Kris Harrington, CEO of GenAlpha Technologies, is helping manufacturers move faster and smarter with digital self-serve tools. Her company turns paper manuals and complex product info into easy online tools that let customers find and order parts without making a phone call.
Kristina’s journey is powerful—athlete, Navy veteran, global executive, and now tech entrepreneur. Today, she leads GenAlpha with one goal: make it easier for customers to support and fix their equipment.
With GenAlpha’s Equip360 platform, manufacturers can:
Let customers search and order parts online
Share interactive 2D/3D diagrams
Offer warranties, returns, and manuals—all digital
Kris calls this “digital self-serve.” It means giving customers the power to get what they need, when they need it—without waiting on a sales call. As she says, “People don’t want to call you for the price of an O-ring.”
Now, GenAlpha supports customers in industries like construction, agriculture, and emergency services—with nearly $1 billion in orders processed online.
Kris also encourages other leaders to build trust by showing up online. Her podcast The Manufacturing Broadcast and active LinkedIn presence help others learn from her experience.
Key Highlights
• Introduction and Background of Chris Harrington 0:01
• Kris Harrington’s Transition to Entrepreneurship 8:21
• The Concept of Digital Self-Serve 13:19
• GenAlpha Technologies and Its Solutions 26:00
• The Role of Marketing and Personal Branding 33:17
• The Impact of AI and Machine Learning 40:00
• Closing Remarks and Future Plans 43:09
Transcription
Curt Anderson 00:01
Man, Hey, happy, what is today? Happy Tuesday. John Leroy, how are you? Man, I’m doing great. Curt, how are you? Oh, my goodness gracious. I honestly could not be doing any better today than what I am right. This second, we have an amazing, incredible guest, this wonderful human being. Chris Harrington, Chris, how are you today?
Kristina Harrington 00:20
Oh, I am wonderful too. It’s so good to be with you. You know, any day that I have something like this scheduled in my calendar with two wonderful gentlemen like you guys, I’m all for it.
Curt Anderson 00:35
Chris, thank it’s a great day to have a great day. So Chris, you sit back and relax for a second, because I’m going to give a little intro to our dear friend Chris Harrington. So John, let me just give you and our friends, our listeners out there, about my dear friend Chris Harrington. So Chris Harrington and I go way back and so let me just tell you what’s going on with Chris. So Chris is in a wonderful city of Milwaukee. She was a basketball phenom, and now Chris, I believe, like you, cross paths with Coach K. For those that remember Coach K at Duke, right, drive
Kristina Harrington 01:04
that correct. That’s right. That’s right. Part of my story in the manufacturing absolutely,
Curt Anderson 01:09
yeah, he didn’t. He was a speaker at your banquet, was that drive that correct, or something
Kristina Harrington 01:13
like that. That’s right. There is a local manufacturer that gave an award away to all the student athletes that were seniors in the Milwaukee area. So all of the different school districts, they would invite the female and the male athlete of the year was called Student Athlete of the Year. So you had to do well in athletics and in high school. And they invited you and your parents to this event, and Coach K was the speaker, and it was phenomenal, since I loved and loved basketball. So yes,
Curt Anderson 01:46
a basketball junkie, and still today, I know you and I was geek out about basketball, so had an honor privilege meet Coach cage as a fierce basketball athlete in the City of Milwaukee. Then John, she takes her talents or skills and she serves our country. Proudly. Chris Harrington, thank you for serving our country. She served in the Air Force. I believe. How many Navy, Navy served in the Navy? How many
Kristina Harrington 02:09
years? Four years was as a machinist mate? Yes, four years
Curt Anderson 02:14
in the Navy, and then she goes off. She had this illustrious, amazing, incredible corporate career. Literally lived all over the world and was just doing incredible things, climbing to the corporate ladder. So now, when you’ve had your basketball phenom, you’ve served our country proudly in the Navy, and then you have this great corporate career, what do you do? You launch an E com business. So now she is the co founder and the CEO at Gen Alpha technologies, Chris, just talk a little bit about who and what is Gen Alpha technologies. How are you and your team making them? What a better place. What’s going on at Gen Alpha? Yeah.
