From Cables to Cloud: Floyd Auten’s Top Tech Journey of Innovation

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You want tech and tacos, Tacos and tech, you know we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keeper Countins counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy wrapping fire tortillas, round jalapenos in these modern times of craft beer and coffee coating yoga posse fold the body origami, we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean Watch the sunset La Jolla shores. Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach. Tech leaders who believe stars are within Interviewing founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

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You want tech second tacos, tacos intact, you know we got it. Hey.

And welcome back to the Tacos and Tech podcast. I'm your host, Neal Bloom, and I am thrilled to have on Floyd Odden from TechNet, the COO and co founder. Hey, Floyd, thanks for joining us.

Hey, Neil, Great to be here. Appreciate the opportunity.

Yeah, likewise. I'm looking forward to getting to know you a bit over this. We're both fellow north county tech workers, co founders of companies, and I'm excited to kind of hear your backstory, what you're working on, what gets you going in the day. Give us a little. A little background on your end. How'd you get started in the tech world? What was your entrant into it?

Yeah, so my entry goes back a little bit away. Actually. Got starts with my grandfather. He's 99 this year. I think in July we'll turn 99 years old and one of the last few World War II vets that are still around, but he actually was an electrician and he was in the Navy, and when he Got out of the Navy after World War II, started an electrical contracting company here in Southern California and you know, built schools, hospitals, universities. I mean, employed hundreds of people over the year and years. And my dad actually took over that business. I'm one of seven kids, so big family, so we all got the opportunity. I think the first time I started working for my dad, I was probably maybe between my soft sophomore and junior in high school. So I still remember my first day. I was supposed to start on a job site at, at 6 in the morning. I woke up at 8, about 8:30 in a panic because I slept through my alarm. And I still remember my first day. I went, I went to the job site and I got so much, so much grief from everybody out there. It was just really, it was really fun. My first task, and this is a great story, I tell this to my kids all the time. My first task was to dig a hole that we were going to install this electrical vault in, right? So I had these really precise measurements and I spent all day with a shovel and a pick just digging this really perfect hole. And you know, throughout the day my foreman would come by and he would check on it and just see, see how he was doing, take measurements and kind of coach me through it. And then the end of the day came and I was so excited because I dug this amazing hole and you know, he said, good job, now fill the hole back in. So that was, that was my start in the industry, right? So kind of a, kind of a funny story. And I was a technician for a few years working on, you know, fiber optic projects, wireless networking, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And you know, it's kind of how I got my start in the industry. And you know, I, you know, took a few years, but I actually realized that, that I was providing a really valuable service, right? Like building these, this infrastructure for these companies and something that they could, you know, you know, build their company, build the infrastructure of the company. Like bus stuff's important and like without it, you know, companies don't work. There's not technology, you don't have electricity, like all of the really basic things, right?

Yeah, it's really empowering to feel that right away and to feel like you're kind of gotten the crafts passed down through the generations as well too. And obviously technology changed over time too, right? Like, they obviously weren't putting broadband lines and Cat 5 together in World War II, but you know, same kind of mentality of like, this is important and this needs to get done to Connect people, which I'm sure feels really great.

No, it's cool. I think that's really where I got my entrepreneurial spirit was from my grandfather and my dad and watching them build a business. And it's exciting because this type of business, and even in the infrastructure business, you can see what you built. Right? And that's kind of great. So kind of went through that, became a project manager and learned the ropes of the trade. And one day in 2012, I got this wild idea with my best friend and I. Actually, we've been best friends since the second grade. And we were like, let's start a company. This is awesome. Of course, we had no idea what we were getting into and what that would become or how difficult it was, but we really wanted to build this tech company that was more than just installing cables. We wanted to be a full service technology integrator and be able to work with a company from, you know, from A to Z and provide them with all the, the services that they need to have a reliable Internet connection and. And then everything that sits on top of that.

So that was. Was that the beginning of TechNet or.

