Can Baya be a playa? You betcha!

This transcript was made in part by an automated service. In some cases there may be errors.

Verda: [00:00:00] Welcome to Break Some Dishes,

Jon: Defying the Rules to Inspire Design. I’m Jon Stroessner and I’m Verda Alexander. Verda, we’re talking to tech today. Are you excited? Yeah, I am because this is the future. I’m excited too. I, you know, we’re going to be talking to John Durkacz of Baye, right? I really am excited to hear from John because he’s an architect who decided that there’s a problem and rather than wait for somebody to come up with a solution, this architect decided to To create the solution himself and I think that that takes a lot of courage because he’s really getting out of his lane by starting a tech company.

Verda: Yeah we all did that we would solve all the world’s problems john I wanna know actually I’m gonna put you on the spot a little I wanna know you met this guy where how. Obviously, you realized there was something there. I

Jon: met him, uh, through a mutual friend who introduced us and originally we were just talking because he was trying to sort of understand the industry from my perspective a little bit.

And we just started to talk and, uh, He brought me onto his website and demoed this, and I’m not even somebody who works on Revit or works on, you know, a design platform, but I was really excited by it because he’s trying to create. a workflow tool for designers that will allow them to measure their climate impact as they are designing space, which I think is amazing.

Verda: Oh gosh, this tool could revolutionize in interior design. Like we could actually get metrics, get information, get data. I got really excited

Jon: about Baya because this is a tool that’s going to allow, I feel like any designer, right? You don’t have to be a climate expert. Any interior designer that wants to start doing the right thing can have a tool that will help them understand the impact of the materials that they’re putting into their space, right?

Verda: All said, John, I think this will revolutionize. How we do work. Let’s welcome John Durkacz. Hey, John, how’s it going?

Jon: Virta, I’ll tell you how it’s going. Just the fact that I’m sitting next to you podcasting is, it’s like getting a gift. Yeah. I’m getting gifted Virta live.

Verda: Yeah, first I saw you on floor 10 and then we were walking into the snap cab booth.

Yeah, snazzy snap cab booth together.

Jon: What do you think of this booth? It’s

Verda: very nice. It’s very quiet. It’s, it’s a loud, busy,

Jon: bustling neocon outside and And if anybody’s right outside this booth, you can put on the headphones and listen in. Isn’t that cool? Yeah, I am looking out and there appears to be a few people fighting over that set of headphones.

They know it’s

Verda: us. They

Jon: know it’s break some dishes. Breaking some dishes today with a very special guest. Do you want to say who? John. It’s John. Dirkatch. John. Dirkatch.

Verda: You’re supposed to say John who?

Jon: John who?

Verda: Another John.

Jon: Another John. Because you know why? You can’t have too many Johns. You can’t have too many.

John, um, is the founder of what I think, and I’m obviously biased, an amazing platform called Bayah. So welcome John.

John: Thank you. Flattered to be on board here. I really appreciate you guys having me and excited to go through this whole podcasting thing. This is my first one ever. So

Verda: how about your, it’s not your first Neocon though.

John: No, no, no. I’ve been going to Neocon for quite a while.

Jon: John and Verda, because you both, John, you’re an architect, Verda, you’re a designer. We have challenges in this industry, right? When it comes to, you know, designing spaces and tracking your impact, like all at the same time.

Verda: Yeah, earlier this morning I was up in Metropolis Sustainability Lab and we had our leadership summit and one of the questions that we keep coming back to is we need, we need the tools and in order to be able to do the work like to measure the carbon to know if we’re reducing the Global warming potential of a project if we’re getting to net zero whether that’s embodied or operational, right?

But the tools for interiors are not there’s not a lot of good ones right now

Jon: How do you do it today? Right if you’re if you’re like, I’m gonna I’m gonna track my impact I’m gonna track my footprint. How do you

Verda: everybody uses Revit? And then there’s some plug ons and you are or you [00:05:00] can enter the data as you’re doing your Revit into an EC3 tool or a tally tool, but there’s a lot of like, you have to kind of rig the system.

Like you have to trick it. Like it doesn’t always calculate things the way that they should be calculated or need to be calculated. And then there’s so much data that can be captured, right? You can create things. Spreadsheets that are ready for contractors with pricing information would be absolutely incredible because sometimes contractors are like, What is this waste diversion?

