YouTube transcript
Video ID: wQxlo4pZZoo
Language: en
Captions: auto-generated

[0:00] I was telling everyone they were idiots.
[0:01] I was like, "This is a fake thing. It's
[0:03] a Ponzi scheme." I was wrong. Where did
[0:04] I go wrong there? What was where was I
[0:06] off? I still don't understand how the
[0:08] technology has taken off.
[0:09] >> They own their own Bitcoin. They're
[0:11] storing their own keys. They have it
[0:12] offline. It's in a hardware wallet. That
[0:14] person in essence becomes their own
[0:16] bank.
[0:17] >> Hey everyone, welcome to Ambition
[0:18] Aligned. I'm your host Devin Kum, CPA,
[0:20] MBA, lecturer at universities and doing
[0:23] lots of other fun stuff like PCG
[0:25] consulting and advising AI startups.
[0:27] Today I'm talking to my good friend
[0:28] Alula from college. He's a founder and
[0:31] has an expertise in blockchain
[0:32] technology and AI and we go all over the
[0:35] place. We talk about crypto, we talk
[0:36] about AI, we talk about what I didn't
[0:38] understand about crypto and what I wish
[0:40] I knew and I learned a ton. So I think
[0:42] it's going to be really valuable for all
[0:43] of you and I hope you enjoy the show
[0:45] today. Everyone welcome to Ambition
[0:46] Aligned. I'm your host Devin Kum, CPA,
[0:48] MBA, lecturer at universities and doing
[0:52] lots of other fun stuff like PCG
[0:54] consulting and advising AI startups.
[0:56] Today I'm talking to my good friend
[0:57] Alula from college. He's a founder and
[1:00] has an expertise in blockchain
[1:02] technology and AI. And we go all over
[1:04] the place. We talk about crypto. We talk
[1:06] about AI. We talk about what I didn't
[1:08] understand about crypto and what I wish
[1:10] I knew. And I learned a ton. So I think
[1:12] it's going to be really valuable for all
[1:13] of you. And I hope you enjoy the show
[1:15] today. It feels like yesterday we were
[1:16] in college together and wow, you know,
[1:18] 10 years goes by pretty fast and we got
[1:20] to do a reunion or something. But I
[1:22] really appreciate you coming on. really
[1:23] appreciate you staying in touch and
[1:25] would love to hear today more about what
[1:27] you're doing right now and you're
[1:28] working on some amazing projects and it
[1:31] really excited me to hear some of the
[1:32] businesses that you're building.
[1:34] >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's great
[1:36] great to reconnect and you know I think
[1:38] I think back of our days at Cal State
[1:41] Northridge accounting students business
[1:44] students and business honors program is
[1:46] where we our paths crossed initially and
[1:49] you know it's just a really great and
[1:50] inspiring seeing your journey you know
[1:52] similar to you I I did the public
[1:54] accounting track initially out of school
[1:57] so just went into public accounting
[1:59] focusing mostly on tax and technology
[2:04] early on during you know my time in
[2:05] college at Sea Sun, I was bitten by the
[2:08] innovation bug and a big, you know,
[2:10] curiosity really sprung around
[2:12] blockchain technology and what it
[2:15] potentially could mean for the
[2:17] accounting profession around audit,
[2:19] right? So, my curiosity at the time was
[2:22] if there's a immutable perfect ledger
[2:27] recordkeeping system that could exist
[2:29] that, you know, no one could cheat, no
[2:31] one could manipulate, will the world
[2:33] need as many auditors? And so that kind
[2:35] of that thought process that curiosity
[2:37] really spun an entire career around
[2:40] digital assets. Fortunately over the
[2:41] years I did some work in in other
[2:44] accounting firms helped build a SAS
[2:46] product for digital assets crypto and
[2:48] you know really focusing on
[2:50] understanding from a data perspective
[2:53] how to properly track and report uh
[2:56] activity on blockchains basically. So
[2:58] you know at the end of the day it's a
[3:00] transparent fully visible recordkeeping
[3:04] system and because of its visibility
[3:07] anyone could technically query
[3:09] information from there and be able to
[3:11] figure out what happened. So if there's
[3:13] you know like I had clients that had
[3:15] various types of activity over the years
[3:18] whether it's business related activities
[3:20] investments or different types of things
[3:22] where you know they need to report for a
[3:24] tax purpose what was the gain what was
[3:27] the loss what was their overall activity
[3:30] for their business or their personal
[3:31] investments. And so a lot of that data
[3:34] just being able to get it is one thing
[3:36] and then being able to communicate from
[3:38] an accounting perspective from a tax
[3:40] perspective. Uh that's kind of the magic
[3:42] and the art or whatever. So that's kind
[3:44] of where the curiosity started over the
[3:47] past I'd say like two three years
[3:49] whenever chat GPT came out. I went from
[3:52] being an all tricks low code no code guy
[3:55] to all of a sudden learning Python
[3:57] learning JavaScript learning all these
[3:59] different programming languages. And you
[4:02] know now with the advent of live coding
[4:04] and everything else I'm able to
[4:06] basically spin up a lot of different
[4:08] types of solutions including AI agents
[4:11] for businesses. And so that's kind of
[4:13] the main focus today. My company I'm the
[4:16] founder of is called Edge Consulting
[4:18] Labs. We're kind of at the intersection
[4:21] between an AI blockchain like venture
[4:25] studio venture kind of group and then
[4:27] we're also consultants. And so I advise,
[4:31] you know, existing crypto companies and
[4:33] platforms on strategy. And then I also
[4:36] help enterprise companies and businesses
[4:39] that are interested in accepting crypto
[4:40] or using the technology to be able to
[4:43] implement it. So that's kind of areas of
[4:45] the expertise and how I got here. How do
[4:47] people send you money, man? You nailed
[4:49] like all of the buzzwords for a
[4:51] successful, you know, fundraising round
[4:53] like AI, crypto. He just kind of like
[4:56] crushed it all out in one go. I love it.
[4:58] and consulting, right? And so, yeah. So,
[5:01] you got to send like a zel after this
[5:03] for everyone to just go fund you because
[5:06] >> I accept crypto. So, yeah, you could
[5:07] send me stable coins or anything
[5:09] digital.
[5:11] >> Well, I have so much to pick your brain
[5:12] on. We have a short time and I'm sure
[5:13] I'll bring you back on. I want to hear
[5:15] what your business does and how it helps
[5:16] and I want to build up to that with like
[5:17] a foundational understanding and I want
[5:19] you to kind of I think with this
[5:20] dialogue I wanted you to tell me where I
[5:22] went wrong because I remember when we
[5:24] were in college crypto was just starting
[5:25] to take off and Bitcoin was that was
[5:27] kind of the main one at the time. There
[5:29] wasn't even these derivatives like
[5:31] Ethereum and and whatnot. I think those
[5:33] were just starting to take off about 10
[5:34] years ago. And I was telling everyone
[5:38] they were idiots. I was like this is a
[5:39] fake thing. It's a Ponzi scheme. I like
[5:42] the idea of blockchain being auditable
[5:45] and I can see how that could change
[5:46] companies, but I just can't imagine
[5:48] getting Coke or Kaiser or these
[5:50] companies that have been forever to ever
[5:52] adopt this stuff. And I was, wow, I was
[5:54] wrong. People are using it. I've seen
[5:56] maps of companies using stablecoin
[5:59] like it's changing the way the world
[6:01] work. And so where did I go wrong there?
