When Fire Safety Meets Software with Drew Slocum

Fire code compliance, inspections, and safety operations is a niche yet vital industry that relies on processes that can become outdated and inefficient. When public safety is on the line, having a streamlined digital solution to simplify every step of the process is critical for companies who are responsible for managing this compliance.

In this episode Craig interviews Drew Slocum, Chief Strategy Officer and co‑founder of Inspect Point, and host of The Fire Protection Podcast.

Drew explains his journey from starting at Tyco International (now Johnson Controls) doing industrial engineering to co-founding Inspect Point. We discuss how Drew turned his fire protection know-how into recurring revenue with a B2B platform that helps fire protection teams eliminate operational inefficiencies, unify their tech stack, and navigate compliance codes.

Learn more about Inspect Point and its work to help companies better protect their communities: https://inspectpoint.com

Tune in to The Fire Protection Podcast: https://fire-protection-podcast.simplecast.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Hello everybody, this is Craig Renty, host of the world's greatest licensing podcast. Thanks for joining us, everyone. And I am really happy today to be joined by Drew Slocum, uh Chief Strategy Offer Officer and co-founder of Inspect Point, the fire, uh also the host of his own podcast. Sorry, it can't be the world's greatest podcast, Drew, but uh there can only be one of those. Uh the Fire Protection Podcast. Drew, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yes. Yeah, thanks, Greg. Thanks for having me on. And uh yeah, it's it's fun to uh be a guest once in a while, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Yes. Yes, no one's asked me to be a guest yet. So I'm just uh I'm just gonna do enough until someone says, hey, maybe we want him on our show too. So you know, all right. Uh but Drew, why don't you, if you wouldn't mind, just sort of give our audience a little background on yourself and sort of um, you know, your journey.

From Tyco To Life Safety Mission

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, uh I appreciate that. And uh thanks for thanks for having me on and and all that. Um so I've been in this niche thing called the the fire protection industry uh ever since uh graduated college, about 22, I think it'll be 22 years in in January. Um so I started with uh essentially uh Fortune 500 company, Tyco at the time, Tyco International, which is now Johnson Controls. Um started right out of school with them doing industrial engineering and kind of got into this uh they were manufacturing this thing called a uh tyco uh dry pipe valve, right? Didn't really know what it did, knew how to make it, and it kind of introduced me to this industry of fire protection. So it's protecting uh people, it's protecting buildings, it's protecting property, right? Uh where we're all sitting, there's some type of fire protection, or there should be, right? You have smoke detectors, uh, fire alarm systems, extinguishers, sprinkler systems if you're in a in a in a commercial building. Um so those are life safety, right? It's um it's this cool industry, and um, I know one of uh one of uh uh your employees is uh that's how I kind of got on here, right? Um I've known him for pretty much my whole career, and um he's in fire protection as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

We went to college together. That's how we met.

Recurring Revenue And Codes Explained

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Oh, no way. Oh, uh he was my college roommate. That's funny. Yeah, that's funny. Um I got a story for that in a second and back to college, but um anyway, so I I I I worked my way throughout the the fire protection industry for about 10 10 or so years and um worked for the competitor, went moved moved around the country, then moved to New York City. Um was a uh territory manager, territory sales manager for them, uh selling products essentially, you know, to the the contracting community. And um in that time, uh had friends I went to college with, and um we were in the same fraternity together, and we always uh we had this kind of I had a customer, but they were also friends with them. So it was like, hey, we had this idea to to create um essentially a a workflow, a software workflow for for the recurring revenue business, right? Where you know no matter what contracting business they're in, if you can you have installations of of houses and buildings and anything install, right? Building buildings. But if you can get the recurring revenue of uh being in that building once a year or every quarter to maintain the equipment, there's high value to that, to that recurring revenue, right? Whether it's um whether it's HVAC, whether it's pest control, whether it's landscaping, right? Um, fire protection is also in that. The good part about fire protection is it's we call it codified, right? It it is required for the the state and local codes, right? You have to do it. HVAC, yeah, if your air conditioner shuts off, who cares, right? But for fire, it's it's actually mandated. So um anyway, I was in the fire protection industry, knew these guys from uh Pat, Phil, and and Jen from from college days, and we kind of threw our heads together. I had the avenue of of of the market, and they were great at software, right? So we put our heads together um about 10 years ago. It's kind of crazy. It's been uh been that long. And um yeah, created an app and um a workflow for this the contractors and and facilities within this industry.

