In this episode of Chicago Techies Podcast, I sat down with Shail Shah, founder of SkyPulse Connectivity, to talk about what it takes to build technology that keeps people and businesses connected in an increasingly digital world.

We explored Shail’s journey as a founder and discussed the challenges of building a company in the connectivity space. He shared how SkyPulse Connectivity is helping businesses stay connected through innovative technology while remaining focused on solving real customer needs. We also talked about the realities of scaling a startup and the lessons he's learned along the way.

Another theme that came up throughout our conversation was the importance of community. Shail reflected on how local organizations, mentors, and Chicago’s startup ecosystem have supported his entrepreneurial journey and why surrounding yourself with the right network can make all the difference.

This episode is really about innovation, collaboration, and the value of building technology that creates meaningful impact. If you're interested in entrepreneurship, startups, or hearing from founders who are leveraging their local ecosystems to grow, this conversation will definitely resonate.

Connect with Shail:

Shail’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shail-a-shah/

Skypulse Connectivity website: https://www.hellohotspots.com/

Skypulse Connectivity LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skypulse-connectivity/

Connect with Chicago Techies Podcast:

Website: https://chicagotechiespodcast.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chicago-techies-podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicagotechies

Connect with Ceci:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbenitez87/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbenitez_87

Hello.

Hello.

Welcome to season five of the Chicago Techies Podcast.

The podcast that highlights the voices of Chicago techies and their experiences.

This season is all about Chicago talent, founders, operators, creatives and tech professionals who are building, growing, and making things happen across the city.

I'm your host, Cecilia Benitez.

Thanks for joining us.

Hey, Shel, thanks for joining me on this week's episode of the Chicago Techies.

Wow.

Chicago Techies podcast.

How are you?

I'm doing well, Cecilia.

Thank you for inviting me and pleasure to be here.

Yeah, no, I'm excited to get to know you a little bit more and your company as well.

So let's get started.

Why don't you share your name, your pronouns, and where you're from and then your current role as well.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So name is Shail Shah.

He.

Him.

I am the founder and CEO of SkyPulse Connectivity and SkyPulse Connectivity.

We partner with major cell phone carriers, so think AT&T or T Mobile and bring better indoor connectivity to high foot traffic businesses.

Yeah, I'm interested in how you got started with that.

Like what made you think about this particular issue and then met you go along with it.

Yeah, yeah, it's a.

It's actually a funny story.

So I was living in the.

Are you familiar with like the Lakeshore east area part of Chicago, like right by the Echo Building, right behind Randolph.

And I was living there right out of college and it was a high rise and I didn't have good coverage actually inside of my apartment or all throughout the building.

So I was forced to be tethered to the WI fi and it was one of those things where like it was out of sight, out of mind for me until I experienced it and then I saw it literally everywhere I went after that.

It's like indoor connectivity was just an issue at like restaurants that I'd go to or bars.

And it just kept showing up time and time again.

And I was always thinking, is there a way to solve this problem?

And that's kind of how I got started.

And then went down the rabbit hole for from there.

And then I also on the other side of that was businesses that are literally giving away WI fi guest WI fi to their customers, but no one's using it or only a far and few between people end up using it because it requires the customer to connect to the WI fi password.

They may not know what that is or they can't find it.

They have to go out of their way to do that.

So what if we connected these carriers to These businesses that have plenty of Internet connectivity to give out to their customers and there could be a little financial incentive on the tail end of that.

So that's a true marketplace, right?

And an opportunity.

So that's kind of how I thought about it.

I think Covid played a big role.

I come from a consulting background, so I was in corporate and thinking through some of these ways of, you know, lighting up that entrepreneurship spirit, so to speak.

I've always had that and was looking for a reason to go do my own thing.

So, so can you explain like the tech behind it or at least how do you, how did you connect it?

Everybody behind it, like, who pays for it?

Like, is it like the carriers?

Like the phone services, you know, or like the businesses themselves?

How does it work?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So, so Skypos, like the best analogy that I would draw is like commercial real estate companies have been selling roof rights or access to their roofs to, to carriers, you know, for, for decades now.

And that's, that's the way that they can earn an extra lease money, so to speak, on the property.

