S2E5: Couch.AI and Committee.AI w/ Ismail Khalil
===
, [00:00:00]
Shubh: welcome to, uh, season two, episode five of "Your Business is on the Line," Canada's number one business comedy podcast. For the, uh- 42nd straight week.
Philippe: Boom.
Ismail: Wow. Boom. That's impressive.
Shubh: There's one. Uh, it's the podcast where serious people come on and pitch unserious business ideas. I'm here with co-host Philip Burns of "Tech Thursday." Hello. Hello. And our special guest today, Ishmael Khalil. Yes. Ish.
Ismail: That's right. Go by Ish. Thank you for having me, guys.
Shubh: From ReadyCar.
Ismail: From ReadyCar.
Shubh: Yeah. Thanks for coming, buddy. Thank you. You just drove straight up from Edmonton this morning.
Ismail: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh, we're f- we're recording at 9:00 a.m.
Ismail: 9:00
Shubh: a.m. So that means you got on the road at 6:00 [00:01:00] a.m.
Ismail: You gotta get there.
Shubh: So you're feeling great.
Ismail: I am alive as I could be. Yeah. Had my matcha- Yeah,
Philippe: you got the matcha
Ismail: going
ready to go. Yeah. Yeah. Had,
you know,
everything. I actually flew in last night from Toronto.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Stayed at my parents' overnight. I don't think I've ever seen
Shubh: a Brown person drinking matcha.
Ismail: More Brown people should drink matcha.
Shubh: We'd be so much healthier. Uh, how you doing?
Ismail: Good. Good.
Shubh: Um, for the audience out there, Philip and I both know you a little bit.
Ismail: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh,
give us the,
give us the Ish story.
Ismail: Yeah. Uh-
I mean,
Shubh: but keep it tight,
you know?
Ismail: Sure.
Yeah,
yeah. Uh, I guess I could... Uh, so founder, CEO of ReadyCar.
Shubh: Yep.
Ismail: Um, actually formerly ReadyCar. We've
kind of
rebranded to ReadyAI- Okay ... to
to be
more of,
like,
an operating system. Yeah. To raise
Philippe: more money.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: That too.
Doesn't hurt, to be honest. Um, and so we're building within,
like,
healthcare supply chain and trying to au- auto- automate, uh, healthcare front office workflow,
So,
uh, mainly across primary care. So you can think of,
like,
pharmacies, medical clinics of all- Yeah ... shapes and sizes, [00:02:00] uh, and,
like,
community hospitals, small community hospitals.
And
so,
uh, we started off, uh, actually in Edmonton. We're an Alberta story. Started in Edmonton in my mom's basement, uh, so with my brother- Yeah Cool ... uh, started the company.
Shubh: Shout out Edmonton.
Ismail: And yeah, shout out Edmonton. Let's go. Yeah, hey, Edmonton got a
Philippe: shout-out.
Ismail: Yeah, Edmonton.
Shubh: Winnipeg always gets these shout-outs.
Ismail: I know I'm in Calgary, but hey- I grew- ... I used to be a Flames fan too,
back when. I gr-
Shubh: I
don't understand that at all.
I grew,
I grew up in Edmonton, as
you know, so,
like- All right ... I'm very... Yes, this... You're speaking to me right now. Awesome.
Yeah,
Ismail: yeah. So
it's been,
it's been good. Uh, but we got customers like Rexall, Shoppers, Neighborly- Oh, nice
couple of
couple of big, big hitters,
and then, uh, various independent pharmacists
and,
and clinicians across Canada. We're now getting into a new category around,
like,
vets- Okay ... uh, and servicing,
like,
vet clinics, which is
really,
really exciting for us. Uh, we are national. Um, we are expanding into the US too, so-
Philippe: Cool
Ismail: yeah, it's been good. Good for
Good for you,
buddy.
Can't, can't
Yeah.
Can't, can't complain.
Philippe: How
many employees you guys got?
Ismail: Sorry? How many employees? We're-- Actually, we're a very nimble team.
Like,
I wanna operate at,
like,
[00:03:00] 20 at $100 million ARR. That's
kind of, like,
my mindset. We're at 10 right now.
Philippe: 10 employees.
Ismail: Yeah. Awesome. Wow, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Shubh: That's great. That's great progress since we last chatted. Did
Philippe: you guys raise some money, or is that-
Ismail: We have, yeah ... revenue or?
Yeah,
yeah. So we're doing pretty solid on the revenue front. Uh, getting close to- He's
not gonna
Shubh: you the actual number.
number. Yeah.
But wink if it's
more than... No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah,
yeah.
Ismail: Yeah,
maybe,
maybe
I should,
I shouldn't disclose the actual number, but-
Yeah,
yeah ... . nice. So
it's, it's,
it's good. Uh, it's... A good chunk of it
kind of
came from, um,
kind of
organic relationships- Yeah ... that we've built, but now we're really starting to ramp up a lot of our kind of, um, um, sort of other channels and adjacent categories too, with- without not losing focus, right?
So,
um,
that's,
that's key.
Shubh: That's awesome. Yeah. And, uh, so you were, uh, you were early at Jobber, so that's a big Edmonton success story- Yeah
for the,
for the folks out there. Like one of, probably the biggest Edmonton tech success story, I would say, right? Yeah. Um-
Ismail: 89th at Jobber.
I still,
I still count that.
Shubh: 89th. 89th. How many people are there now? 800, something like that? Gosh, probably
Ismail: even more- Yeah ... to [00:04:00] be honest.
There,
there's probably 1,000 plus. I was there, uh, I was the fourth SDR-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Ismail: on that team. And yeah, it just grew like crazy, like it was just a time.
Shubh: And then you went and became a venture capitalist for a while.
Ismail: Yeah. Yeah, that was- At
Philippe: Plug and Play.
Ismail: I was actually wanting to do something completely crazy.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And it's, part of the reason why
I,
I wanted to be on this pod was- Yeah ... was 'cause serious people doing crazy things- Yeah ... and funny things. I wanted to go into like commercial real estate.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And Plug and Play, uh, like the VC thing just landed on my lap.
Like it was- Oh, that's funny
that's funny
just like totally left
and center
field. Yeah. I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't even know about venture cap.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And, uh, I just- That's, uh- ... DM'd the
Shubh: CEO. If you had no idea what you were doing and you worked at a Canadian venture capital firm, you were still in the top 1% of Canadian venture capitalists.
Hey, oh. The more you
Ismail: know.
Shubh: I'm just kidding. Yeah, keep going. Sorry.
Ismail: Uh, yeah, no, it was, uh, it was interesting 'cause the transition happened so quickly.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Straight up like DM the CFO, the president, and the CEO- Yeah ... on LinkedIn.
I, I [00:05:00] mean,
for those that are watching and listening, uh, LinkedIn is underrated for, uh, whether you have
like
a gold subscription or whatever that is- Yeah
or not. Pre-game. Just straight up DM people, man. Yeah.
Like
your hustle, people see that.
Shubh: Yeah, but you were also like a career salesperson. You understood how to get to people that- Yeah ... was difficult to get to. You play a little ball too, right?
Ismail: I did play hoop, yeah. Yeah. I played, uh, I actually played competitively, so I played Team Edmonton, then I played Alberta, then I went on to play like Center Performance- Yeah
uh,
like,
and for the national team. Then I got injured, uh, and then I, uh, actually it was while I was in the States,
I,
I got injured playing a different sport, football.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Um, and then I stopped, and then- Yeah ... and then I was like,
you know,
"Should I play varsity basketball for the next four years?"
Shubh: Yeah. "
Ismail: Or should I go out and build something?"
