Digital Social Hour - Smart Cups Exposed: The Tech Revolution You Can't Ignore | Chris Kanik DSH #728

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

🚀 Smart Cups Exposed: The Tech Revolution You Can't Ignore! 🌟 Join us on Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly as we dive deep into the groundbreaking world of Smart Cups with Chris Kanik! 🤯 This isn't just a podcast; it's a journey into the future of technology and sustainability. From printed energy drinks to life-changing applications in pharmaceuticals and disaster relief, Smart Cups is revolutionizing how we think about consumer goods and packaging. 🌍💡 Discover how this innovative tech is set to transform industries and potentially solve world hunger and thirst. 🌱 With insights from Chris's incredible journey—from a young science prodigy to a stand-up comic and now a visionary entrepreneur—this episode is packed with valuable insights and unexpected stories. 🎤 Don't miss out! Tune in now and join the conversation. Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Let’s change the world, one Smart Cup at a time! CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:28 - What is Smart Cups 04:58 - LinkedIn Ads 06:16 - Chris's Background 10:57 - Biologically-based Nanorobots 11:53 - Importance of College Degree 14:16 - Stand-up Comedy and Entrepreneurship 17:55 - MasterChef and Gordon Ramsay 19:48 - Gordon Ramsay's Impact on Smart Cups 24:08 - Mike Tyson 25:55 - CBD and Its Uses 28:40 - CBD Traffic Stop Experience 31:40 - Where to Find Chris APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Chris Kanik https://www.instagram.com/ceodadlife https://www.tiktok.com/@ceodadlife83 https://smartcups.com/ SPONSORS: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/social Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're dealing with house money. Kids like you need a piece of paper. So kids will always come up to me and say, hey, do I really need to go to college? Because Zuckerberg didn't go, Gates didn't finish. And I'm like, listen, those are anomalies. You still need a piece of paper because it shows that you are committed to something

and that you're employable. All right, guys. Chris Kanek here, founder of Smart Cops. Coming in from Orange County. Thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me. I'm just a dumbass. Thanks for the invitation.

I appreciate it. What an intro. I'm just a dumbass. I'm just a dumbass. But you have accomplished some things. We got to talk about that. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I accomplished some things. We got to talk about that. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I accomplished some things.

What exactly is Smart Cups for people that don't know? Smart Cups somewhat is the bane of my existence. Smart Cups is, I guess, my life's work at this point. Smart Cups is a technology that I helped develop that allows for the printing of ingredients on surfaces. It was developed originally to be a drug delivery system for patients who suffer from dysphagia. That's a difficulty swallowing tablets, but I commercialized it in food and beverage first for proof of concept. And so we launched in 2018 with a line of printed energy drinks. So it's 10 energy drinks, 10 cups printed with the caffeine, amino acids,

B vitamins, the flavor, the sweetener. You grab one, you add water, and then you have an energy drink. And so I tell people I can ship 5,000 energy drinks from California to New York for 60 bucks. Wow. It's just powder. It's not powder. It's micro-encapsulated, and it's adhered to the surface to the inside of the cup. Oh, wow. And so it's an amphiphilic polymer that's plant-based, so it's completely safe. We're not adding any chemicals to it. And the outer shell does a really nice job of adhering to surfaces. And then when it comes in contact with liquid, it activates releasing the ingredients. And there's it comes in contact with liquid, it activates releasing the ingredients. And there's a self-stirring mechanism in there. So you have a completely

homogenous product. And so what's the benefit to printing ingredients on surfaces? And so by printing ingredients on surfaces, we eliminate liquid from... Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM and official sports book partner of the national football league yard after yard down after down the sports book born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sports book partner of the NFL, bet MGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day with a variety of exciting features,

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So it kind of plays off of that Willy Wonka's wallpaper thing. Yeah. Yeah, so we can make the schnozberries taste like schnozberries, I guess. Printed soups, printed eggs, printed soy sauce, printed hot chocolate with micronutrients, printed potassium iodine, something that we're developing potentially for the National Stockpile Program, and a number of other possibilities. So everything from pharmaceuticals, even to pets. So we just signed an enterprise deal with a global pet product company

printing pet supplements in recyclable and disposable dog and cat bowls. And so they're excited about it because we're killing two birds with one stone. Pet bowls are havens for bacteria, and getting supplements to your pets is a pain in the ass. Right. And we're killing both of those. It's just add water and give it to your pets. Wow.

