>> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jefe Rick here with the Cube. Where? It Oracle Park in San Francisco, on the stork with cubby code. We're excited to be here. They're moving a lot of dirt, I think downstairs. But we're at a very cool event. It's called Sports Tech Tokyo World Demo Day. And we're excited. Have our next guest. He's Todd Simms s VP of corporate development from access taught. Great to see you. Great >> to be here. Thank you. Absolutely. So, for people are familiar with access. Give us kind of the company over here. >> We're a global ticketing company. We were launched out of ah global sports and entertainment company called E E G in 2011. And we serve live the live entertainment market and ticketing. Excellent. >> All over the world, >> different types of events. >> E e g. Is a global company with a run venues worldwide. And we serve them as well as third party clients. >> Okay, great. So we're here. It's sports tech, Tokyo. It's a little bit different. Type of an organization. Kind of an incubator. Not really an incubator kind of association, early association, but certainly a community. Why are you guys here. What is this organization mean to you? Why is that important? >> Yeah, it's really important. We We launched our ticketing service in Tokyo last year, and you know, that's a market that we love. It's a vibrant large market with super passionate fans, both on the sports side and on the music side. What it really needs is more of an ecosystem. It can't just be a new, innovative ticketing platform needs all the bells and whistles around it to really innovate the fan experience. And that's what these startups are doing. I >> just I just love this job because, you know, you think of many industries if you're not familiar with them, and they seem really simple on the outside and like everything, once you get under the covers, >> a lot more going on. So >> from the outside, looking in a ticket is a ticket. Yeah, what's the innovation and tickets? What's different about somebody in Japan buying a ticket to watch a baseball game than >> somebody find a ticket to come here to talk >> a little bit about what we're bringing to Tokyo and what we brought to our platform of clients here in the States as well as in Europe, and that's really a digital I. D based ticketing system. So when you walk into the Staples Center at L. A live in Los Angeles, that thing that's getting scanned is not a ticket. It's an identity, it's you. And what's being reviewed is whether you have access to that building on that night or not. So what that allows for is full data around the customer base. Every president of every team wants to know two things. They want to know who's in there building, and they wanna have some control, whether it's economic control or otherwise on the secondary market. Our digital I D ticketing system enables both of that, and that's kind of the innovation that we're bringing to the Tokyo market. >> But I would imagine when you say, you know it's me, you know the opportunities way beyond that because now you know what in my preference is, how often do I come? What kind of beer do I like to drink? It just opens up a whole kind of CR m ah, world of opportunity for this relationship between the team now in that person with that barker, >> absolutely, and that happens today, but what you're missing is every time someone comes in with a paper ticket, you're really not sure who's entering the building. So that eliminates that piece of that. And it gets all these teams with analytic departments to really have a full picture of their fan base. So, you know, they may have been investing in some of this and capturing 60 70% of their who's in the building. Now they have 100% right, >> and I would imagine they've been doing this for a long time, with kind of their season ticket base and knowing they're in the building. But it got a lot of data on their season ticket holders. How is that? You know, changed. What can they apply there to? The casual fan that maybe bought a ticket on the secondary market and his, you know, common is sitting in the bleachers? >> Well, it's huge >> for up sales and establishing that relationship. A lot of teams, if you've you know, just buying a single ticket off a secondary market, you're nowhere in that database now because of our I D based system. Those people are now prospects for either mini pack or a season ticket back. It's right. Just >> curious how the rise of the secondary market really impacted the teams and how they think about their own ticket based. I think the 1st 1 is probably StubHub back in the day for some, and it all happened kind of outside the purveyor of leagues and outside the purveyor of the teams. Likely, they're pretty smart and figured out we need to be a piece of this. So how did that kind of evolution change the way the teams think about their fans? Well, look, I mean, teams >> like music promoters, they Sometimes they like the brokers getting involved because it takes risk off the table. I think teams air realizing, though, that a riel yield management perspective on their ticket inventory to really revenue manage this appropriately. They have to take a holistic approach on their >> tickets, and any time you >> have a segment of your >> ticket base where you really don't have control of pricing distribution, >> all of that, it really hurts and it has an impact on your unsold primaries. So what teams are looking to do is gain more control and manages inventory more holistically to do that you really need to know all the data. And again, the I. D based ticketing system enables secondary sales. But at least you are tracking those sales and, you