The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
The Virtual Factory | Tino Go
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What if custom cabinets could be priced, designed, and built faster—without the usual headaches?
Summary:
Tino Go, founder of Hello Baru, joins the Safari to break down why the custom cabinet industry still runs on slow, outdated systems—and how his “virtual factory” model is changing the game. By tapping into underused CNC capacity, Hello Baru helps pros streamline pricing, design, and production with fewer handoffs and more transparency. We talk about the real-world chaos of sales, why homeowners still need skilled pros, and what it takes to build and scale a startup while resources are tight. If you’re in home services, design, or manufacturing, this episode is packed with practical insights on efficiency and growth.
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari
💡 GOLD NUGGETS
• Sales chaos vs. showing up professionally
• Why cabinet buying still feels outdated
• The “virtual factory” explained
• CNC capacity + local fabrication model
• Continuous sizing with a smart configurator
• Pricing based on materials, not complexity
• Why pros still matter on imperfect homes
• From desks to kitchens: early traction
• Startup reality: funding + team motivation
• Scaling through large customers and consistency
🔗 Guest Links
• Website: https://hellobaru.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinogo/
🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari
• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website | https://chrislalomia.com
Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!
Cold Open And Name Drops
SPEAKER_00Uh for example, restoration hardware. They called me two weeks ago because they they were previously uh how about that for a name drop, Big Daddy?
SPEAKER_01Dude, that's a total name drop, Tino. Leave the name dropping to me, buddy. Huh? Restoration hardware. That's pretty much right, man. My my little bit swollen. And hey, by the way, can you put a good word in for me? Restoration hardware. So tell me about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Oh my god. That is how many stores do they have? One bucket, where else?
Podcast Welcome And Fly-Down Sales
SPEAKER_01Uh restoration hardware. It's got the one bucket here. Uh, I know my wife is at the uh restaurants in West Palm, um, Orlando, uh Napa Valley. Uh we're also Jesus, she's at them all. Yeah. I'm talking about the restaurants, not the stores, but you know what I mean. You know where I'm going. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through this party. We have got to keep on rolling, rolling here in Atlanta. Let me tell you what just happened today. What just happened today? Well, we are starting our podcast, and it is another great week. And I tell you guys, I listen to podcasts while I'm driving around. I go out and do estimates with my guys, uh, especially when I'm training new guys. Today, I had to run three estimates on my own. And as I streamed to get back here to the podcast studio, the small business safari, I said, I've got to go to the bathroom. And I reached down and realized for the last three hours my fly had been down.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so for three estimates, three no. I was flying the freak flag, Alan.
SPEAKER_01I had it all wide open and showing everything. So now that's this is a good data point. Yeah, what was your close rate with a fly down? So funny enough, I do think I'm two for three. I didn't even think about that. That's right. I literally I said they're depressed or they feel sorry for you.
SPEAKER_02One way or another, it could work.
Meeting Tino And Hello Baru
SPEAKER_01And we've all been there in sales, man. You think you're on, you know, I I tell my guys, right? The most important person in the world is that person I'm about to go talk to. Uh, they are gonna, they are I just I'm totally focused. I'm 100% laser focused on you for for this entire appointment. And I try, you know, I tell everybody, check your check your appearance. My shirt was tucked in, clearly, um, because that's how I knew it was sticking up because it was sticking out the fly, letting everybody know with my red shirt coming out of my khaki pants. Um, so yes, so we're having one hell of a day as an entrepreneur getting ready to listen to another great entrepreneurial story and hopefully dispense some awesome advice for everybody. But there it is, Alan. I love your candor. You are just a transparent man. I am I I bear it all, as it were. You lay it all out. I laid it all out there. She was a flying. Hello, everybody. Look at me. I am so competent. I can definitely redo your bathroom. Um, so and uh there we go, and here we go, and we're off and rolling. We've got a great guest today. So Alan and I we talk a lot about networking, and I do. I get a lot of energy out of it. I love going. Um, as Alan uh does remember, Alan, I was the president of the Neri Association here in Atlanta. Let's see, what was that? A two minutes before you mentioned something like that? As long as I had it. And I got a chance to meet uh Tino uh at one of these events, and he came up and says, Hey, I got a cabinet company. And I said, Okay, yeah, it's good, you know, we'll talk about cabinets because obviously I deal with cabinets and I want to find another good cabinet supplier, uh, always looking, you know, to improve. And then the more he started talking about, I was like, Wow, you've got a really cool story. And he started explaining the story and what they're doing and how they're trying to get into the market. And um, and just like everything, there's a lot of competition in this market. Uh, but he's talking about how he's going to market with his unique strategy and his niche. And I was like, Man, I gotta get you on the podcast. I mean, it sounded like a game changer to me. So this he's changing the industry, right? So what threw me off was he handed me his card, and his card says, Hello, Baruch. And my first thought was, Oh, hi, Baru, I'm Chris. And he goes, No, my name is Tino. I'm like, Oh, right. I said, Let me look again. I don't correct me, Tino, please. No, he did not. He was great.
