Always a Logger: Sustainable Design CEO Billy Smith '07

Julie Gates (00:06):
Welcome to the Always a Logger podcast from the University of Puget Sound, where we talk to our alumni who are doing amazing things. Today we're talking to Billy Smith, he's founder and CEO of Bilio, a technical and soft goods design company in Berkeley. Billy is a 2007 graduate of the business leadership program and also has a studio art degree. Welcome, Billy. It's good to see you.

Billy Smith (00:28):
Thank you, Julie.

Julie Gates (00:29):
Thanks for coming on. I would love it if you could start by telling us what Bilio does and what your philosophy is.

Billy Smith (00:36):
That's a great question. So I think the philosophy is a good thing to start with and something that I always go back to is a saying, when will the seed see the flower in? Will it ever? And it's always becoming in the world of design, and especially in the world that we work in, which is textiles, a lot of things continue to change and get created and recreated again. So Bilio starts with values and curiosity, enthusiasm, kindness, harmony is a good one. I'll touch on that a little bit more. And through experiences in the past working with Patagonia, doing development and design for wetsuits and other products like fishing, waders closely with Yvonne and Fletcher and the team over there for about six years. That was the first job after school. I remember leaving Puget Sound, went straight to the tin shed, as they call it there. And then about six years later or so, Apple reached out and was kind enough to offer me a position working closely with the industrial design and product engineering teams. So Bilio is in harmony, those two worlds from, you can call it an unconventional side of product, and then materials first thinking to this obsession towards perfection and human centric experiences. So Apple, Patagonia combined can create a pretty cool spot. And we have in our space currently a wonderful team. We've been in business 11 years and we haven't taken any outside funding. I'm really proud about that.

Julie Gates (02:23):
So bootstrap.

Billy Smith (02:24):
From the beginning, and the intent about that was to have full creative freedom and control. And it's hard to say that that exists around Silicon Valley.

Julie Gates (02:34):
Or anywhere nowadays.

Billy Smith (02:37):
I know in the fast-paced surroundings, doing something slow can be very fast. And I can explain that in the products that we build. So Bilio essentially is a, I don't know if you've heard of the word skunkworks, if you will, it's we're a partner to a lot of the big companies that you all probably work with and know and use products from. And we're the dark horse, if you will. So a lot of the products that you would imagine and have experienced in the textile space especially, we've probably had something to do with some of those in our space. We have knitting, flatbed, knitting. We have three different machines. We're in Berkeley, by the way, Berkeley, California. And my brother Nick and I started this and we grew up together in Mill Valley, not far from here. And we have laser cutting and CNC, we've got splitting and skiving and heat pressing and what else? Oh, ultrasonic print three, printing and testing and all sorts of equipment. So we can be vertically integrated, not being reliant on outside vendors, suppliers, but more be a partner.

Julie Gates (04:02):
So it's vertical. So you're doing everything from the design, the ideation, to the full-on creation of everything. Oh my gosh. So much freedom. You own a lot of freedom.

Billy Smith (04:13):
Ultra SIt's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. And there's sounds to the space too, and the feelings that you get. I was mentioning earlier before we just logged on with heart, head, and hands, and those are the three aspects of Bilio. We have the heart, when you come in, you'll experience that. It's built around things that we didn't do, and it's sharing things that others made. So that's the heart of it. Art books, music, gifts, souvenirs, and that's a feeling. And then as you go into the space, oops, if you go in through the space, I'm so sorry.

Julie Gates (04:48):
That's okay.

Billy Smith (04:50):
If you go through the,

Julie Gates (04:50):
You're a busy CEO, we get it.

Billy Smith (04:53):
Yeah, that thing actually, it's actually pretty good. That's the thing I'm trying to get away from. And I'll talk about how that can happen through some of the products I'm building. Interesting. Yeah, that's a really good point. But then you go through the heart and you'll experience a nice welcome, but then the head of it is the studio. And in there you'll see the library, a lot of materials and partner books that you'll have a lot of swatches materials like textiles, for example. This is a care cloth that I play with in my pocket. I'm really proud about this.

