Welcome

Kelvin Crosby 0:07

Welcome to Investing in Accessibility, the Samaritan Partners podcast. We're not waiting for change. We're investing in it. Join us as we speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders that are focused on creating a more accessible world. It's good to see you even though I can't see you. It's in a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and I'm so excited that you're here at Investing in Accessibility. I'm your co-host, Kevin Crosby, and I got Chris Maher. How you doing, man?

Chris Maher 0:41

I'm good, pal. It's good to see you and to actually be with you. We are in person together today, which is a treat.

Kelvin Crosby 0:48

Oh, it is. And we're gonna be doing a lot of over the next few months, a lot of interviews in person. So I'm excited about this. And let's just start off with the toilet. I mean, honestly, you threw me in a room that had a surprise at the toilet.

Chris Maher 1:04

All right, so let me do a little bit of backdrop. So Kelvin and I had a very long day yesterday because we were ultimately getting to a location in West Virginia, and I drove from Connecticut to DC, where Kelvin flew in, picked him up, and that was five hours to DC, and then it was another four or five hours from DC to West Virginia, and he was flying in for the West Coast. So it was a very long day to begin with, and we get to this wonderful hotel that has a lot of accessibility in it. And Kelvin had quite an experience when he got into his room and went to go use the bathroom.

Kelvin Crosby 1:38

Oh yes. Because I I mean I you know, you know me use the wall to support your balance, you know. I hit the wall and I'm I go to sit and take care of business, and then next thing you know, there's someone shooting up my rear end. I'm like, what the what in the world is this? I mean, I didn't expect a shower on the rear inside, you know, out of the toilet.

Chris Maher 2:01

Roll-in bathroom, bars, toilet seat that goes the the the top part goes up when you walk up to the toilet automatically, and it gives you a little auto cleaning, you know?

Kelvin Crosby 2:13

It sure did.

Chris Maher 2:14

A highly accessible toilet.

Kelvin Crosby 2:16

Oh yes. I mean, but the problem the only thing that's not accessible is it's a touch screen of the controls for the toilet. And so I was like, oh boy, this is gonna be.

Chris Maher 2:27

I gotta I got a text very late at night with uh a bit of a kind of like an exclamation point. You didn't tell me about the toilet yet, but it was I I gotta I, you know, usually it's you getting a good laugh at my expense. It's pretty nice to get a good laugh at your expense. So but good to be with you, my friend.

Kelvin Crosby 2:46

So we have a really cool guest today, and I'm excited about this guest because one thing is when you first learned about this product, you're like, mmm, should I really invest in this? I'm not sure. But let's throw them into this hotel that we're at and see what happens. And so I'm excited about this. So why don't you introduce us to our guests and see

Pierre’s Story And The Pivot

Kelvin Crosby 3:09

where we land?

Chris Maher 3:09

Me too, yeah. And and I will disclose up front that Samaritan Partners recently invested in this company, and we're gonna get into that story because it's a pretty cool story. But our guest today is Pierre Paul, who is the founder and CEO of a wonderful company called We Hear You. Pierre, welcome, my friend.

Pierre Paul 3:25

Hello, thank you so much. Happy to be here. Appreciative to be in the same space as well. You know, I've been listening for a little while now, so being in the room where it happens is is an amazing space to be.

Chris Maher 3:35

Yeah, it's good that we're all it's it's pretty neat to do it all together. I think the only other one that we did all together was with Joe Devon. Oh, oh, CES, we did do a bunch of live kind of fly interviews.

Kelvin Crosby 3:45

We did a bunch then.

Chris Maher 3:46

It's nice to be sitting down. Kelvin's got all of his equipment set up. It's it's nice.

Kelvin Crosby 3:49

It's and and if we could my backup is working on my computer, right on my phone. I there's some perks with doing this all right.

Chris Maher 3:57

100%. So, Pierre, good to see you, my friend. As always. And before we get into the business, talk a little bit about your background and lived experience and the journey to because this the product we're gonna talk about today wasn't the initial product for your business, right? So talk a little bit about that background. But but you've but you've been in the disability space for a while. So give give us some of that background before we get into the Hero Door Opener.

