Behind the Scenes: The Integrated Communications Strategy for Intel’s RealSense Launch

0:05 I’m Eric Chemi. And this is Politely Pushy. Welcome to Politely Pushy, folks. I’m your host as always, Eric Chemi. I

0:11 think today is the most number of guests we’ve ever had on the show. We’ve got five other people here with me. We got

0:17 all the boxes going here. The uh the Hex box or whatever we call this today.

0:22 And our our guest of honor is Mike Nielsen from Real Sense that just got spun out from Intel. Bospar was the

0:29 company that helped them tell the world that we are now a new company. We are no longer part of Intel. We’ve got

0:35 different funding. We’ve got a whole new management team and we’re off to the races here and we’ve got four of my Bospar colleagues that helped them, you

0:42 know, get those training wheels off and and get going and launching. So, first I’ll just bring Mike right in here.

0:49 What was that like? What is it like to leave the mothership of of Intel and and go off onto your own and you think

0:56 you’re jumping off a cliff here and and you’ve got people like us hopefully helping you do that.

1:01 It was a wild ride. I was joking yesterday. I can’t remember who was talking to but I was joking with somebody actually on this team that the

1:08 last six months were just absolute frenzy. And now that I’m only doing like

1:13 one or two day jobs, it actually feels like time slowed down to a glacial pace. So, it’s a little bit weird right now in that transitional period where we’re

1:19 like, you know, what are we supposed to be doing because we’re not doing 15 different things a day. Um, you know,

1:25 it’s you for number one, you guys were instrumental. It it’s not just like we we hired a media agency. You guys were

1:30 absolutely instrumental in doing this, but it was like being fired from a cannon because we had to build everything from scratch. what our

1:36 situation just for some background uh back when we were at Intel we we didn’t really have, because Intel’s a very big

1:43 company with a lot of big priorities and a whole marketing group we didn’t have latitude to do the kind of things that we needed to as a company anyway as a

1:50 small company um so we basically had to build the infrastructure while we were

1:56 trying to get it out the door and then we had to launch the thing through the cannon and then be on the receiving end

2:03 to make sure we caught everything when when bits were falling out of the skies So it was the ride was bananas. Um but

2:10 you guys crushed it. So I mean it was it was super easy for a lot in a lot of ways it was it was absolutely painless

2:15 and actually bit of an admission. I think some of you would already probably

2:20 laugh and or know this is coming but I’m a little paranoid. So in the absence of having like absolute control over what

2:26 was going on um I just had to have trust and faith and it worked because like I said you guys crushed it. Thanks.

2:32 And I think you having that sorry trust and faith in us made a really big difference because you you took our

2:38 counsel. You didn’t you know argue with us. You trusted us and that made the part the part partnership really work.

2:45 Agreed. And it was a pleasure to work with you and your team. And I think from the get-go we were just strategic and

2:51 how we pulled this off and put it together. You know we were very quiet on the PR side. We were much louder on

2:58 social and content and really figuring out and navigating who our subject

3:03 matter experts are, who we’re going to put forth for technology interviews, for marketing, for business. And so we

3:09 really took time um to ensure that we have one moment in time to get our

3:15 launch right and this is it. So we’re not going to rush through it. Um we

3:20 strategized. Yep. What was the big challenge though? because we knew a few months ago, hey,

3:27 Intel’s going to do this. We just don’t know exactly when and how. Intel’s going to send you guys off. So, what was the

3:33 challenge? Was it to publicize things? Was it to keep certain things secret? Because half the information is already

3:40 kind of out there. Maybe there’s rumors. What were you most afraid of? I mean, it’s we could spend the next six

3:47 hours going through my list of fears on that launch, but um the biggest ones I think you already said it. It was the

3:53 the intersection of timing, right? So, we had a combination of

3:58 the um the early kind of pre-announce that we did back in January where we let the market know, hey, we’re coming out,

4:03 blah, blah, blah. Um then we had the full six-month run up

4:08 to get everything prepped and out the door. And as we got down to the wire, we started off every prep call every

4:14 Wednesday with a we is that still the date, guys? Cuz you last said you weren’t sure about the date and we’re

4:19 like 100% still the date until it wasn’t. And that I knew you saw it coming. So I didn’t don’t think I

4:24 surprised anyone by surprising people. But we knew it was going to probably wiggle and when it did u that was the

4:30 biggest stress point because we number one we wanted to hit as hard as we could

4:36 because we had to combat some FUD that had been out there for the better part of four years. Um, people misinterpreted

4:44 and miscommunicated that Real Sense was going away and that made it frankly a gigantic pain in the in the words I’m

4:51not supposed to use in this the podcast that we were dead and we had to combat

4:56 that. We simultaneously had to make sure that we hit the deadlines that we needed to to make sure we satisfied what Intel

5:02 needed. So, we had a those those wiggle dates and then at the same time our employees were super stoked. Like

5:09 everybody was excited and there was zero literally zero chance I was keeping people quiet over a weekend.

