Hello and good day to you from episode 39 of our podcast series Project Breakaway. A metaphorical and literal time in the day when we here at Predator cycling take some time away from working in the back shop to come and share with our listeners what we're doing, how we're doing it, what it takes to do it, our ideas, our innovative success stories and even our missteps and failures. If you find yourself with an interest in bicycles, composite manufacturing, out of the box design, or even curiosities beyond, I encourage you to stick with us. Settle in and learn a little. I'm Courtney B, co-owner and project manager of Predator cycling. And I'm here with my partner Arm Goan, the other co-owner, CEO, lead designer and engineer and post Thanksgiving sleepy nappy man. How's it going, Arm? Good, I got a good nap in, got some sleep. Uh. Yeah. So we had Thanksgiving. Last night at dinner. And then you just your body shut down. It did. It was like, I'm done. You just your eyes got real slanty and like you just got on a rocking chair and there you went. Yep, that was basically what happened. Um. Yeah, that it was nice. Okay. This Thanksgiving, what was your favorite part of Thanksgiving? Um, of the day, my favorite part was definitely we went to the park and we got little uh um rubber band slingshot, little airplanes for the boys and got to run around and do that. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, who what what how was your flying abilities? Uh the first attempt was pretty bad. I went straight into a headwind thinking that it would be good so it wouldn't go too far and it ended up getting a ton of lift. Flew up into the air about 20 or 30 feet and landed on top of the roof of the picnic area. So we spent about 10 minutes throwing rocks at the top of the shelter. Yeah, and you got it down almost all the way to the bottom and then I came with a big stick and. And pushed it down the last part. That's how you solve all of life's problems. I just got a big stick. Yeah, it works quite often. Uh, but yeah, whatever, the boys had fun. Um. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, the little one, the one-year-old had about 15 minutes before I realized he was eating a leaf. Like a full-on giant leaf. He's just chewing on it. Uh, yeah, it was a good time. It was a good time. And then we went to my mom's for uh Thanksgiving dinner, which was really nice. What was your favorite part? Mine was the four-year-old screaming, yucky, yucky, this is disgusting. I want to go play. Uh, just the boys in general. They're funny. Uh, the little one, he he devoured Thanksgiving. I mean, he crushed it. Yeah, he's going to have some stomach issues today. I mean, he had deviled eggs, he had turkey, he had uh, did he have cranberry? Um. No, he didn't have cranberries. But. He had everything else. Yeah, he he had, oh, he had cornbread. Whipped cream. Whipped cream. Oh, he loves whipped cream. I don't know how many people listeners. he does the baby sign language. Oh yeah. So it was the whipped cream bottle and more, more, more, more. Yeah. You can just put that here and here and here and here and here. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So, no, it was good. Yeah. Um, it was it was fun all around fun time. Cool. So, let's move on. So on the last episode, we discussed more in depth our air bar extensions. And how they're similar or how they're different to the competition that's out there. Yeah. Um, and then we spent uh some time this past week updating the website listing. Mhm. And we added more renders and photos, excuse me, just so you can see more angles, side views, three-quarter views and a head a head on. Cuz we didn't have a lot of. Yeah, we didn't have a lot of images of it. Um, kind of, yeah, and we did and we put a little video up too. A little bit. Excuse me. A little video and um we put a photo of writer of the photo a writer of the photo. A photo of the writer. Corey Williams. Yeah. Um, and it uh kind of a jux to position of him writing our the extensions. And then him writing like a stock type of extension. So you can see the difference between the arm support. Yeah, you can see how it. How how how different it is. Also, we put in the video, you can kind of see how we um model it around a rider. So you can kind of see one of the um Corey I basically we built a three-dimensional version of him um that's parametrically driven. So we can adjust positions and adjust hand positions um and do CFD testing. So kind of just like a little bit of a sneak peek of how we kind of do all of that. Um, did we put that on social? The video? I don't think so. You should you should do that. You should do that. Okay. It's a lot of things I should. Okay, so. But it's on the web page. Check out that listing with all the updates. Yeah. If you're interested. Or curious. Um, okay. Speaking of the website. Yeah. Uh and our listings, we've decided that we are going to join in. On the holiday spirit this year. And offer a Cyber Monday sale. Yes. Um, even though I don't know if Cyber Monday is a thing anymore. No. It's basically Black Friday. Extended. Small