The Technician Model: Managing Autonomous Fleets, Not Mowers Ep. 22

Summary

Charged Up with Tim Allard

Episode 22: The Technician Model—Managing Autonomous Fleets, Not Mowers

Release Date: February 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Tim Allard hosts Luke Hanson, CEO & Founder of Company Cam, for part two of their insightful discussion. The conversation charts Luke’s journey through landscaping and construction, his shift to electric and automated services, and the emergence of the “technician model” for robotic mower management. They delve into business evolution, the value of differentiation, and strategies for scaling with smart technology. The dialogue is rich with firsthand experiences, advice on branding and operations, and practical insights for industry professionals navigating the transition to automation and electrification.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Landscaping Roots to Business Pivot

• Luke's Business Evolution ([02:13]-[07:48], [12:17], [14:45]):
  • Started in landscaping, experimented with construction, and eventually focused on both.
  • Shifted to all-electric operations in 2022, losing some customers but gaining more (especially HOAs).
  • Adopted a subscription model for services (“no per cut” billing), facilitating steadier cash flow.
  • Decision to exit the snow removal business and scale back on HOAs to focus on niche, high-value clients.
  • Quote:
    "We lost some people. We gained more. And then the shiny object of homeowners associations—large cash flow—was like, ooh, hey, we can build this baby." [05:29] —Luke Hanson

2. The Technician Model for Robotic Fleets

• Emergence of Autonomous Mowers ([07:48]-[11:56], [12:17]):

  • Company leases robotic mowers (mainly Kress brand) to clients; robots remain on customer property.
  • Technicians conduct weekly site visits for tasks robots can’t do and to maintain the fleet (blade changes, troubleshooting).
  • Objective: Gradually phase most operations into this model, scaling smartly.
  • Quote:
    "We want robotic mowers on your properties. We have a guy that shows up, he's a technician, shows up once a week, trims, mows, blows, you know, whatever you can't do with a robot, hops back in his van, he's down the road." [06:04] —Luke Hanson

• Scaling Plans:

  • Initial focus on 30–60 properties (2026); aim to develop staff as "technicians" for autonomous fleets.
  • Future: Add more technicians/teams as business expands.
  • Willingness to “step back to go forward”—reboot the business to align with long-term goals.

3. Importance of Differentiation & Brand Identity

• Being Memorable in the Industry ([13:30]-[18:51]):
  • Discussion on how being “different” is often more impactful than simply being “better.”
  • Going all-electric is a tangible, communicable differentiator for clients.
  • Personal anecdotes illustrate the power of small but memorable details (e.g., “the guy with the mustache” at trade shows).
  • Quote:
    "It's oftentimes better to be almost like, to be different than it is to just be better." [16:06] —Company Cam Rep

4. Expansion into Deck-Building and Showroom Innovation

• New Ventures ([12:17]-[21:19]):
  • Launching “Champlain Valley Deck Works” as a premium, branded deck-building division.
  • Plans for a deck showroom—clients can experience varied deck options, touch materials, and visualize projects beyond miniature samples.
  • Engaging stories about other successful “deck guys” and local branding strategies.

5. The Role of Technology: Apps, AI, and Simplicity

• Company Cam’s Origin Story ([26:22]-[30:50]):

  • Company Cam emerged from real needs in Luke’s family roofing business: organizing job site photos.
  • Simplicity and ease-of-use are core to the product philosophy—“don’t try to do everything for everyone.”
  • Technology (from Company Cam to AI tools and apps) is reframed as a powerful tool for innovation and operational efficiency.

• AI & App Development ([24:03]-[26:17]):

  • Introduction to “Replit.com” and how easy it now is to build custom software/apps for the trades.
  • Encouragement to experiment with AI as a “freaking tool, man... It's awesome, dude.” [24:03] —Luke Hanson

6. Community, Networking, and Industry Influence

• Podcasting as a Tool for Growth ([33:12]-[34:53]):
  • Tim reflects on starting “Charged Up” for industry networking and to spotlight innovation.
  • The impact of trade shows like “Equip” conference—critical spaces for meeting other pioneers and discovering new technologies.
  • Importance of sharing product feedback and being open to evolution.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:29] Luke Hanson:
  "We lost some people. We gained more. And then the shiny object of homeowners associations—large cash flow—was like, ooh, hey, we can build this baby."

• [06:04] Luke Hanson:
  "We want robotic mowers on your properties. We have a guy that shows up, he's a technician, shows up once a week, trims, mows, blows, you know, whatever you can't do with a robot, hops back in his van, he's down the road."

