1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:02,719 Speaker 1: Maybe see you check us out of the first Black 2 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Effact Podcast Festival, happening Sunday, August in Brooklyn, New York. 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:09,799 Speaker 1: Tickets are available at black effact dot com. Forward Last 4 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:14,520 Speaker 1: Podcast Festival and live podcasts of your favorite shows are happening. 5 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 1: I'm so excited because this is the first time I've 6 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: ever been able to do I've been to a podcast 7 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,239 Speaker 1: a long time, and this is my first ever time 8 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: being able to do one live in front of an audience. 9 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: So come through, come check us out. Eighty five South 10 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: is gonna be there. All the smoke's gonna be there, 11 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: Black Tech, Green Money's gonna be there. Get tickets today 12 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: at black Effact dot com, Forward Last Podcast Festival. Will 13 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:38,919 Speaker 1: Lucas here. We're gonna go back just a little bit 14 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: and introduced to my guy Nash, a man who's a 15 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Undocked, an 16 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: AI meeting platform built for the future of work, and 17 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: he embought a year so ago. He raised a one 18 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: point six million dollars seed round to put some fuel 19 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 1: in the tank to grow the business. And I asked Nash, 20 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: but how previously before he found it Undocked, He found 21 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: himself running multiple small businesses at one time, and how 22 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: running those businesses led him to founding this company. Yeah, 23 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: the second wave of multiple businesses was running into because 24 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: they're all tangentially related. So I was in the telecommunications 25 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: industry and there would be an opportunity. I'm like, well, 26 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,839 Speaker 1: this business doesn't do it, but it looks easy enough. 27 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: It looks like there's a lot of money in this 28 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: so uh yeah, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it, 29 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: and I end up starting to businesses. One was a 30 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: voice over IP company and the other it was an 31 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: infrastructure company, so literally installing the fiber optic cable that 32 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,399 Speaker 1: runs to your house. Um, you believe as I've read 33 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: in the concept of shipping fast and getting getting your 34 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: thing out into the wild as quickly as possible, And 35 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: how important, how important has been has building in the 36 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: public eye, you know, and making mistakes in public you know, 37 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,680 Speaker 1: and iterating in full view been to the success you've 38 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: achieved so far. It's the best for saying function you 39 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,559 Speaker 1: could have, especially for someone like me who has two 40 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: major problems with giving things to the world that you're building. 41 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: I uh, procrastinate and I'm a perfectionist, right so that 42 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: gives me every reason to say this is not ready 43 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: for consumption yet. So I have songs that I've made 44 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: ten years ago or started ten years ago, and I'm like, 45 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: that trumpet is not hitting. Do it again, do it again, 46 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: find another person to play this melody like. So doing 47 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: something in public with like public deadlines is huge for me. 48 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: I've started doing that. You'll see we we had an 49 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: event November twelve. We're having another event, uh February seventeen. 50 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: We're having another event uh May twelve. So whatever I'm planning, 51 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,239 Speaker 1: it's going to happen, and it has to happen because 52 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: it's out in the public eye. So it's a very 53 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: good forcing function for me to make sure that I 54 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: keep building and delivering and not waiting for perfection. So 55 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: so you encourage people too, even if they haven't, you know, 56 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: told the world the whole thing, put it out. I 57 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:07,839 Speaker 1: have not that something is happening on this day. Yes, 58 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: I've only given uh tidbits of the big picture publicly, 59 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: but like I said, I'm calling it progressive disclosure of 60 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 1: what the startup UH fully is. So I encourage just 61 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: even if you start with your your friends and your family, 62 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: just telling them like, hey, I'm working on this, So 63 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: the next time you speak, we're gonna say, hey, Will, 64 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: how's that thing you're working on going? And that's just 65 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: more motivation to to put it out there for sure? 66 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: Do you think that's just for people who have, you know, 67 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: this idea, they's got to be perfect? Or do you 68 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 1: do you encourage anybody you know, whether or not they 69 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: they're going a hundred miles an hour thus miles an hour, 70 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: or if they're just afraid to put it out who 71 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: do you think? Who do you advise that too? Well, 72 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: I'll tell your idea is definitely not going to be perfect. 73 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: There's a high likelihood that your idea is going to 74 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: be wrong and you're gonna end up building something else. 75 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: So that's why you kind of have to just get started. 76 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: But if you're a person that has a lot of 77 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: ideas like I did, at least spend a little bit 78 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: of time filtering through those ideas and putting some logic 79 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: and reasoning behind why you think this idea of yours 80 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,960 Speaker 1: is better than the next idea. There is no excuse 81 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: to ever work on an idea that isn't your best idea. 82 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: If you don't think it's your best idea. If you 83 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:24,440 Speaker 1: don't think it's your biggest idea, if you don't think 84 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,360 Speaker 1: it's your thing that's going to get you widespread impact, 85 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: don't work on that one. Work on your best idea, period. 86 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:34,360 Speaker 1: And that's what I did. It took me almost a 87 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: year talking about procrastination and perfectionists to select which startup 88 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,159 Speaker 1: I actually wanted to work on, and then when I 89 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,800 Speaker 1: narrowed it down to two, I launched them or I 90 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: registered them both and was planning to work on them 91 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: simultaneously until I can make a decision. So I have 92 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: that like crippling disorder where I just like, yeah, but 93 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: I selected on DOC, and uh, that was the right 94 00:04:57,720 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: decision for sure. I want to dig in on that 95 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,799 Speaker 1: because you know, I think that's a really, really good 96 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,839 Speaker 1: piece of advice and to only work on your best idea. 97 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: So I would imagine there's like two groups of people. 