Berti Skenderasi's Journey from Albania to School Photography Innovator in America

What if the journey to success meant reinventing yourself in an entirely new industry and a new country? Berti Skenderasi's story begins in Albania and winds through a diverse career path, eventually landing him in the volume photography business in the United States. Through determination, resilience, and a touch of serendipity, Skenderasi shifted from politics and computer repair to discovering his true calling behind the camera. Hear how his time at Lifetouch ignited a passion for school photography, setting him on a path to build his own thriving business.

The conversation takes a closer look at Skenderasi's entrepreneurial journey, where he identified opportunities beyond conventional photography services. With a keen sense for business and leveraging his import-export experience, Skenderasi expanded his offerings to include essential school supplies, even tackling challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. By fostering strong relationships and attending pivotal industry events, Skenderasi not only overcame self-imposed limitations but also created a niche that set him apart in the school photography sector.

Tune in to understand how Skenderasi's story intertwines with the larger narrative of adapting to technological advancements, and connect with him through his platforms for more insights. 

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Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixel Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. Today we're joined by Berti Skenderasi, who's coming to us from New Jersey. He's the owner of Proud Images and he's got a great story to tell. Hi, Berti, how are you today? Hi, Gary, I'm good. You are a prominent personality in the volume photography business and you've got a great story about how you came to this country. Can you talk a little bit about where you came from and how you got into this business?

Berti Skenderasi: 0:50

So I'm not sure if I'm prominent personnel, but everyone knows you by your first name.

Gary Pageau: 0:56

So yes, you are prominent.

Berti Skenderasi: 0:57

I came from Albania in 2013 here in the United States, I joined my wife. She came here before me through her parents, she got her citizenship and then I joined her Back home. I had completely different thoughts and ideas what I wanted to do in the States, and when I came here and met with the reality, I kind of wanted to recreate myself Because, for anyone that comes in the country, we knew America completely under the different optics than what it actually is. Initially I said I want nothing to do with what I've done in the past. Uh, you know meaning, I was involved in politics. Uh, I, I was a middleman of helping companies import products from china and whatnot. I said you know what? I kind of want to become a photographer now, and my thought process was that I wanted to become a wedding slash fashion photographer. Thanks god that didn't happen. Um, because I would have probably quit a year after. In the circumstances where I was uh, you know that we just had our son. I needed a job and the very first company I found that was hiring without needing to be a photographer was Lifetouch. So I applied. I got almost accepted directly over the phone. Actually, no, I had an interview. It blew my mind how the processes were handled and how you could possibly photograph 600, 700 students in a day.

Berti Skenderasi: 2:52

A year after, I still decided that I came for the American dream. I wanted to own my business. So I decided to jump on the world of entrepreneurship and opened a computer repair business Over there. We pretty much tried the best we could, without really being receptive to what the market looked like, and we did fail successfully. You've failed successfully.

Berti Skenderasi: 3:25

What does that mean? Um, well, it meant that for a year, um, you know, we tried to without again, we're, we're trying to offer a service that it's almost, uh, irrelevant, meaning people can simply return their, their, you know, electronic purchases for a replacement right and something that actually in in it's big, like you know, in Europe, there are. You know, most of the people don't have the commodity and luxury we have here to. You know, six months after, or you buy a protection plan and a year after you bought the computer, you can simply return it for replacement Right. So, and you know, I had some savings which, you know, I depleted fast. And now I'm, you know, I'm, you know, after, after having a really chilling conversation with my wife over the dinner table, I said what do I want to do now? Said well, the way I want to do now.

Berti Skenderasi: 4:23

And you know it's, it's not. I remember it. You know vividly today where I'm. For the first time in my life I've I'm finding myself with no direction. Like which direction I want to go, because my my college degree in hospitality that I from my master's degree in political marketing meant nothing. So I'm between two choices of trying to find a job, hopefully still in the photography realm, or try again. But at the very same moment I remember having only our last $400, not even enough for the next month's rent. Right. And I strongly believe that most of the successful men have had an actual successful woman behind them. And I was lucky enough where my wife said I'd rather you regret trying than not trying, right. So you know, if that's what you want to pursue, just go for it Right. And I remember pulling the list of schools from the Department of Education website in my area education website in my area. I feel we're lucky here because in a five miles radius we have at least where I am at, it's probably 180 schools.