• [10:35] Luke Hanson:
  "It's almost that mentality, you know, cut off your hand to save your arm sort of thing... we have to go backwards to go forwards to where we want to go."

• [16:06] Company Cam Rep:
  "It's oftentimes better to be almost like, to be different than it is to just be better."

• [24:03] Luke Hanson:
  "People laugh at me when I talk about, like, chat GPT and stuff. I'm like, it's a freaking tool, man. It's. Oh, it's awesome, dude."

• [28:11] Company Cam Rep:
  "The idea of an entrepreneur is that they're kind of like wildly positive. Oh, it's all going to work. It's all easy. And I remember being like, okay, why is no one doing this? ... There’s just gotta be a better way."

• [34:11] Tim Allard:
  "Just every year it's like, I meet new people, you know, I network. Like, I know the people at Crest. I know the people at Greenworks... just getting to know people in this industry and to be able to say, hey, I use Company Cam. You guys should try it."

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• Business Pivot & Going All Electric: [02:13]–[07:48]
• Technician Model for Fleet Management: [06:22]–[10:35]
• Scaling and the Power of Small, High-Touch Teams: [07:48]–[11:56]
• Differentiation & Branding Philosophy: [13:30]–[18:51]
• Deck Showroom Idea & Value of Experience: [19:40]–[21:19]
• Tech, AI, and Simplicity in Operations: [24:03]–[26:17], [26:22]–[30:50]
• Company Cam’s Founding Story: [26:40]–[30:50]
• Networking, Podcasting, and Industry Sharing: [33:12]–[34:53]

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Summary Takeaways

• The future of landscaping lies in automation, electrification, and the technician model—managing robots, not just mowers.
• Differentiation is key: “Be memorable, not just marginally better.” Offer unique value clients can articulate.
• Simplicity wins in technology—solutions should solve real-world problems intuitively.
• Continuous reinvention—sometimes businesses need to “go backwards to go forwards” to achieve long-term vision.
• Community and collaboration drive progress in a fast-evolving industry—through podcasts, trade shows, and open feedback.

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Connect

• Company Cam: companycam.com / @companycam
• Charged Up with Tim Allard: Follow on your favorite podcast platform for more on lawn care tech, automation, and electrification.

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Transcript

[Tim Allard]

Welcome to Charged up, the podcast where the cutting edge meets cutting grass. We're diving deep into the electrification and automation revolution, transforming lawn care from the ground up. Whether you're a weekend warrior, a green tech enthusiast, or a landscaping pro, we're here to keep you powered up with the latest in robotic mowers, battery breakthroughs, and the smart tech reshaping your backyard and beyond. Your host, Tim Allard, has over over 15 years in the industry and has been charged up about the electric revolution for years. So plug in, power up, and let's get charged up.

[Luke Hanson]

Hey, thank you for joining us here on the Charged up podcast. This is your host, Tim Allard. This week we are wrapping up part two of our interview with Luke Hanson, the CEO and founder of Company Cam. If you did catch last week, great. Thanks for listening. If you didn't, please go back and listen to that episode first. That was episode 21. And then listen to this one after. Again, thank you for listening to the Charged up podcast. We really appreciate it here. And if you have any feedback, comments, suggestions, or even possibly want to hop on as a guest or know somebody that does, please hit us up on the socials and just give us a little plug and we will get back to you and we'll certainly take your feedback and comments into consideration. And if you do want to get on, we'd love to have you on. Thanks again for listening. And here is part two of our conversation with Luke. Sit back. Enjoy.

[Company Cam Representative]

And I know for me, like, if I look back at a work order, okay, I think I kind of remember that, like four years ago. Whereas if you show me pictures and I pull it up in Company Cam, I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember her. And they had this, you know, leak over here or whatever. It's like, it, it just, I don't, it just, it becomes a version of your, like, memory almost where you're just looking in there for all sorts of stuff. But is most of your work. When I imagine the landscaping, I'm imagining it's like repetitive, like, like maintenance versus, like the project building stuff.

[Luke Hanson]

Here's what happened when, and you know, when we first started. Quick synopsis. 2016 ish2017 ish. I had been doing this for years, did it on my own. My brother did landscaping years ago. And so at that point in time, like, I, I had tried to do stuff. I actually tried to get in the restaurant business probably. It was a great learning experience, let's put it that way. Very painful learning experience. But it was fun. Just financially detrimental to my life. And so, hey, you got to take

[Company Cam Representative]

a step forward, some or whatever. Step back, two steps forward, hopefully.

[Luke Hanson]

I took a few years and kind of punched a clock and licked my wound. And, you know, it was. It was never in me to work for someone else. I mean, I had my first business when I was, like, probably 18 years old, and so.

