Announcer: 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management or Beasley Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author and financial advisor, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the Forward Focus Forums, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights and a little fun. Now let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein: 0:41

Good morning America. How are you? I'm laughing because that was a really funny. So we're live on the radio right now on Beasley Media Group WWDB-AM in Philadelphia. In case you're listening to the podcast, you'll know that's why I'm laughing, because the ad right before this was about Beasley's eternal love and it was a very funny commercial that I keep thinking about.

Marc Bernstein: 1:05

Never heard him do anything like that before. Anyway, I'm also laughing because I have a technology guy named Scott here this morning and you'll meet Scott officially in a minute, but we're doing a homemade video here. So I'm having my little technology struggles and, as I shared with him, I'm a musician who has a recording studio at home and all that, but hates to work any of that stuff. I just love to have other people do it for me, which is one of the reasons we do our podcast in a radio station. So Scott, who you'll find out, is a real technology guy. I share some of those same struggles. If you want to talk about that, a second Scott.

Scott Reuter: 1:48

Yeah, I mean, it's something that I've dealt with my entire life, but I always farm out the technology pieces to others.

Marc Bernstein: 1:53

So we'll talk more about that, but we were just having a chuckle over that. So question for you as a listener do you use technology because you have to or because you love it? I would suggest that most people today probably do it because they have to. It's impossible to not do it today, and some people are naturals at it. The funny thing is I'm really good at working my phone. Apps come naturally.

Marc Bernstein: 2:17

Math, you know, I studied computer programming. Math came naturally to me, but having to figure out how the things work is something I'd rather have other people do or teach me how to do it. So you agree, Scott, Totally in agreement. All right, so anyway, so that's our thought for the day, since we're going to talk about technology. So Scott Reuter is our guest today and he's principal at Product Data Command. Scott has 35-plus years of experience in various technology sectors 30 plus years as an entrepreneur, including a technology buying group, which is a really interesting story computer product manufacturer and one of the world's first product information management software companies. He has deep experience in computer product and automotive aftermarket industries. Welcome, Scott.

Scott Reuter: 3:07

Thank you.

Marc Bernstein: 3:08

Great to have you here this morning, nice to be here. So let's start out. So let's start out how your career and how you got, how you became an entrepreneur and how you got into this technology business are the things that we're interested in.

Scott Reuter: 3:21

Yeah, I mean pretty much. I dove into the business world primarily doing stuff I didn't want to do. I always knew I wanted to do my own thing. I think I knew that early and while at a job I met an individual who became a real good friend of mine, also a partner, and we just put our heads together, came up with the idea of a buying group for value-added resellers of computer products. We were working in various forms within a company. I was more on the technology side. He was like you know, copiers and that kind of stuff. But you know, we thought that this was a good idea and something we could sell. So we put it together. The concept essentially was band a bunch of little guys together, use the combined purchasing power of the group and negotiate volume deals. Now this is 100 years ago, so this is back with computer lands and stuff like that.

Scott Reuter: 4:17

80s right, yeah, early 80s People were buying stuff from computer lands, not getting discounts. And then there were these small group of software developers who had accounting management systems, construction management systems, gas station management systems, things like that, like that. But when they were selling them to their clients they wanted a turnkey solution. They wanted the hardware and the software, which is the way to do it, because if you don't do it that way, there's a lot of finger pointing when a problem occurs. So we got I guess our critical mass was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 resellers and then we started negotiating volume purchase deals. We found, without a lot of commitment, we could get the same prices that Computerland got, you know, for these guys. So we charged them a membership fee and a percentage of the purchase that they made through it, but they saved a ton of money and we made a lot of money. So yeah, it was a good, it was a good fit for us and that was my entree into being an entrepreneur.

Marc Bernstein: 5:21

So I just want to follow up on that for a second. I'm always interested was there any? Did you have entrepreneurs in your family? Did you have any model that made you want to do your own thing?

Scott Reuter: 5:32

Not really. I mean, I think it was more just from reading, seeing different people out there reading stories about successful people taking a chance, and I was like I'm young enough, why not successful?

Marc Bernstein: 5:45

people taking a chance and I was like I'm young enough, why not? I had a guest recently, a woman who said I don't know if this applies to you or not, but she's become a good friend since then, so I tend to quote this a lot. She said I was a terrible employee but a really good boss. Does that apply to you at all? You?

