Hamlet Tamazian - Founder of Tableful

Hamlet joins the show to talk about the gap in the nightclub industry, what people really want out of their nightlife experience and what led him from a comfortable career to being a founder.

Hamlet Tamazian is a seasoned full-stack web developer and the visionary behind Tableful. His academic journey at Pepperdine University equipped him with a degree in International Business and a certificate in Conflict Management from Strauss Law School. 

Following a vibrant early career in the fields of marketing and finance, Hamlet's penchant for technology led him to a career transition into software development, a decision that combined his business acumen and technical skills. He honed his development abilities at Apple and WorkBoard, among others, fostering his skills in various tech stacks. 

Simultaneously, he channeled his passion for innovation, nightlife, and community into the creation of Tableful— a transformative platform revolutionizing the VIP experience. His multi-lingual background and diverse set of skills, together with his unwavering commitment to learning and the relationships he has nurtured throughout his life, are the pillars of his professional and personal journeys. 

Hamlet's ultimate goal is to live a healthy, balanced life full of fond memories, friends, and positive contributions to the world.

http://www.info.tableful.club
https://www.facebook.com/Tableful/
https://www.instagram.com/tableful.club/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamlettamazian/

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Transcript

Jason Frazell 0:17

My guest on the show today is Hamlet, Tama, and Hamlet is a software developer. We're gonna get into what that means. I know you all know what it means to be a software developer, but like what specifically works on, and he is an entrepreneur. Hamlet, thanks so much for being on, glad you're

Hamlet Tamazian 0:32

here with us today. Thanks so much for having me on. Jason, it's a pleasure to speak with you and your guests. Uh, I'll be happy to share my story and what I'm working on currently. That sounds great. Absolutely

Jason Frazell 0:43

proud me. Where, where are you

Hamlet Tamazian 0:44

recording from today? I am in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California is welcome to my home. This, uh, your home, my living room over here. So my favorite balcony on the left, uh, my dog, somewhere in the house. So this is home base

Jason Frazell 1:00

dog on the right, balcony on the left. So you're, you're in Hollywood proper, not West Hollywood or anything, but actually in Hollywood. Yep. Nice. Exactly.

Hamlet Tamazian 1:06

Right in the center of Hollywood. If you, uh, go to the street where all the stars are and everything mm-hmm. You're the vision of what Hollywood is. I'm like right there two blocks away, so Oh, nice. Tourists everywhere, you know? Yeah. Uh, all the, all the venues. The, the, the Hollywood Strip. Yep. All right. Here out outside my door. Cool.

Jason Frazell 1:24

Well, this, we're doing a, a bi coastal interview today. I'm on the East coast, so here we go. We're, we're, uh, rocking a bi coastal. So let's get into what we got about 40 minutes together. So let's kick it off, Hamlin. So first of all, let's hear, let's hear about something that you nerd out about. So what comes to mind when I ask you that?

Hamlet Tamazian 1:40

What, what do you nerd out about? I'm a technologist. I've, I'm a software developer now professionally, but I've always been very into tech. In my family, I was always the guy that would be plugging things in and figuring out how all the different little things work, whether it was the DVR or the, you know, setting up the internet and all that. So I was always the kid that was super into tech and although I didn't, uh, continue in that path as a professional journey, an academic journey early on, Because of how that was who I was. I geared veered into that and now that's what I do full-time almost. Mm-hmm. Um, and as such, now the world of technology is booming so much and I'm definitely nerding out on all the different tools that are becoming available through technology for us to use. And this might be, uh, maybe redundant nowadays because of how amazing all the technology is that we're seeing, but especially as an, as an entrepreneur and someone who does technology and who is building something, a technology application for nightlife, et cetera, being able to use all these different tools just for one person to be able to produce all of the content that I'm able to, that is definitely something I'm nerding out, nerding out about daily. Every day there's a different tool and new way to get. Your ideas done better and more creative and you know, all the different AI tools in, in particular that are coming out. Yeah. Whether it be to clean up your voice in the video or to take a big video and chop it up into little pieces or to help you generate content. All these different tools that are being, uh, created are just, uh, magical. You know, there's nothing, it's not nothing sort of magic at this point. Yeah. So

Jason Frazell 3:17

it's cool. I have a tech podcast as well, and I just, this episode this week was with, uh, Chuck Riner, who's the CEO of a company called Personas, and they do artificial intelligence avatars for customer service. Mm-hmm. And they're, they're really their target market where they've seen a lot of successes like hospitals. Mm-hmm. And as a thank you for having them on, they just sent me a customized avatar AI message for me, which I was like, oh, that's so cool. And it like, calls my name and. Yeah, it tells me, and you can tell that they, they said, Hey, give Jason a welcome message. And then it like, gave me a really cool welcome message. So I'm with you, man. I'm a, I'm a, uh, I'm not a technologist by trade. I mean, I am a technologist by what I used to do, but I'm, I'm the same. I love all the tools that help me with what I do now, podcasting and consulting and such. So really cool. I've started, I've really started to use AI for content creation, including on the podcast and elsewhere.

