← Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
January Founder of the Month: Brian Taylor of Thinkspan 12-4-25
00:31:51
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity in the Becker Business podcast. We're thrilled today to be with a brilliant leader, a brilliant guest. We're joined today by Brian Taylor. Brian's the founder and CEO of Thinkspan, and Brian's going to talk to us today about leadership, about business, and a lot more. Brian, before we get started, can you take a moment to tell us about yourself and your history and also about Thinkspan?
- [00:29]
B
Sure. Thank you, Scott, and thank you very much for having me. It's kind of a. This is like a special moment for me. This is my first time ever being a guest on a podcast, and it's also my first time doing a type of a media on behalf of my new project, Thinkspan. So I'm really excited to talk about it. And, you know, some people call me a serial entrepreneur, but that's not quite true. In college, I started a company called Colonel Seasons, which is a popcorn seasoning business. And we sold popcorn seasoning to movie theaters and grocery stores. And, you know, I had this mission to create a nationally recognized brand of popcorn seasoning. And when I sold the company, we were, I believe, the third largest brand of blended seasoning in the country. You know, if you kind of factor out the McCormick. So we did a pretty decent job there. And I started kind of looking into new projects. And when my kids were born, I wanted to give them information, and I wasn't exactly sure how to give them information. Would I create a folder in Dropbox or a Evernote stack or an email? And none of it kind of felt right or sacred or appropriate. And it just got me thinking about information management. And as I started investing time in that, I decided to fully exit my previous business, kernel Seasons, and take a voyage into a new industry and learn something new. I kind of fancy myself a permanent beginner. I love being in new positions and kind of navigating brand new, imaginative products. And that's what we've been working on for years. And what Thinkspan essentially is, is we're reimagining how people store their personal information. As we evaluated it, we realized that if you commonly structure information and create, in essence, a data fabric of shared information structures, a data model of the world, if you will, that enables us to create a completely private and intelligent, you know, data fabric that lives on the device. And we have a whole bunch of patents that protect how this works. And we even patented, you know, the idea of personal, private AI operating on top of this data fabric and those. And that's from, you know, before AI was even understood to be what it is right now. So we've been kind of ahead of our time and we also kind of view ourselves as kind of skating to where the puck is going, as they say, because as the edge AI models get stronger and.
- [03:15]
As more compute moves to the device, because the devices become more powerful, our database unlocks a whole new world of personal, private AI. It can govern how people exchange information with each other. It operates as a totally private personal assistant. And to start, it's an all in one place to store your information. We're reimagining personal information management from a scattered collection of apps and portals and physical file folders to an all in one super app where your information is structured and connected. So it's a big idea and we've been working on it for many years, and the product is in the market right now in a beta form. And we had a conversation with our team this morning because our retention is really good right now, and we're trying to make sure that we can even trust the numbers that we see. So we're really excited about where the business is at and it's been certainly a fun journey.
- [04:19]
A
That's fascinating. And who are the customers for it? Is it individuals, is it the consumer business, or is it a business to business business? Tell us a bit more about what that looks like.
- [04:29]
B
Yeah, to start, we're B2C, definitely. So a consumer can download our app, Thinkspan, and right now it's like 40 plus apps in one. And within a year or two, it'll be hundreds, if not thousands of apps in one. However, part of our roadmap is to certainly include enterprise. You know, we believe that Thinkspan can be a data fabric that governs how organizations actually connect with the consumer. It's almost as if it's one private AI connected to another private AI. And so for us, you know, that, you know, is both a revenue stream and a form of distribution of our product.
- [05:08]
A
I mean, that's fascinating. And all the struggle with exactly what you're talking about. We've got passwords in one place. I mean, so much of it resides in our phone today, but we can never find it in our phone anyways as well. And then there's so much other information also out there that having it in one place more and more would be a fantastic thing. You could see this for, you know.
- [05:31]
Obviously for an adult parent, if you pass away, you want everything in one place for your children to get it, what they need to understand what they have to do. There's so many different uses of this that I can envision.