And turns out I built like three companies.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And I got
like
so much more experience. And the guys that were playing varsity were still playing varsity.
Yeah,
yeah. So I was
Shubh: like- Do you still hoop a little, though?
Ismail: I do. Yeah. Man, it's so hard, but-
Shubh: Yeah,
Ismail: everything hurts ... Tuesday nights,
Wednesday,
Wednesday at the U of T, they have runs.
Yeah. I will [00:06:00] play. Yeah.
Shubh: I can't remember, Phil, if I told you this, but
our, our,
our, my kids' football club where I coach a little, they were like, "Hey, we're putting together like a, put together a little men's league team," 'cause in the men's league club, they were like, "Hey, you wanna play?" And I was like, "I would love nothing more-
than to play." I am 46 with the body of a 75-year-old. I would get three minutes into the first half, and my legs would be, uh, littered about the pitch. By
all,
all my joints would've just exploded. So I really wanna play. But then they were like: "Oh, just come out one time." I'm like: "That's how it fucking happens.
You just come out one time, and then next time I see you, I'm wearing two walking boots."
You know?
Anyway, Phil, you were gonna ask something.
Philippe: Well,
what, what position do you play?
Ismail: I played point guard.
Philippe: Point guard.
Ismail: Yeah. Yeah, so I was a tall guard and I was 6'3"- Yeah ... big guard, could see the floor. Um-
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Yeah.
And-
Shubh: So anybody out there who's putting together
a,
a, like a tech corporate challenge entrepreneurship, uh, hoop team, 'cause you're based in Toronto now or- I am
Ismail: in Toronto, yeah.
So- Yeah, Yeah,
I'm just north of Toronto. [00:07:00]
Shubh: Yeah. We're all just waiting- Do you like it? We're all just waiting for Kawhi.
Ismail: Yeah, I'm loving... Kawhi?
Oh, man. We're
Shubh: just waiting
Ismail: for that Kawhi trade to get finalized. Oh, let's-- You know what? He actually just-- There was a... Yesterday- Yeah, he bought a house ... like I've been following that really closely. There was a criminal investigation launched against him.
Shubh: Yeah.
Well,
I think it's more the Clippers than him, but I'm still very hopeful.
Ismail: Yeah. Let's see.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: Criminal now.
Shubh: Criminal, yeah.
Well,
apparently there's some, uh, SEC stuff with the Clippers,
so...
Ismail: Yeah.
Philippe: What do you mean?
Shubh: Um,
well, like, I mean,
they were dealing, some dealings with, side deals with public company. You can't do weird deals with public companies,
you know?
Philippe: Oh, shit.
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah. So we'll see how it goes.
Anyway-
Philippe: So they were giving him,
like,
stock? Is that the idea?
Ismail: Not just stock. It was more
so, like,
a separate entity outside of the Clippers paying him in salary or for funds. Uh, and it was actually
his,
his Uncle Dennis who was, like, setting this all up. Yeah, Uncle
Shubh: Dennis.
Ismail: Uncle Dennis. It was always Uncle Dennis.
It's always an Uncle Dennis, eh?
Shubh: Uncle Dennis. Man. Um- For us,
Ismail: it's probably like
Shubh: Uncle Raj. Yeah, Uncle... Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, uh, man, that's great to hear that [00:08:00] Ready AI, I almost said ReadyCar. Yeah, I'm actually
Ismail: wearing the shirt.
Shubh: Are you wearing the Ready AI shirt? Yeah. I was
Ismail: gonna take it
Shubh: off. A little free pub.
Ismail: Wanted to do
Shubh: a little something extra.
So,
uh, uh, this might surprise you, me being an Indian fellow, but my whole, uh, network is doctors and, uh, uh, medical professionals.
So,
uh, hey, everybody out there, you should talk to Ish and his team.
Ismail: Let's go.
Shubh: Let's, uh, logistics. I don't know as many vets, though.
Ismail: There's so many vets
Shubh: Hey, you know what?
I know one vet
Ismail: Yeah
Shubh: I'll, I'm gonna ping him
Ismail: He probably knows like 30 Yeah I was wa- I was driving into the city and I saw this large animal vet clinic
Shubh: Yeah
Ismail: 24 hours, so I was like, "I need..." I just literally took a picture. I was like, "I need to-"
Shubh: You sh- is that why you were late? You just took, you went in and pi- I was just
shh, shh,
shh You went in and cold pitched them?
Yeah,
Ismail: I was just- Yeah ... I was ready to go.
Shubh: You should done it. This man-
Ismail: You know me.
Shubh: You know me. I like to run.
This man can,
this man can pitch somebody. Yeah. Yeah,
So,
um,
well,
man, that's awesome. That's great to hear. Um, uh,
you know,
we were talking like w- a year or two ago when you were just getting that thing off the ground, so it's just incredible to hear how far you've come already, so that's- Yeah
that's so,
that's so very cool.
Ismail: Thanks, man.
Shubh: Um, and it's always nice. I know it's [00:09:00] a, I know you're based in Toronto, but you're kinda based in Edmonton too, and your guys are based in Edmonton,
so.
Yeah, my
Ismail: parents are there, my family's there, all
Shubh: my- I'd like to see another Edmonton suc-success story.
Ismail: Yeah.
Actually, funny enough, like I will share this, we are incorporated in Calgary.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: So- Oh, okay ... yeah,
We,
we work really closely with Osler here. Michael Grantmyre, if he's listening to this- Yeah, Grammeier, what's up? ... he's my guy.
Yeah.
Yeah. Honestly, he's helped so much. I- Yeah ... we wouldn't be in the position we're in.
Sponsor the pod.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Oh, man,
They're, they're,
they're awesome. Yeah. And they've been so kind.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: But, um, yeah, uh, we're actually, yeah, uh, our hold co is Calgary,
so.
Shubh: Yeah, 'cause a bunch of your team is out here, right? Yeah.
Like, Yeah.
Yeah. All right, man.
Well,
that's
Philippe: awesome. Hold cos. You guys are setting up hold cos?
Ismail: Uh, yeah, we have one here.
Shubh: Yeah, even his hold co's got hold cos.
Ismail: Or I guess operating company. Yeah. Yeah, that's how it should be phrased.
Shubh: Yeah, that's right, operating company. Yeah, it's an operating company. We call... You don't have a hold co?
Philippe: No.
Shubh: Oh, you should get one.
Philippe: I'm,
I'm raw dogging entrepreneurship.
Shubh: You should, you should,
you should definitely have one.
I think I misspoke.
Philippe: It's,
Ismail: it's an op co.
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. I didn't have one. Now I've got one.
Philippe: Hmm.
And what does it do?
Shubh: You know,
you [00:10:00] just, uh, just moving things around. Things around. The tax man.
Uh, keeping yourself
you know,
insulated.
Philippe: Mm.
Shubh: I'm-- I shouldn't be saying any of this stuff probably. You have an hold company 'cause you just need a personal hold co.,
you know,
when you're just doing personal work, and then you've got your corporate entity, which is separate.
Ismail: I think it's usually for like companies that have
like
one entity and then might have like different types of entities.
Shubh: Or if you got like multiple partners- Yeah ... in a company, you might not wanna hold all the shares personally. You might wanna hold them in the hold co- hold co. There's some tax advan-
You,
you want a tax-- You got a good tax guy?
Philippe: I got a fine tax guy. I don't have a, I just have an accountant. I don't have a, like a proper tax- Oh, like
Shubh: a tax guy
taxation guy. I got a guy he can talk to. Really? Give you some free advice, yeah.
Philippe: All right.
