Key to the City: How Tim Gordanier Is Changing VIP Culture in Las Vegas

Tim Gordanier is the visionary entrepreneur behind Key to the City, a groundbreaking insider program offering exclusive VIP experiences in Las Vegas and beyond. Originally from Toronto, Tim expanded his innovative concept to the entertainment capital of the world, introducing a physical gold key that unlocks premium perks, curated dining, and unforgettable moments. With a deep commitment to exclusivity and quality, Tim’s program is reshaping how locals and visitors engage with Las Vegas.

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, Tim opens up about the inspiration behind Key to the City and its mission to address the unique challenges locals face in Las Vegas. From navigating packed tourist hot spots to battling the hassle of parking, Tim understands what makes locals avoid certain venues—and he’s made it his goal to fix that. “Locals should be treated special—Las Vegas is their home, after all,” Tim emphasizes. His program is designed to help locals reclaim the city’s best experiences without falling into tourist traps.

More than just perks, the gold key represents connection and authenticity, creating a bridge between locals and the city’s top establishments. “We actually created this. This is the key to the city. It’s an insider program, not just another loyalty scheme,” Tim shares. Whether it’s weekday VIP access to popular venues or curated experiences that avoid the weekend chaos, Key to the City makes exploring Las Vegas enjoyable again for its residents.

Tim’s journey from Toronto to Las Vegas was fueled by his passion for creating meaningful connections. “I came here on my own, picked up, and said, ‘Let’s learn, have fun, and talk to locals,’” he recalls. That dedication to listening and learning has shaped a program that celebrates the unique needs and perspectives of the Las Vegas community.

Key Takeaways:

• Catering to Locals: Key to the City addresses common local frustrations like crowded tourist traps, lack of parking, and weekend busyness by offering exclusive weekday perks and VIP access to venues.
• Exclusivity Done Right: A limited number of keys ensures every keyholder experiences genuine value and premium treatment.
• Avoiding the Tourist Chaos: The program is thoughtfully designed to help locals enjoy Las Vegas without battling the challenges created by out-of-town visitors.
• Building a Community: Through keyholder events and partnerships with local businesses, Key to the City fosters authentic connections and a sense of belonging.
• Expanding the Vision: Tim plans to grow the program into other cities, while keeping Las Vegas locals at the heart of its mission.

Resources:

• Discover Key to the City: key.vegas
• Become a Keyholder: Visit key.vegas to unlock your curated Las Vegas experience.

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Transcript

0:00:00 - (Dave Burlin): All right, welcome. Oh, wait, we didn't do it. You have to say action or it doesn't count.

0:00:04 - (Tim Gordanier): Action.

0:00:05 - (Dave Burlin): There we go. All right. Welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawni Nguyen.

0:00:13 - (Dave Burlin): And I'm very excited. I'm always excited about all the guests we have, but this is the first time that we've had a guest that I have not met until today.

0:00:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, my God. Out of the 50 people you know.

0:00:24 - (Dave Burlin): I know, right?

0:00:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): You haven't met.

0:00:26 - (Dave Burlin): The joke is, is that there's 2 million people in Vegas, and I know all 50, but 50 make 51 for this case because you're doing some remarkable things. Tim, tell us about you and what you're excited about.

0:00:38 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, so we actually created this.

0:00:40 - (Dave Burlin): Really?

0:00:41 - (Tim Gordanier): I'm obviously biased. This is. This is the. The key to the city. So we actually created a loyalty program, but it's not really a lo. I got to cut that.

0:00:49 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, it's all good. We'll trim it.

0:00:53 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay, cool. I can't use that word in Bagus. I found out.

0:00:55 - (Dave Burlin): Loyalty.

0:00:56 - (Tim Gordanier): Loyalty is a very bad word.

0:00:57 - (Dave Burlin): Interesting.

0:00:58 - (Tim Gordanier): The big guys don't like it, so.

0:01:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): Okay, maybe we'll just censor it to keep the mysterious.

0:01:04 - (Tim Gordanier): What did he say? So, yeah, so basically we created this really cool key. It's key to the city. It's a loyalty. Oh, my God. Again, let me add context, because Toronto, we call it a loyalty program here in Vegas, we don't. Because I did research. The big guys do not like it. So they. They had their own little. It's silly. Because we have our own loyalty program and they have theirs. They should be able. We're bringing you new blood. But they think it's competition and they don't want to speak to another loyalty program. But by telling them when VIP is key, it changed everything. So it's sort of this, like, oh, you're a club, so it's different.

0:01:40 - (Dave Burlin): Very cool.

0:01:40 - (Tim Gordanier): It's interesting. Anyway, I'll start over.

0:01:42 - (Dave Burlin): So we'll rerun that. So how do you pronounce your last name?

0:01:46 - (Tim Gordanier): Gordagne.

0:01:47 - (Dave Burlin): Gordanye.

0:01:48 - (Tim Gordanier): Yep.

0:01:48 - (Dave Burlin): Okay. Normal spelling. Okay, so.

0:01:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, just. Just cut back that part.

0:01:54 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, we'll roll right through. And then. I love it. So straight from the top, right from. Okay, so Tim, Tim the man. Tell us about you and what you're excited about.

0:02:05 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, so we. We brought this really cool key. I'm obviously biased. It's a key that unlocks these amazing benefits, super exclusive experiences, and. And. And even a Social kind of component where we create a social club behind it. It's a physical golden key. We went back to physicality. People that have the key will know. It basically is this, like I said, a really cool key that unlocks these secret benefits.

0:02:32 - (Tim Gordanier): And it has a little chip on the back. And so every key is uniquely coded. There's only a set number made every year. The idea was to create the scarcity and make people obviously understand that it wasn't just for everybody and that it was something special.

0:02:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): And if you guys haven't picked that up. He has a little bit of an accent that I was trying to figure out the first time I met you.

0:02:51 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So where are you from? And then what brought you to Vegas?

0:02:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love it.

0:02:55 - (Tim Gordanier): It's true. The Canadiana comes out in me.

0:02:59 - (Dave Burlin): Canadiana. Nice.

0:03:01 - (Tim Gordanier): I say a. A lot. And I definitely say sorry too much, I'm told.

0:03:04 - (Dave Burlin): So, yeah, it's.

0:03:05 - (Tim Gordanier): It's definitely a thing. And I went through a drive through last night. It was kind of funny. I went to McDonald's and I was rolling through, and she's like, you're Canadian. I'm like, how do you know? I hear your accent. Like, really? We have accents. I didn't even. It's funny.

0:03:17 - (Dave Burlin): People.

0:03:17 - (Tim Gordanier): People know right away.

0:03:19 - (Dave Burlin): Well, if you ever watch Trailer Park Boys, it's a little bit of that vibe.

0:03:22 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes. Thank you. You know what? I. I like that. That's one of our. Our greatest exports.

0:03:28 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Very true, Very true. You've never seen it. It's crazy.

0:03:33 - (Tim Gordanier): If you go out east in Canada, so if you go to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, where they're. Where they're basing that out of, that's exactly how people talk, and that's exactly how it goes.

0:03:41 - (Dave Burlin): It's hilarious. It's funny because I. I tell people it's like the Office, it's like a mockumentary because they'll look at the camera, they'll break the fourth wall sometimes. But it's. Instead of being like an office in New England, it's literally a trailer park. In.

0:03:56 - (Tim Gordanier): For real?

0:03:56 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. In Canada. And it's just the misadventures of these. These couple of guys. It's pretty crazy.

0:04:02 - (Tim Gordanier): Yep.

0:04:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's so funny. What brings you out here from beautiful Canada?

0:04:07 - (Tim Gordanier): So I brought the concept because it worked really well in where we came from. Where I came from. So it started in Toronto, actually. So Toronto had the first key to the city in what we've created, and then we expanded to Montreal. So this started 10 years ago. So it's funny. We did that back there and still doing that now, and opened in Montreal. And then I saw the opportunity to come to Vegas and I love. I always loved Vegas. I came here with a lot of people all the time, and I was just sort of like, it'll be really cool. Do a key in Vegas.

0:04:34 - (Tim Gordanier): It just seems fitting.

0:04:36 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, like.

0:04:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, why Vegas? Like, why did you actually want to pick your stuff up and move to Vegas itself?

0:04:41 - (Tim Gordanier): It's the city of. You know what's funny? Everyone tells me I'm from Canada and how friendly we are, how much they love Canadians. Listen, Canadians overall are pretty friendly, but if you go to Toronto, I don't want this to get anywhere but Toronto. Toronto's. Toronto could be friendlier, let's just say that. So when I hear that, I laugh because I actually think Vegas is more friendlier than Toronto.

0:04:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): Really?

0:04:59 - (Tim Gordanier): I find the hot. Maybe it's hospitality because it's so hospitality based.

0:05:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): We beat the Canadians. Hell, yeah.

0:05:05 - (Tim Gordanier): I actually. I'm actually saying that for real, at least Toronto, at least that's cool.

0:05:10 - (Dave Burlin): I think it's a survival thing because we're all, like, out in the middle of the desert and we're just, like, stuck here. So it's just like, good, right? We're only. It's like you immediately become friends. So when did you get here? How long have you been in Vegas working on this?

0:05:22 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, so we started this. I came in last summer, actually, to study the market. Spent six weeks, was terrible. Living on the Stirrup is actually awesome.