Hamlet Tamazian 4:10

It helps amplify whatever skills that you have. It really amplifies them. Yeah. It allows you to do so much more. And so, so little time. And as someone that, uh, runs several shows of your own, you know how much work it takes for all the different pieces that go into it. So being able to not spend as much time on any one particular task is, yeah. Is very, very valuable. You know, cause it let, lets you spend more time elsewhere. And with those personal avatars, I, I've come across I think persona as well. That's really cool, Adam on for the interview and Yeah. Um, there's, you know, there's also another one called theia. And what they do is they have these human-like characters with, uh, AI voices that, that, you know, they, they look human. They sound human, and they're only gonna get better. Right now their implementations are limited a little bit narrowly because they don't, you can feel that it's not human. So we are still gonna, uh, trend towards working with other humans rather than with these kinds of digital tools. But they're gonna only get better and over time maybe be indistinguishable. But un until that time, definitely some places where they're useful are, um, whether they're tutorial videos where it's. It's beneficial to have a face there to help guide you through, and it doesn't need to be a full production of a video crew and an actor or actress, et cetera. Yeah. Uh, but at the same time, there's a big risk for all the fields that we're creating, all these contents. So it's, uh, it's a little bit of both. I have friends who are actresses and actors and models, et cetera, and now I'm seeing all these digital models that are, uh, able to, for example, there was a brand who, for their diversity project was using, um, ai, images of diverse, saw that people, so it's like how diverse Yeah. Is that really when it's artificial diversity and you're not even working with real humans of those diverse backgrounds? So it's, yeah. I, I see what they're doing and it's more efficient for the company to, to display them as if they are more, um, diverse, but when in reality it's not, it's a little more subversive. So, We're gonna have to figure out how much ways to use these tools, and it's gonna be a journey, and I'm just excited to be a part of it, to be alive during the one time period where we have this plethora of amazing tools available to us. Yeah.

Jason Frazell 6:22

I want to ask you, well, first of all, let's, let's move in and let's talk about what you're up to as an entrepreneur, and then I, I want to, if you're open to it, I wanna synthesize these topics together because I see so many, I have so many curiosity questions about nightlife and recommendation engines and all the things that I, that I know that you're doing coupled with nightlife is such a human, it's such a human experience. The whole point of nightlife is generally to go out and spend time with other, actually other people. For most of us, like if you don't like people, you don't generally participate in nightlife. Exactly. So exactly. Let's talk about what you're doing as an entrepreneur, what you're looking to create and what you're passionate about. And then we'll, from there, we'll we'll see where we, we'll see where the conversation goes, but I have no doubt we're gonna get some really cool stuff out of this.

Hamlet Tamazian 7:12

So what are you up to? Absolutely. So thanks for that question, and I love the way that you phrased that question because, um, something that I have been working on is very, you know, related to what you said. As the world has become more and more driven towards social media, where the word social is in the title, but it's more and more distant, it seems we're going more digital and we're having less person to person experiences. Um, I'm working on creating an environment and an experience that allows people to do just the opposite, which is to come closer to people. So nightlife, as you said, is something that we do to interact with other people. Of course, there's music involved as well, and you go to the spaces where it's your type of music. And sometimes, frequently actually there are great DJs and musicians who are very talented expressing their talents through music, et cetera. But at the end of the day, it's a very social experience. And we go there to be in that large audience, to feel the energy of the crowds, to find people that we connect with, make friends, et cetera. So, uh, one thing that I realized also just to, let's

Jason Frazell 8:18

just, let's also say what we also go. We also go to meet significant others many times. At least that's why I would go and participate in nightlife back in the day.