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Shubh: So,
uh, Ish, um, cool, man, uh, to hear what you're up to. Like I said, everybody out there in the medical community, ReadyAI. Yeah. Front office optimization, [00:14:00] medical logistics. Um, but that's not why you're here today.
Ismail: That's what I've been told, yes.
Shubh: That's why
That's why I'm here ... Ish, do you have an idea or more than one idea to pitch Philippe and I today? I've got so many ideas. Let's go.
Ismail: I,
I go to bed with
like
10 ideas, ... .. some of them are adjacent to the category that we're in.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: But then obviously, like as a result of being a VC, so I was at Plug and Play for four years, but then people don't know, two years before that I was at Blitzscaling Ventures, which is another VC firm- Yeah
that's run by Chris Yeh. Reid Hoffman, actually the co-founder of LinkedIn, is, uh, one of the partners. Um, and Jeff Abbott, who I met while I was
in,
in France building a company, my second startup. And, uh, I was one of the first eight fellows on that team, and I, so I learned a lot. Oh, wow. It was
kind of
like a Peter Thiel fellowship, honestly.
Yeah. And it gave me like a... That was the one that came before Plug and Play even came. So I learned about venture, late stage venture, so post Series A. I like that you
Shubh: were like, [00:15:00] "Oh, I, I applied to this and I didn't know anything about venture." And then you're like, "Oh yeah, but actually I fellowed at like Blitz like-" Yeah
"for a couple
Philippe: years."
Ismail: I mean-
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: No, I just, I,
you know,
I just take it as it comes and, uh,
I,
I, I-
Shubh: We should do a, when you come back for your second appearance on the show, we'll do a segment where you just tell us the worst ideas you heard- ... as a venture capitalist. That'd be
Ismail: good.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Give us, hit us with one of the ideas.
Ismail: So,
uh, where I was going with that was that, um, I think... So obviously there can be a lot said about, uh- There,
there's, there's,
there's two, and they're two different categories. Let's hear it. One of them is actually in fintech.
Shubh: Okay.
Ismail: Funny enough. Uh, and, um, my, my core belief is that at some point every company becomes a fintech.
Shubh: Sure.
Ismail: Um, the other one is more around physical AI and the world that we see today. Um, so I'll-- maybe I'll start with the physical AI one, and then I'll get to the fintech one after 'cause it is
kind of
funny, and you'll understand it a little bit.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Um, sorry, uh, Philippe. Yeah. Philippe, you idiot.
He'll, he'll,
he'll vibe with it a lot.
He'll vibe with [00:16:00] it a lot. As soon as I say what I'm
Shubh: about
Ismail: to
Shubh: say- Philippe, fintech is financial technology.
Philippe: No,
Ismail: no,
Philippe: no,
Ismail: no.
Philippe: I
Ismail: didn't mean it from that perspective. What I'm about to share- Yeah ... is,
like,
more of like a kind of community app-
Shubh: All right.
Ismail: Okay ... is what I'm talking about, like within the Brown community.
Okay. Oh. That I think could be shared across-
Yeah,
yeah ... the rest of the community.
Shubh: Do you wanna just maybe check out for this part, Philippe?
Well, let's, let's start,
let's start on the physical world side. Do you just wanna look at each of us and ask for permission to speak? So on the-
Ismail: Okay ... on the physical side-
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Let's go ... so we know that frontier AI models
are like,
are like, they're extremely, like,
high,
high risk, but they're also high reward. Um, companies building within,
like,
physical AI right now
are, are,
are
kind of
the most budding, and
so, you know,
I'm thinking about our physical world now, and I'm thinking about the world that we interact with outside of iPhones, outside of anything else, outside of smartphones or smart glasses.
It's the walls that we touch, uh, it's the doors that we walk through that need, um, often need some form [00:17:00] of augmentation.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And so I think what's missing is like the, like even going up an elevator or, uh, me waiting at the store that I was waiting at.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: I think
there,
there's a lot that could be said for...
And if
there,
there's any prop tech guys listening to this,
they'll,
they'll get off on this, is like physical AI
when it,
when it means to
like,
augmenting
your,
your workflow as you're dealing with something physical. So let's say a wall or a canvas or
a,
a, a door that you're walking through, um, actually having, uh, a screen that you can, uh, uh, process or speak to, right?
Shubh: - So wa- walk us through in an el- you get in an elevator. Yeah. What's happening in that elevator? I think there's no, um, buttons.
Ismail: Like,
you just remove all the buttons. Like- Yeah ... you're either communicating via voice- This is some "Star Trek" shit
or,
or you're using- Yeah ... or you're using your finger
to,
to navigate through, um- Yeah
like, you know, like,
fuck, like I was going up our elevator
in,
in Toronto. Yeah. You press another button and then you're screwed. You can't,
like,
un- unhinge that button. Yeah. [00:18:00] Now you have to- Or if you're like Phil, he goes in and presses all the buttons in the elevator. Or you go and press all the-
Like,
oh.
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah. Yeah. But it's not just the elevator example. What I'm--
Ismail: Maybe,
that, maybe that's
not a, the best example. Yeah. I'm thinking like literally
your, your,
your walls, right? But why? Sorry. W- walk me through the wall again, 'cause I don't interact with walls that much.
Philippe: You know that old expression, you're just watching paint dry. What if-
Shubh: Right.
Philippe: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
I just-
Shubh: Give us,
give us the wall example.
Ismail: I just,
I just think that there,
like
we're, we haven't totally figured out how far we could take the sort of physical AI element. And what I mean by that is
I, I see a world where
,
Like even five years from now, where a lot of our workflow is like completely augmented, including stuff like, um, the door that opens near ba- like the bathroom door that opens up for you
or,
or anything basic as that, uh, the tap or faucet that you wash your hand with in your home.
The, [00:19:00] um, I don't know, any- anything that has to do with- This is like, uh, that toothbrush you were telling me about that- The Dyson one? ... takes pictures, yeah- Yeah, it's crazy ... of the, of your teeth. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds crazy,
what I'm,
what I'm saying. It also probably sounds a little stupid because I haven't actually thought about how I'd go about executing it.
But
I,
I do think that there is something there. Yeah. Just, we just, we're just not there yet. And you're right,
like
kinda like "Star Trek"-y. Yeah. But we're gonna get there. And it's
like,
I think we'll get there in our lifetime. Yeah. But like reverse engineering that back to where we are today,
I,
I just,
I don't,
I don't know the steps.
You,
Shubh: you
know what I would like to do? I'd like the walls to be able to rearrange.
Philippe: Like,
uh, the stairs in "Harry Potter." Like the sta- stairs in "Harry Potter." So like I would like Okay, like we want to get nuts with AI? Why do I got to renovate?
Ismail: Hmm. Why
Shubh: can't my house just adjust?
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: That's- And
Philippe: you know, like,
uh- Like you got-
you know the AI researcher that just quit his job-
yesterday Yeah
and was like- OpenAI is gonna cancel- [00:20:00] At Anthropic or? Yeah.
Oh,
is-- Oh,
yeah.
That was Anthropic, yeah.
We got a less, like less than 10% chance that in the next five years-
Well,
he, yeah ... all of AI's gonna go.
Well, so,
Shubh: so that whole story is he-- There was a, uh, there was a Anthropic researcher who was like: "Hey, man, I don't think we're being responsible about AI.
Uh, I think, uh, Anthropic is trying, but their competitors are not being responsible, and as a result, Anthropic's trying to go faster so that they can be the responsible party. But as a result, everybody's just gonna... We're gonna all die." And then the, there's somebody currently at Anthropic who responded with: "Hey, yeah, this is important.
