 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to DAV Patriots Pitch. I'm your host and director of DAV Patriot Boot Camp, Nick Brofie. DAV Patriots Pitch is a unique pitch competition which showcases top finalists from our most recent DAV Patriot Boot Camp cohort, which we held last month at our national headquarters in Erlanga, Kentucky. Yes, this is inspired by the popular TV show Shark Tank. This dynamic event brings together these entrepreneurs and a panel of accomplished judges, many of which are investors, industry experts and successful entrepreneurs themselves, who are eager to support and invest in veteran-led and or veteran-spouse-led businesses. The top contestant today will win $1,500 in non-dilutive capital, which is every entrepreneur's favorite kind, the kind you don't have to pay back. The runner-up will win a thousand bucks and the veteran coming in third will win $500. And while these non-dilutive funds may provide some cushion to support their ventures, each entrepreneur has also offered intensive one-on-one coaching to improve their ability to sell their ideas to customers and future investors. Each contestant today will have approximately two minutes to pitch and take a limited number of questions from our judging panel. Should they go over there a lot of time, I will, in the most annoying way possible, let them know via cowbell. Yes, it's annoying. But before we begin, I'd like to introduce our panel of judges today for the competition. And our first judge that I'd like to introduce, Jimmy Bell from Sorenson Communications, is joining us today as a special guest. Sorenson Communications has been a wonderful sponsor of ours. So we invited Jimmy, who is also a Marine recon veteran and a veteran of the United States Army, on our program today. He served in the military for eight years from 2000 to 2008. And after transitioning out of the military, he became a firefighter while he pursued his degree. And then once he graduated, transitioned into entrepreneurship when he purchased a gun store. After many years of being a successful entrepreneur, he founded a nationally chartered veteran service organization and sat on the board of directors for a variety of other veteran-centric nonprofits. Most recently, in 2023, Jimmy sold his gun store to go back into sales in the technology industry, which is how he landed with Sorenson Communications and right here with DAV Patriot Boot Camp. Jimmy still volunteers this time as a firefighter when he's not spending time with his family. And we are very thankful that he's joined us today. Please welcome Jimmy Bell to the panel. Thank you, Nick. I just have to say it's an honor to be here. I have so much respect for business owners having founded and operated the business myself, the dedication, the courage it takes to put yourself out there, the countless hours of work, the self-sacrifice. It's, I think, one of the most amazing and respectable endeavors that anyone can do is to run their own business. I have a ton of respect for anyone that can do that. And it's a pleasure to be here with you all today. And I'm really excited to hear what you have to say. Awesome. Thanks, Jimmy. We really do appreciate you being here. And on behalf of DAV, we love the partner with Sorenson Communications. Great, great teammates. So thank you so much for carving out some time for us today. Our next judge on the judging panel is Marilyn Jackson. Many of you know Marilyn. She's been around for a minute, been on a lot of our programs. And she is the CEO of UnderGrid Networks, a digital technology and engineering firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. She spent over two decades in senior level assignments innovating and ushering Fortune 500 companies into the digital age. But before founding her company, Marilyn served as one of the leaders of Verizon Innovation Vertical Team, which served as the forward-looking think tank for new digital products and services. There, she led the creation of commercial and product development relationships, content providers, content service providers, wireless infrastructure companies and mobile carriers. Previous senior positions include those with IBM, Cisco and the DoD. Marilyn has worked with the GSMA, a global organization that unifies the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Marilyn now focuses her efforts on providing connectivity solutions related to the industrial Internet of Things, extended reality and AI. She is an expert on the impacts of technology on the global connected economy. Marilyn is also an Air Force veteran, veteran spouse and DAV Patriot Boot Camp alumnus. Marilyn, welcome to DAV Patriot's pitch. Thank you. Thank you very much. Excited to be here today. Great. We're always happy to have you and thanks for participating again. Our next judge, Rob... You're very welcome. A U.S. Air Force veteran is the CEO and co-founder of Round, a high-growth adaptive authentication startup. Round attended Y Combinator in early 2022 and has been growing ever since. Rob has raised more than $3 million in total funding from venture capitalists and has grown it to over $750,000 in annual revenue. Before starting Round, he was a product owner at IBM, leading product development for a $200 million a year offering. Rob loves the good side hustle as well and sold over $1 million in solar eclipse glasses in 2017 supporting Eclipse for a Cause and over $200,000 in medical devices, also known as line snugglers over the past few years. He also dabbles in goat, chicken and horse farming. I always loved that part. And most recently, we want to send Rob a big congratulations from DAV Patriot Boot Camp. He was a first place winner in the USA pitch competition a week or so ago where he was the winner of a $50,000 pot. And I must say, Rob is also a DAV Patriot Boot Camp alumnus and he now mentors in our program. Rob, thanks again for carving out some time to be in here with us. Of course, always happy to give back a Patriot Boot Camp. It's given me so much over the years. The DAV Patriot Boot Camp has really been a cornerstone of everything that we've built here at Rounds. We now employ seven people and bring in over $1 million in revenue, but it all started with a pitch. There's a pitch at Patriot Boot Camp. Didn't win, got second place, I think. The first pitch I ever won was the $50,000 one-on-one last week. But I owe all this to Patriot Boot Camp and anyone listening right now of DAV Patriot Boot Camp it's a great opportunity to learn how to become an entrepreneur after years of being in the military or being a male spouse. Wow, thanks for the plug, Rob. I appreciate that. And again, congratulations for your most recent success and frankly, all of your success. And we look forward to being a partner with you well into the future as long as you'll have us. Of course. Lastly, our last judge of