- [05:42]
B
Yeah, no, that's so true. And it's funny, we joke about it that it's like we're over half a century into the information age and the problem of personal information management still hasn't been solved. And it's a deep tech problem, actually, it seems like it's a simple thing. Oh, we're making an app that does a lot of things, but we're actually totally reversing how databases work and putting the database on the device on the edge. So all we see are end to end encrypted blobs of information. So Thinkspan is so private that we can't even see the type of information that somebody's storing. But the information blossoms into this full, beautiful kind of personal command and control center, personal operating system infused with intelligence that actually knows you. And it allows us to solve a lot of problems. The people that we talk to, it's nearly unanimous that personal information management is a mess. People don't even believe us. One of the challenges of the business right now is, oh man, are you really secure? You know, like our research says, like we have a, we have a lift to convince people of how our technology works and how secure we are. You know, that's the bad news. The good news is once people realize that this is totally different, you know, they're in, you know, this is, you know, this is a whole new way to store personal information. And we think it's a much bigger idea than meets the eye.
- [07:04]
A
I, I think that's probably exactly right. You think about just one's own life where, you know, the estate planning documents are one place, the titles for house or titles for cars are in another place, information on investing's in another place. Billion different places where things are at. And, and to make it easier to have in one place so you know where you're going or you know, who has to see. Seems like a real win.
- [07:26]
B
Exactly. And, and the neat thing about Thinkspan is the information self organizes. So if you receive a, let's just say you receive a K1 for an investment and you scan it and are uploaded into Thinkspan, Thinkspan in total privacy will recognize that it's a K1, extract the information, organize it as a K1, connect it to the underlying investment that it, you know, that issued the K1, connect it to the appropriate tax year. And to your question about enterprise, eventually seamlessly connect in an end to end encrypted way with your accountant. So it's almost, you put the information into thinkspan and things magically happen and with. In total privacy.
- [08:05]
A
That is fantastic. I love it. Brian, take a moment when you look back at your career and you're both a brilliant person in Chicago, Michigan, founded your own company early on. When you look back at your career, talk about key inflection points that shape how you think about entrepreneurship in business today.
- [08:32]
B
Yeah, it's, you know, there were a bunch of inflection points and, you know, for me, it. It certainly was an inflection point to, you know, decide to sell my business. And, you know, I had a wonderful group of people, built a great team and making that decision to do it, to start over. And part of that was, you know, following your instincts and. And following a passion and an interest and a desire to do and create and make something new. I knew that that was in my DNA. And, you know, there was also a point of learning to trust myself. You know, I was never really officially indoctrinated into the business world. I went straight from being a philosophy major at the University of Michigan to being the founder of a little popcorn seasoning business. And, you know, that certainly came with, you know, a degree of humility. And what do other folks know that I don't know? You know, so I did go to business school, and I think that kind of helped give me some confidence. But we realized that a lot of the stuff that we do is so many people in business are figuring it out as they go, and that's a real talent and a skill to be able to forge new paths and discover things and work with people and figure out to make things work and make things happen. It also was an inflection point to learn to trust other folks, trust other people, and hire good people. And what does that feel like to kind of hand the toys over to other people to do an even better job than I could have done with the project and to, you know, and it's a real honor and a privilege to see people, you know, get excited about, you know, something that has been kind of ideated from scratch and see a path that has been started to be forged and then do more with it than I ever could have imagined. And so that's really one of the most satisfying things.
- [10:18]
A
Talk about that, because that takes a certain amount of maturity and humility as a leader to say, look, I got it to this spot, and we did. Unbelievable. And it's. In a moment, I'm going to ask you about the name Colonel Seasons as well. Colonel Seasonings or Seasons. But this maturity of a Leader. Because that's hard. When a leader sort of lets go, but is able to see the pride in. Okay, this is still going great, even though I'm not in the driver's seat anymore. That's often sort of an emotional type of thing was triggering out, but also a maturing thing to think this is what it took to distribute it at a higher or greater level. Talk about that. Maybe the motion of that for one moment, if you don't mind, and just the maturity of that.
