Drew and Jason Hugo, owner of Quick Response Fire Supply, sit down to chat about the next wave of innovation in the distribution of fire protection equipment.
Online stores and E-Commerce have been significant innovations for other industries but why not in fire protection? QRFS is one of the leaders in this space allowing anyone to purchase material for a fire protection project. Facility managers and building owners are key customers of QRFS, but the fire protection contractor can quickly order material as well.
Full Transcript
Drew Slocum: (00:09):
This is episode 9 of the Fire Protection Podcast, powered by Inspect Point. Today my guest is Jason Hugo. Jason's the owner of Quick Response Fire Supply. Quick Response Fire Supply is a, an online e-commerce supplier of fire protection products, sprinklers, fire alarm extinguishers. We get into a, uh, a great discussion about his business, where he saw needs in the market for, um, a supplier such as themselves. Uh, we get talking about big data, how they do things, uh, with digital marketing and a lot of kind of what, what's coming in the future of fire protection. So, very interesting, li listen, uh, regarding quick Response, fire supply and what they're doing. So I hope you enjoy the podcast and make sure to subscribe.
(01:01)
I want to give everyone a quick update on what we are up to at Inspect Point. We don't talk too much in detail, uh, on the podcast about what we're doing, but, uh, since I have this platform, might as well Inspect Point. Essentially what it is, it's a software platform for your inspection, testing, and maintenance business for the fire protection world. Um, life safety as well. Great for a fire protection contractor doing inspections and service as well as a facility manager managing all the different systems, um, and your buildings or your facilities. So we have a lot of great tools out there for, uh, that refer back to some of the fire protection codes out there. Um, there's two parts to the product. There's a back office portal piece, which then translates to an iPad, a very user friendly love for, uh, anybody to that is interested in a demo to please reach out, drew@inspectpoint.com or sales@inspectpoint.com.
(02:03)
We could quickly set one up. Lately, the last few months, uh, my team, uh, in upstate New York has been working very hard on a bunch of new, uh, modules and releases. Uh, one for proposals. So proposals, uh, is a module that will sync right with our, um, deficiency management platform. So after you conduct a an inspection, all the deficiencies will be logged, uh, accordingly, uh, for each system and what time. And those can be translated into a proposal, which can then be easily sent to your customer. Uh, those proposals, you'll be able to manage all those proposals from, from our, from our platform. You'll even be able to see when your customer, uh, opens and views the email or the proposal, and then finally, your customers can accept the proposal and send it back to you so you could quickly, uh, get a service ticket out or send an invoice.
(03:00)
Speaking of service, uh, this summer, we've got a huge module release. We will have a service module and platform out to handle all of the work orders, the service tickets that will integrate right with our inspection platform, so it'll be an all-in-one, uh, platform for an inspection and service company. So, I know little long-winded, but, uh, enjoy the podcast and hope to talk to you soon. So thanks Jason for joining me here. Um, everybody, this is Jason Hugo, he's the owner, owner, operator, founder. Not sure what to call you, Jason, of, uh, quick Response Fire Supply, as well as, uh, couple other companies too. So, uh, yeah, welcome to the podcast, Jason.
Jason Hugo: (03:46):
Thanks, drew. Thanks for having me. I'm pretty excited to be here today.
Drew Slocum: (03:50):
So I, I don't know if a lot of companies know who Quick Response Fire Supply is. Um, I'm, I wanted to have you on because you're, you're kind of a disruptor in the industry, which, uh, we tried to take pride in over here at Inspect Point a little bit. But, uh, I met you out at a, a conference at nfs a last year and, and really liked what you were doing. So wanted to, uh, talk to you, get your, get your take on the industry. So you wanna give me a quick rundown of who you are, where you came from, and why, why the heck are you in fire protection?
Jason Hugo: (04:28):
Sure, I'd love to. So, quick response, fire Supply actually started back in June, 2010 when we realized that certain end users in the industry think about your institutional buyers, your facility managers, small to medium businesses, mom and pop shops. These folks sometimes have a hard time getting their hands on some of the easier components of a sprinkler system or any type of fire suppression system when they're trying to maintain it. Right? So, just to be clear, we're not talking about replacing pumps or, you know, big valves, or in fact, we're not talking about replacing any part of an existing system that would require the system to go offline, right? But we are talking about, you know, the accessories to the system, the system components that are a little bit easier to get your hands on, and sometimes the end users struggle actually getting that material. Interesting. And that was really our mission when we started this company.
