At The Watercooler

At the Watercooler with Micah Larsen of Switch Always On

Micah Larsen, director of sales at Switch Always On, enjoys the relationships and helping successful entrepreneurs change the world as they grow their enterprises.

September 25, 2023 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Describe your current role.

As director of sales for Switch Always On, I am responsible for driving revenue growth and establishing a solid foundation for the company's sales operations in North America and around the world. I am involved in the strategic planning and am hands-on in the sales efforts to ensure Switch Always On gains traction in the unattended, self-service kiosk market.

Strategic planning includes crafting a sales strategy that aligns with our clients' overall business goals and objectives. This involves identifying target markets, listening to our target markets' needs and trends, defining our value proposition, building brand awareness and establishing long-term relationships with clients who need our smart power management solution.

My day consists of what I love doing the most, talking with and getting to know people, and their business goals, to determine if and how we can help them succeed! I dig helping people stop chasing problems and spend more time doing what they love to do!

What inspired you to work in your industry?

Initially I was inspired by the opportunity to solve challenging problems in the unattended, self-service kiosk industry. The industry quickly evolves with new technology and new ways to efficiently exchange value, whether that be selling products, advertising or providing information or services. It's exciting that the industry is agile enough to get hyper-personalized to fulfill customer needs regionally, even down to the neighborhood by placing unattended machines in strategic areas.

I saw and still see the self-service, unattended space has so much room to grow and is constantly improving with more technology getting pushed to the edge for better customer convenience.

These things still inspire me, but what I didn't realize initially was how awesome the people in this industry are! I am inspired every day by the entrepreneurs I work and talk with who come up with new out-of-the-box ideas on how to disrupt the status quo! Their creativity, energy and passion inspire me!

What do you enjoy most about your current role?

There's a lot to enjoy with my current role. What I enjoy the most is the relationships and helping successful entrepreneurs change the world as they grow their enterprises. The unattended kiosk industry is full of business owners who are constantly finding ways to grow their business and profits. I am fortunate to represent a solution that helps them do that.

There are many factors for success in the unattended kiosk industry. Operators and integrators must have the right product or service, the right people, the right locations, the right solution, vision, funding, pricing and on and on, however, there are two must-have factors that are absolute; connectivity and power. Without these two ingredients everything is lost. Everything else could be right, but if you lose power and connectivity, it doesn't matter!

I appreciate that Switch Always On improves these two ingredients and I get an adrenaline rush when we find the right fit and both parties are better together!

What's a common misconception people have about what you do?

I feel that unplanned truck rolls are viewed as a necessary part of doing business and that there isn't a simple solution. I mean, we're paying someone to be in the office repairing equipment or getting equipment ready to ship in the field or going to a location to see why the machine is offline, right?

It's hard to quantify how much a truck roll really costs unless you're keeping track of how often it happens and for how long. Often, we are reacting to issues in the field and not keeping track of how often it happens. Hard costs aside, how many sales were lost during the downtime? Are inventory levels correct?

I've visited sites where there are new machines or machines in for repair waiting to be redeployed into the field. Like my grandpa used to say while we were fishing, "if the bait isn't in the water, you're not going to catch the fish." Resources are scarce, eliminating connectivity and power related service calls could mean more machines in the field making money!

What industry trends do you think don't get enough attention and why?

The power grid is strained and with more equipment connecting to the grid, like EVs and a growing population, etc., we hear about rolling brownouts and blackouts all the time. Power spikes and dips cause equipment to stop working properly and are hard on electrical equipment in general.

Having a smart power and connectivity management solution that protects and will auto power reboot equipment helps companies stay operational. I'm not sure how much people think about this until there's a problem, but reliable connectivity is extremely important and will only become more important as the industry grows. Irregular power causes cellular and Wi-Fi routers to hang and require a power cycle to resume. Without a plan, this could be costly.

Operators, integrators and companies deploying unattended machines need to have a reliable, inexpensive, power and connectivity management strategy at the edge or they will spend more time chasing and putting out fires than growing their business.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your industry?

Give more than you get and you will never be wanting! Become an expert in your chosen segment and share your knowledge while listening to others share their knowledge. This industry is close knit and happy to share best practices to lift everyone up. Develop long-term relationships and you will go far together.

If you weren't working in your current field, what would you be doing instead?

Oh, I would definitely be making pizzas from a converted vintage mobile pizza truck and singing karaoke! I love pizza, people, meeting new people, new places and karaoke!

What do you do to have fun outside of work?

I like working with my hands and building things. I built a wood fired pizza oven, fireplace and pavilion in my backyard where we like to entertain. There's something about pizza that brings everyone together and we have a lot of fun with family and friends back there.

I love to cook pizza of course, but we've also done crawfish boils, briskets, pork shoulders, Texas twinkies, pineapple shots, Nashville hot chicken, cronuts, etc!

Karaoke and dueling piano bars are a blast and a "must do" when I'm on the road.

I also love to fish and spend time in the mountains and I'm a cornhole champion! I love to cornhole!

Is there anything else you would like to tell people about yourself or your company/organization?

I've learned the hard way that when choosing a karaoke song, stay away from songs that have long breaks in vocals with long guitar or drum solos. Try to choose a song that's three to four minutes long and has a few vocal breaks to show off your stellar dance moves. I'm happy to share a few of my go-to bands/songs with you!

When choosing a smart power management solution, automation is the key. If and when AC power or connectivity is lost you should not only receive real-time notifications, but the solution should also auto-reboot the equipment in sequence based on the DC power port.

Look for solutions that have multiple independent DC power ports that can be managed and eliminate AC power adapters that easily fail. The power solution should be able to reboot DC ports automatically and independently based on your ideal setup profile.

A backup battery to power network equipment during AC power loss, line conditioning and surge protection is a must! Look for a small, all-in-one solution!