shop, Saturday, Cyber Monday. I think it now in this shaky economy, COVID recession thing we're going through. It's just basically. We should just call it October. November and December. That's when the sales started. Yeah. It's I mean all the Black Friday stuff started like. Everything today on Black Friday is basically what the pre-sale Black Friday. The prices were. Yeah, it's been the same. It hasn't I mean I haven't seen any. I'm also not an item. You haven't been shopping. You've been shopping. Mostly for toys and stuff, which I thought would be highly discounted today. Yeah. But they're basically the same as what they've been. So. Um, yeah, I was looking at a couple of things. And everything is basically the pre-black Friday sale is the same as the Black. What are you looking at? Get me something. Uh-huh. Maybe. No. I think we've been married for seven years. We've never got each other Christmas gifts. No. Did we do that before kids? I don't think so. Not really. We always got each other's things when we needed things. I don't know. Yeah. So. Okay. Uh, so, uh, what was I saying? Regardless, we've historically skipped these deals. Yes. Because we found that our products, custom frames, etc, are just not an item that you surprise your loved ones with under the Christmas tree. No. Um, our clientele usually buy for themselves. Yep. And custom fits and products are a process. Yep. So we've never really seen a return on Black Friday type sales. No. We run Black Friday a couple of times or we've done a couple like December sales, but. Mhm. It's never really done anything. So. However, in the past two or three years, we've been adding newer, smaller and more adaptable type products. Mhm. to our arsenal. Yep. Like the aforementioned uh arrow bar extensions. Yep. Um, also the bike fitting wedges, the DIY kits, the handlebar plugs, the computer mounts, the washers. Yeah, the safeguards. The safeguards. Yeah. So we've decided that this coming Monday, um, we'll be offering 20% storewide on most things. Mhm. And 30% off specifically the arrow bar extensions and the track bar track pilots. pilots. Um, we would offer them on the road. uh bars, but those are not listed yet. No, they're not they're not listed as a pre-order item yet. So. We're just finishing the clamp mechanism. Okay. So, um, and the thing about the arrow bar extensions and the track bars is that, yes, they're custom, but 30% off purchase today starts you on the custom process. to have them ready for the season. Yep. Which is what? Like February, March? February, March. January is like January, February is really when like. Um, preseason, I mean, preseason is January, February really. But, um, if you're for arrow bar positioning, like you kind of want it. You don't want to jump into the season with new bars. So like you, you know, I don't know, for me it was always like finalizing positions. And setups was January, February work. Um, so that in. March is early racing and then, you know, going straight into the season hard. You had your setup kind of dialed in already. You were kind of set. That was my rule of thumb, but, you know. So I, yeah, I've always said January is the cutoff for like new parts. Yeah. Oh, and let me pull up. the website real quick. Because we did do the extension uh updates. But we also added a little tab called. process. Yeah. So if there's any confusion, because people sometimes get either confused or intimidated by a custom part, I guess. Yeah. I don't know, I don't like to talk to people, so I'm less likely to reach out. if I need some sort of custom part. For sure. But. Um, if you go to the process. So basically it says you can schedule a consultation. Which is optional. Yeah. But also recommended. Which is basically talking to you. And I don't know who would not want to have a conversation with you. I'm sure there's many people. But, um, yeah. Yeah, just setting up a consult. Just to go over, you know, what we're what you're trying to get out of the arrow bars, what your position is, what your needs are. Um, explain to you any questions that you have about it, about the process. Technical questions that you may have. Or any questions. But there's a book a consultation button there at the top of the page. Which basically sends you to a calendar. And you choose a time slot and you get to have a little 15 to 20 to 30 minute. However long you really want. A video conference with you. Yeah. So it automatically books a 30-minute call. What it does. And it automatically sends you an invitation for a video meeting. And put on your calendar. Yeah. That's it. So then you can have that meeting optional. Or you can just go ahead and place the order. Mhm. And then once you place the order, you will work with us. Um, to submit photos. And we'll tell you what type of photos that we need. Mhm. To basically scan your arm angles, etcetera. Mhm. And then you get an online design review and a 3D model of what your the bars and stance would look like. Yep. And then you will receive a 3D printed sample in the mail. Mhm. For you to put on your. To put on the bike so you can just get a