Julie Gates (05:29):
What is that?

Billy Smith (05:30):
It's a care cloth. So it's actually a textile by Ultra Suede we developed with them from Japan, but it's so nice. Oh my goodness. But it's a fantastic thing to polish and clean your objects with. And then we have art here. So this is one of the artist series. I can go into detail of it later about it. It's pretty funny.

Julie Gates (05:53):
What's really setting you apart is how intentional everything is. Every step sounds very mindful.

Billy Smith (06:01):
Yeah. Oh, it is. It's a duty, if you will, or a purpose of mine

Julie Gates (06:07):
To

Billy Smith (06:07):
Make sure how you do anything is how you do everything.

Julie Gates (06:11):
Wow, that's so profound.

Billy Smith (06:14):
I know, right?

Julie Gates (06:15):
Wow.

Billy Smith (06:16):
The way we think it could be daunting, but the process is what brings you to the outcome that you're looking for. And it'll come, may not happen overnight, maybe it happens in 10 years. And that's what brings us to that bag. It's been a 10-year type journey.

Julie Gates (06:37):
So this is your current product that you are, do you guys release to market or do you release through retailers or wholesalers or all of the above?

Billy Smith (06:46):
So actually this is great to talk about. We were launching, I think the last time we spoke with the alumni was with the Arches magazine back in 2019. We were looking to do the launch for the bag in August or so, and then we were getting ready, COVID hit. We pivoted quickly. But we used the same logic that we've rooted all the way back to where my brother and I were in the garage messing around with surfboards and stuff growing up, shaping and looking at different geometrical or geometric type forms. And we built this bag out of one piece of yarn. The yarn is built into the bag, so there's no cutting or sewing, there's no thrown-away parts. You could recycle it if you want to. It's washable, it's repairable, it's I'd say the quintessential bilio product. That's an architecture of how we think. And in the process of doing that, slowly we realized the mask could be the next thing we needed to do to help the world. And when we pivoted from the bag to the mask, we created a new thing, which was a three-dimensional shape. And I can show you. So this is actually a silver-coated yarn.

Julie Gates (08:18):
Oh my gosh. You would have no idea. It's for the novice who doesn't work in goods.

Billy Smith (08:24):
Exactly. And one of the things we focus on is tension. And so we would look at the ways that tension would play a part in your face, in your movements. And we started to create structures that helped with the breathability and also the ergonomics of your body. And wearables is what we do really well. We do a lot of wearables. A lot of wearables that could be passive or wearables that could have some tech involved.

Julie Gates (08:57):
Oh my goodness. Tell about that. That's interesting.

Billy Smith (09:00):
Yeah, it's credible to think about through the lens of Patagonia. And then Apple. There's some things nature you can't beat. Nature can build something that you would be inspired by. And one of those things is the swallow tail and the way that the wind and the ergonomics of the aerodynamic aspects of a swallow tail, it's translatable into other things that we do. So we use that as our baseline. And that is like a knit stitch pattern. It could be like a dart. This is technically like a swallowtail shape, and you adopt this thinking when we look to how we build things, and it really unlocked a lot. So when the mask came around, there was an idea of taking what we did at the bag, and we created these channels inside the knit structure. This one says washed. I don't know who wrote the word WHA.

Julie Gates (10:05):
It was not a Puget Sound alum,

Billy Smith (10:09):
I'll tell you that, but I'll give you, here's a better example. But you see the V, right?

Julie Gates (10:16):
Yes.

