that you know, of going in our garage and building the unit, and then the persistence
Unknown:and trying to find a manufacturer, I have no experience finding manufacturers. But going over
Unknown:going over China, I did not go to China, although I had planned to at the time. But searching in
Unknown:China and working with people overseas and being persistent and demanding answers, I think are all
Unknown:like important, important lessons to learn for anyone getting started anything. But anyway, we
Unknown:ended up getting some of our money back. And I started exploring manufacturers in the in the US
Unknown:anywhere from just like sheetmetal workers to furniture makers and furniture designers to other
Unknown:people manufacturing soundproof booths, as well as Dalton had some contacts within like the audio
Unknown:engineering, music recording space, which you would think makes a ton of sense. But you know,
Unknown:it's not easy to navigate that market, especially if you don't have an existing network and you
Unknown:don't have an engineering background and know exactly what you're looking for. So we had
Unknown:hundreds of conversations with different manufacturers. And we ended up working we found a
Unknown:company of very niche soundproof booth manufacturer up in Canada. And I'm happy to
Unknown:disclose their name. It's called one to six design they are incredible to work with. If anyone's ever
Unknown:looking for help in you know, either design or making a product. Like I'll be the first to
Unknown:recommend these guys. Go ahead and try to make another game or pod. It's not that easy. But, you
Unknown:know, these guys had experience with building out a custom soundproof booth. They invented their
Unknown:product, which is called loop it's like a mid century modern soundproof booth for like, a
Unknown:really, you know, classy but eclectic. Uh, office environment, really cool, but also not integrated
Unknown:with any technology. And these guys, you know, it's a very small team, we really didn't want to
Unknown:work with any big corporation that would come in and undercut us and, you know, take our idea and
Unknown:try to run with it. So we signed a contract with those guys to design help us design the unit, and
Unknown:then obviously, you know, make it into manufacturing, blueprints and manufacture. So we
Unknown:kind of told them, you know, here's what we showed them what we met, built in the garage, which was a
Unknown:mess, and kind of a hard starting point. But then we, you know, they were awesome, we gave them all
Unknown:the features we were looking to incorporate. And we gave them kind of the field that we were
Unknown:looking to, you know, to, for the units to have in the environment that the user was to experience
Unknown:once they entered. And they kind of took our notes and our pictures of our existing unit. And just
Unknown:some, like, inspiration, photos that we pulled off the internet of like, fields that we liked. And
Unknown:they gave us a bunch of different concepts. And then we picked one and kind of branched off made a
Unknown:shit ton of iterations. And that's how we ended up in our design. Same what's the
Paul Dawalibi:I don't know if you can say, but like, what's the target price of sub one of the
Paul Dawalibi:one game or pod?
Unknown:Yeah, so our manufacturing price we targeted was $5,000. And we didn't end up hitting
Unknown:it, especially at the low quantity. Like obviously, we couldn't go in order 100 of these
Unknown:which a volume play in this perspective, with all the different components as you guys would know,
Unknown:you know, seriously reduce the price. But the number that we were throwing out there in the
Unknown:market, as we were trying to manufacture these was $5,000.
Paul Dawalibi:And it's the idea that they they ship fully assembled, or they have to be assembled
Paul Dawalibi:on site. Yeah, so initially, we
Unknown:wanted them to be fully assembled. But our kind of first target market was, you know,
Unknown:like the esports center land center. And as you guys know, a lot of these are in strip malls or a
Unknown:basement in the city, and they don't have loading docks, they don't have double doors to load
Unknown:through. So we ended up going with like a flat pack model, which also kind of helped them from a
Unknown:shipping perspective, reduce the cost of shipping a little bit. But it adds that it's kind of just
Unknown:like give or take, it adds that annoyance of trying to assemble the
Paul Dawalibi:and what did you learn from that first, like you because you mentioned you were
Paul Dawalibi:installed right in this lane center. Maybe talk about some of the things you learned from that
Paul Dawalibi:installation, right, good or bad? Like, what were some of the findings there?
Unknown:Well, the first one was definitely measured the space before you go to install a unit
Unknown:we ended up having it's a tight space for them. So we ended up having to try out a couple of
Unknown:different locations within their shop, until we found a space that it's in a basement. So there's
Unknown:like piping and everything like that. So we had to avoid all that stuff. What else do I learned?
