Jun 14, 2021
Welcome to episode 30 of Fire Code Tech, where we’re talking everything BIM! Our guest Jose Oliveira is the founder of DiRoots, a custom software solution. Jose breaks down the differences in software solutions and free Revit plugins available and provides great insight about trends in the Architecture Engineering and Construction industry.
https://diroots.com/e-learning/dynamo-courses/
https://diroots.com/tutorials/
How did you start your career?
What different roles have you served in during your career?
What is your role now at DiRoots and what is DiRoots?
Would you speak about the free plugins DiRoots gives away?
What are some custom software solutions your company provides?
What was the impetus for the dynamo/Revit instructional videos?
Do you see any real competitors to Autodesk in AEC?
Do you have any tips for networking or staying engaged on social media as an entrepreneur?
What trends do you see in the industry?
Transcription
Hello, all welcome to the show. I'm Gus Gagliardi, and this is fire code tech on fire code tech. We interview fire protection professionals from all different careers and backgrounds in order to provide insight and a resource for those in the field. My goal is to help you become a more informed fire protection.
Professional fire code tech has interviews with engineers and researchers, fire marshals, and insurance professionals, and highlights topics like codes and standards, engineering systems, professional development, and trending topics in the industry. So if you're someone who wants to know more about fire protection or the fascinating stories of those who are in the field, you're in the right place.
Hello, all, and welcome to episode 30 of fire code. On this episode, we have Jose on Lavata on episode 30 of fire code tech. We're diving deep into BIM custom software solutions and everything Revit in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. If you have any interest in computer programming or where the architecture, engineering, and construction industry bridges the gap between cutting edge technology and custom software.
So. Then this episode is gonna fascinate you. I found Jose online through looking for information on how to learn, how to apply programming to, uh, Revit and fire and life safety design. He has some great online courses and resources. I'll be sure to post those in the show notes really enjoyed this episode, cuz Jose has great information for, um, professionals to keep developing.
And keep learning and, and he's a great resource for, um, free tools and, and good material for Revit and BIM. I hope you enjoy this episode. Don't forget to subscribe. Give us a review on iTunes. Five stars, please. And also remember to follow us on social media. So you remember that we post every week about the episodes of when they're coming out to give you a good reminder to tune in.
Let's dive into the show. Well, Jose, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's such a pleasure to get to speak with you. Hello guys. Thank you very much first for the invite and opportunity to talk to you and share some of my experience and the roots experience. Of course. So thank you very much for the these great opportunity and great pleasure.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, I like to get started with telling people a little bit about how you got into your career in this case. It's, it's not specifically fire protection, but yeah. I want to hear about, uh, my first time let's say yeah, exactly. I, I, I, I can tell you, I can't tell you guys east, I, I have to tell you this was not probably the most Orthodox way to, to, to do, you know, I.
Even the reason I came to the UK was, uh, for a different purpose. I came to the UK and portugese by the way. Um, and I came to the UK 15 years ago almost. And, uh, my dream was financial market. That's the reason you brought me to the UK. You know, London is one of the biggest centers of financial market. In Europe and in the world.
But unfortunately I, um, after I had my, my, my, uh, my dream job, like I lost it as well with a credit crunch in nine. So I had to restart again. So I wasn't trying training position to become a financial trader and then suddenly I have, I had nothing. So I. Fortunately found job , you know, most let's say unusual way.
I, I met my, my first boss in the industry in restaurant. I was a waiter. Uh, and yeah, that's the way I met. And then my journey, I started in this.
Trainee coordinator, you know, model, uh, technician, whatever you wanna, you wanna say. And, uh, and since then, I, I Don you know, much more as you probably understand, and I probably saw my, my profile and yeah, but that's the way I start not the normal way. So let's here without knowing to be Frank with you, but I'm loving it.
And it is a great industry. So a lot of opportunities. That's what matters yet. Wow. No, that's incredible that you had such a unconventional start to your, uh, career in the industry. It seems like a lot of, uh, interesting people I talk to don't really find it through the traditional pathways. They kind of have a roundabout way to getting to their career, even though they end up being so excellent at it.
So I wanted to speak a little bit more about, uh, you know, a couple of the different roles that you've held in the, you know, in the industry, since you, you know, started out as a draftsman, like you said, but yeah. You know, what kind of, uh, different, uh, consultancies or, or companies or roles did you fill before you found yourself at your role now?
Yeah. Yeah, of course, of course. Cuz um, I can say for example, I was a bit lucky, uh, with my, um, my first in, in, in, in this industry, in the AC industry as well. I, um, I start with one of the first companies in Europe that believe in and um, my. Biggest was definitely saw potential in one of these Aus universities in Vegas managed him.
And then you, for course, C now part of SW I did work as well with McDonald, which is quite also strong in the us. And after that, I went to, I. Also small break in terms of UK, I went to the middle east. I spent some time in QIT and also in, um, in, in Doha mainly, uh, I was working initially for, um, AWA and then I moved to work consultant.
So, um, And after, after worked with Autodesk, I finally came back to the UK as a UK being director for WP. And after WSP, then I start the, my that's probably aware of the roots, which really is different company, but of course in the same industry, but with a different purpose. So that was my kind of role so that I companies I did work, I definitely, from a technician to, to.