B2B Focus And Home Safety Basics

SPEAKER_03 5:06

So many of that, uh what you just said, I'm I'm sort of thinking about the software industry uh in general. And one thing is I didn't go to college with people smart enough to create apps. I just didn't not in my major. But um when uh when you were thinking about and and er I think everybody's got a a a story, right? So I I just think about, you know, as I was prepping for this, um, you know, when when my son was probably four months old, I was on a business trip and wife calls me up and and first thing she says is we're all okay. And I'm like, what? And wasn't it wasn't a fire, it wasn't smoke, but the carbon monoxide detectors went off. And she immediately got out of the house and and the fire department came and they're like, good thing you had those because it's would have been a really bad situation, you know, and we had a four or five months old kid. So um so yeah, so every I think everybody's got that story that uh and you're right, it's it's and it's uh commercial. So your your platform that you have, is there uh any residential? Like do is it just for contractors or do homeowners, is there's like some features or functions that folks like me can use, or is it really business-to-business sort of um functionality?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, great, great question. Yeah, it it's mostly it's it's definitely B2B. You know, there's there's an industry out there that just performs and and you have to kind of be licensed in and performing um uh maintenance on this equipment. Now, for the extinguisher end, extinguishers are pretty pretty basic. You have to do monthly checks on them, right? If you're a business or you should be doing that in your house too. Now you're not gonna probably buy our software for that, but if you own if you own uh, I don't know, 50 condos or 50 apartment buildings or even 10 apartment buildings, it's actually a pretty good way to to to maintain that. Um but yeah, it's definitely B2B. There's you know, these these commercial companies now they do residential, they'll do town homes and apartment buildings, so there's an avenue for that, but um it's yeah, it's it's mainly B2B because there's a there's a market for it there, and there's a the whole licensing component around it too.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

And you have so did I you're supposed to check your fire extinguishers once like we've been here since a month. I've never checked my fire extinguisher. I guess I should do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Are you in an office building?

SPEAKER_03 7:34

No, no, no, no, I'm at home.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Okay, all right. Yeah, you gotta uh yeah, uh so uh fire extinguishers have to be serviced every they have to be looked, they have to be inspected once a year. Actually, they have to be looked at once a month, honestly. So you gotta you gotta make sure that they're you know the the gauge is still green essentially. Thank you. Look at the I need a checklist.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

The gauge is green. All right, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

The gauge is green, nothing's broken on it, it's accessible, um, nothing's blocking it, right? Um you know, I know that doesn't happen in the house a lot, but um definitely in the commercial space. Right, but then every six to twelve years, it has to be tested. So um a lot of people just throw them out, get a new one. Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Um but I was literally as you were saying that, I'm thinking I'm just gonna get new ones. It's been eight years.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Smoke detectors in your house. You I mean, it's NFPA, which is the big standard nonprofit association that kind of manages a lot of our codes. You know, every they I think they every time the clocks change, right? They say, hey, test your test your smoke detectors. Now, a lot of the new ones like Google and um do the Google Nest and stuff like that, they'll autom they automatically test themselves, which is kind of cool.

IoT Alarms And Liability Realities

SPEAKER_03 8:51

So I the and I wasn't gonna talk about this, but you brought it up. So I'm gonna talk about the Google Nest. So I want you to. So I'm a big when you think about the internet of things and all the stuff they want to put in your house, like echo dots and lights and all, I think it's all a waste except for the Google, the nest, like smoke detectors, and and probably we have a an alarm in the basement if it senses water, like those kinds of things. So I got an email from Google saying, hey, your your nests are 10 years old. You need to get some new nests, but we don't make them anymore. We're getting out of that business. Like I'm like, this is like the best product ever. That that Google Nest. And they recommended, you know, some other company to do that. Like, why would like I'm just wondering, is that like a liability issue? Did they not make enough money on that? But I would think Google Nest would be an amazing product for folks to have. And they test every month, it beeps, and everything in the house beeps, and the doll dogs get really nervous. And but I know it's working.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

