Changing The Industry Podcast

Haresh Gobin [00:00:00]:
You need a company name you remember, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:00:02]:
I mean, I might. Who's LaunchTech? I don't know who these people are. You're new on the scene, right? You've never done this before.

Haresh Gobin [00:00:09]:
And do some from outside, too, like. Yeah, outside the booth. So you could see, like, the booth. That's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:19]:
Good morning, David.

David Roman [00:00:20]:
We installed a smoked headlight in a vehicle. The customer's vehicle.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:26]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:00:26]:
These headlights, like fifteen hundred dollars for a headlamp.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:32]:
I thought Ken was going to stay in here and listen.

David Roman [00:00:34]:
Apparently not. So it's $1,500 for this headlamp, and the stupid thing comes in. It's smoked, Nobody notices. Customer leaves, starts sending us pictures. These aren't the same headlights. I don't know what we did wrong there.

Lucas Underwood [00:00:49]:
We should mean what you did wrong.

David Roman [00:00:51]:
We should have ordered it from the vin, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:00:54]:
I mean, did you not?

David Roman [00:00:55]:
Well, I thought we did. I don't know. I don't know how else you would order parts. You take them in, you put it into the thing, it spits out a part number. You order it.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:05]:
So, I mean, where did you. Where did you order it from?

David Roman [00:01:07]:
I thought we got it from the dealer. It's a Jeep Grand Cherokee. And you can't just. Apparently, it's not a bulb issue. There's something wrong in the module on the inside of the headlamp assembly. So fifteen hundred dollars later.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:23]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:01:23]:
For a headlamp?

Lucas Underwood [00:01:25]:
That's kind of crazy. We've got one at the shop right now that was like 1970, 1975, something like that. For one headlight. For a Camry.

Haresh Gobin [00:01:38]:
Wow.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:38]:
And it was like, holy crap. I mean, it was like, really expensive. And we're supposed to take parts deposits, Right? If it's something expensive and you order it before the client comes in, you're supposed to take a parts deposit for it.

Haresh Gobin [00:01:52]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:01:52]:
They didn't. And then she shows up and she's like, well, this is in probate, so I have to go get permission anyway.

David Roman [00:02:01]:
No, we. We take parts deposits for everything. $15 half down. Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:09]:
Haresh, introduce yourself.

Haresh Gobin [00:02:11]:
Well, Lucas, it's my pleasure. I met you three years ago at Etiquette. I see you're doing big things. Thank you for inviting me to changing the industry podcast.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:21]:
Yes, sir.

Haresh Gobin [00:02:22]:
David, thanks. Also good to see you guys doing big things. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Harish Gobin. I'm the product development manager at LaunchTech USA. Launch. We do diagnostics for vehicles, diagnostic solutions.

David Roman [00:02:39]:
That's fun.

Lucas Underwood [00:02:40]:
It is. It is very fun. Especially that like they've hardcore grown. And don't you like, don't you power a lot of other tools too? I mean, I know we're not probably not supposed to talk about them.

Haresh Gobin [00:02:52]:
Yeah, well, the thing here at Launch is we have a full product portfolio all the way from like DIY stuff to tools and equipment.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:01]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:03:02]:
But the core of that in the middle is the professional diagnostics is what we really like focus on.

Lucas Underwood [00:03:07]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:03:07]:
You know, and with the professional diagnostics, there's different wings that we're working on right now, such as like the adas, the advanced driver assistance systems. That's huge in the industry. Calibrations of the different systems such as the cameras and the radars and the lighthouse stuff, all fun stuff. And then we also are working on some new initiatives to try to get ahead of the curve, such as AI and informatics and just using data to do predictable analysis on vehicles and repairs and just help the industry out going forward.

David Roman [00:03:43]:
That's sketchy.

Haresh Gobin [00:03:47]:
Scary or sketchy?

David Roman [00:03:50]:
It's a little sketchy. What worries me is that it becomes a crutch.

Haresh Gobin [00:03:55]:
Well, David, I don't mean to interrupt you, but let me just clarify one more thing. I know where you're going with that with the AI. I don't mean like ChatGPT type AI. I mean like it's going to be powered by our data. Yeah, our data. You know, data that's been like tried and proven and you know.

David Roman [00:04:12]:
Yeah, no, I get that.

Haresh Gobin [00:04:13]:
Yeah, I get that.

David Roman [00:04:14]:
And then, you know, if you guys create some machine learning in the background and it's maybe flagging PIDs for you and telling you, hey, this thing is out of parameter or maybe it'll give you a pathway. Check this out or check that or this, you know, that kind of thing. I just like again, I understand why you guys would go in that direction and there's probably a need for it. However, it's kind of technicians. I'm all for it. I'm not saying there's anything bad. Whatever you can do to end up ultimately replacing the technician is. I'm all for if the machine, well, whip out some arms and start to wrenches.

Haresh Gobin [00:04:59]:
And especially we have Elon Musk, head of innovation. Yeah, you know, there's going to be a lot of bots around.

David Roman [00:05:06]:
Those robots don't.

Haresh Gobin [00:05:07]:
Might be bots taking your job soon.

David Roman [00:05:09]:
Oh yeah, they can have my job. Are you kidding me?

Lucas Underwood [00:05:12]:
David doesn't actually do anything. So, you know. Yeah, he just barely replaceable.

Haresh Gobin [00:05:18]:
Okay, gotcha. Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:19]:
You know, the first launch tool I Ever had. I swear you're going to shoot me for this. I swear. It was like the BlackBerry platform. It was like this little tablet that was a little tiny guy.

Haresh Gobin [00:05:30]:
Was it the diagonal or was it a dongle type?

Lucas Underwood [00:05:33]:
No, it was, it was.

Haresh Gobin [00:05:34]:
Might have been a Diagon Evo.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:35]:
Yeah, it was like the. One of the very first ones. Yeah, it was one of the very first ones that was ever sold on a tool truck. Right. And the Matco man came in and he was like so proud of it and everything else. And I bought it because I felt so bad for him because he couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Yeah, right. I was like, you don't know how.

David Roman [00:05:52]:
To turn it on so I'm going to buy it from you.

Lucas Underwood [00:05:54]:
Yeah, yeah, I figured it out. It worked pretty well. What. Anyway, you have any launch tools?

David Roman [00:06:03]:
I don't. I had a tech who had a small like handheld deal that's been about it.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:11]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:06:13]:
So what are your diagnostic tools of choice or. And what are. Some of those are in Toolbox.

David Roman [00:06:18]:
We have, we have a bunch of Autels, a bunch of snap on some top Dawn. I will say the ones I dislike the most are the top down tools.

Lucas Underwood [00:06:32]:
Really. We've, we've liked our top down tools. They've been good.

David Roman [00:06:36]:
I absolutely hate them. I absolutely. It is, it is like a clunky Autel. It's not. It's not as fast as the Autel. It's not as intuitive as the Autel. I got the feeling Phoenix something or another.

Haresh Gobin [00:06:52]:
Yeah, I think that's one of their models.

David Roman [00:06:56]:
It was like the Phoenix Max. They've since updated like this is like several years ago but it was supposed to be a quick tool. It's just, it is broken.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:09]:
There's no doubt about it. The methodology or the navigation is different. It feels different. Graphing is different. Recording is different. It just feels different. It's not slower, it's funky.

David Roman [00:07:22]:
It is slower. It's 100 slower.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:23]:
Mine's not. I put mine up next to my Ultra and it's. I don't know, I've bought like three or four of them at this point.

David Roman [00:07:31]:
Do you have any launch tools? I don't see. See how you are.

