Jon Nordmark of Iterate On The Future Of Artificial Intelligence

Remain positive. Positive attitudes matter. I never remember a fear of losing. I never remember anyone giving up. Even if we were down by three goals going into the third period — like in the National Championship semi-final game against Detroit — we always believed we could dig ourselves out. And we almost always did it. No one told us to remain positive, it was just the way. Our collective chemistry seemed to work. eBags was like that in the early days. Today, Iterate demonstrates that tremendous positivity. While negatively sucks oxygen out of a room, positivity pumps oxygen and energy in. Be positive.

As part of our series about the future of Artificial Intelligence, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Nordmark.

Jon Nordmark is the co-founder and CEO of Iterate.ai, which accelerates development by leveraging AI, Blockchain, IoT, Startup APIs and Big Data in our unique low-code, drag and drop environment. Prior to co-founding Iterate, Jon was the founder and 10-year CEO of eBags.com. Jon’s love of startups, leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs — his love of the fluid creation process, his love of making positive impacts on people and companies, and his love of the never-ending pursuit of progress — are what gets Jon going every day.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?

I like working with people like Brian Sathianathan who recognize trends early, then build into those opportunities. I like saying, an idea is best when no one agrees with you — or understands you. Inventors live in that world.

Brian is one of those inventors. He’s rare. In 2011, Brian and I met in Kyiv, Ukraine when we sat together on the board of an Eastern European Technology Accelerator like Techstars here in the States. In Kyiv, I learned that Brian worked for six years in Apple’s Secret Products Group — he was a key technologist and manager on the first iPhone’s invention and launch team in addition to other notable Apple inventions. Brian worked in that tiny secret team for a reason — he’s a problem solver who is highly curious and open-minded. Plus, he’s internally driven to produce meaningful results — fast. At Apple, Brian learned hardware, software, kernel level code, and the importance of building for scale.

Brain and I hit it off in Kyiv. And guess who taught me about AI and the positive impacts it could bring to the world? In a most humble way, he taught me about machine learning, deep learning, NLP, regression, classification, random forest algorithms and so on. He taught me how low-code could advance AI. As I listened to Brian, I knew I wanted to be his partner. I believed we could attract a very talented team and build an AI company together.

I also had a feeling that we could bootstrap the company. Largely because Brian is a doer. We didn’t need to hire extra headcount to do our initial work. We could do it ourselves. We have become a company of “doers and doer-doers,” not “managers and doers.”

What lessons can others learn from your story?

In our case, bootstrapping our startup on very limited funds has been a virtue.

Rather than adhering to a strategy that was set while raising money, we carefully listened to customers, then would build products that made their lives easier.

Our growth has been organic and natural. Our growth was not paid for by investor money, hoping to find product-market fit. Our growth has been driven by doing good work, then getting referrals.

The path to product-market fit wasn’t a straight line, but we found it by applying the creative energy of our team — the people with boots on the ground. We did consulting to generate cash. By using money earned from consulting — and operating profitably or close to profitable from day one — we’ve been able to steer our own boat.

It worked. Only 20% of companies on the 2021 Delloitte Fast 500 list had NOT raised VC money. We were one of those 20%, thanks to customer referrals which led to our 284% growth between 2017 and 2020.

As I said in eBags which was my first startup: “You need to live longer than the learning curve.” Iterate did that and we found product-market fit, organically.

Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

First was building our patented, drag-n-drop, low-code AI platform — Interplay — from scratch. It helps us build highly complex apps with emerging technologies like AI, IoT and big data. It’s used by successful large companies like Ulta Beauty — $500 million to $60 billion in annual revenues.

The low-code AI platform connects easily into aging legacy tech stacks that are operated by large organizations. Our platform is a speed machine. An accelerator. It allows us and large companies to build solutions 17 times faster than by using traditional software development methods. Think about the cost savings. Think about the experimentation flexibility enabled by Interplay.

On top of Interplay, we’ve built dozens of cutting edge solutions. Of those dozens, I’ll mention Threat Awareness and Pay-By-Plate.

Threat Awareness is maybe our most interesting project — it’s a social impact project. This involves the use of computer vision, machine learning, cameras, edge computing, GPUs (not CPUs) and even radar to identify weapons in schools or grocery stores. It sends automated alerts when threats are detected. This won’t replace security guards, but it provides an extra layer of monitoring and safety. It enhances the security guard’s capabilities. It’s built on Interplay, keeping the cost extremely low. Since it is very affordable, It can fit into the tight budget of a school. Supermarkets, which have witnessed 500 shootings since 2020, and schools, which seem to have a mass shooting each week, need this. We’ve been told, you should charge more. However, as in all of Iterate’s work, we do the right thing. Not what’s right by us — but what’s right by everyone, especially what’s right for our customers and the public they serve.