SPEAKER_02So was your was your fly up that I don't know. I hope he has his name wrong and your flies down.
SPEAKER_01So check this out. Are you supposed to tell somebody their flies open or not? What's what is the appropriate uh what's the appropriate thing to do? And you know, you just hope it goes away, I think. You don't say it.
SPEAKER_02No, nobody you do.
SPEAKER_01But you don't to somebody you just meet.
SPEAKER_02Not to the person trying to sell you a remodeling job.
SPEAKER_01Right. Hey man, I know you're trying to sell me, but I don't need that much. You know what I'm saying? Let's put that thing back up. Whoa, hello. That's not what we're selling here at the trusted toolbox. We've got Tino Go from Hello Baruch welcome, Tino.
SPEAKER_00Hey, uh, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01Tino, did you check your fly while I was telling that story? I just ask him.
SPEAKER_00You know, even with someone I've just met, I will take them aside and say, hey, check your fly.
SPEAKER_01I think Tino's onto something. He is a better person than you, Alan. He is making sure that I'm not out there flying it all out there for a moment.
SPEAKER_02I'll tell somebody they've got salad in their teeth. But to say that your fly's open implies you've been looking at their crotch.
SPEAKER_00I never took it like that. Yeah. I I I see your point. It's just that um I always appreciate that when people um point point out my my blunders.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Tino. You know, I must appreciate it too because people keep pointing out my blunders quite often, regardless of it.
SPEAKER_00That builds resilience.
Why Cabinet Making Feels Medieval
SPEAKER_01That's that's that's what it does. It builds character, as my mother used to say. Oh, yeah, it's just building character. So, Tino, uh, tell everybody about Hello Baru and what you guys uh have developed, then we're gonna back up and how you got into all this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh first of all, Baru means new. I was born in Indonesia, but it happens to mean new in um in Indonesian, and but more relevantly, it's a generic word that does not that's kind of cute, but it doesn't mean cabinets because we're building a digital manufacturing platform and marketplace.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about this digital manufacturing platform. Explain this to the audience about how you guys are unique in the cabinet business.
SPEAKER_00Well, let me tell you how uh how I started this. So I was a CFO overseeing a really large company, and I wanted a custom bookcase for my house. And I was so frustrated by the medieval process to get a custom bookcase made that when I left that company, I started looking at this industry. You know, the the process involved finding someone, getting referrals, someone that maybe you could trust, and then you you know, you'd you'd call repeatedly, they'd never call you back. You finally end up uh you know, down the industrial park, you knock on the garage door, and someone peeks out the door and say, Hey, who are you? And and then paper drawings and then computerized drawings and you know, revise and resubmits until finally they show you the right price and the right picture. And I thought, oh my god, this is ludicrous. Because I had been taking my sons to Makerfare, which is a like um digital production 3D printing screen the machine type of hobbyist Makerfare, um for 10 years at that point. And I thought, how is it that the industry with all this advanced machinery is not taking advantage of what's uh cap what it's capable of to make people's lives easier? And so that was enough of a question that made me look at this industry, cabinet making, furniture making, when I left that company. And so while I was looking for a job, while I was doing fractional CFO work, I was looking at this idea. And I realized that the industry would never be able to evolve on its own because you have high volume producers, centralized manufacturers, or you have these localized job jobs doing all the custom work. They were so embedded in their practices that they would never be able to evolve the industry. But at the same time, I saw that there were thousands of underused CNC machines, these cabinet-making machines that uh cost between a quarter million to half a million dollars. And they were only in use a couple of hours a day at the best cabinet makers throughout the country, throughout the world. Because these machines are digital. I thought, hey, if I could transform, if I could create the software that transformed desire and a payment into machine instructions, I can loop these underused machines into a virtual factory. And the localization of manufacturing plus the on-demand allows for fast customization and elimination of the entire distribution cost structure. And as a former CFO or transitioning CFO, I knew that if you could eliminate distribution, that's elimination of sixty percent of cost of sales or forty percent of revenues as a savings. And that's the idea.
