Driving Reshoring & Resilience of U.S. Manufacturers

Damon Pistulka  00:02

All right, everyone, it is Friday, and you know what that means. It is time for stop being the best kept secret. I am one of the CO hosts here, Damon Pistulka, today, we’re going to be talking about driving, reshoring and resilience of US manufacturers, and I’m going to turn it over to my partner in crime, Mr. Curt Anderson, right over there, the pretty gentleman ready to go and take us away.

Curt Anderson  00:30

Damon, thank you, dude. Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all the moms out there wonder just Hey, big shout out to moms, right? Who’s better than my mom? Right? So, okay, man, do we have a wonderful, incredible, exciting program for today, man, I hope everybody got a good night’s sleep, because this is going to be hot and heavy. So we’ve got our dear friends. I’m going to start with this wonderful, lovely lady below me. We’ve got Molly in the house. We’ve got that handsome gentleman over there. We’ve got Derik Ellis in the house. Guys, how are you? How’s everything going?

Derik Ellis  01:00

Oh, fantastic, beautiful day.

Curt Anderson  01:04

It’s a beautiful day in Boise. And so Hey guys, we got friends from Idaho today. Do us a favor, drop us note. Let us know you’re out there. Connect with Derik. Connect with Molly on LinkedIn. You’ll be thankful that you did. These guys are just fierce advocates for manufacturing. We’re going to do a deep dive talking about reshoring. This is a hot topic right now, and so, all right, but before we go there, I’ve got a question for you guys. You ready? You ready? Molly, you’re sitting down. You ready for this one? Ready go? Okay, here we go. So now I’ve got, I’ve got two different questions, Molly, I want to hit you with one. Then Derik, I’m hitting you with a completely different question. Are you ready? Yeah, okay, Molly. Now, when you were a little Did you grow up in Idaho? Are you from Idaho,

Molly Lenty  01:45

Colorado and Idaho? Alright, so hey,

Curt Anderson  01:47

when Molly, when you were a little girl growing up, who was your hero? Who did you look up to, who, just like, showered you with unconditional love? Who was your hero when you’re a little girl growing up?

Molly Lenty  02:00

I So, you know, I was really fortunate in that I had incredible teachers growing up. So I could think of a handful of my teachers in elementary school, all through, you know, middle school, high school, but especially those, you know, in those formidable years, as they say having teachers that really went that extra mile, that showed that they cared, that helped you, helped me to dream big and to ensure that, you know, I just could, could think, you know, sky’s the limit, and have that support and that direction and education and teachers have always consistently been in my heart and have really led me to support a lot of the things that I’ve done in my career as well. So definitely teachers. Well, great answer,

Curt Anderson  02:53

and I’m married to a teacher, so my wife, Jill, she’ll absolutely love that answer. That’s one of her favorites. And you’ve had a great career. I connect with Molly on LinkedIn. She’s worked at Wells Fargo, and we’re diving into a company called vessel. And you guys are in for a treat, because we have a little demo. This is a powerful software tool, supply chain, manufacturing, all the good stuff. We’re going to dive into it. These guys created it, right? And so, all right, we’re going to dive into that Molly. Thank you for your answer on teachers. Derik, my friend US veteran served our country proudly. Thank How about a round of applause for Derik, serving our country. Thank you, Derik. And so as a matter of fact, you won a wonderful award. We’re going to dive into that this week, the SBA small the veteran owned small business man of the year, business owner of the year in the state of Idaho, congratulations to you on that, founder of vessel. You’ve had a great list of screwed now, Derik, I’m coming at you with a different question than of what I asked Molly. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Are you ready? Okay, here we go. Derik, it is not a different question when you’re a little boy growing up, who was your hero when you grew

Derik Ellis  03:58

up? Oh, this is great. I watched, you know, I was into comics, and I did, yeah, the Incredible Hulk, because I had these pants that, when I expanded my belly, that popped the button. I thought that was a cool thing, but, but the truth is, it was my mom. So my mom, total entrepreneur, just an amazing human being, you know, opened up a beauty college in rural Idaho, and just everybody knows who she is. She’s an artist, yeah, and, and, you know, she just got the spirit of a champion. So it’s got to be more awesome.

Curt Anderson  04:37

Well, hey, what for Mother’s Day weekend? What a great answer. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree. My friend and Derek, what’s mom’s name? Let’s give a little shout out to mom, Vicky. Vicky, alright, Hey, big shout out to mom Vicky, for just inspiring this one wonderful young man, great entrepreneur. So alright, let’s start here. Derik, let’s go with you. Have a company called vessel. Okay, please. Share with folks who and what is vessel? How are you guys making the world a better place? Awesome,

Derik Ellis  05:05

established in 2017 here in Boise, Idaho, mission driven and in full support of small us, manufacturers. That’s, that’s where we live. You know, when we started, it was, it was really about consulting, and we’d go in and we’d help through direct assessments that we were conducting, and we bring experts in to help those manufacturers. And now the way we look at it is really around the boots on the ground. And the boots on the ground is this whole world, this ecosystem of consulting that happens around those manufacturers. So, you know, manufacturing extension partnerships, universities, associations, consulting groups. There’s over 200,000 of these types of firms supporting small US manufacturers. So today, with our technology, what we do is we support them. We’re an enabler, so that they can come in and diagnose the needs of the manufacturer more effectively, start working with them, working with them over time, and then, you know, just really dedicating to the health of small US manufacturers. So that’s where vessel is today, and we’ve expanded into six states. We’re expanding past that. Yeah, a lot of, a lot of fire behind what we’re doing right now. Lot of

Curt Anderson  06:26

fire. I love it. So Molly, let’s, let’s slide over to you, anything that you want to share. Add on to what Jared Derik just described. Now you’ve been with the company again, great corporate career that you’ve had. What attracted you to join the team at vessel?

