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All right industrial Talk is brought to you by endeavor Business Media. Now I'm telling you man, they put on a great show I was at the one that they put together called the manufacturing and technology show in Cleveland, Ohio. You got to put that one on your bucket list for next year. Great venue, great event, and put on by a great company with great people that's endeavor Business Media, go out to endeavor business media.com Find out more, you will not be disappointed enjoy the interview.
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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hardhat, grab your work boots, and let's get
00:52
right once again, welcome to industrial talk the number one industrial related podcast in the universe. And I'm not overselling that at all. And we celebrate industry heroes such as yourself, because you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly solve problems, you are changing lives and you are changing the world each and every day. And that's why this platform is dedicated to you. That's why we celebrate you. Here we are broadcasting from the manufacturing and technology show here in Cleveland, Ohio. And I want to give a big shout out to all the manufacturers that have great I mean, it's full of solutions, right here solutions, you got a problem. They've got a solution. That's what the manufacturing and technology shows all about in a hot seat. Most shell kennix Did I get that right? I got I nailed the kennix part. And she is co founder of bankers lab. And you say to yourself, Scott, I don't know you will know about bankers lab after this conversation. Michelle, how're you doing?
01:51
I'm doing really well.
01:53
That's good. I've been stalking you for the past couple of days, which is pretty creepy. However, I when you lose, I found you. And you're on the podcast because your story needs to be told who was the other founder.
02:05
The other founder is Kurt Gingher, who's our CTO and he designed our simulation algorithms which have been used in industry for over 10 years.
02:15
You've been around that long we have. It's pretty cool. By the way. It's cool that you have the URL bankers lab. Oh, yeah. But unless somebody says bankers slab, yes, they do that too, huh? Of course, it would be me. Because reading is not a strong suit for me. So for the listeners out there, give us a little background for one one on who you are. Sure,
02:41
I am a recovering banker. And I'm sorry to hear that. And I'm a banker who was trying to solve our own problem. So I worked in a big global bank that had 57 countries. And we were supposed to teach everybody in 57 countries how to manage complex lending portfolios. Okay, not easy. No, spoiler alert. Even bankers aren't really sure how to do that. And what I realized is that when we just put them into a simulation, kind of like, you know, if you want to learn to drive a motorcycle, you can do those fun Moto GP. Right? Right. Games. Right, right. Learning by doing so we created this numerical simulation to just let people do what if and what if I did this? What if I did that? And it worked.
03:26
So it's not it's an Excel spreadsheet right now? A little bit more. So
03:31
it's slightly more Yes, it's a web application that is hosted on AWS and Azure from Microsoft. So Kitty, it's a we've used it in over 30 countries. And initially by you know, obviously a big customer base of ours, our banks and financial institutions. But now, it's spreading across the world.
03:54
So here's the deal. So, so you come up with this platform, this algorithm, this solution that can give you the ability to do what ifs, which is what the financial institution should be doing each and every day, right? And now they're using your product.
04:10
Correct. And furthermore, we're saying wait a minute, the manufacturers can actually beat the banks at their own game, because the manufacturers understand their customers that they're selling their goods to they understand the right they can create a sticky so if you're a big manufacturer, and you're trying to sell big piece of equipment, if you tell the guy, good luck, go to the bank, when you get back and got your loan, then I'll sell it to you. Instead, you can say, you know, what, what's your issue? We'll create a financing option, which many manufacturing companies do, but now it's democratized because of cloud computing. So even a relatively small manufacturer can be their own GE Capital.
04:52
Okay, you're gonna have to run me through that. Sure. Because here's, here's my thinking, my thought process. I recognize it Because I love finance. I've created the models, unfortunately, all through Excel. But I became very good at it. Anyway. How does how does one? How does one do that I, here's my typical understanding, I've got a need, I need capital, I go to the bank, then they look at my whatever they look at financially, then they say yea or nay? Or we will do it if this and this is it. That's sort of the traditional, how does that differ?
