Unified Strategy, Tech Silos

Wade Erickson (00:00):

Hey, welcome to another episode of Tech Leaders Unplugged. Today we're getting unplugged with David Millili, CEO of Logic, a travel and hospitality SaaS solution. And, we’re going to talk a little bit about, unified strategy and tech silos today. But first, I'd love to welcome you to the show David, introduce yourself a little bit, a little bit about logic, and then we'll get into the topic.

David Millili (00:44):

Sure. No, thanks for having me. Yeah. I'm a hotelier at heart. I've worked every single job, pretty much in a hotel that you can imagine. Ran hotels in the nineties in New York City, lived on property, and then when the internet took off, I, you know, followed the tech side and have been working in different startups and, and companies and, and travel and hospitality since around 2000. Logic is a, at its core, it's a revenue management platform, but we're dedicated to becoming the first commercial strategy platform. And by that I mean making sure that, that, that is in our revenue management platform is being used by sales and marketing and other departments in the hotel.

Wade Erickson (01:25):

Great. Great. So unified strategy and tech silos. What as that topic, tell me a little bit about what interested you in this tagline for the topic and, and, and how, how it's maybe some of the changes that are occurring have either benefited or challenged technology in the silo situation.

David Millili (01:49):

Sure. So when I joined Logic in September of 2022, you know, did a lot of due diligence on the company. And as I learned more about revenue management, which wasn't something that I was an expert in by any means I really just saw that there was such great data that was just being used for restrictions and rates for hotels and not really getting shared across other departments. So, probably within my first 90 days, I was on calls with different commercial strategy officers different marketing companies, trying to say, okay, guys, what can we do? And, you know, I, before we got on air, I showed you this, but I'd love, I, I can't disclose what company, but you know, this is kind of our industry. These are all the different systems, and this is for a 50 to 70 property group of hotels, how many different and ownership group, how many different systems they use. So right now, what we're trying to do is we're, we're saying, look, this data is incredible. Our AI and what we use in our algorithms to predict pricing, to predict restrictions those are all things that can help the marketing and sales teams. So when we look at the, the industry or the space right now, you know, what always happens is, you know, the hotel gets stuck and they need help for next week. They need business, they need traffic, it's too late. Marketing can't help them. But if marketing knows that, hey, we're doing great for June, July's a a troubled period for us, let's focus on how we shift our strategies to drive more business in July. We have the data at Logic to help do that. Also when you look at groups you know, we leverage our technology to price groups, alternative dates you know, so these are things that really hotels they want to do. But again, it's kind of like I, I I say to people, you know, when's the last time you used a physical map to get to your destination? And you don't, you use a GPS, why do you use A GPS? Because A GPS can get you there the fastest route. It knows where there's an accident, it knows where there's traffic. It gives you alternative routes, but it pulls in all this data to help you get to your destination on time or in the fastest route. Same thing when it comes to our industry and technology. There's all these different silos and, you know, it's very difficult for a revenue manager or a director of sales or someone who's in meetings and events to pull all these data points in and make a real time or an actual decision on that data. So again, our focus has been leveraging our algorithms, our AI or machine learning to make sure that we're making the employees more efficient. So you know, there's always the joke and people talking about, is AI going to take over everything? Well, we, we don't think so. We think that AI is going to help enable the hoteliers to do their jobs more efficiently. And that's really where our focus is. That's where we, every single day we're figuring out how do we make our system smarter? Cause think about it, if you just, some of the data points that we pull in our system are on the books data, historical data, market data events, data, airline data comp, set data things of that nature. So how do you pull all these things together to make educated decisions? And, and that's where we feel there's too many silos. And again, going back to my, my map, there's, there's so many systems out there. So we're, we're trying to make sure that we're, we're staying ahead and we're truly committed to being a commercial strategy platform. And we don't think any other company has made that commitment, but that, that is our commitment and that is what we feel, or what we know we are at our core is a commercial strategy platform.