know, from one person to the next who who sold it, who bought it >> right? I'm curious to get your perspective on on the difference between if you arm or >> entertainment focused. So you know, the Rolling Stones were in town a couple nights ago, and it's really a one shot deal for the Rolling Stones in the Bay Area that night versus the Giants game, right where you're hoping that your people come back over and over. Did they think of it differently? Or is it Maur? You know, Jeff, you like music? You went to the Rolling Stones last night. Maybe you'll come and see somebody else tonight. Is that is that well, can't were they? No doubt, sports teams are >> a lot smarter about their fan base. They have loyalty built in. They have got history, you know there's variability. There's night of game. And then there's weather in who's on the mound and all of those factors. But promoters are, ah, lot more in the dark about, you know, Is this an artist that you know? How much credence can they put in the last two? Or they did. It's too been two years. Is that artist still going to sell appropriately or similarly than they did last time again? The secondary market on the music side is made a bigger issue because of that variability, and those promoters are willing to take risk off the table. But the same thing applies in order for them to really manage and revenue manage that tour. They really need to know who's buying and grab some of that secondary economics out of the system. Right? And that's again, what our platform enables, and that's what we're really bringing to the Tokyo market. It's really exciting. That's a great market for >> us. I was gonna say just to close. >> You know what's special about the Tokyo market either? From an opportunity side, we're kind of a unique way which they do things or unique way in which the kind of the fan experiences as you look at that market. >> Well, it's interesting. I mean, in a culture that is so reliant on such interesting technology, these ticketing technology is actually quite old, and so we're excited to bring that. We've got great partners past Revo is our partner there, and they're really selling that through the Yahoo ticketing channel. Uh, they we have we just signed the B league, which is the professional basketball league will be rolling them out in their fall season coming up soon here. But basically, they are looking for the same things. We're looking for more data and Maura capturing of the secondary market, and we can bring that to them. >> All right. Well, Todd, thanks for taking a few minutes. Pull the covers back off ticketing A lot more going on than people think. Thank you very much. All right, He's >> taught. I'm Jeff. You're watching The Cube. Were Rhetorical Park on the shores of >> McCovey Cove in San Francisco. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

>> Narrator: Live from Orlando, Florida. It's theCube. Covering Grace Hopper's Celebration of Women In Computing. Brought to you by, SiliconANGLE Media. >> Welcome back to theCube's coverage of the Grace Hopper conference here in Orlando, Florida. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. We are joined by Raji Arasu, she is the CTO of Development at Intuit. And also, by Marianna Tessel. She is the Chief Product Officer at Intuit. So thank you both for joining us. >> I think you got the title wrong. >> Oh no! (laughter) Please correct me! >> It's SVP. >> SVP. >> SVP of our organization is called CTO Dev, and I manage the platform and infrastructure services for our... >> Great. >> So now we've got that under control. >> Wonderful. >> So tell a little bit about your background. We'll start with you Raji, how you got into this business. >> I have been about 27 years in the consumer and retail space. And a ton of background on ecommerce and payments. This actually my first job sort of focusing on platform and core services for the company. A huge responsibility, my job is not just to provide and you know, delightful services for both my internal and external customers. But to really make sure that we are really thinking about the future and the capabilities that we're building for the future. So, super excited about my role at Intuit. >> How about you, Marianna? >> First of all, thanks for having me here. >> Yes. >> And I have to confess, this is my first time at the Grace Hopper Conference. >> That's wonderful! That's, that's great! >> And I'm completely blown away from the wonderful people here and the representation and the energy. So, I'm now a fan. So, anyway, just wanted to say that. You know, my background has always been engineering, I've done multiple engineering roles. I actually, before this, I spent a lot of time in systems and infrastructure and I really get a kick right now out of using some of the products I built. And actually using them in other products. And seeing how customers are using it. So, that's an interesting kind of journey, and interesting to see kind of full picture, of kind of the industry. >> Both of you, and we are here at Grace Hopper, which is the celebration of women in computing. And both of you are passionate about creating a more inclusive engineering culture. Can you talk about why, why this is a passion project of yours. And then also, what you're doing to make, to help that happen. Raji? >> I think, I mean, Grace Hopper. This is my seventh year in the conference and I love it. >> So you're a veteran. She's a virgin, you're a veteran. >> I'm definitely a veteran, absolutely. (laughter) >> And I think it's such a joy because it not only, I have started to recognize some familiar faces. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to network, with women in technology, and talk about actually, what's cool, is not just the issue around fixing the numbers, but actually, we talk about capabilities and building, you know, what's really important for our craft. And so I'm actually excited about that. The more and more I see, you know we have about 112 people attending from Intuit. And you know, a ton of men as well, participating in that but a lot of people are going to be talking about things that are very core to us. Like, data engineering, data science, architecture, services-oriented journey, and all of that which is awesome. Because I think, that's what people want to hear, the work that we do. And they want to understand, what it would be like to work at Intuit. So, there's a ton of opportunity for companies and for individuals who work there to really show what they do everyday. And really connect in a very authentic way. And show off their work. More than actually be, you know, really talking about the Uber problem that many of us do care about that as well. But I see, down here, especially where we are sitting, everybody's connecting on where they work, what is the work that I'm going to do, or what is the stuff that actually interests me. Which I think is pretty cool. >> During the keynote, Melinda Gates had a very quotable quote and she said, "Not every idea is wrapped in a hoodie," not every good idea is wrapped in a hoodie. And this is really bemoaning the brogrammer culture. Is that message getting through, do you think, to young women? In the sense of, this is not all the sea of white dudes. >> You know, I, I think it is but there's still like work to do. Both for like, women that enter the field, as well as women that been here for, for awhile. And, you know, there's still plenty of opportunity. So, you know, the culture is definitely, at least, I'll have to tell you that, again, being a bit in the industry now, and gaining a bit of a perspective, just the fact that it's being talked about and the fact that there's more energy towards solving it is already, you know, a great win. And, you know, to your question before, if I can jump on that as well. >> Knight: Yes! Absolutely. >> You know, this whole idea of diversity in the work place, there is nothing, I don't know if there's much to say there beyond what's already said about how it's good for businesses, how the customers at many of the of, I know definitely for us, in the small businesses, a lot of our customers are diverse. And we want to have diverse people build product for our customers, right? You know, so all of these are true, it makes sense for the business. But now I can tell you from my own lens, and my own kind of perspective and experience, you know, women are just awesome. And they make like, outstanding engineers, outstanding leaders, and every time I have a group of, you know, that has all sorts of people, again all kinds of diversity it's just a stronger group. So, some of it, you know, I love to have a diverse team selfishly, because it's an awesome team and that's kind of what I think we should all be pursuing. Just, be awesome, not just diverse. >> So you're passionate about getting more women into this industry, keeping them, retaining them in the industry. But, tell me a little bit about the tech. I mean, because that is, that was obviously your first love and that's why you do what you do. So tell me about what you're working on that's really exciting to you at Intuit. >> I think, you know, as I look at my past, one of the things that always excited me is to work on complex stuff that actually makes a difference in the world. And it started fairly early on in my career where I started to, when I worked at eBay it was about actually connecting to our customers and sellers and having that sort of a social impact. Moving on to StubHub it was a lot about actually entertainment and how do you really get people to the game and that perfect evening they were looking for. And then moving on to Intuit, it's about making that financial freedom possible for many of our customers. And I think when I look at that, for Intuit, there's a huge opportunity. Which we are actively working on is, to start looking at our data and be able to create some delightful customer experiences for our people. And to, to really give them more time and more money at the end of the day. And I think, and that sort of confidence in our own products, about the decisions we make for them and the expertise that we provide, and so as part of that, a lot of that can only come alive with technology. So, when we start to look at that, you know, there's a huge focus within the company on building great tools for developers so they can move faster. There's a huge focus on trying to do AI and machine learning on our data and looking at what we can do to personalize our experiences for our customers and reduce friction in the flow. There's a ton of work that's being done there. And I also think that we, we're very excited about our journey to the cloud. And having gone through the whole services-oriented architecture, re-architecture that we are being embarked on for many years. So, I think really, really there's a ton of good work that's happening inside with all towards the focus of servicing the customer. So there's a ton of conversations that we have around customer empathy. And then all of the technology towards making the lives of our customers better from a financial perspective. >> And giving them back time and money as you said, yes. Yes, absolutely. >> If I can add, to that, like our mission as a company is to power prosperity around the world and you know, and that's like a great mission. But, as Raji was saying, it's