Drew Slocum: (05:27):
Yeah. Where did, where did you, uh, where did you find that out? Were you just talking to different facility managers or where'd you have this idea? Where did, where'd it spark from?
Jason Hugo: (05:39):
Sure. So back in the day, uh, pre June, 2010, I actually worked for one of the major manufacturers, globe Fire Sprinkler. Oh,
Drew Slocum: (05:47):
You did? I didn't that,
Jason Hugo: (05:49):
Yeah. And in that process, I actually, um, ran or assisted running, um, their distribution arm that they had at the time that was called F S W, that as that experience or in that experience, what I was responsible for was kinda inside sales and inventory management in that kind of arena. And we would receive phone calls kind of regularly that we just weren't able to help because oftentimes they were credit card sales, right? Oftentimes they were too small really for, for who we were serving. And at the time, we really were focused on, as most of the industry is the contractors, right? So when that, when I would get those calls and, you know, I wouldn't be able to help them out. Another reason for that oftentimes was they'd be asking for a replacement part that perhaps Globe didn't actually, you know, manufacture. Cause maybe it was an alternative. Um, they, you know, I'd have to turn 'em away, and it just was happening frequently enough that it really sparked the idea that there was an opportunity here.
Drew Slocum: (06:53):
Yeah. Yeah. It's funny you bring that up, um, with turning away. So I, I, I worked for, for Viking Supply Net, um, prior to Inspect Point here, and I ran a, uh, or helped run a, um, uh, a location right in Mill of Queens in New York City. So there's constant traffic. There was constantly facility managers coming in, or just regular, regular Joe's coming in, trying to buy onesie twosie product. And it was so funny. It, it was so tough to convince Viking Vikings a great company, uh, convi try to convince them that, Hey, we need to have a cash, we have to have credit card for these small, like, you know, minor orders because they do, they do add up. And I honestly, for Viking, there's it's great margin because it's onesie twos items. So, um, you're, you're feeling a nice niche there, I think.
Jason Hugo: (07:51):
Yeah, and I'd like to expand upon that just a little bit too, you know, over time, and we've been doing this now coming up on 10 years, and over time, what we realized is that the end user, one of their challenges isn't always exclusively getting their hands on the material. It's oftentimes understanding what that material even does. Why do I need this thing and why do I need to replace it? Right? We get calls regularly, and I'm talking daily from customers who, whose experience goes something like this. The local A H J or fire department comes in and they look at their building and they see that, you know, you're missing a couple cover plates here, maybe a few discussions there, maybe some break caps out on the f c, those kinds of material. And they say, look, you need to get this replaced and you have a month to do it. And oh, by the way, that's all I'm gonna tell you,
Drew Slocum: (08:47):
Jason Hugo: (08:49):
Right. And so they'll call us and they'll say, you know, my fire department, you know, great fire department, but they just didn't have time to really sit there and tell me exactly what I needed. Can you guys help us? Right. And so we've really built up our business around really helping those folks get the right material, make sure that they're not making kind of amateur mistakes. Like, you know, ordering a Viking cover for a Tyco sprinkler. Right. Um, you know, mistakes like that, we really help them understand what that, um, space looks like, so that way they save themselves time and money when they're ordering this material.
Drew Slocum: (09:23):
Yeah, it makes sense. You know, um, our platform really, really gives a great overview of all the deficiencies in a fire protection system. Now you've got 10 deficiencies, you know, many times they're, they're minor deficiencies, signs, uh, caps, cover plates, certain items where yes, the contractor can give a a nice quote to come back and fix that, but a lot of time it's not worth that contractor's time, or it may be worth it, but they're gonna jack up their rate so much to send a guy back out to make that fix. So why not, you know, have the facility manager drew it on their own and not only cut down the cost, but cut down the time that deficiency is, is open, you know?
Jason Hugo: (10:11):
Right. And I think that ladder point is the, is kinda the more important one. What our mission here is to make sure that your fire sprinkler is both up to code, but more importantly, functioning Right. Functioning properly. You know, that's what we wanna see when we speak with our customers, is that their systems working properly. So the longer that they have a component missing, the longer that they potentially could have a problem. I mean, I was talking with the customer earlier today about cover plates and um, uh, oversized cutout holes in their ceiling and what the risk is there of the fire actually getting behind the drop ceiling and how important it is to get your covers back in place. Right. That's exactly what we're there trying to solve.
