Gabriel Covarrubias: One of the big shifts that our
Gabriel Covarrubias: manufacturers implemented in the last few
Gabriel Covarrubias: months is now, instead of looking through
Gabriel Covarrubias: video, we can talk or text into our VMS
Gabriel Covarrubias: software and we could say I'm looking for a
Gabriel Covarrubias: gentleman with a white t-shirt and blue
Gabriel Covarrubias: jeans on and blonde hair, and it's going to
Gabriel Covarrubias: pull up that video in seconds.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Oh my gosh.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And it's going to scrub all of the cameras
Gabriel Covarrubias: on that account or the selected cameras
Gabriel Covarrubias: that you choose from.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So, going to that video investigation piece,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we've really expedited that process tenfold.
Mark Haney: That's incredible.
Mark Haney: That is yes.
Mark Haney: This is the Mark Haney Show, on a mission
Mark Haney: to ignite the entrepreneurial revolution
Mark Haney: right here in the hometown we love.
Mark Haney: We do that by building the Backyard
Mark Haney: Advantage, which is really working on
Mark Haney: building the most connected community in
Mark Haney: the world for local entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: It's based around this culture of love and
Mark Haney: you know I love entrepreneurs and sharing
Mark Haney: the story of entrepreneurs is something
Mark Haney: that I feel like the most successful
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs should be on a pedestal and
Mark Haney: we need to share their story so it inspires
Mark Haney: the next one in line, and so today that is
Mark Haney: what we are doing.
Mark Haney: We have Gabriel Covarrubias.
Mark Haney: Did I pronounce your name right?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, that's really close Covarrubias.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Thank you.
Mark Haney: Covarrubias, and you know we have kind of
Mark Haney: got to know each other.
Mark Haney: We met each other at a UCP fundraiser a few
Mark Haney: months back and it turns out we are kind of
Mark Haney: from the same industry initially security
Mark Haney: cameras, and there was a little bit of a
Mark Haney: bond over that, but we just started bonding
Mark Haney: too over family and discussing kind of like
Mark Haney: some of the things that dads and I'm a
Mark Haney: grandpa now as well, but you know that we
Mark Haney: go through and dogs.
Mark Haney: So you're a dog guy and I wouldn't call
Mark Haney: myself a dog guy, that we go through and
Mark Haney: dogs.
Mark Haney: So uh, yeah, so you're a dog guy and I
Mark Haney: wouldn't call myself a dog guy, but we've
Mark Haney: got a bunch of dogs at our property.
Mark Haney: So, uh, uh, I want to start the show by
Mark Haney: talking a little bit about that, because I,
Mark Haney: we started the show before you and I really
Mark Haney: got into this and for the audience, this is
Mark Haney: how it came up.
Mark Haney: So about 40 minutes ago, you know, we had
Mark Haney: just celebrated a nice family win.
Mark Haney: I went home, worked out and, you know, sat
Mark Haney: in the sauna.
Mark Haney: I get up and decide I'm going to go for a
Mark Haney: ride in my Jeep with my wife because we're
Mark Haney: getting some new gates put on the you know,
Mark Haney: at our property, and so I jump in the Jeep
Mark Haney: to drive her across to go look at it.
Mark Haney: And we have, like there's a bunch of dogs
Mark Haney: on the property but there's like three or
Mark Haney: four of them like to chase the Jeep and so
Mark Haney: they're chasing the Jeep and I'm going
Mark Haney: pretty slow and so we look at the gates and
Mark Haney: we're pulling away.
Mark Haney: I'm going maybe like one mile an hour and
Mark Haney: this one dog, that's like super fast.
Mark Haney: All of a sudden I hear yelping oh no, what
Mark Haney: happened?
Mark Haney: I could feel it under the Jeep, the dog had
Mark Haney: got under the Jeep somehow and I was only
Mark Haney: going about one mile an hour.
Mark Haney: But the dog comes out limping and I just
Mark Haney: felt like crap.
Mark Haney: Went to put the dog in the Jeep so we could
Mark Haney: take it to the vet or get it checked out or
Mark Haney: whatever.
Mark Haney: And it was my son's dog and it bit me and
Mark Haney: so I've got this bandage and so I scrambled
Mark Haney: to get here in the show, um, while
Mark Haney: everybody's dealing with the dog taking it
Mark Haney: to the vet.
Mark Haney: But, um, just, you know life of, uh, you
Mark Haney: know real world life.
Mark Haney: You know entrepreneurs and you know we all
Mark Haney: have these things that like, uh, great day
Mark Haney: becomes this, you know really bad day and
Mark Haney: now it's a great day again because I'm
Mark Haney: talking to Gabe, but, um, anyway, thanks
Mark Haney: for coming on the show, but you have a lab
Mark Haney: and a golden retriever, yeah, yeah.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So I've got two senior dogs, I like to call
Gabriel Covarrubias: them.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I've got my rescue.
Gabriel Covarrubias: She's approximately 13 years old.
Gabriel Covarrubias: She's our golden retriever.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Uh, absolutely love her.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We've had her for about five years.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And then our family dog that we got when he
Gabriel Covarrubias: was a puppy, it's our black lab.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He turns 10 in October, so interesting.
Mark Haney: I've been bit one other time in my life and
Mark Haney: it was by a black lab, but we have three
Mark Haney: yellow labs, so they're white, whitish in
Mark Haney: color.
Mark Haney: What's the demeanor of your black lab?
Mark Haney: Is that a?
Mark Haney: It sounds like a 10-year-old dog.
Mark Haney: Is it super friendly towards people and
Mark Haney: that kind of thing.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, super, super friendly.
Gabriel Covarrubias: This guy will lick your hand, although far
Gabriel Covarrubias: from biting it.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Wow.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And what's interesting about him?
Gabriel Covarrubias: At 10 years old, anytime he meets somebody
Gabriel Covarrubias: you think it's the first time he's ever
Gabriel Covarrubias: been introduced to humans Because he gets
Gabriel Covarrubias: so excited about any new scent he just like
Gabriel Covarrubias: will just start like not really barking,
Gabriel Covarrubias: but kind of yapping with excitement, almost
Gabriel Covarrubias: like a cry like pet me, pet me, please give
Gabriel Covarrubias: me attention.
Mark Haney: Oh, wow Sounds like a super cool dog and
Mark Haney: our three yellow labs sounds like they have
Mark Haney: a very similar demeanor.
Mark Haney: They're super friendly.
Mark Haney: They bark at the Amazon guy or whatever,
Mark Haney: but then he comes up and they're all happy
Mark Haney: to see him.
Mark Haney: Actually, they're just barking.
Mark Haney: I don't know why.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, same with this guy.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He barks to make noise, but if he actually
Gabriel Covarrubias: sees a person, he's just going to run up to
Gabriel Covarrubias: you and want you to pat on the back.
Mark Haney: What made you decide to rescue the dog?
Mark Haney: Did you grow up being a dog lover type guy?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, interesting story.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So my wife and I are just total animal
Gabriel Covarrubias: people and that that's you know, gone down
Gabriel Covarrubias: to our children.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Uh, the unfortunate reality is my stepmom
Gabriel Covarrubias: passed away in 2020, and so in her wishes
Gabriel Covarrubias: was that one of the children take care of
Gabriel Covarrubias: her dog.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Okay, and so that's where we inherited the
Gabriel Covarrubias: black lab, and uh yeah, so the rest has
Gabriel Covarrubias: been history with her.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We brought her in immediately and she's
Gabriel Covarrubias: been taken in as one of the family members
Gabriel Covarrubias: and you've got little kids, so they're
Gabriel Covarrubias: probably great with those little kids.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Oh yeah.
Mark Haney: Yeah, that's how our dogs are too.
Mark Haney: It's a.
Mark Haney: It's a good thing, and I hadn't had a dog
Mark Haney: for a long time since my kids were younger,
Mark Haney: and when COVID hit, we went out and got
Mark Haney: some yellow labs and you know my wife's in
Mark Haney: heaven.
Mark Haney: So I'm now I know nobody's mad at me for
Mark Haney: running over the dog, but everybody feels
Mark Haney: really bad about it.
