00:00 – Traditional site management vs. modern demands
00:00
Christopher Lareau
The traditional methods of what? Having a site manager or property manager drive around each site, right. Inspect it, call in, group text. That works. That's cumbersome. But the Home Depots of the world demand more, right? It makes it really easy to quickly prioritize where people are going. And also service verification if you need to go back in time, if there's ever a dispute or a slip trip, fall case? You go back in time, all this data is stored like, hey, were there, we're on site, we did the right thing. The payments know been treated and the lot's been serviced.
00:30 – Introducing Christopher Lareau & Vue Robotics
00:30
Jack Jostes
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Landscaper's Guide Podcast. I'm excited to interview Christopher Lareau from Vue Robotics.
00:38
Jack Jostes
So Chris, what is Vue Robotics?
00:41
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, sure appreciate it, Jack. So Vue Robotics, we've been in the industry for about four years now. We launched back in June of 2022. This is our fourth SIMA snow season, and we're based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We essentially engineer, build, and design weather cameras. Right side monitoring cameras. We are rapidly growing across the US and Canada. We're in about 40 states, a couple Canadian provinces. Most of our cameras deployed across a variety of sites, both within the snow and ice management industry, but also state and local government and federal government too. So any sort of critical infrastructure monitoring, that's like what we do as it pertains to weather.
01:24 – How Vue Robotics cameras work for snow contractors
01:24
Jack Jostes
Give me an example of a specific client. You don't need to mention their name.
01:27
Christopher Lareau
Sure.
01:28
Jack Jostes
But like how many cameras would they have on a property for the average, like industrial client?
01:34
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, that's a great question. Not every site is a candidate for a camera. There's obviously a cost affiliated with it. And you want to make sure that our customers have roi. And value. So most of the sites that we're on are zero tolerance sites in this industry. So most of the sites that we're on are zero tolerance sites in this industry.
01:49
Jack Jostes
Yeah.
01:49
Christopher Lareau
A good candidate for a site would be. Well, there's a couple different variations. There's portfolios that have a single kind of logo or brand. Like I'm servicing 200 Home Depots across the U.S. right. And that's a very kind of high growth customer.
02:05
Jack Jostes
So how many cameras would a Home Depot need?
02:08
Christopher Lareau
So Home Depot would take one to two cameras per site. Usually about one, honestly.
02:13
Jack Jostes
So they're not security cameras?
02:15
Christopher Lareau
They're absolutely not security.
02:16
Jack Jostes
Someday maybe they could be. Do you think, or I'm sure that you're talking about that internally.
02:22
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, that's a great question. There's a lot in the works for the future. I'll Just say that we position ourselves as not being security cameras for lots of reasons.
02:30
Christopher Lareau
Right.
02:31
Christopher Lareau
Mostly because our customers, customer, the Home Depot of the world, doesn't want third party security cameras or surveillance cameras on their sites. That's not what we do. Data privacy, data retention these days is kind of key and we have some great tools to kind of manage that.
02:46
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So you're not a security camera at this time.
02:49
Christopher Lareau
Correct, Not a security camera.
02:50
Jack Jostes
We're not going to rule it off. Maybe someday, maybe in the future.
02:53
Christopher Lareau
For some other applications, different device.
02:55
Jack Jostes
Okay, so a Home Depot. So this is good because we can all picture a Home Depot might need one or two cameras.
03:01
Christopher Lareau
Sure.
03:02
Christopher Lareau
Yeah.
03:02 – Why Vue Robotics isn’t just another security camera
03:02
Jack Jostes
And what would that enable the snow contractor to do for that Home Depot client?
03:08
Christopher Lareau
Right. So in the scenario, 100, 200 Home Depots, right. They're not all going to be in the same market, in the same region, within driving distance.
03:15
Christopher Lareau
Right.
03:16
Jack Jostes
It's possible.
03:16
Christopher Lareau
Large portfolio, spread out over, we'll just say the East Coast. Okay. So a few different benefits. One just that broad oversight as a nor' easter will say, rolls through the east Coast. Okay, I want to know, I'm that customer, I'm that contractor. I want to know quickly, within seconds like what's happening at all my sites across that customer's portfolio. And you can do that if you've got a robust, dense deployment of cameras instantly versus the traditional methods of what, having a site manager, property manager drive around each site.
03:48
Christopher Lareau
Right.
03:49
Christopher Lareau
Inspect it, call in group text. That works. That's cumbersome. But the Home Depots of the world, like kind of demand more. I mean this is, there's a lot of risk on those sites.
