Entrepreneurship lives at the intersection of vision and grit. Geoff Weber, founder of Heirloom Cloud, reveals the spark that launched his company, the emotion behind safeguarding family legacies, and the reality of finding fuel to scale. Expect lessons on leading through turbulence, navigating international growth, and building a team that reflects the world it serves. Curiosity drives innovation. Diversity strengthens outcomes. Networks open doors. If you are growing something meaningful, Geoff offers a playbook for courage, connection, and next moves.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Curiosity fuels resilience
For Geoff, curiosity isn’t just a trait. It is the compass that helps him navigate uncertainty, adapt quickly, and keep pushing when challenges pile up.
2️⃣ Diverse teams drive better outcomes
From empowering neurodiverse talent to disrupting monoculture, Geoff shows how building a team that reflects many perspectives unlocks innovation and stronger decision-making.
3️⃣ Networks open doors
Capital is vital, but talent and relationships matter more. Geoff stresses that building and nurturing your network creates the opportunities and resources needed to grow.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Chaos
01:42 The Entrepreneurial Journey Begins
03:07 The Birth of Heirloom Cloud Corporation
05:31 Preserving Memories in the Digital Age
08:06 The Emotional Impact of Heirloom
10:08 Challenges in Funding and Growth
12:25 Navigating International Challenges
15:32 Leadership in Times of Crisis
18:23 Lessons Learned in Entrepreneurship
22:17 The Importance of Curiosity
25:52 Building a Diverse Team
29:14 Empowering Neurodiversity in the Workplace
34:24 Disrupting Monoculture: Embracing Diversity in Talent
37:15 The Importance of Networking and Building Connections
44:06 Navigating Challenges: The Need for Capital and Talent
49:20 Future Aspirations: Celebrating Success and Innovation
51:40 Blessed with Opportunities: Embracing Challenges
58:57 Key Advice for Entrepreneurs: Dare Greatly and Build Your Network
🔗 Learn more about Geoff & Heirloom Cloud Corporation with the links below:
Website: https://heirloom.cloud/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-weber/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heirloom.cloud/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heirloomcloud
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:01.292)
All right, welcome to Hello Chaos, the show where founders, innovators and chaotic minds get real and unfiltered about the mess, the magic and mayhem of entrepreneurship. I am Jennifer J.J., your host and fellow work in progress. And today we have Geoff Weber. He is the CEO of Heirloom Cloud Corporation, calling out Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Well, our little Carolina neighbor. Welcome to the show.
Geoff, welcome to Chaos.
Geoff Weber (00:32.546)
Well, I love it. Chaos is every day from the moment you're hit your feet. Well, yeah, I did mention my dad's getting a root canal right now. He's in his eighties. And so we're kind of multi-generational in my family. got 20 somethings kind of still at home. I've got to take care of dad in his eighties. Love the chaos. Wouldn't want it any other way. And I was really saying from the moment your feet hit the floor, when you get out of bed,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:35.086)
Every day. You're in a bit of chaos today too.
Geoff Weber (01:02.549)
until you just cannot stand up anymore and you retire for the evening. It's chaotic and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03.509)
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:11.738)
I love that. You know, I'm like, think I'm, we're bred that way, I think. It makes us a little bit special. It's not for everybody, for sure. Well, so, start us at how did you get into entrepreneurship? What made you start the Heirloom Cloud Corporation?
Geoff Weber (01:21.335)
No.
Geoff Weber (01:30.498)
Wow. So I wish my dad were here because he was the first one to utter the word while I was still, I think 12 years old. was a steel crisis. We were living in Pittsburgh at the time and he was writing his resignation letter to U S steel, knowing that the industry was going in the toilet and he realized I'm going to go on my own. I'll be a metals broker. and he was sitting at the kitchen table writing a letter.
And my mom was helping him and he said, I'm going to be a, entrepreneur. And I was like, I don't know. was studying French at the time. And so I'm like, it means between things like between supply and demand dad, I love that. So, but it was more than him uttering the word. He, he was working from home from like 1981 until he retired, I don't know, maybe a decade ago. And so my dad had.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:04.366)
The worst word ever.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:26.527)
Wow.
Geoff Weber (02:28.327)
always been an entrepreneur. And so it was kind of in my blood. I had a very circuitous route to where I am right now. I was a business owner back in the nineties, then this little thing called September 11th hit. And I said, I want to join the federal government. And then leaving there after retirement, I launched Heirloom Cloud Corporation. are headquartered here in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:53.304)
So what does it do, so what got you into that?
Geoff Weber (02:58.322)
34 years of marriage still. Happy years, you know, life. And I'll go through those years in the early days. My wife and I got married in 1990. We had a big camcorder and we're like, Hey, look at us. We're, you know, dual income, no kids having fun, young married. We're skiing, we're doing all this stuff. And then it was like, the tape ran out, run down to Walgreens and get another VHS cassette.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:02.232)
Very good.
Geoff Weber (03:27.505)
So we would do that. And then the cameras got smaller. Radio check. know, the cameras got smaller. We would take the film reels and send them to CVS and then the prints would come back. But we were always really just recording life. And we had done this for many, many years, but throughout the process, it was always difficult. And, and to me, it was the sigh. My wife would make a sigh like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:30.358)
Radio Shack.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:44.194)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (03:57.008)
And it was like, I want to order doubles to the prints, but Seattle film works online. Won't let you to order doubles. Can you go around the corner? I'm like, there's got to be a better way. And so we've had this evolution. Yes, indeed. The iPhone 2007, we're all digital now. Right? Not exactly. Not exactly. And so no, no, mom and dad, they've got boxes of tapes and film reels and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:05.294)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:15.426)
Right? yes. Really?
Geoff Weber (04:25.187)
photos that are stuck in albums. continue to take pictures with our devices, but then we're chaotic. Hence, hello chaos. And I used to store stuff on Facebook, but now I switched over to a different platform and no, I put all my pictures onto that desktop computer. Heirloom solves that problem and puts everything into one private social network. And so it's redundant.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:25.358)
No
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:33.538)
Hello chaos, that's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:39.032)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:50.926)
Geoff Weber (04:53.39)
Um, we have a data center here in South Carolina, one in Northern Virginia, one on the West coast. And so even if our building goes boom and blows up, your memories are safe. Not that big a deal for anyone that's already using Google photos or iCloud. They're on cloud as well. Redundant cloud, but ours is different because it's private. Um, and so it's not free. You pay a subscription. mean, it's crazy. It's $20 a year, Jennifer. Whoa. To keep my memory safe. However, you have.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:06.413)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:17.675)
Geoff Weber (05:21.934)
full control over your memories. And then you get the long tail of what heirloom does, which is have mom send this box of tapes. Um, and I want those on my heirloom account because there was me as a little girl, as a ballerina back in the nineties or whatever. so it's all of your memories in one place.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:23.618)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:36.663)
Yeah
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:41.08)
But also it's like, know, meta, we all say like, here's the memories from seven years ago, but they're starting to delete that stuff. So it's like, my God, I need to capture that, but where do I put it? So you are the answer to that.
