Wearables, Fintech & Expanding Use Cases with Nathan Elliott of Statis Ring

With a career that covers both media and technology, Nathan Elliott applies a diverse mix of skills as the President and CEO of Statis Ring, a smart ring platform that delivers a contactless features such as business card networking, access control and tap payments. He is a visionary, an innovative strategist, and a mobile technology expert. He understands the systems and infrastructures that are vital for creating long-term value in the mobile tech space. A serial entrepreneur, Nathan strives to be an inspirational thought leader on representation and the changing face of entrepreneurship. He has also dedicated his work to empowering underserved individuals and communities to act and proactively be the change they want to see.

His mobile app launch on the app store and google play Aug 1st. Order your ring now on our website. www.statisring.com

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Transcript

00:00.00
wearabletakeover
Um, all right, all right? All right? It's another episode of wearable takeover I am your host laisha greenwade also known as coach l also the. Founder of wearable tech ventures. This is an exciting time because this episode actually will publish and launch on the first day of a global wearable tech hackathon known as tech remix. You can get details and learn more about it and if you missed it catch the photos and all the prays on Linkedin at wearable tech ventures as well as http://wwwwwdotwarabletechventures.org but I'm incredibly excited today because one of the things we've done is we've launched a. Founder ambassador program and we have founders from all over the world that we've identified as folks that we want to work with over the next year and building this amazing network building collaboration innovation just sharing stuff is one of the the best. Group masterminds if you will and they get direct advisory support from our supreme advisors at wearableton ventures so folks I share that because now we're going to journey to Canada yes I know some of you may be thinking. Where I'm going to go if stuff hits the fan in the economy. But anyway, no, there's some amazing innovation here out of Toronto canada and so to my verable takeover community whether you're listening or whether you're watching please join me virtually by entered or by welcoming Nathan Elliot of that is welcome Nathan we are so excited to have you join our founder ambassadors you are going to be our Canada representative I said really really big deal.

01:51.40
Nathan Elliott 
Thank you, Thank you? Thank you appreciate it.

02:08.34
wearabletakeover
And so basically Nathan's going to be holding the wearable tech ventures flag. He's going to be representing us in Canada helping to stimulate. Um, the awareness of what we're doing and stimulate participation in our programs. But then also we're supporting him and he has some amazing things that he's doing. And I want to share that but before we get into all the techie stuff nahan um, why don't you tell us a little bit about young Nathan who is young Nathan where did Nathan grow up. Um, what was he into what were your interests and I think this is important because.

02:39.94
Nathan Elliott 
He.

02:46.68
Nathan Elliott 
What is.

02:46.82
wearabletakeover
We're also in a season where we're going and we are putting a lot of resources into youth around. Um the usa and it's important for them to understand that there's different stories and different journeys into tech so help us understand young Nathan. And then we'll get to what you're doing right now.

03:05.17
Nathan Elliott 
Alright, well thank you, thank you so much I appreciate the introduction and um I mean let's get started. Why not? um so the young Nathan was the professional actor.

03:18.78
wearabletakeover
Wow.

03:21.54
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, like for about since I was seventeen years old up until 24 25 I took on acting like hardcore I was traveling cross country for shows for gigs for feature films. You know, whatever.

03:27.49
wearabletakeover
Um, um, um.

03:37.92
Nathan Elliott 
Whatever I fat fit the role. You know what I mean and I mean having an agent in in the in the Us helped me a lot to yeah, just um, get in front of people and see what the world's like so I have a huge media background in in front of the camera and behind the camera.

03:42.43
wearabletakeover
Now.

03:54.84
Nathan Elliott 
And I graduated from acting school.

03:56.46
wearabletakeover
Wait a minute This is amazing. Okay, so acting school so tell us about that like when did you start acting school. How did you choose in all of that stuff.

04:04.11
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, no I decide in I don't know after high school I was helping my drama teacher teach per class because yeah and I was getting a math credit.

04:14.72
wearabletakeover
Um, wow.

04:20.14
Nathan Elliott 
And to replace that because I would not I would leave my math class and my drum with teacher asked if I can come to her class teach the her class so they made an arrangement to get me a credit during that time so leaving school I had a very.

04:30.80
wearabletakeover
Um, wait wait so you negotiate it early so you thought both people feel literally. Okay, okay, keep going keep going.

04:37.80
Nathan Elliott 
So yeah, coming out of school. They really pushed me to go to toronto film school. They thought I was a great candidate So I got accepted I got into film school. It was a life changinging experience for me I feel like I need to like understand myself a little bit more. That's what I always tell.

04:52.57
wearabletakeover
Um, w.

04:55.91
Nathan Elliott 
People that think about going to act in school like you need to understand yourself a little bit more try it because you understand more than enough and you'll find out a lot about yourself. So I think I needed that Regardless if I was pursuing the career or of acting or a I was just doing it as a hobby it very very helpful for me. So.

05:09.43
wearabletakeover
Um.

05:14.12
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah I did that and then graduated from film school in 2008 I would say yeah and um, going from there. It was everything kind of went uphill I was doing like commercial gigs Gmc commercials like huge commercials and um.

05:18.73
wearabletakeover
No.

05:33.92
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah I did a ah commercial that the Gmc ad that played during the super bowl. Yeah, and that and that check was pretty much um, the biggest check I've ever seen as an actor. So.

