Aaron addresses the skilled trades gap, operational efficiency, and customer service. He also highlights the critical role of technology in supporting and elevating the skilled trades.
Aaron addresses the skilled trades gap, operational efficiency, and customer service. He also highlights the critical role of technology in supporting and elevating the skilled trades, and the future of tech in the industry.
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. A podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
On today’s episode, we talk with Aaron Salow, CEO of XOi Technologies. XOi provides digital tools for techs on site, and connects people from all part of the field service ecosystem with the equipment they service.
GUEST BIO
Aaron Salow grew up around his family’s factory, where he worked through high school and college. As a professional, he continued to pursue work in manufacturing and construction. As an entrepreneur and an employee in these industries, he continued to grow his experience and admiration for the people that make this country run. Whether it was hub components for heavy trucks, or a clean room for the Department of Defense, the fingerprints of hard work and resolve was evident everywhere he spent time.
Aaron quickly noticed that less and less people want to go into the skilled trades. He started XOi to solve the biggest problem every company in blue-collar industries are facing today: a skilled trades gap. They are struggling to answer the question: "in the face of a growing skills gap, how do we grow?" His mission at XOi is to help companies answer this question.
TIMESTAMPS
00:28 - About XOi Technologies
01:02 - Aaron’s journey
04:52 - Reframing the college narrative
16:20 - Getting buy-in
29:51 - Evolving consumer expectations
35:48 - Let’s talk about AI
48:05 - Future thinking
49:35 - Where to find Aaron
SPONSOR
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ServiceChannel partners with more than 500 leading brands globally to provide visibility across operations, the flexibility to grow and adapt to consumer expectations, and accelerated performance from their asset fleet and service providers.
LINKS
[00:00:00] Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance. On today's episode, we'll hear from Aaron Salow CEO, and founder of XOI Technologies. He'll talk about how he's addressed the skilled trades gap and highlights the critical role of technology in supporting and elevating the skilled trades.
[00:00:21] Now here's your host, industry and FM technology, thought leader and chief business development officer at Service Channel Sid Shetty, along with our guest, Aaron Salow.
[00:00:30] Sid: Hello everyone. Welcome to season five of Elevating Brick and Mortar. Thank you for joining us. I'm here today with Aaron Salow, CEO and founder of XOi Technologies. Aaron, welcome.
[00:00:43] Aaron: Thank you for having me. Excited about the conversation.
[00:00:46] Sid: Love it. Thank you for joining me. Aaron, before we dive into your journey, um, could you share a little bit about XOi?
[00:00:53] Aaron: Happy to. So, XOi was founded, uh, with a very explicit mission that we still hold today, which is delivering solutions for frontline workers, whether that's a technician, which is where we started and focused on, or a salesperson on the job site across mechanical, electrical, plumbing, commercial kitchen.
[00:01:11] Sid: Okay. I want, I wanna dive more into, into XOi, but let's talk about your journey, right?
[00:01:16] Aaron: Hmm.
[00:01:16] Sid: Let's go back to the beginning. Uh, what led you to start XOi? Um, what was the market gap and, and what did you see and, and that, that inspired you to do this?
[00:01:28] Aaron: You know, it goes way back and I promise not to wax too eloquent about my full youth, but growing up, being born and raised in Michigan, very blue collar upbringing, uh, very much on a, on my grandparents' farm. My dad's in manufacturing, and so I talk about that foundationally because it really built a lot of who I, who I am and who I think is important to serve well.
[00:01:50] And how I view blue collar jobs, which is with the utmost respect. Everyone I knew and loved growing up worked with their hands. And so I, I looked at that professional pride as a young age and went, oh, this is, this is good work. This backbreaking hands-on work is good work. And it's not that I didn't realize that accountants and lawyers and, and people existed, but I built a, a foundation early that those were respectable good jobs that you should be proud of.
[00:02:15] And so I kind of took that into life and realized a lot of my kind of generation as a, I guess I'm a geriatric millennial, Sid, that's what I'm right. That edge.
[00:02:24] Sid: That's right.
[00:02:25] Aaron: But, uh, we're, we're told the same thing. Uh, they were, they're really taught that, hey, you know, you're kind of a loser if you don't go to college.
[00:02:32] That's kind of a marker of somebody who's successful to get a degree. Um, and college is great and schooling's great and it's not for everyone. And it's turned into a really expensive thing that a lot of times doesn't result in, in, in, or doesn't, uh, occur great results, you know? And so as I got into my career, I worked in manufacturing construction, I realized that that kind of generational shift, uh, and kind of perspective was really impacting the industry in a meaningful way.
[00:03:01] Uh, and it wasn't good. I was working for a modular construction business, designing and selling clean rooms, and realized finding people to install these rooms, finding the right talent from a contractor subcontractor perspective is really hard. And it was like, man, this skilled trades gap that we're hearing about a real thing.
[00:03:20] Sid: For sure.
[00:03:20] Aaron: Right along that side, that that moment kind of Google Glass and all the wearables really coming to the surface. And I thought to myself, gosh, there's gotta be a way to connect what a guy's struggling with on a job site with an expert in a hands-free way. This will be great. And, um, young, dumb, and naive enough to go, "I can start a company, it'll be great."
[00:03:44] Which you have to have to be an entrepreneur. Uh, a little bit of naive kind of, uh, I can conquer the world mentality. And so that impetus of smart glasses, kind of seeing my own experience and realizing this was a cultural generational problem and seeing it in real life business, the impact that it had was the impetus to say, "So how do we connect expertise to a job site?" And although we haven't sold a pair of smart glasses in a long time, uh, that experience forced us to really look at a lot of job sites and spend a lot of time on job sites and realize, wow, this is, this is the product. This is what this industry sells. It's happening here, men and women on the job site, selling, installing, servicing.
[00:04:28] It was largely untapped. It was largely underserved, and we frankly treated blue collar people the same way we did culturally from a colleges is the only thing that makes you relevant and that the software industry was like, Hey, we're gonna solve the business problem, and the men and women that do these jobs on site, good luck.
