00:21 Hey, welcome back to the show. And today I'm so excited to have Dave Castro on because, well, I'm just gonna let him tell you why. He's an amazing guest. Dave, tell us why you are so amazing. What's going on? Who are you and what do you do?

00:36 I think I'm pretty alright. So I have been a serial entrepreneur now for pushing a decade, almost not quite a decade now. 

00:46 Nice.

00:47 But I am a dad of five daughters and I have a wide, you know, plethora of things that I do as an artist, illustrating a children's book. I do social Latin dance, it's like salsa and stuff. I play guitar, ride a motorcycle, also for leisure. I do a bunch of different stuff. I don't have enough time to do all the things that I want to do and improve in all the things I want to do. I have I just enjoy all these things. I'm learning stock trading now, and that's really fun. So yeah, being focused is...

01:37 Only play with a fraction of your budget, would you, until you get really good? We don't want to see you on the side of the road.

01:46 Yeah, I, uh, that's right.

01:47 That's awesome. Well, Dave, tell us about IceBrekr. I mean, you've got this really cool company that I just absolutely love because it is totally up my alley. And I think it's up the alley of a lot of people listening to the show. Who do you set out to serve with IceBrekr? What does it do?

02:05 I love that Todd. I actually, it's something that is really a mission for me. It's, you know, I was talking to somebody on a podcast the other day and we were talking about how we are the people that are best suited to serve the previous version of ourselves or other people that are like us or were like us. And I used to be, well,

02:30 Totally agree. Yeah.

02:31 You know, I grew up going to a bunch of different churches, schools. We lived in different places, and so I learned the importance of connecting quickly and the value of in-person connections. So fast forward, one of my new entrepreneurial ventures is a connection utility. And this connection utility is all about how do I maximize the impact of the context that I'm in. So when you go into a networking environment, when you go into an environment where there's a lot of people and you're connecting with people, there is usually a reason that you're there. If you're there at a conference, it's a topical and perhaps you're looking for other people that will help you move your company forward or a client. If it's potentially you're looking for somebody to hire with Icebreaker, what IceBrekr allows you to do is to go into that event and be notified when your ideal connection is nearby. Which means that you can walk in and know that you're going to get ROI every time versus kind of the chaotic madness of having as many conversations as possible. Going home exhausted, the timer runs out, right? The last grain of sand falls, everybody goes home and you're like, okay, I've got like five people I got to follow up with maybe one or two might be good. How valuable was that for me? Whereas with IceBrekr, you go in and you know, boom, who in that room is your ideal connection. Prioritize those conversations. You're gonna find more because you're gonna prioritize who they are, you're gonna know who they are. And then you'll relax and have conversations with everybody else.

04:22 I don't think, yeah, I don't think there's anyone listening to this who doesn't have this frustration of going to an event, a trade show, whatever, and walking away thinking, okay, I totally hung out with the wrong group. None of those people are gonna convert to help to my business or a client for my business. What was I doing there? Why did I just do that? So how does it work? I mean, I'm assuming this is something that the event organizer implements, or is this something that the attendee? Implements or engages with like how does it all work? And how do I how do I know who's with me? How do I know who's in the same room as me?

04:56 Yeah. So it's a consumer based app. And my vision for it is that it's a consumer app that attendees use and event hosts borrow. So I am trying to make this thing more and more pithy, powerful and valuable for the individual users. It's got a digital business card. It can connect with, with folks without knowing who they are. As long as you turn the app on, if you're an IceBrekr user, other IceBrekr users are turn the app on, within eyeball distance, they'll find each other. So it doesn't matter what context, when you're at church, you're at the football game with your, at your kid's high school, or you're at a conference. Now the event hosts, when they say, hey, we're using an IceBrekr for our event, now the event host can put like an agenda. The event host can add sponsor things in there but it becomes a really valuable tool for event hosts, but the attendees benefit significantly, you know, because, yeah.

06:00 Okay, so it's a membership thing and people are gonna sign up because they want to connect with people everywhere they go, obviously. But how does that interface with the hosts? Because I know that I personally have talked to a lot of hosts about their events and I've participated as a speaker, things like that. What's motivating them to want to use it and what does that look like from the event hosting side of things.