Technical consultant to a UK director. And I came to a point as well. In fact that I would say, what is my next step unless when I start to de see, I think it came all along and, you know, the nice sequence, a great experience, which made me today probably a bit more stronger than, you know, if I had start my own journey a few years back.
So that's that's I would say nice career. I. I'm very proud to be focused though. yeah, you should be proud. Yeah. That's really fascinating that you kind of, uh, started at the bottom and kind of worked your way up to the top with some really big names in the industry. Uh, mom McDonald, WSP, Autodesk. I mean, these are some, uh, Not insignificant companies and not insignificant roles that you had leading up to your career now at D roots.
So for those who don't know, would you speak about, you know, kind of, uh, your role now at DROS and, and what you guys, what your mission is? What kind of, uh, yeah, just a little bit of overview on the company for those who don't. Of course, of course, with the great pleasure as you know, uh, well, the roots is a company focused on the, on the software side.
Uh, we are mainly, uh, focused on creating tools that can help to help, you know, business or people, whatever, uh, to, uh, to help them, you know, Produce more and less time. So we looking for productivity tools, we looking into automation, we looking into efficiency and we looking also avoid these human errors.
So that's what we do with solutions bot solutions base in specific workflows for companies, or more than that as well. I think we. We also have, uh, eight plugins in case you're not aware we have eight travel plugins, which they are free. And so many, many people get surprised sometimes while they're free.
And cause they're quite good, not just the free and okay. But they're definitely good. And, but we have these eight plugins, which they kind of help any kind of ruse. Cause we looking for our three games to be kinda. Wider wider solutions covers like data management, field freeing, uh, I don't know, reordering Ren numbering.
We have also the pro sheets, which is our PDF branch to PDF, sorry, batching tool, which is also very, very popular, even the most popular tool that we have. So we got lot of nice tools, you know, which they, and I. Yeah. So I think that, yeah, I'd love to talk more about those, uh, plugins, because I think it's counterintuitive, you know, you, you give these plugins away, but I mean, that's how I found you, uh, through, you know, looking for, uh, trying to find better automation or just, you know, I was learning how to code at the time.
I was just learning some basic, um, web coding, HTML, CSS, Java script. And I was looking for how to, you know, where is. Automation and the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. And that's how I first came upon your plugins. I think in like, uh, okay. At least a year ago, or maybe a year and a half ago I was looking at and I sent, uh, the BIM lead or on our, uh, At our, at our company.
And he was taking a look at the plugins. And then man, yeah, I saw recently it seems like people have been absolutely loving your, uh, batch sheet creation tool. It's been getting a lot of notoriety on, on LinkedIn. Yeah. So I'd love to talk more about the, the plugins and your, and your thoughts on, uh, Why you, why you think it's, uh, a great idea to give those away for free?
Uh, well, uh, I did work for small companies as well, and in, even in the past and one of the things I, uh, I struggled many, many times was to convince people, you know, my, my superiors by senior management to invest in tools that will help. Not me met, met the team or even me at that time as well. So, uh, and I, I know some of the tools they work quite expensive.
That's the, that's not the challenge. And they, you know, our industry is a bit old school and I don't think we can deny that they are numbers to show, to prove that in many, many ways, in many, many manners as well. So. But we focus on these tools and that what, when I create roots to myself,
if.
This stands for disruptive and roots for roots. So we are disruptive roots. We definitely came to market with different, honestly, if you are, I'm not gonna that I tell you, but I also, I Don my own research, you know, sometime go about the impact of industry. So, uh, which I think, you know, is coming the biggest disruption of.
Of all times and we will probably, we will see of course, but definitely that was also the vision. So creating these tools is definitely, you know, some people see as a marketing, as a strategy to be was never primary market strategy, but account United the, the benefits as well had to be honest untrust about that.
So, but that can be our tools. For example, we got the process we took, we got a sheet link even recently now. Because we, this week we release a new version of sheet link. We invest so much time on that, you know, just a new version. That was our first plugin that we released three years, more or less in
link tool. Which allow people to import and export data from rev models to spreadsheets, you know, for Microsoft Excel files or Google drive or Google, sorry. And also Google drive supports drive. We got family reviser, which was our second plugin. That is a very simple plugin with us. Also very powerful allows the users to Rena the families in inside rabbit and also something that you is not.
It's very popular work. Also allow people to, to manage the work, which is very, very well, which tool.
By the way he's been considered by many, many re users. And I'm not saying that because , it's just with the feedback, the most powerful tool for filtering, you know, object in inside the rabbit element. Inside's very powerful is have a lot of, so it definitely a tool people should look into that, but that would say that the two for more advanced users, we got the number one at the moment, which is projects is a.
Patch printing tool that we have allows users, users to create views or drawing sheets or title blocks and, or even 3d views, whatever type views they can export to PDF DWD, GN. I dunno, IFCs and even image. For example, he allows very, useful's very powerful as well. Cause the user can Rena the file the way he wants against select parameters.
So that was probably one of the few, few things that people really like. She then also. Plug in related to creating drawings, allows people to, you know, to, you know, to create, you know, I won't say follow it can be thousands of use, but, uh, high number of drawing sheets inside rabbit in an automatic way. Of course, this is based on the PDF template.