SPEAKER_02And there's a little bit of Airbnb in there as well. Absolutely. Underused assets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So so just think about those. So cabinet maker meets DoorDash, meets Airbnb, they have a baby, and hello Baroo. It's new. All right, cute little baby baroo. And here comes baby baroo. So uh tell us how how this works, and because you're right, today, if I if I'm a homeowner, he just did. No, I but if I'm a homeowner, how do I give you my idea and then you produce it for me? Or if I'm a contractor and I do it, talk about how you've eliminated that process. Because today we still do the paper, the digital, the tell us how you do it. Because you haven't evolved, yeah. And you have medieval practices, is what he said. Well, at least he didn't call me a caveman, so I'll take that. I mean, I'll take medieval over caveman. I've been called a caveman from a caveman to medieval. Medieval. Oh, rock, me, grok, me like wood. I chew wood now. I make cabinet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we're a virtual factory, and uh so the if a homeowner comes to us, they they recognize that they're gonna be able to save between 40 and 60 percent relative to going direct to a custom cabinet maker. But I will refer a professional to them because they can't they can't figure it out themselves. Uh unless they want to. It's a website, they can order. If it's for the garage, I probably won't even care. But if it's for their for a high-end build, well, I refer a professional to them, whether it's an architect or a designer or a or a contractor slash installer, because they need, you know, the homeowner is never gonna know that the walls skew and ceilings bow and floors dip at the wrong places, and you know, they don't know any of this stuff.
SPEAKER_01Amen to that, my friends. I can promise you that uh you've had to explain that to everybody. Well, this was a perfectly square wall. And I said, Well, let's first let's go back to this. The word is no, it's not perfectly square, there's no such thing in a home. Uh, everything has to, and we have to allow for it. So we got to figure out where we're gonna hide this gap. Well, that that seems disingenuous. He didn't say disingenuous. He says, Well, we shouldn't have to hide gaps. I said, Well, you do in construction, friends, because that's what we have to do. So you're right. Uh, it's better, it's best with this uh with professionals. So if you're a professional do uh on your website, are you looking for us to upload certain drawings? Uh, how do we get from concept to to completion?
How Ordering And Pricing Work
SPEAKER_00Yeah, at this point we have a configurator. So uh what I suggest people do is when you're doing the drawing, have have our catalog already in mind. So that way every of the 250 cabinet models, you can they're all continuously available available in continuous dimensions, height, width, depth, and then you can add the any material or door style that we can buy in a region. And so have the have the library in mind as you're designing. And then when you and then you can simply uh order those cabinets in the precise dimensions that you need. And um all of the pricing is dynamic. And we price not by customization, we don't charge for customization, we charge by per square inch of material. So you can charge you can choose uh two dollars from fifty a square foot melamine to uh you know twenty-five dollar a square foot material. But uh we've we've minimized, we've eliminated the manual engineering and we've minimized uh distribution cost to hyperlocal, generally less than a one-hour drive factory to job site. And so that's how you start. You start with a with a uh library in mind as you're designing, and then as you're designing, you're also you're also you have a firm grasp of okay, how much is this is gonna cost? If if it starts, you know, the customer wants Shinokia at you know, fifteen dollars a square foot, and you you extend it out and they you realize they can't, or they realize they can't afford it, then you know you can propose a very similar alternative at four bucks a square foot made by Edgar.
SPEAKER_02So if if I'm uh I'm the consumer, I want a new kitchen done, I reach out to your company, you find me a local kitchen designer, we come up with whatever we want, they then the designer works with you, and then the designer then runs point on the project and they use their installers, or is is that something that you're involved with as well?
