Ryan Shank, founder of PhoneWagon, films his office building catching fire, then pivots to rehearsing an investor pitch for his SaaS platform that generates dynamic phone numbers for local businesses. He demonstrates the product with Mark, a gutter-cleaning business owner, while aiming to raise $1.5M through Techstars.
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This is great.
Welcome to the vlog, guys. The vlog today is fire. No, no, I don't think you understand. It's literally— the building caught on fire. Okay, like, like actual fire, not just an alarm, not just— well, there was an alarm, but it wasn't just an alarm like where they do a test, a fire drill. It was like literally a fire. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen in my entire Not my entire life, but like, it was crazy. It's freaking crazy. So we were like in the building, we see literally smoke. It was actually out those windows right there because we saw it. And then we, I like dipped out, didn't take my computer or anything. So I was like, I'm not dying. I don't want to die. I like life. I got a lot of stuff to do. We went outside. I actually went to the gym because I was like, I'm just gonna stand here and I want to be productive. So I went to the gym, did a bunch of stuff. Kane got hired by Techstars to film a bunch of bitches.
So now I'm gonna sneak up on him and fuck these bitches or something.
Kane, how's it going?
It's going, man.
Work, work, work, work. Like Rihanna said, work, right?
Hey, gotta go to work.
What was that?
Yeah, man, it's like this is what Rihanna does, right? I don't know what he's doing. I don't feel comfortable right now.
Oh shit, there's an actual fire. Yo, there's an actual fire right now.
Ryan, I'm gonna use this clip. There's the fire.
Of course. Should I take all my stuff?
No, dude, do you Did you see it? Yeah, it's like— this is all my gear, bro. This is window. This will be the death of me. No, don't, don't go down this way. I can smell paper burning. Yeah, there's definitely paper burning. It looks to be getting pretty serious, but I don't like—
I don't see flames yet.
It looks like it's It's coming from down there. Definitely something burning. Definitely not me. I should be moving.
I swear this vlog will be the death of me.
Let's go back and check it out. See what's going on. It doesn't look that bad. I gotta be like— I mean, not that I've seen a building on fire before. I'm using a fire escape to escape from a fire. It looks like— so there's smoke upstairs, but it It really is coming from down here and drifting up. What the fuck? What is that? I'm walking into the fire now. Is this great? Is this great? Fuck that. Wait, I gotta get that shot. Oh yeah. Holy shit. I'm going back in. Gotta get the shots. Vlog life, don't go this way. Hey, how you doing? I just went out the real way. Now we're going out the front to see everybody. Yo, just vlogged the whole thing. I went down the fire escape.
You're fucked.
Went to the fire.
You told me not to go to the fire escape.
Yeah, 'cause you were gonna get in my shot.
Yo, when the content's fire.
The content's too fire. So we thought the vlog was lit before.
It's really lit now, guys. Kane is preparing his vlog right there because he's not gonna not get the footage.
I don't really know what to do.
I left my computer up there because I saw smoke and I was just out. I was like, no, I'm not dying yet. I'm not ready. I got shit to do. We got people to sell phone numbers to, wagons to be on. And then we came back inside and had work to do. So, I had to actually finish investor pitches that day. So I literally was in front of a camera like this for like, it literally took me 2 hours because it was a 5-minute pitch and I had to get it right and I had to continue rolling it. We don't edit it like this vlog, we edit a lot, we do a bunch of like jump cuts and things like that. We didn't edit it at all, so there's gonna be a bunch of cuts, and you'll see it. Kane's about to roll the clip, and you'll see me just like, "Brrr, brrr, brrr." Repetition, repetition, repetition, then boom, you're gonna get it. Practice makes perfect, or at least practice makes outcomes.
How was the shoot, Ryan?
Uh, you know, I think it was good. The thing is, like, we're just gonna have to chop it up. Record this just in case it's good. My name is Ryan Shank, and I'm the founder of PhoneWagon. My last company was a vertical SaaS company company. What the fuck are you doing? This is a practice run. Practice run doesn't matter, just practice. Practice is that phone calls to local businesses are actually exploding right now in recent years. Fuck, I can get it. I just get fucked up. Am I staying in the same spot? He needs to be able to track.
This is Mark.
Mark owns a gutter cleaning— gutter company in Indiana. He advertises in 50 places. Okay, I can get it. I can get it now. I got it.
Here you go.
Mark owns a gutter company in Indiana and is able to then track the— I'm distracted! Next, he creates a dynamic number for his website. Boom, that's that line. By eliminating these underperforming channels—
Yeah, they just take it from your computer. Yeah.
Can they like not come in? I'm fucking doing something here. I was gonna start it, and this is Mark. This is Mark, and it's working. Look, this is a true story.
Mark?
This is Mark. We're working and which ones weren't. And by— this is Mark. By identifying— yeah, it felt good. This is Mark. Wait, this is Mark. Incremental revenue in the next 2 years. I'm gonna do it all the way through for sure, 100%. My name is Ryan Shank. Do I say hi? That's because over 70% of local searches to local businesses to local searches to local businesses. Am I lined up right? Whatever, I'm just gonna do this. Practice run in my head. Practice run.
Easy.
All right, am I lined up right? We know the playbook. Cat, cat, cat, cat. Cat, cat, cat, cat. That's the vlog for today. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you're new here, my name is Ryan Shank. This is our journey. We're building Bonewagon from the ground up. There's no outside funding yet, but we are about to raise $1.5 million from investors. I'm happy to talk to you guys about that and let you know how it's all gonna go down. Uh, we do this every single day, 7 days a week. We're going through Techstars. This is the final week of Techstars in New York City. The program's over. I'm gonna miss it. It was so much fun. Hope you guys are out there working hard, being pioneers, being wagoners. Whoosh!