5:14 Yeah. So, we we had that conversation like, “Okay guys, Friday is the day. Are we sure about this?”

5:20 And like you guys gave us the counsel like look that Friday we’re going to make Friday work. And I’m still kind of

5:26 stunned by the results. Not just because it was a Friday, but just the results overall. But it was all the things lining up. Intel had to come in. We had

5:32 to nail it. Employees had to like behave themselves and like maintain their excitement at least for like five more hours. So all that stuff and then we’re

5:40 launching the website. You guys launched the socials. We launched the um you did a bunch of the prep work with the media.

5:45 A bunch of the stories hit. I was simultaneously trying to launch stuff in China. So all those kind of came

5:51 together at right right time and that was um it was a hairy couple of days.

5:56 Skyler, what was the social the social pressure when you got FUD that you’re fighting off from a few years? Like, is

6:02 this company even still around? Like, what do you mean they’re spinning off? I bet they disappeared. And I I I bet a

6:07 lot of social is just filled with misinformation that you’re trying to battle. We actually didn’t see that much

6:12 conversation happening on social. It was more of the prep to get to where we

6:18 needed to be. So, coordinating across like several time zones in order to make sure that everyone could post at the

6:25 right time and make sure it was all good. And then figuring out where we wanted to be, how we wanted to be there.

6:31 We looked at every single channel that we could possibly be on and decided on

6:38 LinkedIn was our main one and we also had YouTube and Discord and Reddit and all these other things. So making sure

6:44 we had all of our ducks in a row was most important and then day of it was pretty seamless I would say getting

6:51 everything up. Yep. You made you guys made it painless. It was funny cuz I’m just looking back

6:57 now to that that last compression period and we had I mean you were turning on

7:03 the social channels. We were turning on the CEO channels. All the executive team was modifying bios. The LinkedIn page

7:09 didn’t exist. The YouTube page had to be rebranded. Um we’re we’re doing what we’re doing with Twitter and Blue Sky

7:14 and um everything else and everything. I don’t know actually question. How much more complicated was this lift out than

7:21 a typical launch that you guys would manage? Um, from a social perspective, it was

7:28 pretty straightforward in terms of we know what we need to do. It was just the

7:34 scale of it because this was a bigger deal. You were spinning out of Intel.

7:39 So, you had nothing. There was you had Intel Real Sense channels, but not Real Sense channels. Especially with

7:44 LinkedIn, there was nothing. So, did they let you port those over or they were like, “Sorry, buzz off. Start from

7:51 zero. Build your own.” No, we were able to get ownership of Okay. In sense, and we just had to

7:57 adjust all of the names and branding and everything, which we had pre-approved

8:03 bios, cover photos, profiles, everything was approved and ready to go. It was just a matter of switching it all over.

8:10 But um I think my favorite part of the launch was secretly launching the um LinkedIn page the day before. Um and

8:18 then seeing it just explode on the day was crazy. And I I think too, Mike, I mean you guys

8:26 were spinning out from a legacy brand. So it was also just more so reinforcing

8:32 your credibility in that AI and robotics space. Um, and so that’s unique to some

8:40 of the launches that we’ve supported here in the past. Okay. Yeah, it’s um it it’s funny. I’ I’ve

8:47 been Mark and I have been working together for a long time. You guys know Mark Yahiro. Um it so Mark in the

8:52 past we’ve set some aggressive goals and then we crush them and like he’d call me a sandbagger. So it’s just become a

8:58 running joke now that I sandbag all the results. So what was Skyler? What was our target? 1500 in six months. Yes, our

9:05 goal is 1500. Um I actually checked this morning. We’re at 2,000. So that out of

9:11 the water in the first week. Our 90day or yeah, our 90-day KPI was 500. That

9:18 was we were at 700 by the end of the day on the first day. So we lowballed

9:24 ourselves to put it nicely. And I didn’t think you guys were sandbagging either. That’s the funny thing. It just um I’m getting some crap

9:31 internally because it’s funny now. But yeah, we hit the six-month KPI in six days.

9:36 Yeah. Nick, how did you figure out, you know, who are the outlets we want to get after? Who do we want to target? Who do

9:42 we want to, you know, maybe leave behind on this? Because obviously, you want to divvy out that news to the right people

9:47 at the right time. So, it’s actually interesting because in December, I actually worked with a

9:54 robotics company that we helped with their launch and their funding. Um, and this is where I give Mike credit because

9:59 we kind of told him like, listen, we need like a three week runway to get going because the way the media has

10:05 been, you know, funding stories in less than two weeks have been a little difficult to secure. Um, so I had worked

10:12 with a few different reporters back in December who were like, “This is interesting, but it’s not totally what

10:18 we can do right now.” You know, it’s it’s around Christmas time, the holidays, not enough of a long runway.