SPEAKER_00No, we are we are simply a website that allows anyone to order custom cabinets without skilled people to order custom cabinets without the shop drawing process.
SPEAKER_02Okay, love that. Okay, so everything everything is done locally, and it's whether it's your architect or your designer, whatever, they're basically the project manager, the point person, but they're using your service, they're sourcing, and that the savings comes from just the the sheer uh you know cost of materials and then and the savings on the the delivery and uh the distribution, as you said.
Early Proof And Kitchen Expansion
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's the efficiency gain. Uh did I get it? You know, you're not doing revise and resubmit cycles with your cabinet maker. It's it's it's it's one website, it's one configurator. Everyone reviews that one form, that one sales order. And once everyone's in agreement that, yeah, that is that does need to be 12 and 5 eighths inches, then you can place the order, make the payment, we purchase the materials and we send the machine instructions to our local fabricator that we've already pre-approved and we've pre-synced our software with. And so if there's any customer service issue, does it end up going to that local fabricator or the that's but we we collaborate with our local fabricators very well because um we don't we don't uh we don't we pay them their standard rates. You know, in California, we're paying 125 bucks an hour for labor and 65 bucks a sheet for for a CNC time. And um but their costs are for electricity, screws, glue, and assembly, if the customer chooses assembly. And so they're dropping, they're earning their standard rates, but they're dropping between 70 and 90 percent to their pre-tax line.
SPEAKER_01All right, so you can choose either ready to assemble or assembled cabinets uh on your on your site as well, and then uh obviously installation not done by AI, Alan, uh still has to be done and not by a robot. So that's why I picked this business. I'm feeling good that the robots aren't gonna take us all out. Uh, but that's where the efficiency gain goes. Um, and it's hellobaru.com, right? Um that's where you go to check this thing out. So, how long have you guys let's talk about the business side of this now? Um, you had this idea, you had the incubator. Did you go into the partnership? Did you how did you build that business plan for this idea?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I'm a solo founder. So I started uh this, you know, I spent four years um working and investigating the idea. And even as I was talking with people, very prominent designers were placing orders for custom furniture from me. It was wild. So I learned how to draw on CAD, and I went to the Amish shop uh an hour and a half away and had it made and you know, very in very early investigations, and then uh I decided okay, there was a business model to be had here. And so I I I found my first co-founder who was um a cabinet maker, and we uh that initial test was around okay, distributed manufacturing, distributing the CNC instructions. And our first customer was uh Google employees during COVID. They were all setting up home offices and they were getting a stipend for home offices. And we uh I was as a solo founder of we were doing uh custom desks, so sit-stand desks drawers, which was uh it's still a scarcity. And um during that six-month program, uh we sold, I don't know,$70,000 in desks and made in 12 cities around the country. 15 or 15, 16, 17 meant different manufacturers. So that was the proof of concept. Yeah, this marketplace, two-sided marketplace would work. And then uh one of our manufacturers in uh California said, why don't you get into kitchens? So I moved out to uh uh San Francisco in 21 and 22, sold a few hundred uh thousand dollars in kitchens, but we we we we executed this the old-fashioned way. I hired an engineer to produce the drawings, and and then we had them cut at one of our local partners. All of that was so I would understand how this industry works. Uh you know, that's where I learned that wall bow and ceilings dip and wave and floors do all the skewness. Um but I wanted to understand, okay, if we develop, if I took the time and resources to develop a software, was there still a business that popped up? Uh, you know, profit. And I was convinced that it was. There was, and thus um, you know, I my bootstrapped um with some angel investment also, 550,000 of angel investment in 23 and 24, we developed a software. Uh now we have a functional software that is a configurator. With the next angel check, I'll be able to integrate that with a design tool. We can offer this free design tool on our website. And so if Chris, you stop your subscriptions of 2020 with 2020, you'll save$3,000 per seat. And you can use our design tool for free, order from any manufacturer, because I I'm leaving every other manufacturer's library catalog on there. But as a already as you as a user on the site, if you need customization, you just simply use our library, and eventually people will just discover that our custom pricing is really competitive with even Home Depot at a given quality level.