98 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: That's people who have they know what that best idea 99 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: and there's people who are trying to figure out what 100 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:13,840 Speaker 1: that best idea is. Um for those ones that are 101 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: trying to figure out, I would imagine you would say 102 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:19,159 Speaker 1: work on things like you did until you figure out 103 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: which one is the best idea. How do you know 104 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: when it's the best ideas because you came up with, oh, 105 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: this is the this is the one I want to do, 106 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: or the market told you right. Uh, it could be 107 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: either or sometimes you have to do have to go 108 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: with your gut. But for me, it was a lot 109 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,800 Speaker 1: of It was almost fifty different ideas and websites that 110 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:44,159 Speaker 1: I had started, and for me, it was which one 111 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,479 Speaker 1: do I genuinely think can have the biggest impact, the 112 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: biggest distribution, and then the biggest financial outcome for myself 113 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: and also one that I was excited to work on. 114 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,719 Speaker 1: It was a big problem for myself and it was 115 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: on the back burner for quite some time. And then 116 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 1: I'm literally living the experience where like I need to 117 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:08,720 Speaker 1: solve this problem that I have and nothing else exists. 118 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: That was a moment for me that was like, Okay, 119 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: I need to build something and I've already had this 120 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,159 Speaker 1: idea and now I'm going to execute on that. So yeah, 121 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:19,960 Speaker 1: not all of your ideas are good. So I can 122 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: easily look back at a third of those ideas and 123 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:26,679 Speaker 1: say they are holy trash? Right now? Is this because 124 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:29,280 Speaker 1: you you found out later they were trash? How did 125 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: you go through that process of distance so recently. Bias 126 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,480 Speaker 1: is something that you deal within data, but it's also 127 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: something you deal with with yourself. That that moment, that 128 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,280 Speaker 1: initial in sighting moment that you come up with any 129 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: idea you're like, yeah, that sounds good. Revisit that idea 130 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: in six months to see if you're like, Okay, I 131 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: mean it's cool, I guess, or maybe somebody might do it, 132 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: but uh yeah, giving it some time to marinate is 133 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: very important. UM, talk about this a building a startum, 134 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: not specifically undocked, but period step by step, because if 135 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: I understand, UM, what's your opportunity was with undock was 136 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: you know? Cale Calendar synchronization is just the first step 137 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: in master plan, I would imagine, right, And I read 138 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: a story about where you come out. You came out 139 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: the gate thinking you could replace all the big boys 140 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: like Gmail, Slack, you, Zoom, Trelo, you know immediately and 141 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,200 Speaker 1: but how important is it for startups to take out 142 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: chunks on their journey and as they do the smaller 143 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 1: things well scale from there. I think that's huge. That's 144 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: one of the biggest lessons that I learned because I 145 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:42,280 Speaker 1: was stubborn in the beginning, I was like, no, I know, 146 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: I know, I can build this huge platform that's going 147 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: to be better than all of them. And one investor 148 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: reached out to me and was interested, and they said, 149 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: but you're competing with X, y Z before you've even 150 00:07:57,480 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: released your product. It's like, you don't much money you're 151 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: gonna need. This doesn't sound realistic, And I didn't believe him. 152 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: Then I was like, no, I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do. 153 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. It took me a good six 154 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: to nine months before I started to pare down the 155 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:14,560 Speaker 1: short term scope of the product. And you're just you're 156 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,960 Speaker 1: just limited in in capital, you're limited in engineering resources, 157 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,360 Speaker 1: you're limited in time. You're limited in how well you 158 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: can solve more than one problem. Like calendar ing and 159 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: scheduling is such a deep, deep, nuanced problem. But I 160 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: could spend the next ten years if I wanted to 161 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:37,440 Speaker 1: building the best scheduling or calendar application, if I thought 162 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: that was the most valuable thing. So, uh, it's really 163 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: really tough. And this is another thing where if you 164 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: take a step back from it. So if I would 165 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,400 Speaker 1: have started and say, hey, here's my big idea, and 166 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: then started working on it, just take a step back 167 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: for like a week and talk about the realities of 168 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,079 Speaker 1: building this giant, monolithic app. It wasn't going to happen 169 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:01,520 Speaker 1: out of the gate. It was gonna a long, long, long, 170 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:03,760 Speaker 1: long time. And if I would have actually made that 171 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: decision to pare it down even three months sooner, two 172 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: months sooner, a month sooner, I could be a month, 173 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,840 Speaker 1: two months, three months, five months, six months further along. 174 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,760 Speaker 1: So definitely definitely recommend that we're still building a really 175 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: big application, um, but not quite as big just yet. 176 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,959 Speaker 1: So how do you advise other entrepreneurs and even yourself 177 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: looking back and in that discipline, because I would imagine 178 00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: you think, well, if I just build this little nugget, 179 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:36,199 Speaker 1: like what, how does that make progress in the marketplace 180 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: when people have all these other options. Yeah, for me, 181 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:45,840 Speaker 1: it was definitely just like pure hubrists thinking I got 182 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 1: this not out and I'm hearing from multiple people just like, hey, 183 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,680 Speaker 1: just just strink it a little bit, like I was doing. Email. 184 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:55,440 Speaker 1: Email is so so so hard to build, and there 185 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,440 Speaker 1: are companies that are have spent like Superhumans are really 186 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: good email application. They've been buil holding it for five, six, 187 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:06,200 Speaker 1: seven years and they're still improving just email. UM. For 188 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,200 Speaker 1: for me, I guess I probably wouldn't assume most people 189 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: are just overly competent in their ability to build something 190 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:15,240 Speaker 1: like that. They just might think it's a really good 191 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: idea and someone should do it. And you see that 192 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: a lot like the all in one solution is like 193 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: the first thing UH founders gravitate to because like, oh, 194 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,800 Speaker 1: I have all these problems. What if I build one 195 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: thing that solves all these problems? And that's usually going 196 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: to be the wrong solution. UM. One thing I love, 197 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,320 Speaker 1: UM that I've I've read that you've said before is 198 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:38,160 Speaker 1: you know, entrepreneurs need to learn how to talk about 199 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: their business, right and UM, And that there's a difference 200 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:44,599 Speaker 1: between talking how you talk about your business at a 201 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:49,440 Speaker 1: bootstrapping stage, um, and versus when you're at a fundraising stage. 