That was the beginning of TechNet. And it started with our first office, was actually a small little office that was over like a storage center, like where you store your stuff. So it was really cool to kind of do that. And it's been fun. We built it from there all the way up to, you know, close to 300 employees now and about two partners that we work with nationwide. Wow. So it's really cool going from just like we started actually in Huntington beach and then we ended up down here in Carlsbad. And, you know, we've gone from, you know, those small beginnings to right now where if you need a technician anywhere in the 50 states, we can have somebody there under two hours.

Wow.

Kind of cool story that way.

It's a super cool story. And you're still probably, you know, building your. Digging your metaphorical ditch in your own way in scaling it as well too, I'm sure. Take us through a little bit of both the industry that has changed since you started this, obviously a lot, and even like company vision. Like, did you. Did you set out to go build a big company and like, what? Yeah, like take me through kind of what's changed from then to now.

Oh, great. Great question. We actually, you know, we only set out to build like a regional company. We wanted to be. Know, work in San Diego County, Louisiana. County, Orange County. What happened really was we had customers that we did A really good job for. And they came to depend on us. And you know, then they were in other states and they said hey, can you work here? Can you do this? And you know, they really kind of grew from, grew from that. And you know, wasn't. We didn't have this vision of being this large national company that kind of just happened through doing a really good job. And I'll say this, it happened from hiring some amazing people that came on our team. And you know, when, when we got smart enough to hire people that were smarter than us, things changed, right? So we weren't afraid to bring in people that had, you know, worked in, worked for bigger companies, worked in larger environments and you know, and learned from them as well. So it was, it was a learning experience. But it was really exciting to, you know, to see what it could become.

Totally. Oh, the people's everything, especially in a service base like this, right? Differentiator. But also the knowledge and ability to adapt with technology, right. Like you could have stayed on just kind of phones, right? And maybe cable and that. But technology has changed big time and man, I, I can't wait to talk about the changes of now. But what have you seen technology from? Like what are the customers, what were they asking for versus you having to educate them on what they should be asking for over time?

I think that is a super relevant question, especially right now, like with, there's so much change with like, I mean AI is a big word, generative AI like these, all these buzzwords that are out there, like what exactly is that? You know, even to like a big component of our company is, is using technology for life safety systems and you know, situations like that. I'll give you an example. We recently did a project for, for USC University of Southern California which was a complete audit and upgrade of their 911 system. You know, and a lot of times those things are taken for granted, right? You just think they work. You think oh I can dial 911 and it's just going to work. That's not the reality. And as we've gone from an analog to digital world, there's definitely been some gaps there that you know, that have had to be filled. And you know, it's interesting to, to see that, you know, if you look at some of the statistics on just our 911 systems across the US a lot of issues, you know, a lot of changes and a lot of upgrades that are, that are required just for, for life safety standards.

Wow. And not only is that just for calling, maybe for personal safety but now fire and other safety, we're seeing infrastructure crumbling because things aren't kept up. So that's an important piece for sure. I see the same on a little bit of infrastructure where water and wastewater that all have these pump stations that have to be able to talk and say something bad's happening and you know, they're on old systems. They're on, you know, like old communication systems, stuff like that. Yeah. So it's really important like the pieces that we don't see behind the scenes beyond.

Great example. Yeah. That was the LA fires, right. Like, yeah, huge issue with, with just water pressure and having, I mean those are things that are really taken for granted I think. You know, communications infrastructure is really similar. Right. Like yeah, everything's awesome and it's working and when it's working, you know, we don't really see what's behind the scenes and what's required to make all that operate. The second your Internet's down, your world's over. Right. Like you can't operate, you can't get things done. It's, you know, very similar to that.

Yeah. And we, we went through this big change of like, you know, on prem to off prem and into cloud. Right. So a lot of trusting that your systems work somewhere else and someone else can manage them. That was a big change I'm sure you went through. And then someone's coming back in to back onto on prem and a little bit more trust in automation of the systems as well too. Like what is. I know you mentioned generative AI and AI is this big two letter word to everyone. But you know, there's still people behind the scenes making, turning a lot of these dials and stuff. Like where do you see the industry kind of going? Technology.

