Building New Jersey's Tech Ecosystem: Insights from Aaron Price

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[Music]


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all right what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of greetings from the Garden State powered by the New Jersey Lottery I'm your host Mike ham


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we're here in Hoboken New Jersey today with the CEO of tech United New Jersey Aaron Price Aaron welcome to the show thanks for having me Mike good to be


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with you absolutely so uh this co-working space that we're in it's pretty cool we got a little podcast Studio we don't always I think you know


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this like we don't really ever record in a studio yeah um great that this was kind of like a boo mics type of Studio


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but it's cool like it's you know the sounds good it's going to like look great this is a legit setup shout out to


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SWV hobok in the working space that uh the headquarters of of tech United so we did we're a tech organization is a very


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Tech forward space so it's a good it's a good fit for us yeah for sure and I we're going to do this again anyway but


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uh do you live locally to the Hoboken area I do I do I didn't I didn't expect


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that I would be uh in Hoboken so many years I moved here uh like a lot of people do sort of it was a little bit


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after college but when I was much younger yeah um now I'm like 150 um I've got two young daughters we


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raise them here it's it's it's a great place to be we bike around we're on the waterfront a lot we run into people walking everywhere so it's it's uh


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there's a strong tight-knit Community feel in Hoboken that I've been really drawn to yeah for sure and you know with


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you know we just finished uh we just did Jersey Fest a couple weeks ago and like spending a lot of time congrats on that


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thank you I appreciate that uh it was awesome we had a great time looked awesome sorry I couldn't be there I


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wanted to it's all right next time we already have a date set for 2025 so we'll make sure we get you we will be there yeah um but spending time like in


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Jersey City in this area I mean not that I I've been here quite a bit before that but just last few months it's been like


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we got a good thing going out here right it is pretty cool like the food scene's great the you know the people are great


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um it's just a Cool vibe you know and some I mean I think Jersey City which you kind of start like lumping different


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areas together I think it's like one of the top like at one point was voted one of the top five food cities in the


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country yeah which is pretty you you may have mentioned this cuz you do a lot more of this stuff but the best pizza in


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New York city is in Jersey City that's true like as I think the I think timeout New York yeah is you know I'm not just


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making that no no it's a real a real thing yeah yeah we love that you know we get a bad rap over here but we we think we can hang I know it's we only get a


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bad rap from people that just like don't know what we're all about you know like they come in they fly in and then


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they're you know getting on the turnpike right outside the the airport there and that's what they see which I get doesn't


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look great but it's you know you know when we talked when we talked with uh Wes at shoes he explained why that


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Corridor is one of the most important corridors in the state you know and it was pretty pretty cool to kind of look


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at it through a different lens but anyway we're here to talk about you so we could talk about anybody I know yeah I like Wes also also Hoboken resident


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yes that's true I just had lunch with Wes last week actually um so yeah we'll shout out Wes Matthews from Cho uh but


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let's talk a little bit about uh kind of what you do um let's do like a little bit of a background sure so people kind


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of understand who you are and then we'll get into the tech United stuff and propelify and everything else uh are you


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a jersey guy like born and raised yeah born and raised went went to Milbourne High School oh okay um been an


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entrepreneur my entire life started my first real business with my brother in Milbourne high school we we patented a


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weightlifting device um interesting we used to be able well we used to be able to do lots of pull-ups


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and dips and so we wanted to add more resistance to our bodies and so we we invented this thing called the body weight plus which allows you to add


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weight to your body the body weight and body weight plus sure and so uh that was my I I'm a lifelong entreprene that was


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my first real business business we sold Caribbean or keychains so I'm I'm 46 so this was in you know I was in high


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school in '92 to '96 yeah to raise money to pay for the patent I sold Carabiner keychains which were super popular then


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although they they still have some love today yeah of course um so I sold those to my friends to raise the money for the


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the legal fees which we um we were able to sell a lot of those things that might have been a better business it turns out


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because it turns out most people can't do uh pull-ups and dips with their own body weight their own natural resistance


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I'm one of them yeah you know I know that for sure and so uh what's what we didn't know the term at the time but the


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total addressable market for that product was very small but we had a lot of fun I've been doing entrepreneurial stuff and mostly in Tech ever since yeah


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what uh so I mean you start this this business with your brother like what was it just because you had a need and


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you're like hey we want to do just like increase the weight kind of thing yeah um like parents family were there


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entrepreneurship from there or like how'd you figure it out I think this comes the entrepreneurship gene or


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entrepreneurial Gene comes more from my mom my dad is a was a doctor um my parents were super supportive of the


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entrepreneurial um I don't even want to say itch like it's in my DNA like the


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pursuit of Entrepreneurship and the risk that comes along with it they've always been super uh supportive which makes a


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huge difference yeah but um for me the motivation was owning my destiny there


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is that's a that's a fallacy because there as you know and I'm sure


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continuing to learn there are um it's easier to have a normal a day


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job is a n it's much easier it's much I mean it's there are different things that people are unhappy with sure uh


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some similar but it is you know you leave the you leave work and you're not worried about whether you're going to make payroll or pay your mortgage or


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whatever I me you may be worried about those things for other reasons but not about your steady paycheck and and other areas that come with that and so anyway


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we maybe we'll get into that but the the I've always been interested in having control of my time and having


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sort of the opportunity to create things and have the upside associated with


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creating value and so that's been the draw that's evolved in many interesting ways but that was the root of it in the


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beginning yeah that's really interesting and then from there you said it was Tech really after that like what were those


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first few things that you were kind of getting involved with and yeah when ENT excuse me the entrepreneurship side of


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the tech world so I was always the guy that was brainstorming what if we do


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this and wouldn't it be cool if that with with friends in college and with you know a lot of the people in my fraternity I was like the guy people