So we bring that, we bring that concept indoors and for all foot traffic businesses that have high foot traffic, the way it works is actually pretty, pretty clever, right?

So when you, when you walk into a cafe or a restaurant, you, you go ahead and you connect to, you're still connected to the outdoor cell towers from, from the carriers.

But what if you automatically, without having to do anything on your end, your, your SIM card just connected you to the best available network, which is the WI fi in this case, inside of whatever restaurant that you're at.

So, so that, that's, it's, it's, it's the, the now like it flipped for me when I realized that like you can just connect people and have this like private WI FI network that the carriers can tap into and on the tail end of that, pay the businesses out for taking that congestion that you're not now putting onto the cell towers and onto the local businesses where people are hanging out.

So it just completely clicked for me and to go a level deeper, it's like, wow, this is actually a win, win, win situation, right?

Because as this was happening and as I was realizing this issue of indoor connectivity, people are starting to use their phones so much more.

And we're not just talking about like texting, right?

People are using it for YouTube, then TikTok and Instagram.

Like we're phones exponentially more for like high bandwidth apps.

So this becomes a front and center issue for the carriers, right?

Away because this is the first time in business where I've like experienced the demand before the supply.

And if we're thinking about demand as like people using their phones, the supply is at capture limited in terms of cell towers.

Right.

So how do you, how do you, how do you meet the demand without forking out millions of dollars in infrastructure costs that these carriers have to pay for a brand new cell tower, not to mention new overhead that they have to pay someone rent and maintain those things and all of that that goes behind the scenes.

Yeah, no, that's really interesting.

When was the moment that you realized this could actually be something like an actual business model?

How did you get to that, how did you get to your pricing model?

How did you get to those incentives for the businesses?

When did you figure that out?

Yeah, yeah, that's been the hardest thing so far for me.

It's just like how do you turn this into a business?

Especially initially when I learned about this, I was doing it in a way where it's an experiment.

Friends and family, I knew people that owned a cafe.

So I was like, hey, let's try this out.

And then I used that data to then take it to next set of pilots that we run as a business.

So once I started to get a feel for what the earnings are and the upside of the earnings.

So one of the key things that I realized early on was there is no cap as to how much the carriers would pay for this because it's all usage based.

So if you have a business where people are hanging out like a bar or a restaurant for an extended period of time, for example, if it's a game day or something, you know, on Saturday or Sunday, people are there for you know, three, four hours plus.

And now that foot traffic aligned with high dwell time, I'll say like for how long people stay combined that you can actually get uncapped upside as to how many, how much money these, these businesses can, can make.

And on top of that it's a, it's a win, win, win situation.

Right?

Like who's doing, who's doing win win wins anymore?

Like my sales pitch is, is really like, hey, you know, you have this restaurant business, it doesn't cost you anything.

So one of the things, the beauty of this is where we come in is if I, if I'm approaching a business, they don't actually have to pay anything.

The equipment and the installation is completely handled by Skypos and our business.

And so it's a, it's a cost free way.

So my Pitch is it's a cross free way for you to earn extra revenue.

Like my problem is like convincing them that it's not too good to be true.

You know, it's like, it's almost like an opposite of a sale.

Yeah, I mean it sounds like a great deal to me.

Right?

Exactly.

It's almost like a no brainer.

And the objections that I get is just like I don't believe you.

You know this doesn't sound real.

It is, it is surprising that this kind of business model exists.

So I guess you know this is kind of like in the Internet like infrastructure slash, like telecommunic arena for you, right?

So is there something that about this sector that has surprised you so far?

Yeah, I would say like a few things.

Right.

And I'm gonna just go date myself a little bit and just like historically as I was thinking about this, the telecom industry has really just been like a duopoly of deep pockets companies that have already spent billions of dollars.

I mean we all know, right?

Comcast is probably one of the most hated companies for a while, right.

They're really bad at customer service and you have that image or reputation for all big telco companies that you think of AT&T or T Mobile, it's just a relationship has been very one sided because you pay them every month.

You just expect the service to work everywhere you go and then somehow they figure it out, right.

And it's just like when's the last time you think about you change your carrier, right?

People don't change their carriers, they just stick with it.

