Before founding Proto Hologram, David Nussbaum wanted to be a baseball broadcaster. His path through radio, podcasting, and entertainment eventually led him to a different way of connecting people—and a business idea that wasn’t easy to convince others to believe in.
In this episode of The Personal Side of Business, Jet Bunditwong sits down with David to explore the personal journey behind Proto. David shares what kept him going through early rejection, how finding the right business partner helped turn his vision into a company, and why learning to trust his team became essential to his growth as a leader.
We discuss:
• His unexpected transition from broadcasting and podcasting to holograms
• Finding partners and investors who believe in your vision
• Building a team with skills you don’t have
• Learning to delegate and get out of your team’s way
• Adapting your business while staying true to its purpose
• The possibilities for holographic communication in healthcare, education, and everyday life
• How AI is shaping David’s vision for the future of human connection
For anyone pursuing an unconventional idea or navigating the uncertainty of entrepreneurship, David’s story offers perspective on persistence, partnership, and being willing to evolve.
Want to see the technology in action? Visit our YouTube channel for the video episode, studio tour, and Jet’s hologram demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/@PersonalSideofBusiness
CONNECT WITH DAVID NUSSBAUM
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Proto's Instagram
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Proto's X/Twitter
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00:00 --> 00:02 It's good to see you. I think some of you thought that you already saw
00:03 --> 00:07 me today. You didn't. It was a— I was a hologram. There's a company called
00:07 --> 00:10 Proto. It creates holograms, and I got a hold of one of their machines.
00:11 --> 00:14 I am so happy that you're here for our final season. I'm getting ready for
00:15 --> 00:17 the show, and that's why I made this hologram to welcome you. Is that really
00:18 --> 00:21 you? It is me. Is it really you? Oh my goodness.
00:23 --> 00:27 Holograms are no longer the talk of science fiction. A company selling a 7-foot-tall
00:28 --> 00:30 booth into which you can beam a 3D image of yourself anywhere in the world.
00:31 --> 00:35 I'm beaming in from Los Angeles into a device that we have in New York
00:35 --> 00:39 right before you. Howie Mandel has found the perfect solution to mask mania.
00:39 --> 00:42 So cool, the detail is unbelievable.
00:45 --> 00:48 It feels like I'm in Las Vegas at CES in person,
00:48 --> 00:52 but I'm being beamed into Las Vegas here in Los
00:52 --> 00:56 Angeles, nearly 300 miles away. You're looking
00:56 --> 00:59 at a digital version of myself beamed from Singapore
00:59 --> 01:03 to Los Angeles. David, thanks for having me here. Well, thanks for beaming in.
01:04 --> 01:07 This is not just a communication device. Holograms of all kinds are going
01:08 --> 01:11 to be part of our future. Whatever the content is, whether it's a 3D model
01:12 --> 01:15 or whether it's an NFT or whether it's a real person materializing
01:16 --> 01:19 in before you, it'll appear like that person is there.
01:19 --> 01:22 Hey, Alex. Hello, Hussein. You alright? Yeah,
01:23 --> 01:26 I'm good. I'm good. Alright, so you ready to play? Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready.
01:26 --> 01:30 Are you ready? I was born ready. TikTok stars. Instagrammers,
01:30 --> 01:34 YouTubers, they're the movie stars of today. So we've developed an app that
01:34 --> 01:38 goes on any smartphone that allows people to remove the camera and start
01:38 --> 01:42 using their phones. So the Proto experience is very similar to the real
01:42 --> 01:46 experience. It's real people making real connections.
01:46 --> 01:50 This is real. Thank you, Proto. Holograms exist today.
01:50 --> 01:52 Who knows what happens next?
01:57 --> 01:59 Welcome to The Personal Side of Business,
02:00 --> 02:04 where you hear real stories from real entrepreneurs.
02:14 --> 02:18 Hi and welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where every business has a story.
02:18 --> 02:21 I'm your host, Jet Manuel. Today my guest is David Nussbaum.
02:22 --> 02:25 He's a founder of Proto Hologram, a company changing how we connect
02:26 --> 02:29 through holographic communication. If you don't understand what any of that means,
02:30 --> 02:33 then you need to listen to David. David, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thanks for
02:33 --> 02:36 having me here. This is great. Okay, so let's start. I always like to hear
02:36 --> 02:40 how we got here. And I think for you on
02:40 --> 02:43 the surface, I think a lot of people would think you were a scientist,
02:43 --> 02:45 a programmer, someone, but that's not how your career started.
02:46 --> 02:50 Okay, cool. No, I, uh, not a scientist, although, uh, I did,
02:50 --> 02:52 I fell in love with Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
02:54 --> 02:57 The future. Everyone did, right? So that's my connection
02:57 --> 03:00 to science. Uh, the, the, uh,
03:01 --> 03:04 the origin story of Proto really started about 30 or
03:05 --> 03:09 40 years ago. I'm obsessed with broadcasting and communications. Obsessed with
03:09 --> 03:13 it. Grew up listening to the radio, sitting in the backseat of my dad's
03:14 --> 03:17 Volkswagen Rabbit, and he would listen to AM talk radio
03:17 --> 03:21 all the time. I just loved radio. Wanted to be the play-by-play
03:22 --> 03:25 announcer for the New York Mets. Yeah, that didn't happen. You're a Mets fan too?
03:25 --> 03:28 I grew up a Mets fan. Yeah. Are you? Did you? Yes. Yes. Okay.
03:29 --> 03:33 We're not doing good right now, but— Well, you know what? We always have 1986.
03:33 --> 03:36 Yeah. Yeah. But the— so yeah, I grew up a huge Mets fan,
03:36 --> 03:39 obsessed with sports, sports radio,
03:40 --> 03:43 sports talk. Yeah. And I started
03:44 --> 03:47 working for several teams over the years. So I started working for the Yankees.
03:48 --> 03:51 I worked for the Mets on WFAN 660 when the Mets had
03:52 --> 03:55 them anyway. Uh, I never fully got on the air.
03:55 --> 03:59 Started a podcast when— you're one of the OGs. I feel like I,
03:59 --> 04:01 I, I'm an OG. Word has it, has it, you're an OG podcaster. Yeah.
04:02 --> 04:05 So I used to be sitting in that seat. In fact, it was really cool.
04:05 --> 04:08 Like, so I started a podcast in like 2007,
04:08 --> 04:11 2008. I know I don't look old enough to have a
04:11 --> 04:15 podcast in 2008. Uh, met my, my wife and the
04:16 --> 04:18 mother of my 3 children on my podcast in 2010.
04:19 --> 04:21 She had, she had won a reality show and I was a fan of the
04:21 --> 04:25 show. And so, uh, Just like what we're doing these days with podcasts.
04:25 --> 04:28 It's like, you know, you have people on that you want to have on.
04:28 --> 04:32 Anyway, I had one of the earliest long-form interview shows on podcasts.
04:32 --> 04:35 It was great. On that podcast, I met a guy that
04:36 --> 04:40 I had known only through the Howard Stern Show, and his name was Johnny Fratto.
04:40 --> 04:45 And Johnny presented on the podcast to me patents
04:45 --> 04:49 that had just been used to put Tupac on stage at Coachella in
04:50 --> 04:53 2012. So we built a company around that.
04:53 --> 04:57 We started bringing back all these dead musicians and
04:57 --> 05:01 to posthumously perform. And all of a sudden Whitney Houston was performing here and this
05:01 --> 05:03 guy was perform— it was, it was amazing. It was the most brilliant thing.
05:04 --> 05:09 But because of my, my love and obsession with communication,
05:09 --> 05:13 I thought holograms should be about connecting the living.
05:13 --> 05:15 Yeah. Not about raising the dead.
05:16 --> 05:19 So I went from broadcasting to podcasting to, to holoportation.
05:20 --> 05:23 And so I started Proto in my living room with that kind of
05:24 --> 05:27 founding principle. If you can't be there, beam there. There. And, and that's kind
05:27 --> 05:30 of, uh, and the technology has been taken off ever since. So no,
05:31 --> 05:34 not a scientist, not an engineer. I'm a, I'm a broadcasting
05:35 --> 05:38 nerd that figured there must be a better way
05:39 --> 05:42 to communicate instead of talking into a microphone and hearing
05:43 --> 05:45 your voice come through a speaker. What if I could jet? What if I could
05:45 --> 05:49 broadcast you? Yeah, but I feel like that probably helped
05:50 --> 05:53 change the trajectory of the hologram software,
05:54 --> 05:57 right, for you because you wanted to communicate. You use your broadcasting background
05:57 --> 06:01 to like, if we can enhance this and make it more fun for people to
06:01 --> 06:04 really connect to each other. Oh sure. And I was using all of the marketing
06:04 --> 06:07 words too. Holoportation, beam there.