Mark Haney: So it's a tough deal.
Mark Haney: But this show is not really about running
Mark Haney: over your dog.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Although there are ups and downs in
Gabriel Covarrubias: entrepreneurship.
Mark Haney: Today was an up and a down.
Mark Haney: It started off as a great day and now it's
Mark Haney: ended up being this weird day.
Mark Haney: So thanks for I know I was a couple minutes
Mark Haney: late for the show, so thanks for sticking
Mark Haney: around and let's share your story Now.
Mark Haney: You built a business in security cameras,
Mark Haney: which is intriguing to me as a security
Mark Haney: camera guy.
Mark Haney: Let's talk about your journey.
Mark Haney: Tell me about this journey into
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship, and the name of your
Mark Haney: company is MSC Integration.
Mark Haney: It was Mr Security Cameras, right, or is it?
Gabriel Covarrubias: still that that is correct.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, so it's still Mr Security Camera Inc.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're just doing business as MSC
Gabriel Covarrubias: integration Gotcha, and that change
Gabriel Covarrubias: actually came about four or five years ago
Gabriel Covarrubias: as we started offering a lot more than just
Gabriel Covarrubias: video surveillance and security cameras.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The business started doing card access,
Gabriel Covarrubias: intrusion detection systems, live video
Gabriel Covarrubias: monitoring, anything that really
Gabriel Covarrubias: encompasses security needed for a business,
Gabriel Covarrubias: and so we felt a name change was necessary
Gabriel Covarrubias: to help express kind of who we are, what we
Gabriel Covarrubias: do and how we're going to do it.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But the parent company is still Mr Security
Gabriel Covarrubias: Camera Inc and we still hold true to that.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Hence the MSC is just a play on words.
Mark Haney: Okay, I didn't even catch what that stood
Mark Haney: for.
Mark Haney: Okay, well, I like the name, mr Security
Mark Haney: Cameras, because it's I mean, it's to the
Mark Haney: point.
Mark Haney: It's like if you think you, if you have an
Mark Haney: incident and you want to get some cameras,
Mark Haney: okay, well, these guys are Mr Security
Mark Haney: Camera, it's not wannabe security camera
Mark Haney: dude.
Mark Haney: And you, your company's really grown over
Mark Haney: the years and I think you may have worked
Mark Haney: with one of our companies is we do video
Mark Haney: surveillance in casinos and I know so I
Mark Haney: know you do like big jobs.
Mark Haney: You know we do pretty much enterprise type
Mark Haney: video security and then we do a little bit
Mark Haney: of that card access and some of that stuff
Mark Haney: too.
Mark Haney: But you've built quite a business of a
Mark Haney: variety of, I guess, industry verticals.
Mark Haney: So maybe tell me about the different parts
Mark Haney: of your business and the different customer
Mark Haney: types.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So originally on back in the early days of
Gabriel Covarrubias: Mr Security Camera, we were primarily a
Gabriel Covarrubias: residential service company.
Gabriel Covarrubias: To your point, we were the guys that if you
Gabriel Covarrubias: had something security related for video,
Gabriel Covarrubias: you called us, we were Mr Security, and
Gabriel Covarrubias: that really carried us through and that
Gabriel Covarrubias: started like as a side gig for you.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You called us, we were Mr Security, and
Gabriel Covarrubias: that really carried us through and that
Gabriel Covarrubias: started like as a side gig for you.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Right, it did.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It did, yeah, it really started.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I was in transitioning from another
Gabriel Covarrubias: business this is actually the fourth
Gabriel Covarrubias: business I've started in my career and I
Gabriel Covarrubias: was transitioning out of a business selling
Gabriel Covarrubias: it back to my original partner at the time,
Gabriel Covarrubias: just trying to figure out what I was going
Gabriel Covarrubias: to do.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I was just doing some like side gigs,
Gabriel Covarrubias: working with some friends and you know we
Gabriel Covarrubias: were doing some Craigslisting, essentially
Gabriel Covarrubias: installing security cameras for local bars
Gabriel Covarrubias: and restaurants and things unlicensed.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Didn't quite know what we were doing, but
Gabriel Covarrubias: just having fun doing it and that's what
Gabriel Covarrubias: got us started.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And in 2014, when we became a licensed
Gabriel Covarrubias: contractor for Mr Security Camera Inc.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We focused on that residential market,
Gabriel Covarrubias: providing that quick turnaround.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You can call us today.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're going to be out there tomorrow pretty
Gabriel Covarrubias: much installing cameras getting your house
Gabriel Covarrubias: protected.
Gabriel Covarrubias: As that progressed over the years, in 2017,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we made the shift to go from straight
Gabriel Covarrubias: business to business and our primary
Gabriel Covarrubias: vertical now is going to be multifamily
Gabriel Covarrubias: housing and light distribution warehouses.
Mark Haney: Okay, I'm going to take the listeners down
Mark Haney: a little bit of a memory lane.
Mark Haney: Some may know this, but so when I got into
Mark Haney: security cameras, it was 1992.
Mark Haney: It was way back when, and it the people
Mark Haney: that were in security cameras were doing it
Mark Haney: totally on the side.
Mark Haney: There really weren't too many security
Mark Haney: camera specialists.
Mark Haney: You had these alarm companies, right.
Mark Haney: So, like a security company that does a
Mark Haney: alarm, maybe a fire alarm, you know they
Mark Haney: people started asking them for security
Mark Haney: cameras and so they learned how to be
Mark Haney: security camera installers.
Mark Haney: Maybe there's an electrical contractor and
Mark Haney: he gets a call, you know, okay, yeah, I can
Mark Haney: figure it out.
Mark Haney: And so when I got in at that time, and
Mark Haney: because my mom and dad had owned a TV shop
Mark Haney: when I was a kid, the security camera thing
Mark Haney: I won't say it was easier for me, but I was
Mark Haney: sort of attracted to it in a way, and
Mark Haney: that's predominantly why we, you know,
Mark Haney: built our, you know, we had a handful of
Mark Haney: security camera companies, but very, very,
Mark Haney: very focused on security cameras versus,
Mark Haney: you know, everything associated with
Mark Haney: security and that, and deciding to
Mark Haney: specialize, at least at that time, ended up,
Mark Haney: I guess, being a blessing for us.
Mark Haney: So now you get into, take back to 2014 when
Mark Haney: you first started getting into this Walk me
Mark Haney: through that, so it becomes an official
Mark Haney: business and you started off with the
Mark Haney: residential site and maybe bars and small
Mark Haney: businesses.
Mark Haney: Was there a turning point in there where
Mark Haney: you said, wow, I'm really onto something
Mark Haney: and I can really expand?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, actually, the turning point happened
Gabriel Covarrubias: prior to us making it an official business,
Gabriel Covarrubias: back in 2023,.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We started getting into some customers
Gabriel Covarrubias: commercial customers that I started.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The light bulb started to turn on and I
Gabriel Covarrubias: said, wow, there is something here.
Gabriel Covarrubias: There's a need in our local market, people
Gabriel Covarrubias: that are not servicing it effectively.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Going back, to, the types of companies that
Gabriel Covarrubias: were offering the service were kind of one
Gabriel Covarrubias: man show alarm companies, and something
Gabriel Covarrubias: that we were hearing from our clientele
Gabriel Covarrubias: base at that time was they needed somebody
Gabriel Covarrubias: they can call that's going to answer the
Gabriel Covarrubias: phone, that's going to be able to provide
Gabriel Covarrubias: support and walk them through help when
Gabriel Covarrubias: they need it the most.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And that's what we based the business on.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And so when 2014 hit and the light bulb had
Gabriel Covarrubias: already turned on, at that point I said,
Gabriel Covarrubias: wow, we can do something here.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We have not necessarily a secret sauce.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Our secret sauce is communication.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're going to be here and we're not going
Gabriel Covarrubias: to.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're not going to be a fly by night
Gabriel Covarrubias: company.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And what also happened at that time in 2014,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we went from buying camera systems at
Gabriel Covarrubias: Costco and and installing them for you to
Gabriel Covarrubias: finding a distributor at that time, which
Gabriel Covarrubias: happened to be a company I think you might
Gabriel Covarrubias: have some association with Mark Northern
Gabriel Covarrubias: Video.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yes, okay, yeah, so, interesting enough, I
Gabriel Covarrubias: went to one of our clients' facilities last
Gabriel Covarrubias: week at Tikert, and they still had the
Gabriel Covarrubias: original Northern Video PTZs.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We sold them back in 2014.