Wade Erickson (05:55):

So as this platform's being developed and there's a lot of, obviously different vendors, different data stores different methods to connect to those data stores. And then you obviously have lots of different security around that. cause I'm sure that the data is very sensitive to who the customers are, who's actually in the hotel, right? As much as the, the celebrities travel under fake names and all that, you know, it, it still is very sensitive to the average person. Right. so as you are modifying, extending the platform, you know, tell me how you stay ahead of the emerging trends like AI, machine learning. How did, when did that come into play? Or was it just a matter of trying to bring data together in a more manageable way to just provide algorithms against that? And then you know, you said you're kind of unique in the community, but do you worry that there's other competitors coming? And, and how do you foresee that and, and try to stay competitive?

David Millili (07:01):

Yeah, so I'll work backwards. So, competition is always good. It's good for us as a company. It's good for the industry. So you know, if you're afraid of competition, then you, you're in the wrong vertical or you just, you know, you probably shouldn't be in business, you should be doing something else. So, you know, for me, I've always embraced competition. I've always, even as I've been CEO of companies, I've made sure that I've reached out to CEOs of other competitor companies. And again, there's plenty of hotels in the world for all of us to, to thrive. But to go back to the data and our commitment you know, there's all these different data points. For us, you know, it's, it's how do you combine them and make something that's digestible. So when you talk about, you know, I think you were kind of starting to open the door for personalization a little bit and kind of getting to know the customer. We've got a long ways to go before we really can do a good job with that. We really need to first understand just our, our guest in general, let alone that one specific couple. So some of the things that we're starting to do is working with third parties that do retargeting, and they're going to be sharing data with us on who's shopping the hotel, what country they're from, what room type they picked, what rate plan they picked, so we can start to help make better decisions to drive more direct bookings for a hotel. And in exchange we can give data that shows how some of these companies, marketing companies are helping drive more direct, taking it from other segments. And then on top of that, when they target those guests who come back sending the right message. So I always say, you don't want to be trying to discount a room in the first two weeks of December in New York City, but you're going to want to discount it in January. So you got to pull different levers to make sure you're capturing that guest.

Wade Erickson (08:55):

Guest. Awesome. Awesome. And then you know, given this is a SaaS platform, I'm assuming, right? Because you're, you're largely collecting for them data from disparate systems and pulling them into a, a more cohesive data store. You know, what kind of things do you look at in this, this crowded market that even though your particular offering isn't crowded, like you said, there's lots of hotels with very different product models and different approaches you know, how do you, how do you look at the features to, to make some changes in what you're offering?

David Millili (09:35):

Yeah, so I think what we see is, you know, again because it is a hot topic, I'll hit on, on it, but not hurting AI. And what I mean by that is that we use AI to help make decisions in our platform. We've seen some hotels or even other platforms where they try to outsmart the AI. And so what I mean by that is they put a floor, they put a ceiling they put certain rules based off their comp set, and that just kind of defeats the purpose of letting AI help you and guide you in making decisions. It's kind of like going back to that GPS, if the GPS says, you know, stay on 95 and get off at exit 13, well, if you get off at exit 12, you're probably not going to get to your destination at the same time. So what we do is we basically, we encourage hotels to let the system analyze the data, make suggestions as a copilot, and then the hotel can actually decide whether or not that's the right decision for their property, or they should make a different decision. And then we learn from that. So in the machine learning, if a hotel is basic, if we're saying the hotel should be at 3 0 5, and if they're at 300 and they stay, we know that they stayed. And we, our machine learning is learning that, okay, was that the right decision that they made? So we do like a health check afterwards and say, Hey, you really should have moved it to 3 0 5 or that 300 was the right decision to make.

Wade Erickson (11:01):

Great. so a lot of our viewers are in the software development space testing those kind of things in a lot of product leaders. What kind of advice would you provide a product leader, like think of some of the product leaders in your company that are driving the actual products and services. What would you say is an important aspect in your product leaders to, to build the products that you offer?