Hamlet Tamazian 8:27

Yeah, of course. Meeting people that are like-minded, that are fun to be, and, and you get to see them in, in, in their best moments. They're, they're sharing something with you, uh, which is part of them. You're sharing with them. Of course, this is very much a social experience and, uh, and to, to not understand or mention that is definitely, um, That doesn't do it justice. So understanding where that is and where people come from to these experiences definitely is important. And it also ties into what Table Full is about. Um, and so what what it is, is that as I, you know, was younger and living, uh, through the days where I was going to the nightlife venues, et cetera, and I, and I, of course I still do, but especially, particularly in my earlier years, I realized that a lot of the experiences, well they're still available, but the luxury elements of nightlife are gate kept a lot more. So when you go to any venue, if it's a very popular night, uh, you know you're going to have to wait in a line that is rather inconvenient. So you're gonna get to the door and you're gonna have to speak with the security. You're gonna have to figure out, you know, who the promoters are. Sometimes you can't get in. Um, and the only way that many venues will allow guests to get in is either to buy a table or to know somebody who's inside. So the. Elements of the nightlife experience that truly bring that luxury feel where you can feel like you're part of something even more special are gate kept, uh, for financial reasons. Mm-hmm. Um, the way that you would be able to, the only way that you'd be able to access this luxury tier of nightlife, which is really what everyone wants when we go out. When we go out, we don't want to wait outside in the cold, in the rain or whatever it is, in high heels for 30 minutes just to get in, stand in a line in the bars. No. Yeah, that as well. So we're gonna, we're gonna get there, but before you even get to the bar, there are so many friction points that you have to go through. And when we're going out, all we want is to feel good for one night. We want to escape whatever, you know, regular, mundane life that it is. We don't want frictions at every turn. We want to be able to go out, have a good time, be around other people, our friends, our significant other, maybe. Let's imagine you're going on a date and you have to get there and wait for 30 minutes kind of awkwardly in line while you approach the the door only to find out that they're either sold out or they don't, you know, they want you to wait even more, or it's gonna cost you such and such amount because it's too late now, et cetera. So all these different friction points, and you're not even inside the venue yet. And then when you get into the venue, you have nowhere to really be. So you kind of have to find your way around and you go to the bar, uh, maybe, you know, do a little tour of the place to figure out where you may be able to sit or not. And for us guys, it might be a little bit easier to stand around, but girls frequently need a place to sit cuz they're wearing heels potentially. Or if it's a long night, everyone gets tired. So you want a place to rest if you wanna socialize, put your drink down, put your jacket down. All these things, they all revolve around having a table to be at a place, a home base of sorts at the venue. And these tables, um, generally are sold for expensive amounts so they're not affordable for a small group or an individual. However, what I came to realize because we were being offered this frequently was ho how about you find other people in the line with you to buy a table together? So that's one idea that really makes it possible to get to that luxurious element of nightlife without having to break the bank. Because when you divide a$1,000 table by 10 people that can potentially be at that table, it becomes a hundred bucks per person, which really isn't all too much compared to a thousand. So when you're going out with you and your two friends, or you on a date, of course you're not gonna get a thousand dollars table, but you could pay a hundred bucks, a hundred or even less, you know, I'm just throwing out a, the$1,000 example just to do the math for it to be easy. But yeah. Um, a$100 spend for a night where you get priority entry, you're not, you know, waiting in the line. You have a place to sit and you have several drinks included in that price. Is almost the same price that you'd be paying if you paid maybe 30 bucks or 40 bucks at the door, and then you're paying$20 for every drink that you're getting and you're paying all these different amounts and you don't even get the benefit of having priority entry. You don't have a table to be at you. You don't have that luxurious feel of being in those special environments. So for the same price that you would be paying in a staggered way throughout the night, you could also come with a bigger group and buy a V I P table that would offer you all the benefits of nightlife and a home base at the, at the venue, which would be your table, and some drinks and a social environment. All these different benefits and goodies that were really there to experience would be available to you. So the problem really becomes, not that the tables are too expensive because they're not, the problem is that we don't have the infrastructure of either many friends that we go with on a consistent basis, or we don't have friends that are also interested in getting a table with us at that time, or it has to be that you have enough money to buy it alone. So, yep. What I understood the problem to be was not that it was expensive for people, but it was just no way for people to split that amount. On the spot in a convenient manner. So, uh, my idea was to create a digital promoter, uh, of sorts. So, uh, what a promoter does is they gather different people that they know. Some invite for free, some they charge, et cetera. And they have one table where they collect, uh, a diverse group of people, random people really to come join them around a table. And in that way, all these guests, without having to buy a full table of their own, would be able to experience that luxury element of the nightlife that they're, uh, trying to get to. And, and so the problem there becomes that you have to know the promoter that is making the sale. Yeah. And there's only so many people that you can know and only so many people that the promoter can know. So there's a cap on that. So that means you either have to be in good graces with the promoter that is particularly selling the table there, and you have to be a local to that area. So if you're traveling mm, it's out of the question. Um, if you're not someone who goes out all the time becomes out of the question, et cetera. So I'm only illustrating all the different friction points that exist for this very simple, um, item that we all want. We just want to be at a table. We want to be comfortable. We want to go to a venue and not be hassled at every turn. We don't want to be feeling discomfort, right? So all of these issues become solved very easily if we are able to access a table without all these different gatekeepers. So that's where table fold comes in, right? We offer the digital promotion service where table fold becomes the promoter, and guests can buy a seat at the table, full table. So if a venue has 10 tables they're selling, they're maybe gonna sell out all their tables, maybe they're not. Chances are no venue sells out every table every night. So on most nights there's at least one table that remains unsold. But there's a bunch of guests that would be happy to pay a little bit more than they would be otherwise to now get the priority entry, all the benefits and join that table. So table full steps in as a digital promoter that is accessible to everyone equally, that you don't need to know me personally to join. All you need is to have access to the application or to the website where, uh, our partners, whether it be the venues themselves, or promotions, event promotions, Or promoters who are actively selling tables. Anyone can join table full, host their tables on a decentralized platform, and anyone will be able to pay their share to basically buy a seat at that v i p table. And by doing so, they join a v i P table and are able to benefit from all the perks that the venue has to offer. Uh, now the venue in that case grows their target audience from just, uh, exclusive people who can afford a thousand dollars personally to almost anyone that they're already advertising to who can afford$100 for the night. And for the promoters, it's the same. So their target audience just grew by a factor of 10, maybe from people that can afford a thousand dollars per night to people that can afford a hundred dollars for the night that they're going out on. Yeah. So it's a win win-win situation where guests get to get, uh, that they receive what they're looking for, which is a luxury time for their special night out. The promoters get to sell to a lot more people. And you can now also have multiple promoters that are selling for the one table. So if I'm a promoter, I can bring two people to this table. My friend who's also a promoter will be able to also sell two seats to my, to this table, full table. So it becomes a decentralized table in the, in terms of both the guests that are there. They don't need to be all from the same place and know each other, but also the promotion of it doesn't need to be done by the same person. You can have various people all pitch in to make sure to sell that one table. And for the venue, that table was gonna remain empty anyway, uh, for most nights. And if it's a very popular night, chances are we're gonna also sell out the one table. If you sold out all of your other tables, we're gonna also sell out this one table. So that's the general idea to decentralize. Yeah, both. Yeah. The guests for it and the sales of it. By introducing a digital promotion service that, uh, guests can access without having to be gate kept from these luxury experiences. Yeah. That's super