Kristina Harrington 02:49
Well, thank you for that wonderful introduction. Nobody does it better than you. But so Gen alpha, we really just remove friction from the equipment support process. So we work with original equipment manufacturers, distributors and dealers when equipment goes to work. So if you think about I’ll list some of the type of companies that we work with, fire and emergency. So when a fire apparatus goes to work inside a municipality to take care of the region that that municipality works for. You know, construction equipment, farming equipment, so all the equipment that we see on the highways, rebuilding our roads, and building buildings and farmers who are out there producing the food that we need, they’re all operating equipment. And of course, there’s all types of equipment. There’s a zero turn more. There’s a equipment inside a factory floor. But over the lifetime of any piece of equipment, there is a maintenance cycle, and occasionally things break and they need repair and maintenance. And really what we do is we help digitize existing bills of materials, 2d and 3d drawings to help you know, individual owners, technicians, dealers, identify the right parts that they need to get that equipment back up and running, and we support them with their operators manuals, any work instructions, and other things, all through a digital environment. So our customers directly build this equipment, and it’s really in support of that equipment that our technology comes into play. So that’s what we’re doing over at Gen Alpha. Well,
Curt Anderson 04:44
great stuff. And in a minute here, I’m going to pull up your website. But I want to, I want to hit a couple things because, like, John is targeting and apparel redefine. We really sing to speak to entrepreneurs. Okay, so I want to go back in time. So we’re talking about, we, we’re leading up to, you know, your athletic. Career serving our country, going into corporate and then taking that leap of faith into entrepreneurship. Let’s start there. Your career in the Navy, your career, your corporate career, took you all over the world. Talk a little bit about what was that like, taking that leap of faith, going into entrepreneurship, when you decide like, Hey, I’m leaving this corporate security blanket and starting this technology e com business. Can you take us back there? What was that like? What was going through your mind? Scary, excited. What were going through
Kristina Harrington 05:29
Yeah, well, you know, I will say I had the opportunity of CO founding this with other people that I had worked with, and I worked in the trenches with these people where we were supporting mining equipment. So I worked for a large equipment manufacturer in the mining space mines operated globally, 24/7 365, when a piece of mining equipment goes down, it could cost a mine operator hundreds of 1000s of dollars an hour. So, you know, I fell in love with parts, because every day was a different day, and you were just solving problems again. Sometimes you were planning for a major shutdown where they’re going to take that piece of equipment out, and you had to be prepared with all of the things they needed for that maintenance. And it might be a large overhaul, if the machine is 10, you know, 15 years old, or reaching a milestone where a major overhaul is needed, or it breaks down because a lot of equipment operates in difficult conditions. It could be the cold, it could be the hot, it could be rain, it can it can be snow, it can be tough construction and digging conditions, and you just never know what you’re dealing with. So, so every day, you’re solving problems to keep your customers running. And I got very excited about that, and we got to solve problems and and I worked with a team that was really incredible. They became like family. So you don’t move across, you know the world and live in different countries without a great support system, which included both family and the people that I worked with. So when I decided to join forces with our co founders, it was really that team of people where we had such a fun experience growing a company for a large organization that we said, Do we think we could build a digital solution that could solve problems for other manufacturers, and do we have the trust and confidence in each other to do it together? And you know, that part made it easier for me, because I knew I was doing it with people where I’ve succeeded before. And our mission was really to bring people together with a great purpose. And when you when you want to do the good work of that, it makes it very exciting. So yes, giving up a corporate career, you know, the pension and other things that I had as part of that corporate career, those were scary things, but I was ready for something different. I always had this burning desire within me to do something more, and this was the unique opportunity. So scary, yes, but I think when you have the right mission or you have the right belief and you and you, if you’re lucky enough, like me, to have the right people to do it with, you just can’t say no to those opportunities. So, and these are also people that I knew we would find a way to get it done. You know, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the GSD philosophy, get shit done, right? Like that, that that, you know, that’s what we were made of. We have that kind of grit. So I knew whatever we got into, we’d find a way to be successful. Got absolutely love
Curt Anderson 08:53
it, John, are you ready to run through a wall or what do GSD? And I just, I love the mission bring people together and just having that fierce, unapologetic belief in your team. John, what are your thoughts so far?