06:32 So one of the ways that this becomes valuable for the event hosts is that it definitely increases the engagement of your attendees. It enables the attendees to get what they came for. Hosts are the super connectors, right? They're bringing everybody together around a theme and they're bringing content. That content, people look at it, they know it, they're familiar with it, they've already seen it the YouTubes, they read the books and so forth, they know the person speaking perhaps, they don't go to meet that speaker and they don't go to necessarily get new content. They're going to find other people and then within that tribe of people, ideal connections in there. So hosts, when they say use IceBrekr or we're using IceBrekr, they are maximizing that expected return on investment for their attendees. They're making sure that those attendees get that. And then also your sponsors are able to put like their banner in there where these people's eyeballs are because that's their priority and the Sponsors get a lot more value out of it where there's a call to you know action button They click and buy versus looking at a sheet somewhere hanging up with their logo on it

07:43 Love it. Love it, love it. Now if you're listening to this and you have used IceBrekr, I would love to have you comment below whether it was a good experience, bad experience, what was awesome about it, what would you suggest that Dave work on to make this even better. If you're listening to this and you are an IceBrekr user, why should we use it? I would love to hear that below in the comments. Dave, tell us what you're hearing. What kind of feedback are you hearing from people that use it? It sounds awesome.

08:11 Man, I was just in London this weekend, actually. I live in Nashville, so it was kind of a whirlwind trip. But I love that community out there that I just went out there for. I got an award, which is cool. The most committed award, which I think being here and flying out there a couple of times probably helped. But.

08:30 That's awesome.

08:31 Anyway, we used it and I had a video from someone, I always take a testimonial at the event and it got erased somehow, didn't back up. But what she was saying was referencing our pre-event, during event and after event functionality. So the utility of it, I call it event PDA, pre-event, during event, after event. So before the event, people get a link and they kind of cascade into the event page. And then you can see who's there. Now, when you show up, you know, so you can message people and see who's coming and stuff, but when you show up, then it has that proximity-based scenario. So you know, not everybody who's registered actually arrives. But then as you're walking to the coffee station or somewhere else, it'll shuffle the people who are nearby you to the top. And then if you have a keyword in there, right? So I'm looking for event hosts, speakers, podcast hosts. So, that'll buzz me and I'll, you know, if I'm nearby somebody, that's that. And then I take a look. So that's the during event benefit. Right. And I'd be, Oh, Todd. And I walked over and said, Hey Todd, I'm Dave Castro. Um, I'd love to meet you. I think you might be a podcast host, right? Uh, you're on the IceBrekr app. 

09:48 That's awesome. I love it.

09:49 And then after the event right now, a bunch of people from that London event are in the IceBrekr app, catching up with people that they didn't have time to get to, right? That the hourglass runs out of sand. Now what? And so they're able to go back and say, hey, you know what? I saw you, I didn't get a chance to chat, blah, blah. So.

10:05 captainscouncil.com

11:44 I love it. Okay, that's really cool. That is actually really, really cool. So now we know the business, we know the model, we know who you're helping. This is clearly an in-demand solution because there is nothing more frustrating than going to an event and walking away with no leads, or connections, or referral partners, or whoever it is you're looking for. It's kind of frustrating. So, take a step back. Dave, tell us what has been one of the key decisions that you've made thus far in getting bigger adoption? Like what has been the turning point, maybe a change in the protocol, maybe a change in who you're delivering it to. Like what is it that you've done to help gain the traction you need to get to where you are today?

12:28 So I am. I think one of the things that we've done is just improve the streamlined, it's all about ease of getting in. Right now, you click a link and it'll suck you all the way through the process and drop you into the event page. So ideally, if you sign in with LinkedIn and stuff like that, but you get a link and it'll just take you to the appropriate app store, the same link. It will take you to the appropriate app store and then drop you into the event page. And so that's probably been our biggest win so far on the journey. You know, there's so many plans that I have and things that I know that I want to tweak for Streamline. Intuitiveness is the key. Conceptually, we got it nailed. So just improving the user intuitiveness. And that's it that's going to drop here in March probably. We have it all sketched out and they're working on it.