Jason Frazell 17:59

cool. I was thinking about the business model. So this is, this is a lot like something like a hotels tonight, except where you could say, like you were saying, like you're saying Hamlet is, I use hotels tonight sometimes, and I'm traveling and like, I don't, and I'm just like, oh, let me land and just get a hotel. It's like, Hey, you know what? I'm in town for. Like, I'll, I'll talk about me as a, as somebody who travels sometimes and be like, oh, you know what, I'm, I'm traveling with a coworker. That would be cool to go and hang out and like, we're hiring business people, but we can't expense a table. Right. Like it's, it's not either as an entrepreneur, I'm not gonna spend that money, or my business doesn't allow me to, but you know what? Hey Ham, you and I are gonna go out. Let's grab a group. Table one. It's a great way to meet people. I love this idea. Mm-hmm. Because I love people, so I would love to like sit at a table. It's, it's networking. It's also the idea that for the, for the venue, like you said, it's unused inventory. Otherwise it's like a, it's like hotel. It's like hotels.com or hotels. So now you like absolutely. You got this resource sitting there that isn't being used. Let's crowdsource the use

19:06

of

Hamlet Tamazian 19:06

it. Um,

Jason Frazell 19:07

exactly. All right. So here's, so here's my, I have a multitude of questions. My first question that came up for me is, what's your inspiration for this? Like, when did you, I, I'm curious, did, I guess my question is, do you remember the moment you came up with this idea is my first question. And the second question is, my guess is it's because it's a problem you've had the most entrepreneurs create solutions for problems that they've had. Mm-hmm. And then, um, how has the idea been iterated since you came up with it? Mm-hmm. Those are my two questions. Do you remember when you came up with it? And then how have you iterated it since, since it initial you initially thought, yes, I do.