Haresh Gobin [00:07:34]:
Well, he said he had one of the first launch tools, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:07:36]:
Yeah, I did have one of the first ones. I think it got driven and then.

Haresh Gobin [00:07:39]:
You know, Lucas, I will say that that tool actually put launch's name out there.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:43]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:07:43]:
You know.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:43]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:44]:
I think that that was when y'all really started coming onto the scene.

Haresh Gobin [00:07:46]:
Yeah. And you know, we've been in the market for, for, you know, we're not, you know, we're not spring chickens in the market.

Lucas Underwood [00:07:52]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:07:52]:
You know, we've been around more than three decades. We have a global presence. And I think what's unique from launch in relates to the other industry competitors is we have a full portfolio from DIY all the way up to tools and equipments. Right. But in the middle there, we focus on our diagnostics, our professional diagnostics. But, you know, we're supporting the guys, you know, that are in the garage on the weekends. Right. You know, with some of our DIY tools that are really popular, such as the Millennium Master.

Haresh Gobin [00:08:22]:
We even have a, like HD application for Millennium HD Pro. So I really try to cover all bases. And one thing is we believe the focus is on ambition and progression. We're not going to get it every time. Right. But we're gonna consistently, rather than take one year to release a product. A year, a scale to a year, we're, we're popping them out.

Lucas Underwood [00:08:47]:
Well, tell me this, how did you, where were you before this? How long have you been at launch and where were you before this? How did you get here?

Haresh Gobin [00:08:54]:
So, yeah, that's a really good question. And I think after I answered this question, you know, David's going to look at me with a little more credibility, give me the side eye right here. So actually, you know, I come from a computer science background. Right. So I went to college for computer science in California, California State University. And my parents had a auto repair shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:15]:
Oh, that's cool.

Haresh Gobin [00:09:16]:
In San Diego. Right next to San Diego State University.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:20]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:09:20]:
You know, so on a weekend, I was, you know, I would want to get there on a weekend and be behind the counter, man, to sell those frat girls the oil changes and stuff. So, you know, we were. My dad's shop was pretty busy and I would moonlight on the weekends.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:33]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:09:33]:
And then my uncle, my other uncle was the first guy to do smog in a city called Temecula.

Lucas Underwood [00:09:38]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:09:39]:
So, you know, my family, that's kind of been in our DNA, you know, we've always revolved around cars. And my dad had an auto repair shop, my uncle had a smog shop. So, you know, throughout college and stuff, I was around. And you want to know what was my first scanter scan tool? A Mac Mentor. It's way back, you know, that's way back there. You're probably thinking, hey, does this guy die his hair or something? How old is he?

Lucas Underwood [00:10:06]:
I think I had one Too.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:07]:
I think I had one in the.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:08]:
Collection at one point.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:10]:
So. Yeah, so I've been there in the trenches. And what I. I saw, you know, working at my family's shop on weekends, moonlighting and hanging out with the technicians. A lot of technicians were like dragging their feet back then, you know. You know, playing around with the scanner and just taking five test drives and, you know, just waiting for that clock to, you know, because they're hourly, right. You know, so they don't care. So us problem.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:38]:
So I started to take inclination towards diagnostics.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:42]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:43]:
And I convinced my mom that time and, you know, the books were not adding up. As a small business.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:49]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:50]:
To get the snap on the Solace.

Lucas Underwood [00:10:52]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:10:53]:
So when I got the snap on Solace, I really started to like, step my game up. That and identifix, you know, I had that in my laptop and, you know, so all of a sudden I started to dictate the diagnostics to the technicians. You know, we became a lot more productive. You know, we will start churning out more cars per days.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:12]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:11:12]:
And then our, you know, our profit margins start to exceed and we start to be really profitable. Small little business.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:17]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:11:17]:
And, yeah, so that was my experience on the applications, hands on site. And then there was a period around like 2010, I stepped away from the shop and I went to work for Bosch as a product rep. How did you.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:32]:
How did you get there? Tell me how you got there. What was it?

Haresh Gobin [00:11:35]:
It's the weirdest story, man. So, you know, it's a Thanksgiving, right? And family business, you know, especially immigrant family business.

Lucas Underwood [00:11:43]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:11:44]:
You know, they don't want to close the doors, right. So it's Thanksgiving and I'm trying to like, go party and stuff. And my mom was like, we're going to the shop on Sunday to do the books and clean up and get the wash out the shop. And I was like, it's Thanksgiving Sunday, man. You know, so we go to the shop and I'm sitting at her desk and I'm looking at the parts counter and I see Bosch. I see a water pump, Bosch, and big red letters. You know, but here I'm qualified. I have my college degree and what I.

Haresh Gobin [00:12:11]:
I'm working with the family shop because I got laid off.

Lucas Underwood [00:12:14]:
Yeah, right.

Haresh Gobin [00:12:14]:
In the Obama years.

Lucas Underwood [00:12:15]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:12:16]:
So I just type on Bosch.com and no lie, I see this product rep, Southern California. So I apply. And within, no joke, the next day I got a reply. Really, we would like to meet you. Can you go to Temecula, which is like, you Know where Temecula is? Right. I'm in San Diego. So Temecula is like a city that's grown a lot. It's about 50 miles from San Diego, famous for the wine valleys.

Haresh Gobin [00:12:45]:
Can you go to Temecula to meet our product supervisor? He's based in Temecula for an interview. So I show up there. He meets me at a Starbucks. And I pull up there and I see this Camaro. You know when. The Transformer Camaro.

David Roman [00:12:56]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:12:56]:
And it's all tagged out with Bosch. And this is when Bosch first did the GDI for Chevy. And they had that GDI system in that Camaro. The Bosch GDI system.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:08]:
Really?

Haresh Gobin [00:13:08]:
Yeah. So what had happened was the big guys from Germany and Bosch wanted the aftermarket to know that just because it's a Chevy doesn't mean, you know, AC Delco was actually contracting Bosch to make the Iridium plugs and the gdi.

David Roman [00:13:22]:
Sure.

Haresh Gobin [00:13:22]:
So they wanted to let the market know about that, to push. Push to let all the retailers to know that you can get this Iridium plug and not a zone on O'Reilly for four bucks or five bucks, you don't need to get it from AC Telco. So it was like dirty business. You know what I mean? They're supplying them, but then, you know, they're telling them, hey, they're undercutting them, too. Yeah. So. So, you know, I see this Camaro there, and. And they had the big spark plug on it.

Haresh Gobin [00:13:47]:
Like. Oh, all the graphics, man. The thing was like. It was like a circus can, you.

Lucas Underwood [00:13:51]:
Know, Almost a little embarrassing to ride in or drive.

Haresh Gobin [00:13:53]:
But the car was those days. The car. That was the car, you know. Right, right. So, yeah, and I do the interview with the guy and stuff at Starbucks. You know, I don't drive back to San Diego fast enough. I'm getting a call from hr. Can you be in Chicago tomorrow morning?

Lucas Underwood [00:14:07]:
Oh, my God.

Haresh Gobin [00:14:08]:
Yeah. And this was that year that we had. They had the polar vortex.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:12]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:14:12]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:14:13]:
Yeah. So, you know, they send me my ticket and, you know, there was no E tickets back then and stuff. They emailed me the itinerary and stuff. And then give me the name of a car company to pick me up and all this stuff. So I go there and I do the interview, and I'm back in San Diego that night. I leave 6 o'clock in the morning from San Diego to Chicago. I do it here for, like, two hours, meet with all the Bosch senior management.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:35]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:14:35]:
And I come back, I have a job offer the next morning that is Yeah, I have a job offer the next morning to.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:43]:
Does that not make you say, like, oh, I'm overqualified for this?

