The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast 252 Stephane Valcauda, CEO of AJI DIGITAL

Episode Date: January 4, 2019

Stephane Valcauda, CEO of AJI DIGITAL

Hi, this is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Hey, boy, wow, we've got some interesting stuff coming to you. This is the week coming up of CES Show, the big show where all the innovation, all this stuff is going to be happening. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in to our podcast, as always. Be sure to refer the show to your friends, neighbors, relatives. Be sure to like the show on YouTube. Go to youtube.com forward slash Chris Voss. Hit that bell notification button so you get all the notifications of all the cool stuff,

like what we're going to talk about today. It's going to be at CES. It's going to blow your mind. We're going to profile all the coolest booths, all the coolest technology, and so you can make notes with it and find all the cool stuff you want to take and do. So we're bringing you an interview today from someone that will be profiling at CES. These guys are doing some wonderful stuff. They're going to be at booth 50059-6 at Eureka Park, and it's going to be some interesting technology you're going to want to check out. Stefan Valkuta, the CEO of Agi Digital, is with us today.

Stefan, welcome to the show. Yes, thanks, Chris. Thanks for coming on. And where are you coming to from right now? I'm in France. I'm in France. You guys have some interesting stuff going on there in France. It's an interesting world in today's world. But you're flying to CES, and you guys are coming here to do some stuff with your guys' company. So welcome to America. Yeah. Thank you very much. So Stefan's company, for those of you who are hearing this on audio and not seeing it, his company is AJI Digital.

That's AGI Digital. And I'm sure Stéphane will get into why that name is the way it is and some of the things he does. But Stéphane, tell us a little bit about yourself, some of your background, what you've done, and what brought you to starting this company and bringing it to CES. Yeah, so I'm very soon 50 years old. I'm in digital and IT for 25 years. I have worked a lot on Microsoft,.NET, etc. And from 2011, I have switched on Apple and on Mobile World. I have created a lot of apps. I have a team with me and we

have created apps for any kind of activity. It was game, it could be a startup, it could be a luxury brand. And yeah, that's it. And well, for IG Digital, one year ago, we have made a platform for Lancome, for Digital Hall, and it's the origin of this project. That's awesome. And so you guys, what is the technology that you're bringing to CES? What is going to be the amazing stuff you're going to have down there in your booth? So it has been quite some stuff because we have sent two of our devices to the CES three weeks ago. So on our booths, there will be two devices, one totem, which is two meters high and 70 centimeters width, and an interactive table.

And with that, we will be able to show our platform in action and show how it's easy to create a wall and to have interactive experience with our offer. And when people go into commercial places, like when I go to the airport or I'm walking through a mall or a store, I'll see these panels, and they're just like advertisements. They're very static. It usually probably has some sort of placement in there some piece of paper that's an ad you guys have taken that to a next level

and disrupted it where you guys are making these interactive sort of uh displays and panels for b2b where you guys can market these to people companies that want to take and have these displays and you can interact with them right through a phone or an app or place ads on them through a phone wrap is that correct yeah the the the goal on the the main part of uh of our offer is to to say we we provide interactive world to any activity with a platform that has a ready-to-use component, templates. And the main goal was to say you don't have content when you are a little SME.

So you take your phone, you take photo, video, and with a app we have created, it's automatically transferred to the wall and to the content that is used for the wall. So you can very easily create media content, real-time things. For instance, you are in a restaurant, you are the chef, you want to have an interactive menu and a digital wall to show what you are doing. You create a photo of your new dish, you push it in the wall or you can even go more far. You will take a video of the chief which is making the new dish, he will comment what he is doing and he will push it inside the dish so you can see

some comments, some video, it's very interactive. And the main thing is to say we need to make that available for little SME, and our package is an offer with hardware and the platform for a price which is less than $190. So this is it. Oh. I think it's pretty cool, especially in certain formats. Like whenever I walk to a restaurant, there's usually like a placard or a stamp like what you guys have built but it's very static it just

has like a menu shoved in it but man if I could see like video of the chef like you say making the food and the steak is there sizzling and the video on the on the little menu board there that would be awesome because that would sell me I'd be like oh yeah because when you look at a menu it's pretty boring you're just like yeah and you know i will be in las vegas in two days and i will have to go in the restaurant i'm french and i will have an english menu or american menu and it's it's really terrible when you you travel because you have you could have translation i can read english but it doesn't give you the feeling of the dish.