05:37.10
wearabletakeover
Really.

05:46.76
Nathan Elliott 
Instead of doing what everybody else did was like take it spend it all and do it and travel or whatever I'm like how can I like kind of invest this because acting was always um, is like.

05:54.25
wearabletakeover
Um.

06:00.84
Nathan Elliott 
So almost like working from paycheck to paycheck. You're always like just trying to run to the next audition trying to get the next gig and you may not get the next gig so it was tough for me to see any thing ahead 5 years ahead 10 years ahead and um so I sat down with somebody a very smart person. Um.

06:01.32
wearabletakeover
Um, yeah. Um, right.

06:12.92
wearabletakeover
11

06:19.99
Nathan Elliott 
Said you know like have you thought about getting into business and I mean mind me I was just doing a little bit of coding a bit of website development at the time. So I'm like you know that sounds like a good idea. Why not? So um I got together with um, a friend of mine and we. Kind of sat down and we thought about some business ideas and nothing came nothing I was flat empty. So anyways, a week went by and um, ah things got really tough with acting I couldn't afford my own key Fob to get into my building and then.

06:54.30
wearabletakeover
Um, remove.

06:56.60
Nathan Elliott 
That is a low point that I was that I couldn't even afford to you know, copy the key to get into my building. So um, me and my innovative self I just decided let me see if I can make this on my own because I was getting so much hassle from the building to get my own key. So I said let me make it on my own.

07:11.17
wearabletakeover
You have won.

07:15.22
Nathan Elliott 
Called Aliexpress I mean I ordered ah ordered ah a copier and got an r id chip and my friend printed a 3 d a piece of plastic with his 3 d printer upstairs and I just stuck everything together next day I was in and out my building. No problem.

07:25.77
wearabletakeover
Um, wait a minute wait minute. This is amazing and getting into his story and and folks before forget let me read a little bit of his bio because I got excited. Normally I read all of our um, our folks bios when they when they none join the episode and there's so much to unpack just from what you just shared there Nathan hope allow me to remix the way I'm doing today's episode so let me just read this with a career that covers both media and technology naep and elliot applies a diverse. Mix of skills which he's already demonstrated in this reenttro as the president and Ceo of status room a smart ring platform that delivers a contact with features such as business card networking access control and tap payments. He is truly a visionary. Innovative strategist in a mobile technology expert. He understands the systems and infrastructures that are vital for creating long-term value in the mobile tech space a serial entrepreneur making strives to be an aspirational leader on representation and changing the face of entrepreneurship. Really that meant inspirational folks to forgive me is the congestion so he also had dedicated his work to empowering underserved individuals and communities to act and proactively be the change. They want to see Nathan already I can tell that that you're doing that your working and purpose and I have to share this because. 1 of the things I've noticed in this if I could call it a game right? because it's almost like a cycle people want boundariers to go through. Um, there is a period of development in certain cases. There's a period of waiting and I don't know. Do you know the story of Arnold Schwartznegger so

09:16.10
Nathan Elliott 
Yes.

09:19.91
wearabletakeover
Are you familiar like before he was actually he was in the real estate and that helped to sustain his career right? So he had he had income coming in and so founders. Um I when I spoke at the Pennsylvania women's conference I talked to Dr soon.

09:23.33
Nathan Elliott 
Yes, yes.

09:38.60
wearabletakeover
Businesswoman and other founders and one of the things I told him is that if you will not commit at least None ars to your vision or to your product journey don't even get started. Don't even get started and hopefully it doesn't take 7 years but there's a lot of things that can happen in 7 years and one of the things I like about your journey Nathan that is similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he started was that he knew that especially being in the acting world things can come things can go. You could be broke.

09:53.52
Nathan Elliott 
Hopefully.

10:08.91
wearabletakeover
But he got into real estate and that real estate income helped to sustain him through that particular journey and so our founders as you are working on your product development and as you are seeking founding and preparing yourself so that you can receive that it's important to have another strema income and so.

10:12.79
Nathan Elliott 
Yes.

10:28.32
wearabletakeover
Um, if you look at the link tree that is affiliated with me when a lucky fit or whatnot. There's some opportunities there for you to gain some income as an affiliate or working on investing and some other things to support you. Because the more well-rounded you could be um and not have to rely so much on other sources for income. The better office going to be and I'm I'm saying this because the journey we hope we can make this journey easy for you but things happen and we're still developing and so Nathan. Um, let's talk a little I mean so you said that was a low point for you and you could not afford your key.

11:10.46
Nathan Elliott 
My own key fo think that was a point where I mean I couldn't figure it out I just couldn't figure myself I think it was a big I I realized that it was a problem with myself and I realized that I need to change a few things.

11:24.29
wearabletakeover
Um.

11:28.88
Nathan Elliott 
Along with building something valuable along with building something of value I alongside that parallel to that I started reading every day for about 2 hours books within the field that I wanted to be be in i.

11:31.11
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

11:39.37
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, yes.

11:48.80
Nathan Elliott 
I started listening to audiobooks instead of music that's a big. The big thing is like I literally replace music with Audiobooks because music is the frequency. It's that it's the what we listen to. It's what we we get information from music as much as people don't like to think but like that that's.

11:49.14
wearabletakeover
There.

12:06.11
wearabletakeover
Well.