[00:04:48] You know, uh, we're not gonna do a lot technologically for them, which is wild when you think about the product of the industry as efficient uptime, it's an asset running well. And so, um, you know, that was kind of the genesis of our, of our company and my story. Um, I believe these people deserve fantastic solutions.
[00:05:05] I think they're the most underserved group, uh, uh, of folks that need companies that think about them all the time. And it continues to drive us in the ethos of this business, uh, you know, over 10 years later.
[00:05:17] Sid: That's right.
[00:05:18] And I think to your point, that narrative around The only way to be successful is going to and doing a four year degree in a college, you, it was starting to like, hurt us now and, and hurt us.
[00:05:29] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:29] Sid: In a big way. did you always grow up thinking that you're gonna start a company or, or was it that pivotal moment when you were like, no, I see a problem. Can do this. I can start.
[00:05:42] Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. So my, my dad, uh, was an entrepreneur at, at a young age. I got to experience in manufacturing. I got to experience what that was like, and it was, um, it, a lot of it was terrifying to watch. I think it was actually really healthy because I remember explicitly and no exaggeration, my dad had an issue. He was working through a customer challenge. He didn't sleep. He worked for three days straight. This isn't like a, you know, old wives tale where it gets longer and like, I remember him coming home and my dad's a, you know, six foot four, you know, two 80 arms as thick as tree trunks kind of guy that I didn't see cry.
[00:06:26] And I just saw a man that was completely depleted right in tears. Like he just, he did, he was, he was taught me an important lesson about what entrepreneurship takes and also the implications of trying to be a superhero when you really need to find great people and put it around you. And so it almost in a cocky way when I think when I started the business, I was like, oh, I know what entrepreneurship takes.
[00:06:47] I saw it. And I would say I had a pretty good perspective. And that's one of many stories of what the sacrifice it takes. Yet still, man, I was an idiot. There was so much I learned over the last, since to continue to learn about how hard it is. It's, it's, it's, it's unbelievable levels of sacrifice, discipline, resilience, uh, no taking, no often, especially early, uh, to get there.
[00:07:12] But I think that sparked, to answer your question, was always interesting to me because I also, went from a place as a kid where we couldn't afford a fridge and we put our food outside in the winter in Michigan. Uh, that level of government subsidized homes, food stamps to watching entrepreneurship. My dad fight through this for a long time and get to a place where, I remember when I was 16, he bought a Corvette.
[00:07:37] He would say, today, that's a dumb purchase. Don't buy a dumb car like that. But I remember as a 16-year-old, I went, we used to put our food outside, we lived in government subsidized. Like entrepreneurship can give you this opportunity to, to establish yourself. And it was really inspiring, you know, and, and, and so I'd say that was the impetus of like, you can control your own destiny.
[00:07:57] It's, it's unbelievably hard. Um, but it's possible. And so I think that was the spark for me as an entrepreneur.
[00:08:04] Sid: Well, that's great. Thanks. Thanks for sharing that. Um, as you look back and you look at what XOi is today, uh, did you start with the same mission and North Star that you, that you have today and, and what was it then and you
[00:08:18] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:18] Sid: Has it evolved over time?
[00:08:21] Aaron: Yeah, our, our mission statement from day one was solving the skilled trades gap. That was, that was the, that was the impetus for glasses and live video support and job site. And although our, our mission continues to expand and evolve, um, just. This morning in an ELT meeting, we're talking all about the job site, the skilled trades gap, empowering technicians, what that sales persona looks like.
[00:08:46] In context of that, all the stakeholders are on the job site. And so if you kind of think of the two big value streams that XOi provides, it's it's operational and technician efficiency, which really drives the entire ecosystem on a job site, allows you to get more out. Every technician. Bring in technicians and get 'em up to speed and revenue producing faster.
[00:09:05] But it's also the sales side. It's the ability to be able to identify opportunities, capital planning, ESG, all these type of things. But it's all wrapped around the job site. And so even though that, that skilled trades continues to be a core part of it, it's, it's that focus on that very important part of the journey.
[00:09:25] Is impacting everything globally, from OEMs to distributors, to FSPs to asset owners. So when you start to think of in context of that, you go, oh, all these stakeholders really just care about the job site. How do we, the connective tissue here, that ultimately solves the skill trades gap, but also allows us to evolve the solutions for those various stakeholders as well.
[00:09:47] Sid: So your customer is the service provider, the contractor, uh, the business owner, right? Help us understand like, what does XOi actually help them do better. And then there's the
[00:09:59] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:09:59] Sid: owner operator, and then there's the, the techs in the field. Uh,
[00:10:03] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:03] Sid: what, what, what do they benefit from if they were to use XOi?
[00:10:08] Aaron: Yeah. So if you think about, you start with kind of, uh, facts, which today a technician on any given job site, and our focus is largely commercial. Uh, we'll use nine to 10 different applications while they're on a job site only. Why? Because they're getting pulled in all sorts of different directions. You have to do pre-test safety planning.
[00:10:27] If you wanna do field quoting, it's like this. You have to document the work in a specific way. This customer wants asset data, uh, and some sort of report in a special PDF. So when you think about all the different things pulling a technician, it's actually from the stakeholders I mentioned that OEM, that you need that installation or warranty origination information from, well, they've got 12 apps in the app store that you can use and the distributor to get that part.
[00:10:52] They've got half a dozen apps that you can interface with, plus your company has put. All the toys and bells and whistles on your path for you to get pulled in other directions and technicians didn't take the job they took to use technology. I always tell my product, engineering teams, if you can solve technician.
[00:11:10] Happiness and usage. It's one of the hardest personas on the planet because they didn't go, Hey, I took this job 'cause I love technology. They said, I wanna be the CEO of my own van world geography. I wanna do my thing. I wanna fix things. I want technology to let me not do the BS I don't want to do. And so when you ask about kind of where X Y's value is, it's consolidating that experience into a single pane of glass.
[00:11:36] To be able to have a consistent deliverable by connecting, oh, you're looking for installation procedure from an OEM that's been delivered in context of what you're doing in your job. You're not searching. We already know which asset you're on because we leverage OCR to take a picture of a data plate.