Drew Slocum: (10:54):
Yeah. Yeah. No, that, that, that is, that is a nice little niche. And it's, it's funny that
Jason Hugo: (11:31):
Thank you. Really appreciate that.
Drew Slocum: (11:33):
What, uh, why, um, I guess you were involved in fire protection before and then you got this launched. Are you, I see on your LinkedIn you've, you've got like two other side hustles going on. What, what, what's all that about?
Jason Hugo: (11:51):
Yeah, so as a, you know, as a serial entrepreneur, I've started many companies over the years, but really what has evolved over the last four or five years is a thorough understanding of the relationship between e-commerce sales, clearly something important to Q R F F mm-hmm.
Drew Slocum: (12:24):
Right?
Jason Hugo: (12:25):
So, about four years ago now, I started another company called the Athena Data Company, and in there we take on clients that are usually in e-commerce, um, some others, we do have other clients, but mostly in e-commerce. And we really help them understand their data so that way they can drive the type of outcomes on their websites that they're looking to achieve.
Drew Slocum: (12:48):
Gotcha. Interesting.
Jason Hugo: (12:51):
So, yeah, so, so really a big impetus to that was a lesson that we learned on Q R F S, and that was that, you know, these folks call us, I'd mentioned before about, you know, I have this problem and I need to get it solved, they call us. And what we realized over time, lots of, lots of these phone calls, was that the questions, you know, there's a finite number of questions. There is, you know, questions around the sprinkler system, questions around extinguishers, et cetera. But at the end of the day, for every 10 phone calls I receive, I bet you I've answered the same questions, seven of those phone calls.
Drew Slocum: (13:27):
Oh, okay.
Jason Hugo: (13:28):
So what we started to do back in actually a first prototype was 2013, but 2016 is where we really started into it, is we started developing how to guides and other useful information content in the lingo of the industry Yep. Where we, uh, answer those questions proactively and make it expose those answers to Google, so that way customers don't necessarily have to call us to get the answer that they're looking for. Sure. We, now, I'm proud to say we just broke our 200th article a couple days ago. Wow. I think we're on 204 as of today. Quote me on that. Exactly. But, um, and we are continuously kind of developing this space around, so we make sure that we are giving the best information possible out to these consumers. Yeah. Understanding how those articles function within the search engines and understanding how to pull the levers to get better traffic to those articles is really this symbiotic relationship between Athena and Q R F S.
Drew Slocum: (14:34):
No, no, I, I, I definitely see what you're doing there. I don't think, um, a lot of the fire protection world, uh, get, you know, a lot, some people are starting to get it, but the power of SEO and some of the, uh, digital marketing, um, you know, the number one, uh, listen podcast so far for the Fire Protective podcast is, is the, the one, the second one John Mackey talking about that specifically some of the digital marketing and getting, you know, getting blogs out there, getting articles out there to just drive more trafficked to your company. So obviously you figured it out, um, you know, with your, with Athena and whatever. So you're just putting that to work rate rate in Q R F S, which is great.
Jason Hugo: (15:20):
Yeah, absolutely. We're, um, we like to think of it as we'll do, we'll take the, the heavy lifting of understanding N F P A code, um, and understanding that relationship between the code and the building owner's responsibility. Right. And we help kind of disseminate that down in a way that's easily digestible for, you know, for the average consumer.
Drew Slocum: (15:43):
So how do you have a, uh, obviously you do a lot of blogging and articles, but is do you have a te a technical team that, that understands the code when, when somebody calls in or emails?
Jason Hugo: (15:56):
Um, yeah, so we've actually been training that up internally over the last year and a half mm-hmm.
Drew Slocum: (16:49):
Yeah. It's, it's, it's great to, to see somebody out there doing that, cuz I, you know, I work for two large manufacturers and, you know, a lot of times if a call came in about a another manufacturer, they, they, they wouldn't be able to answer it essentially. So at Tyco, they, if somebody called with a reliable drive out question, um, even though it was prob it could be easy, I don't think they, you know, liability wise and all that, they didn't wanna take responsibility of that. So I think that's something where, um, what you guys are doing is, is, uh, a nice service to the industry and obviously pushing more people to your, uh, to your site as well.