03:59
Jack Jostes
So if I were a snow contractor and I had a fleet and I was managing a region, this would, and I had these cameras at my various locations. It would allow me to deploy my snow removal team based on where snowfall is happening first.
04:12
Christopher Lareau
Exactly. It makes it really easy to quickly prioritize where people are going. And that's the response element. But then also service verification. Right. You've got all this data for the site, you're benchmarking it. So if you need to go back in time, if there's ever a dispute or a slip trip, fall case, Right. You go back in time, all this data is stored like, hey, were there, we're on site, we did the right thing. The payments know, been treated and the lot's been serviced.
04:37 – Trail cams vs. AI-powered weather cameras
04:37
Jack Jostes
So I was at the, I had my nachos and networking event the other night and there were two of Your salespeople there. And there was a buddy of mine and he's like, well, why wouldn't I just use a trail cam? So tell me, why wouldn't I just use a trail cam?
04:50
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, right. That's a great question.
04:58
Christopher Lareau
Right?
04:58
Christopher Lareau
Our cameras are, they're designed for this industry. They're designed for extreme weather events. Why that's important is, you know the device in Alaska, it's our coldest, darkest kind of deployment. And your typical trail cams, they're low cost, they might get you an image. But are they doing AI analysis?
05:16 – How AI helps contractors manage hundreds of sites
05:16
Jack Jostes
Tell me about the AI component of your company because I think this is a key differentiator.
05:21
Christopher Lareau
It is, it is. So when we started a few years ago, it was hand, hey, we're going to deliver an image and some basic weather data, right? Ground temp, air temp, dew point, humidity pressure.
05:31
Jack Jostes
Cool.
05:32
Christopher Lareau
Ruggedized device, remote deployments. What we're doing with it, right. We're not only just doing images, Right. And we're doing full motion video analysis. And why that's important to understand is it's a camera. But that camera really, truly is like image sensor. So that's other data.
05:47
Jack Jostes
Well, because it provides temperature, what else is it? What else does it provide?
05:50
Christopher Lareau
Ground temperature, air temp, dew point, humidity pressure, and then high def image, which is differentiator. And the video. When you think about analyzing images, video data and AI, Right. We were just looking at one image. Now we're looking at 20 to 40,000 images a day per site and analyzing.
06:09
Jack Jostes
So if I have a whole bunch of these cameras, how much would a contractor, how many cameras might they be managing?
06:16
Christopher Lareau
It depends on the size of our customers. Like there's some customers have one or two, others have 100, 200. So there's a big range. Honestly, we treat everyone the same too, Right. Whether you're big or small, it's pretty much the same level of service with us. And you know, you can kind of pull the industry, but I think you'll hear good things.
06:37
Jack Jostes
Well, I guess my point is I might have hundreds, right?
06:39
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, you might have hundreds. Yeah.
06:41
Jack Jostes
And so if I had hundreds, how does the AI sort this and help me prioritize where to go?
06:46
Christopher Lareau
That's a great.
06:46
Jack Jostes
So I'm not like personally looking in at 200 cameras and saying, all right, well this one I'm going to go.
06:52
Christopher Lareau
Here yeah, that's a great question. So it's like you read our deck from the. For, like, what we're working on. Okay, so it does. It. It does. Every camera has its own kind of AI model applied to it. Some of them have different things. Like, we're weather focused, but we're also monitoring some other kind of unique applications, test cases, personnel identification on some construction sites, equipment identification. But to your question, kind of where we're headed, right, is yes, every camera is running kind of an AI model. And for us, that's really easy. It's like a switch turn on different models for each camera. Where we're headed. Is that, to your point, that broader portfolio kind of monitoring? Like, okay, you've got 200 cameras, a weather system's rolling through. Here's the 15 sites you should be really concerned about.
07:35
Christopher Lareau
And unlike you having to monitor, I mean, it's kind of working that way a little bit today. But the AI is in the background, always kind of watching. And there's alerts and stuff based on it. But that's kind of where we're headed, is that broader enterprise kind of AI modeling to help you quickly move across your site.
07:54 – Christopher’s background & founding Vue Robotics
07:54
Jack Jostes
And so what's your background? Is it in snow, is it in robotics, or how did you get into this?
07:58
Christopher Lareau
That's a great question. So I spent 10 years in the army as an intel officer.
08:02
Jack Jostes
Okay.
08:03
Christopher Lareau
So a lot of this stuff is, you know, building a common operating picture. A lot of military terms apply to this industry also. Probably not framed that way, but, you know, intel is no different than information data from a site, and that could be from our site cameras. It could be about how you're managing your people and operations. But I spent 10 years in the army, did some corporate stuff, bunch of grad school, focused on technology and innovation. Founded the company four years ago with Patrick. We're also very active in the public workspace space. I'm part of the newly formed American Public Works Association Technology Committee. So we're doing.
