Upside/Downside - Grow Your Profits and Cash Flow
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My name is Matt Cooley and value creation has always been central to my career, from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar product lines. As a finance executive at successful companies, I've noticed a thing or two about what creates versus destroys value. In this podcast, we explore value creation and share a few laughs on the way to higher profits and cash flow.
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Matt Cooley
Upside/Downside - Grow Your Profits and Cash Flow
Ep 42: Family startup myAgeTechlab, part 6 - Finally! Our First Lab Experience
Upside/Downside is a podcast about value creation and the strategies finance and business leaders can use to grow profits and cash flow. I'm your host, Matt Cooley.
In this episode, Liam and I follow up on our efforts to start myAgeTechlab, a family side hustle introducing technology solutions to people who want to age in place in their own homes.
We have a check-in to review where we are with the business, what we've learned so far, and what to do next. Liam shares what it was like demonstrating a fall detection watch to older adults at our first Lab Experience, and how the insights he learned can be used to move our value creation journey forward.
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Matt
Welcome back, everyone. This is Matt Cooley, My co-founder and teenage son, Liam, is back here today with me to check in how our AgeTech Lab side hustle is going. Welcome, Liam. up? How's it going? Well, I think you know, because we live in the same house. That is true. It's been quite a ride with you the last several months getting this business started. I mean, hasn't it? Yeah, it's been pretty crazy. So let's jump into some questions for each other. So Liam, where are we with the business?
SPEAKER_00:So we've officially named the company MyHTechLab, and we have completed several information sessions about different products in our lab. And we have signed contracts, and we've done trainings with our suppliers. We have also marketed to consumers and customers in our local area and market. And finally, we had our first hands-on lab experience yesterday. So I think it's been a pretty successful few months, and it's been key steps to move forward in our company's journey.
SPEAKER_01:Now, that's excellent. And it's been a lot of work for sure. So good, good, good job with that work. So that's a lot. You know, and let me just throw in an additional of that stuff. We're members of the Age Tech Academy, and we have been for the last actually over a year. And very recently, we also became official participants in AARP's Age Tech Collaborative. So That's a testament to we are building this. It always takes longer than we'd like, but a lot's going on.
SPEAKER_00:Before you continue there, can you highlight what the AARP H-Tech Collaborative exactly is?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a good point. The collaborative is an association of startups and ecosystem partners, so business services and test beds, they call them, that help startups grow their businesses in the age tech space. So it's an effort by AARP really to keep the momentum going in the age tech space. And so it's great to be part of that. And as you know, we applied several months ago and it takes them a while to approve it, but we're glad to be approved. So Liam, what skills have you personally picked up since our last episode of Upside Downside? And do you feel you're starting to understand what it takes to create value for for customers as well as us for a business.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I do. I have learned a lot of sales skills and I've also learned how to better understand contracts and translate that to the people who we are selling to. So I think just kind of like not knowing really like in my mind, like I've automatically kind of gotten better at these things over time, which I thought was kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Right. No, I think that's great. And I've definitely noticed that in you as well. So again, And kudos to that. However, there are always challenges. So what do you feel has been the hardest part about getting my age tech lab going? I
SPEAKER_00:think like attracting customers to our lab has been the hardest thing so far and finding a good marketing campaign where a lot of people want to see our products.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, we're aggregating suppliers that we like and we want to share in our lab experience, but they all address different problems. And so if you're the customer sitting at home and you have a specific problem that's making it harder for you to age in place, that could be really different from your next door neighbor or somebody across town. So how we market... to those consumers to pull them into the lab experience is challenging. Now, I think we all knew it was going to be challenging, but now that we're in the front line of this, I agree with you. That's been one of the hardest things. It's great working with suppliers, but the customers, we haven't cracked that nut yet.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think that's just another step towards a successful business and kind of just trusting the process. We will find the right thing, and attracting customers will become easier for us in the long run.
SPEAKER_01:I like that. Perseverance. That's super critical. You demonstrated a fall detection watch yesterday at our lab experience. What was that like, and what was some of the feedback from attendees?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I was able to very clearly present the information due to the very detailed call we had with the training from our supplier of this fault detection watch. And some of the feedback I learned from people who attended the lab was they were all there for a specific reason due to a problem that they or a challenge that they currently face right now. I know that some people said, They had problems with balance. Other people had problem with sight and other people had problem with hearing. So I think everybody came to our lab for a reason. And I think that's very important because it means people are interested in what we're trying to sell and what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And that, that harkens back to what we just talked about is how do we, you know, how do we appeal to the right needs, I guess, at the right time, right? If we're demonstrating fall detection and somebody is having vision problems, while those things can be related, um, you know, it's, it's matching that supply and demand at the right place in time, then, you know, it was going to be a challenge.
SPEAKER_00:And I think that's, I also think that's why, uh, we're working, you know, to get like a wide range of products so it can help out a wide range of people you know because there's many different issues that people face every day with aging in place absolutely that's a good point yeah um all right so one question i have for you is uh so we had you know the lab experience yesterday and uh several information sessions um so the big question is uh what do we do next what is our next step from here
SPEAKER_01:right yeah exactly and we've been discussing this including with uh your uncle's um my brothers. I think we do two more lab experiences because we've only had the one yesterday. And then we sit down and really assess what's working and not working. Some of the things we're talking about here, but maybe some other things we'll learn by doing two more lab experiences. And we have one of those ready for the end of June. We've been invited to a 55 plus community, which is great, but we still need to schedule another one. Then we adjust or pivot somehow to keep us on track for creating the value that we want, both for our older adult customers that really want to age in place, but also for us as a business. If we can't make this work as a business, that's an issue. I like what I'm hearing from you, which is perseverance, and then, as I just said, that's what I think we do next. Is that a reasonable plan?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that is a reasonable plan, and I I mean, I'm kind of stating the obvious here. Staying away. Well, I think to create a successful business, you have to fail and you have to learn from your mistakes and you can see what you can do better after you learn from your mistakes. So I think that is
SPEAKER_01:very important. Totally agree. And we want to do that as quickly as we can, right? Okay. Awesome insights. Good job yesterday. And thanks for being here on the podcast today, Liam, and updating listeners on our value creation journey. Thank you for having me. And to our listeners, thank you. And we'll see you soon. Have a great day.
