Technology is changing fast, and the security industry is being forced to keep up.
In this episode of Entry & Exit, Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble recap ESX and share their biggest takeaways from the conference floor. They discuss the growing interest in automation, the rise of new software providers, the importance of open APIs, and why some operators are moving faster than the rest of the industry.
They also break down what stood out from conversations with vendors, manufacturers, and fellow operators, plus where they see the industry heading over the next few years.
In this episode:
→ Key takeaways from ESX 2026
→ How the conference compares to ISC West
→ Why open APIs are becoming more important
→ The rise of new software providers in security
→ A business idea for a unified security platform
Connect:
Stephen Olmon — https://x.com/stephenolmon
Collin Trimble — https://x.com/TXAlarmGuy
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I don't want to come across arrogant, but I don't like in industry conferences when people are put up on a panel who are put up because they asked a buddy or because they've been around and then they actually don't provide any value that bothers me.
It's okay to say I don't actually know the answer to that. We'll have to figure that out. Let's go look that up together, because I don't know. It's a great response. And they had some great questions, and it just really shows you the level of demand for AI in this industry.
A lot of incumbents from a technology perspective are gonna have to stare that in the face and make significant changes to their business because they're gonna get run over.
Welcome to Entry and Exit. My name is Steven Ullman, and I also have Colin Trimble with me. And today we are going to do a recap of ESX, which uh is an industry conference that happened in my backyard. I had to drive all of 20 minutes to get there, which was a blessing. Because most conferences are in like Vegas or like New Orleans or other places, Nashville, whatever.
Which is where ESX normally is.
Yeah, I think it's in Tampa next year.
I think so too. I'm excited.
Yeah. Shout out my Tampa friends, like all three of them. Um so uh it was it was good. I'm glad we went. And there was there was a few very specific takeaways. Uh so we'll we'll talk about those.
Um and I I think um the first thing that we both noticed when we got there was like oh, like this is this is not as large of a conference as I recall. Yeah. And I think there's a few reasons for it, but it was kind of nice because it wasn't overwhelming. Like if you go to ISC West, really nice. Yeah, you go to ISC West and you're like, I this is an ocean of things, and I'm overwhelmed, and there's no way I'm gonna see and talk to everybody I want to. This was like, oh, I have time and space to actually get around to all the people I'd like to talk to. And I just sat around and got to know some people, got to ask a bunch of questions. So I kind of liked it. I kind of liked it, it was a little slower pace.
Yeah, it's definitely not as big as ISC West. And I walked into the expo thinking, oh man, like uh man, we're not gonna be in here long. We ended up being in there way longer than we were at ISC West. It's kind of funny because I was thinking to myself when I was that ESX, I was like, man, maybe next year I won't go to ISC West. And then I literally, I didn't even tell you about this. I literally got invited, uh, and I'll tell you more about it later, but I ended up getting invited to do a panel at ISC West next year for AI specifically, which is sort of a salient takeaway for some of the stuff we're about to talk about. But yeah, so I guess I am going to ISC West now. You are anyway. I thought it was a really good uh ESA runs it. It's definitely more geared around the sessions where IAC West is more geared around the expo. Um, and you could feel that. Like they that people attended a lot of the sessions at ESA. We did not. We just simply because of the schedule, we didn't have the time to do it, but we did go to the expo. What was really cool was like it was a smaller group, and so you ended up really getting to talk to the the booths that were there and spend some time. And it was like you weren't rushed, you really got to know the vendors. Like it was kind of surprising. There's a lot of vendors not at like at the conference. Uh, and the ones that were there got a lot of our attention because we were curious and like we're it was chill, wasn't super crowded, so we could sit and kind of talk to folks. The other thing that was really great was like there's a lot of our friends and like other folks in the industry, like some of our due diligence providers and consultants and brokers and whatever. And we got to really just like talk, which was really cool. Like to do people we've seen and talked to over the phone and virtually millions of times, and then finally got to do that in person. So it definitely fosters a little bit of a more intimate environment, which I really appreciated.
Um, one thing that I thought was uh super interesting was and and it was interesting because at uh uh ISC West, they in the startup section is typically where you see the software companies that are supplying software to the operators of the industry. Right. There was one AI software company there talking about, hey, I've got a piece of software to help you do customer success or customer service. At this conference, which was smaller, there was three, and the one that was at IAC West had released like seven new agents.