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would come to with like hey what do you think about this thing yeah um my my the person who I was randomly paired with to


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be my roommate freshman year who's still to this day probably my best friend uh he and I started something called


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deliver you in 1990 either 7 or '98 it we're not sure the exact starting point but it's one of the first if not the


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first we're not there's some debate in the among those of us who started this this industry one of the first online


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food ordering services so uh the ability to actually order food online and have


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that order get transmitted to a local restaurant was something that we were doing at at the University of Maryland in 98 when most people still had dialup


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we did you know universities had T1 lines which is what we used um we were faxing orders into local restaurants the


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number one question I would get from restaurant owners when I would walk in the door not even question feedback is like ah no one's going to want to order


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food online that's crazy yeah and I'm like the world is changing and sure there are so if you think about the


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restaurant industry then and even still now but especially then limited resources so the ability to


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get a printed order uh of you know so for for accuracy issues made a lot of sense out a college campus there's a


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huge influx of certain times of day right um especially late at night for lots of reasons but course know people


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are out having coca-colas and and they get hungry and so you know listen I've had my Sheriff so uh coca-colas for sure


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and so anyway it was it was a great run we were processing uh a few thousand orders a month by the time we graduated pursued that for a few years sold it


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great learned an enormous amount we you know we'll see where this conversation goes but a really exciting time to be


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involved in Tech it was like just the beginnings of where the web was going and uh it was a really great experience


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and I've been doing you know we can talk about some of these things but I've been basically pursuing how does technology


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impact society and where are there opportunities for for Change and impact and disruption ever since yeah what was


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there like um uh I mean obviously like 97 98 like I mean I was seven eight


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years old and just try to like you know message with uh like on AIM messenger D


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AOL IM that was my I I still own aim.com which was more commonly called aim but


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yeah wow that's pretty cool yeah uh but I think like that was just kind of like you know I mean what were were we doing


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like really nothing nothing of significance really but exploring kind of how you know the web works and and


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all that kind of stuff and was there like a like when you obviously doing the entrepreneurialship stuff that was like


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a really new thing and at the time I feel like a lot of people were just like it's not going to be it's not going to


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stick which I mean obviously now like just look at what we're surrounded by I mean it's stuck it's stuck for sureck


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yeah like was the thing that kind of like clicked for you when it came to Tech or like you know whether it's you


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know web- based ordering or some of the other stuff that you could that you got uh yourself into as scale the idea that


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that you could have a world first a few things one is you could have a global reach from anywhere in the world which


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uh you know ironically I run an organization focused on New Jersey we're talking about New Jersey and we'll come back to the New Jersey opportunity here


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but I was immediately drawn to the idea that you could put something out literally to the world from you know a


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computer in the dorm room in University of Maryland which is where I was at the time um and I remember a specific moment


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where it kind of dawned on me that you could be I think the example in my head was I could be if I wanted to start a


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Best Buy competitor I need to acquire enormous amounts of real estate around the country yeah and have a physical


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store in all of these geographies but if I owned best buy.com or if I was opening


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a competitor to Best Buy not literally best buy.com but if I was if I wanted to launch an online version of this I could


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have the exact same size of a footprint and compete with a Best Buy type


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organization just with a domain like you don't have hundreds or thousands of those retail spots and I mean which sort


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of sounds silly almost to to vocalize now but the idea that you could it was it was you the same starting point


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obviously you need enormous set of resources like you know it's not just the domain yeah yeah yeah but as far as


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user acquisition goes and your ability to have a massive impact and and to generate scalable outcomes um I I I just


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was massively drawn to the possibilities that existed because um the internet gives you that kind of sort of uh even


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playing field yeah so and then the I also then and and and and even still now


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very much believe in in a global economy and uh there's complicated political


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matters around how you know the idea of Outsourcing jobs but I you know we we've been hiring from in New Jersey and


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around the world I've been doing that like around that time of 1998 yeah um and again the web makes some of these


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things possible for a long time uh another business I was working on was the landing the homepage on what was


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then Elance and that was upwork.com because we were hiring a lot of people from around the world and it it


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we we couldn't have afforded local labor and so this gave us opportunities to work with people everywhere and they


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were hugely grateful for those opportunities and now we put a lot of that back into the local economy but for me the web represents that sort of you


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know just the the and even it's even now has changed a lot so but at the time it


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was very very raw it was like Craigslist and sure it was a whole different world yeah and so I I just I've always been


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really drawn to that yeah that's that's interesting and so when what was the name of the food delivery service deliver you deliver you so from there to


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Tech United yeah we'll get into that in a second um we a lot of the you know entrepreneurial things that you kind of


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got yourself involved in between that stretch of time based was that all of them okay every so I I won't go into all


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the stories but the highlights are uh deliver you we exited that took some


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time started something called ebles I sold excess inventory online mostly turned into Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts um was able to sell that took some


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time off my wife was working in Johnson and Johnson shout out to another New Jersey base company right big F of them


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uh she had an opportunity to go to Shanghai for a year so she and I went to to China for a year which was super


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awesome that's cool uh that the best the best title I've ever had in my career which is trailing spouse that should be


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your goal be a trailing spouse especially for J&J they take care of stuff sure living in China was super


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cheap they paid for everything it was amazing just a good time that was just a good part of our Lives sure um came back


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and started a communitybased business focused on that DIY that I learned about from affordables like the the Hardley


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guys were fixing their stuff and sharing photos so we started a community for them to share things that didn't really work out there were a few others and and


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the theme that brings us to where we are today is it was very lonely there were not a lot of people doing this kind of


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work and so most of my friends were doing what was at the time much more


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traditional professional careers and Entrepreneurship comes with lots of challenges what there's a guy named