David Millili (11:33):

Yeah, I mean, you one, you know, and this is kind of, you know, captain obvious stuff, but you can't let the developers decide how things should look flow, things of that nature. So through my companies that I've run, you know, our motto has always been our, our customers build our product. And you got to have a base of course, and you got to start. But, you know, I was very fortunate cause when I built my first company was a booking engine, but I was a hotelier, so I understood how a hotel operated. And what we also did is, you know, the internet was just taking off. We looked at other systems. So, you know, a great example is what I used to do is I used to have my teams, whether it be salespeople, account managers web developers, I would, we would have a week, a monthly meeting where they'd have to bring something that they saw on a non hospitality website, they, that they thought made the shopping process or the, you know, the history or the, the losing it there, the whole research component of it, made it easier for them. And so we would try to take that and then we would try to incorporate it into, let's say, the booking path, maybe the way you could see a room type, where you saw the, the picture of the room and the bathroom and things of that nature. So I think you can, you know, you can, you can borrow and steal in some cases too, but, you know, I think keeping a, a close eye on what your customers are saying is, is key. And, you know, I, I sat in a meeting when I first got the logic and there was a, a revenue manager who said, oh, let me show you this Excel spreadsheet. And I said, well, why are you working in Excel? And she said, oh, well, the platform doesn't have it in the order I want. And so right away I said, well, what if we just put it in the order you want in the platform? So just little things like that can really just, you know, really enhance your, your, your product if you listen to your customers.

Wade Erickson (13:29):

Yeah. You know, as they say, you know, eat your own dog food, right? So, or drink your own champagne or whatever. It is very important that you think about using it as to the maximum of your ability to, to find those sticking points. That oftentimes the developers are going to not see, cause they're obviously working in sections of the site. So in the context of that user experience, a lot of times we do get features passed in through our existing customers. Right. And oftentimes it can be opposing different customers. Yeah. Have opposing ideas. And if you try to, you know, satisfy everybody, it can, you know, clutter the user interface if you're trying to maintain a consistent one. Obviously, you know, when you're a platform like a Salesforce or something like that, you can obviously customize it's to very, very high details for that specific customer. But I would imagine in your space, you, you want to have a consistent UI. Tell me a little bit how that, you know, you balance those different inputs and how that affects the experience.

David Millili (14:36):

One of the nice things that we're doing is we're going to start leveraging some new technologies that are going to enable us to do custom reporting for hotels. A lot of the work we do is, you know, we, we have users who want to see the data and everybody wants to see it in, in a different way. And sometimes you, you might have a big box group hotel that wants to look at their data one way, and then you might have a small boutique hotel that wants to look at it a different way. So a couple things that we do is we're very big on allowing the hotel to do customized reporting. And then second, we've done a lot of put a lot of features where, you know, if you're looking at rows or columns, the end user can move those and position them the way they want and actually do filters. So this helps a lot. So what's incredible about logic is we are, we're like a combination of an iPad and a Tesla. So you can give an iPad to a 2-year-old, they can figure it out, they'll use it, they'll, they'll, they'll be happy. But then again, you or I, our iPad, we're doing much more complicated things. We've got more apps and things of that nature. So that's where we end up going. And then the, the Tesla, Tesla analogy is that we allow it, you know, the car can drive itself or you can have it on copilot or you can just drive it on your own. That's the same way we look at the data. If you're a hotel, you can actually do everything manually. You can copilot where you, you look at recommendations, make decisions, or maybe overnight or on weekends, you want the system to be updating rates, restrictions on its own because you don't have anybody who's looking at that screen. And you talk about users and flexibility, we just launched what we think is it's best in breed, but we launched a mobile app. So basically, you know, the hotels, they have their, their whole platform in the palm of their hand, they can actually change rates. They can actually make restrictions. They can look at their comp set, what's going on in the market very slick, very that you use, easy to use interface, a couple clicks, swipe, and you've just changed, you know, a week's worth of, of rates for your property. So you know, and that was something that was feedback that we got from our users. They wanted something, we're all, we all live. This is never goes far from us. And so that was something that was really important to us. Listen to the users and actually make sure that we were able to give them something they could use on their phone.

Wade Erickson (17:00):

So that's amazing. So you're not just collecting the data to provide them insights into the data. You actually can use your platform to go back into their system and affect the rates that drive their business. So it's bi-directional. It's not just single direction.