05:32
Oh, well, first of all, our partner, turnkey lender has the automated platform, and they use API's to pull in data from here and there and everywhere. So they can automate it, you know, set up some models in there, give those risk indicators. And also, you know, you don't necessarily need AI and all this data, for example, you know, let's say, their first time customer, start out with a, you know, a rent to lease, and then the minute they start paying on time for three or six months, step them up to the lease to own and then expand your product set. So you can do your product design as the financer to, you know, encourage that product step up with the customer. So sometimes it could just be role based. Other times you can pull in AI for other stuff. And, you know, we we help banks and any lender design those products, and then you play around with the sim
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see, to see that that's where the real from my perspective, because I would always like to dabble and do what ifs and you simulate all day long. But you through that activity through that simulation, I believe you learn more you understand more, you're saying, Oh, I see how I did this, it impacted that I understand all of that. It makes me an owner, probably more are knowledgeable about the financial implications of whatever the decision I need to make. Do you ever get to a point where somebody is playing around with that simulation, seeing it ride and work in it? And decide? No, I just can't I just I can't justify it. I just can't get the numbers, or do they come to you and say I'm trying to get here? What do I do?
07:18
What typically, I mean, there's no one right answer. So it's really being dynamic to the situation. So even in an economic downturn, saying, Gosh, it's downturn, should we just shut up? No. Figure out how to adjust your parameters, adjust the strategy for the current situation, situations change? So yeah, maybe you need to cut back your exposure amounts or, you know, be a little more conservative in those lending decisions during the downturn. But but the point is, the world is not a place where you can just say yes or no and shut shop, it's a matter of being dynamic, and being able to gain things out. In any economic scenario.
08:00
Can I take your solution, your tool, and look at it from a more holistic point of view from my business and say, Here's, this is my business. And this is how it's sort of, and be able to put in those parameters to saying, Okay, I've got a picture of it. And then I can come back and say, however, I want to look at this line, and then I'm thinking about adding some assets to it. What does that look like? Does that does the product a solution helps stimulate those like, Okay, you're going to increase productivity by, you know, 10%, that means bottom line is, whatever in a manufacturer, you do able to do that?
08:41
At the moment, our focus in simulation is on the lending piece or financing piece. So we don't currently have an off the shelf that would simulate the manufacturing productivity per se. Right, right. We focus on the lending part, any type of financing, etc. But certainly, maybe you should be talking to our CTO about that.
09:01
Yeah. Because Because if I'm gonna, if I'm going to take a line, and I'm, and I'm more tactical in this particular approach, if I take a line, and I say, what if I deploy 50,000 In this capital on this line, to increase it by 10%? What is my, you know, benefit, financial benefit? What is it even worth it?
09:22
Right? This sounds like what we call a business simulation. Right? Right. So they're a little bit different. Meaning, you know, what we're doing is numerical simulation, because it's a set of algorithms right? database, you could have 100,000 loans in there. Whereas what you're describing, we call business sim, because you're doing business strategy, and that's something we have partners who do that, certainly lots of solutions like that out there.
09:47
But then again, it all comes back. If I want to, if I want to deploy some assets, and I need to go find some lending. I'm gonna have to just I have to justify the fact that if I do that it's gonna it's going to reap the benefits as I believe it should, and therefore my lending should reflect that too. Yes, that's right. On my resume,
10:11
I'm just gonna say if this podcast thing doesn't work out for you, and you can run a spreadsheet,
10:15
oh, boy, can I do that? I tell No, I will not do that again, all I do is add and subtract now and in my do some percentages, I've got rid of to all be doing V lookups. No, no macros and, and everything else. So why? If you're in banking, why is this so interesting to you? Especially from a manufacturing perspective, why
10:44
the purpose and mission of bankers that from the beginning was to use finance to make the world a better place, whether it's ensuring that banks lend safely by having them on simulations and saying, Hey, guys, if you do this, it's not going to turn out great. So we've always tried to educate the financial sector. So lending can be done to help the economy. Right? properly, right in the menu factoring sector for us, the excitement is that there's a lot of friction in and I guess, inefficiency in the finance piece.
