Jay: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the First Customer Podcast. My name is Jay Aigner. Today, I'm lucky enough to be joined by Jake Henry, founder of Lectra. Hello, sir. How are you, buddy?
Jake: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on, Jay. It's a pleasure to be here.
Jay: Well, uh, I always love having a young entrepreneur with a ton of really cool experience already. So, uh, you know, inspiration is the name of the game. So let's get to it. You, uh, founded Lectra. You have a bunch of different, uh, backgrounds as far as your schooling goes. Talk to me a little bit about what Lectra is and how you guys got started.[00:01:00]
Jake: So, a quick breakdown of what Lectra is, is like, big problem with health care and rehab as a whole is everything's focused on reactive. So what do we do once something happens? Like if you get hurt, how we help you fix it. But there's not as much focus on spending products on preventative health care.
So Lectra's essentially like a monitoring tool for physical therapists or even consumers who have everyday aches, pains, pools, struggles like that to be able to not just monitor their health. Um, but, We, we like to say taking it essentially to the next level where we can actively do something about, uh, the problems that people are having.
So it's a monitoring device for, um, problems that need rehabilitation along with actively helping the rehab individuals. And we started, I've been working on it now for three years and it is definitely an up and down roller coaster battle, whatever you want to call it. Um. So my mom has really bad osteoarthritis in her knee, which just means that she has arthritis and she has problems with [00:02:00] everyday pains, pulls, just kind of like living to the point where, um, she, she had to wear a knee brace everywhere she went, she was kind of always almost waddling around, she had an inflammation build up in the side of her knee, the size of Uh, a golf ball, which would come all the time when she would have to get a drain, go in and get steroid shots the whole nine yards to the point where they had said that she had needed surgery, but she, like most people, didn't want to get surgery.
So she kind of just lived with the aches and pains. And I had grown up playing sports, played soccer in college, and I thought, hey, is there a way that... We can, we can essentially be able to help her and tons of other people with this problem, similar problems to her. Cause I use muscle stimulation, um, all the time to help with rehabbing my hip.
And I was really stubborn, still I'm stubborn where I would get hurt. I would still keep playing and I would just end up getting more hurt. So I was in the trainer's office, uh, the doctor's office a lot. And I thought about it and I was like, wow, nobody's really tried to combine a process of [00:03:00] using muscle stim, but.
Also being able to combine the aspects of making it wireless and being able to do, allow people to be on the go, do everyday activities, whether that's, uh, housework, going to the grocery store, playing pickleball, which I also do a ton, um, other activities like that, where people can live the normal life that they deserve.
While also being able to to say I shouldn't have to live with the problems I'm living with and I feel like the big thing that I feel like is as people age, they get more upset because I say that they can't do things they have all these pains struggles aches or whatever and I think it's more associated with the fact that people are upset because they can't do things because Um, they healthcare as a whole didn't focus on preventatives for, um, the problems that they could potentially have in the future.
So I think that there's a, uh, an opportunity to shift the paradigm of how healthcare acts as a whole and not saying where the end all be all. But I'm saying in supplement with other, um, [00:04:00] technologies, other services in the healthcare industry, there's, there's definitely an opportunity to grow and have a lot of people be able to, um, live a happier, more fulfilled and active life.
That's what they choose to do.
Jay: I have two PTs in the family, um, so I, but I still don't know exactly what muscle stimulation means. What does that mean for everybody who's listening?
Jake: Yeah, so essentially what muscle stimulation does is when you're hurt or let's, let's backtrack a little bit when, when you exercise or workout, um, the muscle fibers inside of like, say your arm, your bicep, if you're curling a bicep, they get broken down and then over time they get strengthened to be, become bigger, become more efficient and that's how people grow muscle when they lift.
But when, when you, for example, pull, yeah. Like your bicep muscle, um, the fibers in your arm will rip and it makes it damage. That's why you can't like curl anymore. That's why it hurts all the time. So what muscle stimulation does [00:05:00] is it's a noninvasive, which means not using any medication, not using any type of shot, anything along those lines of being able to admit these, these low frequency pulses or shocks, whatever you would want to call um, Essentially build back those muscle fibers in a more not just quicker rate but also a more enhanced rate to be able to help them to become stronger than they were before and they do this through almost like a synthetic type of workout where it's shocking these muscles without having to go through that process of Being able to curl, do bicep curls.