- [11:01]
B
Yeah, you know, it's hard, especially when you see a very talented person who may do something differently than I would do, but also realizing, holy smokes, they're right and they're actually doing it better. And although it's different and it's kind of letting go and letting people learn and make their own mistakes to some extent and figuring out how to balance the high level kind of leadership and the strategic vision with that letting go that allows a business to scale. Because obviously if you can't do that, the business isn't going to scale and you're not going to bring in new experiences and new vision.
- [11:41]
To make things happen that I would have never imagined possible.
- [11:46]
A
No, that, that's literally remarkable. And that's an education experience as an entrepreneur, as a leader. To get to that spot to see I've done fantastic and these people can do these things better than I can and we need them to go to the next level. It's a fascinating leadership lesson. Let me ask you another leadership question. Is there a leadership lesson that you learned the hard way, one way or another, that continues to guide your approach in some way or another?
- [12:13]
B
Yeah, you know, I think, you know, it's kind of cliche, but trust your instincts. You know, if you kind of have a nagging feeling or a certain instinct about something, if it's not the right person or project or strategy, you know, there's generally something real behind that. And so I think that there is this sense of trusting instincts. And I think, you know, making moves and changes faster is something that I certainly could have done a better job of at various times throughout my career and probably even now, now. But, you know, it's, it is this sense of, of trust. Not just of like, you know, intentional decisions like I, I had, you know, initially indicated, but also just of those, like little, yeah, just those little instincts. You know, I think that's, that's one lesson.
- [13:01]
A
Yeah, no, I think that's fantastic. And it's. Did. Was there an evolution, learning to trust your gut? Was there a period of Time where you felt like, I got to go by the rules, I got to go by the book, but as I get further into things, I could trust my gut and it goes well. And how does some of that translate into what you're doing currently? And I love the concept and what you're doing currently.
- [13:21]
Is there a point at which you come back almost to trusting your gut?
- [13:26]
B
Yeah, I think it's very relevant for Thinkspan, because with Thinkspan, like I mentioned, it's a deep tech project. So not only is it an innovative idea, but it required a whole new technology of literally flipping information management inside out. And it took a lot of time to kind of, you know, it almost starts as a research project, like, hey, can we do this thing? Can we make a database be the ultimate perfect database is an information store. And it just so happens that that happened to be the perfect thing to do for the AI age, which we didn't even see exactly as coming. But that was a happy accident. But there is this sense of, you know, trusting the instincts enough to create that stick to itiveness to stay with something when it's hard to keep banging your head against a problem and keep pushing forward that, hey, this is a worthwhile problem to solve. This is a big problem to solve. You know, it's. It's funny because as I look back at popcorn seasoning, we weren't innovating an actual technology. We had to figure out how to put seasoning in a jar and branded and sell it. And that's a big enough lift as is. But with Thinkspan, building a brand new technology and then building technology on top of the operating system, on top of the platform that we've created is another lift. So it's really complex and it took years. It's funny, I asked ChatGPT how long does it take to get a deep tech project off the ground? And Its answer was seven to 10 years, if not longer. And I'm like, that's Thinkspan. It took us a long time, but our technology is solid, it's working, and users are really enjoying it. And I told the team, you know, at the end of last week, I'm like, guys, this is the fun part. You know, we're done. You know, we'll always be working on the instrument, but we now get to play music with the instrument that we've created. And we're getting, you know, lots of positive feedback from users and suggestions. And it's kind of fun to kind of have this unveiling of the technology and be in a position where I'm talking on a podcast and promoting Think Span. You know, I tell the team I'm a, I'm a promoter at heart and I'm excited to do that on behalf of the Thinkspan project.
