Tech Zone: Datasite CPO Thomas Fredell on M&A innovation

• Datasite's CPO Thomas Fredell discusses innovation for the M&A industry.
• Part of a broader tech episode, so the Datasite segment is one portion.

A brief but on-record look at Datasite's product vision from its CPO.

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Hello and welcome to the tech zone.

What's going on?

It's me, Paul Amadeus Lane.

I am so happy to have you with me on our show today.

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Thank you.

Thank you guys so so so much on our show today.

We're going to talk about the ketogenic lifestyle and mergers and acquisitions.

We're going to touch on how technology is playing a major role in those particular areas that sets ones up for success.

All right, you ready to do this?

Let's do this.

When it comes to a diet, what kind of comes of your mind?

Will you often may think of the end result right away after this diet and go back to eating the way I used to eat?

That's why when people utter the words keto, they use the term ketogenic lifestyle, meaning that this is something that you plan to stick to for the rest of your life.

How can we do this successfully?

Well, my next guest, not only are going to share their story, their ketogenic story, but how their journey led them to make sure the innovation was out there.

So that ones like myself and you who are on the ketogenic lifestyle Can succeed and do it safely Joining me right now is the power goal when it comes to keto living in ketopia We're talking about Dorian and Gemma miss and mr.

Keto.

What's going on you two?

How are you both doing?

We're doing absolutely fantastic.

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

Aside from the allergies, great.

Oh, Gemma, I know.

I have them too.

It's just like whenever the season seems to change, the allergies just come out of nowhere.

Right.

Yes, yes, yes.

But, but you know, I've been looking forward to this segment with you too.

And the reason why I personally, for myself, who just started the the keto lifestyle, you know, I thought I was doing keto correctly.

But it wasn't until I stumbled across you guys and the great piece of innovation that you have It really helped me out.

I kind of mentioned it in the opening segment before I bought you guys on so I want to thank you guys personally for For help staring my journey in the right direction.

I really appreciate it.

Oh awesome.

That's what we love to do.

I mean, that's why we started the company frankly And I really appreciate it and what I wanted to do start off by you when you guys created this And then also, what was the need that you both saw in creating this marvelous piece of innovation?

I think the top notch keto, keto meter out there.

What was the need that you guys saw?

Well, back in 2015, I was 207 pounds.

I had all the biomarkers for metabolic syndrome.

I was on antidepressants and my job wasn't doing well.

And a friend of mine said, you know, you've got to get off the car because you have to go keto.

And I'm like, I don't do fat diets.

I'm not that kind of...

individual.

So I started reading up all that I could on keto to find out what is this and what is the science behind it and you know I read the work of Volic, Finney and Tows and Lustig and Westman.

Dr.

Westman absolutely, Dr.

Jason Fung.

And we start looking at all the podcasts that are doing in the videos and reading their clinical papers.

You know, it became evident that Testing was key.

Testing was what was the fundamental underpinning of the science.

So I went on a well -regulated ketogenic diet.

I was testing with a competitors meter at that time.

And I had a period of three to six months.

My weight just dropped off.

To I lost total of 47 pounds, which was a sack of concrete and then on the other flip side I had been dieting since I was six years old battled with weight Top weight was probably 180 and I now sit around 125 but so you know I tried every diet from the chopstick diet to the cabbage soup diet, you know all of them I don't recommend the cabbage soup is pretty pretty bad but so you know for for us it was like and we love carbs I made fresh bread every single week and you know we we lived on pasta and grains and all of those things but they were whole grains but they were organic so yeah and you know I was a product of the standard American diet you know lived on carbs and diet soda and saccharine and red dye number you know whatever and you know so we both came from similar skepticism, but then he lost 47 pounds.

It took me a little longer, but I had reversed a lot of things that were going on during the course of a year.

I had had breast cancer and autoimmune and just a number of things going on.

Here we had a profound change in our lives.

You know, I lost the 47 pounds of weight.

I came off of all those medications.

I got the shawar to leave a bag that I felt like I were when I was 24 again.

You know, I was 45 at this time back at that part.

That's incredible.

But then I was looking at the test strip.

And these test strips back then were four to five dollars.

And I kind of like, I split it apart, I waited, I looked at it, and I'm like, why is this four to five dollars?

This just does not make sense.

And so I draw up a list of a hundred different manufacturers across the globe.

I crush that to the federal regulations because, you know, a glucose amputeometer when they're combined together is a class two medical device.

So they actually helped a much higher standard.

And the classic back of the napkin sort of business plan was test three times a day for less than the cost of a latte.

How could we lower the cost so it becomes affordable to more people so they could get better outcomes?

Because if you kind of like think about a ketogenic, a well regulated ketogenic diet, I think of it as a map.

and compass.

You speak about going in the right direction.

So the map, the train, the geology is like if you want Taiwanese food, you want to go to a Mongolian barbecue.

You want to go in a new direction and you're going in a new direction.

You need a compass.

You need a compass to tell you where if you're going in the right way or the wrong way.

And this I think has been the fundamental change.

and not only did we want to lighten lower the cost, but we also wanted to build a platform and an ecosystem that could do more.

So we built a secure, hyper -compliant, encrypted health cloud.

We the first meter didn't have Bluetooth then we introduced a Bluetooth dongle onto it so we had it actively compatible so we didn't leave anybody below behind us we made technology changes then we introduced a Bluetooth integrated meter and now we're on to the second generation the GK plus meter and I think you know one of the things we say a lot is it's more than a meter and really you know it's We've moved our website around so that the selling portion is kind of off to the side and we really want to make, if we didn't have to sell a meter, it would be, you know, that we do.