the panel we do have four judges this time is Chris Lafever, CEO of ISI Professional Services and a Marine Corps veteran. Is the president CEO of ISI Professional Services, a full service consulting firm with the purpose of shaping tomorrow's solutions today. As a service-disabled veteran owned small business, ISI combines its large business capabilities with small business agility, delivering quality, consistent solutions for its clients. ISI solutions range from planning and management in facilities, engineering, real estate and logistics to leadership development and executive coaching. Chris also brings two decades of leadership experience across defense and civilian sectors. He has a bias for action in leading ISI and is never satisfied with the status quo. Chris assumed his leadership position during ISI's 20th year of operation. And despite ISI's historical success, he challenged how the company was structured and delivering on its promises. And since 2015, Chris's leadership has resulted in transformational change and significant growth, i.e., 400 plus percent revenue, 153 percent FTEs, full-time employees. And ISI has been named in consecutive years by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the nation. One of the best places to work in Virginia, earned a designation as the Virginia Values Veterans or V3 Employer. And, of course, as a disabled American vets, Patriot employer, Chris, welcome again to the program and thank you for spending your time with us today. Thanks, Nick. Appreciate it. Pleasure to be here and excited to hear the pitches. Yep, all right, great. Sounds like we want to get to it, but before we do, I do want to say that, you know, Marilyn, Robert, Chris and Jimmy are living examples of the quality of instruction and mentorship available within DAV Patriot Boot Camp ecosystem. So we're extremely grateful that they dedicate their time and they have experienced with the program specifically and they helped make the program what it is today. So before we begin, we do have to review some rules. To start the program, how we're going to do this is I'm going to introduce each participant by name. When they begin, whenever they begin, no matter what word they say, so will the clock and they will then have two minutes to present their pitch before they experience the dreaded cowbell and I'll save the ringing until the first one who exceeds two minutes. After their pitch, the judges will have several minutes, five or so minutes to ask clarifying questions before we roll right into the next contestant. Once all four of our contestants have presented their pitches, the judges will vote for their top two and we will tally that up and announce the winners to see who is first, second and third. And so, without further ado, our first contestant today is Rhonda Corey, the branded board, a U.S. Army veteran. Rhonda began woodworking and experimenting with laser cutting in early 2021 and after taking a course or two to better understand the art of laser cutting and engraving, Rhonda was hooked. She then purchased the necessary equipment and began her journey as an entrepreneur and now specializes in custom laser cutting items such as charcuterie boards, coasters, cocktail smokers, keychains and a signage. But with a twist, she engraves sassy sayings such as a customer favorite. I like my butt rubbed in my pork pulled butcher block. You can find her work at brandedboard.us. Ladies and gentlemen, Rhonda Corey, Rhonda, take a deep breath, the timer starts when you do. Yes. Oh, they are so hard to find, especially for your spouse who you adore or your mother who you want to honor. Hello. My name is Rhonda Corey. I am an army veteran and a wood laser artist with the branded board. I have over 30 years of direct sales experience, including running my own retail shop. I specialize in kitchen and bar items with a sense of humor. Like my famous cutting board, I like my butt rubbed in my pork pulled or my cocktail smoker that says, today's good mood is brought to you by whiskey. I have ready made items or I'm able to personalize all of them. I can also do custom work. A few of my unique items was an aluminum plaque for the VFW, a piece of driftwood that the groom gate has fried on their special day, and my personal favorite, a 125 year old piece of walnut from the great grandfather's farm for a name sign for that child's room. My revenues are $29,000 to date, and I am on track to sell my big goal of $50,000 this year. I am currently in three stores and have two wholesale accounts, which I will increase to five by the end of the year. I am also working with a national brand for my copy scoops. I am seeking $10,000 in funding in order to acquire a fiber laser to diversify my product line by adding metal. With that, I can make items like signs and bottle openers. So patriots, who wants to bring more humor in the world with me? Thank you. Perfect. Judges, any questions, Marilyn? Yes, great. Hi, Wanda. Ronda, I'm sorry. I love what you're doing there. I love what you're doing there. So how many people are on your staff to help you create your orders? So far, it is just me and occasionally my husband. As of right now, I can actually handle my workload as I do this as a full-time job. So I do have my 24 hours in a day if I needed it. Eventually, I would like to hire one marketing person and one other laborer. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Chris, any questions from you guys? Sure. Thank you. Yeah, Ronda, what's online sales platforms are you on? Are you on Etsy or anything else? I mean, so how can people connect with you outside of your own personal website? I do have one or two items on Etsy, but I am looking at TikTok shop and I'm working with the Walmart shop and, of course, Amazon. I'm getting in the process of getting all the UPC codes that I need to be able to go on those platforms. Okay. Thanks, yeah. And my second question is, it sounded like, given why you're looking for the funding to get another piece of equipment to expand sort of the use case outside of wood. So what is the volume that you anticipate where you're actually going to need? What's that tipping point where you're going to need additional staff resources? I think once I reach $100,000 in sales, that's when I will need to up my game and hire one or two more people. Okay. Rob or Jimmy, any questions from you guys? I have a quick question. What makes you special? Well, what's up someone from coming in and stealing your cool designs and doing it themselves? Well, people can do that. We all know that no matter what it is. I specialize in making sure that that item is 100% on par. It has to look exactly right. The engrave has to be perfect. So my quality is just much better than what anybody else can make that. I use solid cherry wood boards. I've got some maple. I strive for that quality because that's where