Another favorite of mine is Pay-By-Plate. Plate means a car’s license plate. In three weeks, for one of our forward-thinking clients, we built a way for a consumer to drive into a gas station and never pull out her credit card. It leverages a gas station’s existing security cameras combined with AI inside Interplay. The cameras recognize the car, text the driver after it stops, turn on the pump, ask the car-owner if she’d like any products from the store, then — when the car is filled with gas — the system automatically bills the consumer and sends a receipt to her cell phone, like Lyft or Uber. This is currently operating in eight countries now and in more than 2,000 stores.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I moved away from home in high school to play hockey in the United States Hockey League and was lucky enough to play for coach Jack Barzee and his Dubuque Fighting Saints. The USHL was, and is, a developmental league — today, about ⅓ of the NHL players spent time in the USHL. While playing for Jack, our team won the US National Jr. A Championship and Jack taught me these five lessons (and more).

First, playing on a team is a “we” thing, not a “me” thing. That applies to sports, business, startups and nearly every other aspect of life.

Second, respect. We always respected each other. It didn’t matter if you scored 160 points that year or 10. We valued each other. In the National Championship semi-final game against Detroit, Dubuque’s owner offered a financial reward to any player who scored the winning goal. Mike Carlson, who grew up in Minnesota’s icy Iron Range, scored the goal. But when presented with the money, Mike turned down the owner and said, “We’re all in this together.” Mind you, Mike was poor — we were all dirt-poor kids. Imagine how Mike’s move made the rest of us 17 guys feel.

Third, never give up. People with persistence are rewarded. In Dubuque, we said, “Keep the pressure on and the bubble will eventually burst.” Never giving up was a trait of eBags, my first startup. And it’s proven to be a trait of Iterate.ai, too.

Fourth, failure is acceptable. In the USHL, I played against some great hockey players, and sometimes they beat me. I remember the first big mistake I made with the Saints and a goal was scored against us. I thought my teammates and coach would criticize or ridicule me when I skated tail-between-my-legs to the bench. But, every one of the guys said, “You almost had him. Almost. Next time, you’ve got him. Keep at it.” That attitude strengthened my internal resolve and increased my gratitude toward them.

Fifth, remain positive. Positive attitudes matter. I never remember a fear of losing. I never remember anyone giving up. Even if we were down by three goals going into the third period — like in the National Championship semi-final game against Detroit — we always believed we could dig ourselves out. And we almost always did it. No one told us to remain positive, it was just the way. Our collective chemistry seemed to work. eBags was like that in the early days. Today, Iterate demonstrates that tremendous positivity. While negatively sucks oxygen out of a room, positivity pumps oxygen and energy in. Be positive.

That year, playing for Jack, impacted all of us. In 2021, Jack was given the prestigious Lester Patrick Trophy by USA Hockey and the NHL for his contribution to building the USHL. A number of my teammates showed up to the USA Hockey Hall of Fame dinner to watch Jack get the trophy.

What are the 5 things that most excite you about the AI industry? Why?

1. It’s ability to respond to immediate dangers in unprecedented response times — under 30 milliseconds
2. It’s ability to augment human strengths and provide new levels of insightful data upon which humans can make smarter decisions — big wins for medicine and health, climate (hopefully), education, and so on
3. It’s ability to fill the gap in human weaknesses where monotony, accuracy, and diligence must be unwavering
4. Training data sets are cumulative and can augment previous algorithms — meaning that accuracy and recognition improve exponentially
5. The early fears about “AI will replace jobs” is likely true in certain areas, but in a very positive way for the overall human experience, and it will hopefully pave the way for new types of fulfilling jobs

What are the 5 things that concern you about the AI industry? Why?

1. AI in the wrong hands — especially when we watch what is happening in the military world today
2. As with all data sets, biases and blind spots exist, which can lead to “invisible” discrimination or poor decisions by the humans relying on that data
3. Privacy legislation, and legislation to protect people will always be behind, just because of the process of law-making is slower than technological innovation
4. AI applied to Fintech without proper risk mitigation poses increasing threats to financial volatility
5. Selfishly for our company, we are constantly looking at the shortage of available talent in the AI space; that’s not going away for a long time

As you know, there is an ongoing debate between prominent scientists, (personified as a debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg,) about whether advanced AI has the future potential to pose a danger to humanity. What is your position about this?

AI, like many other things, has good and bad sides.

Our world faces biohacking and genetic engineering, nuclear threats, cyberhacking and automating some potentially terrible outcomes by deploying AI. We face a lot of threats and will continue to face them.

To combat the bad side, we need to believe that humanity wants to live on — humans as a form of life. Hopefully one person or subset of people doesn’t ruin life for everyone by detonating a nuclear bomb or releasing an devilish biohacked virus.

To minimize retaliatory and nefarious behaviors, we all need to make sure life is meaningful for all human beings. We need to be inclusive both internationally and in small groups. All people need to have hope. We need to help each other. All humans need to have access to a good life. Unfettered greed is detrimental and lonesome. If we are greedy and selfish, we create jealousies and, in time, certain groups will lash out. In the age of AI, the potential for extremely harmful retaliatory acts increases significantly. So, today, more than ever in history, we need to be empathetic and helpful.