Pierre Paul 4:19

Absolutely. So, you know, pretty unique background. Born outside of the country in South America, grew up in Ohio, and at a young age, I learned how the world treats people who are different, whether that's different because of race, gender, language, ability. And so I knew from an early age that I wanted to change the world. I wanted to innovate in a way that made everyone feel welcome. And then I get to college, I start advocating, I start doing work, I'm prepping to go to law school after I take the LSAT, I'm like, I'm gonna go to Loyola Law School. And one night, when I'm supposed to submit my application the next day, I have a dream to invent a sign language translator. You know, it felt out of left field because I didn't know sign myself, but I walk into this McDonald's, I sign into the tablet on the counter, and it then verbalizes for the deaf, for the hearing associate. And then we have this interaction. I wake up the next morning, decide not to go to law school, get a master's instead, and start building accessible technology. And that was kind of the catalyst for me. And you know, I like to say it was a conglomeration of all of the work and all of the passions that I had built leading to that moment. But still, we started in sign language work, we were doing amazing work, we launched it, COVID hit. We were fortunate to do a pilot with Air Emirates in Dubai for our sign language translator, where our system was on a robot and was rovering around the airport. And while all of this is happening, I can't stop thinking and feeling these new ideas coming together. And then from there, the company name, We Hear You, dual-sided. When people ask us why, it's because we hear you. And the concept of doing sign language work, which is this, you know, live language, vocal language, just in a different way. And when I had the idea for a device to make doors more automatic, seamlessly, in a way that benefit all persons without having to break the bank, the concept of we hear you stayed alive. I heard the struggles of wheelchair users, of mobility device users, and we decided that we could build something to innovate in that space. And that's kind of how we get from one to the other.

Chris Maher 6:26

Gotcha. And you and you've kind of moved on from the sign language business and are devoting 100% of your time to the door opening technology.

Pierre Paul 6:35

Absolutely.

Chris Maher 6:37

So thank you for that background.

Pierre Paul 6:38

Yeah.

Chris Maher 6:38

And which just it's worth repeating because I think with all of our guests, there is a through line of lived experience with all of this. And certainly that's the case for you as well. And so let's let's talk about the Hero Door Opener, which is the first product you guys are bringing to

What The Hero Door Opener Does

Chris Maher 6:54

market. So why don't you give everybody a thumbnail about what that product's all about?

Pierre Paul 6:57

Absolutely. So the hero door opener is currently the lightest automatic door system in the world at 5.8 pounds, and it is a rectangular prism that has the power to make virtually any door automatic in about 15 to 30 minutes. And there are a lot of reasons that this is so unique for the space. Automatic doors started as a luxury product, right? That's that's where it began. And we recognize that to make a door automatic, it was costing tens of thousands of dollars. It was taking hours, and you have to call an electrician. And if you need an automatic door on a conference room, a bedroom, a bathroom, your front door, you don't want an electrician coming in and rewiring your house. You don't have $10,000 to spend on that automation and you don't want to hardwire all of these buttons. So we found a way to really make a plug-and-play system, right? You get this, you get this prism, you add it to the top of the door, drill four holes if you want to keep it as a permanent stay, or you just attach it to the top of the door, and then from there, you can make a door automatic within minutes with the Hero Door Opener.

Chris Maher 8:05

Yeah, it's really remarkable, and it's at a fraction of the cost.

Pierre Paul 8:08

Absolutely.

Chris Maher 8:08

And really, any one of us sitting here right now could could install it ourselves.

Pierre Paul 8:12

Exactly.

Chris Maher 8:13

And it can be battery, battery operated, or you can just plug into an outlet. Like you don't, you don't need to hardwire anything.

Pierre Paul 8:20

Nope.

Chris Maher 8:21

And and is it fair to say that probably the primary use case is interior doors versus

Pierre Paul 8:28

yes

Chris Maher 8:28

the larger exterior doors?

Pierre Paul 8:29

1000%. And I think the reason we did that, that's where the gap in the market lies. About the the statistics are a little gray, but about 95 to 98 percent of internal doors aren't automatic. And with a world where less than 1% of doors are automatic, you really think about that. Yeah. You walk inside of a building, and the amount of times you have to go into a conference room, a bathroom, the kitchen, wherever it might be, these doors are lacking this automation. And the giants in the space have focused so much on external doors that we've forgotten to give love to the internal doors.

