Horacio Rodriguez Rilo

Founder @ Boop 🤝 | Revolutionizing Marketing & Sales at Conferences & Events | Transforming Handshakes into Lasting Connections with SMS Business Cards & Forms

Your team had 47 conversations at the last conference. How many turned into meetings?

Most sales leaders I talk to say 5-10%. The rest go cold before anyone follows up.

Boop fixes that. We help your team book meetings while the conversation is still happening, before the prospect walks away. Works via SMS (no app, no WiFi). 

Qualifies buyers in 60 seconds. Routes hot leads straight to calendars. 90% completion vs. 12% for traditional badge scanners.

If you're exhibiting in the next 60 days, DM me "booth" and I'll show you the 2-minute demo.

Founder

Join Boop in Revolutionizing Networking for Sales, Business Development, and Marketing at Events & Conferences:

Instant Connect 📲🤝: Effortless and immediate networking.
Strategic Insights 📊🔍: Data-driven approaches for impactful relationships.
Meaningful Engagements 🤝💡: Deepen connections with relevant information.
Unlock Potential 🌐🎯: Identify and leverage crucial opportunities.
Sustainable Connections 🌿⚙️: Green, digital networking solutions.

Hosting the official AI Builders Meetup at SXSW with Matthew Smiley.

Come trade stories with founders, engineers, and product leaders building real AI products.

Compare notes on what's working, what's not, what's overhyped, tools you're using, scaling challenges.

If you’re training models, shipping products, or scaling teams, you belong here.

Mar 16 | 4:00pm – 5:00pm CT | JW Marriott – Room 303

Horacio Rilo

Last week at CES, I watched Stevie Wonder walk away from an exoskeleton booth because the rep didn't recognize him.

A mobility tech company let Stevie Wonder, potential user, potential ambassador, once-in-a-lifetime marketing moment, walk away unengaged.

That booth probably cost $100K. They spent $0 training the person working it.

Three days on the floor taught me most exhibitors are optimizing for the wrong thing:

❌ Booth aesthetics over conversation quality
❌ AI companies handing out paper business cards
❌ "AI" massage chairs that feel like every other massage chair
❌ Flashy demos that don't work in noisy environments
❌ Building-sized QR codes on the Strip that link nowhere useful
❌ Badge scanners instead of real-time qualification

The only booths that worked? Eureka Park startups where founders were on the floor, not booth temps reading scripts.

You're not paying $100K for impressions. You're paying for conversations.
If you can't convert the conversation into a routed next step before they walk away, you're just an expensive business card dispenser.

P.S. Wrote up more CES takeaways on my blog, link in comments.

Talked to a VP of Sales last week who said something that stuck with me:

"By the time I get the lead list from marketing, the event might as well have been a month ago."

His timeline:

- Event ends Friday
- Marketing exports leads Monday
- Data gets cleaned Tuesday
- CRM upload Wednesday
- SDRs start outreach Thursday

6 days. On leads from conversations that happened almost a week earlier.
He wasn't blaming marketing. He was just describing reality.

The handoff isn't broken because anyone's dropping the ball. It's broken because the process was never designed for speed.

Apps, sites, & software for startups and the big companies they strive to become.

👋 Hi there!  

I'm a serial entrepreneur and founder of SPARK6, a software and product innovation agency focused on helping companies implement AI-powered solutions that create effective organizations and products people love. 

After a decade of working in robotics, I’ve started and sold several companies in both CPG and software. 

I post daily on how AI can be a force-multiplier for leadership, business leverage, and personal productivity - for you, your team, and your customers. 

For actionable tips and insights into the latest AI developments, subscribe to my newsletter Framework Friday.  

We specialize in designing and building: 

→ Websites (CMS agnostic) 
→ Custom enterprise software 
→ Mobile apps (iOS and Android) 
→ E-Commerce platforms (Like Shopify) 
→ Workflow automations powered by LLMs 
→ AI strategy, training and change management  
→ Conversational AI experiences for customer service 
→ AI agents for internal and customer-facing workflows 
→ AI-powered telepresence and holographic experiences  

Our clients range from startups to global brands across industries like:  

→ Arts  
→ CPG 
→ Telcom
→ Fintech  
→ Fit-tech
→ Logistics  
→ For-cause
→ Education  
→ Healthcare
→ Personal care 

We've been doing this for 14 years, and over that time, we've built for Fortune 500s and scrappy startup teams alike.  The common thread? High-impact work delivered with strategic care and real technical precision. 