Mark Haney: Oh my gosh Still functioning Still.
Gabriel Covarrubias: great video quality, by the way.
Gabriel Covarrubias: 14 still functioning still great video
Gabriel Covarrubias: quality, by the way.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Uh, the server happened to to uh pass away
Gabriel Covarrubias: on us, okay, but the cameras have outlived.
Mark Haney: That cameras worked.
Mark Haney: Okay, that's good to hear.
Mark Haney: Uh, you know, keep kept in, because that's
Mark Haney: uh, that's that's pretty old.
Mark Haney: The northern cameras, yeah, yeah, I don't,
Mark Haney: they're not, so for anybody that might be
Mark Haney: listening.
Mark Haney: So I owned a company called northern video
Mark Haney: and it was actually a pro video company and
Mark Haney: we sold basically no security cameras and
Mark Haney: then we started selling Sony security
Mark Haney: cameras.
Mark Haney: Ultimately, we built it into like the
Mark Haney: largest independent security distributor in
Mark Haney: the country.
Mark Haney: It got bought by.
Mark Haney: We actually merged with another company and
Mark Haney: went on a roll-up strategy and bought a
Mark Haney: bunch of companies and became the largest
Mark Haney: security camera distributor in the country,
Mark Haney: and then we ended up getting bought a few
Mark Haney: more times later.
Mark Haney: After I left the company, it's now, I think,
Mark Haney: part of the largest distributorship in this
Mark Haney: realm in the world.
Mark Haney: Do you still buy your stuff there?
Mark Haney: We do, and that's Wesco now Wesco.
Mark Haney: Okay, I forgot the name of it.
Mark Haney: I don't deal with it anymore.
Mark Haney: I have my security camera company.
Mark Haney: Now I'm like a silent, whatever we want to
Mark Haney: say.
Mark Haney: I'm like a silent passive investor, if you
Mark Haney: will.
Mark Haney: My brother-in-law runs it, so I'm not up to
Mark Haney: date on where we get all our stuff these
Mark Haney: days.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, they still operate out of the
Gabriel Covarrubias: original Triad which was part of, I believe,
Gabriel Covarrubias: your roll up with Northern Video and Triad,
Gabriel Covarrubias: so they're still there in Natomas, wow, and
Gabriel Covarrubias: they've been a great partner for us.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We've been working with them since 2014.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That's great, do you?
Mark Haney: guys buy from ScanSource at all.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Very little.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I think that's where we we don't buy, we
Gabriel Covarrubias: buy most of our stuff directly from the
Gabriel Covarrubias: manufacturer.
Mark Haney: But when we have to buy something through
Mark Haney: distribution on the video side, I think we
Mark Haney: buy it from ScanSource, who got into the
Mark Haney: business, you know, late in the game,
Mark Haney: because they're like they have.
Mark Haney: They're just a distributor that got into
Mark Haney: video because they thought it was a.
Mark Haney: The video was an emerging technology, so
Mark Haney: interesting.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, we do a little bit with them.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Our go-to is going to be Wesco and then
Gabriel Covarrubias: direct with manufacturers such as Avigilon.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Okay, yeah, yeah.
Mark Haney: We deal somewhat with Avigilon as well.
Mark Haney: So now thinking about the technology, so
Mark Haney: it's interesting to think about how the
Mark Haney: technology has changed over the years.
Mark Haney: You know, back in 92, I kind of talked
Mark Haney: about people's reluctance to get into
Mark Haney: security cameras, and partially because
Mark Haney: they just weren't that good and maybe
Mark Haney: people were like kind of anti big brother.
Mark Haney: At that time People were like, oh, you know,
Mark Haney: I don't want cameras all over keeping an
Mark Haney: eye on everything.
Mark Haney: It was like almost they were worried about
Mark Haney: them being offensive to their customers and
Mark Haney: to uh, you know, to the populace.
Mark Haney: But now I think people want security
Mark Haney: cameras.
Mark Haney: If you're a patron, it makes us feel more
Mark Haney: safe when you know that you've got enough
Mark Haney: cameras up to keep track of stuff.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Well, most certainly.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I think the industry and market has shifted
Gabriel Covarrubias: 180 degree.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Now people want to go to places that they
Gabriel Covarrubias: know have an adequate video surveillance or
Gabriel Covarrubias: security system.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The world that we live in nowadays it's
Gabriel Covarrubias: gone from being the big brother to now
Gabriel Covarrubias: adding that layer of protection that, if
Gabriel Covarrubias: you're going to go out to a shopping center
Gabriel Covarrubias: or a shopping mall, knowing that there's
Gabriel Covarrubias: video surveillance everywhere you go, and
Gabriel Covarrubias: if you're out with your kids or your loved
Gabriel Covarrubias: ones, knowing that you have that little
Gabriel Covarrubias: extra layer of protection, provides that
Gabriel Covarrubias: peace of mind.
Mark Haney: You sort of get used to it.
Mark Haney: They're everywhere, they're ubiquitous.
Mark Haney: If you will and I don't know if you do this
Mark Haney: or not you know you hear the stories about
Mark Haney: if you're, let's say, your wife's pregnant
Mark Haney: and then you start noticing pregnant people.
Mark Haney: Well, if you're in the video surveillance
Mark Haney: business, if I walk into a store,
Mark Haney: especially if I go into a casino, which is
Mark Haney: like our customer base is all casinos
Mark Haney: they're everywhere.
Mark Haney: There's just thousands and thousands of
Mark Haney: cameras inside a casino, but a lot of times
Mark Haney: you sort of just get used to seeing them.
Mark Haney: They don't even stand out anymore because
Mark Haney: they're so small, but the technology is so
Mark Haney: much better than what they had been in the
Mark Haney: past and they're getting better every day.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, most certainly getting better every
Gabriel Covarrubias: day.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And what I find to be fascinating about the
Gabriel Covarrubias: technology shift is we went from, you know,
Gabriel Covarrubias: just even a few short years ago, where a
Gabriel Covarrubias: lot of the analytics and computing was
Gabriel Covarrubias: happening on site.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know it was happening at a camera level
Gabriel Covarrubias: or a server or NVR level that was located
Gabriel Covarrubias: on premise, and now that the industry is
Gabriel Covarrubias: pivoting to cloud, the possibilities and
Gabriel Covarrubias: capabilities are absolutely endless and it
Gabriel Covarrubias: is amazing what we can do with video
Gabriel Covarrubias: nowadays to maximize, you know, coverage,
Gabriel Covarrubias: to searching video, investigations and the
Gabriel Covarrubias: time that we've been able to cut out of the
Gabriel Covarrubias: picture.
Gabriel Covarrubias: What used to be a full-time job we can now
Gabriel Covarrubias: do in minutes and in seconds.
Mark Haney: Yeah, it's crazy how much better it's
Mark Haney: getting.
Mark Haney: I heard this on the news today that and I
Mark Haney: attribute it at some level to security
Mark Haney: cameras.
Mark Haney: But I hear crimes actually coming down in
Mark Haney: America some recent statistics, even though
Mark Haney: you know, maybe it's gone up over the last
Mark Haney: several years due to you know how well we
Mark Haney: enforce the law, but I think surveillance
Mark Haney: cameras catch bad guys, bad people, and you
Mark Haney: know how well we enforce the law, but I
Mark Haney: think surveillance cameras catch bad guys,
Mark Haney: bad people, and you know we have all kinds
Mark Haney: of examples of solving challenges in
Mark Haney: society by just stringing, piecing things
Mark Haney: together because more people have cameras.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, I would agree with that.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I mean something I've said for years is it
Gabriel Covarrubias: helps keep honest people honest, right.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It takes that opportunistic criminal and
Gabriel Covarrubias: makes them think twice.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know they see a bag sitting on a table
Gabriel Covarrubias: at a restaurant.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They know that there's cameras.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Maybe they might have been a not so good
Gabriel Covarrubias: person and said I'm going to take that
Gabriel Covarrubias: opportunity and steal that bag or steal
Gabriel Covarrubias: that phone.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But I feel a lot of that is starting to
Gabriel Covarrubias: become alleviated throughout time with the
Gabriel Covarrubias: implementation of video.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, there's kind of like a peace of mind.