But now what's happening is for the first time these carriers are being challenged because now to stand up, to use infrastructure, you can just walk in and you don't have to rely on cell towers anymore.

Everything could be done using an Internet connection, including a phone call that you make.

Right.

It's using WI fi now.

So you no longer need the carriers.

Everywhere you go you need them.

You know sometimes when you're outside and you're driving and you know you're hopping from cell tower to cell tower, but majority of the time if you really sit down and think you're using your phone when, when you're, you know, when you're sitting either at home, which you're connected to your home WI fi or you're at you know, some co working space or you're, you're at a coffee shop or a restaurant.

So surprised me, it's just like, wow, this industry is ripe for disruption and there has been so much technology advancements but this industry's kind of stayed insulated.

You know, it's one of those, like, old industries like healthcare and insurance.

It's kind of in that same realm.

And now it's just.

There really hasn't been a lot of innovation in this industry for a really long time.

And I feel like we're on the cusp of that.

That happening with some of what we're doing at SkyPulse.

Yeah, I like how you phrase that like that.

It's ready for disruption.

I 100% agree.

I don't even think about my cell phone usage anymore because most of the time I'm on WI fi in different places, except when I'm traveling, of course, and I'm in the middle of nowhere.

But 100%.

Yeah, yeah.

So how would you kind of describe your differentiating factor?

How would you.

How would you say that?

What makes Skypeballs different than any other company trying to do this too?

Or is there anyone else trying to do this?

Yeah, no, it's a really, really good question.

So there are, there are.

This is a.

Just to give you some numbers, this is a.

It's a nationwide effort and a broader ecosystem around this.

So the carriers are fully on board and they want to.

If you really think about it, they want to be everywhere and they want to rely less and less on being what I'll call an infrastructure provider.

Right?

Which is like someone that actually puts out hardware in a macro cell tower.

That was kind of the old model of like, hey, we just need to cover an entire neighborhood and a city and we'll need three cell towers.

Where do we place them?

Right.

It was such a macro problem for them, but now that people.

There's only few and far between places where people are using.

It's that Pareto principle, like that 80, 20, like 80% of the data, like, what Internet is being used in like, very small, like, concentrated places, right?

So it's like, it's like, so.

So the competitors and what sets us apart?

It's like, okay, now that the carriers are on board, how do we.

How do we then work in a way that.

That makes the most sense with like, the relationship and businesses already being on board?

And it comes down to, like, how do we make businesses more comfortable and how do we get them on board, Right?

So what makes us unique in that sense is like, we're Chicago first, right?

We started it here in Chicago, and we're live as of today in 45 different businesses.

But it doesn't stop here, Right.

I think this just grounds Us because it gives us a good testing ground to go across different industries.

One of the ones that we're interested in is like Laundromats.

Right.

Laundromats is like a perfect ideal candidate and that's probably the biggest size of our client base right now is because people are there for 90 minutes to two hours and they're actually on their phones majority of the time.

And we just provide, they walk in and we just provide them seamless connectivity.

We've had nearly 100% retention rate.

So we really lean hard into that and say, okay, how do we now take that model that we've tested out in Chicago and broaden that to other markets whether it's the Midwest or even broader nationwide.

And we really just think about how do we make this into a seamless experience for the business owners.

And it's just what we talked about earlier.

How do we make it so that it's a no brainer and it's a good deal and we're just partners for these business owners that truly provides them a win, win, win proposition.

Like the customers get a better experience and you get a better revenue economics, a top line revenue increase on your, on your, on your business for partnering with the cell tower.

So that's what I would say is our focus is like how do we continue to do that in a way, like I'm the type of person that's like, you know, I started off knocking on doors at every businesses on the ground before I started doing more, you know, more, more outreach with digital marketing and LinkedIn and things.

And because I want to know, you know, what are the problems that they're facing and are we, are we showing up in a way that's like a trusted advisor and trusted partner?

No.

I mean 45 businesses is not, not, not that low.

You know that's, that's a pretty cool man.

And I mean it's.

At the end of the day, it does really sound like relationships are like a key ingredient ingredient here here in the customer experience as well.

So that's awesome that you have gotten some traction there.

What would you say is one of the most things about the future that excites you about this connectivity, infrastructure, space.