David Millili (17:15):

Yeah. I mean it's you know, it's as simple as, you know, right here we've got just your changing rates. You know, we've got, you know, we've got data that's, you know, them waiting for it to load, but we've got data that's right in our, our system right here where hotel can see what's happening. And what's nice is that, again, you don't always have to be the person who's actioning the data. This could be a GM who wants to know what's going on at the property. You know, it could be somebody at a a trade show and they're, somebody inquires about a, a, a group and they can log in in, they can go to their phone right there and say, Hey, yeah, we've got availability. They can even put in the number of rooms what they need and get a quote on what that group could be Right in their, their phone. Email it right to the person standing next to them. So yeah, so you're right. The, the, but the key is getting the right data in and then making the right recommendations with that data.

Wade Erickson (18:10):

And was that an early part of the roadmap for you to be able, because obviously it's less risky when you're just collecting the data and you're analyzing it and providing it, and then they have to actually do the action in their own system. You're not driving that to actually then ask, Hey, we want to have a feature that goes in and actually modifies your data. That is a big ask for your customer. Did that take a while to get to that point where you could actually push data back into their system? Or was it something from the beginning you guys said, this is so important, we need to make this part of the core?

Wade Erickson (18:43):

Well, what the key is when we go back to the manual, copilot fully automated, the hotelier has the decision. So nothing, you know, if they don't want something to automatically happen they can set the system up where they, they make the decision. So they'll see it first, and then they'll decide on the decision. And they love that because the last thing you want to do is, you know, be going back. I mean, look, you know, our, our industry for, for better or for worse you know, if you started to break it down, you'd say, okay, you got the property management system, and you say, okay, well, is that where I'm going to manage my rates, my availability, distribution? No, I need a CRS. Then the tech, then the internet took off and there was rate parity issues. So now the channel managers came out. So, I mean, and I'm just touching on three of, you know, the, the, the hundreds of different, you know, systems that are at the hotel. So we make it very, it's much more simple in our system to make a rate change or to put a restriction on a room or on the entire property than any of the, the CRSs.

Wade Erickson (19:46):

Wow. That's, that's, that's amazing amount of control and, and you know, how you've inserted yourself into their, their business operations. Cause a lot of times, you know, the SAS tools are largely just collecting and analyzing and they, they're not nearly given the rights into the, you know, the brains of the, the, the operations. So that's quite, quite a, quite a feature. Yeah. So, you know, given the as you, as you, you know, work with your product teams and stuff and the engineering testing and product managers, can you think of a particular story or success that that collaboration was really instrumental in? Because a lot of times even those become, you know, testing is separate from the product development, which, and then the product managers are largely the task masters driving the features in that are, you know, in the backlog and those kind of things. I think when it really, when all three of those groups come together, at least in my delivery world you know, that's where the synergy and the efficiencies come. Can, can you think of how your teams have come together and how about remote? I mean, with Covid and all that stuff with people not working in the office?

David Millili (21:03):

Yeah. So we're, we're, you know, we're the, we're the byproduct of covid. I mean, we're pretty much, we have one small office, everybody else is remote. My motto has always been hire the best people no matter where they're at. Obviously sometimes in hospitality, sales can dictate where, you know, time zones. You might want somebody, obviously in California, even if there might be somebody who's a little bit better on the East Coast. But as far as the teams working together, what I love about the Logic Mobile app was that it takes me back. It's a little bit of nostalgia for me because when I had my own company, open Hospitality, we were building, iPhone took off, we built mobile websites and that was just really cool. Cause you could see people testing and looking at the mobile website, the developer, the account, the sales person right on their phone. And then when the iPad came out and these tablets started popping up, we built the first hospitality responsive design website for Morgan's Hotel Group. And that was really where you kind of felt like, wow, this is really cool because you're, you're looking at one code base, one platform, and wherever you make that change, we set it up where it affected desktop, mobile, tablet, it was responsive. So if it was a iPad mini versus a larger iPad. And what was really just cool about that was, you know, again, it's, it's kind of like I, I said before, when you're holding it in your hand, it's just a little bit different than just looking at your laptop or a desktop. So, mm-hmm. <Affirmative> that was what was really cool. And we had, you know, with mobile, even with the, the Logic app, I mean, we've got, you know, we've got investors, we've got you know people who aren't even revenue managers, you know, who are logging in and testing it and, and saying, wow, I can't believe that I just log in. I can click a couple buttons, take your rate suggestions and push it out or, or close my hotel for the weekend or put a two night restriction close to arrival on, on a Friday night. Things of that nature. So there's something about just that having it on your mobile phone. That's pretty cool.