It's, it's helping you to, um, essentially regain that strength, uh, back, if that makes
Jay: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no it does. Um, have you, have you tried it on your mom yet?
Jake: So, that's what's really cool about it, is we built out the first prototype, and... My mom used it for 15 minutes and I have the video. I wish I could [00:06:00] have played it right now, but she, uh, she went on a run like without her brace for the first time in, um, six years, like pain free. So I was like, it was really cool.
And it was kind of like a motivating factor to be like, okay, maybe we have
Jay: Yeah.
Jake: to build off of.
Jay: We'll have to, we'll have to link that video. I'll, I'll definitely, if you got it, we'll, uh, we'll share that. That's pretty
cool. That's
Jake: yeah, I'll send it over
Jay: Well, speaking of videos, it's a good segway. Tell me about being, uh, you know, world famous content creator. I am curious What's the background there?
Jake: So the content creation stuff started as like a creative outlet for me. I think I've always liked making videos I got my own little setup here with with the mic and stuff and I started making videos in 2018 on YouTube and I just liked posting stuff about my life. It started off as like a, um, what's something I can look back on when I'm 40, 50, 60, 70 and say, wow, this is what I was doing when I was 18, 19, 20, 25, stuff like that.
So I thought it was a super cool outlet. And then it [00:07:00] kind of transitioned when my parents bought me a camera, I think it was a Canon t5i or something that they got me for Christmas. Um, back in 2020 after, no, this was back in 20. Sorry. And I was, I remember making my, this is when TikTok came out.
It got big in the beginning of 2019 when I was starting college and my buddy and I recorded a TikTok on the way to class of me doing a Kip up where you lay on your back and you flip yourself up. And I remember we, we went into lab. And we came out and there was like 450, 000 views on it. And we look at each other like, Oh my God, what is going on?
And then another 20 minutes goes by, there's like 2 million views on it. And I was like, all right, maybe we should keep making these videos. So him and I were making the videos, uh, messing around. We got a couple, like 20, 30, 000 followers from that. And then from there I was like, okay, well, how can I like.
Build a brand around what I'm doing. So I started trying to talk more and more in the [00:08:00] videos. And then I was like, I have this camera and I haven't said anything. And this is, this is now beginning of 2021. And I was like, well, how do I use this to, um, like talk about Lectra, which I just started. And build like a social repertoire, like a digital resume almost.
So I started like doing videos where it forced me where I'm stuck, like talking in front of the camera. And then from there, I think I made a video about Jordan Belfort and like how he was like stealing money and stuff. And I was at a party and I just remember the exact same thing happening. It was like 20 minutes went by and it was like 400, 000 views or something.
Like an hour later, it was like. 2 million. I was like, okay, maybe I'll start making these videos more. So from there, I kind of transitioned into, um, talking about Lectra's in the same style, talking about, um, business, tech, finance, uh, niche. And I got over like, I think it was half 44. I got, I got to 450, 000. I think I'll TikTok at one point.
And then I had transitioned back to YouTube because honestly, like YouTube is the [00:09:00] one I really like. Um, making videos on and I've kind of just been documenting the entire journey around Lectra and documenting like everything I've been doing, um, all the, all this, the place that we've traveled to. And on top of that, like, um, I am very avid in, uh, pickleball.
So I love playing pickleball. So I make videos on that as well, but that's kind of the landscape we're sitting at right now. I think I'm at like 500 something thousand, uh, I don't know the exact number, but it's something around there, but it's, it's a lot of fun. And,
Jay: that's crazy.
Jake: um,
Jay: How do you I mean? I have a bunch of kids and they all think that they're gonna be, you know, TikTok and YouTube stars. Um, what do you attribute to your success? Like, I mean, you know, obviously you're, you're a handsome kid. You know, you had some, some luck probably riding some waves of, of trends and stuff.
But how do you, what do you really attribute that to? Was it random, do you think? Was it, you know, something you did or what?
Jake: I think. It's definitely a combination of luck and persistence because like people who say that luck doesn't exist, they're lying. Uh, I feel like a lot of, a lot of [00:10:00] the, what was attributed was like luck because say like, Hey, maybe my friend was sick that day and we would've never made the video and then we just kind of would've forgot about it.