06:07 --> 06:10 It's a digital telepresence,
06:11 --> 06:14 which we do have some patents and the,
06:15 --> 06:18 you know, proprietary production process on. So beaming somebody somewhere
06:18 --> 06:22 to somewhere else, it's not really a hologram, but it does create
06:22 --> 06:25 the effect that a person or a thing is physically in the space. Space with
06:25 --> 06:29 you. So as long as I can create that feeling of presence, I knew
06:29 --> 06:33 that the company would have a chance for success.
06:33 --> 06:37 And so I took that principle of physical presence,
06:38 --> 06:42 uh, to out into the world, and enough people liked it just enough.
06:42 --> 06:46 I started booking some gigs, and then I was able to find some early
06:47 --> 06:50 investment, and then I was able to finally hire people,
06:51 --> 06:54 uh, that understood the idea,
06:54 --> 06:57 and those are the people who actually are making Proto run.
06:58 --> 07:01 I came up with an idea, and now I'm lucky enough just to have a
07:01 --> 07:05 job at this company. The people who I work with are scientists, are brilliant
07:06 --> 07:09 operators. What was, what was the turning point, do you think,
07:09 --> 07:13 in Proto that went from, okay, I think people
07:13 --> 07:17 kind of get it, to, all right, people are now starting to
07:18 --> 07:21 ride with this and want to see it to the next level? It's a slow
07:21 --> 07:24 evolution. I don't think there was one turning point. I just know that I would
07:24 --> 07:28 get kicked out of every single office for about a year
07:28 --> 07:32 or two when I came up with this crazy idea, this Doc Brown, you know,
07:33 --> 07:36 ideas like, hey, I'm going to beam people places. And they're like, are you crazy?
07:36 --> 07:40 Yeah. They're like, security, get this crazy person out of
07:40 --> 07:43 here. So I think the turning point probably
07:43 --> 07:47 happened when when Tim Draper—
07:48 --> 07:51 actually, even prior to Tim Draper, this guy named Doug Barry. Doug Barry's an early,
07:52 --> 07:56 uh, believer in Proto, and I was running demonstrations
07:56 --> 07:59 out of a corner of a set,
07:59 --> 08:03 um, uh, warehouse called 41 Sets in North Hollywood.
08:03 --> 08:07 They, they would build like sets for, for television programs and stuff.
08:07 --> 08:11 And, uh, and so Doug Barry came in with a group of people and he
08:12 --> 08:15 said, you know, you're really on to something. What if I helped you raise some
08:15 --> 08:18 money. What if, you know, COVID had just started happening, so everything was
08:19 --> 08:23 shutting down at the time. And so I thought, you know, what if, what if
08:23 --> 08:26 me and Doug kind of partnered up a little bit and Doug allowed
08:27 --> 08:31 me to be like this kind of, you know,
08:31 --> 08:34 crazy founder ideas guy and Doug could actually build the
08:34 --> 08:37 business model, help me find investors and create the,
08:38 --> 08:42 the architecture of how to raise money. And so I think that was the,
08:42 --> 08:46 That was really the turning point, finding a believer like that to
08:46 --> 08:49 give up everything that he has and put it all into Proto.
08:50 --> 08:53 And so then we then went out to market and then Tim
08:53 --> 08:57 Draper, founding investor of Tesla and SpaceX and a
08:57 --> 09:01 number— I mean, he's a, he's a, he's an OG in the if
09:02 --> 09:05 it's, if it gets big, how big can it get? And he's a big ideas,
09:05 --> 09:08 he's a moonshot style investor. So if you have
09:09 --> 09:12 a, if you're going to be a founder, if you want to start your own
09:12 --> 09:16 company and it's a huge idea like this could be a multibillion-dollar, trillion-dollar idea.
09:16 --> 09:20 Tim Draper's your guy. Seed, seed and pre-seed and
09:20 --> 09:24 early stage. So, so Tim put like the first million bucks into Proto and that
09:25 --> 09:28 changed everything for us. Wow. And from, from an
09:29 --> 09:33 entrepreneur standpoint, when that was happening, how did you adjust
09:33 --> 09:37 to learn all the different aspects? I'm sure because you went from like,
09:37 --> 09:40 okay, it's kind of here and now it's starting to grow. Out to here,
09:41 --> 09:44 did you have to start to bring people into certain places on, let's say,
09:44 --> 09:47 the backend side of things? So I need you to be in this place in
09:47 --> 09:50 order for me to achieve the goals I need to achieve.
09:50 --> 09:54 Yes, absolutely. I'm again, I'm not an engineer. I'm not a hardware
09:54 --> 09:57 guy. I'm not a software guy. There's a lot of stuff that I don't do
09:57 --> 10:01 around here. What I've been able to do is commercialize
10:01 --> 10:04 and popularize and, you know,
10:05 --> 10:09 even be able to see around corners
10:09 --> 10:13 a little bit. I could almost see like into the— I'm gonna sound like
10:13 --> 10:17 a crazy person, I'm not gonna go there. So the, uh, the idea of commercializing
10:17 --> 10:21 an idea, let me do that while,
10:22 --> 10:25 uh, Rafi Krishek and, and, and, you know, and Edward Guinness
10:25 --> 10:29 run the software and technology, and Nolan Cassidy, and then have like,
10:30 --> 10:32 you know, Molly and Jack and, and,
10:33 --> 10:36 uh, uh, and, and Rich, let them run with sales and,
10:37 --> 10:40 and let this person do this and let Noah Rossi and run with,
10:41 --> 10:44 with live events and, and, you know, moving units all
10:44 --> 10:48 over the place. So yes, I didn't fit into a lot
10:48 --> 10:52 of those different categories. And so as people would
10:52 --> 10:56 find me at a convention or a trade show, or maybe they'd
10:56 --> 11:00 see something like this and, and I'd get,
11:00 --> 11:04 they would find me on LinkedIn and they'd say, hey, I'd love a job there.
11:04 --> 11:07 Yeah. I'd say, well, you know, I don't have any money quite yet. And they
11:07 --> 11:11 say, you know what, if, especially if you're a salesperson or a business development specialist,
11:11 --> 11:15 they'd say, I'll eat what I kill. Yeah. And so they'll
11:15 --> 11:18 just start going out there. And that's sort of how we started. And I
11:18 --> 11:22 got to focus on brand development,
11:25 --> 11:28 brand ambassadors, getting celebrity investors. I thought was very
11:29 --> 11:33 important in Proto's history. Celebrity investors, they invested
11:33 --> 11:36 in Proto. They think that this is the future. And then not only do
11:37 --> 11:40 they invest their capital, but then their name likeness and image. And then folks like
11:40 --> 11:44 Howie Paris Hilton,
11:44 --> 11:47 Marshawn Lynch, you know, Robert Griffin III,
11:48 --> 11:51 Al Leiter, former New York Met. And all of these people,
11:51 --> 11:55 they start saying, they start posting and saying, this is great,
11:55 --> 11:58 this is the future. Lil Wayne.
11:58 --> 12:02 So these were early investors who believed
12:02 --> 12:06 in Proto enough to say, not only am I gonna give you some money for
12:06 --> 12:09 this, for a small little sliver of equity of your company, but I'm gonna go
12:09 --> 12:13 out there and help it move along. Yeah, because I
12:13 --> 12:17 think on the surface this feels like a lot of entertainment
12:17 --> 12:20 and visual candy, right? But I think
12:21 --> 12:24 the one aspect that I've learned a lot about Proto is the telehealth aspect that
12:25 --> 12:28 I feel like that's an avenue that could take off, you know, down the road.
12:28 --> 12:31 And once, you know, everyone starts to accept
12:31 --> 12:35 this, could you talk about that aspect of what Proto can do?
12:35 --> 12:39 Absolutely. Yeah. The celebrity piece is the low-hanging fruit.