Yeah, that. Great question. I think there's been a huge shift towards, you know, migration towards the cloud. And you look at how many data centers are being built right now. I mean that's a big, a big focus for TechNet is, you know, supporting the, you know, building of data centers, but also, you know, servicing data centers and you know, doing upgrades like, you know, just it's such an important piece. Right. And I don't think you can grow fast enough in that space. I think that's something we're going to see over the next few years is just an incredible amount of building in that data center space. You know, and there's a lot of things that, that have to, to fall into place for that happen. I think there's a lot of environmental concerns that, that we need to look at like we need to build stuff responsibly and you know, I don't see a lot of that in the industry right now. I think, I think everybody's building so fast to keep up with it and you know, some of that stuff gets left behind. So that's one thing I'm, I'm very involved with in the industry is making sure that, you know, if we're involved in these builds, we want to build green, we want to make sure we're doing our part to make sure the world's better. Right. Not just pushing as fast as we can to build data centers. I'm hoping that's something that everybody can do more responsibly.

It's a good point because I think a lot of business owners get caught up in the, oh, am I supposed to be doing something right now? Because you heard some buzzword, right? You could own a laundromat, you could own a doctor's office and you could be getting pulled into, you know, you gotta do something technology wise just cause you're hearing about it. So the personalization piece matters a lot. Which I'm guessing is a big part of kind of the service side of what you guys do as well too. Like how do you, I don't know, how do you talk to a business owner and both kind of hear what their problems are versus also be like, hey, you know, this is the personalization piece that might actually help your business and automate and save on costs and efficiencies and stuff like that.

Yeah. I think in our industry, and you probably see this a lot in the tech industry, we do a lot of telling rather than listening. Right. You know, we tell people what they need. But I think where we've been most successful is when we sit down with customers and we actually find out what their technology plan is. Like what are they trying to do over, what's their five year plan look like? You know, rather than just say you need the latest and greatest, like you should upgrade to this, why don't you have that? Right? So that's a big push for us is really, you know, taking the time to understand the needs of our customers. And you know, we have a saying here at technet, we want to build a customer for life, right. And we look at the lifetime value of a customer, like what can we do to service that customer and how do we, you know, how do we help them build the infrastructure that they actually need? You know, I see in our industry there's a lot of, you know, people that don't plan ahead on a lot of underbuilding. The flip side of that is there's a lot of people that overbuild too quickly and spend money they don't need to spend.

Yeah. And as business owners, we get caught up in just signing up for a few different softwares and then things like that. So it's good to audit, I would say. Right. And talk to people that. I mean, especially right now with generative AI tools, I can't tell you how many different tools are getting shared in group text, group chats. Right. There's like, have you tried this? Have you seen this? It does this thing for you. I'm sure you're getting that a lot. Right. It feels like the first time I'm really getting, like, so many tech technology referrals from all over. Not just like the same kind of five people that used to send me cool stuff. Is that similar for you?

Oh, 100%. So I've gotten a little bit more active on LinkedIn lately and I've seen a ton of that. Right. It's exciting times right now. Technology is changing so quickly. It's funny because a lot of people, I'll talk about AI all the time, and a lot of people go, oh, that's ChatGPT. But it's so much more than ChatGPT. Just the tools that are going to be available are just incredible. I'm excited to see what the next few years look like. I'm not worried about jobs. People look at AI and they worry about jobs so much, but it's going to create so many new jobs. There's so much potential out there. And really AI just creates this amazing potential to live a better life. Right. To have better balance.

Yeah, Right. Work on the things, on the problems that you want that are hard. Right. Because that's where the fun is, is working on something and solving something hard and the stuff that are, you know, that a computer can do great, like, solve that. I'd love to hand that off. Are you seeing teammates, like people at the company, like, trying stuff and, and bringing things forward and being like, hey, I'm using this tool in this way and kind of new ways to see how to do stuff internally as a company.