John LaRoy 09:05
Amazing? Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s interesting. We’ve, we’ve talked to a lot of business owners on this, on this show, the series that we got here. And I always love talking to business owners that were athletes, right? You know? Because I feel like high level athletes like yourself, Chris, one thing that I feel like a lot of people don’t recognize, as I would say, like a superpower for success in athletics, military and then a business owner, is the discipline, right? You know, having the discipline and perseverance to go through when things inevitably will go horribly wrong, and you have the fortitude to kind of get through that, but it all comes from focus, effort over time, momentum and a discipline that that starts at a young age in athletics and then carries on the rest of your life. And you know now as a father with two young. Boys, you know, it’s, it’s interesting. You don’t want, you know, you never want your kid to be the worst kid on the team. And now, as a parent, you know, I’m looking to see how my kids are progressing at five years old and three years old on the ice and skating. And it’s like the one thing they always want to instill on them is the connections and the foundational stuff you’re doing now and probably in a couple years, but you always want to be remembered as a kid that worked the hardest, was a great teammate and had your back right. Other than that, people probably don’t remember a ton, but those attributes that you’re starting at seven, 810, 1112, 1314, years old, you’re never going to know who you run into that is an owner of a company or a higher up. And it’s like, it was that the kid that powered it in the corner when things didn’t go right, like, because he’s probably doing the same thing in the business world right now. And it’s like, these are just so foundational. It’s like, and I just value athletics so much. And when we see someone that comes in and applies and has an athletic background, it really they stick out. But yeah, I just, I just find that super interesting. I just made some notes here, but on a basketball side, on five six, basketball was never in the cards for me. Too violent. I would fall out in the first corner from hockey. Never could understand why you couldn’t hang on and hit somebody. But just watching highlights this morning. Celtics took 60 threes last night. I’m like, I know enough to know, like, What in the hell is going on? Yeah, I saw that too.
Kristina Harrington 11:31
Well. You know, that was the Curt Anderson effect. I’m five three, so I didn’t play college ball or anything, but I really loved playing basketball. But I come from the time where you were a three sport athlete, and that was okay back then, so I got to play soccer and run cross country play softball in the summer. So yeah, I do appreciate and I really resonate with your comments, John. I love hiring other athletes. I just you know, the discipline, the hard work, the ability to get up after failure, you know, the ability to hit timelines and understand the importance of urgency and and other things. It just seems like people who come in with having been through sports and it’s been a big part of their life, you don’t have to train on those things, and you get to bring out the best if you’re creating space for them to thrive. And you know, so it’s always been something that if I see it on a resume, I’m also very much attracted to to hiring other athletes when I can, that’s
Curt Anderson 12:42
awesome. Yeah, yeah. I love that great observation. John, as far as and she is a first athlete. Man, when you when you meet her in person, she might be, you know, in stature, you’re at five, three, but, man, she packs a mean punch. Chris, so, so Chris, let’s go here and you know, a couple things that I and we could really hit this hard. And John, if you want to add some more comments, you know, like, comments, you know, like the discipline. And going back to what you were talking about, Chris in the mining business, is, you know, unfortunately, like, a lot of it was reactionary, where, like, Yeah, we could be proactive when somebody was going to replace a piece of equipment, but when you know an act of God, whether this that the other thing, when something you know, hit the fan, man, you’re like, being really reactive. And so I think a lot of what you did really carries well into your technology company. Let’s, let’s go here. I’m going to talk about digital self serve. And before I go there, John, I’d want to leave the athlete, athletic conversation, any other comments that you have as far as that, and then we’re going to slide into digital self serve. Anything else that you wanted to add? No, I’ll let you.
John LaRoy 13:41
I’ll let you get into it. But I do have a question about digital for Chris, but I get down a little bit.
Curt Anderson 13:46
Okay, all right, thank you. So let’s digital self serve now, Chris, when you and I first met, you know, we were like, Hey, I’m, you know, I my my headline on eek on LinkedIn. I strongly encourage you guys connect with Chris on LinkedIn. Connect with John while you’re at it. Okay, connect with me. If you want to. I’d love to connect with you, learn what you have going on. But Chris, you know, I was an E commerce evangelist for manufacturers. You’re having e Commerce and the morning, and I kept talking about it, and we’re dealing with small manufacturers, there was a little bit of a disconnect where, like manufacturers, like, oh, well, you know, that’s when we buy something on Amazon and instruct a consumer. And as a manufacturer, that’s, you know. So now I feel I’m and I’m going to credit you, whether you like it or not. I almost feel like you’ve kind of pioneered or taken ownership of that term digital self serve. Talk about, what does self serve? What is it? And what are you doing with Gen alpha? And then I’m going to pull up your website, sure.
