The Futuristic Cleaners: How AR-check Brings Cutting-Edge Tech to Low-Skill Work

[00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur with me, Jim James.

[00:00:03] Now, there are some entrepreneurs who see trends and see opportunities well

[00:00:10] ahead of everybody else, but they also take a little bit of a risk that they

[00:00:14] might be going down the wrong path.

[00:00:17] My guest today saw the impact and the possibilities of augmented reality

[00:00:23] over a decade ago and got worldwide patents on a solution they've built

[00:00:27] for the domestic cleaning business.

[00:00:30] Amazing.

[00:00:30] My guest today is in Frankfurt.

[00:00:33] He's going to tell us about an augmented reality service that he's created

[00:00:37] to help cleaning and the cleaning industry.

[00:00:39] Tell us about how he is trying to cross the chasm, is introducing a

[00:00:43] whole new category of tech to a relatively low tech industry.

[00:00:47] Martin Kuzilo is joining us from Frankfurt.

[00:00:50] Martin, welcome to the show.

[00:00:52] Thank you for having me, Jim.

[00:00:54] Look, it's a pleasure because this is an industry cleaning,

[00:00:58] domestic commercial that historically has been seen as kind of relatively

[00:01:03] low skill, low value.

[00:01:07] But as we found through COVID was absolutely essential that buildings

[00:01:12] were shut down if they were not clean enough and everyone had to go

[00:01:14] and re-clean and certifications came out and so on.

[00:01:19] Augmented reality.

[00:01:21] How have you brought this very high tech

[00:01:27] solution to a low tech environment?

[00:01:30] How are you doing that and why is it going to make a difference to everybody?

[00:01:35] Well, first of all, there are two reasons.

[00:01:39] The first reason is that cleaning business is a low cost business.

[00:01:45] So there's not much money available to invest in some kind of support.

[00:01:51] And the other one is actually the problem with the cleaners and supporting them.

[00:02:00] You know, there's a big gap.

[00:02:02] You have to trust cleaners no matter how good you teach them how to clean.

[00:02:06] You always have to rely on that, that they will clean in a proper way.

[00:02:11] And coming back to the costs is,

[00:02:16] it's as I mentioned, a very low budget business.

[00:02:19] On the other hand, the organisational costs are very, very high

[00:02:24] because unskilled cleaners provide the situation that cleaning is done

[00:02:30] quite problematic, quite often badly, poorly.

[00:02:37] And this causes extra work every time.

[00:02:42] And also the organisational efforts in the cleaning business itself.

[00:02:54] Most stuff is made by people and there's a huge amount of money

[00:03:01] which is invested by the end customer even before the first step of cleaning has been done.

[00:03:05] So there's so many, so much potential

[00:03:09] to save money in the processes which work beside the cleaning.

[00:03:20] And actually I was searching for a solution by my own to digitalise my own company.

[00:03:27] I have a cleaning company since about 25 years.

[00:03:30] And I was desperately searching for solutions.

[00:03:34] Even worldwide I was visiting different exhibitions which are specialised

[00:03:40] and they also have specialised software companies in cleaning business.

[00:03:45] But actually everybody told me that this is crazy what I'm looking for

[00:03:48] and it is impossible to close this gap.

[00:03:55] If you are able to close it, it's like the Holy Grail.

[00:03:59] But actually every expert told me this is impossible.

[00:04:03] Then I understood I have to create something by myself, which what I did

[00:04:06] and I was working on a concept for a couple of years.

[00:04:12] But it ended a few years later, recognising that what I'm doing is some kind of science fiction.

[00:04:21] It's very crazy until I was sitting in front of the TV

[00:04:25] and I saw a programme about Google.

[00:04:29] And that's the first time I came in connection with the Google Glass

[00:04:35] and the technology augmented reality.

[00:04:38] And this was the moment where I recognised that actually what I'm searching for is already there.

[00:04:44] It's augmented reality.

[00:04:46] And my idea connecting with this technology would actually allow me to solve for it.

[00:04:53] To close this gap, which is quite huge, which is quite expensive.