Chris Maher 9:04

And and I think a big reason why they focus on the external door is because they're just thinking of the ADA compliance checkbox, right? And so I I believe that your product has the opportunity to become another version of the curb cut or captions, where it was designed and built specifically for people with disabilities, but I think the general population is gonna love it. Yeah, and and the reason I believe that is what we're gonna get into

Why Interior Doors Are The Gap

Chris Maher 9:30

next. And so I met Pierre probably now, it's two years ago. Yeah. But we had known each other for probably the better part of a year and a half, had talked periodically, you'd give me updates. And then I started this little project with Schoolhouse Hotel in West Virginia, White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, where we set up the Accessibility Lab, which is a living operational lab to test, you know, innovative solutions for hospitality, tourism, travel. And I reached out to you and said, Hey, we got this project going. What about putting, you know, half a dozen hero door openers into the hotel? And let's kind of see what the feedback is from the staff, the employees, and obviously the guests.

Pierre Paul 10:13

Yeah.

Chris Maher 10:14

And so you agreed to that. We went ahead and did it, but something really interesting happened along that journey that you folks hadn't been thinking about that unlocked a massive opportunity for the business. And so, do you want to share that?

Pierre Paul 10:27

Of course. And you know, I think what what we're getting to here really is the beauty of innovation. There's an opportunity that presents itself. You're placed inside of a space, and now creativity starts flowing too. We're doing doors that were that are that are traditional for us, bathroom doors. We're good at bathroom doors. Simple, straightforward, got them. But then we start thinking about accessibility on the hotel room door itself, the ideal interior.

Chris Maher 10:53

The guest room

Pierre Paul 10:54

exactly

Hotel Test Unlocks Keycard Integration

Pierre Paul 10:55

the guest room doors. And you know, we we have some freedom that the hotel allows us, and we take off the system that's on the door, and we start looking at the system and looking at our system, and instantly we notice that there are some synergies that allow us to figure out that we can attach to the key card system on a door to make it a one-stop system. You tap the key card, and then it unlocks the door and triggers the hero to open the door in one fluid movement. And that is the game changer that has been unlocked based on this partnership with the accessibility lab and the schoolhouse hotel.

Chris Maher 11:34

Yeah, and like I think what if think about the last time you went to a hotel, hotel room doors for like the guest rooms, they tend to be pretty heavy,

Pierre Paul 11:41

absolutely,

Chris Maher 11:43

right?

Pierre Paul 11:43

Yeah,

Chris Maher 11:43

and so obviously your technology and solution is gonna be great for someone who you would uh think of as oh, a wheelchair user. But I think it's gonna be great for someone who's aging, it's gonna be great for someone, maybe a mom with a gaggle of kids behind her and carrying a bunch of bags. Yeah, I mean, just that convenience of being able to swipe and the door opens on its own, it's gonna be great for the general population.

Pierre Paul 12:06

Exactly. You know, our conversations with different hotels have really focused on the busy business traveler. You just come off of a red eye flight, you have the luggage behind you, you're exhausted. And now you don't want to have to worry about trying to kick the door, elbow the door, pull your luggage in behind you while trying to juggle all of these things. This is the beauty of accessibility. And so I really appreciate that compliment earlier about the potential for this to be curb cut-esque, because the applications span so much more than just doors. When we say we open doors, it really is meant in all aspects, right? Doors to opportunities, doors to freedom, doors to to changing perspectives.

Chris Maher 12:46

Y eah, independence, right? So, but talk talk about, you know, I think when people think about like, oh, okay, so this is like a traditional accessible door, and there's gonna

Buttons, Fobs, Voice, And Alexa

Chris Maher 12:57

be a big square button on the wall. So can you talk about the different ways people can activate your doors?

Pierre Paul 13:02

Yeah, one of the things that we decided to do early on was to make sure we had versatility. Traditional automatic buttons, you know, the ADA buttons that you see on the wall, great. They work for a certain subset of the population. But why not take it a step further? So we created a fob that can attach to mobility aids so that you can press it with your wrist. You can hold it up to your face and press it with your cheek that allows you to open a door from 15 to 20 feet away. From there, we added voice activation via an app that gives haptic responses when you're within range of a hero door opener. So now you can say, you know, hey, hey Siri, hey, hey, hey, Google, hey Cortana, whatever it might be. And then newly, we were very fortunate to get the opportunity to work with Amazon's accessibility team and do some joint work in collaboration in LA, where we took it out to a conference and users were coming up and saying, Alexa, open my front door.

Chris Maher 13:58

Very cool.

