WEBVTT - EYL #174 How to Build a Billion Dollar Business with Ruben Harris 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.280 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.000 How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy? Just use 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.360 Indeed stop struggling to get your job posts seen on 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.360 other job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.720 to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.000 so you can reach the people you want faster. According 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.680 to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.840 forty five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.519 wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.200 and listeners of this show will get a seventy five 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.440 dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:45.320 at indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen. Just go 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.120 to Indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen right now 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.040 and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.400 on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:58.040 all you need. 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:06.680 My graduates from my school being forts bad drop drop Mike, 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:08.360 drop back drop. 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.240 All right, guys, welcome back, euy l. This is gonna 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.080 be a fun episode, very very educational. I could feel it. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.480 This is something that we've been looking forward to for 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.640 a while. So you know, one of the main initiatives 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.279 for this year is to focus more on tech because 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.240 you know, we talked about tech so much on when 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.200 we come to stocks Market, Mondays and stuff like that, 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:44.039 but we haven't really had a lot of tech entrepreneurs previously. 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.360 So this year we wanted to highlight tech entrepreneurs and 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.440 especially if you know, it's always a good when we 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.880 can do black tech entrepreneurs. So this is what we're 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.240 going to do today. And Rubyn Harris, somebody that was 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.240 introduced to me probably over a year year ago. Shout 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.600 out to my man Jason, Jason Lewis. So he actually 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.200 was telling me about you. Then he actually introduced me 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.919 to Sharen and then she introduced me to you, and 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.920 here we are now. So Ruben Young entrepreneur CEO of 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:24.000 Career Karma. So, Career Karma is a company that actually 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.360 matches candidates up with jobs in the in the tech industry, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:36.440 correct job training programs in the tech industry. So just 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.320 closed the series B right, forty million dollars. 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:42.560 Last three years. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.960 Yeah, So yeah, just raised raised fifty two million dollars 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:52.240 in the last two years. Currently has over two hundred. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.080 Employees, two hundred employees on contracts. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:03:00.640 Twenty three countries non states. Yeah, right, and eight figures 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:01.240 in revenue. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.400 Correct, visit the sight every month? 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.520 Three million organic? That's right, that's right, people visit the 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.480 site every month. Am I missing anything? 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.800 I think twenty five got okay all the time? Bro, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:17.920 I know you many. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.560 Yeah, we're introducing twenty five thousand people a month to 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:22.880 job training programs. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.680 And it's so Jason so like this is actually a 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.080 real testimony because Jason is he's from our neighborhood, friend 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.320 of mine, and he actually went through the job training 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.960 program and so that's why when he connected me, he 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:36.920 was like, yo, I actually like he actually went through it. 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.440 I'm not sure exactly what happened after that, but he 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.560 was so you know, enthusiastic about it. That's what actually 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.560 made him actually reach out to me and was like, 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:48.760 have you ever heard of this? This is somebody that 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.480 you gotta highlight because it's so great. So I just 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.120 before we even start the episode. Word of mouth is 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.680 always the best form of marketing and doing a good 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.680 job by people. It's always the best for marketing because 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.360 you never know who knows who. And that was a 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.880 way that you know, all of this gets connected, is 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.000 that you know, he actually goes through the job training 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.280 program and it's really really excited about it, feels good 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.120 about it, and then connects to dots. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.760 So we just kept seeing you everywhere. Yeah, I mean 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:18.520 it's good people find people. 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:18.760 Yeah. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.159 Yeah, I feel like I'm like here again, here again. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.120 Then obviously yeah you got like. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.400 And Jason Kep saying hey can you leadire and your 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.120 Leasia every time I seen you, guys is bigger and 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.640 bigger and big. This is not just a business, this 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:32.360 is a movement. I want to be part of that. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:34.560 I appreciate it. So yeah, so this is gonna be 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.239 th conplience. Like I said, We're going to talk about 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.919 his start and starting a tech company Silicon Valley, the 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:44.640 ups and downs, raising money, the road to a billion 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:49.080 dollar valuation, all of the angel investors that you you know, 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.200 need to know about all of that stuff. So first 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:53.480 and foremost welcome. 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:54.400 Thank you for having me. 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.440 Yeah, so let's get into this. So how do you 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.080 get into starting a tech company when you don't have 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.080 You're not a tech guy originally, right, Like, you don't 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:02.839 have a tech background. 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.080 I don't have a tech background. I'm not a software engineer. 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.080 What is your background. What was you doing before this? 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.440 So I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia to Atlanta. I 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.120 grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm a musician. I've been 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.200 playing the cello since I was four years old at 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.200 cell've been playing the cello solves four years old. So specialty, 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.600 that's a specialty. It's a different it's a different instrument. 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.159 But I was growing up, I wanted to become the 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:27.440 best musician in the world. So I did a lot 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.719 of student musician work things like that. My cello teacher 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:32.400 is the one who told me to actually get into 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.080 business because a lot of artists don't understand. They signed 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.720 up to a lot of bad deals. They don't understand 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.160 what's going on. And so I found a course online 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.200 where I was able to teach myself financial modeling, kind 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.800 of like Uile University. Became an investment banker and that 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.279 worked out very well, very quickly, the tech worlds started 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.839 taking over the technology the finance world, and one of 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.719 our buddies, he quit the investment banking became a software engineer. 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.440 When I was in investment banking, I met one of 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.960 my co founders, Archermeister, and his twin brother, and none 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.480 of us knew how to code, and Atlanta Tech Village 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.279 had popped up across the street, and we're like, what's 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.039 this tech thing that's happening, and everybody kept talking about 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.600 Silicon Valley. There was a company called bit pay across 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.400 the street at the same time that coinbase was starting early. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.520 So we saw crypto very very early days, and we 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.320 were like, if we want to start a company, like 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.200 you said, if you want to start a billion dollar company, 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.920 it has to have tech at his core. But none 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:29.719 of us knew how to code. And that guy that 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.640 quit the bank and became a self engineer, he did 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.840 it in three months. He went to something called a 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.200 boot camp, which is a job training program, and so 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.480 that boot camp had a guy named Jack Altman who 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.360 runs a company called Lattus today, who was also investment banker. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:45.200 He did the boot camp and he was a self 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.919 engineer and his brother was Sam Altman, who was the 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.400 president of y Combinator at the time, which we'll talk 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.640 about in a second. And that's when we learned that 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.760 there's these accelerators that will train you to be entrepreneurs, 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:00.840 and there's these boot camp instead will train you even 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:02.760 if you didn't go to college to get six figures 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.239 and then teach you how to build billion dollar companies. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.080 And the two things were all paused here that Y 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.280 Combinator says, if you want to start a billion dollar company, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.120 you have to write code, you have to talk to users. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.240 So my co founders decided they're going to be the 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.320 right code guys, and now it's going to be the 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.440 top to users guys, which is the CEO and the 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.560 person that sells. So that's where it started. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.280 All right, So we've heard combinator before, shout the player 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.440 as lounds. Yeah, one of the companies that we actually 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.800 covered on Alisia, your partners, you knew them from the 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:33.880 bank and they, you guys, moved and went to Y 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.040 Combinator altogether. How did that process take place? 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.080 We didn't go to Y Combinator immediately. It's harder to 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:41.559 get into Y Combinator than stand. 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.560 Well, let's let's let's just talk about because some people 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.200 might not have seen that episode. Can you explain what 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:47.160 why Combinator is. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:52.320 So Y Combinator is the world's largest tech accelerator. So 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.559 in the last sixteen years they've generated three hundred billion 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.720 in value. So companies like Airbnb, Stripe, drop box, door 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.920 that that was all created through y Combinator. So what 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.080 they do is they'll let anybody apply. There's two cohorts 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.560 a year, and if you get accepted, they'll give you money. 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.160 In our case it was one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.800 They take seven percent, and then you're part of a network, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.680 a club of all the other Y Comminator company. So 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.480 there's over two thousand y Combinator company. So I can 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.000 email any CEO in the network and we're fam and 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:28.840 we look out for each other. And essentially they help 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.800 you raise money, which is how I was able to 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.320 learn how to raise all this money. And then you're 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.960 able to get mentors that help you execute after you 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.720 raise money, to build and solve problems that you've set 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:42.040 out to do. 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.240 So Tim and you're the person that decided you're going 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:47.120 to go to y Combinator. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.120 So what happened is so we said we wanted to 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.400 do y Combinator, but to get to the point where 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.040 you're n y Combinator, our philosophy was like, rather than 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.920 go straight into starting a company, US work at tech 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.560 companies first, and rather than work for the same tech company. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.320 Let's actually learn the game first and in the same 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.320 amount of time, let's take three years and split up. 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.920 So Archer he decided to go to a fintech marketplace 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.280 called Funding Circle, so he went there Early Team Or 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.280 he was an auto trader at the time, which is 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.280 a car marketplace. And then he wanted to get into 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.760 augmented reality, so he went to Blipper. And then I 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.679 went to an education company called alt School, and then 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.560 a healthcare company called Honor, and then a political company 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.440 called Hustle, and so we all spent time during that 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.400 period learning our skills. So I focused on sales, they 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.840 focused on self engineering. My brother also went to a 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.400 boot camp. He became a software engineer at a healthcare company. 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.840 And we did that for about three years, and then 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.839 we organized a bunch of events in the city of 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.760 San Francisco that I learned about to build my network, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:58.160 and then we eventually started the company. 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.760 All right, so everybody decided, look, I got a skill, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.520 let me go master it. You have a skill, go 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:04.199 master it. You got a skill, go master it. 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.040 Let's come back together, like a backwards version of the 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.959 wilten clients I started together and then they eventually split 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:11.720 you split and then came back together. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:12.800 That's a real team work. 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:14.839 So all right, so when you started it, you have 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.079 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars as startup. Did you 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:20.120 have any other money outside of that or that was 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:20.439 like that? 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.080 So that's a good question when we applied to why Combinator. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.719 So this is actually an interesting story. So I told 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.600 you I was a musician. I did studient musician work. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.360 I did stuff with like Zetoven, I did stuff with 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:33.880 triggering and dream, all these different people. That's how I 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.320 got into the club space. So I did. I used 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.160 to promote parties with Studio seventy two and Jermaine Prix, 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.720 stuff like that. I took that same philosophy in Atlanta. 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.520 This is how I met Michael Sibel. I did it. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.680 I noticed that they people kept saying there's no black 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.000 people in tech. So and a lot of the events 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.240 were like world boring. So I did a big party 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.480 at a club in San Francisco called Infusion Lo. It 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:55.719 was kind of like the event that you and I 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.719 met in Oakland. And I made sure that instead of 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.640 having celebrities, we had founders and CEOs and one of 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.240 the people that was there was Michael Sabel, who is 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.520 now the CEO of a combinator that started Twitch. It 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.199 was a beautiful event and when Michael met us, he 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:14.960 pretty much was like, hey, you guys, just start a company. 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.839 Let us know. And at the time we actually started up. 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:19.560 That's the conversation. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:21.839 Yeah you started, let me start a company. Like you 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:23.599 see what you're doing you out here, like, have a 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:24.000 good night. 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:25.920 Yeah, he started twitch. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:27.080 He started Twitch. 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:27.319 Yeah. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:28.520 So Michael Sible was a black man. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:29.680 Yeah, yeah, definitely. 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:30.600 Yeah. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.800 So and what's interesting is that similar to you guys 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.400 when we came when we got our first jobs and technology, 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.680 we wrote a story about it called Breaking the Startups. 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.120 That took off and then it turned into a podcast. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:43.600 And so when Michael was like, you need to start 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.120 a company, we was like, we started this podcast. He 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.199 was like, have you quit your job though? Are you 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.720 doing it full time? Like you got right? I wasn't 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.439 doing it like that. He was like, I said no. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.360 He said, well you're not ready yet, so check it out. 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.000 I quit my job to go full time. We applied 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.800 to y combinator, got rejected. That might what's going on? 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.880 He said, start a company then, so he says, so 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.160 he says, he says either CEO right, I said yeah, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.839 he said go raise, So so I set out to 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:18.520 raise one hundred and fifty thousand. I ended up raising 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.640 three hundred thousand in two weeks. And then I applied 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:23.360 to why Combinator again and then got in and then 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:25.959 eventually had about half a million before we when we 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:26.960 were going through the cohors. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.480 So, yeah, how do you apply for why Comminator? 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:32.720 You literally just apply. You go to lack why comminated 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.720 our contrast, apply and it breaks down what you got 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.319 to do. So the reason we didn't get in the 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.280 first time, personally, I believe is because I didn't do 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.319 the best job of communication. One of the biggest things 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.000 this is this is important not just for entrepreneurship but 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.199 even career navigation in general, is like, you want to 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:54.160 explain what do you do very clearly. What problem are 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:55.000 you solving for? 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:55.360 Who? 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.280 How often do they have that problem? How are you 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.439 solving it software? And when you solve it, how do 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.640 you make money? How much traction do you have? Have 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.120 you launched, are you going at it full time? Who's 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.199 technical on your team? What market are you dressing? How 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.280 big is that market? Those are essentially like the the 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.120 the the foundational questions that they'll be asking you. And 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.120 it's very similar to like when you're trying to play 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.000 for a company. They're not looking to see if you 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:25.719 actually know how to code or know how to sell. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.160 They're looking to see, like who are you and how 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.440 can you solve problems for me at this company? 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.520 So okay, so all right, so you go through. And 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.480 then one other thing about why comedy is that it's 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:40.080 also something where like all the successful tech founders come 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.199 and speak to you guys. Right, Yeah, it's like it's 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.319 like a camp almost right, Yeah, how long is it? 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:46.280 Three months? 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.719 Three months? But you got to live there, right you? 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.439 Yeah, everybody come to San Francisco. Everybody come to San Francisco. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:56.040 I mean it has gone more virtual now, but everybody 0:13:56.080 --> 0:14:00.000 goes San Francisco. You have different cohorts. You meet up 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.280 every week and then they have dinners and stuff. Yeah, 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.360 you meet other other people are teaching you the game. 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.199 It's like it's straight. It's like it's a boot camp. 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.760 It's it's a boot camp for entrepreneur. Same thing that 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.280 we're talking about job training programs to get a job intech. 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.559 It's the same thing for entrepreneurs after you've learned the game. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.400 Yeah, so very important. If anybody's interested, definitely check it out. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.320 So all right, so now you have the money, you 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.360 pass the you go through ye Combinator, you go to 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.320 different you learn from different you know, careers. But you 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:31.080 still have the five hundred thousand dollars that you saved originally. Right, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.760 you didn't blow that money. 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:34.880 Didn't blow it, but you definitely had to spend some 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:35.200 of it. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:36.960 You spent it before you started the company. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.360 I expect it to run the company. It didn't. I 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:41.240 didn't blow it at all. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.280 So, like, at what point do you actually start the cot. 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.640 When you're when you're you've already started the company when 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.760 you apply to I see some people will apply with 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.360 just an idea. But there's a really good quote that 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.680 Michael says, it's like you're nothing until you launch. All right, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.560 everybody can apply with an idea they launched, even if 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.280 they don't know to code. There's a lot of amazing 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.920 no code tools like Bubble, like web Flow. You don't 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:07.560 even have to code. You could literally just be like 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:09.480 what problem do I want to solve and just make 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.120 an MVP, which is a minimum viable product and just 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.560 like try it, and when you're in there, they give 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.640 you the money to continue running it because what you're 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:20.560 doing during those three months is trying to make it 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.880 grow as fast as possible so you look as best 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.960 as possible. So when you present on something called demo Day, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.640 which is the end of it, you literally have the 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.480 biggest investors in the world that you're presenting to and 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:33.120 billions of dollars change hands. 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.720 Oh yeah, talk about that because. 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.760 Before you before you do downwadate it because that's huge. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.640 I want to when you were thinking about this, right 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:43.400 and the number one question you said was like what 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.000 problem you're trying to solve? At that point, like what 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:47.800 was the problem that you were trying to solve? 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.120 It was a good question. So we want to really 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.520 focus on career navigation. So when I saw that my 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.240 brother was able to get a job making one hundred 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.240 and fifty thousand and five months without going to college, 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.040 that's how my co funders did the same thing my 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.840 sisters started. I was like, what would happen if the 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.040 world knew that there's these job chain programs that exist 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.800 that help millions or billions of people gets money, but 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.280 more importantly, skills that allow them to build solutions to 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.560 problems for their own family, but eventually start their own 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.240 companies where they're not dependent on anybody else. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.880 Earners, what's going on. If you're a business owner, you 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:22.640 don't need us to tell you that running a business 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.000 is tough, but you might be making it harder on 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.560 yourself than necessary. Don't let quick books and spreadsheets slow 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.760 you down anymore. It's time to upgrade to net Suite. 