Uh, we got panel manager that is also exploding in terms of usage and regard. Lot of people starting to use that is, um, is also a great tool to manipulate traffic parameters. Definitely some people claim to be one of the best, if not the best. Well, one of the best, but some of the best tool in the market for that, we got a very simple tool, which is probably our simple tool, which Ising is about and tables then allow people to bring.
Into Excel files into rev as a drafting to use or schedule views, but without, you know, embedded data in the, in the components, that's the, a tools that we have at the moment. I also can hard to, to, to the conversation we work on the nine now. Uh, but even, you know, models working the new tool, we also working, improving like Chichen.
We, we coming, we have a new version coming up soon. Which we have improved the, you know, the performance heavily and a lot of few new features as well. We also working F revise at that time as well to make improvements again, as I told you, we release recently sheet link, honestly, I, I really recommend try sheet link.
It will be surprise is so nice. And one of the things that people comment on our products as, as well is that our plugins tend to be very user friendly and, you know, a great user experience, which probably. Maybe, because we are also people that coming from the field, we understand the, the, you know, the, the, the tools and we understand the needs and we try to make it simple.
So that's a little bit introduction. Sorry if that was too long. no, no, that was perfect. I love that. Uh, no, I think that's a great, uh, perspective point about. You speaking about how you, you know, you've worked as a drafter in the industry and, you know, you've worked all the way up the rungs of the ladder, so, you know, uh, what people need to see.
And so I'm sure that colors the way that you make these plugins and applications. And so I think that's great. I think that's awesome. No, uh, I, uh, I'm really interested in this topic of, you know, it seems quite obvious to me that the, like the, that the sheet link and the sheet creation is, uh, is a huge area to bring value to the table.
It, it almost feels like, uh, I don't know it's my company has a, like a custom kind of, uh, Revit print function. And it's like, it's the innate one. And, and Revit is so clunky and it seems like a obvious omission of, and it takes, uh, these tasks that you're talking about, the sheet creation or the renumbering.
These are things that with a project of any significant size can, you know? Yeah. They don't, it doesn't that the sheet numbering. add inherent value to the documents, but it's something that takes, can take hours and hours and hours with phasing or with, you know, renumbering because of, uh, permitting or any number of things that could happen in a project.
So it's an area to bring tremendous value in, in, in with automation. So I think it's, it's a fascinating topic to hear you talk about. You know, you've really kind of tackled it and not just tackled it, but tackled it with finesse with a mind for user experience and, and trying to make it not just, uh, functional, but, uh, you know, easy to use.
That's one of the key ones I can, I canand that, that we always try. I do know as well and, and understand some of the tools we have special Chichen. Our can be more complex, but the complexity comes with the functionality they brought as well to the market, because they're not simple tools. You can find a lot of simple tos, very, very simple.
And, but they're very, they also do one task and a very easy task. Some of the task be doing they quite heavily in our, in terms of, in, in many aspects to be Frank with you, and even look as an example, guess, you know, the sheeting that we released last week, the latest version we had of improve. Like as an example, it took us like probably like three miles of development just to come back with
plus lot of testing and lot of, even two, it's a lot of work. And lot of, even not just one person I can tell you. Not just one person behind. It's a lot of few people behind from inside the even formal site. Cause we got these, uh, small beaters users, which six people that use our tools. They like our staff and they, they wanna help us as well.
So yeah, it's definitely a nice one. And I forgot, I mentioned about the nine to which we had working at the moment. We have one person working in that, uh, uh, these stage, we are looking to create a small tool to allow people to. Easily import some small objects from point clouds and bring it into a family rev family environment.
So they can, you know, recreate these in a more quick way. So we are doing some another tool, which is very in demand we ask as well. I know if you follows as well, but we, we never, never, sometimes we don't do things alone. And when I say alone, I say, We, we, we listen, you know, what the people have to say to us, our users, we really love the feedback and really appreciate that even I have to, to admit.
And I think it's normal, not just from, from our side, any software company, they are the users, our tools. Greater because that's, that's the feedback and more than just the feedback, you know, reported towards the, in the right way. So we can replicate, we can fix them because that's, that's sometimes, you know, a big challenge.
And I have to tell you being a free tool comes with extra challenge. You know, when you think you have more users to use, definitely. But. I tell you the channels are being free. if, for example, sometimes we got reports people as an example, the book and we, us how can't reply. So I'm pretty sure if they that see and see the.
But part of that, we have very good, a lot of good people as well, that either ways they, they know what we're doing and they believe in our journey. So the supporters, and if they, the bug report share files, if they have to. So it's been, yeah, but sometimes these, I tell, yeah, for that's downside of being free, learned, there always pros and cons.
There's always pros and cons to, you know, even trying to do it. The. You know the best way that you can, but that's interesting that you're talking about, uh, point clouds. I've seen a, a movement in the industry for, uh, uh, 3d scanning and, and point clouds and really starting to for existing occupancies, especially, um, moving towards, uh, um, trying to have more digital input from, um, surveying facilities.
So. Uh, yeah, it sounded like it was a more on a small scale. You were saying your tool to, to generate a family from a 3d point cloud. But the, I find that interesting because yeah, um, I've seen we've we've the company I work for has had a couple jobs that use, uh, laser scanning or, or image mapping of facilities.
