Transforming Mindsets for Entrepreneurial Success

What led me to the most recent writing was just kind of reflecting on our company journey. So we're now coming up on three years since we started Heave. A lot of things have changed from the beginning, which is not uncommon amongst most companies that start something from scratch. What you find when you research other companies' journeys is that there's an original idea and a spark for a business. And then But it's a theory at that point. And then when you get out in the market, customers in the market tell you what they think about your idea. And most companies have to change. The term that's used all the time is pivot. It seems to be an overused term. But what it means is you have to adjust to the market. And so I just was reflecting back over our three years of history. because we've now hit some really important milestones.

And the thought that resonated with me was, the hardest part for me over the three years has been a battle within my own mind. It's been my mindset. And it's not something that I anticipated. I anticipated it. The hardest part being building a product or recruiting a team or managing the development of a product because I had never done it before. But as it turns out, the hardest part, the biggest lows have just been mental for me. It was just kind of exploring that idea.

Plenty of people have tried that.

have tried that and failed.

A ton.

You.

You know, we found some customers who were big supporters. The terminology that there's an incredible book called Crossing the Chasm. Jeffrey Moore wrote it. And it's really helpful for people starting a company because it defines how people and customers, the lifecycle of product adoption. And so what you have to find or what are. referred to as early adopters. So the personality types who are looking for like the next big thing, you know, who are, are open to new ideas. Like, and that's one of the things, you know, once again, with mindset is that when I, when we started, it was, you know, we, we thought because of the industry was so old school that, Hey, everyone would see this new idea because there hasn't been that many new ideas that there would be, greeted with open arms like oh this is refreshing and it couldn't be further from the truth it was the hey uh you know you um so many people have tried something like this and they've failed

and who are you to think that you can succeed you know uh or you know this industry has operated this way for a reason for this long you know this is the way it goes it's a relationship business all this other bullshit uh but what you realize is that This industry is no different than any other. And you just have, there's all of those people, but you just have to keep trying to find the early adopters. And that's what helps a company get off the ground. It's just by finding more early adopters. They're the ones who are open to it and just surface those people don't care about trying to change the minds of all those other people because they, their category are what are called pragmatists. So there's a huge category of people who they just want to see it having been flushed out. They want to see it working for a certain period of time. And then the pragmatists will come on board.

So it's just understanding like, hey, you're not for everyone up front and just go find more of the people who are early adopter mindsets and open to new ideas because those people are out there.

100% right. And that's something that I didn't understand. And it's and then I think this is we all have strengths and weaknesses. I think this is one of the weaknesses of people who are super competitive and been raised in athletics is that when I had to grapple with this, like when we come to market and people are telling us that it's not going to work. My instinct that I've lived with for, you know,30 years was, oh, I'm going to show you. But that doesn't, to your point, that doesn't matter. And you're not going to, you're not going to win that battle. The only way you win that battle is just by finding other pioneers who will then do the work for you. Like they, they are the ones like go make them happy. Instead of trying to argue, try to sell, continually sell to this group that doesn't really want to be sold to.

And so that was something that was difficult for me for a while, you know, because the instinct is like, no, no, you're just not getting it. Like, no, they don't want to get it. And so that's OK. But that's also the beauty of having a tech company. We're not like if I was I was thinking about it in terms of dealer dealer brain, I call it where it's like if I'm in Tampa where I would where I am and there's 50 customers in the market who buy equipment. You know, everyone that says no is one fewer that I can sell to. Well, I don't we don't have that environment anymore. We can be nationwide. And so so what if every customer in Tampa said we don't need he for service? OK, it's a big country. There's a lot of customers. We've got to go find them.

Very much.

That's right.

What are we going to do? Yes. We're on a high growth trajectory right now, which is very exciting. But to your point about consolidation, I used to try to think of like, OK, this is very similar to auto. Not really. It's the cable company business. It is the cable business. That's what it is. And we've all seen the cable business shift drastically. And we would have never thought that it would. But when you move into an area, it's like, and I want digital cable. Well, here's the only three providers. There are no other choices. And then we all know how that has played out with Netflix and streaming. And so if the heavy equipment. goes towards that consolidation, then I think it's really good for us.

can't.

