Episode 4 – Reinventing Security Entry: How Eric Mager, CEO is Changing the Game

Hi, welcome to Executable Checkpoint. Uh, podcast where we dive into the insights and experiences of leaders shaping the future of technology and security. Welcome to a new episode. Today we are exploring the future of entrance systems and facility security, a space that is rapidly evolving with new innovations, from advanced biometric access control to AI-powered surveillance, where we're looking at how technology is transforming the way businesses secure their facilities. We'll discuss how and why modern entrances— modern entrance systems are not more than just gates and doors. They're integrated parts of a seamless, secure operation that enhances both safety and efficiency. Today we're joined by a visionary in the security industry, Eric Magger, founder and CEO of Avant-Guard. Eric has spent over 2 decades at the helm of security innovation. helping shape the future of physical and integrated security systems. In today's episode, we'll explore his journey, insights, and how he's keeping ahead of the industry trends and how he envisions the future of security. Get ready for an insightful conversation with a true industry leader. Eric, it's a pleasure to have you.

Thank you.

You know, it's been a minute since you and I have a one-on-one, so this is going to be a perfect conversation. Thank you for joining us.

Thanks for welcoming me.

So Eric, I, you know, as always, let's start from the beginning. We've known each other for some time now, but I've never asked you, so how did you get involved with security? What was that point? What industry you came from? Or were you always in security? Share a little bit about your background.

Great question. So no, I haven't always been in security. In fact, the first part of my career was I was in the audio and video industry. We had an audio and video integration company, and I sold that company and was trying to decide what my next moves were going to be. And at the time, in fact, it's still happening, a lot of active shooter events on my television screen every night. And I started giving a lot of thought to what are the practical ways that we can make buildings safer for people that come to work every day. And ultimately, I decided I wanted to focus on security entrance systems and started doing some research into what kind of companies really existed. And I started looking a lot at turnstiles in particular. And I sort of assumed that there was companies that focused in on that in the contractor service provider context. There were manufacturers that did it, but not really people that went out there and actually kind of help the customer get, identify, and install the solution. And it turned out there really wasn't one, and I was astonished. There really wasn't a company that just did that, and certainly nobody doing it at any kind of wide scale. And so that's when I decided that that's what sort of the next chapter of my professional life was going to be, and here we are.

So what was that progression from starting the business thinking that you have the right idea To sort of not maybe where you guys are today, because there's a lot more to your company today than the gates and turnstiles, right? So what was that progression? Was it easy?

It was definitely not easy. In fact, I remember when I came up with the idea of what Avant-Garde is, I didn't even have a name for it at the time. I went to one of the largest manufacturers in the country and I visited the owner. And I pitched my idea to him and I was like, I want to represent your products and, you know, I like what you guys are doing and I want that to be part of my product portfolio. And I remember him telling me, man, that's just not how entrance systems are done. You know, entrance systems are sold, you know, optical turnstiles are sold through security integrators, full-height turnstiles are sold through fence contractors, and security doors are sold through door contractors. And so I kind of felt like a little bit, I don't wanna say the wind taken out of me, but I sort of initially was like, you know, I felt like I had a great idea and here's somebody telling me my idea was not a very good idea or it was crazy or was never gonna work.

Right.

Was not what I was looking for. But I think in some ways that sort of inspired me more. I'm the type of guy that probably is is pretty stubborn on something like that. So I decided to proceed anyway because I was just convinced that the market needed what we wanted to do. And there was a lot of setbacks along the way, trust me.

So, but you know, it's like most entrepreneurs, they remember the good times and the learning process, that the painful path, right? That's the biggest benefit. So today you guys have how many employees do you have?

Right now we have about 35 between Avant-Garde and Ryzen, and the bulk of those being with Avant-Garde. That's, you know, company's been around for a long time, and we have just a great, wonderful team at Avant-Garde. They make what I do look easy. Without them, I would be in serious trouble.

Yeah, it's definitely always a team effort too. What are you guys currently working on? What innovations are you placing in the industry from a physical security standpoint of view? What are you guys working on that is exciting for you guys?