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Steve blank who who wrote a book called the uh four steps to Epiphany which is about the technology and


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startup the industry talks about about the the like these big Peaks and then


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the trough of sorrow and you live in that trough of Sorrow for a long time and then there might be some big peak and then there's this you know then


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you're working really hard things don't go your way but you know if you stay if you have the staying power you can often not always but often figure it out it's


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a very challenging career path yeah so uh and I I really hadn't found any sense of community at all I I mean at one


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point I had a warehouse in West New York um no windows worked with mostly um like


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high school kids after school processing inventory and I remember having this moment like what the hell am I doing um


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and I found this New York startup Community very early on and for the F literally for the first time I was in


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the room thinking I was at a startup week in New York the first one in New York City and I was like these people


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see the world the way that I do yeah um and understand issues that I've been dealing with and get just as excited


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about some new like database thing that comes out that I've been like thinking about or working on that none of my


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peers or or like friends they just it wasn't what they were doing yeah and uh


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it's it's helpful for you know sharing ideas it's helpful for you to save time and not making the same mistakes that


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somebody else has just been through the the last few years of their own career I made some fantastic friends who I still have today and so anyway get getting


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involved in the New York Community I I started going to lots of events in New York City I was kind of tired of going


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to that side of the river and I was like maybe I could start something in you know my backyard which was Hoboken um I


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started what was originally called the hob Tech meet up just to do literally to Bar two blocks from here that was then


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called Trinity it's no longer there but um hoped I could bring in Founders to talk about what we were working on the


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the format was three startups would pitch 30 minutes of networking and a featured speaker well 30 minutes of


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networking three startups in the speaker with that all three of those things in one night often meetups are one of those things and I was like let's just get


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this all done at once right and uh to my surprise that just took on a life of its own it wasn't intended to be a business


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but it sort of turned into a nonprofit of its own we changed the name to the New Jersey Tech Meetup uh it's still the


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one of the largest groups of entrepreneurs in New Jersey besides Tech United 9,000 members in there built my


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network out and inspired the idea for a much much larger event which is the propelify Innovation Festival happens to


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be coming up this June 27th as we we host on the waterfront in Hoboken and and that event is 5,000 entrepreneurs


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all things Tech we can we can get into that but this whole thing started with you know serving a need that I had which was I need a community of people to


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share what I'm working on and if you think about all the infrastructure that exists at using a place like Johnson and


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Johnson yeah besides the income that you know a steady paycheck and the benefits that come along with the compensation


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side of the things there's a social component that happens at a at a so-called normal job around meeting your


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peers and talking through what are you working on and what are some of your Ambitions and hey who wants to go to the holiday party and anybody want to go to happy hour right and automatically have


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something in common who like work at the same place yeah you similar interest you


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know especially the larger company there's like classes of people meaning classes of of start dates um not in


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hierarchy so much but then you sort of Ascend together and and there's a camaraderie to it when you're an


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entrepreneur and you're working on a small business it might just be you there's none of that social stuff there's none of that I didn't have


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holiday parties for like a decade none of that right um and so the the the idea


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of a community in my case it was through this meetup group and other things that got involved with brought a lot of that social piece that was missing from the


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from the day the the the day job so to speak um and so for me it really brought


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a sense of community by the way quick side note um venmo was one of was


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pitched at our very first New Jersey Tech meet up oh wow and we just recently pulled the deck and we were looking at


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it and just so we've had a lot of those go through not many companies you've definitely never heard of but we had


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some real Superstars come through and it's it's been fantastic yeah talk to me a little bit about um New Jersey


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you know cuz you do the one in New York and then obviously you start the one in hobok and then it grows to um you know


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like the whole the whole state really um then you know what tech United is and all that kind of stuff and how like from


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your perspective the level of I mean you mentioned you know like venmo being pitch at the very first one but just


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like the level of um I don't know if sophistication is the right word maturity maybe maturity maybe of like


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the people that are involved in something like this um because like you know we've talked about it on the show already


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uh in the past and like we you know right now we're kind of in a stretch where we had you know Michael Johnson from NJ we've talked about the Helix we


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talked about we were just at heac maridian with Jose Lozano and we've done uh like this stuff with Wes at chws um


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Alex RoR at scitec city so we've done like a lot of stuff in the tech kind of you know higher level stuff that I think


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maybe the average new jerseyan may be unaware of um but you know there's more


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phds and Engineers that live here than any other place I think in the country or the world or whatever cap that's


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right um you know so talk about like the level of maturity of you know the people that are kind of coming through whether


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it's Tech United whether propelify like all the stuff that you're doing the people that you're interacting with absolutely so let me let me fin like


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finish the circle that of the how we got here and then I'll address that specifically so the the New Jersey Tech Meetup explodes from 2009 to 2016 I


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start the propelify Innovation Festival which is named after bringing together the community of people who Propel ideas


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into action there are a lot of people who have ideas and they s on the sign lines and say hey wouldn't it be cool if


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and they never actually do it this is about people who Propel things into reality 2019 it gets acquired by what


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was the New Jersey Tech Council nonprofit trade group built to build uh The Innovation community in New Jersey


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very obviously based on what you've heard here very closely aligned to what had become my mission yeah and so it made a ton of sense for us to team up um


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board gave me a lot of leeway and thinking about the next chapter this organization including rebranding as Tech United New Jersey and so our


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mission is to inspire entrepreneurs innovators and instigators to build a better future for all and I want to


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highlight we've been talking about the Hoboken piece there's a there's a certainly a stronghold in Hoboken but we travel the state um and serve the state


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and the region at large getting back to the the the level of maturity of the New


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Jersey market so it's really it's interesting what's happening here um we


