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Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Tatiana Manning. I support our Voice of a

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Speaker 1: Customer team at Pgenie. If you're a small business customer,

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Speaker 2: I ride the RAND analysis for the Emergency Food Bank

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Speaker 2: and based on their usage history, by just making a

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Speaker 2: five dollars annual savings.

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Speaker 1: So listen to Real Talk with Pgenie and find more

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Speaker 1: resources for your business by visiting pge dot com for

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Speaker 1: slash real Talk.

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Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back. Shout out to Houston, Shout

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Speaker 3: out to the great state of Texas. We are enjoying ourselves,

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Speaker 3: thoroughly enjoying ourselves here. We had a crazy, tremendous networking event.

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Speaker 3: Everybody came out and it's just really good, really good

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Speaker 3: to just feel the Southern hospitality. Everybody's going out of

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Speaker 3: their way. Everybody's so nice and for.

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Speaker 4: Us, yeah, I feel like they got the message. They

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Speaker 4: heard La was crazy, Atlanta was crazy, Brooklyn was nuts,

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Speaker 4: and they were like, we got to show him how

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Speaker 4: was really done down here.

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Speaker 5: And so it's a very progressive town.

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Speaker 3: I've noticed a lot of people doing well for themselves,

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Speaker 3: a lot of entrepreneurs. Everybody we met at the networking

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Speaker 3: events like I got the largest real estate black owned

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Speaker 3: real estate company, I got a construction company, I got

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Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like everybody's trying to do something.

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Speaker 3: So shout out to Texas.

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Speaker 6: We are.

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Speaker 3: We are enjoying ourselves and part of our Texas run

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Speaker 3: is that we're highlighting people in the area and some

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Speaker 3: of the heroes doing their thing, your hometown heroes for sure.

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Speaker 3: So along those lines, we have a very special guest today,

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Speaker 3: t Brown Zone. Thank you, thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 7: Thank you this when I say Houston, yeah now, thanks

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Speaker 7: for having me, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: No, for sure, for sure. So Mike is a is

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Speaker 3: an interesting guy. He has a lot going on. He

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Speaker 3: had a career first and foremost as a football player,

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Speaker 3: football star, A two year All American at Duke, and

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Speaker 3: he was an academic standout as well, four point zero

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Speaker 3: high school student.

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Speaker 5: Student athlete University, which is one of the.

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Speaker 3: Top academic schools, and then had a career in the NFL.

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Speaker 3: Played three years in the NFL as well. But now

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Speaker 3: he's doing his thing in the tech space and some

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Speaker 3: other stuff we'll get into. It is very interesting, But

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Speaker 3: can we talk about football first before we talk about

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Speaker 3: what you're doing in the entrepreneurial world. So you grew

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Speaker 3: up in Texas. You're from Texas and from Houston, right,

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Speaker 3: we're part specifically a leave.

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Speaker 7: We call it the SWAT for anybody that knows it,

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Speaker 7: and uh, yeah, we were proud.

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Speaker 5: Of that shot to shout out to the SWAT.

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Speaker 8: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: When I heard the SWAT was my brother used to

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Speaker 4: live in Atlanta. That's still for southwest Atlanta. Yeah, so

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Speaker 4: it's like.

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Speaker 8: Texas is southwest side of Houston, all right.

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Speaker 3: So you're in the league, right, and we've all shout

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Speaker 3: out to the to the NFL because well the NFL players,

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Speaker 3: because a lot of the guys follow us on social

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Speaker 3: media and we connect with so many players in the

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Speaker 3: NFL and they're really into financial literacy, right, now, But

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Speaker 3: when you was in the league, was that prevalent, Like

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Speaker 3: did you guys talk about investing in savings and tech.

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Speaker 5: Like real estate?

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Speaker 3: And because we've all had this horror stories of athletes

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Speaker 3: going broke, so many athletes going broke, like eighty percent

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Speaker 3: of NFL players go bank up bobbies after they get

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Speaker 3: finished playing, how was it from the from the inside

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Speaker 3: in as far as you know, the conversations of financial literacy,

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Speaker 3: if that was going on.

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Speaker 7: I mean, I would I'll just say that it's certainly

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Speaker 7: made some leaps and strides, you know, towards where I

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Speaker 7: think it should be. I mean this we're talking when

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Speaker 7: I was you know, nine to twenty twelve, and I remember, like,

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Speaker 7: you know, having the formal sit down, you know, with

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Speaker 7: within the team meeting room with a guy from you know,

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Speaker 7: Merrill lanch or whomever will come in and talk about,

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Speaker 7: you know, different things. But I think, you know, honestly,

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Speaker 7: that was that was probably it, at least for me,

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Speaker 7: you know, And and you know, I guessaid my journey

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Speaker 7: was a little different, as you know, I'm trying to

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Speaker 7: I'm trying to stick and stay off the bubble. But

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Speaker 7: you know, they're internally and honestly, for me, there was

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Speaker 7: a lot of conversation about not necessarily financial literacy, but

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Speaker 7: guys would talk about what they're doing with their money,

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Speaker 7: and it seemed like everybody was trying to find their way.

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Speaker 7: And it was like, I know, at the time, restaurants

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Speaker 7: was kind of the kind of the move and you know,

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Speaker 7: obviously we kind of know how that that works out,

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Speaker 7: but and some real estate stuff and you know, I

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Speaker 7: just remember having and again this is a part even

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Speaker 7: part of my personal story that really led to me

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Speaker 7: being where I am now is having these conversations and

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Speaker 7: coming up with these ideas and talking about different things.

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Speaker 7: Now I wasn't necessarily tech, right, but it was just

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Speaker 7: different ideas of businesses or different you know, ways to

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Speaker 7: kind of make more money if you will. But it

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Speaker 7: wasn't specifically investing necessarily. So I think now there's a

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Speaker 7: lot more kind of programming related to getting players to

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Speaker 7: understand kind of how to how to you know, leverage

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Speaker 7: your money to work for you beyond the field. And

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Speaker 7: one of the things that was I remember they always

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Speaker 7: they were telling that they were really heavy on protecting

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Speaker 7: your money, right. I remember they talked about like not

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Speaker 7: like understanding that the tickets that you're giving aren't free.

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Speaker 7: So like when you're giving tickets to people to come

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Speaker 7: to the game, that's actually deducted from you, and like

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Speaker 7: you yeah, you look up and you got you know,

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Speaker 7: ten to fifteen worth the tickets.

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Speaker 5: They give you, like four tickets free.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, it depends like home game, away game, and like

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Speaker 7: what you can get beyond that. But you know, they

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Speaker 7: I remember as rookies, they were like, like everybody's gonna

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Speaker 7: want tickets, and you need to understand how to say no.

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Speaker 7: And like they would tell you, like, you know, you

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Speaker 7: need to point people to somebody else who can be

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Speaker 7: your no guy. Right, So it was things like that,

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Speaker 7: you know they said, you know, I remember saying. One

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Speaker 7: of the guys told us was, you know, ten thousand

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Speaker 7: dollars seems to solve everybody's problem, right.

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Speaker 8: It's like everybody need ten bands to like do something.

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Speaker 5: I'm hurt right now.

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Speaker 8: I got this basic idea.

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Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying, I just need ten k investment,

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Speaker 7: and it's just like, you know, that's that's how you go, bro.

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Speaker 8: So it was that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 7: But I'd imagine now that there's a much more robust

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Speaker 7: you know, programming around what to do with your money,

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Speaker 7: how to how to manage it. I know actually a

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Speaker 7: couple of financial advisors that work with a number of players.

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Speaker 7: I know a pretty good financial advisor. Yeah, that probably

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Speaker 7: should work with some players.

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Speaker 3: We've got a lot of relationships with. So all right,

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Speaker 3: so can we talk about tech? So after you're done playing,

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Speaker 3: le play about three and a half years in the league,

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Speaker 3: which is a good amount of time. I think the

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Speaker 3: average you said two and a half years and a

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Speaker 3: half until you're right on average.

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Speaker 7: That's bouncing. Yeah, that's trying to make it happen. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So all right, so you go into the tech world

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Speaker 3: with Draper University. Right, so this is a life.

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Speaker 5: Changing experience for you, right, life changing? So can you

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Speaker 5: talk about that?

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Speaker 8: Yeah?

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Speaker 7: And so the way the transition happened, you know, like

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Speaker 7: I mentioned, we were having a lot of business conversations.

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Speaker 7: So what a lot of people don't know is that

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Speaker 7: I was prepared for law school. I graduated with a

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Speaker 7: public policy degree, graduated early, take the l sat ready to.

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Speaker 8: Go into law. Go play.

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Speaker 7: Now I'm like, okay, I think businesses is where I

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Speaker 7: want to go. So I said, I'm gonna go get

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Speaker 7: an NBA. Right, That's what I figured. You get an

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Speaker 7: NBA and figure it out from there. So came home,

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Speaker 7: was actually about to go to Rice and a friend

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Speaker 7: of mine, former teammate at Duke who's now in the

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Speaker 7: league at that time, told me about a program Draper University.

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Speaker 7: And I'm like, what's that. He's like, it's a new

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Speaker 7: thing in Silicon Valley and I'm like, well, what's that.

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Speaker 4: Is?

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Speaker 8: Exactly?

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Speaker 7: This is twenty thirteen, And you know, honestly, I thought,

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Speaker 7: and this is gonna sound very ignorant, I thought he

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Speaker 7: was talking about breast, you know what I mean, like Silicon.

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Speaker 4: And you know, the crazy thing is like when you

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Speaker 4: said draput like I know Houston Like yeah, So I'm like,

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Speaker 4: oh no, you're talking about Tim d But you want

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Speaker 4: to talk about who he is before?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 7: Yeah, So Tim Draper is a legendary venture capitalist in

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Speaker 7: Silicon Valley. And let me just also give y'all some name.

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Speaker 7: Silicon is how you said Silicon? Everybody watching just thank

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Speaker 7: me later. It's Silicon Valley, Silicon, Silicon. This is not

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Speaker 7: doctor Miami. And I learned this when I got out

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Speaker 7: there and then and people were telling me, They're like

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Speaker 7: That's how you know who's actually in tech and really

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Speaker 7: really in it is by the way they say the

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Speaker 7: actual name Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 5: Don't embarrass yourself, Silicon Silicon.

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Speaker 7: So you know, Silicon Valley like legendary VC venture capitalist

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Speaker 7: but from a lineage, so DFJ is their fun but

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Speaker 7: his father, his father's father's father, like they were actually

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Speaker 7: apparently like some of the first vcs.

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Speaker 8: Ever you know in that Bay area? Can playing with

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Speaker 8: VC is yeah.

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Speaker 7: So VC stands for venture capitalists and essentially what they're

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Speaker 7: doing they're investors. But the difference is that they're investing

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Speaker 7: other people's money essentially. So a VC will go out

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Speaker 7: and essentially they have to raise a fund. So they

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Speaker 7: got to go out and convince people that they can

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Speaker 7: identify the best companies. And usually they're able to do

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Speaker 7: that through a track record or they get people to

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Speaker 7: believe in them, right or whatever, or you know, and

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Speaker 7: probably Tim Draper's you know experience, right, he had a

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Speaker 7: family that was doing that and so he was able

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Speaker 7: to ride that. So you raise money from you know,

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Speaker 7: big wealthy families, endowment funds. You know, you're raising that

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Speaker 7: money and then you're investing that money on behalf of

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Speaker 7: those investors, which are called limited partners. So LP's in

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Speaker 7: a fund mean I'm giving this money to this person

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Speaker 7: to go invest on my behalf and then when the

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Speaker 7: return comes, like the company gets acquired, then the LPs

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Speaker 7: make money, right. But it's the general principle the gps

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Speaker 7: general partners that are, you know, going through the process

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Speaker 7: of finding the companies, vetting the companies, making the investment.

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Speaker 8: Uh.

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Speaker 7: And so when you build a track record of finding

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Speaker 7: very successful companies, then more people it's much easier to

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Speaker 7: raise a fund. And so Tim Draper is like an

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Speaker 7: early investor in Yahoo or I think all his portfolio

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Speaker 7: early investment, Sky, Tesla, Twitter, Space, some companies you might

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Speaker 7: have heard of, right right, a few and so you

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Speaker 7: know he and then in twenty thirteen he starts this

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Speaker 7: entrepreneurial school. Essentially it's a program called Draper University. Now

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Speaker 7: it's not like in a credit the university to get credits.

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Speaker 7: I don't think maybe they've gotten to that point now,

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Speaker 7: But at the time it was just basically a crash

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Speaker 7: course through Silicon Valley for aspiring tech entrepreneurs. And my

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Speaker 7: friend told me about I don't even know how he

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Speaker 7: knew about it, but he told me, and I was like,

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Speaker 7: all right.

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Speaker 8: It's in Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 7: I've never heard of that, but you know, I applied,

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Speaker 7: and then Tim Draper himself ended up calling me. And

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Speaker 7: it was a very unique situation because I wasn't really

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Speaker 7: not sure I would even be able to go, you

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Speaker 7: know what I mean, like in terms of wanting to go,

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Speaker 7: because it was just so foreign. I'm like, I'm here

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Speaker 7: about to go to rights families here, you know, I'm

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Speaker 7: gonna just do that. And so what I ended up,

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Speaker 7: you know, once he called me, I was like, all right,

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Speaker 7: Tim Draper, who had learned a lot about at that point, Yeah.