12:07.70
Nathan Elliott 
That's all it Works. So if we can just you know it's what you feed yourself on a daily basis that that matters and makes the biggest change. So um, yeah reading Audio books just ah, you know going a network and introducing myself to people that I wouldn't really introduce myself to just and getting out there. That's ah. 3 of the biggest things I've done and that have changed a lot for me.

12:27.73
wearabletakeover
I Love it. So basically if we sum it up, you made a pivot and decided to invest in yourself and you knew you were going to transition careers and I think that's important for especially the folks that we're targeting when we talk about these underrepresented communities.

12:33.25
Nathan Elliott 
Correct. Absolutely.

12:46.31
wearabletakeover
And hopefully you know identifying our None founders by 2030 is that everyone may not come from a traditional it or tech background There are many people that may transition in their careers and so you took it upon yourself to invest in your self. Which is why he's None of our founder ambassadors folks and telling we got people that represent that message that we're trying to to relay to the public and I love that so you're reading so okay, really quickly not None books and I'm putting you.

13:16.95
Nathan Elliott 
Top 3 blocks.

13:20.90
wearabletakeover
Top 3 books that you think people should should read or listen to right now. Okay I love it. He got him ready he said I'm not just going 10 Yes.

13:22.60
Nathan Elliott 
How to think and grow rich thinking grow rich sorry how to influence anyways, right here we got how to win friends and influence people is a book that I read every year yeah every single year.

13:38.40
wearabletakeover
Oh Wow. Okay.

13:40.50
Nathan Elliott 
Thinking rich by Napoleon Hill and another book that I'm reading right now is the lean startup I think anybody that's running into startup world and wants to understand the ins and outs of a startup is the lean startup by Eric Eric Rees is pretty much the best startup book I've ever read because. It talks about his ah the inception of how he got the idea how they worked through their customer acquisition and just very detailed information on how you should run a startup and the mistakes they made. So um, yeah I those are my 3 favorite books I'll say.

14:15.15
wearabletakeover
I love it. Okay, so a couple of thoughts going through my mind and people if you've listened to wear. We'll take over before you know that I have the audacity to ask by the way you could get my book. It's in a July on him as a. But um, but Nate it. So I'm thinking here I have ah a founders and leaders book and podcast club. So I think we'll be awesometin to bring on as a co-host for a couple of months throughout the year and then I'm thinking it might be kind of awesome to put all of our founder ambassador stories into a book and and you know we.

14:39.57
Nathan Elliott 
So.

14:49.60
wearabletakeover
So that for each iteration for each. Ah um, cohort if you will we package that so we get all the founder ambassadors so we have year 1 year two you know what I mean and so you know just just come now here. So I got the audacity to ask which you think about that you think about.

14:53.14
Nathan Elliott 
Oh.

14:58.54
Nathan Elliott 
F.

15:03.98
Nathan Elliott 
Oh that's ah know Honestly, it's good. That's a goal. Let's do it I Any any way there's you got to see something the educational systems messed up like that. This is the new way of learning people will come here to like learn as much as they possibly can instead of going to school.

15:08.22
wearabletakeover
Um. Um, yes, no. Um, yes.

15:23.90
Nathan Elliott 
And that's how I looked at it like when I was learning about entrepreneurship and and being a founder and how to how to create a financial model I did not go to a accounting school I did not go to school to create the model but I learned so I think as as much information as you can put out.

15:33.66
wearabletakeover
Yes.

15:40.19
Nathan Elliott 
There's much help that you can get that's that's perfect I Think that's my opinion. That's perfect, perfect for founders.

15:43.23
wearabletakeover
Um, yeah I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's talk about this key Bob so you couldn't afford to keep Bob now when you made your own and so you use some things such as None d printing and and some other things that you were able to purchase by the way folks. Talk about maker spaces on another episode of wearable take overs to make sure you tune into that and so you started with a focus on the keep up you scale to None users and None commercial buildings. So walk us through that process of. I can't afford this I'm a make this and now I've got 2 commercial buildings and customers.

16:20.77
Nathan Elliott 
Um, are nice I like that I like that. Um, so ah, moving forward I basically got like all my neighbors wanted to or like purchase he fot for me. So what I did was I sold it for half price which. Which made a lot of sense because you go downstairs. It's $80 and you come to me. It's 40 so um I realized that this is a business and the next day actually I'll say the next night I created um a yellow flyer in the shape of a parking ticket kind of on the.

16:41.56
wearabletakeover
Um, okay.

16:56.38
Nathan Elliott 
Front of the flyer said do you need a key fob and what I did was.

16:57.34
wearabletakeover
I. Okay, so I just cut Nathan off because I had a cough and attack people. This is real life. We're in a midst of all these termss coming back into the city and I'm fighting them in the midst of you know, preparing for tech remix. But Nathan you were talking about how. You developed this Bob and you made it have price for people in your building and and you said it with eighty bucks you made it forty continue on with that story.

17:21.93
Nathan Elliott 
Yep, yeah, so we made it forty bucks and then I would say that night we took it upon ourselves to do some gorilla marketing and what we did was we created a flyer. Shape and size of a parking ticket on the front of the flyer it was it said do you need a key fob it was hella yellow and what we did was at four o'clock in the morning we went to the building next door and plastered every car from p five to p one.

17:41.70
wearabletakeover
I do.

17:47.62
wearabletakeover
I.