202 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: And so let's take this step by step. So, how 203 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 1: how can entrepreneurs at the bootstrapping stage, and even those 204 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: who don't plan to raise maybe they're building a lifestyle company, UM, 205 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 1: how can they learn to introduce their product or their 206 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:06,120 Speaker 1: company to other people who have no idea what they're doing. Yeah, 207 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:11,200 Speaker 1: I'm actually going through a third phase and I'm I'm 208 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,280 Speaker 1: I don't say recalculating, I am studying this phase and 209 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:19,680 Speaker 1: learnings like in uh put it down in writing and 210 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,679 Speaker 1: repeat it later down the line. I'll get into that 211 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 1: in a second. But the first thing I think you 212 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:25,680 Speaker 1: need to do is have and I say this to 213 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: a lot of founders that I meet with, is have 214 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: something really exciting about what you're building, even if it's 215 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: like a sock company or something. Have something really really 216 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: exciting for you, exciting way to tell it to your 217 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: your friends, exciting way to tell it to potential customers. 218 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 1: It has to be. There's so much noise out there 219 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 1: in the world that if your thing isn't exciting, it's 220 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: never going to take off. So find something exciting about 221 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: your your business. Uh. I spent a lot of time 222 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:58,160 Speaker 1: in my accelerator working on a one line description of 223 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: the company, and that like her sometimes like, but no, 224 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,400 Speaker 1: I can't just say all of it in one line. 225 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 1: But find something exciting about your business that you can 226 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: iterate in one line. You can message somebody to say, Hey, 227 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,120 Speaker 1: this is what I'm building and they're like, oh, really, 228 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: really really cool. So that's like the first hurdle, Like, 229 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: is it something that's exciting for people, and that doesn't 230 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 1: always play like if you're a climate tech company, that's 231 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,520 Speaker 1: only going to excite a certain number of people. But 232 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:24,440 Speaker 1: if you're building a consumer app or a B two 233 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:28,040 Speaker 1: B app, something has to be exciting about what you're 234 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: building in the in the early bootstrapping phase, it helps 235 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:35,440 Speaker 1: you stay positive about your idea. It helps you track 236 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,679 Speaker 1: interest from customers, and helps you recruit employees too. I 237 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:42,319 Speaker 1: had the easiest time recruiting. I still have a pretty 238 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 1: easy time recruiting when we talk about what we're building. UM, 239 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,199 Speaker 1: So I think that's really important. But when you move 240 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,679 Speaker 1: into the fundraising stage, before you get it, before you 241 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: get there. So let's look that's because it's really interesting 242 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:55,640 Speaker 1: when you said, you know, you spent you know a 243 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: lot of time just working on one sentence at least 244 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:04,080 Speaker 1: six weeks. Wow. Yeah, And it changed and it fluctuated, 245 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:05,600 Speaker 1: and in the times you get frustrated and you're like 246 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: why am I doing this? I think after week three 247 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm not changing this sentence again, 248 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 1: Like it doesn't matter, it does not matter. And ultimately 249 00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: that one sentence wasn't what turned into business excitement or 250 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: fundraising all other stuff, but it was able. It was 251 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:24,120 Speaker 1: giving you an opportunity to distill what you're working on. 252 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: If you cannot distill it in one sentence, is going 253 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: to be very hard to get people excited. So and 254 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,679 Speaker 1: I would imagine and it's every word matters. When when 255 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 1: you're down to one sentence, yes, we learned, uh better, 256 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:42,760 Speaker 1: fewer words, right, and try to enroll some excitement. So actually, 257 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:45,440 Speaker 1: don't even use the line anymore. But it was a 258 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: line that worked over and over and over again. Yeah. 259 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: It was instantly scheduled meetings without ever looking at a calendar, right, 260 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: and then just wrinkles people's brain like what do you wait? 261 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,000 Speaker 1: How instant meeting schedule of no calendar? Tell me more? 262 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,160 Speaker 1: Every single time. And I was in a cohort with 263 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:04,960 Speaker 1: twelve other companies, and when I would give that line, 264 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:09,200 Speaker 1: regardless of the audience, room full of investors, potential customers, partners, 265 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:11,679 Speaker 1: all the questions, not all, some of the questions, A 266 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:13,800 Speaker 1: good chunk of the questions would come to me because 267 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:16,040 Speaker 1: it piqued their interests, like this is a problem. You 268 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,360 Speaker 1: stated what the problem was, You tell me how fast 269 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: you're gonna do it, and then you gave me this 270 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 1: novel away that's just like wrinkling my brain and I 271 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:25,800 Speaker 1: don't like quite understand. I figure out, what what is this? 272 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:28,240 Speaker 1: What is this? And I used that over and over 273 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:30,200 Speaker 1: and over and over and over and over again. And 274 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: I did use it like in my demo investor pitch, 275 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,760 Speaker 1: like as a one liar to start it. And I 276 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: also used it in our our launch thing, but from 277 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: like month four, two months, seven, eight, nine, ten, didn't 278 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: use it at all. But it was like the starting 279 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: for it's the kindling, right, and I can always refer 280 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,560 Speaker 1: back to that too. And did that one line that's 281 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: six weeks that you spent on that one line? Where 282 00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:59,280 Speaker 1: how much progress did you make? Like did you raise 283 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 1: your first dollar with that? Like? Where did it get you? No? 284 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,440 Speaker 1: Did not raise the first dollar. Um, it got me 285 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: a lot of places because the way I was talking 286 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: about the business going into the accelerator was it was 287 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,480 Speaker 1: not great, it was not great, and I was trying 288 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 1: to fit a mouthful in and and say that this 289 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:18,840 Speaker 1: this this this this this this this this this this 290 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: um it gave me uh again, like good framing and 291 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,600 Speaker 1: good confidence when I delivered that line, and it was 292 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,120 Speaker 1: the lead in for my investments. So when we started 293 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: doing our presentations to investors and we had a demo day, 294 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,240 Speaker 1: like that was the like the thing that people remember 295 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: about that, well, two lines that people remembered about the presentation. 