Haresh Gobin [00:14:47]:
No, it gives it. Because it gives it. It's a good story to know that, like, once you're qualified.

Lucas Underwood [00:14:52]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:14:52]:
You'll get. You'll get noticed, right? Yeah. Because a lot of people complain, like, oh, the algorithm. And, you know, I submitted my resume online and in their system, and, you know, it never. I never got a response. But, yeah. So within a week, I was trading, and in the next couple months, I was like a road warrior, man. We were dropping down in cities, and we were just blitzing.

Haresh Gobin [00:15:12]:
Product blitzing. Right. We were product blitzing, passing out spark plugs, you know, Bosch swag. And, you know, and Bosch is a big. I got to admit, they spent some money.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:22]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:23]:
Yeah, for sure.

Haresh Gobin [00:15:24]:
So I did that for about a year. And what happened was my family's business, my mom could not manage the shop, right. Because my dad was sick. Right. He was on dialysis.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:34]:
Oh, man.

Haresh Gobin [00:15:35]:
So he was out of commission. So my mom, we have a woman that's trying to manage some Hispanic guys in the shop, you know, and. And the productivity was way down. And she would call me at the end of the day and, you know, we didn't make any money. Today we have these two invoices didn't clear out. You know, so I just had to say, you know what this is?

Lucas Underwood [00:15:52]:
I can't let the family business sink.

Lucas Underwood [00:15:53]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:15:54]:
So I, I. I still stepped away from Bosch job. I went back to found business. And then it clicked to me. So I'm sitting there, and I was like, wait a minute. Bosch is a billion dollar company, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:16:04]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:16:04]:
And what are they doing? They're going door to door.

Lucas Underwood [00:16:07]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:16:08]:
They're going door to door to reiterate their brand and their name and their image. Yeah, Right. And that's the formula. So what I said, you know. You know, so our shop was actually, at that time, we had closed the San Diego State shop when we had moved to the border.

Lucas Underwood [00:16:20]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:16:21]:
We were the last shop. Check this out, David. Last shot before you enter Mexico. The backlash American shop. I would see these. Me, these Mexican people coming over from Mexico in these 7 Series Beamers, and you're quoting them a synthetic oil change for $140, and they're like, no, no, I go do in Mexico. I'll do Mexico $40. So, you know, I kept bumping into that customer, you know, so, you know, you know, the shop was not doing well.

Haresh Gobin [00:16:48]:
So. So what I said is, I put on the blazer and I packaged up all the service offerings to make it seem like we were this Fortune 500 company in marketing and brochures and explaining what a tune up is, explaining this difference between a synthetic oil change and using all the marketing jargon.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:06]:
Right, Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:17:06]:
I created a logo, Right?

Lucas Underwood [00:17:08]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:17:09]:
And, you know, our shop is called A to Z Auto Repair. You know, so I created a logo and I fold it up and I should start going out there. And I landed some big fleet accounts, man. You want to know who I landed? Customs and Border Patrol. Customs and Border Patrol, man. So I've been there. I've done that.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:25]:
You know, I've got to ask, though. I've got to ask. Yeah. Were you required to get payment through gsa? Because Customs and Border Patrol is a federal agency, right?

Haresh Gobin [00:17:35]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:35]:
Was that when GSA was running it?

Haresh Gobin [00:17:37]:
No. No.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:38]:
Okay. So now you go to this stupid web portal and they say, it's gotten better.

Haresh Gobin [00:17:42]:
Okay.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:43]:
But the people who decide whether or not you're estimate to repair that vehicle is accurate.

Haresh Gobin [00:17:48]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:48]:
Are ex DOD employees. Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:17:51]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:17:52]:
And their whole job is to say no to whatever you say. I will never forget, they called one time and they said, hey, listen, we have a mandate that says that we should use all recycled or used products. And I said, I'm not putting used pursuit tires on a pursuit vehicle. That's not going to happen.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:13]:
Yeah, of course.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:13]:
And they said, well, we. We need you to do something used. And I said, okay. She said, is there any way you could just drain the oil out of it and pour it back in with some fresh.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:24]:
Why are you saying.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:24]:
Because that could be used. And I'm like, oh, man. She said, well, I see something on here about recycled oil. Is that not the same thing? Don't you just filter it and put.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:32]:
It back in, man? And that's the government doing it.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:36]:
Yeah, that's the gsa, baby.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:37]:
Yeah. No, but it was a good experience. But the funny thing is, when the head supervisor came to fleet, he told me, it's like you're going to see seven F150s. I think these are like 2012 F1 to 3.7 motors, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:18:49]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:50]:
You're going to see seven F150s tomorrow. I will need oil change.

Lucas Underwood [00:18:53]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:18:54]:
Radiator flush. I need a fuel air filter change and a fuel filter. And he looked at me, he's like, I'm not going to drop any names. He's like, none of that aftermarket stuff.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:05]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:19:05]:
You get it from Ford. Right?

Lucas Underwood [00:19:08]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:19:08]:
He's like, if you do that and we find out, you know, it's like, no. So that was one lesson I learned. You know, the.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:15]:
The most impactful. I've probably told it before. The most impactful GSA story that I have is I had put a wheel bearing in a Crown Vic.

Haresh Gobin [00:19:22]:
So you. This is what you're. You had like, fleet. Some fleet business with them. Okay.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:26]:
It was park service stuff. And so I put a wheel bearing in this Crown Vic. It had. You know how they would lose that rear axle bearing? Well, this one had almost. I mean, there was like a pencil thickness holding the axle together. Right. It had cut all the way through it, and it like ground it down. And it was one of the supervisors cars.

Lucas Underwood [00:19:43]:
And so the night I get the car done, one of the officers comes and picks it up. Now he's a new officer. If you know anything about the park service, you don't just apply to the park service and become a ranger, Right? They're federal marshals. And they, like. It's a. It's a deal to get a job with them. Yeah, you have to know somebody. Most of these guys are exactly military, usually special service or something like that.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:06]:
Some type of branch that's well to do. And one of them came in and he never explained what branch of service he was in. But you could tell this dude carried himself, right? And he was very, very assertive. We'll just say that. And I mean, like, he made me a little nervous. I don't get nervous about.

Haresh Gobin [00:20:25]:
Give me an example, like how he would, like, communicate with you.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:28]:
It was just. He was very dry. He was very direct. He never smiled. He never. And so he came and got the car and he left the next morning. It's 8:00. And he calls and every others.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:40]:
I mean, like, dude, it is this that. I mean, like, he is just unloading on the other end of the phone. He's like, this car is coming to your shop right now. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, what'd we do? What's wrong? Because I can tell this dude is mad. He's like, don't worry about it. I'll be there in five minutes. And I'm like, oh, no.

Haresh Gobin [00:20:57]:
This make you drop and do 50.

Lucas Underwood [00:20:59]:
Yeah, I know, right? Like, this dude is next level. And so he rolls into the parking lot and he looks as disheveled as anybody you've ever seen. And he smells terrible.

Haresh Gobin [00:21:09]:
Oh, my God.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:09]:
And I'm like, what's going on? And he said, I don't even want to talk about it. And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, he said, I get off work at 4am and he said, at 3:15 we get a call that there is a car on fire. He said, I arrive at the scene, sure enough, the car is on fire. There is a man standing in front of the car completely naked. He is under the influence of something, he said. I go to him and I say the most reasonable, rational thing you can think of. He said, listen, here's the deal. I get off work in less than an hour.