Billy Smith (10:17):
It's in the same thing that you'll notice the mixture

Julie Gates (10:19):
Everywhere

Billy Smith (10:20):
Knit and knit has the same little Vs. Tiny little Vs. And knitting is something that set us free. And we started building a lot of things with knitting, and then we started introducing silver. So when you build a passive product that doesn't have any smarts to it, you need something to conductive. And silver has two qualities more than that actually. It's inherently antimicrobial and it also is conductive. So when we looked at the mask project, we said, Hey, why don't we look at it through the lens of doing two things at once? Let's build something hidden in plain sight, but also built for purpose at both ends. So the development of the mask, and we did retail through a couple select stores, but mostly online through Bilio Direct. We did over a quarter million of those all built from the ground up, yarn up level. And it started with this first prototype. I know this is the last thing people want to talk about, but what I'm getting that's interesting to me is that we started coming up with this architecture, if you will. So this is the first proto, and you can see these ribs and different structures inside in these pockets, but when you put it into context, it's no different. This is the strap that you would put behind the head to hold it. This here is silver yarns, it's still got those little Vs. And then we put this little gripper on the bottom. Now it also works really well as a wristband. And so during, this is good to say now because it's been five years, but we work in a lot of secrecy. That's why we don't have much of a website.

Julie Gates (12:12):
And

Billy Smith (12:12):
We ended up coming up with our own twisted knitted cocktail, if you will, and patented quite a bit of the work we did. And this is really a trade secret of the company. And when people were at home during COVID, it was easy to buy one of these. And during that time, we were playing with all sorts of different ways to integrate these types of items inside them, including something like a wrist wearable that you could have on your wrist and create a very, very, very comfortable band.

Julie Gates (12:56):
Interesting. And this

Billy Smith (12:57):
Could be also a handle for a bag.

Julie Gates (13:02):
So

Billy Smith (13:02):
The way we think at Bilio it, everything in anything. So when we look at something, and I'll quote some old colleagues from Apple, when you look at something and you call it, let's say a chair, it's pretty, as they said, dangerous to do that. You've just killed a lot of ideas with that.

Julie Gates (13:24):
Oh, wow.

Billy Smith (13:25):
So this is where we go at Bilio. This here is whatever we want to call this. This could be like something, call it a tin can, or others could just call it like an airtight tube. And there's a lot of ways to think about it, but this is the big one. This is the one we've always been working toward. But first we had to build the chassis, all the elements. So pockets, handles, loops, tubes, lozenges, and then you can always throw the passive, make it into a smart later. But to get your physical architecture dialed first was the key. So the Bilio bag is that first thing we did. Now this is what we call a mohawk on the bag, but it is something like this that's on the top of the bag, but it also could work pretty well for a VR headset. It is just thinking about it from different lenses. I don't know where I'm going with this, Julie, but I can continue.

Julie Gates (14:32):
No, it's just fascinating. I don't know how design is works. I don't know how soft goods are made. And the idea that you're just creating parts that can be applied to different industry. Tell me if this is correct, but my understanding is your client list is really broad. It's tech, apparel, footwear, health, automotive, furniture. So these are the things you use for all these industries, correct? To put ideas together. It's fascinating. Fascinating.

Billy Smith (15:03):
Yes. So a good example would be we've had a couple conversations where we were on a table, no drawings, just a feeling of what could be. And we would introduce some items, we'll call those little vignettes or moments. I call 'em material postcards. And Bilio uses these a lot in house. So we would make a little postcard and we would have some of our favorite pieces to these postcards, and we would have thousands of these and we would use these to think and feel what it may become. So let's imagine we're doing something like back then it was 2015, we started the company. Virtual reality was still pretty much a plastic box in your head, more your face actually. And when we wanted to depart from that, the thought was actually from one of the clients. They brought a LuluLemon pant, they brought a shoe, and then we were working with Allbirds at the time. Sadly, they went under, I think today, geez. But we were knitting with them and they had some beautiful soles. And then we also had a bra, which we've designed for Gap, and that was built around biomimicry for a lily pad. Actually. It was pretty cool. It swells and it has encapsulation properties. It was really inspired by a lily pad. But we took those three things on the table and we said, we want it to feel like that. We want it to look like that. And we wanted to work like that. And so it's a melding of thinking. And then from there it started to grow and then the idea evolved into a headset, if you will. But that's just an example of one thing we've done.