[00:11:54] Pre-test safety planning's in there. Field quoting. Quick reminder, we already have this information. Just gimme a quick video for the sales guy. Oh, you need support. We can connect you to an expert. We'll walk you through with AI and how to fix it. There's, there's so many opportunities to consolidate that, and in virtue of doing that for our field service providers, I.
[00:12:11] We're building structured data on their behalf to leverage all this cool stuff that you see out in the marketplace around artificial intelligence, because we've consolidated the data set, created a clean taxonomy, and now technicians have a better experience. They're more effective and efficient. More jobs per tech per month.
[00:12:30] Which leads to opportunities for the sales team to have higher fidelity data to be able to leverage that data to sell more to their customers, better performance contracting, et cetera. So when you think about XO i's impact, it really is about consolidating that job site experience, making that user experience really clean and simple, and then building structured data for an organization that impacts every asset of what they do.
[00:12:56] Um, by creating really clean interfaces and experiences for them.
[00:13:01] Sid: So it sounds like that's great. So it sounds like, you know, because they have XOi, they can deliver a better service, they can be,
[00:13:08] Aaron: yep. Yep.
[00:13:10] Sid: sounds like they'll be more competitive. Right? Because if they do a great job, they're gonna stand out from the crowd. Uh, and because they now are more efficient, they can grow their business.
[00:13:20] Aaron: Yeah. Yep.
[00:13:22] Sid: customer benefit from. You know,
[00:13:24] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:25] Sid: Do they recognize that a, there's a provider that uses XOi and
[00:13:31] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:13:31] Sid: and, and, you know, they care?
[00:13:34] Aaron: Yes, yes. It's a huge piece of our story, and so one of the more consistent things we saw in the early days kinda hearkening back to the start of the business, spending those tens of thousands of hours on job sites with techs is the end customer. It, it's inherently mysterious what any given trade does.
[00:13:52] They know they're paying something. They'd see a bill, they're gonna complain about, there's some sort of DNE they have, or they have to get approval from their boss who's in a different city. And so the transparency, what a technician is doing on a job site was an obvious challenge. And so when it comes to building trust with the customer, uh, justifying change orders, requests, et cetera, in ways that are easy to share, that are consistent, that have full history.
[00:14:19] If you think about the, the, the fact that you have a single human, a lot of times on a job site, on a roof, the customer's not with them. They're not on the roof with them, they're by themselves. So they have all these competing priorities for their attention. And then the customer is just getting a big bill with a set of notes that says, I came and fixed it.
[00:14:37] With XOi, with delivering visibility, delivering data and intelligence. Now the customer experience is here's what the job site looked like when I arrived. Here's what we thought the problem was. It actually was this. We solved it. Here's your unit working effectively, a clean work site. And here's some really interesting information about this asset you should consider.
[00:14:58] It's 13 years old. There's a new service bulletin on it. I'd recommend to get in front of replacing a condensing coil. In fact, here's a leaking condensing unit. Here is a leak detection system sounding like a bad EDM song. If you need to share this with your CFO to get justification, here you go. And so that's an example of changing that customer experience.
[00:15:20] And as a virtue of doing that on every job site, you're also building a much more structured data set around the asset, which then starts to get to what do my consumables purchasing look like? Am I getting the right FI filters and belts? Oh, should I think about capital planning next year? Do I actually have a good understanding of where I need to invest these dollars to stay up?
[00:15:40] And so across hospitals and data centers and retail, those are really important things. And so it all starts to build into, um, really providing FSPs the ability to serve in a way they've never been able to before. Sid, that's what's exciting too. You know, asset owners have been used to having to go to ESCOs consultants running these really expensive analysis when you know, great companies can leverage this information, work with great C-M-M-S-E-M-E-A-M providers and give that customer that experience.
[00:16:10] Sid: A great tech, you know, is worth their weight in gold, right? I mean, they, they can, you know, help make your business or break your business. And, they're, they're folks that are ultimately are the ones turning the wrench. They're climbing roofs, they're out there in the heat, you know, they're getting the job done.
[00:16:27] And in the midst of all that, you know. have to do all this stuff on their phones and follow protocol and, and click buttons, right? How do you get that persona to say, no, if I do this, I become a better tech?
[00:16:46] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:46] Sid: How do you get their buy in, and how do you, um, you know, make them your champion because I'm sure over the years, um, you've spent a lot of time with techs in the field across different trades.
[00:16:57] Aaron: Yeah,
[00:16:58] Sid: you know, there's different challenges to each type of trade and the work environment and what they're doing and what they, uh, the job site, like you said.
[00:17:06] Aaron: Yeah, it's interesting today's world too with ai. I think it's, we talked about underserved. I think right now in some, some use cases and ways technicians are being overserved. So meaning, hey, you should are talking to this thing all the time because it's your job to talk to it no matter what. And this is how you teach the, the AI to eventually take your job, which is how they translate what you're telling them to do.
[00:17:30] You know, and so and so we can talk about ai, but there's two, two really core lessons that we've learned around technician what's in it for me. Number one is continuous versus episodic use cases. It's shocking to me how often software providers, they are still delivering episodic use cases that in some cases require several decisions or stage gates to even get to using the technology, which is part of the reason we have these nine or 10 apps that a technician has to use. Those are ripe for non-use, bad adoption, tough change management. When I have to go, alright, well I've got, let's say a parts, you know, locator or I've got some sort of diagnostic tool if that is not connected to my everyday experience and, and that is leveraging, that is connecting with me as a whisper.
[00:18:16] Hey, I've got this availability, do you need support, et cetera. Which is how I think AI should be built as well. I just have to remember to go, what was that thing my company gave me where I look a thing up and I kind of like going to parts house because I get air conditioning. I get to talk about the game.
[00:18:31] I get free donuts and coffee, like there's a human psychology to that versus continuous use cases where I use this on every job because I don't like typing in 29 character from Merrick serial numbers. I don't like the he said, she said game. When I leave a site and a customer calls the office and says something wasn't done, which takes me to the next point, which is what's in it for the technician and how do they view something differently than a different stakeholder in their own business?
[00:18:58] So we talked about customer experience and validation, et cetera. When we go train a group of technicians, we go, raise your hand if you've ever had a situation where a customer called after you left. They were like, he left of dirty and he did and she did, and ba, ba, ba. And every hand goes up. They in vi a tech, there's no way to validate.