test to make sure that our fitment is correct. Everything that we're doing is right and final position changes. Anything you want to do, you know, if you're like, oh, you know, that that hand's a little too aggressive. Or this isn't going to quite work. Or whatever. You know, my computer mount the way it's going is not quite fitting the way I need it. Like, you know, anything from that transition from that 3D model to the review. To the printed sample. Um. So. Yeah, um, you'll have a printed sample. And then. You get a final review with you. And that printed sample is not for being like, it's not a riding safe sample. It is for like, put it on the trainer. Lightly put your arms on it. I mean, it's it'll hold quite a bit of weight. But like it is not meant to be a structural part. It is just for fitting purposes only. And then once you do the final review with you, um, then we we make your bars. Yep. And then we have. Put them in the mail. We have the 3D models. So all we're doing at that point is um, you know, doing our hybrid skeleton. And our carbon fusion process. And everything is referenced from that 3D print that you got. And the 3D models that you've seen received. Because it is a digital process. Right. Okay. And then obviously the extensions are not on Amazon, but all the other little products that I mentioned. Um, uh, for Monday, visit our website. Order your cycle.com. Because. Because they will be much cheaper. Then the Amazon store listings. Yeah, we're not really doing discounts on Amazon store. We can't. Okay. So, secondly. Uh, that was my first subject, I guess. Secondly, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, uh, and saying what we were grateful for. In business from the past year. Um. Obviously, we struggled just as everyone else did during COVID and the economy. And whatever this. Crazy two years. All these tech people are saying there's a recession. So, um, we did have quite a busy year in terms of technology. Good. So, we were sponsored by Lenovo two months ago to be one of the high one of three highlighted customers in their booth at Autodesk University. Yeah. Which is their tech Autodesk tech conference. Um, along with sport from Nvidia's Omniverse. Uh, we've talked about our partnerships with these companies a lot. Yeah. It's fair. Um, but we never talked about our trip. Oh no, we didn't. So, because it takes us that long to get back to what we were doing. Uh, yeah, it does. Autodesk AU 2022 was held in New Orleans this year. It's been a few months, so it was back in September, so we've had some time to reflect on our experience. And I don't think my opinion has changed much since my initial response. No. No, I'm looking on that. Yours? No, it's the same. Um, this was our fourth, and your fourth, my third in person AU experience. And I have to say, it fell quite short of expectation. Yeah, there's no doubt. Many things were lacking. Yep. That's fair. Um, from class availability versus actually getting in a full class that actually had open seats. Yep. Um, to logistical placement of classes in a new conference center. To the four-mile walk to the speaker prep room. That was pretty bad. Uh, to the Hohum keynote address. To the lack of industry inclusion for us small timers and after hours events. Mhm. To simply just booth emptiness on the conference floor. Wow, yeah. To completely non-existent food that was pre-paid for. Yeah. And uh, to that closeout party that was a monstrosity. That was bad. So, That was not great. Listen. I know New Orleans is a struggling city. That is no surprise to any of us. No. Especially as, you know, intelligent people that were flying in for this. Yeah. But Autodesk really could have put a little effort into providing a more welcoming environment. So all of us nerds could pump money into that city. Yeah. But I think there was a lack of inclusion and inviting in an inviting atmosphere that disenfranchised most of us. For sure. Pions. That's true. But I also like, for me, I was really excited for New Orleans. Like I was just like, No, I'm not one of those people that was like, oh, it was Vegas. Yeah. Which I heard a lot of. I heard a lot of that too. And I did not expect New Orleans to be the same as as as uh Vegas. It's not my expectations were not the same at all. I was super pumped because I'm like, I want to go to new city. I've always wanted to go to New Orleans. I've never gone. I know that it is not a um, We knew safety was a factor. We knew. Yeah, but it's like New Orleans has such a It's just a cool place, like I wanted to go and experience like some New Orleans style things. Yeah. Yeah, I was super psyched for it. But you didn't get that at AU. No. Listen, we took it upon ourselves to wander the city. Yeah, we did. But the weekend just didn't feel like an AU event. No. There was a lack of excitement amongst many people on our level that we spoke with. Yeah. So let's go through it. So let's talk about our booth experience and our partners. That was A plus. A plus. Yeah, no, I had a great. In terms of the actual conference, that was probably one of our that that was our best. That