Molly Lenty  06:41

Yeah, absolutely. You know you had mentioned that I’ve been at Wells Fargo. I spent 25 years of my career in corporate banking.

Curt Anderson  06:47

No wait, no wait, I’m glad you said that, because I saw that in your LinkedIn profile. Can we need to see some ID? Because I’m like, All right, either She started when she was, like, 12 years old, or there’s no way she worked at Wells Fargo for 25 years. So I don’t know how you’re I’m giving you a thumbs up right there, but you are doing phenomenal. What great gene. So thank your mom for that, right?

Molly Lenty  07:06

Thank you. Yeah. So I spent 25 years vice president in government and community relations over five states office out of Boise, you know. And it was a wonderful career. It was great. And I’ve got two grown children. It was, you know, such a great opportunity in raising them. But I got to a point where I just said, you know, I’ve done the corporate thing. I really want to find a mission driven company, somebody that is as a leader, that really cares about their team, that has great vision, that’s wanting to to grow a company. I had no idea that it would be a company that was pivoting like vessel. Was Derik and I knew each other from leadership programs out in the Boise community. We had been acquaintances. And he tapped my shoulder, actually, on LinkedIn, and said, Hey, I I saw you had a post on LinkedIn. Are you really looking to do something new? We sat down and we met, and at first I said, Derek, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t, I don’t know that much about manufacturing. I don’t know anything about software. And he said, you actually know more than you do. And so it’s been a really, really great opportunity to culminate a lot of the things that I’ve done in my own career through the years. I’ve, you know, I’ve done a lot of work in workforce development, done a lot of work in working with different governmental agencies supporting small business initiatives education. I actually serve in a publicly elected office as well, where I’ve been chair of the Board of Trustees for our community college, one of the fastest growing community colleges in the country, and largest institutions of higher ed and Idaho still on the board there. So you know, a lot of the things that I’ve been working on through years, really pulling that all together and being able to join the team right as Derek was pivoting the company from a lot of the consulting expertise that they had been doing directly within manufacturing for years, and Taking his background and expertise and knowledge and software, bringing that together and being able to build out the tool that we have now. So it’s been a wild ride. It’s been fun. Any person that you talk to that works at vessel, I know in my heart, because we talk about it every day. We are so passionate about the product that we’ve built, because we all truly believe in helping our small to medium sized manufacturers. We’re equipping and working arm in arm with the people that care and believe in the same thing that we believe in, which is helping these people that run the factory floors, that run these manufacturing companies that truly are helping fuel our backbone of our community here in the USA. So it’s been great to run alongside and get to learn from Derek and he is we typically share an office. I’m out of town today, but we typically share we’ve got a great building right in downtown Boise, and it’s been fantastic. I. Ask for a better leader to work alongside and learn from. So,

Curt Anderson  10:06

wow, let’s just take a moment of silence right there and just soak that one in Derek, oh,

Derik Ellis  10:12

I just feel so grateful to have Molly on this team and leaving leaving her charge. Just feel so grateful.

Curt Anderson  10:21

Wow. Okay, so couple things I want to pack there so, you know, just wonderful, you know, huge, wonderful, great corporate career leadership. You’re serving on boards of, you know, the fastest growing community colleges in the country, and Derik, you know, kudos to you, to you know, have an eye for bringing in great talent, and that’s the build a great business. You have to surround yourself with great people. So man, we salute you for bringing an all star, Hall of Famer here on the team and recruiting Molly. So alright, Derik, I’m going to come over to you and so again, folks, connect with Molly on LinkedIn. Please connect with Derik on LinkedIn. Derik, going through your career, you know great again. Thank you for serving our country. Proudly. You leave the service, and you’ve had, again, when you look at your career, lot of marketing, business development, sales and led up to this entrepreneurial journey at vessel, I have a favor to ask you talk to us a little bit about your journey, and I’d love to hear how, by serving in the military, in the Air Force, how did that help you as an entrepreneur? Oh, I love

Derik Ellis  11:21

So I will start with growing up in southeast Idaho, a pretty rural community. And you know, right after high school, I decided to go into the Air Force, went into the Air Force, went into the law enforcement side of things. And so, you know, there’s a lot of discipline and training that goes into that. And I did that for several years, and thought I was going to go into the US Marshals, and instead went right into software sales. So, you know, just the sense of responsibility that that serving provides you is such an honor. It’s such a gift back to you. So it’s even hard to say, you know that I’m giving myself to serve. It’s like serving you so much more so it and, you know, I grew up with a rough crew of of hooligans, and, you know, we ran around doing things that you probably shouldn’t do, that I won’t say on air, because I don’t know what the statute of limitations are, but we all it really put us in a better place. Created, you know, a stronger version of us coming out. And so, you know, I went into the corporate world after that, and it felt like that discipline just served me to grow through those roles, you know, quickly, heading up sales teams and business development teams, and then when it came time to start my own software company in 2008 the business partner, you know, I just used that same mentality entered into the business world. Wasn’t afraid of it, yeah, so I think it, it’s hard to delineate between that version of myself and who I am in business today, but yeah, it served me really well.