Same thing is like, Hey, if my parents didn't get me the camera, then probably would have never started making videos like that in the first place, which would have taken me from 20, 000 to whatever it is now, half a million, 400 something. And like the persistence factor is like, I think first of all, the major problem with most people is like, Two things, letting the fear of failure outweigh the desire to succeed.
So it's like, you're afraid of failure more than you want to succeed. So you don't even start, or you spend too much time contemplating, like, what's the first video you're going to make? What's the first thing that I should talk about? What's my niche. It's like, who cares? Just make a video and just post it because the, uh, most people are also like have social anxiety or like, are afraid of like, well, what are they going to say, what are they going to do?
And if you think about it. Like if you're in college, you're in high school. You're not going to talk to [00:11:00] 90% of the people after you leave. So like, who cares? That's like, everybody's trying to do the same thing now anyway. So like it's whatever. And then past that, it's like, um, what I've learned and like, I had struggles with is like the persistence factor, which now it's like you kind of get into routine and it becomes second nature almost where it's like, you have to, um, I don't, have like a content schedule because it makes it like a job more than something that's fun, but it's like, you have to.
Be consistent on what you're doing. So if you find like a video that if you're, you're making a bunch of different videos, goofing around, you find one that works. It's like, wow, I realized that I'm funny or I realized that I'm good looking or something like that. Like that's kind of like what you would run with and then you almost keep.
Keep moving that needle, keep pushing that narrative and just don't stop posting like whether it's, um, like, for example, like a podcast, like, you try whatever you can to do a podcast a week podcast every 2 weeks, like X amount of podcasts for months and some people like to stick to that and it works for them.
And then others are like, well, if I post, um. [00:12:00] X amount of times on X amount of topics, and I know that I could potentially drive this amount of engagement based off of the analytics. So I'm a very analytical person as well. Like, I, uh, I, I like looking at analytics and seeing what I can do, uh, to grow based off the analytics or make videos better.
Um, but I would say that's definitely the start and being able to take constructive criticism because, you know, online, there's like a ton from everybody because everybody has something to say, but, um, a lot of the stuff that people do say is helpful and you can use it. Or attribute it to, like, the next video you'd make.
So I try and make, like, when I'm on YouTube When I'm on TikTok, I just like posting stuff for fun. But when I'm posting for YouTube, I try to make every single video, I'm making, like, something, like, better than the last video that I made. So definitely, um, persistence, um, not really caring what people think, and just posting stuff.
Uh, I think definitely a lot of luck.
Jay: Right. Yeah. I think that's fair. Luck is, you just gotta be lucky, folks. Uh, that's all it takes is just being lucky. You can be just like Jake.
Uh, no, I, I, I think you're right though. I think the hard work [00:13:00] is finding the stuff you can do repeatedly that doesn't feel like work. As soon as it starts to be a grind. I have to imagine you started to lose some of the luster for what you're doing. So, um, yeah, some, some, some good advice there. Uh, back to, back to business, um, kids who are in college, you know, I mean, good Lord, dude, I was looking through your LinkedIn and like, you know, all the, the schooling and stuff you've done.
I mean, a lot of people aren't going to be as motivated to be at that high caliber. What do you attribute? To kind of pushing you to be that, you know, the top of your class, doing the next, you know, certification, doing great volunteer work. Um, what's, what's kind of your, your basis for all that stuff?
Jake: So I don't want to keep like bringing it back to the persistence factor, but it's like, uh, for me, I found the stuff that I really liked to do and. I [00:14:00] just started working on that and I, I, I kind of think of it like, um, if I didn't have followers, if I wasn't like, like, like right now, I'm not, we're not profitable with luxury yet.
So it's like, I would be doing the exact same thing regardless of if I had a lot of followers, if I had, um. I don't know if, like, in, in the spot we are right now, like, I do the same thing every single day with Lectra with content, not expecting something to change, but like, having a, a goal in mind of where I want to go and what I want to do, so if it's, you can, I feel like you can attribute that to anything, so like, we, the volunteer work, like, we wrote a capacity building grant.
It was like a hundred and sixty page grant we wrote to help against like advocating against domestic violence towards children So we're like trying to raise this money for these kids and it's like every single day we'd go in and I would I would Write it. I would wouldn't think about writing it. I would just think about how many kids it could help if it was like content I don't think about all shit.
