In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, hosts Ryan Bell and Todd Miller chat with Tony Nicolaidis, the Chief Commercial Officer of Origin AI. They explore the groundbreaking Wi-Fi sensing technology that Origin AI is developing and discuss its applications in smart homes, healthcare, and home security. Tony explains how the technology works, its origins, and how it differs from other monitoring methods.
The conversation also touches on real-world use cases, including collaborations with Verizon and Verisure for security and patient monitoring, along with the potential integration into future building designs. Tune in to learn about the challenges and excitement surrounding this revolutionary technology and its future impact on the construction industry and beyond.
Timestamps
00:39 Meet Tony Nicolaidis and Origin AI
01:28 Understanding WiFi Sensing Technology
06:09 Real-World Applications of WiFi Sensing
14:01 Challenges and Future of WiFi Sensing
24:15 Rapid Fire Questions with Tony
30:41 Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts
Connect with Tony Online
Website: https://www.originwirelessai.com/
Email: tony.nicolaidis@originwirelessai.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-nicolaidis-9b5b236/
For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn
This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
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Intro: Welcome to the Construction Disruption Podcast, where we
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uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.
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Ryan Bell: I'm Ryan Bell of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
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of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
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And today my co host is Todd Miller.
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Todd, how are you doing?
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Todd Miller: I am doing really well and I'm excited about our guest today and
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our show today and see what we can learn.
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You know, that's what I always love about these is I always learn something.
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So it's good stuff.
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Ryan Bell: I am excited too.
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This is a technology focused episode.
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Um, today our guest is Tony Nicolaidis, the chief commercial officer of origin
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AI, a company that invented wifi sensing technology and is revolutionizing smart
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homes, healthcare, and home security.
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Wifi sensing will allow for non invasive and highly accurate monitoring
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through the utilization of current IOT devices around your home or office.
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By monitoring occupancy in real time, Origin AI's solutions enable
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security intrusion detection, HVAC control, and patient monitoring.
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Soon, Origin AI's Wi Fi monitoring system will be a staple in
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all modern construction.
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Tony, it's great to have you on the show today, and thank you for joining us.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Ryan and Todd, thank you for having me.
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And it's a pleasure to be here.
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Ryan Bell: Well, to get us started.
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Um, can you explain a little bit about kind of what wifi sensing
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technology is and how it works?
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Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah, that, uh, that definition you just gave, that
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was, uh, that was, that was pretty good, very complex, but let's make it
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ephemeral and let's get right to the point of, of, of the easy explanation.
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Wifi is ubiquitous.
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In our lives, in our home, in our businesses, um, and what, what happens
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is our bodies walk through Wi Fi.
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We disrupt.
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The wifi waves, uh, actions that we do that are macro actions, macro doing
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jumping jacks, all the way to laying down and breathing, we disrupt those
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wifi waves and what origin, the origin AI technology does is it quantifies
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and contextualizes that disruption.
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So we know what type of disruption, uh, it is that has occurred to the wifi signal.
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And then we can give that back and whatever use case we're talking about.
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So basically disrupting wifi waves.
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And contextualizing and understanding that
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Todd Miller: so if i'm if i'm eating a corn dog as an example
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would that disrupt the wi fi
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Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah, if you're eating a corn dog and the corn dog's very good.
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So it's going to be an ephemeral meal.
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It's going to go fast Uh your your your fingers are moving your hands
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are moving everything like that We're going to know that you are moving.
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We're going to know that you're in that spot.
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Ryan Bell: Cool.
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I was going to say, so, so I can tell my kids when they're complaining
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about the wifi not working, that it's because they're moving.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, you know, it's funny you ask.
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Uh, no, because we suck up no bandwidths.
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I, and we'll talk about that.
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I think today throughout the.
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The, the, uh, the discussion, but we will not, uh, we've been
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thoroughly tested in not doing that.
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Ryan Bell: Okay.
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Interesting.
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Um, so what, what was it exactly that inspired the development of
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this wifi sensing technology and how is it, uh, different maybe from
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other wifi monitoring solutions?
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Tony Nicolaidis: So Dr.
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Ray Liu, who was a university of Maryland digital signal processing Uh,
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professor, uh, also the IEEE president in the, in the world, in the global
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world of digital signal processing, Dr.
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Ray Liu's name is known globally.