Curt Anderson  13:10

Awesome. So, and I’m going to hit on that for a second, when you decided to take that entrepreneurial leap and start your own company. Scary, exciting. What was going through your mind

Derik Ellis  13:21

frightening. First go was, it was terrifying. And, you know, I started my first company with a business partner, and he was excited. I was terrified. And, you know, we, we went and did some pretty cool things for about four and a half years to build a pretty robust software team. We were, you know, doing projects for the Better Business Bureau across the country, and doctors without borders and just really cool projects. And so, you know, near the end of our tenure together, I think I started getting excited. And so, you know, it took four to five years to get there, and we, we separated most amicably. He went on to start some really cool companies as well, and then I just had a taste for it unemployable after that. So it’s totally unemployable. Totally unemployable. And you know, once you’ve done this a couple times, how do you even describe for somebody what you’re capable of doing? Yeah, because yeah, it’s just yeah. No one would try.

Damon Pistulka  14:27

Hello. So great, yeah,

Derik Ellis  14:31

feeling like all the entrepreneurs and, you know, in this room,

Curt Anderson  14:34

totally unemployed, yeah, that is phenomenal. And another word that I want to come back to, Molly to your comments, you know, I guess I’m going to put out to both you, you know, the way your passion, your enthusiasm, we like you just described what’s going on. And if you just joined us, man, you gotta go back and hear and hear Molly the way she’s describing, you know, connecting with Derik, the leadership. But the whole time, what I was was resonating with me, Molly, listening. To you was like, the word cause. It’s like, Derik, you’ve created a cause. It’s not a company. It’s not a software. You know, nobody needs more software in your life, but you’ve created a cause and a solution. So Molly, like you’ve you’ve come into this enthusiasm. I’ve been on calls with you, and I just every time I’m on a call, I feel like running through a wall chatting with you guys. So just talk a little bit like when you’re working with your clients, when you’re working with customer with customers at vessel, how do you bring that enthusiasm and, like, bring that cause and how, you know you guys are growing, you’re taking on new states. Talk a little bit about the cause of vessel. To

Molly Lenty  15:35

me to run with this. Derek, I feel like for us, it’s, you know, when we find those people that are mission driven, that truly care about helping manufacturers, we’re speaking the same language. We get across the, you know, on a virtual chat, or we get across the table, and that enthusiasm is authentic, and it it grows, and we want to help each other to be great. We found a lot of great partners across the country in that same way. And, you know, Curt, you mentioned it. Instead of bash you, we get off the phone with you, and we’re just as excited, because you find people that really care about this space. And there’s so much work to be done here, and there’s, there’s already so many great things that are taking place. You want to help those people that are doing good work, and you want to run alongside them, and you want to, you want to see them continue to do that good work. Because, you know, there’s so much work to be done in this space, and so much need in this country to, you know, really focus on our reshoring and onshoring efforts and our supply chain. But it’s even more than that. These are real people. These are people that are owning businesses in our home communities across the country. And, you know, in my prior career, in my 25 years, so much of the work that I was doing was focused on programs that were helping small businesses and getting to meet those business owners and hearing their those stories. And we all know we’ve got those stories too, right as entrepreneurs, but it’s these are people that are employing so many of the residents in their home communities, that are building those workforce pipelines, that are planting those seeds of hope within the younger generation. Those are the people that we get up every morning and go to work and hope that we can continue to inspire our team. But our team is a huge part of our culture. We are a mission driven organization, and if you’re working with this with vessel, it’s a part of that onboarding experience for Derek and I, it’s part of what we talk about when we have a need to backfill or a new position that we’ve created on the team? Are they a culture fit? Number one, it’s so critically important to us to ensure that we’ve got the right people on the team that are going to fuel that same enthusiasm. But also, are they going to connect to our end user? Are they going to connect to our we call them partners. Are they going to connect to our partners, our clients? Are they going to connect to those that are using and benefiting from the solution itself? And if the answer is no anywhere along that decision line, then they’re not a good fit. They might be great people, and they may be hugely talented, but if they’re not driven by those same things that we know are so important to us as a company and as leaders, not the right fit. And

Derik Ellis  18:26

thing, if you can meet one of our partners and not think that they’re the coolest thing ever, you’re just not a fit here, like our partners are amazing, and I think we feel the same about one another, but yeah, that’s, it’s gotta be really clear to you how cool they are.