So if you have some photo or some video, even allergenic things for people who want to look at that, it's really helpful. And it makes the menu far more pleasant to read, to choose, etc. And yes, for us, the main thing is to say, you take your phone, you have a fantastic tool here, create your content with it, and make alive your offer, your service, your product. And there is a lot of application.

To me, that's brilliant because half the time when I'm looking at menus in a thing or if I'm at the airport looking at something like an ad, you're just like, that's really boring. It's just static. It just sits there. And having an interactive menu where maybe I can see some of the food, I can see like a rotating maybe video of the food and how it's prepared and what it looks like. Because we've all gone to a restaurant and seen like a display and it's got the menu in there. And you're like, that looks really good. It sounds really good. And then you go and it's plated and it just looks awful or tastes awful.

You know, there's an old saying in sales, sell the sizzle. And if you can see the sizzle, hear the sizzle in a video as you go by. Now, can you do a touchscreen on these or are they just placards now on stands? Sorry? Is it a touchscreen at all yet, or is it just a viewing window? Oh, no, it's a touchscreen, and we can make it work on our device, but also on tablets. So we are really compliant with any interactive device, in fact. Now, is that on the display itself it's a touchscreen,

or is it on the phone, the mobile device? Ah, what do you mean? The platform, the app? I was just wondering on the signage, the stand, is the screen that, can I interact with the screen on the thing? If I'm like a consumer? Yeah, you interact with the screen by yourself and you can as you mean the client or the the final user the the the person like say i go to a restaurant and there's a restaurant has one can i as just a

coming in visiting oh yeah you will interact it's exactly like a tablet so you win you will interact you will so i can so i can say show me what the steak looks like, or what the fish looks like, and then it will display like a video of the fish or something. We have a component that should be ready during this week, exactly for restaurant menu, where the chef of the restaurant could create

the design of his menu in real time, directly on the device, and after, it's like a tablet. It's like if you had Magdo app, but for your restaurant. and there is a lot of application in really lot of other activities for instance you have a result you have some sport activity etc the kids are making a competition during the afternoon you take your your phone you make a video and at the evening in the bar, you have your digital wall, and the parents, everybody could share that, exchange on it, et cetera.

So there is really plenty of use. This is really brilliant because I see a lot of people, especially like here in Las Vegas, even at the big hotels, they have restaurants in their shopping centers and stuff. And you see a lot of people, they go up, they kind of read the menu, and they go, I don't know, and they'll wander off or whatever. And I'm sure as a restaurateur that's frustrating because you're like, if they only knew how good the food was and how it looked and everything else.

And, yeah, if you could see the sizzling of the steak and how the food is plated. One of my favorite places to go in Las Vegas is Spago's, which Wolfgang Puck is the chef of. And, you know, he makes the – when he plates it, it's just this beautiful artwork that you're just like, do I mount this on a wall as art or do I eat it? Because it looks just amazing.

And if they could show that, like, with devices that you guys are building and the apps and stuff, I think that would be really brilliant. And it would help sell a lot more people to fill your restaurant, your business, just so much more interaction. And people are so photo and video content aligned nowadays with Instagram and everything else that they're into social media. Yeah, it's exactly what we say. When we present the app, we say, for the last 10 years, we have the smartphone revolution, interactive and touch revolution. Everybody is digital in his hand.

And in service spaces, restaurants, hotels, tourism, office, etc., it's still very obsolete. And the idea is to say you can't have a user that is digital in his hand and switch to something obsolete when he comes in some space. So the idea is to say, bring the digital in all these spaces. So the user has the same experience. And he will have an attractive experience because if he doesn't have that, yeah, he stays at home, he looks at websites, and there is no interest.

So you guys have personalized templates they can use. You even have a 3D engine. So if people want to bring stuff forward and move it around and make a beautiful presentation, people can do that as well. Yeah, we have built our platform uh with a tool which is a three-day tool and for now we don't have used it so much because we had all the stuff of the platform to create and it was really a lot of work uh but we start to create the first three-day things and it's really amazing as soon as you push some three-day and for the ces

we have created a wall to present our offer. And the wall will be with some 3D effect just to show how it makes when you add 3D. That's pretty cool. And it's got all the software and hardware included with full range of devices, totems, interactive table, interactive storefront, outdoor devices. And it's fairly inexpensive to use. And you can pretty much using the templates, you plug and play your data and the media into the template and fill in, you know, whatever sort of other things you want to take and do create your media from your smartphone. You know, the smartphones nowadays, they're so good. I mean, they're all 4k video. So you can do all your production on your

