The Medical Data Behind Everyday Wearables | Marco Benitez, BME ROOK, CEO and Founder

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Mike Koelzer: introduce yourself to our listeners.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I'm Marco Benitez. I'm one of the co-founders of what we are building here at Bru. I'm from Mexico, but I have been living here in the US for the last two years. I am very happy to be here.

Mike Koelzer: So Marco, it's out.What is Rook? What are we looking at here?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Well, we are a data science company. We enable any brand to use these wearables, commercial wearables, devices like the Apple Watch, the Polar Garmin Sun and Huawei, all of them. There are a lot of industries outside that want to use the information for different purposes. Like they want to track the patient 24 * 7, or maybe they want to create an engagement platform or they want to create a personalized experience for the fitness industry, or they want to create different types of things.

 Industries are trying to pull this data from the end users, from these devices. But there are, uh, two big problems. The first one, there's tons of wearables outside smartwatches and the phones and, you know, too many things that you can track. And basically those, clients or these industries need to integrate one by one.

They need to integrate the polars, the garin, the sun, the we things, the eight sleep, all of them. And they, they need to maintain those integrations and then they need to make sense of all these data 

It's too much effort at the same time. And we take out that pain. Instead of integrating all of them and making sense of all this data, we are an API solution, in which we already have more than 300 wearables integrated.

They integrate, they copy paste basically my code in their own code, and then they can pull the data. We basically clean all the data and we deliver clean and very structured information for those who want to use it.

Mike Koelzer: I think I got that. You've got the device, you've got the end user. There's a lot of different handshakes going on. You're like, Hey, let's normalize these handshakes. We're gonna be the person in the middle to accept these and then match 'em up with things. Alright, now Marco, as a non. technical guy. I'm thinking, why didn't they do this from the start? It seems to me like at the very start there's some kind of an API or some kind of a middle person. Then they're writing this kind of the same code and stuff. Why didn't that start that way to begin with?

When wearables were coming in, let's say, I don't know, 20 years ago, something like that.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, well it. Question, and it's because at the very beginning, those industries, the main core is not to integrate the wearables. So, for instance, an insurance company, the main core is not to create this development, and it's, they do a lot of stuff outside of this scope. So they need developers, they need data scientists just to make sense of all this data.

 It's like a numbers game. If they want clear information, and we are just a company that. Just do these API integrations and all this data aggregation, so we are expert on that front. So it's easier for those companies to say, Hey, let's third party this activity to them because they have already solved everything.

So it's, it's better.

Mike Koelzer: . If it was just two wearable companies talking to each other, they might already have some standardized language, but you're dealing with a lot of companies that say, Hey, we want this information. Give it to us and you're like, well, you can't just say give it to us.

You need someone to go in there and make that electronic handshake basically. And so what you're doing then is you are not dealing with necessarily a technical company that might already have done that 20 years ago. You're dealing with a company that wants this information that really maybe has no idea how to get in there and make that handshake with somebody.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly. instead of doing these integrations instead of having all these technical things, it's rather easy to go with me. Integrate, very simple. my technology and that's it. They have all the access to the information and now they can do something because we are like an AI ready for them because we clean so well.

The data that they can do on top of that AI and now do real stuff with the information that they receive.

Mike Koelzer: All right. So Marco, the listeners can't see this, but I'm looking at you and I know when you said wearables, you held some things up in, I'm guessing those aren't just fancy jewelry. You probably have some wearable rings on and things like that. Show me what you have. Let's explain it and then tell me about some other wearables that are out there now that maybe you're not wearing at the current time.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: First of all, I'm a geek of wearables. I love technology, So I'm a biomedical engineer. I love technology. I love medical devices, I love everything around that. And to create data with something, I love it. That being said, I have the aura in one hand. I have the Whoop On the same hand, I have also the Apple Watch, I have the Patch, which is a CGM, from Dexcom.

1. I have in my bed the eight sleep that control my temperature and also give me more insights around the sleep information. Yes, I have everything that I can, first of all because I love it, but secondly also because we already have integration with everything and I'm the best consumer of my technology.