Yeah. Pet bowls are disgusting. I have to wash mine every week. Yeah. Yeah. So here, and the paper's made out of recyclable material. It's biodegradable at the end. And even the simplest application that we can do,

printed mouthwash, I think is the best demonstration for the impact this technology will have on the planet. So you stack a cup made out of recycled paper with the mouthwash printed right inside, add water, and you have mouthwash.

So you're eliminating the liquid, and you're eliminating that bulky plastic bottle. Yeah. So now you can travel with it too. Yeah. Because that's always my issue when I travel. I can't bring all my dental stuff. Yeah. So if I had something like this, that'd be very convenient.

Yeah. UCLA just – a study came out that showed that the average class 6 or 7 truck can deliver 31 times more product in it using SmartCup's technology. Holy crap. And then when you look at sustainable, we're viewed as a sustainability technology. And in 2021, we're on Time Magazine. All right, guys. Shout out to LinkedIn, today's sponsor. As a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the ad space can be.

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deliver micronutrients and medications to underdeveloped regions around the world, I think, is our main focus and a long-term focus, how to positively impact people's lives and improve the quality of life for people around the world. Right. Yeah, I could see that because now you're able to get all these supplies over there for cheap. Exactly. Because before it was so expensive and that's why it probably held us back, right? Logistics, carbon emissions, unnecessary packaging. Yeah.

And so imagine one plane, there's a disaster and you want to get clean water to people. You can transport, you can transport. I'm working on a project, and I have been trying to develop this, but because of bandwidth, we haven't been able to fully develop this, but water purification printed inside of the cup. So instead of shipping bottled water, a case of bottled water, what do you get, like 24 bottles of water? You could ship that same case

size with 500 to 1,000 cups, ship it to the location. They could use their existing water supply and now have potable water. Holy crap. Yeah. And so that's some of the long-term applications that we're trying to develop to make an impact in the world. That's incredible. You're also helping traffic. Yeah. Yeah. You decrease the number of trucks on the road. Indirectly, yeah. That's major. And you were a scientist. That's your background, right?

Yeah, I have an unorthodox background. A little comedy in there? A little comedy, yeah. Although my kids don't think I'm very funny anymore. I've never seen a scientist in the comedy space because scientists are so logical. Actually, I did a keynote speech in March in Chicago very funny anymore. I've never seen a scientist in the comedy space because scientists are so logical. I actually, I did a keynote speech in March in Chicago for a room full at the Rosemont

for a room full of scientists from around the world. And I just said, you know, I probably just have Tourette's and I'm on the spectrum and I just communicate better than most scientists. Just trying to throw some humor in there. But yes, most analytical-minded people, mathematicians, engineers, scientists overall, don't communicate well

and don't have that funny bone, I guess, for lack of a better term. But yeah, my unorthodox background, I took my first chemistry class at a university when I was 10. Wow. Yeah. Not that impressive. 10? Yeah, 10.

And I think so stupid. Because today, now with everything that's going on in the media where a 10-year-old can decide what gender they want to be, and I think about how dangerous that is. Well, when I was 10 years old, they gave me a course catalog, and they said, here, pick your fucking future. And I liked MacGyver. And I was like, man, I want to do that. And that was it. I could have picked basket weaving and I'd be a basket weaving prodigy, I guess, quote unquote. But then I went on and I started working at Stevens Institute of Technology when I was 12. I did that for about a year and a half, and then I moved over and did research at Rutgers University. Oh, that's where I went.

Oh, did you? Yeah. Oh, what campus? New Brunswick. Oh, yeah. I was there, Department of Nutritional Sciences. Nice. Yeah.

I didn't last long, but it was fun. What did you try to study then? I tried to do marketing. Okay. I couldn't get into business school because of fucking pre-calc. Are you from Jersey originally? Yeah, I grew up in what part of jersey bridgewater okay cool yeah i'm from union city nice yeah so small world yeah small world bridgewater is a lot nicer yeah i would say i grew up pretty privileged than uh union city union city's hood upper upper middle class i'd

say yeah yeah yeah so i grew up, both my parents are immigrants. My mom's from Cuba. My dad's from Turkey. Wow. Neither one of them went to college. And I just went on this thing because they imprinted on me that if you want to get out of perpetual poverty, education is the most important thing. And I think at five years old, I was like, I don't want to live here for the rest of my life. Wow, five.