17:58.98
Nathan Elliott 
So all 5 parking levels and um I mean next day we got a call from police saying we don't trespass we might call from the building. This is maybe like five so five years ago so

18:06.27
wearabletakeover
Um, are you inspired when did that a call from police and what year was this ok.

18:18.83
Nathan Elliott 
Five years ago when we just kind of started kind of experimenting with the space and but yeah, we needed to get the word out in ah in an area that was full of condominiums so that was the best idea to let everybody know the best way. Um, anyways, yeah so police called buildings called and the most important call was customers.

18:35.82
wearabletakeover
Who.

18:38.27
Nathan Elliott 
And I would say that was about $3800 in sales. Um, just in that one day. So I applied by the end of the day. Yeah yeah, thirty eight hundred

18:40.72
wearabletakeover
Um, Wow Yeahll Skip over there those more that people need to hear that soon one day you get a call from the police then you' make how much again.

18:58.25
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, selling key fobs. So I was just building to building person to person just by the end of the day. That's how much it was and it was insane. So what we did but of course of course I My friend.

19:05.58
wearabletakeover
What department management say did I say you're aringing on their security honey.

19:15.38
Nathan Elliott 
Owns ah owns the the company that has the tvs in the elevator right? and it's called Max Tv so they have Tv's in your elevator like giving you advertisements as you're going up and down the elevator and I got him to make ah make ah um, an ad that says do you need a key for.

19:23.93
wearabletakeover
Um, the.

19:32.86
Nathan Elliott 
It's a d to key Fob and it had all my stuff on it and all the different fobs we had and he said that almost every property manager that he had a great relationship with told him to shut this shit down. Get it.

19:45.60
wearabletakeover
Are.

19:50.40
Nathan Elliott 
Who is this person trying to promote key fobs in the same in the vicinity where we're trying to sell key fobs and make our money so because there's like no, there's no regulate regulatory behind it I mean anybody can just go and buy 1 downtown or wherever they want to copy their key fob. We just made it available.

19:54.71
wearabletakeover
Um, ah.

20:07.44
wearabletakeover
Um, then.

20:09.50
Nathan Elliott 
Right? It's like available really like to the 2 residents. Um, so so yeah, that was good. Yeah, um, so yeah, that that was a few signs of like product market fit if you want to call it that in a sense right.

20:14.76
wearabletakeover
Cost you don't make food available. We just made a t Bob available the word.

20:25.20
wearabletakeover
News.

20:28.58
Nathan Elliott 
So what I did was we went to Silicon Valley we took the business. We took the idea we took all our our key fobs and we went to the valley to pitch investors because we it was me and this and this one other guy that was like kind of running around with me trying to do the sales cause I couldn't do it by myself.

20:37.33
wearabletakeover
And when you're saying we what does that team look like.

20:46.15
wearabletakeover
Ah, yeah.

20:48.15
Nathan Elliott 
And he was. He just lived in my building so I'm like you know what? let's go to Silicon Valley let's let's try to like you know at least we can talk to investors and see how they see what they think about this this idea and um, wearable key fobs was unheard of like I mean I only only know maybe None other 2 other businesses globally. We're doing it at the scale that we were doing it at so um, we went to the valley we pitched and the investors looked at my hand and they said what's that there on your hand like and I said it's just a It's just a key fob another one in the shape of a ring and he said I really like it and um tell me more about it. To be honest I couldn't tell them much about it I couldn't because it was just a key up and he's like no, that's that's what you should have brought here. that's what that's what I like and if you can go back to Canada build a business behind this ring. Only come back and we'll invest and that was that was the. All I needed all I needed to hear to go back and start running at full speed with with a specific idea which is this ring letting you into residential residential condos letting you into commercial buildings. And also we also tooled it to let you into Tesla as well. So you can open your head tesla with this right? yeah.

22:05.30
wearabletakeover
Um, yeah, this is amazing. So has so many applications but I want to backtrack a little bit. There's a a number of lessons just in that interaction you believe in yourself enough to say there's something here.

22:15.24
Nathan Elliott 
Oh.

22:22.37
wearabletakeover
I'm gonna put myself in front of investors and although you didn't get the response that hope that you were at none that you were hoping for you got some information that help you to grow your business even further. What tips do you have for our listeners as they. None research investors and prepare to pitch investors for that initial fee bank.

22:47.20
Nathan Elliott 
Ah, None and most important tip that I have is create something of value and align that value proposition with the type of investor you're searching for that is a huge mistake I made.

23:01.86
wearabletakeover
Um, this is.

23:06.76
Nathan Elliott 
Like for at least a year was just searching for investors that were just an investor if you had an investor on your name I was willing to talk to you and that was kind of a waste of time because I got a lot of knows and the reason why was not because of the product wasn't good. It's because it's the wrong investor.

23:20.59
wearabletakeover
Yeah, yeah.

23:23.31
Nathan Elliott 
Just the wrong person he was in Health he in Health tech not in wearable tech or he was in like in commercial or whatever or real estate investor and he's not in wearable tech. So it's about knowing your investor doing your research targeting your investor the right way getting a warm introduction from somebody that.

23:25.14
wearabletakeover
No.

23:41.59
Nathan Elliott 
From somebody on that investor's portfolio is the best way is literally the best way to get in front of an investor. Ah so getting a warm introduction a warm introduction from somebody on that investor's portfolio is the best way.