That the scientist to make better with all this information, I'm an experiment for them, so,

Mike Koelzer: You talked about the Dexcom that goes onto your skin, on

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Mm-hmm.

Mike Koelzer: What was the sleep one? Was that just a watch or was that something kind of by your bedside or something?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: It is a mat. In fact, it's a cover. Because I have a wife, one part. It's, you know, just set up your own temperature and they have their own algorithms. That can help you to improve your sleep at night and could be a little bit warmer.

It could be a little bit colder. That depends 100% on you because it's customized to your experience at night because they are trying to keep you in their REM face. For my wife, for example, she prefers to be more warm. In my case, I prefer very cold weather. you know, it's, men, it's different, right?

And the women are different really helps.

Mike Koelzer: I've got A pixel watch. I just don't like wearing the thing to bed. I know it can do a lot of stuff at bedtime. I just don't like

And in fact, I take a walk every morning and I don't really like wearing my pixel watch there because, you know, my arm sweats a little bit.

I just soon have a phone in my pocket. So it's interesting, what has come out and I guess everybody's gonna think that, that they want it as soon as they come out. But for example, the rings. the rings taken off like you think they would.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I think that we are in a very good moment with our rings. Now it's like a new war of new Rings. The Mac or Apple, they are going to release their own ring of.This is something that, not sure, but probably will happen, Samsung, they have their own, so I think everyone is starting to use one of these rings because it's very easy to use.

, you already have something in your hand and probably will be a ring. It's the easier way to extract the information. I really love it. I think there is a huge opportunity or there is still a big room to extract more information from the rink.

 But right now I think they are doing very well. For example, Rook received a huge investment from Dexcom, like one or two months ago. So Dexcom is investigating this. Medical devices, big pharma industry, investing in this piece of technology is huge.

So they can start to navigate new areas of temperature or new ways to extract blood glucose, you know, so it's really interesting what's going on today in the medical devices.

Mike Koelzer: What are the wearables on the horizon? I know, I know Google has tried the glasses and I know some people

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Mm-hmm.

Mike Koelzer: contact lenses and I know there's probably other stuff. What other things do you think are out there that are gonna be coming at some point?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I mean, we have Elon Musk doing Neurolink,

so that one, 

yeah, exactly. I mean, there are a lot of new wearables outside. I can go with the fitness industry, wellness industry where you can see stress levels. I can see these new wearables coming that are more focusing on a specific biomarker, like stress levels or HRV or temperature or blood pressure.

 They are more precise right now, there will come a lot of these new wearables that are only going to focus on one specific biomarker.

And it may not be a different part of the body, but it's someone that's gonna specialize in the ring for this or the watch for this. Exactly.I definitely see these types of devices coming and they are more specialist and could be more interested in a specific thing. So they can be better in that space. For example, the AA ring is more focused on the sleep data. So they are not so good at fitness, or at least for me.

When I do a lot of workouts, because I do workouts and, lift weight and all these type of things,

not so good, but the whoop is better. Or even the Apple Watch. So it's like a, you will see this type of combination. but I see a feature where everyone is using a wearable eventually. You already have one.

It's your phone. Your phone. It's already wearable.

Mike Koelzer: someone told me, and I don't know, it wasn't just an off the hand comment, it was something that came from the industry, I guess, but they said that Apple. at its heart is a healthcare company. What do you think about that statement when you hear that?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: is very interesting I mean, at the very beginning, probably not because they were more focused on the laptops and this, you know, that everyone should have, uh, computer.

that you can go everywhere. I mean, now with the glasses, which I don't think so, they have the penetration today, but the same happened with the Apple Watch 

At the very beginning. Not sure if you remember, the Apple Watch was not very adopted and no one we're trying to use it because it's like a piece of technology that 's like an extension of your phone. Period. but now I think it's becoming more relevant. I mean, it's really interesting when you see the data from the Apple Watch, man, it's accurate.

It's accurate. It's really nice. I will say that probably yes, they could be at some point, and if they go, they want to navigate those orders. That will be very interesting because I can see this, Gadgets, wearables, devices, all over your place. With the glasses, with the apple watch, with probably another thing, a peel that can track more things.

Mike Koelzer: A pill that can do more. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly.

