In this episode, we talk to Larry King, founder and CEO of ShapeNet software, where he discusses how ShapeNet got started and its evolution as the first web-based club management system. He highlights the importance of automation in the fitness industry and how ShapeNet helps gyms streamline processes such as membership management, billing, and 24/7 door access. Larry also talks about the tools and services ShapeNet offers to boost sales, keep members engaged, and improve customer retention. He emphasizes the value of client feedback in shaping the development of ShapeNet and discusses future tech trends, including the integration of AI in fitness workouts. Larry concludes by sharing the benefits of switching to ShapeNet software and the ongoing support provided to clients.
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Show Notes
Takeaways
- ShapeNet is a cloud management software system for the fitness industry, offering solutions for health clubs, personal training facilities, wellness facilities, and country clubs.
- Automation is key in streamlining processes such as membership management, billing, and 24/7 door access, allowing gyms to provide a seamless and efficient experience for their members.
- ShapeNet offers tools and services to boost sales, keep members engaged, and improve customer retention, including sales CRM, member engagement features, and loyalty programs.
- Client feedback is crucial in shaping the development of ShapeNet, and the company continually works to optimize processes and provide value to its clients.
- Future tech trends in the fitness industry include the integration of AI in fitness workouts, allowing for personalized and on-demand workout experiences.
- Switching to ShapeNet software offers benefits such as improved data management, ongoing support, and the ability to automate processes and minimize expenses.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction and Overview of ShapeNet
03:12 – Automation and Efficiency in Fitness Management
06:08 – Boosting Sales and Member Engagement
10:11 – Membership Management, Billing, and 24/7 Door Access
14:57 – Compatibility with Other Systems and Client Feedback
19:59 – Future Tech Trends in the Fitness Industry
26:02 – Switching to ShapeNet: Benefits and Ongoing Support
Transcript
Sydney Sheppard (00:05)
Hello and welcome to the SourceForge podcast and thanks for joining us today. I’m your host, Sydney Sheppard here at SourceForge and Slashdot Media. And as always, the SourceForge podcast is where we discuss software and technology with leaders and change makers in the tech world. And joining us today, we have Larry King, the founder and CEO of ShapeNet software. ShapeNet provides cloud management software to health clubs and wellness facilities, delivering a full suite of integrated technology solutions.
Thanks for joining us, Larry.
Larry King (00:36)
It’s great to be here. Thank you for the opportunity.
Sydney Sheppard (00:39)
Of course, we’re very excited to have you on.
Larry King (00:43)
Good, looking forward to it.
Sydney Sheppard (00:44)
So yeah, so to begin as the founder of ShapeNet, can you just tell us a bit about how ShapeNet got started, how it all began?
Larry King (00:54)
Sure. Well, ShapeNet, we’re cloud management software for the fitness industry. So that involves health clubs, personal training facilities, wellness facilities, and country clubs, etcetera. So we have a cloud -based management software system that’s all about handling the check-ins, the monthly billing, the scheduling, etcetera. And anyone who’s in the fitness industry gets, it’s pretty complicated at times. And our software system helps automate and ease things for the owners. And in this podcast, I’m sure we’re going to get the opportunity to discuss some of the direct services that I can talk about to help any gym owner. And regarding the start of my company, I used to work as a programmer down on Wall Street in New York. I guess my accent, you can tell I have a Northeastern accent. That’s fine. I can’t get rid of it. It’s who I am. And it was 2001. And that tragic event of 9-11, I worked two blocks away for a brokerage firm and 9-11 hit and it changed the lives of so many people. I was 39. And at that point I said, you know what? I knew how to program and I said, let me just start my own company. And I have always been involved in fitness. And I said, let me just start a fitness management software system. Because it was 2001, the internet was new. And I said, here’s my chance to get into this fun market.
And I just started with a simple online scheduler. I guarantee in my first couple of sales, people were using America Online as the dial up. That’s how new it was. And it just started that way. And slowly the internet emerged and I just got in on the ground floor with a cloud-based management software system. And I just living in New York City, I was able to knock on doors and sell my product. And I started by myself and all of a sudden you start adding people. It’s just what’s happening fast. And here we are today, 20 plus years later with a product that provides a lot of value.
