Dave Castro: Crafting the Future of Relationships with Cutting-Edge Technology

Unlock the secrets to networking without the awkwardness as we sit down with Dave Castro, the brains behind the Icebreakr app. Our enlightening conversation peels back the layers of how technology collides with human connection, empowering even the most introverted among us to forge meaningful bonds. I, David A. Speck, share tales from my own software saga, having tinkered on the Macintosh SE and witnessed Adobe's rise to fame, while Dave spills the beans on how constant relocation fueled his quest to build bridges faster.

Venture into the tech-savvy future of Icebreaker, where the app blossoms into a nexus for business rendezvous and personal CRM prowess, all thanks to the fusion of user feedback and proximity-aware innovation. Experience the thrill of becoming an industry icon and the sheer joy of connecting with fellow trailblazers like Dave. By the end of our chat, you'll be reaching for your smartphone, eager to unleash Icebreaker's full potential at your next networking event, equipped with the digital savoir-faire to turn every handshake into a lasting connection.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Hello there, I'm David A Speck and I want to be your coach. If there's anything that I've learned in my 30 plus years of leadership and coaching, I have learned that mindset is everything. Join me and my guests as we explore the positives and negatives of that thing between our ears. This is Keep this In Mind. Welcome to Keep this In Mind, brought to you by davidaspectcom. Of course, I am David A Speck and today's episode is going to be epic because I have been an early adopter of software, engineered things all my life. Just to give you an idea, I worked on the Macintosh SE early on in my graphic design career. I embraced Adobe. Before it was Adobe. To hear a software-based solution for a real-world problem really excites me.

Speaker 1 1:02

My guest today, dave Castro. He and I met through his software. Oddly enough, we were at a networking and leadership and informational event, a wonderful event that our mutual friend, jim Morris put on. They're like. Before the event, you got to download this app called Icebreaker. I'm like why? What's the point? It was such a game changer in that moment. Dave, I want to first off, welcome to the show. Thank you, david. Thank you for agreeing, because you have been jet-setting lately. Everywhere in the world. I saw you were in London recently. You've been on the local television voting and talking about the app. I want to dive into your mindset. I said offline that you're a software aficionado. What I mean by that is you see the world through. How can I solve a problem? 100% yes, tell me about not just Icebreaker, but how did you get to the point of saying I need to develop this software?

Speaker 2 2:11

Yeah, I have actually grown up. I was always moving. We were going to new churches, new schools and new neighborhoods. I quickly learned how to make friends fast, how to connect, make friends fast and then also the value of the ideal connections, the people that will stick with you from move to move, from church to church, there's ideal connections. That was basically my life until graduation was a lot of moving Fast forward.

Speaker 2 2:47

I got into software sales. I had wanted to actually be a software developer for the sake of creating something new, because I was always a problem solver and a creative thinker. I could not handle the instructors, could not teach, and it was just really frustrating. I got into the marketing side. Anyway, I did end up as a salesperson for a small software startup and that launched a software sales career, which then continued that love and appreciation for the way that software can solve problems.

Speaker 2 3:28

Being a salesperson and being in a room that's full of opportunity, full of people, but it's very analog, very numbers driven, the number of conversations that you have to have in order to get the value out of it. Even if you know who's coming, they may not be with an eyeball distance, they may look differently than the picture that you had. They may be at the coffee table or in the bathroom where I've left early. It was just frustrating to me to know that there were ideal connections in the room that I may not get to. Even though I've had twice as many conversations as other people, I'm not going to meet everybody in the room. That's always been a frustration for me. Whenever I saw a competitor talking to somebody, I was like, ooh, I should probably be talking to them.

Speaker 2 4:18

That FOMO, that angst, was something that I was always aware of. I don't know how much detail we can get into more detail later, I guess but when this concept came to me, really driving down the highway Route 65 here in Nashville and people flying by me at 80 miles an hour, but as I was connecting my phone to my radio, I was picking up their phone Then it just occurred to me that's a signal, a radio signal that has a unique identifier. Each one has its own social security number, type deal. That unique universal identifier that I picked up is their phone, which is almost like an appendage, and it never goes more than six feet away from them. Now we have an ability to have an opt-in network, so to speak ad hoc network, shall we say, where they attach things that they want other people to know about them to that signal.