I want to be. And that's also my hold back on hiring somebody because I am so particular. I do want 100% custom and quality. Anything else, Robert? No. Or Jimmy, I'm waiting to hear from Jimmy. I do have a few things. I think you're doing a lot of things really, really great. That's a nice laser, by the way. I think you're really doing yourself a favor by setting up these wholesale accounts and establishing a dealer network. You'll have less accounts receivable. They give you automatic exposure to a customer base and fulfilling to the end user directly is a ton of work. And then you have the customer service aspect. So you're really, you're really doing a good job by building this sales channel. One thing, one question I have, you want to acquire this new machine so you can do metal? Have you seen the demand? Is this something that your dealer network has come to you and said, hey, we need these products. If you can give them to us, we know what you're doing. I think whenever you build a sales channel, it's really important to listen to them because they're on the front lines. Have you got that feedback? Have they asked you for those metal products? Not as of yet. The reason why I decided to diversify, what I'm finding when I go to all my art fairs and shows and stuff like that, people have already seen my cutting boards so they know what they are. So by adding things like bottle openers and glassware, I can actually go into a bar and say, hey, this is what I have. I can engrave your logo on them. Or I can go to, we have a brewery, local brewery here, several of them. I'm going to go to them and say, this is what I can do for you. So I know that it's a need, but I have not yet reached out because I would like to have that laser here and in my hand. So when people place the order, I can go ahead and make everything. I like that. So basically, you're going to use this new machine to help other companies with their branding. And I'm going to go ahead and do that. I'm going to offer them items that they can sell either in their shops or that they would use on a daily basis. I'm going to go ahead and make everything. So basically, you're going to use this new machine to help other companies with their branding and with their merchandising and kind of allow them, you know, you'll be able to put, they can put their name on a product that they can offer. I think that's a really good idea. Yes sir. That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to offer them items that they can sell either in their shops or that they would use on a daily basis. Excellent. How many pieces at a time can you do in that machine, that wood machine right now? Well, this is my big laser right here. She has a bed of 54 inches by 37 inches. So I can do quite a bit on her. And then I also have a smaller laser that's 23 inches by 17 inches. So my normal production line is if I need to paint and do items like that, I'll cut those first thing. Then I will put my long running items like this board takes 45 minutes to burn. So I'll put that on this one, and then I'll go to my smaller machine and run things like my key chains and my coasters, things like that, that can take a little bit of less time. But I can actually do 40 coasters in this machine at one time. That's awesome. Well, I'm excited for you. Your passion and personality are coming through in the product. The product is easily accessible. I think you're really on to something. I'm really happy for you. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Great. Well listen, judges, thank you for your feedback and questioning. Rhonda, amazing pitch. Thank you for your pitch and charisma. So we're going to move on to the next contestant now. And as we talked about in our prep, the next contestant is Mr. Fernando Fernandez, founder of Fair Technologies and a U.S. Air Force veteran. Fernando spent a great deal of his post-military career working in aerospace engineering where he was introduced to many technical projects working alongside NASA, the United States Air Force, the NOAA and the Space Shuttle. After transitioning away from aerospace, Fernando turned to school to acquire programming skills, which opened up opportunities for him to work with the global leaders such as manpower, alcoa aluminum, HP, Nokia, Extrata and Kaiser Permanente, just to name a few. Through those experience, Fernando was exposed to hazardous conditions and saw the impact that hazards had on employees. So after retiring from his day job, he began pursuing his company Fair Technologies, which addresses risk mitigation in the health and safety sector by delivering an affordable, wearable technology solution to provide insight on hazardous conditions for small and medium-sized projects. Ladies and gentlemen, Fernando Fernandez, fire away and remember the timer starts when you do, sir. Let's talk about a problem worth solving. There's about 600 billion incidences and accidents per year, 10 billion of those results and fatalities. So I got to thinking what can we do to risk to mitigate that risk, because that's that's a really terrible thing to happen and 20% of the incidences are attributed to construction, the construction industry. Hello, my name is Fernando Fernandez. I'm former Air Force veteran and some of my projects for, as Nick mentioned, I was at work with Nokia and was NASA. And with that in mind, I got to thinking, well, what else can I do? So I wanted them on the program and move on to consulting. So let's talk about the solution now. So we have a wearable technology that can be adapted to any hard hat, which is required on the construction side. Plus instrumentation, which gathers the hazardous information which feeds into a digital labor platform. Within that platform, there's project management tools, which enable us to track each individual, not only who they are, but what they're doing or what equipment they're using, because sometimes it changes the dynamics of the environment itself. So I got to thinking, well, that's great, but it's not required. I mean, it's nice to have and a lot of companies don't do it because it's not required. I think for a second, why is it that x-ray technicians have to wear a dosimeter when they take x-rays? Well, let's protect them. Well, how can the construction industry doesn't require it? That's a shame. And I think I should do something about it. This is why I want to pursue this. So my ask is $100,000 because we're currently in a pilot project and I need infrastructure to support it. I need marketing and I need inventory to be able to accomplish my goals. So this is what I'm trying to accomplish at this time. Thank you. All right. All right, Fernando. Great. Great. Jimmy, since you ended this last time, you want to start us off with any questions you might have today? Sure. I mean, as a firefighter and being in the military and owning a shooting