So, um, that's something I find interest. Yeah, it is a industry to be Frank is growing. He's growing a lot at the moment. More people are doing laser scans, you know, before, even after they build. So yeah, it's a lot of work is been done in that field as. definitely. So I wanted to talk a little bit about, we talked about your plugins a little bit, but I'd love to hear you speak a little bit more about some of the, you know, the kind of custom solutions that you do at, at D root, some sort of like outside of the box, uh, solutions that you might have.
I don't know if you have, might have a example of like a time when you provided a, uh, Um, a custom solution. Um, and you obviously, you don't have to use names or anything. Yeah. But just for my. Curiosity about, um, just to kind the kind of things that DROS does to help, to help people, uh, win in the architecture construction industry.
Mm-hmm sure. Uh, in terms of the custom, for example, even I have to, I have to, to say that, you know, one of the biggest markets that we have for the solutions is the market. And, um, that's, that's, that's the true, and I, I don't know why, but one of the things I'm learning as well. Um, I'm still trying to understand why for examples are to when Europe, I don't see the same.
If you, if few findings anyway, moving forward to terms the, of,
of the best,
in some case studies, we second case study right now. And, uh, that one for example, is one of my favorite tools as well that we create so far. It was for a Brazilian company. Um, And, uh, this, these two allows the user, uh, do you know the block work that we do, you know, Manually on site, you know, put one, like the brick brick work, you know, the block works comes, you know, you know what I meant, you know, all those breaks.
Yeah. So what we did for example, and that is very, is quite public. A few posts on that is all the placement of the brick works. We. Fuel these, you know, walls. We have like a genetic wall in rabbit and we convert genetic wall into bricks, but with a lot of rules based in the client and quite after meeting, you know, looks like great too.
But more than that was quite complex, but from mathematical perspective, cause you know, all the constraints and all the rules that we have set up made us quite complex too. But even plus he just does the block work and now. Plus he placed the lentil as well above the doors and windows. So he is a quite nice tool.
And, um, that was one of them we did. And we delivered, uh, you know, very, you know, even, I think the last version, the final version was this week. Um, so, and for example, in terms of expectations or even what the client is get, this is amazing. This that's, why was one, one of. Favorite tools as well. We kind of how to mate the process in 7.5%.
So a work that it'll take to this client to do, let's say, you know, 40 hours of work where reduced to two hours that were half hours of work, which is an amazing achievement and, and these kind of tools that we like to do, we even do it now. One. Is not complete, which for example, which also, I, I don't have an NDA on this one, which are I exporting some geometries.
I would not tell details until, you know, we, we got this out, but we exporting some geometry. That other people would have to rebuild because we couldn't export that. So, and that will be again, you know, working from scratch and because you know, all the models, architectural, especially, and structural essential lot, but because all these Ries inside, you know, like spaces and rooms, they are quite important and changing all the time along.
With the exchanges on the project. So we getting the tools mobile, we're looking for 90% because we exporting geometry so they can use geometry in the third party software. Another one we did for example, which is also public. We did a tool for Portugal, uh, uh, for our client in Portugal, which we published a case study where the client also claims to have more than 90% of savings.
So what we did all these detailing for re we don't automatically the process. We, we annotate them. So which feelings that takes a part of time and more than that, it is times to shake and over, you know, makes people overspending time, which they. They could spend these time with something else. And that's why people looking to now to automation, just not the way just to spend less time, is finding more free time to do other things, which they should do.
That's that's a key, that's two examples, but I can, I can say that we, or even three, I mentioned the projects, you know, there were more. Much more. Uh, and I hopefully in the future, I will be able to share, you know, much more what we do and I know some will never hours to do that's okay. Yeah. But I say I, to tell you, I mean, insisting with our clients, please, that our hours to people to see what you doing's quite nice, you know, some of them that's cool.
Yeah. I remember now the brick one that, and I had seen a cool tutorial on that. The, the video that took the wall and basically generated the, the brick layout. And that was really interesting. You were telling about the, the lentil, it put in the lentil and had a complex mathematical equation to it as well.
Oh yeah, that was there, like but, uh, yeah, that's awesome to, you know, take a task that is extremely labor intensive. To have a 95% or, you know, higher time savings rating 7.5. Sorry, man. No, you're fine. Go ahead and correct me. That's a, that's a good thing to, uh, you know, denote man, what a, what an astounding feat for something, a task that you know, that, that now that.
The company can take that time and focus on, uh, you know, things that add, uh, value, more value to their bottom line or wherever they wanna spend that time in. So that's incredible story definitely have something, you know, I think it's a different also perspective I'm I'm getting now from, from the experience I'm having with these clients and why, you know, what I'm feeling.
I think people that start these automation journey. They get, they get addicted they get addicted because they wanna do more. And they, they start to see, oh, whoa, I've been doing this for spending so much time doing this, but I can just, you know, with the, in a single click and maybe a few minutes or few seconds, it depends on the past, but you know, the machine is processing.
It can do it for me, you know? I'm. Yeah. Honestly, one thing I see guys is a lot of people, they come with the first project, the first idea, and then. They come again, they come again, they come again. It's a very nice and becomes wow. Means all of things as well. But, but that's, that's one of the things I'm, I'm I'm noticing.