Paul Dawalibi:Like in terms of maybe usage in terms of, you know, what the reaction to it was?
Paul Dawalibi:Like, I don't know what kind of data you were collecting, specifically, but curious, like what
Paul Dawalibi:the findings were?
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, I think user experience is huge. Right now there isn't software that exists
Unknown:in the market that you can just go and click and start streaming, and it recognizes, you know, your
Unknown:webcam and your mic, and all that stuff. And generally, you know, this is a all these kids are
Unknown:very familiar with with gaming, right, but they're not super familiar with OBS software. And, you
Unknown:know, setting up all the peripherals and balancing their sound and all that all that good stuff. So
Unknown:it really ended up being an exercise in education, we found ourselves there a lot, you know, helping
Unknown:the users out. And that's something that we learned is, hey, maybe there's more opportunity
Unknown:here to develop something that is just kind of like a sit down and click Go type of scenario. So
Unknown:that was probably the biggest thing. And then, like I said, at that point, we had the PC still
Unknown:inside the unit. And now kids would come out that come out of that unit drenched, so we had to
Unknown:figure out a solution for that.
Unknown:User Experience, obviously being so important to future iterations of the product as well as what
Unknown:the end consumer is going to look like. Because right, so you had mentioned earlier schools,
Unknown:you're talking about this basement in Chinatown, and other land centers. So where are you guys
Unknown:finding success? And what are the users saying now that you have a highly polished and finished
Unknown:product versus the earlier stages of learnings?
Unknown:Yeah, it's interesting. We thought we would put this unit out there and it would just be like
Unknown:okay, but it's clean. We're done. On, we think we hit everything and that and, you know, that really
Unknown:hasn't been the case, we've now placed five units, since we finished our first round manufacturing of
Unknown:the new version that you guys see, at the end of February. And, you know, it takes some time to
Unknown:ship these from Canada, especially with the shipping strikes that were occurring up there last
Unknown:couple months, but nevertheless, you know, we found some issues with installing the units and
Unknown:assembling the units. These are obviously, you know, we like to compare him to assembling a, you
Unknown:know, an Ikea dresser, which can take five or six hours. But what we didn't consider is, you know,
Unknown:these are really heavy, the glass, I mean, it's, I don't know, a quarter inch thick glass, those
Unknown:things weigh 100 plus pounds, and they're awkward. So we found that it wasn't as quite as easy to
Unknown:install as we had originally planned. So that was like the one the one big thing that we found so
Unknown:far. And then, you know, obviously, you have complaints from customers, no matter how
Unknown:successful your businesses, but we did have some questions around the level of soundproofing in the
Unknown:units. And, quite frankly, our units will reduce sound up to 20 decibels, which you guys being in
Unknown:in the, you know, the sound content space, but pretty damn significant. So a lot of it again, is
Unknown:like educating the customer, it's a new product in a brand new market, we're, you know, we didn't
Unknown:iterate off of anything else. We're the first to be doing this, we're the only ones to be doing
Unknown:this. And you know, being able to educate the customer on sound proofing and and what that
Unknown:means, you know, doesn't mean you're in a sound vacuum, right? You're not going up into space. And
Unknown:for you to reduce sound, there has to be outside sound. So someone might say, Hey, I'm in a quiet
Unknown:room, Sam's inside the unit, and I'm standing outside, you know, Scott, or whoever is outside of
Unknown:the unit, and he can hear me talking and I'm like, Well, you're in a completely soundless
Unknown:environment, of course, you're gonna hear it. But you know, we sent our prototype unit of this
Unknown:model, we sent it to the esports awards back in October of last year. And it was sitting in the in
Unknown:like the VIP activation space. And we had people going in and playing. I forget when I played a
Unknown:game of like slither io or something just to like, demonstrate the soundproofing. And it was
Unknown:incredibly loud outside of the unit. And it just felt like, at that time, it felt like you're
Unknown:walking into a vacuum. Because you guys know, you need to stand outside for it to reduce any SAP. If
Unknown:there's no sound, what are you going to reduce? Right? Same? Where
Paul Dawalibi:do you think it sounds like you you've been very focused on North America, the US?
Paul Dawalibi:Are there global markets that you're looking at where you think there may be huge opportunity for
Paul Dawalibi:a product specifically, like game or pod? Like? Are there markets that you have in mind that you
Paul Dawalibi:think are going to be very target rich for you guys?
