Living the NEMT Dream

[0:02] Nirav Chheda: right? Gas, you know, fuel prices have in increased.

[0:06] Donte Harris: Um, labor prices have but the reimbursement rates for doing That that point that you just made is um something that needs to be um discussed, you know, on a on a national level, not just, you know what I'm

[0:21] Donte Harris: saying, regional or local. It's quite exciting, you know, to reach out to people, meet new people.

[0:40] Donte Harris: that that's that's the only reason why I really got into uh this industry because when I started off as a uh a driver I worked for a company you know previously for two years for the first company and

[0:55] Donte Harris: a year for from the other company and you know meeting people during the you know during those trips you you get to get interesting stories you know what I'm saying and you meet great people and then I guess

[1:10] Donte Harris: for me I have, you know, elders such as, you know, my aunties and uncles that have, you know, disabilities and things of that nature.

[1:17] Donte Harris: And them having, you know, the the fact that sometimes they don't have well, they did have transportation, but when it when people around them don't have transportation, it's like, okay, what what what is going to be done about

[1:29] Donte Harris: that particular um problem? you know, having being able to get these people to the appointments or just transportation period, you know, getting to pharmacy or whatever case.

[1:41] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Just getting them out of their house.

[1:43] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yo, but you know, on your point about interesting stories.

[1:48] Nirav Chheda: So, one of my customers, I was talking with her the other day.

[1:52] Nirav Chheda: Um, she's saying that she she's going to start a podcast with one of her passenger every time, you know, she takes this guy to, you know, appointments like three times a week.

[2:01] Nirav Chheda: and she's like, "This guy, he's he's an old guy.

[2:03] Nirav Chheda: He has so many interesting stories that he tells me every car ride." I was like, "I should be recording this as podcast episodes." You know, that is a genius idea, you know, that would that would be that would

[2:14] Donte Harris: make some great great content because, you know, when you I can say from my personal experience, you know, having the opportunity to speak to these people and they you know, they tell you about their lives, their families, and

[2:26] Donte Harris: you know what I'm saying, different things that go on.

[2:28] Donte Harris: you know, you find out, you know, different things about people and and different cultures and, you know what I'm saying, different sectors of uh the state.

[2:37] Donte Harris: Like I'm in the Detroit area.

[2:39] Donte Harris: So, you know, if we go if I go west toward like Ann Arbor, uh where University of Michigan and all that is, you know, there's there's different there different ways that people uh I guess interact with, you know,

[2:51] Donte Harris: same people. So, I learned a lot within these last since 2016 as far as this industry goes.

[2:58] Donte Harris: So I'm very grateful. Reason being I um able to you know share this information because I like I said I wouldn't have been able to I was into real estate before so you know this is coming into the

[3:15] Donte Harris: I guess transportation industry is something totally different than what I'm used to and I really like what I do at this at this point in time.

[3:24] Donte Harris: So it's like giving back, you know what I what I could say and then I can get paid for it.

[3:30] Donte Harris: So [laughter] that too. Yeah. Yeah.

[3:34] Nirav Chheda: Why did you um why did you make the shift from real estate to No, we still have rental properties.

[3:41] Nirav Chheda: I still, you know. Oh, you still do that?

[3:43] Donte Harris: Okay. Yeah. Me and my wife, we still have, you know, portfolio.

[3:46] Donte Harris: Yeah. We have, you know, like six uh properties in Detroit and we have two in Wayne.

[3:50] Donte Harris: So, it's like, you know, the transportation industry, like I said, um is something different.

[3:58] Donte Harris: So, my backstory, uh just to I guess most familiar with my channel, um I end up going to uh to prison.

[4:12] Donte Harris: So, I had a had a stent where, you know, things wasn't so great.

[4:18] Donte Harris: So I ended up going to prison for two years.

[4:21] Donte Harris: And when I came out, you know, basically nobody wanted to hire, you know, anybody, you know, they would hire me, but they wouldn't give me the opportunity to make a a decent living to provide for my family.

[4:34] Donte Harris: I still had kids and things of that nature.

[4:36] Donte Harris: And just so happened that my uh best friend's sister, you know, she uh introduced me to a guy named Mo who owned a or his father owned a uh transportation company uh in Dearborn, Michigan.

[4:50] Donte Harris: So they gave me opportunity to, you know, drive transportation.

[4:54] Donte Harris: And then from there, you know, at that point, I was just working to earn a living.

[4:59] Donte Harris: But then I said, like I said, start meeting new people.

[5:02] Donte Harris: That's my thing. I like to if anything anybody know anything about me I like you know conversating with people and just getting to know people's story you know so they can understand my story.

[5:12] Donte Harris: So, mind you, uh 2013 was a it was kind of a awakening for me as well because um we had a house fire.

[5:22] Donte Harris: My uh end up home burned down.

[5:25] Donte Harris: We was living out of the hotel for like I think four months.

[5:29] Donte Harris: Uh and so me, yeah, me personally, I had to figure out how I was going to provide for them.

[5:34] Donte Harris: So, we end up getting a house, you know, we got a house and everything, but um a month and two living in that house, I found out I had cancer.

[5:42] Donte Harris: Okay. So, this is in May.

[5:44] Donte Harris: So, May 6 um 2013 found out I had u cancer.

[5:51] Donte Harris: May 7th, 2013, I had to have emergency surgery to get the tumor removed.

[5:58] Donte Harris: Okay. So, fast forward maybe uh two months in July.

[6:02] Donte Harris: Um like I said, I was still trying to figure out, you know, how to provide for the family.

[6:06] Donte Harris: So, made the wrong decisions and end up getting sent to prison in July.

[6:11] Donte Harris: came home in 2015, worked at Denny's uh for about maybe a year.

[6:17] Donte Harris: Then I'm like, you know, this really ain't cutting it.

[6:20] Donte Harris: So, um like I said, my best friend's sister end up, you know, saying, "Hey, look, why don't you uh come over here?" Cuz she worked at the company and she said, "I talked to um the owner and see

[6:31] Donte Harris: if he can get you get you a job." And from there I end up, you know, taking that position at um the transportation company and end up liking it.

[6:42] Donte Harris: You know, I didn't think I would like it because I'm not really a driver.

[6:46] Donte Harris: I don't I didn't think I like driving that much.

[6:49] Donte Harris: You know what I'm saying? But it ended up being that way where I was, you know, I enjoyed it.

[6:55] Donte Harris: Like I said, I like talking to people.

[6:57] Donte Harris: So, and so that made me sparked my interest.

[7:03] Donte Harris: Um, I would say maybe about a about a year and a half into working for that company.

[7:10] Donte Harris: Then I just I was inquiring like, you know what I'm saying?

[7:13] Donte Harris: How did how did you how did he end up starting the company?

[7:16] Donte Harris: And he just blew me off.

[7:17] Donte Harris: You know, he didn't think I was serious, but I was really serious because um I know they made some good money.

[7:24] Donte Harris: And then he was always talking about they got to process their Medicaid payments and you know, things of that nature.

[7:29] Donte Harris: Didn't know what that meant. You know what I'm saying?

[7:31] Donte Harris: One day, fast forward uh one day I was just sticking around at the office uh because we was waiting on our checks and everybody had left um me and the other employees.

[7:42] Donte Harris: So I just stuck around. He wanted me to answer the phone, you know, cuz it was just me and him in the office.

[7:46] Donte Harris: I answer the phone. So I was doing um billing for him, you know.

[7:50] Donte Harris: I he was having me do a few flipping things and I'm like, "Wow, okay.

[7:55] Donte Harris: This seems like it's a very profitable.

[7:57] Donte Harris: Let me ask ask him again." Ask him again.

[7:59] Donte Harris: He was like, "Okay, well, this is was this is what you do.

[8:03] Donte Harris: You you got to get your EIN number.