But, you know, it's really about information sharing and Dorian alluded to, different iterations of finding what worked for us in the beginning and then saying, hey, this is something amazing.

We want to share it, right?

We want to get it out there.

And then how can we make it better?

And that's kind of as we evolve, it's been a really interesting four years now.

And we've been keto since 2015, so it just keeps getting better.

And we live very full lives.

We eat really well.

I'm certified Somalia, so we drink wine.

But we test.

We test for wine.

What wines are going to kick me out?

And I'm really trying to sluice out.

that to build a lifestyle.

And pursuant to that, we're really concentrating now on the medical channel and how can we help the healthcare systems, the practitioners, the doctors get the word out and share information.

So that's really what we're about with the websites about and really why the technology is so important because it can reach people, especially now on that the age of COVID and remote patient monitoring, we're really trying to bridge that gap and get the technology up to speed so that we can help.

There's a few things I just want to go back to just a minute because, you know, it really peaked my interest when you both, when you said this, first I want to apologize is Mr.

and Mrs.

Mojo.

I'm gonna start up, but during you said something and I had a conversation with my rich dietitian other day you talked about how keto was not a fad diet and when you first was approached about keto you know you said you didn't want to do it because of the fad and everything and that's one thing that I think the medical community is now learning that this is not a fad diet it's science backs it up the data backs it up so I'm so glad that you shared that No, I just want to reiterate, we talk about, you know, a well -regulated ketogenic diet has been used for over 30 years in the epilepsy community, especially in children, because ketones can actually help heal the brain and can reduce seizures.

And it's been well researched for epilepsy, but if you talk about Going back in clear history, it was William Banting in the 1800s who first wrote a letter on corpulence.

So the historical aspect to it is that there's been hundreds of peer -reviewed papers that come out.

If we look at new Nina Tysholtz of the nutrition coalition who's been petitioning the USDA to change the nutrition guidelines with clear evidence -based Clinically proven science backs peer reviewed.

It's like we need to bring this in.

I mean, there is a been a massive experiment in the United States since the 70s.

of a carb rich diet and we know that the Americans are doing what they've been told by the USDA because we see all the data on the imports we see all the data from what the farming and we see the data of what Americans are consuming they are consuming a high carb diet and in that time the obesity epidemic has skyrocketed.

Diabetes now is costing the American society 380 billion dollars a year.

And yes, the birth of health in San Francisco have clinically proven, clinically proven, to be able to reverse the effects of type 2 diabetes with a well -regulated ketogenic diet program, period.

Imagine if we could reverse that 382 billion.

How much could we afford on schools then?

How much could we afford to help more with people with disabilities?

Because the obesity epidemic is a drain on American resources.

Yeah, that's a very, very, very vital point that you made there during because it really makes sense.

And I look at, you know, what they told us to eat when I was younger, all these carbs and everything and that, that has caused us to come insulin resistant.

All these different issues out there.

And that's why I'm so glad to have you and Jim.

Talk about this and really really bring truth to power when it when it comes to this the data and the science backs it up and when you when you look at your your journey in particular What was some of the the challenges that you guys?

Encounter it once you decided to go to go keto because I'm just starting my journey and I've had a few challenges, but I would love to hear some of the challenges that you both had Well, obviously, there's business challenges and then there's actual just life challenges.

You can just sort of life challenges.

You don't want to hear about the business.

So the life challenges is what everybody suffers with.

And when you first get keto, you've got to realize that there's a physiological response and a psychological response.

Physiological can be easily handled because we have the science and data behind all of that.

You know, when you first go keto, you are reducing your carbs down and the glycogen in your liver drops down and then you get this point where your blood sugar drops and people go like, I gotta eat, I gotta eat.

And it's like, well, eat a well -regulated kiwi junior diet.

It's gonna take a while, usually about 24 to 48 hours for your liver to change to retool, if you will.

to start metabolizing either bodily fat or dietary fat for use for energy.

And it's in this little 24 -40 -hour window where people talk about keto flu.

And that's easily taken care of by it.

It's an electrolyte imbalance of potassium magnesium and salt.

Add that in.

You can do that with bouillon stock or you can do it with just supplements or a little bit.

And during that period you won't get any of the keto flu that will come about.

Your body will have transition, transitioned.

to its natural set point.

So then we have to deal with the psychological, a psychological and the peer.

Like, oh, it's Friday and you're in the office and it's pizza.

I'm grammar, bactic pie.

Right.

And then they go, oh, just one slice, it's not going to kill you.

One slice, it's not going to kill you once.

It's just pizza, you know?

But then it's sort of like me, I used to smoke up until the age of 26.

Imagine me saying, oh.

one cigarette, it's not going to kill you, or one drink to an alcoholic, it's not going to kill you.

It's a carpolyc and remember that carbs, glucose, lights up, the same pleasure centers in the brain as cocaine.

When you see it, it's like that's you get, you see kids who get the sugar fix, don't we?

And they go crazy.

And I think, you know, also for women, I think it's more challenging.

I know you and your wife are both, you know, doing it and she may experience a different path for a while.

Durian lost 47 pounds, boom, pretty much within three months.

I could not get my ketones over 0 .

4.

I was depressed.

I was just not doing it.

I hated it.

And I hear from a lot of women, more women than men, that I don't know if ketos for me, it's just too hard, right?