Berti Skenderasi: 5:54

Okay, so I started cold calling and, as you notice, I didn't have the best accent.

Gary Pageau: 6:05

Has your accent gotten better since then, or was it pretty bad at that time?

Berti Skenderasi: 6:08

I knew English before I came here.

Gary Pageau: 6:10

Yeah, I was going to say you're pretty fluent.

Berti Skenderasi: 6:13

But I didn't have the American English taught back home, and it's funny because I grew up in communism I'm a 1980s kid and we had only the only language foreign language we had back in schools was Russian Right and at that time was forbidden to learn English. Okay, because the English was the language of imperialists and the enemies and you know and whatnot. Ironically, my Russian teacher, she knew English, she was self-taught, so my father hired her to come privately in our home to the Russian book, a Russian language book, which inside of it, the, the english book, was hidden. Okay, so for the public, this was, you know, she was coming us to teach russian yeah while privately, she was teaching us english me and both of my sisters okay.

Berti Skenderasi: 7:17

however, when I came here uh, part of the you know, settling in the reality I realized that, although I'm speaking English, nobody understands me, and it was a process. The experience of working for Lifetouch traveling across Jersey, connecticut and whatnot helped me progress quite fast on my english.

Gary Pageau: 7:45

Yeah, in english, and the three into the deep end right away yeah,

Berti Skenderasi: 7:49

but regardless. so you know, I start cold calling schools. Um, remember I had to set up kind of an office in my bedroom, in one of my bedrooms. We're living then in a tiny apartment it was still a three-bedroom apartment but was really tiny, uh, smaller than a dorm room and that's where I started calling, uh, schools because I really wanted to get serious about you know, I really wanted to have an office, a business line um, in which I didn't have the money to afford paying one of these services, uh, where you have side vr. So I decided to learn how to build my phone system Because I still realized that many people would want to feel they're talking to a real company, right, when they, you know, call in an IVR response and all that stuff.

Berti Skenderasi: 8:46

And remember calling close to 105 schools and I know obviously I was getting the, you know the flat out, no right, exactly, photographer, the you know I never I didn't want to give up, so I continued calling until the 108th school um said, hey, yeah, we do have a photographer, but yeah, let's, let's meet up and let's see what you got right I went in that meeting with, I remember, with just a letter size introduction, what we do.

Berti Skenderasi: 9:09

I still wanted to do what I was trained working for Lifetouch senior pictures. Originally that was the plan and as I'm sitting there with them I realized they already have a well-established company serving them, have a well-established company serving them. And in my previous life sales training I always knew that I had to have the last thing before I walked out the door that I could throw at them as I'm walking out. They're talking about the commission. I said have you guys got any commission from the company you're working on? And said, yeah, we do.

Berti Skenderasi: 9:44

I said did the company ever provide you a detailed report on what that commission was made of? Because a school population there were these big charter schools of 3,000 students Having a $500 commission. It just doesn't feel right to me. That spiked their curiosity. So they reached out to the company they're working with and the company flat out refused to provide that information. So, fast forward, a week after this meeting they called me and said well, you got the business. And I'm like, okay Now, and this is the very moment where I realized that this is quite some undertaking, moment where I realized that this is quite some undertaking, because they wanted their service items ID cards and whatnot At the same time. This is summer of 2015, where the first SPAC that I attended was happening in.

Berti Skenderasi: 10:44

East Right. I drive there with a friend of mine which I met working for LifeDutch and that's where I saw firsthand the independent world of volume photographers Right, how knowledge was dispersed and how people were. Initially it felt like a little tight club of people in their own circles. But I remember vividly Paul Schultz, one of the veterans in the industry, took me literally by hand and made sure I was introduced to. You know Tim McCain from PhotoLinks, marathon Lab, richmond, pro Lab people, people who I really needed to follow up and get set up for my business. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 11:36

And then I do the very first job and my thought process is if I'm replacing my income working for this company, for LifeTouch, this will win for me. And I'll never forget the moment when we did the first three schools. Me and Juan were sitting in my living room and we're opening the cash envelopes, and that was it Like when I saw what we were able to collect in these three picture days.