[Company Cam Representative]

Local drug kingpin.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah. Yeah. And so I kind of. I'm like, all right, I want to get back into doing something for myself. And so I reached out to my brother, and he was working retail and in the auto parts realm for too many years. I was like, I want to do something together. You know, we've. We've both done this stuff before. We both have a background in landscaping. Background. Construction, kind of did both. And so I talked him into it, and so that was the start of it. But we were doing a little bit of everything, and. We were doing construction and landscaping. And so we decided that, you know what? Let's. Let's do this. We did both for a period of time. 2022 came around. We're like, let's go electric. We had some bad experiences with. With subcontractors. So we stepped out of the construction for a minute as we were having discussions in the background for, like, over two years with a. That was getting ready to retire. So it's like stepping away from construction, but I know we're getting back into it. And so we bought his business in 2023. Run them two separately. You know, we have two separate businesses. Sometimes we do have to play guys back and forth, depending on what we have for workload. But so when we went electric, what happened is we lost a lot of customers because we went electric. We almost went subscription based. So it was basically, there's no per cut. It's X amount a month. Whether it rains, snow, sh. This is what it is. If we show up once or we show up four times, same price, because we got bills to pay. And so we lost some people. We gained more. And then the shiny object of homeowners associations, large cash flow was like, ooh, hey, we can build this baby. And so we've done that for the last. I don't know how many years. I mean, we went Electric in 22. So last four years, we've really been all in with HOAS, but now we're getting out of snow. It's an economy of scale. So you're not really making huge profit margins. You're just making big cash flow. And so it was one of those situations where it's like, you know what? This year we decided we're getting out of snow HOAs that don't want to split their contracts. Those are going bye bye too. So. But, but we have focused with the homeowners associations. We do a lot of garden work, do a lot of garden renovations. And so that's where CompanyCam can come into play. The other piece is as we go. We started dabbling in robotics and autonomous this last year and so that's the direction we want to go in. That's the other reason of stepping away from more the ways because we want to be. It's more of a niche service where like, we want robotic mowers on your properties. We have a guy that shows up, he's a technician, shows up once a week, trims, mows, blows, you know, whatever you can't do with a robot, hops back in his van, he's down the

[Company Cam Representative]

road, and then you're managing the robot on their behalf. It sounds like, like meaning, yep, it's your robot, but it's gonna stay on their property, correct?

[Luke Hanson]

Yep. So basically we lease it to them.

[Company Cam Representative]

Do you have a brand or like, do you. So do you know. Yeah.

[Luke Hanson]

So currently we are very much working with cress. I. I have been very pleased with them. You know, we.

[Company Cam Representative]

How do you spell that?

[Luke Hanson]

K, R, E, S, S. That's Crest Commercial

[Company Cam Representative]

sustainable landscaping. Okay, got it. And they have. Ooh, interesting. They have golf course stuff. Oh yeah, they got all sorts of stuff. So do you. Okay. We don't have to go 10 layers deep in this model, but it's interesting. So you will still show up and do the human. Like, you'll check it out, you'll do some extra trimming and like just things that, that the robot's not going to be able to do the robot mower, but for the most part you'll be leasing out the mower, managing it such that it's working properly, etc. And is that going to become like most of your landscaping business, like in three years? What do you think it'll look like?

[Luke Hanson]

Well, that, that is the plan is to continue to kind of build that and, and we're, and we're basically, we're going small to, to kind of start over, to get, to get rid of a lot of what we're doing and then just kind of dial it down. So this year will be a. It'll almost be a rebirth. And it's sort of like what we did in 22 when we went fully electric. You know, we just kind of went A different direction. And so sometimes when you do that you have to take a step back. And so that's kind of what we plan on doing this year, is stepping back and, And kind of rebooting. So our focus is going to be on the, the robotics and hopefully some autonomous stuff and then slowly grow it. I mean I, I think like I said, that's one of those situations where we, you know, scale it back. This year we may be out in the field, maybe not. We do have a guy that's looking to come back on that worked for us once before and, And then what we're going to do is. Train him and then hopefully he can train and you know, the next guy. So that's, that's kind of the plan. So we'll get him fully dialed in as a technician. He's going to be able to go out in the field, he's going to be able to manage the robots, change the blades, do whatever needs to be done. You know, maybe this year we go out with 30 to 60 properties. If he's only on, on the property for, you know, 15, 20 minutes,

[Company Cam Representative]

then

[Luke Hanson]

we just go from there. And then, you know, next year maybe we bring in one other person and then create a second, a second team. That's really cool. It's, you know, it'll be, it'll be different. I mean it's going to take a little time, but is what it is. I mean it's.