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So we have a huge push in the construction part of security right now. Construction security has become a major concern of our end-user partners and our general contractor partners that we do a lot of business with. And insurance costs have really risen from everything from hurricanes and natural disasters to workplace incidents. So general contractors are looking for ways to reduce that cost and putting good security, safety compliance measures in place on these large projects, particularly data center projects, batteries, chip manufacturing. Safety and compliance is— So we're developing a whole ton of products and services and software solutions around that in particular to give these general contractors better solutions and be able to lower some of their costs in practical ways, but also in terms of their insurance costs. So that's it. That's a really big one for us right now. Probably is eating a lot of my time at the moment.

Got it. Well, interesting enough, you mentioned insurance, right? Which is something that sometimes I think is not a conversation we have in the security space, in the sense that is, that is the reason why someone is, is moving in a certain direction, investing money. So how do you guys land in this, this technology? I mean, was it a conversation? Is it a particular industry?

That's great. We had a customer that came to us and they said, you know, you've been doing our perimeter security solutions for many, many years. And this particular customer does— owns a part of their business unit is theme and amusement parks. They came to us and said, we want to— we want some portable turnstile solutions for these buildings, these attractions, and so on and so forth. And there were some other players in that space, and they just weren't super thrilled with the solutions and services that were available, and they asked us to do a custom thing for them. And we Sort of reluctantly agreed to it, honestly. At the beginning, I thought, you know, hey, we're kind of getting out of our lane a little bit here. But they were very insistent, and so we did it, and they loved it. And as a result, that kind of gave birth to a huge part of our growing business, which is our Pegasus products, which are portable, on-demand, you know, entrance system solutions of all different shapes and sizes.

For construction projects entrance, right? Is that what I understand?

Yeah, yeah. So, and that was really kind of customer-driven. The customer sort of kind of— we told them no and they wouldn't take no for an answer. And when we got done with the project, it got interrupted during COVID because, you know, and then they came back to it and picked up the ball again. But at the end of the project, we looked at what we had done and said, you know, This is a really cool product. We think a lot of other people are going to want this. And so it went from being a one-off into an important part of our business going forward.

So to me, what that says is how important it is for us to keep, you know, for manufacturing and leaders in the industry to keep the need of the market as at least as a guide, right? Where you guys might have not been your forte, but jumping in. So Is there, at that point, did you figure it's important for us to have those conversations with our customers? At what point does that include the rest of the growth of Avant-Garde?

Yeah, you know, it was one of those things where I thought on it for a while, you know. I think, you know, as in my role in leadership, part of my job is to try to look around all the corners and figure out what's next for the industry and our companies as a whole. And I felt like it was something that we needed to pay a lot more attention to. And I think, as a general rule, it goes to one of my sort of core ethos as an executive, as a leader, which is, you know, in my younger years, I would, I would feel like that I was doing my job well when I was busy. And in my, when my calendar was full, like I was somehow maximizing my time.

And work hard, right?

Yeah. And so now I recognize the most important thing I can do is think. To have time set aside for just my own thoughts, that sort of strategy. I call them thought exercises, kind of playing things out. What might work? What might not work? What are the challenges we might face going down a particular road or into a new product category? And so I really, really use that in that, you know, I spend a lot of time thinking about, does this really make sense for us? Is our customers going to respond to it? can we bring value? You know, I think one of the things that's important for every company to do is if you can't bring value to a product or service, there's no reason for you to do it. If somebody else is already doing it exceptionally well at a really competitive price, you're probably better off to put your efforts somewhere else. And that's very much what we do. And so we looked at that particular market and decided that customers were not being well served, both in terms of the technology, the advancement of the product, and in terms of the pricing and overall ease of owning it. That one of our key things is we go to the job sites of all of our clients and we help them solve their problems in a very real, on-demand, boots-on-the-ground way. And we don't just expect them to solve their problems on their own. If they want to, that's of course perfectly fine, but the vast majority of them don't want to do that. They want us to just deal with it. And so we want to bring that to that part of the business as well. So that's what ultimately made me feel like this makes sense for us. And so we really kind of underestimated on the front side the size of that construction security business. So it's been really big for us to focus in on it. And the reaction, frankly, in the market has been vastly beyond our expectations.

