Revolutionizing Team Dynamics: Chris Piche’s Journey with Smarter AI 

Scaling with People podcast with Gwenevre Crary

Imagine unlocking the secrets to building a high-performance team that excels and aligns with your company’s culture and mission. Get ready to be enlightened as Chris Piche, a computer scientist and the mastermind behind Smarter AI joins us for a power-packed episode that will radically change the way you perceive team building.  Chris candidly shares the blueprint he used to nurture his business from a mere idea to a company boasting 60 employees while emphasizing the importance of hiring for aptitude and attitude.

Chris doesn’t just stop at team building; he shares his perspective on forming mission-oriented teams with the aim of creating safer roads. It’s about more than just recruiting top talent. It’s about cultivating an environment where each member can unlock their potential, fitting in and enhancing the team’s culture. The importance of a clear and captivating mission, appreciation for employees, and the right recruitment strategies are some of the game-changing insights Chris generously imparts. Don’t miss this episode that promises to leave you inspired and equipped with strategies to supercharge your team’s performance.

Gwenevre Crary: Welcome everyone to the Scaling With People podcast. I’m excited to have Chris Piche with me today. He’s a computer scientist, technology entrepreneur, and expert in distribution networking, scalable video, and computer vision technologies. Chris has developed technologies and products, including AT&T TV, BlackBerry Video, Poly Video, and STUN/TURN/ICE. I have to learn more about that. 

He also has been awarded Best of Internet World, Canada’s Top Young Leader, and Top 40 Under 40. Chris is now the Founder of Smarter AI, the leading software platform for AI cameras. Welcome, Chris. I’m excited to have you on the show today. And, in regards to learning from you, what has your experience been in building your company, Smarter AI?

Chris Piche: Thanks for having me, Gwenevre.

Gwenevre Crary: Absolutely. So, how big is your company right now?

Chris Piche: Our company has about 60 people, and we’re in the early growth stage, so our team consists primarily of about 40 of the world’s best computer and software engineers.

Gwenevre Crary: Excellent. And how long have you been in the business? When did you create your company?

Chris Piche: We started four years ago with a very simple idea. Our idea was that thanks to certain enabling technologies, we would see a transformation and disruption in cameras and the camera market. 

There are millions of cameras, and most security cameras do just two things: display video on a screen or record it on a disk. Although the video contains a lot of useful information, it’s never analyzed and never used. 

We started with the idea that making AI cameras would soon be feasible thanks to a couple of enabling technologies – namely, neural network models and neural network accelerators.  Instead of just recording the video on a disk or displaying it on a screen, AI cameras would see and listen to understand what’s happening around them and alert us to important events. I founded Smarter AI to build a software platform to enable these AI cameras. 

Gwenevre Crary: That’s great. So, while building your business, you have to bring on people, you said, 50-60 people, mostly engineers, the toughest roles to fill right now. I do help my clients find them all the time. It’s been a challenge, for sure. 

So, when you’re looking at building and growing your company through people, what is the most important thing to focus on when getting started?

Chris Piche: Building a team always starts with the mission. And building a high-performance technology team, we’re looking for people with two characteristics. 

Number 1, we’re looking for people with the aptitude, the proper knowledge, and the right skills. Number 2, we’re also looking for people with the right attitude who want to make things happen. 

These people are invariably attracted to the mission. Identifying your team’s North Star will enable you to attract the people who can get there with you.

Gwenevre Crary: I agree. I was talking to another individual about how it’s human nature to want people to connect, and it could be connecting on so many different levels. But from a business perspective, it’s connecting on the mission, the purpose of this business, and what we are doing together to make that happen. 

Chris Piche: Exactly. 

Gwenevre Crary: I appreciate you saying that because there are so many times we just need butts and seats, and it’s like, “No, that’s not what you need.” Because in the long run, you’re going to have challenges, you’re going to have performance issues. You will have people who are not aligned with who you are as a company, not only your mission but also your vision and values. I think that is such a wise statement. 

I hope everyone on this call is listening to and hearing that it takes time to find the right person. It’s about more than just the right skill set for your organization. 

A lot of people talk about culture fit. I want to say it’s culture enhancement. I love thinking about it more like, how can this person improve our culture, not just be another stereotypical person who fits the culture?

Chris Piche: I agree. One of the questions I always ask myself when deciding whether to add someone to our team is this: If I hire this person, will they increase the likelihood that the next person I want to hire will want to join our team? 

And if the answer is “Yes,” then I hire them. If the answer isn’t “yes,” then I take a pass.