11:21
I think your soft pedaling it, it's more like a, a rusty nail in your eye.
11:29
I think I would not disagree with that. And so let me paint you a picture of the dream, a picture of the dream looks like, you know, I'm a manufacturing company, and I have these clients, and I'm not gonna ship them off to the bank anymore. They want I have a really innovative piece of equipment. So I can create really creative financing options to help them do their beta tests, so they can try new technologies. I know that customer, I can step them up through my product set, I can, you know, I know so much more about that customer than the bank does. So why don't I leverage that to deepen the relationship with my customer to and by the way, I get to make money coming and going now, because I've made money on my equipment margin, and I also made my interest income on the whole amount that I went for. So I get to make my money twice. Now.
12:22
How great is that? I'm having a hard time following that, that that analogy? Are you saying me use me as a manufacturer? And you're saying if I work with my customer, my customer base? Hey, customer, I'm thinking of putting in this piece of equipment so that I can deliver this particular solution to you right? Now, is it upon the customer side saying, Hey, that sounds like a great idea. Then what?
12:52
Yeah, so let's say we're, we manufacture big, let's do 3d printing machines. Right? Right, right across from us
12:59
there. It's like watching paint dry, quite frankly, Washington, it's like, great, it's still zipping around doing whatever it needs to do.
13:11
It it's like the the additive sector, right, where they have all this new technology, new machinery, new equipment. And, you know, I go out to my small businesses who are using my additive machinery, like, Hey, we got new stuff coming out that you guys can create this new process for nanotech or whatever. And the production company is like, but we don't have the cash outlay for that guys, no way. We have a financing option for you, where you can do your beta tests with the equipment, equipment as a service, so that they can try out the equipment, whatever financing product is suitable to help you sell that equipment to the factories who are going to use it.
13:53
See, that's interesting because we were being fed, especially in manufacturing and industry as a general about this industry for Dotto, and all of the Mad technology and innovation has going on there. And and for me, it's it's cool. Don't get me wrong. I'm all giddy about it sometimes. But the reality is, is I want to test drive. I can never get past the option of saying, I hear what you're saying about that data, that IoT device, but can I test drive that thing? And be able to do it? Because Because if it proves to be a successful test, then then there's some greater there's greater possibility for financing. Like yes, if you've removed some of the the risk, right of that decision. That's right. So yeah, like that. That's, that makes sense to me.
14:48
And I think they're whether you're a larger or smaller manufacturer, just you know, now that we've democratized access to these type of lending tools
15:00
gotta back up. How do you define democratized?
15:02
Well think about it this way in the past GE Capital, they, they figured out right away how we make money twice if we finance the product itself, right. But at that time, they need a big on premises mainframes and all this stuff, they needed a big team of people and data scientists, all this right to create that finance function. These days with cloud computing, software service subscription model. Yeah, the parameters, you know, in the turnkey lender software, you know, you have drop down menus, you just pick what you want as your parameters. You know, we go in there with the simulation to help you pick which option you want in the drop down menu, but it's just like anything else, you know, accounting software has been democratized, you don't need these big huge systems, it's very easy to plug and play this software service world, which is one of the solutions here at the conference, for any type of thing people need, whether it's an HR system or safety monitoring system, okay. Whereas before you needed to, you know, you do this big software development project and have a mainframe and blah, blah, blah,
16:08
again, a rusty nail in your eye. Proposition. And I think we go down that road.
16:16
Well, no, and I think my, the painful part of the rusty nail is that it's holding back innovation. And that's what this conference is about. It's about what northeastern Ohio is about is how do we drive innovation. And if you can't take the friction out of the financing piece, we will never get there.