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.440 Stop paying for multiple systems that don't give you the 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.280 information you need when you need it. Ditch the spreadsheets 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.200 and all the old talkware you've outgrown. Now is the 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.240 time to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle, the world's number 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.880 one cloud business system. 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In the over twenty 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.720 four thousand companies using NetSuite right now, let next Suite 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.560 show you how they'll benefit your business with a free 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:13.280 product tour at NetSuite dot com, slash market Mondays schedule 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:15.920 your free product tour right now at netsweek dot com 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:21.639 slash market mondays, that's NetSuite dot com slash market mondays, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:23.360 don't wait, don't hesitate, Head over there. 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.000 And the biggest reason why I thought that we didn't 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.159 know about these things is because we've never been exposed 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.240 to it, which is why media was so important, which 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.400 is why we started a podcast. And so the first 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.200 step was like, how do we create the number one 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:38.680 destination for career of us on the internet so people 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.040 are aware of the opportunities that exist. What we realize 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.680 is that even if you expose people to these career 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.800 paths like we did on the podcast, some people will 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.480 take the initiative that are like super driven and have 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.600 the psychological confidence to do it. But most people need 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.440 a community of people behind them to help them. And 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.080 so we wanted to make sure that people have peers, coaches, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:02.840 and mentors to make sure that they don't just start 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.240 a program, but they finish it and then once they're 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:07.720 done with the training. There's a lot of people that 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.879 are extremely intelligent, have the best degrees in the world, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.240 have gone to the best training programs that still struggle 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:14.960 in the job search. Why because they don't know how 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:16.679 to communicate, They don't know how to tell their story, 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:18.320 and so we need to help them with that. So 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.080 we have this network of companies. We have love of 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.200 audio rooms in our community to be able to connect 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:25.720 people directly to companies. And so the short answer is, 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.440 were the easiest way to find a job training program 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.600 online that is now growing to become the world's largest 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.520 community career transitioners on the internet that will eventually become 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:35.680 the world's largest staff in front. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.960 So two questions when he said to raise the money, 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:43.440 how did you who did you raise the money from it? 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:44.760 How did you go about raising the money? 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.680 Great question? First thing that he said is like, what 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:49.639 is the bare minimum amount of money that you need 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:50.520 in order to survive? 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:51.440 S e. 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.560 Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live. 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.440 They had about four of us that will live in 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.680 in one place. The rent was like seven thousand a month, 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:04.760 and we like broke down the math and without paying ourselves, 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.600 like we're like, we just need one hundred fifty thousand. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.960 So so so, so the what we did in order 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.280 to find who the initial people were going to be, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.200 I just leveraged the people that I met through working 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.359 at companies that I knew that were investors. But I 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:27.560 didn't just focus on the traditional angel investors or traditional entrepreneurs. 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:29.800 I reached out to people that I know that were 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:34.320 accomplished that will cut a check as well. One of 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.159 the people I met at Atlanta Tech Village was a 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:41.040 guy named Paul Judge from Greenwood Yeah, the show, Yeah Judge. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.040 Paul Judge cut a check very early. Arlin Hamilton from 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.440 Backstage cut a check very early. Michael Cybele cut a 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.040 check very early. And what I was able to do 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.400 as I was able to be like pretty much within 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.240 the first few days, say fifty percent of the round 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.560 is full with people that I already knew, and then 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.160 I use that and being like, hey, look there's only 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:05.800 a week left. Are you in? Right? And I got 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:07.840 the rock stars here, I want you? Are you in 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:09.680 and out? And that kind of like created this whole 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.520 fomo type of thing. But a lot of the stuff 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.600 that I learned through investment banking around putting together a 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:20.320 presentation really helped me a lot. If for anybody who's 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.360 putting together pictures, could I get this question a lot, 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.520 go to Sequoia Business Plans, check it out and they 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.280 explain the flow. Sequoia is one of the biggest venture 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:29.960 capital firms. For the people that don't know what a 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:34.160 venture capital firm is, it's people that give you money 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.439 to start companies, kind of like Shark Team. So saqoya 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.640 business plans and then watch this video called Thing Big, 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.680 Start Small by Jim Getz that really broke down how 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:48.240 to tell my vision or our vision for what we 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:48.639 want to do. 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.000 And then okay, that's so yeah, that's actually the scarcity model. 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.240 And then also using like you have like Paul Judge 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.560 who's highly respected, so once he gives money, that automatically 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:00.680 gives credit ability to it. 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:02.159 Yeah, so what you do is like once you get 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:03.920 your first few checks, right, so you always want to 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:06.679 you want to you want to stack all your meetings 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.840 back to back, right, So I would do like and 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:11.720 then this is early days. Early day was just like 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:13.600 five minutes a day. Now since we got Zoom, I'll 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:15.480 do like ten fifteen meetings in the day. But like, 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:17.080 you want to do as many meetings back to back 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.119 to back, and then you want to follow up with 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:20.639 all your material material. You got to be tight. You 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.600 got to have your deck, your data room, your financial 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.240 model is everything like really really clean. 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:26.840 And then. 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.439 Let's say that somebody cuts a check. You follow up 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:32.080 with people that may not have responded to you and 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.159 be like, hey, just bumping this up to catch up 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:35.600 to see what's going on. Why I'll let you know 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.359 this other person's in and it's about to close. So 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.199 you just want to keep keep following up like. 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.960 That and then all right, So the second part of 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.000 the question is can you explain what the is it 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.760 pitch day at waw Demo dad. 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.920 So demo Day? So So, something that I really like 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.879 about what Combinator is that they bet on first time founders. Right, 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:01.680 A lot of people don't they weren't born with a 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.720 network that well, they're not privileged, right, I didn't have 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:07.760 this network coming in here. And so what they'll do 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:12.160 is literally give you credibility so that you can raise money. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:14.879 I'm not saying that it's impossible without it, but and 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.679 there's other accelerators like five hundred Startups and tech Stars, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.160 hy Combinator is the most known for this. But essentially 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:24.640 they bet on you and what they'll do is they'll 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:28.240 create hype. So what's interesting about why Combinator is every 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.480 cohort so they do a summer batch, and a winner 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.879 batch has two to three companies that go public. So 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.760 the whole world knows that Y Combinator is so good 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.920 at picking companies and being selective on who applies that 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:45.359 there will be multiple billion dollar companies and each batch. 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.560 So what they do is they create a huge event 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:53.639 where all the biggest investors come and essentially create a 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:57.200 lot of fomo as well. So what a lot of 0:22:57.240 --> 0:22:59.040 investors will try to do will try to get to 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.480 the founders early year before demo day, and we're encouraged 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:05.679 to like wait until demo days so that you can 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:10.159 present and then have the highest valuation, which is important 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:13.679 so you're not diluting yourself which means giving away too 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:14.480 much ownership. 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.040 Yeah, let's talk about that. So, like obviously the demo day, 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:18.480 I'm sure it was a nerve recor day, but you 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:19.880 prepare for the first. 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:22.840 One, first one person in San Francisco. 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.800 How many people at that moment after with presentation do 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:28.760 they invest right on the spot? How does that work? 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.120 And when you spoke about evaluation, how is it measured there? 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:34.040 And if people don't know, can you tell them how 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:36.560 people or how evaluations actually calculated. 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:41.080 Some people do invest on the spot, so you know, 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:42.719 whenever you present a demo day, you're going to get 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:44.720 a lot of people that are gonna follow up and 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:46.439 show interest, and then it's on you to follow up 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:50.359 with all of them forever. You founder. It's different, but 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:53.560 just some people will do their deal beforehand. It really 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.240 it's up to you. They don't why combinator doesn't tell 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:57.960 you what you have to do. They just give you 0:23:57.960 --> 0:23:59.520 advice and it's up to you to take that advice 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:06.280 or not. From evaluation perspective, markets are crazy, like especially 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:09.400 right now. The market valuation right now is way higher 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.080 than it was when I was going through a combinator. 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.399 But just to understand, like quick and dirty evaluation stuff, 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:20.320 usually it's a function of ten x of your revenue. 0:24:20.560 --> 0:24:22.920 So like if you're i don't know, making ten million 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.000 a year, ten x is like one hundred million dollars valuation. 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:30.640 But usually y C companies aren't at that stage. That's 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:33.840 actually a later stage. Usually a lot of people are 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.880 pre revenue, have some traction, but not a ton of traction. 