0:05:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:05:31 - (Tim Gordanier): And phenomenal, right? And yeah, it was very hot. I'm like, okay. So I know I never want to live in Vegas in the summer. So I'm kind of blessed that I can leave Vegas for a little while, back to my. My sister city, Toronto, Montreal, because I have to and still call it, you know, doing what I have to do. But. But yeah, summers in Toronto. I will say summer in Toronto is awesome. I love going back for that. But Vegas has the rest of it. It's amazing.

0:05:55 - (Tim Gordanier): So we came here in summer, learned it, understood what locals wanted. That's when I kind of got an understanding when I spoke to locals. I came in here on my own. I just picked up and left and came for six weeks and said, let's learn and go out and have fun and just talk to locals. And then I found out, wow, F1's coming. And a lot of locals don't like it. And I was kind of like, just. I thought everyone would be excited about it, but it turns out they weren't and then I'm like, okay, well, this is interesting. So started talking and everyone was just saying how cool this key was. Cause I had a working demo and I started just kind of talking about it. And then we ended up having people tell me the spots that were hot and where people like to go and what they'd like to see. And I really get off on that. So I'm big on analytics and just.

0:06:39 - (Tim Gordanier): I love people. So I guess I naturally just study everybody when I'm talking with them. I don't know. And then we brought it to life in November. So I moved back here in November, more permanent. And I was here until May, actually. We kicked off in February 1st, and it just blew up. It's been pretty crazy.

0:06:57 - (Dave Burlin): That's cool.

0:06:58 - (Tim Gordanier): Apparently, VIP is key in Las Vegas.

0:07:01 - (Dave Burlin): What I love about the concept is, first of all, this is a very hospitality driven community, but there is a different local vibe than other cities that I've been in or worked through and scaled operations in Vegas is very unique. And I really love what you're doing with the Key. It's very similar to what we're doing with the show. There's so many people that talk about all the restaurants and that's great. We're going to do that.

0:07:26 - (Dave Burlin): But it's really about instead of just the restaurants and the places, it's who are the people behind these things? So, you know, flip the camera around. Let's. Let's interview the people that run some of these restaurants and things like that. The whole mission for the Pursue Vegas podcast is to connect to the people of our city and show the world who we really are. As much as I never want to just say we're not going to talk about the Strip, it is a very critical part of what we do here.

0:07:51 - (Dave Burlin): Whether we're hosting friends or family or. Or clients from out of town. But also, like, there are some places that are great. And I was looking at all the places that you guys have. Phenomenal places. What are the partnerships and stuff like that? Like, what really inspired you to make that part of your model?

0:08:09 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes. Thank you. By the way, we really wanted that local feel because it was built for locals and it was always going to be that way. And what was really cool was that it's. Yeah, we've been hearing the feedback. They're loving what we're picking, the spots that we're actually curating. Everything's curated. I should mention that. So we select the business. We don't charge our businesses for marketing. So that's another weird Thing for a lot of people don't know that. But coming into Vegas, it was odd for businesses to hear we weren't going to charge them for marketing. And they're like, well, what's the catch? And we're like, there is no catch. We're going to send you our members who are loyal and they want to spend money and want to go out, but they like being recognized. You got to give them that VIP feel. And who doesn't want to be recognized, be a queen or king.

0:08:48 - (Tim Gordanier): It's great. So we start choosing places like Jing, and we got. I saw this in Summerlin. We got all sorts of stuff. We got Esther's Kitchen coming on now from. We have, we have Wakud on the Strip. But we, we really. At Lexi's actually in Henderson. So we're just, we're just really trying to amp it up with the local scene. But part of the premise was when I spoke to locals, they really like the Strip, but they treat it like it's a, it's a carnival or a fair, and they go once or twice a year.

0:09:15 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:09:16 - (Tim Gordanier): And because it's too expensive and they just, they don't want to pay for parking and they don't want to. There's a whole whackaload of stuff. But they want to go back. They really enjoy it. They want to meet tourists. They love tourists.

0:09:25 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:09:25 - (Tim Gordanier): And they want to go have fun with their friends down on the Strip. Because it's got an energy.

0:09:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:09:29 - (Tim Gordanier): But the problem is it's too expensive. So the concept, when we came in and we started pitching to places on the Strip, which we've got a lot of on, my concept was I think I can bring locals here more often. So if I can bring locals here more often, would you be interested in being part of a program that could do that? And what would you offer them? And so that's when the conversation started. And I love it because we were actually talking with Espar at Mandalay Bay and they, they actually brought me in for a meeting, a follow up, and I'm like, oh, maybe, maybe it's not working. You know.

0:09:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Anyway, I go in and I'd heard people were using it there, but I didn't know. So we go in and it was, it was cool. They're like, you know, it really is working exactly as you said. They're, they're, they're locals and they're coming back more. And, and that's exactly what it is, Locals, really. And we've been hearing the feedback. They like that we're letting them go back to the Strip and be treated in a special way that. Because they're local and they should be treated special.

0:10:19 - (Dave Burlin): That's great. Are you guys going to be doing stuff off Strip as well and highlighting some of the local.

0:10:24 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, that's what we're really, really growing out even more. So we've already done that, but in part, in part. But we're definitely. Our plan is to expand it further into the, into the, the cool areas of Vegas.

0:10:33 - (Dave Burlin): Very cool. So what are some of the perks? Like when, like if, for example, if you go to any of the places that are on your list, like on the Strip, what are. How does it work?

0:10:42 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, so it's really fun. It's kind of like a John Wick approach.

0:10:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): So if you're like, oh, you have to do the. Officially, right?

0:10:48 - (Tim Gordanier): I almost have to.

0:10:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you kind of have to do it, right.

0:10:51 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah. So essentially what happens is, first of all, I gotta. I gotta.

0:10:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): He's gotta look you in the eyes.

0:10:56 - (Tim Gordanier): I gotta look you in the eyes while I do this. Okay, this is our thing. So I'm actually officially giving you the key to the city of Las Vegas present to you, my friend. It literally will unlock the best of the city and I welcome you as a key holder. Very cool doing this on the air. I usually do this a little bit more bravado on the, on the, on the backdrop. And it's. It's pretty fun, though.

0:11:15 - (Dave Burlin): Look at that.

0:11:16 - (Tim Gordanier): He's got the key. He's been keyed. The key. Key. Key.

0:11:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Twinsies.

0:11:20 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, I'm.

0:11:20 - (Tim Gordanier): So take this key. You basically will slide it across to the bartender or to the host when you arrive at a restaurant for your free reservation. And then the hosts in the restaurant, the bar and all that stuff, they all know what to do. So that's kind of.

0:11:31 - (Dave Burlin): So it's a different experience at every place. Very cool.

0:11:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's like the Speakeasy experience, but a little bit more like snobby.

0:11:38 - (Tim Gordanier): Exactly.

0:11:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like a James Bond.

0:11:40 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes.

0:11:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that I'm gonna do that when I walk in.

0:11:43 - (Tim Gordanier): And it feels like John Wick a bit. Because I always say John Wick because it's like a gold coin that he slides to the bar. But it's like the same idea, same premise, and it's, it's, it's fun and people are loving that. It's just, it's. It's a cool experience.

0:11:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): Again, I'm not wait to do it this weekend.

0:11:56 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, right.

0:11:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, my God. I have friends coming to town. Tonight too. So I think I'm going to take them around to a couple of these places.

0:12:03 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, it's great. And people are using that just for that reason. They're sort of like Google used to be helpful. I actually, I don't know if you guys think, but Google used to be like you could get your results in the first page. Now it's just sponsored fill up of whatever the heck is there. They're all paying for it and it doesn't feel authentic and people know that and they've stopped using it as much. I think. I really do believe that. And they're getting bored of looking at where to go.

0:12:24 - (Tim Gordanier): So this program forces them. What's really fun about it is it forces them to choose places on the program which we don't have a lot of. We're very picky and each place recognizes them. So why wouldn't you use that? So using as a passport of sorts. Yeah, I love that.

0:12:38 - (Dave Burlin): No, I think that's brilliant. And I mean in a, in a city full of all the greatest restaurants, all the greatest experiences there, there does need to be like a way to kind of of weed out the ones that are just vanilla. Right.

0:12:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): That blows up Yelp or that blows up social media for like a month while they're grand opening. But their product doesn't sustain because the customer experience doesn't have retention to it. Because people will go there once, pay for, you know, whatever that meal is and they'll never come back because they'll do it once, you know, for the gram.

0:13:10 - (Tim Gordanier): That's right.

0:13:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I love the brand identity around locals because people underestimate how influential locals are. That's been here because if we tell five of our friends it's probably a lot better because the conversion, if you really want to use like metrics and stuff, it's a lot higher than an influencer because there's weights. I think for me there's a lot of micro influencers that I feel like it's a lot more impactful because they're messaging. The trust within the business community goes a lot further versus all these maga like huge influencers that now they're starting to come out with like fake followers and stuff. So their, their numbers are all blown up. So now I'm just like, I can't really trust you because you buy your followers. Like, you know what I mean? So it's, that's kind of what's beautiful.