I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna say it’s gonna cost 50, 000 because I don’t want to do it or I don’t know how to do it or whatever. Right. And so this is the idea of Revit is you build A box, and that box is a pad, and all this information is associated to it, right? That’s how it’s supposed to work.

John: And I think that that’s kind of an important thing to bring up, is that right now, designers are actually recreating the digital twin themselves.

Which, instead of taking the time to really keep designing their space, they’re doing a lot of back end work to take products that exist, And then place it in a digital world. Right? So I think that that’s a little tough because you know, you’re spending a lot of time recreating these things and sometimes it’s how much detail can we put in given the allotted time based on the schedule.

And so,

Jon: yeah. Yeah. Well, the E, the E three CE C3 that you mentioned, EC three E, EC three, EC three. That’s the, is that the carbon calculator?

Verda: Yeah, that’s the one that the Carbon Leadership Forum has

Jon: Right. Put, put out there, which I, which I think is a great tool, right. But it is another step. for designers to have to manage and manipulate.

John: It’s fantastic. Um, absolutely. And it’s a step in the right direction. I think that’s one of the things that we really need to do. Talk about as an industry is, you know, we have all these different sustainability groups But how do we get them all in one place and say hey, we’re all trying to do the same thing here Let’s make you know our world a better place But I think sometimes we get caught in this.

Oh, well, we do this better and we do this better It’s like let’s kind of combine forces a little bit more. Yeah the way I like to look at it

Verda: Is that how you got this kernel of an idea where you frustrated yourself or were you just did you just oh, yeah See this thing Absolutely.

John: Um, I feel like in general, whenever I was designing one, it’s a little tedious to, to recreate a lot of these products.

So it’s limited. Um, I only had so much time. I’ve worked at small firms, medium sized firms, and then I’ve also worked for general contractors and the owner. So I’ve kind of seen. The whole gambit of the design industry. So with that, you kind of get a good sense of, okay, what tools can we really bring into place here to, to make people’s lives easier?

And that’s, that’s really where we started. It’s how do we make designers lives better? Because we love designers. Nobody wants to live in the same box as somebody else. We want the world to be beautiful and vibrant. And I think with that, we need the better tools. I think. In general, design tools are probably a decade behind FinTech.

So I mean, what’s

Jon: FinTech?

John: Oh, I’m sorry. Uh, it’s basically,

Jon: that’s my job today is to make sure that John doesn’t

John: go too technical.

Jon: Yeah.

John: Uh, yeah. So I mean, today you can Venmo somebody 10 bucks. Financial tech. Yes. Fin. Financial tech.

Jon: Oh, Verna. Ah, jeez.

Verda: Doesn’t, doesn’t go with dolphins. It’s about money, not dolphins.

Jon: Fin tech. I knew you were

Verda: going towards the dolphins. I was

Jon: like, I want to see Fin tech.

John: All right. But in general, I, I think we’re, you know, light years behind where we should be. And I think that was kind of where we were at.

Jon: Why? Why are we light years behind where we should be? I think, I think it’s

John: tough.

Uh, I mean, we live in a world where you’re submitting black and white drawings for permit. Uh, a lot of times, owners can’t really discern unless you’re trained to look at a black and white PDF set of exactly how to build a building. Um, I, I think it’s difficult. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done.

Uh, I, I kind of jump in and say that designers would make the best entrepreneurs because they can basically tackle any problem. And then on top of that, If they need to design a logo, they can do it that night. They don’t have to go out and hire anybody. So it’s kind of like this nice balance between, you know, how designers can come in and change things.

But yeah, it’s tough. I mean, there’s a million different things that I think, because there’s so many different problems, like really focusing in on just one is difficult.

music: Hmm.

Verda: So can we ask now, John? I think, I think we can. I’m really curious because we’ve talked about all kinds of issues and challenges that interior designers have to address sustainability.

What is Byadu?

John: Yeah, so, uh, basically we created a brand new library of products. We digitize existing products that are out in the world, all the products you see at Neocon. Uh, we have the ability to digitize them. And then we connect them through our database. So you always have a live link and updated information behind them.

But essentially we created a way that makes it really easy to drag and drop products into your 3d model. And then on top of that, you get all of your sustainability impact information, your embodied carbon, recycled content, indoor air [00:10:00] quality, and with another click you get to render it. So it’s kind of like the whole package of what we in our minds thought BIM should have been.

Um, was a little too fragmented. So we tried to bring those elements back together.