Geoff Weber (05:52.883)
You know, yes, yeah. So you can put it on the cloud and you know, a dirty little secret cloud is not free. but it's also pretty cheap. So, and you're going to have to pay something. The philosophy of heirloom is the user pays. And so if you are, let's say my dad that has tons of memories, he has to pay an account to store all of that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:06.029)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (06:19.209)
He can, he can share it with unlimited numbers of people. Those people don't need to pay for an account. That's free. it's only when the user has over a gigabyte of O memories where they have to pay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:24.151)
Yeah.
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:30.83)
It's the storage, like you're paying for storage. No different than your storage for your junk.
Geoff Weber (06:35.58)
It's. It's storage, but.
But no, we're different. We don't drop things into a digital box. So, you know, there's other companies that will convert analog media onto a DVD. So they go from analog clutter to physical or analog or physical clutter to digital clutter. Or some people say, well, I dropped it in Dropbox and if I need it, I'll find it. You can't, that doesn't work. Heirloom basically does it all. It does the metadata fusion. So you could say,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:49.693)
yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:01.144)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (07:08.657)
Hey, heirloom find mom saying happy birthday, Geoff, while she's carrying a cake. And it knows my mom's voice. My mom passed away several years ago. I love finding these memories of her or having heirloom tell me, Hey, mom died a couple of years ago today. Maybe you should talk to your dad or send him this memory of the three of you guys all together. And so there's a, we, we, we had heirloom believe there's a much better way.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:14.765)
nice.
Geoff Weber (07:38.309)
to do life. It's not necessarily social media. It's not necessarily cloud storage. It's kind of all of those things coming together and having a baby as they say in the entrepreneur world. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:49.602)
Yeah, yeah. So what's been the most rewarding part then of all of this?
Geoff Weber (07:58.095)
customers in tears?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:59.918)
Mmm.
Geoff Weber (08:02.149)
Uh, I hear the calls. Um, they call up and they tell us their stories and they say, I, I'd never heard my dad's voice before he died when I was a baby. And, and now I'm watching video of him holding me as a child 30 years ago and loving me. And I, I see it in his eyes. I hear it in his voice. And I never knew that you brought these stories back to life.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:02.806)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:13.87)
Sorry.
Geoff Weber (08:30.425)
And that's, that's really my mission in life. We like to think of heirloom as becoming the world's best memory organization company. And so we're currently serving the entire United States from South Carolina. Someone could walk into any UPS store, drop off a bag of clutter, to the UPS store. And a couple of days later, it's in South Carolina. And a couple of days after that, it's streaming on their phone. It's forever safe.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:30.506)
Safe memories, yeah.
Geoff Weber (08:58.121)
Never worry about the next hurricane, Helene or fires in Los Angeles. Your memories are forever safe and easy and safe to share.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:08.416)
Nice. That's a, you're creating impact. mean, your emotions. Memories. That's the...
Geoff Weber (09:16.195)
It's powerful, you know, and, you know, I know we're supposed to talk about our ups and our downs. You know, one of the downs is you talk to potential investors or let's say we went through a startup accelerator a couple of years ago and everyone's like, no, I'll just use. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:22.189)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:30.858)
Okay. Was that local? Was that down in Charleston area or did you have to travel for that or?
Geoff Weber (09:37.634)
no, we, we went through the Harbor entrepreneur center in Mount Pleasant. went through their accelerator, but everyone's like, you're, cloud storage. it's like, failed to really understand, to, explain the value proposition of what we're building at Arrow. So we understand that's been, I would say one of the lows is maybe investors don't quite yet understand what we're building. I'm talking institutional investors.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:42.701)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:52.438)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:04.589)
Right.
Geoff Weber (10:05.749)
But our customers do. And what's really crazy, Jennifer, we have had, believe me, I got to, I want to not run a foul of SBC regulations here. This is not general solicitation, but we have had customers who called us up. We're so excited about what we did for them, wanted to know more about our company. And within weeks, they were angel investors in our company. A accredited angel saying, I love this. I see where it's going. And so.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:29.259)
my god, that's fantastic.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:35.136)
Right? It's like you're crowdsourcing from your own, you know, from your own customers.
Geoff Weber (10:36.125)
Where
Geoff Weber (10:40.752)
We're not soliciting, but if someone meets the definition of accredited investor, they come to us, we'll sell them safes. So we're growing, we're actually a lot of revenue as you might imagine, because Heirloom serves not just consumers, we've done work for television stations and government agencies.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:49.155)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:02.04)
So media, just media storage of, know, safe media storage.
Geoff Weber (11:08.51)
97 % of the federal government is non-digital. And so if we're really talking about government efficiency, I'm telling you the folks at the Department of Energy, they're well aware of this. How do we get this years of data off this magnetic media? How can heirloom ingest it rapidly so we can make sense of it? Because it's not machine readable. We can't do AI on these eight inch floppy disks.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:13.954)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (11:37.733)
So it needs to, the form needs to be changed or we have warehouses of paper documents. So we've had several government agencies from municipalities, states, and some federal customers. So it's enormous. Maybe it's not sexy, know, biotech or something else, but there certainly, there is an AI component to what we're doing. Cause you, like I said, you can't do AI.
on that box of paper sitting in a government warehouse.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:08.074)
Exactly. So you talked about the challenge of funding and investor kind of your pitch. Has that been the only challenge that you had with after you kind of had this concept and starting and now you're scaling? There's got to be other challenges. Like what's been a big shit moment for you?
Geoff Weber (12:20.954)
No, no, no.
Okay. So, you know, maybe we can't pay $200, $300,000 a year to a backend developer, front end coder or UX designer. And so we've, we've, we found talent wherever we can find it. We've got a great backend guy in Tashkent Uzbekistan. We have a team or had a team operating out of Ukraine. our front end, our chief engineer is remote. He's in Ohio. but really we're.
directing the code build from here in South Carolina. And it was early 2022. I'm a retired intelligence officer. I'm telling my guys in Ukraine, you're probably not going to be safe. The Russians are going to come across the border and I'm not revealing anything that's classified. This, everyone knows this is going to happen. The heart of Ukrainians are, it's just, it's, I used to
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:59.246)
All
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:18.402)
Right.