Pierre Paul 13:59

Yeah,

Chris Maher 14:00

t hat's very cool. So you know, giving giving this is where I think technology uh today and going forward, there's this amazing opportunity for personalization.

Pierre Paul 14:12

Yes.

Chris Maher 14:12

And so what you folks are doing is giving people optionality.

Pierre Paul 14:15

Exactly.

Chris Maher 14:15

Do you want to push a button? Do you want to fob? Do you want to voice activate? Do you want to keep swipe with your key card?

Pierre Paul 14:19

Yes.

Chris Maher 14:20

You want to just voice activate via your Alexa system in your home. And I think you know that again, that gets back to autonomy and independence and and dignity.

Pierre Paul 14:29

Exactly.

Chris Maher 14:30

So tell us a little bit about sorry, I'm hogging this up. Kelvin, do you got any questions here for Pierre? Sorry.

Kelvin Crosby 14:35

I mean, I think one of the cool things about it is this is like the toothbrush. The electric toothbrush. This isn't like the Curb cut. This is like the autonomous vehicle. It is in so many different ways, giving access in so many different ways, and beyond just and and I think when we think about innovation, making it so that it's not just a bottleneck on price. And this is the part where I'm like, this is a product that's gonna be life-changing for so many people than just people in wheelchairs. Yeah. But the thing is, it's the same but like really just think about the if you don't put headings in your uh website, a blind person can't navigate it. But if you don't put heavy heading in your w ebsite, people are not gonna find your website. So it's a win-win on both directions. And so that's where I'm like, this is an opportunity that I'm excited to see grow in in ways that I don't think you even realize, or Chris, you even realize. Yeah, we'll see. I love it. But yeah, so I mean I think one of the other things that I I've also realized through this conversation is is that what as you made earlier, is anybody could put it together. And I can't wait to put one together myself. Okay. We'll put it the full test on this.

Pierre Paul 16:03

I love it.

Kelvin Crosby 16:04

If we if we get a chance, you might have to check out Chris LinkedIn to see me try to put the thing together.

Chris Maher 16:09

Exactly. And and so a couple quick thoughts. So it was after we put the hero into the hotel, and then that big aha unlocking moment of, oh, we can integrate into the key card system. Yep. That opened you up to a much larger addressable market. And that was around the time when we started having a conversation about you guys doing a small round, and Samaritan participated, and then another another customer/slash partner participated. Yes, and that round came together very quickly and very nicely. But there's some other innovation, and if you're comfortable talking about it, yes, there's a portable version of this, which is phenomenal, which I just saw the other day. There's a smaller version of it. There are different ways. There's a waterproof version coming, there's a solar power. Like, get into if you if you want. Some of the like I think there's a lot of innovation that can happen around this concept, which is super exciting.

Pierre Paul 17:04

Yeah, no, thank you for that. And and you're right, what we've been able to do now is there are no

Roadmap: Marine, Micro, And Seismic Safety

Pierre Paul 17:10

limits anymore. Right? There are no limits anymore. We were going to hotels, we were all struggling with tapping the key card, trying to get through the heavy door, and now we're removing the limits there. And once that was unlocked, everything else started to open for us. So when a prominent cruise ship company reaches out and they're explaining to us the struggles that they're facing with conventional automatic doors on the water, we're like, you know what? We can make a marine hero because based on the size, based on what we need to do, it's a whole lot easier and simpler. So now we're doing a rollout with a prominent cruise ship company to see if this is going to be ideal for all of their ships. Right.

Chris Maher 17:47

And that's like waterproof, and also the sea air beats stuff up.

Pierre Paul 17:50

Exactly. Exactly. So that that's a new aspect that we're seeing here. From there, we were fortunate to get invited to Japan for a conference. And it was it was expenses paid, and it was an amazing time, the Sushi Tech conference. And while there, we were learning about how they build all of their buildings to sway a little bit based on how frequently they're hit with earthquakes. And so that night I'm I'm out walking and we already knew that we were building what we call the Hero Micro, a smaller device for kitchen cabinet doors that make those automated so you're able to open your cabinet, use a grabber, reach and get what you need, because it's expensive to change the layout of apartments, and apartment buildings aren't choosing to do that. Right. And so we realized something. We're doing research, and one of the leading causes of death and harm during earthquakes are falling objects out of cabinets.

Chris Maher 18:42

Is it really?