Lucas Underwood [00:21:43]:
I don't want to have to do paperwork because then I won't get off work for a couple hours. So here's what we're gonna do. By all process, procedure, policy, I have to put you in handcuffs. I have to put you in the back of the car. We're going to call somebody, they're going to come get you. We're going to say the car caught on fire. They're going to put the fire out. Your friends are going to come get you and take you home.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:01]:
We're going to be good. Yeah, everything's fine. He said, I'm standing there talking to the guys at the fire department. And he said, they all die laughing. He said, I turn around and look and this dude has kicked both back windows, hardened tempered glass out of the patrol car. He's dented the doors out. And he said, I look as he runs out, jumps across a bob wire fence and starts running through this muddy field.

Haresh Gobin [00:22:26]:
And he said, oh man, I'm going.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:28]:
To let him go. And he said, oh shit, he's got handcuffs on. That's like a murder charge. If something happens, I can't just do that. He said, I take off running after him. The very first thing that happens, he said, I run and he said I fall in this ditch and he said, I've got mud up to my waist. He said, I'm soaking wet, it's nasty. It smells bad.

Lucas Underwood [00:22:46]:
He said, I'm mad now. He said, I take off running after this guy. He said when I tackle him, he sprays shits all over me.

Haresh Gobin [00:22:53]:
Oh my God, I have never been so mad. You don't do that to a manly man like that, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:23:00]:
He's like, it's 11 o'clock and I just want to go home and go to bed. Dude, that sucks. But inside of the car was trash. Yeah. Needed two back doors put on it. Wow, this is awesome.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:12]:
Sorry, didn't mean to derail your stories and memories, huh?

Lucas Underwood [00:23:15]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:15]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:16]:
Well, so how did you get from. Because you went Back you, you.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:19]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:19]:
Reignited the shop.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:21]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:21]:
How'd you get to launch?

Haresh Gobin [00:23:23]:
So we ended up selling the shop in 2016. I, you know, it was a good run. Industry was starting to change, you know, in terms of like. And what we were doing is the technician database was a struggle.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:36]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:36]:
To manage technicians and you know, can I, I mean, I can talk like, you know. Yeah, yeah, A lot. The mentality was that the, the labor rate that the shop was charging was. Well, that's my labor rate. You know, you're making money. But they didn't understand it. All the cost goes into it. All the costs, the licenses, the EPAs.

Lucas Underwood [00:23:54]:
You know, California could not imagine.

Haresh Gobin [00:23:56]:
Yeah, yeah, man. How much stuff I took to my pillow, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:00]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:24:00]:
You know, if the EPA inspector come and they saw a little oil to write you up for violation, that's a ticket right there, you know, I'm talking about outside of the tank, like a little drip, you know, you're pouring it and a little bit fell, you know. So. Yeah, it was difficult, you know, with the overhead and so that was one of the reasons.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:16]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:24:17]:
But you know, my parents were able to recover their investment and you know, did something comfortable and now I gotta head back into corporate world, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:23]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:24:24]:
So it was tough at first. Right. So I got my resume out there. I'm educated and I have 10 years of, of self employment in the automotive repair. Right. Shop environment. So what I was finding was a lot of in. I wasn't getting any hits, you know, I wasn't getting it because I interpreted it as a lot of companies were hesitant to hire someone that was self employed that long.

Lucas Underwood [00:24:50]:
Yeah, I see that.

Haresh Gobin [00:24:52]:
Yeah. So the funny call, how I got back in the industry is like. Well, not even the industry. One day I get a call, I put my job, my, my resume up online. So it's from the local Range Rover dealership. The guy, Harish, man, do you what I'm looking for? Like, you're educated and you have all the shop experience. He said, I got the perfect job for you. And I was like, what? He's like, well, I just signed up for Kelly Blue Book, man, and I'm paying now he's crying.

Haresh Gobin [00:25:19]:
He was like, I'm paying $6,000 a month for that subscription. And I'm getting all the, what was it called where they buy the cars back online? Cash offers. Yeah, right. He's like this database, you know, I'm getting all these offers, I'm getting all these leads of people that want to sell their car, you Know, and these are high end cars. This is the guy with the like, you know, 2017 or 19 Maserati. He doesn't want to go sell it on craigslist or offered up or whatever, right? Yeah, he just wants to walk in somewhere and someone give him a. Cut him a check. Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:25:50]:
So he's like, you know. But a lot of my sales guys are tools. They don't know, you know, they don't know where the dongle even goes. You know, you said, I found a guy looking for the dongle in the trunk, you know, the OBD port. So he was like, I have an idea, man. I'm creating a position for you. I'm going to call you a buyer, a Kelly blue book buyer. And he was like, I'm going to put you in the back, I'll get you a little cubicle you buy yourself you're away from.

Haresh Gobin [00:26:13]:
Because the dealerships, environments, if you ever work there. I had fun in those two years. It's like high school. It's like really high school, dude. You know, you got the finance people, the finance girls, you got the sales guys that are, you know, some of the biggest douches out there, you know, I mean, and then, so, yeah, it was, it was like high school, man. So here I am, you know, and you guys seem like my demeanor, I'm very like, you know, chill and you know, like a little like corporate. So I, you know. So then he says, well, how's 22 bucks an hour? I dropped the phone.

Haresh Gobin [00:26:45]:
How's that sound? I was like, no, thank you, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:47]:
Right. Like, I can't do that.

Haresh Gobin [00:26:48]:
I can't do that, man. And you're trying to kick a guy when he's down because you heard my story. Yeah. Here my story that my parents sold my shop and. And then I've been playing job market and it was going on like three, three months. I was unemployed. I was just sitting at home, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:26:58]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:26:59]:
So, you know, the next day he calls back and he was like, okay, you know what, I'll bring it up to 30 and I'll give you $150 for every buy.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:07]:
Oh, shit. Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:27:08]:
And he's like, and I'm sure it's easy, man, just try it out, you know. And he's like, these are rich people, man. Like, you're not going to be like meeting some guy in an alley trying to like, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:16]:
Right?

Haresh Gobin [00:27:16]:
And he's like, and he's, you're a good looking guy, you know, you're charismatic and stuff. And you're likable.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:21]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:27:21]:
You know, because I did meet him one time, you know, for one interview. So he called back with the offer, so I took it. So I, you know, and I actually did pretty good, you know, I did for like, I worked for a year and I was all over. This is Range Rover, right? Range Rover and Jaguar. So premier dealership, you know. So I was hanging out with the service guys in the back. You know, I'd be back in service. So basically I would sit back at a computer every morning and get a lead that Lucas wants to sell his 20, 25 M4.

Haresh Gobin [00:27:46]:
Right. You know, he just had a year with it. He's bored with it. It's paid off.

Lucas Underwood [00:27:49]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:27:49]:
You know, market value is what, 72. So when Lucas came in, I would inspect the car with the OBD and do some diagnostics and, you know, and find like little. Well, Lucas, you know, the service light is on, you know that all change is gonna. For this car. It's gonna be around five, four or five hundred bucks, you know, a service your tires, you know, Lucas, you start to break down. Yeah. Beat you down a little bit. And then, you know, Lucas, how about I'll give you 65, you know, and you're like, dude, just get me out of here.

Haresh Gobin [00:28:17]:
Yeah, I'm fed up. See, I'm fed up, like seeing your face.

Lucas Underwood [00:28:19]:
Right? I will.

Haresh Gobin [00:28:20]:
Now, I would take him to finance and, you know, and we'll cut the check and he's out of there. And now I get in the M4 and I drive it, you know, I go to check, have lunch, you know, stop off home, you know. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:28:29]:
Drive the nice car for a day.