It does because the nature of the business is a protectionist, right? Get to a certain point and then

a wall around it. And now only the existing players can benefit from it. But that's what happens in every industry where that's the environment. Those companies, they don't improve. They don't really value their customers. They don't. And the customer suffers. The customer's pain points grow. They become heightened. And then when there's a new entrant who actually is aligned with the customer and shows them a better experience in a new way, that's what wins the day. And then the protectionist cartel, you could call them, it's too late for them because they can't. just all of a sudden flip a switch and then, oh, no, now we're going to embrace technology and now we're focused on this customer service. No, it's too late. It's the same story in all these other industries.

We are too. There's a lot more room for building out the technician piece. That's what we're focused on. We are not distracted by selling or renting equipment. We are 100% focused on service. And there's a lot more we can provide. We have a lot of good ideas that are going to be coming down the road. So, yeah, the service piece, it's crazy to me. Still, if you want to get your wheel loader breaks down, your excavator breaks down, you have to call. You have to call a service department. You know, it's 2023. And we all know that's the other thing. We all know how critical downtime is for customers. Everyone has been saying it for my entire career. Yet nothing has really changed or really been done about it. Yeah, that's what we decided to do is that let's try a new method. Let's implement technology and actually give customers an active role in getting their equipment fixed.

Instead, I view dealer service as like going to the grocery store and pulling a number at the deli line. You have number 74, but you have no transparency to where you are in the line. You call in and then say, hey, I need somebody on this job site. And then, hey, somebody will call you when we can get someone to you. And that's insane to me in this day and age.

I don't think it's that far off. You know, a few years. Yeah, it's.

know. I think the difficulty is that no OEMs want to share information and everybody's got their own telematics solution. There's a ton of telematics companies and softwares. So I think that'll be interesting to see how it evolves.

No. That, to me, is a great point, too. You're misaligned with your customer. It's also, like, I've always viewed it as, like, OEMs and dealers, like, not appreciating customers' intelligence. They're going to tell customers the way... That's not the way good businesses operate. Customers want choice. Customers want information. Customers want access. And to fight that is kind of nuts to me. And especially in today's age, everybody has access to more information. Customers want multiple brands because they don't want to be... captive to one sole supplier. Customers are smart. They want leverage for purchasing power, for the best terms. And to try to restrict is right to repair, right? I mean, you have OEMs who were fighting, who were engaged in a lawsuit with their own customers. Because all the customers, the whole point of the lawsuit was, hey, I want to be able to determine where I send this. I don't want to be locked out of my own machine.

I want to be able to diagnose it and then determine where I go. I don't want to be in a position where the only party who can service this and unlock this machine is you and you're three hours away from me and I'm beholden to you. And if it takes you a week to get to me, then that's what I have to live with. Like that is right to repair. And, you know, whenever I read. Some of these statements of dealers and OEMs still fighting over it, it's just laughable. And they try to make it seem like it's for a different reason. Like, oh, we just don't want customers to unlock and change the safety requirements. They're not interested in that. Like, that's ridiculous.

We're a service company that sells machines like all this other lame stuff.

It's you're right. Dealers don't want to admit that. But, you know, that's like getting back to the mindset piece. You know, I was listening to an interview of a really well-known venture capitalist, Mike Maples Jr. And he was talking to the Spotify founder, Daniel Eck. And like, that's where it kind of I had clarity where you say innovators like breakthroughs happen because someone is contrarian. And it's hard to be contrarian because of what we were actually talking about off camera, right? Our desire as human beings to be a part of a group, be a part of a tribe, be a part of a consensus. But breakthroughs don't happen within large groups because everybody just always agrees. Everything is just move forward the way it always has been. And so that was what was difficult for me was understanding that the only way to innovate and to achieve a breakthrough is to be on the outside. And there's a lot of negativity that goes with that.