[6:04] What was where was I off? still don't
[6:05] understand how the technology has taken
[6:08] off so far and what the real advantage
[6:11] to it is.
[6:13] >> I'd say first off you were not by
[6:15] yourself. You're not alone during that
[6:17] whole time. I think probably the biggest
[6:20] consensus by everyone really at that
[6:22] time was that hesitation and
[6:23] apprehension to kind of you know with
[6:27] the technology or whatever. And I think
[6:29] like the most famous person I remember
[6:31] right around that time was Jamie Diamond
[6:33] from JP Morgan. And you know he said the
[6:36] same exact things that he said, right?
[6:37] It's a scam. He'd fire anyone from his
[6:40] company that was dealing with stable or
[6:42] crypto or anything like that during that
[6:44] time. Um and yeah, a relatively early
[6:48] phase in the evolution of crypto. I
[6:50] think the total market cap was barely,
[6:53] you know, not even a trillion dollars,
[6:55] right? it was before it kind of reached
[6:56] that point in the adoption curve. I'm a
[6:59] big fan of history. I think like for me,
[7:01] I love history. I love learning about
[7:04] humanity and how we've uh over the
[7:09] millennia interacted with each other,
[7:11] transacted with each other. And
[7:13] throughout all these different periods
[7:15] of time, there's always been different
[7:17] types of currencies that people and
[7:19] governments and societies have accepted.
[7:22] I think today when you look at Bitcoin,
[7:25] at least for me, when I look at the
[7:26] context of when Bitcoin came out to the
[7:29] public when it was released, I always
[7:30] think about the period of time after the
[7:32] financial crisis basically in 2008,
[7:35] 2009. And I think about the banks
[7:38] failing, the government bailing them
[7:40] out, society being upset because here's
[7:44] this massive bailout of banks, but what
[7:46] about the people that lost homes, the
[7:48] people that lost everything that they
[7:49] had during that period of time? And so
[7:51] there was this ideological battle
[7:53] between the people and the establishment
[7:56] in a sense, right? And so I think
[7:58] Bitcoin really did come out as a
[8:01] alternatively
[8:03] where you can have a system where you
[8:05] can have individuals being able to
[8:08] transact with each other to be able to
[8:10] interact financially with each other
[8:12] without the need for a centralized third
[8:15] party, right? Without the need for a
[8:16] central bank, any government or anyone
[8:18] in between. two individuals could, you
[8:21] know, someone could buy 10 with 10,000
[8:23] Bitcoin, two pizzas, right? Someone can
[8:26] do all of these things, whether it's
[8:28] good, whether it's bad, they can still
[8:30] transact in this system. You fast
[8:32] forward today and leading up to today,
[8:35] too. Your explanation is great, but it
[8:37] sounds like the value prop
[8:40] one of the key ones is now you have this
[8:42] benchmark for exchange that you can
[8:44] exchange different currencies for
[8:46] without being charged the all all the
[8:49] different fees that you'd get charged
[8:51] for translating currency. Does that seem
[8:53] like one of the big value propositions
[8:55] that you're saying or am I missing that?
[8:57] Yeah. So the fees that's a big part as
[8:59] well because there's always
[9:01] intermediaries, people in the middle
[9:03] that kind of facilitate the transfer
[9:05] that are able to collect a fee or make
[9:09] some sort of profit between that
[9:11] interaction. I think additional piece
[9:14] would be the ability for individuals to
[9:19] transact with one another without the
[9:22] need for a centralized party. Right? So
[9:25] like for example if someone wants to
[9:28] like if they have their own bitcoin
[9:31] right and they own their own bitcoin
[9:33] they're storing their own keys they have
[9:35] it offline it's in a hardware wallet
[9:37] that person in essence becomes their own
[9:40] bank that person can get on an airplane
[9:43] with a billion dollars in a flash drive
[9:45] and hop on a plane with that billion
[9:46] dollars in their pocket right that
[9:49] person has the ability to freely
[9:51] transact they could send payments to
[9:54] people they could do whatever they
[9:55] wanted they can or irrespective of a
[9:58] bank telling them that they have an
[9:59] account with them and that the bank is
[10:01] allowing them to send or wire money
[10:03] across the border or do whatever. I'd
[10:06] say what stood out to me the most would
[10:08] be more like the the libertarianish
[10:11] kind of principles behind cryptocurrency
[10:14] in the sense that it's a self-s
[10:15] sovereignty type of currency where you
[10:18] have the ability if you choose to
[10:21] >> manage your own asset and be able to be
[10:23] your own bank in a sense.
[10:25] >> That's fascinating. So like yeah
[10:26] regulations just didn't keep up. Like
[10:28] when you go to another country if you
[10:30] have more than 10,000 bucks in your
[10:32] pocket you got to report it. But it
[10:34] sounds like if you got your flash drive,
[10:35] well, there's a question of is that
[10:37] really in your pocket or not? Is it's
[10:39] somewhere else? And so you kind of got
[10:42] around the regulation, right? The
[10:43] necessary regulation, which is
[10:45] beneficial from a libertarian or
[10:46] capitalist kind of view of, well, now
[10:48] you're not hindering money flows
[10:50] anymore. And now you can have more of a
[10:52] global free market. Is that kind of the
[10:54] argument?
[10:55] >> That is a big part of it. Yes.
[10:57] >> That's cool. I didn't know about it that
[10:58] way.
[10:59] >> Yeah. Yeah.
[11:00] >> Are countries. Do you know if are there
[11:01] people trying to catch up? Do you know
[11:03] if there's like laws of like I don't I
[11:05] just want to be straight. I don't know.
[11:06] We didn't do the legal research here on
[11:07] what countries have laws about carrying
[11:09] the flash drive in your pocket, but are
[11:11] countries kind of catching wind to this.
[11:13] Do you know or
[11:14] >> I'm sure there are. Again, you know,
[11:16] this isn't legal advice or anything from
[11:17] either of us, but um I'd say,
[11:20] >> you know, there's reporting
[11:21] requirements. There's a lot of different
[11:24] types. For example, like KYC, right?