0:13:51 - (Tim Gordanier): About this is that it's. They know when they see the venues we're adding, they know by the quality that they're like, these guys are actually being picky and that we're not being paid by these, by these advertisers. Yeah, we actually specifically chose them. And, and they're coming from reservations. People that are on the. When you activate your key, you'll notice this. When you do this, it'll actually ask you for your favorite spots.

0:14:10 - (Tim Gordanier): So we honestly take that data and start figuring out where do people want to go?

0:14:15 - (Dave Burlin): Our favorite spots that are on the app or the ones that aren't. Off, Off, Off. Okay, cool.

0:14:19 - (Tim Gordanier): So that way I then have a list. So you start seeing a lot of, you know, people saying the same thing. You're like, okay, well that's a spot. We have to talk to that place.

0:14:26 - (Dave Burlin): So this is a lot of fun because, well, we, we just met today, but. And Tanya's learning even more of this for me. Like, I've had kind of a secret identity in the Batman.

0:14:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): He's Batman.

0:14:38 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, is that right? He's Batman. Oh, boy.

0:14:40 - (Dave Burlin): No, but like, so I grew up in hospitality. I was in the wedding industry for a long time. I did 750 weddings all across the United States. You know, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, Indianapolis. Hung my hat here DJing weddings. But I did a lot of consulting and coaching all across, like, catering venues, photographers. One of the business partners that I work with now has a very specific. He's very high level at like one of the top 10 people in the world in the world of pizza.

0:15:08 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay.

0:15:09 - (Dave Burlin): And with that, he, he created a coaching program for restaurants. We have like 140 restaurants from around the world that are all like, taking it to the next level. Right. It's not franchise model. It's, it's independent restaurants. And there's a handful that I favorite here in Vegas for sure.

0:15:26 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, I love that.

0:15:27 - (Dave Burlin): I'll have to intro you.

0:15:27 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it. I would love that. I hope you like pizza. I love pizza. It's one place we don't have on the program yet is a pizza place. And we're looking at a few right now. Off the record, but it's sort of on the record, I guess now we like a couple of them. But yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely on the list. I like good pie, actually. Downtown. Yeah, it's really good.

0:15:45 - (Dave Burlin): Good pie.

0:15:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): They work with someone that's gonna come on.

0:15:47 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, they just opened a new one over in Henderson as well.

0:15:50 - (Tim Gordanier): Pizza Rock. Yeah, love them. Pizza Rock is funny. They're, they're, they're a chain, but I find I don't know the Quality is very good there.

0:15:56 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So Tony. Tony Gimignani was actually the president of the World Pizza Champions.

0:16:01 - (Tim Gordanier): No way.

0:16:02 - (Dave Burlin): And when he stepped down, my. My friend Mike took that role.

0:16:05 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay.

0:16:06 - (Dave Burlin): And took them to. We broke the record for the world's largest pizza party. There's a couple of pizzas party. I love it. Yeah. The record was 1046. We did 3357 people in 15 minutes. Holy.

0:16:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): I want to be invited to that party.

0:16:24 - (Dave Burlin): But, yeah, so there's a handful of places that I'd love to intro you to that are definitely raising the bar.

0:16:31 - (Tim Gordanier): I appreciate it. That's what I want. That's what we ask for. And going to that point, we actually have our key holder socials. So that these. It's. It's something that's not really. It's advertised, but it's not advertised on the program. It's this social club we've started building around in a community of sorts where other key holders now basically bring them out every two months and we pick a different spot. It's kind of like an Olympics now because now we have our venues that are calling us. We used to have to call the venues and Yep. Say, hey, are you interested?

0:16:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that.

0:16:59 - (Dave Burlin): It's funny how that works, right?

0:17:00 - (Tim Gordanier): And now they're like, they're writing us going, how do we host your next one? I'm like, oh, that's cool. So we're starting to see traction. And I was actually in a fundraising event Friday Foundation. I don't know if you guys know that.

0:17:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): With Tony Knight.

0:17:11 - (Tim Gordanier): I love dogs. I'm missing my dog. She's back home with my parents right now. I definitely miss her. So. But yeah, we was raising money for a good cause. We donated a few keys for the cause. They raised great money with them. And I walked by a table and there's 10 people around a table, and they yell my name. And I look over and I'm like, hey, what the heck? And they're friends of mine now, but I met them through the key holder social media host, and they met each other through the key holder social. So these people weren't even friends before, and now they're going out together. So I started. It really clicked with me that, oh, my God, that's probably our biggest feature.

0:17:44 - (Tim Gordanier): The perks are cool. Experiences are really cool. The key is really awesome. But that community aspect, people need to get social again.

0:17:52 - (Dave Burlin): You could never replace that, especially in the city. We were talking about this with some of the other guests on the show. Pandemic affected this city in a different way than most.

0:18:01 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:18:02 - (Dave Burlin): And the way that the city has sort of come together since then, it has created a new opportunity for people to really build community here. And you get people that want that.

0:18:12 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes.

0:18:12 - (Dave Burlin): So I. I love what you're doing. It's funny. I was. I was checking out your site before.

0:18:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): I was so excited for this partnership. Like, I have to tell you about it.

0:18:20 - (Tim Gordanier): Right, right.

0:18:21 - (Dave Burlin): But I was. I was looking and on. On one of your posts, it was. Was from like, August or something.

0:18:27 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay.

0:18:27 - (Dave Burlin): And radio Heather was like, what is this? And then I look through all the people and, like, now she's one of your key holders. And I'm like, I've been trying. You know, we've got a kind of a wish list. Yeah. We've got a wish list of the people that we want to have on the show. And whenever we came up with the second season, she was. I put her at the top because I've watched her stuff. But we're always looking for, like, people that are from here and that have been born and raised here. We're always looking for people that have come here from other places to bring their business or bring. Bring community.

0:19:00 - (Dave Burlin): And then we're looking for those people, like Danny J. Who we had on before she was from here and she left and then came back. So it's a really interesting intersection to see all those different types of people. But I've been a super fan of Heather, and I feel like. I feel like she's just like, all right, bro, whatever. Like, I'm just thinking, no, really, we want to have you on the show.

0:19:20 - (Tim Gordanier): It's funny, I met her only once, and that was presenting her the key a few days ago. But she. She has. There's something authentic about her. I like her. She's cool. She's real. She's one of the real ones. That's great. And you could tell by her posts, you know, she doesn't. She doesn't have crap filler. And it's. She's one of the good ones. It's good. She's. Yeah, she's. I definitely am excited to see her use that key.

0:19:39 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it.

0:19:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Proximity is crazy, right? Like, not just through partnerships that we work on building the relationships and really just nurturing the people behind the scenes and all the restaurant owners. And we have a bunch of, like, local, you know, the people that people's never even heard of.

0:19:55 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:19:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): Or there's people. That's not even a social media. Like, I think that's the Epitome of like. Like, I want to get there one day.

0:20:03 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, exactly.

0:20:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): But for now, while we're, like, socially active, it's just really fun to see how influential, like, the community is and what you're doing versus what we're doing. And I'm like. And I. It kind of clicks one day. I was like, we need to be collaborating with people because there's people kind of like what you mentioned with the big guys. They're always seeing us doing something in the community as entrepreneurs, and they're like, oh, those are my competition. I'm like, no. Like, we can get much further if we work together, bring our community together, because we have the same drive, we're going in the same mission to, like, get somewhere to build community around this town. And I think that's the only impact that, you know, I feel good about that, too.

0:20:38 - (Tim Gordanier): I love that. It's, it's, it is about helping and it's good about supporting one another and local businesses. This is small community. It's crazy. You don't want to burn a bridge here. That's one thing. And I never burn a bridge. That was important in my life. I've always held that, even when I got fired at the job when I was younger for serving. And, and, and, you know, I was, I was pissed. But you got to keep it. Just keep professional, keep cool.

0:20:59 - (Tim Gordanier): And, you know, it's funny, he's now one of my biggest clients back in Toronto. He runs a restaurant group that if I had been burned that bridge back then when he fired me for wrong reasons, Rick will know.

0:21:09 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, Rick.

0:21:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): We'Re gonna send this directly to him.

0:21:16 - (Tim Gordanier): He knew. He didn't even want to let me go. He told me later. He's like, I did not want to let you go. And I'm like, I know. And it was funny, but you never want to burn a bridge. But, yeah, it's a very small community. And I think that's part of the reason we've been so successful and so quickly is that obviously the key is cool, but. And the perks are amazing. But. And the socials. But the, the, the businesses are really, I think, digging the fact. Our business model is very unique in that we're not looking to make money off of them. That's. That's not our goal. We don't make money off them.

0:21:42 - (Dave Burlin): Yes, same for us. I mean, like, I, I've done interviews, you know, for different restaurants and stuff like that. And for us, like, we just want people to see. Yeah, yeah, I, I use this. Yeah, I use this as the. As the example. Right. For and for all the foodies out there. We love you. We do. But a lot of times if you watch their content, it's like, hey, I'm this foodie. Here's my experience. I had this dish, and that's. That's great.

0:22:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Go here, use my affiliate link so I can make money.

0:22:06 - (Dave Burlin): Exactly. And that's okay. Like, teach their own. But I want to flip the camera to the chef or to the. To the business owner. And what you'll find is a lot of times they have a crazy story that brought them here, but they've, like, perseverance, all those things, and they've got other things that are kind of brewing or they have other. Other things that they're excited about, and that's what really brings the community together. Like.