even awesome when you get to connect technology to a mission that is really inspiring like this. >> Knight: Yes. >> And is really something we put in practice. You know, I'll talk specifically in one of my products, Quick Books Online, QBO. You know, we have, a lot of the problems that, a lot of the challenges, we shouldn't call them problems. Challenges that many of the SAS companies are facing in terms of scale, in terms of velocity, how are we doing DEV ops in the most modern way? What's our CICD pipeline look like? How do we use, we have all this great data, how do we use the right data? Because, obviously we want to respect privacy. How do we use the right data to giving even more value to our, getting more value to our customers? How do we apply machine learning and AI? And, you know et cetera, to make it even more interesting because we have some touch with financial data. There's a lot of view on security and what we do there. So, lots of problems to solve that are deep technical problems. Lots of modern technology. Some that other, that you know, we have to look at but you know, really interesting set of challenges. From all the way to, in close to the infrastructure, all the way to the UI and some really cool things that we're doing there. >> I think that's a really great point, and the fact that, you know, as you're women technologists so you face issues of biases and sexism in the industry. But as technologists, as human technologists, you face questions about, am I looking at the right data, is this data secure, am I doing enough around privacy? Do you think that this conference does enough to acknowledge both sides of this coin in the sense that you are technical leaders in your field and you are here, at a tech conference, but then you're also here to rally around this issue of getting more women and retaining more women in the industry? What do you think? >> I think, I think that I am in this, in these booths here, I sense it. I sense that we're talking about the real problems around technology. The conversations around the specialties that are required in data science or maybe architecture, maybe engineering. I mean any parts of that, we do have those conversations. I think at the keynotes and maybe at the higher level, it's a lot more about developing women and addressing the problem and probably building leadership. So, there's probably two flavors that you find in this conference. Which I think cater to different sets of women and some about staying in the field and not sort of, you know, dealing with the problems that we have. So I think it does. But I think it'd be awesome to have a panel where we have very different points of view on a technology, and having a really good debate about that. Which would be really cool I think, if we had something like that. I don't know if it's in our curriculum. I'm definitely not aware of everything in our curriculum but it would be cool to have a panel like that. >> I want to wrap up here but I want to ask, what is your best advice for aspiring women in this field? And it could be someone who is just starting her computer science journey in college, or it could be someone who maybe is feeling as though, do I stay in this field, I don't know if this is for me. What would you say to that young woman? >> You know, again, maybe something that she heard before, but I would say, you know, go for it, stick with it, be ready to fall down. And come back up and be ready, be open-minded, know that you can learn anything. And, you know, but stick with it. >> Just stay, stick with it. (laughter) >> Yes, through hard and through easy. >> I love that. I mean, I want to definitely second Marianna saying don't be afraid of failures. Take it on, and use that as an opportunity to convert that into success in the next opportunity that you have. I think the part that I would also say, is protect being a leader in tech and staying true to it. You got to have a learning mindset. Every single day you come in, you got to learn new skills, you have to open to change, and constant change. And if you learn, and every one of us has different ways to learn. You know, some of us learn through conversation, some of us learn through reading papers, whatever that might be. But if you do that, you will stay as a credible and relevant leader for the longer run. >> Knight: The growth mindset. >> Absolutely. >> Well Raji, Marianna, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a lot of fun. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, here at the Grace Hopper Conference, we will have more, just after this. (electronic music)

>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering InterConnect 2017 brought to you by IBM. >> Hey, welcome back everyone. We're live here in Las Vegas for IBM InterConnect 2017. This is theCUBE coverage of their cloud and big data event Watson Analytics, and IoT Cloud. It's theCUBE coverage for three days. A lot of great interviews. I'm John Furrier, my co-host Dave Vellante. Our next guest is Scott Francis, an entrepreneur, CEO, co-founder of BP3. Welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you, glad to be here. >> Great to have an entrepreneur on because you've been, in your business, you co-founded it, built it form the ground up, >> Scott: Right. >> Hundreds of employees. Now, over 100 employees. >> Scott: Right. >> IBM partner, great story. >> Yeah, we started with just two of us 10 years ago. And, we'll have our 10th anniversary in May this year. >> John: Congratulations. So take us through the, you know, state of the art. I mean, go back 10 years ago. You've actually provisioned your own servers. You actually had to load routers and