Sean K.

Niagra

Quiet mode software startup designed to solve system and process gaps, create operational efficiencies, drive consumer engagement, and democratize data.

Chief Possibility Officer

Brev.dev

Brev is a tool to find, provision, and configure AI ready cloud instances for dev, training, and deployment. Automatically install CUDA, python, load the model, and SSH in.

Strategic Advisor

Blueprint Retail

Blueprint Retail is a boutique advisory firm focused on providing a fresh perspective on the myriad of difficulties the retail industry faces today.  We help you challenge long held assumptions in your organization and plot a path to success based on your unique situation.  

Our talented team consists of on-shore and off-shore resources that we combine to deliver exceptional results and value across key areas of the retail business including; Technology, Merchandising, Planning & Forecasting, Strategy & Business Development, Consumer Insights & Analytics and Product Development & Sourcing.

Founder

Talkdesk

Act as a sounding board to help deepen the retail expertise and expand the product offering for Talkdesk.

Retail Advisory Board

SPARC

President & Chief Operating Officer

Kurt Salmon Associates

Retail Strategist

Banana Republic

Pricing Strategy Consultant

Coach

Japan Merchandising

Catherine Sadler Group

Business Development Consultant

Manager Strategic Initiatives

Merchandise Planning / Business Development - Petites

Consultant - Inventory Strategy

Strategy, technology, and Omni-Channel operations

A whimsical approach to people, process, and technology especially with vertical product companies.

Founder and CEO

Blueprint Retail is a boutique advisory firm focused on providing a fresh perspective on the myriad of difficulties the retail industry faces today.  We help you challenge long held assumptions in your organization and plot a path to success based on your unique situation.  

Our talented team consists of on-shore and off-shore resources that we combine to deliver exceptional results and value across key areas of the retail business including; Merchandising, Planning & Forecasting, Strategy & Business Development, Consumer Insights & Analytics and Product Development & Sourcing.

They say Ai is a dangerous game, that it will eventually take our jobs, violate our privacy, take our rights away… all very valid fears… but how about all the unimaginably good things Ai can help us do. What if we unleash the unlimited power of Machines to help create a better humanity?

Here’s maybe one example of those good sides of Ai.

At NotCo we decided to use our Ai to potentially help save an endangered species and here is how it went…

Sean Kelley

You want to know something wild? 

April 26, 2024 (yesterday)the MedMen press release announced a Bankruptcy filing and resignations, with a quote that reads... 📖 

💧 "The difficult decision to shut down operations and commence the Bankruptcy Proceedings and Receivership Proceedings was made after careful consideration of the current financial condition of the Company and its subsidiaries, their inability to pay their liabilities as they become due and the anticipated enforcement actions of secured creditors."💧 

April 23, 2019 (ALMOST 5 years ago to the day) the press release was about securing $250,000,000 in funding with a quote that read... 📖 

🚀  "The company has firmly established itself as the leading cannabis retailer in the United States with an unparalleled physical and brand footprint across the country...We look forward to working closely with management to accelerate growth and drive margin improvement across the organization." 🚀 

Wild.

One of my favorite book series by Jim Collins is based on a longitudinal study of some of the largest companies in the country at the time. It wraps up with  a book called 'How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Never Give In'

It defines five stages of organizational decline: 

1️⃣ The hubris of success
2️⃣ The pursuit of more
3️⃣ Denial of risk
4️⃣ Grasping for salvation
5️⃣ Capitulation

Note: If a company doesn't catch itself by stage 3, it's basically done for.  

When MedMen raised $250,000,000 my intuition told me it wasn't going to go as hoped.

I had nothing against the company.  BIG picture --- the signs were there. ✔ 

Here's the thing...

👉 ALL cannabis companies are startups and startups frequently fail 💰 even with mass amounts of funding.  

👉 Not to mention that even giant non-cannabis companies fail. 

I don't say this ⤴ to be a fear monger.  I simply say this as a reminder that funding 100% helps power success, but the signs of likely success do not lie ONLY in dollars raised.  