Sydney Sheppard (03:28)
That’s amazing. Yeah, I definitely got in at like the perfect timing right at the…
Larry King (03:33)
Timing, you know
Sydney Sheppard (03:34)
…beginning of yeah, internet taking off. And like you said, in New York, I mean, there’s a million gyms and, you know, wellness places, all that I’m sure you were able to go to.
Larry King (03:44)
Right. And you you mentioned timing because 10 years prior, if I was going to build a software system, I’d have to drive to each location to install it. So the internet sort of said, man, I’m in New York. I could get online and sell it to someone in California. was just, everything just clicked and that was it. So it was perfect timing.
Sydney Sheppard (04:11)
Yeah. What more could you want for starting a business? That’s awesome. That’s great. So can you tell us a little about how ShapeNet became the first web-based club management system and how it’s also kept up with trends like mobile apps? Because obviously the internet and things have evolved a ton since when you first began.
Larry King (04:32)
Right, so I ran some marathons and I was always trying to stay fit and I would go to gyms and you notice in a gym, everyone’s using pen and paper. You’ve seen the trainers writing things down, saying, man. And I used to work on Wall Street as a programmer, I said, where’s the digital side? Even in 2001, they seemed to be a little behind the times. And I said, this has to be an opening. So I just saw there was a demand for that because I could just make things more digital right from the opening bell. And then at that time, you know the newest, you know you had mobile apps were sort of new and texting, etcetera. So I started building the product, leveraging those types of technologies right from the get-go. And again, timing was perfect.
Sydney Sheppard (05:27)
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s great. Can you tell us about some of the like coolest tech updates that you’ve recently added to help health clubs run smoothly?
Larry King (05:38)
Sure, a lot of things with gyms like with any business, it’s a lot of manual effort. So technology can automate a lot of things without getting your employees involved. So some of the coolest stuff we have is there’s a company called Hydra Massage that has massage beds. And sometimes having those things is a pain for a gym to operate. Guys to come in, gotta find out if he has rights to use the massage bed, walk him over.
With our software, a member can buy a membership and for an upsell of say $10 a month, they’ll now have access to get a code and they can walk to the massage bed and turn the machine on with no employee involvement. So, and it’s really a big time saver and sometimes things like that are a pain for a gym to have if you got to do it manually. This is all automated with no member involvement.
So that’s one of the neat tech things we have. We have the ability where a member can buy a membership online, and then it goes to an upsell screen to say, hey, if you like this membership, would you like to get five training sessions? And usually sometimes your employees are not the best at selling, believe it or not. So you’re letting software just gravitate different upsell choices to the member.
Some other great tech things, custom forms, the ability to dynamically ask your members questions, know, what classes do you like? How would you rate this class that you just did? And that’s great feedback to get. And I’m sure as we go through this podcast, I’m gonna talk about some other great features that my product, ShapeNet, provides. That’s just a small sampling.
Sydney Sheppard (07:32)
Yeah, totally. I think anytime you can automate something, even if you have like the best people ever, automating is just always going to be helpful in some way, shape or form. So that’s awesome. That’s very, very helpful. I’m sure for a lot of people, a lot of businesses too that are like small gyms or like small facilities who don’t have a ton of people who are able to do and like say all the things that they want to say to people. That’s great.
So I’ve seen on some of the things that ShapeNet does. Could you expand and tell us about how ShapeNet manages memberships, billing, and 24/7 door access?
Larry King (08:15)
Right, and that’s a great question because those are the things that like the billing and the checking that a lot of the staff does a poor job with and it’s a pain, especially if you have to run the billing, the credit card fails, you’re tell the member the card failed. So with ShapeNet, all of this can be automated. Even with the door access, a member could buy a membership online from the website, download the mobile app for that gym and that mobile app gives the member access to the gym, even if you’re not 24/7. And a month later, if they owed money, you couldn’t get in, they could take their phone, update their credit card, make payment and get in with zero employee involvement.