Curt Anderson  18:45

So Derek, I want to go. I want to go here. So I love that Seeds of Hope. Man, that was a drop the mic moment, right there, Molly. So I love seeds of hope. And I feel like, you know, she’s describing a cause. We’re going to jump into your we’re going to do a little demo for folks. So, so hang out for a minute, but hang on for a bunch of minutes, but Derik as a leader. So for our entrepreneur friends out there, any manufacturers, how, like Dude, how are you doing it? How are you creating that cause to attract someone with a talent like Molly, your other teammates, people around you, what? As a leader, and I know you’re a humble guy, but just share with folks any tips that you can share. I

Derik Ellis  19:21

just, I make sure that I bring people in that are smarter and more capable than I am at every every corner I can get there, you know, with it within the eight years span of this company, we only started building the software about three years ago, and we only really launched the software officially within the last 12 months. And so it’s good, you know, it’s fresh on the streets, but people are really loving it, and it’s, it’s fully baked. There was a period of time when we went through COVID that we literally lit candles and tried to figure out how the business was going. Live. You know, we were bootstrapped the whole bit, yeah, and, you know, we, we, we turned to one another, and we just said, this is worth. Worth really keep, keeping going down the the path. And so, you know, just moments like that build a strength that, oh yeah, yeah, you just, you’re unstoppable. And you hear people like, say things like, Man, I thought you guys were going to quit 16 times ago. Yeah, there’s, there’s no quit. We’ve got a cause. We’re gonna, we’re gonna deliver them. Yeah, that’s classic,

Curt Anderson  20:35

16 times like that. That’s a true entrepreneurial story. I was at me, we’re on, like, number 20, right now, right? So, Damon, you see

Damon Pistulka  20:44

someone? Yeah, we got Randy. We got Randy’s got a few comments. Thanks Randy house for dropping them in here. I said, Molly, did you start at five years of age?

Curt Anderson  20:54

Man, I you know what? My I don’t get accused of that whatsoever. So you’re doing great. So Randy, thank you for the comment. Drop your notes in the comment section. Say hello

Damon Pistulka  21:03

here. Hello. Curt, he says, And hello, Derik, there you go. Thanks for dropping Randy.

Curt Anderson  21:08

So Thanks Randy. Thanks for stopping by. So again, guys, connect with Molly. Connect with Derek on LinkedIn. You’ll thank us later. So, Derik Linton Molly, let’s do a little demo. If we could, uh, Damon, I’m going to, I’ll go ahead and grab it and get it up there. Yup, and there you go. And so, alright, we’re talking about vessel, and you are doing a great job helping, like trade or trade associations, MEPs, for folks out there, like, hey, what’s an MEP, those are the manufacturing extension partnerships. So walk us through Derek. What are we seeing here?

Derik Ellis  21:39

Yeah, this, this example is for an MEP specifically. And you know, imagine you’re on the front lines of that MEP. You’re out working with manufacturers, and you’re working with new manufacturers. So what you’re seeing here is an aggregate, aggregate view of my manufacturers as an account manager that I’ve conducted supply chain assessments for. So we do, you know, there’s close to 50 different types of assessments that we do within our system, and this is just an example with fake data of my book of business, doing supply chain assessments. Now we do, do? We do separate and organize by next codes, because that’s usually how this is operated. For the MEP environment, we do sink into CRM systems pretty seamlessly. So if someone does a self assessment or assessment or a survey, that information can go right into the system, even before you put them into your CRM. And I’ll keep this really high level, because sometimes our demos can go long, especially if I’m giving it like I said, this is fake data, but this gives you a chance, as an account manager or business development person, to look at the landscape of your manufacturers, how they’re doing, where their risks are based on different assessments. We can call them resilience scores, or call them something else. You can start seeing which recommendations surface the most for your manufacturers, highest scoring categories, lowest scoring categories. So you get the picture here, and we can visualize that data in 100 different ways. So that’s, that’s not the challenge. That’s, it’s just great that we’re conducting so many assessments that we’re able to bring it back in and conduct this level of data visualization. So, you know, of course, you have an account section, this is something you would expect. Or you can go into your client, resilience, manufacturing, Inc, you can look at the assessments they’ve taken and taken over time, so you can benchmark for success measures. And then, of course, they can log into their client portal where they can download the assessments they’ve taken and also look at some of the benchmarking categories that could be there. So I’m going to keep going quickly, but I’m also here and looking for you guys to stop me if you have questions, yeah, if

Curt Anderson  23:58

there’s any questions, drop those in the chat box and Damon, do you have any any

Damon Pistulka  24:03

thoughts? Yeah, I got a question right now. So when you say, log into the portal, is that me, the manufacturer logs into the portal that I’ve done the assessment, or the MEP representative that’s that’s helped them get the assessment done.