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do have the largest uh concentration of of uh phds and Engineers per capita than


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anywhere in the world we lose a lot of that talent to other markets in particular we lose a lot of the starts


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in the in the startup component to um other markets namely New York City and so we are working very very aggressively


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to keep those people here and that may that means that some of them live in New Jersey but they actually start their businesses in New York because they they


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see or think for a variety of reasons that there's a greater likelihood that they'll be successful there sure and so


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we are working on a variety of things to keep them here and we'll get into that but that's part of a main area of our


20:59
Focus as a bellweather to what that really looks like so roughly $30 billion of venture


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capitals invested into the New York City startup Community uh each year roughly 2


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point I think it's 2.8 billion let's his Round Up called 3 billion so just 10% of that amount that goes into New York goes


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into New Jersey we see that as an enormous problem yeah because if you can't get the starts they never grow


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into anything bigger and so we are like currently right now working on a bill to


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incentivize more Angel tax investment in New Jersey we're working on a bill to make it uh this is nuan and probably


21:36
most of your listeners don't care but there's a there's a um a stock qualification that the federal


21:42
government recognizes called qualified small business stock exemption so that if you make a if you raise money create


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a lot of jobs um and grow within a certain uh amount over I think it's in


21:53
five years some of your your founding stock is is tax exempt


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45 of the 50 states new jerse in the country recognize that on a state level New Jersey does not so we are advocating


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to make it so that that's a thing in fact Michael Johnson himself dealt with this personally when he exited his company yeah and and so does every other


22:11
New Jersey base founder so there are things like that that aren't helping the cause um so we you know we we're looking


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at some policy issues that we think make Financial sense we're also there's a social piece to this yeah in places like


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hobok and Jersey City Asbury Park you know you're seeing this unfold and and certainly will do so more at in new


22:31
Bruno at the Helix um in I don't know if I mentioned Princeton but there are lots


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of Grassroots level activity needs to happen on sort of that Meetup level that then bubbles up to hey why don't we


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start a thing and I met a guy he's got an idea and we're you know that whole like we're working on an idea in a garage yeah is often not a literal


22:47
garage but it is about bringing together people locally in small groups who are interested in


22:53
inspired around building ideas or they spin off from some other larger company go hey wouldn't it be cool if we did XYZ


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and so a lot of the activity of Tekken New Jersey is focused around how do we get those groups together and how do we Mentor people so that they don't make


23:05
the same mistakes that I and hundreds or thousands of other entrepreneurs made the first time we've built things um I


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think there's uh an enormous amount of grit culturally it sets us up for Success if we can invest in the


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entrepreneurs and the community of entrepreneurs I believe we can see that number that that sort of you know I talked about the the analogy of 10% of


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the Venture Capital like I see a path to getting us to 20 or 30% which is more in line with I think what what we should be


23:31
looking at yeah so when you're talking about you know like obviously you have a


23:36
a history of entrepreneurialism and and all that kind of stuff um


23:41
entrepreneurism or ship either one of those entrepreneur ship there we go thank you ship we one I talk for a


23:47
living uh but you know kind of watching the trajectory of New Jersey itself you know talk about stuff that you're


23:53
working on now to kind of keep uh entrepreneurs here people that are like you know keep the starts here like you


23:58
said um has there been a big change from like when you were first kind of


24:04
starting your stuff to now there has been a big change and the pandemic accelerated thinking yeah


24:12
um first I would say when I i' I mostly stayed out of the political arena for


24:19
all these years mostly on purpose um we've always invited the sitting Governor to uh


24:26
propelify politics aside we invited Chris Christie he did not respond or attend we've invited Governor Murphy he


24:34
has attended several times and and we've built a really strong relationship with the Murphy Administration and the Eda um


24:39
so regardless of what you think of of Murphy he is investing in this community and does show up and I think that really


24:45
matters and it's a signal to both the state and the country that you know leadership cares about this industry


24:51
there are areas I think where we differ on the best approach but it matters a lot that he's out there talking about


24:57
Innovation and Entrepreneurship and so um I think we're moving in the right


25:02
direction I think there's you know it's when you your original Point part of this question was you know the maturity


25:09
of the state we have all of the assets required for startups and Technology to


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thrive there's still a lot of I think unrealized potential and uh we we just


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want to make sure we can accelerate the adoption of what that potential is yeah yeah for sure um we're not going to take


25:27
a real break cuz I don't want to like ruin the flow of the conversation so just do a quick like this is the green


25:32
for the gar podcast just a reminder we're here with Aaron Price he's a CEO of tech United mikeam uh powered by the


25:37
New Jersey Lottery so we're talking about um your stuff we're talking about uh entrepreneurism in New Jersey we're


25:44
talking about let me interrupt you for a second because I think what you're doing and I'll I'll shout out the advertiser like the fact that New Jersey Lottery


25:50
supports this is really important and not I'm not saying it because I think people should go well great go buy lottery tickets or don't but here's why


25:57
part of the issue in New Jersey is awareness and in New York City when you


26:03
a startup Founder The Wall Street Journal and off and Forbes and others cover top 50 fintech startups in New


26:10
York yeah and that creates awareness which creates you know which ends up on landing pages which means when someone from like I know credential is like


26:17
let's make sure we're tracking the top 10 you know interesting fintech companies that we may acquire yeah those


26:22
articles show up and that feeds the economy so it's not just for the vanity of it it's not just for the fun of it


26:27
like in New Jersey I I won't name the names but the article the the public the


26:33
the uh journals that cover the starter Community are not the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and Forbes of


26:39
course so creating aware in fact we've had many of those editors at The propell Innovation festival and other events who


26:45
say yeah you know we we our beat doesn't allow literally verbatim our beat doesn't allow us to cover New Jersey