23:41.88
wearabletakeover
Um, yep. Um, repeat that repeat that far listeners that.

24:00.14
Nathan Elliott 
To get in front of investors and to get and and like get some funding to get that pitch out I mean there's no no other way. It's really hard to connect to investors nowadays through cold email. It's hard to connect even on Linkedin I mean Linkedin. They're very um, responsive to him like when it comes to. Having the whole product and your Mvp is all done but when you just have an idea and you have to like iterate the idea to them through email or whatever. It's very tough so you want people to understand your space. You want people to understand how hard it is to.

24:31.21
wearabletakeover
Um.

24:34.11
Nathan Elliott 
In that space or as somebody that's already done that already. So then you can be speaking to that person. That's the language they want to speak and yeah, you want to just speak to that that investor like that and that's what what I would give to anybody listening.

24:38.82
wearabletakeover
Listen.

24:46.00
wearabletakeover
Um, I'm glad you shared that because I pick up things from all of our guests as as we're talking and it reminds me that on this journey of building this global Wearables ecosystem. It also includes investors. Nothing on my journey has been wageted. So You guys are pointing to me as much as you're pouring into our listeners and I can tell you that I spent a great deal of money going to speak to investors researching investors. But my intent was a little bit different I was interviewing people because I needed to know who what investors to invite to our table. It will protect men and I think this a lot of people still don't know my name but I thought I want to see.

25:31.22
Nathan Elliott 
Oh.

25:42.36
wearabletakeover
How they respond to me as a black woman just you know just a person with ideas I want to see how they respond to me and based on how they respond I'm reading them to determine if they are able to come to the table and invest in our future founders. For those of you that may be new to the space. There are a lot of people with a lot of money. Not everyone has access to founders. Not everyone has access to deals and None of the beautiful things that we're building here at wearable tech ventures and one of the way we amplify it here is wearable takeover we're. We scrutinize everything and we make sure that those that come to our table have good intentions and have good intentions for our founders and I'm glad you share that story and that understanding that not all investors are the right investors. And that's the other beautiful thing and one of the things I found throughout that journey going coast to coast interviewing. Not only these investors but also a lot of these accelerators and these incubators I was moonlighting and gauging these programs to determine. If they were good partners or if they were good fits and what were their flaws but that's one the beautiful things here about wearable tech ventureers. We did all that groundwork and so we know one wearable tech. We know wearable tech. We aspire to be the number one ecosystem for wearable technology and with all of the genius and with all of the resources we have we want to make sure that you don't have to take that journey that Nathan went on that none time just approaching any investor. And that's also incredibly important with those people to protect our founders I feel here. So thank you for sharing that and thank you for allowing me to slow you down because that's so important on this journey and knowing who to approach when to approach but also.

27:37.16
Nathan Elliott 
No problem. Yeah, that's okay.

27:50.97
wearabletakeover
I Hope that you were able to glean from Nahan's enthusiasm and his fire because that's important too on the Journey. So We're not trying to put out your fire. We're just saying use that fire and use it in wisdom so you got some great information. This investor said. Like that ring go and apply it to that. So Then what happened.

28:12.47
Nathan Elliott 
So I came back to the city. Um, we got to building immediately just like you said off of the energy that we had. We're very motivated to get this out the way and get it done. So as as we're building.

28:23.53
wearabletakeover
We want.

28:30.19
Nathan Elliott 
An application Covid nineteen hit hit us all hard and that was ah ah I don't know we so we decided to sit down and start really discussing how we're going to adjust to Covid nineteen and what's going to happen because I mean a lot of businesses took a hit.

28:31.87
wearabletakeover
7

28:47.26
wearabletakeover
But.

28:49.20
Nathan Elliott 
Right? So and we're a startup so we had a little bit more flexibility than bigger companies I look at it like that when you're nice and small and lean. You can move fast. You can so switch positions shift Gears Harvey 1 and that's what we did. We looked at business cards as in hazard.

28:56.60
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

29:08.58
Nathan Elliott 
As ah I mean as the main way main tool for networking and I mean nobody can really share business cards anymore during the Covid Pandemic right? So we decided to make it contact this and it took us a while to figure out how but we did and.

29:10.97
wearabletakeover
Um, Susan yeah up.

29:25.33
wearabletakeover
Yeah, way to get mine. So folks who you see me will you see our founder na at future conferences and summits and especially our global wearable tech summit. You're gonna have on this status rain boom power of pound at that.

29:27.85
Nathan Elliott 
I.

29:37.82
Nathan Elliott 
Yes, Ah, um, so yeah I mean sharing your business card became a hazard. So What we decided was to to create a new business model take a photo of your business card with. Your cell phone upload it to our application sync your ring with the application. So your user profile. You'll be syncing your ring with the profile and then now once you're out and about your networking you're meeting people. You can tap the ring on anybody else's phone Your business card will pop up.

29:56.50
wearabletakeover
Um, but.

30:12.44
Nathan Elliott 
Ah, contact information will pop up and they can save it immediately and.

30:13.92
wearabletakeover
I Love it I Can't wait to learn this So how does it come like you know is it is it The standard look that you get some insight on you know aesthetics like.

30:19.90
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah I mean a hardware. Yeah sure I mean um so as like how it goes is you just order your ring the order from our website sort of size sizing is from 6 to 12

30:34.28
wearabletakeover
Okay.