I didn't know that it's one of the things I'm learning with these experiences. This is addicting . Yeah, no, I agree. That's how that's what happened to me, you know, I got started with, uh, Not knowing anything about coding and then knowing a little bit about coding and seeing, you know, the multiplier effect that, uh, being able to automate this, the, you know, there's that Python wanna go automate the boring stuff.
Um, that, but it's so good. And you know, also I wanted to talk about that. I thought it was a great note. You were saying earlier about the, the us kind of, uh, heaven, more of. Desire for the custom solutions or some of those custom tech things. I thought that was really interesting. I'd you wonder sometimes if, uh, there's, I think it's your culture, you know, that cause you know, your culture is different from, from Europe and uh, well, I, the one I criticiz, anyone's not about criticizing, but I don't know.
We look into more. Details here. Maybe sometime they don't need to spend so much time in the medic is all about, you know, there is, there is if we invest, what is my return? Yeah. And, and that part medic became one of like a country in the world. You see? My point is because attitude, you know, that you have that and definitely becoming.
Bigger. And, uh, we good because even we have , we, we never in this and we have the center, we, but we've been working even now with these last week, we got two products confirmed for the us. yeah, that's remarkable. I think it's a, I think it's a, you know, not a, a right or wrong thing. I think it's a cultural thing, like you're saying, and, and just like, uh, the tech is just something that's, uh, really embraced.
Uh, in, uh, in America in a lot of different, it seems like in every, uh, you know, different person I talk to in, in, uh, in the us for their work and probably globally has a, there's a new tech implication to, to what we do. And so that was one of the reasons why I'm like, More as well, because it's another thing I noticed and we seeing why the cloud are coming to works is for example, when we, we look us power investments, more technology, from my understanding, even if you go for market, lot of tools
for, for the American needs you see for your market needs. And why is we, what we notice as well is. Companies. I realize that, you know, when they buy these 2050 licenses, you know, and they have to pay to subscribe, they they're the subscription models and creating their own tools, which create tools, which they are really work for, what they want.
You know, there's not commercial needs to, but at the one or two or, but it's one I, we seen, you know, Some of these. No, no, no. We don't wanna pay more, uh, you know, the X, Y, Z. Uh, but I want to know, create my own tool because what we pay we can create and even can gain better KPIs in know, better returns.
Cause at the end, maybe the initial cost might be, might be even line that higher. But at the end long in the short run, you know, whenever you have to pay the subscription already pay that anyway. And that's what probably, you know, I think is what, one of the reasons as well is because the, the. Your that market, your marketing was more spending more money in these type of tools.
And. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably as well. I have to admit that yeah. Yeah. The marketing. And then I, like you said, that pricing model of that subscription model for, for technology I think is, is becoming so common. I'm starting to see it. Yeah. Even other industries are seeing the, oh, oh my gosh. Tech is making, you know, such, such a big money, uh, using this, this model of creating a service that, you know, has.
Just the ability to come back and, you know, I'll keep creating value. And if it's something that people like, you know, and that they can't put down, then it's, uh, you know, perpetual machine. Um, but that's, that's definitely interesting. I like, I like hearing about that. It's interesting to hear you speak since you have, uh, global perspective, more global than, than my perspective on, uh, the, those kind of trends.
So mm-hmm, , that's cool. But, um, I wanted to ask you about. I think I've been through at least a couple of 'em, but I wanted to ask you about your instructional, uh, videos and, and kind of how you got, you started doing these and, and, you know, again, like you're taking a chance again, to, to give away, um, content for people and, and help people out.
You know, why did you, why did you decide to do this or kind of what inspired. Uh, I really, I quickly mentioned in the beginning about, you know, my, my vision about what is coming next with this industry for zero, I see the world changing, you know, the world change the technology change things. And that was one of the reasons, like I told you as well in the past, you know, in some situation I wanna buy it too, but it was so expensive.
Or even, you know, maybe the boss now I'm not gonna explain. Whatever's like, so. I know that are a lot of people like, oh, it used to be like, like me, you know, they are people like it. They wanna buy, they wanna have access these tools. I wanna give something way. I. When I start, the roof was not just about, you know, the money was definitely, you know, to provide something to the market also because we are whole school.
We need to change the mentality. Even we have to, you know, to support more companies like, like us. Uh, even I tell you, for example, another point, you know, we have also of course, Dimensions doesn't anything in fact, you know, help us buy. So one or one or two tools, you know, and that's it no more than that.
Uh, but definitely's important. And why we did that is because we, we are making people happy at the end and that's one of the things I can't, I can even explain to you, but what we do is really appreciate. In numbers, for example, I dunno exactly the number I would tell, but sure. Our download numbers are over.
We, you active users, which is a number.
And, uh, we doing, we are becoming like, for example, a second even, we know in many, many companies in business
campaign, you know, rabbit. But the idea, like I said, I don't think there was a big idea. There was just definitely a vision. And I don't think in the, in the future, the companies that they all prices or whatever, they have to give something away. We, we all need to contribute. That is our contribution. Small contribution to the market.
I know is not a lot. I dunno as well. It helps a lot of people and makes a lot of people happy. And that community that, you know, they're using our tools is becoming big at everything, which is the most you knowing part, you know, we start with probably one user me and now we over thousand. So, which is excellent.
And I know this is growing that a growing numbers. In fact, I can tell, we have an average, like three users, new users per. Is, and it's. Yes, exactly. It's amazing. Definitely's a nice, it's a nice, uh, nice feeling personally for me as you understand, but, um, but definitely, you know, more understand is people, you know, they like our tools.
