Bots Won’t Fix This Problem | Banky Alao, PeppaSync

What we talked about.

In this episode of the Sunny Ray Show, host Sunny Ray talks with Banky Alao of PeppaSync about the gap that opens in manufacturing between the moment a customer commits to an order and the moment production starts. Alao explains that design revisions, consumed engineering hours, and cancelled components quietly drain the deposit and erode expected margins, often from 30 or 40 percent down to 10 percent or less, while finance leaders remain unaware. He describes this as trapped capital. Alao shares his move to the UK in 2022, a long period of forcing an old startup idea into a new market, and the discovery call with an electric motorcycle manufacturer that redirected the company away from conversational AI for retail executives. He notes that teams usually rely on whiteboards and spreadsheets, that early traction has come from the UK and Spain, and that the company is focused on governance and working capital visibility. He argues that bots only help once production begins, so they cannot fix the problem. The conversation closes with near-term deal goals and where to find him.

Robots only help once production starts, but manufacturers lose their margin weeks earlier. Banky Alao explains the blind spot and how to see it.

The questions, and the answers.

What problem are you solving at PeppaSync?

We address the gap between a customer's commitment, whether a deposit or a purchase order, and the start of production. Nobody can see what happens in that stretch. Weeks later, after the celebration, you realize you have run out of money to execute the order, because nobody had visibility into where the cash was going.

What is trapped capital, and why does the CFO find out too late?

It is the money you budgeted from the quoted price that never reaches the finish line. Design revisions consume engineering hours and cancel components, and nobody tracks the cost of those changes. A margin you expected to be 30 or 40 percent can become 10 percent, or zero, before finance notices.

When did it click that the problem was visibility and not the machines?

It clicked on a discovery call with an electric motorcycle manufacturer. Their head of operations said so much was changing that they tracked it on a whiteboard only the ops team could see. The CFO thought there was enough cash in the bank, while operations kept asking to draw on a credit line.

How did you find your first customers?

The first came through discovery. We thought they fit a different product, but they described their own problem, and that triggered our pivot. The second and third came through what I would call reverse pitch programs, where companies list their problems and startups with possible solutions pitch to them. It is a sharp, fast route to a customer order.

What do teams usually try before they find you?

Whiteboards, and if you want to be a little more generous, spreadsheets. Often your competitor is not a tool at all but the status quo. Manufacturing is paradoxical: it is conservative by nature, yet one of the earliest adopters of automation and robotics on the factory floor.

What did your first manufacturing customer teach you about how PeppaSync works?

It taught us we were chasing the wrong thing. We were building conversational AI for retail executives around decision intelligence. The lesson was that the data feeding any AI must be reliable and available first. So we stepped back to fix that data pipeline, which is what the platform does now.

What does the next stretch look like for PeppaSync?

We have two goals before the end of the year. The conservative one is to close one additional commercial deal, and the stretch goal is three. Our deal sizes are not typical SaaS sizes, and implementation cycles are longer because there is professional service at the start for integration.