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Um, he was doing some work for the government through DARPA back in
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2011, 2010 on how to get signals and, and more knowledge of what's going
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on in various places in a submarine.
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And he stumbled across wifi sensing and he kind of put it together,
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invented it, it patented it, uh, and in the end left university of Maryland
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and knew that wifi sensing was going to have massive potential in our
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everyday life and changing millions of millions of lives for the better.
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And he started origin, uh, in, uh, 2011, 12.
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Uh, and, um, that's how the technology came about.
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Dr.
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Ray Liu is still chairman of our board.
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He's still our chief technology officer, very involved, very
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involved in the day to day business.
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So that's where we came from.
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Now, uh, he let the technology bake.
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Until 2019, so about seven years, seven, eight years to thoroughly understand
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it, hired all the, uh, engineering, uh, staff that needed to be hired to
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really develop it and shore it up, make sure the science was sound, uh,
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file for the IP, all that good stuff.
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And then you started bringing a few of us in to start commercializing
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the technology and that's where Spencer made our CEO came in.
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Uh, that's where I came in.
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So the technology was really being developed over, let's call it a seven year
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period until we started commercializing.
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Now, how is it different?
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Um, certainly when you compare it to other kinds of cousin technologies,
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like radar, uh, radar technology has been around a long time.
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A lot of great companies like Vyar out there that do do radar.
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Uh, radar is very, very accurate and can sense a person or people, but radar
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is expensive and radar has a lot of hardware you have to set up throughout
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a location to get a full picture.
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Okay, of what's going on contextually in that environment, whereas with Wi Fi, all
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you need is a Wi Fi signals, connected devices, and we'll know what's going on
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in that contextualize that environment in a much, much, much lighter way.
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Way than radar gives you an example of a, of a, of a
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comparison to another technology.
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Ryan Bell: I, I'm not quite sure to be honest that I under really understood what
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it was until you explained it like that.
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Um, can you give us some examples of maybe some real world examples
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of how this is being used and smart homes throughout healthcare?
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Tony Nicolaidis: Absolutely.
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So we've launched.
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With Verizon, um, in Northeast here, Verizon, Fios.
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You know your, I ha I live in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Here I've got a Fios router.
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That's how I get my wifi to my home.
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Uh, Verizon has a service called Home Aware, and, uh, and home awareness.
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Basically, uh, you can, we have our firmware, our technology sitting on
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the router right on in the router.
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Ryan Bell: Okay?
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Tony Nicolaidis: So when somebody signs up for home awareness, um, you, that
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the router wakes up and starts pinging all the connected devices to your house.
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Now in the U S there's an average of 17 connected devices.
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What's a connected device.
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Anything on your wifi from I'm, I'm staring right here at a Sono speaker.
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Um, a printer, uh, Alexa, Google home, your TV, any kitchen
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appliances, a PlayStation on and on.
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We have connected devices throughout the home and it pings all those
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stationary devices and from that router, Ryan and Todd to each of those
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connected devices, you have this.
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elliptical kind of zone that is connected.
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And when somebody enters that zone, right, we know they're there.
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We know there's verified human presence in that zone.
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So, uh, that is how they, uh, Verizon is selling home awareness.
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And basically, uh, they're starting out with who's, you know, basically
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understanding Not who identified who, but are there not a lot of people, nobody in
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your home or many people in your home?
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Um, you know, depending on how many zones are being disrupted all at once.
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So imagine this blue orb, it'll get big, big, big when there's a lot
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of people in it, small or nothing when there's, when there's nothing.
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That is how Verizon, It's doing it right.
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And they have a whole product road to use that technology.
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Um, and then from there, we have other, um, customers right now.
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You may have not heard of a company called very short.
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Very
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sure is the largest security company in Europe.
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Number two to ADT globally, very big company.
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We are launching with Verisure in Europe right now.
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Uh, and literally in the process of launching, uh, where they have
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their normal security system.
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Uh, and what happens is they're going to have, let's say a camera
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or a motion, motion sensors tripped.
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Um, as soon as that happens, we wake up, ping all the connected devices and see
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if there's verified human presence in the house to avoid the biggest problem in the
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security industry, which is false alarms.
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Right?
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So those are two examples in the ISP space, in the security space, where
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occupancy and verified human presence is being used to make systems much,
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much better than they are today.
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Ryan Bell: Is there a visual representation of what
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is present in the space?