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:40.600 I think when we were when we were at in 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:42.800 White Company. Just so people have perspective, I'll just give 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:45.879 the number. We're at thirteen thousand a month. Just that 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:50.000 was a long time ago. And yeah wait wait, way back, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:54.040 way back, way back, so long ago. And what's interesting 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:57.600 is that you know it's not just about your revenue traction, 0:24:57.800 --> 0:25:01.480 so you're usually you want to be why Commeday encourages 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:03.480 you to make sure you have monthly revenue growth. The 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:06.080 only difference between startups and like everything else is growth 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:09.119 and momentum. So you want to be growing ten to 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:13.040 twenty percent monthly from a revenue perspective. Not everybody is 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:14.560 doing that, but like you want to just have that 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:17.920 number in your head because you know compounding is key. 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:21.600 But you're not just going to be evaluated on revenue. 0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:24.600 You're going to be evaluated on who's your team. Do 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:27.920 not apply to wh acommindator unless you have somebody that's technical. 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:31.640 I'm not technical. My co founders are technical. We knew 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:33.719 that if they decided they weren't going to be technical, 0:25:33.800 --> 0:25:35.760 I had to be technical. And the reason why is 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:38.480 because you don't want to be outsourcing your culture other people. 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:41.000 That gets expensive and it's just you don't have control 0:25:41.000 --> 0:25:45.199 about what's going on. So be evaluating your team outside 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:47.800 of technicals are going to be like, have you experienced 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:50.800 this problem before? So, like, if you're helping people get 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:53.040 good credit, like, have you had bad credit before? And 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:55.560 have you gotten out of it? So are you personally 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:57.560 invested in this? There's a difference between a job, a career, 0:25:57.600 --> 0:25:59.360 and a calling. This is a calling to me because 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:02.160 I've been through it before. Right, So have you done 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:06.399 this before? Who is your investor so far? Right? What 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:09.600 does your software look like? And many other things. And 0:26:09.720 --> 0:26:13.879 so essentially, when you think about valuation, another way to 0:26:13.920 --> 0:26:18.120 think about it is is there one percent chance likelihood 0:26:18.320 --> 0:26:22.240 of achieving this valuation and all the other factors are like, 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:26.000 it can increase that percentage chance of reaching the valuation 0:26:26.119 --> 0:26:30.840 makes sense, And so whenever you're raising money from investors, 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:34.320 they're actually going to be investing to own a piece 0:26:34.400 --> 0:26:37.680 of your company. So the more money that you raise, 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:40.240 if it's a low valuation, then like you actually like 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:44.159 lose more of your company. But usually you can think 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:46.040 about you're probably going to be giving up about twenty 0:26:46.080 --> 0:26:47.200 percent of your company in the beginning. 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:49.760 Yeah, and that's key because most people like they'll dilute 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:52.320 the company and give away ownership before they've ever made money. 0:26:52.520 --> 0:26:55.400 By the time they've raised it, they don't have they're 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:56.399 that majority anymore. 0:26:56.680 --> 0:26:59.400 Some people have no choice because they haven't been executing 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:02.440 and growing their company. Right, So you also got to 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:06.240 make sure your company doesn't die, all right. So for 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:08.080 the people that are looking to raise money, just be 0:27:08.160 --> 0:27:10.159 careful what you wish for. Like if you if you 0:27:10.280 --> 0:27:13.160 decide that you're going to raise money, you're not raising 0:27:13.240 --> 0:27:16.080 money to build one hundred million dollar company like I 0:27:16.200 --> 0:27:19.520 know you guys think in bees. I think in bees too, right, 0:27:19.920 --> 0:27:21.760 you know we tell you we don't. One of my 0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:24.879 mentors said, don't tip billions to out trillions, right to 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:27.800 create these like ten hundred billion dollar company, I think 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:30.240 very very big. And if you're not thinking like that, 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:33.560 don't invest, don't raise money from venture capital. You could 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:35.680 just start a lifestyle business and you can do friends 0:27:35.720 --> 0:27:39.199 and family stuff. It's not for everybody, so mhm. 0:27:39.480 --> 0:27:42.800 And just to wrap up the white comedy in the conversation, 0:27:44.040 --> 0:27:48.240 so the gentleman that runs it, he's black, right, Michael Seibel? 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:51.080 And how many people get accepted per year? 0:27:52.080 --> 0:27:54.199 It depends the cohorts are a little bit bigger. Now 0:27:54.960 --> 0:27:57.480 our cohort, I believe had about two hundred companies that 0:27:57.560 --> 0:28:01.680 were in there, but like in the beginning it was 0:28:01.720 --> 0:28:04.119 like ten ten people. But out of the two hundred 0:28:04.160 --> 0:28:06.640 is usually a much smaller percentag So yeah, it's about 0:28:06.640 --> 0:28:08.480 two hundred companies year, So it's a good amount of people. 0:28:08.520 --> 0:28:11.320 And it's not just in the US that you have 0:28:11.800 --> 0:28:14.879 Latin America, you have Africa. We talked about global stuff earlier, 0:28:15.000 --> 0:28:17.439 so it's from everywhere. It doesn't matter where you're located. 0:28:17.520 --> 0:28:20.080 So and there's some people that have applied seven times 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:22.280 right drop Dropbox is a good example of a company 0:28:22.320 --> 0:28:27.320 that got rejected the first time as well. And there's 0:28:27.320 --> 0:28:29.240 a lot of people that give up if they get rejected, 0:28:29.280 --> 0:28:30.800 which is I think is a very important thing to 0:28:30.960 --> 0:28:33.720 understand even in career navigation as well. 0:28:33.840 --> 0:28:40.680 Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe Right or dash Roppie Deal like those 0:28:40.680 --> 0:28:42.840 are all people that came from Just look at why 0:28:43.840 --> 0:28:46.800 and you'll see like they got hitters. Yeah, very important 0:28:46.800 --> 0:28:48.440 for people to understand and to know, you know, you 0:28:48.480 --> 0:28:49.840 don't know what you don't know, you don't know what 0:28:49.880 --> 0:28:52.760 you're doing, and you know that's what the whole platform 0:28:52.880 --> 0:28:56.480 is to educate people. So any tech founders that's looking 0:28:57.240 --> 0:29:00.840 for you know, startup help while looking to white. Yes, 0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:03.280 and it's actually being run by a black man. 0:29:03.440 --> 0:29:07.680 So yeah, one more thing before I see you mentioned, 0:29:07.800 --> 0:29:10.120 Like we talked a little bit about the angels. There 0:29:10.200 --> 0:29:12.560 are different types of funds. So in the beginning, you're 0:29:12.560 --> 0:29:15.360 gonna be looking at pre seed funds and seed funds 0:29:15.480 --> 0:29:18.360 that are usually gonna be cutting checks anywhere between, like 0:29:19.640 --> 0:29:22.320 on the lowest end, like I don't know, ten thousand, 0:29:23.000 --> 0:29:25.520 twenty five thousand, up to like maybe half a million 0:29:25.640 --> 0:29:28.480 at most, like a million dollar checks. So you have 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:31.800 seed funds and pre seed funds, but also take advantage 0:29:31.840 --> 0:29:35.160 of the diversity funds that are out there, take advantage 0:29:35.160 --> 0:29:36.720 of the funds that are focused on women in tech, 0:29:37.040 --> 0:29:38.520 take advantage of the impact funds. 0:29:38.560 --> 0:29:39.760 Can you talk about that a little bit. 0:29:40.560 --> 0:29:44.920 So one of our investors is Emerson Collective, right, So 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:51.320 that's Loreene Power Jobs. So it's a big fund. Who's it, 0:29:51.720 --> 0:29:52.760 Loreene Power Jobs. 0:29:52.920 --> 0:29:55.320 Steed Jobs is yes, sex wife. 0:29:55.200 --> 0:30:00.800 Yeah, yeah, and so she and she has a multi 0:30:00.920 --> 0:30:03.760 multi billion dollar fund, right and she's impact focused investor. 0:30:03.840 --> 0:30:07.160 So in the beginning, they gave us a six hundred 0:30:07.160 --> 0:30:09.720 thousand dollars check. All right, But we have another fund 0:30:10.240 --> 0:30:12.120 like Imaginable Future. 0:30:12.040 --> 0:30:13.720 It's an impact investor. 0:30:13.800 --> 0:30:20.040 So they're usually family offices, so like Imaginable Futures another investors, 0:30:20.120 --> 0:30:24.520 so they're the eBay founder Piero Medior so multi billiant 0:30:24.880 --> 0:30:27.120 billionaire as well, so he could have checked as well 0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:31.640 into this round. There's the founders of Pailocity, so they're 0:30:31.680 --> 0:30:35.360 usually just wealthy people that want to invest in, people 0:30:35.520 --> 0:30:39.800 that want to do good and what's cool about these days, 0:30:39.920 --> 0:30:42.560 and people that want to start companies At least our generation. 0:30:43.520 --> 0:30:45.400 We don't just want to create something that makes a 0:30:45.400 --> 0:30:47.880 lot of money. We're focused on solving problems that are 0:30:47.920 --> 0:30:49.920 for them. My SoCs hicky of needs. What you all 0:30:49.960 --> 0:30:53.280 are doing with EIL with financial literacy is like one 0:30:53.280 --> 0:30:56.200 of the most important issues out here for our people, 0:30:56.720 --> 0:30:58.960 and people will fund that type of stuff all day long. 0:31:00.040 --> 0:31:02.720 And the same thing with us, like career navigation, career development, 0:31:02.800 --> 0:31:05.440 like if if we don't help our people get tech skills, 0:31:05.800 --> 0:31:09.000 like we're gonna continue to be digital cout pickers forever 0:31:09.200 --> 0:31:11.960 because we're driving all this value for everybody else's platforms 0:31:12.080 --> 0:31:15.160 that we're not creating our own. And the jobs that 0:31:15.240 --> 0:31:17.600 we have like at warehouses or in retail companies, they're 0:31:17.640 --> 0:31:20.440 going to be taken over by robots and what are 0:31:20.480 --> 0:31:21.280 you going to do after that? 0:31:21.480 --> 0:31:24.520 So earners listen up. 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That's fun dri i se 0:32:59.000 --> 0:33:02.000 dot com slash leisure to have your first three months 0:33:02.040 --> 0:33:06.400 of fees wave again, that's fund rise dot com slash leisure. 0:33:06.640 --> 0:33:09.320 Don't wait, don't hesitate, Head over there now, got. 0:33:09.360 --> 0:33:09.880 To figure it out. 0:33:10.040 --> 0:33:12.600 Yeah, you spoke about something that I'm sure people if 0:33:12.640 --> 0:33:14.760 they read and they hear us talk a lot, they 0:33:14.760 --> 0:33:17.840 hear seed round seed round. Can you explain what the 0:33:17.880 --> 0:33:20.520 actual seed round is and how many seed rounds are 0:33:20.600 --> 0:33:23.480 needed or if they are needed to raise a certain 0:33:23.480 --> 0:33:24.480 amount of capital. 0:33:25.840 --> 0:33:28.080 Running the companies like running a child, right, So as 0:33:28.400 --> 0:33:32.040 a raising a child, it's not like there's a a 0:33:32.480 --> 0:33:34.880 book to raise kids, even though there are books to 0:33:35.000 --> 0:33:40.760 raise kids that give you guys, right, And so think 0:33:40.800 --> 0:33:44.920 about the the rounds kind of like in the beginning, 0:33:44.960 --> 0:33:47.360 like a friends or family round, right, So you're gonna 0:33:47.440 --> 0:33:49.800 hit these days where we can't take advantage of really 0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:52.800 cool things on the internet, where let's pretend that you know, 0:33:53.040 --> 0:33:54.920 you might hit up everybody in the neighborhood over here 0:33:55.240 --> 0:33:58.200 to give money. But then like you ran out of 0:33:58.240 --> 0:34:00.760 people that you know, you can leverage crowd funding things 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:03.920 like angelist and refunder and stuff like that, so that 0:34:04.040 --> 0:34:07.000 you can raise money from doctors and lawyers that want 0:34:07.040 --> 0:34:10.160 to invest into attack companies. That's usually going to be 0:34:10.480 --> 0:34:15.440 what you call a friends and family around, maybe music executives, 0:34:15.480 --> 0:34:18.600 athletes or stuff like that. Then you have your pre 0:34:18.680 --> 0:34:22.439 seed round that you might have an institutional investor, which 0:34:22.480 --> 0:34:25.279 will include somebody's like funds that I was telling you 0:34:25.360 --> 0:34:28.080 about before, Like one of ours is like unshackled A ventures. 0:34:28.480 --> 0:34:32.200 They they invest in immigrants, so that's like a really 0:34:32.239 --> 0:34:35.920 good one. Then you're in cap or Capital kp or 0:34:36.000 --> 0:34:39.320 Capital is like an impact investor. But they also invested 0:34:39.760 --> 0:34:43.080 in like uh Twiliyo for example, and Uber and many 0:34:43.120 --> 0:34:44.640 other things like that, so that they have big hits 0:34:44.680 --> 0:34:48.680 that they've that they've done very well. And then after 0:34:48.719 --> 0:34:50.960 that you'll do like your seed round, then Series A, 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:54.120 Series B, all the way till you go public. Going 0:34:54.160 --> 0:34:58.480 back to what you said about evaluation, if you want 0:34:58.480 --> 0:35:01.000 to build a billion dollar company, usually when you're raising 0:35:01.040 --> 0:35:02.560 your Series A, you're going to be in the two 0:35:02.719 --> 0:35:04.200 million dollars a year range. 0:35:04.520 --> 0:35:07.520 For the Series A making two million, making two million. 0:35:07.600 --> 0:35:11.160 Yeah, there's a difference between raising money and making money. 0:35:11.360 --> 0:35:14.360 I'm glad that you called that out because too many 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:18.319 times people are celebrating raising money, and I think it's 0:35:18.440 --> 0:35:21.120 very important for us to not highlight just that, which 0:35:21.160 --> 0:35:22.839 I love that you guys did with your intro, where 0:35:23.120 --> 0:35:26.440 we're focused on solving the problem whatever, make sure that 0:35:26.520 --> 0:35:31.200 you're actually making money as well. And two million a 0:35:31.320 --> 0:35:34.440 year is like the baseline for the A. Then you 0:35:34.480 --> 0:35:38.480 want to remember these these five numbers, triple triple double 0:35:38.520 --> 0:35:42.239 double double. Right, So so if you go your next year, 0:35:42.280 --> 0:35:44.880 you want to be shooting for six million, the year 0:35:44.880 --> 0:35:49.920 after that, eighteen million, the after that, thirty six seventy two, 0:35:50.480 --> 0:35:54.160 and then this one has some flexibility because then it's 0:35:54.160 --> 0:35:56.520 one hundred and forty four. But like at one hundred 0:35:56.560 --> 0:35:58.279 million a year, then you're a billion dollar company. That's 0:35:58.280 --> 0:35:59.440 probably when you're going to go public. 0:36:00.000 --> 0:36:02.040 Once you get one hundred ten exit you that's to 0:36:02.040 --> 0:36:02.880 a billion, that's right. 0:36:03.280 --> 0:36:08.040 And you know these days you're seeing twenty thirty fifty 0:36:08.120 --> 0:36:12.080 one hundred x revenue multiples. That was like the end 0:36:12.160 --> 0:36:14.279 of twenty twenty one, not twenty twenty two. You see 0:36:14.280 --> 0:36:18.000 what's going on the public markets. You know, so'st it's 0:36:18.000 --> 0:36:21.279 a little cool, cool cooler, but it'll come back. 0:36:21.440 --> 0:36:23.120 But like so when we spoke to John Henry, he 0:36:23.239 --> 0:36:26.560 was saying that, you know, depending on what kind of 0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:28.399 company you can have, they could even have much higher. 0:36:28.719 --> 0:36:32.360 Oh yeah, so like any AI is like twenty percent 0:36:32.640 --> 0:36:35.280 twenty five percent, I mean twenty five times. 0:36:35.719 --> 0:36:39.239 It depends, yeah, evaluation, It really depends. Like you have 0:36:39.360 --> 0:36:42.880 to like look at, okay, what are the public company comparables? 0:36:42.920 --> 0:36:44.920 This is where like the investment making Dodge comes in Like, 0:36:45.280 --> 0:36:49.560 so you know, investors are like pattern matches, so like 0:36:49.840 --> 0:36:52.880 what could this company be, right, what's the future of it? 0:36:53.000 --> 0:36:54.719 So like something that we would say all the time 0:36:54.800 --> 0:36:56.600 is like we're like booking dot Com for your career 0:36:57.160 --> 0:37:00.839 because you're comparable. That's my comparable. That's a very big one, right. 