[11:26] Know your customer. There's rules that
[11:28] are in place when a person sets up a
[11:31] Coinbase account for example that they
[11:33] provide identifiable information their
[11:36] name their social security number their
[11:38] business the company and EIN number and
[11:41] so from that perspect is onboarding and
[11:44] regulatory framework but yeah I think it
[11:47] is interesting because yeah the $10,000
[11:49] cash limit but if you have a million
[11:51] dollar worth of Bitcoin
[11:54] I mean technically if you just know your
[11:56] seed phrase for example the password to
[11:58] accessing your wallet that's in your
[12:00] head, right? So, it kind of it's a shift
[12:02] on a lot of like thought processes,
[12:04] right? Like I think a lot of established
[12:06] things like even even now, you know, the
[12:09] the new rules around FHA, you know,
[12:12] being able to basically look at your
[12:14] Bitcoin holdings or your crypto holdings
[12:16] and being able to then, you know, lend
[12:18] you money to purchase a home, for
[12:20] example, right? like things like that
[12:22] have never been, you know, a reality in
[12:24] the past, but today, you know, some some
[12:26] kid could have, you know, a Dogecoin,
[12:29] you know, arsenal of tokens and have a
[12:32] lot of capital that way and, you know,
[12:34] now they can, you know, finance a home
[12:36] or, you know, buy a business or
[12:38] something, right?
[12:39] >> Yeah. Well, and I want to like I want to
[12:40] acknowledge there's kind of I'm sure
[12:42] there's a dark side to it. Like I was in
[12:44] marketplaces before and there's a whole
[12:45] evil element of human trafficking and
[12:47] that kind of stuff that happens with
[12:49] money laundering and all of that with
[12:50] marketplace but I'm not going to focus
[12:51] on that here. I just want to say like
[12:53] I'm sure that there's an element there
[12:55] but for the purpose of the conversation
[12:57] we can kind of steer away from that. I
[12:58] just want to acknowledge it on its face.
[12:59] >> Yeah. Actually I was in New York for a
[13:02] blockchain summit in September. It was a
[13:04] few months ago, but the focus was on
[13:07] regulators and kind of their
[13:09] methodologies and practices for being
[13:12] able to catch a lot of this nefarious
[13:13] activity on blockchains. You know, the
[13:15] first thing that a lot of times people
[13:17] even in the early days of Bitcoin had a
[13:19] misconception of because of you being
[13:22] able to transact freely, you're able to
[13:24] act basically in complete anonymity. And
[13:27] that's actually not the case. Blockchain
[13:30] basically gives what's more of a pseudo
[13:32] anonymous layer. So, you know, even
[13:34] though I don't know who's doing what, I
[13:37] could track all that beyond the chain.
[13:40] So, I could see, you know, somebody
[13:42] purchased some illegal product on a
[13:45] marketplace. I could see the wallets
[13:46] that are interacting. I could see where
[13:48] they're onboarding and offboarding. A
[13:50] lot of times the regulators or the
[13:52] government agencies or all these
[13:54] different entities, all they have to do
[13:55] is just follow the transactions on the
[13:57] blockchain and eventually leads to some
[13:59] sort of on-ramp or off-ramp where a
[14:02] person's identity is actually shown. So
[14:04] it's probably more secure than cash.
[14:06] >> Yeah, it's fascinating because you get
[14:07] all the advantages that you're saying,
[14:09] but you actually also have the legal
[14:10] advantage over cash where like carrying
[14:12] cash over the border is a major problem
[14:14] for buying drugs or pursuing legal
[14:16] illegal activities. At least the police
[14:18] have a train of, hey, here's or the
[14:20] federal regulators have a chain of, hey,
[14:22] here's where these activities are
[14:23] happening and we know these activities
[14:24] are being purchased and they can kind of
[14:26] chase down location-wise at least.
[14:30] >> Yeah, that's fascinating.
[14:32] I think one of the biggest areas right
[14:34] now when it comes to cryptoreated scams,
[14:36] a lot of times people will exploit the
[14:39] contract. There's a saying in crypto,
[14:41] the code is law, right? So everything is
[14:44] programmatically designed. So if like
[14:46] there's a smart contract, you know,
[14:49] Alula sends Devon an item, when Devon
[14:52] receives the item, payment from Alula's
[14:54] wallet will be automatically sent to
[14:56] Devon's wallet, right? That's
[14:57] programmatically there. Now, what
[15:00] happens is sometimes there's people,
[15:02] really smart kids, a lot of times that
[15:04] fight exploits within these different
[15:07] codes and smart contracts and they take
[15:10] advantage of that. You've seen kids that
[15:12] are in their 20s racking up 20, 30, 40,
[15:15] 50, you know, million plus and and and
[15:18] stolen funds. And even in those cases,
[15:20] they steal the funds. They try to wash
[15:23] and launder away the evidence as much as
[15:25] they can, but eventually that
[15:27] information flows back. And so there's a
[15:29] lot of really big cases currently in the
[15:31] New York courts and uh in the federal
[15:33] system actually focusing on some of
[15:35] these exploits. So it's a very
[15:37] fascinating space and data is king. So
[15:40] >> yeah. Wow. That's amazing. So what So
[15:42] that helps me understand where I miss
[15:43] there's a lot of value props here,
[15:45] right? So it sounds like there's a value
[15:46] prop of you don't have intermediary fees
[15:49] anymore. Similar to like when you had
[15:50] stock brokers that would charge you
[15:51] commissions. You don't have to worry
[15:52] about changing currency or any of that.
[15:55] You have more of a free market, a global
[15:57] free market. And there's actually some
[15:59] benefits over cash from a legal
[16:02] perspective. And there's just more
[16:04] there's some more stability. I guess I
[16:06] that that argument I struggle with where
[16:08] like hey it's an inflation hedge. It's
[16:10] like well it's also very speculative
[16:11] right and it it's very volatile compared
[16:13] to most but inflation edges but I
[16:15] struggle with that cuz gold is an
[16:16] inflation edge too and it's pretty
[16:17] volatile. Anything else I'm missing
[16:19] there from a primary benefits that you
[16:21] that
[16:22] are arising.
[16:24] >> I would say one of the key primary
[16:26] benefits at least when we're talking in
[16:27] the context of coin would be I'd say
[16:30] probably one of the number one reasons
[16:34] why Bitcoin is really awesome and that
[16:36] has to do with its scarcity model. So by
[16:39] design in existence there will only be
[16:41] 21 million bitcoin that will ever exist.
[16:45] Now each bitcoin you can technically
[16:47] like someone has like a dollar they
[16:49] could buy a dollar worth of bitcoin
[16:50] today right you can you know it could be
[16:53] den not broken down into
[16:56] amounts but the fact that it's scarce
[16:58] the fact that there's only 21 million
[17:00] that's ever going to be in existence I
[17:02] think in the long term that drives like
[17:05] the you know kind of the like right now
[17:07] what we're seeing is many like Micro
[17:09] Strategy and GameStop are now actively
[17:12] putting coin on their balance sheets
[17:14] right? They they hold treasuries, they
[17:16] keep the Bitcoin, their books look good,
[17:19] they raise more money, they buy more
[17:21] Bitcoin, they continue to do that. But
[17:25] in the future, you might end up seeing a
[17:27] world where these companies end up
[17:29] becoming like banks basically, right?