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Asia, obviously, they have a massive gaming culture out
Unknown:there. And, and the interesting thing there is, I don't think the streaming numbers are quite as
Unknown:like, from a ratio the streamers to gamers isn't quite as high as it is in North America. Now, if
Unknown:you look at Europe, that's kind of what our next market that we're looking to capture. It's a
Unknown:little bit more of a sophisticated, it's not like the right, the right word, but it just makes a lot
Unknown:more sense for us, the facilities that they're building, make a lot more sense to house our
Unknown:units, and then the airports and whatnot. You know, when we start to launch our remote access
Unknown:model, we think there'll be a lot more receptive to you know, to our housing our units.
Paul Dawalibi:I mean, the remote access model is interesting especially for a place like China
Paul Dawalibi:these days right? They could they could lock the doors after right a certain number either lock the
Paul Dawalibi:kids or lock them in after they shouldn't be playing the airport's interesting I definitely can
Paul Dawalibi:see that malls I think very interesting right? Because they're always struggle for traffic foot
Paul Dawalibi:traffic. Yeah, thing that drives that
Unknown:and they're looking to gaming right now. malls are really looking into gaming. I mean,
Unknown:they've we've been approached and like I don't know how much you guys have dove into that but
Unknown:they're reaching out to esports centers and land centers trying to get them to, you know, to open
Unknown:shops, they're paying them to use the space. It's actually crazy for me to hear.
Unknown:So we know you're a startup Sambo, obviously you're all over the place already. esports awards
Unknown:is awesome. Awesome, too. demonstrate in front of, you know, a community that gets it. Where can we
Unknown:go today and see this? You know, are you in any airports? Currently? I know, you mentioned that
Unknown:that's a spot that you want to capture. Where can our listeners go today and try you guys out in
Unknown:real life?
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, they're, they're kind of few and far between right now, given we just launched this,
Unknown:you know, this new version, we do have a unit at belong esports center in Tennessee, and we're
Unknown:looking to get more units launched across their facilities there, they have big plans to open, you
Unknown:know, hundreds of esports centers across the country. So they've been really great partners so
Unknown:far. And, you know, we see a long relationship with those guys. Another unit we have that's being
Unknown:sent out right now is to eat bash, which is in Indiana, another esports center, we have a unit
Unknown:with a big corporate partner, who I can't necessarily mention right now they are public. So
Unknown:I got to kind of stay away from that. And then we have two units that are kind of our proof of
Unknown:concept in the university setting, that have had great reception. And they're at Temple University,
Unknown:which is my alma mater. So they were, they've been super supportive, and in letting us try out units
Unknown:there. And those are being used kind of in a different capacity. They're outside of their
Unknown:esports Center, which they have big esports program, but they're sitting in their, you know,
Unknown:several 1000, computer computer lab, right at the entrance, and they're being used for, you know,
Unknown:not only gaming, but maybe even more so for attending online classes and doing online
Unknown:presentations given there's that big shift away from in person schooling.
Paul Dawalibi:Yeah, I was gonna ask, what is the difference in the pitch to the universities?
Paul Dawalibi:Right,
Unknown:it is, does
Paul Dawalibi:this replace? Or is this sort of a solution for schools looking to put esports
Paul Dawalibi:facilities in? And maybe it's a lower cost solution? Or is this in addition to whatever
Paul Dawalibi:current esports facilities they have?
Unknown:Yeah, I mean, I think all of the above, which, you know, we have been approached to put
Unknown:these in esports facilities. Now, I think universities are at very different stages across
Unknown:the board of of getting on board with esports. And gaming. You know, you have some like Temple, who
Unknown:have a dedicated computer lab for esports are Harrisburg University, just to name a few in in
Unknown:Pennsylvania, and then you have universities that do not want to touch it with a 10, that 10 foot
Unknown:pole. So for the universities that are, you know, all on board for esports, yet we we are looking to
Unknown:place these in their actual esports facilities, because we know those students are looking for a
Unknown:place to do their live streaming, given, you know, live streaming, and content creation is a viable
Unknown:career path at this point, which many people are in denial, but it is incredibly viable. You guys
Unknown:don't have much excuse to
Paul Dawalibi:share. I mean, I'm sure you've seen this, that they pulled a bunch of high school
Paul Dawalibi:students in the US, or I think it was all in the US. And the number one career choice, like in 2022
Paul Dawalibi:was ever, like the majority want to be YouTubers. That's like the number one career choice. So I
Paul Dawalibi:definitely see that same what's, what is the thing that keeps you up at night with the business? Like
Paul Dawalibi:what's the what is the biggest challenge for you going forward.