[00:04:57] And when you can close it and you can change it from manually to digitalise these processes,

[00:05:03] you can save extremely much money and automate this business.

[00:05:07] So as we know, cleaning business is made by cleaning companies.

[00:05:12] Everything is done very traditionally since over it hasn't changed.

[00:05:17] Mainly for the last 100 years, still things are done quite manually.

[00:05:24] There is some digital support, but they don't actually help to help the cleaner.

[00:05:28] And they're not able to track the cleaning.

[00:05:30] They cannot do nothing in real time, actually.

[00:05:34] And they even take you more of your time because you have to use these processes.

[00:05:43] You have to use these programs.

[00:05:48] And what we are searching is that the cleaner actually is not always very skilled

[00:05:54] and doesn't speak the language.

[00:05:56] So we don't want him to use our system.

[00:06:02] He just has to do what the system shows him.

[00:06:04] So to make things quite easy and to make it cost efficient.

[00:06:13] Martin, an amazing sort of digital disruption to a traditional industry

[00:06:19] that you're pining there with ARCheck.

[00:06:23] From a practical point of view then, people are wearing the glasses and the,

[00:06:30] for example, the mops, the gloves that they're using, the vacuum cleaners.

[00:06:36] Do those have sensors of some kind that communicate so that people know?

[00:06:40] How does that work from a practical point of view or a technical point of view?

[00:06:46] Yes, that's right. So we use sensors because it's not possible to patent a software.

[00:06:52] There must be some kind of connection to something,

[00:06:58] to some kind of hardware, which in this case are the sensors.

[00:07:03] So our main patent actually is based on the ability to measure a connection to the surface.

[00:07:15] So actually normally you use augmented reality by showing something in front of you,

[00:07:21] which is like in the air and you can look at it and you can make some gestures.

[00:07:28] But our patent is based on touching the surface.

[00:07:33] So that's a quite broad patent, which allows us to protect the ability for cleaning based on this patent.

[00:07:46] So we use sensors, for example, when we clean with a cloth or with a sponge,

[00:07:54] we have the sensors in the glove, in the cleaning glove.

[00:07:59] And the cleaning glove, using the cleaning glove,

[00:08:03] shows you then that there is a connection to the surface.

[00:08:08] And also, of course, for example, clean with a mop,

[00:08:13] you have the sensors in the mop, which recognize that the mop is touching the floor.

[00:08:18] And since the measurement is working in real time, you get the information in real time.

[00:08:26] So you actually the sensors communicate with the glasses.

[00:08:31] But you can also use a smartphone.

[00:08:32] So you can also see it on the smartphone as well,

[00:08:35] in case people don't want to buy at the beginning some glasses.

[00:08:41] So they can also use their smartphone. It works as well.

[00:08:44] And actually, well, that's what it's based on, on touching the surface and being capable to measure this by sensors.

[00:08:53] Martin, that's brilliant.

[00:08:54] So really, we've talked about the smart home for a number of years.

[00:08:57] I used to work for Philips in Singapore on the concept of the smart home.

[00:09:01] This is back in 98, 99.

[00:09:04] They were already starting to think about intelligent devices.

[00:09:07] And of course, with the Internet of Things, we have smart fridges, for example.

[00:09:11] And now with what you're doing, you're bringing AR into another level of actually the work that's being done.

[00:09:21] Martin, you managed to get a worldwide patent.

[00:09:24] Congratulations on the technology.

[00:09:27] You're building out some prototypes.

[00:09:28] Could you just tell us about the go-to-market strategy?

[00:09:31] Because it sounds as though you've got the concept, you've got the use case, you've protected it legally.

[00:09:37] And now you're building out some prototypes.

[00:09:39] So could you just share with us the steps that you're taking to commercialize the AR check?

[00:09:47] Sure, sure.

[00:09:48] Yeah, so we're still in a quite early phase.

[00:09:54] We now have finished the prototype phase.

[00:09:56] That was very important for us to learn if what we are actually trying to do is possible.

[00:10:04] And so we have a very good result there.

[00:10:08] It is possible.

[00:10:09] And this year, we are starting to create the first product which we will launch in the beginning of 2025.

