1628 – Connecting the Real World and the Digital World with Beaconstac’s Sharat Potharaju

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. million in revenue. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you.

0:58with us right now sharat potaraju sharat it's so great to have you here you are the co-founder and ceo of beacon stack now beacon stack is on the web at beacon stack.com uh you're going to need the spelling for that beacon uh and then stack is s-t-a-c.com but again to our friend that's listening right now you just click around in your podcast app you'll find where we've got the show notes or direct link to your website. It's so great to have you, Sharad. Thank you for joining us. Absolutely. Pleasure. All mine, Josh. Lovely to be speaking to you today. So BeaconStack does what? I mean, what we are essentially, I think the vision for BeaconStack is basically to connect the physical world and the digital world.

1:44And what I mean by that, the way we kind of explain that is we do digital customer engagement, physical to digital customer engagement. And we do that using technologies that are there on your mobile device. So it's QR codes, it's NFC, it's Bluetooth, it's geofencing, all that and more. Our core technology that we use is the QR code. So if you look around yourself, you see QR codes. If you have large brands and businesses that are deploying QR codes or QR code marketing techniques, then there's a good chance they're using our platform to do it. yeah um you know i think about the evolution can you talk maybe this is a little history lesson before i kind of get into what beacon stack does um specifically would you mind just giving us a quick little history lesson on qr codes like when they came on the scene i'm just i just remember i forget how many years ago maybe it was seemed like six seven years ago or so kind of when i first noticed and you had to have special apps in order to scan them uh and now of course i'll let you give the history lesson.

2:49No, I think you were right on spot there, Josh. QR codes as a technology have existed for a pretty long time. I think they've been around from the 90s, if I'm not mistaken, started in Japan. It was originally used with the intent of for supply chain use cases. That was basically the core idea. But I think there's kind of a renaissance of QR codes that have really been happening over the last couple of years. So first they came into prominence in the 90s and 2000s, and then they kind of faded away. Then they tried to kind of make a re-entrance, I think about 10 years back, like you mentioned. But the biggest friction there was the fact that you needed a special app to be able to kind of, you know, scan it, et cetera.

3:36So the whole idea of connecting physical and digital is something that a lot of brands and businesses wanted to do. They have tried different technologies. And that organically, or I would say intuitively, iOS and Android, the good folks there, realized that the easiest, most seamless way to be able to connect the physical world and the digital world would be through the QR code technology. And that's how in 2018 or 2019, Apple made it native to your phone camera to scan a QR code. So did Android. And as they say, that's the rest of its history. that kind of propelled the ability to do and discovery for using QR codes.

4:15Needless to say, the pandemic finally also helped the whole idea of being contactless, et cetera, made people realize the value for what QR codes can do. And that just kind of mushroomed into something much, much bigger. Yeah, right, right. Okay, so then, you know, how does it work that like, in terms of like generating a QR code, And again, just this is some one on one stuff, right? So let's say that you want to put a QR code on a business card or on a mailer or on a billboard or on your website or wherever. Right. How does one typically can anyone just create a QR code or do you have to have special software to do that?

4:56it's it's an open source software it's a it's an open uh what do you call it it's an open standard that's easy to explain it and so to be able to create a simple qr code is free and it's um and and and like you said anyone can do it there are hundreds of free qr code generators available there what we do is basically a built an entire robust marketing platform marketing automation platform that sits on top of just qr code generation so think about us as if you want to just create a simple qr code and put it on a packaging or put it in your physical location or put it on some marketing collateral it just kind of points to a specific url and you can basically just read that but if you want to do anything more sophisticated you want to be able to retarget you want to be able to collect gather analytics you want to be able to build personas as if who are the people who are essentially interacting with your product or with your service.

5:57That's the kind of stuff that a platform like BeaconStack does. But going back to your original question, to be able to do this is free if you just want to get started. And it's a very easy way to just go online, search for BeaconStack or a QR code generator, and you will see lots of solutions out there. Yeah. So someone could go to BeaconStack right now. And do you have a, I thought I saw where you actually have a free QR code generate. Yeah. So I'm on here. Oh, look at this. So I'm looking, I'm at beaconstack.com. Hover over, the way I found is I hovered over product and it says QR code generator free.

6:37Click on that, punch in a website. Looks like you can, there's guys, you can customize the design. That's really cool. Well, that's great. I love that they kind of open sourced it. But of course, this is just the basic application of this. Beacon Stack allows for some pretty amazing customization. Talk about where you can go and maybe how particularly, again, business leaders, business owners can really take QR codes to the next level. Absolutely. So I think one way to think about QR codes, first thing I think just taking a step back is QR codes have kind of become an extension of everyone's marketing strategy, irrespective of who you are.