[17:31] Where they have massive amounts of coin
[17:33] holdings and the world is basically full
[17:37] of all this different type of activity
[17:39] and value and you have stable coins
[17:41] being able to facilitate daily
[17:43] transactions. But the digital version of
[17:45] gold is a much more scarce version of
[17:48] gold where you know gold technically is
[17:51] infinite because who knows what they
[17:53] could just dig up tomorrow and some
[17:55] country somewhere but with Bitcoin
[17:57] there's a finite cap 53 million or
[18:00] however many millionaires living in the
[18:02] world today right if every single
[18:04] millionaire said I want one bitcoin or I
[18:06] want some bitcoin exposure it's
[18:08] impossible for them to do that so I
[18:10] think certain aspects of that would be
[18:12] value ads to what Bitcoin represents.
[18:15] >> Yeah. It's almost like a global global
[18:17] currency at that point that a global
[18:21] Yeah. global store of value like gold
[18:23] except more finite. And to your point, I
[18:25] never thought of it that way is if it
[18:27] does continue to catch on and everyone
[18:30] wants it as an inflation hedge. It's
[18:32] just so strange to me because it has a
[18:33] store of value, but becomes like the
[18:34] ultimate Ponzi or ultimate like ladder
[18:36] of well because it's so scarce and you
[18:39] got to get in and you weren't first and
[18:40] the next person comes in and buys out
[18:41] and I don't know what I guess the only
[18:44] risk I see is what if everyone decides
[18:46] to sell at one time but that risk hasn't
[18:48] materialized. It it actually has been
[18:50] relatively it's been volatile but
[18:52] steadily if you look over the last 10
[18:54] years it's gone up pretty steadily. So
[18:55] how do you fit in? I mean, if you have
[18:56] any comments on that, I'd love to get
[18:58] your perspective, but also curious about
[19:00] what you're doing in the space or your
[19:02] business particularly or what's captured
[19:04] interest and how does that interrelate
[19:05] with AI?
[19:07] >> More than happy to share that. I think
[19:09] my last thing on the Bitcoin comment
[19:11] was, I've never met a single person that
[19:13] has come to me and said, "I regret
[19:15] buying Bitcoin." Myself included and
[19:17] everyone else always says, "I wish I
[19:19] bought more Bitcoin. I wish my college
[19:20] tuition Bitcoin instead of, you know,
[19:22] paying for school. I take on more debt.
[19:24] That's fine. But you know what today
[19:26] would be a lot different right? So
[19:29] >> but in terms of what I do today so I I
[19:31] mentioned earlier I'm the founder and
[19:34] and recently I gave myself the title
[19:36] chief innovator of consulting labs and
[19:39] so basically what I focus on is
[19:41] building. So I have a personal brand
[19:44] called my crypto world. That's a crypto
[19:47] with a zero and not an O. And so I've
[19:49] always been like a builder in this
[19:51] space. I've always been, you know,
[19:53] developing things and experimenting and
[19:55] learning how this technology works. Um,
[19:58] so basically what our main focus with
[20:00] consulting labs is using low code, no
[20:02] code tools and various different types
[20:04] of, you know, solutions out there to
[20:06] build tools and different products and
[20:08] things like that. So right now our main
[20:10] product that I'm working on is called
[20:12] edge flow. And what EdgeFlow is is
[20:14] basically an inventory intelligence tool
[20:18] for small businesses. So the idea is
[20:20] that most small businesses, you know,
[20:22] you go into a small business a lot of
[20:24] times like they're, you know, keeping
[20:25] their records in Excel. They have, you
[20:27] know, different types of systems that
[20:29] they're dealing with for ERPs and things
[20:30] like that. But if you ask a business
[20:32] owner, hey, what is your cost of goods
[20:34] sold for a particular item that they
[20:37] deal with in their inventory? Nine out
[20:39] of 10 times, most of those business
[20:40] owners won't know the answer right off
[20:42] the bat. And so that's what ES Flow is
[20:44] trying to solve. Basically what we do is
[20:46] we have a integration capability where
[20:48] we can connect to different types of ERP
[20:50] systems or self-managed Excel
[20:52] spreadsheets. We are able to take the
[20:55] data regarding inventory and then
[20:57] tokenize those real world assets. So
[20:59] create a digital twin a representation
[21:01] of that using the Hideera blockchain and
[21:04] then the business owner has a tool that
[21:06] they can interact with to ask questions
[21:08] or figure out what's going on with their
[21:10] business. And so
[21:11] >> what is the blockchain? Why why the
[21:13] blockchain? what does that add to it?
[21:16] >> So, pitchflow initially is focusing on
[21:18] inventory. Our goal is to get into
[21:20] payments. And so, the first part is is
[21:23] creating digital real world
[21:25] representations of items. So, think like
[21:26] a luxury jeweler for example, has a
[21:29] bunch of inventory. Um, she maintains a
[21:32] lot of her information manually or uses
[21:34] some ERP system, but a lot of the
[21:36] visibility into the business isn't
[21:38] really there. And so with edge flow,
[21:40] we're able to create digital twins for
[21:42] all of the different items that she has
[21:44] in her inventory. And then through edge
[21:46] POS basically, which is our our POSOS
[21:49] system, we're able to integrate uh
[21:51] Circle, which is the parent company for
[21:54] USDC, their payment network. and do that
[21:58] using stable coins. A small business is
[22:00] able to lower their credit card
[22:01] processing fees from upwards of 2.9%
[22:05] all the way down to 0.1% using the
[22:08] stable coins. So that's kind of the main
[22:10] focus there. It's giving the businesses
[22:12] insights into their operations and then
[22:14] lowering their operating costs
[22:16] associated with transaction fees. And
[22:18] throughout that whole time, the
[22:19] blockchain when someone purchases an
[22:21] item, the digital twin, the NFT is given
[22:24] to the person who's purchasing it in
[22:26] exchange for the USDC token basically.
[22:29] So, it's a kind of a way to take a real
[22:31] world asset and create a digital copy to
[22:34] allow a transaction.
[22:36] >> Wow. Okay. So, here are a few advantages
[22:37] here and I just want to make sure I'm
[22:39] following. So when you're doing this,
[22:42] first is if someone's to make a payment
[22:44] for this asset, your platform would then
[22:47] be able to transfer that payment or
[22:48] process that payment with less fees
[22:50] because you're using the blockchain.
[22:52] >> Is that the right am I saying? Okay.
[22:53] >> Exactly.
[22:54] >> Second is now I know when you with
[22:57] inventory management is a mess for most
[22:58] companies because they are using Excels
[23:00] or even ERPs or if you acquire even the
[23:03] bigger companies, you're acquiring a lot
[23:04] of small companies, it's really hard to
[23:05] standardize. say all these fragmented
[23:07] systems thing. If you migrate through
[23:09] your system, it all goes through the
[23:10] blockchain. So, it's all auditable now.
[23:12] You know where things are going and
[23:14] where they're coming and it's all become
[23:16] standardized and you can implement. It
[23:17] sounds like you have APIs to bring it
[23:19] all in from different systems to
[23:21] standardize it.