They appreciate, they really respect what we do and yeah. Even they support us, which is nice. So, but I don't know when you wait to tell these, so. That was the remember de roots. Me disruptive roots. We here to disrupt. If you ask the, the big dreams, I don't know, tell you, I can't tell you exactly where, where, what they're, but we have, we have a, I think we have a, a kind of role to play and we have big ambitions, but let's see, let's have fun.
Because of it. Remember, and one thing that you probably don't know yet is, you know, the roots is, is a self-funded business. So we have no investors. And honestly, we know looking forward to that, we like our free journey and we know with the investors, nothing will change. And it's probably even saying that, that we don't have any investors.
And we, I think what we. Managed to do so far to achieve so far so nice that, um, make us, you know, all of us, very, very proud. And even the team, the team that behind me is fantastic. I can't , I can't deny these support I have for them. So yeah, I think we had a great path, do something nice. Let's see. Well where we will take us, but I, I tell you guys, I have bigger, you know, bigger dreams in terms of what we're gonna do, but let's, you know, start with rabbit plug.
For now . Yeah, that's great. Never. Yeah, but what we want as well, just also to support people, you know, help people out, we just get a small part of solutions for what is possible to do. And that's where I think there was the gap. And that's why I think as well, I want fill that gap. And that's what we do at the moment, getting one of the gaps in the market, which by the way, there are a lot of new companies coming up as well in our world.
Our field, which from my understanding and some feedback I receive also inspired by our journey, which is nice to know. Nice to see. But yeah, I tell you as well, which is not hard market, but growing is a market and the future is going be the way forward. I wanna open the conversation that, but I believe customization, you know, for many, many business gonna be the only way you have.
And, but that's what even Eski is doing with force. You know, when they need force, they knew where the market is going. We see a lot of criticisms toes in many, many ways about, in my opinion is in, for thinking is the one more advanced force force solution is, is a platform for developers. Everyone can build in, in force connect with different APIs is a great, is going to be a great tool, which means is he can replace you.
If you kind of achieve the right way, or even if you depends on the scope as well as a business that you do. Of course, if you do a lot of complex things, you know, one tool is never enough, but definitely is a big market coming up for customization and it's growing. And another thing I haven't mentioned because I'm walking about customization and trends.
One of the things we seen as well is a lot of people that really invest heavily, they are moving forward, uh, ongoing out plugins. They're taking, you know, The most advance the most complex, uh, the ones that cost more to maintain and, you know, know all the issues that comes with dynamo. Uh, they are, you know, converting these, you know, big scripts into S which they, because they want performance.
They want, you know, other than the feature to, you know, buy from dynamic cannot provide. And you can find, grab it plugin. So if you invest, definitely that's, that's the way forward. So it's a lot of good things, the market, and you see, we can the right moment, the market is there for us and, uh, yeah, we're looking forward the next step.
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Like you said, I think dynamo is the gateway into the automation. You know, if you can get people. Integrated and started with dynamo. And then, you know, that's, that's the first step on the journey of, you know, uh, understanding the power of automation and, and you know, what the Autodesk, um, kind of suite can do, uh, have an interest just from like, uh, somebody who's in the industry and, and wonders about.
Autodesk, but do you see any real competitors to Autodesk in what we do? It doesn't seem in my estimation, like there's any, uh, company or software that can really hold a candle to, um, that the giant they are competitors and. But they don't, they, they don't control the market as outers in the AC. You know, we, we got Bentley, Bentley's been there for a while.
We got graphic stopped as well, but they never covered all the fields. And then we got another guys from bricks yet the big cat. Which is growing as well lot in Europe. Uh, I don't, I don't think you probably heard a lot from them, uh, in, in the us figuring quite a lot big cut. Um, and the, yeah, it's quite nice too.
Quite nice too, but definitely, you know, they invest a lot, was a big revolution to the market. And at that time when, you know, I. Leave me the first years we got a lot of criticized for using rabbit. I'm just going back on time. Now, remember a situation, seeing comments from, you know, some someone reviewer drawing and say, yeah, do that thing now doing rabbit.
You didn't like the rabbit style. Yeah. But effort is a market change. I don't think at the moment, the. You know, they can compete with art to test, but you know, these, they are competing. They're trying to put the same level and, um, To be Frank . So I dunno, but I don't think they are at the moment they try, they try.
Definitely. But they can, I think at these stage, yeah. It's interesting to see how that'll develop. So, uh, I wanted to ask about, um, you know, it seems like your prolific, um, in your ability to. Kind of, uh, have good posts for LinkedIn and, and social media. But I wanted to ask you about, you know, as an entrepreneur and somebody who runs their own company, you know, how what's do you have any tips to help maintain, um, business relationships or just, you know, stay involved with the community?
Yeah. I'd love to hear about that from. As entrepreneur, Alice came to the market as well with, with, with a vision of being open and transparent being honest. That's that's the key point. Even when I, I, uh, we recruit people, I still. And one of the things I do as an example, I, uh, I used to hate to go to interviews where people, they have a list of questions and they shout you on the questions.
