Transcript: Nashville Hot Chicken Challenge: Brett Turner in the Hot Seat

Chris Allen:
OK, well, here we are, AFP 2024. Excited to be here. I’m Chris Allen, VP of Sales here at Trovata, here with our CEO, Brett Turner. Brett, we’re doing something a little crazy today in favor of being in Nashville, the world of hot chicken.

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
We’re going to do our own Nashville hot chicken eating contest.

Brett Turner:
I’m a little nervous, I got to admit.

Chris Allen:
Brought to you by the world-famous Hattie B’s. So Hattie B’s. Kind of the king of Nashville hot chicken here in Nashville. Yeah, I mean, you know, here we are. So we got the wings. We got the sauce. Super excited. So we’re going to do number one. Let’s do number one. Let’s grab a plate.

Chris Allen:
All right, there’s chicken wing number one for us.

Brett Turner:
That is a wing. Number one

Hot Sauce #1: The Classic – Hot Ones Hot Sauce

Chris Allen:
Sauce number one kicking us off. Don’t want to spill on the couch.

Brett Turner:
Get the napkin handy here. What kind of dip was that. Was that like a reasonable… 

Chris Allen:
We probably got a teaspoon on there, maybe. A little dip. 

Brett Turner:
Like that?

Chris Allen:
Yeah.

Brett Turner:
That enough?

Chris Allen:
Yeah.

Brett Turner:
Dunk or dip?

Chris Allen:
A little classic buffalo chicken. So while we’re enjoying the break into the spice, Brett tell us a little bit about your time getting into tech startups.

Brett Turner:
That’s got a little kick, and that’s number one? This is going to…

Chris Allen:
This is going to go bad. This could be bad. This could be fun. This could be fun.

Brett Turner:
Can you repeat the question?

Chris Allen:
Yeah. Tell us how you got into tech startups.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, I mean, once upon a time, I mean, I actually got some good mentoring to kind of get into like, develop some skills, figure things out first. So I took a route, went to work at Deloitte doing auditing, which is, you know, maybe a little more exciting than watching cement dry. And then I kind of always wanted to be an entrepreneur, kind of pivoted in startups really quickly. I started my career in the like right in 95. So the startup scene in Seattle was just starting to take off. And so it kind of left early at Deloitte and kind of got plugged in.

Chris Allen:
Yeah. it’s awesome. It’s a fun world. Not for the faint of heart like the spicy chicken challenge we got going on today.

Brett Turner:
Exactly. This is actually pretty good.

Chris Allen:
We survived number one. Number one is pretty good.

Brett Turner:
Solid. 

Hot Sauce #2: Ghost Pepper Pear – Little Dick’s 

Chris Allen:
All right. Let’s roll. Let’s roll number two. Yeah, this one’s a little… that could be a little lot. That could be a little hot.

Brett Turner:
Want to make sure I have some integrity with the sauce. A complete dip.

Chris Allen:
All right. Two’s got a little two’s got a little to it. There’s a little fruit. There’s a little sweetness in that one, though. So you went from startup. You know, you’ve done all these things, operated as a CFO.

Brett Turner:
Is there like a hint of mango there?

Chris Allen:
Yeah, yeah, a little fruit. Yeah, yeah, it’s good. Yeah. What was kind of the aha moment you had, you know, spending time in startup, spending time in finance? Like, when did it kind of really click for you to like Trovata was a thing that you were going to go and tackle?

Brett Turner:
Yeah, I think early on it was a lot of time as more of a controller on the accounting side and sort of a more of a junior executive on the team. So kind of entrenched in a lot of what was going on. But just very much hands-on as well. I started like a lot of folks kind of building data lakes, getting data out of the ERP system and really got on this path of like getting a lot of the insights out of all that data. And then, kind of fast forward a little bit. My first in a CFO when I left Amazon, I just couldn’t get the data fast enough. I needed insights a lot quicker and we had a very complex quoted cash cycle. So I started experimenting with bank data and the problem is bank data doesn’t have a lot of intelligence. And so if I could tie that out to the ERP system and sort of auto reconcile that, I could get back some of the intelligence and categorize that bank data very functionally and then I could kind of put it into some meaty cash flow categories, and then I could get a lot more direct and more real-time insights. And then especially be much more predictive and precise on forecasting.