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Speaker 8: It is.

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Speaker 7: And I honestly it was the first batch. I thought

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Speaker 7: he was calling everybody. It wasn't until I got there

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Speaker 7: and it was fifty something other students and we're all

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Speaker 7: talking about how we found out about Draper and and

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Speaker 7: I'm like, yeah, you know, and Tim called me, and.

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Speaker 8: Everybody's like what.

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Speaker 4: I thought.

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Speaker 7: I thought it was just you know, it's the first batch.

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Speaker 7: He wanted to welcome everybody, and you know, well but whatever.

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Speaker 7: So that was like that pivotal moment because if it

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Speaker 7: hadn't been him and you know, the other kind of

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Speaker 7: standard process. I may have not decided to go because

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Speaker 7: it was out of my comfort zone, but I've been

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Speaker 7: wanted to step out of there sometimes, So go out there,

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Speaker 7: and essentially it's nine weeks.

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Speaker 8: I mean, we're learning. I mean it was just jam.

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Speaker 7: We're going through how to build a company, how to

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Speaker 7: you know, grow a company. We're learning from founders of

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Speaker 7: companies that Tim had invested in.

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Speaker 8: And I remember meeting, you.

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Speaker 7: Know, a little twenty three year old agent kid that

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Speaker 7: you know just sold a company for five hundred million,

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Speaker 7: and I'm like, you ain't tackled nobody out here sitting good.

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Speaker 7: And so that's when it really triggered on me. Was like,

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Speaker 7: I'm learning that people are literally building and creating, you know,

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Speaker 7: the technologies that we're using every day, and I had

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Speaker 7: never even heard about it. And you're talking about a

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Speaker 7: guy that had a four point zero president of the

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Speaker 7: engineering club. You think I would You don't think I

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Speaker 7: would have been coding if I know about that when

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Speaker 7: I was seven or eight years old, Like some people

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Speaker 7: that I had met out there had been coding, had

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Speaker 7: been building things. And so I was like, Okay, I'm

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Speaker 7: late to the game. But I'm here and we're gonna

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Speaker 7: get active. And so I ended up finishing number one

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Speaker 7: in the program. And for me that I was like

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Speaker 7: halfway through the program, I knew. I said, I'm moving

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Speaker 7: to the Bay and I'm gonna start a tech company.

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Speaker 7: And so was grinding through that and was really really optimistic.

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Speaker 7: And and you know, after that, went home and uh,

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Speaker 7: you know, told my then fiance that we we're going

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Speaker 7: to the Bay and out of here, and you know,

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Speaker 7: shout out to her because you know she I could

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Speaker 7: have told her I want to build a staircase to

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Speaker 7: the moon and she would start chopping down trees, like

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Speaker 7: let's let's start building and uh.

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Speaker 8: And so you know, we we took that big leap

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Speaker 8: of faith.

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Speaker 4: That gets overlooked man, because like, obviously I have a

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Speaker 4: wife and it's like, like, how are you able to

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Speaker 4: do all these things? And I'm like, YO, strong support,

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Speaker 4: no tru support, and believe.

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Speaker 7: You know, for me, it's uh, I don't even realize

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Speaker 7: to your point how rare it is. I never take

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Speaker 7: it for granted. I never take it for granted. And

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Speaker 7: shout out to my wife, by the way, what's up,

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Speaker 7: you know she and for me it's like, uh, that

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Speaker 7: is the only way I'm able to really do it

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Speaker 7: now that.

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Speaker 8: We're really really in the game tech game, and.

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Speaker 7: You know, when we look back on I mean, that

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Speaker 7: was you know, five years ago though, which which is crazy,

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Speaker 7: where I didn't even know what the thing was and

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Speaker 7: and here we are fully immersed and actually doing well.

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Speaker 7: And her early support is really what even encouraged me,

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Speaker 7: you know what I mean during that time where it's

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Speaker 7: like I don't know what I'm I don't know what

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Speaker 7: I don't know, but I know I want to get

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Speaker 7: into it, and I don't know it either, but let's

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Speaker 7: let's go. I believe in you, so, you know, went home,

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Speaker 7: and that's when I spent time.

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Speaker 8: Learning how to code. We had had a daughter, and I'll.

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Speaker 7: Be honest, we was living in my mama garage, you know,

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Speaker 7: not the garage, but I was in the garage.

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Speaker 4: It sounds better, I was.

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Speaker 7: I was coding in the garage. We weren't living in

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Speaker 7: the garage, you know what I'm saying. We have no

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Speaker 7: infant out there, but we was in the house. But

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Speaker 7: I would be in the garage like literally banging out

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Speaker 7: code and like learning and teaching myself. So I created

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Speaker 7: a curriculum and and for me, it was like I'm

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Speaker 7: hearing that people know how to code and this tech

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Speaker 7: thing and and like, you know anything, I want to

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Speaker 7: put my time and effort into. I want to be

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Speaker 7: the best. And so boom we we. I'm like, we're

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Speaker 7: going to going to the Bay. We get out there,

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Speaker 7: and you know, I got one goal, start a company,

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Speaker 7: and and you know, get out there is not a

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Speaker 7: lot of me, not a lot of folks that look

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Speaker 7: like me. But you know, I'm coming also from Duke,

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Speaker 7: so you know, I was, I was, I was okay

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Speaker 7: in that environment.

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Speaker 8: I could navigate.

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Speaker 5: Uh.

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Speaker 7: And so I ended up working at a startup because

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Speaker 7: I said, you know, before I jump out there and

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Speaker 7: try to build something, let me at this point, I

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Speaker 7: only had about nine weeks super program and some lines

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Speaker 7: of code behind me.

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Speaker 8: Uh.

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Speaker 7: And so I was like, let me go work at

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Speaker 7: a company. And that's where I got hired, actually at

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Speaker 7: a company called keep uh in the Bay area, you know,

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Speaker 7: your traditional Silicon Valley tech startup. They had raised about

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Speaker 7: ten million dollars at that point, and they were actually

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Speaker 7: ranked higher than Airbnb at that time.

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Speaker 4: And uh, another Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 7: Exactly Uh, no, it was it was it was you know,

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Speaker 7: shout out to them because they gave me an opportunity.

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Speaker 8: Again, I have no experience, but they you know.

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Speaker 7: I came on basically entry level on the growth team,

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Speaker 7: and within about five or six months, you know, based

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Speaker 7: on my performance, I was now in leadership, you know,

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Speaker 7: and that was one of the things I loved about

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Speaker 7: tech is well, now, there's a lot of issues and

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Speaker 7: things that still need to be addressed, but when it

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Speaker 7: came to merit based kind of promotion and moving up,

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Speaker 7: as long as you're creating.

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Speaker 8: Value in that in that company, because.

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Speaker 7: Again it's all early stage and you're trying to exist,

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Speaker 7: you're building something that has never existed in the world.

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Speaker 7: That's my definition of a pure like true tech startup.

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Speaker 7: Like an entrepreneur. You can open up a barbershop or

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Speaker 7: you know, food truck or whatever, but to be building

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Speaker 7: something that hasn't existed in the world. There ain't no

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Speaker 7: googling how to do X, y Z, how what's the

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Speaker 7: business model for this?

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Speaker 3: It's interesting that you say that because in the next

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Speaker 3: segment we're going to go into what you're doing now

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Speaker 3: and your trailblazing. You're kind of trailblazing your own set.

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Speaker 3: But it's a backstory how that came in about. So

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Speaker 3: we're going to go into that in the next segment.

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Speaker 3: All right, So now he ain't going segment two and

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Speaker 3: we're gonna talk about your company, Win Win. But before

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Speaker 3: we do that, so all right, we gotta talk about

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Speaker 3: fantasy football.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: We have briefly talked about fantasy football, but it's a

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Speaker 3: billion dollar industry, right, and fantasy sports, well fintasy sports,

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Speaker 3: but football is the biggest sport in America. Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: so it's the biggest fantasy sport. But yeah, fantasy sports

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Speaker 3: in general. So all right, you find out about the

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Speaker 3: power of fantasy and then this kind of leads to

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Speaker 3: some ideas for you, right, so can you talk about

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Speaker 3: that because you kind of told us a story off camera,

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Speaker 3: but yeah, it's interesting now for sure.

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Speaker 7: So you know, I'm in the bay, I'm in you know,

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Speaker 7: working at a company, and again my goal is to

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Speaker 7: start a company.

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Speaker 8: And I'll just say real.

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Speaker 7: Quick, one of the things that changed in my mindset

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Speaker 7: being in Silicon Valley was the fact that people approach

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Speaker 7: problems differently, right, or they took it further. Anybody and

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Speaker 7: everybody usually can identify a problem or pain point something

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Speaker 7: they don't like. What I recognized was that people out

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Speaker 7: there in particular were taking it further and saying, what

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Speaker 7: could I do about that?

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Speaker 8: Right?

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Speaker 7: How could I solve this pain point just for myself?

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Speaker 7: And then turns out millions and billions of people have

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Speaker 7: that same pain point. Now you have, you know, a

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Speaker 7: company going.

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Speaker 5: Same pain point. That's a that's like what does that mean?

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Speaker 8: Yeah?

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Speaker 7: And that's not like a physical pain I get back hurt.

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Speaker 7: I mean that could lead to some innovation, but it's like,

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Speaker 7: you know, I don't like how these mics like it's

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Speaker 7: you know, I needed to be able to do something else,

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Speaker 7: like my back hurting because and like you know, if

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Speaker 7: you could, how could I change that versus just you know,

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Speaker 7: doing like all right whatever.

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Speaker 8: I just got to get used to it.

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Speaker 7: It's like, let me look at this microphone, let me

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Speaker 7: you know, you start kind of analyzing a little bit

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Speaker 7: because this pain point of always having it again.

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Speaker 8: I'm just using a round example.

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Speaker 5: It is a point.

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Speaker 8: You know, there we go, let's let's.

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Speaker 9: Let's get the whiteboard out and this thing out, and

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Speaker 9: so you know, it's kind of taking that next step

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Speaker 9: and saying, Okay, what can how can I how can

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Speaker 9: I hack something together just to make it better for me?

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Speaker 7: Right, It's usually how it happens, and then you know,

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Speaker 7: from there you start to really develop something now. And

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Speaker 7: so that was what kind of was new for me

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Speaker 7: as I was looking at different problems and a big

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Speaker 7: problem that jumped out for me in particular.

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Speaker 8: And these pain points are usually specific.

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Speaker 7: To your own experience, right, Your pain points may be

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Speaker 7: different from mine because we walk a different path or whatever.

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Speaker 7: And so for me in particularly when you look back

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Speaker 7: at my history, right, I'm a former athlete, and so

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Speaker 7: their athletes, current active, former all have a special place

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Speaker 7: in my heart because you know, we have that common bond.

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Speaker 7: And when I looked at fantasy sports, right, I started

437
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Speaker 7: to learn a lot more about it. I always told people,

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Speaker 7: you know, I didn't play fantasy. I play reality, and

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Speaker 7: you know, I never was into that. And but what

440
00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:27,359
Speaker 7: I did recognize, you know, particularly in FanDuel and DraftKings,

441
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,200
Speaker 7: you know DFS, which was kind of new compared to

442
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:34,240
Speaker 7: traditional season long fantasy. You know, I was like, wait,

443
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:36,719
Speaker 7: these companies are making billions of dollars, right, And at

444
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 7: the time I was talking to a lot of friends

445
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:40,399
Speaker 7: in the league asking them, how do you feel about,

446
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 7: you know, fantasy, And overwhelmingly the answer was I don't

447
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:47,560
Speaker 7: give a damn about it, you know, because I'm not

448
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:51,200
Speaker 7: making any money whatsoever. And I learned that the companies

449
00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 7: are making billions of dollars right, and the players plastered

450
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 7: across their platform aren't getting any money out of that,

451
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 7: and I just didn't That didn't sit well with me.

452
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:02,680
Speaker 7: That was the pain point that I was like, all right,

453
00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:04,760
Speaker 7: that's somebody has to fix that.

454
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,240
Speaker 4: I have a pain point that revolves around fantasy sports.

455
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:09,400
Speaker 4: It involves me losing.

456
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:09,760
Speaker 5: A lot of monkey.

457
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 7: Well, you know, we're gonna solve that pain when I'll

458
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 7: show you exactly how we do that. But uh, you know,

459
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 7: and that was something where I was like, okay, that's

460
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:21,920
Speaker 7: that something's not right there. And then on the other side,

461
00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:24,920
Speaker 7: I started to learn about fantasy from the consumer standpoint.

462
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:27,719
Speaker 8: A lot of guys I was working with were.

463
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 7: Really into fantasy and they were telling me about I

464
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,040
Speaker 7: started to learn actually why people were playing more or

465
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,920
Speaker 7: less because you're losing money. So you ain't playing for money, right,

466
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,280
Speaker 7: You're playing because it's fun. You can, you know, talk

467
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,639
Speaker 7: smack with the friends, you know, things like that, and

468
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,639
Speaker 7: like a whole culture, right, exactly exactly, and because.