Hamlet Tamazian 19:48

Yeah. Also, ID question. So my, the, I, the inspiration of the idea was when I was in, uh, college, I was studying abroad and that was my first experience of, uh, having, uh, you know, a multitude of nightlife experiences. And it wasn't as much because I was going out a lot, but also, but just because I was being advertised to a lot, just walking around the city. So I would get a lot of people just handing me flyers and telling me to meet them at a particular spot at a particular time of the day. So that they can walk me into the venue and I'd be part of their promotional group. Um, sure. And that was when I was, I guess 18, 19, so like 10 years ago now. Um, I was just starting my college, uh, years. So, uh, that was the inception of the idea. When I fir when I was getting those advertisements, I realized there must be a better way to do this because I don't know you personally, random person on, on the street who is advertising to me. Uh, I, I don't really have that kind of trust with you. So if there was an intermediary between myself and that person who would take away the requirement of trust between me and that person, I would be more enticed and encouraged to, uh, buy whatever they were selling. They were gi, they were selling me, they were giving me flyers. That really, it's kind of like a situation where you take it from someone, you just throw it away at the next trash. Sure. Because you're not really going to consider it. However, if you're able to make an instant sale, if, if that person came up to me and said, Hey, I'm, I'm, uh, promoting for this, uh, for this venue, you can join the table and it's gonna cost you this much and you can download this application and get your ticket and you'll, you'll be allowed in through this application, et cetera. That that third person, that intermediary, uh, grants a lot of authority to a random person you don't know. So let's say they had a QR code with that led me to their professional page, which we can now, uh, provide on table full. And on that page, I could see all of the events that they were hosting and all of the events had various tables that I could join, whether buy fully or join at a certain price, and I had exactly what deal I was gonna get. That would be, be much more structured, more authoritative, and it would give, uh, that. Uh, that promoter, a lot of tools that they would be able to use to convince me as the guest to join them. So they would no longer have to be at a certain spot at a certain time of night to escort me in. And they would no longer have to be advertising and promoting for just one venue, because if you have to be at that particular venue, then you have to walk me in and be there with me the entire time. That limits your night to just selling for one location. However, with, but also

Jason Frazell 22:26

limits the, well, the other thing it limits too is when people go out, generally you start to have a good time. Then you go, ah, I don't know if I want to. Or you. Or you. Yeah.

Hamlet Tamazian 22:38

You may never end up going,

Jason Frazell 22:39

yeah, well you never up going either. You know, like sometimes people drink too much or they'll party too much, or sometimes they'll just be like, Hey, you know what? I met somebody here. I'd rather just hang out. And then as a promoter, you're like, ex, you're expecting that and they never show up. And then as a promoter,