[00:19:16] They're by themselves in a mechanical room. They're by themselves in, you know, on a rooftop. And so the ability to go, Hey, this is a great customer experience, I. But also this is to cover your butt. You get to validate what's being done. Our customers have saved themselves from tens of millions of dollars of litigation because they simply put processes in place to document what they've done.
[00:19:39] Especially in the Northeast, as you might imagine, a little more litigious area of the country. People get named as part of lawsuits and building projects and they go, here's what I did here. I'm gonna validate this. Driving that consistency is really important and technicians care more about what their customers think than their boss tells them what the boss tells 'em to do.
[00:19:59] So if they've got a customer that's like, Hey man, thanks for doing that. That really helped me justify this change order or get approval on this, or really builds trust when you share this with me. That is much more encouraging to attack than their boss going, we got some new tech, use it. Why aren't you using it?
[00:20:13] Use the technology. Right? That's was like, okay, it's just noise. And so I would say it's kind of one and two A and a and B of of what we learned, uh, on kind of at a high level, continuous versus episodic. What's in it for the technician? It has, you have to keep them in mind first, and then knowing where their incentive base is and what they're motivated by. Which is customer feedback. Getting that professional pride, that's something I learned early on. A great hands-on blue collar person has a lot of professional pride. You know, I, and, and because I grew up that way, my wife teases me all the time. I'll be sitting in a coffee shop and I'm like, look at that electrical conduit. Look at how nicely that shape. She's like, you're a big dork. I'm like, that's craft, you know. That's, that's awesome. And because I know what that takes, I've tried to do it myself, and I've looked at it, I went, Ooh, Aaron, you need some help on the bend and bike. Right. Um, and so, so anyway, those are the kind of things, and so they, they love that it's motivating and they should, because when you do great work, it's, it's something you can stand back and be proud of.
[00:21:17] Sid: A hundred percent. So help, help us understand how XOi sits. You know, in comparison to an FSM tool, like a field service.
[00:21:26] Aaron: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:28] Sid: You know, a, a operating platform that a company chooses to run their business.
[00:21:33] Aaron: No we have a lot of partners we've integrated with from the F-S-M-E-R-P side. Um, you know, for us, again, it kind of focused very much on the job site and the stakeholders that care about what's happening there, which is every stakeholder and in our market. Um, you know, if you think about that kind of what are we selling, efficient uptime.
[00:21:51] OEMs wanna know what's going on because their product and reputation is on the line and they want to be first in position to get that replacement work. Distributors would love to know that as well because they want to be first in line for that attention to sell you parts, sell you parts experience.
[00:22:05] The FSP obviously wants to deliver best in class experiences and the asset owner very much cares about the job site. They don't so much care about, like, how did you get routing and dispatch here and what's your inventory look like? Are you here with the best possible tech that's ready to work on this equipment to keep me up?
[00:22:23] And so, and when you think about that, it's a big, big opportunity when it comes to the field service ecosystem, the technician journey. So we don't, we don't have interest in, in the FSM space, we highly respect. All those things are necessary, but we say, Hey, we can partner with you to provide best in class experiences and connect the ecosystem in meaningful ways that'll make you more efficient, more money, better margins, because we're connecting this 9, 10, 11, 12.
[00:22:52] One of my customers when they met us had 31 apps on their phone for a technician when they got hired. It's like, Hey, you're never gonna have consistent experience. Your technicians are pissed, and if you ever want to do anything with ai, you're not gonna have a good structured data set. 'cause it's, it's not democratized, it's everywhere.
[00:23:10] Right. It's a silo. So yeah, we very much focused there and partnered with those companies. Mm-hmm.
[00:23:16] Sid: So, so you also recently had a major investment from KKR, uh, and acquired specifics, uh, as part of that deal, um, what profess of all congratulations. Um, so what does that enable XOi to do now? Uh, that,
[00:23:30] Aaron: Yeah,
[00:23:30] Sid: Maybe wasn't possible before?
[00:23:33] Aaron: So when I think about that job site, in that very critical moment, there's three components. Technician, a human technician or salesperson, a frontline worker. There's an environment you're assessing. What's the application of that unit, what part of the country, what environmental parallels may exist, and how that performs.
[00:23:49] And then it's the asset itself. So you mentioned earlier like finding the best techs, et cetera. We don't know as an industry what 20 years means. I can't tell you how many customers have been like, I got a 20 year guy. I don't know what he did for 20 years, but he stinks. Then you meet a seven year person, they're like, whoever trained him is a master.
[00:24:08] I. Of this stuff because this guy, our gal, is amazing. And so when we talk about exposing those three things and really how that feeds the entire product, you know, uptime, efficient uptime kind of product that the industry sells, understanding each of those components and details, critical specifics has an awesome origin story in which came out of HVAC, came out of, you know, some of the, the REITs that exist out there and said.
[00:24:33] Gosh, there is specification data or said differently birth certificate data on equipment when it comes outta the factory. That's really important to understand. That's really hard to get access to because it's super complex configurations and if you have this type of power supply and the controls change like this, which also change the condensing unit, and so there's all these, a tangled web of information. They said, Hey, we're gonna go about making every piece of commercial HVAC furnaces now commercial kitchen, really accelerating the equipment types we can do, or we have the ability to say, with a simple make model serial number, we can surface 80 to 120 data points about that piece of equipment in a millisecond. And when you combine that with xo, Y's performance data, which is symptom issue resolution data. So what was the issue with the unit? We talked about workflows earlier. What was the real problem? How did we solve it? You start to get a really rich data set on the asset. You also get really interesting perspective on what a 10 year guy, a 20 year guy, a three year guy with what experience and what equipment history. Does when he's faced with problems on those types of units. And then of course, location data, weather data, iot sensors, environmental right, gives you that kind of full picture. And so it made a lot of sense with specifics to go, gosh, this is amazing birth certificate data that allows us to know age and refrigerant controls, all this relevant data.