You know, the people ignoring you, people telling you that you're crazy or you're stupid or your idea is dumb. It's never going to work. But that's just the people who achieve the breakthroughs are the ones who understand that that's what comes with the territory. And they don't let that kind of stuff slow them down. If anything, it's more fuel. It's like, it's no, I'm on the right track. Because if everybody agreed with me, then I probably wouldn't have that big of an idea or a breakthrough. You know, because it just is it's consensus at that point. And so it just comes with the territory.

I'm familiar with him.

I have not. I'm familiar with it. I've been reading about it. I mean, he's a savage.

Holy shit. Have you tried it? Yep.

Yes, I've seen that.

I'm a big fan of Laird's. Yeah. His, his workouts are gnarly too.

It is 100%. You know, not many people understand it. You know, because there are so many days, especially early on, where you're home or you're driving home and just nothing seems to be going right. And you just have to keep, you know, that's why belief is so important, like commitment to what you're doing. That's why I do think that And I think you can be successful either way. But I think the path of founders who have lived and have industry experience is a better path. Because there's plenty of founders who are just entrepreneurial by nature and like, oh, I saw this problem within our culture and I'm just an opportunist. So I'm going to create a company that tries to solve that problem. I think it's a lot harder that way. Because when times are tough, why are you going to cling to that idea and keep pushing forward?

It's one thing with me, I didn't seek to start a company, but I've been in this industry so long and it just was insane to me for there to be no movement and no improvement in different facets. We've been talking about... you know, a shortage of technicians for my entire career. And there's nothing that's been actually done about it. You know, it's just the same conversations over and over again. And I'm just, I have the personality where I can't take that kind of stuff. I can't

it's just like my worst nightmare to be sitting here 10 years from now, like, oh, you know, there's a shortage of technicians and just the regurgity, the same stuff.

2020. I was 40.

Yeah, the shopping, the store. Yep.

That's right.

Yeah. There's reasons for that. Because you have to, in order to go from the bottom to the, you have to do it in a certain order. And you have to have small wins that just keep adding up and piling up. And that's what helps you get through the early and the hard times. It's just, it's those small wins. For us, the enthusiasm from customers was what got us through. And that's something that I didn't really experience when I was with the dealership. We didn't have customers who were like, oh, my God, thank you so much for these four wheel loaders. We wouldn't be able to live and do all of these projects without them. And then because you're just one of a bunch of other people, dealers just selling the same thing. And with this. The enthusiasm that we have received and still receive from customers because it's new and it's a fresh idea and it actually solves customers' pain is, oh, it's like rocket fuel for us. It's unbelievable.

It just makes all the hard times worth it when you talk to a customer and they're like, you guys saved me. We had a customer. It really is kind of like it sounds. like a fairy tale and you know hopefully we'll be so successful down the road where like there's like case studies written and because this story is so powerful that we were after a customer for a while just to try our app and um and you know like even though he is an early adopter you know it just took a little while to get his attention to try it so he calls me and he's like hey uh i've got a good test case for your app He's like, I have got a, he had a hundred thousand pound excavator and it was down and he got a quote from the dealer to repair it. And it just didn't sit right with him. He didn't tell me at the time, like how much the quote was for and everything.

And, but just like, like all of us, you know, if we take our car into a mechanic shop, sometimes when they're like, Hey, you need to do X, Y, and Z, sometimes you don't feel right about it. So he's like, how do I get started? So like, okay, just download the app. and put in the request and we'll see who who opts into the job and so he did a mechanic answered it within five minutes and was out there the next morning looks over the machine and he's like you know he's like uh i know what the source of the issue is there's metal in the hydraulic tank this and that and he he fixed it that day it was like seven hours of labor uh we invoiced the customer it was like 1500 bucks and he calls me the next morning And he tells me that the dealer quoted him $28,000, had to replace these four major components. And then it was going to take three weeks for them to get to it. And that was his first job with us. And we saved him $26,000.