Mark Haney: Now, one of the things that you did you
Mark Haney: were telling me about is you made an
Mark Haney: investment into I'll call them towers I
Mark Haney: don't really know what you call these
Mark Haney: things, but they're portable surveillance
Mark Haney: systems that go high in the sky to keep
Mark Haney: track of.
Mark Haney: It could be construction site or something
Mark Haney: like that and that has done pretty well for
Mark Haney: you guys.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, most certainly.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So that's our latest brand that we launched
Gabriel Covarrubias: officially September of 2024, which is our
Gabriel Covarrubias: Mr Security Camera Trailers brand.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So that's for our mobile security units.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Those are completely off-grid,
Gabriel Covarrubias: cellular-enabled generator backup, if need
Gabriel Covarrubias: be, eyes in the sky.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We've got a few different models that we
Gabriel Covarrubias: can deploy within, I'd say, less than 24
Gabriel Covarrubias: hours.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Wow, so the time a client calls us, I mean
Gabriel Covarrubias: we've even done same-day delivery.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We just did for a local police department
Gabriel Covarrubias: in the Bay Area last week and so it's
Gabriel Covarrubias: becoming increasingly popular to cover
Gabriel Covarrubias: those off-grid areas or areas that might be
Gabriel Covarrubias: a little cost-prohibitive to put in a full
Gabriel Covarrubias: integrated security system.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We can deploy that unit, like I said,
Gabriel Covarrubias: within 24 hours.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We can custom tailor the solutions to any
Gabriel Covarrubias: client's needs.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Most of those units go out for job site
Gabriel Covarrubias: security and parking lots, as well as
Gabriel Covarrubias: special events.
Mark Haney: Yeah, that's what I was imagining is you
Mark Haney: mentioned law enforcement.
Mark Haney: I started thinking, well, why, how would
Mark Haney: that work?
Mark Haney: But picture there's a protest, you know
Mark Haney: it's going down or you've heard about
Mark Haney: something happening.
Mark Haney: It's like, well, we better bring extra
Mark Haney: security.
Mark Haney: And it's instead of just showing up with
Mark Haney: just showing up with 200 cops, let's show
Mark Haney: up with 100 and a couple of trailers and we
Mark Haney: can basically manage part of the situation
Mark Haney: from a remote location versus everybody
Mark Haney: stuck down in the crowd.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Exactly, and that was the use case for that
Gabriel Covarrubias: local municipal was.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It was a union strike actually, and so they
Gabriel Covarrubias: were worried about some retaliation during
Gabriel Covarrubias: that strike.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They were short staffed and officers, so
Gabriel Covarrubias: we're able to maximize their capabilities
Gabriel Covarrubias: and coverage by getting those trailers out
Gabriel Covarrubias: there.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So within 24 hours we had three units
Gabriel Covarrubias: deployed and providing extra eyes in the
Gabriel Covarrubias: sky that one officer can manage all of
Gabriel Covarrubias: those units.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They get full live feed on those trailers.
Mark Haney: Interesting Because you hear that there are
Mark Haney: less, and I don't know if you've heard this
Mark Haney: or not, but I've heard that there are
Mark Haney: people out there that don't really want to
Mark Haney: go into law enforcement because of, maybe,
Mark Haney: backlash from society or certain people
Mark Haney: don't like cops and stuff like that.
Mark Haney: So maybe the recruitment for strong police
Mark Haney: officers is maybe a little bit more
Mark Haney: difficult than it might have been 10 or 20
Mark Haney: years ago, but cameras are actually an
Mark Haney: affordable way to deal with and a safe way
Mark Haney: to deal with a security scenario where
Mark Haney: you're not really putting police officers
Mark Haney: as many police officers in harm's way.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, I would agree, and I think it's just
Gabriel Covarrubias: the nature of that industry right now and
Gabriel Covarrubias: the stigma that's been put on it by society
Gabriel Covarrubias: to your point.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It is increasingly harder for them to
Gabriel Covarrubias: recruit and most jurisdictions that we
Gabriel Covarrubias: speak to are understaffed in that
Gabriel Covarrubias: department.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So being able to get them an affordable way
Gabriel Covarrubias: to utilize what resources they have and
Gabriel Covarrubias: provide that at a cost-effective solution
Gabriel Covarrubias: is something that we're able to help with.
Mark Haney: Yeah, and then I feel like it would make
Mark Haney: sense too, because a lot of times these
Mark Haney: guys, these government agencies, or even a
Mark Haney: larger you know, corporation.
Mark Haney: It's hard for them to allocate the funding
Mark Haney: for, let's call it, 500 cameras and a
Mark Haney: complete system might just be like that's a
Mark Haney: CapEx expense.
Mark Haney: We got to go to through all these layers of
Mark Haney: approval and it's not in this year's budget
Mark Haney: and stuff kind of gets kicked down.
Mark Haney: The, you know, the can gets kicked.
Mark Haney: But we have an event.
Mark Haney: Let's go rent a trailer, let's go get a
Mark Haney: couple of trailers.
Mark Haney: You could sort of like almost make it a
Mark Haney: variable expense, so you deal with it more
Mark Haney: on a you know as needed basis, versus like
Mark Haney: we just had this massive outlay.
Mark Haney: Now we have a small outlay.
Mark Haney: Every time we, you know, feel like we have
Mark Haney: threats or opportunity to you, opportunity
Mark Haney: to get hit.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, most certainly.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I mean.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The beauty about our mobile security units
Gabriel Covarrubias: is they fall typically under an operating
Gabriel Covarrubias: expense budget, not a CapEx budget, because
Gabriel Covarrubias: it is a much lower cost of entry.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We don't sell the units, so we only lease
Gabriel Covarrubias: them out on rental term, and that's where
Gabriel Covarrubias: it comes in.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Is that operating expense as opposed to
Gabriel Covarrubias: that CapEx?
Gabriel Covarrubias: And on one trailer, how many cameras are
Gabriel Covarrubias: there?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Typically Typically four.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Okay, we do have some custom units where we
Gabriel Covarrubias: have up to six cameras on them, depending
Gabriel Covarrubias: on the use case.
Mark Haney: So four cameras will typically.
Mark Haney: You're looking, you have 360 degree
Mark Haney: coverage.
Mark Haney: It's like front and back.
Mark Haney: You can see everywhere.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, 360 degree coverage.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We equip all of our trailers with PTZ
Gabriel Covarrubias: cameras, so pan tilt zoom up to 25 times
Gabriel Covarrubias: optical zoom.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So from any direction that we're looking
Gabriel Covarrubias: into, we can zoom that camera in up to 300
Gabriel Covarrubias: feet effectively.
Mark Haney: Right, so everything is transmitted to the
Mark Haney: cloud.
Mark Haney: So somebody is actually pan tilting and
Mark Haney: zooming from a remote location.
Mark Haney: If they're doing it live, is that right?
Mark Haney: That is correct, so you can do that, live
Mark Haney: through the crowd, and you could be back at
Mark Haney: police headquarters if you will and zooming
Mark Haney: in on a hotspot and I would assume like I'm
Mark Haney: not up on the latest technology but there's
Mark Haney: things like facial recognition and there's
Mark Haney: different kinds of things that you can have
Mark Haney: the camera look for and help highlight
Mark Haney: certain issues right?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, most certainly so.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The facial recognition we've got some
Gabriel Covarrubias: behavioral analytics that we can implement,
Gabriel Covarrubias: as well as audio analytics that can help
Gabriel Covarrubias: detect threats from a noise level.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Now, all of those are just customized
Gabriel Covarrubias: features that we could add on to any mobile
Gabriel Covarrubias: security unit, and same with facial
Gabriel Covarrubias: recognition and any sort of analytic.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We can add that on on the backend, because
Gabriel Covarrubias: now all of that's done in the cloud
Gabriel Covarrubias: computing side and it's not hardware
Gabriel Covarrubias: limited.