So luckily we were both on this journey together.

And you know, by accident, I started fasting just because I wasn't eating and I was busy.

And I noticed that things got better.

And the thing with fasting, it's mental.

It's like, oh, I have to eat.

I can't not eat.

But once you get over that, you realize, hey, I'm doing okay.

My glucose is fine.

My ketones are great.

So again, that's psychological piece.

And once I kind of had a jumpstart there.

by fasting, intermittent fasting.

And my ketones now sit around 1 .

2 to 2.

And when I fast, do an extended fast, they'll get up into fours and fives.

And I have a lot of energy and it's great.

But you really have to get past whatever your boundaries, or not your boundaries, whatever your walks are.

And for us, we went on a very strict, clean keto.

you know diet for that first two months that was almost like an elimination we made sure that there was nothing there that could be causing problem but some people don't do that because that's not their style so first you have to ask what is the person is why and what's going to work with them you know we we use the D word but we actually she think about a key to do yeah I actually don't like the word diet because it has that that or of, you know, I'm on a diet and one side of the law.

And I've been on all 75 diets.

Yeah, you lose it.

We talked about this before.

You lose it.

And then it's like, Oh, I've, I've, you know, lost my weight.

Now I can go back to the way I'm eating.

It can be like that.

So.

And here, here comes like the little kind of the thing that happens too.

I know that during, I'm glad you said that about alcoholic about all these things because when we think of something as a diet, we think Oh, in two months, I get to have that big, you know, a bowl of spaghetti in this, and I'll be fine, but that will kick me back off.

And this, another discussion I had with one of my medical professionals.

And she was kind of throwing a little shade at me.

And she was saying, well, you want to make sure you do something that you're able to continue.

And I intend and will live this lifestyle for the rest of my life, because I feel better.

I enjoy the food, I enjoy the recipes I find on the website that you guys have.

So there's a lot of things there that can help us to have this lifestyle and not that diet.

Yeah.

And you know, now, especially there's so many resources out there, maybe four or five years ago, it wasn't quite as easy, but now you have keto -friendly everything.

And so it makes it much more easy to find support and resources.

I'd like to go back to your question a little bit of how the meter can help fine -tune people.

And so, first of all, is the why?

Why is the person following a well -regulated key music diet?

And there could be many reasons for this.

There are those who are just looking for weight loss.

Then it could be the extreme athletes who are looking for endurance or to cut down fat mass, so they have lean body mass, MMA fighters, especially want that power to weight ratio.

It could be because of epilepsy, or it could be from cancer diagnosis, or it could be from PCOS, places to covariance syndrome, for trying to help women to conceive.

And obviously type 2 diabetes, where you can see type 1 diabetics do it, neurological, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

So if the person's approach, and each one of those areas might need a different type of ketogenic diet, there's a spectrum of them.

Man, people don't realize that.

You've got the glycemic keto, you've got three one, you've got four one, you've got carnivore keto, you've just got lazy clean keto, just lazy keto, we're dirty keto, and there are different versions.

So then you kind of like say, all right, I'm just starting out.

So how does it help me out?

Well, first of all, you can see if you are actually getting into nutritional ketosis, because you can only manage what you measure.

and measurement is the first step that leads to control.

Once you control something, you can improve a pilot.

I never said that quote, I'm stealing it from somebody else.

So that becomes the key.

So that becomes the key.

And one of the first joys from somebody starting is they say, I'm keto, but without measuring, they don't know.

And then they go and start to make some of the first 10, they're like, Oh, I wasn't in the state of nutritional ketosis because they thought keto was having a bullet proof coffee and then going and eating a donut.

I got a friend who did that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So because they're like, oh, I'm keto.

I've got to put proof.

It's like, but you have a donut where it doesn't.

Right.

Right.

So what then gives the joy is when you start to see your ketones change from 0 .

1, 0 .

2, 0 .

3, you're getting cleared and almost at that watershed moment of turning the corner at 0 .

5, which is according to volume -confident, Philly, that is the point of nutritional ketosis.

You now get this biofeedback.

that what you are doing is working for you and your bio individuality.

And everybody is different and that's the key to bio individuality.

He and I ate exactly the same thing but he had a much different journey than I did and that was something that took some time to sync out.

So now we've had that journey of Tukitopia.

That's, that's stage one.

You know, I've actually got myself into nutritional ketosis, but what if you were struggling to get through to the gates of ketopia?

What was happening?

Say you're at 0 .

300 .

4 and we saw this first hand, we were doing the reverse docu -series with Charles Maddox and one of the contestants was not getting in ketosis and you can see that she was a little frustrated and then the question is you have to ourselves, why?

What's happening here?

We were in a controlled environment of all the food, was key to what was happening, or what we found out, was back in where the house she was staying in.

There was some new left 2 % milk, and she liked 2 % milk and the coffee, and she didn't realize the lactose content of that 2 % milk was preventing her from getting into intonutrious nucleotosis, once that was removed and taken out.

She crossed the gate to the ketopia.

She got that feedback that like yeah, I'm in control And this is how a ketone and glucose meter if used well can actually So it really helps you sleep out.

Yeah, so you you look at what you're eat if it's not working Well, what am I eat?

Well look I eat this and my glucose spikes and my ketones well that means that it's not for me it was you know the faux sweeteners like Rithurtal, Manitals, all the tals.

And I have to be really careful.

with faux carbs because I love carbs.

So if it tastes like a carb, I'm going to eat it like a carb, right?