This video didn't get me. It got me this amount of followers got me this amount of views No, it's like holy crap. I get to wake up another day And get to make more videos with Lectra. It's like, wow, um, like this [00:15:00] morning and yesterday I got rejected from two accelerator programs. Um, we got rejected from an angel group and we didn't get, uh, a government grant and I was upset about it, but like.
I mean, most kids my age now are already working a job like they have, they have their set times, they have to ask for vacation days off and it's like, wow, I get to get up every day and make my own stuff and we have 14 people on the team and I get to lead these people. So it's like a super cool opportunity that I get to have.
So it's kind of thinking of, uh, uh, ways to promote that positive mindset in every aspect and grades as well. It's like you could, you could get a grade back from a test and. It's happened more times than not where you would get a bad grade and you could, you could be upset about it. Like, wow, I just, I got a 75 on this test.
And instead you could say, Hey, how do I change my studying next time to maybe get an 80? How do I change my study? Who should I talk to, to get it up to an 85, whether it's going to office hours, putting more time, creating a quizlet. Um, yeah. Not cheating on your homework and actually trying to understand what's going on.
Not just seeing what [00:16:00] you got wrong, seeing why you got it wrong. So it's stuff like that. Like you can attribute the positive, like mindset, I feel like to any aspect of your life, if you're willing to have the persistence to do it,
Jay: Love it. Is there anybody in your life you attribute that kind of persistence to?
Jake: uh, definitely my grandpa. So he, he went through like a life changing event. Where, when he was 12, um, he lost his whole family. So like his whole family. So, um, at 12 years old. So it was kind of like a rebuilding thing for him. And he came out, uh, from a, um, oh my gosh, coma. He was in like an eight month coma afterwards and he woke up and his family was gone at 12.
So, and he rebuilt his entire life. He rebuilt everything. Uh, started a couple of businesses, became a multimillionaire. Um, he's. The him and my grandma, the reason why I, uh, I'm getting up and doing everything I can. Cause, uh, if he can do it with the circumstances and he can, or if he had, then why can't I do it with, um, like having a loving family and support group around me?
Jay: Yeah. I love [00:17:00] that. So what's next for Lectra? What's the, what are the goals, um, You know, maybe in a punch list, like, what are your kind of short term, mid term, long term goals for Lectra?
Jake: Yeah. So right now we're, we're raising money. Um, we're raising half a million dollars to finish our prototyping, um, to be able to start selling. We got to work through like regulatory hurdles for a little bit, but it's not too bad. Um, and then. We are working, we have a contract with the University of Pennsylvania to finish some of the development and then from there we're going to start selling online and then we also have a partnership with a couple of the pickleball brands to sell to them as well to start.
So that was pretty cool. Um, and then from there, it's just a growing scale, get partnerships with physical therapy offices, sports teams, um, and just kind of like working to be the difference that we want to. We want to make so short term, uh, raising the money longterm, uh, beginning of next year is, is getting into stores, starting to generate sales and starting to, uh, get that positive output for, and seeing the [00:18:00] smiles on people's faces.
Like, uh, I saw my mom's when she used it for the first time. So it was pretty cool. Um, and now we've had, we've had 10 people use it. I mean, we've had like 40 people use it. And 10 of them saw a difference on the first time using it, which was a super cool.
Jay: That's awesome, man. So, if you, we haven't been around doing it for too long, but if you had to start Lectra over again tomorrow, kind of with the lessons you've learned so far, what would be step one for you?
Jake: I think, um,
I think finding a mentor is actually like extremely important because, um, whenever I watch other podcasts of individuals talking about it, um, they had said that finding a mentor is super important or somebody to be your support group for it. I always thought that was kind of like rubbish, but like, um, as I went through the process, I have an individual that I lean on a lot for advice, for help, for connections, stuff like that.
And it makes the process, uh, I don't know if easier is the word, but. [00:19:00] More, more bearable because a lot of people online, I feel like glorify, like what an, like an entrepreneur is. And it's a lot of work. It's like, um, you spend a lot of your day in front of the computer, like answering emails, trying to talk, get meetings of people, talking to people, building out models, pulling out decks.
And, um. It's not nearly as, as glorifying as people make it seem at first, because like, again, like I, I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to do it every single day, but like, uh, it is a grind. And then, so definitely the mentor. And, um, the second thing is finding a good co founder. Like I wouldn't, I don't think I would want to go in, like when I started, I was like, okay, I'm going to make this myself.