I've heard the things people say about MedMen  --criticisms about ego & greed. 😈 

Can I share a different view of it with you? (Remember the 5 stages 🔝)

✅  Some excited and passionate people had a BIG idea and ran with it (Stg 1).  

✅  They succeeded at part of their idea in a BIG way --  they pitched their idea so well that it eventually landed them with the $250,000,000 in funding they were going for (Stg 2). 

✅  They had a blip of a cool kid in town moment (somewhere, Stg 3 came in to play).

✅  The rest of the vision didn't work out and there were many attempts made at saving the situation (Stg 4).  

✅  Bankruptcy announcement (Stg 5). 

💖 Instead of getting critical, get curious. There is SO MUCH TO LEARN from those 5 stages being played out on a large scale in the cannabis industry right in front of our very eyes. 

Wild.

Watch it all across the industry. Every move made holds a lesson.⚡ 

Look. Understand. Learn. Integrate. Improve.

#cannabisbusiness #cannabisindustry #cannabiscommunity

businesswire.com • 3 min read

MedMen Announces Entering Bankruptcy Proceedings and Resignation of CFO and Directors

I gave a talk at the Georgia Institute of Technology Startup Exchange Summit

I was STUNNED at the quality of the resources available to students and the caliber of the students themselves

Honestly, it’s worth paying tuition just to get access to their on campus GPU clusters.

Our next launch is coming straight out of left field

2024 gonna be the wildest year in the game in a while.  New waves forming that are too big to stop. New coalitions forming to protect what they built. Other states got their eyes on CA and Oklahoma as the culprit and soon enough they will act.  The failure of modern day government will be on full display.  In all honestly everybody gonna be trying to balance self interest vs philosophy and the road of 2024 is going be like now other. Sh*t is about to go down. Have your head on a swivel. #WFTP

The California cannabis industry is a hostage of war.  War?  Yes war! (link in comments)

A war against drugs 2.0 - don't be deceived by the talking heads in politics who are shilling for votes from their powerful lobbyist groups - here's looking at you Gavin Newsom.  

There are hundreds of millions of uncollected taxes because there is literally no cash to pay them...  The state should go to New York and the other states east of here to collect the taxes on the inter-state sales of our excess production (cough cough excessively large Grass House production facilities)

Somehow we as the citizens of California fell for the deception that was prop 64, and to add insult to injury, the State regulatory and tax bureaucracies decided to pile it on further with absolutely insane regulations and taxes.

When will we all acknowledge the truth - that the emperor has no clothes - that this system is completely broken - that this is a carnival side show example of dysfunctional government policy at it's finest.

I can't wait for the Economist or Harvard Business School or some other non-biased academic authority to do a case study - oh wait the State already did a study for itself by professors from University of California, Davis - you know what it said?  That the taxes are too high, that the regulatory barriers are too high, that the restriction on local access to retail is too high...

Maybe it's our government policy makers and elected officials that are the ones that are too high...

#californiacannabis #taxes #governmentpolicy

Dutchie decided to introduce new rate limits for dutchie plus customers without any notice (unclear if it was for all or just some…) 

Their own solutions architect didn’t know…

“I don't think we would introduce rate limiting without a heads-up, and I will circle back to confirm.” - Dutchie employee

This was in response to our development team telling them either their servers were crashing or they introduced new rate limits…

I get it - it’s much easier and cheaper to throttle your customers than to build good software.  Want to avoid “crashing” on 4/20? Let’s just shift the blame to the front end developers for “too many search calls” instead of actually addressing the root issues. I mean who doesn’t like a website that you can’t search for products on…

Allowing “up to 18000 request as fast as you want, but we only give them back 5 per second” is like saying well let all your customers try to shop, but only allow 5 of them per second to actually buy anything…

When playing with fire, someone usually gets burned… but this is 4D chess and they don’t understand the games they are playing… 

Oh and the irony of the tagline “grow together” - growth takes honesty and self reflection - in the absence of that, instead of growth you get shriveling…

#gametheory #infinitegame

Taking time to say thanks is sometimes everything.  Here is a letter of recommendation I had the privilege of writing for Michael Bostarr today.  It felt like it was share worthy...  (the picture was about this time last year...)

