George Folickman · Fast Forward · Esko · Tilia Labs · Big Bottle of Water

Before coming to Tilia Labs, I began my career at Esko. Focused on the CAD and CAM side of the Esko business. At the time, one of the biggest challenges that was always prevalent in when we would call on these customers is like: layout creation. Back in 2018, a small startup company started coming up on the radar: Tilia Labs. We started hearing about them from our companies. And something that was really unique about what they were doing is that they were incorporating this cost aspect to lay out an imposition. But once digging into a little bit further, I realized that it’s not just throw items onto a sheet or nine up on a carton on a press sheet and go. There’s a lot more ways that we can optimize that. And really actually save a converter a lot of money. That was really new and interesting and exciting for me. Back in 2018 I kept following the company. Eventually met Sagen, the CEO. Thought he was a really interesting and exciting kind of younger energy in this industry. From there, it just kind of took off. I joined Tilia Labs in 2019. I joined with my colleague Tyler Thompson. We came over to really establish their sales organization. Their direct sales here in North America. I saw some recent stats that say on average, the prepress person is spending about 15 minutes on imposition per job. I think most people think of it as a necessary evil. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it. She walked into my office and I had a glass of ice water sitting on my desk. And she had seen this glass of ice water there like a couple of days in a row. How many times do you refill this water glass? And I looked at her and I was like: I don’t know, once a day, maybe. Whenever I’m thirsty. And two days later, I get this very, very large box from Amazon. And she brings it into my office and says, go ahead and open this up, it’s for you. Inside is like the world’s largest water bottle that I have ever seen in my life.