Scott Reuter: 6:03

know, does that apply to you at all? I mean, I think I was an okay employee, you know. I mean I took it upon myself if I was challenged with a task to get it done, stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, I think I'm a pretty good boss, I don't, you know, I think I'm the kind of person that would pat somebody on the back to try and motivate them, as opposed to kick them in the butt.

Marc Bernstein: 6:25

So yeah, but from having talked to you and knowing your journey a little bit, I think the entrepreneur in you had more to do with choosing your own path and being your own boss, perhaps. Right yeah, absolutely so, got it so okay. So now you're in this computer club thing and buying group and that's going pretty well, right yeah, and you guys did really well at it, from what I understand.

Scott Reuter: 6:48

Yeah, what ended up happening was at that time there was a lot of distributors that were trying to drive business to them. It was all in the computer products and peripheral space, and so they were taking on anybody that could drive buyers to them, which is exactly what we did. So they treated us really good. But as margins started to erode and flatten, we had to start getting a lot more creative in what it would take to keep our members on board. One of the things that we dove into reasonably early was developing a catalog solution, and it was just taking the data from the distributors, putting it in. We had probably a half a dozen or more getting a file from them that had pricing and a brief description. This is catalog for computers.

Scott Reuter: 7:37

For computer purchasing basically right.

Scott Reuter: 7:40

Parts and things like that right. And it was an easy sell. These guys were spending four or five hours to save $10 on a hard drive purchase. It was just like if you value your time, this is a better way to do it. So they came on board pretty quickly. But, as I said, as the margins started to flatten, our value wasn't as great from a monetary standpoint. So we started developing software to make them more efficient, and that was the cataloging software that we created. It was essentially taking files from the distributor partners that we had and allowing them to do lookups. Now this is back with function keys and stuff like that right.

Marc Bernstein: 8:19

So a long time ago, but the idea was that. Another thing I hated function keys. Yeah, exactly, I didn't like it much either.

Scott Reuter: 8:26

So I was ready for the change. But anyway, they could do a lookup on a product, they could see the three distributors that carried it and there was all kinds of reasons that they would buy from one versus another. They had a credit line with one, not the other, that kind of stuff, but at least they knew if somebody was out of stock they could go to another guy, that kind of thing. Well, what we determined was that the data we were getting from these distributors was just awful. I mean, it was just terrible. So we had a lot of cleaning and things like that to do before we could even make it available through the catalog. And that got us thinking that, you know, there's an opportunity here to clean data, you know, and make it available to these distributors and online retailers. I mean this was way early, I mean this was before the internet play kind of for business purposes, but that's sort of how we got to that point, got it.

Marc Bernstein: 9:17

So now that led. Eventually you got into product information management, so it sounds like a natural progression.

Scott Reuter: 9:24

That was the yeah, that was the entree yeah, but tell us how that.

Marc Bernstein: 9:27

What happened then, I guess?

Scott Reuter: 9:29

Well, what ended up happening was we started managing and cleansing this data from the distributors and in doing it, we found a lot of the distributors coming back to us and saying, hey, we could use this data because we're trying to, you know, put it on our catalog in front of buyers. So, for all intents and purposes, we just saw the opportunity and it also opened our eyes that maybe, as far as the catalog software is concerned, we should be more focused on the cleansing of the data, that technology. So we started building technology around cleansing the data and already had buyers ready as soon as we were ready. So that's sort of how we did it. So how long ago was that? That was like early 90s, real early, like 1991. Yeah, really early, yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 10:25

So you stayed in the same company, kept doing the same things? Well, no, the things you were doing was evolving.

Scott Reuter: 10:33

Yeah, the buying group kind of fizzled out. We sold it off to a company that was doing similar things. Most of the people were on board because they were saving money. We weren't saving them as much money, so it was time to get out of that. We opened another company that was focused more on this product information management thing called AdvanceSource and, yeah, we just kind of spent a lot of time developing the software to manage the software. In fact, I think we have the very first commercial product information management system ever made. So we didn't sell that, we just used it as part of the service. Ultimately, we saw the opportunity to sell it Right.

Marc Bernstein: 11:15

So when about did that start? When you started selling?

Scott Reuter: 11:17

That was probably. It was still, you know, early 90s, before 95, kind of thing, and yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 11:24

So we're talking over 30 years ago now still.

Scott Reuter: 11:26

Yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 11:28

So what happened? Tell me about the journey to get to your company today, to where you're a product out of command.