Speaker 1 5:19

That's how Icebreaker conceptually was born basically I'm going to be showing my age, but in the networking world it seems like all of the solutions have been analog. We've had speed networking, where you're at a table for what? Seven minutes and then you got to switch tables. Even in the event we were both attending, there was the breakout. Hey, go find you a network or go find five people you don't know. It always seemed to be an analog. Here's the problem I see with analog and I want your thoughts on it. No matter how good the analog system is, it's very difficult to get an introvert to engage in it.

Speaker 2 6:17

Yeah, I think. So. There's lots of things about the analog thing and I think it has a lot to do with time. So the introvert over time is gonna be a best friend and it's gonna be talking like you know. You just gave him a whole bottle of wine to drink. Right, like you know, they're gonna warm up and so forth. That's time you know. You get a ton of people in the room.

Speaker 2 6:43

Let's say they're all introverts, it's 100 people. You give enough time and everybody's gonna meet everybody. You don't have that time. Right, there's a limited budget of time, of energy. Right, that just goes along with life. You know, we're all millionaires. If we could just squeeze the number of years down to like a couple of years and all the money that we earn over lifetime, we kind of speed up. You know that's a different world. And the same thing with networking is it's just, it's really time is an issue. So analog, you know, interesting enough, there's a play on words there, but analog related to time is one of our obstacles. So what we're doing is we're taking the power of digital, along with the power of proximity, to give you the ability to make the ideal connections and then enjoy stress-free conversations with everybody else.

Speaker 1 7:43

I love to how Icebreaker connects to LinkedIn.

Speaker 1 7:49

You know, for years, you know, I've been on LinkedIn forever and you know, early on LinkedIn was the connection tool for business.

Speaker 1 7:58

Right, you would go on LinkedIn and you would find the, you would add somebody and if they accepted you, all of a sudden you had access to their contact information and then you could email them or call them or whatever else and so, yeah, and then LinkedIn, kind of well, we want to be, we want to be Facebook for business and it kind of got muddied and now LinkedIn's coming back as the hub for business folks. So what I love about what Icebreaker does is it connects the LinkedIn profile, you know, once you've set up your profile on there, to your Icebreaker profile so that when you're in that room you know what's the name of the app just kind of makes it. It's breaking the ice is so hard if you don't have something to connect with somebody on. So being able to do that upfront work and saying Bob over there is in the medical sales business and I have a thing I need to go meet Bob is a huge advantage, wouldn't you say Totally, and you still have the same entree.

Speaker 2 9:05

It's hey, I'm David. What's your name? You know, david Speck. Hey, do you do health? I think that's what you just said in your example healthcare or something or other. But you know, make it natural, normal. In fact, we all wear these name tags and, in my opinion, name tags 50% of the time can't even be read, because the handwriting or their clothes like overlaps, or their hair overlaps it, or it's embarrassing to be like staring at somebody's chest. For all those reasons, name tags are basically invitations to come up and say hi. You're not even gonna say oh, hi, david. You know you'll say hey, I'm David, and you allow them to tell you their name, even though you just read it on their name tag and so, in the same way, you know, keep it.

Speaker 2 9:49

You know it's still natural and normal when you have icebreaker and you can, but the fact of the matter is you have data that you can identify some connectivity, some similarities, right, some things you have in common, or just some questions to ask right Around. What are the that they want you to know about themselves? And I say this all the time that the it's actually more profound if you think about it. But the value of your connections is equal to the value of your projections.

Speaker 2 10:24

So, whether that's what you say about yourself, who you are, how you carry yourself. You know your particular level of maturity, you know gravitas and all that stuff. We're all growing. You know, I wouldn't have the same opportunities I have now that I wouldn't have had the same opportunities that I have now. You know, 20 years ago, you know. So my projections are different and so all those things about networking, you know, are still the same. Just again, it's that marrying, or combining the power of digital with the power of proximity, is just a powerful combination.

