Agile Businesses: Kirk Byles Of FreeWave Technologies On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Understand you will make a lot of mistakes but that is OK as long as you keep moving in the right direction.
As part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kirk Byles.
Over the last 25 years, Kirk has done his best to stay on the cusp of cutting-edge technology. His interests focus on providing 21st-century tech to the remote parts of the world, while continuing to stay at the forefront of mainstream development.
It is fair to say that his entrepreneurial side is willing to take some risks and invest in new technologies that may help a small community of users upfront as long as there is a potential for global uptake along the way.
In his current role as FreeWave CEO, Kirk brings a passion for technology, people, and adventure to work every day. As someone who has spent much of his life looking for the next big thing, Kirk treats his role at FreeWave as a leader who brings a desire to learn and make a difference helping FreeWave to pioneer solutions for IIoT in order to make the world more intelligent with actionable data at the Edge.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
How did I fumble my way into technology? Honestly it came out of a need, like so many other things, I’d been enjoying a wonderful life traveling the globe, working odd jobs and writing a bit. I’d gone back to college to get my BFA and MFA in writing and was living in a crappy little oil town along the Mexican coast with my wife teaching English to oil executives when I was informed, we were going to have a baby. I’m still not sure how that happened…just kidding. Anyway, I called my brother who’d been working in technology in Boulder, told him the situation and that I needed to come home and get job. He called back an hour later and let me know I had an interview in 10 days. We loaded up our ’72 Plymouth Valiant, drove to Denver and I aced my interview…it helped the interviewer was my brother’s good friend and business partner. Anyway, I got a job working in tech just as the internet bubble was expanding. I didn’t know much but like anyone during that time I figured it out and did very well selling routers, switches and firewalls. The rest is history…I got into wireless and cyber and took steps to further my career until I landed here at FreeWave.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When I started, I didn’t know much of anything with regard business let alone the internet business. My boss just told me to make or take 100 phone calls a day and be on the phone for at least six hours. If I did that, I’d be successful. In his words, “nobody understands this stuff, so just quote as much as you can using this spreadsheet.” I guess he thought I at least understood how to quote pricing. I used the spreadsheet and started quoting. I was killing it quoting small deals and large deals over $500K. At the time, it scared me because all my other colleagues were quoting $20K deals and making a big deal about them. What I learned was they were all selling hard drives and desktop computers the legacy business. I was the only guy dedicated to networking products. Well, one of my quotes came back as a PO on the Fax machine and my boss gave it to me and asked how much margin I built into it. You can imagine his face when I asked, “Margin? What’s margin? I just used the spreadsheet numbers.” He about fell on the floor because he knew I’d sent out at least 100 quotes by then . . . at our cost. We started scrambling to pull up all my quotes and redo them with this new thing called “margin” built in. We’d just gotten started when I noticed an email from our main vendor with the headline, “Updated Price Sheet”. Thank God. All the prices had dropped and my quotes where all at 10–30 points of margin. More POs started coming in and within my first quarter of work I was the top salesperson parking my ’72 Plymouth in the “Salesman of the Month” parking space by the front door. I was number one for months after and my boss would complain all the time about the piece of junk parked in front of the office. After we had the baby, he forced me to buy a newer car.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I probably had more help than most…my older brother and his business partner, for sure, as I mentioned but more importantly my father, as cliché as that sounds, my father was responsible for providing me the work ethic and moral authority I have today. Dad was a lifer with HP. He started in that legendary garage in Palo Alto while at Stanford working side-by-side with Hewlett and Packard. He did a number of things at HP that shaped him, and the HP way was forefront in daily undertakings. He taught us if we were going to do something to do it exactly right, that we could figure out what was right by looking at the work whether it was cutting the lawn or cleaning the gutters and ask ourselves would we do it any better. If so, if wasn’t finished. He’d walk around with us when we were young and point out how we could do better, but nicely and send us on our way to “Finish the Job.” Till this day I can’t just do something half-ass; I just have to finish the job. He also felt very strong about doing what was right at every turn. He wasn’t religious but he did hold the “Golden Rule” as his compass and that was passed down to myself and my brothers. It’s funny my daughter gave me a Father’s Day card last year that said something to the effect, “When I’m confused or can make a decision I just ask myself what would Dad do?” It meant a lot to me even if a bit Hallmarky. It is also what I’ve done most of my life when I’m having difficulty with a decision…I ask myself the same, “What would Dad do?”