[00:26:01] When combined with our performance data, you start to get a really interesting proprietary data set that unlocks all sorts of applications. So really excited to, to, to bring the specifics guy on board. Um, even more so the, the talent on that team. It was a small, smaller company. I mean, the technology and the data was huge, but those guys are just awesome and we're really, really happy to have him on the team. Yeah.
[00:26:25] Sid: That's great. So, so let's talk about assets, right? I mean, you know,
[00:26:29] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:26:29] Sid: and, and the data around it and the management of assets remain one of those really hairy problems in the space. Um, often ignored or under invested in and, and sometimes hard to show an ROI on. Um, what's your perspective on why that's been the case?
[00:26:45] Aaron: It starts with the technician. It starts with the fact that we have, and it starts with the fact that we have software where this, this is very disconnected and siloed across any given business to the point where we don't even have good asset data on any given job site to start with.
[00:27:02] So, as an example, one of our, one of our largest customers when they came to us years ago. Um, they do a few billion dollars in service business across North America. They had 8% asset registration, meaning 8% of the units they worked on to create that billions of dollars of revenue every year. They had quality, make, model, serial number of information.
[00:27:25] It's just pretty wild when you think about the product is uptime. We should know what make model serial number. We have. Why? I wanna say it starts with the technician,
[00:27:33] Sid: right?
[00:27:34] Aaron: RT one. Yeah. Right. And what does that mean? Um, and so and so, the ability for us to say, Hey, we're gonna get, we're gonna map your asset universe.
[00:27:45] So we understand that registration now is in a high nineties and you're always gonna have that, oh, I replace something, et cetera, but much different landscape. So you map your asset universe, you add in spec specification data. Now I know full age refrigeration reclamation with all the A two L changes that have come down the pike.
[00:28:03] I have full understanding of that. I know power supply, which also is really interesting because if I take kilowatt per hour in any given geography, I start to get, and I take that with runtime, I start to get a sense of energy modeling, you know? And so it's like, what does that look like? So all of this is foundational, but I gotta start by getting the assets.
[00:28:21] And then I gotta analyze those assets, and then I gotta have a tool which allows me to make actionable decisions around those assets. And so why didn't we have that as an industry? And why is that such a challenge? Because you're asking a guy or gal on the sixth job of the day to type in a 29 character alphanumeric serial number correctly, into a field service management solution.
[00:28:42] Sid: That's right.
[00:28:43] Aaron: And we talked about underserved. I didn't do it. I typed it in wrong, et cetera. This is a huge company with a lot of really smart people in it, but it comes down to a single breaking point, which is I'm expecting a human to type this in on a job site, and it just doesn't happen. I. 92% of the time, you know, and so we gave them a great OCR tool, which now runs on device, is super accurate, which built a foundation to do all the rest of those higher order applications.
[00:29:11] And so that's the first problem we have to solve as an industry. Make sure the assets are correct. Accurate, updated, and give technicians, salespeople, facilities, managers, tools that make that so simple and easy and build confidence and trust that they can go do the rest of that with their business.
[00:29:30] Sid: I mean, there's been huge advanced advancements in, in tech for sure. Uh,
[00:29:34] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:29:35] Sid: Friction. You know, what you're doing at, at XOi is one of those, um, ways in in which, you know, able to support your end user to go and get the information that their customers are looking for. Um, removing the friction is a big part of, of, of the success here, I think in the advancements in tech.
[00:29:56] But what do you think about. Customer's, customer, right? Your customer's customer is the multi-site retailer or business that, um, the technicians on site and, and trying to, you know, fix something for, have their expectations changed over the past few years? Um, you know, tell me about that.
[00:30:15] Aaron: Yeah, no question. So if, if that large field service provider I mentioned only had 8% asset registration, you imagine that customer, uh, those customers largely didn't have it either. And you would say, well, of course they do. They must, they have, you know, these platforms, et cetera. But they're faced the same challenges.
[00:30:36] They changed contractors six times over the last five years. They've changed software that's managing their business. They went outsource and they went insource, right? And so that data, that breakage over time creates the same problem for the end customer in which they don't have that information. And so today, in a world at which ESG electrification green initiatives.
[00:30:58] Uh, in, in cases where the market's looking more volatile and they're trying to tighten and make their best decisions about replacements, the best decisions about the effectiveness of their FSPs, because they're thinking about costs. Again, that's kind of the core. And so I need to know what the asset is.
[00:31:14] I need to know how it performs at a really confident level, and I need to know that I have a contractor that's doing effective work and keeping me up to speed on these decisions I have to make on a quarterly. Basis on a yearly basis, uh, for my business. HVC is where we started because it's 40 to 50% of every commercial building's energy spent in capital expenditure, right?
[00:31:37] That, and lights make up a huge percentage unless you're in industrial and there's more complex machinery, et cetera. Commercial kitchen's not far behind that, depending on what you have there, right? In terms of refrigeration, racking, et cetera. And there's just very little information about what that looks like globally and what they should expect in terms of service replacements, uh, meeting standards, energy, et cetera.
[00:32:01] So very similar problems, and that's how it serves it.
[00:32:04] Sid: For sure. I mean, it's a fascinating time because if you look at employees, people that are walking into these built environments, I think overall our expectations have significantly gone up, right? We expect to be comfortable. We expect that the spaces we walk into are warm and welcoming. Are kept up to the standards of the brand or, um, the company or the organization that we are either walking into or are, are,
[00:32:34] Aaron: mm-hmm.
[00:32:34] Sid: in there to, um, to shop or, or have a great meal, whatever that may be. And so the businesses have to really adapt to, to increase the level of service that they're able to offer their consumers and expectations of their own teams. Managing those, those spaces, um, has gone up and, of course, who do they rely on to actually turn the wrench? It's the tech in the field. It's the, it's the owner operator of the business, the, the service provider partner that they've engaged with. So this
[00:33:07] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:33:08] Sid: effect of, of just higher expectations is phenomenal. And the only way that I think, you know, this works is leveraging technology, uh, and keeping up with the pace. You can't do things the way you did it five years ago. You can't do things
[00:33:25] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:33:25] Sid: you did it one year ago, right? I mean, if
[00:33:27] Aaron: Yep.