0:22:29 - (Tim Gordanier): Agreed.

0:22:29 - (Dave Burlin): I love. I love this. It's like, I feel like I manifested you into bringing this here, because my favorite thing is whenever I go into a restaurant that I love, I love it. And 1. Whenever people come out and visit, I love taking them to my favorite spots because they'll ask, of course. But there's like, when you walk in, in a city like Las Vegas and people are like, Dave, like, they know who you are.

0:22:52 - (Dave Burlin): Like, they know you by name, and they appreciate the business and stuff that you bring them, that's the VIP experience he does.

0:22:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Without the name. Without the name.

0:23:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. You've, like, you've made that a physical thing. I love how you use the John Wick thing too, because is Marine Corps veteran, we have coins, and we use those coins for lots of different things. But I've been given some crazy coins where I'm just like, I got one from the CIA and I'm like, this is cool.

0:23:17 - (Tim Gordanier): Whoa.

0:23:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): We gotta watch what we say in this show.

0:23:20 - (Dave Burlin): But it's really neat to see that level of exclusivity. So my question now is how many people have these? And do you create a scarcity with that? Is there a limit to how many you're gonna release in the community?

0:23:36 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, so we actually. Yeah, there's definite limits. Very important. So there was 2024 keys made for 2024. And we got rid of them. Got rid of them. I shouldn't say that. We got. We moved them in September.

0:23:47 - (Dave Burlin): We hand selected all of those people. Very, like, very.

0:23:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): That went like hotcakes.

0:23:52 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, they did. They really did. I was. I still. I'm still floored that between February and September that for a new. A new idea that was not seen before to take Traction like that, it was, was, it was amazing. Blessed. But yeah, next year we'll be raising the quantity because they are a subscription model. Like I said, we're out of Canada, but we, we expanded it here. And the subscription model is important. It keeps people part of the community and they get a new key every year. So it's a new design every year and we're raising the quantity probably to around 3,000 3, 500. We're still toying with it.

0:24:22 - (Dave Burlin): Cool.

0:24:23 - (Tim Gordanier): We're still keeping the scarcity. It's important. You can't let everybody have one. It just doesn't feel.

0:24:27 - (Dave Burlin): I love that, I love that it's important.

0:24:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): So you're not like mass producing the idea of the whole influencer model.

0:24:34 - (Tim Gordanier): Even on the website you'll notice they can't even get one right now. It's. There's still people that have ordered going, well, when are the. One of the new keys arriving?

0:24:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): He's like, look what I.

0:24:43 - (Dave Burlin): So my. 2024.

0:24:44 - (Tim Gordanier): 2025, 425. Yeah. You got the newie. You got the newie.

0:24:47 - (Dave Burlin): Very cool.

0:24:48 - (Tim Gordanier): And that, that key unlocks for a full year once you activate.

0:24:50 - (Dave Burlin): So cool.

0:24:51 - (Tim Gordanier): People who buy in January would actually get it till the next January and if they buy in March, they get until the next March. Cool. The nice thing about our keys is that does start with when the clock starts with the end of the NFC chip in the back.

0:25:01 - (Dave Burlin): Nice. Very cool. But yeah, I love that.

0:25:03 - (Tim Gordanier): So the scarcity is really important. Same with, the same with the venues. Curation is key.

0:25:06 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:25:07 - (Tim Gordanier): Excuse the pun. It's, it's, it's important that they know that we're not just throwing everything and anything on there.

0:25:13 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And I've seen.

0:25:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): How do you vet these, these restaurants and venues?

0:25:16 - (Tim Gordanier): That's the tricky one is that it's between talking with locals and now it's key holders. So Kilra is giving us their feedback. It's cool. Been, it's been phenomenal. Yeah. And learning, learning what they want and you, you see where they're going. Like I can call my venues and tell, ask who's doing the best. And we know, we know where they're going, which is great. Legacy club, Flight Club, you get complimentary dart play there every time you go in. You get your first 90 minutes for up to six people.

0:25:39 - (Tim Gordanier): That's like the bar. Right?

0:25:41 - (Dave Burlin): That's great marketing because there's, there's some places that I see this happen often. Right. And because I work a lot with these restaurants and stuff, we do a Lot of dollars and cents. Right. There's a lot of things that you can write off as marketing, but I'll use. I'll be very vague about one place. Like, they have an activation that you could do, but you have to pay for it. Right. And it's like, it's not cheap. It's like 40 bucks an hour or something like that. And it's in a great location.

0:26:06 - (Dave Burlin): Plenty of parking for where it's located at. But I'm like, if they just made that part free, everyone's gonna come buy the food. And it at least, like, gets people in there.

0:26:15 - (Tim Gordanier): Exactly.

0:26:16 - (Dave Burlin): Sometimes just removing one barrier, and it doesn't even have to be something that is a big profit thing. It just be. Remove that one barrier, and it gets people. That removes the barrier for people to show up.

0:26:27 - (Tim Gordanier): It's the recognition of being local. And especially when it comes to the Strip, off the Strip. I know they're going to places that we have already, and they're loving it. Jing. Like I said, there's a whole ton of stuff that we have locally, but when you get into the Strip. Yeah. They want. They just want the recognition. They want to feel like, listen, I'm not a tourist. This is my home. This is my homeland, and I want to be treated differently.

0:26:47 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:26:48 - (Tim Gordanier): And that's okay. And should be that way. It's. It's normal.

0:26:50 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:26:50 - (Tim Gordanier): That's against F1, in my opinion.

0:26:52 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:26:52 - (Tim Gordanier): I think it just. They feel like they've been left out.

0:26:55 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:26:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): They exploited during that week or something.

0:26:58 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, yeah, yeah. And. And like, we're colonized for a week. I'm not a fan of F1, but I think. I think it could have been done better. I think that they should have. They should have, you know, included locals more.

0:27:08 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And if anyone's listening, I'm just going to rant for a second.

0:27:12 - (Tim Gordanier): I knew the Elizabeth was Fix the.

0:27:14 - (Dave Burlin): Lanes on Las Vegas Boulevard. It's like, you can't tell what's a lane now. And it's like it's part of its racetrack. And I literally just driving down the Strip the other morning, and there was not very many people. I almost hit three people.

0:27:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Okay. I should not go there then. Like Mario Karting in an Asian car.

0:27:31 - (Dave Burlin): You can't even see the lines. You can't see the lines.

0:27:35 - (Tim Gordanier): The amount of money they were paid by F1 and the amount of money they're making down in that area that those. Those should be nicely crisp painted it.

0:27:40 - (Dave Burlin): Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Just. Just a little rant.

0:27:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): I haven't Been down there in a very long time. No, that's good. Like bringing up challenges and the things that you see here in this town, like, kind of like our traffic issues that I just don't think it's ever going to get fixed. I guess that's what we're known for is the cones and the, the crazy roadmaps of, like, you get off on this way and it's going to take you an extra 26 minutes to go.

0:27:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Around the same driving's like. Like George Costanza with his. With his frogger game.

0:28:04 - (Dave Burlin): Well, here's the other thing that I think is really important. You've. You've nailed this. You've really listened to locals and where organizations, let's say, like F1. Where they. Where they might not have. Here's the thing is, locals are going to be here for a long time. Even the people that leave, a lot of them, too. We have a lot of impact. We have a lot of social currency to say what we love about this city.

0:28:28 - (Dave Burlin): And like, yes, somebody can go on and they can do big advertising and they can get tourists through the door one time or two times or one time a year or whatever. But what I believe about this community, especially as the startup culture and all that stuff changes, we're the ambassadors for this community to tell people what it's like to really live here, what it's like to bring your business here.

0:28:48 - (Dave Burlin): And like, there's, there's going to be people that move here. They don't just come through the strip one time and eat at one restaurant while they're here staying at Bellagio. They're going to move their business and their family legacy here, and that will pay dividends over time. That's going to be a totally different spike to the economy.

0:29:08 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes.

0:29:09 - (Dave Burlin): And it's going to be reliant on us, like the front lines telling people what it's really, really about out here. So I love that you're listening to locals. What?

0:29:17 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, I literally came in with that whole premise was that it's. I'm not bringing what I want. This isn't about me. I. I can't imagine what locals want unless I speak with them. Right.

0:29:26 - (Dave Burlin): What, what resistance have you had? Like, what. What kind of like, just. Are people skeptical or what's been.

0:29:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is it too, like.

0:29:34 - (Tim Gordanier): It's funny, you know? Yeah, it's weird. I'm going to be honest with you on this, as always. It hasn't had any resistance. I thought there would be. I actually thought there would be. I know that when we priced it earlier. We were, we were much lower price when we first came in as an early adopter rate, which was important because it's part of the phase, just making sure everyone who needs to get a key to learn about it that they can trust in it. But then we found out that, you know, through feedback that you're right, they'd be like, well, is it real?

0:30:02 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, it's maybe price too little. So then when we raise the price, it's funny how it just instantly they wanted to pay more because they could trust it more in it. And it is logical. It's logical. The perks on there are crazy. Like, some of These perks are 600 alone in one visit. You get two for one bottles at certain places. And like, it's crazy. Some of this stuff is insane.

0:30:22 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:30:23 - (Tim Gordanier): And even. We even have a. We have a strip club and I love Sapphire. They're, they're, they're, they're locals. I'm not a strip club kind of guy usually, but, but I've been to many strip clubs. Right.