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
Very simply put our founders saw the need for remote rugged wireless connectivity in the industrial markets, specifically Oil and Gas. They focused in on providing a way for O/G companies to get their SCADA data from the middle of nowhere Texas to the headquarters. They were laser focused on this market and it took off. Later they added government and defense, agriculture, and utilities, but the initial focus on O/G was how they got the company off the ground and so profitable.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?
In a nutshell, today we provide wireless edge solutions for the industrial markets…Huh? you are probably asking. There are millions of pieces of equipment placed in remote locations from oil wells and storage tanks to autonomous trackers to pivot irrigation devices to fixed wing drones able to travel over a 100 kilometers to seismic stations on top of volcanoes. We allow these types of customers and so many more to see their data from anywhere in the world by either a satellite or radio or cellular connection and have that data automatically make changes to the function of the remote equipment through various sensing technologies. Blah blah blah. When you see a big green tractor perfectly going back in forth anywhere in the world, not weaving even a half an inch, that is being done through FreeWave technology. When you hear about the only Made in the USA commercial drone delivery company worth more than $1 billion and how they are delivering medical supplies in Africa, India, South America and so on that is FreeWave under the hood helping to ensure those drones get to their destination without fail. When you hear there was an earthquake in Alaska or almost anywhere else in the world that information is passed to the USGS or its global equivalent via FreeWave technology. We provide a backbone and intelligence at the very edge to allow equipment to be optimized in real time without any human interaction allowing companies or entities to focus on their profit-making vs decision making.
Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
Standards-based wireless technologies and edge applications have been by far the most disruptive. For years the industrial giants across all verticals didn’t trust the wireless carriers or the standards based wireless technologies to carry their data; it wasn’t considered dependable or secure. Proprietary radio systems were considered much more reliable. Well, as we know the carriers and standards are much, much more reliable and secure that they were 25 years ago and get better and better all the time. We got a late start on adapting but today we offer any type of connection standards or proprietary in order to stay competitive. Edge applications, meaning something as simple as a store and forward application where the data rests on site until a connection comes available and pushes it to the server to something more intelligent where an irrigation device is reading soil sensors to make decision on the fly whether to provide more — or less — water, or fertilizer, to optimize yields without human interaction are taking over so much of the industrial spaces. When we first launched our Edge intelligence, we honestly didn’t know how it would be used, now there are literally thousands of applications utilized to optimize efficiencies. It is stunning how fast the Edge came to be so important. Certainly, the cloud is big business but in the remote industrial world the edge dominates the decision making.
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
FreeWave has had sure up its legacy product line, its main profit center, to ensure we could afford to make this pivot. Once that was done, we began the long road of focusing on the new standards bases products and intelligence on the edge to provide packaged sensing solutions to our existing base of customers while maintaining our legacy business. It has been a long road and quite difficult to have an engineering team go back and forth between the old and the new and a sales team do the same. The new is obviously the most important area to focus but human nature pulls everyone back to what may be considered easier or more profitable. So, we’ve had to make extremely difficult decisions with regard personnel, profits, and what is best in the long term with regard FreeWave’s survival and value. It’s cost us good people and some customers but in the long run I’m certain we are doing what is best for FreeWave and for our customers.
Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.
One of largest customers, who had deployed 10s of thousands of our legacy radios came to us with an opportunity to bid on the same network being upgraded to a standards based technology and edge. This is a Fortune 10 company in the world, and we didn’t have anything to offer. Eventually they didn’t forklift us out of the network, but it was definitely an “Aha” moment — pivot or die.
So, how are things going with this new direction?
