James Martin - Founder & CEO of Rally Corp

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech podcast, where we discover cutting edge technology and the builders making it happen. I'm your host, Neal Bloom, San Diego's tech ambassador, and together we're going to uncover what technology San Diegans are creating with our own blend of local lifestyle. This podcast episode is proudly brought to you by our friends at Cox Business. Cox Business provides broadband Internet and cloud services to the modern tech company. Cox Business, a longtime supporter of the San Diego startup community, will be co hosting the annual John G. Watson Quick Pitch competition along with tepcos Angels and the San Diego Venture Group. Applications are now open on the Quick pitch website@quickpitchsd.com welcome back for another episode. This is Neal Bloom, your host, and I am joined with James Martin, co founder and CEO of RallyCorp. Thanks for being here.

Hey, Neil, thank you.

Really excited to get to know your story. What brought you to San Diego originally, how you built up some companies, what you're doing now. So why don't you give us a quick little piece about Rally Corp, and then we'll dive into your background and then we'll come back around to Rally.

You got it? Yeah. Rally Corp. Serves to help companies better engage and delight their customers and employees. We're doing different technologies to help shorten the feedback loop. A little platform we built help drive engagement with your with your customers and your employees.

That's awesome. Really excited to learn more about how you got into that. But tell us a little about your story, especially related to tech. How did you become a tech worker?

Well, how far back do you want me to go?

Let's go all the way back.

Let's go all the way back. All right. So I dabbled at computers for some time. My first career was actually in law enforcement. I was a patrol officer, so as a cop for many years. And I drew the short straw on a shift I was working on to be the guy to help reset computers when they went down. I had a sergeant suggest that I go to get a degree outside of my field of work. So, yeah, essentially just started dabbling with it a bit and was simply recruited into another company to take over some business analysis for public safety.

Because of your background in law enforcement?

That's right, yeah.

So where did that take you?

So I joined a small company. There's about 24 of us. So we ended up taking that company public and it grew to over 3,400 employees.

Wow. What company was that?

It was Tyler Technologies. At the time, it was the software group. So we got to watch that thing. Blow up and expand, and then from there just continued my path to development.

Wow. So what brought you to San Diego? Or are you born and raised here?

No, I was born in Boston. Spent much of my adult life in Dallas, Texas. That's why I probably sound more Texan than Bostonian. And then transferred out here when I met up with a business partner to start a new company.

Got it. So what was that?

That was Monk Development.

Okay.

Yep. Started that company in 2007. Worked with Etienne de Bruy. I understand he's been on your show as well.

Yep. Yep.

So we built that company and sold it in 2015.

That's awesome. So what. What got you to start your own development company?

You know, I've always had a passion for finding a niche. And at the time we had sold the last company, we were locked out of the public safety market for a season. So I had to find a new industry or market to go into. Had been involved closely with my church and some various nonprofits and could see a need there. And so we. Yeah, just. There you have it.

So what was that like? This was your first company you started, right? Mount Dev?

Yeah, actually there was one company prior to that. It's more of a consultancy. We did some side projects with Homeland Security and some various technologies there, and that was my very first. But it was more of a consultancy than a software company.

Okay, so Monk Dev, first company you started and sold?

That's correct.

What was that like?

It was amazing. Yeah, it was all the people. We had some great people. It was, you know, 2009 was a tough year for us. We had some bumps in the road and ran out of cash. We were organically funded completely. And so we worked very closely with our team. And I'll receive some coaching and some training to try to figure out what we were actually doing to build a company. So.

Interesting.

Lots of lessons along the way, but it was an amazing ride.

Yeah. So you've worked in a few cities, had some companies. Sounds like in a few cities. What's unique about San Diego? The business environment here.

Yeah, San Diego is a tight knit community. It's a small, big town. So, you know, a lot of networking, a lot of resources. Just great to get out and meet people. And seems like companies here are more apt to share information with one another, from founders making recommendations to investors to different attorneys and resources like that. So lots of sharing and openness. Which is pretty neat.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I think even just looking, having Etienne on the podcast. Right. I mean, like, it's a It's a small community.

It is, right?

Everyone helps each other, that's for sure.

Yeah, no doubt.

So what. What was the transition like from selling a first company into deciding to do it next? I mean, was that immediate? You had company ideas or you take some time off?

Yeah, we took some time off, made some investments in a number of companies and just began to try to figure out what was next. You know, I'm not. Not that young. I'm in my early 40s, so I've been around. Been around a bit. So initially worked in some consulting work and doing some turnarounds and as I said, making some investments. So it probably took about a year to figure out what was next.

And what did it take? I mean, what brought you back to.

Start a new company?

Yeah, yeah.

So I was in a number of pitches and presentations on the investment side, which is pretty neat to experience that. And I could see a lot of need in the companies I was working with, both on the corporate growth side as well as the early seed stage. Companies had the same basic premise, that they were really struggling to find their unique identity with their team and their customers. In Jeremiah's book, the Lean Brand, he calls that the rally point, where there's kind of a reason for people to join your journey. And it just hit me that, hey, rally would be an awesome name for a company. And if we focused on doing that well, it could really meet a need right here in San Diego.

That's really cool. So how did you jump in? How did you start the new company?