12:39 --> 12:43 Beaming a celebrity into a thing. I mean, that's like,
12:43 --> 12:46 that's very easy. You don't have to connect too many dots on why
12:47 --> 12:50 that would make a lot of sense. But if you could beam Howie Mandel onto
12:50 --> 12:53 a stage at The Comedy Store, you could beam a doctor into
12:54 --> 12:57 a rural clinic 750 miles away. You could beam a teacher,
12:57 --> 13:01 one of maybe a person who wrote the book on a certain subject, beam that
13:01 --> 13:05 person into K through 12 schools in poor
13:06 --> 13:09 cities in different parts of the country or around the world. So you
13:10 --> 13:13 just take the idea of what is the low-hanging fruit and you expand it into
13:13 --> 13:17 these other areas. And thank goodness for the folks who, we were just talking about
13:17 --> 13:21 who understand that kind of core principle, beaming a
13:21 --> 13:24 person somewhere, projecting a person's likeness or image somewhere.
13:25 --> 13:28 And so over the years,
13:28 --> 13:33 the technology became HIPAA compliant. We were
13:33 --> 13:36 SOC 2 compliant, which is an enterprise grade of
13:37 --> 13:41 encryption and privacy from end to end. So nobody could break
13:41 --> 13:45 into the Proto technology and pull out any data. And so once
13:45 --> 13:48 you're SOC 2 compliant, you're about 70 or 80% of the way there to HIPAA.
13:49 --> 13:52 And the team, um, who was
13:53 --> 13:55 tasked with, you know, getting us there,
13:56 --> 14:00 uh, absolutely nailed it. So HIPAA compliant, and all of
14:01 --> 14:04 a sudden doctors and patients felt really comfortable using this technology as a means of
14:05 --> 14:09 in-person consultation. So now you and your doctor
14:09 --> 14:13 can be 3 miles away, you could be on different continents,
14:13 --> 14:16 and that you could feel the presence of your doctor in the room. Yeah,
14:17 --> 14:20 which is great for the patient. What's also great is for the
14:21 --> 14:24 doctor because now the doctor doesn't
14:24 --> 14:28 have to get in her car. Let's say she's in Boston or Memphis
14:28 --> 14:31 or New York. She doesn't have to get in her car and then drive 50
14:31 --> 14:35 miles to a smaller clinic
14:36 --> 14:40 or another location and spend time wasting time in
14:40 --> 14:44 the car back and forth driving between clinics and
14:44 --> 14:48 hospitals or medical centers, whatever. So now They
14:48 --> 14:52 beam in, they have their consultation, they do their diagnosis,
14:52 --> 14:55 maybe some treatment, and they beam out. And so now they can see
14:56 --> 14:59 more people in more places, extending their
14:59 --> 15:03 ability to help more people. And if you're an oncologist
15:03 --> 15:07 and you're a cancer patient, having that doctor in the room
15:08 --> 15:11 offers you a sense of comfort that a
15:11 --> 15:15 telehealth or Zoom visit just won't provide.
15:15 --> 15:19 So you've got to have that person feel like they're there in order for it
15:19 --> 15:22 to make a difference. Yeah. And could you explain to the audience a little bit
15:22 --> 15:27 from the— now from a doctor's perspective, right? Because I
15:27 --> 15:30 think at first we're all looking at it from
15:31 --> 15:34 the patient's perspective and able to see what the— just
15:35 --> 15:39 a doctor sort of beaming in there. But the doctor can actually see out and
15:39 --> 15:43 really look at a full body of a patient as well.
15:43 --> 15:47 Yeah. Each one of our proto hardware
15:47 --> 15:50 devices, has cameras, sensors, speakers, microphones. It's got all the,
15:51 --> 15:54 all the stuff you would expect to be able to have for it to have,
15:54 --> 15:57 for it to be like multidirectional and interactive. So yeah,
15:57 --> 16:01 that doctor is seeing you, the patient,
16:01 --> 16:04 like you're in the room. It's like you're there in
16:04 --> 16:09 full volume. So you only need to present
16:09 --> 16:12 yourself in front of any 4K camera. It could be an iPhone and you could
16:12 --> 16:15 beam into the doctor's office or the doctor could beam into your
16:16 --> 16:20 area, you can beam into your home in one of the, you know, smaller devices.
16:20 --> 16:23 Yeah. And, and as I feel like as
16:23 --> 16:27 you're developing this and AI is coming into it now, so one of the things
16:28 --> 16:31 that I think you've, uh, sort of bumped up is
16:31 --> 16:35 now having, um, like let's say celebrity, learning who they
16:35 --> 16:38 are. AI is now able to interact while the celebrity is not there,
16:39 --> 16:42 right? Or whoever it is, it's in there, they're able to interact with
16:42 --> 16:45 an audience member, uh, learning personality,
16:46 --> 16:50 history, and information like that. How did that
16:50 --> 16:54 change how Proto was, was the trajectory in Proto?
16:56 --> 16:59 Well, it's always about communication and so is about the feeling of presence.
16:59 --> 17:03 AI is not going anywhere except forward. Yeah, yeah. Right.
17:03 --> 17:07 There's no stopping it. And it's about
17:07 --> 17:10 what are, who are the companies, what are the companies, who are the people who
17:11 --> 17:14 are going to be in place when the evolution
17:15 --> 17:18 of AI and what it can do starts to evolve.
17:18 --> 17:22 Proto thought very early on that we
17:22 --> 17:26 must be involved because you want to start setting
17:26 --> 17:30 a standard. You want to make sure that people who are using technology
17:31 --> 17:34 feel trust. And so an
17:34 --> 17:37 honest company who's using AI in such a
17:38 --> 17:41 way is absolutely required. So, so instead
17:42 --> 17:45 of beaming somebody somewhere, you can— what we started out doing was taking
17:45 --> 17:49 2 or 3 minute long videos of people, and that person would
17:49 --> 17:53 then have their voice cloned through the process. The video would also have some
17:53 --> 17:56 generic AI gestures and movements,
17:57 --> 18:00 and then the voice would then come out in that person's
18:01 --> 18:04 tone, cadence, and vibe. Sounds like that person,
18:04 --> 18:08 moves like that person, speaks like that person. And then on the
18:08 --> 18:12 back end, you've got a prompt engineer a rag trainer. You've got somebody building the
18:12 --> 18:15 brain, the information. What's Jet going to know? Is it
18:16 --> 18:18 everything? You know, you could literally drop every podcast in there. If you wrote a
18:18 --> 18:22 book, drop that book in there, redirect it to your Wikipedia and
18:22 --> 18:25 your website. It's amazing. So now it's got all the information.
18:25 --> 18:29 What languages does it speak? So you open it up to Italian
18:29 --> 18:32 and French and Zulu and Chinese. And I mean,
18:33 --> 18:36 it becomes a, um, a, uh,
18:36 --> 18:41 a legacy project it also becomes a trusted expansion,
18:41 --> 18:45 extension of that person. And so when
18:45 --> 18:49 you're in a doctor's office, that's very important. When you're in a
18:49 --> 18:53 museum, holy cow, you know, now all of a sudden this AI
18:54 --> 18:57 avatar has all the information of everything that's ever happened
18:57 --> 19:00 in, um, in, in science history or in,
19:01 --> 19:04 in natural history or, you I mean, learning's gonna,
19:05 --> 19:08 could be potentially different in 5 years having
19:08 --> 19:11 to interact with that, right? You can have George Washington like in
19:11 --> 19:14 there talking about his life and his history and you're like, wow. I,
19:15 --> 19:18 and kids are probably gonna be able to connect to it a
19:18 --> 19:21 lot faster because they're just seeing it. Yes. Well, and we're doing it.
19:22 --> 19:26 We're in several presidential libraries
19:26 --> 19:29 right now working with a, we're working with a museum in just
19:30 --> 19:33 outside of Chicago and they just had a space at the America 250.
19:35 --> 19:38 Yeah, I saw that. And Abraham Lincoln was giving the Gettysburg Address.
19:39 --> 19:43 We're working with the Philadelphia Museum and we've got Benjamin Franklin.
19:43 --> 19:47 Why, if you're a student, why would you open
19:47 --> 19:51 up a book at this time? Look, we're talking, we're in 2026 now,
19:51 --> 19:54 almost 2027 at this point. Why would you ever open up a book and read
19:55 --> 19:58 about something when you can ask Benjamin Franklin about it directly?