Yeah.

The reason why I got into this business and it's like I love where it's going and I'll kind of look back before we talk about the future of the industry.

If you take for a second the electricity, Internet is becoming a utility.

So if you look at the previous utility was electricity and the way it transformed was before There was just one way of getting electricity and now there is different ways.

So Comet, you pay your bill at the end of the month to Comet as a customer, but they're getting solar electricity, they're getting wind and natural gas and all of those things and they're kind of consolidating that to like to serve you electricity at the end of the month or every day and you pay them end of the month.

And it's a two sided marketplace in the way it's designed and Internet and connectivity as a broader is going through that similar transformation and that's what excites me.

It's like, wow, this is actually going to break the duopoly of the incumbents which are like at&t and Comcast and T Mobile and these giant corporations.

And now there could be finally be innovation and new players can challenge them and have a level playing field where they can actually compete in a way.

So I think going back to that earlier point, it's like, okay, I'm excited for just competition in this market and not really being reliant on, okay, I either have an option of going with AT&T or T Mobile as my carrier and really that's it.

And they can charge me whatever they want because I don't really have any other options now.

I think in the future we're going to a model where ESIMs are becoming, are becoming more popular.

Right?

You said traveling and now you can literally just download an app.

And my wife and I, we went to Japan a couple months ago and we just downloaded a SIM card esim, you know, we're sitting on the sofa and we're able to get a SIM card that automatically connected to us while we were in Japan right away.

Right.

Like that's what the carriers are afraid of because now you can actually switch carriers like that, you know, like you don't have to be stuck with, you don't have to go to the physical AT&T store and like switch out, swap out the SIM card because no one wants to go through that process.

And that's why people don't switch their carriers.

But now in the future like there's actually competition and you can switch from carrier A to carrier baby, you know, with the comfort of your home.

And there's actually competition there.

So I would say like there's a broader shift happening here in the industry and Skypulse just is like enabling that transition to happen in a future that I see where it's fair competition and at the end of the day it's customers like us.

Right.

Everyday customers that get the better end of an end of this.

Right.

Because there's innovation, there's price competition, and everyone kind of gets to.

Gets new features along the way.

Yeah.

Well, I'm excited to see the evolution of the space.

Like, how, how will it work, you know, a year from now or two years from now?

Because I. I do think that this.

Everything is changing so fast.

Like, I mean, I remember when I used to have a second phone when I go to Mexico to be able to use, you know, data there.

And now you don't need to do that anymore because you're like our.

There's international plans that have come with their plan that sometimes are also free.

So it's really, it's really, it's been really interesting to see it grow over the last, like, 10 years.

But obviously with growth comes a lot of responsibility with funding.

Right.

So I'm curious about how you've been funding this.

Like, how have you thought about, you know, potentially fundraising for it or what does that landscape look like for you?

Yeah, yeah, it's a really, really good question.

And it's.

I'm happy to say right now I've actually bootstrapped the company so far fully, and I've provided seed money.

And we're in a position with the 45 or so clients that we have where we can keep now reinvesting the revenue from the business to keep growing it.

So that's great.

And I love it because it's clean and I can spend all of my time growing the business and figuring out what's the next best thing to do for the business versus trying to figure out the investors and the board and all of that.

So I think that affords me some clarity in terms of just continuing to focus on the right things in the future.

I'll think about fundraising.

But at this point in time, we're actually in a position where we know what it takes to scale.

And when I say we, I brought on a partner that we can talk about a little bit.

But essentially it's been me in the business so far, so I've been able to just grow and not raise funding at this point in time.

Yeah, no, that's fair.

So then you're likely thinking about growth differently, like in terms of partnerships and maybe even scaling through customer growth.

So how do you approach that, the customer growth and the partnerships growth?

Like, what's your strategy there when you're speaking to new businesses?

Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.

So essentially, like, because what we do is it's such a win, win, win proposition.

Everyone in the entire value stack is aligned and one of the routes of growth that I'm looking into is is channel partnerships.

And channel partnerships is a beautiful model because one of the key objections that I've seen is businesses don't know that they could do this.

Right.

It's a new concept or they don't believe it that it's true or it's going to work out for their business.

