Join us in this episode with special guest Aaron Vorwerk from Egnyte. Today Aaron tells us about Egnyte's role in AI and machine learning within the AEC industry. He shares his background, discusses data governance, the evolution of cloud platforms, and Egnyte's focus on cybersecurity. Listen as we explore how Egnyte enhances workflow efficiencies and manages content lifecycle, making it an indispensable tool for AEC professionals.

Episode Links:

• Aaron on LinkedIn
• Egnyte on LinkedIn
• Egnyte website

Watch this episode on YouTube or Spotify.

-----

The Confluence podcast is a collaboration between TRXL and AVAIL, and is produced by TRXL Media.

• Learn more about them at https://trxl.co/media and https://getavail.com
• Learn more about the Confluence podcast at https://confluence.getavail.com/podcast
• Learn about the Confluence events at https://confluence.getavail.com

Welcome to another Confluence podcast.

2

I'm Randall Stevens and I've got

Evan Troxel with me as usual.

3

And, uh, we're happy to invite

today's guest, Aaron Vo work

4

from Egnyte Welcome Aaron.

5

Aaron Vorwerk: Thanks guys.

6

Happy to be here, uh, on

the, the famous Confluence

7

Randall Stevens: don't

know if it's famous.

8

It's not famous yet, but,

uh, we'll, we'll see.

9

Evan Troxel: We're getting there.

10

Randall Stevens: I did have a few people,

uh, at au the other day say, oh, I, I've,

11

I've, I know about you all 'cause I've

listened to the podcast, so that's good.

12

That's always nice to know.

13

I always, I always go

14

Evan Troxel: That is nice, yeah.

15

Randall Stevens: I've probably told

Evan this in the, uh, or in previous,

16

it's like a kind of do this, not

assuming that nobody's going to listen.

17

It's like, it's really just

mental health for myself.

18

Evan Troxel: This is our little

therapy session right here.

19

Randall Stevens: uh, welcome, Aaron.

20

Uh, we're going to, um,

Aaron's with Ignite.

21

He's going to, we're going to

obviously dive into what's going on

22

with Ignite, just specifically around

AI and machine learning things.

23

They've been actually been doing,

been around, the company's been

24

around for a while, and they've

been doing a lot on that front.

25

So Aaron's going to fill us in.

26

Um, I've gotten to know, uh, Aaron's been

in the AEC industry for a long time, but

27

I really, I didn't meet him until just the

last few, you know, handful of years that

28

I've known Aaron and now, now, now we're,

uh, we've been fast friends as we've,

29

you know, show up at all the conferences

together and those things, but, uh,

30

Aaron's also been, how many of the

confluence events have you been to now?

31

Yeah.

32

Three, uh, last three.

33

So, um, always love having you

involved and, uh, you know, Aaron's

34

one of those with, I'll let him

give you his full background, but.

35

AEC background, you know, is now,

you know, came out of the, uh, of

36

the practice side and the channel

side from the Autodesk and into a

37

company like Ignite, which has been

investing heavily in the AEC market.

38

It's just been great for them to bring

and build, uh, and for Aaron to kind

39

of be the lead on the AEC, um, front

as they've begun to build that team up.

40

So great conversations, uh, Aaron, maybe

let's just start this out with you giving

41

a little bit of more of your background.

42

What that looks like from the AZ market

43

Aaron Vorwerk: Sure.

44

Yeah.

45

So I, I see myself or always have

seen myself as a professional first,

46

and maybe it's just, uh, wanting to

identify with practitioners, feel like

47

I'm still part of the club, but, but

I am an architect registered in, in

48

Texas and Michigan based in Fort Worth.

49

Um, I, I'm also a lead AP BDNC, so I

focus on sustainability for a while,

50

and I'm, I have a couple of degrees in

civil and structural engineering, I, I

51

studied structural dynamics at one point.

52

So I out in practice with all of this,

uh, as it, you know, seems very fitting.

53

I was working in an architecture

and structural engineering firm.

54

Uh, and I sold that company.

55

I was a project manager, but I sold that

company on BIM at a corporate retreat in

56

2005 and, uh, I became the BIM guy, uh,

just by apparently having the expertise of

57

that research for that, uh, presentation.

58

But I quickly at that firm and

then at another firm a little bit

59

later, I learned what it meant to go

through digital transformation and

60

appreciated that adrenaline rush.

61

So that.

62

That moved me into sort of the design

technology part of the industry.

63

And so for about 15 years, I was in

the Autodesk ecosystem, five years with

64

a partner and 10 years at Autodesk,

uh, 18 months ago, I made a kind of a

65

significant transition because I had been

so focused for so long, you know, as a

66

now almost 20 year Revit user and so on.

67

so focused on the design tech that I

really hadn't looked sort of outside

68

of the project Um, and now I lead the

architecture segment here at Ignite where,

69

you know, this is a company that has

traditionally come out of platform and now

70

going kind of big and verticals like AEC.

71

was the first hire to focus specifically

on architecture 18 months ago.

72

And so here we are, you know, uh,

sort of our way into this space.

73

Randall Stevens: Great.

74

Evan Troxel: I remember being

at a AIA large firm roundtable.

75

I think it was in Portland

for the CIO group.

76

And I don't think you were a

part of Ignite at that point

77

because this was a few years ago.

78

And Ignite came in and gave a presentation

and they did not understand AEC at all.

79

Right?

80

And so to go from there to

where they are now is, is huge.

81

And, and like the things that I

just learned about you, Aaron,

82

uh, that's a really cool story.

83

I had no idea the background that you had.

84

And so for you to understand the

workflows that architects are going

85

through, that what they're dealing

with on the client side and the

86

collaboration side and the sharing side,

and especially going through COVID and

87

on prem and cloud and all these things.

88

I mean, it makes total sense now.

89

Like I can see how all the

puzzle pieces have come together.

90

That's really cool.

91

Randall Stevens: Well, we've been, uh,

we've been Ignite fans here at Avail.

92

Uh, fans the last handful of years.

93

We've got a bunch of our customers

that are using, uh, We have shared

94

customers and I don't know if I've

told this story on the podcast, but,

95

one of the things that really made

me a huge fan was we had a, we had

96

a problem in a clients environment

with our software working together.

97

um, Without going into details,

Ignite, right, the kind of company

98

that like says, okay, let's go figure

this out and get this worked out.

99

It's usually passing the

buck, but it's so refreshing.

100

And then, you know, after we've, uh,

uh, been working with the team and

101

they've been continuing to invest, not

only, you know, bringing Aaron onto

102

that team, but everybody else, uh,

around that AEC part of the ecosystem.

103

They've just been great.

104

Great people to work with.

105

Just a lot of, a lot of fun.

106

So, uh, kudos, Aaron, for you to ignite,

pun intended, to ignite that, and ignite

107

and to get, to kind of lead that charge of

bringing the right kind of people together

108

that, that do understand this part of

the industry and, uh, and, and, uh, you

109

know, bringing your all solution and

catering, you know, catering to this part

110

of the audience, which has been great.

111

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah.

112

Well, personally, it's been fun.