[8:05] Donte Harris: You have to um you have to uh get your business set up." Um and then start running everything down.

[8:11] Donte Harris: And I was I was very curious.

[8:13] Donte Harris: Told my wife at the time, well, she's my wife still my wife, but at the time I told her about it and she was like, "Well, we don't have no uh vans or nothing." And I'm like, well, the

[8:24] Donte Harris: vehicle that we have right now that was I was driving personally um at that particular time.

[8:29] Donte Harris: It was a uh Toyota Camry.

[8:32] Donte Harris: So, I was transporting people, but we switched cars.

[8:35] Donte Harris: He had like 22 cars, 22 vehicles.

[8:38] Donte Harris: So, we had switched, you know, it depends on if you're doing wheelchair or, you know, um ambulatory.

[8:45] Donte Harris: And, you know, sometimes I'll drive a regular car and then next time I might drive the wheelchair vehicle.

[8:51] Donte Harris: So he told me you can start with your personal vehicle.

[8:54] Donte Harris: And that is what you know caught my attention.

[8:58] Donte Harris: You know if I can just start with this vehicle that I have then maybe I can just get into the door.

[9:04] Donte Harris: If I get into the door then I can take it from there.

[9:07] Donte Harris: I work for another company um because he ended up slowing down but I still had bills.

[9:13] Donte Harris: So I went to another company for another year um named guy named Harry has a great transportation company.

[9:21] Donte Harris: And then from there, all right, 2019, I said, "Okay, well, I'm going to take a leap of faith, you know, and I'm try to do this on my own." And me and my wife did it with a 2006

[9:32] Donte Harris: Ford Taurus, you know, was the first first vehicle.

[9:36] Donte Harris: And uh I can say right now, it's been uh the best thing that happened so far.

[9:42] Donte Harris: Is that vehicle? Yeah. Yeah. The 2006 that was that was the Stark 2006 Ford doors.

[9:50] Nirav Chheda: And how which year did you get that?

[9:53] Donte Harris: The the vehicle? No, we already had the vehicle.

[9:57] Donte Harris: I just end up using it for uh the business.

[10:01] Donte Harris: Uh just transferred into my uh business name and we uh started with that vehicle uh to start the business doing ambulatories.

[10:11] Nirav Chheda: So which year did you start your business?

[10:14] Nirav Chheda: Because you started driving for your friend's business in 2016.

[10:18] Nirav Chheda: 2019. 2019. Okay. Right before COVID.

[10:24] Donte Harris: Right before CO or would I would I say literally right before it was right before.

[10:29] Nirav Chheda: Yes. Yes. So it's been like four and a half years then.

[10:36] Donte Harris: Four and a Yeah, we're coming upon Yeah.

[10:39] Donte Harris: Be four and a half years.

[10:41] Nirav Chheda: And how many how many trips do you do a day now?

[10:45] Nirav Chheda: How many vehicles do you run?

[10:46] Donte Harris: So some vehicles we had we have nine.

[10:49] Donte Harris: So we run seven. So trips per day if you're talking about a totality of all the Yeah.

[10:58] Donte Harris: It could be I would say about I should bring my wife in here real quick.

[11:06] Nirav Chheda: [laughter] trips. Um very nice. Yeah.

[11:15] Nirav Chheda: So, you just grew the business organically over these past four and a half years.

[11:20] Donte Harris: Yeah, because uh well, we let me let me back up because the guy the second company that I uh worked for Harry, he ended up giving me uh one of his contracts.

[11:31] Donte Harris: So, I started off with one contract.

[11:34] Donte Harris: I could I can't say I started off with a contract.

[11:36] Donte Harris: So, it was good. Um student transportation.

[11:40] Donte Harris: So, we Say it again. The contract was for student transportation.

[11:49] Donte Harris: Yes. And so we uh ENWA grabbing that contract and he basically gave me the blueprint on how to get into the school districts.

[11:58] Donte Harris: And so now, you know, you might as well say 40% of our load is uh student transportation.

[12:04] Donte Harris: And then we also also do um component of our business is dialysis I've been coming across more businesses that do um NEMT and student.

[12:25] Nirav Chheda: I feel like student is becoming popular among people who do NEMT.

[12:29] Donte Harris: Reason being I would say so too days, right?

[12:39] Donte Harris: So, um, we have students excuse me, students that, uh, you know, start of the day starts at 7:10 and so they get out at basically 12:20.

[12:50] Donte Harris: Usually, usually the school lets out about 2 I think it's 2:17.

[12:55] Donte Harris: So, they do like majority of the day, but they couple students get out at 12:10.

[13:00] Donte Harris: So, you know, that that's that makes the day a little bit uh easier for a couple of our employees that are, you know, moms.

[13:10] Donte Harris: I'm saying we have two employees that are moms, so they have students as well.

[13:13] Donte Harris: So, it makes it a little bit easier for them to, you know, get into the district and still have the rest of that day if they decide to, you know, take off and, you know, do their own thing.

[13:23] Nirav Chheda: Right. Right. And do you still drive yourself sometimes for your business or No.

[13:28] Donte Harris: Oh, yeah. I'm still in the field.

[13:31] Donte Harris: Okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm still in the field.

[13:33] Donte Harris: Not uh not as much, but yeah, because when I was working before it was like getting up at 6 a.m., well, 5:45 and not getting home until like 9.

[13:44] Donte Harris: So, all of them grueling days are over with, you know, but you know, I'm still out here.

[13:50] Nirav Chheda: Yes. Yeah. And you said when you know you messaged me the other day, you said it's a familyrun business.

[13:56] Donte Harris: So you got your I have well my wife is you know doing the books and then we also have um my cousin and he's um he's fairly new.

[14:08] Donte Harris: We only been there been there a year and we also have um my auntie and then this some of their um distant relatives as well.

[14:20] Donte Harris: meaning it's like a third or fourth cousin to me.

[14:24] Nirav Chheda: Okay. Wow. Extended family business. Yes.

[14:30] Donte Harris: Yeah. Yeah. Basically what you can say.

[14:32] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Extended family business. And now your son is helping you with the editing of your videos too to do this do this side of the education side where you we get to drop information and be able to you

[14:44] Donte Harris: know at least stay uh a breast and you know keep uh pushing information out to you know let people know because what I found out is uh Nirav um not too many people know about the industry.

[14:59] Donte Harris: It's like it has it has it it's like its own niche and um when I first started I didn't I didn't know it even existed you know back in 2016 I didn't know they existed I didn't know what

[15:13] Donte Harris: this was mind you I did see the vehicles all throughout the city like I see these vehicles all the time but it doesn't say NEMT you know majority of the vehicles don't say NEMT majority vehicles just say so

[15:28] Donte Harris: private transportation is what I basically considered it was but that wasn't the case you know this is a whole uh industry uh which when I when I when I start it's one of those industries where you either don't

[15:46] Donte Harris: know it exists or you really know a lot about or you exactly exactly that's what I can say and so I was just messing around on um I think it yeah Tik Tok and making um you know little

[16:00] Donte Harris: videos about that and about the industry and things like that.

[16:03] Donte Harris: And you know what I've come to find out I guess this when Tik Tok was pretty new too as well and you know people were uh inquiring about the industry.

[16:14] Donte Harris: So that made me say, okay, well maybe this is uh a way to put out this information introduce people to the industry.

[16:28] Nirav Chheda: Say it one more time. When did you start doing that?

[16:31] Donte Harris: Putting out the Tik Toks. Tik Toks would have been co.

[16:36] Donte Harris: So that would have been You've been doing this for that would have been Yeah, that would have been co 2021.

[16:44] Donte Harris: believe it was. Yeah, it was 2021.

[16:52] Nirav Chheda: Studios for three years now. Yes.

