Danny, tell me about your vision.
My vision is the creation of a hybrid company that
helps other organizations understand what innovation means
and how to make innovation actionable within their own walls
and executes that on behalf of our clients and for ourselves.
Tell me more about that, Danny.
Basically, as a company, we help other organizations
ideate and build new products and understand
what the implications of a commitment to innovation are.
And we hear a lot of companies today talking about innovation
and acting like they are innovative.
But in reality, if you dig into how those companies are
structured and you start to look at the things that they are
doing to support their efforts around innovation,
it's all just kind of theater.
It's all kind of fake.
It's talking points more than action points.
And one of our goals as a company
is to help other organizations understand
how to bridge the gap between innovation theater
and innovation action.
And so that generally ends up having impacts
on company culture, on company operations,
on the analytics and metrics that companies
are keeping track of to understand
how they're performing, and then ultimately
what the goals of that company are
both near-term and long-term.
And so we help companies unpack all of that
and understand how to make innovation
a tangible, actionable activity within their organization.
And we start off by doing that with what we call an accelerated
innovation lab, which is basically a two-day crash
course in all things innovation.
And then we can help companies further those efforts
from that point in whatever manner fits for them.
So that could mean helping them ideate and bring
to life their first product.
That could mean helping them operationalize product
and venture building activities within their own walls.
Or that could be as simple as helping them reconsider
how to structure the organization and the metrics
that they're using so that they can move forward
in a manner that lives up to the idea of innovation.
And so we do that for our partners.
And then we also hold ourselves to the same standards.
And in doing so, we have created our own venture studio
farm internally where we take those ideas, make them
actionable, and create new products
through the lens of innovation and longevity
so that we can help bring new things to life.
Where did that name Apollo 21 come from?
Everybody loves that question.
I was thinking about names for the company.
And I don't remember what it was,
but I was watching some movie or TV show or something
at the time that was space oriented.
And that got me thinking about the Apollo program
as the original sort of moonshot or the birth of the phrasing
around moonshot.
And so I liked the idea that what
started as man's attempt to reach the moon
suddenly became a catch-all term for people that
are taking big swings at things.
And so I borrowed a bit of that thinking
and then did some more research into the Apollo program
and discovered that Apollo 20 was the last Apollo mission
that was scheduled.
17 was actually the last one that launched.
But 21 would have been next.
And we opened our doors in 2021.
And so it created a nice alignment in my mind
between the ideals and goals of building new ventures
and what we're doing as a company
and helping to establish in people's minds
the idea of pursuing something big.
Danny, where did this mission or vision come from?
It's come out of kind of a conglomeration of my experience
throughout my career.
So I started my career in advertising.
Very quickly got frustrated with the way
that companies were utilizing advertising
to interrupt people's lives, to try and sell them things
that those people may or may not want.
And so I made a concerted effort to get out
of the world of advertising and found myself
as one of the earliest team members at an innovation
consultancy here in New York.
And so that was kind of my first exposure
to a company that was helping other companies think
differently about how to do things.
And I joined them right in kind of fall of 2007.
And so it was right around the time
when the first iPhone launched.
And it was right at a time where social media was becoming
what we know it as today.
So it was becoming more mainstream and a thing
that people checked every day.
And it opened the doors to new, interesting, unique ways
for companies to interact with their customers
and the people who were championing them
that previously didn't exist.
It used to be that if you had a problem with a company
or you wanted to rave about a company,
you wrote them a letter and hoped
that somebody cared enough to say thank you
for sending us a letter or somebody cared enough
to take care of whatever your problem was
or maybe you called them.
And around 2007, 2008, we saw this sudden change
in the availability and access of companies
to the average consumer.
And so we had new ways to interact
with the companies around us.
And those companies had new ways to create value
for their customers.
And so that line of thinking was integral to just about everything
that we did in my work at the Innovation Studio
and then ultimately led me to thinking more and more
about not only how large brands can interact with customers,
but how startups and how new brands can live and breathe
that mentality from day one.
And so after leaving that innovation consultancy,
I spent the next 12 years of my career bouncing
between starting companies and serving in senior level roles
at startups.
And so it kind of all came together there.
And then in my last startup job about four years ago,
I sort of found myself leading a SWAT team that
was dedicated to helping our other portfolio companies better
utilize technology for anything from operations
to customer engagement to sales to whatever.
And after about a year of doing that,
somebody kind of tapped me on the shoulder
from within our investors and my founding team
and basically said, hey, you should really
go think about doing this.
And so that led to the birth of Apollo 21.
Great story.
Danny, then what would you say is why do you still
do what you do?
Because solving problems is fun.
Plain and simple.
I like to solve problems.
I like technology and I like the combination of those things.
And I like helping companies think about, to put it bluntly,
how to do better.
And whether that's better operationally
or better for their customers or better for themselves,
I think there's a huge opportunity there
that a lot of companies don't pay attention to.
And so I enjoy that process of helping companies solve problems
and bring new things to life.
So tell me this.
What makes you stick to Apollo 21
and not something else to solve?
Apollo 21 has, I have constructed Apollo 21
to kind of serve all of those interests.
So the consulting side of our business
gives myself and my team the opportunity
to help other people solve problems.
The venture building arm of our business
gives us the opportunity to do that for ourselves
and to create new products and the companies that
support them.
And so it kind of scratches both itches for me.
And so with that in mind, I would rather work for myself
and build the team that I believe in
and create a culture and a company that I'm excited about
than going to do this for somebody else.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
I invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.