113

In the sense of having this experience

in the industry, but not, not all

114

of that is transferable, right?

115

I, my Revit skills are only so

valuable at a company like Ignite.

116

However, my understanding of how

Autodesk and Ignite work together

117

has been, of course, useful.

118

And then, leading a team at

Autodesk and then coming to Ignite.

119

And there's, there's some, you

know, some beginnings of kind of

120

understanding of go to market and

business development and so on that I

121

had at Autodesk that I'm getting to.

122

To now really execute right as the

thought leader for architecture.

123

This, this, uh, segment leader.

124

Uh, so it's kind of a safe place in

a way to grow because of the newness,

125

uh, here at Ignite in going vertical.

126

Um, and despite being, you know,

a mature, fairly large company.

127

Randall Stevens: Let me, uh, let me

kind of, I'll kind of show my, uh,

128

I'll expose my ignorance about, you

know, things like products like Ignite

129

or just the way to think about it.

130

And obviously I've learned, learned a lot

over the last few years, with your help.

131

But, um, you know, I think myself and

probably a lot of people that might be

132

listening to this, just think about the

place where all their files are, the

133

network, whatever you call it, the drive,

the, the place where all your files

134

are stored You know, that's what it is.

135

It's a place to go store things.

136

So, you know, my very simple understanding

of companies like Ignite and others

137

in the market were, Okay, it's just

another, or maybe a cloud, maybe you're

138

introducing cloud storage as part of that.

139

But I always just thought of it as

like, okay, it's the file system.

140

But really the storage part is a

commodity and it's really These layers

141

of software layer really on top of

that, that is governance and all

142

these other security and, and other

things that, that are happening or,

143

or can happen on top of all that data.

144

So, I'll, I'll tee that up and just

say, you know, explain to us, you

145

know, what, what is Ignite and, and,

uh, and, uh, you know, ultimately, Uh,

146

maybe what are the misconceptions that

people have about what this is and

147

maybe you can kind of clear that up.

148

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah.

149

Um, so there's a, you're,

you're exactly right.

150

Like the, even, even among our customer

base, I encounter this all the time

151

where it's like, oh, well we just.

152

Use your for file storage.

153

okay, but you're sort of

missing the whole point.

154

Right?

155

Uh,

156

Evan Troxel: Hmm.

157

Aaron Vorwerk: our tagline

reads on the website.

158

So I'm looking at this just sort of

get this right, but unified content

159

management, data security, compliance and

AI in one seamless turnkey cloud platform.

160

See, the problem with

161

Evan Troxel: That's so

just rolls off the tongue.

162

Aaron Vorwerk: So, so it's like,

it's hard to put it together into,

163

you know, the elevator pitch.

164

Uh, but.

165

A way to look at, so one way to look

at Ignite before you go into the

166

sort of AEC specific focus is that we

started about the same time as Dropbox

167

and Box, uh, before Google Drive.

168

Um, but we were never

a free consumer tool.

169

It was an enterprise cyber security

first platform from the beginning,

170

which probably hurt the adoption numbers

relative to some of those other platforms.

171

solutions, but that was not the point.

172

The point was to do something And even

the architecture of it was different.

173

Um, I use that word very

hesitantly as an architect.

174

Anyway, the way it was structured was

different as sort of a file server in

175

the cloud, where the cloud was the master

176

So, all of this stuff

has come along since.

177

So, you know, to your point,

It's not just about the storage.

178

In fact, this comes up all the time and

talking about like Autodesk construction

179

cloud and Ignite is like, well, aren't

you both just storing stuff, docs

180

and well, yeah, I mean, at the lowest

level, both platforms store stuff.

181

I, what if I don't care

where your files are?

182

And that leads to a whole nother

level of conversation, right?

183

So, uh, everything from collaboration,

like being able to be on any

184

device anywhere in the world,

it's one global office, it's the

185

same drive letter, it's no VPN.

186

Required.

187

just having one global office that's,

you know, the starting point, But

188

then you get into data governance.

189

What does that mean?

190

Well, there's content

lifecycle management.

191

There's a deep scanning and understanding.

192

We can get into the AI part of it later,

but like, being able to identify what the

193

content is, being able to apply policies

like retention, archive, and deletion.

194

To automatically detect things like

redundant, obsolete, and trivial data.

195

Basically to clean up everything

you've got and organize it for you.

196

some of the stuff that Ignite does.

197

Because Ignite is primarily horizontal,

now has all these verticals, but has

198

been horizontal, there are hundreds of

compliance protocols already built in.

199

So HIPAA, GDPR, CMMC, like, but hundreds.

200

across many sectors.

201

Thanks.

202

there's link sharing, and Ignite has

some of the most secure, uh, or more

203

advanced capabilities, you might say,

around link sharing in the business.

204

Um, and then also built in security

features for specific things like

205

ransomware protection, snapshotting, and

so on, but also behavioral detection,

206

internal and external threats.

207

So it's a, yeah, it's just a whole

lot more, and it's, again, it's

208

hard, you're at a conference,

you wanna, you know, somebody the

209

elevator pitch in 10 words or less.

210

It's hard to convey that.

211

This is a smart place to run

your business in the cloud.

212

Evan Troxel: I just want to, I

just want to throw it out there.

213

Like you said three words.

214

It was like obsolete that you

had words for like to describe.

215

Aaron Vorwerk: Trivial Information.

216

Yeah.

217

Evan Troxel: Thank you.

218

Uh, I need this in my life, man,

because like I'm sitting on, I'm sitting

219

in terabyte, I'm one person and I'm

sitting under terabytes of data and

220

it's like, I just don't even want to

go in and, and, and like deal with it.

221

Right.

222

It's because, and I'm sure architects

everywhere, it's just like, We're, we're

223

constantly just saving more and more

and more every year that the amount

224

gets even more than the last year.

225

Right.

226

And, and I'm sure Randall, you

see this all the time working with

227

all different size firms who like

nobody deletes anything anymore.

228

Right.

229

It just all goes into folders

that nobody ever looks in again.

230

And I'm just curious, like from

a, Peace of mind, point of view.

231

Like, what do you tell people when

they're like, well, yeah, the system is

232

really smart about doing this by itself.

233

And so I could just imagine the

pushback that you would get, but like,

234

you're not touching my folders, Aaron.

235

Like you're not,

236

Aaron Vorwerk: you know, it's

actually the, uh, the opposite

237

of that in, in most respects.

238

But I can, you can see the

fear in a prospect's eyes when

239

you offer, to scan the system

240

Randall Stevens: There.

241

Aaron Vorwerk: you they're doing really

well, you know, on prem or whatever.

242

And, and, uh, you, they know that

they don't even know where the

243

problems are because there's no way

for that to be surfaced for them.

244

So it's like, oh, well,

we can do a scan for you.

245

And, know, they're often shocked, even

though they know it's coming, they're,

246

they're shocked at what is found, you

know, like, oh, you don't need it by

247

half the data you were thinking you

were going to need or half the storage

248

capacity you thought you would need

because, you know, it's all junk.

249

Randall Stevens: I think,

250

Evan Troxel: that's cool.