Geoff Weber (13:26.4)
work and live there. And so I know this well. It's, got this, we got this positive, always positive, but the, the real aha or really the shit moment, if you will, was on a zoom call with our front end developer. He's in a high rise in Harkeve and I can see that what time of the day it was a someone's kind of setting. it's getting dark in the window behind him and I'm seeing flashes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:38.702)
You
Geoff Weber (13:56.926)
And then I see him run and the missiles were hitting their building in Harkeev. And I'm like, Sergey, you need to go. We've been telling you about this. Thank you for your diligence, but like you need to protect yourself and your family. So that team kind of disbanded much of it moved out West to Lviv and elsewhere. But that was a, you know, here we are being.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:03.758)
Holy crap!
Geoff Weber (14:26.005)
our build was being taken over by international events. And it was scary to see that happen.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:33.912)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:37.934)
How did you guys over cut like what did you do to keep the the team energy and motivation or or you know come back together like what what what went through your head and like how did you deal with all that from a from a founder a leader a manager curious that was I don't think we've ever had anybody with that kind of a challenge
Geoff Weber (14:59.994)
Well, I thank God I was trained by Marine Corps gunnery sergeants. I'm a retired S Navy officer. And all those years of being in the fight really prepared me for this. so, another IED. Okay. someone's shooting at us again. I'm glad I have my Kevlar on. And so coming back to America and saying, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I'm ready for the bullets to fly. Bring them.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:27.906)
Yeah, you're ready for chaos.
Geoff Weber (15:30.244)
Yeah, I'm ready for chaos. I lived it many years in special operations. My last tour, I had to drag my family with me to Moscow. Russia was one of our defense attaches working out of our embassy and covering essentially 11 time zones in a very difficult nation. And I wanted to say to you, this would be my greeting, basically means hello chaos.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:59.603)
say that again. I need to hear that one again.
Geoff Weber (16:02.329)
So, Privet is basically hi, hello, and Biaspa Jarda. It just means like clutter, chaotic mess.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:06.094)
Preview.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:11.47)
I was like, that's a long for chaos.
Geoff Weber (16:15.086)
Yeah, Russian is a very hard language. I'm thankful to the US government for having trained me and not just officially, but being able to do some immersion training, basically living with families out in the hinterlands of Russia and really, you know, go and grocery shopping with them and living with them as part of their family. my government trained me to talk to a whole bunch of people.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:30.508)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (16:44.769)
with different language and culture around the world and not just Russian, but just chaotic. And so here I am back in this country, which is the best in the world, the finest system of government and laws. yeah, things get a little messy from time to time, but it's not Gaza. It's not Beirut. It's not Moscow.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:47.884)
Yeah, that's so fascinating.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:09.718)
Yeah. Yeah.
Geoff Weber (17:14.569)
you know, pick your garden spot where there's a major flare up in the world. We were visited with some horror back on September 11th. That was a very chaotic day. Certainly changed my life. But we are blessed to be Americans and have that attitude of can do, we can do this. And I think we do it best when we understand that
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:28.824)
Yep, changed mine, yeah, I am.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:34.84)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (17:43.23)
that we did kind of that office episode where he says, I already won the lottery. I was born in America. You know, we get to live here. It's a wonderful nation where you can be an entrepreneur and you can fail and you can struggle and you can learn and you can pivot and reinvent. So I was just super intrigued when I saw, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:50.146)
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:04.834)
That's right.
Geoff Weber (18:10.666)
Hello, Chaos. This is a great podcast. want to be on the air and answer any questions, but just, you know, what would be of interest to your listeners?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:13.253)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:20.738)
Well, okay, so you talk about, you felt like you were prepared for chaos and the bullets and the like, just bring it on. And by the way, we don't ever say failure. We just say there are lessons learned. It's just pivots. It's just steps forward. There are no failures in entrepreneurship and foundership. We just move. But were there myths or misperceptions that you had going in? Like,
I was told this and that and then you were like, my gosh the bullets. No one prepared me for this. Did you have any of those moments?
Geoff Weber (18:55.975)
Yeah, there were many. And I think many of them are kind of on the technical side and they're boring to talk about. I think, yeah, really to kind of get around that is as an entrepreneur, we need to be incredibly humble. Certainly driven and you have a North Star, whatever that might be.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:05.769)
me.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:23.917)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (19:25.245)
But you have to have wise counsel and many wise counselors. And I've been over 50 some years of life. I've been blessed to have many in a variety of domains. And so it's just putting your heart out there and say, Hey, I've got this idea and like, that's interesting. But you know, here's a challenge or, you didn't think about this, that, or the other, or what does, what does Google have to say about that? Or.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:51.235)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:54.582)
I
Geoff Weber (19:55.431)
or a large language model like ChatGPT. Like these are great tools we have to really help guide us on our entrepreneurial journey. I did, after deciding to retire from the federal government, this is a few years ago, and I was telling my wife, like, I want to work in a startup. And she said, no, no.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:58.606)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:15.852)
Yeah. Are you crazy?
Geoff Weber (20:19.974)
Here we go again, because we did a business life and then we did government and now he wants to go back into business. I'm like, I'm not dead yet. I'm only in my 50s. It's like, I'm ready to be a founder. And I wrote down some principles that came right from the heart. And one of those was always research before making a decision. I mean, it's super basic, but I don't know how many times I've jumped into and made a decision just based on impulse.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:29.624)
Like, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:39.928)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:49.326)
All right.
Geoff Weber (20:49.509)
And, now everything, I'm seeking counsel. There are very few decisions other than, do you want, cheese on that burger or no cheese? Obviously that's a quick decision, but so many decisions that we are, we have to make on a daily basis. I keep asking myself, can I decide this tomorrow? When is the latest time that I need to make a decision about this? Because.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:02.102)
You
Geoff Weber (21:18.516)
If it's something that's of strategic value, I want to give it the proper diligence. And it might seem, it might seem like something small. No, you just need to respond to this person's email. And I don't want to just respond with a simple yes or no. I want to say, what are they feeling? How can I develop a partnership with this person? How, what, what are their, this person's needs, hopes, wants, desires for reaching out to me to give them.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:24.419)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:33.73)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:44.429)
Right.