The billing can be run automatically, and when the credit card fails, two things can happen. We have the ability to auto correct some cards that fail. know, sometimes you get a card because the expiration date changed or a card was reissued. We’re able to tap into Visa and MasterCard and automatically create these updates. And we can also text members automatically when their card fails. And typically you remind them the day it fails, lot of times a member would ignore and the assistant will remind them again two days later. And that’s when they’ll say, you’re right. I got to update my card. And they’ll do it. Again, no involvement by the staff. And so they’re minimizing the fails and it helps the people at work at the gym to focus on fitness and asking members, how was the gym experience for you? Instead of going up to them and saying, you owe me money. You know I mean? So it’s all more positive experiences you can provide to your staff. So two things, your staff loves it and the members like it. And that’s just an example and with shape all that can be automated again. So it’s a seamless process.
Sydney Sheppard (10:26)
That’s awesome. I mean, exactly like you said, it makes it a happier experience for everybody involved. Like you said, the employees and also the guests. That’s, I mean, great. want people to enjoy coming and having a good time while they’re at your gym. So that’s great.
Larry King (10:46)
Absolutely, people, you know how people are today, they don’t want a person to call them to say, give me my card. They’d rather do it, I’m busy today, let me do it at night at one in the morning. And you can do it at, because you’re cloud. So it’s very convenient, you know? And that’s how, you know, so it’s a big win, it’s a win-win across the board.
Sydney Sheppard (11:04)
Yeah, convenience is key, definitely. So can you tell us about what tools and services that you offer to boost sales, keep members engaged, and help clubs retain their members as well?
Larry King (11:18)
Right. For any business, sales is key. So a lot of gyms can get their management software and they’ll go out there and get a sales CRM process program. We have one built into ShapeNet. So members can actually register for a tour online or through the Instagram account of the gym or Facebook. Register for the tour, they’ll get a text reminder, and then they can come in, do the tour, and our system will manage, you know, whether it was a sale or not. And if there were no show, the system would continually nudge them to come back in. But most importantly, and this happened so many times, I’ll ask you Jim, how many tours did you do last month? Where did the leads come from? And how many sales did you close? They can’t even answer that basic question. So they’re not able to look at the basic metrics that are driving, well, how successful is your sales process?
So our software makes it easy to measure and manage that and in professional way we’re nudging them to keep them involved with the tour that’s going to take place. So that’s one thing that we have the tour, the sales CRM, keeping members engaged is really important. So if you’re a member of a gym, it’s great to know, what else did the gym offer? So our system can nudge them every couple of days and say, did you know that we have Pilates classes? Do you know we have yoga classes? And it just reminds them in a, not in a salesy way, that they have all these things that are available to them.
And that’s another way to keep them engaged with what I’ve joined some larger gym chains. I haven’t gotten a text from them in a year. I don’t know what they, I mean, it’s just amazing how, so our system, you know, helps that. And we have all the ways to get them engaged by offering them loyalty points. So they’re getting points for doing things like the checking in, doing a training session, a class. And you could make simple prizes like for 25 points, you get a free guest pass for a friend. don’t have to physically give them something, a merchandise item. You could just give them a free training session or free massage. And that might entice them to get a massage package. And again, all this is being done through technology with minimal involvement from the staff that doesn’t really a lot of times like to sell. So again, that’s leveraging technology and those are probably some of the best things with the engagement, all those things collectively.
Sydney Sheppard (14:04)
That’s awesome. Those are, I mean, all great things. I can’t really even say much more than what you said. You sold all the reasons why that’s helpful. That’s awesome.
Larry King (14:14)
Right, and how did I learn this? Just from talking to my clients. They asked for help on this area and being a gym, going to different gyms, I’m seeing, man, I can’t believe they’re not communicating with me.
Sydney Sheppard (14:26)
Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say definitely just from going as like a gym goer, you can totally see the difference in different places that are on top of things versus that aren’t. Like you said, if you sign up for somewhere and you don’t hear from them for forever, you’re not going to remember them and you’re not going to go. You’re going to go somewhere else that’s actually keeping in touch with you and reminding you.