[16:54] Donte Harris: Yeah, it's probably been three Which is it's been it's been very welcoming.

[17:01] Donte Harris: I met I met some really dope people uh in the industry from different like uh you had MJ Reliable on here.

[17:08] Donte Harris: Um I believe one of the be I don't know if it was one of the beginning videos that you had.

[17:16] Donte Harris: So um you know I really like their uh information that they put out.

[17:20] Donte Harris: They're very very knowledge. You had them on too, You had them on your channel too.

[17:26] Donte Harris: Absolutely. Also, um [clears throat] Stephanie, you know, uh yeah, Stephanie Harmon.

[17:33] Donte Harris: Stephanie Arman, you know, also I like Stephanie as well because she would that's how that's how I met, you know, those two uh group of ladies on uh Tik Tok as well.

[17:43] Donte Harris: So, it's a it's a whole new community right here on Tik Tok.

[17:46] Donte Harris: And you know then I decided to you know take the information over to YouTube because you know YouTube has a broad I say a broader uh audience but you know I guess diversifying the information on different platforms that

[18:00] Donte Harris: help bring people in to educate them you know to about the industry which is you know my main thing just to give them the education side so they know what they're getting theirel into when first getting started.

[18:12] Donte Harris: Yeah, I was, you know, even though I had somebody to, you know, walk me through it, you know, if somebody wasn't in my shoes, what would be the how would they get the information?

[18:23] Donte Harris: So, I wanted to share, you know, from my aspect of, you know, how I got into it.

[18:29] Nirav Chheda: And you were, I mean, really like the first person out there putting out educational videos about NEMT.

[18:36] Nirav Chheda: Um, I mean I you tell me like when you started I don't think there was anyone else doing it, right?

[18:42] Donte Harris: I don't know if they were or not.

[18:44] Donte Harris: I didn't I didn't see it.

[18:45] Donte Harris: Um, as far as, you know, u Yeah, I didn't see it in that aspect, but that don't mean that it wasn't out there.

[18:53] Donte Harris: I just it didn't come across my page.

[18:56] Donte Harris: Um I'm not I'm a social media guy, but at not at the same time not, you know, as You know what I'm saying?

[19:10] Donte Harris: So yeah, that so when I did decide to do, you know, start putting out the information, um I don't think there was too many people out there.

[19:17] Donte Harris: If there was, you know, probably wasn't as uh relevant.

[19:20] Donte Harris: I mean not relevant but um I guess known or want you know for everybody to see.

[19:28] Nirav Chheda: you know one thing I like about so on your channel like you're very open with your videos like you know about like hey if you have something on your record that setback isn't a deal breaker.

[19:39] Nirav Chheda: You can still be an entrepreneur in this industry.

[19:42] Nirav Chheda: You can still live the American dream.

[19:44] Nirav Chheda: Here's how you overcome that setback.

[19:46] Nirav Chheda: And you have multiple videos about that.

[19:48] Nirav Chheda: And I just love that like, hey, you know what?

[19:51] Nirav Chheda: Like, yeah, because like people who, you know, are like maybe down, but like there's a way for them to like you know, overcome that and always putting, you know, content out like that.

[20:06] Donte Harris: Yeah, there's always an opportunity. Um reason why I want to do that I just want to let people know that you know even though um you may have that setback you know you always are we are in America

[20:20] Donte Harris: where you are allowed you know a second chance and um they have something called expungements where you know if you do have something on your your criminal record it can be expuned you know um in certain cases no

[20:36] Donte Harris: you know Each state is different, but there's certain things that you can get expuned.

[20:41] Donte Harris: But, you know, if it's if it's possible, then you should, you know, go ahead and do it to allow you to have the opportunity to break free and get into whatever industry, whether it's NEMT or, you know, whatever

[20:53] Donte Harris: you plan on doing, you know.

[20:55] Donte Harris: So, that's why um that's another reason why uh and my kids, they always encourage me like that, you know, you have a story to tell.

[21:03] Donte Harris: Like I just said, you know, there's certain things that I went through in my journey to get where I'm at now to that it should, you know, help somebody else that may be, you know, going down the wrong

[21:15] Donte Harris: path or on the right path or it fell off and you're going to get back on it.

[21:20] Donte Harris: That is their opportunity out And I mean, this is America.

[21:26] Nirav Chheda: Being an entrepreneur is like, you know, the thing to do.

[21:30] Donte Harris: Yeah. Everybody, I mean, don't don't I want to tell everybody out there, don't get it twisted now.

[21:35] Donte Harris: Entrepreneurship is kind of it's kind of grueling now.

[21:38] Donte Harris: It's is uh as you know, Nirav, yeah, you guys started this uh tech company, which is, you know, it's pretty amazing.

[21:46] Donte Harris: And from um what I've seen and what I've uh heard, um it's it's bar none, you know, it's it's top tier, you know.

[21:58] Donte Harris: Um, you know, I'm familiar with RouteGenie, you know, TripSpark and all the rest of those guys.

[22:03] Donte Harris: Um, but what I can say is you guys are and I have a demo set up, you know, with you guys still coming up soon.

[22:12] Donte Harris: Um, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just just so you know.

[22:16] Donte Harris: Um, who's that demo with? Uh, I have to look at the uh cuz I uh I did it last night or night before last.

[22:26] Nirav Chheda: Oh, that was you? Yeah. So, okay.

[22:30] Nirav Chheda: Because I got in uh a message from Donte.

[22:33] Nirav Chheda: I was like, "Huh, I'm meeting with Donte.

[22:35] Nirav Chheda: Is it the same Donte? It must be." [laughter] Yeah.

[22:38] Donte Harris: Yeah. So, that that's me. I wanted to uh I want to get a better understanding of the uh software.

[22:44] Donte Harris: Like I said, I've seen uh rave reviews like everybody is, you know, speaking really really highly of it.

[22:51] Donte Harris: And I want to know for myself so um I can get out here and champion you guys because anytime new products come out, you know, or any new information, um you know, I would like to share it, you

[23:07] Donte Harris: know, with the with the people.

[23:08] Donte Harris: But I have a little small audience.

[23:10] Donte Harris: So I would like to, you know, you know, get that information to the people so they can go, you know, check you guys out, check whoever out.

[23:16] Nirav Chheda: Oh, Donte, I don't think your audience is small.

[23:18] Nirav Chheda: I see your videos and you get views, man.

[23:21] Donte Harris: You get Well, I appreciate that.

[23:24] Donte Harris: I really I really do appreciate that.

[23:26] Donte Harris: But like I said, I really uh like I I follow quite a few, you know, EM NEMT uh you know, companies.

[23:35] Donte Harris: There's uh you also had um NEMT Coach, I think.

[23:40] Donte Harris: Yeah. Charice Johnson. Yeah. Yeah. I like her content.

[23:44] Donte Harris: We have another guy down in um um North Carolina uh motivational Charles uh down in North Carolina.

[23:53] Donte Harris: So there's some pretty amazing people out here that's you know putting some good content out here that's helping helping people.

[23:59] Donte Harris: So that's what I'm for. I love I love the community.

[24:03] Donte Harris: You know it's a beautiful thing.

[24:05] Donte Harris: We have the uh uh NEMT conference, NEMTAC.

[24:09] Donte Harris: You know there's there's there so many to come this year.

[24:12] Donte Harris: I think I'm gonna go this year.

[24:14] Donte Harris: Okay, nice. Yeah, I told the wife, "Yeah, we want to uh you know, head on down there." So, have you been to any of the previous No.

[24:24] Donte Harris: No, I didn't. I honestly I didn't know they existed until uh MJ Reliable, you know, had a video about it.

[24:34] Donte Harris: You know, once I seen the video, I said, "Oh, wow.

[24:36] Donte Harris: This is this is amazing." You know, should have known that it was it was things like that out here.