So you had to grow up quick. Yeah. Because you skipped eight grades. You went to college at 10. No, because my mom's one of these overprotected Cuban moms, so she never wanted me to go off to college. So I stayed home and went through the normal course. And I remember when I went off to college a couple times for studying different courses or whatever. She had breakdowns.

She's like, I lost my baby. And she's saying prayers in Spanish and all that shit. Helicopter parent. Yeah. So then I actually continued on in the Department of Aerospace at Rutgers. I worked on a NASA-funded project developing biologically-based nanorobots. Wow. This was back then? Yeah, 20 years ago.

Because those are making a comeback now. Over 20 years ago. Yeah. Nanotech's huge now. Yeah, nanotech's huge. We were developing, I guess, the foundation for self-replicating, self-maintaining all biological robots. Wow. And so, for example, taking the protein off of HIV that extends out to our white blood cells, the way it triggers is that there's a change in pH as the HIV gets closer to white blood cells.

So there's this motion. And so by extracting that protein and manipulating the pH, you have this motion, which is an actuator, the building block to a robot. And so it was all in liquid and whatnot, but very fascinating stuff. And then I ended up going to Cornell. I was in American Chemical Society throughout it all.

What's that? American Chemical Society is, I guess, like if you were a hunter, you would belong to, like, a prestigious hunter group, right? Got it. So it's, like, a global, well, yeah, it is global, but the American chapter, it's just a. Bunch of chemist nerds? Yeah, chemist nerds. Okay.

That all pay membership fees, and they get to high-five each other. And be like, yeah, we're chemists. Got it. You know, like stay up to date on all the chemistry stuff. But they helped subsidize my education. And at Cornell, I decided, you know what? Fuck this shit. I want to tell fart jokes for the rest of my life.

So I became a stand-up comic. And I never finished with a degree in science. I actually was going to drop out of college, drop out of Cornell. And my roommate talked me out of it. And he's like, dude, you're dealing with house money. Kids like you need a piece of paper. So kids will always come up to me and say, hey, do I really need to go to college? Because Zuckerberg didn't go. Gates didn't finish. And I'm like, listen, those are anomalies. You still need a piece of paper because it shows that you are committed to something and that you're employable. Because

especially for kids who grow up in poverty, I think that's your safety net. That's something that no one can fuck with. Looking back, yeah. I regret never getting my PhD. Wow. I do. People ask me all the time, what are you a doctor in? What's your PhD? And I never got it.

How far were you? Year one or year four you dropped out? I dropped out year two oh year two year two i need to take a couple credits to have my chemistry degree from cornell i actually reached out to the chair a couple years back and i was like hey can i finish this and they were like why you've accomplished so much more than what a phd is going to give you and i'm like, yeah, it's just nice to have that piece of paper, right?

Get that honorary degree, maybe. Maybe. I mean, where I got to donate a library somewhere. I can't say that out loud, right? Because now- You'll get canceled. I'll get canceled. But yeah, and then I was a stand-up comic for about seven, eight years. Traveled the world, started in Nework um performed um i was fortunate that i hooked up with some really good comics that taught me the ropes nice and i was one of the first comics to figure out how to leverage social media back in 2005-6-7 damn that was early yeah

comics for for any so i was known as the like internet comedian but I was selling out shows and running my own shows. As a young comic, the only way you get better is with stage time. And the only way you get stage time is by being good. So it was this catch-22 thing. And so I figured out how to get better in a short amount of time just by leveraging a social media presence before it was actually a thing. My brothers and I, we always joke around. I go, you know, I fucking invented the selfie.

And I was dealing with catfishing before catfishing was a term. That's what I tell people. But it was interesting. I think that set the skills and the experience that I learned doing stand-up helped me be the CEO of Smart Cups because that's what really gave me. It was one of the most stimulating things I've ever done. Really? Because you're on stage, and it's just you with a room full of people with their own prejudices and biases.

And you have to make everyone laugh. Right. And you could lose them. You got to bring them back. You got to read the room. And no two audiences are the same. So it was very stimulating for me. Instant feedback.