Yeah, I figure there's a 10% chance we all die because of AI in the next 10 years." Mm-hmm. And everybody was like: "That doesn't make us feel any better."
Philippe: Right. Yeah,
Shubh: yeah,
yeah.
Philippe: Uh,
Shubh: so that's just background for our non-tech audience.
Philippe: Right. So,
so then
I'm,
I'm just thinking like if the walls of AI can move, you know when you smoke too much weed and you're like-
"The walls are closing in." Yeah. This is gonna be like a real case where like the walls are actually closing in on me.
I
Ismail: just,
I just think like- The walls
Philippe: will kill
Ismail: me
to,
to your point, I feel
like,
I [00:21:00] just think that there's still a...
Like
let's just even look at restaurants, for example. Yeah.
Right?
You go to a restaurant,
you're, you're,
you're waiting in line, right?
It's the busiest restaurant in Calgary. You're trying to get a reservation. You're on site. There's a lot of moving pieces, and for that, uh, restauranteur, uh, to be able to navigate around an app, a physical digital, uh, wallet of sorts, or even like an iPhone or an iPad, is that, i- is that it? Or is the next level like something that could be vi- more visible
to,
to the consumer, right?
Um, is it something that lives on the screen o- of the restaurant itself that's showing you in real time how, uh, tables are being opened up? Is it something that lives... And I know Pizza Hut tried something like this, but like on the actual table itself, having you be able to
like
switch the menu options and
like
choose what kind of pizza slice that you want, but doing it actually on the physical table.
Yeah,
yeah. What I'm talking about is fundamentally removing this device- Yeah ... and saying like- The iPhone ... we operate without phones- Yeah ... and everything around us is completely augmented- Yeah ... [00:22:00] with AI, including the walls. Yeah. Um, but like pretty much every experience.
Like
why do we really need phones, right?
Like, I mean,
they're bad- Whoa ... for your neck, they're, you know- Yeah ... et cetera. Why can't my entire life,
what,
what's around me and what's, what I- The world ... what I spatially aware to- The world is your phone ... i- is just,
you know.
Shubh: World phone.
Ismail: World phone. So you walk in- I don't know what the name would be, but-
Shubh: World phone.
Philippe: So any room you walk into,
into,
you can-
Ismail: It just knows who you are It knows
Philippe: who
Ismail: you are and you can be like- You don't need your credit card 'cause you go to the cash counter and they already have you, you registered.
Your,
your name comes up or your, you have your finger ID. Obviously, there's a lot of compliance and regulatory issues around this, and there potentially could be obviously,
you know,
you've worked, um, in the banking sector.
But I just think like for the average consumer I feel like we're moving into a world where it's gonna be like that anyways.
I mean,
Elon Musk is talking about us all being unemployed over the next, like what? 20, 30 years.
Like, you know,
there's no currency - So if there's no physical currency, do we need anything physical?
Like,
can we just like- Jesus
you know?
That's what I'm- You're kinda wrong ... I know it's [00:23:00] wild, but like- You're kinda
Shubh: like-
Ismail: I just don't know
what that,
what that will be, but-
Philippe: Yeah
Ismail: you know,
I hope somebody builds it.
Philippe: Uh, there's a wall behind you. I'm just picturing
like,
uh- Yeah. Like me just
like, you know,
pretending I'm looking at you- My bio
and I'm just like watching-
Shubh: Actually, that would be pretty handy- Reels ... the wall, like a, people's bios, because we don't do any research, right? Like-
Right
yeah, that would be kinda handy.
Ismail: There you go. Um,
Shubh: you,
you're describing a lot of "Star Trek" type stuff.
Ismail: Oh, that's,
I mean,
that's what we're going
Shubh: for. Like nobody, like they don't carry around phones in "Star Trek."
Ismail: No.
Shubh: Like just when they gotta call each other, that's the only thing they use them
Philippe: for. No, but that's because it would make for horrible TV.
Like,
like people are just on their phones all the time. It's just
like...
Like in every, nearly every movie, they don't have people on phones.
Shubh: I think they're, um... We went and saw "The End of Oak Street," uh, in the theater last week, and, um, I think there's this thing where, uh, filmmakers really love making films set, like in the early '80s or mid '80s, partly because of nostalgia, but also because not having phones makes storytelling way easier.
Mm.
'Cause what do you,
in the,
in the [00:24:00] movies, it's always
like,
"Oh, my battery di-"
Like
they have to like address that because every problem can be solved basically with your phone.
Philippe: Especially horror movies, yeah.
Shubh: So I'm saying Ish's world phone goes out, you can't make any movies anymore.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: Because every character who's in trouble, it's like, "Oh no, I'm in trouble.
I can't get
hold of..."
And they just look at the wall beside them and they're like,
"Hey,
hey man, can somebody come help me?"
Philippe: The wall,
like,
turns into a life raft and-
Shubh: The wall- ... flies them out ... yeah. The,
like,
a ambulance comes out of the wall. Just teleport through. Everything, every... I like this idea that, ,
you know,
you talked a lot about restaurants.
Um, I will say though, I don't know how... That's a big leap. So
I'm,
I'm equal parts in AI,
like, I mean,
we use it, we built a company on the back of it basically-
Mm-hmm ... like,
uh, my partner and I. But also I'm, like, somewhat sometimes,
like,
skeptical's not the right word, but I'm like, "Hey, we got a long row to hoe before- Yeah
we can do some of this stuff."
Like,
we can talk about restaurants, like, recognizing me and,
like,
optimizing for my table and my experience. Listen, uh, [00:25:00] me and the family order sushi from the same neighborhood sushi place- Yeah ... every week. I have to repeat my order every fucking time for the last 10 years.
And they're great. I love this restaurant. The people are lovely, but I'm like, "Hey, man,
like,
sh- you should know at some point what we're ordering."
Mm.
It should come up when I call.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: It's like, "Hey, this is what Shubh orders."
Philippe: Yeah,
yeah.
Shubh: They don't have that. Just
Philippe: every week you have to relearn the difference between-
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah
Philippe: nigiri and-
Shubh: Yeah. And then I- But, but-
I,
I'm training their staff. I'll be like, "Hey, uh, could you
do
a plain udon soup?" They're like, "Ah, we don't have that on the menu." I'm like, "Trust me." "You can do it. You can do it for my..." But that, that's
Ismail: where the sort of archetype of,
,
AI- Yeah ... and,
like,
we just talked about,
like,
AI replacing humans in 10 years.
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah. But what would be... And I just commented
Ismail: on a,
on a blog this morning that was talking about this too,
like,
what levels the playing field? Like- Yeah ... what,
Yeah ... what,
what makes humans... So maybe it's the argument is that, hey, you actually maybe as a human- Yeah ... you enjoy that little bit of banter of like- Yeah
"Hey, no, you'll, you know what? Maybe you should get this order right." Oh, when people say AI automatically generates this podcast, I'm like, "I will never fucking listen to that," 'cause I like-
Shubh: Well,
you need people ... idiots talking.
You [00:26:00] know?
Philippe: That's right.
I mean,
yeah, I feel like-
You know?
I go to a restaurant because I wanna- You wanna experience that.
Yeah.
I,
I think seriously- So there's like a counterargument to it. Yeah. I'm just saying,
Ismail: like,
somebody's gonna come up with something at some point where,
you know, our, our, our,
our w- our entire world is augmented. Yeah. Forget,
like,
AR/VR goggles or glasses. It's like- Yeah ... ev- It might be Meta or it might be one of these companies that are already working at the frontier of- Yeah.