Scott Reuter: 11:37

Yeah, Advanced Source was probably the main catalyst to get to where we are today. Advanced Source went out to early play online retailers. We provided the data services for them. So these guys were selling computer products and peripherals at the time. It didn't play just there. Any hard goods would work.

Scott Reuter: 12:00

But for all intents and purposes that was our mainstay and we had a bunch of people that was probably the biggest product line that was being sold on the internet early, the biggest product line that was being sold on the internet early. So we got a bunch of customers that were paying us monthly for the service of building their data. We got a database of somewhere in the neighborhood of 250,000 to 300,000 products, and in the computer industry it's not as static as others. Right, Three to six months is a product shelf life. Sure, it'd be all new stuff, Exactly. So we were constantly refreshing it. There were liquidation firms and things like that that would buy the old data. So that was sort of the path. We went all the way to term sheet on an acquisition and I don't know how detailed you want me to get.

Scott Reuter: 12:46

We talked a little bit about that but, had kind of a number of really strange occurrences that ultimately queered the deal, so. But we felt that there was still an opportunity and we kind of build a new application and that's where product data come in.

Marc Bernstein: 13:02

Well, I was going to bring it up as a challenge challenges because you were here, you were on the cusp of something, a big exit strategy, right, yeah, exactly. And then it didn't happen, right, right. So how did you deal with that adversity, that challenge? Poorly at first.

Scott Reuter: 13:19

Okay, it was a rugged time, yeah, you know, but at the end of the day, you know, we still saw the vision and we kind of I was passionate about it, so stayed the course. You know there were some lean times. I mean, I was doing construction work for a buddy of mine, mixing cement and stuff like that, just waiting for my next opportunity to get back in.

Marc Bernstein: 13:43

So for all our fellow entrepreneurs listening to this podcast, this is another example of just a smooth ride towards your goal. Exactly, we talked about this. Listen, I've had over 100 guests on the show well over that. Now I can't remember one that said oh yeah, it was just a smooth ride to the top. I did have one the same woman I was speaking about who said we really didn't have any challenges until she got investors in her company.

Announcer: 14:10

And then she said well, that was a challenge.

Marc Bernstein: 14:11

So everybody's got something.

Scott Reuter: 14:13

Yeah, exactly.

Marc Bernstein: 14:14

Like I said, it's what I talk about.

Scott Reuter: 14:15

And that was sort of the demise of AdvanceSource because of the investors and the key investor who was a partner. You know that was the problem.

Marc Bernstein: 14:27

So here we are at this cusp. This is probably a really good chance to take a break, a one-minute break, and we'll be right back. So why don't we do that? We'll take a quick one-minute break and then I want to talk to you about how the current company progressed and your employees and your company culture and that kind of thing. So we'll be right back on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 14:46

Product Data Command. Pdc delivers AI-powered software and services that drive online product sales. Leveraging advanced AI and deep expertise in product information management, we help companies present their products with the seven key data points buyers need to purchase confidently. By uniting proven business processes, seasoned e-commerce experience and cutting-edge technology, we position your products to stand out in a highly competitive digital marketplace. Our solutions not only boost revenue, but also improve supply chain efficiency, serving vendors, distributors and online retailers alike. Pdc's mission is simple Elevate your customers' online buying experience while accelerating your growth. Buying experience while accelerating your growth. Let's discuss how PDC can help drive your business forward. Contact Scott today at 215-630-7158 or via email at srouter at pdcommandcom to explore how we can enhance your online sales strategy.

Marc Bernstein: 15:52

We're back on Founders Forum with our guest today, Scott Reuter and Scott, it's great to have you here today and we're just getting to the point where. So you had this almost big exit strategy. Didn't happen a little bit of disappointment, but you found your way forward. And what happened from there?

Scott Reuter: 16:08

Yeah, I mean, I think that the net was when that didn't happen. What happened from there? Yeah, I mean, I think that the net was when that didn't happen. Product information management actually was becoming a more popular area. There was actually a segment that they called it product information management, because they didn't have that prior to, and some of the big guys got involved, like IBM and SAP, which takes you back to shows.

Marc Bernstein: 16:29

You were pioneers because they didn't even have a name for it. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Reuter: 16:34

But I actually went a really good friend of mine actually used our software as a model raised like $40 million to put a company together to sell PIM that's the acronym for product Information Management to big companies. It was sort of a middleware play, if you will. And they did it big and they actually were involved in an acquisition opportunity with IBM. They were one of the finalists, they were picked as the best solution, but ultimately they went with a company that was former IBM employees and things like that. But it was a $183 million play, so it was legit. They kind of folded. I was working for them as a sales engineer and ultimately a sales guy, and then I just had this. I knew that this was something that everybody needed, not just the big guys, small to mid-sized businesses. So I got back with my chief technology officer and we just, you know, did it in our spare time, you know, for a year, and then we went to launch as soon as we had the opportunity.