was the best. interactions in the booth. For sure. We had that was the most it was the most successful AU for us for predator cycling's perspective. Um from the um the people that we spoke to, the the conversations that we had. The support from Lenovo. Oh yeah, I mean that's second to none. I mean, they put, I mean we were. They're probably like, who are these yahoos we put in our booth and then they're like, oh wait, these people are amazing, they're bringing people to our booth. This guy's never stopped talking. That would be me. Um, well, if you ask me a question about bicycles and design and like modeling and fusion and like omniverse and like high-powered workstations and bicycles and CFD and simulation. I don't know, that's my thing. I can go all day. I can go all day. Listen, when we go to these. I love it. I mean it's different for every person when you go to these these conferences and you see a booth. And you are attracted, you see something. You have to see something cool. Yeah. You got to slide to a light. You got to be like, what's going to bring you in? And then once you're in, it's like great. What's the conversation? Which we've been to booths that are like, that's cool and then no one is there to actually tell you why it's cool. Yes. Or like understand why it's there. We got that question a lot. Why are you here? Yeah, the first question. We got is like, okay, cool bike. We had well, so back up. What does that have to do with Lenovo? Two seconds. So we brought our RF 20 um with our brand new um the major pilot road bars on display with our 3D printed cages and a couple of other little sneak products that were on the bike. Um we've designed. Um and also it this is the first time we've shown the RF 20. Um at a show of any kind. So that was a big thing for us. It was I was a little nervous too. Because like you're AU for those of you that don't know is a lot of architecture, a lot of manufacturing. A lot of design, animation guys. I mean, you're these are not. These are very high-level talented people. So people who are looking actually at like the design factors. You're going to get nitpick. On your design. Not just like cyclists. Are going to be like, oh, that doesn't work. At least from what I've had. Yes, it's going to like, oh, that's not the new Shimano, that's not the new group, that's not this or this technical specification. A lot of people are looking at the actual design. A lot of engineers stopped and looked like, oh. You guys did CFD testing. Like that was a comment I got for five times. We also have the video running in the background. Right, but there was no CFD on it. There was no simulation or CFD shown on the videos. And a lot of people stopped and said, oh, you did a lot of CFD testing. And I was like, oh yeah. We did. I'm glad you could look at it and understand that we did. looked at these. Anyways. The point was that it was I was nervous from that perspective because I haven't we haven't been that nit picked on our design from that level of people yet. And it did really well. So we got a lot of people that came. And then the first question when they were attracted by the bike and they said, okay, why are you here? Yeah, what do you have to do? So what does this have to do with Lenovo? What does this have to do with Autodesk? So that was a question we got a ton. Which you can answer. Yeah, I mean. Today's. Yes, I can I could take. But we also had Nvidia there too. We had Nvidia. So it was we were in the booth. The Lenovo booth. Um, we had. We had the trifecta of Nvidia, Lenovo and Autodesk. Yeah. We had a. Cool little video playing that was our um. Um was playing with about our use of Omniverse and how we use that and our workflows through um Fusion 360. Um, for those of you that don't know, I'm sure most do that listen to this podcast. Um, almost all of our modeling is done in Fusion 360. Um all our cam work, um all our prep work for simulation is pretty much done in fusion. Um, but we use that tool quite a bit. And then we use that in conjunction with um Omniverse um from Nvidia to do a lot of our visualizations and assembling our models and assembling our projects and using it cross platform to go to other products. Um, and all of it is done on Lenovo hardware. Um, which especially on the simulation side, we could not scale up if we didn't have um massive computational power. Um. And also like, I mean, all we we use all Nvidia um high-end graphics cards. So we do a lot of solving there. Anyways, that's why it all kind of connects together. Um, but it was it was good conversations. It was really good conversations. We talked to some really interesting people. Um. Shout out to those IKEA reps. You want a bike? Oh. Yeah. Yeah, we talked to some of the guys from IKEA for a while. We talked like a bunch of different manufac um architectural design engineering companies. Um that had huge interest. It was interesting too. Because we kind of showed off. Some of our um. In my talk, I did a talk about I work and how we kind of do integrated systems and and how all that connects together with data and digital twins. Um. And