From Side Hustler to Security Industry Disruptor: Taylor May's Entrepreneurial Journey

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You're listening to Entrepreneurs Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs

of the entrepreneurial journey.

Every week your host Seth Goldstein interviews entrepreneurs

from all walks of life about their entrepreneurial journeys,

from store owners to Fortune 500 CEOs,

we all have stories to tell.

So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes

while we explore the entrepreneurial world.

Hey everyone, welcome to another edition

of the Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast.

I am Seth, as always, with podcast mastery Goldstein media.

And today I have a buddy of mine, Taylor May.

This is his second appearance in the podcast.

And this is good to show how you can take a side hustle

to your main hustle.

Because when he first discovered Taylor,

he was a budding side hustler on the security,

well, it was more of a security podcast SVIP, wasn't it?

And you were kind of just kind of

more of an influence play building stuff out now.

Taylor is the founder and CEO, which he's always been,

but of security VIP SVIP, Austin and As,

a research from dedicated to the version

the gap between manufacturers and users

in the security industry.

And he's been at this for 12 plus years.

So he isn't a fly by night guys and I have some ideas.

Let's talk.

He knows the stuff.

And so Taylor, when did you go full force into this?

Yeah, man, it was about, so actually in my birthday,

September or six months ago, it was like a goal,

goal from mine to make it full time.

And I was able to, the bootstrapped to the point

where I was able to financially support the family

and got the wife blessing.

And that's key, that's key.

Yeah, that's Kate.

Yeah, so I got the approval from her

and I took it full time in September of last year, man.

And best part is now, Kate is joining the company.

That's right, full time.

She'll be the chief strategy officer of the company.

She's been, she's already been working full time

this plus, you know, yeah, just behind the scenes.

Being in mom, being of your two adorable kids.

Thank you.

His daughter, her daughter, for better or for worse,

is a, is a pretty diverse of Taylor.

Yeah, 100%.

Oh my gosh, she looks just like you.

She does, yeah.

My son, I tell my, I tell, I tell Kate,

like, he looks nothing like me.

He looks like, what is he, what is he, what is he like?

Good, because you got one of those just like you.

Yeah, that's, it's funny, it's funny.

So tell us a little bit about what security VIP is now,

not just a podcast, it's so much more.

Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, we started as the podcast

back in 2020, nothing but the truth is the podcast name.

And then, you know, since 2020,

we've evolved in what I call a research firm

in the security industry.

So we still have the podcast of course,

but we do product reviews now,

we do health companies, we do articles,

we do educational content around the security industry,

primarily physical security,

but we do have some cybersecurity content as well.

But, you know, since kind of taking it full time

and doing all this educational content

and helping end users make more informed decisions

about their security and safety posture,

you know, a lot of people are coming to me,

like, yeah, Taylor, we're just kind of,

kind of burned out, man, of the trade shows

in this industry.

Oh my God, yeah.

Yeah, I wish I wasn't there.

You can only have so much swag.

Yeah.

Well, that's the exact reaction, you know,

it's fun, the first round.

Sick around your car, I already got that thumb drive.

I don't need that thumb drive again.

I mean, the word I don't know either.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't need a thousand thumb drives, right?

But from the end user side, you know,

obviously like they go to like some of these shows

and they're just kind of overwhelmed

with the amount of people there in number one.

And number two, they don't feel like their voice

is being heard on this kind of conversations.

And then you push, you can't hear anything

at these damn trade shows any house.

I mean, the voice was wanting to be heard.

They literally can't hear you.

Yeah, it's an assembly line.

It's chaotic, it's noisy, you know,

yada yada yada, the list goes on.

But on the manufacturer side,

which I know you know this as well.

So it's like, it's expensive, man,

to have a booth at some of these shows.

Yeah.

When you're paying the union fees and the shipping

and building your booth and the T&E.

And so for a startup manufacturer that maybe is bleeding edge

or has these cutting-edge technology,

you know, they can't afford a 10 by 10 booth

or a 20 by 20 booth.

You know, if I can't afford a table.

Yeah. And for three days, you know,

or two days show, like they're hoping and praying

that someone stops by, it says,

oh, I've got interest in you're being like,

you know, they are wise always in question.

So it is.

Long story short, I took all that.

Obviously, we still do the research,

but we're just now putting that research element

from the digital footprint to more of a brick

and mortar footprint.

So we're on at the SVIP Security Experience Center.

And this is our attempt to really challenge

and kind of disrupt the whole trade show.

So is this a new physical toe?

Is this going to be like a physical space

as well as an online space?

Yeah, it's roughly 15, 20,000 square feet,

piece of real estate based here in Dallas for worse.

Wow.

It's pretty cool.

We're subject to launch Q4 this year

just outside of the airport.

But we got about 25 manufacturers.

Perfect spot to put it though.

Well, I think so.

The airport people will just fly in.

Yeah, they can go, they can go to their meetings.

So trade shows and they can, on the way out,

they can stop by and see what you got, which is good.

Yeah.

So for manufacturers, it's permanent piece of real estate

for them to have the product all year round

versus a trade show.

I love it.

And it's also online too, isn't it?

Yeah.

We do a bunch of what an e-commerce, not e-commerce,

more podcast, of course, is still online.

I have a studio now.

I'm going to have a studio, finally, for the podcast.

There you go.

I know, I'm excited about that.

But yeah, we'll still do the product testing.

You all respond outside of your house to kind of get out,

you know, get the cobwebs off, finally.

You get it.