251

Randall Stevens: uh, You know,

maybe, maybe kind of start there,

252

which is, know if you've got the

numbers, but I've seen you show charts

253

about just how much the increase in

information that's being produced.

254

I think we all know it, but it's like, uh,

do you have any of those kinds of stats?

255

Aaron Vorwerk: so, so we have several

thousand AEC customers, so it's a

256

good, you know, litmus test, I suppose,

to be a snapshot of the industry.

257

And, among those, we're

seeing an eightfold increase

258

over a five year period.

259

Um, so really big growth.

260

Um, and, you know, I think some of it

is, oh, it's a cloud, it's basically

261

free, But I was, I was speaking at

a, at a Converts at Future Build in,

262

in, uh, London earlier this year.

263

And someone asked me the questions

around, is AI sustainable?

264

Is the cloud sustainable?

265

Big questions like they deserve,

know, a podcast of their own right.

266

But, uh, the cloud, well, AI for

play first of all is not sustainable.

267

We can come back to, you know, AI

with a plan is, is a different answer.

268

But, uh, the cloud

itself, it's like, well.

269

It is not sustainable to say just

because I can, I should, or will

270

store everything forever, right?

271

That, that is obviously not sustainable.

272

You're heating something up

somewhere by making that decision.

273

Um, whereas, uh, yes, having kind of

a life cycle for all content, not just

274

project related content, which has a

more obvious and defined life cycle,

275

but for all content, there should

be some sort of life cycle in mind.

276

Randall Stevens: Yeah, I'm, uh,

I'm one of those people that I

277

don't like to get rid of things.

278

Aaron Vorwerk: Hugging.

279

Randall Stevens: Well,

just physical things.

280

So, you know, when I found

my therapy is I don't.

281

Take things like, uh, you

know, like simple example.

282

I go to these trade shows and

everybody's trying to give

283

you this or that or the other.

284

And I'm just like, I

285

Evan Troxel: Totally.

286

Randall Stevens: makes me very

nervous to like, you know,

287

cause then I like feel guilty

288

Evan Troxel: Collect

289

Randall Stevens: it

290

Evan Troxel: more things.

291

Randall Stevens: but

292

Evan Troxel: Totally.

293

Randall Stevens: you know, I don't

think that we have that same angst

294

that maybe we do in the physical world.

295

Uh, so it's like, you know, one of

the observations that I've seen, um,

296

So what I've seen with customers over

the last few years, uh, of avail is,

297

you know, they, they, they use lots

of different tools and they will,

298

they're producing, you know, they're

creating new things all the time, right?

299

In the, in the quest to solve problems,

I always question sometimes like, are

300

you actually compounding the problem

because you're actually creating a new

301

piece of information or something else?

302

You're trying to solve this

one thing instead of like.

303

Maybe get into the root of the problem.

304

You're like putting band aids on it.

305

You created another piece of information

or spit out more info just because you

306

could, it's like, man, it's like piling

up information, information piling up.

307

But

308

Aaron Vorwerk: And while you

have to give some space to learn,

309

obviously there's, there's going

to be some waste on the front end.

310

choice to say, I'm not going to archive

anything for 10 years because it's hard.

311

That, that's a, that's a different

choice that can be helped through

312

automation that, you know, someone

is, someone is just avoiding

313

Randall Stevens: yeah,

314

Aaron Vorwerk: dealing with.

315

Randall Stevens: so maybe, uh, use

this as kind of a segue when you talk

316

about, um, when you talk about AI and

machine learning, I think a lot of what

317

you all to put words in your mouth, but

this ability at scale across content.

318

When you talk about policies and

things like that, that you all put in

319

place, it's about seeing information

and understanding that information and

320

then making decisions, kind of rules

about what to do with the, the files

321

and, or, uh, this stuff on the network.

322

Maybe you can kind of explain a little bit

more about what you mean by all of that.

323

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah.

324

Okay.

325

So, uh, so first of all,

I, there are great folks.

326

You've had Mehdi, I think, and Sam,

maybe on, on this podcast before

327

that are helping folks understand,

you know, how they should plan for

328

AI, how they should implement or

strategize AI, um, across their firms.

329

And most of the time, I think it's even

using their words, they're talking about

330

augmentation and automation, right?

331

They're talking about the, the,

the ideation tools, the play,

332

the, know, idea generation and

the sort of the augmentation.

333

then of course the re removing

all the tedious and menial, you

334

know, whatever tasks from, from

their workflows through automation.

335

Um, what nobody seems to think about

and what hadn't really processed until I

336

came to Ignite was that a lot that has to

happen before that stuff makes any sense.

337

Like you have to bring all your

data together first, and you

338

can do that through Ignite.

339

You can do that through other tools,

but you need to make sure your data is

340

not siloed and accessible to each other.

341

If you want to have a.

342

A full and complete data set

to be able to draw historical

343

conclusions from things like that.

344

Um, and then you need to clean it up.

345

And there's a specific connotation

to cleaning when it comes to AI,

346

but it turns out that we have a

really good foundation for that.

347

Uh, which I, you know, had really

not sort of thought about when

348

I first looking at this company.

349

And goes back a long way, so I could

give you a little bit of history,

350

but uh, 2013 we were using Um, uh,

machine learning and natural language

351

processing to identify sensitive data.

352

So identifying financial data exposed

in documents, personally identifiable

353

information, 10 plus years ago, right?

354

it got smarter.

355

This deep learning and stuff

started to happen and behavioral

356

detection became a thing.

357

You know, user downloads 500 files.

358

Maybe they're going to leave the company,

but that that's an unusual behavior.

359

Let's trigger a flag to

an admin or an external.

360

Actor maybe isn't real or is

doing something that's not

361

normal way of accessing the data.

362

So that's something

that's an odd behavior.

363

exposure protection, uh, the things we

talked about earlier, redundant obsolete,

364

trivial information detection, automating,

uh, retention archive and deletion.

365

Those are all became sort of AI powered.

366

Um, access to the data.

367

This is a very different idea, but

just finding the quickest path to

368

the cloud, to the master, because in

Ignite's case, the cloud is the master.

369

so you might have hybrid devices

like virtual machines, accelerators,

370

essentially for large offices, things

like that, but if those are clogged,

371

you know, AI would figure out what is

the quickest way to get you to your

372

information, no matter where you are.

373

Um, and then beyond the classification

of data, beginning to identify documents.

374

So, So, you know, this document is

from this party to this party asking

375

for something related to this project

must be an RFI, you know, being able

376

to, that's starting around 2019, this,

this kind of behavioral, I'm sorry, this

377

kind of document recognition capability.

378

And then every customer of Ignite gets

a self, you know, their own AI tenant,

379

the data never leaves their domain.

380

There's no checkbox to

share it with the world.

381

It's, you know, it's a private,

we say private, purposeful.

382

Anyway, so this is, is a delivered

trained based on a lot of years of

383

work, but we have a self training

tool, trainable classifier.

384

So someone can further train on

their own documentation stuff to

385

just improve accuracy quickly.

386

then more recently, we've started

to move towards the kinds of

387

AI you engage with, right?

388

The chatbots, knowledge bases,

document summaries, and even

389

things like, recognition.