Haresh Gobin [00:28:30]:
You know, I mean, I had full autonomy, right. So, you know, then. And come back and then park it into the dealer, into the service bay where they're going to start servicing and washing and stuff. Go back to my desk, you know. So it was a cool little gig. Yeah, you know, it was a cool little gig. And then Snap on found my resume. Snap on in Conway, Arkansas.

Haresh Gobin [00:28:50]:
Not even like Snap On Diagnostics. John Bean, alignment division.

David Roman [00:28:55]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:28:55]:
So they found my resume. So they found my resume. And it was for equipment sales specialist position, Southern California. So I jumped on their team. And in the first month, man, and this was a territory that was dead. My hunter was killing this territory. They're killing them in this territory, right? So, you know, I meet the, the regional manager and stuff. He hires me, you know, like southern guy, you know, a really nice guy.

Haresh Gobin [00:29:22]:
And then, you know, he hires me in first month, I End up selling six aligners.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:27]:
Oh, very cool.

Haresh Gobin [00:29:28]:
I become this. They send out. We have a superstar on our team. We're going to take on, you know, sending company emails, you know. You know, and then. Oh, man. I made some good money, though, you know, because the commissions were nice.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:40]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:29:40]:
You know, the commissions were nice. And then. Yeah. So I did that. I worked with them for about a year. I worked with them for about a year and a half. Right. And my dad passed away.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:49]:
Oh, man.

Haresh Gobin [00:29:50]:
Yeah, my dad passed away. And this is. In life, everything comes full circle. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:29:54]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:29:54]:
So my dad passed away in February 2020, like the third week in February 2020. So I was a mess, man. And that's what Lucas, I was telling you, like, about your mom and stuff, you know, like, I empathize with your brother. I know. I know what you go through. I know losing a parent is hard.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:08]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:08]:
And I know you think about her every day, but just all the good lessons she saw and keep her alive through you, man. You know how your mom used to live in Texas. That's what I do. Right. Like, my dad had a heart of gold. And he would treat like, you know, back in our shop days, Lucas would come in and do his breaks. He only had. The bill was 550 bucks.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:24]:
He only had four. 420. He'd be like, Lucas, give me the 420 and get out of here. He's that type of guy.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:28]:
Yeah, exactly.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:29]:
So anyways, so with that said, my dad died, and then I took like a, you know, I took like a. A leaf of absence.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:39]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:39]:
You know, for about a couple weeks. And I don't know what, my head wasn't in the right place and I resigned.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:45]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:45]:
You know, so when I resigned. Sorry about that.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:49]:
Oh, you good. You ain't gonna hurt.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:50]:
When I resigned, the pandemic was just starting.

Lucas Underwood [00:30:56]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:30:56]:
But my dad died on February 2nd and March 2nd. I get this random email from on LinkedIn.

Lucas Underwood [00:31:04]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:04]:
Hi. I want to meet you. You know, like, I. My. I'm from Launch. I'm a senior manager in Launch. I really like your profile and I like your. Your qualifications, but I'm in Ontario.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:15]:
You're in San Diego. Can you, you know, take the dive up. It's about a two hour drive.

Lucas Underwood [00:31:19]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:19]:
You know, let's meet. So I went to the office and I met with the launch management and all. I got to tell you, the guy gave me a hug and said, welcome to the family.

Lucas Underwood [00:31:28]:
Oh, yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:30]:
And then hired on the spot, you know. Right. So, yeah, Launch has been Good to me. You know, it's a Chinese company based in China. Global company, but, you know, operations here in the US and actually, I'm one of the longest tenured employees, really, going on five years, you know. So, yes, it feels good, you know, really valuable, as you guys could see, you know, kind of all over the place, you know, doing a lot of the media stuff. And then it's important, too, because. Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:57]:
Because I'm synonymous with launch.

Lucas Underwood [00:31:59]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:31:59]:
Right. That's what every company wants, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:32:01]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:01]:
They want to have that. Like that person. Yeah, that person.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:04]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:04]:
So you know that because, you know, longevity, that's the name of the game. Right. Longevity and credibility. I think that's where we're at.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:13]:
You know, one of the things that when I look at you and I think back about your success, I think it's a lot of your mentality, I think it's a lot of your personality.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:22]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:23]:
And I think it's a lot of your ability to communicate. Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:26]:
And so thank you, Lucas, for the endorsements, of course.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:29]:
And like, I guess my thing is, is I think about other technicians and I think about people who are coming into this industry, and they say, hey, I want to go into the industry, but I don't want to be a technician forever. Well, you've got this amazing pathway of all this cool stuff you've done, but a lot of it was really because you took time and invested in yourself.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:48]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:48]:
You worked on the charismatic, you worked on the communication. You worked on those aspects of life.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:53]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:32:53]:
And that served you really well.

Haresh Gobin [00:32:55]:
And. And you bring up a really good point. So I was with my mom recently, and, you know, my mom was with some of her girlfriends, and they were like, what does your son do? You know? So my mom said, well, my son work is in the tech, auto tech industry. And she said, everything that I had, that we had, we invested in him in that shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:33:15]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:33:16]:
And that was able to give him the skills.

Lucas Underwood [00:33:18]:
Exactly.

Haresh Gobin [00:33:19]:
So, you know, behind the counter groomed me. Right. The service bays groomed me. Right. And, you know, and I've learned, like, so much. So what I want to say for the listeners out there, you know, your listeners, and you brought. You just hit it on the nail. If you're a technician, you know, if you're a shop owner, that is not dead experience, you know, that is invaluable experience.

Haresh Gobin [00:33:40]:
Right. And this is how I'm able to succeed at launch, because I get to see things from many different angles. Right. Rather than, you know, the guy that just went and got all the degrees, and he never. He never changed a tire in his life, Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:33:52]:
No real world experience. Well, the people that he works with realize he's disconnected, he doesn't understand.

Haresh Gobin [00:33:57]:
Exactly. Yeah. So just, I'm saying to all the aspiring technicians, I mean, to all the technicians that are out there, you might be there like five years, six years. Hey, man, that is a mountain of golden experience that you can transfer into the automotive corporate side. Right. For companies that want your skills and. And they need your skills to grow and to, you know, and to make an impact.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:19]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:19]:
Well, I mean.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:20]:
But you have to take steps to recognize its knowledge, right?

Haresh Gobin [00:34:23]:
Absolutely.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:23]:
Like, I see a lot of people who tend to put themselves in this little box, and they say, well, I was a technician. No, you. You have to expand that ability. You have to expand that knowledge. You have to. And you got to think outside of the box a little bit. Right? Like how we talk to people. How do we communicate with people? Are we impactful when we speak to them? Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:42]:
Like, those are important parts of a job like yours.

Haresh Gobin [00:34:45]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:45]:
And so you're an impactful speaker, and people know you're serious.

Haresh Gobin [00:34:48]:
Thank you. Thank you.

Lucas Underwood [00:34:49]:
Well, people know you're serious. You're charismatic, but people know you're serious when you talk. And I think that that's something that comes with practice. That's not something that we're born with.

Haresh Gobin [00:34:58]:
Oh, yeah, absolutely, man. Absolutely, Lucas. Because I remember in the first couple years when I was on my early 20s.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:03]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:04]:
And I was, you know, in the shop. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:07]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:08]:
So, you know, there were some people that are intimidating out there, you know, And I was still trying to find myself, and now my dad is like, hey, son, I'm taking off. There's the invoice here of a thousand bucks. This guy's gonna come get his car. Just collect it. So we're not a corporation. We're a small business owner. Right. And people tend to.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:25]:
Oh, man, you know what? You know, not respect you and, you know.