30:36.61
Nathan Elliott 
Basically order it off and then once you receive the ring. It'll um, it'll come programmed with your social media or your your networking networking Information. You would go ahead and download the application and activate the ring by using an activation code. And once you do,, You're able to configure the ring. However, you want you can just set it as your business card Alone. You can just set it as your phone number that comes up, you can use our mobile application to show your user profile. So We have a um.

30:58.29
wearabletakeover
I might.

31:08.14
Nathan Elliott 
It looks like linktree I would'd say we have a linktree style user profile where it has your face at the top your profile and then a bunch of links that are connected to to you and just easy access and we found that um contact this is ah growing very fast in the world I mean so. Want to take that to the to the tenth degree now and so we didn't stop there we so we went through business card networking you. We've heard about the access control. But the last pillar is as tap payments. Yes.

31:34.93
wearabletakeover
Yes, yes I just get applying wearables of fintech which is something we really really want to dive into go ahead.

31:45.40
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, so um, being able to use the ring for tap and pay is is heard of as a european thing like that's not really hasn't been adopted yet here in North America but then we're put we're we're pulling our weight right now and getting it done. Um, so we were partnering with.

31:58.37
wearabletakeover
I like it.

32:03.99
Nathan Elliott 
Ah, payment integration companies across the world right now so making it easy for anybody to upload your information your banking information to the ring and seamlessly like just uploading funds and being able to tap and Pay. Um. And making the process as simple as possible for users because we understand that wearable tech is not an easy, an easy thing to adopt I mean just having a ring with no battery is we get a lot of questions behind it so we want to make the process as simple as possible.

32:31.46
wearabletakeover
Um I love it. So folks um I'm not going to ask all those questions about how it works and all that because I want you to go to the website status ringing dot com. We want you to go to the website and people can ask questions and.

32:48.22
Nathan Elliott 
Of course, of course of course, sign up to our newsletter on our website and yeah we release blog posts all the time letting people know about wearable tech and how powerful it is.

32:48.58
wearabletakeover
Maybe even sign up for future product generations right.

32:59.86
wearabletakeover
I Love this I'm I'm so excited about this So what color does it come in.

33:04.65
Nathan Elliott 
Ah, right now it's becomes in black but our color modules will be si silver red and blue. Yeah.

33:12.40
wearabletakeover
I Love this and then you have a new app launch um happening.

33:18.42
Nathan Elliott 
Right now where our app is actually being launched in the app store for August First we have beta versions that we're just testing out right now and we have all all 400 users right now that are going to be testing our beta version and we'll be getting a lot of feedback on.

33:35.31
wearabletakeover
I love it. So nahan a is going to be on site with us virtually and so I hope that especially for those of you that are on None site those that may be listening to this in the future. Did you partake in downloading that app and engaging with the status range that data is important. Your user feedback is important as they continue to develop this product and we want to make sure that the status ring is a success and I can't wait to get mine I cannot wait I'm slowing this light is going to be amazing. So I need one.

34:04.72
Nathan Elliott 
Send you to you soon? Yeah, you have it soon.

34:13.17
wearabletakeover
For myself from my lakekeia Green wave you know website. But then I also need one for wearable tech ventures from a come double with it. This is amazing all right? So so so maple you have an amazing mind. You're able to pit bit obviously able to influence.

34:17.60
Nathan Elliott 
Got you.

34:32.92
wearabletakeover
Um, what do you see in the future for yourself.

34:34.66
Nathan Elliott 
For myself. Um, so ah, I'm still learning I'm still a student I am still a student I'm still learning at a high degree right now I have to actively take. Time out of my days to stay like learning and reading and building and that I don't think I will be letting up on any time soon. I'll say for the next 2 to 3 years as my company grows and as the team grows I'm constantly developing better skills.

34:55.73
wearabletakeover
So will that.

35:02.30
wearabletakeover
1

35:11.83
Nathan Elliott 
And ways to um, run the company in in the best way I possibly can I think that's important for any Ceo to think about is continuously being a student and learning about the the industry that we're in remember, we're not huge companies like Microsoft or you know.

35:27.36
wearabletakeover
Um, yes loss.

35:30.60
Nathan Elliott 
Like we're we're startups so there is a failure rate. There still is a failure rate like as far as you can get as far as you want but you know like there's competition and they will box you out with the right amount of money I mean that's easy to do for bigger companies. So we have to stay lean.

35:40.32
wearabletakeover
Was I.

35:47.50
Nathan Elliott 
Stay learning and you know use every every loss as a lesson instead. Yeah.

35:53.85
wearabletakeover
That's wisdom and and we encourage people to fail fast because failure fast doesn't mean you're a failure actually means you're a success because you're able to move and you're nimble I have to ask this? um.

35:58.62
Nathan Elliott 
Yes.

36:08.74
wearabletakeover
As it relates to a daily schedule of a founder and then also touch on a point related to developing yourself as a Ceo because one of the things I find is that in startups you have many founders and you know they have the label of Ceo. Not developing themselves as a true leader in I think that's what some of the downfall comes from especially as they bring on investors and investors say right? We're moving a leadership out the way we're going to put in and a me Ceo right.

36:42.86
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah.