13:41 Just in time for the summer season, huh? I like it. Okay, so I gotta know, that obviously is a huge, ease of entry into the portal, ease of entry into the software is ultimately what you want to adopt more users. Are you seeing event hosts adopting it more? Are you seeing, how many people are saying, holy crap, that was awesome, I wanna have this in my event, I'm coming up pretty soon, like, How are you getting traction that way? I'm curious from user base.14:13 I appreciate that. To be honest with you, you know, oftentimes the folks who, you know, have a quirk or find a bug or whatever might be the loudest, you know. You know, those might be the people that the event host hears from or remembers or whatever. I have a ton of fantastic testimonials and stuff like that, you know, from event. I've had several positive testimonials on video from an event and I think the event host is like, meh. You know? So, you know, it really, and the event, the event hosts are so busy and stuff, oftentimes they're not in the app themselves. So, and that's fine. That's for me, that's just, okay, how can I, how can I continue to make this better and better of an experience and serve the event host? And I had, and I have those, I feel like dialed in. It's just a matter. Sometimes I feel like I'm pushing my development project through a straw. Nothing derogatory to my developers at all. I'm just saying that's how it feels. I have some.

15:28 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nailing the adoption pattern is always a tough one. You know what I mean?

15:34 So, it's just a matter of just, you know, picking the priorities, prioritizing and moving forward. And I've got a lot of believers and again, a lot of testimonials. And then repeat event hosts. That to me is maybe my biggest KPI is if the host wants us back. You know, they get it and they see their attendees benefit and they want it back. If it's like a meh experience, I'm not really that excited about it either. I want folks who are super excited.

16:14 Love it, love it. Tell us about the biggest challenges because I mean, anytime you're developing a new product and you're solving a problem that really hasn't been addressed completely by anybody, I don't think,

16:29 No, you're right. Yeah.

16:30 I just don't see any awesome solutions out there. And so, this is a big problem that needs to be solved. What challenges have you hit though? Like what's been your biggest pushback? Is there something that's happened that made you take a step back and go, oh, whoops, we should probably do it this way.

16:49 Dude, sometimes when I have these conversations, I get this like, want to jump out of my skin feeling. Like just that like, I want to go so much faster. I want to be further along and so. But definitely had to get through a couple development groups in the beginning. One just to find somebody who kind of said, hey, I think at the time, the concept that I have with IceBrekr now was contract tracing is what they did during the COVID thing. Uses some of the same tech. I already, and people got millions of dollars to build that stuff. Okay. So what we were doing with IceBrekr was definitely cutting edge. And so to find somebody to get that was one thing, and then get the right quality and so on. So that has been the biggest challenge really, like I said, like feeling like I'm pushing the vision through a straw. But again, it's just one thing, just one step in front of the other. Conceptually, we got it, I think, vision-wise, we got it nailed.

17:55 Love it, love it. So vision-wise you got it nailed. 

17:59 You got the money? That would help.

18:00 Yeah, right, totally. And that is a problem. I mean, to be honest, let's face it, most of us who develop a product like what you're doing, money is a big factor. How much can I spend on a dev team? How much, when you're measuring who to work with and who's going to catch my vision, sometimes it's hard if the budget's not big enough to attract those guys that are really capable of understanding the real need. But I would imagine though with this type of product, I mean really anyone that's ever been to a trade show or a community event or a, you know, even an industry event, you've got to feel like you walked away with some good connection otherwise why did you go? I mean, it's, yeah, it's not always for the training.

18:45 Exactly. It's a game changer for... And do you know, guys, how many events happen that are like less than a thousand? Like we talk about trade shows and conferences and stuff. You know, let's just throw out the number at a thousand. Okay. That qualifies in a lot of people's mind as a conference or whatever. If it's under that, you know, whatever. Every single one of those is an IceBrekr you know, diamond mind. Every single one of those. That's just globally, huge value.

19:20 Totally, totally, totally. It's a good target. There's a lot of events going on all the time. So you definitely got a large pool to fish in. I love it. So tell me about, like, you're now gonna see other people who are in a development phase where they're having a hard time selecting that right group. Any advice to people who are in the 10 steps behind you right now? What would you tell them going into their first or second relationship with a dev team about how to find the right group?