469
00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 4: It's addictive, right, it's addictive, especially like when it was

470
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,440
Speaker 4: the season long one, it was okay, right, you talk trash,

471
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 4: you know, probably like Monday morning, Tuesday when the week

472
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 4: is over. But the daily one, it was like, ooh,

473
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,280
Speaker 4: I gotta have my lineup in by seven. I gotta

474
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:58,639
Speaker 4: have my lineup in by six thirty, or yo, I

475
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 4: got to have my lineup in for the eight thirty game.

476
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:04,879
Speaker 4: It was like this never stops. And because it just

477
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:05,920
Speaker 4: became an addictive thing.

478
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 8: I mean, it is gambling, yeah, let's be clear, but

479
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:10,080
Speaker 8: well you.

480
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 4: Know it is.

481
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,119
Speaker 7: Yeah, it is no way around yeah and now and

482
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 7: that was where you know, for me, I recognized a problem, right,

483
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,000
Speaker 7: particularly for athletes who weren't getting any value out of

484
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 7: this thing. I saw that it was highly you know,

485
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:28,240
Speaker 7: engaged by sports fans, right, and so I said that

486
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 7: was where the idea for when when even came up, Right,

487
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 7: I started talking to players, I started talking to the

488
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 7: consumers the users of these platforms, and I was just

489
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,199
Speaker 7: getting a sense of you know, they're losing money, but

490
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:46,119
Speaker 7: it's fun. They're competing it's addictive. And I basically proposed

491
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 7: the question to one of my coworkers one day, and

492
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 7: I said, what if the money that you're losing, what

493
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,479
Speaker 7: if that money could go to something more impactful, like

494
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:57,359
Speaker 7: a charity that let's say an athlete cares about. And

495
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 7: instead of competing to win money out of that pot

496
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 7: because it's gone to charity, what if you could win

497
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:05,040
Speaker 7: something that money couldn't buy, right, like a game or

498
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 7: on autograph jersey or you know, dinner with your favorite player.

499
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 7: And it was an overwhelming Hell, yeah, I do that,

500
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 7: you know. And it was like okay. So then I

501
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:16,240
Speaker 7: go call my my buddies in the league and I say, hey,

502
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:18,399
Speaker 7: what if I could get your fans? I know you

503
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:20,919
Speaker 7: care about your charity and your foundation a lot.

504
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:21,199
Speaker 3: Uh.

505
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 7: And this was another unique insight that I had because

506
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,160
Speaker 7: I had a foundation as well, and I knew that players,

507
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,720
Speaker 7: we want to use our platform for good whenever possible,

508
00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 7: if it's easy and efficient, right, And so I said,

509
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 7: what if I can get your fan base to, through

510
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 7: this game of sorts, support your charity by donating to it.

511
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,400
Speaker 7: Is that valuable enough for you to you know, sign

512
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,920
Speaker 7: a couple of autographs or call somebody on face Simon.

513
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 8: It's like, yeah, that's easy. You know, we do that

514
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 8: already through certain things.

515
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,399
Speaker 4: So you have your own five one C three.

516
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:50,120
Speaker 8: Yeah.

517
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,120
Speaker 7: So outside of like the company and our and we

518
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 7: we got a for profit and a nonprofit. But before

519
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,960
Speaker 7: I even started when when when I was playing, I

520
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 7: had a nonprofit called Team Guinea. A good friend of mine,

521
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,479
Speaker 7: Toby Nwigwe probably one of the fastest growing artists right

522
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,520
Speaker 7: now coming out of the SWAT. He and I started

523
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 7: it with another friend of ours, Jeff, and you know,

524
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,159
Speaker 7: we were you know, making purpose popular was our was

525
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 7: our mission. So we understood the pain points around trying

526
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,400
Speaker 7: to raise money. So took that experience along with my athlete,

527
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,840
Speaker 7: my athletic background, and that's where we came up with

528
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 7: this you know concept of win win where I said, okay,

529
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 7: we're gonna leverage gaming right and we're gonna now drive

530
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 7: more value to what the players truly care about, right,

531
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 7: which is their philanthropic efforts. And that was the birth

532
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,040
Speaker 7: of win win and how we how we started that

533
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:44,639
Speaker 7: was the end of twenty fifteen and I was working

534
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:46,679
Speaker 7: at a company when I came up with it, and

535
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,359
Speaker 7: so I just started to do market research, and like

536
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 7: I said, I'm learning how to like what the steps

537
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,120
Speaker 7: are you take to build a company? I'd never known

538
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,080
Speaker 7: so through through Draper, and like at that point I

539
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 7: had built the network of other founders, particularly black founders

540
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 7: that I was really like, we were all lifting as

541
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 7: we climb, you know. I knew even at that time,

542
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 7: I knew I would see three four founders boom, jump

543
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 7: out there and go start something. We knew folks like

544
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 7: you know Deshaun the founder of Maven, you know, shout

545
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 7: out to DeShawn. He you know, a brother out of Oakland,

546
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 7: you know, is running Mavin, one of the largest hairwave

547
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 7: kind of tech companies uh in the in the world probably,

548
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:27,439
Speaker 7: And so you know, to see guys like that just

549
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 7: continuing to push the envelope.

550
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,679
Speaker 8: You know, really motivated me. And so I was like,

551
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 8: this is this is why we're here.

552
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 7: I was actually my wife, I should say, it was

553
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 7: getting comfortable with kind of that tech check and uh,

554
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 7: you know, we were in the bay, you know, living

555
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 7: that living that life, and it was like, that's gonna

556
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:43,919
Speaker 7: have to stop because it's time to get active.

557
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,120
Speaker 3: So you have you have an idea. But one quick

558
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 3: thing about fantasy. You has said one percent of fantasy

559
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 3: players win ninety percent of the money.

560
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 5: Is that true?

561
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 7: Yeah, So in that in that research that I was

562
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 7: doing less than one percent at least at that time,

563
00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 7: right this is twenty fifteen, when you again you couldn't

564
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 7: get a away from a FanDuel of DraftKings ad. You know,

565
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 7: less than one percent of the users on those platforms

566
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 7: were winning over ninety eight percent of the money. And

567
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 7: again that was for me, it was mind boggling that

568
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,879
Speaker 7: you know, you're just continuing to lose money while you playing.

569
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:16,760
Speaker 7: And that was where I started to dig into what

570
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 7: the real kind of so we you know, for us,

571
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,159
Speaker 7: we want to pull out the best parts of gaming

572
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 7: and gambling and combine.

573
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 8: It with giving.

574
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,679
Speaker 7: But that was kind of the data I was learning.

575
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:28,120
Speaker 7: And then you start to learn about the algorithms that

576
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 7: the scripts that people are writing. They can create, you know,

577
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 7: a thousand lineups just like that, you know, and they

578
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 7: can bankroll the actual tournament by you know, being able

579
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 7: to cover all those entry fees knowing that they're going

580
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 7: to take everybody's money. We're calling them sharks, where they're

581
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 7: coming in and scooping up all the menos probably right.

582
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, listen, man, one, I'm telling you. One day, I

583
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 4: literally went through every game that I had lost and

584
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 4: saw the same names, and I just compiled a list

585
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 4: of twenty people and I called my boy up, Larry.

586
00:25:58,000 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 4: Out to Larry, he's.

587
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 5: Another guy who does Fanta fantasy legend.

588
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,160
Speaker 4: Fantasy leg is a fantasy legend. Actually he actually did

589
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 4: win some money. But it's the thought that I could

590
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:09,400
Speaker 4: win because like you might get, like you go into

591
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 4: these low level entry games is gambling two dollars games

592
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 4: and you might win one hundred dollars. I actually want

593
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 4: a few times. But in the long run, right, those

594
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 4: sharks they always flood the rooms, So it's like, you

595
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 4: know what, I can't beat them.

596
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 3: Because the sharks always eat fish. Yeah, in life, you're

597
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 3: either a shark or your fish.

598
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 4: I was a gold fish. I definitely quick, real quick.

599
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 5: So let me ask you this, all right, So, okay,

600
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 5: so you actually.

601
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 3: Have a really good idea where you you like you said,

602
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,239
Speaker 3: you you take the the best part of if there

603
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:47,480
Speaker 3: is the best part of gambling, you take the best

604
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 3: part of gambling, and you take charity, which is always

605
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 3: a good thing, and you kind of cambind it with sports,

606
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 3: which everybody loves and you're having center bonuses. It's a

607
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 3: really good idea, right, So what's the next step as

608
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,159
Speaker 3: far as putting together? Were gonna talk about funding in

609
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 3: the next segment, but before we've been talking about funding

610
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 3: because you said you didn't have any background and building

611
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 3: a business. You went to Draper University. That helped out

612
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:11,719
Speaker 3: a lot. So what steps did you take to actually

613
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 3: build out the platform? And obviously you loved your relationship

614
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 3: with the players in the league, So how did that

615
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 3: look as far as your business plan and actually putting

616
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 3: that together?

617
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:20,959
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, great questions.

618
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 7: So you know, for me again, when I moved out

619
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 7: there in August twenty fourteen or June twenty fourteen, there

620
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:29,360
Speaker 7: was one goal. So even as I was working at

621
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 7: that company, I'm gleaning as much knowledge and information as

622
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 7: I can, like, hey, how did y'all you.

623
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 8: Know, who's y'all's lawyers? Like who did y'all say? Who

624
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 8: set this up?

625
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 7: And you know, just building a network of other founders

626
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,120
Speaker 7: that were you know, far ahead, you know, just started

627
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 7: you know, other people that had ideas and it was

628
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,240
Speaker 7: just like, so what did y'all do? Because again, the

629
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 7: thing is it ain't no Google for this stuff. Now,

630
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 7: you know there's some information out there for sure, blog posts,

631
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 7: different things. But you know what I was mentioned in

632
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,679
Speaker 7: earlier is like a tech entrepreneur is very different from

633
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 7: a recor entrepreneur typically because you know, entrepreneurship is broad.

634
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:05,879
Speaker 7: You could go, you know, open up a food truck

635
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 7: or barbershop and you're an entrepreneur and that's more power

636
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 7: to you. When you're tech entrepreneur is a little different

637
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 7: typically because you're creating something a technology that has not

638
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 7: existed in the world yet, right, And so there is

639
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 7: like you can look up all the literature you can

640
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,879
Speaker 7: on you know, the business model for a barbershop and

641
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,680
Speaker 7: where you get the clippers and how much you're charging

642
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 7: boothrin and all these things, and that's great, right, that

643
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,920
Speaker 7: roadmap is there. When you're building something that hasn't existed,

644
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 7: that that's not there, so all you can really do.

645
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:35,679
Speaker 7: And I talk a lot about these data points that

646
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 7: I call them, and it's really insights. It's conversations that

647
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 7: you're having with different people. And for me, I want

648
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 7: to be a founder. I want to start a company,

649
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 7: so I'm going to ask and talk to other founders

650
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 7: and see what they went through, how they're doing different things.

651
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 7: Now it's going to be very different for me, likely

652
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 7: because we're running totally different companies, right because what they're

653
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 7: building hasn't existed.

654
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 8: What I'm building hasn't existed.

655
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 7: And so I'm taking these very relevant data points, right,

656
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 7: So I'm not talking to some guy that's you know,

657
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 7: doing something in you know, West Palm Beach, Florida, that

658
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 7: you know, it's not relevant to tell me what I

659
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 7: should do to start win when I'm talking to folks

660
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 7: in the midst of it all. And so I was

661
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 7: just cleaning that information. And really, those data points allow

662
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 7: you to make the best decision, the best informed decision

663
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 7: you can. So you know who what's the first hire

664
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 7: I should make, or you know, how do I set

665
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 7: up a pitch deck, what's the story of the of

666
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 7: the company, how do I set up the business model?

667
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 4: Right?

668
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 7: None of this stuff existed, and so you have to

669
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 7: make You have to make the best decisions you can.

670
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 8: That's why there's.

671
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 7: A ton of mistakes that are made, and those data points.

672
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 7: Surrounding yourself around with great advisors, people that have done

673
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 7: this successfully helps you. You're never gonna be perfect but

674
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,040
Speaker 7: it definitely helps you minimize the number of mistakes because

675
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 7: if you can minimize the mistakes, you have a much

676
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 7: higher chance of reaching success. And that's what I learned

677
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 7: in the first few years of any company. It's really

678
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 7: not about reaching success, it's about survival.

679
00:29:57,800 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 4: How many people are on the team.

680
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 8: I got five people right now and through that process.

681
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 4: So what was the selection process for them? Was it

682
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 4: people that you knew or you sought these people because

683
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 4: you saw or knew the history of their work.

684
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 7: So a lot of the early hires, you know, they

685
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 7: come through referrals, right because other people like love what

686
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 7: you're doing, and they may know people. That's usually the

687
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 7: best form of finding a great hire because people that

688
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 7: you're close with came highly recommend you know, can highly

689
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 7: recommend somebody, I'll be honest. One of the big learning

690
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 7: curves for me and starting Win Win and happened very

691
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 7: early on. It's a very expensive lesson was hiring. And

692
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 7: that was the thing that you know, I didn't have

693
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 7: a process in place at first, and I didn't go

694
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 7: through the proper procedures.