Kristina Harrington 14:36
So, you know, I think it could be valuable by just saying that McKinsey has done research and they’ve talked to B to B buyers and B to B buyers have actually said that they want remote interactions, in person interactions and self serve interactions. In equal parts, so you know, and today, when we’re thinking about as a manufacturer or distributor who runs a company, customers want to utilize tools that they have available. And that means, you know, using their laptop, their their smartphone to get online and do the research on their own. And if the problems that they’re solving, they have enough confidence that they can find the solution going online. And you know, sometimes the things I think about consumables, it’s a great example, right? If I needed to buy an oil change kit for my ATV that I have on the farm, I’m going to change my oil change kit. I know which model ATV I have. I want to buy the genuine oil change kit for my specific piece of equipment, and I don’t typically have to do too much research or information, as long as I make sure I’ve got the right kit information. I’m going to order it now. There are other times where I might need to do maybe I want to add an attachment to my ATV, and that’s going to require a little bit more information. First, it’s not something maybe that I feel like I have full control over, I want to make sure I have the right fit for my ATV. So what I might do is go online, do a lot of research for the attachment I know I have a need. There’s something, maybe it’s a snow plow or something that I’m looking for on the front of that, and I can go out and get enough information on who’s available in my area, who is selling the attachments. What are the rough prices out there? But then I might want to go to a location and actually talk to a person and and say, You know what other customers have to say about this? Can you help me attach this to my current ATV? Do I need some modification to my ATV, right? So all of the ways in which we we search, we get answers, and we buy today are modified by the technology that we have in our pockets. And that’s what it’s it’s coming down to, is there are some things that we know and we just naturally want to do all on our own. Then there are these, and that’s where I would call that, that self serve, where I want to be able to go get everything I need. I know what I need. I’m qualified to know what I need, so just give it to me, right? Make it easy for me. Make it easy for me to do my job. And then there are other things that I feel slightly qualified. I know what I’m doing, but I want a little help. And then there are things that I’m completely, completely unqualified. I want to go out, search the internet, ask some questions, but then I might need some additional help and and by the way, I sit right in that Gen X, right? So when we talk about self service and people’s tendency towards some of these, these digital tools. Oftentimes we talk about this next generation that’s that’s now in the workplace, and of course, they look online for everything. But you know, as a Gen Xer, I look online for a lot of things too. So this is not just only for the younger generations, which I, I think a lot of people have been trapped in that idea. And this is where we all live. And, you know, I use the ATV as an example, but we can, we can, you know, extend that to printing companies and printing tools like John and his team have, and other businesses as well. So that’s really what, what I’m talking about in ensuring that we’re meeting the preferences of the people that are doing business with us. That’s ultimately who we want to satisfy. And oftentimes, there are a lot of people in that chain, right? A manufacturer might first have to satisfy a dealer distributor, and then that dealer, distributor has to satisfy the end customer. And how we’re all making information available and possible to do their job is the key.
Curt Anderson 19:13
Drop the mic. Chris Harrington, absolutely love that. So, So, Chris, are you saying that people don’t want to call for the price on the O ring, as evangelist say, so John. So Chris has been so we have a little LinkedIn live show. Chris has been a multi guest, multiple, multiple times. Absolutely love when she’s on and she dropped, I’ve been doing this for five years, hands down, probably my favorite line of all time. She was just preaching, giving the preach about digital self serve. And it’s really, it’s not, I mean, like, the convenience, it’s almost like being respectful of your client. It’s almost disrespectful, you know, Chris, you mentioned Gen X like, you know, I’m full. I’m like, early Gen Xer, right? And I can’t tell you how many guys back in the day that at my age would be like, if I could just get them on a. Phone. I’ll close the deal right? They don’t want to get on the phone. And so Chris is on our show. She’s like, people don’t want to call you for the price of the O ring. People don’t want to call you for for tracking information under UPS order. People want to call you for your expertise. So Chris, that’s one of my favorite lines. John, what are your thoughts about this digital self serve conversation? It’s like
John LaRoy 20:21