Gwenevre Crary: Wow. That is a good question. It’s very thought-provoking, too. So you’re at the point now where you kind of like you’re feeding off of that, but let’s step back a couple of years, or maybe one, in regards to when you started building out your company when you hired that first employee, you’re number one, you’re number two, what was that for you, how was that in that regards your experience?

Chris Piche: Like all people, I have strengths and weaknesses. One of my strengths is that I can do most software or technology jobs well. I can design the architecture, I can do the software development, I can do the marketing, I can do the selling, I can do a little bit of everything. 

When I started four years ago, I was sitting by myself in a small office, maybe 500 square feet,  and I was doing precisely that. I designed the architecture, developed the software, handled the marketing, and sold. 

And when I started to build the team, one of my criteria was, and still is, that I’m looking for people who can do one of these things a little bit better than I can. 

Gwenevre Crary: I love it. That’s so great. And it’s challenging, especially as a founder and someone with your experience and knowledge, to say, “I need to let this go and let someone else own it and not maybe I’m doing it better. But maybe in the sense of doing it better because they focus on it. 100%, whereas you are focused on everything.” This person can focus on one thing. How did you decide who was going to be your first hire?

Chris Piche: Well, I was fortunate that this is the third software company I’ve founded, so I could call in favors from people who had worked with me and in previous companies. My first 2 hires were a software engineer and an administration manager who had worked in my previous companies.

Gwenevre Crary: So you already had that built up because a lot of the people I interact with, they get to that point. It’s time for me to make my first hire. And I am still determining who that should be. I’ve had conversations with CEOs about whether it should be operations. Should it be more marketing? 

 And I’ve always kind of coached them as to what you’re working on that you don’t enjoy doing or feel like, “Oh, I’m scrounging to make this work. But it’s not my forte. It’s not my expertise.” And that’s kind of your first role. That’s how I’ve always taken it. Do you see it that way, or do you see it?

Chris Piche: I use different words to describe the same thing. When hiring people, I’m looking for somebody who can do something important for my company and do it as well as anybody in the world. Or, I’m looking for somebody who can take something off my plate so I can focus my time to help the company in some other mission-critical way.

Gwenevre Crary: Going back to the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned building a mission-oriented team. Tell me a little bit about how you did that for your company.

Chris Piche: It was easy for Smarter AI.  Our ambitious plan is to become the world’s leading camera company by transforming a series of markets over time, starting with transportation – the fastest-growing camera market.  

Complacent and distracted driving is a dangerous and growing problem that now causes more accidents, injuries, and fatalities than impaired driving. Our mission is to make our roads safe for all road users. We want zero fatalities on our roads, and Smarter AI vehicle cameras and computer vision solutions are paving the way for safer transportation for all road users.

Gwenevre Crary: 100%. I appreciate that point of view. And I connect to that vision to, like, who wants to avoid the vision of making things safe for people and keeping people alive, healthy, and thriving, and I’ll call it one of the things I appreciate in Apple. Other phones do this too, is the “do not disturb”. It connects to Bluetooth and knows when I’m in the car, and I don’t even hear the phone. It doesn’t even come out anymore. 

But for those that don’t use that or still get distracted by it, what great technology to make the roads safer. In regards to designing that, and then really creating a team around that, how do you once the person is hired and you bring them on board, and now they’re working in the day-to-day things and maybe six months down the road, how do you continue to incorporate that same mentality of a mission-oriented team with your current employee population?

Chris Piche: I have found that a little acknowledgment and appreciation goes a long way. When team members go above and beyond to help reach a team goal,  a little acknowledgment and appreciation energizes them and the entire team.

Gwenevre Crary: And I have one last question for you. So sometimes I encounter CEOs who are opposite your point of view here. And we guys, this is all HR quickie dorky. Why do I need a mission? Why do I need vision and values? What would you say to someone who is in that mindset today? 

Chris Piche: People have the capacity for remarkable personal achievements, while teams can impact the world. A successful team leader empowers people and teams to deliver their best work.

Gwenevre Crary: Well, thanks, Chris. I appreciate that answer. Is there anything else you want to share on the topic or, in general, your experience for those going through similar growth and building their company up?

Chris Piche: There are three things that have worked for me at Smarter AI and over the years. Number 1, starts with the mission. Number 2, ‘A players’ attract other ‘A players.’ And number 3, a little bit of appreciation goes a long way.

Gwenevre Crary: Those are such great points. I hope everyone notices and implements them immediately if they’re not already doing that. Thank you so much, Chris, for your time. I appreciate it. And thanks everyone for joining us today. I hope you have an excellent rest of your day.

Chris Piche: Thanks for having me, Gwenevre.