So that was… this is kind of 2005–2008, kind of built some crazy models and they kind of got some acclaim with some of the VCs we’re part of. And then that was kind of the early days of Trovata, but it’s all born in Excel. I’m my own product manager, and I’d have my whole team be a part of that working through that and that just kind of became my CFO dashboard. Yeah, that was just indispensable for me getting insights and, you know, fast forward I was just surprised that nobody ever built this and turned us into something. So when you look at, you know, the other segue kind of having a startup in cloud and all of that innovation, digital transformation, IT just everything, all the technology was kind of there and ripe to be able to do, you know, it was all heading to banking, all heading to financial services. For me, Trovata is kind of my last startup, sort of in a lot of ways, my dream startup, because it’s everything I’ve done all kind of culminated, kind of that one, like this is it. There’s no way I’m going to miss it, and it’s right in front of us. So that was really the…

Chris Allen:
Yea, all roads lead to Trovata.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Chris Allen:
Well, what you think? Number two, pretty good?

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Hot Sauce #3: Smoked Onion – Neil’s Real Deal

Chris Allen:
All right. Number three? We do number three?

Brett Turner:
All right.

Chris Allen:
See, these ones scare me. 

Brett Turner:
These are chunky. 

Chris Allen:
The thick and chunky scares me. Thick and chunky scares me. 

Brett Turner:
What do we got here?

Chris Allen:
All right. This one, this one could be a little…

Brett Turner:
How do you even get a dip in that thing? I might have to do a little…

Brett Turner:
I’m gonna… I might have to go a little… dare I say spread.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, this one, you start to get chunky, less liquid, more chunk. That’s like, that’s scary.

Brett Turner:
Is this going to be an essence of or… hard to get this on a…

Chris Allen:
That’s a good dip.

Brett Turner:
All right, get out of there. 

Chris Allen:
That’s a good dip.

Brett Turner:
I should have taken the new wing. 

Chris Allen:
Yeah, new wing on next time. So as we process number three…

Brett Turner:
Feeling that a little bit.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one’s got a little bit of a punch to it. Yeah, you took with Trovata, you took a unique approach to say, “Hey, we’re going to go and we’re going to work and partner directly with the banks to build this connectivity,” you know, real kind of real-time data connectivity piece. Like, talk to us a little bit about working with the banks, where it’s been beneficial, maybe where it’s been a little bit of a challenge.

Brett Turner:
Obviously, banks are tough to work with. I think everybody at the bank would concede that. Working at a bank, the banks don’t move very quickly. I think that was the biggest thing. Part of the brain damage now that I had been sort of weathered is because I was in startups, but working in more enterprise startups. And so you’re in some regulated industries like telecom and energy, so working with electric utilities isn’t easy either. So it’s just, you know, I felt like there was enough conditioning to know that this is… you got to set expectations. It’s going to be a journey. But the beauty about kind of innovating, though, in really hard… doing hard things like this is once you kind of get in, once you kind of get it set, then it’s like everything can kind of just make a really, really nice run from there.

So I think that was the thing, is thinking of like, we’re going to have to do some really hard pioneering. We’re going to have to do that with banks, and part of the… in the early days of Trovata, sort of explaining what an API was. But once we… you know, we’ve been in now in market for five years and close to 250 customers now. So it’s like, it’s definitely been a journey. It will continue to be a journey, but I mean, you can just start to see the momentum, and it all kind of gets more rewarding as you go. So yeah.

Chris Allen:
Yeah. All right. Number three.