Jon: So as a designer is using Revit, right, they now have this opportunity to have a plugin, which is what Baya is. And LiveTime as they’re making product decisions, what is it calculating for them? What are the environmental categories, the measurables that you’re tracking?

John: Yeah. So, I mean, we really drill down, um, and we’re actually hoping to provide more and more, um, statistics and data based on, you know, different groups and whoever we can bring into the system. But essentially, the main components are really embodied carbon. So getting like a good view of your embodied carbon by product type.

So that’s number one. Number two, recycled content, whether it’s a pre or post consumer or non recycled content. So understanding that. And then the last one is indoor air quality. So understanding Hey, if this product is off gassing or providing a harmful environment to its tenants, you know, what kind of impact is that?

Uh, and then the nice thing about that is, you know, various companies are really, really, you know, intrigued with the idea of how do we get more of this standard out there? Uh, I will say it’s still a little bit of the Wild West. When it comes to sustainability information.

Verda: A lot of it you’re pulling off of EPDs though, right?

John: Correct. Yeah. A lot of it’s from EPDs. We, we request for the manufacturer so that whatever they’re bringing into our system, it needs to be verifiable. So we, we try to link the EPD directly to the product, um, because we also don’t want to have bad data within our system. So that’s, that’s kind of an important thing is we are really trying to track it and make sure that there’s a governing body that we can associate it to.

Jon: So if I’m specifying a carpet tile. Right? I’m literally using Revit to lay it out in that space, right? And the actual EPD that that carpet tile has attached to it will be there in Revit. It’ll be there in the drawing?

John: Not, not quite in Revit. We, we take the data out of the EPD and then we put that into Revit.

So the thing is with an EPD is it gives you like a general number for, uh, like a square footage. So an area, uh, what we do is we, we distill that down and then we add it into our calculators so that you have an updated number for your specific building. So every time you add a product, um, depending on the side of the space, the, the, your Embodied carbon, your recycled content, all those numbers are going to adjust based on that specific space.

So it really gives you an idea. It’s like an odometer to your Revit project essentially.

Jon: Yeah,

Verda: yeah. And we saw a little demo a couple weeks ago when we first talked to you where you were laying down carpet and you were first you laid it down in planks, and then you laid it down in In a tile and it recalculated the quantity of carpet.

Yeah,

John: patterns. We have a nice little configurator so that you can basically specify down to the backing exactly what you want to place in there.

Jon: To me, if you look at the design industry, it’s so complicated right now with certifications, right? I mean, they’re super expensive. There’s so many of them, right?

And I think that. You know, BAYA could really help designers and architects get a handle on the impact that certifications can have on their work. So, so as you could filter by building certification, right? Vert, imagine if you could also filter by product certification. So, hey, you know, I’m just going to put, product that has an EPD in this space?

John: Yeah, we, we hope so. Um, we truly do. I think even backing up before that, there’s, there’s quite a bit of education that needs to happen. Um, I think everyone wants to be sustainable, but they don’t quite know how to get there. So we kind of have this 10 percent of designers that are very intense about it.

They do a lot of research and they take the time to figure it out. But 90 percent of designers just don’t have the time. And so we hope Our software, one, educates people on what actually is sustainable and then two, gives them a little bit of time back because on top of the sustainability, we’re trying to make everything faster to get down to that, that final specification.

Verda: So I love the name, Baya. I thought it was like by the bay, but it’s actually pronounced by not bay. So, but we got it all figured out, but we’d love to know where, where did the name come from? What does it mean? Does it mean something?

John: It does. We actually named the company after a weaver bird. So it’s a little bit interesting.

They have these very intricately crafted nests. And because of that, um, we figured, um, We’re taking lots of different data. We’re interweaving it into 3d design platforms and we’re taking incredible vast amounts of information and trying to put it together somehow. Uh, why not name it after that? And the weaver bird was just a really good [00:15:00] inspiration.

It’s kind of one of those amazing creatures that takes its materials from, you know, its environment and creates wild nests, depending on where it’s located. And so that’s really where it came from.

Jon: So you’re an architect. What got into your head that made you decide that you wanted to, instead of being an architect, start up a tech company?

Company. How do you, how did that happen?

John: That’s funny. Um, yeah. So I think it’s a little bit of a difficult question because I still love architecture. I still design things, you know, today. Um, but I think as someone in the profession, I felt like it was my responsibility to really come in and try and help progress our profession.