390

So there's a door in this image.

391

This image was taken at this location.

392

So it's a door on this project.

393

It should go in that folder and

this person should be notified.

394

There was a random photo out there

of a door for this project, right?

395

that kind of stuff is coming along and,

uh, and, and, you know, all of these

396

things up to about the, where we get to

the AEC specific kind of capabilities,

397

of that is part of this underlying

layer of just cleaning your stuff up.

398

Right.

399

And so, and again, this, this whole,

uh, Ignite is a very specific because of

400

the cybersecurity focus, very specific,

private, purposeful, and practical kind of

401

approach to AI as we declare it, I guess.

402

But it's, uh, uh, it seems like that

is a really good place to start.

403

It's, as I say, often, it's the

thing that gets us to the thing.

404

It's the, the thing you probably, the

AI you probably didn't think about

405

Randall Stevens: Enabler.

406

Yep.

407

Aaron Vorwerk: AI that

you're obsessed with.

408

Right.

409

Right.

410

Randall Stevens: Right, right.

411

Yeah.

412

It's not, it's not the sexy

visual or it's the enabler, right?

413

Aaron Vorwerk: Like

414

Randall Stevens: Yeah.

415

Aaron Vorwerk: And in terms of AI,

416

Randall Stevens: Uh, maybe, uh, it'd

be interesting to have, to hear you

417

talk about, you know, after you, after

you landed at Ignite, you know, one,

418

what were the first things that you

saw with your AEC hat on and experience

419

that said, you know, this is a great

platform, but, uh, maybe we could do

420

these kinds of things, or what, what

were the things that you identified

421

to help make Ignite a better platform?

422

Uh, a more purposeful

product for the AC industry.

423

Aaron Vorwerk: yeah, well, there's

so there's constant development.

424

I mean, Ignite is actually has a pretty

agile product team and I appreciate

425

that, but they're often explorations

into features that are fairly specific

426

or that I feel have been solved, you

know, by some other point product.

427

So maybe we should just partner with

them or buy them or, you know, something.

428

Well, I don't know that we

necessarily need to solve that.

429

The same problems as the

industry giants or, or, you

430

know, very dedicated niche tools.

431

Um, but when I see certain things, and

of course I'm, you know, biased having

432

come from Autodesk, but when I see, uh,

way, for example, the way Revit Cloud

433

okay, I'm, I'm like, well, are answers.

434

We have specific answers to

how to do that with Ignite.

435

are other competitors out there who have,

you know, been known for years that kind

436

of have a solution, when I look at them,

I think these are all like appliance

437

heavy, IT driven things, and that you

just log in and work from, you know, let's

438

tethered cell phone anywhere in the world.

439

we don't need to build that.

440

Right.

441

And that, that was, that's,

you know, there've been efforts

442

to build that internally.

443

I said, no, maybe best in class

integration with Autodesk Construction

444

Cloud makes a lot more sense.

445

trying to do point features to replace

certain pieces of that workflow.

446

You know, and we've been that direction.

447

It's something we test with customers.

448

We have, uh, both a customer advisory

board and a EC that is kind of a CIO

449

level, or at least c-suite level that

advises us on, you know, ignite sort

450

of strategic direction as well as

something that I helped put together

451

called our technical advisory board.

452

Um, I felt that when I arrived, we had

a lot of IT relationships, which makes

453

a ton of sense when you, you know, based

on everything we just talked about,

454

but we didn't have the relationships

I wanted with design technology

455

leaders and construction technology

leaders that, that understand deeply

456

what the end users are going through.

457

And I thought that was a critical missing

piece to inform the product team on

458

what they really need in their toolbox.

459

Right?

460

So we now have a board of customers from.

461

from five to 25, 000 plus employee

companies, um, that are advising us, you

462

know, in a technical way and giving direct

feedback to our, to our product team.

463

So I, I feel like we're, you know,

to answer your question, we're still,

464

there are still specific areas where

we think we can, uh, you know, in our

465

lane, we can enhance the industry.

466

and then there are other places where

it's like, you know what, let's just.

467

And I'm going to talk about how we can

best solve the problem of getting data

468

where it needs to be for, you know, a

specific purpose at a specific time.

469

And that might involve just building

best in class integrations to do it, as

470

opposed to trying to solve it ourselves.

471

Randall Stevens: Is, uh, is

Windows File Explorer the

472

primary interface to the data?

473

Like, once somebody has that in

place, is that still, for the

474

end users, is that still the main

place that they're, they're gonna

475

Aaron Vorwerk: yeah, so I, so myself, I,

uh, this, I use a MacBook for work here.

476

It's the first time I've used, I haven't,

I've always had a MacBook at home, but

477

it's the first time I've used one And.

478

I find, because I'm not as much of

a fan of Finder as I am of Windows

479

Explorer, that I tend to use the

web interface in Chrome equally,

480

or at least as much, if not more.

481

But for the vast majority of users,

and maybe this is one of our strengths

482

too, our desktop app is so well

integrated that you just don't know.

483

Like you, there are many stories

of customers implementing

484

Ignite over a weekend.

485

And the users come in and

they just match the drive

486

Randall Stevens: Right,

487

Aaron Vorwerk: they don't, they don't

know the difference until they right

488

click and see all these cloud options that

they didn't have before, but otherwise

489

they're like, Hey, what'd you do?

490

This is working fast, you know?

491

And it's, it's, well, there's no server

in the building anymore, or there's, you

492

know, we got rid of all this other stuff.

493

And so, so I think the desktop app

is used very heavily, very heavily.

494

Uh, but, but the web interface

actually does contain.

495

capability, then I hear more

stories than I would expect.

496

'cause for, for me, I, I haven't

because just, you know, my day job's

497

a little unique here, but I haven't

used the mobile app a ton, but.

498

I hear a ton of stories about it

because, because of the fact that

499

it's, you know, as somebody I'm

walking through an airport, somebody

500

is asking me for, this is, this is me

repeating, repeating second hand, but

501

somebody asked me for this point cloud.

502

So I just, you know,

shared it with them quick

503

Randall Stevens: right,

504

Aaron Vorwerk: from the mobile

app and it's like, okay, cool.

505

I, you

506

Randall Stevens: right.

507

Aaron Vorwerk: that's something, but

I guess the desktop app, maybe the

508

mobile app and then the, and then the

509

Randall Stevens: Yeah, we use, we, uh,

510

Aaron Vorwerk: there's actually, you

know, admin consoles and dashboards,

511

all this stuff, but maybe it's just not.

512

Needed by end users most of the time,

513

Randall Stevens: at Avail, we, we

built our, our demo environment is

514

all uses Ignite on the back end.

515

So, when we, uh, when we started

building the last, now it's been

516

probably a year and a half ago or

something, the latest kind of demo

517

version, there's a lot of content that

we put in to do that, so we actually

518

Evan Troxel: Sure.

519

Randall Stevens: that, and part of that.

520

Uh, strategy was not only us internally,

but any partner that wanted to then

521

access the same demo, we could give

them permission to see and share.