Julie Gates (16:56):
Can I ask you a side question on this? Because there are a lot of us who work in companies and we're always trying to have brainstorming sessions with our teams, and I feel like you might have a tip or two on ways to do that more effectively because it sounds like you don't have any restrictions in your workshops. So what piece of advice would you give to someone, whether it's someone on campus who's got a club, they're trying to come up with ideas, or another executive who's working for a knowledge work company and they want to have a brainstorm session. What's the first piece of advice you'd give them?

Billy Smith (17:32):
I'd say materials first. I shun the Post-It note myself. I don't really, I see it blaring and more distracting than it is. That's me personally. I prefer if we brought things of value that have some sort of substance to share, I start with those conversations first and then maybe a postcard later or something. But at the first step is just bringing something to the table that you can hold and show and tell. And I think conversation is the deepest part. Start there first. And then when it's built through the lens of not knowing anything, I find out that it's better in the end. I fundamentally questioned a lot of the reality that we live in today. For example, just because it's a hundred-year-old zipper doesn't mean it has to be that way. Just because the shoe is called the shoe and everyone buys the shoe, why not look at it? Actually, it's a lace that everyone needs to buy. I would prefer to make the lace.

Julie Gates (18:52):
So we really have to unlearn all these preconceived ideas that we bring in the door with us

Billy Smith (18:58):
A hundred percent. Just because it's called a shoe. I still think of it as a lace because it's the one thing that's holding it together. So the function of it actually isn't the shoe. So why are we apologizing every time we throw it in an afterthought in the box every time, right? It's like, oh, I just received my new pair of shoes. What's this little thing that I got? It's like that little shammy in the claws you get from all those nice sunglasses. It's the same to me. That's why the care cloth is so important. It's really what you do with it. And we think of it all that way. So brainstorming. Yeah, it's a good question. I wish, and I do invite you and everyone else at UPS to come and visit. It's a real special place. And we do a lot of workshops. So the thing that we end up doing a lot with these collaborators and partners, a lot of leaders, a lot of founders, a lot of education as well, is that we host workshops to do those things for 'em, and we help them get into that space where they feel what we call chaos, controlled chaos, focus and intense focus. So it's a two-day thing and we go from that duality and then at the end you've really lasered in a pretty good idea of what it is you're trying to accomplish. Only then can we really start to work on it.

Julie Gates (20:32):
We have to take you up on this workshop. Are you kidding?

Billy Smith (20:34):
It's a great workshop.

Julie Gates (20:36):
I would love to talk about kind of your journey, but do you feel like doing a quick show and tell, I know you have a bunch of items around, can we do a speed round?

Billy Smith (20:44):
I would love to. It's been so we don't do this ever. But since it's for UPS and it's for education and for the students, I think it'd be quite inspiring for them to see. So materials first, and it starts from that. When you think of textile, at least for me, computers can't be built in a way like this forever. Okay? Plastic, glass and aluminum. It just can't be like that forever. You can't put that in your pocket. You can't put that in your hand. So what do you do is you create something first. In my mind, passive. And I look at this zipper as a real antiquated piece of technology that we've all just somehow just decided it was okay to live like that. So after building this bag, let me start with that. This is a really special bag to us. We wanted to look at it through the lens of a machine and a material. Before we looked at, we didn't draw a thing, we just took yarn and looked at the inherent qualities of the yarn. So does it pull, does it snap? Does it rebound? Does it stick? Does it twist? All those things. And we started to play with the tension. And in the process, we built something we call bilio bag. Let me show you. So Bilio bag is two pieces. It's a fully knit-to-shape product. It has no seams to rip apart. It has no sewing. And it's manufactured with the mindset that you can make these on demand. They come off the machine ready to go, fold them into place, done. You can make them in your backyard or you can make them in China. We chose the backyard. And you can make 'em just,

Julie Gates (22:39):
It's two pieces. That's it?

Billy Smith (22:41):
Two pieces. So it's one,

Julie Gates (22:44):
Is it the handle? The other one? I've never seen anything like this. That's so cool.