Speaker 1 11:02

So kind of tell me how long has icebreaker been around and what are some of the growing pains or lessons learned lessons you've learned as a result, because I tell people all this all the time the 1.0 version of anything is going to be flawed yeah, so kind of walked me through the progression and I had an idea, decided to partner up with somebody or code. It got it launched, tested it out. Now what has been the feedback? What are some of the lessons?

Speaker 2 11:38

So originally there was just a lot of tuning that we had to do around the display. You know the discovery screen, where it has to work when other people's screens are off and the phone's in the pocket, otherwise it's not gonna add value. So that was one of the first big challenges. And then just all the things about you know UI, intuitiveness and tweaking and those type of things, and then bugs and and then just just it, just it just takes time. It's. You know expectations have to be set. Somebody has to. You know drive, quality and you know brand image and those type of things. You got to manage that, but along with that, it's just a matter of time and and getting it out there, and you know.

Speaker 2 12:39

So I thankful to have people who were open to giving it a whirl in their events and and and so and it's gotten gotten better and better and better every time, in fact. So we are, we're in a great place right now and just had a wonderful event in London and tons of just fantastic feedback, and so we're we're in a good spot and March is gonna be an amazing month as well, because we have some really cool things. That you know it takes time and it's been in the works, I do. I feel like I'm pushing, like my vision through a straw. It's frustrating, and so We'll fix that, whether it's Revenue, which would be the ideal, or, you know, perhaps a partnership or investment or something. But we are, we're on the, we're on the right track and we're making making, making waves, making big difference.

Speaker 1 13:45

Well, I will say, as a personal user of the app and this was back in October, so we're what, oh, let's see, was that four months ago?

Speaker 1 13:53

I think one of the biggest benefits Is the fact that the contacts stay there, post event to where you can follow up, because I believe following up is where where the money's made, where when the connection is fostered, and I will tell you that the utilization of that app After the event Created connections like between you and I, between I did a deal or I'm in the middle of doing a deal with a guy in the in the financial services industry that, literally, we sat at the same table and didn't say two words to each other, broke out the app and then, when, oh, you and I have the same name, his name was David, but David and I'm like, oh, I'm David too, you know, and it just kind of Broke that, like I said, it broke the ice and then, post event, you know, a couple days later, I go back through the list of my connections and said, oh, I need to follow up with this guy until you know, boom, boom, boom and and you're, you know you're connecting, and all of a sudden a conversation starts, and to me, that's the huge advantage is like it's ongoing, a connections the beginning, but a relationship Is is where the gold is, and so, yes, and so you, and so you still have to do the work again.

Speaker 1 15:09

You know, did it like we talked about AI? You know, ai is a tool, but it still takes the human to to, to make the difference Right. It's the same with with what you have brought to the marketplaces totally cool, that's going to help you get started, that who's going to lower the threshold of obstacle in front of you to this connection. But you still have to go shake the hand or fist bump. You still have to follow up. You still have to add value and and bring that relationship Absolutely. So I'm going to, I'm going to bring up a thing I can.

Speaker 2 15:42

I do Um Tag on that real quick.

Speaker 1 15:45

I love.

Speaker 2 15:46

I love that what you said. Uh, I call it pda, event, pda, pre-event, during event, after event all valuable pre-event who's coming? You can message or whatever at least prioritize, you know. Connecting at the event hey, let's meet up During event, all the things we talked about. You're walking to the coffee station, your phone buzzes, you pull it out oh, david speck, he's podcast, I need to chat with him. Right and you walk over and say hi, um, because they're proximity and it. It pulled you up as somebody that was in my keywords.

Speaker 2 16:16

After event Nobody ever gets to everybody at the event and following up, like like you talked about, is huge and we'll have shortly some additional functionality around that follow-up and that keeping in touch with with people and those type of things. And there's a digital business card in there. We didn't talk about that. Um, it, it'll be one of the best on the market. Um, it's pretty good right now. But, um, yeah, that's, uh, that's again, we'll, uh, we're we're about a real, a release away from some some, some, some pretty cool things in there. But thank you, david, for mentioning that.