Larry King (14:48)
Exactly. Right. Good point.
Sydney Sheppard (14:50)
And the allowing the little perks to like, oh yeah, free guest pass. Everyone loves stuff like that.
Larry King (14:56)
Yeah, free guest pass, a free training session, a free Pilates class, etcetera.
Sydney Sheppard (15:01)
Yeah, that’s great. That’s awesome. And along with using like your system, you know, a lot of clubs, gyms, places need to be compatible with other systems. So how does ShapeNet stay user friendly and compatible with other systems that the clubs may use?
Larry King (15:24)
Right, so you know, we do integrate to other third party sales CRM, so we do that also, some of my better sales CRMs are out there, even though we have our own product. But another example that I mentioned before, the hydromassage units. We’re able to, most gyms have them independent of their software. We’re able to make it a part of our software and it’s managed through our software. Same with tanning beds.
So those are examples of where we’re working with other third party companies to provide a better service. Another really good one that we work with, work with a company that can help a gym after a member maybe does a class, they’ll send them a text two hours later and ask them for a Google review. But it’ll only upload to Google a five star review.
So it’s filtering it and ensuring that you’re only getting great reviews about your business. So, and that’s a company that we work with that helps gather better reviews for the gym. And you know, any business, your business, my business, client reviews drive your business. So we make it easy for that to happen.
Sydney Sheppard (16:44)
That’s amazing. That’s great. Excuse me. Excuse me. Yeah, definitely getting positive feedback from your clients that can help businesses so much. It’s just like any sort of thing that you go to like research, whether it be a gym you’re going to go to, something you’re going to buy like a product for your home or for yourself, like anything like that. Everyone is always looking at reviews and trying to find the best that they can get.
That’s super helpful for businesses, definitely.
Larry King (17:09)
I could talk forever about how great I ShapeNet is to help, but there’s nothing better than to get a client to endorse your product or service that you’re selling. And we’ve done that. We’ve worked hard to get that. And there’s nothing better than that for any business, whether you’re big or small, is to get the client to endorse what you’re offering. That’s priceless.
Sydney Sheppard (17:35)
Yeah, totally. It is priceless. So can you tell us about if a gym switches to using ShapeNet software, how is their member data transferred? What type of support would they get if they were to make that switch?
Larry King (17:50)
Right. You know, that’s probably the biggest bottleneck for someone to change. You know, say Jim has a thousand members and all the credit cards are on another platform and they’re nervous about getting the data moved over and then training the staff on a new software system. So what we do is, and it’s typically a two or three month process, we give them a project manager to help manage this process.
While this is going on, they’re still using their existing software. And we’re telling the gym during this time to clean up your data. What do we mean by cleaning it up? Getting rid of some people that are on your system that really shouldn’t be there. They should be inactive. Getting the cell phone numbers of people, getting the emails. So you’re tightening up the system. And then once everything’s looking good in the pre-conversions, you’ll say, let’s go live Thursday morning. Will get the data Wednesday night and the system will, and this is after everyone’s trained on the software, the data is now securely converted. And remember what we said before that we offer a lot of products and services that help the staff and the members. So typically the staff is looking forward to this because they’re now getting a piece of software that’s gonna make their job easier.
So they’re motivated to go through the whole process as opposed to, it’s a pain. I got to go to a new software system. you know, so we try and really stress that, that this is going to make your life better. So that’s the all important conversion process. And I think the unknown is what keeps people sometimes saying, I’m not going to change. So we try and, or at least I do, when my sales reps try to explain that process. And, and that’s how it’s done.
You know, so that’s such an important part. And then we have ongoing support during the whole process. And we could even send somebody there on site for the day you go live to make you feel even more comfortable.
Sydney Sheppard (20:02)
Yeah, that’s super helpful. That’s amazing. Especially if someone has a ton of data. I mean, like you said, just doing any sort of data movement definitely can be stressful. So ensuring that they have like a super easy process of doing that, someone to support them, help them through the switch. And then also, like you said, once they make the switch, having someone there who will continue to help is very, very valuable.