Wade Erickson (23:12):

Yeah, that's great. That's great. Alright, well we've got about five minutes left. This is the part of the show. I'd like to pivot to you a little bit on your career. And so, you know, looking at your background, you, as you said earlier, you've been involved in the startup community for Ho Hotel and hospitality, you know, travel and hospitality for some time. You know, what are some of the major changes that you see coming that would affect software developers and testers that they should be aware of? Is, is AI enabled programming something that you guys are, are talking about at your level to, to up upscale your, your, your teams or, you know, I know offshoring has been around a long time. Is that something you're looking at? Because a lot of times now covid with people getting comfortable with remote worker that now has opened off offshoring and those kind of things.

David Millili (24:02):

Yeah, and we, we have a, a fairly, a good sized team in India. We've got excellent talent there. You know, like with anyone, there's always the good and the bad. I mean, time, time differences always can, you know, be an issue. But we've worked it out and it works great. You know, I think obviously, you know, we're looking at how AI is evolving and how, you know, you're going to be having, you know, different platforms that are going to just be telling you know, they're going to say, you know, Hey, we just made a or a rate change. Or you could just talk to it and say, yes, I want you to push those rates for the weekend or make the following change. So we're looking at, you know, we always try to stay a step ahead and look at what's happening for entrepreneurs. I think they just have to embrace the technology. And I tell people, you know, a lot of times, you know, it, they're becomes engineers who have a great idea and a really smart, just make sure you surround yourself with good people who can help you with the product, help you with the go to market strategy, marketing in general and things of that nature. And, and make sure your, your finances are in order. cause one of the biggest things is startups tend to really go cheap on finance and then their, their books are a mess when they go to raise additional capital or even their seed round.

Wade Erickson (25:19):

Another point too, I saw in your profile you were a long time a professor at New York University. I've taught as well, and I know how it affected me, but tell me a little bit about how teaching kind of shaped how you were your career path, your appreciation for the talent you have and what changes in mindset you had based on the students' involvement in, in your life through teaching.

David Millili (25:47):

Yeah, and so it, it still continues for me in a different form. So I'm a mentor for NYU's incubator. That's fantastic. Being a teacher was incredible. It really kind of, it, it's kind of like when you have kids, you start to see things differently. And for me it was like, I saw this whole generation that was, you know, at the time, you know, probably 20 something years, you know, plus younger than me. And to see how they were looking at technology and what they thought was important and what they thought about travel it was great because it was NYU there was a lot of international students, so we got all different opinions and for me, I just loved it. And that kind of was something that kind of made it easier for me to do advisory work because, you know, I always felt like I was learning.

David Millili (26:36):

I wanted to make sure that, obviously I was teaching and educating, but I was also learning and kind of seeing how they were viewing things, which always made me rethink, you know, some of the things I was doing. And that, that led into some of the advisory work. And even now, the being a mentor you know, it, it's amazing that when you see, you know they're kids. I mean, maybe they don't like to be called kids, but these kids with their ideas and what they want to do. And you know, it's, it's in it's overall. It's just in it's inspiring.

Wade Erickson (27:07):

Great. Great. So yeah, we're at the top of the hour. Before we wrap, I wanted to just introduce the next week's show if that's okay. So next Wednesday we have Anthony Presley, CTO of Custom Business Solutions, and the topic's going to be around restaurant technology and in the cloud or on-Prem. Obviously with people coming into restaurants, there's a lot of technology that you have to have localized in the space. But then of course, cloud gives you a lot of advantages, especially when you're franchised. So that's on the 22nd, same time, nine 30. And join us for a little talk about tech and restaurants. Well David, thank you so much for your time. This course always goes very fast and appreciate your insights. Look into the hotel business and SaaS tools for the hotel space. I always learn plenty when I'm on these shows and you know how different folks build their software and test it and, and introduce new products and, and, and you, you never stop learning. And so I definitely appreciate your input to the community here and your time. And, you know, good luck with everything in the biz as you're it.

David Millili (28:23):

Thank you. I appreciate it was, it was, it was a pleasure. Thank you.

Wade Erickson (28:26):

Alright. Alright everybody, see you next week.