range for years, I've been exposed to a lot of hazardous environments and I probably would have appreciated maybe being a little bit more aware of what I was getting myself into. How expensive is this? It sounds complicated. How expensive are these sensors? It actually is not even complicated. My competitors make it look like it's complicated and that's why they charge between $600 and $900 a pop. Our unit is about $110 for anything less than $500 and over $500 we charge about $100 a pop. And the thing is we don't even sell them. We offer them a subscription base, which means that what we pay to get the inventory, we get back in a one-time registration fee of $165 at one time through the duration of a project and a $35 to $65 subscription fee depending on the level of infrastructure they want. The advantage is that we also have project management within the application where our competitors, they don't have that. So when the project dynamics change, we're aware of it and we, the site person, the site manager, the supervisor can make decisions based on the denials how they change. As part of the subscription, do you monitor the information coming into the sensors? Correct. Okay. And then how many sensors can one person monitor at a time? Six. Right. Right now five. We're working on the sixth one. The sixth one is going to be the camera. I understand. Batteries. So it comes with the power supply, which is attached to the back of the helmet. The unit itself attaches to the front of the helmet because lithium batteries are inherently dangerous. So we want to keep it far away from the administration as possible. So that's why we design it that way. Our competitors don't do that. I think you're onto something. I'll ask one more thing and then I'll pass it off. I think your best friend is going to be finding highly regulated industries or highly regulated environments. And, you know, figuring out a way to access that and you probably have already started on that. But I'm sure that's a pretty complicated and drawn out conversation. I just wanted to bring that up before I. That's my best friend. Yeah. Well, good job. All right. Marilyn, anything from you. Yeah. Fernando, the very, very exciting. I think that you're, you're in the right place at the right time with the right product. I can see so many different use cases for what you're building the foundation for. So with that in mind, what are your plans to perhaps scale into other use cases for this particular sensor? For instance, I know that police officers could utilize it in drug enforcement. Right. And that's because of the airborne fentanyl and met methamphetamines, et cetera. So how adaptable are with the sensors be in terms of being able to put various sensors on the devices. So with their six vertical markets that we're looking at, we pick construction because they have the highest incentive rates 20%. So going at them first, during our go to market strategy, we kind of come down to that point. Now, it's very adaptable to different types of environments. There's mining, there's logging, the search and rescue. Basically any, any environment that you need to be aware of and may be able to make decisions. So yes, it's very adaptable to even firefighters to the police. Yeah, it's very scalable to pretty much any environment. So what does that do to your, to your cost model? Sorry, what does that do to your cost model to migrate into these other areas? Well, because it is scalable, like for example, right now we're on version three and version three is running us about $110 a unit to produce for, for, for less than 500. More than 500 drops down to 90. The, the, the microprocessors are interchangeable so we can pull one out and stick another one back in and recode it. That's why it's very scalable. Everything that we do, it's just, it's like, it's like a plug and play, if you will. It's like getting a mouse and plugging it into your computer and it adapts to it. Thank you. You're welcome. Brissa Robert, I'm surprised Robert hasn't jumped in here yet. What do you got Rob? Well, I'm just winning my turns. I wait to be called on. Representation, you're solving a big problem. You know, folks being exposed to environmental perils is something that DAV, you know, just just helped the whole whole generation of people through with the PAC Act and other stuff like that. But a few questions. First of all, could you talk a little bit more about the pilots that you mentioned? So is it a paid pilots? Where is it? Who is it? What are the conditions around it? So right now it's a, it's a non paid pilot program that our customers basically they're going to be our collaborators. They will identify improvements for us in version three. Hence the reason why it's, we're not charging anything. This is the reason why we need funding to be able to provide the infrastructure and inventory for the pilot. We have lined up already two construction companies, one university lab program where they wanted to use their students to kind of check it out. A mining company and two construction companies in Europe were located in Europe and the US. So that's how we're going after to kind of bring down exactly who our market is going to be. Gotcha. And then who do you sell to? Like who in the construction company is your, did you actually sell to? That's a great question. I got a great answer for you. Technically, it's not even the construction company itself. Every industry has what is called environmental safety groups. These are independent groups that do not work for the company, but they're required by OSHA. And what they do is they do risk assessment for every project. If we get them on board and get them to endorses, it's an easy sell to the end client, which is a construction. So our first level of client is these people. It's also the insurance industry because they have to back this project. If they endorses or think this is a great idea to help reduce their risk for them, their risk exposure to insurance. So there's a lot of like peripheral clients. We get endorses from them. It's an easy sell to the construction industry. Gotcha. Last really quick question. Hardware is really hard. You know, they spend millions and millions of dollars on their first prototype. It takes a long time. It always takes twice as long as you think. What background do you have to get this done? But do I have? Yeah, to get hardware across the finish line. I was an engineer years ago. I was a prior engineer years ago, as I said, I work for like NASA. Our chief engineer was an avionics person that did programming for avionics and communication. We have fortunate for us, the person that writes our APIs works for the contractor that writes all the APIs for Apple. The iPods you guys use, the APIs are written by this person. So yeah, so I think technically we're there. Awesome. One last question from