26:51
yeah I'll see if I can get the guy who does New Jersey to to pay attention but they they look at they usually talk about the politics they don't we don't


26:57
business for us as in New York yeah that's an enormous problem yeah so shout out to the New Jersey Lottery any of you


27:03
other totally um um sponsors because you you are uh giving uh giving a lot of uh


27:11
attention to what's going on in New Jersey and that that matters not just for the vanity of it but because it's


27:17
how we actually can drive some of these business issues so yeah quick aside I that's you didn't ask me to any of those


27:22
things but it matters that we tell these stories and that we create more awareness because people often are like what is even going on in New Jersey I


27:27
have no idea yeah it's interesting because um and we can go down this rabbit hole for a little bit but it's interesting like before I started this


27:34
show I did not really realize quite how fractured the like the media and like


27:39
you talk about the awareness and and everything like that was in New Jersey because you know you watch I remember


27:44
like my dad watching Morning News every morning and just like didn't click in my head that that was a New York uh based


27:50
station you know like and same thing if you start going South it's Philly based for you know the most part um you know


27:57
and even some of and again I won't name any because I'm not affiliated with any but um there's many New Jersey based you


28:05
know outlets for in a variety of of uh mediums that like they'll talk about


28:10
Eastern Long Long Island Getaway destinations and it's like we have an entire shoreline of places you can go to


28:16
and like stuff you're talking about with tech and and all these things like that's one of the stuff uh things that we talked about at lunch with West was


28:22
the awareness of you know all these things that are happening in New Jersey like scitec City and what Alex was


28:28
explaining to me about that it's like I can't even wrap my head around what that's going to look like but I'm excited about it but I don't think a lot


28:35
of people enough people really that's a better way to say it know about it you know and and just kind of like bringing


28:41
back you know uh taking back control a little bit of what the the narrative is and and what we're talking about and


28:48
what's actually happening here you know I think that that's a really important thing you know totally AG learned more


28:53
about that over the last two and a half years doing this show is that there's a piece missing there is a piece missing


28:59
and and a lot of us live in New Jersey or we drawn to a place like New Jersey for the proximity to New York New York's


29:04
a fantastic Market you know nothing bad to say about it it does suck up most of


29:09
the media attention and that is part of the issue that I think that you know we're talking about here and so so much


29:16
and I would say to your listeners like that doesn't mean that we need the Wall Street Journal necessarily to to you


29:21
know come knocking out our doorstep but the more that people can share with their friends and neighbors and family like there's all these interesting


29:27
things that does create awareness that matters it matters when you know when a startup is recruiting and people have


29:33
heard of the company or they've heard of the co-working space or they know that like it's Venture backed there's a trust


29:39
level that and a brand level that helps so a lot of that happens by default out of the gates in New York that we need


29:45
more support around in New Jersey yeah and I I I do think especially watching like I said like watching kind of How


29:51
It's evolved over the last couple years I do think it's kind of trending a little bit towards that whether it's


29:56
like this show or some other shows that you know but I think like it's just kind of you know like ringing the bell like


30:02
over and over and over again it's a long game for sure and I mean New York City's been New York City for while 150 years


30:10
like however long um you know so like obviously there's an uphill battle but you know I do think that it's it's not


30:17
not possible it's not it's very possible it's very possible it's very possible um okay thank you I appreciate that uh


30:23
let's talk about tech United a little bit more in depth like describe like what it is is um so people that are


30:29
listening like they've kind of got a little bit of a taste but maybe more like uh kind of rounded out a little bit


30:34
for people listening sure Tech United is a nonprofit Industry Group that advocates for not you to reate the


30:40
mission uh to empower entrepreneurs innovators and instigators to build a better future for all what that means is


30:47
we have some really large flashy events like The propelify Innovation Festival happening June 27th which this actually


30:53
to come out right before that fantastic so if you're listening then uh we we'll even make the coupon code Mike for a


31:00
free ticket for your listeners cool thank you um and we have an annual Awards event that actually happens to be


31:06
at White Eagle Hall this year oh great where you you hosted your event um that Rec it's called The Catalyst awards that


31:11
recognize leaders in business and Tech we have smaller events private events we you know we there's a lack of of


31:18
networking among Business Leaders in New Jersey so we host a series of seet dinners that are often you know some of


31:23
the largest company um some of the larger companies in New Jersey we bring some of those folks together it's shocking how few of them know one


31:29
another so that's helped drive again connectivity among the business Community um we have a mentorship group


31:35
for women and minority business leaders that helps again help them understand how they're building your businesses and prevent you know mistakes that people


31:42
like me and others have made um we've launched a high school uh aware entrepr


31:47
entrepreneurship program with a a new entity we started called better future Labs which I'll talk about but to again


31:53
to educate high schoolers in New Jersey about what does it mean to be an entrepreneur in technology that you can actually do this in your


31:59
own backyard and that there's a group of people who want to help you succeed yeah so and there there's more but the the


32:06
overall uh goal is or or programs are how can we advocate for New Jersey to


32:13
thrive how do we drive connectivity in the community whether it's you know you're solo first-time entrepreneur all the way up to you're the you know on my


32:19
board is the CEO of Verizon consumer sth if you if you've come across him but fantastic business leader um and and


32:26
everything in between so how do we create connectivity among those various stakeholders so that people can Thrive here and to be clear this isn't about


32:32
while I do love the Jersey Shore and the you know a lot of things about New Jersey sure I'm not in this role because I'm a die hard New Jersey person I'm in


32:39
this role because I believe in the value of community and that I believe in the in the in the business value that can


32:44
happen when organizations like ours can accelerate those relationships so if you are this is a real example if you are an