Gabriel Covarrubias: On the actual trailer Wow.
Mark Haney: So cool, so cool.
Mark Haney: So what's the all right?
Mark Haney: So where do you think the industry is going?
Mark Haney: And then I want to hear sort of your vision
Mark Haney: for where MSC is going.
Mark Haney: But from an industry standpoint, security
Mark Haney: is, from what I can tell, is people.
Mark Haney: There's an increasing need for security and
Mark Haney: an increasing desire for cameras
Mark Haney: specifically.
Mark Haney: So I think we're on a growth trajectory.
Mark Haney: You and I are both in a business that is
Mark Haney: probably going to grow pretty steadily over
Mark Haney: the next several years.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, most certainly, and our data is
Gabriel Covarrubias: showing that as well.
Gabriel Covarrubias: When it comes to video and card access and
Gabriel Covarrubias: intrusion, that is a market that is going
Gabriel Covarrubias: to continue to grow for the foreseeable
Gabriel Covarrubias: future.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Aside from your statistic you brought up
Gabriel Covarrubias: earlier, most would argue that, you know,
Gabriel Covarrubias: is crime getting better or worse?
Gabriel Covarrubias: And most response to that is it's not
Gabriel Covarrubias: getting better, of course, it's getting
Gabriel Covarrubias: worse it feels worse it is.
Mark Haney: So I just heard it on the news as I was
Mark Haney: coming in from getting my finger bit and I
Mark Haney: heard it on John McGinnis show.
Mark Haney: I was listening to KPK and I'm like crime's
Mark Haney: going down Really.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I did not know that Exactly and and it's
Gabriel Covarrubias: subjective maybe, to to a local area.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know zip code maybe, but realistically
Gabriel Covarrubias: I feel that the crime is not getting better.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Uh, as our population continues to grow,
Gabriel Covarrubias: there's going to continue to be more and
Gabriel Covarrubias: more crime and the need for security.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Um, the industry right now is in a really
Gabriel Covarrubias: good position as things are starting to
Gabriel Covarrubias: shift to all cloud computing.
Gabriel Covarrubias: For the security side of the business, we
Gabriel Covarrubias: went from strictly on-premise, very high
Gabriel Covarrubias: cost initial investment getting your
Gabriel Covarrubias: servers and cable infrastructure etc.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Bringing that cost of entry up pretty high.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Now, cloud side of things makes it scalable,
Gabriel Covarrubias: affordable and you can go to infinity in
Gabriel Covarrubias: terms of scalability.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You're not limited to the hardware you have
Gabriel Covarrubias: on site anymore.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So that's a big push for our company.
Gabriel Covarrubias: At MSC We've almost strictly gone to
Gabriel Covarrubias: cloud-based offerings for gate entry
Gabriel Covarrubias: systems, card access and video and the
Gabriel Covarrubias: compute power is increasing at this
Gabriel Covarrubias: exponential rate.
Mark Haney: It's incredible how AI is infiltrated every
Mark Haney: technology in the world, but it is making
Mark Haney: strides in video analytics.
Mark Haney: That is really game-changing for video
Mark Haney: security, and really anybody who's doing
Mark Haney: things with video right now is seeing AI
Mark Haney: come in and be, I guess, really helpful and
Mark Haney: really disruptive as well.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, one of the big shifts that our
Gabriel Covarrubias: manufacturers implemented in the last few
Gabriel Covarrubias: months is now, instead of looking through
Gabriel Covarrubias: video, we can talk or text into our VMS
Gabriel Covarrubias: software and we could say I'm looking for a
Gabriel Covarrubias: gentleman with a white t-shirt and blue
Gabriel Covarrubias: jeans on and blonde hair, and it's going to
Gabriel Covarrubias: pull up that video in seconds.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Oh my gosh and it's going to scrub all of
Gabriel Covarrubias: the cameras on that account, or the
Gabriel Covarrubias: selected cameras that you choose from.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So, going to that video investigation piece,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we've really expedited that process tenfold,
Gabriel Covarrubias: that's incredible that is.
Mark Haney: That's awesome, actually, because that
Mark Haney: means we're getting to the, because time is
Mark Haney: of the essence.
Mark Haney: If you're on an investigation or you're
Mark Haney: looking to solve some issue, time is
Mark Haney: critical.
Mark Haney: If you have to go back and rewind the tape
Mark Haney: and search and you know who is that guy and
Mark Haney: you zoom in and it looks like crap that guy
Mark Haney: and you zoom in and it's all you know.
Mark Haney: It looks like crap, uh.
Mark Haney: I mean, all that technology is just making
Mark Haney: things uh, makes all the uh solutions
Mark Haney: happen at a very fast pace.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, so you saw more crime and I like to
Gabriel Covarrubias: express that like think of something you
Gabriel Covarrubias: know, not as bad per se as like a lost
Gabriel Covarrubias: child at a mass transit maybe you get
Gabriel Covarrubias: separated from your child at an airport and
Gabriel Covarrubias: you've got a recent picture.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You could run up to security and say I'm
Gabriel Covarrubias: missing my son.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He's about four feet tall.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He was last seen in a red shirt.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They could type that in and scrub all the
Gabriel Covarrubias: data within seconds to find that that's
Gabriel Covarrubias: incredible and that's something that we're
Gabriel Covarrubias: really proud to be a part of.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're not the manufacturers of that
Gabriel Covarrubias: equipment of you know, we're not the
Gabriel Covarrubias: manufacturers of that equipment.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're the integrators, we're the installer,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we're the person that hands off to the end
Gabriel Covarrubias: user to make sure that we implement the
Gabriel Covarrubias: systems effectively and train them on the
Gabriel Covarrubias: use case.
Mark Haney: Well, it's great that you do that.
Mark Haney: Have you ever done work in prisons?
Mark Haney: We have, okay, so we used to sell.
Mark Haney: We didn't go in and do the integration into
Mark Haney: prisons although my current company has
Mark Haney: done a little bit of that, but that can be
Mark Haney: an experience, I assume, like.
Mark Haney: What prisons have you done, have you worked
Mark Haney: on?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Well, so we were a subcontractor for a
Gabriel Covarrubias: nationwide integrator and we have touched,
Gabriel Covarrubias: I want to say, about 25 of the 32 prisons
Gabriel Covarrubias: here in the state of California.
Mark Haney: Oh, my goodness.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Our team was the installation piece behind
Gabriel Covarrubias: those, so I've done more time in prison
Gabriel Covarrubias: than most would ever admit, but they let me
Gabriel Covarrubias: out every day, and so, as a project manager
Gabriel Covarrubias: working on those sites, I've seen a lot of
Gabriel Covarrubias: interesting things.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Well, they've got cameras.
Mark Haney: You know, keeping track of death row people
Mark Haney: and people are in it for life.
Mark Haney: And you know it.
Mark Haney: Keeping track of death row people and
Mark Haney: people are in it for life.
Mark Haney: And you know it's like, oh my gosh, you've
Mark Haney: you got to go into some very hostile areas
Mark Haney: where people they have nothing to lose
Mark Haney: anymore and you're in and among those
Mark Haney: people.