0:30:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): For business.

0:30:35 - (Tim Gordanier): For business, sorry. For business, of course. And you know, I spoke to locals and, you know, in Canada, we couldn't get away with adding a strip club. So Toronto and Canada overall, it's very liberal in comparison. So putting on a strip club there would be very faux pas and you would scare away some business.

0:30:50 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:30:50 - (Tim Gordanier): But here it just seems to kind of go with the city. They know it, women, men alike, they all like that should be on there.

0:30:57 - (Dave Burlin): So I have, I have two questions and I might be pinning you down here. Got to know.

0:31:01 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it.

0:31:01 - (Dave Burlin): I love it. Is this going to get some pool access?

0:31:05 - (Tim Gordanier): So it's funny you say that. So we're. I love this. Yes. So we're actually part of the plan in this whole thing was to create a pool access point where we speak with many of these really awesome resorts on the strip and office strip and, and get them all kind of part of this cool club that we've created and open up to our key holders who can go and then use their pools.

0:31:24 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:31:25 - (Tim Gordanier): And I think that'll be smart. I think we got a couple in mind. Oh, do you? Yeah, Let me know. I want to know which one's your favorite.

0:31:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): For the locals, like, the M is very hidden and it's very, you know, so for the people that are selectively introverted or just like working like digital Nomad style, like, it's a very nice, very nice place. You know what I mean? So it's just very off. We have a friend there, you know, with Leon. Like, we can. We're happy to set up.

0:31:52 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:31:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know.

0:31:53 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:31:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I think that's. That's one thing, another one. I think Circa is great. Like, I love downtown and I know that certain parts of downtown are being revamped, so just things like that, like, even the Legacy Club, like, stadiums, I'm actually going there, like, tomorrow.

0:32:06 - (Tim Gordanier): So Legacy Club's actually on our program already, which is an awesome place. One of our most popular ones.

0:32:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:32:11 - (Tim Gordanier): You slide that to the bartenders, arguably some of the best bartenders in the city. They really are. And then you'll see. And then if you haven't been there, you slide it to them and they know what to do. It's like a secret drink for you and a guest.

0:32:23 - (Dave Burlin): And that's great.

0:32:23 - (Tim Gordanier): It's really fun. But Stadium Swim is definitely on our hit list. They know we want it and we'll make it happen.

0:32:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): They know we want it.

0:32:31 - (Tim Gordanier): The pool pass is a great idea, and I think it's something that's exactly what we wanted to create. And the other one we're working on again eventually is creating parking is a big thing for locals.

0:32:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, yes.

0:32:40 - (Tim Gordanier): That's the one thing we hear constantly is feedback.

0:32:43 - (Dave Burlin): And for me, even the ones where it's like, free for three hours, like, I'll do that all day. Like, I.

0:32:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, I need more.

0:32:47 - (Dave Burlin): I literally go park on top of the wind almost every day. I go down, have a double shot of espresso, and then I'll go for a walk.

0:32:53 - (Tim Gordanier): It's logical.

0:32:54 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, yeah, It's. It's easy. It's nice. Great playlist.

0:32:58 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:32:58 - (Dave Burlin): Like, I dig it.

0:33:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): I know where to find you every morning, almost.

0:33:02 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:33:03 - (Tim Gordanier): But I also want it where you could have it as a local if you had the key that you could have the ability to go and enjoy yourself and leave your car overnight. Because it's the right thing to do.

0:33:12 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:33:13 - (Tim Gordanier): And so you go out and have fun. You take your Uber home, you come back in the morning, pick up your car, and you don't have this big charge. I think it's important because it's supporting the businesses within the resorts. And I think. I think we'll get there. We'll get there.

0:33:23 - (Dave Burlin): No, that's safety thing, too. I think the more data you have, the more you're going to be able to present that stuff and it becomes viable because. Yes. I mean, I'm sure there's all kinds of studies to show how much locals spend on The Strip versus how much they don't spend. And then you'll see an increase. Like, I. I do go to the Strip often because I'm either entertaining guests or clients when they're coming into town. But I also live in Chinatown, so I'm very close to it, and it's easy in proximity for me.

0:33:48 - (Dave Burlin): I do have the little hacks, Wolf.

0:33:49 - (Tim Gordanier): And Sparrows on our list, by the way.

0:33:51 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, nice. Yeah.

0:33:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): We're supposed to go there.

0:33:53 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So I, I. There's actually two other places over in that area that I'd love to intro you to.

0:33:58 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it.

0:33:58 - (Dave Burlin): Yep.

0:33:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Golden Tiki's there too. Yep.

0:34:00 - (Dave Burlin): Golden Tiki Classic.

0:34:02 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it.

0:34:02 - (Dave Burlin): That's a great one. And then there's a really cool spot. This is a little different. It's. It's called Taru Sushi, and it's right there in the same. It's in the same building as Sparrow and Wolf.

0:34:13 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay.

0:34:13 - (Dave Burlin): But it's just a few doors down.

0:34:14 - (Tim Gordanier): Sounds like we're going for sushi.

0:34:16 - (Dave Burlin): So they. And they don't do the. They don't do the whole all you can eat. They do very. But it's great. It's great quality, everything.

0:34:24 - (Tim Gordanier): I don't trust all you can eat sushi. I'm sorry to say I'm saying it right now. Sushi, all you can eat. There's something wrong with that. Like, you know, it's not good.

0:34:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:34:31 - (Tim Gordanier): It can't be good. It's impossible.

0:34:32 - (Dave Burlin): It's. It's.

0:34:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): I mean, if you're comparing to, like, omakase.

0:34:35 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:34:35 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:34:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): I mean.

0:34:36 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:34:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because there are some plays that I think lean in too much into the hype of everyone trying to try real sushi.

0:34:43 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:34:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): But it's not. Now it's like 500.

0:34:45 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:34:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, because I was part of that whole foodie culture, I don't know, six, seven years ago. And some of my favorite places back in Orange county, after the whole foodie creator scene, influencer scene goes through, like, you can't even get in anymore.

0:34:56 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:34:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): I feel that some locals here have issues with certain restaurants to where they're secretly, like, please don't blow this place up, because this is, like my spot. And now there's gonna be a bunch of people with cameras, like, I'm here influencers. You know what I mean? And, like, you can't even get a fucking spot at your favorite restaurant.

0:35:11 - (Tim Gordanier): We just added Wakuda, and they have an Omakaze there. And you get priority placements. You get priority reservations, and you also get A bonus from the chef. I met the chef. He's phenomenal.

0:35:20 - (Dave Burlin): That's great.

0:35:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): He's gonna put it, like, directly in my mouth.

0:35:23 - (Tim Gordanier): He might. He might put it directly in your mouth. I don't. I don't know if I can say that, but yeah, maybe.

0:35:28 - (Dave Burlin): So when you. When you curate that, you go through that experience with them and figure out what that is. That's very.

0:35:33 - (Tim Gordanier): And we onboard each place, so. And before we even approach them, part of our process, I guess I didn't explain that, but our part of our process is actually going and seeing the place. So after we get the reco, we go in and actually start talking and experiencing. Okay. Is this. Is this on a level that should be on the key? Like.

0:35:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:35:49 - (Tim Gordanier): And once we do that. And the business is really like that too, where they're like, you know, you're. You're taking time to check this out. And. And my. My response is, how do I market you if I don't know what you do?

0:35:58 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:35:59 - (Tim Gordanier): So you have to. You have to go in.

0:36:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And then you can figure out what that.

0:36:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): That.

0:36:02 - (Dave Burlin): What that edge or what that. That special thing is.

0:36:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that you go in as a normal person.

0:36:07 - (Tim Gordanier): You're like, oh, that would be a really cool perk. That'd be really cool. And they wouldn't have thought. I wouldn't have thought of it if you weren't there.

0:36:13 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, no. And there's. There's lots of little things like that. Right. There's all the. The little things where it's like, you light the skull on fire, chocolate or whatever, and smash the head. There's all those little things like that that are cool.

0:36:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Attention to detail, sales. It's an emotional factor that people want to experience. You know, they want something that's just a little bit different.

0:36:31 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:36:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): And something they can pay somewhere else. And I think that's the conversation I had with him, too. I was like, tell me more why this is. The thing that we connected on is like this. This stuck out to me, and it still resonates with me. You're like, it's not pretentious.

0:36:44 - (Tim Gordanier): That's right.

0:36:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's very important.

0:36:45 - (Tim Gordanier): Approachable. It's approachable. Vip. And everyone asked me, why aren't you charging more? And it's still. They're saying, I'm not charging enough. But I'm like, you know, it's important that you. That you set a price, that it's a fair price to keep. Make sure. I'm trying to make sure that we get the right People getting the key, not in a pretentious kind of way, but I want them to use it. And so if they're not gonna. If they're not wanting to use the key that much and they're not willing to pay that, then. And they don't want to go to our socials, then I don't want you coming on the program. I don't want you to have the key.

0:37:12 - (Dave Burlin): So there's.

0:37:12 - (Tim Gordanier): I've willing to say, no, I'm fine with that.