Geoff Weber (21:47.544)
the full spectrum of my attention. so I do, I would implore your listeners to do the research, to have many counselors. And then at the same time, here we are with the move fast and break things kind of chaotic world, which is also good, but what is the mix? What things can you decide quickly and what things are worth a little bit more of your attention?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:04.333)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:14.828)
Yeah, I love what you're talking about. You're speaking my language and all the questions. call it, you know, we say curiosity is a strategy. That it is, you need to ask the right questions. And you're right, from a decision, the way I look at it, you know, what decisions create the least impact on other people? Those are the things that I can do, you know, more quickly. But I've got to ask, like, the frameworks of, you know,
Is this gonna create more value? Is this going to hurt or help a connection? Is this gonna help and serve others around me? And you gotta have to have those kind of framing questions, but it's all around, kind of make sure you have curiosity to do that. And yeah, you can move quickly, this is, talking to founders and entrepreneurs, it's move quickly, but identify the gaps. At least be self-aware.
and humble enough to go, these are gaps or these are assumptions I'm making and I'm making, and these are assumptions I have no validation of. I am just assuming this is what people think or how they're gonna react. And so as you move forward to break things, it's under, you're validating or you're invalidating that like, well that assumption.
they don't feel this way or they don't like this or they do like this. And so that's kind of that, that's the engine. the, know, that we're always kind of what we call it the flywheel of decision-making, right? But it starts with curiosity, asking those good questions.
Geoff Weber (23:56.927)
I would agree. And as you're talking, Jennifer, I'm thinking about those who have come and gone at heirloom for a variety of reasons. They were typically those who lacked curiosity. We need that. We need to be challenged. And I implore everyone at our organization, challenge me. I mean, that's...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:14.06)
Yeah, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:23.789)
Right.
Geoff Weber (24:26.909)
appreciated. I don't know if you knew this about heirloom, but we have almost half, almost half of our employees are neurodiverse, as am I. And so we were recently recognized by Senator Tim Scott. He did a video of us on Instagram about what we were doing. This was last month during autism awareness month. They brought in a
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:48.78)
Nice.
Geoff Weber (24:54.268)
a news crew and they were talking about how we were doing what we're doing. Let me tell you, a young man, 18 years old, right out of high school, who has autism, he's going to tell me directly what he doesn't like. And he'll tell me, Geoff, yeah, nope. He'll say, Geoff, you're wrong. You thought that was a eight millimeter tape, but it's actually a super eight tape and it needs to go in here. I'm like, great. You are the subject matter expert for this and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:58.19)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:07.426)
Right. No filter. Yes.
Geoff Weber (25:22.393)
I love it. You'll tell us what we had done wrong. We're trying to continuously optimize to scale so that heirloom can be that organizer of all the world's memories. And it's difficult because many of them are stuck in boxes and or on outdated devices. yeah, curiosity. Oh yeah. You have to have that inquisitive nature.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:35.128)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:39.543)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:46.988)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (25:49.848)
Um, I used to work for the director of national intelligence, John Radcliffe back years ago. He's now CIA director, been in the news for other stuff recently, but, um, he, his, his Mark was the curiosity. Um, he, he wanted, um, analysts who were curious and who are asking those questions. Like what is the next black swan event? Cause we had no.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:00.76)
You
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:04.995)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:12.557)
Right.
Geoff Weber (26:18.106)
real understanding that enemies to America were going to fly jet monitors loaded with fuel into critical infrastructure. So love it. Love having been trained by this community. I think it's certainly relevant to what we do at heirloom or really any, any founder, any innovator. we all. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:24.45)
Right, who would have thought? Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:38.914)
Get your community, get your coaches, because you need a coach. You need coaches, you need mentors, you need cheerleaders, and kind of know who those people are in your circle of who's going to give me the advice that I need, the real unfiltered advice. And these folks are really just my cheerleaders. They just keep me going when I need that boost. And then these are like true business coaches that
They know I have the answers inside, but they've got to pull it out of me. You've got to have those mirrors, right, in our life. And I don't know, do you have that circle kind of formulated in your path, in your journey?
Geoff Weber (27:25.109)
It's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:27.63)
Have you dropped them?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:37.955)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:50.582)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (27:51.976)
this morning as she's waking up. like, I had this great zoom call with this person. Like, I love this. And like, I, I'm, I'm so excited. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Like who am going to meet today? and it's not just a new customer that comes in and gives us business. mean, that's good. We love that customers pay the bills, keep the lights on, allow us to make profits. But, of all of our partners and, and,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:03.406)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:10.989)
Right?
Geoff Weber (28:18.898)
and any stakeholder in our organization. It's just super exciting. mean, getting to know you and hello, hello, chaos. It's, you know, it's, are, we are better when we communicate and, and, and, and trade internationally and, and, and working community. Cause if you're going to sit in your room and, and I don't know, be by yourself and just play video games. Well, that's, that's about all you're going to do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:24.46)
Yeah, I know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:48.782)
So I'm curious, you said that you have employees that are all neurodivergent. Did you guys intentionally hire among that community and said these are the type of people we wanna support and empower or was it just happenstance? Was it just accidental?
Geoff Weber (29:14.024)
I think it was providential, from, from a couple of, viewpoints. So here I was thinking of transitioning out of the government. What am I going to do? I was interested in a variety of technology and creating some potential startups, running some others. And, it was at that time, my youngest son who has Asperger's was like, dad, you know, I really like to work. He was applying for a job, but he said, I don't.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:28.28)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (29:41.817)
I don't want apply for this job because I'm probably going to disappoint my employer. He also has another chronic illness that, that affects his, his livelihood. And so, here it's really hard for a dad to hear. He didn't want, he didn't want to be a burden. He wanted to be able to take care of himself. He's going to be 16 years old that summer and he wanted to start, you know, being a contributing and it was a really hard thing for a dad to hear. so.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:54.476)
He didn't want to be a burden. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:04.994)
Right.
Geoff Weber (30:08.333)
I spent that Saturday with him just really Googling and going on like Upwork and places like that and introducing him to like the gig economy. Like you can work from home and you can set your own hours. And he says to me, dad, I don't know anything about business. You'd have to help me with that. What could I do to make money? And there was a a pile of boxes in our home in Northern Virginia that my mother-in-law had sent and my dad had sent. And it was...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:16.909)
Yeah!
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:27.203)
Here.
Geoff Weber (30:38.249)
old photo slides, shoe boxes of photos, VHS tapes. And they saw what I did for my stuff. And they said, Hey, can you do that for us too? And I knew that there was a market there. I knew that there are other companies that were doing this kind of a thing, basically putting them onto DVDs or flash drives. And I'm like, dude, I said to my son, said, turn that into a business. And, and he said, well, I don't know how can you help me? So.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:54.733)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (31:07.212)
We ran some test ads on Facebook, and we started in business and people started sending their stuff to heirloom prototype out of the Weber family basement in Northern Virginia. And, and we had eight GPUs and eight monitors and eight VCRs all running at the same time. And I taught my son how to put VHS tapes in them and load them up and how to curate it and do all the work. And near the end of that.
day he came to, um, he was very stressed, um, which is sometimes someone with Asperger's just kind of can't see the forest through the trees. And he's like, dad, I quit. can't do this. And he's my son. love him. And I'm like, Hey, it's okay, man. Why don't you show me what the problem is? We go down in the basement and there's eight monitors, Jennifer, and they're all playing a little snippets of life. There's like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:47.651)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:53.901)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (32:03.134)
People in the eighties sitting around a Christmas tree, people in the nineties, don't know, rollerblading people in the early two thousands, you know, kid at a violin recital, just life. But my mind went right to this one screen and as a man standing over a bed, yelling at his wife saying, keep pushing honey. The baby's almost here. And it was, well, you'd think.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:26.126)
no. And that freaked him out.