Mark Haney: Obviously, I would assume they provide a
Mark Haney: level of comfort for you so that you don't
Mark Haney: feel completely at risk, but that's gotta
Mark Haney: be scary.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, I would say that the very first time
Gabriel Covarrubias: entering a prison I walked into a prison
Gabriel Covarrubias: down in Central California called KVSP and
Gabriel Covarrubias: we were walking the site with the assistant
Gabriel Covarrubias: warden, all the engineers, project managers
Gabriel Covarrubias: associated with this job site I want to say
Gabriel Covarrubias: total implementation was around 1,100
Gabriel Covarrubias: cameras and we're walking through one of
Gabriel Covarrubias: the yards and you know, we're in a group of
Gabriel Covarrubias: maybe 20 people, about five, 20 civilians,
Gabriel Covarrubias: 20 civilians yeah, about five of them,
Gabriel Covarrubias: maybe more were correctional officers that
Gabriel Covarrubias: kind of kept us in a pod and we walk
Gabriel Covarrubias: through the gates of the yard and we get to
Gabriel Covarrubias: the programs, which is where they have all
Gabriel Covarrubias: their commissary and things like that
Gabriel Covarrubias: library, and we get into the programs area
Gabriel Covarrubias: and the gate shuts and I'll never forget
Gabriel Covarrubias: this, the siren sounded about five seconds
Gabriel Covarrubias: later and I'm like what is going on here?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Within about 60 seconds we see CEOs coming
Gabriel Covarrubias: from all directions and they're in riot
Gabriel Covarrubias: gear and a riot had kicked off on the yard.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And you know me being new to this
Gabriel Covarrubias: environment, completely caught off guard,
Gabriel Covarrubias: I'm like, do we run?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Do we hide what's going on, kind of thing.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And they're like, no, we have to go into
Gabriel Covarrubias: this room.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And everybody was very calm about it.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And you know, after the fact, speaking with
Gabriel Covarrubias: some of the CEOs there, it was interesting
Gabriel Covarrubias: because they had acknowledged that they saw
Gabriel Covarrubias: this coming.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And what I thought was interesting it was
Gabriel Covarrubias: nothing had happened until we left the yard
Gabriel Covarrubias: and as soon as you know, the contractors
Gabriel Covarrubias: and everybody associated with the project
Gabriel Covarrubias: left the yard.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That's when the riot took place and I don't
Gabriel Covarrubias: know the outcome of that situation.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I just know that nobody in our group was
Gabriel Covarrubias: harmed whatsoever.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But there was a level of angst.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Originally, getting into the prison work,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we did prison contracting for about five
Gabriel Covarrubias: years, wow, up and down the state of
Gabriel Covarrubias: California, throughout Texas, florida and
Gabriel Covarrubias: Louisiana, and you know the general
Gabriel Covarrubias: consensus that our team had received from
Gabriel Covarrubias: inmates, as we were working around inmates
Gabriel Covarrubias: for many years, is we were kind of the
Gabriel Covarrubias: heroes to them, which is really interesting
Gabriel Covarrubias: to think.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So putting in the video surveillance really
Gabriel Covarrubias: helped them, you know, from issues that
Gabriel Covarrubias: they might have had with correctional
Gabriel Covarrubias: officers or abuse and things like that.
Mark Haney: Interesting.
Mark Haney: My former son-in-law is a prison guard at
Mark Haney: Folsom and he's in the worst of the worst
Mark Haney: and he has described to me that, just as he
Mark Haney: begins to, you know, enter the town of
Mark Haney: Folsom.
Mark Haney: He doesn't live in Folsom, you know his,
Mark Haney: his whole um, he, he has a visceral
Mark Haney: reaction to uh, every morning when, or you
Mark Haney: know, when, he goes to work.
Mark Haney: It's like before he gets to work it all of
Mark Haney: a sudden hits him because it's such a high
Mark Haney: stress sort of environment.
Mark Haney: So you got to just hand it to those people
Mark Haney: that do that on a daily basis.
Mark Haney: You don't think about like you are just in
Mark Haney: danger for the whole shift.
Mark Haney: And yeah, being a contractor is bad as well,
Mark Haney: or it's not bad but scary, or probably had
Mark Haney: your heart racing.
Mark Haney: I was at CrossFit preparing for the MRF,
Mark Haney: which is a CrossFit workout, for it's kind
Mark Haney: of called a hero workout, and a group is a
Mark Haney: CrossFit workout for it's kind of they call
Mark Haney: it a hero workout.
Mark Haney: And a group of our CrossFit people were
Mark Haney: going to go over to Folsom Prison and
Mark Haney: compete against the guards.
Mark Haney: So they're like, mark, you want to go
Mark Haney: compete and nah, that's okay.
Mark Haney: My son-in-law says it's not that fun.
Mark Haney: So I didn't.
Mark Haney: I've never been on Folsom prison grounds
Mark Haney: and I don't know that I really have a
Mark Haney: desire to.
Mark Haney: I don't know, Would you go back on there?
Mark Haney: I mean, you quit doing it.
Mark Haney: Sounds like you were doing it until more
Mark Haney: recently, but why'd you quit?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, the contract term had ended.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That was a term with the state of
Gabriel Covarrubias: California and some changes happened with
Gabriel Covarrubias: the prime contractors.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They were acquired.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know, mark, you're not missing much.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Okay, you know it's not a desirable place.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know it's interesting to witness some
Gabriel Covarrubias: of the things that we did and see some of
Gabriel Covarrubias: the unique places that myself and our team
Gabriel Covarrubias: got to be a part of.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But it's not a place that you're going to
Gabriel Covarrubias: run back to and say, man, I can't wait to
Gabriel Covarrubias: get on the grounds of another prison.
Mark Haney: Yeah, you're going to have to pay me a lot
Mark Haney: of money to get in there because of the you
Mark Haney: know.
Mark Haney: I would think that that would be where your
Mark Haney: company approach would be.
Mark Haney: It's like if I've got to put that kind of
Mark Haney: stress on the team, it needs to be a
Mark Haney: lucrative contract.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Otherwise it's just not worth it.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Agreed, agreed and we did take it on.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It was fairly lucrative for the time that
Gabriel Covarrubias: we were in with that contract.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But it's not an area that we run back for.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We're happy in our current lane.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We do a decent amount of government
Gabriel Covarrubias: contracting, mostly for facilities, DGS,
Gabriel Covarrubias: that type of stuff, and then we work with
Gabriel Covarrubias: local municipals but we've been happy to
Gabriel Covarrubias: get out of the prison and even local
Gabriel Covarrubias: jurisdictions for jails and things like
Gabriel Covarrubias: that, Because the jails, I would honestly
Gabriel Covarrubias: say, were worse.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Those people, they don't have necessarily
Gabriel Covarrubias: the respect that you would get in a prison
Gabriel Covarrubias: from the inmates.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Again, there's a-.
Mark Haney: What now?
Mark Haney: Yeah, there's a whole the there's, there's
Mark Haney: a jail feels uh, sketchier than the prison
Mark Haney: yeah, because, and because the people in
Mark Haney: the jail that are there let's call it short
Mark Haney: term they have less respect.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I would say so wow, that's interesting the
Gabriel Covarrubias: prison and not to get into it because I
Gabriel Covarrubias: don't know.
Gabriel Covarrubias: A lot of it is there is, I heard it when I
Gabriel Covarrubias: went on.
Gabriel Covarrubias: The first prison is a term called prison
Gabriel Covarrubias: politics and and they have their own little
Gabriel Covarrubias: society there.
Gabriel Covarrubias: A guard had once told me he goes, remember
Gabriel Covarrubias: you're a guest in their house and I said
Gabriel Covarrubias: well, why is that?
Gabriel Covarrubias: He goes?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Because they sleep here and we all go home
Gabriel Covarrubias: and so they show a certain level of respect
Gabriel Covarrubias: to the inmates and the inmates give them a
Gabriel Covarrubias: certain level of respect.
Gabriel Covarrubias: As a contractor, we didn't feel threatened
Gabriel Covarrubias: in most prisons.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Jails were different Jails.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It seemed like people would make comments
Gabriel Covarrubias: and try and you'd say things, ask you for
Gabriel Covarrubias: screwdrivers or lighters or that type of
Gabriel Covarrubias: stuff.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But prison didn't happen very often.
Mark Haney: Well, I guess that's a note to anybody out
Mark Haney: there Don't get yourself arrested and go to
Mark Haney: jail for even a night.
Mark Haney: It might not be too pleasant.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, and don't go to prison.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, definitely don't go to prison.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Let's face it, that's not a place I think
Gabriel Covarrubias: anybody would desire to be.