7:28And I think the easiest way for me to be able for you to imagine what QR codes can do is think about them as a call to action in the physical world. In the digital world, you have a URL where you click on a URL. That's kind of your call to action. In the physical world, the QR code has really become a part to action. So you can scan a QR code and make the destination whatever you want it to be. It could be your website. It could be a microsite. It could be just your Instagram handle. It could be a form where you're capturing your needs for a particular sale that you want to make. It could be just collecting survey or feedback.

8:03You could be collecting reviews on TripAdvisor. It could be anything under the sun, depending on contextality and depending on where they're essentially present. and I think the beauty about QR codes is that they are industry agnostic they're organization agnostic what I mean by that is we have really small mom and pop stores small businesses restaurants bars using us for you know menus for collecting reviews for collecting feedback for loyalty programs, et cetera, all the way from that to pretty large enterprises like Revlon and FedEx and Chick-fil-A and large brands and businesses like JP Market, using it for vastly different use cases.

8:51So honestly, it's been growing pretty phenomenally. And I think the more important thing is the use cases are really limited by your own creativity and innovation. We have people doing it for different use cases. Like I mentioned, there are people who are doing this too. In many ways, the use case that really excites me particularly is the fact that QR codes in many ways are replacing the physicality of paper. So wherever you are actually giving physical collateral, maybe it could be a menu card, it could be a digital business cards and conferences or networking. It could be just marketing collateral when you walk into your neighborhood brand or any financial center.

9:34All that is basically replacing by QR code. You scan a QR code, it opens a business card. You scan a QR code, it essentially opens up a mafia collateral or a direct nailer. So I think what's really happening is this is not only saving tremendous amount of costs for large brands and businesses, but it's also very planet-friendly. You're saving trees, you're saving paper. Yeah. That's what excites me. Yeah. So do you think that we have maxed out on the capabilities of QR codes or what do you, I'm asking, I just want to get your reaction there. What's on the horizon? What else do you think is coming down the road in terms of like what's possible here?

10:18You know, I've seen some, and I want to ask you about this. No, I'm just going to start there because I want to, well, let me know, let me point this out. So I've also seen something now they don't involve QR code specifically, but they're just kind of this augmented reality, right? Where I think, what was it? 13 Crimes Wine. It's got like, you know, where you put your phone over the bottle of wine with Snoop Dogg and then you're watching the screen and he starts talking to you. And like, you know, I think how cool that could be in terms of like what that QR code opens and how you're able to interact together.

10:54I'm sorry, I don't mean to like seed some ideas here, but I've just seen that. I think AR is going to be pretty, pretty cool, especially when we look at, you know, the stuff that Apple's coming out with, you know, with the visor, with the glass, you know, the glass, whatever, the goggles, the ski goggles, whatever we call them. Apple version. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think there is no doubt about the fact that there is a huge amount of use cases that we are discovering ourselves. And one of the things that I find very exciting about what we do is we're pretty horizontal in terms of the use cases that we build, right?

11:32And I think an analogy that I can give you is think about email marketing, right? Email originally started as a communication tool between individual, peer-to-peer. And over the years, email has become a very robust loyalty retention platform to be able to engage with customers for brands and businesses. And that evolution that you see, that democratization of email converting itself from a communication tool to becoming a very robust customer engagement platform has happened because fantastic products and platforms like MailChimp and SendGrid, etc. came and did that. We are doing exactly the same thing, but we're doing that for QR code-based marketing, right?

12:16So we are, in some many ways, the mail trend plus ungrid of QR code marketing. And that's really what we're trying to do, democratize the ability of using technologies like QR codes and help you build the use case that you want. We want to be able to fundamentally build that, give you those building blocks, and then you can come and strap on any specific use case that you have in mind. And I think we're just getting started right now. So Beacon Stack has worked with Pepsi, Toyota, Revlon, WWF, the World Wildlife Federation, Amazon, Marriott, Delight Digital, New York Times, Nestle. You've worked with the biggest and the best of the best, but you work with businesses and individuals of all stripes.

13:00What are some of those higher end engagements so that they're kind of more of those enterprise level solutions that you can work with that might involve a little bit more strategy and thought? Can they work with, you know, can a larger company or someone that really needs something a little bit more unique and custom? Do you have advisors that can kind of help with strategy? Yes and no. I think the reason I say that is we don't have a specific services team per se. We are a very self-service, out-of-the-box platform and solution that any marketer, developer can start using right out of the box.

