The Brief Interviewer (00:18)
Welcome everyone to our new video podcast from Olivon Advisors called The Brief. On today’s episode, we have our special guest, Larry Fox, CEO of Zflow Technologies. Welcome, Larry, and let’s get started. Larry, describe for the audience a short history of Zflow Tech and how the company got started.
Larry Fox (00:40)
Yeah, sure. So back in 2018, my son, while he was going to school for engineering, he came to me and he was like, you know, dad, I’d really like to start my own business – I want to do something different. And so I said, okay, you know, I’d love to help. And, you know, me being an entrepreneur all my life and me being an engineer myself, I told him, you know, let’s, let’s come up with something and some sort of idea that, you know, is going to solve a problem. That’s generally what I would tell anyone, to make a business successful, solve solve a problem, especially if this problem affects everybody. And so we’d sit down at the table and we’d come up with ideas and we’d look them up online and somebody already invented it or had something similar. Just like, yeah, it was just, it was very frustrating for a while. And then one day he came home and he was all upset because he had had a package stolen off of his porch. And so we were like, that’s it. That’s the problem we’ve got to solve. So we go online and we’re looking to see what so many people come up with. And there’s a lot of solutions out there, but none of them really work. And so I remember looking at him saying, “This is it, this is the problem we need to solve.” And so here we are.
The Brief Interviewer (01:45)
What problem does your company solve and how is your solution unique?
Larry Fox (01:49)
So initially when we started the company, you know, we were looking to solve the problem of package theft or porch piracy. But you know, after years of research and working on different ideas, we quickly realized that, that’s not the only problem. There’s an entire spectrum of loss, potential loss when it comes to deliveries. And so, you know, what makes us really unique is we’ve come up with a product that covers that entire spectrum. And at the same time, it will service the courier, will service the consumer, it’s going to service the retailer, it’ll even service the insurance companies all at once. And everybody has access to the same type of data and knows exactly what happened with your your delivery.
The Brief Interviewer (02:34)
Can you describe your target market and its size?
Larry Fox (02:37)
Currently our target market are retailers or anybody essentially who has an online presence for e-commerce. Next year they’re anticipating 1.25 trillion dollars in sales amongst retailers but up to 22% of that is going to be online shopping. So, know, that correlates to just massive numbers, 26 billion packages sold. But the problem is, is retailers and everybody who is shipping things out, last year, experienced over $30 billion in loss. You know, 1.7 million packages go missing every day. So the potential for us to help prevent that and make a real difference is certainly there.
The Brief Interviewer (03:19)
What’s your company’s competitive advantage? What sets you apart from your competitors?
Larry Fox (03:25)
You know, the competitive advantage I think we have against other solutions out there is probably three things. One is research. We did a tremendous amount of research. We’ve done years of research now speaking to leading industry experts in the loss prevention world, especially like with brick and mortar locations. We talked to criminal psychologists. I’ve talked to the police. In getting all of this data from them, you know, there’s some very key elements that you need to instill in a product or something like that to make them very effective on this type of crime. So we made sure that all of those were implemented in there. The second thing advantage I believe that we really have is, 52% of all Americans believe retailers and shipping companies, they should be responsible for protecting your package. You know, a lot of shipping companies will take a picture and here you go. And that now, you know, they’re no longer responsible. So, you know, what we decided to do is we decided to make a product that doesn’t put the burden back on consumers, you know, consumers putting big lock boxes on their porch or you know a retailer will send you a package and the courier will send it to a Walgreens or something like that and you have to go pick it up so the burden is back on you to solve that and our solution takes that burden off of the consumer and it makes it very simple in a very cost effective way of protecting your package all while it’s at your house. I think the third advantage that we really have also is the end user experience -it doesn’t change. You know it’s really hard to break product to market and get people to use it when you have to train them. If we do something like a, let’s use a lock box for example on a porch. It’s a good solution to help prevent somebody from stealing it but you have to train the drivers to know how to use it, to unlock it, some of them require codes, and these drivers when they’re in a rush, will just put it on the box and it totally negates the whole purpose of the box. Our solution doesn’t change the user experience. It’s simply for a retailer, just like adding another label onto the box and you as the consumer or the end user or the recipient can simply get a text message and you just follow a link under the text message. And that’s all the burden that is on you. You don’t have to go out of your way to do something different.