Mark Haney: Okay, this is an interesting show.
Mark Haney: We've taken the show in some different
Mark Haney: directions today, but I always like to know
Mark Haney: two last questions.
Mark Haney: It's like what's the vision for the company?
Mark Haney: And then I'll finish with one or two last
Mark Haney: questions.
Mark Haney: But what's the vision for MSC moving
Mark Haney: forward?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, great question.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Right now we have two legs of the business.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I have pivoted my focus and gone to our
Gabriel Covarrubias: mobile side of the business and currently
Gabriel Covarrubias: we're expanding our mobile security units
Gabriel Covarrubias: rapidly.
Gabriel Covarrubias: From last year to this year we 3X'd our
Gabriel Covarrubias: inventory, our fleet.
Gabriel Covarrubias: This year we're looking to hit our first
Gabriel Covarrubias: hundred units by the end of the year.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Wow, and have those units leased out.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It's one thing having them sit in a park.
Mark Haney: Yeah, yeah.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We want to make sure they're out protecting
Gabriel Covarrubias: properties and facilities.
Gabriel Covarrubias: On the integration side of the business,
Gabriel Covarrubias: we're going to continue to focus our growth
Gabriel Covarrubias: trajectory there, pivoting our clients to
Gabriel Covarrubias: cloud-based solutions.
Gabriel Covarrubias: A big growth for us right now has been card
Gabriel Covarrubias: access.
Gabriel Covarrubias: As you see in the news on a regular basis,
Gabriel Covarrubias: unauthorized individuals gaining access to
Gabriel Covarrubias: businesses, buildings, et cetera and,
Gabriel Covarrubias: unfortunately, doing some heinous crime.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So that is a big vertical for us that we're
Gabriel Covarrubias: focusing a lot of effort and energy into to
Gabriel Covarrubias: make sure that we provide a comprehensive
Gabriel Covarrubias: product for our clients Wow.
Mark Haney: And so what did I not ask you that I should
Mark Haney: ask you?
Mark Haney: What message should we get out there about
Mark Haney: your business or about anything else you're
Mark Haney: working on?
Gabriel Covarrubias: That's a great question, what I think you
Gabriel Covarrubias: asked some really good questions.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know I'm a Sacramento native here, born
Gabriel Covarrubias: and raised in Carmichael.
Gabriel Covarrubias: What high school.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Did you go to?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Interesting enough, mark, and I'll say this
Gabriel Covarrubias: on the air here I'm an eighth grade dropout,
Gabriel Covarrubias: really, so I did not go to high school.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Did you go to?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Interesting enough?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Mark, and I'll say this on the air here I'm
Gabriel Covarrubias: an eighth grade dropout, really, so I did
Gabriel Covarrubias: not go to high school.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I grew up primarily in the foster system
Gabriel Covarrubias: from the age of six and left the foster
Gabriel Covarrubias: system at the age of 13.
Mark Haney: Tell me about that.
Mark Haney: Okay, so you left the foster system.
Mark Haney: The foster system.
Mark Haney: I assume that was a very difficult set of
Mark Haney: transitions.
Mark Haney: From what I've heard that you know there's
Mark Haney: a guy named Dale Carlson, a local person
Mark Haney: that has really helped a lot of that system
Mark Haney: and helped so many people through the sleep
Mark Haney: train.
Mark Haney: So I followed his, the stuff he's working
Mark Haney: on and there's these really cool
Mark Haney: inspirational stories about people that
Mark Haney: have gone, had it so difficult and then
Mark Haney: live to, you know, really do great things
Mark Haney: in their life.
Mark Haney: But was it a tough?
Mark Haney: Was the foster system difficult for you?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Most certainly it was tough.
Gabriel Covarrubias: My brother and I were separated.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I want to say I was about eight years old,
Gabriel Covarrubias: he's a year and a half older than me, so
Gabriel Covarrubias: he's probably about nine and a half ten at
Gabriel Covarrubias: that time.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We got separated in the foster system and
Gabriel Covarrubias: went to different homes, had a family
Gabriel Covarrubias: member that took us in for, or took me in
Gabriel Covarrubias: for, a little while, and that was
Gabriel Covarrubias: short-lived, that lasted about two years,
Gabriel Covarrubias: and so through various group homes, um,
Gabriel Covarrubias: group homes, group homes, yeah.
Mark Haney: What's a group home like for a little kid?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, very scary number one, oh wow.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Number two.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I mean I think they were called orphanages
Gabriel Covarrubias: or various names over our time, but now
Gabriel Covarrubias: they consider them a group home.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It's going to be a location that's a safe
Gabriel Covarrubias: haven for children to come, and so, in the
Gabriel Covarrubias: event that you get separated from a family
Gabriel Covarrubias: member, your parents, the first stop you're
Gabriel Covarrubias: going to go to is going to be a group home.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That home is going to house you in a pod
Gabriel Covarrubias: with maybe 16 other kids of your age and
Gabriel Covarrubias: gender.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They'll have a school on site.
Gabriel Covarrubias: They'll have teachers and counselors that
Gabriel Covarrubias: you would still try and live a normal life
Gabriel Covarrubias: as possible, but everything to the Dale
Gabriel Covarrubias: Carlson ticket to dreams.
Gabriel Covarrubias: We work with those guys too a little bit.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know you live out of a black trash bag
Gabriel Covarrubias: as you transition, and so Wow.
Mark Haney: Okay, so you got.
Mark Haney: Whatever all your belongings are in a big,
Mark Haney: put them in a big trash bag.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Big trash bag yeah.
Mark Haney: And so you leave your family member's house
Mark Haney: who only wanted to have you.
Mark Haney: For did you get in trouble and you had to
Mark Haney: go to there?
Mark Haney: Got in trouble, yeah, got in trouble, yeah.
Mark Haney: And then.
Mark Haney: So then you got hey, sorry, you're going to
Mark Haney: the group home.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Well, a little bit different.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know, got in trouble.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I wasn't one for authority at a young age.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So, uh I, I would run away.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And uh, in the event, I would run away if,
Gabriel Covarrubias: uh, I would run into a law enforcement
Gabriel Covarrubias: figure.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, I wasn't a criminal, I was a little
Gabriel Covarrubias: kid.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And so they'd take you back to the group
Gabriel Covarrubias: home.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And every time you transition, for my, my
Gabriel Covarrubias: situation, anytime I would transition out
Gabriel Covarrubias: of a foster home.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know, if they couldn't find housing for
Gabriel Covarrubias: me right away, it would be back to the
Gabriel Covarrubias: group home.
Mark Haney: Yeah, Wow, and so you go to school.
Mark Haney: Did you go through like seventh and eighth
Mark Haney: grade at the group home or did you go to a
Mark Haney: school like in Sacramento?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, Seventh and eighth grade.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I went to some local middle schools here
Gabriel Covarrubias: Starking and Churchill and I was living
Gabriel Covarrubias: with foster families during that time.
Mark Haney: And then you tell them one day you don't
Mark Haney: want to go back to school.
Gabriel Covarrubias: One day I get in trouble at the end of
Gabriel Covarrubias: eighth grade.
Gabriel Covarrubias: What'd?
Mark Haney: you do.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I came home late because I wanted to spend
Gabriel Covarrubias: the last day of school with a girl I had
Gabriel Covarrubias: met.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Of course, boys and girls is all the
Gabriel Covarrubias: trouble.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So I came home late and when I'd gotten
Gabriel Covarrubias: home, you know I was abused a little bit.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Not bad and not to go down that, but we'll
Gabriel Covarrubias: talk a little bit later.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So I took off, you know the individual
Gabriel Covarrubias: decided that they thought it was
Gabriel Covarrubias: justifiable to hit me and at that point I
Gabriel Covarrubias: ran away.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That was actually the last home I had ever
Gabriel Covarrubias: lived in and I'd been on my own ever since,
Gabriel Covarrubias: since the age of 13.
Mark Haney: Where did you live?
