Doug Ludlow: Protecting Community Small Business through Technology at Mainstreet

That was kind of like a , who is your personal home manager? So like imagine an Angie's list or a Thumbtack , uh , with a concierge , uh, raising money for that company wasn't ultimately successful. But we were, I guess , insane act wired by Google to build the Google home services adding .

So now that, you know, when you use a Google for a plumber or an electrician use the product, which is kind of fun, I spent three and a half years at Google, and this is where kind of the mainstream stories begins. I met my two current co-founders there, Dan Linquist and Dan Riverton on that team.

Uh, you know, and we decided we would working together , uh , Wilson , who's our , and we knew we wanted to start a company and , uh , we didn't want to start a company that was something we'd be proud of and we devote our charges. So it's , uh , that , that was the Genesis of a mainstream, having to talk about what , why we went the direction we did, but that's what got us up to that point.

How can we connect hundreds of millions of people to , uh , you know , really the economic engine of the 21st century , uh, which is something that's not happening today . So we thought the best way to do this, but we , you create jobs and opportunity was by supporting small businesses, right? As you may know, small businesses employ more than anyone else in the world. Most of the world's economic activity closed . They're small businesses. It's really hard to run a small business.

You're kind of on your own, whether you have a sandwich shop of work or a small biotech company. So we thought , well, the best one we can create jobs and opportunity is by supporting small businesses and getting them the resources they need. So we left Google on this mission and it started main street, really just to fill that goal, iterated a few ideas and really where we are today, which is we want to be the economic , uh, really the financial operating system for these companies, right?

Can we give you advantages? The only the world's largest companies, traditionally, the bones, the Walmarts , the Amazon sophisticated financial tools , deep product insights, et cetera, how many, many little easier and democratize access to those things. That really is the core of main street. It's getting you, you as a small business owner, access to tools and financial services advantages that normally are out of reach.

So we started with our first product that we launched that was relatively simple, but it's pretty awesome. We think we connect small businesses with this giant world of government credits and incentives, right? Uh , hundreds of billions of dollars per year, given globally , uh, out to credits and incentives like hiring incentives, research and development incentives for doing a certain economic economic. I did , we're hiring people in downtown Sacramento, California, right?

The list goes on and on, and you have the IRS estimates that less than 2% of all small businesses or startups actually take advantage of these credits. So our , the very first product we launched last year in February was a simple platform that connected your business with government grants . And we handle all the obligation, all the processing. We really take a process that used to take dozens of hours and bring it down to half an hour, farmer seamless and end up saving the average company.

Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And, you know , if people are really rethinking about what's important thing, a lot of people also want to be in control of their future. That's right . And then here you have a solution that I'm sure there's a lot of tech involved on the backend , but you know, that sort of consumer facing, or your know customer facing is this really seamless experience. And that's really what technology is all about.

So I'd love to just kind of hear, you know , um , where you think the evolution of this is going to go and , and this notion of community and , and this , this kind of re re infusing , uh , you know , small business,

And so only over the last five to 10 years, you've seen their rethinking of the way small businesses are financed, small businesses get tooling , uh , that they're supported by government. And I think those trends are only going to accelerate, right? Uh , as people go distribute it , and as some people work from home and some people don't right, I'm looking , not others , but there's actually tax credits and incentives and savings. You can get as an individual working from home, right.

There's, there's all sorts of things that are , it's a fragmented market, right? All these different advantage you can have as a small business owner. Uh, I think hopefully the next 10 years, we'll see not only consolidation of that and things like main street are helping make that possible, but you'll also see more opportunity, more help from government, more access to financial tools.

Uh , if you look at the world of FinTech, right, or the world of global finance, there are trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars , uh, locked up and FinTech and especially small business FinTech represents what may end up being one of the greatest transfers of wealth , uh, in the history of mankind, which comes from like , uh , can you give me , give the small business, the access to these trillions of dollars in advantage that don't , we would have missed out on .

Uh , and if we can do that , uh , things will look very different.

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I think this opportunity of, you know, small business and, and really the individual kind of being much more empowered within their own lives. I think a lot of people also were laid off over the last few years , um, you know, and, and have families, and then this whole new sense of newfound sense of community, but with the added layer of being part of something bigger in this kind of global economy and this global responsibility.

So have you seen some of those kinds of trends also emerging around even just around , um, you know, what , I guess what you would call corporate responsibility, but for small businesses, that's a great question.

I think that after the recovery from the last year, I think you see more and more emphasis on hyper-local businesses, right? And incentives to shop at your local store, or to be a book or patronize your local business, really underscored this as a , this is, you know, these are communities, right? Uh , this is the strongest way to the strongest way to strengthen your community is go shop as small business, right?