Mike Koelzer: So Marco, how much do you have to deal with the federal regulators? I don't know, FDA, stuff that you hear about when people have to have their health, equipment regulated.

Do you have to report to them or anything like that middle person? You're not really in that area because you don't have the device yourself.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly, exactly. I'm like a pipe. Today I am like a pipe because I extract the data from all these devices and I deliver in a very easy way and clean to my clients.

we are not focused on that because. We have nothing to do with the algorithms that the FDA required, however, we have other regulations like HIPAA compliant or GDPR or some certifications for cybersecurity because we are dealing with the data that we have today.

very relevant because we have everything.we are HIPAA compliant, GDPR compliant, we anonymize all the information and I will never know that The data that I'm receiving is from Mike, but I have specific information from. heart rate, heart vulnerabilities, blood pressure, different types of biomarkers, which are very relevant.

 Generally speaking, we are not regulated by the FDA, but we are related to the data component on the HIPAA and GDPR.

Mike Koelzer: What is your biggest as that business owner of the industry? Not of things internally, but of the industry as far as, know, we gotta, you know. HIPAA is a pain because they always make us report this or I can't even think of one. But what is something that kind of gets under your skin in this kind of industry?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I mean, my biggest complaint or struggle, I will say this, the data, how we receive all this information. And that's something from the same wearable companies

 The information is not standardized in any way. When someone wants to do something with the information, they need information very clear and very transparent, very easy to digest so they can build on top of that AI or build on top of that anything.

So my biggest concern is more about how we receive the information on how deep we can go with the data. Because of the data, it's really nice from all the wearables that are outside. I will tell everyone. They are doing very good jobs, but the problem is that it's not standardized, and that's a big problem today.

 the regulations are the regulations periods, it's the law. It is something that you have to be compliant with and it's perfect. That's the reason that we have laws outside. It's because we have to be compliant in specific things, so I'm not worried about that.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: the only thing is that we have to be very aware all the time if there is any change in the regulation,

is something normal in the healthcare space. This is something that I was dealing with before, so it's not a new thing. But on the wearable side, I will say that's the biggest struggle because it's complicated to be very granular in data and be normalized and everything.

So that's the biggest struggle or compliance problems.

Mike Koelzer: That struggle is really your bread and butter. I mean, that struggle is what makes you valuable to these other companies. I imagine there's sometimes where it's even a struggle for you guys where it's like, yeah, Mike, that's our bread and butter, but even having trouble getting some of this stuff out because it's so complicated.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, definitely. This is our big differentiator. but also if the information was a little bit more standardized, we can do better things.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: What we want to do is be more a data science company in terms of bringing insights and predictions for those clients.

So for example, a remote page monitoring identifies adverse events before it happened. Probably two days, three days, four days, one week. We can save lives here. That's why I'm saying that it's important how we receive the data and definitely our big differentiator is how we treat the data, but then it's not only that, it's if we receive better data, we can build more stuff for our clients.

But again, this is a big market. There is a huge opportunity for. A lot of things to do with the information, with the data that we receive from, even with the, with your phone, we can extract so many data points in your phone that could be some for value for you and for those companies that want to do something that, I mean, it, it's really great what's going on today.

I'm super excited for the future, even for the present.

Mike Koelzer: Is that data on the phone? Is that from. consumer entry or are you talking things like the gyro meters and those kinds of things on the phone? Is it the phone itself that's throwing off information 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: exactly. It's mainly the phone. They have so many things that you can measure. Steps or you will see, you know, sleep information with the alarms and you can see screen time. You can see, I mean, too many things even with your, with, with the earphones or maybe with, you know, with different headsets, you can start to see different types of signs.

I mean, the phone, they have a lot of information and they are, they are. Impressive computers. 

Mike Koelzer: It's a cliche always about, you know, they're millions of times stronger than what went to the moon. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Oh yeah.

Mike Koelzer: which, which doesn't make me think how great the phone is. It makes me think, how the hell did we get to the moon with that? So

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I agree with you.