[24:41] Donte Harris: Excuse me. But you know, you know, life be life anding and you know, you get caught up in, you know, your own life and you don't know what's all going on.

[24:49] Donte Harris: So, I try to stay in the in the loop now.

[24:51] Donte Harris: you know, that's why I had started like a NEMT community where it's like a newsletter, but you know, it's podcast and um and I just produce articles and things like that on the private community just, you know, so

[25:06] Donte Harris: people can have some more resources to, you know, come to uh if they need need to have it.

[25:12] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. And do you do you like um you know when you put out this content people come to you do they how much I mean I know you coach people like one- on- one and you provide that too.

[25:24] Nirav Chheda: Is that like a big chunk of your time is just like coaching new NEMT businesses on starting up?

[25:30] Donte Harris: Well, not really because I I I would say it's we do it.

[25:37] Donte Harris: I'm not going to say it's a it's a it's a lot, but we do uh we do one-on-one coach uh consultations to uh to help people.

[25:46] Donte Harris: So, I'll give you I guess a scenario.

[25:50] Donte Harris: So, usually what we try to do, so usually I'm I'm in the office between uh you know 7 and we'll say 5:30.

[26:00] Donte Harris: Um and then we let let the drivers you know drive until at least 7:00 7:00 p.m.

[26:04] Donte Harris: if we have you know uh patience at that at that time.

[26:09] Donte Harris: So in the meantime if I have uh time I sort of try to block off time between like Wednesday through uh Sunday where we can do consultations and so yeah we have quite a quite a few um because

[26:25] Donte Harris: people have questions. Now, mind you, there's this there's a lot of information out here on on the internet, you know, as far as like YouTube and things like that, but then, you know, what I come to find out

[26:36] Donte Harris: is people want to they got to have like that step by step, which is understandable because they don't want to, you know, do anything wrong.

[26:44] Donte Harris: So I guess that's our job such as you and you know other people that's in the industry to you know give them the guidance to be on the right path to get you know getting started because that main

[26:55] Donte Harris: hump is um sticking it all the way through because people get frustrated you know because this is not like you can get this done in 30 days.

[27:03] Donte Harris: So, you know, I think that's one one misconception that people think that, you know, they might see a a glamorous video and, you know, [laughter] I can make this all this money, but you know, you got to get

[27:13] Donte Harris: in here and get your get your feet wet.

[27:15] Donte Harris: So, you know, and sometimes I'll be I get emails like, uh, I just I just wanna, you know, I want to pull my hair out, just let it go.

[27:24] Donte Harris: like a working with a family down in um Philly uh Pennsylvania and you know she's having you know frustrations because you know can't get to the authorities to find out what's going on with her, you know, paperwork.

[27:42] Donte Harris: So it's it's giving them that motivation to let them know stick it on through because when when you get to the other side it's going to be rewarding for you.

[27:51] Donte Harris: well, not just financially, but you you'll have your own your own business and you'll be able to do what you set it out to do.

[27:58] Donte Harris: So, I like I like I like teaching, you know, it's it's rewarding because, you know, I'm doing my part and give giving back, you know, because I'm glad that I got that opportunity.

[28:09] Donte Harris: Like, like I said, 2015 was kind of trying for me and my family, you know, like I said, coming out coming out of prison and, you know, not having working at Denny's.

[28:18] Donte Harris: I remember 925 an hour which that that's not that's not nothing you know.

[28:25] Nirav Chheda: I like your story man. I really like your story.

[28:28] Donte Harris: I I really appreciate it. you know that the reason why like know sharing sharing information because you know eventually hopefully this I got a quick story I got a uh a comment one day on my uh I think

[28:53] Donte Harris: on my one of my YouTube videos where somebody was getting frustrated saying uh I shouldn't share you know I shouldn't be telling people how to get into the industry because it's going to get oversaturated like the trucking industry,

[29:05] Donte Harris: you know, and so so mind you, uh, you know, I I didn't I didn't respond to the video, you know, because I that's your feelings.

[29:14] Donte Harris: I understand, you know, cuz I understand some industries get oversaturated, then they might, you know, do whatever.

[29:22] Donte Harris: Uh but Jasmine uh from uh MJ, she slid up on the comments like, "Hey, look, you know, there's enough for us all in this bigger industry.

[29:32] Donte Harris: You know, we can, you know, it's plentiful for all of us." So that that just let me know like it's it's enough information, you know, and stuff out here and sharing information won't hurt, you know, the next person,

[29:48] Donte Harris: you know. Don't don't be a what they call gatekeepers.

[29:52] Nirav Chheda: The information is the information. You know, I don't know about you, but I you know, you've talked with so many NEMT business across the country.

[30:02] Nirav Chheda: So have I. I've talked with hundreds and hundreds.

[30:05] Nirav Chheda: I think this industry needs more like quality providers like by a lot.

[30:10] Nirav Chheda: like the demand is shooting up and the supply of good NEMT providers isn't matching up to how much demand there is.

[30:19] Donte Harris: I would second that motion. uh reason we we personally uh when I first started we contract we end up picking up maybe three um you know clients based off of the I think it's like the guardian the guardian

[30:41] Donte Harris: end up calling around trying to find another company because their their family member end up got left at a uh at appointment you know it was like three hours later.

[30:51] Donte Harris: Mind you, you So, they was to the point where, you know, they they were maybe like two hours away and they couldn't, you know, get there in time.

[31:07] Donte Harris: You know what I'm saying? Before it got too late, doors were closed and all that.

[31:11] Donte Harris: So, I would say, you know, there there's companies that do things of that nature.

[31:18] Donte Harris: um rude, you know, bad drivers, you know, it's I ain't gonna say that the industry is I think they should do a better um just hiring because it could be the the owners or whatever the case may be.

[31:43] Donte Harris: I I second your motion on that on that point because having quality quality um provider providers and owners is is what's going to you know push this industry forward.

[31:55] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Honestly, it's it's a big part of the reason we started Bambi.

[32:00] Nirav Chheda: So my co-founder Charles, his grandfather's wheelchair bound and the NEMT company left him stranded in a facility for half a day.

[32:09] Nirav Chheda: They just wouldn't come to pick him up.

[32:12] Nirav Chheda: So they're like, "Hey, something's wrong with the scheduling and dispatching of these vehicles that they didn't realize they left this old man stranded for a half a day." Exactly.

[32:26] Donte Harris: That that is that is that that's mind-blowing if you sit here and just think about that.

[32:30] Donte Harris: You know, they and then they're older, you know what I'm saying?

[32:34] Donte Harris: They're dealing with anxiety and, you know, whatever the case may be.

[32:37] Donte Harris: So that's very disheartening to hear.

[32:40] Donte Harris: You know what I'm saying? these I would call them horror stories.

[32:44] Donte Harris: I actually was gonna um on my channel you know get start doing uh like story time because you know some of the stories I didn't heard with some passengers that we we picked up is you know kind of

[32:55] Donte Harris: kind of horrifying to to hear like can you share a story?

[33:01] Donte Harris: One one of the cases is one one of these companies.

[33:04] Donte Harris: I'm not going to throw them under the bus because I know who I know the company.

[33:08] Donte Harris: They like Dearbornne Michigan. That's like it's like one gas station where like I guess a lot of us fuel at, right?

[33:17] Donte Harris: So, you know, we see them, they see us or whatever, you know, but this particular um one of the drivers was uh since since they thought they were comfortable with the passenger, they ended up smoking uh a what

[33:34] Donte Harris: they call a blunt in the vehicle, which is, you know what I'm saying, some weed, you know, and they end up complaining to the owner.

[33:45] Donte Harris: They end the firefiring the driver.