0:37:15 - (Dave Burlin): I'm. I'm a super fan of psychology, community, all that stuff. Right. Read a ton of books. I've helped build different types of community of different access and things like that. There's. There's ways and there's ideas to do that. One is the kind of like the get one, give one. It's like you ask somebody the question, like, hey, if you could only give a key to one person, who would it be? Because that narrows down.

0:37:41 - (Dave Burlin): Because a lot of it, like, oh, yeah, tell all your friends. Like, this isn't an ego thing. Like, I know thousands of people from all different communities. All the work that I've done with veterans and all that stuff. I have all of these different groups of people in big cities where, you know, I'm on boards for different things, and I just know a lot of people. So when somebody says, oh, if you can think of anybody, I'm like, my brain goes to mush, of course. But if you're like, if there's only one person that you could give this key to, who would it be?

0:38:08 - (Dave Burlin): And then that really kind of like, helps. Helps them, then they say, here's what this key means to me.

0:38:15 - (Tim Gordanier): Agreed.

0:38:16 - (Dave Burlin): And then in definition of that, I think this is the only person that I would give it to you. And it does keep that kind of like, keeps a cool factor to it.

0:38:23 - (Tim Gordanier): Agreed.

0:38:24 - (Dave Burlin): And it does keep it a little bit more exclusive. But not. But you're getting an extension of the people that already have it.

0:38:30 - (Tim Gordanier): Agreed.

0:38:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, it's super meaningful, too, and it's more intentional that way.

0:38:34 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, yeah. The other resistance point that we had, I guess when you asked about resistance, I didn't think of it. You know, we. We have a 1%, maybe 2% of our audiences have said, you know, when are you going to replace the key with like a. A virtual version? I want to mention this because it's kind of funny. My biggest thing, when we started this in Toronto, I realized, my God, we're sort of typecasted because we're. We're stuck in this, this physical thing that we've created, that if we go to a digital version one, we're not. We're just like everybody else now, just like another app. Now you're just an app and everyone's got apps.

0:39:05 - (Dave Burlin): What was it called? I can't find it.

0:39:07 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:39:07 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:39:07 - (Tim Gordanier): And. And I never want to do that because I think the key is really cool and it's still top worthy in Toronto 10 years later. So I know this has longevity, but we tell the people the same thing now. It's like physicality is important to touch things. One of the things I've learned through this, through doing it so long, is that people still like to touch things. And I think we're missing in society.

0:39:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Very tactile right here.

0:39:24 - (Dave Burlin): There's so many examples of that where people want. And especially in this world of what you've created here. High five. By the way, what you've created here, like, that is the essence of human experience that we all crave. There's so many things where people try to eliminate and remove that it's just like you could say, oh, yeah, I want my life to be easier. But then you call a restaurant and if you can tell it's an AI bot that's talking to you, you hang up immediately or you push zero because you're like, I want to talk to a live.

0:39:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): People are optimizing too much now where they lead to the inauthenticity of, like, they're losing the human touch.

0:40:00 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, yeah.

0:40:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): But the joke about, you know, Chinatown and some people that comes here, they're like, oh, what's the best, like, Asian restaurant to go to? I'm like, call them if somebody yells at you. The food's probably good.

0:40:09 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:40:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): And they're like, no, walk away. I'm like, yeah, if it sounds like a proper spoken English person, it's probably new and it's probably fusion.

0:40:17 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:40:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): But there's an angry man or woman, like, kind of like, you know, shouting at, yes, we're open. Like, it's probably legit.

0:40:23 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:40:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, so that's like the stress test of how we're going back to, like, the fundamentals of how towns are ran and how people want to be treated.

0:40:32 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:40:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, and then the same concepts, like, you can optimize and use AI and do all these fancy things and build your business is around systems and processes. But at the end of the day, I'm like, is my food going to be good or is it going to be overpriced?

0:40:45 - (Tim Gordanier): To your point, and to this whole mantra of keeping this. Keeping this physical and touching and such. You have to stay true to you. So I've learned to say it's okay to have someone tell me that I won't buy it if it's not a virtual. I'm like, that's okay. You're not my key holder. I'm okay with that. And they end up buying the key anyway later. But some of them have definitely been very firm. Like, why aren't you putting in the wallet version? I'm like, if we do that, it's. It just loses its luster. There's nothing really cool about it. And then. And what's that worth to me?

0:41:14 - (Tim Gordanier): So. And to be honest, we have some people that reach out to us and say, you know, I forgot my key. What can I do? I'm like, don't forget your key next time.

0:41:22 - (Dave Burlin): I'd like that. That was gonna be my next question. What happens if somebody forgets it or if they lose it? Yeah. Or if they lose it. Yeah.

0:41:27 - (Tim Gordanier): I should show them. It actually acts as a keychain itself.

0:41:30 - (Dave Burlin): Perfect.

0:41:31 - (Tim Gordanier): We are getting creative, though. One of the things I've realized, although we're not going to replace it with ever with a digital version of the foreseeable future, we do understand the need for making it. Giving them options. So we're coming up with a chain partnership where there'll be a wearable option. There's also one where we're creating a back of a phone that'll be molded to the key that will hold behind your phone inside, which will be really cool.

0:41:52 - (Dave Burlin): So different vessels of the key. Gotcha.

0:41:55 - (Tim Gordanier): Well, it's still the same key, but. Yeah, exactly. Something to hold it. Yeah. Yeah.

0:41:58 - (Dave Burlin): Interesting. That's cool.

0:41:59 - (Tim Gordanier): I like that vessel. Yes. I'm going to use that. Steal that. But we do also take 30 value.

0:42:04 - (Dave Burlin): I'm just kidding. It's 42. 42% at least.

0:42:08 - (Tim Gordanier): And. But we. That being said, we do have an amazing mobile app, and people are giving us accolades for that. So the mobile app actually is a. It's for navigation purposes and tying in, obviously, our concierge, which is built in. So it'll actually ping your phone when you're near spots and remind you to use it throughout the year. I don't know if she told you that, but it's a lot of fun.

0:42:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): I didn't tell him anything.

0:42:27 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I saved it. I was like, I'm gonna grill.

0:42:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): I just like to lead him into the dark. Shoot and see what happens. Yeah.

0:42:32 - (Tim Gordanier): So it's Helpful. You can choose by area, you can choose by genre, category. And then like I said, you'll be driving along and there'll be a nice ping that'll go, hey, there's a perk waiting for you over here. Did you know? And we programmed it so it won't annoy you. That was also a delicate balance of how do you make it useful and not annoy.

0:42:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Like not a bunch of push notifications.

0:42:48 - (Dave Burlin): To where it'd be cool if it sounded like a door unlock talking.

0:42:51 - (Tim Gordanier): There you go. It's actually a doorbell.

0:42:54 - (Dave Burlin): Cool.

0:42:54 - (Tim Gordanier): I like that it was the one that we came up with. But it seems to catch your attention but not annoy them. Yeah, a lot of thought goes into this stuff. You have to make sure you're not getting annoying. But yeah, people are really digging. That's what we hear the most about is the app as well. The socials is that they're like. I actually like that you remind me. Because people forget. You buy something and you forget, but you won't need another notification for that place for like two weeks. It's scripted in.

0:43:15 - (Tim Gordanier): The idea is that you don't get annoyed.

0:43:17 - (Dave Burlin): Wow, that's really cool.

0:43:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): There's a lot of thought that goes your ux because you care about the person. Oh ye using it. Not like how much more messaging you can push to them. Because we have so much data and so much things coming at us every single day that we have to consume on and off social media.

0:43:30 - (Tim Gordanier): Right.

0:43:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I'm kind of glad this model kind of takes a step back and.

0:43:34 - (Tim Gordanier): Cares you turn off notifications. I've now lost the ability to reach you, which is a problem.

0:43:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I turn myself off sometimes. I think this, this my favorite thing about it is the curiosity aspect behind it. Kind of like you go down the rabbit hole and you're kind of like, okay, like what should I be into anticipating, you know, and it just creates that childlike wonder when you go to places and just like, you know, instead of feeling like walking in, it's like, oh, yeah, I own this place. But it's like, you know, it's like.

0:43:59 - (Tim Gordanier): It'S like a subtle. Subtle.

0:44:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love it.

0:44:02 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:44:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I love that part.

0:44:04 - (Dave Burlin): That's great that I. So a couple questions because I'm not going to pick apart the model.

0:44:10 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it.

0:44:10 - (Dave Burlin): I would imagine there's other ways that you guys can monetize and grow or even partnerships and things like that. Cool. Here's the real question. Is going to be for the data that you get from people using this kind of stuff. What do you see as the opportunity there to create different partnerships and other avenues as you do get this really rocking and rolling in the next year or two?

0:44:36 - (Tim Gordanier): It's a great question. Right now it's on a kind of like a slide and do your thing. In the new future version which is coming up next year in the early part, there'll actually be a check in process where you'll tap your key or they'll check it in with the code in the back, the five digit code. And we're then going to be able to serve up content essentially to people where they like to go. So now we'll know that you know, you like, Dave likes to go to, he likes to play darts and he likes drinking old fashions.

0:45:03 - (Tim Gordanier): So the idea is that now we can then go back and say, okay, let's make sure we get some restaurants that come on that this guy will like or this group will like. And now when we send you notifications, they'll be tailored to what you like. And although you'll still get other notifications, it's like you'll be, you'll be told where, what's, what's really hot and what you like. Yeah, but based on your user behavior, I mean we don't sell our data either. So that was important to say.