Billy Smith (22:48):
No, no one has, it's folded like a certain pattern, but it's, all the straps are built into the body of the knit,

Julie Gates (22:59):
Wow.

Billy Smith (22:59):
And then the strap is born right out of the fabric itself.

Julie Gates (23:06):
Interesting.

Billy Smith (23:06):
You see those little Vs. That's the swallow tails. But the real unique part was

Julie Gates (23:11):
The zipper

Billy Smith (23:13):
Is no zipper. There's a slide. It's slider-less. And that is because we built it with a magnet.

Julie Gates (23:24):
Oh my goodness. That's so cool.

Billy Smith (23:26):
Yeah, this is the, let me see if I can, I've never really done a show and tell.

Julie Gates (23:31):
What are the two pieces then? So one's the big large piece. Second. Is it the magnet?

Billy Smith (23:36):
Yeah.

Julie Gates (23:38):
That's cool.

Billy Smith (23:41):
So this is the thought. What if we built something that you could also repair? So at Patagonia, it was all about building the best product with the least amount of harm. That was it. That was the whole philosophy about how you design for Patagonia quality. Everything was repairable, everything was guaranteed for life. But one of the greatest things that Yvonne and team taught me was you don't have to settle for something that if it's not right, let's just continue to make it as best we can until it is. And one of the things we noticed was zippers are the number one thing that was causing failure on a lot of returns, but we had no control over that. So on wetsuits, when we were designing the wetsuits, you'd beat the mercy of the certain catalog that the zipper company gave you. But if you're surfing big waves, a zipper would blow out of your wetsuit and all of a sudden you're flushing in with water. It's quite dangerous too. But these days there's a lot of things beyond human beings like robots that need to access certain things as well. So 10 years ago, my brother and I thought, why as well just start now. Let's see where the world will end up in 10 years. But more importantly for humans, some people have tremors, some people have mobility issues, some people have a lot of problems just putting on a zipper. And I thought it's time to change that. And we did. So this essentially is the blueprint to Billy's architecture. And this is inside, we have knit two holes. You can take it out and put it in, and it becomes a docking station as much as it becomes a closure. I don't even think it's called a zipper anymore. I think I call it loop tube or something like that. But these are the loops. See those little loops? No, very similar to those swallow tails. And then you can pull it apart and it comes together. But it's posable. So this is something quite unique in a bag sticking to everything. This is what it looks like without it, you have a floppy, and then with it, you can shape it and you can create your own structure. So now you're left with either this, which is the floppy thing, which is its current state of a zipper, or you could actually create a whole bunch of different ways of building a product. The one that we're working on though has more of a thought around what if it was used for a hanging system? So this is great little cardigan. I love this cardigan. This is my favorite. But this one of the other things is what about closet space? This is a simple little piece of, I'll put it right there.

Julie Gates (26:46):
Put that a little more onto the camera. That part's not going. There you go.

Billy Smith (26:51):
So show and tell. I'm going to keep you guys excited. We've had these wooden hangers for so long.

Julie Gates (26:57):
Oh my gosh.

Billy Smith (26:58):
So why not just this make it like a simple thing. Yes. So these are little things. This is architecture and this is foundational to Bilio. So this is simply taking the logic of what we've done with the zippers, the loop, the tube, and the certain backing elements, the knits. And we can create a hanging system. But what's really unique is this could also have intelligence in it. So we could add some sort of conductivity or some wiring inside and you can throw it inside the tube. So that's the big idea We're launching. And by September I think it should happen. We've been working on it for quite some time.

Julie Gates (27:43):
Congratulations.

Billy Smith (27:44):
Yeah, thank you.

Julie Gates (27:46):
How many patents do you own?