Derik Ellis  24:15

Great question right now. Or the MEP, and the MEP can look at where the the manufacturer logs in, and then when we click on it, this is where the manufacturer will log in. Okay, very cool. Yeah, so that’s great. Here’s where, you know, a lot of the IP exists. I’m I’ll talk a little bit about IA or ai, ai. So, you know, imagine your manufacturer completed an assessment. You’d want to go in. Here’s a high level look at response rates. Of course, these are self assessments. It can be, you know, one person or 1000 people within a manufacturing facility that’s taking the assessment. And you know, what we generate here is what you’d say in the. Executive level view for that. MEP, so I’m an account account manager. I’m looking through to see, you know, within this specific supply chain assessment how well or where the gaps, challenges and threats are, yeah, the high level view. And then, of course, I can click in and start by question, looking at their aggregate score, assessing from my standpoint, and looking at the recommendations that have been drawn up from our database. So we work with that organization for their internal recommendations, but we also use a a lot of data to bring recommendations in that organization may not know even exists. So this is really empowering the consulting relationship right now. So now I’m looking at where I may build recommendations by category for that manufacturer. Let’s say I’m, I’m, I’ve taken that step and I feel good about it. Then you’d go and you generate your report. So, oh, go ahead. I think someone’s asking a question, nope. Oh, I’m sorry. So let’s say we generated the report in seconds. You’re going to get a comprehensive PDF that is branded to your consulting group or organization. It’s, you know, Arkansas, MEP, wow. And, you know, you get to see a letter from the director. And I’m going to move through this relatively quick, because it’s, it’s, you know, close to 20 pages. I think, you get an outline of how the assessment was conducted, and then you get to see by category where you lined up, where the assessor score was, where the delta is. And you really start getting a comprehensive understanding of, you know, where you are. You keep going through this. And then we start talking about where you want to go. So now the recommendations and the go forward plan come together in a future state analysis, and we’ve built this to be completely customizable. A consultant up to this point delivering this level of report, it would take them between 25 and 35 hours per manufacturer, and we’ve knocked that down to close to an hour. Wow,

Curt Anderson  27:25

I’m sorry, Derek, I didn’t hear you. Could you say that again?

Derik Ellis  27:29

So 25 to 30 hours down to an hour, we’ve consolidated up to five different tools that people would use to get this done. And you know now a consultant can do it without bringing other resources in to do that. So this is part

Molly Lenty  27:44

when we Derek. I’ll just share that the best part when we get across the table from a consultant, whether they’re embedded in an MEP center, they might be actually with an association that supports manufacturers, or a consulting agency directly that works with manufacturers. Either way, we show this process to a consultant, and they all say, without fail, oh my gosh. This saves me, not only so much time. I hate sitting behind my computer and manually entering all of this information. What I love to do is work with the manufacturer. I love to help them so they’re able to automate all of this process that is time consuming and now deliver them this comprehensive go forward plan. Were they going to come in and be their solutions partner? They’ve provided their level of expertise. They’ve input that, you know, alongside the AI driven recommendations, but they’re able to put their own flavor, their own stamp on there, and then package it and deliver it to the manufacturer, and then create that relationship more on the solution side, versus all of that time wasted in The manual entry and the manual delivery. So we’ve really provided them the opportunity for efficiency, consistency and delivery and expectation, but also in being able to track the ongoing support and year over year, with longitudinal data points in that platform as well longitudinal data. And when Derek talks about how our system, our platform, is built on NAICS codes, the real value in that is the data perspective and the understanding of what is happening in sector, industries and manufacturing within their geographies. You know, those five different tools that these consultants have been using, time consuming, costly, you know, there’s all these different myriad of ways that we can talk about why that’s not a good way to to operate. But also, they’re not breaking things down by NAICS codes. We’re not really talking about individual industries and being able to understand benchmarking and where they’re doing really well. Our. Platform does that. It’s built in

Derik Ellis  30:03

that that’s so well said. I’ll add one more thing that I hear a lot as far as feedback is concerned, and that is when we’re working with consulting groups that are trying to build trust with manufacturers. This. This is a way for them to build trust faster. It’s saying that we’re aligning with you. Here’s our understanding. You know, I’ve experienced consulting where people kind of rush in and want to diagnose early or diagnose by your your specialty or your expertise, rather than taking more of a holistic view. And that’s hard on the old trust meter. So, you know, by giving them a chance to conduct this non bias and then coming in and helping them, we’ve been told by consultants that this gets them into more projects and builds trust faster. So one more piece of the demo. Now I’m going to go through this relatively quick, but this is our ecosystem view. So you know, this is Hawaii right now, and the data that’s coming in here is data that we bring in around suppliers and vendors that are available to the manufacturers in an area. But this is also, and this is the most important part, complimented by survey and assessment data that’s happening in real time. And so as people take a workforce assessment or a lean manufacturing assessment, or industry 5.0 assessment, we’re able to start pulling some key information into mapping structures that mommy Molly kind of touched on, and some other cool tools in here. I’m not going to go in depth. Is sort of our, you know, like we have a NAICS Explorer, you can better define which makes codes who you are. And, yeah, so this is, this is a chance for that agency or organization to just have better information at their disposal for the manufacturer.

Molly Lenty  31:55

What’s really cool about this tool, and you know, I’m just going to share, we’ve got a PhD data scientist on our team that runs circles around Derek and I, if we ever try to demo this part of the tool, it’s pretty impressive. If somebody is in a position where they’re needing to visualize data and really understand the supply chain or a myriad of different things, it could be an association that’s needing to better connect their members based on different criteria that’s collected through assessment or survey tools that are taken in this allows so many different filtering options and visualization and categories that can be collected for this particular build out of Hawaii. It allows Hawaii’s leadership to break down supply chain by their congressional districts, so they can understand where they may need certain type of suppliers that don’t currently exist, or where they can connect the dots amongst their their current suppliers that are minority owned businesses that, you know, contract with the government. You know, any number of different filters that are built into this, and they’re all validated. Like Derek said, once a local manufacturer participates in a survey or an assessment, it validates all of their data with the most up to date information.