0:45:26 - (Tim Gordanier): Keep that super, super. We don't even, at that point, we're not even drilling down. We just want to know where they're going. And the key code will basically be tied in with where you're going and then we can send you relevant stuff.

0:45:37 - (Dave Burlin): That's cool.

0:45:37 - (Tim Gordanier): You can always opt out. That's important too.

0:45:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you get a lot of like user generated content based off of this model and people partnering with you online?

0:45:47 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, we get a lot. Yeah, people are always sharing the keys. I love it. One of our rules, when we were giving them to people that were celebrities or you know, I don't know, I don't like the word influencer. And like other people, we've never, ever, ever asked for someone to post about our product. To me it was like, if you like it, you'll post about it. If you don't like it, I'm okay too. It's fine. Yeah, but I'm going to get anyone tonight. Everyone likes it. But, but the people that like it, they, they either post or they don't. And I'm okay with that. And, and if we gave you a key because you were deemed a great influencer and we are picky on that by the way.

0:46:21 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, Like I said, I've been very blessed that most of them have actually posted on their own and they just felt the need to share. And I love that.

0:46:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): They owed me that.

0:46:31 - (Dave Burlin): You keep it organic. Yeah. What did we say?

0:46:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): The best marketing is the truth.

0:46:35 - (Dave Burlin): Best marketing is the truth.

0:46:36 - (Tim Gordanier): Yep. And it's funny just thinking psychologically, when you tell someone you owe me a power because I gave you something, then they're going to treat it like a job.

0:46:44 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:46:45 - (Tim Gordanier): Whereas if you give them something and say, I just think you're cool and that's why you're getting a key, is because I like you and I like your audience, like Heather, and you give them a key and if they like it, they end up posting more because they're like, well, I just like it.

0:46:59 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:47:00 - (Tim Gordanier): This isn't a job. He's.

0:47:01 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, he's.

0:47:02 - (Tim Gordanier): He doesn't. I don't owe him anything and you don't.

0:47:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's true. That's such a good way to pay it forward and building goodwill at the same time. In business, and we talk a lot about community building on this show and just how we do business in real life, it becomes less transactional and people will actually trust you more the less you ask from them and the less you expect from people because it removes that everyone can breathe and just like be, you know.

0:47:25 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah. And it's be their self asking someone to post about you. I just think it's tacky.

0:47:29 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:47:29 - (Tim Gordanier): Feels awful.

0:47:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, Very true. So as we, as we start to wrap, what do you see a little bit more on the community side? Because you've seen it very quickly. High five on everything that you've accomplished. Because, you know, everyone tackles this city kind of at their own pace. I feel like you really dug in quickly and you probably felt this right as soon as you start getting. This is my favorite thing about this city and almost every other city.

0:47:58 - (Dave Burlin): No one wants to be first, but everybody wants to be next. So as soon as you started getting some of those first people to say yes, it made it easier. Easier.

0:48:07 - (Tim Gordanier): You're right.

0:48:08 - (Dave Burlin): But so what, what challenge do you see? What do you see as the biggest challenge here in the Las Vegas community from your perspective here in the next two years?

0:48:21 - (Tim Gordanier): I have to keep to my, my, my, my motto that and, and the rules around the program that we created to keep that scarcity. It's another reason why I don't charge restaurants and partners because we look at it like, I don't want incentives to make me based on money to go and do something that would Be against that.

0:48:38 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:48:38 - (Tim Gordanier): So if you, for instance, if you, if you were being paid by all your venues, you would add more venues because you want to make more money.

0:48:44 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:48:45 - (Tim Gordanier): So I've kept that out of the way and that makes a true decision. So I can. I have clear head. My biggest obstacle, I think is going to be keeping the scarcity. And I know I'll do it, but I know I'm going to have temptation where you're going to be like, maybe we help it to like 10,000 keys.

0:48:58 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:48:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Because I can make a lot more money naturally. Right. So my hope is that, and I believe I will, is to keep the scarcity. I think it's important. That will be my biggest challenge because I'm human and I'm a businessman and I love business and I love Las Vegas and I'd love to get my key into more people's hands. But at the same point, I know the value of scarcity.

0:49:16 - (Dave Burlin): I love that. And then the next question would be, if you could wave a magic wand, what's one thing that you think would really be impactful here in the community?

0:49:26 - (Tim Gordanier): The parking. Pool pass. Yeah, for sure. And the socials. I'm really excited about the socials. The socials are. Are just so much fun. I. Anyone who has a key that's been to a social knows. But you'll learn now. So you'll have to come to one of our socials. By the way, you're both obviously invited now.

0:49:42 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:49:43 - (Tim Gordanier): You have to have a key to come and you can bring a plus one, which has actually helped us build our network because. And I love it because friends bring that one friend that you can think of who's worthy to come, and it's great and it's awesome. So you build it slower, but you build it right. So that's kind of what our motto is. But yeah, events are gonna be a big push, obviously enhancing some of the benefits.

0:50:05 - (Tim Gordanier): I'm always looking to make them more unique and cool. I think we have amazing partners and amazing benefits already, but we always wanna keep adding new spots.

0:50:13 - (Dave Burlin): One thing I didn't ask, and I'm thinking about it now, because as soon as we start talking about pizza, it's like countdown to Pizza Expo Pizza.

0:50:20 - (Tim Gordanier): By the way, I need a pizza place.

0:50:21 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. What? Will there be any kind of crossover and collaboration with the conferences and stuff that come through?

0:50:29 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, that's a good question. So, yeah, we're actually actively working with conference groups that have reached out and we've reached out to some as well, LBCBA is actually a partner.

0:50:38 - (Dave Burlin): Cool.

0:50:38 - (Tim Gordanier): They actually got some of our first keys for their best clients. It was really cool to have them do that. It was a supporting of our business, but it also put it in the right hands. And some of these conference planners coming into the city, they're looking at our key just like local businesses. We actually have some, we have a car dealership now, a high end car dealership, a couple brokerages.

0:50:57 - (Dave Burlin): You just slide this key in and go take a, take a Range Rover.

0:51:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): Out for the day.

0:51:02 - (Tim Gordanier): That's definitely in the plan. But they're reaching out, trying to buy keys for their recognition gifting program for their own executives and for the best clients.

0:51:09 - (Dave Burlin): Interesting.

0:51:10 - (Tim Gordanier): Which is where this is turning.

0:51:11 - (Dave Burlin): That's cool.

0:51:12 - (Tim Gordanier): Actually. Really cool. So that's where the conferences I see happening is that a certain percentage of our keys are going to go to the higher level tickets. So a $5,000 ticket might get you this key when you arrive. So that's, that's where I see this. But then, you know, is there a part of me that thinks we have to create a special edition key that's only available that they can only use for that week they're here?

0:51:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:51:33 - (Tim Gordanier): And that way it expires and doesn't, doesn't ruin my scarcity.

0:51:36 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. I have some ideas.

0:51:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): Ooh, that's a great idea.

0:51:40 - (Tim Gordanier): I love it. I love it.

0:51:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that expiration part.

0:51:43 - (Tim Gordanier): But the recognition gifting has been really big. And that's where the conferences we're starting to see. But like I said, it's, it's crazy. We have a car dealership buying 100 keys and we just had a, a brokerage by 50. It's, it's very interesting. It's, it's cool.

0:51:55 - (Dave Burlin): I love that.

0:51:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, I love everything that you're bringing to this town. Like the personality, like the vibe.

0:52:00 - (Tim Gordanier): I just love that.

0:52:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's very authentic. And at first I was telling Dave, I was like, dude, he's Canadian.

0:52:04 - (Tim Gordanier): Like, and I honestly view this as my home now. I was funny. Friends back home, they're like, like, what do you mean you're going back home? I'm like, oh, I say that. Yeah, I guess that's actually happening. I guess it's happening. I'm like, shoot.

0:52:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh my God, he's one of us.

0:52:18 - (Tim Gordanier): I've got some flack, I'll tell you. I've got some friends back home are like, are you trading? I'm like, I, I really like Vegas, but I do love Toronto summers better than Vegas. I'm saying it loud. I really do.

0:52:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's okay. You can escape the heat for a couple hours.

0:52:30 - (Tim Gordanier): I can't handle it.

0:52:31 - (Dave Burlin): I have never been to Canada, so we might have to go on a field trip. I know one person in. In Canada. Now I know, too. Yeah, no, that's great.

0:52:42 - (Tim Gordanier): Very cool. It's funny. That's the one last thing I'll say is that since I've been here, because it's winter in Vegas, I. I'm out there with a T shirt or whatever, even just like a long sleeve shirt, but I never wear a jacket, even back home. So in Canada, I don't wear a jacket either. I'm weird. I don't feel cold. But yeah, it's funny how people stop me and just go, are you crazy?

0:52:59 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:52:59 - (Tim Gordanier): Like, I get F1. It was like everyone had their parkas and their two dukes, and I'm like, what the hell's going on? I'm in a T shirt, and there's a guy literally bundled up with a scarf and the whole enchiladas. That's funny. What's wrong? Are you okay? I'm like, yeah, I'm fine. Yeah.

0:53:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): You're like, this is nothing, bro.