32:51
early stage company working on something that Verizon or PSG or hackin sack burning health or Barnabas or others are


32:57
interested in we have direct line of sight to the the executive groups of all of those large organizations to help


33:04
accelerate those relationships yeah and I have been the entrepreneur and I still would do this today who would fly literally anywhere in the world to make


33:11
to know to be in the room with my potential customer or acquirer that's part of what tech United can do for


33:17
early stage companies so there's an inherent real business advantage to being part of these communities it's not


33:23
just hey isn't it cool to be as good pizza in Jersey City it's like if you show up to these things we can get you


33:28
in the room with the right people and obviously we vet it's not you know we don't introduce them all but we vet them and there's a value to the other side to


33:35
make sure that you know we're introducing it to investors or corporates Etc that we think there's a reasonable fit um but those kinds of


33:43
things can you know the the the lifeblood of early stage business is time and money you often run out of you


33:49
which is in effect called Runway yeah startups often run out of Runway and if we can accelerate those you getting in the door with a Verizon can take


33:55
literally a year if you can do it in a month or in two weeks we can increase your Runway and chances of success Etc


34:02
that also has the byproduct of creating um value in New Jersey which is obviously inherent to our mission but I


34:08
want to be clear this isn't just like a feel-good New Jersey thing this is a yeah there's a real business value here um and now I've completely forgotten the


34:15
origin of your of your question oh what second I to do I think how we started yeah right yeah which nailed it um can


34:21
you talk to me maybe highlight uh like a specific example kind of like when You' been running since you've been running


34:27
Tech United and you know if there's like things you have to leave out that's fine but like uh kind of putting it into like


34:34
a real real world type thing for people that are listening sure


34:39
um one of the things when I came into the this role with tech United that we talked about was how do we create a differentiate Advantage thing I just


34:45
spent some time talking about and partnered with uh at the time PSG to create a startup challenge to express


34:53
issues that they are seeing in their industry and then open up applications for startups to apply and so


35:01
um it was it's it's an annual we call these our better X programs so with them


35:06
we created the better Planet program named after this idea of building a better future so better X is is how we


35:12
come to Market yeah so the better Planet program was how does technology affect the world of climate change and in


35:19
particular with PSG they were interested each year we've done a different challenge that year was Energy Efficiency and um decreasing the use of


35:27
of electricity gathered applications from around the country preference for New Jersey but we


35:32
opened it to everywhere company called window skins applied which was pretty low Tech but squarely in the Wheelhouse


35:38
of what a PSG actually was looking for and this is a very small business um not only did they win the I think that year


35:44
was a $50,000 cash prize which obviously helps especially when you're small sure um that was run in partnership with at


35:52
the time CEO Ralph ISO who was super excited about accelerating that company into the PSG Network and and helping to


35:58
deploy those basically energy efficient window skin products that make homes


36:03
more efficient yeah throughout the network so you know we've heard from them many times over how much that meant


36:09
to their business and we've done that now I don't know maybe a dozen times with a bunch of different businesses to help accelerate them with different


36:16
relationships others who um you know hacks who if you haven't spoken to them


36:21
yet I'm sure you'll you'll run into them soon um met and invested in a company


36:26
gradu so a student at Stevens had has a really interesting company called tandem giant batteries to attach to cabs of


36:33
tractor trailers to basically make them electrified super interesting technology and product was Raising Capital was


36:40
about to potentially move to New York or San Francisco exhibited at propelify met


36:45
hack which is a a global accelerator but where they were they were sponsor at our event hack


36:51
ended up investing in tandem that kept them in New Jersey again they so accelerated their


36:57
business brought some Capital Etc I mean I've got tons of these but uh and they're not all startup focused there


37:03
are other things you know policy related uh big you know other large corporate Focus things other ways we help service


37:09
providers but the the core of this is I talked about this before how do we accelerate these relationships so you


37:14
can be more successful more quickly and those are two examples where you know I I it's very personal for me I have been


37:21
in the seat where I was desperate for those relationships for whatever it was I was working on yeah so I really


37:27
understand understand what those FS are going through and uh can really appreciate how helpful those


37:32
relationships are yeah um no I love that and especially in the last six seven


37:38
whatever it's been months kind of doing this fulltime like this a little bit different but at the same time I think


37:44
it's similar trying to find you know like I don't do this for free you know


37:49
like there's ways that I need to actually like pay my bills like you were talking about before um and being able to like kind of Grease the skids a


37:55
little bit on certain relationships and get in front of people faster obviously is helpful yeah um are you still like


38:03
doing your own stuff too as far as you know the entrepreneurial World um or are you just kind of focusing more on this


38:11
so I'm fully focused on Tech United New Jersey but I've had that itch for a long time to you know it's it's in me I


38:16
talked about this earlier it's it's in my DNA and fortunately we started something as an organization last year


38:22
that's helped scratch that itch and I'm loving it um one of the things that we see is a lack of starts right we talked


38:28
about this earlier there's all these great assets there's not enough companies starting and so to help address that issue we started something


38:35
called a a startup Studio it's called better future labs and what we do is we work with some of these corporate


38:40
Partners who tell us some of their pain points some of their areas where they see uh friction we then work with a a


38:46
community of entrepreneurs to come up with solutions to those pain points very quickly vet like hey PG if we built this


38:52
XYZ thing product that you expressed some interest in would you actually be a paying cost customer yeah and there's a


38:59
whole series of stage gates to understand is this a real business is this just a Consulting project or is there nothing here but if it gets to the


39:05
it might be a real business side we act better future Labs it's a separate entity but works Clos you know in


39:11
partnership with de United We act as the co-founder of that business we put up to $500,000 behind that business we build


39:17
the early prototypes of that business we have the aead of people a strategist a technology co-lead so that we can get