[Company Cam Representative]

Yeah, well, and I mean it sounds like it's going to, it seems like it has the possibility of paying off. Like it could be really good.

[Luke Hanson]

Well, exactly. I think, you know, it's, it's those hard decisions where you got to step back and say okay for, you know, it's, it's almost that mentality, you know, cut, cut off your, cut off your hand to save your arm sort of thing. And it's, yeah, you know, we're gonna blow it up. It's, it's gonna be, you know, if it can say stealth, that if it can be self sustaining through this next season, then we can go from there. But we, we have to go backwards to go forwards to where we want to go. And I think it was one of those situations where we ended up going in a direction that was a good financial decision at the time, but not where we wanted to go. We made, we made sacrifices and concessions and then all of a sudden, you know, five years in, you're like, are we doing here? This isn't where we wanted to be. Like this, this was supposed to be A like premium service, not all the car, you know, discount service for, you know, 80 unit HOAS. It was for that single family residential home that wanted to pay for the, the very, you know, the high touch kind of service.

[Company Cam Representative]

High end, high touch.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah. Electric. And so we, we kind of got off track there and it's like, you know what? This year I think we're, we're, we're just hitting the brakes. We're backing up a little bit. We're going to put it back in drive and we're going to start plowing ahead the way that we wanted to go.

[Company Cam Representative]

But not plowing correctly.

[Luke Hanson]

Not plowing. Mowing ahead.

[Company Cam Representative]

Plowing ahead. Yes, metaphorically speaking.

[Luke Hanson]

And, and the other piece of that, and the reason why we're also shrinking that down is the construction business has been really good for us. But another sort of pet project thing that we love to do is we like to build decks. Decks are fun. They're, you know, there's a start, there's a finish. It's very visually impacting. And so we want to do a high end deck builds. And so we're actually starting a brand.

[Company Cam Representative]

Love a good deck.

[Luke Hanson]

Exactly, exactly.

[Company Cam Representative]

So do you. Okay. I'm friends with locally here in Lincoln, Nebraska. Well, I call him Dan the deck man.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

But it's Dex Unlimited and Dex City. He actually became his own distributor. His name's Dan. Yeah, absolutely. One of the best dudes I know.

[Luke Hanson]

You know what's funny? Solid Dex Unlimited was actually one of the word names we search because.

[Company Cam Representative]

Yeah, because we're like, talk to Dan. He knows everything there is to know about running a deck business.

[Luke Hanson]

Nice.

[Company Cam Representative]

And then there's this guy Jameson out in California that I was talking to the other day. Yeah, Jameson. I can't remember the name of his company. He's like really popular on Twitter or on X. He used to be some sort of like investment banker or something. So this, his gag is like, I build decks for real or real decks or something. Um, but to your point of kind of like that, like high touch, high communication and then ideally any differentiation around a luxury product. Like it's hard if like your yard's getting mowed.

[Luke Hanson]

Yep.

[Company Cam Representative]

I don't know. Is this exact luxury, you know, it's like, yeah, I think it can be even like the company that does my yard, like just the way that they talk to us and treat my wife and like they're just good, you know, like we'd have to look for a reason to go a different direction because they just are really like clearly like, thoughtful and good.

[Luke Hanson]

Exactly.

[Company Cam Representative]

But I wouldn't. My brother is like, got a robot mow in his backyard, and he lives next door to me.

[Luke Hanson]

Right.

[Company Cam Representative]

And I'm like, man, his yard's always nice. Like, I don't do.

[Luke Hanson]

I want.

[Company Cam Representative]

I just get one of those robots. And the sad thing is, I do have one of those robots. I just couldn't get it set up properly because I'm tech. I'm Tech Attack idiot. But, okay, so you started deck. You got a lot of things cooking here. You simplify the landscaping, you keep doing the construction. You spin off the decks into its own branded. Well. Correct.

[Luke Hanson]

So we've come up listening to a lot of podcasts and listening to, like, some of the, you know, the founders and the. The millionaire. Like, yeah, the. I know you're talking about Jonas Olson. He's. He's got his pest millionaire thing and listening that. So they're like, listening to that. So we. We live in Vermont, of course. We live in the quote, unquote, they call it the Champlain Valley. And so we're doing Champlain Valley Deck Works because then people know where we're from. And, you know, if we ever. If I ever relocate, I could still use, you know, Deck Works because we're buying the domain so that there's. It doesn't have to be CV that works or anything like that. Like that. So.

[Company Cam Representative]

Hey, did you ever see our Deck Picks video?

[Luke Hanson]

No.