[00:10:19] And we started to create a plan for the marketing to find customers.

[00:10:28] But we were quite lucky because many big companies were searching for solutions.

[00:10:36] Quite a lot of them found the path to our website.

[00:10:41] And so we have already a huge amount of potential customers which we are talking to.

[00:10:50] And we are already working with two very big companies.

[00:10:56] So we're actually not concentrating so much on the marketing because we already have so many requests

[00:11:05] that we are now actually concentrating more on the development.

[00:11:10] So Martin, you said that people have just found AR check.

[00:11:17] But how did that happen?

[00:11:18] Because if you haven't done a lot of press and you haven't done trade shows,

[00:11:23] you've got a website which has got some very nice videos on it, for example.

[00:11:26] But had people come to you?

[00:11:31] Well, yes.

[00:11:32] So it was by how you say, co-accidentally, I was searching for investors and it was quite difficult.

[00:11:40] And at that time, augmented reality was not so popular.

[00:11:45] Actually, people didn't know what that is.

[00:11:48] And so I just came up with the idea to send some information to a platform,

[00:11:56] Internet platform, which is called Deutsche Startups.

[00:11:59] They're specialized in startups and innovations.

[00:12:04] And so they called me and said, that's a great idea.

[00:12:07] We like what you're doing.

[00:12:08] And they interviewed me.

[00:12:10] And so they posted a first article about AR check in the Internet.

[00:12:16] And actually, what then happened is that not only private people were interested in AR check,

[00:12:24] but also quite a lot of other news platforms specialized in, for example,

[00:12:31] hotel business, cleaning business in different industries.

[00:12:36] And they also interviewed me.

[00:12:38] They liked the fact that augmented reality is not used here by some astronauts or some,

[00:12:47] how you say, pharma industry, but cleaners.

[00:12:50] They found they thought it's very crazy that such a high tech system is used by such a low

[00:12:57] technical business like cleaning business.

[00:13:00] And they loved it.

[00:13:01] So at that time, many articles were shown in the Internet about about AR check,

[00:13:11] about our startup.

[00:13:12] And that's how quite a lot of companies from worldwide actually contacted me and told us

[00:13:23] about their problems and that they see the solution in our system.

[00:13:28] And by the way, this is how I came up to create a startup, because before that,

[00:13:35] I was looking for investors to create a solution for my own business.

[00:13:39] But since I recognize that so many companies in the world are interested in the solution,

[00:13:45] after some time I decided, OK, not keep it for myself, but create a startup and allow

[00:13:53] everybody use it.

[00:13:55] That's a great idea.

[00:13:57] You say the businesses that maybe at least equal size or may even outgrow the existing

[00:14:04] cleaning business that you've had for 25 years.

[00:14:07] And what a great story that you could send that to this Deutsche Startup platform.

[00:14:14] And there was just such native interest in what you're doing.

[00:14:17] Of course, that is the very essence of where something goes viral, where an idea

[00:14:21] goes viral, where it's new, easy to understand and you're plainly fixing a problem

[00:14:26] that everyone recognizes is there.

[00:14:29] And with the technology that really is of the time right now.

[00:14:34] Martin, when you are going out to investors, just tell us a little bit about your

[00:14:41] strategy there, because obviously this show, I love to find people like yourself

[00:14:45] that are innovating.

[00:14:48] Tell us though how you're positioning the company to make it attractive to

[00:14:51] investors.

[00:14:54] Well, yes.

[00:14:54] So we are raising money now for the next, for this actually final rounds to create

[00:15:06] the product.

[00:15:09] And what we are raising is now in total will be about five million euros.

[00:15:14] What we now need for the next year is about two million.

[00:15:19] So what we do is now we started to contact investors.

[00:15:24] We already have some investors on board.

[00:15:28] And yeah, and we say they can invest in our company, in our startup, in

[00:15:39] giving us how you say it in English, I'm sorry.

[00:15:46] So venture capital, venture capital.

[00:15:48] Yeah.

[00:15:48] Yes.

[00:15:49] And Martin, when shares for that and when you're going to the investors,

[00:15:56] what's the vision?