Mark Haney: Where did you go to get shelter and stuff
Mark Haney: like that?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, great question.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I have been able to surround myself with
Gabriel Covarrubias: some really great individuals that I still
Gabriel Covarrubias: call family to this day, so I just had
Gabriel Covarrubias: older friends.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know, I lived in my first apartment
Gabriel Covarrubias: with a good friend of mine.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He was 18.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I was 13.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He slept on the couch.
Gabriel Covarrubias: He had a great paying job and I found ways
Gabriel Covarrubias: to create side hustles.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I found ways to create side hustles.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I was a great Craigslist advertiser and
Gabriel Covarrubias: sales guy at a very young age.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I would take things from garage sales,
Gabriel Covarrubias: things that maybe he was getting rid of,
Gabriel Covarrubias: and found ways to generate income.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Wow.
Mark Haney: So you've always been like that.
Mark Haney: I guess that's what difficult times brings
Mark Haney: out of people, brought out of you.
Mark Haney: Difficult times caused you to be sort of
Mark Haney: scrappy and use your ingenuity Craigslist
Mark Haney: yeah, wow.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, I started learning a skill.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I had a good friend I think I was probably
Gabriel Covarrubias: about 15 years old Taught me how to tint
Gabriel Covarrubias: windows in automobiles, so I would work
Gabriel Covarrubias: under the table at a shop here in
Gabriel Covarrubias: Sacramento and would tint windows.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So that was a good gig for a while and in
Gabriel Covarrubias: fact in 2008, that turned into my very
Gabriel Covarrubias: first business.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I opened a window tinting shop over there
Gabriel Covarrubias: off Marconi and 80.
Gabriel Covarrubias: So it's very first business in a rough time
Gabriel Covarrubias: to start a business too.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah.
Mark Haney: How old?
Gabriel Covarrubias: were you then 2008?
Gabriel Covarrubias: I was 18.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And so it was probably within a month after
Gabriel Covarrubias: my 18th birthday I went down and got my
Gabriel Covarrubias: first business license and now look what
Gabriel Covarrubias: you've built.
Mark Haney: I mean you've got this incredible.
Mark Haney: You're putting in thousands and thousands
Mark Haney: and thousands of cameras.
Mark Haney: Uh, you've got these mobile trailers.
Mark Haney: You've got a vision for growth and you're
Mark Haney: still a young dude.
Mark Haney: I mean, you're still a really young guy
Mark Haney: with a young family.
Mark Haney: You are got a vision for growth and you're
Mark Haney: still a young dude.
Mark Haney: I mean, you're still a really young guy
Mark Haney: with a young family.
Mark Haney: You are just a great, I guess.
Mark Haney: Story of my shirt says everything is
Mark Haney: figureoutable, which is one of my mottos,
Mark Haney: and you are a you're living proof that
Mark Haney: everything is figureoutable, no matter what
Mark Haney: kind of circumstances you put yourself in.
Mark Haney: Even if you are a little anti-authority,
Mark Haney: maybe have a chip on your shoulder for one
Mark Haney: reason or another, you can straighten it
Mark Haney: all out and figure it out.
Gabriel Covarrubias: That's so true, mark, and I love that on
Gabriel Covarrubias: your shirt.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I'm going to have to get one of those
Gabriel Covarrubias: shirts from you.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It is something I live by that you can
Gabriel Covarrubias: figure out just about anything, and to the
Gabriel Covarrubias: point of hardship and trouble and setbacks.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I learned at a young age that, no matter my
Gabriel Covarrubias: story, no matter what I'm going through,
Gabriel Covarrubias: somebody always has it worse and I'm the
Gabriel Covarrubias: last person to say, oh, pity me, or man, I
Gabriel Covarrubias: didn't have this.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I didn't have that opportunity growing up,
Gabriel Covarrubias: I didn't have the parents that stayed
Gabriel Covarrubias: together.
Gabriel Covarrubias: I didn't, I didn't have that.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But instead of saying, wow, this was the
Gabriel Covarrubias: cards I dealt or I was dealt and I have to
Gabriel Covarrubias: deal with that, I said, no, I'm going to
Gabriel Covarrubias: change that trajectory, I'm going to be the
Gabriel Covarrubias: difference on that family, that family line,
Gabriel Covarrubias: and and that's something that motivates me
Gabriel Covarrubias: every morning and now married with two kids,
Gabriel Covarrubias: beautiful family, absolutely love, love my
Gabriel Covarrubias: family.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And you know I look back my wife had the
Gabriel Covarrubias: great, great family, upbringing, beautiful
Gabriel Covarrubias: parents, stayed together their whole life,
Gabriel Covarrubias: and high school and college, all that fun
Gabriel Covarrubias: stuff.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And, and you know as, as we started a
Gabriel Covarrubias: family, I said to myself and to her uh, I'm
Gabriel Covarrubias: not going to do what, what I had done to me
Gabriel Covarrubias: and and just making sure that I I'm the
Gabriel Covarrubias: change in that path, but, um, I never let
Gabriel Covarrubias: you my past be.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Uh, something that's going to hold me back
Gabriel Covarrubias: in what the future holds, because
Gabriel Covarrubias: possibilities are endless.
Gabriel Covarrubias: It's all up to us and what we make of it.
Mark Haney: Well, I was going to ask you for words of
Mark Haney: wisdom for somebody who's aspiring to be an
Mark Haney: entrepreneur, but I can tell you you've
Mark Haney: added a lot of wisdom and a lot of
Mark Haney: inspiration and I didn't really understand
Mark Haney: that this was going to come out of this
Mark Haney: show.
Mark Haney: But I'm really honored that you came on the
Mark Haney: show and were, you know, made yourself
Mark Haney: vulnerable, you shared, you shared the real
Mark Haney: you.
Mark Haney: But is there any other words of wisdom that
Mark Haney: you might have up your sleeve?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Words of wisdom, specifically if we're
Gabriel Covarrubias: talking to some younger individuals that
Gabriel Covarrubias: are thinking about entrepreneurship, is
Gabriel Covarrubias: don't give up.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And you know, no idea is a bad idea.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You know, see it through, try it, run it by
Gabriel Covarrubias: your peer groups, talk about it, but don't
Gabriel Covarrubias: give up and don't use your past as a
Gabriel Covarrubias: crippling to your future.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Right, it's up to you.
Gabriel Covarrubias: You hold the keys of what you're going to
Gabriel Covarrubias: make of your future.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Wow.
Mark Haney: Well, thank you for sharing your story.
Mark Haney: Appreciate you?
Gabriel Covarrubias: Yeah, thank you, mark, I didn't expect it
Gabriel Covarrubias: to come out.
Gabriel Covarrubias: Just, you know I used to run from the truth
Gabriel Covarrubias: there and you know it's something I would
Gabriel Covarrubias: never lie about.
Gabriel Covarrubias: But I would just deviate the question.
Gabriel Covarrubias: And as I've gotten older and decided that
Gabriel Covarrubias: that's not something I want to hide
Gabriel Covarrubias: necessarily, I think it's important for
Gabriel Covarrubias: people to understand that you know you can
Gabriel Covarrubias: come from any walk of life and still do
Gabriel Covarrubias: great things in society, and that's
Gabriel Covarrubias: something I strive to do every day.
Mark Haney: You can come from any walk of life and do
Mark Haney: great things.
Mark Haney: Wow, what a, what a statement.
Mark Haney: Thank you for coming on the show.
Mark Haney: Thank you, mark.
Mark Haney: You bet, thanks for watching today's show.
Mark Haney: My goal for every episode is that you find
Mark Haney: a takeaway, something tangible you can use
Mark Haney: in your business today, and if you have a
Mark Haney: comment about a favorite takeaway, feel
Mark Haney: free to put it in the in the box below.
Mark Haney: And if you have a comment about a favorite
Mark Haney: takeaway, feel free to put it in the box
Mark Haney: below.
Mark Haney: And if you have a topic that you'd like me
Mark Haney: to bring up on the show, don't forget to
Mark Haney: let me know.
Mark Haney: And also, don't forget to subscribe to our
Mark Haney: YouTube channel if you wanna learn more
Mark Haney: about entrepreneurship, because at Haney
Mark Haney: Biz, we are always by your side.