And the strongest way a small business can strengthen their business and their community is by taking care of their employees, right? So it's this, it's this really wonderful virtual cycle that can occur. The more, the small business takes care of their employees. The more their employees have money to go spend the community. The more of those businesses will go.

So I think corporate responsibility, I think has this, I don't know , you think big, giant corporations and giant giving programs are jacks. I , you don't often hear that phrase applied to small businesses, but I think it's something it's a recognition. I think what small businesses do for their very nature, they have to embrace corporate responsibility and community responsibility to survive

Um, and I think that, that, that this model that you've just described might be a real benefit. I mean, are you seeing in terms of your inbounds and your customer base, are they, are they coming from larger cities or are you seeing it sort of trend upward into suburban and even more rural areas

Like if you work at a hospital, you have to be there. If you work at a restaurant, you have to be there, but there are tens of millions of businesses that fall in the category of you can be anywhere. Right. I , I really , we we've definitely seen that. Uh, just like many others definitely seen that trend. You know, we have, we connect to people's payroll systems, we connect to like, you know, businesses companies , critical business systems.

And we get to know these companies really well inside and out. And the level of dispersion that has taken place amongst their employees is, is kind of staggering, which actually for our businesses is good because now it means you're eligible for 20 different states. Uh, you know, tax works rather than just one. So, I mean, for multiple reasons, we're all for that.

So all it'd be adding depth , uh , but we'll be adding new products as well. We're in the middle of piloting and about ready to launch , uh, a benefits platform, right. That provides benefits to the startups and small business employees. And just like main street. The car core product helps companies save money without doing much work. This is what the same for employees. Employees will be able to save money without doing much work.

Um, but, but, you know, w w what do you see as, I mean, there , there's some fear in the economy in general, because of, you know, a lot of the influx of, of government cash. Um, you know, there there's been obviously political turmoil. We definitely don't want to go down that rabbit hole. Um, but do you see this kind of outlook of, you know, like, you know, caution or are people, do you feel like, no , we're just, we're going full steam ahead now.

So it's, I don't know what type of correction there will be. Right. My concern is that the correction we'll see is not that the companies who are doing well or those who , uh, you know, those who have made a lot of money are going to lose it. My concern is if , what happens if we disconnected our economy from the needs of truly the poorest in our country, or those who are unemployed, I think you saw it over this last year.

You know, how is it that so many people were laid off and the stock market was at its highest, right? Uh it's as if you we've disconnected a big portion of the economy from a big portion of our citizenry, that's the type of thing to order. Long-term I know we go down quite the rabbit hole here too, but , uh , that's incredibly destabilizing over the long run for the , I mean , that's what you saw at the French revolution 200 years ago, right?

When you have massive inequalities, but for the time being, I think I don't see a massive correction. I'm not smart enough to feel predictive. If there will be one, I it's much more of longterm consequences of what happens if the stock market keeps roaring for those who have, and the economy isn't able to provide for those who don't.

and maybe influence to , to help some of these challenges? It

What happens though is if we come to like main street, we're able to aggregate together, you know, millions of these small businesses representing millions, if not tens of millions of employees, suddenly you have , uh , you know, our little company, we have the ability to negotiate with governments at the rate of, you know , multiple Walmarts , right ? Multiple Microsoft.

That's a power that becomes really extraordinary, and it really would help , uh, bring together if our whole goal is to democratize access to these advantage , the big numbers these have , well, why shouldn't the small business also have access to , uh , lobbying to congressional support, to the ability to shape policy, right? I , that will be an amazing thing.

It means her rebels and ALP , you know, slightly influenced us tax policy and S employment policy be more favorable to small businesses in their voice. Now that would be a , that would be a dream in the truth of , but we're trying to do,

So, you know , let's , let's talk a little bit about tech because you do have some experience , um, you know, at , at Google, what were some of the , I know you're not allowed to tell tales out of school at Google, but , um , you know, the publicly known things that Google is working on , uh , you know, what, what kind of emerging tech do you , do you see having the most promise and , and maybe even let's relate it small business, like, what are some of the, you know, how would they be

leveraging blockchain or AI or AR

The startup ecosystem was very good at taking was released or was about to be released and building on top of that. Right. Uh, I don't know if we're ready for what are the consequences when we can process it , order magnitudes, you know, greater than we have before. What does that mean for the stock market? What does that mean for healthcare? If I can suddenly use these amazing machines to diagnose my chance of cancer in three years, right. I there's an enormous and that combined with AI, right.