10:24 So I was able to actually go back to, you know, my contacts at TechCrunch, Bloomberg, CNBC, and be like and start

10:30 like soft sounding a little bit. And I was like, “Hey, like this is news that’s going to be coming soon. Would you be interested?” And luckily Mike was able

10:37 to get us uh quick approval on the press release Joe had drafted. So we were able to do that outreach early. Um and

10:44 honestly, come come outreach time, it was pretty easy. I mean, you have human

10:49 robotics, which is already so interesting, but then you also have the spinning off of Intel part of it. Um, so

10:55 I mean, our first little bit of outreach, it was, you know, we had Tech Crunch almost right away. Um, Becca,

11:01 she’s a great reporter there. But then, you know, I kind of started playing with our subject lines. I kind of played with the news a little bit, like, hey, like

11:08 human robots are coming, old Intel companies ready to to launch. And that’s where, you know, interest really flew

11:15 in. I remember, you know, up until that Friday, which, you know, we always try to avoid Fridays, but luckily it worked

11:21 out for us. Um, I like Thursday night, I was texting Mike, “Hey, Mike, you have pictures?” “Hey, hey, my tech crunch

11:27 wants TechCrunch wants to go live at 6:00 a.m. I need I need a photo.” So, I I mean, I think it was 11:00.

11:33 Was there no photo ready before that? It seems like we should have had that ready to go before Thursday night, right?

11:38 Uh, so we had photos, but then they wanted like very specific technology photos. Um, that’s where TechCrunch came in.

11:44 And I remember like I’m trying to navigate like three different top tier reporters all at once like what time can

11:50 we go live? What time go live? I’m like well luckily for you 6 a.m. is when the release goes live. So anytime after 6

11:57 a.m. is all you. And then that’s where Skyler slapped me at 6:05. I was like CNBC TechCrunch and Reuters

12:04 sending in the links in the channel like right away. I was like well I’m here. How little sleep. How little sleep were

12:10 you guys getting that night? You know, I I pride myself on getting nice sleep.

12:16 Um, I still got about six hours. I was up by I think I think I was up by like sixish because scholar was like surprised I was awake and I’m like,

12:22 “Hey, I got a job to do here, too.” I’m surprised. I thought you’d say, “No, I was up at 4.

12:27 I was ready to go. You can’t tell Mike you were up after.” Well, the West Coast teams were up at 3:00 a.m.

12:34 We were up early. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, luckily for me, it’s it’s easy to just wake up and get going. But,

12:42 uh, yeah, I I I wanted to be ready for when the press release went live itself, too, just to share that over. Um, so I I

12:48 it was very very easy for me to just, you know, log. I was I feel like that anticipation the night before, like, you

12:53 know, kind of keeps you up and you’re like thinking about it a little bit. So, I was ready to go come six, like the first day of school.

13:00 I think I think it’s worth mentioning too, right? The July 11th was a Friday.

13:05 The week before was July 4th. Everyone was off. There were many folks who took that that next week, the week that we

13:12 were pitching in advanced outreach. Uh they were off. Um so you know

13:17 journalists news rooms were were smaller um limited capacity and the news was so

13:24 good and our relationships that it it didn’t stop the coverage. It didn’t impact lack of coverage.

13:31 Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s there there was some magic involved here. I I don’t know what dark arts you guys practice in your

13:37 spare time, but I mean that we we know that we’re in a cool space and we we’re pretty excited about what we do, right?

13:42 But that’s not enough. There’s some more magic that has to go into it and whatever you did. Again, I don’t know how that works, but I’m not even going

13:48 to question it because I don’t want to I don’t want to doom anything in the future. But it was clearly your

13:53 relationships, you know, how to manage the media on both social and on um traditional channels, right? So, um

14:00 people showed up. I mean, you guys obviously showed up, but the everybody else showed up and was excited about the story. And I think we had cool news to

14:06 tell, but I mean that I’d love to take full credit like, oh, our news is was amazing. It’s like, no, it was it was

14:12 interesting, but there was the execution of that at that point in time with what

14:17 else is going on in the market was just it was flawless. So, I think we can give some credit to Erin

14:22 there as well. She definitely uh had her motivation tactics.

14:28 She was like, “Keep going. Let’s get everything. Let’s let’s secure as much meat as we possibly can.

