Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Slopes, 42Chat creates Mobile AI Chatbots that allow companies to provide instant answers and personalized connection over text. As the market leader in deep conversational chatbots for live events, 42Chat is revolutionizing the attendee experience by providing 24/7 interaction and engagement via SMS, Web Messenger, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and many other messaging platforms.
Co-Founders Bob Caldwell and Chuck Elias first met while working at a hamburger stand on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland in the 1980’s while they were in their teens. The boys worked at “The Alaska Stand”, and while you may not have heard of it, you’ve certainly heard of “Five Guys”, whose menu was inspired by Alaska Stand’s burgers and “Thrashers Fries” (next door to the A-stand).
Perhaps there was something in the water at the A-stand as nearly everyone went on to incredible business success. This included the future Global Brand Manager for Bentley Automobiles; the largest wholesale plumbing distributor in the mid-Atlantic; one the largest soybean farmers in the mid-Atlantic; and the head of VIP Sales for the Baltimore Orioles. As Elias says, “The business talent coming out of one shift flipping and selling burgers is kind of crazy to think about.”
The truth is, it wasn’t the water, it was the attention to process and detail and learning how to work under pressure. If you asked the cofounders of 42Chat, Bob Caldwell and Chuck Elias, how to sweep a floor, they would each show you the exact same way. Are they floor sweeping enthusiasts? No. They would also show you the same way to flip a burger and count a till. It’s not that they have a passion for those either. It’s simply that, when they were teenagers, they worked on the same shift at the same burger joint on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland – the “ Alaska Stand.”
“It’s the kind of business you work your way up from the bottom” says Elias. “And that’s where we first learned how great businesses.”
Jerry Givarz, the boss (whose family started the A-stand in 1933), had a knack for demonstrating simple truths about business. “He’d stand next to you and throw nickels in the trash,” says Caldwell. You’d serve a customer, and he’d throw a nickel in the trash. You’d serve another customer. Another nickel in the trash. Eventually you’d get up the guts to ask him what he was doing.”
“‘Same thing you’re doing’, he’d say. ‘You just gave that guy five packs of ketchup — but he left three on the bench that we have to throw away. Each of those ketchup packets cost five cents.’”
“When that little nuance clicks as a kid,” says Caldwell, “you realize business success is about the little things.”
You have to remember; on the boardwalk you could have a crowd 3 deep around the whole counter section all clamoring to get food. It was busy from 8 AM to Midnight nearly every day of the summer. “We took all the orders in our heads, including which condiments went on each burger, and we had to be ready to instantly respond to the grill when the burgers were ready”, say Elias.
“It could get crazy in the busy moments – you had 6 people on the counter taking orders, two guys on the grill flipping burgers, someone cooking fies, and lots of moving parts,” Caldwell continued, “it was hectic, but it was organized, and surprisingly fun!”