19:58 --> 20:01 It's like you can literally ask him about it. And if you're Italian,
20:02 --> 20:05 ask him in Italian, he'll respond to you in Italian. Okay, so maybe
20:06 --> 20:08 that's not exactly historically accurate in that sense. But in,
20:09 --> 20:12 in, in that case, you can do that.
20:13 --> 20:17 Most of the time when we do something with historical accuracy,
20:18 --> 20:21 it, the information lives and ends,
20:22 --> 20:26 begins and ends with that person's actual life. So when you walk into
20:27 --> 20:30 the Theodore Roosevelt Museum in upstate New York and you ask
20:31 --> 20:35 President President Roosevelt about,
20:36 --> 20:40 um, who is your favorite president between Trump and
20:40 --> 20:43 Obama? Yeah, yeah. He'd say, I don't know who these people are. Yeah. But,
20:43 --> 20:47 uh, uh, you know, so I don't have any opinion on them. But if you
20:48 --> 20:51 want to know about, uh, the, you know, how,
20:52 --> 20:56 you know, my, the bifocals I'm wearing or whatever. Yeah. So yeah. So everything
20:56 --> 20:59 is, it's, uh, it's, it's all in the guardrails. The guardrails are probably the most
20:59 --> 21:03 important part. You know, I was wondering
21:03 --> 21:07 about that driving up here to see you as you further
21:07 --> 21:11 this along, because it's— I'm sure it feels like it's
21:11 --> 21:14 moving at the speed of light, right? Like with all this technology just coming,
21:14 --> 21:18 AI, what are you— what have you set, if any,
21:18 --> 21:21 your guardrails and your guidelines as you move forward? It's like,
21:22 --> 21:25 and do they change over time, right? From month to month. And you're like,
21:25 --> 21:29 well, we have this new technology. What I thought I wanted to stick
21:29 --> 21:32 with you know, in June feels like it's gonna be a little bit different going
21:33 --> 21:36 into September, October, right? How does, how does that work for you? Well,
21:36 --> 21:40 so the guardrails for the company constantly evolve and we're
21:40 --> 21:44 doing a bit of a leadership by collaboration approach.
21:46 --> 21:49 It was easy for me to, to lead when it was just me and,
21:49 --> 21:52 and, you know, a few people. But now we've got all these great leaders,
21:53 --> 21:56 people who you're lucky enough to be in the room with.
21:57 --> 22:01 So we've got a bit of a, like, a leadership panel, a team.
22:02 --> 22:05 And so we have biweekly meetings.
22:06 --> 22:10 And outside of my advisory
22:10 --> 22:14 panel, my board of directors, several other people
22:15 --> 22:18 who are very much involved in Proto, we do have an internal leadership group.
22:18 --> 22:22 And so we, we, we want to understand where the
22:22 --> 22:28 world is, who our competition is, where we want to, where we want
22:28 --> 22:32 to develop next? Is the hardware always going to be tall, you know,
22:33 --> 22:36 uh, you know, boxes? Is it going to be
22:37 --> 22:40 more spatial screens? Will we remove the hardware completely? We talk
22:40 --> 22:44 about stuff like that. We say, uh, uh, do we want to decouple
22:45 --> 22:49 the software from the hardware so that maybe somebody doesn't want a hologram display
22:49 --> 22:52 box in their, uh, in their lobby? Maybe they're
22:53 --> 22:57 fine with it not looking very hologrammy, but they still like all the software stuff
22:57 --> 23:01 that it does— the AI avatars, the live beaming, the apps, the interactions,
23:01 --> 23:05 the translation services and stuff like that. Maybe they are cool
23:05 --> 23:08 with just putting that on a legacy screen or a spatial screen
23:09 --> 23:12 or something that maybe hasn't even been invented yet. So you can just plug right
23:12 --> 23:15 into that. And so these are the kinds of things that we're always talking about.
23:15 --> 23:19 We test them with beta testers.
23:19 --> 23:22 So we've got hundreds of customers. Many of them are Fortune 500
23:22 --> 23:26 companies. And so we'll go to like Verizon or Christie's
23:27 --> 23:31 or Cisco or Salesforce and we'll say, hey, you know, you're a great customer,
23:31 --> 23:34 sign time in malls, or like, you're a great customer, how would you like to
23:34 --> 23:38 be one of the first people to receive a brand new software update?
23:38 --> 23:42 And with the software update, this may or may not actually make it to
23:42 --> 23:45 the, the final version. And many of them say absolutely.
23:46 --> 23:49 So it's a, it's a collaboration approach. We like to test
23:49 --> 23:52 stuff out, we like to break stuff, we want to, we want to see if
23:52 --> 23:56 something works or not before it goes far and wide. Yeah,
23:56 --> 24:00 because I think, you know, from what I read with Proto, So part of
24:00 --> 24:04 the goal is to get it more affordable, more affordable. I'm guessing part of
24:04 --> 24:07 the vision is eventually everyone's going to have it in a home. Ideally,
24:07 --> 24:11 that would be great, right? We can, we can talk to, to family members,
24:11 --> 24:15 friends that are 5, 7 miles away, other countries.
24:16 --> 24:20 What is that? What has to happen over time
24:20 --> 24:23 in order for the price and everything to come down? I think
24:23 --> 24:27 partnerships. Yeah. Many partnerships. I think also as you expand,
24:27 --> 24:30 You know, as a startup, we're raising money.
24:31 --> 24:35 When you can, you know, when you can fill your investment
24:35 --> 24:39 fund with a lot of capital, you can do more things.
24:39 --> 24:43 You can move a little bit faster. You could try out, you could R&D
24:43 --> 24:46 different displays and devices. But I think partnerships
24:47 --> 24:50 are probably the most important thing. So having folks not just
24:50 --> 24:54 in the United States but outside of the United States presenting
24:54 --> 24:58 the technology to all of their different areas into their different networks
24:59 --> 25:02 will help Um, move more displays. The more
25:02 --> 25:06 you sell, the more you manufacture, the price comes down per
25:06 --> 25:10 device. I could make them for less, I could sell them for less. I think
25:10 --> 25:14 also there might be a way to move
25:14 --> 25:19 our hardware into spaces without much of a, of an upfront
25:19 --> 25:22 investment from the customer, just maybe by putting it on a bit
25:23 --> 25:27 of like a leasing model where it's almost like like a cable box or
25:27 --> 25:30 a water cooler or something. Just, we'll get it, we'll get
25:31 --> 25:33 it to you, and then you're just paying a regular monthly fee on something like
25:34 --> 25:37 that. And then of course, over time, everything— I mean, the first
25:38 --> 25:41 TV set I had was enormous, and now it's thin and it hangs on the
25:41 --> 25:44 wall. And in some cases, people don't even— my kids don't watch TV.
25:45 --> 25:48 They look at their tablets, they look at their phones. And so technology
25:48 --> 25:52 will continue to evolve. So the coolest thing that you've ever seen
25:52 --> 25:56 will look like a VCR in 20 years from now. Yeah, do you,
25:56 --> 26:00 do you keep up with how fast
26:01 --> 26:04 technology is moving in, in reference to how you have to keep
26:04 --> 26:08 adjusting, or do you stay in your vision and go,
26:08 --> 26:12 okay, we have to— for 90% of the way, we have to really stick
26:12 --> 26:16 to our guns and then, and then do the small tweaks? Or are
26:16 --> 26:20 we— are you guys always looking 5 years ahead and go, what's coming out so
26:20 --> 26:23 that we can plug it into this? Yeah. Like how does that work? Yeah,
26:23 --> 26:26 we're looking 5 minutes ahead. Yeah. And we're looking 5 years ahead.
26:28 --> 26:31 Tweaking as we go. Absolutely. You have to modify and evolve. If you
26:31 --> 26:35 don't evolve, if you don't pivot, you're dead. Yeah. It's over. There's no such
26:35 --> 26:39 thing as like a business model that's written in stone.
26:40 --> 26:44 If you do that, you, you're dead. It's just, I, I mean,
26:44 --> 26:47 I don't know anybody who said this is the company
26:47 --> 26:50 and this is the way it's going to be from the second they wrote this
26:50 --> 26:54 down in their, in their their presentation
26:54 --> 26:58 and stuck with it all the way through. You have to pivot.