33:17

So that’s the deal.

Curt Anderson  33:20

It’s just such a powerful tool and and the thing is, like, you could, like multiple different organizations, multiple different agencies could be taking full advantage of this. I mean, it’s just such there’s just so much value here. Yeah,

Molly Lenty  33:35

the partnering opportunity as well within a local geography is huge. So you know that the sharing of the platform in different ways. I mean, what we love to do is just sit down with somebody that’s needing an automated process and saying, Okay, look what’s working for you, what’s not. Where can we meet you, where you’re at let’s brainstorm, who are the other partners and parties that you work with? Do they need to be at the table? We’re here as a thought partner as much as we are a technology solution, and that’s why we use and interchange the word partner so much. It’s on client. It’s a you know what? What are you needing when we work directly with consultants, with consulting groups, they don’t need, typically, all the bells and whistles of a platform that would be built for an MEP center or for an association. We have a much more streamlined product that we can roll out to a consultant really quickly. So we’ve got a myriad of different ways, different products, different price points, different ways that we can sit down and just say, Okay, what are you needing? We’ve got an assessment tool. How can we help you best help the manufacturers that you’re connecting with?

Damon Pistulka  34:56

Gosh, very cool. This

Curt Anderson  34:57

is just Derek. How. Like, when as you’re working with your clients, how often are they, you know, hey, what about you know? Could you, you know, add ons? Like, you know, hey, what about this? What about this? Like, how do you determine when people are, like, making suggestions, like, Hey, that’s a good one, or that one, not so much. Like, how do you determine that when you’re getting feedback from customers? Yeah, right

Derik Ellis  35:17

now we’re learning so much. I mean, we’ve worked with our customers for eight years, so a lot of that learning happened even before we got into the software, and we sacrificed a lot to build some of that in. Now, you know, I’m not talking scope creep, but when there are great feature ideas, we’re rapid. We’ll move quick. Our team is right here, and so rather than pushing back too much, and we don’t want to Frankenstein our system, yeah, right, but what we do do is, yeah, we’re more of a yes team than a no team. So, you know, if it makes sense and it looks like it’s a great feature, we’ll stop what we’re doing, start building it in. You know, we’re utilizing AI in multiple ways. We’re utilizing, you know, all kinds of different things to support this network. Yeah, so I’d say we say yes more often than no with your improvements.

Damon Pistulka  36:10

Nice. We

Molly Lenty  36:12

also have a product roadmap that is built out over Derek, you work more closely with the developer team than I do, but our product roadmap is built out, you know, over the next so many months or year, and when there is a feature that a surface, that a partner is needing, it’s probably already on a radar, but it might be further down the product roadmap, if it makes sense to bump it up and integrate it earlier, like Derek said, you know, Where we are a yes team, and if it’s a yes and or yes, you know, we might have to move some things around. Or this is what it’s going to this amount of time it’s going to take. We, we want to help find solutions. We we come to the table to help empower those that are helping manufacturers. So we would rather say yes, and let’s figure out what it’s going to take to make it happen. You know, my joke is always like, well, it’s just time and money. We’ll figure it out. The development team doesn’t always like it when I say that, but it’s true, right? We’ll figure it out,

Curt Anderson  37:12

right? Everything’s figure out about, you know, Molly, gosh, you are powerful, you know. So a couple things I’ve got written down, you know, we it’s not software. We’re a thought partner, and I just, I couldn’t love that more, and I just the dedication to helping empower your customers. Derek, let’s do, I don’t know necessarily, recap, but see if somebody’s just kind of joined us. Who am I? Where I really need to be reaching out to vessel like describe that person who your ideal customer, that thought partner? Who am I that really needs to be reached out to you and Molly, yeah, at

Derik Ellis  37:47

the highest level, if you work in an MEP, if you’re engaging with manufacturers from that MEP, whether you have a topical initiative or it’s more general, if you are at a university, helping manufacturers, if you are a Manufacturing Association helping manufacturers, and you know, there’s 10s of 1000s of those in this country, we can build very niche, specific assessments. And that’s what we’ve we’ve created an Assessment Engine that creates better assessment. Assessment recommendations, is what we’ve we’ve done. That’s where a lot of the AI comes into play. But if you’re any of those parties, we can really give you something that empowers your team and it empowers your recommendations more effectively. And then, if you are a consulting firm that consults with manufacturers, any any consulting firm could use this where, you know, we we started working with private consulting groups near the beginning of this year, and that’s there’s a lot of heat building around that, because you’ve got supply chain consultants, you’ve got logistics consultants, you’ve got workforce and leadership consultants, you’ve got people that are really trying to help manufacturers from all of these points of view. And, yeah, we’ve got, we’ve got the assessments in the platform that can help them,