Uh, when you see all these amazing products coming out for every other industry, you kind of look and say, Well, what about designers? You know, uh, why, why don’t we have these great products? So, um, I actually urge any designer that has some, some free time on the side to jump in and grab, grab one little problem, like a side hustle, start a tech

Jon: company, make it, make it a little

John: bit better.

It doesn’t have to be a tech company, but there’s so many things that we can do to, to really make our product better. Our industry thrive, and I feel like it is our responsibility as designers to come in and say, Hey, this is this is what we want. This is what we want to see in the future. And in order to progress and actually get a more sustainable future, you kind of need the tools in your back pocket.

Verda: I love that challenge. Yeah, every designer should think about a problem that they’re especially passionate about. And how can they?

John: Yeah. Absolutely. Who they are.

Jon: I’m, I’m a problem solver too. Verda. Just so you

Verda: know. All right. Well, speaking of problem solving, tell us about your team. Where are you how you got started?

I mean, we always like to hear kind of

Jon: yeah, how did it happen?

Verda: Yeah, yeah all the paths that you had to take to get here.

John: Honestly, it was it was kind of a Call of frustration with with another friend. He did high rises, but I was on the phone with him Just complaining about how you know, the lack of tools that were out there just for like the general public There’s there’s some pretty intense tools like, you know Grasshopper and dynamo that are for like the more advanced users so it’s like scripting and and kind of The more intense coding, but we wanted to create something that was a lot easier for people to use, um, and really hit.

the general public of designers rather than just a small little group that had the technical know how.

Jon: Did you have a friend that like coded? Like what was the, how did this? Oh

John: yeah. Um, so I, I grew up using Grasshopper. Um, I think it was way more popular when I was in school. Uh, but yeah, no, it’s started doing that.

I mean, it’s like visual scripting, so it’s a little different, uh, than pure code. So you

Jon: wrote the coding, you just decided. We

John: have a team of developers and software engineers that work on this. It’s not just me. Takes a village. It does, it does. But you’d be surprised. I thought

Verda: John was doing all this work by himself.

I was just about to All this collection of information. He was

Jon: kind of making it seem that way. I mean, you know.

Verda: I don’t think so.

John: I wish I had the brain power to do it all myself. It’s, yeah. No, it’s, it’s funny. Um, you start talking, uh, even software engineers and you’d be surprised how on board people are to, to, to make the world a little bit more sustainable.

And when they realize the impact of buildings that they have on You know our carbon impact. I think a lot of people want to jump on board and help out

Jon: What’s your biggest obstacle right now, what is it that you know gives you the most Yeah,

John: so I think given that there are thousands of manufacturers out there and thousands of products. I honestly digitizing all of it is going to be a big hurdle and it’s going to take a lot of time. So, uh, we’re working through that right now.

We’re, you know, trying to batch 20, 000 skews every month. So it’s a lot. Um, but getting there.

Verda: I thought you beta launched already.

John: We did. So, we are, Yes, we are live, uh, which is very exciting. You know, going through, trying to really figure out exactly the things and quirks that designers want to change. Uh, that’s another thing that, we actually have a Discord where designers can come in and talk to us.

So, it’s, it’s not just like, uh, here’s, uh, Here’s a product. Good luck. We, we do want to talk to people and improve the product. So that’s one of the big things. You have a version

Jon: 2. 0 and a version 2. 1. Oh

John: man.

Jon: I feel like my phone getting updated.

John: Our roadmap is very long.

Jon: 2. 1, 2. 3, 2. 4

John: Absolutely. Um, yeah, we have an ambitious roadmap.

The things that we’d like to build out, it’s going to take quite an effort. So,

Verda: yeah, it is. Yeah, you’ve really signed up for a big project.

Jon: Yeah, that’s for

John: sure. I hope I could get it done in my lifetime.

Jon: I was gonna ask. I’m [00:20:00] just thinking about you. Theoretically, you’ll never have. Everything. Yeah. No.

John: No.

Jon: But will you even be able to keep it updated?

Like every Neocon. Think about all the new products that are being introduced.

John: So we actually, we connect it to our database. And so like we have this conversation with flooring manufacturers all the time. When they add a new product, it’s literally just connected. And when the new product is added, at night there’s a script that runs and it creates the new product, digitizes it, and puts it on our system.