0:53:14 - (Tim Gordanier): They touch my arms, some of them. They're like, oh, you don't have goosebumps. I'm like, I'm not cold. It's like, nothing. I love this.

0:53:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): You're like, you should try, like, negative 20.

0:53:22 - (Tim Gordanier): Negative 40. Forget about that.

0:53:25 - (Dave Burlin): So how can people find you and where can they connect?

0:53:27 - (Tim Gordanier): By the way, love the studio. I love you guys. Say that. You guys, honestly, honestly, I love it. I love the theme. I think it's important. Yeah, I like that.

0:53:34 - (Dave Burlin): Well, we might have to make it a prerequisite. Anybody that wants to be on the show has to have a key.

0:53:39 - (Tim Gordanier): I like that. I like that movie because I know you're gonna be picking your guests.

0:53:43 - (Dave Burlin): We. We have been.

0:53:44 - (Tim Gordanier): And you're picking on your guests, which I like. That's important.

0:53:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): We're super excited for this partnership with you, and we're excited for all the things that we're actually going to do together and the vision that we have for this town. So I'm just super excited now. I feel like Dave. All right, because he starts the show.

0:53:58 - (Tim Gordanier): By the way, this is only one of, like, there are many studios, but. But it's gorgeous. You have to see this. It's cool.

0:54:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): So some of our partners just like this studio, you can kind of see the vision that we have to bring good people together. And we're what you said, like, you got to grow it slow, but just keep it impactful, you know, 100% slow. It's good.

0:54:16 - (Tim Gordanier): Slow and steady wins the race.

0:54:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:54:19 - (Dave Burlin): Now I have one more curious thing. So are you a fan of, like, personal professional development books? Are you reading anything or have you read anything that has kind of been, like, inspiration behind all this?

0:54:29 - (Tim Gordanier): Can I be honest with you? I don't read. I read. I read. It sounds so stupid. I do read. I read. I read articles every day. I read. I read things that are, to me, what I find interesting, but I don't. I never read books.

0:54:42 - (Dave Burlin): Okay.

0:54:42 - (Tim Gordanier): It's kind of strange. I know I've had books handed to me. I look like that guy. I even have two books on my coffee table that look. Look like I read. Everyone's like, oh, did you read that? I'm like, no, I'm eventually going to read it. I'm eventually. I don't know. I just. I get. I get a lot of anger in me. Like, I need to move. I'm not good at sitting down somewhere too long.

0:55:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:55:00 - (Tim Gordanier): So books have never worked for me. Audiobooks, I like.

0:55:03 - (Dave Burlin): I dig audio books.

0:55:04 - (Tim Gordanier): So I have done a couple of those.

0:55:05 - (Dave Burlin): Okay, cool. I love it.

0:55:06 - (Tim Gordanier): I just can't.

0:55:07 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, we might have to. We might have to compare notes because again, there's. There's definitely something fascinating, what you've created here. I love seeing it. I love seeing how it's a shower.

0:55:16 - (Tim Gordanier): Sprawled out the way.

0:55:16 - (Dave Burlin): What's that?

0:55:17 - (Tim Gordanier): It was a shower scene.

0:55:18 - (Dave Burlin): Was it?

0:55:18 - (Tim Gordanier): That's how I came up with the idea.

0:55:19 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:55:20 - (Tim Gordanier): It's an hour and a half shower.

0:55:21 - (Dave Burlin): Only there was a key.

0:55:23 - (Tim Gordanier): It's started with a card. Going into the shower. I was going to create a card, and this is back in 2014. And I'm like. I'm like, I'm going to create this card and it's going to be like, they're going to want this card. It's going to be really cool. It's going to unlock all these things. And then I'm like, wait a minute, 20 minutes in the shower. I'm like, who the hell's going to buy a card? Cards are so obsolete and stupid, annoying, and boring. Everyone's got cards.

0:55:41 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:55:41 - (Tim Gordanier): How do I do this different? And then it was a plastic key. And by the end of the shower, I was like, I need a metal key with a chip inside. And we got to create an app around it. Anyway, it was. It was wild.

0:55:49 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:55:50 - (Tim Gordanier): Longest shower ever. My phone, my bill Was insane. It was worth it.

0:55:54 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I was gonna say it's definitely worth it. Where can people find you and how can they connect?

0:55:58 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, it's key.vegas, so www.key.vegas.

0:56:02 - (Dave Burlin): Look at that, we got Pursuit Vegas. So, yeah, okay, Vegas. There it is.

0:56:11 - (Tim Gordanier): Are you finding that happens? Because I'm getting that a lot. Where they're like, some people even in Vegas don't know what exactly.

0:56:15 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:56:16 - (Tim Gordanier): And when I give them my email, which is Timkey Vegas, if you ever want to reach out, I'm open book. I can answer anything you want. But they. They'll go.com as well. In the end, I'm like, no, not Vegas.

0:56:27 - (Dave Burlin): It's so funny because I saw on a banner, like a banner ad a year ago, they're like, dot, Vegas is ready. And I'm like, sound like. And then.

0:56:36 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah.

0:56:37 - (Dave Burlin): And then whenever we started putting this together, I'm like, I'm getting outta Vegas.

0:56:40 - (Tim Gordanier): Yes. Darn right.

0:56:41 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:56:42 - (Tim Gordanier): So even on forms, I feel forms like, I had an insurance form I had to fill out. And it's hilarious. I put my email address and the system, the coding behind it, still doesn't recognize that a valid email. Yeah, they'll go, that's not a valid email address. I'm like, no, it is.

0:56:57 - (Dave Burlin): Yep.

0:56:58 - (Tim Gordanier): But the system says no. Has to be calm. It's bizarre.

0:57:00 - (Dave Burlin): I'm glad to have a shorter because the. I have Dave at Pursuit Vegas and then we have podcast at Pursuit Vegas. But my. My personal brand for the longest time was davemeans business.com. and it's so clever. And everyone's like, ooh, I like that. But, like, try writing it out. It sucks. They never leave enough room. So, yeah, it's tricky.

0:57:22 - (Tim Gordanier): But yeah, no, that's. That's the fun thing. And we're going to other cities so that as we grow. What's nice, I should mention that other cities, as we grow. This you can use.

0:57:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. What's your expansion?

0:57:30 - (Tim Gordanier): Oh, you can be used in Toronto, Montreal, when you travel.

0:57:34 - (Dave Burlin): Hold on.

0:57:34 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, I guess I want something out.

0:57:37 - (Dave Burlin): So now that changes. That changes the cities where you might be going.

0:57:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cliffhanger.

0:57:42 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:57:42 - (Tim Gordanier): Yeah, A cliffhanger. Right?

0:57:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, my God.

0:57:45 - (Dave Burlin): Now you're changing where you might be going. Because we may have some interests in other communities, my friend.

0:57:51 - (Tim Gordanier): Okay, I like it. And we even tie them. So we have Plaza premium lounges across North America for the airport lounges. And we have the Club Las in Vegas. So we have terminal one and three. But we're trying to tie it all in and we have a concierge service. So we actually book your five star hotels for you and experiences and tickets through our back end. And you get bonuses like early check in, late checkout, complimentary breakfast in the morning bonus credits.

0:58:13 - (Dave Burlin): I gotta know. And this is gonna show my tick tock world. Does this also get me Amalfi jets?

0:58:19 - (Tim Gordanier): No, but he's like, no, Dave, but.

0:58:22 - (Dave Burlin): But, but you know what I'm talking about.

0:58:24 - (Tim Gordanier): But I, I, I'm gonna name them because we, we've got a good relationship with them. Cirrus Aviation's about to launch Theos. It's a private wood jet service from the west coast. I think they're starting with. And seats will be eleven hundred dollars. But you can buy your seats seat or multiple seats on a private jet and not take the whole jet, which was really cool. Yeah, and you'd fly out of the strip because it's not the strip right there.

0:58:46 - (Dave Burlin): That's cool.

0:58:47 - (Tim Gordanier): So anyway, we're in talks with them and that is probably going to be on there very soon, so.

0:58:51 - (Dave Burlin): All right.

0:58:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Should we talk about Austin on the show?

0:58:54 - (Tim Gordanier): I love Austin. I love it.

0:58:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is that, is that one your person? Okay. Oh, I can't text him. I don't have my content.

0:58:59 - (Dave Burlin): I'll figure it out.

0:59:01 - (Tim Gordanier): Thank you.

0:59:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Wait a minute.

0:59:03 - (Tim Gordanier): He'll be okay with it.

0:59:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, just be like Tiny Losser, her contact. He's got figures.

0:59:09 - (Tim Gordanier): Austin Fuentes. He's cool. Very cool.

0:59:11 - (Dave Burlin): I love it. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show, man. Excited to see how this, how this turns out and really just the incredible people that we're going to get to eat a lot of incredible food with.

0:59:22 - (Tim Gordanier): I want to, yeah, I'd love, I'd love to know how it works when you, when you use it. It's great.

0:59:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Very cool. Well guys, that's it for us today. So you know how to reach Dave and I on Instagram, mainly LinkedIn all over the place. Please reach out to Tim. He's exactly as he is in. He says we're on cocaine.

0:59:39 - (Tim Gordanier): I'm a wildcat.

0:59:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, he hasn't had any caffeine and if you haven't done so please check out the website and get yourself a key and we'll see you there.