Yeah.
And so you can kind of get a sense of the pace of how fast this stuff is working, and there was a lot of action at those booths, which I thought was interesting.
Yeah, I talked to all three of them. Um one of them was more focused on manufacturers, yeah. Um it was applicable to both, um, but the other two, you know, were were more focused on you know trying to put you know latest greatest in the hands of dealers. But um I I think the there's like a bandwagon element to AI. Like whenever there's a big shift in technology, the old guard feels like they have to say that they are um keeping up, but the reality is they're not. And so I don't know if you saw there's a couple of kind of larger companies there that are trying to say oh we're agentic and all that. It's like no, you're not. Um but yeah, the startup alley, uh, you know, so to speak, you know, is is kind of tucked away. It's kind of in like a back corner. Um which that was one thing. I wish that you know, those guys were a little more front and center because I know they're actually, you know, um difference makers big time. Yeah. And so would would love to see conferences like that promote um kind of the the startups and give them better space, frankly. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I w one of them, which uh we can name Ozzy, um, I think it's smart. There's actually focused on like voice agents, yeah.
Which is interesting that a lot of people are picking that surface to start with, by the way.
Well, but I think it's reasonable, and that's true of a ton of verticals, ton of industries, yeah, not just security, because it does have the largest surface area. And frankly, if you go survey 10,000 business owners, how many of them are gonna say, nope, we answer every call on time, we get back to people within a minute, you know. If we miss a call, uh, we always perfectly record notes, we have no issues with transfers, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like very few, you know, I would say sub 10% are gonna say be that confident. So it makes sense as a lead-in, um, but you can see where those product roadmaps are going, and it's gonna go much deeper than just voice.
Yeah.
I'm gonna put this out there in the universe. Somebody may steal this idea. I hope they do, because I think it's super interesting. So we we're working on this integration between DMP and uh Brevo that we're building ourselves using AI. And I thought about this as I was at this event, because a lot of people are not talking about their open APIs. Um it's very conspicuous, the ones that are talking about their APIs, and then it's pretty obvious the ones that don't have APIs because there's nothing said about it. Um, I thought about a really interesting business idea if I had more time. Listener, don't steal my idea. I think that there should be a middleware platform that is pre-built and integration to every security company that has an API. So every video provider, every access control, every alarm that has an open API, and you can go in and select, hey, I've got DMP, I've got Brivo, I've got Bosch, I've got Lynette, whatever, and you select and then it pulls it into a common interface so that you're in, and then you can brand that app with your stuff and your workflows so that your customer can experience it. And so it's like a pre-built custom white label security app. Wouldn't that be cool?
I I think that we we've talked about this offline a bit. I I think that that's a absolute winner of a business, and neither of us have the time to go do it. But um, yeah, just free free for anybody out there that wants to, you know, go take a swing.
Um I mean, you could even pull in the monitoring centers into it too. You can ingest their
data.
Anyway, moving on from that, uh, there's a lot of I I was gonna say we're talking about AI, there was an AI panel. Yeah.
Well, actually, the best part, the best part about the panel was me sitting on the other side and watching you watch the watch the panelists, and everyone's all serious listening, and you're laughing to yourself out loud as they're talking. And Connor and Albert and I were all staring at you like, does he know he's doing that? It was really funny.
It frustrates me when people sit on a panel and are chosen and selected and talk like they know what they're talking about, but they verifiably have no clue what they're talking about, and they actually can't give good answers. And there was there was a guy there that's been in the industry forever, um, and he's on the central station side of the house. He asked a phenomenal question, and I'm not gonna say what it was about because I'll just I'll let it lie, but he asked such an insightful nuance with Schmin insurance, it may have had to do with Schmidt. Yeah, and it was very insightful and nuanced, and they had no idea how to respond, and the initial response was poor. Then he doubled down and he's like, No, you don't understand my question. What I'm asking is X, Y, Z. And it was very clear, yeah, and they totally fumbled the response. And I went up to him after, I was like, hey man, that was a great question. Here's actually the answer. Like, yeah, it and and it I don't want to come across arrogant, but I don't like in industry conferences when people are put up on a panel who are put up because they asked a buddy or because they've been around and then and they actually don't provide any value, bothers me.