The Brief Interviewer (05:39)
How does your business model generate revenue?
Larry Fox (05:43)
We are looking to generate revenue in three different ways. One would be strict sales, basically selling the units to retailers. The second would be a subscription or SaaS model type of providing data to couriers, to retailers, to whoever actually has needs to make their process more effective, because our product is agnostic and you know works in a carrier and a retailer, we will be able to provide data that nobody else can. The third one would be with our AI model and our AI partner of generating a data analytics of risk assessment and those sort of things for insurance companies and claims adjusters and things of that nature when it comes to shipping companies and making their process much more effective and efficient for them.
The Brief Interviewer (06:31)
What major milestones has the company achieved so far?
Larry Fox (06:36)
Some of the major milestones that we’ve already reached, in my mind, are pretty significant. Starting from the ground up, we’ve already developed the product, hardware, software, firmware, that is pretty much complete. We’re currently in a lot of the beta testing right now stages with it. The next thing would be some of the partnerships that we have achieved and some of the recognition that we’ve gotten from the industry itself, the loss prevention industry. We’ve been asked to participate in some studies with some large careers and organizations to validate the product and test it. So, you know, not even being “market” yet, the word is already out there of what we’re able to do and the solutions that we’re able to provide. And it’s created quite a bit of interest so far.
The Brief Interviewer (07:20)
What are your current capital needs and how do you plan to use new investments?
Larry Fox (07:26)
This current round we’re looking to raise 1.5 million dollars. Essentially that money is going to go to three different things. The majority of it, a lot of it’s going to go to the actual launching of the product, the manufacturing costs, the tooling, everything associated with that. Second would be further development. We’re already on probably version seven or eight of our final device. Technology changes all the time so you know staying ahead of the head of the game that’s a big focus for us -utilizing all of the AI development that we’re using and as we continue to grow, making these products more cost effective, smaller, more efficient is a big goal for us. Thirdly, would be the marketing. Marketing campaign is essential, getting this out to the masses and getting everybody excited about using it.
The Brief Interviewer (08:12)
What are the biggest risks or challenges facing your company and how are you addressing them?
Larry Fox (08:18)
So early on, I think one of our biggest challenges and risks that we were worried about was getting this out there, getting it to the masses, getting one people to use it and order it. And so initially we were, you know, we were focused on consumers wanting to buy this or check out on the box, you know, when they buy something, “add this to my shipment.” And we were really facing some difficulties on how we would get people to do that. So, you know, that really would helped us focus and change our focus on retailers. You know, as I had mentioned before, 52% of consumers expect retailers and couriers to provide a solution to help with package theft, you know, and take the responsibility for it. So by focusing on retailers and giving them the option to provide it to their consumers or for them to just simply put it on and give it to their consumer, that will get it out there to the masses and people will realize it, recognize it, see what it does, see how it helps them and therefore when the consumer finally has their hands and they understand how easy it is, they’re going to start requesting it. I think moving forward, the biggest challenge that we’re going to have is somebody copying what we’re trying to do. There is nobody out there right now currently that does what we do. We haven’t found any products similar to it. There are companies looking into technology, but I think being first on the market is going to be key for us. Essentially, I feel the way we’ve addressed this is one, obviously we have patents on our device and our IP and our technology. We just filed some first of more patents. But I think the way we address this is we stay ahead of the market. Years and years of research has gone into this. When we initially did this, we could not have a cost -effective solution. We were going with cellular and GPS based, everything else that everybody else already does. And so we had to go back to the drawing board, use new technology, utilize things that are state of the art, and that’s what we’ve done. And so moving forward, we will continue to do that and everybody’s gonna have to catch up.
The Brief Interviewer (10:12)
Can you share any notable partnerships or client relationships?
Larry Fox (10:16)
You know, as we get ready to go to market, we’ve already developed some pretty notable relationships and partnerships with some organizations out there. Probably the most notable one is Control Tech, which is one of the largest EAS and loss prevention provider companies out there for brick and mortar solutions, know, large retails. They really like our product. They really like our technology and what we’ve done. And so our partnership with them is, you know, allowing them to be one of the first people to offer our product as a distributor or straight to their clients, in an exchange, working with them they are basically introducing us to their 800 customers that they have and some of them are some of the largest retailers in the world. Some of the other notable partnerships that we’ve already signed is with our AI company. They’ve been great in utilizing what we are able to do in our technology. They can take that with real-time data and provide some really key solutions and data that we can turn around and give back to our customers and shipping companies, which makes their logistical and shipping much more effective, which everybody likes. And some of the other customers that we’ve been talking to, we’ve been talking to some large box retailers, had some third party shipping courier companies interested in that sense. So currently we’ve got a lot of interest in there and you know, a of people are willing to help and want to be get out and get it out there.