You know why? I I didn't even know that. I just uh I Googled. No, no, they still have CO and smoke alarms.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Yeah, that still has them, and also they're not manufacturing them anymore, they're getting out of that business. Well, that's that's the email I got from Google this week.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Oh, I see what they're they've partnered with First Alert, which is that tool company. Yeah, so they're partnered. So the the the IoT hub will still work, but they're probably getting out of manufacturing. And I get I get the reason for that because it's not their lane, right? Um, and hey, if they have an issue, there's probably some pretty heavy litigation. Uh if a smoke that's where on my mind is a recall. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Someone sued them over their house, went went down and this thing didn't go off. And yeah, but I love that, you know, that um you know, we we probably have 10 of them in the house, you know, just all linked together. And I think from a fire protection standpoint, that is the way to go. If if you've got the infrastructure for it, I don't see why you wouldn't have something that if you're out at dinner or something and something bad happens, you find out immediately.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Oh, yeah, yeah, you find out. And um, yeah, it's great. The there's some IoT technology that's that's that's great around the home. There's there's other stuff that's you know it's just flashy.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Having my washing machine connect to the internet is probably not something I need.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yeah, there your refrigerator, you know. I think the ref refrigerators do it now and they detect, you know, what if you're running out of milk or something. I'm like, how's it gonna detect that?

Firefighter vs Fire Marshal Metaphor

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Exactly. So I wanted to, we have um we we use this metaphor when we're trying to sell our services, that we have two businesses. We have the firefighter business and the fire marshal business. Meaning the our fighter fighter business is um you're in an active audit, like the vendor, a software vendor, a SaaS provider is claiming you owe them millions of dollars and they've got evidence, and and you need some defense, like the house is on fire. Right. And we've got this fire marshal business, which is let's go, and I say this all the time, we're gonna check the smoke detectors, we're gonna look, you know, the virtual smoke detector, make sure you're in compliance. How many licenses do you have? And it seems to me that people will spend money on fires, obviously, but it's really hard to get them thinking about uh preventing, you know, in my case, software licensing problems, right? They're really focused on putting out fires and focusing on whatever. Um now uh the interesting thing that you said is uh your business is is built on code, safety codes. Like people have to do this, right? They don't have a choice. Like in in my industry, uh most companies don't think about compliance until it's a problem, right? So um what what is it? I mean, I I would think not that it's an easier sale, but like if they're not using a platform like yours, how are they doing this? Is it just yeah?

Cloud Disruption In Legacy Workflows

SPEAKER_00 13:00

So we again we came out uh 10 years ago. There were a couple players in the market in the in the software realm, but they were they were not cloud. Uh so we were cloud day one. So that was kind of good timing for us. Um now a lot of them have converted to the cloud or went out of business in in that in that 10 years. But um uh there's still like still probably a little over half the market still on antiquated technology like PDF, Excel, and pen and paper, right? There's still pen and paper people out there. Um so I mean you can still uh that's still a legit way to do it. It's just the efficiency gain is everybody has a smartphone in their hand, right? So why why are we having to use a laptop why are we having to use a PDF form, right? Um when um and even on the paper side, you know, when that can all be automated. There's scanning tools, you know. If you need to scan an extinguisher, it'll it'll essentially read everything for you. So and that's all connected with your your ERP and your financial system back in the office to to cut down your billing time and um you know generate more recurring revenue.