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Or is it more just like a notification, like a, like an alert type thing?
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Tony Nicolaidis: Depends with Verizon.
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There is a visualization of this blue orb.
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If you go to your Verizon app and you go to home awareness, uh, you'll see a
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blue or big or small or nothing at all.
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If there's depending on what's going on in your house, uh, in the
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security use case, it's all about, you know, it's all about notification.
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Hey.
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Your motion sensor on the door tripped.
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Oh, by the way, we have that piece of data.
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And now we know that there's human presence in your house.
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Right.
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Cause so wifi sensing will, will reconfirm the door sensor tripped and now there's
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somebody in the house before all you knew was the door sensor tripped.
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You're going to get a call from them saying, what do you want us to do?
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I don't know.
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I'm not home.
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I don't know what's going on.
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You don't know if it's a real alarm or not.
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Now we'll know if there's somebody in the house and that's a, an alert based.
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kind of system.
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So it depends on the use case, Ryan.
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Todd Miller: Oh, I was wondering how, I think I can imagine, but how
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is this being used in healthcare then and patient monitoring?
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Tony Nicolaidis: So in Todd, so in healthcare, what we're doing is we
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have various use cases in healthcare.
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Let's just start with Alzheimer's.
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And occupancy is the person there or not.
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Um, I have many friends, uh, unfortunately that are caring for aging parents that
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now have Alzheimer's and dementia, and they've got all of these cameras and all
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this crazy stuff all over the place and cameras have a very limited field of view.
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Um, and they're always looking to see if their parents are home.
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We will be able to know.
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Does a person is supposed to be home or they're not right?
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That's one use case.
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Uh, the other use cases, um, their tendencies around
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the house trends over time.
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They're spending a lot more time in bed this month than they were last
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month, or they're spending a lot more time in the bathroom this month.
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Then last time, the last month, these are all, this is all data that doesn't exist
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today because in the health industry, all you have are, are purrs or, um, you know,
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rechargeable kind of wearables that, you know, many, many, uh, uh, uh, elderly,
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uh, people don't charge and don't wear.
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Now you don't need any of that.
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All you need is a wifi signal and we can kind of do trends around the house.
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And then the holy grail of it all.
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is fall detection.
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If somebody has fallen and they're still down there and what to do.
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So that's a very complex use case.
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Um, and it's one that we are most definitely, we can demo it, but as you
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try to scale, uh, fall detection, there's a lot more hardware and things that need
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to happen that we're working through.
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So those are kind of some simple use cases for, for what we call
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health tech that can be used.
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Todd Miller: So for my aging mother, I'd actually have to convince her
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she needs internet in her house first, but I like the idea of this.
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It makes a lot of sense.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah.
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All you need is wifi and we're there.
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Ryan Bell: So how does it, uh, is there like an initial setup process
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or something where it maps walls and like, uh, if there's a concrete wall
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or column or something, like, does it take like a, a print of that to know
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the, this location, the space it's in?
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Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, our engines.
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Come out so far already taught.
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There's no learning needs to happen with the engines, right?
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So when you say the occupancy engine, as long as there's wifi, we're going
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to detect verified human presence in terms of coverage, which is
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really what you're talking about.
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Ryan Bell: Yeah.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Ryan.
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Uh, we also have visualizations where you can walk around, call a tribe before you
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buy, and you can walk around your house and you can see this graph going crazy
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as you're walking around and you can get to spots where it's whoop, it's dead.
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And you can say, okay, in this spot, either I'm going to need an Alexa.
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Or an extender from Verizon or whatever, either a connected or a
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connected light bulb, uh, whatever.
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And now all of a sudden that spot will be live.
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So that's all you really need to do.
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Nothing else to teach it.
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But what we find here, Ryan, in the U S is it's a bigger problem in Europe.
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Concrete, steel, the constructionism in the U S primarily were drywall and wood.
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So wifi permeates everywhere.
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We don't tend to have that problem as much in the U S
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Ryan Bell: are you able to extend it outside your home?
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Tony Nicolaidis: You can, if you have connected devices outside of your home,
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you have to be very careful though.
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Um, if you have connected devices out there, you don't
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want to have false positives.
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You know what I mean?
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Ryan Bell: Sure.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah.
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Um, so you want to tend to keep it inside the home.
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We suggest you have it inside.
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Ryan Bell: That makes sense.