Yeah, all the time and more so than ever. I, you know, one example I kind of point out is we do a lot of design work and even just the technology with design, like 10 years ago, I thought it was super cool that I could use Google Earth to like, take measurements and do all sorts of different things. The amount of stuff that we can do with AI just on the design side is incredible. You know, so we have designs that, you know, tech designs that are, you know, very technical, but like, we're able to, you know, take those and put them into different programs that we're using that are AI based. And just like our mean time to design and to deliver a design to the client has probably tripled in the last year.

Wow.

So it's. It's really incredible. That's awesome. The opportunity to, you know, maybe on a project where we're, you know, I can think of one that we did a little while ago. We were working on a project with Beyond Meat on like a design project. And, you know, we wouldn't have put that much time into it had it not been that easy to do. Right. So there's a lot, there's a lot more that we can do in less time now. And it really makes a difference. And you know, sometimes the effort and the time that we can put into, you know, even delivering like an, you know, a response to an RFP or an rfq. So it's kind of awesome.

Yeah, that's great. What are you seeing? Let's talk a little about the local scene because you've been in Southern California now for a while. You even mentioned some businesses you're working with here. What are you seeing? Anything unique or different of a community of Southern California. And I know from San Diego, we kind of sometimes look at north of San Diego as Northern California, but you're.

Not wrong about that.

But, you know, like, what do you see from a tech ecosystem? Are you seeing more tech being built locally and more tech kind of infiltrating into and the talent as well. Like anything across that part.

Yeah. So San Diego is a unique market, right? A lot of. A lot of bioscience, biotech, a lot of those startup companies too, which is really exciting. We've worked in some of that and ton of military stuff going on here. We've done a lot of work with the US Navy, with Air Force. So we do get into some of that. Some pretty unique and interesting projects there. We just finished a project not too long ago. We did the WI fi for the San Diego Padres. So it was a partnership with TechNet and Extreme Network. So that was a really cool design to get in there and change the game there. And that's led to a bunch of other work that we're doing with Major League Baseball across a lot of different ballparks. So pretty exciting stuff on that side. Yeah, I love working In San Diego. So I'll tell kind of a funny story before, when we started in Huntington beach and we tried to do work in San Diego, it was really difficult to kind of build trust. So San Diego is a different place where like, I don't know, I, I could, I could drop from outer space and land in LA and have business tomorrow. In San Diego you have to earn trust. So it's just a, it's a smaller market. But I really love the ability to work with folks in San Diego. It's just really awesome. And you know, it's different. You know, you can really trust there and build long term customers and, you know, it's been really awesome for us.

That's cool to hear. I feel that too. It's a very like, it's like a big little town. It's almost like the Midwest values plopped on the ocean kind of thing. I think that's from a lot of people from the Midwest coming here for weather and military and having, you know, those values where they want to like be able to shake your hand, which is unique, I think, for on the west coast now.

One thing I love about San Diego is we've been able to hire a lot of people that are coming out of the military. And it's just been a really awesome pipeline for us to find great people with great values and, you know, and also some pretty cool, you know, technology skill sets that they bring, you know, from their military service time. So that's been awesome for us.

That's very cool. And I totally could see how their skill sets are relevant. I mean, they're working on a variety of technologies that are old and new. Having to make them work, having to make them communicate no matter what. And like, failure is not an option. So having that kind of background seems like it'd be pretty great and relevant to put them right to work, right?

No, absolutely.

You mentioned stadium stuff and we actually previously have had on from the Cox side some of the leading engineers and hospitality leaders from Cox. And you said you're working kind of across the country, but also locally. We've got a bunch of new stadiums now in Southern California. Whether it's, you know, up in Oceanside, they got that new stadium and the Snapdragon and the Intuit Dome. Are you starting to do. Is that kind of becoming like an area where stadium focus in the hospitality world?