Berti Skenderasi: 12:04

I think this is it. I want to pursue this to all this extent and pretty much the rest is kind of history. The goal was not necessarily being just a photographer. Over time, and I mean in the past year and a half, I realized that these schools are having a lot of needs. I probably can help intermediate, and this was coming from me being a middleman, where I used to source products and items and machineries and whatnot from China.

Gary Pageau: 12:40

You know I was going to ask about that because I remember at one of the SPACs it was around COVID, it was during COVID and you were talking about how you kind of opened up this whole other line of business to provide supplies to schools, cleaning supplies and things they need, and I was going to say that tied directly into your import-export experience. So talk a little bit about that. Let's kind of jump ahead a little bit. You're in the business only for a few years, four or five years.

Berti Skenderasi: 13:12

Yeah, not even two years. And one of the things that keeps us from accomplishing heights is our own fears. We fit into this like we precondition ourselves that, oh no, no, I'm just a car mechanic. I don't think I can become a realtor or real estate. Unfortunately, the human mind is conditioned to stay within the safe boundaries they perceive. And yes, I was definitely hungry. Uh, not just necessary for money, but also the idea of being in the, you know it was. It was really exciting to be kind of a supermarket, uh thought process. And I remember being laughed at when I first time, you know I introduced first time like, as school photographers, we can provide more than just photography. I I vividly remember a few faces you know doing, you know, uh, you know smirks like what are these guys talking about? You know?

Berti Skenderasi: 14:15

right, yeah was this guy with a thick accent telling us what to do in our business.

Berti Skenderasi: 14:21

But, um, regardless, my goal was to uh be relevant and uh like kind of be a hero, and this is long before covid right I remember one day, going to one of the schools, were about to set up in a place where they had and that was the aha moment they had purchased pallets with paper which they had placed them into the location that we're supposed to set up our lights, and I asked hey, can we do something about this? Can we move this stuff away so we can set up? And they said no, and it struck to me, can set up. And they said no, and it it struck to me. I said so, my service is less important than a palette of uh paper. And that's where I said, you know, I decided you know what I definitely want to offer more, you know, uh, increase the amount of important services that now I'm relevant to the school right you know because?

Berti Skenderasi: 15:24

know because, as photographers, we like to think that what we do is important. However, I do believe it's the last thing in the list of important things the school needs addressed.

Gary Pageau: 15:37

Right, it's important, but it's certainly not one of the first 10 they get up in the morning and worry about. So I simply ask.

Berti Skenderasi: 15:42

They get up in the morning and worry about it. So I simply ask hey, do you think I can? You know like I started to inquire and this is obviously a relationship business, right? So I approached to the principal, remembering, I said do you mind giving me some more information about the paper you bought and where you bought it? The paper you bought and where you bought it, and I already had, you know, my printing side of the business, you know, lined up with my wholesaler and that's where we, you know, I see that they overpaid significantly for the paper. I said do you mind if I offer you, you know, a price, a quote on your next supply? And the next thing I knew the district went with me and I remember buying the first truckload of paper on their behalf, like I'm selling them the paper. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 16:37

And then from that point was okay, I can ask anything. You know, and janitorial supplies which are typically in the wholesaler paper business, there are these. The companies will also have janitorial supplies, you know, wholesale. And again, this is pre-COVID we're talking about and that's what I remember the first time I mentioned it. You know we can sell toilet paper if need to be, and it was one of the SPAC chats. I remember and I can never forget again the smirk of people on that chat, the very same people who you know during COVID. They were literally crying, thinking their business would die In the brink of. You know, there's a business.

Gary Pageau: 17:26

Exactly, it was a rough time, absolutely.