[33:46] Donte Harris: But you know what what not going to say that they were in the vehicle, but when the passenger got into the vehicle, they all that's all they smelled was, you know, marijuana smoke, you know, and they was they

[34:01] Donte Harris: were just so disgusted. So they end up leaving that company going I mean that particular company and going to another company.

[34:06] Donte Harris: But you know what I'm saying?

[34:06] Donte Harris: things of that nature that be happening.

[34:09] Donte Harris: And then you just be like, "Okay, what what would possess a person or what would possess, I guess, a company to hire somebody that, you know, would do something of that nature, even though they can't can't control it,

[34:21] Donte Harris: but hey, you know, this is uh I would say that things like that is kind of kind of kind of really crazy to me." You know, I the number one problem or one of the biggest problem I'd say

[34:37] Nirav Chheda: every almost every single NEMT company tells me it's hard to find drivers.

[34:42] Nirav Chheda: I mean, the labor shortages they're hitting, you know, every industry, NEMT is no exception, right?

[34:49] Donte Harris: And then I I would go to the to the point where it's not just hiring drivers, quality drivers, too.

[34:58] Donte Harris: You know, uh somebody that you really can because you can you can do the things like background checks and things of that nature.

[35:06] Donte Harris: But, you know, are you going to have that per person that's a comfortable professional, you know, going to be able to uphold your your uh reputation for your company, you know what I'm saying, to to the utmost, you

[35:18] Donte Harris: know, and I think so. I think, you know, it's [clears throat] I don't want to say people are don't want to work, but it's it seems like, you know, I don't know if people got a influx of money.

[35:32] Donte Harris: I need to figure out where it came from because uh we're not getting that bowl of the money that you know people that's not want willing to work because I know like I said the guy Harry that I

[35:44] Donte Harris: um work for a year you know it's kind of hard for him to find you know quality drivers you know so either you know they come work for three days and they supposed to be five and then like

[35:55] Donte Harris: he said one time he had a contract on a Saturday and they didn't even show up so he had to get out of his bed and go you know as owners as you know, you know what I'm saying?

[36:03] Donte Harris: You got to pick up that.

[36:05] Donte Harris: You got to pick that up, you know.

[36:07] Donte Harris: So, I it's going to get better, but you know, we have to, you know, find ways to find quality u members in the organization.

[36:19] Nirav Chheda: you know, it's hard, you know, because the way I understand it is you can only find more quality people if you can afford to pay them what they're worth.

[36:34] Nirav Chheda: And you can only pay them what they're worth if you paid enough for trips, what you know, what needs to be paid to do trips.

[36:43] Nirav Chheda: But over the past several years, and you've probably seen this because you've been in this industry since 2016, but the costs of doing NEMT have been rising, right?

[36:52] Nirav Chheda: Gas, you know, fuel prices have in increased.

[36:56] Nirav Chheda: Um, labor prices have but the reimbursement rates for doing trips haven't increased as much as the costs have.

[37:05] Donte Harris: No. And that that's a problem.

[37:07] Donte Harris: It's it's to the point where it's like you want to know is if if it's worth it.

[37:14] Donte Harris: It's still going to be worth it because you're helping helping the community and but you still have to have a sustainable business, right?

[37:21] Donte Harris: You know, you have to be able to they have revenue to operate.

[37:25] Donte Harris: So that that point that you just made is um something that needs to be um discussed, you know, on a on a national level, not just, you know, I'm saying regional or local.

[37:38] Donte Harris: You know, we we we should be able to u if if inflation comes, you know, and it affects all the rest of the country, it's going to affect the businesses as well.

[37:50] Donte Harris: So we we are going to have to be able to you know provide for our so case in point what if we want to give our employees uh you know health insurance and things of that nature like there's

[38:00] Donte Harris: a lot of things that play into to this industry that that's on the back end that we need to h have uh considered.

[38:08] Donte Harris: So, I'm I want to get out here more and see what we can do to, you know, make this a little bit better for, you know, us owners so we can pass it down to, you know, our employees,

[38:21] Nirav Chheda: our drivers, our providers. I mean, the problem stems from the top really.

[38:30] Nirav Chheda: So, I mean, there are things that you can do, right, as NEMT business owners, but um I don't know, that's just my perspective from what I see as a whole, right?

[38:40] Nirav Chheda: Like they're going to be NEMT businesses that do better, but as a whole, They're not getting paid by whoever be the players at the top Right.

[38:53] Donte Harris: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that's why my our business model is basically private pay.

[39:00] Nirav Chheda: Um exactly you know that's the thing if you do private pay then you can afford Yeah.

[39:07] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. things right. But the thing is I think you know a lot of business you know especially newer ones it's work.

[39:14] Nirav Chheda: It's a lot of work to get private pay and a lot of people they just they don't do that.

[39:19] Nirav Chheda: They don't do the work. They they want to sign up with whoever is just going to give them trips easily.

[39:24] Donte Harris: Yes. Yes, you're exactly right. You know, it's not an easy road to get into these establishments and contract, you know, with them.

[39:32] Donte Harris: You have to um that's so what I know what I learned also is not you not can't just go in one time, one, two, or three times and think is it's going to, you know, work or you going

[39:43] Donte Harris: to get a contract. You have to be diligent.

[39:46] Donte Harris: Um and and always, you know, find find yourself uh always willing to network and just just stay in direct communication with these uh these medical facilities or you know, whoever you cont want to contract with because like I

[40:04] Donte Harris: said, that private pay is I mean it it's it's good when you when you get the contract, but you know, getting into a facility and contracting with them is it's not as easy as hopefully that people believe it's

[40:16] Donte Harris: going to you know, it's great, you know, getting to get into a medical facility such as like we have one in Lincoln Park.

[40:24] Donte Harris: So, I'm in the what we call down river area.

[40:27] Donte Harris: There's Trenton, Southgate, uh Riverview, um Taylor, Romulus, that's what we call the um Down River area.

[40:37] Donte Harris: So, those cities around there, that's what we primarily try to contract with.

[40:42] Donte Harris: And what I learned is, you know, either they're with one of the conglomerate, we have a we basically have a uh met like a metro EMT.

[40:56] Donte Harris: So they have like the big contracts with with the with the hospitals and things like that nature.

[41:02] Donte Harris: So it's kind of hard to get them out of the way or you know what I'm saying, you to get in there to get a contract with them because they've been with them so long.

[41:11] Donte Harris: But once they figure out you provide a great service, that's basically how we uh get good contracts because they know we provide excellent service punctual and the staff that we have is pretty amazing.

[41:23] Donte Harris: Pretty dope. I can I can say I'm I'm a I'm a roof of our team.

[41:30] Donte Harris: They [clears throat] do pretty uh pretty good job.

[41:32] Nirav Chheda: You know, self-confidence in your business.

[41:35] Donte Harris: I love it. [laughter] you guys started, you know, uh, Bambi, Can I hear it again?

[41:49] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. So my co-founder Charles, his grandfather is a wheelchairbound man and he was just left stranded in a facility for half a day.

[41:58] Nirav Chheda: I guess the NEMT business either mixed up, you know, when they were supposed to pick him up from the facility or whatever.

[42:05] Nirav Chheda: Um, so Charles, you know, he was obviously pretty upset that his grandfather, you know, had to go through that and he figured like, hey, you know, like Charles was a software engineer, so he's like, maybe, you know, they're

[42:17] Nirav Chheda: not using the right system to figure out their schedules and their dispatching.

[42:22] Nirav Chheda: So he looked around all the softwares in the NEMT industry for dispatching and scheduling, and he came to me, he says, Nirav, they're all terrible.

[42:33] Nirav Chheda: They're all old, clunky, legacy old solutions.

[42:37] Nirav Chheda: They look like they were built in the 1990s and haven't been updated.

[42:41] Nirav Chheda: Like, you know, if we just build something that's really easy to use and works really well, we can win over this entire industry.