Honestly, it’s been a lot of work, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Two big investments in software and edge visualizations and solutions have paid enormously. We are no longer following our competitors with an arm tied behind our backs. Rather we can compete head on in much of the markets where we focus and are winning our fair share of opportunities. Certainly, there is still a long road ahead but at least we are finally moving much faster down that road.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
After years of being a one trick pony with an amazing customer base, finding out just how much our customers have embraced our pivot and are looking to us for advice. They have problems and we have solutions or can make the solutions they need fairly quickly. Case in point is a large pivot irrigation company with a global footprint, who came to us when we were talking about problem solving and asked if we could provide a proposal on how they can better support their customers through data acquisition and real time edge intelligence. Well, that was what we’d been pitching, so in short order we came up with a proposal on how we could take all the hardware decision making out of the equation. But better yet, how we could allow them to acquire all their customer’s data, analyze it at the edge while pulling it into the cloud for deeper larger group analytics. They are now on a path to provide their customers exponential optimization at the edge while gathering massive amounts of environmental, soil, and weather data to provide their customers valued longer-term analysis.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
Keeping laser focused on the vision and continuously reminding our employees and customers of the vision. We can NOT waiver or be distracted for an instant or I believe we will run adrift. We’ve had to say, “No” quite a bit and that is the hardest thing a for profit company can do, but when “Yes” would mean pulling folks away from our solutions and vision it is best but isn’t always appreciated by our employees or some of our customers.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
Wins and more wins. Honestly, there were a lot of naysayers along the way, but when we got our first big win, we hyped the crap out of it internally. We discussed how it came about, how we as a team came together to close the deal and reminded folks why it was important. Our next win was probably more important as we showed everyone from employees to customers, we had created something of value, and it was repeatable. As a leader, I feel it is my job to remind individuals of the importance of the work they have done and what we are doing for our customers…in one case we supplied a large utility a solution to shutting off underground equipment that is overheating and possibly going to blow up and start a fire, effectively saving lives and preventing fires. These types of things make our employees want to do more and they can go home at night knowing they are doing their part, even if small, to make the world better, more environmentally safe, and in some cases saving lives.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
Know hard decisions will be made every day but communicating the vision constantly will allow employees and customers know why you are making them. They may not like them, but at least they will appreciate the choices made.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
- Being blinded by what has worked in the past as a way forward.
- Not finding a way to invest in the future while pulling back from the past while remaining profitable.
- Expecting all your employees to be able to make the pivot.
Understand nothing in the company can stay the same if you are to compete in a disruptive marketplace.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Have a clear and concise vision. Without that the company will be adrift.
We took weeks to refine our strategy and vision. We started with senior staff sitting in meeting rooms, then taking middle management to off sites to discuss what we’d come up with and to see if it resonated. We’d go back and continue to refine and update. Finally, after many late nights and arguing we came up with what we believed was a winning vision and when we presented it, we only got a lot of nodding and excitement. If your folks don’t believe, then you will be stuck in the mud.
2. Communicate constantly internally and externally.
Pre Covid, we had monitors all around the office stating our vision and mission as well as highlighting wins. We wanted everyone to see progress whether an engineer came up with a new edge application or a sales guy closed a big deal to our customer’s letting us know we had provided them with a wonderful solution. Communicating wins as much as possible no matter how small makes a huge difference.
3. Understand you will make a lot of mistakes but that is OK as long as you keep moving in the right direction.
We came up with our Edge technology, we were super excited so brought about a dozen of our best customers into an all-day briefing. Man we were absolutely head over heels we’d put together a winning product for our customers. So, after we’d finished presenting our latest and greatest advancement in 20 years, crickets. Being a hardware company, we thought like a hardware company so hadn’t even imagined the only question to come out of the group was, “what the hell are we supposed to do with compute power at the edge?” We didn’t have an answer. We thought they would tell us. It was great. Honestly, we finally understood. They wanted us to provide them value and make it easy. That was when we knew we needed software guys more so than hardware.
4. The naysayers are a cancer and if they can’t get on board they should probably not be taken on the journey.
You need believers or you will not succeed. When we started the pivot, we asked folks if they would come along many of them left, which was tough but it allowed us to find others who did believe and they are the leaders taking us forward. It’s no good to have folks grinding out a paycheck. If they are not engaged others will feel it and it pulls down the whole organization.
5. Hire experts and visionaries with the experience to get you where you want to go.
It’s tough to do but when we started this journey, I knew I needed to surround myself with the best folks I could find. That is an old adage, but just as important is finding the best and the most willing to sacrifice a to achieve greatness. There is always a shinier object to chase, and opportunities abound. What you don’t want is to lose your best and brightest leaders, so you need to look for folks who want to finish what they started and trust them to do the job. Our senior leadership and middle management are top notch. They could go anywhere, have job offers every day, but they want to finish what we started, they are committed to the journey. A company won’t go far without the right people to carry water. Honestly, having the folks we have on board has made this journey all the more fun and worth the stress and hardships that have come along.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Never Content” I have that quote on my email signature. I was in my early 20s. I was out of money and my decision-making had been less than stellar. I knew this as I was sleeping in a leaking tent in Key West, unemployed and penniless. I took a hard look at what had happened to get me to where I was and decided if I could get myself out of this predicament, I’d never allow myself to be content with where I was in life or any circumstance. Sure, I could be satisfied with a job well done but NEVER CONTENT. There would always be something more for me to do and I would chase whatever that was as hard as I could: always. To this day, I live every aspect of my life with deep satisfaction but at the same time looking for ways to do more and better.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Agile Businesses: Kirk Byles Of FreeWave Technologies On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