Chris. If you have one, if not, we'll move on to the next contestant. I was going to pass, but I'll ask what I mean, other than the raising of capital here, I mean, what do you see as the next largest obstacle in front of you? Could you repeat you're kind of off at the beginning. I need that again. You were at the beginning, you were a multiple-sided. I only heard the last few words. Yeah, no, other than the raising of the capital, what do you see as your next largest obstacle? I don't really see too many obstacles. I mean, really is getting endorsements from people, getting them as a buy-in. When I work as a consultant, the most difficult thing of the initiative was the change management component. People resist change. So my stakeholders, the constraint component, they can buy into this, but the end users, they have to buy into it. So this is why we're putting in part of the training change of management. I used to be a change manager when I was with IBM. I know the challenges are. So this could be a challenge for it, but I'm trying to address it before it happens. All right, we're all good from the judges panel. Thanks again, Fernando, for your excellent pitch. And thank you again, judges, for bombarding him with really tough questions. Glad I'm not in the hot seat. So we're going to move on to our next contestant, and that's Mr. Mack A. Gadsden, Jr., founder of MacArthur Group, Facility Assessments, and the U.S. Air Force Veteran, who has over 30 years of experience conducting investigations for the Air Force Office of Special Operations, Charles, the South Carolina Police Department, Bacovia Corporation, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Services in the fields of criminal, counterintelligence, elder fraud and abuse, and executive protection. Mack is an expert on conducting site visits and risk assessments for daily security operations for numerous notable American, foreign, and corporate dignitaries. As a graduate from Northwich University with a Master's in Justice Administration and soon to be retired from his investigative career, Mack is starting a company which focuses on conducting site assessments for assisted living facilities on behalf of family members and caregivers, providing them with the knowledge to make informed decisions. It's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Mack A. Gadsden, Jr., Mack, good luck, and the clock starts when you do, sir. You're on mute, I think, Mack. I'll give you a mole again on that. Okay, sorry. Being in a right nursing home for a family member can be a daunting and stressful task, especially when time is of a crucial nature because of a recent fall or illness. Many families go online to select a nursing home based on various reviews, only to discover that the care provided was less than standard and their family members suffered. Google and Yelp are unreliable when it comes to selecting the best nursing home. I've visited numerous nursing homes over the past two decades, and I've seen personally the difference in the level of care provided. My company, MacArthur Group Facility Assessments, will ensure clients receive comprehensive assessments for each nursing home they're considering. I'm on a mission to ensure people can choose a safe nursing home for their loved ones. Hello, I'm Mack Gadsden, a United States Air Force veteran who deployed during Operation Desert Storm. I'm a former OSI agent with 30 years of experience investigating thousands of cases and conducting interviews. I also hold a master's in justice administration. Our facility assessments will result in detailed reports to answer the questions that most people don't think to ask. We'll visit each nursing home and we'll evaluate their emergency action plans. Their staffing levels and their security systems. Approximately 1.2 million Americans residing nursing home, and that number is expected to double by 2050. So the demand for quality care is important. I'm seeking $15,000 in investment that will allow us to develop our website and our software. MacArthur Group Facility Assessment, what you don't know can hurt you. Excellent. Thank you, Mack. Thank you, Mack. So I know Chris had to rescue the little one who was sleeping, so we'll start with Robert this time. All right. Yeah, this is a huge, big growing industry, right? You know, the baby boom is getting older and the need for this is growing. And we've all seen the headlines around different things that happen in nursing homes. Can you kind of walk through how a customer would engage you? Like what that process would be like? Did they call you? Did they email you? Did they fill out a form online? Did they come to a store? Like how does that work? So right now they would be getting in touch with me via our website. We would actually conduct a personal interview with them to get exactly what it is that their particular circumstance needs. Does mom need to get her hair down on Wednesday? What kind of recreational activities? What kind of food? What kind of care does each individual need? So this is an individual assessment for each individual because the client is going to be different. So we would meet with them to get that information. That's one bucket of information that we would obtain from them. Also, they would give us the facilities that they're looking at. And we would go and make those visits to ask the questions that they want, along with our security assessment parts of information that we would be obtaining. Gotcha. And what services do you provide in addition to what someone like care.com or the other sites that kind of rank nursing homes do? Yes. So you have places like care.com or a place for mom. Both of those businesses are great for what they do and that's referral. Our agency, we're going to actually do an actual site visit to do more than just give them information. Actually asking tough questions like what is your staffing level like at 4 a.m. when an emergency could happen and it's a hundred bed facility. What's the plan emergency action plan after place catches on fire? Something that most people wouldn't think of to ask. Awesome. Best of luck. Thank you. All right, Jimmy. Hey, Mac, I love that you're going after this space. I think it's a great idea. It's probably the fastest growing segment of healthcare, you know, home health and care for the elderly. My father owns a security consulting company in Florida and he has a very large contract specifically for the Catholic Diocese. They own a ton of property and have a bunch of schools. So I'm pretty familiar with the site survey process and industry. It doesn't take a lot of infrastructure. What do you need $15,000? Like what kind of infrastructure are you planning on putting on your website? Because you know you are the service. Your expertise is the product. So what kind of infrastructure do you need? Well, so I plan on covering more