14:33 She was being politely pushy. There you go. There you go. There is something to say about Nadav

14:39 and your willingness to just jump on these calls. I mean, it was the week before, like the week of

14:45 and a lot of our reporter friends were like, “Hey, I can do this time.” Nadav was willing, you know?

14:52 Yeah. From time zone to hop on and have these calls. And he was very, very good in the interviews. I

14:57 mean I every call he’d be like I think my my the best part is that my team is awesome and you know these are and these

15:04 ended up being kind of profile pieces so you know highlighting the team highlighting the technology it’s great

15:09 it was great how well spoken he was it really made our lives easy as well yeah people got really excited for it

15:15 internally I mean we we got everybody prepped there’s some folks obviously who hadn’t done a lot of media work before um but I and Nadav is one of them he

15:22 hadn’t done a lot before but he kind of crushed it I thought it was great and he seemed excited he was a little bit hesitant in the beginning, but then you

15:28 got into a rhythm and just it was it was fantastic. But, you know, we had a lot of discussions internally like, Guys,

15:33 it’s it’s not that we only get one shot to go talk to the market, but this is a big shot that we’re taking. So, let’s all show up here and and but

15:40 he was, you know, he was traveling international, so he’s doing whatever the 1 a.m. calls we set up for him.

15:45 Yeah. I mean, that’s it’s good that Eric helped. Eric was the one who was doing a lot of that media training with us. So,

15:50 he was able to, you know, jump in on and a lot of these executives and really, you know, push them to be their

15:56 best. Well, I’m curious for all these guys, right? You’re all in a way getting a

16:01 promotion, right? When you go from a giant company to a small company, everyone who’s now a C-suite person was

16:08 not a C-suite person because you were just part of a giant corporation. And so what was that that change like for you,

16:14 Mike, to make sure people understood, hey, you’re going to go from kind of somewhere in the middle of management at

16:21 giant Intel to like, no, you’re the CXO, you’re the C something O of this company.

16:26 All these on you think about a lot of these billion and trillion dollar companies, only one or two people talk

16:31 to the media. So if you’re a few levels down, like forget it. And now now you’re that guy. So I can see why people have

16:38 never had that experience before. They’ve never talked to the press. They’ve never had training. And now boom. There’s no graduate. No gradual

16:45 change. It’s just boom, here you go. You just go do it. I think that the reality of that that

16:51 lack of buffer has now finally hit and has settled in and the team’s getting into a groove. I mean, people are starting to feel a lot more confident

16:57 that like look, we don’t have to not only do we not have to deal with the burden of being a large

17:02 company, which strips away like, you know, we we call it the tax. It’s a corporate tax. you spend half or

17:08 2/3 of your time, 3/4 of your time dealing with things to make sure that you can operate into big company and people are I think our team

17:15 now is like we’re getting into a groove. Um a few of us had been both startup and big company land so it’s easy to

17:20 navigate back and forth but having that disappear and just knowing that like you said the training wheels are off so just

17:26 go and somebody asked me this morning like hey can we do so and so like why you ask me that question there is no can we of course we can is it a good idea

17:32 that’s the question we need to ask right and I guess you know the big question is

17:38 like now that we’re out there right like what happens next and you know to sustain the momentum the conversation to

17:45 keep real sense top of mind, we are actively pitching approved case studies.

17:50 Um Joanne had a big hand in that um drafting the case studies for us. Um getting them approved and so now we are

17:57 out there. We’re aggressively out there um securing interviews. Um and yeah, I

18:03 mean we’re not done. We’re just getting started. So I think there’s something that you guys do that again it’s kind of magical.

18:08 It’s I you talk about it a lot and then the way that you do it is it’s super

18:14 fluid and natural in terms of I’ll just say newsjacking broadly but it’s not exactly what I’m going for. Um it’s

18:19 around just around kind of getting in not just involved in but owning the conversation and the discussions that

18:25 we’re having about what’s coming out next and and the points in time and how they map to the reality of the world as opposed to hey look at our cool robotics

18:32 technology. um that is something that can amplify. We have I’ve worked with a

18:39 lot of different groups. It’s really hard to get that right and you guys are pushing us hard to get into that mindset. I think a few of us have

18:45 finally gotten there. I know I’m there now. I’m with you and I’m riding shotgun. But um I think that because it

18:52 is slightly pushy. You’re pushing us and we’re learning and I think we’re getting pretty good at uh keeping up.