Uh, there's an enormous amount of potential that I don't think we've really quite grasp what can happen because of this. Right? Uh, we , we , we tend to think in days or years when we turn to technology, like, Hey, I'm excited for the new PlayStation to come out and excited for the new Xbox or, Hey, my, my refrigerator now has a TV on it. These things, if something fundamentally changes the way that computers work right.

And significantly speeds it up and that Google is working on that Microsoft is working on it . Like, I, I don't know what that means for the world, but it means, it means a lot of access to things we've never dreamed of before. It also means that the companies and the countries who control these , uh , will have access to enormous power.

That's why there's often now , uh, you talked about a race between China and the United States talking about winning the race to build AI and billions and billions of dollars being invested in this. So , uh , one story shortly , and I know, like I, there's lots of other great things that Google for example, is working on. Uh, but it's these kind of quiet, big projects that are most interested in because if they work, they change the world. Yeah.

Um, and, and so , uh , how , how do you see, and actually I do kind of love this as a mainstream product. We're gonna have to, we're gonna have to workshop this. Um, but you know, do you see it as a way to, to make this technology more accessible to small?

What ramp does is it spins up a corporate card system and an expense policy system that rivals what you get at a large company, right? A sophisticated, big, giant corporate level , uh , reimbursement program that any small business can take. I mean, that saves the small business hours and hours and hours. And again, it's not world changing technology, but it is taking like some of the things that the large companies take for granted and make them available to us.

And that it's less of these like big, giant sexy technologies, right. It's more like it's the API effication of the world that has enabled us. Now. Now suddenly like five years ago, every piece of software didn't talk to every other piece. Now it does.

So when you can tie your bank account together with your accounting system, with your HR, with your corporate card, and they all started talking, that gets really exciting , that enables us to offer small businesses at the same , uh , service and technology that the large companies have.

I actually have a potential partner for you data, a very large data company that, you know, to your point, you just mentioned, you know, people, people have , I think have the perception that some of these large technology companies are just too expensive and don't serve a small business and you had a call with them last week and they're kind of, you know, they're huge company and they stood on , I don't know where we actually have, you know, a lot of small business and , and I think that's even

just part of it. I think, I think part of it is even just perception. You know , you sort of feel a you're in the weeds all the time because you're running a small business and then, you know, and , and then B I think sometimes it can kind of seem, you know , just inaccessible.

That would last to be identifiable to me anywhere. That is theoretically interesting. It solves a real problem having artwork, right. That or videos that anyone else has. I, I honestly, I don't understand. I, I suppose if you can resell it to someone else, there is a marketplace, there's, there's a marketplace for everything. I just can't imagine that the, that the market will be eternal.

You'll also notice there's a big drop-off that mean Bitcoin dropped in value almost 50% over the last few months. Right. NFC is suddenly the buzz disappeared because a lot of the coins overnight, Bitcoin millionaires suddenly lost it. All right. And they don't have the time to diversify into other tourists with crypto. Uh , yeah. I'm , I am not only do I not fully understand NFTs or at least that I don't understand the appeal. I , I have a very, very, very barest on the concept.

But as is the same with cryptocurrency, you know, NFTs has just become kind of a wild west. And any time you kind of create this, you know , fury, because people sort of, it's like the, you know, it's like a digital get rich, quick screen scheme. It kind of diminishes what the value of the technology is. Anyway, I just had to, I had to get that off my chest

But I think, I think just like, you know, you mentioned with the internet, it's going to scare people. This whole crypto thing is going to scare people away for, for many, many years. So we took a hard left

I, you know, it's a personal question. My mom died of a pretty rare, very hard to diagnose cancer, right. And so if you can, if she could have like very quickly been, oh, it turns out we're able to scan you. And , uh , you let you know that you have this risk, go check yourself. And it became something that wasn't, you know, a big, a big check. Wasn't a once a year giant invasive procedure.

And that would change the world in a way that everything we've been talking about this whole time doesn't even come close to doing so. Right. And so it's, I hope that Silicon valley gets its act together and moves away from, we don't always focus on frivolous things, but we do a lot , uh, and that will Theron hosts and the failure there didn't scare people away from like, what if we apply this amazing technology that we're building to, you know, the health of, of, of, of mankind.

Like I , in miniaturizing democracy, just like main street , we're trying to democratize access to big company tools. What if we democratize access to what we consider amazing medical tools and put that in your pocket, just like the iPhone put the internet in your pocket . That's what would blow me away.

Thank you so much for joining us today. It was totally my pleasure.

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