Geoff Weber (32:32.158)
but not someone with autism. So that was that it kind of freaked me out. Nothing graphic, but it was really emotional. was really emotional. I was there for all three of my kids births. I'm glad they weren't recording because I was probably crying and my God, it was so emotional. mean, you bring in life into the world. It's an amazing event. But so I say to my son, say, hey, you know, very cognizant of the elephant in the room.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:40.397)
Right.
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (33:00.346)
as his videos playing and I said, so what's the problem? And he said, dad, I can't possibly maintain the same level of quality because this is a Panasonic 3200 VCR and this is a Panasonic 3200, but this is a Panasonic 1600 and the output is monophonic and I can't possibly have the same quality as a serial. And I'm just like, man, I love you. You are, you are awesome. And I was wondering.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:03.938)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:11.719)
yay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:24.419)
Yeah
Geoff Weber (33:29.383)
How am I going to scale this company with quality? Because I won't name the names, but these other companies around the country that say they do the same things until you read their reviews and they're horrible. They didn't realize that the tape was put in backwards or whatever and the quality was really bad. And I wasn't going to deliver. This is not a commodity service. This is high quality service. We did not want to disappoint.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:32.834)
Yeah. Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:42.478)
They're not, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:47.585)
Right.
Geoff Weber (33:57.645)
our workers on the autism spectrum are fabulous at that. At the same time, I'm working for John Radcliffe. He's the DNI director. He's like, hey, how can we do things better in the intelligence community? And this is probably one of the first times that someone that worked for, who's on the president's cabinet was coming to us asking for advice. And I wrote a paper and it was,
I was very critical of the community from which I served. I considered it kind of a monoculture. We were all, I don't know, middle age white guys who went to Georgetown University and were relatively smart. And we've got 2.2 kids at home and nothing wrong with that, but like we need more perspectives. And so I wrote this paper called Disrupting a Monoculture by
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:28.162)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:45.293)
Right?
Geoff Weber (34:53.665)
recruiting autistic talent and it won the Galileo award that year. And since that time, I, I'm now happy to say I'm retired and the NSA is recruiting people with autism. The national geospatial intelligence agency is doing the same. That was another proof that I think we're on the right track here. there, there is, there's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:55.991)
Nice.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:05.998)
That is awesome.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:14.028)
Yeah, everybody has special gifts and talents. How do you, how do you empower that and engage with that? Perfect.
Geoff Weber (35:23.201)
Yeah. So, so it was, it was very purposeful about how we did this, but it wasn't, you know, as they said, that linear path, was down, back, forward, all, all around the place. And we will always be a company that are, will be exceptional due to, diversity of perspectives and understandings and the way we see the world. it,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:44.194)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:47.874)
the gifts of brains, you know? I mean, that's what it is. Yeah.
Geoff Weber (35:50.516)
The gift of brains and, and, and for a lot of things, I don't have it, but you know, this guy here, 18 years old just left home and, was, was, thought he'd never get a job. And he not only is employed at heirloom, but after one year, he gets stock options.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:54.936)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:11.662)
that are separate from mom and dad, you know, options. Off the payroll, as we say.
Geoff Weber (36:14.313)
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah? Yes!
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:21.944)
We love that. Okay, so I love that that is the most fascinating story and just like I said, like you're finding, putting strengths and gifts of people and putting them in the right moments, right roles, right seats and doing it through like just a broader inclusivity and accessibility.
I mean mindset, so fantastic. Tim Scott should have given a shout out, that's awesome. Sorry.
Geoff Weber (36:58.942)
was really nice. He's a great, great guy. I'll admit when they approached us, said, you know, political environment's kind of like anti-DEI. I'm just kind of wondering, you know, how does this fit? And it was the Senator firmly believes in the dignity of work. And I'm like, you betcha. I do too. So here we go. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:12.11)
Alright.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:20.066)
That's right. That is fantastic. I like that the, you know, the dignity of work. That's a good way of framing that. If you had to, okay, so if you had to go step back and go, if I could do some, like knowing what I know now, the gift of hindsight, what would you do differently? Like, is there something you're like, man, I wish I would have known that.
Geoff Weber (37:44.477)
My mother would say I was meant to be an intelligence officer because the first thing I did when I came out of the womb was like, kind of like looked all around like, who, who is this and who's that? I was kind of curious that the inquisitive nature, which is good, but I spent much of my life that way. Kind of in the shadows, if you will.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:01.581)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (38:10.567)
being part of the intelligence community. And it was only the last several years that I started really building a professional network. And so I would implore anyone get out, talk to people, high school, college, entrepreneur club, grad student, just got fired from Dropbox and you're looking to pivot, talk.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:19.223)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (38:36.419)
Talk, just meet as many people as, as, as possible. And I think it's always a, always a good idea to, to look for something special in every person. someone has. Everyone you meet has some kind of a story, learn it and, and, and allow them to speak. And,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:52.888)
Find everybody has a gift. Everybody has a gift.
Geoff Weber (39:03.702)
And we can't be friends with a thousand people. That's wrong. Facebook is wrong. We don't have a thousand friends. We believe, due to research that we're doing at Clemson University on building a whole new social networking platform at heirloom, that you can have about a hundred to a hundred and fifty, what we would call friends. Beyond that, it's just a whole bunch of acquaintances, but make those acquaintances.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:19.938)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:24.846)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (39:29.678)
That, that acquaintance may turn in to be a lifetime friend, but you, you've got to, I guess some people say you got to percolate to circulate. No, you have to circulate to percolate something. Yeah. So get, get out there, talk to people and, be genuinely interested in, in what they have to say and their stories. And oftentimes it's going to be people that are older than us who've lived a few more years and they've.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:39.586)
Yeah. I like that.
Geoff Weber (39:57.178)
They've had more life challenges from which to learn. And so let's reach out to them.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:57.294)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:03.202)
Right.