0:37:02.360 --> 0:37:04.399 But there's others like if I have the community side 0:37:04.440 --> 0:37:07.960 of things, there's like dual Lingo, which is public, right, 0:37:08.320 --> 0:37:10.000 and they have a big community piece where there's like 0:37:10.480 --> 0:37:12.759 over five hundred million monthly at the viewsers, but the 0:37:12.880 --> 0:37:16.800 very small percentage of them that they monetize. Right. You 0:37:16.880 --> 0:37:21.000 have Zilo as well, which is a marketplace, and many 0:37:21.080 --> 0:37:23.360 other things like that. And so to your point, you know, 0:37:23.480 --> 0:37:26.400 depending on which company that you're trying to evaluate compare 0:37:26.440 --> 0:37:28.920 yourself against, you want to be have an understanding if 0:37:29.000 --> 0:37:31.359 not just public companies, but also private companies as well. 0:37:31.640 --> 0:37:32.200 Oh gotcha. 0:37:32.320 --> 0:37:33.880 Yeah, so I'm thinking like now, if they're looking at 0:37:34.040 --> 0:37:37.000 like at Uyol University, they might say like they could 0:37:37.040 --> 0:37:38.560 be the next check or something like that. 0:37:39.080 --> 0:37:42.920 Yeah chack, yes, good one check Courserra you to me 0:37:43.000 --> 0:37:45.560 that just went public exactly because gotcha? 0:37:46.840 --> 0:37:51.640 Okay, So all right, So now going back to career karma, 0:37:52.200 --> 0:37:56.879 so you you go through all of that, Now, what's 0:37:56.960 --> 0:38:00.840 the beginning stages of actually getting career karma up running 0:38:00.840 --> 0:38:01.520 to where it is? Now? 0:38:01.760 --> 0:38:05.239 Such a good question. One of the first one of 0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:07.480 the first things that they teach you that I see 0:38:07.640 --> 0:38:11.040 is doing things that don't scale all right. So a 0:38:11.080 --> 0:38:13.880 lot of people, even though they encourage you to like 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:17.120 have a technical co founder, they go straight into coding 0:38:17.200 --> 0:38:20.160 a solution for the problem in the beginning. You want 0:38:20.200 --> 0:38:23.320 to do things that are manual, right, So what's the 0:38:23.400 --> 0:38:25.920 first thing that we did. We started inviting people to 0:38:26.040 --> 0:38:30.080 our house. Andy'd be like, Yo, pull up, what's going on? 0:38:30.880 --> 0:38:34.160 What what what's your career goal? What's your number one problem? 0:38:34.480 --> 0:38:35.400 And what's your timeline? 0:38:35.440 --> 0:38:35.560 Oh? 0:38:35.680 --> 0:38:37.320 Talk about So you said that they teach you to 0:38:37.440 --> 0:38:39.800 do things that aren't scalable. 0:38:39.440 --> 0:38:42.120 In the beginning. Why is that so that you could 0:38:42.239 --> 0:38:44.399 really understand the pain points all the way? 0:38:45.920 --> 0:38:46.040 Right? 0:38:46.080 --> 0:38:48.720 This is a very important So Paul Graham and Jessica 0:38:48.760 --> 0:38:51.600 Livingston started by a combinator for if you want to 0:38:51.680 --> 0:38:55.480 really learn the game, read us all free, essays Paul 0:38:55.560 --> 0:38:58.840 Graham's essays, It's literally like the Startup Bible like read that. 0:38:59.440 --> 0:39:01.880 There's also how to Start a Startup by Sam Autman. 0:39:02.239 --> 0:39:05.360 Read that Read zero to One by Peter Till I 0:39:05.440 --> 0:39:08.480 got that on my booklet fire Like that all teaches 0:39:08.480 --> 0:39:10.080 you the game on how to think about this stuff. 0:39:10.600 --> 0:39:12.960 That's all the stuff that starts studying but doing things 0:39:13.000 --> 0:39:14.319 that don't scale. It is like one of the most 0:39:14.360 --> 0:39:17.360 important concepts to understand because it gets you in the 0:39:17.440 --> 0:39:18.880 trench just to know what's going on. It's like what 0:39:18.960 --> 0:39:22.200 you guys are doing now through doing all these interviews 0:39:22.200 --> 0:39:24.200 and talking to people. It's like when we started the podcast, 0:39:24.520 --> 0:39:28.719 I knew the pain points that people felt consistently in 0:39:28.800 --> 0:39:31.040 addition to my own personal pain points going through it, 0:39:31.239 --> 0:39:34.880 So then I knew what the MVP was supposed to 0:39:34.960 --> 0:39:37.920 look like. Right, And what you do is, let's say 0:39:37.960 --> 0:39:41.480 that I don't want to coach something and I want 0:39:41.520 --> 0:39:44.560 to do a paper wireframe. I could literally draw up 0:39:44.640 --> 0:39:46.399 mockups of what it would look like in an app 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:48.719 and be like, hey, would you use this and try it? 0:39:49.160 --> 0:39:51.360 And then you will be watching him to see how 0:39:51.400 --> 0:39:53.320 he's using it, where he gets stuck, where he's confused, 0:39:53.680 --> 0:39:55.879 and then you can like iterate on it. And then 0:39:56.000 --> 0:39:58.319 once you have an understanding of like how it works, 0:39:58.560 --> 0:39:59.960 then you start coding stuff up. 0:40:00.560 --> 0:40:02.360 So if you scale too fast, you might miss some 0:40:02.440 --> 0:40:05.440 of those pain points. You miss some of those points detrimental. 0:40:05.640 --> 0:40:08.759 The ability to talk to your users is one of 0:40:08.800 --> 0:40:11.000 the most magical things. You always want to be writing 0:40:11.080 --> 0:40:13.080 code and you always want to be talking to users. 0:40:13.239 --> 0:40:15.440 And a lot of people after they raise money, they 0:40:15.560 --> 0:40:18.719 stopped talking to people, They stopped talking to their using 0:40:18.760 --> 0:40:20.680 They just get caught up and running the business, which 0:40:20.960 --> 0:40:23.560 is challenging whenever you're at this scale, right with millions 0:40:23.600 --> 0:40:25.160 of people coming to you and all these things. But 0:40:25.600 --> 0:40:27.520 you know what's cool about having audio rooms is like, 0:40:27.920 --> 0:40:29.719 I'm going to be on an audio room today with 0:40:29.920 --> 0:40:33.000 Arlen Hamilton talking to over a thousand people in our room, 0:40:33.400 --> 0:40:35.360 and they can always feel like they can talk to me. 0:40:36.000 --> 0:40:36.200 See. 0:40:36.440 --> 0:40:37.960 So, what are some things that's not scaling? 0:40:38.000 --> 0:40:42.000 So you said events, Events is a good example, signing 0:40:42.040 --> 0:40:45.360 them up to spreadsheets, putting them in we had, we 0:40:45.440 --> 0:40:48.000 had telegra. So I'll tell you this is how it happened. 0:40:48.000 --> 0:40:51.279 In the beginning. People come to our office, they'll share 0:40:51.320 --> 0:40:53.400 what their goals were, what their pain points were, tell 0:40:53.480 --> 0:40:55.800 us the career that they wanted and what time on 0:40:55.960 --> 0:40:58.320 that they did. We'll sign them up on a spreadsheet. 0:40:58.480 --> 0:41:01.080 We'll put them in a telego group, which is kind 0:41:01.080 --> 0:41:03.800 of like signal. Put them in a telegram group, and 0:41:03.880 --> 0:41:06.479 then we would help them, would monitor them, were like, okay, 0:41:06.640 --> 0:41:08.719 apply to this school, apply to that school, get in 0:41:08.800 --> 0:41:11.239 and out. And then once we understood what the motion was, 0:41:11.320 --> 0:41:15.080 we actually cloned telegram and then we put profiles on 0:41:15.160 --> 0:41:17.719 top of it, and then we eventually like turned it 0:41:17.840 --> 0:41:20.920 into the basics of what we had in the beginning 0:41:21.200 --> 0:41:23.279 before it became a marketplace in all each other stuff. 0:41:23.520 --> 0:41:24.239 So you got all that. 0:41:24.560 --> 0:41:27.239 So at this point, like you said, most people don't 0:41:27.360 --> 0:41:30.080 they raise money, but they forget that they have to 0:41:30.120 --> 0:41:32.400 make money. So how if you guys making money in 0:41:32.440 --> 0:41:33.480 the early stages. 0:41:33.880 --> 0:41:36.919 Yeah, So we've always we always wanted to think about 0:41:37.120 --> 0:41:38.880 when you're building a marketplace, which is a type of 0:41:38.920 --> 0:41:41.520 business that we're running. It's not an air business. Were 0:41:41.520 --> 0:41:44.319 thinking about a marketplace, you have to pick a side, 0:41:44.760 --> 0:41:48.120 like who are you going to serve? Right, Ernest? 0:41:48.160 --> 0:41:48.480 What's up? 0:41:48.600 --> 0:41:51.560 You ever walk into a small business and everything just works, 0:41:52.000 --> 0:41:54.360 like the checkout is fast, the re seats are digital 0:41:54.960 --> 0:41:57.879 tipping is a breeze and you're out the door before 0:41:57.920 --> 0:42:02.040 the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We 0:42:02.239 --> 0:42:04.719 love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just 0:42:04.800 --> 0:42:08.040 feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor 0:42:08.080 --> 0:42:10.319 at a pop up market, or even one of our 0:42:10.440 --> 0:42:14.040 merch partners, Square makes it easy for them to take payments, 0:42:14.280 --> 0:42:18.000 manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from 0:42:18.120 --> 0:42:21.479 one simple system. If you're a business owner or even 0:42:21.600 --> 0:42:25.120 just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down 0:42:25.160 --> 0:42:27.440 one of the best tools out there to help you start, 0:42:27.880 --> 0:42:31.440 run and grow. It's not just about payments, it's about 0:42:31.480 --> 0:42:33.840 giving you time back so you can focus on what 0:42:34.080 --> 0:42:37.680 matters most ready. To see how Square can transform your business, 0:42:38.000 --> 0:42:42.600 visit Square dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn 0:42:42.680 --> 0:42:47.839 more that Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. 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So we're like, we actually don't 0:44:49.320 --> 0:44:52.480 want to charge workers nothing because they've already got one 0:44:52.480 --> 0:44:55.120 point eight trillion the student loans. You know, a lot 0:44:55.160 --> 0:44:56.640 of them are already in debt. They've been played by 0:44:56.719 --> 0:44:58.440 so many people. We want to make sure that we 0:44:58.480 --> 0:45:02.279 build trust because like that's way more valuable their money. Okay, 0:45:02.520 --> 0:45:05.920 so how you're going to make money though? Right? So 0:45:06.440 --> 0:45:11.000 what we learn is that there's thousands of schools, not 0:45:11.160 --> 0:45:14.120 just in the US but globally, and they spend billions 0:45:14.160 --> 0:45:18.319 of dollars a year to get enrollments. Look at where 0:45:18.320 --> 0:45:20.600 we are right now. You probably heard about the Great resignation. 0:45:21.800 --> 0:45:25.760 Have over ten million open jobs, four million people quitting jobs. 0:45:26.320 --> 0:45:29.000 And why are they quitting their jobs? Because they don't 0:45:29.000 --> 0:45:30.960 want to go back to the jobs that are in 0:45:31.040 --> 0:45:33.319 the factories that don't allow them to work from home 0:45:33.400 --> 0:45:36.080 and take advantage of remote work and be with their kids. Right. 0:45:36.800 --> 0:45:40.240 They want to get these type jobs. And what's happening 0:45:40.560 --> 0:45:46.239 is the colleges. Historically, when you have recessionary behavior, which 0:45:46.280 --> 0:45:50.960 we had we're entering into year three of COVID, you 0:45:50.960 --> 0:45:53.600 would see actually college enrollment going up because people want 0:45:53.640 --> 0:45:56.440 to go back to school in order to get a 0:45:56.600 --> 0:45:59.399 job that pays well. The problem is, just like people 0:45:59.440 --> 0:46:01.960 don't trust higher education no more. They don't want to 0:46:02.000 --> 0:46:05.440 pay fifty thousand a year to go to college if 0:46:05.480 --> 0:46:08.640 there's no guarantee of a job anywhere. To be very clear, 0:46:08.760 --> 0:46:12.160 I'm not saying I'm anti college, but college is starting 0:46:12.160 --> 0:46:14.319 to recognize that they need to innovate because they don't 0:46:14.320 --> 0:46:17.600 want their enrollments to stop keep dropping. So what they're 0:46:17.640 --> 0:46:20.680 doing is not just launching shorter, faster and cheaper models 0:46:20.800 --> 0:46:22.320 that train you to get a job in three to 0:46:22.400 --> 0:46:25.120 twelve months like Trilogy and things like that and My 0:46:25.200 --> 0:46:28.759 Homies at to You and My Homies at Chair. They're 0:46:28.800 --> 0:46:33.160 spending a lot of money to attract students not just 0:46:33.280 --> 0:46:38.040 on Google and Facebook, but also through virtual events and 0:46:38.120 --> 0:46:42.520 stuff like that. This is an interesting stat that Shama says. 0:46:43.040 --> 0:46:44.959 I don't know if it's still the same, but he says, 0:46:45.000 --> 0:46:48.040 like forty cents of every VC dollar raised goes to 0:46:48.120 --> 0:46:53.040 Google and Facebook, and that's paid advertising to attract users. 0:46:53.560 --> 0:46:55.279 And similar to and the reason why people do this 0:46:55.360 --> 0:46:58.600 because there's so many apps that are out there in 0:46:58.760 --> 0:47:02.600 order to get users get seen. You know, zero to 0:47:02.680 --> 0:47:08.920 one says just you know, it says essentially like when 0:47:08.920 --> 0:47:12.120 you build a product. I'm messing up the quote, but 0:47:12.160 --> 0:47:15.000 essentially like building the product is not enough. You have 0:47:15.040 --> 0:47:16.600 to actually get it out to people. And a lot 0:47:16.600 --> 0:47:18.600 of people think building a good product loaners will gets 0:47:18.640 --> 0:47:20.719 you where you want to go. And the last thing 0:47:20.760 --> 0:47:23.759 that I'm going to say here is just that colleges 0:47:24.360 --> 0:47:26.600 and boot camps started spending a lot of money in 0:47:26.719 --> 0:47:29.000 order to attract users, and so we decided, in order 0:47:29.000 --> 0:47:32.239 to make money, we would charge for every enrollment in 0:47:32.280 --> 0:47:34.600 the beginning to prove that it worked. So we charged 0:47:34.600 --> 0:47:36.200 about ten percent of the tuition. 0:47:36.239 --> 0:47:37.200 So you're charging the schools. 0:47:37.320 --> 0:47:39.640 We charged the schools teen percent for every enrollment of 0:47:39.719 --> 0:47:42.360 their tuition, and the tuition would range between ten to 0:47:42.400 --> 0:47:45.120 fifty thousand a year. So who's the first school that 0:47:45.200 --> 0:47:48.759 you went after it was interesting. So before I see 0:47:48.840 --> 0:47:52.280 we started a podcast. The first school was actually hack Reactor. 0:47:52.640 --> 0:47:55.960 So hack Reactor was a school that my my co 0:47:56.120 --> 0:48:01.000 founder Archer went to and they were five thousand months, 0:48:01.000 --> 0:48:02.680 so it's about sixty thousand a year. We're like, wow, 0:48:02.719 --> 0:48:05.120 sixty thousand a year from one school, Like how much 0:48:05.120 --> 0:48:07.480 do other schools pay? And like some schools pay hundreds 0:48:07.480 --> 0:48:09.800 of millions of dollars a year. That's how we discovered 0:48:09.840 --> 0:48:13.280 this market. And now that we're going to high education, 0:48:13.400 --> 0:48:16.799 we're realizing that it's not just par enrollment. You want 0:48:16.840 --> 0:48:18.520 to do a per introduction. So now we've moved to 0:48:18.560 --> 0:48:20.719 a per introduction model, so we can do like really 0:48:20.760 --> 0:48:24.840 interesting things like dynamic pricing. So if you're interested in 0:48:26.360 --> 0:48:30.080 a data science program, you might be interested in an 0:48:30.360 --> 0:48:34.000 economics degree or a math degreer statistics degree, So we 0:48:34.120 --> 0:48:37.480 can charge different schools different prices based off of what 0:48:37.719 --> 0:48:39.240 the individuals can study. 0:48:39.920 --> 0:48:41.920 Like that all right, So like if I'm going to NYU, 0:48:42.120 --> 0:48:45.719 the tuition is sixty thousand, ten percent of that is 0:48:45.760 --> 0:48:47.640 going to if I enrolled, but I could be more 0:48:47.680 --> 0:48:51.160 if I decide to study, like get my doctorate in 0:48:51.320 --> 0:48:52.240 something gotcha? 0:48:52.680 --> 0:48:54.440 So how do you put together your curriculum and what 0:48:54.760 --> 0:48:58.000 is your curriculum to actually get them trained? 0:48:58.600 --> 0:49:01.440 So we actually are in the school. We are the 0:49:01.480 --> 0:49:03.640 platform that matches people to the curriculums. 0:49:04.680 --> 0:49:06.040 So where's the curriculums coming from? 0:49:06.920 --> 0:49:09.200 So we actually built the directory of four hundred for 0:49:09.239 --> 0:49:12.280 the boot camps, seven thousand trade schools, colleges and universities, 0:49:12.560 --> 0:49:15.440 so kind of like glass Door. What we've done is 0:49:15.520 --> 0:49:19.080 we've organized directory of different schools and we have reviews 0:49:19.800 --> 0:49:22.440 from other students that kind of like the Better Business 0:49:22.480 --> 0:49:25.600 Bureau to show that they're credible. Every student puts pros 0:49:25.640 --> 0:49:29.080 and cons about what's going on. They upload projects, and 0:49:29.200 --> 0:49:33.920 they show ultimately where people are getting jobs by school. 0:49:34.400 --> 0:49:35.920 So when people come to career come or if you 0:49:35.960 --> 0:49:40.120 go to career combat Complash apply, you'll say what career 0:49:40.200 --> 0:49:42.759 path you're interested in, or if you don't know, and 0:49:43.040 --> 0:49:44.960 let's say that you do say that what you're interested in. 0:49:45.360 --> 0:49:48.960 Will recommend about three to five schools to you that 0:49:49.080 --> 0:49:52.319 are best for your desired timeline, and then you'll start 0:49:52.400 --> 0:49:55.400 talking to them. To those schools, you're usually not going 0:49:55.480 --> 0:49:57.160 to make a decision about what school you want to 0:49:57.200 --> 0:49:59.400 go to in the beginning, because you're not going to 0:49:59.400 --> 0:50:02.120 make a left tain decision that fast. Then you're going 0:50:02.200 --> 0:50:04.000 to start talking to people in our community that actually 0:50:04.000 --> 0:50:06.919 attended the schools, so that you're not just hearing people 0:50:07.040 --> 0:50:09.120 just I mean, if I want to go to Rashade's 0:50:09.120 --> 0:50:10.719 Cold School, of course you're going to say you're the best, 0:50:10.880 --> 0:50:12.400 but you want to talk to people that actually went 0:50:12.480 --> 0:50:15.600 through it. And so usually it takes people about a 0:50:15.719 --> 0:50:17.560 month in order to make a decision about where they 0:50:17.600 --> 0:50:20.239 want to go. And then if you're doing something full time, 0:50:20.320 --> 0:50:24.799 it'll take you three to six months to get a job. 0:50:25.760 --> 0:50:27.799 If you're doing something part time in six to twelve months, 0:50:28.000 --> 0:50:30.120 and if you do something self paces twelve to twenty 0:50:30.160 --> 0:50:33.640 four months. So but to your point, in our platform, 0:50:33.719 --> 0:50:37.200 we do have some like quizzes to like help you, 0:50:37.360 --> 0:50:39.640 like personality tests to understand what you're interested in. We 0:50:39.800 --> 0:50:42.640 do have a mini boot camp where if you want 0:50:42.719 --> 0:50:46.600 to build a clone of YouTube, we've done that as well, 0:50:46.680 --> 0:50:48.480 so you can do it and that will automatically get 0:50:48.480 --> 0:50:51.000 you accepted into different schools. But we never want to 0:50:51.040 --> 0:50:53.319 be a school. So being a school is not how 0:50:53.360 --> 0:50:54.720 you create a monopoly in education. 