We spent about a year just building various versions of an mvp. We threw about three different versions of that away trying to get it right and really engineering what it would take to get immediate feedback to build up a list of potential people that would participate. So we tried various markets and industries and finally figured out exactly what the tool needed to do and in what markets we would start serving.

Interesting. So what are you finding about your early users? Are there certain industries?

Yeah, right now it's interesting. We have everything from a technology service company or technology software company that is working to understand why their employees are leaving. They've got employees that are vesting and they're concerned of losing their top talent. So where they're working with employee retention and understanding beliefs and opinions of their employees. And then we have an in home healthcare group and a hospital group that is using us for patient evaluation and feedback with the doctors and staff. The idea being that we can intersect employee data along with customer data to see what sentiment we can unmask. What attitudes and beliefs might be shaping and influencing people's behavior.

That's really interesting. Just that the same tool can do. Can share so much different data.

That's right.

And in an anonymous way.

Yep.

That's really what unlocks everything. People should share so much more, right?

Yeah, we call it frictionless because it's super simple. They can do it the entire thing through SMS without creating an account. But yeah, we can verify you on the back end and do different things to get a better understanding of the demographic and sentiment and those types of things.

That's cool. And I'm using it in my own way. I've been writing a little bit lately, blogging and I have at the end of my post, I say share anonymous feedback with me by texting to comment. So it's another use case there.

That's great. Yeah. Any bloggers or anybody in the San Diego area that wants access to it, we'd love to let them have it and poke around with it, give some feedback. It's great.

Yeah, that's great. Where is Rally Corp headed? What's the kind of the future plan for the company?

Well, we're continuing to iterate and understand what's unique about us, just like everybody else trying to figure that out. So it's amazing to build a tool to help others do that. You still have to do it yourself. So we're on our own journey. So I think it's just a continuing process of building the product, building up the team and understanding how we can serve our customers better and be more relevant. So that's the ongoing process. I think where we go from here is we plan to go raise our own round of financing in about six months to a year and just continue to drive market adoption.

That's great.

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, we know our listeners will be helpful in sharing the word about RallyCorp, that's for sure.

Definitely.

Tell us a little bit more about your connection to San Diego. What part of town do you live in? And tell us some favorites here.

Great. Yeah. So let's see. I live up in Claremont area, so not far from downtown. Love working downtown.

Yep.

Spent about 7 years in old Town actually. So came from Old Town and kind of just always stayed in this basic area. Venture up to north county some for some customer meetings and that type of thing, but just amazed at the versatility, the diversity in San Diego from, you know, the various neighborhoods and areas. So.

Yeah, and the diverse businesses too, which is pretty cool. I mean, we can, you can test things in healthcare software. It's Pretty great to have that all in our backyard. What's your favorite taco spot here?

Oh, great question. You know, the taco stand is just across the street from WeWork, so it's been pretty hard to stay away from that place. It's really probably grown on me to be number one.

Yeah.

There's another little place out in pb and I was struggling to remember the name of it, but they have a voodoo fish taco that was just amazing.

The taco surface.

You know what it is, actually. Yeah, that's right. It's been a while since I've been there, but that was my number one for. For many, many years.

Yeah. What about a favorite coffee place? You have a favorite here?

I do, yeah. So, James, coffee, probably.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They've got my name on the. On the sign, so I gotta. I gotta like that place. But no, it's just a cool vibe. It's a great walk from here, so I like to get down there sometimes and just change the scenery.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And how about favorite brewery or favorite beer?

Yeah, you know, council brewery up in Kearney Mesa, I think. Yeah, it's great little place. I know the owners there and the female brewer there, she's an amazing person. So I'm a big fan of their beer and what they're doing.

That's awesome. How can people get a hold of you or follow you or. Rallycorp.

Yeah. So we're rallycorp.com and then on Twitter, of course, rallycorp. And then I'm James. James or Mr. James Martin on Twitter.

Awesome. And I think you wanted to share some books with.

Yeah, definitely. So I mentioned Jeremiah Gardner's book, the Lean Brand. It's very instrumental in helping us build our company. And every time we. I make an investment in business, I always give them a stack of books. And this is one of those books. So I'm giving away five copies to anybody that listens to the podcast. So first five get a copy. Just mention Neil's name.

Awesome. You mentioned books. Do you have a few other favorite books you want to share with us?

Yeah, I do, I do. I'm a big fan of how to. Wow. It's a great book. Actually, the author of that book. And I've got a copy for you, Neil, before you leave.

Thanks.

The author of that book has met with our team and actually helped us kind of shape some of our stuff. And he's very approachable guy, so I really enjoy him and I count him a good advisor and friend. And then I don't know I can probably name off a bunch of them or send you a list, but I've got a whole stack of worth on the bookshelf.

Cool. That's awesome. Well, they had it right here.

Yep.

Well, James, really good to get to know you. We love that you're working on your next business here in San Diego. And all the best.

Yeah. Thank you, Neil. Appreciate it.

Cool. Thanks a lot.

Bye.

Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Blum. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. This has been a partnership with the San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation's SD Life Changing Campaign. You can find Neal Bloom on Twitter at Neil bloom and on LinkedIn. And join us next time when we have Sarah Lubick, director of marketing and communications at the Regional Economic Development Corporation of San Diego.