[00:15:58] What's the promise that you are giving to the investors when it comes to AR

[00:16:04] Check?

[00:16:07] We'll be back after a quick break.

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[00:16:47] So, well, it's about mainly said it is to optimize cleaning business,

[00:16:58] to make a platform based solution where cleaning can be used totally

[00:17:08] digitally and what will not change for a long time is that the

[00:17:14] cleaning will be done physically by cleaners, but you need some kind of

[00:17:18] real time support to support this front line worker because he's

[00:17:26] actually the asset in all of the business.

[00:17:28] When it comes to cleaning, it's the cleaner, which is the main

[00:17:31] asset in all of that, not the cleaning company.

[00:17:35] So what we actually offer is a solution to make cleaning much more cost

[00:17:47] effective, efficient and more reliable and in a higher quality.

[00:17:55] Right.

[00:17:55] And presumably there's accountability too, because if you've got some

[00:18:00] tracking going on, then if that data is going up to a SaaS platform

[00:18:05] somewhere, the cleaning company and the client can both get a real time

[00:18:09] analysis of the work taking place in their facility so that they

[00:18:16] can see if they need to do more or less, you know, and really to

[00:18:20] start to get some measurement into what traditionally has been an

[00:18:23] unmeasured space.

[00:18:27] Yes.

[00:18:27] So what was your question, Nat?

[00:18:29] Yeah.

[00:18:30] So just in terms of the proposition to the investors, that's amazing

[00:18:33] that you're going and I'm sure that's going to work really, really well.

[00:18:37] What's your sort of timeline, Martin, for ARCheck to start to have real

[00:18:46] product into the market that maybe goes to trade shows, for example,

[00:18:51] that people can start to see working?

[00:18:53] So, well, okay.

[00:18:54] So our first product will be on the market in the beginning, as

[00:19:01] mentioned in 2025, but it will still take a quite long development

[00:19:08] phase over the years to continue.

[00:19:12] But we will have already a very effective system in less than

[00:19:16] a year on the market.

[00:19:18] And I believe the next year will be also the year where we'll

[00:19:22] present our company and our solution on different exhibitions.

[00:19:32] So, yes.

[00:19:34] And will you as a strategy, Martin, is the plan to work with, if

[00:19:39] you like, distributors in other markets or to, if you like, have

[00:19:44] a sort of a direct-to-market approach to find clients, do you think?

[00:19:50] So I think we have more than enough potential clients now.

[00:19:54] So how it will look on the long term, I believe it will be more

[00:20:01] platform-based business where customers can directly book their

[00:20:06] cleaning and we will be connected to a platform which also provides

[00:20:09] cleaners. And what we see also in the long term, it's not because

[00:20:14] we want it, but it will put out intermediaries because

[00:20:21] ARcheck allows direct support in cleaning and organized cleaning

[00:20:27] in a much more precise way than, for example, I can do it with

[00:20:32] my company, with my cleaning company as I work in a traditional

[00:20:35] way. So on the long term, it will be a platform-based solution

[00:20:42] comparable like what Google is for internet, what Amazon is for

[00:20:50] internet, how you say...

[00:20:54] Internet retail maybe.

[00:20:55] Retail, yeah, right.

[00:20:58] Martin, it sounds like you've got a very, very exciting proposition

[00:21:03] with ARcheck and that's AR-check.com, by the way.

[00:21:09] Martin, as an entrepreneur, would you say there's something that

[00:21:16] you'd give as a piece of advice because you've plainly had your

[00:21:21] own businesses for a long time, 25 years, you and I have had a

[00:21:24] similar sort of innings when it comes to running a business.

[00:21:27] What would be your advice to anyone that's thinking about

[00:21:29] being an entrepreneur?

[00:21:31] Well, first of all, to being an entrepreneur is very

[00:21:36] important that it's very helpful that you are specialized in what

[00:21:44] you're doing because there are so many things happening which

[00:21:52] it would be good to know upfront so you can be prepared.

[00:21:58] Whatever it is, whatever kind of industry it is and the other

[00:22:02] thing is when you are creating a startup and you need money, you

[00:22:07] of course need long breaths because things can become very

[00:22:12] complicated and difficult.