Instant feedback. Instant feedback. And I used to run this thing to keep me stimulated where I would purposely win a room over and then purposely lose them to see if I could bring them back. Wow. And see if I could ride that wave. So you were that good. Sometimes. Trust me. There were some times where I couldn't bring them back, and I was like, yeah, I. So you were that good. Sometimes. Trust me.

There were some times where I couldn't bring them back, and I was like, yeah, I'm not going to do that ever again. So what would you say to lose them? Just really dark shit. One time in Allentown, Pennsylvania, I was doing this show, and I figured, all right, it's towards the end. I did probably 45 minutes, and I did this bit. I'm not going to repeat it.

I did this bit, and I go, Mom, I'm like 21, 22 at the time. I'm like, Mom, come see what I'm doing. They had a big poster board with my face out front. I swear, Allentown, Pennsylvania is like this small town. I feel like in this one restaurant auditorium that the whole town was fucking there. And I told this joke that didn't hit well. And I just kept hitting differently

with like my responses. And the next thing you know, I get forks and ketchup bottles thrown at me. Holy crap. And not plastic ketchup bottles. I'm talking the old school glass ones. Damn.

And I had to go like back door because people were waiting for me in the front. Holy crap. Waiting to beat the crap out of me. And my mom, the whole car ride back was just like yelling at me. She was like, I'm like, yeah, but did you see the first 45 minutes? Yeah. That was awesome. But that's the dumb stuff that you do when you're young and you're a kid.

Now, if I were ever to go back, it would just be pleasant. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't do any of those juvenile things. But, yeah, it was a good experience doing stand-up. And then from there you went on the Gordon Ramsay show, right? Yeah, recently, season one of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars, I was invited to be on the show. And that was an experience.

We actually shot one of the challenges right here at Caesars Palace. Oh, yeah? Yeah. What was the challenge? We had to develop an entertainment dinner experience in the Absinthe tent. Oh. Yeah. It's packed in there.

I've been to that show. Yeah. But we had no audience except for judges. Oh, got it, got it. So it is – the Food Stars experience was probably the most interesting experience of my life, probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Really? Today is actually the two-year anniversary that they surprised me in the final episode with my family.

Wow. And to this day, every time I see my daughter run up to me in that episode, I tear up. Holy crap. How long are you away from your family? At that point, it was nearly two months. Damn. Two months.

That's longer than Survivor. Yeah. Holy crap. It was about two months. I didn that's longer than survivor yeah it was it was about two months i didn't realize that show filmed that long and the whole time like i'm going i don't know how to cook like what the fuck am i doing here right and i'm like at any given moment like i'm gonna fuck something up and i'm gonna get sent home for like undercooking burgers or something shit like that but you know seeing my kids there is the whole reason I was on the show. Wow.

And being able to provide a platform to gain visibility and increase the profile of this technology that I've devoted most of my professional career to developing. Bring it to the marketplace and have adoption. So it all worked out at the end. Oh, it did. In that final episode, when Gordon said what he said, it really did change the trajectory of Smart Cups. Wow. Just from him saying that it could change the world.

Yeah, yeah. In that room, when he said what, when he said, young man, your product could very quite possibly change the world, I'm in my head going, holy shit. This is the next, it's like the rebirth of my company. It's this, this technology has made it. Yeah, because the product's great.

I feel like you just needed more marketing. Yeah, yeah. Because you did this a while ago, right? This product? 2018 is when we first started selling it. Got it. So six years? Yeah.

Yeah. And then even before that, developing for my kitchen table. And some trial and error projects. And we had to scale all the manufacturing equipment. So we finally, a year ago, installed our fully automated production line that's patented. It took four and a half years to put together.

So you're about to take off. Yeah. So now we can take on enterprise business. You'll probably never see a SmartCups branded product in the marketplace moving forward because our technology has applications in practically every industry. Yeah.

It'll be more B2B. So it'll be someone else's brand powered by SmartCups technology. So we're trying to be the Intel inside. Yeah. Essentially a replacement for bottling and packaging. Yeah. I can see this for like sports drinks, energy drinks, maybe even coffee. Like this is crazy.