36:45.65
wearabletakeover
And I don't know if that's ever going to change but I'm hoping that we can influence that so that if our founder ceos want to stay in leadership. They can be equipped to do so So I like what you said about making sure that you're continuously studying. And making sure that you are rounding yourself out so that you also know how to manage people because that that's a tremendous feel and and it's something. That's not easy I've seen a lot of ball managers I used to train.

37:13.64
Nathan Elliott 
That's what I was about to say yep.

37:23.13
wearabletakeover
Managers and there were managers I wanted to get rid of but I just couldn't so thinking about that you know None questions here one. What have you learned from a growing business of managing people and then two we'll get into more about your. Daily scandal some suggestions for founders to build blocks of times for the most important things to help him grow like we say he stuff in the air everywhere. People still stuff hi to why? buy you? Kids don't play. It.

37:48.20
Nathan Elliott 
Yes, ah.

37:56.75
Nathan Elliott 
Um, so what I realized as a founder is as an inventor as well. Might you start in a creative mode.

38:05.48
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, um.

38:11.62
Nathan Elliott 
Start in us in a creative mode and you do not know how long you're going to be creating for just because when you when there is a switch over to manage your mode and creator mode is over with you would have to delegate you' have to make sure you delegate So at least all your creative stuff is.

38:14.74
wearabletakeover
The.

38:24.80
wearabletakeover
Yeah.

38:31.88
Nathan Elliott 
Delegated because you have to then manage and I would say pass the team of 50 they would like that's kind of what I've been reading in articles plus my own knowledge industry insight when you have more of a team of 50 is when you really have to step into Manager Mode. Um. But then there's also like really good creators that can handle it more than the team of 50 and still be in creator mode as Well. I Think that's the biggest thing that I've realized is once you if you do not step and the reason why I'm saying is because if you lose track or lose sight of what mode you're in.

38:53.94
wearabletakeover
Presence.

39:06.81
Nathan Elliott 
Then if you find an investor they're looking to replace you with a manager with somebody that can manage the finances manage the team manage the marketing a lot of management. That's what vcs all is safe I wouldn't say more angels but Vcs are really there trying to scale to 100000000 right so

39:08.56
wearabletakeover
You know? yes.

39:18.70
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, yes.

39:25.50
Nathan Elliott 
They need they need somebody that can manage at you and that's um, if you if any founder doing the right research right now. Um, at the YCombinator ah youtube like startup school is great like wearable take over stuff like these things are are all speaking the same language.

39:41.10
wearabletakeover
Where we.

39:43.46
Nathan Elliott 
And you get to a point of scalability you have to become a manager or you will be replaced. That's all that's all it's very simple. Yeah, it's very simple. Yes.

39:46.65
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, absolutely absolutely but it's important to continuously invest in yourself. I love it. So do you have recommendations because I've shared books with my mentees such as the None a m club and I actually came. From one of our early advisors Amber Ivc shared that book with me. Um, but do you have suggestions for founders as far as how to create blocks of time and what to put into those blocks of time because life could get very blurry.

40:21.66
Nathan Elliott 
Absolutely.

40:24.43
wearabletakeover
You're working on your product especially because I know we're going to have a lot of founders that may be juggling. They may be working and they may be working on their startups. So what? what tips do you have for them to create those blocks and what should go into those blocks so that they could be more effective.

40:38.10
Nathan Elliott 
Sign up for gs suite google immediately sign up for gs suite if you haven't already get your company on there. So it's w it's Nathan at http://statususring.com it's the process and it's actually something that everybody can follow.

40:40.21
wearabletakeover
Are.

40:51.80
wearabletakeover
Um, then you.

40:56.67
Nathan Elliott 
Sign up for G Suite Get your company name. All your employees if you can get emails for them. Get email from them that's over with once you sign up for G Suite You're invited to have a Google Calendar the met the most ah efficient Google Calendar you should possibly have um. And then you start time blocking I start by time blocking What's important to me in the daytime and what's so going to the gym um a time block my lunch time. Ah yeah.

41:16.41
wearabletakeover
Um, there is.

41:29.25
wearabletakeover
I Love all right lunch you got me eat and yeah, are you eating you meeting. What are you doing you know I mean seriously because nutrition is important as.

41:35.52
Nathan Elliott 
And I yeah. Um, yeah, you got you got you? You can't You can't just roll through the day and expect to it the time block working out eating and routines So I have two routines I have a morning routine and evening Routine. So.

41:48.98
wearabletakeover
Um, yes, um.

41:57.30
Nathan Elliott 
Time blocking What's important your workouts you know eating my routines in the morning wake up I meditate I read for an hour I have a good meal and I'll go to the gym usually usually nobody's perfect and if.

42:11.32
wearabletakeover
Wait actually I got to actually put this meditation I use the peloine at but sometimes I use my ah my oculus as well like just I at Bishop Amy for saying that? um do you use tools or do you just meditate.

42:17.53
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, yeah.

42:24.79
Nathan Elliott 
I Know there's different ways. But I think the most disciplined way of meditation is to focus on your breathing because it allows you to to now depend only and solely on yourself which with when when looking within.

42:32.53
wearabletakeover
This is.

42:44.54
Nathan Elliott 
It should be only about yourself. That's how I look at it. So I've told myself not to and I've just like literally sat there and I'll tell you None thing. So once I started doing the like I started meditating it wasn't working out too. Well. Because I just didn't I'm like what what is this? What is this after a month or two I meditate with a book a book on my like on the side and a pen. So I'll open my eyes and write down the inside. It just got through that.