That said, I also think AI can be a great benefit to humanity. I believe that most people are good and have good intentions. We need to help good people become AI enthusiasts — and build good tools. We should find ways to help more women build AI tools. Then good people will build defenses against the bad actors.

What can be done to prevent such concerns from materializing? And what can be done to assure the public that there is nothing to be concerned about?

We are actively working to broaden the availability of AI and accelerate the development of AI-centric applications. We are making it available to good people with varying levels of technical talent — not just the tiny population of about 30,000 AI developers in the world.

As low-code advances and more development tools emerge, the use of AI will expand. It will blossom in ways that nobody can see yet. The AI train can not be stopped. A few governments have announced that AI is a top priority, like Russia and China. It needs to be the same in a wide array of American institutions, beyond just Silicon Valley. We believe that having a broad availability of AI tools and applications is the best way to improve lives and push back against dark uses.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?

For sure. We are putting Iterate’s Threat Awareness systems — which include AI and GPU-based edge computing — into schools and businesses to proactively predict and prevent gun and knife violence. And we are doing it in a way that is affordable to nearly every organization. We want to make it accessible.

We are also beginning to use AI for prevent human trafficking and kidnapping.

Beyond building technologies, I’ve personally dedicated thousands of hours to helping entrepreneurs in Colorado and as far away as Ukraine. My wife calls me, “The Great Volunteer.” Back when I was starting eBags.com in 1998, and trying to navigate unknown territory, I promised myself to help other new founders who are trying to navigate the dark hallways of entrepreneurship. Beyond countless coffees where I just offer advice to entrepreneurs, I started an event in Denver called Startup Basecamp. It ran for a three-ish years — roughly 1,000 founders attended. I started the Colorado chapter of Founder Institute for Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan — they’ve helped some 6,000 startups get off the ground now globally, and hundreds of those started in Colorado. From 2011 to 2013, I helped dozens of Eastern European entrepreneurs while sitting on the board of a startup accelerator based in Kyiv. I have been on the board of the Colorado Technology Association for many years as a representative of the startup community.

As you know, there are not that many women in your industry. Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the AI industry?

Many people are searching for an answer to this question.

Longer term, I believe that education in elementary and middle school can help, if the educational curriculum is done in a way that is attractive to a wide range of young women.

Nearer term — now — we can also promote inclusivity and collaboration with jobs that are adjacent to core technologies like AI and software development. This can involve business people in marketing and finance roles, user experience architects. We can provide non-technical training to non-technologists to teach them the capabilities of AI. Iterate is creating programs like this.

Iterate is well aware of the fact that innovation and business performance improves by having diverse teams and inclusive behaviors. Dr. Stefanie Johnson’s DEIB research proves this. One way to promote women’s involvement with technology and AI is for the men practitioners — those who represent the vast majority — to be as inclusive as possible. With Dr. Johnson and her team, Iterate is actively building inclusivity awareness and tools for Inclusify.com. Inclusify.com wants to help all businesses. We drive Inclusify’s technology. And some of Inclusify’s technology will involve AI.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?

“We, not me.” “We” means respect, togetherness, comradery … and that leads to personal and collective fulfillment.

In my current company, Iterate.ai, the “we” word means a lot, much like the Dubuque Fighting Saints, as I discussed earlier. Today, I am just a business guy. Yes, I am the CEO — but, really, just a business person. I am meaningless without our we-team.

Our team of 67 people speaks 27 languages. From that perspective, we are highly diverse. Yet, we work well together as a we.

The team I’m part of includes many incredibly talented AI data experts and scientists — people with BS, MS and PhDs in AI. We also employ technically talented people like full stack engineers. All of those people work well together — as a we.

Iterate’s current talent pool is 91% technical. They are all smarter than me. Yet, I am neither a technologist, nor a design professional. The team, though, is patient with me. They teach me. They value my strengths. I feel important and included, even being a bit of an outsider, skills wise.

Now, Iterate is becoming a bit more job-diverse. A few months ago, we hired a sales leader. We are doing more marketing. It’s important that any new teammates “feel the we” at Iterate.

Bottom line, though, we like diversity and varied backgrounds. Diversity improves teams. Iterate intuitively knows, as Dr. Johnson’s research points out, that the diversity is only valuable if it is inclusive and we-oriented.

eBags, my first startup, was also a “we, not me” company. It’s been years since the first fifty or sixty people worked there, and because we worked so well as a team, we still love getting together. eBags’ first venture investor said the company had pixie dust. Iterate also has a we-enabled pixie dust.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Proactively reducing gun violence in schools, religious institutions and workplaces. Supermarkets have had 500 shootings since 2020. 63 shootings have happened in schools over the last 18 months, almost four per month. More than 300,000 students in more than 300 schools have experienced gun violence since 1999’s Columbine. No child, no parent, no educator should have to experience this. The mental toll taken on the country is high. Iterate’s low-code and and our AI talent is working now to decrease the problem of gun violence in schools, religious institutions and in the workplace.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Watch it evolve on Iterate.ai. Follow Iterate.ai on Linkedin. Feel free to connect with me — Jon Nordmark — on Linkedin.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!