Berti Skenderasi: 17:29

Now, ironically, I had a supply. I mean, I had a purchase order about to be delivered. Right when people were freaking out on toilet paper, I reached out to the school, knowing that the school actually would be, you know, closed, so they would not necessarily be needing the supply. And we come to an into agreement that I could redirect that purchase order to a different, to a different buyer, obviously providing that supply, that purchase order, at a later time. And I will never forget that it was a bidding war in the wholesale. Exactly, that was the very first best money I ever made, selling that truckload of you know. Uh, yes, so, honestly, the the the thought process was that we're, at the end of the day, we're a service provider and what we really want to care about is how fast, how good, we provide services to our client and how and how cheap and how that affects our, our bottom line right, because certainly you got to make money right.

Gary Pageau: 18:48

I mean, if you're selling paper, you got to make money yeah, you know so.

Berti Skenderasi: 18:53

So now we're not even talking about the photography uh business, like you know, okay, because obviously for a know a good amount of time, our service was completely irrelevant and then, right about that time, there was also election time where all these local and county elections were happening. So now you know, the politicians running for the office are trying to do an outreach on the community in a safe manner. Right, I photographed, we photographed all the graduation pictures. In January, right Right before SPAC, I reached out to one of the campaigns. I said, hey, I do have these close to 1,500 graduation pictures of middle schoolers that we photographed. If you guys want to do an outreach, maybe you can buy. Another challenge for these campaigns were that they had all this money raised but they couldn't spend it because there was nothing.

Gary Pageau: 19:55

Because they couldn't have events, they couldn't have gatherings.

Berti Skenderasi: 19:58

They couldn't have all this stuff Yet they wanted to do some, you know some outreach right? I said what if I provided you I mean you buy this in bulk. By bulk I'm meaning a decent pricing compared to the retail, yet maybe a very good margin right there. And you guys do the walkout, as you're trying to do in the neighborhood. They're like well, this sounds exciting, I said. However, I'm going to provide you a system in which you will know the routes you need to go to.

Berti Skenderasi: 20:34

And as you stop by, you offer this as a gift to your constituents. I get a purchase order for all of them for 2,000 times. And at the same time the schools itself wanted to do their outreach. Mind you, schools I mean fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, because this was money that would have that effect. The aftermath we had inflation and stuff, but schools themselves wanted to do these virtual graduation ceremonies and how to get you know.

Berti Skenderasi: 21:14

So now my tech skills to be able to put you know quickly, in a user-friendly manner, software that they can utilize to outreach to their school community was again an extra step to make myself and my business get out of the. This is the picture guy to. This is our guy. Right.

Gary Pageau: 21:43

Berti's, our guy Right this is our guy.

Berti Skenderasi: 21:46

Right, you know he's our guy. Yeah, and you know, and in the process, like this now allows, you know we're. We have a perfect setup because, remember, school trusts us with the most crucial and important information. Right, they give us the student rosters that we need to process the picture day. Some of the schools will provide parent contacts and all that stuff. So the trust it's already there, right, and if you're trusted with this critical information, then anything else it's possible for you to offer and provide, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 22:28

One of the problems was their delivery for their capping gowns right because they still wanted to wear.

Berti Skenderasi: 22:31

The students needed to wear these capping gowns, although the graduation was virtual was weird, but yet you know. So now the challenge was how do we efficiently distribute this?

Gary Pageau: 22:44

Right, exactly.

Berti Skenderasi: 22:46

So again, I built a little software which would give the school the routes they needed to go to and know which student was next to drop off the capping hour. Right. So it's a crazy time, scary one, but at the same time I remember never stopping working Like I don't remember. Uh, you know I, you know I. I kept working throughout the whole COVID season because another thing was New Jersey, all the printing business assigned, uh, made it essential.

Gary Pageau: 23:20

Sure.

Berti Skenderasi: 23:21

So by law I was legally okay to operate the business, while everybody else was shut down.

Gary Pageau: 23:29

Right, because you were a printer.

Berti Skenderasi: 23:30

Yes, yeah, and we're printing here, we're printing. This was another asset we're printing. Before they even got homework. It took close to three months. Everybody get their laptops.

Berti Skenderasi: 23:42

So in this three months period I'm printing here and, and you know, having the help of my great friends at district print, uh, district photo I'm printing homework for all the districts, even the districts because, remember, I had only at that time I only had 15 schools, but I'm serving 40 of them by selling cap and gowns, diploma covers. So I'm printing homework for all of these districts that they're distributing to their students. Right. Hate to say it, but business-wise it was the best time.