Yeah. No, I agree. I uh I think that it's okay anytime to do this, but if the quickest let me just say it like this the quickest way I know that you don't know is if you try to have an answer to everything related to AI. There is so much to know, and there's so much technical nuance. And it's it's it's literally I have an AI brief that I get every single morning. The pace of improvement is unlike anything we have ever seen and we'll probably ever see in our lifetimes. Yeah, so to to to feel like you know all the answers is really it's a quick way to show me that you don't know. Um it's okay to say, hmm, I don't actually know the answer to that. We'll have to figure that out. Let's go look that up together because I don't know, is a great response. You could you could say that, but I will say this one observation. Um there was a lot of really great questions and a lot of people of all demographics, male, female of all ages, in watching the panel, and they had some great questions, and it it really shows you the level of demand for AI in this industry. And I think what happened with AI, I just want to say this out loud because I I really believe this, is like AI came out and I was like, Chat GPT, Claude, and there was a ton of hotness, all the media was about it. Yeah, and then we had this kind of like year and a half to two-year period where stuff was happening on the bleeding edge, but it wasn't really affecting consumers yet. And so it was the same stupid stuff. It was like download these 10 Chat GPT prompts. Yes. And and and literally that's what it was for like a year and a half. And so people were tired and fatigued from hearing about AI. And then I really believe end of 25, beginning of 26, really, I'll just say, like, oh, because of OpenClaw and some of these like agentic carnives that have come out, and now it's disseminating into the consumer's hands, and it's like, wow, this is multi-step big changes that are happening and a lot of really cool stuff. People are like kind of insatiable to hear about how it can affect their business. Um, so yeah, I think there's a lot of demand for that. Um, if you're interested in my AI D, my AI brief, hit me up and I will uh subscribe. What if people say like comment audit or something? I see this all the time on LinkedIn.
People are like, so it's like you know, comment brief.
Yeah, comment brief, comment, but not comment boxer brief. Okay, please stop. Do that. Um, so the the what the last thing I want you to touch on this too is like this whole concept of um like all of this technology that's geared towards the consumer, how much AI was at the forefront of that, even more so than IC West. It's almost like people got snake bit at IC West if they didn't have like if their AI stuff on on on display.
The uh the reality is that it's it's going beyond features and abilities and people starting to be behind or advancing really quickly, and it's also like touching cost. Yeah, and it's and even for us, like and people I have to be careful. Um, but there was a speci a specific interaction we had where someone did not believe a price that their new fast-growing competitor is charging.
You mean when I shouted it at the hallway and said, Hey, this guy's giving me X dollars.
Yeah, I do. And um, that was such a classic interaction because that means that the uh incumbent has not fully uh leveraged AI in their own tech stack uh digital employee, like we've talked about, like that sort of thing, and and now their fast-growing younger competitor has, and they're going, that can't be right. Yeah. And we're saying, No, it is, and they're 30% the price of you. Yeah. So you know, like you're gonna have to a lot of incumbents from a technology perspective, um are gonna have to stare that in the face and make significant changes to their business because they're gonna get run over.
It it it and here's the thing the the cutting-edge technology that's AI enabled, that is 30% of the price of the old guard, is definitely not gonna be at the same quality that you expect. And so you have to be careful who you apply this to. But the point is, is that that is always how it is in every industry. When there is a disruptor, they're cheaper, and you know that you understand the quality trade-offs and that while they refined their product, and then and then they're good, and then they're locked, they lock you in. And so I think a lot of these incumbent old guard are gonna be in an interesting place um if they don't have open APIs, if they don't have a single platform, the consolidation happening at the manufacturer level. I think that the quality of their app is gonna matter a lot less very soon because I think people are gonna be building their own app. So I think it's gonna go back towards hardware and on-device computation that you then pull. Anyway, so lots of really cool stuff. I would say uh great conference. We weren't there for we were there two days, uh, but really great conference. Uh ESA did a did a good job. Um, and yeah, if you if you want to hear more, we like, subscribe. If you want me to send you this AI brief thing, uh comment brief and I'll send it to you. It's by the way, it's not fancy, it's just literally the headlines. So I'll I'll send it to you. Uh I have to figure out how to send it to more than one person, but uh, we'll figure that out. I mean, you send it to me, so no, okay. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. So two people. Yeah. Um anyway, if you love if you like it, subscribe, comment, let us know. Thanks for listening.