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I can't tell you how many alerts I get at night for the cat on
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my porch from our, our level.
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Tony Nicolaidis: Exactly.
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And that's the other thing with us.
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We have human versus non human, uh, notification.
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Okay.
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Pets are a massive false alarm issue in security.
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Sure.
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And so we, we are able to distinguish human versus a big bucket called
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non human, which could be pets.
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Rumba vacs in Europe are very popular, oscillating fans, moving curtains in
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the With the air conditioning, that all that stuff will set off alarms.
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We can do human versus non human.
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Ryan Bell: Very cool.
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Um, so origin AI, uh, aims to be a staple in modern construction.
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How do you foresee the integration of this wifi sensing technology
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and future building designs?
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Tony Nicolaidis: That is an excellent question.
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And one we feel is an absolute vector for us as we move along in the
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future, because it's a little more of a slow burn for new construction.
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Imagine if we work with the builders and we say, whether it's a home builder or,
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or a commercial building, and we say, you know what, we're going to automatically
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put these sensors in the walls.
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We'll have, uh, uh, wifi, um, uh, sensors in the wall and, and, and connect the
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sensors in the walls already designed in the building that you no longer have to
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put anything else around the building.
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You can, if you want to increase coverage, if you want, but if you
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design it into, uh, as a building and the home is being built.
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You are ready to go.
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All you need to do is turn it on.
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Right.
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So that's for new construction.
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So we need to partner with builders, which we're doing, but it's a little bit more
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of a slow burn, um, with construction that already exists, especially in the
00:15:04
commercial space, guys, where we're really focusing on energy efficiency.
00:15:08
And turning thermostats off, air conditioning, heating.
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We have smart plugs.
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You can, you can, we can give you that.
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You can plug in each smart plug.
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We'll do 500 to 750 square feet, plug them in.
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They're out of the way.
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You don't see them and they will be your wifi sensing network.
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They will connect to all the connected devices and they will be able to do a
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bill and they will be able to manage a building that is already built.
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So we have ways to do it with.
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Already built buildings or working with builders in the future.
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That's a very passionate topic for us.
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Me and Spencer made, uh, or Spencer made and I spent 30 years of Stanley
00:15:45
Black and Decker in the DeWalt business.
00:15:47
So that's where we both came from.
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That's where we know each other.
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So our, as kids, we were on job sites every day.
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So we have a passion for builders.
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So.
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Most definitely an area we want to, we want to move on in the future.
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Ryan Bell: So there's a, there's a huge push for, you know, privacy and, and data.
00:16:04
Is there anything that you all are keeping in mind or any hurdles you've
00:16:08
had to overcome, you know, with people that are worried about their
00:16:12
privacy and data being respected?
00:16:14
Tony Nicolaidis: Tell you what, and that is not an ephemeral question
00:16:18
because that question comes up so often.
00:16:21
Um, it's ephemerally long.
00:16:24
So, um, you know, I think I'm going to give it to you with two customers,
00:16:29
Verizon, which we've already launched and Deutsche Telekom in Europe,
00:16:31
which we're going to be launching here at the end of this year.
00:16:34
Uh, both with similar use cases are both ISPs.
00:16:37
Um, we were thoroughly tested by both of them and by thoroughly, I mean, almost
00:16:45
years of testing to make sure that we did not eat up the bandwidth of their signal.
00:16:50
Which I talked about earlier.
00:16:52
And so that led us to a place where all our computation, all of our, uh,
00:16:59
activity in terms of, uh, running our algorithms run completely 100 percent
00:17:04
on the edge, nothing in the cloud, because in the end that you got to take
00:17:09
data back and forth out of the cloud is when you really soak up bandwidth.
00:17:12
So we're a hundred percent on the edge, completely private
00:17:15
does not soak up any bandwidth.
00:17:16
And we're also, now we can do, um.
00:17:19
Over the air updates and that kind of stuff, uh, quickly.
00:17:21
So that is how we protect private data privacy and, uh, make sure that our
00:17:27
topology is, is, uh, is hack proof.
00:17:30
Ryan Bell: When my modem goes out or my internet goes out, I should say, but my
00:17:33
modem is still on, does this require the internet to be active and on to work,
00:17:40
or there's still a wifi signal being sent from my, my modem, correct, even
00:17:46
though the internet from the ISP is down.
00:17:48
Does that make sense?