For example, when I start interview, normally I introduce, you know, introduce roots when I, the first 10 or is about, is me talking in. I even like the call interviews, like a discussion discussing opportunity. So that's one of the things I will definitely tell to people, you know, probably need to change the way that we used to the things, not just, you know, from the business, but how we recruit, because at the end, if you recruit people, you need to look good people.
And that's one of the things you need to find as well. Try to find that good people. I don't have to define definites are. And you definitely can, you know, you, you can never recruit just the good people you'll find as well. Some, you know, not so good, let's say. And, but definitely, you know, investing your people, you know, Even though, even explain to them, you know, your vision, tell me how we're going to achieve.
That's one of the things I did try to do as well when I bring people on board. I'm sorry for talking the way, you know, in talking to people who guess, cause I'm no one without my team. And if we are where we are today, the roots, and I know we still have a lot to, to walk. Go through is because of the team with the team we're going to make it just what the first team, you know, focus in your team.
You know, there are moments of course complex and the happy moments and sad moments or, you know, moments or even moments anyway. So they, they will be everything but needs to strong, but definitely good people gonna leave you and they wanna be part of this journey. They will commit their time because. As, um, self funded startup is not easy.
You know, we, when you don't have money for the investors, you know, you have to put everything. What you have into a business is hard, but in terms of, of the rest, uh, recommendations, definitely you. You know, one of the things I learned as well from my experience as an entrepreneur is you must believe if you don't believe who's gonna believe.
So you need to be the first one to believe. I even say to, to my guys as well, you know, you must believe, um, what else? I'm just thinking about the few things I could say. There are a lot of things, honestly, up easily in a conversation I'm just trying to figure out, um, in terms of a more social, we definitely use linking and.
Problem is people notice and people know we were one of the first ones using leak as a platform, you know, uh, uh, to reach more people. And we doing quite well. Why? I don't know how many details of our attitude, you know, our products, what we are and people recognize that is probably our, the key of success, uh, to us.
In terms of business. And definitely, for example, I act with me now, roots is not UK business anymore, or we never been because since we start, most of our clients are outside the UK. I even, I would say I don't have percentage, but. I am a problem to say that 80% comes outside of Europe or close to that.
Wow. So, um, we are a global company and that, uh, you know, rich help us that reach help us. We manage to get that through the social, LinkedIn, not so than on Twitter. I dunno why another one. I never try to understand, but definitely the hardest one to get, but definitely that's what we do. The exposure that you drive, we get from, from, from the social, by sharing the good stuff we do.
And we probably data a bit sometimes once that of promotion, if you need like a custom come to us and we help you. But definitely it's about to our products. We focusing our products and we, I don't think we are aggressive in terms of, uh, and I think sometimes as well, I see some. Lot of people too aggressive in nowadays.
And even the change on our market, in our social networks, if you wanna go that route as well. Cause you know, um, there's, a lot of people are starting to getting paid to talk about things which hate to be front with you. And so, because we they're not genuinely anymore, but we try to be genuinely, you know, sharing our products.
Being honest, you know, sharing about the products. And I dunno, at his four years on a journey as well. He's I dunno, he's a lot, a lot, a lot of work is being spent. Um, yeah, but just be close to your, your, your. At the end, I will say, be close to your, to your community, to your supporters, to your users. I try to understand them.
Not every time you're going to make them happy. I know that. And I can tell you that, but you can definitely help many times close them. Cause they're, they're the ones that help you to grow your business and to make where you are. And we, we are where we are also because of our users that they like us.
And we. We listen. I think that's why they, they like us as well. We, we want, we care for them. Yeah. I think that's a great point, you know, uh, I love your, uh, your sentiment about, you know, being close to your team, sharing your vision with your team, and also, you know, being close to the people who. Consume your products and consume your content.
You know, it's a, it's a real humbleness that is nice to see that you're not some, uh, that you're not a ego maniac. And just like, this is the content we make and you have to like it. You're saying no. Tell me, tell me what you like. You know, what's good about this. What's bad about this. You're you're staying in touch.
And keeping your edge with the, the market and, and, and what you see happening. So I think that's why people are, you know, supportive of what you're doing is cuz mm-hmm, , you're taking a look at the big pain points and the sticky situations in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. And you're saying.
Hey, this is where we can add value. Look at the value we, we are showing. And, you know, you're kind of, uh, um, taking some of these AR some of these spots I feel like are just, it kind of baffles me how nobody has taken these by the res before, like the, like the she creation we talked about, but also like the, you know, I guess Autodesk does provide some of this, uh, training and, and, you know, there's other places to provide this training, but.
Like you said it's, it's cost prohibitive. I mean, a young professional, somebody who's getting into the industry that just, you know, maybe spent money on a college degree or doesn't have money to invest in their career like that, you know, they, they don't have the money to go out and buy. 500, a thousand dollars worth of training.
And, you know, the company might not have the ability to pay for that either. So, I mean, uh, you know, they're always gonna be a fan of you for, um, putting these, uh, solutions out that they can get their hands on and actually start to, you know, be a better professional. I haven't mentioned, but we got also a free, free course.
We have two, in fact, you know, the basics and the advance, and lot people love it. I have to tell you that. So we just, I haven't mentioned, but you know, we also have that animal free training, uh, in our website, in on YouTube. So is that, you know, for those, and even we provide free the case for the VA look for the basic.
