Empire State Entrepreneurs: Season 2 Best Of

 Welcome back to Empire State Entrepreneurs. I'm Dave Pfalzgraf, proud host of this podcast and the managing partner at Rupp Pfalzgraf, a full service law firm headquartered in Buffalo, New York with offices throughout the state. As we head toward the close of season two, we wanted to take a step back for a minute and revisit some of the great moments that really stood out from our last nine conversations.

Today's unique episode brings together a collection of highlights, along with a few clips that none of you have heard before, where our guest shared honest insights about building, protecting, and growing businesses here in New York. These are the takeaways that stuck with us, lessons learned, challenges faced, and perspectives that are worth hearing.

Once again, whether you've been with us all season or you're just joining us for the first time, please enjoy our look back at some of the best moments of season two. Thanks.

Yeah, no, I, I think, I almost think it's inevitable that there will be, uh, uh, software with AI components vented to that legal space. You know, the judges, the, uh, the, the law clerks and the people writing the decisions. I think, you know, you, again, lobbying a very. Conservative profession to begin with. Slow to change, slow to embrace new technology.

A lot of the judges on the bench tend to be older, and they again, add another layer of, uh, sort of, uh, uh, opposition to embracing new technologies. But I think so much of it can be done now where you could say, for example, take a brief that's written by, uh, one side or the other, run it through an AI engine, and search all of the authorities to see if they're properly cited in their good law.

That we have that ability right now. So that sort of a brief scrubber that would save clerks the need to go look up every case and, you know, does, is it good law? Has it been reversed overturned? Is the statute, is it quoted properly? Is the quote accurate? And just put a brief up into that and, and use a bunch of crawlers to go over it and pull out what's starts off wrong about it.

That can save a lot of time and I'm sure that that technology, it's already here. Whether it's being vented into different court systems like. The New York court system or not, I don't know, but I would have to assume there's entrepreneurs who are hawking that and saying, look, this will save you time. And, and money on, on law clerks who, who are doing that right now, manually won't have to do it In terms of, uh, decision writing too.

I mean, I, I think it's inevitable. I, you know, AI can sometimes come up with legal arguments that you didn't think about and you say, oh. I didn't think about that one. Then you take it, you know, then you go manual again and you, you vet it and you make sure that that's good law. But, you know, decisions you run a brief through and say, Hey, is this right?

Is this, is this attorney making the proper argument? Is it, is it wrong? Why is it wrong? Again, if, if the judge isn't relying at it, you, you don't just hit a button and say, right. The decision. And that's, that's, um, uh. Something that people get confused about AI all the time. You don't just sit it down and say, write me a 50 page appellate brief.

Oh, I, I don't like the output. No, you, you do things in small building blocks, but you say, okay, look at this argument. Is this argument correct under the law? Look at this. Look at this statement of fact. Is that correct? Based on what this transcript says or something. And so anything that can be done like that, that's sort of a rote process where you're going through and double checking, any of that can be vaulted into a, a new.

AI space where it can be done on an automated basis very, very well. But the gift from, from streaming and, and analog has been our customer base. Our customer base is getting older, um, and the people that, uh, grew up. With two channel audio being their main entertainment. Um, yeah, maybe you had a TV and you had a, a stereo.

Now the, you know, uh, those people still exist and, and are great customer base, but really the next generation of customers are the younger people. They've got all kinds of distractions, computers and internet and phones and, um, you know, streaming and records are the blessing. They're bringing the next generation towards high-end audio because, um, uh, what's old is new, you know, records are appealing.

They sound different. Um, it's something you engage with. It's not just something that's randomly playing in the background. The artwork is bigger. So records have been a great connection to the next generation. So cool, uh, of, uh, of customers that, uh, you know, they're, they're really appreciating the sound quality, the difference, and, and actually even just the tactile experience being totally different than what they grew up with.

And, um, streaming. Kind of interestingly is, uh, we're benefiting from that as well because, um, uh, the, the convenience of streaming is immensely popular. You can instantly have access to every musician and every artist all over the world, uh, coming down through the internet. So we've got clients that we've had for decades that are embracing streaming, but younger people are embracing streaming and it really gives, uh, anybody's system.

If you're gonna invest in a system, why not let the whole family enjoy it? Beautiful thing about streaming is, uh, anybody can walk through the door and you can just hand them an iPad and say, look up your favorite artist, and they can listen to it. They don't have to love what you love. Decades ago, you'd walk into someone's house.

They had a system to listen to if they didn't like. Your record collection may not be in a eventful evening. That's the beautiful thing about streaming is anybody that walks through your door for a house party for an event, or you know your childrens, or cousins or nephews or nieces, or even children when they walk through the door, you can hand 'em an iPad and they can get to what they enjoy and experience it on a great system.

Filmmaking is very much like starting a business. I'm getting a crew together. I'm, I'm pumping dollars and I'm employing people. I am bringing us together. I'm building something that's greater than myself. It's, it's a, it's a thriving self-sustaining film community here in Buffalo that involves bringing big productions here, but also involves having, um, you know, indigenous projects here and, and to, you know, cultivate and have a working model that.