Yeah, we do quite a bit of that. In fact, we've actually supported Cox Communications in that space for a long time. So just even, you know, with some design work and consulting we did for Allegiant Stadium up in Las Vegas. So our partnership with Cox has just been, that's been a real highlight of our, of our business. Right. Even when we were a small business, we had the opportunity to work with Cox from the beginning. What I love about Cox Communications is it's, it's a big business with a small business fill. And I don't know if it's because it's still a private company, but like you know this because you work with the people from Cox, just amazing people. You know, it's, I would say one thing that my customers always share is that like, you know, I'll always point them towards Cox Communications for whatever services make sense. And it's like, you know, people at Cox are always accessible if you reach out in their tech support and all these different, you know, all those areas that Cox is really available and I love that that's not the same with some of these larger MSOs. It's, they're just, they're very big and it's, you just really get lost.

Yeah. And what I see from them, just from like they're, they've got a very long term focus which I think is the, the private company, fourth generation family still involved. They make these long term bets both on technology side and in people. I've seen them create these edge networks from all their data centers and be like, what could we do with that? How could we bring better service to 7 million people when it's outside their home? So that fires me up as well too when people are long term focused because in the startup game like we're working on 10, 20 year kind of businesses and communities and so it's nice to have a part like that as well too. So that's good to hear in that regard. Let's talk a little bit more. Just kind of future focused. You know, we start, we talked a bunch about AI, but you know, there's the AI that's real and then there's also the AI. That's the buzzword. Right. And last year, in last few years it was Iot and a few years before that it was edge computing. So how do you cut through the noise, like how do you know and figure out what to personally invest in versus like ah, that's just the fat of the year.

Yeah. I think the test for me is like finding actual utility. That's a big one. Right. And that's kind of how I separate things. I'll look at a new technology and you know, I want to know how useful Is this, what can you do with it? I think that's a big push. And you know, we get a lot of questions from customers. They hear these buzzwords and they're like, all right, how do I use AI in my company? Like, you know, and you know, things are changing. I mean if you look in looking at a couple industries, like hospitality, we do a lot in the hospitality industry and like AI is really game changing for those guys. There's just so many different systems that are, you know, they're being automated. You know, one area we, we've been involved with Amazon for about 10 years now and I don't know if you're familiar with their just walk out stores. So it's a cashierless technology where you can go in and it doesn't require a cashier and you walk in and grab your items and you leave. So they have a couple concepts. So one is called the Amazon Go stores. And those are kind of like a 711 style convenience store. A lot of those are in like stadiums, universities, those kind of areas. And then their larger grocery concept, which is Amazon Fresh, is kind of, is, is similar. Right? Those are areas where you have a company like Amazon that's kind of, you know, they're, they're on that periphery. They're, they're looking for different technologies and seeing how they really apply. And I think what's cool about Amazon is they have the money to try out some of these really interesting technologies. But for me, seeing how useful that can be, you know, versus like, you know, what are some of the ethical considerations, right. A lot of people will say, well, is that going to take people's jobs away? Right? And, and this is a really interesting one because it actually takes more people to operate the tech side of that than it would to people put people in a store right now. Right. If you look at like you have employees at Amazon that are managing this, you have, you know, TechNet and other companies like TechNet that service and you know, do installations in those stores and locations. Right. So it's cool to see that, you know. And so, so yeah, I think the big thing for me is like what, what's, what's useful, you know, what can it do versus what is it supposed to do in the future? And you know, kind of looking at things that way, It's a really good point.

And by the way, Amazon Fresh, I think I just saw they finally opened that one in Poway, right? Is that where the, I think I saw one of those open, right, where you can walk out. Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting that you mentioned the talent part because, you know, obviously there's been stock work, people who stock shelves, who. What they mean is they know that they know flow and route and actual product utilization really well. Right. Like, they know how much more rice is getting picked up than jam. Right. Which is great intelligence to teach an AI system of, you know, like, how to preempt that and how to do maybe some image classification. So I think, yeah, the kind of the human intelligence aspect powering these things is kind of interesting to think about because, yeah, they're the experts of, like, what do humans do in a grocery store? No one knows until now. So that's pretty cool in that regard. And also the fintech piece too. Right. So now the payments piece you mentioned hospitality, like, the thinking of being able to, like, order from, from any app or through QR code, all from the phone, and that just magically flows back to the, to the kitchen and up to the front. Like, that doesn't just happen by magic. Right. Like, there's a lot of tech that goes into that too.