296 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:45,440 Speaker 1: So I think it put me in a really good 297 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 1: place going into the investment. And if everybody, anybody asked, 298 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: you know, what is it you're working on, which is 299 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,600 Speaker 1: a common question you get, it's also like an accelerated question. 300 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:57,520 Speaker 1: They say what are you working on? And they always 301 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: want a one sentence answer. That's the answer you give. 302 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:04,080 Speaker 1: And so how how much would you estimate that most 303 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: opportunities are lost because people don't spend that time working 304 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: on that You're you're losing of people even just from 305 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: like the fact that they're no longer going to pay 306 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:17,240 Speaker 1: attention to whatever it is coming out of your mouth. 307 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: After that, it's it's like eyes glazing over, not interested. 308 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: And there's some people and this is again I was 309 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: one of those people that you'll ask for like, hey, 310 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 1: what is it you're working on? And then they're the 311 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:30,760 Speaker 1: only answer they can give you is like a five 312 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,800 Speaker 1: minute answer. Actually said this for probably a good six 313 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 1: to nine months when I started the business. It's like 314 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,720 Speaker 1: I can't explain what I'm working on in a couple 315 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:43,800 Speaker 1: of sentences. But if you give me an hour, I 316 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: guarantee you're gonna want to use the product and invest. 317 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,520 Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, but you're not. You're not You're 318 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 1: not not getting an hour here. So um, it's very 319 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: it's very very very important. It'll change, it evolve. It 320 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,480 Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily matter if that's the one right intents, but 321 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: the fact that you're able to distill what you do 322 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:04,920 Speaker 1: and make it exciting and interesting in one sense, that 323 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: you can use that over and over and over. And 324 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,399 Speaker 1: that's what the accelerator made us do. So whenever we 325 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: met a new mentor new potential partner, customer, or investor, 326 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:16,159 Speaker 1: like that was the line, and that that was the 327 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:18,040 Speaker 1: line that was critiqued. So by the end of it, 328 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: anybody that came into for critiquing just said, yeah, it's good, 329 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:24,240 Speaker 1: I'm interested to tell me more. And that's all you want. 330 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,439 Speaker 1: Your goal of telling people what your businesses or what 331 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:33,520 Speaker 1: you're doing is for them to say, tell me more. Okay. 332 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: What's the different thing about the raising stage, about how 333 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:41,360 Speaker 1: you talk about your business. It starts with that ability, 334 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: and that's something that investors will look at if you 335 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:47,360 Speaker 1: have the ability to, you know, succinctly distill what you're 336 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: working on. But the conversation with investors is not the 337 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:53,200 Speaker 1: conversation you have with your friends and your family. It's 338 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,120 Speaker 1: not the conversation that you eventually ultimately have with customers 339 00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,399 Speaker 1: are already having with customers. They want to know about 340 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 1: potential scale, right, They want to know about differentiation in 341 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:06,680 Speaker 1: the market. They want to know about your go to market, 342 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: and they want to know that you have deep, deep, deep, 343 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:13,119 Speaker 1: deep deep product insights and know about your industry. And 344 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: it's not about like listing off a bunch of facts 345 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 1: that you read online. Is having a deep, deep, deep 346 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:22,480 Speaker 1: understanding of that. And that's one thing, but then you 347 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:24,880 Speaker 1: have to learn how to convey that to investors. So 348 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: we had our first two weeks of meetings with investors 349 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,959 Speaker 1: and it was like, oh, that's cool, that's cool, Not 350 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:33,280 Speaker 1: for us right now, not for us right now. And 351 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:37,080 Speaker 1: we almost considered like backing the truck up and waiting 352 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:40,680 Speaker 1: a few months to fundraise. Just kept getting at going 353 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:45,480 Speaker 1: after it getting better refined. We would have like game 354 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:49,280 Speaker 1: day breakdowns of our investor calls after the call happened like, Okay, 355 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,040 Speaker 1: that answer was terrible, that answer was really long, that 356 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,159 Speaker 1: answer was irrelevant, that answer was not compelling. You have 357 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 1: to be that real with yourself every single time, for 358 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:02,600 Speaker 1: his long until you start to get that interest, until 359 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,000 Speaker 1: those conversations start to go well. And that's what we 360 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,240 Speaker 1: were doing. Breakdown if you had a twenty minute call 361 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:11,160 Speaker 1: or an hour long call, even if the call went 362 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:12,960 Speaker 1: great and they said they were interested, or if they're like, 363 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: let keep us in a loop, same thing. Break it 364 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: down what went well, what didn't go well. Some people 365 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,359 Speaker 1: suggest even writing down all the questions that you had, 366 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,000 Speaker 1: recording all the answers, listening back to that I didn't 367 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,560 Speaker 1: do it. You know that deeply, have a pretty good memory, 368 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: and I'm I'm brutal with myself, Like I'll get off 369 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:35,960 Speaker 1: a call an investoral like smile or say okay, cool, 370 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,119 Speaker 1: I get that to an answer, I'll say that was 371 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:42,359 Speaker 1: a terrible answer. That was a terrible, terrible, terrible answer. 372 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 1: You have to be that real with yourself. I want 373 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:49,120 Speaker 1: to talk about more specifically on doc in the Future, 374 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 1: that you saw when you started building this um so covid. 