Greg Auerbach Transcript
Greg Auerbach joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Greg Auerbach. Greg Auerbach, co-founder of Fytted, began his innovative journey in the University of Michigan Football Recruiting Office, where he recognized outdated methods in athletic recruitment.
He first developed All Athlete, an AI driven measuring tool for athletes, which gained global recognition and facilitated over 50 million in scholarship funds. Building on this success, Greg established Fytted, an app delivering unparalleled accuracy in body measurements and personalized fashion recommendations, enhancing the online shopping experience while promoting retailer sustainability.
Over the course of his career, Greg’s passions continue to encompass revolutionizing sports recruitment, leveraging technology and innovation, and fostering a social impact through ventures like All Athlete and Fytted.
Well, good afternoon, Greg. Welcome to the show!
Greg Auerbach: Thanks for having me!
Brian Thomas: Absolutely, Greg. I appreciate you making the time hailing out of the great city of Los Angeles. I’m over here in Kansas City, a couple hour difference, but love doing these, every single day. Greg. So, Greg, let’s jump into your 1st question. You began your journey in the University of Michigan football recruiting office where you identified inefficiencies in athletic recruitment. How did this experience inspire you to create all athlete?
Thank you. And what were the key challenges you faced in developing this AI driven tool?
Greg Auerbach: So, while I was with the University of Michigan football staff, it was truly eye opening to see how inefficient everything was. I mean, we did everything pen and paper or by whiteboards. And As an athlete who was trying to be recruited and get scouts to look at me, I was finally able to see why I wasn’t on the radar and why so many millions of athletes aren’t on radars of college coaching staffs.
And that’s where All Athlete came. It was about democratizing the recruitment and letting athletes take their own journey into their own hands. And The biggest thing about creating an AI driven tool for recruiting is that the recruitment process is so vague and is so demanding that you had to simplify what you’re trying to get athletes and coaches to do, and that’s where our portable combine what we call a combine in your pocket came to be where coaches didn’t have to go to Camps, kids didn’t have to go to camps.
You could get your height verified, your vertical jump verified, everything verified directly from your phone. And the biggest challenge we faced was breaking away from status quo, the norm. People are hesitant, but the way we were able to get around it was just demonstrate it. And we currently have thousands of colleges across the country using All Athlete in their everyday recruitment needs.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I love the stories. That’s what I look forward to. Usually, typically, my first question of a guest is kind of that backstory, right? And I just love every single one. It gets me real excited about how somebody was trying to figure out a solution to a problem, and it usually has a great outcome here.
So, I appreciate you sharing that. And Greg, can you provide some insight into the AI algorithms powering Fytted’s advanced solution and how this technology is transforming the online retail industry for brands and consumers alike?
Greg Auerbach: Yeah. So, another fun backstory is that we released this AI height measuring tool as part of All Athlete in December of last year.
And when we released it, it had a little bit of virality due to some tick tock videos going viral. And as people started using it, we started to realize what they were using it for. And it had to do with more body measurements and specifically clothing measurements. Because it’s as if you’re wrapping the traditional measuring tape around your body with our patent pending processes.
And so, the way that we’re able to capture Body measurements for athletics really exploded and expanded into clothing. So, while your vertical jump or 40 yard dash might not be necessary for picking out a dress or a suit or whatever it is that you want, it does really personalize and customize your entire body measurements for your purchasing needs. And it’s not about having one size and then making your purchases. It’s being able to continuously improve upon learn from your body measurements as they evolve over time and be able to get you the clothes that fit you specifically because of the fact that so many brands have different sizing across I mean, you can even have it from shirt to shirt, but especially from brand to brand and the insight for a user to know.
If they’re a medium in Adidas versus a large in Lululemon is incredibly important, especially with the prevalence returns have nowadays with online shopping. You’re really trying to create a streamlined experience, which increases retailer profitability, but more importantly, it increases customer satisfaction.
So, it’s not about just making online shopping easier. It’s about making it smarter, more personalized and more for you.
Brian Thomas: I love that really do customer satisfaction obviously is important for that return visitor that return sale, but it is hard to get that stuff right online. So, I’m glad that you have a platform like this that can improve customer sat, but also just make that buying experience a whole lot better and some reality with some social media.
It certainly helps. I appreciate the story there. Greg, your ventures, All Athlete and Fytted both leverage AI and technology to solve industry specific problems. How do you see the role of AI evolving in these industries and what innovations are you most excited about in the near future?
Greg Auerbach: So, in terms of AI in these industries, in terms of AI and athletics, it’s about becoming more predictive and assisting coaches, athletes on this journey together, because currently the process is so segmented, which is what all athletes do.
Aims and really addresses with its placement in the industry, but continuing to create those synergies and connect the two realms together and in fashion, I think, in terms of continuing to personalize, continuing to optimize supply chains, reducing waste, sustainability, et cetera, is going to be the focus in upcoming years.
Innovations that I’m personally excited about is actually the stage of AI where most people think of chatbots being pretty autonomous, but they’re really not at this point. And AI has a path forward where in the next couple of years or so, it’s going to be self-adjusting, self-learning, where it will learn with you to be your personal assistant.
At 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, if you’re running low on milk, it will order milk from off Instacart or Door Dash, or if you’re scheduling a flight to get into Maine, your city here, you’ll have an Uber waiting to go for you when you land. And those are pretty, I would say superficial examples of it, but it’s about.
Streamlining your entire, I would just say life without any effort from you, the person who interacts with it.
Brian Thomas: I really do see a lot of that and you’re spot on, you know, we, we do have those apps that kind of help us write nudges and so forth that we get notifications or reminders, but we will have a personal assistant that we all can afford that.
It’s going to help us do those everyday tasks that. Typically, are mundane or we forget or kind of a pain but having that integrated personal assistant buyer side 24 seven, I think it’s going to be a blessing and a curse, but, but at the same time, I think there’s a lot of efficiencies to be gained out of it.
And I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on it. And Greg, the last question of the day aims to enhance the online shopping experience. With the increasing shift to e commerce, what do you see as the next big trends in the intersection of technology and fashion, and how is Fytted positioned to capitalize on them?
Greg Auerbach: So, the future of e commerce is going to be all about, one, online, and two, hyper personalization, and creating this immersive in store experience, and going beyond that. We’re already seeing a shift towards augmented reality, virtual try-ons, which are making the online shopping experience more engaging and more accurate.
But we’re very well positioned to lead this specifically with our virtual fit in room and how we approach the virtual fit in room. And it’s redefining how customers really engage and interact with online fashion. But beyond that, the integration of AI and sustainable practices is going to be huge, especially with.
Shoppers becoming more conscious of their environmental impact opting for whether it’s capsule wardrobes versus the fast fashion, which currently is kind of at a standstill, especially with the introduction of the tick tock shops. But. What we offer is a technology that allows brands to produce on demand, and they get to minimize their own inventory, their waste, and be able to lessen their own footprint, which is huge in this merge, this meld of AI with sustainability, and we’re not just adopting these trends.
We’re pushing them. I personally have a background in environmental engineering. I as a as a specialty in my in my graduate studies. And so, I it’s always at the at the tip of what we develop and making sure that we push them.
Brian Thomas: Thank you for sharing, Greg, I appreciate your insights and with a lot of the technology nowadays, we are starting to see an intersection of technology with fashion or manufacturing or food or whatever that industry is.
It’s making it more seamless now as we dive into the technology. So, I appreciate again, your insights and Greg, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Greg Auerbach: That sounds great. Pleasure is all mine.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Greg Auerbach Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