[42:49] Nirav Chheda: And it's a growing industry. So, I was like, okay, man.

[42:52] Nirav Chheda: Like, I'm with you. Let's do it.

[42:54] Nirav Chheda: And, you know, we come from the world of building technology startups.

[42:57] Nirav Chheda: don't come from transportation or healthcare, but we know how to make good software that's easy to use for people who are not techsavvy, But we can do business owners.

[43:10] Nirav Chheda: And um you know, like here it is almost two years later and we've got a team of 10 people.

[43:15] Nirav Chheda: We recruited a team of like the best software engineers from Silicon Valley companies.

[43:21] Nirav Chheda: And that's amazing. We're onboarding a handful of customers every week at this point and uh we're just getting rave reviews from all of our customers.

[43:30] Nirav Chheda: So our goal is within the next two years we should win over everyone in this whole That's what that's what it's looking like.

[43:39] Donte Harris: No, no, no shade to the rest of the companies, but from what you know, as we say on my end, the word on the streets is that's that's exactly where you guys are headed, you know, from from uh

[43:53] Donte Harris: from the reviews that I have seen all over, you know, YouTube and um places that I've seen you guys at.

[44:00] Donte Harris: So, you know, I want to thank you guys for, you know, putting this out here for, you know, people like us, you know, to be able to use for functionality, you know, it's amazing.

[44:11] Nirav Chheda: It's amazing. That's great to hear, man.

[44:14] Nirav Chheda: And hey, you know what? So, I'm actually the one who responded to the request that you put on our website.

[44:20] Nirav Chheda: I don't think I got you scheduled for Oh, you don't?

[44:24] Donte Harris: Okay. I don't have my phones.

[44:28] Donte Harris: Okay. So, but I need I thought I clicked that.

[44:31] Donte Harris: It's It was a calendar, right?

[44:33] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. So, I sent it to you at 9:30 p.m.

[44:37] Nirav Chheda: last night or I guess you're in central time, so it was 8:30 p.m.

[44:40] Nirav Chheda: Did you schedule one? I clicked it up.

[44:43] Donte Harris: Yeah, I clicked it and it should have been for like 5:30, I believe it was.

[44:51] Donte Harris: See, I don't have my phone with me, so I can't I can't check.

[44:53] Nirav Chheda: So, I would Okay. I would have seen something come through.

[44:57] Donte Harris: If not, then I'll uh if not, I will um once I get done, you know, getting off the call, I I'll double check.

[45:03] Donte Harris: If not, then I'll go right back in there, get it scheduled.

[45:07] Donte Harris: I swear I did that last night, but I'll double check.

[45:10] Nirav Chheda: Well, hey, man, if you want the demo right now, I can do that for you.

[45:14] Donte Harris: But Oh, you can? Oh, yeah.

[45:17] Donte Harris: Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.

[45:20] Nirav Chheda: Here, I got you, man. let me just pop it open.

[45:26] Donte Harris: Well, this is this is pretty dope.

[45:27] Donte Harris: You Yeah, you made you made this a beautiful for two years, right?

[45:38] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. So, we started the company two years ago.

[45:41] Nirav Chheda: And at that point, we were just still learning about the industry.

[45:45] Nirav Chheda: Um, you know, talking with hundreds of NEMT business owners and figuring out, hey, how should this thing work?

[45:51] Nirav Chheda: You know, what are their needs?

[45:52] Nirav Chheda: And then we started building it.

[45:54] Nirav Chheda: And we only released our software like um closer to the end of last year.

[45:59] Nirav Chheda: So our software has just been out in the market for like half a year now.

[46:04] Nirav Chheda: And in the past few months awareness is spreading and now we're getting so much inbound requests to our website, people wanting to sign up.

[46:14] Donte Harris: Oh, that's amazing. That is amazing.

[46:17] Donte Harris: And it's good that you guys are on uh YouTube and you know providing these interviews to give people understanding of how the industry works and you know people have different aspects of what you know lane they are in

[46:29] Donte Harris: meaning like some people are with brokers some people are you know private pay you know yeah that gives you know people a great idea and then you have the software to go in between both of those uh niches.

[46:42] Donte Harris: So this is like a you know a perfect scenario.

[46:48] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. I mean people who are new to this industry you know they they need a source that sort of gives them everything the education the tools the resources.

[47:03] Nirav Chheda: So um okay I'm sharing my screen here.

[47:07] Nirav Chheda: So you're seeing the calendar here, right?

[47:13] Nirav Chheda: Okay. So this is like it's a demo account.

[47:17] Nirav Chheda: So it's an example NEMT business that's running uh six vehicles today.

[47:23] Nirav Chheda: So you see here Charles is driving this wheelchair van called And then Kelsey is driving little Ambi.

[47:33] Nirav Chheda: Um so the name of the vehicle is up here and the name of the drivers here.

[47:36] Nirav Chheda: And you can see that like Charles is working from 6:00 a.m.

[47:39] Nirav Chheda: until 8:00 p.m., right? And so on and so forth.

[47:45] Nirav Chheda: So this is like, you know, everyone's schedule.

[47:49] Nirav Chheda: And on the left hand side, we've got all of these trip requests that have come in.

[47:56] Nirav Chheda: And the goal is to get these trips onto the fleet schedule.

[48:02] Nirav Chheda: So this trip for passenger sandill crane, I'm going to put him on Mike for example, right?

[48:08] Nirav Chheda: So now Mike is going to be doing this trip.

[48:11] Nirav Chheda: And like normally, you know, you'd assign every trip individually, but the cool thing or one of the cool things about Bambi is I can select all of these trips and then you see this button down here that says

[48:26] Nirav Chheda: run Bambi run, I'm going to click that.

[48:30] Nirav Chheda: And that's our magic button. So, our AI is running now.

[48:34] Nirav Chheda: And it's figuring out, it's going to take less than 30 seconds to figure out the solution.

[48:39] Nirav Chheda: Like, how do we fit in the most number of trips onto the fleet schedule?

[48:43] Nirav Chheda: And it does that by minimizing the total distance driven by the fleet to complete as many trips as possible.

[48:51] Nirav Chheda: So, it's taking into account like the starting and drop off locations of every trip.

[48:56] Nirav Chheda: is taking into account traffic patterns like historic traffic patterns in this area.

[49:01] Nirav Chheda: Um you know what are the needs of this passenger beriatric wheelchair like what are the skills and the capacities of the driver and the vehicle everything and it's coming up with a suggestion.

[49:12] Nirav Chheda: So this is Bambi's suggestion and as a dispatcher I say okay I I think this makes sense.

[49:19] Nirav Chheda: I'm going to hit apply. And basically, you know, this saved me like hour or multiple hours of work that I would have, you know, had to figure out the next case day schedule.

[49:31] Nirav Chheda: These three trips here, they were not assigned because either there isn't space or, you know, we don't have vehicles and drivers that are outfitted to do those trips, you know, that have these requirements at the time.

[49:44] Nirav Chheda: Like these three are stretcher trips, right?

[49:47] Nirav Chheda: We just don't have stretcher capacity at that time.

[49:50] Nirav Chheda: Um, like for example, this trip is at 7:30.

[49:53] Nirav Chheda: It's a stretcher. Our stretcher van doesn't start until a little later in the day, right?

[49:58] Nirav Chheda: Like it starts at 7:00, but maybe they wouldn't have made it to the pickup by 7 7:30.

[50:04] Nirav Chheda: So, it's taking into account, you know, really everything you would need and coming up with this schedule.

[50:11] Nirav Chheda: The the extra cool thing though, Donte, is that let's say I get, you know, more trips in and I put them into Bambi.

[50:19] Nirav Chheda: I can click run Bambi run and it'll come up with a suggestion of shuffling around trips from one driver to another to try to fit in more trips.