Exactly. was like, you know, we call it like social capital, right? But you're right. You got to you got to invest in the network and building your circle. I call and then like you're building up your currency. The capital is just like, what's the big network? But then it becomes currency. How do I want to spend it? How do I want to, you know, what another founder friend? She's so funny. She's like, I've put everybody in like circles. So I've got my.
really close like community circle and then I have the next layer and then she goes, I have seven rings. And sometimes I, and then, you know, I promote people and demote people, every like people fluctuate and I was like, do they know that? Like, do you do, you've been invited into my, and she was like, no, it's just in my mind of, you're not really, you know, we all compartmentalize of these are my cheerleaders or,
Geoff Weber (40:50.583)
you
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:03.97)
These are people, these are my safe space. These are my guidance, my guides. They're my advisors. These are my coaches, but I can't do anything really personal with them. And these people are my champions. That's where I spend my currency of get the word out. So it's just how she kinda breaking out the seven rings of her social network.
Geoff Weber (41:32.841)
think she's right. And, and yeah, she's, she's really engineered it. well, and I, I, I think, you know, one of my failures had been, I waited, wait until very late in life to really start getting around and talking. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:34.19)
It was like fascinating.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:38.637)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:48.782)
I'm there with you. No, I'm with you. I'm one of those two of One of the reasons I started the podcast was really about I'm an introvert and I not we run into more I think founders that are introverts than extroverts and we call her like but we become learned extroverts, right? We're like we've got you know, we need to build the our network or capital bit also the curiosity it has to be genuine of you know, I had but I had to teach myself of
The same way I break down a brand, product of like a marketing engine, like building the marketing engine of asking all the thousand questions, I need to do the same thing with people beyond just the team, more of that external people, my social capital and currency. But it's not easy for everybody, I will say.
Geoff Weber (42:47.076)
No, but you know what, if they're listening to your podcast right now, they're learning, they're learning this and they're saying, I got a takeaway today from Jennifer and it's, and Geoff concurs, like, yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:51.542)
I hope so. It's important.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:58.627)
Yeah.
Or they heard from Geoff of like, be curious, like really get to know people, ask their whys. And it's interesting, like I love talking with young people, they always like send me notes, hey, can we meet for coffee? And I just wanna pick your brain and I'm always open for those connections. But I'll tell you, I've learned more from the younger generation of.
Geoff Weber (43:08.244)
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:29.314)
wow, you guys are really bold and confident. I didn't have that. I applaud that, like that, the boldness of, and just like the technical ingenuity of how they look at the world. So I think it's both ways. Like, yeah, they can learn from us and we can learn from, you know, our older generation, but we can also learn from those younger folks as well.
Geoff Weber (43:57.883)
grade.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:59.182)
It's fascinating. Okay, so if I gave you a magic wand, Geoff, and you could change two things about your business today, what two things would you want to change?
Geoff Weber (44:12.697)
Well, I don't think this would come as a surprise to any other entrepreneur or business owner would love more runway. So we're bootstrapping and everything runs through, it's from retained revenue. But how nice would it be to raise a seed and be like, hey, we got seven figures in the bank. We're okay. I also in some ways kind of fear that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:20.398)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:35.426)
Right. We're okay.
Geoff Weber (44:39.95)
because I think that also builds complacency. so I, or like, oh yeah, I just go, spend the money as we've seen many other startups due to their demise. And so a frugal guy, but I think at the end of the day, yeah, think funding capital would be a capital investment would be incredibly helpful. then after that, it's talent. I have not yet met who is going to be this.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:50.242)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:01.826)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:06.584)
Mm-hmm.
Geoff Weber (45:07.511)
Who's going to fit into this C-suite position or that C-suite position? And so really getting, yeah, it is hard. It is. And we've had other people apply for those positions and they just wanted to be paid money. And I know people need an income. We all need an income, but I'm not just hiring people for a job. You need to be sold out, passionate, curious, inquisitive.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:11.79)
It's hard. is really hard.
Geoff Weber (45:37.265)
and, and, and, so I'm looking for those, those, it's kind of unicorns in a variety of different domains, whether it be engineering AI, marketing, finance, we're, still building a team. function as a team now, but, it, it really comes down to talent and capital. And I think any, any business would say the same thing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:46.168)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:03.47)
That's right.
That's right, gives freedom. The capital gives the freedom of the decisions and then the talent just gives some of the engine so that, so it's not all on you, right? You don't wanna be the gatekeeper of stuff. The bottleneck.
Geoff Weber (46:24.427)
Yeah. as a senior person at Heirloom, I'm majority shareholder, chairman, but I'm also the CEO and people are like impressed by that. And when you're a small company, we're 14 of us now at Heirloom. And I remind people, it stands for Chief Everything Officer when you're at this stage. And I can't do it all. So we're really recruiting a team. We hire slow.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:38.434)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:44.163)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:47.532)
Right.
Geoff Weber (46:55.023)
I think the best companies hire slow, fire fast.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:55.072)
As you should, yeah. Higher, slow, find the, and with the, you know, I think things we've learned too over time, talking with startups to scale ups and ones that have really kind of gone into the maturity stage, it's, you gotta also get people, not just with the right, you know, drive and grit and whatever the skill set they need for that role, but it's also the right mindset.
Like you cannot get, we've seen where people have hired these wonderful resumes at these big corporations and then they put them in a startup and it's like, they didn't build that engine and they have no idea how to come into a startup or a scale up and recreate what was built at Apple or what was built at, and they don't work out. And then these founders are out six big years.
you know, and wasted two years of time. So that's something that we've kind of we trying to get the message out of like, it's not just about the resume. It's about the mindset of you need somebody that comes in at the at with the right mindset. If you need a startup, it's a skill set. It's a mindset of somebody that knows how to build the system and then work the system to validate that was, you know, versus, you know, scale up. It's now you're
you're advancing those systems and those processes. And then you might need to be ready for a sustainer after that, but you can't put a sustainer personality into these situations. It just won't work. So don't just look at resume, yeah.
Geoff Weber (48:39.783)
We had
We had someone in the marketing world, I remember him coming to me and saying, what's the budget for this campaign? like, know, good SEO doesn't cost anything but time and knowledge. And so we should be building this two years ago. That's what startups do. Startups invest in those types of things rather than, you know, let's get a TV ad and how much money do we have to spend? No, no.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:48.782)
You're like, huh.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:09.452)
Right. Yeah. Right.
Geoff Weber (49:11.979)
yeah, we that that's a sustainer or what we call agency mindset coming from an ad agency or that that's not what we do as a startup or even scale up. But, yeah, it's a, it's those two things, Jennifer. It's, really talent and capital.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:17.336)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:22.636)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:28.234)
All right, so we meet a year from now, next, you know, going into next summer. What are we celebrating?
Geoff Weber (49:35.641)
love it. We're going to celebrate some science that comes out of Clemson University, who's partnered with Airloom. And we're going to hear about a better way of doing life. Surprise, surprise, it has something to do with Airloom. And it's proven by brain science. So, you know, Facebook and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:57.549)
Yeah?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:01.869)
I it.