smartphone and then just upload it to your app and put it on your wall and away you go yeah and you know our generation has changed so 15 years ago when you wanted to create a video things like that you were going to some communication agency you wanted to make a very good video because it was yes how we were making it. But now everybody is on Instagram, you make some social network, you make video with selfie of yourself and everybody is used to have a real-time video. And this tool allow to be aligned with that. We don't care to have the best video of the world. What we care is I go in a restaurant this week, I have a video which is from this week, two weeks after i come and there is a new video there is something new to discover and i think this is the important thing today

and you've got indoor totems outdoor totems uh interactive tables kind of like what you would see at a mall uh interactive storefronts i like these interactive storefronts they're pretty interesting because they kind of look like an iPhone because of their shape of them. And people can put this right in their window and then people can come along and go, oh, what's in there? You know, I've owned retail companies before where you have a storefront and a mall. And the hardest thing to do is to get people to come in, you know, to get those people to hook. You almost want to just stand out there with a hook and pull people in. And so the appeal, bringing people in, making people want to come to your store, making them hopefully see something that's going to target them

and make them go, oh, we should go explore in that store, is really important because there's nothing sadder when you own a mall store and you're seeing your customers just walk by the entrance and you're just like, please come in and play something. The idea of the interactive storefront is exactly that, is to push some interactive things. We have some screen savers so you could push in front some of your content to attract people. But there is also another usage in France, for instance.

I don't know for US. The tourism offices are not open every time. So there are days where they are closed and when they are closed, you could not have information. With an interactive storefront, you could have all the information you want, even if it's closed. So it allows also to give some services, which is really useful. Yeah. Chris?

Yeah, that sounds pretty awesome. I'm looking over your website and the book that you guys sent me. It looks really cool. And just having the interactivity, you know, I'm sure millennials will love this because they love their Instagram experience, they love photos and video, and it just creates an interactive thing that makes people stop makes people look makes people see about where they should come in your store whether they should come in your restaurant

uh this is pretty cool um just multi-faceted walls and stuff and uh uh let's see you guys will do 43 to 65 inch indoor totems 43 to 82 inch outdoor totems um we also have some touch we have some screen also you can have screen for from 32 to 65 just screen we could have outdoor screen and we are designing a new device which is a column which is a two meters column, two times 46 inch. So it's a big, big screen. It's really cool. And there is also some new totem we have experimented with Decathlon, which is landscape totem.

And this is really something you would like in your house to watch TV. It's really fantastic when it's 55 inch. It's landscape and it has a really great look. So give us the website where people can go to find out more about you guys and what you guys are doing with your company. So the website is edgy.digital. It's currently in rework to be ready for the ces so it will be ready monday normally and you can contact us there is a link actually to contact us we are on social media but we are not the king of social media so we are starting to push more content and if people want to contact we have some presentation we have some deck and we we are very pleased to answer to any question about our project.

Actually, we have a network of resellers in France. We are building the network in Europe. And we are coming to the CES also to see if we can find some partner and create a network to provide the offer in the US. And you guys are on Twitter. You guys have a Facebook page under AGI underscore digital. This is going to be pretty interesting. I really like this. In fact, you should probably get CES to put some in through their show everywhere, you know, so people can interact. Like, I know that CES usually has those, they have these maps of where you're at on, you know, so people can interact. Like I know that CES usually has those, they have these maps of where you're at on, you know,

on the CES show thing, which hall you're in and the ups and downs of the first and second floor. But this could be really a great product for CES to use or the convention center here in Las Vegas that CES displays that where they could, you could have these whole interactive maps, and it could show you how to get to wherever. You could watch how to walk to the booth

you want to take and go to, and all that good stuff. Yeah, and there is also another application for events like the CES. You could have some admin user that goes somewhere where there is a speech or something, and they take the video and they send it and in all the world you can see what is in other places and say oh there is

something interesting i could go there so it's also the the the real-time thing you can create some news we have some components that manage news and you can put photo or video of that and it really works well that's awesome that, man. That's awesome. It's an amazing interactive world, and the fact that you can just do this from the simplicity of your phone, and just bang it out, and you're just like, go up. And it looks like the outdoor signage will work with an external battery. They have all the Wi-Fi in them, so you can communicate, update,