And can you tell us about how you gather and use client feedback to improve ShapeNet?
Larry King (20:37)
Yeah, this is really important because we continually, you we have our support team and we’re always asking our clients, how are things going? And what we want to do is optimize any process. You know, classic examples like trainer payroll. We’ll talk to some gyms and they say, it takes me an hour to do it. And we’ll say that we can automate that whole process. So really it’s just a matter of us listening to a process that might take the staff maybe an hour to do something, maybe once a month they spend two hours. then we go through this, usually half the time we tell them, well, with our system, could, you could, that could be automated right now, but we can look at what they’re doing and change our software on some changes that we mutually agree on to make the process even better. And that’s how the auto billing came into play. used to be, you know, five plus years ago, and have to run the billing manually every day, you know? Now we’ve been able to automate the process. So those are examples of how you just have to listen to your client about the pain points. And once we do a good job and they like it, what do you get? You get a raving fan out of them. And then they endorse that. And then when we go to other demos, we mention how we saved their time. And once you can connect with a prospect that is doing all that manually, it’s a home run basically, because can see how we can immediately make their lives better.
Sydney Sheppard (22:07)
Yeah, I feel like every person that I talk to about working with clients, like, of course, the main most important thing is just listening to what they’re actually asking for and making those adjustments to help make things easier, more seamless for them. So that’s amazing. That’s great.
So can you tell us what future tech trends are you currently seeing and how is ShapeNet getting ready for all of those changes and trends?
Larry King (22:38)
Right. That’s a good question. Everyone’s looking at that next thing. What’s really important. I think everyone knows about this AI, right? And sometimes they don’t know what does it really mean? And so we’re working with another company that is able to produce workouts on demand that asks the prospect a couple of questions and an automated workout can be generated based on what they want.
Now without the AI, so it gets scary because that person who was creating the workout is not really needed right now. But that person can go to a different area of the gym and sometimes that’s the pain, right? So the AI is going to create the workouts on demand. as the member, and you could do this when someone signs up to do a tour and say, you know what? We’re going to give you a free workout based on what you were looking for before you even joined the gym. So we’ll give you a free day pass. So that’s probably the most exciting thing we’re working on with a vendor that produces the AI workout on demand. And we pulled into our software so the member can access it from our mobile platform. It’s pretty exciting stuff. And it’s scary because it’s new, but you know, I think 20 years ago they said computers were gonna, you know, replace so many jobs, believe it or not, it created more jobs because there’s other, there’s support, there’s training, there’s blah, blah, selling, you know. So really I think AI is gonna just open up the avenues of other areas. So I think it’s best if people don’t fear it. They really embrace it and see how they can work in other side areas to maximize the AI. And that’s one specific example in the fitness world. Generate the workout automatically.
Sydney Sheppard (22:43)
Yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s great. And like you said, I think, yeah, people shouldn’t necessarily like fear it because also with that specific example, it’s like the workout can be created, which is amazing within, you know, just some answers being, or some questions being answered of what someone’s looking for, but you’re still going to need the actual trainer in person to like help with that actual workout and show people how to do things. And so there’s still a need people while utilizing the AI. So it’s a very good combination, I think. I think it can be used in a lot of great ways.
Larry King (25:19)
Right. And that’s a good point. Cause you get the AI work and you might want to meet with them once a week with a trainer to say, how is it going? And maybe the AI workout needs to be tweaked for them because it’s not being their goal. So you’re going to always need that member in that, that interaction with the trainer. It’s just that it automates more things in a, professional way. That’s really phenomenal. You know, phenomenal. It’s a, it’s, it’s an on demand adjustment as you evolve through the workout progressions.
Sydney Sheppard (25:51)
Yep, efficiency, keep coming back to efficiency. just helps with that. It’s amazing.
And let’s see, can you tell us about a client where they let you know that you made a very significant impact for their business?