Hamlet Tamazian 22:51

you're not making any money. And you just lose touch. We, uh, sales generally is, is understood in sales that if you want to make sure you make that sale, you make it instantly. That's why salespeople will do whatever they can to not, to not let you leave their site. If you tell them that you're gonna come back and gonna think about it, chess are, you're never coming back. Yeah. So the more convincing you can have that sale be in the moment, uh, the more chances you're gonna have to make that sale. Um, it's kind of like why we have the one click buy on Amazon. The easier you make it for someone to buy something, the more easily, uh, you know, the more likely they're gonna be to buy it. So having table full as an intermediary, you know, builds a lot of trust for that promoter. Gives them an authoritative page they can use to drive their, uh, clients too. And now those clients have a place where they can see all of the events, even when they're not talking to the promoter face-to-face. So if you connect with that promoter, you follow that promoter, et cetera, now you have a place to follow up on their events and if you were interested, whereas you wouldn't. Be inclined to call them if it's someone that you don't know and check in with them, et cetera, and ask them questions all the time. Now you'll be able to follow their page, see all of their events, and without having to tell them about it, you can just access the whatever they're selling and go on your own time without having to synchronize with this third person and potentially other people as well. So let's say you got to that point where you were collecting to get taken to that venue, then you have to wait for all the others that he's told to meet them at that spot. So it was just a mess. And that was the experience that I was having, and I realized there must be a better way to do this. And I looked into it and no one else was doing it at the time. So I realized it's an opportunity. Um, but as you asked your second question, there have been quite a few iterations. Uh, before getting to where I am today. So when I was in college, I had this project that I made. It was called Hir, and it was a theme-based social media platform, which was, the idea was to help people get together and do things in various situations and locations, but it was very scattered. Um, it wasn't really, um, precise in, in terms of what I wanted to do. And when it came to actually building out the technology that it would take to do what I was envisioning, it would both be developing way too much. And a lot of what I had in mind wasn't, uh, streamlined for, uh, in, in the business sense. So from what I had, uh, in, in this project called Hir, which I did my, um, my final thesis almost on mm-hmm. In business school, we had, uh, to, to do a, um, A business plan for a, uh, tech, for a tech application basically. Yeah. And it fit very well with what I was wanting to do. So I created this and I've used that as a base to then develop my ideas further. But basically I took what I had then and I figured what from all of this is most, uh, poignant, what can make the most impact and what can actually be financially, uh, beneficial for the company? Where do people already spend money? And so where can I add value to hopefully take a slice of the money being spent? For example, one of the alternatives was whenever people are hosting house parties or whenever they're gathering at different locations, my idea was to help them find other like-minded people at the events that they were already at. But there wasn't as much money to be made in house parties. You know, people don't charge in for house parties. Yeah, not usually. Or not as much, or not as consistently. However, the one branch of my larger project that was financially motivating, Was the nightlife aspect. People spend a lot of money in nightlife and the people that are already in that space are already, uh, people who have some money to spend on that experience. So I'm not asking people to spend a lot of money on something they're not used to spend money on. I'm offering people a better way to spend the money that they're already spending, just in a way that will give them more value for the same amount that they would've spent anyway. They might spend an extra 20% to what they would if they were paying things randomly here and there for the ticket, for the drinks, for, you know, whatever else they might pay. Uh, but instead I'm offering them priority entry. A table drinks included a social scene, uh, a group of people potentially that are like-minded for networking purposes. And it's a self filtering experience. People that are wanting to unwilling to join this table are already like-minded enough that they are there for the same kind of music. They're there there to socialize, and they're open to meet other people that they're gonna be sharing the space with. So it's a self filtering concept that brings you to other people that you are likely to get along with at the same time providing you with all the benefits that the venue has to offer. So that was what I focused on and from my time after graduating, I have had this idea, and I was not a software developer at that time. I graduated for International Business and