522

But, so, my interaction, right, primarily

with, uh, with the platform from that

523

standpoint, Aaron, has been to, we

just use the desktop connector, right?

524

And it just shows up like a

drive letter and works perfectly,

525

Aaron Vorwerk: connector,

526

Randall Stevens: not desktop.

527

Yeah, yeah.

528

Yeah, the, the, uh.

529

Aaron Vorwerk: Alright, sorry.

530

Just get the Autodesk.

531

Uh, anyway, so, so, um, so yeah, we, we

do have certain features like if, like

532

the customer that's generating AI imagery,

know, drops that stuff into Ignite and.

533

They discovered that the web UI is

a, a photo gallery naturally secured

534

the way Ignite secures things.

535

And it's like, well, we

don't have to build that.

536

That's great.

537

That's, we can share stuff as needed.

538

We can do workflows like, you

know, markups and comments on 'em.

539

Um, Right, that, that's, the

desktop app's more limited in

540

terms, 'cause it's, you know,

541

Randall Stevens: Sure.

542

Makes

543

Aaron Vorwerk: working to

build some of those features.

544

The BIM pipe, BIM file preview

and other things like that.

545

Build those in.

546

As, as much as possible into the desktop

app experience, just so that the users get

547

there without having to open the browser.

548

Evan Troxel: Hmm.

549

Randall Stevens: What, uh, do you

what, what's kind of coming around the

550

corner, or what have you got glimpses

of, or hear the team internally

551

talking about as far as anything?

552

Obviously, you can only talk about things

that you're allowed to talk about, but,

553

uh, you know, what, what are the exciting

things that you think we're going to

554

see here in the next couple of years?

555

Aaron Vorwerk: Oh, years.

556

Okay.

557

Randall Stevens: Well, that's usually

my window is like, I mean, a year, you

558

all know, a year goes by like that.

559

It's like, so what, what's up

with the next 18, 24 months that

560

you think will, will be reality?

561

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah, so the first

thing AUC wise, the first thing that

562

uh, I can to is the what we announced

at Autodesk University, which is

563

that building a direct integration.

564

We currently integrate through

Workado, through ACC Connect,

565

um, and that's fine for December.

566

You know, certain use cases,

but have deeper direct

567

integrations with other vendors.

568

And so we're, we're, uh, to

achieve the same kind of near real

569

time, synchronous capability with

Autodesk Construction Cloud, which

570

would be unique, in the industry.

571

Um, as a to that, or almost, almost as

a freebie that we get with that, just by

572

connecting to the, Autodesk Construction

Cloud API, uh, will be able to govern

573

data in Autodesk Construction Cloud.

574

Now, a lot of end users probably don't

care about that, but we're getting

575

a lot of requests from the sort of

technology management side of things

576

to get that in their hands as quickly

as possible after having teased that.

577

Because if you think about it, if I were

to ask you to go to ACC and give me a

578

total amount of storage that you have

there and show me where it's at, You

579

can't, like you don't even know where your

content is or how much of it is because

580

it's free and it's unlimited, right?

581

So, but, but you don't know

what you have sitting out there.

582

You can't

583

Randall Stevens: Right.

584

Aaron Vorwerk: Autodesk, but you

also don't have insight into what

585

might be sensitive, what might meet

or not meet compliance protocols,

586

ethical data use standards, et cetera.

587

You don't have any of that

and we can turn that on now.

588

We can just add Autodesk as a

content source just by virtue of.

589

Starting to do work with their API,

you know, cause all of the actual

590

functionalities on the Ignite side.

591

And so it's pretty neat to see ACC

then all of a sudden revealed with

592

all the places where you're stored.

593

Well, that's a big project, you know,

all of this information, able to

594

see all the permissions by user, by

role, by folder structure, by, you

595

know, just kind of monitoring it, not

controlling it, but just monitoring it.

596

Um, and then to be, especially to be

able to see the AI start to go in and.

597

Classify, oh, this has got a, you

know, a security risk score of seven.

598

What's that mean on this one?

599

And this is showing that it's not meeting

GDPR or there's information that's

600

relevant to GDPR exposed in that doc.

601

You know, whatever policies I have

turned on are starting to flag

602

automatically on by tagging every

document that's sitting in a CC.

603

And so that's pretty, pretty cool.

604

I mean, I heard Autodesk mention

governance for the first time on

605

main stage this year, but, nobody has

offered that, including Autodesk before.

606

And, and so.

607

That's pretty cool.

608

Especially if you're trying to, you know,

achieve certain security standards across

609

projects and, or if you're wanting to

do this holistically across your company

610

and up till now, ACC has just been

the other place where your data sits.

611

Randall Stevens: Do y'all, do y'all,

makes me think, Aaron, do y'all have

612

the ability to know when, a file has

been not just accessed by a person, but

613

do you know, like when an application.

614

that file.

615

Can you identify what accessed it?

616

I'm just, I'm thinking about, you

know, the idea that as this information

617

is sitting out there, especially in

cloud, somebody else's cloud, you

618

know if it's being accessed by not

only but maybe the host or, you know,

619

what, what's touching your data?

620

Do you all have insights into that?

621

I hadn't really thought about

it that way, but, you know,

622

Aaron Vorwerk: that, that

piece is beyond my pay grade.

623

I

624

Randall Stevens: Yeah,

625

Aaron Vorwerk: that

626

Randall Stevens: that'd be an

interesting thing to know, right?

627

Because, uh, you know,

there's a lot of things.

628

Aaron Vorwerk: you know,

those kinds of things, but.

629

I like where you're going with that.

630

Randall Stevens: Well, I think with a

631

Evan Troxel: Yeah, me too.

632

Randall Stevens: AI conversation, you

know, and I, you know, as we're, as

633

we've been doing work in that front,

I've, and I've been learning, you know,

634

I'm trying to make sure that I don't use

the word train because like in the stuff

635

that we're doing, we're not, we're not

training anything new on people's data.

636

You touch it, you do some

things, but you don't.

637

You know, you're not ingesting it and

using it to train some new models.

638

So there's just a lot of new

language that everybody's having

639

to learn and to think about.

640

And it just seems that one of the big,

the big unknowns now is like, okay,

641

here's this data that's sitting here.

642

Who's touching it?

643

What's happening to it?

644

Do I have control of my own, you know,

uh, even, even within the firm, you know,

645

you can even see even outside actors.

646

Evan Troxel: Sure.

647

Randall Stevens: inside of a large firm.

648

It's like, are there teams of people

over here doing things with this

649

that we don't know or understand?

650

It'd be really interesting to,

to not think about it from a, I

651

guess you have to authenticate.

652

Just trying to think, you know, I'll

have to think about that some more, like

653

which, how can you know if an application

has access to the, that data or not?

654

I

655

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah,

656

Randall Stevens: in

the end, it's a person,

657

Aaron Vorwerk: So there's,

there's a few things in there.

658

Like one is, if anything's ever

changed, we would know that.

659

Like if, if there's any

660

Randall Stevens: right?

661

Aaron Vorwerk: but if

something's just referencing it,

662

Randall Stevens: Or read it, right?

663

Yeah.

664

Right.

665

Aaron Vorwerk: know.