375 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:57,520 Speaker 1: You rarely get these moments when you're building something and 376 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: the world just accelerates to the future. You imagine gend 377 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,959 Speaker 1: when you thought of the idea, right, and um, so 378 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 1: talk to me about how the pandemic and COVID remote 379 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,720 Speaker 1: work plays into your startup success because you've been building 380 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,679 Speaker 1: this for however long in the world just shot ahead, 381 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,639 Speaker 1: you know, eight years or ten years. It was wild. 382 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,119 Speaker 1: Like in my pitch deck before I started pitching investors 383 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,920 Speaker 1: was essentially the pitch deck to get into an accelerator. 384 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,120 Speaker 1: I was talking about the future of remote and distributed work, 385 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 1: and I say, it's coming, it's coming, It's on the rise. 386 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,040 Speaker 1: I know it's a small percentage, but it's coming. And 387 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: when it gets here, it's here to stay. And I 388 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: had like charts talking about seven And then we go 389 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: to this accelerator. We come out of the accelerator, we 390 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:46,680 Speaker 1: start fundraising, and in the middle of a pandemic where 391 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,520 Speaker 1: everyone is literally forced to work at home, that end 392 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: and of itself is not enough for market change and correction. 393 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,720 Speaker 1: The reason it's so poignant and important for us is 394 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: that it's better. It's just flat out better. It's a 395 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:04,680 Speaker 1: better And it was an eventuality that we were going 396 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: to get to at some point there's a reason some 397 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: people work from home because it was better for not 398 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,879 Speaker 1: for everyone, better for them. And I think eighty percent 399 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:21,600 Speaker 1: of knowledge work can be done remotely. So of the mean, 400 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,760 Speaker 1: not the fortune fire proners, not knowledge work, but eighty 401 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,560 Speaker 1: percent of knowledge workers will work remotely. That's fifty million 402 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,560 Speaker 1: people in the United States that can work remotely. That's 403 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 1: a third of the workforce right there. But now you're 404 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 1: seeing people in other industries figure out how to work remotely. 405 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 1: Like you would never think telemedicine could be a huge market, 406 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,800 Speaker 1: You would never think remote therapy could be a huge market. 407 00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: You would never think yoga would be a huge market online. 408 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: But now you're discovering that, hey, I can get the 409 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,439 Speaker 1: same thing. We're very similar, maybe even at a better cost, 410 00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: easier distribution for the vendors have to leave my house, 411 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:04,960 Speaker 1: right That is what's going to happen. That is going 412 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,119 Speaker 1: to be a large percentage of how work, entertainment is 413 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:13,199 Speaker 1: consumed and delivered in the future. And it just so 414 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:16,560 Speaker 1: happens that we're building a startup with that in mind, 415 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 1: and then the pandemic happened. How do you how then 416 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,120 Speaker 1: do you sell the future? Let me put it this way, 417 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: so is it then pre covid you are specifically looking 418 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,320 Speaker 1: for investors who already get that this is coming, you know, 419 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:33,360 Speaker 1: like a freight train, or are you trying to convince 420 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: people like, look, this is happening and then you come 421 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: out with your data and then you that's your power point. Right, 422 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,160 Speaker 1: Oh no, there's there's definitely convincing. I can tell you. 423 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,879 Speaker 1: We got into this accelerator. We got investment for this 424 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: concelerator on the premise that we're building software that's for 425 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:53,880 Speaker 1: scheduling meetings and hosting meetings, which is good for anyone, 426 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:59,199 Speaker 1: but particularly for remote and distributed teams, was our premise. Right. 427 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,560 Speaker 1: We heard from people within the accelerator early on before 428 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,639 Speaker 1: the pandemic. We would bring up the remote aspect and 429 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:11,680 Speaker 1: distribute aspect. They would say, I don't buy that. It's 430 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: a very small segment of the market. I'm like, I 431 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:20,520 Speaker 1: know today, right, but just compare the two experiences. It's 432 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:26,399 Speaker 1: going to come. It's going to happen in some large percentage, 433 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:32,320 Speaker 1: not but six. Even if it was you're talking about 434 00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:35,040 Speaker 1: taking the market and quadrupling it in the next two 435 00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: years or something. Even if it's right, it's going to 436 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,240 Speaker 1: be much much much larger than that now that people 437 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,879 Speaker 1: have experienced it, And I thought it would take a 438 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,440 Speaker 1: hundred years, a hundred years to get to the place 439 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: where it's just normal because it's better, and I'm an 440 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,800 Speaker 1: efficiency guy. It's more if I don't have to commute, Yeah, 441 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: three or four days out of the week, why right, So, yeah, 442 00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:00,720 Speaker 1: there was still some So we had people that believed 443 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: in the product, didn't necessarily believe that remote and distributed 444 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,000 Speaker 1: work was the future or that it was anywhere near 445 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: closed to happen. You probably have same skeptics on the 446 00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:14,119 Speaker 1: like the self driving which is proven to be true. 447 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: They'll say, you know, self driving cars or two or 448 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,640 Speaker 1: three years away, and then you have a skeptics saying, yeah, 449 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: you're ten fifteen years away from that being a reality. 450 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,720 Speaker 1: That just keeps happening, keeps happening, keeps happening, and it 451 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: will keep happening until somebody says we're gonna have a 452 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,920 Speaker 1: self driving car in two years, and then detractor is 453 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:31,639 Speaker 1: gonna say you won't for ten years, and then two 454 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:33,960 Speaker 1: years later self driving cars are on the roof. That's 455 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,960 Speaker 1: what's happening for us right now with remote work, And 456 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,040 Speaker 1: so what are some of those keys you learned about 457 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 1: selling the future to people who might be skeptics early 458 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:47,760 Speaker 1: that other people can apply to their journey. I'm still learning, 459 00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,120 Speaker 1: and it's a challenge to sell people on things that 460 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: they either don't believe or have an experience, or think 461 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,000 Speaker 1: it's a far, far far away future, right And I 462 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 1: think the going back to building excitement number one is 463 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,200 Speaker 1: very very important. Then also give them something that's familiar 464 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: to them, like build a bridge to the eventuality of it, 465 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,560 Speaker 1: like right now on my website. And I do this intentionally. 