Goes against, you know, the winter in Buffalo, you still gotta sell Buffalo, you still gotta do all these other things that are part of, 'cause we're competing with Florida and other markets. It's, you know, you've gotta be aware of that. And I think that just takes time and it takes age of realizing what other forces are at place.

So you're not just wondering, well why is this happening to me? Or why is the world like this? Or whether it's, you know, just start to recognize, you know, how you're moving. And I, again, I think if you come at it from a place of joy and and wanting to inspire and wanting to elevate people, you know you're going to gain that knowledge.

We actually still have the same creative brief that Joe Crowley and John Webb rolled out almost 40 years ago now. I love that. And we still use it because the brief is our. Guiding light for everything that we do, and so it has to be sound in order for us to do something that's gonna be effective and move the needle and hopefully produce the award-winning work that we've grown accustomed to.

A lot of our Silicon Valley clients raise money and hire. They hire Americans. Makes sense. I mean, I can think of Love's company. Uh, you know, he grew it to, I don't know, a couple hundred before it was acquired by Cisco. And then that division, which he ran for a number of years, went to like 2,500 employees.

Right. Amazing. All because of his chip that he created. Right. Uh, another company that was in the solar. Technology space. Right. Rita and I actually met these two founders at a cafe across from Stanford campus before they even formed the company. And we worked with them and we still do, and they grew their firm to 650 people.

And the technology that they developed was used in a lot of residential solar installations. Through satellite imaging that allows them to, to, to position it better. Right. There's pretty cool, I, I mean there's Renee's company, Alice Technologies, which, uh, was and still is fairly unique in the construction management business.

He created. Uh, back then it was called machine learning. Now it's AI that allows for contractors to basically become much more efficient in the production of a building, right? Using AI to balance time, delays, supplies, logistics, all on on one, one platform. Our obligation to your question is to make sure that every community has access.

We do arts and education programs all the time. Uh, I've watched these kids, they come into the space, they're reticent, they're, they're insular, they're stuck on their smartphones within two days. They're on stage. No more smartphone. It's, it's not that you told 'em they couldn't have them, they just don't need 'em anymore.

They're on the stage. Uh, they're being instructed as to how to carry yourself on stage. Uh, the power of articulation, of diction of, of. Being part of a cast, being part of a, a production. Those kids, it was a, it's a two year pro two week program that we do every year. We do about four or five of them throughout the summer because the demand is so high.

Dave, I'm telling you, those kids are transformed forever. So I wrote this phrase down in prep for this, but I wrote, passion does not equate to a profession. Um, and I'll talk briefly about what that is, but, um, you know, there's a passion fallacy where it's like, you know, go, go. You know, you love whatever, whatever it is, is an example.

Something may be super niche and you're super passionate about it. So based on all these, even Steve Jobs, the late great Steve Jobs, 2004, Stanford, Harvard speech or whatever, Stanford speech, excuse me, commencement. He talks about your passion. And so Kale Newport, an author, Dr. Kale Newport, he just deconstructed this entire thing and he used real life examples a.

Book called, um, be So Good They Can't Ignore You. Plug that one for Dr. Kale Newport. Not that he needs the plug, but he talks in that book about why Steve Jobs's advice was so bad using real life examples for people who, you know, this one woman was working as an accountant and she kept seeing and hearing these videos and.

Motivational stuff and, um, was fine in her job, but like really loved baking cakes. So didn't build a business plan, didn't have an LLC, didn't have a, you know, business banking. None of this stuff Said, you know what, I'm done. I'm putting my two weeks in. This is a real story. He said, I'm putting my two weeks in.

I'm so passionate. I'm so good at baking. People love my baking. I'm gonna quit my 200,000 $150,000 job and I'm gonna go bake cakes. And so whoever this woman is, I hope you're not listening. I'm not trying to make fun of you. Because I did the same thing with, with my own business in, in some ways I had some substance, but at the same time it wasn't fully baked back in 20 20, 20 19.

And so it was based on passion. So here's what I would say to those that are listening and, and potentially watching fine. And this is something that's been given by a lot of great people, including our, my buddy Nick o Nick, um, 'cause Inky over at du. If you know Nick at all, doing great things at DU there in the tower.

Um. You know, and others. Naval Ravi Khan, a well known thought leader, modern day philosopher, he said, they said, you know, endeavor to find the intersection of three things. What you love, passionate about, you're interested in, you have competence and expertise in, and you can make money. So in summary is passion, competence and compensation.

Find the intersection of that, which is a, sometimes a lifelong journey. You think about it like we can have like Pfalzgraf and Rupp on a stick. You can have your. You’re gonna be a domain expert for organization. They put their question in. You can have that, you can potentially monetize that connection and have your own saltan, I guess you call 'em.

Could be, uh, Dave Pfalzgraf. He'll say, you know, this is the, this is what we recommend. Um. That's potentially up and coming, uh, as we see how fast everything's moving, um, from any, any domain. Yeah, I think, I think the larger macro environment allows us to attract companies that we normally wouldn't have because they're not able to raise money other places.

I, that's exciting. Yeah. So we'll, we'll see that that is still trending true as of now. Well, a lot of, lot of, uh, great things to look forward to. I know it's, uh, a busy time for you. So I, I appreciate you, uh, carving out some of that valuable time to be with me here today. Thanks again. Thank you.