Larry King (26:08)
Right. It’s a great question. you know, and that’s what our priority is to try and help gyms and change their business in a positive way. So we have a gym called Bayshore Fit in Tampa Bay, Florida. And she gave us a really great review and we’re very proud of it. But most importantly, we worked with her. It has been a long time client. And she’s just said recently that through our technology, she said it in the review, we changed her life. Because the things she was doing manually, such as the billing, signing people up, automating the texting and member engagement. This has been all automated for her business. And she started with probably, I’m going to rough some numbers, maybe three or 400 members. And now she’s so she’s doing so well. She has capped her gym membership at a thousand members.
There’s a waiting list to get in. And she stated that ShapeNet software was able to automate most of the things that she had to do manually. A great plus for her business.
Sydney Sheppard (27:24)
That’s amazing. That’s actually crazy to think that she had to cap the amount of members that she could have because of how your business helped her. That’s wild.
Larry King (27:35)
Right. There’s a waiting list to get in and it’s a, it’s a, it’s a very, you know, it’s a win-win and we continually, we still work with her to try and optimize a process that can help her. But just by, and you know, initially she didn’t take some of these services we offered and then she finally started taking them and you know, some, you know, once you dive in, you see the value and hopefully because of her, I can now talk to other clients and say, hey, look how we help this gym. You should really leverage these services because it’s going to really have a big impact on your business.
Sydney Sheppard (28:11)
100%. That’s amazing. For this next question, all leaders, all people want to have the opportunity to tell potential customers one big thing, or if only they knew this one thing, what would that be for you? What do you wish you could tell people?
Larry King (28:29)
Yeah. And you know, this has been around for a bit and like, you know, it’s the video fitness solutions that are out there. And it became really hot during COVID because people were able to access workout remotely. And then when COVID sort of, you know, it passed through and we got back to normalcy, the videos sort of got pushed away again. And I think the gym industry sees the fitness videos as a threat to their business because they think, if they get the video work out, why they going to come into the gym? In reality, it’s a great supplement. And I’ll give you a good example on how good gyms that are using it, a lot of our clients do this. They might offer a live class in the gym and it might be 30 people and they’ll record the class and create a video of it and tell their members they have access to this class for another seven days using the mobile on demand. So they might miss a great class, but they’re always going to have access to it. The videos with our libraries can include professional instructors. Maybe the gym doesn’t have a Pilates instructor or a yoga instructor. There’s a way to offer that service to your members through our platform.
So I think gyms wrestle with whether it’s a competitor to them when it’s really not. It’s really like a great upsell. And a great example is take a thousand member gym. You might say for $5 a month, you have access to 400 high-end videos anytime you want. If you got say 20% of your members, 200, paying $10 more a month for that, that’s $2,000 more a month for the gym. And you’re giving them more fitness with less employee effort. Because the video requires no effort from the trainer. So there’s many ways to do it. And I think gyms have to think that through. Many of them are doing it, but a lot of them don’t do it effectively. So hopefully I gave some good examples on how it can be leveraged and it’s a great upsell and it’s offering great service to the members of the gym.
Sydney Sheppard (30:56)
Yeah, no, I think that’s a great example. I definitely hear the value in that. So that’s amazing. So we’ve come to the end of this podcast discussion. Before we kind of wrap up, I just wanted to ask if there’s any, any last thoughts or any last things that you wanted to share.
Larry King (31:15)
Yeah, two things. You know, we offer, you know, even though I mentioned the automated billing, we also have a call center that can manage the entire billing process. You can actually run the billing. If the billing fails, the old fashioned way that still works, call the members, text them, email them, can even handle the cancels and try and encourage the member to stay in the gym. These are all, and after 60, 30 plus days, 60 plus days, send the account to collections. These are all the things that most gyms do terribly because they’re not in the billing business. So we just put a process in place and the end result is you’re going to collect more money and handle this process in a much more professional way. So that’s one important thing we offer. And we also have the ability to pass the credit card fee to the member.