00:17:49
I
00:17:49
Tony Nicolaidis: mean, if your wifi is on in the house, no matter
00:17:51
what's going on connection back to your ISP, it's going to work.
00:17:55
Right.
00:17:56
And then we're looking at other scenarios, especially in the, it's important
00:17:59
in the security vertical about what happens if I don't have wifi and there's
00:18:02
cellular options and other things, but like our partners, like VeriShore,
00:18:06
I don't know if you know, alarm.
00:18:07
com here in the U S we're literally launching alarm.
00:18:09
com and VeriShore on either side of the pond at the same time,
00:18:13
which is a, a massive, uh, Uh, undergoing or, or, or, uh, uh,
00:18:18
achievement on our, for our company.
00:18:20
Um, they have cellular backup and they kind of take care of that.
00:18:23
So if your wifi goes down completely.
00:18:25
You still got self connection.
00:18:26
Ryan Bell: So are there any particular challenges you've you've faced
00:18:29
and bringing this to the market?
00:18:31
Any, any huge hurdles that you've had to overcome?
00:18:34
Tony Nicolaidis: Yeah.
00:18:35
You know, look, uh, we've had some very large customers that
00:18:38
have done significant testing.
00:18:40
Uh, significant testing means that it takes time to get the market and, you
00:18:45
know, we're not a big company, so time to revenue for us in the past, uh,
00:18:50
was a challenge, but as we're getting scale now, that's less of an issue.
00:18:54
Um, You know, so making sure we work because we're B2B, so that Verizon
00:19:00
or that Verisure or that alarm.
00:19:02
com or that Deutsche Telekom or T Mobile, all these companies, basically we're
00:19:06
really depending on them to get to market.
00:19:08
So that's the biggest challenge is working with them, uh, working with
00:19:12
all their people, their marketing folks, their engineer, their
00:19:14
engineering team and our engineering team to get our product embedded on
00:19:18
a, on a router is not an easy task.
00:19:21
So that's really the biggest challenge is execution and getting them going
00:19:25
and getting time to value for revenue.
00:19:27
And once we're there, which we are now, and we're scaling, um, you know,
00:19:31
it's a little sweeter, so to speak.
00:19:32
Ryan Bell: With all the advancements in AI lately, um, anything kind of
00:19:37
going on in your neck of the woods and is that having an effect on anything,
00:19:41
or is that giving you some other ideas on how to connect with AI or use AI?
00:19:47
Tony Nicolaidis: Better believe it, especially ideas in the future.
00:19:49
Like I said, are.
00:19:51
Engines.
00:19:51
When I say an engine right now, what I mean by that is macro motion is an engine.
00:19:56
So it's an engine we have trained to, to look for gross motion, jumping jacks,
00:20:01
running, walking, micro motion, just breathing, laying there is an engine.
00:20:08
Fall detection is an engine.
00:20:10
Uh, we train our engines.
00:20:11
So they come out already trained.
00:20:12
You don't have to train them overall, but as we're moving into the future,
00:20:17
all that data that comes in from a house that has, uh, home awareness.
00:20:23
Or, or, or has origin in there, uh, we will be able to take that data and
00:20:27
do a lot of AI with it, uh, and be able to have even more, uh, context
00:20:35
and even more future opportunity to help the people in the home or the
00:20:39
people in the building over time.
00:20:41
Um, so there is no doubt.
00:20:44
AI is going to, it is.
00:20:46
Cause it plays a big part as we train our engines now, right.
00:20:49
And it's going to be in the future.
00:20:51
And just look out for us as you, you hear, um, news flashes and see us in the news.
00:20:58
You're going to hear more and more of what we're doing in AI.
00:21:00
It's very exciting.
00:21:01
Ryan Bell: What's, uh, what does the scalability look like with this beyond,
00:21:06
um, Health, health care and security that we've kind of talked about already
00:21:10
is other, other sectors out there that you have plans to scale into, or maybe
00:21:16
right for this sort of technology.
00:21:19
Yeah,
00:21:19
Tony Nicolaidis: you know, there's one interesting one.
00:21:21
I don't know if you guys know what the hot laws act is.
00:21:23
Have you guys heard of that?
00:21:24
Ryan Bell: No.
00:21:25
Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, I'm sorry.
00:21:26
The hot car law, hot cars law.
00:21:28
Forgive me.