695
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 8: To really vet them.

696
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 7: I literally hired like two or three people because they

697
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 7: went to do and like that that was it.

698
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:48,480
Speaker 8: You went to duke.

699
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 4: Oh, Okaymni.

700
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 8: We're out here though.

701
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 7: But you know, and it was more or less that

702
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 7: we weren't ready to have I mean, we had ten

703
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 7: people full time pretty much for we ever even launched

704
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 7: the thing, and we went in with a lot of

705
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 7: assumption so that the hiring process is key.

706
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 8: And now you know, we learned it was a very.

707
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 7: Hard lesson to learn, an expensive lesson because you know,

708
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 7: we're paying Silicon Valley salaries too, and uh and that

709
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 7: ain't no joke. And so you know, change course, you know,

710
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 7: corrected it, and now we're going we're literally in that

711
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 7: process now that we've moved back to Houston. We got

712
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 7: we got recruited to move to Houston and be a

713
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 7: part of Houston's tech boom that's happening now.

714
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 8: Uh and so we're thrilled about that.

715
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 7: And so now we're implementing a real, real thorough process,

716
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 7: you know, in vetting people, making sure and we have

717
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 7: a much better understanding of what we actually need too

718
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 7: because we've been doing it. So now we have a

719
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 7: very clear road map. We have governance, We have board

720
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 7: members folks that weigh in on these decisions. So but

721
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 7: you gotta you gotta get to that point. And so

722
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 7: it's a very very tough road. And I applaud anybody,

723
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 7: any entrepreneur. First of all, Right, just because there is

724
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 7: a road map doesn't mean it's gonna be an easy

725
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 7: way to get there. But actually those that are building

726
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 7: something that hasn't existed, right, who have to create that

727
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 7: road map and then worry about somebody else, you know,

728
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 7: trying to take over and beat you out. So a

729
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 7: lot of respect for anybody that's gone through that process

730
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 7: because it is it a taxing one for sure.

731
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: Governance very good word, very key word to understand in business,

732
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 3: Very very key word to understand business.

733
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 5: All right.

734
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 3: So so okay, so can we talk about how you've

735
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 3: leveraged your relationships because so a lot of times people

736
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 3: are putt in situations and they don't fully maximize their relationships, right,

737
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 3: and this is key to anything. You can work in Walmart,

738
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 3: but you have a relationship with somebody, So you with

739
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 3: NFL in an NFL, but you didn't squander your time

740
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 3: in the NFL. You build key relationships and now you're

741
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 3: using the relationships to help in your business. Right, So

742
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 3: you talk about that because obviously. I think that that's

743
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 3: a key component as far as the success of what

744
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 3: you're planning with.

745
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 4: You have the ability to do things that the average

746
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 4: person doesn't.

747
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, for sure.

748
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 7: And you know, I think one thing I always remember

749
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 7: learning learning at ducat at is that your your network

750
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 7: is your.

751
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 8: Net worth, right.

752
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 7: And I've always taken approaching And it wasn't until recently

753
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 7: where I was reading a book called Give and Take

754
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 7: by Adam Grant, and it's a phenomenal book that talks

755
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 7: about you know your relationships and you know who you are.

756
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 8: Are you a giver or you're a taker? Right?

757
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 7: And for me, I realized that I've been a giver

758
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 7: because when I talk about like networking, you think about

759
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 7: somebody who's like, I'm going to network or I'm going

760
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 7: to meet somebody really just looking to see what I

761
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 7: can get out of them, right, and I usue them coming.

762
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 7: And I've noticed it's by myself. I want to fear

763
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 7: how can I help you? You know what I mean? Like,

764
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 7: I look to build very authentic relationships, right, I don't

765
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 7: want nothing from you, Right, I'm grind and trying to

766
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 7: make it happen myself. I don't want to come in

767
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 7: and just be trying to extract value. I always want

768
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 7: to add value. And so even when it came to

769
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 7: the players right as I like, I got a handful

770
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 7: of players that I remember talking to during that time,

771
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 7: and you know, I'm just it's really like it was

772
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 7: a bad back and forth, like real just authentic conversations

773
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 7: about man, this tech thing is crazy, Like I'm literally

774
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 7: in the middle of it, and they're like, man, like,

775
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:09,840
Speaker 7: tell me about that. And so we're just having these conversations.

776
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 7: It wasn't like I was hitting them up with a

777
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 7: direct you know, motive, like hey need you, I need

778
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 7: to leverage you.

779
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 8: That's the only reason I'm calling you.

780
00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 7: Like, I have authentic relationships with these guys that you know, again,

781
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 7: we talk about life and all these things. So when

782
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 7: it came time to talk about when when and develop

783
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 7: and even including them in the development of that idea.

784
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 8: You know, it was it was a natural, you.

785
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 7: Know, a fit for them to say, yeah, bro, like

786
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 7: let me know, like I'll definitely host a tournament or whatever,

787
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 7: you know, whatever you need.

788
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 8: That sounds dope, you know what I mean.

789
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 7: And so it's building those relationships, and you know, my

790
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 7: whole thing is We want to add value even from

791
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 7: the business, not even just me personally. I guess that

792
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 7: goes into the business, but you know, we want to

793
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 7: be adding value to all the partners that we work with.

794
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 7: And we were starting with athletes, right, but I've now

795
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 7: been talking about this expansion map that we've already laid

796
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 7: out and have already begun to where we're now going

797
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 7: to start working with entertainers, artists, influencers, teams, universities. We

798
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 7: really built win when as a platform that will help

799
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 7: any entity of influence mobilize an audience in supportive of cause.

800
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 4: You know, so one win Obviously, fantasy is huge in

801
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:24,280
Speaker 4: the NFL, but you are you crossing over to other sports.

802
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 8: So we you know, today we have one hundred and

803
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,840
Speaker 8: fifty athletes across the NFL and NBA.

804
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 7: And to be clear, we've been in our beta phase,

805
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 7: so we've been very much so under the radar, you know,

806
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 7: testing making sure. That was one of the things that

807
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 7: I learned in this kind of tech flow, right, is

808
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 7: that you got to you gotta secure what they call

809
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 7: product market fit, right because in your mind it's, oh man,

810
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 7: it's a perfect idea, right, and then you know you

811
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 7: may even do some surveys or asks me, would you

812
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:51,240
Speaker 7: buy this if this was available?

813
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:51,400
Speaker 2: Oh?

814
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 8: Yeah, for sure. But soon as that, soon as that

815
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:54,800
Speaker 8: paywall come up.

816
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,240
Speaker 5: In the credit card, what had happened?

817
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 4: What's up? You ever walk into a small business and

818
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 4: everything just works like The checkout is fast, the receipts

819
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 4: are digital, tipping is a breeze, and you're out the

820
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 4: door before the line even builds odds are they're using Square.

821
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 4: We love supporting businesses that run on Square because it

822
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823
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824
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825
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826
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827
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828
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829
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830
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 4: it's about giving you time back so you can focus

831
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,440
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832
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833
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834
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835
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836
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864
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 7: And so now you didn't know went out and invested

865
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:54,800
Speaker 7: in all kind of stuff to build this thing without

866
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 7: ever really properly testing it in the market live, you

867
00:38:57,719 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 7: know what I mean. And so we had to really

868
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 7: go that rigorous testing process and shout out to our

869
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 7: early players because we couldn't guarantee what was going to

870
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:08,440
Speaker 7: happen with their tournament in terms of like we can't say, oh,

871
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 7: you're gonna raise you know, one hundred thousand dollars for

872
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 7: your charity, like we don't know, because we were like

873
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,439
Speaker 7: testing this thing out. And so you know, these guys

874
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,480
Speaker 7: actually ended up becoming investors because they saw like the grind.

875
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,880
Speaker 7: They saw the trajectory and uh, you know, so we're

876
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 7: expanding across all sports. Very soon, we'll be scaling vertically

877
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 7: to now working with you know, Spike Lee could host

878
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 7: a win win tournament for NBA. Pick them, you know,

879
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 7: you join, donate to Spike's charity of choice, and now

880
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:35,399
Speaker 7: you get to win.

881
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 8: You know, of course, I see to.

882
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:41,360
Speaker 3: The or like a phil Ivy, he's like the world's

883
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:46,160
Speaker 3: greatest poker plays black, so he do like like a

884
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 3: World Series of Poker, but for charity something like that,

885
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, something like that?

886
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:50,640
Speaker 8: Yeah.

887
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 4: Is it a traditional fantasy format where performances based on

888
00:39:56,360 --> 00:40:00,120
Speaker 4: a skill I mean, on a scoring point system and

889
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 4: then at the end, whoever has the most points because

890
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 4: it gets the is the winner or do we do

891
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,480
Speaker 4: like head to head or is the twenty style?

892
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 8: Great question?

893
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 7: So, first, to be clear, it's not what people would

894
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 7: consider or most people would think of fantasy. It's not

895
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,839
Speaker 7: daily fantasy, it's not FanDuel DraftKings. In terms of the game,

896
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 7: we like to call it fantasy style game. So it's

897
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 7: you're making predictions essentially of who's gonna win the game.

898
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 7: So in short, how it works is you know, players

899
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 7: hosting a win win tournament, promoting it off to fans

900
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 7: when they come to the platform, click the link in

901
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 7: the bio they come, and then they're joining the tournament

902
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 7: by simply predicting who they think is gonna win. You

903
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:41,360
Speaker 7: know this upcoming weekend's games, right, there's sixteen seventeen games

904
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 7: on any given week in the NFL, So you're just

905
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:46,759
Speaker 7: literally predicting the winners, nothing else, and you're everybody who

906
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 7: joins that tournament. We're all on a leader board and

907
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 7: we're ranked based on the accuracy of those picks that

908
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 7: we've made. And upon joining, you're then given an opportunity

909
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 7: to make a donation fully tax deductible to the players

910
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,520
Speaker 7: Foundation of Chill, and there's other perks and benefits that

911
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 7: you can unlock by doing that. We have what we

912
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 7: call Karmel coins. So for every dollar you donate, you

913
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 7: earn these Karmel coins. You can unlock other perks and benefits.

914
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 7: But when those games kick off, you're earning points not

915
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:15,839
Speaker 7: based on the size of your donation, which is you know,

916
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 7: that would be like a raffle, you know, and so

917
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,600
Speaker 7: you're earning points based strictly on the accuracy of your prediction.

918
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:23,719
Speaker 7: So you're going up and down on the leaderboard as

919
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 7: these games are happening in real life. And something unique

920
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 7: is that the leaderboard is changing every five seconds, not

921
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 7: based on who won or lost the game, but who's

922
00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:32,719
Speaker 7: winning or losing at.

923
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:33,320
Speaker 8: That very moment.

924
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 7: So as you got five or six games happening, I mean,

925
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:38,360
Speaker 7: the score is going up and down, and you're just

926
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,399
Speaker 7: I mean, it's it's going crazy, and we keep and

927
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 7: that's that's what I said.

928
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 8: We're taking the best part of that kind of gambling.

929
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 4: How many people in the twenty at a time.

930
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 7: That varies, there's no max, and you know it can

931
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:51,400
Speaker 7: vary varies based on the player, the level of promotion,

932
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,319
Speaker 7: things like that. But the key is that they're not

933
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,879
Speaker 7: competing to win money, right, So those are the those

934
00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 7: are the visceral kind of feelings that we took out

935
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 7: of gaming and put it into win win, And they're

936
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:05,719
Speaker 7: not winning money, right, they're winning experiences that money can't buy,

937
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 7: like having dinner with the player after the game, or

938
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 7: court side seats or autograph jersey whatever. I mean, we've done,

939
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 7: We've done a private jet ride. Patrick Peterson took the

940
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 7: top three winners on the leader board and flew on

941
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 7: a private jet with him to baton Ruge for the

942
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,440
Speaker 7: LSU Versus Alabama game course. I mean a sideline passes

943
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:26,479
Speaker 7: locker rooms the whole nine. And those guys collectively were

944
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 7: on average, I think donated about thirty thirty five bucks,

945
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,000
Speaker 7: but they were the top three winners based on their

946
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 7: scores and lead on.

947
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 8: The leader board.

948
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 7: And that's what we call Game of five giving, and

949
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 7: so that's you know, everybody's competing, but the unique part

950
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 7: is that everybody wins. Also, it's not a one winner

951
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 7: take off, which I think is you know, if you're

952
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 7: in first place, you get the jet ride, tenth place,

953
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 7: you get the FaceTime call, one hundredth place, you get

954
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:51,839
Speaker 7: an autograph jersey all the way down the last place

955
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,359
Speaker 7: where you'll get twenty dollars in free lift credits as

956
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 7: your prize. So as a fan, you've competed, you've contributed,

957
00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 7: and you've won something. And for us, we didn't go

958
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,319
Speaker 7: with that model really because it sounds good. We did

959
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,439
Speaker 7: it because it's acquisition and retention driving behaviors. Again, we're

960
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 7: building a profitable, a for profit company that is looking

961
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 7: to return capital to our investors ten x, which means,

962
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:14,759
Speaker 7: you know, somebody comes scoop us up for seven hundred

963
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:15,800
Speaker 7: million dollars or whatever.