And all of those sweeteners and all the fake shirt, they really do a number on me and I have to be really diligent.

But I didn't know that in the beginning because I was feeding myself with these, you know, faux sweets in it.

Yeah.

So how how does testing, you know, so what we recommend to people first starting out is get your baseline about an hour off the waking.

Do a mission.

And that's around why do I say an hour after waking with this?

What's known as the dawn phenomenon which gives you what cold is all spike in the morning that pushes out your glucose?

People mentioned go my glucose is in the center hundreds of what's going wrong?

Well, it could be dawn phenomenon or it could be that you had a bad night's sleep or it could be that you're really stressed or too many glasses of wine so there are things can be effective So you wait about an hour and they'll give you thoughts and that's a And then obviously, say what you're trying out a new breakfast.

You've got a test, you can now go and eat your breakfast in about an hour after eating.

Do a second test.

Now, if you've seen your blood glucose spike by over 30 points, hey, there's some carbs in there.

You need to find out, slush out what is in that.

Look at the back of that and say you had a yogurt and you found out, oh, it's a 1 % yogurt and it's loaded with lactose.

Maybe go for a high fat yogurt and if that's not giving response.

Now you know that's good for you.

So you've got that waypoint on your journey.

And now if you have that yoga again, you don't even test again because you've worked out your route.

You worked out what works for you.

And it's almost counterintuitive because it's from what our upbringing of low fat and you know really just cut your calories.

We use heavy cream and it's much better.

you know, for the ketogenic lifestyle, then 2 % or low -fat or nonfat milk.

And that's what you have to kind of get in here.

But here again, we come to bioindividuality.

I mean, we mentioned heavy cream and I mentioned yogurt.

This is now, the keto police are out blowing their whistles on us right now.

They're going like dairy and the felby factions that say, no, you shouldn't have dairy.

Well, dairy might be a problem, certainly for somebody with multiple sclerosis because of the casiness in there.

And for them, high fat cream might not be working right for them.

Same as a high fat yoga mode.

But if it's someone who's just looking to be weight loss and a high fat yoga with a sprinkling or browse breeze and a little bit of dry pecans, that's a surrogate for when they used to have their suit.

It's my favorite.

It will work well for them.

So we don't espouse one side of key diverse of the other side.

We say, look, just use the data to guide you.

And once you've learnt your route, You don't need to test.

Well, I'm interested, you know, you've been using the meter now for a couple of weeks.

How has it changed your kind of outlook and the way you guys are living your life?

Because you're just starting out, so you're really living it.

You're living what we did like six years ago.

Yeah, I'm so glad you asked me that, Jim, because I was just thinking when you were doing a both talking about my journey, I remember I had my meter up right here, so I'm going to scroll down to when I first took my readings back on a couple of weeks ago, I was 6 .

4 GKI, that was my GKI.

And then I remember one evening, I had a 13 .

1 GKI.

So I realized something that I was eating that was supposed to be keto -friendly, is not really keto -friendly.

So I eliminated that.

Then the morning I was down in 9 .

9 GKI, and then the next day, I went back into 6 .

9 GKI.

So I'm learning that just because things say they are keto friendly and like my wife Ray, like she was able to get into a good GKI just the other day for the first time.

It was because we tested every day, we looked at the data, we started to eliminate things, started to fast a little more, a little more fat here, take a little bit more.

Um, um, carbs out and then everything's fine.

And that's why this is like life saver for me because I was I was fumbling through keto.

I thought I was doing keto, but the science, the data and the blood does not lie.

I encourage everyone.

If you're going to do keto, make the investment and get this, get the keto mojo.

I mean, because if not, you know, you just you just wasting your money.

You won't keep your feet on it right away.

That's what we appreciate that.

But it's like the compass.

You think you might be working north, but are you?

Because you know there's east is over there and west is over there by the sun.

And south is somewhere.

If I'm going that way, maybe I am.

And so this is how you dial it into your bio individuality.

Like for an athlete, an athlete might be able to do far more carbs because of the way that they're working out.

You know, they can be in nutritional ketosis maybe at 30 or 40 grams of carbs.

But for somebody who might have had a lot of metabolic damage over a long period of time, they might need to be super strict at 20 grams.

And the question is, is it 20 grams total?

Is it 20 grams net?

Do you take out the fiber?

And, you know, I found that I tracked my macros for the first month.

And I did that specifically so I could understand food.

There's many people that do not understand where carbs can creep in.

And they don't, some people don't know either the difference between carbohydrate, protein and fat.

And, you know, that's, let's talk about American education on another side.

But they don't.

And they don't understand that.

And we need to help educate people.

And, you know, that, like, almonds, I think, is the classic one.

Almonds, it's not.

It's got to be great.

Well, actually, Almonds is sort of like a middle of the road.

And what I mean by that is you can get carb creep even on...

Too many, yeah.

Macadamia nuts, Brazils, they're like, and pecans, they're the best cashews and pistachios are really bad.

People don't realize they think it's a nut, and they say like that, but they don't realize it's, I think it's like 37 grams of carbohydrates per 100.

So it's a very high carb, and you can quickly knock yourself out of the ketosis thinking what you're doing is right.

Having a whole nut is much better because you've got to chew it, you've got to take it down.

When it starts getting processed into almond flowers and other things, you can have a cup of cream.

And this is where you said, oh, that's not a keto food.

You know, we can always go almost anything is a keto food if it fits your mouth.

Well, if it says keto on it, it's got to be keto, right?