Philippe: I'm
so, I'm, I'm,
I'm so bearish on VR taking over the world.
Ismail: Mm.
Philippe: Yeah, you do hate VR. I don't think, I don't think anyone...
Like
maybe- Or
Shubh: AR
Philippe: AR Maybe I still,
like, I,
I don't know. Maybe AR if it's,
like,
seamlessly in- integrated into glasses.
Mm.
But VR, where you're just,
like,
living in these worlds
or,
or communicating...
I mean,
that's why Meta totally shaped, tota-
like,
Meta changed to Meta because they made a huge bet on the metaverse. Yeah, that's right.
Shubh: Mm-hmm.
Everybody kind of forgets about that, yeah. And lost billions of dollars on this play, and now totally pivoted away from it and is [00:27:00] now doing AI, right? It-- because they just did not see adoption in this space.
Philippe: Mm.
And I think we will continue to not see adoption. Yeah. Maybe gamers will... There will be some gamers, but-
Shubh: But you know
what's wild is I've been reading all this stuff about how video games are getting worse Because, um, studios are going to leverage AI to help design and build.
Ismail: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: And actually,
like,
there was, like, a whole thread on
NH-
the new NHL, EA NHL game came out, and,
like,
the visual graphics of the players was, like, worse than it was 10 years ago.
So I think there's this- Oh, wow ... weird, wild,
like...
I absolutely think that,
like,
listen, um, uh, speaking of taxes for your accountant, I had to prep my first corporate tax year end, and I was like: Oh, my God. Yeah, so I have built a little skill that,
like,
uh, so now next year when I do it-
Mm
it's gonna take me hopefully 20 minutes, right?
So I think there's incredible opportunities even for in your personal life. But I also think,
like,
it's creating this a bit... I don't back- there is some backlash. I don't mean the word backlash, but,
like,
this [00:28:00] physical interaction layer that people really want. I think,
you know,
like in BD and Demand Gen,
you know,
nothing's hotter than events right now, right?
Mm. Like,
if only I knew somebody that had an event company that would help me out,
you know,
maybe once in a while. Um- You've never asked for help.
Philippe: Hint,
hint. No,
Shubh: I mean,
I'm not a- I, yeah, I didn't think friends needed asked.
You know, how I,
how I... That's how I was raised. That's fine. That's how Ish and I grew up in Edmonton,
you know,
that we took care of each other.
Winnipeg,
I guess,
was a little more cutthroat. But, um, uh, yeah,
I,
I don't know.
I,
I think it's,
like,
interesting. I do... There's a part of me, 'cause, uh, I'm a huge "Star Trek" nerd that-
Mm
loves the concept of,
like, like,
the holodeck ki-
like,
idea or,
like,
I can interact with anything and I can get the answer. Um, as long as it can save me time to go hang out with people.
You know what I mean?
Ismail: Mm-hmm.
Philippe: Ish, can I ask you a question? This is a podcast. Yeah. And you're a co-host. Is the business idea... Because I don't know if you've pitched a business. You've just
sort of
spoken- [00:29:00] Yeah, it's- ... like in five years, the walls will talk to you. It's straight up just an idea. The man's a fucking visionary.
Shubh: He's just, he's just-
he's just pitching us a visionary idea. He was on driving up here, and he was like, he was just looking around. He was doing all right. He was looking around, and he was like: "Fuck, what if everything..."-- I know he didn't, but he's, maybe there was something in that matcha, 'cause you're just sitting there going: "What if..."
You literally at one point said: "What if everything was a phone?"
Philippe: Yeah. You walk on the concrete and it's going, "Ow, ow."
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. Get the fuck off
Ismail: me. I just-- Yeah,
I mean, I,
I,
Like,
to,
to,
to your guys' point, I feel like I am... The reason why I wanted to introduce this was actually to
kind of
challenge,
to,
to be challenged.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And,
and to hear,
like,
the more human element of how we're all thinking.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: So the, it's actually
kind of
cool because
the,
the reason why I shared it is because, not because,
like,
I actually think it'd be, like, a formidable model. Here's,
like,
the reverse engineering steps of, like, how to actually launch it.
Shubh: Yeah, just
Ismail: get your brain thinking about it. But it's like, hey, like, how would we even,
like,
if that's the world that we foresee, if it's truly the next decade that we're gonna lose to [00:30:00] AI-
Shubh: Yeah
Ismail: Isn't that gonna be inevitable? And
like,
uh, would that be the world that you, me, or Phil would wanna live in?
Like,
probably
Shubh: not
I,
I do like-- I will-- Yeah, I'm gonna give you some credit 'cause now you got me thinking about some physical AI.
Ismail: See?
Shubh: A couch So I'm sitting on a couch-
Ismail: Like furniture, exactly.
Shubh: I got a different... You-- Okay, so I went, um, I had an all-day appointment at the cardiologist on Wednesday.
Mm. It's cool. They told me I'm good. You're
Ismail: good?
Shubh: But, uh,
you know,
you get older and they're like: "Hey, maybe go,"
you know,
they put you the dye and you get on the treadmill, then
you,
you're there all day.
Yeah.
Philippe: Blood pressure stuff.
Shubh: And, uh, they got a lot of different sizes of chairs at the
cardiologist's
office.
Ismail: Mm.
Shubh: You know,
they got regular chairs, they got some, um, yeah, some wi-
some wider,
some wider chairs. That's a lot of different kinds of chairs. Or you get a couch, right? You got,
you know,
you got kids, right?
Like,
a kid can,
like,
on... Doesn't need a lot of surface area of a couch to be very comfortable. I need a lot of surface area on a couch to be comfortable.
Philippe: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: [00:31:00] What if the couch knew what, knew who I was, and it changed its configuration to make me more comfortable? Fuck you think about that? I've just taken issues-
like pie in the sky idea, Phil, and I've practicalized it.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: I have a couch.ai.
Ismail: I
I love
that. Look at that.
Philippe: That's pretty cool. I just-
Shubh: Hey, Matt, would you, uh, sit in a couch that, uh, was different for you than your buddies? Yeah, Matt says yeah.
He's,
You
he's-
Customer number
our first
Ismail: customer already.
Wow.
Philippe: I guess it is
like, you know,
y-
Shubh: Oh, he coming around. He's coming around.
Philippe: I'm just trying to... I'm going back to "Harry Potter" of
like,
"Harry Potter"- The
Shubh: stairs in "Harry Potter."
Philippe: The stairs in "Harry Potter," you could also,
like,
walk up to a couch and cast a spell and it, you change the shape. Yeah.
Right?
So like- But
Ismail: the pictures,
the pictures do speak to you in real time, and they give Harry clues on what his next- See,
Shubh: Ish knows what's up
like,
Ismail: You know?
So
I mean, I,
I think about the couch example of if
I,
I digress back to healthcare, and Ma- like you going through all these tests.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: If you're sitting on a couch, you're physically [00:32:00] on a couch. Could it be like haptic where,
like,
you're sitting on the couch and it's already recognizing your heart rate-
Shubh: Save a lot
Ismail: of time
your, your,
your pulse, your- Yeah ... X, Y, and Z before you
Shubh: even begin?
My body,
my body fat. I don't think I'd want that info, but yeah, it could give me that.
Ismail: You know?
Shubh: But all the adjusting they do to the physical in healthcare,
like,
uh,
you know,
unfortunately spent a bit of time in hospitals over the last couple years.
Like, you know,
they're adjusting
the,
the, everything needs to be adjusted or optimized for the patient. I am, like, now very bullish on AI-powered furniture-
Hmm ......that's
gonna adjust.