466 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,120 Speaker 1: I don't talk about remote work, I don't talk about 467 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: distributed work. I talk about you have a problem scheduling 468 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,399 Speaker 1: meetings because of calendar application. That's going to help you 469 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,720 Speaker 1: with that. But they don't realize and they will in 470 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:29,360 Speaker 1: the next four months when we have our big, big 471 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 1: big unveil what part of the movement they're joining. But 472 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,719 Speaker 1: right now, for us, we do focus on early what 473 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,160 Speaker 1: we call early innovators, sorry innovators and early adopters. Those 474 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:42,160 Speaker 1: are people that are willing to use this type of product, 475 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,840 Speaker 1: they're using something similar already, or they know they have 476 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 1: a problem, they're willing to try anything to solve it 477 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,680 Speaker 1: and you need to focus on that segment for as 478 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,359 Speaker 1: long as humanly possible. So again, even if you're selling 479 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,119 Speaker 1: like sucks, don't go to Miami as your first market 480 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,439 Speaker 1: and try to convince them that sucks. Help checked your 481 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:02,560 Speaker 1: feet for whatever reason, because that's not the person you 482 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: want to talk to. You go to like Minnesota or 483 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:08,320 Speaker 1: Alaska and sell your socks right out. The socks companies, 484 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:13,440 Speaker 1: by the way, are our counterparts are non melinated friends. 485 00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,760 Speaker 1: UM don't have as much trouble raising a million dollars 486 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,840 Speaker 1: plus as we do, and so many of us get 487 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: stuck at raising nothing or you know, getting a twenty 488 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:24,919 Speaker 1: on a check or maybe a five hundred thousand not 489 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,600 Speaker 1: a seed round. Um. And as you've come through this 490 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,959 Speaker 1: recently successfully, you know raising your one point six million, 491 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:35,119 Speaker 1: walk me through the process you activated to get that 492 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 1: million plus that you find other people get stuck at. 493 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: I'm always clear when I when I say this, I 494 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,880 Speaker 1: did not run a process, and I don't have the 495 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:53,159 Speaker 1: best of advice for garnering interest from investors. I can 496 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,360 Speaker 1: give your advice about talking to them, but my process 497 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,240 Speaker 1: was essentially, Hey, I'm working on this really cool thing 498 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: and it's super futuristic. And like it works and it's awesome. 499 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,000 Speaker 1: Here's a picture, look at it, right, and then the 500 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: investment interests to step cup. Let me let me rephrase that, 501 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:13,760 Speaker 1: because this is something you can replicate challenging. I did 502 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,640 Speaker 1: put out again a very compelling framing of my business 503 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,479 Speaker 1: on video right, and I also took time to make 504 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,119 Speaker 1: sure that my pitch deck looked very, very good. So 505 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:28,240 Speaker 1: when I sent, I had investors see my pitch deck before, 506 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,320 Speaker 1: like very early on, and say, this looks like a 507 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: series A, series B pitch deck in terms of professionalism, sinkness, messaging, 508 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: like get that stuff right. You already have so many 509 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:41,560 Speaker 1: strikes against Let me let me rephrase that, because I 510 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,119 Speaker 1: don't want people think they you don't. You don't have 511 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,840 Speaker 1: any strikes against you. What you do not have is 512 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,280 Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt from anybody that you're about 513 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: to sit across. So you try to remove as much 514 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: doubt as humanly possible, be super on point with everything 515 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:58,720 Speaker 1: that you're putting in front of them to get in 516 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:02,680 Speaker 1: the door. Initially. Now, the good advice, and this is 517 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 1: what I was planning to do, is you're going to 518 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,720 Speaker 1: struggle and just face it, So don't compare yourself to 519 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:16,360 Speaker 1: the what do you say, less melidated, non melodated, don't 520 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 1: compare yourself going through the accelerator, Like, yeah, you're gonna 521 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: probably need to meet, you know, between fifty and seventy 522 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,200 Speaker 1: investors to raise you around. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna 523 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,400 Speaker 1: need to meet between two hundred and fifty and three 524 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: investors to raise my round. So I'm hearing the number, right, 525 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: I'm multiplying it by five. That's how I'm thinking. So 526 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: I'm putting putting a list together at three different buckets 527 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 1: of people. I'm like, Okay, these people were in New York. 528 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,160 Speaker 1: There in New York their early stage. That's the best 529 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,959 Speaker 1: connection that I can garner with these people. I'm going 530 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,000 Speaker 1: to start there, right. And then there's the bigger list 531 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 1: of just seed investors. And then I had a smaller 532 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,680 Speaker 1: list of angel investors that I knew of that I 533 00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:58,720 Speaker 1: was going to reach out to. So put your list 534 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: together and then hammer it so hard all at once. 535 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,719 Speaker 1: If you think your fundraising process is going to take 536 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,960 Speaker 1: six months, twelve months, it very may very well take 537 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 1: that long. Do all of the work in two weeks. 538 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:15,680 Speaker 1: In three weeks, reach out to every do nothing else. 539 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 1: Shut off your phone and your email. If you have 540 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,160 Speaker 1: to reach out to every single one of those investors 541 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:24,040 Speaker 1: in succession, get in front of as many as humanly possible. Again, 542 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:27,040 Speaker 1: have as many meetings in a row as possible, and 543 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: practice and be honest with yourself. When you have a 544 00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,120 Speaker 1: bad answer, don't show up to the next meeting with 545 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: that same bad answer. If you have a meeting at 546 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,760 Speaker 1: eleven am and you felt you did poorly on an answer, 547 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,680 Speaker 1: and you have another meeting at noon, you should already 548 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: have a new answer prepared. Right, A short and I 549 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,520 Speaker 1: don't do this very problem like pocket, be very short 550 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,400 Speaker 1: with your You don't need to keep explaining it. So 551 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 1: if you're the question is like, um, why is your 552 00:29:55,840 --> 00:30:00,239 Speaker 1: product different bullet one bullet to bullet three? Next question? Right, 553 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: So just be ready, be a machine in this and 554 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: you will get through it. So I don't want to 555 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,240 Speaker 1: say that you're um your disadvantage or discounted in any way. 556 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:10,960 Speaker 1: You do not have the benefit of the doubt. But 557 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,680 Speaker 1: you can get that from them by showing up prepared. 