Gary Pageau: 24:22

You know it's tough because you're right. I mean it was a pandemic, you know, and there's people getting sick, people dying. It was terrible, yeah. But I've talked to a lot of people, especially in the volume photography business, where you know they had the opportunity to either do something like you did or they just took the opportunity to reinvent their business right. They went totally digital. Reinvent their business right, they went totally digital, they added products, they did different things. So you don't want to say you know I had a great pandemic, but you know the reality is is it's, it was a way for a lot of people to reinvent their business, and really that's what an entrepreneur does. They see an opportunity and they have to, you know, jump on it or take advantage of it in some way.

Gary Pageau: 24:59

And you know it's a terrible, terrible thing and we certainly don't want another one yes but on the other hand you know it was it it did have a favorable outcome for some people's uh businesses.

Gary Pageau: 25:11

Look, and this is, and I get goosebumps because I love this country.

Berti Skenderasi: 25:15

I'm not afraid to say that I love this country more than you know. My previous one right, because the previous one I didn't choose it. Right. But I did choose this country. But this is the soul of America. You know coming back stronger, innovating. You know resolving around crisis and whatnot. Right, right, yeah, and this is what makes this country the greatest on earth. Like I've seen, I've traveled close to 37 countries in my life. You know I lived in China for some time. Nothing resembles what America does from what I've seen. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 26:00

And this is the soul, and I get it. Most people try to stay in their comfort zones and, um, you know it's it, they're preconditioned to think that, well, this is it, um, we're gonna stay where we are. I mean, um, mentally, emotionally, uh, you know, professionally, uh, don't fix it if it ain't broke. Um kind of mentality which you know it works for. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. Kind of mentality which you know it works for. Some people They'll conserve what they have, but gosh, we're living in the best times of our life. That's why you know like the access to knowledge today is it's fast and it's cheap.

Gary Pageau: 26:41

And it's you know. I tell people, when I run into people who have that perspective, I say you know we're living in peak humanity, right? I mean this is, you know, it's only going to get better in the future, right? So let's talk a little bit about the future, because you've been dabbling in it, right? You've actually been doing some things with technology that are kind of futuristic, and that's one of the reasons why I reached out to you for the podcast was to talk to you a little bit about you know how you got here, where you are now, but also where you're going, and can you talk a little bit about that project?

Berti Skenderasi: 27:11

So, yes, I got first introduced to and I've been always passionate about the computers and technology.

Gary Pageau: 27:18

Yeah, obviously you had a computer repair business.

Berti Skenderasi: 27:20

Yeah, yeah, throughout my whole life. But the very first serious introduction I had into tech was close to four years ago, where all these big companies, they're inviting beta testers of any background and professional skill set to join their private groups and they're talking about something called machine learning. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 27:46

And honestly, having a little also background in industrial machines, I went to tech school. I'm an electrician and electronics repair by trade. Initially it's funny because machine learning to me made me think this was about a physical machine that is capable of learning which it is. There's a computer who you put it to start learning right. Yeah.

Berti Skenderasi: 28:15

And then I joined these groups and I'm looking at it and there's a plethora of backgrounds and people coming into space. There's people from working in medical offices or you know people of different trades who kind of want to, you know, start getting to this. I remember that one of the critical sources needed for machine learning were imagery Right, and at that time the sourcing of these images was not something that was readily available. Right, typically a wedding photographer may not have the volume we guys have. I would compare a 15 school or a 10 school volume. Business size may have close to 10 to 20 times more photography content than a wedding photographer been working for 10 years photography content than a wedding photographer been working for 10 years. Right, and the way, the way typically these beta tester groups work, they give you access or they give you a package they call it a sandbox where you can locally install it on your computer and start training it for specific tasks on those images right and they're only, they're only exchange.

Berti Skenderasi: 29:44

They don't want your images, but they want the output.

Gary Pageau: 29:47

Uh, that the model, um the training looked at right if it was looking for eyes open or eyes closed or whatever they want the data set, but not the actual image.