[00:22:15] Yes, that's about it.

[00:22:16] Yeah, a nice expression to have a long breath as if you...

[00:22:19] Because you are going for a deep dive, aren't you?

[00:22:21] When you're an entrepreneur.

[00:22:23] So in my case, we made a due diligence at the time.

[00:22:29] I was looking to make the patents and we did the due diligence on how

[00:22:35] long it will take till augmented reality be a serious technology on

[00:22:40] the market.

[00:22:40] And it's been told to me that it will take a few years because the

[00:22:45] first patent I launched was in 2014.

[00:22:48] So there was nothing in the market which is like bringing some kind of

[00:22:54] money or has some kind of potential.

[00:22:57] But things happened quite fast.

[00:22:59] Only a few years later, the first glasses came on the market, the

[00:23:06] game Pokemon Go came on the market, then the first filters on

[00:23:09] smartphones came on the market.

[00:23:11] So I was quite lucky.

[00:23:12] It was a risk to bet on this because patents are quite expensive,

[00:23:17] especially when they are internationally.

[00:23:20] So I paid over...

[00:23:21] We have three patents now.

[00:23:22] I think we've paid something about 400,000 euros for that till now,

[00:23:26] maybe a little bit more.

[00:23:29] So we had to wait a long time, but we used the time to create,

[00:23:37] to work on our system, on our solution and to get prepared and

[00:23:44] prepare for the further patents as well.

[00:23:48] So we have four new patents in the pipeline.

[00:23:51] And actually, our main business is creating systems because it's

[00:23:55] not actually...

[00:23:56] ARCHIC is only a result, one result, but things can change and you

[00:24:03] can fast lose grip when you concentrate on one solution.

[00:24:08] Our main business bases more on being very creative and creating

[00:24:15] new innovative state of the art disruptive systems, which ARCHIC

[00:24:20] is only one part of it.

[00:24:21] Sounds like you're going to be a busy man cleaning up, Martin, many,

[00:24:24] many, many opportunities.

[00:24:25] If you want to find out more about you, Martin, Kudzilo,

[00:24:28] where can they do that?

[00:24:30] Well, I invite you to visit our website, which is www.ar-chic.com.

[00:24:42] And yeah, there we have information to get in contact with us, with me.

[00:24:48] So welcome.

[00:24:50] Martin, thank you very much indeed.

[00:24:51] And of course I'll put Martin's website addresses, ar-chic.

[00:24:57] That's AR as in augmented reality dash and then CHECK as in CHECK.com.

[00:25:03] Martin, thank you for joining me on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur today.

[00:25:06] And you've been beavering away in an area.

[00:25:09] And I think that you are going to be very, very noticed very, very soon.

[00:25:14] So thank you for joining me.

[00:25:15] That won't happen.

[00:25:16] I will always come on your show.

[00:25:17] Thank you very much, Jim.

[00:25:19] Thank you, Martin.

[00:25:20] I shall hold you to that because I think we've seen the beginnings there of an amazing

[00:25:24] and amazing business because to take high tech into low tech areas,

[00:25:29] to support the unskilled with creating skills will create jobs for people,

[00:25:36] accountability.

[00:25:37] And as Martin says, we'll improve the business of the business

[00:25:39] of the business.

[00:25:40] We'll create jobs for people, accountability,

[00:25:43] and as Martin says, we'll improve efficiency as well.

[00:25:47] So really delighted that Martin has come on the show because I'm trying to also

[00:25:51] find innovators and people that have taken some risks and that people are

[00:25:56] really putting all their chips into new tech.

[00:25:59] And I think that we're going to see with AR CHECK those chips come back and

[00:26:04] it's going to be a great gamble.

[00:26:05] It's going to pay off for Martin big time.

[00:26:07] So I do encourage you to go to his website and also to share this with a

[00:26:11] fellow unnoticed entrepreneur, especially if you know someone that might be

[00:26:16] interested in investing in the business.

[00:26:19] And until we meet again, I just encourage you to keep on communicating.