David Roman [00:35:28]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:28]:
So now I'm quaking. I gotta tell this guy, you owe me a thousand bucks, you know, and get him to sign, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:33]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:33]:
And he's gonna see me as a skinny little Indian kid, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:36]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:36]:
And he's just 6 foot 5, whatever guy he is, you know what I mean?

Lucas Underwood [00:35:39]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:39]:
You know, so, you know. Yeah. In the beginning, I used to break, man. You know, you know, intimidation and. And just not. Not composed. Not be like. Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:50]:
And the guy's fumbling and, you know, he know what he's doing. He only has 800 and he throws it on the counter and we're good, man.

David Roman [00:35:56]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:56]:
You know, just to get out of jail.

Lucas Underwood [00:35:58]:
He's playing.

Haresh Gobin [00:35:59]:
Yeah. Just to see J. Just to get out of this. Then I got to get ragged out, you know, because it's a numbers game, Right. You got to keep the doors open. Yeah. So what I learned on that for my self development was killing with articulation.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:11]:
Yes.

Haresh Gobin [00:36:12]:
And be do your work to become an expert in whatever you're doing.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:17]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:36:18]:
I mean you're not going to become an expert overnight and you're, you're never fully going to, but you're always going to be learning something. Once you close that, you know, once you close that chakra, there's something in yoga called chakra, which is the third eye, which absorbs energy and absorbs intellect. Right, right. Once you close that chakra, then you're stopped growing as a human.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:35]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:36:35]:
You start developing. So we learn things every day and we learn things from everyone and everything around us.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:41]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:36:42]:
So we just have to be aware.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:43]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:36:44]:
So how much of your schooling, in other words, you went for computer sciences. Right. How much of that do you use on a daily basis Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:36:52]:
Now, you know, thinking about that yesterday we were sitting at dinner with our team and I was thinking, and I was at the table, man, after five years, I met the head guy of launch from China for the first time yesterday.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:03]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:04]:
And it was funny because we were walking in, three of us were walking into the dinner.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:08]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:09]:
And the whole company was there. Like 60 people.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:10]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:11]:
Right. And then my boss gets up and he pulls me. He's like, you're sitting here at this table. And when I sit down, I notice I'm sitting right across from the head guy.

David Roman [00:37:20]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:21]:
So what was the question again?

Lucas Underwood [00:37:25]:
How much of the education that you had in college do you use on a daily basis?

Haresh Gobin [00:37:30]:
Okay. Yeah. So. And I was sitting there, I was thinking when I was gonna graduate on my, like to get my degree, I had a computer science information systems degree.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:39]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:40]:
I had to build database in Microsoft Access.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:42]:
Oh, man, I remember those.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:44]:
Yeah. And I was thinking, I was like, just a random thought, is Microsoft Access still around? Yeah, I don't think so. And I was trying to figure out how I like how I, how I set up the schematics and the schema and stuff. You know, I said, man, from then.

Lucas Underwood [00:37:57]:
To now, I had somebody call me.

Haresh Gobin [00:37:59]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:00]:
From. From a past life. And he said, hey, you remember you helped us with all that as 400 coding? And I said, yes, yeah. And he said, I've got a hospital that still uses as 400. Can you help me? And I said, do what? Tell me what hospital this is. I'm not going there.

Haresh Gobin [00:38:16]:
Yeah, man, that's old school stuff right there.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:19]:
Microsoft Access.

Haresh Gobin [00:38:20]:
Microsoft Access. They don't even still have that.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:23]:
I think there's a suite somewhere.

Haresh Gobin [00:38:25]:
I want to know something. I shouldn't say this, but some. When I was working in Snap on, we were using it.

David Roman [00:38:30]:
The what?

Haresh Gobin [00:38:31]:
Because the Access. One of the VPs from SNAP on. Yeah, he had built that with the, with the, with the customers and stuff. So it was like his little baby. And. And they kept it. Yeah, I don't know if they still have it now, but they kept it.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:42]:
You know, the, the tool industry is really interesting to me.

Haresh Gobin [00:38:49]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:38:50]:
Because from the outside you come to a show like Apex, right. And you walk up and down these aisles and you see all these different vendors and all these different scandals. Then you go to ETI and figure out that everybody's friends. Right. You know, there's, there's little like packs and there's. Yeah, there's some, some division here and there, but for the most part, like everybody's somewhat working together. And that's where we met was eti.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:12]:
Yeah, eti. Yeah, yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:39:13]:
And so what, what's next for Launch? I mean, where's launch going from here forward?

Haresh Gobin [00:39:18]:
And we're not, definitely not going backward. I think like I mentioned earlier, is just staying touch to that consumer. And what we're realizing is. And this is a good food for thought, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:39:27]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:28]:
So when we, when I was in the shop industry, there was that loyalty to some of the bigger names.

Lucas Underwood [00:39:34]:
Yeah, right.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:35]:
Can I drop the names?

Lucas Underwood [00:39:35]:
Yeah, sure.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:36]:
Yeah. There were loyalty. There were guys that had like $100,000, like balances on some of these tool trucks.

Lucas Underwood [00:39:43]:
Yeah, right, yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:44]:
Such a snap on. And that was their pride and joy.

Lucas Underwood [00:39:47]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:39:47]:
They would take you down to their corner to shop and line up all the. Well, this was a platinum edition, you know, Platinum edition toolbox here. And I paid 25 grand for that one. I just paid that one off last year after five years, you know. And this one I, I just took on finance, right. And they had like. So there was that loyalty to that, those brands and you know, I'm not going to knock those brands because those brands were an important part of the progression of the industry.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:11]:
Yeah, right.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:12]:
Yeah. I said, I told someone recently, a couple yesterday that what was. I asked him a question, I said, what was the source? Let's see what was the source? What was the source for most technicians five, ten years ago for information?

Lucas Underwood [00:40:25]:
Oh, it was your tool truck guy.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:26]:
Jump on a tool truck.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:27]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:27]:
You know, you're unsure about something, you're unsure about repair.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:30]:
That's where you found out about your training.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:32]:
Exactly.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:32]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:33]:
You would fell in the angular socket that you were trying to get to. You know, you were trying to break that, that bolt for like three hours. And Mitchell says the whole job should only take four hours. But you, you know, for some reason, you know, it might have been seized, you know, been in northeast or something. So what I will say is the technician of today is different from those guys.

Lucas Underwood [00:40:53]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:40:53]:
Those guys had the loyalty to the snap on and some of the other like big brands. But, but the new technicians of today, the guys, they don't have loyalty to any brands. They have loyalty to their pockets and they want to keep that pocket fill and get the most, you know. So with that said technology, they're far.

David Roman [00:41:10]:
More pragmatic now too.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:12]:
Yeah, exactly.

David Roman [00:41:12]:
They're like, I can get that same tool, not branded, that different brand, you know what I'm saying? For half the price. Like, why am I going to buy it from the tool truck? I'll just go down the street.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:24]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:41:24]:
To the tool store and pick it up for half the price.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:27]:
And then they memorize feature and benefits.

Lucas Underwood [00:41:29]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:29]:
They'll say like, this scan tool does the six things I need, but that one has the seventh.

Lucas Underwood [00:41:35]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:36]:
You know, and it's actually a better price.

Lucas Underwood [00:41:39]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:39]:
You know, so back then, you know, we weren't really paying attention to like, you know, you know, these guys were.