964
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 8: That's the goal.

965
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:19,400
Speaker 7: And so we have to think very strategically about the

966
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,839
Speaker 7: business model, about what are these triggers that will get

967
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 7: people to come back and donate. What it'll get people

968
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 7: to come So acquisition, if you know, you see your

969
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 7: favorite player hosting a tournament promoting it, knowing that you're

970
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 7: guaranteed to win a prize, you're more inclined to actually

971
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 7: join right versus joining the raffle.

972
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 8: I'll win something right.

973
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 7: But more importantly, if you look at your predictions, and

974
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,320
Speaker 7: let's say you got one of the brand sponsor prizes

975
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,879
Speaker 7: like lift credits, you're gonna look at it, you're gonna

976
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 7: be happy about it. But then you're gonna say, man,

977
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,680
Speaker 7: if I would have made these seven different picks, I

978
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 7: would have been in Tier two.

979
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 8: I would have got the autograph football. So what do

980
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 8: you do?

981
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 7: You come right back next week and try again donate

982
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 7: boom And so now retention, acquisition, you know, these are

983
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 7: the things that really drive a business as we look to,

984
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,320
Speaker 7: you know, drive revenue and evaluation them.

985
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:07,880
Speaker 3: All right, So in the next seven, we're gonna go

986
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 3: into the most important part of any business funding. But

987
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 3: it's a little different, a little different. We're gonna talk

988
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 3: about equity crowdfunding, something that most people aren't too familiar with,

989
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:22,959
Speaker 3: so we haven't covered it yet. So yeah, we're gonna

990
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 3: go into it, all right, So now we're gonna talk

991
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 3: about something very interesting and something Actually when you when

992
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,880
Speaker 3: you contacted us, you brought up a good point. He's like,

993
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:31,719
Speaker 3: I don't think you talked about this, but you know what,

994
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:38,480
Speaker 3: we haven't talk about it, right, so, yes, equity crowdfunding. Right,

995
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:42,120
Speaker 3: so people might not be familiar with equity. Well, crowdfunding

996
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,879
Speaker 3: in general is a way to raise money from large

997
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 3: amounts of people, right, So, like the most popular form

998
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,760
Speaker 3: is Kickstarter. People things like that, right, It's kickstarter where

999
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 3: you it's kind of like a donation kind of charity thing.

1000
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 3: Sometimes you can give people like T shirts, but it's

1001
00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 3: pretty much they're not getting nothing in return for that

1002
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 3: except for just good will they want to support you.

1003
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 3: Right now, Equity crowd funding is something that is new

1004
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 3: that came about from President Obama's.

1005
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 5: Jobs build up.

1006
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 3: I'm not yeah, the Jobs Act, and yeah, so can

1007
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 3: you talk about that, because it's pretty interesting.

1008
00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:15,439
Speaker 8: Yeah.

1009
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 5: No.

1010
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 7: So you know, one of the any business, right particularly

1011
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 7: within in tech companies, right, you have to raise funding

1012
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:26,239
Speaker 7: and for for you know, decades.

1013
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 8: Now, right. The way you do that is go to

1014
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:28,839
Speaker 8: an investor. Right.

1015
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:32,520
Speaker 7: You pitch your vision to that one individual usually or

1016
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 7: a fund, and you know, they make a decision on

1017
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 7: if they're going to give you the startup capital that

1018
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 7: you need to go build this thing, and in exchange,

1019
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 7: they get equity, right, they get ownership part ownership in

1020
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,320
Speaker 7: the company. And that's how it's been done for ages.

1021
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,360
Speaker 8: Now. One of the things.

1022
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,360
Speaker 7: That it has created is a very big gap in

1023
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,400
Speaker 7: terms of wealth and the access to generate wealth.

1024
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:55,280
Speaker 8: Right when you talk.

1025
00:45:55,160 --> 00:46:00,279
Speaker 7: About angel investors, right, and again, trust me, like I've

1026
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 7: learned all of this stuff in the last five years.

1027
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 7: I didn't, Like I said, I didn't even know what

1028
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:07,320
Speaker 7: Silicon Valley was or the word and so this was

1029
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:08,920
Speaker 7: all things that I had to learn on the go.

1030
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 7: But when it comes to angel investors, these are basically

1031
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 7: wealthy individuals that are investing their own capital, like at

1032
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 7: their bank account. They they're investing in the companies getting equity.

1033
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 5: Uh.

1034
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 7: And then when those companies go on, they do very

1035
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:25,360
Speaker 7: well and get sold or I po then those angel investors,

1036
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 7: those wealthier, those wealthy volks get even more wealthy, right

1037
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 7: because they get a return on their capital. And so

1038
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:32,880
Speaker 7: it was creating this gap, and and you know, shout

1039
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 7: out to Obama because he you know, saw that there

1040
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 7: was a disparity there and thought that anybody should be

1041
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,520
Speaker 7: able to have access if they can access that deal, right,

1042
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 7: because there's there's there's part access, but then having the

1043
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 7: capacity to even get involved, right, And so he created

1044
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 7: the Jobs Acts. Right, it's jumpstart our business startups, and

1045
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 7: it is you know, it's it's actually a whole lot

1046
00:46:57,480 --> 00:46:59,520
Speaker 7: of different things. But one of the things in there

1047
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 7: is equity crowdfunding. And what it does is it gives

1048
00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 7: founders of companies the ability to open up the fundraising

1049
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 7: to what they call non accredited investors. So that angel

1050
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:14,520
Speaker 7: investor that I mentioned is going to be an accredited investor.

1051
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 7: And to be an accredited investor, you have to make

1052
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:19,920
Speaker 7: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year or more

1053
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:22,280
Speaker 7: at least for the last three years as your tax

1054
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:26,400
Speaker 7: you know, paperwork will show or have a million in

1055
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 7: liquid assets.

1056
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, we can see how that could be a problem. Like,

1057
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 4: especially in the communities we live in. It's like, how

1058
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 4: many people do we know that make two hundred and

1059
00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:37,200
Speaker 4: fifty thousand as a combined family, one person make it.

1060
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,319
Speaker 7: And as a group, actually you can. You and your

1061
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,480
Speaker 7: spouse collectively have to make three hundred thousand, right, And

1062
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:45,520
Speaker 7: so they even make that bar go a little higher.

1063
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:48,760
Speaker 7: And so or have a million in liquid assets.

1064
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 5: That's it. That's the only requirements two million in assets.

1065
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 8: Or a million in liquid liquid. So it can't but

1066
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:54,839
Speaker 8: it basically it can't.

1067
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 3: They got to be something like a retirement account on

1068
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 3: bank or stock stuff like that, things that you.

1069
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:03,560
Speaker 8: Can liquid that, yeah, quickly.

1070
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 7: And so that's you know that and and honestly or

1071
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,160
Speaker 7: like what I looked at in the research option done,

1072
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,319
Speaker 7: that's about eight or nine percent of Americans, right, And

1073
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,640
Speaker 7: so the ninety one percent, essentially right, can't can't even

1074
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 7: access that deal even if they know the founder of

1075
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 7: X y Z company. They can't you know, invest even

1076
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:26,640
Speaker 7: if they haven't have some load of cash that they

1077
00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 7: came across or whatever. But so what Obama said is,

1078
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:33,719
Speaker 7: you know, through the Jobs Act, now anybody should be

1079
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:36,320
Speaker 7: able to access that. So in twenty sixteen is actually

1080
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 7: when they went through, and now you started to see

1081
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:39,879
Speaker 7: the rise of.

1082
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 8: These equity crowdfunding platforms.

1083
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 7: So the thing that you have to know is like

1084
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 7: if I run a tech company or startup, just because

1085
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,879
Speaker 7: you know the Jobs Act exist doesn't mean you could

1086
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:52,560
Speaker 7: just walk up and give me some money and say

1087
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 7: I want to be an investor. The companies have to

1088
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,240
Speaker 7: go through, so this is all sanctioned by the SEC.

1089
00:48:58,080 --> 00:48:59,960
Speaker 7: You know, there's a lot of kind of formal time

1090
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 7: ters I won't bore you guys with, but you have

1091
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:05,280
Speaker 7: to go through a very extreme vetting process.

1092
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:06,600
Speaker 8: So first there's the platform.

1093
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 7: So you brought up a good point Kickstarter, Indie, go go, right,

1094
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 7: these are forms of crowdfunding. Go fund me is a

1095
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:17,799
Speaker 7: crowd is a crowdfunding platform, right, And again to your point,

1096
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 7: you're raising money for something from a large crowd of people,

1097
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 7: hence the name.

1098
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 4: The original of the crowdfunding itself was based on a

1099
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 4: rock band like yeah, they couldn't get money to go

1100
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,319
Speaker 4: on tour. Oh yeah, so their fans came together to say,

1101
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,920
Speaker 4: like let's fund them to at least have a tour

1102
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:36,640
Speaker 4: to perform.

1103
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 3: Hence crowdfunded Troy always comes with It was like a

1104
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:50,320
Speaker 3: white elephant always comes with like these little known Alright,

1105
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,000
Speaker 3: all right, so we're back to the crowd but.

1106
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 7: Yeah, so you know, crowdfunding as in and of itself exists, right,

1107
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 7: It has existed for some time, all the way back

1108
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:03,240
Speaker 7: to the rock band, right and to your point, equity

1109
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 7: crowdfunding came in right when you and let's just draw

1110
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 7: a comparison.

1111
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 8: Let's take Kickstarter for example.

1112
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:10,719
Speaker 7: This is a Kickstart is a company that enables you

1113
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,719
Speaker 7: to run a crowdfunding campaign, right, and so you can

1114
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 7: put up your project, whether it's a film, whether it's

1115
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 7: a whatever it is, right, and you can basically promote

1116
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:21,760
Speaker 7: it and people will buy in and maybe you have perks.

1117
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:25,319
Speaker 7: Like you said, now, the difference, right you talk about

1118
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:29,960
Speaker 7: equity crowdfunding, there are also platforms, right, so republic is

1119
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:32,480
Speaker 7: one that is probably one of the more popular ones.

1120
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 7: There's others called we funder, you know a few others

1121
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 7: that you know allow you to have an equity crowdfunding campaign.

1122
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 7: Now they have to go through a rigorous process to

1123
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 7: even be set up. But the big difference between those

1124
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 7: two platforms is that on Kickstarter, if I'm not mistaken,

1125
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 7: Basically anybody can set that up. You can go in there,

1126
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 7: fill out the thing, and then boom, launch a campaign

1127
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:57,080
Speaker 7: and it's up to you. And you have to raise

1128
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,160
Speaker 7: a certain amount to even access to the capital for

1129
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 7: equity crowdfunding because these are technically public offerings right of

1130
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:09,080
Speaker 7: shares in a company and a private company, it has

1131
00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 7: to be sanctioned.

1132
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:10,840
Speaker 8: By the SEC.

1133
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,839
Speaker 7: So it's a very rigorous process, right, I mean, they

1134
00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 7: dove deep into the financials and all the history of

1135
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:20,319
Speaker 7: the company, and then that's how you're able to even

1136
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 7: be accepted on one of the platforms, right like Republic

1137
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 7: for US and then and really it's a it's a

1138
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:29,120
Speaker 7: because basically I don't even know if we said it.

1139
00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:33,480
Speaker 7: What it means is equity crowdfunding enables anybody, not accredited

1140
00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 7: investors to invest into private companies for as little as

1141
00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:41,120
Speaker 7: you know, I think legally the minimum is like ten dollars.

1142
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, now that's something that all right, So I don't

1143
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:47,320
Speaker 3: want people to not understand this, so cause I get

1144
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:49,319
Speaker 3: this question of my DM so often, like when I

1145
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 3: post stuff about like Beyond Meat and like Lift and

1146
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 3: all of these stuff, and I post stories about like

1147
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,239
Speaker 3: Knas and like how he invested early, and people like, well,

1148
00:51:56,239 --> 00:51:58,359
Speaker 3: how can I invest in these companies early? For the

1149
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:02,360
Speaker 3: most part, you really can, right, like you said, I

1150
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 3: mean especially on that level.

1151
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:06,799
Speaker 5: It's like angel investors and vcs.

1152
00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:09,279
Speaker 3: But even on the small levels and credited investors, So

1153
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,000
Speaker 3: you have to be like a special kind of person

1154
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 3: for lack of a better word, to actually invest. But

1155
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:18,320
Speaker 3: now it allows the general public. Crowdfunding allows the general

1156
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 3: public to invest in companies on the ground level because,

1157
00:52:23,239 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 3: like you said off camera, one of the main disadvantages

1158
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:30,439
Speaker 3: is that you're getting people that can invest in these

1159
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 3: companies and then when they go public, their percentage goes

1160
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 3: up like a thousand percent. But by the time the

1161
00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:39,840
Speaker 3: general public gets it in the stock market, they've already

1162
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:42,239
Speaker 3: made their money that they're out. They're out the day, right.