Berti Skenderasi: 29:56

Yes, yes, not the I, because you know it becomes also also storage extensive when you look at that. So that's where I realized that the power of this new tech emerging, it's just phenomenal. And at the same time I'm mostly a one man show Right and I've been a big believer in automation, because at the time I said well, being again inspired from my first employer in the United States, I said this company is the largest in the world. Photograph is close to 60% at that time of all schools in the United States and it's all about the software.

Berti Skenderasi: 30:42

Right the united states, and it's all about the software, right they're. They're the idea that they could operate this uh business with I with all due respect to all my former colleagues uh, the fact that they would hire telling you you don't need to be a photographer, we'll train you. Right, this was not about photography, but this was about efficiency yeah, yeah, it was about data and efficiency. Yeah, like, how do you make a solid and dump-proof system that is consistent across the board? Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 31:12

And that was the source of inspiration, where I said well, I cannot afford to hire five or six full-timers for now to do image processing and data entry and whatnot. So my sole focus was how do I now learn to automate processes? Right. Doesn't require an actual human to interact with. Right. And as I got along and I got my hands on the machine learning, I saw the potential was enormous. Right. And this is long before chat GPT became public to everyone else. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 31:50

And the. Its ability to predict results was insane and I remember like you could and that's where I still you know go back to we're living in the best time of our lives, because now my 12-year-old son knows probably a lot better than someone who graduated computer engineering in the 2000s Right, exactly, and he's only 12. Obviously he has the motivation to pursue, but the idea that now you can feed any data set to these models and be able to predict and build a solid foundational workflow on almost anything you could think of is just power so?

Gary Pageau: 32:41

so what is it that you and what was the problem you were trying to solve by getting involved with this, uh, these machine models?

Berti Skenderasi: 32:50

uh, my problem was I wanted this was my dream. Uh, setup. The minute I take the picture it's all being edited, first being selected which pose is the best, second being edited meaning skin color, if needed to be changed I mean color correction, background removal and then imposed into the package. And then come to my print. Uh, press ready to be printed right without the human touch right and this was the problem that I wanted to solve in terms of shortening the amount of time.

Gary Pageau: 33:25

Aren't there some of the vendors sort of already offering some of those things? Your photo links, your got photos.

Berti Skenderasi: 33:32

Correct.

Gary Pageau: 33:33

Aren't they offering similar things to this?

Berti Skenderasi: 33:35

Correct and that was you know, with like the. But first I wanted to own it, right, okay Right, okay Right. And I wanted to pipeline it that I don't have to touch it at certain points, meaning, with all the great services this company offers, you still have to bring your images to another stage, then be properly vetted and selected and then to the next stage of being processed so they feel the human input that it's needed, right? My dream scenario was zero human input. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 34:18

And I own it. Right okay, Because two things I got the inspiration from Chances of you winning the battle and this I go really back in history when Romans went to war with Persians. Right. When the Romans lost the first battle was because Romans tried to replicate what Persians were good at fighting. So Persians were good fighting standing while the Romans used cavalry. Romans decided to fight standing with Persians. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 34:58

And that's where they lost Right. So, coming back to our days, how do you win using everyone else? Tools? Right maybe you do, but you're still dependent on the features someone else is providing.

Gary Pageau: 35:17

So you're looking at a standpoint of you know if you're competing against X company, which uses the same platform. Which is using the same platform. What is the difference, right, Other than the relationships you build? And things like that yes.

Berti Skenderasi: 35:31

So now we're able to when we go and take pictures at the school. Um, one of the what again going back to the logic that were the last important thing in the important list of schools is they want their admin pictures. Uh, as soon as possible, because, instead of new jersey, there is a requirement that they should have, at the beginning of the school year, updated, a student directory including images, right, why don't we do this as our second year? As we're taking pictures, it's taking close to 20 seconds between having the picture taken, selected which one, and locally saved. So by the time we're done with picture day, we hand the download or the USB of the admin files the school needs. That allows me to really focus on what's most important aspect of it, which is selling. There is a lot of potential, where we're actually working on it, to innovate, because it comes down to selling. How do you capture payment? How do you sell? How do you innovate? The experience, right. The experience and the irony of our business is that our dollar payer is not the decision maker.

