Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Garr.
Brian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been in the artificial intelligence industry since 1995, as CTO of a startup machine translation company. We sold that and I then spent 10 years honing my marketing and sales skills at IBM’s Speech Technologies group, here in South Florida. I built many business cases for many new products at IBM and became a key evangelist for the team. Leaving IBM in 09, I started AI company LinguaSys with two partners from Germany, and Australia. Mark Cuban was our main investor. We sold LinguaSys in 2015, at which point, I was asked to help an ailing AI company in Los Angeles. I started Garr-ai International last year to enter the gig economy. South Florida has been our home since 1999. Our kids have made their lives here, and this is where we want to stay. Garr-ai provides fractional executive services to AI companies. I currently have three clients on two continents, where I provide strategy, marketing, and sales services. I still do a fair amount of speaking at AI conferences, and I’m on some advisory boards.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As a member of the AARP set, I’ve had to create jobs for myself since I turned 50. With a skill set that qualifies me for many full-time jobs, like many of my peers, I’ve hit the age discrimination wall. Thankfully, I’ve found little resistance to being a contractor, but discrimination against the highly talented, but elderly population is widespread.
Please tell us about Garr-ai International.
Garr-ai International was really started to bring AI technologies to SMB businesses that can’t typically afford the huge price tags that the Accenture and IBMs of the world charge, yet their larger competitors are investing in AI. If these smaller companies don’t invest in AI now, they’ll fall too far behind to compete in the future. I have peers with AI experience that are just waiting to help me scale the company as we sign on more clients.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I was so fortunate to have the most wonderful parents, and brothers. One of my most favorite memories was everybody packing into the Skylark Convertible and driving to the Polarbear Softserve store after dinner. The ice cream was one of the major food groups in our house. Sometimes, my parents would take us to an ice cream parlor for dinner.
Pricing:
- AI Assessments $2K-5K
- Fractional AI monthly CXO $2K – $5k a month
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.garr-ai.com
- Phone: 561 – 2714 – 750
- Email : [email protected]
- Twitter: @garrbrian
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