one of those moments where you realize, in business or in life, where you inherently have been doing something one way, and you couldn’t really describe it, right? So like, I feel like you’ve described how we kind of interact with our clients as well. We have that three option approach, and we didn’t really put a word to it or thought behind it. It’s just kind of the way I don’t like, and sometimes I like going in Ace Hardware, right? Like, if I know what I’m looking for, you don’t have to ask me 15 times, can I help you, right? It’s almost, like, annoying, like, but I get it. They’re trying to be friendly. They’re trying to do that. But like, I gotta be in and out. I gotta, you know, something’s broken. I gotta get back and fix it. But then there’s other times, like, Hey, I haven’t wired a three wire switch before, our three way switch, you know, can you help me out? I’m not an electrician. I know I can get through it, but here’s a picture. Here’s where we’re at and, you know, like, if I and I, it’s actually how I shop. Like, if I need help, I’ll go to A’s, if I want to be in and out and out and going to Home Depot or Menards, like, because they don’t even know what the hell they’re talking about over there. Home Depot guys used to be a little more knowledgeable, but they’re not. But if I know what I need, I’m going there because I can get in and out. But yeah, it’s so interesting, because I feel like the old days of where it was definitely more in person and more personal, you didn’t have what we’re all communicating on to be able to go look stuff up, right, you know? And it really kind of aligns with some of, you know, the old business axioms out there, the customer is always right, and there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Like, I totally disagree with both of those. And especially because, like, when we hire people and you’re not seeing that gradual retention of information, it’s an up and down, up and down, up and down. I do say that there is such a thing as a stupid question. If you’re asking a question that you seriously already know the answer to and you’re just trying to make conversation, that’s a dumb question. And number two, if you haven’t tried to answer the question yourself by pulling up your phone and going to look for it, that’s a dumb question. I get a lot of pushback for that, but it’s like, Come on, have a little bit like you’ve never had the amount of tools that you have out there to go and find out answers. Now I might not be the right answers, and there’s a lot of misinformation out there, but at some point in time, take the initiative, right? And I feel like that’s, it’s, it’s a big part of what’s missing. I feel like in the world right now is the initiative, and you have more tools than ever to take initiative, to go do something, to figure it out yourself. But there’s that’s, that’s that’s a whole different podcast. So, but not, it’s a really good I love it. I wrote it down, remote, in person and self service. I feel like whatever solution, whatever industry you’re helping out or involved in, you should have this three pronged approach for whatever solution you’re trying to provide to the marketplace. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kristina Harrington 23:19
And I, you know, I remember the reason I brought up the O ring is that we have, for a long time, people have pushed back on creating digital self service options because they’ve said my customers want to have a relationship with me. And I was like, well, they are still having a relationship with you if you give them the ability to get the O ring right so they don’t want to talk to John and it be served up donuts because they have some O rings and bearings to order things that they already know that they need, give them the ability to do it themselves, and that will still be a foundation of the relationship, and I think that’s what people are missing. It’s that in the past, all of that in person content, that’s the way we drove our businesses. And you know that it’s just a changed world, and we all we’re at this inflection point. You know, at the industrial marketing Summit, he really talked about that right where we’re in the peak 65 zone, where every day, 11,200 people are reaching the age of 65 so retirement age right now until the year 2027 right? And these are the people that, if you ask them, they know how to fix everything. They can search a paper manual and go to the exact place to find something. They know the revision on a part that for a model that was 15 years old. And they have those things up here. But right now they’re walking out of company. 90s, and we have a younger generation that needs tools, they need information, and they are going to these devices to get it. So with that next generation, we’ve got to find a way to find their attention here, and that’s going to be a critical way in which you’re building relationships with with these generations. So
Curt Anderson 25:23
absolutely love it. So okay, I know, man, we are geeking hard right now, so I Chris, I said probably 30 minutes ago, we’re going to flip your website. So here I’m finally getting to Gen alpha. So again, strongly encourage our friends out there. Here’s Chris Harrington. This will be in the show notes. Connect with our dear friend, Chris. She puts out phenomenal content. We have time. I might want to dig into that, Chris. But connect with Chris on LinkedIn, and Chris, here is your website. So just talk a little bit about, again, we’re talking about how Jennifer makes the world a better place, these powerful tools. What? Just walk us through a little bit on the website here,
Kristina Harrington 25:57