networking gear. That's like, I'd say a tax of at least 100K in just gear. And then you've got the ISP chart, all that stuff. >> Right, well the economics have totally changed, right? For us and for our customers, and I think the main benefit is you can get to business value so much faster now and spend less money that's sort of wasted spend, right? >> So take a minute and talk about what you guys do and what your role is here. And then I want to get into some of the things that are changing the market place, that people are seizing opportunities around, certainly around processing and new innovations. So, give us a quick update on who you guys are, and your role here today. >> Yeah, so our focus is on business process and decision management. And, you know, our experience is that it is foundational technology and foundational aspect to almost everything you're hearing going on, right? Whether it's block chain or cognitive, or moving to the cloud. What are their key considerations? How does it impact my business process? How does it impact my operations? How does it impact my decisions? So we feel like in our space, we're right at the sweet spot of what all our customers are worried about. And when we hear them talk about block chain, we know we've got a process problem we've got to address. And when we hear about moving to the cloud, we better address all the Halo applications around that, application that's moving to the cloud and make sure they're all addressed and part of the new business process. >> It's interesting, the whole decoupling of existing systems models >> Right. >> Is really kind of what I see as the micro trend over the past six years, and like you mentioned, foundational building blocks is key, right? >> Scott: Right. So that's key. And, so let's take this to the next level. I want to ask you a question because I think this is something we see all the time on theCUBE when we do interviews, is that technology now is so much different. In the old days it was, we knew the process. >> Scott: Right. >> And we don't really know the technology. Let's go automate that accounting, blah, blah, blah. You know we saw that, ERPs, CRM, all those vendors. Now it's, I have technology, I don't know what the process is going to be because some new, big data analytics people changed the insight, and changed the value chain, or changed the business model, one tweak radically will disrupt proven, process which no one wants to change. Whoa, you know, so there's now a real factor. Give us some insight and color around how that goes down, because someone has an insight, they want to roll it in and implement it. It changes the entire process flow. >> Right, well the key thing is, having an insight as a single person in a process is one issue, but rolling it out across a Fortune 500 company is a whole other proposition, right? You've got regulatory issues and compliance issues, and customer experience issues that you've got to work through. And all those accommodations may be there. The value prop may be there, but you've got to work through it. You can't, you know, at a billion dollar organization, you can't just change it for that, you have to work all that out. >> John: So what's the playbook? >> Yeah, so the playbook is when we have an insight, what we talk to customers about is you've got all these tools now to arrive at insights you couldn't get to before, or by the time you got to them, you're doing your analytics over data that's six months old. Okay, now I have an insight about what would've worked six months ago. The difference is with cognitive and machine learning algorithms, and the analytics you have available today, and the access to the data, those insights are available now. We have to re-architect the processes to reflect that and to let me make new decisions within that operational context. >> Go ahead. >> Operationalizing those insights. Go ahead, finish your thought. >> Well the data first thing that you talked about is key. We just had our big data event. It's look in value in conjunction with strata hadoop was data in motion and badge are working together now to your point, the times series of data is relevant in the time you need it, right? >> Scott: Right. >> Not yesterday. So this brings up the question of, Okay, you've got some spark thing going on. I see IBM has got spark, that's cool. But now, how do you get into the app, right? To developers? I'm a developer. I'm a coder. Do I need to be a wrangler, data wrangler, or data scientist, to make that happen? So this is the conversation people are trying to figure out. What's your perspective on that? >> I think a lot of the tools that are, that are available now, basically made a common coder, right? Has a decent chance OF that competing with their data scientist friends. There's a different level of expertise, obviously, for the data scientist. But much like in business process, you know years ago, you had to get your lean six black belt, and you really had to study it to get good at it, and really master statistics, and I've got tools that will run the statistics for you, right? So you don't have to master the statistics but you've got to collect the right data, you have to engage in the business. So I think you see a sort of, democratization of data science, right? With the tools that are available now. >> Talk a little bit more about decision management. Go back to the mid-2000s and the Harvard Business Review is writing articles that gut feel trumps, you know, paralysis, analysis, paralysis by analysis every time. That's seemingly changed but what specifically has changed in regards to operationalizing those insights? >> Well I think they're a