[Company Cam Representative]

Get a chance. You the use anyone on this podcast company Cam Deck Pick. It was one of our first kind of, like, social media ads that, like, we really, like, put, like, some effort into. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out five years on or six or whatever that was. But I, Man, I love that. I love. I'll tell you this. I go on around here a lot about, like, that. It's. It's oftentimes better to be almost like, to be different than it is to just be better.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

Like, you could be 10% better than the next landscaping business. And I don't know, is 10% enough to switch. Do you even notice, like, a lot of that stuff? Like it matters. It's not that it doesn't matter, but being different, having an identity that's memorable, where people are like, oh, yeah, okay, I want a new deck. I'm gonna go to not just the deck company, but, like, any way in which. And I think, honestly, going all electric is one of these things. It's like, it is a differentiator that someone can articulate to their friend, their wife, like, they have the words to say, oh, what's the deal with. I'm just gonna say charged up. Even though that's probably not the name. It's like the podcast, but like, you know, what's the deal with XYZ Landscaping? Oh, well, they're all electric, which means X our yard gets cut quieter and it's more environmentally friendly or, you know, you name whatever the perks of that are. And anytime you can come up with something that I think of it as like occupying unique real estate in people's minds. Like, it's not just one of another category. And it's not easy. That's why I have this stupid mustache. Maybe can't see it over the podcast, but it really is. Like I, when we started Company Cam, I went to a trade show and you know, I was talking to people about it, etc, then you come back and I was like calling people, hey, want to get you like set up and blah, blah, blah. It's like to a person, every single one remembered that like, oh, you were the guy with the mustache. And I was like, man. Because I didn't always have a mustache. Randomly had a mustache.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

And, but it was so. And I thought that's really powerful, like the fact that these people remember me compared to, you know, any number of people that they met and they talked to 50 sales dudes at every which place. So any like. And again, I don't know what this, how this affects Champagne Valley Deck works, but if anything that can be unique and, or memorable. And it kind of sounds like you already have a mind for that. Like you're already thinking broadly in that direction. But my I'll say advice to anyone, to everyone, is like sort of double down there. Where are you the only one you know? And you can go beyond that. But like, if you do at least have some place, like even for company camp, we're the only company doing this. Yeah. You know, other people, like take. There's people who've tried to kind of copy us or different things, but when this started, it was like we were

[Luke Hanson]

the company and you kept it simple. That's.

[Company Cam Representative]

Yeah.

[Luke Hanson]

Everybody else has made it so complicated. Like we do this, this, this. It's like great. But how?

[Company Cam Representative]

Like, yes.

[Luke Hanson]

You know, we have a two week long introductory. Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

I always would joke like, this is so easy that your dad could be using this successfully in like 30 seconds. You know, and even now I have my 12 year old set stuff up for me because I'm like, how does this thing work?

[Luke Hanson]

But when you need a Week to onboard the program that you want to use. It's, it's too much. Like, I can't or a week.

[Company Cam Representative]

Yeah, half the time it's like a month or a quarter. You know, like, we'll talk to you again in April. It's like, no, yeah, we're trying to keep it simple, but yeah, yeah, no, I, I agree.

[Luke Hanson]

And it's, it's, I mean, a lot of this stuff. So, like the other thing I'm looking, I move my, my screen print shop into a larger building. Half of it I don't like. I'm actually building some podcast studios here for myself and maybe to rent out to other people that do podcasts. I don't care. But. Yeah, but I have a huge building that I don't need all of. And so we had a, my brother and I had a business meeting a couple weeks ago and I'm like, you know what? I've been talking to guys about leasing out some of this space because I don't need it all. And it would help me pay the rent, which would be great because I'm paying rent on space I'm not using. I said, why don't we put it in the deck showroom? Like, we could actually build all these deck sections or one big deck with different colors and styles of decking and different railings and there's nothing like that around here. And what, you know, what did Bob and Tammy do on a Saturday? Well, they go down to the local hardware store to pick up little 4 inch squares of deck samples because they want to get a deck. And that. Or when they call me, that's the thing, I show up with a box. Here are your choices. Here's the bottom grade, mid grade, high grade. I like this stuff. Here's your colors. Let me know what you think. You know, now it's like, hey, why don't. I mean, it's going to be appointment only to begin with. Maybe on Saturdays I'll put somebody here, you know, to, to be here from like, I don't know, 8 to 2 or something. So you can just come in, get information, look at stuff, but nobody else has that. And to be able to come and touch and feel and see and not look at a 4 inch square, but to look at something like 4x4 section of decking that's, you know, designed and laid out and different stuff and maybe work with some partners.