yeah, so you know Right, exactly where you are right here you can see on the right hand side of the screen, there you have an exploded diagram in the middle, and that is where we repurpose bills of materials. And we’re really just taking 2d and 3d information that exists in engineering and technical publications departments, and we’re exploding that to make it easy for customers to look up their exact serial number, their model number, their VIN number, and get to the exact parts that they need. So if you go on a lot of manufacturers websites today, you’ll notice that many of them are still trying to catch up. They don’t have good product information. They’re missing product images and and other details, and that’s because they never had to sell this way before. Everything was over the phone or or they utilized their technical, physical publications, those those parts, manuals and books that customers would reference to get to the things that they need. Well, we’re making that all digital, and now they don’t need to have, necessarily, three images of the product. They can have this assembly of the product with the specific parts, and then you see all the ancillary parts around so that that’s something that makes us unique, in addition to, you know, buying a part and searching it like you would on Amazon or other thing. If you continue to scroll there, Curt, equip 360 is the name of our product. We have several different modules that we offer with customers, and this is where that whole equipment support comes into place. This is really that self serve. So if you think about a product configurator, which I know Curt speaks dearly to your heart, this is typically for complex pieces of equipment, or equipment that need to be created, or products that need to be created from several different options. And maybe those options have rules behind them. So we we can help companies launch product configurators once that piece of equipment goes to work after it’s purchased, we have the full product registration process. Then we have a warranty module where warranty claims can be filed, which, if you’re working with dealers, this can be both labor and the parts associated with a warranty claim. So we have that full RMA. You know, in our world, you’re not just returning 80 to $100 pair of shoes, which is very transactional and easy for all of us today who do B to C type business, but many of our clients have to handle returns for products that might be $50,000 and that process needs an approval. It needs paperwork to go with the product. So we have all of that digitized. Then, of course, the E commerce, interactive parts, manuals and analytics package. So all these are individual modules that we help companies digitize and enable that self service options, uh, option for their customers. Well,
Curt Anderson 29:10
Chris, I want to add so iron sharpens iron, and I’ll tell you every time I’m in with ears, ear distance of you, man, I am just learning. I’m a sponge. I just I learned something new every time. And so for our friends here, through a pair of redefine so, you know, think about so Chris is targeting, you know, like machine parts and that type of thing she’s describing. But this is applicable for folks like that configurator. Picture our friends who, like, you know, young entrepreneur. Maybe they were corporate downsize, maybe, you know, whatever, something through them, a curve ball this year, or side hustle that they’re trying to get off the ground this configurator, just picture, you know, hey, I’m selling a hoodie, and it’s small, medium large, extra large, and it comes in these different colors, and I can put this different logo on the front, something that you could create your own configurator, exactly what Chris is describing. But the registration. Warranty. You know, basically, like all these, everything that you’re describing, Chris, could be applicable for the huge companies that you’re working with, down to our friends that are working out their garage. John, what are your thoughts as far as what Chris has described here, with everything that 360 offers?
John LaRoy 30:13
Yeah, it’s a great solution. I mean, it’s a definite need in a manufacturing world. There’s a lot of equipment out there that’s aging out, but still working. And, you know, like, not everyone has a Granger that you can run up to, and maybe you don’t want to talk to the guy at the counter, right? You know, you just want to order what you want to order. How soon are you going to get it? Where is it coming from? Because a lot of these, you know, these equipment, especially my industry. Now we moved into the digital space with digital printing equipment. The manufacturers before they would manufacture, you know, screen printing, presses and dryers and ovens, all that type of stuff. The two big guys, they made every part. You know, they have huge equipment shops and machine shops where they would make the screws, they would make everything. You know, have a retail, you know, parts assembly department, and that would, that would help support parts. But now, as you move into digital space, the company that’s making the carriage the print carriage is not the company making the print heads, and not the company making the film and the inks, and you have all this conglomeration of all different manufacturer parts to come together to make one sellable product. But you have all these different points of failure, and where do you go get these parts? Because a lot of it is manufactured, you know, unfortunately, overseas. And if that distributor goes out of business, that manufacturer goes out of business, where do you go to get this type of stuff? And it’s huge in our industry. So, yeah, this is, this is amazing,
Curt Anderson 31:43
very powerful solution, Chris, I know, like you’ve got tons of companies be serving. You can’t be hanging out with me all day as much as I would love to. So, but one thing I want to hit here nearly a billion dollars. My goodness gracious, you know, and you’re looking at the number of orders site visits. Anything that you want to comment here? I have a couple comments that I want to add. Want to add. But what do you the results that you’re getting when you go back to when you guys launched this company, took that leap of faith, the team left big corporate, and you’re like, hey, we’re going to be these renegade entrepreneurs. Did you ever dream that you’d be putting up these types of numbers?