00:21:28
Ryan Bell: Okay.
00:21:29
Tony Nicolaidis: And NPAC in Europe.
00:21:31
Basically, it's there are laws that are being passed during the pro they're
00:21:34
already passed during the process of being passed, um, to have car set up.
00:21:39
Um, so that if, if an, if a, a, a, a, a baby or a child is left strapped into
00:21:45
the car and it's hot, there's an, uh, some kind of notification that goes
00:21:49
off, um, these things happen tragically.
00:21:52
And, uh, right now there's laws being, uh, passed about that.
00:21:56
So all of the automakers, uh, are looking for ways to be able to tell if there is.
00:22:04
a baby in a car.
00:22:05
Ironically enough, the first country that's going to really implement
00:22:08
it, it's already said so, is China, uh, in all of their cars.
00:22:11
So if you're shipping into China by 2026, you're going to need a solution.
00:22:16
So we're working with, um, the automakers and other partners, uh, and what we
00:22:20
call CPD, child protection detection.
00:22:23
Um, and, um, to, to do that.
00:22:25
So that's another area that, because cars are going to have wifi now, right?
00:22:29
It's another area where we're going to, we're looking to see
00:22:31
how we can make an impact there.
00:22:33
Ryan Bell: Very neat.
00:22:33
That's, that's really cool.
00:22:35
Um, not something I have ever thought about before, but very cool.
00:22:40
So what, uh, any advice you would give to a young aspiring entrepreneur
00:22:45
that's kind of looking to get into this wifi tech industry?
00:22:48
Tony Nicolaidis: So wifi is all around us everywhere.
00:22:51
Yeah.
00:22:51
Right soon, Elon Musk is going to put it out on the streets where you're
00:22:54
not going to need Verizon anymore.
00:22:55
It's just going to come beaming down from the satellites.
00:22:58
Uh, and so, you know, you're going to get into a, uh, a technology that
00:23:04
is very mature, uh, if you're going to use wifi, find a very, if you want
00:23:09
to build a business of wifi, find something unique, you can do with it.
00:23:13
Because a lot of people are already doing as much as they can with it.
00:23:16
Um, so find a unique way to use it.
00:23:19
Uh, and, um, what, how do you leverage wifi six, wifi seven, and all the
00:23:24
advancements in wifi, we got two and a half gig, five gig, six gig is coming.
00:23:30
All these bands are opening up, find and solve a problem, right?
00:23:35
Don't be a technology looking for a solution.
00:23:38
Be a solution to a problem.
00:23:40
Uh, and then, um, just hunker down and, uh, and, uh, it ain't going to be easy.
00:23:47
Just persevere, keep your head down and keep working and you'll get there.
00:23:50
Ryan Bell: Concrete advice.
00:23:52
Thank you.
00:23:53
Well, thanks so much, Tony.
00:23:55
This has been great.
00:23:55
Um, and we're thankful for the time we've had with you today and everything
00:23:59
you've shared with us and our listeners.
00:24:01
Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
00:24:05
Is there anything that we haven't covered today that you'd like
00:24:07
to share with our audience?
00:24:09
Tony Nicolaidis: No, once again, I appreciate the time.
00:24:11
It was ephemeral and I wish we could have had more time together.
00:24:14
But thanks guys.
00:24:15
Ryan Bell: Great.
00:24:15
Well, before we close out, there's something we like to do at the end here.
00:24:20
It's called rapid fire where we give you 7 questions and your only commitment
00:24:25
is to give us a quick response.
00:24:27
Uh, to each question, some of them are a little silly.
00:24:30
Some are maybe serious.
00:24:31
Are you up for the challenge?
00:24:33
Let's go.
00:24:33
I'm there.
00:24:34
Let's go.
00:24:35
Uh, Todd and I will take turns asking questions.
00:24:38
You want to lead us off, Todd?
00:24:40
Todd Miller: Absolutely.
00:24:41
So Tony, would you rather fight a swarm of angry bees with a giant fly swatter?
00:24:49
Or have to herd, uh, stampeding cats armed with laser pointers,
00:24:54
or would you rather fight those stampeding cats with laser pointers?
00:24:58
Tony Nicolaidis: Fight the stampeding cats with laser pointers.
00:25:00
I hate bees.
00:25:01
Todd Miller: Yeah, I think I'd be right there with you.
00:25:02
That's a pretty easy one.