Brett Turner:
All right. Not too bad. Not too bad.

Chris Allen:
A plus, Hattie B’s, on the wings. 

Hot Sauce #4: Los Calientes Verde – Hot Ones Hot Sauce

Brett Turner:
We’re back to… we’re back to liquids. 

Chris Allen:
We’re back to… so this one’s getting more yellow in color. That starts to mean like nuclear. You know, that’s…

Brett Turner:
I think I fried a hair on the nostril just smelling that thing.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, this is… this one’s going to be…Yeah, this one’s going to be a little…All right, we’re just gonna dunk, dunk and…

Brett Turner:
All right, I’m going to do a rip and tear.

Chris Allen:
All right. Yeah, we’re picking up in intensity a little bit.

Brett Turner:
That dunk was a little bit big.

Chris Allen:
That was an aggressive dunk. I like it.

Brett Turner:
I’m a little nervous. That was maybe… yeah. That was a coating.

Chris Allen:
Like Jordan in the 90s. That’s a good dunk. All right, number four. Let’s talk a little bit about APIs. As we notice the first layer of lip sweat, the dreaded lip sweat. Let’s talk, let’s talk APIs and maybe why… you know, why have people been so reluctant maybe to pursue this path of building APIs? You know, we proudly claim the largest, you know, global leader in API connectivity. Why, why that path and why has there been such maybe resistance to go on and building to the API path?

Brett Turner:
I mean, APIs are just like a base building block. If you look at like, nothing that’s happened really in tech has been as excluded APIs. I think APIs are just so new to folks in banking and finance and treasury. And the only reason not to do that is if you just can’t work with them. But they’re just the tip of the spear for innovation. It’s like, at the end of the day, the heart of innovation going forward is all data. Can you get data, data sets, normalize? And then can you have a you know, an API is just a way to access all that data or do things like the banks are basically all this data. The reason why this innovation hasn’t happened sooner is because the data has been sort of stuck in the vaults of the banks, and the APIs are sort of unlocking that and allowing a platform like Trovata to be able to, you know, democratize it and leverage it. And so I feel a little tingling there. It’s kind of nice. I mean, it’s just like I say, it’s a fundamental unlocking mechanism to innovation.

And so like here we are. You can’t go wrong. The more APIs that we build, the more data, again, the whole… the name of Trovata wasn’t like, you know, treasury innovation technologies. It’s like Trovata – trove of data. Like we’re building, it’s all about data and unlocking all of that data, automating all these workflows, leveraging AI, all of that stuff that’s coming. And here, I mean, that is just going to truly be disruptive. We don’t even have to build half of the things that already exist in UI with AI and all that stuff coming. But APIs are like the key to unlocking all of that.

Chris Allen:
Well, and I think it’s interesting as we’ve taken that approach as our foundation, you weaponize that data, right? Like we’re allowing… that power in data allows people to do things they’ve never been able to do before, which is exciting.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Allen:
Almost as exciting as sauce number five.

Brett Turner:
Yes.

Hot Sauce #5: Apple Caraway – Dawson’s Hot Sauce

Chris Allen:
All right. Is this one glowing?

Brett Turner:
All right.

Chris Allen:
We going bigger dunk? Going a little bigger dunk maybe? That’s… that’s a lot.

Brett Turner:
Yeah. 

Chris Allen:
That one started hot.

Brett Turner:
That was an instant bang.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that was a… that one’s not a little, “Hey, welcome to the game.”

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, “I warmed up now, we’re in the game.” 

Brett Turner:
That’s hot sauce.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one’s… that’s a good one.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one got the nose running a little bit.

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
So we hear the term… Yeah, no, no eye touching. Don’t touch the eyes.

Brett Turner:
OK.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, we don’t want to, you know… we want to survive the night. Speaking of survival, next question for you is, is the treasury workstation as we know it dead? 