Ismail: Couch AI. Look at that, Phil. I feel like he's- Couch
Philippe: AI.
Shubh: I'm saying if you c-
we always,
we always buy sectionals and are like, and you can optimize-
Mm-hmm
and, and,
and move around the sectional to configure it for what you're doing. What that means
is,
is m- me has to pick up a bunch of heavy fucking furniture every time we wanna change something.
Ismail: Mm.
Shubh: I'm telling you guys, furniture that just,
like,
changes in [00:33:00] response to you and then potentially gives me some other information.
It's like: "Hey, Shubh, you've been watching sports for 11 straight hours."
Ismail: Dude.
Shubh: Maybe, like-
You know,
and you've just been eating nachos. Like maybe throw in a stick of celery,
you know?
Philippe: You want your coach to tell you that?
Shubh: Somebody's gotta tell me. I've proven incapable
of, of,
of self-regulating.
Philippe: The, the Kanye West line becomes so much worse.
It's like, "I wish my coach would tell me what I overate." But I
Ismail: think that's the thing, right? It's like the subtlety-- 'Cause this doesn't capture everything. My- Yeah ... we talked about wellness in
your,
your wellness facility, Phil. Yeah. Do you wanna plug
Shubh: Offline
Ismail: Wellness Club? Yeah. Offline Wellness Club.
Philippe: Offline
Shubh: Wellness Club, Calgary's hottest, uh, wellness club.
Philippe: That's right, because it's actually the-- and coldest.
Shubh: Oh. I
Philippe: don't know if that is- Yeah. Yeah ... or true at all, but- Yeah ... the cold tubs are very cold.
Shubh: Yeah. Let's say it is. Yeah. Who's gonna fact
Philippe: check this? Maybe the other wellness clubs. Come at us.
Shubh: But
to,
Ismail: to my point is that even wearables, right?
Like [00:34:00] why,
why do we need all this stuff, these gadgets?
And are they gonna be obsolete?
Like
if you look at the Oura Ring, Oura just IPO'd recently.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: Why are they IPO'ing right now? It's because they know that the , the curve is getting flat. It's because there's,
you know,
Google, there's Whoop, there's all these other competitors that are building wearable.
I think the next thing is what we can physically feel and touch-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Ismail: it can read. You go to a doctor's office, you should be able to get a full body scan the second you go through the door before the doctor even meets you. Yeah. Again- Absolutely not. Star
You, you-
Trek.
Shubh: Yeah, no,
No,
Phil, yes. Star Tre-
it's
Star Trek shit.
Ismail: You know what I mean? I mean- Yeah, absolutely not.
Well,
I'm
Shubh: with you.
Ismail: But why do we have clinics in London where you're paying 500 pounds to do
like
a full body assessment?
Shubh: Yeah, that's a deal then in Alberta.
Philippe: Yeah, I-- There's not a world I wanna live in where the couch is taking my blood pressure. See, there we go.
Well,
that's
Shubh: what I wanted to hear. Wait,
what I wanted to hear.
wait till you get older, brother, and you gotta take your blood pressure all the time. Uh, okay, listen. Do we leave room for the- When you first started this, I was like: Okay, this is too esoteric for me.
Ismail: Yeah,
Shubh: yeah. I'm a linear thinker.
Ismail: Mm.
Shubh: So I was like: [00:35:00] I can't, I don't know.
But then I looked at that couch over there, and I started to think about your physical idea, and now I'm just-- I know you're still talking about
big,
big visionary ideas. I'm literally thinking about a couch that molds- Oh, it's like literally an MVP ... that adjusts to my body- Yeah ... when I sit down. And I don't mean adjusts like the way your car seat does where it-
Mm
like just changes the angle. I mean it literally, it - it understands me.
Mm.
And not only that, it understands the activity I'm doing. When I'm reading, I need to be,
you know,
upright.
Ismail: Mm.
Shubh: When I'm watching like film, movies, you guys know movies? Uh, I need to be- Yeah ... fully reclined. DHS. If I'm watching sports, it understands I'm gonna be so stressed out.
Ismail: Yeah.
Shubh: You know,
I'm gonna be hunched over, and it's just gonna, it's gonna move to support me.
I,
I would like somebody to build couch.ai, the first physical manifestation of, uh, of-
Isha's-
Isha's world model.
Ismail: Well, we, we, we,
we should probably talk about the other idea because it's a little bit more-
Shubh: Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
Let's hit that one. Yeah. We only got about- It's a bit more- We only got about 10, [00:36:00] 15 minutes, so yeah.
yeah.
bit more
Philippe: realistic. Yeah. We
realistic. Yeah. We getta judge
this one.
Shubh: Uh, okay.
Well,
you go first.
Philippe: Uh, we judge it a 75 salsas.
Shubh: Yeah, 75 salsas.
Philippe: I think there's a world where, let's say North America or like Calgary or like Austin, for example.
Austin's gonna go all in on this, and I think people who want this-
Mm
can go to Austin
and,
and experience this. Um, I think Europe is gonna be really slow to adopt. They're not gonna get these weird couches, and that means I'm gonna spend way more time in Europe. I'll be like: "Get me away from these freaky couches."
Shubh: Yeah, and I'm gonna FaceTime you from my couch.
Philippe: Touch my butt and, or, or- Yeah.
Shubh: I actually won't even need to FaceTime you. I'll just go... The couch will know, "Hey, uh, you haven't talked to Philip in a while."
Philippe: Yeah. My couch is giving me a prostate exam,
you know?
I do not want this.
Shubh: Yeah. So
you're, you're a,
you're a hard, you're a hard no.
I'm a,
I'm a zero. Can you separate your- I'm a zero out of 75 on this idea
can you,
can you separate your personal feelings from
the,
the commercial opportunity?
Philippe: I don't even know if it's that high. I don't know.
Shubh: I am fucking telling you right [00:37:00] now rich people would buy an AI-enabled couch.
Philippe: I don't think so.
Shubh: Well,
agree to disagree.
Philippe: I think rich people already spend
like
40 grand on a couch.
Shubh: Yeah. And imagine- How much more are they gonna spend? ... you go to a rich person's house and you're there like, "This is a nice fucking couch." And you're like, "Yeah." And then you sit in it and they're like-- And you're like, "Why do I feel like this couch knows me?"
Philippe: Right.
It does.
Shubh: Yeah. I mean-
Philippe: All of a sudden a, a cigarette and a Coke come out
Shubh: of it.
I,
I'm, I, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna adjust my rating a little bit 'cause I had to help you get there. You know what I mean? Yeah. So if I just, if I give it a high rating, people are just gonna think-
Fair,
fair ... hey, Shubh's a narcissist.
Ismail: Fair.
Shubh: So I'm gonna give it a 50 out of 75, which is still pretty good.
Ismail: Is 75
that,
that's
Shubh: the- 75 is the pack. Is the- 75 is pretty good. 75 is the apex. So 50 is pretty good. 50, yeah. We're,
you know, I'm,
I'm an Indian dad, so 50
like, I mean, you know,
I judge harshly.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
Like,
uh, but I am now
very,
very gung-ho on physical AI in couch form.
I just talked to a guy I went to school with today. Uh, I [00:38:00] hadn't talked to him in
like
15 years. Uh,
you know,
I think I've done okay. This guy, uh, started India's first Bitcoin exchange. Wow. Uh, Uh, was head of BD at a company that just
like
went public, and now, uh, is, uh, have founded a robotics company.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna pitch, I'm gonna run couch AI by him. Do
Ismail: it up.
Philippe: Yeah,
Shubh: yeah.
yeah.
Philippe: All right. What's this other idea?