26:59 --> 27:03 Maybe you have a core principle and you stick to
27:03 --> 27:07 that. You know, look, Netflix was founded to be— to
27:08 --> 27:11 send movies through the internet, but they couldn't get there for years.
27:11 --> 27:14 They had to physically deliver them through the mail. I mean, the whole—
27:15 --> 27:18 I mean, the company is called Netflix. It was all about the internet
27:19 --> 27:23 uh, Flex. And so the idea of the first several
27:23 --> 27:27 years of it being only through the mail or in
27:27 --> 27:30 pickup locations was, was a— I don't know if that was part
27:31 --> 27:35 of their initial roadmap, but, uh, their core
27:35 --> 27:39 principle, uh, remained. So you keep the core principle.
27:39 --> 27:42 Proto's core principle is the feeling of presence in,
27:43 --> 27:46 um, in physical spaces, even if it's, um, even if that person
27:47 --> 27:50 is not physically there. So whether it's a live communication, a beaming a person
27:51 --> 27:55 somewhere, or it's a piece of pre-recorded content, uh, it could be a personality,
27:55 --> 27:59 it could be a product. If it looks like it's there,
27:59 --> 28:03 it feels like it's there, if it's connecting with an audience member,
28:04 --> 28:08 a visitor, a, a fan, a student,
28:08 --> 28:11 a patient, then we've done our job.
28:12 --> 28:16 But guess what? Competition pops up. Other people get patents,
28:16 --> 28:19 things are all of a sudden become popular.
28:19 --> 28:23 So that's where your partnerships come in handy. I think collaboration
28:24 --> 28:27 approaches is a, is a meaningful way to also
28:27 --> 28:30 get business done. And for you, you know,
28:31 --> 28:34 what has been a change that you've needed to,
28:36 --> 28:40 to develop in yourself as an entrepreneur, business owner, leading this,
28:40 --> 28:44 this whole entire company? That you
28:45 --> 28:48 didn't think you'd have to do before? What was something that you're like, wow,
28:48 --> 28:50 this is— I need to do this in order for us to move forward?
28:52 --> 28:56 Well, invite other leaders in to take charge of different
28:56 --> 29:00 areas. When I started Proto,
29:00 --> 29:04 I always wanted to surround myself with people way smarter than me,
29:04 --> 29:08 which, which is great. It's a great— it's— I think it's a great
29:09 --> 29:12 thing to be able to do in the beginning because I think a lot
29:12 --> 29:15 of people who are entrepreneurs go, this is my vision. I have to do this
29:16 --> 29:18 right for you. But you knew that from me. Well, yeah, you have to do
29:18 --> 29:20 that. And also, if you're gonna hire somebody,
29:22 --> 29:25 let them do their job and stay outta their way. That's my approach. Also,
29:25 --> 29:29 I'm a, I like to be really transparent. I'm being very honest with you
29:29 --> 29:33 today. I'm saying a lot of things that I don't know that other, you know,
29:33 --> 29:36 founders of companies might say. I'm giving you sort of an under
29:36 --> 29:39 the hood type of an approach. I think it's important.
29:41 --> 29:44 If you're trusted, people wanna do business with you. If you're honest with people,
29:45 --> 29:48 they'll see that. They'll also, I also think that it's important that
29:49 --> 29:51 you don't sell. You just, you just,
29:51 --> 29:56 you're just passionate. I'm a passionate person and
29:56 --> 30:00 obsessed with this company. So I talk about it in such a way
30:00 --> 30:03 without selling. I don't, I don't wanna sell a unit. I don't wanna sell
30:04 --> 30:07 the technology. I just wanna talk about it. And so I think that's important when
30:07 --> 30:10 you're an investor, when you're an investor, you wanna hear those kinds of things.
30:10 --> 30:14 Yeah. And I think that's, Over time, I think
30:14 --> 30:17 because there's so much, so many filters for people to deal
30:18 --> 30:21 with right now in 2026 and beyond, that being honest and straightforward, I think
30:22 --> 30:25 will get businesses further. You know, to wrap up,
30:26 --> 30:29 can you tell the audience what's going on with Proto in the next
30:30 --> 30:33 couple of months and where they should look for you and what's going on?
30:34 --> 30:39 We have— I think one of the things I'm most excited
30:39 --> 30:43 about is something that I touched on just a moment ago, the ability to
30:44 --> 30:47 remove the software from the hardware.
30:47 --> 30:51 So right now companies are beta testing this.
30:51 --> 30:54 We're calling it the Proto Player, and it's about the size of like a Roku
30:55 --> 30:59 device, like an Apple TV. Literally plug it into any display that
30:59 --> 31:02 has an HDMI input, and pretty soon you won't even need that. It'll just be
31:02 --> 31:05 a software update on your, your smart screen.
31:06 --> 31:10 Spatial screens, holo boxes, anything that has either
31:10 --> 31:14 been invented now or in the future, you can now plug our software into
31:14 --> 31:18 that. So when you talk— when people say This is— is this ever going
31:18 --> 31:21 to be a home device? I don't know that Proto is going
31:21 --> 31:25 to be building the consumer device, but maybe something will
31:25 --> 31:29 present itself in the future that
31:29 --> 31:33 the Proto software will power. So XYZ company powered
31:33 --> 31:36 by Proto, I can see that being a real thing.
31:36 --> 31:39 I'm very excited about that. I also, um,
31:41 --> 31:44 love all of the kind of the whiz-bang stuff that we're doing too.
31:45 --> 31:48 We're, we're Um, we're in a lot of enterprise areas.
31:49 --> 31:53 We've become a trusted source of ROI
31:54 --> 31:58 in everything from malls to museums and airports.
31:58 --> 32:02 But I still think this is a cool company. Yeah, I still love that,
32:03 --> 32:07 uh, that we have these holo boxes, these hologram
32:07 --> 32:12 displays, not just slim spatial displays which create
32:12 --> 32:15 the effect of a hologram when you're standing right in front of it,
32:15 --> 32:18 but the second you step to the side, it kind of becomes flat screen again.
32:19 --> 32:22 There are companies like Looking Glass Factory and Samsung putting out
32:23 --> 32:26 displays like that. Proto can power those displays as well.
32:26 --> 32:29 Yeah, so that's kind of what I love, is that
32:30 --> 32:34 whether or not you want a hologram box or you want something different
32:35 --> 32:38 but you still love the software that Proto is known for,
32:39 --> 32:43 we can power— we can power whatever. Awesome. Well, great guys,
32:44 --> 32:48 check out Proto. They're on Instagram. Instagram is super
32:48 --> 32:51 entertaining. You need to check them out and You're on TikTok Live all the time
32:51 --> 32:55 too. Um, is there any, uh, other plugs
32:55 --> 32:58 that we need to put in for, for they, for them to find you?
32:58 --> 33:01 Uh, yeah, I mean, I, I like to comment
33:01 --> 33:04 and, uh, reply to everything on LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn,
33:05 --> 33:08 TikTok, and Instagram are fun for me. LinkedIn is probably
33:08 --> 33:12 where we get the most business. Yeah. Um, and so yeah,
33:12 --> 33:16 find us on social media everywhere @protohologram. Okay, awesome guys.
33:16 --> 33:20 So, uh, wrap up and just at the end of this video, David is gonna
33:20 --> 33:23 take us around to show us the studio. So,
33:23 --> 33:26 uh, stay tuned and keep following. And thank you so much, David,
33:26 --> 33:29 for being on the podcast. Thank you, sir.
33:33 --> 33:37 All right, so this is— welcome to— this is actually Howie Mandel's production building.