666

If, if anything's accessing it in

ACC, I don't know that we would,

667

because, you know, there could be some

other third party integration that's

668

Randall Stevens: Right.

669

Aaron Vorwerk: another

670

Randall Stevens: Right.

671

Aaron Vorwerk: That'd be, that's,

that's a good to explore further.

672

But yeah, it's like, how

deep, how deep do you go?

673

Like, uh, in, in terms of these

things, I think the, I think it's super

674

appealing, the data governance aspect,

only because that's been kind of a

675

relatively unknown place before, right?

676

You know, sure.

677

We work on projects

there all the time, but.

678

We don't have the view of that that we

would have of our own, you know, file

679

server or SharePoint site or whatever

it might be that, organize our data on.

680

and so we're changing that.

681

And then, and then what will

follow that is direct sync.

682

So, you know, API driven sync.

683

So you'll still have the ACC Connect,

the Worcato based integration.

684

Our connector there is not going away,

but, but if someone needs something

685

that's, you know, Uh, more near real

time, or, know, personally, I want to

686

get to the point where it's not about

copying and syncing files back and

687

forth, but rather, you know, simply

extracting metadata on both sides and

688

doing smart things with it, right?

689

And I don't care where it's stored,

because I think that's where things go

690

when we get beyond, you know, documents,

um, down the road, but, but in the

691

interim, um, just having a direct sync

makes it easy, a, a user, any user, it's

692

not IT driven anymore, or, you know, You

know, design technology, leader driven

693

anymore, but rather any user could

right click and choose to start a sync

694

with the whole project or a specific

folder or subfolders, you know, and

695

so it becomes more self serve in terms

of making integrations come online.

696

Randall Stevens: I

guess, uh, go ahead and,

697

Evan Troxel: I'm curious about this.

698

Um, I'm going to ramble for a minute

and I want, I'm going to see if you

699

can make sense of this because when

I was leading digital practice in

700

a firm, uh, there's a lot of kind

of low hanging fruit that, that.

701

I think leadership doesn't recognize is

actually taking a huge amount of time.

702

And I can imagine, you know, what falls

into that list is like email, right?

703

Thing, things that like nobody wants

to actually acknowledge how much time

704

they spend in email, not working, right?

705

We, we call it work, but it's, it's

totally unproductive work because

706

everybody's buried in this email.

707

I imagine files and, and, and like

sharing and just organizing or, or

708

ignoring like as, as the case may be.

709

Has a huge cost to the business.

710

And I'm just curious if there's, um,

any metrics or stats that you could

711

share that kind of give us a sense of

the true cost of what it's like to deal

712

with all this data, because again, I

think this is one of the things where if

713

leadership in a firm actually recognize

that they would be like, Oh my God,

714

we need to change what we're doing.

715

And there are tools that help automate

the doing this of this stuff to make

716

our bottom line more profitable.

717

Like.

718

It's like spam filtering

as an example, right?

719

It's like, you don't even realize how

much time and money that's actually

720

saving you if it's done right.

721

Right.

722

Uh, as an ex, as a really easy example,

but, and yet we're still buried under

723

email and still spending our entire

day in email in an AEC office, right?

724

So.

725

I mean, if you told a leader, like,

your people aren't actually working,

726

they're just processing email.

727

That is not what people are

getting paid to do, they just

728

have to do that too, right?

729

I imagine it's a very similar story

with files and content and all these

730

things, but do you have metrics or

stats around that kind of thing, and

731

what you can actually help companies

save or apply to their bottom line?

732

Yes.

733

Aaron Vorwerk: I think the problem

with that is that, and some firms,

734

um, are, will it will nod their heads

when I say this and others will be

735

mad at me and not want me to come

back, but say we're really good at.

736

Looking at something new and talking

about ROI and cost on the new thing,

737

unless it requires that we look at

how badly we're doing things right

738

now, because we're terrible at

assessing how much time we waste.

739

Um, it's

740

Randall Stevens: well,

it was hard to measure.

741

yeah.

742

Aaron Vorwerk: well, it is,

but, but it's worthwhile.

743

If you want to justify the

cost of this new thing.

744

I, uh, anyway, so, so, uh, as examples,

I can give you a few examples.

745

Um, One is just sharing.

746

You mentioned sharing.

747

If

748

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

749

Aaron Vorwerk: something like a

SharePoint, I mean, even if I'm able

750

to share externally, which I might

not be able to, which then results

751

in shadow IT coming, you know, folks

finding any mechanism whatsoever they

752

can find to share, is a disaster.

753

But even if they do have the ability

to make it happen, it's usually go to

754

your administrator, ask them to enable

those permissions on that, you know,

755

it's just a time suck for the IT side.

756

Or, you know, somebody in the leadership

side, every time that needs to happen.

757

So that's a, so, so by removing that,

by making it possible in a secure

758

way for any user to self serve share,

you've, we have in webinars and, and,

759

and on, you know, on case studies where

it's like, Hey, we can do strategic it

760

projects now, because we're not spending

a person's entire 40 hour week, just

761

answering requests from, you know, people.

762

That's one example.

763

Another example, a computational

design leader, uh, that is using

764

Python scripting across a practice.

765

And in, in that practice, uh, in the

past, user had probably a different

766

version of, or an unknown version

of Python on their local machines.

767

And then because of all the

dependencies, all, all of the reference.

768

that they would use.

769

They had a central like family library

of, you know, of these, of these scripts.

770

But users would download them to their

machines and, you know, massage things.

771

And so trying to maintain some

kind of corporate standard was

772

practically a full-time job.

773

Now, now it's because it's, you know,

one global office in one letter drive.

774

Everything's actually

just stored on the drive.

775

All users link to the same thing.

776

So when the.

777

Administrator needs to make a change.

778

He makes that change once globally,

and now it's been updated on every

779

user's machine without him ever

having to check or do anything.

780

So that just removes all of that garbage.

781

we just, you know, talked about

another example a minute ago, like,

782

like there are, there are places

like this, this idea of, you know,

783

enabling a connection instead of

having to enable a, a new Workato

784

recipe or copy the templated recipe

over to a new project and set that up.

785

I mean, even if you're fast at it.

786

15 minutes per project that you're

not having to waste and some of

787

our customers are setting up one

or two hundred projects a week.

788

if you're trying to do that with, on

that side of things, and meanwhile

789

you're also over here in Point setting

up a project and then you got to

790

set up and permissions in something

like Nuforma and Ignite and ACC.

791

Even if you're fast at it,

you know, that's 45 minutes

792

per job and you've got 100

793

Evan Troxel: Huge.

794

Yeah.

795

Aaron Vorwerk: do the math, So

796

Evan Troxel: Right.

797

Aaron Vorwerk: we, we have full open APIs

and we, our professional services team

798

has set up, uh, it's just as example, set

up a vantage point to ignite connectors

799

before and, and now the ACC permissions

APIs, I understand it's getting baked.

800

So, um, there would be the

potential for us to, for example,

801

just make it possible to.

802

Set up a project in one place and have

that, you know, all of the permissions and

803

folder structure and everything else just

populate across these different platforms.