Marc Bernstein: 17:46

And that was the beginning of product out of command yes, and now where are we in time? Beginning of product out of command yes, and now where are we in time?

Scott Reuter: 17:52

This was probably 2005, something like that. I mean a lot of time spanned over that. That whole advanced source play fizzled out early 2002, 2003, that kind of thing.

Marc Bernstein: 18:08

So now, this is about 20 years ago and now we're talking. So now you're building a company, you're adding employees, things like that when are you today? How many employees do you have today?

Scott Reuter: 18:17

We have like 15 total. Most of them are developers. You know we have a development shop in Pune but my partner pretty much, you know, oversold, so yeah, so so you're all remote, I'm imagining. Yeah, everything is remote.

Marc Bernstein: 18:38

It's the way of the world now today. Right, yeah, exactly. So how do you with that, do you attempt to build a company culture?

Scott Reuter: 18:47

Yeah, I think so. I mean I won't say that it's normal, you know, like the normal culture you would think when you're all going to an office or something like that. But what we try and do is, you know respect everybody's, you know personal situation and things like that. But you know we have demands. Like if somebody is, I'm talking to customers, so when they ask me something, I got to go to development and say how long can you get this done? I'm always buffering it, you know, because I don't want to have to come back and you know with disappointing news that you know we're not ready to deliver.

Marc Bernstein: 19:22

How's your employee retention? Do you keep them for the yeah, pretty much.

Scott Reuter: 19:25

Pretty much. I mean. The majority of the people that have left have learned quite a bit from us and have expanded their careers and you know God bless them. That's, you know that's something they should be looking at.

Marc Bernstein: 19:39

So, with what you're doing, it's okay if they learn and grow and they move on and you have more people and it keeps going yeah and we have a pretty good learning program to get people ramped up pretty quickly for the things that we need.

Scott Reuter: 19:53

Now that's starting to change a little bit with the advent of AI, but yeah, I think that the other stuff was pretty easy to train them.

Marc Bernstein: 20:02

So I mentioned earlier but we didn't talk about it now how you got in the automotive aftermarket, and I also want to talk about the impact of AI and what you're doing with that.

Scott Reuter: 20:10

Yeah, well, as far as when we decided to do this to small and mid-sized companies. The other thing that we thought was a good caveat was to be industry-focused, because a lot of the commercial PIM applications were one-size-fits-all right. You did a lot of configuration, depending on the industry that you're in. We decided, as opposed to doing that, focus on an industry, incorporate their standards into the application, things like that. So it really played for those guys and that's what we did. So automotive aftermarket was an industry that I had had a lot of familiarity with, and so we focused on that. We incorporated two of the standards, and then the idea was a SaaS model where we sold subscriptions to parts manufacturers that needed to provide their data to distributors and online resellers. So that was sort of the play.

Marc Bernstein: 21:07

And how is that going?

Scott Reuter: 21:09

It's going good. I mean, there's been some challenges, there's competition now and things like that. So you're always looking at ways that you can differentiate yourself, and that really is why I'm, so you know, high on AI.

Marc Bernstein: 21:24

So AI is helping you to differentiate yourself.

Scott Reuter: 21:26

Without question.

Marc Bernstein: 21:27

And tell us, without giving away your secret sauce, how are you doing that?

Scott Reuter: 21:33

Well, there's multiple plays with it and it's amazing what it can do, right? I mean, I know a lot of people are fearful that it's going to eliminate, you know, humans in the workforce. That's not true, but you know you always have to have what they call humans in the loop right to do things, to trigger workflows and things like that, that these things can do much more efficiently and a lot less money.

Marc Bernstein: 21:58

I'll just mention that we've had a lot of people in here that are in the business of AI and are experts, and we've talked about it and there's great opportunities for humans who know how to operate AI. But if you don't get with the program, it's going to be tougher for you.

Scott Reuter: 22:12

Yeah, I think over the next three to five years, if you jump in now, you're going to have serious value. Yeah, right, because it's before. It's that whole crossing the chasm thing, right, it's early.

Marc Bernstein: 22:25

So how is the AI in your business helping to differentiate you with your customers?