18:58 It sounds like you’re saying we’re getting annoyed. It sounds You’re bothering us. That’s what I’m

19:04 hearing. Especially Aaron. Usually Nick. No, no, no. It’s uh it’s

19:11 Skyler and Joanne are fine. They’re not bothering Mike. They’re okay. No, no. We bother him. I’m texting him

19:17 all the time. Where’s this? Where’s that? Half my text messages are uh So, you

19:25 guys okay if we do this? No. No. Because it it it pushes us again. We’ve got to crack some mentalities that we’ve had for a long time. I mean, we’ve done this

19:32 is a market that we’re in that is moving stupid fast and we are in in in some

19:39 ways we’re leading because we of the tech that we make and sometimes we’re just holding on for dear life because we’re watching customers move at warp

19:45 speed and you guys are kind of helping us navigate that um and staying relevant in the conversation while we’re also

19:52 having active discussions about hey what is the human what should the humanoid market be? Like we’re literally having

19:58 we had that Nadav and I were talking this morning like what do we think the market needs to be in five years and we’re going to play a part of that but we

20:04 think we should actually try to lead it and then you guys are taking us down the and here’s how it’s going to intersect with reality. So it’s it it it it’s

20:11 really you’re providing I think a lot more guidance to our strategy than you

20:16 even know at this point just because of the nature of how we’re having the conversations with and through you.

20:21 Yeah. I mean, I think when you talk about like those trends, like, you know, we just did some some media outreach

20:27 around like those delivery robots. I mean, you kind of want to relate this to the everyday person. So, I mean, people

20:35 like ordering food for delivery. That’s important. When we do our outreach with case studies that involve medical

20:40 devices, that’s something that everyone at some point, you know, typically gets involved in. our our new outreach

20:47 around, you know, farming shortages. That’s something that is important because that’s something that, you know,

20:52 we can relate to across the whole country, globe, whatever. There there are so many stories to tell there. And

20:59 this is how we get, you know, real sets into that conversation. That’s also a big part of our social

21:04 strategy that we were kind of hinting at when we originally put it together was we have Chris and we have all these

21:12 different conversations happening on Discord, Reddit, all of these different places that while we’re not outright

21:20 owning those conversations, we are helping guide Chris with those conversations and we’re watching those

21:27 conversations happen and pulling in the most talked about topics. to see how we

21:32 can translate that to social and how we can incorporate real senses voice into

21:38 those already trending discussions. And then for the case studies, a lot, you know, we’re focusing on the the good

21:44 that’s coming out of using this technology. You know, we’ve had these discussions where a lot of people are

21:50 afraid of robots, right? They fear what’s happening. But because there are we have so many use cases where we can

21:56 show real good is happening. Yeah. And we Yeah. We’re really emphasizing that as well. And

22:02 I think the great part is that robotics is just interesting. I mean, Mike, you were on that interview yesterday for

22:08 what an extra 15-20 minutes just just talking. Emily had to come back on after you had to bail to to cutting it off, guys.

22:15 Even today, I was on that interview with uh Roy and Guy, and it was a 30-minute interview. It went over an hour.

22:22 Same with uh the one that Chris did. you know, reporters, media, consumers,

22:27 everyone is interested in this stuff because it’s kind of what we all grew up watching. It’s like this is like the

22:33 future’s here and it’s it’s kind of easy to to talk about that when, you know,

22:38 you’re so willing to talk about it as well. It’s cool because the like the way I’m pointing where you guys are on my

22:43 screen, by the way, the way that Joanne writes and the way that Skylar and Nick communicate and the way we’re getting

22:49 guided by by Aaron and by Emily and by everybody else, I don’t know how

22:54 deliberate you guys are in that, but it I you know that there’s a pretty consistent through line, right? Like it’s

23:00 it clearly threads. I don’t know if you’re talking about in advance or if you got some kind of weird mind going on, but they the way that it all kind of

23:08 bounces off of each other and it happens quickly. So, it’s not like let’s spend six weeks trying to figure out strategy. It’s just there’s a really natural this

23:15 is what the customer is saying. This is where the market’s at. Here’s how we’re going to communicate it. And that thread

23:20 is super clean. U that’s hard to do. It’s like not most people can’t tie that

23:26 together that easily. It just it seems seamless from my perspective. Maybe it’s totally normal for you guys and you’re like, “Mike’s an idiot, so ignore him.”

23:32 But it’s for me, this is actually kind of magical. Um because like I said, not many people can actually thread that

23:37 through that quickly, especially because you’re not you’re not roboticists. You guys aren’t as nerdy as we are

23:42 thankfully. Um but we’re dealing with the the literally the bits and bites of it every day. And to see it land that way is

23:50 cool. I think it’s an extra credit to our team though because we actually just work so well together. I mean, a lot of our

23:56 conversations that we’re having not aren’t even necessarily about messaging or about our tactics. I mean, a lot of

24:03 our conversations are Slack or me making fun of Skyler. I mean, it’s Well, we you

24:08 I think the way it happened that this the way this team was put together, we all compliment each other really well and that that helps, too. I think we

24:15 just all work well together. That’s including you. I agree. Yeah.