That's fantastic. So You know, we're talking about innovation, we're talking about strategic conversations or exercises in your case, you know, sitting down and thinking about the future of the company and the industry as a whole. Where do you see the evolution of the physical security industry? I mean, we briefly touched base on AI and what are your feelings about it? Where do you see physical security fitting? Where do you see you guys? bringing AI possibly to any portion of your business?

No, that's a great question. I'm getting it a lot from customers. They feel like they need to ask about AI. Some of them don't really know why. They just— it's like a buzzword. They feel like they don't want to get left behind. And so we're a little bit conservative on that front. We want to make sure stuff really works. I think the only thing worse than not having something deployed is having something deployed that you think works that actually doesn't. So we're really cautious to make sure that what we show a customer is super reliable. And to be honest, a lot of that's still emerging. As we were talking before, one of the things that I kind of relate to AI at the moment, and this is going to change, but at the moment, it's like the Gold Rush of 1849. Like I told you, there's not that many people actually finding gold, but all the people selling goods and supplies to the people looking have a really great business. And so we're coming at it with caution. You know, things like facial recognition obviously have an AI component to them, and that technology is starting to get good.

Yeah.

And it really hasn't been that great, you know, up to this point. So we're starting to use it on our intrasystem solutions. We're still seeing a lot of customers with hesitation, you know, privacy concerns and HR concerns of all shapes and sizes. But I think that will pass. And so that's coming. I think certainly with entrance systems, the cost of turnstile technologies is coming down. So you're seeing them be more widely deployed and more customers are using them in different places. And so for us, we're trying to adapt to that. For the last couple of years, we're seeing entrance systems deployed in healthcare in ways that we never could have anticipated a decade ago. And so those customers have completely new needs and obstacles and challenges in deploying those solutions. So that's all that's part of that solution. I get asked about AI probably once a day, if not more, by a customer. Those ones, yeah. Yeah, right now it's a whole lot of talk and not a lot of action, unfortunately, still. But I think that is going to change rapidly. The products are coming and the existence of AI is going to actually accelerate how fast those products can come to market. So it's gonna be a big wave and it's gonna be fun. I would just— I'm telling my customers to exercise caution. I say too, You know, some of my customers all the time, if you can't get it from Malvern Guard, you don't want it. And why I say that is because we don't sell something that hasn't been vetted thoroughly and made sure it works. That's part of the value we bring to those customers who depend on us to help guide them in these entrance systems decisions. So we're very cautious about it.

I think to agree with you, I think that the reaction there, we saw it with COVID There was a lot of reactionary buying. And to your point, there was such a disruption in the market because there were companies that were created just to sell some level of technology that people thought they needed, and it was not it. I think AI, taking a more strategic, more careful, more analytical standpoint of view as an end user, as a manufacturer, and as a provider, in this case of technology, like you guys, I mean, it's good for your business, right? Because at the end, if you deploy it and it does not work, then there's some value lost in the marketplace from the brand, from you guys, and, you know, that is very, very expensive. So yeah, to your point.

There's a trust cost, you know, if we recommend something and it doesn't meet their expectations, we lose some of our credibility. So we've got to really work hard To understand what they want on the front side. I mean, that's— it's very easy for salespeople when a customer says, I want to buy a widget, to just sell them a widget instead of saying, well, why do you think you want it? What problem are you trying to solve? You know, is this really going to do what you think it's going to do? And make sure their expectations are appropriate for whatever it is, their problem they're trying to solve. And I think we do a pretty good job at it, but we're constantly trying to get better.

Well, all right. So shifting a little bit in the conversation, I'd like to get some wisdom from you for our audience that, you know, they're security professionals, they understand the product, but what are the common misconceptions that you see from security professionals that, you know, we're talking maybe security directors or security integration groups about physical security? What do you see out there that you, wish it could be corrected, or what would be your message to those groups?