19:50 It's really challenging to be honest with you, because the ones that you really want are going to be expensive. The ones that have built the reputation, the credibility, and the trust, and the work product that you can point to, those are the people that keep getting the work and they keep raising the prices. But besides that, that's really the...not just a referral, but a referral from somebody who is a technical expert. And then also, I am not really, I'm not a coder, so I really can't read code, but I do have guys who will do the interview of the developers and then also look at the code, you know, for me and so on, just to make sure. So those are some of the things I would say. The vibe is absolutely 100% huge too. 

20:50 Cool, cool, that's good advice.

20:51 Like you got to, you got to fit with them. Otherwise, you know, the communication is so critical. You got to be able to communicate with them regularly. And, uh,

21:04 I gotta think too, when you're talking about an app that is utilized for socializing, and we all know that most dev guys are not the most social people, chances are you're gonna have to work a little bit to find someone who is a social person and a coder to be able to give you the product you need at the rate you need, and with the delivery of a product that's like, hey, this is for people who are actually out there. You know, think like someone who's actually out there connecting with people, right? That's tricky.

21:35 Yeah, you know, some of them have like literally just they don't have a concept of what I'm trying to get to. So now that's this group, you know, my guys do, but yes, you're right. Spot on that.

21:50 Awesome. Well, tell me about, you know, everyone I talk to who's built and grown a business, they tend to have, everyone's got someone that they turn to for advice or they lean on a group or maybe there's just someone who inspires you to kind of keep pushing through this development. Is there someone like that you'd like to give a shout out to in this interview that's kind of been there for you?

22:12 I love that man. You know, I have a daddy daughter date every week and I go and I grab three of my girls and my daughters. I have five daughters. One is in college and the other was super busy. She's amazing. Equestrian 

22:40 Oh, awesome.

22:41 actually trains and competes. Yeah, but yeah, my, uh, my Addy, Haley and Harper, we, uh, pile in and, and go grab dinner and ice cream and they're just, they're just so much fun, man. We're so tight. It's, it's, uh, I love them. 

22:56 I love it. I got three daughters myself. 

23:00 Yeah. They're definitely encouraging. It's, it's definitely that, uh, the breath of fresh air, you know, the wind between, you know, beneath my wings.

23:06 All right, let's not get too cheesy, but yes, yes. 

23:09 Gonna be cheesy, a little cringy.

23:10 That's okay, that's okay. You're a good dad if you can talk cheesy on air. I get it. No, dude, listen, it's definitely, daughters are inspiring and you want to be the best example you can for them so that they find the right husband, right? I mean, that's, you wanna train them to think this is how a good guy treats you, right? 

23:39 Yep. 100%. Yep.

23:41 I love it. Well, this has been really fun. I honestly, I love the shout out to the daughters. I love, I love your story. I love what you're doing. And for those of you who haven't done so already, go check it out. It's I C E B R E K R. Is it.com?

23:50 I C E B R E K R dot com. That's right. Just the first two E's. There's the only valves I C E B R E K R dot com. Actually, and if you want to hit the slash demo and that'll drop you into a, um, a demo, uh, environment and, uh, and it'll give you some, uh, free, um, freebie as well.

24:11 Love it. Well, we're going to put links to that down below. And for those that haven't done so already, make sure you connect with Dave, find out what he's up to. And honestly, the best help you could give to Dave, I'm guessing, is every event you're going to, ask the event coordinator, hey, are you guys using IceBrekr for this event? Dave, is that the right thing?

24:29 Absolutely, that'd be great and love to support me. I'd love to help them out 100% if you download it, please give me Uh, give me some stars on the app stores. That would be helpful

24:36 Love it. Well, we are all out there trying to grow and scale our businesses, and we all know that things like that do help each other out, so please go ahead and do that. Dave, thank you so much for taking the time to be on with us today, and for those listening, make sure you check back on Dave, what he's up to, and also listen to that next episode. There may be that helpful hint you've been looking for on what you need to do next in your growth journey. Thanks so much for being here. Dave, thanks again, man.

25:02 Thanks a lot Todd.