[50:29] Nirav Chheda: So like it could say, hey, let's move this trip for passenger Susie be from Ben over to Maximleian so that Ben can take this other trip.

[50:37] Nirav Chheda: Um, and you're seeing most of these trips are blue, right?

[50:41] Nirav Chheda: The purple ones are will calls, but this is just like some example day in the future, which is, you know, we just made it September 1st.

[50:48] Nirav Chheda: Um, but if this was an actual day, you would see a line, a red line across the screen moving down as the time of the day went on.

[50:57] Nirav Chheda: And the colors in these trips, they would change in real time based on the real-time status of the trip.

[51:03] Nirav Chheda: Because you've got the drivers out in the field using the Bambi driver app on their phone, tapping through the trips as the status is changing.

[51:10] Nirav Chheda: And these trip boxes, their colors change like you know based on what the status is.

[51:15] Nirav Chheda: And the trip boxes will even expand if the trip is taking longer or contract.

[51:20] Nirav Chheda: So it's basically a living breathing view of your day in real time.

[51:25] Nirav Chheda: And I mean, we do have the map view where you can see the vehicles moving around in real time doing the trips, but honestly, you don't really don't need that because you can see everything and what's going on

[51:35] Nirav Chheda: by just looking at this screen and knowing what's happening with your entire fleet at once.

[51:42] Nirav Chheda: That's dope. So, yeah, I mean, that's the main thing.

[51:46] Nirav Chheda: One other thing I'm going to share with you, and I'm actually going to open up a different account to share with you.

[51:52] Nirav Chheda: you do a lot of private pay, which is the way to go.

[51:59] Nirav Chheda: so I'm gonna show you something really cool we released uh recently for private pay.

[52:05] Nirav Chheda: Um, yeah. Okay. I'm just opening up another demo account.

[52:14] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Here we go. So, I mean, the rest of Bambi is pretty straightforward, right?

[52:19] Nirav Chheda: like, you know, a place to add your trips.

[52:22] Nirav Chheda: Um, a place to sort of here I can show you like set the shifts for all of your drivers.

[52:28] Nirav Chheda: Like for example, you know, Ben is, you know, Billy is driving this vehicle called Robin Mobile.

[52:34] Nirav Chheda: Um, you know, Charles is driving van 20 and so on and so forth.

[52:39] Nirav Chheda: But, um, one cool thing for private pays, so you see how like this is everyone in your NEMT business.

[52:47] Nirav Chheda: You have your owners, which is you, you know, administrators, you got your dispatchers, um the associates or the You can also add a facility admin or and a facility user.

[53:00] Nirav Chheda: And so basically you would be giving a partial login to your Bambi account to like a nurse or someone at a facility and then they would have access to add trips directly into your Bambi account and then they

[53:14] Nirav Chheda: can see those trips but only the trips for their facility and they can also see the map and see those trips happening in real time that are only for their facility.

[53:25] Nirav Chheda: so this is like it becomes a great marketing tool like hey facility you have this easy to use thing you don't have to call me on the phone for trips or check where is the driver like you just

[53:35] Nirav Chheda: log in here and it's seamless um so some of our customers you know they do private pay work and they gave this to facilities the facilities stopped ordering to the other NEMT business they just wanted to use the

[53:47] Nirav Chheda: add a trip form and they sent too many trips to to our yeah like oh we got to get more All right.

[53:54] Donte Harris: So, Rob real quick. So, Are So, are you saying that the uh medical medical facilities can go into this if they are um admin, they can, you know, schedule the appointments uh for their clients in there and we

[54:14] Donte Harris: receive it on our end on our back end.

[54:17] Nirav Chheda: Exactly. I mean, so they'd be essentially in this account and they would see the same thing that you're seeing here, except they would only see the map section, the trip section, and the add a trip And they'll only

[54:32] Nirav Chheda: see the trips that are for their facility.

[54:34] Nirav Chheda: And on the map, they'll only see trips that are happening that are for their facility in real time.

[54:44] Nirav Chheda: that's really amazing. That that is that is it's um it's a big focus for our company in 2024 to even build more functionality around this because we found that this is such a popular thing um and more people

[54:58] Nirav Chheda: are asking hey can you make it you know customize it this way add this so 2024 for us is all about making it so that any empty businesses who do private pay can do it as seamlessly and effectively

[55:12] Donte Harris: as possible. that that that'll eliminate a lot of Wow.

[55:17] Donte Harris: That that eliminate a lot of um I would say uh data entry for on our Yeah, exactly.

[55:27] Nirav Chheda: That's that's amazing. Any empty businesses want to get off the phone [laughter] as much as possible.

[55:34] Donte Harris: My wife do I don't want to throw her under the bus, but she she do not like me on the phone a lot, you know.

[55:41] Donte Harris: So this this is pretty dope.

[55:44] Nirav Chheda: Yeah, I really like this. Yeah, the thing is with facilities, you know, like they hear, oh no, another tech thing.

[55:50] Nirav Chheda: They don't want to do it.

[55:52] Nirav Chheda: But then when they actually see it and they see how like simple and easy it is to just add a trip, put in the basic info and save, then it just takes off like really fast.

[56:05] Donte Harris: Yeah. Because nobody likes like you complicated software you know.

[56:12] Donte Harris: Some of these some of these things are I ain't going to say so complicated you know but it really is if you're not don't have you know what I'm saying a background as far as you know dealing with

[56:21] Donte Harris: these different data data I guess data entry that what you just showed me is like something that's uh wow this is real Yep.

[56:33] Donte Harris: Not not not just because I'm on your platform just you know the the gas you know situation this is this is really amazing you know when we started the company nearly two years ago we talked with so many

[56:46] Nirav Chheda: NEMT businesses across the country and we were asking them like hey how should it work what are your requirements this and that the one consistent thing we heard from everyone is make the damn thing simple and easy to

[56:59] Donte Harris: use That that wins the game all the time.

[57:05] Donte Harris: You know, simplicity. You know that make that a teenager can run that.

[57:10] Donte Harris: You know that basically. That's great.

[57:15] Donte Harris: Wow. I appreciate this. [laughter] You have me on board.

[57:22] Donte Harris: Run, Bambi, run. Run, baby. Run.

[57:26] Donte Harris: [laughter] everybody that's uh Can you click the team?

[57:38] Nirav Chheda: That that's basically all your So this is like you know this is where you schedule hey who's driving which vehicle for what time and you know what days.

[57:50] Nirav Chheda: Then accounts is like all of the all of your employees.

[57:54] Nirav Chheda: Okay. Right. And then drivers is like, hey, of all your employees, who's doing driving?

[58:00] Nirav Chheda: And you can make anyone a driver.

[58:01] Nirav Chheda: Owner can be a driver, admin, dispatcher even.

[58:04] Nirav Chheda: And of course, associates are drivers.

[58:06] Nirav Chheda: And you know, you put in their skills, what are their capacities, can they handle beriatrics, stairs, stretchers, whatever they can do.

[58:14] Nirav Chheda: Um, and then of course their attendance, right, for the stretcher trips.

[58:18] Nirav Chheda: Um but yeah you know fleet place to manage your vehicles and like you know what what's the capacity of this vehicle can it do uh how many wheelchairs can it hold at one time how many ambulatory um and

[58:32] Nirav Chheda: so on and so forth so that when you know our algorithms are running in the run bambi run it knows like hey I can't place um an ambulatory trip or a wheelchair trip onto a vehicle that only has

[58:47] Nirav Chheda: ambulatory capacity and so on and so forth.

[58:49] Nirav Chheda: Right. But yeah, I mean that's pretty much it, you know?

[58:55] Nirav Chheda: It's this is amazing. It's it's just meant to be very minimal.

[59:03] Nirav Chheda: Um sort of a minimal view the the basics, you know.