[23:22] >> Exactly.
[23:23] >> That's huge.
[23:24] >> Yeah. It's really, you know, I feel like
[23:26] today there's a lot of really powerful
[23:29] tools out there and so I'm actually a
[23:31] resell partner and affiliate for N10.
[23:34] So, I mentioned
[23:35] >> Oh, great. I
[23:36] So, you know, using tools like and and
[23:38] you're actually able to create these
[23:40] automated processes where you can ingest
[23:42] data. You can then kick off. It's almost
[23:44] like an orchestration engine basically
[23:46] and you can then have the ability to
[23:49] create the tokens, create the payments
[23:52] logic so that the tokens are transferred
[23:54] one by one and then you're also able to
[23:57] create the logic for kicking off AI
[23:59] agents as well. So the idea is you know
[24:01] we have like an ongoing spreadsheet that
[24:03] is basically being updated in real time
[24:06] as things are being added and things are
[24:08] being sold. Um the AI model is able to
[24:10] feed from that information and then you
[24:12] know a small business owner could say
[24:14] hey you know what were my sales for
[24:15] today right here's all the information.
[24:18] Here's your top selling item. Here's
[24:19] some items that you need to restock up
[24:21] on. Right? like all these little things
[24:23] where for the small business it's really
[24:26] a matter of empowering them because you
[24:28] know just like back in the day they said
[24:30] in the future there will be a personal
[24:32] computer in every home. Well, you know,
[24:34] we're past that. We have personal
[24:35] computers in our pockets at all times,
[24:37] our cell phones. And so now we're at the
[24:39] point where in the future everyone
[24:41] should have their own personal AI
[24:43] assistant. And so that's where we're
[24:44] aiming it for at Edge.
[24:46] >> That's amazing. Yeah, I can't imagine
[24:48] how valid it would be just to speak to
[24:50] your phone. I already used Chat GT and
[24:52] Gemini and all of them and compare each
[24:54] other way too much. But just to like
[24:56] it's like calling somebody be like,
[24:57] "Hey, how was my inventory? What were my
[24:59] cost of sales?
[25:00] >> Hey, did did you process the payments?
[25:03] Did we collect the payments for it? What
[25:04] was my average fee? How much am I saving
[25:06] from this?" For people watching this who
[25:08] don't know, it like takes company
[25:09] sometimes 30 days, 60 days to close the
[25:11] books to figure out what was sold. And
[25:13] then you have these aggressive like
[25:15] inventory management and physical
[25:17] management systems that you have to
[25:18] overlay. And it sounds like this could
[25:20] solve a lot of it. Like I guess how do
[25:23] you think of if inventory gets lost or
[25:26] what or if inventory breaks like
[25:28] breakage or theft would this help with
[25:30] that too?
[25:31] >> Uh so so there there's a couple elements
[25:35] you know someone asked a really great
[25:37] question today in our hello feature
[25:39] hackathon working session and it was
[25:41] around real world assets. They said,
[25:44] "Okay, what if someone has a car, right,
[25:46] and the car gets damaged, right? How do
[25:49] you update that in the NFT?" And so
[25:51] there's there's caveats to like
[25:53] different cases. I think with the car
[25:56] one, my example for them was almost like
[25:58] there would be kind of like a
[26:00] third-party service where they would
[26:02] it's almost it's called like an oracle
[26:04] where like let's it's like an appraisal
[26:06] service that someone specifically
[26:08] provides to this network and their job
[26:10] is just basically to validate that the
[26:12] vehicle is still in the same condition
[26:14] that it's in or if there was some
[26:16] damages what's the new value for it and
[26:18] then that information their vote their
[26:20] decision updates the the logic
[26:23] associated with the NFT so that there's
[26:25] now metadata and tags that updated to
[26:28] the to the you know current state of it.
[26:31] Now with the case of items that are
[26:33] missing at least with that flow the way
[26:34] that I've designed it is there's two
[26:36] parts to it. So one is like a manual
[26:38] piece where you can update information
[26:40] add information whether it's like skew
[26:42] numbers or descriptions or values. So
[26:46] part of it could be you know the ability
[26:47] for an owner to just go in and say hey
[26:50] this these items were lost in a fire or
[26:52] some sort of No, I know. It's cooking
[26:55] with me now. It's a completeness thing.
[26:57] So, the blockchain's complete. It never
[26:58] is going to get deleted or anything. But
[27:01] so, you're always going to know what was
[27:02] originally a sale.
[27:04] >> It's just as the data migrates, you can
[27:07] tag it with metadata that's going to
[27:10] state like, oh, this doesn't exist
[27:11] anymore. It was broken or destroyed or
[27:13] something. But that still keeps the flow
[27:15] alive, which is actually really valuable
[27:17] from an audit perspective. Like, oh, it
[27:19] you can't change the past. There's a
[27:21] true time and audit log associated with
[27:23] it.
[27:24] >> Exactly. Exactly. So, it wouldn't be a
[27:26] case of like, hey, I'm just going to
[27:27] delete all of this inventory for my
[27:29] books after I, you know, like all that
[27:32] lower my cost of sales.
[27:33] >> The ability to update information, the
[27:35] ability to have like an updated
[27:37] provenance and understanding what
[27:39] exactly is going on and how the values
[27:41] are transacted over time. I think that
[27:43] piece is there. And then you know then
[27:45] then it opens up a lot of doors because
[27:47] with what you're able to do now is
[27:50] create logic right so you could say
[27:52] based off of these tags this is you know
[27:55] this is how you recognize information
[27:56] that's cuz that's tagged as a loss for
[27:58] example right and we won't you know
[28:00] because it's a lost item there's no way
[28:02] that someone could sell that item right
[28:04] so if it's lost it's lost even if it's
[28:06] on the books it'll never be sold
[28:09] >> that's so cool so I'm curious what how
[28:11] do you make sure that a blockchain links
[28:14] to an an existing item on day one. Could
[28:17] there be fraudulent
[28:19] inclusions of inventory?
[28:22] >> Yeah.
[28:22] >> Or how do you prevent that?
[28:24] >> Yeah. And so like uh you're saying like
[28:26] in the beginning someone could just say,
[28:27] "Hey, I have a million dollars worth of
[28:29] inventory. I'm going to go to the bank
[28:31] now and show them this information and
[28:33] you know."
[28:34] >> Yeah. Exactly.
[28:34] >> So So from that perspective and that's a
[28:37] great question. I think first off it's
[28:39] the focus of this tool. You think about
[28:41] it like any of these personal finance
[28:43] apps that are out there, right? Like I
[28:45] can plug in my my checking account to
[28:47] these personal some of them have
[28:49] capabilities where it's like you can
[28:51] adjust information in there or whatever.
[28:53] But no one's going to look at the
[28:55] personal finance app and say because of
[28:57] the XYZ app, we're going to lend you
[28:59] money or something. The goal of Edge
[29:01] Flow is really to give small businesses
[29:03] a tool that allows them to actually be
[29:06] able to run their businesses better. So
[29:08] for them, it benefits them to be honest.