- [15:39]
A
No, it's literally remarkable. And where can people find the Thinkspan product? Where can people learn more about it? Just. I've got a number more questions for you, but I want to stop for a second and ask you to tell us about that.
- [15:54]
B
Yeah, so we have an app available, you know, both on iOS and on Android. You can go to thinkspan.com and learn about the technology and some of the use cases. And Personally, I'm on LinkedIn and if someone wants to chat with me, I'm always happy to talk about Thinkspan. And over time, we're still kind of in a beta mode, but we're now starting to put together our kind of marketing, promotion, social media, and kind of coming out to the world. And now is the time. You know, we're really excited about what we have.
- [16:30]
A
Thank you. And you've obviously, in building your first business, in building this business, have taken some level of calculated risk. Take a moment on any philosophy on around taking calculated risk. You're Jim Collins, famous author of Good to Great, Famous business Seeker, talks about firing bullets, not cannons. So you don't sort of burn the boat and leave yourself high and dry if it doesn't go well. How do you think about taking calculated risks and going into something while making sure you could still feed the family and take care of people and so forth?
- [17:06]
B
Yeah, you know, I think there's two big things, you know, that I, you know, that, that we've done on that front. I think one is thinking in terms of platforms and thinking in terms of systems, you know, you know, embedding optionality into the strategy that we're doing. You know, when I started Colonel Seasons, I called a very high level, you know, executive at a, at a big seasoning company and he said, oh, how many flavors are you starting with? I said 10. He said, oh, that's crazy. You should start with only three. No more than three. So I started with 10. And it's funny, I call it the, the Walt Disney theory of business, where one of the things also that de risks something is to do it big enough and bold enough that you're really doing something different and just not making an incremental change if you really are doing something new. Where Disney World, when it came out, it was like nothing else the world has ever seen. It was like no other carnival or festival, it was bigger in scale and it was something that people talked about. When we did research for our popcorn seasoning business, everybody went to the white cheddar and the butter flavors. But, boy, when we unveiled all, you know, I think at the time, 15 flavors, we got a visceral, emotional reaction. Oh, my gosh, look at all these flavors. And they were so excited to see. And then, of course, they would gravitate to whatever flavors they wanted. You know, in the case of Thinkspan, you know, we could have started with, you know, a simple notes app or, you know, a simple reminders app. And, you know, there's a bunch of, you know, companies that will, you know, kind of create that little MVP and say, hey, if it works, I'll keep going, and if not, we'll stop.
- [18:43]
A
And.
- [18:44]
B
And that just wasn't our strategy. We said, you know what, we're going to rethink this whole thing. And we have dozens of patents and in a totally new technology that affords us the opportunity to create an app of a scale that no other people have ever seen. We actually had a user email us a couple weeks ago and he said, this is the app of all apps. And we were talking about it as a team this morning, and I said, that's really cool that people are kind of seeing, you know, the scale and the breadth of what we're doing. And I think part of that helps de risk it, you know, not to just dip your toe in the water, but at the same time preserve that optionality. So, you know, at the end of the day, we're not sure what Thinkspan will be famous for. You know, it could, you know, we already have 40 plus apps. But one thing I tell the team is I want a little, you know, we're still going to be agnostic. Our view is that we are doing something totally new and flattening the information graph, somebody's personal knowledge graph, into a unified system. And we have a front end to make it feel really cool and unique for each type of information. But embedded in that is a flexibility and an ability to attract lots of different demographics and psychographics and users interested in particular use cases. One of the things, too is this technology is so foundational that even the Thinkspan is a. Is a consumer information system. I think we're actually going to be changing our business to be a venture studio where, you know, there's, you know, we've presented this technology to the military and have had some very favorable reactions to it. You know, we have ad tech patents for zero knowledge offers that live on the device. So we could start companies that sell insurance or consumer finance where you have a personal purchasing assistant on the device in total privacy that sees your information and you can almost proactively have an AI get you better quotes for some of the big ticket items in your life. So embedded in the Thinkspan concept is this kind of flexibility in an ability to maneuver. And there's lots of paths to potential success, but it all comes down to that fundamental foundational platform and this kind of systems thinking that out of this can blossom lots of different products. So it's not as if there's one swing and a miss and we're out. It's, you know, hey, we're, you know, for us it's this technology gives us, you know, lots of swings to kind of reimagine lots of parts of, you know, the consumer economy.