And then you can agree to this and there's 35 ingredients you can't pronounce.

Yeah, let's try this one.

Yeah, and the carbs are like, you know, 38 carbs, but it's keto.

You see that one slice of keto bread and you start actually looking at it going like, I'm making it.

And my only, you know, this is taking about a third of what I could do in a day.

And if you're taking a third, is it then right for you?

Only that person makes right?

Well, and you know, this also brings up another point is that what if somebody said to me, what if I test the food I love the most and it totally kicks me out of ketosis?

Well, okay, then you know, and then you can make an informed choice.

So if you choose to have that food, then you know what it's going to do and you can make you know the accommodations you need to or you make that decision but it's then puts the power in you.

It's not like well I think it's okay it's keto right it's keto you know but if you know you have the power and that empowers people to make informed choices online so that's that key.

Now I totally agree and you know Gemma and Doreen we can we can talk for hours about this and as a matter of fact we're gonna We're going to have you have you back on for a follow -up segment because there's so much things we can some of these we can learn about this but but as we wrap this up during one of the things I wanted to just touch on briefly was just about what would make the the keto mojo just different from out there with the increased strip longevity and all these things and the lower price and the foundation too let's let's touch on that for a second too and then we'll then we'll wrap it up my frame.

yeah well you know one of the things that we realized when we were going to all these medical conferences and meeting doctors and clinicians and researchers was they nobody had cash to do these studies and this although there's hundreds of studies out there they were still crying out for more cash because they needed to do bigger studies or more pilot studies of seeing effectiveness in different sections of the medical community so We realized that there wasn't a sort of like a monetary feedback to help support that.

So we set up the Kedoginik Foundation, it's a 501c3 public charity.

We seeded it with half a million dollars to begin with.

And what we wanted to have is a market -forcing function.

So we have lots of friends in the Kedog community.

And if you go to our website to the mymerjournal market place, if you...

Purchase something through there.

There's an affiliate payment that doesn't come back to keto mojo.

It actually goes to the foundation.

And then foundation helps support clinical trial studies and education into the use of ketogenic therapies for humankind.

And our goal is to build it up so there is an endowment in perpetuity so that we can continue long after we've gone, because, you know, generally, we don't have children.

So the question is for us is, Do you want to make a buck or do we want to make a difference?

And I think for us that is really a legacy.

And it's really proven to be so, gosh, so rewarding to be able to seriously give back and fund trials.

And that's really what our goal is to, and also the education and getting them word out there and sharing the knowledge and the science.

I mean, that's really important to us.

It is it is and I tell you the next segment would do we're gonna spend that segment talking about that awesome website because that website To me is one of the my top two websites, you know that that I've ever ever experienced ever ever thumb through Some of the things there are just amazing so I'm used for free.

Thank you That means a lot.

It was really important to us that we redevelop the website to be free for everyone information.

You don't have to buy a meter and you just to share the information, to share the videos and the articles.

I'd like to give a shout out to low carb USA.

We license all of their videos from the cognitive.

From the cognitive.

If you want to hear the leading clinicians and researchers and doctors, it's all there.

It's not behind the paywall.

So you can, there's over 182 hours of real high quality And it will run the gamut from the laypersons all the way up to the Doctor of Clinician Research.

So you can go in and geek out on as much science and nerd stuff that you want.

Awesome.

So I'm going to obligate you guys to come back on.

Okay.

Next one.

Talk more about that.

All right.

Can I get you guys back on?

Yes.

Of course.

All right.

Sounds good.

Jemma and Dorian.

I love you guys.

You guys are so awesome.

You guys are you and Ray are both so amazing and which is when when we first zoomed I was like, oh my god, I love you.

Just kindred spirit and a lot of synergy here.

So, you know, but I appreciate you guys and keep on doing this fantastic where we we need you out there and fight when it comes to health and everything is Your approach is is balanced back by science.

We really appreciate your voice that we have out there.

Oh, thank you.

We appreciate you A huge shout out to Mrs.

and Mr.

Mojo.

Or as a Mr.

and Mrs.

Mojo.

I always get that mess.

But I don't know why I can do that.

But Jimma and Dorian enjoy chatting with them.

Amazing folks.

I share a little bit about my journey.

I've been doing it for a little over two months.

And because I am in the wheelchair, it's hard for me to weigh myself.

As soon as I get my second vaccination I get fully vaccinated I'm gonna go down to the rehab hospital and wave myself and do drumroll please But I know my wife rainy day.

She's almost about 17 pounds and she's been doing it for the same time I have so Congratulations to her.

I'm very proud of her and Jim and Dorian Wanted me to extend a discount to you out there if you would like to get this keto mojo meter get one It's the difference between success and not succeeding.

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Cool.

So we get back from talking about mergers and acquisitions and how technology is really helping.

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Welcome back to the Tech Zone on Paul Amadeus Lane.

So happy to have you back with me if you missed our...

First interview about the Keto Genic lifestyle how technology is really setting ones up for success I share my Keto journey talking with Mr.

and Mrs.

Keto About how the technology was a game changer for me as well.

I always equate things with things that I'm familiar with Case in point I'm able to remember a person's name because of associating that with the Pretty well known character either factor fiction like if someone's name Alexander always say Alexander the great if someone As name is like What's another one always equate Arthur?

He's my name Arthur.

I always say King Arthur.

So it helps me to remember their name When it comes to mergers and acquisitions When helps you to remember the complexity of that as you know, I'm a sci -fall holic, right?