Curt Anderson  39:08

you know, I’m glad you said that, and I’d like to dive into that a little further. So, so again, like any of our consulting friends out there, I’m thinking, you know, like the consulting friends I’ve worked with that operational excellence folks, people that are doing ISO, you know, people that are doing like the OSHA safety work like, I feel like this tool would be perfect for folks that are doing, like, safety assessments, and then, like, here I can regurgitate back. I’d probably need a better word than regurgitate Molly, right? So you’re, you’re, you know, Damon, when we’re on with Molly, it’s tough, right? You know that I can come back with, like, a 20 page safety report of like, Hey, you should fix this, do this tech, you know. So the safety guys I’ve worked with in the past, I feel like they would kill for this tool, right? So, I mean, there’s a, it seems like an enormous amount of value here, as you said, for not just our manufacturing extension partnership friends, but trade associations, and especially. Those, those consulting firms, would find great value here. Yeah, yeah. One

Derik Ellis  40:07

thing, and something we empower very well, is the experts are coming to us to utilize the tools, and so we’re using their expertise to really make the tools more effective. We’re not the expert in each of these areas. We’re an expert in building software that builds assessments. So it really we rely on those superpowers all around us, those boots on the ground, that that really know what they’re doing, right? Yeah, right,

Curt Anderson  40:33

yeah, all right. So I, we’re, I know we’re, we’ve gone past time, and so we’ll start winding down here. Damon, what? What are your thoughts, dude,

Damon Pistulka  40:41

like, I just think this is a cool, a very cool tool from a couple standpoints. One, you know, if I am, as Molly said, in an area, say I’m, I’m in you just pick an area of the country, and I’ve got an Economic Development Commission, economic development office. I’ve got the the local, you know, business association. I’ve got the manufacturing MEP that’s involved in there. If these people could all be working together through this to help the manufacturers, there would be an incredible amount of cross the information that they could share through these assessments and and then get the right resources to the manufacturers would be huge, because that collaboration between those organizations, I think sometimes that’s where we have we have an MEP that’s over here. We have a local economic development commission. They talk, right? They probably talk and that kind of thing. But do they really talk around a given business to the level that can help that business? Because if the MEP says, Hey, I see this assessment, and this is a problem that we can help with, or we can’t help with, maybe it’s an opportunity for someone in economic development or another organization or an association that can help, and they would, I just think the collaboration opportunities would be incredible with this.

Molly Lenty  42:07

Yeah, yeah, I think you nailed. You hit the nail on the head.

Damon Pistulka  42:12

It’s so cool. It’s so cool because, I mean, from running manufacturing companies, you’re sitting there and you don’t, you have, okay, you’re running the manufacturing company, right? We’re worrying about making the widget, getting the stuff out the door, getting supplies in, whatever it is, we don’t know, all the resources we have as a manufacturer, and this would only help us, help the people that want to help the manufacturer, consolidate their efforts, right? You

42:39

know, we’ve

Derik Ellis  42:40

said it. We need that written down. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  42:43

very well, said, Damon. And the thing, you know, like, I’m so fired. I get so fired up talking to these guys that, you know, and Damon, we always preach, like, you can’t be everything to everybody. But, you know, I was heavily involved with the small business development centers in the past. Like, this would be another great one, cool PDCs. Like, I’m like, yeah, oh my god. I was an advisor for the SBDC for a number of years. I’m like, you know how much easier my job could have been if I could just had this tool. And so I just, I think you guys have just created just such a powerhouse solution. And again, Molly, just love what you’re saying, how you’re empowering your cut, your clients and customers by being that thought partner. Hey, Derek, I don’t you did anything special this week, like, I don’t know, like, Tuesday night or something, but what? What’s, what is going on this handsome devil, dude, you clean up, nice man. Look at that handsome devil in a suit. Who is this? Who’s the lady on your left there? Uh, I’ve seen her in the news a couple times. Who? Who’s this person on the left?

Derik Ellis  43:41

So that is administrator Kelly Loeffler, the the head of the SBA in in the US which it was such a such a privilege to have her present the award to me and and the on the other side of me is, is our local director, Shannon Manson, and phenomenal leader, awesome. So please,

Curt Anderson  44:03

please share with folks, what is the award that you I mentioned earlier, but please share with folks what? What are you holding in your hands there?

Derik Ellis  44:10

So it’s the SBA. SBA is Idaho Veteran Owned Small Business Person of the Year award.

Curt Anderson  44:16

All right, how about a huge standing ovation, round of applause for our dear friend, Derek. So, Derik, what an honor Molly. I know he’s too humble to talk about it. Just why was Derik so first off, how did he win this award, and why was he so deserving? He’s too humble. So tell us a little bit about how he won this I’m

Molly Lenty  44:37

so glad you’re letting me brag on him a little bit, because he is too humble. Our entire team was there in full support. We were so excited to cheer him on, so honored to have him leading us. But yeah, so he won this recognition. Was nominated by our good friend and leader, Isaac Belden for the he leads the item. Ho entrepreneurial Alliance, which Derik has volunteered. Derik, I think you’re on the board of that organization. He has mentored many veteran entrepreneurs through the years. Cares very, very deeply about the entrepreneurial the veteran communities as well as community at large, and is constantly looking at ways to give back. So yeah, that was a really great recognition and a well earned, much deserved award for Derek to be recognized with. And you know, his speech that he gave at the event was very moving, and I know it definitely brought some tears to our team as he spoke not only about the things that he learned most in during his service in the Air Force, that helps drive our culture and helps drive the way that we look at the business that we get to do and the way that we show up for each other, but you know, really fortifies the Mission in which our company is focused on as well, and focusing on giving back and fortifying the US economy. So it was really great to be there in the audience. We have a whole myriad of photos that we’ve taken as part of that, and I think we’ve got some future LinkedIn posts that are going to be going up as well, but it’s got a lot of really great coverage, and we’re not done singing his praises around this recognition and the great work that he does in the community.