Future of Icebreaker Platform Development

Speaker 1 16:53

After the event thing yeah, that's really helpful, it's huge um, I was thinking about the other day, as we were, as I was preparing for this, I came across and I had seen it before, but I came across a reel where Steve Jobs is standing in front of a group of engineers and and the individual one of the individuals was like you know, basically saying what do you do? What do you do all day? You're not, you're not a programmer, you're not a whatever. What do you do all day? And and they were, it was obvious they were trying to embarrass him.

Speaker 1 17:28

But you know jobs, you know he has his own, has his own view of everything in the world. But what he said was so profound and I think this this beautifully illustrates the progression of icebreaker. He said there has to be somebody who thinks about the user experience above all else and then tries to and then brings the technology to create the user experience they're seeking. He said the problem of engineers is they find a great way to do something, but then they're like, okay, now how do we market this thing to the masses? What you've done Is, you said look, here is a problem connectivity at events.

Speaker 1 18:11

Here's an epiphany. I know a technology exists that lets me know about proximity, and then you came and said, okay, let's marry the two. And I don't remember Whether Jim's event was like early on in in the iterations of the of the platform or not, but I know that a lot of people in that room had never heard of icebreaker. But then when they engaged in it, I didn't hear a single person say, well, this is stupid or it isn't. You know it was. It was like they all looked at it as this is the thing I've been waiting for. Why is that not existed before?

Speaker 1 18:50

And when you really think about the technology that's out there, that exists, you know Life 360 has been around forever. You can I can pinpoint where my wife is right now. You know, because she's opted in to let me do that. Mm-hmm, I want to commend you for marrying user experience or user expectations with technology to help solve a problem, because so many times we look at the problem and very rarely try to put the pieces together to a solution. So, as you're moving forward, what do you see as the future of Icebreaker? Is it? You've mentioned the digital business card Is it going to be an all-encompassing platform for business connectivity, or is there going to be a piece of a bigger puzzle? Maybe you know? I'm sure you would love for Zuckerberg to call you and say hey, we want to integrate Icebreaker into Facebook and make it a part of our integration and we're willing to pay you heavily for it.

Speaker 2 19:53

Yeah, what do you? The latter sounds fantastic. I mean, there's definitely some exit targets in mind. I think would make a whole lot of sense and they're probably obvious. But I'm really looking for the being that nexus of connection and in the app obviously there's ways that once you connect, once you and I connect and I look at your profile, I can choose your, whatever it is that you platforms that you're on, like Instagram or LinkedIn, for examples I would click on those and then we can continue the conversation in whichever manner that we desire to. So some guys I know are just like straight up, you know just text, they just want to text.

Speaker 2 20:47

But my goal is to be that connection hub and then folks can utilize whatever platforms they're most heavily invested in, where their tribe hangs out, you know, to carry on conversations, but still like, where are your contacts? Your contacts aren't only in the Facebooks, they're not only in the LinkedIn, they're not only in the Instagrams or whatever they're. Depending on how or those contacts are, they become listed in your contacts database on your phone. It's a separate kind of you know sacred grouping and so my intent is that Icebreaker becomes that kind of core hub and then when you go to contacts that are web meetings, virtual events or in person events, or just get a reminder to follow up with XYZ, because you know David Speck and David Castro haven't connected in the last couple of months and it's time to like reconnect right. Those type of things where it just becomes that CRM ish almost, or utility for connection is really what I'm looking for, Not necessarily trying to create the next Facebook, but create that thing that I think is been missing in all these things.

Speaker 2 22:05

Everybody wants you to be part of their big conglomerate, monolithic thing, and that ain't going to happen. It's not. People want choice. There's always going to be more than one and there's going to be people that opt out of everything, and there's always going to be that golden list of contacts that's separate, right in its own little like uniqueness, and that's where Icebreaker, I think, should see itself sitting and then connecting with all the other ones.

Speaker 1 22:28

So who are your targets? And what I mean by that is you know, obviously and I'm still basing upon you know, a singular event that I used it at. But you have the event planner. He's obviously a target. He or she are obviously a target because you want them to, you know, include Icebreaker as part of their event. But now you have the consumer side of it too, Now that you want them to not only download Icebreaker for this event but keep Icebreaker for all the future connections that they have going on. So kind of explain to me what is the optimal process? Is it that you start at the consumer side or do you start at the event planner side?