24:21 What were some challenges where it didn’t work out? where there was a disagreement or maybe maybe Mike and the

24:28 team just sort of didn’t see eye to eye on a particular tactic or strategy. I don’t know if anyone’s going to admit to anything like that.

24:34 Well, I would say in the beginning when we were talking about the press release, Mike was a little hesitant about releasing the funding amount.

24:42 Yeah. and and who and because he wasn’t sure about the investors and we made the

24:47 point that we have to include the funding amount if we want to get coverage and he he you know came on

24:54 board with that. That was that was a dance up until like literally the 11th hour too because we

24:59 we 5 a.m. on Friday. Yeah. I just I didn’t know if one of the investors could be like nope can’t mention our name so I did the final

25:06 check after the final check after the final check and like that’s it we’re going to call it. Um, really wish we

25:12 could have announced everybody at the same time, but it was a that was a dicey few hours. How much backend stuff, Mike, do you

25:18 have to do internally on your side that you can’t even tell us where it’s like,

25:23 hey, I need to work on something and I’ll give you an answer, but I can’t tell you exactly what I’m doing or why

25:29 or who or is it or do you not have those moments that lack transparency? No, it’s not really a lacking of

25:35 transparency. I mean, there’s there’s two dimensions to that. one is there’s no point exposing you to the sausage

25:41 making process because when we were inside it was just a lot of goo that we had to deal with um when we’re still

25:46 inside of Intel. Um but secondarily when it’s about alignment on strategy uh that

25:54 is again it wasn’t lack of transparency. It was more that like like I need to go talk to our team and make sure that we

26:01 all agree that this is the northstar that we’re going after and let’s have a go have another conversation and here’s why we’re picking these four case

26:06 studies. Um and here’s why it’s critically important that we get the language right around who’s going to invest in why and how. Um, and just

26:14 little word changes that are clearly, I mean, obvious because you guys do this all the time, but they have implications

26:20 on our strategic intent. And that’s the sort of stuff, the back room stuff we got to go work out. You guys are part of

26:26 those conversations, too. Any any debate or fighting conflict, let’s say, between content with Joanne,

26:32 you know, Skyler’s social, then the normal kind of earned media was her priorities. Well, we want to do this,

26:38 but if you guys do that, it messes up what we’re trying to do. I don’t think we did have any conflicts at all. We

26:44 were pretty much working in concert with each other. I think the one thing I can mention is

26:49 that uh we had a few reporters asking about valuation. Um and we weren’t inclined to give that. So

26:56 you were or you were not inclined? We were not weren’t ready to do that. So we it was kind of a good so kind of go

27:02 back to Nadav. He was able to handle that question very very well. like I think both CNBC and Reuters asked him

27:08 about valuation and he’s just like well that’s not we’re not you know ready to share and and you know it didn’t hinder

27:13 the stories at all which which really helped um you know he he he still was able to talk about the company all the

27:19 interesting things that are going on um which added a lot to the story that wasn’t all about you know the monetary

27:25 aspect of it. How much does the media outreach even

27:31 matter for a company like RealSense where you have your customers, you you have let’s say a niche industry like

27:38 people in that industry know what you guys do, right? Um people in the outside

27:43 world, they might not necessarily be your customers. So maybe it doesn’t matter. So, how much did this even

27:49 matter to tell the broader world, hey, here’s what we’ve done. Here’s why it matters versus like, okay, we can put

27:55 this in a robotics trade or I can email our 10 biggest customers and and and let it go.

28:01 There’s two ways I’m going to answer this question. Um, one’s very backwards looking, one’s very forwards looking. Um, as recently as

28:10 what was it called? Uh, Automatica, the show in Munich that happened in June. Um, as recently as that show, and that

28:17 was just two weeks before separation, uh, our sales team was coming back to me and saying, “Mike, I’m getting asked

28:23 constantly, hey, I didn’t know you guys were still in business.” And that was

28:28 So, this was like a month ago. This like a month ago. Yeah, it was like a month ago. Literally, it’s back in like June 24th

28:33 through 27th, right? Um, and this is literally like it was I was being told perhaps it was hyperbole,

28:38 but I I trust the people that were telling me this. Half the conversations were, “Hey, we thought you guys were dead. It’s really good to see you here. This is great.” And it’s like, well,

28:46 this is not an ideal situation. So, we had to crush that. Like, that was sledgehammer to a watermelon territory.