Jason Hugo: (17:32):
Yeah. And you know, I, I like to be clear with everybody that I talk to about this, we do not replace your a hj mm-hmm.
Drew Slocum: (17:50):
Right. Right.
Jason Hugo: (17:52):
So it, it's really important just to caveat that because, you know, we get a lot of questions that sometimes get outside of our scope and we are not afraid ever to say, look, here's what we understand of the problem, but we highly recommend, in fact we almost mandate you to go back and talk to your authority having jurisdiction before we'll continue this conversation because at the end of the day, they're the ultimate authority, not us.
Drew Slocum: (18:18):
Yep. No, you're totally correct. That that is true. I'm glad you, I'm glad you put that out there cuz the hj, whether it's the fire marshal insurance agency owner, um, you know, they, they are the HJ at the, at the end of the day last decision maker. So, correct.
Jason Hugo: (18:35):
Um, and we'll talk about, we'll talk in our articles about certain areas of the code or certain par components of a sprinkler system where we'll lead off with a, with, uh, with a caption that just says, look, this is how we understand the code. This is what our experts have helped us understand about the code. But at the end of the day, the, the impetus or the onus is on yourself to go to your local authority having jurisdiction and make sure you're doing it
Drew Slocum: (19:00):
Right. Sure, sure, sure. No, it's, uh, that, that is a big, uh, point to make. So, now I know you kept mentioning facility managers, um, now can, do you have a, I saw it on your website, you have a contractor portal as well. Is that obviously you would sell to anybody, um, for that material. Is is, do you get a lot of contractors coming to you guys? Is that like a growing area? Cuz I know the tradition, you know, you're either gonna go to the manufacturer of the local Ferguson or HD Supply, but, um, are you getting some of that contractor traction lately or is it still growing?
Jason Hugo: (19:42):
Yeah, I mean, it, it's still our bread and butter is helping out that end user, but over the last few years we really have seen an uptick in kind of smaller contractors, maybe new players in the space or are Yeah. Folks that are smaller, um, coming to us that, you know, wanna do a credit card transaction and are, you know, have smaller needs than, than your large local contractors. Um, another area where we have really expanded over the last few years has been into inspection, testing, and monitoring. I know a sweet spot for yourself mm-hmm.
Drew Slocum: (20:28):
Oh, yep. Hose monster or sorry, test monsters or what, whatever brand you carry
Jason Hugo: (20:36):
Correct. Yep. Exactly. And, and you know, they, they in general all serve the similar function. Sure. Um, but it's really been an area where, you know, we're not, we're serving a portion of that market that's just a little outside of, a little outside of the traditional sprinkler contractor who's gonna go out and focus a lot of their attention on new installs. Yeah. Um, we're helping out the guys that are trying to maintain, I mean, kind of our whole entire core business has been around how do I maintain a system and we try to put the tools in place for those folks to be able to access the right equipment.
Drew Slocum: (21:11):
Yeah. No, no. That's the, that's the growth sector and fire protection is inspection, maintenance and, and service of these systems because I think it's, uh, obviously over the years it's, it's been good, but it's only getting better and, uh, regulated more, which is great. So, um, speaking of that, uh, we met at the I TM N F S A had the I TM summit down in, um, were you, you were at the one in Chicago, you were the one in Florida,
Jason Hugo: (21:40):
Correct? I was at the one in Florida,
Drew Slocum: (21:41):
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So I know we connected there. Um, and they're talk, you know, there was great talks about there. I know you put a blog out about that summit, which is great. Kind of a summation of what, what the industry's trying to do, um, with, I guess quote unquote big data, uh, of these fire protection systems. Uh, I know you're, you mentioned you're heading to N F P A next week, uh, we'll be there as well. I should probably have the booth number of what, of where we're gonna be, but we're, we're on the floor. Uh, big data's a big discussion topic, uh, at this conference. So, so I'm really interested to see, you know, what's being discussed and the movement and how fast, uh, the industry's gonna move there with the big data.
