Today, ARK is joined by a person who isn’t afraid to do things differently, Francis Pedraza, the CEO of Invisible Technologies. In Francis’ own words, “Invisible is ops as a service,” and the idea for the private company was sparked by his realization about why everything isn’t yet automated, even though there’s an automation tool for everything. The way Invisible funds their operation is just as unique in the technology startup world as is their way of operating. Over the course of this podcast episode, Francis shares his vision. As with most great founding stories, there were some bumps in the road along his journey, but when you hear about the success that Invisible has experienced you will see the value in taking the road less travelled!
“The irony of paying the contrarian tax for so many years is that, by swimming upstream, you get to the other end, and there are no competitors.” — Francis PedrazaKey Points From This Episode:
- Francis explains what his company, Invisible Technologies does.
- Two major waves of outsourcing that have occurred since the 1990’s.
- Why most products aren’t built to be backward compatible.
- Three major challenges that Invisible ran into when looking for investors.
- How Invisible ended up with such a broad range of use cases.
- The company that Francis started prior to Invisible, and why it didn’t work.
- Frictional costs that exist between supply and demand.
- What Invisible’s business model looked like at first, and how it changed over time.
- Why Invisible is not threatened by automation players in their space.
- How Invisible fared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Factors that are driving the growth Invisible has experienced in 2021.
- How Francis is going to ensure that Invisible is always owned by the people who are building it.
- Hear Francis’ take on being a contrarian.