804

our team, our professional services

team was playing around and to us a

805

few weeks ago, a small group of us

and said, Hey, we could just make

806

this like a product feature as opposed

to doing this bespoke on demand.

807

And I'm like, yes, like, like

808

Randall Stevens: Right.

809

Aaron Vorwerk: it.

810

Absolutely.

811

Just, just please, please do that

whenever you can work it in because,

812

um, those kinds of things are

eating away at productive time.

813

Evan Troxel: Yeah, thanks for saying,

for saying a little bit about that,

814

because this is one of those things

where, again, like people just aren't

815

even thinking about it in that way.

816

And I think if they did, they

would be shocked at what's

817

actually happening out there.

818

Could you also just take a moment

to talk about risk when it comes

819

to, uh, you know, every architecture

firm out there, medium to large, for

820

sure, has a risk department, right?

821

They're, they're doing some kind of

risk management when it comes to files.

822

Obviously there's, there's like the

email and communication side, but

823

sharing files, um, and, and like the

different versions and how far back

824

and just talk about kind of the current

state of the industry when it comes to

825

what's going on with risk management and

file storage that's either, either on

826

prem or in the cloud and kind of what,

what the latest information is on it.

827

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah, I think one of

the, one of the positive changes that's

828

happened over the last few years,

and I'm not sure if it's, if it was

829

accelerated by the pandemic and just

sort of the, the, the strong, you know,

830

move to the cloud that was already

happening, but just the, you know, the,

831

the acceptance of it, I guess, broadly.

832

But something

833

Evan Troxel: Right.

834

Aaron Vorwerk: changed such

that now customers will talk

835

more about the incident.

836

Um, you know, it's not, not an if, but

a, but a, oh yeah, we had this thing

837

happen when, you know, kind of situation.

838

And I think that openness to

begin to talk about that makes

839

risk more of a acceptable term.

840

Something contractors are always, you

know, like their entire business is risk.

841

They were always open about these

things, but on the design side, you

842

know, where technology was traditionally

a necessary evil, like there's been a

843

slower acceptance to open up and talk

about risk and talk about data, uh,

844

as it, as it relates to that risk.

845

So, uh, I would say that now we're

in a place where we can have that

846

conversation and it's meaningful,

where it might've been hard before.

847

And also I often talk about this

artificial separation between

848

design technology and IT, like.

849

You're using the same data, like,

so for what it's worth, you, we all

850

should be talking to each other,

but, uh, but that's, that's, that's

851

something that's still, uh, you know,

a little bit problematic in firms, but

852

as we move into a place of like the

one global office concept, however,

853

that gets done, um, there is a risk.

854

If you don't do that well, that you'll

end up with a lot of silos of data,

855

um, and, or sprawl, like, you know, you

just don't even know where your data is.

856

Um,

857

Evan Troxel: hmm.

858

Mm

859

Aaron Vorwerk: uh, you know, you

can, you could go further, like, you

860

could say, okay, well, we can also

collaborate not just across, you know,

861

geography, not just the one global

office for my firm, but also course, uh,

862

collaboration with, uh, across domains.

863

So external, uh, things and which,

which results in potentially a lot

864

of tools talking to each other across

companies and, and across geographies.

865

There is a risk of that getting out

of control, like, uh, and it's hard.

866

It's hard because.

867

Who really owns that data?

868

Like, it can be hard to define.

869

It's fuzzy.

870

It's hard to define, well,

we're in a collaborative state.

871

Therefore,

872

Evan Troxel: hmm.

873

Aaron Vorwerk: point in time, we

sort of both own this data and we're

874

both responsible for its protection.

875

Um, but at some point, and we're both

using it for some agreed upon purpose,

876

but at some point that will change.

877

And so understanding, like,

who has access, why, for

878

how long and what purpose.

879

is really hard.

880

Like that, you know, that's not

something that we can do well manually.

881

so it's better to sort of blanket that

under something that is governed if we

882

can, uh, because, because it's really

hard to maintain control of oversharing.

883

Um, and another risk that was kind

of goes back to the AI side of

884

things is we want to turn this pile

of data, you know, into information

885

that can become actionable knowledge.

886

Like we want to.

887

sense and then, you know, sort of

elevate the value of that data.

888

But if we're not thoughtful about

that, again, if you, if you have to

889

check a box to share your data with

the world, to start looking at your

890

data with something, maybe you're, you

need to revisit that decision because

891

you could unintentionally expose data,

which is then meeting compliance or

892

ethical data use standards or whatever.

893

Um, even if it's unintentional

and then can you trust it?

894

Like is the data source that

you're using and the way you're

895

organizing it, introducing falsehood.

896

There's a risk that, you know, the,

as we say, the veracity of the data

897

is not maintained, like that, that

we suddenly have errors introduced.

898

Um, and then therefore all of

the things we're generating

899

from that data could be flawed.

900

So there, there are a number of.

901

You know, number of places

where you could encounter risk.

902

Evan Troxel: Complexity

is getting more complex.

903

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah, I mean,

904

Evan Troxel: More things to

think about all the time.

905

Aaron Vorwerk: because there's all these

amazing capabilities we get, right?

906

We can

907

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

908

Aaron Vorwerk: things we couldn't

do before, but we have to be

909

smart about how we do them.

910

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

911

Randall Stevens: All right.

912

I've got my, my last question is,

uh, see the guitar back there.

913

What, what, what are you

going to play a tune for us?

914

What,

915

Evan Troxel: I was,

916

Randall Stevens: on

917

Evan Troxel: uh,

918

Aaron Vorwerk: You don't, you

919

Evan Troxel: I was gonna

ask what that is too.

920

Randall Stevens: what do

you, what do you like?

921

Aaron Vorwerk: and years, I was in, uh,

I was in a praise band back in college,

922

but like for years, but I always played,

it's a strat, but I always played

923

it, uh, like it was, uh, it was an

acoustic guitar more than I did else.

924

But yeah, it's, uh, I need to

clean that off a little bit.

925

It is, had been tuned recently, but I

haven't learned anything new in quite a

926

Randall Stevens: I learned a, uh,

927

Evan Troxel: Nice.

928

Nice.

929

Randall Stevens: on my Gibson.

930

I, I sit, I usually sit on the

couch with a, a Gibson that I have.

931

And, uh, it's, it's a, it's a nice

enough, you know, it's acoustic

932

enough that you don't have to

amplify it, and it's like, okay,

933

Aaron Vorwerk: right.

934

Yeah,

935

Evan Troxel: Is there a hollow body?

936

What do you got there, Randall?

937

Chambered.

938

Randall Stevens: I forgot

what they call 'em now.

939

They actually.

940

hollow out, they make it very

lightweight, but it is a solid body.

941

Yeah,

942

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

943

Randall Stevens: but I treated myself

last year to a, uh, my birthday,

944

that was my birthday present to

myself was a nice, uh, new Gibson.

945

Evan Troxel: Nice.

946

Aaron Vorwerk: I've

947

Evan Troxel: cool.

948

Aaron Vorwerk: of guitars.

949

I'm, I'm envious.

950

Uh, I think,

951

Randall Stevens: Yeah, a lot of

952

Evan Troxel: Awesome.