Mike Koelzer: So, Marco, tell me about your degree and tell me what people would normally do with your degree and then bring it into what you do and so on.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, well I am a biomedical engineer. I have a second degree in biomes. Biomedical engineers are the intersection between, Medicine and engineering. And the engineers, we create things. The big thing with the engineers is that we have this structure to create things, create processes that help to do something with anything.

We have the scientist and then the scientists create something, and then the engineers are the ones who create something with information that they have from those, Results from the science.

so, normally a biomedical engineer could be in hospitals, could be in big pharma, could be creating a medical device, could be, you know, creating these types of things.

 So my background was in medical devices, I was very interested in creating medical devices. At the very beginning. We were trying to do it. In fact, my previous company, we created a wearable. For heart rate, we created a chest heart rate and then, uh, an arm we started to create information to pull the data from the heart rate monitor, so it was very interesting, but was very expensive.

Very expensive. And we realized that there are a lot of wearables outside already. And, they have a huge market and there are a lot of opportunities for wearables. But it's like, at the moment that we are today, I think that we have enough wearables and those companies are doing really interesting things.

Mike Koelzer: Yeah, at some point you're like, well what, what the hell are we making this for? There's already one out at a 10th of the price. Let's see where we can fit into that market. Well, I just, yesterday, I don't know why I did, I was just sitting there, but I took my EKG on my, you know, on my pixel, you know, on my watch.

I just tapped Touch the Crown and I got an EKG. I mean that, that's amazing

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah.

Mike Koelzer: So, Marco, looking at your history, there's some companies on here that our listeners will know, Roche and Novartis. What did you do there?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, I was working in the clinical trials. That's part of my background. This is my second startup. My first startup was, we had a very interesting exit in 2006. I was very young and so I was in college with one of my best friends. He's again my co-founder. We were doing something for fun and we sold this company, which was an algorithm for hospitals.

Tell me what it was.

 Well, West Grade, the ground for hospitals, depending on the disease that you were trying to tackle, you put what type of disease and other specifications, and we are with our own algorithm. On those days, we can tell you How many doctors, which type of medical devices, how many beds you need, everything around the hospital.

So was a very good one to predict specific information for those hospitals. And then they build on top of that,

Mike Koelzer: program

Marco Benitez - ROOK: was a software, Mm-hmm.

Mike Koelzer: Yeah.

That's very specific. That's not something you just can do, not even AI practically. I mean,

Marco Benitez - ROOK: No, no, no, no.

Mike Koelzer: Very specific.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: We had before, like a huge list of medical devices that was approved to use in Mexico. So that's how we started with everything. We started with a. Big list of all these brands, these vendors that can sell a product in Mexico. And then we start to build on top of that different type of things that the hospitals needed.

And then we had a big, big software over there. And then one big company, a big hospital franchise, told us, Hey, this is huge. No one has this. I want to buy it. We sold it.

Mike Koelzer: Did you sell for enough in retrospect, and is it worth it for them in retrospect? Do you think it was a pretty balanced deal for both of you?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: No, no, definitely. No,

Mike Koelzer: All right, let's hear it. Let's hear

Marco Benitez - ROOK: no, no, no, no. Directly, no, no, no. Was not good for us. We were very young. We were No, no, no. It was a big opportunity for them because it was a huge differentiator. and they were the only ones who had that software. Unfortunately for our side, we didn't have the experience in 2006.

A startup was not even worth, at least in Mexico, here in the US was a completely different story. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, everything is about experiencing the sun, it shines for everyone. It's not only for one. So that helps us to create experience and also to understand that this is something that we love to do, create things from scratch.

but then after this exit that helps us to finish our studies and different types of things and travel. I used to travel a lot. Well, I still travel a lot, but before it was different because I was a bachelor, I was alone. I was very young. That gave me the opportunity to do a lot of stuff.

Very cool and interesting stuff. And then for me, it was very interesting to start to work in big pharma. I'm trying to understand my spot, my sweet spot, my space, and I start to work in big pharma because enterprise, it's a very big enterprise company. The companies are very big with a huge structure.

So for me, it was very interesting to understand everything. So someone introduced me to the clinical trial world and I love it. I mean, clinical trials are amazing. It's like, now I really understand why. It takes so much time and it's so expensive. One drug because the studies are amazing. I mean, I'm impressed.