00:25:03
Me too.
00:25:04
You need them
00:25:04
Tony Nicolaidis: in the environment,
00:25:05
Todd Miller: but I don't want swarms.
00:25:07
Probably the likelihood of either one is slim, but.
00:25:09
Ryan Bell: Question number two.
00:25:10
If you were a cat, Could replace all the grass in the world with something else.
00:25:15
What would it be and why?
00:25:16
Tony Nicolaidis: Wow.
00:25:17
All the grass in the world, what would it be?
00:25:18
And why mattresses make it nice and soft.
00:25:22
You can go out there and take a nap.
00:25:22
I like that.
00:25:25
Todd Miller: I was thinking it might be something that wifi would detect.
00:25:28
I don't know.
00:25:30
Go
00:25:30
Tony Nicolaidis: out there, walk out to your front yard,
00:25:31
lay down and go take a nap.
00:25:34
Todd Miller: Like it.
00:25:35
Okay, question number three, uh, what's one book or movie that has profoundly
00:25:41
impacted your perspective on life
00:25:44
Tony Nicolaidis: and why the road less traveled personally?
00:25:47
Uh, cause life is hard and, um, you just gotta be ready for it.
00:25:52
And you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, uh, you gotta, you gotta be focused
00:25:56
and, and work hard, uh, professionally crossing the chasm by Gregory Moore.
00:26:00
Todd Miller: I don't think I've come across that.
00:26:01
You're in a
00:26:03
Tony Nicolaidis: startup.
00:26:04
Read that book and read it twice
00:26:06
Todd Miller: to look that up crossing the chasm.
00:26:08
Good deal.
00:26:09
Ryan Bell: Question number four, what motivates you to keep pushing forward?
00:26:13
Even when faced with obstacles or setbacks,
00:26:16
Tony Nicolaidis: the startup life is not for everyone.
00:26:18
Uh, I'll tell you that right now, getting a business off the ground, you know, and
00:26:22
having that big milestone of becoming a small business and crossing that revenue
00:26:26
mark is not for the faint of heart.
00:26:28
You have to have very clear belief and passion in what you're doing
00:26:37
and have the end game in mind.
00:26:38
We feel strongly and we live and breathe that Wi Fi sensing, um,
00:26:46
will change millions of lives.
00:26:49
In a positive way all over the world and you have to believe that and we believe
00:26:55
it every day and that keeps us going Through all the even though you get
00:26:59
down into them the value or the muck.
00:27:02
You just gotta keep pushing through
00:27:03
Todd Miller: good stuff Good stuff Okay, next question If you had to pick one
00:27:09
celebrity to be your personal assistant for a week Who would you choose and
00:27:14
what task would you ask them to do?
00:27:16
Tony Nicolaidis: I would choose.
00:27:17
Um You I would choose Elon Musk.
00:27:20
There you go.
00:27:21
Check that.
00:27:21
Check that.
00:27:22
Check that.
00:27:22
I would choose Jeff Bezos.
00:27:24
Todd Miller: Okay.
00:27:25
Tony Nicolaidis: And I'd have him come in and, uh, you know, we beat up our
00:27:30
go to market, uh, go to market motion and go to market strategy a lot.
00:27:33
We feel very good about it as a scaling, but I'd want him
00:27:36
to beat it up even further.
00:27:37
Like, how do you scale even more?
00:27:40
I say, Jeff, sit down and tell us.
00:27:41
Todd Miller: That's a great answer.
00:27:42
Very good answer.
00:27:43
Absolutely, man.
00:27:44
You're good at this.
00:27:46
Tony Nicolaidis: Let's go.
00:27:48
Ryan Bell: We have two left.
00:27:50
Uh, would you rather have to sing everything you say or communicate only
00:27:54
through interpretive dance for a week?
00:27:57
Tony Nicolaidis: Well, I'm a musician, so I play guitars.
00:27:59
I've been in bands all my life.
00:28:01
So I'm going to sing interpretive dance.
00:28:05
Todd Miller: Interpretive dance would be challenging.
00:28:06
Yeah.
00:28:06
I'd rather sing it.
00:28:07
Doesn't mean you have to sing it.
00:28:09
Tony Nicolaidis: I'm saying.
00:28:11
Todd Miller: Okay, the last question, have you recently
00:28:15
purchased a product or service that was a real game changer for you?