953

I, speaking of guitars, I, I'll throw,

like, I just picked up, uh, uh, a guitar

954

that my dad had given to, or loaned to his

cousin this morning, actually, and it's

955

a 1961 Gibson ES 335, which is a hollow

body Gibson, and it's, it's pretty sweet.

956

I just, I just, I just played it

right before podcasting with you guys.

957

So,

958

Aaron Vorwerk: news.

959

Evan Troxel: guitars all around here.

960

Randall Stevens: I'm,

I'm, I'm not very good.

961

I'm self taught and, uh,

much to my wife's chagrin.

962

I'm sure it's like yesterday I got home

and I was like, I've had this Tyler

963

Childress song in my head all day.

964

And I've, I'm, I'm enough now

to where I can go like, I could

965

learn to play that if I want to.

966

So I get the guitar up and then, and then

967

Evan Troxel: Nice.

968

Randall Stevens: it's all

like this, the muscle memory.

969

So it's like over and over and over

and over as much to her chagrin

970

sitting at the other end of the couch.

971

I'm sure it's like,

972

Evan Troxel: Yes.

973

Yes.

974

Yeah.

975

One more time.

976

Really?

977

One more time.

978

Randall Stevens: all just doing

it over, and over, and over,

979

and over, and over, today.

980

Oh,

981

Aaron Vorwerk: to play it because I

982

Evan Troxel: nice.

983

Aaron Vorwerk: better.

984

But, but you can't sing while

you're playing a saxophone.

985

I mean, you can only

sing with the instrument.

986

So I, you know, switch the

987

Randall Stevens: yeah, don't try this.

988

Evan Troxel: This is the content

people show up for right here, guys.

989

Aaron Vorwerk: Maybe there's

something about the creative arts.

990

I don't know.

991

Randall Stevens: Nah, it's a lot of fun.

992

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

993

Maybe.

994

Randall Stevens: Yeah, we had actually,

there was a bunch of people, we, a bunch

995

of us got together for breakfast at

AU and there was a bunch of people, we

996

started talking about music, uh, Scott

Davis plays guitar and, uh, we were

997

just talking about, uh, what we do.

998

That's more fun to talk about

than the, uh, than, than

999

Evan Troxel: Yeah.

00:50:20,996 --> 00:50:24,846

Randall Stevens: But anyway, well,

Aaron, thanks, uh, thanks for, for coming

00:50:24,846 --> 00:50:26,716

on and, uh, and sharing some of this.

00:50:26,716 --> 00:50:28,751

Like I said, uh, it's been a pleasure.

00:50:29,691 --> 00:50:30,481

That's just thank you.

00:50:30,861 --> 00:50:32,291

Everybody y'all have working on your team.

00:50:32,291 --> 00:50:35,781

I've just loved interacting with, so it's,

y'all been building just a great team.

00:50:35,861 --> 00:50:41,921

And, uh, it's nice to see a company like

Ignite invest in, in the vertical, right.

00:50:41,931 --> 00:50:44,901

In saying, okay, we're going to,

we're going to go hire some really

00:50:44,901 --> 00:50:48,161

good people in this industry, uh,

that know what they're talking about.

00:50:48,161 --> 00:50:50,521

So kudos to you on the team.

00:50:51,451 --> 00:50:51,691

uh,

00:50:52,096 --> 00:50:53,146

Aaron Vorwerk: I didn't go too far out.

00:50:53,146 --> 00:50:54,216

I appreciate all of that.

00:50:54,216 --> 00:50:54,656

Thank you.

00:50:54,686 --> 00:50:56,266

I didn't go too far out, but.

00:50:57,231 --> 00:51:00,121

this year, it feels like we've been found.

00:51:00,811 --> 00:51:01,946

I mean, we've, we've had 1.

00:51:01,946 --> 00:51:03,961

25 AEC companies per

00:51:04,391 --> 00:51:04,681

Randall Stevens: yeah.

00:51:04,981 --> 00:51:05,671

Aaron Vorwerk: on to Ignite.

00:51:05,921 --> 00:51:10,651

Um, it's, it's interesting to be in

a nearly 20 year old company where

00:51:10,681 --> 00:51:12,381

it feels like startup level growth.

00:51:12,401 --> 00:51:17,311

And, um, I, the conversations are

fun as a result because you, you

00:51:17,311 --> 00:51:22,661

have this really good It's just, you

know, people are just discovering it.

00:51:22,701 --> 00:51:24,021

And so for me, it's been.

00:51:24,796 --> 00:51:25,646

Been unique.

00:51:25,966 --> 00:51:30,296

I mean, I was at a company that's an

obvious industry leader at Autodesk.

00:51:30,306 --> 00:51:34,906

So, uh, the, the name, the,

know, you could say the badge

00:51:34,906 --> 00:51:35,956

gets you in the door, right?

00:51:36,186 --> 00:51:37,666

Just because you're so well known.

00:51:38,116 --> 00:51:40,176

And here it's just beginning that journey.

00:51:40,541 --> 00:51:40,681

Randall Stevens: Yeah.

00:51:41,361 --> 00:51:41,761

Evan Troxel: Nice.

00:51:42,241 --> 00:51:45,541

Randall Stevens: Thanks to you guys

have been supportive of Confluence.

00:51:45,561 --> 00:51:48,801

Uh, like you said, you've, you've

attended three of the events.

00:51:49,081 --> 00:51:50,031

I'll plug right now.

00:51:50,031 --> 00:51:55,011

We're planning, uh, we're planning a

one day event in San, in San Francisco.

00:51:55,441 --> 00:51:55,806

Uh,

00:51:56,106 --> 00:51:56,626

Aaron Vorwerk: that, what's that

00:51:56,766 --> 00:51:57,926

Randall Stevens: Yeah,

well, I don't have the date.

00:51:58,246 --> 00:52:00,346

I did have a date, but

it might be changing.

00:52:00,346 --> 00:52:01,236

It's going to be in April.

00:52:01,246 --> 00:52:02,036

That's our target.

00:52:02,496 --> 00:52:05,426

Uh, but, uh, we're, we're,

we're planning that right now.

00:52:05,426 --> 00:52:08,996

So if anybody that's listening

is either in the, in the Bay

00:52:08,996 --> 00:52:11,626

area, uh, watch out for that.

00:52:11,666 --> 00:52:14,056

And then obviously some

people come in for it.

00:52:14,086 --> 00:52:16,926

Uh, but, uh, yeah, we're looking

forward to putting that together.

00:52:16,966 --> 00:52:17,226

So

00:52:17,526 --> 00:52:17,866

Evan Troxel: Cool.

00:52:18,001 --> 00:52:18,381

Randall Stevens: great.

00:52:18,531 --> 00:52:19,681

Well, thanks for joining us, Aaron.

00:52:19,941 --> 00:52:20,491

Appreciate it.

00:52:20,571 --> 00:52:20,671

Aaron Vorwerk: Yeah.

00:52:20,671 --> 00:52:21,621

Thank you so much for having

00:52:21,731 --> 00:52:22,101

Randall Stevens: All right.