The Leap To Entrepreneurship

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Right. Now, what you know, um one of the things that I always like to talk about is uh people's journey to entrepreneurship. And you know, it and when I think about myself, you know, there's there's a certain part where you're working for somebody else, and every two weeks money shows up in your bank account and then that doesn't happen anymore. Now you've got to go find people to give you money and then sort of figure out uh and I think a lot of people stop at the, you know, this is really good. I I've got a good job and I'm happy, and they don't sort of they don't even think about sort of doing something different. I mean, was that difficult for you to say, uh, I'm gonna stop sort of taking this guy's money and I'm gonna start making my own and doing my own thing? Or were you really confident that we've got something here? Uh, was there like an overlap where you were building the business while you were sort of at your old place? Um, because for me it would there was no overlap. It was like, hey, I'm jumping and I just did it and sort of thought about it after. I'm always uh fascinated by other people's journeys and how you got to that spot where you said, I'm I'm gonna do this because that's a big challenge, right? It's a big risk.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah, yeah, it it definitely is. And you know, I was in a working for a a pretty um well-established manufacturer, had a very stable position, and um started the company, it was kind of just kind of like a side project, right? And um it kind of kept growing, growing, growing after I think it was uh a couple years. I think it was like a couple years after so I was still doing it as a side project, and then a couple years it's like oh, you know, this is like a legit thing, and there's a legit need in the market for it. So it was like, all right, do we do we jump in? Do we just jump in full full into it and uh go after it and and really attack the market and be you know full entrepreneur? Um I was really impressed with uh you know, my wife started a a a nonprofit, she was in the nonprofit world or still is in the nonprofit world, and um started her own company doing consulting, running events, and I was really motivated by that.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

She's like your mentor. She could guide you through that process.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

So yeah, so I I I kind of got that, you know, in Spect Point. Kind of the side project started. She had a really good uh gig going, and you know, we we I made the jump, or we made the jump, right? And um it's definitely a way, yes, when you're in that yeah, definitely a wee partnership and um I was able to work uh another uh non-for-profit side job and in the in the time to to help get it up to to to you know just to have some some more income coming in. And um yeah, it was it was great. It was a it was a definitely a stretch. And you know, I think the other co-founders were were similar to that as well, where they kind of were dabbling in in their regular jobs, but um yeah, it was kind of we built it on blood, sweat, and tears, bootstrapped. Uh and then obviously it it took off. And we got uh we got we were invested in uh by a PE firm about four years ago. So uh obviously the the eyes were on us then and uh yeah it's been it's been a home run since.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

So that's a different you're in a in a different world, right? When you're bootstrapping and you're on your own, and then now you've got investors. It's there and there's good and bad with that, right? So obviously it's it's it's a platform to grow, which is I think why people do it for the most part.

Early Customers And Fast Revenue

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yeah, and the market was was big enough and it was kind of untapped, so you know, 50% of the market, there's X amount of places that need us. So, you know, all that went into account when we were uh coming up with a business plan.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Now, how has um well just sticking with that? For for me, it was it was six months, about six months from the the time I you know opened up shop until like the first dollar came into the the bank account. Like so, you know, you get a little stressed like this is gonna happen, and then then it took a while. How long, you know, when you when you sort of officially launched, did it start? I mean, were you generating revenue immediately? Were you sort of had to go find clients? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Oh yeah, it was it was immediate. Yeah, I had a I had a good client base with my current job at the time, and just asked them, like I would I was selling a material and be like, hey, what do you what are you using for your inspection in service division? And like, oh, you know, some antiquated method or whatever. I'm like, check this out, right? And and we kind of use them as MVPs as well. Um, when we kind of you know first launched the product, and yeah, we blew the doors off of everybody at that point. So it just started snowballing. But yeah, rev it was you know, revenue positive, pretty out the I mean, we were all you know, it was tough to to hire people in the early days, but uh we definitely made it work.

Building A Podcast As Industry Media

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Good for you. That's great. And now you also have in addition to your Day job, you've got your own podcast going. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah, it's uh listen to a lot of podcasts, right? Um into some comedy podcasts and some, you know, I'm I'm into some golf podcasts and and uh I think it's how long was this five years ago at this point. Um we were, you know, the uh our CEO and my other co-founder were just hey, we should start a podcast and talk about whatever whatever in fire protection. And um kind of threw it against the wall and we just started it like it was like this indirect kind of marketing channel. We didn't talk about our product at all, right? We talk about the industry, and we still do, right? Uh there's some you know, we bring partners in and and it is a little bit more strategic uh these days, but there's you know, I I I wanna there's a lot of problems within the industry that we would like to solve or just are out there. So um bringing those up in some type of agnostic form, I think was was really great, and we're eighty eighty-eight episodes deep.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Yeah, I like I said, I just tuned in, so I listened to a couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