33:37 --> 33:40 Yes. And so you're going to see a lot of stuff on the walls and
33:41 --> 33:43 on the shelves. These are the things Howie says his wife won't let him bring
33:43 --> 33:46 home. Uh, this— once you walk in,
33:47 --> 33:50 the— you get an instant vibe, like, what can you expect? It's kind of like
33:50 --> 33:54 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's like each step is something really cool. So the
33:55 --> 33:58 first thing you see, this is the How We Do It gaming team led
33:58 --> 34:02 by Sonny. And Sonny and the, and the whole group here,
34:02 --> 34:06 not only are they professional gamers, uh, and they're, and they're
34:06 --> 34:09 award-winning gamers— these are champion gamers— uh,
34:09 --> 34:13 they also happen to be Howie Mandel's house band because
34:14 --> 34:17 Howie does his podcast from right here. And so Sonny and the
34:17 --> 34:20 Black Pack, they go from, uh, being, uh,
34:20 --> 34:23 award- winning gamers, and they're streaming on like 5 different platforms
34:24 --> 34:27 like right now, right? So once they do that, they walk to the
34:27 --> 34:31 other room and they, um, they are one of the
34:31 --> 34:34 greatest bands, uh, alive. And so I'll show you what that setup
34:35 --> 34:38 looks like. So you guys are really good gamers and you're good musicians?
34:38 --> 34:42 That's true. Yeah, you could say that. Yeah, you might be the, the less than
34:42 --> 34:45 1% of people living that can encompass both
34:46 --> 34:49 things like that. Yeah, not only that, the,
34:49 --> 34:53 uh, Sonny, uh, and the team, they, they, uh, they build all— this is
34:53 --> 34:57 all their art as well, right? So they have incredible
34:57 --> 35:00 partnerships, uh, they're extremely creative,
35:00 --> 35:03 um, and they do a lot of art. It's like, yeah,
35:04 --> 35:06 so this is their, this is their whole setup. So,
35:07 --> 35:10 um, there's a lot of stuff that goes on down here. There's all
35:10 --> 35:13 these podcasts and offices, um,
35:13 --> 35:16 but here we'll go this this way. Look at this. Just look at Howie with
35:16 --> 35:20 Pee-wee Herman. And, uh, look at— there's Chris Rock in there.
35:26 --> 35:29 So this is, this is, uh, this is Proto. This is
35:29 --> 35:33 where we do all of the, the live demonstrations and
35:33 --> 35:36 technology. Look at this right here. This is how I met Howie. We talked about
35:36 --> 35:40 Howie. He, uh, he DM'd me, how can I work
35:40 --> 35:43 with you? And then this is, this is how it all started with Howie Mandel
35:43 --> 35:46 about 4 years ago. Look back on that one day.
35:46 --> 35:49 Yeah, that was the moment. That was the moment. That was the moment I met
35:50 --> 35:53 Howie. Uh, if you get bored, we just jump up and down on
35:53 --> 35:56 the trampoline. These are different proto devices.
35:57 --> 36:00 This is kind of interesting. Here, I'll show you this. Stay right where you're at.
36:01 --> 36:03 Look at this. Stay there. This is great.
36:07 --> 36:10 This is live beaming, right? Am I coming through?
36:10 --> 36:13 Yes. Yeah. So this is how, uh, when we talk about communication,
36:13 --> 36:17 when we talk about broadcasting,
36:18 --> 36:21 when we talk about like instead of talking into a microphone so people
36:22 --> 36:24 could hear your voice come through a speaker, we can now broadcast a person.
36:25 --> 36:28 Anybody could beam anywhere, anytime, for any reason.
36:29 --> 36:33 The shadows are real. The reflection on the floor is
36:33 --> 36:37 real. It's like I'm standing here. It's like I'm back there. Yeah. But you're
36:37 --> 36:39 all looking at me right up here. All right. And Dave, could you stay there?
36:39 --> 36:42 Can we get the camera to see what you are seeing? Yeah, sure. From there
36:43 --> 36:46 and see that side. Yeah, you know what I should do? I can actually turn
36:46 --> 36:49 the return feed on right now so I can actually see it. But yeah,
36:49 --> 36:52 if you want to swing around, I'm just standing on a— in front of a
36:52 --> 36:56 roll of paper. I've got a single microphone in front of me. I've got a
36:56 --> 37:00 light helping me cast a shadow and illuminate me, and I'm just looking into like
37:00 --> 37:04 an off-the-shelf 4K camera, uh, so I can see
37:04 --> 37:06 where I am. I have the ability to see where I am.
37:07 --> 37:10 Underneath this, uh, little window
37:10 --> 37:13 is a return feed monitor. Right now it's just on our Instagram,
37:13 --> 37:17 but most of the time it actually sees the audience I'm
37:17 --> 37:21 being beamed in front of because the camera in every one of our devices,
37:21 --> 37:25 uh, has a return feed. So that actually becomes my return
37:25 --> 37:28 feed, and I can see everybody in that space. I don't have it turned on
37:28 --> 37:31 right now, but that's how this works. And,
37:32 --> 37:35 uh, you want to give it a shot? Yeah, I'm gonna come in here.
37:35 --> 37:39 Yeah, now check this out. So switch with me and then go back.
37:45 --> 37:45 That's really cool.
37:49 --> 37:51 What's up? Welcome to the personal side of business.
37:54 --> 37:57 So now, how does the setup over
37:57 --> 38:01 time, or in your mind, going to change? Uh, will it
38:01 --> 38:04 just be like a certain light here, a certain light there, something along those lines?
38:06 --> 38:09 Yeah, so here, maybe I, maybe I, uh, talk to you right here. This could
38:09 --> 38:12 be good. This is— how does that look? So I'm talking to your hologram
38:13 --> 38:17 right now. The technology actually is really cool because
38:17 --> 38:20 if you use our app to beam somebody somewhere,
38:20 --> 38:24 it actually removes the background and replaces it with
38:24 --> 38:27 the natural holographic effects. So you don't even need to stand on
38:28 --> 38:31 a roll of— on a white seamless or on any solid colored background.
38:32 --> 38:35 It actually removes the background. So you could just be walking down the
38:35 --> 38:38 middle of the street and you could create the hologram program, uh, for yourself,
38:38 --> 38:41 which is really cool. Um, and you could— by the way, I don't know
38:41 --> 38:45 if I made this clear— literally, you could be anywhere
38:46 --> 38:48 in the world. You could be 7 miles away. We're just all on site.
38:49 --> 38:52 You're 15 feet away, but you could be 1 miles away. It doesn't matter.
38:52 --> 38:55 This is awesome. Yeah, yeah. Here's the— here's the little one,
38:57 --> 38:59 the Proto M. Here's, uh,
39:00 --> 39:02 Simon Cowell, the Proto M.
39:03 --> 39:07 And every one of our devices is a touchscreen.
39:07 --> 39:10 So here's, uh, here's one of our investors,
39:10 --> 39:14 Paris Hilton. And it's got volume, so you could just turn
39:14 --> 39:18 the volume. I'm so happy. This weekend is going to be iconic.
39:18 --> 39:22 Yeah, loves it, loves it. And then these are easy
39:22 --> 39:25 to— you turn them on their sides and then you could play landscape
39:26 --> 39:30 content. And this is a Proto. This is called the Proto M.
39:30 --> 39:34 Okay, nice. For miniature.
39:34 --> 39:37 Howie says it stands for Mandel. I said no, doesn't do
39:37 --> 39:40 that. Uh, and that's pretty
39:41 --> 39:44 cool. It's great for products, it's great for different things. It's,
39:45 --> 39:48 uh, you know, museum piece, illuminate any
39:49 --> 39:52 color. That looks— yeah, you know, I didn't even think
39:53 --> 39:56 of that. That's amazing too, that it can— it's not just the
39:57 --> 40:01 people aspect, but you can start to have things If in
40:01 --> 40:04 a museum you want to show something that hasn't been— you can't bring it over.
40:04 --> 40:09 We do a lot of that. Yeah, we work with Christie's. Christie's has these,
40:09 --> 40:12 a big one and this guy, big one and a little one, in each one
40:12 --> 40:16 of their locations all around the world. So instead of a fragile
40:16 --> 40:20 one-of-a-kind having to go on a bad-for-the-environment
40:21 --> 40:24 roadshow prior to auction, just beam them into all locations. Yeah, and it's
40:24 --> 40:28 safe, uh, saves the environment, is very inexpensive because you don't have
40:28 --> 40:31 to, um, get those insurance, uh,
40:32 --> 40:34 premiums. Yeah, yeah, right, David?
40:35 --> 40:38 No? Okay, this guy doesn't. Uh, you want to see some AI
40:38 --> 40:42 stuff? Yes. And then we'll also— I'll walk you through there
40:42 --> 40:42 as well.
40:47 --> 40:50 Talk to— do you want to talk to, uh— we could talk to
40:50 --> 40:53 William Shatner, we could talk to Howie Mandel, or we could talk to me.