There is a ton of tech behind the scenes. Right. A lot of places where it can go wrong.

Yeah, totally. That's awesome. Well, because of that, it makes total sense why you would get honored at the Top Tech Awards this year, which is this awesome, awesome event every year where the technical leaders of our community are recognized by their peers. So congrats on winning a Top Tech Award in 2024 and the private small business category. Congrats there. Thanks.

Totally appreciate that. And, you know, it was an education for me too, because I didn't know a lot about the Top Tech Awards and I was able to meet a lot of interesting people. I'll. I'll tell a funny story here. So my family was super excited that I won the award. And then they watched the video videos of all the other people that won awards. And my daughter's like, dad, everything everybody else does is super interesting, except for what you do. Oh, it was pretty funny, but it was amazing. I mean, just, I think that really highlights. There's, there's such a group of amazing, you know, technologists and people here in, in San Diego. And that's one thing I love about the Top Tech Awards is it, like, recognizes those folks. And I'm talking. I'm not talking about, like, CEOs, it's. It's the CTOs and the CEOs and, you know, even engineers and designers. It's really cool to see those people get recognized because that doesn't happen often. And you know, it was cool for me personally, it was awesome to win that award, but it was also super awesome just for the recognition that. For technet. Right? Yeah. So it was a really cool experience. It was at Snapdragon Stadium and there was a lot of people there and just really awesome event that Sarah put on for Top Tech. So it was really cool to be a part of that.

That's awesome. That's cool. Recognition to know you're surrounded by peers. Right. These are other leaders who have come up and how to figure out how to solve problems and solve problems at scale, but more importantly like manage leaders and the next generation of leaders. Right. Like that's what you mentioned from the beginning is you've assembled a great team and therefore you've empowered people to lead and solve other people's problems. I think that's kind of the magic there is that being around other peers and then recognizing the next generation of leaders there too. Which I think now you get to be on that committee right now that you've won an award, you, you get to help kind of select next year's which is a kind of a cool concept as well too.

Yeah, I'm super excited about that. So I get to be a judge. I also get to nominate a few people this year. So working on my nominations right now, just a shout out to anybody that's thinking about anybody in the San Diego Texing great opportunity to put a nomination out there and let people know what they do. And we need to let people know that technology is fun and it's interesting and it matters. Right. So I think it's a good, good.

Opportunity for that 100% good call out. Yeah, I've got to go nominate all my portfolio founders of the ones I've of the companies I've invested in, that's for sure. So that's a good pool there. And then. Yeah, any of my past peers as well too. Make sure you get your nominations in before May 2. And there's a variety of categories. There's startup, rising star, education, academics, government, enterprise. Like, you know, there's, there's kind of a recognition of a lot of different categories of technology leaders. So we'll make sure we add a link to the show notes there. And I'm looking forward to seeing you there because it's always a fun party.

Yeah, it's a party. Good times.

It is. Oh, but speaking of that, so you're now, you know, on the other side this, you're an award winning technical leader here. What Are you giving advice to people on like, what's the, you know, whether you're just getting started and you're think kind of thinking through, you know, why, what could I be doing to scale infrastructure and scale people? Like, what advice would you be giving people right now?