Every single study, it's a huge opportunity for someone who doesn't have anything to, to deal, you know, for, they don't have any other drug like let's say oncology,

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Russian Novar, they are very focused on oncology, but You don't have any other drug or any O and you don't have anything for you.

So it's a huge opportunity to participate in a clinical trial. First of all, That's the first thing and very important. The second thing is like all the infrastructure I. That the clinical trial has inside. It's been really interesting since the beginning. So for me, every single trial was like a new startup because it's like a, you need to build from scratch with all the data you have to imagine, you know, it's like an experiment.

You have the hypothesis, you have the body, you have the results, and then on top of that, you have any. Conclusions, and then you have to build like a pipeline. So I was very involved in that area and I love it. so my last job was in Roche. I was the head of medical affairs. Helping to create the landscaping for different trials in Latin America and in the US was really, really good.

I'm very passionate about big pharma and I know there are a lot of people talking about big pharma, but I was working up there and I can say very good things about the people that are trying to help. willing to help people and very patient centric and how can they improve their lives and everything.

So yeah, It was really great working over there.

Mike Koelzer: Your startup. Now r Is the, American pronunciation like Rook, or would it be r.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: That's a really good one because it's like a, I can tell you that I don't know. 

, it's, it's,

Mike Koelzer: piece. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: It's not a chess piece. Well, our first thoughts, we created this one, the name in, in Mexico, when I was in Mexico.

R was for me or for us. We are the crawls, you know, the birds, the crawls are one of the smartest, smartest birds in the world.

 Basically they can do a lot of stuff when they are flying together. They are the rooks. so in our minds, we're like, every single of us, we are a crow. You will find different leaders depending on the situation. That's why sometimes they are flying the first one and then they change when they are flying together.

 So that was our philosophy that we have today. It's like, everyone, it's a leader inside of the root team and we are smartest people working for one purpose, which is to make this place a better place.

Mike Koelzer: So with Rook then I see a little bit of crossover from your last job. When did you decide, like, okay, that's it with the medical affairs with Roche. we're gonna jump into this full-time.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, it was very funny. my co-founder then told me, Hey. We have a huge opportunity here to create something. I want you onboard because at the very beginning we were working for the fitness industry. We were doing a platform for the, for. Create an experience inside the fitness club. We created this SaaS platform with a wearable device and made you feel that you can see your efforts on Calorie burn in real time.

So the coach can tell you in real time, Hey, Mike, you need to be more, you need to do my memorial Fords, or you need to, whatever. It's like creating a very good experience with the fitness club, so we.

Mike Koelzer: Say, you're supposed to say, Mike, you're working out too hard. Slow down.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly. Yeah. Two that too. Exactly,

Mike Koelzer: Was it? Yes. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: exactly, That was And then we realized, the reason that we change is because we love to create things from the scratch. That's it. I will say that's the main purpose of how we started. When he told me about this possibility to create this platform, I was super keen.

I was like, oh my goodness. Perfect. Yes, because we want to improve people's lives. We want to create something from scratch. We have to do a lot of very good stuff. Like before, this is going to be fun. and yeah, that's why we started, because

for me,

 Was very interesting because I treated big pharma as if I was an entrepreneur.

They gimme the opportunity to do whatever I want. In terms of new things, thinking, innovation, thinking, new ways to extract information from patients. So for me, it was a huge opportunity to continue, you know, creating very good things from, from me and, you know, for, for patients. 

Mike Koelzer: So Marco, how do you grow your company? Do you approach the wearables? and then how do you know what company's looking for, what the wearables are off, and how do you know who that is? And then how do you reach out? How do you grow that?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah. Let me take one step back. This was a huge opportunity in the market. When Covid hit, everything was chaos. And chaos. I love chaos because chaos is a good opportunity to create new things, right?

 On those days, we had a very interesting meeting with the CEO of one big insurance company.

 and the very beginning when Covid hit, we created a huge, new ecosystem for fitness clubs where we started to integrate wearables because we saw that no one wants to use only our wearable, they already have a wearable, like the Apple Watch or whatever.