28:53 It had to go away. And it did. I think actually the the best story was um was it Daryl? Uh the CRN article that came

29:00 out. Um so, CRN is the one that I mean they he didn’t shiv us on purpose. He was given bad information and he wrote a

29:06 really good story about bad information. Uh but then we corrected it with him and he he’s like, “Look, they he came out

29:12 and owned it and he put it on LinkedIn. was he he was really affusive in his support for us. But that that one just

29:17 that one article alone was enough to help turn the conversation around. So we had to kill that. That was number one. Number two is this is a very fast

29:26 moving space. There are a bunch of companies that are doing a combination of AI vision types of technologies right

29:32 now and we’re the market leader. So people trust us, but we have to stay

29:38 that way and it’s more than just us being a trusted partner to the customers

29:44 that we already work with. We’ve got to establish now the narrative for the industry going forward. And that’s we

29:50 think that’s really really important for us from a longevity perspective and for valuation as well. Being in the right bucket is so key. Like I talked to so

29:57 many companies if you can be associated with the right kind of competitors or industry set other media see that and

30:04 then forever more you’re part of that same bucket. So you do want to get defined like you said with the right

30:10 kind of of other firms in the industry. You want to be in that sentence with them and you don’t want to be in a

30:16 sentence with the wrong companies that that maybe are too down market or too small. You always want to be with those

30:22 bigger guys the better guys. It’s go, okay, they’re on the same footing as they are. Yeah. Being mentioned alongside

30:28 companies that have multihundred billion dollar valuations in the same sense as equals was just wild. Yeah. Everyone’s going to get one shot

30:34 to ask Mike a question they didn’t get to ask him over these last couple of months.

30:43 I can’t think of that was that was my question. That was your one. You shot your shot. That was it. I’ll think of one. I’ll think of one.

30:51 Who’s ready? Who’s next? the only thing keeping you to getting out of this interview.

30:58 Um, if there’s one thing from the launch or after that you would love to see on

31:05 the social pages, what would it be? And what was your favorite part from social

31:10 on the launch? I have mine. Two questions. Mine’s too. Yeah. But I have mine. I my my favorite from um in terms of

31:18 content that showed up in socials. Sorry, guys. There’s a dog out there that looks like a bear. I swear to God, someone’s walking a black bear down my

31:23 street. Maybe it is a bear. Yeah, I was just going to say maybe it is. Sorry, that was total diversion. Um hopefully it’s not a bear. Hopefully for

31:30 those people it’s not a bear. Um the fact I I’m blown away by the results that that was actually super exciting

31:35 just seeing the immediate response um on social on on LinkedIn especially, that

31:40 was um that was my favorite part of it. There was no like specific messaging component that was my favorite, but the fact that we hit those numbers so

31:46 quickly was great. um what I want to see going forward. I mean, it’s a little harder to say, but I think we as we

31:53 start getting more organically bolted onto other people’s conversations, um especially with the ones that we’re more

31:58 targeting, people like Nvidia and others, that’s going to be a big push for us as well while we’re also doing

32:04 the like the regular run the business stuff. Yeah. What was yours? Yeah, mine was getting Nadav’s post into

32:11 LinkedIn today top news. I think that was the perfect intersection between

32:16 what PR is doing, what content did, what we’re doing. Just seeing that all kind

32:21 of come together because it’s kind of like earn coverage also social media. And I think the way his channel just

32:28 blew up was an unexpected bonus to everything and kind of just

32:34 like the cherry on top of it all. That’s worth uh saying some more about. Um

32:40 what’s what did his follower count go to? Uh it’s in the 4,000s now, but it was an

32:47 increase from 1,100 area to 4,400 something. So,

32:54 and the post impressions was over 250,000 within a day. Is that right? Yes.

32:59 Yeah. Um actually have a question about bottom one

33:06 from our results our coverage has you know have you received or anyone at the

33:12 company received like a you know increase in calls or um you know

33:17 increase website traffic or or just you know potential customers.

33:22 I’m laughing because I I had to do the one thing that I really hate having to do which is respond to other people’s emails. Um, Nadav’s like called me from

33:31 travel. He’s like, “Mike, I can’t keep up. Can you please just go into my LinkedIn account and start responding to people that are that are coming in?”

33:37 You pretend to be him and respond or pretend to be him and respond. Yeah. Um, Oh, yeah. I was like, “Mike, there’s a

33:42 lot of engagements on this post. I don’t know what to do.”

33:48 So, we went in uh Mark and I I will not say perhaps there were there may have

33:53 been a cocktail involved, but we just went through the entire like hundreds because it’s funny. We had to go back in

33:59 history. Okay, let’s start at the beginning and work our way forward. So, we scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and got back to July 11th. And then the

34:06 next message after that was like the 7th and then like June 30th and like June 14th, but then it was several hundred

34:13 from June from July 11th up to the date that we’re trying to get to. And it was a big chunk in the beginning. Uh, but we

34:18 went through that. That was it was a lot a lot of, you know, a lot of what you expect, right? Hey, congratulations.