Geoff Weber (50:04.896)
and Instagram, they've studied these things from a different perspective. We think that we have a more sustainable model, but again, it's Geoff Weber's hypothesis. We're testing this with live volunteers at the college up in behavioral and social sciences at Clemson University. Shout out to Clemson University Research Foundation, Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:09.229)
Mm-hmm.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:16.706)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:27.212)
Yeah. Shout out. Okay, now you've got me intrigued. Intrigued!
Geoff Weber (50:31.852)
Yeah. Great, great stuff, but I can't go beyond that. So year for now, we're going to be like, Hey, when that story came out and it went in the American journal of medicine and everyone said, who is this heirloom company? yeah, we'll, we'll celebrate that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:35.554)
Wow, you'll have to come back.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:42.754)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:48.93)
Fantastic. I can't wait for next year. I want to learn all about it. All right. My question of, OK, your journey, your entrepreneurial journey, what word sums it up?
Geoff Weber (50:53.623)
Awesome.
Geoff Weber (51:01.54)
Well, I'd love to talk about all the bad and this is the Hello Chaos podcast after all. And yet I sit back and I reflect and I'm like, man, what you said one word.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:10.572)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:18.861)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (51:21.038)
Blessed.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:24.556)
I love it. Why do you say blessed?
Geoff Weber (51:25.667)
I mean.
You can be blessed with a problem.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:31.672)
Hmm, that's a nice perspective.
Geoff Weber (51:33.536)
Because, and the bigger the problem, the greater the opportunity. don't know how many times I'm like, whoa, is me this problem or whatever it was. Keep bringing it. Keep bringing it. Maybe I was the right person to receive this. You know, the one problem that we're focused on is how do we, how do do we store it? All the world's stories, keep them safe and shared with the right people. That's the big problem I'm working on, but there's so many others. so, you know, employees.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:45.422)
So lesson.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:55.182)
Pray.
Geoff Weber (52:03.477)
But someone might, everyone will bring you their problem. Don't, don't take that lightly. We, we, we, think we need to flip the script and say, this person trusts me enough to bring me their problem. I, I think it's a blessing. It's an opportunity. It's a blessing. So I think, yeah, that would be the one word.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:07.405)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:18.158)
What's the opportunity? Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:26.626)
That's a great perspective. All right, chapter forward, the next chapter, what's that word that's gonna define that next chapter?
Geoff Weber (52:39.103)
exit. Yeah. Yeah. And people saying, you're, you're going to build this and you're going to sell it to Facebook or Google. And I'm like, I don't know. never say never. to me, exit, includes a variety of options. One would be taking heirloom public. I'm certainly open to that. I think it's a brand that needs to exist by itself, but I'm talking about my personal exit. I'm like at some point.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:40.691)
you're like, that's right. We're building this.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:51.224)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:05.356)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (53:06.496)
I'm not going to be running this company anymore. I want to hand it off to a much better man or woman as, the chief executive of this growing, um, global, ultimately global corporation. Um, and, and that to me will just be like, Hey honey, let's go sit on the beach. Like we're, we're, we're, we're done. We're done. We did it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:12.28)
Hahaha.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:19.213)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:25.998)
That's right. We did it. We did it. We handed it off. Yeah.
See, you're chief, you're actually COE, Chief of Everything.
Geoff Weber (53:37.321)
Hahaha!
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:38.958)
and then handed it off. You could look at doing an ESOP. What is it the employee, basically you turn it over and sell it to the employees that you've built it. Let it take it, you know. forget app, know, forget meta. He doesn't need any more power. Like hand it over to the people that help you build it.
Geoff Weber (53:48.452)
yeah. Yep.
Geoff Weber (53:58.815)
Yeah, I think as you're right. you know, I have an acronym for the five big tech companies and it's Fagna. And, and, and I rank them by, I don't know if I can say this, how much maybe I, how much I trust their technology.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:08.494)
What are, what is?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:22.104)
Say it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:25.521)
Geoff Weber (54:27.455)
And so I'm not talking about any specific that I know or don't know, but so that would be, you know, Facebook and Apple and Google and Netflix and Amazon to me in that order. We're partners with Amazon. Amazon's helped fund what we've built on their infrastructure. Heirloom is the Swiss bank for your memories. We're riding on the same infrastructure as Netflix through AWS.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:30.083)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:38.371)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:46.729)
wow.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:56.162)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (54:57.108)
And so we do appreciate, we do have a good relationship with AWS. But even then it's a big tech company as are the others. And I think that data matters and we're one of, we're not the only, we're one of very few companies in the technology world that really recognizes you as the owner of your data. And we're not spying on you or not monetizing you as the product and we're not selling your
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:06.926)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:23.894)
Yeah, that to me is a value proposition right there.
Geoff Weber (55:29.211)
And this is why DuckDuckGo and Signal and these other platforms and Proton instead of your Google, I don't know, calendar and your Gmail, these companies are growing because people have felt like they've been, they've been merchandise and it's just, it's not sustainable. And so we're building.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:41.132)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:52.482)
And it's not thinking like it's they've known they've been merchandised. It's only that's a suspicion. I think it's a known fact of your data. That's their platform. Anything you put out there they own no matter what, whether you think otherwise.
Geoff Weber (55:56.346)
Yeah
Geoff Weber (56:01.679)
Yeah
Geoff Weber (56:12.699)
And the reason that we're so bullish on the future, Jennifer, is the majority of rich content does not exist digitally in digital content. It is scrolled away in boxes or on someone's, my documents on their desktop computer because they're afraid of the technology. Many have said, well, I put it onto YouTube so I can share it with some family members.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:16.174)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:31.203)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:41.197)
Yeah.
Geoff Weber (56:41.259)
It's it's a unlisted link. it's safe. It's no, it's not, it's not safe. so like for me, I have, and it brings me to tears sometimes watching it. My daughter who's now 30 as she's a newborn taking her first tub with my wife and my mother-in-law is there and we're talking these stories and she's laughing and cooing and, and, and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:45.218)
No, it's not.
Geoff Weber (57:08.344)
The people I can talk about this video, but the only people who actually have access to it are me, my wife, my daughter, my mother-in-law and my dad. And that's it. And they can't reshare it. They can't download it. They can't do anything with it. It's perpetually safe on heirloom and it's passed down for generations. And so I just, I'm excited about the explosion of connectedness that we could come up with.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:21.656)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:29.134)
Mmm.