[59:07] Nirav Chheda: Um but anything you it's there.

[59:12] Nirav Chheda: Like you know, it's powerful. Like you know, you you're doing dialysis.

[59:16] Nirav Chheda: Okay. Don't make a regular trip.

[59:18] Nirav Chheda: Make a trip subscription. And they're going Monday, you know, let's see, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

[59:23] Nirav Chheda: Okay, cool. Do that. And then start an end date.

[59:26] Nirav Chheda: Make a recurring trip. Um, so anything you need, it's there.

[59:32] Nirav Chheda: But we're not cluttering up this view and making it complicated for people who just need to do the basics.

[59:41] Donte Harris: what you just showed me is [laughter] Yeah.

[59:45] Donte Harris: the idea of this description. Wow.

[59:49] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. And like, you know, let's say you got a lot of vehicles in your fleet, right?

[59:52] Nirav Chheda: There's there's ways to make it more manageable.

[59:55] Nirav Chheda: You know, you want to scroll through everything.

[59:57] Nirav Chheda: Here's all your vehicles and their schedules.

[60:00] Nirav Chheda: Um, most NEMT businesses don't have 25 vehicles like I'm showing right now on this screen, but if you did, you know, like here it is all in one view.

[60:15] Donte Harris: I really really appreciate you having me today.

[60:18] Donte Harris: This is this has been a a great experience for me.

[60:22] Nirav Chheda: [laughter] Glad to hear it, man.

[60:28] Nirav Chheda: It never gets old. [laughter] I every week and I just love hearing this.

[60:36] Donte Harris: So you So you say you're going you're going to the conference this year?

[60:40] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. So, I was um actually a speaker at the conference this past year and um yeah, we're gonna have a big booth this year, like a big premium booth for Bambi.

[60:49] Nirav Chheda: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I think it it's really just a matter of awareness at this point.

[60:58] Nirav Chheda: People just got to be aware of Bambi and once they see Oh, yeah.

[61:02] Donte Harris: That's what I'm seeing. once they see, you know what I'm saying, the functionality of it, you know, and get like the demo you just presented right now, you know, everybody can see how seamlessly easy, you know what I'm

[61:13] Donte Harris: saying, they can, you know, navigate through this.

[61:17] Donte Harris: I'm I can have my 16-year-old daughter, you know, in admin right now, you know.

[61:22] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. [laughter] You know, I was just interviewing one of our customers the other day, and he was like, "Yeah, like I got busy, so I had my 17-year-old sister start doing dispatching.

[61:32] Nirav Chheda: She picked it up like within like the first day and she was doing it all.

[61:38] Donte Harris: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I could see that.

[61:42] Donte Harris: I could see that happening. Absolutely.

[61:46] Nirav Chheda: Yeah, man. I appreciate you. Oh, and um yeah, I guess since you're doing a lot of private pay, you would probably use the billing functionality.

[61:56] Nirav Chheda: like you generate invoices easily and Bambi just pick the trips, put them on an invoice and we integrated a credit card processor.

[62:05] Nirav Chheda: So you could click pay invoice, have the credit card of the facility or the pastor, whoever's paying stored in Bambi and literally run their credit card through Bambi.

[62:15] Nirav Chheda: So you don't even have to leave Bambi to do everything you need for billing and invoicing.

[62:26] Donte Harris: said. Do you know you know how uh strike and you know all those all those those situations.

[62:40] Donte Harris: Yeah, you guys you guys you knew exactly what you were doing.

[62:43] Donte Harris: This this is uh you know I said this is amazing a platform that you have right here and thank you for bringing me bringing part of part of your your your ecosystem you know sharing my sharing my story

[62:58] Donte Harris: and being able to uh be a part of you know what I'm saying using your software because this is make my our you know business a little little more easy functionalitywise you know ma'am right back at you I

[63:11] Nirav Chheda: mean thank you for bringing me into your ecosystem too.

[63:14] Donte Harris: I mean because this is uh yeah this is a game changers as far as you know software goes like I I've seen quite a few of them you know we tried we we've seen quite a few of them

[63:28] Donte Harris: too run Bambi run Bambi Right.

[63:45] Donte Harris: So, I guess we got uh our uh demo.

[63:48] Donte Harris: So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And now I'll be talking to wifey and figuring out, you know, how we can be part of the team because basically you won you won me even though I know you weren't, you know,

[64:01] Donte Harris: trying to sell me, but you know, thank you for sharing it with me because this that just to make us, you know what I'm saying, functional a little bit smoother, I know on a day-to-day basis.

[64:10] Donte Harris: So, yeah. That's cool. We can turn these vehicles into like a 20 25 uh fleet, you know, here soon.

[64:21] Donte Harris: [laughter] That's the goal. Yeah, we we want to get u you know um want to get into the stretcher, you thinking about, you know, what we have to do to you know, get that locked down.

[64:39] Donte Harris: So we have a few things you know coming after figuring out you know how would it you know work as far as our business model go.

[64:46] Donte Harris: So, you know, with you guys and your help is going it's going to help us out a lot.

[64:52] Donte Harris: You know, I can see that now.

[64:57] Donte Harris: And if I can leave, you know, anybody with some last words uh if they when they get to see this interview, how I uh on my Tik Toks um when I began sharing this information.

[65:13] Donte Harris: So my grandmother used to tell me a few words, you know, before um the night was over with, you know, and I'mma leave it with your audience is she said that don't do what you can do today, It's

[65:31] Donte Harris: tomorrow not a promise. So if you are thinking about, you know, get into this NEMT industry, there's plenty of, you know, people resources out here.

[65:42] Donte Harris: I would strongly uh suggest people to um do some do your own research, your due diligence on what's to come, how to get into this industry and you know surround yourself with uh good people and good So don't

[65:58] Donte Harris: do what you do can do today tomorrow.

[66:01] Donte Harris: do not procrastinate because you know this is a I I'm very uh big on this industry because this industry basically transformed me and my family's lives.

[66:12] Donte Harris: It has been a blessing, you know, to me and my family.

[66:17] Donte Harris: Case in point why I like to, you know, preach or talk about this as much as I can any opportunity I can.

[66:26] Donte Harris: So, I'll share that with you guys.

[66:29] Donte Harris: Again, Nar, thank you for having me.

[66:31] Donte Harris: This has been a a great deal with you.

[66:34] Nirav Chheda: I appreciate you. Thank you, Donte.

[66:37] Nirav Chheda: And if I can just add on to what you said, for anyone who's actually looking for that information, the quality information they need to get started, go to the homeschool dad YouTube channel.

[66:50] Donte Harris: [laughter] YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram. Yeah, that's where we at.

[66:57] Donte Harris: We uh we are uh we're building uh hope hopefully uh few years down the road there'll be you know enough videos we're sustaining the information even though the information gets updated all the time but we plan on continuously

[67:14] Donte Harris: bringing you know quality information about the industry and you know and hopefully Nebrask know so I appreciate all the dope interviewers.

[67:29] Donte Harris: You have some amazing interviews with some pretty amazing people that's, you know, come on your platform.

[67:34] Donte Harris: So, thank you, you know, for champion, like I said, this industry because, you know, we don't get the recognition as all the bigger um I guess industries as far as transportation go.

[67:46] Donte Harris: But, you know, we are making a stamp now.

[67:50] Donte Harris: So, you know, this is great.

[67:55] Nirav Chheda: appreciate you being on, Donte. Thank you.

[67:58] Nirav Chheda: I'm putting your um channel information in the description of this video.

[68:03] Donte Harris: Oh, I appreciate you. Thank you very Yeah, of course.

[68:08] Donte Harris: I look forward to, you know, working with you in the future.

[68:11] Donte Harris: So, me and wife will be talking and I will be talking to you soon.

[68:15] Nirav Chheda: Good to hear,