Yeah, the great question. I think my advice is just to do something that you love. Right. For me, technology is absolutely something I'm passionate about. I love it, I enjoy it. I'm constantly learning and studying. I really consider myself a lifelong learner. I think that's been, you know, key to our success here at technet. I see it in the folks at Cox Communication. Like things are always changing, right. And you really have to be the most difficult thing for people is change. Right. So being open to change and you know, I think is an important piece, you know, so do what you love. I think that's number one. Number two is put in the work. So once you pick what you're interested in, you've got to commit to it, right? And you know, and I'm not saying not in a fun way, but you have to commit to it that you're willing to put the time in to work, you know. And the third piece I would just say is find a mentor. There's so many people that are willing to mentor folks out there. I've had some incredible mentors that have made a huge difference in, in my career path and in the company I've been part of building, like without those folks. And I'm sure you've had the same deal, right? There's just, there's opportunities for that. And you know, I would say if, if you're a professional that's been in the industry for 20 plus years, look for people that, that are open to mentorship because they, they're there, they need it.

100. That's amazing. Well, thanks you do, for what you do, Floyd. Really appreciate that. You mentioned you're, you've gotten More active on LinkedIn. So a link to your LinkedIn. Is that the best way people could get in contact with you?

That is the best way to reach me, yeah.

Okay, cool. I'm out there.

All kinds of new content and you know, technical stuff and, you know, there seems to be an audience for that. I think, you know, there's a lot of. LinkedIn's a platform that's relatively, I don't want to say it's new, but it's, it's relatively, you know, people are coming back to it and people are finding a lot of utility and use in it and you know, for me it's, it's different than an Instagram or, you know, some of the other platforms out there. It's, it's an opportunity. You know, it's really been a professional platform, but it's also becoming a platform where you can have conversations about, you know, different things that, that you're passionate about. So I think it's good.

I agree. I probably spend most of my time on there as well, of all the platforms, because one, the content, people do digest long form content really well there. You know, it's not 100 characters, it's. You can go long, people stay and watch whole videos on there and the content actually stays up for a few weeks. I find it has really good staying power. It's not like gone in a second after you post it. People are still commenting on stuff two weeks, three weeks later. So I agree. You can kind of go deep within your network there and I'm looking forward to, you know, interacting with you on there as well too. And thanks for putting in the time on that because, you know, a lot of people, it's just a distraction, but for the ones who commit to that part as well too, it's, you know, it means a lot to be able to share from that. All right. As well too. We've talked a lot about tech. We got to talk tacos, otherwise this wouldn't be the tacos and tech podcast. Yeah. And in San Diego. Yeah, every, every answer matters here. What's, what is your favorite? Is it Taco Bell?

No. So, so I do like Taco Bell and my son would be really proud if I said Taco Bell is my favorite. But I'm actually going to go with TJ Tacos and Escondido. Solid taco. I'm a big fan of the carne asada taco. Eat a little bit of guacamole on that and crispy edge on the cheese. It's just, it's an amazing bite. So. Yep.

TJ Tacos is legendary for sure.

So many locations in San Diego, right? Hard to pick one. Yeah, that's my spot. Love it.

Well, it's a great spot. I think it's been named a few times on the podcast. We'll go and check our database, which we have. We've, we have, we have got a database and we're working on a visualization of every taco spot that's ever been mentioned.

Can't wait to see that.

Yeah, I think we have. At least all over North America, if not multi continent based taco spots which is kind of fun to categorize as well here as well too well, Floyd, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing, sharing kind of the day in the life behind the scenes but also to know third generation of tech worker is pretty cool here in Southern California, so I'm sure your grandpa's pretty proud. Happy birthday, early birthday to him and thanks again for what you do and for inspiring the next leaders here of technology workers in town. Awesome.

Really appreciate it, Neil. It's great being here with you.

Likewise. Thanks, Lloyd. Appreciate it.

All righty.

Thank you.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos Tacos and tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keep accountants counting beans Contador quentan frijoles founders trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping paella tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a craft beer and coffee my coating yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero gotta shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded when San Diego startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside the Tijuana est before full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host Neil Bloom Startups.

Get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started you make.

Want tech and tacos tacos and tech you know we got it hey.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started you.

Want tech and tacos Tacos and tech you know we got it hey.

Sa.