and all that sort of good stuff that you guys can update the software on it and that's just amazing man it's a it's a wild world we're going to yeah me I'm still like a kid when I use our app because I find it you know when I take the phone and I make demo to some client I was in a ski resort and i said look you can do this you take a video you press click and it's on the wall you it's it's amazing it's magic for me yeah you can entertain people uh you know like i say i mean if you're a restaurant if you're a shop in a mall trying to get people to come in the door is is hard and and you'll see them walking by and they'll kind of they'll look kind of in your shop and you know see but if you could have something that could

display some of your finest stuff the interactions maybe you know like we remember back in the day we used to have a clothing store that sold a lot of hip hop stuff and we had these we had these Brazilian jeans that were low-waisted for the girls the girls loved them and um and you know sometimes you just have a stupid mannequin there which is pretty much static it's it's just a mannequin standing there with the thing but if you could have like you know showing a video of the girl you know showing off all the angles of the beautiful jeans and the girls are walking by going oh those look really good on her. I'll buy from those

because that's usually how we buy. We see like an image or a video of somebody who has something that we think would look good on us or something we might want. And then we're motivated to get that. Where if you just see like a dead mannequin that's very static, it's kind of boring. Yeah, and there is also other experience.

I have contacted someone in france who has a startup which is linked to wine it's to create some trip around wine so if you say okay next week i want to go in burgundy uh you can you can very easily find platform to book your train your flight your hotel but when it comes to Wineyard, it's quite difficult. So these guys have created a platform for that. And you can go to their platform and say, okay, I organize. So Monday, I will go to this wine yard. The afternoon, I will go there. The next day, I will do that. And I have spoken with him. And the idea is to link that to our offer. So wine yard company could have my wall with some interactive table in their place.

And when people will come, they will make some degustation of wine. We will push some RFID under the glass. So you drink your wine. Oh, I like it. You approach it from the interactive table. You have your wine which appear with a lot of information. The wineyard, if you use my wall with phone, it could take some photo of the wineyard part

when during the summer, during the winter, when there is a vintage and show some video. And if the people like the wine, they could have some kind of card with some RFID, they push it and immediately the basket of wines they like will be linked to their cloud. And when they come back home, they find all the things they were liking. So you can create really some very great experience mixing interactive wall, mixing other platform, RFID, and yes, it's really great. Yeah, the RFID would be pretty interesting to do with it. Or what else would be good? I'm thinking of NFC, maybe?

Yes. Is there a possibility? So we have already made a poke for RFID. I'm not sure we will bring it to Las Vegas. I need to check. But we have already done it, and it's already in process

for some clients. And for the NFC, we are starting to plug our wall with a platform. I don't know in the US, but but in Europe it's really used. It's sum up. It's a little box. It makes a payment, etc. So you can also plug it to some payment platform. That's awesome. You know what would be cool too is if you guys can somehow use the RFD or the NFC to take and say it was a restaurant I could check in to wait in line for the restaurant and then it lets me know on my

phone maybe I don't know. Interesting. Yes one of the idea because I have a partner in Thailand was also you know you arrive in a hotel you have a digital wall and you see this diving activity, which is great, this journey in some island, etc. And you say, okay, I want to plug that, that, that. And you have some kind of QR code. You could use some payment like WeChat or things like that. And you can book immediately.

And this is the kind of thing we are working on also. That's pretty brilliant because I know a lot of hotels are trying to do that now as an added revenue stream. They're trying to make activities surrounding their hotels. And so they're selling packages like ski packages or go. I know like a lot of hotels, like if you go to like different national parks, they'll have like, you know, hey, river running trips or rock climbing trips, different things you can go. I know some hotels, they just have like this static stand and they

just have like these brochures that you just pile in there. Yeah. And you know, the idea for that is also to say the hotel could have the wall to present all these things with interactive, but also the guy who provide this activity could have some rights because we have some rule, there is admin user and they can use a phone where they can just push some video and so in the hotel instead of having a photo, something very passive where you don't

know exactly, you have a video of the guy who can present his activity, you can see some extract he has taken with his phone of the activity by itself and it changed completely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I've had places where I've gone to, like I've been traveling, I go to a nice bar