[00:33:27] Sid: If you're not it, somebody else is, um, and is able to offer a better service, is able to get there faster. Is able to offer, um, a better experience all while keeping their costs more, you know, more competitive, not cheap.
[00:33:42] Aaron: That's right.
[00:33:43] Sid: Doing it the right way. Um, and, and offering value, which ultimately means that, you know, the built environment represents the brand in the best possible way.
[00:33:55] Aaron: That's right.
[00:33:55] Sid: And employees are happy, right? And that, that is a very, very beautiful thing to watch, uh, because the tech companies are realizing that they have to do a lot more to deliver on their promise. And so they're pushing themselves
[00:34:08] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:09] Sid: to actually do more, create more value. Um, and I think the tech today's, you know, is supporting that which is, which is fantastic.
[00:34:18] Aaron: Yeah, I think one of the biggest trends we've seen with, with end customers, with asset owners is I need this building to be at 69 degrees and 22% humidity, or 20 to 30 per whatever the case may be. You do whatever you want to the equipment to ensure that that's the case. It's your responsibility otherwise said, you know, in some ways that's been expressed over the years as full performance contracts.
[00:34:45] The thing about contractor, if you said, well, kind of sticking with the asset owner, if you think about it, like they, they've gone along with this quarterly maintenance thing and tasking and it's really the same business model that's been in place for 40 years. We're gonna come out once a quarter. We're gonna do it as cheap as possible so that we can earn that break fix business because that's where all the margin is for an FSP 'cause that's where they make all their money, when really what an asset owner wants is they just want uptime and consistency.
[00:35:11] You do what you need to do. Quarterly, weekly, yearly, you manage it. The, the implications of that have been tough for the FSP because they don't have good enough data to have confidence that they're quoting something that makes sense. So if you talk to an FSP that's done this at any level, they lose their butt one year. They make a ton of profit the next year 'cause nothing and Right. And so it's like these really lumpy business models, it creates attrition and churn within those in the context of that. And so. I think that the desire for customers to say, I want someone who's leveraging the technology and the insights to be predictive, proactive.
[00:35:47] And I am paying for an experience set in a certain way. Whether that experiences a restaurant that's maintains this, whether it's a data center, which is really critical environment. Um. Hospital where lives are on the line. Uh, it's much different than, you know, hey, we'll do a quarterly maintenance and you call us if there's a problem, hopefully we're available, you know, type of thing.
[00:36:09] So it's really disrupting the business model and the people that are leaning into it are winning.
[00:36:12] Sid: Yeah, for sure.
[00:36:13] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:36:14] Sid: Let's talk about ai, right? It's, it's everywhere. It's here. Huge advancements. You know, AI's been around for a long, long time. I mean, if you
[00:36:22] Aaron: Right.
[00:36:22] Sid: Atari, like, you know, you were playing against a computer that that was ai, right? It's more ubiquitous now. It's more easily accessible now, there's huge advancements in technology. Companies are barely scratching the surface. And unfortunately you see companies that just kind of throw the ai, two letters in, in their brand, in their marketing.
[00:36:41] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:36:41] Sid: know, AI is a tool to solve real problems, to
[00:36:44] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:44] Sid: needs.
[00:36:45] Aaron: Right.
[00:36:46] Sid: and you know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on, you know, what you are seeing out there, um, in terms of the impact of AI on the space, and would love to hear your thoughts on how you're thinking about ai. Um, at XOi.
[00:37:00] Aaron: Yeah, for sure. Well, first of all, since you mentioned Atari. I've dusted off the Nintendo Classic recently, Sid and I just, I just won the Super Bowl in Tech Mo with the Los Angeles Raiders. My seven and 4-year-old sons were pretty excited to watch that. And I beat the ai, I beat one of the original ais in your context.
[00:37:18] Little Tech Mo Bowl, call out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't put me on any modern system. I'm not a gamer. But that was fun to relive that. If you think about AI as a child, a growing a growing preteen, an adult, wherever it is in the chain, it has to be taught, uh, just like a human would be taught.
[00:37:36] And that starts with, um, taking tribal in our industry, in blue collar industries, taking tribal tacit knowledge that largely hasn't been centralized in any one place. In fact, it's, it's in multiple different stakeholder software. It's. Um, disconnected and, and in the most meaningful way you could imagine.
[00:37:56] Um, and being able to teach artificial intelligence to understand that nuance and have that perspective, especially when you're dealing with mission critical, really expensive equipment, diagnostics, et cetera. So I'm, I'm talking about kind of the, the market experience first. And so we've taken a really pragmatic approach to say, how are we delivering solutions in AI that are, that are trust building? Number one, we talk about trust always that are taking work off a technician or frontline workers' plate that they don't want to do anyway. The first thing my team released, you know, a year and a half ago, almost two years ago, was AI summaries. The technicians are doing workflows in XOi throughout the field.
[00:38:32] They're accomplishing that single pane of glass. AI is writing. Phenomenal notes for them that are spelling and grammar correct and bulleted it, et cetera. These things we've all seen with chat GPT, it's phenomenally obvious that that saves 15 minutes on a job site. And there's like 1% of technicians that really love it.
[00:38:52] There's those guys out there that are verbose and they'll write you a novel. Every time, but customers demand some level of visibility of what they just paid for. They're not gonna pay the invoice. $12,000 invoice for, I came and fixed it. And anyone who's worked in this industry has seen those. No, I came and you're like, buddy, I came and fixed it.
[00:39:08] What? Like, what did you do? You know, video the notes, et cetera. And so, so it's been fantastic to see that because it's built a lot of trust. It's a heavily used thing. It takes crap off their plate. Um, the next thing we released was modern Service sticker, which, you know, anyone that's been in the trades for a long time, guys would put, uh, post-it notes or put a piece of, um, you know, tape across the inside of electrical box and say, Bob was here and this is what I did to the unit as like a service sticker.
[00:39:35] Uh, we've evaluated all these workflows and we're telling technicians, Hey, this serial number, this is the, this is the really quick history on what's happened here last October, a place of condenser, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because what is that today? I gotta call Bob Bob's on another job. Bob's on vacation.