than just the state that I'm living in. So each assessor that's going out for me will have access to my software with the questions already preloaded, drop down answers. And so the idea is that when they complete their visit, they're hitting the submit button and that's coming back to the website for my administrative staff to type up a report. So in order to do that, it's software that I haven't or at this point haven't seen happen. So they have the one time access only for proprietary purposes. And they're able to answer these 100 questions, 150 questions on site that they don't have to be connected to the internet only to just to submit it. So that's what I'm trying to, I've been looking for it. I've found a couple of security industry businesses that do site assessments that have similar software. So I'm reaching out to people as well to see how I can develop my own software specifically for this industry that I'm trying to get into. Well, I think that's a great idea. One other question I have for you know nursing homes are basically a medical facility. Why are they going to let you in to ask questions? I mean, they're already highly regulated environments. They don't want another auditor coming in and asking them questions. Great, great, great questions. In my current job, I get to go to nursing homes to do elderly or senior fraud presentations. So I've had an opportunity to talk to general managers of these facilities and ask them, Hey, if I came in, I wanted to ask you some questions and do a walkthrough. Would you allow me to do that? The response is absolutely. If the average cost is $90,000 a year, you have a client that wants to ask us questions. We want them to have the answers to the questions. So we certainly would want to talk with you or to give you to provide you with the information because it generates revenue or a client for them without them having to do much. That's a great answer. I think you're on to something, Matt. Thank you. Marilyn, anything from you? Yeah, again, Matt, very interesting area that you've chosen, but I just have tons of questions because you're number one, you're collecting personal data on individuals. And so it suggests you to HIPAA. And then also with that data, are you doing anything from an artificial intelligence perspective to make that data intelligent for prescriptive and prescriptive analytics? And third, are you working with any kind of enforcement agencies because a lot of times that's where these inspections come into play is when there's something that's gone wrong. So I hate to bombard you with three questions at once, but there you go. Okay, let me start. I am not working with anyone on the enforcement and we're actually going to be looking at state inspector and OSHA reports to ask them questions about things that that have been discovered and asking them how do they mitigate those issues. So our job, my company, we're providing the client the information for them to make an informed decision. We have no area where we're able to enforce any laws or to make any changes. We just want to make them aware of potential problems that the facility is having. What was the second question that you asked? I'm sorry, I got. The collection and protection of personal data, the HIPAA requirements. Right. So we would be getting or collecting that information from the client on the front end about their needs, the healthcare needs that they would have. Not necessarily their personal records, but the type of care that they would need as if we would be taking the information solely to ask additional questions and having our website. This is a part of that funding. Having our website secure where we don't have to worry about breaches and things that. So we really need more than just a basic website. We want to have a secure website to be able to protect that information that we do get. And are you doing anything with artificial intelligence in your business? Not at this point. We haven't looked at that. Okay. Thank you. All right. I see that Chris is not chiming back in on the camera, but I'll give him a shout out to see if he has any questions via voice. Anything out there, Chris? Nope. Okay. Well, let's move on. Thanks a lot. Thanks again, Mack, for your presentation, your pitch. Thanks to the judges for the tough questions. All right. So our last, our final contestant, Arthur Salendong is an entrepreneur, technologist and former Naval Submarine Officer. He's the founder and CEO of Travis Technologies, a minority-owned service, disabled, better known small business, headquartered in San Diego, California. Travis was founded in 2010, thrives on practical solutions to challenges in wireless technologies and artificial intelligence. Travis gained expertise and specialization in the development of technical solutions across five major portfolios. Wireless technologies, artificial intelligence and data science, cybersecurity, maritime transportation, and environmental informatics. In 2022, Travis was recognized as one of Southern California's cool companies by San Diego Connect and was featured in San Diego's first annual Innovation Day 51030 as one of the fastest growing and most exciting tech and life science companies in the region. Also in 22, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce named Travis Technologies, innovator of the year for the development of groundbreaking wireless innovation called CEP. This spectrally efficient peer-to-peer technology allows for simultaneous wireless conversations on the same frequency without the need for cell towers or infrastructure. So I have a warm welcome to Art Salondong of Travis Technologies. Art, remember when you start, so does the clock. Good luck. Thank you. As a native of Hawaii, I was saddened to see how the Maui was leveled the town of Lahaina. Over a hundred lives were lost, took five days to restore power and resources. I'd like to introduce you to a technology that I believe would have saved some of those lives. My name is Art Salondong. I'm the founder and CEO of CEP Network. I'm a former nuclear submarine officer, former executive from Qualcomm. CEP is a wireless technology and a fantastic business opportunity. CEP stands for spectrally efficient peer-to-peer. And when I say peer-to-peer, I mean person-to-person, handset-to-handset, without the need for any cell towers, satellites, or even a switchboard. I believe the Hawaiian citizens could have communicated during that disaster. CEP is a software technology that we can install on cell phones or software-defined radios. We've demonstrated voice, video, text messaging, broadcast services, and file transfer, much like AirDrop on iPhones, all without the need of a wireless carrier. We've demonstrated video over a kilometer, and our platforms allow relay capability extending the range even further. We've had tremendous interest from both