Brett Turner:
Yes. Is the TMS dead? Well, I would say I think it’s already dying. I don’t think there’s been like a fork in it. Obviously, there’s some of these booths that companies have done pretty well that are in the show, but I think it’s dying in that… like nobody has built a new TMS for 25 years. To build from end to end a full TMS today would probably take about 10 years, about $200 million in capital to build it. No VC on the planet is ever going to fund that business model. So anybody thinking about building a TMS is just… it’s crazy. Like there’s no ROI. And so the big reason for that is because with AI now coming… when you look at the advances in AI, what’s happening really is the whole UI layer is being obfuscated, meaning it’s becoming less relevant. So when you look at all the legacy TMSs out there, you’re having to build all of this custom UI for customers, and then you’re continuing to build more for use cases.

And that’s never-ending and it’s really expensive. And now with AI, where this is all going is you’re going to be able to generate and do work and do things without having that UI layer at all. So being able to, you know, hedge in a… a currency hedge on a particular transaction, you’re right now maybe using a UI to do that. And then on top of that, once you… that’s a derivative instrument. Now you have to come up with the accounting entries all in accordance with GAAP to be able to give those to your accounting team and then book that into the general ledger. So, and that requires valuation techniques and things like that. So if you look at, these are very complicated things, but AI or you look at the future of agents, it’s being able to do that almost on the fly.

That you’ll never have to build that, and it’ll be able to do those kinds of things, feed those entries in, and automate that whole process. So that’s a big reason why we haven’t taken this approach of building a next-gen TMS. We’re starting at the core pieces, and all those other pieces because AI leverages data and tooling and that’s the key, and that’s where our focus is at. So yeah, I think it’s pretty much dead. It’s not officially dead, but I think it’s just a matter… I feel like once we kind of get going with more AI on some of the more complex pieces of TMS, then it will officially be bringing out the axe to go hunt and disrupt.

Chris Allen:
It’ll be interesting. We’re going to talk a little bit more about AI here in a minute. We’re going to go to the next…

Hot Sauce #6: Jerk & Scotch Bonnet – Pepper North

Chris Allen:
Yeah, we’re good. 

Brett Turner:
OK, what is… is this the number six? 

Chris Allen:
This is six.

Chris Allen:
OK. We’re getting serious. Serious with number six. See, I want this bite…

Brett Turner:
You’re like, “He’s still able to talk. It’s not hot enough.” I’m doing a bigger…”

Chris Allen:
That’s a nice, like, kind of Jamaican jerky kind of flavor. 

Brett Turner:
That’s a healthy dip.

Chris Allen:
Yea. That one didn’t start quite as hot. That one’s building a little bit. Definitely getting hotter as the time goes on. Starting to feel it in the back of the throat a little bit.

Brett Turner:
I think the last one was a little hotter. Come on. Was that the kids’ Hot Ones pack? Just teasing. It’s going to humble me. I know that. It’s just going to be coming back to haunt me. 

Chris Allen:
That one could be my favorite flavor so far. 

Brett Turner:
That’s a good one.

Chris Allen:
A little smoky, little curry. 

Brett Turner:
Yeah, there’s a little smokeyness to it.

Chris Allen:
So let’s keep going down the AI track a little bit.

Brett Turner:
All right.

Chris Allen:
Where do you see AI really disrupting this industry?

Brett Turner:
Yeah, I really think that… well, there’s a couple things. I think there’s a lot of fear that’s happening. It says, “OK, AI is going to take my job” and all that. I mean, just living through, you know, the lots of innovation startups over the years. My last startup was in cloud, and that’s what everybody said about IT. And today there are… companies don’t have data centers. Many of them, they’ve displaced them. Used to have them in their corporate offices. They don’t as much anymore. And the IT profession is still doing fine. Everybody just went from like IT administrators into cloud architects. And I think in a similar way, the knowledge of treasury is powerful, but you’ve got very senior people doing a lot of still very manual tasks. And I just think that’s a mismatch.