I first met Michael on linkedIn.  A post of his came across my feed and I’m so glad it did.  I reached out directly because I saw the real him through that post, a pure, honest human.  Michael is one of those rare people who actually, truly, knows himself. This was clear to me from that first impression on LinkedIn, and has only proven more true over the years of knowing him.  These are the type of people that as a leader, you are lucky to find, and hope to provide enough space and support that they stay a while. 

Michael joined our team as the Director of Strategy and Implementation, which is my title for, swiss army knife / most versatile player.  He proved to not only meet, but far exceed my expectations.  In every situation, every interaction, I could rely on Michael to bring the right energy and say the right thing, at the right moment, to move the conversation forward, no matter how challenging that moment was.  

As a leader we often think it’s our responsibility, our duty even, to help guide and endow knowledge on those in our charge.  While this is often true, it is less often true that we as leaders find ourselves the ones receiving guidance and knowledge from those who we seek to provide it to. In some of the most difficult and challenging moments of my professional career, Michael provided guidance and knowledge that I didn’t expect, but was happy to receive.   

Michael made an indelible mark on our organization, and on me personally.  He kick started our distribution business from nothing to a thriving business in only a few months.  He brought enthusiasm and fresh ideas to every project we touched including marketing, product development, merchandising, e-commerce, new business development, M&A deals, and in-store operations.  When he doesn’t know something, instead of pretending he does, he goes and figures it out, and quickly.  

I’ve enjoyed watching his career progress since we both left SPARC over 2 years ago, and I enjoy working with him on projects to this day.  Starting next week he’ll be in a similar higher level role at a company 5X the size of the one we ran together and I look forward to collaborating with him as they are a client of my new software and consulting business.

Michael has also become a dear friend, someone I truly look forward to talking to, ideating with and generally just having fun.  I could not think of a better person, or of anyone I could write such a recommendation for besides him.

Best,

Sean Kelley
Chief Possibility Officer
Niagra.io

#leadership #infinitegame #possibility

How is Brev.dev democratizing access to AI development for startups, midsize companies and research institutions?

In the bustling world of tech, generative AI is making waves, reshaping everything from creativity to everyday search tasks. With ChatGPT alone drawing an astounding 1.6 billion visits in February 2024, the buzz around AI is undeniable. But the road to innovation isn't without its hurdles.

Join us on the Things Have Changed Podcast as we dive into an enlightening discussion with Nader Khalil, Co-Founder and CEO of Brev.dev. We'll explore how BrevDev is simplifying the complex AI landscape, making it easier for companies to leverage AI without the heavy lift of managing extensive hardware. Amidst a pressing GPU shortage, BrevDev's solutions are more crucial than ever, helping not just large corporations but also startups and midsize companies to thrive.

Don’t miss this deep dive into how BrevDev is supporting the AI boom and enabling businesses to focus on innovation with Jed Tabernero and Shikher Bhandary. 

🔗  in the comments!

#AI #Innovation #Technology #Leadership #Podcast #EasytouseGPUs #GPU #trainingmodel #hardware #generativeAI 

I absolutely love San Francisco.

I moved here from the east coast in 20 years ago, while I love visiting 'home' this is my real home.  

The people, the experiences, the places, the views.... Oh the views... a new one around every corner, after 20 years I keep finding new ones!!!

What I love most recently is taking my dog Cooper to the dog park around the corner (it's next to the Bay Bridge so you feel the hum of the city).  I have met so many wonderful people in that dog park.  I've also met some folks that have/may turn into business partners, clients, and employees...  

The feeling of possibility is alive here, don't let the 'Fake News' fool you... 😂 🤣 🤣 😂 

#sanfrancisco #startup #entrepreneurship

Michael Shvartsman pled guilty yesterday to charges of making over $22 million, along with his brother and an associate, in illegal insider trading related to Donald Trump’s Truth Social / DWAC SPAC deal. He was caught while trying to launder it (Google for some good reads). 