[29:10] It benefits them to be truthful. It
[29:12] benefits them to be transparent because
[29:15] for them they're getting access to a
[29:17] tool that then will allow them to be
[29:18] better at running their business to
[29:20] improve how they actually operate. You
[29:23] can create millions of fake items, but
[29:25] then you'll never get the sale because
[29:27] no one's going to buy those fake items
[29:28] because someone goes to your store and
[29:30] they're like, "Okay, want to buy all the
[29:32] let's donut shop for example. You say
[29:34] you baked a million donuts today. You're
[29:36] going to sell a million donuts, but at
[29:38] the end of the day, you only sell a few
[29:39] dozen because that's all you really
[29:41] have. The real world that piece
[29:45] is really the connection between the
[29:47] digital and the physical.
[29:49] >> The physical is missing. You know, you
[29:51] could have the digital all you want, but
[29:54] you know, there's no real physical kind
[29:56] of economic value that's being created.
[29:58] Now let's hypothetically you did create
[30:01] a million token don for your donuts and
[30:03] you you you know over the years create a
[30:05] million donuts and every time you sell a
[30:07] donut you
[30:09] Dunkin Donuts can be a great customer
[30:12] that case right I guess that it makes
[30:15] perfect sense to me of I was in the
[30:16] financial due diligence kind of mindset.
[30:18] We had a client or I had a client once
[30:20] who you like we're looking at a target
[30:22] and the target said they had all this
[30:24] stuff and then once we got there none of
[30:26] it existed and they were just inflating
[30:28] their and so that's why you hire
[30:30] financial due diligence experts because
[30:32] we go and audit we audit your stuff and
[30:34] you go hey you probably shouldn't buy
[30:35] this company for $30 million so you have
[30:37] nothing that they've promised and or
[30:39] purport to have and so that's what I was
[30:41] thinking and you're saying hey that's
[30:42] not the point of the tool at the end of
[30:43] the day you still need someone to go and
[30:45] make sure the stuff is actually there
[30:46] that's awesome man
[30:47] >> and even for the auditor. This benefits
[30:50] the auditors more because here's an
[30:52] immutable record that says this is
[30:54] what's supposed to be there. And when
[30:55] you're doing your physical inspection
[30:57] and you're doing an inventory and you're
[30:59] like, "Hey, I only see three dozen
[31:01] donuts here."
[31:01] >> Yeah, I got another chain here, but then
[31:04] I also want to leave space faith for you
[31:05] to tell me kind of what you're working
[31:06] on next and how the audience could
[31:07] support you. But the chain is that
[31:10] brings up an interesting phase of like
[31:12] human elements and AI. And so I'll lead
[31:14] with like I'm using AI more than I ever
[31:16] thought I would like to help me prepare
[31:19] for my college lectures. So I'll give
[31:21] you an example like today I was trying
[31:22] to figure out how do I reframe a
[31:24] business 101 lecture to start off the
[31:27] course to match all the learning
[31:29] objectives but like weave in my personal
[31:31] narrative journey of like businesses
[31:33] I've started that have failed and
[31:34] businesses that have done well. And I
[31:36] was able to leverage a book, benchmark
[31:39] against the book, put against stories
[31:41] I've written about my own businesses and
[31:45] divide that all into an outline and then
[31:46] create a slide presentation that's
[31:48] probably in the top 1% of anything we
[31:50] ever got in college in like an hour and
[31:52] a half. That's kind of how I'm using AI
[31:55] day-to-day. And I'm always curious since
[31:56] you're on the forefront of this, are you
[31:58] doing similar things or how are you
[32:00] imagining how humans and AI interact and
[32:02] how are you benefiting from it since
[32:03] you're on the forefront? Absolutely,
[32:06] man. A firm believer that AI is a
[32:09] powerful tool that can enhance our
[32:11] capabilities. I felt it's an additional
[32:14] benefit to leverage AI because I can use
[32:17] AI tools for everything from helping me
[32:20] manage my social media presence, helping
[32:22] me evaluate different deals and
[32:25] prospecting, helping me with coding,
[32:28] programming, prototyping,
[32:30] planning trips, personal kind of things.
[32:33] It's a very powerful tool to allow us to
[32:35] do a lot of different things. I have
[32:37] family members that are older. Like my
[32:39] mom, they love using Chad PT. They use
[32:42] it all the time for various types of
[32:43] things, right? I was at an event at Cal
[32:45] State Northridge not too long ago was
[32:48] the workforce of the future. They had
[32:50] IBM speaking there. One of the speakers
[32:52] had a very interesting quote. They said,
[32:55] "Don't worry about AI taking your job.
[32:58] Worry about the person who knows AI
[33:00] taking your job." And I think AI is the
[33:03] ultimate equalizer and massive
[33:05] opportunity for us. So the fact that you
[33:07] as a professor are using it in preparing
[33:10] your curriculum, personalizing it,
[33:13] aligning with what it is that you want
[33:15] to to the students, I think is exactly
[33:17] what AI's capabilities and benefits are
[33:20] for. It's more than just
[33:23] putting in text and getting a response
[33:25] and just running it. It's like you
[33:27] analyze, you think about it, you use
[33:29] multiple tools. You don't just use one
[33:31] there like so many facets to it and also
[33:34] you don't rely upon it to think for you.
[33:37] You use it as a tool to enhance your
[33:39] abilities and everything. A very
[33:42] powerful agent for us for the AI.
[33:47] >> Oh no. It's awesome. I'm curious because
[33:49] that's something I've been wanting to
[33:50] pick your since you're so embedded in
[33:52] the space and you'd be surprised how
[33:53] many people aren't right. Like it's
[33:55] still something like at least in the
[33:56] accounting world. I read a report from
[33:58] the C CPA saying less than 8% of
[34:01] professionals are using any AI tool and
[34:04] the big four from what I'm aware of
[34:06] they're not even allowed to on the jobs
[34:08] because of security issues and so to me
[34:10] it's like this is a big hindrance you
[34:11] guys are going to be way behind pretty
[34:13] fast to your point the people who know
[34:15] AI are going to take your jobs what I'm
[34:17] worrying about is students it's so
[34:18] interesting and I'm curious to see your
[34:20] perspective is I've been trying to like
[34:21] how do I design a course where I almost
[34:22] feel like multiple choice
[34:25] are kind of a thing of the fast. Like,
[34:27] what's the point of having a multiple
[34:28] choice exam when all of the world's
[34:30] knowledge is not just a search away, but
[34:32] like even faster? You can grapple with
[34:34] it. And so, I've been trying to rephrase
[34:36] like our essay questions or live
[34:38] discussions going to become more
[34:40] valuable cuz I'm seeing that I'm just
[34:42] curious your thoughts cuz I'm seeing it
[34:43] on when I do interviews or when I meet
[34:45] with people, you can tell the people who
[34:47] know something like yourself, you're
[34:48] clearly an expert. You're clearly like,
[34:49] "Man, I just want to talk to you forever
[34:51] about this." But you see people who are
[34:52] like, "Oh, I need to go check. Oh, I
[34:54] need to go research this because we're
[34:55] getting you can already see especially
[34:56] the younger generation is reliant on AI.