So AI is just going to leverage agents. The other thing, the prevailing trend, is that nobody can hire staffers because everybody’s trying to keep as lean a team as possible. So how are you going to do more with the rise of digitization and more and more data compounding? You’re going to constantly have to do more with less. And a lot of teams are starting to hit breakpoints. So I think it’s just a matter of time, but I think that’s where it’s all going. AI is going to be… you look at, like, treasury agents and then a big portion of a lot of the treasury is just going to go away. It’s going to be more automated. 

But the role of treasury, I think, is going to be heightened. So now they, in some ways, can kind of become more rock stars, not only playing defense of managing risk and all those, but now leveraging data and kind of coming into the broader… instead of sitting on an island a little bit, kind of moving into more, you know, as part of FP&A and accounting and adding more value, leveraging their expertise in a way more value-rich way. So I think that’s where it’s all going, and AI is going to be the bridge for sure.

Chris Allen:
Point you think, yeah, less data entry, less manual task, more strategic offering to the CFO, right?

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
Which is interesting. Number seven. 

Hot Sauce #7: Ninja Napalm – The Pepper Ninja

Brett Turner:
Definitely the mouth is a… no. Could probably do a little water.

Chris Allen:
That one lasted a little bit longer.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, I still feel that a little bit. It’s nice.

Chris Allen:
All right. Here we go. Is this seven? Is this legitimate seven? It’s going to dictate how big my dunk is.

Brett Turner:
Let’s start mixing the sauces.

Chris Allen:
Brett likes to let me go first. He’s like, how’s his reaction? How big’s my dunk gonna be?

Brett Turner:
Totally. I’m just gonna…All right, I’m trying to get…

Chris Allen:
All right, that one’s… that one’s burning my lip as I like… as it touched it. 

Brett Turner:
I’m gonna… it’s hard to dunk, so I’m gonna…

Chris Allen:
That’s a bold strategy.

Brett Turner:
I need a little more chicken with this one.

Chris Allen:
That one’s hot. Yeah, he went sauce and went with as much chicken as possible.

Brett Turner:
Not too bad. Not too bad. It’s hot.

Chris Allen:
It’s hot. It’s… you know. I got… I’m starting to sweat right here a little bit, which I can feel.

Brett Turner:
Don’t rub your eyes.

Chris Allen:
I’m just going to linger longer. We’re going to linger longer. Yeah, I don’t know if, like, water is good or not good.

Brett Turner:
All right, let’s bring it. What do we got, more questions?

Chris Allen:
Yeah, let’s talk about… so you talk about…

Brett Turner:
Want to do a sauce before the next question?

Brett Turner:
All right. That’s kicking in a little bit.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one lingers. You talked a little bit about the fear around AI. What would you recommend as people start to dabble a little bit, dip their toes into AI? Like, what recommendations do you have or what are your thoughts on how they can start to think a little more open-mindedly about AI and less about kind of the fear of what we’re kind of seeing in the market?

Brett Turner:
I think the big part around the fear factor is always like, if you just don’t know what it is, and it’s amazing still how few people have even tried to dabble with something like ChatGPT. So how that then translates to business use cases and things like that is… I mean, then you have to contend with different regulations or, you know, your company sort of regulating maybe your use or how you’re going to leverage it. So yeah, I think a lot of it is just… you just kind of have to play around with it. Like, you just have to roll around with the tools and then instantly develop some comfort and see that they’re not as scary. And then you legitimately find some of these use cases and things, you know, then, you know that innovative part of your brain kind of kicks in and you’re like, “Hey, I could actually use this for this.” And yeah, I think that’s kind of when it gets… you know, it gets exciting.

Chris Allen:
What was your… did you have an aha moment with AI that was kind of like, “Yep, I get it. I see the power.”