39:23
these things off the ground that's the nature of what a studio does and so for me what getting back to your question uh


39:29
it's been completely invigorating because I can now continue to instead of coming up with lots of ideas and going


39:34
well not right now which is what I've been doing I'm busy I'm like oh I got a lot of ideas let's put them through this machine and maybe one or two most of


39:41
them by the way are terrible like most of the ideas are terrible yeah and and not just mine among the whole group of


39:47
stuff that we come up with but we expect sort of a 5% decent hit rate of the


39:54
maybe there's something there and maybe just 1% or so actually turn into businesses but it it does give me an outlet to now uh you know the creative


40:01
Outlet about like wouldn't it be cool if we did this thing and Justin trugman the co the car co-founder and head of


40:07
Technology on the you know just outside these doors he and I spent a lot of time brainstorming like would you know do you think this would work think this work


40:13
and we've got a few that that are looking promising and again bringing it back home these now should this be


40:20
successful these are built in New Jersey by New Jersey stakeholders building jobs in New Jersey so like it again it's


40:27
about the this like how do we build best to breed but it it affects us locally and that's our goal and so if if we're


40:32
sitting here in 10 years success would be better future Labs kicked out you know in 10 years maybe 10 companies


40:38
worth nine figures or more each um that employ hundreds or thousands of people


40:44
that have created lots of you know of commercial value that that would be an amazing win yeah um I don't know why


40:50
this turn off let's take a quick break you got it


40:58
the male Performing Art Center is the heart of arts and entertainment in Morristown New Jersey empac presents over 200 events annually and is home to


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42:03
[Music] co.com so going off that I think it's


42:10
interesting and and this is one thing that with the episode that we did with Jose at hmh and the Helix and nji and


42:18
and all that kind of stuff I think one of the things because you know like I mentioned before the episode that comes


42:23
out the week before this is like a legendary hot dog spot where people actually like go and eat a hot dog or


42:29
maybe they've been there and like kind of know that story and I think sometimes when we talk about these high level things it's almost like the average New


42:35
Jersey and like do they really care you know or like do they should they why should they all that kind of stuff and I


42:41
think your your answer right there too um has kind of been like the same it's OB almost like an obvious answer but


42:48
like impacting people's lives creating jobs you know keeping uh people here you


42:54
know and I think like the more that we're able to do that the better right yes the more we're able to do that the


43:00
better and also like this is where the world is going so whether you know you


43:05
may have a job that that you think is totally unrelated to technology like that is a false premise every single


43:11
thing we do gets affected by technology and being knowledgeable about what's happening in in or through your industry


43:18
being knowledgeable right now in particular about AI uh will give you a career advantage and so yeah you I think


43:26
and if you're thinking about what your kids might be doing like the the industries have ch changed dramatically


43:32
um as you've probably heard from lots of the folks you've talked to like our number one export is our talent yeah and


43:37
if we can own the fact that um or own the the opportunity for young talent and


43:43
Infuse that more into the the careers that can happen here I think that we can do much better as a state there's all


43:50
the all the implications of what happened when when basically the economy grows in the state which it has been sure um but we've got to stay ahead of


43:57
the the the tech curve on this and and make sure it's an appealing place to to work yeah um and I love that cuz it is


44:05
an appealing place to work in my opinion that's why we do this show um I want to talk a about propelify before we kind of


44:11
get wrapped up here um if someone were to go what is what should they expect


44:17
you know like what happens there yeah so there's it's an outside Festival on the


44:22
waterfront in Hoboken love that we get roughly 5,000 attendees throughout the day there's a stage with talks so we've


44:29
got talks on AI we've got talks on fundraising we've got talks on hiring we've got talks on what people call the Imposter


44:35
syndrome I can go on and on we've got people you know a guy named Mark Lori who you may or may not have heard of but


44:41
started diapers.com sold it to Amazon for like 500 million bucks started jet.com sold it to uh Walmart for $3


44:48
billion holy yeah he's done all right Mark happens to be New Jersey native he does he now lives in New York


44:55
I think he still has property in New Jersey but he's speaking at the event great great guy and incredible Visionary


45:00
also happens to be a co-owner of the Timberwolves and he's got a lot of exciting things happening I love this guy he's awesome um and we've got


45:09
Carolyn Everson who was the the um I forget her exact title but basically the head of global Partnerships at meta she


45:16
went on to be the CEO of instacar now she's in the board of Disney Coke and Under Armour like the these these two


45:22
speakers happen to be New Jersey residents we do not it's not we don't focus on New Jersey speakers these two happen to be cuz they've just grown in


45:27
my network more recently yeah um we've got Founders who've raised lots of money early stage Founders we' got a pitch


45:33
competition on stage so on the stage you'll hear basically you know educating and education and inspiration around the


45:39
tech industry on the perimeter of the event there's first a bar there's food and drink um there are I think we're up


45:48
to now 70 some odd exhibitors doing all sorts of things in Tech AI is a huge area of focus for us so you know there's


45:55
somebody that's doing an AI likeness uh business meaning they can make it a bot that looks and sounds like you that


46:00
they're putting to commercial use so it's not meant to be like a scary steal your identity thing but it's a way to sort of replicate your your brain in a


46:08
variety of ways yeah um we've I mean there are dozens of really interesting companies exhibiting


46:14
so if you're just curious of what's going on in the state if you want to get a job at one of these things if you're interested in starting your own thing and like understanding what is it take


46:21
if you're looking to fundraise we have something called the fundraising Forum where we have investors on site that take 30- minute meetings with with


46:26
entrepreneurs to help you give advice and feedback about what how their pitch is we' have onstage uh Speech coaching