Unknown:Um, what keeps me up at night, I think the fact that we're probably a few years ahead of
Unknown:the market with our product, I don't think the product or the market is necessarily in a maturity
Unknown:level that it can one afford our, our product, and two, it hasn't quite built the customer base, the
Unknown:we wouldn't need to really sustain the profit levels that we would like to sustain. So right now
Unknown:it's a matter of enduring, you know, not hitting the sales targets that we'd really like to be
Unknown:hitting at this point, especially with, you know, the additional product iterations that we're
Unknown:looking to develop. And, you know, I'm kind of an inventor at this point is what I consider myself
Unknown:in the space. So, you know, we have probably three or four other products that we're just, you know,
Unknown:chomping at the bit to really flesh out and, and launch across the industry.
Unknown:Are these products that are extensions or added on services to game or pod? Are these separate
Unknown:businesses? Because this is the question I wanted to ask was, you know, as a startup, and as you
Unknown:mentioned, being ahead of the market, you know, how are what are the mechanisms that you're
Unknown:employing, extend your burn, to keep yourselves in business longer and find that right timing? And
Unknown:part of that I was going to ask was, yeah, do you have a chase? Some services or products I've
Unknown:loved, you're already thinking that way. But what can you share about that?
Unknown:Yeah, we're working with a company to develop that software that I spoke of earlier, which is, you
Unknown:know, one making our units remote access, where we can place them in, you know, it's a lot easier for
Unknown:us to convince a facility to place those units, because they don't have to drop, you know, eight
Unknown:$9,000 for one or two of our units, that we can just say, hey, we'll do a revenue share model with
Unknown:a small security deposit. And, you know, we'll maintain the software and the hardware within the
Unknown:unit. So that's kind of how we see, you know, the long play for our game recon units as they exist
Unknown:now. Beyond that, you know, we have a couple iterations, the prop of the product, one being a
Unknown:unit that makes a lot more sense, direct to consumer. So if Paul wanted to buy a unit, we're
Unknown:working on a product where you can convert your existing desk into a more soundproof space,
Unknown:especially with gift, you know, with people working from home, especially in the content
Unknown:creation space. And getting older and starting families and the cost of housing going up and
Unknown:moving people into you know, renting and being in apartments. You know, space is a commodity at this
Unknown:point. So turning existing space into a more soundproof environment, we think, is a massive
Unknown:opportunity. And then beyond that worth, and you have a few products that additionally allow for
Unknown:the existing streamer, to be on the go right now they're trapped to their gaming station, or if
Unknown:they're related to an org, like 100 Thieves, you know, of course, if they're in LA, they can use
Unknown:their compound. But what if they're in Chicago? You know, what if they're in an even smaller town,
Unknown:you know, so we're working on a product that allows them to bring their, their stuff with them,
Unknown:that peripherals, their PC, and it pops up into a more soundproofing environment. And then beyond
Unknown:that, just other soundproofing related products. I mean, we think that there's no one in the market
Unknown:right now that's really owning the soundproofing within the gaming community or the gaming
Unknown:industry. So you know, we're working on developing some products to make that more accessible.
Paul Dawalibi:Now there's there's a ton of ways you could innovate both on the product side but
Paul Dawalibi:also business model, right like making it a club so you can use any game or pod anywhere in the
Paul Dawalibi:world or things like that, like that. I see a lot of directions you can take this guy's this time
Paul Dawalibi:has flown by here, I want to make sure we get in everyone's favorite new segment, which is Judge
Paul Dawalibi:Jimmy brought us cross examination here. For those of you who are new, what basically this is, is
Paul Dawalibi:Jimmy's gonna ask a few questions rapid fire style, Sam's gonna give us quick answers. And the
Paul Dawalibi:idea is to get to know our guests a little bit better who they are as people and as gamers. So
Paul Dawalibi:Jimmy, take it away.
Unknown:All right, Sam, don't know no pressure here. Quick and easy. First question, what is your
Unknown:favorite game snack or drink?
