Kevin co-founded 10-8 Systems after exceeding multiple companies’ sales records (both domestically and internationally). With more than a decade in sales, his experience ranges from B2B, B2G, and B2C. Since the company’s start in 2019, Kevin is responsible for business development, strategic partnerships, and business operations.
What is 10-8 Systems all about?
In the public safety world, software is used to assign tasks and keep records of people and incidents. Traditional systems are often outdated (old software or on-prem solutions), complicated, and expensive. Considering ~73% of police and private security agencies in the US have less than 25 employees – these complicated and expensive solutions force many to still use pen and paper.
10-8 Systems is a top-of-the-line dispatching and software system created for emergency responders, by emergency responders who understand the difficulties of working with outdated equipment. The mission is to transform the dispatching world by offering the highest quality dispatch/record management solutions at an affordable price and enable those who protect and serve to be better equipped to save more lives.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
My background is in sales and business development. I started in sales as a teenager and never looked back! Over the course of my career, I’ve sold everything from cars to telecommunication, industrial automation equipment to industrial testing equipment, and a whole lot more. I’ve helped countless friends and companies with their sales and sales processes to help hone my skills.
My co-founder (and brother), Bryan, has spent over a decade in public safety (from law enforcement as a police explorer to emergency services). He created a “training” version of the software that was utilized by the online gaming community. That “training” version quickly grew to over 60,000 users.
During ride-alongs with the sheriff’s department, they’d often open the computer in the car just to find the software wasn’t working that day. Even when it did work, it was software designed by people who obviously had never worked in the public safety field, so it didn’t really fall into the normal workflow. It was shocking that the software for first responders was so outdated and didn’t work half the time! Despite these facts, agencies are still paying exorbitant amounts of money for software that only “sort of” works.
After countless ride-alongs and auditing the existing users of the “training” software that Bryan created, it was clear that “real world” agencies were attempting to use the software. Beyond that, we realized there were obvious opportunities for these small and medium-sized agencies to use our software.
In an industry where lives are on the line, software should be an invaluable tool in helping them day-to-day. This is where we saw the opportunity to combine our passions for public safety, technology, and business experience to create 10-8 Systems.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Our biggest problem – it’s hard to disrupt an industry with huge lobbyist efforts. Additionally, not all customers actually WANT transparency and modern solutions. We mistakenly believed that decision makers in this industry would want the “best” solutions, not just “the way it’s been done.” Despite clear advantages when compared to traditional solutions, we’re still faced with these old-school mentalities of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” (even if their current solutions are inefficient and terribly outdated).
By educating our customers in regards to modern software solutions, we are helping them to create more informed decisions. Unfortunately, most customers don’t want to rock the boat with new software/solutions, but the hand-holding is definitely providing new opportunities.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
We made a big mistake when getting started – assuming we “knew” the market. This led us to an underpriced product and we made some “assumptions” regarding our potential customers. First, when it comes to pricing, it’s a LOT easier to lower prices than raise them (especially for existing customers). Second, it’s important to fully understand buyer personas to prioritize sales and development efforts. We learned that it was more important to listen to customers versus forcing them to listen to us.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
“Predictable Revenue” by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler. This book lays out the blueprint of a successful sales organization – especially helpful for entrepreneurs that aren’t intimately familiar with sales processes/teams.
“4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss. This book teaches an interesting perspective on how to maximize your time and outsource the boring stuff.
“Never Split The Difference” by Chris Voss. This book gives tips and strategies to be a successful negotiator.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
One of my first business ideas in college was “SaludAmigo”, one of the first bilingual health and fitness websites available to the Spanish and English speaking community. Although it wasn’t financially “successful” – it was an incredibly educational experience. This crash-course of eCommerce taught me that I had a lot to learn (despite thinking I was a “know it all”).
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Our most effective marketing strategy has definitely been SEO and referrals. SEO has been a long-term play for our company, but it also gives some serious legitimacy to our potential clients. In full disclosure, we’ve tried multiple paid advertising options (print, PPC, etc), but our returns have been miniscule compared to our SEO campaigns. Beyond SEO, we’ve leveraged referrals since day one to help create new “10-8 Systems Evangelists.”
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I’d build a course on creating sales teams/processes for new entrepreneurs. After establishing myself as an expert, I would create a detailed training course. I’d then offer the course to select groups (Facebook, Clubhouse, Linkedin, etc). After building an asset/course, it’s essentially printing money in the future!
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Tip 1: Choose a passion project
Find something you have a passion for and create your opportunity within that. Because this is something we’re so passionate about, it’s such a great feeling to know we’re helping to improve this industry and bring modern technology into the hands of our first responders. It won’t ever feel like work when it’s something that you personally care about.
Tip 2: Be open to feedback
It’s hard to receive criticism (especially when getting started), but it’s crucial to be open to any and all feedback. Look for trends by collecting as much feedback/data as possible to build your roadmap. You never know which piece of feedback might lead to a new feature, focus, or win for your business.
Tip 3: Ask for help
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Look for mentors, advisors, resources, and/or networking opportunities to take your business to the next level. As a newer entrepreneur, it’s important to stay humble and continuously learn on the fly. When getting started, take advantage of as many of these resources to make sure you’re on the right track.
Tool 1: AWS
Amazon Web Services might sound obvious, but AWS has been critical in our success as a SaaS company. Beyond the basic hosting, there are dozens of other products/platforms that most companies can leverage. (Hint: find an Amazon partner that’s willing to help – this will make things much easier).
Tool 2: Calendly
This tool has been instrumental in setting meetings for new or existing clients. This has led to a significant increase in emails converting to meetings (and cuts down on unnecessary communications).
Tool 3: Scribe
We recently discovered Scribe (scribehow.com). It’s a simple Chrome plug-in that helps us create guides and FAQs for our internal team and existing clients. Whenever a customer request has come through, we use Scribe to create step-by-step instructions within seconds to easily distribute. These are saved and shared whenever common questions arise.
How is running a company different than what you thought it would be?
There have been five major lessons we’ve learned from running 10-8 Systems:
Perception means a lot.
First impressions mean everything, especially in business. With young founders, it’s sometimes an uphill battle, especially in an older industry. For example, we are constantly working with Chiefs from various departments across the country. Their preconceived notions, and stereotypes for people in their 20s aren’t always the most positive, so it’s important that we always make a good impression. It’s been important to show our customers that we aren’t just another “millennial”.
Everyone wants to help.
This is really a double-edged sword of being a young founder. Everyone, I mean everyone, wants to try to help you. Now, this is sometimes helpful, but oftentimes people have no idea how to relate to the situations we’re in. Although I believe that most people are truly altruistic, there are also a small percentage of people who would try to take advantage of my age and perceived naivety.
Being a younger founder means you have a fresh perspective.
We’ve always heard, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” As a young founder, there are multiple industries waiting to be shaken up. Bring your fresh perspective to whatever you’re interested in and challenge the “norm.” A lot of people think that our lack of life experience means our opinions aren’t valid. We’ve grown up in a world of technology, so we know when things need to be updated and industries need to be shaken up.
Timing is everything as a younger founder.
Take the leap of faith and start something when you can. It’s a lot easier to take chances as a founder when you’re younger, have less overhead, and less to lose. This is the time to take a gamble or some risks – there’s always time to get a j-o-b.
How can readers get in touch with you?
Feel free to reach out to email us contact@10-8systems.com or connect with me on Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/kevinruef.
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