David Roman [00:41:45]:
Coming on the, coming off the tool truck and saying, hyping up their tool.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:48]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:41:49]:
They're like, this thing does everything. You don't need anything else.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:52]:
And you're like, you took their word for it.

David Roman [00:41:54]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:41:54]:
You learned your lesson.

David Roman [00:41:56]:
Absolutely did.

Haresh Gobin [00:41:56]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:41:57]:
And for me, it was getting online and you're talking to these other shop owners and they're like, I don't think you understand. You don't even know that it's missing.

Lucas Underwood [00:42:06]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:42:06]:
Because you have no, no frame of reference. You can't go look at this second or third tool and look and see that, hey, you're missing these pins, you're missing this menu, you're missing this functionality.

Lucas Underwood [00:42:18]:
You just don't know. Yeah.

David Roman [00:42:20]:
You don't know that you have bi directional control of that because it's missing entirely from your scan tool. And you don't even understand. So you gotta have that second, third.

Haresh Gobin [00:42:28]:
Fourth, fifth and Then a certain car comes in a model and you don't have the coverage on that URL on your Scan Tool. Right. That happened a lot. So back to answering your question, Lucas. It's technology. And here at Launch, we believe the philosophy is having as much resources on that Scan Tool without upsells. Yeah, right. Available.

Haresh Gobin [00:42:50]:
Right. So, for example, on a Launch Scan tool, on an X431 scan tool, which is a professional line, the difference from the. The entry level, which is a turbo three to the throttle five, is just memory and screen size.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:01]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:43:01]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:02]:
So it's all there.

Haresh Gobin [00:43:03]:
It's all there. ADAS software is there. Oscilloscope software is there. Battery testing, immobilizer, you know, in addition to. We're always adding features. And I'll drop a statistic on you guys. In 2023, we did 700 updates.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:21]:
Wow.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:21]:
Wow.

Haresh Gobin [00:43:22]:
And once you have an active subscription.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:23]:
To Launch Tool, it just updates.

Haresh Gobin [00:43:25]:
Every Monday morning, you update your tool. Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:27]:
So let me ask you this. Couple different things that I'm kind of curious about through. Through the engagement with aca, right. Because we're in an ACA event, Auto Care association event, through the engagement at eti, there's a lot of differing views of things like right to repair and the access to that data. I think we all know that ETI is a very important part of making sure that you guys as tool companies have the data and have the. Maybe more so than have the data, have the connections. Right. Have.

Lucas Underwood [00:43:55]:
Have a storehold of. Of people that you can reach out to and talk to. How important is. Is right to repair, do you think? And how important is having access to those people, that data?

Haresh Gobin [00:44:06]:
It's very important because, like, you know, elements such as ETI to advocate for the aftermarket. They advocate for the technicians who are the end users, and then also us as companies. Right. To give us access and create that bridge. Because if it were up to the OT OEs, they wouldn't really, you know, they wouldn't share much with us, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:44:25]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:44:25]:
So it's good to have that, like that check, that validation check in terms of legislation, in terms of a law there to, you know, keep the OEs, you know, playing fair.

Lucas Underwood [00:44:36]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:44:36]:
You know, and, you know, no, Lucas, I've been around, like most of America, and, you know, the heart and soul of America is an auto repair shop.

Lucas Underwood [00:44:47]:
Yeah, man, it is. I was talking about that last night. They were talking about with the hurricane in North Carolina and everything that happened. They're talking about the fact that all of these People came together.

Haresh Gobin [00:44:57]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:44:57]:
And, and parts of the industry lifted up and went and helped other parts of the industry that were in trouble. Right. And I think it was Keith Perkins wife, Liz. And she was talking about how like, you know, she recently got hurt. She fell off a horse and got hurt real bad. Messed her hand up. And she said, I've been in this industry for like five years. Everyone reached out and said, hey, are you okay? And she said, you know, the industry I was in before, like there was nothing.

Lucas Underwood [00:45:24]:
Like nobody even knew, nobody even cared. And she said that the auto repair industry had taken her in in a way that she could never imagine. And I hear that a lot.

Haresh Gobin [00:45:34]:
Yeah, it's an amazing industry, man, because, you know, you know, everyone, like you just said it, you know, might be a little squabbles here and there, but everyone looks out for each other, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:45:43]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:45:43]:
And everyone's connected, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:45:46]:
So what do you, what do you think about data access? And we talk about tooling, right. Because there's, there's. And most of our listeners know this. We were talking with a friend of ours who was showing us was it Can Spy. What was the name of that?

David Roman [00:46:02]:
The Snoop.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:04]:
The Network Snoop.

David Roman [00:46:05]:
I don't remember that any.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:06]:
But, you know, we're talking about a tool that allows you to decode the network communications and understand what the messages look like and understand what we're looking at. And we were talking about the difference between reverse engineering and obtaining that data from the manufacturer.

Haresh Gobin [00:46:20]:
So let me address the alpha. And in the room, I know that a lot of times the Chinese companies are synonymous with reverse engineering, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:46:27]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:46:28]:
And there's some Chinese companies and foreign companies that have gotten in trouble, you know. Yeah. But I would say I can't speak on like, you know, those situations. But what I will say is here at launch, and I've been part of this project to spearhead compliance, so in the last year, I've personally been involved in signing 6, 6 OE contracts, license data.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:52]:
That's awesome.

Haresh Gobin [00:46:52]:
And bust out that checkbook to pay for the data, get it the right way.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:56]:
Right.

Haresh Gobin [00:46:57]:
And. And then we develop on that. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:46:59]:
So I think that really builds those relationships and makes those relationships better because I think that when, you know, there were conversations about a couple companies and it really hurt some feelings with some of the manufacturers because they're like, hey, we're. You told us that we're coming here to, to play ball and we're going to work together to make this industry a better place. And now all of a Sudden you're reverse engineering and stealing our stuff. Like, you can't be on both sides, right?

Haresh Gobin [00:47:26]:
I don't know if I'm gonna get in trouble after this podcast, man, but you're. You're taught. You're not dodging. You're not dodging the issue. You're heading straight on. But I, you know, that's my. From our side, you know, and I think I can put my name and my credibility on the line. Launch is.

Haresh Gobin [00:47:40]:
Is making you. No one's perfect. But we're making all efforts to be compliant in terms of license legitimate OE data. And that comes with a cost, right?

Lucas Underwood [00:47:49]:
Yeah, exactly. And. And I would much rather pay for a tool that goes about it the right way, because, you know, the.

David Roman [00:47:56]:
Oh, hold on. No, no, let's not get crazy, because that was always Snap On's claim. They're like, oh, our stuff isn't stolen. Well, it's like, okay, but it's missing half the stuff I need. Like, what do you want me to do?

Haresh Gobin [00:48:06]:
But Snap on is held to a different standard. They're the golden American company.

David Roman [00:48:10]:
Oh, you know.

Haresh Gobin [00:48:12]:
Yeah, yeah. Right. So, I mean, there's that, there's that politics too, Right. That plays into it.

Lucas Underwood [00:48:19]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:48:19]:
You know, I'm just saying that I.

Lucas Underwood [00:48:21]:
Would rather pay a little bit more for a tool.

David Roman [00:48:24]:
Of course, a little bit more.

Lucas Underwood [00:48:26]:
End result is not that we've done something to jeopardize our opportunity to obtain that data. And, and you know, from my experience, Most of the OEs aren't trying to keep us from the data. Right? No, I don't think they're trying to keep us from working.

Haresh Gobin [00:48:40]:
They want you to pay for it.