I'm going to do this and that. And, um. As I got through it a little bit, even the 1st, like 7, 8 months, I was like, all right, I can't do this myself. So, like, finding a co founder, which is a pretty cool story. He's a electrical engineer out of Virginia tech. He graduated a couple of years ago. I had, I knew that, like, I have a note from 2020 that said, uh, I wanted to make electromagnetic sports tape.
And it was like, I need somebody to make a coder. I [00:20:00] need somebody to make the design. Uh, X, Y, and Z. It's from. Three years ago and I reached out to 300 and something people on LinkedIn. I got one response and it wasn't even from that kid. It was from a, another kid at Virginia tech who worked, and this is who my co founder Nick, who, uh, I, uh, unfortunately couldn't make it on this call, but he, um, he.
This other kid named Christian joined us on the team and we had worked for like two months together and he's like, okay, well, I have another guy. I think I want to introduce you to, uh, I think it'd be great for the project as well. And he introduced me to Nick. We got on a call. Uh, I pitched it to Nick.
Nick loved it. And then since June, 2021. We've been co-founders and working on it together, and it's kind of been like a nice support group, support system of like, um, bouncing ideas off each other, like delegating work, delegating, um, priorities and what we need to get done to be able to move it forward.
Um, Nick checking me when I, I say something that's like too crazy and I need to be back in a little bit. So it's like stuff like that that makes us a really good team [00:21:00] and. It helps with development and helps with, um, pushing everything forward, which is, has been really cool and really fun. Um, but definitely I would say if I were to start over, the first things I would focus on getting a mentor and finding a co founder would be the biggest things.
And then past that is, is building out your team. Um, cause you don't have a cool team. If you don't, if you don't people surrounding you that you, you don't want to see on a daily basis, then what's the point of doing anything that you're doing?
Jay: Yeah. No, I love that. Alright, um, final question. Mystery question, which is always the same, so it's not a mystery, but, uh, if you could do anything in the world, non business related, and you knew you couldn't fail, what would it be?
Jake: Um, I actually, hey. That's a funny question because, uh, my off my wallpaper, I'm trying to clear my notifications. I apologize. My wallpaper that I've had for years is
Jay: Oh, look at that.
Jake: how big would you dream if you
Jay: See, we're [00:22:00] cosmically connected, brother.
See, you've been, now, it means you've had a lot of time to think about this question.
Jake: Yeah. So I, I hopefully I don't disappoint with the answer. Um, but I was going to say is like,
I, I don't think I would want to change what I was doing. I just. There's places where I'd want to be where it's like, but it's the exact same thing I'm doing But it's just we're further down the road. So it's like if I could be further down the road now then I would love to do it, but then you miss out on the opportunity of the journey So it's like so I would say like Having millions of followers on social media, having millions of dollars in sales with Lectra and millions of, uh, partnerships and like changing millions of lives, being a pro pickleball player.
Like they're all stuff I'm looking at down the road, but like right now it's all just kind of enjoying the journey.
Jay: Yeah, I saw Pickleball on ESPN the other day, and I was like, wow, it's really, it's really happening. It's really, it's really [00:23:00] happening. Um, alright, well, you're a super inspirational guy, man. Uh, I hope people gather a couple things from this that they can use for themselves. If people are looking to connect with Lectra or you, uh, what's the best way to do that?
Jake: Um, so we're on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, uh, just Lectratape for all of them. Uh, actually YouTube's under Jake Henry, but everything's under, uh, Lectratape. We're coming to Twitter soon. We have a newsletter as well, uh, that we do every month. So I can have that linked in here as well
Jay: Yeah, yeah, give us all, all your links. Now, if anybody wants to reach out to you personally, what's the best way to do that?
Jake: definitely through Twitter, dms or Instagram dms, um, would definitely be the best. Uh, I'll respond. My Twitter handle's just Jake Henry, and then my Instagram is just, uh, Jenry, j-e-n-r-y is just Jake Henry combined.
Jay: Alright brother, well you stay cool during this hot ass summer, and uh, I'll be looking for Lectratape on the, the shelves, uh, coming next year. So, you're, you're awesome man, enjoy the rest of your week, alright? Thanks for
being on Jake.
Jake: Yep. No problem. Here's well Jay [00:24:00]
Jay: Thanks buddy, see ya.