0:50:55.200 --> 0:50:58.840 So you. The schools pay you to bring in people. 0:50:59.080 --> 0:51:03.440 Yeah right, they get training from you, Yeah, they match it. 0:51:04.040 --> 0:51:06.600 But the career part, so like after they completed, now 0:51:06.640 --> 0:51:08.359 they got to get the job. That's why you're still 0:51:08.440 --> 0:51:10.799 involved with that process of them actually getting the job. 0:51:10.920 --> 0:51:14.759 Yes, so we're a career navigation platform. So we're the 0:51:14.800 --> 0:51:19.160 wrap around service around everything. And so it's interesting that 0:51:19.239 --> 0:51:22.160 you say this because the guys that let our series 0:51:22.280 --> 0:51:24.160 be is top tier capital partners. The people that let 0:51:24.200 --> 0:51:27.239 our series A is an initialist capital. It's Gary Tan. 0:51:27.960 --> 0:51:30.719 Gary Tan actually built book Phase for y Combinator, which 0:51:30.760 --> 0:51:36.600 is the internal directory for YC. And Gary calls career 0:51:36.640 --> 0:51:41.120 karma y Combinator for the people where why combinator bets 0:51:41.160 --> 0:51:43.239 on first time founders and career karma bets on people 0:51:43.280 --> 0:51:45.319 for the first time. So not only do we want 0:51:45.360 --> 0:51:47.719 to say that again slows down that. 0:51:49.239 --> 0:51:50.120 That's good, that's good, st. 0:51:50.360 --> 0:51:53.640 Why combinator bets on first time founders and career karma 0:51:53.719 --> 0:51:56.200 bets on people for the first time. Thank you for 0:51:56.320 --> 0:51:59.719 letting let me catch on. And so what's interesting about 0:51:59.719 --> 0:52:02.000 it is, and I'm glad that you're calling this out, 0:52:02.160 --> 0:52:04.360 is we don't want people to think that we just 0:52:04.400 --> 0:52:06.719 send people to schools and we leave them alone after. 0:52:07.400 --> 0:52:10.600 We want to be there with you before, during, and 0:52:10.800 --> 0:52:13.759 after the program, and even after you're employed. If you 0:52:13.840 --> 0:52:16.080 ever want to do something like start a company, we 0:52:16.160 --> 0:52:19.160 could help you get connected to that or change company. 0:52:19.239 --> 0:52:21.480 We can help you do that through our audio rooms. 0:52:22.200 --> 0:52:24.239 So yes, so I'll just. 0:52:24.239 --> 0:52:25.960 That one one more thing, because you said, this is 0:52:26.000 --> 0:52:28.320 your quote. You said, this is probably the greatest reallocation 0:52:28.440 --> 0:52:29.719 of labor since World War Two. 0:52:29.920 --> 0:52:35.279 That's right, that's right. So during World War Two. What's 0:52:35.440 --> 0:52:38.279 very interesting about that is the government got involved and 0:52:38.360 --> 0:52:42.439 they created the the GI Bill, right So the GI 0:52:42.560 --> 0:52:48.440 Bill essentially paid for the education for veterans. Right now, 0:52:48.640 --> 0:52:53.400 obviously the government's really focused on healthcare stuff after that. 0:52:53.560 --> 0:52:56.560 You know, they've started touching on positive student loan payments 0:52:56.640 --> 0:53:00.120 or whatever. When Obama was in power, there was the 0:53:00.280 --> 0:53:04.120 WOA Act, which is the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. But 0:53:04.440 --> 0:53:08.920 like this real focus on reskilling hasn't happened yet. In 0:53:09.000 --> 0:53:11.600 my opinion, something that the CEO of Check says, Dan 0:53:11.680 --> 0:53:13.680 Rosen's like I'm gonna give him shout out. He says, 0:53:13.719 --> 0:53:15.840 bet on the inevitable. My opinion is going to be 0:53:15.960 --> 0:53:20.640 inevitable for government to get involved to help its citizens reskill. 0:53:20.800 --> 0:53:24.320 Why because every politician measures themselves on getting jobs for 0:53:24.440 --> 0:53:30.239 their different cities and countries and whatever, and so you're 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:34.200 already starting to see different workforce boards get involved with 0:53:34.680 --> 0:53:38.400 laptop programs or skill programs or Wi Fi hot spots. 0:53:39.280 --> 0:53:43.160 And in my opinion, the student loan bubble will pop 0:53:43.200 --> 0:53:45.320 at some point and the cost of education will go 0:53:45.440 --> 0:53:51.440 down and will be primarily funded by government, philanthropy and employers. 0:53:53.040 --> 0:53:53.920 Well, I'll go back to that. 0:53:54.120 --> 0:53:58.799 Yeah, guys, you said that you said had a monopologe. 0:53:58.880 --> 0:54:01.520 Education is not through talk about that. 0:54:01.920 --> 0:54:06.560 Yeah, so zero one. It's very important to understand because 0:54:06.600 --> 0:54:10.960 like something that people talk about is TAM right, total 0:54:11.040 --> 0:54:14.319 addressable market. So whenever you want to what does that mean? 0:54:14.760 --> 0:54:17.279 So whenever you're raising a starting a company and you're 0:54:17.280 --> 0:54:19.319 coming up with your idea for what you want to solve, 0:54:20.360 --> 0:54:22.040 if you want to build a billion dollar company, you 0:54:22.120 --> 0:54:25.839 want to build something that has an addressable market that's 0:54:25.880 --> 0:54:28.960 big enough. So let me give you an example. Let's 0:54:28.960 --> 0:54:31.919 say that you want to build an app for people 0:54:32.040 --> 0:54:34.799 that like to play polo. That world is small, right, 0:54:34.840 --> 0:54:37.320 The people that want to play polo, but the people 0:54:37.440 --> 0:54:40.759 that ride horses is probably bigger than that. I don't 0:54:40.760 --> 0:54:42.560 know if that's a billion dollar company or the people 0:54:42.640 --> 0:54:45.600 that play sports in general. Outside sports in general is 0:54:45.680 --> 0:54:48.160 much bigger, so that TAM is a lot larger. But 0:54:49.200 --> 0:54:52.440 you know there's riches and niches, right, So you can 0:54:52.560 --> 0:54:54.560 start with the people that play polo if you're a 0:54:54.600 --> 0:54:57.680 polo player, because if you lock that down, then that 0:54:57.800 --> 0:55:04.960 allows you to take over the outside sports right, exactly exactly. 0:55:05.440 --> 0:55:07.439 And I was in Argentina and I found out about 0:55:07.520 --> 0:55:10.680 Ladelfina and all these other things like that and so similar. 0:55:10.680 --> 0:55:12.920 The reason why I bring this up is because the. 0:55:13.000 --> 0:55:16.480 Two Nike or Nike right started as a running company. 0:55:16.520 --> 0:55:20.360 Exactly and then they expend it right, so similar like 0:55:20.520 --> 0:55:20.920 with us. 0:55:21.080 --> 0:55:21.200 Right. 0:55:21.360 --> 0:55:25.640 So the the two point six trillion dollar post secondary 0:55:25.760 --> 0:55:29.359 education and workforce market is massive, but the boot camp 0:55:29.440 --> 0:55:33.680 market is five hundred million something like that. So in 0:55:33.719 --> 0:55:35.719 the beginning when we were raising, a big pushback is 0:55:35.760 --> 0:55:38.480 like that market is too small. So as a founder, 0:55:38.480 --> 0:55:41.520 you got to be able to communicate our beach head market, 0:55:42.560 --> 0:55:45.520 take over boot camps, and then take over the rest 0:55:45.560 --> 0:55:47.439 of the stuff. Why do we focus on boot camps, 0:55:47.440 --> 0:55:53.400 because boot camps are the the the the fastest growing 0:55:53.480 --> 0:55:58.080 post their education market model that traditional education players are copying. 0:55:58.360 --> 0:56:01.520 And now you know, fast far to today, everybody's copying it. 0:56:01.560 --> 0:56:03.880 Nobody knew the pandemic was going to hit. The pandemic 0:56:04.040 --> 0:56:07.520 just proved us right, and now you know, with the 0:56:07.560 --> 0:56:10.560 main player, we're sixteen times bigger than everybody else because 0:56:10.600 --> 0:56:17.520 of that. Going back to the piece about monopoly, be 0:56:17.640 --> 0:56:25.279 careful about monopoly. In the book it talks about it 0:56:25.400 --> 0:56:28.719 talks about if you want to build a company that 0:56:28.960 --> 0:56:34.760 dominates a market, you want to figure out a software 0:56:34.920 --> 0:56:38.319 solution that can be a layer across across these things. 0:56:38.400 --> 0:56:41.120 So think about, like my father's a physician, so he 0:56:41.760 --> 0:56:45.360 if you're going to build a hospital, you can't build 0:56:45.360 --> 0:56:48.640 a hospital that heals the entire world. One hospital that 0:56:48.719 --> 0:56:51.120 heals the world, because it's so complex, right, there's just 0:56:51.200 --> 0:56:53.120 so many different versions of cancer. You're not gonna do 0:56:53.200 --> 0:56:56.239 that with one hospital. But you can build a platform 0:56:56.840 --> 0:57:00.360 that heals the world by connecting to every type of 0:57:00.480 --> 0:57:05.960 healthcare clinic and healthcare institution that serves people with various 0:57:06.000 --> 0:57:09.640 needs all over the world. Soon And so if I 0:57:09.800 --> 0:57:13.239 want to help a billion people through careercom which is 0:57:13.320 --> 0:57:15.360 our mission. We want to connect the world's talent to 0:57:15.480 --> 0:57:18.760 us next opportunity. Then I can't do it by starting 0:57:18.840 --> 0:57:21.200 the school. As much as I love education, my sister's 0:57:21.200 --> 0:57:24.240 a teacher, I want to build a school, but I can't. 0:57:24.320 --> 0:57:25.920 That's not how I'm gonna I want to see this 0:57:26.000 --> 0:57:27.120 in my life. So I want to help a billion 0:57:27.120 --> 0:57:29.120 people in my lifestyle. The only way I could do 0:57:29.160 --> 0:57:31.360 that is through software and connecting to the schools, connecting 0:57:31.440 --> 0:57:32.880 to companies, and connecting to the people. 0:57:33.840 --> 0:57:34.000 You know. 0:57:34.720 --> 0:57:38.120 You said employer paid tuition something that's coming in the future, 0:57:39.200 --> 0:57:41.360 but most people are here that like, oh, it's too closely, 0:57:41.720 --> 0:57:43.520 but it actually it could be a benefit. Can you 0:57:43.560 --> 0:57:46.560 talk about why employers should be actually thinking this model 0:57:46.840 --> 0:57:49.560 before this which it segues into it. 0:57:49.680 --> 0:57:52.960 So when I was in Demo dem not only did 0:57:53.000 --> 0:57:55.040 I talk about that, we launched in traction. I talked 0:57:55.080 --> 0:57:57.040 about how three hundred and seventy five million workers are 0:57:57.080 --> 0:58:00.080 going to switch careers between now and twenty thirty that 0:58:00.160 --> 0:58:01.720 are going back to college. They're going to go to 0:58:01.840 --> 0:58:04.200 job training programs to find the next jobs. I talked 0:58:04.200 --> 0:58:09.080 about how income share agreements are changing the landscape. What 0:58:09.200 --> 0:58:12.920 does that mean. It means that historically, when people go 0:58:13.040 --> 0:58:15.960 to school, they either pay for it out of pocket, 0:58:16.480 --> 0:58:19.200 they take out a loan, or they get government funding 0:58:19.280 --> 0:58:23.920 or they get a scholarship. There are two things called 0:58:23.960 --> 0:58:28.240 income share agreements and deferred tuition. So income share agreements 0:58:28.280 --> 0:58:31.360 in defer tuition are a promised where it says, hit Troy, 0:58:31.560 --> 0:58:34.000 I promise I'm going to get you a job. If 0:58:34.040 --> 0:58:36.240 you don't get a job through my training, you don't 0:58:36.240 --> 0:58:38.480 have to pay me anything. But if you do get 0:58:38.520 --> 0:58:40.600 a job that's in the lane that you want to 0:58:40.640 --> 0:58:43.400 be in, then the tuition comes out of your new 0:58:43.520 --> 0:58:47.960 salary up to whatever maximum did I tell you, right? 0:58:48.840 --> 0:58:50.840 And what's cool about that is like literally you can 0:58:50.880 --> 0:58:52.960 try any type of education that you want to. If 0:58:53.000 --> 0:58:54.800 you don't get a job, you don't pay anything. And 0:58:54.880 --> 0:58:56.760 so most of people that come to career CROMA they 0:58:56.840 --> 0:59:01.160 do either an income share agreement or defer tuition option. Okay, Now, 0:59:01.800 --> 0:59:05.520 the employer thing is very interesting because it also fits 0:59:05.560 --> 0:59:12.240 into the great resignation stuff. Employees have the power and 0:59:12.320 --> 0:59:14.320 contractors have the power these days. 0:59:14.800 --> 0:59:14.880 And. 0:59:16.400 --> 0:59:18.360 What a lot of employers are starting to do. Part 0:59:18.400 --> 0:59:20.880 of the reason why employers pay for your healthcare, which 0:59:20.920 --> 0:59:22.720 is the big reason why people go there is because 0:59:23.040 --> 0:59:25.640 you know, people will work in factories and things like that, 0:59:26.200 --> 0:59:28.919 and if they get injured, they you know, and people 0:59:28.960 --> 0:59:30.920 want to have start families and retire and things like that. 0:59:31.080 --> 0:59:32.600 That's why they would do that to attract you to 0:59:32.960 --> 0:59:36.640 join the company. Since people aren't just going to school 0:59:36.640 --> 0:59:40.400 for four years and being there forever, companies are actually 0:59:40.440 --> 0:59:43.200 starting to get involved to make sure that they're funding 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:45.120 your ongoing training so you don't have to pay for it. 0:59:45.720 --> 0:59:48.920 And so you see like Amazon paying seven hundred million 0:59:49.320 --> 0:59:52.640 for warehouse workers so that they can get their tuition 0:59:52.760 --> 0:59:55.960 paid for. You see PwC putting three billion towards this. 0:59:56.160 --> 0:59:58.600 You see at and T putting a billion towards this, 0:59:58.720 --> 1:00:00.600 may Sye's Walmart. All these people are starting to get 1:00:00.640 --> 1:00:04.160 involved because everybody's going digital target Look at targets like 1:00:04.280 --> 1:00:07.760 digital numbers going crazy, Domino's digital numbers are going crazy. 1:00:07.840 --> 1:00:09.120 It's not just tech companies. 1:00:09.480 --> 1:00:09.720 And so. 1:00:11.440 --> 1:00:14.800 The World Economic Forum they just made a big plague 1:00:14.880 --> 1:00:19.160 to reskill a billion people by twenty thirty with companies, governments, 1:00:19.160 --> 1:00:21.120 and philanthropies. And I was like, that's my mission too. 1:00:21.600 --> 1:00:24.240 And there's another really cool organization called one ten dot 1:00:24.400 --> 1:00:27.840 org that was started by kenchin Out, former CEO of 1:00:27.920 --> 1:00:30.360 American Express, also a black dude, which we got a 1:00:30.400 --> 1:00:33.920 shout out, and he's also on the board and Guild Education, 1:00:34.040 --> 1:00:37.000 which is the pioneer in education as a benefit Give 1:00:37.120 --> 1:00:40.960 had that shout out to Rachel and they're doing really 1:00:41.000 --> 1:00:42.520 amazing things on the enterprise side. 1:00:43.680 --> 1:00:47.520 So yeah, So as far as all right, so you 1:00:47.720 --> 1:00:50.120 just closed the B round, So when you're raising this money, 1:00:50.320 --> 1:00:52.200 like you're hearing the news like are you raised forty 1:00:52.200 --> 1:00:54.760 million dollars? What does that actually mean? As far as 1:00:54.880 --> 1:00:57.760 like how much of that is going to get allocated 1:00:57.840 --> 1:01:01.800 towards like infrastructureloyees? Like when people raise that kind of 1:01:01.840 --> 1:01:05.040 money like a broad overview or you can speak specifically 1:01:05.080 --> 1:01:07.480 to your situation either or like where does that money go? 1:01:08.080 --> 1:01:11.880 And like you said, each round, I guess it dilutes 1:01:11.960 --> 1:01:13.000 the ownership, right. 1:01:13.280 --> 1:01:16.120 It can, Okay, it depends on how much lover is 1:01:16.160 --> 1:01:16.440 you got. 1:01:17.400 --> 1:01:20.040 Okay, So like you start off for the company, you 1:01:20.120 --> 1:01:23.640 have one hundred percent ownership, right then you have the 1:01:23.960 --> 1:01:26.240 family and friends around, and then you might give up 1:01:26.240 --> 1:01:28.880 a ten percent the family and friends maybe I'm just 1:01:29.000 --> 1:01:32.720 using an example, or you could give the example of 1:01:32.840 --> 1:01:36.320 like what's usually typicalp going and then like precede, you 1:01:36.400 --> 1:01:39.200 give another ten percent, right, so now you got eighty 1:01:39.600 --> 1:01:40.600 you gave up twenty percent. 1:01:40.680 --> 1:01:45.440 Now I would say, I would just say, like every round, 1:01:46.320 --> 1:01:50.120 there's that lution, but it's not always that extreme. I 1:01:50.200 --> 1:01:55.960 think like you could you could definitely expect to still 1:01:56.000 --> 1:01:58.120 have most of your company and buy the B stage 1:01:58.200 --> 1:01:59.880 for most people if you played. 1:01:59.680 --> 1:02:02.680 It right, more than fifty you for for a lot 1:02:02.760 --> 1:02:03.120 of people. 1:02:03.280 --> 1:02:08.080 But some people, a lot of people don't end up 1:02:08.160 --> 1:02:08.320 like that. 1:02:09.320 --> 1:02:11.600 What could they give up too much early? Or yeah? 1:02:13.160 --> 1:02:15.960 So all right, what's the what's a good amount to 1:02:16.120 --> 1:02:16.480 give up? 1:02:17.400 --> 1:02:21.040 Depends? Like it's kind of like raising raising sid Like 1:02:21.520 --> 1:02:25.040 there are definitely different Like it depends on the industry 1:02:25.080 --> 1:02:27.440 that you're in, depends on the market, depends on the investors. 