1163
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:49,799
Speaker 3: And it's interesting because probably the most famous in our

1164
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:53,239
Speaker 3: community person that has done that is Jay Morrison. He

1165
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:56,520
Speaker 3: did a real estate crowdfunding with the Tulsa Real Estate

1166
00:52:56,600 --> 00:53:01,360
Speaker 3: Fund and he same thing. He raised money from the

1167
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 3: crowd and I think like over ten million dollars in

1168
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:06,359
Speaker 3: a very short period of time. So it's a very

1169
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 3: successful real estate crowdfunding fund campaign. But it's something for

1170
00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,880
Speaker 3: people to understand from two aspects of it. From a

1171
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 3: business owner, it's a way to raise money, right because

1172
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 3: financing is extremely important and it's hard to get bank loans,

1173
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:24,840
Speaker 3: it's hard to get outside financing. So this is a

1174
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,880
Speaker 3: way for business owners to raise large amounts of money.

1175
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:30,680
Speaker 3: Now you're giving up equity in it, and we'll talk

1176
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,719
Speaker 3: about that. But you know, you don't get nothing for something.

1177
00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 3: You always have to do something. So and it's also

1178
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 3: a way for investors to invest in companies that they

1179
00:53:40,600 --> 00:53:43,320
Speaker 3: believe in and they think that can blow up because

1180
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 3: now you might put in ten thousand dollars on a company,

1181
00:53:47,680 --> 00:53:50,600
Speaker 3: but in five years that company, that percentage might be

1182
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:52,440
Speaker 3: worth one hundred thousand because you got it on the

1183
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,239
Speaker 3: ground level. And you guys said something about Ben Herwitz

1184
00:53:55,320 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 3: right forwardz If anybody's not familiar, he's a tech giant,

1185
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:03,560
Speaker 3: VC giant, and he's good friends with NAS. He's one

1186
00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:06,839
Speaker 3: of the reasons why NAS is really blowing up. He's

1187
00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 3: kind of like mentored him. I read some stuff about that.

1188
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:10,680
Speaker 3: If anybody's not familiar, Nias is doing this thing with

1189
00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 3: Queensbridge Bridge. Yeah, and they invest in like lifting ring

1190
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:20,920
Speaker 3: pill pack all a lot of these companies, and so

1191
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:25,200
Speaker 3: Ben is really into hip hop. He's like a hip

1192
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,760
Speaker 3: hop head, and it was maatic from what I understand,

1193
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 3: is like one.

1194
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 5: Of his favorite albums ever.

1195
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 3: So he just he developed and Horror Black by the way,

1196
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,280
Speaker 3: no no, no, if you didn't know about the name.

1197
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:39,879
Speaker 7: If you so he just took the barbecue.

1198
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 3: So you were saying that it was crazy because roughly

1199
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 3: he invested like two fifty into Instagram and then like

1200
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:52,279
Speaker 3: two years later it was worth like eighty million or

1201
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:52,799
Speaker 3: something like that.

1202
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:55,320
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, I mean, so I don't have any facts

1203
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 7: on this. Actually shout out to Chamellionaire if you know,

1204
00:54:59,239 --> 00:55:03,759
Speaker 7: Chamellionaires is really really been winning this in Houston's own

1205
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:07,040
Speaker 7: ride Dirty and you know he's been winning in the

1206
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:10,400
Speaker 7: tech game and just real quick, you know he I mean,

1207
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:12,799
Speaker 7: we were talking about a situation that happened I think

1208
00:55:12,840 --> 00:55:16,560
Speaker 7: twenty seventeen finals, right, and this is where it actually

1209
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,920
Speaker 7: came out that you know cha millionaires yeah because he

1210
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:23,359
Speaker 7: because he yeah, he was you know, he was court side, yeah,

1211
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,200
Speaker 7: and like in the background of a picture and it's

1212
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,000
Speaker 7: how many ring tones did he sail hit the finals

1213
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:30,919
Speaker 7: game game five? You know, court side and people came

1214
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:33,400
Speaker 7: and said, no, he's been early investor in Lyft, early

1215
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,800
Speaker 7: investor in Ring, you know, early investor in a number

1216
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:39,560
Speaker 7: of companies that have done well. And so you know,

1217
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 7: actually Chameleon I was the one that kind of you know,

1218
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:44,319
Speaker 7: put this, put this kind of this data out. Now,

1219
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 7: I don't know you know, the details and specifics on it,

1220
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:49,360
Speaker 7: so let me make that clear. But there was a

1221
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 7: very sizeable return you know in the in the eighties

1222
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:54,360
Speaker 7: of millions of dollars, you know, based on that initial

1223
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:57,920
Speaker 7: investments from what I hear, but it shows the power

1224
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 7: of equity ownership, right, and now was a I think

1225
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,920
Speaker 7: the with the real point that he was making is

1226
00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:04,799
Speaker 7: that you know, you have to be able to get

1227
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 7: in on the ground level. And for so long the

1228
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,840
Speaker 7: price was so much higher than you know, most of

1229
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:14,040
Speaker 7: our folks in the community could ever even think about investing.

1230
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 7: And so with the equity crowdfunding, that's where because it's

1231
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:19,560
Speaker 7: coming from a crowd of people, you can make that

1232
00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,200
Speaker 7: price much lower, you know what I mean. And so

1233
00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 7: for like for win Win for two hundred and fifty dollars,

1234
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:29,200
Speaker 7: you can own equity, right, I'll be it a smaller

1235
00:56:29,239 --> 00:56:32,120
Speaker 7: portion compared to somebody that's putting in twenty five grand

1236
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:35,000
Speaker 7: or two hundred and fifty thousand. But you know, it's

1237
00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:37,560
Speaker 7: all about having a slice of that pie, particularly if

1238
00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:39,800
Speaker 7: you believe in the company, if you believe in the mission,

1239
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:42,319
Speaker 7: if you're going to be a consumer of it, right,

1240
00:56:42,600 --> 00:56:45,239
Speaker 7: and that to your point, the ninety one percent that

1241
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:48,479
Speaker 7: aren't that are non accredited investors. They have to wait

1242
00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 7: until it's already publicly traded to even you know, have

1243
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:55,120
Speaker 7: some ownership, right, imagine being able to do that on

1244
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:55,719
Speaker 7: the front end.

1245
00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 8: But now you actually can.

1246
00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 7: And that's where the equity crowdfunding, to your point, comes in,

1247
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:03,680
Speaker 7: where we can raise money, particularly as black founders, we

1248
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 7: have now an alternative avenue to raise money from the

1249
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:11,320
Speaker 7: crowd versus having to go to a very particular specific

1250
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:13,840
Speaker 7: demographic of vcs and people.

1251
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:16,240
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that com millionaire story up because

1252
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:19,280
Speaker 3: it highlights a problem in the community. So it all

1253
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 3: started with the It was like the Golden State Finals.

1254
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:24,520
Speaker 3: Anybody knows finals tickets, they cost a lot of money,

1255
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,080
Speaker 3: like hundreds of thousands, Like it's crazy, now, hundreds of thousands,

1256
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:29,720
Speaker 3: but a lot of money, a lot of money. So

1257
00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 3: he's front row at the finals, and it's like a joke.

1258
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,760
Speaker 3: It's like, damn, how many how much ringsols? Did he

1259
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:38,600
Speaker 3: sound like he has somebody here doesn't belong where fifteen

1260
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,160
Speaker 3: years But little do they know the guy's been making

1261
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 3: millions of dollars and investing in companies long after his

1262
00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 3: musical career was over. So when they find that out,

1263
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:50,919
Speaker 3: it's like, now it's not funny anymore. Right, So it's

1264
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:55,360
Speaker 3: like a lot of times we highlight celebrities and entertainers,

1265
00:57:55,760 --> 00:57:58,200
Speaker 3: but like even if you look at that, you use

1266
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 3: Jay Z and Beyonce at the front row. Everybody knows them,

1267
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:05,880
Speaker 3: but they're probably middle class for everybody else in the

1268
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:07,720
Speaker 3: front row. Like the guy that got into the fight,

1269
00:58:08,040 --> 00:58:11,480
Speaker 3: nobody knew who he was. You worth eight billion dollars

1270
00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:16,800
Speaker 3: just a random billionaire. It's like, how many people that

1271
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:20,520
Speaker 3: you don't know are just billionaires. The one person that

1272
00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:23,400
Speaker 3: you do know just became a billionaire. Not not you know,

1273
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,560
Speaker 3: no disrespect to James b We love them, but that

1274
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 3: just goes to show you how much money is out.

1275
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 10: There, right, yeah, right, And you know, and that's why

1276
00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:39,240
Speaker 10: I'm glad you brought that up, because when I was

1277
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:40,960
Speaker 10: in the bay, right, one of the things that I

1278
00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:43,040
Speaker 10: really actually appreciated, you.

1279
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:45,880
Speaker 7: Know, relative to l A right, is that you didn't

1280
00:58:45,880 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 7: know who you was talking to or what you were doing.

1281
00:58:48,040 --> 00:58:50,840
Speaker 8: Like the money was just shown way differently, you know

1282
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:51,360
Speaker 8: what I mean.

1283
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:54,040
Speaker 7: And you just have people that were just grinding and

1284
00:58:54,120 --> 00:58:57,040
Speaker 7: hustling and building companies. And you know, you meet a

1285
00:58:57,080 --> 00:59:00,520
Speaker 7: guy just randomly looked like you know, random guys like yeah, man,

1286
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 7: you know, just so my second company Amazon word, you

1287
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:07,680
Speaker 7: know what I mean, and drinks on you. Then you

1288
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:10,600
Speaker 7: know what I'm saying, And it's it's just a different

1289
00:59:10,640 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 7: it's a different mindset. And to your point, like you know,

1290
00:59:13,640 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 7: like I said, it wasn't funny no more, you know

1291
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:21,480
Speaker 7: what I mean. And you know, I think that I

1292
00:59:21,520 --> 00:59:23,800
Speaker 7: love these examples where you look at you know, a

1293
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 7: Chamellionaire who and and that's a great friend. Shout out

1294
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 7: to Cam And and by the way, he's he's an

1295
00:59:28,280 --> 00:59:31,400
Speaker 7: entrepreneur as well as an investor. He started his own

1296
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 7: tech app, tech company called Convos, which I you know

1297
00:59:35,240 --> 00:59:37,840
Speaker 7: suggests everybody go check out and download. And he's been

1298
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:41,240
Speaker 7: building and feeding into the community, giving back, you know,

1299
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 7: and and and you gotta you gotta love that. But

1300
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:46,600
Speaker 7: you look at you know, the Beyonce situation right where

1301
00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:49,240
Speaker 7: uh if For those who don't know, you know, she

1302
00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,880
Speaker 7: essentially passed up a cash offer to perform at a

1303
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 7: big Uber event, passed on six million dollars, as the

1304
00:59:56,800 --> 01:00:00,600
Speaker 7: story goes, and wanted equity in exchange, and they gave

1305
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:03,040
Speaker 7: it to her. And then they just recently iPod and

1306
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:07,320
Speaker 7: supposedly it's worth somewhere in the three hundred million dollar range, right,

1307
01:00:07,360 --> 01:00:10,000
Speaker 7: And again that's the power of equity because you know

1308
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:13,600
Speaker 7: the IPO, you own shares of the company and now

1309
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:16,880
Speaker 7: you're able to cash that in. Now granted that's on paper, right,

1310
01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:19,680
Speaker 7: that that worth, but she can cash that in and

1311
01:00:19,720 --> 01:00:20,040
Speaker 7: make it.

1312
01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 3: You know, who else has a good equity story? I

1313
01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:23,640
Speaker 3: told this story before, but I never told her on

1314
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:28,960
Speaker 3: the podcast. Some might as well tell fifty Curt shout.

1315
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:30,920
Speaker 5: Out to fifty. We don't we don't owe him any money?

1316
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:33,520
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, So.

1317
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:37,919
Speaker 3: Everybody knows fifty cents vitamin water he made like they say,

1318
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 3: ninety eighty million dollars, right, because what happened is that

1319
01:00:40,760 --> 01:00:43,240
Speaker 3: they he had equity, I think like ten percent equity

1320
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:45,720
Speaker 3: stake in the company. Then Coca Cola brought it for

1321
01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:48,040
Speaker 3: a billion dollars and then his ten percent was worked

1322
01:00:48,040 --> 01:00:51,439
Speaker 3: like one hundred million. What they don't know is that

1323
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:54,200
Speaker 3: so vitamin water, they got some vitamin water dif from

1324
01:00:54,280 --> 01:00:58,760
Speaker 3: Queen Queens Queen, so yeah, so fifty Queens gets the money.

1325
01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:02,120
Speaker 3: So fifties from he's from the South Side. And you

1326
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:07,120
Speaker 3: know who else is from Queens Metal World Peace Rhest. Yeah,

1327
01:01:07,160 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 3: he's from Queensbridge, home with nas and mob Deep and

1328
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,320
Speaker 3: a bunch of other people. So when the guys that

1329
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:17,280
Speaker 3: started Vitamin Water, they was looking for somebody from queens

1330
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:19,920
Speaker 3: hometown and they wanted a celebrity, so they approached run

1331
01:01:19,960 --> 01:01:23,920
Speaker 3: our tests about being like the face of vitamin water. Right,

1332
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:28,240
Speaker 3: he's an athlete, sizeable nags, it's you know at that time.