The Brief Interviewer (11:35)
How do you see your industry evolving and how is your company positioned to adapt?
Larry Fox (11:41)
It’s only natural that we’re going to see the loss prevention industry start focusing a lot more on e-commerce and online shopping. They’ve been protecting brick and mortar locations for 60 years now. And so with AI and with IoT technology coming out and becoming more prominent, know, it makes things a lot more cost effective, makes things cheaper. And so, you know, people want that. Customers are going to want that. Retailers are going to want that. So the industry is going to grow into that. And I think for us, which is great, is we’ve already kind of focused on that and noticed that. And so therefore with us being out there first to market, we’re going to be able to adapt to changes as they present themselves by being in the front lines and knowing what’s already working and what’s not working, where others are going to just be catching up.
The Brief Interviewer (12:27)
What sets you apart as a leader and how do you plan to scale the company culture?
Larry Fox (12:31)
I think what’s going to set us apart as a leader, is not only this is going to be the first of its kind type of solution, for what we’re doing is the partnerships that we have already with some of the larger law prevention industry players out there, you know, is really going to give us a “one up.” We know what to look for. They’ve given us the data. They know what works, what doesn’t work. And so by us again implementing that into our devices, it’s going to set us above. And so as people go out there and try to replicate or do things, they’re not going to have the years of research that we’ve been doing in making these effective. So I think as we grow and as we learn what’s working, what’s not working out in the real world, we’re going to able to adapt and change very quickly where others are just trying to be playing catch up.
The Brief Interviewer (13:17)
Thank you for joining us here at The Brief by Olivon Advisors. For more information on Zflow Tech, please visit www.zflowtechnologies.com and please join our mailing list by signing up at olivonadvisors.com. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Brief.
Welcome everyone to our new video podcast from Olivon Advisors called The Brief. On today’s episode, we have our special guest, Larry Fox, CEO of Zflow Technologies. Welcome, Larry, and let’s get started. Larry, describe for the audience a short history of Zflow Tech and how the company got started.
Larry Fox (00:40)
Yeah, sure. So back in 2018, my son, while he was going to school for engineering, he came to me and he was like, you know, dad, I’d really like to start my own business – I want to do something different. And so I said, okay, you know, I’d love to help. And, you know, me being an entrepreneur all my life and me being an engineer myself, I told him, you know, let’s, let’s come up with something and some sort of idea that, you know, is going to solve a problem. That’s generally what I would tell anyone, to make a business successful, solve solve a problem, especially if this problem affects everybody. And so we’d sit down at the table and we’d come up with ideas and we’d look them up online and somebody already invented it or had something similar. Just like, yeah, it was just, it was very frustrating for a while. And then one day he came home and he was all upset because he had had a package stolen off of his porch. And so we were like, that’s it. That’s the problem we’ve got to solve. So we go online and we’re looking to see what so many people come up with. And there’s a lot of solutions out there, but none of them really work. And so I remember looking at him saying, “This is it, this is the problem we need to solve.” And so here we are.
The Brief Interviewer (01:45)
What problem does your company solve and how is your solution unique?
Larry Fox (01:49)
So initially when we started the company, you know, we were looking to solve the problem of package theft or porch piracy. But you know, after years of research and working on different ideas, we quickly realized that, that’s not the only problem. There’s an entire spectrum of loss, potential loss when it comes to deliveries. And so, you know, what makes us really unique is we’ve come up with a product that covers that entire spectrum. And at the same time, it will service the courier, will service the consumer, it’s going to service the retailer, it’ll even service the insurance companies all at once. And everybody has access to the same type of data and knows exactly what happened with your your delivery.
The Brief Interviewer (02:34)
Can you describe your target market and its size?