so that was really interesting. We had a lot of people that came and talked to us about that. Um. So it was great. It was. It was a very productive AU. In terms of. From that perspective. It was very productive. Because we spent most time at the booth and not as much time in the classes. We did. Well, I did well, it was a little frustrating because I there was like three classes I really wanted to get into that I couldn't because it was full. And then probably. Gotten into them. And then yeah, and literally people told me that they were like empty. The class was empty and I couldn't get it. I was like, oh, if I know it was empty, I would have gone. But like it said it was full. And then. Well, that's next, but let's finish the booth. So. Our booth experience, great. Yeah. Amazing. But what is your experience walking around to see the other booths? Um, it was not. Well, smaller. Smaller, but it was. Because it was the first in person after COVID. Which I get, but. It wasn't the. Well, so like. The first the AUs we've been to in previous ones, it was I would much more. We put it in the category of an experience more than a show. You would go into like different manufacturing sectors or whatever and you really were like. immersed into the tech and like, Mhm. talking to a lot of the experts and like it was really like it was very cool, it was very inspiring to like design new stuff and like push it and what we could do with the future and like I don't know, it was really inspiring. I feel like there was a lot of talk about the future of like. There was not. It was kind of like this is what we did, this is my booth, this is a white table cloth. Yes, it was a lot of that. Um, there were really no like experience. I get it, it's hard for companies to go all out on all these events, but. For sure. No, I I definitely got. I knew that it was going to be different after post COVID. But I just felt. I don't know, it was not the experience that we've had in past AUs for sure. Because the pricing didn't reflect that change. Yes, it was a lot more expensive this year. Okay, so let's go to classes. Yep. The classes that you did go to. I liked it. I had a good, I had some good classes. I I. I wish there was a couple classes I wanted to go to that I didn't get to go to. Um. But um, there was a lot of classes that you couldn't sign up for because they were full, but then if you casually walked by the door, they're pretty much half empty. And I don't know, there's a lot of factors why people were skipping out on classes. But they also weren't letting people into those empty classes. Which is just a lack of communication between the staff and the convention staff. That's just purely a lack of communication. Yeah, it was just the prep train. Which I get the first day, but like the second and third day should have been. A little better. Yeah, there was a lot of times when there was like we were past that like five minutes, whatever grace period. And then you're like, well, can I get in the class? And they're like, no, you have to be your badge has to be scanned. And I don't know if it was like a technical problem or like a training problem. I know it was a training problem. But then it was just like we were like a couple times we just bailed. Like, okay, I can't wait around. Like I got to get back to my. And I think that was multiplied by a lot of people just failing. Because they were just getting frustrated. But. And that also compiled because of the food. Well, that is uh towards the bottom of my list here. But next is conference logistics. Man, I should have worn tennis shoes. Yes. Yes. That was it was. There were some women there in heels and I admire them for wearing the heels. But oh my gosh. That was. That was hard on the feet. I mean, Vegas is hard on the feet. But you stop a lot and look at stuff. This was just like walking. This was long. This is I mean, I almost didn't go to the speaker ready room and check in. Because I was like, oh my gosh, like I've walked the entire length of this building. Right. And I'm like, I still have to go. I needed coffee. I needed coffee and I'm supposed to check in. So I wanted to check in and do what I'm supposed to do, but I I almost didn't. Yeah. Because I was just like, this is I just. Cool T-shirt though. That you got. Yeah, it was. Upgraded T-shirt from the previous in person one. That's AU speaker shirt. But um, yeah, it was just it could have been. Like like my I feel like like-minded classes could have been more. Centralized. That's how they used to do it. They used to do it by floor. I think by different floors. They had they had it pretty sectioned in the past. Like when they had during COVID. It's just disjointed. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, maybe it was just the whole thing around it. And just the. fighting an escalator to get on. Oh, that was bad too. Which is not the conference center's fault, it's just the posting of, you know, information. Yeah, like we didn't know what class was. Yeah, we didn't know where we're supposed to go. And then all of a sudden like, oh, we're going here and then it was like we had to wait in line for like 10 minutes. 