1333
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:33,760
Speaker 3: So they offered him the same deal ten percent equity steak,

1334
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:38,880
Speaker 3: and he wanted two hundred thousand dollars. They didn't have

1335
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:42,320
Speaker 3: two hundred thousand dollars to actually pay him, so they

1336
01:01:42,360 --> 01:01:44,480
Speaker 3: told them, well, we can't give you two hundred thousand,

1337
01:01:44,560 --> 01:01:48,160
Speaker 3: but we can't give you ten percent. He turned it down,

1338
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:52,200
Speaker 3: fifty cent took the deal. Just so happened. One year later,

1339
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:54,680
Speaker 3: Coca Cola bought them for a billion dollars and a

1340
01:01:54,800 --> 01:01:58,080
Speaker 3: ten percent turned into one hundred million dollars. So rhin

1341
01:01:58,160 --> 01:02:01,280
Speaker 3: our test gave up one hundred million for two hundred thousand.

1342
01:02:03,040 --> 01:02:07,080
Speaker 5: Education. He didn't fully understand the power of equity. He's like, no,

1343
01:02:07,200 --> 01:02:07,560
Speaker 5: pay me.

1344
01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:10,520
Speaker 3: You try to pull a fast one over, right, but

1345
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:12,640
Speaker 3: it all comes down to education. So now you hear

1346
01:02:12,680 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 3: Beyonce say pay me in equity. So we're starting to

1347
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:19,280
Speaker 3: fully understand this, and especially in the VC world and

1348
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:25,600
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley, Oh that correct, Silicon Silicon.

1349
01:02:25,240 --> 01:02:28,120
Speaker 4: Valley, they're gonna know now.

1350
01:02:28,680 --> 01:02:33,000
Speaker 3: Well he was gonna know anywhere. So that's something that's

1351
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:37,080
Speaker 3: been going on for years right where it takes time

1352
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:40,480
Speaker 3: and the back end is always more profitable than.

1353
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:41,000
Speaker 4: The front end.

1354
01:02:41,360 --> 01:02:43,480
Speaker 3: So now we fully understanding this, and we need to

1355
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:46,439
Speaker 3: be fully aware of this. So in that vein being

1356
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:50,400
Speaker 3: that you have run a successful equity crowd funding campaign,

1357
01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:52,640
Speaker 3: you're actually still running in it. You're still running it

1358
01:02:52,720 --> 01:02:55,760
Speaker 3: right now. All right, somebody has a business and they

1359
01:02:55,840 --> 01:02:57,960
Speaker 3: want to take the same route that you did, right.

1360
01:02:58,720 --> 01:02:59,760
Speaker 5: What are his steps?

1361
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:00,600
Speaker 4: Actually?

1362
01:03:00,640 --> 01:03:02,320
Speaker 3: Because I know you said it's a whole process with

1363
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:04,640
Speaker 3: the SEC they got to get approved and all that stuff.

1364
01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:05,400
Speaker 5: Like, what's the steps.

1365
01:03:05,760 --> 01:03:08,200
Speaker 7: Yeah, So the steps is, you know, you you have

1366
01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:11,600
Speaker 7: to you essentially can apply I believe to the company.

1367
01:03:11,640 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 8: Now we were a little rare.

1368
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:15,760
Speaker 7: We actually you know, companies reached out to us, like

1369
01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:18,880
Speaker 7: Republic and how that got set up. So, but there

1370
01:03:18,960 --> 01:03:21,240
Speaker 7: is kind of a submission process, I believe where you

1371
01:03:21,240 --> 01:03:23,680
Speaker 7: can be considered. They actually have people on their team

1372
01:03:24,120 --> 01:03:26,680
Speaker 7: that are looking for companies and they're trying to say, hey,

1373
01:03:26,720 --> 01:03:30,080
Speaker 7: we think you should do an equity crowdfunding campaign because

1374
01:03:30,120 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 7: you know their model is they make a percentage of

1375
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:34,640
Speaker 7: what you ultimately raise, right, So they're looking for great

1376
01:03:34,640 --> 01:03:38,040
Speaker 7: companies that they think will be successful. So if you

1377
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,560
Speaker 7: end up finding yourself in a position where you know,

1378
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:43,000
Speaker 7: you reach out and there's alignment, they do a vetting

1379
01:03:43,040 --> 01:03:46,160
Speaker 7: process themselves, then you're you're kind of in the game.

1380
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:48,760
Speaker 7: You gotta go through the process of you know, pulling

1381
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:51,240
Speaker 7: all your financials, right, you got to go through.

1382
01:03:51,280 --> 01:03:53,400
Speaker 8: It's just like I said, it's a very rigorous process.

1383
01:03:53,840 --> 01:03:55,880
Speaker 7: And you I think the thing you have to make

1384
01:03:55,920 --> 01:03:58,920
Speaker 7: sure that you understand is what you're what you're kind

1385
01:03:58,920 --> 01:04:02,280
Speaker 7: of getting yourself into. Right Because now, and this goes

1386
01:04:02,320 --> 01:04:04,480
Speaker 7: back to even uh and this is probably a whole

1387
01:04:04,520 --> 01:04:06,960
Speaker 7: nother podcast just around the types of funding and who

1388
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:10,320
Speaker 7: gets that type of funding, right, because if if you

1389
01:04:10,320 --> 01:04:12,640
Speaker 7: you know, depending on your business, right, there are only

1390
01:04:13,120 --> 01:04:16,280
Speaker 7: a certain type of business, certain types of businesses that

1391
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:21,000
Speaker 7: should be raising money from venture capitalists, right because these

1392
01:04:21,080 --> 01:04:25,760
Speaker 7: vcs want to see ten x return like hockey stick growth, right,

1393
01:04:25,800 --> 01:04:27,600
Speaker 7: and that's why they're giving you that money. If you ain't,

1394
01:04:27,640 --> 01:04:29,880
Speaker 7: if you ain't getting that way, which is fine, right.

1395
01:04:29,920 --> 01:04:32,560
Speaker 7: You have other companies that just grow steadily profitable, you're

1396
01:04:32,560 --> 01:04:35,000
Speaker 7: making money. That's a great business, but you shouldn't be

1397
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:37,680
Speaker 7: taking money from kind of the the investors that we're

1398
01:04:37,680 --> 01:04:39,959
Speaker 7: talking about right in terms of their credit.

1399
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:41,800
Speaker 8: Because there's a there's an expectation there.

1400
01:04:41,840 --> 01:04:45,280
Speaker 7: But when you when you go back to you know,

1401
01:04:45,400 --> 01:04:47,760
Speaker 7: looking at your business and where you are, right. I

1402
01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:50,840
Speaker 7: think one of the things that is key to look at,

1403
01:04:50,880 --> 01:04:52,960
Speaker 7: and we looked at this even in our own decision,

1404
01:04:53,160 --> 01:04:58,400
Speaker 7: is how attractive and understandable will it be to the crowd, right,

1405
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:01,640
Speaker 7: because you gotta you gotta resonate with people, and we're

1406
01:05:01,640 --> 01:05:04,000
Speaker 7: building something that we believe touches everybody.

1407
01:05:04,080 --> 01:05:04,240
Speaker 4: Right.

1408
01:05:04,560 --> 01:05:09,000
Speaker 7: You talk about uh, sports and philanthropy and entertainment, right.

1409
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:12,400
Speaker 7: My good friend Don Dixon said the other night that

1410
01:05:12,480 --> 01:05:15,280
Speaker 7: you know, she invested in our company as well, and

1411
01:05:15,320 --> 01:05:19,000
Speaker 7: she said that, you know, when win operates into recession

1412
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:22,720
Speaker 7: proof businesses, entertainment and sports, people could be doing down

1413
01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:25,400
Speaker 7: bad and all across life, but you're gonna watch that game.

1414
01:05:25,400 --> 01:05:27,439
Speaker 7: You're gonna find a way to you know, get in

1415
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:30,120
Speaker 7: in that into that experience, and so you know, you

1416
01:05:30,160 --> 01:05:32,480
Speaker 7: got to think about is this going to be attractive

1417
01:05:32,520 --> 01:05:34,600
Speaker 7: to the average consumer. That was one thing that I

1418
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:37,000
Speaker 7: had to really kind of even adjust how we talk

1419
01:05:37,040 --> 01:05:39,240
Speaker 7: about the company because I'm so used to talking to

1420
01:05:39,760 --> 01:05:42,400
Speaker 7: sophisticated you know, investors.

1421
01:05:41,800 --> 01:05:42,760
Speaker 8: That this is what they do.

1422
01:05:42,840 --> 01:05:45,280
Speaker 7: So there are terms in terminology that we can use

1423
01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:48,680
Speaker 7: that they understand very quickly, whereas you're talking to the

1424
01:05:48,760 --> 01:05:52,320
Speaker 7: crowd right through communication or whatever. You got to kind

1425
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 7: of break that down. And I've been learning to your point,

1426
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:58,960
Speaker 7: like the the big gap and knowledge of what equity

1427
01:05:59,040 --> 01:06:01,840
Speaker 7: it actually is, even even to the point where on

1428
01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:04,360
Speaker 7: the hiring side, one of the things for startups is

1429
01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 7: you have little capital usually, so you can offer early

1430
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:11,000
Speaker 7: employees equity, right, and that's where you get big time

1431
01:06:11,200 --> 01:06:15,320
Speaker 7: companies like uh, you know, big time engineers at Google,

1432
01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:18,200
Speaker 7: for example, who will leave Google right a very cush

1433
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:21,600
Speaker 7: job and go work at a startup because they're getting

1434
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:23,840
Speaker 7: some percentage in the equity. So they're saying, I'll pass

1435
01:06:23,920 --> 01:06:26,200
Speaker 7: on that you know very well to do job, to

1436
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:28,280
Speaker 7: take equity because I'm going to help build this thing

1437
01:06:28,360 --> 01:06:31,400
Speaker 7: to become whatever that is. Even as we've now come

1438
01:06:31,440 --> 01:06:35,400
Speaker 7: to Houston, there's been conversations with potential employees that who

1439
01:06:35,760 --> 01:06:38,360
Speaker 7: don't necessarily even understand. They're like, NA, like, you know,

1440
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:41,120
Speaker 7: we need this much money, and it's like, well, you know,

1441
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:42,880
Speaker 7: we'll be a little under market, but we want we

1442
01:06:42,920 --> 01:06:46,360
Speaker 7: can comp that with equity, which now I found myself

1443
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:49,120
Speaker 7: having to explain, actually, how valuable that that's that that

1444
01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:51,400
Speaker 7: you're the fact that you even have an opportunity to

1445
01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:54,000
Speaker 7: have equity is a big deal. And that's what That's

1446
01:06:54,040 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 7: why I love these pop culture examples.

1447
01:06:56,040 --> 01:06:57,760
Speaker 8: Beyonce a chameleion there, you know.

1448
01:06:57,720 --> 01:07:00,920
Speaker 7: Fifty that everybody knows that they're showing that, you know

1449
01:07:00,960 --> 01:07:03,520
Speaker 7: how powerful that is. And now the fact that anybody

1450
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:06,600
Speaker 7: can get in on that equity, I think it is

1451
01:07:06,640 --> 01:07:09,440
Speaker 7: a game changer for not only are communities you talk

1452
01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:14,320
Speaker 7: about generating generational wealth and you know create what you

1453
01:07:14,360 --> 01:07:17,240
Speaker 7: guys talk a lot about financial literacy. When you know better,

1454
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:19,680
Speaker 7: you do better, right, And I think this is changing

1455
01:07:19,680 --> 01:07:21,480
Speaker 7: the game and opening up those opportunities.

1456
01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:23,440
Speaker 4: One of the things you said, and that's extremely important,

1457
01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:25,800
Speaker 4: is like even if it's a small right, one percent

1458
01:07:25,840 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 4: in equity, Right, Let's say it's two hundred and fifty dollars,

1459
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:31,680
Speaker 4: Like that's the initial investment to own a percentage, Right,

1460
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 4: that could turn into fifteen thousand, right if you if

1461
01:07:34,640 --> 01:07:36,720
Speaker 4: you had more, obviously it turns into more of a profit,

1462
01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:39,120
Speaker 4: but that fifteen thousand can be the startup for you

1463
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,440
Speaker 4: to invest in something else, like your first piece of

1464
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:46,280
Speaker 4: real estate or your first restaurant. How it may feel

1465
01:07:46,280 --> 01:07:48,760
Speaker 4: fit for yourself. It's a beginning, right. A lot of

1466
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:50,680
Speaker 4: people think like they're so small, I can't do it

1467
01:07:51,720 --> 01:07:54,480
Speaker 4: in Houston, right. You said something earlier about it becoming

1468
01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:56,440
Speaker 4: a tech hub, like it's going to be the Silicon

1469
01:07:56,560 --> 01:07:59,800
Speaker 4: of the South. How's the vision for that? Right? And

1470
01:08:00,560 --> 01:08:02,360
Speaker 4: who's are either the forefront of it or are the

1471
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:04,200
Speaker 4: people out here that are going along on that? So

1472
01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:04,840
Speaker 4: with you?