But the reality is that carriers are on board and they will happily pay you for connecting their customers indoors.

And if you have the foot traffic for it as a business, any business, you can monetize that foot traffic.

So the channel partner model is super interesting for us is because the businesses that we're trying to onboard already have pre existing relationship with channel partners.

So if I'll take, I'll talk about the laundromat industry and this exists across different industries but distributors for example or suppliers, vending machine operators, ATM machines, pos.

These are all existing relationships that a traditional laundromat would have.

And now the strategy for me has shifted where now I'm reaching out to those and I can provide them revenue sharing opportunities for just connecting us to the right host in this case and laundromat owners.

So that is a fully aligned model because everyone wins along the way.

Right.

And that's the number one opportunity that we're looking at in terms of growing from here on out.

Yeah, well that's great strategic growth.

Like kudos to you on that one.

And I do love that you are here local in Chicago and that brings me to the community.

Right.

And the support that you've gotten here.

So how has this city I guess shaped your founder journey as you continue to build here in Chicago?

Yeah, yeah, Chicago has been great.

I've had just a lot of support.

So Cecilia, that's how we met at 1 million cups which is a community operated, just authentic founder led like what they're working on and an organic way to meet other founders.

So there's a lot of communities like that.

They've been truly inspiring in just terms of one, the sheer like network that they have across the, across the city of Chicago and then the events that they throw out are really cool and just a way to meet other people that are in the trenches working on hard stuff.

The founder hustle and all of that.

So I would say Chicago really it really shaped me in a way because there are such a diverse set of businesses here that I can experiment with and people have been just generally supportive in helping me make that introduction.

Right.

When you go to a networking event or helping me connect with whoever it is that would know who the right person is to talk to.

So I think just the energy and the people that I've come across, it's just generally been supportive and there's a few orgs that I've been affiliated with that that's just had a good experience and I continue to stay engaged to then how I can mentor other founders that are early on and I'm early on in my journey.

But I've been in corporate for nine years prior to starting this and working on Skypol.

So I've had the opportunity to then also help other founders out as well.

They have a lot of different programs that can really help someone get even stronger started with from the like from idea to proof of concept.

Yeah.

It may be called something else now but it was like a combination of AI and just Quantum and a few other emerging technology and it was just a way, it was just a program for us to meet tech forward founders that are working on the next gen set of companies.

And it didn't really help me too much in my business strategy but it really gave me the perspective of how are people going to market?

And that was really eye opening because there are, you know, if you really boil it down like there's only so many ways where you can go to market, you know, as a, as a, as a company that's evolving and growing and scaling.

Right.

And that's really helped me kind of just put the pieces together as like hey, you know there's really so many ways that there are so many patterns they can go about this.

So how are other people doing it and how can I learn from them or what's something that I haven't considered in terms of digital marketing and things which are common across different types of companies that we're working across.

This was for Me, it was while they were at the Merchandise Mart, but, you know, now.

Now they're at a new building and going to.

Going to as many events as I can to the point where I would, like, challenge myself, right?

Like, hey, I just want to talk to one new person today and not get.

Not get sucked into my own thoughts of like, just going and talking to the same people that I already knew.

So I think just little things like that has really helped me grow my network and then just like, get the word out of what I'm working on as well.

Yeah, that's the way to do it.

Having a strategy for all the events that we go to, because there is so many happening every day, every year, you know, it just.

It becomes a cycle.

But I appreciate that.

I was actually, as you were talking, I was curious about your hardware, the kind of things that you are setting up for these businesses.

So I'm curious if.

Have you considered building some of the hardware yourself or do you.

Or who do you partner with to get that kind of equipment that you need?

What was that like for you when you're first getting started to really be able to offer all these products?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a really good question.

If I were to summarize, there's really two paths of onboarding a business, right?

And there's a physical hardware route, which you're asking about, and I have a supplier for that, the supplies, the hardware for me.

Now there is a little bit of inventory management that we have to do here in terms of, okay, who are we onboarding?

So there's a little bit of that.

But just in terms of getting the hardware acquired, I haven't really been in.

I want to run an operation that's.

That's light and the hardware that we get is good enough for what we're doing, and it works for the carriers because it's authorized by the carriers to connect their customers.