Sound like something you're exploring?  Send me a message. Just don’t open with a pitch-slap. And if you're a bot, I'm looking forward to that dad joke 😉 

Let’s build something amazing. 

- Elijah

Elijah Szasz

Most leaders think success shows up

when people line up behind them.

That’s visible.
That’s measurable.

And it’s incomplete.

Early leadership often feels like this:

Everyone checks with you.
Decisions funnel upward.
Momentum depends on your presence.

It looks like influence.
It feels like impact.

But it’s a fragile version of both.

The real test of leadership shows up
when you remove yourself from the center.

Not dramatically.
Not forever.

Just enough to see what holds.

Here’s what quietly reveals the truth:

→ Do decisions still move forward?
→ Do people act with judgment or hesitation?
→ Do problems get solved, or simply escalated?

If everything pauses,
you didn’t create alignment.

You created dependency.

Strong leadership reduces reliance over time.

Not by disappearing,
but by transferring clarity.

Not by withholding answers,
but by teaching how to think.

What that actually requires:

1. Clear standards over constant oversight  
→ People can’t act independently without knowing the bar.

2. Context before control  
→ Understanding the why outlives instructions.

3. Decision ownership, not approval chains  
→ Suggesting beats waiting.

4. Trust paired with consequences  
→ Freedom without responsibility isn’t leadership either.

5. Patience with the messy middle  
→ Independence always looks inefficient before it works.

The paradox most leaders miss:

The better you lead,
the less central you become.

And that’s not a threat to relevance.
It’s proof of impact.

If your presence is required for progress,
leadership hasn’t finished its job yet.

If progress continues without you,
it has.

♻️ Repost to help your network rethink leadership.
🔔 Follow Elijah Szasz for actionable insights on AI, systems, and strategy.

Founder | Follow to leverage AI in Products & Leadership

The thing that scared me most wasn't failing.

It was looking back a decade later and realizing I never tried.

You can recover from failure.
You can pivot. Rebuild. Start over.
But you can't recover from regret.

You can't get back the years you spent playing it safe.
The opportunity you didn't take.
The thing you wanted to build but talked yourself out of.
The risk you were too afraid to run.

Here's what I've learned:

Failure is temporary.
Regret is permanent.

Most people overestimate the cost of trying
and underestimate the cost of not trying.

They think the worst case is losing money or looking stupid.
But the actual worst case is dying with your music still in you.

Three things that changed my perspective:

1. No one remembers your failures as much as you think they will
2. The people who judge you for trying weren't going to help anyway
3. You'll regret the things you didn't do far more than the things you did

I'm not saying be reckless.
I'm saying stop letting fear dress itself up as wisdom.

Stop calling hesitation "being strategic."
Stop waiting for permission that's never coming.

The question isn't whether you'll fail.
The question is whether you'll let fear decide your life for you.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
🔔 Follow Elijah Szasz for actionable insights on AI, systems, and strategy.

I've seen brilliant strategies fail.

And I've seen mediocre plans succeed.

The difference was never the quality of the idea.
It was the consistency of execution.

You can have the perfect framework.
The best tools.
The clearest vision.

But if you don't show up and do the work, none of it matters.

Here's what I've learned:

Strategy is overrated.
Execution is underrated.

The people who win aren't the ones with the best plan.
They're the ones who stick to an average plan
longer than everyone else.

They show up on the hard days.
They keep going when it's boring.
They do the unsexy work that no one sees.

Three truths about execution:

1. Discipline beats motivation every single time
2. Consistency compounds in ways you can't predict
3. Done is better than perfect

Your plan is only as good as your follow-through.
Stop waiting for the perfect strategy.
Start executing the one you have.

Because the gap between where you are
and where you want to be isn't knowledge.

It's action.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
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Fear-based leadership gets quick results.

It also burns teams to the ground.

Short-term pressure can spike output.

But it quietly destroys trust.

When people feel unsafe, they default to:

→ protection over performance
→ compliance over creativity
→ short-term thinking over ownership

Common fear tactics to avoid:

❌ Hinting at replaceability
↳ “Plenty of people want this job.”

❌ Vague career threats
↳ “We should talk about where this is heading.”

❌ Fake urgency
↳ Everything is “urgent,” so nothing matters.

❌ Ambiguous standards
↳ Goals move, expectations don’t land.