Curt Anderson  46:26

Well, congratulations, dude, again, another round of applause for Derek. So Derek, Well done, my friend, well deserved. And I just, I’m just beaming for you, your family and your team, and I’ll tell you, dude, like it’s such an honor and privilege to be in your circle, to be friends with you guys. I just feel so blessed that our paths have crossed, and I just I love having a front row seat of watching what you guys are doing at vessel helping manufacturers and man, you don’t have bigger fans than Damon and myself, and we’re just rooting you guys on to massive victory to keep helping, because the more you guys win, that just means you’re helping more manufacturers, more agencies that are helping our manufacturers. So again, God bless you guys. Thank you for all that you’re doing, man, this is

Derik Ellis  47:11

we’re so grateful for the both of you, Damon and Curt, can’t tell you, you have quite the position. And yeah, you’re doing really good, really good work.

Curt Anderson  47:23

Thank you guys. Okay, we’re gonna wind down. So Damon, what do you think of this conversation today? Dude,

Damon Pistulka  47:28

it was awesome. That was awesome. So much good stuff to see, and just to see. Think about the collaboration possibilities. I mean, to help manufacturing. It’s so cool.

Curt Anderson  47:38

Yeah, yeah, powerful tool. So Molly, as we close out parting thoughts, words of wisdom, anything that you want to share with folks as we bind ourselves down here, yeah,

Molly Lenty  47:47

don’t be shy. Reach out to us. You mentioned, you know LinkedIn. Derek and I are both really active on LinkedIn. We love replying to messages on there, hopping on virtual meetings. We do so many of those that it’s just like, hey, you know what? What are you doing? Let’s expand our network. If you really care about manufacturing, let’s find a way to partner. And those have been such fruitful conversations, and we just love doing that. We love demoing our platform. So we’re happy to jump on a meeting and do that as well. Absolutely and just thanks for having us. We love the enthusiasm. It’s a great way to close out Small Business Week. Yep, well,

Curt Anderson  48:23

Molly, Happy Mother’s Day too. You know what? And I do, I do have a question before I let you guys go. I do have a question I love to ask. And I, since you’re both here, Dana, I’m going to, I’m going to ask the I’m going to ask this one. So best. Derek, take your take. Let’s go back in time when you started your entrepreneurial journey to your younger self, or maybe a young entrepreneur out there, best business advice that you’ve ever received. What would you like to pass along to our entrepreneur friends? Best business advice.

Derik Ellis  48:50

Best business advice. Understand finance very well. Go to school for finance, I think understanding how finance works is a game changer for a young entrepreneur. It’s a simple one, but, yeah, I’m going to go out

Curt Anderson  49:07

there understand. Well, hey, I know our banking friend loves that one, Molly. How about you? Do you have best business advice that you want to share with any young or not even young in age, just young in their journey, and as an entrepreneur, any advice that you want to share? I

Molly Lenty  49:21

think it’s really easy to get distracted by the, you know, bright, shiny things. And it’s staying focused on your core mission, yeah, and the core focus of your product, and if it’s going to bring you further along, like I talked about a product product roadmap, if a decision or an opportunity is going to take you further along that line. Great. Engage in it, but we do a thumbs up, thumbs down activity when things come our way and it’s, does it take us closer to our goal, or does it, you know, take us off to the side? And I think every single entrepreneur that I’ve talked to, I know this, they all have those stories where something is bright and shiny that takes them off course, and then they. Eliza, I gotta write course and get right back on on so find that core, you know, focus and just stay the course. Brilliant, absolutely.

Curt Anderson  50:09

Damon, we’re using that from now on. We’re doing the thumbs up or the thumbs up. Yep, best. That was awesome. Alright, guys, we’re going to wrap up and again, big round of applause for our guests here today, Molly, lenti and for Derik Ellis, thank you guys both. Just tons of love. Support to you guys. Just absolutely, just can’t tell you how excited we are for both you and Damon as we close out, man, let’s just, you know, go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like these two, and you too will make the world a better place. Damon, go ahead and close this out. Molly Derik, hang out with us for one minute.

Damon Pistulka  50:43

Alright, I want to thank everyone for being here today. I want to thank Randy and Muhammad and jumbo for dropping the comments in here today. Thank you so much. And for those of you that were listening but didn’t drop a comment, we appreciate you as well. Thanks for being here with us today, and thanks for joining us on Fridays and Mondays. When we do this, we appreciate it so much. We will be back again, not next week. Next week, we’re taking a week off because Curt and I think somebody has a birthday next week. We are going to have a lot of things going on next week, so we won’t be here next week, but we will be back again after that and have some more great guests. But I want to just quickly thank Derek and Molly for being here today from vessel and talking about driving, reshoring and resilience of us, manufacturers. Thanks everyone. We will be back again. You.