So we started to integrate all these wearables in our own platform

Mike Koelzer: and partly because of Covid, they didn't wanna wear someone else's. they didn't want

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah.

Mike Koelzer: anything?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly, And then, everyone started to do exercise in their own home.

And for us it was very interesting because we learned from the end users that wanted to use their own wearables. So we started to integrate wearables in our own platform. Then, This insurance company, the CEO, we were at dinner, was very lucky.

I was lucky to be very honest because he was beside me and he told me, Hey, what do you do? And I started to explain that we have a platform where we have already integrated different wearables, so the end users can have this experience, And he told me, man, I love it. I have a program, it's a wellness program and we want to extract the data from the wearables from the end users that have a wearable, and then start to make a customized experience for them.

 And it's very difficult to integrate the wearables because the data, it's very, it's not. it's not normalized. is there any way you can integrate your wearable, your system in my own platform? And I was like a very good entrepreneur. Yes, we can do it Absolutely.

Mike Koelzer: Sure.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: What you're talking about. and then after one week we close the deal. They paid three days after the deal. And we started with this API. That's how we changed everything. I will say that from there we understood that the fitness space was very interesting to create this new customized experience with the end user.

So we saw a huge opportunity over there. So we still have a lot of our clients who are from the fitness and wellness industry, but then we move more towards the insurance and the digital health space, like Remote patient monitoring because it's more on our backgrounds.

We love healthcare space and that's why we focus a little bit more over there. And they already understood that wearables are something, they have FDA clearance. I mean, that's amazing. The FDA approving to use these as a medical devices,

Marco Benitez - ROOK: So new doctors are starting to find ways to use the information from these devices and the end users. The patients are pushing the doctors to start using this information, which is great. We are in a moment where everyone is starting to take ownership of their own health.

It's the first time that we can see this.

Mike Koelzer: One's not quite a wearable, but it's something kind of important is voice, and when I think of voice stuff, I think of, well, I gotta tell this story, mark.

In fact, that's why I even brought my voice up. I gotta tell this story. My son doesn't like it. He's, he's, 15 now, one of my sons. But when he was like seven or eight, playing 20 questions, you know, 20 questions, right?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah.

Mike Koelzer: we're playing 20 questions and One of the questions I asked Drew, I said, Drew,is the item you're thinking about, the thing you're thinking about, is it bigger than a school bus? he says let me think. Is our dock at the cottage bigger than a school bus? I said, probably. So my next question is. Is it the dock at the cottage? And he says, yeah. So I won it on that one, Alright. So Marco, now I just brought that up just to tell that story, but it does make me think about it, it's not quite wearables, but it makes me think of simple questions like for the elderly, you know. It's like, you know, the voice comes on, Sally, did you take your medicine today? Well, if you don't hear from Sally at all, maybe she's not doing well at all. if she says, I'm not sure, then it looks back at some data. And when's the last time she said, I'm not sure. Well, now maybe we got some confusion going on

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah.

Mike Koelzer: She's always said yes.

Now she says she's not sure. So I guess that's not really your cup of tea. because voices. It's already inputted. It's just like typing basically.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yes and no. Amazon, for example, they have like two years ago. Two, three years ago, they had their own wearable. Unfortunately, they are not going to continue building this wearable, but it was very interesting because with the boys, they can give you. An idea how are your stress levels?

Mike Koelzer: Oh, I

Marco Benitez - ROOK: They were not the only ones.

There is like a couple of wearables outside that they are measuring, the voice. And because you are talking all the time, they can measure this information and transform this information to some information about your stress levels.

Mike Koelzer: does your voice sound and is it shaky and different stuff like that, which is not the information, but just what are your vocal cords doing, basically? 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I think there is a huge opportunity over there. I mean, you can do a lot, and there is a lot of new companies that are doing, very good stuff with the AI and with the voice, trying to understand if you are telling me the truth or you are lying me or you are nervous or you are, whatever, so yes, that will be a very good, you know, data source for our piece of technology. 

Mike Koelzer: As far as your company's funding, Marco, do you guys have outside funding? Do you not? How does that all

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I.