Geoff Weber (57:36.738)
When we bring these old memories back to life, even if it was on your phone and you're like, I'm not sure about sharing it with this person. It's safe on heirloom. You can, you are completely in control unless you want to have it broadcast. You say, make this person the contributor. It's a choice, but we, we, we default on, on private and you, you add, the, the high fidelity permissions to make it go more places. But,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:46.114)
Right, right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:52.086)
Right. It's your choice. Right.
Geoff Weber (58:06.262)
We don't have access to the memories, your content. not, we don't know that your family loves this because we see all of your photos and we're using CSAM because we're Google.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:18.904)
Right, you're not selling the metadata of like all the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Geoff Weber (58:24.567)
We're allowing you to curate, use our AI, which is in the confines of your private network to help curate your memories. And that goes nowhere else. So artificial intelligence is fabulous, recognizing patterns and recognizing voices. And it's it's amazing, but we have to be very careful about where we put those things, which are very important to us. And in this case, digital data.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:39.31)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:54.882)
Right, so okay, what would be the top piece of advice you would give to our listeners, founders, entrepreneurs, or maybe top three pieces of advice, but like the big piece of advice of whether, you know, starting or scaling up a business. It's your best advice.
Geoff Weber (59:20.415)
Well, and everyone says this, but dare greatly. Don't say the problem's too big or I can't do this or I don't have the degree or the pedigree for this. Get, wipe all that out of your brain. You can do anything if you have the heart, if you have the inquisitive nature. So that would be number one. Number two would be your posse.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:25.718)
Okay.
Geoff Weber (59:49.58)
Your network, your seven circles, according to your friend.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:50.882)
Get your circle. Your seven layer salad.
Geoff Weber (59:55.525)
Yeah, have those people. And then let's not forget the perspective of time. And so today, maybe it was a bad decision or maybe it was even a tragedy, but I think Shakespeare said that the only difference between tragedy and comedy is time. so if you're, I've had people say, you're not going to be in business in another year or two years.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:00:17.742)
I agree, 100%, yeah.
Geoff Weber (01:00:25.052)
I'm like, well, five years, we're still here. There must be something. Just live to fight another day. You don't know what's coming tomorrow. It could be that major contractor, that new customer, or that incredibly talented person that joined your team and you solve that big problem. I think really being optimistic and keeping time on your side, you manage time. No one should tell you, you have to...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:00:27.917)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:00:32.834)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:00:41.838)
That's right.
Geoff Weber (01:00:53.49)
launch this business before you turn 30 or 40 or 50 or 60. Control that time and don't feel like it's that time is wasting away. Everything is a value and for a reason.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:00:55.918)
That's right. That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:01:05.014)
Yeah, that's right. that's good. That's good advice. I I didn't start my business till I was in my early 40s. And I, you know, we talked to founders that they're in their 50s when they start their business. you know, one of the reasons we started the podcast and the media company was really to tell a different give a different picture of what entrepreneurship looks like. It's not the the the twenty seven year old, you know, white male.
coming out of, know, school in technology. It is across different industries, all ages, all shapes and sizes, colors and genders and social economic backgrounds. It's really, you know, that's the majority. It's the other 98 % that usually gets lifted up. That don't get lifted up, I should say. So, yeah.
But you don't let other people tell you that you can't do something.
Geoff Weber (01:02:09.557)
Yeah. Have your advisors, but don't.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:02:13.688)
Have your advisors, but you need to stay true to yourself.
Geoff Weber (01:02:18.103)
Yeah, indeed.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:02:20.518)
And and then you need to demote people on your ring of you don't support me I'm moving you to the back the outer ring you're going to Saturn You're going to number six layer
Geoff Weber (01:02:32.877)
It's practically biblical. We've been doing this for thousands of years. And so, yeah, and it's okay. We can, as people, can agree to disagree and this just isn't the season for this person. It's okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:02:47.596)
Yeah, right. And so I have, you know, do mental funerals, like little private mental funerals for people. Bye bye. You're in the outer ring. Move you along. And then you meet new people and you put them in, you know, whatever rung that they deserve. this has been fun. I've enjoyed our conversation, Geoff. And before we go, thank you for, you know, hanging out and chatting with us. But where can people get a hold of you?
Geoff Weber (01:02:54.918)
Thank
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03:17.25)
to connect with you, how do they support heirloom cloud?
Geoff Weber (01:03:21.322)
So if you want to connect to me, I don't do a lot of social media, but I am, I am on LinkedIn. I'm Geoff with a G G E O F F Weber with one B and I'm probably the only Geoff Weber in South Carolina. So you'll find me. And, and by all means, I just love to hear stories, just say, Hey, I heard you on podcasts, whatever, or how anyone, anyone have podcasts, reach out to me.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03:37.006)
You
Geoff Weber (01:03:50.049)
There's something that Heirloom can do for you, your friends, your family. We'd love to be that place for you. You can go find us on just Google almost anything and you'll find us. if you know, seriously, like VHS to digital will come up in one of the top pages or what do do about a scratch DVD? We got you covered. We were here to help you. We're as near as your closest UPS store.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:14.137)
wow, yeah.
Geoff Weber (01:04:18.333)
and all of your listeners will get 20 % off. just say, heard about heirloom on the hello chaos podcast and we'll take 20 % off your order. Even if it's your mom that has a garage full of photos and you're like, mom, this is so chaotic. I need to bring some order to this. Let's digitize it now before and enjoy these pictures before you pass on. let's do this. So,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:34.902)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:40.588)
Yeah, I might have my mom send a large tub to you.
Geoff Weber (01:04:47.113)
We are here to help. love doing this. We're trying to bring order to a chaotic world.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:52.919)
Yeah.
Exactly. Well, she's so funny. She like goes through she has two or I don't know more than that. She's like four five large tubs, you know, the plastic tubs of just pictures. And so every once in a while we'll get like a random in our text chain with my family. She'll send like three pictures at a time. And we're like, oh, like what are these three pictures? I don't know. They were on top. I just happened to go through like, what are you going to do with all those? And so we've like we've been talking about do we put these in albums?
Do we go and dip? there are, is, cause she's been the collector or the, you know, as a family member dies, they have gone, these tubs have all gone to her. So we're like, what do we do with all these things? Now we know. Now we know where to take it. Excited. Solutions. That's right. Calm to the chaos, babe. All right. Well, that's a wrap on today's chaos.
Geoff Weber (01:05:38.692)
She is the family historian.
Geoff Weber (01:05:45.294)
We got you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:05:52.408)
but the journey doesn't stop here. If you found yourself nodding along, laughing, or maybe even yelling, yes, finally, like me. Make sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. You can also dig deeper into founder resources, tools, and more episodes over at OrangeWIP. That's orangewip.com. Until next time, stay curious, stay scrappy.
And remember, we are all a work in progress. See you again next week.