Billy Smith (27:48):
It's a real heat-seeking missile of a portfolio. It's not a lot, it's just quality. It's absolute quality. And we built it with that knowledge and that know-how. But we did it so long ago that we built onto the one fundamental piece of the physics that nature provides us, but also humans can create into other ways that isn't novel or that is novel, useful and non-obvious. The part that's hard to do. And when we looked at the applications we spent a lot of time on, not going super broad, but going to the point where you cannot go beyond, but it's fundamental. You have to get to, it's the result of boiling it down to the pure essence of what it will be. And so we have about, when I was at Apple, great team there. I don't want to be like saying I did it all. I didn't. We did bands. I have about five patents there that I'm credited with other adventures on, such as the first iPhone case and the first band with haptic response, meaning it was like the first time to think of taking the haptic motor out of the actual watch and put it inside the band, is kind of the first departure from going away from the screens. And then at Bilio, we have maybe about 10 or so, maybe a little more now. Yeah, some of these things you can continue.

Julie Gates (29:28):
Amazing. I really value just the whole holistic journey and the philosophy. This whole idea of slow growth, slow manufacturing,

Billy Smith (29:39):
Slow growths, the only way to do it. That's the only way we can innovate. At Bilio, we could do a lot of things really fast, and it's quite rebellious to do this the way we have, especially in Silicon Valley, Bay Area, everybody is, what is it? Fail fast and build quick and all those things. I just never thought that was useful, and I have a lot of respect to Patagonia to teach me that one.

Julie Gates (30:11):
How old were you when you started working with materials?

Billy Smith (30:15):
I was living over there on Proctor and, no, was it Alder or something like that? Geez, it was a house with a few friends of mine. And then we had a basement and I had a sewing machine in my room, and it was senior year and I was doing art. I would skateboard down to get some food and then go out around the campus. I'd go hang out with some friends. But sewing in my room was kind of the first, I was doing it back before college even, but in high school. But that was the suitcase full of creations. I drove down to Patagonia, knocked on the door a few times with, and that was summer of, or? No, it was spring of 2007. And then I got the job started working there, right? Two weeks after college, two weeks after graduation. Yeah.

Julie Gates (31:09):
So you had that signpost kind of early on that you needed to work with your hands and build something.

Billy Smith (31:16):
Yes. I credit my mother and my father and my brother too. My mom, they're all architects, my grandfather's an engineer. And I believe there was just this great garage wonderland that we grew up in, and that became the space to do those things. And it all started though, with just looking at it through, I'll show you. This is the, and during senior year in college though, in the BLP program, there was a business plan that we did, and this was the business plan. It's called sporting sales. This was a misprint, by the way, but that's my brother skateboarding down Hawk Hill in San Francisco. And the idea was to use wind resistance to slow yourself down. Now you can engineer some crazy looking contraption to break a wheel, or you could just use a simple piece of cloth that is in this shape that is like a nylon rip-stop and just use air. And that's the philosophy that we started with. But this is the shape. Our first patented design was this, and this is essentially the connective tissue of Bilio. It's working through tension, it's working through the dynamics of what that can be as a swallow tail through the entire future. That was 20 years over what? Yeah, 2006.

Julie Gates (32:56):
That's amazing. That was your BLP project?

Billy Smith (32:58):
That was my BLP project.

Julie Gates (33:00):
Let's talk a little bit about your time at Puget Sound. It sounds like when I spoke with you off-camera that you dabbled in all kinds of activities when you're at school. What were some of them, and then how did all of this help lead you into where you are today?

Billy Smith (33:14):
Oh, great question, Julie. First off, it's a wonderful school, and I love the hydrangeas and the rhododendrons the most in terms of the landscape. I love those. But I think in that pro, sometimes there is a really special feeling getting to the campus. And when I went there in summer, it was 2003, no, yeah, 2003, my parents were there and I had a friend from high school join me, and I was fortunate enough, actually, I wrote a letter to the school to ask if he could get off the wait list. And I think it worked out. And then we became roommates and I was supposed to swim for the school, and I was doing the beginning swimming, but that summer I was surfing over here in what we call Fort Cronkite. And I was dropping in on a wave and it just ripped up underneath my legs, came up and then came down onto my arm and it severed one of my triceps. So I have two biceps. And so I didn't tell the coach and I showed up to swim. So then dabbled in swimming, and I was just not doing that well. So that didn't work out. But then I quickly was gravitated towards during the orientation day. I think there was a couple of things you can choose from, and one of 'em was arts and crafts, and I chose that so that I ended up doing business and art. And yeah, I had a lot of fun, but I learned a lot about myself too along the way. I think that's part of the experience. I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I knew that if I just kept falling the craft of life, it was good.