federal and commercial organizations, first responders, the military, intelligence community, and disaster response. Just last Friday, the Army showed interest in testing our waveform on one of their platforms. CEP also brings a private network on demand. Hospitals, construction sites, warehousing, ports in the harbor, so use cases are tremendous. We've had discussions with chipset and handset manufacturers and carriers. All who see this new feature is a fantastic addition to their wireless plans. We have three patents already approved, and CEP is showing greater promise in our competition. Our competitors do not have the same media-rich capabilities, and their solutions require the use of hardware, CEP is a software solution. Having your potential is significant. We capitalize on a licensing model and an upfront licensing fee and 1-5% royalty. I'm seeking $5 million in capital to accelerate proposition on to a chipset or similar device. What's my leadership team of Qualcomm executives, and we are poised to take this technology forward. Subject to your questions, that concludes my pitch. Thank you. Wow, I was getting ready to pick up the bell. That was right down to the second, Art. Thank you for that, and I know that's the second time I've heard that pitch, and it's fascinated even more each time I hear it with the technology. So, with that, let's move to some questions. I'm going to open it up with Robert. Oh, boy. So, this technology is pretty interesting, right? Being able to have peer-to-peer communication from phone to phone. We mentioned the need for it to be on shit. So, how do you convince a company like Qualcomm to add this technology to their chip? So, being a former Qualcomm, I'm still working with Qualcomm and other capacities. Yeah, they're not going to be the first adopters. I've got to find smaller use cases. I've got to leverage the military. I've got to go find ways to show its utility before a media tech or a Qualcomm are going to decide to put it on a chip set. But it's applicable to really any chip set. It can go on a Broadcom or an Intel chip set as well. If we really want to leverage a software capability, it's leveraging the FPGAs on a chip set and using the DSPs to get this to work. As you and I had also talked about, we're looking seriously at a combined FPGA SDR device that Xionlex develops that allows us to our own ODM that we can use for not only cell phones, but IoT devices, automobiles, and other use cases. So it's not going to happen with Qualcomm unless they see utility and they see it's proof that before they move any forward. Gotcha. So the national follow up to that is mentioned a few possibilities for kind of that beach head moments. What is your strategy for go to market? Well, what is that first golden use case, the first customer that's going to pay you a lot of money to put this on chips? Well, I think, to be honest, I think the military is really the military or the federal government is really the first step. There's a need for for a contested communication or communications and contested environments, a detailed environment where they can communicate when there's no infrastructure. Our technology also works without the need for a GPS reference. Since it's peer to peer, they can all synchronize and work together. So after talking to the Army, they're looking for a software to find waveform. They want to carry around another platform. So if it's software to find, not only can we use our current protocols, we can modify it to provide an LPI, LPD and alternate waveform should a waveform get compromised. So it's really a special operations man as well as the US Army that's kind of targeting it this way. Got it. Thank you. And good luck. It's a big, big opportunity, but also a big hail to climb. Well, Marilyn, what about you? Um, to that I say art way we've been all my life. I mean, this is amazing. Yeah, they're very amazing. Very amazing. So did I understand you to say that you have dual spectrum allocation for the devices? I didn't get a chance to explain it because it's two minutes apart, but it's actually efficient. It means that not only we peer to peer with peer to many and many to peer all on the same frequency. We use the same frequency on the same frequency. And you can do that dynamically. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Remember, they had a frequency we used to one and they had simultaneous connections on the same frequency. Well, we can do that now all peer to peer. But you can be in a video call with one platform at the same time receive a text message. A second platform while a fourth platform does a broadcast push to talk voice to everyone can hear. Well, that's world changing. That's that's world changing. That's game changing. Again, I come out of this at this market, you know, having worked with the carriers and this this really does change the game. So getting to market, I don't necessarily think would be the, you know, I know Qualcomm owns the world in terms of chipsets. But, you know, with everything that's going on with the chips act, maybe there's an opportunity to work with a smaller manufacturer to do some other kind of chip development as well as maybe move into some of the robotic areas that. You know, or maybe into the L. E. L. There are just so many avenues that you can go with this. And so have you looked into some of those other parallel routes to market? Yeah, there are. I think first responders can get immediate impact because right now, as you know, he's LMR radio is the only peer to peer solution and it's all voice. So, yeah, there's a lot of markets to approach. It's a matter of time and trying to prioritize, you know, who I think it's finding that first big early adopter showing its utility before I can start getting traction where others will want it. And the fact that it's software defined where we can really port it on to a number of devices, it'll be easier to spread once I get the first early adopted. Awesome. Awesome. I think you're on to something gigantic norm is so much success. I think we made a connection. That's a that's right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Great. Well, Jimmy, what do you got for us bud? Art, this is fascinating. I think you're the perfect person to do this. I'm very impressed listening to you talk about it. I have a I had a few questions. You already answered one of them. The main question I had, you know, does it operate when there's no existing infrastructure? A lot of times in a disaster, the infrastructure is compromised, but you said so this this does operate with you don't need the infrastructure there. This is something that will operate in remote villages of India or Africa. And, you know, it also has the capability where if you had a reach back link, like a Starlink or something like that to bring you into the internet, you can provide an internet