1473
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:05,680
Speaker 8: So we're excited.

1474
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:07,480
Speaker 7: I mean, like we just got down here, you know,

1475
01:08:07,520 --> 01:08:11,200
Speaker 7: two months ago, or not even and to be coming down.

1476
01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:14,800
Speaker 7: You can sense the kind of the fervor in the

1477
01:08:14,880 --> 01:08:17,040
Speaker 7: air of like, you know, this is exciting, right because

1478
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:19,679
Speaker 7: even with the investors, we got some new investors Shout

1479
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:21,960
Speaker 7: out to them, you know here in Houston that have

1480
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:25,639
Speaker 7: typically invested only in you know, oil and gas and energy.

1481
01:08:25,960 --> 01:08:29,040
Speaker 7: So now to have some you know, innovative, fast growing

1482
01:08:29,120 --> 01:08:32,640
Speaker 7: tech company opportunities has been great for those you know,

1483
01:08:32,840 --> 01:08:35,360
Speaker 7: kind of traditional investors. But what I'm more proud of

1484
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:39,000
Speaker 7: is that we can bring this opportunity to everybody from

1485
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:41,559
Speaker 7: Third War to the Swat, you know, to downtown in

1486
01:08:41,600 --> 01:08:45,360
Speaker 7: the gallery, anybody across the city, in the in the country,

1487
01:08:45,680 --> 01:08:48,200
Speaker 7: and really the world. That's the great thing about equity crowdfunding. Also,

1488
01:08:48,520 --> 01:08:51,000
Speaker 7: you can invest from anywhere in the world. I mean,

1489
01:08:51,040 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 7: we got investors in Canada, Australia, Africa that.

1490
01:08:54,400 --> 01:08:55,759
Speaker 8: Have come through in our campaign.

1491
01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:59,240
Speaker 7: And it gives everybody that opportunity to gain that equity

1492
01:08:59,280 --> 01:09:00,840
Speaker 7: we've been talking about.

1493
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:01,559
Speaker 5: It's powerful.

1494
01:09:01,680 --> 01:09:01,800
Speaker 8: Man.

1495
01:09:01,880 --> 01:09:03,840
Speaker 5: One, thank you for coming in. We appreciate you.

1496
01:09:04,840 --> 01:09:07,839
Speaker 3: How can the people contact you social media, your website,

1497
01:09:07,880 --> 01:09:10,559
Speaker 3: any initiatives that you got going on when win information?

1498
01:09:10,640 --> 01:09:11,920
Speaker 5: Yeah, what's what's what's the deal with that.

1499
01:09:12,040 --> 01:09:14,680
Speaker 7: Yeah, hundred percent. First, appreciate you all for having me

1500
01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:17,839
Speaker 7: first and foremost. You know, go get you some equity.

1501
01:09:19,000 --> 01:09:24,479
Speaker 7: Www dot republic dot co uh backslash win hyphen win

1502
01:09:25,040 --> 01:09:27,639
Speaker 7: uh and you'll be able to see our campaign is live.

1503
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:29,559
Speaker 7: We don't we actually do know. So you're limited on

1504
01:09:29,600 --> 01:09:31,760
Speaker 7: the time. So we only have a limited amount of time.

1505
01:09:32,280 --> 01:09:35,160
Speaker 7: And once that door closes, then there's no more you know,

1506
01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:38,760
Speaker 7: non accredited investors that will be able to invest. So

1507
01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:41,880
Speaker 7: I encourage everybody to go check that out again www

1508
01:09:42,000 --> 01:09:45,960
Speaker 7: dot republic dot co. Backslash win dash when you'll learn

1509
01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:48,679
Speaker 7: everything about the company, nice video and all that good stuff.

1510
01:09:49,520 --> 01:09:53,799
Speaker 7: Me I'm underscore Mike T. Brown on Instagram, on Twitter,

1511
01:09:54,400 --> 01:09:56,559
Speaker 7: you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty active there

1512
01:09:56,600 --> 01:10:00,920
Speaker 7: as well. And yeah try when when the is the website,

1513
01:10:00,960 --> 01:10:02,920
Speaker 7: but just go to republic dot co win win and

1514
01:10:02,960 --> 01:10:04,599
Speaker 7: you'll be able to find all the information.

1515
01:10:04,760 --> 01:10:04,960
Speaker 5: Yeah.

1516
01:10:05,040 --> 01:10:08,600
Speaker 7: Shout out to the good people of Samoa. Samoa, right, Samoa.

1517
01:10:09,320 --> 01:10:12,400
Speaker 7: That's another way you got to say a lot of

1518
01:10:12,439 --> 01:10:15,439
Speaker 7: people just say Samo and Samoa Samo and just like

1519
01:10:15,479 --> 01:10:18,599
Speaker 7: Silicon Okay, I'm gonna get you all right with they.

1520
01:10:18,520 --> 01:10:19,920
Speaker 3: Might not familiar I used to I used to live

1521
01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:24,400
Speaker 3: in Hawaii and so familiar with the Micronesian Islands and

1522
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:29,920
Speaker 3: Polynesian islands and very rich culture, very prideful people and

1523
01:10:30,280 --> 01:10:33,120
Speaker 3: make up a lot percentage wise NFL.

1524
01:10:33,240 --> 01:10:34,280
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think.

1525
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:37,799
Speaker 7: I think, like literally, if you were born in Somemo,

1526
01:10:38,040 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 7: played football in some in high school, like the chances

1527
01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:44,719
Speaker 7: were like thirty if you if you went to college

1528
01:10:44,720 --> 01:10:46,439
Speaker 7: and play, you probably was going to the league.

1529
01:10:46,520 --> 01:10:48,599
Speaker 5: That's what's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

1530
01:10:48,640 --> 01:10:52,759
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, shout out to all you guys. Appreciate you, Troy.

1531
01:10:53,320 --> 01:10:55,559
Speaker 4: Yeah, shout out to everybody on patreon dot com, back

1532
01:10:55,560 --> 01:10:59,919
Speaker 4: Slasher and Aalisia. It has been amazing all our patrons,

1533
01:11:00,080 --> 01:11:03,400
Speaker 4: especially the ones from Houston. They have shown out and

1534
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:06,680
Speaker 4: laid the carpet out for us out here. And that's

1535
01:11:06,800 --> 01:11:09,679
Speaker 4: that's what Patreon's about. It allows us to travel, allows

1536
01:11:09,760 --> 01:11:12,880
Speaker 4: us to experience. This allows us to highlight hometown heroes

1537
01:11:12,920 --> 01:11:15,639
Speaker 4: and different types of cities. So thank you to everybody

1538
01:11:15,640 --> 01:11:17,600
Speaker 4: that's ow proud to pay program. As you know, we

1539
01:11:17,680 --> 01:11:20,519
Speaker 4: have five different tiers. You can subscribe at any tiar

1540
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,080
Speaker 4: There's some bonus features, but the real part is being

1541
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:26,160
Speaker 4: able to connect with people and coming to cities and

1542
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:29,280
Speaker 4: talking to some hometown heroes who who need to be highlighted,

1543
01:11:29,360 --> 01:11:32,599
Speaker 4: right because we said even at the event, when we leave,

1544
01:11:32,800 --> 01:11:34,880
Speaker 4: the relationships that you forced it with the people who

1545
01:11:34,880 --> 01:11:37,120
Speaker 4: are at the event will last a lot longer than

1546
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:39,000
Speaker 4: just that one night we were there. So shout out

1547
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:44,000
Speaker 4: to everybody on Patreon, everybody that supported earni Leisure dot

1548
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:46,200
Speaker 4: com and bought some merch. We had some mercher there

1549
01:11:46,240 --> 01:11:49,559
Speaker 4: last night. It flew off the tables, man, So shout

1550
01:11:49,560 --> 01:11:52,240
Speaker 4: out to everybody that has the merch. And we got

1551
01:11:52,280 --> 01:11:53,120
Speaker 4: some more stuff coming.

1552
01:11:53,479 --> 01:11:55,920
Speaker 5: We got one outstanding Patreon member in Houston.

1553
01:11:56,600 --> 01:12:01,800
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we shouted out Danida on last episode, but Anita.

1554
01:12:01,680 --> 01:12:03,240
Speaker 5: Is outstanding member.

1555
01:12:03,360 --> 01:12:07,760
Speaker 4: Outstanding man, she's our number one supporter. We hung out

1556
01:12:07,800 --> 01:12:11,000
Speaker 4: with Danita and her crew out here and it was she.

1557
01:12:10,920 --> 01:12:12,000
Speaker 5: Didn't let us pay for anything.

1558
01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:14,639
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that doesn't happen when we're from like even

1559
01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:18,080
Speaker 4: like our crew were like they were like, look, man,

1560
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:20,559
Speaker 4: this is different, Like we don't get treated like this,

1561
01:12:20,760 --> 01:12:23,599
Speaker 4: especially like women don't buy drinks for us and that's

1562
01:12:23,640 --> 01:12:26,040
Speaker 4: just not culture. But they said, welcome to Texas.

1563
01:12:26,080 --> 01:12:28,000
Speaker 3: Said your money is no good. It's no good here

1564
01:12:28,040 --> 01:12:32,320
Speaker 3: Welcome to Texas. Welcome to Texas.

1565
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:35,559
Speaker 4: So I said, this is that that southern hospitality that

1566
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:37,400
Speaker 4: that they've been speaking about. So we about to go

1567
01:12:37,439 --> 01:12:43,320
Speaker 4: get to it right. She's an entrepreneur out here too,

1568
01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:44,880
Speaker 4: so shout out to her. And she said her mom

1569
01:12:44,960 --> 01:12:46,880
Speaker 4: is a huge fan too, so shout out to her

1570
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:47,760
Speaker 4: mom and her whole crew.

1571
01:12:48,000 --> 01:12:50,360
Speaker 3: So my books hit for the week is Hard Things

1572
01:12:50,400 --> 01:12:52,240
Speaker 3: About Hard Things by Ben Harwitz.

1573
01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:53,559
Speaker 5: We actually just spoke about.

1574
01:12:53,360 --> 01:12:57,479
Speaker 3: Him and once again a lot of times people hit

1575
01:12:57,520 --> 01:13:00,360
Speaker 3: me up about my financial advising business.

1576
01:13:00,400 --> 01:13:02,800
Speaker 5: So my calendar is on Ernilisia dot com.

1577
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:06,200
Speaker 3: You can book a thirty minute consultation for retirement planning,

1578
01:13:06,640 --> 01:13:09,880
Speaker 3: business planning, and state planning. You got to inheritance investment

1579
01:13:09,960 --> 01:13:13,120
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So thirty minute free consultation. My calendar

1580
01:13:13,160 --> 01:13:14,960
Speaker 3: is up there. And we got to give a shout

1581
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:17,640
Speaker 3: out to executive producer of our show, somebody that you

1582
01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:20,759
Speaker 3: might not have ever seen before, but Michael McDonald.

1583
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:22,320
Speaker 5: He actually does a lot of stuff.

1584
01:13:22,120 --> 01:13:23,519
Speaker 3: Behind the scenes, and he's helped me out with my

1585
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:26,719
Speaker 3: Instagram page and he does he has his own company,

1586
01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:30,080
Speaker 3: Michael Media Group. So if you need any videos done

1587
01:13:30,240 --> 01:13:33,439
Speaker 3: or pictures or social media consultant or any type of

1588
01:13:33,439 --> 01:13:34,080
Speaker 3: stuff like that.

1589
01:13:34,920 --> 01:13:35,479
Speaker 5: Check him out.

1590
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 4: He does it all.

1591
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:41,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, Michael J. McDonald on Instagram and yeah, check him out.

1592
01:13:41,360 --> 01:13:44,000
Speaker 3: So thank you guys for rocking with us, and we'll

1593
01:13:44,040 --> 01:13:44,760
Speaker 3: see you next week.

1594
01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:45,040
Speaker 5: Peace.

1595
01:13:47,200 --> 01:13:50,880
Speaker 11: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1596
01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:54,720
Speaker 11: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador

1597
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:59,080
Speaker 11: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with

1598
01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:03,040
Speaker 11: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

1599
01:14:03,120 --> 01:14:06,879
Speaker 11: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

1600
01:14:06,920 --> 01:14:10,519
Speaker 11: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

1601
01:14:10,520 --> 01:14:15,320
Speaker 11: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

1602
01:14:15,360 --> 01:14:18,920
Speaker 11: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over

1603
01:14:18,960 --> 01:14:22,200
Speaker 11: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you

1604
01:14:22,280 --> 01:14:26,120
Speaker 11: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly

1605
01:14:26,200 --> 01:14:30,200
Speaker 11: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported. You will

1606
01:14:30,240 --> 01:14:33,880
Speaker 11: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

1607
01:14:33,960 --> 01:14:37,320
Speaker 11: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

1608
01:14:37,680 --> 01:14:42,439
Speaker 11: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,

1609
01:14:42,600 --> 01:14:45,040
Speaker 11: border and families will be protected.

1610
01:14:45,120 --> 01:14:47,280
Speaker 4: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,