Former bartender creates RFID inventory solution, reaches CodeLaunch finals

Hey, welcome back on this Thursday morning. It is 22 minutes after nine o'clock. Hundreds of companies competed from around the world. Six made it to the finals in Dallas. And this morning, I'm sitting with one of the winners of this year's Code Launch World Championship. We say good morning to Riley Demery. Good morning to you. Good morning. How are you? I'm doing pretty well. You're doing great. Yes, yes. You're still kind of on this, you know, euphoria, right? Absolutely. Yeah, it's been a it's been crazy journey since April. So it's been a long time coming. All right, so CodeLaunch, this is kind of like one of those Shark Tank type things for startups? Yes. Is that a good way to describe it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's probably a great way to describe it. I mean, there's three awards given, you know, there's judges, there's audience choice, there's an investor's choice. And so all these companies from around really the world kind of come together and pitch and compete and, you know, they give out those prizes for the best. All right, and you are the founder of Drip Inventory. That's right. What is that? So it's a inventory tracking and auditing solution that is all built around RFID technology. Okay. And we really specialize in the hospitality world right now. So bars, restaurants, hotels, country clubs, that area. Was there something that you experienced and you saw, you know what, I can change this? Absolutely. I used to take inventory as a beverage director for a while, bartender for even longer, and I was taking inventory at one of my places, and it would take me two to three days. And so finally just set out a way to make it quicker, and RFID was this kind of up-and-coming technology. Creating mass time savings for companies, for taking inventory, and so I said, well, why don't we try to just tweak this and make it for the hospitality industry to make everyone's life easier? And you looked up and said, there must be a better way. Exactly, 100%. So this is kind of the idea that a lot of, I don't know if you call them maybe entrepreneurs or want to be entrepreneurs, this is the way that they start. Oh, absolutely. Right? They have an idea, they got a problem, and then they say, let's fix this. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what happened. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. We originally were an idea in 2016, and to 2026, here we are. So you said there were three awards given out, right? Yes. And which one did you win? We won the Investors Award. So there was tables of, like you were saying, those Shark Tank investors. And they kind of put their votes in for who they thought would be the best company. And so that's the award we received. Yeah, and there had to be a point at which you're looking at all this going, okay, that's a really good idea. Absolutely. Because you kind of give respect to other entrepreneurs, right? Oh, 100%. I mean, I think that was one of the best things about Code Launch, is not only do you get to see hundreds of companies, but when you come down to it, to the final six, just working with like-minded individuals, seeing their ideas, seeing their hard work, seeing what they've put in, It's inspiring for me as well. All right, so somebody has an idea out there. They're watching this. What's your advice? Well, I would say never quit, never stop. You're going to have hurdles. It's going to get hard. You're going to think that you need to stop, but you just can't. There is a way. If there's a will, there's a way, right? Yeah, there you go. So, yeah, just don't stop. Figure it out. Make it happen. Like, put in that extra hour, you know. You'll make up for it. You'll figure it out. And just overcome every hurdle. Just keep moving forward. Keep moving forward and do events like this, right? Yeah, absolutely. If you can get on CodeLaunch, I think they're accepting new applications in January for next year. Yeah. Highly recommend it. It's a great, great opportunity. All right. Sounds great. Riley Demery, appreciate your time this morning. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Absolutely.