89 comes out next week.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

So and you do them monthly.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Uh I try to do them twice a month. That's the goal. I don't think it always happens, but um, it's whenever it's whenever we get the guests on. We kind of uh there was a couple, there's a year or so that it was it was a little slow, but there's been other words where we'll put out two or three in a month.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Right, right, right. Yeah, we I'm not a podcast guy, so I don't really listen to many podcasts, and and uh um folks inside the company were like, we gotta do one, we gotta do one. Um, and it's it's proved helpful. I was at uh an Oracle conference and a couple of people like, hey, you're the guy who does that podcast on Oracle.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

I was like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Wow, you're the one who listens. Like, what are the others?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

That's funny. That's funny. Yeah, there's some listeners that you you you don't get all the data on the listeners, but um, you know, they'll they'll randomly reach out to you and like, hey, thanks for having whoever on, you know, because a lot of times you don't get to you don't get to go to these big conferences all the time, they're expensive to go to and whatever. And that's where you hear a lot of these people and men, you know, mentors of mine speak and um to bring them on and actually chat with them, um, not in a presentation format, but more in a conversational format, I I feel is uh is really beneficial.

AI’s Promise And Pitfalls In Safety

SPEAKER_03 22:49

And this is you know, going back to uh you know, sticking with the the the podcast theme for a second, one of the things that I like about the podcast is it's uh it's original content, like people can't take it and use it. And I've seen you know I've seen that over the years. Um but uh speaking of using other people's information, um AI, and I know that's been a topic uh for you, and how is uh AI getting into your industry and your business? And and sort of I would think that that would be something very helpful for folks with fire providers.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, definitely a big, big help. And I know obviously Oracle's been heavy into this as well. Um but even in in the podcasting side, we actually created our marketing team created, we had an industry report that came out and it's a bunch of data and surveys and stuff. Um they created a 20-minute podcast that were two people, and then you can you can go on 11 labs or wherever, and it essentially creates a conversation about uh a document or or data, right? So yeah, it's it it's I don't think it's gonna it's not gonna take over the podcasting side, but it's interesting that AI is uh like diving in very quickly to that marketing side. And um yeah, but AI in general, I think any any industry where there's a lot of data and you can teach um you can teach the agents or the LLMs on a specific niche, the public LLMs are doing this now, right? And we're heavily code-driven industry. The unfortunately the codes are out there in the public, so they're getting pushed into these public LLMs, and they're you know, they're you know, 90% of the time it's it's pretty accurate, but there's a time 10% chance that you know they're they're learning, the public LLMs are learning incorrectly. Um, hallucinating.

Inside Inspect Point’s AI Assistant

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Yeah, we we did uh one of our first podcasts was let's ask ChatGPT some questions about how to respond to an audits situation. And we're like, wow, that's really bad. Like is it just taking the the stuff that's on the vendor's website and just regurgitating it? I was like, that is the worst thing you could possibly do, right? So you really need to know something about a topic when you start using those LLMs so far. Maybe one day it'll be better, but maybe not today.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

But I think where it's going is is the industry and niche specific. If you can create agents and LLMs close semi-closed off, right, they have to bring in some public. But if you can make them specific to a specific niche, then they will get really good and almost better than a human at some point with just chugging through all a lot of that data. So whether it's legal, whether it's code driven, whether it's a lot of just data in general of historical data, if you can plug it in there, I think it's super powerful. And we're we're diving in deep. We have we just rolled out an agent, um, our first AI agent in October. It's got two more coming out early next year, and then uh probably a couple others after that.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

So what does the one you just rolled out? What does that do?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

It's a it's an inspection assistant. So, you know, uh users use our, you know, contractors and facility managers use our platform to to record all these inspections and deficiency data. So they have multi-years and months and of of data from the technicians out in the field. So there's a big house of this data. So essentially it's looking at their inspection that comes in. It could take four four plus hours sometimes. And um the labor on those technicians is pretty high. They're they're getting the cost to the contractors are fifty to a hundred dollars an hour, right? So by wasting their time in the field, you know, they get that inspection, and essentially it's checking it on historical information, grammar, uh, relevancy, um against the codes, eventually, uh as well. So are they doing things to the codes, right? Um so it's doing all those checks. Essentially, it's a it's an assistant, right? It's not doing the inspection, it's not eliminating any positions, but it's making them a little bit more efficient, get those reports in faster, get those deficiencies and quotes out to the customer, um, and help the sales team have help the back office team, help the technician know the codes better too. So um yeah, it's it's it's been uh we jumped in knee deep in the late spring and haven't looked back.