Star Trek D space 9 has to be one of my favorite sci -fi shows ever It's not because they had a black captain.

It was because without that help, but it I really love the story a lot You can really see the characters one character in particular that I really enjoyed was Quark when he's a foreign you remember You talked about the rules of acquisitions and mergers and Latin them and all that good stuff so that helped me To be familiar with all that meant emerges and acquisitions So how can you and I?

Get our interfering on how can we make sure that we are getting the most out of our acquisitions, but we want to do a merger What are some things that can help us build our latin hub?

Let me stop right there, but my next guest is going to talk about how technology is helping many in that area that has Really flourished during this pandemic.

I am so happy to have with me right now from Data Site, Chief Product Officer, Thomas Fidel.

Thomas, welcome to the show.

How are you?

Paul, I'm doing great.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thomas is really an honor to have you.

When we look at where we're at in the realm of just technology, tech is hitting every industry out there from...

products from mergers to acquisitions all these things Thomas and If you can before we get a brief rundown of what Data data side is all about in the organization What was the biggest jump in technology that?

I saw a need to even it hit this industry right here of mergers and acquisitions Well, I tell you what I've been involved with it like forever.

So I feel like and innovator and historian for merchant acquisitions for the technology for it because back in the day, what people used to do is actually fly somewhere to do their two diligence.

So they used to have what you'd call a paper data room and you'd bring buyers in and you'd have them review every fact that they could about a company to understand it and to make a decision about whether they were going to buy it or not.

And that was disruptive and time -consuming for everyone involved.

And if you're in a situation where you potentially have multiple bidders on an asset, you can only have one of them in that paper data room at a time.

So when the internet took off, it was really back in 1997, I started a company that did this for the first time, taking all of that stuff that used to be in that paper data room and bring it online into what is today called a virtual data room.

so that people didn't have to travel to go look at it.

You know, they could do it directly from their office and doing it in such a way that you could have multiple participants in there all at the same time put in a secure and confidential way.

And Thomas, when we just look at what data site has been able to accomplish our with their responsible for 20 % of the M and eight deals.

That is like my blowing to me.

I mean, you guys do this globally.

It probably takes a massive team to get this done.

Well, you know, it's really cool because when you work for a company that you know is part of that underpinnings of the deal makers making the biggest headline, you know, deals across the whole globe.

That's a heavy thing to be involved in and that is really exciting.

and fun to be part of that change, part of what makes the world tick.

So I've been really happy to be involved in that.

And really, you know, what my focus, what the whole folks in my career has become is all about understanding those deal makers and what makes their life easier so they can get their deal done faster and better.

You know, there are some things in the market that when you talk about M &A deals, people say time kills all deals.

So doing things in a fast but ineffective and robust way is this name of the game for supporting these people that are doing these headline deals.

And Thomas just think many years ago when things were done face to face and a handshake, you know, when deals were done, sometimes over cocktail hour, sometimes over, over things as well.

And we know that since this pandemic What type of challenges has this produced when it comes to this?

Well, I was talking to the VP of M &A at a very large voltage bracket investment bank and they said, you know, my gosh, you know, in the days before the pandemic, you know, it's really important to have these face -to -face management presentations.

where you'd get everyone together, all of the key people from a management team, the CEO, CFO, the head of sales, CRO, chief product officer, chief marketing officer, and then the buyer and then maybe even a host of other resources that they might bring in, like legal resources or other diligence resources for technology or business, and getting them all in the same place, at the same time was a nightmare.

So it might take weeks, you know, just to coordinate that schedule forever and apply into the same spot.

So in a sense, the pandemic has actually, you know, changed that dynamic.

Where now, you know, it's a lot easier to get together for a virtual meeting.

So, you know, it's a nice change to the expectations where people are a lot more comfortable with you know, hey, we're going to do it over, you know, Skype or Zoom or, you know, Teams or something like that.

But I'd say that, you know, the flip side of that is, you know, while the coordination is a lot easier, you know, for a dealmaker, like you said, there's nothing quite like, you know, seeing that, you know, the person who's company you're trying to buy, you know, face to face.

So you can make that connection.

And so you can understand where they're coming from.

So that is definitely lost now.

So I expect that when we're past this pandemic, we're going to see something where we continue to have the ease and the speed of meanings, but there's still going to be those moments when that face -to -face is essential.

Thomas, that's one thing that we all notice across the industry as a whole with everything that we're going to have this hybrid coming out of this pandemic where we'll have some face -to -face, but we'll also use this Marvelous innovation of technology that allows us to at the drop of a hat to get together and make these deals because think about it two o 'clock in the morning you may have an idea and it's like okay I got a book my flight I got to do this I got to do that now it's just like hey let's meet up on zoom let's meet up on Skype let's make this deal happen and is this causing more deals to be done exponentially now just at the the quickness of deals now than before the pandemic Well, we have definitely seen, you know, if you kind of look at how things played out, you know, in the pandemic last year, you're on March, you know, that's when the breaks were being put on everything.

And all of a sudden, it's, hey, no restaurants, no travel, no nothing.

And that definitely put the breaks on deal making.

And we saw that really occur everywhere.

But then as we got into the summer of last year into the June, July timeframe, All of a sudden, that deal -making pace really grew substantially.

And we've seen very significant growth in our business.

And I like to think part of that is because of the market and part of that is because of the innovation that we've done, because having served this community for so long, I'm always focused on making it faster, better, easier, and being the place where people want to go to get their deals done.