So you take a gym that has maybe processes $50,000 a month in credit cards, their merchant bill is going to be, say, net $1 a month. If you notice, a lot of businesses will pass that fee to the member now. And it’s a great way to offset that bill, but with Shaped Net, the member, you can avoid that fee by putting your account on what they call ACH. That means you’re going to debit the members bank account and you could avoid the fee. But it’s a great way to minimize a monthly expense from the gym. So they’re all tied into billing and that’s really an important part to any gym because the net is we can help you collect more money and we can also minimize any kind of bill that you have related to money, which is a win-win for any business.
Sydney Sheppard (33:07)
That’s awesome. Yeah, totally. I like how you just said, help them get more money by all of the great, you know, automations and things that you have in your platform. It also saves money in certain areas. So totally win-win.
Larry King (33:17)
Absolutely. And we have reports to tell them, you know, what your fail percentage is. And I think there’s stats out there that a well-run gym, the fail rate should be about 10%, whatever it is. That’s like a good benchmark. So there are some gyms that are, maybe the fail rate’s 20%, they need help. There are some gyms that doing it very well. And the ones that are doing it very well, guess what? They probably have an employee working 20 hours a month doing this. So we can replace that person that’s doing that. There’s so many ways to, you know, back to what you said before too, the automation we provide. You know, we optimize employee productivity and we automate more things. That’s really the keys to a well-run business.
Sydney Sheppard (34:06)
Totally. That’s amazing. I love that. And a final question, where can people go to learn more about ShapeNet and also contact you or your team if they want to have a discussion with you?
Larry King (34:18)
Right, my name is a very easy name to remember. I’m the Founder and CEO, Larry King. My name’s not Mick Jagger, it’s Larry King. But, and you just go to my website, shapenetsoftware.com. Or go to SourceForge to find me too. And I mean, that’s really the best way and just go there and learn a little bit about us through the website, submit a demo request. And it’s simple as that.
Sydney Sheppard (34:47)
Awesome. And you can find you on LinkedIn as or people can find you on LinkedIn as well, right, Larry King?
Larry King (34:52)
Yep. We’ll be on LinkedIn. I have my personal account, my business account on LinkedIn, on Facebook. My business is on Facebook. We’re also on Instagram or on all the standard social media accounts. So you can find me in many different ways. When I started this 20 years ago, there was no Facebook. There was no Instagram. So we really started on this ground floor. It’s really, it’s been an amazing ride to get to this point. You know, everything that’s been around, and I’m sure in 10 years, there’ll be things we don’t even know about that are gonna be an integral part of any business. You know, it’s just amazing how fast it’s moving.
Sydney Sheppard (35:33)
Yeah, that’s so crazy. Yeah, it’s crazy to think about. Crazy. I’m sure when you started, you did not think that AI would be something you’d be incorporating in your business now.
Larry King (35:44)
Not at all. Exactly. It’s exciting, you know? And in order to really grow any business, you have to be willing to change and evolve. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. So you want to evolve. And that’s one of the most important things for anybody now, is that you have to be able to evolve. You can’t just stay where you are. if you, that gets, you know, people can get intimidated by that, but really, once you start doing it, it keeps you, it keeps you moving and then it’s exciting. You just, you try to look at patterns of success, you know, and that’s all you’re doing. And there are core patterns that you can still rely on that drive success.
Sydney Sheppard (36:28)
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say it’s definitely, it’s exciting having changes. keeps things interesting, I’m sure for you, for doing this for so long, adding in, changing things is definitely fun and exciting. And then you’re also able to provide more value to your customers. So it’s awesome.
Larry King (36:44)
Absolutely, that’s it. Right, you said it best, value. People are looking for value. People will pay for value. And that’s as simple as that. You try to provide value to help your customer and that’s the net of it. That’s what you strive for
Sydney Sheppard (37:00)
Awesome. Well, this was a great conversation. I loved getting to learn more about ShapeNet, hear all the great things that you guys are doing. Thanks for talking with me today, Larry.
Larry King (37:10)
Thank you very much. It was great to be part of this. Thank you.
Sydney Sheppard (37:14)
And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in to the SourceForge Podcast. Make sure to subscribe and stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B podcasts.