, we are busy backing, so venture capital is the main source at the very beginning. At the very beginning we just bootstrap, because we were doing, Everything by ourselves. We are developers, we are data scientists, so we know how to create this API. But now in the moment that we are, honestly it's massive.

Our API and it's the case, our, the clouds and everything. It's. Overwhelming, we do amazing things with the data. So yes, that's why we are backed by venture capital and some angel investors. Yeah, exactly. Because we have a lot of information. 

Mike Koelzer: how many people in the company.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: We are 30, 30 ish people 

Mike Koelzer: What percent of the 30 are programming versus research versus this versus that? what percentages.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, 80%, 85% are developers and data scientists

Mike Koelzer: Writing the code to make these handshakes or taking the information and doing something with it. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I will say this is like a 50-50 because we have some of them working only with these integrations with these brands, like all these wearables, but also the main and the core are working on the data. Everyone is working on data. How can they structure in a better way? How can we share this information very easily with our clients?

So our roots and everything, the core value that we bring to the table is how we bring this information to our clients. So we are doing a great job on that side. That's our biggest differentiator. That's why we have too many developers and data scientists.

Mike Koelzer: And Marco, I jumped over this question. We talked about how your first customer came on. how do other companies find out about you now,

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, it's really interesting because it's like, we are closing so many clients per month and even though we are B2B and it's mainly, I will say that there is more awareness about this information, I. There are a lot of companies looking to integrate the wearables and start to use this information in a very smart way.

so now everyone is coming to us. 

Mike Koelzer: It's a good spot to be in.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Yeah, I mean, it's a very good spot, but we know that we can do better on that front. And we do a lot, of course we have some inbound outbound strategies, but the best clients that we have, they are coming very alone. Because they already know what to do, they are looking for an API solution and they came across R and it's like, there is no brainer.

Mike Koelzer: It's very easy to close them, honestly, Marco, what does your week look like what are you doing through the week

Marco Benitez - ROOK: I will say all day I'm talking with clients, with our clients looking for how we can improve what we are delivering. Understanding if they need something else or if they need anything specific. Things from our technology. I spend more time, or invest more time, talking with my clients and of course new clients because it's more, more with the, with the biggest ones, with, uh, you know, large companies, enterprises, that they are really big ones.

I invest a lot of my time talking with them because

need the specific things and, I'm the one who can, you know, not negotiate, but it's like, understand. Exactly what they need.

Mike Koelzer: You're kind of like the human, API between what you guys can do and what they need, and so you're kind of that middle person there,

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Oh yeah.

Mike Koelzer: The rest of your team is doing that. 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: between talking with clients in events, talking more with also with wearables, owners, looking at what's the newest, these types of things is where I spend more of my time.

Mike Koelzer: Yeah, 

Marco Benitez - ROOK: It's very interesting because I hate, but at the same time I love it's do the follow ups emails and these type of things

 We have everything in our CRM and I have a lot of alerts and, you know, write emails and this type of thing takes a lot of time and I prefer to have more conversations that can improve everything.

Mike Koelzer: Marco, your company, if you look out, you know, five years, is it just growth? Is it just getting better and better and growing? what Your core?

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Oh yeah, definitely. Yes. Today the main goal I will set, in the next few years , is becoming more of a data science company. We want to bring these insights and predictions, create algorithms that help to

identify these problems from the end users. I believe that we can do a very good job there.

but first we have to create all these volumes of data so we can start working with everything that's our path.

Mike Koelzer: Would that mean instead of just giving, let's say the insurance company, instead of giving them the data, you are now doing more with the data. So You can say, look, we'll handle your API, but look, we've gotta. A ton of this data already that might be helpful for you and here's what we think about it, and that kind of stuff.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Exactly. Exactly. 

Mike Koelzer: Golly, Marco, thanks for joining us. It's interesting stuff.

I always say I don't talk to old people. Pharmacists like myself, I don't really have anything to learn. I don't really wanna learn anything. So it's fun to go outside of the area and learn some of this stuff. Very interesting stuff. Marco, I know you're busy. I appreciate your time. Our listeners appreciate it and, and great having you on.

Marco Benitez - ROOK: Mike, thanks so much for this opportunity. I love it. I love it. Thank you.