SPEAKER_01Wow. This is, I mean, again, seeing an opportunity, and you're right, looking at an antiquated business model that is cabinet three. Um, and I've seen other people enter, and like I've said, I've I was looking for uh other cabinet folks. Uh I haven't investigated Hello Baru. I have not, I can't tell you guys I can endorse him yet. I wanted to get him on the podcast, learn a little bit more about his business. I thought the story was amazing. Um, and I just got to find the opportunity to go uh explore it because similar to what Tino said, I think there's some great points in there, right? I've got a proof of concept or I had an idea. Uh I had to do it the old fashioned way. And I I th here's what I had mentally when you said that is that you put this idea out there said, Look, I've got this completely integrated. I don't know how you sell, but uh I would tell everybody. I was a lot bigger than I was. Listen, I've got a whole network of people who are going to make my cabinets. Okay. So you just tell me what you want. Oh, you want some furniture? Oh, yeah, we do that too. And then you say, well, let me turn that over to my production team and I'll get back to you. And then you turned over and you started writing. You go, hey, I got with my sales, uh, with my production team. I think we can make this happen. Uh let me just find out when we can get that delivered. And then you ran over to the Amish guys and said, Hey, how long is this going to take? You went back and said, Listen, I talked with my production, talk with my scheduler. I can get you all scheduled in in like two weeks. Um, and then did you install, did you deliver the furniture yourself?
Beta Results Sales Pipeline And Architects
SPEAKER_00I made two deliveries. One was to Anna, uh Anna Maria Marin Marino, the president of ASID New Jersey, because I wanted to get face to face with her and figure out how as the president of ASID New Jersey she was ordering from Tino Go in Cleveland. Who the F is this guy? Right.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and if you got her endorsement, that would be mad.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Getting from the Aceid, that's awesome. So I could just see it because that's I'd make it sound like I was huge. And then when I showed up, they're like, weren't you the sales guy? Well, you know, one of my guys was sick, so yeah, here I am. Just you know, I'll put them on the delivery, no big deal. Hey, don't forget, here's my business card. Well, my whole team's behind me. Cheers, everybody.
SPEAKER_00Uh team of it looks like it was a lot of investigation, you know, found their lead and uh data capture, and really trying to understand what the pain points were. And the fact that a very prominent designer was ordering from some guy that she happened to meet one day talking about this idea was wild. Um but now it's um yeah, so that was that was uh early days. Um I lost I lost track.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, so I'll get you back on track. So uh that's 23-24. Here we are in 26. I now you do have a team. Tell me how you scaled this business to be able to deliver or to get this out. How are you going to market? I you know, I met you at a networking event for Nary. Um I mentioned that didn't I? Because you were the president.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Alan. Okay, he was waiting in line to kiss your ring. Is that he he was okay? Uh and it was hard because yeah, you kind of go, Stina. That's right.
SPEAKER_01That actually could attest because uh Alan won't even go with me to the Nary events. He goes, I can't take that. I can only take my mouth a little bit. I can only take you one hour a week on the podcast, big guy. So that's funny. So today, how have you operationalized it? Where where are you at now in your growth stage and your and the way you've done it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we uh we concluded our beta in 2025 with um you know the configurator works. Um and the since uh so I I came back to the Bay Area to um to market, founder-led sales, a lot of networking, a lot of industry events. Um our pipelines, our sales pipeline has grown to around 800,000 year to date. And yeah, but they're real estate projects, they're long lead times. I'm still I'm still seeking uh angel investment. And but there's uh there's a good there's a there's good potential and it's uh this all the signals are right. And so, you know, uh four weeks ago I presented to um AIA, the uh American Institute of Architects in San Francisco with one of our architect clients. And so the you know, what we presented was, you know, I presented the the current state of the industry, how we're using technology to change it, and then he uh and then Zach, our architect client, he presented how he uses the the technology and the tool to uh even to help uh maintain control over designing uh cost control and de-risking the project because uh we provided all of that pricing and constructibility information up front. So uh he's not designing with comp in a in a void of information. You know, because uh typically architects, if they they're not aware of what we're doing, they'll design and then it goes to a GC to get bid out. Some GC wins it, and then it goes and then the design goes to the subcontractor, and then the design intent gets completely lost when they realize that uh you know the project can't afford 4x uh initial budget idea because of the design, so it gets value engineered value engineered the heck out of yeah, and so you get to that right up front.