40:54 --> 40:57 Yeah, let's, uh, let's do, let's do, uh, William Shatner.
40:57 --> 41:00 All right, we're gonna, we're gonna start with Shatner. I'm gonna, I'm gonna find a,
41:01 --> 41:04 the Shatner version that I— okay, so this is cool.
41:04 --> 41:08 So William Shatner stood in front of, uh,
41:08 --> 41:10 a camera for about 2 minutes,
41:15 --> 41:17 and then this William Shatner, uh,
41:18 --> 41:22 can talk about all kinds of different things. You can literally interview him right now.
41:22 --> 41:26 Uh, hey William, uh, we are— do you prefer for William
41:26 --> 41:30 or Bill? Glad you're here.
41:30 --> 41:34 You can call me William. It has a certain elegance to it, don't you think?
41:34 --> 41:37 What would you like to explore today? Hey, by the way, I'm,
41:37 --> 41:41 I'm David Nussbaum, the founder of Proto, and I'm on a podcast right
41:42 --> 41:45 now. And, uh, do you have any, um, any, uh, advice for
41:46 --> 41:49 me? David, it's wonderful to connect with you.
41:50 --> 41:54 My advice would be to embrace curiosity during your podcast. Ask thought-provoking
41:54 --> 41:58 questions that inspire your listeners to explore new Remember,
41:58 --> 42:02 storytelling can turn even complex subjects into engaging conversations.
42:02 --> 42:06 What topic are you focusing on in the podcast? I'm actually the
42:07 --> 42:07 guest on the podcast.
42:11 --> 42:15 I see. In that case, share your passion for Proto and how it represents
42:15 --> 42:18 a step forward in communication. Engaging storytelling about your
42:19 --> 42:23 journey and the vision behind Proto will resonate with listeners. Consider emphasizing
42:23 --> 42:26 the human connection that holograms foster. What aspect of Proto are
42:27 --> 42:30 you most excited to discuss? Can you tell me that in Chinese?
42:36 --> 42:45 Do you
42:45 --> 42:49 want to, uh, do you want
42:49 --> 42:52 to, you want to, you want to introduce yourself? Yeah.
42:53 --> 42:56 And, uh, Um, and then ask him any question. Okay.
42:57 --> 43:00 Hey William, uh, my name is Jet Bundiwong. I'm the host of The
43:01 --> 43:02 Personal Side of Business podcast with David Tong.
43:04 --> 43:08 Hello Jeff, it's a pleasure to meet you. Hosting a podcast gives
43:08 --> 43:12 you a unique opportunity to explore the personal stories behind business.
43:12 --> 43:16 What topics or themes are you covering today with David? I'm covering his
43:16 --> 43:20 entrepreneurship journey from when he started Proto
43:20 --> 43:23 to That sounds fascinating.
43:23 --> 43:27 David's journey illustrates how entrepreneurship often involves embracing
43:27 --> 43:31 uncertainty and adapting to change. Delving into specific
43:31 --> 43:34 moments that shaped his path could provide inspiring insights for
43:35 --> 43:39 your listeners. What aspect of his journey do you think will resonate most with your
43:39 --> 43:42 audience? I think growing the business from a
43:42 --> 43:45 thought until where it is now, which is incredible.
43:47 --> 43:51 Absolutely. The evolution from a singular idea to a thriving business is
43:51 --> 43:55 a powerful story. Highlighting the challenges he faced and the strategies he employed
43:55 --> 43:58 can show listeners the importance of resilience and innovative entrepreneurship.
43:59 --> 44:02 It's remarkable how a simple thought— isn't that something? Yeah, yeah, this is great.
44:02 --> 44:06 And look, speaks all the different languages. And so you— there's
44:06 --> 44:10 so many things, and there's guardrails in here too. So if you said something
44:10 --> 44:13 really rude, yeah, um, or something super messed up,
44:13 --> 44:16 he'll, he'll put you in your place and then he'll,
44:16 --> 44:20 he'll pivot, he'll redirect you into an area that the real
44:20 --> 44:23 William Shatner would prefer to talk about. Now, yeah, I got a question for
44:24 --> 44:28 you going back to Back to the Future. If the real William Shatner speaks to
44:28 --> 44:31 the AI, does that mess up the space-time continuum?
44:32 --> 44:34 Well, you know, it's funny, I was just on when you were— when, when you
44:35 --> 44:38 guys walked in, I was talking to myself. I was talking to my, my own
44:38 --> 44:42 AI, and it does. I get into fights with myself is because I'm
44:43 --> 44:46 like, wait a second, that's not what I would say. And so yeah, it doesn't
44:46 --> 44:49 quite mess it up, but it messes with your brain a little. Yeah. I,
44:49 --> 44:52 you know, one of the things that I was curious about is over time,
44:52 --> 44:56 if when someone feels comfortable enough, let's say
44:56 --> 44:58 you have this at home and you start to talk to yourself over time,
44:59 --> 45:03 does that, what starts to lead the personality, right? Like, do you start
45:03 --> 45:06 to go, hey, I like the way this person talks. I should start to change
45:07 --> 45:09 that. Exactly. Look, it started out like, um,
45:10 --> 45:13 when I got a— when I got a, uh, like a calculator for the first
45:13 --> 45:16 time, like, all of a sudden I didn't have to know math as much,
45:16 --> 45:19 you know. And then when I got Google and ChatGPT, I didn't have to learn
45:19 --> 45:22 as much information. But same thing with, with Proto now. It's really great.
45:22 --> 45:26 These AI avatars, you can allow your
45:26 --> 45:30 kind of your, your digital twin, your, your holographic persona
45:30 --> 45:34 to, to have that information. So You can focus on these areas and
45:35 --> 45:37 then you can let your AI avatar worry about all the other stuff.
45:38 --> 45:41 That's awesome. All right, let's see the— let's keep walking around.
45:42 --> 45:46 We did this, we did that. Here, let's go into the— let's go into
45:47 --> 45:50 the warehouse. I didn't ask the folks back here if they wanted
45:51 --> 45:54 to be on camera. So scatter if you don't want to be on camera.
45:55 --> 45:59 They've scattered. Okay. Our technology is great because they
45:59 --> 46:02 come pre-assembled. Assembled and ready to go.
46:03 --> 46:06 So like right out of the box, you just plug them into the wall and
46:06 --> 46:10 hook them up to the internet. And so everything's
46:10 --> 46:13 cardboarded up right now because we love— look at, look at our, our,
46:13 --> 46:16 our Roadie cases are cool and they've got branding on the side
46:17 --> 46:20 and they're really great. In fact, when the door opens up, a ramp comes down,
46:20 --> 46:23 you just roll the units in and out. So we've put cardboard on
46:23 --> 46:27 the side because these have all been sold and we
46:28 --> 46:32 want to make sure that they show up wherever they're going in pristine condition.
46:32 --> 46:35 So they'll get them in cardboard, they'll rip the cardboard open, and then, you know,
46:35 --> 46:39 it's great is a lot of our customers, they'll do like a full unboxing video
46:39 --> 46:42 and then they'll post it and tag us in it and stuff. And so these
46:42 --> 46:45 are going all over the world. In fact, we, we, we, we turn these into,
46:46 --> 46:49 into cones so that people don't stack them on top of each other.
46:49 --> 46:52 How long does it take to, to build one?
46:54 --> 46:57 Uh, well, we don't build one at a time. We'll build
46:57 --> 47:01 like dozens or hundreds, and then it's about a 30 day process.
47:01 --> 47:05 And then, um, yeah, 30 to 60 days
47:05 --> 47:08 to like go from, you know, uh,
47:09 --> 47:12 uh, the first, you know, screw all the way to,
47:12 --> 47:16 um, uh, all the way to fully shipped
47:16 --> 47:19 at the, at the customer's location. But yeah, they come here
47:20 --> 47:24 for final assembly and provisioning
47:24 --> 47:27 and quality control and quality checks. Uh,
47:27 --> 47:31 we embed the software, um, and then we do all
47:31 --> 47:34 of the stuff. We try to break it, we try to screw with the software,
47:34 --> 47:38 make sure, and we, we check for little divots and
47:38 --> 47:41 scratches and, you know, we're just perfectionists when it comes to this.