❌ Turning reviews into weapons
↳ Feedback should develop, not intimidate.

What strong leaders do instead:

✅ Make appreciation visible
↳ Say what’s working, often.

✅ Invest beyond the role
↳ Skills, growth, long-term paths.

✅ Explain the why
↳ Context creates commitment.

✅ Hand over real ownership
↳ Trust beats control.

✅ Absorb pressure for the team
↳ Leadership is a shield, not a megaphone.

Fear buys effort.

Trust earns care.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
🔔 Follow Elijah Szasz for actionable insights on AI, systems, and strategy.

I spent years chasing the next milestone.

Thinking happiness was waiting at the finish line.

It wasn't.

Because I kept moving the finish line.

→ Hit a revenue goal? Time for a bigger one.
→ Launched a product? Time for the next one.
→ Had a win? Barely celebrated before chasing the next thing.

I was sprinting toward a destination that didn't exist.

Here's what no one tells you:

The things that actually make you happy aren't ahead of you.
They're already here.

But you're moving too fast to notice them.

→ The conversation with your kid that you half-listen to.
→ The sunset you don't see because you're answering emails.
→ The friend who wants to grab coffee but you're "too busy."

You're not too busy.

You're too distracted by what's next to appreciate what's now.

What changed for me:

I stopped treating rest like failure.
I started protecting my mornings instead of filling them.
I said no to things that looked like progress
but felt like pressure.

And something unexpected happened.

I didn't lose momentum.
I found clarity.

Success isn't about running faster.
It's about knowing when to stop running.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
🔔 Follow Elijah Szasz for actionable insights on AI, systems, and strategy.

I stayed too long in a place that was killing me slowly.

And I called it loyalty.

And if I'm being totally honest, 
It was also because I was comfortable.

And comfort is dangerous.

Because when you stop growing, you don't just plateau.

→ You start declining.
→ Your skills get stale.
→ Your network shrinks.
→ Your ambition fades.

You convince yourself you're being patient.
But really, you're just afraid.

Here's what I wish I understood earlier:

Outgrowing something isn't failure.
It's progress.

→ The job that used to challenge you now feels easy.
→ The circle that used to inspire you now feels small.
→ The goals that used to excite you now feel hollow.

Most people call these problems.
I call them signals.

Three signs you've outgrown your environment:

1. You're the smartest person in every room you're in
2. You can do your job on autopilot and no one notices
3. You feel guilty for wanting more

Stop ignoring those signs.

Your potential doesn't care about your comfort.
It doesn't care that you have tenure or that people depend on you.
It only cares whether you're still growing.

And if you're not, you're dying a slow death.

The scariest part isn't leaving.
It's realizing you stayed too long.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
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Leadership doesn’t start with authority.

It starts with trust.

People do their best work when they feel safe.

Safe to ask dumb questions.
Safe to admit mistakes.
Safe to unplug without consequences.

If time off feels risky,
your culture is already leaking.

What strong leaders actively do:

→ Model rest publicly
↳ Take real time off and say so.
↳ Show that recovery isn’t weakness.

→ Reward sustainable effort
↳ Praise good judgment, not burnout.
↳ Stop celebrating exhaustion as commitment.

→ Give autonomy, not surveillance
↳ Judge outcomes, not hours.
↳ Let people work in ways that fit their lives.

→ Design clean handoffs
↳ Plan coverage before people leave.
↳ Don’t punish them with chaos when they return.

→ Use 1:1s as pressure valves
↳ Ask about load, not just output.
↳ Make it safe to say, “This is too much.”

What quietly erodes trust:

→ Applauding sickness
↳ “Thanks for pushing through” teaches fear.

→ Ignoring early signals
↳ Workload feedback is a warning, not whining.

→ Guilt disguised as dedication
↳ If time off needs justification, it’s not real.

→ Goals that require heroics
↳ Chronic overwork is a systems failure.

→ Expecting constant availability
↳ Always on eventually means burned out.

Titles don’t make people feel safe.
Leaders do.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
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I used to think the goal was to make more money.

Then I realized the goal was to buy back my time.

Because what's the point of success
if you're still trapped in someone else's schedule?

→ You didn't build a business to trade one boss for a hundred clients.
→ You didn't start a company to work nights and weekends forever.
→ You didn't chase freedom just to end up more busy than before.