5 to 10 minutes to go up the escalator. So. Which happens in Vegas too. There's always that big. Yeah, Vegas. Vegas is just more. Vegas has more. More room. It's there, they're prepared. I don't see like that I could, okay, fine. I'll wait in line for that escalator. Okay, fine, like I got to do a couple things. But like we're in New Orleans, like that's cool. Like. I would have not had a problem with that stuff as much as if we if there's more New Orleans style stuff going on. So let's get to the keynote. Oh yeah. Which I was we're in the the kind of back, so we saw like the preparation for the Marty Graw type things. Yeah. Coming. And you know, I am by no means a cultural, you know, know it all. Yeah. But I do know that it should have been, you know, a little bit more immersed in cultural Marty Graw. Not a bunch of whitewashed uh show girls walking down the thing. I was a little disappointed with that. Yeah. The you know, Jazz has a very uh rich history. Yes. And I don't think it was correctly portrayed on the keynote stage. Yeah. So I was a little like, really? Yeah. I did like that they talked about, I forget I forget her name. But she was someone that was grew up in New Orleans. Oh yeah, the city manager for the water for the post. Yes. That was interesting. And I do know that they also had available like a uh uh historical architectural like walk about thing. That you signed up for. Yes, I tried. I wanted to get that. But I couldn't. It was full and then probably half. People didn't show up. I wanted to do that so bad. There were a couple African-American type um specific classes to learn about the history of New Orleans. And what they were doing for cleanup. Which were also I think full with the time we signed up. The architectural one I wanted to see soup, that was like super cool. I would have loved to have done that. But the keynote. It was that and then there was just a couple of just like, I don't know. They just were. I don't know. I think they've gotten too big for their bridges and that they just didn't hit the right notes. Yeah, there was definitely um a sense of um um disconnect on some of them. But that's. You know. I there was a couple. Like I said, that that city manager. She was. Her story was super cool and what she's done and the way she talked about things was. I don't know, I thought it was pretty inspirational. I was like, oh, this is awesome. Like this is super cool. Like. Um and then there was other ones that were pretty good too. There was like the car failure, like we failed. Yeah. I get it. It was a cool story. I get it. We fail all the time too. It was just a lot, it was just a lot on like a repeat story. Yeah. I don't know. But I remember in the past we've gone to not the keynotes, but what are like the ones they have in the middle of the day in the theater rooms? The theater talks or whatever. Yeah, those are always. Those are always like. Those are good. Like two years ago, three years ago. like the bicycle ambulance in like Africa. Oh yeah, that was good. For like women who needed to see a female doctor or whatever and like stuff like that. Yeah. And you always have like the prosthetic ones which are like cool. Yeah. I feel like that story is told a lot. There wasn't any of that or maybe there was and we just couldn't get it. I don't know. I don't think there was a theater room like there was before. I don't know. There was definitely a CEO room. The door was always there, but. Yeah. There wasn't, that's what I'm saying. There wasn't any, it wasn't exclusion, there was no inclusion for the small guys. We had a lot of people that this was their first. Yeah. A year. There was a, there's definitely. And they were like, oh, this is cool. But like, I'm like, no, this is not what it's been like. You guys got. Right. Well, this year there was more of the, uh, you could feel more of the, the Autodesk class system was there. Yeah. In presence. Yeah. Um. Anyways. So keynote ended. We left early. Yes. And that is going to segue into my next thing. We left early because we know we had to be back at our booth. So we were like, let's grab lunch early. Let's let's grab lunch when it opens. And so we can get back to the booth. Well, we apparently had the same idea as like 5,000 people. Oh, less than. It was a mass exodus. The keynote ran late. The keynote ran like 10 minutes over. And there was a good 3,000 people behind us. So we get in there thinking, we're just going to grab some food. We're going to have this. Oh, no, no, no, we're not going to grab food because they ran out already. And there's 3,000 hungry people behind us. Oh yeah, they only fed like, I think 1,000 people. There was 10,000, 10,000 was there. Right. And there were a lot of excuses that we heard from people there like, oh, people are grabbing bigger portions. People are, no, they weren't. No. No, they weren't. And as you said, it was a math problem. Yeah. It was a conference full of nerds and they had a really big math problem. Yeah, it was, there was an arithmetic issue there. And they did