couple of things that are interesting. If you look at how processes were traditionally designed, you know, before BPM came along, BPM and decision management tools came along, just write the code. Build your application. And when you wanted to change the decision, well you had to find where that was modeled in the code, and edit the code, right? And that was a challenging proposition. The guys that wrote it might have moved to other projects. So how do you figure it out? >> So gut feel was faster. >> Yeah, and BPM, and OEM, you know, gave us tools for managing those things. BPM in terms of process, having a diagram that a mere mortal can understand and find the right context for whenever that decision gets made. And decision management to mange rule sets and the interactions between these rules in a more codified way that again, mere mortals can understand, right? So you don't have to go hunting through code. We're looking at a model, a representative model. I think the change now with machine learning, with cognitive computing, the real time access to data is that you have to really rethink your processes and allow those decisions to be altered in real time, not later, six months later, when I'm doing a revamp of the process as a separate, sort of institutional operation but actually as I'm running my process. We design it to accommodate the idea that as we're collecting data we're going to learn and get better, and actually affect those decisions, or recommend a different decision to the person whose Johnny-on-the-spot. >> Are you finding that the business impact is that your customers, the consumers of this sort of new way of doing decision management are seeing things that they wouldn't have seen before, or is it more greater conviction and faster time to everybody pulling the same direction? >> Well, I think for sure they're seeing things they haven't seen before. We're surfacing data that they just didn't have access to before in a timely fashion. And in the context of their process which was always a difficult thing to do in traditional systems, right? For any of your traditional ERP, or CRM system, the notion of where you are in your cross functional process may not be present. Today you have that context. You have the real time access to it. That really changes the nature of what you're seeing. I think the other bit is, yeah, the action ability, right? How easy it is to turn that insight into an action. >> And have you seen any effect on the politics of decision making, because we all know the P and L manager whose the strong voice in the organization, he or she is going to pull data that supports their business case. Have you been able to, sort of, neutralize that sometimes damaging effect in organizations? >> Yeah, well, I think in the cycle of the economic cycle, you know, if we rewind five or six years ago, almost every project we engage with with a customer is about operational controls, reducing costs, trying to produce the same result with fewer resources, right? And that has shifted dramatically over the last few years. The last two years it's been almost entirely about capturing revenue. >> Dave: Opportunistic, yeah. >> Serving new revenue streams without having to hire as much to support it. It's much more about revenue capture and customer experience. And I think that reflects the stage we're in in the cycle. >> Dave: Is that a bubbling cater? I hope it reflects a good long term view. >> Dave: I hope so too. >> You know, but it's interesting. There's a customer speaking here at InterConnect today, StubHub, about their customer experience. And they BPM to manage their customer experience, and back in 2009, 2010, when everybody was pulling back, and they were all focused on cost containment. You know, I recall StubHub was working on how to make their customer experience better. It's kind of interesting, right? And they've done very well over the years, right? So I think that value system in that culture really pays off over time, but you have to really mean it. If you're just swinging back and forth with the ebb and flow of the economy, then I think it's very difficult. >> Well, if you're doubling down when everybody else is sitting on their hands, you're going to get a competitive. >> It's a great opportunity, right? >> So, talk a little bit more about the IBM connection. What's going on in InterConnect, and what's the relationship there? >> Well, IBM is our best partner. You know, we've been partnered very closely with IBM ever since they acquired Lombardi which was our company that we came out of back in 2007. And that has become, you know, the heart of the IBM, BPM portfolio. And we work with their business process products, decision management, as well as cognitive and blue mix. So we're in the mix with IBM in a big way, and I think this conference is a great opportunity for us to not only reconnect with folks from IBM, but also with our customers who tend to come to this conference as well. So it's a great opportunity for us. >> So specifically you're leveraging IBM tooling, sort of. >> That's right. >> Repackaging that in your solutions for your clients. >> Right. So we are a reseller. We're also OEM IBM software, and we do delivery work for IBM customers. So, it's kind of a trifecta. >> You started this company 10 years ago. We love this start up story. Tell us, you and your colleagues started. Tell us your start up story and how you go to where you are now. >> Well we were, you know, we would meet up at a coffee shop, right? And get together and kind of talk about, you know, the fact that it felt like there was a big opportunity out there. >> Dave: This is in Austin. >> Yeah in Austin. My