16:34
See. And I love that I love the fact that I was just having a conversation with and we mentioned friction. I said, if you make it make it too hard, then then I'm not progressing. I do not have the habit within me to do that. But if you make it away, that is it that is simple. stressless to a certain extent, but being able to realize the results that you're shooting for, or good, bad or ugly, it doesn't matter. But but you're able to get to it relatively easy. I think you got a good button business model there in a big way. One last question. Why is it important? And there's no political angle here? Why is it important that I believe women need to be more engaged with manufacturing?
17:23
Why believe that any good business is successful because they understand their customers. And half of our population is women. Yeah, God. And I think the other thing is that any great product comes from a collaboration of diverse viewpoints, diverse backgrounds, and everything just gets better. So those diverse viewpoints, hearing different points of view different ways of thinking about stuff, and also the ability to to understand half your customer base. With that diversity. It just, it just makes everything better.
18:03
How do we add that? Sorry, I said the last one was going to be the last question. But this is the last question. I guess, maybe I'm going to keep it up and open. Is how do we how do we begin to encourage greater participation? Yeah, there's I agree with you 100%.
18:21
But how do you get there?
18:22
How do you get there? I agree with you, 100%. And granted, I've been in the room a bunch of guys, and we come up with an answer. And and sometimes it doesn't work. I don't want that.
18:33
I think it's there a couple simple things. Number one is always have bought a girlfriend. Like, by the way turnkey lender. Yeah, we, that's our partner company. And I originally know them because their CEO was was pitching and I was for mentor. Oh, no kidding. She probably knew more than me at the time,
18:52
at the time. Now, doesn't matter.
18:55
Because, you know, we joined forces, and we're stronger by working together. And, you know, I've been mentored by men and women, and I wouldn't be what I'm doing without that. And whether it's through, you know, working with the, you know, student interns or universities or just other companies, just that mentoring piece and just trying to have each other's back and be mindful about it, I think can get you a long way.
19:22
I think it has to be a focus. I think it just like anything else we all talk about, how do we how do we upskill how do we rescale How do we do with it find people to it's it's never ending, quite frankly. But we're going to have to figure it out. And I think it's strategic and very important to our country as a whole. Not looking at it from a macro perspective. We can't play around in this too long. We got to figure out the results. How do people get ahold of you?
19:48
Michelle at Bankers lab.com Am I ch e ll e at Bankers lab.com
19:55
I do not do what I did where it says banker slap don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Bankers. lab.
20:02
You can find us on Twitter and LinkedIn and we're all
20:05
alright. Hey, you were absolutely wonderful. Excellent. I like it. And I can geek out. Yeah, I didn't even go down that rabbit hole. I was going to you're going to, but I didn't know I saw. Yeah, that's right.
20:16
That's right. Anybody wants to geek out on finance? Give us a cup. Yeah.
20:20
It's the right thing to do. All right. All right. Once again, we're broadcasting from the manufacturing and technology show here in Cleveland, Ohio, by the way, I love Cleveland. It's awesome, isn't it? Oh, well, it's me. I love it. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So don't come to me and say, I can't get a hold of the show, because we will have all the contact information. So stay tuned.
20:44
Thank you. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.
20:55
All right, great conversation with Michelle, thank you very much for being on industrial talking, man. Definitely delivering the goods. At the manufacturing and technology show. We were once again, there in Cleveland, Ohio, doing a real time baby, doing it real time and delivering value at that particular time and celebrating industry heroes such as yourself, go out to her LinkedIn stat card out there. That's a shell TEDx, aka tics reach out, create a friendship with her. That'd be great. Because I think what they're doing is absolutely spectacular. Again, we're all about education. We're all about collaboration, and definitely about innovation. And we feature all of those individuals that bring that to the table. You are bold, you are brave. You dare greatly. That's why we do it. And you're changing lives and you're changing the world. Thank you very much for what you do. We're gonna have another great interview right around the corner. So do not go away. We'll be right back.