1:02:28.760 --> 1:02:29.880 How much you need money too. 1:02:29.920 --> 1:02:31.720 How much you need money, yeah, how desperate you are. 1:02:31.880 --> 1:02:33.200 The best time to raise money is when you don't 1:02:33.240 --> 1:02:38.200 need money, right, So like for example, so like let 1:02:38.240 --> 1:02:40.200 me let me give you exactly right, So when we 1:02:40.320 --> 1:02:43.560 raised that Series A, so we finished, we finished, I 1:02:43.680 --> 1:02:46.600 tell you raise half a million, dem with day I 1:02:46.760 --> 1:02:53.560 raised one point five right, so pandemic hit markets dry. 1:02:53.960 --> 1:02:56.560 Everybody's telling me, yo, you got to keep eighteen to 1:02:56.680 --> 1:03:00.680 twenty four months of reserves of reserves because because nobody's 1:03:00.720 --> 1:03:04.320 cutting checks, so we had to get scrappy and we 1:03:04.400 --> 1:03:07.800 got profitable, and we were profitable for five months. So 1:03:08.080 --> 1:03:10.880 when I raised money at the end of twenty twenty, 1:03:13.280 --> 1:03:15.000 I still had a million in the bank out of 1:03:15.040 --> 1:03:16.360 the one point five that are raised, and I have 1:03:16.440 --> 1:03:21.200 forty five people working for the company, so you have leverage. Right, 1:03:21.280 --> 1:03:26.440 They're like, oh, it's capital efficient. Well, that said, you'll 1:03:26.440 --> 1:03:28.560 also get the flip side where some investors be like, oh, 1:03:28.600 --> 1:03:31.320 you too capital efficient because you're not investing in your 1:03:31.360 --> 1:03:33.800 growth and he's supposed to not be profitable. So it 1:03:33.880 --> 1:03:37.480 really depends on who you're talking to. But we've always 1:03:37.520 --> 1:03:40.040 been like that same thing with this With this round, 1:03:41.000 --> 1:03:44.600 when we raised the Series B, we only spent three 1:03:44.600 --> 1:03:47.400 million out of the ten million that we raised, and 1:03:47.520 --> 1:03:50.680 we had about one hundred fifty people working for the 1:03:50.720 --> 1:03:51.720 company at the time. 1:03:52.920 --> 1:03:55.720 So yeah, I mean, because even us, we've been approached 1:03:55.760 --> 1:03:59.600 from different people like interested in buying it's like, fortunately, 1:03:59.680 --> 1:04:02.800 fust we didn't need the money. So I was like, 1:04:02.880 --> 1:04:04.000 you know, we're not very interested. 1:04:04.480 --> 1:04:06.240 That's the best way to raise right there. 1:04:07.080 --> 1:04:08.800 Yeah, well you don't need it. 1:04:09.120 --> 1:04:10.880 You don't need it. And like even even now, so 1:04:11.000 --> 1:04:12.920 this is this is another thing that's sportance to do though, 1:04:13.040 --> 1:04:14.960 but you keep those people close, right, You're still talk 1:04:14.960 --> 1:04:16.880 to them, checking with them every quarter. So like we 1:04:17.000 --> 1:04:19.360 just raised this round, so of course all the investors 1:04:19.360 --> 1:04:21.720 are gonna start handing you up. Make sure you check 1:04:21.760 --> 1:04:24.640 in with them every quarter even now, talking about what's 1:04:24.680 --> 1:04:26.640 gonna come next, and tell them what you're gonna do. 1:04:27.280 --> 1:04:29.120 And then just make sure that every time you catch 1:04:29.240 --> 1:04:31.160 up with them, don't tell them everything that's going on 1:04:31.240 --> 1:04:33.240 with your business, but make sure you're telling them that 1:04:33.280 --> 1:04:36.080 you make your progress. So you create the fomo, right, 1:04:36.560 --> 1:04:38.640 and I've done this four times now, you know the 1:04:38.720 --> 1:04:39.439 next one is going. 1:04:39.360 --> 1:04:39.760 To be big. 1:04:39.920 --> 1:04:45.480 So so the last one was forty, right exactly. So 1:04:46.600 --> 1:04:48.960 the forty obviously, I mean maybe it was a goal 1:04:49.040 --> 1:04:50.520 that was the number that you wanted to reach. I 1:04:50.600 --> 1:04:52.720 started off at wanting to raise thirty, by the way, 1:04:53.040 --> 1:04:56.720 wanted to raise thirty. So you have stages of development. 1:04:56.800 --> 1:04:59.480 So obviously you started out his career advice service. So 1:05:00.440 --> 1:05:02.680 let's talk about the career. Is the pathways that you 1:05:02.800 --> 1:05:07.760 have in terms of development and are you allocating the 1:05:07.880 --> 1:05:09.960 amount that you need for each stage? Is that how 1:05:09.960 --> 1:05:10.280 it's working? 1:05:10.360 --> 1:05:12.800 A good question, but I was going to ask answer 1:05:12.920 --> 1:05:18.160 his question about how it's allocating fits that's perfect. We 1:05:18.280 --> 1:05:21.720 currently have seven different career paths. See if I remember 1:05:21.800 --> 1:05:29.760 all of them, software engineering, sales, design, data science, data analytics, cybersecurity, 1:05:30.640 --> 1:05:33.520 product management. I think maybe even more marketing as well. 1:05:33.560 --> 1:05:36.200 So we're always launching new things, new things for people. 1:05:38.560 --> 1:05:42.680 You asked about the biggest challenges right now. So the 1:05:42.800 --> 1:05:45.760 majority of the capital is going towards hiring, right going 1:05:45.840 --> 1:05:50.760 back to this is an employees market. Uh, you need 1:05:50.880 --> 1:05:53.919 to be competitive in the market. Tech people get paid 1:05:54.440 --> 1:05:56.200 very well, So I got to make sure more people 1:05:56.240 --> 1:05:59.200 are paid very well and they have their benefits and 1:05:59.240 --> 1:06:02.160 they have their other things as well. And since you're 1:06:02.160 --> 1:06:05.600 attracting really really talented people, shout out to our VP 1:06:05.640 --> 1:06:08.680 of People, Jessica Lamb, you have to make sure that 1:06:08.840 --> 1:06:12.480 like their competency modeling is done so they have internal 1:06:12.560 --> 1:06:14.320 career paths, they know what they need to do or 1:06:14.360 --> 1:06:19.840 to get rewarded, and things like that. So, now that 1:06:19.920 --> 1:06:21.560 we have three million people a month coming to us, 1:06:21.560 --> 1:06:24.200 it's very important for us to invest in data. We 1:06:24.280 --> 1:06:26.120 actually want to grow to fifty million people a moth 1:06:26.200 --> 1:06:29.680 organically in the next two years. So our data needs 1:06:29.720 --> 1:06:31.800 are going to have to not just segment users by 1:06:31.880 --> 1:06:35.200 level of intent, like how bad do you want this? High? Medium, 1:06:35.480 --> 1:06:39.000 low intent? What interest do you have? What struggles are 1:06:39.040 --> 1:06:41.640 you dealing with? Good credit, bad credit? Do you have money, 1:06:41.680 --> 1:06:43.760 you do not have money? Have you tried learning how 1:06:43.800 --> 1:06:44.120 to code? 1:06:44.160 --> 1:06:44.480 Have you not? 1:06:45.400 --> 1:06:48.760 Once you segment everybody, then you need to design specific 1:06:48.880 --> 1:06:51.720 pathways for everybody. The example that I gave him was, 1:06:52.000 --> 1:06:54.520 if you're on Amazon, your homepage is going to be 1:06:54.560 --> 1:06:57.840 different than my homepage because we have different interests, right 1:06:57.920 --> 1:06:59.880 and same thing if we have different interests and careers, 1:07:00.040 --> 1:07:03.040 got to make sure that your flows are unique to 1:07:03.560 --> 1:07:06.400 who you are. And so we got to invest in that. 1:07:07.240 --> 1:07:09.360 And then once we've invested in design and data, then 1:07:09.360 --> 1:07:11.360 we got to start investing into product. 1:07:11.560 --> 1:07:17.960 So yeah, so what's the scalable model like going forward 1:07:18.120 --> 1:07:21.480 to actually get to that billion dollar level for you 1:07:21.680 --> 1:07:23.600 is just continue the path that you want right now. 1:07:23.760 --> 1:07:25.560 Continuing the path that we're on gets us to the 1:07:25.560 --> 1:07:27.240 billion dollar level. But we don't want to be a 1:07:27.320 --> 1:07:28.960 billion dollar company. We want to be a ten or 1:07:28.960 --> 1:07:30.920 one hundred billion dollar company, right. 1:07:30.800 --> 1:07:33.960 So eventually going public, Yes, So what's the what's the 1:07:34.160 --> 1:07:36.800 what's the all? Right, what's the pathway for you to 1:07:36.880 --> 1:07:37.320 go public? 1:07:38.200 --> 1:07:39.560 You got to get to a hundred million a year, 1:07:39.760 --> 1:07:41.400 one hundred million a year, hundred million a year. 1:07:41.440 --> 1:07:43.320 You can't go public without making a hundred million a year. 1:07:43.440 --> 1:07:45.960 You can, but that you just want to go make 1:07:45.960 --> 1:07:47.400 a hundred million because you could You could even go 1:07:47.440 --> 1:07:49.400 to spack route, right, Yeah, you can go spack route. 1:07:49.480 --> 1:07:54.600 You could go spack Roup. I'm not rushing it, right Like, 1:07:54.680 --> 1:07:57.760 I'm like, I'm blessed to We're blessed to have investors 1:07:57.800 --> 1:08:01.920 which we'll talk about in a second, that have very 1:08:02.040 --> 1:08:04.640 deep pockets that are that can invest in us all 1:08:04.640 --> 1:08:06.960 the way to IPO. So that's that's a really cool 1:08:07.040 --> 1:08:11.680 position to be in. And and we want to make 1:08:11.720 --> 1:08:14.080 sure that we have a strong foundation. Right, there's a 1:08:14.120 --> 1:08:16.640 lot of stuff that's like not real out here, A 1:08:16.720 --> 1:08:18.920 lot of people that's just all headlines. I don't want 1:08:18.960 --> 1:08:21.439 to be all headlines. I actually want to be helping people. 1:08:21.520 --> 1:08:24.760 I actually want people getting jobs like your boy that 1:08:24.920 --> 1:08:28.080 made this whole podcast happen. We're creating a movement, right, 1:08:28.160 --> 1:08:31.599 there are real people on the ground that are doing 1:08:31.640 --> 1:08:33.920 their thing, that are now leaders out here, like one 1:08:33.960 --> 1:08:37.120 of our other investors, the Winklevoss Twins stuff, the first 1:08:37.360 --> 1:08:39.360 they're out here. I heard of them, Yeah you might 1:08:39.479 --> 1:08:42.719 hear yeah, the first. The first person that we placed 1:08:43.320 --> 1:08:45.919 in career Coms a guy named Jeric Warren at Gemini. 1:08:46.600 --> 1:08:48.439 He got a job making one hundred forty five thousand 1:08:48.520 --> 1:08:51.479 black man, single dad. He's the one who connected to me, 1:08:51.600 --> 1:08:53.720 to them and like I didn't even ask him, he 1:08:53.840 --> 1:08:57.000 volunteered it. Keisha Lake who we got at stitch Fixed 1:08:57.200 --> 1:09:01.480 now she stitch Fixed CEO Katrina Lake is a billionaire. 1:09:01.560 --> 1:09:03.840 She also became an investor in a company. So it's 1:09:03.880 --> 1:09:07.080 just like through people like actually looking out for people. 1:09:07.120 --> 1:09:07.400 You do so. 1:09:07.600 --> 1:09:09.759 But to answer your question about how you go beyond 1:09:10.160 --> 1:09:13.160 a billion to ten hundred billion, you have to understand 1:09:13.360 --> 1:09:19.120 the market, the total adjustable market. What we're doing, we'll 1:09:19.160 --> 1:09:22.000 get us to a billion dollar company, but in order 1:09:22.040 --> 1:09:24.280 to really start getting into the bigger scale, right, if 1:09:24.360 --> 1:09:27.120 I want to be ten billion dollar company, I have 1:09:27.240 --> 1:09:30.479 to make like a billion a year, right, and then 1:09:30.880 --> 1:09:33.000 ten billion a year to be one hundred billion dollar company. 1:09:33.080 --> 1:09:38.160 So how do you do that the enterprise? So a 1:09:38.240 --> 1:09:41.800 lot of investors really like investing into SaaS companies, so 1:09:42.080 --> 1:09:45.960 software as the service companies and recurring revenue contracts. So 1:09:47.240 --> 1:09:50.400 if you go to careercom dot com, slash company, slash jobs, 1:09:50.760 --> 1:09:53.759 you'll see all of our open roles. I'm actively hiring 1:09:53.880 --> 1:09:55.599 a head of finance and a head of business development 1:09:55.640 --> 1:09:57.600 that will both report to me, and that head of 1:09:57.680 --> 1:10:00.280 business development is going to be the individual rule that 1:10:00.360 --> 1:10:02.599 I work with with my co founders and the team 1:10:03.400 --> 1:10:06.880 to take over the entire fortune one thousand and help 1:10:07.040 --> 1:10:11.479 them attract, or chain and upscale their workforces by offering 1:10:11.560 --> 1:10:14.680 career Comma as a benefit to them. A good way 1:10:14.720 --> 1:10:18.240 to think about it is, think about all these gig 1:10:18.280 --> 1:10:22.920 economy companies with millions of workers that drive but don't 1:10:22.920 --> 1:10:25.519 want to be in those jobs forever. We can offer 1:10:25.600 --> 1:10:27.400 career Comma as a benefit. The company pays for it, 1:10:27.479 --> 1:10:30.280 and then they get jobs at the end. Huge all 1:10:30.400 --> 1:10:34.120 users for career Comma. It's free for the company. Actually, 1:10:34.360 --> 1:10:37.320 the school still pay us boom right. A lot of 1:10:37.360 --> 1:10:38.360 really interesting things like that. 1:10:38.800 --> 1:10:42.320 So the marketing right because I'm thinking like social media 1:10:42.360 --> 1:10:45.080 obviously is a big marketing place, and is the marketing 1:10:45.400 --> 1:10:47.360 kind of word of mouth? And then the product that 1:10:47.479 --> 1:10:50.479 you're actually giving is the marketing plan because I'm thinking 1:10:50.520 --> 1:10:53.360 like even for like if we did an SEO when 1:10:53.400 --> 1:10:55.960 I'm put in career comma, if I put the wrong letter, 1:10:56.000 --> 1:10:59.360 it might give me credit Comma. So like, how does 1:10:59.400 --> 1:11:01.120 the marketing go? How you go about it? 1:11:01.479 --> 1:11:05.240 So my co founder Archer, he's a chief Technology officer, 1:11:05.320 --> 1:11:07.599 but also he's in charge of the SEO. For people 1:11:07.680 --> 1:11:10.040 that don't know what SEO is is very important to understand. 1:11:10.040 --> 1:11:13.080 I'm glad that you're bringing it up. It's search engine optimization. 1:11:13.640 --> 1:11:17.200 When we talked about paid marketing to Google and Facebook 1:11:17.280 --> 1:11:21.200 or Instagram or whatever, which we do, that's called sem 1:11:21.960 --> 1:11:25.600 search engine marketing. But SEO is organic traffic, so we 1:11:25.680 --> 1:11:30.240 get millions of dollars for free traffic. And you gave 1:11:30.320 --> 1:11:32.799 the credit card example, if I was in the fintech space, 1:11:33.120 --> 1:11:35.439 you know the fat had keywords. He probably heard of 1:11:35.479 --> 1:11:39.200 the long tail or like just type credit card and Google, 1:11:39.280 --> 1:11:41.600 and that's what's going to pop up. You want to 1:11:41.760 --> 1:11:45.280 find like the real hard to search terms and like 1:11:45.400 --> 1:11:47.639 really be the thing that pops up for all those 1:11:47.760 --> 1:11:52.360 like random things like an answer to a Python or 1:11:52.360 --> 1:11:55.200 a Java script question, and your article pops up. And 1:11:55.360 --> 1:11:58.439 as you start establishing a domain authority, then you eventually 1:11:58.479 --> 1:12:03.000 can take over the the more popular keywords. Our team 1:12:03.040 --> 1:12:05.559 produces about two hundred to seven hundred articles a month 1:12:06.120 --> 1:12:10.439 on SEO. We do podcasts like this, which helps we 1:12:10.600 --> 1:12:13.280 do video. We do all kinds of things like that. 1:12:14.160 --> 1:12:16.960 We put out research reports that are backlinked to dot ors, 1:12:17.080 --> 1:12:20.400 dot govs, which establishes our domain authority, which is why 1:12:20.439 --> 1:12:22.240 we're going to continue to win. But then also we 1:12:22.400 --> 1:12:25.800 leverage programmatic landing pages. So if you put this school 1:12:25.880 --> 1:12:28.680 versus that school, our pages will pop up. Eventually it 1:12:28.800 --> 1:12:31.559 be this company that company. If you type in Google today, 1:12:31.720 --> 1:12:33.639 do it today, how to get a job at Golden 1:12:33.720 --> 1:12:35.519 Sas you'll see, career Komba pops up there. So what 1:12:35.600 --> 1:12:38.000 do you think we're gonna do. We're gonna make listicals 1:12:38.160 --> 1:12:43.719 like top companies that pay for your tuition, career Corama. 1:12:43.800 --> 1:12:46.720 We're gonna dominate that whole thing and every other type 1:12:46.720 --> 1:12:49.280 of ancillary term so that as people are searching it, 1:12:50.600 --> 1:12:54.320 that it gets discovered. The problem with SEO, I would say, 1:12:54.320 --> 1:12:57.040 it's necessarily an entire problem, is that you're only gonna 1:12:57.200 --> 1:13:01.560 attract people that know what to look for. So you 1:13:01.720 --> 1:13:05.840 need paid as well to reach people because, like we're trying, 1:13:05.960 --> 1:13:07.479 you can't spread the gospel to people that know the 1:13:07.520 --> 1:13:09.840 gospel already, right, so you got to like actually be 1:13:09.920 --> 1:13:10.240 out there. 1:13:10.439 --> 1:13:13.200 The person that's typing career is actually thinking about their career. 1:13:13.840 --> 1:13:14.000 Yah. 1:13:14.040 --> 1:13:16.040 And that's why you're doing this, right, Like you're doing 1:13:16.080 --> 1:13:18.840 this to educate people about what's going on. Because the 1:13:18.920 --> 1:13:20.920 people that you're trying to reach, that you really want 1:13:21.000 --> 1:13:22.800 listening to this don't know what to search. 1:13:24.160 --> 1:13:29.240 So what's the like if who's the ideal candidate for 1:13:29.479 --> 1:13:32.960 career karma? Yeah, who should go to careercarma dot com? 1:13:33.120 --> 1:13:35.320 But a great question. So when I try to investors, 1:13:35.320 --> 1:13:37.320 I say it's blue collar workers between the age of 1:13:37.400 --> 1:13:40.040 twenty five and thirty five years old who want to 1:13:40.040 --> 1:13:42.360 get a job in tech. But the really answer is, 1:13:42.479 --> 1:13:45.559 like anybody that wants to make a career transition usually 1:13:45.680 --> 1:13:48.600 twenty one in up. Because I don't want to be 1:13:49.439 --> 1:13:51.360 encouraging people to drop out of high school if they're 1:13:51.360 --> 1:13:53.200 already in high school. Even though this can get you 1:13:53.240 --> 1:13:56.000 a job, and we do have sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year 1:13:56.000 --> 1:13:58.519 olds that have gone through the process and gotten a job. 1:13:58.960 --> 1:14:00.600 Usually it's going to be an adult that's in the 1:14:00.720 --> 1:14:02.880 job that they don't want. They come to us and 1:14:02.920 --> 1:14:05.679 then we match them into something mostly a part time program, 1:14:05.960 --> 1:14:08.000 and they get a job like that. Lenise Powell is 1:14:08.040 --> 1:14:11.200 a very good example here in New York. She's in Brooklyn. 