Larry Fox (02:37)
Currently our target market are retailers or anybody essentially who has an online presence for e-commerce. Next year they’re anticipating 1.25 trillion dollars in sales amongst retailers but up to 22% of that is going to be online shopping. So, know, that correlates to just massive numbers, 26 billion packages sold. But the problem is, is retailers and everybody who is shipping things out, last year, experienced over $30 billion in loss. You know, 1.7 million packages go missing every day. So the potential for us to help prevent that and make a real difference is certainly there.
The Brief Interviewer (03:19)
What’s your company’s competitive advantage? What sets you apart from your competitors?
Larry Fox (03:25)
You know, the competitive advantage I think we have against other solutions out there is probably three things. One is research. We did a tremendous amount of research. We’ve done years of research now speaking to leading industry experts in the loss prevention world, especially like with brick and mortar locations. We talked to criminal psychologists. I’ve talked to the police. In getting all of this data from them, you know, there’s some very key elements that you need to instill in a product or something like that to make them very effective on this type of crime. So we made sure that all of those were implemented in there. The second thing advantage I believe that we really have is, 52% of all Americans believe retailers and shipping companies, they should be responsible for protecting your package. You know, a lot of shipping companies will take a picture and here you go. And that now, you know, they’re no longer responsible. So, you know, what we decided to do is we decided to make a product that doesn’t put the burden back on consumers, you know, consumers putting big lock boxes on their porch or you know a retailer will send you a package and the courier will send it to a Walgreens or something like that and you have to go pick it up so the burden is back on you to solve that and our solution takes that burden off of the consumer and it makes it very simple in a very cost effective way of protecting your package all while it’s at your house. I think the third advantage that we really have also is the end user experience -it doesn’t change. You know it’s really hard to break product to market and get people to use it when you have to train them. If we do something like a, let’s use a lock box for example on a porch. It’s a good solution to help prevent somebody from stealing it but you have to train the drivers to know how to use it, to unlock it, some of them require codes, and these drivers when they’re in a rush, will just put it on the box and it totally negates the whole purpose of the box. Our solution doesn’t change the user experience. It’s simply for a retailer, just like adding another label onto the box and you as the consumer or the end user or the recipient can simply get a text message and you just follow a link under the text message. And that’s all the burden that is on you. You don’t have to go out of your way to do something different.
The Brief Interviewer (05:39)
How does your business model generate revenue?
Larry Fox (05:43)
We are looking to generate revenue in three different ways. One would be strict sales, basically selling the units to retailers. The second would be a subscription or SaaS model type of providing data to couriers, to retailers, to whoever actually has needs to make their process more effective, because our product is agnostic and you know works in a carrier and a retailer, we will be able to provide data that nobody else can. The third one would be with our AI model and our AI partner of generating a data analytics of risk assessment and those sort of things for insurance companies and claims adjusters and things of that nature when it comes to shipping companies and making their process much more effective and efficient for them.
The Brief Interviewer (06:31)
What major milestones has the company achieved so far?
Larry Fox (06:36)
Some of the major milestones that we’ve already reached, in my mind, are pretty significant. Starting from the ground up, we’ve already developed the product, hardware, software, firmware, that is pretty much complete. We’re currently in a lot of the beta testing right now stages with it. The next thing would be some of the partnerships that we have achieved and some of the recognition that we’ve gotten from the industry itself, the loss prevention industry. We’ve been asked to participate in some studies with some large careers and organizations to validate the product and test it. So, you know, not even being “market” yet, the word is already out there of what we’re able to do and the solutions that we’re able to provide. And it’s created quite a bit of interest so far.
The Brief Interviewer (07:20)
What are your current capital needs and how do you plan to use new investments?
Larry Fox (07:26)
This current round we’re looking to raise 1.5 million dollars. Essentially that money is going to go to three different things. The majority of it, a lot of it’s going to go to the actual launching of the product, the manufacturing costs, the tooling, everything associated with that. Second would be further development. We’re already on probably version seven or eight of our final device. Technology changes all the time so you know staying ahead of the head of the game that’s a big focus for us -utilizing all of the AI development that we’re using and as we continue to grow, making these products more cost effective, smaller, more efficient is a big goal for us. Thirdly, would be the marketing. Marketing campaign is essential, getting this out to the masses and getting everybody excited about using it.
The Brief Interviewer (08:12)
What are the biggest risks or challenges facing your company and how are you addressing them?