Pierre Paul 18:43

Yes. And you think about it and you're like, you know, I'm trying to get my family out. We're going through the kitchen, and then the blender falls. Right. I gotta be concerned now. And so when we learn that that was like top three, we're like, why not just add a seismic sensor so that when the hero senses vibrations that mimic earthquakes, it will lock the door until it stops, so that as you're getting your family out, you don't need to worry about another barrier preventing you.

Kelvin Crosby 19:10

Wow.

Pierre Paul 19:10

And so that's just a another, another aspect of it. When I say we open doors, I I really and truly mean we open doors.

Kelvin Crosby 19:19

I would love to bring up something.

Pierre Paul 19:21

Yes.

Kelvin Crosby 19:22

The amount of times I forget to close the door, the cabinet.

Chris Maher 19:26

Oh, I've got a I've got I've got a couple of family members. I would love it if they'd close automatically.

Kelvin Crosby 19:31

Oh, I mean, I can I man like I mean this is the beauty of this, right? Is that it has that toothbrush, electric toothbrush concept. It has that curb cut concept, and that's the beauty of this opportunity. And it doesn't matter if you're poor or rich, these these are affordable.

Pierre Paul 19:54

Absolutely.

Kelvin Crosby 19:54

And especially the cabinet ones, right? And that and that's the part that I think people need to understand is that this is an opportunity for not only people in wheelchairs, like how often let's just dive into the blind world, the deaf blind world. You open up cupboard, you get a phone call, oh, you totally out of sight, out of mind, right? And it's not and you walk up. Now you're going to an emergency hospital and having to go to the yard gets ditchy because you ran right straight into your cabinet. Hey, I'm I got my hands up, man. I've been there.

Pierre Paul 20:33

Yeah. And you know, you said something earlier about the affordability of the micro. What we're doing with the micro, we are actually sending 15 around the world to be tested with disabled users in their space for a month, and then we're letting them get back to us with all of the feedback that they have, all the things that they like, all the things that they don't like, and we're letting them set the price point in terms of what they would spend for a device like this that automates your kitchen, your cooking experiences, and going to the bathroom and and all of these things. So this is the aspect of building with people as opposed to building for people.

Chris Maher 21:11

It's great. Disability-driven innovation and inclusive design, right?

Pierre Paul 21:14

Absolutely.

Chris Maher 21:15

That's so critical to

Portable Mount For Renters And Events

Chris Maher 21:16

it. The so before we wrap up, you have a uh what I think is a pretty exciting new variation of the hero door opener,

Pierre Paul 21:24

yes,

Chris Maher 21:24

which is the portable. Are you calling it the portable hero? What do you mean? Have you come up with the name yet? Because it's pretty new.

Pierre Paul 21:29

It is super new. So we don't have the name yet, but you know, I like the portable hero for now.

Chris Maher 21:32

Yeah, but like if you're if you're gonna use the traditional hero

Kelvin Crosby 21:36

I I got it. Jedi Hero.

Chris Maher 21:41

So the traditional hero, you'd put some screws into the framing and it's gonna be permanent.

Pierre Paul 21:47

Yes.

Chris Maher 21:48

But you folks have developed a portable one where there's no screws and you don't even have to plug it into the outlet.

Pierre Paul 21:54

Nope.

Chris Maher 21:55

Can you just talk through that? Because I I I think that's gonna be a winner for a lot of individuals. People inside their homes as well as small businesses.

Pierre Paul 22:02

Yes. You know, a lot of times we were running into people who were saying, you know, our apartment building doesn't want anything to change. And this historic building has to keep the integrity of the building. And we said, okay, this is a solvable problem. So we created an over-the-door mount, right? An over-the-door bracket. If you imagine, you know, a clothes rack or a shoe rack that you hang over the top of the door, the hero is like that, but much thinner, so we can survive different different small widths at the top of the door. You hang the hero on top of the door, you slide the hero on, and then you either use a very sticky adhesive that peels off for the arm, or you use our separate bracket for that piece. And where this comes into play in the market that this has opened up, if you're renting out a space and you want to pick a space that is accessible, and you know you can find modular ramps, but finding an automatic door in short order was not possible until now. You can rent a space and then you can get these heroes that just attach to the door, whether it's a hotel conference or you know, a sporting event, and now all of a sudden you're making all of the doors automatic in short order. And it three minutes is what we did in in Connecticut. Three minutes. We made the bathroom doors automatic so that guests were able to maneuver them. And our our wall buttons work with Bluetooth, our app works with Bluetooth, our fob works with Bluetooth. So you're always having that connectivity.