Julie Gates (35:04):
Oh, I like that expression, the craft of life. Yeah, that's really what you did. It seems like you still do. Didn't you also work at the radio station? KUPS.

Billy Smith (35:15):
Oh yeah. KUPS. Yeah. Matt and I had a great show. I think one time. I think we left a dead air on there one time.

Julie Gates (35:24):
No, just leave the studio.

Billy Smith (35:30):
Yeah, I think we were at the Cellar across the hallway.

Julie Gates (35:34):
Got some pizza.

Billy Smith (35:35):
Yeah, that was a big pizza break.

Julie Gates (35:38):
That's so funny.

Billy Smith (35:40):
But I remember it so well because, and then one time, so then Matt, it was so funny, he was, I don't know why he was whittling one day or something and cut his hand. So he couldn't do much of the changing, and so he made something called a helping stick, and so he was poking the buttons in there. It was a great time.

Julie Gates (36:03):
Did you patent that?

Billy Smith (36:05):
Great station, by the way. That is a really good station.

Julie Gates (36:08):
It really is.

Billy Smith (36:09):
When I go up to Seattle and Tacoma, I always put it on.

Julie Gates (36:13):
Oh, that's great. That's great. Well, let's talk about a couple of things. I want to get some advice from you now. You're a CEO, you're a founder. You clearly are creating massive impact in the world. I am really enjoying learning about your philosophies. One thing I want to think about is consumers. We are a community of consumers in America, and I see how thoughtful you are being about design and product. So what advice might you want to give consumers about making mindful decisions when purchasing goods?

Billy Smith (36:46):
Oh, that's a good one. I always look at where it comes from and what the materials are first and the care it took to make it. I think a story is more powerful than the purchase. And if it feels right, and if it says something about you that you'd like the rest of the world to know, I think it's worth the buy. But usually I try to avoid buying things these days and more making things, but I find myself gravitating. So when I left school, I kind of just defaulted to a couple colors and I don't know why, but it just got easier in the morning. So one of those things is coming up with something that makes you feel good every day, because when you do wake up, you have a choice. But I don't think you have to buy anything that is built fast. I think you buy things once that you really love. And I would rather buy that really, even if it's expensive, if you really know it's going to last, buy that.

Julie Gates (38:03):
It's so different from kind of the, I don't know. I don't want to downgrade any industry. I think they're just mirroring what the consumer's asking for. But we are in such a replaceable time in our culture, so it's nice to hear that philosophy.

Billy Smith (38:16):
Well, it's so good to hear from you to ask the question because one of the things I remember Patagonia was can you repair it? Can you repurpose it and can you reimagine it? And there was an initiative around that as a responsibility to the customer. And that was a pledge that created loyalty. And it was something that I never saw before in another company. So they had as much to say to their customers about what it is that they represent, for them to feel like they're involved in a way of then knowing what their responsibility is as well. And there's something to find in today's world, I think, in the tech space that could use a lot of that. And I don't think it necessarily has to be such a permanent thing these days. I think there's a lot of opportunity to create a modular life between screens and no screens, just because a screen is in front of us right now. There's something there in the future, I believe. That may not,

Julie Gates (39:27):
It'd be nice to not have to replace my machine every three to five years, too. That would be nice.

Billy Smith (39:32):
Right. And my son, I have a son who loves Legos, and we build things and take 'em apart and rebuild 'em again. And I think my grandfather was in a lot of science clubs growing up, and I think there's something missing in today's curriculum around stuff like that where you could learn how to make something. Again. I think he was making hot air balloons and homemade contraptions, like fireworks, a lot. But I don't know if you can get away with that today.