So that's the hardware that we currently use.

So that's one route is like, hey, we do an actual physical installation and we've done a lot of that, and we continue to do that.

There's actually another route which is a little bit more interesting to just use the business's existing hardware to do a remote install, so to speak, or remote activation of carrier offloading is what I'll call it, right?

So essentially for that model, we don't even have to step foot in the business, and it could be anywhere in the country, and it's just a remote configuration that we could do using their existing hardware and there's no physical deployment that needs, that's needed in that second route there.

So, so it really gives us flexibility depending on which type of business we're talking to.

Right.

You can probably imagine if it's a more mom and pop, you know, business that, that's not as big or you know, they probably don't have the professional hardware that's, that's needed to do the second option, the remote option.

So we tend to lean on the, on the first option and then if it's a little bit more, you know, corporate owned businesses that are, that have franchisees across Chicago, Midwest or even broader will then lean on the second option and go that route.

Yeah, I feel like I wouldn't know where to start if anything ever involves hardware.

So on that note about just kind of getting set up, growing and all that, as a founder, what's something that you've learned the hard way as you build Skypos?

It's something that you, that you just, you're like, okay, well maybe I messed up here.

Like, yeah, wow.

So many, so many, so many things are coming to mind.

I think for me it's, it's, I'm a, I'm the type of person that like, that like just like does it.

I'm like a doer.

And I think immediately one thing I've learned just, you know, working in corporate and things, it's like I just like take ownership and try to do the things instead of figuring out what the best approach is.

And I think sometimes that that's good, but I think there's a lot of times where that's not good and just like wearing a lot of different hats and just, you know, being cut too thin across too many different things.

I think you, the first six months, I think that was a big, big learning experience for me is like, okay, how do I not, you know, do so, so many things?

Because there's at any given time, right, there's a lot of things that are screaming at you and you just have a lot of, a lot of things, especially as a founder that's, that's supercharged now, right, because there's, there's client demands and there's more things you can do to, to grow the business and there's always operational work that, that needs to be done and not now with AI, right?

Like how can I use AI in the best way?

Or am I using, you know, AI agents in a way that, that helps me grow with the business and things like that.

So I would say that learning the hard way is Just not wearing too many different hats simultaneously.

And I felt that head on because I was the only one working on this up until like a month ago, you know, for over a year.

So I think that I felt head on.

And just the other thing I would say I learned the hard way is putting myself out there, you know, start being in corporate and you know, working for nine plus years there.

I think success was just like expected to.

Then posting about startup hustle and all of the failures that you go through and building in public, just hitting that publish button on LinkedIn still to this day, sometimes it's just like anxiety inducing for me.

But telling myself that, hey, that's just part of the journey.

Believing in the journey and, and focusing on the momentum and taking it one day at a time, I think it's kind of really helped me stay grounded in that.

Yeah, I feel like that's a universal feeling when it comes to LinkedIn.

I think we are all anxious about our own work and everything we do.

But I guess on that note, on leadership, I'm curious about what keeps you motivated during the difficult moments, during changing, challenging moments in your journey in entrepreneurship.

Like what has kept you motivated?

Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing that keeps me motivated and there's a few things, right, that I'll talk about.

The biggest thing is what I'm working on I truly believe in.

And it's a broader thing that I talked about of like I think I see I have a vision for where this industry is shifting to and transforming because of years and decades of low to no innovation in this industry because it was kind of insulated from that.

So just knowing that everything that I'm working on fits into that broader vision and then, hey, everything that I'm doing, it's a win win situation.

The customers love us because they don't have to scramble around for the WI fi password.

So seeing that real impact, I have a metric here that tells me across all of our businesses, how many unique people are connecting every single day?

Literally every single day we have a metric that says, okay, you know, 10,000 people connected to your device today.

And like that's real, right?

And then on top of that, every single month we do currently, every single month we pay out businesses for their earnings.

And that's a feel good too because that's money that they wouldn't have had, right?

And then that might pay their Internet bill that they were giving away to customers for free for a laundromat or a restaurant.

That's one less bill that they have to worry about.

So there's real impact that I'm making along the way.

And then there's also benefits for the carriers.