Jason Hugo: (22:31):
Yeah, it's really an interesting area. It's, uh, it's definitely income or encompasses some buzzwords around big data and other things. Um, it's really interesting to me to see sort of the lack of connection between players in the industry. So, and, and oftentimes will speak with people who, you know, I did my inspection, that inspection went to my local A H J, but I didn't necessarily know that my other building had an inspection and maybe had the same problems. Right. So it's really that that connection between the, the, the great work that contractors are doing in helping maintain these systems, but across either different contractors or across, um, different jurisdictions where you might actually have the same building owner. So it's just, it's really interesting to see where this is gonna go over the next few years.
Drew Slocum: (23:20):
Yeah. It's almost across system-wide. So, all right. If, if these dry systems are still having these issues, how do you know that unless you compile the data together and actually pinpoint, or at least focus in on, you know, potential solutions for that? So I, I know, you know, we, we at inspect point have been reached out to regarding some of the, some of the data there. And N F P A has some, some nice grant work that they're, they are proposing, which is, is pretty cool. It's just, uh, how fast and efficient it's gonna work, you know, is always the question.
Jason Hugo: (24:00):
Yeah. And, and it's kind of, you know, many industries, not, not many industries are like the fire protection industry. No. So let's be clear on that. Um, but many industries have went through a similar transition where, you know, let's call it, let's just pick a number. 10 years ago everything was done, paper and pen, pencil and, and you know, reports had to be collated and you had to go and figure out, find the filing cabinet with the right bit of information. And now that those industries have shifted online, um, it's really interesting to see the fire protection industry doing the same thing and really starting to move in that direction where it's going to eventually be a digital first industry. Yeah. It's just gonna take some time to get there. Right. Yeah. I'm sure you can speak to that way better than I Oh yeah.
Drew Slocum: (24:48):
Number one competitor is still pen and paper, which is, or Excel or PDF or whatever, which is, it's, it's kind of crazy. Um, I know there's a lot of resistance to change in any industry, but it seems very resistant here.
Jason Hugo: (25:07):
Yeah, absolutely. Um, absolutely. So speaking of dry, I just wanna wanna, um, touch on that for two seconds. We have over the winter this year got a lot of inquiries for Drys, um, people who had various problems with them. Um, but setting that aside, we actually just put it out, I think we're on addition nine, I think, of our dry series, which is an article series that we've developed that basically goes from what is a dry system, well, how does it work, how does it function through to, how do you maintain it? Um, who's responsible for what, what do the, uh, valves do, I mean, et cetera, about every detail we can pull out of anything. Um, and we just, we think we're on, uh, the ninth, uh, part in that series. So if any of your listeners are curious to learn more about drives, if they're not already extremely versed in it, um, pop over to qfs.com/blog and check out that series.
Drew Slocum: (26:08):
Yeah, it's like, I, I'm on, I just clicked on there, I was on there earlier. I I just thought it was a bunch of blogs, but you actually categorized them, uh, pretty well so you can kind of jump in and out, you know, whatever, whatever suits your interest or whatever problem you're having that day.
Jason Hugo: (26:25):
Right. And Drys has been one that we actually took one of our, one of our best writers, and we said, look, this is a topic that, it's a huge topic, it's not a small topic, so let's give it, its proper due. And, and I think there's a couple more, a couple more, uh, additions in the series yet to come, but it's definitely one of our, uh, one of our longer running series that I think gives a lot of detail on that type of system.
Drew Slocum: (26:51):
No, no, that's big. I, I, I do like that cuz then, um, if you do have, no, this is a great reference cuz you actually, I actually didn't click on this dry one of these dry, uh, uh, blogs, but you, you referenced the code very well. You have videos embedded in there. It's, it's great. So if a, you know, a contractor is out there and needs some explanation to a facility manager or building owner, you've kind of got it all dialed in here. That's good. Yeah, we
Jason Hugo: (27:20):
Tried, tried to keep it all, all together and yeah. The code references that you are seeing in there, that's kind of our standard mo Nice. Um, we, we take that code and we really, like I said at the beginning, we're just trying to take the onus off the end user to dive into those N F P A books because as much as we all enjoy reading N F P A books, they're sometimes not the easiest thing for just a general end user to wrap their head around. Yeah. So this is a way for us to really help explain it, but also grounded in something that isn't conjecture, it's grounded in the same exact code that everybody else is gonna be
Drew Slocum: (27:56):
Looking at. And it's constantly changing and Yeah. Every jurisdiction's a little bit different.