[00:39:50] What did he do to this unit? I don't have, all I have is I came in and fixed it as notes. I. Here are the issue IDs for these things. Here's what this looks like across your entire business, across North America. And so again, it's stuff that's busy work they don't enjoy. That's really simplifying, creating more efficient experiences.
[00:40:09] So, so in terms of ai, it's, it's the biggest technological shift of our lifetimes. There's no question it's moving even faster than the internet mobile, the things that we've seen. Um, and I think it will fundamentally change how we do everything. And, if we over index or overserve, like we said earlier, to a point where we're telling the average age of a tech is 44 years old, still in this country, it's come down, but it's 44.
[00:40:36] Uh, a 44-year-old is, I'm 42, so I'm right there. But you know, yeah, we know technology, we kind of grew up with this type of thing. And um, if you give me something that hallucinates I can't trust, I'm never gonna use it again. You will fulfill my negative fantasy about the government watching me or whatever.
[00:40:55] And you go see, you know, and, and so the idea that we would overserve or just do it 'cause it's possible, I think is a big mistake. And so it should really be a whisper in context of frontline workers natural work. Hey, have you considered this? I'm here to help if you need me. It should be a natural interaction.
[00:41:14] Um, I think the other thing that's really shifted for us is the internal use of it. Um, I'll, I'll, one of my, one of our best engineers, um, he said something really interesting. He said, you know, uh, philanthropic said like six months ago, we won't need senior software engineers by summer 2026. And this guy's brilliant. And also a pessimist. A lot of engineers are, he is like, yeah, okay. Sure, sure thing. He goes Three months ago. Six months ago. I was dismissive. Three months ago. I was like, huh, it's moving pretty quick today. And this was last week. He goes, it could be possible. And this is a guy that like, now he goes a hundred percent no, 80 probably.
[00:41:56] I mean, that fundamentally changes everything in terms of innovation, what you can build, how fast you can build it. And so I, it was, you know, coming from him that, it meant a lot to me. 'cause I know he views the world through that rural lens of like, Hmm, let's see. So I think it, it's fundamentally shifting how we think about innovation, how fast we're moving, the implications of POCs, vetting of the customer, being able to go, oh, that's not working.
[00:42:18] Let's make it again. It's dramatic, Syd, like it's, it's unbelievably dramatic. You're gonna see software business as a business as a whole that are building massive companies at much smaller company sizes. And I think that's the thing that, that's the thing that's been most impactful to me is the internal efficiencies.
[00:42:37] And it's across every part of the business, marketing, sales, et cetera. But it's that same balance. You could be so bleeding edge that you push it too far, it's not ready. And everyone kind of goes, ah, it's not gonna work. It's whatever. But if you're sitting on a rocking chair, like an old man going, eh, you know, this is the, you're gonna, you're gonna get smoked.
[00:42:58] Smoked. So, so there's a balance. Yeah. Yeah. No question. It's disrupting everything. So I think it's a balance approach.
[00:43:07] Sid: Yeah, for sure. It's one of the most exciting things right now, um, I think in our lifetimes, right? If you think about the monumental shift in terms of how we think about our everyday lives, you know, how we just use, you know, track GPT for things that we do every day. You know, not
[00:43:23] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:43:23] Sid: but but in your own personal lives, like access to information. I think it has, um, democratized access to, to ai, which I think is huge. And the ones that are kind of putting their head in the sand and thinking, you know, it's just a fad, I think are gonna be really surprised in, well in a week, if not, if not sooner.
[00:43:42] Right.
[00:43:43] Aaron: That's how fast this seems to be happening, right? Yeah. Yep.
[00:43:48] Sid: let's talk about just broadly, any, any macro trends that.
[00:43:52] Aaron: Hmm.
[00:43:52] Sid: looking at beyond, and of course, you know, not, not including ai, we just talked about that, that, you know, you have your eyes on and, and you think will change the way facilities is done or the trades are done.
[00:44:05] Um, anything else that's exciting? Uh, and and you have your eye on
[00:44:11] Aaron: We hit a lot of the regulatory things that are happening, you know, in the market, which I think are forcing a lot of companies to look differently at their assets, how they perform, who they're using to service their assets, um, what the effectiveness and efficiency of those service iterations look like.
[00:44:26] Um, so I think that's a big one. I think the, the, you know, alongside of that, you are seeing a consolidation, uh, happening like, you know, other time in history in terms of private equity's interest in this and the consolidation of field service providers. And I think it's coming at an interesting time where technology is really reaching an apex of it actually being the difference maker.
[00:44:47] 'Cause if you talk to some old heads, they go, ah, every 10, 15 years PE consolidates and it falls apart and it never works. And all the things. I think tech is a big reason why it could work. And also you have this generational mindset, right? Uh. Gerald and Sons, Gerald and Sons thing isn't happening as often because kids and a newer generation are going, eh, plumbing, which is wild 'cause it's a great business.
[00:45:10] You can go be really successful and they go, eh, I want to go do another, a different thing. And so you don't have those people coming. You know, those family businesses lasting as long. I think some of that happens, but we're also seeing what happens when pure financial buyers buy companies and they blow up.
[00:45:24] Now, just a few weeks ago there was a bankruptcy. I think there'll be more. And so I think you, when it comes down to it, efficient uptime and customer service, like we talked, that's still gonna be the, the product. That's the product everyone's interested in, and those that own the simple, meaningful solutions around that.
[00:45:40] We'll get there. Will we have on demand service technicians, et cetera, with ai? I think that's an interesting thing for the future, you know, is there a gig economy around this? If AI gets to a perspective where you and I become commercial, HVAC technicians, uh, overnight, because we can just have a really strong conversation with AI to walk us through it?
[00:46:02] Well, I wouldn't, he's sayin lefty loosey's good enough, you know, um, that's interesting. What, how does that shift the dynamic? Does reputation still matter, et cetera? Um, so that's, that's one thing that, that we're looking at. I also think that, uh, wearables, you know, we, we made the joke. I mean, we stopped selling smart glasses a long time ago.
[00:46:20] It wasn't ready. And I'm glad we did. We wouldn't be having this conversation if we were still in the hardware game. But the open AI, Johnny Ives acquisition of his company, I mean, it's fascinating, you know, um, that's, I think that's gonna come back, uh, fast because it just makes sense. Um, you want people to be safe on job sites.