1:14:12.560 --> 1:14:17.960 She was a teacher, she's a mom. She she did 1:14:18.120 --> 1:14:20.040 she did go to college, but she didn't want to 1:14:20.080 --> 1:14:21.720 go back to college and she wanted to go to 1:14:21.800 --> 1:14:25.120 boot camp part time. She joined and then got a 1:14:25.200 --> 1:14:27.000 job making one hundred thousand that a company called news 1:14:27.040 --> 1:14:28.439 Allom and she's doing very well. 1:14:29.840 --> 1:14:33.920 So you see there's a course or the course is 1:14:34.280 --> 1:14:35.080 for the employer. 1:14:35.920 --> 1:14:38.639 It's a good question. So career KMMA is always free, 1:14:39.200 --> 1:14:41.080 so we will never charge anybody anything. If you want 1:14:41.120 --> 1:14:43.160 to go to school, there are free courses that are 1:14:43.200 --> 1:14:46.280 in career KOMMA. Think about the free courses kind of 1:14:46.400 --> 1:14:50.320 like going to the gym without a personal trainer and 1:14:50.439 --> 1:14:53.439 without a nutritionist and stuff like that. There's plenty of 1:14:53.640 --> 1:14:56.439 open things like that, but most people still need guidance 1:14:56.640 --> 1:14:59.280 and things like that. So most people will sign up 1:14:59.320 --> 1:15:02.840 to a book camp, and a boot camp is going 1:15:02.960 --> 1:15:04.680 to have that option that I told you where you 1:15:04.760 --> 1:15:06.840 don't have to pay anything unless you get a job. 1:15:07.160 --> 1:15:08.599 So a lot of people will do it, will sign 1:15:08.720 --> 1:15:11.639 up if they don't get a job, they don't pay anything. 1:15:13.280 --> 1:15:15.240 If you finish and you get a job that's in 1:15:15.280 --> 1:15:16.760 the range that you're going for, it's usually going to 1:15:16.760 --> 1:15:18.240 be in the seventy to one hundred and fifty thousand 1:15:18.280 --> 1:15:21.400 plus range, and then the tuition will range between ten 1:15:21.479 --> 1:15:23.920 and thirty thousand. So my brother is a good example. 1:15:23.960 --> 1:15:26.360 When he got his jobs one hundred fifty thousand, he 1:15:26.479 --> 1:15:28.400 paid out twenty six And that's how it works. 1:15:28.960 --> 1:15:31.639 Oh, the salary of this comes out of like your paycheck. 1:15:31.680 --> 1:15:32.599 It comes out of your salary. 1:15:32.720 --> 1:15:33.840 Yeah, until it's paid off. 1:15:33.920 --> 1:15:39.040 Until it's paid off. Yeah, pretty official. Okay, So who 1:15:39.080 --> 1:15:42.439 are some of the investors? Obviously you had a series 1:15:42.640 --> 1:15:45.240 of rounds and now we did the forty million. Who 1:15:45.280 --> 1:15:48.040 were some of the people that have invested into the company, 1:15:48.600 --> 1:15:52.280 And more importantly, why we didn't get a call? Who 1:15:52.320 --> 1:15:54.080 are the investors going forward? 1:15:54.120 --> 1:15:56.000 You guys will always get a call we was left 1:15:56.040 --> 1:15:56.760 We was left out. 1:15:57.120 --> 1:16:00.599 Its left out that after the next round, the next. 1:16:00.520 --> 1:16:09.879 Round, Google Ventures, initi last Capital Soft Bank, Bronze Kport. 1:16:09.960 --> 1:16:13.360 So we have over fifty investors. We actually put together 1:16:13.560 --> 1:16:15.600 we actually did something special this round where we were 1:16:15.680 --> 1:16:19.920 like put together video. Most of our investors are women 1:16:20.000 --> 1:16:22.800 and people of color, and it's one thing to like 1:16:22.920 --> 1:16:25.360 write that down, but it's another thing for you all 1:16:25.479 --> 1:16:28.680 to see it. So in December, I asked everybody to 1:16:28.800 --> 1:16:33.519 send short video clips about why they invested in Career 1:16:33.600 --> 1:16:36.559 Karma for reasons deeper than money. And you guys know Nana, 1:16:36.840 --> 1:16:40.439 so shout out. So Nana Little Yeah, but I think 1:16:40.520 --> 1:16:42.200 she told me about you too. Yeah, Nana did like 1:16:42.240 --> 1:16:44.439 all of our videos. So she took all the videos, 1:16:44.960 --> 1:16:47.519 chopped it up and put it together like a Super 1:16:47.560 --> 1:16:49.840 Bowl lab pretty much in this fire and like it 1:16:49.960 --> 1:16:54.160 took off. Baron Davis investors, So that that's right. So 1:16:54.360 --> 1:16:55.479 Baron Davis is an invest. 1:16:55.280 --> 1:16:57.800 Another person that didn't mention it. Okay, you did it up. 1:16:59.040 --> 1:17:01.600 Baron Davis is an invest to so Larry. There's a 1:17:01.640 --> 1:17:06.479 bunch of different athletes and angels, but it was very 1:17:06.520 --> 1:17:08.760 important for us to have people that look like us 1:17:08.880 --> 1:17:11.120 that are investing in the in the platform. John Henry, 1:17:11.439 --> 1:17:12.519 who you guys know. 1:17:12.680 --> 1:17:18.080 John Henry invested and confused. I'm confused. We wasn't involved 1:17:18.120 --> 1:17:18.280 in this. 1:17:18.720 --> 1:17:23.040 It's gonna happen, John, It would have been, it would. 1:17:22.800 --> 1:17:29.360 Have been a good look. He kept us out. Next time, Yeah, 1:17:31.240 --> 1:17:33.559 are you gonna raise any more money? Or yeah, how 1:17:33.680 --> 1:17:36.519 much more you think it'll be big? 1:17:37.560 --> 1:17:38.639 We don't miss the next. 1:17:41.600 --> 1:17:43.240 But we have time, like we have time like like 1:17:43.680 --> 1:17:46.400 with this money, like we have over three years a runway. 1:17:46.240 --> 1:17:48.760 So this money will last you three years at least. 1:17:49.280 --> 1:17:51.360 But I mean the last money also did too. 1:17:51.720 --> 1:17:53.920 You just never know, like what happens, you know, are 1:17:53.960 --> 1:17:54.840 you are you profitable? 1:17:55.520 --> 1:17:56.000 Not right now? 1:17:56.280 --> 1:17:58.360 So talk about that because that's something that people don't 1:17:58.360 --> 1:18:01.719 fully understand either, like a lot of these companies aren't 1:18:01.760 --> 1:18:04.599 profitable or even just became profitable, like even companies that's 1:18:04.600 --> 1:18:07.920 looking on the stock market, major companies that just might 1:18:08.320 --> 1:18:11.960 be probable. Yeah, and people don't fully understand it, like 1:18:12.000 --> 1:18:14.599 how could a company like over you know, at least 1:18:14.600 --> 1:18:17.639 a couple of years ago not be profitable when it's 1:18:17.680 --> 1:18:19.680 one of the biggest companies in the world. And these 1:18:19.760 --> 1:18:22.560 guys are billionaires and like, but talk about that, like 1:18:22.760 --> 1:18:27.040 how you don't necessarily have to be profitable. Yeah, talk 1:18:27.040 --> 1:18:30.240 about because, like I said, people don't understand that it's. 1:18:30.120 --> 1:18:33.800 Important for you to understand your path to profitability. Right, 1:18:34.160 --> 1:18:37.120 similar to like how we knew what we had to 1:18:37.200 --> 1:18:39.080 do in order to get profitable and we did it. 1:18:40.000 --> 1:18:45.800 And now that we have capital, revenue, and customers and 1:18:46.280 --> 1:18:49.280 workers coming to us, we can invest into our growth. So, 1:18:49.439 --> 1:18:51.320 going back to what I said at the beginning, the 1:18:51.479 --> 1:18:54.960 main difference between starts and everything else is growth. And 1:18:55.320 --> 1:18:59.439 these tech companies that you're seeing that are public or 1:18:59.600 --> 1:19:03.840 private are attacking legacy industries that have been around for 1:19:04.000 --> 1:19:07.519 hundreds of years, fifty years, blah blah blah. So the 1:19:07.600 --> 1:19:10.400 way to dominate is by moving faster than they can 1:19:10.439 --> 1:19:14.080 ever move, and that usually requires capital. And like some 1:19:14.160 --> 1:19:16.679 people will go from two hundred to one thousand people 1:19:16.760 --> 1:19:19.960 in a year, it's a lot in addition to executing 1:19:20.000 --> 1:19:22.560 and shipping products and doing all kinds of stuff. And 1:19:22.720 --> 1:19:25.960 so it really just depends on who's backing you so 1:19:27.920 --> 1:19:32.280 and whether you're actually solving the problem that you said 1:19:32.439 --> 1:19:34.760 that you are going to solve, and if you if 1:19:34.760 --> 1:19:37.960 you're demonstrating those things, and you're telling the right story 1:19:38.080 --> 1:19:41.000 and you're actually executing behind the story, you'll be able 1:19:41.040 --> 1:19:42.760 to raise it. You'll be able to raise the money 1:19:42.800 --> 1:19:46.920 that you need, or be able to stay relevant. What 1:19:47.040 --> 1:19:57.160 I'll say is it's very important to choose your investors wisely, 1:19:58.080 --> 1:20:02.559 because some people will cause you to grow too fast 1:20:03.160 --> 1:20:09.559 to where you run yourself into the ground. So we've 1:20:10.080 --> 1:20:12.760 been blessed to where you know, I don't have no 1:20:12.880 --> 1:20:16.280 problem none of our board members, none of our investors, period. 1:20:16.320 --> 1:20:20.000 They all got our back, and they definitely pushed us, 1:20:20.080 --> 1:20:22.920 and they ask us questions and they hold us accountable, 1:20:23.560 --> 1:20:26.880 but they don't force us to like run ourselves into 1:20:26.920 --> 1:20:29.560 the ground. And so I say that just because like 1:20:30.560 --> 1:20:33.240 there are strings to capital that are good. 1:20:33.280 --> 1:20:38.120 In Bed, you spoke about board members, and so most 1:20:38.160 --> 1:20:39.840 people we probably I don't think we've ever had that 1:20:39.920 --> 1:20:42.760 conversation the process of actually choosing them and actually the 1:20:42.840 --> 1:20:45.360 power that they have. Like people probably watch Succession or 1:20:45.439 --> 1:20:47.320 Billions and they're like, oh, that's the board they're gonna 1:20:47.320 --> 1:20:50.160 they're gonna vote them out. What's that process like and 1:20:50.439 --> 1:20:53.599 choosing them, because you're actually choosing the people. Correct, Yes, Second, 1:20:53.640 --> 1:20:57.719 and ultimately through the board can fire you. The board 1:20:57.760 --> 1:20:58.320 can fire you. 1:21:00.680 --> 1:21:04.360 Whenever you're raising money, you want to be mindful of economics, 1:21:04.400 --> 1:21:07.000 which we talked about a little bit on valuation and dilution, 1:21:07.160 --> 1:21:11.080 but also control. And the control is like board. If 1:21:11.120 --> 1:21:15.040 you lose control of board, you lose everything. We didn't 1:21:15.080 --> 1:21:18.040 have a board until our Series A, which I don't 1:21:18.040 --> 1:21:21.280 think anybody really needs a board, and so there because 1:21:21.360 --> 1:21:23.160 now you're actually really making money and you need that 1:21:23.200 --> 1:21:25.760 type of guidance. Think about let's talk about the good 1:21:25.800 --> 1:21:27.599 parts of a board. The good parts of a board 1:21:27.720 --> 1:21:29.439 is like you want to have people on your board 1:21:29.960 --> 1:21:31.920 that you would never be able to hire that can 1:21:32.000 --> 1:21:37.040 help you. So for example, Gary Tan he runs in 1:21:37.080 --> 1:21:40.040 Initial Last Capital that's an over two hundred million dollar portfolio. 1:21:40.760 --> 1:21:44.200 It includes Instacar and Rippling. He was first checking coinbase, 1:21:44.360 --> 1:21:50.080 for example, one hundred billion dollar outcome, and he really 1:21:50.200 --> 1:21:53.080 has seen this many many times before and he's able 1:21:53.120 --> 1:21:55.080 to guide us on what we got to do. One 1:21:55.120 --> 1:21:58.679 of his LPs Topped Your Capital Partners, which is people 1:21:58.720 --> 1:22:01.680 that give him money to start fun They invested in 1:22:01.760 --> 1:22:04.000 our Series B around so they've seen not only what 1:22:04.120 --> 1:22:07.000 he's seen, but also from investing in other companies they're 1:22:07.040 --> 1:22:10.800 able to give you that OG knowledge. I think wild 1:22:10.840 --> 1:22:13.360 love from million dollars worth of game, he said, or 1:22:13.400 --> 1:22:16.840 Gilly one of them said, and OG is someone that 1:22:16.960 --> 1:22:19.720 offers you game, right, So you want people that are 1:22:19.880 --> 1:22:24.280 offering you game and giving you guidance and keeping you focused, 1:22:24.280 --> 1:22:27.080 because what happens when you start winning is you get 1:22:27.600 --> 1:22:30.160 all kinds of opportunities that are presented to you, and 1:22:30.280 --> 1:22:33.400 you can do all kinds of things. And it's up 1:22:33.439 --> 1:22:36.040 to you to decide whether you want to stay focused 1:22:36.080 --> 1:22:39.040 on your path or get distracted. And ultimately, most of 1:22:39.120 --> 1:22:40.960 the time, the right decision is to stay focused on 1:22:41.040 --> 1:22:44.840 what you're currently doing because of compounds. 1:22:45.320 --> 1:22:48.400 There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you guys 1:22:48.560 --> 1:22:53.200 quoting it a classic man exactly, very informative episode. What 1:22:53.280 --> 1:22:56.040 would you like to tell the people like, you know, 1:22:56.200 --> 1:22:58.760 social media, what you have going on that they can 1:22:58.800 --> 1:23:02.439 look forward to. How they can you know, enroll into 1:23:02.520 --> 1:23:04.280 the credit car program? Yeah? 1:23:04.400 --> 1:23:05.920 Yeah, So if you guys want to sign up to 1:23:05.920 --> 1:23:07.360 Career Comers, go to Career Comer. 1:23:08.160 --> 1:23:08.599 It's all good. 1:23:08.720 --> 1:23:10.200 If you guys want to go to Career Comma, if 1:23:10.240 --> 1:23:11.600 you guys want to get a job in tech. Go 1:23:11.680 --> 1:23:16.240 to careercoma dot com slash apply download the app. If 1:23:16.280 --> 1:23:18.799 you want to speak with someone because you're a little nervous, 1:23:19.160 --> 1:23:21.840 just go to career coming dot com slash events. We 1:23:21.960 --> 1:23:25.400 have a big event going on today. If you want 1:23:25.439 --> 1:23:27.800 to send me an email, it's just Ruben rub In 1:23:28.000 --> 1:23:32.160 at careercom dot com. I'm on Twitter and Instagram, Rubin Harris. 1:23:32.320 --> 1:23:34.000 Are you b n H A R R R s. 1:23:34.600 --> 1:23:36.720 Pay attention to what these guys are doing, especially e 1:23:36.880 --> 1:23:38.920 y L University. I'm actually very excited about what you 1:23:38.960 --> 1:23:41.360 guys are doing there. The reason why is because you know, 1:23:41.400 --> 1:23:43.479 it's not just boot camps that are teaching. It's not 1:23:43.560 --> 1:23:46.320 just corporations that are teaching. It's not just colleges and 1:23:46.360 --> 1:23:51.320 posting that's that's teaching. It's individuals that are teaching. You 1:23:51.439 --> 1:23:53.720 guys are using a platform for it. There's a guy 1:23:53.800 --> 1:23:56.240 like Lenny Ratchinskis that's growing. There's a really good article 1:23:56.280 --> 1:23:58.920 that came out in the Wall Street Journal about teachers 1:23:58.960 --> 1:24:00.880 in career that are making or four million of years 1:24:01.000 --> 1:24:03.400 just by teaching. I think the biggest educator will be 1:24:03.560 --> 1:24:07.320 the individual, and this whole podcast is an education platform. 1:24:07.439 --> 1:24:10.720 So make sure you hit subscribe tapping. We also have 1:24:10.760 --> 1:24:12.760 a podcast called Breaking the Startups that has a lot 1:24:12.840 --> 1:24:16.519 of stories that you alhould check out. And that's it, 1:24:17.000 --> 1:24:19.519 and we'll be part of you guys. We'll do some 1:24:19.600 --> 1:24:22.080 collaborative in personal events. We're talking about it right now, 1:24:22.160 --> 1:24:23.000 so stay tuned for that. 1:24:23.520 --> 1:24:28.320 Stay tuned, stay tuned. Yes, Troy House, Yeah, well, shout 1:24:28.360 --> 1:24:31.160 out to the Alan and Jamaica. Shoutut to Alan Cuba, 1:24:31.360 --> 1:24:34.040 Yes as well. I know you, Yes, sir, I always 1:24:34.080 --> 1:24:35.840 got a show. Love to the fan. Yes, and shout 1:24:35.920 --> 1:24:38.040 to everybody that's part of the ey L University. Shout 1:24:38.080 --> 1:24:40.759 to all our Patreon members. We got over twelve thousand 1:24:40.760 --> 1:24:44.479 people in eyl University. That's big, that's big, that's a movement, 1:24:44.600 --> 1:24:46.280 something we're really proud of. So shout out to all 1:24:46.320 --> 1:24:48.960 our earners and shout to everybody that's supporting the merch. 1:24:49.520 --> 1:24:50.599 We got new something on the way. 1:24:50.720 --> 1:24:52.240 So about the cops on right now. 1:24:52.160 --> 1:24:54.160 I don't worry about it. Man, Your alumni now send 1:24:54.200 --> 1:24:57.920 your care packs. So we appreciate you all. 1:24:58.000 --> 1:24:59.760 Love us, love, love us, love all. 1:24:59.760 --> 1:25:01.840 Right, thank you for rocking us. To see you next week. 1:25:02.040 --> 1:25:03.879 Peace, peace out. 1:25:05.960 --> 1:25:06.599 My graduates. 1:25:06.640 --> 1:25:11.960 From my school being force back drop bag drop Mike 1:25:12.080 --> 1:25:14.560 drotagdrop droft. 1:25:24.680 --> 1:25:28.320 An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 1:25:28.400 --> 1:25:32.160 in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 1:25:32.439 --> 1:25:36.519 accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with 1:25:36.640 --> 1:25:40.479 filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 1:25:40.640 --> 1:25:44.360 some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 1:25:44.439 --> 1:25:47.960 Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States 1:25:48.000 --> 1:25:52.799 Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border 1:25:52.840 --> 1:25:56.360 crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 1:25:56.479 --> 1:25:59.600 one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you 1:25:59.720 --> 1:26:03.559 were here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly 1:26:03.680 --> 1:26:07.639 one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will 1:26:07.760 --> 1:26:11.360 never return. But if you register using our CBP home 1:26:11.439 --> 1:26:14.759 app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 1:26:15.200 --> 1:26:19.840 Do what's right, leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, 1:26:20.080 --> 1:26:22.000 border and families. 1:26:21.720 --> 1:26:24.080 Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of 1:26:24.120 --> 1:26:24.719 Homeland Security,