Julie Gates (40:01):
Yeah, that might be a little trickier.

(40:03):
All right. Well, let's wrap things up with advice you have for young adults who are at Puget Sound who might want to get into your line of work, or just let's make it broader. What advice do you have for young adults as they decide what career to explore and what to do next in their lives?

Billy Smith (40:21):
Well, it's OK not to know. I think it's the first part. It's just be OK with that part to start. If you keep just going and failing along the way, you'll succeed by just doing, because the only time you do fail is when you just don't do anything at all. And I know this because I've failed so many times, and I get up each morning and I think about what it is I'm doing, and I'll keep doing that. And focusing on something is really important. There's a lot of things that happen through your life and through your day that aren't your main focus. So just do your best to stay on track and remember top three things. Maybe that's the best that you can do that day, that's great. At least try to get that checklist going each day. And as you go through life, you'll find things coming to play. It all lines up in my work, though. There is something with relationships, it's not a school education type curriculum you can find, it's not really traditional. It's very tangible, it's very sensory, it's very intimate because you have to have access to these types of things that are very hard to get. And you have to know who to talk to. So be very kind to your, I don't call 'em vendors and suppliers, I call them partners. And a lot of times in life, as you go through these companies, as you move on to others, you keep those relationships. Even if they were once just supplying you some glue. No, they were part of the process of building that product from day one with you. And that's how I became in this position today. I credit a lot of the material partners that helped me build those products because I don't think they get enough credit.

Julie Gates (42:28):
Alright, so if I'm going to summarize what I think I just heard, you say three things, slow down, focus, and view people as partners.

Billy Smith (42:38):
Yeah. Relationships are it and people matter and planet. It's both of those. But yes, slow it down. Focus is the hardest thing. It's really hard to do. I am the worst at it.

Julie Gates (42:56):
Well, the world's set up to steal our attention everywhere.

Billy Smith (42:59):
I am the worst, but I try every day to focus on it. But it's so hard. But that is the truth. And then take it slow and you'll fail so many times, but just know that that's okay. II don't know what I'm doing.

Julie Gates (43:18):
I don't. None of us do. It's a journey.

Billy Smith (43:20):
I try. I try to do. I just do it.

Julie Gates (43:25):
I guess I have one more question, and that's about University of Puget Sound. How did it help make you who are today?

Billy Smith (43:33):
I have a lot of gratitude for the university. There's a routine in life that you go through and there, I don't know whether it's the atmosphere, it's the people, it's the values and the principles of the school. There was something comfortable there for me. And it's a unique place because I never saw another university in all my tours that had this. A business leadership program really stood out to me in the entrepreneurship aspect of it. I love the most. And I remember when I was doing interview to Apple, when they were asking if I would join or not, and I was debating and I asked a question that I remember at University of Puget, it would've been totally fine and it was: are there any entrepreneurial opportunities in this role? And they said, no, no. This is a role. We have a vision 10 years in advance. No. And so that was something I remember when I was like, oh, but I got right on board. And I just said, sounds good. But it was one of those things I had back in school and you know, cherish that, when you have it, is what I'm saying. Cherish that because University of Puget Sound gave you those wings for sure.

Julie Gates (45:09):
Thank you Billy. Billy Smith is founder and CEO of Bilio. How can our people follow you or come to your property and do that workshop?

Billy Smith (45:19):
Oh, I'd love to talk with you all. So the best way to do it is to just go to bilio.com, that's bilio.com. And then simple page, I think it's two pages and one of 'em is a form. You could just reach out to me that way and I'll be the one responding to you. And then I'm in Berkeley on Fourth Street.

Julie Gates (45:39):
Wonderful. Thank you. It has been so great talking to you and learning about everything. Thank you. Yeah,

Billy Smith (45:44):
It's a pleasure. Thank you.

Julie Gates (45:46):
All right. We're always looking for wonderful alumni who can tell their stories on this podcast. So if you know someone wonderful, please send me an email. My address is juliegates@pugetsound.edu. Thanks, Billy. Thank you.