[00:46:40] Hands-free point of view matters. Um, you know, and there's a lot of ways to deliver that nowadays. So I think those are really interesting trends as we think about where wearables take us, uh, robotics, et cetera. Um, my bold prediction, I tell my family around a campfire when I talk. I said, by the end of our lives, um, we will have ubiquitous robots in our homes to do stuff for us, I think, no question, right?
[00:47:06] Why wouldn't you? And I mean. I like mow in the yard, but I'm not a big fan of folding laundry and doing dishes. I don't think many people are. Right? Why wouldn't I have a thousand dollar robot who could do all that for me? You know, senior health, like you think about so many ways that change. So I do think that there is some massive shifts and I think it changes dramatically.
[00:47:27] I have kids, I know you do as well. Like what do you tell 'em to do? Like data science, ai, robotics, like clearly those things are gonna disrupt every industry. Um, so.
[00:47:36] Sid: funny, like you talk about kids. When my kids were on their iPads, not that long ago. My kids are young, but you know, I was like, don't be on your iPad that long. But then if you think about it, that's the future. I mean, you know, if they're comfortable with computers and, and technology and the, in an iPad and my God, like what they do on an iPad, it's unbelievable.
[00:47:56] Like. Things that I, I'm like, wait, how'd you do this again?
[00:47:59] Aaron: Yep. Yep.
[00:48:00] Sid: That, you know, is just how you have to grow up these days.
[00:48:06] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:48:08] Sid: Jetsons might not be that far off, you know? Uh,
[00:48:11] Aaron: Yeah,
[00:48:11] Sid: Was the robot's name? Was it Rosie? I, I don't
[00:48:14] Aaron: yeah. I think so. I think so. Yeah. Good call back. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's that far off. I don't think it's that far off. Yeah. Yeah. Which is wild to think about.
[00:48:23] Sid: Yeah. So, you know, as we wrap up, uh, Aaron, as you look at the future and as
[00:48:28] Aaron: I,
[00:48:28] Sid: at, you know, where XOi is headed,
[00:48:31] Aaron: Mm-hmm.
[00:48:31] Sid: Can you share a little bit about what can we expect from XOi in
[00:48:35] Aaron: Yeah.
[00:48:35] Sid: the next 12 to 18 months? What do we have to look forward to?
[00:48:38] Aaron: Yeah, massive, massive releases around innovation, um, that are moving faster than they ever have. Much of the world for frontline workers and office workers will be conversational almost exclusively because it's a natural pattern of how you seek for information. Um, and so I think that that unlocks all sorts of different, uh, pretty amazing user experiences.
[00:49:02] Our vision, our big vision is to be ubiquitous on every mechanical, electrical, plumbing, job site on the globe, whether that's in the foreground or the background. And so if you think about the Kelley Blue Book, a Carfax of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, it's the source of information that's trusted data rich and can be leveraged in any context, whether we're the app they're using or we're empowering the app that they're using.
[00:49:25] you know, we wanna earn the opportunity to, to, to do that because we think we have a really. Awesome opportunity to, to really solve skilled trades customer experience, all the things we talked about in a meaningful way. So I would expect in the next couple of quarters some massive announcements from us in terms of new product launches and things that we're doing that, that really accelerate that, um, different in ahead of everything else that's in the market right now.
[00:49:51] So
[00:49:51] Sid: You go. Well, congratulations on the impact you're making and, um, I wish you the very best.
[00:49:57] Aaron: Thank you Sid, for the opportunity to chat. Really enjoyed it.
[00:50:00] Sid: No, of course. For folks in our audience who want to learn more about XOi or, or, or connect with you, where can they find you?
[00:50:06] Aaron: XO i.io is a great place to start. Uh, LinkedIn, which is the only social media that I have, so you can find me there too.
[00:50:14] Sid: There you go. There you go. Well, with that, Aaron, thanks so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed our conversation and for all those in our audience, thank you so much for joining us,
[00:50:23] I.
[00:50:23] I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
[00:50:27] well, that was Aaron Salow, CEO, and founder of XOI Technologies. Aaron and I talked about the impact of the skilled trades on the world we live in. The skilled trades have often been underappreciated and underserved, but not anymore. Today, this talent is a depleting resource, and folks are paying attention.
[00:50:50] And while there's a lot to be done to fix the scale trades gap technology can help us maximize and leverage this amazing talent when done right and without adding more friction. Technology can be a huge competitive advantage to service providers and techs, and can help them deliver great services and experiences while becoming highly efficient.
[00:51:13] And with the rapid advancements in ai, it'll be very interesting to watch how our industry evolves, but evolve. It will. There's no question about it. All we have to do is embrace it. Well, with that, I'm your host s Shetty, and I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
Aaron Salow, founder and CEO of XOi Technologies, was born and raised in Michigan in a working-class, blue-collar environment. Much of his early life was spent on his grandparents’ farm, and his father worked in manufacturing. This upbringing deeply influenced Salow’s appreciation for skilled labor, instilling in him a lasting respect for hands-on work and the people who do it. Surrounded by family and community members who worked with their hands, he came to view trades professions as honorable and essential, forming the foundation for his future entrepreneurial vision.
Salow has often spoken about how societal pressures to pursue four-year degrees undervalue blue-collar careers. As a self-described “geriatric millennial,” he witnessed a generational shift that steered young people away from the trades and into expensive higher education pathways that didn’t always lead to meaningful careers. His experience working in manufacturing and modular construction further exposed him to the growing labor shortages in the skilled trades. This “skilled trades gap” became a tangible challenge as he struggled to find qualified contractors to install cleanrooms and complete job-site work.
That experience, combined with the emergence of wearable technology like Google Glass, sparked the idea that would evolve into XOi Technologies: using technology to connect frontline workers with expert knowledge in real time. Salow saw an opportunity to bring modern digital tools to an industry that had been largely overlooked by the software world, advocating for frontline workers as the key to operational efficiency. His mission was—and remains—to elevate the trades through purpose-built technology, improving how skilled labor is supported, trained, and empowered on the job site.