Oh. It’s automatically updated. It’s just, it’s bridging that link. So, we’re like a network. So, like, we make, like, they call it a handshake.

Jon: Yeah.

John: Between, um, like, our database and their database. I like

Jon: that. A little handshake.

John: Yeah. And essentially what happens is, once we connect, Yeah. We just, every night, we check for, for new SKUs.

Because, like, some of these manufacturers are coming out with, like, a new style or pattern, um, every day. Or not every day, but weekly or monthly.

Jon: Yeah.

John: So, um, yeah, no, we thought about all that. It’s, it’s more about connecting. Once you connect a manufacturer after that, that’s when the magic kind of happens in the background every night.

Jon: And do you think you’ll, you will at some point also add more measurables?

John: I, I think so. I hope so. Um, right now we’re not focused on just locking in one type of calculator. I think that the cool thing about what we’re building is we actually have the opportunity to adjust because it’s live data flowing from a database.

We don’t have to lock anything in right now. Typically you download a BIM model and it’s, it’s. dead. There’s no live connection. But in the future, we can say, Oh, there’s this brand new sustainability metric that we want to measure. Um, and it has to do with X. We can integrate that very quickly.

Jon: Yeah. Wow.

I’m also wondering if, do you have the capacity if a design firm is really interested in measuring a particular impact area and they come to you and ask you, can we just like, we want to look at, you can.

John: Yeah. So one of the cool things that we’re doing is, um, we’re actually linking the, the metrics that come out of Revit.

So you can actually look at even at a large design firm and say, Hey, this studio is more sustainable than the other and almost make it like a competition. Um, but you can come in and say, yeah, you could say certain firms are more sustainable than others and like really be transparent about it. Um, we haven’t built that out yet, but that is on our, on our horizon.

Verda: I’d love for you to tell us where you’d like to be in a year. And where you’d like to be in five years and

John: Oh man.

Verda: Yeah, like a little bit of like the near future and a little bit further out.

John: Yeah, I wish we could kind of go into a warp speed mode with, with where we’d like to go. Um, I, I think our biggest thing right now is we’re just focusing on getting as many interior products into our system as possible.

I think in five years we’d, we’d love to be able to do a building, um, with all the products that are in our system. Uh, th The thing that makes it kind of interesting where everything that we bring in, we try and find an easy way to, to bring it into the 3d model. So, um, when you drag and drop a floor, it’s going to do the entire floor.

When you drag and drop, you know, a wall product, it’s going to do the entire wall. Um, and then you have, you know, different sliders and buttons where you can adjust based on what’s allowable with that product type. Um, I feel like sometimes as designers, we. We love certain products, but then we forget, Oh, this product doesn’t come in, you know, this backing or this type or doesn’t really fit within this system.

So, uh, I think the biggest thing for us is let’s make it easier and better for designers to work in these 3d systems and then bring more accuracy to these 3d models.

Verda: And what, what did you mean by in five years you want to do a building?

John: Uh, we, we’d like to be able to say, Every single product that goes into that building came out of our library.

Verda: Okay. So an entire project, you to take five years for you to build out that?

John: I think so. How many products do you think that is? It might take longer.

Verda: Oh boy.

Jon: How many products do you think that is? Do you have any idea?

John: Uh, so I think the nice thing about that is once, once you get into raw materials, because we’re building, um, wall configurators and, you know, different ways of bringing in, you know, metal studs and drywall, uh, et cetera, that stuff doesn’t change as often.

It’s the finishes that really change quite a bit. Right. Right. Right. So I, I think that. That’s actually going to be a lot easier, the raw materials component. I think the challenge is building, um, various configurators and tools that allow designers complete freedom to have, you know, Infinite opportunities to change things the way they want to and I think that’s what’s going to take a little bit of give and take which takes time to have those conversations.

Verda: But the software is usable now. Correct. But it’s just that there may be missing. Right. Missing pieces.

John: Yeah, we hope to see Baya in the future as something that people are saying oh yeah we still have to design that the old school way but we’re using Baya for this. Yeah. That’s kind [00:25:00] of the way we’re looking at it.

Verda: So to me, that’s, that’s filling a big niche because a lot, none of the, none of the calculators have started with interior products. They all start with the architectural materials. Yeah, I think there’s some folks

John: out there doing furniture, which is great. And we hope we can eventually collaborate and integrate with, you know, various people that are doing that.