Coffee. Coffee is a no brain even coffee. Like this is crazy. Coffee. Coffee is a no brainer. Yeah. This is huge. Yeah. Hopefully. And you patented it, which is smart.

Yeah, it's patented. We have a number of patents around the manufacturing that creates protections for us. Yeah. So which industry are you most optimistic about with this technology? I would say pharmaceuticals because there are some bioavailability attributes where your bloodstream will absorb whatever active it is that you're consuming. So I feel like that has some long-term positive impact potential for patients. Yeah, that could be useful for sure. But I think even like the simplest of applications will be probably the more successful ones commercially,

like printed electrolyte drinks, printed probiotics, printed soy sauce, printed ramen noodles. You can print ramen noodles? Yeah. I actually did a video back in December where I brought a carry-on to downtown Minnesota with social media star Josh. Josh Richards? No.

Damn, he's going to get pissed off because I can't pronounce his last name. But he does a lot of goodwill stuff for the homeless over there. And he reached out and he was like, hey, do you want to team up on something? I said, sure, I have this idea. Let me bring a carry-on and see how many homeless people we can feed. So I just brought my carry-on, packed in probably 100, 150 stacked bowls of ramen, hot water, fed over 100 members of the homeless community there. Wow, all for like super cheap too.

In like 30 minutes. That's incredible. Yeah, I'm planning a trip. I want to go to Cuba with the allowable luggage and distribute with a goal of feeding over 1,000 Cubans. Wow. With printed milk and printed rice and beans. Incredible. So that's a goal that I have probably within the next six to ten months.

Yeah, this technology has the potential to fix world hunger and world thirst. Yeah, that's the bigger goal here. That's what we're aiming to do. And then creating strategic partnerships with charities, organizations, Yeah, that's the bigger goal here. That's what we're aiming to do. And then creating strategic partnerships with charities, organizations globally that can adopt and then distribute. Yeah, if you get Red Cross as a partner or one of those big ones, that's massive.

Red Cross, is there a camera that I can look at? This one. This one? Red Cross, if you're listening, call me. Always a shameless plug. Yeah, have to, man. You used to work with Mike Tyson? I did.

I did work. I did my research. Yeah, I did. I did work with Mike. They brought me on board to help pass a Fortune 500 audit. Essentially, they were looking for the purest CBD that no cannabis company could produce. And so, you know, it was an interesting couple of years. Hung out with Mike, who's a great guy, by the way, and I hope he wins and beats the crap out of Jake.

You know, he's just a monster. Yeah. He's just a monster. And it was great working with him and being exposed to that world. You take mushrooms with him? No, but i did i did uh make him some printed things that were very interesting oh yeah per his request and i prefaced it and i said listen i don't do drugs i just can make up okay i don't know what this will do to you don't mother fuck me if you have a bad trip okay

so the funny thing about mike is i think he thought i was a child because i'm so short so one day i was in miami with him i'll tell this story i was in miami with mike and i'm in his bungalow i'm sitting next to him working on my laptop and he looks at me and it's just like dead quiet he looks at me, and it's just like dead quiet. He looks at me. He's like, man, Quiff, you're so smart, man. What do you want to do when you grow up? And I look at him, and no pause, just look at him, and I just say,

I want to be in a room with Mike Tyson. And I go back to working on my computer. He sits there, and he's like, you're doing it, Quiff. You're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing it. He was legitimately happy for me. It was like he just granted a Make-A-Wish Foundation wish or some shit. And I'm like, yeah, I'm doing it. All right.

He had a revelation. I've got so many of those stories where it's just like he'd just pick me up and spin me around and hug me. That's legendary. He's like, you're my scientist. And I'm like, yeah, I'm just your scientist. The day you left, did you tell him how old you were? I'm like, yeah, like me, Hezbollah,

and that other kid that was on the man show. Yeah, we're all like men. He picked up Hezbollah. Yeah, he picked up it. Yeah. Oh, man. When that video went out, all my buddies are sending me that video saying, hey, this is you and Mike hanging out.

But yeah, it was interesting. But at the end of it, I was able to help put together. It took two and a half years. company, putting a process in place to streamline the production of CBD from like 10, 11 days to making a kilo every 90 minutes. And it's the purest CBD on the planet. Wow. Yeah. So that was pretty exciting. We had FDA clinicals approved and partnerships with some other universities to do some clinicals. And yeah, it was a pretty exciting experience overall. I had a big CBD phase when I had anxiety. Yeah.