Brett Turner:
I think early on too, was Joseph was kind of telling me about things like, “You got to check this out. This is amazing.” And I think hearing about that, then kind of seeing that, you know, doing the same thing, just kind of, you know, watching some videos, podcasts, and then actually using it and experimenting with ChatGPT when it first came out, and yeah, it’s like, “Okay, I could see this is very different.” And then I think when you just look ahead, like once it starts to kind of move into like leveraging the different aspects of senses, of, you know, images and video and those kinds of things, and to see where it fast forwards, see where that is now. And then you’re you know, we’re like one step away of putting that in… like Optimus, you know, it does that. It’s like, “OK, this gets pretty real pretty quick.” So yeah, but it’s fun. I think it’s all coming in, and it’s all moving so fast right under our nose.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, yeah. Well, number seven, how was it?

Brett Turner:
Yeah, not too hot. You’re doing all right?

Brett Turner:
The mouth is still… it’s hot. I’m starting to sweat a little bit. 

Chris Allen:
I’m starting to sweat a little here.

Brett Turner:
It’s lingered.

Chris Allen:
A little dab..

Brett Turner:
Yeah. I see it. Yeah.

Chris Allen:
You  can see the bead. OK. Don’t remind me that I’m losing my hair.

Brett Turner:
No, no. Just on the forehead. 

Chris Allen:
Yeah, you know. I’m dabbing All right. All right. So we’re going for the bomb. This is the bomb. 

Hot Sauce #8: Evolution Hot Sauce – Da Bomb

Chris Allen:
And this one means it hurts. And I was reminding people that I’ve got to be a functioning adult later. So hopefully this one doesn’t.

Brett Turner:
All right. It’s kind of hard to dip. 

Chris Allen:
This one’s going to suck isn’t it?

Brett Turner:
Are we able to dunk it in there?

Chris Allen:
Yeah, let’s give it…Is that good?

Brett Turner:
I think I need a… that’s a lot. I need a new wing.

Chris Allen
You take the back half of that one?

Brett Turner:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Chris Allen:
That one was just a rip and a tuck. This one I’m scared for. But, we’re getting after it.

Brett Turner:
OK 

Chris Allen:
You’re not an Allen if you don’t spill on your pants during a meal. Yeah, see that one sucks. That one’s just like hot and doesn’t taste good. That one just tastes like… I don’t know, like bathroom cleaner that’s really spicy.

Brett Turner:
It definitely has a peculiar taste. It’s starting to ratchet up. It’s starting to up. Yeah, that’s hot… 

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that’s got a good…

Brett Turner:
Here it comes. It’s still coming.

Chris Allen:
This one I can feel deep down inside. This one… yeah, this one. This one’s… this one’s getting worse as I’m talking, like the breath is… the oxygen is activating the heat level, and yeah, 

Brett Turner:
That’s under the tongue.

Chris Allen:
That one might… I mean, I need a roll for the water bottle. That one’s not fun.

Brett Turner:
That one’s hot. 

Chris Allen:
Like if it tasted like the six or the seven, when it was that hot, it wouldn’t be as bad, but it just doesn’t taste good. And literally as I’m talking, the oxygen in my throat is making it worse.

Brett Turner:
Yeah. Man

Chris Allen:
Yeah, the bomb. All right. For the bomb, I’m going to say… you think about this industry in the next five years. What are you anticipating? What are you… what are you…

Brett Turner:
That was a healthy dunk too.

Chris Allen:
What are you excited about? Is it going to be as spicy as the bomb?

Brett Turner:
My mouth is on fire…

Chris Allen:
I don’t think the water’s helping either. I think the water’s making it worse. 

Brett Turner:
Oh my God. Hmm. Wow.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one sucks.

Brett Turner:
Wow. You know, it feels… what’s cool about…

Chris Allen:
Anybody need a towel? I need a towel.

Brett Turner:
You got a tear. Did I see a tear?

Chris Allen:
No, that’s just sweat.

Brett Turner:
That is hot.

Chris Allen:
That one’s hot.