Larry Fox (08:18)
So early on, I think one of our biggest challenges and risks that we were worried about was getting this out there, getting it to the masses, getting one people to use it and order it. And so initially we were, you know, we were focused on consumers wanting to buy this or check out on the box, you know, when they buy something, “add this to my shipment.” And we were really facing some difficulties on how we would get people to do that. So, you know, that really would helped us focus and change our focus on retailers. You know, as I had mentioned before, 52% of consumers expect retailers and couriers to provide a solution to help with package theft, you know, and take the responsibility for it. So by focusing on retailers and giving them the option to provide it to their consumers or for them to just simply put it on and give it to their consumer, that will get it out there to the masses and people will realize it, recognize it, see what it does, see how it helps them and therefore when the consumer finally has their hands and they understand how easy it is, they’re going to start requesting it. I think moving forward, the biggest challenge that we’re going to have is somebody copying what we’re trying to do. There is nobody out there right now currently that does what we do. We haven’t found any products similar to it. There are companies looking into technology, but I think being first on the market is going to be key for us. Essentially, I feel the way we’ve addressed this is one, obviously we have patents on our device and our IP and our technology. We just filed some first of more patents. But I think the way we address this is we stay ahead of the market. Years and years of research has gone into this. When we initially did this, we could not have a cost -effective solution. We were going with cellular and GPS based, everything else that everybody else already does. And so we had to go back to the drawing board, use new technology, utilize things that are state of the art, and that’s what we’ve done. And so moving forward, we will continue to do that and everybody’s gonna have to catch up.
The Brief Interviewer (10:12)
Can you share any notable partnerships or client relationships?
Larry Fox (10:16)
You know, as we get ready to go to market, we’ve already developed some pretty notable relationships and partnerships with some organizations out there. Probably the most notable one is Control Tech, which is one of the largest EAS and loss prevention provider companies out there for brick and mortar solutions, know, large retails. They really like our product. They really like our technology and what we’ve done. And so our partnership with them is, you know, allowing them to be one of the first people to offer our product as a distributor or straight to their clients, in an exchange, working with them they are basically introducing us to their 800 customers that they have and some of them are some of the largest retailers in the world. Some of the other notable partnerships that we’ve already signed is with our AI company. They’ve been great in utilizing what we are able to do in our technology. They can take that with real-time data and provide some really key solutions and data that we can turn around and give back to our customers and shipping companies, which makes their logistical and shipping much more effective, which everybody likes. And some of the other customers that we’ve been talking to, we’ve been talking to some large box retailers, had some third party shipping courier companies interested in that sense. So currently we’ve got a lot of interest in there and you know, a of people are willing to help and want to be get out and get it out there.
The Brief Interviewer (11:35)
How do you see your industry evolving and how is your company positioned to adapt?
Larry Fox (11:41)
It’s only natural that we’re going to see the loss prevention industry start focusing a lot more on e-commerce and online shopping. They’ve been protecting brick and mortar locations for 60 years now. And so with AI and with IoT technology coming out and becoming more prominent, know, it makes things a lot more cost effective, makes things cheaper. And so, you know, people want that. Customers are going to want that. Retailers are going to want that. So the industry is going to grow into that. And I think for us, which is great, is we’ve already kind of focused on that and noticed that. And so therefore with us being out there first to market, we’re going to be able to adapt to changes as they present themselves by being in the front lines and knowing what’s already working and what’s not working, where others are going to just be catching up.
The Brief Interviewer (12:27)
What sets you apart as a leader and how do you plan to scale the company culture?
Larry Fox (12:31)
I think what’s going to set us apart as a leader, is not only this is going to be the first of its kind type of solution, for what we’re doing is the partnerships that we have already with some of the larger law prevention industry players out there, you know, is really going to give us a “one up.” We know what to look for. They’ve given us the data. They know what works, what doesn’t work. And so by us again implementing that into our devices, it’s going to set us above. And so as people go out there and try to replicate or do things, they’re not going to have the years of research that we’ve been doing in making these effective. So I think as we grow and as we learn what’s working, what’s not working out in the real world, we’re going to able to adapt and change very quickly where others are just trying to be playing catch up.
The Brief Interviewer (13:17)
Thank you for joining us here at The Brief by Olivon Advisors. For more information on Zflow Tech, please visit www.zflowtechnologies.com and please join our mailing list by signing up at olivonadvisors.com. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Brief.