Chris Maher 23:36

That's super exciting. So as we wrap up here, Pierre, how can people learn more about you and We Hear You and the Hero Door Opener?

Pierre Paul 23:42

Yeah, you know you can find me on LinkedIn, Pierre Paul. I'm super active on LinkedIn. And our website, We HearYouopens doors.com. We hear you opensdoors.com. Not to mention, I travel all the time, so I'll probably run into you at some event somewhere, and don't be afraid to say hello.

Chris Maher 23:59

Awesome.

Kelvin Crosby 24:00

Well, before we wrap up, we're gonna hear you do a presentation and hear about the hero door opener in all different ways. So let's dive into it.

Live Presentation: The Bigger Mission

Kristy Durso 24:10

Alright, next up we have the amazing company We Hear You, and I'd like to invite Pierre, Paul, and Bethany Corey to the stage. Or maybe just Pierre. Yes.

Pierre Paul 24:25

Check, check, check. If you can hear me clap once, you can hear me clap twice, you can hear me clap three and a half times. Perfect. Hello everyone. My name is Pierre Paul, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company called We Hear You, and we open doors. Doors to opportunities, doors to freedom, and you guessed it. The literal doors that we maneuver through every single day. You might ask yourself, well, why is the door company named We Hear You? Twofold. My first ever invention was a sign language translation company. But the concept centered around when someone asks us why we do what we do, the answer is simple. It's because we hear you. The three individuals that you see on screen are all diverse and unique in their own ways. Whether it's Zippy, a little boy who was born with a condition where his limbs turn inward, Ryan, a gentleman who was born without arms or legs, or my granny Amy, who is just getting a little bit older, they all face the same struggle. Opening doors proves to be a challenge. With over 42 billion doors around the world, and less than 5% of them being accessible and automatic, the problem presents itself. This drastically impacts our aging population. We've heard the stats today time and time again, but I'm still gonna underscore it. Individuals over the age of 65 are set to outnumber those under the age of 18 for the first time in US history by 2030. Not to mention, the disabled community is the largest minority group in the world, and it is the only minority group that most of us will become a part of. That is not a threat, that is a fact. So, with that, we decided to build the Hero Door Opener. This patented solution is a device that can make virtually any door automatic in 15 to 30 minutes. It's a third of the cost of a conventional automatic door system. It focuses on a gap in the market, interior doors. It's portable and it's versatile. Like all good heroes, it needed a few sidekicks. So we made sure that the hero worked not only with a conventional wall button, but it also worked with a fob that you could attach to a mobility device, wear on your wrist, or put on a keychain, and it works with the Bluetooth app for voice activation. You can say, hey Siri, hey Cortana, push or open the door. The video that you're seeing playing right now is of Jaden. Jaden struggling to get out of an accessible hotel room in Texas. The video garnered over four million views, and his mother tagged us in the post, so we juxtaposed it with what we did right here at the Schoolhouse Hotel, where we added the hero to a door and used a fob to open that door automatically. This is the beauty of accessibility. The video on the right showcases a partnership that we did with Amazon, where they reached out and asked for us to make the hero work with Alexa. So the young woman approaches the device, says, Hey Alexa, open my front door. And the door opens automatically. This is the excitement of accessibility and the opportunity that has been able to present itself and allow us to grow because of our partnership right here at the Schoolhouse Hotel. So, what does scale look like for a company like ours? Well, right now we are in over 20 states and we're so excited to keep expanding, working with different hospitality sectors, working with universities, working with assisted living facilities, ensuring that all spaces that have any single door can be made accessible for all persons. From there, the next step, global expansion. We are so excited to start partnering with countries all over the world to ensure that we can bring accessibility. We're working with Japan with one of our newer products that you'll see here soon to ensure that individuals can safely exit and enter their homes