13:41Having said that, we also understand that this is a vertical that really is blossoming itself right now. So in many ways, we keep our eyes and ears very close to what the customers want. And so we have a very proactive customer success team. We have a very proactive product team, which is basically talking to customers on a daily basis and understanding the use cases that they're trying to build. And every time we see a trend, we kind of go and productize that. So we have a very customer-led product development philosophy here. And that's really what helped us be on top and be ahead of the game in terms of the kinds of features and the kinds of product that we're really building in this vertical.

14:24Yeah. Yeah. So many uses. One thing I'd recommend to our listener is go to beaconstack.com. Click on learn, click on solution, mainly so you can see a lot of these really clever implementations. But essentially, it's like anywhere that you want to connect with customers, audience, partners, et cetera, you can use a QR code and people will connect with you. Some people love to type in manually a URL, maybe. Other people would rather just kind of use their phone. Now, think about, well, wait a minute. So, Sherrod, I could ask you a question here. So let's say on the podcast, for example, we have the ability to use QR codes in imagery, like certainly on cover art and stuff.

15:22And we could link that to anywhere, right? We could do anything with that. Absolutely. For example, on the background right now, if you're talking on Zoom, instead of showing your website, upmyinsurance.com, you should have a QR code. Oh boy, should I? I scan the QR code. It directly takes you to your website or in particular, it can take you to a particular form which basically lets you, the person fill up the form. I love what Josh is saying. I need to act on it right now instead of let me check it out once I finish listening to this podcast. There's a very big difference. The timing makes a big difference and that ability to contextually help brands and businesses is what helps us.

16:07All right, I'm going to do it and you need to do it since you're the CEO of this company. Absolutely. You probably have a background with it on there. I'm teasing you a little bit. I do. I do. I do. I was being a little shy and I'm not trying to explicitly sell myself. Oh, no, that's great. That's great. Hey, also, congrats on the Series A. That news broke at the beginning of this year. That's exciting. A lot of... Any new verticals that you're excited about launching into or is it mainly just broad awareness for everybody? Yeah, I think we raised capital because we're growing really fast and we realized that this is going to be a multi-billion dollar market out there.

16:49And we wanted to just kind of accelerate our global market. But in addition, I think one of the things we realized also, like I mentioned earlier, is that the use cases that we're seeing has been growing exponentially. Every person basically comes up with their own use cases. Can we add this on a Zoom background? Can we basically add this on business card? Can we add this on marketing collateral? Hey, can we think about using this for specific? We are right now in an RFP, which basically wants to use it for supply chain, which is a pretty large CPG brand. So everybody is thinking about their own specific use cases.

17:22So we realized that to be able to be on top of the market, to be ahead of the game, to be able to productize that the level the market is really moving, you need to be able to have some resources and capital. And that's the reason we raised. Yeah. All right. Right. Beaconstack.com. Someone that's been listening to our conversation right now, really simple. Just go to the website, Beaconstack.com. And what would you recommend somebody do? How do they just kind of get started? Particularly, let's say they're an organization, they've got a couple of hundred employees, they've got some big marketing plays.

17:52And they're like, yeah, you know, we've dabbled with QR codes before, but nothing real custom, right? It was just maybe just a simple QR code linked to a URL. And they're really interested in seeing what's possible? Where do they go from here? I would say just go to beaconstack.com slash QR code generator. You'll see that even on the top header. You go to the QR code generator, you can sign up for a free trial. It's 14 days, our entire completely all souped up platform that's readily available for anyone to get started with. And that 14 day free trial, I can promise you will completely open up your mind to all the possibilities.

18:29Every use case that you did not think of will start opening up in your mind and get a full full end end-to-end solution so you can build micro sites you can build your own one-page websites you just kind of remove the need for your any external dependencies and once you start seeing analytics you're you're pretty hooked because most people start very skeptically saying i don't know if anybody is going to use this i don't know if i'm going to get any leads i don't know if any scans are going to happen i don't know who does this. And then they're pretty amazed in a few days on how much engagement they get.

19:01And that really helps them convert to a customer and kind of add value to their own business. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Awesome. All right. BeaconStack.com. B-E-C-O-N-S-T-A-C. Sharad Botharaju, it's been great. Again, co-founder and CEO. Sharad, thank you so much for joining us. Wonderful conversation. Absolutely, Josh. Thank you so much for having me. Just fantastic talking to you.

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