558 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: How did you know one point six million was the 559 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:20,600 Speaker 1: number you needed? Because I did you set out for 560 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: a rounder number like one point five and you got 561 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,760 Speaker 1: another hundred, or you set out for two million and 562 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: you fell shot up by four hundred. I how did 563 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 1: one point six happened? I started off with seven fifties, 564 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: seven hundred fifty thousand. I was convinced to do a 565 00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:35,800 Speaker 1: million because I said, that's really not enough for what 566 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:37,440 Speaker 1: you want to do. But it was and it is 567 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,560 Speaker 1: more than enough. So I set out to raise a 568 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: million dollars and after getting to about nine hundred thousand, 569 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:51,680 Speaker 1: like confirmed it was just a snowball. And this was again, 570 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: this was for me, in my opinion, a factor of 571 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:01,280 Speaker 1: showing up prepared and even I started my first meeting 572 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: like the last week of May and had a pitch deck. 573 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: I probably changed my pitch deck four or five times 574 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,240 Speaker 1: in four or five weeks and just kept improving it, 575 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,840 Speaker 1: kept improving it, and kept improving it. But the answer 576 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,800 Speaker 1: has just got so much better, so much sharper, that 577 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:16,600 Speaker 1: by the time I got to the end of the process, 578 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,800 Speaker 1: this is just five or six weeks later. I got 579 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,000 Speaker 1: yes is on almost every single meeting, and I had 580 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: to turn around to my co founders and say, hey, 581 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,200 Speaker 1: now we're telling everybody no, We're like no, no, I know, 582 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: I set this meeting with you two weeks ago. But yeah, 583 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,280 Speaker 1: the round closed, it's over, it's done. I only needed 584 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: a million. I only planned to raise a million, and 585 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: we ended up getting I originally stopped at one point 586 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 1: three because like, this is all we need, more than 587 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,239 Speaker 1: what we need. But then another investor came in at 588 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,000 Speaker 1: the last minute, um, and they were interested early on, 589 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: but they had to reschedule for like two or three 590 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:50,480 Speaker 1: weeks later, but we ended up squeezing them and that's 591 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:51,960 Speaker 1: how we got to one point six. So it wasn't 592 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: nice round number looking for one million. But when you 593 00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 1: have investors that are super interested in the business, they 594 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: that's no thing that if you have the opportunity and 595 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: you can choose your investors, and I said this, which 596 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,080 Speaker 1: was scary, but I'm like, if you're investing in this 597 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 1: business because you think it's a scheduling company and should 598 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: stay a scheduling company, because it could be a billion 599 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: dollar business, as Callardy has proven by being a scheduling company, 600 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,959 Speaker 1: you're investing in the wrong founder. I am not building 601 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:26,400 Speaker 1: scheduling only company, and I want people along for the ride, 602 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: even at the earliest stages that are not going to 603 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:34,120 Speaker 1: push back on that, and almost all of our investors 604 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:38,400 Speaker 1: stay shooed their word on believing in the bigger, bigger, 605 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,920 Speaker 1: bigger vision. So um yeah, that was a very very 606 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,600 Speaker 1: interesting time and that it just felt bizarre because the 607 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: tide in the very beginning was cool, I like, what 608 00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,560 Speaker 1: you're working on, let us know, keep us in the loop. 609 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: And the tide after that, towards the end was can 610 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:56,600 Speaker 1: we write to check? Can we writer check? Can and 611 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,160 Speaker 1: writer check have too much money? And then after you 612 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,840 Speaker 1: have too much money, they're still saying either existing investors 613 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: that were in the round three weeks ago for a 614 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,880 Speaker 1: certain amounts saying can I double that investment? Can I 615 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,760 Speaker 1: add another check to that investment? And it's a bizarre 616 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 1: I don't know if I'll ever well, we're experiencing it 617 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 1: right now, but after this, I don't know if I'll 618 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 1: ever feel to be in that comfortable of a position 619 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 1: from a fundraising perspective, as fundraising is hard, and I 620 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,160 Speaker 1: was fully prepared and I had my doubts that we'd 621 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,720 Speaker 1: be able to raise in six months. I was like, oh, 622 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: we're going through the typical process. If it takes six months, 623 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: i'm gonna work twice as hard. But it's gonna take 624 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,000 Speaker 1: me six months, and it took you know, six eight 625 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 1: weeks to get it done. And you and you attribute 626 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,280 Speaker 1: that to pounding out the work in the early days 627 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,840 Speaker 1: is of fundraising. Yeah, yeah, Like I said, my my 628 00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: co founder even suggested, like, let's pause the meetings and 629 00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: pick them up in a couple of months, And I 630 00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,320 Speaker 1: said no. And I just also started taking to all 631 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: the calls by myself like maybe he's right, Maybe he's so, 632 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:02,560 Speaker 1: let's not use both of our time for this. And 633 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,160 Speaker 1: I just hammered it, hammered it, hammered it, and hammered 634 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:06,560 Speaker 1: you just got you just you just gotta do it. 635 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:08,920 Speaker 1: You gotta pound through it. You're gonna even if you 636 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: have a successful round and your company is obviously worth 637 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,399 Speaker 1: every penny that the investors are putting in, you're gonna 638 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: get a lot of news. You're going to get it. 639 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,240 Speaker 1: You're gonna get more nose than yes. This period, Luber 640 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,080 Speaker 1: got more nose than yes? Is Google got more nos 641 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:27,279 Speaker 1: than yes? Is? Jeff Bezos probably not? He probably Like 642 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,239 Speaker 1: how do you know when you're getting those knows that 643 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:33,080 Speaker 1: maybe your email needs to adjust or maybe this is 644 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:34,960 Speaker 1: just the parting that wrong, Like what are you doing 645 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: to iterate on your reach out? Well, I didn't have 646 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,120 Speaker 1: much of a reach out process, but what I did 647 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: to iterate on the the answers and this like I'm studying, 648 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,279 Speaker 1: like the investors body language is all video calls, so 649 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:54,520 Speaker 1: I'm studying their their body language, their eye rolls, their size, 650 00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:57,399 Speaker 1: the types of questions that they're asking for it. I'll 651 00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 1: give a very specific example. In the beginning, all of 652 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:05,680 Speaker 1: our meetings, the entirety of the meeting was about product. Product, product, product, product, product. 