capability to a mesh that this supports. So seven networks is really a mobile ad hoc network or a mesh network that supports media rich comms data voice broadcast. And we one of the platforms could actually be the internet itself. And so yeah, that's amazing. Do is it does it have encryption capability. So right now it doesn't. But we've done that in past lines of Qualcomm where we can actually put the encryption into protocols and we can impose either transmission security or communication security, comsec or transec. So there's a variety of ways you can do that. And the military is also very interested in what's called LTI LPD, which is low probability of NSF, low probability of detection. We can further refine the waveforms to spread the bandwidth right now we're using two and a half megahertz. You can spread the bandwidth limit the number of pops and modify the waveforms such that you can't it won't get compromised. We're operating a typical cell phone power levels of about 200 to 250 milliwatts at this time. That's that's that's yeah the encryption I mean that's going to be big doing you know that. One last question. I mean this is amazing it's truly amazing and like you said I don't think that adoption is going to be your issue. I think I think simply educating consumers, you know the end users on what why they need it how they need it how are you going to educate people. Get it they're going to want it. How are you going to get in front of people how are you going to educate people as to what this is how it works how they get it in their hands. How are you going to do that. Yeah, I think demonstration is probably the best way to do it. We were actually the Mobile World Congress like three weeks ago when we had FaceTime video and voice operating peer to peer in our booth. Again amidst all these all the Wi-Fi signals we had FaceTime going on and you know a lot of people posting just say are you using the existing infrastructure. No it was it was peer to peer. Yeah, part of the five million that I'm trying to bring in that will not only support continued development but I need the sales and marketing to get out to the right. And yeah I tried to craft this pitch so it was more understandable because when I say spectrally efficient I think only Maryland will understand. Yeah, I didn't I didn't know I don't know what that means. I just got one more thing for you and I think there's some really amazing trade shows that if you could get into the the the people that want this will come to you. The Association of the United States Army is having a trade show in Birmingham, Alabama and middle of the year you should try to get into that it's pretty affordable boost space and it's a kind of a technology show. I think you would really thrive in that environment. All right. Wow, I think some people are speechless on this call from that. It's I mean it's fascinating so here's what we're going to do. I think Chris is still Chris is still off so judges go ahead and tally and submit your votes to Michael Italian that up and while you all do that I've got a couple of announcements. And the first thing is is I can't thank our judges enough Marilyn Robert Chris Jimmy for all your contributions and volunteering for your valuable time today I know everyone's busy. Can't thank you enough can't thank sorenson communications enough for their continued support we look forward to more continued support in the future and doing fun things with you guys and can't say enough we're really happy to have you part of the team. Second thing I want to say is thanks to our contestants for carving out the time again y'all are trying to get your businesses up and running and and get that entrepreneurship freedom built. It's a hard labor of love and I appreciate you all taking the time out to come on here and go in front of feasibly thousands of people live. So thank you so much for that trusting in DAD Patriot boot camp. I want to thank everyone who's tuned in to us today. We appreciate all your support, your viewership always come back and see us as we do these live events we love the engagement the interaction. And if you know somebody who's interested in DAD Patriot boot camp who's a spouse or veteran entrepreneur, send them our way. We're happy to try and get them integrated. This is your first time tuning in and you're not familiar with DAD Patriot boot camp. Thank you. Thank you for going on a limb and doing. Patriot boot camp is a great transformational entrepreneurship program that DAD has that for veteran entrepreneurs and spouses. Our applications are now open for our next cohort in February. So check out our website, PatriotBootCamp.org for that or and I encourage you to do this the most as follow us on LinkedIn and or Facebook at DAD Patriot Boot Camp. You can also find copies of these videos on our YouTube channel for DAV disabled American veterans. Again, this it's been a great, great day. We're kind of running out of a little bit of time and I want to make sure we get through these announcements before we announce our winners. Coming up here on November 11th Veterans Day is the DAV 5K. It does happen locally here in Cincinnati, which is where we're headquartered in the Cincinnati metro area. So you can walk, roll, run or ride to thank those who served and raise awareness for our ill and injured veterans. And you can participate DAV 5K here or you can do this virtually between the dates of November 11th through the 30th and do a virtual 5K raise funds for that. I know I'm running the race and our families raising money for the DAV 5K as well. So you can register that at DAV 5K.org. And then lastly, if you're a veteran looking for any kind of support with your service connection benefits or any help in any way, DAV is the place to go. We are the resident experts and you can get started at benefitsquestions.org or just browse around on DAV.org. We're happy to have you. So let me take a look and see if we have the scores and we do have the scores. So we will start in reverse order. And this is going to be the second runner up also known as third place will be Rhonda Corey with the branded board. Congratulations Rhonda. That's a $500 check for you. And then our first runner up also known as second place is going to be Mr. Fernando Fernandez Fair Technologies. Congratulations to Fernando. And then our winner, our grand prize winner for today is Mr. Arthur Salendong of Travis Technologies. Thank you all so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming on and putting yourself out there. So congratulations again. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Thank you to all of our judges. Everybody, the best of luck on their exciting ventures. We hope that these funds will help play a smart part, a small part in your success. So everybody until next time, activate, mentor, create and grow. Patriots 6 out.