- [21:21]
A
No, and we love that. And it's so lost on so many people. There's two or three things you said there that really resonate. One is whatever you're trying to do, you've got to be deep enough into it to really see if it could succeed or not. So if you take really little swings or really little incremental efforts, you don't really know if they have the opportunity to be great or not because you've not put enough into it. We used to say you got to dig 10 ditches before they start to dig themselves. The other thing I loved what you said about think spin is look, there's going to be lots of different optionality for people to use it. Just like you had lots of different flavors with popcorn. And then you'll figure out over time the market will tell you where the demand really is and where you're going to double down and triple down because that's where the real, the real mix is between what you're doing in the market wants and people want. I just love the business philosophy and the thinking. Take a second, Brian. You're obviously a pleasure to visit with. Talk about building culture and high performance teams and high trust teams and other things that work in building teams, particularly in a business like this. We've done some venture investing in tech companies and I remember a conversation with one of the general partners of one of the funds at one point saying, you know, think about this as a ten year horizon, Scott, for this investment, you know, and I'm already 60, so I felt like, oh my God, that's forever. But talk for a second about this concept of not to date myself but of keeping High performance teams together over a long run Runway and project and building trust and growing that culture.
- [23:04]
B
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think one of the best things is to, is to kind of promote from within, you know, in really having teams over a long period of time. And I think just that time and the experience together builds trust. And obviously it starts with the people. You know, you need autonomous, intrinsically motivated top performers who keep care very deeply about. About the business and understand that, that vision. And I think it's important to let people be themselves too, you know, as part of that culture. You know, I, I like to say in my businesses, it's like we're, you know, I want it to feel like we're friends on an adventure. You know, so we're serious, but we're friends and, and, and there's this sense of fun and exploration and, you know, kind of operating in uncharted territories and letting people be themselves and, you know, kind of balance fun and seriousness. You know, I'm a huge weirdo. I'm trying to be serious because this is my first time ever on a podcast. But, you know, we, we definitely, you know, don't feel like a stuffy environment. And at the same time, people, our team knows that we're, you know, dead serious and about the thing that we're building. So I think that there's just this balance that makes it feel fun and it's also part of, you know, having a really big idea, like when people see what we're building and they understand that this is something that will, you know, really positively affect people and change a very fundamental part of people's lives, which is how do they store and preserve and exchange the information that matters to them. It's, it's a, it's a sacred, it's intellectually interesting. It's a sacred obligation, and I think the team feels that truly remarkable.
- [24:54]
A
Talk about Brian, as you head into 2026 and you're really moving more fastly to market as you keep on developing this, what are you most focused on and excited about as you move into this next year?
- [25:08]
B
Yeah, like I said, I'm excited to play with the instrument that we've been building. You know, we, we had a meeting on, on Monday morning with the team and we were going through, you know, kind of a roadmap of some of the upcoming stuff. And I made a point to illustrate to everybody the high fraction of things on our list of things to do that are informed by users giving us feedback. So, you know, even though we've been Heads down with a very opinionated view of how technology, of how a new technology could operate. We're now at this point where we're getting feedback and like I said, it's really positive. The, the retention is great. People like what we're doing and appreciate the privacy and appreciate the data structures, which is something that, you know, we are actually hearing from our, from our users. I like, the more I use this, the more I appreciate how you guys do things. And I tell the team, I'm like, they're understanding that the data structures and the connections and the intelligence that's embedded, you know, kind of in the data fabric that we're creating. So, you know, letting this thing, you know, hit the world and right now we're not trying to scale it, but you know, by all metrics right now it certainly seems like there is a very deep, diverse, well of interest in what we're doing and that at the time of our choosing we will be able to significantly scale the user base and we're bringing users on very cost effectively and we're retaining them. And that's the core of a business. So it's kind of, in some ways it's almost business as usual and letting the, the trajectory of what we're doing continue. At the same time, we're also going to be looking for the appropriate capital partners for the next phase of growth of the business. And it's going to be fun to continue to build the team and also continue to integrate the AI into Thinkspan. So right now Thinkspan does not have the AI integrated for the consumers, but it's working in our staging environments and we're working with a brilliant engineer on that right now. And it's, it's going to be really exciting when people see, you know, what happens when people can take their private information and, and have a private intelligence reason over it. And there's so many opportunities to create what feels like a totally different type of a personal assistant and a personal AI because an AI that actually knows your information can actually help you in, in different ways than the traditional kind of chatbots do.