So, and then there are certain types of deals like, of course, so much press around SPACs, these special purpose acquisition corporations.

There's been just a real boom in fundraising for those.

And you expect that after these things, the SPAC blank check corporation, that means that you've gone out, you raise money, it's kind of like going out and getting a hunting rifle, you're going to go after a big game, you're going to go after a company to acquire.

And there's been a boom in the number of those facts that have been raised.

So I expect that on the back of that, there's going to be a lot of M &A activity done by these blank check corporations, these facts, finding the company that they want to go after.

Yeah, that definitely definitely makes sense.

And Thomas, when we look at a data site with over 50 years of experience as a company and U .

S.

being the chief product officer, What are some things that you look at in your capacity just to make sure that the company stays innovative and able to meet the needs of ones in this industry in this market?

Well, sorry about that.

So the first thing, of course, is intimacy with our customers.

So I want to, and I get my whole organization focused on understand our customers better than anybody else and you know in the in the sort of battle days of what many people saw as IT projects that they might do in their company you know what used to happen is you know people would kind of gather requirements and then they would go away and then they would come back with something you know several months later quarter later six months later maybe you know a year later and they would bring that you know so the people were supposed to be the users of it And that didn't work very well because people's needs had a tendency to change.

And it's always been a little hard for people that are on the technology side of things to understand business people.

So the most important thing for us is really to spend a lot of time with our customers to understand them.

Not looking for them to tell us the answer, but looking to understand their problems and this sort of value that they need.

And then it's far creativity too.

develop a solution.

So we have a couple of principles that we work based on, which is one of them is adult gas tests.

So we want to take our ideas, kind of create them in a prototype form, bring them out to customers.

And that enhanced the second part of it, which is we want to bring the future into the present, meaning that we imagine something that would be a much better way of working.

We turn that into a meaningful prototype that a customer can engage with.

And then we put it in front of them and we kept their real use of it.

So we understand how well that really works.

Does it really deliver the value that they need that they want?

So that's the very first thing.

And then the second thing is all the technology that supports that.

And probably the biggest their innovation for us is around artificial intelligence.

My goal candidly is to create a magical experience for the customer where the technology does things in a miraculous way on their behalf.

And doing that is complicated.

There are things like deep learning algorithms and a lot of engineers today are still not really that familiar with that type of way of doing things because in the old days, when I was growing up as an engineer, I learned to tell a computer exactly what to do.

And you had to be like right to the to the semicolon.

If you got a semicolon wrong, you know, things would screw up.

And now AI is all about teaching a computer.

And that's just a completely different mindset and completely different way of formulating a problem.

Thomas, you take me back to my computer operating school days, learning the bad days and all these other things, man.

When you talked about putting everything in a computer and teaching it now a machine learning, it's like It's just really my blowing and I'm glad you went there because I wanted to go there too with AI machine learning and what do you see it playing a major role in the future?

We can now put on our inner Jedi hats now and predict the future.

What are the things that we see?

Well, hey, I tell you what I love driving you know always have like I grew up in a rural town So when I was 16 I got my driver's license is like how will you I can finally go someplace?

But I tell you what I can't wait until the days I can just plug in the coordinates and have my car just drive me there or maybe I won't even own one.

Maybe I'll just have a subscription to one and all of that will be based on AI and machine learning.

So I think that'd be really exciting.

I think another thing is if you look at the way that people learn, you know, kind of.

the way that classes were, you know, they talk about different ways that people learn, like maybe they're auditory, like it's best if they hear a lecture, or maybe they're visual, and they want to see, you know, a whiteboard and the teacher's sketching things, or maybe they want to read something.

And, you know, that's tough, because if you're the sort of kid who, you know, does really well with one of those, but maybe not the other ones, you know, is their chance to get left out.

So I love the AI.

kind of engaging with the student in a multimodal way, meaning across these different dimensions and kind of discerning what works and giving them more content that matches their learning style.

Because to my mind, part of the future is making sure that every student that we have has an opportunity to learn.

And that's something I've personally been passionate about for a real long time.

I'm glad you share that glad you share that because coming from someone like you who's Been in the been in the game for a while to get that expertise that that's awesome and when we look at Once you may be listening and in viewing right now and they're saying you know it I have my eye on particular company that I want to I want to Engage and talk about or having emerged with mine or acquiring a company who What is the best way that your company can help someone but we're just not even knowing where to start at if you can share that with us.

So we have great relationships with all of the world's top advisors in the space.

So the thing is that you know oftentimes you know depending some of the world's largest companies may have what they call a corporate development team and you know they will have a view of the world you know they'll have a view of the universe of all the companies around them.

and they'll do things like market mapping, which means that they kind of take all the companies that are out there stranding them and they sort of put them into different categories and then they'll reach out to them and they'll engage with them and they'll eventually go through diligence and see if it makes sense to do a deal.

Other companies don't have just that size or scale and that's where engaging with an advisor is critical.

So investment bankers are out there, they know who the hot companies are in a space.

they can be an entry point, you know, to new deals, you know, or, you know, they might, if you've got a great relationship with an investment bank, they might know you and know what you're looking for.

So they'll come to you with a deal.

So they might come to you with a teaser.

And as a matter of fact, we end up building some technology.

We have a product offering we call outreach.

And it's truly all about, you know, helping, you know, that advisor or if you're that large corporate dev team.

It makes it easier for you to manage that outreach to potential buyers.

This M &A is very much a marketplace.

This is also an area where AI can play.