Jason Hugo: (28:02):
Drew Slocum: (28:15):
Huh. So I I I almost think you have something with your data and how many people are, uh, heading to the site to to, to hit those clicks. So it'd be interesting to see where they're, where they're coming from. You know, I don't know if you're grabbing all that, but it'd be, it'd be pretty interesting. I think
Jason Hugo: (28:36):
We've actually developed on the Athena side our own internal pixel or tracking code that allows us to grab all of the interactions that happen on, on Q R F S and other clients that are working with our tool. Yes. Um, so we can, we can do exactly what you're talking about there. And we've also done some pretty heavy analysis into what type of customer is ultimately interacting with what type of article. Mm-hmm.
(29:30)
Yeah. Uh, with, with the dry systems and, and a lot of them, if you scroll through those articles, there's a lot of articles in there that are code interpretation articles, and then our last bucket, something that we kind of call human interest stories or otherwise just industry exposes what's happening in the industry. And I think the simplest example is the one you already brought up, which was the N F S A conference. Yeah. But what we've found to be really interesting, because we are, we are data people and kind of nerds and when it comes to that regard is the problem solving articles those geared towards exactly the user base that we'd expect. Those are generally when we tie that up against sales data, we see not really fire contractors that are reading that information. Right. Ah, which makes sense.
Drew Slocum: (30:17):
Yeah,
Jason Hugo: (30:17):
It makes sense. Which makes sense. Yeah. Yep. But when we look at the code interpretation articles, we actually see a big uptick in what I would call fire professionals Right. Who are interacting with that content.
Drew Slocum: (30:30):
Right. Huh. That's very interesting. Yeah, I, that's, uh, so you are, you are grabbing that down to the, to the detail. So, uh, that'd be interesting. Gotcha. You know, look at it over a couple year period once Yeah. I'm sure you already have it, but, um, yeah, I'd love to chat more offline about you with, with some of that. So
Jason Hugo: (30:53):
Yeah, absolutely. Wayne,
Drew Slocum: (30:53):
This has been great. So I'll, um, I'll probably be releasing this podcast after N F P A, but, um, I guess I will see near there next week, so that should be fun.
Jason Hugo: (31:06):
Absolutely. See what's going on. I look forward to it. I I actually haven't made it to NFPAs conference before, so, ah, it's,
Drew Slocum: (31:12):
It's, it's great. There's, uh, it's kind of everybody coming together in the fire protection community, um, all in one, and then you have all the code committees that sit down as well. So it's a pretty cool event.
Jason Hugo: (31:25):
I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm very much, you know, I've got all my business cards printed, I'm gonna see if I can get rid of them all.
Drew Slocum: (31:32):
Jason Hugo: (32:04):
Uh, let's let it rip.
Drew Slocum: (32:06):
Uh, so I, I, I actually asked this in, uh, I started asking this in a bunch of interviews, uh, for people that I did, I, I forgot where I learned it down the line, but, um, what did you eat for breakfast today?
Jason Hugo: (32:20):
Today I had a Cliff bar
Drew Slocum: (32:26):
That means you're a, a, you know, uh,
Jason Hugo: (32:38):
Drew Slocum: (32:45):
Yeah, right, right. That's funny. Um, so on, on topic a little. So I, I saw that you had a blog. Um, it it, it was pretty funny. It, it, it's a great blog. I I I'd never seen it before. It's on, uh, accidental sprinkler head discharge. Um, I forgot what the name of the, the, the blog was. You can, you can even bring up the number if you want. But out of all those videos that you went through, what's your favorite
Jason Hugo: (33:15):
Oh, with hands down it's the bowling alley.
Drew Slocum: (33:18):
The bowling
Jason Hugo: (33:18):
Hands down. It's the bowling alley
Drew Slocum: (33:20):
With the girl that throws it up.
Jason Hugo: (33:22):
Yeah. So, so a little background on that for you. Um, we carry a new product now that's a heavy duty industrial head guard. It's a temporary head guard designed for you to put around the sprinkler when you are say, working in a facility or, you know, you're gonna be moving some heavy equipment around and you don't wanna have an accidental discharge. Sure. Um, so pretty, you know, product makes sense. It all explains itself. But we wanted to come up with a clever way to expose that product to the industry. And we were really struggling with, you know, what are some good examples of accidental discharge
(34:40)
A really bad
Drew Slocum: (34:41):
It did its job. I didn't, I didn't see the, uh, I don't know if you've seen this one. My favorite is the, uh, the, the Spanish, or I don't know if it's Spanish or Mexican restaurant, where they come over the table and they're, I think they're flambe or it's an open flame at the table that they're cooking something and everybody's all excited
Jason Hugo: (35:21):
Yeah. We call that our, uh, our fire Sprinkler Hall of Shame. Right.