in different ways. We're going back to my hometown, Guyana, and Brazil, where I was born and then where I grew up, to ensure that there's accessibility there as well, and then going north to Canada as we continue our expansion. Our product roadmap looks like this. Having received our patent for the Hero Door Opener about a month ago, right B? Two two months ago? Two months ago. Thank you so much. That is the exciting realization that what we are building really is innovating in a way that is accessible for all persons. From there, we'll be launching what is called the Hero Micro. Quick story on the Hero Micro. We were invited to Japan for a conference. And when we got to Japan, we were told that the buildings were made to sway a little bit to left and right based on earthquakes. So we're out, we're doing our research, and we identify something. One of the leading causes of deaths during earthquakes are falling objects in the home. And you know, I this concept hit my brain, and my team of innovators, I'm just pushing them like, well, what do we think? What can we do? How can we address this? And so we realized that if we created a device that can make cabinet doors automatic, when it senses the vibration, it can automatically lock the cabinet door to ensure that people are safe. Because if you're trying to get out of your home during an emergency situation and you're worried about the blender falling out of the cabinet, you're gonna be a little bit more scared. But if the hero device can sense the vibrations and actually lock the cabinet doors to prevent items from falling out of the cabinet, it's gonna be so much more accessible and safe for individuals as they maneuver. And this is my amazing team that has made it all possible. I can spend this entire presentation just talking about the team that has put in time and effort to help us bring this together. Myself, Pierre Paul, co-founder and CEO. I'm currently finishing up my PhD in disability studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I'm joined by Dr. Bethany Couri. B. I'm gonna embarrass you. Could you please stand up for the audience? This is Bethany Couri. She recently graduated with her doctorate, so she's now Dr. Couri. She comes with an MBA from Bradley University, her doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of Illinois, a bachelor's in marketing and education. She's one of nine sisters. And what other facts can I give about you, B? And you know, Bethany has been the business mind that has helped us move this product forward. Jamal Stevenson, if he was here, he would be her favorite person. He has a ball of energy and excitement. Um he comes with a corporate sales background from Chicago, but he left his job there to come and work with us at We Hear You because he wanted to make a difference. From there, the team that you see on the left, another set of amazing individuals that also highlights something. We are not building for communities, we are building with communities. We are collaborating with communities, inviting them to be on our team, on our board, as our investors, because that is how you make a true difference in any single community. And then the final video here is one that we took at the Schoolhouse Hotel. At the Schoolhouse Hotel, accessibility is the highest priority because inclusion involves everyone. Imagine a world where when I take this key card and tap it against the door, it also automatically opens the room. This is the reality at the Schoolhouse Hotel. Because they've installed the Hero Door Open, a patent pending device from my company, We Hear You, that has the power to make virtually any door automatic in less than 15 minutes. Because accessibility should be on every single door. Thank you so much. When people ask us why we do what we do and how we're able to do what we do, the answer is because we hear you, and the answer is because of collaboration of so many amazing people in the room. Whether it is people standing behind, sitting behind me, pardon me, who have pushed us to make the world more accessible with our product, taking our product different places, giving us great feedback and critique on the ways that we can grow, whether it's all of the individuals who've made things possible at the schoolhouse, Charlie and the work that he's doing, Jenny and the work that she's doing, Chris Maher, an individual who over the years has constantly asked us, well, when are you going to move it this direction? How are you going to address this situation? We are so fortunate for everyone in this room. So thank you so very much, and I'm open to any questions.