That's a great question. You know, I think one of my messages to security professionals is you got to be your own center, be your own advocate. When I started the, you know, this company, everyone told me it wasn't going to work. I mean everybody. So you got to believe, you got to believe. Part of, I say, entrepreneurship is You know, you kind of have to be a little crazy because you got to believe you can do something that other people can't do, which is kind of irrational in some way. And so that would be one of them. The other thing is, you know, customers don't know what they want until you show it to them. So, you know, sometimes what I see happening, particularly in the security industry in particular, is they think their job is just to give the customer what the customer asks for. And that's not really their job. Their job is to understand what the customer needs so that you can help them solve it effectively. And that's probably the biggest thing that I see every single day. And I would also say in terms of security professionals and just hearkening back to the AI stuff we were talking about a moment ago, don't be distracted by the noise and the fads and all of that. Focus on the fundamentals. what really works, what makes sense, what's efficient. And over time, that's gonna change, but you gotta be— you gotta stay focused. It's kind of like if you compare it to like the, you know, you look at like a Warren Buffett or something, the stock market moves up, it moves down, he never flinches 'cause he's not making decisions any differently one way or another. And you kind of have to take that same approach.

You know what, you said something to me earlier, Yamato, consistency Help me kind of rekindle that. Yeah.

Yeah. So I shared with you that I actually put this on my Instagram account because I thought it was so important and I talk to my team about it all the time. So it's consistency over intensity, progress over perfection, fundamentals over fads. And is AI a fad? Maybe a little, maybe right now. It's not gonna be a fad. It's real. But are we there yet? Not quite, not in the security context, right? So right now it can do a lot of neat parlor tricks. How practical it is for security at this moment is questionable. So I think we just focus on what is this really doing? Does it really solve problems? Is it just— it's that old thing, we got to focus on not looking good but being good. And sometimes that gets lost, particularly for security guys who are trying to, you know, impress a customer or win a project. And, you know, my words of wisdom to them would just be to focus on what you do well and don't worry about the rest of it.

Yeah, and, you know, I feel physical security does touch a lot of the technology that is going to evolve with AI. And I think some people listening will be like, wait, my industry is totally focused on AI. But in here, we're referencing primarily physical security. Now, speaking of technology and implementation, the big portion to do any of those is buying it, right? So what are the things that you will feel that businesses should balance between making an investment in physical security and their budgets?

That is a Probably every customer is like big, you know, every decision maker in the security space, if you're a global security director or whatever the case may be, that's your, that's your every, that's the thorn in your side every day. You're trying to balance things. Okay. I think that it starts with being realistic. You know, sometimes I'll be in a conversation with a decision maker and they say things that make it clear that they think that they're gonna write us a PO or write us a check and that all their problems are going to go away. And that's just not the case. What we do, what all of us do in the security industry, is give our customers tools. And if those tools aren't used correctly, then it's like any other tool, it's not worth anything.

Right.

So I don't care how fancy it is or how great somebody tells you it is, if you don't know how to use the tool, it's not going to be worthwhile. And I think that's That's my biggest thing. I think also you're seeing with these systems, Tino, getting more complex, everything from entrance systems to camera-based AI technologies and everything in between. I think you're seeing the rise of companies that are like Avant-Garde. They're specialists. And I think that this increasing technological advancement and the complexity of those technologies is going to mean specialists are going to be more and more Important. This is like in healthcare. You know, we're an entrance system specialist and we work for integrators, we work for end users, we work for all these different people. They come to us because they recognize that we do this every single day. The same way if you go to your general practitioner because your knee hurts, they send you to an orthopedic guy because—

That's what they do.