653 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 1: They couldn't even get off of product or like, well, 654 00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:09,880 Speaker 1: what does it do well? How does it work well? 655 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: How's it different from that? Are you sure it's different 656 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,879 Speaker 1: from that? Do people really care about that product? Product? 657 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:15,719 Speaker 1: Produc product, pduct, proud product. I'm like, we're never going 658 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,439 Speaker 1: to get to investment if all they're doing is talking 659 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: about this cool tool. They understand the problem so deeply. 660 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: Their investors, all they do is have meetings. All they 661 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: do with schedule meetings, so their understanding of it lead 662 00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,520 Speaker 1: them down the path of all right, let's talk about 663 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,400 Speaker 1: this product, all right. So I'm like, how can we 664 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,120 Speaker 1: move off of the product and talk about the vision 665 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,240 Speaker 1: later on? What we're building, talk about the market, size, 666 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,319 Speaker 1: the opportunity, why now, all these things that you need 667 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: to get an investor on board with before they cut 668 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 1: a check. So that was the first major problem that 669 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: we called out right away, like we're only talking about 670 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,080 Speaker 1: product and comparing it to other products. We're not going 671 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: to get anywhere with that. So that was how can 672 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:59,320 Speaker 1: I deliberately move it off? And I started taking my 673 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 1: answer is for product questions and adding pivots to differentiation, 674 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,279 Speaker 1: to market to vision on each of those answers. So 675 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:10,520 Speaker 1: if somebody asked me or why is it different than this, 676 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: I would say, oh, because of this, this is this, 677 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,719 Speaker 1: And I think that's important because this market is only 678 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,600 Speaker 1: you know, five pc. This isn't any one of this market. 679 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,960 Speaker 1: There's only you know, fifty million calendar automation tools, and 680 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: in two years we believe there's gonna be five million 681 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:31,279 Speaker 1: calendar automate So that's was a deliberate pivoting of the 682 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,320 Speaker 1: way I'm answering a question to get it to talking 683 00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,040 Speaker 1: about the money, the market, the opportunity, the big vision 684 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:43,080 Speaker 1: why it's a great business. So that's an example of iterating, iterating, iterating. 685 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,560 Speaker 1: It is tough to iterate on outbound messaging. But if 686 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: you're not getting any responses it hurts, does not hurt 687 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 1: at all to change it and change it and if 688 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:58,279 Speaker 1: you get and this is also probably not something a 689 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:00,720 Speaker 1: lot of people are going to do, but I started 690 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,000 Speaker 1: asking our investors towards the very end, what interested you 691 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: about on DOC even before they got to the final check, 692 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 1: or where did you discover us? Like what made you 693 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,560 Speaker 1: want to to reach out? Because I was curious and 694 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:13,759 Speaker 1: I want to repeat it. So right now in my 695 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 1: fundraising I'm not fundraising, I mean right now, in the 696 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:23,279 Speaker 1: investor discussions that I'm having, they're all going so well, 697 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:27,560 Speaker 1: like too well, that I'm asking myself what is it? 698 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:29,560 Speaker 1: So I'm not even resting on the laurel that these 699 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,439 Speaker 1: conversations are going well. I'm saying, what is it about 700 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,320 Speaker 1: these conversations that are going well that I can not 701 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,080 Speaker 1: only replicate but refine and make it even better and 702 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:43,759 Speaker 1: better and better. And I probably sent three messages to 703 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: my co founders saying why do you think this is 704 00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:48,880 Speaker 1: going well? And there's like, oh, it's because you have 705 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,520 Speaker 1: a great team and great mark. I'm like, that's not it. Oh, 706 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:53,120 Speaker 1: it's because you have a great product for I'm like, 707 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 1: those are things are all true, but that's not why 708 00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 1: investors are frothing at the mouth. They've seen companies in 709 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,080 Speaker 1: the calendar in space, They've seen companies in the future 710 00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,560 Speaker 1: of work or conferencing space. They've definitely seen more accomplished 711 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:09,520 Speaker 1: founders than myself. And I'm looking at competitors in the space, like, oh, 712 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,200 Speaker 1: these two guys were at Facebook and they started a 713 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,279 Speaker 1: calendar company. This guy sold his company too. I'm not 714 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:16,960 Speaker 1: going to shout out the company. This guy sold his 715 00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:19,640 Speaker 1: company to another big company three years ago, and now 716 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,320 Speaker 1: he started a calendaring company and he's not getting this 717 00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:25,680 Speaker 1: level of interest. There's something in there about and I 718 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 1: figured it out by the way. I'm not going to 719 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:31,440 Speaker 1: spill the bean about the way I am positioning and 720 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,759 Speaker 1: talking about the business. And I did not know what 721 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,840 Speaker 1: it was, but I had so much curiosity about finding 722 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,800 Speaker 1: out what that was that I've now been able to 723 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,160 Speaker 1: write it down, put it into a list, and make 724 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:47,560 Speaker 1: sure that every single conversation that I have, I reiterate 725 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 1: that operationalized yes, yes, and it's it's it's going to 726 00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:56,760 Speaker 1: be huge, Like I had I shouldn't say this publicly, 727 00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:59,960 Speaker 1: But yeah, I had some very good meetings with investors 728 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,360 Speaker 1: this week, and it led me to like want to 729 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,520 Speaker 1: figure And I spent all weekend thinking about it and 730 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:10,279 Speaker 1: reading and researching and like digging into mental models and 731 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: frameworks and trying to figure out which ones that I'm 732 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,520 Speaker 1: using and why it's resoning with investors. You have to 733 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 1: go that deep. You have to, or if you're a brad, 734 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: just write it on a nappin and get your money. 735 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:42,520 Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production to Black vit 736 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,360 Speaker 1: Aff Road Tech When, the Black Effect podcast Network and 737 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,919 Speaker 1: iHeart Media. Is produced by Morgan Dubon and me Little 738 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:52,760 Speaker 1: Lucas addition to productive support by Love Beach and Rissa Lewis. 739 00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:57,120 Speaker 1: Special thank you to Michael Davis and Vanessa Serrano. Learn 740 00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,480 Speaker 1: about my guests and other textistuff. As an innovative to 741 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:03,359 Speaker 1: a roads dot Com. Join your Black Tech Green Money, 742 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,879 Speaker 1: leave us a five star rating on iTunes, Go get 743 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:08,839 Speaker 1: your money. He's lock