Kristy Durso 32:55

Pierre, thank you for a wonderful presentation on the product. And at this time, we will open up the floor for any questions. Gulliver, you're over here, Ben.

Q&A: Competition, Reliability, And Scale

Speaker 5 33:06

Let's let's start with explain sort of the competitive landscape, so to speak. I mean, I obviously you just got your patent, but what would I uh and I when we were building this, obviously we know what we did. We needed to put it a push button door and everything else. And then obviously you came around and now that's you know changing things. But what is the competitive landscape? Have things gotten any better with other companies or and which affects obviously you know your market and who you can market to?

Pierre Paul 33:38

Yeah, great question. So in the automatic door space, there are two main giants. One company, Asa Abloy, the second company, Durama Kaba. These two companies are dominant in Europe. And when they created the automatic door space, they built automatic doors as a luxury device. So it was a luxury product. You would only see an automatic accessible door in the highest end locations as a luxury product. From there, we saw the landscape begin to change, but the statistic remains the same. Less than 5% of doors around the world still lack automation, which highlights the gap that some of these larger companies have made. They focused on exterior doors from only a compliance standpoint, whether it's ADA, the EU Act, the Act in Canada, but what they failed to do is actually recognize where people are getting stuck and where people are maneuvering. They're getting stuck inside of bathrooms, they're getting stuck inside of hotel room doors, getting stuck inside of conference room doors, and those are what lead to the lawsuits, and those are what lead to the damages of the individuals. So we've learned from our predecessors. We learn from the other automatic door companies, and we started collaborating with them so that we could see how we can actually make the world more accessible. But the hero has set itself apart because of the versatility that we offer. Because it doesn't only function with the push button, because it doesn't only function with the fob, it has voice activation, it's Alexa compatible, it is portable, it is lightweight. We are the lightest automatic door system in the world at 5.8 pounds, meaning that when the schoolhouse decides that, you know, we want to move that door to this door because we're doing an event in the restaurant instead, they can make that switch without having to call an electrician, without having to spend 5, 10, 20 hours. So we love the work that our partners and our competitors in a way have done, but we really have showcased the difference and the beauty of building technology accessibly. I would love to build those things in West Virginia. You know, we we definitely don't limit ourselves in terms of where opportunity presents itself. So if West Virginia West West Virginia presents an opportunity for us to build and scale and grow, sign us up.

Speaker 5 35:49

My name is Rachel Krishnan. I'm an architect at Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Pierre Paul 35:53

Okay.

Speaker 5 35:53

And I just wanted to build on this whole maneuverability.

Pierre Paul 35:57

Please.

Speaker 5 35:58

An ADA requirement for maneuverability at a door is 18 inches or more on the pool side of the door. If you're in a situation, particularly in an adaptive reuse building such as Schoolhouse Hotel, you may not have 18 inches, and so you're automatically out, you know, not in compliance. An automatic door takes away the requirement for maneuverability, that 18 inches. So you can, you know, don't have to have that space anymore. So it's it really frees you to make more accessible space.

Pierre Paul 36:34

Absolutely. Thank you so much for that that piece of feedback and also providing your expertise in architecture, because you're right, it does help innovate on the space when you know that the rules kind of flex a little bit to add for accessibility.

Kristy Durso 36:47

Hold on just one second. There you go.

Speaker 5 36:50

Could you address the when it's not working? How hard is it to find a trained person to fix it because we've all run into those push buttons that don't work?

Pierre Paul 37:02

Yes, oh my gosh. And you mentioned that to me earlier when we had a conversation. One of the worst things is when your hands are full or when you're maneuvering with your accessibility device, you go to hit the button and nothing happens. Right? It's not working for some reason, whether it was a power cycle through the building or whether the button isn't connected with the wire. The way that we've addressed that is a couple ways. So we use Bluetooth instead of hardwiring a device, because Bluetooth is constantly going in the background, especially in 2026. That means that you're not going to worry about a dropped connection. Secondarily, if there's a power cycle, the hero has a backup battery that will last for four days if the power is completely out. Because accessibility does not stop when the power goes out. And then thirdly, if something does go wrong outside of all of these factors, we made the hero simple enough that someone with a simple technical background can open up the hero, give us a call, or call one of our technicians, and we can walk you through step by step, especially exactly how to address that situation. So we tried to make it as easy as possible to not only install the system, but then be ready for the edge cases that we all know exist. Great question. Thank you.

Kristy Durso 38:14

We have less than a minute left. So if there's one quick question, we can take it.

Pierre Paul 38:18

Let's make it really good. One more.

Speaker 5 38:22

So when Mike Queen calls you next week and says, All right, West Virginia, all the government buildings are going to be using Hero and we need a thousand of these, what's your capacity production capacity right now?

Pierre Paul 38:35

Oh, you're teeing me up for a great question. We just started mass manufacturing. So when we get that call that says, you know what, we need a thousand units to spread across, you know, you give us a month, and we will have those thousand units ready and rearing to go to ensure that all locations are accessible. Thank you so much for having me.

Closing And How To Support

Kelvin Crosby 38:57

Well, that wraps it up Investing in Accessibility. And as I always say, go live beyond your challenges, and I'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast, where we invest in change for accessibility, not wait for change. If you want to follow us, you can find us on YouTube or LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners. If you would like to invest in Samaritan Partners, email Chris at chris@SamaritanPartners.com. If you'd like to learn more about us, go to www.samaritanpartners.com. You can take the first steps in investing in change by giving us five stars and sharing this podcast with everybody that you know so we can spread the word so that we can give access to all by Investing in Accessibility.