Gary Pageau: 36:49

Right, exactly, exactly Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 36:52

Exactly, exactly. So now it's quite of an interesting perspective because you're the decision maker has completely a different set of needs, right, the person who actually pays you dollars for your product. It is a very unique business in that extent because your client is the school, not necessarily mom. Yeah, and the school say, like your only goal is not, like the school wants you not to mess it up and have almost no friction with parents, while the parents are looking for options, instant deliveries and whatnot, which is another, you know, challenge in itself.

Gary Pageau: 37:29

So this is a system that you develop yourself. You're now using Correct Correct and are you integrating it with other pieces, or can you do the entire workflow yourself?

Berti Skenderasi: 37:38

As of now, the only piece we're using is we have our own shopping cart. I'm still using one of the greatest softwares ever created in our industry PhotoLinks Flow created in our industry. Photolinks Flow to when we do. Usually, that is a database slash image rendering engine for our local printing. 95% of our production is hands-free. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 38:13

Our model now, because we're able to train, uh over the archive of the images. Our model now is getting it's. It's always in learning mode and always looks for, you know, image flows that you know differentiates and makes the process automation. So from pressing the button on the camera to having a picture lined up on our production press to be printed, it's close to a minute and 20 seconds, okay, which typically it's a process that takes days in a traditional setting.

Gary Pageau: 38:48

So what's your plan with this? Is this to you know, keep it in your own little world, or you know, use it as a competitive advantage, or open source it, or what's your? What's your plan with this? Is this to keep it in your own little world, or use it as a competitive advantage, or open source it, or what's your idea?

Berti Skenderasi: 38:59

My plan is to, at some point I want to monetize on this, in a sense of not necessarily being a traditional software, as a service model. The ultimate goal of owning a business is to build it and sell it Right, whenever that time comes. I do believe that the intellectual property of any business it's what the assets, like the most vital and valuable asset a business can have. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 39:33

If I do believe that the software that I've built using AI, I did like I had a little minimal background on coding but over time, using AI to teach me coding, I, I coded. I hired developers at some stage to, you know, tidy up the software. I hired developers at some stage to tidy up the software. But the bottom line is my software replaces at least six full-time workers. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 40:02

The goal is to offer this A as a custom-built software to someone, because you can only value the importance of this software when you have a certain amount of volume right. If you're a 20 plus schools business, that's where you see the value of this software right. Because you pretty much need humans to go and have pictures taken before. We're going to be able to buy robots to do our job, which I'm excited and looking forward to. Imagine walking to a school with an army of robots too.

Gary Pageau: 40:44

Don't you like people, Berti? I always thought you were a people person.

Berti Skenderasi: 40:48

I am, I am and I do believe the people have the opportunity to realign the skills Because, look, everybody has this huge expectation about AI. Oh, ai can do this. Oh, why don't AI do this? Ai is just your ability to instruct what to do Right. It can have a total different result for a minor tweak on your instruction. Right.

Berti Skenderasi: 41:19

And people will have to get accommodated to really get onto this faster. Specialize and this is from NVIDIA CEO. When he had that keynote speech said everybody wanted to be a software programmer 10 years ago. Scratch that idea now. Go and specialize yourself into something biology or marine or anything and then leverage AI to be better at it. Right yeah. And that's where us we need to really focus on now, because we can be obsolete in a blink of an eye.

Gary Pageau: 42:03

Right, well, this has been a great conversation. Where can people go to get more information about you, your and your company, and maybe want to just chat with you? Where can people reach out to you?

Berti Skenderasi: 42:16

I can be reached out on LinkedIn Birdies Confederacy, my website, I mean I have my proudimagescom website, in which it's just a customer facing software as of now, and also I do have imagineofficialcom website, which is kind of a demo of what the software that I built can do.

Gary Pageau: 42:41

Okay, awesome, well great, bernie, it's been great talking to you, as always Looking forward. Hopefully I'll see you at SPAC in 2025 and we'll talk then. Yeah, looking forward to it.