So we don't try to see, we are nice, nice team, you know, year too. Most of it's were fun. yeah, no, I I've taken your, at least a couple of those videos of your, uh, dynamo course, because you know, I, I don't have, uh, very much programming background, but enough to get my hands on some visual basics in dynamo.
And so I've definitely been through those videos. I'll throw some of the. Links down to those videos and the show notes for this episode to the, the YouTube page and, and the DROS website. But yeah, I've, I really have enjoyed those. And that's the most comprehensive YouTube video for like an introduction to dynamo that I've seen.
So, yeah, I haven't found any that competes with you. I know. I know. And I didn't wanna say that. I'm glad that you see, he said that many people came to us and said, that is the best dynamic course I ever came across. I, and even some, I try all only with the dynamic course. I really managed to understand rabbit because what we did with our course, we explain the logic.
We not the show of guys. Okay. We going to do that. And that is not a point. You need to understand the logic. My friend, if you know, one of the things I gave as an advisor as well. You know, we need to understand the logic of things. You don't understand the logic of things of software work, never going be good.
Even with rabbit. You know, when I post first start with rabbit, I try to understand how rabbit works after understand rev rabbit works. I could help people. I could fix problems. I, you know, across, you know, when you using the tools, that's probably one of the best tips I can give. You know, I always look to logic and understand the logic of things.
And then after you get the logic, believe me, you are going to a, anything in life. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. It's it's, uh, one of those hard things for people to communicate sometimes to people who don't understand a subject are the very fundamental building blocks and some courses that you watch they'll be too high level, you know, not just speaking about dynamo specifically, but anywhere, you know, any subject, you could learn that, that people too often.
Away from the basics, or there's not such a gradual transition from, uh, you know, oh, this is the different type of, uh, data parameters too. Like, you know, the next step up of, uh, you know, the intermediate level. And so it's, uh, that's a good point about, um, understanding the fundamentals. but, um, yeah, I wanted to kind of, uh, we're getting close to the end of the interview, but I wanted to, I know we've talked about some really good, um, trends in different, uh, you know, things that you you're seeing in the AEC industry, but I wanted to ask, um, you know, Ask you again about any other things that you're seeing in, in automation in the future or that you're seeing right now in the industry.
I just, I just love this topic. So in terms of advance advancements, we can do in automation. There's a lot of things we can do. Definitely what I do say that I'm leave, you call a rule based process. Don't worry. We can, we can fix for you cause any, anything in this rule based can be, can be coded. Can. It can be make it, so these benefits in terms of great solutions, I'm looking forward as well to the least AI developments.
Come on and let's be honest as well. AI we see is not the one, the same AI, the okay. so we still far away from that level and we, we need to be, we have some trials with AI. We limitations for us, which for the cost is quite expensive to invest, but that we're looking for what is coming the next for? To automate, you know, kinda predict, you know, not automation.
AI is not what automation it's about prediction optimization. That what I'm looking for to that, I know there are few companies doing some kind of stuff that as well, but I think we don't need even to look into AI. That's the key point. You know, we can fix a lot of manual repetitive task that we do every day or almost every day.
And that's where the business, I think they should looking to their. Know, focus while they can help or what they can be improve because there's a lot of opportunities everywhere. And that's the fascinating part of the AC because we've been, you know, a bit old, old school mindset, you know, we never really invest see, we looking more into deliver than to, to probably to invest it.
Our business there's so many opportunities, but as a specific specific one, I don't, I don't wanna focus in one topic, one tool or. I see a lot of red things coming up in the market, but definitely more. I, every time I speak with people, I know they are needs and that's the needs. I think we need to look and more don't look, don't expect for the tool because that's all you want might never come up.
You might have to. Kind of initiate even nowadays, there are many ways to approach these automation. You don't need to go alone as one business. Why you don't one business together. Sharing, remember being it's all about sharing. If you productivity's about share sharing is a keyword, one of the keyword. So, uh, yeah, it's we.
I think joint forces in the industry so we can see great, great improvements. And that's what I will do. Probably changing, you know, the cultural mindset, um, uh, in many, many situations, if we change that things will happen. I think I dunno, but definitely great tools. I, I love lot. I see a lot of great tools.
Yeah. I don't wanna mention any name, but definitely there are a lot of good tools out there right now. Sure, sure. I think that's a great point. You know, it's, it's easy to look to the future and say I AI or machine learning, or you know, all these things, but if you take a look at our industry right now, we're not even leveraging the, the best tools that are out there with what we know about technology for the AEC industry, kind of like you've.
Mentioned that. So, you know, let's, let's focus on using the, the tools that society has right now for our industry. Before we start thinking, how do we put the, the cutting edge of AI or machine learning onto, onto what we're doing. So I think that's a good point, but. I just want, thank you so much, uh, Jose for coming on the podcast.
I've really enjoyed it. And yeah. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to, to speak to me. Uh, I appreciate no, it wasn't as said the beginning. It a great pleasure. Thank you very much for the invite as well, to share some of our experience and even some personal experience, but definitely it was, uh, yeah, it's my story anyway, so that's it.
awesome. Thank you. Thanks for listening. Everybody. Be sure to share the episode with a friend, if you enjoyed it, don't forget that fire protection and life safety is serious business. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are by no means a professional consultation or a codes and standards interpretation.
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