[Company Cam Representative]

If you ever want to talk to Dan the deck man, I think his name's Dan Waters. Yeah, we shot a YouTube video over there. Building a like 10t by 10t deck example section. And he, you know it. That stuff having that is really valuable. I think one thing that would be interesting, this is probably a bad idea. So write this off almost immediately. But like you think of all the other things that you could build out of like deck materials.

[Luke Hanson]

Oh, absolutely.

[Company Cam Representative]

Like you could build a table that just had.

[Luke Hanson]

It was a.

[Company Cam Representative]

It was like certain decking boards, but then maybe pop a piece of glass over the top of it or something. Or I'm kind of just like, I'm trying to think, okay, what would going and standing on a bunch of four foot pieces that would, that would be helpful for imagining. But like what would be an experience that people would like really want to come and see and you know, do

[Luke Hanson]

you want to know if there's a running joke around here and one of these days it's going to come to fruition. It started as a joke. We had somebody that worked for us. And of course, you know how sometimes people that work for you, they think that because you own the company, you sit around, do nothing all day while they go out and work.

[Company Cam Representative]

I'm familiar with that. Yeah,

[Luke Hanson]

no, I sit here and worry about how there's going to be money to pay your paycheck the end of the week. That's what I'm doing. But so the running joke was that me and my brother, we just sat around like making cornhole boards all day long. And I was like, actually that would be a great business. So, so we keep. Every year we talk about it. It's like, what, what can we have the construction guys do during the winter when it's slow? We should build like custom cornhole boards, you know, Vermont custom cornhole. And we could do designs on them and you know, shellac them or do it, you know, you. For your company. We could build you a nice set of company cam cornhole boards that when you have a company party.

[Company Cam Representative]

I think we may already have one though. I don't think it'.

[Luke Hanson]

Oh, see, I.

[Company Cam Representative]

There's a balance between how heavy those are to carry around.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

And those are usually the nicer ones.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah, they're heavy.

[Company Cam Representative]

So yeah, there's like any. I'm trying to think, man, whether it's decking. I kind of forget the T shirts. Yeah, you got all sorts of things cooking that are good.

[Luke Hanson]

I know. I wish I could just sit around, come up with ideas all day long and let somebody run with them.

[Company Cam Representative]

Because dude, hey, that's why I'm talking to this AI bot, right. Trying to See if I can get it to start. I don't know, doing my job.

[Luke Hanson]

People laugh at me when I talk about, like, chat GPT and stuff. I'm like, it's a. It's a freaking tool, man. It's. Oh, it's awesome, dude. I mean, it don't. I mean, don't have it do your homework for you.

[Company Cam Representative]

Phrase vibe coding.

[Luke Hanson]

No, I haven't.

[Company Cam Representative]

Okay, do tell. Like, here's a. Here's a. Here's an idea. Well, all the. Okay, there's a site called Replit.com. like R, E P L I T Replit and like rep lit.

[Luke Hanson]

Yep.

[Company Cam Representative]

It will. You can just build software and apps on there. It uses AI to write the code. It's really good. And I mean, it's especially good for, like, little things that you would do. Like that. Like, that, you know, it's hard. Like, are you going to replace, like, a big piece of software with it? Probably not yet. But even, like, you can have it integrate with CompanyCam. You could just literally go, like, go integrate with CompanyCam so that I can do other stuff with my CompanyCam photos. Or I could build. And it's more than even just websites. Like, you can build software, but if you're an idea, like, there's never been a better time to be an idea person, especially when it comes to, like, things you can do on the computer. And anyone that, like I was a guy the other day, built himself a brush clearing estimating software that just worked the way he wanted it. He would, like, outline an area on the map and it would, like, decide how much brush there was. And he would maybe say it's like, heavy or light and it would, like, shoot out the prices that he wanted, you know, like its own little thing. Now, again, is this right for everything? I don't want to say that. I just will say that any little. Like, I tried to build a. Tried. I successfully built a little app so that my brother and I could, like, bet each other five bucks per hole golfing. And it would, like, keep track of it all and keep everyone's score. And it's as simple as literally just talking. There's a microphone.

[Luke Hanson]

Wow.

[Company Cam Representative]

You click it and you're like, oh, I'd like to build an app that does this or whatever. It'll ask you some questions and then it's. It's really cool.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah.

[Company Cam Representative]

And I would highly recommend you try it

[Luke Hanson]

with all that going on. Let's. I want to ask this question. So what. Where did company Cam come from? I mean, I know you mentioned your family's roofing business and stuff. But like, what one day did you like, wake up and you're like, oh man. Just like where it was.