Um, but yeah, I would agree. I think the, the raw materials is where there’s a huge gap. And that’s what we’re hoping to, to kind of fill that gap. Of

Jon: interiors. Right. So, I was just thinking too, Virta, while you were talking, that is this something that’s viable? What if you could actually apply different filters to buy, uh, right?

So if I’m a designer and I’m working on lead version 5. 0 and I only want to specify product that impacts and create and gives, gives me points. Oh, yeah lead. Can you do that or will you be able to do that? Or is that part of your

John: I I think one of the cool things about this is there’s such an open road to what?

Is actually possible. Um, we were looking so we actually have a way of building out the the real Digital materials that you can see all of this and in really high res live the type of renderings that people spend five grand For uh an architecture firm for still images. So like this is you can walk around.

Jon: Yeah

John: The things that we’re looking at actually Have to do with, uh, putting in like a color blind filter. Like, how does this person experience the space? Let’s say they’re red color blind. So like being able to integrate that. And then on top of that, say, Oh, here’s another filter. This is where your carbon load is.

So like, let’s pop up, you know, like a light filter on this red area over here is a big, you know, carbon problem. Let’s, let’s take a look at that. So being able to visualize some of these things, cause sometimes looking at an Excel sheet, doesn’t really give you the emphasis that. Hey, maybe we should reconsider design decisions here.

Um, and we have some great advisors that actually.

Jon: So you could look at a floor plan and you, you could conceivably like have an area that, that’s red because they’ve specified a carbon rich product assortment there.

John: Exactly. That’s been in the future. Not right now, but that’s, that’s some of the things that we’ve been a week

Jon: or two away.

John: Yeah, I wish. Um, but yeah, those are, those are things that we’re testing.

Verda: I think we should do some hot seat questions.

Jon: Oh,

Verda: this is meant to be rapid fire. Quick, short, and

Jon: sitting around pontificating. You’re not allowed. You’re supposed to answer these questions the way I do this podcast without thinking.

John: I’ll do my best.

Verda: Okay. What have you, I was going to, I was going to ask, what have you composted today? But since we’re at a, You know, we’re at the mart.

I don’t know if they compost. So what have you recycled today?

John: I’ve recycled quite a few of these open water.

Verda: Well, you can’t recycle quite a few if you’ve

John: I’ve had, I’ve had three of these waters.

Verda: You mean you’ve refilled them.

John: Oh, that’s right.

Verda: Stop recycling! Fail!

John: The problem is we don’t have refilling stations.

John, what did I tell you about thinking? There

Verda: are. You didn’t look hard.

John: But see, we didn’t have the right signage. We need designers with This is why

Verda: it’s called the hot

John: seat. This

Jon: is why it’s called the hot

Verda: seat. Alright, next question. When was the last time you were out in nature?

John: Uh, last weekend. I go hiking all the time.

That’s my my favorite thing just to be outside with my dog. Yes. Yes, my very cute pup

Verda: Yeah, we saw the the pup on our practice round sleeping on the couch

John: She does do a lot of sleeping

Verda: Have you read anything inspiring lately?

John: I read the originals It’s a really good book. It’s really interesting goes into statistics on Um, you know, depending on when you were born and how many siblings you have, kind of how that defines different life decisions.

Really interesting book. I’d recommend it.

Jon: Okay. The originals. Sounds like a Malcolm Gladwell kind of book.

John: It’s a little bit of an entrepreneur book, so it gets a little nerdy, but it’s a

Verda: good

John: one. What’s your

Verda: save the planet superpower? Well, I’m hoping

John: it’s Baya.

Verda: Good answer. Great answer. Good answer. Okay.

Maybe

Jon: last. Give him one more.

Verda: Solar panels or wind farms? Oh.

John: I think it depends on the wind farms, but solar panels.

Verda: Okay.

John: Gotta protect the birds.

Verda: Okay. Four out of five, not bad.

John: That’s tough. That’s

Verda: 80%.

Jon: That’s barely a B.

John: I’m actually more of the, the underwater. Uh, generation, like wave technology. Oh, hydro,

Verda: hydropower?

John: The, the wave technology that they have. Yeah, I’ve seen that. That’s the best, I think. Cause it, no fishes were harmed in this.

Jon: It’s, it’s not hydropower, but it’s the movement, it’s the action of the, of waves, of tide. Oh, interesting. Yeah, that activates.