Yes, right?

Yes, right?

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

So it's exciting.

And I was, so going back to how I raised capital,

I think before we kicked this off,

I got, I bootstrapped the course,

but I saw an industry friend saw what we were doing

and they wanted to be involved and help me out.

And so I was able to rate a little bit of not dilutive capital

to on board two full-time hires.

I've got my VP business development

and my chief revenue officer now with me full-time.

And the best part about being a founder,

I don't have to give out any equity

to get them all forward.

That's awesome.

So I'm going to take a quick break here

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Which is rare, typically, you know,

you got to go the VC route or family and friends around

and give out, you know, equity and stuff,

but this industry friend just solved the values.

And you know what, I want to help you out, Taylor.

And here's a bucket of money that you can build out.

We'll play with.

Yeah.

Oh, that's fun.

And you're able to bring Kate on.

Your wife, which is awesome.

Correct.

Correct.

And then maybe you'll have your mask on.

It's your kids.

You know, probably not.

Probably not.

What the put them in, like, you know, hats and garbage

and all that good stuff, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, I want the center to be very educational.

So like, honestly, like, I want school districts

to do field trips at the experience center

to really learn about proactive technologies.

So that's our whole foundation is be educational.

I love it.

We're doing it.

We're doing it.

We're doing it.

We're doing it.

Try to be.

You know, we're, we're an independent resource, right?

So we'll have like competing technologies next to competing

technologies.

Yeah.

That really, really benefits the end user.

And I think the other thing that's cool inside these

is experience center is we're going to mock up vertical

environment.

So I'll have like a, a classroom environment, a hospital

environment, a retail store, a casino floor, and they'll have

products inside those environments to really emulate

what a real world environment looks like.

Oh, how much fun.

Oh, it's a play with the big boy Legos.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's awesome.

Oh, that's so cool.

You don't have to come check it out, man.

Once it's open running.

Oh, yeah.

I'm going to get your belt.

So I haven't been to Dallas.

I haven't been to Texas yet.

I don't know why I've never made out to Texas.

I've made it out.

I've been out to Kentucky shockingly.

Never had to Texas.

So how do we get you to have to have you on the podcast, then?

Oh, yeah.

Although I love the podcast.

Absolutely.

So I asked this before, but I asked this again, because what's

the best thing to be honest with you now that you're full

time in it?

You might agree with this.

I mean, I just like working for myself now.

It's nice.

You're on your own boss.

He sets your own task and schedules.

Yeah, I don't know.

Nothing against corporate America or like working for someone else.

I think everyone has their own path wherever they are on their

life.

But for me personally, I just kind of got burned out of working

for someone else and submitting someone else on their terms.

And so now I'm in the position to support my family and do

something that I'm 100% passionate about.

And you know, that's, I think it's the best job about being

a founding house, you know, just doing waking up every single

day and pushing yourself and believing in something that you

think is going to be revolutionary for this industry.

I think it's great.

Now, we'll keep seeing up at night besides your 10 month old.

He's actually funny, but he's actually sleeping

for the night now.

So I'm actually like, like, you do have a pretty awake

for being what?

Yeah.

So I'm not going to tell you where he is.

He's free now, your daughter, my daughter's two and a half.

Yeah.

It's a two and a half year old and 10 month old.

Yes.

If you look at why I didn't push it, tell it right now, it's

shocking.

Yeah.

I think I think anyone's as a founder, I mean, being early stage

and kind of the revenue generation, just revenue solves

everything, you know, as a founder, you want to give as much

revenue in the door because that will solve literally any

higher issue or, you know, foreign rate issues.

So I think that's what really keeps me up at night.

It's just how do we continue to capitalize on the revenue

streams that we have available and making sure we're hitting

objectives that we need to hit?

Because as much as it is to raise capital and raise funding,

it's, you know, obviously I still have an obligation to my

friend to pay him back as money, his return, but obviously

not like that.

He looked at simple.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But not unlike, you know, interest terms or anything like that.

It's really, it's a really good deal.

Yeah.

It's kind of rare.

Am I an issue to do that?

We're in most of this revenue, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's just revenue.

Just trying to make sure that we can, you know, hit the goals

that we want to hit.

As a company.

That's wild.

That's wild.

And what's the now?

What's the most important thing to be carried with you all the

time?

Besides a good book of business.

It's just to stay true to who I am.

You know, I think authenticity and accountability and

transparency is what I've always been preaching to my

career.

And so making sure I always stay true to that as well as, as

we scale as a team.

I think every single week, like, I don't want to be, I know I

said corporate America, but I don't ever want us to be

corporate America.

Once you guys that all speak up, you guys have direct access

to me.

I mean, if you have an idea, let's, let's talk about it.

And then you're not the boss.

Yeah.

Because I get to make it hit by a bus tomorrow.

I want SVIP to still run.

You know.

Hopefully the camera will stop you from getting hit by a bus.

There you go.

I want to, I want to be, I want to create that kind of

environment.

I like, look, like, you know, everyone has value in this

organization.

I love it, man.

I love it.

I love it now.

So.

So though I got you on again.

And everyone go check out SVIP.News.

And also Taylor is very active on the, the LinkedIn.

I'm very active.

Yeah.

That's like his, that's his place to hang out.

Yeah.

And with the only app I, I'm on like daily.

Yeah.

Hey, you pick your, pick your, pick your vertical.

That's a replacement base.

Yeah.

All right, Taylor.

Thanks so much for being on.

And we'll see everyone next week.

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