Startup Challenges And Building The Team
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you do a lot of that. That's that's the because uh you actually hit on uh what the caveman groc over here was about to say. Me say, architect don't know what he wants to do. I tell you how to do it better, I do better, I save you money.
SPEAKER_02And you don't tune, you know, what the customer wanted, what the contractor saw, what the architect designed, you know, all the way down, and then they ended up with a camel with you know three swings hanging off of it. Yeah, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's exactly the right. So he's saying that well, that's great endorsement for your uh architect friend. That that's the kind of stuff you obviously when you go check out hello brew.com, everybody, go check this uh if you're in this business doing cabinetry. Obviously, it's interesting. If you're not think about what he just did and clearly is on the cusp of disrupting an industry, uh and he, you know, and maybe this will be his last podcast. Maybe he'll get taken out because the cabinet people don't want him to do this. I don't know. The case man, size up. Yeah, Tino, be careful. They might be throwing rocks, but good news is they probably have shitty aims, so you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_02What are some of the challenges that came up that you weren't expecting?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the challenge is uh with all with all underfunded uh startups is uh you know getting the getting a bunch of faithful to continue working nights and weekends. Uh with the with the you know, with a potential, with a promise, with the uh hope that this this is worth their nights and weekends, and um their arguments with their partners have been worth it.
SPEAKER_02So it was so it wasn't the product, it was the selling the dream to the people that you needed to help you fulfill the dream. Well, it's a challenge.
SPEAKER_00I can't do this by I can't reinvent the industry by myself, you know. I had to have some pretty deep expertise.
SPEAKER_01Right. So you've had to have the you have the subject matter experts, and but you've also had to have the people who can create this digital asset for you. That must be a really interesting conversation between cabinet to uh digital programmer.
SPEAKER_00No, there no, because everyone in this industry they've thought about it. They thought about 10 years ago when 3D printers came on the scene.
SPEAKER_01Okay. That's good.
SPEAKER_00But no one's really pursued the the process, you know.
Growth Plan And Restoration Hardware
SPEAKER_01So here we are uh in in 26 in March, uh 800,000 a backlog. What do you see? What is your growth plan? What is your plan to continue to scale? Uh, what are you focused on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um the way we're gonna grow is following our larger customers across the map. So as they have larger projects, you know, the contractors, the larger ones. Um uh, for example, restoration hardware, they called me two weeks ago because they uh they were previously uh how about that for a name drop, Big Daddy?
SPEAKER_01Dude, that's a total name drop, Tino. Leave the name dropping to me, buddy. Huh? Restoration hardware. That's pretty dude. You're jealous, right now. My my little bit swollen. And hey, by the way, can you put a good word in for me? Restoration hardware. So tell me about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Oh my god. That is how many stores do they have? One buckhead, where else?
SPEAKER_01Uh restoration hardware. It's got the one buckhead here. Uh, I know my wife is hit the uh restaurants in West Palm, um, Orlando, uh Napa Valley. Uh, we're also Jesus, she's at them all. Yeah. I'm talking about the restaurants, not the stores, but you know what I mean. You know where I'm going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so so the uh the design architect who who's in charge of uh all those new store refreshes, um, he told me that they previously had centralized manufacturing, bottlenecks around the single factory as well as the distribution to the all the different stores. And if something's miscut, it has to come from half a country away. That was super uh inefficient. The other way they tried was through the GCs and their local subs. Too much variance. Too much variance. And so the conversation was uh it started with you know, I heard that you you're the single-throated choke for distributing network of uh manufacturers, uh pre-qualified manufacturers, and said, Yeah. So if we develop your uh library, you'll be able to uh scale it to whatever that building needs, and it'll be converted into machine instructions for localized manufacturing for that consistency and and speed and de-risking and decosting the process. And so um that's so we'll follow those kinds of customers around the country, and I would too, buddy.
SPEAKER_01I I would follow them, I would follow them all over the place, like a dog who has a bone, like a dog who needs a leg, like with his fly open, with it fly open, and oh my god, what a great pull! So if restaurant, because uh for those not in the business, um whenever a customer says their inspo is restoration hardware, I know where we're going. It's a high-end customer, and their stuff is amazing, it's high quality. Um, it's beautiful, it's ornate. Um, it is not uh stuff you're picking up at IKEA and slapping together. It's not stuff you're picking up at Home Depot, uh, Lowe's, Menards, wherever you are in the world in the US or even internationally. You're just not, these are not stock boxes, man. This is all good stuff. So that's great.