Conflict Management, which is a law subject. So my path was to be either in business or in law. Uh, but then I realized that to build this idea, I kind of need to be more technical. And I came to that realization after my professors and other mentors of mine kind of told me that, you know, it's a great idea, maybe it'll work, but you know, you gotta. Have what it takes to actually build it, to actually get it off the ground, to do all these different things that as a non-technological person, you will have a very hard time doing. So you're gonna have to find a, uh, co-founder, uh, potentially who will be, uh, leading all this side of, of the activities. But I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do at that time. So I started to learn a little bit about programming, learning the languages, et cetera. And then I really fell in love with it and I found that I am, um, quite good at it, good enough to continue, um, learning it and getting better. And eventually I became a professional software developer. And that has really been a key point for me to, uh, be able to both, uh, understand what I'm building to co uh, to cooperate and, uh, communicate with the developers that I work with. But it's also given me a whole life, career path that has brought me to where I am, and it's allowed me financially to keep. Building this project. That was my dream without having to rely on outside funding. Yeah. So I've bootstrapped this project by learning the skills that it takes to build this project, and then working in the, in, in the industry and using the revenues that I generated to then invest in my idea, which is also in this industry. Yeah. So now the project is in a place where it's fully functional. Um, I'm at a place where the tech behind the idea exists, and at this point I'm working on developing the business further. And I've only been doing this, uh, it'll be one year now, uh, at the, when summer starts, so maybe about nine months. Mm-hmm. And at the beginning of the nine months, that was when the lockdowns ended. Yeah. Um, just a little bit after that. So, uh, I had. Had to run pre lockdowns, but then after that I had to restart everything from, from scratch. Sure. Because the partners that I had prior to that went outta business. So once things reopened and I restarted, it's been about, you know, nine months now. And, uh, in that time I've had the opportunity to, uh, do this project with various different, uh, brick and mortar venues as well as event promotions, speak to promoters about this. Um, and I've been able to successfully run this project at all, all these various locations. Um, providing, uh, extra sales of maybe one, two, or three extra tables for venues on big events, which means giving, uh, 20 people, 30 people per event, this new opportunity to experience, uh, nightlife the events that they're already going to at an elevated weight, which is my dream. Yeah. Um, although, you know, there's the business side and all the different aspects of it. At the end of the day, what I want to allow, what I, what I want to create with this idea, what I want to make possible is I want to make it possible for people, for regular people who the, the, the average person to be able to access. These more luxury elements of nightlife and in nightlife is maybe 95% of people that are in that space that could potentially afford the better things that the venue has to offer. But they're just gate kept because of the inability to buy it personally or not having that infrastructure of friends to split it with. And even when you do split it with a bunch of people that are even your friends, now you have to figure out whose card to put down. You have to figure out, you know, who's gonna pay you back, how much did they include the tip in the service or not? And someone's gonna end up, you know, being screwed at the end of the day because they didn't get paid back enough. And they're gonna be like, whatever, you know, it's not fair, but I'll, I'll just take it. So all these different friction points that exist for no reason and all that we need to, uh, do to make all those friction points disappear is to convince all of the venues that it makes sense to have just one of your tables. Be a space for community where people can buy one seat, share the benefits of the table, and socialize with others. That's what we're there for anyway. So if every venue has just one table that they offer with this opportunity, that will mean that we as guests will be able to consider that as an option when buying our tickets. So we'll either have the basic ticket pack, basic ticket offer, maybe that's 30 bucks. There'll be the table offer where you buy the full table. That'll be like 700 bucks or the table, full table deal offer at maybe 75 bucks. And the 75 bucks will give you the priority entry. It'll give you a couple of drinks included. It'll give you a table to be at there. There might be special spaces at the venue where you could not otherwise get access to, which you now will. You might get service, um, depending on which venue. Some venues offer service for cocktailing, some don't, but you know, other perks might be included as well. So it's an in between price that really, uh, cuts the costs down into a very small fractional amount.