Drew Slocum: (35:25):
Oh, that's what it's called, the Hall of Shame. Right. Right.
Jason Hugo: (35:28):
Yep. It for your, for your listeners. It's article number 2 0 1.
Drew Slocum: (35:32):
Nice. All right. Check that out. Um, couple more here. I know, uh, a little research on you. You, you went to school in the Grand Rapids area, um, grand Valley State looks like you got a couple degrees from there. What Grand Rapids is supposedly, you know, I was there for Viking a lot is the, uh, craft beer, I don't know, city of the US or something. Do you have a favorite brewery or favorite place in Grand Rapids that you always went to?
Jason Hugo: (36:02):
Ooh, that's a great question. Um, from a brewery perspective, there's founders That's a really good brewery. Um, I actually am a big fan, and this isn't as, isn't as niche as it used to be, but Bell's down in Kalamazoo. Yeah. Um, one time met the owner of Bell's and asked him why he didn't keep Oberon one of their more Yeah. Popular summer brews, why he didn't keep it out all year. And he said, I do down in south southern Florida where my mother lives cause that's the only beer she'll drink.
Drew Slocum: (36:32):
Ah, that's funny.
Jason Hugo: (36:40):
Right. You can only get it in the summer unless you're down in, so in, I think the south basically Miami area.
Drew Slocum: (36:46):
Wow. Wow. Um, all right, last one here, and then we'll, uh, we'll, we'll get going, but, uh, I know big data, data is, is a pretty boring topic to most people. Um, you know, my, my my degree outta college is actually in it and did did some of that within Tyco, but what gets you charged up about data
Jason Hugo: (37:16):
Yeah. And, and it really does get me excited because what I like to know is why, I want to know why. And that question spans more industries and more, you know, problems than we could spend hours talking about. But really it comes down to can I figure out why something is happening? And I, you know, using the example we were talking about earlier with the articles, you know, why was I seeing such an uptick in my code articles, but not necessarily seeing the corresponding uptick in direct sales off of those articles. Right. Well, our conclusion was that that's actually helping the industry, but those folks aren't necessarily the same customers that we serve on a daily basis. So it's really helping us understand what is going on both in Q R F S as a business also in our other clients on the Athena side, but really helping us understand what's happening there and why. And that gets me, that gets me out of bed in the morning,
Drew Slocum: (38:13):
Jason Hugo: (38:14):
Well, other than the espresso.
Drew Slocum: (38:16):
That's fair. No, that's a good answer. I, I, I definitely love, I like that. Um, so again, thanks, thanks for coming on. Um, we'll, we'll be definitely chatting here soon. Uh, I wanna give you the opportunity and give your contact info out there website, whatever, any message you wanna get to the industry. And we will, we'll
Jason Hugo: (38:36):
Cut it. Yeah, absolutely. So, so my name is Jason Hugo. Uh, the company is Quick Response Fire Supply. You can see us online anytime@qfs.com. And really what I'd like to tell the industry is, you know, our mission here is to help that end user, maintain their sprinkler system in such a way that they're safe. So at the end of the day, we're, we're all working towards the same objective and making sure that fire is not, you know, a life-threatening issue for the vast majority of folks.
Drew Slocum: (39:07):
Nice. That's great. Well, thanks Jason. And, uh, we'll see you next week at N F P A and we'll, uh, yeah, take a exciting in industry out there to, in the future of it. So.
Jason Hugo: (39:20):
Perfect. Thanks Drew. Thanks so much for having me on.
Drew Slocum: (39:22):
Thanks, Jason. This has been episode eight of the Fire Protection Podcast, powered by Inspect point. I want. Again, thank Jason Hugo, my guest from Q R F S, quick Response Fire Supply. It was a great chat on data, big data, what they're doing in the industry to kind of shake up the, uh, supplier world. Um, again, thanks for all the listenership and, uh, be sure to subscribe and, uh, hit us up on all our social media channels at Inspect Point. Talk to you soon.