[Company Cam Representative]

I don't like, I'm trying to think of where the first part of the idea was. So I was, yes, working for my dad's roofing business. I was like in charge of all the marketing. I still did a little sales. I was trying to manage our like, siding and gutter division, which was very small and it was new and we were bad at it. You know, we like just. You knew all the problems you might run into on a roof because we've done that for forever. Whereas, like, I don't know, we're just goofing stuff up that like, you should have known better, showing up with the wrong stuff, like it. All those sort of problems. So I was like, on everyone about like photos. We're going to look over these pictures. You're going to take pictures we're going to look over from you, me, the crew. We're going to make a plan, we're going to go out there and so between that and trying to do our website, I was trying to build this like photo thing, pictures of all these roofs that we'd done so that, so that I could like reference people to it because, you know, you don't know what color roof. I could give you a little sample. It's hard to picture on your house, but if I can show you 10 pictures of split level houses with white vinyl siding that have different colors of roofs on them, then you can be like, oh, I kind of like, like. Anyway. So I was trying to do all this stuff and I was like, gosh, this is such a nightmare, managing these photos. I can't, like, what a pain. And I thought, why are we doing all of this? Like, people were trying to hand me memory cards. I just remember thinking, like, there's just got to be a better way to do this. So I was looking for software, like an app or something that we could all just like take photos with and it would just like store them together, like. And I, my thought was it just organizes them by location because that's good enough for me. Then it's not a lot of extra thinking. No one has to remember to put them in the Dropbox or uploading them to Jobber or do anything. Like they just, it'll just be done. And then there just was, there was nothing. And I thought like, you know, entrepreneur. The idea of an entrepreneur is that they're kind of like wildly Positive. Oh, it's all going to work. It's all easy. And I remember being like, okay, why is no one doing this? Like, there's maybe something wrong with this idea. Like, maybe it's just a bad idea. I think it's a good idea because I'm dumb. You know? Like what? I thought about it for, like, a month, and I remember talking to my brothers, to some of my friends, just becoming convinced I was sitting in my backyard, like, no, this is a good idea. Like, we might screw this up every which way. We know nothing about building apps. I know we need it. Like, definitively we need this. And if we need it, I go talk to a guy that does landscaping or a guy that does basement waterproofing or whatever. Everyone has these same problems, which is that you have people out there working and you can't be there. You need records of that. You need to know, what did it look like before? What did we get done today? You need to have all that. It's like kind of a cover your ass, it's the foundation of your marketing, etc. And so I became convinced we needed it. So I actually just went and hired this development shop to build the first version. And then we decided we should, like, make it a real company and really, like, started hiring employees and. And really working on it really hard. And it was all that, like, make it easy for the people in the field and make it organized so that we can find it. And then the kind of bonus thing was like, oh, well, for doing it all in this app, we can give you, like, a feed almost like that Instagram feed, everything happening. And that is the thing that, like, no one wants to lose, you know, like, you just. You get used to knowing, like, how. How much did we get done over here? What's this look like? Oh, do we have the photos from that job? Yep. Like, and so that's how we got into it. And I mean, it's gotten bigger than I ever thought it would, like, just starting out. But I was always like, you were saying I was pretty maniacal about, like, we are not trying to do everything for everyone. Things that try to do everything for everyone suck at doing every. Like, it's really hard. It's a hard enough problem to make anything that works like that people will actually use much less. When it tries to do everything, it's.

[Luke Hanson]

Oh, and it gets messy way harder. We've looked at so many different things, and it's like, you know, something is designed. It's designed for a purpose most of the time. And most of the time, it's designed for a person.

[Company Cam Representative]

Yep.

[Luke Hanson]

You know, everybody develops this stuff. Like, Mike Andes developed his CRM, but he did. He designed it and developed it for his business. He designed it for his company. And so if you don't run your company like he runs his company, then it may or may not work the way that you want it to. And there's so many out there that. That a lot of landscapers use them, but they aren't really designed for landscaping. They're designed for business service businesses in general. They're very bright. It's like QuickBooks. I mean, QuickBooks is getting better, but used to be it was a very utilitarian product and then they. They kind of branched off and they had like the point of sale stuff. And so, yeah, I mean, it just. It branches off and it just. I. I love company cam. I want to know how I can support you guys because I. I want to see you continue to evolve and adapt and bring, you know, cool new stuff to. To the market and make my life easier.

[Company Cam Representative]

Thank you. I mean, a couple. So one. This podcast is a good start. Thank you for having me on.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah, no, I mean, I appreciate.