Kristina Harrington 32:16
No, you know, we knew it was out there. But I can tell you, even the first five years were really difficult, because we had started a product that not everybody was convinced that they needed to move digital yet. So even in those first five years, where we knew we were building something that was valuable to users, and things were moving in this direction, in the B to C world, very fast. But buyers in manufacturing were not, you know, adopting these strategies as quickly. We started to question, did we do the right thing and but we stuck, stuck with it because we really believed it, and to be there today, every month that’s growing faster and faster. I think that’s the most important thing to say about those numbers, is now that people have been selling online, and every year that goes by, it’s more and more they’re moving people from the old manual way. You know, phone calls, emails now, more and more is going online. So that bucket keeps getting bigger there, and we’re only going to see it continue to rise. Yeah. And
Curt Anderson 33:29
a couple of comments I want to make. I just I love so for our friends out there that are if you want a strong digital presence, I just want to comment, look at the Gen Alpha website, very clean, very easy to navigate. You’ve got the header tabs right here, book a demo and then four words digital support made simple. And it’s just like this war cry that the team at Gen alpha is like, Hey, we’re trying to simplify your life. John, you mentioned earlier you love hiring athletics because, like, we have your back. And this is exactly you know, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working very closely with Chris past four or five years now. And I can tell you firsthand, these this, they eat, drink and breathe and sleep, does like they’re not talking it, they’re walking it. And so this is great digital support Made Simple, Chris, I want to go here. So lot of learning lessons for our entrepreneur friends out there, regardless of where they’re at, they’ve been doing this for many, many years, decades, or for our new entrepreneur friends, lot of takeaways. I want to come back here, and then we’ll start winding down on this. You made a collective effort. You know, where I’m going? I always ask you this, as the CEO of the company, it’s, it’s, you know, you have a list of priorities. Where do I put my time and effort and energy, right? My managing finance, my deal with bankers, lawyer, you know, all the things right, you collectively wrote up your sleeves and said, You know what, I’m going to start being the face, the voice, and be the marketer of the company as the CEO. And again, I really encourage our friends connect with Chris on LinkedIn, just share how you have carried this journey to torch on Mark. And go through that transformation and like where you’re at today. You’ve got a broadcast. You have a podcast called the broadcast for manufacturers. Enlighten us there, please.
Kristina Harrington 35:09
Yeah. You know, it’s interesting, because I kind of came into that a little bit kicking and screaming because I wasn’t comfortable. And, you know, having a manufacturing background, I Thought Marketing meant you produced brochures and you helped us get ready for trade shows. I really just didn’t have an idea of the true value that was marketing, particularly in the age of digital. So it was really a group on our team that had convinced me that you need to be the face of the company, and you have to start doing podcast webinars, and we need to make this a thing. You have to start writing, and you have to share your knowledge and experience, because when I did sit in front of the customers, I understood our customers situation very well. I could describe because I had lived it, and I needed to take that out and connect with our prospective customers. And it was really in doing that that I realized that’s how you create credibility, where people see your authenticity because they see your passion in the space, and that’s really how you network and get referrals, which ultimately help your business grow. So it was a big shift for me, not one again that I ever thought that I would do, but boy, am I so glad that I did, and I’ve met some amazing people. It’s been wonderful for our organization. It’s been wonderful for me personally, and I would be happy to talk to any entrepreneur who is debating if they should do some of these things, because I absolutely think that this was a turning point for us in establishing us as a brand, you know, we we have really taken your advice to niche down until it hurts. We recognize who our audience is. And sometimes that’s really challenging, because when it comes to e commerce, it’s a pretty big world, and you could serve a lot of people, but we’ve had to say true to who we are, which means we need to be where our customers are and and, you know, I’ve tried to live that. So,
Curt Anderson 37:27
yeah, God, thank you, Chris man. I just, I just, I feel so I always feel so much smarter and just so much more inspired every time I just get a minute with Chris Harrington, John, let’s start winding down. My friend, your thoughts on what Chris just shared.