Brett Turner:
When you look at how fast AI is going, it just… it’s coming so fast. And so furious. 

Chris Allen:
Just like that number eight. That’s hot.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, that was… that is… that one… that one’s hot.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, this one…This one’s just hanging. This one’s like a bad date that you can’t get out of. You know, this one… this one hurt.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, you’re not shaking this one. So it’s hard to look out. I mean, I just think the stuff that’s happening in the next year… I think, you know, what’s… for me is just kind of waiting for that tipping point. You want to just see that tip because then everything just starts to accelerate. And also from a business standpoint, you see all the fruits of our labor. You know, and the market responding and all that stuff kicking in.

So I don’t even think we’ve quite hit that yet, you know, but we’re starting to see signs of it. So we know it’s coming. So I just… I’m super excited for the next six months, you know, 18 months, you know, just a year or two. And I think we’re going to be right in the thick of just like the biggest tip of the iceberg of innovation that, you know, this industry is going to be absolutely rocked.

Chris Allen:
Yeah.

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
I don’t know how you’re not sweating. I’m just like…

Brett Turner:
It’s just holding in or something. I don’t know. My mouth is just…on fire

Chris Allen:
That one was hot

Brett Turner:
We’re not quitters. Are we?

Chris Allen:
No. Two more? Yeah, two more.

Brett Turner:
Come on

Chris Allen:
Two more.

Brett Turner:
You got to leave it all on the field, right?

Chris Allen:
Cut it in. Yeah, so I can wipe my…

Brett Turner:
I know that’s how the Seahawks roll. I don’t know about how the 49ers roll.

Chris Allen:
Brought to you by… Brett, don’t make me bring up the record the last couple years of Seahawks versus Niners. OK, we’re…

Brett Turner:
Very nice. This is great. 

Chris Allen:
A power dab. Brought to you by Trovata. Power dab by Trovata.

Brett Turner:
I like it. Yeah, that’s..We trademark that?

Chris Allen:
I mean, it’s in my eyes.

Brett Turner:
Can’t get any sauce on this beautiful white towel.

Chris Allen:
Get that bomb out of here though. That one’s bad. That one’s nasty.

Brett Turner:
But the issue is… I don’t know when we go further. 

Chris Allen:
Two more questions?

Brett Turner:
Yeah. Yeah, all right. I got it. We need to load up more chicken.

Chris Allen:
Man.

Brett Turner:
We can’t go backwards.

Chris Allen:
Woo.

Brett Turner:
Only forwards.

Chris Allen:
Nope. Yeah, yeah. We’re at eight. We gotta go to ten.

Hot Sauce #9: Arbol Scorpion – Fresco Sauce

Brett Turner:
This one looks…that just smells hot

Chris Allen:
Oh my gosh, good grief. 

Chris Allen:
That one at least tastes better than the bomb.

Brett Turner:
Was that Chipotle sauce? No. It’s like a little smoky flavor.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one definitely tastes better. 

Brett Turner:
I don’t…I think the other one… was the other one hotter?

Chris Allen:
Yeah, this one’s not… this one hasn’t been quite as…

Brett Turner:
I mean it’s hot.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, this one’s hot.

Brett Turner:
The other one was… 

Chris Allen:
My lips are still burning. I don’t know if that’s this one or the last one.

Brett Turner:
I know. I think the last one is a little hotter.
Chris Allen:
The bomb was a punch to the face. That one was. Yeah, it’s gross. All right. We got… so we got this… we got one more. Well, this question and one more before we go to ten. As you look back at your career…And we’re like at this moment right now…You know, what would you say? What would you say you’re most proud of as you’ve kind of gotten to this point as a builder? As a finance professional, you care a lot about the industry, you care a lot about the customers that we serve, the partners that we have… like, as you look back at your career, what are you most excited about? What are you most proud of that propels you kind of into this? You talked about like your last… this is kind of your last thing. This is your one, your baby.