Here's what I wish someone told me earlier:

Autonomy isn't the reward for success.
It's the definition of success.

→ To take a Tuesday off because you feel like it.
→ The ability to say no without explanation.
→ To protect your mornings.

To build your day around your energy, not your inbox.

That's not a luxury.
That's the entire reason you're doing this.

Most people spend their whole lives working toward freedom.
Then feel guilty the moment they actually take it.

→ They fill every open hour.
→ They apologize for boundaries.
→ They treat rest like it needs to be earned.

Stop doing that.

Owning your time isn't something to apologize for.
It's something to architect intentionally.

If you're building something and you still don't control
your calendar, you're not building the right thing.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
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Luxury isn't what you buy.

It's what you protect.

Somewhere along the way,
luxury got loud.

It became visible.
Performative.
Easy to photograph.

But real luxury is quieter than that.

Here’s what it actually looks like:

Time.
Health.
A quiet mind.
Slow mornings.
Freedom to leave.
Rest without guilt.
Sleep that actually works.
Calm days, boring on purpose.
People who love you back for real.
Meals cooked to be shared together.
Conversations with those who are present.
People you love who love you unconditionally.

None of these show up in a highlight reel.
None of them signal status to strangers.

They require something harder:
intention.

You don’t stumble into a quiet mind.
You design for it.

You don’t earn rest by suffering first.
You decide it matters.

You don’t get calm days by accident.
You remove what creates chaos.

The people who understand this
aren’t chasing more.

They’re protecting less.
Less noise.
Less urgency.
Less unnecessary obligation.

Busy is easy to prove.
Peace is harder to defend.

But peace compounds.

And that’s the kind of wealth
that doesn’t disappear overnight.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
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You’re not overwhelmed.
 
You’re under-systemized.
 
Most people blame discipline.
The real issue is missing leverage.
 
Here are the AI systems you’re probably not using:
 
1. The AI Systems You’re Not Using
↳ Reduce friction
↳ Increase leverage
 
2. Cognitive Load
❌ Hold everything in your head
✅ Externalize thinking with AI
↳ Notes, summaries, memory
 
3. Task Flow
❌ Repeat the same work manually
✅ Automate recurring tasks once
↳ Let the system handle repetition
 
4. Decision Speed
❌ Overthink small choices
✅ Use AI for fast first drafts
↳ Decide faster, refine later
 
5. Information Intake
❌ Consume everything in real time
✅ Let AI filter and summarize
↳ Focus only on what matters
 
6. Execution Loop
❌ Plan endlessly, delay action
✅ Short cycles: idea to test
↳ Adjust based on feedback
 
7. Personal System
❌ Scattered tools, scattered focus
✅ One trusted system of record
↳ AI keeps it clean and current
 
8. Discipline Design
❌ Rely on motivation and willpower
✅ Systems plus AI enforce habits
↳ Consistency without friction
 
♻️ Repost to help your network.
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I didn't believe in myself until someone else did first.

That's the truth no one talks about.

We act like confidence is something you manufacture alone.
Like you just wake up one day and decide to believe in yourself.

But that's not how it works: 

Someone saw something in you before you saw it in yourself.

→ A mentor who took a chance on you at saome point.
→ A stranger who believed in your idea when no one else did.
→ A friend who said "you should do this" when you were afraid.

That belief gave you permission to try.
And trying gave you proof.
And proof gave you confidence.

Here's what I've learned:

Confidence doesn't come from within.
It comes from someone else lending you theirs first.

And once you have it, you have a responsibility.
To give it to someone else who doesn't have it yet.

Three ways to pay it forward:

1. Tell someone what you see in them that they can't see yet
2. Introduce people to opportunities they'd never ask for
3. Believe out loud in someone who's doubting themselves

Most people wait until they "make it" to help others.

But the best time to lift someone up is right after
someone lifted you.

Because you remember what it felt like to need it.

You are who you are because someone believed in you first.

Don't forget that.
And don't keep it to yourself.

♻️ Repost to help your network.
🔔 Follow Elijah Szasz for actionable insights on AI, systems, and strategy.

taplio

The Battle

Horacio Rodriguez Rilo

Elijah Szasz

Followers

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Performance ScoreHoracio Rodriguez Rilo's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreElijah Szasz's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Horacio Rodriguez Rilo

Elijah Szasz

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Horacio Rodriguez Rilo's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreHoracio Rodriguez Rilo's LinkedIn Performance