And it was just the enthusiasm. I'm so thankful that you guys exist. And just getting those type of reactions and moments. It doesn't get more gratifying than that.

Okay.

I like that idea.

That's right.

It took a couple months, you know.

Yeah, absolutely.

I agree with that.

Yes.

What's funny is to that point, like we posted this success story and we had it. I don't want to. I think we. We're all hardwired to focus more on negative than positive. But there were a lot more super positive comments about it. But there were a couple people who were like, well, what would have happened if your guy screwed up the repair? Well, he didn't. We saved the goods for $26,000. And why are you asking me questions about what would have happened if X, Y, and Z? It's just funny how people, they just, yeah, they don't want. There always is resistance. They don't want things to work out really well. People always want to believe something's too good to be true. It's like, you know what? It's not. Independent mechanics have been working in the market for a long time. We didn't create the concept of an independent mechanic. We've just made them visible to the large market.

We wanted to give customers a choice and competition so that they didn't have to just... wait for two weeks for a dealer to get to them for field service. Here's five people who are trained, qualified, insured, and they're available tomorrow. What's bad about that?

My answer today, is a lot different than what it would have been if you asked me that question five years ago.

I would have said, oh, when I was working at the dealer, we get 95% of the service business.

You know what? I would probably say it's around 50%.

Probably less than 50.15.15? Holy.

Customers?

When you say biggest competitor, mean to us?

Oh, okay. So you're saying 15% would be the dealer. So I guess you don't

No, I think you're, you're more knowledgeable on this than I am. I would say an independent mechanic then would be second with probably 30%. Okay.

The

The dealer.

That's correct.

Yes, we give him choice. We give him and our choice. They opt into jobs. And that's what we found with independence is that they really kind of just whoever called, they had to take the job. And we found that they were driving really far distances, driving three hours each way because they didn't have anything else on the docket. So, yeah, that's one of the things that we seek to change. I like talking about this, too, because the economics have been broken for a long time in the industry. And for all the cliches we mentioned earlier, right, service is so important, blah, blah, blah. Sales sells the first machine, service sells the second. Yet the talented, skilled laborer was not getting paid very much. You know, pay the dealer mechanic $40 an hour, bill them at $180. And then meanwhile, the fourth best. salesperson in that same branch made 150 grand just because by nature of selling machines for an average price of 200 grand.

You know, and so it's all, it's all wrong. And so we're like, we, we just, we started in Texas in May. We keep adding more mechanics there, technicians there. And when I, we closed June business. I looked through our kind of log and we had paid a guy 14 grand in June. His first month started on Heave. Incredible. So like to your point about the technicians and the clients posting stories, that's we have it on both sides. Like here's a talented tech who he was running Google at. So I think he still does run Google ads, but he's paying, he was paying like 300, $400 a month or a week. Actually, I'm sorry, $304 a week for Google ads. You know, and who, who knows? I mean, I think we have an idea of how many jobs that would have, that leads to. And then all of a sudden, here's our app that comes in the market. You know, we found them and first month,14 grand, boom, like doing jobs that he wants to do.

Right. And also, just like you, and I respect someone who's trying to get more business in the door, but the reality is, is that customers, when they buy the machine, that's when their service decision is made. Like a customer who buys a Caterpillar when it's broke, doesn't then go to Google and say, oh, Caterpillar service near me. I mean, they already know where they're going to, either they have their own mechanic or they're going to go to the dealer. And so I have to think that the Google ads for these guys is lighting money on fire.

We are. And the best thing about early adopters is that they tell other early adopters.

We've had some of that. It's funny. It seems like the switch has flipped. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Now people want to help us.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I enjoy writing. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, though. So I prefer I just like I sat on the mindset one for like five weeks, just refining it.

You're absolutely correct. I understand.

Yes. Yes.

So my next one is going to be about not being a perfectionist. Perfect.

Just if you own heavy equipment and you need 24-hour service, that's what HEAV provides 100% of the time. We can get somebody to you within 24 hours. That's what we do.