Scott Reuter: 22:29

Well, the one thing that we did right from the beginning was we focused on because we don't look at just this as product information management. We look at our service being helping people better present their products so that they can sell more, and it's all about increasing revenue and doing the things that you need to do more efficiently. So we built an AI tool it's almost two years now and looked at what people need to make an intelligent purchase when they're online, and so it focuses on seven key parts of data. You know just Google strings, marketing descriptions, features and benefits, category-specific attributes, things of that nature and we can use AI to create that content and then dump it into the PIM and then we can create basically what we call a smart sheet. It's basically a product brochure.

Marc Bernstein: 23:24

You know, in a second so your learning technology helps them to learn how to better buy products.

Scott Reuter: 23:33

It helps them provide a better buying experience for their customers. I guess, oh, for their customers. Got it, got it, got it.

Marc Bernstein: 23:41

So gotcha. So, given that, is it helping to increase your market share? Absolutely, I would think yeah, so, and I would think it would make you rare, if not unique.

Scott Reuter: 23:53

That's what I'm starting to use, that word for, yeah, a lot of the people that are doing it are dabbling in it. We really kind of we were hooked right from the jump, so you're finding your niche, yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 24:04

So, given that it's a good place to talk about your future vision. So if you and I are talking a year from now, Scott, and we look back on that last year, what would have to happen for you to feel that that was a successful year, business-wise and personally, if you want anything else that comes to mind?

Scott Reuter: 24:19

Yeah, I mean, I think that the vision that we have is we've always looked to try and go after the bigger guys right, who have established supply chains that we can, you know, use their power and relationships to sort of provide introductions to us and things like that. So, you know, we'd like to increase, you know, maybe by 100 subscribers. That would be something that would be good. But we also see this play. I mean, we're working with eBay Motors now who wants to have this kind of content, these smart sheets, available for all their products that they represent, and they're selling that to distributors and stuff. So if we go through them we don't really need to reach those other guys. But we'd also like to take this outside of the aftermarket and to other hard goods. It plays anywhere. You know MRO, plumbing supplies, you name it. So we'd like to get into that area and you need subject matter experts in order to train the tool to acquire and manipulate and create the content that you need for their buyers.

Marc Bernstein: 25:34

So for each new market you'd probably need a subject matter expert. Absolutely Gotcha gotcha. Any challenges you see in meeting that, those objectives for the next year.

Scott Reuter: 25:45

It's, you know. I mean it would always be better with more money. But you know, for all intents and purposes, I think a lot of people are really interested in getting into AI and if we're a catalyst to educate them on what that means and how to do it, we think we can get the right personnel.

Marc Bernstein: 26:04

But that is the one unknown Personnel Right, but it sounds like you have experience in what you've built over the years. You've always been able to find the people to get to the next level. It sounds like. Yeah, yeah, I think we have, so you have some experience to lean on as that goes, yeah, so we're almost out of time. Believe it or not, the time always flies.

Announcer: 26:23

Quick, isn't that wild Exactly.

Marc Bernstein: 26:25

So 28 minutes goes very fast, the you know. If you were speaking to your younger Scott, you know what advice would you give him.

Scott Reuter: 26:37

I mean, I think I was always like you know what, what advice would you give him? Um, I mean, I, I think I w I was always like, uh, you know, this is such a big deal, I gotta get it right, but I think you just need to enjoy the moment. You know, the journey is the most important thing. It's the thing that, um, I wish I had taken a little bit more time to recognize how cool it was, you know, going through it and I didn't right.

Scott Reuter: 26:58

So you know, I think that you know, I just think I would have been better off enjoying myself a little bit more and not stressing so much about each and every opportunity.

Marc Bernstein: 27:11

I can relate to that one, and it's something I've said myself. One last thing I know you're legacy minded. What does that look like for you? So one last thing I know you're legacy-minded.

Scott Reuter: 27:19

What does that look like for you? I think this is on a business and a personal level, I mean from my perspective. You know, I want to be remembered as somebody that you know did everything with integrity and cared about you know people. People forget the little things, but they won't forget how you treat them, and I like to treat people well.

Marc Bernstein: 27:40

I love that Kindness. Yeah exactly and well regard. Well, listen, we're out of time.

Scott Reuter: 27:47

That was awesome.

Marc Bernstein: 27:48

Thanks, Scott. It was great to talk to you. It was a fun time, as always. And to all of you, thanks for listening, thanks for listening to another episode of Founders Forum and we'll see you next week.