Lucas Underwood [00:48:41]:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Haresh Gobin [00:48:43]:
It's a business for them right now.

Lucas Underwood [00:48:44]:
If they, if instead of trying to fight. Right. To repair and everything else so aggressively, if they would just come up together and say, let's spend this money to make a website where we can all have our tools on one website and you can figure out if the tool does this or that. That would be.

Haresh Gobin [00:48:57]:
You should see some of the stuff that. I mean, I won't go into it. I don't want to get in trouble. You should see some of the stuff in the free library that they give VTI. 1979 Dodge Colt wiring diagram had two wires on it. That was a good one.

Lucas Underwood [00:49:14]:
So, I mean, you know, I think that. I think our industry is headed in a better direction. I really do, and I think we're moving in a good way. There's been a lot of controversy recently. You Brought up immobilizers. There's been a lot of controversy over immobilizers. There's been a lot of controversy as far as access and being able to do those things. One camp says, hey, listen, the people who have these tools are not out stealing cars.

Lucas Underwood [00:49:40]:
The people who paid this for this tool are not out stealing cars. And because I bought this tool, it is mine. You can't now come back and say, I bought it for this reason that I have to meet all these requirements to be able to use the tool that I paid for. In the other camp, you've got the people saying there's cars being stolen, and it's not okay that we have people that we aren't credentialing or verifying that they are somebody who should have access and go through the proper process to obtain permission or data to be able to access immobilizers. What's your take on that?

Haresh Gobin [00:50:14]:
So our. My take on it is we did have some mo. We do have some immobilizer products that work with our scan tools, and they were released in 2023. Like, in the middle of 2023. And early this year, we shelved them. Okay, what one I mentioned, what I mean by shelving them is we pulled them off our website. We. They were not available for purchase.

Lucas Underwood [00:50:40]:
Okay.

Haresh Gobin [00:50:41]:
Because we were aware of the same issues that you were. You know, the security issues, the criminal issues, the, you know, the criminal operations that were associated with it. And, you know, and this trickles all the way up to the level if the government has their eyes on it. So I will say I'm proud to announce that. And we're advertising it here at our Apex booth this year that we are. Just about a month ago, we are the first. We worked with the NASDAQ security task force, and we are the first scan tool. Do you hear about this?

Lucas Underwood [00:51:12]:
Yeah.

Haresh Gobin [00:51:13]:
We're the first scan tool company to have that validation check with in partnership with nastef.

Lucas Underwood [00:51:18]:
See, I like that.

Haresh Gobin [00:51:19]:
So basically, when you buy an immobilizer product, want a diagnostic product, you have to at the same time, coordinate with the. Download the NAS TAP app and register like, if you're a locksmith, register, like, your information and your credentials. So the government is tracking, you know, so that's our responsibility that we've kind of, you know, we have not neglected. And, you know, and we're trying to do the right thing.

Lucas Underwood [00:51:44]:
You know, there's a lot of people who are upset about it, but. But it's like they're.

Haresh Gobin [00:51:49]:
Hold on what are some of the like, reasons they're upset, though?

Lucas Underwood [00:51:52]:
Well, there's a couple different camps. One reason is, is because some of them are felons. And in a lot of cases, if you, if you had a felony for stealing cars, it's going to be kind of hard to get a nasty.

Haresh Gobin [00:52:03]:
I didn't think about that. That demographic, right.

Lucas Underwood [00:52:05]:
That's going to be a little bit difficult. The others are. They feel like. They feel like there's not been a lot of transparency from Nastif. I disagree. I think if you go to the meetings or if you listen to any of the, the stuff they put out, any of the documentation, if you know the board of directors.

Lucas Underwood [00:52:22]:
Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:52:22]:
I mean, these are people that we know, these are shop owners, these are locksmith that we know. And so I don't think. But there's a lot of them that really believe that Nastif was a cash grab and they were trying to make money from it. I don't think that's the case. And I think there does have to be a system. And here's always been my theory, and Donnie's gonna kick me if he sees me for saying this, but my theory has always been that, that there is a component of this that's beyond saying, hey, we're worried about theft. To me, it feels like there might be just a wee bit of a component that says one day the manufacturers are going to come back and say, yeah, but you're not doing anything to protect this automobile. You're not protecting the consumer, you're not protecting the access.

Lucas Underwood [00:53:06]:
Well, to the automotive industry as a whole. Whereas. Right, whereas Nastev comes in and says, no, hey, listen, to have access to some of these secure features that you went and told Congress that we shouldn't have, you have to have insurance and you have to be validated. You have to do a background check. In other words, it is the tool that prevents us from losing access. If anybody ever came back and tried to play that route, I mean, I think somewhere there's an aspect to it of that.

Haresh Gobin [00:53:36]:
Yeah, I mean, there's going to be gonna be many layers to it. But you see, why we had to go that direction is because we're create, you know, we're manufacturing these tools that can be. There was no validation checks on and can be used to create like some really bad scenarios. So, yeah, you know.

Lucas Underwood [00:53:51]:
Well, I mean, they, they had. There were some cases where people had bought tools and they went out and they took cars and they said, yeah, but I mean, that wasn't Shops. I know that wasn't shops.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:04]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:04]:
But the only way to prevent those who aren't shops from doing it is having.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:08]:
Those are criminals. Right.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:09]:
That verify is that this is.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:11]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:12]:
You know.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:12]:
Yeah. But, you know, stay tuned. More information to come, you know, and then we'll see how, you know, once it gets implemented and the adoption of it, we'll see, you know, how it works.

David Roman [00:54:20]:
It's going to take some time because I think the technicians and the shop owners are going to be hesitant to go. I got to send what information. I've got to add NAS theft to my insurance. I've got to have carry this much liability.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:31]:
It's not a lot of work. It's really not bad at all.

David Roman [00:54:34]:
It's work, though.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:35]:
It's work. But then an actualized way of thinking it a little higher. It's a social good. Right. You know, or this is why we live in America. There's laws and structure. Right. And you're not living in some other place.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:48]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:54:49]:
Where it's pure chaos.

Haresh Gobin [00:54:50]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:51]:
Pure chaos.

David Roman [00:54:52]:
It's okay.

Lucas Underwood [00:54:54]:
I heard you love chaos.

David Roman [00:54:56]:
No, I don't. I like things calm, peaceful. I don't like chaos.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:01]:
You just want to be left alone.

David Roman [00:55:03]:
What's that?

Lucas Underwood [00:55:03]:
You just want to be left alone.

David Roman [00:55:05]:
Coming to Las Vegas is chaos.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:07]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:55:07]:
Two hours off.

Haresh Gobin [00:55:09]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:55:09]:
My morning routine, shop. My evening routine, shot. Can't go to bed when I normally go to bed. It's pure chaos.

Haresh Gobin [00:55:15]:
It's experience for memories, though, man.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:17]:
Yeah.

David Roman [00:55:17]:
You know, I don't know. The memories have to be like, I'm a better person because I experienced this.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:29]:
Gonna help things.

David Roman [00:55:31]:
Yeah. You're not making a good chase.

Haresh Gobin [00:55:32]:
Yeah.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:32]:
I mean, at this point, though, I am proud of you. You're not waddling like a little duck like you were. I mean, you've lost all this weight. You not waddling previously. You had to, like, do the waddle to keep up.

Haresh Gobin [00:55:44]:
Oh, man.

David Roman [00:55:45]:
Had bad feet.

Haresh Gobin [00:55:46]:
You guys are having too much fun.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:50]:
Yep.

Lucas Underwood [00:55:50]:
Thank you for being here, huh?