47:41 --> 47:44 So, and in terms of internet speed,
47:44 --> 47:48 how, what's a minimum you would need to have? To beam live
47:48 --> 47:51 or to use an AI avatar, we ask for 25 up and down. Okay.
47:51 --> 47:55 25 dedicated is, is perfect for us. But you
47:56 --> 47:59 don't even need any internet at all for prerecorded content because the cloud, once you
47:59 --> 48:03 sync all the content to end up, um, with individual devices,
48:03 --> 48:07 then you could just run stuff locally. Okay. Yeah, let's walk around a little
48:07 --> 48:10 more. These are
48:10 --> 48:12 like replacement screens,
48:13 --> 48:17 and these are the miniature
48:18 --> 48:21 units. These little, these little boxes, they have the,
48:21 --> 48:25 uh, they have the tabletop units in them. This is what they
48:25 --> 48:28 come in. Oh wow, that's pretty And then in fact,
48:28 --> 48:32 this is what the front one is on. It's, it's on the travel case itself,
48:32 --> 48:36 becomes the like the desk. Yeah. Uh,
48:36 --> 48:40 this is Howie's side is, um, I mean the whole building is
48:40 --> 48:42 Howie's, but there's Sonny in the black pack again. This is,
48:43 --> 48:47 uh, you're not looking at twins, he is the same guy. That's how
48:47 --> 48:50 fast it is. You guys go from playing games to setting up the band in
48:50 --> 48:55 technology. Beamed in. Sunny, that's hilarious.
48:56 --> 48:59 Yeah, and he's prepared an entire thing for you. Go ahead, Sunny.
49:00 --> 49:04 Joking around. Okay. And so they're constantly doing research
49:04 --> 49:06 and practicing and practicing and practicing. It's really great.
49:07 --> 49:11 And practicing. Sometimes it's, it's so much that I feel a
49:11 --> 49:13 little guilty because we're like doing the same song over and over again.
49:14 --> 49:17 I'll— on a conference call, he's doing crazy things, talking to crazy people,
49:18 --> 49:20 doing interviews. Yeah. And I'm trying to be quiet.
49:20 --> 49:24 Yeah. Not annoying, but it's the best. The voice
49:24 --> 49:28 of an angel. The voice of an angel. So if he wasn't a good singer,
49:28 --> 49:31 I would be annoyed. The fact is, it's like having one of the best singers
49:31 --> 49:35 sing to you every single day. So all of these
49:35 --> 49:38 different areas are podcast spaces.
49:39 --> 49:42 And in this one, this one specifically is really cool. This is where
49:43 --> 49:46 Jack Osborne does his podcast. This is where, um,
49:47 --> 49:50 Billy Corgan, who's the, the lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins,
49:50 --> 49:54 does his podcast from right here. Uh, Howie Mandel does his
49:54 --> 49:57 podcast from over there. Hi, Jed, nice to
49:58 --> 50:01 meet you. How are you? Yeah, thank you. Yeah,
50:02 --> 50:05 so how are you? Okay, he's gonna go through, he's got a podcast that he's
50:06 --> 50:10 getting ready for. Also, you know what's really cool? Uh, um, the guy,
50:10 --> 50:14 the actor who played George Stanza, uh, Jason Alexander
50:14 --> 50:17 and his co-host Peter Tilden, they do their podcast from right here. So every
50:18 --> 50:21 single week it's like a constant, um, uh,
50:22 --> 50:25 you know, lots of different people are constantly coming in here
50:26 --> 50:28 and doing their podcast. There's a space in there, there's a space here,
50:29 --> 50:32 there's a space with a video wall over there, and then everything happens in
50:32 --> 50:36 that kind of green room, uh, all kinds of production
50:36 --> 50:40 equipment. Okay, so they walk over here. So when they walk over here—
50:41 --> 50:44 so what they— here, no, here, watch this. Watch, watch what happens.
50:45 --> 50:46 Here, just keep recording.
50:51 --> 50:55 Bryce. Oh my gosh, nice to meet you. I'm David.
50:55 --> 50:58 Very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hey guys, Bryce. Nice to meet
50:59 --> 51:02 you. Out there, but it's pretty— hi, I'm Bryce. Nice to meet you.
51:03 --> 51:06 Cool, come on in. Yeah, good to see you. Good. What's up guys? How are
51:07 --> 51:07 you? What's up? How are you?
51:10 --> 51:14 Podcast worlds are colliding. That's Theo. Yeah,
51:14 --> 51:17 he's 3 there. He's actually turning 5, um, later this
51:17 --> 51:22 month. Wow. In like 10 days or something. Have you— and
51:22 --> 51:26 then here's my, uh, one of my daughters. And the— for kids,
51:26 --> 51:29 have you done any of that to have them create a personality to see how—
51:30 --> 51:33 I haven't done any AI with my kids or kids,
51:34 --> 51:37 uh, although there— so there are some brands with kids as their brand ambassadors.
51:37 --> 51:40 Yes, they have done that. Um,
51:41 --> 51:44 mostly adults are, are turning themselves into AI
51:45 --> 51:48 avatars. But what I like about this is, you know, a lot of parents have
51:48 --> 51:51 their kids on their phones. Yeah. Um,
51:52 --> 51:55 I get to watch my kids grow up through hologram. I started Proto before he
51:55 --> 51:59 was even born. She was his age. Wow. And so
51:59 --> 52:03 now I've got holograms of my kids through the, through the years.
52:03 --> 52:06 You know, one day maybe the holograms the kids,
52:07 --> 52:10 younger one version of the older one, start to talk to each other. Yeah.
52:11 --> 52:15 So like their kids will be able to play with their holograms
52:15 --> 52:18 when they were their age. David, that's like your— oh,
52:18 --> 52:21 there's my, there's my middle child. There's all 3.
52:22 --> 52:25 The true, uh, Back to the Future. You're creating real Back to the Future.
52:25 --> 52:29 Yeah. Yeah. I, I think this is amazing what you're doing
52:30 --> 52:34 here. I— it's like it's,
52:34 --> 52:37 it's a little bit surreal. And I don't know, I'm sure people say
52:38 --> 52:41 that, like it almost doesn't feel like it's happening. And then you start to go
52:41 --> 52:45 through, like, I know it's technology and AI and, and all this
52:46 --> 52:51 stuff, but it feels like it's not real. Like, because I
52:51 --> 52:54 think when I first stepped in here, you see it on surface and then you
52:54 --> 52:57 start to see the, the behind the scenes of it and you're just like trying
52:58 --> 53:01 to piece it together, right? So I don't know, but it's
53:02 --> 53:05 incredible. It's a lot to, um, accept. This is why
53:06 --> 53:10 it's important for people to see it as often as possible. This is why it's
53:10 --> 53:14 great when somebody just sees one in the wild, in an airport,
53:14 --> 53:16 in a hotel, in a museum.
53:18 --> 53:21 Um, also has to— the interactions have to be accurate
53:22 --> 53:25 because it's very important that if you're going to see this or interact
53:25 --> 53:29 or experience it for the first time, um, it can't give you false information.
53:29 --> 53:32 It can't glitch because the experience is over.
53:32 --> 53:36 You've lost that person as a, as a collaborator, as a, as a trusted
53:36 --> 53:39 customer. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Well guys,
53:40 --> 53:43 check out Proto. Like you said, uh, this is amazing. Thank you,
53:43 --> 53:46 David. And, uh, follow David wherever he is,
53:47 --> 53:50 wherever, just wherever David be. Follow. Here,
53:51 --> 53:54 check this out. Look at, look at my wall of fame or my hollow Fame.
53:55 --> 53:58 This is all the celebrities who have come in here. They, uh, I— they,
53:58 --> 54:02 they'll, uh, they'll sign the wall after I beam them somewhere in the world.
54:02 --> 54:06 You've got Stamos, and Sophie
54:06 --> 54:10 Reign was here, and Charlie Sheen, and, uh,
54:11 --> 54:14 Josh Duhamel, Shark— the Shark Tank Daymond John,
54:14 --> 54:18 Rob Lowe, and, uh, Lisa Rinna,
54:18 --> 54:21 Howie. And so all these people— Kevin Nealon.
54:22 --> 54:26 It's really great. All right, that's awesome. All right.
54:27 --> 54:29 I'll let you guys do your next podcast now.