Jason Frazell 32:50

Very cool. Hamlet, I have a, as we wrap today, I have a, taking it back to, we started the conversation. What, what technological advances are you most excited about as it relates to Table Full as you see, enhancing the service, enhancing what you're up to in the app and enhancing, just enhancing the experience for both. I hear the three different distinct parties. You have the promoter, you have the end customer, the person who's sitting at the table drinking, dancing, et cetera. And then you have the venue themselves. So where do you s like in terms of, you know, we mentioned before it's a cool time to be alive, and if you're a technology person, what technology are you most excited about that you directly see making an impact for any of those three areas inside of Table Full? Mm-hmm.

Hamlet Tamazian 33:42

So there's, I guess, a lot of different ways to answer that. Of course, the, the most important for me at this time is the technologies that enable me to drive the business forward. Right now, that's the most important because as many technologies as there exist now, and one for example, would be, um, the, the fact that we have plugins available now for things like chat, G p T. So you would be able to be like, Hey, chat g p t, like book me, uh, uh, book me two seats at this venue, and I potentially could integrate with that, and they would be able to. Purchase tickets at my locations through a completely other, uh, provider. So those integrations will potentially be very valuable. However, at the same time, those kinds of integrations and getting to use all this leading technology, it's a little bit more difficult because it's more sophisticated and there's less expertise in that. And having to integrate with them, it's more, it's kinda like quicksand. You never, you don't know what, how it will stabilize. So, as intrigued as I am with all the different things that are available, and of course there's ability to extract data from the uses of my application, when it gets to scale, there's ability to connect people on other platforms. So imagine, for example, there's someone has a match on Tinder and it becomes offered to them like, Hey, do you wanna g, do you guys wanna join this v i p table at this location? So integrations between myself and other technologies would be very interesting. Um, however, more practically my ability, uh, while being self-funded to integrate with all the different new shining things that come about is more difficult. Um, sure. If and when I'm, uh, I have, uh, I, I raise large enough investments where having, uh, research and development segment is possible where I'm able to invest in things that are just experimental but could lead somewhere interesting, I will then think a lot more into that space and, uh, figure out how I can integrate with these really cool new tools. Um, however, at this point, as I've shared, it's a bootstrap project and I only have. Uh, uh, a lean, uh, business where I spend my money on where I can get most bang for buck. And also leaning into the fact that table full is a social experience, a real human social experience, and not as technological. So, yeah, although there might be interesting ways to integrate with other existing technologies and to recommend based on different kinds of algorithms and, uh, be able to have our content appear on various different providers, et cetera, that all is exciting and, uh, a great next step for Table Full. However, at this stage, my focus really is on how do I polish the tools that I currently have and what tools are most important for, um, the guests and the, the partners that I have to get the work done that we're currently doing. So that those can be things that are much simpler, um, than, uh, the leading edge technologies. But for example, having a group chat between yourself and others that you're gonna be sharing a table with. Um, I like that. Yeah. Or having the ability to, you know, a, a lot of these more simple. We're not reinventing the wheel. We're not, uh, creating crazy new technologies like, you know, we're not creating AI videos over here. That's something completely different. We're using existing technologies to make available in experience that I think already should have been available, but for some reason it's not. And so, um, for the purpose of Table Full, we don't need to use any very, like, extremely sophisticated technology to make what we're doing possible. Um, At the end of the day, I wouldn't even have needed the platform, the table, full application, even to run the business itself because the business could be run without an application at all. But the idea is to have a platform that will allow people to come to one place and not have to know me personally or anything like that to engage with the application and the idea, but. Table folds. Concept is rather simple, but getting the idea off the ground and people more familiar with the concept itself is what the heavy lifting at this time is. Cuz it's a novel idea. Um, you know, people don't already know about it. Yeah. So my efforts now are going towards simplifying the concept, making it reasonable to people, and just advertising it, making, making it known, uh, which is, you know, why I'm also, uh, part of your show today, part of this podcast, hoping to talk to people, engage with people. Uh, if people have any feedback, I'd love to hear about it. Um, yeah. And I want to, you know, share the word about table full everywhere, because right now we're only in LA but there's many other cities that would, uh, benefit from Table Full. And I would love to expand to namely Miami, you know, Las Vegas, New York. Um, there's so many cities in my mind. Every venue all over the world could have at least one table offered on table full. Big venues, small venues, big cities, small cities. It makes sense. Why not have one table, at least at every venue, to be open to community for people to share, as you said. Yeah, it's real estate. It's their most, uh, valuable real estate that if gone unsold, it's sitting there and making them no money. Instead of a human no money. They could either make fractional amounts or they could even make larger amounts that than they would've if they sold one full table, one or two companies that I could compare it to. Um, maybe as opposed to Hotel Tonight. And Hotel Tonight was a good one too, because it helps them liquidate their most valuable assets before the time expires. But I imagine it more as an Airbnb or an Uber pool. Because mm-hmm. Like Uber and also both Uber and Uber Pool. My concept is to create a platform where, um, I will have all these tables available and all of them have a different promotional amount. Some of them will offer 10%, some 15, some 20, and I will have a dashboard where anyone can see all of the prices and all of the venues that are available to them. And so as a promoter, just like an Uber driver would've, you'll be able to plug into the application, see what venues are available to you to promote for. So without you having a direct connection with them, table full, what, what can become your hub where you can, uh, go to see all this information? So like Uber, we will connect the promoters with the guests and the venues. And like Airbnb, we will help the most valuable assets they have get sold, um, rather than remaining unsold and making them no money.

Jason Frazell 40:24

Yeah. Hamlet, I wanna thank you for being on today. This has been really what a, what a simple. What a simple problem. That doesn't seem to have been solved yet. I've never seen it solved in any way. And I, I live in New York, so I, mm-hmm. I've been a part of big groups of tables and I've been a part of that annoying line in the rain and everything in between. Uh, last thing have for us is what do you want people to do next? How can they connect with you, talk to you. Learn more,

Hamlet Tamazian 40:53

they're interested. Yeah. Um, I look forward to solving that problem for you, for myself and everyone else, that is my mission. That is what Table Full is uh, built for and hopefully we'll be in New York and every other place soon enough. And to connect with me, please follow Table full.club on Instagram. Our, uh, web application is available also as Table full.club, so you can type Ws or without the Ws and then Table full.club. Um, we're also on other platforms, but the main hub for us is Instagram. So please follow us on Instagram. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Um, and you can also find our websites from the Instagram page as well. Uh, you can find us find more information about Table Info Table Club as well. So congratulations, everything from there.

Jason Frazell 41:46

Yeah, when we'll throw all that in the show notes. Congratulations, Hamlet. I real, uh, really wishing you the best of success here. I think you're, I, I'm definitely onto something. I'm looking forward to using it in the near future.