and the waiter will be like, you know, what kind of drink you have? And you'll see somebody else drinking a drink that looks really cool, you know, some orange mark. And you're like, hey, I want what that is. And if you can have an interactive wall it would show some of the different drinks your place serves or food or clothes you might have or different activities you have i think this would be brilliant yeah and there is the last thing also we were speaking about rfid and all these things it's also uh we have a push a feature

for instance for estate agency so you could have an interactive storefront or an outdoor wall and if someone like some kind of the estate he could have a QR code he push his phone and he has immediately the content on his phone

so it avoid to ask for mail or things like that so you could want to ask it, but people are often a bit scared to push this kind of thing on a public wall. But if you have a QR code, you could have automatically the information on your phone. You've been able to sign up for mailing lists too with a QR code, right? Sorry? Could you sign up for mailing lists on a QR code? Like I said, I'm like, send me an email on what you guys are offering there. And I scan the QR code, it pulls up the website,

and I can enter my email and get on the email list from the company maybe. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That would be awesome. Yeah, there's some countries that QR codes are really huge in, and they love scanning them. And then, of course, they can go to the website. They can see more, interact.

They can maybe sign up for lists. They can maybe like your Facebook, maybe follow you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter, all that sort of good stuff. You can do discounts. Like, I know Yelp does a thing. Like, sometimes when i go into uh places to eat they go hey if you check in on yelp we'll give you a free ice cream or something you know like that free break whatever um so someone could have like that they're like hey

if you check in with our wall you know scan the qr code check in we give you a you know whatever yeah in fact there is really a lot of interactivity possible and our goal is really to have created a generic platform something very flexible that allow to if you come with a new activity it's very easy for us because we have some component but are very generic very adaptable and we can create templates very easily, even for new activities. So, yeah, and there is, yeah, you've got QR code, you've got

RFID. There is so much things to do with this. So, yes, it's an amazing world. It's going to be awesome. All right, so give us the website again that people can take a look at yes so it's

edgy.digital ok and then we're going to be seeing you guys at booth number it's going to be

Eureka Park at CES 50059-6 so put that in your CES show app if you haven't gotten a chance So put that in your CS show app. Uh, if you haven't gotten a chance yet, guys,

download the CS show app, search for these guys on there and that booth number five, zero zero five nine dash six and Eureka park. Go see these guys, check out their technology and stuff and, uh, tell them Chris Boston. Yeah.

So there's that. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Grace. Yeah. We definitely want to see more of this technology now every time I walk by a display that static and it just has a backer now you'll be like you you've been retired there's a

company that's putting you guys out of business right there so anyway guys we certainly appreciate you guys coming on the show. Anything else we need to know, Steph? No, I think we have made a lot of stories. It's really the spirit, I think. Sounds good. Awesome. The last thing is if there is some people interested, we are really searching some partners to be able to push the offer in the US because we need

a network. We need a network of IT companies to be able to sell the product because they know the client. You should take this on Shark Tank. This would be an interesting thing to take on Shark Tank, the TV show. Have you ever seen

that show? No, no, no. We have to take on Shark Tank, the TV show. Have you ever seen that show? No, no, no. We have this show called Shark Tank here with Mark Cuban and a bunch of VCs. And entrepreneurs come and they pitch them and they put it on TV. And then the VCs kind of fight over how much money they're going to give and percentages. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I have heard about it. Yes.

VX is probably a better place for you. Yes, I have tried one in Europe, and they told us that we were too old. Yeah, they usually want to portion your company just to get on the show, so it's interesting. But anyway, I'm going to be doing a video with you guys at your guys' booth at Eureka Park, so I'll look forward to that during the week of CES so people can check out some of that media. We'll be promoting guys throughout the week, so

be sure to watch that as well. Certainly appreciate, Stefan, for coming by today. Have some safe travels coming to America. And bring your good walking shoes, lots of water, and lots of vitamin C and anti-flu stuff, because all the sick

people in the world come here. It's like a triad disease area. It's good. It's fun. And those of you who missed the shows last week, we interviewed the CEO of CES and CTA actually is what runs CES, Gary Shapiro. So be sure to check out his book and all that good stuff. He has some good insights for where the show is out his book and all that good stuff. He has some good insights for where the show's going to go and

all that fun stuff. So anyway, I appreciate my audience for checking in today. Be sure to give us a like, subscribe to us on YouTube, hit that bell notification button so you get all the notifications of Chris Voss Show and all the CES coverage. Holy crap. Be sure to go to iTunes, Google Play, tell your friends to subscribe

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