46:32
so someone who analyzes the pitches and gives the the speech coaching required on communication for the pitch um so


46:40
it's all things Tech entrepreneurship it's a lot of fun and the whole thing ends with fireworks at the end of the night and right after a happy hour so


46:46
it's it's a good time but it's I would I say it's like the most fun business go to but it is it's business first it


46:51
sounds awesome I mean spending my you know prior life to this going to a lot of like real estate


46:57
conferences and stuff like that there was never fireworks it was usually a bar bars yeah but you know that's I me all


47:05
those things cuz I was going to ask you know if someone like has to have an idea or you know whatever it is not


47:11
necessarily not necessarily you go like kind of experience it and jobs speeches


47:17
you know speaking like all that kind of stuff I think that that's that's pretty cool yeah and and typically it's you know you might be an early stage uh


47:23
entrepreneur which by the way could be of any age most successful launch preneurs by the math are uh 44 I think


47:30
is the founding age so it's not like there are plenty of young people there and that's great but I don't want people


47:35
to think if you're you know that we mean necessarily you have to be young to go to this not at all um there are also


47:41
lots of corporates who are interested in Innovation who are walking the floor and listening to talks to just understand what's going on because they want to


47:46
make sure that they've got a seat at the table so it's really all stage of business but there is a heavy focus on really stage startups for sure yeah no I


47:52
love that um it's fun we have a good time yeah no I'm I'm excited cuz I want to go and you'll we we'll make sure


48:00
you're there yeah I'll make sure that I am there we should set you up with a podcasting setup there too I do that


48:05
I'll talk all day great you know done uh cool love it uh cont propelify and


48:10
you'll meet Mike right if you hav't already um but uh so if people want to learn more about let's do propelify


48:17
first they want to get a ticket they want to do whatever like how do they do that so propelify is propelify dcom p r


48:23
o p l i f y um and I said earlier you can use the the coupon code mik and


48:28
you'll get a free ticket uh there's some upgrades and things if you want VIP but we can get you in the door for free and


48:33
Tech United is Tech united.co and I I wanted to mention I I said before we changed the name from The


48:39
New Jersey Tech Council and that is because it's it's similar to what we do at propelify the magic happens when you


48:46
unite The Tech Community and when you bring communities together in general and if you look at our logo you'll see


48:51
that um when the H from Tech and the U from United come together there's this little shoot of color that that we call


48:57
that our Catalyst that's meant to represent the ideas and the variety of people who come together and the energy


49:02
that happens when you actually unite a community in a in a certain industry and that's very much what this is about it's it's very open to people what what


49:09
really matters that you make things happen that you're not someone who sits in the sidelines and you have the grit and determination and ambition to make


49:16
amazing things happen that's that's the the spirit of this community and you'd fit in well certainly a propelify with


49:22
that and absolutely in the in the tech United Community at large yeah Tech United is is like membership based it's


49:28
a membership based organization yeah so hopefully people will consider being members for sure yeah no I think they should but I because I think like as we


49:34
were talking about this obviously there's like the clear like you mentioned the the um the mission um and


49:41
like a clear like almost like Avatar of like who would be a part of it but I think you know like there are


49:47
opportunities for people to be involved because you don't know like what the like you know who you know kind of thing


49:54
you know meeting people and kind of you know generating ideas and different things like that I think that that's really important you know and kind of


50:01
you know collaborating with communities and and getting different communities together and and meeting people that you otherwise would never meet because who


50:08
knows what happens from there that's the idea and and when I you know we talked before about all businesses have a tech


50:13
or Tech enablement component to it you know even what you're doing here we've had Gary vanderchuck speak he was our


50:19
our speaker of the first year and if you follow any of his work he talks about distribution strategy in media like


50:25
that's the kind of stuff that whatever your industry I believe there's something


50:30
there that you can take away from this that is you know how can you build faster smarter right like you're Distributing on digital platforms how do


50:36
you take this long form interview this is what Gary talks a lot about which I don't know if you've seen his stuff but it would highly recommend it but chop it


50:42
up into 63 pieces of content so you got this video you got this audio you got the short form Clips Etc you could you know we're going to take a photo you got


50:48
a Ste piece of content like in your world reaches the game yeah and so at a place like propelify it's not you know I


50:54
think some people think this is just people you you know it's hardcore circuit breaker or circuit board kind of tech or


51:01
coding Tech it's Tech broadly and how does software affect society and Industry and that's it touches a variety


51:07
of topics yeah no I love it I can't wait to go it's going to be awesome it's going to be awesome uh well thank you so


51:13
much for jumping on with us and sharing your story and the short story of you know New Jersey Tech and Ai and you know


51:19
entrepreneurism and and all that kind of stuff I think it's I think it was great appreciate you having me on D keep up the good work absolutely thank you so


51:26
much uh so we'll make sure that we put all your links in the show notes so people can go click along with the the coupon code for the ticket and we'll


51:32
kind of blast that out before uh this episode comes out so people know about it and and can you know get a ticket and


51:38
be there you know kind of mix it up with everybody that'd be cool um so those will be the show notes also put gregard


51:43
state.com which is the website for the show uh so you can get all of our episodes and we've been honestly


51:49
crushing it with episodes this year as far as like the guests that we've had on seems like it the stories that we've


51:54
told it's been it's been pretty dope uh so uh yeah so this has been the green gar podcast powered by the New Jersey


52:00
Lottery I'm Mike ham he was Aaron Price CEO of tech United New Jersey thank you for listening and we'll catch you next


52:06
time Mike we do a lot of high fives in the tech community so we got to end on the high fives okay cool


52:12
boom do you want to


52:19
R do you all right oh tell me before you don't all


52:26
the way do you want ride [Music]


52:47
[Applause] [Music]