43:02.20
wearabletakeover
Um.

43:10.49
wearabletakeover
Is it. Um, yes.

43:17.48
Nathan Elliott 
And I'll go back into it like I have it's almost like controlled meditation I use it as a way to answer questions that I don't understand it's It's a really really deep thing to me and it's very close to my heart. The reason why is because if I wasn't for that I would not be able to think clearly.

43:22.81
wearabletakeover
Um, you do.

43:33.22
wearabletakeover
Will be.

43:35.20
Nathan Elliott 
And answer the questions that I couldn't answer I don't know I don't know how it just comes down I boom right into Andon's downloaded and I'm like okay, write that down all right? Thank you God and I'm moving on means so but that's how it is. That's how it is. That's how I look at meditation. It's very spiritual. It's almost like a prayer.

43:51.35
wearabletakeover
The.

43:54.10
Nathan Elliott 
It's very similar to it. But it's everybody has their own method everybody thinks differently. Everybody's mind is wired differently. So it's interesting I think it's a journey that everybody every founder any Ceo any leader any leader should take is to find out what's going on within None

44:09.84
wearabletakeover
Um, yes.

44:12.53
Nathan Elliott 
And and only in order to do that you got to meditate you got to sit with yourself close and shut the world off for a None and listen to what's going on inside your mind because you will find some really good stuff and really bad stuff. But it's you got to deal with it that is the whole point of.

44:25.96
wearabletakeover
Discovery Discovery is the key right? and I'm glad I'm glad you talked about this because I got to put a plug in here folks we have retreats for our founders and leaders and so we separate you from the world and so if you're in our network you'll find out about that.

44:29.85
Nathan Elliott 
Exactly exactly it's discovering.

44:44.16
wearabletakeover
Retreat this discovery out in 2023 and we also have a site that in Detroit that does meditative teas and some other things. So it's ah a black female owned business that will be um, you know.

44:46.48
Nathan Elliott 
Yep.

44:59.92
wearabletakeover
With some additional stuff with within our our retreats we have worked with some of the most prominent sites and it's definitely going to be a wonderful getaway. So It's all over the world where we have these particular sites. Make sure you're in our network so you can be invited to that and you can meet links and and maybe case them will lead us in the medication I don't know I just throw out like with people you but are some other blacks where do they fill those blocks.

45:25.43
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, so um tag one.

45:28.98
wearabletakeover
Um, so what else they do so meditat they're going to meditate. We need to eat.

45:39.50
Nathan Elliott 
Yeah, like and like eating eating um just what else is very important like leaders are readers I goness must say this again leaders or readers. It got a read man like there's so much intelligent individuals out there that I've come across. And I would not be able to understand if I didn't read one of my advisors None of my advisors. His name is Ken Ma google him he's on neon linkedin I couldn't pick up a single thing from him because he's so quick he won the None time I met him I had to like.

46:10.14
wearabletakeover
Ah, yes.

46:16.35
Nathan Elliott 
Literally write down everything. He's saying and try to keep up with him just because I was not reading I'll ah straight I tell you that my my my vocabulary wasn't there so that in that that made me want to read more and it it um, intrigued me now.

46:22.48
wearabletakeover
And certainly.

46:35.89
Nathan Elliott 
What day is it July or the None me and Ken are on the calls like going back and forth and I always talk about that because I literally remember the days when I couldn't keep up with him. He's a super smart individual.

46:49.26
wearabletakeover
The.

46:54.60
Nathan Elliott 
And that's why he's one of my advisors and and he keeps me on my toes and now the difference is night and day So I can tell you through experience reading a saved my life.

47:05.53
wearabletakeover
Um I love it I Love it excuse me What was just something this bill looks like so you've dropped so many gems where can our folks find you on social media and online.

47:11.28
Nathan Elliott 
Knows on each.

47:22.30
Nathan Elliott 
Ah, you find me on Linkedin Nathan Elliott status ring I don't have a personal instagram I try to keep away from any distractions or any distortion right now I do have so an Instagram for status ring. It's just statusing at Instagram. Our Tiktok page is is going viral right now. Yeah, it's a status underscore ring and yeah, 5000000 views on some of our posts and 4000000 here and it's haven't seen numbers like that ever so shout out to Tiktok.

47:45.58
wearabletakeover
Um, really.

47:58.23
wearabletakeover
I love it. So folks you've heard it here directly. Hopefully you will meet Nathan when ah during at the end of July during tech remix. We're so excited to have you in our founder ambassador program or this coming year.

48:16.48
Nathan Elliott 
Thank you.

48:16.92
wearabletakeover
This is amazing people I'm I'm so honored to meet she was so honored to have you within our circle make sure you go to statusworing dot com make sure you download his app and of course make sure you stay connected to us continue to share this podcast. Encourage people to download listen to it again is education on the go and then of course make sure you join our ecosystem and if you want to look flat if you want to be real flat because and and they've talked about readers. We got. Search to say this is what a reader looks like we got searchs to say this is what a creator looks like you definitely gotta get the one that says this is what a hacker looks like for July. Okay, so all that stuff is going to be in the show notes. But we're going to say see you later for right now because we're going to see you again real soon. Thank you. So much Nathan for being a guest and thank you to our listeners for being patient as we are navigating all these nasty germs in North america stay safe folks and stay healthy. Um. A.