Who is the best potential buyer for this company if you're on the sell side?

What's the best company you could be looking at?

That's a place where I think AI and understanding what you're looking for and who's out there across so much data.

They just growing, you know, if there's a way of making sense of that and helping you to target, you know, your attention.

So you can grab those things that are most important and most relevant to you.

I think that that's a big win for people.

Thomas, you know, one of the things that impressed me about your software is the smart category and AI indexing.

And talk about why that's so important.

Well, when you're doing M &A, you know, what typically happens when you're getting ready for solutions is you are engaging, you know, if you're an advisor and you're an investment banker and you're working with this company, you are trying to collect every single possible thing you can to answer all the questions that are going to come up, you know, from the potential buyers.

And buyers are really sophisticated.

So buyers will come in with a long list, a whole view of everything they want to know about the company.

sometimes they'll engage just a fleet of advisors to help them out.

And when they're doing that, the company that's selling itself needs all this information to provide to that company.

So what often happens is that company will collect a lot of information internally.

They'll sort of dump it on the advisor and they'll say, hey, this needs to fit into this checklist, this thing that this buyer's looking for.

you know, means that if you're the advisor, you get all this information dumped on you and you need to make sense of it.

So what the AI categorization does is it automatically like reads the documents and this is based on training with millions of documents.

It understands, hey, what's a financial document?

What's a legal document?

What's intellectual property?

What's something related to the organization?

What's something related to board minutes?

You know, all of those things.

It makes it really easy to organize that information so that it's presented in the best simplest way for the buyer to understand it and for the buyer to make a decision.

And Thomas, this innovation right here helps.

I guess minimize misunderstandings that that can happen during during the deals and the mergers that may come up pop up at the end because you hear of like like acquisitions starting, but then ending because they hit a snack.

So the innovation that you all provide really helps to meet that challenge to overcome any snags that may come up.

I think that's a great way to look at it.

And that's really, you know, deal -making can be pressure -filled.

It's notorious that the advisors, you know, that the investment bankers work really hard, you know, sometimes 24 by 7 literally to get a deal done.

So, you know, the more we can help them get to a successful conclusion that's good for the buyer and good for the seller and that, you know, gives, you know, the investment bank or some, you know, lifestyle, some, some, some lots of lifestyle.

That's great for us.

And that, that to me is a really, really thing to go after, you know, helping, you know, those advisors, those people to get those deals done, you know, and to be able to put their time into the real value that they add.

which is understanding the business, not organizing a bunch of stuff, not setting up the security for it, not checking exactly what's happening.

We want to make all of that something that just automatically happens and it's safe and easy so that people can do the things where their intelligence and their brain is really important and used.

Yeah, I definitely, definitely make sense.

Anything else you'd like to share with us about the company, about the product that we didn't Touch on so far.

Well, you know, I'm just thrilled to be working in this deal -making space and really, you know, our vision where we're headed is, you know, we're taking all of these key participants in global deal -making and our vision for it is to create these solutions across the entire M &A life cycle and to fuse that with AI.

you know, so that we're helping to give people the most leverage.

You know, so the effort that they put in, we want to be a force magnifier, take that effort and help them get to the very best outcome that they can by serving their needs across the entire, you know, aspect of that M &A life cycle.

And, you know, can't at least a lot of fun to do that.

So I always get pumped up about that and my team is motivated.

I look at it as like, when you build software, I kind of feel about, you know, a little bit like a chef, you know, like you make a meal and you want to put it in front of the customers and you want to see the smiles on their faces, they enjoy it.

And that's really, in a sense, kind of, you know, a simple way, you know, a satisfaction that we get out of creating something that is meaningful and valuable for our customers.

I love that analogy.

I love that analogy because that's true whenever you do something like the look at a person's reaction to it and And if they give you that reaction, like, wow, this is, this is pretty awesome.

This is pretty dope.

You're like, yes.

But then if they like, and then they like, I don't know, then you're like, okay.

Back to the trolling board.

So yeah.

Now, I definitely get that, but Thomas, thank you so much for coming on a show and sharing information about the company and the great things that you guys are doing over there.

And, and I tell you, we live in a very Very challenging world, but it's good to see companies like yourself over where data site really helping meet that challenge especially during during this pandemic and and beyond and Really enjoy chatting with you.

Let's give that information out if one's like to like to find out more about data site That's awesome.

Thank you so much Paul really enjoyed it And what's it?

What's a good website once can go to oh sure sure sure okay of course So www .

data site that's d -a -t -a -s -i -t -e .

com.

Awesome.

Sounds good.

And Thomas, we'll get together again and we'll geek out over just just taking everything.

All right.

I love that ball.

Thanks a lot, man.

A huge shout out to Thomas Freedell, C -P -O, at Data Site.

Helping us to see the way we can get our interferonion with the merges and acquisitions.

I know I'm silly like that.

No, but no seriousness.

What they're doing at that data site is pretty pretty amazing.

So if you are looking mergers, acquisitions or anything that Tom has talked about, definitely reach out to them at data site.

Really, really knowledgeable when it comes to this subject.

All right.

So it's time for me to get out of here until next week.

But before I go, please be safe.

Stay well.

I love you all to life.

And in the words of Cork from Star Trek DSF9.

DUMBOW!

Yeah, you want to go to Howell Suite?

Or would you like some canart?

Or all the other things that I can't think of my Star Trek's pun right now, I'm getting kind of tired.

But talk to you guys next week.

Take care folks.