08:39
Jack Jostes
Sorry, say that again.
08:40
Christopher Lareau
Yeah. The American Public Works Association, APWA, which is like the SIMA of public works, so to speak.
08:45
Jack Jostes
Okay.
08:46
Christopher Lareau
I'm on their tech committee. Newly formed last year, got appointed again this year, led the AI Summit for the Public works.
08:53
Jack Jostes
So, American Public Works Association, is that something for snow and landscape contractors who focus on municipalities? Would that be something helpful to them, or does it do something different?
09:05
Christopher Lareau
Some of them might serve local municipalities. They might have, like, a road contract, so to speak. But that organization are the cities and towns. Right. So you'll have similar set of vendors.
09:16
Jack Jostes
So let's pretend that I was a snow contractor that wanted cities and towns as a customer. Would I go to that event and that association to meet?
09:23
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, you might.
09:24
Jack Jostes
People who might hire me.
09:25
Christopher Lareau
Yeah, you might, absolutely.
09:26
Jack Jostes
I'm just, I'm just thinking for the folks listening.
09:28
Christopher Lareau
There's a few. Yeah, there's a few that do that. I mean it's very regionally dependent. Right. But there are certainly snow nights. Contractors that have government contracts. A lot of counties will kind of outsource that stuff too or sub it out.
09:40 – Hiring veterans & building a mission-focused team
09:40
Jack Jostes
And so Christopher, I met two of your employees. One of them was from the army, and one of them I think was Navy, right?
09:44
Christopher Lareau
Yes. Our strategy on hiring just aside from hiring good people, I have a military background and we're very highly focused on hiring veterans that are transitioning. Right. From specific backgrounds. So our Navy hire comes from an intel background. Also, also worked at the NSA for a few years. And our army hire is coming from essentially the SF community, special Forces community. So we're actively hiring veterans and veterans with certain skill sets that we find will be value add to our business.
10:18
Jack Jostes
Well, I like that. I had a guy in my show Landscapin' Nathan. Do you know Landscapin' Nathan?
10:23
Christopher Lareau
I don't know if I know those guys. I've heard of him.
10:26
Jack Jostes
That's his name, I actually can't remember the name of his company offhand. But he was a veteran.
10:29
Christopher Lareau
Yeah.
10:30
Jack Jostes
And he hires veterans and it was just an interesting recruiting opportunity because there's a lot of people coming out of the armed forces that are looking for a job as a civilian. They're hard working, they're trainable, they're coachable. And I just kind of wanted to plug that as a totally. I don't want, I don't want people to come and take all your people, but I just, I think it's cool.
10:52
Christopher Lareau
They're, they're mission focused. This is a mission focused organization and I think that aligns and honestly, you can teach sales and marketing pretty quickly. But having a strong character and a mission kind of focused mindset, you can't really train that. So we love them, they're great and we're going to continue to build up the team as such.
11:13 – Final takeaways & where to connect
11:13
Jack Jostes
Christopher Lareau from Vue Robotics, thanks for coming on The Landscaper's Guide. Where can folks listening network with you if they'd like to?
11:21
Christopher Lareau
We're active on LinkedIn right. Yeah. We'll be making the rounds in the months that, you know, I think we're doing a thing with Storm Equipment. In August, we'll be at the SIMA Executive Leadership event down in Nashville.
11:32
Jack Jostes
Have you been to Nashville before?
11:34
Christopher Lareau
Yeah. Probably too many times.
11:35
Jack Jostes
Okay.
11:36
Christopher Lareau
It's a lot.
11:36
Jack Jostes
I love that city. That's cool. Well, Christopher, thank you, man.
11:39
Christopher Lareau
Hey, thank you. It's a lot to meet you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Great to meet you.
11:44
Jack Jostes
Hey, it's Jack Jostes and you've been listening to The Landscaper's Guide Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, make sure you give us a five-star rating and share it with somebody in the industry. And make sure you subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast, where I'll instantly send you our top three episodes, plus invitations to our upcoming live and virtual events. I hope to see you at one of them again, it's Jack Jostes. Thanks for listening and I look forward to talking to you next week on The Landscaper's Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + see the transcript: https://landscapersguide.com/podcast/
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Connect with Christopher Lareau:
Vue Robotics: https://vuerobotics.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlareau/
See upcoming live and virtual events: https://landscapersguide.com/events