John LaRoy 37:42
I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s the same similar journey for for myself and my team of not doing any marketing, being, you know, heads down and honestly, in our industry of where we are, you’re told to kind of shut up and put your head down and don’t let anyone know what you do. You’re just supposed to make these guys or these guys pointing at the wrong side, or these guys look good. And you know, we want to get into more verticals and explore other options, but if you don’t convey digital trust to either your current customers or future customers, you’re not going to have an opportunity to serve them. I mean, everyone, again, is using this at some point during the day to identify how to solve whatever problem they’re there they currently have, whether they need to find a t shirt and need to go find a part, their first action is probably look it up on the phone, right? And if they come to my company. Five years ago, we didn’t have LinkedIn, we didn’t have a website, we didn’t have that. We were doing things really well, but to be able to go and sell what we do to someone else, you know, walking in the door isn’t happening anymore. It still does, but not to your door is your digital real estate that you have out there, and if no one’s coming because you don’t even have a mailbox or, you know, a welcome mat, then that’s on you. And I just felt like I was in my head for a long time, like, why would I talk and share my story when I don’t even think it’s a good story? But you’re always going to feel that way, right? As an owner, as a founder, you can always get better, but you gotta start somewhere, right? So, you know, it’s kind of like that thing where you’re for an athlete, you’re training to get ready for the game. Well, if you’re training, training, training, and you never actually go play the game, you’re never actually going to be able to measure your skill and find out where you need to get better. So we’re in the game now. It’s the marketing game. It’s exciting, it’s it’s, you know, again, in my head too, I’m like, I’m not going to start a podcast unless it looks like Joe Rogan. It’s like, okay, he’s got 3000 episodes on me and a little bit more of a budget. So let’s just start. And I’m not speaking everyone. I’m speaking, and I want to be where my customers are at. So, yeah, great stuff there. I do have one question for you before we go. Chris, yeah, how much has AI and chatgpt and the machine learning like changed and helped propel your business, even from like, a recognition standpoint, like I see so much like our developers that work in other projects across the across the world, specifically developed apps for general contractors, where they can take the video on their phone, scan area and then start making like tasks and jobs specific to that room. You know that would take hours and hours before, and now, you know with that, with AI machine learning, it’s happening instantaneously. But be able to, like, scan a part and say, This is what I need. Is that, is that technology here?
Kristina Harrington 40:46
Oh yeah. I mean, it’s here. So, you know, we work with a company called visit. Their product is integrated to our solution for our customers who want to add that on. And that’s actually an it’s essentially just like in your search bar, where you can search a description, or you can type a part number, or whatever you’re looking for, you can actually take a picture with your phone of the part, and you bring back the part, and now the image is what’s doing the search. So that technology is out there. We work with another company called mavinoid. They have an AI chat tool, which is using, you know, large language models where you can actually type things like, let’s say wheels won’t turn right, which is, I’m having a problem, right? It’s a symptom of the issue that I’m having that needs to be solved, which is very different than knowing what part to buy, right? So it takes you in a whole different place of troubleshooting guided instructions to resolve a challenge which may lead to a purchase. It may just be a problem solving solution for and understanding the problem that that’s happening and getting that piece of equipment back to work. So there are a lot of tools AI in our own business, and creating our own productivity, with our developers, with our marketing team and other things. So you know, the first thing we did with AI is we looked internally. What can we do, better, faster, utilizing this, these solutions, so that we understand even what it is and how powerful it is. Obviously, AI has been in manufacturing for a long time and lots of different applications, but the new models in which are out there, there are so many great partners that we can all work with, like vis seek and mavinoid that are doing great things that we don’t always have to be the creators. We can just connect with wonderful people who have already built great solutions and add them on. That’s the beauty of technology. If you if you build it right, you can continue to find best in breed solutions, and now you’re creating this amazing experience by just bringing these tools together.
Curt Anderson 43:09
That’s awesome. Awesome. Okay, well, Chris, I know we kept you longer than I we could keep you here all day. So best place to find you Gen Alpha technologies. Go to the website. Check out Chris on LinkedIn, Chris, anywhere else that our friends can find you hanging out, hopefully
Kristina Harrington 43:25
at the next trade conference or seminar or you know, we love to learn alongside our perspective and current clients. It’s a great place to get to know people, and we try to be present there. So hopefully you’ll see us around an industry show soon.
Curt Anderson 43:41
I hope so, and I hope you and I are on stage together. How’s that please, John, as we close out parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you want to share. Big, thank you to Chris. What are your thoughts?
John LaRoy 43:51
Oh, yeah, big, thank you. I mean, we’ve we’ve probably overcom, we went really long, and we appreciate your time, and know you’re very busy, but just Yeah, great, great opportunity to hear your knowledge and your experience. Just thank you those amazing yeah,
Kristina Harrington 44:05
thank you guys. I appreciate the opportunity to be on your show Absolutely.
Curt Anderson 44:09
So Chris, sending you massive hugs, tons of love. We appreciate you, admire, you, respect, you just, I could go on and on. So thank you for taking the time to join us, guys. If you miss anything, if you caught this, go back to the beginning. Just Chris is just such an inspiration. Please connect with her on LinkedIn. Go to Gen up technologies and stop by and say hi to John. See what’s going on at para redefine. So we’ll catch you guys on our next show. We have more amazing, wonderful guests coming up, and we’ll catch you next time.