Speaker 2 23:10

Yeah, that's a great question. What do they have to do? Yeah, I've done the. You know a little bit of both.

Speaker 2 23:18

I think the creating that artificial critical mass by going to the event host, who then it's a one to many, where they then, you know, bring everybody into the fold, so to speak, utilizing Icebreaker, is fantastic. The part that we are showing up is, while we do have a digital business card it has so much potential and that part right there is part of the special sauce that we already have some uniques about it. That's unique and pretty cool, but we're gonna capitalize on that here in the next month or so, where folks will have a very valuable tool, a digital business card that's at least comparable, if not better, than the other ones that are on the market, and then that'll be valuable in between events. And then another thing that will be valuable in between events is that capability that I mentioned, where we're able to tell you here are the different contacts that you have said are key, and what intervals do you wanna connect with them?

Speaker 2 24:32

Some people you only wanna reach out to every quarter, every year, some maybe every month, and so, whatever those things, are you really just your network being your net worth. You wanna attend it and the contacts, the relationships that you don't ever, you don't ever talk to again, they're really not your network. It's a point. They'll fall off the vine. So there's some things we're doing to provide value to the user, whether they're attending independent of events. I guess is what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 25:06

Is there a cost for the event planner to utilize Icebreaker as an event that cause that's what I had here you are at impact effect, and now here's everybody who's here. There's value in that list, obviously to those that are attending. Is there like if I if, let's say, I'm the president of a chamber of commerce and I have regular after hours events and I wanna incorporate Icebreaker as the event in those events, is there a cost or is there a procedure that's necessary for that application?

Speaker 2 25:44

There's a subscription level that you wanna be at in order to create an Icebreaker event page. The Icebreaker event page enables you to tie everybody to a, you know, to the event page you get. You create the event, it gives you a link and it creates a zone QR code too. Now If you click on it, click the link on from your desktop it'll show you a QR code that you could use. But that's part of the premium level subscription and then, beyond that, you can say, hey, we're using Icebreaker, everybody come, everybody.

Speaker 2 26:23

You know you can give them the link to download it and if they don't have a promo code which you need to come to Icebreaker, to a sales thing that would be the event sales portion of it then folks would have a limited number of profile views unless they paid for the upgraded version of it. So essentially, a long answer to question is that it could be, you know, minimal to free. You know, to the event nominal, to the event host and you know event attendees pay for their own level of value out of it. I recommend paying for. You know, come through me, we'll do a. You know a good deal, and then you cover everybody for the number of profile views and stuff that they're gonna have at the event, to eliminate all friction with experience when they're using the event right.

Speaker 1 27:20

Well, I believe, more and more events. What's that? I said, I believe Icebreaker is gonna be used at more and more events and one of the beauties of it is that continues to foster that connection, right? Hey, I saw in the follow-up it might be you're at another event and somebody's name comes up and you recognize it and you realize that you had a previous connection at a previous event. So as somebody who would be setting up events, I would say look, if I know that Icebreaker is very well utilized. Well, nashville is a perfect place, you know, because it's your home place, because there's been a lot of events that are utilizing it. Now, all of a sudden, it's to my advantage to incorporate that, because I know a good number of my attendees are already bought into it.

Speaker 2 28:10

Exactly exactly. I didn't mention that when you set up that event page, you can put a sponsor, you can put your agenda, your schedule event, which you saw, and you put your link for your workbook for that event or the breakout session, whatever it is, and sponsors can pay for the cost of the bulk buy of the licenses for the event. But yeah, that's the vision. Man is that folks are benefiting from it just as a utility. They can pull out just the way they pull out to text somebody or email somebody or phone call somebody, pull out Icebreaker to connect with those people around them. That's the vision I have.

Speaker 2 28:51

And at this event in London there were some people who didn't click on the link to get to the password protected event page, but because they had the app on with the nearby feature they still participated. They didn't get the memo about the click the special link for the password, but because everybody had the proximity mode working they still benefited significantly. It was really cool.

Speaker 1 29:17

So tell me some of I know you've heard some stories now from people who have used the app in multiple locations. Tell me some of the feedback you've gotten from end users.