Adoption, Effectiveness, And Table Stakes

SPEAKER_03 28:03

That's great. That's great. I mean, I it's it's everywhere in terms of I used some uh tools yesterday. I was just recording some uh marketing materials and I had a script and I wrote it all out and I refined it and then I put it in somewhere else. It's hey, make this sound in this tone, and you know, just change the words around a little bit, and it's just it helped me do my job better. It probably uh cut two hours out of my day just by being able to do that. Um so uh you know, we're always trying to figure out like how does this impact our business, right? Or corporate.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Have you used it on the legal side yet?

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Well, um the documents we get from our clients are um confidential. So I can't just throw them into a big LLM. So I need to have a private uh way to do that. Uh but we have uh we have experimented with this. So not to get too geeky with contracts, but um the the the thing everybody does with AI and contracts is non-disclosure agreements. So it's just like whenever we talk with a prospective client, first thing they want us to do is sign an NDA. So we just have to read it. It takes five minutes. You read it and you sign it, or you object to certain things. But we did create a model where we can put uh these NDAs and it'll give me a hey, yes, it's good to sign or it's not good to sign, right? So we are not that we're ever gonna really use that. It it saves five minutes and once a week or something, but it took us longer to build it than but it's coming, right? And there are firms out there that will take um, you know, documentation and you dump it all in there. I know that eDiscovery and things like that, and it'll create these reports or generate. So it's it's there. Um and and and you know, we're part, I'm part of these contracting organizations, and and they're either people are really excited about it or really worried about it, right? Oh my god, this is gonna take my job, or oh my god, this is gonna make my life easier so I can do fun and interesting and exciting things, right? And it's probably both of those. Those both of those are correct, those worries and fears. And um, but I don't think it's taking your job for sure. I think it's adding to your business.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Oh no, it's definitely adding, and it's it's it's a huge, huge tool. I uh there's some industries that are that are getting disrupted very uh pretty heavily, and in the legal one is is uh exposed right now.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

And consulting. I mean, I I think it was Deloitte, you know, they got busted for submitting some, you know, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars uh for creating these PowerPoints that sort of had not good information in them. Let's just say very nice about that.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

So what is next for um for Inspect Point, for the podcasts, you know, what's what's it what's the platform gonna look like in a couple of years?

Golf, Community, And Human Side

SPEAKER_00 31:00

I mean, AI's uh we're still at the infancy of it, right? Um and a lot of it has to do with the adoption from the public, right? Um Chat GPT came out three years ago-ish, and uh I feel like eight 80% probably plus of the public, you know, you type something into your browser, you're getting a an AI response, right? Um I think the because of that adoption, because of the public, and we're a slower industry to move because of the codes, and just in in our historical nature, it's it's behind a lot of the other construction trades, probably because it's be because of the codes and it's life safety, and we have to make sure everything's properly set up. But I think because of the the public adopting AI, it will uh happen faster. So definitely the next couple of years, you're gonna see a lot of um and not just us, I think in general with the ERPs like Oracle and SAP and and Microsoft, they're they're uh it's kind of table stakes on some of these AI tools within that. Uh now are all are they all effective? That's where that's where the that's where I I still need to see that, right? And how effective some of these agents are gonna be within these uh software tools.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

So and we're do we're in the same. We're like we we're seeing it, we embrace it, and I'm just trying to figure out in our core business how to how do we use this, right? How do we use this when there's a uh an audit fire that we're trying to put out versus you know the the fire marshal uh part part of our business? Um and I know we we've been talking for a while here, but uh one and you brought this up. Um what is the best golf podcast? I'm good, I'm looking for a good golf podcast, and I'm assuming that means you're a golfer.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Uh yeah, I I play a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Um when somebody says that, they're like a two-handicap.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Do you did some research?