Unknown:Well, I eat a lot of protein bars at this point. So I don't like to step away from the PC or from
Unknown:my Xbox. So I usually reach to my right and grab usually a Gatorade protein bar, which if you
Unknown:haven't had those, there five
Paul Dawalibi:sounds healthy.
Unknown:They're pretty sugary.
Unknown:You know, we talked a good amount about you know, your D one soccer scholarship right to temple. If
Unknown:you could go back to school, knowing what you know now and doing what you do now. What class or major
Unknown:would you pursue?
Unknown:Yeah, I probably would have gotten into computer science, or advertising and marketing. I think
Unknown:those provide you with some invaluable skills, whether you go the Business Route, or you know,
Unknown:specifically into those fields.
Paul Dawalibi:I almost forgot my bell. I love that answer.
Unknown:Go ahead, Jimmy. Next question. What's your favorite video game of all time?
Unknown:Of all time, if it's easy, I get a number of hours that I played and easily Halo three it was kind of
Unknown:it was a problem. Yeah, that's probably what
Paul Dawalibi:you'd call that the greatest game ever.
Unknown:I probably would not call it the greatest game ever.
Paul Dawalibi:Because your favorite game is pretty awesome now.
Unknown:I think I think a lot of our listeners have a lot hours spent on that one as well. What
Unknown:about what about what you currently play?
Unknown:I played too much apex and they still hanging out on Rocket League. I was a little late to the
Unknown:party. Be on Rocket League. But then the the low barrier to entry and the high skill ceiling just
Unknown:makes that game so addicting.
Unknown:Let's see, we'll get you one more to get out of here. You know you'd mentioned execute see,
Unknown:obviously, you build a product for creators who's your favorite creator to watch or your favorite
Unknown:esports order team.
Unknown:Um, that's really difficult because I watch a lot a lot of X QC. It's really hard to go from x. I
Unknown:mean, he is really good. I'm someone that I've kind of discovered, well, I guess, you know, the
Unknown:apex community knows him. But this guy called Mandy ma N D. He's on a team called scars in
Unknown:Europe. But I like to think of him as kind of a mini XQ. See, and maybe the next one to come up.
Unknown:So Mark my words there.
Unknown:They have to check them out. Thanks, Sam. That's all the questions on the cross. So thank you.
Paul Dawalibi:Awesome. Appreciate you guys having me. Sam, for our listeners, how can they find you
Paul Dawalibi:follow you keep up to date with what gamer pods doing? Like where do you want to be found or
Paul Dawalibi:followed?
Unknown:I mean, first, check out our website. Gamer pod.com. That's Gam, our pod.com You can see
Unknown:our current product. As far as social media goes, you can kind of bust Dalton's balls on not posting
Unknown:enough. But you can find us on Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok at gamer pod.
Paul Dawalibi:Very cool. I you know, I always love innovation in places where you don't see a
Paul Dawalibi:lot of innovation. And so, you know, I really hope this is a huge success. I kind of want one for my
Paul Dawalibi:house, my office. So we'll have to figure that one out. But love what you guys are doing. Definitely
Paul Dawalibi:everyone should go check it out. Gamer pod.com. And that's Gam our hud.com. That takes us to the
Paul Dawalibi:end of this week's episode, guys, just a couple of reminders. We do a live stream every Wednesday
Paul Dawalibi:evening. 8:30pm Eastern time. It's a lot of fun. All the industry news from the week all the
Paul Dawalibi:esports and gaming news from the week. We cover it live. We do it with a bigger cast. We take your
Paul Dawalibi:questions you can get in our faces, you can challenge us it's a lot of fun. Every Wednesday
Paul Dawalibi:8:30pm Eastern time we stream it everywhere. YouTube, LinkedIn Twitch, I mean trovo for God's
Paul Dawalibi:sakes, like it's literally streamed everywhere. And also make sure to follow us everywhere you get
Paul Dawalibi:our content, you can find business of esports content on tick tock on Instagram on YouTube. Our
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Paul Dawalibi:let us know how much you love the podcast guys. Don't forget to go leave that five star rating and
Paul Dawalibi:review. Sam, thank you so much, Jimmy. Thank you as always, guys, thank you all for listening.
Paul Dawalibi:Don't forget the future is fun. We'll see you next week.
Announcer:Thanks for listening to the business of esports podcast. Check us out at the business of