00:28:19
Sort of a, you know, where have you been all my life moment?
00:28:23
Tony Nicolaidis: I would have to say it's not recently, but, um, good notes
00:28:29
and being able to take notes on my iPad.
00:28:31
That's not, that's not a new thing, but I was always a paper guy.
00:28:36
And I'd say in the last few years, I've completely made the transition.
00:28:38
So now I don't have gobs and gobs of paper everywhere.
00:28:41
I got my iPad and everything is in there.
00:28:44
Everything, every meeting I've been in, all the notes, this, that,
00:28:48
and, uh, I would say that made me significantly more efficient in terms
00:28:52
of just tracking what's going on.
00:28:54
Not a new thing, but it definitely helped me here in the last few years.
00:28:57
Todd Miller: Yeah,
00:28:57
Ryan Bell: absolutely.
00:28:58
That's good.
00:28:59
That's, that's something I'm trying.
00:29:01
To get better at you.
00:29:02
Like I love I use the good notes app or yeah.
00:29:05
Yeah.
00:29:06
I think it's good notes.
00:29:07
And I love, I love it when I'm watching something or, or taking notes on
00:29:11
something and I can save screenshots, but I always forget to go back to it.
00:29:15
Yeah, I don't know why.
00:29:16
Tony Nicolaidis: Screenshots.
00:29:17
I can bring in thoughts from somewhere on the side and I can still write with it.
00:29:21
Um, I think that makes things so efficient.
00:29:25
Uh, and man, we were plugging the hell out of good notes,
00:29:26
but you know, it is what it is.
00:29:29
Ryan Bell: It's a good app.
00:29:30
It is.
00:29:31
Well, Tony, uh, thank you again for your time today.
00:29:34
This has been a lot of fun for anyone that wants to get in touch with you.
00:29:36
What's the best way for them to do that?
00:29:38
Tony Nicolaidis: Uh, originwirelessai.
00:29:40
com just visit our website.
00:29:42
Uh, and I'm a Tony dot Nicolaidis at origin, wireless, AI.
00:29:46
com.
00:29:47
Reach out to me anytime.
00:29:48
Ryan Bell: Awesome.
00:29:48
And we will make sure to get that in the show notes.
00:29:52
Um, before we close out here, we need to recap our challenge words, which
00:29:56
we were all successful in working into the Tony, you were an overachiever.
00:30:00
I don't, I've, I lost count of how many times you got yours
00:30:03
in there, but your word was
00:30:05
Tony Nicolaidis: ephemeral,
00:30:06
Ryan Bell: ephemeral, six times, maybe five or six times.
00:30:11
Good job.
00:30:11
Good job.
00:30:12
Yeah.
00:30:12
Todd, your word was corn dog.
00:30:14
And I got to use it once right at the beginning there.
00:30:18
And my word was concrete.
00:30:20
Good job guys.
00:30:21
I say, Tony even used your word once.
00:30:23
Yeah.
00:30:24
Yes, he did.
00:30:25
Yes.
00:30:25
Todd Miller: Yeah.
00:30:26
I didn't know if you do it or not, but yeah, you did.
00:30:28
I didn't notice.
00:30:28
I didn't notice it.
00:30:29
I
00:30:30
Ryan Bell: thought you were just overachieving your
00:30:31
overachievement already.
00:30:32
You guys gave
00:30:34
Tony Nicolaidis: me a task, an objective and I went for it.
00:30:35
Ryan Bell: Well done.
00:30:36
Well done.
00:30:37
Well, thanks again, Tony.
00:30:38
Appreciate your time here with us.
00:30:39
Tony Nicolaidis: Thanks guys.
00:30:40
Loved it.
00:30:41
Ryan Bell: Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of construction disruption
00:30:44
with Tony Nicolaidis of origin AI.
00:30:47
Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
00:30:50
We are always blessed with great guests.
00:30:52
Don't forget to leave us a review on Apple podcast, or
00:30:54
give us a thumbs up on YouTube.
00:30:56
Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and challenging those in
00:31:00
your world to better ways of doing things.
00:31:02
And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter,
00:31:05
make them smile and encourage them.
00:31:07
Two simple yet powerful things we can all do to change the world.
00:31:10
God bless and take care.
00:31:12
This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
00:31:15
of Construction Disruption.
00:31:18
Intro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty
00:31:23
metal roofing and other building products.
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