try and solve that lack of food problem by offering different like. But like. Yeah, but the problem was is like they literally told us, oh, go across the street and buy sandwiches at this place down the street from us. Well, that's conference center folk who had no. Well, but even I asked some Autodesk people and they're telling me the same thing. I was like, it was not, I was like, well, we don't. But then they opened up the cafeteria. They're like, oh, between these two hours. But that's it just wasn't, it wasn't doable for a lot of people. If they wanted to go to the classes that they all paid for. They've prepaid for all of these services. And they just didn't get the services. That was the thing. As soon as I was talking to people because they came by the booth on their way out. Because we were right next to the door. And they're like, oh, there's no food. We're going to do like, we're going to go by the booth and see some stuff. And then we're leaving. We're leaving. They're like, I'm leaving for the day. I'm out. Like I'm not coming back. We're going to dinner. Which is why there was a lot of empty seats in the classes. That were supposed to be full. Because people were just fed up. For sure. Oh man. I was so hungry. But then it was the thing of from then on. It's like you just had to run to the to food. Yeah, and then it just created this sense of like urgency and upset. I mean, people were hungry. Yes. It was thing. And yeah. Okay. So then finally, last talking point. The closeout party. Come join us at the closeout party. You'll see Marty Flo. No, you won't. You get Bud Light in a can. Yes. You get some food, but it's going to be taken away 30 minutes before the party ends. It was more than that. And you can come out here and sit on these glowy dilapidated toys. Yeah. It's and pinball machines that weren't working. Yeah. It just was not there. It was not there. It just was not there. I actually got my phone was like, you know, the memories. Yeah. Memories from five years ago. Yeah. It was like Vegas parties. Oh, yeah. I mean, Oh, yeah, there was a big difference. It was different. I mean, I wouldn't. Yeah. To be honest, I probably wouldn't. If I had known what it was going to be the closing party, I don't think we would have gone. We would have gone. We would have gone. We would have gone to a nice restaurant or something. Yeah, I would have gone someplace else because it was like, We did. We left early. Where did we go? We did leave early. Yeah. And we went. Is that when we went down to? No, we went, I think we went to the one of the went to the hotel bar or one of the bars or something and hung out. Yeah. Because it was and then it was we ended up seeing a whole bunch of other people. Yeah. Uh or people from AU. Um. Um. Okay. So, So they, no. They messed up. They messed up. They sent out a message. Yeah. Pretty soon apologizing. Yeah. They sent out a poll and a survey the week later. Yeah. Um, so what do you think they should really focus on for next year? What's their takeaway? Did they get too big? In previous years? Did they lose the focus of the actual event? Which is technology? They make it too much of a party out of it? I think that this year was the year that was the least focused on the technology and the applications and what Autodesk does and their software. Mhm. Um and the experiences and what people from using the software do. Mhm. I think that was lost this year. I think this year it felt like a, we want to sell you something. Um, we uh we're here showing you the software and what we've done and how we can sell you on new packages. And here's some discounts. I remember. In previous years, people would uh they'd have their little um uh videographers going around. Like, what do you use? What do you use? Yay, Revit. And I'm like, I don't know what Revit is. But yay. Like, Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. But like, it was also like, I felt, I mean, there were some definitely there's experts there. But like, I felt like in previous ones, whenever I had a conversation about some, I'm. We had quite a few. Autodesk customer experience people. Oh, yeah, they're told. Autodesk employees come up to us and be like, this is really cool. I'm like, yeah, we've actually been customers for like 10 years now. Yeah, and we've shown off at multiple AU events. And many of them took our information and did videos and stuff. I don't see any of that. Anywhere. No, we're not. We're not going to be on any of that. Um, that's just fine. I don't. It doesn't. That's not the point. But I felt. But this is the point though. I guess. It is. We were in the biggest booth on the floor. Yeah. We had a couple. I mean, we we. We were in the biggest booth on the floor. We were the biggest booth on the floor. So, we were. If anyone from Autodesk is listening, love our product. Love our experiences usually. But, if you're. This was. This was not it. Sometimes I need attention. Yeah. Attention. And also just like, I don't know. I I definitely. I. In all the previous AUs I've been to, I come out of it with the idea and the the concept of like, kind