John: And it actually, there’s so much power that goes. That wasn’t,

Jon: you didn’t have that choice.

Oh, I know. You had to go with.

Verda: And now they want to capture the solar energy. Yeah. Outside the Earth’s atmosphere and piping in. Did you hear about really outer space?

John: Well, I need to read about [00:30:00] that.

Jon: Yeah right now That’s our astronaut episode.

Verda: There you go Okay. Well, thank you, John. Thanks, John. Oh,

Jon: we almost forgot the Break Some Dishes promo code.

John: That is correct,

Jon: yeah. Why don’t you tell the listeners what, how that’s going to work.

John: So super exciting, um, through Break Some Dishes, you guys were kind enough to have me on here. Uh, we will be offering a three month free trial of Bayah. So you can jump in, give it a shot, see what you like, see what you don’t like, let us know.

Um, we’re evolving every day. Thanks But if you just type in break some dishes

Jon: in the promo code box, that is correct

John: Yeah,

Jon: there you go.

Verda: And I just want to add it takes a village and we got to build this together.

John: I hope so I hope yeah, I honestly hope that

Verda: feedback.

John: Yeah, absolutely But I do hope that after this podcast there are a couple designers that say hey We also need to fix this and this and this.

Verda: John, that was fun. I couldn’t help myself with the live hot seat because that it’s so much more fun in person. And boy, I enjoyed that podcast. I enjoyed. being in the same podcasting booth with John and John, the two Johns. It was, it was so much fun. And Rob. And Rob.

Jon: We had our producer Rob in there with us.

It was, it was actually a lot of fun and we were kind of. I wish we could do

Verda: live podcasting all the time. I know it’s impossible, but.

Jon: It’s a lot easier. Oh, it’s more fun.

Verda: Yeah,

Jon: it’s definitely more fun. And I love that. Um, surround had the headphones and people were like walking up and putting the headphones on to listen into our pod.

And we could look out the window and, you know, see all the neocon folks walking by. It was definitely a lot of fun to do it. on the first floor of the Mart during Neocon because there was just so much activity. So definitely enjoyed it a lot. But I really, really love talking with John about Baia. I, you know, I felt like I knew quite a bit about it going into it, but then we always learn so much more during a 30 minute conversation and just getting into the weeds a little bit on what that’s going to do is, is pretty exciting.

Verda: Yeah. And I wanted to make sure that It was accessible and understandable because a lot of this tech stuff can be over our heads. But I think, I hope we did a good job at getting it down to the basics and the nuts and bolts of what he’s doing, which I think is an incredible endeavor, a big endeavor, but incredible.

And yeah, we really, I think we both want him to succeed and to get, go down that path and get this thing figured out as quickly as possible.

Jon: Yeah, I, you took the words right out of my mouth. I really, I really want to see him succeed at this. I really want to see the industry, um, embrace it and support it.

And I think that. That’s not an easy, that’s not an easy path, right? He’s, he’s got to educate and build awareness amongst all of the design firms that are out there, and he’s got to convince the manufacturers, um, that they should join the platform because at the end of the day, he needs the designers to subscribe.

to use it, but he needs the manufacturers also to give him access to all of their product information so that designers can use it. So there’s a lot there. There’s a lot of work. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him, but a lot of data to

Verda: collect.

Jon: Yeah.

Verda: Too bad he can’t put his dog to work. Well,

Jon: it looks like that dog sleeps.

Yeah, that dog sleeps a lot. But yeah, and I’m so impressed with John having the courage as an architect to take on tech. I, man, I want to do everything I can to make sure that he, he succeeds with this because it’s a brave endeavor. And we need more of this in our industry. This is, this is innovation right here.

And I’m really proud that we kind of, you know, You know, are on the cutting edge here in this conversation and, and pushing something that I think is going to be impactful. Of course we are, John, because we’re breaking some dishes. Yeah, good thing. Hope we didn’t break any technology. I want his technology to be good.

Verda: Thanks to John Dyrkach of Viya for joining us. We’d love to hear about the issues that you’d like us to address. Be sure to let us know by leaving a positive review wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also ask your hot seat questions there.

Jon: Break some dishes is a surround podcast by Sandow Design Group.

Thanks to the team behind the scenes. This episode is produced by Rob Schulte and edited by Rob Adler.

Verda: Thanks to master and dynamic for the official headphones of the surround network. You can hear other podcasts like this one at surround podcast.

music: com.