34:24 There’s a few of those just no strings attached. Congratulations. Um there’s and most of those we just leave for him

34:30 because that’s people that he knows, right? Um but then there was a lot of, you know, people looking for for roles, want

34:35 to be part of the journey. Awesome. Great. We’ll we’ll have you talk to our HR folks. Um and there were a bunch of

34:41 deals like, hey, this is great. We’ve actually we’ve got this robotics startup. We’re

34:46 looking to do it this industry. We had probably 15 of those. Um we had major corporates come in as well wanting to

34:53 talk about partnerships and possible investment opportunities. So I didn’t expect that at all like at all.

35:02 I mean I got bombarded with like hey I have marketing services. I’m like of course you do but that but for and we

35:08 also Mark myself uh Fred and Guy ended up all all five of us collectively had

35:15 gotten a bunch of inbounds especially from the big corporates and the investors um that we didn’t expect to see. So that that was real. It was a

35:21 real that’s a real tangible lead impact that I wouldn’t have planned for.

35:27 I think that’s a testament to to the coverage. So like my main roles uh at Bose I mean especially on real sense is

35:32 I I do a lot of the media relations and coming into I never secured my client Reuters. I had never secured my client

35:39 you know Barrons. So seeing seeing that and you know that that makes me feel great like this coverage really meant

35:46 something. So I have another question for you Mike. So I know I worked like 14 hours that

35:52 Friday. It was like 6 to 8 or something like that. Mike’s been working 16 hours every day for three years. So

35:58 for you, Nick, you know, that’s I was Listen Listen, you already Look, you already pointed out that you got six hours of sleep that

36:04 night. So the the empathy level is low. So no, I I get it. I just know that

36:09 not to sleep that night. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I personally went and had a cocktail myself. How did you like unwind

36:16 and celebrate after you know that Friday night into the weekend? I was in a daze, man. I mean, we walked

36:22 out of Friday like I can’t believe what I just experienced what we just saw cuz the results were pouring in. And I, you

36:29 know, Curtis, bless him for doing this. He’s like, you know, let’s not over set

36:34 expectations. We’re launching on Friday. We had that like, okay, dad’s talking,

36:40 so let’s let it let’s let it come out. Like, all right. So, now we’re sandbagging. And then Friday was nuts.

36:46 Um I went and had what did we do? I think I was just like a blank stare

36:51 basically um with I wouldn’t say trauma but just from the experience. Uh my wife

36:57 and my son and I my daughter was off doing something else but my wife and my son and I went out and just grabbed dinner and got a beer and just kind of

37:03 stared at the fire pit because I need a break.

37:08 Yeah, I know. Skyler and I on Friday nights totally not cooking Friday night. I know Skyler and I had

37:14 like text a picture holding a drink. We’re like, “Ah, we made it.” Cheers.

37:20 Joanne, the last question, yours. Okay, so um looking ahead in terms of

37:27 messaging, what what should content be focusing on? We have got to really um make the public

37:36 understand the net benefit of what robotics is going to do. Um, it’s not this just weird dystopian

37:44 vision that people were envisioning. And I think I told guys this before. If you’d asked me two years ago about humanoid robots, I would have laughed.

37:51 That’s some Musk fever dream nonsense. It’s not happening. Uh, and then reality smacked me because I started to see

37:57 where they were being applied. And then starting not just where they were being applied like a robot moving slowly, but

38:03 carrying a heavy box or something sharp or dangerous or spraying chemicals. It’s kind of stuff you’d understand. What

38:09 really grabbed me was when we started to notice that they were applying

38:14 perception in a way that they were much quicker and more dextrous than they had

38:19 been previously. And we were watching in real time over 6 months the acceleration of the capability.

38:25 And it was crazy. It went from like, you know, these manipulator arms that would like rotate and twist and go slowly out

38:31 and grab a thing and slowly back to this really human fluid motion to then even faster than human fluid motion and the

38:39 the pace of that change was just bonkers in like a year, 6 months to a year. So I

38:45 think having people understand um the utility of this and it’s not about

38:50 taking jobs away and that it’s I mean there’s there’s always that that tussle between the tech and what’s going to

38:55 happen to legacy businesses, right? But what this stuff can actually do for people um that’s where we got to take it

39:01 next. This has been great. Thank you everybody for spending the time. Mike, thank you so much for sharing some of your

39:07 insights and you know, looking forward now that that’s all done to see what what happens here going forward in terms

39:13 of okay, the business is on good footing. Now we actually start to grow and and create some different stories in

39:19 the marketplace. So, thank you again everybody for the time today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

39:25 Thank you to my guest and thanks for listening. Subscribe to get the latest episodes each week and we’ll see you

39:30 next time.