They're not knee experts. Right. And so it's kind of like when you go to your security integrator and they start talking about, I need a security revolving door or a vehicle gate or a turnstile. They're like, well, let's get Avant-Garde in here to help us with this, right? Because we need that specialist that is a part of this conversation. And I think that's going to happen more, especially with the AI technologies that we know are coming. There's going to be companies that just do that and they are working in partnership with a security integrator to deliver a solution that really does what the customer wants. So I think that's another big mistake that I see is people thinking that just one guy or one company can solve all their problems. And, you know, they want the whole— you hear this a lot— the one throat to choke or whatever sort of thought process. And as simple as that is and as easy as that would be to just If it was only that simple, right? It really just isn't that simple. And so I think that's an important reality as well that I see all the time.

So Eric, what's the one part of your job that you enjoy the most?

I'm not gonna lie, it's winning. I am super competitive and so I love to win. That's my favorite thing about my job, when we win a project or win an account. But the truth is, I love my job because it gives me the ability to solve problems for people, and that's extremely gratifying. And the other thing I love about my job is getting to do a job that I love doing, but with people I love doing it with. And I think that's really hard to find. So when I wake up every day, you know, I remember I've always been a Steve Jobs fan. He gave a commencement address at Stanford. And one of the things he said in that address was, you know, I wake up every morning and I look in the mirror and I ask myself, am I doing today what I want to be doing? And when the answer is no, too many days in a row, it's time to make a change. And so I do that. I look in the mirror and I say, am I doing what I want to be doing today? And, you know, I have tough days, tough days when I'm frustrated or whatever. Somebody asked me the other day, you know, what I thought my company was worth. And I said, well, it depends on what day you ask me. If you ask me on a high blood pressure day, I'd tell you, you can have it for $50 and a ride to the airport. You know, but it's so true. But for the most part, I really like what I do. And if I didn't, I would probably do something else. So I love the opportunity to come in every day and see a whole team of people working towards a common mission. And to be a part of that is just— I can't even put into words how much I love doing it. So I think I bring that, I'm able to bring that enthusiasm and the love for what I do to it. And probably people look at me like, how can you be that excited about entrance systems? And I totally get that because I'm a huge dork, but I love doing it. So for me, it's just, it's the people, it's the work, it's the win. I love all of those things.

So, Eric, uh, kind of leaning towards the end of the, the conversation, but I do want to hear your advice to yourself early in your career when you're, you know, when you were just starting the company. What advice, knowing what you know now, would you give to yourself then?

Oh man, that's a— so that's such a great question, Tino. Um, so here, here, I— that's an easy one. My advice to my younger self would be stop worrying about failing because you're going to. Success is built on failure. And if you fail, it's no big deal. You just learn from it and you get right back up and you go at it again. And that fear of failure, I think, in my, you know, certainly to my younger self, I'm a pretty tenacious guy, but I still fear failure the same way anyone else does. Um, and I think that would be it. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid of it. Embrace it. Uh, and, and I, I've gotten, I've gotten better at that. Um, so I try to heed my own advice as best possible as I possibly can. Uh, but for sure, the younger version of me was much more afraid of failure than the, than the present-day version. And that, that's a mistake.

Nice. Well, I think that that reflects a lot on the culture and the success you guys are having. So Well, Eric, I really, really enjoyed our conversation. I'll keep you posted when we do a roundtable. Those are coming up. We— I'm bringing a couple people from different backgrounds and experiences to talk a common project or a common subject. And so if you're open, we'd love to have you back.

Would love to. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. And Eric, any, anything, any final thoughts, uh, as far as, uh, where, where can we find you? Uh, Companies? I know that you have obviously Avant-Garde, but we didn't even touch base on your other business, your other company in manufacturing.

Yeah, so I mean, look, if you Google the word turnstiles, you're probably going to see me top of the list, our company Avant-Garde. Rozen is our manufacturing side, which is doing great work in the construction space and other creative products and solutions related to entrance systems. So you can check that out as well. You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, all of those places. Reach out and say hello, connect, and would love to chat with anybody to help them or just to talk about business in general.

Excellent. And I will recommend to the audience, if you're watching this and you have comments about the conversation, advice or complaints, we'll take them all. Bring them. And thank you for watching. Eric, again, thank you so much for your time. See you in the next show.

All right, boy.

Thank you.