Icebreaker App

Speaker 2 29:32

Well, it was fantastic to hear you talk about the after event portion. I had somebody was really excited about that in London. It was really cool. New friend of mine found some ideal connections. I mean, that was the pre-event portion where she kind of prioritized and then connect with them. I think all the above, to be honest with you, those kind of bubbled up through conversations with users, I didn't know that was going to be a big deal. I was like leave it open afterwards, people are going to be on it, and that turned out to be a big thing. And then all the messaging and all the profile viewing capability before the event that turned out to be a big thing too. And then, of course, the key component of the nearby alerts and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 30:28

Learning is cool. I get feedback on all of them and super, super grateful. I really am looking forward to 2024 being one that sees a lot more groundswell, so to speak, a lot more people that I've never heard of, didn't know using it. So it's getting there. We do have a group that's using it that they just sometimes an event will pop up and I'll see it. I'm like, oh, that's cool. I don't know anything about these guys.

Speaker 1 31:03

That's the really good feeling when you're when places and people you've never heard of. Of course, you expect your mom to buy it, but when somebody that you never met before is buying it it's like me in my book it's like, yeah, once I got past friends and family, it's like you got this finite number and now, as you watch the royalties or watch the copies, you're just like, oh so it really is a good piece of work. Okay, there, I will tell a little quick story. Yep, we wrap things up, but to me and I'm going to date myself when you walked up to our group, when we had a little breakout session and I looked up and I realized that you were Dave Castro, the guy who made this app that I was holding in my hand, I almost felt like I had just met Tom from Myspace, because you're literally everybody's friend. Right, You're the guy and have you noticed that a little sense of celebrity as the face behind Icebreaker?

Speaker 2 32:09

I'm starting to get a little bit of that and I'm trying to grow into that whole. I am comfortable with being seen. I'm here to lead in the way that I'm intended to lead and it's in this particular space and embracing that and stuff like that. So I have seen a little bit of that. I might get some comments, I think I even said oh, you're the Icebreaker guy.

Speaker 1 32:42

I think I literally said that when you walked up to the group.

Speaker 2 32:45

Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 1 32:47

So for the, we have listeners and viewers all over that may have never heard of you or Icebreaker. What are the best ways to follow, to engage and actually to download the app? So kind of give us the breakdown.

Speaker 2 33:03

Thanks, david. First, the website is I-C-E-B-R-E-K-Rcom. There's only two vowels, just the first two E's, so I-C-E-B-R-E-K-Rcom. And then Instagram is. I'm pretty active on Instagram and so Instagramcom slash Icebreaker, right. So it's just Icebreaker, spelled the same way. These are the two best. And if you were to go to our website and type in the website in Icebreakercom slash demo D-E-M-O, that'll take you right to the virtual demo room. So you'll download it and you'll get a little promo code to get some more profile views and stuff, get little freebie extras, and you'll see other people that have gotten onto that demo virtual room as well. So you'll get a feel for for what it does yeah, they like your profile. And and then check out the digital business card. You don't need another one now. You got icebreaker Awesome.

Speaker 1 34:13

Well, dave, thank you so much for being on the show again. We talk in the show about mindset. We talk about in the show about connections and relationships, and now we have a tool to lower that threshold, to lower that bar especially. Look, you know you may hear me talk for an hour on this show, but I'm an introvert when it comes to big networking events. So I am not only not only a testimony of the, of the value of it, I am an active user of icebreaker whenever I have the opportunity. So, guys, if you haven't, if our conversation hasn't spurred you to go to your computer or go to your phone to go to this website, let me just encourage you. It is worth your time. It is worth. It's going to make your life a whole lot easier and make our connections a whole lot better, and isn't that what everything's about? So thank you again for for being on the show today Awesome.

Speaker 1 35:08

Thank you so much, david, looking forward to all of the new features and getting rid of my old paper business card or my dot business card and engaging with the icebreaker business card. And I want to just finish off today's show with saying the same thing that I say on every show, but even more so today it's not knowledge that's power, it's applied knowledge that's power. God bless everybody that is going to do it for this episode of. Keep this In Mind. For more, visit davidaspectcom. Like, follow and subscribe. Thank you for listening and remember applied knowledge is power, god bless.