[34:59] And so it's like how do you get
[35:00] comfortable knowing and understanding
[35:02] the topic knowing that people are
[35:04] probably past the point of being grilled
[35:07] to learn material?
[35:09] >> It's a it's a great question. You know,
[35:11] I think our generation is very fortunate
[35:13] because we grew up in an era where you
[35:16] know like I remember dialup internet,
[35:18] right? Like I remember buying like all
[35:20] these things. So it's like the the world
[35:22] has completely changed. And so today
[35:25] like kids like even younger kids like
[35:27] our kids for example like now there's
[35:29] you know kind of discussion around AI
[35:31] for children and and things like that
[35:34] and and for me I feel like those those
[35:37] social issues
[35:40] are massive areas where there needs to
[35:44] be like a collective decision, right?
[35:47] It's it's kind of one of those things
[35:49] where it's almost like within academia
[35:52] for example like the future of academia
[35:55] like there has to be kind of like a a
[35:57] common consensus of some sort around
[36:00] best practices and and how to prepare
[36:02] students. It's kind of challenging
[36:04] because it's like at the same time it's
[36:06] like you know you're going to have
[36:08] different styles of teaching, you're
[36:09] going to have different goals. But I
[36:11] think like recently there was a someone
[36:14] was speaking about some politician was
[36:17] talking about no need for learning how
[36:19] to code. AI is going to code for you,
[36:21] right? And I had made a comment on
[36:25] about, you know, hey, if AI could code
[36:28] um you know what's the point of learning
[36:29] to code? I could just go to cursor and
[36:31] type in what I want and prompt it and
[36:33] all of a sudden I have a UI. I can
[36:34] create a prototype. I can do all these
[36:37] things. And interestingly enough, the
[36:38] people that commented, a lot of the
[36:40] software engineers and the career CS
[36:43] people, they were adamantly against what
[36:46] I was saying. Of course not. You're
[36:47] going to need a deep insights and
[36:49] understanding and all that. And so I
[36:51] think in terms of what people need, I
[36:54] think question formats like
[36:55] multiplechoice, testing people on their
[36:58] actual knowledge is the key. like if
[37:00] it's a multiple choice, if it's a
[37:02] project, if it's you know whatever, like
[37:05] if someone uses AI or someone doesn't
[37:07] use AI, it's like understanding how to
[37:10] get the answer is the key. You know,
[37:12] like ask question that maybe if you ask
[37:15] Chad GPT, you'll get three or four
[37:17] different things, but really if you
[37:19] understand this topic, you'll reach this
[37:21] final answer that is the same final
[37:23] answer as someone who doesn't use CHP,
[37:25] right? expecting everyone to say, "Hey,
[37:28] you know, to take one side or the other,
[37:30] it's just not going to work." Some
[37:32] people are just not going to learn how
[37:33] to code. No one need to learn how to
[37:36] code. For entrepreneurs, for business
[37:38] students, it was just a brilliant time
[37:40] to be alive because now you have an
[37:42] idea. Go build a prototype. You could
[37:43] just watch video, build a prototype, and
[37:46] so cool.
[37:48] >> Yeah. So I mean I I think I love what
[37:50] you're saying because that's kind of
[37:51] I've approached I met so many professors
[37:52] or teachers who are like you got to
[37:54] disclaim if you're using chat GPT. We
[37:56] have an honor code here and I think the
[37:58] best thing is just to assume they're all
[38:00] going to use it. Assume everyone's going
[38:01] to use it and let's just figure out a
[38:03] way to still teach the material despite
[38:05] it. So maybe don't give essay questions
[38:06] to take home. Like that's probably
[38:08] they're going to solve that one pretty
[38:09] fast. Any smart kid is going to just
[38:10] dump that in. But like can you have
[38:12] discussion prompts? Can we uplevel
[38:14] ourselves that profession? We can do
[38:16] better. you like they don't need to
[38:18] worry about that anymore. We can get
[38:19] them to really understand the heart of
[38:20] the material.
[38:21] >> Exactly. And I remember when we were in
[38:23] school when they had the graded curves
[38:25] in the class, it used to drive me crazy
[38:27] because, you know, we were we were the
[38:29] good students. We were busting our
[38:30] butts. We were studying. But sometimes,
[38:32] you know, you have some students that
[38:34] would be helping each other or whatever,
[38:35] and that would screw up the the curve
[38:37] for the class, right? So as anything
[38:40] what AI has done now is it's raising the
[38:42] bar cuz at a very bare minimum if you
[38:45] use AI you should get the answer and
[38:47] then you so it's almost like it raises
[38:49] the bar where it's like okay either
[38:51] you're learning the topic and you're
[38:53] you're excelling and you're able to
[38:55] compete against people who use AI or
[38:58] you're able to use whatever tools is
[39:00] around you to be able to get to the
[39:01] right answer but either way the bar is
[39:04] now raised because the wrong answer is
[39:06] no longer acceptable like there should
[39:07] be no you So if you're allowing your
[39:09] students to use AI and man like you know
[39:13] like a C is impact like you everyone
[39:15] should have a B+ or more reverse curve.
[39:19] >> It does curve the first time.
[39:21] >> Yeah, exactly. Like hey you fail if you
[39:23] get below a 95, you know, cuz like you
[39:26] should be acing this thing. That's
[39:28] hilar. That's actually a really
[39:29] interesting idea. Okay, I got to ask you
[39:30] because I'm just really curious that
[39:32] you're in it. Have you found any weird
[39:33] prompts or like models that you are
[39:35] specifically
[39:37] using that you're like, "Hey, this is
[39:38] really cool and I don't think other
[39:40] people are using it this way."
[39:42] >> My recent one, probably not even a new
[39:45] one. There's probably a lot of people
[39:46] that do it, but what I like to do is
[39:50] basically like I'm working on a a
[39:53] project and I'm like, "Hey, Chad GPT or
[39:56] I like Gemini more recently. I've just
[39:58] been using that more." But
[40:00] >> Pro is pretty solid.
[40:01] Excellent. Yes. So, I'll just say, "Hey,
[40:04] we're partners in this right here."
[40:05] Like, "You're going to be my lead
[40:07] developer, my partner, you know." So,
[40:10] just like having that element where it's
[40:12] like, "Okay, we're working on this
[40:13] together." And then throwing in
[40:15] additional things. I was doing an
[40:17] application for venture fund wanted to
[40:20] sign up. So, and the models that I was
[40:22] working with say, "Imagine you are the
[40:24] reviewer. What areas where I fall short
[40:28] or where I can improve, right?" And so
[40:30] like having that dialogue of back and
[40:33] forth versus just taking the first
[40:35] response that you get back and saying
[40:37] that this is you know the best thing
[40:38] possible is actually really helpful.