[Company Cam Representative]

Great to come on here and talk to you. We do have like a customer advisory group, which is kind of like people get early access to features and we try to kind of hit you up periodically just to be. Give you an open channel, really, to just talk about what you think, what. What might work. So if anyone's interested in that, or if you are, I should say, because I'm. I don't know broadly how to join it, but if you are, I'd happily send you some info.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah, no, absolutely.

[Company Cam Representative]

And then, you know, any, like, any feedback, just broadly speaking, we try very hard to listen to. We don't do everything that everyone wants all the time, but like, the more like you send us feedback to our, like, support or you. You hit us up like, it gets looked at, talked about. And we're always trying to figure out, like, how do we make this better for people?

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah. But, hey, no, I.

[Company Cam Representative]

Thanks a lot, man.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah. No. 2. So, two other quick things. One, sort of about myself. The reason I started the Charged up podcast is because going to equip like I met, you know, Paul Jameson, you know, good friends with Naylor, Telly Farrow, Caleb, Bob, and I've gotten to know all of these guys over the last four years and they're all doing podcasts and I'm like, what better way? Like, I would have never known about Equip if I wasn't listening to a podcast. And then I listened to another podcast and I heard all about it. I'm like, oh, my God, we got to go to this thing. You know, and it's just every year it's like, I meet new people, you know, I network. Like, I know the people at Crest. I know the people at Greenworks. I'm, you know, Mark Bradley. I met him. You know, I've been able to sit and talk with him. We're having him on at some point here soon. And so just getting to know people in this inter industry and to be able to say, hey, I use company Cam. You guys should try it. Hey, I use Crest, you guys. I actually have other people that were not battery powered that I kept saying, hey, I really like this stuff. Hey, you should try this. And they've tried it and they're like, it's. It's your fault because you talked us into using it. And so, yeah, now we see how good it is. Exactly. So, I mean, I'm excited to. Are you going to be at Equip this year? I'd love to meet you in person at some point.

[Company Cam Representative]

So when is that? In October.

[Luke Hanson]

That's October. I'm not sure what time. Actually. Gotta check that out because I likely

[Company Cam Representative]

will go this year. I don't have it planned out yet,

[Luke Hanson]

but

[Company Cam Representative]

if I find myself there, I would love to meet up and hang out.

[Luke Hanson]

Yeah, we can. We can hop on another podcast there because I'll have my stuff. I'm just looking to see what the date is on this thing. Does it tell me 20? October 20th, Tuesday, October 20th, Friday to October 23rd. Yeah, so that's good because I gotta fly down to North Carolina for a wedding. I think the week before. Hopefully the week before. I have to check. I may be going from 20th. Yes, the week of the 20th. So I'm sure I'll be down there because Naylor does his. His thing usually the beginning of the week. So I'll go down for the full week. I usually fly in on Saturday or Sunday and I'll be there clear through till Friday.

[Company Cam Representative]

Oh, yeah, Open invite. If you company cam itself, company can 100% be there. I plan on being there unless something else comes up like that. I can't. But I. I don't anticipate that. But yeah, man, I look forward to seeing you over there.

[Luke Hanson]

No, I. I've got your email now, so I'll. I'll shoot you an email and we'll. We'll converse between now and then. But I appreciate you coming on Luke. This is cool. I encourage people, go out, check out Company Cam. You want to tell our listeners how they can reach out to you? Do you have Instagram, Facebook, I was

[Company Cam Representative]

gonna say every company cam on.com and or just Company Cam on any social media. Hit us up. You got thoughts, ideas, opinions, you name it. We would love to talk to you. And if you, I will see a lot of it. Otherwise you'll end up talking to Aiden or someone else here who's extremely cool and knows a lot about this stuff.

[Luke Hanson]

Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on today. Really appreciate it. It was great to, to meet you face to face kind of. And hopefully we'll have you on again.

[Company Cam Representative]

Like, this was awesome. Yeah, no, I'm happy to do it if you ever want to do it again.

[Luke Hanson]

Absolutely. No, we definitely will. I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep track of some of this. I've been taking notes, so keep track of some of the stuff you're doing. Check out some of those new features as we roll into spring and maybe we'll hop back on, talk about some of those. But again, this is the Charged up podcast. I'm your host, Tim Allard. This is my special guest Luke Hanson this week from Company Cam. Thanks for coming on, Luke. We will talk to you soon, sir.

[Tim Allard]

That's it for this episode of Charged up, where tech meets turf. If you enjoy the ride through the world of electric and automated lawn care, don't forget to follow the podcast, leave a well worded five star review and share with your fellow green thumbs and gearheads. To connect with Tim, check out the show description. Thanks again for listening and until the next time, stay sharp, stay smart and stay Charged Up.