Did you know that Michael Shvartsman is behind one of the largest cannabis payment schemes to come on the market over the last few years? 

Transact First was an early mover with the "Cashless ATM" payment method. 
also... SALT Payments
also... High Risk Commerce
also... Rocket One Capital LLC 
Any other DBAs/spin-offs/rebrands? 
 
How far does it go? More news to come? 

We're #hiring a new Buyer - Knits & Activewear in Austin, Texas. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Reinforcing California’s commitment to supporting legal cannabis operators and dismantling the illegal market, the Governor’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce (UCETF) seized $53,620,600 in illegal cannabis in the first quarter of this calendar year.  

For complete details of UCETF’s Q1 2024 results visit: https://lnkd.in/g23Q4-cX

2 weeks ago I posted about how Dutchie changed their rate limits (more strict) and didn't tell anyone and how one of our client’s site came to a stand still because they had their version of Amazon Prime day and traffic spiked.  

Nearly 14,000 people have viewed that post, and you might be surprised who was paying attention.  Sure a lot of folks from Dutchie saw it, but there were more people from some big name retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Do you think their sites ever get rate limited? 😂 😂

𝐋𝐋𝐚𝐌𝐚 3 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧-𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬! 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 1.5 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐋𝐚𝐌𝐚 3 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲:

- Available in 8B and 70B versions, accessible for both pre-training and fine-tuning.
- Utilizes over 15 trillion tokens, a 7x increase from its predecessor.
- Features a 128K token vocabulary for superior performance.
- Achieves state-of-the-art results across various industry benchmarks.
- 3 times more training efficiency compared to LLaMa 2.
- A 400B+ version is currently training and matches performance with leading models like Claude 3 Opus.

Stay tuned as LLaMa 3 continues to evolve and reshape what's possible with AI.
#ai #genai #opensource #machinelearning #innovation

My favorite band #Phish played the #Sphere in Las Vegas last night for the first time.  I watched from home but wow, just wow. I feel like this is the start of a completely new genre of full emersion entertainment.

The mind bending effects of the music and the visuals, even on a flat screen at home, were astounding.  

As technology advances so does our ability to experience new possibilities and with that comes hope for a better future.

#technology #music #entertainment

The web of life - it's a fantastic lecture by Allan Watts, one that I highly suggest everyone listen to, probably a few times...

It's so true.  Everything is connected.  Everything has a positive and an equal negative, a warp and weft, a left and right, an up and down...  Everything exists in a yin yang balance.  

When that balance is disrupted, when we pull the energy of the universe too far in one direction, it has a way of auto correcting itself, of snapping back to center. Sometimes passing by center for a moment to counteract the obverse imbalance from which it just left.

Recognizing these imbalances, seeing them from afar as well as within our own lives provides clues to the future.  It can enable us to actually predict what is likely to occur in any given situation and make moves to work within that energy movement.  

Recognizing this pattern is how we can apply this knowledge to business.  To play the game honestly, with integrity, but also by picking up and riding the wake / waves others make as they disrupt the natural order of things... 

Here's to an #infinitemindset in an #infinitegame...

Details mater 😎 Did you see the total solar eclipse today? I didn't but I learned something...  

I saw the 'total 'eclipse of the sun this past October just south of our home in Bend Oregon...

But it was the annular eclipse, aka the 'ring of fire'...  Not a total eclipse...

The annular eclipse is a 'total' eclipse but the moon is at its furthest point away from the planet, so it blocks out all of the sun except a smidge, leaving a 'ring of fire' which was AMAZING to see...  Had I been paying more attention, I would have flown east to see this total eclipse...

I didn't fully realize the difference, but now that I do, I'm going to start planning the viewing party up the California coast for 2045! (see image of the path of the upcoming '45 totality below).

Also - see the link in comments for some fun science facts and an interesting picture showing the path of the October annular overlayed with the path of today's eclipse that might explain where Elon got the idea to call Twitter X 😉 

#infinitegame #science #onelove

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