co-founder and I, you know, we were working at Lombardi but we felt like there was an opportunity to build a great services firm in our space, right? In this business process space, that there was a lot of untapped potential. And as we met and talked about it, we just got the bug that we needed to go out and do it. And when we started the company, you know. It was just the two of us initially. We bootstrapped the firm. Last summer, for the first time, we actually raised money, outside capital, to help fund the growth. >> Dave: 10 years then. >> Yeah, yeah. But all that time we self funded which was a great experience. A great learning experience. Certainly lost some sleep over the years. But, you know, there is an aspect of kind of putting the band back together. You know, hiring people we really enjoyed working with in previous lives, previous jobs, and putting together a killer team to go after it. >> So the decision to take outside capital, maybe talk a little bit about that because that's probably wasn't an easy one, or maybe it was, I don't know. >> No, I think, you know, what we've been fortunate to do is we've taken some calculated risks over time, right? We used to only operate in the United States. We acquired a business in London to expand to Europe. And now a third of our business is in Europe. But those risks, you can put the whole company at risk taking a chance like that. And so it occurred to us, after taking a few of those calculated risks and winning that maybe we should hedge our bets a little bit and have some more capital to work with, and have a good financial partner that if we were engaged in that kind of discussion, someone who could help, both advise and also possibly fund if we got into that situation. And so, we took an investment from Petra Capital based out of Nashville. They're a great growth equity firm, and they invest in healthcare and tech start ups, like ourselves. And so we got some great people on the board as a result. Mike Simmons from T2 Systems, and Jeff Rich from another capital investment firm. These guys have been operators. They've run companies much bigger than ours but they've also been in the mix at our size. So we've got some great outcomes out of taking that investment. >> So you've been cashflow positive since the early days. You had to be. Is it the plan to continue to do that, or do you make gasoline in the fire type investments? >> You know, I think it's cultural, right? I know there's a lot of business models where there's actually some good since in the running and not worrying about profit for awhile, but I also think you need to develop habits and our business serving enterprise customers, I think they deserve to know that we're being responsible with our money, with how we spend, with how we grow, and that we have a responsible level of growth. We could spend more and grow faster at the same type of process. >> John: At the risk of service. >> But at the risk of service quality for our customers and that's not worth it for us because ultimately, it's the repeat business with customers that really drives our growth long term. >> We feel the same way, obviously self funded. You know I'd say Silicon Valley is a story like that. Heirarchy of entrepreneurs and it's well known that the number one position is self funded growth without outside capital. It's a lot harder. No offense to my VC funded friends. It's a lot harder to do it from the ground up than just get other people's money. So tier one is do it yourself, which you guys are in. Get some capital, grow that and have an exit. Three, try and fail, or four, work for a company. (laughs) >> I think the key thing is it takes patience. If you're going to do it yourself and self fund it, you know, let the business fund itself, not just throw in your own personal money, but actually make the business fund itself. You have to have a lot of patience to stick with it. And I think whether by hook or crook, we picked a space that afforded us some of that patience, right? >> Yeah, you get rewarded for innovation. You get awarded for good service delivery. >> We feel like business is a human endeavor, right? So a good business process and good decisions are going to be problems that our children will face, not just us. >> And they're going to get more exciting for you as processes get automated with machine learning and AI right here on the doorstep, and Devops exploding with IoT coming on full line. It's going to change the game big time. >> Yeah, and I can't remember who said it but someone just yesterday was saying, you know, "It's not so much about automation "as it is about augmentation." And I really think that's true. I think if you automate out all the mundane, what's left is the stuff that's really interesting, right? And that's kind of how we view our job is to automate all the stuff that's getting in the way of highly skilled people doing their job taking care of their customers. >> I always love the story when IBM super computer beat Garry Kasparov at chess. You've heard this a million times. Kasparov didn't just say, "All right we're done." He created a competition, and he beat the computer, and now the greatest chess player in the world is a combination of human and machine. So it's that creativity, that common atoria factor that's drives the machine. >> It's actually better than the machine only, right? >> The creativity is going to change the game. Scott Francis, entrepreneur, founder, co-founder and CEO of BP3 in Austin. Thanks for joining us, appreciate it. More live coverage here. Stay with us, theCube is at IBM Interconnect here in Las Vegas. More great interviews after this short break. (upbeat techno music)