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. So the other idea- I'm gonna rapid fire this one. Yeah ...
Ismail: really quick. Um-
Philippe: This is
Ismail: the
Philippe: one for Shubh.
Ismail: This is
like
the- This is the thing ... you
know,
fancy brown community-
This is
Shubh: This is the, yeah
brothers with thing out there
with hang out. They'll
know
Ismail: what I'm talking about.
Shubh: And just so- I'll be quiet now ... just so like contextually, um, and Ish, I don't know if this is your experience. My dad worked for the federal government, was like a, a public servant. Uh, there was not a lot of entrepreneurship talk in our family.
Ismail: Mm.
Shubh: You would go to a, a party with Indian people or, uh,
or South,
or South Asians.
Mm. Right?
I wanna be inclusive. Uh, uh Oh,
Ismail: we have to be.
Shubh: Yeah.
yeah. In this day and age. Yeah. And everybody would like e- every second person had owned gas stations- Oh ... or owned, um... I once was at a party, I was like nine years old, [00:39:00] and the host, uh, introduced this guy and he was like, "This is, uh, Mr.,
uh, so and
so."
Yeah. "He owns lots of land." That's how this man was introduced to a group of people he didn't know at a party. Wow. This would be like Philippe, you-- I don't even know the,
like,
I would introduce you at a party, and I would just be like, "This is my friend Philippe. He hosts many events."
Ismail: Yeah,
Shubh: yeah.
It doesn't hit like he owns lots of land,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Owns
Philippe: lots of land.
Shubh: Yeah. That
Philippe: goes so hard.
Shubh: Yeah. Yes, he owns-- Even I could say, "Oh, Ish has, uh, started and helped build many companies." That does not resonate nearly as well as I-Ish owns lots of land.
Ismail: Yeah.
Shubh: Anyway, continue. Yeah. So this is the- So-
type of environment we grew up in, yeah.
Ismail: And I think that's great that you contextualize that. Yeah. Because it's getting into what I'm about to say.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: So there's this sort of community of aunties. So b-by the way, you think
that
that's something, uncles, aunt-aunties are even more notorious.
Yeah.
Right?
They got like a Rolodex of, uh,
you know,
[00:40:00] guys that they wanna introduce to their daughters- Yeah ... or their daughter's daughter or cousin's daughter. Actually, you could use an Indian auntie- It's like a whole network ...
Philippe: to find you dates.
I,
I, my sister-in-law is Indian, so I- A
Ismail: roster, man ... so I
Philippe: got some, uh You gotta
be
Shubh: real,
be real fucking careful about what you say.
But where- I got a lot of aunties in
my
now. Oh, yeah. Okay, good.
Ismail: But where I'm going with this is that they're actually a lot more than just that. Yeah. They're a lot more than just Seema Auntie- Yeah ... who's trying to get you hooked up with- Yeah ... their,
like,
long lost brother's son.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: One of the things that they do really well, and I'm talking about fintech, is there's this sort of concept of, - saving money- Yeah
in the Indian
and, and,
and Pakistani community, the South Asian community. And it's around this concept that's called committee. So if those you guys don't know, um, I'm actually, like, thinking about this and,
like,
if, when in When Ready becomes a
big,
big company and
we, we,
we get to the point where we're,
you know,
hopefully we can get to a point where we're large enough that we can be in the public market.
But, uh, my next thing would be something like this where[00:41:00]
they,
they
kind of
have these kind of mini communities in India and Pakistan, where there'll be, like, 12 families and they'll pitch money into a pool.
Shubh: Yes.
Ismail: Okay? And each of the family members will put in,
like,
100 bucks each, just say. Okay, or
let's,
let's raise the bar a little bit.
Let's do $1,000. There's 12 families, that's $12,000. And what they'll do is,
like,
once every month, one of them will pull out that money. Yeah. And they'll actually use it towards- Filipino community
Shubh: does this too, yeah ... a big
Ismail: expense. Big expense. So they'll buy, they'll either use it, "Oh, my son's getting married, so I need this money to pay for the son's down payment
on a,
on a home that they're purchasing because they're getting married."
And this happens a lot. It's rampant across our community. Yeah. So my idea is literally
would be,
would be called Community or Committee, and the whole concept is to use blockchain as a form of funneling the capital for these aunties, giving them a platform. Right now, they're not using a platform.
You should've,
you should've
Shubh: pitched this idea first.
Ismail: They,
they're... Yeah, probably. They're [00:42:00] using e-transfer- Yeah ... and liquid cash to move money around. Yeah. And they're doing it internationally. You know why Remitly's popping off? Yeah. It's not 'cause of the white folks. Sorry.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: It's the,
it's the brown folks. Yeah. It's the Asians. They're sending money cross border.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And the reason why they're doing it is because oftentimes, and
I'm,
I'm sure if you were to do a bit more of a d- deeper dive, it's because it's either an emergency fund, someone's getting a gift, and the third one is they're doing it for committee.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: And it's literally a known fact. And so my concept is to launch a committee community and give these aunts, aunties, or these people, billions of people by the way, a platform to be able to share leveraged capital on the blockchain.
And so the blockchain would be responsible for segregating it to ensure that the transactions taking place are clear and true, and they're not falsified. And
that's my,
that's my idea.
Shubh: I think there's a- It's a great idea ... I think there's a B2B angle here too, as like an employee benefit [00:43:00] angle where employees can basically contribute and then there's this,
like,
pool.
And people always go,
"Well,
why would you need this? Why can't you just put your own money away?" Uh, but the difference is you get access to potential capital way faster, right?
Mm-hmm. Like,
so like imagine... Now it's of course different if you're the, if there's 12 of you and you're in the 12th month, but if you're in month one or two and that big expense comes up, now you're not taking like a,
you know,
potentially-
high interest
product or predatory loan product.
Like,
um, yeah, I love this idea a lot. And it's
Very,
very common in like sort of i-immigrant communities here, uh, across the board, right?
Mm-hmm.
The Filipino community, other communities like- Even here in Canada ... they
Ismail: they
put this stuff together
Like,
in
in Thorncliffe, I could put together an entire apartment building that has- Yeah
65 stories. Yeah.
You know,
5,000 people living in there. Each of those families are doing that. Yeah.
You know?
They're--
And,
and
they,
they have enough to put $1,000 aside. Yeah. But they don't have enough to make that 20 grand expense. Yeah. And- But if they do a committee over two [00:44:00] years- Yeah ... they could run that number, and they can pull out when it's time, and they can have enough money for, uh, Miriam's wedding.
Shubh: Yeah. And the reason you platform this is there have been, are cases where sometimes the administrator of those funds does not operate in the most aboveboard way. Is that true? Sorry, but like, they-- There's mismanagement of funds.
Yeah.
Ismail: Right?
And
it happens so,
it happens so openly. There's probably a whole concept around that.
Shubh: Yeah,
Ismail: yeah. But
like,
you're right.
Shubh: Yeah. Uh, I think this is a really good idea. I think people would subscribe. I think there's a commercial opportunity. I think
there's a,
there's a benefit,
,
To people opportunity, right?
Mm.
Like,
if you can, um... It's like a cooperative almost, right?
Like,
um, uh... Yeah, I actually literally was talking to somebody about this idea, do- doing it from a B2B perspective. I was like: Hey, what about if every employee could basically say:
'You
know what? I'm gonna opt into this program where 10 bucks from my paycheck goes into this pool."
Ismail: Yeah. And if someone has an emergency expense, like especially in the US, like it's often medical related, like they can access this pool, [00:45:00] right? Um, um, yeah, man, this is a-- I like this idea. And even like maybe like net neutral interest, maybe interest over time- Yeah ... it probably would accrue to make money off of the platform.