It definitely helped. Yeah, it helps. It really does. You know, when I got into the industry, I thought it was all snake oil. And then I started reading all like the journals, the research papers coming out of Spain and Israel. And I was like, holy crap. Yeah, there's something there. Anecdotally, I can tell you a shit ton of Spain and Israel. And I was like, holy crap. Yeah, there's something there.

Anecdotally, I can tell you a shit ton of stories. Yeah. Just Rick Simpson oil, like different stories. I mean, I don't want to get in trouble, but just how it has positively impacted so many people's lives and just healed them. Just CBD? CBD and THC.

Oh, THC too? As well, yeah. But CBD too for pain. Yeah. They were going after the pain indication. Chronic pain. And how it just – and it's not a catch-all. Like it's not a miracle herb.

Everybody's body is different. Everybody's going to accept it differently. Yeah, so that was a very interesting chapter in my life. Yeah, and that was back then where it wasn't as accepted, right? That's right. Like, there was regulations. Yeah. Yeah, they did not want CBD on the market, I remember.

Payment processes wouldn't allow it. No, this is, yeah, just before and even two years after the farm bill, you know, people just didn't want to touch it. Yeah. Even, yeah. I would say even four years after the Farm Bill, people were still weirded out by it. Holy crap.

It was really, really just shade of gray. I had a funny story. I drive a smart car, and it was Tupac's birthday, and we were building out the Smart Cups facility, and I had a bunch of CBD in my trunk. And I was on the phone. I'm blasting Tupac because of Tupac's birthday. In California, you just hear Tupac all day long.

And I get pulled over by a cop, and he me over and he's like and i'm in my head i'm like shit like this is bad for cbd and he pulls me over he goes do you know why i pulled you over and i said racial profiling i mean because uh you know i'm a minority blasting tupac and i've got a hundred,000 worth of cannabis products in my smart car. And he started laughing, and he's like, man, people like you, it's so hard to give tickets to. So he comes back, gives me the ticket. He goes, listen, man, if you go to court and I don't show up,

it gets wiped away. Wow. And I was like, shit, telling the truth really does work. Damn. Yeah. So you admitted you had the weed i told them the truth holy i'm a minority blasting tupac with cannabis in my smart car so and it worked and it worked i guess it depends on the cop yeah yeah i mean if you get a different everything is situational yeah everything is some cops would have been licking their lips without oh yeah yeah but he thought i was just kidding oh he did yeah i just said it and i was just like smiling the whole time it was like goofy little you know white guy in the stupid smart car

that looks like a unicorn pissed all over it so i used to be so scared driving with weed in jersey man they don't fuck around there no they don't don't. Oh, my gosh. You have like a little nug. You're getting rusted. Yeah. I never, you know, growing up, I never smoked weed. I never did any of that stuff. I still don't. You never smoked?

This is not going to be like a Bill Clinton moment, but, you know, I think when you go through working with Mike for so many years, eventually, you know, you get get contact exposure or peer pressured or threatened by someone. It's hard to deny that. Yeah. But I never was interested in it. I think because weed was like – because I grew up in the hood.

So all the bad kids were smoking weed. And I was like, well, if I smoke weed, I'm going to be stuck here, and this is going to be my future. If I don't, then I have a better probability of doing something better with my life. Yeah, same with my town. Yeah. So I just stayed away from it all, and it just imprinted on me. Yeah.

Same with Bridgewater. I caved senior year, but I held off for a while. Yeah. There's just nothing to do in Jersey, man. You know what I mean? Go to the mall. Yeah, that's it. Go to the mall.

Bridgewater Mall. Bridgewater, yeah. That's it. That's about it, man. Yeah. Well, Chris, it's been fun. Where can people learn more about you and Smart Cups? They could go to smartcups.com.

We're actually about to launch a capital raise. So if anybody's interested in investing and being a shareholder of Smart Cups, we're doing it on Start Engine, which is an equity crowdfunding site. And Smart Cups on Instagram. And then my personal Instagram is CEO Dad Life. I've got three kids and I just post funny videos with them. Awesome.

We'll link it all below. Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow. Thank you.