SPEAKER_03 33:16

I I did not. Is that are you a two-handicap?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I'm actually 2.0, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Oh my god, that's so funny. Um, when you're like me and you're like uh 13, 14, you're like, yeah, I play, but I'm terrible. And you're just like, I play a little bit. You're like, that guy's a stick.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

What uh uh where do you play in New Jersey?

SPEAKER_03 33:33

So we're a member of a a club five minutes away called Roxiticus in more in uh Mendem, New Jersey. So uh so I play way too much golf there. Um how about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Uh I'm up in eastern Connecticut, Stonington. So there's a little country club here, Stonington Country Club. Um but I you know it's five minutes from the house, so it's easy. It's it's uh very accessible, uh plays fast. And um, there's some other good public ones around here, but you know, podcast-wise, uh I guess it depends on uh if you want golf news. Golf news, I like uh shotgun starts one, um no laying up is another one. I think they uh Justin Thomas was just on the other day, PGA guy, even he kind of exposed what what happened during the Ryder Cup and all that fiasco.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Um, so that's that's a pretty good one. And then um there's a couple other ones with you know, I'm into like golf architecture and stuff like that. Uh the fried egg's a good one. I guess that's that's part of the the shotgun start, but that one that gets into like golf course design a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 34:48

Oh my god, we're going through that right now at the club with uh designers coming in and and voting.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Who's coming? Who's who's going in? Who's going into the club?

SPEAKER_03 34:57

Well, you know, they've talked to Andrew Green.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Oh, really? Wow. Yes. So I know we're getting off topic here, but Andrew Green's uh top guy. He did a course up in Rhode Island called Wanamoisa and uh Eileen, I leave after yes, architect. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

And the best name for a golf court design. It's like Tiger Woods. You're like, wow, Andrew Green. I mean, you can't get a better, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

I know. It's a great one.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Um, we're going through all of that right now. Uh that but we could do a whole nother podcast on on country club life and golf course design and sort of all that. But my my goal I'm is to completely transform my golf swing in the next three months with very limited practice. We gotta we're we're putting a little uh thing in the basement and we're actually waiting for the town inspectors to come in because they have to check the box that we have a you know a fire um you know smoke detector and windows and electrical yeah yeah yeah so we we're we're waiting for inspectors right now. So I'm like living this.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

Uh but maybe we'll do a little home and away. We got to do that. A little podcast, country club. Uh we can do the podcast from the from the golf course.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Yeah, I I I've actually done that before. Uh not not here as an as an early one. Yeah, I had a guest on. I met him, met him up in Massachusetts, and we did it. We did it right in the the restaurant area. Yeah, that's funny. Oh, that's awesome.

How To Connect And Closing

SPEAKER_03 36:35

All right, I love it. I love it. Well, Drew, thank you so much. Now, if someone wants to get in touch with you, if someone wants to learn about um Inspect Points, uh what's the best way for them to connect?

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Yeah, uh our website is pretty pretty easy, inspectpoint.com. Um I'm on LinkedIn, Drew Slocum. You need to search that, you should probably find me. And the Fire Protection Podcast, that's the podcast. There's a there's a few fire protection uh podcasts out there now, which is which is good because we all kind of collaborate. So I've been on theirs, they've been on mine, and uh and uh yeah, it's a it's a it's a again, we're in a niche industry, but it's it's a lot of fun and definitely needed for the public.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Right. Well, that's awesome. Thank you so much uh for the work, for the platform, for being on the show. Um, and um, you know, if anybody uh wants to connect uh with Drew and you you can't find him, you know, you can always connect with me and I'll I'll link you guys up. Uh so Drew, thank you very much. Uh you really were the world's greatest podcast guest today, so I appreciate that. Love it. You'll be getting you'll be getting your coffee mug uh in in the mail some sometime. I don't know when we send those out, but you you'll have that. Uh and thank you everybody for listening. Uh if you like this podcast, want to hear more, subscribe, join, follow me on LinkedIn. And we'll see you next time on the world's greatest podcast.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Thanks, right?