Brett Turner:
One is like the feeling of winning just never gets old. But the biggest thing is just doing it with others. Yeah, I mean, it’s bringing people together. I mean, a big part of it is like, as we’re looking at our team around us, I mean, it just… it’s having this team sport, you kind of look at the confetti coming down on, you know, Super Bowl teams when they win and that camaraderie and that excitement together and I think it’s always kind of about this togetherness that makes winning fun and makes everything you’re working for like so rewarding. So I think… and that only gets… it’s a journey and you know, there’s lots of ebb and flows to that journey but you know being able to do that, you know, with amazing people, talented people who also kind of… and also it’s just incredibly gratifying that, you know, like, others are here on the same journey and want to be on this journey from what was, you know, it’s kind of some crazy ideas. Is it… starting something… there’s this fine line between sort of like maybe, you know, smart and insanity. Sometimes you don’t know which side you’re on.

Chris Allen:
Yeah. It’s the founder’s mentality. It’s the startup dream, right? It’s a little bit of chaos. It’s a lot of fun and… and it’s wild.

Brett Turner:
But you believe, and it just becomes contagious when you get to, you know, get to be on an amazing team with amazing people. And it just, you know, it’s why I do it. I still do it. Still got a lot of gray hair and still doing it.

Chris Allen:
Hey, you… you look, you look good. So we’ve made it.

Brett Turner:
So we’re at the last one?

Chris Allen:
The last one.

Brett Turner:
This truly number ten?

Chris Allen:
Number ten. 

Hot Sauce #10: The Last Dab: Xperience – Hot Ones Hot Sauce

Brett Turner:
The Last Dab: Xperience. I’m making a mess. 

Chris Allen:
For those at home, we have Hot Ones Last Dab experience. 91% Pepper X. That doesn’t sound nice.

Brett Turner:
So we’re doing a little bit of… well, it’s just hard to kind of like cram that thing in there, you know, so… I don’t know. Is that a… 

Chris Allen:
That’s a healthy amount. We’re just gonna get after it. Here we go.

Brett Turner:
Gotta get a little chicken.

Chris Allen:
Little chicken, a lot of sauce.

Brett Turner:
And the sauce is on my face.

Chris Allen:
And it’s hot.

Brett Turner
And it’s gonna burn a hole in the side of my teeth.

Chris Allen:
And it’s hot.

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
Yeah, that one’s hot.

Brett Turner:
That’s hot.

Chris Allen:
While we’re pondering the heat level, everybody’s going to want to know what’s new for Trovata in 2025. Want to give us a little sneak peek under the hood?

Brett Turner:
Tons. We got payments coming. We got a lot more customers coming. We got more TMS functionality that’s going to start to roll out. We got AI in a big way. Like… and we’re going to really continue to go deeper on our strength, which is data. Wow, that’s kicking in.

Chris Allen:
That’s got a little bit of that delayed reaction.

Brett Turner:
When you’re a little sloppy on the sauce, I got a little extra on the… that’s like a rookie error.

Chris Allen:
That one’s got my nose running.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, that’s coming in hard there. Yeah, it’s… what are we not going to do? And we got a lot we’re gonna… 

Chris Allen:
I can’t even focus right now. The focus is hard. Brett’s cheeks are finally getting wet.

Brett Turner:
Do I have a…do I have a tongue? I don’t know. I can’t feel it.

Brett Turner:
Yeah, no, it’s… super excited about next year. And yeah, well, we can achieve together.

Chris Allen:
A lot of fun. Well, thanks for coming out with me on the Nashville hot chicken challenge.

Brett Turner:
We did it, man.

Chris Allen:
We got through ten. Thanks to Hattie B’s for the great chicken. Cheers to… we made it. 2024 and 2025. We got it.

Brett Turner:
Yeah.

Chris Allen:
All ten. All ten.

Brett Turner:
Thank you, guys.