- [27:32]
A
Let me ask you two more questions and I promise we'll let you go soon, Brian. But what a pleasure to visit with you and learn about what Thinkspan is doing. Simply remarkable. You're in this long term journey as an entrepreneur. You'll be at some point seeking a capital partner to, and I love the concept of really getting good at what you do before you try and scale fully. I love that. I think that's the way to go talk for a second about how do you keep yourself centered and focused? Any daily habits, any regular ways of living that help you stay centered and focused on this long term journey. That's my first question and I have one follow up question.
- [28:11]
B
Yeah, it's a lot. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I've been my, I guess I should say upper 40s now. And when I started my first business, I was the youngest guy in the room for years as a, as a 21 year old. And so I've got four kids, two dogs, 10 chickens. We got a really busy life, you know. And so, you know, I invest all in on this business. I mean, it's a tremendous amount of time. You know, love my family and appreciate that we're kind of in the, in these like precious years with the kids in the house. So it's a, there's a lot happening and you know, I find that, you know, I need to take care of myself. I need to sleep, I need to, I work out a few days a week. We live in just north of San Francisco in Marin county. So there's lots of hikes and runs and just, you know, taking the dogs outside and making sure that, you know, that I'm taking care of myself. Because if not, it can just start to feel really overwhelming with the amount of things. So I think that's, you know, it's kind of the basics too, you know, if you sleep and if you eat well. And I would also say that having business rituals are really helpful. The patterns, the cadence of business and working with people who I really like. We've got an incredible team of people kind of distributed all around the world and it's special people. And I think that we appreciate each other as individuals and as colleagues. And so I think that we gain strength from each other and, and everyone supports each other and kind of accepts each other for who they are. And like I said, we want to let people be themselves. And as long as everyone is aligned on the mission and bringing their own strengths to what we're doing and we stick with it over time, we're building something pretty special.
- [30:04]
A
Really remarkable story, remarkable entrepreneurialism. Brian, I want to thank you for joining us. I'm going to ask you one postscript question. When will Michigan again beat Ohio State? Will they start another? What do you see happening there?
- [30:19]
B
Oh, my God. I think a lot of Michigan fans are thinking about basketball right now and. But it was, you know, the game started off pretty encouraging, but I'm not sure. I think we're I think everyone is turning their attention to our pretty awesome basketball team right now.
- [30:36]
A
That is a great attitude. It's like testing 15 seasons. If one doesn't hit it out of the park, the top three do. We'll go that direction. It's basketball for right now and then back to football at some point for Michigan. Brian, thank you so much for joining us. Just a remarkable story. Thank you. You were just fantastic. We appreciate you joining the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business podcast. Thank you very, very much.
- [30:58]
B
Thank you, Scott. What a, what a privilege. I really enjoyed the conversation and again, this is my first time talking in a, in a media capacity about Thinkspan. So.
- [31:08]
It'S a real privilege and I appreciate you being interested in our project.
- [31:13]
A
It's outstanding and you're a natural at it. Thank you so much.
- [31:16]
B
Yeah, thank you, Scott.