SPEAKER_02So, right, so right now you're you're I'm assuming you're niched geographically, and then as say restoration hardware says, hey, we need this in Cleveland, you've got to find a manufacturer that wants to play ball.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we've already got 50 who have um over 50 around the country who raised their hands because they understand if we're going to supply the machines and send them materials, their profit rates are going to be super high, and and their level of effort is going to be super low.
Contact Info Final Advice And Closing
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're coming to them with uh with basically the the golden goose. You're like money. Here you go. You know all that stuff you had to bang yourself around for and sell a sales guy on and then beat your head against the wall because the GC was off a half an inch and he's blaming you. Look, I've got it all. Boom. All you have to do is follow these instructions, click it up. You get to do it at four o'clock in the afternoon when most people are going home. You can fit you you fit it in when you got your off hours, whatever. Uh, that's awesome. Yeah, you're right. I didn't think about that. That's uh and and if you did think about that and you're driving around going, well, Chris, I was already there. Thank you. I was the guy with the fly down, don't forget that. So um, Tino, this is great, man. Hellobaro.com, great thing. If you're into business, go figure it out. If you're not, I think this is the thing, the the kind of opportunity that people, you know, it's fun to look at somebody else who's in a totally different business than yours and see what you did to see how to how to do this because that's where the great innovation happens. And I think that's where, you know, we've had some great people come on the podcast. And uh I've heard about um I the one I'm thinking about is Menlo Park Innovations up in uh Ann Arbor that has two programmers for every one computer. Uh I had somebody bring that up to me just the other day talking about how innovative that approach was, that they never thought about that, even in the construction industry. And I said, that's interesting, but the reason we don't do it is because of the you know, the perceived cost of labor. And uh, but still, if you do it the right way, it works. And Tino, it seems like you're onto something, man, and you're you're building it. So congrats, keep it going. Is there anything else you want to tell us? Uh, how everybody obviously can get a hold of you, hellobaru.com. That's pretty easy to remember.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's Tino at hellobaru.com. You know, it's uh I'm always looking for customers, of course, collaborators, they could be channel partners, they could be contractors, they could be even be white label resellers. Um you know, we've there's uh there's a Mountain View um design build shop there that they want to I I proposed instead of them selling our product, we could build their product and they can leverage their name. And then um I'm also looking for investors or or other kinds of uh support like that.
SPEAKER_01All right, Tino, you got a great idea going, man. This has been great. Thanks for coming on and sharing it with us. I know it's been a little while since we have met, so we're glad we got you on. I'm gonna go check it out. But I go again, man, it's just if you're like uh blah, blah, blah, I'm not getting the cabinets. Don't blah blah blah, man.
SPEAKER_02We need we need to put like a little calendar reminder and check in with Tino. Because I love I love the way he's just methodically, thoughtfully going through this.
SPEAKER_01Well, next time, Tino, you're in Atlanta, uh, ping me before you get here, and we're gonna bring you in person so you can come to the small business safari bourbon fest that we like to have every week, guys. You keep going up that mountain, make it all happen. You know what? There's trials, there's tribulations. Sometimes you go out there and run sales that you fly down. Sometimes you talk to somebody on this podcast that's way flipping smarter than you, right, Alan? Almost always. Damn it, he's been good. He is very sharp. Tito, best of luck to you, man. We are we're gonna put a podcast check reminder on this 26th. We're gonna check back with you in about another year. But when you're coming into Atlanta, uh just ping me on the email. We know we went back and forth on that. I'd love to catch up with you again uh when you're coming through. And uh, man, continued success, man. Yeah, good luck to you and to the rest of you. Continued success. Entrepreneurship, that's what we're here for. Small businesses make up all the business in the world. We've got some great uh episodes coming up. Don't forget to tell your friends, tell your family, it's the small business safari. We'll catch you on the podcast next week.
SPEAKER_02Cheers, everybody.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Safari. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in a wild world small business understanding. Until next time, make it a great day.
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