[40:41] >> No, it is I really like the partner one
[40:42] and that's except I'll throw one at you
[40:44] that I've done is like I'll find well
[40:46] first off best practice it can't you
[40:47] can't just rely on it. It's an extension
[40:49] of thinking and I found it's really
[40:51] valuable for like I'm pretty
[40:52] scatterbrained and creative and open and
[40:54] my problem is I focus on too many
[40:55] different things and having it help me
[40:57] think through a thought to the end is so
[41:00] helpful but you got to go battle with it
[41:02] through the chain. What I've done is
[41:03] I'll be like rate this idea like rate
[41:05] this if you are an expert in this field
[41:07] rate the idea from one to 10 over these
[41:09] different areas where am I missing it
[41:11] like where could I do better and then
[41:13] I'll be like give it to another model
[41:14] and be like play devil's advocate where
[41:16] did they get this wrong and you can use
[41:18] the think of to like really if that's
[41:20] the full picture of a situation and then
[41:23] you have to still come in with judgment
[41:24] and be like I could just agree with this
[41:25] I agree with this but man your thinking
[41:27] power just so similar I like the idea of
[41:29] saying it's a partner though hey you're
[41:30] a partner in this help me figure it out
[41:31] and help me battle battle to understand
[41:33] or help me check if you were to review
[41:35] this what would throw you off and
[41:38] changing those roles really will change
[41:40] how it responds.
[41:41] >> Absolutely. and and yeah and I really
[41:43] like your approach as well because you
[41:45] know going point by point and looking at
[41:47] where things could be improved I think
[41:49] is a very valuable take as well because
[41:53] yeah at the end of the day it's like
[41:54] there's confirmation bias there's all
[41:57] these issues that are existent with an
[41:59] AI you can have a model hallucinate you
[42:02] can have all these that becomes huge
[42:04] risk right so you want to be able to
[42:05] mitigate that as much as possible and I
[42:07] think the more that you're looking at
[42:09] things strategically the better because
[42:12] that allows the model to refine itself
[42:14] and really get to a better loops.
[42:17] >> Oh, cool. Now, thanks for going down
[42:18] that rabbit hole with me, man. What are
[42:19] you working on next? How could we all
[42:21] support you and what's next in the
[42:23] future for you? So, next time we have I
[42:25] want to check in on all the success that
[42:27] you're having.
[42:27] >> Absolutely. So, I'd say the most
[42:29] exciting part besides the edge flow and
[42:31] the Hello Feature hackathon, which I
[42:33] really really am excited about, I think
[42:35] the Alula Z.xyz
[42:38] release is one of my next projects as
[42:40] well. So working with basically like the
[42:42] P token community, we the WEO community,
[42:45] there's basically like this whole co-op
[42:47] of decentralized participants. We're
[42:50] putting together AI for real estate, AI
[42:52] for accounting, AI for tax and basically
[42:56] it's just like courses and then also
[42:58] there's like communities and materials
[43:00] to really just like focus on empowering
[43:03] small businesses. So I if anyone's
[43:05] interested on hats or any of the social
[43:07] media, my crypto world with the zero and
[43:10] then alulaz.xyz
[43:12] once this launches, you can catch that
[43:14] as well for more content about education
[43:16] and everything.
[43:17] >> Awesome. Yeah, I'll put in the links,
[43:19] man. If you ever need a guest speaker or
[43:20] anything, more than happy to show up. So
[43:22] then I ask everybody, I just do like a
[43:24] rapid fire at the end because I'm always
[43:25] just curious to keep it a little light.
[43:27] What's your favorite Oh. Well, what do
[43:29] you prefer? Sweet or savory? Oh, it's a
[43:33] good one.
[43:33] >> What's your favorite dessert? Yeah, I
[43:35] got a sweet tooth, too.
[43:36] >> Yeah, Whole Foods dress lattes.
[43:40] >> Oh, Whole Foods specifically.
[43:42] >> Yeah, I don't know what they do with
[43:44] their dressings. Whole Foods got me
[43:46] hooked. So,
[43:47] >> they do a really good like berry cake,
[43:49] too. Some of that stuff's really good,
[43:51] man. This winter is a deadly season for
[43:52] me. I got to I got to cut before winter
[43:55] because I'll just gain 15 pounds.
[43:57] >> Yeah. What's your least favorite thing
[43:59] or least favorite piece of advice that
[44:01] everyone gives?
[44:03] >> You know, I have to say it's parenting
[44:05] advice around when you're a first time
[44:07] parent, you're about to have kids and
[44:09] people tell you you lose sleep. You
[44:11] know, I always felt like why would like
[44:13] as you know, leading up to it, why are
[44:15] you negative about But then when I had
[44:18] my kid, he was a perfect sleeper. So, we
[44:19] were like, okay, this wasn't even true.
[44:21] >> Yeah, that's I completely agree with
[44:23] you. There's something really
[44:24] unfortunate. I wish the dialogue would
[44:25] change there where we could stay more
[44:26] positive because there's a lot of people
[44:28] not having kids anymore because we're so
[44:30] negative and there's so many rewarding
[44:31] beautiful parts of having a family. Like
[44:32] I've never met anyone where I was like,
[44:34] "Hey, do you wish you didn't have the
[44:35] kid?" And they're like, "Oh yeah, yeah,
[44:37] I would I would totally just throw them
[44:39] in the ocean." You know that never you
[44:41] never get anyone saying that stuff. Even
[44:43] the bad parents still want to show up
[44:44] with the kids. So I wish that's a
[44:46] message that people need to understand
[44:47] more. And then out of out of everything
[44:48] we talked about today, what do you wish
[44:50] the audience would leave with? Like if
[44:52] you could say one thing to everybody,
[44:54] what's the one thing you wish they would
[44:55] leave with today?
[44:57] >> You know, I would say for specifically
[44:59] like maybe your audience or you know
[45:01] people coming from that traditional
[45:03] finance academia like that world, I
[45:06] would say jump in. When it comes to AI,
[45:09] web 3, I think like learning getting
[45:12] some sort of involvement in that space
[45:14] is really a really big opportunity
[45:16] today. I think there's a growing trend
[45:19] where people who have these skills that
[45:21] people in the traditional, you know,
[45:23] finance, accounting, all that have,
[45:26] there's a huge need for those skills
[45:28] within this new kind of economy that's
[45:30] being created within the digital asset
[45:32] world and AI and everything else. So, I
[45:34] would say just, you know, jump on board,
[45:36] learn a new skill, have some fun,
[45:38] experiment, and yeah, that probably be
[45:41] the takeaways.
[45:43] >> I love it, Alula. And it was a pleasure.
[45:44] I'm really glad we caught up again. Hope
[45:46] you'd come on again some other time.
[45:47] Could give us an update how the
[45:48] hackathon and everything goes. Best of
[45:49] luck on it.