But like that's the whole point.
Shubh: Well,
we could just put all these funds in a Venn account and earn 3.5% interest. There you go.
Ismail: right.
Shout out Venn. Shout out Venn. That's a good Canadian company. Yeah. What do you got for this one? Any questions? Uh, no, this is great. I love it. I know your people don't like to help each other out.
Philippe: Yeah.
I'm,
I'm just going like,
"What,
what's the game theory of this?"
Like, do we,
do we just go and
like,
withdraw the funds? I got you talking about physical AI. You're thinking about game theory now.
Ismail: See,
see how I set that up? Yeah. Oh, I'd use it to buy my AI couch. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Take all the funds.
Philippe: Yeah. I can't put this shit on layaway. It's an AI couch,
you know what I mean? Like...
No, but that's good. I'm cur-- Like, that's super interesting
that,
that this is a real thing that happens. Oh, big problem, man. And just facilitating it. Big problem. So I think it makes sense.
Like,
I think this is a 65 salsa idea for me.
Shubh: Yeah, I would go 68 salsas. Oh. You should've started with this one.
Ismail: I, [00:46:00] I,
I,
you know,
I
kind of
teed you guys up. Oh, you sandbag, you sandbagging son of a bitch.
I wanted you, I wanted you,
I wanted you guys to start thinking a little crazy- Yeah. ... and then be like: "Okay, here's a bit more of a realistic-
Yeah,
yeah.
achievable now today if I were to launch it." You wanted to get, you wanted Phil to get distracted by all these walls. And then while he was distracted, you hit him with the proper idea.
Phil was like,
Phil was like: "What's this guy on?"
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah. He was getting legitimately angry. He was like: "I'm not fucking using AI in my house."
And then he was like: "Oh, but this thing sounds cool." Yeah. Yeah. So
you,
you totally... That's how, see, that's why he can sell. That's right. Yeah.
He,
he just played- The angle ... he play, he just played a long game for- The long game. Hit you with 20 minutes of an idea you didn't like. And then just closed you an idea.
He, the, he closed you on the actual idea. Yeah, exactly. No, that is a good idea. You should do that one. I think Phil would write me a check for that, at least. I would. There you go. For which one? For the second There you go. Uh, Ishman- Definitely not the wellness one.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I don't think, yeah. Uh, buddy, I can't-- I know this was a long time coming.
I know I was really- No worries ... delinquent getting back to you. I [00:47:00] had s- as
you know,
I had some stuff going on. Yeah. But, uh- Hope things are okay. Things are good.
Ismail: You're, you're,
you're doing well. Um, things are good. Uh, Rita, uh, Rita update, she went back to work this week. Nice. So
Shubh: like,
uh, uh, I think that's a double-edged sword- Proud of you, bro
'cause she's-- Well, yeah, I- Yeah. Don't be proud of me.
I know,
I know. Honestly, like it's, uh- But, uh, I think it's a double-edged sword. She was like very,
like, you know,
you go through something like this, it's incredible. She's gone back- Yeah ... but at the same time she was like, "Working?" Yeah. You know what's better than working?
Philippe: Cancer. Not working. Oh, straight. Fuck. Not-- I was gonna say not working. I might keep that in, though. That's pretty funny. Uh, but I do really appreciate it. I know you jumped- Of course ... in a car here super early. Uh, we're gonna have you back now that I figured out I don't have enough people of color on this podcast, I realized.
Shubh: Uh, um, uh- I'd love that ... but yeah, man, congratulations with everything with Ready AI so far. Uh-, I'll connect with you,
like,
once I get the revised pitch, let me know how I can be helpful- Yeah ... 'cause,
like,
obviously there's lots of intros I think I could help with.
Yeah,
yeah. And, [00:48:00] uh, um, damn it. We're actually
Ismail: going up to Banff right now for a conference that's hosted by one of our partners.
Shubh: Oh, sweet.
Ismail: Pharmacy Brands Canada, shout out to them. They've got- Yeah
like
500 pharmacists. PBI, BBC. BBC.
Shubh: BBC.
Ismail: They've got,
like,
500 pharmacists and clinicians coming. And,
like,
they're basically all of our customers, so we're just- Yeah ... we're gonna-
Shubh: So you're gonna be in pure- Hopefully have a field day
field day ... pure
sales mode.
Ismail: Yeah. Sales,
Philippe: sales, sales.
Shubh: You
Ismail: I was-- That's why I'm warming myself up here. How
Shubh: many deals you gonna come back with? 30?
Ismail: So there's... Actually, a great question. There's 500 store- Yeah ... owners coming.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: So I told the team,
like,
if we can't close a quarter of that, then-
Shubh: Yeah. Are you gonna close some-- You know what?
Uh, you know when the, uh, I know we gotta go here, but, uh, you know what,
like,
physical, uh, trade shows, stuff like oil and gas, they would literally,
like,
close people on the floor. And then in our world, in tech, you never closed anybody on the floor. You just,
like,
got a card.
I remember one time at ZayZoon, we literally got an agreement signed at a conference, and I was like- Yeah ... "This is unbelievable." That's so fun. You're gonna, you're gonna close somebody on the floor.
Ismail: 100%. Yeah.
Shubh: I,
hope-
I want an update. I would like you to text us an update and be like, "Hey, I closed somebody on the floor," or, "I came home with [00:49:00] 20 leads."
Like,
one of the two. Yeah. Both would be good outcomes.
Ismail: I convinced a pharmacist to put physical AI on their wall.
Shubh: Yeah,
yeah. That's right. Yeah. Hey, suck it, Phil. Take a picture of a wall at the conference that's all like, it tells you what, where your booth is automatically.
Ismail: You know,
you know what's the funniest thing?
I like
when,
when VCs, and I used to be this VC, it's like,
"You know,
I like the idea, but,
a-
a- and I'm sure there's a lot of meat to it, but
for, for,
for now, it probably won't work out."
Shubh: Yeah,
Ismail: yeah.
Shubh: Or-
Ismail: It's one of
Shubh: those from Phil ... or just keep
Ismail: us, yeah, keep, like- Yeah. I like, I like the concept, but
like- Yes ...totally agree with that. Yeah, I like, I like the concept, but
Shubh: like-
You know
what?
I'd love to hear back from you in a year- Yeah, I'd love to hear back from you ... as you
you in a year- Yeah, he'd love to hear back from you ... as you get
further along.
Or,
or actually,
you know,
I don't know if that's right for this fund.
Ismail: Yeah.
Shubh: But you know whose fund you should talk to?
Ismail: Yeah.
Or,
or
I,
I might be wrong. I might be-
Shubh: Yeah ... it's a- Have you seen that girl that's like- I, I-
I can't see it ... I
Ismail: might be wrong.
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: You seen that,
you seen that
Shubh: girl who's like,
Ismail: she
kind of
does,
like,
corporate lingo and,
like,
moves?
Shubh: Yeah.
Ismail: That's like a, "I might be wrong."
Shubh: Yeah. I don't see it today, but- You
Ismail: don't see it today ...
Shubh: you know what? I've been wrong many times before. [00:50:00] But I see it in couch form.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: So I'm on board.
Philippe: Get these couches
Shubh: on our face. Ish, thanks again, buddy. We'll be in touch- Thank you, guys ... soon, pal. I really appreciate
Ismail: it.
Yeah, I know. I
appreciate the time. Yeah,
Philippe: this was great. Thanks
Ismail: for coming on. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, looking forward to the next one.
Shubh: That's a wrap.
Ismail: Boom.
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