I know the carriers are big giant corporations, but they're also now able to, in a nimble way, build out infrastructure where it matters the most.

Right.

And take congestion away from their cell towers, especially during peak demand.

Right.

Because they have to solve for like 6pm to 9pm, like how many people are going to be connected.

We need to solve for that because the rest of the day they'll be okay.

So along the entire stack, right.

Every single one wins.

And that's what really keeps me going and just reminding myself of that.

And then one other thing I'll say is just I think it's so easy to get ahead of your skis and trying to be trying to solve for a problem that's like down the line as a business, but just taking it one day at a time.

Right.

And focusing on tiny wins and celebrating the wins of like, wow, like I've actually, you know, doing this podcast is like a huge win, right?

Because now I'm able to then point to people and have a story that it's like, how did the origin story of Skypos come about?

So just like having those tiny wins and logging those, but really reflecting on those and having some sort of a system to do that, I'd say that's what keeps me going because then I'm seeing the progress, even though it might not show up in this grandiose MRR number or revenue increase right away, because some of those things takes time and it's a lagging indicator of how your business is progressing.

So just staying, you know, staying plugged into that and logging my wins along the way keeps me going.

Well, I appreciate that thoughtful leadership that you just displayed right there.

You know, that's, you know, counting all your wins is very important, no matter how small they are.

So appreciate that.

And I mean, the way that you've described it so far, the whole process, I mean, I do feel like it's a win win for all.

Like your business, the small businesses and the big giants too.

Like, it just sounds like, you know, great data for all, great money for all.

Right, Right.

Yeah.

So, you know, looking ahead for the future and just in general, like, what do you.

What are your next big milestones for Skypos over the next year or maybe couple years?

Like what.

What are you hoping for?

Yeah, So I would say we have three really ambitious goals that we're trying to go after.

So one of the indicators, I think I just mentioned it was okay, how many people, every single, how many unique customer connections are we getting across all of our businesses that we work with?

And I want that to keep growing.

So by the year end I want that number to be like 100,000 people.

So I want 100,000 people by the end of the year connecting to one of our devices right across the businesses that we work with.

And then I also want to grow to 100 clients that we work with.

Right.

So right now I mentioned we're live at roughly about 45.

So doubling that and then some by, by the end of the year is a goal of ours.

And then, and then we have just like I just have profit goals for ourselves, for ourselves to then have the budget for, for reinvesting that back in the business as well.

So it's just like how do I continue to grow the business but then also tell the story, show that hey, this is something you can do as a business owner.

Did you know that you have this ability to partner with carriers and make money on it?

So just getting that word out is that unquantifiable metric that we're just like, hey, one of the goal is to just get the word out, you know?

Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you definitely need a couple more people, a couple more youth to help you call up these small business owners to get the word out.

But best of luck with all of that.

I appreciate you sharing your story and what you're building.

If anyone listening right now wants to follow up on your journey or just want to learn more about Skypos, like how can they find you?

Yeah, yeah, I'll give two resources.

So one, LinkedIn you can connect with me on LinkedIn Shail Shah or Skypls connectivity activity.

If you type those, you'll.

You'll find me right away.

And then we also have a website, hellohotspots.com as it's spelled so h e l l o hotspots h o-t s p o-t s.com and you'll see all of the.

Our website has all of the things that we're doing and one other plug that I'll also just add in there.

If you are a business owner yourself that's listening or partner that work with business owners in Chicagoland area or other locales, feel free to reach out.

If this sounds interesting and you know someone or are someone that can benefit from what Skyfalls is offering and our products, we would love to, I'd love to talk.

Awesome.

And we'll make sure to add all those show notes as well, all those links in the show notes.

And then if anyone is listening, please feel free to reach out to you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

Best of luck with everything.

I'm excited to continue watching your growth and hopefully you can get all your milestones in the next year.

We'll definitely have to have you back at 1mc next year to hear like a third update.

Yeah, I think I was one of the few people that went again and presented at one MC twice, but yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

It was, it was great talking about and sharing my story of how I got started.

And it's exciting times ahead for Skypost.

Yeah.

Well, thank you and have a great rest of your week.

Thank you.

Cecilia,.

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