of. I'm inspired. All right. I'm going to. That's pretty cool. I saw that stuff. It was awesome. I'm going to take something away from that. I I learned. some new things. I'm I'm going to apply it differently. Um, Mhm. Oh, look at that new software they have. Like, oh, that's kind of cool. Like, I should do this. I should do that. I don't know, I come back inspired to like kick some butt. I was this You yeah. You come back inspired. I come back and I'll even tell my mom like, oh, we learned about this story about this. thing that's going. I didn't tell my mom anything this year. I told her there was no food. Yeah. So, I don't know. Next year. They need to um revamp. I don't care what city it's in. Nashville's great. Nashville is great. Um, Nashville will welcome you. Uh yeah. I was happy out of Vegas. I will say that. And I'm glad it went to New Orleans. It just I just needed more. Yeah. It needed more attention. It needed more attention. It needed more attention to the base. Yeah. The base people that support it. The base people that are excited to go, not the corporate people that are paid to go. Yeah. It was definitely there was definitely a there was a couple talks that I wanted to go to. that we couldn't go to because we or we didn't have the we didn't have an executive, we had to have an executive badge or something to go to certain classes. I'll Photoshop one. I'm an executive. You're an executive. No, but it's like a paid class thing. You can't pay for it, so you don't get to go to the classes. Those talks, certain talks you can't get into. Um, but it was definitely this is the year that I definitely. I mean, like, you know that there's a hierarchy. There's always like a, you know, Oh, yeah. I mean, But like, and I get that. But like this year it was very evident. Like you were like, I think too with the climate. I mean, just in the last two weeks with all these technology companies uh uh not firing, but getting rid of their workforce. Yeah. And they said, I was reading the New York Times, they said this workforce that's being fired are extremely intelligent people. And they're all going to go to startups. Well, not all of them, obviously. But a lot of them are going to get eaten and absorbed by startups who definitely want the talent. And I think that these people are who you're going to have to cater to in the next year or two. I had this conversation with a a long, very long time friend. And, you know, his always thing was is that it's about the relationships, not about the companies. And because you don't know where, especially the talent. There's There's a huge talent pool that's just basically starting from scratch. But also the talent pool is the people that have mass talent like that are not, there's not a lot of. I mean, there's not a lot of them. A lot of them are free agents now. But yes. There's going to be definitely a massive shift in the um in the in that portfolio of who's got what. And I've said it for a long time. especially on the manufacturing side. Like the big monstrosity companies, if they're not careful, they're going to lose their market share very fast. Mhm. I mean, you're seeing it now in tech, even software design stuff. I mean, there's some small startups that are doing some really cool stuff. Oh, yeah. I mean, like really cool lattice structures and and and and um yeah, there's like some cool lattice stuff. There's some new simulation stuff that's really cool. Um, it's it's all very cool stuff. So. Okay, well, let's stop complaining. Yeah. It is Black Friday. It is. It is. There are happy things going on today. Like I need to go look for toys for my kids. Mhm. Um, so things to mention again. Uh again, check the website, predatorcycling.com for discounts this coming Monday. check out for our big push on these arrow bar extensions. Remember 20% off storewide and then 30% off arrow bar extensions and track pilots. Yep. And then I also have bike fit shims and wedges, 3D printing. They're printing now, I'm actually working on them. They're in my hand as I speak. Yep. And they'll be back in stock on Amazon in the coming week. Yep. Um, that's it. So, we thank you for choosing to take some time with us. And we look forward to future breakaways. Look for us on Instagram and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and in person here in Tennessee. We ask our listeners to please share, like, and subscribe. We're available on all major streaming platforms. Thanks for listening, have a good one and find some time to break away.
EpisodeNov 25, 2022 · 36:55
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Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
39: Happy Holidays and Monday Sale, EP. 039
Join Courtney and Arm as they recap their Thanksgiving holiday before diving into updates on their aero bar extensions, now featuring new renders and a design process video online. Get ready for their Cyber Monday sale, offering 20% off storewide and 30% off aero bar extensions and track bars, making custom products more accessible for the upcoming season.
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